Recap on Week 5: Randy’s Input
Comments(1) Week 5 Readings: Zwiers Chapter 4
Key Points: Content-Area Variations of Academic Language
Language of Language Arts: Interpretation= process of understanding messages and meanings in text. Students can interpret a same text in different meanings–> need to find common ground. Persuasion= showing the reader/listener that the reasoning for your side is more logical than the opposing side. Also cause and effect.
Language of History: To describe the past, its interpretations, and its relevance to the present and future–> not a linear process. Cause and effect= most sentences are influenced by what happens in the previous sentence–> up to the reader to infer these connections. Interpretation= there’s a variation called “Skill of Generalization” –>”looking at events and interpreting them to come up with a principle/pattern that applies to other, similar events in the past or future.” Perspective Taking In History= in order to “think in someone’s shoes” one must learn about that person and his or her circumstances.
Language of Science: tend to be more technical. *Need to keep in mind that scientific language and literacy can differ significantly from others that students may use in other classes.*Description in Scientific Inquiry= students need to know how to ask questions in each step of creating an inquiry. Cause and Effect= hypothesizing possible causes and effects of scientific phenomena and using that sort of thinking to identify variables that can help students change their experiments to bring about better results. Interpretation= making careful observations and then figure out where the data will lead them to conclude. Comparison= requires teachers to have patience and effort teaching those who struggle in this area. (Students are forced to analyze and notice discrete characteristics).
Language of Math: can be seen as more foreign than other subjects. Less overlap of ideas, terms, and concepts found in other subjects. Need to be able to read in every direction. Interpretation= giving meaning to words or symbols. Problem solving= breaking down a problem into different parts, apply previous learning strategies/formulas, summarize main points and exclude extraneous information, organization of data in a logical sense, and compare the problem to previously similar problems.
Reflection: Another hard to get through chapter. This chapter serves like an encyclopedia section because of the diverse information it covers about language in different content areas. It may demotivate a reader easily if they are not fond of a subject matter. However, it does serve interesting approaches to each subject and how each subject defines interpretation differently. My favourite part was actually in the math section, (I’m a social studies discipline), where Zwiers talks about the different steps of problem solving. I love how he included the step to “exclude extraneous information” because that is crucial when reading a word problem, or performing simplification problems in algebra. Teachers tend to overlook that step quite often when teaching math.
Randy, I would like to comment and expand on your thoughts about this chapter––particularly the math section reflections. I spent time today observing at an elementary school and it was fascinating because at one point during the math class, I became highly attuned to the type of language being used. They were covering fractions, and one student used the terms “lowest common denominator” and “reduced to the simplest terms” and the teacher was overjoyed, commending the student for their “mathematical language.” Therefore I do echo that comment about “excluding extraneous information”––students are taught to think and speak in a way that aims to, particularly in math, be concise and clear.
Michael Yang