I really enjoyed this chapter. In my placement my host teacher lectures primarily; there is very little student centered learning. This seems to be an issue. The students are spending too much time listening to her talk about the subject at hand instead of working collaboratively in order to develop those crucial critical thinking skills. I love that Gallagher talked about Nancy Atwell's roles of a teacher: "mentor, mediator, and model." I hope to be all three to my students in the future. I do not want to be that talking head at the front of the classroom; I want to be in the trenches of learning with my students. Gallagher also discusses "framing" and giving a lense to students before they start a reading assignment. By framing the text you are giving the students a purpose for reading it and guiding them down a particular path, especially when working with those difficult texts. "By the nature of their difficulty, they require a teacher's presence, and if readicide is to be avoided, this presence should be asserted before students encounter page one. (Just one of the reasons I do not like hard/difficult texts assigned for summer reading.) Give a lense for students like, "pay attention to symbolism," so that they can place their efforts of understanding to one particular literary aspect instead of trying to find every little thing or not paying attention at all.
I also enjoyed the tips he gave for close reading:
1. Read with a pencil in hand to annotate the text (I write in books all the time)
2. Look for patterns--repetitions, contradictions, and similarities.
3. Ask questions about the patterns you noticed--especially how and why.
I will be using the tips with the 9th graders, who are now doing a close reading of certain sections of To Kill a Mockingbird.
The best way to teach these BIG novels or canonical texts is BIG chuck/little chunk: look at the text as whole...what meaning get you glean? and then look at some of the most important little parts to see how they relate to the whole!
I LOVE LITERATURE! and Kelly Gallagher gives very realistic and useful tips!
I liked the read with a pencil idea too. Melissa Wood wrote in her blog a little about that too where you would write on sticky notes as you went so that if you had to write about it you could put out the sticky notes like a "brainstorming" thing and group your thoughts. I thought that was helpful. Unfortunately with your host teacher, I bet they are feeling the stress too of getting everything covered and I know from teaching that it is hard to do some of the activities or collaborative stuff because of how time consuming it can sometimes be. One thing to think about is that if that type of teaching isn't working and if they aren't learning it then aren't we wasting our time? I guess I would rather my students know 10 topics really really well because we actually took time to investigate it than for them to know that we went over 20 topics but not remember a lick of it. Make sense?
ReplyDeleteAshley, I too like the tips Mr. Gallagher gives us in this chapter. As a history teacher the readings we give to our students are usually shorter in length, anywhere from one to five pages typically, but these tips are nonetheless relevant in my discipline.
ReplyDeleteI actually used some of these in my placement this past week, and I thought it went really well. The students were reading a primary source pertaining to the Aztec ritual of human sacrifice. When I began my lesson I framed it by telling the class I had two goals. First, I wanted them to understand how to ready primary sources, and secondly, I wanted them to understand the context of the material, so they could comprehend what it told us about Aztec society. Once the kids had read over the text by themselves I showed them my copy of the handout. It was covered in highlights and notes. I told them highlighting and note taking was a great technique they could use when reading a document like this. As soon as I said this a number of students took out their pens and began marking up the text. I also used another technique of Gallagher's I began by reading the text aloud to the class. I did this to show the students my thought process when I read a primary source. Overall the lesson went really well. The students stayed involved and by the end had a great understanding for the text.
I loved this chapter. It provided many tips that would be useful in any classroom. The ones I have used in the class, my students have responded positively to.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have your have your own classroom you will sometimes be lecturing. You have to find a happy medium, because there will be a lot that your students won't know. You will have to provide some background knowledge for your students. Don't expect your kids to come in knowing how to work in collaborative groups. You will spend a lot of time training them at the beginning. I don't want to be Debbie Downer, but I want you to know what to expect.