All teachers want their students to become independent learners, but even motivated students are reluctant to take responsibility for their own learning. So what every teacher needs is this book's tried-and-true method for gradually enabling students to take on more of the "work" of classroom learning. Two experienced teachers describe a…

Describes some recent studies which establish that meaningful learning can be promoted by a certain type of questioning activity, called elaborative interrogation, that leads students to activate prior knowledge and tie it to the new information. (SR)

Presents an account of one teacher's path to realizing the depth of intuitive beliefs about science. Organizes chemistry misconceptions into eight patterns of reasoning that include thinking rules and alternative conceptions. (DDR)

Describes 10 categories of inferences and proposes a three-step procedure for teaching students to make inferences while reading. (HOD)

Argues that some common student misconceptions are perpetuated by teachers, textbooks, and rote-learning methods and that strategies to challenge and change these misconceptions are needed. Focuses on misconceptions related to the eye and how it works. (DDR)

Describes semantic mapping, an effective strategy for vocabulary instruction that involves the categorical structuring of information in graphic form and requires students to relate new words to their own experience and prior knowledge. (HOD)

Presents strategies for encouraging dialog with students from eliciting preconceptions to bringing closure to a unit. Includes the general structure of an instructional unit that employs dialog, strategies for teachers to use, and strategies for students which include active listening. (DDR)

Designed to include a broad base of information about how children acquire and develop literacy, this book discusses the knowledge that is necessary to be an influential teacher of reading and writing. Each chapter in the book begins and ends with a "Double Entry Journal" (DEJ)--an interactive strategy designed to stimulate thinking and…

It appears that the value of providing students with strategies to activate their prior knowledge base or to build a base if one does not exist is supported by current research. Creating an opportunity to challenge students to call on their collective experiences (prior knowledge) is essential. Through this process, teachers move students from…

Explains semantic feature analysis, a technique that helps students learn a new vocabulary by seeing how words are alike and how they are different. (HOD)

Describes vocabulary lesson sequences that were used to teach sixth, seventh, and eighth grade remedial readers economics vocabulary from the newspaper. (HOD)

Describes an instructional procedure based on the findings of schema research and illustrating the truth that the more students know about a subject, the better they can comprehend what they read about that subject. (FL)

Recent studies refuting the effectiveness of advance organizers in preparing students to comprehend text material have not met the conditions necessary for advance organizers to succeed. According to the assimilation theory, which holds that people learn by chaining what is known to what is to be learned, the following conditions must be met for…

Presents two short articles. Discusses implementation of a K-W-E-L framework (What I Know, What I Want to Know, What the School District Expects, and What I Learned) in junior-level high school American literature courses. Presents a teacher's personal literacy history, which he wrote along with his students. Suggests successful teaching and…

Argues that new vocabulary words should be presented in concept clusters and related to prior knowledge to facilitate organization in memory. Presents a sample lesson for science vocabulary. (HOD)