Worksheets

I thought that the class discussion on the article Pedagogy of Control was very productive. I had not ever thought about worksheets this way before - in a negative light. I think that there can be positive uses for worksheets, but in general from our discussion it seems like there are better and more creative classroom activities. My biggest fear in using worksheets as a future educator is that my students will miss the point behind the activity, and not find any meaning. I don't ever want to have a class that is just about the grade, I want my students to learn help themselves to grow into better readers and writers . If worksheets isnt the best way to do that, I am glad it was brought to our attention!

Informal/Formal

The article we discussed today really got me thinking about informal and formal ways of instruction. I think that teachers sometimes forget that there is a place for informal teaching. Although, as Dr. Handsfield, suggested formal instruction is great to use as a base knowledge. From there you can expand into different kinds of teaching including informal. I think it is important to show kids the appropriate situation to use formal and informal communications. This is a life skill that will always be helpful. Not only that but I think when you can validate informal types of communication, such as, writing, texting, and speaking you are providing the kids with a way to feel that they are valid.

Autism Article

I absolutely loved the article about autism & inclusion! I found it so valuable for not only Special Ed. majors, but for all individuals wishing to pursue a career in education. I thought that the author had a lot of valid, research-backed points as to why it is beneficial for students with autism to be included in the general classroom. I also greatly enjoyed the figures, particularly the one that told different ways to adapt read alouds for students with autism.

"Sparked by a sensitive teacher's desire to welcome and support one community member who might have been marginalized, it ended up offering everyone rich possibilities for collaborative, inquiry-based literacy learning." I adored this quote & cannot wait to become the teacher who goes the extra mile to ensure student's learning.

Johnston Readings

I also really enjoyed the readings for this week from Johnston. I think that it's so important to get students to read, and like this week's chapters talked about, spend less time thinking about if a text is exactly fit for a reader. In other words, teachers should encourage students to read what they enjoy to get them excited about literacy as opposed to limiting choices that may not appeal to them, making reading more of a chore than anything. I liked the ideas that were given about making a specific text more easy or more difficult as opposed to limiting the texts a student can read based on its level.

Shared Lesson Plans

I have really enjoyed sharing lesson plan ideas with our classmates this semester. This is the first real exposure I have have to lesson planning - and it is great to have support! Working through modeling has been eye opening for me, because before this course I would not have assumed that modeling was necessary. Making mini-lesson plans has been more of a challenge than I would have expected, and it is teaching me how important it is to fit meaningful activities into shorter time periods - rather than using a few hours to have a less meaningful experience with your students.

Directed reading

I wasn't in class this week but after the readings I was thinking of how we, as teachers, direct kids reading. I would hazard a guess that many teachers don't think about how what they let or don't let their students read has much of an impact on them, in terms of leveled reading. I would disagree. I think that limiting a students reading takes away from the basic joy of reading which is the reason so many do it for enjoyment purposes. If you are so busy trying to teach children how to read could you be forgetting about teaching them how to love reading? So how do we instill a love of reading in our students? I think that giving them the opportunity to read what they want to is a big part of it. I was really shocked when we were talking about personal literacy experiences and someone was saying that they were not allowed to read anything other then what was approved for her level in the program. I think point were allotted to those books so, reading something you liked wasn't considered a worthwhile pursuit, as it had no points attached. I find this really depressing. But I am also aware that when I teach at a school I will have to teach the program they promote. So it is up to me to find ways to give students the opportunity to self select.

Johnston chapter 6

I really enjoyed reading Johnston's views on matching students with an appropriate level book. Prior to reading the chapter, I had never heard a negative opinion on leveling text by year and month (3.1, 3.2, etc). I grew up reading text that were classified in this way, and as a kid I enjoyed it. However, that was because I was always the student at the highest level. Reading this chapter gave me a new perspective on it. I really liked the recipe for readability- I found this information to be very valuable. I also really liked how suggestions were given for ways to make a text easier or more difficult for children to read. When a teacher takes this approach the students have so much more they can choose from. The more they can choose from, the more likely they are to find something they enjoy. The more they enjoy the topic, the more motivated they are to read. All in all it's a win. :)

Lesson plans & process drama

While I am still new with writing lesson plans, I liked creating one based off of Esperanza Rising and incorporating Process Drama. It made the assignment really fun and gave me the ability to be creative, giving students the opportunity to express themselves in ways they haven't been able to do before. I took a Children's Theatre class last semester and learned a lot of Process Drama strategies but have not seen an actual connection in incorporating them into the classroom. Creating this lesson plan made me realize all of the possibilities there are to making school fun! Being able to present my lesson plan to my partner while hearing hers in return made me realize the mistakes I had made and was able to revise it. I feel as if there is no better way to learn than from the opinions of others, reflection and revision. The open communication in this class is a fabulous way to learn new things and stay engaged!

Process Drama

I think that process drama is a great addition to a classroom. It gets kids to connect to a text in ways that they probably haven't done. Of course, I also like the higher order thinking you are encouraging by presenting this type of lesson. It is also something that can easily be adjusted for different learning levels and grades. I can even see Kindergarteners doing something like this, with a different text of course.

Process Drama

I really enjoyed the reading and class discussion on process drama. I think that it is really interesting how students can connect something that they are reading not only to themselves, but to other texts. I also think that by taking on the role of a character's feelings and personality, they learn how others feel, which is so important not only in teaching literacy, but in all aspects of life. It was cool to see that in the article, it talked about my diary from here to there, which was the text I based my first lesson plan off of. It's good to know that I thought about teaching emotions of characters in a text before actually reading this article :)

Literature Exploration

There are so many meaningful ways to connect to a text other than the traditional format of a book report.  Going through a novel as a class has been extremely helpful - I did this as a middle school student, but it is much more beneficial as a future educator to talk through texts with other future educators than to simply go off of my memories. It has been wonderful to collaborate ideas about how to make this text meaningful to students; I have spent alot of time talking with Hayli and Michelle about ideas for our upcoming lesson plan. Teaching a text and instilling a love of reading and writing is much more than teaching context ans making sure students understand the summary - when you give them a chance to be creative with the text they are reading, they can claim it as their own and turn it into something very meaningful specifically to them. I hope to foster this type of learning in my future classrooms!

Process Drama

After reading the article on Process Drama, I was really excited to talk about it during class. As I was reading the article, I was having a hard time imagining what exactly process drama would look like and the clarification during lecture really helped me to understand the difference between readalouds and process drama. I also came up with a lot of ways that this could be implemented with the book Esperanza rising. I definitely have a lot more ideas for my second lesson plan than I did before! I'm really excited to see how everything turns out.

Process Drama

I was really excited to dive into the lesson about Process Drama. I took a Children's Theater class and learned about almost all of the strategies and actually had the opportunity to act them out in class and with children as well! I thought the transition from Esperanza Rising to Process Drama went together well and there is a lot that can be taught in the classroom dealing with Esperanza Rising using Process Drama to really engage the children. I was thinking that a good idea for my lesson plan would for students, after reading the novel, to set up interviews, incorporating Mantle the expert and improvisation in which the expert interviews Esperanza about either social inequalities she has experienced, belonging, growing up and other issues Anza has gone through during her journey.