Module 3 Strategy Post

 

My first selection was taken from the Secondary Math textbook and the chapter is about solving quadratic equations and other equations. This text is packed with technical terms that are required to understand what you are reading and being asked to solve for. The high vocabulary density in this passage emphasizes Fang's idea of Authoritativeness in literature. The terms such as quadratic formula, coefficients, and x-intercepts are essential in understanding what you are reading and being asked to do throughout the text. This requires students to pull on a large amount of previous knowledge and fits perfectly into using Beuhl's Seven Fundamental Comprehension Processes to better understand the material. Students need to reflect on their previous knowledge to make connections to what they are currently reading. This should hopefully help them generate questions to ask themselves and allow them to visualize what is happening throughout each step. Then they can make inferences and determine what is important in each part. This will help them build a complete understanding of the content and determine solutions to each step of the problem. Analyzing texts using this method is a great way to breakdown difficult readings and understand highly technical terms like the ones in this text. 

My second selection comes from the AP European History textbook and discusses the events at the beginning of World War II. Fang's Abstraction and Technicality is present throughout as well as Beuhl's Conceptual Vocabulary and Historical References. The passage makes several references to situations that occurred in the First World War which are necessary to understand the ideas the author is attempting to convey. There are also several vocabulary terms that students may not be familiar with as they are not used in conventional conversation. Terms such as "industrial production and capacity" and "bunks and fortresses" may need to be reviewed and defined for students to understand their meaning. For this passage, I would use either a sentence completion or transformation activity to help students better grasp the content. The sentence completion would help students better understand the specific vocabulary terms and how they can be normalized. A sentence transformation would force students to paraphrase the passage and help them grasp the overall idea of the reading.

Comments

  1. Pete YobJune 1, 2025 at 7:24 PM

    Jonathan - These are two great examples where students need to have a baseline of knowledge to be able to fully comprehend the text material. Especially in history, the knowledge of prior historical background is often crucial for students to fully comprehending the author's overt message and implied substance. Some form of baseline review would be helpful both in the math context to make sure students' existing knowledge will allow them to understand the text, as well a baseline review that precedes using history texts for learning. I really like the idea of turning sentences that have unfamiliar vocabulary into plain language sentences, or providing definitions to the complex vocabulary. This allows the students to fully engage with and comprehend the meaning of the text itself, and also to carry with them better knowledge of what the complicated vocabulary actually means, for use in future learning.

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