Exactly three weeks ago my students were taking the first nine-weeks test. On October 6th they took a three-hour English test and the following day they took their 2-hour math test. I was shocked at how long it took them to complete a simple 50-question test. We ended up holding students from 9am until the last student was finished at 3:15…ridiculous. I witnessed my very students struggle to read five paragraph essays. It’s no wonder this is the case though. After looking at popular music videos and television shows, the graphics are constantly changed and many kids have become accustomed to mindless matter.
You may think ‘Where am I going with this????’ but in reality as teachers we need to ‘fight the good fight’ to implement strategies that promote deep understanding of the material as opposed to simply recall. As a first year teacher this task has been particularly difficult but chapter three has had some excellent strategies to teach material to a DOK level three or even four.
Even as a math teacher of students who are multiple grade levels behind in reading and writing I struggle with ensuring that my students comprehend material. One of the key strategies mentioned in this chapter that I tried to incorporate into my classroom is students summarizing what they’ve learned. This forces them to almost prepare a lesson that isn’t simply filling out a worksheet but rather going beyond the standard structure of lessons to summarize key ideas I’ve already taught.
The book describes in depth charting as a way to summarize key ideas. The example used in the book is for the teacher to guide students along the way to fill out chart relating different topics. Following that the students will create their own chart like the original one but for a new unit of study. One thing I’ve learned during my first year of teaching is that precise direction is key. I’ve definitely struggled with that and haven’t modeled things enough which creates a confused, and eventually misbehaving classroom.
I started trying this strategy about a week and a half ago in my classroom. During the early parts of October I was teaching my students about the different types of polygons – from Triangles to Decagons. We made a chart to graph the relationships and similarities between the types. The students really enjoyed completing this and although they still need much more modeling before they could accomplish this I am excited to cut them loose and have them try to create their own chart. I believe this is one of many new strategies that I will try to create a deeper understanding for all of my students.
Bill,
ReplyDeleteI think you are right about needing to challenge our kids to think on a higher level than just recall. Unfortunately, I've been struggling to decide if that should really be the case for my Physical Science kids. Most of the times they don't remember the standard recall stuff I give them, so I am not sure if challenging them is what I need to be doing at this point if they don't have the basics. I can't say I know what is best.
My district is mandating that we use a program called "Thinking Maps" to help our students lay out their thought processes and improve comprehension. There are some respects in which I think it's really helpful, though I've only used the maps twice in the classroom so far...some of them seem to be better suited than others to different types of thinking. I've used "flow maps" to great effect in helping my students organize their thoughts about cause and effect in our discussion of pollution - maybe they'd help you in your charting endeavors as well, Bill. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteBill, I agree that the best and easiest thing to have the students do to see if they comprehend is to summarize. Something that is such an easy task for someone who has been able to master critical thinking, but almost bringing about huge fear for my students. I love having them summaries things sometimes for my enjoyment and the most to check and see where they are and how far off are they. I do however feel that no matter how much I help them try to improve their reading comprehension it will not matter until they can start reading and understanding at a younger age. I feel that our students especially here in the delta are left behind. or as simmons and I now like to put it following behind. They simply do not know how to read! how do we teaching reading to someone considered an adult or almost.?
ReplyDeleteI feel you on the time it takes them to complete a state test. I was blown away by how much time they were given (essentially the whole day) and the amount of time they took (once again, the whole day). I think your appraoch of summarizing is awesome. Writing a summary truly forces the student to restate what they have gotten from a text. A poor summary easily illuminates a lack of comprehension. On the other hand, a good summary is evidence of good comprehension. Not only does the summary force them to start thinking, but it allows for easily analysis of the student's comprehension. Legit blog Bill!
ReplyDeleteHey Doar,
ReplyDeleteInteresting to read the take of a non-English teacher. I thought you guys just watched youtube all day with your kids. Glad to see you've picked up on possibly the only effective teaching technique there is: summary. Have them summarize everything. You've inspired me to try more graphical and less paragraph-based summaries (though I will still lean on them heavily).
I get frustrated when I give directions as clearly as I think I possibly can give them, and confusion still reigns. I wonder if more modeling is the solution.
Riding on Doug's comment, I find that my students are frustrated with me when I model things. They say things like "Just let us do it." But I know, I know, I know that if I turn them loose, then only five or six of them will do it, and the rest will either put their head down or act out in frustration. I try to follow the "I do, we do, you do" mantra even for graphic organizers and paper activities, and not just for the structure of my lesson as a whole.
ReplyDeleteAs for the emptiness of what the students are used to, I feel this is especially true of most of the music that's popular. There are so many cheap rhymes for cheap thoughts put into the music. When it comes time to study and write poetry, they are won over by sheer sound and don't care to think about what the words mean, or whether the words that rhyme should or should not be paired together to convey a certain meaning. It's quite upsetting.
As a fellow math teacher, I can tell that reading these chapters and relating it to math is quite the task. I too agree that summarizing was one of the best strategies from the book. I mean you can stand in front of the class and talk all you want. You can do all the example you want. BUT at the end of the day the question is can the student regurgitate the information back? I struggle with that a lot. Something that I think is so basic, I can't even get the class to repeat back to me. i will have to look deeper into these strategies...
ReplyDeleteBill,
ReplyDeleteI agree that summaries are a great test of comprehension. I try to use them often since most of my material is based on textbook reading. The only problem with summaries is that many of my students still struggle to put things in their own words. Sometimes I'll tell them to simply put the topic sentences in their own words (rather than a whole paragraph) and they'll still struggle. I can see how all of this would be hard to relate to math, but as you mentioned, charts are ALWAYS a good way of relating material and testing comprehension. Keep up the good work!
I LOVE charting. I find that filling out the charts is a great way for my students to take notes without having to write too much. Sometimes I worry that summarizing through charting tends to oversimplify concepts so I've had to be careful. Still, it's great to have something to take the place of the standard guided notes.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that I agree with you and Jessica about summarizing being the best method to check their understanding. If your kids know how to summarize, then maybe, but I know at the 7th grade level, the ability to aptly summarize is pretty rare. I think that simple, informal methods like asking why after a student answers a question may be better because there is less information lost in translation.
ReplyDeleteBill,
ReplyDeleteThis was a good post. As Laura mentioned above, I too struggled to pull something extremely useful from this chapter to relate to my math class. COmprehension is also a major problem in my classroom. I mean, I can repeat the same information 20 times, make up a song about it, dance on the desks about it, and when I ask a question related to what I just sang, danced, and talked about... *cricket cricket* It's very frustrating and discouraging. Despite this, I will continue to aim high and look for varying strategies to help the kiddies of GPSD out!