EL Study Guide

EL Study Guide

1. EDUCATION

1. Ask your students how they typically study for tests. How closely do their habits follow the pattern Willingham describes on p. 12 of his article (under the subheading "What Students Typically Do")? What suggestions might you make for improvement of their study habits?
2. Willingham says that most of his students tell him they were not taught study skills in school. Do you teach study skills in your classes? If so, what skills do you teach? If not, how might you incorporate study skills in your instruction?
3. Make a list of the study habits that Willingham and Roediger endorse in their articles. How might you support your students in using these strategies? For example, consider having students create flash cards for self-quizzing.
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5. Reading Instruction That Doesn't Stick
6. In "Reading Moves: What Not To Do," Richard L. Allington discusses the problems with two common practices in elementary reading classrooms: having students read aloud and asking students low-level questions about their reading.
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8. How often do you use these or similar practices in the classroom? Based on Allington's suggestions, how might you improve your use of these practices?
9. Questions about reading are common in all kinds of classrooms, not just reading classrooms. What kinds of questions do you ask students about their reading? Select an upcoming reading assignment and generate a list of questions you might ask students about it. Which questions lead to the kind of literate conversations Allington says are typical among adults? How might you improve your questions to promote such conversations?
10. Even though research has shown that oral reading and low-level questioning are not effective, these practices continue to be common. Why do you think teachers stick with practices that don't work? What other common instructional moves don't stand up to research?
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12. Hitting the Learning Target
13. In "Learning Targets on Parade," Susan M. Brookhart and Connie M. Moss explain how learning targets for daily lessons build on one another, making the learning more likely to stick. This is especially true when students know what the targets are each day.
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15. Why is it important for students to understand what they're supposed to be learning? How do you make sure students know what their target is?
16. It's common practice for teachers to write daily objectives or targets on the board. How can teachers make this practice meaningful instead of a mere act of compliance? (See also the section onObjective-Driven Lessons in "The Quest for Mastery" by Joseph F. Johnson Jr., Cynthia L. Uline, and Lynne G. Perez.)
17. For teachers: Look at an upcoming instructional unit and make a list of daily learning targets for each lesson. Note the five characteristics that Brookhart and Moss describe in their articles. Do the targets show a progression of learning from day-to-day? Do they describe learning, and not just activities? How does the creation of learning targets make you think differently about your instruction?
18. For administrators: As you visit classrooms in your school, take note of the objectives or targets teachers have listed on their boards. How closely to they seem to relate to the learning you're seeing in the classroom? How well do they match up with Brookhart and Moss's guidelines? How might you support your teachers in making them more useful?
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20. They've Got to Move It, Move It!
21. Two articles in this issue address the value of movement for promoting learning. Wendy L. Ostroff looks at the science that connects physical activity and attentiveness in "Don't Just Sit There … Pay Attention!". And in "Move it or Lose It!," Linnea Lyding, Debby Zambo, and Cory Cooper Hansen suggest ways teachers can incorporate movement into vocabulary instruction.
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23. How much movement happens in your classroom or school each day? How can you sneak in a little more movement for your students?
24. Select a few vocabulary words your students need to know and try creating a movement to help them remember some of those words. If it's feasible, get your students involved in creating some of these movements.