WhoDatTeacher

A future educator's free space to voice my opinions because I know I wake up every morning knowing that kids are getting a crappy education. I don’t think they are; I know they are. I'm fortunate to be in the position to change this attitude.

[geauxempower]

it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday

Wow, it's hard to believe that we have reached that point of the semester where you can begin to label everything as the "last time'' you'll do anything. Aside from extending my Thursday class schedule three hours, this LLED course has been very valuable. Joe you have been a wonderful instructor. Although some would criticize, I appreciated how loosely defined you created the class. I really believe it allowed us to tap into our own creativity and not be bound by any preset guidelines. I think we also really appreciate that the class did not come with a very heavy workload. I think a weekly blog of our reactions to assigned readings and articles of our choice was very manageable. 

Speaking of the blogs, I'm actually sad that this is the last one we will be doing for a graded assignment. However, I am so thankful that you made us create these blogs because I will definitely continue to use them as I enter my future classrooms as a student teacher and lead teacher. I don't think I ever mentioned it in a blog, but I remember speaking to you after one of the first class meetings, and you commented on how you enjoyed my blog because it came from the soul. That stuck with me throughout the semester as I completed my other blogs and will continue to stick with me in the future. I think that is one thing I really want to focus on as I continue this blog away from just content literacy. I want my followers to know that what I write is real and that it all comes from great intentions in the interest of my students. Certain topics may arise a more passionate reaction from me, like race and socio-economic related issues, but again I also am not only in a fight to assist my students but a fight to advance my people as well. 

Walking out of this class, I will take away many learning strategies to potentially utilize in my own classes. Some of my personal favorites were read aloud and reading response journal. I am also more aware of allowing my students to use all of their forms of communication instead of just listening. I'm really excited for what the future holds for all of us. I'm sure we will all do great and that at least at one point in our careers, something you taught us will be very beneficial to us. 

Since walking into this class for the first time back in January, my definition of content literacy has taken many forms. I think I progressively worked my way to an acceptable definition. Content literacy to me is the ability to fully understand and effectively communicate your knowledge of a certain content. I'm sure as I continue teaching, that definition may undergo more changes but I am satisfied with its current state.

Again, thanks so much Joe! I really appreciated this class, three hours and all. I look forward to reading your future posts and hopefully you'll keep up with mine. From one WhoDat to another, Laissez les bon temps rouler!

MW-WhoDat

[geauxempower]

still i rise. (xii)

After computer and internet issues, I have finally been able to complete this blog. Again, it feels like it has been a while since we have used the Tovanni text, but I am always very intrigued as I read through the chapter. This blog will center around two main topics in Chapter 7 and 8; group work and reading response logs.

Chapter 7 of Tovanni touched on one of my favorite class management skills, group work. As a student and a teacher I really enjoy group work. It's a time when you can partner your ideas and experiences with you fellow peers. I think it is great for our students to gain similar or opposing perspectives. Group work also allows our students to participate in a different form of communication, talking. Our students spend so much of their time in class quiet and listening to the teacher and aren't allowed to express their thoughts and knowledge. A fellow classmate made a great point about collaboration and how teachers will collaborate with their colleagues and how we should allow students to do the same. Us teachers share our ideas and lesson plan activities with one another to better our individual classes and group work can be the same for students to better their learning.

Chapter 8 mentioned reading response journals, a strategy I surprisingly forgot about. I used these journals very frequently while in high school to assist me in reading. My 12th grade British Literature covered a lot of Shakespeare, which I struggle to read. Our teacher used this journal to see how we were connecting to the text, how well we were comprehending the text, and to also ensure that we were actually reading the text. The journals allowed for students to write down their reactions and concerns with the assigned text. If there was any confusion in the student's understanding of the text, they could write that down for the teacher to clarify the next day. These were so helpful to me as a resource for increasing content literacy. These journals are easy and effective to implement in our classes.

My partner and I are at the beginning stages of our group project. He was not in class during our last meeting so we are still in the planning process of what we actually would like to do. We have done many group projects together before, we even did our first semester of student teaching together so our team chemistry will be great and we are capable of producing a quality project! Expect greatness.

Until next time.

MW-WhoDat

[iwasyourteacher]

when the class will NOT settle down

[geauxempower]

critical of critics

This blog should be interesting. I will get a chance to really view and consider what my peers have thought and wrote about.       

                      http://educationdawg.tumblr.com

"5.)http://store.projectwet.org/incredible-journey-download.html            "The Incredible Journey" is a wonderful activity that I actually used in the classroom myself last semester. I believe it worked greatly! Each student had a worksheet that they wrote their journey as a water droplet on. They go to a station and role a die to see where they will go. If they role "the ocean" from "the clouds" station, the paper at that station will tell them how that worked (they rained down from the cloud into the ocean)."

I really liked this activity. I think it is a great and engaging way to not only facilitate instruction, but to also supplement instruction. I actually used this activity in my practicum last semester. My sixth graders fully enjoyed this activity. I used the activity to review the content of the water cycle I taught in the previous classes. The students were able to move around the classroom and actively participate in the stages of the water cycle. I'm glad you were able to ​discover this activity. Hopefully you use it in your future class!

                                 http://edunite.tumblr.com

I really enjoyed your blog about Relating Accessible Texts & Real Life Problems ( http://edunite.tumblr.com/post/77200800461/relating-accessible-texts-real-life-problems ). I like this reaction because as a current student, I still find myself constantly questioning the necessity of learning certain content in our classes. I think the Pythagorean Theorem and quadratic formula are great examples of topics students find a hard time in understanding the relevance of. The blog referred to in this reaction was great because it explained different ways of making the students connect to the material they deemed unnecessary. The example of the linear relationship of the snow storm we experienced was awesome because that immediately pulls in student interest. 

                      http://theuneducatededucator.tumblr.com/

I really enjoy the culture and social awareness in your blog. There are many historical artifacts that display the ignorance of southern racism and discrimination. I think you have definitely highlighted you culture in this blog and address the issues that you have identified to still haunt your people. As I read through your articles, I was very enlightened by a lot of the information presented. 

                          http://humerusteacher215.tumblr.com

I read through your Content Area Literacy & personal soapbox ( http://humerusteacher215.tumblr.com/post/74086646966/content-area-literacy-a-personal-soapbox ) and your statement about literacy in America and athletes caught my attention. As a future teacher and prospective coach, I think athletic programs and academic programs must be firm in their involvement in student-athlete education. I think many times like you said, we push an athlete through school so that our athletic programs can prosper, but do not think of the negative consequences it may have on our students. If I were ever to lead or be involved in any athletic program, my athletes will be held to a very high, yet attainable standard. 

                               http://pinittoteachit.tumblr.com

I came across this picture ( http://pinittoteachit.tumblr.com/image/77195850391 ) and now I have an activity to use for my first day of classes. I think this is amazing idea! Many teachers come into a class room with expectations and guidelines for their students but ignore the fact that students do the same. I think this gives a teacher a chance to 

1. see what the students expect and want out of you

2. the type of teachers they have had before and its effect on their relationship with school and learning

and 3. I think it gives the students a chance to feel like they have a say or a tad bit of authority in the classroom!

This is really great, I cannot wait to use this on my first day.

I'm honored to be in a class with such insightful educators.

MW-WhoDat

[geauxempower]

the point of it all. (x)

As the semester slowly, well actually quickly begins to draw to a close I had become so used to free-range blogs it seemed like it had been an eternity since I last opened the Tovanni text. However, this reunion was definitely an enjoyable one. As I read throughout the chapter I knew this blog would easy to write, at least from a reaction and idea standpoint. This blog will be focused on the chapter's discussion of time for thinking and the use of highlighters and sticky notes. 

Time. Something teachers have so much of. Yeah right! Teachers are so overwhelmed by a pressure to complete everything necessary before the 60 minute class period bell, the monthly benchmark exam, or the state standardized test. Yes, teachers are definitely under time constraints, but our students are as well. This section brought to my attention that we do not allow our students enough time to think about what they are doing. It is sort of like here are the instructions, now do it! Just as it takes us adults time to read and form a reaction or response to a text, it takes our students the same time if not more! Thinking while reading is very difficult because it can then become distracting. Tovanni provided some examples of how we can allow our students to maximize their time to think about the reading. 

Highlighting was the first resource. Quite frankly, I am not to sure about middle schoolers and highlighting. I hate to not give them the benefit of the doubt, but I just see the entire page being full of different colors and not really benefiting the students. I think it would be more beneficial to them to try to use better strategies for remembering texts. Highlighting is still something I still have to be very cautious with to ensure its' effectiveness, so I think teaching it at an older age would be more appropriate. 

Using sticky notes would be much more appropriate for middle school aged students and also something they can continue to utilize all throughout their schooling. Sticky notes are like bookmarks that hold the place of a readers thoughts. If a students comes across an interesting or possibly a challenging section of the text, they could write their reaction to it or meaning of it for clarification. I just finished reading Warriors Don't Cry and I have to write a book review on it. While I remember the plot of themes of the book, sticky notes would have been useful in referencing back to the book for specific textual evidence and support.

Overall time is precious for both the teacher and the student. We are still working to find the best method to not only maximize on time but also learning. Sticky notes are the best solution this chapter presented. Its crazy we only have five more class meetings!

Until next time.

MW-WhoDat

[geauxempower]

the good, the bad, the ugly (ix)

When it comes to reading strategies, many teachers will agree and disagree on which ones best fit their students capabilities and interests. Teachers will often refer to their access of resources to utilize these different strategies. While there is no one golden strategy to use to increase our student's content literacy, we have been exposed to many great ideas. I discovered an article that highlighted seven reading strategies that worked. Some of these strategies I have utilized in my own experiences within classrooms, some I have learned about, and some I do not quite disagree with. This blog will be centered around my critique of some of the reading strategies presented by this article.

http://www.bath.kyschools.us.schools.bz/userfiles/2/Seven%20Literacy%20Strategies%20That%20Work.pdf

The first strategy discussed is "Read Aloud". I am not quite sure how I feel about Read Aloud activities as of yet. I guess it also depends on my class. If my class or many of my students are struggling readers, then read aloud would not be the ideal strategy to use. I would hate to embarrass or highlight a student's struggles. Maybe reading aloud individually or in a small group with students of similar capacities would be more appropriate so there is no feeling of superiority. However, it would be an excellent way to ensure students are focused on the reading and not just listening to the teacher read aloud or pretending to quietly read to themselves. 

K-W-L charts are also discussed in the article. I honestly think KWL Charts are more beneficial to the teacher rather than the students. KWL Charts are formative assessments teachers will use to guide their lessons. We want to get a feeling of our students' prior knowledge (more beneficial to the instructor than the student). The Want aspect of the KWL Chart is what teachers use to guide their lessons. The information students want to learn will either be aligned with state performance standards or added in as supplementary activities. The Learned section of the KWL Chart seems to be pointless to me. I do not ever recall students ever using KWL Charts as a resource for understanding or for anything else beyond the date they complete it. The Learned column is often info the students copied down from their notes and not something they were able to understand and communicate on their own. KWL Charts if used correctly could be great resources, but I think it would be easier to utilize other resources. 

Graphic Organizers are a great resource to use to boost our student literacy rates. The amount of creativity and specificity in graphic organizers is endless. The instructor is in complete control of what is expected in the graphic organizers. You are able to be as broad as you would like or as specific as you would like. Graphic Organizers can include definitions, terms, illustrations, etc. My favorite thing about graphic organizers is that it can be partnered with many different activities from reading and taking notes from a textbook, completing a lab, or testing your students' knowledge of the content. 

While these are only a few of the strategies mentioned in the article, I think it is great in showing that there is no perfect strategy teachers can use to assist their students. It also shows that while I may agree with one strategy, a colleague may disagree and vice versa. I believe in the end it all depends upon your student's capabilities and the teacher's preferences. Until next time, 

MW-WhoDat

[geauxempower]

literate enough to vote?

As well all may or may not know, voter literacy tests were given to prevent people from voting, mainly African-Americans but others were affected as well. These tests varied in difficulty and content. Many times they were timed and intentionally made very difficult so that those who took it could not pass, and therefore not able to vote. I think this would be cool to introduce to my students as we cover Civil Rights in American history. Voting Rights became a major focus of the Civil Rights Movements. Voting constituted political gain and advantage for whites, leaving African-Americans without a voice in their civil rights. My students will be able to experience the discrimination that those affected endured during that time period. It may also be a inspiring piece for students to feel fortunate and grateful for their ability to vote now.

Attached is a link to the 1963 and 1964 Louisiana Voters Literacy Test, http://www.crmvet.org/info/la-littest2.pdf (1963) http://www.crmvet.org/info/la-test.htm (1964). These two tests differ heavily in the content literacy they require. The 1963 Literacy test requires extensive knowledge of politics and government. I didn't know some of, well many of the answers to the questions it asked. It would take someone well versed in this content to actually pass this test. This test would not only be difficult for blacks to take, but whites as well. I think this caused the drastic change in content tested in the Literacy Test of 1963 to 1964.

The 1964 Literacy Test was very basic in nature. However, one mistake constituted a failing grade so you had to be very cautious of your answers and also aware of your time because you only had ten minutes to complete it. I was able to pass this test, but not with much time to spare, and I am a college student. This test caused you to be very attentive to detail and all aspects of the question. Many questions were worded to intentionally confuse you. The question "Spell backwards, forwards" was the most challenging because it was not clear if you were supposed to be spelling forwards backwards or backwards forwards.

After completing this assignment, my students will be able have an idea of the struggle African-Americans encountered in their efforts to vote. This assignment is very engaging and thought and response provoking. This could be used as a starter to engage the students in the lesson. We could discuss their reactions to the reality that these tests were used to determine if you could vote or not. In class we spend a lot of time talking about student engagement, alternative texts, etc. and I think these Voter Literacy Tests are perfect examples.

MW-WhoDat

[iwasyourteacher]

when a student invades my personal space

[geauxempower]

experiencing the civil rights movement

Text sets have increasingly become popular in classrooms. I actually had not heard of them prior to our previous class meeting. We spent a good amount of time discussing text sets and their value to students and teachers! At the beginning of class we created a test question based on a standard that the state mandates. My question for 8th grade social studies focuses on the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia. 

Explain Georgia’s role in the Civil Rights movement. Be sure to include some important leaders, events, and laws we discussed in class. Your answer will be based off your ability to support your opinions and reactions with factual data.

My goal with this question is to allow my students to back up their answer with as much information as possible. History is based on so many facts about certain people, places, and events. I structured the question to be very broad (Explain Georgia's role in the Civil Rights Movement) because I wanted to see all they knew. If I aimed at pinpointing specific facts some students for whatever reason may not know a specific court case or historical figure and I may not accurately be able to assess their knowledge.  The open-endedness of this question really benefits the students.

I have set up a text set to help guide my students along as we learn all of the necessary information to accurately answer this question. Below is a text set I have constructed to guide my students with information and experiences of individuals in the state of Georgia and their role in the national Civil Rights Movement. My text set includes the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFKx6HJLC7U  Civil Rights Video for engagement and discussion. This video will be used as an introduction to the unit. It very briefly introduced many popular figures and events that happened in the national civil rights movement and I want to point out that many of those individuals are from Georgia. Although the video is short in length, I think it'll be great to ask my students about their reactions and responses to the things they saw in the video.

http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/archives/integration/rbextra.jpg  Red & Black Article on desegregation of UGA. I want to pair this article with the ABC World News video about Charlayne Hunter-Gault ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgORoZ8p6g8 ) and her role in the desegregation of UGA. While the standards nor the textbook mention the desegregation of the university, I think this will serve as a great supplement to the lesson. This article will also be cool for students to read. They can get a first hand document from the time period explaining the event. 

It Happened in Atlanta This novel shares accounts of notable events and people that helped shape the cities culture and history. The Civil Rights portion of the book would be cool for students to review because there may have been significant Civil Rights activism in their particular neighborhoods.

The Watsons Go To Birmingham This book is a great way for students to gauge what everyday life was like for the people affected during this time period. The daily struggles of dealing with racism and discrimination had its effects on the family and the book was very descriptive and provided lots of imagery. This also serves as a supplement to the entire lesson. 

The students' grandparents can be used as a part of my text set. No matter if they are from Georgia or not, I can give students a notice in advance to reach out to grandparents and/or older relatives who lived during the Civil Rights Movement (preferably in Georgia, but okay if not) so that they can see how THEIR family was affected during this time. This can be very interesting and captivating for students. 

I believe text sets are very beneficial to student learning and teacher teaching. Teachers have the ability to design their own text sets so it adds that creative dimension to the class that others lack. They can also modify and accommodate as needed. This text set i have created will be very helpful to my students as they prepare to answer the question above.

MW-WhoDat

[gjmueller-deactivated20181226]

'12 Years A Slave' To Be Incorporated In High School Curriculum

The National School Boards Association has announced that the Golden Globe winning and Oscar-nominated film and the 1853 memoir chronicling the capture, enslavement, and escape of black northerner Solomon Northup will now be taught in public high school American history classes.

According to Time, the distribution will be funded by TV host Montel Williams in partnership with New Regency, Penguin Books and Fox Searchlight Pictures. Williams was also largely responsible for the incorporation of the Civil War film “Glory” into school curriculum.

[geauxempower]

positivity for accessibility

Many times we construct the word accessibility with a negative connotation. We may initially think of handicap accessibility or think of the word simply as a meaning of the ability for a disabled individual (in any context) to access something. Honestly, accessibility is something that is vital for us all, able and disabled. In the same context as our students, some readers may have skills that other students do not possess. As a teacher it is our responsible for us to find a text that is accessible for all of our students. Even off the topic of mental, physical, and psychological capabilities, I think a key factor often overlooked is the accessibility of our readings to our students' interest and experiences. 

This Tovani chapter provided great insight on these accessible texts. I really enjoyed how she made sure to state that accessible text does not correlate to "dumbed down" or "low level". I view it more so as relatable. She also mentioned how it doesn't sacrifice rigor. Instead of constantly assigning difficult texts for our students to become comfortable with them, gradually ease them into reading texts with higher difficulties. You can increase the rigor of the readings as your students become more familiar and comfortable with the ones before. This prevents automatic removal of interest and desire to participate in the reading. 

Contrary to what I believe to be popular opinion, I am a huge fan of fiction texts. I think you can still utilize the imagination and creativity within fiction texts to engage your students in reading. Now I don't believe solely in using fiction, I would like to slowly transition them into reading non-fiction texts. Still, my non-fiction texts will be highly focused on creativity and topics of interest to my students. Quotes, song lyrics, photos, and calendars are also great resources I hope to use in the future when using accessible texts.

I came across a middle school science blog ( http://doyle-scienceteach.blogspot.com/ ) and I really enjoyed how it added that accessible factor to its' content. The blogger does an excellent job of bringing the real world into her activities. She researched why blueberries are blue; something very small but in the end very fascinating. She breaks away from solely depending on the book as a means of instruction, but looks to the real-world in which we live in to serve as an educator as well. 

In the world of instruction, I think some teachers can improve their fun literacy because some of them are pretty illiterate in that context! Content literacy is still stuck in its' state of being the ability to effectively understand and communicate knowledge of a certain topic.

[geauxempower]

re-routing our readers

Currently experiencing Jungle Fever at its' finest. Ice has paralyzed us all and I don't think it will be going anywhere soon. However, work must still be completed! As with every class period, we discussed more reading strategies to use to help guide our students. Think aloud and synthesizing were main focus points throughout discussion and subsequently this blog! 

This weeks podcast, http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1419 was quite interesting. I really enjoyed that there was a push for freedom and creativity within the classroom. I can preach on my feelings towards this all day, but I am really glad that it was shared. The example of allowing your students to choose their own topic for a research project was great. No one jumps for joy for research projects, BUT if given the opportunity to choose my own topic, I would be much more interested in doing it. A level of interest increases a the quality of the assignments turned in. Allowing students to have the freedom to choose also allows them to express who they are. If I was doing this project, I would probably choose something related to the city of New Orleans. My strong connections to New Orleans allows me to share this passion and my experiences with my class.

We talked a lot about Think Aloud practices and I am not quite sure of my stance on them. I think they are a great way to guide your students but I am not sure if that is what I would want my students to use as their go to strategy simply for classroom management reasons. Controlled Think Alouds would work fine, but if you are in a class where students are thinking aloud all the time, it can become a little chaotic. Maybe to fix this issue, the "Aloud" part does not have to really have to be aloud. Think Aloud (but really in your mind).

I found this really great resource explaining synthesizing in detail. http://www.ohiorc.org/adlit/strategy/strategy_each.aspx?id=000002#how . It describes synthesis as a journey and that there are many ways of reaching that journey, we just have to find out which is the best route for our students. We can get caught up in our knowledge and try to guide them down the same route we followed, but do not take into consideration the other possible routes. Taking these alternative routes also allows our students to gain new perspectives. Synthesizing aids reading comprehension because it requires students to put the new material into their own words and combine it with their prior knowledge (something that needs to be tapped into more often). This makes it more likely that they will remember the information and they will then be able to transfer it to new situations. 

Well hopefully, this ice starts to melt soon, because I need to get out of this house. The South needs to start become more literate in snow/ice preparations. Maybe some of these skills we discussed could beneficial to them! Haha. 

MW-WhoDat

[geauxempower]

maybe one of the greatest things I've encountered as a teacher. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

[geauxempower]

some great news to share

Just wanted to share a bit of exciting news, not about my self, but about one of my mentees at Gaines Elementary. Jaden was in my second-grade classroom last year and he was one of my favorites. (Teachers aren't supposed to have favorites, but we do. Oh well ) Jaden is a very smart kid, but a little bit of a hot head...with a short temper. Today I saw Jaden for the first time in a few months and had a chance to have lunch with him. While eating and talking about sports, he excitingly interrupted me to share with "Mr.Marcus" that he has been working hard all year and is now on a sixth grade reading level. I can't tell you how proud I am of Jaden. This is the reason why I have chosen this field of work. Nothing beats the feeling of knowing your students are on a path to reach their potential. I just continue to pray over Jaden and all of my other students and that these wonderful achievements are just the first of many to come! Well that's all I had to share, I was just so proud of him that I wanted everyone else to know of his achievement!

[geauxempower]

one man's trash, is another man's treasure

"Okay class, as you come in, sit quietly and begin your journals. I want you all to write me a short story, about 3/4 of a page or more about the water cycle! You can be as creative as you would like. Bring your story to life with imagery and personification. Just be sure to include each step of the cycle and details of each stage". This is something I would love to assign in an Earth Science class of mine. As a middle schooler I would love to write about how a little helpless water droplet was in a constant cycle of vacation like activities; hanging out in the ocean, riding up the elevator to the clouds, bundling up before coming back down the drop as rain, sleet, hail, or snow. I think this puts our students in a free space. While they have guidelines of info that they must include, the story is totally based on their creativity and vision. Even to bring more energy in the class, I would have maybe a couple of students act out their stories for the class if they wished. While this has little to nothing to do with them learning the concept, it brings the most important thing to this lesson, interest and engagement. 

While searching for "cool" YouTube videos on literacy in a middle school classroom, I came across this gem ==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgaE0xi6A60 . I've certainly heard and seen Word Clouds before, but never thought of how useful they could be. When I saw them, they were just cool designs made with words related to a certain topic. The teacher actually uses them as pre-reading activities. He would paste the article the students were to read into a program that would create these word clouds and highlight the most frequently used words and discussed topics. I think this pre-reading activity, along with a collection of other PRAs is wonderful because it gives the students knowledge of the article's content before they even receive it. If there are words, topics, or concepts unfamiliar to the students or slightly unclear, the teacher can then discuss those terms, topics, ad concepts so that when the students do read the text, they are confident and capable in their abilities to not only get through the text, but understand it as well. This is definitely a strategy that I am excited to use in my classrooms. 

Tovani's section of Chapter 3 provided some great guidance on using the text features to comprehend. While the textbook may not be our best friend or the one we like to call on all of the time, it does its' best to help us out and sometimes we ignore some of the really good qualities and features of the textbook because of our own opinions and experiences of and with it. Don't judge a textbook, by its' cover. Haha! Many times as a teacher and even a student we overlook the fact that diagrams and pictures within these texts are not only to be there to fill space and make the textbook colorful and cool, but they are supplements to the information provided in the text. In her example with the math textbook, I really value her advice to show your students how you work through difficult tasks. We sometimes have a hard time helping our students get through these hard tasks because the content has become second-nature to us so we may not fully understand their struggles. The most important thing to stress to your students is to NOT PANIC! I cannot tell you how many times students will come across a challenging passage, question, or activity and immediately shout out in frustration "THIS IS HARD! I'M NOT DOING THIS! UGH!". As a teacher we want to encourage our students to accept these challenges and tackle them head-on because they are more than capable of doing so. Even in my mentee's third grade class the kids are so quick to give up, whereas all they need a little guidance. If we can teach them to be self-sufficient in guiding themselves through difficult tasks, they will be A-OK!

I'm having a hard time expanding my definition of content literacy so I think its staggering at the ability to understand and effectively communicate your knowledge of a specific content area. I really enjoy how this class pushes me to think about my thinking, meta-cognition. 

MW-WhoDat

[geauxempower]

spoon feeding our students

Are we babying our students? Are we doing to much for them and not allowing them to be independent? Are we not providing enough guidance? Or are the students simply lazy? It seemed as if this podcast was sort of hinting at this topic. One of the teachers mentioned how students do not read instructions; they want the teacher to read the directions out for them in detail. They want you to guide them through the entire process, even will doing the work. They want you to put the worksheet on the overhead and go through the answers with them so that all they have to do is copy the answers onto their worksheets. I would have to agree with him because I do believe our students like to be spoon fed. My sixth graders from my field experience were the same way. They would sometimes directly and indirectly get you to do all of the work so that they only have to copy down answers. Even as a student myself, I can say that I am guilty of this as well. You try to push as much of the workload off of your plate and onto the teacher's. 

Would I say the students are lazy? I am not fully sure yet. I think yes, part of it may be laziness, but I think much of it is the lack of independence. We sometimes forget with middle schoolers, that they are still very young in a sense. Especially sixth graders who are only one year removed from elementary school. They are not as accustomed to the independence that we would like them to have. As easy as we may think it is to receive a handout, read the directions, and complete the assignment, it may be difficult for some of our students. To break this habit and to build that independence, we need to spoon feed them so that they are accustomed to reading and interpreting directions. You then slowly begin to back off and allow them to do it on their own. Easier said than done, but I think that is the best way to break the "laziness".

The double entry journal is fantastic. I really enjoy how you can easily manipulate them to fit whatever you want your students to do or think. It's the perfect tool to ask and answer questions about the text. Many classmates were concerned about creating a broad double entry journal because of fears of students not taking it seriously. Like I mentioned in class, I will give my students all of the freedom in the world until they prove me that they cannot handle it. If students are not using the double entry journal effectively, you are able to be more specific with what you want them to enter. I think giving them that opportunity to do great work under broad directions, gives them that sense of independence instead of the teacher once again spoon feeding them throughout the entire process telling them what to do. 

I came across an article, What is Literacy in the 21st Century and it touched on some topics we discussed in class. The article focused on the connection between advancements in technology and its affect on literacy. The author mentioned that "Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy". I agree with this statement because with new technology and changing times, new areas of literacy begin to arise. Technological literacy maybe was not so important in the sixties and seventies as it is today. But with advancements in technology and changing times, technological literacy has become so important because majority of everything around is technology.

My ever-growing definition of literacy has now grown to the ability to effectively communicate knowledge. Well, another week down, a lot more to geaux. 

No more hour long podcasts please!

MW-WhoDat

[geauxempower]

teach like an educator, think like a student

I really enjoy how this class structured my way of thinking. I feel as though I am being trained to not only think as the educator, but as the student too. I think many times teachers do not realize the importance of thinking like their students because they come from two totally different perspectives. A pre-teen and an adult are in two different stages of cognitive development and capabilities...well as long as that psychologist's theory is indeed true! My professor has really emphasized the importance of not only the teacher being critical, but the student as well. As great of an idea as that is, I am surprised this is my first time hearing it. We force our students to do so much throughout a school day/year and we very rarely are concerned with their feedback on how they felt about it. That needs to change quick! 

In our weekly podcast, (no. 11 The Critical Link Between Literacy 2.0 and Excellence in Science) the lady spoke of literacy and reading in science. I honestly never realized how much reading and writing was involved in science. When you think of science, reading and writing isn't quite the first thing that comes to mind. I think more of beakers and meter sticks. However, these skills are needed to be design, conduct, and explain experiments. She did make an interesting point in saying that people highly misjudge the capabilities of elementary aged children. I can attest to this because last year, I student taught in a second and third grade classroom. Children are becoming more technologically savvy at younger ages. Many adults who struggle with advancements in technology are quick to think young children do too, but overlook the cultural and societal changes in our generations. I think many of these topics she discussed in the podcast can be introduced in early ages; it will only benefit our students. Now she made a point about graduate school being the best professional development, I would disagree. I think we all have our different styles of teaching and her idea of having a few weeks to collaborate with colleagues on different ideas and strategies would be my most preferred method of professional development. I think graduate school is a great option, but I personally learn best through practice and interactions. Even in the Middle School Program I believe to have learned more from practice in my classrooms and shared interactions with my cohort than through methods and content courses. 

"Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?" really struck me. I had expectations of a boring text with some publishing company giving me a third person description on how to help my students become more literate. Luckily, it was the complete opposite. I felt as if I were reading a textbook of blog posts. Tovani guided me through stories and personal accounts and not long paragraphs of definitions and fluff. The title of the first chapter (I'm the Stupid Lady from Denver") immediately drew me in. It's ironic how this happened because in our previous class meeting I spoke about the importance of having engaging titles and how they can really affect a reader's interest going into the reading. My favorite part was how she confronted the girl who had no desire to listen to the virus lesson. Many times teachers will ignore those students disengaged in efforts to preserve those who are at least mildly engaged. Tovani showed us it really only takes a few questions to spark interest. Ironically enough, asking questions is a major component to obtaining literacy. I felt as though the Tovani chapters were a recap and extension of our discussions in class. It provided us with more reading strategies that we had not discussed in class. Double Entry seems to be effective, because it also includes asking questions about what you just read. It is a great way for students to master their reading and writing communication skills. 

Week 2 of perfecting the concept of content literacy (the ability to fully understand and effectively communicate an area of content) is in the books. Week 3, lets geaux!

MW-WhoDat