ERIC ED384915: Learning Together: Collaboration for Active Learning in the Elementary Language Arts. Teaching Resources in the ERIC Database (TRIED).

159 Pages·1995·2.6 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
CS 214 991
ED 384 915
McAllister, Elizabeth A.
AUTHOR
Learning Together: Collaboration for Active Learning
TITLE
in the Elementary Language Arts. Teaching Resources
in the ERIC Database (TRIED).
ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and
INSTITUTION
Communication, Bloomington, IN.
Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED),
SPONS AGENCY
Washington, DC.
ISBN-1-883790-12-3
REPORT NO
PUB DATE
95
RR93002011
CONTRACT
159p.; Published with EDINFO Press.
NOTE
EDINFO Press, P.O. Box 5247, Bloomington, IN 47407
AVAILABLE 'FROM
($16.95).
Teaching Guides (For
Classroom Use
Guides
PUB TYPE
ERIC
Information Analyses
Teacher) (052)
Reference Materials
Clearinghouse Products (071)
Bibliographies (131)
MF01/PC07 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
*Active Learning; Class Activities; Cognitive
DESCRIPTORS
Processes; Communication Skills; *Cooperative
Learning; Elementary Education; Elementary School
Students; Group Activities; *Language Arts; Lesson
Plans; Listening Skills; *Reading Instruction;
*Writing Instruction
Response to Literature
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
Designed to tap the rich collection of instructional
techniques in the ERIC database, this compilation of lesson plans
focuses on helping elementary-school students to work together as
they learn to read, write, and communicate. The 48 lesson plans in
the book cover writing to communicate, reading for information,
responding to literature, listening to understand, speaking to
communicate, and cognitive processes in the language arts. The book
includes an activities chart which indicates the focus and types of
activities (such as listening, reading, writing, speaking, responding
to literature, and content language arts) found in the various
lessons. These teaching ideas were first tried and tested in the
classroom and then reported in the ERIC database. Each chapter
contains the following sections: source (reference to the original in
the ERIC database), brief description, objective, procedures, and
personal observation. Directions to students are marked with a
bullet. A 25-item annotated bibliography contains references to
research and additional resources. (RS)
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
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Collaboration for Active Learning in the Elementary Language Arts
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
U S DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATION
Office of Cdocall000f fioseatch and Improvement
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
This document has been reproduced as
received from the person or organization
originating it
O Minor changos have boon made to
improve reproduction quality
Points of view or opinions stated in this
2
document do not nocessatily represent
lirM11.111111011111.1
official OERI
LEARNING TOGETHER:
ACTIVE
COLLABORATION FOR
LEARNING IN THE ELEMENTARY
LANGUAGE ARTS
MCALLISTER
BY ELIZABETH A.
FERI1=
CLEARINGHOUSE ON READING,
ENGLISH, AND COMMUNICATION
EDINFO
IPRESS1
J
CO-PUBLISHED 1995 BY
ERIC CLEARINGHOUSE ON READING, ENGLISH, AND COMMUNICATION
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
2805 EAST 10TH STREET, SUITE 150
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA 4.7408-2698
CARL B. SMITH, DIRECTOR
AND
EDINFO PRESS
P.O. Box 5247
BLOOMINGTON, IN 47407
EDITOR: Warren Lewis
COVER DESIGN/PHOTOGRAPHY: David J. Smith
DESIGN/PRODUCTION: Lauren Bongiani Gottlieb and Theresa Hardy
ERIC (an acronym for Educational Resources Information Center) is a national network of 16 clearinghouses,
each of which is responsible for building the ERIC database by identifying and abstracting various education-
al resources, including research reports, curriculum guides, conference papers, journal articles, and govern-
ment reports. The Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication (ERIC/REC) collects educational
information specifically related to reading, English, journalism, speech, and theater at all levels. ERIC/REC
also covers interdisciplinary areas, such as media studies, reading and writing technology, mass communica-
tion, language arts, critical thinking, literature, and many aspects of literacy.
TRIED is an acronym for Teaching Resources In the ERIC Database.
This publication was prepared with partial funding from the Office of Educational Research and
Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. RR9300201 1. Contractors undertaking such
projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their iudgment in professional and
technical matters. Points of view or opinions, however, do not necessarily represent the official view or
opinions of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
McAllister, Elizabeth
Learning together : collaboration for active learning in the elementary language arts / by Elizabeth A.
McAllister.
cm. (Teaching resources in the ERIC database, TRIED)
p.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-1-883790-12-3
1. Language arts (Elementary) 2. Education, ElementaryActivity programs. 3. Group work in educa-
tion.
I. ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication. II. Title.
III. Series.
LB1575.M14 1995
372.6'044dc20
94-12655
CIP
TABLE Of CONTENTS
vi
TRIED SERIES INTRODUCTION BY CARL B. SMITH
vii
USER'S GUIDE
viii
LET'S GET IT TOGETHER
ACTIVITIES CHART
WRITING TO COMMUNICATE
1
As Clear as Peanut Butter: Writing Clearly and Precisely
2
Writing Someone Else's Story: Cross-Grade Authoring
4
Getting Ideas across Lots of Ways: Explaining Abstract Concepts
7
Responding to Historical Fiction as a Reading/Writing Venture
12
Writing History: Historian's Response to Fiction
14
Writing with One Voice: Group Composition
16
A Byte of Collaborative Writing
18
Flying Disks: Virtual or On-line Interactive E-Mail
19
22
Feedback: Learning to Accommodate Critique
Partners in Writing and Editing (I): Content Editing
25
28
Partners in Writing and Editing (II): Proofing and Being Proofed
33
Sold Any Good Books Lately?
35
Pen Pals across Grades
37
Split Trees, Not Infinitives: Word Processing Together
39
Story Starters (I): Feelings, Maps, and Pictures
Story Starters (II): Maps, Pictures, and Feelings
41
43
Story Starters (III): Pictures, Feelings, and Maps
From Scary Wolves to Counting Beans: Talking Together towards
46
Cooperative Writing for a Common Purpose
50
READING FOR INFORMATION
DRTA, DRTA, DRTA, DRTA, DRTA
51
54
Getting by with a Little Help from Your Friends: CIRCle to Learn
58
RESPONDING TO LITERATURE
59
A Dangerous Voyage to Earthsea
63
Use Your Imagination! What Do You Think Other Great Writers Do?
(CONTINUED)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
66
Writing-Talk
68
of View
Thoughtwork: Constructing Your Own Point
69
PantomimeThen Write
71
Reading Response Corner
73
Comic Relief
74
Explorers
In the Steps of Gulliver: Literary
76
More Travels with Gulliver
78
Literary Correspondence
81
LISTENING TO UNDERSTAND
82
Did I HEAR You?
87
Listen-Up and Tell!
89
Author-to-Author Queries
Listen Hard and Ask Carefully:
92
Newscasters Aboard
94
Propaganda Detectives
96
Use Your Ears
98
SPEAKING TO COMMUNICATE
99
Retelling to Learn
101
Twice
I Bet You Can't Tell It the Same Way
102
Think-Aloud Editing
104
Phone Talk
106
The Many Styles of Discourse
108
ARTS
COGNITIVE PRCCESSES IN LANGUAGE
109
What Do I Know?
111
AKS: Already-Known Statements
113
Reliving the West
117
after They Are Cold and Dry
Taking Notes that Still Make Sense
119
Jot It Down: What and Why
121
Fact/Artifact
123
Space Odyssey
1 2S
RESOURCES IN THE ERIC DATABASE
.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Of RELATED
iv
ERIC/REC ADVISORY BOARD
Elaine Aoki
Joan Irwin
International Reading Association
Bagley Elementary School
Newark, Delaware
Seattle, Washington
Douglas Barnard
Julie Jensen
University of Texas at Austin
Mesa Public Schools
Austin, Texas
Mesa, Arizcna
Diane Lapp
Diane Bloom
San Diego State University
Eatontown Public Schools
San Diego, California
Eatontown, New Jersey
Robert Pav ilk
3esOs Cardona
Cardinal Stritch University
John F. Kennedy High School
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
San Antonio, Texas
William Reeves
Neyland Clark
AFL/C10 State of Indiana
Cape Girardeau School District #63
Indianapolis, Indiana
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
Charles Suhor
James Gaudino
National Council of Teachers of English
Speech Communication Association
Champaign, Illinois
Annandale, Virginia
SERIES INTRODUCTION
Dear Teacher,
overwhelmed by the enormous
In this age of the information explosion, we can easily feel
This is certainly true in the field of education. Theories
range of materials available to us.
daily. Yet the informa-
and techniques (both new and recycled) compete for our attention
because of its enor-
tion piling up on our desks and in our minds is often useless precisely
the bits and pieces that are interesting and
mous volume. How do we begin to sort out
useful to us?
collection of
The TRIED series can help. This series of teaching resources taps the rich
specific topics and
instructional techniques collected in the ERIC database, Focusing on
from their origi-
grade levels, these lesson outlines have been condensed and reorganized
teaching suggestions,
nal sources to offer you a wide but manageable range of practical
refer to
useful ideas, and classroom techniques. We encourage you to use the citations to
of the material
the sources in the ERIC database for more comprehensive presentations
outlined here.
Clearinghouse on Reading,
Besides its role in developing the ERIC database,. the ERIC
selected infor-
English, and Communication is responsible for synthesizing and analyzing
form. To this end we have
mation from the database and making it available in panted
these ideas have been
developed the TRIED series. The name TRIED reflects the fact that
consideration. We hope that
tried by other teachers and are here shared with you for your
reacquain-
these teaching supplements will also serve as a guide or introduction to, or
of material available in this information age.
twice with, the ERIC system and the wealth
Carl B. Smith, Director
ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading,
English, and Communication
\I!
USER'S GUIDE
..e".41111111
These alternatives to textbook teaching offer practical suggestions for helping elementary-
school students to work together as they learn to read, write, and communicate. Although
the needs of individual students may vary significantly, with your thoughtful adaptation the
strategies and guidelines presented in this TRIED volume will be useful for teaching every
student in your class to develop language-arts skills.
An "Activities Chart" (pages x-xi) indicates the focus and types of activities (such as cre-
ative tasks, research, vocabulary development, etc.) found in the various chapters. An
annotated bibliography at the end of the book contains references to additional sources, as
well as a list of other resources in the ERIC database with which to develop an entire cur-
riculum for collaborative learning of the language arts.
These teaching ideas were first tried and tested in the classroom environment, and then
reported in the ERIC database. The ED numbers for sources in Resources in Education (RIE)
directly to microfiche collections for the complete text,
are included to er,able you to go
the ERIC Document Reproduction Service
or to order the complete document from
(EDRS). The citations to journal articles are from the Current Index to Journals in
Education, and these articles can he acquired most economically from library collectir .is
or through interlibrary loan.
and approaches
Beginning with the sources as found in the ERIC database, these strategies
have been redesigned with a consistent format for your convenience. Each chapter
includes the following sections:
SOURCE (your reference to the original in the ERIC database)
BRIEF DESCRIP1 ION
OBJECTIVE
PROCEDURES
PERSONAL OBSERVATION
the text also addresses
The TRIED text is addressed to you, the teacher. In many instances,
the students are bulleted "4". Read these
your students directly. These directions to
instructions to your students, or revise them, as you prefer.
Adapt these suggestions to the abili-
You know your students better than anyone else does.
of the sources were written for specific levels,
ty levels present in your classroom. Some
recommendations from your
but they ran he modified easily. Think of these chapters as
them yourself, improve
colleagues who TRIED them and found that they worked well. Try
and trust your students to respond with enthusiasm.
on them where you can,
(j
vii
LET'S GET IT TOGETHER
SOURCE
Castelucci, Maryann Feola. "Reading and Writing in Groups: How Does It
Work and What Are the Gains?" 1987. [ED 283 173]
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Presents suggestions for the teacher to assure that students will work togeth-
er productively.
OBJECTIVE
To guide teachers through a series of steps that teach students how to work
together with their peers in groups.
PROCEDURE
Give serious, deliberate thought to exactly what you plan to accomplish
when encouraging students to work cooperatively.
Prepare yourself, first, for using group work with your students.
Brainstorm with your students to find out what they understand about work-
ing in peer groups. Write these ideas in a web or list them on the board.
Address any concerns and questions brought up during the brainstorming
session.
Describe the way that the groups will be selected and changed from time to
time.
Provide a distinct fetus for every group activity. Clarity is critical.
Provide each group with necessary materials or resources for the focused
activity.
Discuss group dynamics. Have a recorder and a leader. Rotate these jobs
frequently.
Explain about how students will he graded on group projects.
viii
10