D+Z 5+8

Chapter five of Subjects Matter is by far the most important of the book. Clearly Smokey D and Zemelman agree since it is highlighted almost entirely in dark grey. I earmarked about 10 of the 28 reading comprehension methods they named and am evening toying with using it this semester at North Providence High.

I was pretty impressed with most of the methods they mentioned. This and other learnings over the past year are completely helping shape the type of classroom "ecosystem" I hope to create. I'm really leaning towards lessons that are focused primarily in using different mediums to construct the past. For example, I'd really like to use the "frontloading with images" idea to begin a class period, follow with a lecture, pause for reflective tweeting on the lecture and end with a student presentation about current events.

I've really "drank the kool aid", I know.

But I really do see this multi-faceted, multi-dimensional and multi-level learning structure as a beneficial and intense way for students to interact with history.

Anyway like I was saying, I'd really like to use one of these methods from chapter 5 at North Providence...I'm really not sure if I'm an experienced enough teacher though...I'm pretty nervous already and I know I'll be even more nervous and sweaty (eww) the day of.

Another one of my favorite reading methods was the "written conversation" one...anyone think this is a good idea to try cold turkey? Do you think it would be inappropriate to use since we (students and I) are so new to each other?

Help me. Wahh.

Moving on...

Chapter eight was an informative chapter too. I would love to set up some workshop reading in my classroom. I'm not even sure I would require books; I think I would be ok with any written source that is more than a given number of pages. Also, I don't think I'd require logging the material to set up student/ teacher contracts...I might just have them talk about it briefly with a classmate...Sometimes for me logging sets up a "work" relationship instead of a "hobby" relationship.

I know they briefly mentioned that teachers consistently ask...what about time? where do I fit this into the 45 min of class time? So I thought maybe it could be a weekly workshop...but how long would you give out of class time? Can students read enough material in 15 min; I mean if so how long might it take them to finish one book? And would it be truly workshop or should it be content material they're reading?

I don't know yet....just questions that are in my head right now.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/550/three-miles  <---  really good listenin'

Strong Chapter 6

Just wanted to write that above since I'll be referring to it in this post and don't want to forget what it stands for.

So yeah, I think this method will be helpful for developing meaningful writing assignments. It was hard for me though because at the beginning of the chapter some of the token "boring" assignments actually sounded really interesting to me.

The ten design principles seem pretty solid to me as well although I do find a lot of them to be subjective to the teacher's personality and tastes. For example, topics that may be purposeful, inventive and meaningful to one may have little relevance in another's world. As I stated before, some of the first assignments had meaning to me whereas Strong saw them as uninspired.

I do like the design principle number four which is about assigning questions that elicit specific, immediate responses. It really is a good thing to keep in mind. It's important to be cautionary about assignments which don't focus on at least one specific question. It could create challenges to students in their reading comprehension and writing.

I also like the idea about give choices of writing assignments too; this helps empower students as well as give a level of differentiation to students.

In the list of sample assignments featuring the RAFT/CRAFT method, my heart pretty much melted at the R-square root A-whole number F-love letter T-explain our relationship....sooo adorable and almost made me want to teach math for a milli-second.

The case studies that followed were helpful...I like the propaganda assignment and thought it was really creative to format it as a obituary.

Lots of good stuff in this chapter about CRAFT...