Strategies
I chose these strategies because I know they work with my student population. Most of these activities allow students time to digest information and synthesize it into their own language and ways of understanding. For the past three years our school has used Pebble Creek Labs curriculum in 9th and 10th grade English and Geography. This curriculum, independently owned and created by a veteran teacher, uses a core set of research-based literacy strategies as a framework for each unit. As a result of teaching this curriculum over the past three years, my own metacognative skills have developed and I've been able to adapt the curriculum to new units and texts. More importantly, my students are well versed in these core strategies by the time I receive them as juniors. They know how to use them, they know what it helps them do, and they comprehend their reading much better than they might have without the use of strategies. However, not all of the strategies listed below come from Pebble Creek Labs. Some are ones that I feel will be particularly useful for this project, such as fishbowls and literature circles.
The question I always struggle with, particularly in higher grade levels, is when to take off the "training wheels." At some point, my students should be able to pick up a book, with academic vocabulary, and be able to read, analyze, and check for comprehension without explicit assistance from a strategy given by a teacher. I want my students to be able to internalize these strategies, or at least what these strategies help them do, without always relying on them being there. With that said, all but a few of my students read and write at grade level; they still need the support of explicitly taught literacy strategies for comprehension, metacognition, and analysis. My hope is that because they are already so comfortable with the strategies, we can dialogue about ways to internalize them as we go along.
Think-Pair-Share
It is well researched that our brains need "think time" to process new information. In my class, I usually conduct a think-pair-share along with direct instruction or a brief lecture. Students are given a few minutes (1-3) to think about a topic and possibly jot down what they remember in their own words and questions that come up for them. Students then pair up and share their thoughts and questions. Sometimes I will ask a few pairs to report back to the whole class. This strategy can be used to break up time between longer lectures as well.
Socratic Seminar
There are many different variations of Socratic seminars. In my class, we create an inner circle and an outer circle out of the desks. Students are usually given a question or topic to discuss in the inner circle. The goal is to have an academic conversation among students without the teacher leading it. The students do not have to come up with an answer to the question, but rather, broaden their understanding of the topic at hand and perhaps come up with more questions. Meanwhile, the outer circle listens to the inner circle. They cannot participate in the discussion during the Socratic seminar. Sometimes, especially if the conversation stagnates in the middle, I will allow students from the outer circle to write a question and give it to someone in the inner circle. I assign roles to the outer circle such as "silent contributor, note taker, reference checker, process checker, and observer." At the end, the outer circle will share their observations. For this project, I will probably use Socratic seminars towards the beginning, as students are hypothesizing about what they may discover during their interviews. We can also use this method to discuss short biographies and oral histories.
Fishbowl
A fishbowl usually involves two or more people in the center of the classroom modeling a lesson or having a discussion while the rest of the class watches in a circle around them. For this unit, I plan on using this strategy to model the interview process. I will bring in at least two different people to interview while students take notes on what went well, what could be improved upon. We can use that modeling as a springboard for discussion around interviewing skills.
Questioning
Students will need to learn how to ask open-ended interview questions. First, I want students to write down questions they will ask their subject as a pre-assessment. Next, we will read a brief piece about writing open-ended questions. I will then give students back their questions which they can revise to be open-ended. Along with this basic lesson, we will also need to generate questions in class, some that are more general and others that are specific to a certain high school theme.
Think Aloud
We are not naturally metacognative readers. The strategies that good readers use are generally hidden in our minds. A think aloud attempts to model the strategies that good readers use. For example, I may read a short text on an overhead and comment in the margins. My comments can focus on a variety of strategies such as making connections, asking questions, predicting, and summarizing. Make sure that your notes and comments are concise and you don't deviate from the text. 12
Read Aloud
A read aloud is different from a think aloud because it is followed by discussion and analysis among the students. First, the teacher reads aloud, followed by a think-pair-share or other information processing strategy. Students may also jot down reactions, take notes, or respond to a prompt at this point. After, the teacher assigns any number of activities that relate to the lesson goals such as a mimic write, summary paragraph, make predictions, make inferences and more. 13
For this project in particular, we will read various short pieces about the same place, event, or person to understand point of view and the author's role. We may also use a read aloud to break down the elements of discourse discussed under objectives.
Inductive Model
This model uses a "data set" as its core text. A data set is a collection of short pieces of text (usually about a paragraph long) that are numbered and have a unifying topic like oral history. Student read the data set, which can occur in a variety of ways such as independent reading, whole class or small group and highlight and annotate the text. Next, students must identify themes or categories and classify information. This stage often includes literally cutting up the data set and moving the passages around. Students then identify critical relationships between groups and build hypothesis which can later be used for research. 14
Visual Thinking Strategies
These are research-based strategies designed to help students improve their critical thinking and language skills through the analysis of images. The premise of VTS is simple: the teacher provides the students with an image which they look at silently for a minute or so; then the teacher can only ask three questions 1) What's going on in this picture? 2) What more can you find? 3) What do you see that makes you say that? It is important that the teacher then paraphrases what each student said, making connections between observations and statements. 15 Although VTS was designed to use with images, I plan on using it when teaching writing as well, particularly when we identify the organization, structure, and mechanics of a text.
See, Think, Wonder
This strategy comes from the Visible Thinking project at Harvard University. Students are asked three different question 1) What do you see? 2) What do you think about that? 3) What does it make you wonder? It is very similar to VTS and was primarily developed for use with images. What makes this strategy different is that students can write their responses down before discussing them. It also asks students more explicitly to make connections to their prior knowledge and things outside of the image.
Literature Circles
Literature circles are small groups that read a text together and discuss it. There are many variations and ways of organizing them. In my class, students are able to choose the text they want to read and I create groups around those choices. Students then read the text and relate it to our essential question(s) for the week. During the discussion, I provide students with a discussion protocol that they may or may not follow exactly. Harvey Daniels is an excellent author to check out for more information about literature circles.
KWL Chart
A KWL chart is designed to follow students throughout their learning of a particular topic. The chart is divided into three categories: "What I Know," "What I Want to Know," "What I Learned." In my classroom we have a large KWL chart on poster paper which is kept up for the duration of the unit, each student also has their own individual KWL chart which they are asked to add to at different times in the unit. I ask students to write with a different color pen or pencil each day that they add to their chart so that they can easily monitor their questions and learning over time; students may also just date each entry but using color seems to be more exciting for them. I also stress that good learners always ask questions when they learn something new; learning never ends and we must ask questions to learn new information. This is probably one of the most important parts of the KWL chart because students often think that asking questions means you are "stupid."
ABC/PQC Response
In education we love acronyms, and what better than ABC? This is a writing strategy for short answer responses to specific texts. Students are given a question and they must Answer it, Back it up with evidence from the text, and Comment (by making connections between the evidence and answer or other relevant information). PQC works best with prompts rather than questions. The teacher gives students a prompt and the student must make a Point, provide a Quote to back up their point, and Comment on their point and quote. My students have a hard time asserting a point of view and backing it up with evidence, this strategy helps them develop an authoritative writing voice in small chunks. I usually use this writing strategy as a homework assignment and formative assessment. The drawback is that it teaches students formulaic writing, but it is small enough that students can be more creative when writing longer pieces.
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