After reading Zwiers chapters, draft a blog post where you explore One Quote, One Connection, and One Question. Use this post to play with ideas, make connections, and push your own/your classmates' thinking. The best posts will be those that go beyond summary, incorporate quotations from the texts, and move into critical reflection. Please read and comment on at least one person's blog post as well.
**You can pick and choose the quote/connection/question between the two chapters. You do not need to do one post per chapter.**
**Just sign your name at the bottom of the post so we know who you are.**
One quote popped into mind from the chapter by Zwiers, “Cultivating Academic Language Acquisition” in relation to modeling with “think-alouds”. “The key is to give students a window into expert thinking (more expert than theirs) and a language used to describe it. We model what it means to be, think, talk, read, write, and act like a content expert. Student become our apprentices… (pg. 53 Zwiers). As a math teacher I am an advocate for “think-alouds” when teaching new problems to students. My goal when explicitly stating how to solve a problem aloud is to provide the students with an internal dialogue that hopefully they can use intrinsically after much practice, and with future problems. In the teacher example from that chapter, I connected with how the teacher highlighted new vocabulary by following with the definition when thinking aloud. “Think-alouds” provide students with additional scenarios and practice with new vocabulary. They deepen their ability to not only solve, but justify their answers. They are something teachers can easily implement by simply becoming more thoughtful with their use of their own dialogue. I feel like it is a quick and easy technique when used consistently can help you maximize your effectiveness.
ReplyDeleteOne connection I had with Zwiers from chapter 7, “Language for Reading Complex Text” was in relation to an effective teaching activity known as, “Lyric Summaries”. “In this engaging and creative activity, pairs or groups read a text and then create a summary that goes to a common tune” (pg. 192, Zwiers). Zwiers then goes on to share a lyric to remember the steps to solving a quadratic function with the quadratic formula. I connected with this strategy because I have used a similar activity in class. I found a video of students from another school online take it a step further by making a music video that went along with their lyrics summary for solving linear equations. The song was called, “Graph”, and followed a common hip hop tune by Usher. I have always wanted to have the students write their own lyrics summaries and take it a step further by letting them connect it with music that is relevant to their lives, or letting them act it out in class as a performance. I think both of those lesson extensions would allow students to connect their personal interests to the content literacy and make it more engaging.
One question I had after reading was what sentence starters could I create in my classroom to push my students development with their math literacy?
-Abigail Brunelle
Great post! I absolutely agree with your perspective on modeling. I liked your quote stating that modeling gives “ students a window into expert thinking…and a language used to describe it.” As the teacher, we are the experts in the content that we are teaching. Since we are so familiar with the content, it is easy to forget that the information may be completely foreign to our students. It would be a mistake to assume that students have been exposed to certain language or knowledge. Modeling is important in literacy because we can teach students the proper pronunciation and meaning of content specific words that they may not be familiar with.
DeleteI also like the idea of using lyric summaries. I too have used this with students in the past and will definitely use this strategy at some point this year. The School of Rock songs always come to mind when I am teaching content related to civics and government.
-Terri Dubis
Modeling does give students a window to be an expert. When giving my students a task that they have never done before I model what is being asked of them to do. When we did a poetry unit my students had no clue how to do a bio-poem so I did one. I explained to my students that they had to do a bio-poem and clarified anything they were not sure of. I work with Emergent Bilingual so I always use modeling .
DeleteMy quote comes from Zwiers, chapter 7, “Language for Reading Complex Texts.” The quote reads, “the abstractness of academic texts often requires readers to connect to existing knowledge and come up with their own examples.” I think it is important to pause and ask students to come up with examples of their own. This is a good way to check for understanding. If they come up with relevant examples, it is a good indication that they have understood the complex text that they have just read. If they cannot come up with examples, it may indicate that further scaffolding is needed. Students can also learn from each other. When students hear the examples provided by their classmates, it may further clarify the content they are trying to comprehend. Once the teacher has been made aware of the examples that students use to connect the content to their knowledge, the teacher can reference those examples throughout the school year when necessary and appropriate.
ReplyDeleteI was able to make a connection to the following quote. “Comprehension increases when they discuss texts (Gallagher & Pearson, 1989), and discussion offers students the chance to process the ideas, opinions, and questions that emerge from texts.” I could not agree with this more. When I explain classroom expectations at the start of the school year, I emphasize the importance of classroom discussion and encourage all students to participate. I explain that we will maintain a level of respect and ensure that everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts, ideas and opinions. Classroom discussion helps those who perhaps did not understand the text to gain a better understanding of the reading. Through discussion I can gage the general level of understanding. Classroom discussion gives students an opportunity to become engaged in making connections and sharing their ideas and opinions. It also gives them an opportunity to ask questions and advocate for help when they do not understand something. I think it is important to discuss the reading of complex text, and not just assume they all understood the reading. This is particularly important when teaching a very diverse group of students with differing abilities and backgrounds. Classroom discussion is vital when dealing with students with learning disabilities as well as ELL students. Zwiers also points out that, “teacher and peer responses…fill in their knowledge gaps and provide redundancy of language.”
One question that I have has to do with time management. Zwiers discusses a number of techniques, but how can you incorporate the techniques and still get through all of the content that you are required to cover? For example, Zwiers talks about role based discussion groups. This sounded so interesting to me that I read that section several times. However, as I was reading, I was thinking about how complicated the technique seemed to be and how much time it would take just to explain the rules to my students. If I spend a lot of time using some of these techniques, I worry that I will not get through all of the content.
-Terri Dubis
Your question is one I have asked myself as well, especially in relation to discussion. Discussion makes up a huge part of my class, but sometimes I feel like students have nothing concrete to show for it. While I know that they are getting something out of a discussion, I only have so much time before we have to move on. I think one thing that can help is to teach procedures early in the year, in the first couple of weeks before you get deep into content. Then students will already have a bit of background. You could also assign the rules as homework and then have them come in with any questions to save class time.
DeleteI think you make a great point about how important classroom discussion is. It is very useful for a lot of students to be able to verbalize thoughts and questions about reading. Unfortunately it is hard to make sure everyone participates, and even harder to grade a discussion. I think that one way to make sure everyone is paying attention to the discussion, even if they did not participate by speaking, is to have exit tickets. Have students write down something they learned from the discussion, or a question they might still have after the discussion. That way you can continue the discussion as an important part of your class, but make sure that it is helping all of your students.
DeleteDavid Keith
Classroom discussion is very important in my classes. Students have questions and sometimes it takes longer to answer the question. I will not cut my students off when we are discussing a topic, issue or general thoughts they may have. This gives them time to hear others views on the topic being discussed . Class discussion students her conversations amongst their peers and the teacher and this may give them a chance to take part in the discussion because it is whole class .
DeleteKyisha Threats
A quote that resonated with me came from Zweirs chapter 3. When it comes to modelling language, “the key is to give students a window into expert thinking (more expert than theirs) and the language used to describe it” (52). I think sometimes it can be easy to forget that the processes that come naturally to us don’t come naturally to our students (yet). As scholars and teachers, we may take for granted that when we read, we use active reading strategies as a second nature. Our students need to see how this works, not just be told what to do. If we do not demonstrate it for them, they might not be able to conceptualize the process and could struggle to make sense of even how to do it. I know that sometimes when I try and model a think-aloud I feel kind of goofy, but what’s really important is that I’m doing what my students need!
ReplyDeleteI made a connection to the same chapter, when Zweirs writes about linguistic enabling. I have found myself often going easy on students who can verbalize their ideas but not put them on paper, rather than challenging them. Sometimes I’ll read a weak piece of writing and think, “Okay, I see where they’re trying to go,” and give them credit even if they didn’t get there. I also recall a time in my first year of teaching, when an ELL student said she could write better in her native language, so I allowed her to complete her journal in Arabic. My thinking at the time was that I just wanted her to be able to get it done, but now I can see that it wasn’t helping her to get better at writing in English. In ELA in particular, language is extremely important. It’s not always enough to have the right answer; in many cases, proper language use IS the right answer.
My question is about vocabulary instruction: how can we reinforce text-based vocabulary words when we are jumping from text to text? This question arises because in my first couple years of teaching, we had a vocab book with units based around a short text that contained activities and exercises using the same words. We could work with the words for a couple of weeks at a time. The words were not connected to any other in-class texts, so it was essentially teaching vocab for vocab’s sake. Now, we are not allowed to teach vocab that isn’t connected to our class text. So I think ahead to my short story unit, when the purpose of the unit is literary analysis, not vocab acquisition. We will spend 3-4 days at most on a text before moving to a new one. How is that enough time to reinforce words? What happens to those words when we switch texts and have a whole new set of words? The purpose of the unit is literary analysis, not vocab acquisition.
--Ally Fortier
Ally,
DeleteThe question you raised about how to find the time for vocabulary (that fortunately is highlighted and reinforced in the text) presents a good challenge. I remember memorizing all of those arbitrary vocabulary words in middle school, and the words never really stuck with me because they were rarely used in context. I'm glad that you can at least focus on vocabulary that can be reinforced through text. My suggestion to utilize time for vocabulary would be to pick out all of the vocabulary words from the short stories ahead of time, and create a "Quizlet". I don't know if you have used the website before or not, but my students have always loved it. It provides games for them to essentially memorize the words, BUT when you finally get to the words in the text they will be able to make a deeper connection in context because it won't be the first time they have ever seen the word. I have used it as 5 min warm-ups ,and students practice at home too. You can create a classroom, and they can compete against each other which makes it extremely engaging. I have had students play it at home for fun just because of that function.
In math I always do a vocabulary lesson whenever I start a new unit. The words will seem arbitrary at first, but later during the unit they will be able to connect it to the content. I essentially am providing them with the prior knowledge they need to create a more meaningful connection when we eventually get there. Hope that helps!
-Abigail Brunelle
Ally, if it helps at all, reading specialists encouraging focusing on what are called "Tier 2" vocabulary words. Sometimes this means missing out on fun words like "taciturn," but what it translates to is meaningful language that traverses disciplines. There's a book by Marilee Sprenger that boils it down to 55 words all students should know (I didn't buy the book because I haven't read any of the 30 books I have bought in the last year and a half, but I did find a bootlegged copy of the word list online!). And you could also choose to focus on words with Greek/Latin roots, that should give you a good deal of bang for your buck since these should bear relevance, at the very least, to the sciences. I always support more direct etymological instruction but I also forget that I didn't discover etymology until college - I also forget not everyone is so fascinated by the English language - but my students always found these word studies riveting. Or at least pretended to!
DeleteIn reading chapter 7, "Language for Reading Complex Texts," the quote that grabbed my attention was, "Unlike when they are listening to situations, readers can reread confusing parts of the text..." The paragraph continues on to say, "This is a good problem, though, because students realize they are confused and pause, and the repeated process of challenging language forms and functions aids their language growth."
ReplyDeleteThese quotes made me question: Isn't this something that we should explicitly be teaching students?
The article goes on with reading strategies that we can be teaching out students, but the quote made it seem like rereading is somethings students will do automatically. I have found that more often then not a student will read something once, even if they don't understand it. I feel that rereading often needs to be prompted by a teacher, and is an important skill that needs to be taught and reenforced. The quote highlights the benefit of having a written text in front of you, because it provides this opportunity, but if students are not utilizing this opportunity than written text is not advantageous. Rereading is an important skill that needs to be shown, and practiced by the teacher. Often times when working on word problems in math class I will read the entire problem to the class first, and then show how rereading can help take out the important information for solving the problem. It is a format that I attempt to show every time we do a word problem, with the hopes that students will begin to mimic this behavior on their own.
David Keith
I relate to your being the example of rereading as you are working on the problem in front of the class. When I support students and I see them engage in this habit as they go back through and circle and underline the information they are looking for, they earn my praise. The same holds true for a reading activity. Let's find the answer and reread the paragraph rather than search and destroy to simply find the right answer. The knowledge gained by the search and destroy method is fleeting.
DeleteI'm so glad we are all singing the praises of re-reading!! It's possibly the #1 strategy for improving comprehension! And yes, I definitely think it needs to be explicitly taught - but I think you're onto something: beyond modeling, and underlining/circling/crossing out..there's not a whole lot we can explicitly teach. Shaping a behavior is challenging, but it can be done through guided practice and independent opportunities with adequate reflection. It's kind of like cognitive behavioral therapy!
DeleteIn my admittedly limited experience I haven't witnessed kids using the circle/underline/cross out approach independently - but I'm glad to hear it's happening and I hope it's effective!
And it's kind of an offshoot, but Abby's comment on "find the right answer" got me thinking. This may not apply to David's class, but one strategy that I wished I'd introduced earlier last year is Question-Answer Relationships. As Zwiers mentions, remedial readers do not often know where to find information to answer a question. When students understand what is being asked, they are primed before reading to know what information to be on the lookout for (and more importantly, where exactly to go for it). Many of my students - who were often reticent about their experiences outside of class - actually remarked on how much this strategy helped them in content-area classes and on standardized tests.
Libby! Not Abby! So sorry!!
DeleteQuote: “A statement that invites disagreement from students can ignite thinking and the need to use academic language,” (Zwiers, Ch. 7).
ReplyDeleteOne of the core focuses in my classroom is the use of academic debate and argumentation to get across the ideas of our personal beliefs and how they connect to past civilizations. The CCSS emphasizes “argumentation and use of evidence,” especially in subjects grounded in the Humanities, such as social studies. Our school once used the CCSS for ELA to grade students in social studies, but within the past year, my team has developed a new set of standards for our district that have a more aligned focus. That being said, the values of argumentation and evidence are still present. My district uses a claim-evidence-reasoning approach to not only written argumentation, but also that which is verbalized. This allows students to state claims and beliefs that are then backed up with facts from personal experience or their learnings, which serve as evidence to support them. These controversies are then talked-out in my classroom, drawing from multiple perspective theory when students disagree. I also repeat or rephrase student responses for clarity, focus on academic language, and emphasis. No one person’s experience is less valid than another, especially when it comes to personal beliefs, as long as they can back themselves up with evidence and clear reasoning. I also use this method in my teaching and grading; if students do not give my “desired” answer, but support themselves logically, it is still considered correct.
Connection: One connection that can be easily made from my 7th grade history classroom to what Zwiers describes in Chapter 3 is that academic language is definitely seen as a weak point across our district and grade. This is true specifically in the cases of students who have struggles with English language acquisition. The idea of modeling academic language during direct instruction is something that I tend to do without really thinking about it. When a student answers a question using improper phrasing or, more often, informal wording, I tend to repeat that students’ answers using appropriate academic language. The technique that Zwiers focuses on with modeling academic language using think alouds is not something I do as often, but that I will incorporate as a literacy skill in my classroom this semester. I like Zwiers’ timeline of learning academic language: input, output, negotiating meaning. Zwiers’ timeline helped me realize that students are learning and attempting to use the words before they necessarily understand the context in which they should be used. This past week, JV, a high-achieving scholar, was struggling in class while reading an independent reading book. She was very discouraged because she did not understand the usage of the word “will” as a verb in a sentence. The passage talked about how the Fates from mythology “will the string [of life] to be cut.” JV did not understand, and suggested there was a typo in the book and that it should have said the “Fates will cut the string.” This is a great example of JV attempting to negotiate the meaning of the usage of “will” as a verb. The comparison between driving and being a passenger that Zwiers used in terms of learning academic language was very interesting, and it helped me to build a connection using metaphors (LOL). I like this analogy because it helped me contextualize the learning process, especially for students who are multilingual learners, and made me realize the importance of having students practice “being the driver” in a safe academic setting.
-Mia (Part 1)
Question: Texts get much more difficult after the fourth grade, especially after the integration of historical texts into students’ daily lives in social studies. These texts can often lose their meaning if they are translated or simplified, or can become washed with the editor’s bias, so I believe it is extremely important for students to read the texts (once translated from their original language if needed) as they were intended or originally written - if only we could all read Greek and Latin, am I right? So my question is, if these texts need to be preserved to the best of our ability as educators, how should we support multilingual learners in their educational acquisition of not only English and academic language, but also historical or outdated language (which is often more complex)? Should we be simplifying texts? Scaffolding throughout the year? Pairing them with exemplar peers? Or just supporting them ourselves?
ReplyDelete-Mia (Part 2)
Class discussions are a large part of my daily interactions when teaching social studies. Whether it was 100 or 5,000 years ago, ancient and not so ancient people were human beings with strengths, joys, weaknesses and sorrows. Kids had parents, chores, siblings, and pets just as students have nowadays. By helping students see that thread of human connection existing over time, students gain a deeper understanding of the topics studied and how it relates to themselves. A large part of these associations occur during class discussion. Zwiers states that, “Students can (and need to) see through the eyes of others, such as those of different religions, socioeconomic classes, cultures, and time periods.”(p.64) Students bring diverse experiences to the classroom. Encouraging multiple perspectives in the classroom is integral to this human connection. Zwiers gives examples of the benefits of using metaphors, examples and stepping into the mind-set of others during class discussion. A turn and talk or a whole group discussion benefits from modeling these behaviors and in turn seeing a lightbulb moment of understanding. I can see how from peer to peer these methods could be so beneficial because they could be in an authentic generational context or language, one I do not necessarily understand completely but have modeled. Zwiers inspires me to include more of these activities supporting meaning making and communication. I feel validated from my classroom experience having these conversations. “...build[ing] habits of connecting thinking, content and language to students’ lives,” and need to get in teh habit of doing more.(Zwiers, p.59)
ReplyDeleteA question I have is about valid versus correct during these interactions. Gaining greater understanding about the topic and growing as a community of learners is the goal, right? Students who do not understand the nuances of that might not feel validated by a thank you for participating. Is looking to the word wall for a vocabulary word to use for rephrasing a validation but not affirmation of right or wrong? Is asking other students to rephrase or add to the statement, not still affirming a student’s correctness for participating in the discussion?
I was full of protest as I began Chapter 7..until it finally dawned on me that I, myself, was reading with a limited perspective: I was considering what is effective in literacy instruction for remedial readers, which does not always correlate to what works for effective readers. I had to adjust how I interpreted the text, which was actually rejuvenating! The activities were especially inspiring - which brings me to my question, which is less about the text and more about my own experience. So, I have utilized Anticipation Guides (without the written explanation component; this would be conducted through oral discussion) and I would say at least 75% of my remedial reading students tended to adjust their "before reading" responses to match their "after reading" responses once they had read and discussed a text. I informed students that these would not be graded and were strictly to help facilitate their discussions, and I found this habit puzzling and disheartening. It felt significant, but in an amorphous way - those students who would not change their responses were also more willing to readily engage with text and apply new strategies. I suppose it could summed up simply as fixed mindset vs. growth mindset, but something tells me it's more complicated. What exactly was the motivation behind this behavior, and could it be unique to remedial readers?
ReplyDeleteI made all kinds of connections to these chapters - text-to-text, text-to-world, text-to-self - you name it! Early in Chapter 7, Zwiers writes about the value of rereading; he states that "students realize that they are confused and pause, and the repeated processing of challenging language forms and functions aids their language growth" (Hafiz & Tudor, 1989). Some examples of language surrounding this strategy were "I didn't catch whether she escaped or was set free / I need to check back to see why the revolution began / I don't understand why they thought that / I'll read ahead a few lines to see if it becomes clearer." Again - my perspective is biased, but I don't think I have ever once seen a student willingly reread. My students were overwhelmingly acclimated to confusion from texts, and were of the "one and done" school when it came to reading - just get through it because it doesn't make sense anyway. Despite its proven value, they found rereading frustrating (and at times, possibly demeaning). I wholly endorse Zwiers' views on modeling and I find many of the actionable tips inspiring...but I also believe the value of higher-performing peer modeling could have a greater effect on remedial readers. I can see that without a comprehensive bridge between reading programs and content-area classes, efficacy of reading programs is significantly reduced. To employ a rather strained metaphor to illustrate my point, it's as if we are pumping them full of Calcium without offering them Vitamin D: they need the latter to reap benefits of the former.
The quote that best summarizes how I bridge both worlds - remedial reading and ELA - occurred when Zwiers emphasized the need for students to tackle tasks of increased complexity even when they have not yet mastered foundational content-area knowledge. Another metaphor of sorts, Zwiers refers to vocabulary knowledge existing in a relative vacuum: "You might give me an adze (a tool for woodworking), for example, but it doesn't do much good if I don't know how or when to use it" (208). I love messy learning - not when it comes to woodworking, that would be potentially gory - but there is so much value to rolling up your sleeves and diving in a little blind. Schema cannot exist without context, and curiosity cannot be cultivated without experience. Kids need experiences to develop ideas and ask questions - this goes for all concepts, including vocabulary, and I can't wait to someday put many of those recommended activities into practice.
Amanda
Mandy, thank you so much for your openness in sharing about the perspective with which you began reading. I also feel like I sometimes have a limited perspective when reading texts that are assigned, and it is such a tough head space to get out of, let alone reflect upon! One thing that I thought about as I read your response was how students read the texts we put in front of them during classes. If it is hard for us as adults to get out of our fixed mindset, I can't imagine how hard it must be for students. In terms of remedial readers, I think the mindset of changing answers to be more "correct" is a trained habit that students struggle to break, because so much of our education system is focused on getting the "right" answer, and less focused on growth and conversation.
DeleteFisher and Frey chapter 5 questioning
ReplyDelete“English language learners allow their peers who are more fluent with the language to answer teacher questions”. (Fisher and Frey page 3) In my classroom I did notice how students who were not fluent in the English language answer and question or just raise their hand. This was becoming an issue because I was hearing from the same students during class discussions. What I decided to do was ask a question and give ample time for students to think about a response. Waite time is about 2-3 minutes and I would go around the room and every student had to answer the question in English or their native language. Some of my students were still afraid to answer questions but as day went on, they got more comfortable. I explain to my students that they must try practice the English language in order to learn it more. This year I have the same students and I have some who would not speak because they were not fluent actually speaking more this year in class. I think once the students feel comfortable with their peers and teacher, they will try to participate in answering questions or just being apart of the class.
For our diverse students especially, we must do more than we normally do with our lessons and interactions in order to accelerate their academic development. (Fisher & Frey page 47) When creating lesson or any activities for my students I have to take many things into consideration. I have to look at the reading levels, language barriers, and modifications. I work with emergent bilingual and many speak some English and have no English skills at all. When it comes to reading, I have to find a reading that all can read and comprehend. Not all will read or comprehend the same text but I will make sure they understand what the text is about. I try to get a text that makes a connection with student. Working with emergent bilinguals they always express that they can not read or do the work. In some cases when it comes to doing an activity like poetry I allowed them to write it in Spanish and I will figure out what it says using a student or google translate. I want all of my students to be successful in any way that I can in my class.
Question- Why is it bad to over scaffold?
Kyisha Threats