Hooks in Action

In my placement at Red Lion Junior High School, my cooperating teacher seems particularly keen of the use of Hooks in every one of her lessons, more so than any of the other teachers I had the privilege of observing through Dr. McDowell's shadowing of a student assignment.

This particular talent of hers was especially noticeable at the very beginning of her unit on Metacognition. She began the lesson by having the students talk to their elbow partners about a time they remember getting lost. Both students would take a turn to tell their story. When the allotted time had passed, my cooperating teacher would have a few of the students share their stories. When the time came to discuss reading strategies for when 'reading gets tough,' my cooperating teacher would call on the students who told their stories and specifically tie the methods behind metacognition to their on solutions for when they got lost. This allowed the students to see that these methods can be applied to more than just reading and can, in fact, be tied to their own lives in a very real way. It also allowed the students to see that, even if they are lost in reading, there's always a way to solve the problem.