“Integrating Instructional-Level Social Studies Trade Books”

This article was about choosing the right books for a student’s instructional level, which I have heard a lot  about but this article really opened my eyes to struggles that students can go through and how to help those students.  As I was reading the scenario about Ms. Green’s class and Jon, I realized how often this happens and how sad it really is.  I was amazed by the facts given after the scenario though. I had never really thought about it in that much depth.  I realized that students who were at a lower level would take longer to read, but I never realized how much longer and exactly HOW damaging it could be.  It really put it in perspective to see the actually numbers of words Jon will read and how long it will take him.  The line “Not only is Jon developing a negative attitude toward reading but, with each passing month, he is falling further behind in reading skills.”  also really grabbed my attention.  It really made me think because we, as teachers, are supposed to be fostering a positive attitude and good reading skills.  This is what I have been learning in all of my methods classes at ASU and something I know for myself to be true.  When I read part of the quote by Betts, “it is imperitive that a teacher or a clinician should have some systematic means of appraising a learner’s general level of achievement.  Maximum development may be expected when the learner is challenged but not frustrated,”  I thought back to class.  In class we learned about how to do the WRI and the IRI.  This is a great tool to help discover the level that the student will not be frustrated or his instructional level.  I like the idea of a book being challenging but not frustrating.  This is what will help students to learn.  In the article another quote by Allington reminded me of the pirate study we are doing/learning about in class.  “They also need access to books that entice them, attract them to reading.”  I feel that the pirate study does this magnificently.  I think students would be interested in and still learn a lot from the books we are using in the pirate study.  Also, just the fact of using trade books in content areas made me think of the pirate study and other things we have done in our classes in Block II.  In our Social Studies class, Dr. Groce is always introducing us to trade books and showing us how they are better than the textbooks for the grade level in lots of cases.  Overall, I learned a lot from reading this article and found it very useful.

“Shared Readings” Article

This is a really great article that I myself learned a lot from and also agreed with a lot.  I think teachers should model reading for thier students often and as mentioned in the article, it should cover more than one comprehension strategy at a time.  I really liked one of the quotes “I used to do it that way – focus on one comprehension strategy at a time.  But I think that’s a problem. I don’t really read that way, and if I don’t read that way it’s not really an authentic shared reading and think-aloud, right?” I agree with this.  If you are going to model something, you should do it in a way that is most helpful to the students.  It should be the way that it might really happen in that situation.  I loved the way some teachers handled the different strategies.  For example, I liked when the teacher reading The Red Book introduced something from Charolotte’s Web and had the students discuss other books they had read with each other.  This is just one of the many great examples in this article.  I loved everyone of them and I learned a lot about strategies to help model reading from this article. When I read this article I could hear Dr. Frye saying “marinate and model”.  I agree that modeling is very important and this article gave me lots of new ideas to help do that.

Pirate Diary Activities – “Jake Carpenter” and “What If You Met a Pirate?”

First of all, I love this activity and think it would be great for students and teachers for many reasons.  I like the introduction to this activiy being an invitation- you are invited to go on a journey and you are invited to keep your own diary.  I think this would really get students interested in the assignment.  I also like how the instructions are laid out concisely.  I like how it includes examples and specific numbers of entries and specific assignments.  I think this helps to clear up confusion for both teachers and students.  I also like how the assignment is broken up into sections, making it easier to handle.  I like how students are given things to think about when they read.  This is “reading with a purpose” and not just reading and not comprehending.  I also like the fact that a link to a map is provided.  I really think it is helpful for students to be able to visualize a place in which they are reading.  I also like the fact of connecting the two books to expand learning.  The Jolly Roger activity is also a great one.  I think would be fun for the students and the teacher to create and share the flags.  I also especially liked the evaluation questions under the second activity about reading the Pirate Code.  I think all of these activities put together make a great way for students to learn and a great way to keep them engaged.  I think it would be wonderful to use in a classroom!

Pirate Unit Articles

I loved the ideas in both of these articles.  I loved how the teacher is instructed to and able to lead the students into the lesson using music and interesting facts.  I love how the students are to keep there own DED, or journal, about pirates. I think this would really help on so many levels: research, writing, learning about pirates. . . etc.  I think overall the whole unit is a great idea. There are so many ways for students to explore and engage in learning all on their own.  It’s also usually an interesting topic for students that is fun to learn.

Brown Angels

This book was great! I loved how the poems interacted with the old pictures.  The poems themselves were also wonderful.  I especially loved the one called “Jeannie Had a Giggle”.  I love how it personifies the giggle and how Jeannie tried to hold it in but just couldn’t.  It reminded me of times when I wasn’t “supposed” to laugh but had to giggle at something.  I also like the poem “They”.  It really makes you think.  People are always saying “they say” and “they this and that”, but “they” aren’t always right! Overall, this is a wonderful collection of poems and I hope to be able to use some or all of them in my teaching career!

I LOVE “Love That Dog”

I had read this book before this class and loved it then. I was so excited that I could have an “excuse” to buy it for my reading class and use “textbook money”! haha  I love how this book is written.  I love how the boy’s feelings are conveyed through a “journal” and the way it shows his writing grow over time.  I can’t even really express this, except for this book is WONDERFUL! I will definately use it in my classroom someday if I teach the correct age group.  I think this book would be a great way to introduce and help “marinate” students in different types of poetry.  It introduces lots of different types of poetry in a unique and engaging way.  It also introduces it in a way that I think a lot of students could relate to.  I think a lot of students could see where Jack was coming from as he talked about poetry.  Overall, I can’t stress enough how GREAT this book is!!!

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Is this statement  true?  What is in a name? I think that every name has at least some sort of a story.  Here’s mine:

Before I was born, my parents wanted to be surprised at the sex of the baby. They already had two girls so as they put it “they didn’t think they would be blessed enough to have another girl”.   In other words, they thought I would be a boy. Haha!  I acquired the name Matthew.  My mom, dad, and sisters often talked to me in the womb, always referring to me as Matthew.  When I was finally born, SURPRISE! I was a girl!  My dad had always liked the name Brittany and as soon as he saw me, he knew that’s what my name was supposed to be.  My mom on the other hand liked the name Katlyn.  They finally compromised, but I guess Daddy kind of won, because I became Brittany Katlyn Norman.  Daddy came up with the spelling of Katlyn himself.  I have only heard of one or two other people whose name is spelled that way.  I like having that uniqueness.  Brittany on the other hand isn’t quite as unique.  There are 179,775 people in the U.S. with the name Brittany.  There was almost always another Brittany in my class in elementary, middle, and high school, just usually various spellings. My mom declares that the name wasn’t that popular when she named me; she thought she was being different. haha! Overall though, I’m happy with my name.  When I get married, I plan to keep all three of my names plus my husband’s last name (no hyphens, just four names).  I don’t want to give up my middle name or my last name because they are both special to me!

HOT Blogging

I really like the article about HOT blogging.  It laid things out in a very organized and very easy to understand manner.  It also gave some very good examples and links to explore for yourself how other teachers have used HOT blogging.  This article really gave me some insight on how helpful blogging could be in a classroom.  I had thought about it some, but not to this extent. 

While reading this article, I realized how blogs can initiate so much student connection and make the students think about what others are saying.  By having students initiate thier own conversations online, it opens them up to think about higher order thinking.  It also provides a way for students who might be shy or might not be able to say much in the classroom to say things that they might not otherwise get to say. 

I also loved the idea of students putting up thier best work for others to see.  I think this encourages students to do well and allows them to share with other and get the praise they deserve.  Like Stephanie, I was thinking that I might be a little apprehensive about letting the world see everything my students do, but it was a good idea to have comments approved before they were posted. 

I had also never considered using a blog with younger children.  I was surprised to see a first grade blog as one of the examples.  I was also surprised at how well the students had describe the Junie B Jones book in their blog.  I was very impressed and thought that it was a great idea for even younger children. 

This article gave me some great ideas that I really hope to be able to implement in my classroom someday.  My only concern is how would I go about getting permission to do this.  I assume the principal would have to approve and also the parents of the students would have to agree.  There would also have to be some security mesures taken, such as the comment approvals as mentioned before in this post and in the article.

Notebook Know-How by Aimee Buckner

I have read the first 15 pages of this book and already I am hooked.  I love how the author writes clearly and what she has to say is absolutely great.  I love the idea of a writer’s notebook for students.  There are times when I love to write, but sometimes school took the fun out of it.  I see Buckner’s ideas of having a writer’s notebook that the students can make their own and write in everyday as great.  I think it is very important for student’s to write every day and not just the answers to short answer questions, such as the questions at the end of a science chapter.  Writing the answers to those short answer questions is what took the fun out of writing for me when I was younger.  I believe there are lots of other ways to express the answer to a question and I think this writer’s notebook could help but giving the students an outlet that is their “own” and letting them use it in order to learn and think.

“Are we Engaging our 21st Century Learners?” Video

After watching this video from Youtube all I can exclaim to begin with is, “Wow!”  This really hit home on a lot of points.  I never thought about how many teachers did not use some form of digital interaction in some form on a daily basis.  Students today are technologically advanced and are exposed to digital technology at a much younger age than people of my generation were exposed to it. 

Teachers should really think about this when trying to decide “how” to teach.  Technology can be a very useful tool when taught how to use it correctly.  I think some of the problem is that teachers do not know how to use the tools that can greatly benefit a student’s learning.  Technology should not only be used to meet “technology requirements”, but also as a way to engage students.  As seen in the video, most students use some form of technology many hours a day.  Teachers should help them turn this into a learning experience.

There are all types of students who need to be engaged.  One of the hard jobs of a teacher is to find out how to engage each student, even the ones who don’t act like they want to be engaged.  If you don’t engage students, then they aren’t going to learn a whole lot in the long run.   Like the video suggests, teachers need to figure out how the things students love can help them to learn.  Teachers also need to teach students to create, analyze, and think.  I like the quote “Let me use the WWW Whatever, Whenever, Wherever.”  This holds some truth to it.  The big picture is that teachers need to find a way to engage all learners and help them to learn in the best way possible.