“systematic phonics: Direct reading instruction that explicitly teaches the relationships between letters and sounds in a sequence of interconnected lessons.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
Here, as your Weekly Text, is the tenth lesson plan in the Styling Sentences Unit, this one on composing a sentence with a prepositional phrase before the subject and verb.
This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the subject of a sentence. Subject is one of those tricky, polysemous words in English. As you know, the subject of a sentence is the noun or noun phrase that is doing something–which the verb describes–in a sentence. Students, in my experience, struggle with getting beyond the the meaning of the noun subject as a specific category of learning at school, e.g. maths, science, social studies, English language arts. All of this, I suppose, is an indirect plea for educating students in the many, and vital for understanding all sorts of things, uses of the word subject–it works as a noun, adjective, and verb in English. Finally, here is the worksheet with explanatory and mentor texts that constitutes the principal work of this lesson. Please note, once more, that this document contains no supported material such as sentence stems and cloze exercises, although I have some ideas about developing some. For this worksheet, students will work from mentor texts to develop sentences of their own in the form under review.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“vowel: Speech sound in which air from the lungs passes through the mouth with minimal obstruction and without audible friction like the f in fit. The word also refers to a letter representing such a sound (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y). In articulatory phonetics (see articulation), vowels are classified by tongue and lip position; for example, high vowels like the i in machine and the u in flute are both pronounced with the tongue arched high in the mouth, but in u the lips are also rounded. Single vowel sounds are monophthongs; two vowel sounds pronounced as one syllable, like the ou in round, are diphthongs.”
Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
“systematic instruction: A teaching approach that identifies the specific steps needed to teach a given lesson. Systematic instruction includes clear objectives describing the content to be learned, detailed strategies to teach that content, and diagnostic assessments to determine whether students have mastered the content. See also Direct Instruction (DI).”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
“Teacher-Centered: The emphasis of the school should be on the intellect—on academic learning. This does not mean that motivation and affect are ignored; it means that the major focus of schools should be on academic learning, and that motivation and affect are important only as they influence academic learning.
Student-Centered: The emphasis is on affect and motivation, with less emphasis on what is learned. In order for students to learn math and science, certain programs may be preferred because students find them more interesting and exciting.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: Education in the subject matter being taught is preferred, especially for high school teachers. There is less concern with the teacher’s knowledge of methods of teaching than with knowledge and expertise in the specific subject matter.
Student-Centered: The teacher’s master of subject matter is considered less important than an understanding of child and adolescent development, and how to stimulate and encourage student’s creativity and self-expression.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: Rules of behavior are made explicit, are taught, and appropriate steps are taken when a child or class does not follow them.
Student-Centered: Discipline is seldom discussed. It is assumed that curriculum and methods that are child-centered and based on the child’s ability will minimize the need for discipline. Rules of behavior are usually not made explicit.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: The emphasis is on learning and teaching. If the student is failing, the tendency is to look into what he or she has not learned and how it can be provided by the school. Behavioral and emotional problems are also recognized as possible causes of learning difficulties. But there is a greater emphasis on treating academic difficulties directly, even if the causes are nonacademic.
Student-Centered: The cause for academic difficulties is usually sought in noneducational factors—lack of motivation, emotional problems, or a troubled or dysfunctional home. For students in first grade, a lack of progress is often stated in terms of readiness for schooling.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: Textbooks are important to assure minimal coverage of content. Additional materials are recommended as well, for example, encyclopedias and other reference works, books, newspapers, and magazines, and more recently computer programs.
Student-Centered: Original sources—for example, children’s literature, novels, historical works, original documents, and more recently computers—are preferred to textbooks. Textbooks are not preferred because they are considered dull and not geared to the individual needs and interests of students. For science, hands-on experiences are preferred to reading materials.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: Promotion is largely by achievement. If the achievement is thought to be too low for success in subsequent grades, the student may be retained for a year. Usually, a student is retained twice, at most, in the elementary grades.
Student-Centered: Social promotion is preferred. The student is promoted with his age group even if his achievement is quite low. It is assumed that the student will benefit from predictable promotion since ideally the instruction is matched to the student’s instructional level, not to his or her grade placement. Also, to hold back a student is considered questionable for his or her self-esteem.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
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