Friday, January 30, 2004 – Seventh
Class Session
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Design Framework:
Cooperative Learning Groups – Base Group and Establish Content Groups |
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Equipment needed:
Tables session/ upfront chairs/ VCR / Computer and Projector |
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Materials needed: Entry poster, Agenda map, Table
tents for Content Groups / Sample Participation Rubric / Form for creating
Participation Rubric / Checklist for Adolescent Characteristics Summary /
Group worksheet for Tovani book, A brief Glossary
of Literacy Development |
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Assumptions about Learners: They have prior experiences
describing/observing participation.
However, they will be asked to assemble a participation rubric that
can be used in the Participation Paper.
They are probably a little confused about how to proceed on the
Summary of Adolescent Characteristics—checklist could be a road map. |
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Agenda: Feedback on Ginger Letter; Creation of Participation
Rubric; Level II Professional Abilities; Choice of Choice of Assignment Plan;
Checklist for Adolescent Characteristics; Unit 2 options; Enter Content
Groups for beginning discussion of Comprehension Strategies; Next Steps… |
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Timeline: |
Looks Like… |
Sounds Like… |
Multiple intelligences |
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Explain
plan for the day—Agenda Provide a
visual map with icons of today’s work and purposes behind activity. (Probably use an overhead) |
Thinking
Like a Teacher….Part II Ginger
Letter Participation
Rubric Assignment
Choices Adolescent
Characteristics Summary Introduce
Unit 2 options Content
Groups for Comprehension Strategies Next
Steps |
Visual Verbal |
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We’ll
begin with revisiting the importance of “thinking like a teacher” in the
Block by Leslie giving feedback on the Giver Letters. |
You were
asked right from the beginning to begin “thinking like teachers” in the
Block—rather than seeing yourselves as students. I want to give you feedback on your Giver
letters that were returned to you last class session. I was
impressed by your sincerity. It was
just a writing assignment, but you affirmed Ginger’s thinking about and
reacting to what she read in The Giver. I was interested in how many of you chose
to share a personal struggle of your own.
This legitimizes what Ginger is experiencing—and again affirms her
choices. When teachers of adolescents
do this, they invite TRUST. Watch out
for simple errors in spelling, apostrophes!
You are modeling the strengths in writing as you respond or
communicate with both your students and their parents. If you are careless, you will be amazed how
it will come back to bite you! Even when
writing personally to someone, be intentional about addressing “you.” Be sure you are not being “preachy.” Usually using the image of we human beings
are in this together—us, we. This is a
judgment call. What
struck me in your letters was that you cared enough to respond on a personal
level. Now—feedback
from you—How was this assignment for you?
How did it go for you? |
Verbal Intrapersonal |
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Students
will begin class at the tables in Base Groups. They will be asked to “process” their work
together as a group over the past 5 class sessions. These are elements of participation in
small group. They will be given a
sample of a participation rubric |
Remember
how we created base groups—from the learning style inventory? Take a look at the learning style descriptors.
Use your highlighters – pink to
represent what is most like you; green to indicate those behaviors that are
next strongest. Now share your sheets
with your group members. These are
your group resources. How well were
you able to use them in the first weeks of this semester? When we
began the discussion of Lowry’s The
Giver, you were assigned roles within your Base Groups in order to
facilitate the process. There were the
Discussion leaders, the Reporter, and the two Process Observers. Now it is
time to review how you have worked together over the semester so far. Think about your sharing of perspectives on
the novel, about your creation of the Giver principles, and the “How We Want
Our Class to Be.” How have you worked
together? Process Observers—make your
observations. Then leader and
reporter—add you two cents worth! Now take
a look at the sample participation rubrics from another Education class. We need to create a rubric for
participation in the Block. Those of
you who chose to do the Participation Paper for 50 points will use the rubric
to guide your self assessment and that of a partner. We will also use our Block rubric to guide
future process observers in giving feedback on participation. Use the
blank participation form to create categories worth observing for persons
striving to be teachers. Put those categories in the first column on the
left. Then
create some phrases, words that identify visible behaviors in each of the
quality criteria—excellent, proficient, developing proficiency. |
Interpersonal Verbal Naturalistic |
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Students
will move up to the front for a presentation on the Choice of Assignment
Plan. Scott will coach them on the
importance of making choices—what his best advice is. |
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Visual Verbal Intrapesonal Movement |
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Students
will work with their partners in examining the Checklist format for guiding
the synthesis of Adolescent Characteristics.
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Last
Monday you received guidelines for creating a summary of Adolescent
Characteristics. Since you haven’t
done this sort of thing before, you may be a little confused about how to go
about the task. Be aware that you
actually see this kind of summarizing all the time—in newspapers, magazines,
your textbooks. For example, in
Given’s book there are several matrix summaries that reinforce what was
presented in the text, AND it provides a quick reference tool. In Brandt’ book he does a checklist, so to
speak, of the conditions of Powerful Learning. You have seen pie or flow charts in other
publications and perhaps mind maps too.
In
partners, take a look at the checklist I have provided you and discuss how
you might represent the characteristics that will be most important to
consider for “developmentally appropriate” instruction in your major content
area. You have 10 minutes for this
task. |
Visual Verbal Logical Interpersonal Move to
pairs |
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Scott
will demonstrate the options available from the Block Unit 2 website. |
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Visual Verbal Logical |
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BREAK |
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Movement |
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Students
will convene in new Content Area groups based on their Major areas. They will be guided in following the An
information sheet will be handed out that include some of the professional
language used in literacy/reading instruction found in the
Skills/Proficiencies section of the Unit 2 overview. These are from the Michigan Reading
Standards for Secondary Teachers. The list
will be connected to Tovani’s organizing structure—Rumelhart’s six cueing systems: Graphophonic cues Lexical
cues Syntactic
cues Semantic cues Pragmatic
cues |
Please
note on the screen your Content Area Groups.
To save some organizational time, I have assigned these groups for
now. We may want to make some
adjustments as we move through the semester so that sometimes you are working
in your minor content area, or focusing specifically on your field placement
content. Please
move back to the tables marked with table tents. You have
read the first three chapters of Tovani’s
book. As we
work on your reading assignments in the Block, I would appreciate you making
your before-class preparation visible.
Take your notes out. Some of
you may have quite naturally learned the skills of “fake reading” as Kris Tovani describes it.
One of the typical ways secondary teachers deal with this is to give
quizzes, or short answer essay tests.
The thinking is—if it counts for something, then they’ll do the
reading. If it doesn’t then they fake
it! Since we are here to prepare to be
professional teachers, I will not be giving you quizzes or traditional tests
to coerce you into reading. Instead, I
will give you real world tasks—or personal reflection tasks—that requires
that you USE the information that you have read. I may ask you to hand your reading notes in
occasionally so I can get a sense of the patterns of reading that is
occurring with the course’s texts. In early
elementary school we are introduced to literacy skills. Teachers are responsible for teaching us
the culture’s symbol systems—numbers and telling time, or counting money;
letters of the alphabet combined to make words, spelling those words, and
then forming those words into sentences.
We learn how to both read and write those words—and sometimes we are
encouraged to speak those words in describing our worlds. Do you remember how you learned to
read? When? Where? How? I’m
giving you a worksheet that includes some of the professional language that
describes ways that adolescent learners have learned to read as well as how you
will coach them to use strategies in your content area that that will help
them be successful in reading to learn! To
organize your discussion in this new group setting, I’m asking that you take
on some specific roles that are typical of “Reading Circles” structures. They foster group interdependence in accomplishing the work. “Initiator/Recorder” “Summarizer/Reporter” “Vocabulary/Strategy
Interpreter” “Checker/Encourager” “Illustrator/
Process Observer” – if assigned Now, take
the Reading Circle Reporting Worksheet and use the next 25 minutes to clarify
your responsibility for being teachers of reading. There are guiding questions on the
worksheet. We will do this in three
parts—following each reading assignment. |
Move to
tables Verbal Interpersonal Reflective Intrapersonal |
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Next
steps. Clarify the reading for Tovani, chapters 4-6. |
We will
need to come to a stopping place right now.
We will bridge from the early Tovani
chapters to the strategies most useful to teenage readers. As you read, focus on which strategies you could
use in your content area and how you would introduce them. Use the tri-highlighters to mark the text
with |
Visual Verbal |