Chapter 12 talks mainly about building community. This topic was thoroughly covered in the Classroom Management class offered previously in the program; however, after looking into this chapter I was able to see a lot of information about building community by reaching out of the classroom that I had not been exposed to before. This section of the chapter intrigued me in that it is an area I had not previously given much thought. I was aware of the idea of sending home weekly news letters to keep parents and guardians updated but it had never occurred to me to ask the parents about their children. Duh! Right? According to the text, parents can be an invaluable resource for information about students. This makes sense because they know about their students.
Another idea I found within the chapter which I think will be helpful is providing parents with a guide to allow them to help their students with homework. This guide could be as simple as providing guiding questions that parents can ask their students when working on homework. I think this is a good idea because sometimes parents might either be intimidated by their students homework and not know how to help or parents may be too helpful and just give the students the answers rather than helping them understand the assignment.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
The strategy I chose to use is the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity also known as DRTA. This particular strategy is considered to be a prediction strategy. Using prediction provides a way to activate prior knowledge and motivate students. Because DRTA is designed to engage students in active reading, I think that this strategy would work well in content areas such as science and social studies. The DRTA prediction strategy could be used as students read both their assigned class readings from textbooks and when reading content related expository and narrative trade books.
When using the DRTA strategy content areas students could also incorporate the use of the internet to enhance their predictions. For example, after students have made predictions the teacher could have the students browse the internet to research information relevant to their topic in order to test their initial predictions. Using the internet along with the DRTA is beneficial in that it offers students further practice and insight.
Furthermore, a strength that can be associated with the DRTA strategy is that it is designed to engage students in active reading. The DRTQA is also good in that it requires students to make decisions based on their prior knowledge. On the other hand, a weakness that can be associated with the DRTA strategy may occur if a student does not have prior knowledge on the topic at hand and thus is unable to make a sufficient prediction.
When using the DRTA strategy content areas students could also incorporate the use of the internet to enhance their predictions. For example, after students have made predictions the teacher could have the students browse the internet to research information relevant to their topic in order to test their initial predictions. Using the internet along with the DRTA is beneficial in that it offers students further practice and insight.
Furthermore, a strength that can be associated with the DRTA strategy is that it is designed to engage students in active reading. The DRTQA is also good in that it requires students to make decisions based on their prior knowledge. On the other hand, a weakness that can be associated with the DRTA strategy may occur if a student does not have prior knowledge on the topic at hand and thus is unable to make a sufficient prediction.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
I first saw the KWL strategy used in one of my courses in the introductory block of this program. It was one of the first days of school and our teacher had decided to apply this strategy as a way to find out what we as the students wanted to learn from the course throughout the semester. While I can completely understand where the KWL strategy would be appropriate for this use, it was for some reason unsuccessful. I can only speculate as to why this particular use of the KWL was a flop, yet, I do not think the fault lay with the professor or the strategy but rather with several outside factors.
I feel that this strategy failed in this particular instance in that, at this time, no one really knew anyone else. I think that perhaps some bit of shyness had to do with the fact that no one willingly volunteered to tell what they already knew about the course or even what they hoped to learn. Silence made for an awkward situation. Eventually, the professor had to probe the class to find the responses she was looking for.
Another reason I feel that the strategy was not completely successful in this particular instance could have had to do with the fact that everyone was brand new to the program and was not really sure what the class truly was all about. I know that was a major concern of mine. It was the first week of school; I didn’t know anyone and was still worried about being in the right classroom. I knew the course name in terms of a few letters and numbers, I knew the room number, and I knew the professor’s name but right then in that moment, I realized I didn’t even know the proper name of the class. I definitely was not about to admit that and make a bad impression of myself. So, like everyone else in the class I sat there silently. I remember thinking to myself that I would never use that strategy in my classroom; I felt like the teacher was pulling teeth.
However, as the semester progressed we began to learn about different strategies and ways in which to use them with children and my initial doubts about KWL’s faded away as I was able to see the benefits in using this strategy. The first time I was able to use a KWL chart with a real life child, versus the made up group of students living in my head in which I usually write all my lesson plan assignments to, was this semester in our tutoring sessions at Oak Grove Elementary.
In our fourth tutoring session, we were required to teach our lesson using an Expository trade book. I chose to read a book about Johnny Appleseed and use a KWL to work on comprehension with the student. The student did not have much background knowledge about the topic but I allowed him to look at the cover of the book before we filled out the “know” section. He was able to gather that the name of the character was Johnny and that he did something with animals. For the “what I want to know” section of the chart, the student had a lot to input. After looking at the cover, he wanted to know why Johnny was wearing a pot on his head, why he was not wearing shoes, if he was a real person, what he did with apples: did he eat them, plant them, cut them down, etc. After filling out this section, we then began to read the book filling out the “what we learned as we went.” I was surprised to see how excited the student got each time he found an answer to one of his questions from the “what I want to know” section of the chart.
Using this strategy proved to become almost like a game with the student. He was able to make predictions and develop questions and was rewarded each time when he found the answers to his questions within the expository text. I think this strategy was a complete success for this lesson in that the student not only enjoyed the activity but I also feel that in using this strategy he was able to comprehend more from the expository text than if we had simply just read the book.
I feel that this strategy failed in this particular instance in that, at this time, no one really knew anyone else. I think that perhaps some bit of shyness had to do with the fact that no one willingly volunteered to tell what they already knew about the course or even what they hoped to learn. Silence made for an awkward situation. Eventually, the professor had to probe the class to find the responses she was looking for.
Another reason I feel that the strategy was not completely successful in this particular instance could have had to do with the fact that everyone was brand new to the program and was not really sure what the class truly was all about. I know that was a major concern of mine. It was the first week of school; I didn’t know anyone and was still worried about being in the right classroom. I knew the course name in terms of a few letters and numbers, I knew the room number, and I knew the professor’s name but right then in that moment, I realized I didn’t even know the proper name of the class. I definitely was not about to admit that and make a bad impression of myself. So, like everyone else in the class I sat there silently. I remember thinking to myself that I would never use that strategy in my classroom; I felt like the teacher was pulling teeth.
However, as the semester progressed we began to learn about different strategies and ways in which to use them with children and my initial doubts about KWL’s faded away as I was able to see the benefits in using this strategy. The first time I was able to use a KWL chart with a real life child, versus the made up group of students living in my head in which I usually write all my lesson plan assignments to, was this semester in our tutoring sessions at Oak Grove Elementary.
In our fourth tutoring session, we were required to teach our lesson using an Expository trade book. I chose to read a book about Johnny Appleseed and use a KWL to work on comprehension with the student. The student did not have much background knowledge about the topic but I allowed him to look at the cover of the book before we filled out the “know” section. He was able to gather that the name of the character was Johnny and that he did something with animals. For the “what I want to know” section of the chart, the student had a lot to input. After looking at the cover, he wanted to know why Johnny was wearing a pot on his head, why he was not wearing shoes, if he was a real person, what he did with apples: did he eat them, plant them, cut them down, etc. After filling out this section, we then began to read the book filling out the “what we learned as we went.” I was surprised to see how excited the student got each time he found an answer to one of his questions from the “what I want to know” section of the chart.
Using this strategy proved to become almost like a game with the student. He was able to make predictions and develop questions and was rewarded each time when he found the answers to his questions within the expository text. I think this strategy was a complete success for this lesson in that the student not only enjoyed the activity but I also feel that in using this strategy he was able to comprehend more from the expository text than if we had simply just read the book.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
I cannot remember exactly how writing was introduced to me or how I initially learned to write. To me, writing feels like something that has always been there gradually progressing as I move on in life. Looking back, I can see how the type of writing I am expected to learn in each stage of my life has changed. In elementary school, for example, writing seemed to be all about technique and accuracy with the focus being on grammatical correctness. As I got older, however, I noticed I was given more freedom and thus writing became more fun. I was introduced to creative writing, poetry, and storytelling. Then came high school and college and with them came piles of research and analytical type papers, which while necessary, were quite dry.
When I think about how writing has changed throughout my lifetime I instantly think about the ways in which recording our writing has changed. When I started kindergarten in Germany, we had a class set of type-writers; an instrument used for printing that is now for the most part obsolete. From that point on I mostly experienced classes that required recording writing with pen and paper- simple and old school. In high school, however, technology became a major issue in how our written work was presented. Everything needed to be typed using this font and this format to look just this way. I didn’t catch on to the whole technology thing that easily and I often felt that I was wrestling with technology rather than my actual writing. The one thing that killed me in high school was when I would print out a paper the night before and then read over it on the bus and notice things I wanted to change but it was too late. It was agonizing for me to know that right there I had an error and I couldn’t do anything about it because it was in print.
So, yes technology and the internet definitely play a major role in writing and thus they should be incorporated into teaching writing. The internet provides a way for students to access information in which to enhance and add interest to their writing. Also, because technology has such a dominant presence in our culture students are often times more engaged when writing using digital forms than when applying the traditional pen and paper method. In today’s job market almost all careers consider technology and writing skills of utmost importance and they often require competent skills using multiple media outlets; thus, I feel that technology should be incorporated as much and as early as possible in student’s journeys learning to write.
When I think about how writing has changed throughout my lifetime I instantly think about the ways in which recording our writing has changed. When I started kindergarten in Germany, we had a class set of type-writers; an instrument used for printing that is now for the most part obsolete. From that point on I mostly experienced classes that required recording writing with pen and paper- simple and old school. In high school, however, technology became a major issue in how our written work was presented. Everything needed to be typed using this font and this format to look just this way. I didn’t catch on to the whole technology thing that easily and I often felt that I was wrestling with technology rather than my actual writing. The one thing that killed me in high school was when I would print out a paper the night before and then read over it on the bus and notice things I wanted to change but it was too late. It was agonizing for me to know that right there I had an error and I couldn’t do anything about it because it was in print.
So, yes technology and the internet definitely play a major role in writing and thus they should be incorporated into teaching writing. The internet provides a way for students to access information in which to enhance and add interest to their writing. Also, because technology has such a dominant presence in our culture students are often times more engaged when writing using digital forms than when applying the traditional pen and paper method. In today’s job market almost all careers consider technology and writing skills of utmost importance and they often require competent skills using multiple media outlets; thus, I feel that technology should be incorporated as much and as early as possible in student’s journeys learning to write.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Promethean Reflection
Promethean Board/ Super C-Week
Okay, well let me just say I got up close and personal with the Promethean Board this week. I am observing a fifth grade math class and the Promethean Board is at the center of all instructional practices in this classroom. My teacher uses the board for everything imaginable ranging from showing videos to displaying the students’ actual textbooks on the board. All teaching in this classroom is linked to this technology.
Thus, needless to say, when it came my turn to teach the math lesson I had prepared, I was expected to use the board just as the teacher had been doing each day before. I am all for using the Promethean Board. Really, I think it is a great tool. The problem, however, is that prior to my clinical experience at Oak Grove Upper Elementary School, I had never actually touched a Promethean Board. Sure, I had gone through an online tutorial for my classroom management course on operating the Promethean Board. I was even awarded a certificate at the end of the online tutorial making me officially “Promethean Board Certified.” Sounds impressive right? Well let me tell you what that was worth. Honestly, not much. When it came down to it, I did not have a clue about how to use the Promethean Board.
I had been watching my mentor teachers all this time as they used the boards in their lessons and I was able to gain a general understanding of what was going on by watching them. It really did not look that hard until I actually got the pen tool in my hand and tried to work with it. I learned quickly that with this technology, practice and experience make all the difference. One major issue I initially had with the board is that it, like most other things in this world, is designed for right handed people which I am not. The default setting puts the tool bar on the right hand side of the board making it very awkward for me writing with my left hand. I eventually gave up and became a right-handed teacher for the purpose of Promethean.
I found myself trying to squeeze in a few minutes here and there every time the students were busy to practice actually manipulating the board. While the classroom teacher was very helpful, I felt bad having to continuously ask her how to get back to a certain page or how to operate a specific tool. To me, it should not be the responsibility of the classroom teacher to take out of her instructional time to teach me a skill I should probably have already learned. When it came to the Promethean Board I felt like a burden to the classroom teacher. I so wish that our program would incorporate a short, “hands on” mini lesson for us to go through so that we would at least have a little experience working with Promethean Boards before we were thrust into a classroom where we were expected to teach a lesson using this technology. It would even be beneficial if we had say a classroom set up where we could go in and practice teaching our lessons using the Promethean Board. I am not sure what the best solution would be, yet, I feel that incorporating training with this technology into our education program would be very beneficial.
That being said, I was able to talk to some of my USM professors and even to Dr. Daves about my concerns with Promethean while on site at Oak Grove Elementary. Beside the fact that the entire scenario was staged, I think the point was proven. So, here is how it went down. Laura Keenan and I were placed with team teachers and it just so happened that both of our classes were away at activity. Taking advantage of the down time, we were once again trying to figure out what in the heck we were doing with this board before we taught our lesson on the following day. Well shortly after, Mrs. Willis, our clinical instructor passed by the classroom and saw us working with the board. She asked what we were doing and we told her our concerns and that we were trying to practice. She told us to keep practicing that she was going to find Dr. Daves and direct him in our direction for a seemingly “chance” encounter. Sure enough a few minutes later Mrs. Willis returned strolling down the hallway with not only Dr. Daves but Dr. Ramp as well.
Laura and I were working away and had conveniently stumbled across a problem we could just not figure out. We got Dr. Daves in on the mission of helping us solve the problem at hand. We were distressed, I mean we had to use this board the following day and we couldn’t even figure out how to work it. Dr. Daves seemed shocked that this truly was our first opportunity to use the board and honestly it was and we really were trying to figure how to use it despite that fact that Mrs. Willis had put us up to the task. Nevertheless, given this “chance” opportunity we were able to show the need for a little more training in this area.
Not having any success solving our Promethean problem, Mrs. Willis recruited two students to come help. I have no clue where she got them from but her reasoning was that they probably would know how to help. They did not. It was actually quite comical, at this point we had two USM students, two USM professors, our department chair, and two fifth grade students all huddled around this board poking, prodding, and making suggestions to no avail. We were stumped. About that time, our classroom teacher walked in the door in shock seeing the chaos that had erupted in her classroom. Luckily, she saved the day, fixed our problem, and sent our professors on their merry way.
While it may appear that I am a complete Neanderthal when it comes to the Promethean Board, I was trying to prove a point. Believe it or not, I did teach my lesson the next day using the Promethean Board and it was successful for the most part. I taught my lesson on ordered pairs and how to graph points on a quadrant plane. It was a really fun lesson and teaching it on the Promethean Board proved to be really neat. I was able to pull up a piece of graph paper and then use a line tool to create the quadrant grid. Once the grid was created I was able to use it to label the parts of the grid and show how to plot points on the quadrant plane. At one point in the lesson the students were able to come up and plot points on the grid which they really enjoyed because it allowed them to come up and manipulate the board for a bit. From there I pulled up the sample problems the students had in their textbooks so that we could work them together. I really liked that I was able to pull up the students’ textbooks so that I could have the problems they were working on displayed on.
All in all, my math lesson turned out really well despite the extra panic I was feeling toward the Promethean Board. While, I am still by no means an expert when it comes to this technology, I realize with practice I can handle it, no problem.
Okay, well let me just say I got up close and personal with the Promethean Board this week. I am observing a fifth grade math class and the Promethean Board is at the center of all instructional practices in this classroom. My teacher uses the board for everything imaginable ranging from showing videos to displaying the students’ actual textbooks on the board. All teaching in this classroom is linked to this technology.
Thus, needless to say, when it came my turn to teach the math lesson I had prepared, I was expected to use the board just as the teacher had been doing each day before. I am all for using the Promethean Board. Really, I think it is a great tool. The problem, however, is that prior to my clinical experience at Oak Grove Upper Elementary School, I had never actually touched a Promethean Board. Sure, I had gone through an online tutorial for my classroom management course on operating the Promethean Board. I was even awarded a certificate at the end of the online tutorial making me officially “Promethean Board Certified.” Sounds impressive right? Well let me tell you what that was worth. Honestly, not much. When it came down to it, I did not have a clue about how to use the Promethean Board.
I had been watching my mentor teachers all this time as they used the boards in their lessons and I was able to gain a general understanding of what was going on by watching them. It really did not look that hard until I actually got the pen tool in my hand and tried to work with it. I learned quickly that with this technology, practice and experience make all the difference. One major issue I initially had with the board is that it, like most other things in this world, is designed for right handed people which I am not. The default setting puts the tool bar on the right hand side of the board making it very awkward for me writing with my left hand. I eventually gave up and became a right-handed teacher for the purpose of Promethean.
I found myself trying to squeeze in a few minutes here and there every time the students were busy to practice actually manipulating the board. While the classroom teacher was very helpful, I felt bad having to continuously ask her how to get back to a certain page or how to operate a specific tool. To me, it should not be the responsibility of the classroom teacher to take out of her instructional time to teach me a skill I should probably have already learned. When it came to the Promethean Board I felt like a burden to the classroom teacher. I so wish that our program would incorporate a short, “hands on” mini lesson for us to go through so that we would at least have a little experience working with Promethean Boards before we were thrust into a classroom where we were expected to teach a lesson using this technology. It would even be beneficial if we had say a classroom set up where we could go in and practice teaching our lessons using the Promethean Board. I am not sure what the best solution would be, yet, I feel that incorporating training with this technology into our education program would be very beneficial.
That being said, I was able to talk to some of my USM professors and even to Dr. Daves about my concerns with Promethean while on site at Oak Grove Elementary. Beside the fact that the entire scenario was staged, I think the point was proven. So, here is how it went down. Laura Keenan and I were placed with team teachers and it just so happened that both of our classes were away at activity. Taking advantage of the down time, we were once again trying to figure out what in the heck we were doing with this board before we taught our lesson on the following day. Well shortly after, Mrs. Willis, our clinical instructor passed by the classroom and saw us working with the board. She asked what we were doing and we told her our concerns and that we were trying to practice. She told us to keep practicing that she was going to find Dr. Daves and direct him in our direction for a seemingly “chance” encounter. Sure enough a few minutes later Mrs. Willis returned strolling down the hallway with not only Dr. Daves but Dr. Ramp as well.
Laura and I were working away and had conveniently stumbled across a problem we could just not figure out. We got Dr. Daves in on the mission of helping us solve the problem at hand. We were distressed, I mean we had to use this board the following day and we couldn’t even figure out how to work it. Dr. Daves seemed shocked that this truly was our first opportunity to use the board and honestly it was and we really were trying to figure how to use it despite that fact that Mrs. Willis had put us up to the task. Nevertheless, given this “chance” opportunity we were able to show the need for a little more training in this area.
Not having any success solving our Promethean problem, Mrs. Willis recruited two students to come help. I have no clue where she got them from but her reasoning was that they probably would know how to help. They did not. It was actually quite comical, at this point we had two USM students, two USM professors, our department chair, and two fifth grade students all huddled around this board poking, prodding, and making suggestions to no avail. We were stumped. About that time, our classroom teacher walked in the door in shock seeing the chaos that had erupted in her classroom. Luckily, she saved the day, fixed our problem, and sent our professors on their merry way.
While it may appear that I am a complete Neanderthal when it comes to the Promethean Board, I was trying to prove a point. Believe it or not, I did teach my lesson the next day using the Promethean Board and it was successful for the most part. I taught my lesson on ordered pairs and how to graph points on a quadrant plane. It was a really fun lesson and teaching it on the Promethean Board proved to be really neat. I was able to pull up a piece of graph paper and then use a line tool to create the quadrant grid. Once the grid was created I was able to use it to label the parts of the grid and show how to plot points on the quadrant plane. At one point in the lesson the students were able to come up and plot points on the grid which they really enjoyed because it allowed them to come up and manipulate the board for a bit. From there I pulled up the sample problems the students had in their textbooks so that we could work them together. I really liked that I was able to pull up the students’ textbooks so that I could have the problems they were working on displayed on.
All in all, my math lesson turned out really well despite the extra panic I was feeling toward the Promethean Board. While, I am still by no means an expert when it comes to this technology, I realize with practice I can handle it, no problem.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Building Vocabulary
http://www.visuwords.com/?word=school
This website allows you to look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. The site acts as both a thesaurus and a dictionary in a concept map style. It could be used to help students when writing in that it also uses a code to help students not only understand that words are connected but also how they are related.
http://www.weboword.com/vocabulary/cerebral.htm
This site acts as a visual dictionary. Students can type in the word they need defined and not only will they find the definition but a cartoon drawing as well. The drawings that accompany the definitions help illustrate and reinforce the meaning of the term. I am a very visual person so for me this site is really neat in that it adds a little interest to looking up a vocabulary word. The cartoons can be comical and I think that kids need that every now and then.
This website allows you to look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. The site acts as both a thesaurus and a dictionary in a concept map style. It could be used to help students when writing in that it also uses a code to help students not only understand that words are connected but also how they are related.
http://www.weboword.com/vocabulary/cerebral.htm
This site acts as a visual dictionary. Students can type in the word they need defined and not only will they find the definition but a cartoon drawing as well. The drawings that accompany the definitions help illustrate and reinforce the meaning of the term. I am a very visual person so for me this site is really neat in that it adds a little interest to looking up a vocabulary word. The cartoons can be comical and I think that kids need that every now and then.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Chapter 6: Planning for Teaching Students to Become Strategic Learners
I found chapter six, Planning for Teaching and Learning, to be very beneficial. I felt that the information in this chapter was pertinent to me because I will be expected to have these skills when I secure my first teaching position. The key principles for planning mentioned in the book helped me see how to break down the process of planning. Until this point, I had not given much thought to the process I went through when planning. Thus, I was grateful to see the principles for planning and I feel that they will work great as a checklist to ensure that I stay on track as O strove to plan effectively.
I also thought it was helpful to see the different ways in which one should plan for the different teaching methods such as direct instruction versus problem-based learning. Additionally, I found the section on planning for culturally responsive teaching to be useful as well. I am very fascinated with other cultures and I know that as a teacher I will be required to teach a group of diverse students.
Finally, I enjoyed perusing the section pertaining to teaching students to become strategic learners. I have always been taught that it is more valuable to know how to gain knowledge on your own than it is to simply be handed something such as content in this setting. I think back to the saying, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” I feel that this saying speaks for itself in the educational system; if we provide students with strategies for learning then they in return can become life-long learners.
I also thought it was helpful to see the different ways in which one should plan for the different teaching methods such as direct instruction versus problem-based learning. Additionally, I found the section on planning for culturally responsive teaching to be useful as well. I am very fascinated with other cultures and I know that as a teacher I will be required to teach a group of diverse students.
Finally, I enjoyed perusing the section pertaining to teaching students to become strategic learners. I have always been taught that it is more valuable to know how to gain knowledge on your own than it is to simply be handed something such as content in this setting. I think back to the saying, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” I feel that this saying speaks for itself in the educational system; if we provide students with strategies for learning then they in return can become life-long learners.
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