References
Frey, Nancy, Douglas Fisher, Alex Gonzalez. Literacy 2.0 Reading and Writing in 21st Century Classrooms. Bloomington, IN:Solution Tree Press, 2010. Print.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
21st Century Teachers Incorporate Literacy Instruction Into Content Areas
The past week I have been thinking about how I can better implement literacy into my social studies classroom. I thought I did a pretty good job by using a wikispace and having students create a written report along with their research. I quickly realized that I have much to learn on this topic. After reading through chapter 1 of Technology to Teach Literacy A Resource for K-8 Teachers I began to understand that I was missing a component in my teaching that would allow students to fully understand and use the knowledge I was presenting to them. Frey, Fisher, and Gonzalez state that there are four key components that allow students to gradually gain control over their learning. They coin this as the gradual release of responsibility. The four components include focus lessons, guided instruction, productive group work, and independent learning (p.11, 2010). While reading through each of these components I found that I was good at implementing focus lessons and independent learning but I struggle with guided instruction and productive group work. It's not that I don't do these, however, I have much room to grow in making sure my students are getting the full benefit of each component. In order to implement literacy fully into my social studies classroom I am going to create units that have stations allowing for more guided instruciton from me while at the same time allowing for group work as well. I believe this can be accomplished with the tools I already use but I am also going to implement Curriculet into these stations as well. My thought is to have 4 stations; Curriculet station which will allow students to read information and respond to questions based on the material read, Teacher station which will allow for students to receive guided instruction through either further readings or writing to help improve in areas where they may be weak, Class wikipage station which allows students to write and publish their creations so the world can view their work, and an Independent station which will allow students to work by their self and show they know the material being taught. As I begin to create my next unit for my classroom it is my goal to keep these in mind so that I can make sure that every student is reaching their full potential and practicing their literacy skills at the same time even while being in a social studies classroom. I believe that any subject matter teacher can implement literacy into the classroom. Afterall, literacy is in everything we do in life. Why wouldn't it be in every classroom?
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I very much enjoyed reading your post. I guess I have not considered that older students would use stations like younger ones do. It makes perfect sense to include areas where they can show what they have learned in a station based environment. I had to look up Curriculet when I read your post. It seems like a great way to let students work independently, but be able to measure what they are learning. I also love the idea of using a wikipage station. I think that I could use some of the same tools with the third or fourth grade classes. Those are wonderful ideas to incorporate technology. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteIt is always nice for me to read posts from teachers that teach in the upper levels. I would have never thought that to use centers in the older grades but it is a great idea! You seem to have a solid idea on how you want the centers to be ran and what your expectations are going to be. Awesome idea!
ReplyDeleteChristina,
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your post. I too use to really struggle with productive group work. I always had one student in each group that was not doing anything. It was never that they didn’t want to help, but more that they were left out because they could not physically get to the project or there was that one student that hijacked the entire project. Technology today is making it much easier to do group work and make sure that each student is contributing. I am utilizing a variety of tools now that allow for collaboration as well as give students a variety of tools to fit their individual needs.
Christina,
ReplyDeleteChristina,
Your ideas for implementing the gradual release of responsibility model into your social studies classes are on target. Social studies seems to be a natural fit for literacy instruction.
Productive group work can be hard to achieve. I lean heavily on the work of Johnson and Johnson and also Spencer Kagan to help me get it right. I do find that when students are given the tools to create, they often want to be the sole creator.
My research indicates that students are more engaged in the learning process when they create alone. When they take complete ownership of the final product they invest much more effort. I find that group work can be very productive and engaging during the research or learning acquisition phase. Collaboration during peer feedback is also very engaging. When I allow students to create a product individually, I require collaboration in another way.
I do not think that every learning product should be completed individually. Our students need to be able to collaborate during the creation phase. However, Rembrandt didn't collaborate when he created his masterpieces.
Dr. Dell
I actually have had the opportunity to learn a little about Kagan cooperative learning strategies. I try to implement them as much as possible but sometimes its just difficult for me, but I'm still learning. I'm not familiar with the work of Johnson and Johnson, I'll have to look it up. Thanks for the input!
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