Chapter 6 Reading

3/7/13

Chapter 6 Reading: Activating Prior Knowledge and Interest

            Chapter six begins with an explanation regarding how all learning is rooted in what we already know to the point where it is stated that it is impossible to learn without prior knowledge. This reminded me of how many mathematics teachers state that struggling students need to learn the “basics”. I don’t believe that this type of philosophy is effective. Teachers need to find connections that students can make with prior knowledge, and allow students to challenge themselves with problem solving, instead of trying to establish a foundation of “basics”. Students have wide ranges of prior knowledge that can be expanded upon. Drilling basics without relevance will not present the most successful retention possible.

           

            Along with the importance of prior knowledge, the text also touches on how students need to have readiness to learn. Thus, they must be interested and willing to put forth the effort necessary to be successful. The authors set forth that they believe most students want to use reading to learn, but don’t believe that they have the ability to have success. I am grateful that there are educators that believe that, and not that there are numerous lazy students. Vacca explains that students will want to read if they have the faith that they can do it. However, I have grown up with friends that have chosen not to do readings for school because they simply don’t want to, or don’t think they need to. These have been my friends who are in AP Language and Literature with me, and have definitely demonstrated competent reading skills. So then it becomes a matter of developing the interest and importance of taking the effort to do the readings. Then also scaffolding instruction of how to effectively approach the readings and why, so they do not feel that it is a burden.

            I am extremely passionate about the idea of self-efficacy. Students need to believe in themselves in order to become competent life long readers. Thus, as educators, it is important to find ways to instill that confidence into our students. I am the captain of the cross country and track & field teams at the University of Saint Thomas, and this idea of believing in oneself is extremely relevant to success in running. Distance running is such a mental battle, and the ones that are most mentally strong, are the athletes that perform the best. It is important to be physically strong, but in order to work toward that physical peak; one must believe that they can get there. In order to run 50-60 miles a week, and push through the discomfort of rigorous workouts, it all comes down to the foundation of knowing that you can do it. Thus, I also believe as a teacher, success will come as I know my students can learn from reading, and they can have the confidence to do so successfully.

            Thus, if students believe they can read successfully, as well as are interested in the material, there is a much better chance of students retaining knowledge from reading. Teachers must find relevancy to students’ lives. Again, if students can create those connections, there is a chance that the material will stick with them, especially if there are able to respond to the reading. If the students create discussion about the material, talking about it will further the satisfaction from the reading and create deeper understanding. The text describes how essential it is for students to receive satisfaction from learning. Thus, to figure out what will give this satisfaction to students, they must learn to choose text that is appropriate for them and then set forth questions and purpose for their own reading. As an educator, I must set forth how to become motivated to resolve the conflict. An idea to begin this process is to have students begin with the questions, “What do you need to know?” and “How much do you know already?” which is building on the prior knowledge to give confidence and meaning to the text. These questions are essential to ask oneself after a word problem in mathematics. Many students become flustered by the embedded information. Thus, it is important to take a step back and evaluate what is important and how it should be approached.

            The example history lesson involving the analogy of the assembly line and ice cream sundae was clever and well thought through. He had sorted out many details and had connections created down to when ice cream spills that they could talk about chemical spills in factories. It is essential to stress the important meanings behind fun lesson plans such as that, and have a detailed plan set forth for when to break and reflect on the meaning behind the activity. When I was reading this example, I could imagine it not serving its’ entire purpose if one was not careful. This would need to be done when effective classroom management has been implemented, and the class can handle an activity like such. Otherwise, students could get too over stimulated and lose sight of the analogy. Last summer, when I taught for Breakthrough Saint Paul, the programs stressed using as much creativity possible, and create lessons that are outside the box and had students up and moving. It was interesting to see what lessons would be creative and effective, and others, where the students didn’t grasp the content behind the activity. Thus, this is something to be cautious of.

            Lastly, I found it interesting to see the anticipation guide that was created for preconceived notions about trigonometry. There were numerous statements written out and then one had to say whether they thought the statements were “likely” or “unlikely”, which is essentially a true/false pretest. I am hesitant to have false statements written out and allow students to convince themselves a false statement is true. I would definitely have them correct the quiz immediately after so they knew which statements were true or false. However, as a pretest, I cannot grade it, and then I’m afraid students wouldn’t take it as seriously and then have these false ideas that they may think are now true. I would want to have some sort of system where the students would need to also do a posttest and explain their reasoning. Some students may simply fly through the quiz and quick chose true or false. I would want an anticipation guide that involved explaining ones’ thinking so I could more explicitly understand where their answer is derived.