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.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
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.
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.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
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.
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.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Introduction
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| My RA staff and I at training camp |
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