Hello everybody! I will be reviewing this website:
which has quite a bit of resources for English (language AND literature! Two in one!) teachers. When I say resources, what I mean is that the website provides many tools that we can bring to the classroom to enhance our students’ learning.
On that note, the three ideas that I have gotten from the website are:
1. Using interactive graphic organizers for students to consolidate what they have learnt. The website provides many of such tools such as: Literary Elements Map, Compare and Contrast Map, as well as Story Cube for us to introduce to our students. As the website states, “the tool includes a set of graphic organizers designed to assist teachers and students in prewriting and postreading activities, focusing on the key elements of character, setting, conflict and resolution development … [it] can be used in multiple contexts, whether they be author studies, genre studies, or thematic units, among others”.
2. “A Biography Study: Using Role-Play to Explore Authors’ Lives.” – the website provides ready-made lesson plans as well, and I find this concept particularly interesting. The website’s rationale for this lesson is “Dramatizing life stories provides students with an engaging way to become more critical readers and researchers” and hopes to “develop research and inquiry skills [in students] by researching an author’s life, examining the impact of culture on the author’s life” amongst others.
3. “Editing Checklists for Self and Peer Editing” – the website provides such charts (this is just one example) for teachers to bring into class. The website does warn for the teachers to “model its use” prior to leaving the students to use this independently.
Review:
1. I feel that these tools are particularly useful because, as Brennan mentioned in his review, students tend to forget the importance of note taking. By presenting them with graphic organizers, interactive ones at that, might spark their interest in participating in the consolidation of materials as well as provide them with a chart that is easy to comprehend.
2. The idea of getting students to do independent research on authors’ biographies leaves researching in their own hands. Role-playing also provides an element of fun for the students and might allow them to have empathy for the context in which the texts are written.
3. I feel that this is a particularly important tool as students have to know what is expected of their work and therefore, things to look out for when editing. By giving them the relevant rubrics, the expectations will be clearer for everyone.
Word Count: 147 Words
I hope this is somewhat useful for everyone!
Hi Carmen, thanks for the website! It is so comprehensive. I found this page on your site (http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/reading-online-30096.html) that discusses how to teach students to read with more discernment when surfing on the Internet. It might be an interesting way of bringing together ICT (i.e. cyberwellness) and reading in a real-world 21st century context.
ReplyDeletethis is definitely something that is a must!
DeleteHi! I agree that having a set of rubrics will be beneficial to teachers and students as it helps both parties to track a students' improvement and understanding of the quality of their answers! I saw it being implemented at my ESE school. The implementation can be quite tough as it is difficult for teachers to use it consistently. So perhaps for this to be effective, literature teachers will have to go the extra mile to ensure it is deeply embedded within the literature curriculum.
ReplyDeletelike the graphic organizer, since students are forced to write out their thoughts. some do have great ideas, but they struggle to pen it down. :)
ReplyDeleteI do like the resources on the website you linked, especially for lower secondary students who might need more scaffolding when approaching texts.
ReplyDeleterubrics when well used can be helpful in setting a set of explicit standards for students but is it possible there are some things rubrics can't capture? The graphic organizers are a useful resource.
ReplyDelete