Colloquium on English - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

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64 specifics from the text in discussion and in written response. Teachers can help students observe ever more carefully. In grade 9, avoid interpretation. Work only with what’s there. After the story-telling mood of the lower school they need “firming up.” We can ask them to draw something from a description in the text or map the story, being exactly true to the words of the book. This will not tax the memory but it will strengthen the picture-forming capacity. Discussion can then be based on the picturing. Quizzing in 9 th and 10 th grades on the small details helps school students in observing the details as they read. Ninth graders can get the plot in Steinbeck’s The Pearl, for instance, but need help with metaphors. The teacher gives the students ideas for questions that they should be asking. But, if we ask the questions all the time, they don’t learn how to ask their own questions, which they should certainly be doing by high school. Still, they need help early on formulating these. The “how” questions work best in grade 10: “How does the poet create this effect?” “How does the short story writer bring us to this conclusion?” Comparison of characters or motives or themes also works well in grade 10. In the 11 th grade, we can ask the students to understand the individual character through motivation or relation to setting: “Why does Hamlet do this or that?” In 11 th and 12 th grades, they can then be asked to write thoughtfully write on a question, supporting what they say with reference to the text. By the 12 th grade, students are forming their own questions and are usually deeply engaged in discussion. Our task then is to give them reasons to keep returning to the text. Even in Grade 12, there are effective activities that can be assigned to help put things together, for example, working in groups to outline a family tree for Tony Morrison’s Song of Solomon. In Evolution’s End, Joseph Chilton Pearce says that adults must model for adolescents (in asking questions, for example) so that they learn how to do it. Also, if we want the students to be imaginative, we as teachers must live in pictures and imaginations and bring these into our teaching. Vocabulary: All teachers recognize that vocabulary building is an essential part of reading. There seem to be two general approaches. Many teachers assign words from the reading that is being done in class, for example from And There Was Light or A Tale of Two Cities. Students aren’t asked to define the words, but to use each word in a meaningful way. At the end of a novel, one teacher has a vocabulary bee from the full list the class has prepared over a number of lessons. Another teacher recommends that students buy a sturdy book for a “Word Hoard” where they keep all the words, either over the year, or over the full four years. Other teachers prefer a systematic way to teach vocabulary. Most teachers feel that knowing roots from Latin and Greek are essential. Vocabulary from Classical Roots by Nancy and Norma Fifer is a series of workbooks (grades 7 – 11) used by several schools. Another approach is to give students several roots, prefixes, and suffixes each lesson and have them discover how many words they can make. Once these words are listed on the board, choose ten for a test the next week which will include questions on how to spell the word, how to use it in a sentence, and what the root, prefix, or suffix means. For tests, students can work in groups with a rotating “tester and marker” each week. The series of SAT vocabulary books can also be useful in the senior grades. Other Types of Reading: Many of us feel that it is part of our task as English teachers to help students cope with reading things other than literature. When we read for information, usually in non-literary texts, we naturally focus on comprehension and concept. For this purpose, it is necessary to help students to let go of the need to read every word. They need to be taught how to skim and scan. Most exposition is set up in predictable ways for ease in reading. For example: using an article of about 1500 words, ask students to preview for 90
seconds. They read the first and last paragraphs, look at (skim over) headings, photographs, illustrations, diagrams, and quickly read the first sentence of each paragraph. Ask them: What is the article about? They are usually amazed at what they can learn in a minute and a half using this approach. The next step is for them to articulate what questions they have about the article. This is to engage them as readers and the questions may range from, “Why would somebody want travel by air balloon across Africa?” to “How fast does a gazelle run?” Any question is a good question. Ask them to read again, perhaps for 15 minutes and then respond, either as they wish to freely in a brief summary or as they have been asked to, as answers to a series of questions. Students can be taught that purpose determines how they need to adapt their reading strategy and to be aware of their purpose before they start reading. Students can learn to train the eyes to roam down the page reading and anticipating groups of words; they can practise by moving a hand or finger down the page so that the eye moves more quickly. — compiled by Anne Greer Joan Caldarera and David Sloan 65
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Research Project #9 Colloqu
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4 Title: Proceedings of the <strong
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6 Additional Articles: Recommended
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8 WHSRP Mission Statement Formed in
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10 MONDAY 13 OCTOBER 8:00 A.M. - -
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12 From the Left: Patricia Ryan and
Page 14 and 15: 14 We left feeling that we had much
Page 16 and 17: 16 Secondly, it discloses the world
Page 18 and 19: 18 Student Response: In our lives t
Page 20 and 21: 20 Benchmarks: Transition from Midd
Page 22 and 23: 22 Thus the center of the red spira
Page 24 and 25: 24 attention to the composition of
Page 26 and 27: 26 “What have they been doing in
Page 28 and 29: 28 more accurate than our senses, t
Page 30 and 31: 30 and bring their free thinking to
Page 32 and 33: 32 POETRY EXERCISE Mary uses this f
Page 34 and 35: 34 novels Shane, The Adventures of
Page 36 and 37: 36 Poetry is the path because it pr
Page 38 and 39: 38 In the10 th grade, we begin to m
Page 40 and 41: 40 Why do we teach literature? Some
Page 42 and 43: 42 We always have to work with the
Page 44 and 45: 44 The analytical process becomes a
Page 46 and 47: 46 Keeping The Curriculum Timely by
Page 48 and 49: 48 Steiner on the High School Liter
Page 50 and 51: 50 Dr. Steiner: … it would depend
Page 52 and 53: 52 Historically, Wolfram is an inte
Page 54 and 55: 54 plane, need to strew pictures an
Page 56 and 57: 56 of German literary history in re
Page 58 and 59: 58 Children’s Receptivity to the
Page 60 and 61: 60 however clumsy the children’s
Page 62 and 63: 62 Discussion: Teaching Reading Our
Page 66 and 67: 66 Steiner On Reading The Effects o
Page 68 and 69: 68 the school subjects demanded by
Page 70 and 71: 70 Consequently, we will have to re
Page 72 and 73: 72 emerge only later on. In this wa
Page 74 and 75: 74 stand its truth and beauty, to b
Page 76 and 77: 76 The writing experience begins wi
Page 78 and 79: 78 Now the students individually ha
Page 80 and 81: 80 paper is an abstract concept. Th
Page 82 and 83: 82 I Am I am: yet what I am none ca
Page 84 and 85: 84 I-Search Projects The purpose of
Page 86 and 87: 86 Annotated Bibliography Breindel,
Page 88 and 89: 88 Steiner on Writing and Spelling
Page 90 and 91: 90 Understanding Spelling Difficult
Page 92 and 93: 92 Is there a Phenomenological Appr
Page 94 and 95: 94 7. careless: the first “as”
Page 96 and 97: 96 in this Colloquium</stro
Page 98 and 99: 98 It names the parts and modes and
Page 100 and 101: 100 of your lesson; at times it can
Page 102 and 103: 102 the students’ perception of a
Page 104 and 105: 104 Through eurythmy people can lea
Page 106 and 107: 106 Introduction to Grammar Grammar
Page 108 and 109: 108 authority, and thus to form tho
Page 110 and 111: 110 That should be an unconscious p
Page 112 and 113: 112 you do not let them do what is
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114 period. If you have caused them
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116 “substantiating” verbs. In
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118 Grammar in the Ninth Grade In G
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120 quy and a sonnet, and to recite
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122 Enlivening English Teaching thr
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124 Recommended Books For Waldorf E
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126 Also Recommended: Bly, Robert.
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128 reward for the first person to
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130 1) Tenth graders may wish to re
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132 Solzhenitsyn’s A Day in the L
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134 How in the act of writing itsel
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136 The Wholeness Of Imagination by
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138 Coleridge was an exact thinker
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140 ception of the universe into wh
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142 The theories must indeed come.
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144 Disturbances in Speech Developm
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146 ment then the development of th
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148 which the forms are continually
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150 Acquisition of Speech and the D
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152 on the musical and rhythmic qua
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154 ever something begins to permea
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Colloquium on English - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

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