Issue 73: Jan 04, 2010 Connections Newsletter

Activating Strategy - What’s Already in My Head?

Brenda Hill
Jan 04, 2010

How is the "What's Already In My Head?" used?

What's Already in My Head is a quick, easy activating strategy that can be used to assess students' prior knowledge on a topic or about a concept. It is the "hook" to motivate and it provides the "link" from prior knowledge to new learning. Each student may independently complete the What's Already in My Head? strategy and then share answers with a partner or students may work with a partner to complete the activating strategy. You may choose to have students classify and categorize words and phrases that were generated in the What's Already in My Head? activity to further assess prior knowledge on the subject.

What's Already in My Head Examples?           What's Already in My Head? examples

Other useful web sites on the importance of activating prior knowledge:




Problem Solving with PODs and POWs

Laurian Phillips
Jan 04, 2010

An easy change any math teacher can make to increase achievement is to incorporate problem solving into the curriculum. Problem solving is not a skill; it is a process, a way of thinking. Students need to have at their disposal a number of different strategies for solving problems, and then need to practice applying these strategies in problem-solving situations. In Putting It Together, Gary Tsuruda shares how he uses Problems of the Week or POWs to give students an opportunity to solve non-routine problems. He says that he began using POWs as extra credit for students who had finished their regular work or wanted a greater challenge. Near the end of the year, he decided that the experience was too valuable for anyone to miss, so he announced that all students would be required to do the Problems of the Week. Problems are chosen from books of "brain te asers" or other ancillary resources. He uses a minimal amount of class time for them, just a few minutes to present and clarify the problem and then about half a class period a week later for student presentations. The presentations are voluntary but are encouraged if a student has a particularly interesting or elegant solution.

Problems of the Day or PODs are how he teaches students to do longer POWs. These are good problems that don't have the scope or complexity to justify an entire week of problem solving, but are good lead-ins to a particular lesson. These do not happen every single day. Rather, they are smaller versions of the POW. His students call short easy PODs "P-PODs" or "Puny PODs". The main differences between PODs and POWs are the size of the problem, the time allowed, the amount of class time devoted to the solution, and the provision for student interaction.

Here is the POD format:

1) Presentation of the problem. Hand out the problem in written form. Read it clearly once or twice, with emphasis if necessary.

2) Clarification questions. Students ask questions about elements of the problem only. Not about solution methods or the actual answer.

3) Pairs brainstorming. In pairs, students are given a few minutes to clarify their understanding of the problem and discuss possible solution strategies.

4) Large group questions. Students have a final opportunity to ask clarification questions or request additional information if needed.

5) Small-group or Pairs problem solving. Students work in pairs or groups to share strategies and ideas.

6) Individual POD write-ups. Individual students, using the ideas generated in the group problem-solving discussion, complete a four-part write-up about the POD. Although some students are able to begin this part of the process during class time, it is usually completed at home as that night's homework assignment.

7) Large group presentations. Solutions are shared and discussed after the papers are returned.

If a class has a wide range of abilities and limited problem-solving experience, it is best to start the year with only PODs and to only have students write-up their solutions. Do this for the entire first quarter before introducing POWs. The write ups highlight individual parts of the overall POW write up that will be required later in the year. For example, on the first POD, they were asked to write only their process and their answer. Later PODs emphasize their planning and their problem statements. After the first quarter, a POW is done every other week.

For more information on PODs or POWs see Putting It Together: Middle School Math in Transition by Gary Tsuruda.



The Impact of Accent on Language

Jennifer Partrick
Jan 04, 2010

I received some interesting feedback in response to an article that I wrote entitled Don't Skip Phonemic Awareness. Most of the correspondence regarded the rhyming section in that article. I wrote about the importance of rhyming in phonemic awareness skills. The rhyming section from that article is as follows:

How do we teach phonemic awareness? A good place to begin is with rhymes and poetry but there are several phonemic awareness tasks students should master and typically the easiest one is rhyming. Begin with identifying rhymes before asking students to produce them which is much more difficult. To bridge the divide between identifying rhymes and producing rhymes have students complete the following activity. Students match pictures that rhyme and then add other words/pictures to the initial rhyme they identified using pictures. For example, give student a pic ture of an ear, bear and house. Their job is to recognize that ear and bear rhyme. Once they do that, they then add another picture (chair) that rhymes with ear and bear. After that they could add pictures that rhyme with house. Students will rely on this skill when they move to reading and writing. If students hear the rhyme they will be able to spell many words once they have the initial word. For example, if students can spell late and they want to write hate, they should be able to change the onset but keep the rime.

This article is in response to the above section:

A speakers' accent directly impacts how words are pronounced. Think about how accents differ from country to country, from district to district within countries, and from region to region. Having been raised in the British system, how I pronounce words is slightly different from how some words are pronounced in this region. For example, with my accent, /ai/, and /e a/ are both pronounced ā. This means that air, hair, pair, ! ear, bea r, and near all rhyme. However, for many people, ear and bear are not rhyming words. On the other hand, I have noticed that many speakers pronounce pen and pin alike, as if they are the same word. This is because of how the vowel is pronounced. The /e/ and the /i/ are both pronounced with same sound as in pin. So that pin and hen would rhyme for many people. Regardless of our accents, the point of the rhyming section of the Phonemic Awareness article is that the ability to hear and produce rhymes plays a critical part in learning to read. As you think about and teach rhyming to your students be aware of how words are pronounced and how you pronounce words so that students do hear the rhyme.

A rewrite of the section highlighted above would look like this:

How do we teach phonemic awareness? A good place to begin is with rhymes and poetry but there are several phonemic awareness tasks students should master and typically the easiest o ne is rhyming. Begin with identifying rhymes before asking students to produce them which is much more difficult. To bridge the divide between identifying rhymes and producing rhymes have students complete the following activity. Students match pictures that rhyme and then add other words/pictures to the initial rhyme they identified using pictures. For example, give student a picture of a fan, man, and house. Their job is to recognize that fan and man rhyme. Once they do that, they then add another picture (pan, can, van) that rhymes with fan and man. After that they could add pictures that rhyme with house. Students will rely on this skill when they move to reading and writing. If students hear the rhyme they will be able to spell many words once they have the initial word. For example, if students can spell late and they want to write hate, they should be able to change the onset but keep the rime.

For more information see Learning to Read K-2.