Hattaway & Fischer Connecting the Digitally Disconnected: Effective Reading for the Wired Generation

22/W 1:00 PM Van Sweringer

Type_Presentation: 3-Hour Pre-conference Institute

PresentationTitle: Connecting the Digitally Disconnected: Effective Reading for the Wired Generation.

ProgramStrand_Primary: Brain Compatible Teaching/Learning

ProgramStrand_Secondary: College Reading

Presentation_description:

The presentation encourages teachers whose students text, iPod, and YouTube but don’t read. The session reviews brain and learning theories, models ways to use them, and offers time for participants to develop interactive and effective lessons that have built-in components which address student preparation for learning, engagement, and technology integration.

The purpose of the presentation is to review brain- and reading-instruction theory and to present teaching strategies based on these theories that help teachers guide their digital-native students into effective reading and learning. The session is based on the assumption that student language acquisition and management of course language and texts are the central element in learning. The central impediments to learning are brain immaturity and inadequate preparation in terms of learning strategies and content foundations. Students do not know what they need to know and do not know how to know what they must learn. Faculty who understand the combined cognitive load of language and course content are able to develop traditional and technology-based learning experiences for students that encourage brain development and that lead to both mastery of course content and critical thinking.

Learning Objectives and Activities:

1.Participants will gain at least five theoretical concepts that build the theoretical foundation for the presentation. (Activity: active responses to accelerated learning presentation of theorists and theories).

2.Participants will gain skill in identifying at least three elements of the cognitive load of courses they teach. Cognitive load is our original term for the combination of discipline-specific factual and operational content and language required for student mastery of a course. (Activity: participation in a “lift the load” activity in which participants are guided to discover the loads in developmental mathematics, chemistry, and history.)

3.Participants will create a skeleton of one lesson appropriate to their general discipline that they may take home to edit for a course they are teaching in the fall. (Activity: collaboration activity based on general discipline areas: mathematics, science, social science, language arts, and history/government).

4.Participants will list at least three software and learning-object applications that can be used in their classrooms to develop student mastery of the language and content of their disciplines. (Activity: participants will observe brief presentations of available software that supports interactive learning even in online and hybrid settings.)

The session is significant to CRLA members and other conference participants. All who are involved in teaching reading or teaching any academic content that demands reading confront the digital-native who can text a message but not read a text. These are students who can connect to multiple data-input devices but cannot manage the various kinds of data central to efficient learning. Electronically linked to a cyber universe, they, nevertheless, cannot link content from one course to another or to real-world experience. Thus, the presentation addresses a challenge all classroom teachers, counselors, tutors, and program administrators face.

Based on the assumption that language acquisition is the core competency required for mature thinking, effective study, and successful development of critical thinking, the session is divided into four parts: describing student audiences; discussion of relevant theory; modeling by presenters; active lesson development by participants based on models and theory. First presenters guide participants in briefly describing the digital natives in the classroom, ending in a consideration of the electronic, physiological, and cultural impediments to the development of these students. Next, the presentation includes brief reviews of the ideas of brain theorists like Rita Smilkstein and Janet Zadina, classic constructivist thinkers like Vygotsky, the thinking of language experts like Chomsky, and the ideas of educational and social-psychology theorists like Robert Gagne, Eric Jensen, J. Lave, and Carol Dweck. Third, the presenters will briefly model strategies to describe what we call the “cognitive load” of particular content area courses and to develop learning experiences based on this definition of cognitive load. (We consider “cognitive load” to be the aggregate of the cultural, language, a-priori information, and metacognitive functions that teachers assume students have before they begin any learning experience.) If these assumptions are not taken into account, then faculty are handicapped in creating learning experiences that will be truly effective for their students. A portion of this section of the session will include model lessons that, following Gagne and other constructivists, address issues of cognitive load while pursuing mastery of required course content. This section will include demonstration of use of technology to further student learning. Fourth, participants will work together to describe cognitive load in areas of science, mathematics, and social science/history. Participants will then work together to develop interactive learning experiences for students based on the models presenters have offered and on their own experience.

Materials that will be made available to participants include: 1)descriptions of expert and novice learners developed by the National Research Council in The Way People Learn; 2) descriptions of digital natives and challenges these students provide faculty taken from Educating the Net Generation, edited by Diana G. and James L. Oglinger for Educause and other timely publications; 3)chart of theories; 4)description of concept of “cognitive load”; 5)materials for modeled lessons; and 6)content materials to be used as the basis for planning learning activities.

PresenterBio:

Dr. Karen Hattaway has been a college teacher for more than 30 years. In addition, she has been a director or co-director for both Eisenhower and Teacher Quality Grants emphasizing reading and mathematics as well as inquiry learning. She has completed training in Accelerated Learning at the University of Houston and is currently teacher trainer for the GEARUP Grant that partners the San Jacinto Community College District and the Galena Park Independent School District to develop strong student cohorts for admission to the College through Galena Park High School. Dr. Hattaway, along with Dr. Beverly Fischer, has made numerous presentations on reading and integration of reading and language arts in mathematics and science. They have contributed to the meetings of the Society of Educators and Scholars, the National Association for Developmental Education, the College Reading and Learning Association (2005 and 2006), and on several occasions, for the National Institute for Staff and Organization Development. In 2007, Dr. Hattaway joined Dr. Fischer in presenting at the College Academic Support Programs Conference . In 2005, 2006, and 2007, Dr. Hattaway and Dr. Fischer have presented for CRLA, offering institutes focused on “Bridging the Gap” in Oakland, on layered reading in Austin, and, most recently on “bifocal reading” in Portland. In addition, Dr. Hattaway is presenting for the 2008 Alpha State Delta Kappa Gamma Society Convention to discuss the gap between secondary-student preparation and college expectations. In May, 2008, Dr. Hattaway is presenting at the Learning Professor Conference to focus attention on the challenges of teaching digital native students. Dr. Hattaway is an experienced online instructor who makes extensive use of electronic resources and computer-assisted learning in her classes. She is the principal writer of a series of parent-education books for local elementary schools as part of a “Partners in Learning” project jointly sponsored by San Jacinto College, Galena Park ISD, and Lyondell Chemical for which she was recognized by the Texas State Legislature. Currently, she is chair of the San Jacinto College QEP component of the SACS accreditation reaffirmation project for the district. As part of the QEP, Dr. Hattaway is leading a team of QEP instructors to Reading Apprentice Leadership training in June 2008. Dr. Hattaway holds a Ph.D. from Rice University, an M.A. from the University of Oklahoma, and a B.A. with honors from the University of Missouri.

Presenter2_Bio:

Dr. Beverly A. Fischer has been an English professor at San Jacinto Community College North in Houston, Texas for the last 20 years, teaching both academic-transfer and developmental courses in online and traditional settings in which she utilizes electronic resources and computer-assisted learning. She was a co-instructor in two Eisenhower Grant Projects on Reading and Mathematics, one Eisenhower Grant Project on Inquiry Learning and Reading, Mathematics, and Science, and two Teacher Quality Grant Projects on Inquiry Learning and Reading and Mathematics. As a member of the faculty-development team for a GEARUP grant project partnering San Jacinto College North and Galena Park ISD, Dr. Fischer worked with science and mathematics faculty to develop faculty awareness of the complexities of language issues in math instruction and to encourage the development of learning experiences for students that considered both state-testing requirements and student preparation. Along with Dr. Karen Hattaway, Dr. Fischer has made numerous presentations focusing on reading as fundamental to understanding college texts. These presentations include the Society of Educators and Scholars, the National Association for Developmental Education, College Academic Support Programs, and the College Reading and Learning Association, where we presented a three-hour Institute at the 2005 conference on Bridging the Gap, a three-hour Institute “Take It Off! Layered Reading—An Academic Striptease That Pays” at the 2006 conference, and, most recently, a six-hour Institute “Bifocal Teaching: Enhance Student Comprehension of Gateway Texts” at the 2007 Conference. Dr. Fischer has a Ph.D. from the University of Houston, an M.A. from John Carroll University, and a B.A. from Notre Dame College.