Reading/Research
Resource 1: Research on Student Notetaking: Implications for Faculty & Graduate Student Instruction Deborah Dezure, Matthew Kaplan, Martha A. Deerman
Summary: The skill of note taking is rejuvenating itself in regard to efficacy in promoting increased learning in the classroom. Research now shows that note taking during class time, whether it be lecture or personal notes, increases students’ abilities to recall information and apply it to new or outside information. Note taking can, however, go wrong when students are required to depend purely on a lecture. There are ways for teachers to implement resources within their lecture in order to make note taking useful for the classroom. For example, teachers can provide handouts, visuals, and graphic organizers for extra sources. Also, during the lecture, the teacher can use strategies such as comfortable pacing and cues. These cues can be verbal or visual, which will help students pick out information that is most important to understand. When aiding students with disabilities, there are often note taking services. Teachers, themselves, can still aid these students by providing complete notes as a supplement, study guides, and the option of oral assessments. Overall, note taking has the ability to be very useful in the classroom but will always be dependent on the instructors and their implementation for their students.
Classroom Recommendations: Note taking will be crucial in my future classroom. I agree with the article that teachers rely too much on their own lecture when it comes to expecting students to understand the significance of material. Each of my lessons will have a resource to aid in my plan, whether it is a graphic organizer, handout, or visual interpretation. Note taking skills can aid in pre, during, and post reading lessons just as they did during my creative writing unit. Students can use strategies such as KWL to assess their note taking and reading for textual evidence.
Resource 2: Three-Tiered Reading Guide Karen Burden
Summary: Readers construct meaning at different levels of comprehension, thinking, and conceptual difficulty. The “Three-Tiered Reading Guide” helps students reading challenging literature to reach a higher understanding. This guide consists of questions and activities related to material that students complete as they read. There are three levels of comprehension: literal, interpretive, and applied. The literal level deals with what the author is saying. The interpretive level deals with what the author means when he or she says something. Lastly, the applied level refers to what the significance of what the author is saying is. When constructing the specific questions, the article had specific question words that should be associated with each level (“name”, “classify”, “relate”). Students who struggle with reading can be paired with more proficient learners or even work in groups to answer the reading questions. Understanding and making connections as you read rather than after you read builds for opportunities to achieve the highest level readers.
Classroom Recommendations: I chose to summarize this article because I think this has the potential to be very useful in my middle school classroom. When differentiating among students, the three levels of comprehension could serve as a rubric when first assessing my class. Using the different question words at each level will also give me the opportunity to instruct my students on fully answering a question and answering to the best of their ability. This strategy could be used independently, in groups, or as a full class activity if we were reading a text out loud. The constant assessment of reading comprehension is crucial when supplying students with material that is challenging yet growth producing.
Resource 3: Essential Question
Summary: As the text first mentions, “Essential questions give meaning, relevance, and definition to the course of the unit.” Similar to its title, these questions are crucial to the construction of the lesson. If these questions are strong, students will have a strong, independent desire to figure out the answers. Essential questions should never have one correct answer, but rather challenge students to invent the answer using their own knowledge. The question should be able to hold a timeless essence, meaning it could be asked and reasked later on in the unit. The questions should link to other essential questions and move cross content to really invoke connections. These questions as crucial to any teacher who wants to build a growth-producing environment through their lesson planning. The text says this kind of teacher “plans using essential questions as a guide to construct a hierarchy of knowledge.” Although questions may seem second nature when planning, it is how you use the questions that determine if they will be effective or not.
Classroom Recommendations: In my classroom, I will open each lesson with a “focus” question in order to get my students in the mindset of that day’s objectives. I also feel it is important to teach students how to ask questions of their own rather than just answer them. Determining what makes an essential question early in the year will give my students time to understand how to construct their own questions for learning. This can aid in their reading strategies as well as communicating what the desired outcomes for their learning should be.
Resource 1: Research on Student Notetaking: Implications for Faculty & Graduate Student Instruction Deborah Dezure, Matthew Kaplan, Martha A. Deerman
Summary: The skill of note taking is rejuvenating itself in regard to efficacy in promoting increased learning in the classroom. Research now shows that note taking during class time, whether it be lecture or personal notes, increases students’ abilities to recall information and apply it to new or outside information. Note taking can, however, go wrong when students are required to depend purely on a lecture. There are ways for teachers to implement resources within their lecture in order to make note taking useful for the classroom. For example, teachers can provide handouts, visuals, and graphic organizers for extra sources. Also, during the lecture, the teacher can use strategies such as comfortable pacing and cues. These cues can be verbal or visual, which will help students pick out information that is most important to understand. When aiding students with disabilities, there are often note taking services. Teachers, themselves, can still aid these students by providing complete notes as a supplement, study guides, and the option of oral assessments. Overall, note taking has the ability to be very useful in the classroom but will always be dependent on the instructors and their implementation for their students.
Classroom Recommendations: Note taking will be crucial in my future classroom. I agree with the article that teachers rely too much on their own lecture when it comes to expecting students to understand the significance of material. Each of my lessons will have a resource to aid in my plan, whether it is a graphic organizer, handout, or visual interpretation. Note taking skills can aid in pre, during, and post reading lessons just as they did during my creative writing unit. Students can use strategies such as KWL to assess their note taking and reading for textual evidence.
Resource 2: Three-Tiered Reading Guide Karen Burden
Summary: Readers construct meaning at different levels of comprehension, thinking, and conceptual difficulty. The “Three-Tiered Reading Guide” helps students reading challenging literature to reach a higher understanding. This guide consists of questions and activities related to material that students complete as they read. There are three levels of comprehension: literal, interpretive, and applied. The literal level deals with what the author is saying. The interpretive level deals with what the author means when he or she says something. Lastly, the applied level refers to what the significance of what the author is saying is. When constructing the specific questions, the article had specific question words that should be associated with each level (“name”, “classify”, “relate”). Students who struggle with reading can be paired with more proficient learners or even work in groups to answer the reading questions. Understanding and making connections as you read rather than after you read builds for opportunities to achieve the highest level readers.
Classroom Recommendations: I chose to summarize this article because I think this has the potential to be very useful in my middle school classroom. When differentiating among students, the three levels of comprehension could serve as a rubric when first assessing my class. Using the different question words at each level will also give me the opportunity to instruct my students on fully answering a question and answering to the best of their ability. This strategy could be used independently, in groups, or as a full class activity if we were reading a text out loud. The constant assessment of reading comprehension is crucial when supplying students with material that is challenging yet growth producing.
Resource 3: Essential Question
Summary: As the text first mentions, “Essential questions give meaning, relevance, and definition to the course of the unit.” Similar to its title, these questions are crucial to the construction of the lesson. If these questions are strong, students will have a strong, independent desire to figure out the answers. Essential questions should never have one correct answer, but rather challenge students to invent the answer using their own knowledge. The question should be able to hold a timeless essence, meaning it could be asked and reasked later on in the unit. The questions should link to other essential questions and move cross content to really invoke connections. These questions as crucial to any teacher who wants to build a growth-producing environment through their lesson planning. The text says this kind of teacher “plans using essential questions as a guide to construct a hierarchy of knowledge.” Although questions may seem second nature when planning, it is how you use the questions that determine if they will be effective or not.
Classroom Recommendations: In my classroom, I will open each lesson with a “focus” question in order to get my students in the mindset of that day’s objectives. I also feel it is important to teach students how to ask questions of their own rather than just answer them. Determining what makes an essential question early in the year will give my students time to understand how to construct their own questions for learning. This can aid in their reading strategies as well as communicating what the desired outcomes for their learning should be.