Daniels and Zemelman brought up some strong points about teaching literacy in these chapters. First of all, inquiry units. Inquiry units basically involve students doing their own research. Their own research which will connect to real-world problems which will make the work interesting and at the same time incorporates key learning concepts. An Inquiry unit can bring in many Common Core Standards which make it dare I say... easier on teachers. Inquiry units are "easier" in the sense that the teacher will teach a big unit with a lot of standards instead of coming up with one Common Core standard per lesson plan. Also, it helps students because they are actually learning by working hard. This kind of teaching is important for after-highschool life. Through inquiry units literature like: magazines, articles, newspapers, internet and novels can be incorporated. Students need to know how to read newspapers, magazines and other literature. There were a lot of suggestions as to what kinds of inquiry projects can be invented such as jigsawing, role-play and researching controversial questions. Also the students have CHOICE, they can choose what they want to research as long as it ties into the learning concepts... Awesome, right?This chapter also expressed how it is so important for teachers to model reading and work to be done in the class. I can see how important it is for teachers to humble themselves in front of their students. I have a lot of stories that I would love to share with my classes about my struggles in high school as well as college. I think that many successful people have had that one person (or couple of people) who believed in them. By students seeing that their teacher believes in them and that the teacher has persevered, it can truly inspire students to succeed.
In the beginning of the chapter "Students Who Struggle with Reading" there was a part where it said that struggling readers cannot focus on a mental picture. This was something I struggled with when I was in school. I could visualize pictures in books that I liked (such as novels ❤) but pictures were not coming into my mind when I was reading other material (such as material in science and history). Thankfully, I had projects in school that involved making commercials (in Mrs.Grant's class) and also creating advertisements for history (in Mr. Scappini's class). These kinds of assignments helped me along greatly with connecting literature and creating a mental picture.
Another aspect of this chapter is creating positive youth relationships in order to create strong readers. I am such a huge advocate for positive youth relationships because I believe that high school and middle school students face so many problems whether they be hormonal, developmental or even home situations. Having that one teacher who will not belittle them when they make a mistake or make a sarcastic remark will always strengthen student's reading skills. Having a positive environment not only encourages student's to admit to their mistakes but allows the teacher to create a learning outcome out of a mistake.I have one gripe with this text... while it gave me some great ideas on starting inquiry units, I feel as if there are more that can be talked about. It also did not have as many outside resources to look into for inquiry units as I would have liked.
What kind of stories do you have about your struggles in high school?
While I do agree with you that using inquiry units is an easy way to incorporate lots of standards simultaneously, I must say that while I was reading about it all I could think about was how difficult it would be to successfully implement these in our classrooms. Looking at the first example from Chapter 10, as the teacher we would have to realize that exponential functions would be a good time to look at population trends, then we have to go find all the trend data, birth/death rates, times where disease hit, and when wars took place for enough different countries for all the students to be able to pick their favorite. I feel like the work on the front end for one of these projects is massive and we also need to put a lot of effort into guiding our students while they are completing their assignments as well. Even though this seems like a lot to do, I feel like the payoff is even greater if our students can take away from the project that enduring understanding that we are all working towards.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that, while inquiry units would be hard to implement and plan out. Inquiry units are less tedious in the sense that if a lesson plan does not work out it will have to be substantially changed - whether it be the material or the process. While, a inquiry unit instead of being changed it could be strengthened.
DeleteAlso, we are talking about different subjects here.. I could make a inquiry unit on Slavery in the South and if it works out keep using it year after year. If I found better reading material as I progress I could incorporate it.
If you are making an inquiry unit on population trends, couldn't you have your students find out the trends?
I agree with Bryan, I think it does require a lot more work ahead of time and in our planning stages. However, I think what this does is allow a lot less teacher work during the class. Like you said, Karen, I think this means students are learning more and learning how to learn in a more authentic way. So it is both more work and less for us. Really, it just sounds like a shift of where we do more of our work. So it's the same amount of work it just means we do more before the lesson rather than during the lesson. Additionally, I had forgotten this part about incorporating many standards and I think that's a really important point. Thanks for reminding me Karen. This is another huge pro to using inquiry models is that it allows us to cover more standards but not in a rushed manner.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree with you Michela. While inquiry units can be a lot of work to plan out and implement there is less work while teaching. It is like the Zone of Proximal Development.. the students can complete the work if they have the right support. So, basically as educators we would be there as the support and guidance for our students. :)
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