Sylvester is a new student in a school building, and he was bullied by another student (Joaquin). Sylvester’s experiences with Joaquin was so traumatized, he did not want to go to school any more. He continued to be afraid of and intimidation by Joaquin, his school bully. Sylvester couldn’t even be sure how he decided that he was safer to leave school before the bell. Sylvester imagination ran wild. He started thinking Joaquin might be responsible for all the crime he had been hearing about in the news. Sylvester thought about the wound he would receive if Joaquin decided to beat him up. If that happened, Sylvester imagined himself battered and bloodied so much, people might no longer recognize him.
Sylvester’s encounter with Joaquin occurred during the second week of the school year. Mr. James had disruptive students in his class in the previous year. He did want to have the same experience again. He had received training in CSCTL methods to address his previous years’ experience. During the first two weeks of the new year, Mr. James had been following the general CSCTL format, still emphasizing the content phase of the CSCTL lesson. In this lesson that helped Sylvester to resolve his traumatic experiences with Joaquin, Mr. James had adjusted his CSCTL instructions to focus on and address students’ learning concerns. This moment came just when Sylvester was getting to his breaking pointing. Mr. James stepped up using the CSCTL methods in his classroom. The instructions that Sylvester received and how he was affected are illustrated in the CSCTL Practice Lesson below.
Content and Strategy Centered Teaching and Learning (CSCTL)
The CSCTL teacher is focused on five instructional steps, all geared to help students integrate their experiences with lessons. In CSCTL teaching, teacher is focused on both (a) content and strategy. Teacher delivers lesson according to the order of the phases of thinking (knowledge development) activities. Teachers learn how phases of lesson relate to phases of thinking, structure and delivers lessons to reflect students’ learning concerns. Teachers learn to determine or identifies which phase or phases of lesson to emphasize based students’ challenges.
The perspectives of interest include the following
(1) Trigger ed Interest Phase of Lesson – students learn how lesson activities relate to students’ concerns and interest.
(2) Maintained Interest Phase of Lesson – students learn how to develop increased access to lesson/tasks resources.
(3) Sustained Interest Phase of Lesson – students to learn how to derive subject matter formulas.
(4) Personal Interest Phase of Lesson – students learn how to develop share learning activities and experience.
(5) Shared Interest Phase of Lesson – students learn how to personalize learning activities.
(I) Triggered Interest Phase of Lesson
(1) Focus: help student to develop the connection between past and present concerns.
(2) Purpose: trigger interest and motivate student to engage tasks.
(3) Rationale: Help student to justify task worthiness and engagement and to reduce or minimize divided attention.
(4) Method: engage student in dialogues with a focus to highlighting relevant concerns.
(5) Example: use dialogue and differentiated questions to engage students in discussing their concerns.
Mr. James had the option to use a traditional or CSCTL teaching method. The traditional option was to just introduce and explaining the tasks that students had to do. However, he had been trained in the CSCTL practices and was learning to use the strategies. Rather than start to instruct the students, he knew he had to be aware of the students’ concerns. So, to trigger the students’ interest he asks, “everyone OK with things that are going on? No complaints?’
This was Mr. James’ new way of starting his 7th grade lessons since the beginning of the school year. Instead of going straight to the tasks, Mr. James starts the class by first talking with the students about their concerns. Most of the students watched quietly, still trying to figure Mr. James out. For Sylvester, this is a moment he thought would never come. He raises his hand. When teacher recognizes him, says; “I am concerned about bad students always causing problem for other students in the building.”
Yeah! Another student supported rudely; why do we have hoodlums in the building?
There were about three students that could be described as hoodlum in the building. Most students knew who they were. One (not Joaquin) just spoke, but Sylvester, being a new student did not know it. Students who knew him paid attention.
The teacher replied; tell me about it?” The teacher spurred him on, and the students paid even more attention, not knowing Mr. James intentions. Meanwhile, Mr. James is thinking how not to overstep his boundary but connect the students’ concerns about hoodlum with the lesson. The intended lesson story was My Daughter, Poverty.
Everything is not always as it seems, Mr. James answers, some people might have already been upset by other events before they get to you. Why do we describe students as hoodlum or bully; he wrote (1) bully, and (2) hoodlum, on the board.
PHASE II – Maintain Interest Phase of Lesson
(1) Focus; helps to maintain the triggered interest; help students to gain access resources and materials for accomplishing tasks
(2) Purpose: Provide students with the means and materials to use to complete assigned tasks.
(3) Rationale: Help students to gain increased access to lesson resource, and to continue tasks.
(4) Method: Explain and help students to gain access to and utilize resources to facilitate tasks.
(5) Example: Develop a print rich classroom relevant to the domain.
Here, the teacher determine which activities to emphasize and maintain students’ efforts. Mr. James wanted to stick with the easier and familiar process. He talks about how and what students must be doing to facilitate their efforts, help them understand the lesson. Students were now sited, expecting to receive instruction from Mr. James.
However, from the initial interactions, Mr. James noticed that Sylvester’s seemed to have a serious concern. From the principles of CSCTL, a teacher has three options. A teacher could focus exclusively on (1) content teaching, (2) a blend of content and strategy, or (3) strategy teaching. Here, Mr. James was encouraged to stick with the CSCTL process #3, and to explore the lesson. Mr. James explained how/what the students must be doing to facilitate their efforts.
Mr. James added more vocabulary words from the story to the hoodlum and bully already on the board. These are the main words in the story, he explains to the students. We will explain these words and you will define them using your words. they would help you to more easily and readily understand the story.
PHASE II – Sustained Interest Phase of Lesson
(1) Focus: Help student to develop familiarity with domain activities and practices.
(2) Purpose: Help students to develop, adopt or integrate domain knowledge, tendencies and practices.
(3) Rationale; To help students to learn, develop and grow in a domain of practice.
(4) Method: Simplify concepts, formulas, and strategies for the students
(5) Example: In ELA; (A) Predicting a story prior to reading it.
James was new to using the CSCTL, so he was ambivalent. Nevertheless, he chose to use the CSCTL methods with a focus on strategy. This meant that teacher would use the lesson to emphasize personal more than subject matter strategies. Mr. James had the option to use the lesson to emphasize content exclusively. He also had the option to emphasize strategies (help students understand how concepts of lessons related to their concerns). Mr. James chose the latter; he raised relevant questions, discussed the story with the students. He used thinking-map and visual images to clarify his concepts. And he helped the students to understand what motivates bullies or disruptive students and how to handle them.
Following the CSCTL format, Mr. James, used differentiated questioning methods to make sure all students participated in the discussions. He asking questions related to students’ ability levels.
(A) Mr. James also generated and asked relevant questions, engaged the students in discussing the story. The discussions centered around, what motivate people to become bullies. How might poverty and bully tendencies be related?
(1) What might be the main reasons that some people become poor? (3) Trace Utzi’s life from childhood and figure out where the poverty in her life might have started. For example, what do you think she did mostly when he was growing up? (4) What does she do mostly now? why?
(2) Who suffers most in a family in poverty? (2) why? (3) how might one help a young person to avoid poverty in future?
The students learned that people become poor due to multiple negative experiences. A person must be focused to avoid them. A person could become poor because (1) a person’s parents were poor or (2) a person was lazy. A person could also become poor because h/she (3) ran into problems or (4) was swindler, and so on.
The students also learned that every person wants to be treated with dignity; so, we must always respect one another.
PHASE IV – Personal Interest Phase of Lesson
(1) Focus: Students learn to promote their individual learning achievements which they might share with one another. Students reproduce domain concepts, formulas, and strategies.
(2) Purpose: Students reproduce and apply domain concepts, formulas and strategies. Students also learn practice and to operate as domain practitioners.
(3) Rationale: students gain increased familiarity with how to use the domain formulas and strategies.
(4) Method: Teacher guides students as student practice domain strategies. Students model the teacher and what had been taught;
(5) EXAMPLE: Teacher Guides students as students share knowledge with one another.
The instruction for the shared interest activities consisted in gathering in groups to ask questions of one another. There were to discuss the story and draft a letter of complaint to correct the problem. The students brain stormed and generated ideas. Each student uses a Flow Map to write a short persuasive letter. Students might discuss and share ideas with one another to complete the task.
Mr. James walked by Sylvester’s group. Sylvester prevailed upon members of his group and they were drafting a letter to the Principal and school leaders. They were writing about what the adults must be doing and how to stop the bullies in the building. He used himself as an example, and he mention Joaquin’s name as his tormentor.
PHASE V – Shared Interest Phase of a Lesson
PHASE VPHASE V – Shared Interest Phase of a Lesson
Focus: Students learn to consult with, give to and receive from one another, and develop shared activities, experiences and progress.
Purpose: Students learn to engage in shared learning activities. Students gain increased familiarity with and understanding of one another.
Rationale: Students learn to become effective custodians of a democratic process. Students learn from and about those with whom they must co-exist.
Method: Teacher guides students in their preparations to form and organize their groups, group activities and rules. Teacher also guides students to identify right and wrong procedures. Students organize their groups, group activities until they can maintain and sustain their group activities independently.
EXAMPLE: (Mr. James decided that bullying was a problem that affected everyone. Therefore, he decided he would emphasize the phase of shared activities to address general problems). The shared activity consisted in reviewing and using the ideas generated during the lesson. Students in the various group were to consider themselves victims of a bully and draft a letter to the Principal. They were to explain the difficulties that both the victims and bullies might be going through. They were to ask the principal to address the problems.
Teacher encourages students to interact with one another in their learning activities using the learning tools they know about. They could use thinking Maps and Graphic Organizers to present, explain, and simplify the concepts.
Teacher reduces direct interacting with the students; teacher may be actively involved, but not directly engaged with students. Student engaged one another, applied group strategies and enhance the knowledge they gained from the lesson.
Mr. James walked around the class making sure that every group is on task and doing whatever they must be doing. Teacher guides and helps students identify right and wrong procedures.
Mr. James walked by Sylvester’s group; Sylvester was leading his group and they were drafting a letter to the Principal. They were writing about what the adults in the building must be doing and how to stop the bullies. He used himself as an example, and he mention Joaquin’s name as his tormentor.
Students discuss the story and ask questions of one another. Students discuss, brainstormed and shared ideas with one another. At the end of the lesson, one group wrote a persuasive essay to convince the bully to change his ways. Another group drafted a letter of complaint to Utzi father, talking about his failures. Sylvester’s group used a Flow Map and drafted persuade letter to the Principal. They asked her to expel the bullies from the building so students can learn effectively.
