One of the most important factors in reading comprehension is knowledge of word meaning. Teaching vocabulary to students can be a tricky task because each learner experiences their vocabulary differently. Word knowledge is a very dynamic in nature- it changes and grows over time as students experience, manipulate, hear, read, and write in various circumstances. Building a vocabulary, therefore, is a multidimensional and complex task for both teacher and student.
Today's generation has some obstacles to consider when improving an academic vocabulary. Because technology and other medias have such an influence on society, students are sent off to secondary or college environments with ill-equipped vocabularies. The popular use of abbreviated or "coarse" language has become colloquial among many types of written communication, and so lead to a less formal conversational type. Its wide acceptance in daily life contributes to the decline in vocabulary test scores among students and effectively challenges instructors to develop different principles and strategies in teaching vocab skills.
In typical classroom settings, teachers may assign rote memory exercises to force vocabulary on students. For example, a teacher may assign a chapter of reading for homework and have the students define twenty unknown terms before reading as a vocabulary exercise. This task is decidedly dull and rote in its method; it is no surprise that students do not learn vocabulary well (or show any interest or eagerness in reading..)
To intervene and provide more direct instruction for learners, vocabulary growth among students must be carefully aided by teachers. For example, rather than providing students with rote definition exercises, focusing on root word derivatives or etymologies may better peak a student's understanding of vocabulary. Take the word print; this word may show connections to many other words such as printer, printed, imprint, etc; describing true word meaning while broadening a student's perspective of the vocabulary. This can improve a student's content-specific vocabulary tools, which are used to relate terms among specific disciplines. If a student can access their contextual knowledge while they engage in an academic vocabulary, they are more likely to succeed with a wider lexicon.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Learning through Reflection
The PAR lesson framework offers a variety of instructional and strategic learning methods that focus on these three steps: Preparation, assistance, and reflection. The reflection phase, however, is in essence the most crucial component of this framework.
Critical and reflective thinking are the focus of this learning phase. As students read to learn, they must also communicate and reflect in a meaningful way about their learning. Reflective thought is a term coined by educator John Dewey, that introduces the necessity of reflection time during learning as it persists towards objective truths. When a student reflects on something they have learned, the information is more likely to be not only remembered, but also used and translated into further inquiry. Case in point, this blog is my personal learning tool for reflective thinking! I see and learn about multiple texts and teaching methods, and then respond to this stimuli through a systematic thought process, which informally evaluates of my own understanding. By reflecting on this information, I am able to make connections between prior and/or future knowledge; for example, this concept of reflective thinking prompts me to consider the value in teaching multidisciplinary lessons so that students can retain material in many facets of their learning and reflect on it throughout multiple content areas.
To practice this reflective behavior, students must be prompted in multiples forms of discussion, debate, lab, application, writing, rehearsal, etc so that they may interact with the given schema. In utilizing these practices, we will engage students in becoming autonomous learners. To provide students with an autonomy for learning, I believe, will be my biggest feat as a teacher. For a student to organize information, read meaningfully, or take personal account for his or her study behavior, proves that student to be outstanding. In order to provide students with this autonomy, however, teachers must provide a classroom with many independent skills.
Communication is a skill that effectively enhances every facet of life. In a classroom, communication must be seen as an informative tool for teachers to manipulate. Listening, speaking, writing, and reading are all communicative arts through which a student makes sense of things. In a study conducted in 2003, American researchers travelled to Japan to witness the classroom dynamics as they compared to the United States'. Japanese schools, with standardized rankings significantly higher than those of this country's, provide a classroom where the children are actively exploring, analyzing and reflecting on discrete problems. This difference in learning leads me to believe that we must think of students as independent researchers in their own critically thinking rather than steeped vessels of memorized information.
Critical thinking is a huge skill that many students, and teachers, shy away from using. Some teachers believe that to think critically means to find fault and emphasize negative components of learning; ironically, this is a negative perspective of how to approach the critical thinking process. When students think critically about something, they have to consider multiple view points and sources of information to conceptualize and then synthesize important information into a concluded thought. This skill, that truly optimizes any learner's life, can be taught to elementary students through critical literacy; which teaches students to read between the lines, detect any bias, or juxtapose two contrasting perspectives.
Reflecting in a learning process is a natural response that many people take advantage of everyday. In elementary settings, students must be taught how to harness and manipulate these skills so that they grow into self-controlled thinkers and autonomous learners. Providing a student with individual accountability for their learning is the greatest gift we can give as educators and life-long role models.
Critical and reflective thinking are the focus of this learning phase. As students read to learn, they must also communicate and reflect in a meaningful way about their learning. Reflective thought is a term coined by educator John Dewey, that introduces the necessity of reflection time during learning as it persists towards objective truths. When a student reflects on something they have learned, the information is more likely to be not only remembered, but also used and translated into further inquiry. Case in point, this blog is my personal learning tool for reflective thinking! I see and learn about multiple texts and teaching methods, and then respond to this stimuli through a systematic thought process, which informally evaluates of my own understanding. By reflecting on this information, I am able to make connections between prior and/or future knowledge; for example, this concept of reflective thinking prompts me to consider the value in teaching multidisciplinary lessons so that students can retain material in many facets of their learning and reflect on it throughout multiple content areas.
To practice this reflective behavior, students must be prompted in multiples forms of discussion, debate, lab, application, writing, rehearsal, etc so that they may interact with the given schema. In utilizing these practices, we will engage students in becoming autonomous learners. To provide students with an autonomy for learning, I believe, will be my biggest feat as a teacher. For a student to organize information, read meaningfully, or take personal account for his or her study behavior, proves that student to be outstanding. In order to provide students with this autonomy, however, teachers must provide a classroom with many independent skills.
Communication is a skill that effectively enhances every facet of life. In a classroom, communication must be seen as an informative tool for teachers to manipulate. Listening, speaking, writing, and reading are all communicative arts through which a student makes sense of things. In a study conducted in 2003, American researchers travelled to Japan to witness the classroom dynamics as they compared to the United States'. Japanese schools, with standardized rankings significantly higher than those of this country's, provide a classroom where the children are actively exploring, analyzing and reflecting on discrete problems. This difference in learning leads me to believe that we must think of students as independent researchers in their own critically thinking rather than steeped vessels of memorized information.
Critical thinking is a huge skill that many students, and teachers, shy away from using. Some teachers believe that to think critically means to find fault and emphasize negative components of learning; ironically, this is a negative perspective of how to approach the critical thinking process. When students think critically about something, they have to consider multiple view points and sources of information to conceptualize and then synthesize important information into a concluded thought. This skill, that truly optimizes any learner's life, can be taught to elementary students through critical literacy; which teaches students to read between the lines, detect any bias, or juxtapose two contrasting perspectives.
Reflecting in a learning process is a natural response that many people take advantage of everyday. In elementary settings, students must be taught how to harness and manipulate these skills so that they grow into self-controlled thinkers and autonomous learners. Providing a student with individual accountability for their learning is the greatest gift we can give as educators and life-long role models.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Assistance in Learning
When students read or learn something that is new, how can we be certain that they are really retaining this new information? Providing them with strategies to construct some meaning from these concepts can help them to better retain information and develop understandings during a lesson.
One of the most important steps in the PAR framework (preparation, assistance, and reflection) is the assistance phase in which students deepen their understandings of learning activities. Teachers cannot simply force understanding or fluency onto readers, so instead we must provide the students with independent tools to self-correct, predict, and confirm hypotheses while they learn. Comprehension during reading is affected by a variety of components; the student's specific knowledge or worldly knowledge of a topic may influence his or her interpretation of the text. Therefore, teachers must encourage a variety of possible interpretations to engage students in a process known as constructivism. Based on the constructivist learning theory, constructivism emphasizes the importance of learning through actively constructing concepts based on prior knowledge, rather than passively receiving information. To me, this theory is reminiscent of a problem-based learning strategy that encourages students to inquire, consider, assimilate, reshape, or transform information into a thought that makes sense for themselves.
Another self-check strategy for learning assistance can be self-awareness while reading, or metacognitive awareness. The Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory, or MARSI, is a test that teachers utilize to gauge a student's awareness of concepts while reading. The word metacognition, as defined by Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia, means the awareness of or analysis of one's own learning or thinking process. I have often witnessed elementary teachers use this same term around students to offer up questions or discussion time for any student who is foggy on some material. Including a student in this process is a wonderful way to get the reader thinking about what they just read, and if it truly makes sense to them.
Additionally, some final in-class strategies that aide both teacher and student learning may include: reciprocal teaching, collaborative reasoning, concept mapping, and discourse analysis. All of these strategies, referenced in Richardson, Morgan and Fleener's Reading to Learn in the Content Area, explicitly encourage a kind of duel teacher/learner strategy that assists learners in conceptual understanding and allows teachers to formatively assess their student's comprehension of material. All of the listed strategies can provide a wonderful classroom dynamic while students learn together. To provide this ultimate learning climate, I think, students and teachers must both be simultaneously engaged and inquisitive in the learning opportunities at hand.
One of the most important steps in the PAR framework (preparation, assistance, and reflection) is the assistance phase in which students deepen their understandings of learning activities. Teachers cannot simply force understanding or fluency onto readers, so instead we must provide the students with independent tools to self-correct, predict, and confirm hypotheses while they learn. Comprehension during reading is affected by a variety of components; the student's specific knowledge or worldly knowledge of a topic may influence his or her interpretation of the text. Therefore, teachers must encourage a variety of possible interpretations to engage students in a process known as constructivism. Based on the constructivist learning theory, constructivism emphasizes the importance of learning through actively constructing concepts based on prior knowledge, rather than passively receiving information. To me, this theory is reminiscent of a problem-based learning strategy that encourages students to inquire, consider, assimilate, reshape, or transform information into a thought that makes sense for themselves.
Another self-check strategy for learning assistance can be self-awareness while reading, or metacognitive awareness. The Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory, or MARSI, is a test that teachers utilize to gauge a student's awareness of concepts while reading. The word metacognition, as defined by Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia, means the awareness of or analysis of one's own learning or thinking process. I have often witnessed elementary teachers use this same term around students to offer up questions or discussion time for any student who is foggy on some material. Including a student in this process is a wonderful way to get the reader thinking about what they just read, and if it truly makes sense to them.
Additionally, some final in-class strategies that aide both teacher and student learning may include: reciprocal teaching, collaborative reasoning, concept mapping, and discourse analysis. All of these strategies, referenced in Richardson, Morgan and Fleener's Reading to Learn in the Content Area, explicitly encourage a kind of duel teacher/learner strategy that assists learners in conceptual understanding and allows teachers to formatively assess their student's comprehension of material. All of the listed strategies can provide a wonderful classroom dynamic while students learn together. To provide this ultimate learning climate, I think, students and teachers must both be simultaneously engaged and inquisitive in the learning opportunities at hand.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Affective Learning and Preparing to Learn
Confession: One of my biggest fears in becoming a teacher is that I will not be able to successfully motivate my students to learn or become curious about the world around them.
My love of teaching comes directly from my love of learning. I am a very curious person, I need to know; why does that work that way, why does this exist, how is that useful, etc. I thirst for the answers to my questions. I believe that one of the best ways to monitor my own teaching techniques will be to witness the curiosity growing in my classroom.. hopefully. When it comes to motivating a student to learn, there is a slew of methods that can be manipulated.
Richardson, Morgan, and Fleener's text on Reading to Learn in the Content Areas contains a variety of references that can affectively stimulate a child's learning experience. If teachers can engage a student in an emotional way that affects their attitude or self-esteem, then the affective domain has successfully influenced the student's comprehension and ability to learn. Utilizing this domain, however, is apparently not as tricky as it may seem. M. Cecil Smith (1990) touches on the manifestation of student attitudes in the classroom and how it translates to their interest in learning. Though attitudes toward reading tend to be stable from the time from childhood through adulthood, she maintains that teachers can actually win over a student by inspiring them to develop attitudes towards learning that cause them to respect, honor, and care more about the process. This inspiration can come from many different outlets.
Technology's enhancement in a modern classroom is undeniable. In this, the Digital Age, students are accustomed to using technology more regularly in their lives, and therefore may see the concept of literacy differently. This tool to is inviting and helps to motivate learning class-wide. Additionally, the teacher's attitude towards motivational technology and class participation can help to engage all students in literature that affects them personally and nurture's the desire for knowledge.
Once a student's curiosity is peaked in the classroom, the process that prepares them to learn and retain concepts is more easily objectified. In preparing to read for comprehension, students can strategize their individual process through helpful tools; such as graphic organizers, anticipation guides, etc. Personally in reading this chapter in the text mentioned above, I found that I readily identify with one of the reading comprehension misconceptions. Cognitive dissonance is an inconsistency in one's thoughts while they reading, or displaying some emotion or feeling- either about the book, or within a personal scenario- that alters a student's comprehension of the text. I think that many students struggle with this; their mind may be elsewhere or they disagree with someone mentioned in the text. These are merely bumps in the road to prepared learning that can be aided by activities such as: KWLs, Story Impressions, concept checks, and many others.
Comprehension and motivation in the classroom can be affectively in so many ways, both positively and negatively; but preparing to learn in a strategic way that personally suits the individual can help students maintain progress while students grow in their education.
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