Andrews, B. (2005). Art, Reflection, and Creativity in the Classroom: The Student-Driven Art Course. Art Education, 58(4), 35-40. This article talks about creating a student-driven art classroom. Within such a classroom, students were given choices in their art projects. Students also began to see the connections between art and the world around them. One project that came about because of student-selected projects and their world connections was the creation of murals in the hallways of other content areas across the school. Giving students choice in the projects they complete allowed them to take more ownership of their work. A key component of the effectiveness of this type of classroom was reflection in the form of discussion. |
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Barnes, N. (2009). Hands-On Writing: An Alternative Approach to Understanding Art. Art Education, 62(3), 40-46.
While many would not initially think of writing as an activity in the art classroom, this article provides an idea for an activity that incorporates analyzing a piece of artwork and writing. In the article, students were broken up into groups and given a piece of fine art. Using Post-It notes, each student in the group had to write down 6 comments about the piece. If a group member had a similar thought, both students had to go back and add more detail to their comments so each was now focused on a more specific part of the piece. Students then talked about what the key components of an analysis essay were and sorted their Post-It notes about the artwork into each of these categories. The components the students selected were representative of the paragraphs of such an essay. From there, the Post-Its under each component became the content for each of the paragraphs of the essay. Throughout this entire activity, discussion was a key factor in its success. Such an activity could be utilized in other classrooms, with students using Post-Its to analyze a text other than a work of art. |
Costa, A.L., & Kallick, B. (2008). Learning through reflection. In A.L. Costa & B. Kallick (Eds.), Learning and leading with habits of mind: 16 essential characteristics for success (pp. 221-235). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
Chapter 12 of this book discusses how reflection is a skill that needs to be modeled and taught, and is not something students innately know how to do, which is an important point to keep in mind. Suggested strategies for reflection include discussions, interviews, questioning, and logs and journals. All of these strategies could be easily applied to different content areas. |
Click image to read Chapter 12.
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Greenwood, S. (2010). Content area readers: helping middle-level students become word aware (and enjoy it). The Clearing House, 83 (6), 223-229.
Greenwood throughout this article is making the argument for the importance of “meaningful vocabulary studies to help rekindle interest and competency in the content areas." The article points out that many teachers know what "best practices" they should be using, but they often avoid them due to curriculum demands and lack of time, particularly in the content area classrooms. Throughout the article we are informed of several strategies and techniques that could be used across every content area classroom. Some of the strategies discussed were; the PAVE strategy (predict,associate,verify,and evaluate), the frayer model, concept circles, semantic mapping, a game called SHAZAM, and few others. Each one of these strategies and techniques could be used across any content area classroom to enhance students vocabulary instruction.
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Manz, S. (2002). A strategy for previewing textbooks: Teaching Readers to Become Thieves. The Reading Teacher, 55(5).
This article by Suzanne Manz is one that describes a strategy that can be used for previewing content area textbooks. Manz, is describing a mnemonic device that she says, "stood the test of time," compared with others that she has tried to use with her students. The THIEVES strategy is one that goes in great depth for previewing a textbook before any reading takes place and will allow students to activate prior knowledge as well as be prepared for what they are going to be reading and learning about. This strategy could be used for any content area classroom where textbook reading takes place for students. Listed below is what each letter in THIEVES represents:
Title Headings Introduction Every first sentence Visuals and vocabulary End of chapter questions Summary |
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Click image to read Section 1.
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Silver, H.F. (2010). Compare & contrast: Teaching comparative thinking to strengthen student learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
Section 1 of this book highlights different graphic organizers and gave examples of what they looked like when high school students filled them out. Within this section, there is a sample lesson taken from a high school history class where students compare and contrast 2 primary sources, but the graphic organizers used could be applied to other content areas as well. Each stage of the lesson has a different graphic organizer, but each one also allows the student room to add his or her own thoughts, which allows students to synthesize what they are learning with what they might already know. |