Saturday, February 10, 2007

Two or more heads are better than one!

This morning, during a lesson in our CEALL workshop, we were engaged in a lesson on alternative energy sources. A participant asked why we were using INSERT with the normal signs [check, plus, question mark] and wondered if we could have used W for "how this works"; A for advantage; and D for disadvantage. DUH! Of course! the I-chart was designed to focus the readers on how each alaternative energy source worked, the advantages and disadvantages of each one. Once Jaye suggested this, it seemed obvious that using the adapted coding would have been easier and would have further focused readers on the important information. However, another participant said that perhaps we needed to look at more than just that information . . . perhaps once students had read and coded their notes, they could go back and recode using the new codes -- what brilliant teachers we have in CEALL! The adaptations they suggested were right on target - and next time I use this lesson, I'll have readers code the text using a different set of codes. Truly, this shows how great it is to have colleagues to collaborate with!

3 comments:

bev said...

that is a true statement if i've ever heard one. that whole time i was thinking that something was wrong with blogging or with me blog page, I called wanda and she talked me through the log in. I was trying to log in using bev (my page name) instead on using myu login name (beverlm@clemson.edu). It works perfectly fine now, thanks to hving people that are willing and able to help. That idea was awesome and it is just as awesome that you are open to new ideas and suggestions. There is a lot to be said for team work. When a group of people brainstorm, there is no limit to the creativity. I think that both methods will be useful, there is just another option now. We can choose the one that fits our situation the best each time. Thanks for sharing>

jresua said...

What a great experience! I do enjoy using the INSERT strategy because of the things you have to look for, but I can definitely see how it would be beneficial to siwtch the codes around based on the particular reading. I think it's important we look at readings we're asking our students do and adapt strategies to fit that exact reading.

Thank you for your suggestion on Watsons...it's wonderful! I'm going to look into those clips and maybe be able to plan something when I'm teaching the unit next year to let kids actually interview people who lived during that time. Thanks!

Tiger Teacher said...

Not pertaining to this blog entry but to your Fall 2006 Read 498 class with the math education majors:

Thanks. You have no idea...


~Tameika