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...