Section II. Classroom Instruction In The Academic Disciplines: Paraphrasing

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Section II. Classroom Instruction In The Academic
Disciplines Paraphrasing

• Note Unlike the slides for the other sections of
  the DVD Users Guide, the slides for this section
  are organized by the three instructional methods
  presented Unit Organizer, Concept Mastery, and
  Paraphrasing. Please edit these to meet your
  needs.

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Paraphrasing Critical QuestionsHow does
teaching The Paraphrasing Strategy fit with
instruction that is already being used to teach
content?How does teaching The Paraphrasing
Strategy support the development of literacy?
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Essential Background Points

• The Paraphrasing Strategy is designed to help
  students focus on the most important information
  in a passage by identifying the main idea and
  details, and rephrasing the content in their own
  words.

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Learning Strategies

• Learning Strategies are designed to provide
  students with the skills and strategies that they
  need to learn the content and include strategies
  for acquiring information from the printed word,
  strategies for organizing and memorizing
  information, strategies for solving math
  problems, and strategies for expressing
  information in writing (including on tests).

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Rationale Behind Paraphrasing

• 1. The strategy requires the student to actively
  interact with and think about the material rather
  than passively reading it.
• 2. Following a step-by-step process requires a
  high level of attention during a reading
  activity.
• 3. Chunking material into small units
  facilitates better memory and subsequent recall
  of the material.

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Paraphrasing Strategy

• Read a paragraph
• Ask yourself what is the main idea and what are
  important supporting details
• Put the main idea and supporting details into
  your own words

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Finding the Main Idea

• Questions to ask
• What is this paragraph about?
• What does it tell me about?
• Places to look
• Look in the first sentence of the paragraph
• Look for repetitions of the same word or words in
  a paragraph
• Paraphrase Requirements
• Must contain a complete thought (subject and
  verb)
• Must be totally accurate
• Must have new information
• Must make sense
• Must contain useful information
• Must be in your own words
• Only one general statement per paragraph is
  allowed

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Activity Consider the following while viewing
the video(s)

• How did Concept Mastery help the teacher provide
  the type of instruction required to reach each
  student?
• What instructional principles did the teacher use
  in building mastery of this concept with her
  students?
• How did the teachers use of Concept Mastery
  increase the likelihood that she was promoting
  the development of literacy for each student in
  her class?
• What suggestions would you make to improve both
  the learning of critical content and the literacy
  development of each student?

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Discussion

• In what ways can the instructional methods
  illustrated help students to become active and
  independent learners?
• How might the instructional methods illustrated
  help students manage the information in your
  content area?
• How could you use the instructional methods
  illustrated to give students practice on note
  taking in an organized and logical way?
• How can the instructional methods illustrated
  give vulnerable students greater access to the
  curriculum?