Question: How help students develop study skills?
10-second review: Prepare videotape for each content class showing the use of study skills with the actual materials being used in that class.
Source: MF O'Hear. College Composition and Communication (October 1977), 277-279. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Comment: The content-area teacher will probably say, “That’s doing it for the students.” I say, “It’s teaching.” RayS.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Topic: Speeds of Reading Silently and Aloud
Question: What is the relationship between speed of reading aloud and reading silently?
10-second review: "It is of interest to note that the rates of 250-300 words per minute...as more-or-less 'maximal' rates for silent reading, correspond closely to the fastest rates at which trained readers can read aloud."
Source: TG Sticht in Understanding Reading Comprehension. J Flood, ed. Newark, DE, 1984, p. 150.
Comment: Seems to imply that the way students read aloud is the way they read silently. I would suggest that students who do not read aloud well, halting, stumbling, etc., be given training in fluency. Teacher and student read aloud together. Students re-read the same short piece of material repeatedly until they can read it smoothly and effortlessly and with expression. RayS.
10-second review: "It is of interest to note that the rates of 250-300 words per minute...as more-or-less 'maximal' rates for silent reading, correspond closely to the fastest rates at which trained readers can read aloud."
Source: TG Sticht in Understanding Reading Comprehension. J Flood, ed. Newark, DE, 1984, p. 150.
Comment: Seems to imply that the way students read aloud is the way they read silently. I would suggest that students who do not read aloud well, halting, stumbling, etc., be given training in fluency. Teacher and student read aloud together. Students re-read the same short piece of material repeatedly until they can read it smoothly and effortlessly and with expression. RayS.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Topic: Teachers' Questions
Question: What kinds of questions do teachers usually ask?
10-second review: Evidence from previous research suggests that teachers in all academic disciplines are given to using low-level factual questions.
Source: RA Lucking. Research in the Teaching of English (Winter 1976), 269. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Comment. Other types of questions: questions to which both students and teachers do NOT know the answers and work together to find the answers. Open-ended questions that can have a variety of possible answers. REAL questions to which students want to find the answers. Questions that begin lessons and units. RayS.
10-second review: Evidence from previous research suggests that teachers in all academic disciplines are given to using low-level factual questions.
Source: RA Lucking. Research in the Teaching of English (Winter 1976), 269. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Comment. Other types of questions: questions to which both students and teachers do NOT know the answers and work together to find the answers. Open-ended questions that can have a variety of possible answers. REAL questions to which students want to find the answers. Questions that begin lessons and units. RayS.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Topic: Research Paper
Question: How prepare students for writing a research paper?
10-second review: Author suggests using the familiar FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) format—questions followed by answers—to prepare for writing the traditional research paper. The Q & A will include the information the student has found before writing the actual research paper.
Suggests the FAQ format also as a method for introducing students to the research process with students' questions about the research process answered by the teacher in writing.
Source: J Strickland. English Journal (September 2004), 23-28. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Comment: I think both suggestions are excellent. The second FAQ should help to answer the students’ many questions about the research process. The first FAQ should give both teachers and students an understanding of what students have learned from their research. I wish I had used both ideas. RayS.
10-second review: Author suggests using the familiar FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) format—questions followed by answers—to prepare for writing the traditional research paper. The Q & A will include the information the student has found before writing the actual research paper.
Suggests the FAQ format also as a method for introducing students to the research process with students' questions about the research process answered by the teacher in writing.
Source: J Strickland. English Journal (September 2004), 23-28. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Comment: I think both suggestions are excellent. The second FAQ should help to answer the students’ many questions about the research process. The first FAQ should give both teachers and students an understanding of what students have learned from their research. I wish I had used both ideas. RayS.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Topic: Reading in Secondary Schools
Question: What is the attitude of secondary teachers in subjects other than English about helping their students read?
10-second review: Secondary teacher: "I'm not a reading teacher; students should already know how to read when they get to middle school. My job is to teach them social studies content." The author responds by suggesting the steps in the directed reading assignment.
Source: DD Massey & TL Heafner. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (September 2004), pp. 26-40. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Comment: The social studies teacher is right. Her job is to teach the ideas in social studies. But for students the topic of the reading assignment is probably unfamiliar. Some of the vocabulary is probably also unfamiliar. And students need to know what to look for as they read. The social studies teacher can help students read what is unfamiliar and difficult.
The author calls using the directed reading assignment "teaching reading." I disagree. Teaching reading to me is teaching reading skills directly, finding main ideas, details, inferring, etc. For me, using the directed reading assignment in content areas is not teaching reading, but helping students succeed with specific reading assignments that are difficult to read.
The directed reading assignment consists of four steps: building the students’ background knowledge of the topic to be read about because the more students know about the topic, the better they will understand what they read about it; pre-teaching unfamiliar vocabulary; setting purpose for reading (questions developed by the students after reading the first paragraph, the first sentence of each intermediate paragraph and the last, summary paragraph) and having students apply or extend the ideas that they have read. RayS.
Jargon Watch:
“Content area teachers”: Teachers of subjects other than English, social studies, science, etc.
“Pre-teaching vocabulary”: Teaching unfamiliar words before students read the chapter.
10-second review: Secondary teacher: "I'm not a reading teacher; students should already know how to read when they get to middle school. My job is to teach them social studies content." The author responds by suggesting the steps in the directed reading assignment.
Source: DD Massey & TL Heafner. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (September 2004), pp. 26-40. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Comment: The social studies teacher is right. Her job is to teach the ideas in social studies. But for students the topic of the reading assignment is probably unfamiliar. Some of the vocabulary is probably also unfamiliar. And students need to know what to look for as they read. The social studies teacher can help students read what is unfamiliar and difficult.
The author calls using the directed reading assignment "teaching reading." I disagree. Teaching reading to me is teaching reading skills directly, finding main ideas, details, inferring, etc. For me, using the directed reading assignment in content areas is not teaching reading, but helping students succeed with specific reading assignments that are difficult to read.
The directed reading assignment consists of four steps: building the students’ background knowledge of the topic to be read about because the more students know about the topic, the better they will understand what they read about it; pre-teaching unfamiliar vocabulary; setting purpose for reading (questions developed by the students after reading the first paragraph, the first sentence of each intermediate paragraph and the last, summary paragraph) and having students apply or extend the ideas that they have read. RayS.
Jargon Watch:
“Content area teachers”: Teachers of subjects other than English, social studies, science, etc.
“Pre-teaching vocabulary”: Teaching unfamiliar words before students read the chapter.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Topic: Questions
10-second review: What kinds of questions do we ask? John Searle: There are two kinds of questions, (a) real questions, (b) exam questions. In real questions “S” wants to know (find out) the answer; in exam questions, “T” wants to know if “S” knows the answer.
Source: WB Horner. College Composition and Communication (May 79), 169.A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Comment: Nothing motivates students like real questions, questions to which the teacher and students do not know the answer. But close to “real” questions are questions that students ask about the topic of the day or the unit, which helps the teacher focus the content of the unit. RayS.
Source: WB Horner. College Composition and Communication (May 79), 169.A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Comment: Nothing motivates students like real questions, questions to which the teacher and students do not know the answer. But close to “real” questions are questions that students ask about the topic of the day or the unit, which helps the teacher focus the content of the unit. RayS.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Topic: Literature
10-second review: Why study literature? "Our focus should be on helping children learn from literature about themselves, about their lives, about the lives of others."
Source: H Mills, et al. Language Arts (September. 2004), 51. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Comment: There are a number of reasons for reading literature. One reason for reading novels is information. Many contemporary novels tell about hospitals, law, and other professions in addition to telling a story. James Michener is one example of writers who provide a great deal of information in telling stories. Reading for the story itself is another reason. People love to read stories. Reading to relate the story to one’s life is a reason for reading literature. Reading to understand experience emotionally is a reason for reading poetry. Reading to understand the use of language in literature is the reason for explicating (New Critics). But I think that the reason most students who are not English majors will give for reading literature is to add vicarious experience to their own lives.
Reading literature to relate to the readers’ own lives and to learn about the lives of others are really the only reasons for most students to read literature. The trouble is that most English teachers teach their students as if they are going to be English majors. That means they concentrate on explicating the literary work without regard for personal experience. RayS.
Source: H Mills, et al. Language Arts (September. 2004), 51. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Comment: There are a number of reasons for reading literature. One reason for reading novels is information. Many contemporary novels tell about hospitals, law, and other professions in addition to telling a story. James Michener is one example of writers who provide a great deal of information in telling stories. Reading for the story itself is another reason. People love to read stories. Reading to relate the story to one’s life is a reason for reading literature. Reading to understand experience emotionally is a reason for reading poetry. Reading to understand the use of language in literature is the reason for explicating (New Critics). But I think that the reason most students who are not English majors will give for reading literature is to add vicarious experience to their own lives.
Reading literature to relate to the readers’ own lives and to learn about the lives of others are really the only reasons for most students to read literature. The trouble is that most English teachers teach their students as if they are going to be English majors. That means they concentrate on explicating the literary work without regard for personal experience. RayS.
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