Module 9 – Summarize Learning Using the 3-2-1 Strategy

Module 3:  Disciplinary Literacy Strategy Application

 This week’s assignment involved applying features from Teaching Comprehension of Complex Texts (Buehl) and Going Beyond the Fab Five (Fang) to articles from two different disciplines.  My texts included: 

        (1) Modeling with Geometry:  Any Way You Slice It (mathematics)

        (2) Communicating with Maps (social sciences)

 The selected Modeling with Geometry section included at least two features described by Buehl, such as mathematics terminology (e.g., cross section) and multiple modes (cross section being described in the text and then later demonstrated with a three-dimensional drawing.  The same section included multiple examples of the conceptual vocabulary feature described by Fang (vertex, edge, focus, cross section).

 The selected Communicating with Maps section included multiple examples of the Buehl feature of conceptual vocabulary (perception, cognition, symbology).  It also demonstrated two Fang features:  (1) Technicality (context-specific use of the word “behavior”), and (2) abstraction (use of the noun “continuum” when a more commonplace language such as line or range.

 Students exposed to a flood of new terms in an unfamiliar discipline may feel like they are continuously playing catch up, which can be demotivating.  Without helpful strategies, adequate time, and differentiated modes of learning, they may never achieve a satisfactory level of comprehension.  Additionally, teachers should try to employ well-written and easily accessible texts (such as the two texts I selected for this assignment).

 Readers who are already comfortable and competent with expository texts can struggle to empathize with readers who have not yet developed those skills.  Teachers—responsible for supporting student reading progression regardless of their discipline—must maintain that empathy without cease.  Among the many features and strategies highlighted in this week’s reading, the straightforward strategies described in Fang, such as the noun expansion sample strategy I used, show that while reading is complex the tools we use to teach it do not have to be.