What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction - International ...

Learning logs: Reflection and application
Ask participants to use the Conditions of Learning chart to reflect on
what learning conditions look like in their own classrooms. In their
logs, they should write in answer to this question: Do their classrooms
have the characteristics of constructivist learning environments?
Extended Learning
Working on their own prior to the next session, participants should
pursue one or more of the following:
• Construct a chart that describes the differences between the
terms explicit and implicit, systematic and unsystematic, mindful
and mindless, contextualized and decontextualized.
• Determine, justify, and record your stance with respect to the
four categories of learning and teaching found in constructivist
classrooms (see p. 32 of the book chapter). Create “intellectual
unrest” by employing constructivist structures and processes
in your classroom. What do you observe about your teaching?
About student learning?
SESSION 4
Home and School Together: Helping Beginning
Readers Succeed (Chapter 3)
Author Jeanne R. Paratore’s research explores parents’ roles in
children’s literacy learning and suggests these conclusions:
• Home storybook reading is important to early literacy success.
• Although mainstream literacy practices (such as storybook
reading) may be absent in many homes, other language and
literacy practices exist in children’s lives but are frequently not
built upon by teachers.
• Issues of language, culture, and class influence children’s
and parents’ literacy use and understanding as well as their
expectations about formal education.
From the Professional Development Edition of What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction
(3rd ed.), © 2009 International Reading Association.
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