Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

 

Issues in Special Education

One thing I have been worried about when it comes to teaching is teaching inclusion classes.  When I was in school I was never in an inclusion class and I no experience with inclusion since then.  I know it is important to differentiate my instruction. I am just not sure how to go about doing this.  I feel that is can be hard in a classroom full of 30 high school students.  I understand design for learning is a way to reach every student, but I still feel like it can be hard. 

At-Risk students

It is a problem in our country of at-risk students of dropping out. I feel that is important to identify at-risk students early on their education career to try to help them as much as we as teachers can do to try and prevent them from dropping out.  There are those resilient students who despite all odds will succeed, but the majority of the students are not like this and as teachers we need to help the students who are not like this. 

Students from Low-Socioeconomic Environments

When students from low-socioeconomic homes come to school a teacher needs to identify this students to help have some of the materials they need like pencils, access to computers, and the support system.  Not everything that a child needs is physical, but emotional. One thing teachers forget a lot is the different oral literacy children bring and how not every student is used to the print english that is used in the United States.

Students with low self-esteem

Teachers need to work hard to help build self-esteem of their students. A teacher should never harm a students self-esteem.  A teacher should always be encouraging to help build up their self-esteem. When a child has low-esteem they are at higher risk or doing bad in school because they do not believe they can. 

Documentary

Some culturally and economic problems that face students are that families do not have books or computers to use to study and learn.  Students may also have to take care of their siblings when they get home instead of studying.  Culturally some families do not value education and it is hard for a student to learn and become educated when their parents do not see the value in it. 

After watching the documentary, I believe that in elementary school through high school that parent involvement needs to be stressed.  Activities for just parents to teach them how they can help their child could be a way to help get them involved.  Not every parent knows how they can help their child in school.  Children without parent involvement have a harder road ahead.  I also feel that standardized test need to be change or gone because at-risk students cannot always meet these things. I also believe that schools need better funding to help provide materials to at-risk students especially schools with a lot of at-risk students.  A lot of schools with large populations of at-risk students are already under funded and when the children they are teaching do not have the material is it even harder for a teacher to reach them. 

Isearch Blog Post

After turning in my rough draft I change a majority of my paper.  I was not completely done with my paper when I turned in my draft.  I change a lot because I did not feel that I put enough me into the paper.  I am used to writing very formal papers and this was foreign to me.  I also did not proof read my draft.  I did a lot of changes based off my proof reading as well. I normally have multiple drafts and I turned in my first draft.

Chapter 8 Blog Post

Chapter Eight

The Importance of Writing

The Chapter discussed how writing may be the most complex communication process within the communicative arts because of the different ways it can be used to challenge and enhance thinking skills.  I think this is very important to keep in mind.  Writing is very important for communication and more emphasis should be placed upon refining students writing abilities.  Reading and writing go hand in hand.  It is important to always continue to work to improve students abilities in both because they both are important.  When teachers themselves do not have a lot of confidence in their writing ability they do not always include instruction for students or there is frustration when trying to include instruction on it.  Because of this teachers need to continue to work on their writings abilities as well and teacher education must have instruction for all content teachers on how to teach writing skills to students. 

Writing as a Product/ Writing as a Process

Writing should be viewed as more than just something for evaluation.  Writing can be used as a unique way to build students comprehension.  Writing is a process and it must be taught this way for students not to feel too overwhelmed.  Rubrics and check lists are great ways for students to understand what is required in their writings before they even start the process.  It is important for students to know what the teacher expects them to include in their writing. These can help students when developing a writing plan and executing it.  I plan to use both of these when assigning my students writing assignments.  As a teacher I want my students to succeed and giving them these I can help them do their best. 

Computers as Writing Tools

It is the Digital age and students must be exposed to writing using computers. Teachers should encourage students to use this tools both at home and school.  Not every student has the ability to use these writing tools at home, so teachers should make sure that these students are able to use them at school.  Writing is more and more done on computers instead of paper and pencils and it is important that teachers do this as well. 

Writing and the PAR Framework

A great activity for the preparation phase of writing is cubing.  Cubing has students prepare as both writers and readers by using all six levels of cognition.  This is good to remind students what they should be asking themselves when writing and reading.  In the assistance phase, a teacher needs to be reminded that when giving a writing assignment it must have importance to the students.  This will help engage students with the assignment.  Learning logs are a great way for students to journal when they are reading material.  This logs can then be used to help students write about the material just read.  In the reflective phase, guided writing procedure is a great way for students enhance their comprehension.  This strategy includes all phases in PAR as well. I will use collaborative writing and C3B4Me in my future classroom.  I think these would be good activities to use with high school students. 

This chapter was very informative to me because I want to use a lot of writing in my classroom.  Social studies is reading and writing based.  I want to not only my students to do both, but I want to improve their skills while they are doing them.  This chapter had a lot of very useful activities that I will use in my future classroom. 

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Content-Specific Vocabulary and Academic Vocabulary

There are two types of vocabulary that are important for general and content area instruction:  content-specific and academic vocabulary.  Content-specific vocabulary relates to terms that are important to a certain discipline or unit of study.  Academic vocabulary relates to terms that are not specifically related to any content or discipline, but are found in a lot of formal presentations and written tests. When my students read material I want them to be able understand the vocabulary.  Not only can learning these two types of vocabulary help my students in my social studies class, but learning all these types of vocabulary can help with college entrance tests and when the students get to college. 

A Closer Look at Word Knowledge

According to Davis and Thurstone,  having knowledge of word meaning is one of the most important factors in reading comprehension.  I completely agree with their point.  It is hard for students to understand the meaning of the text if they do not understand the words used in it. 

5 Facets of the Intricate Nature of Word Knowledge

1. Incrementality
2. Polysemy
3. Multidimentionality
4. Interrelatedness
5. Heterogeneity

It is the teacher’s responsibility to develop a students background knowledge for the lesson being taught.  Even after instruction, if students still do not understand the background knowledge needed a teacher must continue to work with the student until the student understands the material. 

Teaching Vocabulary to Assist Students in Their Reading

When students are reading and they notice that there is a word they do not understand they are taking the first step to figuring out the meaning of the word.  When a students notices they do not understand a word he or she should mark the word for further research. A way for students to figure out words is through semantic clues.  These clues can provide information to the students though examples, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and descriptions. Not only can students figure out the meaning through semantic clues, but students can use context clues. Students should understand when there is a proper time and how to use dictionaries and other resources properly.  Students must understand that there are multiple meanings to the same word when trying to figure out the meaning.  Context clues should help students figure out what definition is. Now when a student is working alone structural analysis may be the best way for students to decode the meaning of a word. Many words are from Greek and Latin words and these roots can help students to decode the words. The Dissect mnemonic is a great way for students to decode the meaning of words when they are being independent readers. 

Teaching Vocabulary as a Reflection Activity

Post graphic organizers and categorization are great ways for students to review new vocabulary that students have learned while reading. This chapter was really informative about ways to help students learn vocabulary and why vocabulary is so important for students learn, not just memorize. 

# 3 Stop after Podcasts, pgs. 183-190

Teaching Vocabulary in the “A” Phase:

o  The Goal of teaching of vocabulary in the Assistance Phase is to create independent learners that will search for work meaning on their own to extend their academic word list (pg.170).

o Pg 184: “Using sticky notes, highlighting tape, or flags to mark difficult or interesting words in the text engages the reader in actively attending to and identifying words for further consideration.”

o   Context Clue Discovery (p. 185): students need to know the context the word is being used in. One way to help with this is to do a brief word association activity. Ways to help students develop the ability to develop a context:

§  Definitions: authors often define a word in the sentence in which it first appears

§  Signal Words: Certain words or phrases may signal the reader that a word or term is about to be explained

§  Direct Explanations: authors provide an explanation of an unfamiliar term

§  Synonyms: a complex term will be followed by a simpler term

§  Antonyms: explaining a term by contrasting it with words of opposite meaning

§  Inferences: infer the meaning of an unfamiliar word from the mood and tone of the selection

§  Pg. 187: “It’s a good idea to have these six clues posted at points around the classroom or in handouts to be kept in student’s work folders”

o   Structural Analysis (p. 187): AKA morphemic analysis. If students know how to dissect words from their roots and affixes it is helpful for this strategy. “Morphology is the next level of word families.” A lot depends on the root of the word, ie Latin or Greek Structural analysis provides a way to examine words looking for roots and affixes as keys to unlocking word meanings.

§  P. 188: “A morpheme can be free to stand along like lock or bound likeun.”

Four guidelines for teaching morphemic analysis:

·         Provide explicit instruction in how morphemic analysis works

·         Use word families to promote vocabulary growth

·         Promote independent use of morphemic analysis

·         Enhance students’ awareness that morphemic analysis does not always work

Tools to help with structural analysis:

o   Dissect: (D for discover the world’s context; I for isolate the prefix, S for separate the suffix; S for say the stem or root word; E for examine the stem or root word; C for check with someone; and T for try the dictionary)

o   Word attack paradigms: students are given a card with a series of steps to aid them in deciphering new words they encounter in reading.

o   **Dictionaries are a last resort!**

o   Vocabulary Podcasts (p. 190): Students receiving podcasts scored significantly higher on tests of vocabulary understanding at the end of the unit than their peers in the control group.

Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Why Textbooks Cannot Stand Alone

Textbooks cannot be the only type of material that students read in their class.  Students should look at all different types of material such as: primary and secondary sources.  I agree with the chapter that textbooks should be used as a guide for curriculum instead of it being the curriculum.  So many schools have out dated textbooks that teachers cannot depend on them as their only teaching material.

Using Multiple Resources in Addition to Textbooks

Read- Alongs and Read-Alouds would be great to use when reading historical fiction, sections of the textbook, primary, and and secondary sources.  Sometimes historical texts are to read and I want my students to not feel overwhelmed by the material.  This way the students will have heard how to pronounce words when it is read aloud, so when they go to read the material again they will understand it better. 

When choosing to use electronic materials in class it is very important that teachers make sure that all students have easy access to the materials.  As a future teacher, I do not want some of my students to be unable to access materials that are important to class.

Critical Literacy Applications for Multimodal Texts

Interactive reading is a great way to engage high school students who have no interest in learning.  I remember when I was in high school that it was the cool thing for students to now pay attention or doing well in school.  I want to engage my students and show them that learning is important and it can be fun at the same time. I would like to do this with all types of reading materials and different ways of reading them.

Soares and Wood’s suggestions of what to question to use when examining a text critically would be great as a teacher to use when deciding to use a text in the classroom.  These would also be great to teach students so when they are researching or choosing reading material they would be able to examine reading materials critically on their own. 

Isearch Proposal

I-Search Proposal

Topic: Historical Fiction and Social Studies

Questions:  What are the benefits of incorporating historical fiction into a Social Studies Classroom?

General Resources: Scholarly Articles, and Textbooks

People to Interview: Mrs. Burnsworth or Mrs. Zickefoose (Social Studies Teacher at Green Run High School)

Titles of Articles planned to be used: 1) Teaching for Historical Literacy written by Anne Goudvis and Stephanie Harvey 2) Fostering Thought, Talk, and Inquiry: Linking Literature and Social Studies 3) Reading to Learn in the Content Areas written by Judy S. Richardson, Raymond F. Morgan, Charlene E. Fleener

Notes:  During my observations last semester, all the teachers I observed were using historical fiction novels in their classrooms and I wanted to learn more about this.  When I was in high school I never read novels in my history classes.  I am planning on being a high school Social Studies teacher and I want to learn how using historical fiction can be helpful to my future students.  I would like to use historical fiction in my class and would like to know the best ways to go about doing this.