Elaine,
I find these comments very interesting. I came to similar conclusions when I
taught second grade, and immersed all the strategy instruction into read/think
alouds. The kids who seemed to "get it" the most and the quickest were ones who
did the most independent reading, both in school, and at home. That is why I
guard my self-selected reading conferences so strongly. I really believe that
the independent work I do with each student is tremendously valuable. I
wouldn't trade anything in the world for that.
You mentioned vocabulary, which was something I worked very hard on this
year. I noticed that my fourth grade students did better with vocabulary
acquisition when I switched my instructional strategy to more closely align
with Marzano and Pickering's model. I still find it difficult to introduce
words without giving a "definition." My students find it difficult to create
visual representations or graphics for unfamiliar words. I felt very inept at
times, and hope I didn't botch it up too badly. I'm hoping to do better with
this type of instruction next year, because even my well intentioned, albeit
inept attempt at this type of vocabulary instruction seemed to work better than
the old "copy the definition" model.
Does anyone have any suggestions that would help me do a better job at this?
Thanks
Joy/NC/4
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content go
hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org
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