Ashley's Post for 4/27

In chapter 3 titled of Janet Allen’s Reading History: A Practical Guide to Improving Literacy, she discusses how to make learning meaningful by extending and transferring knowledge after reading. On page 64 Christine has her students think critically by having them “analyze history and their thinking about history every day as they applied their knowledge of how historical information is communicated from one generation group to another”. This is an example of instructional strategies and activities that have the greatest impact on the lives of the students.

Some of the methods in this chapter include: The So-What Factor: Remembering Important Ideas, Outlines/ Story Maps, Mapping/Webbing etc. Out of these methods my favorite is the “R.E.A.P” method. The R.E.A.P. method is an elaborate method created by Eanet and Manzo that is designed to help students internalize and determine the importance of information in a reading assignment. The acronym itself represents the steps in the method itself. The first is R for read on your own, the E is for encode- encode the test by putting the gist of what you read in your own words, the A is for annotate- annotate the text by writing down the main ideas and the authors message and P is for ponder- ponder what you read by thinking and talking with others in order to make personal connections, develop questions about the topic, and or connect this reading to other readings you have done. I like this method because it’s an activity for students to make notes on important information and to discuss with the other students the connections and questions.

The remainder of the chapter discusses how to own and translate history. On page 74 it states “ Social Studies are about phenomena to be explored, not just answers to memorize” I fully agree with this statement. In order to accomplish this students have to give texts multiple readings in order to keep details accurate in the translation, students have to think critically, students have to use multiple intelligences to represent learning and make connections across time and place. This can be done through alphabet books, RAFT, timelines etc. Finally, transferring knowledge to testing, and transferring knowledge are addressed.

In chapter 4 “Best Practice in Reading History”, it states on page 93 “ As curriculum, instruction, and assessment planners in our classrooms and our districts, we ultimately choose how we create a bridge between students’ background, attitude and experiences and the content knowledge and perspectives we want them to gain.” I strongly agree with this statement. We do create a bridge between our students’ background, attitude and experiences and the content we want them to gain and understand. To me this is a vital aspect being a teacher.