Guardians of Ga’Hoole: The Capture

Add a comment March 1, 2011

I Poetry

I think that this is a great way to engage students in interdisciplinary work.  This is a fun and exciting activity for students to do.  I was getting excited that I was going to get to write a poem about myself until I read over the instructions again and found out I had to write about Blackbeard.  Turning a topic into an I POEM is a means of deepening children’s understandings of a topic, a particular character, setting or even a plot.  Positive results are that students are able to transform language and ideas and incorporate factual information into their poems.  By doing this students are able to include emotion and use their imaginations.

I could so use this technique in my classroom because it helps students focus on whatever it is the topic is and not only that it helps deepen their understanding as well, plus it’s a fun and interesting activity.  I was thinking about using some kind of poetry in my IDP since I am doing my IDP on two or three dimensional shapes so I think that I can take advantage using one of the poems that we’ve discussed in class.

Add a comment February 21, 2011

Breaking Down Words to Build Meaning: Morphology, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension in the Urban Classroom & MT Study Vocab.

Add a comment February 15, 2011

MT Unit

I just took a look at one of the MT example units and OMG… Tuck Everlasting was 97 pages long. I wanted to cry, honestly.  I think that at this particular moment everyone is overwhelmed by all of the assignments and projects that we already have to complete.  Wow! All I can really say is that I am honestly dreading this assignment. No doubt this is going to be such an arduous assignment.

These questions may have already been asked but,

When is this due and how long will we have to work on this assignment?

Will we still be receiving additional homework while working on this assignment?

Is this even possible? (kidding, apparently it is)

Add a comment February 14, 2011

Internet Workshop & Swashbuckling Adventures

I believe that the internet workshop was a great thing for teachers.  I agree that teachers don’t have enough experience integrating technology into their instructions.  Of all my past internships and experiences, I’ve never really seen teachers integrate technology into their instructions and it’s probably because they don’t know how and they don’t have enough equipment.  The most computers I have ever seen in a room is two so this really limits students and teachers to integrate technology with in and/or out of class work.  Therefore, I think that it is a wonderful idea to teach teachers how to better integrate technology into their ways of teaching.

Integrating technology can help students become more independent learner, consumers, and producers of information in this teacher-structured learning environment.

I had to find a current event for Social Studies and in fact, my current event is on technology.  The story is that monitors are being put up in school buses in Arkansas so that students are learning going to and from school.  I have first graders so I plan to correlate this article with their daily lives of using technology, whether it be a computer, phone, smart boards, etc.

Double-Entry Diary style of writing is sort of like Cornell Style note taking.  I learned to do use Cornell Style note taking in high school and it is quite similar yet different also.  In Cornell notes, the paper is split into two columns as well but on the left side you would write down main topics or key terms and then use the right side to elaborate or go into more detail.   I’m finding this pullout to be very useful, maybe not now but I would love to use this unit on pirates in the future when I become a teacher because the way you all put this unit together is just amazing and truly looks like lots of fun!

Add a comment February 9, 2011

Shared Reading & Twin-Text

I’ve always been a big supporter with shared reading.  I totally agree with the positive results of shared reading.  Reading and book and having students read with you as the teacher, makes them more interested in the story and by letting them read as well, kind of gives them some kind of power over that particular page.  Allowing them to do this not only raises their self confidence for reading but, also when they come across a word they don’t know, they can easily ask the teacher.  Having the teacher there and reading with students can be a big plus because if the students see that if their teacher can do it in front of everyone, then they can too.  Big books are wonderful for shared reading because of the big font and illustrations.  Seeing large illustrations can also help students better understand what’s happening the the story, which could make it easier for them to read.

Dr. Frye, your article was awesome. I never thought that teaching about pirates could ever be so fun.  The way everything planned is just magnificent.  If you don’t mind I would like to keep this article for future use.  I believe that in this case using historical fiction and nonfiction books for pirates is a wonderful idea.  It makes me anxious to apply these ideas with other topics that I have thought in the past, would be hard to teach.

Add a comment February 7, 2011

Integrating Instructional-Level Social Studies Trade Books for Struggling Readers in Upper Elementary Grades

I personally think that because there are struggling readers in Ms. Green’s class that should have know and she should have dug deeper to find a more appropriate book that suits all the students in her class.  I also believe that the reading assessment is exactly what she needs to help her identify which child is below, on, or above grade level.  I’m actually one of those readers.  I’ve never been a reader.  Yes, I’ve finished books before but sometimes for me to comprehend to what I read, I have to back and reread.  So I know how it feels like to be a struggling reader.  I don’t think that I like the idea of making students read aloud unless of course the students volunteer or if I as the teacher, knows which students could and could not read aloud.

I most definitely agree with Betts when she says,

A “class” or “grade” is an abstraction; it exists in the teacher’s mind or nervous system. . . . No one has ever seen a “first-grade class,” or a “fifth-grade class.” What a teacher should “see” is a group of individuals, unique unto themselves.

This particular quote says it all.  All of these students may be in the same class but they all have different needs, needs in which they need the teachers helps.

Add a comment February 2, 2011

Extending Acrostic Poetry Into Content Learning: A Scaffolding Famework

My opinion is, acrostic poems would be a wonderful start to introduce poetry to students especially if it is focused on beginning letters, which provides inspiration and support for students.  It’s fun and easy.  This type of poem can be used with any subject.  I love the way this article shows a draft and then also shows a new version with more descriptive words that makes the poem all the better.

In this article, I’d have to say that I absolutely loved the way and difference the Blackbeard poem was written.  I had no idea professors from ASU were in this article.   It’s awesome by the way.  Anyways, I see the difference and it just lights up my eyes at how much more fun you can make a poem by just adding descriptive words.  When I read this article I automatically thought about the poetry power point that we went over in class about questioning ourselves if our poems had true feelings, is meaningful to us, is it something we are interested in, etc… I automatically wanted to created my own acrostic poem.

Add a comment January 31, 2011

Writing Workshop PPT

I believe that I too, am inspired by Graves Fundamentals in the teaching of writing.  I think that all six of these points are very important and play a big part in a child’s creative writing.  I wish that my teachers would have gave me and everyone, actually, the opportunity to pick and write about what interested us instead of writing about a topic that was given to us, which we may or may not have known anything about.

Reading these information about what teachers should and should not do with writing and students makes me think about my intern teacher.  The very first day that I was at the elementary school, I remembered that I had asked her if her children wrote at all and she replied, “I just can’t fit it in the schedule.”  I just thought to myself, “Wow, this is exactly what Dr. Frye had said to us!”  Her students worked on Math most of the time.  They may have worked on Fundations for about 30 minutes or so but that was it.   I guess they’re just so hung up on raising their Math scores that they don’t focus on anything else.

Finally getting to be with these students for two days, I really believe that if this teacher would just take some time to write with the students, that she would be so much more content with them.  They’re first graders, if they can just get that time to write what they’re feeling that day or any day, just one sentence to share with the class or just the teacher, it would just make everyone’s day and everyone would just become more appreciative and content.  I really thing a personal journal would do these children some good just to get to jot down their feelings once a day!

Add a comment January 31, 2011

HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking by Lisa Zawilinski

I agree that the internet is this generation’s technology for literacy because for one, everyone, I mean everyone, even little kids as little as age 2, has their eyes stuck on a computer screen somehow.  What? Youtube.  These older children does also already by emails, instant messaging, emails, and so much more.  All of these are basically new technologies for literacy.

I like the idea of using blogs as a tool to get students to really engage more into educational literacy as oppose to instant messaging.  I also believe that by blogging, with an open hearted teacher, teacher and students can have a better relationship in addition to students actually wanting to learn.

“Classroom blogs bridge the ever-widening gap between out-of-school literacies and in-school literacies.”(Alvermann, Huddleston, & Hagood, 2004; Hinchman et al., 2003)

After reading several other Hot blogging articles, my favorite one would have to be Mrs. Cassidy’s first grade class blog.  I loved they way everything was put together.  In this case, Mrs. Cassidy put up a lot of student engagement on the blog, which give parents access to see what and how their children are doing.  Best of all, all the students in these videos and pictures look like they’re having so much fun.  I think that this blog is a major success considering they are only first graders and when they want to show their appreciation, they want to be recorded.  It’s so cute.

Add a comment January 19, 2011