last blog

Ch. 11

This chapter spent some time talking about subjective and objective Test, the effect of homework, and then spent a lot of time going over tons of studying strategies. It was fitting for me to read this chapter after having discussed developing new study strategies with my girlfriend. She has mentioned how she needs to learn the art of studying better to help improve her grades because it is something she never had to take serious until college. After this chapter, I have tons of strategies to discuss with her.

From SQ3R to several graphic organizers, I learned that there is some kind of strategy out there that can be adapted no matter the situation. It is funny to me that so many strategies have to have some little name or catch phrase to go along with it. Sometimes I felt like I was reading the next big diet gimmick they wanted me to try out with their fun name like INSERT (Interactive Notating System for Effective Reading and Thinking). At least in this situation they have good intentions. The more strategies the better since there are so many different situations to apply them and so many different people to utilize them.

I have learned how to use chapter mapping and other variations before along with some of the other note taking strategies. The structured note taking was VERY structured. I honesty feel I would get bogged down in the process of the strategy trying to implement something like this, which would be counterproductive.

I have used matrixes several times in my life and they can come in handy. This can really help you understand the relationship behind topics and can turn a lot of random information into some nice organization. Ending with Internet search strategies was a bit random. It did not fit the rest, but I guess it is necessary by todays standard. It is also odd to me that this idea has to be developed since I grew up as the Internet grew. This is a skill that has to be taught to the students of today.

Ch. 12

This last chapter explains the need for literacy and reading in all content areas. Although the chapter goes on to share in all the different ways each and every type of literature and such can be incorporated in the classroom, I feel like the first section of the chapter did the best in summarizing the book while validating itself. The list of 7 benefits of using literature in content areas did a good job of convincing the reader of their point to the book while backing it with several sources. This also sums up what I feel like our teacher hopes for us to get out of this class. Literacy is extremely important across the board and is at the core of education. This book has explained how that is true, why it matters in every content area, and how to incorporate it into each content area.

As the book concludes on all of these notes, I feel like the rest of the chapter just becomes a rehashing of earlier parts of the book. I feel like I am not covering any new ground at this point. I do feel this last chapter was better fit as a summarizing chapter to the ideas presented within the book. They did give some specific information relating to certain topics, but I still feel the overall ideas had been covered.

They did cover some new ground at the very end when dealing with multicultural literature. I do understand that this has become ever more important to incorporate in education today, and I do understand it is a topic you may have to be careful when approaching. I do think that the author sourced a good reference on this topic. I like the guidelines given at the very end on choosing the correct book.

I would leave this book and this class agreeing with the last chapter summary. I believe that books are wonderful things. I agree that they can be much more beneficial than just textbooks. Also, have the opportunity to read good books will definitely help students prepare to be lifelong readers.

Chapter 10

Chapter 10 blog

Writing across the curriculum

I am all about unique ways to incorporate writing in the classroom. Last semester in our EDMS class, each teacher set up a mock lesson for one of the four core subject areas. Hilary taught the English class, and her lesson plan and activity focused on finding all the creative ways to bring writing into the classroom in a fresh way. I am not big on writing at all, but her method really engaged me on this topic in a way I haven’t been in a long time.

            The technology tip in this chapter related to this way of finding new ways to incorporate writing. We even used wikispaces in our last EMAT project to help us get away from traditional ways of relaying information through writing. These ideas along with blogs, wordless, podcasts, and more are all ideas that I would be more than willing to try in my classroom. Since I am not big on writing myself, I know I will be finding every way in the world to bring new light to this topic for students who are like me.

            I also feel like writing has also been taught to me in such a boring and monotonous way and I want to help it be more engaging for the students when writing is necessary in my class. It has been taught as such a straight forward and linear way with so much structure. I understand the necessity for that when initially teaching a concept, but I was never given the opportunity to relay my ideas in any other fashion and by any other process. Using these alternative ways keeps you away from this step-by-step process and allows you to be more creative. I can foresee ideas being better received when they are conveyed through many different styles.

            If I even put my teacher hat on, I believe I would feel the same way about writing. I would much rather grade tons of assignments that were each unique in the way the information and ideas were presented. I would much rather watch some podcasts, read some blogs, explore some wikis, and read some papers instead of just reading a stack of papers. I do not envy English teachers that have to read countless essays and papers.

            I enjoyed the list of effective writing recommendations the author listed from Graham and Perin. This could be very helpful in the classroom one day. RAFT could be fun to implement in the classroom one day too. I could see students putting more effort in this kind of assignment, and it also fits under the umbrella of alternative writing assignments.

            I definitely look forward to incorporating journals in my science classroom one day. Doing assignments in a journal somehow seems less monotonous than just writing for the sake of writing. It is something the students can have some creativity with and take ownership of. One of our TA’s in our ESCI class used this idea of journals in the science classroom as her research for her degree. She taught us a bit about them and helped me decide that it was a very valuable tool in the middle school science classroom.

            I also enjoyed the biopoem we did at the beginning of class. There would be a lot of room for creativity with this assignment both on the students’ and the teacher’s part.

Articles

Poems:

            That was a brilliant way to incorporate writing, and especially poems, in the math classroom. I can’t say I would have ever thought about that. I am storing that idea away in my little toolbox. Maybe I will get to use it one day. I wonder what other math ideas would make for good poetry.

Technology:

This was a reminder of how science still requires a lot of reading and writing and comprehension. Using the graphic organizer to structure the order of the sentence and paragraph reminds me of a twist on the old reading comprehension that would be found on standardized tests and such. Teaching the students to understand the author’s main ideas and intentions becomes very important as students later do their own research or start reading the research of other scientist. This example was just one of the countless ways to include math, technology, and reading together. I can only imagine I could find plenty more with a little research.

Writing in Math:

Well, I agree with what is being communicated in this article. I ultimately feel that I have heard everything it had to say at this point. I understand the importance of writing well, I have heard of how to incorporate this, and I have heard their general ideas on how to accomplish this task. Maybe I have just read too much at this time or I am missing out, but this article did not really shed any new light.

Writing to Learn Across the Curriculum:

Even as it is in the title, I feel this article is a supplement to what I just read in this last chapter. I could view it as a bit of a summary, but it did have some different examples and activities. Some of the strategies mentioned and used sounded interesting to me, but some did not really have enough on them. They were all referenced well though, and it might be beneficial to read up on their references. I think this article would have been more interesting had I read it first instead of after the chapter and after the other articles. I think it would benefit me to reread it with fresh eyes another day. I did enjoy the writing style more than that of our textbook and I feel I would actually get more out of this article than I did the chapter if I spent some more time with it later. That is my plan right now.