Blog #6

When reading Chapter 7 some things popped out that I thought were pretty important. One thing is that I like how they showed me how to take notes in every subject. That is very important to know especially for a first time teacher. Another thing I found important was that the book clearly defined the difference between note making and note taking. I had no idea there was a difference until I read this chapter.

When I was tutoring this week I found out a little bit about myself. I discovered that I am not as stern as I might should be. I felt like the students were running over me and trying to abuse my authority over them. They wanted to do their own thing and not listen to any directions I was giving them.

As I stated in the first paragraph, the fact that the book gave an insight on the different subject areas and how they teach note taking stood out to me. I like how they said in the chapter that with notetaking you cannot go back and listen to the lecture again. With note making you can go back and reread the chapter in the book or slides from a presentation and add more notes. The text also said that better notetakers generally do better in school and specific types of notetaking produce better results. In this case I wish my teachers would have showed me the best way to take notes so that I could have been a better note taker so that when studying for test I could recall the information better.

This week I really enjoyed being able to have class outside instead of being in a classroom all the time. I also think that it was a great idea to have us take notes on our person and be able to enjoy the beautiful weather. However, maybe next time, or if there is a next time, it wont be so hot on us!

Questions: Why is it that my teachers never taught our class the correct way to take notes? Is this a new curriculum that is just being introduced?

How can students with disabilities be able to take the proper notes for class?

Blog #5

When reading chapter 3 about vocabulary I found some things interesting and learned new things. One thing I learned about was the importance of word knowledge. Vocabulary knowledge can have a profound influence on reading comprehension. Blachowicz and Fisher identified four principles for effective vocabulary instruction. Students should: be actively involved in word learning, make personal connections, be immersed in vocabulary, and consolidate meaning through multiple information sources. This will help teachers be able to effectively instruct vocabulary. Another thing that stood out to me is that Vacca and Vacca suggest that there are three types of vocabulary to consider—general, specialized, and technical. General is everyday language, specialized is flexible and transportable, and technical is words that are specific to only one field study. This would be a good way to show students the different types of vocabulary and talk like the different ways to show them and have them guess which one is which. I like the fact that this chapter gives several different ways of incorporating vocabulary into different subjects. The Brain Pop technology we did this week was very interesting and engaging. I believe that students would really enjoy this activity; especially since us college kids had so much fun with it. You could use this technology with any subject. With this technology it could help the students understand and think about what they listened to.

Questions:

1. What are some good ways to teach vocabulary to ELL students, since we have so many different definitions for the same word?

2. Where can I find more information on teaching vocabulary that would be fun and interesting for my students?

Blog #4

When reading Chapter 1 some things popped out to me. One thing that I thought was important was how in Ms. Johnson’s class she gave the students different ways to learn about the Titanic. If I had a teacher that explained things like she did, I believe I would have been able to understand them better. She taught her students in a variety of different languages and I thought that was awesome! You can teach your students by using different languages in every subject. As I kept reading it talked about a categorization system and said that this may be frustrating for students because an explicit definition may not be found in the body of text. This is exactly how I feel sometimes and I hate feeling frustrated because then I just want to stop reading all together. I loved reading this line from the text: reading comprehension does not simply happen through lots of reading; it is developed through activities designed to teach students about what good readers do. I am a hands on type of person so this definitely fits me. I hate reading anyways and this just proved that reading doesn’t always help comprehension. Another line I like from the text was that one of the most transportable teaching strategies is think-pair-share. I completely agree with this statement and I enjoy when we do this strategy in the classroom because it gives me an insight of what other peers are thinking about. As I read a statement in the text that said that reciprocal teaching was found to positively impact standardized testing on reading comprehension, I just wondered how long it took them to realize this and if they are trying to get teachers to really push reciprocal teaching? At the end of the chapter I loved this statement: it is not a program, a set of books, or a box of materials that creates a high-achieving school. It is always teachers who matter, and what they do that matters most. And a teacher’s ability to teach reflectively ensures continued professional growth. In chapter 8, I like how Mr. Hayden uses the information his students write to get to know what they understand about the topics and what the students may not understand completely. I like writing prompt known as RAFT. I think that would be a wonderful idea to use to incorporate writing. Also, incorporating math with writing to learn, I thought it was neat how Mr. Hayden uses Name That Math! for when his students come into the classroom everyday.

I really enjoyed the student think center this week. A lot of things she talked about I haven’t really thought about before. I think it would be a wonderful idea to have tables that you could write on and tear off like especially for like writing classes and math classes! I enjoyed how the atmosphere was so relaxing and comfortable. I just wonder what the exact reason for them designing the room like that was for?

Blog #3

I like how during the design thinking process you have to work in groups so that way it gives you a variety of different ideas, rather than just being a whole group. I believe that this is a great tool for enhancing learning because it gives the students a way of learning that they have never experienced before. This process would be great for English because it provides the students with different ways of writing. This could also be a great way to integrate a debate with different groups and whichever group won their prototype could be presented to experts. I think this would have been very interesting and fun to do when I was in school instead of always doing bookwork. I would have really enjoyed coming to that class. A question that I have would be: How would you find experts to present this prototype to?

It is crazy that teachers don’t model strategies for reading expository text. Also that comprehension instruction was seldom observed in grades 1-3 at a high performing school. I can’t believe that teachers didn’t explain how to read a science textbook and be able to learn the material. I found it interesting that when students were tested, the students that read magazines and experienced expository text, had higher averages than those students who didn’t read expository text. I wonder how long it took to do this research and find this kind of information to be true? As I was reading the text I came across this line that I felt was very important; the need to not only understand information but also evaluate it is a necessity in today’s world. This is very important to know because just because you understand something doesn’t mean that you really know what it’s talking about.

Blog #2

As I read Amber Miller's blog, I also liked the fact that Dr. Bishop stresses that literacy classes be safe and nurturing spaces, and that we should work together to create a supportive learning environment where good written and oral communication can flourish. I also thought that The Elizabethtown project seems very interesting to me and I have never done anything like that just as Melinda Hudson did.

When reading "Writing to learn across the curriculum: Tools for comprehension in content area classes", I found some interesting ways of having students to write rather than just giving them paper and expecting them to write. I also feel that this activities for them to do are the most important ideas I got from the article. I enjoyed the technology TED this week, I went outside to listen to all the different sounds around me and it made me come to a reality check that I need to pay attention to the things around me more instead of always being on my cell phone. You could use this technology with art by having the students to draw the things they hear, you could also use math by having the students come up with a word problem talking about the different things around them and for adding and subtracting. The thing that stood the most to me was in the reading when they were giving us all the ways to use writing because I absolutely hate writing but if my teachers would have known about these different ways to use writing when I was coming through school then I might have a different look towards writing. I believe that the way that students look at writing is base on how well the teacher teaches the subject and by giving the students feedback and having the students give feedback to one another. One question comes to my mind after reading this and it is why didn't my teachers do these different ways to show us how to write? Have these concepts been around and my school just didn't know or are they somewhat new?

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Introduction/First Blog

Hello everyone, my name is Adrianne Ashley and I am currently a Senior well actually a super senior but who's counting. :) I'm from a very small town in Mississippi known as Raleigh. I have a dog that lives with me and his name is Cooper and he is my life and I'm not sure what I would do without him. I enjoy shopping with my mom but only when she buys me stuff. ;) As you all know I am in Elementary Education with endorsements in Math and Science. The reason I chose this as my major is because when I was a little girl I always dreamed of becoming a teacher and everyday after school I would go into my playroom and play for hours like I was a teacher. I have to say that I believe I was a very good teacher back then and I plan on being an even better teacher in real life.

Last semester I was in 1st grade and I did enjoy it but I don't believe that is where I should be. I would like to have a higher grade, just not so sure how high of a grade I want to go. I am so excited to start teaching Math because that is my favorite subject and I enjoy learning new things and new techniques on learning math. On the other hand, I am most definitely not excited about teaching English because that is my worst subject and nothing about english inspires me.

As I was reading the syllabus one things that stood out for me was that during this course we were going to be planning instruction by using a variety of literacy practices and getting closer with our endorsement areas and I am really looking forward to learning all new things. I believe that this course is going to be about oral literacy with doing a lot of oral work during the classroom and learning ways to orally communicate with our students and learn fun and challenging tasks. So I am looking forward to learning new ways to communicate with students in a fun way like role playing. I have had to do blogs in two other classes that I have taken at USM so it seems that I should have the hang out it now and should start liking doing them but I honestly am not one who enjoys writing. However, I am looking forward to having an electronic pen pal and I feel that it is going to be very interesting to learn about how they are being taught. I am looking forward to a wonderful and experimental semester.