ONE OF THE (MANY) PROBLEMS
WITH “SCHOOLS TODAY”
Planning inspiring
instruction
Too much focus on cognitive
Why?
 Tests
 Western Enlightenment model of the individual
Why is focus on cognitive a
problem?
 Doesn’t account for students feelings about
learning
 Doesn’t account for what students bring to
classroom: their wants, needs, desires
 Doesn’t account for the world outside the
classroom in which students currently live
 Doesn’t develop skills in students, but knowledge
Heavy focus on cognitive leads
to…
 Heavy focus on “Direct Instruction” – or
“teaching as telling”
 Teacher-centered
 Teacher is the font of all knowledge
 Classroom experience is one in which the
teacher transfers (or “pours”) her knowledge (in)
to students (empty vessels)
 “Banking concept” as opposed to
“transformative education” (Freire)
Alternative?
 Constructivism -- students construct knowledge
 Inquiry -- Learning that is focused on students by
engaging them to pursue questions
Depends Upon Content
Direct instruction
Constructivism

Facts

Concepts & principles

Discrete Knowledge

Systemic connections

Obvious information

Connotations

Literal information

Subtlety, irony

Concrete information

Symbolism

Self-evident information

Abstraction

Predictable result

Counterintuitive information

Discrete skills & techniques

Anomaly

Rules & recipes
In direct instruction…
The teacher
The students
 Demonstrates or models
 Observe, attempt,
 Lectures
practice, refine
 Listen, watch, take notes,
question
 Questions (convergent)
 Answer, give responses
In constructivist teaching . . .
The teacher uses
The students need to

Concept attainment

Compare, induce, define, generalize

Cooperative learning

Collaborate, support others, teach

Discussion

Listen, question, consider, explain

Experimental inquiry

Hypothesize, gather data, analyze

Graphic representation

Visualize, connect, map relationship

Guided inquiry

Question, research, conclude, support

Problem-based learning

Pose or define problems, solve, evaluate

Questions (open-ended)

Answer and explain, reflect, rethink

Reciprocal Teaching

Clarify, question, predict, teach

Simulation

Examine, consider, challenge, debate

Socratic seminar

Consider, explain, challenge, justify

Writing process

Brainstorm, organize, draft, revise
Light
Direct Instruction
with Inquiry Built In
Teacher
Material /
Teacher
questions in
order to arrive
at desired
answers.
Medium
“Schoolish” Work
With Relevant
Themes
Teacher-selected
material with
opportunity for
student inquiry
and to
indvidualize
learning.
Strong
Begins with
students lives and
allows them to see
how tools are
relevant to world
Student questions
drive learning to
discover answers.
Teacher
supplements with
material.
Different goals demand different
types of instruction
Full DI (w/ inquiry
activity built-in)
Information
Processes
EXAMPLES:
What is a conjunction?
How do you set up a a
Facebook account/page?
Half DI/ Half Inquiry
Teaching Skills
Teaching Big Ideas
EXAMPLES:
Full Inquiry
•Teaching Learning
•Relating learning to
world
•Affecting Motivation
•Changing beliefs
EXAMPLES:
How does writing
help me in life?
What is democracy?
How do poems work?
How can learning
about 5-paragraph
essay help me?
How can I teach
others about what I
learned about
democracy using
reading or writing?
Desired Learning Trajectory
Actual Learning Trajectory in Most Schools
Elementary
Secondary
Whenever possible plan for…
 Academic and Cognitively Demanding Activity and
Context-Reduced goals to be contextualized
 What does “context” mean here?
Embed academic instruction within “contexts” familiar,
meaningful, relevant or real to students (teacher’s job is
to “package” material and tasks for maximum
engagement)
Frontloading – building bridges
Authentic performance tasks – demonstrate that
students can use concepts in a non-academic setting.
If properly assessed, same concepts can be taught, but
students are likely to be more engaged if they are
disguised within “real” and relevant tasks.
Creating opportunities for student success and
leadership
Learning to learn: learning is transferrable
Frontloading
By building bridges between lesson and what students
know, teachers
Relate to previous learning
But more importantly, relate to students lives, interests,
etc. to show them how they already know about this
Raise esteem (and therefore motivation), creates
feeling of “I can do this!”
Raises motivation to learn – doesn’t feel “schoolish”
Improves classroom climate because students can see
that teacher is making effort to make the class about
them.
Authentic performance tasks
By demonstrating that students can use concepts, skills
and knowledge from ELA in settings outside the English
classroom (and preferably in students’ day to day lives
to somehow improve their lives, teach them something
they want to learn, or the like):
ELA feels toolish (not schoolish) since they can USE
knowledge and skills in ways that are meaningful to
them
Activity gives them feeling of prestige, accomplishment,
value, or enlightenment – they have had the ability to
learn more about something that they are interested in
and/or care about (whether they knew it before the
Opportunities for Student
Success and Leadership
 Make tasks do-able
 Prepare students adequately
 Give them a chance to feel empowered by
demonstrating their skills (in an authentic forum)
 Reflect upon and celebrate that success –
celebrate student accomplishments (motivating)
 Have students reflect upon learning
 What did they do well? What will they continue
to do next time?
 What other situations call for this kind of
skill/knowledge?
 What do they still need to work on?
What does this have to do with
“affect”
?
Plan for motivation and engagement, not just
lesson by lesson but in terms of how you select
materials and design units of study.
Be aware of “layering” goals, affective/cognitive
and long-term/short-term.
Layers of Instructional Planning
Short-term goals (top level): Short term goals that help move
learners one step closer to the larger, longer-term (unit) goal. Can
involve some telling/DI and some discovery/inquiry. THE LESSON.
Longer-term goals (middle level): Big ideas – the purpose of
various literary concepts; “big” literacy skills like reading,
writing, speaking, listing; perhaps big ideas like democracy,
or tolerance. (Mainly constructivism) THE UNIT
Long-term goals (bottom or deepest layer): Lifelong
literacy, motivation, empowerment through literacy,
intellectual curiosity, understanding of how to learn
(literacy), confidence, attitudes about school. (Exclusively
constructivist). THE CLASSROOM AND ALL INSTRUCTION
CONSISTENTLY.
Start with whatever you have
Begin with standards (goals)
and books
What “level” are Common
Core Standards aimed at?
 http://www.corestandards.org/the-
standards/english-language-arts-standards
Our Unit
 Starting Point: The Namesake
 My goals:
 Give you experience discussing lit with students
 Give you experience designing questions
 Give you experience engaging with literature in a more
personal way – building a bridge between what you know and
the literature – as the ONLY way in to literature
 Help you develop a sense of inferential reading strategies.
 Ms. Triplett’s and my goal with Novel Unit: Provide you with an
opportunity to respond to literature in order to create
something meaningful from your sustained engagement.
 Q: WHY IS THE NAMESAKE A GOOD BOOK TO TEACH?
Why the Namesake?
Relevant themes
Triplett’s ELA classroom
 Adolescent-Parent
 Hyphenated-
American: Global
empathy through
growing empathy for
parents
(bildungsroman)
 Critique of Western
culture: Selfawareness by looking
at American culture
through foreign lens
Sarver’s classroom
Meaningful and
Relevant theme
Literary terms, skills
and concepts; big
ideas; relevant theme
Empathy writ large
and relevant to outside
world/21st century.
Metacognition.
Task Analysis
 Figure out final project: Multimodal memoir – authentic,
relevant, teaches good skills, good way to begin year
 Break down final task into all the skills needed:
 Personal writing related to identity
 Writing character/dialogue
 Writing setting
 Introspection into self through writing (understanding of
memoir)
 Self-expression in different genre and “modes”
 Understanding of multimodal memoir as a genre, and clear
understanding of how to assemble the piece
 Link these to CCS
Task Analysis
for Teacher
 Multimodal memoir (importance in teaching
ELA)
 Lots of memoir writing opportunities (meaningful
and frequent writing/response opportunities)
 Show connections between genres (e.g. “10
Things” and paragraph/idea development)
(empowering)
 Build skills needed for final project (practical skill
building, sequence of instruction)
Your assignment
 Using The Namesake, make a list of all of the
component writing skills you think would be
important to teach for writing a memoir (task
analysis). You may choose setting.
 Choose one component writing skill you will
need to teach and that you could teach during
a single 40-minute period (lesson) – choose a
related CCS if you like.
 Write a direct instruction lesson plan, perhaps
with an inquiry activity built in at the beginning.
Lesson Plan Template and Example
(double click to download)
THE END