Teaching Strategies
Authentic Reading
Reading instruction often becomes mundane and repetitive to struggling readers or those reading on accelerated levels. This is because reading instruction is often approached in a systemic implementation of teaching a skill, practicing said skill, then offering short passages to test the mastery of said skill. And yet, almost no adults or professionals read in this format authentically, asking themselves: What is the main idea? What is the author’s purpose? Or what inference can I make? Rather, in college and career, reading is done to learn material, not to practice or acquire skills.
The text students will receive will not be stand-alone passages. Rather, they will use authentic reading material such those published books like Esperanza Rising or American Immigration: Our History, Our Stories, and news articles and primary source documentation of historical events. This is meant to help students build historical background knowledge, rather than reading a selective passage designed to practice a skill. Through authentic reading and teacher modeling, students will naturally develop the skills to comprehend material, make inferences based on their background knowledge, and critically think about the material they are presented with.
International Baccalaureate PYP Integration
The International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Year Program (PYP) units of study “Where We Are in Place and Time,” allows students to explore the themes of historical persons and discoveries, relationships between individuals and civilizations, and connections between local and global perspectives. This PYP unit of study fits perfectly into this unit’s focus on historical empathy, historical inequities, and character vs. personal dreams.
For students who have traditionally participated in limited historical instruction, understanding events of the past may be difficult to conceptualize, leading to historical misconceptions. The IB approach of inquiry-based instruction can assist in helping overcome these misconceptions. Throughout the unit, teachers should engage students in multiple mediums of information, such as pictures, political cartoons, timelines, graphs, and maps. Focus on concepts of causation, change, perspective, responsibility, and reflection when students utilize critical thinking. Through the intentional design of the IB PYP approach the emphasis is put on student communication, research, and critical thinking skills.
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