Vignette 3

Vignette # 3

                      
                       






 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.

Vignette 2

Vignette #2

Here is a link to my second Vignette. Enjoy!

Vignette 2
 

Week 10

Week #10

     I really enjoyed getting so much time in class to prepare for our thematic units. It was helpful to get to brainstorm ideas for our lessons as well as decide who was doing what. I look forward to seeing everyone's wikispace pages because they will all be very unique. I think it would be awesome to do a project like this with middle school students. They usually love working with technology and this gives them a way to use it creatively. I think it is a cool idea to have pages on the website that they are required to complete and then think of a few others that would be more fun. Also allowing the students to think of ways they want to creatively show their knowledge is a smart idea. If the teacher gives the students choice they will be more likely to want to do the project and hopefully be more excited about it. I think my favorite part of our assignment for wikispaces is doing the Found poetry. It allows students to be as creative as they want. Also anyone can do it because you could simply keep words that have meaning to the story and they don't have to make sentences it could just be key words. I think for students who are scared of poetry and think they cannot write it, this is a perfect first step to writing poetry. Then for those students who do enjoy it, they can be more creative and make the poem into meaningful sentences or into a picture that is significant with the book.

     I do not feel as overwhelmed by our thematic unit as I at first thought I would be. It seems like a manageable amount of work for how much time we have left in the semester. I think since we have all been in block already creating ten lessons plans overall does not seem as big of a task. I think it will be fun to think of lessons to go along with my book I chose.

Week 9

Week #9

     I enjoyed getting to hear the last two presentations about math and science. I think the math one was helpful because when teaching students about word problems many students struggle trying to find what is important and what is not. I would definitely use this strategy even in younger grades because even though these problems will be simpler some students struggle with word problems even from the beginning. I would also use the graphic organizer for science classes because it is a lot easier to fill out than simply writing notes. I remember in middle school just having to copy down notes as the teacher wrote them on the board. Then I would memorize them for our tests. I think it would have been much easier to remember things if they were organized into sections of a graphic organizer where I could see the important details.

     I enjoyed having to make movie trailers in class for our book too. I think it is a fun way to learn to be persuasive about getting others to read your book. It teaches kids to highlight the main points of the book without giving away the ending but to also speak in a persuasive manner. I think kids would benefit from making a story board before so that they could plan out the scenes instead of doing them right away. It could also teach them how to film different shots and to learn more about filming in general. I think it would be a fun way to incorporate learning about filming and another form of technology.

Week 8

Week #8

     I thought it was a cool idea to go through all the different subject areas and do different reading strategies. It made class fun to get to do a bunch of mini lessons. I really enjoyed doing the art piece and then talking about the different characteristics of art through that. I could see this being used in a Language Arts class where you want to talk about mood. Or any other class that has incorporated a novel or reading to it. The students could discuss or even color/draw what they feel from a passage being read aloud of the book they are reading. Then they could describe their art and see what mood the passage is portraying. It could also help with writing because they could explore which words or phrases elicited these feelings. After they could make sure to use more of these words in their writings to elicit feelings and develop mood in their papers too.

     For the Social Studies presentation I thought it would be cool to even use this in a science class. I think often times the media, scientists, and other groups will present different ideas about a topic. For upper middle school it would be useful to use the four perspectives to analyze all the views of what really is going on. It also helps them to develop the ability to critically analyze the media they receive on a daily basis.

     For the Language Arts presentation it could also work for a science or Social Studies class where there is something that is a controversial topic and the students need to debate a side of it. I think it would be useful to even use the four perspectives strategy first so they are all aware of all the sides. Then the teacher could give them the opinion and evidence sheet to help them focus on one side o the argument.

Week 7

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.

Vignette 1

Here is a link to my first Vignette! I hope you enjoy listening to my first memories of school from my and my parent's perspective of my learning to read. 

Vignette 1

                      This is a picture of me when I got my first Biscuit book from the story . 
                                             

Week 6

Week #6
     First off, I liked how each group presented on one after-reading strategy. I thought that was smart to have us teach each other instead of just going through each one as a whole class. I think I would use all the strategies we went through because I see benefit in them all. The dinner party I thought would be fun to do with middle school students. I think giving them who their character is as well as time to prepare would make conversation flow a little easier then doing it randomly in class one day. I think it would be interesting to do it where you split the class so that everyone can participate and then there is no pressure from having your peers watch it. I think this activity definitely would be engaging and show the depth of knowledge students should have about the book.

 I loved the frozen moments one and want to try it with my future students. I did it in a theater class two years ago. I think it would be cool to add music to it. For my theater class we were given a book then we had to pick five frozen pictures to create from it. We had to find a song to go along with the mood of the book as well. This made it even more fun and then the students had to try to figure out what may be going on at certain points of the book similar to how we did it. I was thinking that this would be a good way to teach foreshadowing because by having each group do a scene they could say how that scene may cause another one to happen or hints at what is to come.
 I also enjoyed doing the I AM poems because I am not the best at writing poetry so having the layout was helpful. I think it also is a cool way to see what students know about each character and go beyond what it says in the book. I think it teaches empathy because students learn to feel and see from that character's perspective.

Doing the hot seat would be fun in almost all content areas I think. I believe it would work best with reading or history where there are characters or historical figures that could be represented. It would be interesting to try it with science concepts as a review activity or something. For instance having people be plate tectonics, types of weather, types of plats/animals. But it definitely works best in reading because the students can show how well they know the characters and what they want to know that the book doesn't say. Other students not in the hot seat get the chance to ask questions. The students in the hot seat may not always know the best way to answer questions but if they know the character well enough they could probably guess well enough what they might say.

The last one was stand in silence. I like this one because of how you worded the statements so that no one knew if they had been the bully or someone who was bullied. I think if I did this I would also want to create safe statements for better participation. I did an activity similar to this in high school and with my wing where you step into the circle if it applies to you. I think either way works well to show students that they are not alone because especially with bullying it has effected everyone at some point most likely.

Week 5

Week #5

         I enjoyed the value card activity. I had actually done it the week before in my assessment class however I liked how we did it this time better because we related it back to our class. It was nice to see what we valued and then to be able to see what we thought a character valued. I think this is a useful tool to see how students interpret a character. There can be many answers as long as they can back up why they picked certain values for the character. I think this is good especially for middle school students because they are at the age where they are trying to figure out what is important to them and why. This activity gets them to think about these more. It would be cool to extend this activity by having them write about their values. They could simply write about each value in their top four and why they picked it. They could also write examples or stories about their values. For example I said that I value service to others. I could write about how I go out of my way to help my friends and a story about a time I did that.

        Another activity we did was the Grand Jury activity. This was not my favorite only because I am not a huge fan of debating things myself. I do however find value in the activity. It teaches students to be able to have an opinion and be able to find evidence for that opinion. It can also teach them to talk or write persuasively which are both important skills to have as an adult. I thought it was cool how one of the people in our class mentioned that by debating the other side than what she believed it challenged her and stretched her mind. I think that we as teachers don't always do enough of that so this is a good activity to practice this. It is a very engaging activity which in a middle school class I would consider using.

       I thought our activity where we got to talk about our opinions of the book, connections to the book, and then an article that showed another side to the book was worthwhile. It was helpful to see why the book may not be the best choice. It reminded me that teachers need to research their books they choose and be able to explain to parents why they are having their students read the book. I would not have known it was a controversial book otherwise. I think this activity could be adapted for a class as well. The columns could still be thoughts, connections to other things, and finally another view on the book. It think seeing another person's view on the book would also stretch their minds because it forces them to think about something they hadn't thought of.
       

Week 4

Week #4

       I really enjoyed the write around activity. I had done it before in classes and also liked it then. It's a nice strategy that can be used in many subject areas where you want students to be able to share their thoughts and hear other people's thoughts as well. I think this is great because as a student I did not like speaking up in class especially when it was a debate or something opinionated. I would have really liked this because I could agree or disagree with my peers without feeling uncomfortable.

       The activity where we had to draw a picture of a character in Spirit Bear was a lot of fun! It allowed us to be creative and there is not one way to draw a character. It gives the teacher a chance to see if the student remembers basic facts about the person to be able to draw them. It also shows that the student can interpret what they may look like based on their actions in the book. It is a fun way for students to be able to visualize the characters especially if they have trouble with this on their own.

        The plagiarizing activity was a cool one as well because it is a creative way to teach the concept without explicitly saying don't plagiarize. I know as a student it was confusing to understand how to put it in your own words and when you had to cite things. Doing this activity would have made the concept easier for me. I liked it as well because it tests comprehension of a story. The student has to write down what they find important to remember in only key words and then they have to tell the story. It increases students' ability to summarize and find important, key details. I think this would be fun in any content area too. For example if you give the students each a primary article about a topic then have each one tells the others about it using key words they wrote down. This would be easier for students to understand the article because they would have to put it in their own words and say it how they understood it. In social studies or history this may need more scaffolding if the articles are harder to understand.

     I think if most of my students have ipads or my school has access to them making imovies would be a fun assignment! I think most kids enjoy making videos and putting them to music. I know I had this assignment in school and it was the thing I remember most from history in middle school. It would be interesting to see how creative students could be if they made movies about books. They could create alternate ending to the book or tell the story from another character's perspective.

Week 3

Week #3

        I enjoyed reading about the write around strategy because it seems useful. It would be useful to teach students how to respectfully agree and disagree with each other. For example you could have them write an opinion piece on a story or topic that is being learned. The students would be able to freely share their opinions and the others int heir group could question and comment on it appropriately. I think this strategy would be useful in all content areas except maybe not as helpful with math because typically with math there is one right answer and it cannot be debated. I think this would be a useful strategy for reviewing for tests or to test prior knowledge.
        I think doing the character analysis activity was helpful however it was a little more challenging with this book I thought. It was challenging because Cole is mostly alone except when it flashes back to the past. Even with the flashbacks we don't get to learn a ton about the other characters. I did like this activity but I wonder if it would be more helpful to do farther into the book when we know the characters better. So far I have liked reading Touching Spirit Bear because I'm curious if Cole will ever change. He seems very adamant about not changing and escaping the island. I don't think he will be successful at escaping though because of the fact that he is on an island and doesn't know which way would get him back. I think students may enjoy reading this book because it talks about a rebellious kid. It isn't about an easy topic and makes it more of a real life type story. I think students could relate to him especially if they have parents who are divorced or if they feel like no one cares.
     

Week 2

Journal #2-9/16/2015

         I enjoyed reading about the writing to learn idea because it makes sense that we should use writing as a tool to learn not just as a method for writing what we know already. I would like to try using pen pals in my future classroom because I feel it would build community. The students could write to each other about whatever they want most times and other times it could be about topics discussed in class. In my future classroom I hope to use writing to learn more often. I always enjoyed as a student when we would get to write freely, so I will have to incorporate it.

        I do also plan on using double journal entries in my class. I think it offers a great way to connect to the reading and is more concrete than just taking notes. I would like to use this especially if I am an EL teacher. I think it would be useful because the student could write a fact they learned in science for example, then they could draw a picture and write a connection or thought about it. It would be a good way to help them build background knowledge of the topic. It would be interesting as well to use it with vocab words. The students for the so what part could write about when they could use the word or why the word in important. They could write about why it is important in the content it comes from.

         The carousel activity was a fun one to do as a class! I enjoyed that what we wrote could not be wrong as long as it related to what we thought of for each topic. This reminded me of the graffiti wall activity that we learned in social studies methods last year. This activity was similar to the carousel because for it each student would write on post it notes about each topic on the posters. Then they would post the post its on the corresponding poster. My block partner and I did this with our students and it went really well. I do plan on using the graffiti wall and the carousel activity. Both of them allow freedom to write and are great for showing students' knowledge.

         I am interested in our assignment on telling stories or vignettes. I think it will be a cool outlet to share our experiences as opposed to just writing about them. I think this would be fun to do with students as well for any subject really. Students could share their connections to a historical event or thoughts on it through video format. They could pretend to interview a historical figure or act out an event even. This would also allow students to use technology and become more competent in using software for recording movies.
       

Week #1

Journal #1-9/10/15

          The first activity we did in class was going through our reading assignment. We were instructed to find a partner to discuss our quotes with our thoughts on them. After we received sticky notes to write the so what or what we would do with our new idea. We discussed these with our partner and then shared them with the class. I would definitely consider using this in an upper elementary or middle school class. I think it promotes deeper thought and action for what they can do about what they have read. I liked having to share it with a partner and then the class because it gives students more confidence to know that one person has already heard their ideas. It also gives the class a chance to learn new perspectives and hear ideas they may not have thought of on their own.
          I would like to use the clock partners in my class so that my students are not always picking the same partner. This is a good idea because it gives them a chance to work with many different partners. It also eliminates students not finding a partner or feeling left out.
          I loved watching the Fish video where they taught us to play, make their day, be there, and choose your attitude. I think this is a great reminder for anyone especially teachers because they have a huge influence on their students. I would like to use this in my classroom as general reminders to my students to be good citizens in their world. I am an optimistic person so using these would help teach my students to be optimistic as well. I'm thinking that each week or month I would choose one to focus on. Then I would have a meeting each week with my students where we would talk about how we practiced play that week and how we would like to either improve on that or continue doing something into the next week.  Overall, this was a great video and worthwhile to watch!
          For the video, "Somewhere in America" I enjoyed hearing new perspectives that I had not hear before. It makes me more aware that my students will learn things from me that I don't plan on teaching. With this being said I think it's important to think about how what you're saying or doing may look to someone else or how they are seeing you. I also think that teaching students about hard topics like racism or any other ism is important. It doesn't have to be done in a shaming way to a certain group of people just in an informative way. I liked how they used the example of the Catcher and the Rye using the n word. This book could be useful to teach that part of history. What teachers could do instead of banning it would be to teach why the word is bad and what it really means. It reminded me of the website Teaching Tolerance because it is all about teaching diversity. I would like to try to teach using the diversity standards one day. I think this would help me become more aware of these issues that were brought up in the video as well as helping my students critically analyze their world and the events in it.
          I would like to use the Tea Party activity in my class. I think it would work well even with elementary students who are able to read well enough to read the quotes to their classmates. I think it was a cool way to introduce a book or reading. It gives the students that sense of curiosity because they want to know more about the quotes. It also opens up being able to write down questions or write an intro to what they think the story will be about. I was also thinking an adaptation to this would be to have all the quotes line up and after they read the quotes to each other they put them in the right order. It could be a random or important part of the book. This way they get a chance to hear a part of the story they are going to read without context. It would still give them the ability to guess what the whole book will be about. They could guess what came before or after that part of the story.
         I really enjoyed the readings for class this week because it reminded me that we have to make our students invested in what we are teaching them. The part that stuck out to me the most was the quote about not having students take a class but having them engage in it. This was a good reminder to me that I need to have my students come up with a why they are there and why they want to learn a subject. I plan on trying this with my future students where they will have to write or say what they want to learn. I think this gives them a sense of responsibility and purpose for being in class.

Introduction

       Hello! My name is Kelly Brunner and I am a super senior here at UWEC. I am studying Elementary Education with a Spanish and TESOL minor. I am from Savage, MN which is a southern suburb of the Twin Cities. I have two siblings who are both younger than me. They are my best friends and I love getting to spend time with them while I'm at home. One of my favorite places other than my home and Eau Claire is my cabin. We go there almost every weekend in the summer. I enjoy swimming, kyaking, boating, tubing, and spending time with my cabin neighbors. Some other things I enjoy are reading, dancing, working out, hanging out with my family and friends, and meeting new people. I have loved going to school here at UWEC mainly because of my involvement in Housing and Residence Life as well as student organizations. This is my second year as a resident assistant which I absolutely love doing.

My RA staff and I at training camp