Introduction, Chapter 1 and 2 (Learning Blog Post #1)

Welcome to my Read 680 learning blog! My name is Jenna Rowlands. I am a graduate student at Old Dominion University (ODU) working towards a master of Secondary Education with initial licensure in social studies.  I have bachelor of arts in history from ODU as well. I look forward to having you read my many posts. 

Prior to the first day of class, I was not aware of what this course was really about.  After reading the first two chapters and attending the first class, I am very glad that I am taking this course.  I feel that it will be very informative to help make me a better teacher and improve my students reading levels.  When I go out into the world of teaching I want to be equipped with as much information and teaching techniques as I can and I feel this class will help do this. 

In chapter one, a comment was made that it is no longer enough to focus on literacy just in elementary school.  This is a great point that literacy should be taught in every subject and at every level.  As people we continue to learn at every age and we should not stop working on our literacy after we initially learn in elementary school. As an aspiring secondary social studies teacher, reading and writing is vital to my subjects. Just because I am not an english or language arts teacher does not mean that I cannot continue to improve my students skills and teach them social studies at the same time.  This chapter makes great points about the benefits that literacy has for every subject. 

The twelve principles of effective content teachers were very informative about how important learning and reading are to students.  I found principle number four to be the most interesting.  As a teacher, I will always have to keep in mind that not all students use standard english at home, so using it in school can be a foreign language to them.  I have never really thought about the dialect of my future students and things that I find normal may not be the same for all my students.  Principle number eight, is important for everyone especially parents to understand and execute. Parents need to instill that reading is important and fun, so children will read on their on own.  Teachers need help from parents because if students never see their parents read they will be less likely to read themselves. 

Since I have never taught before I am nervous about motivating students to learn and to do their homework. I want to make everything I teach the student relevant, so there is a connection for them and an interest.  Chapter two, gave some good tips to motivate students.  For example, page 35 stated keeping journals about experiences. This is a technique that can be used in one of my social studies classrooms. I believe weaving the students’ experiences with history is important.  I want to do this as much as I can when I have my own classroom.