standard 5: "no bones about it" Prehistoric romeo and juliet and the critical reading process
Performances: The teacher engages learners in questioning and challenging assumptions and approaches in order to foster innovation and problem solving in local and global contexts.
Essential knowledge: the teacher understands the critical thinking processes and knows how to help learners develop high level questioning skills to promote their independent learning.
Critical Disposition: The teacher values knowledge outside his/her own content area and how such knowledge enhances student learning.
With the implementation of the new Common Core State Standards, Hawaii is now on a level playing field with the nation. Every student now becomes accountable to learning the same grade level materials along with students in the same grade across the country. This ups the ante for teachers to bring Hawaii's students to higher student academic proficiency in line with the national average. It is essential to acknowledge that the skills needed to meet student standards have become more geared centered on “college and career readiness”. Part of being ready for college and a fulfilling career is being able to critical think and process information closely.
As a student teacher, I have had several opportunities to teach the critical reading process created by the Waipahu High School Literacy Cadre to my 9th grade students. It is a process that they are familiar with, but because they do not implement it in their daily practice of reading, it becomes irrelevant to them.
As a culminating activity to close the Romeo and Juliet Unit that my mentor teacher and I were teaching, I used a newspaper article about bones that were excavated in Italy that was an eerie and ironic match to the setting and plot of the Romeo and Juliet reading. Because we had just completed almost 6 weeks of Romeo and Juliet material, this was the perfect approach to re-introduce and scaffold Critical and Close Reading.
A powerpoint was used during the whole lesson that guided the practice towards independent practice. Visual and auditory modeling was done on the powerpoint where students received additional scaffolding of self-questioning and how to assess and analyze information and ways to annotate information. By connecting the lesson to Archeolgy, a map of Italy, essential questioning, a K-W-L chart, and the importance of critical reading, students were able to stay engaged during the entirety of the lesson and gained better understanding and application of the critical reading process.
Click link to view the article "Prehistoric Romeo and Juliet"
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-02-07-neolithic-love_x.htm?POE=TECISVA
As a student teacher, I have had several opportunities to teach the critical reading process created by the Waipahu High School Literacy Cadre to my 9th grade students. It is a process that they are familiar with, but because they do not implement it in their daily practice of reading, it becomes irrelevant to them.
As a culminating activity to close the Romeo and Juliet Unit that my mentor teacher and I were teaching, I used a newspaper article about bones that were excavated in Italy that was an eerie and ironic match to the setting and plot of the Romeo and Juliet reading. Because we had just completed almost 6 weeks of Romeo and Juliet material, this was the perfect approach to re-introduce and scaffold Critical and Close Reading.
A powerpoint was used during the whole lesson that guided the practice towards independent practice. Visual and auditory modeling was done on the powerpoint where students received additional scaffolding of self-questioning and how to assess and analyze information and ways to annotate information. By connecting the lesson to Archeolgy, a map of Italy, essential questioning, a K-W-L chart, and the importance of critical reading, students were able to stay engaged during the entirety of the lesson and gained better understanding and application of the critical reading process.
Click link to view the article "Prehistoric Romeo and Juliet"
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-02-07-neolithic-love_x.htm?POE=TECISVA
“Part of the art of teaching is the ability to rearrange the world for students - to force them to see things in a new way."
-Sunny Decker, "An Empty Spoon"
-Sunny Decker, "An Empty Spoon"