I found chapter 1 to be a good starting off point for the book. The chapter offered lots of examples of strategies to use in the classroom to support literacy development. We studied most of the comprehension strategies discussed in chapter 1 previously in CIR 407. However, we only studied how to incorporate the strategies in the younger grades. It was interesting to read and learn how to use the strategies in the older grades. Something that stood out to me in this chapter is the idea of reflective teaching. It is important for teachers to think deeply about their lessons and teaching styles by asking "How effective was I today?" or "How can I improve my teaching?" I think it is necessary to take a step back and analyze what works and what doesn't in your classroom, in order to be the est possible teacher you can be.
Chapter 8 discusses writing to learn as opposed to learning to write. The author explains writing to learn entails getting student to formulate words to explain what they are learning. Writing to learn allows the students to engage in a higher level of thinking. What I found most interesting in the this chapter is using writing to learn in mathematics. I have never considered incorporating writing into a math lesson, but this chapter opened my eyes to this concept. Having the students write out each step in the process of solving the math problem allows them to articulate and fully understand the problem at hand. It also allows them to justify why their answer is correct, by explaining how they found the answer in the first place. Math is my absolute least favorite subject in the entire world, because I never fully understood what I was doing. Writing to learn would have forced me to think deeply to understand each component of the problems. It is definitely a strategy I plan on incorporating into my class. I question that I have after reading would be is there a way to incorporate writing into math other than just having the children explain their problem solving process? Also, how can I use writing to learn in math in a fun way?
Monday, February 13, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Blog 3
I found the article "Making a case and place for effective content area literacy instruction in the elementary grades" to be very interesting. According to the author there has been a push for encouraging the importance of content are a literacy instruction. The need for this stems from the emphasis of standardized testing, and society's stronger reliance on technology. I never considered technology having an impact on literacy instruction. However, it makes perfect sense that students are exposed to more expository texts as a result of researching information on the internet. I know if I don't know the answer to something, I look it up on my iPhone. I'm sure other students do the same thing. Expository have become a convenient and vital essential in today's society. Thus, students should be frequently exposed to this type of text, starting at an early age.
What stood out the most to me in the article was the three points the author made when arguing importance of expository text in the class room.The first of these points is Early Exposure. This means that students have practice dealing with this type of text at an early age. This lays the foundation in understanding informative text. The nest point is that informational text motivate students to read. It provides them with a new form of literature, and provides knowledge seekers an outlet to learn new and exciting information. I completely agree with this point. When I was in elementary school, I begged my parents to buy me a subscription to Zoobooks. Zoobooks was a monthly non-fiction magazine. Each issue was dedicated to a different animal, and everything you could possibly want to know about that animal. I was so excited each month when the magazine came in. I would read it cover to cover!The final point the author made was "informational text increase new knowledge domains." Students may read a expository text about science, and become immersed in the science domain. They learn how to think like a scientist through the text written by a scientist. This situation is the same for mathematics and history.
This article has really opened my eyes to just how important expository text are. I will definitively include them in my future classroom lessons. The only question or concern I have, is how can I incorporate them in a way that is fun and motivating for those students who are not interested in reading? I know most students love to read anything about animals, but what about the other subjects that are not so interesting? Other than that I found the article to be very enlightening.
What stood out the most to me in the article was the three points the author made when arguing importance of expository text in the class room.The first of these points is Early Exposure. This means that students have practice dealing with this type of text at an early age. This lays the foundation in understanding informative text. The nest point is that informational text motivate students to read. It provides them with a new form of literature, and provides knowledge seekers an outlet to learn new and exciting information. I completely agree with this point. When I was in elementary school, I begged my parents to buy me a subscription to Zoobooks. Zoobooks was a monthly non-fiction magazine. Each issue was dedicated to a different animal, and everything you could possibly want to know about that animal. I was so excited each month when the magazine came in. I would read it cover to cover!The final point the author made was "informational text increase new knowledge domains." Students may read a expository text about science, and become immersed in the science domain. They learn how to think like a scientist through the text written by a scientist. This situation is the same for mathematics and history.
This article has really opened my eyes to just how important expository text are. I will definitively include them in my future classroom lessons. The only question or concern I have, is how can I incorporate them in a way that is fun and motivating for those students who are not interested in reading? I know most students love to read anything about animals, but what about the other subjects that are not so interesting? Other than that I found the article to be very enlightening.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Blog 2
After reading my classmate's blogs, I learned a lot of interesting facts
about them. We have all been in classes together for the past five months, and
know each other to some extent. However, I had a lot of fun reading what
everyone wrote, and getting to know everybody a little bit better. I found out
that Gabby Luciani taught swim lessons in her hometown. I taught swim lessons
for a few years back home too. It was cool to find out we have this in common.
Gabby is a very smart and confident person. She always has insight to contribute
to each class. I know she is going to make a wonderful teacher someday. I also
discovered that Katie Methe was originally a nursing major, and was interested in
pediatric nursing. She changed her major to elementary education because she did
not like sticking kids with needles. I don't blame her. Needles and blood freak
me out! I do not know Katie that well, but I can tell she has a sweet, warm
personality. I look forward to learning more about her through the course of the
semester.
I found the article"Writing to learn across the curriculum: Tools for comprehension in content area classes" to be very interesting and useful. The article discusses the importance of writing to learn. According to the article, writing to learn gives the students an opportunity to recollect, clarify, and question what the already know and what they would like to know about a subject. The article lists examples of various strategies to incorporate this concept of writing to learn into the classroom. The strategy that stood out the most to me was Listen-stop-and-write. The teacher divides her lecture into 3 minute segments, with 2 minute writing breaks in between each segment. The writing breaks gives the students a chance to absorb what was said by the teacher, and allows for time of through not taking. This strategy would have benefited me greatly in my past classes. I am the type that has to write everything down, and I often become so consumed with writing that I loose track of what the teacher is saying. I feel this will help the students take excellent notes as well as stay focused in the lecture. The article also explains using Bio-poems in the classroom. By participating in the Bio-poem activity in class, I was able to make a deeper connection to what the article was explaining. I was able to experience the concept of writing to learn first hand. The bio-poem was efficient because it combined social studies and language arts, as well as required the students to call upon higher order thinking. I don't really have any questions about what was discussed in the article. It all seems very direct and easy to follow. I will definitely try to include the information and strategies in the article into my future class room.
I found the article"Writing to learn across the curriculum: Tools for comprehension in content area classes" to be very interesting and useful. The article discusses the importance of writing to learn. According to the article, writing to learn gives the students an opportunity to recollect, clarify, and question what the already know and what they would like to know about a subject. The article lists examples of various strategies to incorporate this concept of writing to learn into the classroom. The strategy that stood out the most to me was Listen-stop-and-write. The teacher divides her lecture into 3 minute segments, with 2 minute writing breaks in between each segment. The writing breaks gives the students a chance to absorb what was said by the teacher, and allows for time of through not taking. This strategy would have benefited me greatly in my past classes. I am the type that has to write everything down, and I often become so consumed with writing that I loose track of what the teacher is saying. I feel this will help the students take excellent notes as well as stay focused in the lecture. The article also explains using Bio-poems in the classroom. By participating in the Bio-poem activity in class, I was able to make a deeper connection to what the article was explaining. I was able to experience the concept of writing to learn first hand. The bio-poem was efficient because it combined social studies and language arts, as well as required the students to call upon higher order thinking. I don't really have any questions about what was discussed in the article. It all seems very direct and easy to follow. I will definitely try to include the information and strategies in the article into my future class room.
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