Journals from 9/15 week...now typed : )

9/16

I can't believe how much I liked the write to learn. Since I wasn't feeling well then, I decided to write my thoughts here, even though I'm not near a computer...

I feel like with the write-to-learn, students are really engaged with what they are doing. I think that the connections that they learn how to make are really important and I really enjoy the fact that they can read and understand articles. The more I think about it, the more I want to use these in my classroom. I think they are incredibly valuable for so many reasons and i can't imagine how far kids could go. Especially after a little practice!! : ) I am trying to figure out how to bring this into the classrooms that I am working in for EDUC450. Perhaps I can find a lesson that will work, as I am really anxious to try it.

I didn't like the b-k-w-l as much, I hate k-w-l's. However, I think that the newer version with the background knowledge is good.

9/17

WE DID THE COOLEST THING TODAY!!!
So, an elementary student does this with her classes, and I think it is amazing!! We got a short reading about the Revolutionary war, and then we had to go through and circle the "important" words from the article. After that, we made a list on the right hand side of the paper of all the words we circled (in order). Next, we had to write summaries using those words. I could not believe how amazingly easy it was to write a summary after doing this. I always have to think about summaries, as I want to write tooooooooo much, but this seamed really really really easy! No wonder the elementary kids can do it so well!! I will be using this in my classroom, no question. I think that there are some other things that might work too using a similar premise - perhaps with primary documents.

We also discussed direct vocabulary, which was interesting. I often forget that kids don't know al the words in the English language, and because of that, I often forget to help them. Direct vocabulary is when you show the kids what the words mean right then and there. You don't say "un-happy" means "not happy" but you tell them about what it means, and ask them questions and get involved.

I was talking to an elementary teacher who is the parent of some of my lacrosse kids, and she was telling me about how she uses that in the second grade. They do a form of KWL for all of their units, but since the kids are small, they do what they THINK they know and then, when they're finished with the unit (and actually know things), they move all of they think they knows into "Truth" or "Misconception". She's taught them the meaning of "misconception" using direct vocabulary, and I guess the kids get really excited about it since it is such a big word. Her KWL chart goes on a board, and there are post-its stuck to it. I think that would be a great way to get kids involved in a jr. high classroom. I'm not sure if it would work for the HS kids, but it is a good jumping off point for me : )

I wonder why more teachers don't use the things we've been talking about? Are they just lazy or do they not know about these and/or where to find them? Are they just stuck in their ways? OR do they not think that they work?

I'm guessing probably a pretty big mixture of all of them.


9/19

Today we learned about Questioning the Author-and I think it is useful - but it is the hardest for me in the stratagies that we've done. Basically, the teacher would read the text and make marks where she/he wanted to write a question. They would ask things like:

What does the author mean by saying _____?
I wonder why the author isn't mentioning ________?
I wonder if they'll tell us more about _____?
I think the author just made a contradiction by saying ________ and ________.

This happens while the kids are reading out loud, and I guess I don't really like it. It interrupts the reading, which sort of makes my brain freak out...and I forget what we're doing. I'm not sure if I will use it in my classroom or not ~ but I do want to get better at it so that I can use it. I think that the kids need to know that they are ALLOWED to question someone who is writing something, and that the person writing it isn't god. One really good thing about this is that the kids are participating in actively questioning what is going on. For some kids, this may not come naturally, so it is important for them to learn how to do it in class. Some students may be like me and not do well, but not all students are going to do well at everything all the time.

I can understand how the kids might feel though as we read material that was at our level and not at the level of younger students. It is difficult. I did feel like I learned though, even though I didn't like it much, which speaks a lot for the strategy I think.

-------(later in the day)-------

I was thinking about it more, and I think this activity would be good for students when they're writing too. THey could exchange papers and have other students "Question" their work. I think that often, kids forget that the audience doesn't really know everything that they do. If they had an opportunity to share with their peers, then that is good for them I think - they could get some feedback and improve as writers too.