Friday, June 21, 2013

Common Core--Shared Responsibility of Every Teacher

Common Core emphasizes that literacy is the shared responsibility of every teacher.

In this video teacher Sarah Wessling shares her thoughts about thinking aloud when teaching and the difference between teaching English and teaching literacy as per the Common Core.

When a teacher thinks aloud, he/she describes the strategies for answering a question or for solveing a problem out loud. From grade to grade, school to school and state to state teaching students how to think, or metacognition is universal.

A good example of a teacher thinking aloud is when a he/she models pre-reading. SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review) is one guide teachers can use for modeling. Here's how a teacher may talk to the students, sharing what's going on in his/her head:

Now I'm going to read the first chapter in my social studies book: The American Revolution.

First, I'm going to look at the headings, subheadings, words in bold print, captions, charts and graphs.

After I'm finished, I want to look at the headings and subheading, making questions that I can answer when I'm reading. 

Now I'm going to read...

After each subheading I want to recall  what I've read so I'll recite some of it silently (or out loud if no one is around).

Finally, my last step! I'm going to look at the headings and subheadings to see if I can answer the questions I made from them. If I can't I'll skim the section again to find the answers.

The Video, Think Alouds Unpacking the Standards