Teaching and Learning Strategies
Background to Teaching and Learning Strategies
Strategies that Develop Independent Learning Skills
When teachers discuss the purposes of the learning strategies they are using, students build their own repertoires of strategies and they learn to approach learning tasks in a strategic way. Two examples are:
Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum
In each curriculum area we can help students become more successful readers and writers by using
shared reading and
guided reading and discussing with students how writers construct text in each curriculum area. There are certain
text types
that are commonly used and the text type influences the structure and the language features of the text. See P. Knapp, & M. Watkins (2005).
Genre, text, grammar: Technologies for teaching and assessing writing. NSW:UNSW P for more information.
To teach how to write the text type, use
joint construction.
Writing frames are very useful for offering different levels of support to students as they write. A
checklist will help students while they are writing and editing their work.
NB Texts, of course, are commonly a mixture of text types.
Reading and Writing across the Curriculum: Advanced Language Focus
Factual academic writing is characterised by a high ratio of content words, fewer structural words and fewer verbs, (
nominalisation). Well written text is cohesive and uses devices to connect the parts of the text. To make sense, writers and readers need to understand the connections between the parts of text. These connections may be both grammatical, such as
conjunctions
and
referral words,
and lexical, such as the repetition of a word or the use of synonyms or antonyms to develop ideas.
Some other features of academic writing
Strategies to Develop Writing Skills
Strategies to Develop Reading Skills
Students need pegs to hang new information on and activating prior knowledge before beginning reading helps this, (KWL). Predicting what the text will be about sets a goal for reading (Anticipatory Reading Guides). As the text is worked through the students can re-predict for the next section. Make sure the students confirm or deny their predictions later. A Preview/Simplified Text Summary is another useful pre-reading activity. During reading, discuss the structure and language of the text (Relationships between Ideas and Common Patterns).
During reading the teacher and students can talk about visual imaging, main ideas, inferring, drawing conclusions, summarising, evaluating and synthesising.
After reading students can process the information deeply through Three Level Reading Guides or Interactive Cloze.
Reading List
NZ
- Duffy, G. (2003). Explaining Reading: A Resource for Teaching Concepts, Skills, and Strategies. New York: Guilford Publications
- Fletcher, J., Parkhill, F & Fa'afoi, A. What Factors Promote and Support Pasifika Students in Reading and Writing? Set 2, 2 - 8.
- McDonald, T. & Thornley, C. (2005). Literacy Teaching and Learning during the Secondary Years: Establishing a pathway for success to NCEA and beyond. Set 2, 9 - 14.
- Websites
Tasks that Develop Speaking Skills
Small group academic talk in the classroom helps students think through new concepts (or attach new labels to known concepts) and prepares students for academic writing.
Jigsaw activities are one example.
Dictogloss is another.
Other activities that foster fluency and accuracy in English:
Strategies to Develop Listening Skills
Students spend more time listening than doing anything else at school yet often we don't spend much time teaching students how to be good listeners. Listening with understanding is vital because it provides input for the learner. If learners are conscious of the processes underlying what makes a good listener then learning will be more effective. Key strategies that can be taught in the listening classroom include selective listening, listening for different purposes, predicting, visualising, and inferencing. These strategies should not be separated from the content teaching but woven into the ongoing fabric of the lesson.
Dictogloss is a useful activity.
Other activities to develop listening skills.
Integrating Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing
In any sequence of tasks speaking, listening, writing and reading are best integrated. Classroom environments for integrated learning should be structured with ample opportunities for long periods of carrying on task- or topic-oriented conversations in the classroom followed by reading, writing. This recycling of the language and the moving from the concrete to the abstract helps students acquire both language and content knowledge.
Integrating the Language Arts. ERIC Digest.
Activities that encourage integration:
Teaching Word Meaning in Context
The Graeco-Latin vocabulary of English, which dominates academic vocabulary, offers various levels of potential difficulty for students. Corson (1993, 1995) has pointed out that the academic language of texts in English depends heavily on Graeco-Latin words whereas everyday conversation relies more on words of Anglo-Saxon origin. He cites data that suggests that approximately 60% of all of the words in written English text are of Graeco-Latin origin. These words tend to be three or four syllables long whereas the everyday high frequency words of the Anglo-Saxon lexicon tend to be one or two syllables in length.
Students need to learn about ten new words a day. It is best to teach words in context and to teach students how to work out word meaning from context.
Other activities for teaching vocabulary
