Task 1: (Essential Question A) Jigsaw Reading: This week we will look at a few disciplines (sorry not all are represented here) which our school systems recognize and regularly assess adolescents’ abilities. Each of the chapters listed below explores learning within a particular discipline from the perspectives of both a literacy expert, who understands the reading, and writing challenges that adolescents encounter, and a discipline expert, who understand the nature of the discipline and how literacy processes operate within it. Please choose one of the chapters below to read and become an expert on.
English Language Arts
Jetton, T. L., & Shanahan, C (2012). Adolescent literacy in the academic disciplines. Chapt. 5 pp. 120-153
Science
Jetton, T. L., & Shanahan, C (2012). Adolescent literacy in the academic disciplines. Chapt. 6 pp. 154-171
Mathematics
Jetton, T. L., & Shanahan, C (2012). Adolescent literacy in the academic disciplines. Chapt. 7 pp. 172-198
History
Jetton, T. L., & Shanahan, C (2012). Adolescent literacy in the academic disciplines. Chapt. 8 pp. 199-226
Art
Jetton, T. L., & Shanahan, C (2012). Adolescent literacy in the academic disciplines. Chapt. 9 pp. 227-266
What is Jigsaw?
Jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy that enables each student to specialize in one aspect of a learning unit. Students meet with members to teach the material to their group members.
Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each piece--each student's part--is essential for the completion and full understanding of the final product. If each student's part is essential, then each student is essential. That is what makes the Jigsaw instructional strategy so effective.
Description of Lesson: In a typical jigsaw activity, students are given a topic on which to become an expert, either individually or as part of a group. The student or group of students then teaches the material to the rest of the class. For our online meeting week you will read JUST ONE of the chapters above teach the other members of your group about your chapter.
(Essential Question A)
Pre-Posting – Read JUST ONE of the chapters above.
Posting – For a full discussion of the readings, in your assigned small group, you are to become the expert of your chapter and teach the material to the rest of your group. You need to not only summarize the chapter, but to help everyone in your group to develop a deeper depth of knowledge in relation to your chapter. To do this you will need to explain and clarify meanings with personal examples or applied examples for further clarification. This posting should indicate deep thinking and reflection on your part, along with supporting evidence that shows your own learning from reading and experience to this point.
Response Postings -- Everyone should respond at least 1-2 times to each group member with a question, clarification, or addition to the thoughts on their postings. You might consider other information, questions you still have as a future teacher, etc.
In our book, the chapter on teaching literacy in an English classroom should be demonstrated in a variety of ways. It is important to teach students how to read, how to grasp material, and how to summarize what they’ve read before assigning them materials to read. This author points out that we cannot assume the students know how to read in a sense that they gain knowledge from the literature. Along with this, it is was pointed out that we need to teach students how to write using words that create a context that is meaningful. Teaching literacy in English, as in all content areas, involves speaking, visuals, using media, text books, articles, and real life situations. Students who are given a writing project, for example, need to be able to relate what they are writing about to prior knowledge. This should happen through a process as they are progressing through school and gain more knowledge about events and life in general.
ReplyDeleteOur author says that “literacy can be defined as the ways in which we understand how to participate in communicative acts” (Chapter 5, pp. 124). Literacy crosses over from one content area to another. If students are learning about a specific event in history, the English teacher may touch on that event and have them write and research about it. They are gaining skills in both content areas plus they are building their knowledge base. Students in my children’s English class created videos after learning about certain events in history. They were assigned to create a short skit about authors and famous poets and then they learned how to write summaries on what they learned. I think by teaching about an event, a composer, a poet, an author, or whatever subject it might be, students get the background information so that they have knowledge to build from.
As my son is now in high school, it is more common to have students intertwine their English and Social Studies classes. If he wanted to take Honors English he had to take Honors Social Studies as the teachers purposely mix their content to help teach different objectives. I think this is a great way to be able to really help our students learn both areas, especially if they pick a topic to carry over from one subject to another that is of interest to the students.
DeleteIt’s important to expose students to various forms of literacy so that they can grasp the concepts according to their own learning style. It takes more to engage students in this current day and I believe that will get more and more challenging as time evolves. Students have more going on in their lives, and sometimes being more creative with teaching is the key to success. Teaching literacy in the English classroom is not just assigning books and learning about literature. It is building life skills by teaching strategic approaches to becoming more literate by asking questions and learning (and teaching) how to predict.
ReplyDeleteUsing functional literacy ideology teaches the skills that are needed to be successful as a student, a part of society as a citizen, and even being a successful member of the workforce. In the English content area, we need to teach vocabulary, comprehension, and give students the opportunity to become more functionally literate by providing opportunities where they can practice their skills. Teaching cultural literacy is important as it teaches morals and values by using books that relate to people, events, and concepts that we classify as core knowledge. Progressive literacy is beneficial as it relates to having students write and read about themes or topics that interest them. All of these approaches to instruction will benefit students as we try to reach the variety of learning styles present in our classrooms.
English teachers need to recognize the change in literacy and the many ways to teach it. We all need to be proactive in learning new technics as our world changes. The use of technology is growing every day and students seem to thrive on using it. Teaching literacy is about engaging students in reading, writing, learning, seeing, and gaining knowledge so that they will be able to communicate and successfully exist in the world. We begin in the early years of life teaching children to talk, to imitate sounds, to read, to comprehend… We teach them about life in a variety of ways to build their knowledge base so that later they can relate back to an event or subject and be able to recall what they know. Teaching literacy in the English classroom involves many strategies to engage the students in learning and teaching them to be successful in expressing themselves through writing, speaking, communicating, and reading.
I'm glad you mentioned the importance of teaching them technology. And even more so maybe even how to use that technology appropriately so that there are not consequences later. At the school I have been placed at they use the words real-world-ready a lot. There is a lot that goes into this, not just technology. We need to make sure that our students know enough English in order to function in the world.
DeleteI will do the history section...might not have it up until tomorrow
ReplyDeleteI decided to focus on chapter 6 of the reading because I am doing a science unit in ESL for my lesson plan and there is a lot of overlap in what I'm seeing and what the book has to say about science and literacy. As the book explains, science is one of the oddballs as far as content goes and this is because it doesn't share much content language with other areas of study. That is not to say that there isn't a way to scaffold from other content areas, but there simply are some unique words in science that don't always come natural to students and this is what the book addresses.
ReplyDeleteScience textbooks are dense and complicated in their use of language and for many students this can become boring and dry, which can and often does lead to students checking out and not focusing in class. One of the problems addressed in the text is the difficulty to get students to take notes and engage in honest participation. Furthermore, even in the upper grades of high school, many students struggle to grasp such abstract concepts as gravity and molecular structures and this is because it's something that cannot be seen or touched; it just needs to be understood through scientific principles and concepts. Yes, you can see something fall or an atomic explosion on video, but that does really explain what you are witnessing. You need to understand the structures behind those concepts to truly understand what is happening in this situations and that can be hard to do for many students.
Not only is the science content complex and highly technical in its approach, but it relies on a lot of vocabulary as well and this can be challenging for ELLs. I am experiencing this a lot in my day job because I am working with an ELL who speaks very little English and who requires SpEd services, which makes comprehension nearly impossible. I try to find things for him to do, but given how low he is cognitively, I think there are a lot of limitations that he faces and that is very hard for me to admit, as someone who has been very involved in the disability/cognitive challenged communities. I grew up with siblings with these types of physical and cognitive challenges and my parents had may foster kids as well over the years that had these sorts of issues as well, so I hate to be cynical about what people are capable of and yet, we have to address these realities.
As the book makes clear, using many different forms of text is helpful to being effective in addressing differentiated learning needs and styles and that's something we must never forget. We are the ones who make content accessible for all students and it's not simply the task of SpEd teachers or ELL teachers, it's the responsibility of us all to work together and make learning something that everyone can success at and have the opportunity to do throughout their lives. I think the most important thing to take away from this exercise is that every content area can be for everyone. We just have to adapt it to fit everyone, instead of just assuming that some people can't do something. That is why I've started looking for ways to tailor science to fit my student who is both ELL and SpEd. I have done this by targeting content language that would be helpful and writing skills that apply to science, as well as other content areas. He engages in experiments and enjoys the hands on nature of this method, so just because he may not understand everything that is going on, doesn't mean that it isn't something that he is learning from and this can be very difficult for people to understand. I have been told by multiple teachers that having him participate in class activities is a waste because he should just be learning English (according to them) and this has been hard to hear because it shows a lack of understanding of how language is learned and that isn't just through grammar lessons and drills. Content needs to be real and apply to the student's lives in some way, or else it's just words.
That's so sad that the teachers tell you it's a waste of time trying to get this student to learn through experimenting. You're so right in engaging the student in any way possible, as I strongly agree that the student will gain knowledge of some kind just by actively participating. Students learn through language in so many different ways and I'm surprised the teachers don't see that. Maybe it's all the information we've taken in over the past year... but I think that it is actually common sense to see that anyone can learn by not only reading but by having the experience of 'doing'.
DeleteI am also really sad to read that students think he should just be learning English. Sometimes learning English can be in the form of an experiment especially if he has an interest in that. Just following the directions for the lab can be learning English. You are right that we do need to do whatever we can as content teachers to teach the content in a way that everyone can learn from it. Sometimes that means changing things for specific students which granted can be a lot more work, but at the end of the day our job is to help kids learn in many different ways.
DeleteI will do the math section. I will have it up tomorrow. Sorry I'm a bit behind...
ReplyDeleteChapter 8
ReplyDeleteLearning Texts History
According to the authors, there are inherent obstacles to learning history through text. In studying history texts can come in many forms, from textbooks, primary sources, lectures, works of art, song and poetry, each form may present problems for the student.
The authors speak to protocols for reading, and start the chapter with en example of potential difficulties. There is a vignette of two students that are given the task to investigate the Boston Massacre from for texts, a text book account, an account from the trial of the commanding British officer, and two eye witness accounts. To one of the students this was too much to digest, and he suggested that only the text book account should be relied upon. In short the intertextuality of the sources caused too much conflict for him to successfully resolve the issue. The other student was more open to using parts of each to come to some conclusion.
In general all history has some elements of intertextuality, and what the students bring to the subject from previous learning all have the potential to derail any attempt to help students understand and comprehend history.
Using history texts to inform, then using that information as a basis to analyze and synthesize the information in situations like debates and discussions are showing promise to aid in reading strategies and gain historical insight.
Interesting vignette that the text uses. We know there are all types of learning styles present in any one classroom. Teachers need to be aware of this on a daily basis so that they can plan activities around the readings that are assigned so that they reach everyone. There are a multitude of ways to reach students to help them actively engage in what is happening in the classroom. We as teachers, must try different things to get the students to recall prior knowledge and then give them tools to use to build on that knowledge. History, math, science, English... it doesn't matter what are of study. We are responsible to try everything possible. It is also our responsibility to get to know the students so that we can help them learn according to their learning style.
DeleteI like how Social Studies teachers are using different activities to teach history. It is not limited to just reading about the event that happened, but being able to get the kids to see it in a different light to help them get even more out of the lesson. Things such as learning about the culture and pretending to be someone that was watching was going on can help students get a deeper understanding of an event than just reading it in a book.
DeleteThere are three different types of Mathematics fluency. The first one is computational fluency which according to the National Council of Teacher of Mathematics refers to “having and using efficient and accurate methods for computing.” The second type of fluency is conceptual understanding which according to Skemp is the knowledge of why procedures work, when they can be applied, and what their relationship is to other important procedures and mathematical ideas. The third type of fluency is participating in mathematical processes which are the activities necessary to doing and learning mathematics. Textbooks for mathematics need to include all three of these types of learning so that students can learn mathematics. A lot of literacy in mathematics has focused around the use of word problems and the ability to write descriptions as to how they found their solutions. Using general print texts does not help students learn mathematics skills. A mathematical text can also be a pattern of symbols, a drawing, a word or phrase that is spoken, a graph, or a series of gestures. These can be any objects that can people can create and interpret to help them gain mathematical expertise.
ReplyDeleteThere are three steps that should be followed that will help literacy specialists and mathematics teachers.
1. Identify the texts that are to be read and written during the lesson
2. Identify the specific ways that texts are to be read and written that are required during the lesson
3. Develop an instructional plan that makes explicit the texts and literacies and allows students to develop these literacies through participation in mathematical processes.
In this process the literacy specialist will be given a questioner role and the mathematics teacher will identify texts, literacies, and instructional settings for exposing and helping students practice mathematical literacies. When these two professionals work together it is important that they both come to the table ready to learn from each other. Both sides will need to be willing to invest time as a great deal of work is needed from both teachers.
I believe math is a complicated subject to teach. There are so many concepts for students to grasp and they need to (like all subjects) build on their prior knowledge and recall that information on a daily basis. Math concepts are difficult for some students to grasp and reading the text can be very difficult as it is in science. As in a science class, I believe experimenting and hands on activity is important. I am a visual learner and have always learned faster when there was an activity to participate in (or project). Reading math concepts and then putting the formula to work was not my strong point. Teachers need to figure out ways to reach all students to understand the math lingo that will be presented as well as be able to teach the concepts. This is a tough subject but teaching literacy, again can be done through hands on activities, reading, visuals, and many other ways. It's all about those many learning styles...
ReplyDeleteI feel like it always comes back to mixing up the delivery style no matter what content area you are in. If the students are not grasping the content it can be helpful to come back to it in a different manner and then you can get way different results.
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