Learning Log

Learning Log

Theme 4

Chapters 7 and 8 talk about the development of comprehension and vocabulary. Though these are two different areas of reading, they both are necessary for students to have a full understanding of what they are reading. In both chapters, the authors lay out different strategies teachers can work on with their students.

In chapter 7, the textbook talks about working with the different types of questions. Sometimes students can understand the text, but not always sure how to answer questions put in front of them. We tend to see this a lot with readers who have great listening comprehension, but cannot pass a reading test with much higher than a D. On page 200, the strategy QAR—questions-answer relationships—is discussed. I chose this strategy for my comprehension strategy project as well. I have heard of this strategy, but have never used it before. I find this strategy interesting because it helps the students understand not just what the question is answered, but how to answer the question. If unsure how to answer the question, students may simply pick an answer they think is best. Also, the text talks about QTA—Questioning the Author. I was interested in this strategy because it something we do a lot of in common core, but never realized it could be categorized as a strategy.

This strategy can also be necessary when studying text (Chapter 10). In Chapter 10, Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz (2011) talk about the use of graphic organizers and writing summaries. Using organizers to lay out the other’s text structure helps analyze why the author did something—going back to QtA. Graphic organizers are such useful tools. My intern and I were just talking about this the other day. She tried teaching a writing lesson the other day. She allowed them to think, pair, share. They whole group discussed and then she said write. Two thirds of them stared at her like she was nuts, or because it was the first day back from spring break--- who knows right? But the best part was, when we were at lunch twenty minutes later she was like: “That was awful. No graphic organizer? What was I doing?”

Graphic organizers, as discussed in Chapter 10, are also extremely important when you talk about the acquisition of vocabulary. Word maps (p. 257) and Semantic features (p. 259) are just two examples of graphic organizers students can use for vocabulary. Another way to build vocabulary with students Is having them learn how to analyze words in context. I feel in fourth grade this is a difficult concept, which is why teaching prefixes, suffixes and root words are so important. By teaching students to break about words by their parts can be highly beneficial. Magic squares, on p. 265, is something I have never seen before, but find it to be quite interesting. It is a neat way to incorporate math into other subject areas. The necessity for providing students the chance to play with their words and interact is a big part of the research completed by Baumann, Ware, & Carr (2007). They show an example of a word scavenger hunt, which resembles the Frayer Model. The student is asked to define the word and make connections by using it in context. The next part about models like this is that we as teachers can adapt this organizer to fit our needs. We can ask students to sketch a picture or write a synonym for the word. Though Baumann et al. (2007) talk about using context clues and words parts, they believe vocabulary instruction must be more than that too. Sometimes it is okay to teach individual words and then allowing students to explore with these particular words. Allow students to use tools like their thesaurus or textbooks to make those connections.

Just the way graphic organizers play a role in comprehension and vocabulary, they are huge when it comes to writing across the curriculum. I love the list of writing types on p. 308. I think this is a great list to have, to try and vary the types of writing students are doing. I also think this is beneficial to teachers in the content areas because it gives them a list of ideas they can use in their classrooms. Also, I find it frustrating as a writing teacher when I see how we should properly teacher writing, but then give the students Florida Writes. Every textbook and manual talks about teaching the writing process, yet our standardized testing goes against that in every way! I love some of the ideas in the response journals section. I just implemented an interactive notebook into my fourth grade class this year. The first 50 pages are considered to be reference pages. Each page represents something like Author’s purpose. There we discuss what that skill is. We make graphic organizers—kind of like a learning log. Then they practice the skill at the bottom of the page with writing or pictures.

 

Baumann, J., Ware, D., & Carr Edwards, E. (2007). “Bumping into spicy, tasty words that catch your
                tongue”: A formative experiment on vocabulary instruction. The Reading Teacher, 61(2),

                 108-122.

Vacca, R., Vacca, J. & Mraz, M. (2011). Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across
                the Curriculum. (10^th ed). Boston: Ally & Bacon.