According to Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, there is a "gradual release of responsibility" that comes with teaching students and allowing them to collaborate with others. If we assume Vygotsky's position--that we all learn socially, from others--then we can utilize collaborative learning in our classrooms. However, in order to avoid the chaos that was Panama Canal: Part II, educators must be prepared to have portions of their lesson fall within this "structure" of successful instruction.
Although they are not to be considered as steps, there are four parts to this gradual release of responsibility: teacher-centered focus lessons, guided instruction where students follow a teacher model, collaborative learning where students work in pairs or groups to gain knowledge of content or a skill, and independent work where students complete individual assignments, such as homework.
These lessons do not have to follow a certain order. Instruction could, for example, begin with a collaborative bell ringer, move to a focus lesson on the content where the instructor briefly lectures, and then an independent assignment that students have to take home.
This variety of work can be extremely beneficial to students, especially those who need extensive scaffolding. It takes a lot of pressure off of teachers; they can spend more time preparing more meaningful lessons for students rather than strict bookwork or strict lectures.
I hope to use this in my future classrooms as well. However it requires significant planning. I would imagine that at the beginning of the year/semester, even teaching students about expectations during collaboration would require its own focus lesson and guided instruction. I have learned that teachers cannot expect that their students know any particular content or skill set, including appropriate group behavior. That being said, I think that a classroom that is formatted based on the gradual release of responsibility can be of great benefit to a group of students by preparing their minds for new skills and content.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Sunday, November 17, 2013
English Language Learners
English Language Learners
As educators, we are to teach to a population of students
with extremely diverse needs. In a high school setting, reading skills will
vary from student to student and class to class; some will be able to summarize
a passage and understand some complex “SAT words” and other will need lots of
scaffolding to help them understand passages that teachers may consider simple
and possibly below grade level.
Some students that will require plenty of scaffolding are
students who are learning the English language or are bi- or multilingual.
English language learners, or ELL students, lack enough proficiency in the
English language to be completely immersed in a course that is taught
completely in English and quite frankly, it is ignorant and insensitive of
educators who expect these students to perform adequately in school without
intense scaffolding.
The school where I am completing my observations and student
teaching is one-third Hispanic with a small Asian population. Some of the
Spanish-speaking students in one of my CT’s Global Studies classes did not
speak any English upon their arrival to her classroom. Both of the students
that I observed speak Spanish as their primary language, even in the classroom.
One of the young men refuses to speak English, which is proving to be very
problematic for my CT.
Although they both attend an ESOL class, they are not
benefiting as they should. There are scaffolds set aside for ELL students, such
as providing them with texts in their native language and helping them with
interpretation. However when the teacher, or even the ESOL teacher, does not
speak their language, communication is extremely difficult to make demands of
the simplest task.
It is easy for me to say that because I speak Spanish I can
communicate with my Spanish-speaking students and tell them what I need from
them, but what if I have a student who speak Russian and no English? What if my
student speaks Russian, Arabic, Mandarin, but no English? I cannot say that he
or she is not intelligent enough to understand the material because they speak
THREE LANGUAGES!! So how can I help them?
First it is important to try to understand the background of
a student from a different culture. Doing so will help me create an environment
where he or she feels safe to learn content in a new way. Secondly, I need to
utilize my resources, mainly ESOL teachers who have more experience and tools
to teach students who are new to the English language on their level. If I have
to find or translate material for them, then I need to be willing to do that.
It is imperative that they understand the content that I am teaching to their
classmates.
However, they also must learn English.
Personally, I feel that that is outside my realm as a social
studies teacher; if I have a class full of English-speaking students with
extremely limited comprehension skills in their native language, how am I
supposed to teach a new language to a new English speaker? However, I have a
passion for languages and know just enough from a variety of language families,
so I hope that will help me with basic communication. I believe that building
bridges with students is imperative. It may seem extremely idealistic, but I
hope that if my hypothetical Russian-speaking student sees that I know a tiny
bit of Russian, that they will see that I care about them as a person AND a
student…hopefully that will motivate them to do well in American schools.
I believe that this is the most difficult of literacy
strategies for a teacher to grasp, especially if he or she has almost no
knowledge of another language. (There’s really no excuse for that in 2013, but
that is a different story…) We can easily say that teaching students how to
think historically is challenging, but possible with Tools A, B, and C. But if
we cannot master basic communication with our students, how are we to teach in
a manner that is most beneficial to them?
This is actually an area that I hope to become an “expert”
in on a graduate level. My passion truly lies with not only working with
students with limited English skills, but learning new languages as well. I
hope that this journal entry will one day maybe grow into a full-blown
dissertation. Time shall tell…
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Panama Canal: Part III
Because of the debacle that was my lesson on the Panama Canal, I decided that I could not just leave the students with an incomplete assignment and wanted to at least get to a stopping point where I could feel like I accomplished something.
The problem with the previous lesson was that I assumed that my students had a prior knowledge that they did not have. My faulty assumptions led to poor time management--we did not even complete half of the lesson that I had planned. Fortunately, however, my CT is extremely flexible and I was able to complete Wednesday's lesson on Friday.
I decided that I would just have to be content with getting through the autobiography and not worry about not finishing the document analysis. Completion of the entire lesson would have taken close to a week, and I only had half of one class period left.
Now, I knew where their reading skills truly were and how I needed to adapt my lesson. Because they completed reading guides on every chapter, I knew that they would know how to do a reading guide with minimal modeling. Besides, they could not seem to grasp the overall purpose and meaning of the text without it. However, their typical reading guide offers mostly lower-order questions that are straight from the text. While I included many of those same questions, I included a few curveballs that I hoped would challenge them. Fortunately, I was right this time.
This was an assignment that they were much more comfortable with and the majority of them actually completed the assignment, much to my surprise. The majority of the questions that I asked were lower order questions, although the answers were not verbatim from the text. However, the last question that I posed to them was to decide whether or not the President used lies, half-lies, exaggerations, rationalizations, or obfuscations in his autobiography. With some assistance from me, most of the students were able to answer that question--even my students in the back who pride themselves on doing next to nothing.
This lesson taught me that I had been too harsh on the reading guides. Sofia, the student that I have been observing this semester, told me at one point that she got a lot out of the reading guides and the workbook questions. She said that completing them helped her understand the overall purpose of the chapter and prepare her for CT's lecture. Honestly, there is only one, maybe two students, who openly seek to be challenged with more difficult assignments. I do not doubt that many of them would be able to rise to that challenge, but they seem to be content with doing the bare minimum. (I know I was in high school).
I will definitely use reading guides in my lessons, although maybe not as often as my CT does. I think they provide students, like Sofia, with the necessary background knowledge to understand a chapter or unit's objectives. However it is easy to fall back on them constantly and I do not want to do that. I want them to be a scaffold so that students can start to see main points in a passage and grow from answering basic, lower-order questions to more challenging, complex higher-order questions.
The problem with the previous lesson was that I assumed that my students had a prior knowledge that they did not have. My faulty assumptions led to poor time management--we did not even complete half of the lesson that I had planned. Fortunately, however, my CT is extremely flexible and I was able to complete Wednesday's lesson on Friday.
I decided that I would just have to be content with getting through the autobiography and not worry about not finishing the document analysis. Completion of the entire lesson would have taken close to a week, and I only had half of one class period left.
Now, I knew where their reading skills truly were and how I needed to adapt my lesson. Because they completed reading guides on every chapter, I knew that they would know how to do a reading guide with minimal modeling. Besides, they could not seem to grasp the overall purpose and meaning of the text without it. However, their typical reading guide offers mostly lower-order questions that are straight from the text. While I included many of those same questions, I included a few curveballs that I hoped would challenge them. Fortunately, I was right this time.
This was an assignment that they were much more comfortable with and the majority of them actually completed the assignment, much to my surprise. The majority of the questions that I asked were lower order questions, although the answers were not verbatim from the text. However, the last question that I posed to them was to decide whether or not the President used lies, half-lies, exaggerations, rationalizations, or obfuscations in his autobiography. With some assistance from me, most of the students were able to answer that question--even my students in the back who pride themselves on doing next to nothing.
This lesson taught me that I had been too harsh on the reading guides. Sofia, the student that I have been observing this semester, told me at one point that she got a lot out of the reading guides and the workbook questions. She said that completing them helped her understand the overall purpose of the chapter and prepare her for CT's lecture. Honestly, there is only one, maybe two students, who openly seek to be challenged with more difficult assignments. I do not doubt that many of them would be able to rise to that challenge, but they seem to be content with doing the bare minimum. (I know I was in high school).
I will definitely use reading guides in my lessons, although maybe not as often as my CT does. I think they provide students, like Sofia, with the necessary background knowledge to understand a chapter or unit's objectives. However it is easy to fall back on them constantly and I do not want to do that. I want them to be a scaffold so that students can start to see main points in a passage and grow from answering basic, lower-order questions to more challenging, complex higher-order questions.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Panama Canal: Part II
In my last post, I introduced a lesson plan that my literacy professor modeled with my class of preservice social studies teachers. Because my high school class was preparing to do a unit on imperialism, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to stun the world with my teaching skills and the Panama Canal lesson plan.
I knew that I needed to do much more modeling than my professor did for us. As a Bell Ringer, I asked the students to hypothesize what lies, half-lies, exaggerations, rationalizations, and obfuscations were and give an example of each. I highly doubted that any of them would know what an obfuscation was, and I was right. Most of them knew what the other words though, and we worked together to come up with some examples for each. So far, so good.
Next, we watched the video on the Panama Canal. Although it was less than three minutes, the class had zoned out. (This quite possibly had something to do with the fact that for technology reasons, we did not get off to a smooth start.) While it was a good idea to build prior knowledge, it proved to be more of a hindrance to overall learning. The downhill spiral begins.
After we talked about the video for a few minutes, I passed out the background information and we previewed it. We talked about important things that they needed to look for in the argument and what made them important. I modeled the first paragraph and told them to do the rest with their partner as I walked around the room.
My trips around the room were almost disastrous. All but maybe three students had underlined and/or circled almost every sentence, every name, every thing. I would try to ask students questions as to why they thought something was important and was met with blank stares. Time was running short, so I decided that we would probably only get through the autobiography, which was very incorrect.
After 15-20 agonizing minutes of trying to explain to pairs of students what I wanted them to do, we came back together as a class to discuss the background passage. Some students were able to point out important people and events. I wrote the names on the board and asked different students why they thought A, B, C was important. I also told them to think of how these facts could be tied to the original inquiry question, and pointed to it on the board.
The next portion was to have them examine the autobiography. I knew that we would need to model this activity too. I pulled the document up on the promethean board and had one of the students read the first argument out loud. I asked the class to point out key adjectives that really stood out and then asked "why do you think the President chose that word?" and "what image was he trying to portray?" They understood that portion, and I was extremely grateful.
Next, I had them consult with their partner for 30 seconds and try to summarize the few sentences that we had just read and was met with a roomful of blank stares. One kid took a shot in the dark and I wrote his answer on the board. I circled the instructions on the Promethean Board and told them to work in pairs and to try to get through the next 3 or 4 arguments.
As I walked around the room, my head began to spin as I realized that the majority of these students had little to no reading comprehension skills. I tried not to get discouraged, so I began to think about what I needed to do to remedy the situation.
First, in hindsight, I realized that I did not model NEARLY enough for my students. I assumed that because they were sophomores that they should be more than capable of reading a fairly simple passage and be able to tell me what they just read. Incorrect. I also realized that they did not have a firm grasp on several things that I had assumed that they knew. For example, they were doing a unit on Imperialism and I was under the impression that CT had very briefly mentioned Teddy Roosevelt and his role in the acquisition of the canal. This was also an incorrect assumption on my part.
Although I considered this lesson a disaster, there were many things that I was able to take away from it. First, I can never assume that any student I teach has a particular skill. Many may have it, but many may not. It is not my job to blame the students or previous teachers; it is my job to teach them, however basic the skill may seem to me.
Secondly, a teacher can never model enough. Scaffolding is extremely important; it does not have to always be me holding their hands through an assignment. Instead, I need to give them the appropriate tools to eventually perform the task themselves. They may not get it on the first or even second try. I need to work with them until they understand.
Finally, I learned that teaching a lesson as a preservice teacher can put one in an unfortunate position. Because I did not work with the students on a daily basis, I did not know that they had never been taught the skills that I was expecting them to use. In my own class in the future, I will start from the beginning of the year by gradually teaching them how to look for key terms in what they read, how to summarize a passage, and how to look for evidence to support their argument. Fortunately, the beautiful thing about teaching is no matter how badly I feel I may screw up a lesson, I can always go back and try again on something else. Which is exactly what I did....
I knew that I needed to do much more modeling than my professor did for us. As a Bell Ringer, I asked the students to hypothesize what lies, half-lies, exaggerations, rationalizations, and obfuscations were and give an example of each. I highly doubted that any of them would know what an obfuscation was, and I was right. Most of them knew what the other words though, and we worked together to come up with some examples for each. So far, so good.
Next, we watched the video on the Panama Canal. Although it was less than three minutes, the class had zoned out. (This quite possibly had something to do with the fact that for technology reasons, we did not get off to a smooth start.) While it was a good idea to build prior knowledge, it proved to be more of a hindrance to overall learning. The downhill spiral begins.
After we talked about the video for a few minutes, I passed out the background information and we previewed it. We talked about important things that they needed to look for in the argument and what made them important. I modeled the first paragraph and told them to do the rest with their partner as I walked around the room.
My trips around the room were almost disastrous. All but maybe three students had underlined and/or circled almost every sentence, every name, every thing. I would try to ask students questions as to why they thought something was important and was met with blank stares. Time was running short, so I decided that we would probably only get through the autobiography, which was very incorrect.
After 15-20 agonizing minutes of trying to explain to pairs of students what I wanted them to do, we came back together as a class to discuss the background passage. Some students were able to point out important people and events. I wrote the names on the board and asked different students why they thought A, B, C was important. I also told them to think of how these facts could be tied to the original inquiry question, and pointed to it on the board.
The next portion was to have them examine the autobiography. I knew that we would need to model this activity too. I pulled the document up on the promethean board and had one of the students read the first argument out loud. I asked the class to point out key adjectives that really stood out and then asked "why do you think the President chose that word?" and "what image was he trying to portray?" They understood that portion, and I was extremely grateful.
Next, I had them consult with their partner for 30 seconds and try to summarize the few sentences that we had just read and was met with a roomful of blank stares. One kid took a shot in the dark and I wrote his answer on the board. I circled the instructions on the Promethean Board and told them to work in pairs and to try to get through the next 3 or 4 arguments.
As I walked around the room, my head began to spin as I realized that the majority of these students had little to no reading comprehension skills. I tried not to get discouraged, so I began to think about what I needed to do to remedy the situation.
First, in hindsight, I realized that I did not model NEARLY enough for my students. I assumed that because they were sophomores that they should be more than capable of reading a fairly simple passage and be able to tell me what they just read. Incorrect. I also realized that they did not have a firm grasp on several things that I had assumed that they knew. For example, they were doing a unit on Imperialism and I was under the impression that CT had very briefly mentioned Teddy Roosevelt and his role in the acquisition of the canal. This was also an incorrect assumption on my part.
Although I considered this lesson a disaster, there were many things that I was able to take away from it. First, I can never assume that any student I teach has a particular skill. Many may have it, but many may not. It is not my job to blame the students or previous teachers; it is my job to teach them, however basic the skill may seem to me.
Secondly, a teacher can never model enough. Scaffolding is extremely important; it does not have to always be me holding their hands through an assignment. Instead, I need to give them the appropriate tools to eventually perform the task themselves. They may not get it on the first or even second try. I need to work with them until they understand.
Finally, I learned that teaching a lesson as a preservice teacher can put one in an unfortunate position. Because I did not work with the students on a daily basis, I did not know that they had never been taught the skills that I was expecting them to use. In my own class in the future, I will start from the beginning of the year by gradually teaching them how to look for key terms in what they read, how to summarize a passage, and how to look for evidence to support their argument. Fortunately, the beautiful thing about teaching is no matter how badly I feel I may screw up a lesson, I can always go back and try again on something else. Which is exactly what I did....
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Panama Canal: Part I
Recently in our literacy class, we were given an intriguing document-based lesson on the Panama Canal. The Inquiry/Essential Question was What is President Roosevelt doing in his
autobiography and what role did the US play in the acquisition of the territory
used to construct the Panama Canal? The rest of the lesson had us, the preservice teachers, played the role of the high school students.
The first thing that we did was view a video on the Panama Canal in order to build prior knowledge because, let's be honest, most Americans know that the Canal exists and that is it. Next, we read a secondary source that outlined some basic information about events that led up to the construction of the canal. We were asked to underline passages that we felt were important, such as names, dates, and other important people. The third step was to read sections of Teddy Roosevelt's autobiography and summarize each portion. Additionally, we had to decide if the president was using lies, half-lies, exaggerations, rationalizations, or obfuscations in his autobiography.
The next portion of our assignment was to look at a collection of documents (letters, memos, political cartoons) and analyze them. Then, we were to share our interpretation of our assigned document with our group and share whether or not we thought it supported or challenged President Roosevelt's autobiography.
This would be a great assignment to do with a high school class. It is interactive, encourages group work, and would be a change from the routine that I see in my class. Students will be able to learn how to examine a variety of sources and their thinking will be stretched and preconceived notions will be challenged.
I would love to use this as a lesson plan for my students in an upcoming unit on imperialism. I think that I would have to provide a little more background knowledge (like definitions of obfuscations, for instance) and model what types of "important" things they should look for in the Background piece.
What could possibly go wrong?
The first thing that we did was view a video on the Panama Canal in order to build prior knowledge because, let's be honest, most Americans know that the Canal exists and that is it. Next, we read a secondary source that outlined some basic information about events that led up to the construction of the canal. We were asked to underline passages that we felt were important, such as names, dates, and other important people. The third step was to read sections of Teddy Roosevelt's autobiography and summarize each portion. Additionally, we had to decide if the president was using lies, half-lies, exaggerations, rationalizations, or obfuscations in his autobiography.
The next portion of our assignment was to look at a collection of documents (letters, memos, political cartoons) and analyze them. Then, we were to share our interpretation of our assigned document with our group and share whether or not we thought it supported or challenged President Roosevelt's autobiography.
This would be a great assignment to do with a high school class. It is interactive, encourages group work, and would be a change from the routine that I see in my class. Students will be able to learn how to examine a variety of sources and their thinking will be stretched and preconceived notions will be challenged.
I would love to use this as a lesson plan for my students in an upcoming unit on imperialism. I think that I would have to provide a little more background knowledge (like definitions of obfuscations, for instance) and model what types of "important" things they should look for in the Background piece.
What could possibly go wrong?
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Introducing DBQ's
DBQs, or Dialogue Based Questions, are used in the classrooms to help students learn to think critically AND historically. Students are usually presented with a packet of primary sources that include letters, pictures, cartoons, memos, etc. During the unit on the French Revolution, my CT and her team teacher decided to incorporate DBQs in the lesson. This would be a nice change from the routine, which was usually answer questions from the textbook.
To introduce the unit, CT told the class that they would be doing something different and explained what DBQs were. She then very methodically modeled how she wanted them to examine the documents in the packet. First, she put this picture of Louis XIV on the Promethean Board, but did not tell them who he was.
She then asked the students to give their initial thoughts on the image. Next, CT asked them to think about what this portrait said about its subject. The students gave a variety of answers: he was rich, he was gay, he was important. After a few minutes of hypotheses, CT asked them who they thought he could have been? Someone quickly answered "nobility, or a king," allowing CT to segue into an introduction on French royalty and their spending habits.
The remainder of the unit gave the class an opportunity to answer the essential question "Was the Reign of Terror justified?". They looked at a variety of documents from peasants and nobility alike. At the end of the unit, they were required to answer the EQ in two paragraphs. (I know that CT modeled writing the paragraphs as well, but I was not observing that day.)
I learned the hard way in a different unit how important it is to model for students. Even though they are sophomores, teachers cannot assume that they have any particular set of skills. The next time I teach a lesson, it would behoove me to really reflect on CT's methods of modeling.
This activity was only done once by my CT. Unfortunately, I think that in some ways, the students sort of suffer from that. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the students usually answer questions from a workbook, then answer questions on a reading guide, and then fill out guided notes during a brief lecture. I feel as if many of them really responded to this change in instruction for the better; the majority of them rose to the challenge. However, these skills need to be practiced on a semi-regular basis. Just because they did it one time does not necessarily make them experts--again, I learned that the hard way.
When I begin teaching, I really hope to use DBQs and historical inquiry in my lessons. I believe that it teaches students history in a new fashion that will allow them to explore history on a deeper-than-textbook level, analyze sources, and learn how to gather evidence to form their own arguments. I just cannot be reminded enough that even if a topic was talked about in class, even if I learned about a certain vocabulary word when I was in middle school, even if the class has done a new activity once before, that IT IS IMPERATIVE that I model and provide them with necessary scaffolding until they have mastered the skill.
To introduce the unit, CT told the class that they would be doing something different and explained what DBQs were. She then very methodically modeled how she wanted them to examine the documents in the packet. First, she put this picture of Louis XIV on the Promethean Board, but did not tell them who he was.
She then asked the students to give their initial thoughts on the image. Next, CT asked them to think about what this portrait said about its subject. The students gave a variety of answers: he was rich, he was gay, he was important. After a few minutes of hypotheses, CT asked them who they thought he could have been? Someone quickly answered "nobility, or a king," allowing CT to segue into an introduction on French royalty and their spending habits.
The remainder of the unit gave the class an opportunity to answer the essential question "Was the Reign of Terror justified?". They looked at a variety of documents from peasants and nobility alike. At the end of the unit, they were required to answer the EQ in two paragraphs. (I know that CT modeled writing the paragraphs as well, but I was not observing that day.)
I learned the hard way in a different unit how important it is to model for students. Even though they are sophomores, teachers cannot assume that they have any particular set of skills. The next time I teach a lesson, it would behoove me to really reflect on CT's methods of modeling.
This activity was only done once by my CT. Unfortunately, I think that in some ways, the students sort of suffer from that. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the students usually answer questions from a workbook, then answer questions on a reading guide, and then fill out guided notes during a brief lecture. I feel as if many of them really responded to this change in instruction for the better; the majority of them rose to the challenge. However, these skills need to be practiced on a semi-regular basis. Just because they did it one time does not necessarily make them experts--again, I learned that the hard way.
When I begin teaching, I really hope to use DBQs and historical inquiry in my lessons. I believe that it teaches students history in a new fashion that will allow them to explore history on a deeper-than-textbook level, analyze sources, and learn how to gather evidence to form their own arguments. I just cannot be reminded enough that even if a topic was talked about in class, even if I learned about a certain vocabulary word when I was in middle school, even if the class has done a new activity once before, that IT IS IMPERATIVE that I model and provide them with necessary scaffolding until they have mastered the skill.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Diverse Teaching
Teaching students to be historical thinkers is a difficult task that involves a lot of time and guidance from the teacher. However, in order to teach students to read and think historically, they must have basic reading skills. On my first day of student teaching this semester, my cooperating teacher explained her basic method of instruction for every chapter and unit: after a test, she had students answer questions in a workbook that was supplemental to the text. Next, they would answer between 50 and 60 questions on a chapter reading guide. Finally, she would pass out guided notes and give a 15-20 minute lecture on the topic. My CT said that she liked to use all three of these because the students were receiving the information three different ways.
Although the questions on the reading guide were mostly lower-order thinking questions, the questions from the workbook required a higher level of thinking. The reading guide, for example, would ask questions like "in what year was King Louis XVI executed by the guillotine?" These questions are extremely simple and students can often answer them verbatim from the text. Questions from the workbook were of a higher-order, often asking students to read a passage and provide a summary or analyze a graphic organizer.
I think that this only benefits students on a superficial level. At the beginning of the year, yes, students should start with simpler skills and the teacher should provide them with more complex assignments as the year progresses. My CT did try other reading and literary activities with them, such as a DBQ, but it was common for her to stick with workbook, reading guide, lecture, review, test, repeat. She is faced with an extremely intellectually diverse group of students. There are 3-5 students in her class of almost 30 that have the skills to answer higher level questions. The rest are average to below average. The majority can answer low- to middle-order questions, but there are a few in the class who cannot answer the simplest of questions. I believe that several of them have been pushed through grades so they are "on track," but that does not mean they cannot learn new reading skills, even if they are behind their classmates.
I say with the idealism of a preservice teacher that I would not use this routine for every chapter and every unit. I would love to incorporate Dialogue Based Questions and historical inquiry into my lessons. However if I have a class with such a diverse group of learners, I do not know what will best meet all of their needs. I believe it is important to understand what their reading skills are when they enter my classroom and I think that answering a variety of lower- and higher-order questions individually (or in pairs) can provide the answers. However I hope that I will be able to diversify lessons away from only making my students read and answer questions from an outdated textbook.
Although the questions on the reading guide were mostly lower-order thinking questions, the questions from the workbook required a higher level of thinking. The reading guide, for example, would ask questions like "in what year was King Louis XVI executed by the guillotine?" These questions are extremely simple and students can often answer them verbatim from the text. Questions from the workbook were of a higher-order, often asking students to read a passage and provide a summary or analyze a graphic organizer.
I think that this only benefits students on a superficial level. At the beginning of the year, yes, students should start with simpler skills and the teacher should provide them with more complex assignments as the year progresses. My CT did try other reading and literary activities with them, such as a DBQ, but it was common for her to stick with workbook, reading guide, lecture, review, test, repeat. She is faced with an extremely intellectually diverse group of students. There are 3-5 students in her class of almost 30 that have the skills to answer higher level questions. The rest are average to below average. The majority can answer low- to middle-order questions, but there are a few in the class who cannot answer the simplest of questions. I believe that several of them have been pushed through grades so they are "on track," but that does not mean they cannot learn new reading skills, even if they are behind their classmates.
I say with the idealism of a preservice teacher that I would not use this routine for every chapter and every unit. I would love to incorporate Dialogue Based Questions and historical inquiry into my lessons. However if I have a class with such a diverse group of learners, I do not know what will best meet all of their needs. I believe it is important to understand what their reading skills are when they enter my classroom and I think that answering a variety of lower- and higher-order questions individually (or in pairs) can provide the answers. However I hope that I will be able to diversify lessons away from only making my students read and answer questions from an outdated textbook.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Questioning Learners
The strategies that Fisher and Fry mention in their chapter about questioning strategies can be very useful in the classroom. When used properly in the classroom, a teacher can transform his or her classroom from a "passive learning environment" to one that engages their students.
The first technique that I would like to utilize in my own classroom is the "Questioning the Author" technique. I would like to use plenty of primary sources in my classroom, especially when teaching history and government. It seems rather simple: the reader analyzes the author's purpose as they are reading a document. However, I feel that this technique will require me to model it for the students; I do not know how long that will take, but I am sure it will be worth it.
The second technique that I really liked was the exercise that determines the relationship between questions and answers. It presents four different types of questions: Right There, Think and Search, Author and You, On Your Own. I would like to create a worksheet (or even use an old one) and have the students not only answer the questions, but think about what kinds of questions they are answering. I believe that this will help build metacognition and the student will learn to think about the way they think (even thought they may not realize that's what they are doing!).
Finally, the third technique is the QUILT Technique, and I personally think I need it to be modeled for me. Teachers must prepare the question and then present it, prompt student responses and then process them, and then have students reflect on the questions. This technique also has student really think about how the questions are formed. It will help build their metacognitive skills.
The first technique that I would like to utilize in my own classroom is the "Questioning the Author" technique. I would like to use plenty of primary sources in my classroom, especially when teaching history and government. It seems rather simple: the reader analyzes the author's purpose as they are reading a document. However, I feel that this technique will require me to model it for the students; I do not know how long that will take, but I am sure it will be worth it.
The second technique that I really liked was the exercise that determines the relationship between questions and answers. It presents four different types of questions: Right There, Think and Search, Author and You, On Your Own. I would like to create a worksheet (or even use an old one) and have the students not only answer the questions, but think about what kinds of questions they are answering. I believe that this will help build metacognition and the student will learn to think about the way they think (even thought they may not realize that's what they are doing!).
Finally, the third technique is the QUILT Technique, and I personally think I need it to be modeled for me. Teachers must prepare the question and then present it, prompt student responses and then process them, and then have students reflect on the questions. This technique also has student really think about how the questions are formed. It will help build their metacognitive skills.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Aug. 30, 2013
I'm observing a sophomore Global Studies II class in Greenville, SC. Per instruction of my Literacy professor, I am observing the reading and writing habits of these students. I want to examine what kind of texts these students are reading and how they are responding to them. Furthermore, I want to zone in on one student's responses to the material and how they perform.
A little bit of information about the school: to my knowledge, the school does not have the best reputation in the county. My CT does not think the school deserves its reputation. I can really relate to the school's situation because my high school had a similar reputation that I don't think it deserved. I feel like the students at my cooperating high school unfortunately find themselves victims of a self-fulfilling prophecy: everyone says that this is a school for thugs and drop outs, so that is how we will behave. I personally haven't seen anything terrible yet (nor do I honestly expect to), but as a former resident of Greenville County, I hear those rumors.
I believe that these prophecies definitely have negative impacts on how a student perceives his or her learning environment and I'm interested to see how that plays out in their ability to read and comprehend. While I have my eyes on a few students, I am particularly interested in a few latino students in the Second Block class where I observe. I am really drawn to the latino community for several reasons: I am proficient in the language, I am in love with the Mexican culture, and I know that the dropout rates for latino students are higher than any other race or ethnicity in the country. The most pertinent question for me is whether or not that is true at my Cooperating School (CS), which is around 33% Latino.
For my Initial Observations, however, I was asked to choose a variety of students and watch how they responded to written material. Because my Cooperating Teacher (CT) was absent the day before my first visit, she had distributed to the students a study guide/worksheet as an introduction to the topic of the Scientific Revolution. Most of the students most likely saw it as busy work, but CT said that she wanted the students to be able to look at the information through the text book, through lectures, and through activities. On my first day at the CS, all of the students were finishing up their work and I kept my eye on a few different adolescents.
The first young lady who caught my attention was S. S seems rather quiet, but her body language says that there is much more to her than meets the eye. I believe that she is quite smart, simply by judging her behavior, but I will see how she is challenged and whether or not she wants to rise to that challenge. S was one of the first people in the class to finish her assignment. When she finished, she turned her assignment in and read another book.
Next, I watched two young ladies who were sitting directly behind me. What caught my attention was the fact that they were doing absolutely nothing. Class had started ten minutes ago. Some students had turned in their bell ringers before these two even opened their book bags. (As a matter of fact, several students on this side of the room had yet to pull anything out...). I do not think that I will ultimately select either of these young ladies because my initial impression is that they do not wish to apply themselves in this class at all...maybe they lack the ability, I don't know yet; I would like someone who is middle of the road.
Finally, I watched two latino students in the middle of the class. D, female, and P, male, were two of the hardest working students in the entire class. D was the first to turn in her assignment and then helped some of the other students with their work. I am eager to see how these two and the other ELL students respond to the literature, lecture, and other activities in the class.
A little bit of information about the school: to my knowledge, the school does not have the best reputation in the county. My CT does not think the school deserves its reputation. I can really relate to the school's situation because my high school had a similar reputation that I don't think it deserved. I feel like the students at my cooperating high school unfortunately find themselves victims of a self-fulfilling prophecy: everyone says that this is a school for thugs and drop outs, so that is how we will behave. I personally haven't seen anything terrible yet (nor do I honestly expect to), but as a former resident of Greenville County, I hear those rumors.
I believe that these prophecies definitely have negative impacts on how a student perceives his or her learning environment and I'm interested to see how that plays out in their ability to read and comprehend. While I have my eyes on a few students, I am particularly interested in a few latino students in the Second Block class where I observe. I am really drawn to the latino community for several reasons: I am proficient in the language, I am in love with the Mexican culture, and I know that the dropout rates for latino students are higher than any other race or ethnicity in the country. The most pertinent question for me is whether or not that is true at my Cooperating School (CS), which is around 33% Latino.
For my Initial Observations, however, I was asked to choose a variety of students and watch how they responded to written material. Because my Cooperating Teacher (CT) was absent the day before my first visit, she had distributed to the students a study guide/worksheet as an introduction to the topic of the Scientific Revolution. Most of the students most likely saw it as busy work, but CT said that she wanted the students to be able to look at the information through the text book, through lectures, and through activities. On my first day at the CS, all of the students were finishing up their work and I kept my eye on a few different adolescents.
The first young lady who caught my attention was S. S seems rather quiet, but her body language says that there is much more to her than meets the eye. I believe that she is quite smart, simply by judging her behavior, but I will see how she is challenged and whether or not she wants to rise to that challenge. S was one of the first people in the class to finish her assignment. When she finished, she turned her assignment in and read another book.
Next, I watched two young ladies who were sitting directly behind me. What caught my attention was the fact that they were doing absolutely nothing. Class had started ten minutes ago. Some students had turned in their bell ringers before these two even opened their book bags. (As a matter of fact, several students on this side of the room had yet to pull anything out...). I do not think that I will ultimately select either of these young ladies because my initial impression is that they do not wish to apply themselves in this class at all...maybe they lack the ability, I don't know yet; I would like someone who is middle of the road.
Finally, I watched two latino students in the middle of the class. D, female, and P, male, were two of the hardest working students in the entire class. D was the first to turn in her assignment and then helped some of the other students with their work. I am eager to see how these two and the other ELL students respond to the literature, lecture, and other activities in the class.
Building Vocabulary
Vocabulary usage skyrockets for young people as they enter adolescence. While they can easily pick up slang and other vernacular, it is often more difficult for students to understand some vocabulary that is only used in the context of a classroom. Some vocabulary words, according to Fisher and Frey, describe a concept of a subject while others portray a more concrete term. For example, the term "gender roles" can be used to discuss the climate between men and women in a given era. The term "military state/society" is a more concrete term that expresses a type of society. F&F present several ways for teachers and educators to choose vocabulary words, incorporate them into their lessons, and giving the students methods for learning and internalizing them.
One such way is implementing a word wall in the classroom. When my mother taught elementary school, the word wall was a focal point in her classroom. As she taught students new words, she would put a laminated word onto the alphabetized wall and review the growing list daily. I think that while we expect more from students as they enter high school, we may also simultaneously be neglecting a learning mode that could be beneficial to them. If used properly, a word wall can display content-specific words that have been introduced in the lesson, discussed by the class, and then reviewed on a consistent basis. Doing so is sure to present positive results.
A second method, that can definitely be incorporated with the word wall, is meaningful repetition. As I mentioned before, my mother reviewed the word wall words with her students every day. As the year progressed, they acquired a significant amount of meaningful knowledge of the words: they could spell the words and use them correctly in a sentence. I think that the same method can be easily utilized in a high school setting. Before teachers begin their lessons, for example, they can have the class put their new vocabulary words to practice. As the year progresses and students develop their vocabulary, the teacher can (hopefully) begin to make meaningful connections with prior knowledge.
Finally, a third method that teachers can use to help students develop vocabulary is semantic features analysis. This idea is another way to engage visual learners; students create a grid with vocabulary terms listed in the far left column (one per row) and characteristics of those words on the top row. Students then place a check in the column where the vocab word corresponds with the characteristic. Students can use this worksheet as a point of reference for future study.
One such way is implementing a word wall in the classroom. When my mother taught elementary school, the word wall was a focal point in her classroom. As she taught students new words, she would put a laminated word onto the alphabetized wall and review the growing list daily. I think that while we expect more from students as they enter high school, we may also simultaneously be neglecting a learning mode that could be beneficial to them. If used properly, a word wall can display content-specific words that have been introduced in the lesson, discussed by the class, and then reviewed on a consistent basis. Doing so is sure to present positive results.
A second method, that can definitely be incorporated with the word wall, is meaningful repetition. As I mentioned before, my mother reviewed the word wall words with her students every day. As the year progressed, they acquired a significant amount of meaningful knowledge of the words: they could spell the words and use them correctly in a sentence. I think that the same method can be easily utilized in a high school setting. Before teachers begin their lessons, for example, they can have the class put their new vocabulary words to practice. As the year progresses and students develop their vocabulary, the teacher can (hopefully) begin to make meaningful connections with prior knowledge.
Finally, a third method that teachers can use to help students develop vocabulary is semantic features analysis. This idea is another way to engage visual learners; students create a grid with vocabulary terms listed in the far left column (one per row) and characteristics of those words on the top row. Students then place a check in the column where the vocab word corresponds with the characteristic. Students can use this worksheet as a point of reference for future study.
Anticipatory Activities
Fisher and Frey provide preservice teacher with a variety of activities to quickly engage their students in the introduction to a unit, lesson, or concept. Doing so, is the first step in engaging the curiosity of students, ask critical questions, and be better equipped to recall information. They suggest many different activities to engage students before a lesson has even begun.
One of these suggestions involves staging some manner of performance for the students in a discrepant event. For example, if I was teaching a lesson on the Russian Revolution, which I may have the opportunity to do this semester, I would like to read peasant letters that described the hardships under the budding communist dictatorship. I may even dress like a peasant, babushka (scarf) and all. After all, Fisher and Frey claim that these memorable events evoke an emotional connection to one's memory. I feel that the image of the crazy student teacher dressed like a peasant and talking with a think, Russian accent may be embedded in the skulls of my sophomores; they WILL remember that a bread shortage started the Revolution!!....but maybe that it didn't quite go as planned...
A second suggestion for an anticipatory act is providing visual displays for the students. The first thing that came to my mind was simply photographs, pictures, art, etc. However while I was reading, I realized that I was thinking a bit too narrowly. The whole, wide internet is at my fingertips and, as I am excited to learn about in EDF 425, there are ways that I can incorporate a variety of video, audio clips, etc. into the introduction to the unit. One of the tools that we are going to discuss with Dr. Visser is a website called Thinglink that will allow me to choose a picture and embed text, YouTube links, etc. in the photograph or image for a discussion. This could provide an opportunity for me to use the K-W-L Technique, which would encourage students to begin to think critically before the lesson has even begun!!
Finally, a third suggestion, the anticipation guide, provides a visual model to which students can refer. I personally enjoyed the use of the anticipation guide on the mock lesson of Pullman Strike. I actually remember learning about Pullman from my US History course over the summer, so I knew several facts before we began to investigate. (If I had not, I would have done very poorly because it has been over ten years since my last U.S. History class...) I would like to occasionally incorporate these guides in my lessons, especially when it is a topic that everyone thinks they know. I think it can be used to dissolve preconceived notions about certain topics. For example, people credit President Lincoln to be this great emancipator of slaves. However, his motives for the Emancipation Proclamation were much more politically than ethically motivated. I'm not saying Lincoln was a bad guy; I just believe that this type of guide can be extremely useful in many situations.
One of these suggestions involves staging some manner of performance for the students in a discrepant event. For example, if I was teaching a lesson on the Russian Revolution, which I may have the opportunity to do this semester, I would like to read peasant letters that described the hardships under the budding communist dictatorship. I may even dress like a peasant, babushka (scarf) and all. After all, Fisher and Frey claim that these memorable events evoke an emotional connection to one's memory. I feel that the image of the crazy student teacher dressed like a peasant and talking with a think, Russian accent may be embedded in the skulls of my sophomores; they WILL remember that a bread shortage started the Revolution!!....but maybe that it didn't quite go as planned...
A second suggestion for an anticipatory act is providing visual displays for the students. The first thing that came to my mind was simply photographs, pictures, art, etc. However while I was reading, I realized that I was thinking a bit too narrowly. The whole, wide internet is at my fingertips and, as I am excited to learn about in EDF 425, there are ways that I can incorporate a variety of video, audio clips, etc. into the introduction to the unit. One of the tools that we are going to discuss with Dr. Visser is a website called Thinglink that will allow me to choose a picture and embed text, YouTube links, etc. in the photograph or image for a discussion. This could provide an opportunity for me to use the K-W-L Technique, which would encourage students to begin to think critically before the lesson has even begun!!
Finally, a third suggestion, the anticipation guide, provides a visual model to which students can refer. I personally enjoyed the use of the anticipation guide on the mock lesson of Pullman Strike. I actually remember learning about Pullman from my US History course over the summer, so I knew several facts before we began to investigate. (If I had not, I would have done very poorly because it has been over ten years since my last U.S. History class...) I would like to occasionally incorporate these guides in my lessons, especially when it is a topic that everyone thinks they know. I think it can be used to dissolve preconceived notions about certain topics. For example, people credit President Lincoln to be this great emancipator of slaves. However, his motives for the Emancipation Proclamation were much more politically than ethically motivated. I'm not saying Lincoln was a bad guy; I just believe that this type of guide can be extremely useful in many situations.
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