Blogging Reflection

Reflection Questions:
What did you learn about yourself as a writer?

The main thing I’ve learned is that it is difficult or at least uncomfortable for me to utilize things such as emoticons and other “text message” language while writing about anything academic. I also learned that I care way more about the content than what the writing actually looks like, and found it rather pointless to make the background of my blog “pretty.”

What did you learn about digital writing?

Well, one thing I learned is how to make myself anonymous, at least in the beginning. It was funny when reading some of my comments referring to me as a woman. I thought that was hilarious. I really enjoyed people not knowing who I was.

What lessons can you take to classroom or share with future teachers about integrating blogging into instruction?

I would say that blogging can be REALLY effective. As long as the teacher uses a service that allows him/her to monitor and approve each post a student writes before it is put up for everyone else to see. I think it would be really fun for students to do a “ghost-writing” activity in which students would all be anonymous and have to ask each other questions to try to figure out who is who.

Challenges?

I found that was very unmotivated to comment on other people’s posts. I received very few comments myself as well. 

Successes?

Overall, I found this blogging experience to be enjoyable. As I said earlier, I really liked that I could remain anonymous. (Or close to it.)

My favorite posts were the open ones, of course. I’m always the most motivated to write when I can write what ever I want and have it actually be worth something. 

e-Study Guide

DB5 – Vocab Digital Story Lesson Plan

This would be used as a before reading strategy in order to introduce new vocabulary words the students would need to know to better understand text about early America, as well as to help build background knowledge of “finding” America. As with Khan Academy, this video is free for anyone to view at any time 🙂 I would share this video with anyone in my content area if anyone would be so kind as to actually want to use it.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x192iK0pe4

Lesson Link: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3642?ref=search

Learning Outcomes: The students will be able to isolate and analyze the main idea(s) in a historical document and re-write the main theme of the document in common grammatically correct language.

Before Reading Strategy: Digital Story Plan Video While watching the video, I will pause for the students to write down the definition of the 5 vocab words in the video. Before moving on, we will discuss the meanings of the words further. Students should write the vocab words in their Vocabulary Notebook.

During Reading Strategy: After determining the main idea of the document with your group, individually restate the main idea of the assigned document in writing, and add supporting details from the text as you read.

After Reading Strategy: List 5 examples of the main idea of your document at work in real life. (with group)

CCSS: 

• Grades 6-8
  • 6-8.LH.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
• Grades 9-10
  • 9-10.LH.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

Introduction: Come to class dressed as someone from colonial times. (Mostly just the wig, students will love it) Show Digital Vocab Video, students will find it interesting, cool, or maybe even funny that it is my voice in the video.

Model: I will have modeled how to find the main idea and supporting details for several documents up to this point. The goal of this lesson/project is for the students to be able to do it themselves this time.

Guided Practice: I, of course, will be coming around to each group of students to make sure they are correctly determining the main idea. If necessary, I will help the students find their first supporting detail from their document. As students are thinking of ways that the main idea of the document has impacted their every day lives, I will share examples from my own life that are affected by the document.

Independent Practice: Using the main idea/supporting detail work the students completed in class, students (with their groups) will prepare a presentation for the class the explains the main idea of their assigned document and how that document has affected them in real life with specific examples.

Assessment: To make sure each student has learned individually, instead of one group member being the “brains behind the operation,” each student in the group will be assigned a part in the presentation. Each member of each group will have to present at least two supporting details for the group’s main idea. Each member of each group will also share at least three specific examples of how the main idea of the document impacts them in real life.

DB3:

LINK!! http://www.cpalms.org/Public/PreviewResourceLesson/Preview/50996

Learning Outcomes: 

• Students will be able to use strategies to identify the central or main idea of a passage.
• Students will be able to define text coding and “chunking”.
• Students will see the correlation between “chunking” and “paraphrasing”.
• Students will be able to write a summary of the central or main idea of a passage based on the strategies used.

Before Reading Strategy:

Students will orally make predictions of what they are going to learn and be able to do by chunking text. (Ex: student might say, “It will be easier to read if we break it into pieces.”)

During Reading Strategy: 

While reading, students will write a one or two sentence summary about each chunk. (This will allow them to see that they were correct in assuming the text is easier to understand by chunking.)

After Reading Strategy: 

Students will write an overall summary of the text, using the small summaries of each chunk to assist them. 

CCSS: 

LACC.6.RL.1.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

LACC.6.W.2.4: Produce a clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Introduction: 

Divide students into groups of 3 or 4 and distribute to each group a collage of related pictures. Each group will race to determine the “theme” of the pictures, or what the central idea of the pictures is. (For example, pictures of 10 different land animals would have the theme of “mammals” in common.) I would expect students to say that “animals” is the theme, but it would take some critical thinking to conclude that the theme is “mammals.” (ESOL: cooperative learning)

Model: 

Students will listen as I model this by explicitly explaining what chunking means and directly showing them that most text is already chunked for them, by paragraph. (ESOL: Explicit Teaching) Once students see this, it will be much easier for them to grasp the concept of chunking. Also, this is a great way to chunk in general, since each paragraph of a text usually serves to prove one point of the whole. 

Guided Practice: 

For this, I will have the students read the first paragraph of the text, and we will summarize it together. I will write their ideas of what the paragraph is about on the board and then we will work to combine the ideas into a solid, cohesive summary. (ESOL: Gradual Release)

Independent Practice: 

Now, each student will write summaries the next 5 chunks (paragraphs) of their text. After a student finishes the first of these 5, I will review his/her summary to make sure he/she is understanding the main idea of each paragraph. The student will then finish his/her 5 chunks in order to determine a more overarching theme. (ESOL: While students are working independently, I will assist ESOL students by reading the text aloud to them and allowing the students to tell me what the paragraph is about before they attempt to write their summary. Often times, students will have trouble putting their thoughts in writing; if they have an opportunity to speak their thoughts aloud, writing them down will come more naturally.)

Assessment: 

Independently, each student must write two complete paragraphs about the overall theme of the text. The student should use their summaries of each chunk of text to assist them. Each student must show direct text evidence that proves the theme of the text.

DB4:

Part 1: I would say I agree that choral reading and echo reading can help struggling readers. As far as developing phonological awareness I would say that choral reading would be extremely helpful, since the struggling reader would be hearing and producing phonological sounds along with others who are more fluent. In developing fluency, I would suggest that echo reading would be more effective than choral reading because the struggling reader would be able to hear the fluent reader independently and then copy him/her, allowing the fluent reader to hear and correct the struggling reader.

Part 2: 1: Sounding Out Words: This is an essential activity when trying to scaffold phonics development in struggling readers. I don’t see how a teacher could properly help a student with phonics without doing this. With this type of activity the teacher can take each phone (independent sound) from a word and help a student pronounce the parts correctly before tackling the entire word at once.

2. Homophones: This is rather simple. Teaching students about homophones such as “there, their, and they’re” will let the students see that the sound of a word doesn’t have much to do with its meaning. This way, students won’t confuse words like “hair” and “hare” when reading a text.

3. Cognates: This is also simple, but almost the opposite of teaching homophones. But, cognates should be used in unison with homophones. Teaching students that words can sound and look completely different but have similar or related meanings will help hammer home the fact that the sound of a word doesn’t have anything to do with its meaning. For instance, the words “furious” and “angry” are cognates, but do not sound or look the same at all.

 Graphic Organizer: For Chunking Text Lesson 

 

Link: http://oakdome.com/k5/lesson-plans/iPad-lessons/images/ipad-graphic-organizers/ipad-graphic-organizer-main-idea-and-details.gif

 

(Had trouble trying to insert directly)

 

Students would get 5 of these each (lots of paper and ink, I know, but necessary). Each one will be used for each of the five (or however many) chunks of text. This would allow them to organize their ideas PER CHUNK and keep their main ideas and supporting details connected to the chunk they are supposed to be connected to. Once all 5 are filled out, this can serve as a model for students to use when summarizing the overall idea of the entire text.

e-Study Guide

 

Final Professional Book Post

The final part of my professional book I would like to share is about critiquing news, media, and advertisements. 

That’s awesome!

I’m really surprised that we’re actually encouraged to teach students not to trust the news and/or advertisements. I’m not sure about Sunshine State Standards but I know that Common Core does have standards that directly address critiquing media and print advertisements as a way to learn about persuasive techniques. In my professional book, there is a picture of an ad from the ’50s that says, “YOU WRITE WHAT YOU’RE TOLD!! Thanks, corporate news, We Couldn’t Control the People Without You!”

I’m happy that I get to do things like this in the classroom, but I’m even more ecstatic that there are books out there for teachers to help me do this!

“It is important for students to develop a critical awareness of the construction of both television and print news in order for them to develop responsible civic engagement in current events.”

Professional Book Post 2

“I come home every single day from working double shifts, and stop along the way to pick you up a couple gifts. I come inside and you pretend you miss me when you kiss me, then you diss me and we strenuously fight continuously.”

 

Book: Teaching to Exceed the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards, Beach, Thein, Webb

I suppose that “section 2” of this book deals with chapters 3 and 4. I would like to share my favorite parts of each chapter.

In chapter 3, there is an activity that stresses the importance of illustrations or pictures as text additives or as text themselves. I’m not going to go into great detail about the activity, but more about what the activity stresses. The class was reading To Kill a Mockingbird and the teacher decided it would be beneficial to show the class a picture that would help the students understand the impact of the threatened lynching of Tom Robinson in the book. She showed the class a POSTCARD of a picture of two men that were lynched. The impact seeing a picture of two hanging men would have on young students is obvious, and it would certain help the students understand the gravity of the situation Tom Robinson faced in the text. What I’d like to point out (again) is that this picture was actually a POSTCARD. People could send postcards with pictures of lynchings to family and friends exactly the same way we send postcards with pictures of snow or sunsets today. The fact that the picture was a postcard hammered home the point to the students even more. I really like that this book shared this activity with its readers and even included the picture in the text. This is what stuck out to me the most about this chapter.

Golden Line: “Who could possibly have that much hatred in their heart, killing human beings like that!” – Hope, Student

Chapter 4 of this book actually contains quite a bit of textbook bashing, which I think is ironic since I do consider this book to be a textbook, even if only for teachers. Anyway, I think it is interesting how Chapter 4 points out that most, if not all, big, standardized textbooks are written for profit, and therefore must consist of material that will satisfy several areas of the country while simultaneously not offending anyone. This can be very hard to do, and it leads to much controversial material being completely left out of textbooks. This leads into my Golden Line for the chapter:

“So textbooks avoid controversy – yet it is exactly controversy that energizes the study of reading and writing, and engagement in literacy practices.”

^^^Exactly my point. If you want young adults to be interested and engaged in something, that something cannot and will not be a textbook by itself. You have to incorporate several outside sources that elicit sincere responses from your students. Which, of course, leads back into what I discussed about Chapter 3 above. 

Good day.

Professional Book Post 1

The professional book I’m choosing to read is actually one that Dr. Kaplan uses for a different class here at UCF, called “Teaching to Exceed the English Language Arts Common Core Standards.”

When I first opened this book, I thought it was going to be way too hard to pull useful information out of. It’s very novel-esque. However, I soon realized that I might really like this book due to the exercises that Dr. Kaplan has us do each class. We always have to open the book and find a quote we like and write about it. For me, at least, no matter what random page I open the book to, I always find something that I like, and then I keep reading. I’ve read most of the book so far but there were just a few parts I skipped. 

This book really digs into what needs to be done in order exceed the Common Core standards. In the very first chapter, the author suggests completely rethinking what a classroom is, and calls it a “passionate affinity space.” The author then breaks this “space” down into seven characteristics, but I won’t get into those right now.

Chapter 2 has an extremely important (to me) section on the importance of multiple literacies, with a focus on digital/media literacy. Students need to know how to read, write, collaborate, communicate, “visually represent,” and engage in research/publication in this increasingly important digital landscape. Students also need to know how to critique and analyze multi-media texts. For example, they might critique the ways that sites for teen magazines for girls foster consumerism and adoption of stereotypical gender roles.

I believe that the overarching theme of the first section of this book is the following quote:

“You also need to recognize that you can have a significant role in determining what reading, writing, speaking, listening, and media texts are taught in your classroom; what topics, issues, themes, and ideas you will cover; and what sequence will best achieve the Common Core State Standards. You will be in the best position to justify these choices if you are able to articulate their basis in your beliefs about student learning. This book will aid you in sorting through those beliefs.”

Open Post

So, I’m posting a day late because, well, I forgot :]

I just found out I got approved for Internship 2 over the summer with FLVS!!! I’m so excited. I didn’t think I was going to get in since I still have an elective to take. I’ve been freaking out constantly because I thought I was going to have to find another place to live up here for the Fall semester, but now I don’t have to!

Anyways, DOES ANYONE KNOW ANY GOOD FISHING SPOTS AROUND HERE!?!?!???

I’ve been trying to find somewhere that doesn’t completely suck for months and I’m having no luck. Even Google isn’t helping, and you know the world is ending when that happens. 

 

Tech Post 2

“Push this generation of kids to stand and fight for the right to say something you might not like.”

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z7HQ8NH

^^^This is a link to a survey I created that I can give to my students in the beginning of the year to get a feel for what the students want and expect. In return, the students will create their own survey for me to take.

It’s FREE!!

Tech Post 1

1. I think that building an airplane while it is flying can be an analogy for using technology while you’re learning. It seems impossible to do either of these (definitely the first) but I am doing the latter myself, right now. It is definitely possible to build technological literacy in the classroom, even in ways that students don’t see as methods of teaching.

2. I would most likely consider myself a “resident,” however I probably use the internet as though I’m only a visitor. I mostly use the internet for school related tasks or to watch movies. When I was younger, though, I was almost always on the internet doing something, wasting much of my time. I know what most of the things on the chart are, and though I do have a Facebook, I only use it to keep up with music and sports; I rarely post anything of my own and I rarely send any messages. I know very well how to use the vastness of the internet, but right now I suppose it isn’t a huge part of my life.

3. First off, I will definitely be using Skype in my classroom. I think this can be the best tool for reaching students who, for any reason, cannot come to school. If a student is sick, for example, (actually sick, not faking :)) it will be very helpful for both the student and myself to use Skype so that I can still speak to the student about what happened in class and even show the student the same materials that everyone else received. Also, I will be able to give verbal instructions on how to do homework that night, instead of written ones that the student will take home whenever he/she returns to school.

Another tool I may use in my classroom is Slideshare. Slideshare would be a useful tool that would allow students to create PowerPoints, for example, and share it online or to work on it online with a partner without having to email it back and forth to each other. Again, as with Skype, if a student is absent, Slideshare would enable the student to still submit his/her presentation without having to worry about formatting errors caused by email.

Youtube will probably be used in my class nearly every day. There is always a short video or even song that can be used as an introduction to a lesson or incorporated otherwise.

4. I’ve actually already been finding a wide array of useful information on NCTE.org. The first thing I notice about profession development online is that all the information is displayed verrrrryyyyyy well, just as a teacher would expect from other, perhaps more qualified and experienced teachers. The teacher I’m interning with actually hosts a few online professional development seminars each year. Recently she has told me about her “Springboard” training seminar she hosted, and she also said she gets paid quite handsomely for it. 🙂

5. Virtual writing is most important for students because it will teach them online writing etiquette as well as let them practice writing in the way they will be writing (at least professionally) for the rest of their lives. The benefits of this cannot be overstated. The risks, of course, are very obvious and most likely expected. The web is full of distractions for students, many more distractions that can be found in even the worst-managed classroom. Also, the teacher will find it almost impossible to filter what students are sharing with other students, not including what students share on the devilish Facebook. One virtual writing tool I like and may use is one that was used in class but I don’t find it on the list. I don’t remember the name, but I really like the virtual post-it website we used in class.

6. The most happily noticed commonality about the top 100 tech tools is that most of them deal with writing and reading 🙂 I love that Language Arts is becoming so infused with technology even though it actually requires the least (paper, pencils, and books). I also noticed that file-sharing is being frequently used. I’m glad, because two of the three tech choices I made earlier deal directly with this.

7. Oh my (insert deity here)! I love this pyramid chart! This chart would be very useful for making tech decisions depending on what level of understanding you expect your students to have in each step of a lesson. In the beginning of a lesson, you may use Google or Flickr to get students into the lesson, and by the end, you should be using Youtube or Wikispaces to allow students to create something of their own that incorporates what you have been teaching them.

8. As I am not yet a teacher, I have only used Youtube IN a classroom. When showing different advertising techniques, Youtube was my best friend. I would really like to use Skype somehow, but hopefully not only when students are absent. Also, I may use Wikispaces or Slideshare, or something else that would allow students to share their beautiful work with the world.

Open Post 2

“Despite your pseudo-bohemian appearance and vaguely-leftist doctrine of beliefs, you know nothing about art or sex that you couldn’t read in any trendy New York underground fashion magazine.”

 

So, I have no idea what I would like to post about, but I did my first full lesson at my internship yesterday, and it went about as well as I could have expected! I taught 7th graders about advertising methods and tricks… it was quite interesting. According to my 7th grade class, any and every fan of the Miami Heat has fallen victim to the Bandwagon technique. Any and every fan of a team that is not popular is a victim of the Avant-Garde technique. I couldn’t stop laughing. However, my students did correctly identify about 95% of the techniques I showed them, so I would say it was pretty effective. 🙂