EDUC 215 study guide

5 Key Characteristics of Effective Teachers

Strong general intelligence and verbal ability

strong content knowledge

a toolkit of learning techniques

an understanding of learners

adaptive expertise

Content Literacy vs. Disciplinary Literacy

Content literacy focuses on general language skills used across multiple subjects, whereas disciplinary literacy emphasizes specialized skills required to critically analyze texts within a specific academic field.

Principle of 'Content Determines Process'

The concept that the nature of specific subject matter dictates the unique cognitive strategies and processes readers must use to make sense of a text.

5 Essential Themes of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Identity & achievement, equity & excellence, developmental appropriateness, teaching the whole child, and student-teacher relationships.

Four Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Integration

Contributions approach (celebrations),

Additive approach (adding themes/events),

Transformative approach (critical perspectives/conclusions)

Decision-making/social action approach (projects addressing real issues).

Funds of Knowledge

The historical accumulation of cultural traditions, skills, and life experiences that students bring from their homes and communities to solve problems in the classroom.

Biography-Driven Instruction (BDI) Framework

A strategy utilizing student backgrounds through three stages: Activation (identifying funds of knowledge), Connection (linking prior knowledge to new learning), and Affirmation (authentic assessments).

SIOP Model (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol)

An 8-component framework (Lesson Preparation, Building Background, Comprehensible Input, Strategies, Interaction, Practice & Application, Lesson Delivery, Review & Assessment) designed to support English learners.

Think-Alouds Strategy

An instructional technique where teachers or students orally verbalize their thought processes while reading to model monitoring comprehension, making predictions, and resolving confusion.

Reciprocal Teaching

An interactive reading method where students take turns acting as the teacher to lead discussions through predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing text.

Question-Answer Relationships (QAR)

A framework categorizing comprehension questions into 'In the Book' (Right There, Think & Search) and 'In My Head' (Author & You, On My Own).

Questioning the Author (QtA)

A close-reading strategy where students actively challenge, question, and analyze an author's purpose and choices during reading.

Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA)

A reading process that guides students through predicting, reading to verify or revise predictions, and interpreting text content.

External vs. Internal Text Structure

External structure refers to visual and formatting features (headings, graphics, layout), whereas internal structure refers to the logical organization of ideas (cause/effect, compare/contrast, sequence).

Four Types of Text Annotations

Summary notes (condensing main ideas), Thesis notes (identifying author's core point), Critical notes (reader reactions/evaluations), and Question notes (points of inquiry).

Cornell Note-Taking System Steps

Record (take notes), Question (formulate cues/questions), Recite (summarize main ideas aloud), Reflect (think about material), and Review (frequent study).

Frayer Model

A four-square graphic organizer used for vocabulary development containing definition, context/characteristics, examples, and non-examples or illustrations around a central word.

BDA Instructional Framework

An instructional structure dividing literacy learning into Before (establishing purpose/activating knowledge), During (guiding comprehension), and After (elaboration and extension).

Reality Pedagogy

An instructional approach (developed by Chris Emdin) that connects teaching directly to students' lived cultural experiences through tools like cyphers, co-teaching, cosmopolitanism, context, and content.