Dead Horses

At the risk of beating a very, very dead horse, let's talk some more about the IMP. Okay, so maybe we're beating a very, very dead IMP instead. I can see how the project was effective in allowing us to use the tools we had been introduced to for evaluating texts and applying that to a lesson plan sort of setting, but I'm not sure that showed me much about what I hadn't already learned in being introduced to the evaluations in a previous reading assignment. Though, I will recognize that that is probably because I was working with Looking for Alaska which essentially has its supplemental materials all picked out based on several materials that the author has supplied/created in response to his book being taught in schools.

Overall the project was useful, but tedious.

As for Wednesday's class, we essentially reviewed some of the vocabulary teaching techniques that we had taught the week before, recognized that we were having loads of trouble recalling information (because there is so much of it and so little time to process--especially when added to other coursework) in regards to the main points of vocabulary instruction (rich and robust instruction, repetition/multiple exposures, explicit instruction, placing words in context, connotative/denotative meaning instruction, etc.) Then, before our activity could really get under way, class time was up and it was time to go.

Which makes analyzing and connecting things this week exceedingly difficult since I don't think we reached the meat of what we were supposed to do on Wednesday.

In not reaching what we were supposed to do on Wednesday, I can only imagine that this is reflective of what is entirely possible to happen once we are teachers. Perhaps our students will be suffering from a great deal of frustration from their other courses or personal problems or extra-curriculars or perhaps some horrible combination of the three that they won't be productive in our classes or in learning what we have to say to them. So then, the question arises as to how we would deal with that and handle it in our own classrooms. Do we barrel on with the lesson even though our students clearly aren't receptive for whatever reason? Do we review previous material to try and get our students back on track?

Or do we reevaluate or alter our lesson to accommodate our students' needs? Do we sit down and ask them what's going on and try to figure out if there isn't a solution that's mutually beneficial for everyone? Yes, this will take up valuable class time and may place us in an uncomfortable position if we find out that our course is one of the sources of grievance, but perhaps doing so will allow us to better prepare for future lessons--perhaps incorporate more entertaining strategies or methods that introduce a level of fun or de-stressing back into the classroom. Perhaps we need to modify the assignments schedule in order to work with our students to have reasonable time requirements for extra-curriculars, work, and other courses.

Having stalls, rough days, and days where things don't get accomplished is inevitable. But I think what we decide to do with those stalled days is going to determine how effective we are as teachers. For me, I hope I can be the kind of teacher who can meet my students half way on days like Wednesday. I hope I can at least find out why our day or lesson is stalling and work with my students to find some sort of solution. As a student, those are the teachers I often respect most, so it's only fitting I should try to be that teacher.

I hope I didn't beat too many dead horses.

Anaphora, Board Races, and Vocab Strategies

For anyone who is still wondering about what the term anaphora means it is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of clauses. For anyone who wants to know what we did in class on Monday, we played a board race to see how much we remembered from reading assignment 3 and then were all tricked into believing kolpers was a real word. Finally, for anyone wondering what we did on Wednesday in class, we talked about vocab learning strategies--lots and lots of vocab learning strategies.

Anaphora is a particularly useful device when discussing vocabulary because it implements a key component of vocabulary learning. Anaphora uses repetition to make a point or to draw importance to a word or phrase in a sentence (or several sentences). Anaphora can be used as a way to repeat new vocabulary words in order to help the words stick in students' minds.

Beyond repetition, however, there are a few other key notions to allowing students to internalize new words. Students must also be able to make connections with their prior knowledge (schema) and the new word they are learning. This is where categorizing new words and measuring for students' familiarity comes in to play. A bus has four wheels, transports people, is bigger than a car, and is a vehicle. Besides making connections, and repetition, one of the third most important parts to internalizing vocabulary is placing the new words in context for students. Knowing the dictionary definition of Covert (concealed, secret, disguised) does not help a student learn the word outside of its definition, which means that the student cannot generate the word in his/her own words.

However, if we were to say: Allison, a covert officer for the CIA, is on a top secret mission in Prague, our students would have a much better chance at understanding how to use the word "covert" because they have proper context for it (assuming, of course, that the CIA and spies are connected within their schema).

So. How do you manage to take all of this very important vocabulary learning and pack it in to your content area lesson plans? By using vocabulary learning strategies, of course!

My top five picks for vocabulary learning methods are:

1. Freerice.com. This is a "method" that I would use during the downtime of my classroom because it is a covert attempt to teach students vocabulary. Students (and indeed anyone) who play the game believe that they are playing an easy game that simultaneously attempts to conquer world hunger. They see this as fun and charity work that doesn't require them to do anything rather than answer some questions. As a result, they may not know they're learning which makes it a perfect down time activity.

2. Word Journals. I particularly like the word journals for literary terms/devices because once students have completed a significant portion of their word journal (as set aside in class) it can become an English (class) dictionary for them--just in case they forget what anaphora is. Word journals are also a great opening activity for a class period that can be used on a regular basis.

3. Four-Fold Concept Development. I love the idea of taking a unit's vocab list (say for SAT prep, perhaps) and dividing it up among the students. The students believe they're doing 1/20th of the work they might normally have to do and then in the interactive portion of concept development (after the students have made their foldables and are sharing around) they are required to collaborate with and engage their fellow students in order to really learn the words.

4. ABC Book. While ABC books may be kind of corny, this usually allows students to get really creative with their work and allows for further connections to a text. Ideally I'd like to implement this in correspondence with a choice novel or a choice project so as to allow students greater freedom and more chances to connect with the difficult (or perhaps not so difficult) language in their texts.

5. Word Wall. This is another method that is particularly effective for vocabulary instruction/SAT prep in an English classroom. It requires students to collaborate together to create a word wall and perhaps students in the upper level classes could have some sort of incentive for using word wall words during class (contribution to a pizza party or some sort of free homework pass? perhaps bonus points on the next test or assignment?) That would encourage students to use the words on the word wall and would help them learn the words under the guise of earning a reward.

Now then, bonus points if you can find the two examples of Anaphora I placed in this post.

IMPs

This week, we spent a great deal of time with an IMP. I do not mean the small green monster that is commonly associated with the word imp but rather an Instructional Materials Project. Essentially, we spent the week reading up on how to evaluate texts for use in the classroom and are now moving in to practicing evaluating texts for use in the classroom. Doing so requires a textual analysis of polysyllabic words, as well as taking other factors into account such as usability, understandability, and a few other attributes, depending upon which questionnaire you're using to evaluate a text.

Wednesday's workshop was helpful in getting many questions about the IMP answered. We were all relieved to find out that we only had to do this text analysis for only 1 of the resources we were going to choose.

Obviously the tools required to complete the IMP are going to be essential for teaching in the future. Knowing how to assess the grade level of a book and how to judge a book for usage helps determine which books would be accurate at which grade levels. I do wonder if the complexity of Shakespeare means that perhaps we should not be introducing him at the 9th grade level or not. But overall, it seems like these methods for grading texts might be effective in persuading school boards, departments, and perhaps even parents of the credibility (to an extent) of young adult literature and why that should be taught in classrooms.

I also find it interesting that any student with Microsoft Word can look up their Flesh-Kincaid writing level and know how they are doing in that regard. That may be a tool students can use to grade and improve their own writing, if they are so inclined (or if they are struggling, perhaps).

When I am teaching (and if I teach English rather than math) I intend to add adolescent literature to the book list for my course. I think being able to quantify those texts using the various tests we've learned through this project will help persuade fellow educators that incorporating adolescent literature will be a positive experience for the students while still providing the essential need for literacy that the district and state standards require.

3-2-1! (a brief recap)

3 important ideas: 1. Methods for Evaluating text are important. 2. Polysyllabic words can be a way of determining a text's difficulty to read. 3. Evaluating texts can ensure that textbooks and literature are both readable, relevant, and capable of fitting the needs of the classroom.

2 interesting things: 1. You can get your flesh-kincaid score through Microsoft Word, 2. Evaluating texts is relatively easy

1 value: 1. Digital materials (they are severely underestimated).

Tip of the Tongue and Schema

This week I came down with a severe case of "tip of the tongue" syndrome during our reading discussions. While we were discussing the reading process and breaking down how to read, I found myself grasping for words and sentences to explain what I was doing. Yes, I knew that I took what I read and my brain made it make sense, but I have been doing that for so long that stopping to actively think about the process was difficult to do.

"Ordeal by Cheque" was a great reading adventure and a good break down of the reading process because it required extended use of one's problem solving skills than some typical texts do. I would like to note that the omission of the purpose line that is usually found on checks was a little frustrating because it would have been a huge help, but that is a digression for another day.

Today we followed up our discussion about the reading process by elaborating on the schema that every person has. Even though this discussion ran a little long, it was a great deal of fun. I was excited to learn more about this topic that had been briefly touched on in some of my other courses.

When I think of schema, I think of a bunch of secretaries running around trying to file everything that my brain sees. I do this partially because that is similar to what's actually happening in my brain and partially because the image is funny.

However, we talked a great deal about how our brains synthesize information and assimilate or accommodate the things that we learn. This is all fine and good, but I wonder if perhaps this information should be something that we share with our students. What if, while I'm teaching The Great Gatsby or Looking for Alaska I address the reading process and how students read? It seems that so often we are encouraged to teach our students in this sort of incognito way: teach them literary theory but don't tell them they're using literary theory. Set up lesson plans so your students are participating in the reading process but don't tell them what the process is.

Why?

Why should we not tell our students about literary theory and the reading process? Why should we expect them to be able to read from a marxist or feminist point of view but not ever tell them about how those terms (-ISMS as they are commonly referred to) came to be considered literary theory? Why not tell them about the reading process so they can understand (or, more likely, remember) what it is they're doing when they read?

I do not believe the answers to these questions have anything to do with students not being smart enough to understand what a teacher is teaching them. I believe it has everything to do with shortsightedness and possibly even arrogance of teachers or schools in general. In an article I read for my Discipline of English class, young adult author John Green was interviewed about literature and YA lit in the classroom. One of the things he said about reading and particularly reading the classics (or, perhaps, why adolescents aren't interested in the classics) was that often times adolescents want and need a world that isn't bullshit.

I think this is true of what students also need in their classrooms. English teachers in particular have been pulling the wool over their students eyes about literary theory and the reading process in general for years and I think that in doing so they have alienated a great number of their students. Students know that when a teacher gets up to discuss a text that they are going to throw out some crazy theory and just because the teacher says so and the teacher can kind of back up what she has to say using the text that interpretation becomes the end-all be-all interpretation of the text. Every student who sits in a class where this happens knows it's not realistic.

So why don't we tell our students about some of what goes on behind the veil of teaching? What if we told them about their schema and the reading process? What if we told them about various literary theories (at the high school level, and slowly, because those are a lot to handle from time to time) as they read? What would teachers lose in showing students about themselves and about how they learn?

I am not sure that I have the answers to these questions, but they are something I will consider between now and when I begin teaching (and perhaps even after, if I have not found a solution by then). I do think I would like to share with my students about their schema, though. I think that would be a fair thing to do. Perhaps then, fewer students will struggle with the tips of their tongues.