“nationally normed assessment: A standardized test that has been administered to a national control group reflecting the demographic profile of the target population (e.g. 4th graders) throughout the country. The scores of all subsequent test takers are then compared with the scores of this control (or norming) group.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
“Encoding specificity: The effect on recall from memory of the relation between encoding operations at the time of learning and the cues…available at the time of recall, the effectiveness of the encoding operation being dependent on the nature of the cues at recall, and the effectiveness of particular cues at recall being dependent on the nature of the earlier encoding operations. For example, research has shown that if a person reads the sentence The man tuned the piano, together with many other sentences, and later tries to recall the objects mentioned in all the other sentences, then the cue nice sound facilitates the recall of piano, whereas the cue something heavy does not; but if the original sentence is The man lifted the piano, then something heavy is an effective cue but nice sound is not. References to this phenomenon can be traced to a book by the US psychologist Harry L. Hollingworth (1880-1956) published in 1928, where it was called the principle of reinstatement of stimulating conditions. Also called the encoding-retrieval interaction or transfer-appropriate processing.”
Excerpted from: Colman, Andrew M., ed. Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
“Dewey’s genius grasped the educational principles underlying such sequences. Coming to understand an established idea in school must be made more like discovering a new idea than like hearing adult knowledge explained point by point. We learn complex and abstract ideas through a zigzag sequence of trial, error, reflection, and adjustment. As the facets tell us, the student needs to interpret, apply, see from different points of view, and so forth, all of which imply different sequences than those found in a catalog of existing knowledge. We cannot fully understand an idea until we retrace, relive, or recapitulate some of its history—how it came to be understood in the first place. The young learner should be treated as a discoverer, even if the path seemed inefficient. That’s why Piaget argued ‘to understand is to invent.’”
Excerpted from: Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1998.
“Antithesis: (Greek: “Opposition”) Fundamentally, contrasting ideas sharpened by the use of opposite or noticeably different meanings. For example, Bacon’s apothegm (q.v.): ‘Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them.’
It is common in rhetoric (q.v.) and was particularly favored by the Augustan poets and users of the heroic couplet (q.v.). These lines from Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel are strongly antithetical:
‘Rais’d in extremes, and in extremes decry’d;
With Oaths affirm’d, with dying Vows deny’d.
Not weighed, or winnow’s by the Multitude;
But swallow’d in the Mass, unchew’d and Crude.
Some Truth there was, but dash’d and brew’d with Lyes;
To please the Fools, and puzzle all the Wise.
Succeeding times, did equal folly call,
Believing nothing, or believing all.’
Pope was an expert at the antithetical, as this compact example in his Moral Essays shows:
‘Less with than mimic, more a wit than wise.’
It is used frequently in prose to telling effect, as in this example from Dr. Johnson (in the London Chronicle, May 2nd, 1769) on the character of the Reverend Zachariah Mudge: ‘Though studious, he was popular; though argumentative, he was modest; though inflexible, he was candid; and though metaphysical, yet orthodox.’”
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.
“portmanteau: A single form which realizes two or more successive grammatical units, Typically of a morph, called a ‘portmanteau morph,’ seen as realizing morphemes: e.g. in French au theatre ‘to the theater,’ au is a single morph ([o]) which simultaneously realizes a preposition (elsewhere a) and the definite article (elsewhere le).”
Excerpted from: Matthews, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
“differentiated instruction: A form of instruction that seeks to maximize each student’s growth by recognizing that students have different ways of learning, different interests, and different ways of responding to instruction. In practice, it involves offering several different learning experiences in response to students’ varied needs. Educators may vary learning activities and materials by difficulty, so as to challenge students at different readiness levels; by topic, in response to students’ interests; and by students’ preferred way of learning or expressing themselves. Differentiated teaching assumes that classrooms will be grouped heterogeneously, mixing students of different levels of ability in the same class, although the strategy may also be used in classes for gifted students. Advocates of differentiated instruction say that it helps students progress by meeting their diverse, individual needs. Critics say that planning multiple learning experiences is time-consuming and that it requires extensive training. In addition, teachers of mixed-ability classes containing students of widely divergent abilities sometimes find the instructional burden to be overwhelming. Some parents of high-ability students in such classes complain that their children are neglected or not sufficiently challenged.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
OK, moving right along on this beautiful morning in southwestern Vermont, here is a lesson plan on learning. You’ll need this short reading and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. If you need or want them, here are slightly longer versions of those documents.
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.
Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, Social Sciences, Worksheets
Tagged building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge, cognition/learning/understanding, diction/grammar/style/usage, professional development, questioning/inquiry, readings/research, social-emotional learning
“Heuristic (adjective): Serving as the discovery of truth or furthering investigation, as in the case of a useful and stimulating (if not logical or conclusive) method, presentation, or argument, and especially one used by a student to learn for himself. Adverb: heuristically; noun: heuristic.
‘My coarse distinctions between two kinds of fiction are useful heuristically, but they give a damaging impression of clear boundaries and a misleading impression of two armed camps.’ Annie Dillard, Living by Fiction”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
“Chinua Achebe: (1930-2013) Nigerian novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer. One of Africa’s best-known writers, Achebe gained an international audience with his first novel, Thing Fall Apart, now regarded as a classic. In his early novels, the theme of struggle and the transformation of traditional Nigerian society is dealt with compassionately, ironically, and with a sense of the tragic. Achebe’s vision of the writer as teacher and conscience of society informs his No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), and some of his short stories in Girls at War (1972). A Man of the People (1966) is a biting satirical farce that provides an expose of corrupt African politicians. His latest novel, Anthills of the People (1987) retains the wit and satiric humor of the earlier works as he explores the complex issues and problems which beset contemporary Africa. This novel, which was a finalist for the Booker Prize in England, is one of Achebe’s most optimistic and stylistically engaging works. Achebe’s style is characterized by a clear narrative and the use of local imagery, proverbs, and folklore. Among his other books are Beware Soul Brother (1972), a volume of verse which won the Commonwealth Poetry prize, U.S. title Christmas in Biafra and Other Poems (1973); and children’s stories, The Sacrificial Egg and Other Stories (1962), Chike and the River (1966), How the Leopard Got His Claws (1972), The Flute (1977), and The Drum (1977). His three collections of essays, Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975), The Trouble with Nigeria (1983), and Hopes and Impediments (1989) continue to underscore his belief that ‘A writer who feels strong and abiding concern for his fellows cannot evade the role as social critic which is the contemporary expression of commitment to the community.’”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“The sources of some emotional attitudes are easy to appreciate. Here’s Oprah Winfrey on reading: ‘Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered that there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.’ One source—probably the primary source—of positive reading attitudes is positive reading experiences. This phenomenon is no more complicated than understanding why someone has a positive attitude toward eggplant. You taste it and like it. Oprah tasted the mental journeys reading affords, and loved them.
But we can elaborate a bit on this obvious relationship. Kids who like to read also tend to be strong readers, as measured by standard reading tests. Again, not terribly surprising—we usually like what we’re good at and vice versa. The situation yields a positive feedback loop….
If you’re a good reader, you’re more likely to enjoy a story because reading it doesn’t seem like work. That enjoyment means that you have a better attitude toward reading; that is, you believe that reading is a pleasurable, valuable thing to do. A better attitude means you read more often and more reading makes you better at reading—your decoding gets still more fluent, lexical representations become richer, and your background knowledge increases. We would also predict the inverse to be true: if reading is difficult you won’t enjoy it, you’ll have a negative attitude toward the activity, and you’ll avoid it whenever possible, meaning that you’ll fall still further behind your peers. This cycle has been called ‘The Matthew Effect’ from the biblical verse ‘For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath’ (Matthew 25-29). Or more briefly, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”
Excerpted from: Willingham, Daniel T. The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2017.
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