How did Directed Activities Related to Text come about Essay Example

How did Directed Activities Related to Text come about Essay Traditionally secondary school pupils copied from the blackboard or from dictation to make a set of notes that they learned (by heart) for exams. However, copying things down is a completely passive task requiring little mental effort or involvement in the lesson. As comprehensive schools developed during the mid-1970s, classes became increasingly differentiated with some pupils for whom extended writing was a difficult and unpleasant experience and therefore a source of anxiety. The first step towards resolving this issue was to set small group work using worksheets needing only short answers to structured questions. This seemed a feasible way to organise a mixed ability class. However, many of the first worksheets relied heavily on recipe style instructions providing little opportunity for interaction with the text or making the pupils think (Sutton, 1992). Around this time, a case was made for language for learning, or language across the curriculum (Bullock Report, 1975). There were concerns that the routines of secondary school would allow some pupils to become too passive in their learning, with insufficient demand on them to reformulate their ideas, in other words, construct their own meaning (Sutton, 1992). There developed a need to resolve conflicting demands for busy science teachers to manage practical work well, but also to organise a range of other language-centred activities (ibid. ). A project described in Lunzer and Gardner (1979) suggested that passive reading occurred when reading tasks were vague and general, rather than specific, and where reading was solitary rather than shared. This project developed activities and techniques that made pupils focus on important parts of text, and involved them in reflecting on the content otherwise known as DARTs (Henderson and Wellington, 1998). We will write a custom essay sample on How did Directed Activities Related to Text come about specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on How did Directed Activities Related to Text come about specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on How did Directed Activities Related to Text come about specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer What were the consequences for the classroom? It was not just a matter of adding a text-based activity to each lesson, it also meant a change in attitude in how teachers engaged pupils in science lessons. Science teaching today is considered a process of facilitating learning new ways of seeing and talking. The means available are partly through experience (such as practical work) and partly linguistic (written work and discussion), and both develop what the learner sees in his or her minds eye (Sutton, 1992). What are the strengths and limitations of DARTs? Present-day DARTs offer a great deal of variety of tasks, and are designed to make pupils think more actively rather than following a set of instructions (see Appendix II) and therefore offer an invaluable tool to the teacher. Pupils can build up a collection of them into a record of their work. Few textbooks exactly cover the material as required by the teacher and, unless they have kept their own record, how will the pupils revise their work? Notes in the form of DARTs, from which the pupils make tables or label diagrams etc. rovide an accurate record. Any lesson time spent copying is dead time (no good at making a class think). If we use this dead time for a DART, pupils will have the text and will have begun to construct their own ideas of it. Their writing time is therefore more productively and creatively spent. DARTs can be used to test childrens understanding of how concepts are linked rather that the meaning of words. For example, the widely used Cloze technique aims to ensu re that pupils read the sentence with enough understanding to supply the missing word. To ensure the learning is active, the working words are omitted from the text (e. g. into, have, make, for) therefore requiring the pupil to understand the concept (active) rather than just filling in the words by their meaning (passive). During my school placement, I had the opportunity of creating and delivering DARTs to Year 9 pupils (see Appendix II for examples). In addition to the strengths of variety, recording and active learning, I encountered several other advantages of using DARTs. For example, teaching National Curriculum science is by definition a crowded agenda. There is little spare time and therefore every lesson minute must be treated as precious, and needs to be carefully planned (whether it is for practical, written work, discussion, problem-solving etc). Copying large chunks of text or tables is time-consuming and leaves less time for active learning. Using DARTs enabled me to spend more time on the learning objectives. Using DARTs avoided too much chalk and talk and ensured the class stayed engaged in the lesson. In addition, a bonus advantage was that a DART exercise settled lively classes (particularly worth remembering as a trainee teacher). Finally, and significantly, a strength which can only be observed first-hand the pupils enjoyed DARTs. Despite all the strengths of DARTs, there are limitations to the technique. For example, it is easy for worksheets of any kind to be discarded or lost after use and the pupil not to regard them as having value. For example, during my school placement, any worksheets should have been glued into pupil notebooks during the lesson. However, in any class I observed there were inevitably at least 2 pupils who had forgotten their notebooks and therefore their worksheets remained loose at the bottom of their school bags or in the class tray until the following week, or worse, left behind on the floor of the lab. Clearly there are organisational and management issues which need to be addressed. Effective use of DARTs requires a recognised (by pupil and teacher) system for keeping DART records. Cloze text can suffer from the problem that pupils tend to want to find the missing word without understanding the text which it is why it is wise to omit the working words. Since each pupil needs a copy of their own, it may be better to convert cloze text into scrambled text, which requires more understanding and less guessing. There can be common difficulties with reading. For instance pupils often cannot relate to the type of science texts used in school in terms of language and style or the class could comprise of a wide range of reading ages. There are three problems with using extracts from textbooks. First the writing may be too difficult. The simplest formula that measures the readability of texts is the SMOG test (see Appendix III). If the book has short sentences and few long words it is easier to read and therefore a low reading age score. Any DART needs to be tailored to the reading age of the pupil. A second problem is that the subject content may not fit your requirements exactly and schools are often limited in the range of text that they can offer pupils. The third problem is that DARTs may pose difficulties for ESL pupils. Therefore the individual literacy abilities in a class must be considered when selecting DARTs for use in a lesson.

Facts About Author and Illustrator Patricia Polacco

Facts About Author and Illustrator Patricia Polacco Because so many of Patricia Polaccos childhood experiences have served as the inspiration for her children’s picture books, it’s particularly interesting to look at her life and her books together.   Dates: July 11, 1944 -   Also Known As: Patricia Barber Polacco Interesting Facts About Patricia Polaccos Life and Work 1. Patricia Polacco did not begin writing children’s books until she was 41 and by late 2013, had been writing children’s books for 28 years. Her first book, which based on childhood experience, was Meteor! 2. Patricia Polacco’s parents divorced when she was three years old. Since her parents moved back to their parents’ homes, and she went back and forth between those homes, her grandparents became a big influence on her life and later, in her writing. With a Russian and Ukrainian heritage on her mother’s side and Irish on her father’s, she was surrounded by storytellers and loved hearing family stories. 3.  Some of Polacco’s favorite books as a child included Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit, The Tall Mother Goose by Fedor Rojankovsky, Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss. Among the contemporary authors and illustrators, she admires are Jerry Pinkney, Gloria Jean Pinkney, Tomie dePaola, Alan Say, Virginia Hamilton, Jan Brett, and Lois Lowry. 4. A learning disability kept Polacco from learning to read until she was 14. Years later, she celebrated the assistance she received from a caring teacher her picture book Thank You, Mr. Falker.   The same kids who teased her about her poor reading skills praised Polacco’s artwork. Art was something she could do easily and in a 2013 presentation in Wichita, Kansas, Polacco said, â€Å"For me, art is like breathing.† 5.  Despite this rough start in school, Polacco went on to earn a Ph.D. in Art History, with an emphasis on iconography. In Oakland, she attended the California College of Arts and Crafts and Laney Community College. Polacco then went to Australia where she attended Monash University in a suburb of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 6. Patricia Polacco’s picture books, most of which are based on family and childhood experiences, emphasize diversity, a reflection of both her own multicultural family and what eight-year-old Patricia and her brother, Richard, found when they moved with their mother to Oakland, California where they spent the school year, spending summers with their father in rural Michigan. In reference to growing up in the Rockridge District of Oakland, Polacco said she loved the fact â€Å"†¦that all of my neighbors came in as many colors, ideas, and religions as there are people on the planet. How lucky I was to know so many people that were so different and yet so much alike.† 7.  After a brief first marriage that ended in divorce, Patricia Polacco married chef and cooking instructor Enzo Polacco. Their two children, now adults, are Traci Denise and Steven John. She wrote about Enzo in her children’s book In Enzos Splendid Gardens. 8.  The many awards that Patricia Polacco has received for her children’s picture books include the: 1988 Sydney Taylor Book Award for The Keeping Quilt, 1989 International Reading Association Award for Rechenka’s Eggs, 1992 Golden Kite Award for Illustration from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and a 1993 Jane Adams Peace Association and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Honor Award for Mrs. Katz and Tush. 9.  For those interested in writing books, Polacco stresses the importance of taking the time to use (and listen to) your imagination and not get distracted by outside interruptions, like television.  In fact, she attributes her vivid imagination to all the storytelling in her family and the absence of a TV. 10.  Patricia Polacco never forgot the early years she spent on her grandparents’ farm in Union City, Michigan, and the stories her Babushka (grandmother) told.  After almost 37 years in Oakland, she moved back to Union City where she now has a home, a studio and many plans for writing workshops and storytelling events. More About Polaccos Work If your 7- to 12-year-olds are eager to learn more about Patricia Polacco and her books, a wonderful introduction to her work is  Firetalking, her brief autobiography for children, which features lots of color photographs and information about her family, her life, and her books. Sources 9/10/13 presentation by Patricia Polacco at Watermark Books, Wichita Kansas, â€Å"Meet Patricia Polacco.†Ã‚  Houghton Mifflin Reading. Polacco, Patricia. â€Å"Author Biography of Patricia Polacco.†Ã‚  Scholastic. â€Å"Transcript from an Interview with Patricia Polacco.†Ã‚  Reading Rockets, 12 Aug. 2013.

Internet as a social media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Internet as a social media - Essay Example Orkut emphasized on making social friends and brought the domain of Internet interactions closer than Microsoft Messengers and other instant messaging toolboxes. Social media websites were designed to be more intuitive for people to people interaction. During the days of Instant Messaging, the interaction was limited to a private chat box, which could only extend to a particular number of people at a time. It was not a theatre of people to people communication since communication on the Instant Messaging chat boxes was an instantly private affair. However, Orkut changed all that. Now, people were given the opportunity to create their identity on the Internet, which went beyond the possibility of a P2P interaction. People created their own user identities, which were open for others to have a look at them. This allowed like-minded people to come together and interact. The social media websites created a hub for humans to find each other and communicate just like they would in their real lives, by making new friends in their official or social circle and then indulging in various relationships. â€Å"Social media are Internet sites where people interact freely, sharing and discussing information about each other and their lives, using a multimedia mix of personal words, pictures, videos and audio.† Orkut was extremely open in the way it carried out its affairs. Social privacy was not given much of an importance and this was the root cause as to why people shifted their focus from Orkut to Facebook, which had just started off in the year of 2006. I joined Facebook from Orkut in 2007 and even that at that time Orkut was a big deal, as there were more number of people logged in on Orkut than Facebook, but Facebook was catching up fast since it provided an even more intuitive, and friendly user interface which gave the user better command at his user identity on