"It seems quite plausible that as the poor readers continued to work on decoding skills, they could have been helped to achieve at grade level on listening comprehension because new concepts and vocabulary could have been communicated with strong visual support (e.g., Bransford, Kinzer, Risko, Rowe, & Vye, 1989)."
I recently completed a course directed at reaching English Language Learners. One of the points that was emphasized was utilizing meaningful text, visuals, etc. A focus on flash cards for sight words, vocabulary taught in isolation, and a “skill and drill” approach to nonsense word fluency can actually be counterproductive. The MOST model allows for students to make meaningful connections. Also, by helping students attach meaning to the visual component, they are building their vocabulary & background knowledge, both critical for language development and growth.
“help students become active, rather than passive, viewers of television”
This notion of “active viewers of television” reminded me of the Baby Einstein video series that is popular for infants and toddlers. It can serve as a crutch for mothers desperately in need of some “hands-free” time to complete tasks around the house. The intended purpose, though, is for parents to engage with their child during their early development, building gross motor skills while also listening to classical music and making connections to themes presented on the screen. The MOST model, similarly, provides a mode for students to engage in what they are seeing on the screen.
“Because there is usually a match between extralinguistic situations and linguistic statements when adults talk to children, children can eventually crack the linguistic code and determine what others mean by what they say.”
The infusion of multimedia in the MOST model provides visuals to “crack the linguistic code” allowing them to comprehend and find meaning in stories far better than through the sole use of print or audio formats. Allowing students to engage, record, manipulate/sequence, revisit, review, retell, and capture their own words through this model is truly allowing them to influence the trajectory of their learning. They feel engaged and are a vital role in the larger story.
I do think that this would be time and labor intensive to create, implement, and maintain… but, oh so worth it so see students succeed!
You pulled out some great quotes from the article, Julie. I thought the simple statement from Bransford that a child's first learning environment is naturally multimedia (and MOST for that matter) when first learning to speak from his mother at home was a powerful idea. This early form of "instruction" takes place within a meaningful context, incorporates strong visuals, and builds upon what the child knows instead of what they do not.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, I saw a post on twitter today about Alfie Kohn's criticism of direct instruction, and rightly so in some cases, that questioned whether modeling for a child is form DI. It made me think about how much of what we already do in our classrooms may support MOST environments.