Post #4: Chapter Five

Chapter Five

The Reflection Phase of Reading

Chapter five discussed the reflection phase of PAR.  Post-reading reflection is the most important step for comprehension to me.  In this phase of PAR, reflection clarifies thinking and focuses the students attention.  This helps students learn better and retain the information.  This is the stage where the role of the student is crucial.  Comprehension monitoring is important for all students, but especially for high schoolers.  High schoolers have to take control and responsibility for their education.  With reflection this helps students to do it.

Our public school systems in the United States push for fast pasted learning and standardized testing.  If research has shown that when topics are not rushed and students are engaged in “active exploration, argument, analysis, and reflection (pg.110),” students will perform better I do not understand why this is not the accepted system of learning here.  I understand that politics plays a huge role in the reasons why our educational system is the way it is, but if our country wants to be the best our students need the best education possible.  For teachers, to fully implement the reflection phase in lesson plans it must be a major portion of teacher education.    

Critical thinking is important for students to develop in school because in the workforce students are expected to have and master critical thinking skills.  For my future classroom, I plan on improving my students critical thinking skills because I do not just want to help them in my classroom, I want to give them skills that will last a lifetime.  Critical thinking is important in a social studies classroom because there is so much more than learning facts about the past.  Students in history classes have to be exposed to historical primary and secondary documents.  Also students, need to be exposed to historical documents that have opposing views.  Seeing both points of views helps students to form their own opinions.  For example, I would like to have my students read books from the view of the British as well as the colonists when learning about the American Revolution.  Research is an important part of history and proper research techniques have to be instilled in students especially those students who are planning on continuing their education.  Students must be taught to think like a researcher.  The problem with teaching these skills is that they are not required for the state SOLs.  I believe that skills such as proper research are more important than a multiple choice test that is only important to the state.

When it comes to critical literacy, students should be taught juxtapositioning.  It is important that students are taught to compare and contrast opposing perspectives not only literature, but in life.  Just like reading information about sides can help students form their own opinions juxtapositioning can do the same. 

Reflecting through Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning benefits students because students are more actively involved in their own education.  Group learning can be very successful if students in the group are engaged and participating.  This is where I do not know how to create this environment.  I remember in high school when we did group work I always ended up doing all the work.  I do not want this for my students.  I am not sure how I would create an environment to have successful cooperative group learning.  I want this to happen in my classroom though because I know how beneficial it is to students.   The technique that was described in the book about creating group that work well together was informative and beneficial to me.  The strategy is a great one because it teaches students how to deal with different types of personalities and behaviors that happen a lot in groups.  I still do not fully understand how I would create working groups in my classroom though.

Strategies and Activities for Reflection in Reading

The strategies that I found to be the best for my future classroom were post-graphic organizers, double-entry journals, paired reading, repeated readings, and text lookbacks.  Post-graphic organizers are great for students because it organizes the information they just learned about major historical events and the complex lives of historical people.  With double-entry journals, students can react to how it would feel like to be in situations.  For example, a journal entry about how it must have been to live in London during the Battle of Britain would be great to have the students do after a lesson about the Battle of Britain.  Paired Reading is great for students to understand the textbooks they are reading or historical documents that can be complex to understand.  Repeated readings and textbook lookbacks are great for students to have multiple different times to understand the material being read and by multiple different ways. 

This chapter has been the most beneficial to me so far.  I want to focus on critical thinking with my future students.  This chapter gave me multiple different ways to implement it into my classroom.