Writing for the Public: Alphabet Soup in the High School Classroom

Posted by Randall Hall

As a graduate student in the UAB School of Education and an English Language Arts student teacher, I am always interested in learning new strategies to improve students’ reading and writing skills. Back when I was in high school (at the end of the last millennium - which is not as long ago as it sounds), we were taught to simply read and annotate our (usually large and leather-bound) text and then organize our analysis into a five paragraph essay. Now that I am back in high school as a teacher, I can report that things have changed. In fact, in the modern ELA classroom, there are far more acronyms for “reading strategies” than there are actual books (which have been routinely replaced by handheld devices in many school districts).

Image Courtesy of Pixabay

Over the last year, I have personally guided students through the performance of an AIR, ANX, CTQ, DRA, DRTA, GIST, GRASP, IRI, ITI, KWL, LRD, RAFT, REAP, and an SQ3R. What do all these letters mean? Well, they are all acronyms for different reading, summarizing, and writing techniques that students are now taught in modern high schools. Educators have realized that each type of student (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.) learns differently and that each type of text (informational, literary, audio-visual, etc.) should be read differently to be best understood by various learners. Thus, each of the acronyms I set out above is a different strategy aimed at helping a student comprehend a certain kind of text in a unique and specific way.

For example, a KWL transforms learners into active readers by asking students to analyze a text (usually an informational article) before, during, and after reading it. They do this by first writing what they “Know” about the subject based only on the title of the article. Next, they write “What” they want to know about the subject of the article based on its topic sentence. Finally, they write what they “Learned” about the subject after reading the entire article. Thus, the KWL activates their prior knowledge, draws on their past experiences, forces them to make inferences and connections, and eventually guides them to concrete conclusions about the information they have read while stimulating their curiosity about what they wanted to know but did not learn.

This Alphabet Soup approach to reading instruction may seem odd to the students’ parents who are not familiar with the manifold strategies or the principles underlying them. However, I have found them to be indispensable in helping students “make” meaning on the literal, inferential, and evaluative levels of learning. If you have any reading or writing strategies to share (including any with fun acronyms), please post them in the “Write Like an Educator” section of WritingInTheZone (a new wiki seeking to “tap into the real-world knowledge and experience of graduate students, post-docs, and scholars to help writers achieve daily productivity goals). I know these acronyms may seem strange, but students seem to find their use as easy as ABC.

What I’m Working On: Epigenetics & Leadership, From the Green Light “Go”

Posted by Tandy L. Dolin Petrov

Throughout my entire life, I have suffered from a series of health issues that have called for repeated surgeries at either Children’s Hospital or other medical centers at the University of Birmingham at Alabama (UAB) in Birmingham, Ala. I recollect countless moments staring out the window of either Children’s Hospital  or  Spain Rehabilitation

Tandy Dolin Petrov and Kartik Manne

(GSA President and Vice President @ NSO 2014)

Center.   In the sanctuary of my room I would gaze at the city’s hilltop iron statute of Vulcan -- with its green light for safe roads and red light when a traffic accident had occurred – and think of all the things I would do in life. For me, Vulcan’s persistent reaching to the stars symbolized victory and the green light represented a start, and literally, the word “go” in life.

 

Today, as a doctoral student at UAB, I sometimes find myself staring at the Vulcan and realizing how lucky I am to be doing everything I dreamed. Recently, for example, I graduated from UAB with my Masters of Science in Biology.  For three years, I was able to explore the salt marshes of Dauphin Island, an out-of-the-way barrier island that borders Alabama’s Gulf Coast, on the hunt for the elusive diamondback terrapin.  My thesis focused on this keystone species and I had the remarkable opportunity of managing the UAB Terrapin Head-start Project, a conservation effort that provided a unique opportunity to study the ecology and life history of the terrapin while rehabilitating their population. 

Now, I am a 1^st year PhD student, I have moved into to a challenging new field and a new lab, where I study epigenetics, using fruit flies.  Epigenetics is the study of changes in DNA structure without actually changing the genetic code.  My goal with this research is to understand how silencing genes inhibit protein production and if the underlying mechanism can be therapy for a variety of diseases.  This abstract, fast-paced molecular world is completely different than my laid-back, sun-loving ecology realm.  Everything is high-speed and expeditious until it comes to waiting for the results.  So, I took up another venture, becoming President of the Graduate Student Association (GSA). 

Presidency is a terrifying term, or at least I thought when I first won an election to lead more than 5,000 graduate and professional students. Yet, as I quickly learned, leadership is teamwork, and I am lucky to have great team, Kartik Manne, Vice President (show with me in the above photo), Jocelyn Hauser, Treasurer (who is also the BGSA President), and Mallory Cases, Secretary extraordinaire, that keeps the GSA resilient and moving forward.  It is important for everyone to learn how to juggle full plates and to be a team.   Not only do I have a plate full of research and administration, I also teach microbiology labs in my department.  Yes, I’m a very busy individual.  But it’s what I want.  After sitting, not being able to move or run or even wiggle a toe, for so long, I now find myself constantly maneuvering forward, with one eye on Vulcan, and one eye on the road to life, looking for the green lights.