At first the Mountain Language Board at the most recent school we visited seemed a creative way to practice and instruct grammar lessons. But as I sat and watched I became less impressed with the board and more…. well bored.
Yes it is a great tool to practice and demonstrate a students’ ability to fill in the appropriate blank in a worksheet. It could be a potentially useful tool for standardized testing if the students are asked to diagram sentences out of context. It is also a great way to have students utilize “typical” resources: dictionary, grammar wall of terms, textbooks. However, were any of those questions meaningful? Would they be able to utilize them in their own writing or identify them in the books that they are reading? Much like in math, if they can do the standard algorithm for an addition problem but don’t understand why it works, is it meaningful and does it support positive critical thinking and learning skills? Is it a teaching tool that is more meaningful and useful for the teacher than for the students?
I enjoyed Hales perspective on creating meaningful resources. The Mini Lessons and Try-Its seem a great way for a student to learn a specific grammar point/craft, and then make a personal example that they can then use as a personal resource. I know for myself, if I have written notes in the margins of a book or a personal example, they are often a better source in which I can draw upon to jog my memory then the highlighted sentence I had in a textbook.
Much like the rest of the tools that we are given for our classroom, they can all fall flat if not utilized in a meaningful way. The WORD WALL is a great example from Hale. It CAN be a great tool or it could be meaningless and just something that is on your wall. Or, a science experiment can fall flat if you aren’t asking questions to open the students mind or if you make a statement that crushes their exploration. It is not just how cool mentos are falling into diet soda, but why is there a reaction? What would happen if….. What makes it do that….. and then follow up with some meaningful work with the cool experiment.
My Questions:
-Does the standardized test ask students to diagram sentences? Are they asked to identify a prepositional phrase?
-Is the Mountain Language board a necessity when dealing with large classes and a lack of time?
-Is there a way to make the Mountain Language Board meaningful?
-Are there positives that I am not seeing?
I am so happy you mentioned the Mountain Language Board in your post, Amy. I, at first, felt the same way about the task. I was thinking it was somewhat redundant and that since the same worksheet was used for each lesson, if a student could simply figure out the system without really learning anything. But then I got to thinking that maybe this is a requirement for teaching language arts in that particular school (I honestly don't remember so someone please correct me if I am wrong). I do think that because of the repetition students would begin to recognize things that were being emphasized, especially since their teacher pointed them out in other things (such as the math video we saw).
ReplyDeleteAmy you make some very valid points here. I was really intrigued with the mountain language. I found it very useful and creative. However, I also think that a teacher couldn't simply rely on that lesson to teach about writing, grammar, spelling etc. I healthy balance is needed in all aspects of life. Just like your circle tatoo on your wrist, If there is a start and finish and a balance everything will work out for the best. I'll try to answer your questions from my stand point. I never diagramed sentences on a standardized test. I do remember having to point out prepositional phrases or nouns vs verbs. I don't think mountain language is necessary but I do think it could be beneficial to some students along with other curriculum. If you want to make the mountain language more meaningful, I would read a story and see if they recognize things from the board in the story. It's almost like quizing them, especially on concepts that will be used for testing later on. Hope this helps!! Great to see u out last night!
ReplyDeleteI felt a little bored with the board as well, but I did think of some positives for it.
ReplyDelete1. They don't have to diagram sentences (does anyone DO that anymore???) but they do have to be able to point out the various parts of language in a sentence on their standardized tests, which is exactly what they were practicing. Not that I like teach to the test, but, well, you know what I mean I'm sure.
2. If you're trying to drill for sentence structures, I'm not sure you could come up with a better way that also let the kids take responsibility without much teacher intervention. The ultimate goal with the setup was that the students could do the worksheet without the teacher; she was just demonstrating how it works for them since it was the first time.
3. You don't have to use it all the time. The teacher we visited said she only got through 11 cycles in the previous year. That says to me she just didn't use it all that much.
Personally, I thought the whole thing took up a lot of space. I wouldn't use it as a teaching tool but as a review tool.