Strategy Application Blog 3

 

The first article I chose is a history article about a topic that we actually discussed in my class this year. The one major struggle I noticed with students in my history class was teachers going under the assumption that the students have access to background knowledge to help them understand the material. However, especially with students from other countries, they may not be as familiar with American History as their classmates that have been in the American school system since they were in Elementary School. As stated in Buehl, “ Of course, readers would expect a multitude of references to people, places, and events

in a history text: all those facts that unfortunately people associate with the point of

studying history” ( 60). Not only do students need to be aware of their role in history, but they also need to have the foundational knowledge in order to make more abstract connections between the person, their accomplishments and what it means about how society has historically developed. This article about the Salem Witch Trials is no different. First we have to go under the assumption that students know what a Witch is or what it meant to be a witch in the 17th century. Many students may not know that Witches are not simply something from children's stories. When modern day students hear the term witch they will probably almost immediately think of J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series. In their mind, they know that witches, or at least witches who fly on broomsticks and carry magic wands, are fictional and obviously are not real. It may be surprising to them to believe that in the past people actually believed in witches and killed people because they thought they were one. The article does a good job at reminding students that this was, in fact, a reality by including images and pictures that depicted the real people affected by this historical event. However, this is only one hurdle students would have to overcome to fully understand the text. Another hurdle for the students will be “ Readers must know more than who she was; they must develop an understanding of what she means” (60). Basically, not only do they have to understand what a “witch” is and what happened to them during this time period, they have to apply advanced thinking skills to understand why we are learning this and what impact this had overall. For these reasons, I would most like to use the technique of Interactive and collaborative learning. I would chunk the reading and have the students work in small groups. I would then have them rotate into different groups until they know what happened in the whole article. In conjunction with this, I would also use scaffolding and modeling( i.e I would demonstrate what they should do first), so it will be more accessible for our lower readers.

The next article I chose is a science article. I have not taught a science class as of yet, but I am frequently having to help my students prepare for standardized tests for science which they struggle with because of their lower reading comprehension with science text. The first hurdle they have to overcome with these texts is the overwhelming amount of visual texts( pictures and graphs/ charts) that students have to analyze and understand in order to completely comprehend the text. “ Science texts rarely depend on language alone to communicate science concepts; pictures, diagrams, drawings, models, figures,tables, and other graphic representations are often interspersed with prose descriptions and explanations” ( Buel 54). One of the basic techniques we are told to use with lower level readers is to use visuals to help students understand the text. However, even with pictures, many students lack the high level thinking skills of looking at a picture and analyzing it, meaning that they can ask inquisitive questions on their own and come up with logical reasons. The article I selected does have visuals as well, and in this case the concept is pretty simple, but it would still require them to ask questions such as “ What are the children pushing?” “ What would happen if the ball was on a hill?”  ect. In addition to this challenge, the advanced vocabulary  present in this article may also be a struggle for certain students. This article has pretty mild vocabulary such as “ mass” and “ force”, but they do represent abstract concepts that may be challenging for the students to understand. For these types of texts, I would use the “ Scaffolding and Modeling” since I think this would work the best for this type of reading. For example, I would perhaps open the topic with having the students do an activity that demonstrates force and motion in action before having the students read the text.