This is your last assignment for this course...all assignments are due 8/20...thanks for participating!!!
Assignment #10: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 10: Cues, Questions and Advance Organizers.
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 strategy of Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers 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.
• What is your purpose of using cues and questions in your classroom?
• Study the research results in Figure 10.1 for "Cues and Questions." In your experience, what makes some experiences with cues and questions better than others?
B. Read & Reflect “Research & Theory”: This portion of the assignment asks you to read chapter 10 and reflect briefly on your thinking after reading the “Research and Theory” section for Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers. You may want to consider the point below in your reflection.
• Many teachers who are aware of the research on the use of "wait time" will confess that they do not use it often enough. What do you think are some of the reasons that might explain why teachers do not use this strategy systematically and effectively?
C. Practice: Choose one of the specific “classroom practice” strategies or techniques shared in this chapter to try out with your students (If you are not currently teaching, you may share how you would use this strategy in your classroom). Please post a brief reflection of how this went to the posting labeled Week Ten: Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers. Click on the “comment” link below.
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. Please post your brief reflection to the posting labeled Week Ten: Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers by clicking on the “comment” link below.
How has the information you read in this chapter on Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers 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:
• Research confirms that advance organizers are powerful when they help students focus on what is important, not on what might be unusual. All the different types of advance organizers described in this chapter, however, require up-front planning on the part of the teacher. How would you respond to a teacher who complains that there just isn't time to prepare the organizers?
• What will you do to improve the effect of using cues, questions, and advance organizers in your classroom? – Will you make changes?
• How might you monitor the effects of cues, questions, and advance organizers on student learning?
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15 comments:
Chapter 10:
Part C:
One of the classroom strategies that I will use with my 5th graders is Questions that Elicit Inferences. I would use this in my units in Social Studies. I would use a lot of the questions as a way to help my students make inferences about people, events or actions that we are studying. I think it will help them understand things on a deeper level.
Part D:
I would respond to the teacher that complains about not having enough by telling him that you can only do what you can but using these organizers would be very beneficial for your students. There never is enough time to do everything so we need to pick and choose the things that we feel are important and will make an impact on our students. The change I will make is using more of the advance organizers in my teaching. This chapter gave many ideas on using these types of organizers. The way I would monitor the effects of cues, questions and advance organizers is how they respond to the cues and questions and how they demonstrate the use of the advance organizers. For example if I wanted to monitor the effect of how my students were doing with skimming I might conference with my student and ask them to show me how you would skim. i can't wait to try out the advance organizers on my 5th graders. Should make for an exciting year.
Thank you Jackie and Mary. I really enjoyed this class and the book. I am off for a vacation and will be back on the 20th. Please email me if there is anything else you need from me. Thanks so much!
Chuck Camp
Assignment #10
C.
I liked the lists of questions that elicit inferences. I have usually taught inferences using pictures books with a lot of success. But I’ve narrowed my focus too much to literature studies. This list would work very well with the Oregon Trail unit we teach in 4th grade and really it would work with any social studies unit throughout 4th and 5th grade. But it almost seems tailored for the Oregon Trail, with the people, actions, and events. I also like the analytic questions and can see how I could intersperse Perspective questions at the same time for higher level thinking.
D.
As a teacher, there is no greater element to your teaching than being organized and taking the time to get organized. I remember my first years and all of my colleagues who helped me impressed this fact upon me early. Teaching is no piece of cake in your first few years. I had one teacher tell me after the first five years you can just sit back and cruise, because everything will be organized and ready to go. She wasn’t very effective in the classroom. Only occasionally do I have to do some hefty organizing, but every year I take the time to see how I could make little changes, a tweak here and there to improve what I did the previous year, as I believe most teachers do.
There are very few areas that I can’t improve upon, but my questioning skills can always get better. Like I said above, I liked the inferential questioning and that will be a focus of mine this year.
Thanks Jackie and Mary for the class, it was very informative. Now I have to read back through it again and decide what to start with first this year.
Rhett -
I agree with your comment that we can only do what we can do as teachers, and we just have to choose to do the things that we think will be most beneficial for our kids. There is just never enough time for everything!
Cassandra Russell
Assignment #10
Part C:
I plan to use cues and questions prior to reading stories in my classroom (basal stories, chapter books, read aloud books) to activate any prior knowledge that my students may have about the content, thus helping them to better understand the ideas when they are presented. I think that the Narrative Advance Organizer would be good for this, as well as a picture book that is related to the topic of the story.
I also plan to use the skimming technique for science, social studies, and health texts that we may read throughout the year. I spend a great deal of time teaching students how to use the features of non-fiction texts to aid them in previewing material, and the skimming technique would be great to add to these ideas. I think that textbook content will seem less daunting for students if given a preview to activate their knowledge about the content.
In my social studies curriculum, we discuss many historical figures that were prominent during early exploration and the American Revolution, and I would love to use the Expository Advance Organizer to help students prepare to learn about these important people. Background knowledge given about them would help to make them more real to the kids, and help them to feel that they “know” them more throughout the discussion of historical events that took place.
Part D:
To improve the effect of using cues, questions, and advance organizers, I plan to be very mindful of the level of my questioning; I want my questions and cues not to be based on unusual ideas, as mentioned in the text, but rather on the important ideas that I want students to really grasp. In order to do this, I know that I need to be more purposeful and dedicate more prior planning to the questions that I will use with students. I also appreciated the reminder regarding “wait time” when questioning students as a group. I think that I often get rushed and forget this very important principle of questioning.
I feel that I will be able to monitor the effect of using these techniques on student learning by observing the level of student engagement and the quality of their work output, whether that is a discussion or written piece. I believe that it is easy to tell when students are engaged and understand a story or topic based on their level of involvement. If I have used cues, questions, or advanced organizers in a manner that provided them some initial understanding or connection to a topic, then the quality of work and engagement should reflect that fact.
In my time teaching, I have learned that the more effort and thought that is put in up front by me, the greater the outcome for students and the less re-teaching and backtracking that will need to be done by me later. I would tell a teacher who complains about the extra time necessary to plan for quality cues, questions, and advance organizers that their time spent will be rewarded enormously. It seems to me, and I would tell them as well, that these questions/cues/organizers are not difficult to develop, and are something that can even be reused in subsequent years. Besides, it is so much more fun to teach when all students are active in a topic and engaged, and if a little prior planning is needed to help them attain that, I will gladly do it!
Hi all...just wanted to let you know that I've been reading your responses on my Iphone...but I do not have Internet access on my computer (we're on vacation on Florida for 2 weeks). I've been reading blog on phone and responding in a word document on computer, which I'll post this Friday 8/20 :)
C.
One classroom practice I may try using is the graphic advance organizer. In the 6th grade, we do a Greek mythology unit, and the students have a really tough time keeping everybody straight- who is related to who, who married who, etc. I’m thinking of trying the graphic organizer to help introduce the main gods and goddesses. I also like the idea from the example on page 120 of having the students add additional information as they learn more about the gods and goddesses.
D.
To improve the effect of using cues, questions and advance organizers in my classroom, I will continue to focus on wait time. It is so easy to get going too fast and forget to let the kids think. I also want to make sure that when I use cues and questions in my classroom that I am focused on what is important. Making sure I am asking mostly higher level questions is another way I hope to improve questioning in my classroom. I plan to monitor the effect of cues, questions and advance organizers in my classroom through student engagement, connections and understanding. My favorite is when I hear that “Oooh..” and see that light of understanding in their eyes.
Thanks Jackie and Mary!
C. One of the classroom practice strategies from this chapter that I will use is the Analytic Questions. I like the breakdown of categories, analyzing errors, constructing support and analyzing perspectives, and the specific questions presented in each category. These questions would help students develop their reasoning abilities. Once students become better analytical thinkers they are stronger students overall. In English students read some persuasive articles and write persuasive speeches and these questions will be great to use along with those activities. I also will use the questions that elicit inferences in both English and history. I’d like to photocopy the questions and keep a copy both at home for when I’m planning and in the classroom to refer to during discussions. Students frequently struggle with inferences on standardized testing so they can use as much experience working with them as they can get. I agree that activating prior knowledge is something that is extremely beneficial to learning. Finally, I’ve used skimming in guided reading programs and plan to use it with my U.S. History classes.
D. Good teachers are always looking for ways to improve what they do in the classroom so that student learning increases. I believe that most good teachers already do a great deal of up-front planning and so preparing the advance organizers wouldn’t require much additional planning. Rather they seem like a method of channeling or organizing the planning that one already does. I would encourage the teacher who is reluctant to try it because of time constraints to try it once and see both if it really takes that much additional time to do and if it seems worthwhile in terms of student learning.
I will definitely try to activate prior knowledge by using the various types of advance organizers. I know as a learner, I am always more easily engaged in learning when I already have some degree of familiarity with what I am learning. I found it fascinating that background knowledge can even influence what we perceive. Given that fact it is particularly important to find out what students background knowledge is.
I think that I’m able to monitor the effects of cues and questions by seeing what level students responses are at and by noticing who responds. I also think that I’ll be able to monitor the effects of the questions, cues and advance organizer by student performance on tests as well as their engagement level in the classroom.
Jackie and Mary
Thanks you for teaching this class. I’ve really enjoyed reading the text and being able to share thoughts on the various ideas with other educators. What a wonderful way go conduct an online class.
I agree with Cassandra that it is important but difficult to always allow for the wait time one should after asking questions in the classroom. I almost need to force myself to count to make sure I actually wait as long as I should. I also agree with Rhett that teaching is a job that one could work at 24 hours a day and that it is important to prioritize what one thinks is most important to do and what one gets the most bang for their buck from doing and do those things.
C. I already use quite a bit of questions that elicit inferences as I try to get students to really reflect on Francophone cultures. For example, I often ask kids questions that prompt them to compare/contrast their home culture with a francophone one. I also like to ask questions that ask them to make inferences about other aspects of another culture based on what they already know. I also use analytic questions in regards to the French language fairly often to prompt students to analyze French structures, etc. One thing that I should use more of is an advance organizer. I have used some graphic organizers here and there, but I could definitely use more of them (like the French teacher example on page 120).
D. It’s true that these organizers take time to prepare and that most teachers feel challenged by lack of time. However, I would argue that organizers could significantly help students tackle complex assignments and topics and are worth the effort. Also, you’re helping students be better prepared for other tasks with a variety of helpful tools that they can then recreate for other classes on their own. I plan to take a longer look at this chapter (and all of the chapters) again after getting more settled into my new school and the school year is a bit further underway. I’d like to reread the chapter and make notes of specific activities where I can implement these strategies in my classroom. Many of these advance organizers could be a godsend for my higher-level classes in particular. I would monitor the effects of these cues, etc. in several ways: watch for improvement in student assessments; get direct feedback from students about how they feel about using these tools, etc.
C. In theater there is no right or wrong answer. We tell kids new to the art this, like ad-nauseous. Every time I tell some kid this I like a huge hypocrite. But as I tell the kids, “All the best teachers are hypocrites!” It’s good for a laugh because, let’s face it they are all thinking all adults, especially teachers are hypocrites at this age! I know I did. So I always tell the kids about a cartoon I saw in one of my high school teacher’s room once. It had a pig teacher, old and stern peering over her reading glasses on a chain of course, at some poor little piglet dressed ala-Tiny Tim English school uniform clad lad with his hand straining to be called on saying, “There is no such thing as wrong answer Piggy, but………if there were, that would be it.” God I just love that little piggy! So sure ‘there are no wrong answers in theatre’, but man some sure do come close. Like for young directors, when teaching how to choose a play, I ask them when is a genre and okay choice for a play, when is it a great choice and when is it, well, the wrong one. They just look puzzled. So I bring up the 9/11. What made directors in NYC so careful about choosing plays that next season? Then they get it. I ask them to pick the wrong play absolutely for the school just after say the library burned down and defend it ruthlessly. I am going to use this wording right off the page 116 in our book this year. “What is and argument that would support the claim?” “What are some of the limitations of this argument or the assumptions under laying it?”
It is good stuff in this book by Marzano, Pickering and Pollock here. And I am not just blowing smoke here... Anyway. You know this whole concept is just getting muddied in my brain right now. It is like I want to say, ‘isn’t that what we just did?’ I guess for me it’s ‘a natural’, that as you construct support you are taking others perspectives’ into consideration. But hey, if Marzano says its discrete skill, I guess that is why I write for professors and pay for the privilege of having them read it, and why he writes for teachers and we pay him for the privilege of reading it. Good questions he’s got here though, “ Why would someone consider this to be good, bad or neutral? “What is the reasoning behind his or her perspectives?” “What is an alternative perspective and what is the reasoning behind it?” Like I said, I am just going to trust this is a discrete skill, stick it on my work sheets and see what the kids bring to it.
D. I know for a fact that there are a ton of these on WWW.edhelper.com and even more books in the teacher supply stores that sell ready to use ones. Also lets face it, we all have those days when we are short a lesson plan or the principal wants 36 weeks worth of emergency lesson plans for subs just in case you come down with Ebola virus and can’t show up to work, so copy some of these for videos related to what you are teaching and sit back and let the kids, the video and organizer do all the work. Half the time, I swear, these sort of lazy lesson plans turn out to be so novel to the kids and you, you end up using them over and over every year, and feel like all proud, you were so innovative. Additionally, I have to admit a huge sense of secret satisfaction when I am at a grade level meeting or subject area meeting and the principal is all like, “Tell me underlings, in what ways have you innovated your instruction this year for blad-diddy-blah?” and I get to brag about this, ‘innovative’, method that in reality started out as and, ’Oh Snikies! I don’t have a plan for human genetics today!’ moment earlier in the year, and look so smug to my colleagues.☺ Despite what I may have sounded like above, I am really proud when I write lesson plans that are simple enough for a new student teacher to use effortlessly, but still cleaver. I plan to find organizers that are for the first quarter lower level and increase in sophistication each following quarter, thereby, honing my students deductive skills. I would monitor them by graphing the base line grades for my students with new subject matter and their test grades before having used organizers and then follower the line graph that is created from the data throughout the school year to see if the effect was measurable. I am behaviorist at heart and like the cool reality of numbers to provide me feedback I require in human messy dynamic learning environments.
Thanks Chuck, Heidi, Rhett, Gina, Jeff, Cassandra and Colleen for taking our course. It was truly enjoyable to learn along the way with you, each of you having unique teaching assignments, which included a broad spectrum of grade levels taught. I have submitted each of you with an “A” grade into TINT…and hope to meet you in another course at some point in the future :) Thanks for participating – Jackie & Mary
Rhett, Chuck, Cassandra, and Heidi -
Rhett – I think using Questions that Elicit Inferences” would be a great way to get your students using higher level thinking while processing historical events, people or actions that you study during your social study units. As hard as it is, teachers have to come to terms that there never will be “enough time”, so in conjunction with your comments, I think it’s all that much more important that we make the instruction that we have “time” for as effective as possible. Marzano’s strategies can support effective instruction. Chuck – It’s great…you were thinking along the same lines as Rhett in seeing where you would be able to use inferencing outside of the language arts content area. I am jealous of your organization skills. I think you are either wired for it OR not…I don’t think I’m just “copping out” here??? I also had some great mentor teachers who really worked hard to organize me….as well as me spending hundreds on materials which would support my organization….Oh well, I continue to work hard at it :) Cassandra – I think using the skimming technique for informational texts, especially those in texts books, which may be harder for some of your students to access, would be a great idea! As far as wait time, I think we would all benefit from a teaching buddy to frequently remind us. Heidi – The advanced organizer may even help them organize synthesize information about the Greek Gods and Goddesses…as well as you stated, help them to remember the important information.
Colleen, Gina, and Jeff –
Colleen - Using Analytic Questions with persuasive articles would be perfect to analyze the author’s perspective! It is interesting to think about the role background knowledge plays in student perception, unfortunately, quite often, again due to time restraints, this is one of things that teachers know is important, but seems often to fall off the radar. I’d like to think that all of these strategies would support our students in performing better on state assessments, the ultimate goal is for our students to be able to process and access text...the hope is they can make the transfer… Gina – it must be interesting for the kids to compare and contrast their culture with “Francophone” (French speaking?) cultures. This may look very different depending on which culture they choose to compare/contrast with. Even more interesting would be to see the different variety of Francophone cultures (ie. Martinique vs. Quebec)…that’s if I’m using the word correctly:) I’m hoping that everyone remembers to pull this book out and use their favorite strategies to incorporate in their plans as the year moves on! I really hope that it will support instruction which in turn builds student learning and achievement. Jeff – Well…I’m so glad that so much of this is inherent already in your instruction….these strategies are “reminders” of what good instruction can/should include. Even better if you can include these for some worthwhile lessons when you are not able to be in the classroom. Again…I sure wish I had a teacher along the way who was able to interest me in Drama, my husband would have appreciated it as well :)
Everyone - I enjoyed the back and forth dialogue on this post…Thanks again everyone…hopefully we’ll meet again :)
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