Jennifer Gonzalez
Að styðja við lestur og ritun í öllum bekkjum
Í fyrirlestri sínum talar Jennifer um mikilvægi þess að nemendur æfi sig í lestri og ritun í öllum fræðigreinum. Hún mun fara yfir 10 furðu einfaldar aðferðir sem kennarar geta notað til að styðja við lesendur og rithöfunda nemenda á hvaða efnissviði sem er. 5 þeirra tengjast læsi og 5 tengjast ritun og eru leiðir til að hjálpa kennurum og nemendum að læra að þekkja og vinna með almennan fræðitexta, t.d. blaðagreinar, rannsóknir, greinar og texti sem þarf að greina og skilja. Aðferðirnar eru t.d. undirbúningsleiðbeiningar, að hugsa upphátt, gagnkvæm kennsla, orðaveggir og setningarammar. Þessi fyrirlestur er sérstaklega gagnlegur fyrir kennara á mið-, unglinga- og framhaldsskólastigi sem kenna sögu, náttúrufræði, samfélagsfræði, stærðfræði og tungumál svo eitthvað sé nefnt.
“Most students do very little academic reading or writing outside of school; they need more guided practice in this kind of work, and the other content areas are a perfect place to give that to them.”
— Jennifer Gonzalez
Spurningar og svör frá Sli.Do
Q1: Have you any experience how group writing (2-4 students) affects those who often don't like to write or do not seem to have ideas on what they want to write?
I actually don't have any memorable experience with group writing as a teacher. As a student, the only time I ever recall having to write something with other people was within the context of larger group projects, and what almost always happened was that one person would draft something, then others might give feedback to the draft or make smaller contributions to it after the fact. Doing it that way is manageable, and I think there is a lot of value in getting feedback from peers, but as someone who writes regularly, I would really struggle if I had to compose something from scratch WITH one or more other people. With that said, if it is a successful practice, I'd like to learn more about it.
What I do think might serve the same purpose for helping reluctant, stuck, or inexperienced writers is the think-aloud strategy — having those who are proficient and comfortable in their process think out loud while they write, so that others can better understand the thinking that happens behind the scenes.
Q2: Should all teachers know how to use reciprocal teaching in their classroom?
Not necessarily. I'm not sure there is a single teaching practice that deserves universal adoption. With that said, if multiple teachers in a school use the same structure for processing texts, and students get practice with that structure, it will make it much easier for students to use that strategy, because no time will be wasted learning how to do it. So any time a team of teachers can get aligned with their practices, it can multiply the positive impact on students, as long as the practices themselves get good results.
Reciprocal teaching is just one of a handful of approaches to talking about text in groups, and for some students and teachers, it may prove to be too rigid in the way it assigns roles. Two others that teachers may want to consider are the Real Talk strategy and the TQE Method, both of which I have explored on Cult of Pedagogy.
Q3: What is the role of class discussion to strengthen students' literacy, both reading and writing?
Speaking and listening are the other two branches of literacy, along with reading and writing, and discussion is one of the best ways to engage with both. A good discussion gives us practice with processing language in a more immediate and informal way, and it can improve both our reading and writing: Discussing what we read gives us a window into others' interpretations of a text, and it can help us better articulate our own insights. As for writing, a discussion can often serve as a "rough draft" of a piece, allowing us to formulate our thoughts before trying to put them in writing.
If you're looking for some new ideas for discussion, take a look at my post, The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies.
Hver er Jennifer Gonzalez?
Jennifer Gonzalez er kennari sem heldur úti vefsíðunni Cult of Pedagogy þar sem hún vinnur í fullu starfi við að hjálpa kennurum í öllum námsgreinum og bekkjarstigum að fullkomna kennslulistina.
