Dinah Zike's Reading
and Study Skills Foldables - The
American Journey
and Big Book
of Books and Activities by Dinah Zike
Reviewed
by Joy Wells
I was very taken in by the
Foldables book when Janet first
showed it to me the other day. Looking
at these wonderful ways student learning can be made visible I'm
reminded of a
quote Lynne shared with us today:
"The person who processes the information is the person who
learns
the information." --Wiggington, the Foxfire guy.
I resonate
with the rationales that Zikes gives for her
manipulatives approach, and they can be summed up in 3 words: students, students, and students.
These are products created by students, for
their own use, where they practice skills and gain knowledge. Also, Zikes mentions that foldables can
be
used as an assessment by the teacher, or by students to evaluate their
own
progress. I really like the
idea of
replacing the very tired, typical, and overused worksheet with
something such
as a "Top-Tab Book" where the tabs can be anything from a list of
prominent 19th century women, to the years 1914-1919 chronicling the
events of
WW 1. Each tab will then take you to the
student compiled information on that particular subject
The hotdog and
hamburger folds have been mentioned in
class, and now I know the origin of these technical terms.
In the Big Book the "basics"
on foldables and quick books are covered, such as folds and basic book
ideas. Zikes also suggests how to set up
your
classroom for this type of creativity -- using common materials readily
available.
Looking at
this unique method as a writing strategy, I
believe Zike's approach would work well in both fiction and non-fiction
genres. I'm looking forward to trying
out many of these ideas with my high school classes. I think they will
work
great especially for students who like hands on learning.
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