Mainstreaming

INSTRUCTOR RATIONALE, CONTENT, AND SKILLS

Accelerated Co-Requisite Reading to Learn Model (ACRLM)

This book is for co-requisite reading to learn instructors exploring a rationale and the content and skills for working proactively, aggressively with learners who will not have time for isolated units of instruction, but will need timely hands-on instruction and application of cognitive strategies and habits of mind for developing competence in the area of inquiry in the co-requisite content course.

DAN KESTERSON

Preface This book is designed to help content and reading to learn skills instructors interested in engaging in an accelerated learning initiative for providing support in co-requisite entrylevel content courses. There are a number of acceleration models for increasing progress through developmental education. Mainstreaming and corequisite courses place students into entry-level courses or gateway courses and provide skill support for the content course. Some mainstreaming models place students into a content course and provide support such as tutoring or labs. In co-requisite courses students are placed in both a content course and a skills course. In this book co-requisite support will focus on developing an Acceleration Co-Requisite Reading to Learn Model (ACRLM).

Co-requisite Courses is Conclusion of Two Reports The conclusion in two reports by Complete College America is “Mainstream as many students as possible into college-level courses.”

Recommendation “The current remediation system is broken; too many students start in remedial courses and never earn a credential of any kind. Colleges need to: Mainstream as many students as possible into college-level courses. Provide co-requisite and embedded support for those needing extra help.” (Time is the Enemy, 2011, Complete College America) http://www.completecollege.org/docs/Time_Is_the_Enemy. pdf The Research “Nearly 4 in 10 remedial students in community colleges never complete their remedial courses.

Research shows that students who skip their remedial assignments do just as well in gateway courses as those who took remediation first.”

Extra academic help becomes a co-requisite, not a prerequisite.

“Institutions that have used this approach have seen their unprepared students succeed at the same rates as their collegeready peers. And best practices have demonstrated that as many as half of all current remedial students can succeed this way. With results like these, it’s long past time to take this reform to scale.” i

Specific Placement Recommendations “End traditional remediation; use co-requisite models instead.

• For students with few academic deficiencies, place them into redesigned first-year, full- credit courses with co-requisite built-in support, just-in-time tutoring, self-paced computer labs with required attendance, and the like. The length of these courses should mirror the ordinary gateway courses so students stay on track for on-time graduation.

• For students needing more help, lengthen redesigned fullcredit courses and consider providing built-in, co-requisite support for two semesters instead of one. Students get the same content but more time on task.

•For students with the most significant academic needs, provide alternate pathways to high-quality career certificates by embedding remediation and adult basic skills development into their instruction.

Expand co-requisite supports for additional collegelevel courses. Additional introductory courses serve as gateway classes for programs of study, not just English and math.

Given high failure rates, they have become gatekeeper courses instead, too often blocking students’ entry into their chosen fields. To help unprepared students get a strong, early start,

build extra supports around introductory courses necessary for success like entry-level anatomy, biology, physiology, physics, accounting, and drafting.

1. Start students in college-level courses with built-in, corequisite support. Immediately place freshmen with basic needs into entry-level, credit-bearing college courses with co-requisite support. That is, make this co-requisite model the default. For students needing more support, offer two-semester courses of the same content with built-in tutoring. Meanwhile, offer students with significant academic challenges skill certificate programs with embedded remediation.

2. Embed needed academic help in multiple gateway c o u r s e s .

To help unprepared students get a strong, early start, build extra supports around all of the early gateway courses that are necessary for success in students’ fields of study. For students to succeed in these course, they Completion should have built-in tutoring and/or additional instruction time.

3. Encourage students to enter programs of study when they first enroll.”

Provide Co-Requisite Courses Aligned with Programs of Study “Researchers at the Community College Research Center at Columbia University have found that students who comii

plete at least three required “gateway” courses in a program of study within a year of enrollment are twice as likely to earn certificates or degrees.”

NOTE: Co-requisite courses alone will not ensure completion. There are many factors at play. See APPENDIX A for links to related completion literature and research.

Conclusion of Complete College America Report “Remediation programs, designed as prerequisite hurdles that must be jumped before getting to college-level classes, slow students’ progress into programs of study.

Studies prove that being trapped in endless remediation sequences or being unable to pass associated gateway courses in math and English are the primary reasons students do not enter programs of study during their first year. And the longer it takes for students to commit to programs of study, the less likely they ever will.

Worse, traditional remediation often seems irrelevant and disconnected from future ambitions, robbing students of precious time, money, and motivation. What’s the result? Many students veer off course onto another dropout exit ramp.”(Remediation: The Bridge to Nowhere, 2012, Complete College America)

This book is for reading to learn instructors exploring a rationale and the content and skills for working proactively, aggressively with learners who will not have time for isolated units of instruction, but will need hands-on instruction and application of cognitive strategies and habits of mind for developing competence in the area of inquiry of the corequisite content course.

http://www.completecollege.org/docs/CCA-Remediation-su mmary.pdf

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What are Co-requisite Courses?

What are Co-Requisite Courses?

“Co-requisite courses usually have two instructors who—ideally—each integrate their instruction with that of the other instructor.

Co-requisite models vary in how content is sequenced and structured.

Some versions redesign both classes so the content of the developmental class directly supports the content of the college course (Commander et al., 1996; Visher, Schneider, Wathington, & Collado, 2010).

Ideally co-requisite courses foster a single, coherent educational experience that promotes deeper, contextualized learning (Tinto, 1998).

In other versions, students take the college-level and developmental courses simultaneously, and the instructor of each course does not make significant changes to integrate the curriculum or instruction between courses. (Visher et al., 2010).

Another co-requisite model has emerged that experiments with using one instructor or peer tutors, pairing courses differently, and mixing developmental and college-ready students in classes. Instead of pairing a college-level course with the highest level of developmental course, second-generation co- requisite models may pair a college-level course with a student success course, a specialized lab, or other support options such as mandatory tutoring or supplemental instruction. The defining features of these second- generation models are that they target students referred to the highest level developmental course, students begin earning college credit right away, and transition points between courses are eliminated.” (The Charles Dana Center, Higher Ed Brief No. 1, 2012)

http://www.utdanacenter.org/mathways/downloads/higher-ed-issuebrief-1-june2012.pdf Common Core Standards and Cognitive Strategies The cognitive strategies and habits of mind taught in a co-requisite reading to learn course focus exclusively on mental process and behaviors the learner needs to successfully engage in developing competence in the area of inquiry in the companion entry-level or survey course.

The cognitive skills and habits of mind in a co-requisite reading to learn course should align with the Common Core Standards for Reading for Information, which are directly related to the reading material in the co-requisite content course. In co-requisite courses, every standard does not have to be taught. It is important that cognitive strategies and habits of mind related to developing competence in the area of inquiry in the co-requisite content entry-level or survey course be the focus of instruction.

For college students who do not have significant skill needs, college reading is less about learning how to read than it is about reading to learn. The cognitive strategies and habits of mind in this text will go beyond improving comprehension and focus on deep learning when reading large comprehensive textbooks. Deep learning refers to adaptive/conceptual learning in which what is learned transfers to new situations and makes related learning is easier. The result sought in deep learning when reading comprehensive textbooks is developing competence in an area of inquiry, for example, sociology or biology. Rather than memorizing lots of facts or practicing discrete reading skills in isolation that are ends in themselves, “deep reading to learn” results in the student being able to transfer the information being studied to new situations or being able to think with, reason with, solve problems or make decisions using what they are learning. Reading learning strategies will be presented that go beyond mere comprehension (constructing meaning) to ensuring the information learned can be useful. iv

C HAPTER 1 Co-Requisite Points

This book is for co-requisite “reading to learn” instructors are exploring a rationale and the content and skills for working proactively, aggressively with learners who will not have time for isolated units of instruction, but will need timely, daily hands-on instruction and application of cognitive strategies and habits of mind for developing competence in the area of inquiry in the co-requisite content course.

Co-requisite courses are pretty easy to set up; however, to bring them to scale can be challenging. Promising co-requisite models have produced the following results:

Community College of Baltimore Summary Based on four semesters of data and 227 students, compared to traditional developmental writing: - ALP doubles the success rate.

- cuts the attrition in half - does it in half the ALP time - at slightly less cost per successful student - It has the advantage over other acceleration models in that it reduces the major barrier to completion - “time”, fosters deeper learning and is immediately relevant to students’ goals. Developmental students go directly into their entry-level courses with co-requisite skill support.

S ECTION 1 Teaching and Learning Mark Taylor laid out in Teaching Generation NeXt concepts for a comprehensive, effective, practical, and accessible teaching and learning model grounded in increasing student activity, and engagement to improve relevant learning outcomes for the students.

These concepts provide an excellent framework for both co-requisite course instructors to use in developing the two courses.

http://taylorprograms.org/drtaylorarticles.html Improve Student’s Future Orientation “Class content, the uses students have for that content, and the skills are expected to develop should relate to student’s goals” (Mark Taylor).

ACRLM: Since the content course in the paired co-requisite courses is essential to the student’s program of study, it is easy to point out the relevance of cognitive strategies and habits of mind to the student’s goals. This is a huge advantage over isolated skill instruction. http://cms185redesign.pbworks.com/w/page/44227942/RDG%20185 %20Redesign%20Menu Identify Class Goals

“Identify and articulate class goals around the utility of content and the values and uses of these uses and skills to be learned. Students are more likely to learn content and applications if they see what they can do with the information and skills, why these uses matter to them and others, and how these applications can benefit them” (Mark Taylor).

ACRLM: The beauty of the ACRLM model is that the corequisite content course makes reading to learn much more relevant.

Improve Student Understanding of Class Expectations “Faculty should not assume that students understand college academic expectations in general, or for their class in particular, and take time early in the semester to make class expectations clear. Rewards (in the form of points) and consequences (in the form of penalties, lost points or learning opportunities) should be spelled out for both the mechanical expectations, such as preparation, attendance and participation, and for learning outcomes” (Mark Taylor).

ACRLM: Much of the content and skills in this book on corequisite instruction are new information for most of developmental reading students. Use chapters two and three to build a conceptual framework for all the strategies to be learned.

Move Content Learning Out of Class “Too much time is spent in classes delivering content; time that can be better spent helping students actively identify the uses of 6

content, learn skills, or identify why the learning matters to them. This model moves faculty from the traditional pedagogy of delivering content in class and expecting students to apply it out of class, to moving the content out of class and facilitating the application of content under the guidance of Create Necessity for Preparing for and Attending Class “Scheduled class meetings are the central part of the educational process and the most significant learning opportunities for students. Faculty are not encouraged to offer points for attendance, but instead to award points for class preparation, which can only be obtained by attendance. Make assignment expectations clear, and clarify the benefits of preparation (points, more effective learning) and costs of the lack of preparation (loss of points, inability to move into activity portion of the class of participate in group work), and they must be willing to clarify, but not to deliver, the content to greatly increase the likelihood that meaningful class participation becomes normative student behavior” (Mark Taylor).

ACRLM: TIme is precious in ACRLM courses. Moving content out of the classroom makes the classes more efficient.

Increase Student Learning Activity and Engagement “Higher-order and lasting learning will never be effectively reached by passive students who spend class time listening to faculty deliver content. In Mark Taylor’s model, class content is moved out of class to free class time for active learning to help

students move to the higher learning process level of skills and values, behavioral applications and the affective level of caring.

To help students understand content, let them actively teach it to another person. To help students learn a skill, let them actively practice it, with someone observing for accuracy. To help students come to care, value or see worth in a subject or skill, let them actively identify how it will benefit them in the future and actively articulate this belief to another person. “No passive students” should be the expectation during class” (Mark Taylor).

ACRLM: Collaborative learning strategies are a natural for students in the same course in their program of study.

Improve Assessments and Accountability “As instruction moves from the traditional faculty delivery-ofcontent process to a student-construction-of-learning model, instructors need to move from a reliance on summative assessments of learning outcomes to assign grades to ongoing formative efforts to monitor and measure the efficacy of instruction and students’ movement toward learning outcomes. This movement from assessment of learning to assessment for learning is replacing traditional outcomes testing and leading to deeper, more lasting, and higher-level learning, and to students’ ability to make meaningful application of their learning. Formal graded assessments of students are moving from testing the traditional regurgitation of content to more meaningful summative assessments of deeper, more lasting, higher-level learning, and the ability of students to make meaningful application of their learning.”

(Mark Taylor).

ACRLM: Here is something beautiful. Since ACRLM instruction is not based on isolated units without immediate relevance to the

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student but rather on the reading assignments the students encounters daily, summative assessments just naturally do not fit the ongoing learning conditions. However, formative assessment fits in beautifully as it enjoys “the ability of students to make meaningful application of learning.�

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S ECTION 2 Bringing to Scale The Challenge: Bringing an accelerated instruction model such as the Co-Requisite Model for Reading to Learn to scale in community colleges.

Successful isolated co-requisite courses have dotted the community college landscape over time, but comprehensive initiatives to bring corequisite courses to scale have not stepped foot on the landscape.

There are a number of reasons for this inertia.

The Challenges Contributing to the Inertia: • The evidence has to support co-requisite models. Now promising models are beginning to show up in the literature.The ALP at Baltimore and I-Best program in Washington have successfully instituted c0-requisite models. See chapter 11.

• Some leadership and instructors have not gotten the word yet that students do not make it to completion if they take sequences of developmental courses and therefore resist change. Complete College America makes this point, “Traditional developmental education suffers from two fatal flaws. First, it is disconnected from the credits students need to obtain credentials and degrees — even though data indicate that underprepared students have the best shot at success when they can move into college-level courses as soon as possible.

Second, it is rarely tailored to individual student needs.”

• Others snap up shortcut trends that are successful in themselves, but come up short when “time” becomes the barrier.

• Administrators become fearful that it will cost more, yet in the Community College of Baltimore Summary we find these results Based on four semesters of data and 227 students, compared to traditional developmental writing:

• It takes strong leadership support. Scheduling, advising, registration, content course instructors, skills instructors, a mind shift about what constitutes deep learning (rigor) all have to be coordinated under leadership which has to signal that it will support such a shift.

- ALP doubles the success rate.

• Entry-level course instructors can be entrenched and feel threatened.

- at slightly less cost per successful student

- cuts the attrition in half - does it in half the ALP time

• Skills instructors have to begin teaching directly to the immediate, relevant skill needs of students in their content courses. There is no time for isolated unit instruction that is not immediately relevant to the student’s reading needs. This can be threatening to skill instructors who have become used to sequences of developmental courses and non-contextual learning, which in itself can become isolated from relevancy.

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The Co-Requisite Course Model “Co-requisite developmental education enrolls students in remedial and college-level courses in the same subject at the same time. Students receive targeted support to help boost their understanding and learning of the college-level course material. This strategy can work at both two- and four-year institutions, the latter of which are often prohibited from providing remedial education. The concurrent course design allows four-year colleges and universities to offer the co-requisite developmental instruction as a non-credit, fee-based offering connected to a credit-bearing college course.

• Saves students time and money be enabling them to complete remediation and their college-level course in one semester rather than two.

• Can be utilized at four-year colleges that do not offer remedial eduction courses by implementing the remedial instruction in a non-credit, fee-based offering connected to the college course” (Getting Past Go) http://gettingpastgo.org/blog/2011/03/21/co-requisite-model/

Early results are showing that these initiatives are yielding better outcomes for students in less time and with significant savings for students and institutions. What they all have in common is a focus not just on the goal of improving remedial course completion but also, and more significantly, on completion of the entry-level, credit- bearing college courses that put students on a steadier path to completion” (Complete College America).

“For many students who are either just below or just above the stated cut score in a given subject area, it may make sense to enroll students into college-level courses and the relevant remedial education course concurrently. Effective implementation requires coordination between the remedial course and college-level course.” http://www.completecollege.org/docs/CCA%20Co-Req%20Model%20 -%20Transform%20Remediation%20for%20Chicago%20final(1).pdf Model Benefits • Eliminates the frequent problem of students not enrolling in college level courses in math or English after completing their remedial education sequence.

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C HAPTER 2 H OW THE B RAIN L EARNS Important: All the concepts and explanations in this book are dependent on understanding this chapter.

Chapters two (How the Brain Learns) and three (Developing Competence in an Area of Inquiry) create the conceptual framework around which all the rationale, content and skills in this book are filtered and organized. Each succeeding chapter will connect to what we know about how the brain learns and how we develop competence when we read to learn.

This chapter will focus on how we learn physiologically. The works of Rita Smilkstein on the rules of learning which result in the growth of dendrites on brain cells (learning), the works David Rock on the role of working memory in learning and the works of Daniel Coyle on the role of myelin in speeding up and strengthening learning will be highlighted. All the authors point to the fact that the more one knows about how the brain learns, the better prepared one is to take control of the learning process, especially the use of cognitive strategies and habits of mind in the learning process.

Deep learning when reading to learn requires that the learner take control of their learning, so the thinking strategies employed will center around a metacognitive (thinking about thinking) approach for developing competence in an area of inquiry that is based on maximizing the use of working memory.

More About the Authors Mentioned and Their Works Rita Smilkstein: http://facweb.northseattle.edu/RSmilkstein/ David Rock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeJSXfXep4 Daniel Coyle: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/q-and-dan-coyle-author-talen t-code

S ECTION 1

How the Brain Learns

Quick Overview on How the Brain Learns with Short Videos - Growing New Dendrites - 6 ½ minutes (Description: an illustrated explanation of how the growing of new dendrites is learning.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6_7_JFku BY

- Remembering and Forgetting – 9 ½ minutes (Description: a continuation of the above video with an explanation of how to strengthen new dendrites and pruning.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON7_g_y01Y

Reading to Learn and How the Brain Learns There are many mental and physical activities a reader can do to increase (1) how much they learn, (2) how much they remember and (3) the likelihood that they will be able to think and reason with what they read.

(1)Increasing How Much the Reader Learns Learning is primarily a function of the reader making a connection between what the reader already knows and the new information the reader is reading. The more the reader already knows about what is being read, the easier it is to construct meaning (comprehend what is being read). Textbooks provide a lot of clues that tell the reader what is important to learn. Textbooks also provide information that can help the reader make sense of what they are reading if the reader knows how the brain learns naturally and learns how to take advantage of specific kinds of information such as examples or illustration.

The Brain Connection: When reading the brain takes what is being read and looks for prior knowledge the reader already has about the information being read.

The more prior knowledge the reader already has, the easier it is for learning to oc-

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cur. When the reader has little prior knowledge, the harder it is to learn. When the brain learns something new, it is because the brain was able to make a connection with what the reader already knows and the new information.

Growing Dendrites: Dendrites are fiber-like structures that grow on brain cells when new information is learned. Learn something new and growing new dendrites grow are the same thing; therefore learning is the growing of new dendrites and new dendrites mean new learning has occurred.

Learning Occurring Between to Brain Cells (neurons)

Constructing Meaning: The brain does not store sentences easily, rather the brain stores meaning. Memorized sentences or definitions are easily forgotten by the brain because memorizing sentences often does not enable the reader to make interconnections in the brain between the new information being learned and what the reader already knows. Most of the reading strategies to be learned in this book deliberately focus on helping the reader make a connection between what they are reading and what they already know – that is, construct meaning.

Using Elaborations: Elaborations are mental strategies the reader can use to increase the likelihood that new information will get connected in the brain to what the reader already knows. For example, if the reader learns to ask questions when encountering new headings or subheadings in their textbook, they are much more likely to make connections with what they already know about what they are about to read. The brain automatically begins to look within itself for what the reader already knows.

“Neurons, the nerve cells of the brain, are not directly connected to other neurons.

Instead, there is a small gap between them called a synapse. An electrical signal travels down a neuron cell body to the end buds and is converted into a chemical signal at the synapse. There are receptors on both sides of the synapse that receive messages from these chemical signals. Synapses send and receive one of two signals: either what is called an excitatory signal or and inhibitory signal, which tells it to do more of something, or an inhibitory signal, which tells it to do less of something. This electrical-to-chemical-to-chemical communication system across the synapse is sometimes called a synaptic “firing.” Trillions of ever-changing neurons are organized into networks through patterns of neuronal firing. These networks are called “maps” (Rock), such as everything you know about restaurants.

(2) Increasing How Much the Reader Remembers

How Learning Occurs in the Brain Use the drawing above. (1)Beginning in the upper left hand corner, new information (culture= material objects in this instance) enters through the Dendrites of the neuron; it then travels to the Cell Body and on down the Axon as an electrical signal to the End Buds. (2) The End Buds look for related or associated information the reader already knows (iPhone, Nike shoes in this instance); that information is called prior knowledge and is stored as dendrites in other neurons. (3) When the end buds find related prior knowledge, new dendrites grow off the dendrites of related dendrites of prior knowledge. The new dendrite is new learning.

Learning: Comprehending or constructing meaning is not enough to be successful as a reader of college textbooks. Information is quickly forgotten if it is not used or reinforced. There are many thinking strategies that reinforce or strengthen new dendrites of learning.

The Brain Connection: Forgetting - When a reader reads new information in textbooks, they forget on average 50% within the first twenty-four hours. The reader forgets 80% within the first two weeks if they do not do something with the information to strengthen their memory.

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plain what is important to learn in their own words, they increase memory by four times. This is called reciting and it helps not only in the construction of meaning by tapping the reader’s prior knowledge, but also by strengthening the newly formed dendrites of learning.

Pruning Dendrites: Information that is not used is forgotten. The new dendrites in the brain that grow when learning occurs are absorbed by the brain (pruned) if the reader does not do something to strengthen the new dendrites at the point of learning and within the first twenty-four hours. Preferably within the first 90 minutes.

(3) Increasing the likelihood that the reader will be able to think and reason with what they read Learning: The point of reading and learning from textbooks is not to accumulate a lot of information, but rather to be able to use the information to think and reason with the information. This involves critical thinking – can the reader use the information to make decisions or solve problems? Perhaps the most important skill a reader can develop to make what they learn useful is the ability to organize information into conceptual frameworks which moves information from pieces isolated information to organized knowledge. It is organized information (knowledge) that increases the likelihood of information becoming useful.

The Brain Connection: The brain is made up of 100 billion brain cells each cell capable of making 10,000 connections. These connections represent learning and as more and more information is interconnected by related meaning, the more “neural networks” are formed in the brain.

Forgetting – Pruning Dendrites Using Elaborations: Elaborations are mental strategies the reader can use to increase the likelihood that new information will get connected in the brain to what the reader already knows. For example, research clearly shows us that once the reader identifies what is important to learn using text clues such as headings, words in bold print or italics, summaries, etc. that if they make sure they can ex-

Neural Networks of Dendrites: Consider what you know about food. Your brain has organized all the information you know into neural networks of interrelated information. You know thousands of pieces of information about where food comes from, where to find it, if the food is animal of plant, if it is nutritious and why, and on and on it goes. Therefore, you can easily make decisions or solve prob-

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lems about food. The more you know (knowledge – organized information) the easier it is to use it.

Neural Networks are Interconnected Neurons of Related Information (for example, all you know about food)

Conceptual Framework for Learning the Meaning of Culture

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S ECTION 2 Myelin and Strenghening Neural Pathways

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S ECTION 3

Working Memory

The Stage – A Metaphor for the Prefrontal Cortex and Working Memory THE STAGE The Stage - Prefrontal Cortex and Working Memory

Quick Overview on Working Memory with Short Videos

- The Stage Metaphor: Part 1 (8 ½ minutes) (Explanation of The Stage Metaphor – what does the learner need to do between new information coming into the brain and growing and strengthening dendrites of new learning.

David Rock uses the metaphor of a STAGE for the prefrontal cortex and working memory. The prefrontal cortex is where decisions are made – “the part of the brain central to thinking things through. David uses the stage as a metaphor to explain how the prefrontal cortex and working memory work when learning. The metaphor of the stage with its actors provides a strong visual image within which to think through what needs to happen mentally as we learn new information. Here is “The Stage” metaphor visually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SMwwmAympY

- The Stage Metaphor: Part 2 (9 minutes) (Continuation of explanation of Part 1 – what does the learner need to do between new information coming into the brain and growing and strengthening dendrites of new learning.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrv4Pv78fpc

- Thinking The Stage Strategies: Part 3 (7 ½ minutes) (Examples of how The Stage Metaphor can be used to learn to think metacognitively to apply learning strategies)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-bA8Opvr-8

- Thinking The Stage Strategies: Part 4 (8 minutes) (Continuation of Part 3)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-bA8Opvr-8

Working Memory Think of the stage as where you hold new and old information while thinking about it. Here is the kicker and why we will be spending time with David’s metaphor of the stage (working memory). The stage can only hold about 4 items at any given moment and then only for about 20-30 seconds before those items are forgotten.

We will be learning learning strategies that will enable us to manipulate that information to understand, learn, recall, make decisions, and even eliminate distractions that cause information on the stage to be forgotten as we are trying to learn.

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The Audience and Prior Knowledge The audience represents your prior knowledge (inner world, thoughts, memories, prior knowledge). The goal when reading about new information is to get the audience (prior knowledge) on stage (in working memory) to perform. “The stage is what you focus on at any one time, and it can hold information from the outside world (new information), information from your inner world (prior knowledge) and any combination of the two.�

The Stage and Its Actors David uses the metaphor of the stage for the prefrontal cortex where actors play a part throughout his book to explain how learning occurs. The actors represent information you want to hold in your attention (think of the information coming in from outside that you have 20-30 seconds to do something with if you want learning to occur). When reading, you want to get new information on the stage (working memory).

The Stage and Learning Strategies Remember: If you want learning to occur, you must connect new information with prior knowledge. Once the actors (outside information – what you are reading) gets on stage (working memory) along with related prior knowledge, you brain is prepared to apply learning strategies (mentally anything that manipulates the information in working memory so that is is learned better and remembered longer.)

Therefore, while you are holding new information and prior knowledge together in working memory (the stage), you need to pull an appropriate learning strategy onto the stage. In the example below, we are pulling elaboration strategies onto the stage. We will learn about elaboration strategies later. Learning strategies you have learned are also part of the audience.

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the WM (working memory) deficits to the fundamental problems of children and adults with Learning Disabilities” (Swanson, & Siegel, 2001).

Learn the drawing and what it represents; it will be used throughout the chapters.

More on Working Memory – The ability to retain and process information for short time periods.

“Working memory (WM), the limited capacity system that allows simultaneous storage and processing of temporary information (Baddeley, 1986), has been the focus of many studies of learners with learning disabilities” (Keeler, & Swanson, 2001).”Research examining specific subtypes of learning disabilities has found that working memory deficits underlie the difficulties of students with reading and mathematical disabilities” (Bull & Johnston, 1997; Hitch & McAuley, 1991; Siegel & Ryan, 1989; Swanson, 1993).

Working memory is associated with simultaneous storage and processing of temporary information. Different components of working memory are associated with different functions. Thus the working memory and its components are responsible for comprehension, attention, retaining and retrieving information.

“Decades of research on learning disabilities and cognitive dysfunction indicate the importance of working memory in the processing and information storage. A strong correlation exists between the efficiency of the working memory and the individual’s ability to process information.” Turner and Engle (1989) suggest that people are poor readers because they have a small general working-memory capacity and that this capacity is not entirely specific to reading (also see Cantor et al., 1991; Engle, Nations, & Cantor, 1990; and Engle et al., 1992). “That is, poor readers have weaker working memory than skilled readers, not as a consequence of poor reading skills, but because they have less working-memory capacity available for performing reading and non-reading tasks (Swanson, &Siegel, 2001). The conclusions from approximately two decades of research indicate the correlation between

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S ECTION 4 Strategic Reading

I needed, review section in Chapter 1 to refresh the concept of working memory using the Stage Metaphor.

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Strategies are about making decisions within working memory.

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S ECTION 5

Traditional Vocabulary Development

Concept Development

College reading textbooks often approach vocabulary for developing, improving, or expanding vocabulary by using discrete clues, such as content clues, word-structure clues, or using an outside authority – dictionary. This isolated approach, used alone, neglects what we know about learning – primarily if we want transfer and ease of learning newer related information, facts, words, and ideas must be understood within the context of a conceptual framework..

Expanding the Concept of Vocabulary Development to Concept Development

Adaptive Reading Concept Development Before we begin exploring developing college-level vocabulary in our reading classes, we need to make a decision about the goal of reading in these courses. From an adaptive reading point of view, the goal of exit-level college reading courses is to develop cognitive skills and habits of mind within a field of inquiry that result in developing competence in the given area. Research on brain learning tells us that it is essential to understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework if competence is to be developed in an area of inquiry. This provides us with significant clues for expanding vocabulary - conceptual understanding.

Contributing to the Construction of Meaning

BACKGROUND INFORMATION “Vocabulary and reading comprehension are closely linked because of the relationship between words and conceptual knowledge” (Beck, Perfetti, & McKeown, 1982). “Concept knowledge is an understanding of ideas, whereas words are labels for these ideas.” (Education.Com)

Because construction of meaning in textbook reading is more than memorizing isolated vocabulary, meaning construction and learning demand interconnections to prior knowledge, which is dependent on (1) developing a deep foundation of factual knowledge to draw upon, that must be (2) understood in the context of a conceptual framework, and (3) organized in ways that facilitate retrieval and application. To develop ways to do this, it is helpful for the reader to distinguish between a conceptual framework, a concept, terminology, and vocabulary.

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From an adaptive reading perspective vocabulary development is never isolated from the overall metacognitve processes and habits of mind for constructing meaning and making it useful (transfer and application).

First, we need to understand the characteristics of large comprehensive textbooks that the college student will encounter, which further provides further clues: Most, but not all of these textbooks, have the following characteristics (Caverly): • High conceptual density

a conceptual framework. Attention is taken away from the concepts that are defined and systematically organized within a discipline specific conceptual framework by the textbook writer.

Reading to Learn Conceptual Framework Concept: Develop a Deep Foundation of Factual Knowledge To develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge, readers have to have strategies for moving new information from working memory to long-term memory – Rules of Consolidation (learn later).

Concept: Understand Facts and Ideas in a the Context of a Conceptual Framework

• Compression of information • A paragraph may represent a volume of research • Use special terminology • Multiple ways of presenting information through print • Organization that reflects the logic of the discipline Many of these textbook characteristics do not: • Invite reader construction of meaning

A key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater “transfer”; that is, it allows the student to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly. The reader must be able to recognize, and where needed, construct the conceptual framework for content being learned using skills such as cognitive strategies, inquiry, and internal dialogue – Rules of Consolidation.

• Honor the knowledge the reader brings to the text • Lend themselves to critical reading Conceptual Framework, Concept, Terminology and Vocabulary When we look at these clues we begin to see that words do not act alone and vocabulary strategies that isolate words are too often mere words and discipline specific terminology that is not understood within 26

Concept: Organize Knowledge in Ways that Facilitate Retrieval and Application

for integrating and interpreting information. Think of a conceptual framework as a mind map created for a chapter in a textbook. This new mind map will have grouped (organized) the chapter’s concepts, which the learner will have defined during the earlier mind mapping processes.

What is a Concept?

A general idea derived or inferred from specific instances or occurrences.

What is Terminology?

A specialized vocabulary of a field, the nomenclature. Terms in terminology have specific definitions within the field, which is not necessarily the same as their meaning in common use.

“College textbooks have organization that reflects the logic of the discipline represented or patterns that dominate thinking in the field.” (Caverly, 1999) What is Vocabulary?

Developing competence in an area of inquiry depends on developing neural networks of interconnections that facilitate retrieval and application such as writing to elaborate by organizing and clarifying (reading journals, etc.), creating graphic representations of the organization of content – Rules of Consolidation.

Defining Conceptual Framework, Concept, Terminology, and Vocabulary What is a Conceptual Framework?

A conceptual framework is a group of concepts that are broadly defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool

1. All the words of a language.

2. The sum of words used by, understood by, or at the command of a particular person or group.

Let’s Start with What We Know about Learning that Leads to Transfer: We Know: The question of transfer is the fundamental educational question.

We Know: “A key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater transfer; that is, it allows the student to apply 27

what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly� (Bransford, How People learn).

We Know: The research has found that to develop competence in an area of inquiry (that is the goal), students must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application (Bransford, How People learn).

We Know: Textbooks are generally collections of systematically organized broadly defined concepts that are in the best textbooks clarified with the use of examples, statistics, and other details that signal a main idea is being clarified, proved, or developed.

We Know: A conceptual framework is group of concepts that are defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for integrating and interpreting information.

We Know: Conceptual understanding refers to an integrated and functional grasp of ideas.

Inference: We Can Draw from What We Know: (1) Readers need to spend more time determining what the conceptual framework is for a reading selection before beginning reading in order to later understand facts and ideas they will read within that conceptual framework. (2) During reading, readers need to clarify the meanings of concepts and connect those meanings to the conceptual framework using cognitive strategies for understanding new concepts and integrating them within the conceptual framework. Learning and especially understanding facts and ideas in a conceptual framework is key to deep learning, making new related learning easier, and transfer.

Conceptual Framework and Text Clues Authors provide lots of clues for finding the conceptual framework in texts and articles - all of which should be used but not taught as discrete skills. The main learning efforts should be directed toward the thinking involved within the context of authentic texts within the larger conceptual framework, not on discrete skills. We will look at reading to learn and writing to learn strategies later.

Each text clue is very important; however, from an adaptive reading point of view, the clues would not be taught as discrete skills (exercises that have the reader read a short passage and for example find the main idea and supporting details), but as clues to the conceptual framework of the text and how the clues contribute to the larger understanding and inclusion in the text’s conceptual framework. The shift in adaptive reading from traditional reading instruction (discrete skills) is a focus on constructing meaning and integrating that meaning within a conceptual framework in order to make later learning of related information easier to learn and to make concepts learned more transferable.

In textbooks, the clues for the text’s conceptual framework are everywhere. The use of examples, statistics, and other details signals a main idea is being clarified, proved, or developed. The main idea is not an end in itself in adaptive reading, but rather information that helps the reader not only connect with their prior knowledge, but to help the reader figure out how new information is systematically organized within the a conceptual framework. With supporting details, emphasis is not on details, but on the use of details to understand the concept be28

ing learned and more importantly to understand the facts and ideas within a conceptual framework. Clues to the text’s conceptual framework can be found in titles, heads, subheads purpose sentences, preoutline, objectives, topic sentence, italics repletion, questions, numbering, visuals, details, organizational patterns, and summary.

College Textbooks are Organized Around Conceptual Frameworks College textbooks are organized around conceptual frameworks within which writers select topics (subject(s) they want to write about) and support them with details. Finding the main idea by reading a paragraph and identifying the topic and supporting details alone is not sufficient for understanding the topics and supporting details within the context of a conceptual framework. In fact, it can isolate topics and details and fail to make connections within a conceptual framework. Textbooks are organized within a conceptual framework - group of concepts that are defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for integrating and interpreting information.

A concept is an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars; a construct. A learner can think about the author’s topic, the subject the author wrote about, and their main idea, the main point they want to make about the subject as a concept, and the authors can support the main point they want to make with examples, illustrations, evidence, logic, and reasoning, etc. as the particulars that make up that concept. However, these concepts always need to be understood as part of a group of concepts that are defined and systematically organized to provide focus for interpretation and integrations within a conceptual framework. That is what a conceptual framework is. That learning process is what is essential for transfer to occur.

Conceptual Framework and Prior Knowledge Among the more solid research on learning is the fact that to learn, the learner just connects what they are learning to what they already know.

Note: New information only becomes “meaningful” once it has been interconnected to prior knowledge; it is the further interconnection with conceptual frameworks that make the information “useful” (transferrable to new situations).

Adaptive Learning, Internal Dialogue, and Metacognition Adaptive reading does not focus on discrete skills (finding the main idea) as much as it focuses on more basic questions of what readers actively do while trying to get the main idea of a text - metacognition.

Let’s look at internal dialogue – critical to metacognition.

“Metacognition must be taught: Metacognition is not an instinctive process; therefore deliberate efforts must be made by teachers and students to call attention to it when it is occurring. Doing so can be difficult because the process often occurs as an internal dialogue, meaning there are no tangible or verbal cues to aid in awareness” (Bransford et al., 2000; Wolfe & Brush, 2000). “Second, the most successful strategies for teaching metacognition require the complete reorganization of a student’s thinking process, which involves much more than simply pointing out when metacognition is occurring” (Perkins & Grotzer, 1997).

Internal Dialogue Must Be Taught: Bransford et al. (2000), “warned that educators often make the misguided assumption that because metacognition takes the form of self-imposed internal conversation that students will develop this internal dialogue on their own. They emphatically state that this is not true. The point is that the better understood the entire concept of metacognition becomes, the more sophisticated the thinking process becomes. When given metacognitive training, the degree to which transfer occurs in different settings has been shown to increase” (Bransford et al. 2000). “However, significant discussion and practice with metacognition are required before students are able to sufficiently comprehend and accommodate the concept. “In a highly recommended book by Bain (2004) that discusses the practices of the best college teachers, the concept of metacognition is mentioned and 29

strongly implied throughout. To get students thinking about their thinking is an essential first step to their mental processes of learning and synthesis that are critical harbingers of transfer.” (Ramocki, 2007) DEVELOPING A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK WITH WHICH to LEARN Beyond meaning to Usefulness Again, “A key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater transfer; that is, it allows the student to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly” (Bransford, How People learn).

Learners often read for meaning, but too often do not read to make the content useful. To make what is read “meaningful” the reader must interconnect what is read with their prior knowledge; however, to make what is read “useful”, the reader must understand the information in the context of a conceptual framework. That is, “it allows the student to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly” (Bransford, How People learn).

Identifying the Conceptual Framework Readers need to spend more time determining what the conceptual framework is for a reading selection before beginning reading in order to later understand facts and ideas they will read within that conceptual framework. Sources for Identifying the Conceptual Framework Often, there are three immediate sources for identifying the conceptual framework – the table of contents, chapter objectives, and the heading and subheadings in the chapter. These three sources help develop a very skeletal conceptual framework; deep surveying (overview before reading0 will give the learner a deeper conceptual framework.

Example, In a Sociology chapter on the Family and Intimate Relationships there are two conceptual frameworks: The Family and Intimate Relationships (we will use the first conceptual framework to look at cognitive strategies and habits of mind for identifying and understanding facts and ideas (concepts, terminology and vocabulary) in the context of the conceptual framework.

Skeletal Conceptual Framework The Family and Intimate Relationships • Global View of Family • Sociological Perspectives of the Family • Marriage and the Family • Divorce • Diverse Lifestyles • Social Policy and the Family: Gay Marriage Cognitive Strategies for Making the Conceptual Framework Useful Moving from Surface Surveying and Deep Surveying: The first thing a reader wants to do is begin to develop a conceptual framework within which to later understand the facts and ideas (concepts) of the text’s chapter. Note below the distinction between surface surveying and deep surveying.

Surface Surveying: Goal: The reader skims and scans the chapter to get a general idea of the content, structure, and organization of the chapter or reading selec30

tion. Surveying the chapter helps the student prepare for “understanding the ideas”by tapping prior knowledge.

To Surface Survey: - What text clues are included in the text?

first time we experience a new subject, our brains must build a dendrite on a cell body for that topic or must connect to an existing idea.

Only after that dendrite is in place or the related idea identified can we begin to know, remember, and understand a topic.

- If there is a summary read it.

Internal Dialogue Questions: The reader always asks at least the internal dialogue questions (below) and answers those questions to themselves as they come to each title, question, heading, subheading, picture, and summary. For example, “What do I already know about the these concepts or ideas?” Internal dialogue is a very powerful mental process for building stronger myelin around the axons to strengthen new dendrites and speed up electrical transmissions for those particular neural networks.

- Get an overview of what the chapter is about.

Internal Dialogue Questions:

- Read all the titles and subtitles.

- Read captions under pictures, charts, graphs, or maps.

- Read the questions at the end of the chapter.

Deep Surveying – Adaptive Reading (reading to learn):

1. What do I already know?

Goal: Deep surveying engages the reader in a much deeper level of thinking. Deep surveying’s main goal is to grasp the author’s conceptual framework within which the reader later makes an effort to construct meaning within that framework. Deep surveying asks the reader to take advantage of how the brain learns naturally by tapping their own prior knowledge as they come to titles, questions, heading, subheadings, pictures, and summaries.

2. Are there examples in the book and do I know any examples of the concept being considered?

Deep Surveying involves the Rules of Consolidation, Core Cognitive Strategies, Internal Dialogue Inquiry, and organizing by mentally organizing new inforamtion ex. mind mapping the “conceptual framework” (big picture), within which to hold the details and facts (concepts, terminology, vocabulary) together.

5. How has the author organized the information in this reading selection and how does it relate to prior readings?

3. How is what I am reading like or different than what I already know?

4. Can I predict where this is going?

To Deep Survey: Brain Rule: Always apply Rule #1 for how the brain learns naturally: “Connect new information to prior knowledge. Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow only from what is already there.” The 31

C HAPTER 3 Developing Competence in an Area of Inquiry

Recent research on how people learn has shed light on what learners need in order to develop competence in an area of inquiry. John Bransford’s research in “How People Learn” concludes that in order to develop competence in an area of inquiry the learner needs to:

• Develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge • Understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework • Organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application (Bransford) In this chapter an overview will be provided on cognitive strategies and habits of mind that facilitate developing competence in each of these areas.

More About the Authors Mentioned and Their Works John Bransford: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368

S ECTION 1 Understanding in the Context of a Conceptual Framework

“Pay attention to the core concepts. Little details are quickly forgotten. By grasping the big picture and broad concepts will give learners a foundation in the discipline and a basis for future learning. The big picture and broad concepts are the conceptual framework.” (Bransford, 2000)

Again, “A key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater “transfer”; that is, it allows the student to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly” (Bransford).

And again, a conceptual framework is a group of concepts that are broadly defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for integrating and interpretation of information.

This provides the big picture for learning, making associations, and making interconnections between new information and prior knowledge, which is the foundation of constructing meaning.

“Understanding ideas in the context of a conceptual framework increases transfer and ease of learning” (Bransford, 2000).

“John Bransford, a gifted education researcher who edited the wellreceived How People Learn, one day asked a simple question: In a given academic discipline, what separates novices from experts? Bransford eventually discovered six characteristics, one of which is relevant to our discussion: “[Experts’] knowledge is not simply a list of facts and formulas that are relevant to their domain; instead their knowledge is organized around core concepts or ‘big ideas’ that guide their thinking about their domains.

Whether you are a waiter or a brain scientist, if you want to get the particulars correct, in a hierarchical fashion, don’t start with the details.

Start with the key ideas and, in a hierarchical fashion, form the details around these larger notions.

Example of a business reading selection and building a conceptual framework “Most people associate the word product with tangible goods – an automobile, computer, loaf of bread, coat, or some other tangible item.

However, a product can also be a service, which results when people or machines provide or process something of value to customers. Dry cleaning photo processing, a checkup by a doctor, a performance by a movie star or basketball player – these are examples of services. A product can also be an idea. Consultants and attorneys, for example, gener-

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ate ideas for solving problems ” (from an Introduction to Business textbook” Note: What is interesting to note is that the reading selection under “The Nature of Business” heading is an introduction; however, it sets the reader up to be prepared for important information that will be explained in more depth later throughout the chapter. For examples, product, profit, tangible and intangible needs.

When new information and concepts are learned and stored in conceptual frameworks or neural networks, working memory can treat lots of information as only one of the four unrelated items that working memory can hold at one time. This increases the learners ability to use information to reason with, make decisions, and solve problems.

“Perhaps the most pervasive strategy used to improve memory performance is clustering: organizing disparate pieces of information into meaningful units. Clustering depends on organizing knowledge. Working memory has limits of four unrelated items and a time frame of only 20 to 30 seconds to store and manipulate the new information being helt in the reader’s attention.. People have developed ways around this memory constraint by organizing information, such as grouping together or “chunking” disparate elements into sets of letters, numbers, or pictures that make sense to them.” (Bransford, How People Learn)

Concept: Understand Facts and Ideas in a the Context of a Conceptual Framework A key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater “transfer”; that is, it allows the student to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly. The reader must be able to recognize, and where needed, construct the conceptual framework for content being learned – cognitive strategies, inquiry, and internal dialogue.

See Bransford’s “How People Learn” on the internet: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368

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How People Learn Principles Principle I • Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught.

•New knowledge s built on a foundation of existing knowledge and experience

Implications for Teaching “A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.

•Everyday conceptions are resilient and must be actively engaged to support concept change.

Principle II *To Develop competence in any area of inquiry, students must: a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.

Learning for Understanding Requires: 1.

A deep foundation od factual knowledge.

2.

Understanding facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework.

3.

Organized knowledge for effective retrieval and application.

Principle III • Metacognitive Strategies help students take control of their own learning.

• Can be taught effectively in context of subject matter.

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C HAPTER 4 Developing a Deep Foundation of Factual Knowledge In chapter 4 the focus will be on developing a deep foundation of factual knowledge. Knowledge here implies that information being learned is not isolated, but rather is built on a foundation of conceptual development with deep relationships among other related information. Developing a deep foundation implies that the factual knowledge learned moved to long-term memory where it can be used by the prefrontal cortex where executive functions are carried out. “Executive function is the most typical psychological term for functions carried out by the prefrontal cortex. Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social "control" (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes) (Wikipedia).

To develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge, a number of cognitive strategies and habits of mind can be employed. For example, John Medina has pulled the rules for moving newly learned information into long-term memory where it can be useful. These rules can be applied as cognitive strategies and habits of mind.

Rules of Consolidation: Moving New Information from WorkingMemory to Long-Term Memory The First Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later.

The Second Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately if you want the retrieval to be of higher quality.

The Third Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately, and in fixed intervals, if you want the retrieval to be the most vivid it can be.

More About the Authors Mentioned and Their Works John Medina: http://neuronarrative.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/brain-rules-from-dr-john-med ina/

Analogy: Why developing a deep foundation of factual knowledge take re-exposure Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCw CjNa3oBI

S ECTION 1

Moving Information to Long-Term Memory

Developing a Deep Foundation of Factual Knowledge

Working memory is where the brain stores and manipulates incoming information. New information is held in working memory for 20 to 30 seconds and then is forgotten if the learner does not do something to enable the brain to hold the information long enough to manipulate it.

Refer to the Stage Metaphor on working memory in Chapter 1.

Reading to Learn

Understand How To Read To Learn: What does a college reader need to know about reading to learn?

Research into how the brain learns clearly shows that there are three things that learners need to deliberately do mentally in order to remember new information. These deliberate mental actions on the part of the reader are called “Rules of Consolidation. (Based on the work of John Melinda) What are the Three Rules of Consolidation?

First, to develop competence in an area of inquiry, the learner needs to develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge. The average college students forget eighty percent of what they read within two weeks with the result that they often do not develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge.

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1.

2.

3.

“Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later.

Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately if you want the retrieval to be of higher quality.

“More elaborately” means thinking, talking or writing about what was just read. Any mental activity in which the reader slows down and mentally tries to connect what they are reading to what they already know is elaboration. This rule provides the perfect breeding ground of integrating reading and writing. See Appendix B for reading/writing to learn activities.

Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately, and in fixed intervals, if you want the retrieval to be the most vivid it can be” (Medina).

Re-Exposing at Fixed Intervals 1.

When you have read a new topic or paragraph, explain to yourself what you have just read; this is re-exposure to the information. Note: re-exposing can be reciting or writing (integrated reading and writing)

2.

When you finish studying, take a few minutes to reexpose yourself to the information and elaborate.

3.

Within 90 minutes to 2 hours, re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate.

4.

Review again the next day as soon as you can. After the first day, the reader can double the amount of time between each re-exposure each time to process the information deeply.

Two Levels of Deliberate Practice 1.

Rules of Consolidation: Moving New Information from Working-Memory to Long-Term Memory

2.

Mylenation and Deliberate Practice: the Key to Developing Skills

1. Rules of Consolidation: Moving New Information from Working-Memory to Long-Term Memory The First Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later.

It is a simple fact, the more exposure a learner has to new information they want to learn the greater the likelihood that the new information will move from short-term memory (working memory) to long-term memory.

From the Research “The typical human brain can hold about 4 pieces of information for less than 30 seconds. If something does not happen in that short stretch of time, the information becomes lost. If you want to extend the 30 seconds to, say, a few minutes, or even an hour or two, you will need to consistently re-expose yourself to the information. This type of repetition is sometimes called maintenance rehearsal. We know that “maintenance rehearsal” is mostly good for keeping things in working memory – that is for short periods of time” (Medina, 2008).

If the reader wants to hold on to the new information long enough for the brain to store and manipulate that information the reader needs to do something to give the working memory time to do its job. Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later is the first “rule of consolidation.” Highlighting the information in the textbook in order to come back to learn it later is just simply a mistaken strategy for learning. It is an example of trying to hold the infor38

mation outside the brain – the trick is to re-expose yourself to the information in order for your own brain to store and manipulate the information if you want to learn most effectively.

The Second Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately if you want the retrieval to be of higher quality.

“More elaborately” means thinking, talking or writing about what was just read. Any mental activity in which the reader slows down and mentally tries to connect what they are reading to what they already know is elaboration.

This means for the reader that he or she must slow down and have a conversation (reading, writing or talking) about what they are reading and wanting to learn in order for that information to be of a high quality. “High quality” means the information will be useable in the future for thinking reasoning or apply to new situations From the Research “We know that there is a better way to push information into long-term memory. That way is called “elaborative rehearsal” and it’s the type of repetition shown to be most effective for the most robust retrieval. A great deal of research shows that “thinking or talking” about an event immediately after it has occurred enhances memory for the event.”

(Medina, 2008). The same is true for the information you are reading in a textbook.

The Third Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately, and in fixed intervals, if you want the retrieval to be the most vivid it can be.

Forgetting occurs very rapidly if something is not done to strengthen new dendrites (learning). Research show us that a learner (reader) must not only re-expose themselves to new information they want to learn, but hat they also must think or talk about that information if

they want to remember the information. Research further shows that there are specific times for re-exposing ourselves to the information and elaborating on the information. We will go over the most important ones now: Fixed Time Intervals for Re-exposing and Elaborating 1. As the reader identifies what is important while reading, stop re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate on the it (have an internal dialogue, what do you already know about what you are reading, write about it (take notes in your own words), explain it to yourself out loud.

Note: This time interval is specifically for holding and expanding the time new information has in working memory, which gives you and your brain more time to manipulate the information before it can be forgotten.

2. When you have read a new topic or paragraph, explain to yourself what you have just read; this is re-exposure to the information.

Note: This time interval and the remaining time intervals take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen newly grown dendrites.

3. When you finish studying, take a few minutes to re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate.

4. Within 90 minutes to 2 hours, re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate.

5. Review again the next day as soon as you can.

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From the Research “When a reader reads nonstop, new information is subject to being confused with other information. “The probability of confusion is increased when content is delivered in unstoppable, unrepeated waves.

This causes newly encoded information to reshape (interference) and wear away previously existing traces. Such interference does not occur if the information is delivered in deliberately spaced repetition cycles.

(This is where the reader can take control of learning.) Repeated exposure to information in specifically timed intervals provides the most powerful way to fix memory into the brain. When the electrical representations of information to be learned are built up slowly over many repetitions, the neural networks recruited for storage gradually remodel the overall representation and do not interfere with neural networks previously recruited to store similarly learned information. This idea suggests that continuous repetition cycles create experiences capable of adding to the knowledge base, rather then interfering with existing knowledge base” (Medina, 2008).

vides an in depth look at the research on human learning and developing competence in learning. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368

Paraphrasing David Conley, developing rigor in a discipline content course would involve helping learners be aware that a given discipline content course consists of certain “big ideas” (theories and concepts) that are used in order to structure all of the detail that often overwhelms them and can help build mental scaffolds (conceptual frameworks) that lead to thinking like a scientist in the discipline content course. Short of this, learning becomes fragmented and isolated which interferes with transfer.

(David Conley’s paper for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – “Toward a More Comprehensive Conception of College Readiness” provides us with a snapshot of what rigorous learning would look like in a discipline course. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/learning/Documents/CollegeReadin essPaper.pdf And John Bransford’s work, “On Human Learning” pro40

S ECTION 2 Myelination and Deep Practice Mylenation and Deliberate Practice: the Key to Developing Skills “Every human skill is created by chains of nerve fibers carrying a tiny electrical impulse – basically a signal traveling through a circuit. Myelin’s vital role is to wrap those nerve fibers in a fatty insulation the same way that rubber insulation wraps a copper wire, making the signal stronger and faster by preventing the electrical impulses from leaking out. When we fire our circuits in the right way our myelin responds by wrapping layers of insulation around the neural circuit, each new layer adding a bit more skill and speed. The thicker the myelin gets, the better it insulates, and the faster and more accurate our thoughts become.” (Coyle, 2009) “The question neurologist and educators have been asking is “why does it take so long for people to learn complex skills that result in application, decision-making, and problemsolving. The answer turns out to be both physiological and psychological. The physiological answer turns out to be myelination, the process of building a fatty insulation around neurons. “The brain senses nerve firing and responds by wrapping more myelin (fat) around the brain cell that fires. The more the brain cell fires the more myelin wraps around it. The more myelin wraps around it, the faster the signals travel, increasing velocities up to one hundred times over signals sent

through an uninsulated brain cells. It is at this point that providing instruction becomes interesting. Mere repetition is not the key for accelerated learning of skills; it is here that scientist have discovered a twist – struggle is not optional – it is neurologically required; we tend to try to reduce struggle in learning; we try to make learning smooth, especially at the point of “assessment for learning.” This does not produce optimal learning of skills. However, it is a combination of the following that accelerates deeper learning: “In order to get ones skill circuits to fire optimally, one must by definition fire the circuit suboptimally, one must make mistakes and pay attention to those mistakes; one must slowly teach their circuits.

Myelination is the physiological manifestation of metacognition.” (Coyle, 2009) Deep practice is a strange concept as it takes what we normally try to avoid – namely mistakes – and turns them into skills. Coyle

“Q: Why is targeted, mistake-focused practice so effective?

A: Because the best way to build a good circuit is to fire it, attend to mistakes, then fire it again, over and over. Struggle is not an option: it is a biological requirement.

NOTE: American teachers, according to Coyle, tend to work like waiters. Whenever there was a struggle, they wanted to 41

move past it, make sure the class is kept gliding along, But in the myelin model, you don’t learn by gliding.” (Coyle, 2009)

• Pick a target

Examples: (Metacognition is about monitoring progress toward the target (goal) and the use of strategies to achieve that goal). Internal dialogue questions that monitor that progress is important for evaluating the gap between the target and the reach. Such questions as, What is the larger conceptual framework I am working within?; What do I already know about my target?; How is the target like or different than what I already know?

• Reach for it.

4.

Deep Practice “Deep Practice is not about struggling: it’s about seeking out a particular struggle, which involves a cycle of distinct actions:

• Evaluate the gap between the target and the reach.

• Return to stop one. (Coyle)

1.

Pick a Target

Examples: Understanding what I am reading or moving what I understand from working memory to long-term memory 2.

Return to step one.

According to Daniel Coyle, although time you put in consistently counts when it comes to building myelin, quality of time is even more important than quantity. It is practicing deeper that makes a big difference. If you are intensely focused, and you make mistakes but then correct them according to a certain standard, you are well on your way.

Reach for it.

Examples: Do I see how what I am learning fits within the larger conceptual framework; Am I applying some form of reexposure or elaboration to move new information to longterm memory; Am I organizing what I am understanding (seeing the relationships with all that I am learning), and am I reexposing myself to the information being learned often and in reached time intervals?

3.

Evaluate the gap between the target and the reach.

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S ECTION 3

What Are We Trying to Accomplish in This Section?

Constructing Meaning

In this section we are going to practice constructing meaning in textbook reading using the most basic understanding about how the brain learns naturally. The brain learns naturally by making interconnections between what the reader is reading and what the reader already knows. The text brings information, the reader’s brain constructs meaning in a dynamic interaction between the reader, the text and the context. Therefore, in this chapter the reader will learn how to identify and use text clues, organization, and the writer’s attempts (examples, illustrations, explanations) to connect with what the reader already knows.

Foundation of Comprehension (Construction of Meaning) 1. Overarching Objectives: Develop the cognitive strategies and habits of mind while reading that will enable the learner to develop competence in an area of inquiry. As we have seen, to develop competence in an area of inquiry 2. Intermediate Objective: To develop competence in an area of inquiry the reader needs to: • Develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge 3. Immediate Objective: Students will be able to construct meaning in college textbooks.

Common Reader Misconception: Students must learn strategies with sophisticated conventions that later can be transferred reading to construct meaning.

Misconception Correction Meaning is always constructed by interconnecting what the reader is reading to what the reader always knows. The reader needs to learn how to do so without having to learn a multi-part, sophisticated set of conventions.

How Does this Section Connect to The Previous Chapters and the Following Chapters?

In the previous chapter the reader learned how the brain learns naturally and in this chapter, the reader will learn how to use that knowledge to construct meaning. In the immediate following chapters in module 1, the reader will learn and apply rules for converting workingmemory to long-term memory, apply core cognitive strategies to improve comprehension, concentration and memory, and internal dialogue inquiry questions to deepen the construction of meaning.

Meaningful: New information becomes “meaningful” through the interconnections between what the reader is reading and what the reader already know.

Below is an example of how one might model constructing meaning for students and the foundation for activities for learning how to construct meaning using college textbooks.

Three Routes to What the Reader Already Knows When Reading 1.

The reader asks themselves what they already know.

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2.

The reader seeks examples, illustrations, or explanations in the text that help the reader connect to what they already know.

3.

The reader seeks an outside expert (dictionary, others, etc.)

The First Two Routes We are going to focus on the first two routes.

Textbook Concepts (New Information and Old Information) and the Brain Typical college textbooks are made up of concepts, which are systematically organized. A concept is an abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances.

Specific instances is referring to the reader’s prior knowledge. A large part of constructing meaning is about interconnecting with the specific instances of a concept being learned.

Example of a Concept A major concept in sociology is culture. Culture is an abstract or general idea. Because concepts often tend to be abstract, i.e., thought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances or not concrete. Culture as defined by sociologist is not meaningful when first encountered in a sociology textbook by most learners because the learner at the point of reading the word culture is unaware of any interconnections with more concrete examples, specific instances, examples that are more concrete with which to make the concept of culture meaningful by interconnecting with prior knowledge.

Sociologists define culture in the text as everything learned or was socially transmitted. The textbook goes on to say that culture is the ways

of thinking, ways of acting and material objects. The reader needs to connect the definition of culture with what they already know. The reader will have a lot of prior knowledge about al the things they have learned. “Ways of thinking” may still be abstract, but the reader will also have lots of prior knowledge about “ways of acting” and “material objects.” With this prior knowledge the reader can begin to make the concept of culture “meaningful”, i.e., the reader can begin to interconnect what they are reading with what they already know.

A sociology textbook will continue expanding the meaningfulness of the concept of culture as the reader continues reading. For example, the writer will explain the “elements of culture” and one of the elements of culture is symbols. Symbols are anything with a deliberate meaning within the culture. For example, a flashing read light, the word “firefighter”, or a raise fist each have a deliberate meaning within the culture.

Most of the things the reader knows already are made up of concepts that are organized in neural networks in the brain of interrelated meaning. Prior knowledge that is useful to the reader and to constructing meaning is information that the reader has already made meaningful, i.e., the reader has already interconnected information in the neural networks with their own prior knowledge.

Two Routes to Meaning (Reader’s Prior Knowledge) In the illustration of culture above, we see that the reader had access to two routes to prior knowledge: 1.

The reader had prior knowledge of the concept or of its definition. The reader already knew the concept of culture or had prior knowledge that interconnected with the definition of culture.

2.

The writer gave examples, illustrations, or explanations that tapped the reader’s prior knowledge.

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Constructing Meaning Strategy As the reader is reading, especially when they identify important information such as a definition, the reader should learn to pause and have an internal dialogue in which they ask the following two questions and answer themselves: 1.

What do I already know about what I am reading?

2.

Did the writer provide examples, illustrations, or explanations with which I can connect with what I already know?

Note: Having a internal dialogue while reading has to be taught. Most developmental readers do not learn to have an internal dialogue naturally while reading. This takes a lot of practice.

Going Deeper in Constructing Meaning Strategy Let’s use the definition of symbols above, which is one of the Elements of Culture. A heading, in this instance, Elements of Culture” (a heading) signals that this is important and can often give the reader a an opportunity to interconnect what they are about to read with what they have learned earlier in the text. In this instance we recognize that we are about to talk about culture.

Step 1: As the reader encounters heading and subheadings, the reader changes the heading into a question(s). For example, What do I already know about culture? Internal Dialogue: Everything I have learned is culture and the things I have learned tend to be either ways I think, ways I act, or the material objects I have.

Step 2: As the reader reads they pause and ask: 1.

What do I already know about what I am reading?

2.

Did the writer provide examples, illustrations, or explanations with which I can connect with what I already know?

Step 3: When the reader identifies that something is important to learn, the reader should begin the process of learning it immediately, not later. Learning it, means seeking to interconnect that the reader knows with what they already know (making meaningful – constructing meaning). All the potential for constructing deep meaning is in the present. In the present, access to the reader’s prior knowledge and connections to prior knowledge, which the writer provides with examples, illustration, and explanations, is maximum.

Example: Symbols Text: Symbols are anything with a deliberate meaning within the culture. For example, a flashing read light, a whistle, or a raise fist each have a deliberate meaning within the culture.

1.

The reader encountering the subheading – Symbols asks, What do I know about symbols and how are symbols an element of culture? Internal Dialogue: I know that things like logos are symbols for various companies or organizations. Does a logo (symbol) have something to do with ways of thinking, ways of acting or material objects? Internal Dialogue: It does not have anything to do with ways of acting, or material objects. A logo does make me think about a specific company; for example, an apple bitten into remind me of Apple computers. Perhaps it is about ways of thinking.

2.

The reader encounters the definition of symbols, asks again what do I already know about symbols? This gives the reader re45

exposure to the concept of symbol and its relationship with culture.

The reader now goes deeper and asks Where is the meaning in the definition of symbols? Are there key words that convey more meaning in the definition? Internal Dialogue: Symbols are anything with a deliberate meaning within the culture. Yes, anything is anything I can see, touch, smell, etc. (the reader is tapping prior knowledge). Of the anything’s, they have to have a deliberate meaning within the culture. Culture is everything I have learned and has been socially transmitted.

What are things I know about that have a specific meaning? Internal Dialogue: I know that an image of a bitten into apple can stand for the Apple corporation.

Note: This is how meaning is constructed. Let’s continue to construct meaning while reading.

3.

The reader encounters examples, illustrations, or explanations. In the symbols example above, the writer gave the examples of symbols: a flashing red light, a whistle, and a raise fist.

The reader should have already asked if the writer provided examples and upon encountering the examples should ask, “How is a flashing red light an “anything” and does it have a “deliberate meaning?” Internal Dialogue: A flashing red light is definitely an “anything” and it does have a “deliberate meaning”; it usually means stop. Therefore a flashing red light is a symbol.

Note: As we will see later, there are many strategies for consolidating (moving what is being learned to long-term memory) that can be used at this point such as reciting, elaborating, etc. For the present we are just focusing on constructing meaning.

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C HAPTER 5 Understanding Facts and Ideas in a Conceptual Framework

Chapter five is one of the most important chapters in that all deep learning, transfer and application hinge on understanding ideas and facts in the context of a conceptual framework. The content of this chapter will focus on cognitive strategies for developing a conceptual framework for providing a context for learning and also cognitive strategies for ensuring that learning is interconnected to with that conceptual framework.

If students learn Conceptual Authors expend a great deal of time and space to include text clues in large comprehensive textbook to provide clues to the content and its organization. Students can use these text clues to develop conceptual frameworks within which to ask the larger questions and to interconnect additional organized information.

Knowledge in a logically organized framework, this helps them understand, remember, and transfer the knowledge.

S ECTION 1 Conceptual Understanding The Big Questions Again, “Contrary to popular belief learning basic facts is not a prerequisite for creative thinking and problem solving -- it's the other way around. Once you grasp the big concepts around a subject, good thinking will lead you to the important facts”. (John Bransford) Competence in an area of inquiry is not developed by learning isolated skills. Resent research (Bransford, 2001) has found that in order to develop competence in an area of inquiry, the learner needs to: • develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge, • understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and • -organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application. (Bransford) “Experts (those who have developed competence in their area of inquiry) have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their subject matter.

We turn now to the question of how experts’ knowledge is organized and how this affects their abilities to understand and represent problems. Their knowledge is not simply a list of facts and formulas that are relevant to their domain; instead, their knowledge is organized around core concepts or “big ideas” that guide their thinking about their domains. Experts’ thinking seems to be organized around big ideas in in their discipline (area of inquiry), such as Newton’s second law and how it would apply, while novices tend to perceive problem solving in in the discipline as memorizing, recalling, and manipulating equations to get answers” (Bransford, 2001).

of factual knowledge, learning facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, or organizing knowledge in ways that are easily retrievable, which can be applied to new situations (problem-solving and decision making). “Educators and educational psychologists recognize transfer of learning as perhaps the most significant issue in all fields of instruction. Transfer of learning cuts across all educational domains, curricula, and methods. Despite its importance, research and experience clearly show that significant transfer of learning in either the classroom or in everyday life seldom occurs” (Haskell). Resent research has found that there are cognitive strategies and habits of mind that result in higher levels of transfer in learning (rigor). This paper will focus on the foundation of those findings – “understanding facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework”, “developing a deep foundation for factual knowledge” (Bransford, 2001). The paper will also introduce the findings on the role of mylenation in deliberate practice that make deep learning and developing competence in an area of inquiry possible (Coyle, 2009). and introduce the concept of “habits of mind” (Conley, 2009).

Paraphrasing David Conley, developing rigor in a discipline content course would involve helping learners be aware that a given discipline content course consists of certain “big ideas” (theories and concepts) that are used in order to structure all of the detail that often overwhelms them and can help build mental scaffolds (conceptual frameworks) that lead to thinking like a scientist in the discipline content course. Short of this, learning becomes fragmented and isolated which interferes with transfer. (David Conley) What Conley and Bransford are saying is that regardless of the discipline under consideration, in order to meet the rigor to become competent in any area of inquiry, the learner (preparing for college readiness or taking a credit-bearing general education course or technical course) needs to and the course needs to demand rigor. To develop competence in an area of inquiry, the learner needs to: • develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge, • understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and

The research on transfer learning has consistently found that college students are generally not successful in developing a deep foundation 48

• organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application. (Bransford) “A key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater “transfer”; that is, it allows the student to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly” (John Bransford).

When we look at the work of Wiggins and Tighe, “Understanding by Design”, on instructional design (referred to as backward design) the first step is to develop an overarching goal that transcends the course. If transfer learning (rigor) is not occurring there is no transcending the course – there is no applying what was learned in new contexts. The overarching goal that focuses on rigor, which transcends the course, would be “developing and using cognitive strategies and habits of mind that that enable the learners to develop competence in an area of inquiry,” that is, would enable the learner to transfer what they are learning to new situations.

In “What the Best College Teachers Do” by Ken Bain, he tells about Donald Saari’s approach to teaching. “It is the big questions that intrigue and provoke virtually all students. The most effective teachers help students keep the larger questions of the course constantly at the forefront. Donald Saari, a mathematician from the University of California, invokes the principle of what he calls “WGAD” – “Who gives a damn?” At the beginning of his courses, he tells his students that they are free to ask him this question on any day during the course, at any moment in the class. He will stop and explain to his students why the material under consideration at the moment – however abstruse and minuscule a piece of the big picture it may be – is important, and how it relates to the larger questions and issues of the course.”

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S ECTION 2

Deep Learning

An Activity Building Understanding in the Context of a Conceptual Framework Conceptual Frameworks (understanding facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework)

Conceptual Understanding And Deep Learning Conceptual understanding refers to an integrated and functional grasp of ideas.

Deep learning involves evaluating new ideas, connecting those ideas to knowledge the reader already knows, and results in understanding and long-term retention of concepts so that the ideas are useful - problem solving in unfamiliar contexts. In contrast, surface learning is the unquestioning acceptance of information and memorization of facts without making any connections with prior knowledge. This most often does not result in long-term understanding or retention of the concepts being learned. (Deep and Surface Learning, 2009) Again, “Contrary to popular belief, John Bransford, learning basic facts is not a prerequisite for creative thinking and problem solving -- it's the other way around. Once you grasp the big concepts around a subject, good thinking will lead you to the important facts.“ (John Bransford) Conceptual Framework A conceptual framework is a group of concepts that are broadly defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for integrating and interpretation of information.

This provides the big picture for learning, making associations, and making interconnections between new information and prior knowledge, which is the foundation of constructing meaning.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Above is the conceptual framework you have developed so far in your reading about sociology. You have used “The Rules of Consolidation,” the “Core Cognitive Strategies”, the “Internal Dialogue Inquiry” questions, and “mind mapping” to construct meaning and build the sociology conceptual framework above. The research on learning states that if you develop a conceptual framework of your learning as you read, you will be able to learn new related information faster. If this is true, then you should be able to figure out where new information should fit within the conceptual framework you have constructed above as you read new related information. Let’s find out?

Inquiry-Based Inquiry “Inquiry-based inquiry” is learning or applying material in order to meet a challenge, such as to answer a question, to conduct an experi50

ment, or to interpret data. Inquiry implies involvement that leads to understanding. Furthermore, involvement in learning implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit you to seek resolutions to questions and issues while you construct new knowledge.

Inquiry Activity: You will be given definitions and sometimes examples of new concepts that you would find later in a sociology textbook.

Your task is to meet the challenge of deciding and defending where you would put the new information in the conceptual framework above where you see the question marks (?).

therefore, they do not have to be “right.” However, you do need to support, or justify or make it reasonable to believe in your decision.

Symbols as an element of culture obviously fits under culture. As we look at the definition, we need to look for the most meaning in the definition and if we can find, either in our own prior knowledge or the textbook, examples that help develop meaning and use them to help make the decision. The most meaning is “anything” that has a “particular meaning” in a culture. “Particular meaning” relates to “ways of thinking.”

Note: Think through the activity above before taking the “Inquiry-Based-Inquiry” challenge below as later class discussions of your decisions require justification.

EXAMPLE: “A symbol is anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture.” Examples are a word, a whistle, a wall of graffiti, a flashing red light, or a raised fist. (p.61) Does “symbols” fit under “Ways of thinking”, “Ways of acting”, or “Material objects?” Keep in mind that there are not “right” answers, but there can be “better” answers. Since ways of thinking can lead to ways of acting, and ways of acting can lead to creating material objects, they are all closely related. Your decisions are predictions;

Directions: Your task is to meet the challenge of deciding and defending where you would put the new information in the conceptual framework above where you see the question marks (?). You do need to support, or justify or make it reasonable to believe in your decision.

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NEW INFORMATION 1. Language is one of the “elements of culture.” “Language is a system of symbols that allows people to communicate.” Humans have created many alphabets to express the hundreds of languages we speak. (p. 62)

when parents praise or scold their children or when friends make fun of a classmate’s choice of music. (p. 108) 11. “White-Collar Crime is defined as a crime committed by peo-

ple of high social position in the course of their occupations.” Examples are business fraud, and bribery. (p. 118)

2. Norms are one of the “elements of culture.” “Norms are rules

and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members.” Can you think of examples of norms? (p.67)

12. “Hate crime is a criminal act against a person or a person’s

property by an offender motivated by racial or other bias.” (p.

121)

3. Here is a challenging one: Values are one of the “elements of cul-

ture.” “Values are culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living.” Values are what people who share a culture use to make choices about how to live. (p.

63) 4. Beliefs are one of the “elements of culture.” “Beliefs are specific

ideas that people hold to be true” (p. 65) 5. “Social interaction is the process by which people act and re-

act in relation to others.” (p. 98) 6. “A role is behavior expected of someone who holds a particular

status.” (p. 99) A status is a social position that a person holds.” (p.97)

Mind Mapping Mind mapping is a visual thinking tool that helps the learner organize information within the context of a conceptual framework.

Mind mapping uses almost everything we know about how the brain learns, stores and retrieves information. Mind mapping is a powerful tool for preparing the learner for analyzing, comprehending, synthesizing, recalling and generating new ideas.

Mind maps literally reflect how the brain organizes new information. When the reader uses the “rules of consolidation” for converting working memory into long-term memory, and the core cognitive strategies for understanding and retention of information in conjunction with mind mapping to visually represent relationships among concepts, thoughts, and ideas, information becomes much more useful in future applications. Using the internal dialogue inquiry questions along with mind mapping enables the reader clarify their understanding and move beyond surface learning to deep learn.

7. “Nonverbal communication” is communication using body

movements, gestures, and facial expressions rather than speech.” (p. 102) 8. “Deviance is the recognized violation of cultural norms.” (p.

108) 9. “Crime is the violation of a society’s formally enacted criminal

law.” (p. 108) 10. “Social control are attempts by society to regulate people’s

thoughts and behavior” Often this process is information, as

Mind Mapping There are a couple of reasons why visuals (mind mapping and pictures) are so useful. First, they are highly information-efficient constructs. If you picture your bedroom, when you hold the image in mind, that image contains a huge amount of information involving complex relationships among dozens of objects, their sizes and shapes, their relative positions, and so on. Putting all that information into words would take significantly more energy than visualizing it. (A picture can put a lot of information in working memory without crowding it where one could only put a few pieces of information using words.) (Rock, Your Brain at Work)

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Mind Mapping is the most researched cognitive tool for graphically organizing information into conceptual frameworks which lead to deep learning, critical thinking, and application.

Conceptual Framework and Text Clues Authors provide lots of clues for finding the conceptual framework in texts and articles - all of which should be used but not taught as discrete skills. The main learning efforts should be directed toward the thinking involved within the context of authentic texts within the larger conceptual framework, not on discrete skills. We will look at reading to learn and writing to learn strategies later.

Each text clue is very important; however, from an adaptive reading point of view, the clues would not be taught as discrete skills (exercises that have the reader read a short passage and for example find the main idea and supporting details), but as clues to the conceptual framework of the text and how the clues contribute to the larger understanding and inclusion in the text’s conceptual framework. The shift in adaptive reading from traditional reading instruction (discrete skills) is a focus on constructing meaning and integrating that meaning within a conceptual framework in order to make later learning of related information easier to learn and to make concepts learned more transferable.

In textbooks, the clues for the text’s conceptual framework are everywhere. The use of examples, statistics, and other details signals a main idea is being clarified, proved, or developed. The main idea is not an end in itself in adaptive reading, but rather information that helps the reader not only connect with their prior knowledge, but to help the reader figure out how new information is systematically organized within the a conceptual framework. With supporting details, emphasis is not on details, but on the use of details to understand the concept being learned and more importantly to understand the facts and ideas within a conceptual framework. Clues to the text’s conceptual framework can be found in titles, heads, subheads purpose sentences, preoutline, objectives, topic sentence, italics repletion, questions, numbering, visuals, details, organizational patterns, and summary.

College Textbooks are Organized Around Conceptual Frameworks

College textbooks are organized around conceptual frameworks within which writers select topics (subject(s) they want to write about) and support them with details. Finding the main idea by reading a paragraph and identifying the topic and supporting details alone is not sufficient for understanding the topics and supporting details within the context of a conceptual framework. In fact, it can isolate topics and details and fail to make connections within a conceptual framework. Textbooks are organized within a conceptual framework - group of concepts that are defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for integrating and interpreting information. See conceptual framework for The Family (pp. 267-271 in College Reading).

A concept is an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars; a construct. A learner can think about the author’s topic, the subject the author wrote about, and their main idea, the main point they want to make about the subject as a concept, and the authors can support the main point they want to make with examples, illustrations, evidence, logic, and reasoning, etc. as the particulars that make up that concept. However, these concepts always need to be understood as part of a group of concepts that are defined and systematically organized to provide focus for interpretation and integrations within a conceptual framework. That is what a conceptual framework is. That learning process is what is essential for transfer to occur.

Conceptual Framework and Prior Knowledge Among the more solid research on learning is the fact that to learn, the learner must connect what they are learning to what they already know.

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S ECTION 3

1. Purpose of the Discipline

Conceptual Understanding

Psychology: The study of the mind and mental processes, especially in relation to behavior. There are a number of fields of psychology.

Asking Questions within a Conceptual Framework

2. Branch Under Consideration Within the Discipline

This section will walk through an Example from a Psychology Textbook, Psychological Disorders: Building Conceptual Frameworks (Mental Scaffolds) Within Which to Understand Facts and Ideas

Psychological Disorders Under Abnormal Psychology: help distinguish normal from abnormal behavior:

Conceptual Framework A conceptual framework is a group of concepts that are broadly defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for integrating and interpretation of information. This provides the big picture for learning, making associations, and making interconnections between new information and prior knowledge, which is the foundation of constructing meaning.

What Constitutes the Systematically Organized Group of Concepts Making Up a Conceptual Framework in psychology chapter on psychological disorders?

1.

Purpose of the Discipline

2.

Branch Under Consideration within the Discipline

3.

Category Being Studied within That Branch

From a chapter on Psychological Disorders, what Constitutes the Larger Conceptual Framework That Provides a Focus, a Rationale, and a Tool for Integrating and Interpretation of Concepts to be Learned (the conceptual framework had to be constructed from the reading)

three criteria

1.Abnormal behavior is deviant. Abnormal behavior is certainly atypical or statistically unusual.

2.Abnormal behavior is maladaptive. Maladaptive behavior interferes with ones ability to function effectively in the world.

3.Abnormal behavior involves personal distress over a long period of time.

3. Category Being Studied within this Branch In this chapter, there are many psychological disorders. In this instance under psychological disorders, the reader would be reading about eating disorders.

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Example: Eating Disorders

anorexia nervosa

What does anorexia nervosa have to do with the purpose of psychology? What does anorexia nervosa have to do with the study of the mind and mental processes, especially in relation to behavior.

What makes anorexia nervosa an abnormal behavior or psychological disorder? Does anorexia nervosa one or more of these criteria?

1.Abnormal behavior is deviant. Abnormal behavior is certainly atypical or statistically unusual.

bulimia nervosa

binge eating disorder

Example of concept, Anorexia Nervosa, to be learned integrated and interpreted within the larger conceptual framework (understanding facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework) Anoxia Nervosa is an eating disorder that involves the relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation.

Learning the definition of anorexia nervosa or that it is one of the three eating disorders discussed in the chapter is not sufficient for transfer learning. Anorexia Nervosa needs to be understood (integrated and interpreted) in the context of the larger conceptual framework.

Questions the Learner Should be Trying to Answer in the Context of the Larger Conceptual Framework

2.Abnormal behavior is maladaptive. Maladaptive behavior interferes with ones ability to function effectively in the world.

3.Abnormal behavior involves personal distress over a long period of time.

Transfer or Application: Without understanding anorexia nervosa in the context of the larger conceptual framework (merely memorizing the definition), future transfer may not occur, problems cannot be solved or decisions made. To illustrate how understanding new concepts (anorexia nervosa) in the context of the conceptual framework enables transfer learning, take the following example: Sue is to be married in two months. She is restlessly pursuing thinness by eating as little as she can. Does she have a psychological disorder or an eating disorder? This illustrates how understanding in the context of a conceptual framework provides the big picture for learning, making associations, and making interconnections between new information and prior knowledge, which is the foundation of constructing meaning.

Application Answer: As one can see, Sue’s behavior does not fit the criteria for being a psychological disorder as it is not deviant (atypical), maladaptive (interferes with her functioning in the world, not does it involves personal distress over a long period of time. The key to answer55

ing the question hinged on understanding the concept of anorexia nervosa in the context of the larger conceptual framework as do most applications of new information in new contexts.

Whether Learning or Teaching, Always Ask the Questions, “How does the new information fit within the larger conceptual Framework?�

Problem Solving An approach to activating prior knowledge before reading is to create a problem to be solved that would engage the learner in exploring what they know and need to know. Below are steps to solving a problem and examples of problems that a could be used with introduction to business students to begin creating a conceptual framework within which they would later expand through reading.

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S ECTION 4 Asking the Big Questions The Big Questions “Contrary to popular belief learning basic facts is not a prerequisite for creative thinking and problem solving -- it's the other way around. Once you grasp the big concepts around a subject, good thinking will lead you to the important facts”.

(John Bransford) Competence in an area of inquiry is not developed by learning isolated skills. Resent research (Bransford, 2001) has found that in order to develop competence in an area of inquiry, the learner needs to: • develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge, • understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and • organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application. (Bransford)

“Experts (those who have developed competence in their area of inquiry) have acquired a great deal of content knowledge

that is organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their subject matter. We turn now to the question of how experts’ knowledge is organized and how this affects their abilities to understand and represent problems. Their knowledge is not simply a list of facts and formulas that are relevant to their domain; instead, their knowledge is organized around core concepts or “big ideas” that guide their thinking about their domains. Experts’ thinking seems to be organized around big ideas in in their discipline (area of inquiry), such as Newton’s second law and how it would apply, while novices tend to perceive problem solving in in the discipline as memorizing, recalling, and manipulating equations to get answers” (Bransford, 2001).

Again, The research on transfer learning has consistently found that college students are generally not successful in developing a deep foundation of factual knowledge, learning facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, or organizing knowledge in ways that are easily retrievable, which can be applied to new situations (problem-solving and decision making). “Educators and educational psychologists recognize transfer of learning as perhaps the most significant issue in all fields of instruction. Transfer of learning cuts across all educational domains, curricula, and methods. Despite its importance, research and experience clearly show that significant transfer of learning in either the classroom or in everyday life seldom occurs” (Haskell). Resent research has found that there are cognitive strategies and habits of mind that result in higher levels of transfer in learning (rigor). This 58

paper will focus on the foundation of those findings – “understanding facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework”, “developing a deep foundation for factual knowledge” (Bransford, 2001). The paper will also introduce the findings on the role of mylenation in deliberate practice that make deep learning and developing competence in an area of inquiry possible (Coyle, 2009). and introduce the concept of “habits of mind” (Conley, 2009).

Paraphrasing David Conley, developing rigor in a discipline content course would involve helping learners be aware that a given discipline content course consists of certain “big ideas” (theories and concepts) that are used in order to structure all of the detail that often overwhelms them and can help build mental scaffolds (conceptual frameworks) that lead to thinking like a scientist in the discipline content course. Short of this, learning becomes fragmented and isolated which interferes with transfer. (David Conley’s very well prepared paper for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – “Toward a More Comprehensive Conception of College Readiness” provides us with a snapshot of what rigorous learning would look like in a discipline course. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/learning/Documents/Colleg eReadinessPaper.pdf And John Bransford’s work, “On Human Learning” provides an in depth look at the research on human learning and developing competence in learning. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368

What Conley and Bransford are saying is that regardless of the discipline under consideration, in order to meet the rigor to become competent in any area of inquiry, the learner (preparing for college readiness or taking a credit-bearing general education course or technical course) needs to and the course needs to demand rigor. To develop competence in an area of inquiry, the learner needs to: -

develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge,

understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application. (Bransford) “A key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater “transfer”; that is, it allows the student to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly” (John Bransford).

When we look at the work of Wiggins and Tighe, “Understanding by Design”, on instructional design (referred to as backward design) the first step is to develop an overarching goal that transcends the course. If transfer learning (rigor) is not occurring there is no transcending the course – there is no applying what was learned in new contexts. The overarching goal that focuses on rigor, which transcends the course, would be “developing and using cognitive strategies and habits of mind that that enable the learners to develop competence in 59

an area of inquiry,” that is, would enable the learner to transfer what they are learning to new situations.

In “What the Best College Teachers Do” by Ken Bain, he tells about Donald Saari’s approach to teaching. “It is the big questions that intrigue and provoke virtually all students. The most effective teachers help students keep the larger questions of the course constantly at the forefront. Donald Saari, a mathematician from the University of California, invokes the principle of what he calls “WGAD” – “Who gives a damn?” At the beginning of his courses, he tells his students that they are free to ask him this question on any day during the course, at any moment in the class. He will stop and explain to his students why the material under consideration at the moment – however abstruse and minuscule a piece of the big picture it may be – is important, and how it relates to the larger questions and issues of the course.”

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S ECTION 5

Developing Rigor Developing Rigor in Learning Drilling Isolated Skills or Understanding Facts and Ideas on the Context of a Conceptual Framework Many reading instruction programs, among them computerbased reading programs emphasize learning isolated reading skills and then testing for those isolated reading skills and declaring success if the student can successfully use those isolated reading skills. Many studies have found that the teaching of these isolated skills did little to foster transfer of learning. For examples, Complex processes appear to be more than the sum of heir parts, and skills do not seem to transfer automatically from one domain to another. Learning seems to take place best in the context of complex experiences and problem solving” (Starko. 2001); “Many critics have observed that instructional approaches to finding the main idea often involved sophisticated conventions that became ends in themselves and were too time consuming” (Carnegie, 2010).; and “For many years, reading comprehension instruction was based on a concept of reading as the application of a set of isolated skills such as finding main ideas, identifying cause and effect relationships, comparing and contrasting, and sequencing.”

Durkin found that this type of instruction did little to help stu-

dents learn how or when to use the skills, and these skills were not shown to enable comprehension” (Keys to Literacy).

Developing Rigor in Content Courses Whether you are a transitional reading to learn instructor or a content course instructor wanting to incorporate reading to learn across the discipline within your courses, the following discussion looks at the latest research on learning and how to ensure rigor of learning (depth of learning) in courses.

Rigor in learning has many definitions. For example, "Rigor is the goal of helping students develop the capacity to understand content that is complex, ambiguous, provocative, and personally or emotionally challenging” (Paulson, 2001). Rigor in this paper is referring to learning that results in the learner being able to transfer what they are learning in credit-bearing general education courses to new contexts and being able to learn related information easier. This is referred to as “developing competence in an area of inquiry” when referring to discipline specific learning. Rigorous learning refers to learning in a way that transfers what was learned to new situations as the result of the way learning occurred.

Again, the research on transfer learning has consistently found that college students are generally not successful in developing a deep foundation of factual knowledge, learning facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, or organizing knowledge in ways that are easily retrievable, which can be applied to new situations (problem-solving and decision making). “Educators and educational psychologists 61

recognize transfer of learning as perhaps the most significant issue in all fields of instruction. Transfer of learning cuts across all educational domains, curricula, and methods. Despite its importance, research and experience clearly show that significant transfer of learning in either the classroom or in everyday life seldom occurs” (Haskell). Resent research has found that there are cognitive strategies and habits of mind that result in higher levels of transfer in learning (rigor). This paper will focus on the foundation of those findings – “understanding facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework”, “developing a deep foundation for factual knowledge” (Bransford, 2001). The paper will also introduce the findings on the role of mylenation in deliberate practice that make deep learning and developing competence in an area of inquiry possible (Coyle, 2009). and introduce the concept of “habits of mind” (Conley, 2009).

lege Readiness” provides us with a snapshot of what rigorous learning would look like in a discipline course. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/learning/Documents/Colleg eReadinessPaper.pdf And John Bransford’s work, “On Human Learning” provides an in depth look at the research on human learning and developing competence in learning. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368

Paraphrasing David Conley, developing rigor in a discipline content course would involve helping learners be aware that a given discipline content course consists of certain “big ideas” (theories and concepts) that are used in order to structure all of the detail that often overwhelms them and can help build mental scaffolds (conceptual frameworks) that lead to thinking like a scientist in the discipline content course. Short of this, learning becomes fragmented and isolated which interferes with transfer.

In David Conley’s paper for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – “Toward a More Comprehensive Conception of Col62

C HAPTER 6 Organizing Knowledge to Facilitate Retrieval and Application Being able to easily retrieve what one is learning and learned and also being able to apply what one is learning depends on having information organized in way that facilitate both. Information that can not be easily retrieved has reduced value for application in new situations. Chapter six will look at the use of organization strategies and graphic organizers accompanied by cognitive strategies for deep learning.

S ECTION 1 Deep Mind Mapping Using Deep Mind Mapping to Develop Conceptual Frameworks Mind Mapping Mind Mapping is the most researched cognitive tool for graphically organizing information into conceptual frameworks which lead to deep learning, critical thinking, a n d a p p l i c ation.

Surface and Deep Mind Mapping Surface M i n d M a pping: One can mind map information fairly mindlessly by simply following the text clues in a textbook. However, merely moving information from the textbook to paper does not constitute a very effective strategy for developing conceptual frameworks.

“Surface learning is the unquestioning acceptance of information and memorization of facts without making any connec-

tions with prior knowledge. This most often does not result in long-term understanding or retention of the concepts being learned.”

Deep Mind Mapping: Deep Mind mapping: One can also mind map using cognitive strategies at each step along the way which helps the reader develop rich conceptual frameworks (neural networks) with which to make constructed meanings more likely to be used (thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving).

“Deep learning involves evaluating new ideas, connecting those ideas to knowledge the reader already knows, and results in understanding and long-term retention of concepts so that the ideas are useful - problem solving in unfamiliar contexts.” Learning becomes even deeper if new information being learned is organized into conceptual frameworks.

Using Cognitive Strategies with Mind Mapping New information cannot be organized into conceptual frameworks until meaning has been constructed. Cognitive strategies can be thought of as being divided into two categories: (1) 64

those that help the reader tie new information to prior knowledge or strengthen the new connections made, and (2) those that help the reader organize information into conceptual frameworks. {Inquiry} These two categories can easily be seen in the four questions that make up the {Inquiry} strategy: 1. What do I already know?

2. Are there examples in the book and do I know any examples of the concept being considered?

3. Can I predict where this is going?

It is important that learners do not put information into their mind maps until they have recited new information being learned.

Learn Mind Maps as the Maps are being Constructed (Not after they are constructed) 3. Organizing Information into Conceptual Frameworks The student will be able to • Organize information into a conceptual framework.

• Organize information into Mind Maps

4. How has the author organized the information in this reading selection? {Examples} {Examples} in the textbooks or your own instantiate or provide concrete connections to prior knowledge and make definitions of new concepts more meaningful. Therefore, examples or pictures are powerful when included in mind maps. {Recite} The {Recite} strategy is one of the most powerful strategies for ensuring that meaning has been constructed and that neural networks are strengthened. When the {Inquiry} strategy is combined with the {Recite} strategy the reader is in a very good position for organizing information into conceptual frameworks and {Mind Mapping} is a very powerful tool for visually organizing the information.

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C HAPTER 7 Metacognition and Internal Dialogue

In chapter seven the focus will be on metacognition and internal dialogue. The ability to think about thinking while learning and having and mentally engaging in internal dialogue on what is being learned is not natural when reading large comprehensive textbooks; it must be taught. Learning how to use internal dialogue questions to strengthen metacognitive processes for making thinking visible will be discussed. The chapter will also discuss why large comprehensive textbooks are so learner unfriendly.

Metacognition - The Stage Metaphor http://deepreading.pbworks.com/w/file/51971540/TH E%20STAGE%20Metacognition.pptx

S ECTION 1 Instructional Strategies Instructional Strategies This section will focus on two instructional strategies that slow the reader down and has them begin to drop their rush to finish reading – a common unproductive reading habit of mind. The first instructional reading strategy is collaborative modeling and scaffolding of a specific set of inquiry questions while reading. The second instructional strategy will focus on a writing to learn strategy – Writing to Learn: Monitoring Internal Dialogue with a specific set of inquiry questions for internal dialogue. The weaker the reader’s internal dialogue, the more valuable the Monitoring Internal Dialogue strategy becomes.

Inquiry Questions for Internal Dialogue Here are the core Inquiry Internal Dialogue questions that is the focus for moving surface learning to deep learning:

Internal Dialogue: 1. What do I already know?

2. Are there examples in the book and do I know any examples of the concept being considered?

3. How is what I am reading like or different than what I already know?

4. Can I predict where this is going?

5. How has the author organized the information in this reading selection and how does it relate to prior readings?

Instructional Strategy 1: Modeling and Scaffolding Inquiry Internal Dialogue Any time a cognitive strategy is used, Inquiry Internal Dialogue questions should be used with it. For example, if the first sentence of a paragraph is changed to a question, the following inquiry questions above should be asked.

Instructional Strategy 2: Writing to Learn: Monitoring Internal Dialogue (VERY POWERFUL – this is a core activity for slowing down and developing metacognition) In instructional strategy 2, it is important for the student to slow down and focus on the information at hand. Instructional Strategy 2 is a writing to learn strategy

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* When the reader uses a cognitive strategy such as question or recite, slow down and take the time to answer the inquiry questions before moving on. It take time for this activity to become automatic (build neural networks for the process) Actively promote the development of students’ metacognitive skills “Metacognition refers to thinking about thinking in general, and reflecting on and regulating one’s own thinking and learning in particular. It is a kind of internal dialogue in which the learner monitors his or her own developing skills, understanding of concepts and mental approaches to the learning as it occurs.” (ACT Government: 2004) (School Excellence Initiative, 2004) Provide opportunities for students to have an internal dialogue that mentally verbalizes their thinking, which can then be shared with others.

Self-Assessment and Reflection “Encouraging reflection and selfassessment helps students develop important metacognitive skills that help them monitor their own thinking and learning. Students learn to think about learning as well as think about thinking. The distinction here is that self-assessment helps students think about how they make sense of the con-

tent. Students’ self-assessments and reflections provide valuable feedback to the teacher to inform how students’ ideas have changed or deepened over the course of instruction, how well students are aware of their learning, and the need to further differentiate instruction for individual students.” (Keekey, 2008) “Metacognition is often an internal dialogue, but the teacher must model this thinking. This is what we do when we say that we are developing independent learners.” (Roos) “Studies of the learning process have found that students are more able to learn complex skills when they can think “metacognitively,” that is, when they think about their own thinking and performance so they can consciously monitor and change it. In fact, studies have found that successful writers engage in an internal dialogue in which they talk to themselves — sometimes even muttering aloud — about audience, purpose, form, and content. They ask and answer for themselves certain questions: Who are they writing for? Why? What do they know and what do they need to find out? They maintain this ongoing internal dialogue as they organize ideas, plan, draft, edit, and revise. Successful writers guide their thinking with metacognitive strategies that help them write purposefully.”

(Darling-Hammond) “Because metacognition often takes the form of an internal dialogue, many students may be unaware of its importance unless the processes are explicitly emphasized by teachers.”

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S ECTION 2 Constructing Mental Imagery Language concreteness Instantiation Imaging is a reading strategy learners can use to visualize the people, places, and actions an author describes. Imaging is a metacognitive skill that can be used with any type of reading material.

Many reading excerpts are filled with details that the reader must be able to see with his or her mind’s eye in order to understand what the author is writing about. Learning how to use imaging when reading will increase the reader’s comprehension of highly descriptive writing.

The mental imagery that we experience while reading, either spontaneously or induced by instruction, is now known to have powerful effects on comprehension, memory, and appreciation for text. This may seem self-evident today, but it was not long ago that purely language-based theories of cognition and memory prevailed. If imagery was recognized at all, it was held to be incidental and of little importance. (Sadoski) http://www.readingonline.org/research/Sadoski.html In the most extensive analysis of free-imagery reports to date, Sadoski, Goetz, Olivarez, Lee, and Roberts (1990) had community college students read a 2,100-word literary story and provide imagery reports immediately and after 48 hours. Imagery reports were entered under such categories as consistent with a text paragraph, elaborated beyond the paragraph, a synthesis across paragraphs, or reader-originated.

They were also categorized by modality (e.g., visual, auditory, affective). In addition, free verbal recalls were obtained immediately and after 48 hours and were extensively categorized. Results indicated that while verbal recall declined after the delay, imagery reports did not. A factor analysis of imagery and recall variables produced factors dominated by visual imagery, affective imagery, and reader-originated imagery, suggesting that the experience of reading the story was largely an imaginal one. Other findings indicated a significant correlation between imagery reports and story grammar macrostructure, with imagery of the climactic event most common. (Sadoski) Effects of Language Concreteness Language concreteness, its capacity to evoke mental images, has been shown to be one of the most powerful determiners of comprehension and learning yet studied. For example, snarling tiger is concrete and image evoking, but policy concept is abstract, less likely to evoke images. There have been many studies of language concreteness, especially at the word and phrase level. In the studies mentioned here, language concreteness was varied experimentally to determine its effects on reading longer texts. Participants were not instructed to form images.

Anderson (1974) had university undergraduates read and recall simple declarative sentences. Sentence subjects were general nouns either with or without concrete modifiers (e.g., “The set fell off the table” vs.

“The ivory chess set fell off the table”). Participants remembered 50 percent more of the sentences with concrete modifiers. In a second experiment, the sentences included either concrete or abstract modifiers and were equated for length (e.g., “The oil-pressure gauge was covered with dust” vs. “The measuring gauge was covered with dust”). Results 69

for this experiment were the same as for the first, indicating that concreteness was the effective variable.

Wharton (1980) revised narrative passages on the causes of wars taken from American history textbooks to make them more concrete and imagery evoking; readability was held constant. About one word in eight was changed, and a panel of history professors determined that essential meanings were unaffected. The entire incoming first-year class of a college participated. Students scored significantly higher on comprehension questions on the revised passages than on the original ones.

The comprehension questions were at the literal, applied, and critical levels, and test experts judged that the wording of the questions did not favor either treatment.

Findings also revealed that participants rated the revised passages significantly more interesting and imagery evoking. Reading times were equivalent for the original and revised passages.

The use of advance organizers to enhance comprehension has been advocated for many years, but empirical results of their effectiveness are mixed. Corkill, Glover, and Bruning (1988) provided part of the reason for this seeming discrepancy. They conducted two experiments to examine the effects of having a concrete advance organizer, an abstract advance organizer, or no advance organizer on learning extended text. In the first experiment, advance organizers that were matched for length and rated comprehensibility but differed in rated concreteness were presented to two separate groups of undergraduates. Students in each group were asked to paraphrase them briefly to show that they had

been understood. Then they and a control group read and recalled a related 1,200-word passage on astronomy. The concrete organizer group recalled significantly more than the abstract organizer or control groups. There was no significant difference between the abstract organizer group and the control group. The concrete organizer group recalled more than twice as much as the average of the other two groups.

The second experiment replicated the first experiment except that an entire 5,000-word textbook chapter on linguistics was used. The results were the same.

In a study using historical narratives, Sadoski, Goetz, and Fritz (1993) investigated the effects of concreteness on the familiarity, comprehensibility, interestingness, and immediate and delayed recall of sentences and paragraphs. The texts were drawn from textbooks and history articles and dealt with historical figures who varied in familiarity (e.g., Sandra Day O'Connor, Michelangelo, Malvina Hoffman, Robespierre). Concrete and abstract text passages about each figure were selected, and modifications were made to enhance this distinction (i.e., concrete texts were made relatively more concrete and abstract texts more abstract). Results indicated that, with readability controlled, concrete text was rated as more comprehensible and interesting than abstract text, but not as more familiar. Concrete texts were recalled two to five times better than abstract texts, both immediately and after five days. Placing a concrete sentence before an abstract sentence about the same historical figure increased the recall of the abstract sentence by 70 percent.

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Induced Imagery These experimental studies used imagery training programs or gave readers instructions to form images. There have been many studies of induced imagery; those described here show the various ways it can affect reading of extended texts.

Anderson and Kulhavy (1972) used a 2,190word text about a fictitious primitive tribe with high school seniors. The experimental group was instructed to read the text and form vivid images. The control group received instructions only to read carefully. Analysis of multiplechoice and short-answer comprehension tests showed no difference between the groups, but analysis of a postexperimental questionnaire revealed that a majority of the control group reported forming images during reading. Therefore, the participants were then distinguished, no longer as belonging to the experimental or control group, but by the amount of reported imagery. Re-analysis of the data showed that comprehension was an increasing function of the amount of imagery reported. This study is interesting to experimentalists in imagery research because it raised the question of whether it can be assumed that control groups are not forming images (i.e., imagery is a natural part of reading).

Steingart and Glock (1979) had undergraduates use either a mental imagery strategy or a verbal repetition strategy to comprehend and recall descriptive passages organized in three ways. Each passage dealt with a variety of objects, such as shelters, vehicles, or plants. In the first organization, each object was described completely in a distinct paragraph. In the second organization, one paragraph focused on one attribute of all the objects (e.g., , one paragraph described all their shapes, another paragraph their colors, and so on). In the third organization, the information was scrambled across paragraphs. Regardless of text

organization, the participants using the imagery strategy answered more questions and recalled more. Imagery also resulted in more higher level inferences and better organized recalls.

Mental Imagery: Improving Text Recall Description: By constructing “mental pictures” of what they are reading and closely studying text illustrations, students increase their reading comprehension.

Reserve at least a full instructional session to introduce this comprehension strategy.

(For effective-teaching tips, consult the guidelines presented in “Introducing Academic Strategies to Students: A DirectInstruction Approach”).

Materials: • Overhead transparencies of sample passages taken from expository or narrative texts, transparency markers • Student copies of practice expository or narrative passages (optional) or reading/text books Preparation: • Prepare overheads of sample expository or narrative passages.

Intervention Script: 1.

Tell students that they can remember more of what they read by: • making pictures in their mind of what they are reading • carefully studying pictures or illustrations that appear in their reading or textbooks 71

2.

Using a “think-aloud” approach, read through a short sample narrative or expository passage. Pause at several points to tell the class what “mental pictures” come to your mind as you read; ask students to describe their own mental imagery as they react to the same passage.

As you come across pictures or illustrations in the passage, study them and reflect aloud on what clues they give you about the passage’s meaning.

3.

Read aloud from additional passages. Stop at key points in the passage and call on students to relate their mental imagery evoked by the passage or to give their interpretation of the significance of illustrations or pictures.

4.

When students are able to use mental imagery independently, use a prompt at the start of reading assignments to cue them to use the strategy. You might say, for example, “Now we are going to read about what life is like in a country village in Zimbabwe. Remember to make pictures in your head about what you are reading and study the pictures carefully.”The Savvy Teacher’s Guide: Reading Interventions That Work Jim Wright ( www.interventioncentral.org) 37 Tips: Have Your Students Become More Active Reading Participants. As your students become more adept at using mental imagery and text illustrations to comprehend their reading, enlist them in critical discussions about the strengths or drawbacks of a particular book, chapter, or article. How clearly does the author write? Is it easy or difficult to form mental pictures of the passage’s content, and why? How would they grade the author on the quality and clarity of his or her illustrations? http://www.jimwrightonline.com/pdfdocs/mentalimg.pdf “In the last twenty years, a growing body of empirical research has reestablished mantal imagery as an important part of current cognitive theory. This paper describes research attempting to determine the rela-

tionship between mental imagery, reading comprehension, and reading attitude. One hundred twenty-four Wisconsin eleventh and twelfth grade students were evaluated by a standardized reading comprehension survey, a reading attitude survey, and a questionnaire on mental emagery. Subjects' mental imagery appeared to be unrelated to reading comprehension, although a slight positive correlation between imagery scores and reading attitude scores was revealed. A positive correlation between subjects' comprehension scores and their reading attitude scores was evident, and a combined score of imagery and comprehension was significantly related to reading attitude. Further investigation of the effect of imagery on reading comprehension and attitude, measurement of imagery during reading, classification of imagery types among readers, and the possibility of developing strategies to increase imagery use during reading are encouraged.” (KS) http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordD etails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0 =ED122263&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED122263

"Standing back from a book to reflect on images as we stand back from a painting permits us to create an amalgam-the conclusion we draw, the interpreation we create-is our very personal rendition of the text." Keen & Zimmerman, Mosaic of Thought Rationale: “Within our daily lives we are provided with an abundance of visual images from a variety of sources. From daily television shows and commercials, to the billboards seen on the way to school or work, to the illustrations provided in our students' textbooks; imagery surrounds us.

Yet, the images we are shown are not always the images we personally 72

would arrive at had they not been presented to us. If we could not see the images of our favorite TV show, but could only read the script, would the images we visualize match those of the ones provided? Or would our thoughts furnish us with a different picture? Perhaps it would be more personal and reflective, as we made connections with what we read and what we personally know about the topic.

• Mental images emerge from all five senses, as well as emotions, and are secured to a reader's prior knoweldge.

• Using images helps immerse students in rich details. The details help students become engaged and make the text more impressive.

• Readers who adapt their visualization in response to images from other readers are considered more proficient.

Visualization is the ability to build mental pictures or images while reading. It is evident that our own visualizations, when reading the script, would greatly depend upon our prior knowledge and engagement with the topic (Manning, 2002; Keene & Zimmerman, 1997).

However, if we are able to construct any mental image from what we read, it is likely that our understanding of the material will be greater than had we not (Gambrell & Jawitz, 1993). Better yet, if we are able to combine the ability to generate mental imagery (visualization) and attend to illustrations provided in a text, there is greater effect on the understanding of the material and enhanced comprehension” (Gambrell & Jawitz, 1993).

“Helping our students gain visualization skills is an important way to foster greater comprehension when reading. It allows students the ability to become more engaged in their reading and use their imagery to draw conclusions, create interpretations of the text, and recall details and elements from the text (Keene & Zimmerman, 1997). Struggling students' ability to monitor and evaluate their own comprehension is enhanced by mental imagery (Gambrell & Bale, 1986). When a breakdown in comprehnesion occurs, and a mental image cannot be visualized, students will become aware of the need for a fix-up strategy.

Keene and Zimmerman (1997), in their book Mosaic of Thought, offer some key ideas on why teachers should help their learners evoke images when reading. They include:

How to Use the Strategy: “Visualization can be developed through a variety of activities and lessons. A first step is to provide a model and explanation about generating mental images for the students. Choosing a piece of text to read aloud to students that is short and descriptive can be useful. If the text has pictures, it is important to conceal the pictures until the end of the lesson.

Before beginning the actual read aloud/visualization mini-lesson, the teacher may want to suggest that students close their eyes and listen carefully as the story is read. The teacher may also want to share how the pictures that she makes in her mind help her better understand what she reads. For example, she may say: "When we read we can often make pictures in our minds about what is happening in the story. Pictures of the setting, the characters, and what is happening can help us understand and remember what we read.

When I think about what is going on in the story, I make a personal connection to the picture in my mind." (Johns & Lenski, 2001) During the mini-lesson, the teacher should read a short part of the given text, and complete a "think-aloud." The think-aloud needs to be very specific as the teacher discusses how the images are produced in his/her mind. The teacher should describe in detail how the words from the text remind her of something in her own life and develop into an image. The teacher can discuss incidents, emotions, and new understandings. Having students listen for adjectives can also be helpful.

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Thinking aloud about what it may look or feel like to be "hot and sticky" or "so happy I could fly away" will be helpful to struggling students. The first mini-lessons designed for modeling the strategy of visualization should be almost completely teacher directed (Keene & Zimmerman, 1997).

Overarching Goal for Reading/Learning Biology in a CoRequisite Course

As students become more accustomed to the concept of visualization and mental imagery, the teacher should gradually invite students to share and expand their own images developed during the read alouds.

The emphasis during the first mini-lessons on this strategy should be the materials that are not too challenging. The goal is to help students become aware of the need to create their own images and expand on them. As the year continues, the teacher will want to increase the level of difficulty of the text. Soon students will be sharing their visualizations during read alouds and their own private time for reading.

In order to develop competence in math the learner needs to:

Allowing opportunities for students to share their images with the teacher and other students is vital. Offering them help in describing their images is also an important part to the development of the strategy. As mental images are visual representations of thoughts, it is often a good idea to allow students the opportunity to draw and illustrate their own mental pictures of the stories they read or that are read to them. Sharing these and comparing them will allow for greater understanding and comprehension of the text.” (FOR-PD’s Reading Strategy of the Month)

A Quick Overview: The learner will employ thinking reading strategies for developing competence in biology.

(1) develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (2) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (3) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.

Note: “Lawson described two kinds of organization used in most introductory biology texts: from the small and simple to the complex and large, or the opposite. Both reflect basic organization of biological phenomena on the basis of size and complexity. Lawson outlined the first, or :micro to macro, “ approach as follows: “atoms – molecules - organelles – cells - tissues – organs – organ systems – organisms.” An introductory text following this “building block“ organizational typically begins with cells.” (Caverly, 2002).

Developing Competence in Biology

http://forpd.ucf.edu/strategies/stratvisualization.htm

1. Develop a Deep Foundation of Factual Knowledge

Visualization in Biology

The following illustration illustrates the small and simple to the complex and large levels of organizational structure.

Let’s now look at how visualization might be used in the harder sciences where being able to visualize concepts is important. Many concepts in science cannot be understood if not accompanied by a visual.

In biology, the factual knowledge is not built on parts and definitions, but rather on body parts, their functions, which must be tied to an image, picture or illustration.

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Note: Always find an image that represents any new terminology, or concept you encounter. A you will see the picture(s) are literally small conceptual frameworks around which the biology concepts are developed.

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S ECTION 3 Internal Dialogue

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C HAPTER 8 Elaborations: Reading and Writing to Learn

Reading to learn is heavily dependent on the mental use of elaborations (connecting what is being learned to p r i o r k n o w ledge), which is key to growing new dendrites (learning) and a form of re-exposure. writing to learn is a very powerful elaboration in that it helps learners to clarify and organize their understandings.

S ECTION 1 Elaborations: Reading and Writing to Learn

prior knowledge, clarification of ideas, and organization of facts and ideas in a conceptual framework.

Concept: Writing to Communicate

Conceptual Framework Overview of Concepts for Writing Across the Curriculum

The common reason to communicate is to inform. Writing to communicate should take advantage of how learners learn to increase their understanding and long-term learning.

Writing across the curriculum builds on the concepts of learning and reading across the curriculum. Writing should be in all undergraduate courses.

Concept: Writing in the Disciplines Writing conventions are different in different disciplines across the curriculum, and reading and writing discipline-related conventions are learned best in those areas.

Integrated Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum Integrating Reading and Writing Reading is the platform from which critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective expression are launched. Reading and writing to learn (WTL) across the curriculum activities have the most potential for softening resistance and clarifying misconceptions about across the curriculum programs.

Shared Philosophy of Reading and Writing Reading and writing across the curriculum programs share a philosophy:

Writing: Conceptual Framework Concept: Writing to Learn Writing to learn should take advantage of what is known about learning, especially re-exposure to ideas to build a deep foundation of factual knowledge, the use of elaboration to make interconnections with

1.

Instruction in reading and writing should occur in all undergraduate college courses.

2.

Reading and writing are valuable methods of learning. Referred to as Writing to Learn (WTL) 3.

Reading and writing conventions are different in different disciplines across the curriculum, and reading and writing 81

discipline-related conventions are learned best in those areas.

Sometimes referred to as Reading and Writing in the Disciplines (R&WID).”

Note - Writing across the curriculum generally falls into two categories: • Writing to Learn • Writing in the Disciplines (The WAC Clearinghouse) Meeting Ground of Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum and Discipline Instruction First, discipline instructors want their students to develop competence in their discipline’s area of inquiry.

Second, Reading and writing across the curriculum share the philosophy above.

Third, research on human learning (crucial) has found that to develop competence in an area of inquiry the learner needs to: • develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge • understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework • organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application From the Research and Literature Research on Connections Between Reading and Writing “Although the separation between reading and writing instruction can be traced back as far as the middle ages (Huot, 1988), the two fields have gradually moved closer together with the advent of construc-

tivism. Over the past 15 to 20 years, literacy researchers, in attempting to identify a common core behind reading and writing activities, have proposed that both processes involve the construction of meaning. The constructive theory of reading and writing was foreshadowed more than 50 years ago when Louise Rosenblatt (1938) introduced a revolutionary approach to literature called reader response. Rosenblatt (1978) suggested that comprehension involves a transaction between the reader and the work and that the reader's understanding is a new and legitimate text unto itself, subject to the context of the reader. The theme was picked up in the 1970s by psycholinguists Kintsch and van Dijk (1978), who proposed that a reader employs cyclical processing of micropropositions, using selective memory and prior knowledge to create a new mental text.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, several researchers described how construction of meaning occurs through reading-writing linkages.

Pearson and Tierney (1984) proposed a "composing model of reading" (p. 145) in which readers construct meaning by maintaining an ongoing dialogue within themselves about the text and its purpose, just as writers compose to convey meaning. During reading, the major activities of planning, composing, editing, and monitoring occur repetitively, recursively, and simultaneously in a process similar to the model described by Flower and Hayes (1981) in their cognitive theory of writing.

More recently, Flower (1990), in addressing the concept of "reading-towrite" (p. 5), suggested that the critical literacy necessary for success in college includes an emphasis on questioning source information and transforming ideas to use them for new purposes. Furthermore, in her studies of the reading and writing that occur during composing from sources, Spivey (1990) found that construction of meaning involves creating a mental plan, selecting what is relevant and coherent to fit the plan, and connecting with prior knowledge by generating inferences and elaborating ideas. Influenced by Spivey's research, McGinley (1992) examined the reading, writing, and reasoning processes involved in composing from sources, concluding that individual reading 82

and writing activities are used recursively throughout a task to accomplish multiple purposes.

A final idea, introduced by Bartholomae and Petrosky (1986), is that to maximize the benefits of the reading-writing connection, students must believe that they have the authority to generate ideas and to direct reading and writing strategies for their own purposes. Because developing these beliefs may be a difficult task in the context of traditional, separate reading and writing courses, Bartholomae and Petrosky developed a much-imitated combined reading-writing course at the University of Pittsburgh. Instead of teaching reading and writing subskills in separate courses, Bartholomae and Petrosky advocated an integrated reading-writing approach that encourages students to establish their authority to speak and helps them to locate and decide what they determine to be important. (Holmberg)

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C HAPTER 9 Multitasking

Keeping in mind that working memory is where new information being learned is stored and manipulated (connected to prior knowledge and where cognitive strategies are applied), the research on multitasking is relevant to efficient use of time and learning, especially deep learning. Multitasking can result in new information being stored in the brain where it can not be recalled efficiently. “Using brain-scans scientist found that if we multi-task while studying, the information goes into the striatum, a region of the brain involved in learning new skills, from where it is difficult to retrieve facts and ideas. If we are not distracted, it heads to the hippocampus, a region involved in storing and recalling information.

S ECTION 1

Multitasking and Learning Attention and the Stage Metaphor “Think of the prefrontal cortex as that part of your brain that makes decisions or thinks through things. Now we are going to use David Rock’s metaphor for the prefrontal cortex, a stage in a small theater where actors play a part. The actors in this case represent information that you hold in your attention from the outside world (new information – in conscious awareness). Attention is when you have these actors (information from the outside) on stage. There are other actors, the audience that in this case may come on stage. “The audience represents information from your inner world: your own thoughts, memories, and imaginings. The stage is what you focus on at any one time, and it can hold information from the outside world, information from your inner world, or any combination of the two.

THE STAGE METAPHOR (Videos on working memory and the role of attention in learning)

The Stage Metaphor: Part 1 (8 ½ minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SMwwmAympY (Explanation of The Stage Metaphor – what does the learner need to do between new information coming into the brain and growing and strengthening dendrites of new learning.

The Stage Metaphor: Part 2 (9 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrv4Pv78fpc (Continuation of explanation of Part 1 – what does the learner need to do between new information coming into the brain and growing and strengthening dendrites of new learning.)

Thinking The Stage Strategies: Part 3 (7 ½ minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-bA8Opvr-8 (Examples of how The Stage Metaphor can be used to learn to think metacognitively to apply learning strategies)

Thinking The Stage Strategies: Part 4 (8 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-bA8Opvr-8 (Continuation of Part 3) Notable Literature and Research on Multitasking Attention and Dopamine “The mental stage (working memory) is smaller then you might expect.

It is more like a child’s bedroom than the one at Carnegie Hall. It can only hold a few actors at a time. Put too many on, and others jump off.

With so little space available, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and make mistakes. The stage holds about four items, and even then this depends on the complexity of the four items” (Rock). Know that every distraction reduces what can be held working memory, thus reducing how much is really learned.

“The stage works efficiently when you bring items onto it made up of elements embedded on long-term memory (prior knowledge.) This also explains why it’s hard to think about new ideas unless they connect to existing ideas” (Rock). The point is to always try and pull related prior knowledge into working memory.

David Rock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeJSXfXep4 Metacognition and Attention “A large part of thinking about thinking when learning (metacognition) is controlling what one lets on the stage of working memory. Working memory involves what is in ones attention or what one is consciously aware of at a given moment. Learners have the ability to control what comes on the stage of their attention and what they will not permit into working memory. For example, distractions are one more piece of information that gets in working memory, which holds only about four items and for only 20-30 seconds. One of the most productive mental skills you can learn to improve reading to learn is learning how to control your attention when reading and that involves for most of us learning (1) how to eliminate distractions and (2) how to unlearn multitasking while reading to learn.”

Distraction: “When a distraction (cell phone rings, text message vibrates, other people are talking, what will I have for dinner, etc.) gets in working memory, it replaces one or more of the four items that the learner was trying to think through and if the information being stored 85

and manipulated is new information, these items of information get lost altogether.

Studies show that a person w h o i s i n t e rrupted takes 50 percent longer to accomplish a task. Not only that, he or she makes up to 50 percent more errors. College students have enough trouble finding to time to do their reading to tolerate distractions. Controlling most distractions is something learners can control.”

Multitasking: “We call trying to do more than one thing mentally at a time multitasking, which requires the brain to constantly be switching between the various things it is trying to work on mentally. Why do we care; let’s look at a quick overview of the research on what happens when we try to multitask while reading or trying to learn: Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth. The brain naturally focuses on concepts sequentially, one at a time. At first that might sound confusing; at one level the brain does multitask. You can walk and talk at the same time. Your brain controls your heartbeat while you read a book. Pianists can play a piece with left hand and right hand simultaneously. Surely this is multitasking. But I am talking about the brain’s ability to pay attention. It is the resource you forcibly deploy while trying to listen to a boring lecture at school. It is the activity that collapses as your brain wanders during a tedious presentation at work. This attentional ability is not capable of multitasking.

Studies show that a person who is interrupted takes 50 percent longer to accomplish a task. Not only that, he or she makes up to 50 percent more errors.”

“The brain is a sequential processor, unable to pay attention to two things at the same time. Businesses and schools praise multitasking, but research clearly shows that it reduces productivity and increases mistakes.” (Medina).

“the facts about how our brains are wired to work remain constant: - We can focus on only one conscious task at a time - Switching between tasks uses energy; when we do this a lot we are prone to making mistakes - Doing multiple conscious tasks at the same time will lead to decreased accuracy and/or performance - The only way to do two mental tasks quickly and maintain a high accuracy level is to do them one at a time (David Rock)

The more time young people spend multi-tasking, the harder they find concentrating on single intellectual tasks, such as reading a textbook, according to a report by American scientists in the journal Cyberpsychology and Behaviour.

Trying to learn while doing something else - such as doing homework while watching TV - sends information to an inappropriate part of the brain, explains Professor Russell Poldrack, a psychologist at the University of California.

Using brain-scans he’s found that if we multi-task while studying, the information goes into the striatum, a region of the brain involved in learning new skills, from where it is difficult to retrieve facts and ideas.

If we are not distracted, it heads to the hippocampus, a region involved in storing and recalling information.

'There is a cost to the way that our society is changing. Humans are not built to work this way,' Professor Poldrack says. 'We're really built to focus.'

“Multi-tasking denies us essential pauses in our mental space. We need this time to develop our inner resources and grow neural connections,” says Daniel Siegel, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA Medical School in America.

‘When you do several things at once, you tend to do them on autopilot.

(Naish)

“Researchers show that even when you do learn things through multitasking, you compromise the quality of that learning. Foerde et al.

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(2006) showed that while people can and do learn things while multitasking, the learning is less flexible and more specialized. What that means is that when you go to recall something you learned while multitasking, chances are you won’t do so quite as easily or readily.

Results showed that students who used laptops in class spent considerable time multitasking and that the laptop use posed a significant distraction to both users and fellow students. Most importantly, the level of laptop use was negatively related to several measures of student learning, including self-reported understanding of course material and overall course performance.

In addition, the more the task requires attention and concentration (which reading college textbooks does), such as learning a new subject, the more your learning will be negatively affected by multi-tasking.

The deal is simply that we are building roles and teaching our students how to learn less, in less time, with a result that while potentially similar to a result not done while multitasking, will be more difficult to recall and will likely be of lesser quality. You seemingly “get more done,” but at a cost to the quality of — not necessarily the work or studying — but the worker or student. For instance, Mark et al. (2008) found that while one’s work may be similar in quality while multitasking, the worker is stressed out, expends more effort and feels more frustrated by doing so.” (Grohol)

“Don't multi-task while you are trying to learn something new that you hope to remember.” (Walpert)

“Researchers have used brain imaging to see what is happening when young people multitask. Their studies have shown that the ability to do more than just mindless tasks at the same time is a myth. Learners cannot focus on their schoolwork and text message at the same time. Their

brains shift between these tasks. And the more difficult the tasks are, the longer it takes to readjust between them.

While students can learn while multitasking, their learning is far less efficient and less long-lasting. They would do better to study for 20 to 30 minutes and then take an electronic break. This is especially true if they are working with difficult material that they wish to remember for a long time.” (Gisler)

In his book "Your Brain at Work," David Rock finds that multitasking causes "cognitive capacity to drop from that of a Harvard MBA to that of an 8-year-old." This is a sobering observation for today's workplace, which reveres the ability to do many things at once. Rather than saving time, "workers took an average of 25 minutes to recover from interruptions, such as phone calls or answering e-mail and return to their original task," according to a study at the University of California at Irvine.

Multitasking can have long term effects, "heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information...and they experience more stress" scientists reported in the Seattle Times. It gets worse, Yvonne Walus states, “prolonged multitasking will lead to loss of efficiency and quality, and eventually to burnout.” (Bregman)

“A study showed that people distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQs. What's the impact of a 10-point drop? The same as losing a night of sleep. More than twice the effect of smoking marijuana.

Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we're getting more done. In reality, our productivity goes down by as much as 40%. We don't actually multitask. We switch-task, rapidly shifting from one thing to another, interrupting ourselves unproductively, and losing time in the process.

You might think you're different, that you've done it so much you've become good at it. Practice makes perfect and all that.

But you'd be wrong. Research shows that heavy multitaskers are less competent at doing several things at once than light multitaskers. In other words, in contrast to almost everything else in your life, the more you multitask, the worse you are at it. Practice, in this case, works against you.

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If multitasking doesn't work, how can you maximize your work time?

Author David Rock suggests the following: · Focus on one important task, project or idea at a time. · Do brain-intensive projects first thing in the morning. · Stay focused by checking e-mail and voicemail after completing brain-intensive tasks.”(Santiesteban)

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C HAPTER 10 Math Literacy: How to Read Math Textbooks

HOW TO READ TO LEARN MATH TEXTBOOKS to build competence and apply cognitive strategies supported by brain learning research.

How to Read to Learn a Math Textbook Part 1 (10 min.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Zv0JBFpZw How to Read to Learn a Math Textbook Part 2 (10 min.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r1xDMFKhis How to Read to Learn a Math Textbook Part 3 (10 min.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpDaZbGTcwA How to Read to Learn a Math Textbook Part 4 (8 ½ min.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9i823ZavSw

S ECTION 1 Reading Math Textbooks Reading Math Textbooks 1. Overarching Objectives: Develop the cognitive strategies and habits of mind while reading that will enable the learner to develop competence in an area of inquiry (Arithmetic and mathematics).

2. Intermediate Objective: To develop competence in an area of inquiry, learners need to: 1.

develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge

2. understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework

Misconception Correction Humans do have a build-in math ability – counting to 3. However, reading and learning math follow the same rules for how the brain learns, the rules of consolidation, the core cognitive strategies, and Internal dialogue questions also work. Math knowledge, procedural and conceptual understanding still needs to be understood in the context of a conceptual framework if application and being able to learn new related information more quickly is the goal.

What is a Math Conceptual Framework?

The reader needs to understand math knowledge, procedures and conceptual understandings.

A math conceptual framework is a group of math concepts that are broadly defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for integrating and interpretation of information. Think of a math conceptual framework as a mind map that overviews the concepts being learned in a math textbook reading selection within which related facts and ideas can be organized. This new mind map will have grouped (organized) the chapter’s math concepts, which you would have defined during the earlier mind mapping processes.

Common Reader Misconception:

What Are We Trying to Accomplish in This Section?

3.

organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval

4. organize knowledge in ways that facilitate application 3. Immediate Objective:

Learning math is totally different than learning anything else.

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In this section we are going to learn how to apply the Rules of Consolidation, Core Cognitive Strategies, and Internal Dialogue questions, as well as mind mapping to learning the math concepts and procedures when reading a prealgebra textbook. This will enable the reader to not only transfer the new information they are learning to new situations, but to also enable the reader to learn new related information quicker.

step of the procedure from real life (ex. Two birds added to two birds equal four birds).

Using Rules of Consolidation When New Math Information is Found 1.

Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later.

How Does this Chapter Connect to The Previous Chapters?

In the eight previous chapters, we learned how the brain learns naturally and how to take advantage of that knowledge to convert information we are reading from working memory to long-term memory by using the rules of consolidation. We learned how to strengthen new learning and clarify our thoughts using the core cognitive strategies. Then we learned how to use reflection and inquiry questions to clarify thinking and focus understanding. This prepared us for using mind maps to organize and to further recognize the relationships between thoughts, ideas, and concepts When reading math textbooks, the reader should be looking for 1. new terminology, and examples of that terminology from real life (ex. 2 birds) , 2. steps in procedures and the math terminology used to explain the procedures along with examples of each

2.

Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately if you want the retrieval to be of higher quality. “More elaborately� means thinking, talking or writing about what was just read. Any mental activity in which the reader slows down and mentally tries to connect what they are reading to what they already know is elaboration. (It is very important to try and find real life examples in the text at this time.) c.

Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately, and in fixed intervals, if you want the retrieval to be the most vivid it can be. (Medina)

Fixed Time Intervals for Re-exposing and Elaborating 1.

As the reader identifies what is important while reading, stop re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate on the it (have an internal dialogue, what do you already know about what you are reading, write about it (take notes in your own words), explain it to yourself out loud.

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2.

When you come to a new topic or paragraph, explain to yourself what you have just read; this is reexposure to the infmation.

rationale and a tool for integrating and interpreting math information. Mind mapping is a powerful tool for learning and organizing new math procedures and concepts being learned.

3. When you finish studying, take a few minutes to reexpose yourself to the information and elaborate.

4. Within 90 minutes to 2 hours, re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate.

5.

Review again the next day as soon as you can

Internal Dialogue with Math Concepts and Procedures It is important that math students learn to have an ongoing internal dialogue (mental conversation with themselves) as they are learning mew math concepts and procedures.

It is common for math students to passively watch instructors work problems on the board and mimic what they see while doing their homework.

There is almost no way for these students to actually learn math in any way that ensures application in the future.

In order to think with and communicate math, the math students needs to have developed a strong conceptual framework of the math concepts they are learning and they also have to systematically organized the information to provide a focus, a 92

Mind Mapping Math Knowledge, Procedures and Concepts Mind Mapping for a Procedure 1.

The name of the math procedure should be the center of the map (ex. Writing Mixed Numbers (2 ½) as an Improper Fraction).

2.

Each main branch off the center of the map should have printed on it a step in the procedure being learned using math language. (Ex. Multiply the denominator of the fraction by the whole number. Hint: use abbreviations) 3.

Off each main branch should be examples of the numbers and symbols representing the step being learned. (ex. 2 ½, write 2 X 2 = 4) 4.

Also, off the main branch should be a drawing of a concrete example representing the concept being learned. (ex. Draw 3 cookies being cut in half)

Mind Mapping for a Concept 1.

The name of the main concepts in the reading selection should be in the center of the map (ex. Proper Fractions, Improper Fractions and Mixed Numbers) 2. Each main branch off the center of the map should have printed on it new terminology (ex. Proper fraction) 3. Off of each main branch should be examples of number representing new words. (ex. Proper fraction 2/3; Improper fraction 7/5; Mixed number 2 ¼ 4.

Also off each branch should be a drawing of a concrete example representing the new terminology. (ex. For Mixed number, draw three pizzas and one ¼th slices of pizza for 3 ¼.

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C HAPTER 11 Co-Requisite Delivery

There are a couple of strong scheduling els of co-requisite courses:

mod-

1. Co-Requisite Courses with Reserved Seats (See Special correspondent John Tulenko’s report on the struggle inside community colleges trying to help students at all learning levels on the PBS NewsHour. Special correspondent John Tulenko reports on the struggle inside community colleges trying to help students at all learning levels.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1yykg7CY5g

2. Learning Communities

S ECTION 1

Accelerated Learning Projects

Integrated Accelerated Learning

At the community college level, mainstreaming has tended to focus on integrating developmental education students into a traditional semester-length, college-level course and on providing additional supports to enhance students’ success. For example, in the Accelerated Learning Project (ALP) at Community College of Baltimore County, a limited number of developmental-level students are placed into a college-level English composition course along with students who tested directly into that course. While the standard college-level curriculum is followed, the developmental-level students also enroll in an additional hour-long companion section, in which the same instructor provides extra assistance and guidance. A similar type of immersion program has been run in Aptos, California, through Cabrillo College’s Digital Bridge Academy (now the Academy for College Excellence), whereby developmental English students receive a two-week basic skills foundations course followed by enrollment in six integrated courses, including the college-level English course. The program also features supplemental supports for students, including study groups, counseling, and other services.

An Accelerated Developmental Reading Plan One accelerated developmental reading plan might be modeled after the Accelerated Learning Project at the Community College of Baltimore in which developmental reading students with few reading skill deficiencies are enrolled in regular content courses. The regular content courses would reserve eight seats for the developmental reading students and an hour developmental reading course would be scheduled immediately after the content course for the eight students. A summary of the model for writing is below. Substitute reading for writing and incorporate the reading content and skills suggested in this work.

Community College of Baltimore Summary Based on four semesters of data and 227 students, compared to traditional developmental writing: - ALP doubles the success rate.

Students with More Severe Skill Needs

- cuts the attrition in half - does it in half the ALP time

The I-Best program combine basic skills and professional technical instruction so that basic skills students can enter directly into collegelevel coursework.

- at slightly less cost per successful student

I-BEST Program Characteristics.

APL Writing Example at the Community College of Baltimore An example of an Integrated Accelerated Learning is the Accelerated Learning Project (ALP) at the Community College of Baltimore. For an overview and the research one the Baltimore project, see: http://www.rpgroup.org/sites/default/files/ALP_using_Accelerationp df.pdf

“-BEST was developed in response to the recognition that although adults with a high school education or less could benefit from postsecondary occupational education and a credential, too few such individuals enter and succeed in college-level training. This includes students in adult basic skills programs, which in Washington State are offered by the two-year colleges. Few such students make the transition to college-level programs. I-BEST seeks to address this problem by com95

bining basic skills and professional technical instruction so that basic skills students can enter directly into college-level coursework. In the IBEST model, basic skills instructors and professional- technical faculty jointly design and teach college-level occupational classes that admit basic skills-level students. I-BEST courses must be part of a coherent program of study leading to college credentials and jobs in demand, thus providing a structured pathway to completion and career-path employment so students do not have to “find their way on their own.”

(How I-Best Works, CCRC)

• For students with the most significant academic needs, provide alternate pathways to high-quality career certificates by embedding remediation and adult basic skills development into their instruction. http://www.completecollege.org/docs/CCA-Remediation-sum mary.pdf

http://www.ncwe.org/resource/resmgr/workforce_dev_reports/how_ ibest_works.pdf For Students with Skill Needs Between and ALP and an IBest Programs of instruction, It has been suggested that students who are in need of skills between a program like Baltimore’s ALP and an I-Best Program, stengthen redesigned full-credit courses and consider providing built-in, co-requisite support for two semesters instead of one. Students get the same content but more time on task.

Complete College America has made the Following Suggestion: • For students with few academic deficiencies, place them into redesigned first-year, full- credit courses with co-requisite built-in support, just-in-time tutoring, self-paced computer labs with required attendance, and the like. The length of these courses should mirror the ordinary gateway courses so students stay on track for on-time graduation.

• For students needing more help, lengthen redesigned full-credit courses and consider providing built-in, co-requisite support for two semesters instead of one. Students get the same content but more time on task.

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S ECTION 2 Co-Requisite Learning Communities

What are Learning Communities?

“In higher education, curricular learning communities are classes that are linked or clustered during an academic term, often around an interdisciplinary theme, and enroll a common cohort of students. A variety of approaches are used to build these learning communities, with all intended to restructure the students time, credit, and learning experiences to build community among students, between students and their teachers, and among faculty members and disciplines.” (Washington Center) http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/lcfaq.htm#21 Co-Requisite Learning Communities Co-requisite learning communities typically pair a entry-level content course with a skills course.

In Unlocking the Gate the researchers note: Examples of Learning Communities for Developmental Education Students While learning communities are used with a number of different programs and courses at community colleges, those that involve academically underprepared students often link a developmental education course with a for-credit college-level course. At Queensborough Community College in Queens, New York, developmental math is linked with a variety of college-level courses, such as English, Sociology, and Business.14 Another popular strategy is to include a student success course, which generally emphasizes the development of study skills and college-going expectations, in order to provide additional advising

and supports to students who are adapting to college life. Learning communities at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York, use this program model, linking a developmental English course, a content-area college-level course, and a one-credit student success course. Kingsborough’s program also includes additional supports, such as enhanced counseling and a voucher to purchase textbooks.

Although most learning communities do not engender the type of workforce or experiential skills that are addressed in other contextualized learning settings, such as vocational programs, the deliberate links that are made between the courses can give students the opportunity to practice in their college-level classes the skills that they are learning in their developmental courses. For instance, linking a developmental reading course with an introductory psychology course allows students the opportunity to use the psychology textbook as a resource for their reading development. Similarly, linking developmental math with an entry-level biology course allows students to apply their developing math knowledge to science problems. Additionally, learning communities that include college-level courses afford developmental students the opportunity to gain credits toward credentials while they are still working to improve their basic skills. Finally, learning communities’ general promotion of active learning and student engagement is expected to enhance knowledge acquisition and encourage greater levels of commitment to the institution.

Research Evidence Supporting Learning Communities for Developmental Education Students Learning communities are one of the few strategies for which more rigorous evidence is available. In general, the findings related to learning communities have been positive, though modest, with some studies showing more mixed results. Quasi-experimental studies on the effects of learning communities for both college-level and developmental students at over a dozen institutions have found a significant relationship between students’ participation in a learning community and their 97

level of engagement with their classes, fellow students, and faculty. Additionally, students participating in learning communities were found to persist to the following year at significantly higher rates than comparison groups who did not participate, even when controlling for differences in students’ background characteristics.

More recent experimental studies testing developmental-level learning communities reinforce many of these positive findings, though showing more modest impacts on students’ achievement and persistence in school. For instance, as noted above, Kingsborough developed a relatively comprehensive learning community model for developmentallevel English students. This program resulted in improvements in educational outcomes, including the number of credits earned during the semester that students were enrolled in learning communities and students’ progression through developmental education. Additionally, students in the learning communities were significantly more likely to pass the standardized CUNY English assessment exams by the end of the second semester after the program, thereby qualifying them to pass out of developmental English and enroll in the college’s for-credit introductory English course.17 Even so, the program had few long-term effects on students’ achievement or persistence.

Currently, the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR) is building on this work to conduct experimental evaluations of six different models of learning communities, five of which are geared toward developmental students. Qualitative analyses of learning communities in these colleges have shown that program participation clearly influences students affectively, leading to high levels of engagement and a strong sense of belonging.18 Emerging results about academic outcomes are mixed. At Hillsborough Community College in Tampa Bay, Florida, learning communities linked a developmental reading course with a student success course but did not integrate course curricula or offer comprehensive supports at the level achieved by Kingsborough’s program. The Hillsborough program did not have a meaningful impact on students’ academic success within the full sample, but there were

some modest positive impacts on educational outcomes among the last group of students, who joined the sample after the program increased its faculty collaboration and curricular integration.19 How- ever, learning communities for developmental math students at Queensborough Community College and at Houston Community College led to more positive results. Students attempted and passed the math course in the learning communities at significantly higher rates than students in comparison groups. After the program, learning communities students at both schools also progressed along the developmental course sequence more rapidly.20 Taken together, these findings suggest that more mature versions of learning communities –– those that integrate training for faculty, institutional supports, and strong leadership –– may have a greater effect on students’ achievement. However, even the effects of these programs have been relatively modest and tended to diminish over time, suggesting that learning communities will not dramatically increase students’ success in and progress through develop- mental education.”

(Unlocking the Gate, 2011) Advantages: The Washington Center cite the following advantages, “In a variety of institutional settings and in a number of forms, learning communities have been shown to increase student retention and academic achievement, increase student involvement and motivation, improve students time to degree completion, and enhance student intellectual development.

Students involved in learning communities become more intellectually mature and responsible for their own learning and develop the capacity to care about the learning of their peers.

Faculty members involved in learning communities that facilitate cross-faculty collaboration are expanding their repertoire of teaching approaches, continually revising their course content, and acquiring 98

new scholarly interests. Learning community faculty members are also building mentoring relationships with each other and are more frequently engaging with beginning students and general education offerings.

Institutions use learning communities as sites for testing out new curricular approaches and strategies for strengthening teaching and learning.

These programs offer more coherent opportunities for the teaching of literacy skills, such as reading, writing, and speaking, and more coherent pathways for students to engage in the general education curriculum. They also offer a robust way to address interdisciplinary ideas and offer a more coordinated platform for study in the major. Partnerships between student and academic affairs divisions are strengthened as these organizations work to develop and maintain learning communities and these programs are a relatively low cost method for accomplishing all of the above.

Learning community programs also address a variety of societal issues such as the increasing fragmentation of information and student alienation toward participation and engagement. With an emphasis on interpersonal dialogue, collaboration, and experiential learning within the context of diversity, these programs address a decreasing sense of community and connection and allow students to relate their college-level learning to larger personal and global questions.

Disadvantages: When trying to bring learning communities to scale, scheduling is the biggest challenge. This challenge is the strongest reason for adopting a co-requisite model in which 8 to 10 seats are reserved for developmental students in the content co-requisite course.

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S ECTION 3 Putting Co-requisite Reading to Learn Together A Hypothetical Accelerated Co-Requisite Reading to Learn Model (ACRLM) The following information represents students who tested into CMS 185 (COMPASS 80-84) and RDG 30 (COMPASS 70-79) on the largest campus in a large community college in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS).

Fall 2011 CMS 185

• 86 students tested into CMS 185 (COMPASS 80-84) • 55 were full-time (24%) • 31 were part-time (13%) RDG 30

• 146 students took RDG 30 (COMPASS 70-79) • 79 were full-time (34%) • 67 were part-time (29%) • (Those students testing below 70 on the COMPASS are referred to the Adult Basic Education Program on campus, which has a seamless program for students who applied for admission to the college and were assessed, as well as an Accelerated Opportunity Program modeled on the I-Best Program.

Proposed Accelerated Reading To Learn Co-Requisite Courses Goal: to match the success rates for reading that was achieved writing at the Community College of Baltimore using the co-requisite acceleration approach for developmental writing. Specifically: double the success rate; cut attrition in half; reduce the time to completion at lower costs.

The Co-Requisite Structure In the ACRL model each co-requisite instructor integrates their instruction with that of the other instructor. The content of the developmental class directly supports the content of the college course.

• Ten seats are reserved in the co-requisite content class for developmental students referred to the highest level developmental course (COMPASS 80-84), students begin earning college credit right away, and transition points between courses are eliminated.

• For students needing more help, lengthen redesigned full-credit courses and consider providing built-in, corequisite support for two semesters instead of one. Students get the same content but more time on task. (COMPASS reading score (70-79) Co-Requisite Courses Aligned with Programs of Study

• “Get students to commit to programs of study ASAP. Using placement scores, high school transcripts, and predictive tools to determine student aptitude, guide all students to choose among a limited number of first-year pathways — for example, health, business, liberal arts, or STEM — as soon as possible.

Students should make the big choices of programs of study informed with an understanding of program requirements and 100

available supports to achieve their career goals. Once they do, place them into structured program pathways constructed of relevant, sequenced courses chosen for them.

• Establish “default” programs for students not ready to commit. no longer allow students to be considered “unclassified.” Upon enrollment, nudge them into first-year pathways — for example, health, business, liberal arts, or STEM. This ensures a coherent pathway from the beginning, with core college-level credits that will count toward certificates and degrees. By doing so, students avoid excessive course taking while wandering the curriculum, shortening the time it takes to graduate.” (recommendations of Complete College America) http://www.completecollege.org/docs/CCA-Remediationsummary.pdf Placement by Reading Level • For students with few academic deficiencies, place them into redesigned first-year, full- credit courses with co-requisite builtin support, just-in-time tutoring, self-paced computer labs with required attendance, and the like. The length of these courses should mirror the ordinary gateway courses so students stay on track for on-time graduation. (COMPASS reading score 80-84) • For students needing more help, lengthen redesigned fullcredit courses and consider providing built-in, co-requisite support for two semesters instead of one. Students get the same content but more time on task. (COMPASS reading score (70-79) • For students with the most significant academic needs, provide alternate pathways to high-quality career certificates by embedding remediation and adult basic skills development into their instruction. (COMPASS reading score below 70)

Class Size Based on the rationale for the pilot now in place at the Community College of Baltimore to ascertain whether their successful Accelerated Project works with 10 students in developmental classes, the class size for the hypothetical Accelerated Co-Requisite Reading to Learn Model (ACRLM) would be 10 students in the reading to learn class. See Baltimore rationale at: http://alp-deved.org/2012/07/the-community-college-of-baltimore-co unty/ Create a 3 Hour for Credit Co-Requisite Reading Course.

The rationale, content and skills presented in this book for an accelerated co-requisite reading model justify a three hour for credit reading course.

Learning Outcomes for Developing Rigor in Reading to Learn The learner will be able to

• Identify the concepts making up the larger conceptual framework (the big picture, or mental scaffold) of the discipline content course textbook readings) • Systematically organize the concepts in discipline content reading into a mental scaffold or conceptual framework.

• Understand the facts and ideas in the discipline reading in the context of the conceptual framework.

• Structure the details of the discipline content reading within the larger conceptual framework to build a 101

mental scaffold for thinking like a scientist in the discipline.

• Apply re-exposure techniques for moving new information from working memory to long-termmemory.

• Apply elaboration techniques for moving new information from working memory to long-termmemory.

• Apply organizing techniques for moving new information from working memory to long-termmemory.

• Re-expose memory strategies in time intervals that facilitate moving new information from working memory to long-term-memory.

• Use writing to learn activities to clarify information in the learning process.

• Use writing to learn activities to organize information being learned in ways that facilitate retrieval.

Professional Development One of the most important considerations for implementing the Accelerated Co-Requisite Reading to Learn Model (ACRLM) is professional development for the co-requisite instructors, advisors.

This book was written as written with professional development in mind and therefore can be used in professional development.

Beyond professional development for the co-requisite instructors, professional development should be required of advisors and academic and student support.

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S ECTION 4 The Suppose Completion Model

Present State of the Suppose Competency Model the Suppose Completion Model was created to stimulate thinking about how to provide students support on their road to completion.

1.

Placement assessments based on multiple measures of student preparedness for student’s program of study; current standard placement tests are not predictive http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=1030 2. Assigned developmental advisor and/or education coach to advise, track, and support to completion http://www.thecb.texas.gov/files/dmfile/Developmental EducationPlan.pdf 3. Encourage students to commit to programs of study as soon as possible; however, establish “default” programs for students not ready to commit http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?uid=967 http://careerladdersproject.org/docs/Building%20pathways %20to%20success%20for%20low%20skill.pdf

In addition, track the certificate and degrees that at least pay off student loans. http://completionarch.collegeboard.org/ http://completionarch.collegeboard.org/p://www.thefiscalti mes.com/Articles/2012/05/01/Whats-the-Value-of-a-College -Education.aspx#page1 4.

Eliminate sequences of developmental courses

http://www.jchea.org/summits/Math/2009docs/Supporting Research/ReferralEnrollmentCompletionDevEd.pdf Either: • mainstream developmental students into college-level courses with additional supports or, • provide modularized or developmental education to include academic support that is co-requisite, not prerequisite to college-level courses • compress courses to allow remedial students to more quickly complete their developmental work, or • offer contextualized remedial education within occupational and vocational programs http://www.postsecondaryresearch.org/i/a/document/18000 _unlockingFull.pdf

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5. Create statistics, quantitative, and algebra pathways; then place students in pathways most appropriate to prepare them for their chosen programs of study or careers http://www.utdanacenter.org/mathways/downloads/new-ma thways-implementation-2012april16.pdf http://communitycollegespotlight.org/tags/mathways/ 6. Expand co-requisite supports for additional college-level courses, not just English and math Consider three levels of co-requisite models (extra academic help should become co-requisite, not prerequisite) • For students with few academic deficiencies, place them into redesigned first-year, full- credit courses with co-requisite built-in support, just-in-time tutoring, selfpaced computer labs with required attendance, and the like. The length of these courses should mirror the ordinary gateway courses so students stay on track for ontime graduation.

• For students needing more help, lengthen redesigned full-credit courses and consider providing built-in, corequisite support for two semesters instead of one. Students get the same content but more time on task.

• For students with the most significant academic needs, provide alternate pathways to high-quality career certifi-

cates by embedding remediation and adult basic skills development into their instruction. http://www.completecollege.org/docs/CCA-Remediation-su mmary.pdf 7. Redesign curriculum that reconsiders the key skills that academically underprepared students will need in their careers (focus on competency learning skills); common core standards should align with career pathways http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368 8. Expand the functional definition of developmental education to - promotes the cognitive and affective growth of all postsecondary learners, at all levels of the learning continuum http://www.nade.net/ 9. Improve faculty support for developmental and contextualized or co-requisite courses faculty for the transitions above http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/BT_toolkit_June7.pdf http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/BT_Documentation_J une7.pdf http://www.jff.org/publications/education/breaking-through -practice-guide/1059 http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?uid=583

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http://crw.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/07/22/0091552 111416227.full.pdf+html http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?uid=1007 http://www.careerladdersproject.org/docs/CTL.pdf http://www.calpro-online.org/eric/docs/pab00021.pdf http://www.cord.org/uploadedfiles/Teaching_Math_Context ually.pdf http://occrl.illinois.edu/files/Projects/shifting_gears/Present ation/Perin-CCRC.pdf Â

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S ECTION 5 Completion Literature and Research Links PRESENT DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION NOT WORKING Unlocking the Gate: What We Know about Improving Developmental Education - Rutschow and Scheider - 2011 http://www.postsecondaryresearch.org/i/a/document/18000_unlockingFull.pdf Time is the Enemy

Watch the hearing.<http://cl.s4.exct.net/?qs=fb524b1e1eeb7ec6ddf6b102b7ea3630d67843 2 8 5 2 5 1 d a f 4 8 0 6 9 e 3 5 4 7 b 2 6 0 4 5 0 > Read the testimony.<http://cl.s4.exct.net/?qs=fb524b1e1eeb7ec6a9986df4685d41b1f326b c 2 b 0 7 e c d 1 2 5 6 0 9 a 0 4 b 0 c e 3 9 8 0 3 d > Learn what your state can do.<http://cl.s4.exct.net/?qs=fb524b1e1eeb7ec6abf8c6559ac8fbc1dfc2faca49bb31 f2343be8d116af2fd8> College Board Advocacy & Policy Center - The College Completion A g e n d a . http://completionagenda.collegeboard.org/

http://www.completecollege.org/docs/Time_Is_the_Enemy.pdf Remediation The Bridge to Nowhere http://www.completecollege.org/docs/CCA-Remediation-summary.pdf

R e m e d i a t i o n http://www.completecollege.org/docs/CCA%20Policy%20Deck%20Remediation% 20Final%20(2)(1).pdf

Accelerating the Academic Achievement of Students Referred to Developmental Education, Nikki Edgecombe, February 2011

PLACEMENT

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=867

The Completion Arch: Measuring Community College Student Success: What the Research Tells Us: Developmental Education Placement

Referral, Enrollment, and Completion in Developmental Education Sequences in Community Colleges - Thomas Bailey Dong Wook Jeong Sung-Woo Cho - December 2008 http://www.jchea.org/summits/Math/2009docs/SupportingResearch/ReferralEn rollmentCompletionDevEd.pdf

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/advocacy/arch/The-Completi on-Arch-Development-Education-Placement-What-Research-Tells-Us.pdf The Opposing Forces that Shape Developmental Education: Assessment, Placement, and Progression at CUNY Community Colleges (CCRC Working Paper No. 36), By: Shanna Smith Jaggars & Michelle Hodara — November 2011. New York: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University

Going the Distance in Adult College Completion: Lessons from the Nontraditional No More Project

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=974

http://www.adultcollegecompletion.org/sites/files/documents/ntnmStateCaseStu dies.pdf

Study on College Placement Exams Energizes Debate about Their Effectiveness

Testimony at Hearing by Stan Jones

http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/ATD_WhereToBegin_073112.pdf

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To Improve Completion Rates, Community Colleges Need to Help Students "Get with the Program" (Community College Research Center, 2011)

Confessions of a Community College Dean

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?uid=967

http://suburbdad.blogspot.com/2011/04/remedial-levels.html C o l l e g e D e g r e e s , Designed by the Numbers By Marc Parr, from The Chronicle.

Toward a New Understanding of Non-Academic Student Support: Four Mechanisms Encouraging Positive Student Outcomes in the Community College (CCRC Working Paper No. 28, Assessment of Evidence Series, 2011)

http://chronicle.com/article/College-Degrees-Designed-by/132945/

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=860

PERFORMANCE FUNDING

LEARNING

Performance-Based Funding of Higher Education: A Detailed Look at Best Practices in 6 States.

Facing Facts -Learning

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/08/performance_based_ed.html

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/29/taking-stock-completion-agen das-benefits-and-limits

Again the video below is very good and makes the completion connection clearly. It is especially helpful in looking at quality assessment and keeping standards. http://www.collegeproductivity.org/blogs/completion-agenda-and-performance-f unding-conversation-video

Critical Thinking and the Acceleration Model http://www.samford.edu/how-to-study/ ADVISING and CONTACT TO COMPLETION Intrusive Advising of Freshmen

Tying Funding to Community College Outcomes: Models, Tools, and Recommendations for States

http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/Intrusive_advising.ht m

Eric Fingerhut and Richard Kazis; edited by David Altstadt, April 2012 Connection and Direction http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/TyingFunding2CommColleges-042312.pdf http://valenciacc.edu/lci/essays/Goal2Essay.htm PROMISNG STATEWIDE DEVELOPMETNAL EDUCATION PLANS CONTEXTUALIZATION Texas Statewide Developmental Education Plan 2010-2011 Biennium Breaking Through: Contextualization Toolkit http://www.thecb.texas.gov/files/dmfile/DevelopmentalEducationPlan.pdf http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/BT_toolkit_June7.pdf BEGIN ACADEMIC OR CAREER PROGRAM EARLY Breaking Through Practice Guide

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http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/BT_Documentation_June7.pdf

Teaching Math Contextually http://www.cord.org/uploadedfiles/Teaching_Math_Contextually.pdf

The Breaking Through Practice Guide - JFF, Spring 2010

Contextualization, by Perin, 2011

http://www.jff.org/publications/education/breaking-through-practice-guide/1059

http://occrl.illinois.edu/files/Projects/shifting_gears/Presentation/Perin-CCRC.p df

I-Best, Bridge Programs, and Contextualized Curricula CO-REQUISITE COURSES http://www.ncwe.org/?page=ibest Transform Remediation: The Co-Requisite Course Model All Learning is Learning: Contextual Approaches to Developmental Education – Speech by Dolores Perin, James Jacobs & Elaine DeLott Baker - 03/2008.

http://www.completecollege.org/docs/CCA%20Co-Req%20Model%20-%20Transf orm%20Remediation%20for%20Chicago%20final(1).pdf

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?uid=583

Co-requisite Model

Facilitating Student Learning Through Contextualization: A Review of Evidence - Journal Article by: Dolores Perin - 07/2011.

http://gettingpastgo.org/blog/2011/03/21/co-requisite-model/ Co-requisite Remediation

http://crw.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/07/22/0091552111416227.full.pdf+h tml A Contextualized Intervention for Community College Developmental Reading and Writing Students (CCRC Working Paper No. 38)

http://www.completecollege.org/docs/CCA%20Policy%20Deck%20Remediation% 20Final%209-21-11.pdf Enhanced Mathematics—A Co-requisite Approach to Developmental Mathematics

Paper by: Dolores Perin, Rachel Hare Bork, Stephen T. Peverly, Linda H. Mason & Megan Vaselewski - 01/2012.

http://www.aascu.org/programs/ie/SubmissionDetails.aspx?id=4195

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?uid=1007

Remediation: the Bridge to Nowhere

Contextualized Teaching & Learning: A Faculty Primer - A Review of Literature and Faculty Practices with Implications for California Community College Practitioners - Spring 2009

http://www.edpath.com/remedialeducation.html

http://www.careerladdersproject.org/docs/CTL.pdf

http://www.completecollege.org/docs/CCA%20Essential%20Steps%20Remediati on%20Sept%202011.pdf

Contextual Learning in Adult Education, - Imel - 2000 http://www.calpro-online.org/eric/docs/pab00021.pdf

Transform Remediation

COMPETENCY SKILLS IN AN AREA OF INQUIRY How People Learn, John Bransford, 2000

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http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368 PATHWAYS Pathways to College Access and Success Paper by: Katherine L. Hughes, Melinda Mechur Karp, Baranda Fermin & Thomas Bailey - 10/2005. http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/PublicatioSaven.asp?uid=340 C o l l e g e D e g r e e s , Designed by the Numbers By Marc Parr, from The Chronicle. http://chronicle.com/article/College-Degrees-Designed-by/132945/ Building Pathways to Success for Low-Skill Students:Lessons for Community College Policy and Practice - The “Tipping Point” Research, D. P r i n c e a n d D . J e n k i n s CCRC 2005 http://careerladdersproject.org/docs/Building%20pathways%20to%20success%2 0for%20low%20skill.pdf S i n c l a i r C o m m u n i t y C o l l e g e M A P f o r S t u d e n t S u c c e s s http://www.league.org/blog/post.cfm/istream-sneak-peeks?utm_source=2012_0 7+League+Connections&utm_campaign=July+2012+League+Connections&utm_ medium=email “ W i t h i n “ A S o c i e t a l I m p e r a t i v e : Changing the way we think about community colleges”, is a section on S a n d y S h u g a r t t h a t i s w o r t h o u t t i m e . http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct1209/voices1209-burdman.shtml NEED FOR BROAD DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION REFORM Series Lays Out Blueprint for Increasing Graduation Rates at 2-Year Colleges - By Jennifer Gonzalez – 2011 http://chronicle.com/article/Series-Lays-Out-Blueprint-for/125996/

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