Response to Knipper & Duggan's Article

I chose to read Whitney Sasser's blog and enjoyed it. She and I are both in Kappa Delta together and like her, I also have a very specific grade in mind that I want to teach. She mentioned the Elizabethtown Project in her blog as well and said she is nervous and excited about working with the students from up north. I am pumped as well to get connected and start CONVERSING back and forth with them. Another blog that I came across was Amber Miller's blog. She has such a kind spirit and her blog definitely comes off very warm and inviting too. Just like her. I love that she mentioned how teaching was a calling because I have felt that way since the age of 12. It was very uplifting to read her blog because she has a true gift with writing that's for sure.

After reading the article by Knipper and Duggan titled "Writing to learn across the curriculum:  Tools for comprehension in content area classes" published in The Reading Teacher in February 2001, I had so much more appreciation for teachers who taught literacy to students and for the students because learning to write is not as easy as writing to learn. Teachers are so involved with wanting to help students build comprehension and using a think aloud as was to model how the student should be thinking while they are reading something, but it really surprises me that we are still having huge problems in this area considering the fact that it has always been a major learning factor in a students life at school. In the article it mentions how science and social studies teachers should really consider how to involve reading and writing in their content area because the student can read something in the content area, but still not understand why or what it may be about because they have no background knowledge or may not have built any schema at all about it yet. This is the part where I am very glad I took all of what Dr. Hanna and Dr. Boyce taught us last semester to heart and absorbed as much information as I could because I knew without a doubt that in any subject area it all ends up coming back to literacy in some form or fashion. I really want to teach Mathematics to 6th graders, but if they have no clue about any of the terms or can't break apart and analyze a simple word problem then they will surely have difficulty learning and retaining anything new that they are taught. 

Questions about Article:

By giving students rubrics with elaborate jargon terms when describing what is expected of them, how is that better for them than just explaining it in simple laymen's terms that they do understand without confusing them? And if it helps them have guided structure then why would we not show them a standard procedure in how to go about the project in the first place instead of trying to give them more freedom with their writing? 

How can we teach students not to just copy down things and to stop and "think for themselves" for a change? When did copying everything off the board become they only way a student could ever learn anything from class? (this was happening in a class I observed this week)  

About Me!

Hello All! 

My name is Kadi Bishop and I'm 22 years old and a Senior at the University of Southern Mississippi! I'm nearing the end of my time here at USM and cannot wait to begin my journey in being an Educator. My major is Elementary Education and Special Education so I have a double major... NBD or anything haha... My passion my the Lord is as strong as my passion for teaching children. There is nothing I cannot do through Christ Jesus and I tell myself this daily as I continue reaching and dreaming of what He has planned for me in life. I knew at the age of 12 that I wanted to be a teacher. In the 6th grade, my Math teacher became my role model and someone who has disciple me through thick and thin. The Lord had a special purpose for bringing her into my life and I believe one of the reasons was for me to become a better teacher. It is because of her grace, compassion, and wisdom that I also want to teach 6th grade Math. It is very exciting to think about all the fun and creative ways I will get to teach Math, but there is one particular content area that I am a bit nervous about and it is English. I myself was never very good with writing and comprehending so a lot of my apprehensiveness comes from there.

Syllabus Response

1. What stood out for you during your close reading of the syllabus?

The thing that stood out to me the most in the syllabus was the Elizabethtown Penn. Project because I think it will be very interesting to see how this goes and to be able to communicate with other teachers from a very different area will be a great learning experience for all of us.

2. What do you think this course is about?

To me this course is about teaching us how to understand children better in literacy and provide us with a deeper understanding of how to help the students learn and retain what they read.

3. What do you hope to learn and experience during this course after reading the syllabus? What looks exciting and/or daunting?

I hope to be a become more aware of the different ways children think as they are reading because as someone who suffers with a Reading Comprehension disorder myself I now am able to connect the dots to when I began to fall behind in school and why I fell behind in reading.

The things that look exciting to me are the blogs because I am definitely a tech savvy kind of person and showing off my creative side through technology will not feel like work to me, but more of an exciting task I will get to do each week.
I am not too excited about the Service Learning Project only because it looks very time consuming. Only because I know myself and I will want to go above and beyond so it would probably take me a lot longer to do if I choose not to do the Hawkins Volunteer part. I have a super busy schedule already with school, work, church, community service hours for luckyday, and sorority so I would most likely have to do go with the second option the Blogfolio.

4. What questions or comments arise for you?
I am excited to grow and learn from the experiences I will have with this class because I know it will be way out of my comfort zone. I am a hard worker so everything that I do I try to do the best that I can and stay ahead of the game so that I don't ever fall behind on things. Organization should be my middle name because I am kind of OCD about my planner and making lists to get things done on time.
Is this class going to take up a lot of my time during the semester or is it one of those where you get watch you put into it? And are we working with Dr. Shannon Haley-Mize's class from Elizabethtown Penn.? I absolutely loved her SPE 400 class and she really inspired me to become a more passionate and caring teacher and to never stop reaching for something more.