Reader's Theater & Out of the Dust

Reader's Theater:
I enjoyed doing the reader's theater Thursday, as I always enjoy Dr. Bishop's class. Out of the Dust, in my opinion, is not the most intriguing book.  However, when doing reader's theater with the book, it makes it completely different and more engaging. When doing this strategy and many more, I personally learn a great deal more than just sitting in a desk listening to a "read-aloud". Not that read-alouds are not helpful, in some cases the most definitely are.  I just think that doing something more is a lot of times better. I really enjoyed not only doing the reader's theater, but also watching and listening to others. With this type of strategy, you are more likely to listen and comprehend more so than some others. Quote from text: "And as the dust left, rain came. Rain that was no blessings. It came too hard, too fast, and washed the soil away." I chose this quote because it reminded me of today's time. It's always too much or too little. Nobody's ever satisfied with what they have. If it doesn't rain, we want rain. If it does rain, we want it to stop. That is how it seems like it was then, and how it still is today. It also applies to allot of other things in today's society. Question: Why do we always want something different, whether it is good for us or bad for us or whether were not sure if it is good or bad?
Chapter 6:
Quote: "Graphic organizers have been shown to be a great assistance to students with learning disabilities." Page 103. I agree with this quote. I think that graphic organizers are a great tool for all students but especially for students with learning abilities. Being able to see content represented in different ways can be and is very helpful for all students. This makes me think about how in our science class for education whenever we created concept maps for students we were teaching. It really helped me understand more about the topic and it most definitely helped them, also. Question: "How often should we use graphic organizers in the classroom? When can they begin to be too much for the students?

Text Talk

TEXT TO TALK ARTICLE:

This article was one of the best articles that I have read in a while. I could really relate to this article considering I read to my tutee today at Oak Grove Lower. Today I met a sweet little girl that I will be tutoring for the rest of the semester. The little girl, Ali, really likes to read, but she does not like to do so read during the summer today or at home very often. She is a great reader to be in the third grade. Ali was very good at re-telling and remembering details about the story. After asking Ali to complete the beginning, middle, and end, I observed that she was very proficient at these skills. I have the feeling that she has re-told a story before. With all of this being said, I will stress, and stress the importance of knowing children’s interest. Today we all were supposed to do an interest inventory and a reading inventory on our students. There are a whole lot of books out there that students might and might not like. I really liked getting to know my student tutee a little better in a practical, easy way. 

Getting to actually work with students is extremely helpful to me when trying to decide if this is actually something I truly want to do. I love it! 

Background knowledge! What an important aspect of reading! Having a rich background is very important when reading. It is also important to know the context clues skills and procedures to figure out the meaning of words that are not recognizable from the background knowledge of a student. Not every kid will have background knowledge, so it is important to let that student experience the vocabulary that is being used in stories that the students are reading.

All in all, there are many, many strategies available for use in every classroom. I really like participating and learning new strategies in Dr. Bishop’s classroom. A constantly learning teacher is a great teacher!

Chapter 8 / Writing to Learn Article

         “Authentic engagement accompanied by immersion and demonstration result in learning.” (Bromley, 2003, p. 144). Writing to learn involves a great deal of strategies. I do agree with the previous quote. When students are writing to learn there needs to be modeling. Following modeling there should be guided practice and feedback for students. This is my opinion and I agree with what is said the article “Writing to Learn” involving modeling, guided practice, and feedback. I think that rubrics are better than checklist. Rubrics are more detailed than a checklist. Using a rubric, you can grade all the papers fairly, whether they are above average, average, or below average. Structured note-taking is a big help for me. When I was at JCJC, I had a teacher that had pre-prepared notes for us to use as a guide when taking notes. It made things a lot easier, especially since it was a world civilization class that wasn’t the easiest I have ever taken. When I have a classroom, I will be taking advantage of the framed paragraph strategy. With this strategy, students need scaffolding, but there is a time when teachers need to slowly release students. After students have been supported and then have the ability to write paragraphs his or her self, then the student is a well-developed independent writer. I really like the idea of this strategy. A lot of students need this kind of support. I think that it is crucial to provide the support that all students need. Every student is different and needs different types of support. One strategy mentioned in the text was power writing. I really like this strategy idea. Power writing is when you write as many words or phrases about a particular topic. I really like this strategy as a pre-writing activity for students. There are a lot of strategies that can be helpful for students and teachers.

            I also really like the biopoems we did in class. The biopoems are a good way to have a student write and learn about a person. This is a great way for students to write to learn. This is probably one of my favorite strategies that were in the article. All of the strategies are helpful in having students think critically about a topic of subject. Allowing students to think higher about a topic will help them in the long run. I really like this article and will keep it in education folder in my office for as long as my career. I am really glad that I was introduced to this article, it was very informational and helpful.

Questions:
 
1.) How can we keep students interested in writing to learn?

2.) How often should we require students to write to learn?