Blog #6 learning vs. acquisition

When looking at the difference between whether certain tasks were learning or acquisition there were a few times where I was uncertain which to choose and really felt that depending on how the task was presented, could possibly be both.  There were a couple tasks in particular that I struggled with.

The task of making a Venn diagram to compare two stories, I put (A) because I was thinking that the students really had to use higher level thinking to look at specific aspects on two stories and determine how they were alike or different.  To me this could take on looking not only at characters in both books, but also plot or problem/solution.  I think that it is really asking the student to go back into the text and pull out information that might not be surface knowledge.  Each person can get their own meaning from the texts and their Venn diagrams could take on different aspects and meanings depending on the directions and guidelines given.

After discussing this task as a group I did add the (L) because my teammates did bring up that many times the teacher assigns the books so there is little choice for the students.  The part of the story that is to be compared might also be teacher-chosen and the students might be limited in what they are able to construct meaning from and therefore might be comparing surface knowledge information.

Another area where I was unsure was the task that said to work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences.  I felt this was (A) because the students are using background knowledge to create meaning from the cut up words.  Working in pairs allows the students to talk about how the words can fit together and use their combined knowledge to make complete sentences.

Again, after speaking about the task, I did add an (L) because if the chant is something that is memorized or known very well then there may not be as much meaning needed to construct the sentences, but more recall of the lines of the chant. 

After completing this assignment, I can see that there are many tasks a teacher can assign that can take on both learning and acquisition depending on how the task is assigned.  I believe that there will be both types of teaching going on in most classrooms.  Some things need explicit teaching and phonics instruction does help with decoding.  It is also important to teach strategies that students can use when silent reading in order to help with comprehension.  I think that balanced literacy instruction doesn’t use just one view of writing or reading, but uses the strategy that will best suit the students and goal of the lesson.