Chapter 4 Review

Learning Log 3

Chapter Four is all about stimulating higher order thinking during the reading process. It defines three major ways students need assistance in reaching this kind of reading: Construction of meaning, learning text structure, and improving comprehension through questions and questioning. While the chapter begins by emphasizing the importance of providing assistance during any learning activity, constructivist theory stresses that the role of the teacher is to encourage student's independence in the learning process. Constructivism (knowledge is actively constructed by the learner) helps students achieve higher order skills. Learning to identify text structure, structures such as cause and effect, analysis or chronological, enhance overall comprehension and reading becomes easier. Questions and questioning can help show if students understand the text, but it also encourages higher level thinking as they help generate meaning for readers and strengthen recall. Inferential questions are better than literal questions, which is a trap many teachers fall for. Student generated questions are also useful in stimulating higher order thinking.

Strategies for Assisting Construction of Meaning

MARSI

(Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory)

This is a self-report test of statements in which students rank themselves from 1 through 5. Teachers can then augment instruction with strategies to help strengthen weak areas. They can also do adjunct strategies (strategies done during reading). I like this test because it also helps student become more aware of their cognitive strengths and weaknesses through self-monitoring, and it's kind of like taking a quiz from a magazine: students feel less threatened and more intrigued about the results.

MAPPING (or Concept Mapping)

This graphic organizer divides major information from subordinate. It also has a lot of other benefits (see page 83-84). This is a great way to incorporate technology. www.cengagebrain.com

The "Email an Expert" idea on page 84 is a great idea. I think that having students reach out to experts is a great way to incorporate reading, writing and critical thinking skills, but also it applies things they learn in the classroom to the real world. I would definitely like to do this sort of activity with other types of professionals as well, such as athletes, political figures, artists; anything the students are interested in.

Directed Reading- Thinking Activity

The text is divided into smaller sections so students can focus on higher order thinking, such as making, altering or confirming predictions. I don't recall ever seeing a DR-TA, as a pre-service teacher or a student. I'm really confused on how it works and why it's a useful strategy.

Reciprocal Teaching

Like with the DR-TA, Reciprocal Teaching uses small segments of text. The teacher and students work together to comprehend the text, as the roles of teacher/student are reversed. This also utilizes group roles. I am convinced this strategy is useful in teaching because of the following statement: "Reciprocal teaching provides assistance to students as they read and significantly improves achievement in both regular classrooms and with students with disabilities" (page 93).

Strategies for Assisting Text Structure

Mystery Clue Game

This is a really fun idea. Students in each group receive a card with a clue (clues arranged chronologically to lead to an event). Each student reads their clue to the group members, encouraging oral reading skills, and the group uses critical thinking skills to arrange the clues in a specific sequence that is meaningful and therefore they solve the mystery. My only qualm is that I have been told that it's not always good to prod poor readers to read aloud, but maybe since it's in a game format, it will be less intimidating.

Organizational Charts (see pages 96-99):

            1. Pattern Guides

            2. 3+ Level Study Guides

            3. Organizational Jot Charts

Strategies for Assisting Questions and Questioning

The Question-Answer Relationship

This strategy seems to be designed to help the teacher devise good questions, but I'm still a bit confused about it. It involves a four-level taxonomy:

1. Right there

2. Think and search

3. The author and you

4. On your own

 

Analogies

Preparing students to read is like...learning how a computer works before you can fix it.

Ways that we are like a computer:

________________________________________________________
People                                                                    Computer________

Heart                                                                      Mother board

Circulatory System                                                Wires

Eyes                                                                       Monitor

Words                                                                    1s and 0s

Need for food                                                         Electricity

My Lesson Plan

Topic: Science-Weather Conditions and Phenomena

Grade Level: 4th grade

SOL :

READING 4.4 The student will expand vocabulary when reading.

a) Use context to clarify meanings of unfamiliar words.

READING 4.6 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of nonfiction texts.

a) Use text structures, such as type, headings, and graphics, to predict and categorize information in both print and digital texts.

SCIENCE 4.6 The student will investigate and understand how weather conditions and phenomena occur and can be predicted. Key concepts include

a) weather phenomena

Objectives:

• Know the difference between a cold front and a warm front and how they impact each other
• explain what causes precipitation
• explain what causes extreme weather, like tornadoes and hurricanes
• understand the process of convention currents and how wind is generated
• Be able to define and understand the following vocabulary terms:

1. temperature
2. front
3. atmospheric conditions
4. global winds
5. local winds
6. convention currents
7. air masses

• Be able to use the context of the material to clarify the meaning of words
• Extract content-related words that are perceived to be important words for understanding the text (use of Self-Collection Strategy)
• Use context clues to determine the text structure (chronological order) of a paragraph
• Reconstruct a selection of text to represent the information visually
• Communicate new ideas to others by presenting the selection of text to the class and explaining the visual representation 
• Participate in and contribute to discussions in science content area

Written purpose: The students will explore how weather conditions and phenomena occur by examining the sequence of a text and working collaboratively with students on a variety of activities to understand the material

Strategies/Activities: Prep Strategy, K-W-L, Mystery Clue Game, Graphic Organizer, Cooperative Learning activity, Learning Log, Reflection Guide, Repeated Readings, Self-Collection Strategy

 

Preparation:

 

1. Prep Strategy

 

As a whole class, we will apply the Prep Strategy to what we already know about weather. On the board, weather will be circled bolding. Students will provide words that they associate with the main topic weather. The teacher will ask why they associate each given word or concept with the main topic. After the class has completed and the Prep Strategy, the students will come up with three categories that most, if not all, the words they brainstormed could be classified under. In the example provided, three categories might be: types of weather, causes of wind, and products of weather.

Justification: As stated on page 75, "PreP helps ascertain prior knowledge and also builds background." It also encourages listening carefully to other opinions and thoughts. I think this strategy is a great way to open up the lesson on weather phenomena because it gets the class talking and factstorming about their associations with weather. It's a good way to gauge what the students already know about the topic, as well as a great way for the teacher to guide the class into thinking about words or concepts related to the reading they will be doing. The teacher could even help guide the students into choosing categories that relate directly to each subtitle or subject of the paragraphs they will be working with. On a side note, if a student has an incorrect association with any on the words or concepts, the teacher could help guide them into adjusting their schema on the subject.

 

2. K-W-L

 

Individually, the students will draw a K-W-L chart in their learning log. The teacher will provide statements, concepts and words that the reading will describe. The students will reflect on what they know about such statements, concepts and words; what they would like to know about...; and later, after the reading and activities have been completed, they will reflect on what they have learned.  

Justification: This strategy helps both the teacher and the student tap into their prior knowledge. It also lets the teacher know what the student is predicting about learning, and where they might like the learning to go. It also establishes a point of reflection for the student to return to after they've completed the reading. As the authors state on page 64, "this activity not only helps the teacher and students determine prior knowledge, but it also models an appropriate reflection strategy for after the reading has occurred." Basically, I think it's a good strategy to just get the students thinking and tapping into their schema about the topic, while letting them anticipate the rest of the lesson.

Assistance:

 

1. Mystery Clue Game

 

Students will be divided into groups of four. Each student will be given at least one strip of paper containing a sentence taken from a paragraph of text. Students will then read their selection of text silently and begin to predict where it might fall within paragraph. Next, each group member will read their selection of text aloud to their group. The group will then decide how sentences should be arranged to form the most plausible sequence of events.

 

Justification: Because the text I chose was so dry and dense with information, I thought the first thing I need to do was make it more fun to read. I rewrote the text so that each sentence of every paragraph would form into a chronological sequence of events, and I used context clues to make sure the paragraph could be pieced back together. Also, I thought that if I broke the text into smaller portions, it would be much more manageable to read and therefore the students would be able to comprehend it better. By making it into a game, where the students are basically piecing the sentences together like a puzzle, it would be more stimulating and they would be much more motivated to try and understand what each sentence was saying, so that, if nothing else, they could figure out where it went. Working in a cooperative setting would also stimulate a good learning environment for comprehending the reading, and it would also promote the oral language as the students are reading their sentences to the group, and trying to make sense of the text.

 

2. Graphic Organizer

 

After the group has decided on a plausible sequence, the group will brainstorm on ways to graphically represent a picture of their group's reading by creating images to explain complex ideas and concepts. They will be teaching the class about their section of the text. During the brainstorming stage, students should be reviewing the reading multiple times to determine the main ideas, deciding how the information could be displayed graphically and gathering what information needs to be included from the reading. They may use simplified words or text if they don't want to use an illustration. They may also have a representation for each sentence or one big representation for the whole paragraph if the information is better suited for that. The whole idea is for each group to visually or graphically organize and display the meaning of their reading to the class for the benefit of the class. They are now the teachers. When the groups are ready, each group member will read their sentence/s to the class and explain how the graphic representation displays the meaning of the text.

Justification: This strategy wasn't in the Assistance Phase of the textbook, but I think it would work best for this particular lesson and content, and it's the best way in my opinion to aid comprehension. Graphic organizers are an easy way to show relationships within the text, especially when the text is information-rich. I especially chose this strategy to match with the selection of text because I think the text lends itself perfectly to be depicted in visual form. This strategy helps simplify the information and by presenting it to the class, it will help both auditory and visual learners comprehend the reading as well.

 

Reflection:

1. Repeated Reading

Students will silently read the whole, original text (before broken into paragraphs and spliced by sentence).

Justification: First, I think this is really important because the students have only read their group's paragraph. They need to go back and read the whole text, now that it has been broken down and the meaning has been extracted. I thought the text was very dry and information-rich. I had trouble getting through it the first time, and comprehended little because of that. By breaking the text into manageable parts during the Assistance phase, and having the students share their reading and graphic illustration to the class, the students should be able to handle to complete text at this point. And because they have already heard the text read orally, and seen it displayed pictorially, they should have no trouble getting through the passages.  

2. Reflection Guide

The teacher will provide a Reflection Guide to the students who will at first, work independently. The guide will present a number of true or false statements that can be inferred from the reading. Students will then discuss and analyze their choices with classmates at their table.

Justification: This strategy aids reflection because, as stated by the authors on page 126, "the reflection guide provides students a chance to work in groups, analyze and make decisions about the reading they just completed." And since the statements on the guide don't come directly from the reading, but may be phrased to mean the same thing it helps students and the teacher know if they've learned and retained the information. Also, some statements should go beyond what was written to help jump start discussions from the students and help make connections.

Vocabulary Strategy:

Self-Collection Strategy

The students and teacher, as a whole class, will share words from the reading that they think are important to the understanding the text and content area. The class will also share words they were uncertain about or that they know they'll have trouble remembering. Together, the class will look for context clues in the text to define the vocabulary they think are most important. They will also help devise ways or strategies students might be able to remember words and their definitions, for those who are struggling

Justification: I think this is a really effective strategy because it places the responsibility on the student. Since the students are choosing terms that are important for vocabulary building (with the help of teacher guidance of course) they are making themselves accountable. I think they will feel more motivated to learn and retain the words. I thought this was a useful strategy as well because it occurs during the reflection phase of the lesson plan. By this point, the students have already been exposed to the words several times and should feel at least acquainted with them. At this point, students will be better equipped to understand the word in its context and retain it. 

 

Evaluation:  

1. Students will be given a quiz to evaluate their understanding of the reading and content. The quiz will be multiple choice and matching and with be related to the content objective. Possible questions will be:

• What is the difference between a cold front and a warm front?
• How do cold and warm front effect each other?
• Explain what causes precipitation
• Explain what causes extreme weather, like tornadoes and hurricanes
• Understand the process of convention currents and how wind is generated

Define the vocabulary terms:

temperature, front, atmospheric conditions, global winds, local winds, convention currents and air masses

 2. Students will also be evaluated based on their performance during cooperative activities and group work. They will be graded based on their performance communicating new ideas to others by presenting the selection of text to the class and explaining the visual representation and participating in and contributing to discussions in science content area.

 The Text:

(Below is the text I would use for this lesson plan. Each paragraph is broken by line breaks, and each sentence is on its own line for the Mystery Game.)

Local winds, like mountain breezes and valley breezes, stay in a fairly small area.

But global winds cover larger areas.                        

Uneven heating of certain parts of the planet results in these global winds.

Another feature that defines these winds is that they form long-lasting wind patterns that circle the globe in predictable patterns.

They curve to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.

Regardless of the hemisphere, they can form fast-moving currents, called jet streams, and they can blow up to 149 miles per hour in the atmosphere surrounding the Earth.

_______________________________________________________________________

 

In areas that are near the ocean, sea breezes blow from the water toward the land during the day and from the land to the water at night.

Here's how it works.

During the day, the land heats up faster than the ocean.

Then when the warm air rises off the land, cool air from the ocean rushes in to take its place.

Just as the air from the ocean took the place of the air on land, now the warm air from the land rushes towards the ocean to replace the air it lost.

This causes the ocean to warm up, and the ocean holds its warmth longer than the land.

Then the whole thing reverses all over again; warm air from the ocean rushes towards land, while cooler air from land rushes back to the ocean.

This whole process is an example of convention current.

These are loops of moving air that transfer energy from one location to another, and they cause wind.

_______________________________________________________________________

 Mountains absorb more heat during the day than the valleys do.

 Warm air rises, so this causes the warm air of daytime to rise off the mountainside.

Then the cooler air from the valley rushes in to take its place.

During the night, the mountains cool faster than the valleys, so the whole process happens in reverse.

A cool night wind then blows down the mountains.

This whole process is due to convention currents: loops of moving air that transfer energy from one location to another, and they result in wind.

_______________________________________________________________________

 Fronts form when air masses collide.

In other words, when two air masses meet, it is called a front.

When warm air displaces cold air on the ground, the front is referred to as a warm front.

But when the reverse happens and cold air replaces warm air on the ground, the front is referred to as a cold front.

_______________________________________________________________________

Air masses are bodies of air that are uniform in both temperature and humidity, which is moisture content.

Cold air masses are denser and heavier than warm air masses.

Since these air masses don't mix unless they are similar in both temperature and humidity, the cold air will push the warm air upward.

Temperature, by the way, is the measure of the amount of heat energy in the atmosphere.

A front is formed when two different air masses meet.

When different fronts meet, they cause weather patterns to change.

______________________________________________________________________

Extra Credit:

An atmospheric condition is the temperature, wind, and type of precipitation that occurs around a region.

This can include more than one air mass.

Extreme atmospheric conditions create various kinds of storms such as thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes.

Different atmospheric conditions also create different types of precipitation.

The main types of precipitation are rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain and hail.