Transcript Document 7134661
21
st
Century Skills:
Distilling Information through Summarization
Wormeli, 2011
For further conversation about any of these topics:
Rick Wormeli [email protected]
703-620-2447 Herndon, Virginia, USA
(Eastern Standard Time Zone)
Today’s students require ample opportunities to wrestle with ideas, not have those ideas spoon fed to them. They should feel safe and invited to experiment and fail in class or at home as they learn new material. Unfortunately, many students consider academic struggle as being weak when it could be used as a launching pad for more effective learning instead. Let’s make it okay to fail in the pursuit of learning, and let’s model it. Set up real situations in which we do not know answers or how to solve problems, then find the answer or solve the problem constructively so students see what it looks like to not know something yet remain a respected individual in the community. Many students do not push themselves to explore different talents or new thinking because they are focused on protecting their reputations as the persons who always get the right answers. What potential is lost because a student needs to protect his personal status quo?
The Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract…
With hocked gems financing him, Our hero bravely defied all scornful laughter That tried to prevent his scheme.
Your eyes deceive, he had said; An egg, not a table Correctly typifies this unexplored planet.
Now three sturdy sisters sought proof, Forging along sometimes through calm vastness Yet more often over turbulent peaks and valleys.
Days became weeks, As many doubters spread Fearful rumors about the edge.
At last from nowhere Welcome winged creatures appeared Signifying momentous success.
-- Dooling and Lachman (1971) pp. 216-222
Students must have a frame of reference to understand the metaphor:
“He flozzled his Website.”
-- Is this a good or a bad thing? We don’t know.
“He flozzled his Website, and the fallout was considerable.”
Activate or create the prior knowledge needed to make sense of instructional metaphors!
Creating Background Where There is None
• • • • Tell the story of the Code of Hammurabi before discussing the Magna Charta. Before studying the detailed rules of baseball, play baseball.
Before reading about how microscopes work, play with micros copes. Before reading the Gettysburg Address, inform students that Lincoln was dedicating a cemetery.
Creating Background Where There is None
• • • • Before reading a book about a military campaign or a murder mystery with references to chess, play Chess with a student in front of the class, or teach them the basic rules, get enough boards, and ask the class to play. In math, we might remind students of previous patterns as they learn new ones. Before teaching students factorization, we ask them to review what they know about prime numbers. In English class, ask students, “How is this story’s
protagonist moving in a different direction than the last story’s protagonist?”
In science, ask students, “We’ve seen how photosynthesis
reduces carbon dioxide to sugars and oxidizes water into oxygen, so what do you think the reverse of this process called, ‘respiration,’ does?”
The way the brain learns How many teachers sequence their lessons for learning
Beginning Middle
Lesson Sequence
End
The Primacy-Recency Effect
• • • • • • •
Reach Reflect Recode Reinforce Rehearse Review Retrieve
Sprenger’s Suggestions for Long Term Retention
(from Sprenger’s How to Teach So Students Remember, ASCD, 2005)
Definition:
Summarization is restating the essence of text or an experience in as few words as possible or in a new yet efficient, manner.
Remember Who’s Doing the Learning:
• •
Whoever responds to students/classmates is doing the learning. Make sure the majority of the time it’s the students responding and summarizing, not the teacher. Teachers ask 80 questions each hour on average, while students ask only two during that same hour. (Hollas) Students learn more when they ask the questions. Find ways to make question-asking so compelling and habitual they can’t escape it.
Prime the brain prior to asking students to do any learning experience.
Priming
means we show students:
1) What they will get out of the experience (the objectives) 2) What they will encounter as they go through the experience (itinerary, structure)
Avoid Confabulation
The brain seeks wholeness. It will fill in the holes in partial learning with made-up learning and experiences, and it will convince itself that this was the original learning all along. To prevent this:
Deal with Misconceptions!
Students should summarize material they already understand, not material they are coming to know.
Recall Success with Individual, Unrelated Items
Age of Student 5 7 11 15+ # of Unconnected, Individual Items Successfully Recalled (plus or minus 2, Wolfe, 2001) 2 3 5 7
Summarization Tips
• • • • • • • • •
Create or activate personal background. Prime the brain.
Plan according to the Primacy-Recency Effect.
Use varied summary formats – written, artistic, oral, physical, musical.
Use summary experiences before, during, and after lessons.
Teach students to recognize familiar text structures .
Teach students to recognize familiar writing structures. Use analogies.
Chunk text and experiences.
Reading Math
[Adapted from Literacy Strategies for Improving Mathematics Instruction, Joan M. Kenney, ASCD, 2005] • • • • •
Math books have more concepts per sentence and paragraph than any other type of text.
There is little redundancy in math text. Words as well as numbers and other symbols are used throughout text.
Eyes travel in different patterns than traditional left-to-right.
There are often have distracting sidebars.
Reading Math
•
In most text, there’s a topic sentence or key idea followed by detailed supports. In math, we get the details first, then the topic sentence -- the key idea is given in the form of a question or task at the end. Students have to read the text again after seeing this key idea and figure out what material in the text is important and unimportant.
Reading Math: the Little Words are Huge
• •
Of/Off: Percent “of” something, the percent “off” something The, is, a , are, can , sum, less, more, on , who, find, one, ones, tenths, and, or, number, numeral, how, many, how many, what, fewer, around, write, it , each, which, do all, same, different, exercise, here there, has, have, of, at…
Word Morphology:
Teach Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes!
Mal – badly, poor Meta – beyond, after, change Mis – incorrect, bad Mono – one Multi – many Neo – new Non – not Ob, of, op, oc – toward, against Oct – eight Paleo – ancient Para – beside, almost Penta – five Per – throughout, completely Peri – around Poly – many Post – after Pre – before Pseudo – false
Reading Notations
P
X ??
!!
CL EV I agree with this. I disagree with this. I don’t understand this. Wow! (‘Elicits a strong emotion) General Claim Evidence for the Claim (These can be numbered to indicate their sequence, too: EV1, EV2, EV3…)
Journalistic vs. Encyclopedic Writing
“
The breathing of Benbow’s pit is deafening, like up-close jet engines mixed with a cosmic belch. Each new breath from the volcano heaves the air so violently my ears pop in the changing pressure – then the temperature momentarily soars. Somewhere not too far below, red-hot, pumpkin size globs of ejected lava are flying through the air.” -- National Geographic, November 2000, p. 54
“A volcano is a vent in the Earth from which molten rock (magma) and gas erupt. The molten rock that erupts from the volcano (lava) forms a hill or mountain around the vent. Lava may flowout as viscous liquid, or it may explode from the vent as solid or liquid particles…” -- Global Encyclopedia, Vol. 19 T-U-V, p. 627
Chronological Order
Definition and Key words: This involves putting facts, events, a concepts into sequence using time references to order them. Signal words include on (date), now, before, since, when, not long after, and gradually. “Astronomy came a long way in the 1500s and 1600s. In 1531, Halley’s Comet appeared and caused great panic. Just twelve years later, however, Copernicus realized that the sun was the center of the solar system, not the Earth, and astronomy became a way to understand the natural world, not something to fear. In the early part of the next century, Galileo made the first observations with a new instrument – the telescope. A generation later, Sir Issac Newton invented the reflecting telescope, a close cousin to what we use today. Halley’s Comet returned in 1682 and it was treated as a scientific wonder, studied by Edmund Halley.”
Compare and Contrast
Defintion and Key words: Explains similarities and differences. Signal words include however, as well as, not only, but, while, unless, yet, on the other hand, either/or, although, similarly, and unlike. “Middle school gives students more autonomy than elementary school. While students are asked to be responsible for their learning in both levels, middle school students have more pressure to follow through on assignments on their own, rather than rely on adults. In addition, narrative forms are used to teach most literacy skills in elementary school. On the other hand, expository writing is the way most information is given in middle school.”
Cause and Effect
Definition and Key words: Shows how something happens through the impact of something else. Signal words include because, therefore, as a result, so that, accordingly, thus, consequently, this led to, and nevertheless.
“Drug abusers often start in upper elementary school. They experiment with a parent’s beer and hard liquor and they enjoy the buzz they receive. They keep doing this and it starts taking more and more of the alcohol to get the same level of buzz. As a result, the child turns to other forms of stimulation including marijuana. Since these are the initial steps that usually lead to more hardcore drugs such as Angel Dust (PCP), heroin, and crack cocaine, marijuana and alcohol are known as “gateway drugs.” Because of their addictive nature, these gateway drugs lead many youngsters who use them to the world of hardcore drugs.”
Problem and Solution
Definition and Key words: Explains how a difficult situation, puzzle, or conflict develops, then what was done to solve it. Signal words are the same as Cause and Effect above.
“The carrying capacity of a habitat refers to the amount of plant and animal life its resources can hold. For example, if there are only 80 pounds of food available and there are animals that together need more than 80 pounds of food to survive, one or more animals will die – the habitat can’t “carry” them. Humans have reduced many habitats’ carrying capacity by imposing limiting factors that reduce its carrying capacity such as housing developments, road construction, dams, pollution, fires, and acid rain. So that they can maintain full carrying capacity in forest habitats, Congress has enacted legislation that protects endangered habitats from human development or impact. As a result, these areas have high carrying capacities and an abundance of plant and animal life.”
Proposition and Support
Defintion and Key words: The author makes a general statement followed by two or more supporting details. Key words include: In addition, also, as well as, first, second, finally, in sum, in support of, therefore, in conclusion. “There are several reasons that teachers should create prior knowledge in students before teaching important concepts. First, very little goes into long-term memory unless it’s attached to something already in storage. Second, new learning doesn’t have the meaning necessary for long term retention unless the student can see the context in which it fits. Finally, the brain likes familiarity. It finds concepts with which it is familiar compelling. In sum, students learn better when the teacher helps students to create personal backgrounds with new topics prior to learning about them.
Claim and Evidence
Defintion and Key words: The author makes a general statement followed by two or more supporting details. Key words include: In addition, also, as well as, first, second, finally, in sum, in support of, therefore, in conclusion. “There are several reasons that teachers should create prior knowledge in students before teaching important concepts. First, very little goes into long-term memory unless it’s attached to something already in storage. Second, new learning doesn’t have the meaning necessary for long term retention unless the student can see the context in which it fits. Finally, the brain likes familiarity. It finds concepts with which it is familiar compelling. In sum, students learn better when the teacher helps students to create personal backgrounds with new topics prior to learning about them.
Enumeration
Definition and Key words: Focuses on listing facts, characteristics, or features. Signal words include to begin with, secondly, then, most important, in fact, for example, several, numerous, first, next finally, also, for instance, and in addition. “The moon is our closest neighbor. It’s 250,000 miles away. It’s gravity is only 1/6 that of Earth. This means a boy weighing 120 pounds in Virginia would weigh only 20 pounds on the moon. In addition, there is no atmosphere on the moon. The footprints left by astronauts back in 1969 are still there, as crisply formed as they were on the day they were made. The lack of atmosphere also means there is no water on the moon, an important problem when traveling there.”
Concept 1
Text Structures
[Taking Notes with Compare/Contrast]
Concept 2
Components of Blood Content Matrix
Purpose Amount Size & Shape Nucleus ?
Where formed Red Cells White Cells Plasma Platelets
The student’s rough draft: Red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients around the body. They are small and indented in the middle, like little Cheerios. There are 5 million per cc of blood. There is no nucleus in mature red blood cells. They are formed in the bone marrow and spleen.
T-List or T-Chart: Wilson’s 14 Points
Main Ideas Reasons President Wilson Designed the Plan for Peace 1.
2.
3.
Details/Examples Three Immediate Effects on U.S. Allies 1.
2.
3.
Three Structures/Protocols created by the Plans 1.
2.
3
Reduce
Cornell Note-Taking Format
Record
[Summarize in short phrases or essential questions next to each block of notes.] [Write your notes on this side.]
Review -- Summarize (paragraph-style) your
points or responses to the questions. Reflect and comment on what you learned.
Somebody Wanted But So
[Fiction]
Somebody (characters)… wanted (plot-motivation)…, but (conflict)…, so (resolution)… .
Something Happened And Then
[Non-fiction]
Something (independent variable)… happened (change in that independent
variable)…,
and (effect on the dependent variable)…, then (conclusion)… .
People
Narrowing the Topic
The Civil War Inventions Reasons Battles
Is the topic narrow enough to be focused, but broad enough to have plenty to write about?
Battles of the Civil War Gettysburg Manassas Antietam Vicksburg
Is the topic narrow enough to be focused, but broad enough to have plenty to write about?
Battles of Gettysburg Statistics Geography Famous People Strategies
Is the topic narrow enough to be focused, but broad enough to have plenty to write about?
What was the “Fish hook” strategy used at the Battle of Gettysburg?
Yeah. That’s it.
When we summarize, we: • • •
Delete some elements Keep some elements Substitute for some elements.
“DKS”
Ask students to memorize these three actions.
TaRGeTS
(Based on Rules-Based Summaries, 1968)
T - Trivia (Remove trivial material) R - Redundancies (Remove redundant information) G - Generalize (Replace specifics/lists with general terms and phrases) TS - Determine the Topic Sentence
Topic Sentence
TS = subject
+
author’s claim about subject
Subject: Dogs Claim: Make great pets TS: “Dogs make great pets.”
Writing Concisely Avoid Redundancies and Saying the Same thing in different ways: more additions, absolutely certain/essential/necessary, advance forward, 2:00 a.m. in the morning, baby puppy/kitten, blended together, brief moment, deliberate lie, foreign imports, necessary requirement, old antique, orbiting satellite, preliminary draft, proceed ahead, raise up, refer back, repeat over, tiny particle, true facts, unexpected surprise, violent explosion, visible to the eye, while at the same time. Cut to the Chase: “A small number of people” – “three people” “His whole speech bothered me.” – “His speech bothered me.” -- William Brohaugh’s book,
Write Tight
, 1993, Writer’s Digest Books
More Summarization Tips
• • • • • •
Use reading notations.
Allow students to mark consumable and non consumable text.
Emphasize opinion free summaries – no commentaries.
Teach students to evaluate their own summarizations.
Set length limit of 10 to 25% original text, < 1% for longer text.
Encourage two or more readings or exposures.
Evaluating our Summaries
• • • • • •
Does it convey the information accurately?
Is it too narrow or too broad? Does it convey all of the important elements? Does it convey too much?
Are the ideas in the right sequence?
Would someone else using this summary gain all they needed to know to understand the subject?
Did I leave out my opinion and just report an undistorted essence of the original content?
Did I use my own words and style?
Help with Paraphrasing
• • • • • • • •
Build students’ vocabulary and verbal dexterity. Post word banks. Use vocabulary immersion.
Provide repeated experiences with varied sentence combinations and word play. Use repeated think-alouds of a paraphraser at work from both teacher and students.
Provide ample opportunities to assess paraphrasings of original text or experience.
Allow students to copy models -- They’ll outgrow them. Take a page from the active listening lessons -- “So what you’re saying is…” Provide repeated experiences with encapsulation such as creating newspaper headlines.
Play renaming and clue games such as Password, Taboo, and $25,000 Pyramid.
Word Morphology:
Teach Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes!
Mal – badly, poor Meta – beyond, after, change Mis – incorrect, bad Mono – one Multi – many Neo – new Non – not Ob, of, op, oc – toward, against Oct – eight Paleo – ancient Para – beside, almost Penta – five Per – throughout, completely Peri – around Poly – many Post – after Pre – before Pseudo – false
3-2-1
3 – Identify three characteristics of Renaissance art that differed from art of the Middle Ages 2 – List two important scientific debates that occurred during the Renaissance 1 – Provide one good reason why “rebirth” is an appropriate term to describe the Renaissance 3 – List three applications for slope, y-intercept knowledge in the professional world 2 – Identify two skills students must have in order to determine slope and y-intercept from a set of points on a plane 1 – If (x1, y1) are the coordinates of a point W in a plane, and (x2, y2) are the coordinates of a different point Y, then the slope of line WY is what?
3-2-1
3 – Identify at least three differences between acids and bases 2 – List two uses of acids and two uses of bases 1 – State one reason why knowledge of acids and bases is important to citizens in our community
• • • • • • • • Unique Summarization Formats/Products
A soap opera about valence among chemical elements A “Wanted: Dead or Alive” poster about Preposition Pete (“He was last seen in the OverHill’n’Dale Saloon, at the table, in the dark, under close scrutiny of other scalawags…”) Compose a ballad about the cautious Massasoit tribe coming to dinner with Governor Bradford and his colony in 1621.
Interpret the Internet for Amazonian inhabitants that have never lived with electricity, let alone a computer.
Argue for and against Democracy as a healthy way to build a country – Provide at least two arguments for each position. Classify the Greek gods and goddesses according to three different criteria.
Predict the limiting factors for this habitat twenty-five years from now. Retell a fairytale of your choosing with one of the following concepts as its central theme:
–
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the judgment that something else is more important than that fear.” -- Ambrose Redmoon
–
“A setback is preparation for a comeback.”
–
“The one who never makes mistakes takes his orders from one who does.”
Unique Summarization Formats/Products • • • • • • • • •
A comic strip about the mantissa (the decimal-fraction part of a logarithm) A mysterious yet accurate archeological map concerning the quadratic formula A field guide to the asymptotes of a hyperbola (the diagonals of the rectangle formed by the lines x= a, x= —a, y= b and y= -b in the hyperbola: x squared over a squared – y squared over b squared) A coloring book about Amendments 1, 2, 3, 4, and 10 to the Constitution A rap song that expresses the order of Presidential succession A grocery list for Taiga biomes A mural that accurately expresses the “checks and balances” nature of our Federal government’s three branches: judicial, legislative, and executive A sculpture or mobile that teaches observers about latitude and longitude A pop-up book on liquid and dry measures
Endless List of Writing Possibilities – Please Add Your Own! Correspondence Books Newspapers Commercials Science Fiction Poetry How-to Books Field Guides Bulletin Boards Murals Annotated Catalogs Games Folktales/legends/myths Book/Movie Critiques Weather forecasts Satire/spoofs CD covers Sermons Lab instructions Pamphlets Museum Map and Tour Guides Magazines Scripts Picture Books Mystery Stories Autobiographies/Biographies Alphabet books Mini-textbooks Choose-Your-0wn Adventures Coloring Books Travel Brochures Recipes Information Reports Wills Wanted posters Speeches Soap operas Sequels/prequels Protest letters Flipbooks Oral Histories Radio Plays Historical Fiction Journal/Diaries Romances Animal Stories Pop-up Books Friendly Letters Timelines Calendars Manuals Personal narratives Persuasive essays Yellow pages Vitas/resumes Songs/raps Slogans Schedules Post cards Odes
Requiems Travel posters Interviews Scary stories Surveys Menus Indexes Graffiti Contracts Definitions Fortunes Certificates Bumper stickers Codes True or False Book Almanac Rebuttals Movie posters Telegrams Quizzes/tests Monologues Metaphors Headlines Comic strips Conversations Epilogues Comparisons Cereal boxes Advice columns Informal/formal observation Cookbook Inauguration speech Play programs Thank yous Sports accounts Rubrics Jokes/riddles Job applications Grocery lists Constitutions Spreadsheets Evaluations Character sketches Captions Epithets musical score Wedding vows Annotated Family Tree
R.A.F.T.S.
R = Role, A = Audience, F = Form, T = Time or Topic, S = Strong adverb or adjective Students take on a role, work for a specific audience, use a particular form to express the content, and do it within a time reference, such as pre Civil War, 2025, or ancient Greece. Sample assignment chosen by a student: A candidate for the Green Party (role), trying to convince election board members (audience) to let him be in a national debate with Democrats and the Republicans. The student writes a speech (form) to give to the Board during the Presidential election in 2004 (time). Within this assignment, students use arguments and information from this past election with third party concerns, as well as their knowledge of the election and debate process. Another student could be given a RAFT assignment in the same manner, but this time the student is a member of the election board who has just listened to the first student’s speech.
R.A.F.T.S.
Raise the complexity: Choose items for each category that are farther away from a natural fit for the topic . Example: When writing about Civil War Reconstruction, choices include a rap artist, a scientist from the future, and Captain Nemo.
Lower the complexity: Choose items for each category that are closer to a natural fit for the topic. Example: When writing about Civil War Reconstruction, choices include a member of the Freedmen’s Bureau, a southern colonel returning home to his burned plantation, and a northern business owner
Change the Verb
Instead of asking students to describe how FDR handled the economy during the Depression, ask them to rank four given economic principles in order of importance as they imagine FDR would rank them, then ask them how President Hoover who preceded FDR would have ranked those same principles differently.
Analyze… Revise… Decide between… Why did… Defend… Devise… Identify… Classify… Define… Compose… Interpret… Expand… Develop… Suppose… Imagine… Construct… Rank… Argue against… Argue for… Contrast… Develop… Plan… Critique… Rank… Organize… Interview… Predict… Categorize… Invent… Recommend…
Backwards Summaries
• • • • •
“Make the web from which this paragraph came.” “Here’s the completed math solution. What would happen if I had never considered the absolute value of x?” “Here’s the final French translation of this sentence. What if I had not checked the tense of each verb?” “Here’s a well done concerto. What happens if I remove the oboe’s eight measures on page 4?” “Here’s a well-done lab procedure. What happens if I don’t use distilled water?”
Save the Last Word for Me
• • • • • •
Students read the passage, making notations as they go. They identify three or more sentences to which they have a response. Place students in groups of 3 to 5, then ask one member of each group to read a line that he has identified. He reads only; there is no commentary or reason for choosing it given. Each group member other than the reading person responds to that one line – agreeing, refuting, supporting, clarifying, commenting, or questioning. After everyone else has had a chance to make a personal response to the statement, the originator of the line gets to offer his or her commentary – “getting the last word” on the topic.
When this round of discussion is done, the next person in the circle calls out his chosen line from the text, and everyone responds to the line before this second person offers his commentary. So it goes with each member of the group.
Change the Point of View
• • • •
Tell the story of digestion from the points of view of the bolus passing down the esophagus, the villi in the small intestine that have capillaries receiving and carrying nutrients to the bloodstream, or a muscle in the body that finally receives the nutrients from the food ingested earlier.
Re-tell an historical incident from a biased participant’s point of view.
Reveal the truth behind a pronoun being a subject or an object based on which one did the action and which one received the action.
Re-tell the account of a scientific, mathematical, or manufacturing process, a moment in history, a chemical’s reaction, a concerto’s performance, or a comma’s position in a sentence.
Bloom’s Taxonomy Summary Cubes
These are Posterboard cubes with each side emphasizing one level of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Higher Order Thinking Skills.
Bloom’s Taxonomy: Recall – Students cite content they remember. Comprehension – Students demonstrate whether or not they understand a topic. Application – Students use knowledge and skills in a different situation. Analysis – Students break down topics into component pieces and analyze them in context of the whole.
Synthesis – Students bring together seemingly contradictory aspects or
topics and form something new. Evaluation -- Students use all the other levels to judge the validity, success, or value of something, given specific criteria.
The Frayer Model [Frayer, Frederick, Klausmeier, 1969]
Essential Characteristics Non- Essential Characteristics Examples < Topic > Non examples
“Word Link”
1. Each student gets a word.
2. In partners, students share the link(s) between their individual words.
3. Partner team joins another partner team, forming a “word cluster.” 4. All four students identify the links among their words and share those links with the class.
-- Yopp, Ruth Helen. “Word Links: A Strategy for Developing Word Knowledge,” Voices in the Middle, Vol. 15, Number 1, September 2007, National Council Teachers of English
Summarization Pyramid
__________ ______________ ____________________ _________________________ ______________________________ ___________________________________ Great prompts for each line: topic Synonym, analogy, question, three attributes, alternative title, causes, effects, reasons, arguments, ingredients, opinion, larger category, formula/sequence, insight, tools, misinterpretation, sample, people, future of the
One-Word Summaries
“The new government regulations for the meat packing industry in the 1920’s could be seen as an opportunity…,” “Picasso’s work is actually an argument for….,” “NASA’s battle with Rockwell industries over the warnings about frozen temperatures and the O-rings on the space shuttle were trench warfare….”
Basic Idea: Argue for or against the word as a good description for the topic.
Exclusion Brainstorming
The student identifies the word/concept that does not belong with the others, then either orally or in writing explains his reasoning:
• • • •
Mixtures – plural, separable, dissolves, no formula Compounds – chemically combined, new properties, has formula, no composition Solutions – heterogeneous mixture, dissolved particles, saturated and unsaturated, heat increases Suspensions – clear, no dissolving, settles upon standing, larger than molecules
Premise:
There is not any curriculum so symbolic or abstract that we cannot “physicalize” it for better student learning.
Physicalizing Process:
• • •
Identify essential components, pieces, or definition of whatever we’re teaching Physicalize those pieces and present them to the class.
Class critiques the physicalization in terms of accuracy, comprehensiveness, appropriateness, and clarity. ‘Makes suggestions for improvement.
All three steps are learning experiences that help
students internalize the knowledge.
Statues (Body Sculpture)
Students work in small groups using every groupmember’s body to symbolically portray concepts in frozen tableau. Where does the learning occur?
Line-up
• •
Groups of students line up according to criteria. Each student holds an index card identifying what he or she is portraying. Students discuss everyone’s position with one another -- posing questions, disagreeing, and explaining rationales.
Line-up
Students can line-up according to:
chronology, sequences in math problems, components of an essay, equations, sentences, verb tense, scientific process/cycle, patterns: alternating, category/example, increasing/decreasing degree, chromatic scale, sequence of events, cause/effect, components of a larger topic, opposites, synonyms
Summary Ball
Provide a soft, tossable item (beach ball, nerf object, stuffed fish, hacky-sack, bag of eyeballs). Ask students to state one thing they remember from the lesson then toss the object to someone else in the room. If student doesn’t respond within three seconds, he tosses the object then sits down.
Human Bingo
[ Squares filled in with specific skills from the lesson or unit. ]
Free Space
• • • •
Human Bingo
Give the students ten minutes to get classmates’ signatures on squares. They may sign only if they can do, solve, or respond to the prompt correctly. They will have to prove it later. Classmates may sign only one square per card. Once all squares are filled with signatures, call names of students out of a hat or box. Students place edible markers (sunflower seeds, M&M’s, pieces of popcorn or vegetables) on the squares with the identified students’ names. on it. The first student to get five in a row hollers, “Human Bingo!” Ask winning student to name each square’s prompt and the classmate who signed it. As students’ names are called, students must demonstrate their accurate responses. The rest of the class watches carefully to make sure there are no errors. If all five students demonstrate everything successfully, it’s a “Human Bingo.” Students get to eat their makers as they clear their boards for the next game. If one or more of the five students in the row does not demonstrate an accurate response, then there is no bingo awarded, and the game continues.
Knows 2 products of photo-synthesis Personal Pronoun, 3rd pers., objectv., plural Knows formula for area of a triangle Can list 3 differences between WWI and WWII Can solve: 2/3 - 1 4/5 Knows 3 conflicts in No Promises in the Wind Knows 3 basic passes in basketball Knows the differences between squid and octopus Can perform “--------- .” Can demonstrate titration Knows the capitals of countries in South America Free Space (student write his own name here) Knows 5 things to consider when making difficult decisions Can draw the sequence of energy transfer in ecosystems Can make into a polynomial: (x+1)(x+3) Can perform three approved gymnastic moves Knows the difference between meiosis and mitosis Can name 24 bones with the proper terms Can make a strange noise with his or her body Can define: “-----------.” Can import a picture from Internet and insert it into a report Can sing part of any song by CCR Knows what comes next: J, F, M, A, M, ?
Sample Skills for Human Bingo Card
A
Human Continuum
D
Human Continuum
Use a human continuum. Place a long strip of masking tape across the middle of the floor, with an "Agree" or “Yes” taped at one end, and "Disagree" or “No” at the other end. Put a notch in the middle for those unwilling to commit to either side. Read statements about the day’s concepts aloud while students literally stand where they believe along the continuum. Be pushy – ask students to defend their positions.
Island Stage
$25,000 Pyramid
‘Played just like the game show in which one player lists objects in a category and the other player guesses the category. How many categories can you get in 1 minute? Adjust time and number of categories according to students’ needs.
Pictionary
Taboo Cards
Photosynthesis Light Green Water Sun Chlorophyll Plant Produce
Share One, Get One
We think primarily in physical terms. Over time we become adept at translating symbolic and abstract concepts into meaningful structures or experiences.
Have Some Fun – Anything Can Be A Metaphor!
An apple
• • • • • • a star (the birth place of energy on our planet) in the middle (the seed pattern makes a star if we cut it the right way) we must break the surface to get to the juicy good parts the outside doesn’t reveal what lies inside the apple becomes soft and mushy over time the apple can be tart or sweet depending on its family background its parts are used to create multiple products
A cell phone
• • • • • • • • • lifeline to the larger world an unapologetic taskmaster an unfortunate choice of gods a rude child that interrupts just when he shouldn’t a rite of passage a declaration of independence a secret language encoder (text messaging abbreviations unknown to adults) delineation of generations
• • • • • • •
A pencil sharpener
Whittler of pulp Tool diminisher Mouth of a sawdust monster Eater of brain translators Cranking something to precision Writing re-energizer Scantron test enabler
Curtains
• • • • • • • Wall between fantasy and reality Denied secrets Anticipation Arbiter of suspense Making a house a home Vacuum cleaner antagonist Cat’s “Jungle Gym”
Railroad
• • • • • • • • • • • Circulatory system of the country Enforcer of Manifest Destiny Iron monster Unforgiving mistress to a hobo Lifeline Economic renewal Relentless beast Mechanical blight Movie set A foreshadow of things to come A hearkening to the past
______________________ is (are) a _________________ because _______________________________________.
Ask students to include something intangible, such as suspicion or an odyssey, in the first blank. The tangible comparison---a combination lock or an elliptical trainer-- would fit in the second section. Ask students to justify their choices:
“Suspicion is a combination lock because it secures a possession’s well-being that cannot be assured through trust alone. Odyssey is an elliptical trainer because it has a beginning, middle, and end, and along the way, we encounter moments of endurance, doubt, despair, and elation, leaving comfort and returning again.”
Metaphors Break Down
“You can’t think of feudalism as a ladder because you can climb up a ladder. The feudal structure is more like sedimentary rock: what’s on the bottom will always be on the bottom unless some cataclysmic event occurs.”
-- Amy Benjamin, Writing in the Content Areas, p. 80 • • • • • “
A classroom is like a beehive.” Where does the simile sink? Students are not bees. Students have a variety of readiness levels and skill sets for completing tasks. Bees are more uniform. Students don’t respond blindly or purely to the pheromones of the queen bee.
Students are busier throughout the day and night than bees.
Students don’t swarm when angered.
Descriptions With and Without Metaphors
Friendship Infinity Solving for a variable Euphoria Worry Obstructionist Judiciary Immigration Balance Economic Principles Poetic License Heuristics Embarrassment Family Imperialism Trust Mercy Trouble Honor Homeostasis Temporal Rifts Religious fervor Semantics Tautology Knowledge
Common Analogous Relationships
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Antonyms Synonyms Age Time Part : Whole Whole : Part Tool : Its Action Tool user : Tool Tool : Object It’s Used With Worker: product he creates Category : Example Effect : Cause Cause : Effect Increasing Intensity Decreasing Intensity Person : closely related adjective
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Person : least related adjective Math relationship Effect : cause Action : Thing Acted Upon Action : Subject Performing the Action Object or Place : Its User Object : specific attribute of the object Male : Female Symbol : what it means Classification/category : example Noun : Closely Related Adjective Elements Used : Product created Attribute : person or object Object : Where it’s located Lack (such as drought/water – one thing lacks the other)
Synectics
(William J. Gordon)
“The joining together of different and apparently
irrelevant elements,” or put more simply, “Making
the familiar strange.”
1. Teach a topic to students. 2. Ask students to describe the topic, focusing on descriptive words and critical attributes.
3. Teacher identifies an unrelated category to compare to the descriptions in #2. (Think of a sport that reminds you of these words. Explain why you chose that sport.) Students can choose the category, too.
4. Students write or express the analogy between the two: The
endocrine system is like playing zones in basketball. Each player or gland is responsible for his area of the game.
4-Square Synectics
1. Brainstorm four objects from a particular category (examples: kitchen appliances, household items, the circus, forests, shopping malls). 2. In small groups, brainstorm what part of today’s learning is similar in some way to the objects listed.
3. Create four analogies, one for each object.
Example: How is the human digestive system like each
household item: sink, old carpet, microwave, broom
Example: How is the Pythagorean Theorem like each musical
instrument: piano, drum set, electric guitar, trumpet?
Highly Recommended for Summarization Ideas Check out NCTE’s ReadWriteThink.org Web site!
• • • • • • • Allen, Janet. Yellow Brick Roads: Shared and Guided Paths to Independent Reading 4-12, Stenhouse Publishers, 2000 Allen, Janet. Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12, Stenhouse Publishers, 1999 Allen, Janet. Tools for Teaching Content Literacy (flipbook), Stenhouse, 2004 Billmeyer, Rachel, Ph.D.; Barton, Mary Lee. Teaching Reading in the Content Areas: If Not Me, Then Who? 2nd Edition McREL (Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning, 1998 Barton, Mary Lee; Heidema, Clare. Teaching Reading in Mathematics, ASCD, McREL (Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning, 2000 (Also distributed by ASCD) Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do, Heinemann, 2003 Beers, Kylene and Samuels, Barabara G. (1998) Into Focus: Understanding and Creating Middle School Readers. Norwood, Massachusetts: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc.
Highly Recommended for Summarization Ideas • • • • • • • • • • Buehl, Doug. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning (second Edition) (2001) Newark, Delaware, International Reading Association, Inc.
Burke, Jim. Illuminating Texts: How to Teach Students to Read the World, Heinemann, 2001 Burkhardt, Ross M. Writing for Real: Strategies for Engaging Adolescent Writers, Stenhouse Publishers, 2003 Frender, Gloria. Learning to Learn: Strengthening Study Skills and Brain Power, Incentive Publications, Inc., 1990 Forsten, Char; Grant, Jim; Hollas, Betty. Differentiated Instruction: Different Strategies for Different Learners, Crystal Springs Books, 2001 [This is great for K-8] Forsten, Char: Grant, Jim; Hollas, Betty. Differentiating Textbooks: Strategies to Improve Student Comprehension and Motivation, Crystal Springs Books Glynn, Carol. Learning on their Feet: A Sourcebook for Kinesthetic Learning Across the Curriculum, Discover Writing Press, 2001 Harvey, Stephanie (1998) Nonfiction Matters: Reading, Writing, and Research in Grades 3 – 8. Portsmouth,Maine: Stenhouse Publishers Harvey, Stephanie; Goudvis, Anne. Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding, Stenhouse Publishers, 2000 Hyerle, David. A Field Guide to Visual Tools, ASCD, 2000
Highly Recommended for Summarization Ideas • • • • • • • Marzano, Robert J.; Pickering, Debra J.; Pollock, Jane E. Classroom
Instruction that Works: Research-based Strategies for Increasing Student
Achievement, ASCD, 2001 Robb, Laura. Teaching Reading in Middle School. Scholastic, 2000 Robb, Laura (editor). Reader’s Handbook, Great Source Education Group, Houghtoun-Mifflin (Same group that does Write Source 2000 and Writer’s, Inc.) Sousa, Dr. David A. How the Brain Learns. Corwin Press, 2002 Spandel, Vicki; Stiggins, Richard J. Creating Writers: Linking Writing Assessment and Instruction, Longman Publishers, 1997 Stephens, Elaine C. and Brown, Jean E. (2000) A Handbook of Content Literacy Strategies: 75 Practical Reading and Writing Ideas. Norwood, Massachusetts: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc.
Strong, Richard W.; Silver, Harvey F.; Perini, Matthew J.; Tuculescu, Gregory M. Reading for Academic Success: Powerful Strategies for Struggling, Average, and Advanced Readers, Grades 7-12, Corwin Press, 2002
Highly Recommended for Summarization Ideas • • • • • • • Tovani, Cris. I Read It, But I Don’t Get It. Stenhouse Publishers, 2001 Tovani, Cris. Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Content Comprehension Grades 6-12, Stenhouse, 2004 Vacca, R. and Vacca J. (1999) Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum. 6th ed. New York: Longman Wood, Karen D.; Harmon, Janis M. Strategies for Integrating Reading and Writing in Middle and High School Classrooms, National Middle School Association, 2001 Wormeli, Rick. Summarization in any Subject, ASCD, 2005 Wormeli, Rick. Metaphors & Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching any Subject, Stenhouse, 2009 Zinsser, William. Writing to Learn (1988)New York: Harper and Row Publishers