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.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
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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