|
|
|
The views expressed on this page are
solely
those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the views of County
News Online
|
|
Getty Images
Education Dive
Breaking down complex material can make high school curriculum digestible
Lauren Barack
May 27, 2020
Dive Brief:
High school literary analysis and theory can be more engaging if the
reading material is changed from complex literature to basic stories,
12th-grade English teacher Crystalee Calderwood writes for Edutopia.
While she typically used texts from Shirley Jackson and Edgar Allan
Poe, Calderwood flipped to children's books and fairytales like Maurice
Sendak’s "Where the Wild Things Are" to examine base-level components.
Calderwood started by having students examine the stories through
different viewpoints in small groups then share their findings with the
entire class. Students were told there weren’t wrong answers to their
analyses, but that they needed to support their theory with examples
from the text.
Opening students to other points of view can help them gain life skills in addition to improving their academic work.
Dive Insight:
Sometimes going back to basics may help students gain their footing
before they unpack complex ideas, helping to strengthen what they’ve
previously learned. The act of retrieving can actually facilitate
deeper and more permanent learning, according to an article by Jeffrey
Karpicke, a cognitive psychology professor at Purdue University, for
the American Psychological Association.
Breaking down lessons into smaller tasks may also help educators
identify areas where students are in need of additional support and can
ensure all students get extra help if it’s needed, notes Carnegie
Mellon University’s Eberly Center. This practice, sometimes called
explicit instruction, has shown to be very effective, especially in
math classes, and can also boost a student’s ability to complete their
work, according to Vanderbilt University’s IRIS Center.
Like steps in a recipe, breaking down a project into smaller actionable
tasks can ensure students have the basics under their belt and a
specific sequence they can follow to reach their objective.
|
|
|
|
