Chapter16

Fostering Strategies for Student IndependenceChapter 16

Romie GarciaMichelle MurrayElizabeth Pratt

What’s this chapter about?

•Emphasizes importance of using effective strategy instruction in the classroom.

•Shows how to facilitate the teaching-learning connection.

•Explains why students have difficulty developing independence.

•Demonstrates how to teach students to develop independence inside and outside of the classroom.

Effective Strategy Instruction: The Teaching-Learning Connection•What’s a strategy?

▫Step-by-step cognitive processes and plans for reading, studying, and problem solving.

•Okay, what does the mean in the classroom?▫Strategies are deliberately controlled

processes, they are goal-oriented. They go hand-in-hand with skills.

The Goals of Strategy Instruction•To support students as they develop

independence in completing learning tasks and eventually become skilled.

•Such independent learners are known as executive learners.

What makes an executive learner?•Are knowledgeable about personal

learning strengths and challenges.•Have a clear understanding about tasks to

be accomplished.•Have a repertoire of learning strategies

that can be applied in independent learning situations.

•Have developed a set of help-seeking behaviors.

How do my students become executive learners?Guidelines Tips for Teachers

• Choose Strategies Carefully• Present Content and

Strategies Concurrently• Teach Strategies in Stages

▫ Awareness▫ Knowledge▫ Simulation▫ Practice▫ Skill

• Make Strategy Discussion a Regular part of Class Routines

• Different strategies are designed for different purposes.

• Not all strategies work for all students

• For strategies to be useful they must be presented in a memorable form.

Guidelines for Strategy Instruction• Choose Strategies Carefully

▫ There are many sources available that provide a variety of different strategies. You just have to go out and look for them!

• Present Content and Strategies Concurrently.▫ You can increase the odds of

your students using the strategies when you teach them concurrently.

• Make Strategies a regular part of the day▫ Brief class discussions about

specific learning tasks and how best to accomplish them can be helpful.

• Teach in Stages▫ Awareness: Becoming introduced

to the strategy and its rational Why use it?

▫ Knowledge: Finding out when and how to use the strategy as well as the procedures to use it.

▫ Simulation: Trying it out!

▫ Practice: Trying it out in actual reading and studying

▫ Skill: Making it a part of your regular routine.

Difficulties In Developing Independent Learners

Difficulty

Cognitive Cultural

Communicative

Educational

MotivationalOrganizational

Family

Jobs

Extracurricular

Difficulties In Developing Independent Learners

Things you can control

Your Advocacy for school

wide strategy learning

programs

Focus on teaching

students how to learn in your own

classroom.

Developing Independence: Personal Responsibility•Many students have a tough time self-

monitoring, while others struggle with self-determination.

•Teaching students how to assume personal responsibility can help them move beyond passivity and learned helplessness.

Remembering Information (page 457-459)

Provide time for practic

e

Provide time to review

How to Enhanc

e student Memor

yTeach how to apply

Use Visual Aids

Limit

Amount of Info showed Activat

e prior

knowledge

Control rate

Cue Student

sPage 548

Remembering Information•Distributed Practice:

▫Breaking up the material to be learned into manageable chucks and then holding several short study sessions.

•Overlearning: Learning to mastery•Direct teaching of memory strategies can

enhance student performance.

Lets Remember…

•One kind of memory-triggering technique is known as mnemonic devices. ▫There are two types:

Letter Strategy Key word

Mnemonic Devices

•Letter Strategy▫There are two types:

Acronyms: words created by joining the first letters of a series of words.

Acrostics: sentences created by words that begin with the first letters of a series of words.

▫FIRST-letter mnemonic strategy Includes an overall strategy (LISTS) and a

substrategy for making a mnemonic device (FIRST).

Letter Strategy Mnemonic DevicesAcronyms Acrostics

• Radar: radio detecting and ranging

• Scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus

• Laser: Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

• Every Good Boy Does Fine: Notes on the lines of the treble clef staff: EGGBDF

• King Henry Died Monday Drinking Chocolate Milk: The Metric system: Kilo, Hecto,Deca,Meter, Deci, Centi, Milli

• My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas: The Planets in our Solar System

LIST Strategy

•Look for clues▫In class notes and books look for lists of

information that are important to learn.•Investigate the items

▫Decide what should be included in the list.•Select a mnemonic device, using FIRST•Transfer the information to a card•Self-Test

FIRST-Letter Strategy• Form a word

▫Using uppercase letters, write the first letter of each word in a list.

• Insert a letter(s)▫ Insert letters to see if a word can be made

• Rearrange the letters▫Rearrange the letters to see what word can be made.

• Shape a sentence▫Try to construct a sentence

• Try combination▫Try combinations to see what works best

Key Word Strategy

•Involves three steps▫1. Identify a target word of concept to be

learned.▫2. Identify a concrete, easily imagined “key

word” that is either phonetically or semantically related to the target word.

▫3. Identify a visual image that links the key word to the meaning of the target word.