Ch. 4 Assistance in Learning

     In the beginning of this chapter, it starts off with a quote from Albert Einstein that states, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”  I agree with this quote.  If a teacher motivates a student with learning, it will begin to unlock doors that will enrich the life of the learner and awaken their capabilities to learn.  Students are also apt to learn through discussion in class with their peers as the teacher acts as a mediator that only scaffolds their learning.  This chapter moves into the second framework of PAR (Preparation, Assistance, and Reflection).  Students begin to deepen their perception of knowledge and not merely recall facts.  Strategies are taught to the learner to help the student construct meaning in the content areas, and they also need to know why it is important to use these various strategies.

     MARSI (Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory) gages the personal needs of the student where the teacher begins to know where and how to teach strategies to her students (p. 83). Strategies that are used while reading are called adjunct strategies.  Mapping is a type of adjunct strategy that organizes information with main ideas and supporting details and shows the relationship between the two.  Mapping may be used for reflection and as a study guide.  

     While the reader is engaged in reading, he must make sense or construct meaning from the text.  Many responses to a question may be correct and higher order thinking skills are utilized. It is possible to eat an entire elephant; however, you may not be as successful if you eat is all at once. It is possible to eat the elephant in parts.   Students will need to go over parts of the text before moving on to the next segment, this is referred to as Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA) which consists of predicting, reading, and proving.  Another strategy of segmented text is Guided Reading Procedure (GRP).  The teacher explains key concepts and assesses their prior knowledge.  A passage is assigned to the students which they must remember all facts about the reading without editing what is stated.  The students will read the passage a second time to look for any misinformation through discussion and reading. The misguided information will be changed to make the statements true.  Categories will be arranged and organized from passage. 

     Reciprocal teaching is a strategy with four shared goals: prediction, summarization, questioning, and clarification.  The teacher will assign a paragraph and then summarize it. She will ask students questions about the passage clarifying any information that was misconstrued. The students will predict in writing what will happen next. Students will become the modelers for the next paragraph.

    Structure of text shows how paragraphs are ordered and arranged.  The most important formation of text include:  sequential order, analysis, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, and analogy.  There are strategies for understanding text structure that includes games, patterns, 3+ level study guides, and organizational (jot) charts.

     Questioning helps the teacher to evaluate if the student understands and if proper learning occurred.  Students can formulate their own questions to get a better understanding of the text.  A questioning strategy is QAR (question-answer relationship).  This strategy has four levels:  right there, think and search, the author and you, and on your own. Other strategies include:  guide-o-rama (Teachers give directions for passages and encourages students to use the directions given.)  Marginal glosses are helpful tidbits that are located on the side of the text giving pertinent information about the content.  Reading information may become difficult at times.  Students will need fix-up-strategies to aid in comprehending imagery, questioning, and rereading the text.

    

 

 

Analogies:

Preparing students to read is like riding a bike.

Similarities:

Picture books-tricycles
Easy readers-training wheels
Chapter books-2 wheels with someone guiding you on the bike.
Novels-Riding the bike on your on.

The strategies that I would like to use for the lesson plan would be the story impression or a graphic organizer.

The story impression is a premapping strategy to allow students to give a prediction based upon the terms, phrases, and concepts in the correct sequence of the story.  Based off the information, students will work together to create a paragraph to explain what the story was about.  This would be a brain-based learning assignment to stimulate the learner.

The graphic organizer will continue to organize and map out your thoughts.  It's important for the student's to have a place to begin and brainstorm.

Preparation for Learning Ch. 3

 

 
A lesson plan is optimal when a teacher connects what a child knows to the lesson that will be taught. Prior knowledge will bridge the gap in the lesson. Students with greater prior knowledge uses problem solving strategies more effectively than students who lack prior knowledge in a subject. It is up to the educator to build on a child’s schema. Schema is relating existing information to what is known, and a student’s interest is peaked when information is relatable. However, cognitive dissonance is a conflict of what a child understands in his/her prior knowledge with new information that is transmitted by the teacher.  As a result, this causes tension with the student and could leave the student losing interest in the subject or simply feeling frustrated with the lesson.


There are several ways a teacher could implement building on prior knowledge in the classroom.

Pre-learning Concept Check:

Vocabulary words are used and the student will place a plus sign in an area that he knows, a check if you have some knowledge about it and a zero if he does not know.

Story Impressions:

The teacher will choose terms, phrases, and concepts in order (narrative text) that the students may write a prediction based on the concepts. In a nonfiction text, terms are used that students may or may not know and a paragraph will be generated based on the terms.  This paragraph may be written as a group until the students are comfortable writing story impressions independently.
 
KWL Chart:

This is a chart that is divided into three rows. The K stands for what they know, W is what they want to know, and L stands for what they have learned during or when the lesson is completed.  Students will correct any misconceptions on the chart after the completion of the lesson.

What-I-Know Activity (WIKA):

WIKA is related to the PAR (Preparation, Assistance, and Reflection) framework.  This is also divided into columns.  Under prior knowledge, students will write, “What I Already Know”.  The next column will be, “What I’d Like to Know.” Students are at liberty to write their own questions after listening to class discussions.  Another column is the, “What I Know Now” column.  This column is completed during and after the reading. The last column is the, “What I Know Now” column.  This allows students to comprehend and reflect on their thinking.

Rewriting Text:

Rewriting the text in simpler way for the students to comprehend difficult text.  This is a strategy that is beneficial to students who may have a difficult time comprehending expository text, however, this is time consuming for the teacher who has to prepare this in advance.

Written Preview: 

This is a brief preview written by the teacher that is read aloud before the actual reading of content material.  This helps the student to organize the new information that is presented.

Graphic Organizers:
The graphic organizers are visual relationship with concepts. 

Anticipation Guides:
Statements that are written by the teacher that student’s will react which will stimulate classroom discussions. 

Factstorming:
Students will give facts about a subject the teacher gives to them.

Analogies:
Analogies are making comparisons from what is known to something that is less familiar.  Example:  A fish is to swimming as a bird is to flying.

Students who are in your class will have various needs.  In order for lessons to be effective, differentiation of instruction must take place.  The strategies listed above will allow success to be attainable for all students and learning will transpire.

 

Ch. 2 Affective Domain

The first layer to the affective domain is attitude.  Our attitude is a direct correlation of how we display our emotions towards others.  Basically it is imperative to start students at a young age to value themselves and others.  A teacher may assess their students’ attitudes by providing an interest inventory.   An interest inventory is created to address what a child likes to do in his/her spare time.  With this information gathered by the teacher, he/she could arrange lessons that will peak their personal interests.  A classroom should promote cooperative learning where everyone is involved in the lesson and differentiated instruction is incorporated.

 

     Conation involves a will and a fortitude to not give up until your desired accomplishment has been met. Teachers should implement these goals in students which will allow great learning to take place in the classroom.  Students should also be challenged mentally to stimulate brain-based learning.  Locus of control means your life outcomes can be controlled and external locus of control blames others for life’s hardships.  An approach to a healthy classroom environment implores students to become involved in decisions with their work giving them choices.  Questioning or GATOR (gaining acceptance toward reading) engages students with questions about “how they feel” or “why” questions. 

 

     The first phase of PAR is preparation.  The teacher must relate and build upon background knowledge the students already know to actively participate in the lesson.  The next step is assistance; students will gain a purpose and build upon comprehension.  The last part of the PAR is reflection.   The teacher will determine if proper learning took place and extend the learning.  Extending the learning would allow students to study about a subject and completing a project based on what knowledge they acquired.