Dalton, Stephanie Stoll. (1998). Pedagogy Matters: Standards for Effective Teaching Practice.

UC Berkeley: Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence. Retrieved from: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6d75h0fz Articles starts off with stating five standards for effective Pedagogy. Those five stands are: Joint Productive Activity, Developing Language and Literacy Across The Curriculum (LLD), Making Meaning: Connecting Schools to Students Lives, Teaching Complex Thinking (CT), and Teaching Through Conversation (IC). These standards influence each other. The first standard includes teacher arranging classroom seating to accommodate students individual and group needs to communicate and work jointly. Teacher should also organize students in a variety of groupings, such as by friendship, mixed academic ability, language, project, or interests, to promote interaction. In the second standard, the teachers listen to student talk about familiar topics such as home and community and connect student language with literacy and content are knowledge through speaking, listening, reading, and writing activities. The third standards states that teachers should design instructional activities that are meaningful to students and help them connect and apply their learning to home and community. In the fourth standard, the teachers should designs instructional tasks that advance student understanding to more complex levels by relating to their real-life experience. Finally in the fifth standard, the teachers arrange the classroom to accommodate conversation between the teacher and a small group of students on a regular and frequent schedule. Author clearly has defined what effective teaching methods in five different points or one can call it agendas. Not only has he described the functionality of those different agendas but also has included different real life examples which helps the reader formulate what he is trying to propose thus making his argument credible. He has done that for each of his points. The

author follows a certain order to describe his five standards. He starts off with stating points that are going to be discussed in that particular standard. Then follows the explanation of that standard which answers hows and whys. At certain places he has included some research which provides support and given some examples to help reader clarify any doubts. There many parts that I could include in my project. The most important to me where the indicator points. Since those are like brief summary of the standard, it will help me support each standards as I have done in the summary above. If necessary, I would include the examples that he has provided. There is one standard which I dont think is necessary to include in my project since it talks about curriculum and not the teaching method. Though teaching methods is somewhat related to the curriculum, it is imperative for me to focus on only teaching methods. While reading his article, I remembered some of my own experiences with the teaching methods he writes about in his article. It made me realize how my teachers have already implemented some of his techniques and how it has helped me learn the material better. It also made me think of how certain teacher could have used different methods so that the class would have been easier than it was. Quote to use: Teachers help students see everyday experience in more complex ways when students are invited to relate their home and community activities to learning topics. Activities such as cutting a watermelon to feed the largest number of children equally (Dalton 12) The meaning making standard urges teachers to seek out and include the contexts of students situated learning to imbue instruction with real-world value from students and local communities point of view(Dalton 25)

 About two years ago none(of the students) knew what a biscuit wasSo we made biscuits and I used that experience to teach measuringIts all estimation and you have your ingredients that you measure in the palm of your hands instead of in a measuring spoon. Thats the way they see it at home (Eriacho, Gchachu, & Odell,1991) (Dalton 22)

Allison, Barbara N., and Marsha L. Rehm. "Effective Teaching Strategies For Middle School Learners In Multicultural, Multilingual Classrooms." Middle School Journal 39.2 (2007): 12-18. ERIC. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. The authors begin their article by showing the statistics of how diversity of students in U.S. educational system has changed drastically in past years. The increased diversity in the classrooms has prompted much attention to the challenges associated with educating a multicultural, multilingual student population. Thus, to find out effective teaching methods in diversified schools, the authors carried out a survey where Family and consumer sciences middle school teachers were targeted. The survey included six-point scale to assess the effectiveness of a variety of teaching methods. After collecting the date, the authors were able to pin-point few effective methods and then went on elaborating on those methods. The visual teaching was one of them. Pictures, cartoons, maps graphs, charts, diagram, videos, and other multimedia resources enhanced learning because the students engage different senses, and help reinforce key ideas by presenting information in alternative formats(Allison and Marsha 4). The visual was followed by peer tutoring where two students from different backgrounds are paired together. This is beneficial due to their ability to become teachers and resources for each other, often relating better to each other than they would to a teacher. Cooperative learning was the next method which evolves from peer tutoring except it is for a larger group which helps students interact and collaborate with friends and other young people who are likely to become friends. Last, but not least, is having alternative modes of assessment which eliminates the language barrier thus truly measuring cognitive understanding of the students. The authors have used statistics and research to their advantage. Throughout the article, they have incorporated research to support their ideas. They followed a systematic approach to

address the issue by first showing the statistics, then doing their own survey from which they derived four different teaching methods which were highly effective, and finally elaborating on those methods using research. Although they have mentioned disadvantages for one of the teaching methods, they failed to mention it for others. The amount research they have incorporated in their arguments is highly noticeable thus making this article very credible. This article provides me with a different perspective on effective teaching methods due to diversity. It allows me to compare how the teaching methods change according to students in the classes. After finding couple of these articles, it makes me think to weather if there is a universal teaching method which is effective? If not, is there some resemblance to what others have proposed? I can ask these same questions in my inquiry project which will help me incorporate this article. I can use this article to identify teaching methods that are influenced by the diversity. Going back to what I mentioned earlier, it was confusing to why authors included the disadvantages for one of the methods not for the others? If they are talking about effective teaching methods, why are they negating themselves by showing disadvantages? Quotes to use: Pictures, cartoons, maps, graphs, chart, diagrams, videos, and other multimedia resources enhance learning because they engage different senses, accommodate visual learners, and help reinforce key ideas by presenting information in alternative formats (Allison and Marsha 4). When native English speaking students are paired with English Language learners, they become teachers and resources for each other, often relating better to teach other than they would to a teacher. Furthermore, peer tutoring promotes communication, motivates students, and helps

learners attain higher levels of achievement while developing friendships between students from different backgrounds (Allison and Marsha 4) Grouping students from different cultural backgrounds into heterogeneous groups and instructing them to collaborate and cooperate with each other on activities and problem-solving tasks has been found to promote inter-ethnic friendships, develop cross-cultural understandings, and build teamwork while also enhancing literacy and language acquisition among linguistically diverse students (Allison and Marsha 5)

Zahorik, JohnHalbach, AnkeEhrle, KarenMolnar, Alex. "Teaching Practices For Smaller Classes."Educational Leadership 61.1 (2003): 75. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. Since the federal government and more than 20 states have launched class size reduction initiatives, the authors wanted to find out teaching practices that are effective for smaller class size. After doing the survey they found three factors that determined teachers effectiveness. First one was Instructional orientations, where teachers wanted their student to acquire basic knowledge and skills and to become critical thinkers and able problem solvers. Authors also included different examples of teaching methods that were used by the teachers. Second was Management Style where teachers carefully planned activities that had clear goals, logical structure, and step-by-step content progression. They presented their lessons with enthusiasm, energy, and a commitment to academic success, and allowed few diversions from their targeted lesson plans. Last factor was Individualization focus where students articulate their thoughts and the teacher critiques and evaluates those thoughts. Authors also went on and described the teachers which are less effective. They dived those teachers into two categories: The Disinclined and The Disarmed teachers. The Disinclined teachers preferred experiential over explicit teacher methods and focused on student-centered procedures, such as problem-solving activities and hands-on task. The Disarmed teachers believed in the importance of basic learning and explicit teaching methods. The fact that authors conducted their own study holds the validity of their article though they fail to include any data collected making it hard for the reader to understand the observations they are stating. It would have been helpful for them to include how they pin-point three specific factors from their study. The layout of the articles is well put and makes it easier

for the reader to follow. Authors have also included quotes from teacher and examples in each of their factors which support their study. It is greatly beneficial for the authors to include a section about less effective teachers and having other side represented. This article will help me elaborate on how teaching methods differ by class sizes. I have gone to schools with class sizes no less than 30 so I havent experienced how teachers would teach in smaller class sizes. By looking at this article, it definitely helps to gain that perspective. As I mentioned it before, it would have been better for the authors to include how they came up with those three factors. Quotes to use: You need the building blocks in order to build a house, so you must have a basic foundation of knowledge before you can build on that. (Zahorik 2) Teachers presented their lessons with enthusiasm, energy, and a commitment to academic success, and allowed few diversions from their targeted lesson plans. (Zahorik 2) The lessons of disarmed teachers often included overly long introductions awkward transition, laborious explanations, and unproductive lessons diversions.