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What are our Core Principles?
- Students
are actively engaged in reading and writing to construct knowledge.
Learning is not a passive experience. The meaning of a text is
not contained in the words on a page. The reader constructs it,
often by writing. Our goal is to have students draw on their prior
knowledge, connect what they know to new ideas and concepts, meaningfully
synthesize information, and develop key understandings that are
central to a content area.
- Content
teachers use varied resources.
Teachers can enhance content area learning by using a wide variety
of materials in addition to textbooks. For example, they can introduce
literature, trade books, journals, newspapers, primary sources,
graphics, and photographs. Access to the Internet in schools has
opened the door to finding information in text, video, graphics,
and audio formats.
- Literacy
is a social experience.
Reading and writing are not isolated acts, but rather social ones.
Reading as a meaning-making process relies on students working
together. Teachers can facilitate discussions in which students
collaborate to form joint interpretations of what they read. This
shared reading helps them gain a deeper understanding of the processes
and strategies involved in comprehension. Writing benefits from
collaborative brainstorming, peer editing, and discussions of
text where the author receives feedback.
- Teachers
should guide students to read and write "as if they are in
the field."
The core principle here is that students should read history materials
as if they are historians and science materials as if they are
scientists. This means, for example, that in history, they take
into account the historical context, the author, the author's
intent and purpose, the point of view, and other related texts.
By doing so, they interact with the text, identify bias, and determine
for themselves how historical events are conveyed and interpreted.
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