Name of Strategy: Fast Food For Thought (Billmeyer & Barton pg156)
Purpose for the Strategy: This strategy is to be used during the reading just after a difficult concept, term, or process has been explained. By writing about a topic, and specifically about an aspect of the topic they do not comprehend, students are helped to think about what they have and will read, and understand what they have read. (Vacca & Vacca pg251). There is a process a writer must go through to organize thoughts about a topic. Putting students in this organizational situation will help them grasp what they need to find out to understand the bigger picture while allowing them to review the material for greater clarification. Like writing about a topic, peer instruction allows the students to review the material and help each other with difficult topics. In this exercise students will exchange papers and attempt to explain what there peer did not understand. This interaction, written or oral, will further help student organize thoughts and reflect on the topic.
Sequence of Instruction: (Billmeyer & Barton pg156)
After a concept has been explained by the teacher, and all relative readings been completed, students will write questions about the topic, with all relevant information, that they need clarified. Students will then exchange papers and attempt to answer the questions. I feel this would be most effectively done written, followed by a few minutes to explain their answers to their partner and suggest methods our resources that could be used to find the answers.
The grade level for which the instruction is planned: This strategy is designed for a 9th grade Life Science or Biology class.
The printed material for this instruction: The reading used in this exercise: Ramsey, W. Lucretia, G. (1986). Life Science. U.S.A. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Publishers pages 198, 199, 200, and 201.
The content area and why and when it is appropriate for this content area:
For many students, science is a treat, but even more find many of the concepts too abstract to understand completely and are often lost in the details. Students come into sciences classes with varying degrees of prior knowledge. Some students may have had chemistry earlier than others, while others may have had a teacher that taught about plants at great depth. For a concept like photosynthesis and the food-making by plants, these differences place students at different levels of comprehension. This Try-out strategy allows students to use writing to help them through the concept. Without question, not all students will understand everything about food production by plants. When the informational portion of the lesson is complete, students can organize their thoughts and what they need to know to complete the lesson. Most importantly the students get to share their problems and work out their questions with peers. This strategy allows the students to "use" their knowledge in an instructional format. This will help them find out if they truly have comprehended the topic as well as clarify it.
Self -reflection:
This tryout has effectively helped me explore strategies for teaching reading and writing throughout content areas. I have used the texts to guide me as I adapt the strategies to those I would use in a science classroom. This tryout in particular has helped me explore organizational schema theories as well as metcognitive principles that would apply to a young reader attempting to tackle the difficult concepts found in a science classroom.
Course Certification Standards:
#4 Applying a variety of instructional methodologies to teach, to assess student learning and to reflect on teaching and learning unique to the learning needs of young adolescents, adolescents and adults. It has become more evident than ever that all learners do not learn the same. This tryout will be one of many that I use to vary my teaching style and allow students to use their varied methods of learning, helping me fulfill this content standard set for this class.
#6 Teaching and reinforcing language arts (reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and visually representing) skills and concepts throughout the curriculum. This tryout fulfills in part this standard, reinforcing thoughtful reading and writing strategies, as well as listening and speaking skills in the classroom.
#8 Teaching positive social skills and interaction among adolescents and adults that lead students to be active, self-motivating, responsible learners.
This exercise, as group work, touches upon this standard encouraging positive social skill while working in a small group environment.
Connecticut Common Core of Teaching:
Teachers plan instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the curriculum and the community.
Teachers select and/or create learning tasks that make subject matter meaningful. These two standards from the planning section of the CCC of L are applied using this tryout. This tryout can prove effective on assessing how the students have comprehended the topic before moving on. This tryout also may assist the material becoming more meaningful to the students as they learn more about it, and how it is relevant to the world around them. Hopefully two students working together will help each other see the relevance of photosynthesis and all organisms in the world.
Teachers recognize the need to vary their instructional methods by: a. recognizing individual differences in approaches to learning and identifying how learners perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment; and b. varying their role in the instructional process in relation to the content and purposes of instruction. This tryout will assist the teacher to determine how different learners learn, by what the individual still needs to know. This also gives the teacher an opportunity to be more of a coach and facilitator while the peers help each other with the content.
Connecticut Common Core of Learning
Improve comprehension by using a variety of strategies, including self-correcting, questioning, predicting, reviewing and reading ahead.
This strategy relies heavily on review and reflection of the material at hand to gain a better working knowledge by asking and answering the question of the student and his peers.
Recognize and participate in scientific endeavors which are evidence based and use inquiry skills that lead to a greater understanding of the world.
I feel this important core requirement is met with the use of the strategy. The students will not only have to understand a scientific concept on paper but understand the importance of plants and heir production of food, and the relevance this holds on our planet.
References:
Billmeyer, R. & Barton, M.L. (1998). Teaching reading in the content area: If not me then who? Aurora, Colorado, McREL.
Vacca, R.T. & Vacca J.L. (2002). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum. Boston, Allyn and Bacon.