Making Meaning By Making Connections

This book documents those first links that students make between content they learn in their classrooms and their prior experiences. Through six late-elementary school case studies these knowledge construction links are brought to life. The links of the students are often rich in describing who these individuals are, where they are in their learning process, and what is meaningful to them. Many times, these links point to what has been learned, both in and out of school, and the contexts when and where that learning took place. The mind as rhizome metaphor was used to guide the development and interpretation of the studies while the lens of Peircian semiotics provides an interpretation for these initial links. The resulting grounded theory is presented through a rich and extensive presentation of excerpts from classroom observations, student interviews, and a student writing activity and describes the varying types of student links, how the links were prompted, the relationships between what the students were learning and what they already knew, and specific types of in-school links. The narrative includes how these links were supported or inhibited in the classroom drawing on the roles of the teachers in the classrooms and what constituted authority sources of information in those classrooms. Before exploring the students’ linking as a process of ongoing semiosis and how this process is part of a dynamic system, a study of the relationship between student knowledge links and achievement is shared. This rich narrative will be of interest to scholars and practitioners alike, and includes an extensive appendix documenting the research methods.

In Making is Connecting, David Gauntlett argues that, through making things, people engage with the world and create connections with each other. Both online and offline, we see that people want to make their mark on the world, and to make connections. During the previous century, the production of culture became dominated by professional elite producers. But today, a vast array of people are making and sharing their own ideas, videos and other creative material online, as well as engaging in real-world crafts, art projects and hands-on experiences. Gauntlett argues that we are seeing a shift from a ‘sit-back-and-be-told culture' to a ‘making-and-doing culture'. People are rejecting traditional teaching and television, and making their own learning and entertainment instead. Drawing on evidence from psychology, politics, philosophy and economics, he shows how this shift is necessary and essential for the happiness and survival of modern societies.

Social Leadership encapsulates the mindset, skills and behaviours required to be an effective leader in the Social Age. This book is a guide for organisations looking to develop Social Leadership capability and for individuals looking to become Social Leaders. It's a model of leadership that is more fluid and relevant than ones based on longevity, situation or hierarchy. The NET Model of Social Leadership is built around three Dimensions: 'Narrative', 'Engagement' and 'Technology'. The NET model is both an idea and a call to arms.

I Read It, but I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers is a practical and engaging account of how teachers can help adolescents develop new reading comprehension skills. Cris Tovani is an accomplished teacher and staff developer who writes with verve and humor about the challenges of working with students at all levels of achievement-;from those who have mastered the art of fake reading to college-bound juniors and seniors who struggle with the different demands of content-area textbooks and novels. Enter Tovani's classroom, a place where students are continually learning new strategies for tackling difficult text. You will be taken step-by-step through practical, theory-based reading instruction that can be adapted for use in any subject area. The book features: Anecdotes in each chapter about real kids with real universal problems. You will identify with these adolescents and will see how these problems can be solvedA thoughtful explanation of current theories of comprehension instruction and how they might be adapted for use with adolescentsA What Works section in each of the last seven chapters that offers simple ideas you can immediately employ in your classroom. The suggestions can be used in a variety of content areas and grade levels (6-12)Teaching tips and ideas that benefit struggling readers as well as proficient and advanced readersAppendixes with reproducible materials that you can use in your classroom, including coding sheets, double entry diaries, and comprehension constructorsIn a time when students need increasingly sophisticated reading skills, this book will provide support for teachers who want to incorporate comprehension instruction into their daily lesson plans without sacrificing content knowledge.

In What Readers Really Do, you'll peer into the minds and hearts of readers to notice the often invisible thinking work that goes into making meaning of texts-from comprehending where a scene is taking place to constructing thematic interpretations. And you'll look into the authors' own teaching minds and hearts as they unpack the moves and decisions they make to design and implement instruction that allows every student to make significant and personally relevant meaning of texts.

What is English as a school subject for? What does knowledge look like in English and what should be taught? Making Meaning in English examines the broader purpose and reasons for teaching English and explores what knowledge looks like in a subject concerned with judgement, interpretation and value. David Didau argues that the content of English is best explored through distinct disciplinary lenses – metaphor, story, argument, pattern, grammar and context – and considers the knowledge that needs to be explicitly taught so students can recognise, transfer, build and extend their knowledge of English. He discusses the principles and tools we can use to make decisions about what to teach and offers a curriculum framework that draws these strands together to allow students to make sense of the knowledge they encounter. If students are going to enjoy English as a subject and do well in it, they not only need to be knowledgeable, but understand how to use their knowledge to create meaning. This insightful text offers a practical way for teachers to construct a curriculum in which the mastery of English can be planned, taught and assessed.

Ten years since her first edition, author Debbie Miller returns with Reading with Meaning, Second Edition: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades to share her new thinking about reading comprehension strategy instruction, the gradual release of responsibility instructional model, and planning for student engagement and independence.Reading with Meaning , Second Edition delves into strategy and how intentional teaching and guided practice can provide each child a full year of growth during their classroom year. New in this edition are lesson planning documents for each chapter that include guiding questions, learning targets, and summative assessments, as well as new book title recommendations and updated FAQ's from the first edition.Also included are strategic lessons for inferring, determining the importance in each text, and synthesizing information. Teachers can help students make their thinking visible through oral, written, artistic, and dramatic responses and provide examples on how to connect what they read to their own lives.In this book, Miller reflects on her professional experiences and judgement along withcurrent research in the field. She provides a guide for any teacher hoping to build student relationships and develop lifelong independent learners.

The Guided Comprehension Model is a step-by-step teaching framework that encourages students to become active, and strategic readers by providing explicit strategy instruction, opportunities for engagement, and a variety of texts and instructional settings. This book introduces ideas for teaching Guided Comprehension.