The workshop was divided into 4 chunks; one about reading/following instructions, one about vocabulary, one on analyzing text from different perspectives, and one about interpreting non-linguistic items (charts, graphs, etc). Throughout the workshop, cooperative learning structures were modeled and I learned a few fun celebrations for students that I will be sharing for use in the cooperative learning model.
Process/Directions
The example used is a CLOZE procedure. A CLOZE passage would have blanks for students to fill in from the context of the text. In CLOZE reading, the teacher underlines important parts and reads aloud to the students. The underlined parts are read together as a class. You would do some type of processing activity with students after each paragraph (or other chunk). Some of the processing we did was stop and jot (have them stop and write something, maybe their definition for a word or a most important point), represent to learn (draw a picture), or note-making (in this case, writing step by step instructions). The example was a procedure for a chromatography lab. The reading was in paragraph form; the first part was background info and the second part described the procedure. I am thinking to change a few labs into this format. It seems like it will be more effective than handing students the lab info and relying on students to 1. read the directions (a lot of them have a huge problem with this!) and 2. understand the directions. Our awesome STEM coordinator who was facilitating also mentioned that once the students came up with their directions, they may find they don't work wonderfully and then you can tie in the engineering cycle (where you work to improve your model/technique). For this to work, you have to be comfortable with students not having a "right" answer. And we know that students are not all too comfortable when there is not necessarily a "right" answer, so this is something we have to ease them into with baby steps! I am going to try to find my most simple lab to start this with and build them from there!
Vocabulary
There were a couple of techniques presented. One was a word sort--you give students a set of cards with words on them and ask them to categorize them (in whatever categories they choose). Individually, we created an outline or a narrative that ties the groups together. Then, we shared these with each other and we were supposed to use a list of text structures to identify which structure was represented by the arrangement. I recalled in a previous workshop, when doing a card sort, we were supposed to create new categories and rearrange them (another option). This is a good way to have students really think about the words. When looking at the text structures, there were graphic organizers that go along with each one. I found an example of the type of text structures/graphic organizers (see below). I thought that if I was going to use this in my science classroom, I may have students analyze a text that they are about to take notes on--if they determine the text structure they could have a better idea of a graphic organizer that they could use for taking notes.
For words that are very important and have a lot of other concepts that depend on them, this next strategy can be used to help students get a deeper understanding. It is called Four-Fold Concept Development and starts with a foldable. You basically fold the paper in half twice (to end up with four quadrants). Before you unfold the paper, you will fold in the corner that is where all of the folds come together (where the center of the full page would be). I found the image below that shows what it looks like when you open it back up (tracing the diamond in the middle with a pen).
In the middle you write the word. In this picture I found, it looks like maybe they wrote a definition as well. Then, each quadrant is for a different task. 1. List 2. Rank 3. Compare (analogy) 4. Illustrate (draw). First, students will list words that they associate with the word in the center or words that are synonyms of that word. We did this in an adaptation of an all-write round robin where you write one word and then pass your paper on so that each person is writing a word on one person's paper at a time, and everyone ends up with a list on their paper. Then we did a team stand and share where each group shared an answer and we checked off ones we had, added ones we were missing, until we had at least 15 words. Once our group had 15, we would sit down. Next, we had to rank what we thought were the top 3 words from the list (that best represented the word in the middle). For the analogy part, we had to list 3 items in the room. We picked one item to write an analogy. The word we were using was Democracy, so we had to say 'Democracy is like a table because...' for example. Then, we traded with our partner and chose one of their objects to write an analogy of Democracy for. Finally, we had to draw a picture to represent the word.
Analyzing text
This was probably the most difficult of all of the sessions. We were working with the ideas of text vs. context vs. subtext and reading from various stances (critical, philosophical, analytical, intertextual, aesthetic, and metaphorical). First, we were each given one of the stances and everyone that had the same one had to come up with a bumper sticker and an image to describe it plus two famous people who are likely to read with that stance. Then, we were reading different texts and had to read them through the different stances and come up with a question we would ask from the perspective of that stance. We started with Mary had a little lamb. We practiced a technique called reciprocal reading. In this technique, one person (A) reads while the other person (B) annotates the text for questions, vocab and connections, which they share with their partner. B will then summarize and make a prediction of what the next paragraph will be about. Then, the two switch. One of the one of the facilitators of this workshop is our awesome ELA and social studies coordinator who ran a workshop a while back where she demonstrated this technique. I have since used it in the classroom and it is really effective. We went through this process with another reading (a piece of "micro fiction" which I am pretty sure came from this book) about the Carpathia ship that rescued survivors of the Titanic. We shared in an inside/outside circle structure.
Next, we did a technique called probable sentences, where we had a list of 10 phrases or words from a text we would be reading and had to write 3 sentences that used all of the phases. Then, as we shared our sentences, we came up with questions that the sentence spurred. Our facilitator typed the sentence and the questions into a document on the white board. She said that seeing words being produced helps English language learners with learning English, which I thought was interesting. She also said that in doing this process, some of the students' sentences (and questions, I guess) were being published, which is an interesting way to think about it. Since required performance and having an audience is such a big part of cooperative learning, this seems to align with the cooperative learning model, but more in a whole class format than as individual groups. Next, we were given the poem "Strange Fruit" and asked to the underline the sentence that was the most important/striking, bracket the phrase that was the most significant/powerful, and circle the word that was the most vivid. We shared in a circle where we were supposed to share our sentence in no particular order (just said ours randomly), then our phrase, then our word. Then, we did a juxtaposition of two texts. The first text we were given was about Billie Holiday and the poem/song that was written from an outsider's perspective. We were supposed to read it through the lens of one of the stances, came up with a statement about it, and shared round robin. Then, we did the same thing with one written from Holiday's perspective and went through the same process. Finally, we actually watched a video of Holiday singing the song.
This whole process was really powerful, but it is hard to see how to work it into a science classroom. I think I could use the bumper sticker/image tool for introducing new vocabulary at some point. I don't know whether I would feel comfortable teaching with the stances because I am not totally sure I even understand the differences myself, but the idea of reading text from a different perspective is interesting. Like, in science we could have students try to read from their own perspective versus the perspective of their parents, or a famous person that they can relate to. The juxtaposition could be useful when looking at a controversial topic from different perspectives.
Interpreting Non-linguistic Representations
Our amazing STEM coordinator presented a problem in the format developed by Robert Kaplinsky. Side note, I just looked him up to link his page and holy cow! He has a ton of awesome problem-based math problems on his site. They are super amazing because they have all of the figures you need and everything! It is literally a one-stop shop for problems in this model. They are based on the Smarter Balanced assessment structure, which a lot of states are already moving to because they are aligned with the Common Core. According to this graphic, Smarter Balanced assessments will be used in Missouri too, and I think it replaces MAP testing, though I could be totally wrong on that. If I remember correctly, at another workshop I got the impression that the Smarter Balanced Consortium and the people that produce the ACT are somehow in linked so the ACT may be transforming in the future as well. Regardless, prepping students for the science portion of the ACT means lots and lots of practice with interpreting and integrating graphs and charts so this will be very important practice. All of that business aside, problem based learning for math is very valuable practice so I am excited to have access so such great resources. Notice at the bottom of each one, the Common Core standards that each problem aligns with are listed which is super handy! This site is probably the single most useful thing I got out of this workshop.
In this problem, we were trying to determine whether it was financially beneficial to buy a hybrid car over a conventional car. The framework we used for this had the following components:
- What problem are you trying to figure out?
- What guesses do you have?
- What do you already know from the problem?
- What do you need to know to solve the problem?
- What should we title this lesson
- A section for work
- What is your conclusion? How did you reach that conclusion?
We solved the problem in this framework. Something that was kind of different was for when we were writing the conclusion, our facilitator had us write it as a letter to a friend about why we did or did not decide to buy a hybrid car. This kind of ties back to that original idea about making writing a little more social. Otherwise, they could have just written how they came to the conclusion but that would have been more boring! And in writing a letter, you can include ideas that are not strictly related to number crunching. I could see doing this in a whiteboarding session too, where students explain their thought processes to the class. In science, we have been trying to incorporate more opportunities for students to make a claim and support that claim with evidence, especially now with the Common Core being implemented. This is the perfect time to have students make a claim (their solution to the problem) and support that answer with evidence (what they figured out to come to that solution).
This reminds me of a project I did a while back in which I had students determine a plan for painting the walls of my classroom. They had to measure the room and determine how much paint they would need, research prices and types of paint, look into why certain colors may work better than others, and present their budget based on what they came up with. It was awesome, but it took a lot of time! I like that some of the grunt work has already been done so that it is not quite as overwhelming and time consuming to develop.
Side note: as part of this session, we were analyzing a lot of charts and graphs. We were asked to determine which parts of the figures we should look at first, second, etc. and come up with a mnemonic to remember. I rather like the one my group came up with, so I will share it with you. It is a little rough around the edges still, but if I can get it a bit more polished, I can totally see using this with my students. Get this, it is an acronym of the word CHARTS--how clever are we?!
Colors (and keys)
Headings/labels
Axis scale
Read data
Trends
Source
Ok, it isn't that great, but I am oddly proud of it--this was not an easy task!
I would love to change some of my labs into more of a problem based model, even ones that are not math based. I could see using this framework in conjunction with a CLOZE to help them determine an appropriate procedure to use. This totally beats the traditional lab write-up!
Throughout our workshop, as we presented to the class, we celebrated each other! These are so great for team building. I want to be keeping track of these things because I am not creative enough to think of my own. I mentioned suggestions for supportive statements in supporting peers and working on social skills in my post on cooperative learning (remember the Wayne's World one?). There is also the Elvis one which I think I forgot there (thank ya, thank ya very much). Here are a few more fun ones I am going to try to integrate. These are so so hard to explain but I am going to do my best.
1. seal of approval: Hold your arms out in front, palms facing each other. Now, flip your hands over and clap the palms together (kind of intertwining your wrists). Like a seal! Get it?
2. wave: Like at sports games; stand up lift your arms in the air and say woo! The wave can travel around the room.
3. roller coaster: Lean right, lean left, then lift out of your chair and do a mini wave (don't forget to say "woo"!)
4. drum roll: Use index fingers to drum on the table
5. Rocky: High five and go duh duh duhhhh duh duh duhhhh (you know, that song from Rocky!)
6. round of applause: Clap in a circle!
7. fireworks: Clap and then wave fingers out (could snap or just wiggle fingers)
At the end of the workshop, we did a quiz-quiz-trade, which I have talked about in other posts on Cooperative Learning, but I did get a new tip! If you need a little more control over your group of kids, you can have them form two lines, facing each other and have them move down one at a time (I would guess that once a student gets to the end they have to run to the other side. I guess you could do it in an inner/outer circle format as well.
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