Study Guides - To Use or Not to Use

Now that I have been full time student teaching nearly 8 weeks, I have had the chance to review my students for three major tests. I have used three different techniques for the reviews as well.

For the first test, I used a Jeopardy game set up. This method was very time consuming for me as I had to write all the clue cards. It also required me to either give students the exact questions, or come up with new, but similar, questions. It also did not ensure that all students "got" the review, as many were unengaged.

For the second test, I made a fun review guide, which include graphs, charts, and matching exercises. I also included a vocabulary word game. I had the students do the review in class the day before the test. I think students enjoyed the review, but many continued to talk and were not really concerned with getting the review finished.

For the third test, I gave the students they study guide to complete at home, and allowed those who completed the review the chance to check answers together in class. Students seem to stay focused, but some of the slower children were not nearly able to finish.

For reviewing, I have a hard not forcing my students to take responsibility for their learning. The whole "study guide" idea just seems counterproductive to me. Shouldn't 7th graders be able to synthesize what they have learned? Why should I summarize their notes and text for them? However, we are expected to do this. My teacher makes me do a study guide, and makes me give the students the answers. Why would they do the guide if they know I will give them the answers as the end of class?

Reflecting on my use of study guides, I'm not really sure where to go from here or in my own class room. I want my students to be prepared for the test, but I don't feel like I can trust them to compile information on their own. However, that is a skill I want to teach them - but is it worth compromising content knowledge? Before I make a policy for my class room, I think I will review some of the research on test review techniques. Perhaps I could put certain students in charge of writing certain parts of the review? That may engage and provide learning in compiling information.

Adaptation of Interactive Lecture

Per our class wide discussion on lectures and note taking last week, I tried out the interactive lecture technique today in class. The topic was India, and I used a slightly adapted version of the technique recommended. I had a blank time line on the board when students arrived in class, and had them copy it down along with the title "Indian Independence Time line." After the majority of students were done copying, I asked them to open their textbooks to the section on Indian Independence. I then had them "preview" the chapter, as discussed in our reading class a few weeks ago, to find the dates I had listed on the board. I then gave fun size candies to students who correctly identified the date. We all filled in the time line as we went along. I used this technique to do a couple of things. First, I used it as a focusing activity. Second, I used it to build intrigue and curiosity about the content. Third, I used it to familiarize the students with the spellings of several odd terms that would be used during the interactive lecture.

I then had students turn over their time lines to take notes alongside my lecture in an interactive way. I talked, and they listened. To keep them on track, I kept the time line on the board as a reference. I covered about half of the time line events, in about 10 minutes, and then had the students write some. They then shared with a partner. I repeated the process one other time.

I feel that students did learn how to take notes more productively from this exercise. But I was disappointed by their continual lack of interest. Some seemed a bit more pulled in then during PowerPoints or copying notes, but they weren't as engaged as I would have liked. I also worried that some students, especially in one of my classes with some low-achieving students, weren't getting everything down. However, I think the fact that they were forced to be responsible for their own learning and note taking counteracted that.

I plan on using this strategy again. I liked pairing it with the time line since I think that gave me some assurance that at least the basics were in the students' notes. I'm not sure this is the perfect lecture method yet, but it is a good trick to have in the bag. I plan to improve on this technique by using this form of lecture on a more interesting topic, and see how that goes. I will then be able to accurately reflect on whether the method would be more successful with other content.

Cinquains in Social Studies

This week I taught about the effect of the Cold War in Asia, focusing on the countries of China, Korea, and Japan. After teaching my students the ways in which they were similar and different, I had them work in groups to create pie graphs on the extensive Japanese export market currently in place in the world. I now wanted an activity that would really bring back the differences between the three countries. I decided I might try having the students write a cinquain on each country, as opposed to my normal assignment which would be to have the students write paragraphs comparing the three. I felt three cinquains would capture the same information, but allow the students the chance to write less.

I provided the "formula" for the cinquains on the board, and walked around helping students write their first one. They then wrote the others for homework, or independently in class. I found that the cinquains were a bit below the level I had hoped. Many students described the country in general, rather than providing content about their experience in the Cold War. I can understand why students did this, as they are probably used to having a lot of freedom with poetry in the ELA class. So, I think in retrospect I should have given even more guidance, perhaps even writing the first one on the board, and sharing my thought process with them. I even may have encouraged them to use the country's name for the first line, and the phrase "Cold War" for the last line of each poem. This would have kept the fact that they needed to focus on the country's role in the Cold War.

I still feel good about the role of cinquains in the content area, but think I need to provide more guidance next time - until the students are comfortable with the technique. I think the cinquain could certainly be helpful to all content area reading teachers as it provides a creative means for students to show what content they have mastered. And, I believe the technique will produce better writers.

Pre-Active Strategies

This week we started the Cold War in my 7th grade Social Studies class. This is a topic I certainly feel less that confidant in teaching, and thus I was suspicious my students may feel weak in this area as well. My suspicions proved accurate as my students could not even identify the Vietnam War as a Cold War event without some hints!!! Anyway, I still wanted to use a preactive strategy, so I decided to do a very basic web on the Cold War. I would be willing to write down just about any connection, even if barely qualifying, that my students could make to the Cold War. This actually went pretty well, and students were able to come up with several topics that related, like the fact that no actual fighting was meant by the phrase "Cold War" and that propaganda was used throughout the event (something we had talked about with the end of World War II). I had my students copy down the web as I made it on the board, and save it in their notebook. I then decided to make the task more authentic by coming back to it the next day after lecturing on the topic. My students had lots to add to their webs, and felt a lot of achievement in noticing how much they had learned just from the past day.

I am really excited about this technique. I think often as teachers we do things on the board, especially graphic organizers, that we never come back to. I learned while doing the KWL chart that my students can definitely pick up on the fact that some of these things are just to take up time, and that we as teachers don't really value them for learning. By coming back to the web the next day, my students took more ownership in it. I think this may be a good technique. I certainly was happy to see what all they had learned - plus I had two "Focus and Review" activities out of one prep!!

KWL Charts

Yesterday, I introduced the unit on World War II. Because we've discussed the importance of activating prior knowledge so often in our Reading class, I planned on spending nearly an entire class period retrieving this knowledge from students. When brainstorming ways to do this, I instantly thought of using a KWL chart. We have discussed KWL charts in every education class I have taken so far, so it seemed like a great option for bringing the students' prior knowledge to the front and center. I even had a student in each class copy the white board down on a piece of paper so we could finish the chart in two weeks. However, the students did not really seem to buy into the chart. I know they know a ton about World War II, but they were not anxious to share. It was really dissapointing. I had to call on people to get any responses. I was expecting students to be shouting out responses faster than I could write them on the board, but this was certainly not the case. At first I thought their limited reaction was due to the fact that my cooperating teacher never uses these charts, but this is such a simple exercise I don't feel the students need background experience to be successful. My hope is that perhaps once we finish the chart in the next few weeks, maybe the will buy into it next time. Perhaps they are used to teachers acting like they will come back to something, but seldom do. Perhaps I just need to earn their trust???

Vocabulary Word Map

Today in class I used the Vocabulary Word Map tactic for teaching about totalitarianism. This is a complex topic and vocabulary word for 7th graders, and I thought a word map might help this capture the big picture. I introduced the word map by doing one on the white board for "depression" which we had just covered with the Great Depression. We did it as a class and it got them used to redefining words, writing sentences, thinking of synonyms and drawing pictures. I then taught on totalitarianism and had them complete individual word maps, similar to that on depression. They came up with the most creative pictures! I could hardly get over how great they were. Also, the kids really focused in on the work, which shows they were engaged and enjoyed it. I am tempted to do these maps with all the words, but am afraid it would use up too much class time. I think for the next unit I may set aside an entire day to do word maps for the new, critical vocabulary.

After the vocabulary map, I adapted the Semantic Feature Map into a plain Feature Map on totalitarianism. I listed features of certain totalitarian governments, and had students select which country's government the feature represented. Of course, some features represented multiple goverments. For homework the students had to use their feature maps to create a paragraph on the topic. This helps them rework the information in their minds. The kids enjoyed this too, but not nearly as much as the word map. I think the drawing aspect of the word map really engaged them.

Reflecting on today's use of some of our Reading Strategies, I come away certainly wanting to use word maps a lot more often. I liked the dynamics they created, and I can see how they mold students into strong thinkers. It really helps them see connections!

Vocabulary and Prior Knowledge

Since we have been talking about vocabulary in Reading, I have been thinking a lot about how the research plays out in my class. In Social Studies, like Science I would imagine, we teach a lot of content vocabulary. Well, we don't always teach it, but we expect the students to know it. Often, an understanding of those words is critically important to comprehension of the text (and thus success on the test). I've realized lately how much more background knowledge some of my students have when compared to others. This background knowledge clearly helps this understand our vocabulary. It does not hardly seem fair to the students who do not have as much prior knowledge. Students with high levels of knowledge quickly and effectively connect with the new vocab, and take ownership of it instantly. Students with low levels of background knowledge must consciously study to understand the vocab. I've been shocked as how true the research is on the topic of background knowledge. However, when I use some of the strategies suggested in the text to access prior knowledge, I tend to have more success in getting vocab into the heads of those who often struggle.