STUDY GROUP OUTLINE
Learning to Think, Learning to Learn:
What The Science Of Thinking And Learning Has To Offer Adult Education
by Jennifer Cromley, published by National Institute for Literacy, c 2000.
Appendix D: Newsletter Articles
- “Learning in and Out of the Classroom” focuses on helping
students transfer knowledge from one situation to another. (Pg 210)
Choose any skill and develop a lesson that includes all six points
in Ms. Cromley’s article.
- “Using Analogies in Teaching Adults” explains how analogies
can be both effective and ineffective, depending on whether students
understand the original example. (Pg 211) Have you ever totally “bombed” with
an analogy, facing the blank, confused stares of your students? What
was your analogy? Have you ever totally “scored” when the
excitement and understanding of your students inspired both you and
them? What was your analogy?
- “Using All the Senses to Help Memory,” restates the author’s
opinion in Appendix B that effective teaching appeals to all the senses.
(Pgs 212-213) Create a lesson appropriate for your class level that
includes at least one activity for all five senses --- touch, taste,
smell, sight, and sound. Are you comfortable creating and teaching
lessons like this?
- “Short-Term Memory” makes the analogy of a tiny parking
lot filled to capacity and short-term memory. (Pg 214) Since short-term
memory can only hold about seven items of information at one time,
explain how to avoid overloading your students’ short-term memory
when presenting new information.
- “Memory and Learning: Memory Is A Web” compares computer
memory and the human mind. (Pg 215) Create a graphic organizer for
students to use that visually organizes and links information about
a topic you are currently studying.
- “Memory and Learning: What Does it Mean for Teachers?” offers
specific suggestions for classroom implementation. (Pg 216) Choose
one of the nine suggestions for teaching and one of the questions that
build connections; then combine these into one lesson.
- “Reading Strategies and Reading Development” identifies
the characteristics of beginning readers, intermediate readers, and
experienced readers. (Pgs 217-218) Literacy of a specific student is
not determined by which listening and speaking ESL class he attends;
he may be an experienced reader in his native language but a beginning
reader in English. On the other hand, a student may be an experienced
reader in one subject-area and a beginning reader in another. Use your
current class and identify which students fall into each category.
How can you use this information to enhance classroom instruction?
- “Two Dozen Reasons Why Background Knowledge is Important” divides
the benefits of increased background knowledge into five major categories.
(Pg 219) Choose two categories and develop a lesson that reinforces
those aspects of background knowledge.
- “Problem-Based Learning” always begins with a problem
of interest to students. (Pg 220) Identify one problem that could be
resolved in two class periods, another in one week, a third in one
month, and a fourth in six months or more. Can you use the same problem
for more than one time period? Is PBL determined by the problem or
the amount of time to find a solution?
Table of
Contents
|
