Reciprocal Teaching Strategies
Reading is perhaps one of the most important tools to gain knowledge. Forget school going students, sometimes many of the adults also fail to grasp sufficient information from the text that they read. Reading with understanding is a habit that needs to be imbibed in students at a young age. Young school going students need to be a taught the importance of concentrated and constructive reading, and hence teachers often make use of several reading techniques and teaching methods that aid the students. One such technique is the reciprocal teaching technique, which is a remedial technique, aimed at developing and enhancing reading comprehension. Also read about study techniques, for more information on this subject.
What exactly is the Reciprocal Teaching Technique?
According to Palincsar, who introduced this technique, the formal definition of reciprocal teaching is as follows: Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity that takes place in the form of a dialog between teachers and students regarding segments of text which is structured by the use of four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. According to Palinscar, during reciprocal teaching, the teacher and students take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading this dialog, which leads to an interesting group learning experience. Read the rest of this entry »
Foreign Language Study–Is Elementary School the Right Time to Start?
According to a popular biblical story, before mankind decided to build a tower that would reach all the way to heaven (the Tower of Babel), there was a single language, universally spoken and comprehended by all. As the story goes, mankind was punished for the hubris of building this tower by having their one universal language turned into dozens of different languages. The inability to communicate in each other’s languages resulted in mass confusion and the ultimate destruction of the tower.
Whether the story as a whole is fact or fiction is not the salient point to consider here: what is true is that today there are between five and six thousand different languages spoken around the world, and that the inability to communicate in each other’s languages can indeed cause mass confusion and, at a minimum, an erosion of goodwill between different cultures.
Being able to speak another person’s language is a critical skill, especially as increased travel opportunities, satellite programming, and international use of the internet have begun to create a truly global community. But when is the best time to begin learning a foreign language? Many experts would say the sooner the better, and in fact, there have been numerous studies and reports, some dating back to the 1960s, indicating that the ideal time to begin studying a foreign language is in elementary school. Read the rest of this entry »
Mathematics in Daily Life
Posted by admin in Mathematics on December 25, 2011
Too often, I go dumbfounded at the billing section in a shopping store, and happen to easily believe whatever the salesman asks me to pay. I never calculate myself, mostly because neither do I have the patience, nor do I have the prowess to add, subtract, multiply, or divide numbers chop-chop in a single go. Calculators are my thing! I never exercised my math abilities in front of others – I was never good at it (actually, I sucked!). But is that all about mathematics? Do you need it only at a shopping store? Is it limited to just adding or subtracting numbers? Absolutely not. I was ignorant, not to have realized the ubiquity of mathematics in daily life, and the reasons behind it being one subject that is known to transcend all boundaries in terms of culture.
So, that really makes me wonder, what actually is the importance of mathematics in daily life? Of course, you need not use the properties of logarithms, algebra, and trigonometry to sort out your daily issues, but then, you need mathematics to sustain from day to night. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the following section.
Use of Mathematics in Daily Life
What time do you wake up in the morning? 7 am? What if it’s 6:50 am? You’ll thank the Almighty for getting 10 minutes of extra sleep, wouldn’t you? Well, did you notice that we used a tad-bit of mathematics here? The watch is the most common and the most wide-spread example of using math in everyday life. Just think about it, had there been no watches and clocks in the world, the word ‘discipline’ would have lost its existence forever. Read the rest of this entry »