Week #7
The first activity we did was a one minute book report where each group went around and gave a summary of the book in one minute. They had to talk for the entire minute and try to make it so others would be interested in reading the book. I think this activity would be good in any subject because it requires students to summarize what they have read, watched, or talked about. It also has students practice persuasive speech if they are trying to convince others to read their book. At the end we could ask questions to any of the groups which allows the other students to gain more information if they want it. Overall I would use this activity for any group work because I feel it is a quick way to see what the students have understood.
I enjoyed having roles for literature circles too because it gave us a purpose for reading the book. It also gave us structure during our time in the lit circles instead of simply having students talk about a book. I liked having students do vocab, art, and connecting because they give students a deeper understanding of the book. I think it is cool to see what students have connected with for a book because most likely they will always be different because each student has different experiences.
I really liked the energizer activity where we had half the class be famous people and then the other half be reporters. I could see this activity being used in a history class where the students could act as a historical figure they have been studying. Then the other students would have to guess who they were. This would test their knowledge of the person since they would have to act like them and know enough about them to successfully portray them. The reporters would also have to know about all the historical figures since they would have to guess them.
I am curious to see the content area literacy presentations because I think they will be helpful to learn many new strategies. I know as an ESL minor that we focus a lot on how to bring literacy skills into the other content areas so I think it will be fun to learn more I can use. For EL we talk about how teachers should have language objectives and it would be cool if teachers also had reading strategy objectives for their lessons when they include them. This way the teacher could more easily assess how the student was doing with the new strategy they have been working on.
After my fight with
learning my alphabet I was much more cooperative in the rest of the learning to
read process. I find it funny that I was so stubborn with my parents because
now I am not stubborn at all. Between first and second grade I learned to read
more fluently. I remember loving making the books in first grade where we would
get to color them. We even made shoeboxes in art class to put all these paper
books in. These were the short simple books with a few word sentences on each
page. We had fourth grade buddies who would come in each week to read a few of
our paper books with us. In second grade I loved to read even more because I
finally could read chapter books. Some of the first chapter books I remember
reading were Arthur beginning chapter books. I loved watching the show so it
was easy for me to be interested in reading these. My mom would read a chapter
or so with me every day. I enjoyed the attention I got from this time I had
with my mom. Once I got to third grade and above I would read all the time.
This is when I started to get into series books. As a middle elementary student,
I loved The Adventures of Mary-Kate and
Ashley, Judy Blume’s The Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing series, and Beverly Cleary’s Ramona and Beezus series. I
enjoyed reading books in series because I would become invested in the
characters and I wanted to know what would happen to them next in their lives.
I found the Mary-Kate and Ashley ones fun because these were mystery books.
Each one was a different mystery, and I loved trying to solve the mystery with
them. Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary’s books were fun for me to read too because
both dealt with having younger siblings. Since I have two younger siblings it
was easy for me to relate to Beezus and Peter when they would talk about what
it was like. I also really enjoyed kids even as a kid so reading about younger
kids was cute and interesting to me. Even though in elementary school I loved
to read after kindergarten, I was not the best reader in my class. I know I had
to work hard at it. My mom tells me that out of my siblings and I, she had to
work with me the most even though I read all the time.
