1st Meeting: March 25th
Dear English/Social Studies Teachers: I am looking forward to being your guide as we explore issues and strategies for teaching the humanities to our students. In our first phase of this class, I'd like everyone to read the chapter on "Reading" in our English methods book. As you're reading, think about the issues involved in helping students become stronger readers (of literature and in general).
You should come away from this chapter with a strong understanding of work by Louise Rosenblatt, Robert Probst, and Nancie Atwell--three of the seminal "voices" in language arts instruction.
As you're studying these three, you will undoubtedly be validated for the work you're currently doing. You may also find yourself questioning some of the current modes of instruction in your classroom. Our goal is to explore different approaches out there, and question those that we are using.
As you come across ideas and issues from these three specialists, feel free to add your personal reactions to the Comments Section at the bottom of this strand.
One of our guiding questions throughout the course is:
What are the essential elements of an effective language arts classroom?
We will be asking ourselves this question again and again, and our answers to this question will form the written work that will evolve.
posted by Brady Kelso @ 11:04 AM
2 Comments:
Sarah,
Summers always give us a time to rest, revive, and reflect. You have this precious time to think about what worked (and what didn't) this first year. You're going to be surprised at how much better your second year of teaching will be. As English teachers, we are constantly refining our work and becoming "more purposeful and in control." While we may never attain Nirvana in teaching, we can at least feel ourselves climbing upwards.
Hi Amber,
Thanks for your thoughts on memorization. I'm not sure if link cards are out there, but I would think there would be. I know that in the area of vocabulary, there are "Vis-Ed" cards (visual education) and I know that Sparknotes (Barnes and Noble's learning aides) have boxes of cards on a variety topics (vocabulary, geography, science, and the like).
You might consider having partners make up their own link cards on index cards. I use the index card approach to teach vocabulary. One side of the card has the word and a context sentence, while the back side has the definition. You might ask that students create some type of graphic/picture that also helps them to remember the information.
I've found that when students take a few minutes to make a vocabulary card, they've deep-processed the meaning. Then, they can revisit the cards from time to time to lock the meanings in.
What a great cooperative learning technique: index cards, colored markers, maybe some glue sticks and xeroxed pictures of each state (reduced) from an atlas. What a great lesson for your kids.
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