Educators have spent ages arguing about whether the traditional classroom structure, with students all working on the same lesson, is really suited to different learning styles.
Twelve-year-old Yuval Kagan looks like he’s ready to work at a call center. He’s among 10 students sitting at a long table covered with laptop computers, talking into their headphones. ”Yes,” he says, looking at his computer screen. Yural is talking to a math teacher. If he has a question, he hits a button called “raise your hand” and the teacher speaks to him.
Yuval says he enjoys this form of teaching. “In a lesson with a class, the teacher always has to tell other students to stop talking, but here you can have one-on-one teaching.”
That personalized approach is what makes School of One different. It’s an after-school math program taking place here at I.S. 228 and two other middle schools. Kids spend part of their time working with online teachers. But teachers can also set instruction in small groups, where a teacher explains a special math problem. And sometimes they work together, as demonstrated by two boys using colorful blocks to figure out a geometry problem.
School of One was first piloted last summer with middle scholars in Chinatown. Assessment tests showed so much progress that the Department of Education expanded the program. Dominick D’Angelo, the principal of I.S. 228, says he wanted his sixth graders to take part because the traditional classroom doesn’t serve every child. But School of One is what its name suggests.
“A student is working at his or her own pace,” says D’Angelo. “Not with a group of 30 other students. If they don’t get it today, they have to work on it again tomorrow. They’re not left behind because they can’t catch up with the class. It’s at their own pace.”
Chancellor Joel Klein says “This kind of approach---students centered, not classroom centered---is going to be a part of the future of Education.”
But Daniel Willingham, a professor of Psychology says “Studies have been done trying to prove that some people learn best visually, however, other people learn best aurally (听觉上). They have shown that there’s no benefit in meeting the needs of those learning styles.” He adds, “It’s not clear whether considering different styles of learning makes a real difference.”
The city has raised money from private donors to keep the program going next fall. And though officials say they didn’t deliberately launch it this spring in time for the state exams, they’ll be very curious to see the performance of those 240 sixth graders at the three schools now using the School of One.
Title: Arguments about classroom structures and learning styles
A comparison of two |
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●Classroom centered: all the students work on the ●Teachers have to tell students to keep |
School of One |
● ●Teachers can also organize the kids in small groups to explain special problems. Sometimes they can |
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Experts’ opinions |
●The new approach will be part of the future of Education. ●Some people learn best visually, while other people learn best by ●It is not ●We are not |
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Officials’ expectations |
● How the three schools’ sixth graders |
Everyone needs friends. We all like to feel close to someone. It is nice to have a friend to talk, laugh and do things with. Surely, there are times when we need to be alone. We don't always want people around. But we would feel lonely if we never had a friend.
No two people are the same. Sometimes friends don't get along well, which doesn't mean that they no longer like each other. Most of the time they will go on being friends. Sometimes friends move away, then we feel very sad. We miss them much, but we can call them and write to them. Maybe we would never see them again, and we can make new friends. It is surprising to find out how much we like new people when we get to know them. Families sometimes name their children after a close friend. Many places are named after men and women, if they are friendly to people in a town. Some libraries are named this way. So are some schools. We think of these people when we go to these places.
There's more good news for people, if they have friends. These people live longer than those people if those don't have friends. Why? It could be that they are happier. Being happy helps you stay well. Or it could be just knowing that someone cares, if someone cares about you, you take better care of yourself.The first paragraph tells us __________.
A.none needs friends |
B.we always need friends around us |
C.making friends is the need in people's life |
D.we need to be alone |
Which of the following is what the writer doesn't say in the passage?
A.People are happy when their friends leave them. |
B.People may never see their friends after their friends move away. |
C.Everyone needs friends. |
D.People like their friends very much if they get to know them. |
If people have friends, they would live longer, because __________.
A.they feel happier and healthier |
B.they get a lot of help from their friends |
C.they take better care of themselves |
D.both A and C |
This passage tells us __________.
A.that people are all friends | B.that people need friends |
C.how to get to know friends | D.how to name a place |
One day when Jack was walking in the park, he saw a woman, who lived a few miles away, sitting on a bench with a dog beside her. The dog was looking up at the woman.
Jack walked up to the woman and said, "Hello, Sue, how are you? May I sit and talk with you for a while?" "Of course, please sit down," Sue said. Jack sat down next to Sue on the bench, and they talked quietly together. The dog continued to look up at Sue, as if waiting to be fed.
"That's a nice dog, isn't he?" Jack said, pointing at the animal.
"Yes, he is. He's handsome. He's a bit of a mixture, but that's not a bad thing. He's strong and healthy."
"And hungry, "Jack said." He hasn't taken his eyes off you. He thinks you've got some food for him."
"That's true, "Sue said." But I haven't."
They both laughed and then Jack said, "Does your dog bite?"
"No, "Sue said, "He's never bitten anyone. He's always gentle and friendly."
Hearing this, Jack decided to hold out his hand and touched the animal's head. Suddenly it jumped up and bit him.
"Hey!" Jack shouted." You said your dog didn't bite."
Sue replied in surprise, "Yeah, I did. But this is not my dog. My dog's at home."The dog looked at the woman because ___.
A.the woman wanted to feed him | B.the woman was friendly |
C.he was strong and healthy | D.he was hungry |
Jack touched the dog because he believed ___.
A.the dog was handsome | B.Sue's dog was unfriendly |
C.the dog belonged to Sue | D.Sue's dog was at home |
We can infer form the passage that ___.
A.Sue gave a wrong answer | B.Jack made a mistake |
C.the dog wasn't dangerous | D.both Jack and Sue liked the dog |
Which of the Following can be the best title of the passage?
A.A Wrong Question | B.Sue's Dog |
C.A pleasant Meeting | D.Sue's Friend |
Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The building next door was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met, yet I could see her seated by her window each afternoon, sewing or reading.
After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself, "I wonder why that woman doesn't wash her window. It really looks terrible."
One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including washing the window on the inside.
Late in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible. Her window was clean!
Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing (批评) her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.
That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own shortcomings?
Since then, whenever I wanted to judge (评判) someone, I asked myself first, "Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?"
Then I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me more clearly.The writer couldn't see everything clearly through the window because_____.
A.the woman's window was dirty |
B.the writer's window was dirty |
C.the woman lived nearby |
D.the writer was near-sighted |
The writer was surprised that_____.
A.the woman was sitting by her window |
B.the woman's window was clean |
C.the woman did cleaning in the afternoon |
D.the woman's window was still terrible |
The underlined sentence "It dawned on me" probably means "____".
A.I began to understand it | B.it cheered me up |
C.I knew it grew light | D.it began to get dark |
It's clear that _____.
A.the writer had never met the woman before |
B.the writer often washed the window |
C.they both worked as cleaner |
D.they lived in a small town |
From the passage, we can learn ______.
A.one shouldn't criticize others very often |
B.one should often make his windows clean |
C.one must judge himself before he judges others |
D.one must look at others through his dirty windows |
According to an old story, a farmer once found that a bag of corn had been stolen from his house. He went to the judge and told him about his loss. The judge ordered all the people of the farm to come before him. He took a number of sticks of equal length and gave one stick to each man.
He then said, “Come before me again tomorrow. I shall then know which of you is the thief because the stick given to the thief will be one inch longer than the others.”
The thief was afraid of being found out, and so he cut an inch off his stick. The next day the thief’s stick was found to be one inch shorter than any of the others. In this way the thief was found out, and was at once taken away to prison.The judge gave each man a stick _______.
A.to change back the farmer’s corn |
B.to beat the thief |
C.as a tool to find out the thief |
D.so as to play a game together |
Since the thief cut the stick short, ________.
A.he was found out |
B.the judge couldn’t catch him |
C.his stick had an equal length with the others’ |
D.his stick wouldn’t be any longer |
The wise way the judge found out the thief in the end was to make ______.
A.the thief cut the stick off |
B.the thief cut an inch off the stick |
C.the stick grow an inch longer |
D.the other’s sticks would become one inch shorter |
The quality of drinking water in Shanghai will meet European Union standard by 2010 and, a decade later, citizens in Shanghai will drink the best water in the world.
These were the goals set out by the Shanghai Water Authority. With the city’s population expected to increase only slightly and the economy to boom by 2020, Chen Yin, an official in the water authority, said Shanghai’s water consumption will not increase from its present amount.
Zhang Yue, director of the Urban Construction Division under the Ministry of Construction, said, “Shanghai is the first city in the country to publicize these ambitions. They will not be easy to achieve.” He said water saving will help keep the sustainable development of China’s economy.
Saving one cubic meter of water means saving the city’s infrastructure(基础设施)costs by 10,000 Yuan. Last year, Shanghai saved 300 million cubic meters of water either from readjustment of industrial structure or the employment of new technology.
“The aim is to arouse public awareness of the seriousness of water shortages,” Chen said. “The abundant surface water and amount of rain of the city are so misleading that they result in improper use of water.”
Shanghai lacks drinkable water. The Huangpu River, which supplies 80 percent of the city’s drinkable water, is nearing exhaustion. The city, therefore, has been exploring new sources from the Yangtze River and growing forests along it to conserve quality water.
Besides penning regulations, the authority is popularizing technology among the public to efficiently cut the amount of water used.
At present, the city has 600,000 family toilets, each using 13 liters of water per flush. These are to be renovated(整修)to use only 9 liters of water per flush. The authority is renovating the first 200 toilets for households – at a cost of Yuan each. In three years, all the toilets will be renovated, which saves the city nearly 15 million Yuan every year in water conservation.
Another task the city is engaged in is the treatment of sewage(污水)to improve the water environment. At present the city can only treat 44 percent of its daily 5.04 million tons of waste water. To meet the total demand, 27 more sewage treatment factories are to be established with an estimated investment of 18 billion Yuan.People in Shanghai get their daily water mainly from _______now.
A.the underground | B.the Huangpu River |
C.the rain | D.the Yangtze River |
According to the passage, some people have the wrong opinion of using water because .
A.the renovating of family toilets will save plenty of water |
B.about half of waste water has been treated already |
C.there is plenty surface water and large amount of rain at present |
D.advanced technology makes people use water as much as possible |
Which group of measures are all mentioned in the passage to save water?
a.improve drinking water quality
b.change some industrial structure
c.introduce or use some new technology
d.speed the economic development of Shanghai
e.renovate some family toilets
f.build more sewage treatment factories
A.a, b, c, d | B.a, b, e, f |
C.b, c, d, e | D.b, c, e, f |
We can infer from the passage that .
A.not everyone today in Shanghai is aware of water shortage |
B.citizens today in Shanghai drink the best quality of water in the world |
C.the boom of economy will need a larger amount of water in the future |
D.all the family toilets will be renovated to save water within 3 years |