This was not my favorite chapter, although it does include many useful items. Many pages (especially in the beginning) read as a lesson to the reader about elements of a novel, rather than teaching us about how to teach the elements to students. That portion of the chapter is not at all beneficial to me, as I am looking more for techniques than content from this book, especially content as basic as that which was written about. One item that I love is that Jago includes a list of literary terms. I absolutely agree that literary devices give students better meaning to a text, as Jago writes. That list of terms covers basically all the main terms I want to teach.
Another item I agree with Jago on is that there should not be a stress on completing busy work, but on understanding the material. While the occasional worksheet may be beneficial, it is absolutely redundant to make students complete worksheets regularly, because there is not much understanding that goes behind them. Class discussion and teacher-led instruction is more beneficial than busy work.
Additionally, I like the chart Jago has on page 74; modeling how to complete this chart and having students copy it and work through it can seriously help them figure out difficult texts.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Pytash Chapter 2: Words and Vocabulary
After sixth grade, I do not remember any time when an English Teacher focused on general vocabulary in a meaningful way. I almost feel like I was cheated, after reading about the way Jago teaches vocabulary to students; the words I know are mostly from my own independent reading and from using context clues. My freshman year of high school I remember being indifferent to reading one difficult text, Great Expectations, until my very passionate English Teacher showed how much he loved it. It made me wonder what I was missing, and made me work harder to understand it. Reading canonical literature became much easier, and I think about how much I would be missing if I kept up with my indifference. Like Jago writes on page 29, stories are better if students understand all the vocabulary!
Because I have no recognition of studying vocabulary, I have a difficult time thinking how to teach it to my students: often times I struggle with finding ways to explain words. I love the idea Jago writes about when she models how to figure out words based on context, prefixes and suffixes. I will definitely use this modeling activity with my students. The skill of figuring out words will be extremely helpful for students when taking the OGT and ACT. Additionally, I love the activity on page 33 where students get the definition of words and have to identify them in characters from Shakespeare, then in themselves. It is critical to apply new vocabulary after learning the definitions to retain it in long-term memory, not just to memorize it in the short-term. This chapter was very helpful in learning how to teach vocabulary effectively.
Because I have no recognition of studying vocabulary, I have a difficult time thinking how to teach it to my students: often times I struggle with finding ways to explain words. I love the idea Jago writes about when she models how to figure out words based on context, prefixes and suffixes. I will definitely use this modeling activity with my students. The skill of figuring out words will be extremely helpful for students when taking the OGT and ACT. Additionally, I love the activity on page 33 where students get the definition of words and have to identify them in characters from Shakespeare, then in themselves. It is critical to apply new vocabulary after learning the definitions to retain it in long-term memory, not just to memorize it in the short-term. This chapter was very helpful in learning how to teach vocabulary effectively.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Kist Firestone
Working with my student at Firestone got me thinking of different ways that I could help her learn. Every night before I went to the school I would consider what I feel she needs the most work on and sit with my OGT prep materials to devise a two-hour, one-on-one lesson plan. Working through the packet provided was not enough: I had to focus on the areas that she struggled in. The main problem areas were algebra, writing and keeping focused on a question.
Being that I am not a math professional, I had a tough time being creative with the math portion of tutoring. Working multi-modalities into this plan was necessary, but difficult for me to be too creative. The way I taught it was reading through and pulling questions from a Math OGT prep book I borrowed and modeled the first few equations for her, then scaffolding my help on the problems until she could work through them herself. Additionally, I wrote out things to remember: the things I felt she may forget, but were critical for her to know to solve the problems. I wrote these things on a piece of paper and had her tell me what they were before we solved many of the problems. The paper read:
Goal: Isolate all variables!
Parentheses must be rid of the equation first!
3x means divide 3 from both sides, etc
One issue I find with American test preparation is that my student often said that her teachers were pressuring her so much to comprehend the material that she just gave up at one point. I am confident that my student is smart enough to pass the OGT, but by putting so much pressure on passing this test the first time, she has lost sight of the reason for learning, other than to pass this test. She only wants to focus on what will be on the test, not the breadth and importance of Math: that is another problem for teachers. With pressure like this from every class, it is tough not to feel overwhelmed, and like passing the test is impossible. These problems apply to each of the three subject areas I will discuss, not only Math.
The other main problem my student had (and the one we worked on the most) was her writing. She was not a bad writer, although her grammar definitely could have been improved, but
In my own classroom, I think I would do a week-long OGT preparation lesson plan. I will apply these ideas by not just assigning OGT packets to work on with my students, but modeling questions on the board so they can see how I work through problems. Both using a visual element, like working on a problem on the overhead, and verbalizing my thoughts are important in teaching with a multi modal approach. By the end of week of OGT prep, students will have worked independently on a workbook, seen me work through questions and heard my thoughts as I answered them. The problem here is that since the structure is so cut and dry, there is not much creativity that can go into studying for this test, unless the test, itself, changes. The reading and writing portions of the OGT are limiting in that they are strictly formal writing and set on informational responses. I, myself, have no solutions or ideas for change that would work across the board, because creativity or informal answers are difficult to measure and grade based on a statewide standard.
When doing the writing section of the OGT, first we read through a question together and I asked her how she would begin. She said she usually jumps into the question without prewriting, so I let her answer the prompt in full, then reviewed the answer. While the writing, itself, was satisfactory, the structure and organization of the answer was very poor. This was at the end of a Monday tutoring period, so I had time to go home and devise a plan for the next day’s lesson. I decided to model a prompt and talk through my thought process. I wrote out a prompt for myself: “Do you like school? Why?”
It is a very basic question because I wanted her to focus more on the structure than how I was answering the question. I talked through pre-writing (my thesis and topic sentences one, two and three, then began the writing. I explained to her that pre-writing is helpful because it allows me to organize my thoughts and see the bones of the paper to come. I began writing a four-sentence intro paragraph, showing how to start broad, then narrow. I modeled the rest of the paper then asked her if she had any questions. She seemed to understand. Next, I wrote out a guideline for her to follow when she writes her paper:
Intro:
Body 1: (Topic Sentence 1)
Body 2: (Topic Sentence 2)
Body 3: (Topic Sentence 3)
Conclusion:
After I gave her this worksheet, I gave her the next prompt from the OGT writing book and we worked through it together. Finally, the next week I gave her a third and final prompt and she wrote a flawless essay in exactly the format she was supposed to. By modeling the strategy and working one on one with a visual graph of what was expected, she finally understood the material.
In the end, I wrote out on a paper to remember to be formal and to keep focused on what the question was asking, because those were two important ideas to keep in mind that she kept forgetting. Repetition, modeling and scaffolding were overall the three most important techniques I used in tutoring this student, and all three led to my student’s success.
Being that I am not a math professional, I had a tough time being creative with the math portion of tutoring. Working multi-modalities into this plan was necessary, but difficult for me to be too creative. The way I taught it was reading through and pulling questions from a Math OGT prep book I borrowed and modeled the first few equations for her, then scaffolding my help on the problems until she could work through them herself. Additionally, I wrote out things to remember: the things I felt she may forget, but were critical for her to know to solve the problems. I wrote these things on a piece of paper and had her tell me what they were before we solved many of the problems. The paper read:
Goal: Isolate all variables!
Parentheses must be rid of the equation first!
3x means divide 3 from both sides, etc
One issue I find with American test preparation is that my student often said that her teachers were pressuring her so much to comprehend the material that she just gave up at one point. I am confident that my student is smart enough to pass the OGT, but by putting so much pressure on passing this test the first time, she has lost sight of the reason for learning, other than to pass this test. She only wants to focus on what will be on the test, not the breadth and importance of Math: that is another problem for teachers. With pressure like this from every class, it is tough not to feel overwhelmed, and like passing the test is impossible. These problems apply to each of the three subject areas I will discuss, not only Math.
The other main problem my student had (and the one we worked on the most) was her writing. She was not a bad writer, although her grammar definitely could have been improved, but
In my own classroom, I think I would do a week-long OGT preparation lesson plan. I will apply these ideas by not just assigning OGT packets to work on with my students, but modeling questions on the board so they can see how I work through problems. Both using a visual element, like working on a problem on the overhead, and verbalizing my thoughts are important in teaching with a multi modal approach. By the end of week of OGT prep, students will have worked independently on a workbook, seen me work through questions and heard my thoughts as I answered them. The problem here is that since the structure is so cut and dry, there is not much creativity that can go into studying for this test, unless the test, itself, changes. The reading and writing portions of the OGT are limiting in that they are strictly formal writing and set on informational responses. I, myself, have no solutions or ideas for change that would work across the board, because creativity or informal answers are difficult to measure and grade based on a statewide standard.
When doing the writing section of the OGT, first we read through a question together and I asked her how she would begin. She said she usually jumps into the question without prewriting, so I let her answer the prompt in full, then reviewed the answer. While the writing, itself, was satisfactory, the structure and organization of the answer was very poor. This was at the end of a Monday tutoring period, so I had time to go home and devise a plan for the next day’s lesson. I decided to model a prompt and talk through my thought process. I wrote out a prompt for myself: “Do you like school? Why?”
It is a very basic question because I wanted her to focus more on the structure than how I was answering the question. I talked through pre-writing (my thesis and topic sentences one, two and three, then began the writing. I explained to her that pre-writing is helpful because it allows me to organize my thoughts and see the bones of the paper to come. I began writing a four-sentence intro paragraph, showing how to start broad, then narrow. I modeled the rest of the paper then asked her if she had any questions. She seemed to understand. Next, I wrote out a guideline for her to follow when she writes her paper:
Intro:
Body 1: (Topic Sentence 1)
Body 2: (Topic Sentence 2)
Body 3: (Topic Sentence 3)
Conclusion:
After I gave her this worksheet, I gave her the next prompt from the OGT writing book and we worked through it together. Finally, the next week I gave her a third and final prompt and she wrote a flawless essay in exactly the format she was supposed to. By modeling the strategy and working one on one with a visual graph of what was expected, she finally understood the material.
In the end, I wrote out on a paper to remember to be formal and to keep focused on what the question was asking, because those were two important ideas to keep in mind that she kept forgetting. Repetition, modeling and scaffolding were overall the three most important techniques I used in tutoring this student, and all three led to my student’s success.
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