Assignment #6: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 6 – Nonliguistic Representations.
Remember: Although your course packet asks you to post to blog for parts A, B, C, and D…we are asking that you only post part C and D. We’re trying to make the blog easier to read and more user- friendly. Thanks!
A. Self Assessment of Current Beliefs and Practices: This component asks you to reflect on how and why you currently use the instructional strategies of Nonlinguistic Representations in your classroom. The intent of this is to activate your prior knowledge of your strategy use so that you can make comparisons as you read the chapter. Below are the questions to help you complete your self-assessment. After completing your self assessment please post a thought or two as a comment (click on comment link below) to this posting labeled Week Six: Nonlinguistic Respresentions.
• Nonlinguistic representations help us to recall and use information every day. Think of a topic that you understand very well and notice how many images related to this topic you can generate in your head. Now identify a topic with which you are familiar but that you do not understand well. Try to generate images and notice how difficult it is.
• What would be the purpose of representing knowledge in different forms everyday in our classrooms across curriculum areas?
B. Read & Reflect “Research & Theory”: This portion of the assignment asks you to read chapter 6 and reflect briefly on your thinking after reading the “Research and Theory” section for both Nonlinguistic Representations. After completing your chapter reflection, please post it as a comment (click on comment link below) in the posting labeled Week Six: Nonlinguistic Representations.
C. Practice: Choose one of the specific “classroom practice” strategies or techniques shared in this chapter to teach to your students (If you are not currently teaching, you may share how you would use this strategy in your classroom). You may want to consider the bullets below.
• This chapter explains that nonlinguistic representations are powerful ways to learn and recall information but that many classrooms are very linguistically oriented. Think of classroom experiences that are often effective but that are inherently linguistic (e.g., reading the textbook, engaging in a discussion, listening to an explanation). Suggest several specific ways that these linguistic experiences could be even more effective by guiding students to generate and use nonlinguistic representations, such as graphic organizers, multimedia, and role-plays.
• When do you ask students to represent knowledge using forms other than words?
D. Final Strategy Reflection: Use the following sequence of questions/prompts to reflect on what you’ve learned about both the strategies presented in the chapter and what you’ve learned about yourself as both a teacher and a learner.
How has the information you read in this chapter on Nonlinguistic Representations effected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? Use the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• How might I change how use nonlinguistic representation in my classroom?
• What is something you now understand better about nonlinguistic representations?
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6 comments:
C. One of the nonlinguistic activities we are doing this week is putting story elements into graphic organizers. I'm actually having them represent these ideas in several ways. First we are talking about it whole group, and I am writing down the story elements of a specific story. Next, I am going to have children draw pictures to represent the elements. And then I am having reading groups fill out graphic organizers (the descriptive pattern or episode pattern) using story elements of a different story.
I feel like in the primary grades, we try to do a lot of nonlinguistic activities. Often they have the other purpose of giving kids wiggle time, but it helps them remember information as well. Some things I have done: creating images in our minds of a certain part of story, drawing parts of the story as I read aloud, using GLAD input charts and graphic organizers, related our body to that of an insect (kinesthetically), act out stories, use manipulatives in math and science, do experiments in science and so on.
D. I think this chapter has confirmed a lot of what I already do. However, I do think I could do more of body movements with the kids. Sometimes I do it more often than others. But it is something important to do. I personally don't like using graphic organizers, so sometimes I don't introduce my students to them as frequently as I should. I will make more of an effort now in this area. I think the important thing to remember with these ideas is that the kids think they are fun! Often these are what they remember and can recite today. (I can still recite the bones of my body to a tune and pointing in the right area--something I learned in 3rd grade!)
Chapter 6 – Kristi Richards
C. I just recently read an article on concept muraling. After reading this chapter, I decided to try it with some of my second grade students. This particular group of students is working on recalling information from a text. Since they are studying about birds in their classrooms, I chose a nonfiction book about parakeets. The book has many informational text features, and it is broken up into different categories. I was able to go through and pick out some of the main topics that I wanted to address, such as what they look like, what they eat, and how they care for their young.
For my concept mural, I drew a very basic picture of a bird (I’m no artist!) in a nest. I then went back and added some colors and details as I talked about the basic facts I wanted them to remember. I also chose to label parts of the bird to remember specific vocabulary, but I did not write anything in complete sentences. I then took the picture down and talked threw what I drew again. Then, the students had the opportunity to create their own drawing from what they remembered. Afterward, I put my picture back up, and we talked through the information again.
I was very pleased with this method. The students were engaged, and they were able to recall much of the information. Next week, we’re going to work on using this information to fill in a summary chart organizer from the DRA. I’m excited about continuing to experiment with this strategy.
D. Several of us on this blog have mentioned using GLAD strategies within our classrooms. Many of these strategies are nonlinguistic based. Though the program was developed for ELL students, they are highly successful with all learners. In our district, we have some GLAD coaches who come to our school each month and remind us of several GLAD strategies to practice within our classrooms. Later in the month, they do a walkthrough to provide feedback on whether the strategies are observed. I have appreciated this method, since it reminds me of practices that are effective, though often forgotten, and it holds me accountable. I need to make myself a list of these strategies, so I continue to draw on them as I teach.
I also want to use more movement with my students. My first grade students have not made enough growth in their reading this year. Yet, my kindergarten students are making large gains. I teach my kindergarten students their letter sounds by using a visual cue, an animal name (context), the actual sound, and a movement. I have found that the movement is often the piece that the students can hook their new learning onto. In fact, many of the students, as they are quietly stretching out words in their writing, make the movements as they go. One of the kindergarten teachers told me she thought one of her kiddos was having a seizure, she was so involved in acting out her sounds. This teacher immediately starting adding the movements to her instruction.
Yet, I haven’t found an effective way to move past this initial sound learning for my first graders. We spend lots of time reading new books and writing, but they aren’t making the shift to more independent reading. Though we are also focusing on using context cues, many of the students still aren’t understanding how word parts go together. I’d like to work on developing some nonlinguistic ways to act out this skill.
C. Practice
I had success using two of the techniques in the chapter: drawing pictures, and engaging in kinesthetic activity.
When teaching 5th and 6th graders ecology lessons, the nitrogen cycle invariably comes up. Students easily understand the water cycle and the oxygen cycle, probably because it is found in every life science book beginning in about first grade, and because it is easy to observe. Although nitrogen is an essential component for life, the reason for this is not as easily understood. I struggled teaching my class last year, and it resulted in a lot of misinformation (one boy asked if manure had to get hit by lightning as part of the cycle.)
This year, I vowed to improve. It took me several times of watching two different videos to understand it (never a good sign for my students understanding it) so I wrote down all the essential steps to the cycle and illustrated it from the point of view of a worm (worms are easy for students to draw) with arrows moving between the steps. Students sketched the roots of legumes, animals consuming plants, animals releasing waste or dying, and other steps to the nitrogen cycle. Because cycles are so visual in nature and because it involved a lot of unfamiliar concepts (nodules, de-nitrifying bacteria), I think a pictoral representation was far superior to written notes or even a graphic organizer. To be sure, a lot of written explanations accompanied the drawings, but neither the text nor the pictures would have stood alone as a means of conveying understanding.
For they kinesthetic activity, I wanted my students to be able to distinguish the difference between a planet's rotation and its revolution. To achieve this, I took them in the gym (I needed a lot of space) and modified the familiar game of "duck, duck, goose" to be "rotation, rotation, revolution." Kids who were tapped "rotation" had to turn 360 degrees in place, and the kid tapped "revolution" had to chase down the person who tagged them in a motion analogous to the planet's orbital path around the sun.
We reinforced other astonomical concepts by having kids turn in a retrograde motion for Venus, roll on their sides for Uranus, and by varying the sizes of the circles from tiny (Mercury's orbit) to the entire gym (Neptune's.)
D. Reflection
In upper elementary grades, it's too easy to rely entirely on linguistic representations. When I taught lower grades, I used to have my reading students pantomime the way characters were feeling, my math students walk the shapes of certain polygons, social studies students try to slow model wagons down a mound of carpet, to experience the problems pioneers on the Oregon Trail had, and science students try to cary a full cup of water over an obstacle course without spilling to demonstrate how clouds release precipitation when they have to cross mountain ranges. I suppose I moved away from this because older kids are able to do more reading and writing, but that doesn't mean that non-linguistic represenations aren't as meaningful to them.
I will change my use of nonlinguistic representation by finding more ways to use it, particularly in math, which should in theory be able to be accomplished with little to know linguistic input since math is universal.
Sarah Barnett
C. I agree with the comments that we tend to use nonlinguistic representations quite a bit in first grade. As developing writers, a significant portion of their written messages are conveyed in their pictures. We use GLAD strategies in our school as well, which is wonderful for using nonlinguistic representations. We use pictorial time lines, pictorial input charts, etc. I have used graphic organizers in content areas to help children learn (and write about) details. We do this using a descriptive pattern organizer similar to the one in figure 6.2 with a circle in the middle of four-square. The topic goes in the middle, such as a picture of a plant, then each of the four squares are to make a picture and label what the plant needs in order to grow. I like the idea of directly teaching my students how to visualize images from written words by reading stories without pictures, and having them create the pictures. I have used kinesthetic activity in teaching simple addition and subtraction by having students act out story problems. We use songs in our GLAD units and Bridges curriculum to learn content, and while songs are linguistic, I think there is the nonlinguistic component as well, which really seems to help children remember the content. Also, this year we have begun to use pictures for our vocabulary words each week, using "google images" to search out images to put up next to the words.
D. I think reading this chapter has really helped to validate my use of nonlinguistic representations. In some ways I thought of these methods as being primarily useful because first graders are often not yet fluent readers and writers, and therefore must rely upon images. However, it really is more than that. As I think about this chapter, I realize that of course imagery is a powerful part of learning. Just as songs help to ingrain content, so do images, and kinesthetic activity. All of this has the added advantage of engaging students more in the learning process as well. I plan to build upon and expand my current use of nonlinguistic strategies.
Thanks for the great comments Katy, Kristi, Sam, and Sarah. Katy – great way to gradually release the responsibility of using the graphic organizers with the kids…and I think you’re right, it isn’t as hard for elementary teachers to ensure that we are using nonlinguistic activities….it’s just part of good teaching. Kristi – I really loved the idea of concept muraling….just curious as to where you got the article from? I would love to read it and be able to share it with some teachers in my building who I know would be interested. I just Googled GLAD strategies….since so many have mentioned it and it seems to look just like really good teaching strategies to help all learners…but that really support ELL learners due to the visual nature? We haven’t had any training in my area of east coast…but it sounds great! Sam – I think that it was an awesome learning opportunity for your students (and you) to see how you needed the visual representation to support your own comprehension of the nitrogen cycle…using nonlinguistic representations are an amazing tool to support understanding! Loved the kinesthetic activity for revolution and rotation….I wish my teacher tried something like that for me because it took years before I could remember which was which :) Sarah – It’s great that you also have had so much experience using the GLAD strategies with your students. You’re right, nonlinguistic representations are important for more reasons than that our youngest learners can’t read and write fluently….I think about Howard Gardener’s theory of multiple intelligences. Each learner has strengths and weakness in different learning modalities, and as teachers, we need to meet the needs of each of our learners. Nonlinguistic Representations, like Kinesthetic, helps us to do that.
Hi!
The concept muraling article is from The Reading Teacher. It's in the Dec 04/Jan 05 issue (Vol. 58, NO. 4) pp.376-380.
Kristi
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