Literacyspecialinterest number2

Deep Comprehension Across Content Areas Such a blog resource immediately makes available material for STEM comprehension. In this case the science of robot development, the possible economic impact of the prototype described, the cultural capital of its tryout in a Japanese salon, the health/diagnostic/rehab value of its use for the elderly, the disabled and in rehab, and the psychological consequences of the hair washing experience coming from robotic digit massage versus human hands.

My partner teacher and I provide support in moving through increasing and challenging levels of text complexity in several ways. We moved around the classroom to help students with special domain vocabulary and content words. We also scaffolded the discussion so that they understood words and concepts as well as implicit messages in the video by their quantitatively analyzing it in their own discussions with our focusing them on the voice, music, and culture in which the prototype experience was displayed.

Mr. Grzelecki and I had the students identify and relate domain specific vocabulary to the academic (e.g. “prototype”) and domain specific (e.g. “sensor”) content the blog provided. They also discussed how the video, shot in Japan, included cultural and social studies, as well as robot science, robot fiction, and language arts dimensions.

In short, using this blog, although any similar content bearing resource could work as well, our students had a high energy, learning-rich experience from start to finish. There was high interest as the group read, viewed, and discussed the articles and videos. Our class conversation might well be described as passionate, as students not only expressed their views on what they had learned, but because the material clearly involved significant impact on their own lives, as well as those of their fellow humans, they strongly took and debated personal positions on the issue.

Based on our experience with several class sessions involving student interactions with posts from this blog on robotics news (vetted for relevance and appropriateness for k-12 students), my partner teacher and I will be on the lookout for sources of content that offer a similar format: online text news articles paired with embedded video. Further, I see in this a great 9