text:
Right from the beginning (2010) teachers have missed the point on this issue! The English/Language Arts (ELA) Standards of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), that pertain also to science, social studies, and technical subjects, ask of teachers—not English teachers, but TEACHERS—that 70% of text should be non-fiction (by 12th grade). That means that teachers of social studies, science, and other technical subjects need to be using reading as a tool in their classrooms to learn subject matter! English teachers may want to add some non-fiction text to their repertoire, but the real thrust was to push other teachers into content-literacy-based instruction — reading for learning in the classroom.
If every middle and high school English teacher continued to do what they have always done, AND other teachers routinely used text, literacy skill development, and cooperative discussion as tools to help students learn, the 70% of non-fiction would be accounted for. The problem is that most subject area teachers are fixated in a culturally normative model of instruction that makes them think they need to TEACH everything to their students who they think cannot read. So they most often these days resort to slide presentations to "cover" the material. They put kids to sleep. The result is that students do not develop the sense that reading to learn is highly effective, and the onus is entirely on the English teachers to develop readers.
Getting subject area teachers to change their methodology is a tough nut to crack. The culturally normative model of teaching by telling is seemingly in the genetic makeup of those in the teaching profession. It is culturally normative because most of us, by the time we have had a masters degree, have sat through about 13,000 hours of it. It is what we know. On the other hand, once subject matter teachers try content-literacy-based instruction (CLBI), they realize how it is so much more powerful than "sit and git" teaching for so many reasons. CLBI allows kids to think. In fact, it is highly motivational because of that fact. Done properly, CLBI sets up students to want to find out about things. It gets them hypothesizing and searching for meaning. It is the way the mind works. Humans are hard-wired to make sense of things. If they cannot do so, they turn off to the topic.
If students were constantly involved in actively processing text to figure out how gravity works in theory and in the landing of a spacecraft on a comet, comparing and contrasting current world problems with the causes of the French Revolution, or wondering in their own minds about the effects of aerobic exercise on their abilities to perform intellectually (for a few examples), and they worked together to process these ideas with a guiding teacher as coach, they could be mastering all of the ELA standards, and they would become college and career ready at the same time.
It is not the ELA teacher who needs to change. Don't hold your breath though. Subject area teachers teach stuff, and ELA teachers teach reading. At least that is the norm that is so difficult to change. In the meantime, as long as you ELA teachers are the only ones who are held to the CCSS standards, you could have to lessen your use of great fiction.
What if, instead you went across the hall and connected with your colleagues to show them how to use content-literacy-based instruction to help students to process their subject matter. What if, for instance, you took the time to make an anticipation guide about something in their text—something about which the teacher was preparing to make a slide presentation—and you modeled the process of helping students to set purpose for serious reading and higher order thinking about a subject in their curriculum, engage in purposeful silent reading in the classroom, and cooperatively discuss and debate what it meant with their peers.
It was an ELA teacher who helped me convert to CLBI in 1989 when I was teaching 12th grade social studies. Once I saw how students respond to these methods, and how much less work was involved for me, I was sold. Since that time, I have used the methods to teach several different social studies subjects as well as science and mathematics. In fact, over the past 15 years, I have had the opportunity to model CLBI in the classrooms of teachers of just about every subject matter from kindergarten through college. A great many of those teachers were like me in 1989. They changed their methods as a result of what they saw their own students doing as a result.
I am not suggesting that you barge into another teacher's classroom with a really neat lesson and try to take over. However, you might take the time to convince colleagues, teacher leaders, and curriculum coaches in your school that, if they are interested in closing the achievement gaps that persist among diverse groups of students, they and their students truly would benefit from a curriculum that motivates deeper processing of important ideas while developing college and career readiness skills.
In sum, it is not the ELA teacher who needs to change the amount of fiction and non-fiction they use in their curriculum. All the other teachers in the school would naturally bring the non-fiction numbers to the 70% level by altering their methods. ELA teachers then could continue to turn kids on to great literature and they could help colleagues in science, social studies, and other technical subjects to make the transition to content-literacy-based instruction—reading and writing to learn new subject matter. Thousands of teachers are making the change each year and loving it.
Feel free to comment on this. You may contact me at firstname.lastname@example.com or through the web page: http://maxteaching.com.
Hands-On in the Mind
By Mark A. Forget
I recently shared some ideas with a group of career-technical education teachers at a conference in Nashville. The theme of the workshop was Motivating CTE Students to Read Challenging Text: Doing "Hands-On" in the Mind. In the workshop, which was near the end of a long day, I noted to the participating educators that what we were doing was not too different from a seventh period class, where students might have already expended a good deal of energy in earlier classes, and that it might be a bit more difficult to motivate them. Nevertheless, I began to model behaviors that I have used with students for years—behaviors that motivate through engagement.
After a few introductory remarks about Benjamin Bloom's original research on problem solving that led to the creation of the taxonomy of objectives for which he is so famous, and about the role played by higher-order thinking in helping people to learn subject matter, I could see several eyelids drooping, as I had anticipated might occur. Then I asked each of the participants to make some predictions on an anticipation guide, a piece of paper that included seven conjectures about "how students learn most effectively." After having committed to agreeing or disagreeing with each of the statements, the participants were asked to discuss the reasons why they chose the way they did on the anticipation guide. After a few minutes of discussions in small groups, I asked them to read silently from a short excerpt from my book, MAX Teaching with Reading and Writing (2004), as they sought evidence to support or negate their predictions. Having been engaged in discussion, the droopy eyes were no longer evident. Each person took to the text to find evidence for his or her thinking. It was pin-drop quiet in the room for about ten minutes, with everyone engaged in reading and gathering evidence to support their thinking.
After sufficient time for reading, participants were placed in small groups and asked to attempt to come to a consensus as to which of the seven items on the guide should be considered to be validated by the text (combined with their own prior knowledge of course). The ensuing discussions were highly active, with participants citing various ideas from the text and from their own experiences with their CTE students. When one group had achieved a consensus, I wrote their conclusions onto the screen in the front of the room, suggesting that the next step in the process was to try to achieve a whole-class consensus. Immediately some teachers disagreed with one of the conclusions drawn by the group whose ideas I had placed on the screen. The discussion went back and forth from one group to another, with teachers excitedly citing various parts of the text to make their points. The atmosphere in the room was quite emotional as they argued over what each word meant, and how such ideas would apply in their own classrooms. After several people had made a variety of debating points from virtually every group in the room, we amended the statement by substituting one word, altering a couple of others, and adding a phrase to clarify the idea. At this point there was a "classroom" consensus. And there was enough emotion in the room to cut it with a knife!
It was at this time that I pointed out to them how engaged they all appeared. I think many were stunned by the fact that they forgot how tired they were at the end of a long day, and had become so enthralled with the arguments/discussions in which they were involved that they hadn't noticed how time flies when you are having fun highly engaged. It was nearly time for the session to end, and not a person had left the room, nor were any appearing drowsy. Just the opposite was obvious to everyone present. I reminded them at this point that what they had been engaged in was problem-based learning, not to be confused with project-based learning, but not unrelated either.
Project-based learning is the practice of engaging students in seeking answers to a central question or solving a real-world problem through their own research, experiments and ideas. This process often culminates in some type of work project that leads to a product, such as a live or written presentation, a demonstration, or the creation of some invention or artwork. Proponents of project-based learning say that when it is done right, students may be learning history, economics, science, or math by working hands-on.
Problem-based learning, done properly, is similar to project-based learning in the required thinking, but involves a much shorter-term process, usually within a class period. The product—insofar as there is a product—is likely to be some sort of evidence in the form of individual and/or group writing that will lead to discussion or debate. Problem-based learning relies on the use of ill-structured problems that have the three characteristics of 1) needing more information than is offered in the problem, 2) allowing for multiple interpretations both before and after the reading, and 3) requiring higher-order thinking in order to come to some resolution. So, problem-based learning is essentially a mini-version of project-based learning, and it is easier to generate than one might think.
Though there are many techniques to create a problem-based learning situation in the classroom, one of my favorites is through the use of an anticipation guide. Every well-made anticipation guide has at least one or two statements that create ill-structured problems. Thus students—in this case, teachers in a workshop—have a need to find out more information based on their own personal interpretation of the statements. Partly as a result of pre-reading small-group discussions, each person went into the reading thinking, "I know I am right, and I know s/he is not, and I am going to find information that supports my thinking!"
When I do this sort of modeling for teachers, it is my hope that they see the effectiveness of the activity and will want to use it with their own students, provoking similar thinking behaviors, before, during, and after they read. What many may not know is that research resulting in development of the six tiers of thinking known as Bloom's Taxonomy was based, in part, on observations in problem-solving settings, comparing the problem-solving methods of high-achieving college students with those techniques used by students with lower performances that did not seem to reflect their actual abilities. What Bloom & Broder (1950) observed was that both aptitude groups had certain habitual behaviors in their problem solving styles. Low-performing students tended to employ "one-shot thinking" and to tolerate gaps in their knowledge (Whimbey, 1984). High-performing students were much more active in their problem solving, drawing on prior knowledge, and carefully proceeding though a series of steps that often included application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. What the researchers observed was that, to succeed, students placed in problem-solving settings had to break the problems down (analyze), and to combine their prior knowledge with the specifics of the new problems they faced to create novel solutions (synthesis), and to constantly weigh their own thinking and various possible alternatives (evaluation), and to apply their thinking to succeed. This research led to recognition of the various "levels" of the hierarchy, or taxonomy of thinking that they had observed—recognizing that those subjects that were engaged in higher-order thinking in problem-solving settings tended to think more precisely, and to have greater success in solving problems. Thus, observation of college students of differing aptitudes in problem-solving settings contributed to the view that awareness of higher-order thinking skills enhances one's abilities to perform thinking and problem solving. To me, the key concept to take from the early work of Bloom et al. is that what separates high performing students from low performing students is their differing habits of mind in solving problems, and that the processes of problem solving are as significant as the end product. Furthermore, one might conclude that training could be provided, not just in how to study to improve achievement, but also in how to think (Bloom & Broder, 1950).
Where does a person develop habits of mind that lead to effective thinking and problem solving? What are the implications for classroom instruction? Some students come to school already prepared with analytical skills because they have grown up in an environment where such precise thinking skills were modeled as a part of everyday life. Others don't. Perhaps we should recognize that teachers are capable of enhancing the analytical reasoning of all students by simply using the subject matter of any course as the medium. All that must be done is to modify the focus of our instruction, shifting the emphasis from the content itself to the mental processing of the content, with provisions to be made to observe and provide feedback on the processing (Whimbey, 1984). We must create an environment in which opportunities to solve subject-matter-related problems abound, and in which the opportunities for formative assessment and feedback correspondingly abound. In other words, teachers can cultivate intelligence by cultivating intelligent behavior in their students. Instead of the culturally normative practice of primarily providing students with information (knowledge) and probing for understanding (comprehension) teachers could create situations in which students had opportunities to learn through problem solving (practicing higher-order thinking—combining fluid intelligence with crystalized intelligence).
Since Bloom's mid-20th-century research, refinements to the original taxonomy have been proposed (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Webb, 1997, 2002; Marzano & Kendall, 2007), and each refinement contributes, in its own way, to a finer understanding of the habits of mind we associate with intelligence. (Figure 1.) Anderson and Krathwohl re-align Bloom's, and Webb synthesizes and expands on both, achieving similar recommendations. Marzano & Kendall apply three "systems" of processing knowledge to the three domains of information, mental processing, and psychomotor activity. The various levels of processing knowledge that are included in earlier taxonomies are subsumed within the cognitive system. They also posit metacognition and self-system as critical elements in the habits of mind to be developed in students.
My contention is that, through content-literacy-based instructional (CLBI) classroom activities like those performed in the CTE teacher workshop mentioned above, we allow for students to acquire sophisticated habits of mind with regard to learning and problem solving. Unfortunately, I see a dearth of such activities in K-13 classrooms that I visit around the country.
Figure 1
|Bloom's Revised (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
|Webb's DOK
|Marzano & Kendall (2007)
|Metacognitive System
|Cognitive System:
Knowledge Utilization
|Extended Thinking
|Strategic Thinking
The concept of taxonomies of cognitive (and other) behaviors most often imply use of increased levels or complexities of cognitive performance as one moves up the table from the lowest level to the top. For Bloom's original taxonomy, the lowest level of thinking would be at the knowledge level, suggesting behaviors characterized by the descriptors of the lowest levels of the other taxonomies: remembering, recalling, or retrieving knowledge, perhaps best characterized by memorization. As one moves up in the tables, one sees increased mental activity involved in the higher processes. The Marzano/Kendall taxonomy differs in that it goes beyond a knowledge-related taxonomy. Their cognitive system has four levels similar to Webb's, each of which describes ways of acting on cognitive knowledge. The Marzano/Kendall taxonomy then progresses beyond cognitive behavior to include metacognition and self-system as important educational objectives. So, the Marzano/Kendall taxonomy really includes three systems of a hierarchical structure of thought: cognition (the four ways of using knowledge), metacognition, and self-system. It is the development of metacognition and self-system and that are the basic premises of this book and of CLBI. Indeed, the essence of MAX Teaching is daily immersion in higher-order thinking within a skill-development paradigm to help students acquire facility in metacognitive behaviors and to develop a self-system based on habits of mind that are built on repeated experiences of success in processing ideas and solving intellectual problems.
My experiences with content-literacy-based instruction (CLBI), facilitating students' reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking in subject area classrooms, began before publication of the latter three taxonomies, and I did just fine using Bloom's. In fact, at first, I was not really cognizant of how what I was doing in the classroom with CLBI was engaging students in the higher levels of processing ideas. I only saw that students were highly engaged and that they were retaining information so much better than they had when I simply gave them the information to recall. In addition, they were all becoming comfortable with reading for learning. My original focus in using CLBI had been on the dual acquisition of literacy skills and subject matter. I knew the importance of learning through reading in my own educational history. One could say that I truly learned how to learn through reading several years after I graduated from high school. (I dropped out of college in my first attempt, largely because I was not capable of keeping up with the reading required. After a short stint with military combat, leading to many months in the hospital, and years on crutches, I again attempted college, and with a great deal of effort, was able to develop the literacy skills that I had never acquired through an education that had been centered on the culturally normative model.)
As I worked on my master's degree in secondary curriculum development at the college of education, in the first year after receiving a bachelor's degree, professors constantly stressed that higher-order thinking was a goal to be achieved by students, and that Bloom's Taxonomy was the way to go. Most of my instructors were quite adamant about that. It is just that I had no idea how to really get students to practice the higher levels of thinking. After all, like most newly graduated teachers, I had sat through approximately 13,000 hours of the culturally normative model of instruction throughout my education. When I did student teaching, I was observed, and lauded, for how interesting my lectures were. I was clueless as to how to get students deeply engaged in processing ideas. Eventually I figured out the missing link—reading. If all of the students had read something, they could discuss what they had read. However, homework was not the place for the reading to take place. For many students, the reading would be too difficult. For others, they had myriad excuses why they did not get to the reading. The fact is that only a few would have read the assignment for class each day. What I discovered was that it is very difficult to perform higher-order thinking about something for which a person has no knowledge to start with! This problem is, of course, what leads teachers to fall back into the culturally normative model to begin with. They have a need to convey knowledge to their students. Of course, teachers also do as much as possible to help students comprehend what they lecture about. They pepper students with questions to help them think about the new knowledge they are receiving. Teachers create analogies to help students to comprehend information. But how can a teacher get the students to get beyond the lower levels of the taxonomy? That was the quandary.
Fifteen years after beginning my career as a teacher, I attended a train-the-trainer workshop wherein I learned how to use reading for learning as a routine for the classroom. Suddenly, by having students take the time to read, right there in the classroom, I could help them to be able to read difficult text. I could help them to set their own purposes to want to read, a fundamental part of metacognitive behavior. I could facilitate their pre-reading and post-reading discussions. It did not take long to realize that the top four levels of Bloom's taxonomy were the norm under this classroom regime. Without my anticipating that it was going to happen, higher-order thinking became a routine. Students analyzed what they were reading, naturally discussed how it would apply under various circumstances, synthesized ideas with what they had learned previously, and with their own experiences, and evaluated the author's and each other's interpretations of what they were reading. What I was discovering was that higher-order thinking is a natural extension of the CLBI process. Everyone in the classroom has read the subject matter with real purpose, and interactive discussion and debate is a natural outcome of an environment in which everyone has the same information to play with, but different opinions as to what the information means. So, students were practicing higher-order thinking and metacognitive behaviors every day as they self-actualized as independent learners. In other words, I watched my students as they routinely performed higher-order thinking, practiced metacognition, and developed a self-system that would lead to a lifetime of successful learning.
To facilitate the process, one of my favorite CLBI methods became the use of an anticipation guide—a set of conjectures about what is to be read—to get students arguing about ideas both before and after the reading, which is what I did in the CTE workshop last week. (The term anticipation guide is somewhat of a misnomer since, if created and used properly, it does much more than lead to anticipation. It allows for individuals to maintain purpose during silent reading, and it provides the specific language about which students will argue after the reading. A well-made anticipation guide is quite the opposite of most textbook-published worksheets that demand essentially no real reading/thinking at all.) Whenever I make an anticipation guide, I take ideas that are important from the reading—the learning targets for the lesson—and I figure out some way to connect with what I think students might think about the ideas, based on incomplete information, and I write statements (most of which are at least mostly true interpretations of the text they are going to read) that are at a level of language that students will find easy to interpret. In other words, I scaffold students by writing the statements in language that will make it easy for students to understand the essential concepts without necessarily using the technical language they will subsequently encounter in the text to be read. Agreement or disagreement with the statements brings students each into conjecture. In facilitating this process, I have created a problem-based learning opportunity. Students are committed to finding out. My experience has been that, once hooked on a set of ideas over which there is some contention—or at least a need for clarification—students of all levels of capability become purposeful readers and thinkers. Teachers in a workshop are similar.
In fact, problem-solving behaviors (higher-order thinking) are central to who we are as a species. Language is the tool for such thinking. By allowing for all persons in the room to have access to the same language is to facilitate acquisition of both language and habits of mind that include higher-order thinking. Every student has access to the same text. They do not have to rely on what the teacher said fifteen minutes ago—or yesterday, or last week—in order to develop ideas. The resources are right on their desks in the classroom. Whatever text(s) the teacher has chosen are the resources. The problem to be solved, then, is what does this text mean, exactly? How shall we interpret this in light of all of our knowledge and experience? How does what we are discussing apply in our lives? Such problem-based interaction—what I call hands-on in the mind—is a natural outflow of human collaboration, which can only occur if everyone is on the same page, literally. We all are capable of higher-order thinking as long as we have the resources to be in the discussion. Content-literacy-based instruction is one solution, and it is easy to do if a person is willing to get beyond the culturally normative model and try something different. I always tell teachers that, if you use CLBI for two weeks straight, every day, you will never go back. Being highly engaged is too much fun—even during the last period of the day. That is what the CTE workshop was all about.
Contact me at email@example.com, or check out our web page www.maxteaching.com.
Anderson, L., & Krathwohl, D. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing : a revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.
Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. New York: Longman.
Bloom, B. and Broder, L. (1950). Problem solving processes of college students. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Forget, M. (2004). MAX teaching with reading & writing: Classroom activities for helping students learn new subject matter while acquiring literacy skills. Victoria, BC: Trafford.
Marzano, R., and Kendall, J. (2007). The new taxonomy of educational objectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Webb, N. (1997). Criteria for alignment of expectations and assessments in mathematics and science education. Council of Chief State School Officers and National Institute for Science Education Research Monograph No. 6. Madison: University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Webb, N. (2002). Alignment study in language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies of state standards and assessments for four states. A study of the State Collaborative on Assessment & Student Standards (SCASS) Technical Issues in Large-Scale Assessment (TILSA). Washington, D. C.: Council of Chief State School Officers.
Whimbey, A. (1984). The key to higher order thinking is precise processing. Educational Leadership, September, 1984. Vol. 42, No. 1. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Scripted Introduction to Behaviors that Improve Instruction
An instructional model that assures deeper understanding of subject matter, facilitates higher-order thinking, helps to close the poverty-related gaps between students of different socio-economic levels, and prepares students to be college and career ready has been around for a long time, and it is now the essence of the Common Core State Standards.
The Big Switch: How Will We Ever Get Teachers to Comply with the Common Core State Standards? There is little question in my mind that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are right for the times in which we live and for the generation of students that is coming through our schools today. It would even seem that a consensus is developing along those lines since forty-six states have adopted them at the time of this writing. It is time to throw out the more-than-one-hundred-year-old "culturally normative" model of teaching (by transmitting information to students), and to begin to use what has, for over a hundred years now, been recognized as a most effective tool for learning — literacy-based instruction (Huey, 1908). The former — the culturally normative model of instruction — was certainly appropriate for a population that pretty much finished formal schooling by the third grade, and hoped to live a life of agricultural or factory work. The latter — content-literacy-based instruction — though it was described in the literature more a hundred years ago, has barely taken a foothold in our school systems, despite the constant flow of research that has demonstrated its effectiveness at helping students to deeply learn subject matter while, at the same time, learning how to learn. That is up until now. The CCSS is largely based on the content-literacy-based instructional model.
The problem is that the culturally normative model persists simply because it is what was done to us, and we all recognize it. It seems normal to be in a classroom wherein the teacher talks at students for a time, and then provides them with some form of written assignment that involves looking up answers for a textbook-published worksheet. The central problem with the normative model is that the principal focus is on lower-level thinking. The model is designed to provide knowledge and perhaps comprehension, even though we know (and have known since the 1950s) that the use of higher-order thinking leads to deeper understandings and greater retention of information and ideas (Bloom, 1956). Nevertheless, if you walk down the corridors of K-12 schools around the country (as I do quite frequently) you will see the culturally normative model to be thriving as though none of the research accumulated over the past century ever existed!
The culturally normative model is a system that has worked reasonably well for about 25 to 30 percent of students throughout its time, and, when it fails, there is always something or someone to blame other than the instructional model itself. An underlying premise of the recently developed CCSS is that we know what works, and it is not the normative model. If you want to close the gaps that exist between students of poverty and students from more advantaged homes, you would embrace the CCSS. The problem is in getting teachers to change. There is nothing easy about changing any long-enduring system of behavior, and the culturally normative model is especially difficult to challenge in the minds of teachers who have practiced it for years, and even for those young, new teachers who haven't spent very much time actually practicing it in their own classrooms, but have experienced the system since they were kindergartners. So the failing pedagogy persists despite its shortcomings.
The essence of the CCSS is that literacy is at the core of preparing all students to be college-ready and/or career-ready by the time they are finished with high school. What the CCSS does is to take advantage of the fact that, applied correctly, content-literacy-based instruction — reading and writing for learning — has a long tradition among the small percentage of teachers who have used it in their subject area classes of solving many problems at once. Content-literacy-based instruction closes the gaps that result from pre-existing language deficits, it helps students to become accomplished readers and thinkers, it is highly engaging and motivating, and thus reduces discipline problems in the classroom, and it helps students to become autonomous and self-directed learners. It does all this while improving students' understandings of the subject matter they are learning.
Scripted Lesson Activities? Some say that scripted lessons are no solution to teacher preparation, but I disagree. Generic but scripted activity procedures can facilitate the massive change needed to break out of the mold of the culturally normative model of teaching. (You will see later that a scripted instructional sequence is how I first acquired the abilities involved in facilitating student-centered learning.) Allen Mendler (2012) suggests, "changes in behavior often precede changes in beliefs, attitudes, habits, and expectations" (p. 13). If teachers are to make the somewhat radical change from practicing the normative model of teaching to becoming coaches, or facilitators of students' active learning, then they can benefit from guidance in the form of written instructions. Getting past the deeply ingrained attitudes and habits of the normative model can help a teacher improve through practice. If a teacher is willing to learn — to try out new curricula — then why not facilitate the process with as much help as possible? Lemov, Woolway, and Yezzi, in Practice Perfect (2012), point out the need for precisely accurate descriptions that are necessary for people who are making significant changes in their behaviors. Rule 19 of their 42 rules for improving practice suggests,
"(n)ovices can and should apply a model by directly imitating it… most people feel they are supposed to put their own spin on it… they try to think through whether the model matches their style or their personality, and they get stuck there, not ever applying. Some learners misapply the model in an attempt to give it their own spin, and then, mistakenly assume it was the technique that didn't work for them rather than their implementation of the technique… (l)earners need to hear that direct replication of the model is a completely legitimate way to approach a technique.…(E)ven the seemingly soft skills of presentation and human interaction that are in play in so many professions can be learned more readily if you treat them as technical skills. You might assume that it squashes practitioners' freedom and creativity to tell them that what you expect is for them to copy the model you present. In fact it can free them to do simply as they see, to think less and act more, to feel the success of a simple moment, and it can insure a proficient performance — the predecessor to creativity."
Certainly a too tightly scripted curriculum designed to foresee everything that might occur in the course of a classroom lesson would be destined to fail since most effective instruction involves constantly seeking evidence of progress and/or understanding (or the lack thereof) and reacting to the resulting evidence with instructional changes to enhance the learning. In other words, no class goes exactly as planned, and any teacher needs to be able to make ongoing changes as the lesson proceeds. On the other hand, the culturally normative model is so imbedded in the classroom and so resistant to change, that, if a flexible set of steps — a generic, yet widely applicable series of steps to be applied in a multitude of content areas, at a variety of age levels — could help teachers who are willing to learn to get beyond the apparent stigmatism that limits them to traditional approaches, then perhaps it is worth a try.
I have been doing workshops in content-literacy-based instruction for over twenty years now. In the workshops, I have always modeled the procedural steps of a content-literacy-based instructional activity, such as the use of an anticipation guide (an activity that, despite its name, is much more than a pre-learning activity if carried out properly). In so doing, I take teachers through a process that essentially places them in the role of students. In other words, the workshop is just like a content-literacy-based classroom, with my acting as the instructor, and the participating teachers as the students. I have always used adult, pedagogy-related readings to model the "two-for-the-price-of-one" nature of content-literacy-based instruction. The participating teachers acquire new ideas from the text that they read, from me, and from each other as fellow learners, just as the process occurs in a real classroom. At the same time, the teachers practice literacy skills. Often, in the past, when the workshops ended, teachers would be very enthusiastic about wanting to try out the processes they had learned. However, once they returned to their own classrooms, they would leave out essential elements that I had employed when modeling in the workshop. At times, that led to the content-literacy-based activity not working as well as it had in the workshop, and, upon experiencing less than what they expected, the teachers would revert to their default mode — the culturally normative model. So it is critical that teachers understand the rationale behind the pedagogy as well as how to perform the pedagogy, but they can also benefit from the carefully designed processes that show step-by-step procedures in order to be able to get it right from the start. The need for both explanation and guidance explains the format of the workshops and the two parts of the book. We learn by reading, and we learn by doing. And it never hurts to have a recipe.
My Own Experience with Scripted Lessons My own teaching career, launched in 1974, has been the inspiration for my book,MAX Teaching with Reading and Writing: Classroom Activities for Helping Students Learn New Subject Matter While Acquiring Literacy Skills (2004, second edition in press). You could say that I first learned how to teach in a student-centered reading and writing classroom, using a book of carefully thought-out lesson plans not unlike those in Part II of this book. But that would not be entirely true. I did not learn how to teach; rather, I learned how to facilitate active learning by students. That's an altogether different thing. But I didn't learn that immediately.
My discovery of student-centered instructional techniques did not take place until my third year of teaching. I tried other classroom activities before that time, focusing on the normative model that had been practiced on me for most of my education. For example, when I first got out of the college of education, I wanted to imitate the best of my college professors who had been able hold my attention for hours as they lectured about their research interests and other topics. My first classroom experience involved teaching the history of the United States. It was a great time to be teaching that subject. The Alex Haley miniseries "Roots" was on television, and there were dramatic turns occurring in U.S. politics. I was enthusiastic, and my enthusiasm carried over to my students. But it was not enough to keep students interested for long. They lacked the discipline of a college student accustomed to lectures. In addition, I had all the problems that any young teacher might have with classroom management and discipline. Results were mixed at best.
By my third year, I was ready to try something new. At that time, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston had developed an "inquiry curriculum" in the social studies. Each lesson was designed by curriculum specialists at the Carnegie-Mellon Institute to use constructivist principles, leading students to discover for themselves new understandings. Such discoveries would take place through the use of primary source materials to write about, discuss, and set purposes for reading, reading in the classroom, and then writing about and cooperatively discussing student ideas to assist in creating meaning regarding history. Each lesson was written in a step-by-step format that any teacher could follow. If the teacher did so, students were led through a sequence of getting ready to read through thinking, writing and discussion, silent reading from various forms of text, and more discussion and writing that allowed them to systematically construct meaning from written and other sources.
What was great about this method is that it allowed students to become historians—to work as historians do. They would form opinions and make predictions about what other historians would conclude—even before they would read the history textbook. The result was that once they got into the textbook, they had sufficient knowledge and purposes for reading that allowed them to become active in processing text that otherwise might have been much less interesting. A typical lesson from the Holt curriculum might read as follows (I abbreviate it for terseness.):
- Pass out to each student the list of laws written in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia. Ask students to read the laws silently to themselves, thinking about how the laws reflected the society that existed there.
- Tell students to write on their own paper what they thought Jamestown Colony might be like.
- Share students' predictions on the chalkboard, making a list of predictions for the whole class.
- Ask students to scan the list of predictions they have made to see if they could be organized into a few categories.
- Lead the class through a discussion, narrowing the list to three or so categories.
- Tell students that now that they have collectively made predictions of what the Jamestown Colony was like at the time, they have become historians. Then introduce them to the next step, looking at the textbook to see what other historians have said about the same topic.
And so it went. Students were engaged, the teacher was empowered to let students learn, and students routinely used literacy skills to perform higher order thinking about topics important to understanding who we are as Americans. What I learned from the pre-planned lessons created by Holt Reinhart Winston and the Carnegie-Mellon Institute was that students actually learn better when they are coached through a process in which they are active in trying to make sense of something. It is the opposite of the lecture wherein students struggle to perceive what the teacher has on his or her mind. It is also the opposite of what occurs when students are provided worksheets designed to help them learn the details of subject matter. What really occurs with most worksheets is that students simply decode the "correct" answer to fill in the spaces on the worksheets. Rarely do they get to mull over important ideas relating to what they are learning. I had now seen firsthand what works and what doesn't work if learning (in the best sense of the word) is to take place.
But then I changed jobs. I moved away from that teaching position to another state, which presented the challenge of a different curriculum. I no longer had the pre-planned lessons I had found so effective in leading my students through the discovery process. My new job was to teach U. S. and Virginia Government. Although I had a reasonably good textbook, the instructor's manual did not provide for the same level of student engagement. Again, the teacher was "on stage" for most of the class. Students learned, but they learned what was on the teacher's mind rather than being led through a thought-provoking discovery of how our governmental systems work. If the teacher had a limited understanding of the topic of the day, then the students were doomed to the same.
Fifteen years into my teaching career, I was first exposed to the idea of using reading and writing to help students become engaged in their own learning. I had the opportunity to attend a summer staff development experience that taught me several classroom activities (many of which are included in this book) to use within a three-step lesson framework that helps students become actively engaged in learning virtually any subject matter. The three steps of the lesson framework that I learned that summer were "anticipation, realization, and contemplation" (Vaughan & Estes, 1986). Through the facilitation of a knowledgeable teacher, classroom students could become engaged in virtually any subject matter in such a way as to be ready for confronting new ideas in text, be equipped with strategies for gathering new information while reading, and be able to construct their own understandings so that they could think critically about the ideas afterward. No longer did I need a "canned curriculum" such as that from which I first learned that student-centered learning works best. Now, in any subject area, I could help students use text to become engaged in learning subject matter that probably wouldn't have interested them otherwise. I was immediately struck by the potential of these new classroom activities. And I saw what happened as soon as I put them into action. When I employed reading and writing in such a way that students became engaged in their own processing of new information, they became motivated to learn. On a daily basis, they all learned much more than I could have told them through lecture and note taking. Why? Because each student was involved in first processing the new information in his/her own unique way, followed by discussion with others, and then coming to an understanding based on collective analysis and interpretation. What had occurred in my third year of teaching — student-centered active engagement in learning from print and from each other — was now happening in my government class, even though I was designing and facilitating the lessons myself rather than following a prefabricated published guide! It is more fun to teach in this way, and it is more fun to learn this way. I quickly made that discovery. I found that students in my classes were actively engaged and therefore not causing problems related to discipline. But an even more significant result was occurring: while my students were better learning my subject matter, they were also becoming better readers and thinkers, attaining knowledge and skills that would enhance their lives forever. They were learning to learn — and they were learning how to learn effectively. Two for the price of one!
It Has Worked for Me, and for Many Others I am an example of someone who changed dramatically from the culturally normative model of teaching to a content-literacy-based instructional model. I probably would not have made the transition without the help of scripted lessons, yet it was those lessons that provided the basis for my development. I had broken past the obsolete mold to become receptive to the changes needed to have a student-centered classroom because of that scripting. Once I had achieved the pedagogical experiences thus provided, all it took was understanding of the content-literacy-based instructional model to become a designer of my own student-centered lessons based on getting students reading and writing every day in the classroom. If it is true that changes in behavior often precede changes in beliefs, attitudes, and habits, and if direct replication of a model is a completely legitimate way to approach a new technique, then perhaps we should recognize that scripting may help many teachers make the big move that is coming. I know from the thousands of teachers with whom I have worked over the past many years since publication of the first edition of my book, that they have found the detailed learning activity descriptions in part II to be extremely helpful in their own progression into the world of student-centered learning and away from the culturally normative model. Because the activity descriptions in part II of the book are generic enough to be applied with most any text, and because the activities can be mixed and matched to create a wide variety of lesson plans, the results are a far cry from the very scripted lesson plans that launched my career in student-centered learning, and maybe that is why teachers and students learn to love the results.
Mark A Forget, May 16
Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. New York: Longman.
Forget, M. (2004). MAX teaching with reading & writing: Classroom activities for helping students learn new subject matter while acquiring literacy skills. Victoria, BC: Trafford.
Huey, E. (1908). The psychology and pedagogy of reading. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lemov, D., Woolway, E., and Yezzi, K. (2012). Practice perfect: 42 rules for getting better at getting better. New Jersey: Jossey-Bass.
Mendler, A. (2012). When teaching gets tough: Smart ways to reclaim your game. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Silent purposeful reading, preparing for discussion
I don't see the CCSS as a "flavor of the week" as many in education might be led to believe. The reason I say this is that the essence of the CCSS is not so much the content to be taught as it is the processes that should be used to help students simultaneously acquire both content and the ability to learn – across the board use of literacy skills in the classroom, with students doing silent reading for upwards of 90 minutes a day (or an average of 15 minutes in each of six classrooms) according to Lucy Calkins et al. (Pathways to the Common Core, 2012). According to Pathways to the Common Core, the CCSS
… emphasize much higher-level comprehension skills than previous standards.
… emphasize reading complex texts.
… call for proficiency, complexity, and independence.
… support cross-curricular literacy coaching.
… require that every student is given access to higher-order thinking and complex text.
… emphasize argumentative literacy.
… expect a minimum of 90 minutes per day of silent reading in the classroom.
If most teachers only knew what those of us who have been using these methods in our classrooms for decades knew, they would celebrate the change. But alas, this sort of change doesn't come easily. We are stuck in what Joyce & Showers (2002) call a "culturally normative model" of instruction (p. 37). It is culturally normative because we all recognize it and have lived through it. It works for a fraction of students, but the fraction becomes smaller as the amount of knowledge out there, and the means of attaining information change. The culturally normative model is teacher-centered and knowledge-centered. It is generally not a way to help students to perform higher-order thinking. Rather, it is about conveying knowledge – often obsolete knowledge, or knowledge that may seem obsolete to the recipients of it.
Teachers who already use the techniques of content-literacy-based instruction (read CCSS) in their classrooms can easily identify with the following Martin Heidegger quote from the early 1950's:
"Teaching is even more difficult than learning. We know that; but we rarely think about it. And why is teaching more difficult than learning? Not because the teacher must have a larger store of information, and have it always ready. Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teaching calls for is this: to let learn. The real teacher, in fact, lets nothing else be learned than—learning… The teacher is far ahead of his apprentices in this alone, that he has still far more to learn than they—he has to learn to let them learn. The teacher must be capable of being more teachable than the apprentices."
Unfortunately, many in the teaching profession might completely reject this notion of teaching as "letting learn" because it is so far outside the culturally normative model, and because many teachers would not know where to begin to implement such a regime in their classrooms. Yet, the CCSS is asking of teachers exactly that. Through the use of content-literacy-based instructional techniques, any teacher can facilitate active student participation in discussions that cause the students to perform higher-order thinking as a routine way of processing ideas. To make this happen in a classroom, the teacher would need to feel confident in the abilities of students to think. (They can.) She would also need to feel confident in the use of classroom activities that might not be something she has seen much of in her lifetime. (Literacy-based activities work.) If a teacher has the experience – year after year – of watching students of all ability levels acquiring the joys of becoming successful learners, that teacher will never look back to the culturally normative model.
So, yes, the CCSS requires many to rethink what they do in their classrooms, and the changes required will need to be supported by schools and school systems. They are changes that will lead to college and career readiness, and the changes will prepare students of all ability levels for a lifetime of successful learning. The culturally normative model – designed for an era long gone – won't. So don't fight it; celebrate it, and watch yourself grow as a teacher.
Using MAX Teaching strategies


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Moodswings (band)
|This article does not cite any references or sources. (February 2009)
|Electronic music
Trance music
|Years active
|Water Music/Varèse Sarabande/Universal Records
Arista/BMG Records
|Associated acts
|The Smiths
|James F.T. Hood
|Past members
|James F.T. Hood
Grant Showbiz
Moodswings is a musical duo composed of Grant Showbiz and James F.T. Hood. Grant Showbiz was a onetime roadie and guitar tech who later produced albums by The Smiths, Billy Bragg, Silverfish, and Gong. James Hood was a former drummer for The Pretenders, The Impossible Dreamers, Kid Creole & the Coconuts and Jeff Beck. After Showbiz and Hood teamed up in 1989, the duo released the album Moodfood (Arista/BMG, 1992), which scored a hit with the single "Spiritual High (State of Independence) Pt. II," which featured vocals by Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders). "Spiritual High Pt. III," from the same album, featured samples from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. "Spiritual High II" was played during the closing credits of the 1992 Bridget Fonda film Single White Female, and was included on The Pretenders' 2000 album Greatest Hits.
The Live at Leeds EP (Arista) followed in 1994 (with artwork styled after the album by the Who of the same name), and in 1997, the group released Psychedelicatessen (Arista/BMG), which featured vocals from Tanita Tikaram, on the song "Oh Happy Day'. Grant Showbiz was a member of Moodswings up until the album Horizontal, which James Hood solo-produced (Varèse Sarabande, 2002). Julee Cruise sings vocals on two tracks from Horizontal: "Seems to Remind Me" and "Into the Blue." James Hood contributed "Storm in a Teacup" from the same album for the 2005 documentary Do You Believe? Another World is Possible.
- Moodfood (1992)
- Live at Leeds (1994)
- Psychedelicatessen (1997)
- Horizontal (2002)
- Open Space - Volume 1 (Spiritual High video) (2006)
- Pretenders Greatest Hits (Spiritual High video) (2006)
- The Velvet Lounge (Into the Blue video) (2002)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Scottish Inns Martinsburg
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Travel Blogs from Martinsburg
Diners galore
... as the trees lose their foliage and reveal another world hidden behind. There were lots of hills today as I passed through the Catskill mountains. I did encounter a bit of freezing rain, but was through it in about 5 minutes, gratefully.
WalMart in Martinsburg, WV has a full grocery store so I had a huge salad and giant Anjou pear for supper. I have apples, bananas and another pear for tomorrow. Ah, fine dining on the road!
A Fond Farewell
It was a bittersweet breakfast as we knew we would be saying farewell to people, especially to David and Gene who would leave right after breakfast. We said our goodbyes to the hikers as well, who were off on yet another hike before leaving this beautiful site.
Those who remained in our little group went on to learn about Thailand. We were introduced to traditional Thai utensils made out of ...
Third Graders and More Work
... they would see in the village. We then broke into four groups of children, Road Scholar workers, and adults accompanying the students — each group with our own Shepherd's Spring Leader. Stewart leading our group, and we visited each home in the global village as he spoke about the challenges faced in each region of the world represented. We showed the students the rabbits in Appalachia, the goats in Kenya, the duck in Thailand and the chickens in Guatemala. We then ...
A Little Rain Won't Stop Us
... guest speaker, Ruth Anne Callaham, who talked about what is being done in Washington County, Md. about helping the hungry. She had food bank experience and is the county commissioner. She spoke about education not only of students and families, but of teachers to better help their students. There was lively debate on some of the merits of her ideas and plans. We all took away something from her presentation.
Postvisit: Entering West Virginia
... DC. This is one place where there are lots of government jobs that didn't suffer doing the recession. And living in or near DC has become extremely expensive as a result. So now people are commuting to DC all the way from West Virginia.
I wonder how the native West Virginia folk feel about these new city folk moving to their area, littering the landscape with houses. At least there's more density these days in home construction. ...


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Urban explorers reach base camp at Ladybird Grove
Part Wes Anderson film, part campground, Ladybird Grove and Mess Hall is the new restaurant getting buzz in Old Fourth Ward. This campground-style eatery sits right on mile 9.25 of the BeltLine, separated by a tastefully orchestrated landscape design and a small walking path. The concept is one-of-a-kind yet perfectly represents the quirky personality of the up-and-coming Old Fourth Ward. […]
No longer a pi in the sky dream, new club takes root
It may not have been easy as pie to start, but the after more than a year of planning, the Easy as Pi Club, a new after-school computer science club, is finally a reality. The club, the product of a partnership between Georgia Tech's Center of Advanced Communication Policy and Grady, aims to spark an interest in computer programming and […]
Underground protests take to street
By Carter Guensler and Margo Stockdale As hundreds gathered near the entrance of Underground Atlanta, helicopters hovered above recording the scene. With loud music blaring, picketers hoisted signs overhead and spoke out against injustice. Demonstrators rallied on the evening of Nov. 25 to protest the St. Louis County grand jury's Nov. 24 decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson for […]
Braves change up in the offseason
Have the Braves already given up on 2015 by trading all their talent away? It certainly looks like it. Perhaps the Braves want a fresh start when they move into their new stadium in 2017. Regardless, this offseason has been one of many changes. The Braves may start the 2015 season with a completely new outfield because they traded away […]
A taste of Venezuela: Arepa Mia's vibrant dishes delight
I always thought there was no such thing as a perfect meal, and that's not for lack of trying. I have sampled everything from snails to funnel cake, squab to eel in hopes of finding an impeccable repast. Yet despite my seemingly comprehensive efforts, a gem of a cuisine had somehow slipped under my radar. Welcome to Venezuela. Arepa Mia, […]
A conversation with Matt Weyandt: Grady alumnus, former politico and recent co-founder of Xocolatl
Krog Street Market, the long-awaited food-hall style market located at the corner of Krog St. and Irwin St., finally opened its doors on Nov. 24. The market hosts 20 different dining and retail vendors including Xocolatl, an artisan chocolate shop specializing in bean-to-bar single-origin chocolate. Xocolatl is owned and operated by Matt Weyandt (class of '97 Grady alumnus) and Elaine […]
New advising system created to foster bonds
By Will Taft and Nick Hamilton On a typical Wednesday, junior Uzuki Kakinuma leaves her advisement class and heads for the music wing, a routine readily accepted by both her advisement teacher Ms. Harris and her orchestra teacher Mr. Rodriguez. "It's just enough time for me to practice during the day, or jam with my friends," Kakinuma said, " I […]
Twenty Questions for the 'Gebba Girls'
On twinning, Egyptians, radical terrorists and the practice of Islam in a paranoid society "We love tricking people, and we have he same favorite color, and the same boys-" Wait! Before we start, how are we going to differentiate you two on paper? "Put Summer in italics." "Yeah, Sarah can be the ordinary one." Alright! To start, how much flak […]
Bowled over by Bezoria
Watch out, Med. Grill. Bezoria, a newly opened Mediterranean restaurant located at 903 Peachtree St. NE, offers a Chipoltean dining experience with supreme quality and reasonable prices. Bezoria offers customers either a salad, rice bowl, pita wrap or a flatbread sandwich. After much deliberation, I selected a rice bowl with the chicken kefta, tender chicken patties that are made in-house. […]
Basketball teams sweep Chamblee on Senior Night to close regular season
By Alexander Tonico Friday night was a night to remember as the girls and boys teams swept a doubleheader against visiting Chamblee High. Senior Naria Woods made the most of her last regular-season home game, scoring 15 points and recording three assists to lead the girls. Senior Aliya Maloof also had a great game, finishing with 12 points on only […]
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On Beyoncé, busking, sushi, social media, finding happiness, and making the world a more musical place All right!...February 10, 2015 at 12:13 pm


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A brand new season of "Austin & Ally" is set to premiere on the Disney Channel on January 18, 2015. The first episode, titled "Buzzcuts & Beginnings," will air at 8pm ET/PT. Do you plan on tuning in?
Here's a description of the episode:
The gang shares an emotional reunion in Miami at Ally's triumphant homecoming gig. When Austin learns that the foursome's time together is only temporary, he contemplates enrolling in military school.
Watch a promo for the episode below!


text:
=> Tốc độ gửi tin nhắn cực nhanh, gọi điện miễn phí.
=> Thể hiện cảm xúc với emoticon và hình động, âm thanh vui nhộn.
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=> Trò chuyện nhóm lên tới 50 thành viên.
=> Kết nối với người nổi tiếng để nhận được những chia sẻ đầy thú vị từ họ.
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* Chia sẻ những khoảnh khắc ngay tức thì với gia đình và bạn bè.
* Không cần đăng ký, tích hợp với mạng xã hội (Zing, Facebook, Yahoo, Google).
* An toàn và riêng tư.
Hãy kích hoạt Zalo và trò chuyện ngay với bạn bè trong danh bạ! Mong nhận được nhiều ý kiến góp ý để Zalo ngày càng thân thiện với bạn hơn.
What's New
Not just for Facebook friends: Message people in your phone book and just enter a phone number to add a new contact.
Group chats: Create groups for the people you message most. Name them, set group photos and keep them all in one place.
Photos and videos: Shoot videos and snap selfies or other photos right from the app and send them with one tap.
Chat heads: Keep the conversation going while you use other apps.
Free calls: Talk as long as you want, even with people in other countries. (Calls are free over Wi-Fi. Otherwise, standard data charges apply.)
Even more ways to message:
Bring your conversations to life with stickers.
Preview your gallery photos and videos without leaving the conversation--then choose the perfect ones to send.
Record voice messages when you have more to say.
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Know when people have seen your messages.
Forward messages or photos to people who weren't in the conversation.
Search for people and groups to quickly get back to them.
Turn on location to let people know when you're nearby.
See who's available on Messenger and who's active on Facebook.
Create shortcuts to get to any conversation right from your home screen.
Turn off notifications when you're working, sleeping or just need a break.
Stay logged in so you never miss a message.
Viber is compatible with and optimized for Android tablets! Use Viber on your tablet and phone simultaneously.
On Viber, your phone number is your ID. The app syncs with your mobile contact list, automatically detecting which of your contacts have Viber.
• Text with your friends
• Make free phone and video calls with HD sound quality
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• Push notifications guarantee that you never miss a message or call, even when Viber is off
• Integration with native contact list for calls and messages
• Support for the Viber Desktop application on Windows and Mac
Localized to: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (SP), Chinese (TR), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (BR), Portuguese (PT), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese
Viber is completely free with no advertising.
We value your privacy.
Follow us for updates and news:
Facebook - http://facebook.com/viber
Twitter - http://twitter.com/viber
(*) Network data charges may apply
LINE: Free Calls & Messages
▷ LINE's New Features
Chat search feature: Never lose track of a conversation again with the new chat search feature. Search chat room names and messages with Android 4.1 and above or just chat room names with Android 2.3 and above.
▷ LINE's Main Features
Free voice and video calls: Use your PC or smartphone to keep in touch with friends and family both at home and abroad, or hold a business meeting on the go!
Instant messaging anywhere: Conversation is just a tap away. Spice it up with LINE's exciting collection of stickers or send pictures, videos, and even GPS coordinates to let your friends know what you're up to.
A full-featured social networking service: Post your day-to-day activities to your Timeline or comment on your friends' posts.
Group chats: Share important information with your co-workers or talk about mutual interests with your closest friends.
Find new expressions in the Sticker Shop: The world's largest collection of stickers features famous and unique characters from around the world to let you express yourself just the way you want to.
Stay informed with LINE official accounts: Connect directly with your favorite celebrities and companies by friending their official accounts.
Get connected to new apps: LINE provides a gateway to entertainment and lifestyle apps that will keep you entertained and bring new convenience to your life.
We recommend that you use LINE with Android OS versions 2.3 and above.
For more information about LINE, check out our official website.
• See what friends are up to
• Share updates, photos and videos
• Get notified when friends like and comment on your posts
• Play games and use your favorite apps
Now you can get early access to the next version of Facebook for Android by becoming a beta tester. Learn how to sign up, give feedback and leave the program in our Help Center: http://on.fb.me/133NwuP
Problems downloading or installing the app? See http://bit.ly/GPDownload1
Still need help? Please tell us more about the issue. http://bit.ly/invalidpackage
Facebook is only available for users age 13 and over.
Terms of Service: http://m.facebook.com/terms.php.
Skype - free IM & video calls
• Find all your friends and family in an instant - With over 250 million people using Skype, you're bound to bump into someone you know.
• Talk with your fingers - No matter where you are, your friends are always at your fingertips with free instant messaging.
• Call your world from Skype - Talk to your heart's content with free voice and video calls to all your friends and family on Skype.
• Low cost calls to mobiles and landlines too - Keep in touch, even if they're not on Skype, with low cost calls and SMS to mobiles and landlines on the other side of town or the world.
• Share your favourite snaps - Got a favourite photo to share? Send it over Skype to friends and family and you won't have to worry about email size limits or expensive MMS charges.
• Chat with anyone, anywhere - Skype's available on smartphones, tablets, PCs, Macs, and even TVs. Whatever device your friends or family use, Skype just works. Simple.
• Video messaging – Record life's everyday moments and share them with the people who matter most, with free and unlimited video messaging over Skype.
* Operator data charges may apply. We recommend using an unlimited data plan or WiFi connection.
Camera360 Ultimate
# New Movie Photo, instantly turn your photos into classic movie scenes.
# New HDR "Storm" effect will blow your mind.
First choice free ultimate CAMERA app for close to 400 million users worldwide!
Camera360 is the No.1 App in photography category in 75 countries, including US, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Russia, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, India and China.
Simply the most powerful and completely free photo shooting and editing app in the world. Camera360 has 200+ EXCLUSIVE & FREE photo filters with multiple professional editing tools such as tilt-shift, overlay, textures etc.
# 10+ FREE CAMERA MODES (SELFIE CAMERA, Effect CAMERA, POSTER CAMERA, FUNNY CAMERA, TILT-SHIFT CAMERA, AUDIO CAMERA, VIDEO AND MORE)
[Feature Details]
1. New Homepage
Camera360 provides quick access to select features such as Effect Camera, Selfie Camera, Camera Store, New Effects, Cloud Album and more…
2. New Camera Store. ALL FREE!
10+ creative cameras in the "Camera Store" where you can add and manage your favorite camera modes. Different Camera modes including Effect Camera, Selfie Camera, Easy Camera, Scene Camera, Funny Camera, Tilt-shift Camera, Color-shift Camera, Audio Camera, Video Camera, all available for Free! Customize your own Camera360 now.
3. New Effect Store. ALL FREE
Camera360 has 200+ amazing exclusive filters are in the Effect Store where you can add and manage your own effects. New HDR "Storm" brings visual storm!
4. User Friendly Photo Album
Camera360 helps you classifying the photos by date for easy photo search and management. Photos in phone gallery can be browsed and edited in "Other Album".
5. Professional Photo Editing UI and UX
Crop, Rotate, Blur, Texture, Adjust and more professional grade editing features are available.
6. Custom Ratio
Resize photo with ratio (16:9/4:3/1:1) while shooting.
7. Faster and better Cloud Service
Secure and smart cloud album for photo storage, management, editing, sharing and more. Support auto synchronization under uploading settings of Camera360 Cloud. Photos can be browsed on multiple devices via cloud.camera360.com
8. Beautiful Design
With beautiful and simplistic design, the app brings you the most fluid photography experience on the go.
9. Photo Share
Photos can be shared easily via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, WeChat and more.
For suggestions please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com or
Follow us on Instagram:
Like us on Facebook:
Follow us on Twitter:
• ALWAYS FREE: No annual subscription fee. Absolutely free for life.
• FREE VOICE & VIDEO CALLS: High-quality free calls to anywhere in the world.
• GROUP CHAT: Create group chats with up to 100 people.
• MULTIMEDIA MESSAGING: Send video, image, text, and voice messages.
• STICKER GALLERY: Hundreds of free, fun, animated stickers to express your feelings from some of your favorite cartoons and movies.
• MOMENTS: Share your best moments on your personal photo stream.
• BETTER PRIVACY: WeChat gives you the highest level of control over your privacy. It's the only messaging app to be certified by TRUSTe.
• MEET NEW FRIENDS: Use "Friend Radar", "People Nearby" and "Shake" to meet others.
• ADDICTIVE GAMES: Compete with your friends on some of the hottest games.
• REALTIME LOCATION: Instead of having to tell others where you are, just use real-time location sharing.
• LANGUAGE SUPPORT: Localized in 20 different languages and can translate messages to any language.
• AND MORE: Desktop app, custom wallpaper, custom notifications, group walkie-talkie, official accounts.
KakaoTalk: Free Calls & Text
More about KakaoTalk:
★ Chosen by more than 150 million users worldwide
★ Fast, fun, easy way to communicate with friends and family
★ Uses Internet connection (3G/EDGE or Wi-Fi) for calls and messaging
★ Supports: Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows OS, Asha
Key Features:
- FAST: Speedy & reliable messaging no matter what your network
- FREE CHATS: FREE messages & multimedia (photos, videos, voice notes)
- FREE CALLS: High-quality voice calls (1:1 and group)
- EMOTICONS: Express it all with our included emoticons PLUS select from endless sticker collections in our Item Store
- GROUP CHAT: Chats with an unlimited number of friends
- PLUS FRIEND: Exclusive coupons & deals from your favorite brands
- VOICE FILTER: Fun free calls with Talking Tom & Ben's voice filters
- ANDROID WEAR: Reply with voice from wearable devices
Other Amazing Features:
- Share your location
- Add friends using BlackBerry PIN
- See who read your messages (unread count)
- Multitask during free calls (send messages in other chat rooms)
- Schedule appointments, lunches, gatherings (w/ reminders)
- Use KakaoTalk on any smartphone and PC (multi-platform)
- Have even more fun with Kakao mobile games
Contact us at http://www.kakao.com/talk/en/contact
Like us at http://facebook.com/kakaotalk
Follow us at http://twitter.com/kakaotalk
WhatsApp Messenger
★ NO HIDDEN COST: Once you and your friends download the application, you can use it to chat as much as you want. Send a million messages a day to your friends for free! WhatsApp uses your Internet connection: 3G/EDGE or Wi-Fi when available.
★ MULTIMEDIA: Send Video, Images, and Voice notes to your friends and contacts.
★ GROUP CHAT: Enjoy group conversations with your contacts.
★ NO INTERNATIONAL CHARGES: Just like there is no added cost to send an international email, there is no cost to send WhatsApp messages internationally. Chat with your friends all over the world as long as they have WhatsApp Messenger installed and avoid those pesky international SMS costs.
★ SAY NO TO PINS AND USERNAMES: Why even bother having to remember yet another PIN or username? WhatsApp works with your phone number, just like SMS would, and integrates flawlessly with your existing phone address book.
★ NO NEED TO LOG IN/OUT: No more confusion about getting logged off from another computer or device. With push notifications WhatsApp is ALWAYS ON and ALWAYS CONNECTED.
★ NO NEED TO ADD BUDDIES: Your Address Book is used to automatically connect you with your contacts. Your contacts who already have WhatsApp Messenger will be automatically displayed.
★ OFFLINE MESSAGES: Even if you miss your push notifications or turn off your phone, WhatsApp will save your messages offline until you retrieve them during the next application use.
★ AND MUCH MORE: Share location, Exchange contacts, Custom wallpaper, Custom notification sounds, Landscape mode, Precise message time stamps, Email chat history, Broadcast messages and MMS to many contacts at once and much much more!
We're always excited to hear from you! If you have any feedback, questions, or concerns, please email us at:
or follow us on twitter:
When roaming, additional carrier data charges may apply. Please contact your carrier for details.
UC Browser for Android
★★★★★"If you want to break free from Android's default browser, this app will give you almost all of the features you love on your desktop browser." - Download.cnet.com
★★★★★ " UC Browser supports simultaneous downloads and has a clean, well-organized download manager for all your files, including pages for offline reading." - PC Magazine
Main Features
► Clean Yet Complete UI - Redesigned navigation page and simplified settings.
► Intuitive Tab Management - Intuitive and dynamic gesture control for managing tabs.
► Smart Downloading - Supports multiple, background, and cloud downloading with auto reconnection.
► Incognito Browsing - Private browsing to protect your privacy.
► Night Mode - Switch to night mode to read more comfortably at night.
► Control Videos with Gestures - Volume, brightness, progress, etc. can all be controlled by gestures.
► Custom Themes - Visit the UC Theme Center or use your own pictures to customize your browser.
★★★★★ UC Browser is known for its speed and dependability. The browser uses high-end compression technology rendered by a server to provide faster browsing and less data usage. The UC Browser mobile web experience also delivers high-performance rendering with smooth animation capabilities for amazing visuals and excellent navigation. Since the browser has gone through several upgrades and continuously improves on performance, this is one mobile browser that almost never fails to disappoint its users. - About.com
★★★★★ UC Browser for Android sports good performance and a slew of useful features…this app will give you almost all of the features you love on your desktop browser. - Download.cnet.com
★★★★★ UC Browser is one of the few companies that started out making mobile browsers, and it shows in the browser's slick and minimalist interface… Unlike Dolphin and Opera, UC Browser supports simultaneous downloads and has a clean, well-organized download manager for all your files, including pages for offline reading. - PC Magazine
★★★★★ This browser has fairly impressive performance… It includes some features like Speed Mode which helps you browse even faster and auto pager which loads multiple pages at once so multi-page articles are easier to read. - AndroidAuthority.com
► Frost & Sullivan Best Practice Award 2013 – Market Leadership in Mobile Browser Market (APAC)
► Best Android Browser Award 2012 – About.com
► Best Mobile Browser Award 2011 – About.com
About UCWeb
Also check out UC Browser Mini for Android and UC Browser HD for Android Tablet!
Discover more at http://www.ucweb.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ucmob
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UCBrowser
Tumblr: http://blog.ucweb.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ucwebvideo
Need Support?Join UC Forum: http://forum.ucweb.com/
imo free video calls and chat
- Avoid SMS and phone call charges: Send unlimited messages and make free video and voice calls over your 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi connection
- Make high-quality video and voice calls
- Group chat with friends, family, roommates and others
- Share photos and videos
- Express yourself with hundreds of free stickers!
- Encrypted chats and calls
- Optimized for Android tablets
Telegram seamlessly syncs across all of your devices and can be used on desktops, tablets and phones alike. You can send an unlimited amount of messages, photos, videos and files of any type (.doc, .zip, .pdf, etc.). Telegram groups have up to 200 people and you can send broadcasts to up to 100 contacts at a time. Be sure to check our website for a list of Telegram apps for all platforms.
We built Telegram to make messaging speedy and safe again, without the usual caveats.
Why Switch to Telegram?
FAST: Telegram is the fastest messaging app on the market because it uses a distributed infrastructure with data centers positioned around the globe to connect users to the closest possible server.
SECURE: We made it our mission to provide the best security among mass messengers. Telegram heavily encrypts all your data with time-tested algorithms.
CLOUD STORAGE: Telegram seamlessly syncs across all your devices, so you can always securely access your data. Your message history is stored for free in the Telegram cloud. Never lose your data again!
GROUP CHAT & SHARING: With Telegram, you can form large group chats of up to 200 members, send broadcasts to up to 100 contacts at a time, quickly share large videos, documents (.doc, .ppt, .zip, etc.), and send an unlimited amount of photos to your friends.
RELIABLE: Built to deliver your messages in the minimum bytes possible, Telegram is the most reliable messaging system ever made. It works even on the weakest mobile connections.
100% FREE & NO ADS: Telegram is free and will always be free. We are not going to sell ads or introduce subscription fees.
PRIVACY: We take your privacy seriously and will never give third parties access to your data.
For those interested in maximum privacy, Telegram offers Secret Chats. Secret Chat messages can be programmed to self-destruct automatically from both participating devices. This way you can send all types of disappearing content — messages, photos, videos and even files. Secret Chats use end-to-end encryption to ensure that a message can only be read by its intended recipient.
SUPPORT: For real-time support, please go to Settings in Telegram and select "Ask a Question" to send a message directly to our support volunteers. You can also email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Chat with friends on Android, BlackBerry and iPhone:
• BBM is always on and always connected – no app to open
• Know when messages have been delivered (D's) and read (R's)
• Say 'hello' with BBM Voice – free voice calling between BBM Contacts*
• Quickly share photos, files, documents, voice notes and more
• Allow contacts to view your location live on a map, powered by Glympse*
• See when contacts are responding to your message
• Emoticons for every mood and emotion let you express yourself
With BBM, what you share is yours to control:
• Timed Messages: Set how long contacts have access to messages and pictures shared in a chat before it disappears from the screen.**
• Message Retraction: 'Retract' a message to remove it from your BBM chat.*
• You choose how to share your information - BBM uses PINs instead of phone numbers or email addresses so that it's more private, and you always control who can contact you
• You choose your contacts – 2-way opt-in means you have control over who is able to message you
Chat and Share with many at once:
• Groups – BBM groups help you share pictures, lists, and appointments with group members. You can even be in a group with people who aren't part of your own BBM contact list.
• Multi-person chats – Invite multiple contacts to have a chat together.
• Broadcast messages – Send a message to multiple BBM contacts at one time.
BBM Channels: Join conversations happening now about the things you love.
• Create a new channel to share your thoughts, ideas and passions.
• Subscribe to an existing BBM channel to join chats with others who share your interests.
Create your own BBM profile:
• Post a profile picture using images, pictures or even animated pictures (GIFs).
• Update your status to let people know what you're up to or how you feel
Download BBM for free today.
Data charges may apply
While these features are designed to remove the message or picture the recipient's BBM chat view, they do not prevent recipients from capturing an image of the content by taking a screenshot or using an image capture device. Retracting a message after it has been read by the recipient will remove the message from the BBM chat view, but will not affect copies of the message that the recipient may have made prior to the message being retracted.
*Note features not available on Android smartphones running 2.3.x (Gingerbread)
hike messenger
★ REGIONAL STICKERS: Now express more with stickers in your language! Your expressions, your language!
★ PRIVACY: With hike messenger say goodbye to stalkers! From your milk-man to your aunts to that creepy guy in college; you don't want them to be seeing your profile picture, last-seen and status update, do you? Switch to hike and take charge of your privacy!
★ HIDDEN MODE: an awesome new hike privacy feature which allows you to hide the chats that you want to keep private from the world and access them only with a password! Your private conversations are now protected & secure from anyone who takes your phone.
★ SEND ANYTHING & EVERYTHING: Why email when you can send all kinds of non media files and documents like PDF, ZIP, Doc, PPT, APK and much more!
★ HIKE OFFLINE: Unable to message friends because they're not online? Don't worry! Hike does the hardwork to figure out if your friends are offline and then sends them your messages as an SMS, at no cost to you. When they reply, you get the message in hike!
★ BIGGER ATTACHMENTS: Now you can share large files and videos of 100 MB each. Now that's what we call big!
★ CHAT THEMES: Everyone has backgrounds. We have 2-way themes! When you change the chat theme, it changes for your friends too! Let's add more character to messaging, shall we?
★ FREE HIKE2SMS TO INDIA: We've also built in FREE hike to non-hike SMS. So if your friends aren't onhike you can still message them. And better yet, for free! Free SMS can only be sent to India.
★ SHARING IS EASY: You can share photos, videos, location, contacts, walkie-talkie messages and much more on hike! Create group chats or chat one-on-one!
★ FAST, SIMPLE, PERSONAL, FREE: hike is super fast. With sent, delivered, read and typing notifications, it feels like you're having a chat with someone in person. The app uses your 2G, 3G or Wi-Fi (when available) to message with friends and family.
★ 128-bit SSL ENCRYPTION: Messages on hike messenger are now encrypted over Wi-Fi
★ MOVE TO SD CARD: The app can now be stored on the SD Card!
*** For any PIN Issues: Please contact firstname.lastname@example.com for any PIN related queries. We'll get back to you within an hour! ***
We'd love to hear from you about hike. If you have any feedback, questions concerns, please email us at:
or follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/hikeapp
or facebook: http://facebook.com/hikeapp
Rounds Video Chat & Group Call
***** "The Best Video Chat App - Hands Down!" *****
• Featured over 200 Times on Google Play
• Best Mobile Messaging Apps (TNW)
• "The hottest new way to video chat" (Seventeen)
• "Thumbs up with a glorious 9/10 rating" (AppStorm)
• Reviewed on LifeHacker, CNET, Engadget, TechCrunch, Mashable and more
► FREE VIDEO CHAT for Android: Video Call, Text Chat, Video Chat Rooms, Voice Chat, Group Chat, and Live Chat
► FUN GAMES: Candy Crush -like Jungle Bungle, Tetris -like Sky Tumble, Draw Something -like PenPals, Chess, Checkers, Backgammon and much more.
► COOL ACTIVITIES: Watch YouTube Videos, Take Snapshots, Share Photos, Scribble, Draw and much more.
✓ Unlimited FREE Videochat and Voice Chat over 3G, 4G / LTE and Wi-Fi so you can call and text your friends as much as you want
✓ Log-in with Facebook and instantly connect with your friends
✓ Easy invite through Facebook, Mobile Contacts and Whatsapp
✓ Automatically find friends that have Rounds and have fun using live chat together
✓ Video conference and group video chat room with friends on any Android device
✓ Send text messages for free instant msgs
✓ Save money with Free international video calls to other Rounds members
✓ Watch funny YouTube videos together, listen to music, and sing karaoke together.
✓ Use fun webcam chat effects to take live chat to the next level.
✓ Best camera app to take pics while friends and family video calling
✓ Create a funny chat experience by scribbling on your friend's video images.
Strengthen your friendship with Rounds video chats to make your conversation fun and interactive!
Rounds Video and Voice Chat is the best chat app to stay connected either with individual conversations or by group chat. Of the many video chat apps out there, we guarantee ours is the best for chatting!
Now, you can even answer calls from your Android Wear - See who's calling, and answer or decline the call right from the notification.
Please note - we ask permission to "Use one or more of: calendar, contact information" so that we can easily match you with your friends in just one click
About Rounds:
♥ Learn more at http://www.rounds.com
♥ Like us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/chatrounds
♥ Need help or have a suggestion? Email us at email@example.com
As previously notified, the ChatON service will no longer be available from [Feb 1, 2015, KST] ("Effective Date"), with the exception of the service in the United States.
- You can still access and save your chat history (text only) on your device by using the back-up function, provided that you have not deleted each relevant chat room.
- All your personal information will be treated in accordance with our privacy policy.
We appreciate your support for our services, and our Customer Support team (http://help.content.samsung.com) will be available to assist you with any questions or concerns.
Thank you,
The ChatON Service Team
More from developer
Zalo Page
1. Đăng ký một trang chính thức trên Zalo
2. Đăng bài viết lên nhật ký trang và quản lý các hoạt đông trên bài viết như comment, trả lời comment, like, share vv.
3. Gửi tin nhắn đến người quan tâm
4. Chat với người quan tâm
5. Mời bạn bè quan tâm trang
6. Thống kê các hoạt trên trang như lượng like, share, comment, follow, unfollow vv
7. Cấu hình trang
Nếu có thắc mắc, vui lòng liên hệ với chúng tôi qua địa chỉ mail: firstname.lastname@example.com, hoặc truy cập vào trang http://page.zaloapp.com để có thêm thông tin.
Xin chân thành cảm ơn!


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I want speech in Urdu about the topic " apni mitti pe hi chalny ka salika seekho". kindly help me to win the debate competition at Islamia College Peshawar.
Thanks and kind regards from me!!!
plz send me speech on this topic"me duniya badal sakta hu" in urdu as soon as possible plz.for student of 3rd class.
plz mjhe "hum zinda quam hain"ma speech chaiye hy help me
plz plz plz i need bst spech on any one of the following topics…
1.koi to khwab dikhaye kisi seher ke mujhe…
2.chiragh e aarzoo le kar na tum nikle na hum nikle…
or funny speech on any one of following topicss…
1.baton se mujhe na behlayiye sarkar…
2.agar parwan charhna hai to dhitai ki seerhi charna…
3.wo haseen hai ya haseena mein sochta hun…
4.hamain nisab mein ishq ka mazmoon chaiye…
i need speech on topic KAM KAM AUR BAS KAM TOMAROW AS MY SON CLASS 4 SHOULD SUBMIT ON SUNDAY FOR PREPARATION EMAIL IS firstname.lastname@example.com
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