Questioning Strategies

                                        
    
     Chapter Five of the text indicates various strategies useful to teachers interested in creating quality questions.  Indeed, questions are vital to prompting critical thinking skills.  However, too often teachers present questions that only begin to scratch the surface of students' potential.  Of importance, as teachers we should be careful to avoid closed-ended questions.  If we continue to ask an array of yes/no questions, then we are not extending our students' thinking.  Certainly, Bloom's depth of knowledge can serve as a guide for creating higher-order thinking questions.  However, I question the authenticity of some seemingly higher-order thinking questions.  Do teachers place words such as explain and analyze in front of a question and automatically consider this a higher-order thinking questions?  Are we sure to utilize critical thinking skills in our own mental processes before asking students to do the same?  Do we evaluate pre-service teacher programs and ensure their ability to extend student thinking to ensure future teachers are instilled with critical thinking skills?
     Strategies such as QTA, ReQuest, QAR and SQ3R are useful tools to asses content area knowledge.  In my own educational experiences, I have been exposed to the SQ3R strategy.  My high school Spanish class briefly exercised this strategy.  Although my teacher's intentions were well-directed, he failed to successfully deliver this strategy and its benefits.  We used the strategy during only two lessons and he did not spend enough time introducing this strategy and modeling its usefulness.  Instead, he could have first explained the strategy and provided multiple exposures instead of only two.  However, I believe this teacher's methodology is one we can often be tempted to fall into as teachers.  We recognize the benefits of certain strategies and present them to our class but fail to offer a quality exposure.  We feel pressed for time and revert back to monotonous lessons with which we feel comfortable.  How can we push ourselves outside of our own comfort zones and still feel confident in the lesson we present?
     Lastly, I would like to recognize the benefits of student inquiry and reciprocal teaching.  This style allows students to discover solutions to their questions.  I certainly hope to implement this discovery in my future classroom.  However, this teaching method can often be difficult for teachers to adopt, especially first-time teachers.  Indeed, while I recognize its importance and usefulness, I still fear this method may lead to more student distraction.  Moreover, many teachers worry that this teaching method will remove their control of the classroom.  Perhaps, the text could offer more ways to alleviate this concern and help prevent distractions while still allowing student independence and discovery.  As a future teacher, I aim to encourage student and independence whenever possible.  Therefore, I hope to incorporate student inquiry, higher-order thinking questions, and critical thinking skills in my classroom to provide discovery-building lessons and increase self esteem and autonomy for my students.      

Note-taking

                                           
    Certainly, as Chapter Seven of the text indicates, note-taking is a valuable skill.  Indeed, it is a skill that more teachers should help students acquire.  However, teachers should introduce note-taking in a balanced and varied manner.  For example, one note-taking strategy may work for some students but not for all.  In addition, teachers cannot score student's notes and find some of their work invalid because what means nothing to the teacher may translate into valuable notes for the student.  How do we present a lesson on note-taking that is flexible enough for all students?  Moreover, how do we determine the appropriate amount of instructional time to focus on these skill building exercises?  
     Another question this chapter generates is how can one decide what is truly important enough to be recorded in one's notes?  For example, during a history lecture, one may incessantly record dates of historical events.  To some, these may be valuable records.  However, I find it much more valuable if the student can draw an overall concept from the lecture as opposed to facts and statistics.  If my students understand what events led to WWII as opposed to recalling the date it began, then I believe I have made greater use of my student's learning opportunity.  
     Of importance, note-taking is not an easy skill to teach.  The text suggests generating research questions as a note-taking exercise.  However, I question the text's simple presentation of this skill.  The author seems to assume this is an easily acquired technique.  However, it is often quite difficult for students to generate questions of their own.  I often find this task difficult in my own academic assignments.  How do we teach students to generate thoughtful, meaningful questions?  Indeed, these lessons are life skills that we must help our students attain.  Teaching students to be reflective, evaluative thinkers is one goal I certainly hope to achieve as an educator.  Developing students' common sense and ability to generate questions is an all-encompassing technique.  
     

Vocabulary Acquisition

                                             

     Both Edna Brabham and Carol Lynch-Brown outline the effects of teacher's reading-aloud styles on vocabulary acquisition.  One major component of their scholarly article that resonates with me is the importance of the manner in which a teacher reads aloud.  Perhaps, teachers can make the experience more enjoyable by using props, role-play and visuals to assist the read aloud exercise.  Certainly, a more entertaining and exciting learning experience can help students commit the material to memory.  However, these experiences must not only be a form of entertainment.  Indeed, teachers must be sure to capitalize on the learning opportunity.  How can we ensure teachers make these read aloud experiences reinforce the learning objective?  How can we support and encourage teachers to enhance instruction as well as motivate students?  The small percentage of teachers who use a read aloud to correlate with instruction is quite alarming.  Certainly, many educators are eager to share a good book with students but we must be sure to carefully evaluate the relevance of the literature we choose to share with students.     
     Indeed, during my own brief experience in Elementary Education I have found many exciting and activity-packed lesson plans that seem motivating and beneficial to students, but I have learned to evaluate these lessons and notice whether or not the activity reinforces the learning objective.  Certainly, it is easy for us to be misled, hoping to write lesson plans with many thrilling activities without first critiquing the activity to extract its impact on learning.  Therefore, we must be readily available for our peers and assist in the peer review process.  We should not be afraid to critically evaluate another pre-service teacher's work because this work could impact the education of future generations!  I hope it is our goal to provide helpful insight in the humblest of ways. 

                                              
    
     Lastly, I would like to address the needs of all learners.  As research supports, many interactional styles of reading can help boost comprehension.  However, how are we reaching our introverted and shy students?  Many lessons incorporate cooperative learning and certainly its effectiveness is seen in the classroom, but I wonder if we pay too much attention to this one style of learning and fail to reach all students and appreciate them for their vibrant and varied personality types.  Of course, many programs that prepare future teachers focus on the importance of multiple modalities.  However, we must remember that these modalities do not exclusively exist among visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and musical learners.  Paying attention to certain personality traits and personal interests can extend the impact of the learning objective and reach all learners.

    

Read Alouds

    

     Both the article, "Tapping the potential of teacher read-alouds in middle schools" and Chapter Four of the textbook for this course, Improving Adolescent Literacy: Content Area Strategies at Work provide research-based information valuable to me as a future teacher.  In particular, the article mentions that despite research and positive student feedback, we incorporate few read aloud practices in middle schools.  I question why this occurs.  If we know the benefits, success, and enjoyment associated with read alouds, then why do we stop this practice once children reach adolescence?  I suppose some stigma can be associated with read aloud practices that cause this reluctance.  Perhaps these practices seem to discourage independence and appear juvenile.  However, one value of read aloud practices is the opportunity to introduce material at a higher reading level.  I look forward to using read alouds in my classroom in order to generate and model an eagerness to experience and enjoy the text.  Moreover, I hope to foster creativity with more read aloud experiences.  Students can construct their own perceptions without the confines of the text in view.  As the article reveals, read aloud experiences also provide a way to incorporate humor into the lesson.  If I can increase the number of humorous and creative experiences, then I can lessen the divide between fun and education. 
     From my own learning experiences, I know I am more motivated to learn if the teacher demonstrates a good sense of humor and an overall pleasant, joyful attitude.  Why do we find so many serious and monotonous learning experiences in our classrooms?  If teachers are curious, joyous learners, then we can prompt students to approach learning in the same manner.  Students value and respect dedicated teachers who adopt this positive attitude.
                                               

     Importantly, we must consider the lack of various materials as a possible setback in read aloud practices.  Teacher bias can have a significant impact on student learning.  For example, many of my past experiences have led to a disinterest in and neglect of expository text.  However, I must work to eradicate this distaste for informational text to provide optimal learning experiences for my students by using a variety of texts, including expository.  I never took the time outside of class to find informational text that appealed to my own interests.  Therefore, helping students relate the material to their own lives and interests is a significant factor for increasing motivation.  Teachers must work diligently to find ways to increase student motivation as well as understanding.  My textbook offers various expository text structures such as compare/contrast, sequential, and cause/effect to ehnahnce student understanding of the text.  Perhaps a greater use of these textual structures could have improved my understanding of expository text and therefore increased my motivation.  Read aloud practices should be supported by comprehension-enhancing strategies such as developing a greater understanding of textual structures.  Overall, humorous and joyful teachers that provide varied read aloud experiences with supporting comprehension-based activities can increase motivation and understanding to create a more effective learning environment.        

Writing to Learn

                                                                              
     After reviewing the Knipper and Duggan article as well as Chapter Eight of the text, I agree with the authors' well-supported statements that reading should be accompanied by writing in order to deepen student understanding of content subject area.  Throughout my personal learning experience, I have found that a writing exercise can greatly enhance my reading comprehension.  If a teacher follows a mandatory reading assignment with a writing assignment, then I am more likely to remember and understand the information.  I am given time to process and articulate my thoughts in response to the reading.  Particularly, content subject areas require time to process the material.  Therefore writing exercises coupled with reading are especially useful in regard to subjects such as math, science, and social studies.
     Consequently, Knipper and Duggan offer instructional strategies for teachers to implement in order to deepen students' understanding in these content subject areas.  Of the strategies presented, one I will use in my own classroom is the quick write exercise.  This exercise gives students a purpose to read and activates their prior knowledge, therefore deepening comprehension.  In addition, creative thinking and writing will be a prominent component in my classroom because I believe in the benefits it produces for students.  Writing exercises such as poems or an ABC list are useful strategies that help deepen student understanding while allowing self expression and ingenuity.  I agree that more writing to learn exercises can be beneficial in the classroom.  Moreover, I recognize the difference between writing to learn and learning to write.  Unfortunately, many of my learning experiences have focused on learning to write and I believe I could have befitted from more writing to learn exposures especially in my content subject courses.  Therefore,  I hope to supplement my students' learning with many writing to learn opportunities.  These opportunities can certainly help a student who is struggling with reading comprehension in content areas.  I also look forward to implementing small group peer review sessions as Knipper and Duggan suggest.  However, one question I may offer is can peer reviews cause more harm than good?  Often, students are required to give feedback but lack the insight to offer useful advice.  Misinformed but outspoken students can give incorrect advice and cause confusion among students.



           
   
     Lastly, of the three types of knowledge presented in the text, I find procedural knowledge to be the most important for students to be able to articulate.  If students are able to describe their thought process, then teachers can help detect misunderstandings and correct errors.  If students are accurately reasoning to reach a solution, then they can further enhance and apply their knowledge through procedural thinking by being able to describe how they reached their conclusion.  This type of thinking promotes self reflective learning and helps students become more proficient writers, speakers, and communicators.  Various writing prompts can activate student knowledge, get their minds ready to read, and help them articulate what they learned.  While many strategies such as issuing admit slips, exit slips, and RAFT prompts seem to be useful to promote writing to learn, I question whether or not introducing too many strategies can confuse or overwhelm a student.  As a teacher, I wonder if I should present several different strategies to appeal to all my students and expose them to as many tools as possible or if I should dedicate time to focus on a few, successful strategies to help deepen their writing to learn skills as well as enhance comprehension in content areas.