HI, WE ARE WRITING ABOUT THE LAST TWO CHAPTERS: 3 AND 4.
PLEASE REMEMBER WHAT ROLES YOU HAVE, AS I DO NOT HAVE A LIST OF THEM. THEY ARE ON BLACKBOARD.
LASTLY, ON THURSDAY APRIL 29TH WE WILL BE DOING A BOOK SHARE WITH THE CLASS. TELLING THEM WHAT WE LIKED, DIDN'T LIKE, IF WE WOULD RECOMMEND IT TO OTHERS, ETC. PLEASE COME PREPARED.
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As we come to a close of the book Reading History by Janet Allen, I think back to all of the strategies that she provides us, as well as the ways in which to use them. Thinking back to our several book club discussions, most if not all, will be useful to us in our content area. And, if they aren't all that useful, we could always re-vamp them to accommodate our classrooms. One section that I am most interested in is the transfer of knowledge to testing. Just like all educators, I want my students to succeed and knowing ways to do so is vital. Allen states 4 things we can do to prepare our students and I think I discussed this in my last post, but it is something I am interested in working on. Also, on page 96 highlights some best practices, which states what we should emphasize on and what we should try to avoid. One question that I always ask myself is: why don't Pace University professors use these techniques in their classrooms?
ReplyDeleteThe end of the book also contains web sites to support reading history and has some useful websites that could be used for lesson plans, NCSS, current issues, etc. I would definitely recommend this book to future social studies teachers because it was a great investment.
After finishing the book and having many discussions about the topics inside it, Reading History by Janet Allen is definitely a keeper. I say this because I find this book to be very useful to a teacher whether they are a newbie or a veteran. Within the four chapters Allen talks about incidences that occur in every classroom and helpful, useful, thoughtful and creative strategies to overcome these obstacles. For instance, when students are having difficulties with a specific vocabulary word that is vital to the content you are teaching the teacher can use a word in context organizer to help those students struggling. This particularly strategy comes in very hand with words that are very difficult to just define and have the students understand the importance they have in the subject matter you are teaching, i.e. revolution. The other amazing fact about these strategies Allen discusses is they are not difficult, complicated strategies. These strategies are simple, easy to incorporate right into the content you are teaching with the students usually being none the wiser they are completing these helpful tools. To point out real quick all strategies are not strategies every teacher must work with or will agree with, but each one will speak differently to each teacher and if incorporated correctly should be helpful.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely recommend this book to all teachers, even outside Social Studies. I feel the content discussed throughout the book will be beneficial to all who thumb through these pages. I have actually seen some strategies being used within this book by different teachers in different subjects, i.e. the textbook scavenger hunt by an Earth Science teacher. The points Allen hits throughout these four chapters I feel ring true in all subject matters and she offers solutions that may help the teacher work through the problems they are facing with their students.
After looking at chapters 3 and 4 more closely there are yet again a bunch of reading strategies I would definitely utilize in my classroom. From chapter three I really liked the "looking at our options graphic organizer, outlining (of course), the multiple sources multiple perspectives chart, and RAFT, which i used for my writing strategy.
ReplyDeleteI think the strategies I mentioned above truly capture what students should be thinking about and learning in a Social Studies classroom. The looking at our options and the multiple sources multiple perspectives charts force students to not take in any information they read in Social Studies at face value. I like how the looking at our options chart forces students to look at an issue or dilemma from multiple perspectives. Allen used the example of slavery and four solutions to the dilemma. If a student looks at an issue from multiple perspectives they become more understanding of multiple points of views and can maybe see how a Southern Plantation Owner thought about slavery and why they saw it as a good thing. In the Multiple SOurces Multiple Perspectives chart, it encourages students to think like historians. They question the source of a document, as well as what is a fact in that document and they ask themselves questions about what they read.
RAFT also encourages students to think historically and put themselves in the shoes of someone who lived during a particular time period. It also allows for the student to be creative in their work.
As you all know I have been a big advocate for outlining. I think it is the duty of a Social Studies teacher to teach the skills a student needs to organize their reading and decide what is important. If we teach our students how to outline in a correct and efficient way, they can use that format in every other content area as well.
Overall Allen's book was a source of great information and tools to help us teach Social Studies in ways that our students will better understand. I love the numerous charts that were given out. The one thing I question is how many of these strategies and charts can we actually utilize? I just wonder if some of these strategies are more time consuming than they are useful. It is the job of us as teachers to pick out which strategies will help our students understand Social Studies the most.
My appreciation of the Allen book has grown with my exposure to her writing and her recommendations. The focus that she ends with, “extending and transferring knowledge” is the key to any graphical or stylistic technique. Without application, all the theory in the world is just idle chatter. All the worksheets a Xerox machine can spit out are just tiny bits of dead trees. Her resilient focus on applicability and usefulness make the volume of choices she offers worthwhile even if her “hit rate” is disappointingly low. There are benefits to the shotgun method.
ReplyDeleteThe series of physical worksheets that fill the Appendices embody the Allen ideal. Fifteen pages of easily duplicated sheets will be useful in a variety of rooms with any composition of students. The fact that so many of Allen’s recommendations were controversial or poorly-resonating amongst the group of us pre-teachers makes the volume she offers that much more valuable. Each of us can sort our personal wheat from the chaff and create an individual stable of resources for our classrooms and students.
The rich bibliography and references are equally as verdant. Not all books or sites will be appropriate for each teacher or each classroom but, like with the exercises, we as practitioners can make it u in volume. I would recommend that a pool of teachers (or 656ers) create their own Jigsaw exercise around the books, websites and resources to distribute the work of analysis and pool their recommendations together. Trusting in our brothers and sisters will make each of us that much stronger. It will also give each of our classrooms and students the advantages they need in an increasingly competitive academic world.
I believe that the Janet Allen book, Reading History, is something that, as future teachers, we can benefit so greatly by reading. We didn’t choose a book that had a lot of readings or that seemed boring, instead as a group we decided that because there were so many worksheets and strategies readily available, we would get the most amount of use through this book. And that we have. There is still so many different strategies we can use, but this book helped us open our eyes to more strategies to use in the future.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn’t just about the strategies themselves, but how to apply them to your classroom. Allen didn’t want you to just print the paper and hand it to your students. Like Rob said, without application, all the worksheets a Xerox machine can spit out are just tiny bits of dead trees. This made me literally laugh out loud in the middle of the library because of how true it is. I can recall getting so many different worksheets throughout middle and high school, yet gaining no actual knowledge from them because all I did was copy from the text. Allen stressed how useful these strategies would be if you put them into play the right way.
All in all I think that this book is a great resource and can be used in about every subject and level. We spoke about, in many book club meetings, how each strategy could be tweaked and changed just a bit to get them to be just right for your class. This can be applied as well to other subject matters. Like the RAFT that Jessica mentioned, the multiple sources/multiple perspectives chart can be tweaked to fit an English course. I would absolutely recommend this book to many future teachers and those already well into their profession.
Teachers would like to have their students leave their readings with some kind of knowledge of the content area. As teachers we love to see students who think they are experts in history. It gives us a feeling that we are doing our job as a teacher and educating our students.
ReplyDeleteOutlines allow students to choose information that is considered the most important in what they just read. I have used outlines on many occasions, constantly used in college texts. Mapping/Webbing is used to force readers to follow the author’s text. I have never used this strategy.
In order for our students to view multiple perspectives we must teach them how to first practice viewing different perspectives because the more practice the better they will get at it. In my unit plan for my TCH 430 class I have students take on the idea that they are a country who is involved in World War II. They are suppose to state who are their allies, enemies and why they were involved in the war. This allows students to view their peers and countries viewed the war.
Owning history is being able to translate history across time and place allowing students to learn from history and make connections to their own life. Alphabet books seem very creative. In TCH 412 we have an alphabet book but no drawing just the words and their meanings. I see this used in middle schools and the early years of high school. Students read and study time lines carefully and really enjoy creating them because they create their own questions and implications on the era or topic. Students must also so research, pick and choose what information to place in the timeline, and must use legitimate resources for the points.
How can we transfer knowledge to the test? First, teachers must make sure that students are critical readers for any type of text. Next, students need to become motivated and interested about social studies content. Third, we can teach students different strategies they can use to read like: How-To’s or compare and contrast. Finally, have students practice different state tests so they are able to decode the test and be used to it.
Thanks for engaging thoughtfully. Caitlin - why don't Pace professors do this? Many didn't have to take a course like this or any methods course for that matter to teach at university level. You may know the content but you don't always know how to teach it ... Rob, am curious about the comment re: 656 jigsaw. Please tell me. I'm curious about your ideas. The more specific your comments were in engaging in the text, the better idea I got about how you viewed the limitations of this text as well as its contributions. Thanks.
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