Reading Apprenticeship Faculty Inquiry Group (FIG)
Chabot College Spring, 2011
Don Plondke
application to classroom course, Geography 2, Cultural Geography
Spring semester, 2011 was the first time that I adopted a new textbook for Geography 2, Visualizing
Human Geography by Alyson L. Greiner, that employs a visual and case studies central approach to
introducing fundamental concepts in human geography. It was also the first semester in which I sought
to experiment with Reading Apprenticeship methods in an effort to more actively engage students with
the text. The synchronous launch of the two new resources for introducing basic geographic concepts
seemed to dovetail well in providing a platform for, at the very least, making student interaction with
the geography text visible.
INQUIRY
In the first week of the semester, I announced to the Cultural Geography class (enrollment at census: 53)
my intent to integrate, on an experimental basis, 2-3 Reading Apprenticeship strategies. My initial
objective was really an extension of a multi-semester effort to improve rates of student achievement in
mastering basic geographic concepts about space, place, and the cultural landscape. After 2 FIG
meetings, I formulated the primary inquiry question: “Can the use of a series of RA techniques (talk to
the text’, ‘think aloud’, gallery walk, and a metacognitive log) measurably improve student recognition
of essential geographic concepts through more conscious, repetitive exposure to definitions and realworld illustration of geographic ideas in the text?”
METHODS
In class on February 9, students were divided into 5 discussion groups and asked to “think aloud”
interactively while reading a section of a chapter on the topic of cultural ecology. I briefly modeled the
verbalization of “think aloud” using a couple of introductory paragraphs. Following a period of about 30
minutes for the interaction, each group member was invited to write a comment, question, example, or
interpretation on the group’s common theme on class chalkboard. The themes of cultural ecology
covered included such concepts/definitions as: possibilism, human modification of Earth environments,
and Earth as a “dynamic, integrated system.” The class as a whole participated in a discussion I led on
the posted comments. This exercise enabled the topic of cultural ecology to be partitioned into major
themes of inquiry and research, focusing for a time on each.
On February 28, the class participated in a “gallery walk” exercise on the general topic of globalization. I
extracted 6-7 expository statements from a textbook chapter on globalization and wrote each on posterboard size paper as a thematic quotation for a group’s discussion. Each group of 5-7 students worked
bout 25 minutes with their assigned quote to isolate its context in the chapter and write reflections
about the statement on the large-format paper. We then posted the quotes with group comments
around the classroom wall. All class members were invited to walk around “the gallery” and add Post-it
notes with additional reflections, questions, or comments on the quotation-headed pages. To
summarize the collective thinking, we reviewed each wall-posted quotation, the group’s interpretations
and illustrations thereof, and the pertinent ancillary comments from class members. Perhaps most
illuminating from the class’ experience with the “gallery walk” was the air of sensitivity to cross-cultural
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issues (such as neocolonialism, indigenous peoples’ rights, Americanization, etc.) that arise from the
processes of globalization. Verbalized comments were often a reflection of the cultural diversity of
student experiences.
Geography of religion was a major subject of classroom activity in the last two weeks of the course.
On May 11, I demonstrated in class the process of filling-out a “metacognitive log” using the document
reader equipment and a short introductory section of a textbook chapter. The log form was distributed
as a writing homework assignment. The log contains the two column headings, EVIDENCE (I
saw/heard/read in the text…) and INTERPRETATION (I wondered/I made a connection/I thought…).
Students were asked to individually sit down with the approximately 7-page section (probably ½ of the
section was filled with images and graphics) of the chapter on religion and jot down on the form both
major points encountered in their reading and their reactions/connections/elucidations on the
significant themes they encountered while reading. My initial overview of the submitted logs revealed a
positive pattern, that students mostly exceeded expectations in writing detail about their feelings and
reflections on some major cultural processes related to religious practice, such as “sanctification”,
“sacred spaces and places”, “secularization”, and the like. I viewed the metacognitive log as a
culminating written exercise to illustrate this semester’s students willingness to engage, and
appreciation for, the self-reflective component of the Reading Apprenticeship approach.
RESULTS/REFLECTIONS
For Geography 2, Spring 2011, there is no doubt that the integration of Reading Apprenticeship
methods, however inadequately introduced in my first attempt at implementation, increased the level
of student engagement with the textbook. The ‘think aloud” and “gallery walk” exercises revealed that
students, through group discussion, can come up with real-world illustrations of the cultural processes
that emerge in defining landscapes in a globalizing world. Those two interactive class sessions also
brought to light that terminology chosen by textbook authors to define fundamental geographic
concepts can be stumbling blocks to comprehension. This reality of frequent convoluted definitions and
phraseology in human geography texts has motivated me to pay closer attention to essential definitions,
and to avoid overuse of what can appear to be more the popular jargon of the discipline than essential
terms.
As part of a Basic Skills Initiative that I developed for geography beginning in fall of 2008, I have sought
to keep some record of student success in achieving learning outcomes that pertain specifically to the
student’s comprehension and appropriate usage of essential geographic vocabulary. On three (3)
objective tests administered to the Spring 2011 Geography 2 class, I observed noteworthy improvement
in responses to questions designed to evaluate the student’s grasp of a key term or concept. These
questions focused on essential ideas such as: spatial distribution, core-periphery, cultural landscape,
globalization, colonialism, site and situation, sustainability, etc. Percentages of correct answers on the
tests for the class as a whole were definitely up from previous semesters, and through the semester,
there was a trend showing quicker attainment of familiarity with key concepts.
More active and classroom-visible engagement with the textbook is really but a stepping-stone toward
higher rates of student mastery and “level of comfort” with basic concepts in geography. The ultimate
goal, at this introductory course level, is improved comprehension and demonstration of that
comprehension in written or oral evidence. Do the key concepts, the basic terminology, of the discipline
become part of the student’s vocabulary? Classroom-visible evidence of progress toward answering this
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inquiry requires interaction and tangible evidence. Reading Apprenticeship techniques can foster the
atmosphere to bring out the visible.
PROSPECTS
In future semesters teaching cultural geography, I would like to ‘compartmentalize’ the topics of the
course into more compact learning modules that each incorporate a Reading Apprenticeship method to
elevate the text in class lectures and discussions. Because this was the first semester of my attempt at
implementation of RA techniques, the linkage between lesson plans, chapter readings, lectures, and
assessments was apparent, but not closely bonded. Among the strategies I would like to employ next
are:
1. more structured modeling/demonstration of the processes (e.g. how to “think aloud” in a group
setting; how to distinguish annotating from “talking to the text” or compiling a metacognitive
log);
2. assigning group activities that require some preliminary organization by/of the groups;
3. asking individuals/groups to extract meaningful passages of the text for a “gallery walk”
exercise;
4. giving groups, as well as individual students, more instructor feedback on their posted or shared
comments and on their metacognitive writing;
5. asking the FIG members for suggestions and feedback on assessing the value of particular RA
approaches;
6. using RA feedback from the students to evaluate the effectiveness of the readings themselves
(Is the textbook a good one to use?);
7. Continuing to participate in the Reading Apprenticeship FIG at Chabot.
Most importantly, I hope to more actively, and deliberately, integrate Reading Apprenticeship methods
to elevate students’ level of “comfort” with the literature of geography, and to invite students to one
day perhaps include geography in their list of favorite, pleasurable reading.
—Don Plondke, 6/10/11
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