Teaching Strategies
Most of the strategies used in this unit involve an embedded writing process. The Inquiry Chart is similar to a KWL chart, but it is taught throughout the unit. Third is a method from the Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) model from Marcia Brechtel’s book, Bringing It All Together. This chart is used to get students to think like a scientist, and to inquire about what is known and ask questions in order to learn more about the topic. Students begin think while the teacher models the process on the chart. The reason I use this chart is for active background knowledge and to have students think, predict, and hypothesize as the teacher writes the students’ comments and questions onto the chart. The chart is revisited throughout the unit as the teacher revises the chart and students will cite their sources on the chart to validate their new information.
I also use the Morph Hoghan, adapted from the Morph House from the English Language Learner workshop of the state of Arizona. I have modified the graphic organizer to make it relevant for my students. This strategy uses all structures of vocabulary study and grammar and builds a complete morphological word. The graphic format includes the base word, other word forms, syllabification, sketch and definition of the word, synonyms and antonyms, the suffixes and prefixes. The five sentences format (declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory, and negative) is written collaboratively with student input and teacher modeling. The base word is used to create related words or a word family using base word plus the suffix and/or prefix when writing the various sentences. The vocabulary process of the Morph Hoghan/House should be taught twice a week for English Language Learners. Prior to teaching the in-depth vocabulary, select key robust vocabulary words.
The strategy Process Grid is a strategy from the GLAD model. The grid supports writing expository text and teaches reading for information through expert groups, vocabulary, and concepts. The four to five expert groups promote comprehension and discussion of key concepts and aid in forming the categories for the process grid. While in the expert groups students will use the Close Reading strategy when reading the information, they will look for and highlight key vocabulary words, headings and subheadings, picture captions, boldface and italic words, and to look for the key information, because they will then teach the information to their team. The information is categorized into boxes like a grid on a folded paper. Students will read and explain the information and then will complete the boxes from the information read. The topic in the process grid becomes a paragraph of compare and contrast, a paragraph with similarities, or a paragraph of information. The Four Picture Story Frames are used when retelling a story or a movie by frames in sequence, character development, setting variations, or comparing and contrasting, which is then connected to the expert group and the process grid.
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