Different Structures And Learning Strategies - Essay Example

Different Structures And Learning Strategies [Pick the Question: Review the situations below. Write a detailed on each student describing the following: Jose Luis was unable to use his native Spanish to search for clues and links to English vocabulary. What type of learning strategy might help him? Since Jose is a native Spanish speaker, extra attention is required to ensure that he develops his English language skills, especially when he is having trouble searching for clues and links to English vocabulary.

In Jose’s case, the Vocabulary Development and Immediate feedback strategy should be applied through the Cooperative learning method. Vocabulary is essential to learning a language. Words cannot be learned separately, one word needs other words in order to be described. And good vocabulary is also a must in order to speak fluently; there are different words for different expressions, and vocabulary helps us to choose the appropriate ones. How will the Vocabulary development strategy help Jose?

As the name suggests, Cooperative learning is all about a group of students working together to achieve a goal. What makes this method unlike the traditional approach is that in collaborative learning, students work with each other instead of competing against each other. Along with helping themselves, they are helping each other. If the group consists of students with varying potential, weaker students can learn from the sharper ones. Moreover, Jose will get the chance to interact with the other students and a friendly environment will be created, in which students will more willingly assist each other and his self confidence will be boosted through teamwork.

And through the feedback strategy, Jose will get constant encouragement. And the chance to evaluate and be evaluated by his classmates will enable him to understand his mistakes and work on them more efficiently. Marisol constantly confused the steps for solving math word problems. What kind of instruction could the teacher choose? Math can be a complicated subject for many students, and they can always use some help to deal with it. For Marisol two techniques can be used to help her with the steps for solving math word problems.

Firstly, the think, Pair, Share strategy: Since Marisol is weak at Math, pairing her with a better-at-Math student will help her learn from her partner. They will be given time to think about the question before discussing it, and then they will talk about it. Like this, they will both be able to participate. It will be a sort of a tuition that she will be getting from her partner, and working together will help her understand better. Secondly, the A-B Pairs technique should be employed. Marisol and her partner can decide who wants to be A and B.

Then they can be given a specific Math problem. If its solution has four steps, A will say the first step and B, the second step and they can collaborate like this till the end. They can then switch tasks and B can get to say the first step and so on. They can then be assigned another Math problem to work on. This will help Marisol pick hints every time her partner will tell a step, and she will learn through practice. It will also help her remember which solution to use for which problem. In both techniques, a fun-to-learn environment will be created and it will be ensured that no one student has to work alone.

Thongsy seemed lost when reading and writing tasks were assigned in history. What learning strategies might improve his performance? The reason why Thongsy seemed lost during class assignments or discussions may be because he is not interested and thus finds it difficult to focus on the tasks related to it. He rather prefers wandering off. That is usually how disinterested students behave, which is probably because the entire class in not engaged in active participation. It happens when sufficient attention is not paid to every student.

Now, it is difficult for a teacher to pay individual attention to a class of, say, 30 students in such limited time. So they usually make (oral) Reading groups, which do not solve the problem, because each child gets only little time to read. It gives the disinterested or weak students a chance to drift away, while the high-achievers actively participate in the class. If, instead of this technique, Kagan’s Rally Read is implied, where students sit in pairs and read sentences or paragraphs to each other taking turns.

The teacher takes rounds, evaluating and teaching them. This will give each student enough reading time (Kagan, 2005). As for Thongsy’s writing issues, the Numbered Heads together strategy should be useful. This way, Thongsy will get to write his answer down after the teacher has posed the question and he can then discuss and compare it with his group members. This will give him a chance to process his work before sharing it with the class and learn from others’ work. Also, he will not lose focus and stay attentive until the task is completed.

Work Cited Kagan, S. (2005) . Structures Optimize Engagement. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing. Kagan Online Magazine.