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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Strategy: Chunk and Chew

Chunk and Chew ensures that students are not inundated with input from the teacher without being given appropriate time to process information. By following the Chunk and Chew strategy, teachers deliver their lessons in small "chunks" giving students time to "chew" the information either individually, with partners, or in small groups. Follow this simple rule: For every 10 minutes of teacher input, students should be given 2 minutes to process information. (This is known 10 and 2). Time frames vary and should be adjusted according to language proficiency and grade level of the students. When students are aware of the strategy of the Chunk and Chew technique, they will anticipate the processing time and let the teacher know when they have reached their limit on input.

***From 99 Ideas and Activities for Teaching English Learners with THE SIOP MODEL by MaryEllen Vogt and Jana Echevarria

17 comments:

  1. What a great idea, I love it! Do you listen in? I wonder do they only talk about what you have been teaching them? Do they get off track?

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  2. Sounds like a great idea. I know from my own class experiences I like time to think about what has be taught and make sure I understand. Do you have problems getting the kids back on task after two minutes? Does the chew time outweigh the teach time in the long run?

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  3. The processing piece is very important. If the students don't have time to think about what you're teaching, they really can't learn.

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  4. I do not think : think and Chew" wastes time- especially in Foreign languages classes: students need to "process" the new info, every 5 mn, as what they receive is "alien" to their previous mindset. they need to "check" that they got the message from every utterance that the FL teachers delivers- I, as an FL teacher, stop regularly to check comprehension on the part of the students - then I always "informally" assess students' comprehension at the end of class.

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  5. In teaching Spanish, I find effective when combining chunk and chew with scaffolding. I aim at 5 minutes of chunk and as needed time for chew by facilitating a practice and checking responses. Then moving on to more complex sentences.

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  6. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

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  7. I teach special education and I like this strategy because my students needs to learn in "chunks".
    I always give my students the opportunity of sharing ideas and problem solving in small gruoups.
    I think this is a good strategies to introduce in our classrooms according to the level of the students.

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  8. Students have different processing speeds. Therefore the strategy of 10 and 2 is needed to help all students gain understanding!

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  9. Awesome strategy to process what is learnt before going ahead with more as it would be like overwhelming of information.

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  10. new teacher here: what do you do in the 2 minutes or other time? is it a directed activity? free time? how do you help them chew it?

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    1. My suggestion would be to give them a guided question to focus on based off of the "chunk" that was given. :)

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  11. Students need the time to "chew" what has been taught. If all we do as teachers is "chunk, chunk, chunk" and never give our students time to "chew," have they really learned the concepts we are trying to teach? Have we really taught???

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  12. Using the "chunk and chew" method of teaching not only allows students an opportunity to hear new ideas and concepts, but it also gives them an opportunity to process what they have heard by collaborating with their peers. This ensures that everyone takes ownership of their learing.

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  13. Great idea. I am a student teacher and I love this idea.

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  14. I agree with this technique. I used 'chunk and chew' with my class for 9 weeks as a means for prepping for an EOC class. All students in that particular class passed the course.

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