Week 6

This week I particularly liked the article my small group read to present to the class. It really made sense and made me realize the reason for my old school feeling I talked about last week. We need to assimilate things in our minds and feelings before we can fully accommodate them. Without first assimilating it is vary hard to get a true feel for something. Especially since things are not usually developed simply to do something never done before. They are instead usually completed to allow for the easier use or completion of something already possible. Once we know how something else helps us complete a task we can than use a new technology to do its own thing.

Week 6

I am still playing around with the scrapblog. So far I have made a few practice pages. I am still learning what all of the buttons do and what types of different things I can put on my scrapblog. I found the stickers the other day. They had a lot of different ones based on what kind of page you were making. They have different categories like food, love, music. They all are really cute and creative.

Another thing that I found, which I thought was really cute were the text balloons. If you wanted someone in your picture to be saying something they can have a balloon with text in it. But I am still playing around with the logistics of all of this.

Week 5

Technology and Literacy are very interesting. I hate to say it, but I do somewhat consider myself old school. I am skeptical about new technology before I warm up to it. Much like an older person. It is not that I am scared to use it, but somewhat set in my ways and happy with what I already have. If we begin to think about technology and literacy the first thing that comes to mind is texting, e-mailing, and IMing. We as a society use these things everyday to communicate. They are easy and efficient. However, I now for a fact that as we talk about languages in the classroom. The forms of language used for the things I listed above is a completely different language than what we use in a paper. When I was in middle school the teachers had to implement and crack down on our writing because it resembled the abbreviated format used everyday. I'm sure this will only be a bigger problem or a task that we as future educators must face. Since it is such a viable communication. I agree with the idea of technology as a category of the GLCE's that you mention Karen. However, I would take not being suprised one step further and say that I expect it in the very near future. If not a new literacy maybe even its own seperate portion of the GLCE's.

week 5

I was thinking idea that technology is becoming a “new literacy” and I didn’t know how I felt about that. But really I think that it is in some ways true. Even today so much of what we do it digital. For example, Angel. Almost every class that I have taken here has had an angel account. If I didn’t know how to use the internet or even a computer I would have a really hard time getting valuable information for those classes.

Of course there are a million other examples. And those examples will keep growing as technology becomes more central to our everyday lives. Now it is going to be our jobs to not only educate students on the basics but also on technology. I would not be surprised if, within our lifetime, we see a technology category added to the content standards.

Week 4

The Gibbons chapter was as if to prove the presentation I did with Megan and Evan last week. It broke down the scaffolding of completing the writing. We presented in a fashion that was to promote the learning of writing for young children. Where as the chapter by Gibbons combined the things and created a way of teaching writing to ELLs. I also like how the chapter discussed the writing process as steps and building on them so that students could create a finished piece that was complete and free of mistakes. So many times it as if writing in school is a math problem. Where your given the things to add and you need to find what it equals or the final piece. Then the student is told whether their piece is write or wrong. If instead we work through the problem the answer the students come to or their final piece will be much more effective. Also it will be easier to see where they went wrong writing. That way it is more than marking up the paper when it is finished with a red pen and saying next time you should do this and that.

Week 4 readings

My CT allowed me this past week to give the spelling test to the class.  I talked to my CT to find out how she picked the spelling words each week.  Normally the words will all be similar like week, seek, peak...But my CT actually has a pretty interesting way.  The whole school is on the plan where beginning in first grade they start their list with the most common english word.  There was research done and ranked each word by how frequently it is used.  The students learn those words in order.  I thought that was a really interesting approach.

I also liked how in Tompkins chapter 4 they talked about word walls.  I am sure I have mentioned this before but my CT has word walls all over the room that the students make up during their writing lessons.  They may be good describing words or words to use when using dialogue.  These lists really help students develop their writing and make it more mature.

Week 3 Readings

I agree with Karen's comments about the Thompkins chapters. It is neat to see the actual logistics of teaching young students to read and write. However, it is hard build a realistic picture of since it is not something I see in my 5th grade classroom. My students seem to have developed past this stage. As would be expected, though if students must read fluently by the 3rd grade like was mentioned.

My favorite chapter was chapter 2 of the Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning Text. I know, atleast for myself, that in my past experiences that I have had times that my class has been asked as a young student to sit quitely and do individual work. It felt as though we were not allowed to talk unless explicitly talken to. This is necessary at times. Yet, because of this I guess I never really thought of the relevance of Talking to the classroom. Especially since it is Literacy that is taking place all of the time, even though we might not think about it or even realize it.

Week 3 readings

I had a hard time relating to the Tompkins chapter.  It was focused at younger grades.  They were talking about helping the students with writing by actually holding the pencil with them and guiding them.  With reading they discussed word walls and labeling objects in the classroom.  I am in a fourth grade classroom and those things seem so weird to me because my students can read and write pretty well.  There was one thing in that chapter I liked and related to.  They said one good thing to have in the classroom are signs.  My CT has signs everywhere.  And they are signs that she makes with the class.  They make them to help them remember things as the are writing.  Some of these signs include good transition words, words to use after a quotation such as stated or yelled or exclaimed.  I think these signs help students remember good writing practices and it helps makes those practices habits while writing.