Scaffolding Concept Development in the Content Areas using the Inductive Model

1. Scaffolding Concept Development in the Content Areas using the Inductive Model Layli Strasburg Lee High School Houston, TX

2. The Challenge At the secondary school level, content area teachers are straining under the demands of overstuffed curricula. Students arriving at the secondary level with low literacy abilities make the transmission of the content even more strenuous. There is a growing demand for students to be able to express ideas and knowledge through effective expository writing in the content areas

3. How can content area teachers simultaneously build students’ literacy skills while providing them meaningful interaction with content knowledge?

4. Dr. Taba’s Purpose of Education Dr. Hilda Taba was a “refugee intellectual” and espoused a profound belief in the role of education as a fundamental mechanism of democracy. Education was the means through which people of varying ethnicities and religions could find common ground. As a progressive educator, she promoted the use of critical thinking in the classroom to produce citizens who could dispel the myths of bigotry and support democracy in a multicultural nation.

5. Make Time for Concept Development • Three levels of knowledge: facts, basic principles/ideas, concepts • Facts are “too vast,” “increase at too fast a rate,” and are prone to obsolescence. • Facts should be selected and organized to support principles, ideas, and eventually concepts

6. The Method: Inductive Modeling The Teacher… • Determines categories of concepts or ideas • Collects factual statements that support these concepts • Provides students with a scrambled list (a.k.a. “the data set”) of the relevant statements • Models reading for main idea • Guides students through categorization The Students… • Read each statement for main idea • Sort similar statements into groups • Hypothesize categories to which the statements belong • Write a summary about each category formulating an overarching concept

7. A Demonstration Prior to industrialization, most people lived in small rural villages. Individuals and families produced their own clothing and exchanged food and work animals in common marketplaces. The workday was long and difficult and for the most part, unprofitable. All products were made by hand and took much more time to create. Life before industrialization Life in rural villages

8. A Demonstration Working hours in factories were long. Shifts lasted 12 to 16 hours. Machinery was often dangerous and many workers lost limbs and fingers due to grinding gears, exhaustion and lack of precautions by factory owners. Factory Work Dangerous Work

9. A Demonstration English Parliament developed a “hands off” policy when dealing with industrialization. This “laissez-faire” policy meant factories could operate however they chose. By leaving control of the railways, farms, and factories to the owners, governments hoped that the great wealth generated would benefit all people. English politics Laissez-faire policy Control of industry

10. Your Turn Read the selected passages and determine a main idea for each. Make notes in the margins of your handout.

11. Next Step: Categorizing Cut up your handout into strips. Sort your statements into groups according to their subject matter. Label each group with a possible category Share and discuss with your partner Share with the group

12. And then… • Write a statement summarizing each category • Generate literal and interpretive questions that could be answered based on the information • Generate a graphic organizer that represent the relationship between the statements • Select a category and generate an expository composition based on it

13. Modifications The “Data Set” can be modified in any number of ways: • Advanced students can make their own data sets • Poems, excerpts from literature, instead of factual statements • Sentences instead of paragraphs • Words instead of sentences • Pictures instead of words

14. Implementation • Method best implemented throughout year within thematic units • Background knowledge may need to be developed prior to using the method • Start with simplified, concrete knowledge to introduce the method to students • Special populations may need more modeling and guidance

15. References Costa, Arthur L. & Loveall, Richard A. (2002). The Legacy of Hilda Taba. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 18, 56-62. Joyce, Bruce and Weil, Marsha. (1992) Models of Teaching. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.