Professional Readings
To help us to understand what is going on in the educational field better, we were asked to read weekly articles in class. Below you will see that for each article we wrote a brief summary and then applied the article to our future classroom incorporating the new strategies.
Topic: Building Academic Language: Essential Practices for the Content Classrooms
Zweirs, Jeff. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008.
Summary: This article explains the importance of building student's language. Training them in the use of linguistic "bricks" and "mortar." Zweirs enforces this strategy because it not only helps students build academic language, but they will eventually come to differentiate between content-specific vocabulary and general academic terms. He encourages teachers to give more "explanation attention" to the bricks giving examples, diagrams and definitions. This learning strategy is very helpful to students in the junior high and early high school years. Learning the difference and understanding what different words both mean and how they are used.
Classroom Recommendation: In my future Social Studies class, I hope to display this learning strategy. With history terms, there are many that one could consider tier three, when they are actually tier one or two (general words to content-specific words). Using this strategy will help students understand what terms are deemed appropriate to use in the history content-area. This strategy must be taught in order for students to understand what the teacher is saying, what they will be close-reading both in and out of the classroom and what they will eventually be writing.
Topic: Research on Student Note-taking: Implications for Faculty and Graduate Student Instructors
DeZure, Deborah, Matthew Kaplan & Martha A. Deerman. Center for Research on Learning and Teaching: University of Michigan, 2001
Summary: This article explains what research has told us about the impact of note-taking and how the review of notes affects student learning. How teachers have approached this type of learning and the strategies that support it. What DeZure, Kaplan and Deerman conclude is that, "The process of note-taking involves a complex set of skills and interactions between instructors and their students. Current concerns and questions about note-taking offer both a challenge and an opportunity to re-examine our assumptions about the efficacy of notes and note-taking . . . Offering a chance to re-conceptualize the role of instructors in an educational landscape that may require new approaches to time-honored practices."
Classroom Recommendation: Note-taking in Social Studies is a must. Since there is so much information being thrown at the students, note-taking is a great learning strategy and tool to use. For the history content-area, the formal outlining note-taking method is the easiest and most commonly used for this subject. It is a well-organized system if done right. The process of outlining records content as well as relationships. I reduces editing and is easy to review by turning main points into questions.
Topic: For the Sake of Argument
Hernandez, Alex., Melissa Aul Kapan and Robert Schwartz. Educational Leadership, 2006: 48-52
Summary: "The heart of good writing is good thinking." Ultimately, literacy is a key function in the learning environment. What Hernandez, Aul Kapan and Schwartz state is that, "Adolescent literacy on critical thinking represents a radical departure from tradition particularly for students performing below grade level." Students need to learning writing mechanics within the contest of their writing goals. The article states that teachers have a model for argumentation. These include four elements in which students need to follow up in their reading and writing. They need to 1.) claim, 2.) clarify, 3.) find evidence, and 4.) warrant the connections from the evidence they found back to their original claim. This ultimately leads students to never begin any formal writing assignment until they map out their arguments and where they are heading with their writing assignment.
Classroom Recommendation: Teaching students the way in which they must write not only consist of what they should write, but how as well. In the history content-area, students must take argumentation seriously. That is what history is about. Claiming something and supporting it with evidence. Students must be aware of not only what evidence they use, but where they get it as well. Teachers must guide students in their writing. Supporting their claims and asking them questions one whether they have enough evidence to support that claim. Getting students to inquiry opens up their mind to new possibilities and more questions. Students who take things at face value and teachers who let them, end up closing the minds of their students. They ultimately learn nothing in the end, but what other people have thought. They need to question in order to learn.
To help us to understand what is going on in the educational field better, we were asked to read weekly articles in class. Below you will see that for each article we wrote a brief summary and then applied the article to our future classroom incorporating the new strategies.
Topic: Building Academic Language: Essential Practices for the Content Classrooms
Zweirs, Jeff. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008.
Summary: This article explains the importance of building student's language. Training them in the use of linguistic "bricks" and "mortar." Zweirs enforces this strategy because it not only helps students build academic language, but they will eventually come to differentiate between content-specific vocabulary and general academic terms. He encourages teachers to give more "explanation attention" to the bricks giving examples, diagrams and definitions. This learning strategy is very helpful to students in the junior high and early high school years. Learning the difference and understanding what different words both mean and how they are used.
Classroom Recommendation: In my future Social Studies class, I hope to display this learning strategy. With history terms, there are many that one could consider tier three, when they are actually tier one or two (general words to content-specific words). Using this strategy will help students understand what terms are deemed appropriate to use in the history content-area. This strategy must be taught in order for students to understand what the teacher is saying, what they will be close-reading both in and out of the classroom and what they will eventually be writing.
Topic: Research on Student Note-taking: Implications for Faculty and Graduate Student Instructors
DeZure, Deborah, Matthew Kaplan & Martha A. Deerman. Center for Research on Learning and Teaching: University of Michigan, 2001
Summary: This article explains what research has told us about the impact of note-taking and how the review of notes affects student learning. How teachers have approached this type of learning and the strategies that support it. What DeZure, Kaplan and Deerman conclude is that, "The process of note-taking involves a complex set of skills and interactions between instructors and their students. Current concerns and questions about note-taking offer both a challenge and an opportunity to re-examine our assumptions about the efficacy of notes and note-taking . . . Offering a chance to re-conceptualize the role of instructors in an educational landscape that may require new approaches to time-honored practices."
Classroom Recommendation: Note-taking in Social Studies is a must. Since there is so much information being thrown at the students, note-taking is a great learning strategy and tool to use. For the history content-area, the formal outlining note-taking method is the easiest and most commonly used for this subject. It is a well-organized system if done right. The process of outlining records content as well as relationships. I reduces editing and is easy to review by turning main points into questions.
Topic: For the Sake of Argument
Hernandez, Alex., Melissa Aul Kapan and Robert Schwartz. Educational Leadership, 2006: 48-52
Summary: "The heart of good writing is good thinking." Ultimately, literacy is a key function in the learning environment. What Hernandez, Aul Kapan and Schwartz state is that, "Adolescent literacy on critical thinking represents a radical departure from tradition particularly for students performing below grade level." Students need to learning writing mechanics within the contest of their writing goals. The article states that teachers have a model for argumentation. These include four elements in which students need to follow up in their reading and writing. They need to 1.) claim, 2.) clarify, 3.) find evidence, and 4.) warrant the connections from the evidence they found back to their original claim. This ultimately leads students to never begin any formal writing assignment until they map out their arguments and where they are heading with their writing assignment.
Classroom Recommendation: Teaching students the way in which they must write not only consist of what they should write, but how as well. In the history content-area, students must take argumentation seriously. That is what history is about. Claiming something and supporting it with evidence. Students must be aware of not only what evidence they use, but where they get it as well. Teachers must guide students in their writing. Supporting their claims and asking them questions one whether they have enough evidence to support that claim. Getting students to inquiry opens up their mind to new possibilities and more questions. Students who take things at face value and teachers who let them, end up closing the minds of their students. They ultimately learn nothing in the end, but what other people have thought. They need to question in order to learn.