Thursday, September 16, 2010

Chapter 6: Frontloading Meaning

I really liked the use of the KWL chart in this chapter. In school, I always hated filling them out, but now I see how they can help a student use the text to learn. Also, it can inspire a student to do outside research to answer the questions they have that were not answered by their reading.

The strategy that stood out most to me was the tea party strategy. I thought that this was such a good idea to help the students get ready for what they were about to read. While they may be wrong with their "We Think..." statement, this exercise still motivates them to think about the text they're about to read. I also liked how this offered them the opportunity to get up and move around the room and teach each other instead of the classroom being strictly teacher-centered. After they've read the text and find that their predictions were either wrong or right, I agree with Beers in bringing everyone together and going over the original phrases so the students can see how the author made the phrases make sense compared to how they made the words make sense.

Overall I think frontloading is one of the most important things a teacher can do for a student. It can be as complex as using charts, or as easy as having  students share their experiences that you know will correspond with the text.

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