We all have come across a point in our lives when we did not know how to study for a test. It is overwhelming to know that you have a test coming up and have a few chapters to study. It is even more stressful when you know that the questions will not be multiple choice. It is scary not knowing how to study hundreds of pages for an upcoming test, which is why it is important that we design a studying plan, even if we do not use it all of the time.
One of the most important things we need to know as students is how to study for a test. If we do not know how to study for a test we could fail a course that we are good at. In the book Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the Secondary Content Areas, Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) talk about how to study for tests. One of the most important things to know is how to make study guides. The authors of these texts books discuss formulas that can be used to study. One of the formulas that they discuss is called SQ3R, Dornan et al. discuss what this stands for. The following is directly from the book.
1. Survey the material before reading.
2. Ask Questions based on the headings and subheadings, and about what is already known regarding the subject.
3. Read the material to answer the questions.
4. Recite a short summary of what was read.
5. Review the ideas by periodically retuning to the material.
(p. 154)
This formula is very simple to remember and it allows us to better prepare ourselves for an exam. The authors also discuss a similar formula, PORPE. The following comes directly out of the text book.
1. Predict potential questions.
2. Organize the information.
3. Rehearse through recitation and self-testing.
4. Practice through writing.
5. Evaluate for accuracy.
(p.154)
I personally like the second formula better, it is more hands on. I cannot learn without writing something. Just reading and reciting is not enough for me to learn. It does not matter which of these formulas students are good at, or if you use a different one, what matters is that we teach them how to study. Most of students that I come across with, that do bad on exams, claim that they were never taught how to study for an exam. We need to teach students how to study for tests even though they might not use that formula forever or at all. It is always easier to come up with a formula that works bests for us when we already have a template in our heads.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Questions
Asking questions is not only part of our education, it is a part of our everyday life. It is important that we teach our students to ask questions because we can teach them how to be successful not only in school, but in life. Asking questions pertains to every subject from math to social studies. In Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the secondary Content Areas three levels of questions are described. The three levels of questions are: literal level, interpretive level, applied level.
Literal level is also referred to as factual level. In this level students learn to ask paraphrase. Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) explain that at this level., "students are called upon to recognize main ideas that are made explicit, as well as to be able to identify stated fact that appears in the original text" (p. 152). The next level is called interpretive level, also known as comprehension level. This level of question pushes the reader to interpret what the author intended to say. At this level, "students must combine two or more explicit statements to make generalized statements about the relationships between the facts" (Dornan, et al., 1997, p. 152). The last level known as applied level, or evaluative level. Here students learn how to link what is in the text to their own experiences, "they are asked to be creative, curious, and rational" (p. 153).
Asking questions is one of the most important things that we have to teach our students. We have to teach them to not be embarrassed when they are confused about something. I believe that if students asked more questions there would be higher grades. How many of us have been in a classroom where the teacher asks are there any question and no one responds? We have all been in one of those classrooms. Sometimes we are even the ones that are too embarrassed to ask a question. I have a sister, she is a year older than me, and in college we got to take a math class together. When she found out we were in the same class she wanted to drop it because I have always been very good at math. She was very upset when she could not drop it due to schedule conflicts. We took the class together and everyday when we would leave she would walk next to me. She would always tell me that I asked a lot of questions. She told me that I was doing the best out of the entire class, but yet I asked so many questions. I replied to her that I need to be one hundred percent sure, I told her that I could not go home and work on the assignment unless I was comfortable. She was not doing to good in that class. One day I finally asked her why she never asked questions if it was obvious she was struggling. To that she replied that she felt stupid for asking a question, especially so many like me. I am one of those students that if a teacher shows me something, again, and I do not understand I will tell the teacher that I do not understand. I am will not pretend that I do understand when I do not. I got my sister into the habit of asking questions and she passed that class with a B+. At the end of the semester she told me how happy she was to have taken that class with me.
Literal level is also referred to as factual level. In this level students learn to ask paraphrase. Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) explain that at this level., "students are called upon to recognize main ideas that are made explicit, as well as to be able to identify stated fact that appears in the original text" (p. 152). The next level is called interpretive level, also known as comprehension level. This level of question pushes the reader to interpret what the author intended to say. At this level, "students must combine two or more explicit statements to make generalized statements about the relationships between the facts" (Dornan, et al., 1997, p. 152). The last level known as applied level, or evaluative level. Here students learn how to link what is in the text to their own experiences, "they are asked to be creative, curious, and rational" (p. 153).
Asking questions is one of the most important things that we have to teach our students. We have to teach them to not be embarrassed when they are confused about something. I believe that if students asked more questions there would be higher grades. How many of us have been in a classroom where the teacher asks are there any question and no one responds? We have all been in one of those classrooms. Sometimes we are even the ones that are too embarrassed to ask a question. I have a sister, she is a year older than me, and in college we got to take a math class together. When she found out we were in the same class she wanted to drop it because I have always been very good at math. She was very upset when she could not drop it due to schedule conflicts. We took the class together and everyday when we would leave she would walk next to me. She would always tell me that I asked a lot of questions. She told me that I was doing the best out of the entire class, but yet I asked so many questions. I replied to her that I need to be one hundred percent sure, I told her that I could not go home and work on the assignment unless I was comfortable. She was not doing to good in that class. One day I finally asked her why she never asked questions if it was obvious she was struggling. To that she replied that she felt stupid for asking a question, especially so many like me. I am one of those students that if a teacher shows me something, again, and I do not understand I will tell the teacher that I do not understand. I am will not pretend that I do understand when I do not. I got my sister into the habit of asking questions and she passed that class with a B+. At the end of the semester she told me how happy she was to have taken that class with me.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Standardized Testing
Standardized testing is a part of all public schools. Each standardized test is different in every state, and each states have different expectations. Standardized tests are also used to determine how certain ethnic groups minorities are doing compared to everyone else. Although standardized tests are used nationally they can be very misleading.
I remember taking standardized tests when I was in school, they were just so frustrating. I remember that I would always do very well on the first section that we did each day, then by the middle of the day I was just guessing on my answers, this got even worse towards the end of the day. One of the hardest things for me was if we finished early we had to read a novel. Seriously we were forced to read a novel, like if all the work we did was just not enough. Or like if we did not have to continue taking the standardized test in fifteen minutes, and continue for more hours and days to come. Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) talk about standardized testing in their book, Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the Secondary Content Areas. What these authors focus on is the problematic issues with standardized testing. Dornan et al., talk about seven problems with standardized testing they are as follows:
1. Reading tests based on an inappropriate model of reading.
2. Inappropriate norms.
3. Impact of small variations in raw score.
4. Use of statistical devices to produce scores.
5. Ambiguous, irrelevant, poorly written, or purposely hard questions.
6. Guessing.
7. Test administration.
Dornan, Rosen, & Wilson, 1997, p.118
The problem is not that there are issues with standardized testing. The problem is that we judge our students as being smart or not smart based on these scores. Sometimes we even base our teaching capacity off of the scores. These tests are very difficult especially because students never know what to expect. I also believe that these test writers try to trick students, purposely posing very difficult questions or trick questions. Another problem that comes from standardized questions is simply that there are to many questions. Each subject contains hundreds of questions and most of the subjects have multiple parts. I do not believe that either of this predictions are correct, I agree with Dornan et al., the standardized tests are problematic and many factors, not just intelligence, determine whether a student will do well or not.
I remember taking standardized tests when I was in school, they were just so frustrating. I remember that I would always do very well on the first section that we did each day, then by the middle of the day I was just guessing on my answers, this got even worse towards the end of the day. One of the hardest things for me was if we finished early we had to read a novel. Seriously we were forced to read a novel, like if all the work we did was just not enough. Or like if we did not have to continue taking the standardized test in fifteen minutes, and continue for more hours and days to come. Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) talk about standardized testing in their book, Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the Secondary Content Areas. What these authors focus on is the problematic issues with standardized testing. Dornan et al., talk about seven problems with standardized testing they are as follows:
1. Reading tests based on an inappropriate model of reading.
2. Inappropriate norms.
3. Impact of small variations in raw score.
4. Use of statistical devices to produce scores.
5. Ambiguous, irrelevant, poorly written, or purposely hard questions.
6. Guessing.
7. Test administration.
Dornan, Rosen, & Wilson, 1997, p.118
The problem is not that there are issues with standardized testing. The problem is that we judge our students as being smart or not smart based on these scores. Sometimes we even base our teaching capacity off of the scores. These tests are very difficult especially because students never know what to expect. I also believe that these test writers try to trick students, purposely posing very difficult questions or trick questions. Another problem that comes from standardized questions is simply that there are to many questions. Each subject contains hundreds of questions and most of the subjects have multiple parts. I do not believe that either of this predictions are correct, I agree with Dornan et al., the standardized tests are problematic and many factors, not just intelligence, determine whether a student will do well or not.
Friendly Texts
We all have had trouble reading, especially textbooks. Sometimes it just seems that teachers choose the most complicated textbooks to teach out of. I have had this problem in many of my college classes. I read a page and have no idea what I just read especially science textbooks. I am not referring to the terminology that is used in the book, but to how sentences are worded. Sometimes I would have to read a paragraph a few times before understanding it, which made the reading endless. At times I would just wonder if it was really necessary to teach from a hard to understand textbook, instead of using a more user friendly one. One of the subjects that Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson bring up in their book, which I thought was very interesting, are friendly texts.
Friendly texts consist of the following:
1. Chapter and section introduction.
2. Chapter and section conclusions.
3. A consistent pattern.
4. Use of meta-discourse.
Dornan et al., 1997, p. 82.
The use of chapter and section introductions are very important. They provide the reader with an understanding of what they will read in the chapter. They also allow students to link what they have previously learned to what they will learn-- they are able to make predictions. Chapter and section conclusions are also very helpful, they let students know what was the most important part of the chapter, or what they should have learned from reading the chapter. Chapter and section conclusions are also a great way to study. When I need to study I go over the chapter and section conclusions, if I know everything in the conclusions I usually just skim over the chapter, but if I do not understand or do not remember anything in the conclusions I take a good look over the chapter before my test. A consistent pattern is another thing that is very important. Consistency makes it easier for a student to learn. There is nothing worse than just getting comfortable with something then you have to switch it up. Meta-discourse is also important. It is important for authors of textbooks to link to their previous chapter. Through meta-discourse writers can provide a link between the text and our daily lives. I do not know how many times I hear kids say, "I'm never going to use this," what better way to engage them in learning than to prove to them that they will use it or it does pertain to everyday life.
Friendly texts consist of the following:
1. Chapter and section introduction.
2. Chapter and section conclusions.
3. A consistent pattern.
4. Use of meta-discourse.
Dornan et al., 1997, p. 82.
The use of chapter and section introductions are very important. They provide the reader with an understanding of what they will read in the chapter. They also allow students to link what they have previously learned to what they will learn-- they are able to make predictions. Chapter and section conclusions are also very helpful, they let students know what was the most important part of the chapter, or what they should have learned from reading the chapter. Chapter and section conclusions are also a great way to study. When I need to study I go over the chapter and section conclusions, if I know everything in the conclusions I usually just skim over the chapter, but if I do not understand or do not remember anything in the conclusions I take a good look over the chapter before my test. A consistent pattern is another thing that is very important. Consistency makes it easier for a student to learn. There is nothing worse than just getting comfortable with something then you have to switch it up. Meta-discourse is also important. It is important for authors of textbooks to link to their previous chapter. Through meta-discourse writers can provide a link between the text and our daily lives. I do not know how many times I hear kids say, "I'm never going to use this," what better way to engage them in learning than to prove to them that they will use it or it does pertain to everyday life.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Changes in Dialect
We all have done it. We all speak differently depending on who we are around. We do not talk to our friends the same way that we talk to our parents. Also, we do not talk to our parents the same way we talk to our boss. We all have to change our dialect depending on what role we are portraying. According to Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) dialect simply, "denotes that all speakers speak a particular variety of the language that includes geographical, ethnic, class, and gender features" (p. 51). Dialect is not different languages it is simply the different ways that people talk. Ethnicity has a lot to do with someone's dialect. Around New Mexico families incorporate a lot of Spanish words into their daily dialect. Accents are also a big part of dialects. A British accent, a Boston accent, and a Texan accent are all very different even though the language remains the same, English. Switching dialects is very important, not only in speaking but in writing as well. We all write different depending on why we are writing. If we are completing as assignment for school we all talk formally, we would do things such as use slang words in the assignment.
Dornan et al., also explain that, "The belief that speaking a certain dialect of English reflects a lack of education at best, or lower intelligence at worst, has led many people, including well-intentioned educators, to negatively stereotype speakers of a dialect whose speech patters differ from standard language patterns" (p.51). We all have seen a movie that pretty much makes fun of someone. This person is usually a farmer, if we are watching an American movie, and this farmer usually has a southern accent. The setting is usually in Mississippi, Alabama, or some other state in the south. This is very stereotypical and it has led many people to believe that some dialects are "stupid" or "ignorant." We have a knowledge of "standard" English that according to this textbook, Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts, there is no such thing as "standard" English. The media is the one that sets our standards for English. I believe this to be true. When have you ever seen a person with a southern accent from Mississippi host the news? The fact that a stereotype exists for certain dialects would just make it difficult for these people to even get hired. I think it is importance that we realize that a person is not dumber just because of where they were raised, just because of their accent.
Dornan et al., also explain that, "The belief that speaking a certain dialect of English reflects a lack of education at best, or lower intelligence at worst, has led many people, including well-intentioned educators, to negatively stereotype speakers of a dialect whose speech patters differ from standard language patterns" (p.51). We all have seen a movie that pretty much makes fun of someone. This person is usually a farmer, if we are watching an American movie, and this farmer usually has a southern accent. The setting is usually in Mississippi, Alabama, or some other state in the south. This is very stereotypical and it has led many people to believe that some dialects are "stupid" or "ignorant." We have a knowledge of "standard" English that according to this textbook, Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts, there is no such thing as "standard" English. The media is the one that sets our standards for English. I believe this to be true. When have you ever seen a person with a southern accent from Mississippi host the news? The fact that a stereotype exists for certain dialects would just make it difficult for these people to even get hired. I think it is importance that we realize that a person is not dumber just because of where they were raised, just because of their accent.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Proficient?
Read this paragraph below:
"As Joe walked back to the lodge, his friend met him, wondering what Joe's story would be this time.'How was the Fishing, Joe?' he asked.'Not bad,' Joe said, 'except that I let the big one get away. It ripped a a hole in the net and swam right though it. "It would have been one of the the biggest fish I ever caught'" (Dornan, Rosen, & Wilson, 1997, p. 30).
Even all of you that college readers that are proficient in the English language may not have noticed the two consecutive "a's" or the two consecutive "the's". The majority of you probably pronounced the word "though" as "through," at least I did. When the authors pointed out that the "r" was missing in that paragraph I had to go back and re-read it. It was until I actually re-read it that I realized that the paragraph did say "though"and not "through." I think that if I would have re-read this paragraph again, without the authors explaining what mistakes were in it, I will would have over the looked the two "a's" the two "the's" and the word "though."
The fact that a student does not catch those mistakes does not necessarily mean that he or she is not a proficient reader. It could also be that just like the college student they have become more proficient and instead of proofreading they are actually trying to find the purpose of the paragraph. We all make some kind of prediction when we are reading without even having to think about it. Our reading skills are so developed that we are able to make predictions, "Our linguistic, semantic, and global knowledge allows us to make predictions about meaning and structure, and encourages us to overlook the features that don't fit into out predictions" (Dornan et al., 1997, p.31).
Dornan et al. (1997) also explain how unfortunate it is that students nowadays are taught to read more like "proofreaders" rather than to read to gain knowledge. Training students to become "proofreaders," will only make their proficiency, fluency, and understanding suffer. Dornan et al. (1997) also explain that the most proficient readers are more likely going to overlook these types of mistakes because these readers would be looking for the meaning behind the text, they would be analyzing the text, not looking to proofread the text. (p.31)
"As Joe walked back to the lodge, his friend met him, wondering what Joe's story would be this time.'How was the Fishing, Joe?' he asked.'Not bad,' Joe said, 'except that I let the big one get away. It ripped a a hole in the net and swam right though it. "It would have been one of the the biggest fish I ever caught'" (Dornan, Rosen, & Wilson, 1997, p. 30).
Even all of you that college readers that are proficient in the English language may not have noticed the two consecutive "a's" or the two consecutive "the's". The majority of you probably pronounced the word "though" as "through," at least I did. When the authors pointed out that the "r" was missing in that paragraph I had to go back and re-read it. It was until I actually re-read it that I realized that the paragraph did say "though"and not "through." I think that if I would have re-read this paragraph again, without the authors explaining what mistakes were in it, I will would have over the looked the two "a's" the two "the's" and the word "though."
The fact that a student does not catch those mistakes does not necessarily mean that he or she is not a proficient reader. It could also be that just like the college student they have become more proficient and instead of proofreading they are actually trying to find the purpose of the paragraph. We all make some kind of prediction when we are reading without even having to think about it. Our reading skills are so developed that we are able to make predictions, "Our linguistic, semantic, and global knowledge allows us to make predictions about meaning and structure, and encourages us to overlook the features that don't fit into out predictions" (Dornan et al., 1997, p.31).
Dornan et al. (1997) also explain how unfortunate it is that students nowadays are taught to read more like "proofreaders" rather than to read to gain knowledge. Training students to become "proofreaders," will only make their proficiency, fluency, and understanding suffer. Dornan et al. (1997) also explain that the most proficient readers are more likely going to overlook these types of mistakes because these readers would be looking for the meaning behind the text, they would be analyzing the text, not looking to proofread the text. (p.31)
Predictions
One of the things that I have found the most interesting to read in Multiple Texts, Multiple Voices is the role that predictions play on reading. The authors of this text provide an article from the newspaper and they take out a few words and replace them with blanks. The authors then ask readers to fill in the blanks, “Readers are asked to fill in the blanks with single words that are appropriate to the meaning they construct from the passage” (Dornan, Rosen, & Wilson, 1997, p. 27).They argue than just knowing the context of the newspaper article enables readers to fill in the missing words. To be able to fill in the blanks readers most posses meta-knowledge relating to the article, “To be able to fill in the blanks successfully, the reader must have knowledge of the syntactic structure of English, an understanding of the morphological system, appropriate vocabulary to express the notion suggested by the context of the article, and an understanding of the semantics and the meaning of a passage” … (Dornan et al., 1997, pg. 28).
It is incredible how much we know about our first language without actually realizing it. We know how to put a sentence together. At the same time there are a lot of things that we do not know about our first language becomes it is just kind of innate. As I was taking a linguistics class at the University of New Mexico I realized how much people didn’t know about their first language, English. My first language is Spanish, therefore I learned English as my second language in school. When I took this linguistics class I was surprised at how many people did not know what a prepositional phrase is or something simple like an adverb, or what a dependent clause is or an independent one. They didn’t know things like how many past tenses there are in English or how many future tenses there were. There were just so many things that I realized that native speakers did not know about English. Then I stopped a bit to think about it and I realized that I did not know all of these answers for the Spanish language. I know there are fourteen tenses in Spanish, but I would not be able to name them all.
It is incredible how much we know about our first language without actually realizing it. We know how to put a sentence together. At the same time there are a lot of things that we do not know about our first language becomes it is just kind of innate. As I was taking a linguistics class at the University of New Mexico I realized how much people didn’t know about their first language, English. My first language is Spanish, therefore I learned English as my second language in school. When I took this linguistics class I was surprised at how many people did not know what a prepositional phrase is or something simple like an adverb, or what a dependent clause is or an independent one. They didn’t know things like how many past tenses there are in English or how many future tenses there were. There were just so many things that I realized that native speakers did not know about English. Then I stopped a bit to think about it and I realized that I did not know all of these answers for the Spanish language. I know there are fourteen tenses in Spanish, but I would not be able to name them all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)