Adolescent Literacy Philosophy

"If teaching were the same as telling, we'd all be so smart,

we could hardly stand it." 

- Mark Twain

A History of Teaching 1950’s

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

A History of Teaching 1960’s

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

A History of Teaching 1970’s

A logger exchanges a set “L” of lumber for a set “M” of money. The cardinality of set “M” is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set “M.” The set “C,” the cost of production contains 20 fewer points than set “M.” Represent the set “C” as a subset of “M” and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set “P” of profits?

A History of Teaching 1980’s

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

A History of Teaching 1990’s

By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of his way of making a living? Topic for class discussion after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers.

A History of Teaching 2000’s

A logging company exports its wood-finished jobs to its Indonesian subsidiary and lays off the corresponding half of its US workers. It cuts down 95% of the forest, leaving the rest for the spotted owl, and lays off all its remaining US workers. The company tells its workers that the spotted owl is responsible for the absence of fellable trees and lobbies Congress for exemptions from the Endangered Species Act. Congress instead exempts the company from all federal regulation. What is the return on investment of the lobbying costs?

(The American Legion Magazine, 2002)

Activating StrategiesThe purpose of an activating strategy is to focus learning by activating prior knowledge. This can be done by activating sensory receptors: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. It can also be achieved by tapping in to students' emotions.

Emotion drives attention, and attention drives learning.

-Robert Sylwester

Focusing On the Familiar

One of the most effective ways to make information meaningful is to associate or compare the new concept with a known concept, to hook the unfamiliar with something familiar.

 Pat Wolfe (2001)

What difference does prior knowledge make?

Group 1

You are burglars. Read the passage and take notes on everything a burglar would need to know about breaking into this house.

Group 2

You are buying a new house. Read the passage and take notes on everything important to someone looking to purchase this house.

Group 3

You are a school guidance counselor. Read the passage and take notes on everything important to someone who wants students to attend school and be successful learners.

The two boys ran until they came to the driveway. “See, I told you today was a good day for skipping school,” said Mark. “Mom is never home on Thursday,” he added. Tall hedges hid the house from the road, so the pair strolled across the finely landscaped yard. “I never knew your place was so big,” said Pete. “Yeah, but it’s nicer now than it used to be since Dad had the new stone siding put on and added the fireplace.” There were front and back doors and a side door which led to the garage. The garage was empty except for three mountain bikes leaning against the far wall. They went in the side door, Mark explaining that it was always open in case his younger sister got home earlier than their mother. Pete wanted to see the house, so Mark started with the living room. It, like the rest of the downstairs, was newly painted. Mark turned on the stereo, the noise of which worried Pete. “Don’t worry, the nearest house is a quarter of a mile away,” Mark shouted. Pete felt more comfortable observing that no houses could be seen in any direction beyond the huge yard.

The dining room, with all the china, silver, and cut glass, was no place for the boys to play, so they moved into the kitchen where they made sandwiches. Mark said they wouldn’t go in the basement because it had been damp and musty ever since the new plumbing had been installed. Next, they peeked into the den. Mark pointed out the famous paintings on the walls, the gun cabinet, and his Dad’s coin collection by the desk. Mark bragged he could get spending money whenever he needed it because he had discovered that his Dad kept a lot of change in a desk drawer. There were three upstairs bedrooms. Mark showed Pete his mother’s huge, walk-in closet which was filled with expensive-looking clothes, furs, and a locked box which held her jewelry. His sister’s room was uninteresting except for the color TV which Mark carried to his room. Mark bragged that the bathroom in the hall was his since one had been added to his sister’s room for her use. The big highlight in his room was a leak in the ceiling where the old roof had finally rotted.

- Project CRISS

Information Processing Model

Sight

Sound

Smell

Taste

Touch

RECEPTORS

SensoryMemory

WorkingMemory

Long-TermMemory

INITIAL

PROCESSING

ELABORATION

&ORGANIZATION

Rehearsal

RetrievalModified from Pat Wolfe, 2001

Activating Cognitive Summary

Cognitive StrategiesThe purpose of cognitive strategies is to provide a structure for learning that actively promotes the comprehension and retention of knowledge through the use of engaging strategies that acknowledge the brain's limitations of capacity and ability to process information.

Limitation #1- Capacity

Without rehearsal or constant attention, information remains in working memory for only about 15-20 seconds.

-McGee & Wilson (1984)

Magic NumbersSpend 7 seconds memorizing the following list of 7 digits:

 7 4 3 8 5 9 2

Write down your numbers.

More Magic NumbersNow, do the same with the following list of 10 digits:

 6 7 9 4 5 8 1 3 2 9

Write down your numbers.

The capacity of short-term memory appears to develop with age. The number of spaces increases by one unit every other year beginning at age three.

Juan Pascual-Leon, 1970

Short-term Memory Capacity

151311

975 Plus or minus 2

The difference between novices and experts in a field appears to be that experts tend, because of a great deal of experience in a field, to organize information into much larger chunks, while novices work with isolated bits of information.

-Benjamin Bloom

Chunking

A chunk is any coherent group of items of information that we can remember as if it were a single item. A word is a chunk of letters remembered as easily as a single letter (but carrying much more information).

-Pat Wolfe (1996)

You have 15 seconds to view these chunks of information. After that time, write down as many chunks as you can remember.LS

DTVF

BIJF

KU

SANA

ACPU

KTGI

FMD

Write down your chunks.

You have 15 seconds to view these chunks of information. After that time, write down as many chunks as you can remember.LSD

TV

FBI

JFK

USA

NAACP

UK

TGIF

MD

Write down your chunks.

What difference does meaning make?

LSD

TV

FBI

JFK

USA

NAACP

UK

TGIF

MD

LS

DTVF

BIJF

KU

SANA

ACPU

KTGI

FMD

Limitation #2- ProcessingIt would be a disadvantage to remember every word in every sentence you have ever read.

-       Pat Wolfe (2001) 

The brain filters out 99% of what it receives using "selective auditory attention" also known as the "cocktail party effect."

- Pat Wolfe (2001)

ProcessingThis is why students cannot simultaneously listen to a teacher lecture and take notes effectively. The student cannot process what is being said while at the same time distinguishing what is important enough to write down.

Cocktail Party Experiment1. Write your signature on a sheet of

paper.2. Now, stick out your right leg. Move it

in small circles while it’s stretched out in front of you.

3. While maintaining the motion of your leg, write your signature a second time on the same sheet of paper.

4. Notice a difference?

In most learning situations, we are required to hold some bits of information in consciousness while we are manipulating other bits of information that are relevant to the task.

-Pat Wolfe (2001)

Processing

1. By transforming information through writing, discussion, and social interaction

2. By transforming new information by incorporating it into a graphic organizer

There are TWO major ways to help the brain to process information:

The average student studying with the aid of graphic organizers and thinking maps learns as much as the 90th percentile student studying the same material without the assistance of the organizing ideas.

-Wahlberg (1991)

Information Processing Model

Sight

Sound

Smell

Taste

Touch

RECEPTORS

SensoryMemory

WorkingMemory

Long-TermMemory

INITIAL

PROCESSING

ELABORATION

&ORGANIZATION

Rehearsal

RetrievalModified from Pat Wolfe, 2001

Activating Cognitive Summary

Summarizing Strategies

Summarizing strategies are used to promote the retention of knowledge. Through the use of engaging strategies designed to rehearse and practice skills, students are able to move knowledge into long term memory.

Rehearsal

Just as working memory's capacity can be increased by chunking, the duration of information also can be increased by working with the information. This process is called rehearsal or practice.

Pat Wolfe (2001)

Rehearsal

Rehearsal performs two functions:1. Maintains information in short-

term memory2. Serves as the mechanism through

which we transfer information into our long-term memory

Types of RehearsalThere are two types of rehearsal:1. Rote Rehearsal- deliberate,

continuous repetition of material in the same form in which it entered short-term memory.

2. Elaborative Rehearsal- elaborating or integrating information, giving it some kind of meaning- creating chunks. 

Pat Wolfe, 1996

We produce students with "fragile knowledge" that they either don't remember after the test or don't know when or how to use.

-  David Perkins (1992)

When we don’t provide time to rehearse…..

No matter how well planned,how interesting, stimulating, colorful or

relevant the lesson, if the teacher does all the

interacting with the material, the teacher's -- not the student’s --

brain will grow. 

Pat Wolfe (1996)

ABC Review