When I taught at my former school, there was a colleague of mine whose classroom was so unengaging that it made me sad. She was teaching history; the subject that I loved so much, yet she simply had students read the textbook and fill in the blanks on worksheets. At the end of the year, the students were discouraged, bored and had learned nothing. It really hurt my heart. She is the kind of teacher that Wilhelm is talking about when he says, "instead of engaging in conversation and building understandings, teachers typically run recitations where only a few students participate by 'filling in' the blanks of the teacher's (or textbook's) prepared lecture" (p.169). This means that class discussions, if they exist at all, does not involve sophisticated thinking. As most students do, Wilhelm's students "wanted instead to engage in real learning, which one boy defined as, finding your own way. Trying stuff out until you get it. Voicing your own opinion. Defending your position using what you've learned. Listening to others" (p.169).
With this in mind, Wilhelm gives a final series of enactments called discussion dramas. Discussion dramas provide the opportunity for sustained conversation around an issue and a chance to consider and engage in alternative points of view. Many examples are given that will help teachers guide students through real, meaningful discussion on a topic or text.
In conclusion, Wilhelm argues, "other teachers will find enactments a way to enjoy their students, to teach them more powerfully, and to engage even those who may be resistant and reluctant. The documented learning potential of adding enactment to our teaching repertoires is enormous" (p.187). And for this I am truly grateful. Enactments will now be on the top of my list for teaching strategies.
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Writing in Role
In Action strategies for Deepening Comprehension, Wilhelm gives feedback from teachers and students. One letter, written by Steven, was so interesting. Steven stated in his letter to Mr. Wilhelm, his teacher, "I liked how you said a couple of times that you will be my tenth-grade English teacher forever, and that's why you were so serious about it" (p.152). I love that concept. That we as teachers will forever be remembered by our students and, therefore, we have this one opportunity to make a positive difference. Being an educator in a student's life is a big deal and should be taken seriously. We can make a life long difference or cause some damage to a student's love of learning. This was indeed true for me in my 6th grade language arts class. My teacher, Mr. B, took his job so seriously and, in turn, changed my life forever. Through his care for me as a student and expertise in teaching, guided me to become a middle school teacher myself.
As we transfer the kinesthetic aspect of enactments into the writing process, a series of correspondence activities are given. They are defined as, "any kind of composing that is undertaken in a role. [They] are powerful because they provide the student writer with a persona, a purpose, meaningful information, a situation, and an audience - all of which help him or her compose."
As a child in my own home, I was taught to write letters of correspondence at a very young age. I wrote letters of apology when I messed up (daily or weekly), and letters of thanks for every gift I received. Letter writing is very common in a student's every day life even with the new technologies available on the Internet. Written communication is a natural activity and can be used to greatly motivate students to write after reading, especially when doing from a perspective other than their own.
As we transfer the kinesthetic aspect of enactments into the writing process, a series of correspondence activities are given. They are defined as, "any kind of composing that is undertaken in a role. [They] are powerful because they provide the student writer with a persona, a purpose, meaningful information, a situation, and an audience - all of which help him or her compose."
As a child in my own home, I was taught to write letters of correspondence at a very young age. I wrote letters of apology when I messed up (daily or weekly), and letters of thanks for every gift I received. Letter writing is very common in a student's every day life even with the new technologies available on the Internet. Written communication is a natural activity and can be used to greatly motivate students to write after reading, especially when doing from a perspective other than their own.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Making the Connection: Enactments to Use Before Reading
Enactments can be used like any teaching method to tap into prior knowledge in order to help students make connections between new material and things they already know. To be literate for content area reading, students need background knowledge in the subject or a teacher willing to help them make the connections to any other prior knowledge they do have. With a newly developed secondary discourse in that content area or topic they can move towards fluency or mushfake to learn and understand.
According to Wilhelm's research, "the most important and powerful time to teach is before students read" (p. 33). I think that too often many teachers jump into an assignment just hoping that everyone will understand and do it perfectly, to only find a lot of confusion. The teacher then tries to teach in the midst of the reading. Therefore, when using enactments it is important for the teacher to clearly understand what they are trying to teach and what they want their students to learn. This is called framing. As Wilhelm writes, "framing simply means that the students understand how the work will proceed and what is expected of them" (p. 33). In the framing time, the teacher would make the situation and the roles clear, as well as, explain that the students will be required to find out, establish, or make something during the enactment. Thus, giving the whole process a purpose for learning.
While working with enactments, Wilhelm uses frontloading activities to build the prior knowledge. His book lists many unique ways for kids to interact with a story through frontloading. The ones I found most interesting were:
According to Wilhelm's research, "the most important and powerful time to teach is before students read" (p. 33). I think that too often many teachers jump into an assignment just hoping that everyone will understand and do it perfectly, to only find a lot of confusion. The teacher then tries to teach in the midst of the reading. Therefore, when using enactments it is important for the teacher to clearly understand what they are trying to teach and what they want their students to learn. This is called framing. As Wilhelm writes, "framing simply means that the students understand how the work will proceed and what is expected of them" (p. 33). In the framing time, the teacher would make the situation and the roles clear, as well as, explain that the students will be required to find out, establish, or make something during the enactment. Thus, giving the whole process a purpose for learning.
While working with enactments, Wilhelm uses frontloading activities to build the prior knowledge. His book lists many unique ways for kids to interact with a story through frontloading. The ones I found most interesting were:
- Trigger Letters
- Mantle-of-Expert Writing
- Trigger Letter and Role Play
- Tableaux
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Learning With My Students: Show Me, Help Me, Let Me
When I entered my first classroom at Lincoln Middle School
Over the four years, I attended seminars and took classes toward a Master’s degree in Special Education to learn how to better serve my students. I develop and two year series of curriculum units that were individualized for each student. Most importantly, I included what Wilhelm calls enactment strategies. While simultaneously teaching a drama class, my first year, I learned to use many of the same activities with my gifted students. In the gifted curriculum, the highlight of the 2 year series was mock trials. These real life reenactments of a court room, taught me and the students so much as the court system. Because I entered the gifted education world as a novice I was more apt to learn from the students. I honestly felt like I had nothing to teach them. In fact, I constantly asked them to show my how things worked. These students had been in the gifted education program for much of their lives. I saw my job as an opportunity to guide them to be the best people they could be with the gifts that they had.
Enactments are used in teaching to get kids involved in the learning. Teachers even learn better this way. When a teacher is taught how to do something they will understand it, but it makes so much more sense when it is "discovered in concert with teacher practice" (Wilhelm, 2002). This idea of learning while doing is very similar to Gee's theory of Discourse and the process of enculturation when learning a secondary Discourse. In all things, I believe one can learn in a classroom, but it is always more fun and easier to learn by doing. That is the idea behind using enactment strategies in the classroom. Enactments help the teacher to "explicitly guide [students] to do new things" (Wilhelm, p.20) instead of simply delivering information at them. Wilhelm continues to explain how good teachers learn along with their students; to "teach them in an area in which teacher and students can play, and build, and learn together" (p.20). Wilhelm uses Lev Vygotsky to base much of his theory for using enactments. Vygotsky bases his theory on the idea of a zone of proximal development in which students can do something with the proper assistance. The ZPD is very similar to a dominant Discourse that Gee explains in his Discourse theory.
Over the four years, I attended seminars and took classes toward a Master’s degree in Special Education to learn how to better serve my students. I develop and two year series of curriculum units that were individualized for each student. Most importantly, I included what Wilhelm calls enactment strategies. While simultaneously teaching a drama class, my first year, I learned to use many of the same activities with my gifted students. In the gifted curriculum, the highlight of the 2 year series was mock trials. These real life reenactments of a court room, taught me and the students so much as the court system. Because I entered the gifted education world as a novice I was more apt to learn from the students. I honestly felt like I had nothing to teach them. In fact, I constantly asked them to show my how things worked. These students had been in the gifted education program for much of their lives. I saw my job as an opportunity to guide them to be the best people they could be with the gifts that they had.
Enactments are used in teaching to get kids involved in the learning. Teachers even learn better this way. When a teacher is taught how to do something they will understand it, but it makes so much more sense when it is "discovered in concert with teacher practice" (Wilhelm, 2002). This idea of learning while doing is very similar to Gee's theory of Discourse and the process of enculturation when learning a secondary Discourse. In all things, I believe one can learn in a classroom, but it is always more fun and easier to learn by doing. That is the idea behind using enactment strategies in the classroom. Enactments help the teacher to "explicitly guide [students] to do new things" (Wilhelm, p.20) instead of simply delivering information at them. Wilhelm continues to explain how good teachers learn along with their students; to "teach them in an area in which teacher and students can play, and build, and learn together" (p.20). Wilhelm uses Lev Vygotsky to base much of his theory for using enactments. Vygotsky bases his theory on the idea of a zone of proximal development in which students can do something with the proper assistance. The ZPD is very similar to a dominant Discourse that Gee explains in his Discourse theory.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension
Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension: Role Plays, Text-Structure, Tableaux, Talking Statues, and Other Enactment Techniques That Engage Students With Text
By Jeffery D. Wilhelm Ph.D.
After reading only the introduction to this book, I am excited. The strategies used by the teachers in this book remind me so much of my classroom. It has been two years since I last taught in a classroom and I forgot how much I loved it. I am very glad that I chose to read this book, because the information in it will be useful for my career in the future. I can also see myself using it with the youth group I work with, and in teaching my own children.
The introduction discusses the issue of motivating readers by using enactment strategies. While teaching gifted students at the middle school level, I found myself using many of these strategies. While in my undergrad, I tried to use every creative technique that I heard of to motivate my at-risk students. Gifted kids don't seem to fit the mold of at-risk students, but research (and my own experience) shows that indeed they are.
Enactments help students, especially those at-risk, to "imagine to learn". Here are the benefits of using enactments strategies:
-make reading a transformative experience
-can be used flexibly
-assist students before, during and after reading
-harness the power of the social nature of learning
-invite students to think and imagine
-are motivating
-help students achieve a state of "flow"
The best part of enactments is that they are active and fun, therefore, students don't even realize they are learning. According to the classroom instruction of Keene & Zimmerman, literacy means not just reading at the surface level, but true comprehension and the ability to determine importance. Therefore, Wilhelm's book on enactments is written to help teachers guide students to comprehension. It is a very hands on approach to learning. James Gee, in his Discourse theory, also agrees that literacy can not be learned explicitly, but only acquired from apprentice situations. Wilhelm strives to give students real life situations to work with in his classroom through his various enactment strategies.
By Jeffery D. Wilhelm Ph.D.
After reading only the introduction to this book, I am excited. The strategies used by the teachers in this book remind me so much of my classroom. It has been two years since I last taught in a classroom and I forgot how much I loved it. I am very glad that I chose to read this book, because the information in it will be useful for my career in the future. I can also see myself using it with the youth group I work with, and in teaching my own children.
The introduction discusses the issue of motivating readers by using enactment strategies. While teaching gifted students at the middle school level, I found myself using many of these strategies. While in my undergrad, I tried to use every creative technique that I heard of to motivate my at-risk students. Gifted kids don't seem to fit the mold of at-risk students, but research (and my own experience) shows that indeed they are.
Enactments help students, especially those at-risk, to "imagine to learn". Here are the benefits of using enactments strategies:
-make reading a transformative experience
-can be used flexibly
-assist students before, during and after reading
-harness the power of the social nature of learning
-invite students to think and imagine
-are motivating
-help students achieve a state of "flow"
The best part of enactments is that they are active and fun, therefore, students don't even realize they are learning. According to the classroom instruction of Keene & Zimmerman, literacy means not just reading at the surface level, but true comprehension and the ability to determine importance. Therefore, Wilhelm's book on enactments is written to help teachers guide students to comprehension. It is a very hands on approach to learning. James Gee, in his Discourse theory, also agrees that literacy can not be learned explicitly, but only acquired from apprentice situations. Wilhelm strives to give students real life situations to work with in his classroom through his various enactment strategies.
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