DARTs

Directed activities related to text

A topic in teaching science

DARTs are directed activities related to text.

A DART is an activity that engages students in active reading of text by asking them to process information that is presented in a text. The outcome of a DART is a record of this engagement which acts as a record for future reference (akin to lecture notes). Perhaps the most familiar, and traditional, forms of DART are marking up text, and comprehension exercises. But a wide range of formats are possible. Some possibilities are briefly outlined below.

"DARTS take various forms, such as providing a technical diagram with incomplete labels, and an associated text that could be interrogated to complete the labelling of the diagram. DARTS were intended to provide more 'active' learning tasks that could be used to review topics or support new learning as an alternative to the kind of basic note-making which can become little more than copying information from the teacher's notes or a book. I suggested that sometimes well-considered DARTS could amount to scaffolding tools, but only if they were used within learning activities that met specific criteria."

Taber, 2018, p.28

Read about scaffolding learning

Comprehension exercises

A well-structured comprehension exercise can be seen as a kind of scaffold to support effective note-taking. A comprehension exercise will comprise of a list of specific questions that direct a learner to the particular information that the teacher wants the learner to focus on and include in their notes.

Modified Cloze procedure

This can involve removing selected words from text, but instead of doing this on a systematic (every n^th word, as in the technique to assess reading skills called 'Cloze procedure') basis, making principled choices of which words to remove. Ideally, the removed words might be both those which the teacher wants the learner to pay special attention to, but also those which can be identified from the wider contact – by anyone reading for understanding.

One great strength of this technique is can be pitched at different levels to differentiate for different groups of learns (in different classes, or even in the same class) allowing the level of difficulty to be matched to learners (differentiation).

Difficulty can also be modified by offering clues to the missing words. One variation is to not remove full words, but to leave the i_______ letter in place – or, indeed some other _______r . Another variation removes full words, but provides a list (e.g., alphabetically) of these so the learner has to work out which word goes into which space.

Texts and graphics

DARTS can be designed where a text and diagram are complementary, but potential redundancy has been removed by providing places where the learner has to complete the material. This might be

• a figure with its labels removed accompanied by an explanatory text, or
• an incomplete text accompanied by a labelled figure.

Sequencing

Sometimes a suitable DART as a learning activity might involve sequencing text. For example, in a practical activity, there is a logic to the order in which operations are carried out.

In a scientific argument, such as the argument made in a scientific paper, material is ordered in a logical structure to make a case. Again, there may be some flexibility, but the conclusion needs to follow in a stepwise way from what has gone before.

Dividing a suitable text into several sections and randomising the order (or simply following a rule such as using alphabetical ordering) provides material where a learner needs to understand the logical structure in order to resequence the material in a sensible way.

---

Work cited:

• Taber, K. S. (2018). Scaffolding learning: principles for effective teaching  and the design of classroom resources. In M. Abend (Ed.), Effective Teaching and Learning: Perspectives, strategies and implementation (pp. 1-43). New York: Nova Science Publishers.

---