[Assam] Part 5 - Latest Teaching Strategies - and Implementation cues

[umesh sharma]

umesh sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

 

Session 4

 

Class activity: “La Volpaia” story – as a pre –reading exercise

We used Think Aloud process and Believing and Doubting strategy as well as Informal Writing (Jacobs)

The Think-Aloud Process has the following stages: Picturing, Making connections, Identifying a problem, using fix-ups , which we used along-with Scaffolding Practice procedure:-

·        Paired Reading

·        Thinking silently

·        Ongoing assessment – share their self assessments

–        Schoenbach,Greenleaf, Cziko, Hurwitz (1999) From Bard College

 

Activity

First –asked us to read the first paragraph and make predictions about what was the story about- then compare with neighbor and discuss openly in class

Second – read the first page – again repeat process

Third, skim through in 3 minutes (3 page story) and again repeat the process

Fourth – conjecture about the meaning of the Title of the story

Fifth—suggesting some issue involved in the story, and related questions (who was right etc) – repeat the above process

Lastly- she told us the meaning of the title of the story –which connected us to theme of the story.

 

The idea was that even though we have not formally started reading of the story – we have already gone over the matter at least 5 or 6 times and got a good grasp of what it might contain – which we take up in guided reading. We were writing alongside with each step in the following manner.

 

I learnt about Informal writing and used its various strategies alongside the above steps:

–        Free Writing “ to ground out the static we bring to class” – write whatever we feel on the topic  

–        Focused Free Writing – “free written yet focused, that explores a term, problem, issue, question open endedly.”

–        Attitudinal Writing – focused free writing expressing the attitudes that influence aptitudes for learning. How do you feel about --- ? What is most difficult for you at this point? Etc.

–        Meta Cognitive Process Writing – Examining how and why you acted  (or will act) in a situation – done after (or before) reading an assignment, taking an exam, working on a problem, writing a paper, thinking about an issue. Anticipating and observing one’s own learning behaviors, in order to become more autonomous, less passively reliant on the information and authority of teachers and texts.

From (Bard College)

 

Writing to learn in a content area classroom: Andrews (1997)

“ Learning logs allowed students to become engaged in writing, facilitating their involvement with course content,” (Andrew, 1997) – maintaining journals.

 

Looping

“ Use looping …. When beginning to explore a new concept or topic area. For a set period of time, usually from 3 to 5 minutes .. I ask them to keep writing the entire time even if they can jot down words or phrases, as long as it is related to their understanding of the topic.” (Andrew, 1997)

At the end.. read .. summarize in a single sentence. Pass around to the neighbors to read the sentence and continue writing on the topic  - using their classmate’s sentence as a beginning point. (Andrew, 1997).

“Students write for a set period and repeat the process of free writing , rereading and writing one sentence. This process is repeated as many times as needed.

Through the process of free writing and summarizing, students are exploring , in writing, their understanding of the topic area and responding to their classmates perspectives.

 

‘when we first begin discussing the area of meta cognition, it has worked well to bring out students’ thoughts and ideas. Andrews (1997)

 

 

 

K-W-L (What I know, What I want to know & What I learned)

 

“use this strategy early in my course as a way to get students thinking about major topics we will study throughout semester .

Students circulate around the room, writing what they know and what they want to know on poster boards/sheets devoted to different topic areas. As students red one anothers’

Contributions, it activates their own schema about topic areas and they are able to add to the K-W-L posters.

 

As the students complete the K-W-L sheets/posters, the activity provides me with direction in planning future class meetings. I …. Often read some aloud as a way to activate students’ thinking about a new topic area before they attempt an assigned reading. At the last class meeting, I bring out the original K-W-L  posters or sheets for students to complete the What I Learned portion” Andrews (1997).

 

 

Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackwanna ST
College Park, MD 20740

1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

---

To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre.

_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
assam@assamnet.org
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org