As seen in the prior blog, Tovani believes as well do I, that there should be multiple ways to assess a student. The first example was assessing strategy use: a way in which the professor can see if they are honestly trying and thinking.
Another way to assess student's efforts is through goal setting. A goal should be set by each student and throughout the school year the student and the teacher should proceed forth in small conferences where they discuss their progress. Examples of goals that students have made in the past are:
1) Finishing a book more than 150 pages long
2) Reading a new genre
3) Learning two new strategies to keep the mind from wandering while completing a dull text.
Conversation calenders, being another way to assess the thinking process, involves a short question or comment for each day. This can help a teacher to get to know there students on a personal level. By knowing the students on a personal level the teacher is more efficient at making the content relevant to their passions. By making the content relate to their passions we prep the grounds for them making connections to their personal life on their own and show the relevancy. By making their own connections they are able to come to their own translation and able to ask questions back to the text.
My favorite assessment is the response logs. Tovani allows the students to read any book that their heart may desire and to summarize what they have read once a week. To go past the point of summarizing, she also asks them to respond to the text. Once you respond and ask questions towards a text you are truly making it your experience, your translation of the text.
She also considers collection of work samples to observe the students progress and to use as examples for the next round of students.This is a great idea since this will also allow the teacher to grade themselves and to see if they need to make any modifications for the coming year. Since we forget how it was to learn this material for the first time we may throw out new material in a fashion that goes right past them.
Another aspect that was mentioned in an earlier chapter had to do with the voices in your head. She finds there to be two voices: one being the reciting and the other being conversation voice.
1) Reciting reading involves reading through a text while thinking about other things. So you are speed racing through a text but what will you remember.
2) Conversation voice is where the student is being proactive with the text they are asking so what, the relevancy, making connections and asking questions.
Therefore learning how to read and take in information and respond back to the text are vital for fully comprehending text.
The most crucial and essential point that I took away from this text is that we will never have
all the answers but as a teacher it is our duty to find and supply
the student with the proper resources and to always be open for learning.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Ch 8: "The hardest part about reading is remembering what I've read"- Jessica, 9th grader
There used to be countless times for me where I did not comprehend or take in any of the information that I read from a text. For me it was all about the race, to not be the last one with my nose stuck in the book. I didn't want to be seen as a slow reader, I wanted to look smart. Well, if I was properly assessed I would not have looked smart at all.
Tovani (the author) has recognized the need for multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate thinking and understanding of a given text/material. There are different learning types and we need to come to amends with each of them to have a fair classroom where students can flourish.
An amazing quote in this text that is asked by a student is: "You know. Tests. You give us something to write about and we try to figure out what you want" (pg 102) This was asked when Tovani asked the student to specify on their term of an assessment. The part in this quote that sticks out to me the most is the part where the student says you give us something to write about and we try to figure out what you want. This is why I do not stand by multiple choice tests. On multiple choice tests I find myself asking what is the teacher trying to say here and from there, you are trying to evaluate what the teacher wants instead of what you take away from a certain text or the connection you received. This is why I am such a strong advocate for tests that require short answers and essays. Everyone processes a text differently and therefore interprets everything different so to try and merge all of the students into your translation of a certain text is not the most efficient way to assess the students.
Tovani has illustrated multiple ways to assess students over a school year. One way is by assessing in context, strategy by strategy. "If teachers want students to comprehend and actually use content from their classrooms, they need to show them how to be better thinkers about that content. A science teacher who wants to help students read, write, and think like a scientist has to have insight into the students' thinking processes, not just what they know about mitosis" -Tovani (pg 104). Modeling has appeared to be a large piece of the foundation to teaching students how to become better thinkers. Since students may be skeptical of this new concept of the students asking the questions, modeling can be seen as a huge attribute to calming the students and showing them exactly what you are expecting.
Ways to assess students' thinking can be challenging so here is an example to help:
1) Activation of Background Knowledge: can students use their background information to make connections to the new text.
2) Student questioning the text: Students should be questioning the validity/ reliability of a given text, ask in-depth questions.
3) Drawing conclusions and making inferences: can a student link background connections to the text to help draw logical conclusions or explanations to an event.
4) Monitoring comprehension and using fix-up strategies: can students recognize signals that indicate that they are confused, do students know how to become unstuck?
5) Determining importance in text: do students know the reasons for reading.
This is a way to assess students to see if the are improving overtime to see if they can move to the next step.
Tovani (the author) has recognized the need for multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate thinking and understanding of a given text/material. There are different learning types and we need to come to amends with each of them to have a fair classroom where students can flourish.
An amazing quote in this text that is asked by a student is: "You know. Tests. You give us something to write about and we try to figure out what you want" (pg 102) This was asked when Tovani asked the student to specify on their term of an assessment. The part in this quote that sticks out to me the most is the part where the student says you give us something to write about and we try to figure out what you want. This is why I do not stand by multiple choice tests. On multiple choice tests I find myself asking what is the teacher trying to say here and from there, you are trying to evaluate what the teacher wants instead of what you take away from a certain text or the connection you received. This is why I am such a strong advocate for tests that require short answers and essays. Everyone processes a text differently and therefore interprets everything different so to try and merge all of the students into your translation of a certain text is not the most efficient way to assess the students.
Tovani has illustrated multiple ways to assess students over a school year. One way is by assessing in context, strategy by strategy. "If teachers want students to comprehend and actually use content from their classrooms, they need to show them how to be better thinkers about that content. A science teacher who wants to help students read, write, and think like a scientist has to have insight into the students' thinking processes, not just what they know about mitosis" -Tovani (pg 104). Modeling has appeared to be a large piece of the foundation to teaching students how to become better thinkers. Since students may be skeptical of this new concept of the students asking the questions, modeling can be seen as a huge attribute to calming the students and showing them exactly what you are expecting.
Ways to assess students' thinking can be challenging so here is an example to help:
1) Activation of Background Knowledge: can students use their background information to make connections to the new text.
2) Student questioning the text: Students should be questioning the validity/ reliability of a given text, ask in-depth questions.
3) Drawing conclusions and making inferences: can a student link background connections to the text to help draw logical conclusions or explanations to an event.
4) Monitoring comprehension and using fix-up strategies: can students recognize signals that indicate that they are confused, do students know how to become unstuck?
5) Determining importance in text: do students know the reasons for reading.
This is a way to assess students to see if the are improving overtime to see if they can move to the next step.
Ch 7: The benefits of small groups
"I propose instead that we think of curriculum as a set of important conversations that we want students to engage in"- Arthur Applebee (pg 89). After reading this quote I was a bit skeptical with its implications: small groups. We have all had bad experiences with small groups where one member picks up all the slack while others hold on to the coat tails and get an A. From this standpoint one can see why my views aren't strongly supportive when it comes to small group work. Neither was Tovani (the author) when she first started out. She found herself being the referee and constantly trying to keep the students on track. She found herself wanting to give up but decided to do some more research on how to form better small groups since the research had such a positive outlook on small group work.
While looking for the answers she also came to find that the best way to address a mixed class of good, struggling and in-between readers was a small group setting. In this she formed groups of strugglers, with this one is able to address the individuals by giving them decoding tools to work TOGETHER on and therefore able to master this as a group instead of independently. Once they form a better grasp on the decoding skills she places them into the groups that are having more in-depth conversations on the subject.
She also knew that the feelings towards small groups is universal and that the students have a negative outlook on certain components of small groups as well. To address this properly norms have to be enstated that both the teacher and students agree on and honor. Along with these norms the teacher puts down how they will accommodate the issue as well as the students themselves. By forming these responsibilities everyone is aware of what is expected.
To show a better model of what was expected from the students she received assistance from another teacher and performed a "fishbowl" model. A "fishbowl" model is when the teachers in this case model certain behaviors while the students record what they observe. After the presentation, the students give their feedback and come to a better understanding of what is expected and how certain behaviors come off to another.
Small group discussions also assists in helping one before writing a paper. When one is able to collaborate on their translation of the material they are also rehearsing and constructing connections to use for their papers. Small groups are also essential to showing students how it is in the real world where small group discussions is a necessity. By showing them how to form conversations, to ask questions, and give input we are giving them skills that they will be using for the rest of their lives.
By supplying and agreeing on the norms for the small groups and modeling common issues in groups the students come to a better understanding of what is expected and how to bring their best to a group. They learned the importance of bringing the material to every meeting, making eye contact, and making connections and taking notes on the material before the meetings among other things. In this I think the most important component is taking notes and bringing questions to the small group discussions. This allows for conversation starters and starts the group off at the same point. It is very hard to hold a conversation in a small group setting if no one knows the material. All in all, by showing the necessities and forming the norms with the students forms hopes of having successful small group work/discussions for all.
While looking for the answers she also came to find that the best way to address a mixed class of good, struggling and in-between readers was a small group setting. In this she formed groups of strugglers, with this one is able to address the individuals by giving them decoding tools to work TOGETHER on and therefore able to master this as a group instead of independently. Once they form a better grasp on the decoding skills she places them into the groups that are having more in-depth conversations on the subject.
She also knew that the feelings towards small groups is universal and that the students have a negative outlook on certain components of small groups as well. To address this properly norms have to be enstated that both the teacher and students agree on and honor. Along with these norms the teacher puts down how they will accommodate the issue as well as the students themselves. By forming these responsibilities everyone is aware of what is expected.
To show a better model of what was expected from the students she received assistance from another teacher and performed a "fishbowl" model. A "fishbowl" model is when the teachers in this case model certain behaviors while the students record what they observe. After the presentation, the students give their feedback and come to a better understanding of what is expected and how certain behaviors come off to another.
Small group discussions also assists in helping one before writing a paper. When one is able to collaborate on their translation of the material they are also rehearsing and constructing connections to use for their papers. Small groups are also essential to showing students how it is in the real world where small group discussions is a necessity. By showing them how to form conversations, to ask questions, and give input we are giving them skills that they will be using for the rest of their lives.
By supplying and agreeing on the norms for the small groups and modeling common issues in groups the students come to a better understanding of what is expected and how to bring their best to a group. They learned the importance of bringing the material to every meeting, making eye contact, and making connections and taking notes on the material before the meetings among other things. In this I think the most important component is taking notes and bringing questions to the small group discussions. This allows for conversation starters and starts the group off at the same point. It is very hard to hold a conversation in a small group setting if no one knows the material. All in all, by showing the necessities and forming the norms with the students forms hopes of having successful small group work/discussions for all.
Ch 6: Getting the students to ask the questions
"If students become invisible, does it mean we no longer have the responsibility to teach them"-Tovani (pg 74). This is a question that I have seen two main responses to through my experiences. I have heard that no matter what you strive to help the student and access him the best resources possible. I have also heard that if you try to help every student, especially the invisible ones that you will burn out; it is not worth it. For me personally I strive to help every student in the classroom. With my subbing experience I found myself at a school with challenging students. I was to hand out the math worksheets and allow the students to work on them. But I didn't stop there; I walked from group to group and glanced at their worksheets. When I found a blank worksheet I would ask if they had any questions. The students would either say yes and I would walk through the problem with them or they would say no. If they said no I would make my rounds and come back to that student to see if they had made any progress. If they hadn't I would go through a problem with them and watch them do the next one. My standing there with the student they realized two things: that they had to do their work even when the teacher wasn't present, and they were able to ask me any question and I would walk through the problem with them judgment free. When I say judgment free I mean not seeing any question as a dumb question. I remember this being my biggest fear when I was a student in middle and high school and I didn't want my peers or teachers to think that I was stupid so I was scared to ask questions. The truth about this, that I later learned, is that more than likely someone else is wondering the same thing.
Tovani tackles this issue by teaching students to ask questions and to respond to texts. This is new for many students since teachers usually ask the questions and the students answer them. To do this it takes a lot of practice on the students part and tangible models from their peers. To improve as a reader and writer one needs to be given an OPPORTUNITY to read and write. All through high school I turned in papers and received a grade and turned in papers and received a grade. It wasn't til my freshman year in college that I met a professor that said all of our papers were horrible but that we were going to go through them sentence by sentence, and we did. This was the first teacher that I had that didn't just hand a paper back but actually took the time and effort to hop off of the curriculum and moved at the students pace. This is called TEACHING students.
Tovani goes on to ask the students to make their own connections, to make their own sensory images with a text. The students first response is what sensory images should I be having. She tells them that they are to make their own connections through the text.
Through these skills she is giving them the essential tools that will allow the students to hold their thinking and allow them to remember and reuse what they have read and learned.
Tovani tackles this issue by teaching students to ask questions and to respond to texts. This is new for many students since teachers usually ask the questions and the students answer them. To do this it takes a lot of practice on the students part and tangible models from their peers. To improve as a reader and writer one needs to be given an OPPORTUNITY to read and write. All through high school I turned in papers and received a grade and turned in papers and received a grade. It wasn't til my freshman year in college that I met a professor that said all of our papers were horrible but that we were going to go through them sentence by sentence, and we did. This was the first teacher that I had that didn't just hand a paper back but actually took the time and effort to hop off of the curriculum and moved at the students pace. This is called TEACHING students.
Tovani goes on to ask the students to make their own connections, to make their own sensory images with a text. The students first response is what sensory images should I be having. She tells them that they are to make their own connections through the text.
Through these skills she is giving them the essential tools that will allow the students to hold their thinking and allow them to remember and reuse what they have read and learned.
Ch5: Viewing reading as a race
A student comes to Tovani (author) and tells her that her reading has become worse and she has become slower. The student states: "I have to slow down because everything you are asking us to do requires me to think"-Lisa, varsity cheerleader and honor student (pg 51). It wasn't too long ago when I am I bet a few of you, would race through our texts because we didn't want to be the last one with our nose in the book. We didn't want people to think that we were slow readers. Even though we were able to speed race our eyes along every line didn't necessarily mean that we absorbed any of the material. It also didn't help that I never saw the purpose in reading until I found a book that I could fall inside of. My junior year in high school I would lock myself away in my bedroom and read the Harry Potter books until my parents found it necessary for me to come downstairs and to socialize with the real world. I finally found my purpose to read, which was to get away from the hustle and bustle of the real world and to enter a dimension where I was not required to be or do anything.
In high school students are told to read but they aren't always told the purpose behind the reading. When reading a text for the first time without a purpose, people tend to pay attention to the plot, the action. Now let's say that you assign a novel for the students to read and after they are done reading you ask them to go back and reread to find how the main character changed throughout the story. Rarely will a student go back and reread the novel; therefore the student will go off of their memory. But the student was primarily paying attention to the plot not the main character. If we were to go back and tell the students the purpose for reading the novel they will be able to present a better supportive paper. "When we share a clear instructional purpose, we give our students a lens through which to read the piece"-Tovani (pg 58). For us we are are able to form purposes to read a certain text but for young readers they may have not formed these purposes yet. By assisting them through forming a more limited scope we are allowing them to comprehend the novel through a particular perspective verse the student trying to memorize everything in the book and eventually giving up with regards to the plethora of information. By giving them the purposes now we are allowing them to comprehend the material better and forming confidence that will later allow them to form their own purposes. Once they are able to form their own purposes they will be the ones tracking a particular character through a book, or asking themselves if they agree with Darwin's explanation of natural selection. We are forming a foundation so that one day they can take the reigns and ask the questions.
In high school students are told to read but they aren't always told the purpose behind the reading. When reading a text for the first time without a purpose, people tend to pay attention to the plot, the action. Now let's say that you assign a novel for the students to read and after they are done reading you ask them to go back and reread to find how the main character changed throughout the story. Rarely will a student go back and reread the novel; therefore the student will go off of their memory. But the student was primarily paying attention to the plot not the main character. If we were to go back and tell the students the purpose for reading the novel they will be able to present a better supportive paper. "When we share a clear instructional purpose, we give our students a lens through which to read the piece"-Tovani (pg 58). For us we are are able to form purposes to read a certain text but for young readers they may have not formed these purposes yet. By assisting them through forming a more limited scope we are allowing them to comprehend the novel through a particular perspective verse the student trying to memorize everything in the book and eventually giving up with regards to the plethora of information. By giving them the purposes now we are allowing them to comprehend the material better and forming confidence that will later allow them to form their own purposes. Once they are able to form their own purposes they will be the ones tracking a particular character through a book, or asking themselves if they agree with Darwin's explanation of natural selection. We are forming a foundation so that one day they can take the reigns and ask the questions.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Ch4: "...We focus too much on teaching our curriculum and don't devote enough time to teaching our students"- Rick
"If the reading is too hard, I just get the Cliffs Notes or skim through chapters. If I can't get the Cliffs Notes, I just listen to what the teacher and kids in the class say."- Jay, high school sophomore.
I can personally relate to this quote. It was uncommon for me to have trouble with a book and for me to borrow someone's Cliffs Notes before taking a test. But what did this do for me in the long run? I ended up cheating myself out of building up my literacy which became prevalent when I came to college. Finding college readings to be more diverse and complex than high school readings. In college I had to learn how to comprehend, and ask questions on research papers for biology classes. At first I found this to be very intimidating since I didn't want to ask a dump question, but I later came to find out that everyone else was asking the exact same questions.
In this chapter the author finds that rigor reads aren't necessary for helping students succeed. Instead the reading needs to be fitted to the students so that they can work on a challenging level to where they can decode the text and still ask questions. If the material is too complex students will not be able to ask questions and will give up. It was also found in a study that "Students care more when they are encouraged to think, when they are challenged to an intellectual wrestling match"- Hyde & Bizar (1989). Students like to feel included and intelligent if we give them a text that they are unable to comprehend even in the smallest sense then we are just lowering their self-esteem and prolonging the inability for the student to work on their comprehension and fluency.
It is also complementary to have text sets which consist of accessible texts that support the current reading or study in the classroom. This allows the student to be exposed to a broad spectrum of readings and helps them to understand the primary reading. For instance, when I had to read The Odyssey I found the text to be a hard read even though we went over it in class and got to watch the movie. Tovani (the author) suggests having a Text Set available in the classroom for books just like The Odyssey. For The Odyssey she suggests reads that illustrate the gods, heroes, and monsters, historical books from the book’s time period, a map of Greece, etc. Such resources will help educate the students past the information seen in this text and build a foundation of background information which will in turn help to make the book an easier read.
Ways that I could use this in my biology class is by finding current research papers on hot topics, historically famous research papers, anatomy books with illustrations and comparisons, bibliographies are profound scientists, and journals. This way I am exposing and preparing my students for a broader spectrum of readings and showing them the relevance of biology in the real world.
Ch 3 "If someone could teach these kids how to read, I could teach them science." -Melanie
In this chapter, the author starts off explaining how the content from subject to subject is different from one another. For example science teaches you to read charts, diagrams, graphs and interpreting data; social studies teaches you cause and effect; while math teaches you how to break down a word problem; and english teaches you how to decode poetry and complex stories/plays. Now relating back to the quote in the title: "If someone could teach these kids how to read, I could teach them science."-Melanie, high school science teacher, we see that each content area teaches us a different form of literacy that pertains to that subject. Therefore a student can excel in english to where they interpret Shakespearean plays with an ease but they struggle when it comes to word problems. This all has to do with different approaches that are taken between the subjects. The strategy that we use to decode a Shakespearean play is different from the strategy used to break down a word problem. Therefore it is necessary for every teacher to teach students how to better comprehend the material in their particular subject be it math or social studies.
To see how each content area teacher goes about reading/decoding a text she observed each area as they read a text within their field. What I found to be most surprising was when she talked about how the math and science teachers go about decoding their texts. The science teachers observed the tables, graphs, and diagrams, then moved on to the abstract and skips around from there. The math teacher reads through a word problem and then writes down what information they have and what information they are missing and/or trying to find. Each of these procedures is exactly what I find myself doing within the given content areas. With science I like to get a little peek of what kind of study I am looking at and I weigh a lot of my interest, towards an article, based on the graphs, tables, and diagrams. On the other hand with math, I have been tutoring this subject for about 5 years and over the years I have found this to be the best way to make a horrifyingly ugly word problem look like a piece of cake. When I was younger I remember my Dad pulling his hair out when I wasn't comprehending the word problems. I would just freak out with the site of them; I found them to be in a different language. Later on when I took Calculus in high school I met someone that taught me to slow it down and to just look for what we know and what we don't know and to go from there.
The author goes on to state that we were not always experts we all started somewhere and this is where we need to start when we are teaching our students. When we are able to relate to our students and break down the process that we use, the students will come to ease and will hopefully not blank out when they see a word problem on their next math test. Also we need to encourage them to ASK QUESTIONS to themselves when they are reading a given text and aloud in the classroom. I think by being the model in your approach to a text in your content area, and letting them know that you were not always an expert will help the students open up to you and feel free to ask questions.
To see how each content area teacher goes about reading/decoding a text she observed each area as they read a text within their field. What I found to be most surprising was when she talked about how the math and science teachers go about decoding their texts. The science teachers observed the tables, graphs, and diagrams, then moved on to the abstract and skips around from there. The math teacher reads through a word problem and then writes down what information they have and what information they are missing and/or trying to find. Each of these procedures is exactly what I find myself doing within the given content areas. With science I like to get a little peek of what kind of study I am looking at and I weigh a lot of my interest, towards an article, based on the graphs, tables, and diagrams. On the other hand with math, I have been tutoring this subject for about 5 years and over the years I have found this to be the best way to make a horrifyingly ugly word problem look like a piece of cake. When I was younger I remember my Dad pulling his hair out when I wasn't comprehending the word problems. I would just freak out with the site of them; I found them to be in a different language. Later on when I took Calculus in high school I met someone that taught me to slow it down and to just look for what we know and what we don't know and to go from there.
The author goes on to state that we were not always experts we all started somewhere and this is where we need to start when we are teaching our students. When we are able to relate to our students and break down the process that we use, the students will come to ease and will hopefully not blank out when they see a word problem on their next math test. Also we need to encourage them to ASK QUESTIONS to themselves when they are reading a given text and aloud in the classroom. I think by being the model in your approach to a text in your content area, and letting them know that you were not always an expert will help the students open up to you and feel free to ask questions.
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