Daniels and Bizar through Chapter 4

As many of you will notice, I'm a complete noobie to this blog thing. I have yet to figure out how to search and locate classmates on here, so don't feel neglected that I haven't responded to your blogs. After being sick this entire week with what I believe to be either the flu or some nasty unknown virus from the hospital, I finally am getting around to posting about our text.
As I have read through Chapter 4 of Daniels and Bizar, I have come across some concepts that I recognize from grade school, and some ideas that are completely fresh. Growing up, I recall many teachers, generally in the fields of science, math, and literary arts, who would use group collaboration as a method of teaching. Much of chapter 4 reflects on concepts that I experienced from early elementary all the way through 12th grade. The idea of composing digital media, such as PowerPoint presentations, was a common method used by my teachers. I personally found this method to be effective because the students communicate to find a solution, or compose a written piece, but then also must communicate and allocate assignments within the group to ensure that the information is complete and ready to be presented to others. Group collaborations are effective because they give the students a chance to communicate with each other, as well as with the teacher. Team work skills are refined as students realize that the task of completing the project must be divided among themselves.
As I read through the text, I found the K-W-L+ concept described in Chapter 2 to be most interesting. This is a new concept to me, as I did not experience this during my K-12 days. I see this as an effective tool for both the students and the teachers. At the beginning of a unit, have students fill out a K-W-L+ after the introduction, and then again after the unit is complete. This tool will help the students measure how much they have learned, and what they may need to study for test time. Teachers can use the before and after K-W-L+ to measure how well the students learned the information, and if more instruction is needed before moving forward with a test or the next unit.