The strategies I will follow for this unit are:
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1. Quick Write
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2. Tea Party
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3. Probable Passage
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4. Modeling
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5. Questioning
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6. Prompt/Quick Writes
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7. GIST/concise summary
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8. Compare and contrast
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9. Class discussion or sharing time
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10. Possible Ideas for Possible Papers
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11. Thesis statement
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12. Discovery draft
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13. Drafting
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14. Final Paper
Vygotsky suggests the use of Modeling to teach the students how to solve a problem and scaffold any complex learning activities. This usually works very well but I do not overuse it because I want to challenge their zone of proximal learning and also move them to the formal-operational stage. Due to the multiple intelligences that my classes reflect, I can have one student modeling for the peers with more positive results.
Using a prompt to start any writing process is always advisable because the prompt activates the prior knowledge and helps the students in writing their reflections. Vygotsky supports its use because it brings the students to the zone of proximal development and offers the opportunity to further explore the topic of the prompt. According to Piaget, a prompt can also help the students write about their personal vision or position, or just help acquire more automaticity in writing their thoughts.
Both Piaget and Vygotsky suggest using the Class Discussion, Questioning, Comparing and Contrasting either to move the students from the concrete-operational stage to the formal-operational one, or to bring them to the nearest zone of proximal learning. Actually, I find the Class Discussion strategy, which I usually call Sharing Time, very beneficial because many of my students refrain from saying what they think. In order to overcome their resistance, I usually present this strategy as a time when we learn sharing whatever we have done or whatever we think without being or becoming judgmental. My students need to acquire the concept of accepting diversity while developing another important concept: the ownership in learning. It generally works very well and it moves the concrete-operational students to the formal-operational stage. Identically, all the other strategies - Possible Ideas for Possible Papers and Discovery Drafts - introduced in the English curriculum for the New Haven Public Schools are intended for the same goals.