How can speaking and listening strategies support learning in your content instruction?

I found this article extremely constructive. Many scholarly articles on teaching provide theories on why teaching methods should be done, but does not provide real world examples. This article not only informs the reader of why each approach is important, it goes further suggesting ways in which the teaching tactic can be done. Through step by step instructions the reader can see how each process can and should be performed.  The author established six categories in which literacy skills, in the form of speaking and listening, can improve: 1. Activate Prior Knowledge, 2. Make Inferences, 3. Use Knowledge of Text Structures, 4. Visualize, 5. Generate and Answer Questions, and 6. Retell and Summarize. Section 2. Make Inferences had a procedure that I could certainly use in my History classroom. I could create, like the author suggests, an interview between characters after a selected reading. I also like what the author suggests in section 3. Allowing my kinesthetic students to act out scenes three scenes within a text will really increase their comprehension of the selected reading. I could do something similar with my visual learners allowing them to draw three scenes of a selected text. In Sharron Kane’s Literacy and the Learner she recommends the use of dramatic performances and storytelling within history. (p.240) She claims that fluency in speech develops students literacy skills. This is founded on the idea that if one can promote ideas clearly through speech then these skills can translate to paper. I have attempted something similar to these literacy simulations. My learning activity was based on terms and events, but by finding an appropriate text I could easily turn the activity into a literacy engagement. My students really enjoy such interactions. While they are unable to develop a decent script due to the fifty minute period they do learn from these interactions and would enjoy such an activity. Ultimately these speaking and listening strategies can motivate students so that they enjoy being assigned texts.

Why Writing is Important to Learning and Communication in History.

Writing within History is an important foundation for a student's ability to learn and communicate ideas. All students should have an understanding of the importance of reading, reflecting upon, and writing about past events. An easy way to explain the importance of writing within History can be drawn to the process of how history is recorded. Simply put in order for people to accurately evaluate a point in time any individual recording new information should communicate their understanding of the event so that others can clearly grasp the message the writer wanted to promote. Just as our forefathers communicated their understanding of their time and place in history so to should any student learning within the field of History. 

One method of practicing the skills of writing and communicating understanding is to use the writing process. This approach within the content area of Social Studies is promoted by Chapman, Hobbel, and Alvarado's Real-Time Teaching: A Social Justice Approach as a Base for Teaching Writing.This article deals with writing within a content area for the sake of understanding the material more and developing students’ reflective writing skills. This is done under the lens of social injustice: “A social justice approach to writing fosters an awareness of societal challenges that affect students’ families, communities, and the larger society.” The three main topics discussed were concepts of beauty, poverty, and slave trafficking. Students were asked to write about how these topics affected 1. themselves and their family, 2. their community, and 3. the world. After the students created the drafts regarding the topic and its effect on the three expected elements (“Me, My Community, and the World”), students were asked to peer review each other’s work. Through this reflective process and the follow up critique students were able to develop their writing skills while discussing fascinating issue. According to Sharron Kane these students would have informally completed all four steps of the writing process. (p.190) By rough drafting or brainstorming ideas students would have completed the planning process. By allowing peers to review their work and reflecting on their critiques students are drafting and revising. By fixing the flaws address by their peers students are editing their work. Finally by turning in their work to the teacher students are “publishing” their reflections on the given subject matter.

To perform this writing approach I would give my students a social injustice prompt like slavery, segregation, or lack of provisions (food and water). They would then, like the article suggests, reflect on how these topics impact the individual, community, and world within the given time frame. By reflecting on the social justice aspect of history in this manor the events of the past are not just topical, point in time occurrences, but dynamic events that have personal, local, and global repercussions. 

Literary Observations #1

I have only been student teaching for a week now and more than a few times students have asked me to define words for them. Words like decimate, neutrality, and ecology are examples of some of the words these students have asked me about. Because not all students have the same level of understanding of vocabulary there will be words that some students do not understand. This problem can be fixed by implementing a word wall into my future classroom. The purpose of a word wall is to build student vocabulary. According to one of the articles I read for learning module 6 students can create their own word walls by analyzing texts and recording any words they are unfamiliar with or words that clearly stood out as vocabulary not often used outside of the content area. Students can then label their selected words under one of the following levels; 
Level 1: I have never seen this word. 
Level 2: I think I have seen this word, but I don't know what it means. 
Level 3: I have seen this word, and it has something to do with.... 
Level 4: I know this word. I can use it in my speaking, reading, writing, and listening. 
By allowing my students to use metacognition to evaluate their understanding of vocabulary I can build up their vocabulary. 

The next step to this process is very important. My students need to survey these words using these questions: How useful is the word? 
Can you use the word in different situations or contexts? 
Is the word used frequently?
Do you think the word can appear in different texts? 
Is the word's meaning easy to explain in everyday language?
Does the word refer to something concrete or abstract? 
Does the word have multiple meanings? 
Does the word have a prefix, suffix, or identifiable root? 
I found this questioning process easy for every student to answer and it also encourages higher level thinking as it requires transfer. One useful approach the book promotes that is also utilized within the article is to make students aware of the prefixes and suffixes in content areas.(158) Prefixes like pre- and post- are used frequently outside of the content area, but hemi-, dem- and others would need to be practiced to increase their content vocabulary. 
Ultimately I need to implement a word wall, but limit the word wall to simple terms. Any word that a student does not understand should be added to the wall and put through this process. My current teacher uses her word wall not only for terms like iron curtain and cold war, but for words like containment and isolation. By taking that next step of allowing students to add to the word wall I can really make a difference in their literary understanding.

Sharing my Literate Life with Adolescent Students

By reflecting on my literary experiences there are a number of positive and negative occurrences that will affect how I teach my students:

1. Reading in front of the class was more than a simple task. It was a high anxiety event that had an effect on how one's peers valued the selected victim. One could not, would not been seen as a lesser being due to mispronounced words or shuddering. When the time arose for me to read in front of the class I had already practiced the selected paragraph three to four times as to avoid the judgmental glares of my fellow students. To combat this stressful practice I will have a system similar to the reading simulation practiced in class. A handful of strong readers will read aloud small sections of a novel or textbook while the rest of the class reads along. I will also have scribes who record key points and analysts who will summarize and question the text. Through this system there should be less stress and more opportunities to practice critical reading. 

2. In high school I was a much slower reader than the rest of the students. If we were all expected to read a page or two at the same time I would read as much as I could and stop just as everyone else finished, even if I was no where close to the end, just so the class would not have to wait for me. I can combat this problem by asking students to read a section of a text and analyze what they read. The faster readers will not grow bored from waiting as they can write while the others catch up. In theory this will help all students despite developmental readiness levels.

3. I hated reading books that were selected for me. Books that I was allowed to choose from had a greater impact on me. I can provide my students with options of texts they can read. I can apply this within my history classroom by allowing students to see the books for the semester. I can then allow them to select the three books that they would like to read in the order that they want to read them. Then students can be assigned one book which they can read at their leisure. When the selected book relates to the unit they will be expected to present a group project and inform the class about the book and how it relates to the material.  

Literacy Timeline and Reflection

           Fortunately I was born into a household where education was important. My mother being an educator read many books to me as a child, instilling a love a reading in me at an early age. Because we did not have cable I had to entertain myself through reading or art. No Dr. Seuss or the Bearinstine Bears book was safe from me. I read or attempted to read anything I could get my chubby little hands on.

           One of the major negatives on my timeline is my home school experience. Due the nature of my fathers career we had to move frequently. It is because my mother placed more importance on math and art than on spelling and reading competence that I lacked the skills other children my age were receiving in public schools. 

           My literacy status did not improve much when finally placed in public school. I had several weak and/or mentally unstable English teachers that chose to "do their own thing." This changed by high school. I had one teacher for three years who was consistently improving each students' reading and writing skills. She even went out of her way to strengthen my writing proficiency and to prepare me for college level reading comprehension all during her summer break. I swear if I receive any big award she is going up there with God, my parents, and Lady Gaga on those I want to thank.

            Throughout this Literacy Timeline great adventure or mystery books consistently had a positive impact on my  personal perspective of reading. These books were also never assigned; I was the one who chose them. I was motivated to read them because I knew that investing my time and attention to the story-line and character development would, in the end , be well worth it. On the other hand having books selected for me like The Great Gatsby had a negative impact on my perspective of reading. When I was expected to read a certain book within a certain time frame reading in itself became a chore. 

My Textual Lineage

For the assignment I chose the following texts: Box Car Children (book series), Hardy Boys (book series), Aesop's Fables, Greek Mythology short stories, Harry Potter of course (book series), the Hobbit, Wizard of Oz, Hunger Games (book series), To Kill a Mocking Bird, Diary of Anne Frank, Life of Pie, and Kite Flyer.

What I have noticed is that I tend to seek out books that are either fiction or mystery. In most books the main character is a youth that faces the loss of a parent or two (Harry Potter) and must fight against tremendous odds. I really enjoy it when books have twists and plot changes. I also noticed that in these books there is a unjustified death of one of the main characters which always tends to hurt when I invest so much time into the character. I came to the realization that none of these books, excluding Anne Frank and the Mythologies, have any historical relevance. One thing that I could do for my students and myself is to provide a short first person perspective account of a historical event.