Scaffolding%20Concept%20Development%20in%20the%20Content%20Areas%20using%20the%20Inductive%20Model

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Scaffolding Concept Development in the Content
Areas using the Inductive Model

• Layli Strasburg
• Lee High School
• Houston, TX

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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

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

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Dr. Tabas 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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Your Turn

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.