Adult Illiterates

Note: Normally, I do not publish my blog, English Updates, on weekends. However, I publish several other blogs during the week having to do with ideas in English education that are not current, but still useful. On weekends, I will publish samples of these ideas. RayS.

 Adult Illiterates

Question: What do we need to consider when working with adult illiterates?

Answer/Quote: “The individual who is illiterate is part of a system within the family and society and cannot be considered in isolation…. That person has failed to learn to read and any attempt to teach him or her must address the failure and resulting anxiety and loss of self-esteem. What s/he experienced in attempting to learn to read,, any special efforts that were made to help the individual, how the person has compensated for not being able to read, what efforts were made to hide the inability to read, and how that affected the person’s life academically, socially and emotionally are critical factors in determining the psychological scars the individual carries into adulthood because of the inability to read.” P. 126.

Comment: I’m not suggesting that a person who has not been trained in working with adult illiterates try it as an amateur. I’m just alerting my readers to the complexity of the problem. RayS.

Title: “The Use of an Educational Therapy Model with an Illiterate Adult.” MJ Scully and CL Johnston. Journal of Reading (October 1991), 126-131.

New Teachers

Question: What are some pressures on teachers new to the profession?

Answer/Quote: “There is discouraging evidence that many beginning teachers quickly abandon the practices advocated and modeled in their teacher education programs at colleges and universities and regress to imitate the kind of instruction that they experienced themselves as students, or conform to the dominant model in schools where they feel great pressures to drill students for performance on mandated tests. The trends would be less discouraging if the newly minted teachers were imitating the examples of the great teachers they had during their long ‘apprenticeship of observation,’ as Dan C. Lorrie called it.” P. 94.

Comment: Perhaps teacher-preparation courses should emphasize the good characteristics of the “great” teachers they have had during their “apprenticeship of observation.” RayS.

Title: “Mentoring Matters.” Thomas M. McCann, Editor. English Journal (March 2012), 94-96.

Small-Group Discussion (3)

Note: The following information is reprinted from my book Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris, 2004.

Question: What roles do people play when participating in small-group work?

Answer/Quote: David M. Litsey suggests 18 roles that people can play in a group enterprise. He divides these roles into three categories: ‘Maintenance,’ ‘Task Roles,’ and ‘Self-Serving Roles.’

Self-Serving Roles

1. Dominator: Interrupts, embarks on long monologues, is overpositive, tries to lead group, asserts authority, is autocratic, monopolizes.

2. Blocker: Interferes with the progress of the group by rejecting ideas; takes negative attitude on all suggestions; argues unduly; is pessimistic; refuses to cooperate.

3. Deserter: Withdraws in some way; is indifferent, aloof, excessively formal; daydreams, doodles, whispers to others, wanders from subject.

4. Aggressor: Struggles for status, boasts, criticizes; deflates ego or status of others, ‘

5. Recognition-seeker: exaggerated attempt to get attention by boasting or claiming experience or great accomplishments.

6. Playboy type: displays a lack of involvement in the group process by horseplay, inappropriate humor or cynicism.

Comment: All of these roles will be fun to discuss, especially the latter self-serving roles. We’ve all experienced those roles and maybe even played them. RayS.

To familiarize students with these roles, Litsey suggests having students view a video tape of a group discussion. Each student in the class is assigned to observe one of the members of the group.

Another way in which to familiarize students with these roles would be to stage a small group discussion in which each student in the group plays one of the roles.

Source: Litsey, David M. “Small Group Training and the English Classroom.” English Journal (September 1969), 920-927.

Small-group Discussion (2)

Note: The following information is reprinted from my book Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris, 2004.

Question: What roles do people play when participating in small-group work?

Answer/Quote: David M. Litsey suggests 18 roles that people can play in a group enterprise. He divides these roles into three categories: ‘Maintenance,’ ‘Task Roles,’ and ‘Self-Serving Roles.’

Task Roles

1. Initiating. Proposing tasks or goals; defining a group problem; suggesting a procedure.

2. Information or opinion seeking; requesting facts; asking for suggestions and ideas.

3.Information or opinion giving: offering facts; stating a belief; giving suggestions or ideas.

4. Clarifying or elaborating: interpreting or reflecting ideas and suggestions; clearing up confusion; indicating alternatives before the group; giving examples.

5. Summarizing: Pulling together related ideas; restating suggestions after the group has discussed them; offering a decision for the group to accept or reject.

6. Consensus testing: Checking with the group to see how much agreement has been reached.

Comment: Attempts at clarifying and reaching tentative conclusions. Again, positive attitude. RayS.

Next blog: Self-Serving Roles

Small-Group Discussion (1)

Note: The following information is reprinted from my book Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris, 2004.

Question: What roles do people play when participating in small-group work?

Answer/Quote: David M. Litsey suggests 18 roles that people can play in a group enterprise. He divides these roles into three categories: ‘Maintenance,’ ‘Task Roles,’ and ‘Self-Serving Roles.’

Maintenance Roles

1. Encouraging: Being warm and responsive to others; accepting the contributions of others; giving others an opportunity for recognition.

2. Expressing group feelings: Sensing feeling and mood, r relationships within the group, and sharing one’s own feeling with other members.

3. Harmonizing: Attempting to reconcile differences and reduce tension by giving people a chance to explore their differences.

4. Compromising: When one’s own ideas or status is involved in a conflict, offering to compromise admitting error; disciplining oneself to maintain group cohesion.

5. Gate-keeping: Keeping communication channels open and facilitating the participation of others.

6. Setting Standards: Expressing standards for the group to achieve; applying standards in evaluating group function and production.

Comment: Obviously, these roles emphasize the positive in group relationships. RayS.

Next blog: Task Roles.

Collaboration

Question: Why is teaching how to work in groups important?

Answer/Quote: “Collaborative learning teaches students to work together when the stakes are relatively low, so that they can work together effectively later on when the stakes are high.” Kenneth A. Bruffee.

Quote: “Kenneth JA. Bruffee’s quotation above emphasizes the idea that collaborative learning is not a skill reserved only for the classroom. After graduation, few of us ever feel the need to wield a #2 pencil against an army of bubble tests or write a book report including no fewer than five quotations. Collaborative learning is, however, something that all our students will employ once they finish their formal education, and while it isn’t something that can be objectively tested by standardized exams, it is something we can teach.” P. 83.

Quote: “The role of group work in education will continue to undergo study and development. Both employers and civic  leaders continue to emphasize the importance of young adults developing the skills that enable them to succeed at collective efforts. Students, schooled to value individual achievement, continue to resist and worry about group work. Like any other group, students and teachers need to listen to each other and work together to get the best results. I collect data from my students about their group work each term in part because no  class ever fully meets the goals I have imagined for it.” P. 88.

Comment: Group work is difficult to teach. As the author indicates, you just need to keep learning from your experiences with it. In my next blog, I will reprint from my book (Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris, 2004) an interesting article by David M. Litsey from the English Journal in 1969 that offers a perspective on the roles people play in small-group discussion. RayS.

Title: “ ‘I Hate Group Work!’ Social Loafers, Indignant Peers, and the Drama of the Classroom.” Megan Lynn Isaac. English Journal (March 2012), 83-89.

Reading in the Content Areas

Note: Normally, I do not publish my blog, English Updates, on weekends. However, I publish several other blogs during the week having to do with ideas in English education that are not current, but still useful. On weekends, I will publish samples of these ideas. RayS.

 
Question: How can students assess ahead of time the difficulties they will face with a content reading assignment?

Answer: The authors use an acronym, FLIP as a method for assessing the difficulties—or the readiness to read—an assignment in a discipline.

F – Friendliness—how friendly is my reading assignment? Does it contain the following features? Table of contents; chapter introductions; margin notes; key terms highlighted; pictures; index; headings; study questions; graphs; signal words; glossary; subheadings; chapter summary; charts; lists of key facts. The student then rates the “friendliness” of the text from 1 to 5, from (1) “boring” to (5)“friendly.” If there are some “friendly” features, they should rate it “3.”

L – Language: How difficult is the language in my reading assignment? “(5) means there are no new words and mostly clear sentences and (1) means there are many new words and complicated sentences.”

I – Interest—how interesting is my reading assignment? “Here students read the assignment’s title, introduction, headings and subheadings and summary and examine its pictures and graphics. A ranking of (5) would suggest that the student finds the assignment very interesting; (1) would suggest that the assignment seems boring.”

P –Prior Knowledge—what do I already know about the material covered in my reading assignment? “The quick survey completed during the ‘I’ step should let readers determine if they have prior knowledge of the assignment’s subject matter. A rating of (5) here means the reader has a great deal of prior knowledge about the topic, while (1) is fitting if the reader has never heard the information before.”

Comment: An excellent method for “previewing” a reading assignment in a content discipline. I wish I had known about this technique when I was teaching. Would give the teacher a clear understanding of students’ readiness for reading an assignment. Also tells the students a great deal about the nature of the text. RayS.

 Title: “FLIP: A Framework for Content Area Reading.” JS Schumm and CT Mangrum. Journal of Reading (October 1991), 120-124.

Middle School Instructional Practices

Note: Normally, I do not publish my blog, English Updates, on weekends. However, I publish several other blogs during the week having to do with ideas in English education that are not current, but still useful. On weekends, I will publish samples of these ideas. RayS.

Question: What are some prevailing middle school instructional practices?

Answer:

“More telling, mentioning, or assigning than actual teaching.”

 “The lecture approach as the predominant means of conveying information.”

“Writing vocabulary words on the board and having students look them up in the dictionary.”

“Telling the class to open textbooks and begin reading.”

“Providing no guidance for learning from written/oral material.”

 “Assigning reading with little or no preparation, direction, follow-up or discussion.” P. 85.

“Having students answer end-of-chapter questions.”

“Expecting students to work independently when textbooks are too difficult.”

“Assuming that students have the study skills necessary to complete assignments.”

“Asking mostly literal level questions.” P. 86.

Comment: See my book. Teaching English, How To…. Raymond Stopper, Xlibris, 2004, for information on how to right these ineffective instructional methods. RayS.

Title: “The Case for Improved Instruction in the Middle Grades.” KD Wood and K D Muth. Journal of Reading (October 1991), 84-90.

Grammar in the Office

Question: Why are bosses becoming so concerned about mistakes in grammar in the office?

Note: The following are excerpts from Sue Shellenbarger’s column entitled “This Embarasses You and I,” from the Wall Street Journal, Internet edition, June 20, 2012, published in the newspaper on page D1.

Answer/Quote: Grammar Gaffes Invade the Office in an Age of Informal Email, Texting and Twitter

·         By SUE SHELLENBARGER of the Wall Street Journal.

Quote: When Caren Berg told colleagues at a recent staff meeting, "There's new people you should meet," her boss Don Silver broke in, says Ms. Berg, a senior vice president at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., marketing and crisis-communications company.

Quote: "I cringe every time I hear" people misuse "is" for "are," Mr. Silver says. The company's chief operations officer, Mr. Silver also hammers interns to stop peppering sentences with "like." For years, he imposed a 25-cent fine on new hires for each offense. "I am losing the battle," he says.

Quote: Managers are fighting an epidemic of grammar gaffes in the workplace. Many of them attribute slipping skills to the informality of email, texting and Twitter where slang and shortcuts are common. Such looseness with language can create bad impressions with clients, ruin marketing materials and cause communications errors, many managers say.

Quote: Leslie Ferrier says she was aghast at letters employees were sending to customers at a Jersey City, N.J., hair- and skin-product marketer when she joined the firm in 2009. The letters included grammar and style mistakes and were written "as if they were speaking to a friend," says Ms. Ferrier, a human-resources executive. She had employees use templates to eliminate mistakes and started training programs in business writing.

Quote: In workplace-training programs run by Jack Appleman, a Monroe, N.Y., corporate writing instructor, "people are banging the table," yelling or high-fiving each other during grammar contests he stages, he says. "People get passionate about grammar," says Mr. Appleman, author of a book on business writing.

Quote: Mr. Garner, the usage expert, requires all job applicants at his nine-employee firm—including people who just want to pack boxes—to pass spelling and grammar tests before he will hire them. And he requires employees to have at least two other people copy-edit and make corrections to every important email and letter that goes out.

Write to Sue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page D1, June 20,2012.

A version of this article appeared June 20, 2012, on page D1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: This Embarrasses You and I*.

Oral History

Question: What can be learned from a unit on oral history?

Answer/Quote: “Oral history served a variety of functions for the students involved: It taught them specific skills, such as interviewing, and helped them learn more about their community. It gave them a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which history is documented and preserved for future generations. For the university students, many of them future teachers, the project provided new ways of thinking about their relationship to the community and specific methods to take into the classroom.” P. 77.

Quote: “We began by introducing students to the concept of oral history and sharing samples with them. Students read and listened to brief examples of this kind of writing, including interviews with music lovers of different generations and stories of war veterans.” P. 78.

Quote: “Through this project, we learned that oral history can serve as a bridge between community members, whether the collaboration is a semester-long partnership or a simpler sharing of ideas and expertise. Ultimately, oral history retains a unique power to bring together members of the community—students, parents, teachers, city leaders, and ordinary citizens—to share and celebrate a common heritage.” P. 82.

Comment: Interesting focus on the common heritage of the members of the community. The oral histories can involve a number of different topics, including music, not simply war stories. RayS.

Title: “Bridging Gaps and Preserving Memories Through Oral History Research and Writing.” A Dayton-Wood, L Hammonds, L Matherson, and L Tollison. English Journal (March 2012), 77-82.

Parents and Writing at Home

Question: How can parents encourage their children to write at home?

The following is reprinted from Cathy Fleischer’s Reading and Writing and Teens: A Parent’s Guide to Adolescent Literacy. Urbana: NCTE, 2010:

> Model writing in your home.

> Write with your teen.

> Write to your teen.

> Encourage your teen to write to you.

> Help your teen find outlets and audiences for writing.

> Recognize that writing can find many forms and encourage your teen to try multiple kinds of writing.

> Create family traditions that include writing.

> Play teen word games, for example, create six-word memoirs that capture a moment in her life.

Comment: Interesting ideas for involving your teens in writing at home. The author gives extensive examples for each activity. My job as a blogger is to give my readers the essential idea. If interested, my readers should purchase the journal or the article. RayS.

Title: “Inviting Parents In” Expanding Our Community Base to Support Writing.” C Fleischer and KC Pavlock. English Journal (March 2012), 29-36.

My Biggest Publishing Mistakes

Question: What are four mistakes that I made in publishing my book, Teaching English, How To…. (Xlibris, 2004)?

> Publishing too quickly. As I was writing my book, the SAT made a change, substituting a writing sample and an objective “style” test for one of the vocabulary sections. The format was not set while I wrote. I assumed the format would be similar to another writing sample used by the College Board, one that was based on reading literature. I was wrong. The topic became personal and the length of the writing sample became 20 minutes instead of 15 minutes. The result? I prepared for something that did not happen. And I published it. I should have waited until the new section on writing in the SAT was firmly established. If I had, the whole section on preparing for the 20-minute writing sample would have been significantly different.

> Omitting a cover—or having a poorly designed one. I meant for my cover to contain in a block format a list of the topics that I covered in the book. Too detailed. No one read it.

> Impatience. The problem here was my desire to rush into publication. I stopped trying to correct my typos and grammar mistakes. Now when I reread my book, they glare out at me, magnified by the fact that I am supposed to be an accomplished writer. If you’re a baseball player, you’re supposed to be able to hit and field. If you’re an English teacher, you’re supposed to correct all typos and mistakes in grammar. After the first reading, the publisher planned to charge me for all future mistakes, and I chose not to. I’m paying the price now.

>Not doing research. I should have checked out what had already been published about the topics on which I was choosing to write. I didn’t.

Comment: Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest! RayS.

Title, based on the following article: “The 8 Biggest Mistakes E-Book Authors Make and How to Avoid Them.” Kelly James-Engler. The Writer (July 2012),30-31.

Teaching Writing

Question: What is one method for teachers to teach writing?

Quote: “It is easy to assign but difficult to teach writing.”  P, 32,

Answer: The authors suggest units in which students read a particular genre and, as a result, learn to write in the genre.

Quote: “The unit of study offers students many benefits, but mainly it helps them begin to establish a ‘habit of mind’ about writing…. In effect, students learn a systematic way to help themselves learn more about writing. This format is true to the work of professional writers. Countless authors have written books about the craft of writing, describing their own routines and habits…. Across these examples is a unifying pattern of reading widely and often as a way to inspire their own writing and as a means for studying how others write.

“The unit of study offers students an authentic and predictable structure, one that closely approximates what writers do beyond the school walls. At the end of a unit, students are able to speak specifically about writing techniques as well as analyze their work with direction and focus, experiences they can draw upon repeatedly as they develop as writers. This way of studying writing helps teach writers and provides them with an intentional way to continue teaching themselves after the unit is over.” P. 35.

Comment: This approach to teaching writing is, in effect, a method for reading as a way of learning to write. Reading in the genre become a way of learning to write in the genre. Authors often talk about reading as a writer. I think it’s an interesting idea. RayS.

Title: “Teaching Writers Through a Unit of Study Approach.” DN Morgan, B Clark, J Paris, and C Kozel. Voices from the Middle (March 2012), 32-36.

Collecting Sentences

Note: Normally, I do not publish my blog, English Updates, on weekends. However, I publish several other blogs during the week having to do with ideas in English education that are not current, but still useful. On weekends, I will publish samples of these ideas. RayS.

Question: What can be gained by students’ collecting and displaying sentences?

Answer/Quote: “Adolescents enter their middle school reading classroom…and begin reading sentences from charts on the walls. Occasionally someone hands the teacher a slip of paper with a sentence and the name of its author from their outside reading. A girl notices that the sentence she submitted yesterday has been added to a chart; a sentence that a boy wrote last week is also on one of the charts.” P. 92.

Quote: “Students comment on length and sentence structure, word choice and vocabulary, imagery and metaphor, and, of course, the book and its author. They hear their peers talk about what they have found interesting: information, ideas, language, images, illustrations, and the books themselves.” P. 95.

Comment: A wonderful habit to attract students to language. I have been a collector of “significant sentences” for years and years. I still review the sentences from my collection from time to time, and I use them often in my writing. A good way to involve students in language. RayS.

Title: “Sentence Collecting: Authentic Literacy Events in the Classroom.” RB Speaker, Jr. and PR Speaker. Journal of Reading (October 1991), 92-95.

Constructing an Argument

Note: Normally, I do not publish my blog, English Updates, on weekends. However, I publish several other blogs during the week having to do with ideas in English education that are not current, but still useful. On weekends, I will publish samples of these ideas. RayS.

Question: What are the steps in constructing an argument?

Answer:

Claim (Main idea)

Ground (Support)

Warrant (Inferences)

Backing (Justifications)

Questions:
What is my main point? (claim)

How do I go about supporting it? (ground)

What makes me think that the support is appropriate? (warrant)

What additional support do I have to validate further my claim? (backing)

Example:

Claim (main idea): “The Philadelphia Phillies will not be able to repeat as National League baseball champions this season.” P. 201

 Ground (support): “The Philadelphia Phillies are not likely to repeat as National League baseball champs because they have released or traded four veteran players who provided needed leadership down the home stretch last season. Furthermore, their young players who played unevenly last year have not proven themselves over the long haul. Finally, some of the older remaining veteran stars on the team had lackluster  seasons and show signs of decline.” P. 201-202.

Warrant (inferences): “A baseball team needs to have proven players providing experienced leadership in order t win the pennant in the highly competitive, evenly matched National League.” P. 202.

Backing (justifications): “…we might back the warrant that a National League team needs proven players to win the pennant by referring to the official records of major league baseball and to sabermetrics, the mathematical and statistical analysis of baseball records.” P. 202.

Comment: This is the Toulmin model for argument, broken down into steps, terms, explanation and example. Useful. RayS.

Title: “Developing Self-Monitored Comprehension Strategies Through Argument Structure Analysis.” Julia T0-Dutka. Journal of Reading (November 1991), 200-205.

Persuasive Writing

Question: How can students evaluate their persuasive writing?

Answer/Quotes:

> “Read the piece once carefully and determine the reader based on the writing.”

> “Go through the piece again and highlight where you show evidence of your awareness of the audience.”

> “Read the piece a third time and, using a different color, highlight evidence of purpose in your writing.” P. 22.

 Comment: Beginning steps in evaluating persuasive writing. Much more interest in persuasive writing with the advent of the Common Core Standards. RayS.

Title: “Narrative as a Springboard for Expository and Persuasive Writing: James Moffett Revisited.” Barbara J. Radcliffe. Voices from the Middle (March 2012), 18-24.

Sequence in Writing Types

Question: What is a logical sequence in learning types of writing?

Answer: The author believes that writing instruction should start with narrative because it is most personal and familiar. Then the students should move to expository writing and, finally, to persuasive writing.

Comment: An interesting sequence in types of writing. Keep in mind that narrative is often a big part of expository and even of persuasive writing. RayS.

Title: “Narrative as a Springboard for Expository and Persuasive Writing: James Moffett Revisited.” Barbara J. Radcliffe. Voices from the Middle (March 2012), 18-24.

Reading in the Content Areas

Question: How organize a reading project for students in the content areas?

Answer:

> Predictions. What will I learn from this material?

> Concepts: What have I learned from reading this material?

> Questions: What don’t I yet understand about this material?

> Personal opinion: What do I think about this material? P. 15.

Comment: Pretty well summarizes the steps students should take in reading content area materials. RayS.

Title: “Progressive Writing Instruction: Empowering School Leaders and Teachers.” J Lacina and CC Block. Voices from the Middle (March 2012), 10-17,

Research-based Writing Instructional Practices

Question: What are eleven “research-based” practices in teaching writing?

Answer: The following “research-based” writing practices were published in Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools , Graham and Perin, 2007b.

>Writing Strategies for planning, revising and editing.

> Summarization: “Explicitly and systematically teaching students how to summarize texts.”

> Collaborative Writing

> Specific goals for writing projects.

> Word processing

> Sentence combining

> Prewriting

> Inquiry activities: Analyzing data to develop ideas and content for writing tasks.

> Process writing approach, including authentic audience.

> Study of models

> Writing for content learning. P. 11.

Comment: An interesting list. Where do my readers stand in using these strategies? RayS.

Title: “Progressive Writing Instruction: Empowering School Leaders and Teachers.” J Lacina and CC Block. Voices from the Middle (March 2012), 10-17,

Warnings About Writing Instruction

Question: Is this 1975 statement about writing instruction still true in 2012?

Answer/Quote: “If your children are attending college, the chances are that when they graduate they will be unable to write ordinary, expository English with any real degree of structure and lucidity. If they are in high school and planning to attend college, the chances are less than even that they will be able to write English at the minimal college level when they get there. If they are not planning to attend college, their skills in writing English may not even qualify them for secretarial or clerical work.” (Sheils, 1975, p. 58.

Quotes: “Many recent publications have described writing as the neglected ‘r.’…. There is very little data on what writing instruction looks like in schools…. Most studies of the past examined teachers who teach writing in an exceptional way….” P. 10.

Comment: This paragraph appeared in an article in Voices from the Middle, March 2012, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). It was published in 1975. It’s hard to believe that in this era (2012) of state writing tests, the SAT writing sample, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that writing is not being taught and learned. In my era, grammar was a substitute for writing. What do you think about the teaching of writing today? I think the statement is out of date. RayS.

Title: “Progressive Writing Instruction: Empowering School Leaders and Teachers.” J Lacina and CC Block. Voices from the Middle (March 2012), 10-17,

Teaching Irony in Literature

Note: Normally, I do not publish my blog, English Updates, on weekends. However, I publish several other blogs during the week having to do with ideas in English education that are not current, but still useful. On weekends, I will publish samples of these ideas. RayS.

 
Question: Which is more effective in teaching a literary skill, like irony, direct instruction or a method in which students develop their own methods of interpreting irony?

Answer: Both methods were statistically superior to no method at all. “(1) a direct method…which attempts to give students conscious control of the interpretive strategies experienced readers use to understand irony [or] (2) a tacit method, which seeks to have students develop their own strategies through extended practice with the genre.” P. 254.

Comment: Both methods worked. The key, of course, is to teach the skill, directly or indirectly, the latter being the “discovery” approach. The latter would probably take more time. But both worked. RayS.

Title: “Teaching the Interpretation of Irony in Poetry.” Michael W Smith. Research in the Teaching of English (October 1989), 254-272.

Vocabulary

Note: Normally, I do not publish my blog, English Updates, on weekends. However, I publish several other blogs during the week having to do with ideas in English education that are not current, but still useful. On weekends, I will publish samples of these ideas. RayS.

Question: What is Ron Clark’s [Disney’s Teacher of the Year] method for teaching vocabulary?

Answer/Quote: “Often my students’ biggest obstacle [in reading] is vocabulary. So I use games and other techniques to pre-teach select vocabulary that they will subsequently encounter in their reading. Sometimes I even use flash cards. Then when the kids get to the reading, they are thrilled that they recognize and understand the new words.”

Comment: Pre-teaching vocabulary is one of the steps in the traditional directed reading assignment. RayS.

Title:  “Annual Convention: Ron Clark, ‘America’s Educator,’ Tapped for Featured Keynote at Second General Session.” Interview by Ron Clark. Reading Today (April/May 2012), 16-17.

Disciplinary Knowledge

Question: How should teachers in disciplines help students experience their disciplines in an active manner?

From a review of a book entitled Envisioning Knowledge: Building Literacy in the Academic Disciplines. JA Langer. 2011. New York: Teachers College Press.

Quote: “Instead, the literacy that she advocates requires students to ‘experience disciplinary inquiry first-hand’ and ‘engage in setting questions, exploring possibilities, developing points of reference, and finding ways to seek answers in all their coursework. They need to dig beneath the surface of the disciplines, to explore substantive issues and questions that they can connect to larger issues within the field and the world. They need to develop the habits of mind and the literacy abilities that will permit them to think, talk, read and write about, and use their knowledge flexibly, both in and out of school.’” P. 157.

Comment: In other words, students need to become practitioners in the discipline, understanding the questions that need resolution, developing the skills to write about these questions and to seek knowledge that suggest answers to these questions. Judith Langer is one of the people in our profession whose intellect I admire greatly. Whatever she writes (she was a past co-editor of Research in the Teaching of English)is worth paying attention to. She stimulates thought. This quote suggests an approach to learning in the disciplines that I first found in The Art of Teaching by Gilbert Highet. RayS.

Title: “Professional Resources.” RJ Draper. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (April 2012), 662-663.