The Textmapping Project - Work Room

Read.Write.Act 2012 | November 1, 2012, 2pm | online
Unrolling the Book: Comprehending the Big Picture

Audience:

• high school and middle school teachers who teach textbook content such as biology, social studies, or history
• college-level basic/remedial and developmental reading instructors
• college professors who teach introductory textbook content in the sciences and humanities
• adult education coordinators and instructors

Description: Many college students are ill-prepared to comprehend the books that they must read in order to complete their coursework. Likewise, many adults are unable to comprehend substantive books, magazines, and newspapers - so they miss out on critical information needed to participate in our culture.
In this session, you will learn what the low-tech, ancient rolled book can do for comprehension instruction in the age of high technology. Learn how the unique attributes of this long-forgotten book form make it a powerful tool for teaching content and comprehension strategies. Discover how unrolled books engage learners and help them see the big picture.

If you have not already done so, register now! (This link takes you to the conference login page. Select the "Continue without Login" radio button, and you will then be able to register.)

Once you are registered, please complete the following simple homework assignment. You will need 1 hour to complete this work, but you need not do it all in one sitting. The purpose of this assignment is to introduce you to the scroll format. It is important that this introduction be hands-on - which is why your homework begins with you making a scroll. Hands-on is critical in this case. Just reading about scrolls will not do. You need to do the work - and you will need to have your scroll in-hand for our session.

Your Homework:

• Download Educational Psychology (just click the link). This college-level textbook is free from the Global Text Project at The University of Georgia.
• Print page 2, and pages 21 - 37, the Title Page and Chapter 2, "The Learning Process". Use single-side printing - i.e., print one page to each sheet of paper.
  
• Quickly skim the chapter. Don't read it - just give it a quick look-through. Think about these questions:
  • What should a student of yours expect to learn from this chapter?
  • How would you instruct your students to survey/pre-view this chapter?
• Make a scroll from the pages, which is to say...
  • Lay the pages out on your kitchen counter or dining room table. Lay them face-up and side-by-side, in their proper order, as shown below.
    

    Title Page p. 2

    Chapter 2 p. 21

    p. 22

    p. 23

    p. 24

    and so on until...

    p. 37

  • Seam the pages together. Use clear cellophane tape or glue stick (We use glue stick for scrolls of this sort. The middle photo below shows glue stick being applied to the edge of a page.)
    
• Unroll the scroll so that you can see the entire chapter. Focus your attention on the headings and key words:
  • Use a red marker to circle the chapter title.
  • Use a gray or brown marker to circle the illustrations and tables, along with their captions. There is one illustration, and there are three tables.
  Use a green marker to circle the first heading inside the chapter: "Teacher's perspectives on learning". It's on page 22.
  • Use a blue marker to circle the first sub-heading: "Viewing learning as dependent on curriculum". It's on page 22 .
  • Use a pink marker to circle the first sub-sub-heading: "Operant conditioning: new behaviors because of new consequences". It's on page 25.
  • Use a purple marker to circle the first sub-sub-sub-heading: "Operant conditioning and students' learning". It's on page 26.
  • Use a yellow marker to highlight the first key term: "readiness". It appears in bold print on page 23.
  • Now go through the chapter, find the other headings, sub-headings, sub-sub-headings, sub-sub-sub-headings, and key terms. Mark each with the appropriate color: green, blue, pink, purple, or yellow.
• As you work, be aware of the purpose of this exercise, which is to - before reading the chapter - construct a complete and accurate outline of the chapter's contents.
• As you work, think about these questions:
  • Are the heading styles consistent? Are there any surprises?
  • Did you encounter any problems that you needed to think through -- and if so, how did you resolve them?
  • How might your students' awareness of text structure be changed by working with a scroll?
  • How might scrolls such as this one impact how you are able to teach your students to go about the process of thinking strategically and building a complete and accurate comprehension of what they read?
• Record your thinking on sticky notes or directly on the scroll, in the margins. Use pencil or pen. Be prepared to refer to your scroll as you share your thinking when me meet on November 1rst!
• Roll up your scroll. Save it for our session.
• Extra Credit: Read about scrolls and fair use.
• Tell your colleagues! Post a message to your favorite listserv or online group; use the Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and email links at the top-left of this page. Encourage your colleagues to register now!
• You're done!