Lesson 3: Skills and Best Practices
KWL Charts
The instructional technique known as KWL was created by Ogle in 1986. Teachers activate students' prior knowledge by asking them what they already Know; then students collaborating as a classroom unit or within small groups set goals specifying what they Want to learn; and after reading students discuss what they have Learned. Students apply higher-order thinking strategies which help them construct meaning from what they read and help them monitor their progress toward their goals. A worksheet is given to every student that includes columns for each of these activities.
| K What I KNOW |
W What I WANT to know |
L What I LEARNED |
www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr2kwl.htm
Discussion Webs
A Discussion Web helps students visualize the key elements of an issue and quickly identify opposing points of view on the matter. This organizational tool guides discussions by allowing students to identify ideas of contention, to weigh opposing viewpoints, to critically evaluate the arguments, and to draw conclusions.
www.justreadnow.com/strategies/web.htm
- Distribute a selected reading to the class.
- Ask the class to identify the main question of the text.
- Divide the class into small groups of 3 or 4 students. Provide the groups with the Discussion Web Graphical Organizer
- Ask the groups to write down at least 3 reasons for answering the question "Yes" and 3 reasons for answering the question "No."
- On a simple "T-chart," record students' positive and negative responses. Use this list to promote discussion. Have students evaluate each reason ("pro" and "con") objectively and fairly.
- After discussing the individual reasons, encourage each student to decide on a position on the general question. Point out that understanding both sides of an argument does not preclude taking a stand.
- Have each student write his final conclusion on an index card. Collect the cards and tally the responses. Share the results with the class and list the most common reasons ("pro" and "con") for these decisions on a shared Discussion Web form.
Cornell Notes: Two-Column Note Taking
The Cornell system for taking notes is designed to save time but yet be highly efficient. There is no rewriting or retyping of your notes. It is a "DO IT RIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE" system. It consists of the following stages:- Preparation
- During the Lecture
- After the Lecture
Description:
This technique requires the student to draw a line lengthwise down the middle of a piece of note paper. (Some loose-leaf notebook paper comes already prepared in this format.) As the student reads or listens, major headings or concepts are recorded in the space to the left, supporting details in the space to the right. Only one side of the paper is used. When it comes time to study, the paper is folded down the center line so that either the main ideas or the details are visible, but not both at once. In studying for an essay exam, the student tries to recall the details while looking at the main ideas; in studying for a multiple choice test, the student tries to recall main ideas while looking only at the details. In this form, the students' notes are a mnemonic device (a tool for memory) that is much more efficient than rereading or trying to recall strictly from memory.
Procedure:
It will be best to model the two-column procedure with students. Assign a short selection to be read, one with an organization that transparently lends itself to easy note taking (that is, has clearly stated main ideas and supporting details.) Using an overhead transparency projector, construct your own notes on the selection and share them with your students. Discuss the decisions you made, thinking aloud about how you did what you did in constructing the notes. A variation on this procedure is to make notes on a selection in a group setting, again using a transparency. This allows the students to see an outline take shape as they participate in its construction. Activities such as this can be repeated numerous times with the double benefit of teaching something about note taking and providing a springboard for discussion of reading assignments.
Summarizing
Summarizing is a step beyond reading, note-taking, and outlining. It requires the student to process the text and then write in their own words the main and supporting ideas of the material. Many suggestions for this process are available. Following is one model:
- Determine if there is a topic sentence that represents the main idea
- Invent a topic sentence if one is not present
- Delete what is trivial
- Delete what is redundant