AdLit:
All about Adolescent Literacy Resources for parents and educators of kids in
grades 4-12. (http://www.adlit.org/)
Adlit is interesting from a pedagogical
perspective as it provides a wide range of teaching resources, papers and
materials for educators to craft lesson plans, activities and classroom
strategies. While it is an American-centric website, the ideas and strategies
it provides can be applied in any classroom context.
3
Interesting ideas from the website:
1.
Teaching students to take notes
and draw visual representations of what they read:
It may not occur to students that they can read with a
pen in their hand, making notes on paper or, when appropriate, on the text
itself. A great deal of research has shown that the use of "graphic
organizers" — any kind of outline, annotation, mapping out of the text, or
other visual representation of what the text means, how it connects to other
material, what questions it raises, and so on — tend to be particularly helpful
in boosting comprehension.
2.
Readers’ Theatre:
In readers' theatre, students rehearse and perform a
play for peers or others. They read from scripts that have been derived from
books that are rich in dialogue. Students play characters who speak lines or a
narrator who shares necessary background information. Readers' theatre provides
readers with a legitimate reason to reread text and to practice fluency.
Readers' theatre also promotes cooperative interaction with peers and makes the
reading task appealing.
3.
Strategies shouldn't replace
content.
The bulk of the available evidence suggests that the explicit
teaching of reading comprehension strategies tends to be effective, helping
students to better understand what they read. However, some schools treat them
as if they were the content, to be learned for their own sake so this issue
must be carefully considered.
Review
of the Ideas
1.
Taking notes/drawing: This is a
useful tip as most students do not have the habit note taking. They sit there, listen
and at the end of the lesson forget whatever they’ve learnt. So this is great
for helping them retain information as well as understand the text better on their
own terms.
2.
Readers’ Theatre: By getting
students to perform the text, it provides an incentive for them to read (and
re-read) the text and engage with it (which is something that most students do
not do). They have to decide how to read/perform the passage so this will
compel greater critical thought as well.
3.
Strategies shouldn’t replace
content: One especially interesting point they make (despite the wealth of
materials available on AdLit) is that strategies, and tricks of teaching
shouldn’t replace the content itself. I think this is a good reminder to us
because it is easy to get caught up in using the best techniques to teach and
neglect the teaching of the content itself.
(Word count: 169)
I especially like the second idea that you reviewed from the website, as I also had been guilty of only reading my literature texts once in my two years of JC - and we all know how important re-reading actually is. By using this strategy of readers' theatre, it seems like we can not only get students to re-read the text, but also provide a way for them to enjoy the process (which will make them more willing to participate)!
ReplyDeleteHi Brennan, I like the idea of asking students to doodle as a way of expressing their thoughts on the text. I think it will appeal to visual as well as kinesthetic learners. Some students may also feel shy or not confident of their speaking abilities. Allowing them to express themselves in a non-linguistic manner can be a useful way for teachers to check on such students' understanding of the text.
ReplyDeleteHi Brennan, thanks for sharing this website. I agree with your third point. I think there is sometimes a tendency to shy away from bread and butter content, almost as if focusing on content is concession that one's pedagogy is dull; almost as if reading a text in literature can never be justified because, for e.g., no ICT is involved. I am not saying that this is an official directive, but that perhaps sometimes the worry about student engagement clouds this other very important ingredient in their education: the content itself. If strategy remains a focus, then perhaps one could look at how best to select strategic content -- the type of content that is most likely to hook student interest while forming a basis for further and deeper learning.
ReplyDeleteNice website and a good reminder that we need to make notes, re-read and focus on the text. There is a good list of documents that can be used in the classroom but there must be caution about the purpose of using some of the resources - are they about reading i.e. for EL (building word lists etc) or for appreciation or textual analysis etc? Back to purpose!
ReplyDelete