It is exciting to see each of you growing and changing as teachers and professionals. Thank you for being supportive of me as I change too.
Please make sure that you post your comments for our October 23 study group session and our assigned readings under comments on this thread. It helps keep our discussions together.
8 comments:
Boy, did "Why Textbooks Are Not Enough" strike a nerve! I have been saying for years that dependency on a single text (that I may or may not have input in choosing)is very ineffective. When students have an affective connection with material, they have much greater retention. Content overload and the "hyperkinetic" design is very frustrating to this teacher and most of my students, no matter what the level. I loved the line " It seems that when textbook publishers try to imitate hypertext, the results are more hyper than text." I also highly agree with the idea that in a democracy, we should never teach students that only one view is permitted.
In Purposes for Reading, I found the section on "double entries " to be very useful. We already use these in our department, but I really liked the "Thinking options" and will employ them in my teaching.
Over the past two weeks, I’ve been working with my AP class using some strategies that we’ve read about this week. We are studying texts related to heroism, and I asked the class to bring in 1-page articles, stories, poems, or visuals related to some aspect of heroism. One student brought a Ralph Waldo Emerson essay from his essay collection, “Heroism.” Because it is such a challenging piece, I chose to use this as a “How to” lesson on reading difficult texts. The essay is 9 paragraphs (1 ½ pages). I “jigsawed” the essay, having students read the first paragraph, the last paragraph, and a selected paragraph from the middle (students read different middle paragraphs, with at least two students in the class reading the same paragraph). Students were to read and make annotations per paragraph; this is follow-up to a previous lesson on marking “thinking notes” as they read (star important quotations, question mark for something you don’t understand, circle unfamiliar words, etc.). Then, they were to select one quotation per paragraph and write a brief response. This was individual work. Then, together as a class, we read the first and last paragraphs together on the overhead. I showed a transparency of my copy of the essay with my “thinking notes.” We talked about their selected quotations for these paragraphs, and we worked out paraphrases for each quotation. I reminded them to notice where our selected quotations fell physically within each paragraph (normally, at the beginning or end). We connected this to what we know about topic and concluding sentences—how these sentences (or paragraphs, for longer texts) function for the reader. Then, we looked at our paraphrases from both the first and last paragraph and made connections along thematic lines. We decided that these quotations deal with the hero, specifically the hero and society, the hero and his/her character, and the hero and individualism; and we predicted that the middle paragraphs would center on these themes as well. I explained that we had just framed our text, and the class divided into groups based on their highlighted middle paragraphs to determine how their part of the essay fit into the overall structure. My final part of this activity is to have each group “teach” their paragraph(s) to the rest of the class. From here, we will connect Emerson’s ideas on heroism to the other texts we’ve read. What I have purposed to do in this activity overall is help students make sense of a difficult text. I helped them determine a purpose for reading (here, I called it a frame and asked them to fill in the frame) and showed them how to mark their thinking as they read. Also, I modeled how I worked through this text on my own.
I agree that textbooks are not enough. In reference to the French textbook, I find that it jumps around too much and does not provide a consistent pattern of instruction. Sometimes it introduces material that is not needed until other skills have been taught. From my perspective, it is used as a resource. The teacher is able to pull a variety of resources to enhance the unit. In use of the activity book, I chose the role play. This activity is used frequently in a language class. It requires the student to compose his own dialogue. I hope to find more activities to use in language class.
In response to the text's description of the three reading stages, I thought about the reading activity that my students completed last week. They presented a children's story using the three reading stages. I thought that it went well. They used visuals, background knowledge, and comprehension checks.
marysusan said...
After reading Chapter 3, it became even more important for me to include items to read and pull from than simply the text. As noted the marketing book as about 50 chapters, yet in marketing, the marketing standards can be covered in about 13 chapters. I do my best in providing hands-on activities. However, just last week, the students encountered a difficult situation with a restaurant. I, of course, want them to follow-up with a letter. However, the situation is difficult for an adult to get past, much less, a teenager. I mentioned to one of my friends that I thought I would write and have them copy over, though I felt this wasn’t the exact right way of doing it. She pointed out that unless they saw a letter of this nature, they would never know how to write one or what one should look like. With this said, I will write the letter, they will copy, and hopefully learn something in the process.
As far as the handout for reading, I have been reading Who Moved My Cheese to my 1st and 2nd block. Without setting up the book, one student asked if the book had anything to do with Publisher (which is the software program we are using). I chuckled to myself and quickly told him no, and then explained to the other students, the two were not related and explained why we were doing each of them and that they just coincided at the same time. : )
Monday, November 13, 2006
This is Lynn's POST
Monday, November 13, 2006
Textbooks are not enough because it is very bias in context. Information can become a negative point of view especially in health. I was on the state adoption committee and that became a focus for our chioces for the state. Supplementary material were available but money became a issue also we have a Health Law that will not allow some other material and text be introduced.
K-W-L worked great in the class when we discussed STD/ Hiv/Aids, it gave me a starting point and review place with students. This tool worked!!!!
Think aloud from the other article work well in my strategies class because I read a book on the Veitnam war and Wall and then we discussed veterans and I ask them to write a reflection on this. I trully believe that purpose for reading can make difference in whether a student likes to read or not. You need to make a connection on why this valid....... BC DIVA
posted by BCDIVA @ 5:44 AM
I've become accostomed to using anticipation guides, mainly because of the Janet Allen Modules. She has developed excellent anciticpation guides. You don't have to do the entire guide...you can use different questions for quick write activities, large group discussion, small group discussion.
I've found that anticpation guides attack "theme" more than predicting the actions of the text.
Utilizing anticipation guides for theme-related discussions,opens the door for "relevant discussion." Through themes, you can direct the conversation, allowing students to see themselves in the text.
What is the trouble with textbooks?
- Too much material. From 800 to over 1000 pages does make for back breaking transportation to and from the classroom. Who can concentrate when you are feeling physical pain from carrying the thick books to class? A student would be distracted from the lesson by having to figure out how to get the books and notebooks back in the backpack, onto his back, and on to his next class without tipping backwards from the load.
- Hard to read. Students can’t understand the way the info is presented. I remember in the 70’s having a textbook for each level of student I taught. My above average students had one book, my average students had another book, my below average students had another book, and my basic students had another textbook. I was also floating at that time. I would put all my teacher editions of all my texts on a cart and travel from classroom to classroom. When the students came in , I’d look to see which text they had, pull out my teachers’s edition and their corrected papers, and we’d begin our lesson. A lot of preps. I also need a set of each level at home so I wouldn’t have to take all the books home each night. An interesting time. One advantage to this was that we could go at the class’s rate. Without multilevels in one class, we could go faster in the higher classes and spend more time on the areas we needed to in the lower level classes. This was totally against the multilevel intelligence philosophy in more modern classrooms, but it worked.
- Others: badly designed, authoritarian, inaccurate, not written for students, cost too much. Wow! But this is what we have to work with. I can’t remember a year I covered all in the textbook. I didn’t have to teach to the standards either. I evaluated my kids and emphasized what they needed to become better readers, writers, and learners. No, I didn’t have a class of 15. I had classes of 28 to 32. But also I didn’t have to compete with video games, excessive behavior problems, and Ipods, You-pods, Them-pods, and MP3 players or three-member-gang players. “My space” was my classroom and teaching during that 50 minute period.
After class, Lendy set your “America’s White Table” display up close to the front of the Media Center and it drew the interest of students and teachers. A timely reading. The article on POWs and MIAs touched many of us whose fathers or family members fought in World War Two or the Vietnam War and who still are touched by the events of those times.
Post a Comment