What I learned in this class...

This class has taught me a lot. One of the most important things I learned in this class is the significance of literacy. It is apparent everywhere, in everyday life. We as teachers must stress this and incorporate literacy as much as we can in our lesson plans and activities. I also realized that my content area, art involves much more literacy than I had previously thought. After realizing this and creating a unit plan, I will use this knowledge to incorporate literacy in all of my teaching. The unit plan was definitely a new experience for me. Although, it was kind of a pain, I have definitely benefited from it and hope to someday use in the classroom.

Final Post

What I didnt get that I wanted to learn was how to encourage kids to build their literacy while competing with all this audio/visual technology in their lives. In regards to reading... computers, movies, tv, ipods, iphones, video games, etc. are all other (more appealing) options/distractions for kids. They all have visual, interactive, and/or tangible elements that reading lacks. Kids would much rather do these things rather than read nowadays. Call it a sign of the times, but that is still a lame excuse.
I think we did touch on this matter briefly, but I wish we could have learned about it a little more in depth. What specific techniques are there? Yes, have them read things that really interest them. But for some reason, I feel it is a lot easier 'said than done'. I am a huge advocate for reading (and building literacy) and I am going to want to preach this to my students, but how the hell will I be able to compete with all this stuff. Maybe it will all 'click', maybe not. Anyone feel me?

One specific thing that I liked in the class was the lesson Dr. Dana gave when we listed things that came to our heads about "school," in general. We all listed things that were mostly negative experiences - when really, there are plenty of great positive things that were should keep in mind as teachers. It was interesting. For some reason that example really stuck with me.

There were good ideas in the textbook. Plus, the unit plan was a pain in the ass, but looking back, I realize how worthwhile it was. It was good experience. And it is something we can put into a portfolio - along with our philosophy statement (that was a good idea too).

Final Thoughts

Not trying to be a dork but this was my favorite class of the semester, because it wasnt just all lecturing but learning different teaching stategies. I feel like i learned more from this class than my methods for teaching class. I feel the book has some great ideas that everyone can use no matter which subject area they are.
I was really afraid that this class was just going to be about reading, and mainly for english majors but it really wasnt. Even though it is a required class i would recommend it to other students because it was a fun class and as a teacher you were very easy to talk to and to communicate with which is more than i can say for the majority of the teachers at this school.

Literacy and Education

For me, taking this class was a no brainer. I am an English major and in my mind and what I have been taught here at MSU, English IS Literacy. English IS reading. So I completely understood that I needed to take this course. I however never knew that so many other majors could be integrated through literacy into my major and vice-versa. I learned from the PE majors as much as I learned from the History majors and I hope that they took something away from me too. This for me was the most valuable thing that I took away from the course but I also really appreciated th text book. I plan on keeping the book to use some of the literacy ideas in my future classes. I already have used some of them for lesson plans I intend to teach next semester while in student teaching. This class was the first time I was introduced to KWLs so I am greatly appreciative that I learned about them as I think that they are an amazing tool not only for the teacher but for the students to gain perspective on their teacher as well. I really do feel confident that many things I took away from this class will help me in the upcoming months as I begin my teaching experience.

Class Reflection

Since English is my content area, I wasn't baffled as to why I had to take this class. Literacy IS English. Probably the most valuable thing I am taking away from this class is the textbook, because that one section with all the different ideas for lesson plans and literacy is going to be really helpful throughout my teaching career. I already have been using KWL's left and right (not really... but this class was the first time I was introduced to them and I think it's a great idea to start any unit... I'm using it for my Methods class unit plan.) Most of the strategies the book presented seem really useful for the classroom and I will definitely use them as a reliable resource. Other than that, this class was all right--I'm glad we had the opportunity to work with other people on the inquiry unit plan; I worked with two other people and I feel like we each complimented each other's ideas and brought something unique to the unit. The book group project was interesting, too.

Coming To An End....

This semester has brought up the importance of literacy in any subject field which has definitely taught me something. I never really thought of how literacy was used in any subject other than reading and writing classes. This class has discussed what literacy was, what components made up literacy, and helped me look for it in my own field.
Learning the significance of literacy has taught me that I should integrate it as much as I can in my lesson plans. When using different components of literacy in health and physical education, I have found it to be affective in different ways. Instead of just teaching how to play a sport, I could have my students read about it and talk about it in groups. This is just one example of how literacy can be used in a variety of ways.

Finally...

I finally figured out why we were supposed to take a "reading" course! Since I started the Teacher Ed program, I've been wondering what good a reading class could possibly do for me, a math student. This class showed me that not only is reading a very important aspect of any class, even math, but it can even be expanded on to reinforce what math teachers are already doing. I also really liked learning about literacy, and realized through this course that there are different kinds of literacy, and that teaching to math literacy is a logical thing to do, since it means that students will be able to take their knowledge from math class and apply it outside the classroom.

Thanks for clearing that up!

This semester....

This semester helped me see how important it is to incorporate literacy into every subject area. While I know literacy needs to be incorporated, I'm not sure I've discovered how to make it a big part of the chemistry classroom. While working on the unit plan, I didn't really see any big oppertunity to bring literacy in. The main way literacy worked into my unit plan was through reading the text and labs. I feel like there must be a better way to bring it in.

What I learned

One of the things I learned this semester was to appreciate literacy a little more. Before entering this class, I thought that literacy was just reading and writing but it a lot more then that. It encompasses speaking and listening as well. One of the responses by I has hesitant entering this class was because I thought or reading and writing skills would be heavily weighted but you gave us the opportunity to just write, type in a continual stream of consciousness in our blogs. By doing this I felt that you learned more about me if their was a ridged stretcher, and that is what I will take with me into my professional career.

What I Learned..

One of the things that I learned about this past semester was that literacy is really an integral part of the classroom It would be beneficial for us all to really work on developing more literacy into our lessons. Also, the whole blogging for class was actually a new experience for me. It was pretty cool to see everybody's ideas and thoughts about this class all semester. That could possibly be something I want to use at some point. Another thing I learned were the various reading strategies. Some of them I was familiar with, and others I was seeing for the first time. They were all very helpful strategies that really make the students use more critical thinking. Honestly, I can't say that there was something that I didn't get out of this class because I actually got more out of it then I thought I would. It was a very enjoyable experience to take this course.

What I Learned....

In my opinion, I never realized how much literacy played a role in my subject area. First of all, as an educator I realize in the world of physical education it is very easy to fall into the "roll out the ball" trap. Incorporating literacy and critical thinking into physical education can provide my students with a better opportunity to process the skills and information while having the ability to retain and use the information later on in life. Also, in taking this class I have learned a lot about the student's point of view. There are many different types of learners, and having a teaching style that only caters to one type of learning is never going make me a successful teacher. In recognizing how students learn, I will be able to see what they see, and hopefully in turn make any lesson I teach challenging but achievable to all my students.

What I learned

This class was one of the most interesting and relevant classes I have taken at Montclair. I never thought about literacy as it related to other subject areas. As an English major i thought it only pertained to reading and writing in my subject area. The information I learned will help me bring in other subject area techniques in order to help reach the students who may not be so interested in literature in the conventional way. It also made me more sensitive to students learning disabilities or past experiences which may leave "learning baggage."
I want my students to succeed in all of their classes, not just mine so therefore I think its crucial to be understanding of the demands in all content areas.

What I learn from this class...

In this class, I learned the importance of the literacy in my subject. Literacy plays many roles in every subject. In art, literacy is the reading, writing, and speaking. It helps students to learn about art history, talk about an artwork, and write about their artwork and opinions. Students can also apply their vocabulary words and artterms to critique an art piece.
Without literacy in artclass would be like doing scribbles of drawing with no intension of studying art. Literacy in the subject helps students to learn about and study about the art. It is basic step for student to contain deeper learning in each subject.

What i got out of this class pretty much parallels other posts. I know that literacy is everywhere and not just in your English class, but i guess this showed me even the little aspects that it is seen in; places you wouldn't originally think literacy could tie into, it can. And it showed me if it is not apparent, there are ways to tie it in. I guess i would like to have a little more application of where specifically it could be tied into with my content area. I know where i could fit it in more now, but i guess just would like to further that development. Literacy doesn't have to be "in your face" for it to still be there and i think that is the biggest thing i took from this class. It's how you can find it and how easy it is to detect with little things you can do.

What I learned from class

I think the main idea I learned from this class was that literacy does not only exist in reading/english areas, but it is definitely in mathematics. I learned that literacy is very important in my content area of math: it is in the symbols, math vocabulary, word problems, and application of knowledge into situations. When we constructed our unit plan based on an essential question, we kept the idea of literacy in mind, and picked that topics that displayed a student's literacy in math when they need to use math in everyday life. It was so cool to me that we could construct an entire unit solely based on an essential question. It really seemed like a great way to get the students energized about their upcoming lessons, because these were questions that they actually "wanted" to know the answers to.

Honestly, there wasn't really anything that I didn't "get" that I wanted to learn in this class. Going into this class, I had an idea that it would be boring and not really apply to my content area. However, I was pleasantly surprised, and found all of the classes fun and interesting. Also, the way that the class was taught forced us to seek information from many different mediums; not just from books, and this was really interesting, because I had never used things like online journals or blogs before. Overall, I am very happy with this class.

Final Post

I learned a lot in this class. Reading can be fun if we all use our imagination, a number of strategies and the appropriate literature. I also realized that we all mostly pay interest to what we like to read or do, so I will be careful when I am in class to have my student select their own reading so they will feel more responsible to do the task on their own and make progress. some of the reading strategies used in class such as brainstorming and the higher order thinking have been helping me to develop my critical thinking. The worksheet to outline our unit and the calendar made easier for me to plan my lessons. What comforts me is that I tried to do my best.
I wish we could have had more time to review new reading strategies that we all can apply in the classroom. I wish i could have had more time to read the other two books, but I think i will read it during the summer. I am sorry we did not get to use much of the book. It was probably timing. I was thinking if you can give us some good references to look up and use in our future classrooms. Reading is important. I think we just need to combine interest and appropriate material.


Thank you.

one thing that i got from this class was a greater knowledge about the technology that can be used in a classroom. to be honest i really hadnt heard about "blogging", probably because i am totally computer illiterate. i thought this was a pretty cool way to do assignments, namely because you could see what other students were writing if you were confused about anything. this also made it more personable, because we got to know a little about the person and their writing style. going to the lab downstairs was really interesting too, because that interactive flatscreen thing was really cool to watch a lesson on. however, it was a little hard to pay attention, it was like giving a toy to a kid and telling him not to play on it! ha. another things i got from this course was a better understanding of what literacy means and how it can be used in the classroom. i came away with alot of literary terms and concepts from the one textbook that i hope will be beneficial to me in my future. coming into this class i expected ALOT of reading so i was happy that was not the case. i cant say that i like to read more because of this class, its just something that i dont think i will get in to until i am older, but i did come away with an appreciation of its importance. I liked the idea of short readings and responses, and thought that all the assignments were fair. overall i enjoyed the class, i think that your style of teaching went well with it just because you took time to relate things to us and you have a open personality. so to conclude the biggest thing i took from the class was a number of different ways to not only intergrate literacy into the classroom, but also different methods to use in lessons i teach.

why are we reading these books?

aside from the obvious, its a reading class and its expected that book reading be in the curricula, i think you are having us read these books because we are coming to the end of our undergraduate career's, for the most part, and you want to prepare us for possible problems that we might encounter in our future endouvers by having us read books about teachers who were new to the field and have succeeded amazingly. They have gone up and above the duties and actions of standard teachers and changed the lives of their students because of their outstanding commitment and their ability to think quite far outside the proverbial box to engage students in the classroom in a way that no other students have been so in the past. Furthermore, you are not sitting us down in the traditional method of lecturing, or teaching us first hand. You are having us read, realize, and learn for ourselves in the probabe hope that more of us will retain more information because we are forced to read these helpful books, rather than sit in class where we can ignore teachings, we can day dream, or play on our computers. I rather enjoy the books and the lessons that you have assigned us, and I feel that I am learning a lot from the experience. Thank you

Why Are we reading the Books....

I think we are reading this book to build our literacy skill and also to read about teachings of other teacher. The Freedom Writer's Diary is about how a teacher connects with her student by introducing literacy to them. I understand that the book I'm reading could related to me in future and it would be great to know before I face the real world. I don't know if I'm right but, the 'Group work' your making us to do is to make us understand the literacy in the reading by sharing information and to work with other future teachers.

I hope this class and the book will help me to develop the literacy in my curriculum.

i think that you are having us read one of these books because they all have to deal with education/pedagogy. reading one of these books will help us gain perspective on teaching and help boost our literacy skills at the same time. these books, like this class, will help us to get a better idea of what really goes on in any subjects classroom. literacy truly is a vital component of any field, which i am beginning to learn. at first i wondered why the art and PE majors had to take this class but now it makes sense. the project that goes along with the project will force us to think critically. we were not just assigned a book report that we could bs the night before, but a group assignment that requires us to show you an understanding of the material. another reason i think you are assigning this is that i would have been suprised if i got out without having to read a book in a class titled READ haha. all in all i think this is just another step to get us to prepare for life outside of college, and teaching in the classroom.

Reading one of The 3 Novels

Let me first say that signing up for this class is mandatory and now I can see why its required as part of the program. My initial thought is why am I going to a class about reading? but to this day it has exceeded my expectations and you know what they say about expectations and disappointment ^_^
I used to read a lot but since entering college my time is dedicated to school texts rather than recreational reading so even when school is out I just find something else to do rather than read although i do keep up with Men's Health :) I never realized that there were so many components to Literacy and the more you read the more fine tuned these skills become.
The reason I think we are reading these novels is because we can see that there are so many different lenses and angle which we can view pedagogy in action and each one of these books gives us a different perspective. Dr Wilber could have given us any three novels to pick from but these had a specific purpose as stated above.
I am reading Teacher Man and I think it is phenomenal because it is a book where myself or anyone can relate to since it takes u back if you are older, to your school days, or if you just left high school, or observing one now, that the dynamics of the class and school still has some basic principles that would never change in American classrooms of abroad and that there was at least one teacher that stood out among the rest and that might be the one who has doubts and question themselves on what the hell did I get myself into. So these books show us the trials, errors challenges and success that arises out of teaching which we can all relate and learn from as past or present teachers.

Why we are reading these books...

I think that Dr. Dana has us reading one of the three of these books for a few reasons. When we first entered the class she had discussed with us of why we are even taking this class. As a physical education major, I admit I didn't know why they had to add this as one f my requirements. But she had explained that literacy is everywhere and no matter where we are or what subject we teach, reading will be apart of it.

The book that I am reading in my group is Freedom Writers which entails many situations and topics among students at a school. These situations could occur when I am a teacher and it is helpful to see how the teacher in this book deals with it. Today there are so many issues with racism, sexism, and sexuality that I will one day have to deal with.

Why were reading these books

I think that we are reading these books because they have to do with education and teaching and we are all taking this course because we are pursuing a career as future educators. I'm not really sure what the other two books were about, but I read "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt.
The book is about his life as a new teacher in New York. I thought it was a great book because he wrote about all the real life struggles he faced dealing with new students that didn't take him seriously. Being a teacher is tough especially if it is with students that don't treat you with much respect. Throughout the story his students would try to take him off track by asking him questions about his personal life so that they would get out of doing work. While I was reading I remembered that the same thing would happen in my high school every time we had a new teacher or substitute and it always worked!
I think it is the perfect book for everyone interested in becoming a teacher and I think that all students in the teacher ed program should be required to read it!

Why Are We Reading This Book

Well, let's get the completely and totally obvious question out of the way first, this is a reading course and Dr. Dana has been telling us from day one that the more we read, the better we become at it, the more we will like it.

I am sure you are looking for a more in depth answer however, and here is mine: I am reading Freeom Writers and it is really inspiring me to want to teach to the best of my abilities, not that I didn't want to before, this is just inspiring me to think outside of the box!. Ms. Gruwell had to overcome so many road blocks, it is scary, but she did it because she wanted nothing more than to give the kids a safe environment in which to grow and be nurtured. I doubt I will ever reach as many kids as she has, but I am more than willing to try now. It really is a inspiring book that I would reccommend to any teacher, young or old who is looking for a reason to go on.

Dr. Dana has also told us from day one that we need to come to a complete overall understanding of what we read because if we can't get something positive out of the book, we have failed to really read it for what it is worth. I feel that this is the reason behind the project for the book, we are reading for content and understanding and then coming up with a fun and inventive project to go along with the book, much like how we will one day to as teachers.

I am reading this book because..

Hello Dr. Dana!

I am reading The Freedom Writers, so I cant speak for the other book. But I think that you are making us read this book because:

1) This is a reading class, after all. So it only makes sense that we do some actual reading.

2) The book is somewhat interesting, compared to some other choices you could have gave, haha. The themes and ideas presented are more relative to our young adult lives growing up in urban and somewhat-urban areas. In other words, these themes are familiar to us (struggle, inner-city life, racism, stereotyping, ethnicity, diversity, violence, etc.) either due to our personal experiences or our familiarity of them through media, books, music, and movies. Therefore, it becomes an easy and rather enjoyable read.

3) You are also making us read this to make sure that we grasp the overall idea(s) presented in the book. You want to make sure we understand what we are reading. And in order to do that, you are testing or evaluating our understanding through our projects with our groups. By giving us the freedom to do the project however way we'd like, you are entrusting and letting us show you that we understand what we have read in a way that's enjoyable to us. Therefore, it is creating a more worthwhile learning experience.

I'm Rich Pobuta - And I'm out.

Vocab

For my unit students will need to know the vocab from earlier lessons, and learn new things relating to gasses. Most of these willl probably be delivered to students during direct instruction. There probably won't be too many new vocab words other than the various gas laws. Making the connections between gas laws will be the most important part of the lesson.

Vocb

For my subject, history, vocb is very different. Its not like most students will not know words, but instead will not know places, people, and cultural terms. For my unit plan on immigration the terms that students will need to know is just certain places and organizations, for example INS and ellis island. I feel that history is good because it does not bog people down with big words that they have to understand.
If you take a newpaper or textbook, which are main sources for teaching history, they are not filled with difficult vocb because they are trying to instill events or concepts rather than vocb. I feel the vocb that history does use like places and such are clearly defined through any method of teaching because if you dont understand what is being taught like ellis island for example, means than you really do not understand immigration and this would easily be seen by a teacher through any given homework or classwork assigned.

Vocab

In my groups unit plan vocab will be important but it is only part of the whole. The most important thing should be the applied knowledge not just the vocab itself. My group is writing up a lesson for 4^th graders so in this case vocab will be important. We have to keep the lessons age appropriate, which means all the ideas have to be concrete since the students aren’t quite capable of thinking abstractly. So in this unit we will keep the vocab simple and to the point and use real life situations that the children can relate too.

Vocab

Vocabulary is pretty important when it comes to learning about anatomy and physiology as many of the physical education and health majors will tell you. I can't even remember the countless amounts of notecards I used over the past 3 years to try to memorize different terms. The problem with that is that I don't really think I retained much of that information. For our unit and for my future classes I will teach, I hope that students can understand concepts rather then memorize vocab. Understanding what is happening means that you know the what and why. I mean really who cares what the definition of a motor unit is. But, when we learn and understand the concepts behind motor units we then begin to realize the true importance of much of the vocab we are given to learn. Besides these points, I'm not really sure what other aspects of vocabulary I'm supposed to talk about here.

Vocabulary

My group members and I haven't discussed which vocabulary we will cover yet. The theme of our unit is gangs, so we have to identify any vocabulary words that might be associated with that theme. We will be asking our students to read Romeo and Juliet, parts of The Gangs of New York, The Pact, and various news articles, so we also have to identify unfamiliar words in those pieces that students will need defined. All three of us are English teachers, and vocabulary is one of the things we will be required to teach. The way vocab was taught to me in high school, which is the same way I observe it being taught with my cooperating teacher, is useless, in my opinion. The students are fed the words and definitions, complete a homework assignment for the unit (choosing the right word, completing the sentence, antonyms, synonyms -- I'm sure some of you remember those vocab books from high school), memorize the words, and take a test. Then, they usually forget those words to memorize the new ones to pass the next test. I'm helping my cooperating teacher's students with their vocab work and it's a shame how many of the words I don't know anymore. Memorizing vocab just to pass a test does not help the students internalize the words, which I think is the purpose of teaching vocab. So, for the unit plan and for my future teaching, I need to think of ways to incorporate vocab lessons through the students' writing in hopes that they will internalize them and be able to use them fluently.

Unit Vocab

Our unit is in health, specifically focusing on bullying, violence, harassment, vandalism, and assault. Students are going to need to know the definitions of all these as well some psychological terms when they learn about the effects of harassment, assault, etc. Students will be reading a short novel and case studies which we will go over every class, so they will be learning the vocabulary through this, hearing and reading it over and over. We will also use visual prompts where students need to write words which describe the picture and discuss the related vocabulary that goes along with a certain scene or situation. Students will also be given an assignment to research specific psychological effects of bullying and violence so they will be learning on their own the terms associated with violence and its psychological effects.

Unit Plan Progress

So far the project seems to be going smoothly. I feel that my partner, Lauren, and I were able to get a lot accomplished last week during our free class period. Her and I met up and were able to discuss our ideas for the project. Since both of us are History majors, it made it a lot easier and more efficient to be partners, allowing us to get a lot done.
For our unit, we decided to choose Immigration as the topic and are focusing on the period 1870s-1920s (approximately). We are also planning on relating this to present immigration towards the end of our unit in order to make the information more relevant and perhaps more interesting.
When we met, we were able to plan out our essential questions/big ideas and come up with a few assessment ideas. The calendar really helped so that we could visually organize our lessons. All we have left to do is detail a few of the lessons. I'm really happy with our progress. It feels like this project is not as daunting as it originally seemed. ;-)

Unit Plan

I'm having hard time planning my unit plan.
I need to meet up my partner during class. I don't have her phone number..
Can we have more time to meet up with the partner during class?

Technonology

I think that technology has almost made reading and writing more accessible (in some form) to everyone. With the internet and computers being so prevalent, there are so many opportunities for anyone to access articles, stories, poetry, and other reading material that I think most people probably "read" more than they otherwise would. However, this same accessibility, I think, has changed the way we write. It seems like everyone writes in a more familiar way because that's the way we word emails and text messaging, and shortcuts and abbreviations are more prevalent. I think it's wonderful that everyone gets so many opportunities to express themselves, and I hope that it can continue further so that there are always many outlets.

Response to Unit Planning

this experienced kind of sucked, mainly becuase it was a wake up call that i am going to have to do alot of work. One problem we had right off the bat was finding time to meet. We both had busy schedules, something that i anticipate will remain the same when we become teachers. Once paul and i got together we didnt have too much trouble. we chose to do "Imperialism" as our topic. We ran into a problem when trying to fill out the calendar, we werent sure how in depth we should go each day, and it is hard to regulate how much time activities and discussions will take. some days kids feel like talking and can make a topic blow by, but other days if they are not active the experience could be so slow. I am not big on planning, i more or less like to be spontaneous, and i sure as hell am a procrastinator...these two things might end up hurting me if i dont make some changes. It just seems really hard to gage how a class might go. in the long run i feel as though getting input from other people will ease the pain of coming up with useful lesson plans, it really did help to have another person to brainstorm with. I think things will be alot better once i have more in front of me about the class i will be teaching. i am just going to have to put a little more time into planning once i become a teacher so that i dont make an ass out of myself.

plan de la unit

our unit plan went really well so far, dave and i had discussed last class period that we were going to do a unit plan on use of color vs use of black and white in the different fields of art, so when we got hte outline and were told to answer the questions, we already had rather specific answers so there was not much brainstorming or further thinking required. we met briefly to discuss how we had filled out the planning and thinking outline, and we're all good, we know the age group, how were going to go about teaching, and what not. just peachy

Reading and Writing Using Technology

Technogy has changed tremendously the way we do thing in every aspect of our lives. It has offered new ways to communicate among us through e-mails, instant messages, cellphones, video and cd players. Since we are students, most of us are attached to technology almost all the time. Most of us read articles from a web page, information and news on the internet, then we type research and response papers, essays based on our reseach and investigation using a computer. Isn't technology involve in our lives in a way we never thought before? Yes, it certainly is. All our classes are posted on blackboard, we register online. Some students take exams online, even classess. Haven't you seen that technology has even taken our personal relationships in its hands in order to help us find true love? But it is true. So reading and writing make use of technology to better our academic progress and make more accessible and easier our learning.

Unit Plan Process:

Laura and I got together last Thursday. We needed this time to talk about ideas, exchange information, discuss details about the unit plan and the lessons. We also talk about activities, reading strategies, and the schedule of our unit we will be using. We certainly worked on all those details. I really enjoyed very much out time together because it seem that we get along nicely. We both listen to the other in order to make sustantial progress and understand each other. I hope every one in class had a nice experience working with one's partner.

Blog Post/Unit Plan

Technology has definitely changed the way I read and write. I can remember back in 2nd grade going to the library and looking at stacks upon stacks of books and being terrified to go in there. I always said to myself, "I hate reading, why would I want to go in there?" However, through increasing technological advances (internet, ipods, cell phones, etc.) there really is no limit to the amount of information I can acquire in my lifetime; and this does not require me to go to the library everyday either, thank God. In a way, technology has tricked me into reading. Almost everyday I am reading some kind of article online, either for a class or for amusement. However, because I am at my computer in the comfort of my own home, I do not feel that stressful feeling anymore when I begin to read something. Also, through the use of searc engines like yahoo and google, if anything pops into my head that I am curious about, I can instantly find out about it, usually finding numerous results on any topic.

In regards to the Unit Plan, Cliff and I are working on a Unit Plan on U.S. Imperialism. Although Cliff is a History major and I am a Health and PE major, we both decided it would be better to do just a History Unit Plan. So far we have come up with some good essential questions in our opinion: Why do some countries feel the need to conquer lands outside their borders? Why do they think it is important to their success? What is more important to you, the power of your country or the treatment of people around the world? From these questios we have begun to develop lessons and activities to do from day to day, culminating in a final assessment of a trial of the Presidents. Basically, the Presidents during the push for Imperialism (1890-1920) will be put on trial for involvement in foreign affairs. Everyone in the class will have a role, either as the judge, jury members, attorneys, witnesses, or one of the four Presidents. More ideas are still to come...

technology & unit plan

I feel that technology has changed the way that our generation reads and writes. By having technology accessible to us at all times (i.e. computers, phones, ipods, t.v., radio, etc.), our generation is taking full advantage of reading and writing, even if we are unaware as to what we are doing when we are doing it. We have been using computers for some time now, whether it be for writing papers, searching websites, emailing, instant messaging, blogging, and so forth. But now technology has brought us to an era of reading and writing on a daily basis, so often that we probably wouldn't know what to do with ourselves if the things that we take for granted disappeared all of a sudden. Our phones have now become a way to search the Internet, communicate with others, play games, listen to music... the list goes on and on, and we have technology to thank. We are even re-inventing literacy as technology moves forward. We are creating our own language by texting and instant messaging. By using "ttys," "lol," "omg," we created a language that allows us to read and write faster, that only if you are literate in this new language can you do so.

Myself and Beth have met to start on our unit planning, and so far so good. I think that the both of us are going to work well together due to each of us being creative and open minded. We both know what we want our unit to be on, what grade it will be for, the time we are allowing for the unit, and what we want to happen as far as the unit goes. We already came up with the main theme for the unit and even created some essential questions that we are going to want our students to be able to answer after the unit is complete. We know what our main goals and ideas are for this unit. I am certain that with our partnership in this unit planning it will go smoothly and be educative for the both of us.

Unit Plan

Last week, my partners and I got together and got alot done with our unit plan. As Shannon had said in her post, we are making it a health unit plan just becuase it is easier to put literacy into it. We did not have any problems overall except for a few questions that we have about the core curriculum. We feel that we are on the right track and have divided it up evenly so that we can all put pur inputs into it as well as edit each others portions.

Unit Planning and Technology

I met with Stephanie last Thursday for our unit planning. It went well and we were able to get a lot of things done. She practically posted everything we did already.

Post for this week:

Technology has made a big impact on our generations' way of reading and writing. First, most people have access to computers and are on them multiple times a day. We have the accessibility to read what ever we want at what ever time with a click of a mouse. Computers also give us more opportunities to write more frequently, whether it be communicating through AIM/AOL or writing an email. It also makes it easier to type up a paper and being able to revise it on one screen rather than typing it on a typewritter and not being able to correct any mistakes.

IPODS also have impacted our reading and writing by lyrics from music. We discover different words and phrases from songs. Songs also help people express themselves with words. Music may bring creativity and open-mindedness.

Computers and IPODs are only two things that have helped our writing and reading skills. We are consistently listening and reading with new technology and do not even realize it. The beauty of it is that both computers and IPODs are used for entertain and if educators can use "entertaining" devices and use them as a learning device, then can be a very successful tools for education.

Unit Planning Experiment

So far so good. Joe and I thought that it would be a good idea to integrate health and pe into our unit plan. This unit plan will target grades k-5. What a prime time to integrate these two disciplines. In some schools, there is huge gap between classes, when it comes to heath and pe. Our plan is to link activates in pe class to concepts being taught in health class. Let’s see what happens.

Progress on Unit Plan and Technology Post

Ok, well Jessica and I met up on Thursday (our other group member...we couldn't find you!!) and I think we made a pretty good amount of progress on our unit plan. Since our content area is math, we thought the main questions most middle-high schoolers ask are, "Why do I need to know this?" and, "How am I going to use this in 'real life'?" We thought that to answer these questions, we should focus our lesson on real-world applications and life skills involving math principles/knowledge. We developed main chapters or lessons that we wanted to cover, including things like banking, housing, and computing expenses. We then developed a unit project that meshes all of these lessons together. The main idea of the project is to imagine they just graduated from college, and are starting a new job. You will also (probably) be renting/buying some kind of housing, making car payments, paying for food each month, etc. The students will need to figure out for a year, how much will be spent in all of these areas for each month, and then figure out on their salary, how their expenses will work out for the whole year. They will do this on excel.

Now, for my blog post this week. technology has influenced my reading and writing. First of all, with the privilege of using the internet, millions of articles are available for me to read at the touch of a button. By being able to read these articles, I think I have shaped the way I write my own essays. I am able to see a huge variety of writing styles and ideas using the internet, and without technology, I would only have those which were presented to me in school, or that I searched on my own in the library.

Also, since all of these articles are available to me on the internet, I am able to search for answers to any personal questions almost instantaneously. For example, if I am reading a book, and they mention a particular vocabulary word in the book, or reference to another book or movie that I have not heard of, all I have to do is go online and search that word or name in Google, and am instantly able to view the definition or information about that name or word (Wow, that was a really long sentence!!). This definitely influences my reading because now I am able to completely understand what I am reading while reading it. If I have any kind of question, and no one is around to ask it to, I can find out for myself.

Laryssa and I definitely made good progress with our unit. We first picked our theme which is causes, effects and ways to control bullying, violence, conflict, vandalism, and harassment. We then developed our essential questions of what specifically we want the students to get out of our unit. Next, we developed our final project, which is a comprehensive group activity that ties in every element discussed in the unit. This covers the health CCCS as well as multiple literacy CCCS. From all the elements included in the final project we broke down activites and topics to cover in the weeks prior to the project; how we are going to lead up to that. We came up with basic themes and activities, still have to work out the details of everything. I think we developed a rather good unit thus far.

Unit project

Im working with Melissa and we are doing our unit on Immigration. We meet last week to fill out the calendar and the other sheet with essesntial quesitons. We actually filled out both things and i think did an excellent job. We wanted to show the immigration patterns and effects of the early 1900's and then how it relates to current immigration patterns and effects.

Our unit plan has some lecture, but also movies, guest speakers, debates, culture day, and some other things that we felt were educaitonal and fun at the same time. As future history teachers we know that students dont really enjoy history because it is jsut the past but we felt that relating it to today would make it not only more interesting but also easier to understand. I think we are doing very well

Literacy Unit

So far I don't think that planning a literacy integrated unit plan for Health has been too difficult. We chose to do health because we figured it would be easier than physical education since there is a lot more that can be done with integrating reading, writing, and speaking skills with topics in health education. My partners and I have been working on a nutrition unit plan for sixth graders. I think we are on the right track with our planning, but I hope we are doing the whole backwards planning the right way. We want the students to understand the importance of proper nutrition and have come up with many lessons to develop their understanding. The only thing that we really struggled with was listing the core curriculum content standards for language arts, I'm not sure if we listed all of the appropriate ones because there are so many and we aren't familiar with them because we are used to working with only the health and PE standards.

Lookin' good

I've been reading your posts about your units, and I am really proud of how they are coming along so far. I know planning an interdisciplinary unit that incorporates literacy is not easy, even for experienced teachers, and I can see the ways all of you are struggling with the important questions: what does inquiry mean? Or interdisciplinary? How can I incorporate literacy into what I am planning and what counts as literacy?

I'm not going to comment on each of your posts because I want to sit down with each "team" and look through what you have and give feedback to you directly on what you have so far -- but know that I am reading (and taking account) of your posts and your comments to each other. I most like when you comment to each other even when you don't have to -- that really tells me that you're thinking as apprentice teachers in the same boat, rather than as individual students trying to pass a class.

So, nicely done so far. For class this week, bring everything you have worked on so far for your unit. You'll have time to keep working and to give each other feedback as I meet with each group. Also, bring your book group book and start thinking about what you can do with it. (Besides using it as a doorstop, etc : )

Tanya's posts

Here are posts for Tanya:

Tanya Washnik
Blog Entries

OCTOBER 11, 2007:
What are specific ways you can incorporate literacy activities into your lessons?

I feel that the most important way to incorporate literacy into a classroom is to go beyond the required textbook/workbook for my class. There are millions of sources out there and in a variety of different fields. For instance, instead of introducing a short story unit b explaining to students what a short story is, I would use a visual aide. I would video tape a sitcom and explain to my students that a sitcom has the same set-up as a short story. I would give them a short story map and have them map out the sitcom as they would a short story. This way, they are enjoying their favorite sitcom while expanding their horizons beyond the classroom.
If a particular story we are reading, take Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for example, had references to gangs, I would have the kids take a day to research a present day article on gang related violence and compare it to Romeo and Juliet.
These are only a few examples as to how literacy can be incorporated. Others include a wide range of text from fiction to non, articles, books, textbooks, informational and poetic texts, to name a few, all in a wide variety of different genres.

OCTOBER 18, 2007:
How is the unit planning experiment going?
I feel very confident about Jen’s and my work thus far on the init inquiry project. We are working very well together and it is really refreshing to be able to work off of someone else’s bright and original ideas. We seem to be able to seamlessly finish one another’s sentences and have come up with a solid lesson plan that has thus far, covered everything we want to say and that is required.
We of course have a lot to tweak, but we have a wide variety of literacy activities planned that will bring the student’s minds out of just reading the pages to feeling what the characters are thinking and feeling. I feel like this kind if a topic will reach the minds of the students and stay there long enough for the kids to want to broaden their horizons.
We still have a lot to do, but I feel confident that this will be a phenomenal lesson plan.

Inquiry Unit Plan

Tanya and I are working together on this project and creating an inquiry unit for English. We made a lot of progress yesterday -- got a ton of ideas flowing. In last week's class, we got an initial idea for the unit and yesterday we developed it further. We sort of planned backwards, deciding that the culmination of the unit would be a seminar the students (seniors) conducted for the freshmen. We made a list of all the literature, videos, etc. we would like to use throughout the unit and then planned which order to use them in and how long to spend on each section. We brainstormed a bunch of activities that the students will do, and considered how literacy would be taught throughout. For those having trouble, I would suggest just brainstorming first -- that's kind of what Tanya and I did... just start throwing some ideas out and one of them will stick... search the internet. I was overwhelmed before starting this project, too, but now I'm actually looking forward to working on it (I mean, I'm lazy and would rather not do the work like most of us, but I see the value in this and I'm glad we're working with partners... it lessens the stress.) If this unit comes out good, then it's something I can actually use in the future.

Unit plan

To be honest when i first found out we had to do this project i was a bit overwhelmed. after reading the two emails we received i did manage to relax and i sat down to really think about what needed to be done. i really am not sure if what we did during class was correct but i do know that a good lesson can stem from what we have written down on paper. Even if what we have done isnt really what was being asked of us at least we can say that we tried and im happy with that.

unit plan

I found this planning process to be alot harder then expected. I've been working on "planning in reverse," by coming up with what I would like my students to accomplish first and then planning for there. I feel as if it is almost more restricting, as I stuggle to make connections that seem clear and concise, as well as coming up with mutiple topics for study. I think it's going to take some trial and error before I become more comfortable with this process.

Essential Question Confusion

The unit planning, so far, isn't going badly, it's just not going. We've been having a lot of trouble with the essential questions. It's been very hard to come up with anything more specific than "Why do I need to know math?" or "When will I ever need this?" To me, it seems like too much of a stretch to describe the various professions in which math is necessary and how math is used in those professions, and to create a unit around a specific profession or similar thing takes away so much of the choice that seems to be so important to students for this type of unit. Giving options (in this particular example) would involve a knowledge of different math-related professions that it would take a long time to acquire.

Basically, we're having trouble coming up with essential questions that are both valid within the field of mathematics and interesting enough for students to care. I think we could use some guidance.

Unit Planning

I have to be honest and say that the unit planning hasn't gone too well so far. I can't think of what would be a good thing to do it about. I've been leaning toward something with gasses, but I can't think of what essential question I'd like to work toward answering. I though it'd be a good topic because there are a lot of different gas laws (Ideal, Boyle, Charles, etc) and it wouldn't be hard to make the unit last the correct amount of time.
I'm just feeling a little lost.

My Time in Colorado

So for the past week I was in Boulder, Colorado at a health and physical education student leadership conference. I missed last weeks class because of it and wish to share a taste of my experience with you all. Only a few students from every state were asked to attend this conference, and there were many students and mentors that came throughout the country. I think the best part about the whole experience was getting to meet all of these students from different states. I got a small sense of what every state is about and how its different to live in other places. The conference obviously was surrounded around the concept of leadership; taking a stand and leading the way. There were six different workshops that we all attended throughout the course of a day as well as night activities. Some of the workshops were active, giving ideas of activites to do in the classroom, some workshops were reflective that got you to think about yourself in terms of what you've been doing and where you are going, and some were about how to get others on board. It was a great mix of topics tied into the central theme.

Literacy was touched upon, just never talked about in debth, but some part of each workshop brought it up even if it was small. I paid particular attention to when literacy was mentioned because i knew that I would be posting a blog about it, so it forced me to look for it within the workshops. I think the biggest thing I gained from doing that was the fact that normally, I would not have noticed this being touched upon. If literacy is tied into something directly, by actually doing something with it, it easy to see when and where there are links. However, when it is not thrown at you, but embedded within a lecture/lesson/activity and not directly apparent, it is not that easy to notice and see the connections. It was because I specifically looked for it that I was able to notice and see those connections. That then made me think about how much it is not directly tied into something, yet still there and I just don't realize it. It made me see that even if I am not making a student read something in debth, literacy is still going on in some way, and I need to pay more attention to it. (I hope you all are following me with this). It made me see that those connections are always being made, but if I am not really noticing it, then maybe my students wouldn't be either. Is it then the fact that I need to make more efforts to point it out, or is that even though we aren't aware that it's there it still sticks? That is a question that I honestly don't know the answer the to and boggling my mind.

I noticed these connections in little things here and there. Let's say when the speaker was talking about a book they had read, or asked us to reflect on something we have read, or relate something to a topic which we have read much about and that's why we know so much, or problem solved our way through something, or persuaded someone to do something, or broke down a skill to someone who a novice at it. I think it was interesting to have my mind a little more tuned into where literacy appears for it made me see that it really is everywhere, and doesn't have to be direct for it still be there.

So that was the jist of my experience. I had a great time and I must say Colorado is absolutely georgous! The first two days I was there it was really warm where I was just in a T-shirt and by the last day it was snowing! I got to see it all. It really was a great experience.

Literacy in Health and PE

Often times people don't incorporate all that much literacy activities or materials into a physical education setting. It is more prominant within the health classroom, but not so much in PE. I honestly wouldn't want to do too many literacy activities in the actual PE setting because we advocate for as much movement of students during classtime as possible and conducting in debth literacy activities does not match up with that. However, there are smaller ways to incorporate literacy into the classroom. A lot of station work is done within a physical education classroom. Students constantly move from station to station having different tasks to do at each. I think that if it is a station teach, some type of literacy activity could be one of the stations, relevant to the other activities of the day. Let's say the stations of the day are ways to increase and decrease heart rate. The one station on literacy could be to read something short dealing with heart rate and doing a "sketching my way through text" so students can visualize what they are reading and see the flow through sketching of how the body works at increasing heart rate. Little activities could always be done throughout a class that ties in the psycomotor aspect with literacy on what is being done. I also love the idea of exit and admit slips at the end and beginning of each class. This is a great way for students to not only take the physical doing of what they have learned, but be able to express it in writing.

On the health part of all of this, literacy activities are very important. There is so much research, which could also be touched upon in the PE classroom, as well as statistics and facts that are out there about health related issues. This information is not always easy to comprehend and breaking it down so that students actually understand is so important. If they are not undserstanding how and why being heathly in whatever aspect is important, then what they read is almost useless. There are so many great activites that could be done with health lessons that break down reading material such as the think alouds, mapping and anticipation guide. I especially like the anticipation guide in a health setting because it lets students demonstrate their prior knowledge on the topic, which in many cases can be inaccurate. Health information can very easily be tangled with and inaccurate information is all around us. This guide helps to put what students think and know from other sources into comparison with what is presented to them at this point.

literacy in art

There are many ways that literacy can be related to art, but the one way that stands out to me and is one of my all time favorites is the KWL chart. i feel that this strategy is good in so many ways. When working with art it is very common to come across a certain artist or medium that you don't know much about. i feel as if this chart would be a wonderful way to help provoke thought and to help one gain knowledge on the subject. what would be most important to me about this exercise would be the disscusions that my students would have with each other after they have completed thire charts . through out my education i have realized that it is so important and helpful to learn from peers and the KWL chart is a perfect way to do so. The fact that others may have differant knowledge, outlooks, or goals can open an even wider vision of the material that a single student may not come about on his or her own.

Literacy into school activities

I would ask my students for suggestions about topics they are interesting in, so I could plan reading activities based on real life events such as newspaper articles, web and magazines articles, tv interviews with open-class discussions. Having my students write a story, poem, lyrics of a song using grammatical structures and vocabulary will make students enjoy what they are doing. What about participating in dialogs and group activities will help them learn from each other too. Listening to any material and watching a movie, documental and then having students make comments, critical appreciation will also help them develop their literacy skills and critical thinking. There are numerous activities and games where teachers can implement, integrate, and activate students literacy skills by having fun and learning. I also realize that student learn better in a non-threatening environment with dynamic classroom activities and a good teacher who would act as a facilitator and adviser. Learning is fun if students participate and relate what they are doing in class with their every day life activities. Therefore, their literacy skills will develop at the same time too.

Literacy in Literature

Literature has a lot more to do with literacy than just being able to read and write. It's the way a student reads and writes that determines their literacy. It includes thinking critically about a text and drawing parallels with what their reading and it's time in history. Knowing how to piece together plot points and make predictions about what is going to happen based on clues and character analysis. As far as writing is concerned, the process of writing is important. Literacy in writing ranges from fluency to material. How did the student write the paper? What steps were taken? Do the ideas flow and make sense? These are all elements involved with literacy in literature and writing.

Literacy in Mathematics

Literacy can be found anywhere in mathematics. It is a given that literacy is found in word problems but can also be found in equations and formulas. Any formula in mathematics can be compared to a definition in an english course. In my lesson plan I will incorporate literacy by assigning a math project. I will give them an overview of what the project consists of and the variables that will go along with it. That alone has added literacy to math by reading the overview. Part of the final project will consist of a written out explanation in how they came about getting the conclusions they got. This part of the project will be the most important part of the overall grade of the project because this will not only show if the student actually did the assignment but help me understand where each student made a mistake and where his/her strengths are. I will also require them to use a certain amount of math vocabulary words in this written section of the project. This project will be an effective and successful way to incorporate literacy in mathematics.

Literacy Activities in Math

The logical and most obvious connection between math and "literacy" is in word problems, and word problems are where most people seem to fail in math, probably as a result of the extent literacy is required to solve such a problem. In my lessons, I would attempt to remedy this, taking it a step at a time. We would start with a generic, easy word problem, and then instead of being asked to solve the problem, students would have to give answers to questions about the problem. For example, the first step might be to figure out only what is being asked for in the problem, and only after discussing this would we move on to extracting necessary information, setting up equations, or solving for a number.

I like a lot of the strategies for incorporating literacy in the book; I think there are quite a few that would be useful in a math classroom. The strategies such as the "Admit Slips" are nice, because they allow students to comment or question on a regular basis without having to do so in front of the class or to come to an office outside of class. I can see that in a math class, it could be a good heads-up when there is a formula or process that needs to be discussed further.

Literacy in Art Ed

I'm finding new ways I never thought of before to incorporate reading, writing, and speaking (aspects of literacy) into art lessons and activities. One I've seen work well in the classroom is for students to keep a journal. I don't think this technique is used a lot in the art room but I think its great for students to write down their thoughts about a piece of work as well as reflect on what they've learned or had trouble with in class. They can then correct their grammar and spelling with the teacher or bring it home to show their parents what they've been doing in class and correct it with them. Its also very important for students to see art related terms written on the board as they are talking and analyzing a painting for the first time (elementary level) so they more easily learn the term and what it means in relation to "reading" art. I liked a lot of the techniques mentioned in chapter 5 as well especially the KWL. It is an important technique when reading about an artist or art movement.

How to bring literacy into the Art classroom...

Art and literature are natural companions. By introducing a work of art in an art classroom, it motivates students to use descriptive language. Students become engaged in the studies of both art and written language. Before the introduction to the work of art I would first pose the following questions to the students to begin the lesson: What is a description? When do we describe things? What are some of the reasons that we describe things? What kinds of words might you use to describe this room? By using these questions it would initiate a group discussion of description, describing words, and descriptive writing. Then I would provide the students with an overview of the objectives for the lesson, for example, "Today we will be using what we know about describing words to describe a work of art. We will identify and describe the artistic elements (line, color, shape, mood). This will help us to see the importance of using descriptive language when we write." Then I would introduce the work of art, for example, Violin and Guitar, by Pablo Picasso. I would then model a description of what I see in the art work. I might comment on the shapes, color, lines and the size. After modeling, I would then ask the students what they see. After a few responses, I would ask them questions to focus students' descriptions on the four artistic elements: color, shape, line and mood. What colors do you see? Can you see any shapes that the artist has drawn? What are the lines like? How does this painting make you feel? Then I would introduce another piece of work and have the students write descriptions using descriptive language. Then I would have them exchange writings with a partner, and have the partner read the description and then have them draw a picture that matches the written description. As a class we would then compare the art works paired with the descriptive writings and as a group have a final critique.

Literacy in Physical Education

In class, some ideas brought up about literacy in Physical Education included concepts and skills of sports, spatial awareness, and body language. After reading chapter five, I realized the "KWL" activity would work well in a phys. ed setting. Especially in dealing with specific sport skills and/or concepts, using this method would be effective. For example, when starting out a basketball unit, it might be a good idea to have students write down or discuss together things they already know about basketball; it could be anything from rules, names of positions, names of shots or passes, etc. Afterwards, you can have them write or discuss what they want to know about basketball that they do not know already. Finally, after each day you can have a group discussion on anything new the students might have learned that day; could be a new term they have never heard of, a variation of something they already knew, etc. Obviously not all things the students wished to learned will be answered all the time, but it helps to get them thinking more in depth about a sport rather than just learning to dribble, pass, and shoot.

Fitting Literacy into my Lessons

My content area is Mathematics, so in class when we discussed what it means to be literate in your field, we said for math: interpreting language and symbols, solving problems, selective reading, vocabulary, and word problems. So, to try to incorporate this into my lessons, a simple and easy thing to do is to have a warm-up word problem on the board when the students enter class. This will not only get their brains to start working right when they come in, but it will also foster literacy. In order to complete the word problems, they will have to read the sentences, and interpret the language of math: forming words into equations and symbols. This will also hone-in (I don't know if I spelled that right) the vocabulary that they should know and should be using when discussing and working with mathematics.

Social Studies

Presenting knowledge in Social Studies occurs in a variety of ways. Since there are so many subjects that are encompassed by this term social studies (i.e. US/World History, Geography, Economics, Political Science & the Behavioral Sciences) it becomes tricky to present knowledge. Thankfully, these subjects are usually divided into separate classes but oftentimes the subjects become intertwined so that they can be better understood.

In my past experiences as a student, I always found that knowledge was presented in my social studies classes with the teacher bearing all of the knowledge and the students acting as sponges absorbing this information. The teacher's knowledge was usually presented in the form of a lecture or a PowerPoint. Within this field, the students generally had a textbook that they could use to reinforce the material taught by the teacher.

Like I mentioned before, Social Studies can easily become a difficult area to teach in because many of the subjects overlap, for example, it is important to know something of U.S. History in order to understand concepts about U.S. Gov't & Politics/Economics.

Art education

I think presenting information and knowledge in art is different from other subjects. An art teacher must have knowledge about art history, all types of medium, and the ability to use this knowledge and teach a subject that is not as concrete as other subjects. I feel that a good art teacher presents knowledge that allows a student to understand the perception of art. Through art history the student develops an awareness and appreciation through studying cultures and time periods in which the art was created. An art teacher must also foster creative learning, to think and act creatively by solving problems and using one's imagination and originality. This problem solving and creativity also relates visual knowledge to other core subjects. Through creative experiences students develop self expression and positive attitudes about themselves and others. An art student also develops technical skills for using various medium as a mean of self expression and communication.
I don't believe that knowledge is presented in any one particular way in art. There are always the basics of history, theory, and process which are all important. However, an art teacher must present that and be able to work with individuals on various levels (as with any teacher in any subject) but also bring out the creative process in the student.

Art or Craft?

What is art? Most people will think that art is like craft. Playing with the tools and making beautiful things. Art is not just easy as cutting and pasting. Art requires person's knowledge in tools and materials. Such as, how to place metal to metal without melting the form, how to print from wood and metal plate, and how to make ceramic coil pots. An art teacher, who is experienced artist, has knowledge in the materials and technique. Art teacher is like the guide for the students to develop their artwork. Art teaching is more than just teaching students how to cut and paste. Art teacher need to be experienced with knowledge and understand the process of making art.

Physical Education & Health

After reading Jessica's post it seems that she has covered the reasons why Physical Education and Health are important classes, and as a teacher there is a lot of knowledge that has to be passed down to the students to make sure they comprehend the goals of the lessons. I always get the same responses from people when I tell them that I am pursing a career as a physical educator, "Oh, so your gonna be a gym teacher!"
It seems to me that a lot of people don't consider physical education as an important part of the curriculum. With a majority of today's youth facing childhood obesity the student's need to learn the importance of maintaing a healthy lifestyle and exercising, knowledge that should be learned in phys. ed. Also, in Health class, the teacher must educate the students on the dangers of drug use, unprotected sex, teen pregnancy and contracting an STD. These are lessons not covered in any other courses in the curriculum and that is why knowledge plays a key role in the teaching of physical education and health.

English Majors...

This particular post is going to be a little more harsh than any of my other posts. I was in a pretty crappy situation the other day in a class and I really think this is the perfect time and topic to share it with this class. I feel like the reason Dr. Dana asked us to post this topic was for us to gain an understanding and appreciation, amongst other things, for the other concentrations represented in this class. I could not be happier with this particular post because I was faced with a very ignorant and pompous person in my field class who would really benefit from this class and, shall we say, a better education???

We did a group activity in my class and when he found out I was an English major, he said, AND I QUOTE, EXACTLY, "Wow. An English major? Must be nice to sit around and do nothing all day long. When you want to be involved in a real major with interesting things, let me know and I'll show you what real work is about." IGNORANT MUCH? I don't go around bashing what other people do so don't go bashing English majors, who, in my totally unbiased opinion, are some of the hardest working people in the school. We have to know our history, our science, some mathematics and our health just to be able to fully understand a book and create a comprehensive lesson plan from it. And we sit around eating bon-bons all day long...Oooookay.

This would be the same thing as me saying oh, phys. ed., who needs that class? It's totally pointless and so are the people who teach it. It's not true and is an ignorant response, so why do it? Why can't we all work together and realise that we all have the same goal? Maybe if we worked harder to abolish these stereotypes, we wouldn't have so many problems in our high schools today.

my 'during reading' sucks

Since there was really no question on the calendar thingy, im just going to free write. as a child, the hardest part of reading for me was the 'during reading' aspect of it. before i read, i can map out the basics like the things that i know, the things i want to know, and what i expect or whatever, but during reading my teachers never coached us or aided us in ways to remember what we had read. i used to, and still do, re-read sections over and over again before i would fully understand the point. i have never been a strong reader, unless i am reading harry potter, and i always found it difficult to remember many details of what i read after finishing hte book unless i took notes. more teachers should use the methods designed to help students comprehend what they are reading, whild reading it, becuase i feel like things like 'coding text' or 'sketching my way through the text' would have helped me understand better. i still might adopt the method of coding text so that i can make sense of things easier. i guess when i read, i just have too much info in my head at once. i like to keep things simple

Correction on Geography

As I have said before Social studies is more about History than anything else but what I forgot to mention since I was blabbering on about Social Studies is that knowledge is presented in Geography as who, what, why, where, and when facts and then a relationship is established or pattern observed. Also it is much more visual so therefore it make the material a little easier to get across.

Presenting knowledge in Geography

Hi everyone. I'll like to know how many people had geography as an actually class in school? When I tell people that I had both Geography and Social Studies as two separate subjects they always ask where I went to school and upon finding that I was schooled outside the U.S then I get "oh that explains it"
My major is Geography with minor in History but there is no Geography teaching program so I'm cast into the Social Studies program not saying there is anything wrong with that but from I have observe and heard, the way knowledge is presented in Social Studies comprises of History being the main course and a couple of side dishes such as Economics, Political Science, and Geography thrown in all served on a large CONTENT plate.
I believe that the reason why so Social Studies is seen as bland is because the teacher is letting the history books teach the class and this is also perpetrated by what type of spin is put on different topics by the writers of these books and what they think students should know but at the same time leaving out important fact that they might see as unnecessary to be mention (these facts are normally the stories of minorities)
So instead of knowledge being presented in the traditional way where the teacher just lecture you to death & after 10 minutes all a student hear is blah blah blah hopefully we move to a stage where the teacher has to put themselves in the shoes of students and ask the 2 basic questions of "why" and "so what"

My field is social studies. For those of you who don't know, or just forgot, social studies is a VERY broad field. It's composed of various subjects like history, geography, economics, politcal science, psychology, sociology, current events, etc. (I know we are asked 'how knowledge is presented in our field?' But I am assuming that "knowledge" means the same as material/information.) So since the social studies field is very widespread, there are many different ways knowledge/information is presented. I feel that in most of social studies, there is an emphasis on core-content knowledge as well.
First-hand accounts, documents, letters, fictional literature, your average history textbook format, maps, movies, and music are some of the more common ways history is presnted. The same goes for goegraphy as well, but perhaps more a little more emphasis on things that are visual. Knowledge in political science is heavily presented with govermental documents and policies. Descriptive reports, analysis, and studies are commonly presented in economics, psychology, and sociology. But music, movies, literature, and the media can play a big role in presenting knowledge in sociology also. As for current events, information is usually presented through the media (tv, print magazines/newspapers, radio, internet). In all of these sub-genres of social studies, knowledge is often presented through spoken word and conversating with people also.
I think it is great to realize the different ways knowledge is presented in social studies. There is much more to social studies than your one dimensional textbook. If you utilize the various methods of gaining knowledge, your learning experience will be more benefitial, well-rounded, and enjoyable.

Physical Education and Health

My major is Physical Education and Health and when people hear that I am going to become a Physical Education teacher, they automatically respond with, "oh, so you're going to be a gym teacher." But, I am not going to be just a gym teacher. People do not realize the importance of this field nor the difficulty of it. People just assume I will be throwing balls at children and just make sure they don't kill each other. This is far from what my job requires, or at least that is what I am learning.
As I have explained Physical Education and Health is definitely alot more significant than many people would like to believe. Knowledge is an extreme factor in my job just like any other subject a teacher may be teaching. Physical Education has alot of terms that are used in order to explain how to play a specific sport; and for each sport, I must break down every skill so that the students can understand exactly how to kick the ball, how to get the ball into the net, and why there are specific terms for different sports/activities. Also, the significance of physical activity in one's life is taught to these students so they can comprehend that having some form of physical activity in their life will help them live longer.
The other half of my job is to teach health. Health has many different topics that can be taught depending on what at age level. Whether it be nutrition, diseases, puberty, drugs, sex, or many other topics, I will be giving out alot of knowledge to help my students live a long healthy life. So, hopefully after reading this semi-long blog, you will understand the importance of physical education and health and how much knowledge is really given by physical education/health teachers.

TOPIC???

Does anyone know the topic of the blog that is due tomorrow 10/4??? I did not write it down in class last week...

Importance of literacy

It is very hard to say which ability is more important than the other, since they are all connected in some way. Also these abilities depend on each other to develop. I believe that the connection between these abilities is more important than one of them by itself. In the case that an individual has an issue with one of these abilities, he or she has to find a way to connect the rest of them to become a successful reader.
I believe that the way a person connects all of these aspects is crucial for literacy. And just like people are unique in other things in life, people are also very unique in the way they work around their difficulties when it comes to being literate.

Most Important Part of Literacy

I feel that it is hard to pick one single aspect of literacy as the most important. All five aspects invoke different sorts of thoughts, feelings, and emotions within us in different ways. One person may be a very good speaker and a very poor reader but yet he or she still has the ability to succeed in life. You could even flip it around having a person with very good reading abilities and very poor speaking abilities. Again, the person would still have the ability to succeed in life. I think that a well rounded person can counter his weaknesses with his or her strengths and that really is what is most important, the ability to really balance out all of the aspects such as reading, writing, viewing, listening, and speaking. Each of us has a different balance and that is why we are able to learn in our own unique ways.

important part of literacy

While all parts of literacy are important, I'd say the most important part is understanding. Nothing you read or listen to will mean anything if you have no idea what they mean. If you can't understand what you're looking at or listening to, what's the point??

Important part of literacy

I think the idea of literacy is so multi-faceted that it's tough to say what is the most important aspect. Traditionally we think of literacy as the ability to read and write. However, it also incorporates listening, comprehending, communicating, and so on. So i think all of these ideas are dependent on one another.

What is the most important part of literacy??

There are so many aspects to literacy like reading, writing, and speaking, but none of this truly means anything without comprehension. The learner needs to understand what they are taking in to fully apply it to their lives. A person can memorize all they want, but when it comes down to the line, if they don’t understand it, it means nothing.

importance of literacy

To me the most important part of literacy is comprehension and understanding. Reading and understanding are totaly different things. I can read a story, or a text book, or an article, but the words have no meaning if I'm not comphrending their meaning. Literacy requires a lot to fully understand, background knowledge and understanding is required so understanding is easier and I am able to differentiate what I'm reading. If I am un-educated and I read an article, I can read it, but it won't do anything for me, because I don't understand it, the words are just words. If I am educated about the topic, the article will make sense to me because I have prior knowledge on the subject area, so the words make sense to me. And from understanding I can then make my own, educated choices, decide what is/isnt important that I need to read. So to me, comprehension is the most important part of literacy, so one can understand what they are reading.

Read between the lines: it’s no just an expression

I’m sorry, I know I should be writing about what I think is the most important part of literacy but after reading Jennifer’s post I have to disagree. I do agree that phonemic awareness is important but you can be literate with out it. I am a prime example of this, as well as the thousands of other students that are suffering from learning disabilities. I have no phonemic awareness, if I need to rhyme 3 words to save my life I couldn’t but I would say I’m illiterate.

I feel the most important part of literacy is the ability to mesh all the domains of language; reading, writing, and speaking. If someone was defined because the lack of one of these domains I wouldn’t be in a college classroom.

Lauren's post

Lauren is having difficulties with her access, so here is her post (she emailed it to me):

I feel that literacy is all about perception. I know
that i can read but when it comes to reading aloud i cannot perform to the
best of my ability. I do not think because i stumble on some word when i
am reading aloud or pause for a second to figure out a word means i am
illiterate. If i were a teacher i would just characterize me as not a strong
reader. In class we said that a student has to be fluent to be considered
literate, i just cannot fully agree with that. I feel that not everyone
has the capability of reading aloud but can read to themselves in a
"literate" fashion.

Also i think literacy has to do with the way that a
person can speak. Like in the video we watched, the little boy Nathan had
a great vocabulary and was a great speaker, but he has a major problem
writing and reading. I do not feel that he should be judged or looked at
as not literate because he has a weakness, because as the test showed he
was an extremely bright boy.

I feel that literacy encompasses reading,
writing, and speaking. A person may not have to be perfect in all areas to
be considered literate, but has to excel in one area if they cannot
fulfill all areas.

Important Part of Literacy

I agree with the person who wrote the post before mine in that all aspects of literacy (reading, writing, speaking, listening) are important. Those four types of literacy are interconnected. From the video we watched last week, it seems to me that phonemic awareness is crucial to developing literacy. Phonics are the building blocks of language. If a child lacks phonemic awareness, he or she will not be able to build the necessary foundation to improve literacy skills. Therefore, I would consider phonemic awareness to be the most important part of literacy because, without it, full literacy would not be possible.

Literacy..what's the most important part of it?

I'm not sure I could pick one aspect of literacy and say it is more important than another. Speaking, reading, writing and listening are all crucial to becoming literate. It is important for a child or adult to constantly be motivated to practice speaking, reading and writing a language so they gain comprehension of they are writing, reading etc. The connection between listening, reading, writing and speaking is comprehension of the content. A child needs to be constantly evolving their understanding of what they say to what they read and hear. I don't think a person is literate if they cannot make the connections between what they are reading and writing and then speaking. Part of this understanding comes from practicing early on hearing a word and then recognizing what it looks like written down and reading it by yourself. Literacy also involves using all prior knowledge in all subject areas so a person can comprehend what they are reading, what they heard, or what they are writing about. I think that is why it is so important to make the connection between all aspects of literacy in every subject area because it will affect how a person is able to socially maneuver through their everyday life.

just for fun

I got this link from a friend, but there's some good teacher wear in there. My particular favorites are I heart hot teachers and I teach, I test. Sometimes, you just gotta laugh.

: )

http://www.cafepress.com/buy/teacher

First Steps

Thinking back, I can't really remember how I first started to learn how to read, but there are moments I can recall when I was engaged in reading. My mother used to always read to me every night before I went to bed and there is this one book I will always remember. It was called Goodnight. I had her read it to me every night and could not go to bed without hearing it. Eventually I memorized the whole book and pictures. I also remember that this book was read to me around the same time I learned how to read in school and eventually I would read it with my mother. Like I said I don't really remember how I started to read, but I do remember reading off of a big notepad in front of my kindergarten class during reading time. We all sat on this rug facing our teacher sitting by the notepad. We would first start off the day by reading or writing the date and weather of that day. Then we would create different sentences related to what our teacher would be talking about, or she would write something on the pad and we would all read it together at the same time. Other than that I can recall a time in second grade when we were able to pick a poem from one of Silverstein's poetry books and had to memorize it. This definitely helped me read different poems that are not always easy to read fluently. I was always good at memorizing things but this assignment was a significant point of my life because it really helped me build my confidence in speaking in front of a class where as reading something out of a book out loud for the first time gave me less confidence.

The Owl and the Pussycat

went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat... That was my book, The Owl and the Pussycat; the one that I had memorized. Actually, it was only one of many that I memorized before I could actually read, but it was my favorite, because it was the one my father read to me, and the only one that I remember in its entirety to this day. Now I read that book to my son, and he can recite the whole thing now that he is learning to read.

I too do not remember much about the actual process of learning to read. I mean, I remember sitting in class learning about phonics and words, but I already knew how to read by then, so I think that's why I remember it so well. I know that I learned to read very quickly; my mother tells me that one day, I couldn't read, save for a few sight words and my memorized stories, and the next day, I could read everything. Everything, within reason, I guess. I don't know if it was really that quick, but I do know that something kind of clicked with me when I started reading, and it seemed to make a lot of sense very fast.

I was also one of the kids who would be through the whole story to be read aloud in class very early, but I was also one who wanted the longest passage or paragraph, so that I could "perform" as long as possible. That shows now...I spend as much time as I feel I have available doing theatre. I suppose that could have been predicted since first grade!

First grade

I don't think I can remember exactly when I learned to read. I do remember my grandfather telling me to stop saying the words from memory in some of the books we used to read. I went to private school for pre-k and kindergarten where reading was a huge deal. Also, my grandfather read with me A LOT. My first clear memory of the reading process is from first grade. I moved to a new school and I remember my reading class, I remember being bored out of my mind. I must have learned how to read in kindergarten because I hated writing the letters over and over again and sounding them out. We would go around the room taking turns reading a story. I usually would have the whole story read before the first kid was done with one sentence. Reading out loud was something I despised, and still do. My mind would read a lot faster than my mouth could move and I would spend so much energy on trying to say the words clearly that when I was finished I had no idea what I just read.

My "Coquito" book

My story starts when I was five years old in kindergarten. My little school was called Yachayhuasi that means school in Quechua. My teacher combined reading aloud with repetitions, homework, playing and snacks. I was a dedicated student who would ask for more and more homework at that age. As soon as I was back home from school and ate my lunch, I would sit at my table to do my homework. Nobody and nothing would prevent me from finishing my homework. I don't know what was different about me back then but my mother never had to push me to do my homework. I am serious no matter what time it were, I often tried to imitate my teacher's reading and writing. Whenever my writing or drawing of a certain letter didn't come out right I would get upset, erase it and do it again until it was right. Then I learned the vowels, the alphabet, and its combinations. It was an amazing experience.
Then I went to elementary school where I made new friends, and learned to read my favorite book "Coquito" which is a book about a boy, his family and friends with a lot of pictures and funny stories. If you asked me how it happened I would say to you, I don't know when and how it happened to me. It just happened one day I learned how to read. Dear friends It was an exciting moment as if you discoverd a treasure that I can not explain with words. My parents were proud of me when they realized that I knew how to read and bought me a doll that I treasured all my life till now. I was able to read at 6 years old and I would no longer have to guess what any picture was telling me Because I could read anything I wanted. That seemed a miracle because I cannot explain how it happened. I guess it just happens to everyone.

Monica

Memories About Reading

Like some of the other students I do not remember learning to read at home, but I do remember my experience at school. Unfortunately, my reading and literacy memories in school are not very happy ones. When I was in first grade the teacher broke us up into to a high or low reading group, each with different level books. I was in the more advanced groups. When I was in second grade my father died. I guess i seemed a little distracted when I was in school so they decide to test me for learning disabilities. ( I think there is a big difference between a 8 year old dealing with the death of a parent and having a learning disability.) I remember getting pulled out of classes left and right to be tested.There was matching, i had to put things together, read passages and write about them, and many more things. Being that young I did not understand what was really going on, but i remember liking the attention, so i did not do as good as a could on them. Again, being that young how could I have known. After that, I feel like it was all down hill for me. They classified me with learning disabilities. Every year I would get taking out of the main stream classes and was sent to smaller classrooms to learn reading and writing. It did not make much sense though because they would not take me out of the main class when they were doing English, I would be there for that. They took me out when they were doing other subjects like math or science. So not only was I going to a smaller class with a bunch of kids that did not want to learn, I was missing other subjects. And on top of that I was always being told that i learned differently... and what not. When you are told that from the age of 8, you are going to start believing it. Because of this i do not feel i got a very good education in reading or writing. I beleive I was given a learning disability, rather than me having one. I never wanted to read out loud in class because I was too slow and could not pronounce a lot of the words and I would never ask questions when i did not understand things either. I did not want the other kids to laugh at me or get mad I was taking too long. When you are a kid that stinks... ( but i got over that, and now a days I could care less if someone in class is annoyed with me because of that lol) I could go on an on about this. Sorry that this was not the most happiest reading story. However, on a brighter note, once I got to high school I was still in these classes. My sophomore year I was told I could not get into a very good college if I was in these classes still. So, I asked to be taken out. They would not take me out so I got straight A's and made them take me out. Now, as an adult I see how much I did not learn and try to strengthen my skills. The past few years I feel like I have come a long way with my reading, comprehension, and writing abilities. I still have a long way to go, but I will never stop improving. Also, I feel this only makes me more sensitive to my students and their needs.