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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 Dto the blog. 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.
• 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.
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 reflect on 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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9 comments:
I am blessed. I have done the personality inventory and I am a linguistic learner. This makes sense to me, as I am analytical in nature. I want to discuss things to get a better understanding of them. This has served me very well in my educational ventures. If I attend a lecture, many important topics stay with me. This is the best way for me to learn. It is especially good that I learn this way, as I am a terrible artist. I would be sunk if I had to draw my understanding of concepts.
Luckily, this difficulty has helped me see that students need different ways to express themselves. I really try my best to deliver a new concept in three different ways. Whenever possible in beginning new content units I look for photos, videos, stories and other forms to share ideas. My hope is that at least one of these will reach every student and help him or her put this idea into his or her long-term memory.
I tried this with a math lesson this week. I was introducing some new geometry vocabulary. I wanted the class to be able to tell me that when two lines come together forming a shape the point where they meet is called a vertex and the plural form is vertices. We drew pictures and labeled them, I used pattern blocks with the class to also help them understand, and then I told them to put themselves into groups and make a shape that had six vertices. It was really interesting to watch how they had to work together to figure out how to arrange themselves. I am hoping when we take the test next week that they all remember what a vertex is and can identity them.
I learned that kinetic activities are something that I am going to try to use more often in my teaching. Primary students need to move a lot anyway, so what a perfect way to help them get out their wiggles. I know it’s not possible in every lesson, but I would like to fit this in whenever I can.
I am going to use kinetic, graphic pictographs and mental pictures when I teach the life cycle science concepts this spring. I will also allow my students to demonstrate their understanding to me in whatever way they choose. I am excited to see how this goes.
The most important thing I learned in this chapter is that non-linguistic representations do not have to be pictures. I am going to use models, kinesthetic and mental pictures more in my teaching to help all learners be successful.
I definitely want to use more nonlinguistic representations in my classroom. Since becoming a teacher I have had students create graphic representations, generate mental pictures, and draw pictures and pictographs. The 2 strategies I have very limited experience with are making physical models and engaging in kinesthetic activity. I really liked the chapter’s example of using kinesthetic activities. The example was of a 4th grade teacher using Body Math to teach her students math terms. This could be implemented in first grade during math as well. After finishing the chapter I was trying to think of how I could use nonlinguistic representations during writing and I thought of giving the students a graphic organizer where they sketch the beginning, middle parts, and ending of their story. I think this would help them organize their thoughts and reinforce the idea that stories have a beginning, middle, and an end. I think their writing would be stronger after engaging in this activity.
I have a better understanding of why it is important to provide students with nonlinguistic representations because it stimulates and increases activity in the brain. It is also important because many people believe we store information in 2 ways; through linguistic representations and non linguistic representations. I will be more aware of how I present information to my students and try to give them access to more experience with taste, touch, smell, movement, and sound. If I incorporate more non linguistic forms students will retain and have a deeper understanding of their learning.
Hi Hope and Molly,
We're glad you were able to take away ideas from this chapter and apply them in your classroom.
I agree, that trying to reach people (any age) in three different ways is a good rule of thumb. (When I communicate with my teachers about important information I always try to do this is three different manners, staff meeting, email, and note in mailboxes. This way I hope that I get my message across to most people. :D)
Hope, how did the test go on vertices? Did you see a positive result?
Thanks for reiterating that nonlinguistic representations do not have to be pictures. That is a big a-ha to many people in this class.
Molly,
I would agree that incorporating kinesthetic activities into your first grade classroom should be fun and helpful to the students.
• How might I change how use nonlinguistic representation in my classroom?
As a visual learner myself, I love the use of non-linguistic representations in my class and I have used them for as long as I can remember. Many educators believe that nonlinguistic representations encompass on graphic organizers, but this is not completely accurate. Nonlinguistic representations include graphic organizers, but in addition to graphic organizers, nonlinguistic representations also include making physical models, developing mental pictures, drawing pictures and pictographs, and engaging in kinesthetic activities.
This fall our staff had professional development training in the ENVOY program that promotes the use of nonlinguistic representations and kinesthetic strategies to manage student behavior. Through this training, and the reading in chapter 6 of the Marzano text, has inspired me to explore the idea of incorporating kinesthetic learning activities into my instruction to target a variety of learning styles I have in my room.
In particular I have a student that has really intrigued me this year. He “has a motor.” He always needs to be moving. He is a good student, a smart student, but he just has to move more frequently than the other students. After a couple of months observing this student I have begun to try some kinesthetic learning opportunities in my class. For example, last month my class was studying the classification of triangles. So, I made posters with the names of the triangles, large pictures of what they look like, and a short definition on them. I placed them in a “triangular” pattern around the room. When I taught this lesson I had the students move to the poster they thought the triangle was represented by. Next, when the students were engaged in “practice” on this objective, I had my “in motion” students walk to each poster and examine it before they made their decision about how to classify the triangle. From my data collected, this strategy worked really well for my kinesthetic learners.
In the future I want to try to incorporate at least a small, minor kinesthetic learning opportunity or activity in each lesson, even if its as small as stand up and do some sort of movement that will help sink in the learning objectives.
• What is something you now understand better about nonlinguistic representations?
What I have learned through my study of non-linguistic representations is how important they are. When we teach linguistically we are only reaching a fraction of our students, and much of the way instruction is giving is linguistically. I have been fortunate because I am a visual learner, and I’m aware of it and know how important nonlinguistic representations have been to my learning, so I have incorporated their use over the years.
But just recently have I truly opened my eyes to the idea of kinesthetic learning opportunities. I felt it unfortunate that Marzano’s Classroom Instruction that Works did not dedicate more efforts on this topic. It will be something that I will have to research on my own. I’ll need to explore more kinesthetic learning strategies to implement across all my curriculum.
As a learner, I wouldn’t say that I’m completely visual, but I do benefit when I’m able to see information in, both, linguistic and non-linguistic formats. The idea of dual-coding is really powerful evidence that should be enough to convince any teacher of the importance of using both modes, linguistic and non-linguistic, in their teaching. I think that my current use of non-linguistic representations is somewhat limited to the use of graphic organizers, but after reading this portion of the text I would like to expand my use of this strategy by employing more kinesthetic activities with my struggling readers. Before reading, I’m not sure I would have classified kinesthetic activities as a form of non-linguistic representations, but I really see the potential value in such activities. Our kindergarten teacher uses Zoo Phonics to introduce letters and sounds. Over the years, as I work with kindergarten students, I notice that the motion/movement portion of the program really sticks with them. If I ask them to tell me the sound that letter “H” makes, the inevitably slap their legs to make a galloping sound as they appropriately vocalize the phoneme. At a workshop about multi-sensory learning strategies, I was introduced to the idea of teaching new words (sight words) using whole-body, cross-lateral movements to “lock into the mind” the way the word looks and sounds. It was incredibly powerful. I’ve used that strategy here and there with significant success. I appreciate that this non-linguistic strategy can be as simple as asking students to develop mental pictures, yet still so powerful. For some of our students who are on behavior plans, I carry a small set of flashcards that have pictorial representations of expected school behaviors. I carry them with me so that I can remind the student of the expectation, while showing them a picture of what that behavior looks like. They’re getting the message in two modes, and their resulting behavior usually indicates that they were able to comprehend and follow through with what was being asked of them (usually!) Moving forth, I want to be more aware of opportunities to use non-linguistic representations in ways that will enhance student learning and understanding without taking up too much of the very limited time I have with the students I serve…we probably won’t be building models, but I know I can make good use of this strategy in other ways!
The math test went pretty well. They did well with the vocabulary, just a few accuracy issues. Overall, I was pleased.
This chapter confirmed in my mind the importance to creating nonlinguistic representations to optimize learning for students. I am a kinesthetic learner, so it makes it easy for me to create learning experiences where the children are using models, manipulatives, movement, drawing, and creations to cement concepts in their minds. Since my classroom is a language immersion classroom, almost everything we do involves the different senses. For example, the children learn Spanish songs throughout the year that help them learn important vocabulary. The one we have been doing this month is called Vamos a Cantar and the children learn Spanish verbs. As they learn the verbs, I show explanatory pictures and the children act out the verb. Learning by using nonlinguistic representations is often fun and memorable for children.
I could improve instruction by using more graphic organizers. There are so many different types of organizers that can be used. At the beginning of the year I would need to model by writing words along with pictures. I would also need to explain the symbolism of the organizer because it could possible be too abstract at this age. Later in the year, the children could use them on their own. I think comparing and contrasting two concepts, descriptive pattern organizers, time sequence pattern organizers, and concept pattern organizers could be brought down to a kindergarten level. I agree with Molly that it would be easy for the children to tell about the beginning, middle, and end of a story through drawing pictures and writing words in a graphic organizer. I have not done this at this level, but definitely want to give it a try!
I use a lot of pics drawings and viual aids in my class, as I am a very good stick person drawer. I find that even bad art is a good thing and tends to make a long lasting efect on the students and give gives me something to recall when reviewing information for a project or a test.
Randy,
You made me laugh. I'm a terrible artist as well, but the kids never seem to mind. In fact I think it's a good thing for them so see that teachers aren't great at everything.
We're glad you all were reminded of the value of using nonlinguistic representations in your classroom. Incorporating more movement is also very valuable.
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