I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on integrating more variation of the strands of ELA into my lessons. Looking back I can definitely see the trend to focus on reading, writing, and listening, and neglecting the viewing, speaking, and representing. One thing I’m really interested in is how I can help the students who need to take notes, but aren’t strong at writing.
One big challenge I see is that even though I'm teaching 6th and 7th graders, they are still in a largely literal phase of development. When we practice note taking skills many of them still are trying to write every word. I'm working on how I can give them the ability to translate larger thoughts into short descriptions, but I know that one of the biggest challenges they will face in high school is that they will be in front of teachers who have to get through so much content, they can't slow down and take the time to let students process the information.
Making that connection, for me, informs a huge chunk of my practice in giving students the time to process and then apply the information we are covering in class. I have already started to move towards a mini-lesson type instruction. I try to never speak for more than 10-15 minutes. If I am teaching a particularly complex topic, I try to break it into reasonable chunks that can be practiced or applied. I'm also finding that this is giving me great engagement in my class. Now I just need to help my students make the connection that not everything has to be done (or dictated) all at once.
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11/23/2014 02:42:29 pm
It's exciting to read of new teachers taking risks with non-traditional activities such as sketchnoting. I teach this skill to my 8-12s. I try to model it with samples of my finished sketches, but I also do it on the board beside the projector screen while the students are viewing segments of video (I teach history/socials). In this way, I share my thinking as well as the process (it also helps some learn how to glean the important bits). There are samples on my blog, if you're interested.
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AuthorI respond to Sarah, Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Smoore, Miss Sarah, (and sometimes Mom!). I have been an DL (homeschool!) teacher for 2 years and am now a proud member of the SD35 team! Archives
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