Readings This Week:-)* ChApTeR's 1&8*

Chapter 1: Ensuring All Students Read, Write, and Think


Let me start off by just asking a question right off the bat... The title of this chapter really make me feel a lot of pressure being put on just the teacher. Why is it that we automatically think/assume that the teacher must teach every student everything they should ever learn? I mean honestly... I even had a conversation with my mother and her co-worker the other day about my 4th grade teachers and how I was so behind and had such a hard time with reading back then. My mom was trying to place all the blame on my teachers, but I had to immediately stop her and say well it's not only the teacher's fault when students fall behind it's also the parents too. It kind of shocked her that I said that too her because I said it in a very insinuating voice telling her that it was her responsibility and fault too. I just had to get that off my chest because it really gave me a clearer perspective at already thinking about how I am soon going to be a teacher and all these "assumption" that we all make will be dumped on me as well.

Now, back to the reading in chapter 1...
Shifting responsibility from Teacher to Students-- there you go case and point-- it's the title of the next section in this chapter and Fisher and Frey write about a teacher and her class working through a DR-TA by doing several things like using the "Four types of Questions" when using informational texts in order to read between the lines and decode an informational text. Fisher and Frey then go on the explain how the level of thinking a student does needs to increase as they are reading more and more complex reading materials. All of this is mentioned and stated in a great way within our book, but what I really got from it was that YES it is FIRST the Teacher's responsibility to "effectively TEACH" the students how to THINK on a more and more complex level, but then after they have been taught the student needs to start taking Responsibility for their own learning and ask themselves questions internally by practicing metacognition like the teacher taught them day-to-day using all of the different Comprehension Strategies. I can't help but think that Fisher and Frey are not only trying to show us yes the correct way of teaching or students comprehension, but maybe, they are also showing us what it should be like if "We Educators" are doing what Highly Educated Teachers should be doing in the first place. Then maybe this whole NCLB law could disappear and leave us behind.

Chapter 8: Powerful Pens: Writing to Learn with Adolescents

As you can see I am a big titles person and like to infer or predict what the chapter will be about from reading it... and this title makes me laugh because when I read it, I feel like Fisher and Frey were trying to make it seem like Adolescents was a disability or something. Like students had to learn how to deal with being an adolescent while writing. BUT, of course this is NOT what they meant. Although, it gave me a big giggle... (I know, I get off subject) Anyways back to this chapters content... All of the strategies and suggestions Fisher and Frey write intrigue me throughout this whole chapter because we used a lot of them last semester AND I was thinking to myself "oh, I'm so stealing this and gonna use it in my classroom," but then I thought "Wait, I'll be teaching Math not LA" ummm.... not true anymore because of the Common Core standards I realized later on... Then a huge depression fell upon me because I knew how hard it was for me to understand Language Art and English as an adolescent and I kinda felt like "OMG, I don't want to be responsible for (screwing) up a child's education in LA/ENG. Even though I know I can do it...there is still that underlying defeated little girl in me that was so scared as a kid and I just wouldn't want to let any of my student's down. Although, that part of me makes me hesitate teaching all of these types of strategies it is also the part of me that makes me want to fight and show everyone that I can do it after all. (if that even makes any sense)
The section in this chapter about "Why is Writing Neglected in Many Content Area Classes?" was another attention getter for me because Fisher and Frey talk about how so many teachers don't consider writing part of their curriculum and this is so true, for some teachers. As for me, the English teachers that have made more of an impact on me and actually made me learn to like/love English (surprisingly) were the ones who made us free write or quick write, brainstorm, or gave us prompts that related to something we could connect to and develop and build off of rather than just giving us something we had to write about but didn't even care about. Fisher and Frey make excellent points within this chapter about writing to learn in Mathematics which, I must say I was very excited about because I want to be a 6th grade math teacher:-)! It was neat to read the suggestions and procedures they talked about in order to help your students think about math in more than just a scientific way and truly helps them breakdown the question step-by-step.

Question--
How can we make adolescents who seem to be one of those "hopeless" cases your hear teachers talk about become "hopeful" again, without overstepping any boundaries?... of course.

What can I do NOW to show peers that I sometimes don't mean to dominate/over-talk a conversation in class? It's just a way for me to process information by talking out loud...

Think Center:

I actually became a member of the Think-Center the week before we came to class because I got curious after the first time you mentioned it in class. Dr. Price and I during my one-on-one had a two hour discussion about how I think and why I do a lot of the things that I do behavior wise. In our discussion she explained what four areas of thinking I am more dominate in and obviously I am an Extravert thinker. I am also more likely to first think with my Intuition, Feelings, and Judge. To some people, at first, I probably seem very intense, overbearing, and loud. Which can be true at times BUT I always have good intentions for others feeling's. Sometimes when I help too much it could be because I just want to be valued by that person in some way or that I am trying to show the other person that I value them by wanting to help. I am very glad that I now have more internal perspective of how/why I think the way I do and what I can do to balance it out more.

Another Goofy Movie ;P

I babysit these hilarious and energetic kids and this is what we like to do for fun most of the time!

Just For Fun! Babysitting my Favorite Kiddos!

Blog Entry #3

•What ideas do you think are most important from the chapter/article? Why?

The first article to me was not that interesting. There was nothing for me to connect with in it with I was reading it really, so it became very boring very quickly. BUT I seriously LOVED reading the second article because it felt like I was reading all about my childhood when the article discussed all of the problems that children in lower middle class families have when they are transitioning from 3^rd grade to 4^th grade. My reading comprehension was terrible and it was never because I wasn’t reading the stories at home at night…(by myself) it was because I was never given the strong comprehension skills that other kids my age were learning and developing at the time. I was held back in the fourth grade because I didn’t know my times tables and because my reading comprehension was very, VERY low. I don’t blame anyone for what happened to me in the school system because there are tons of kids who had it way worse than I did. I could over compensate my reading skills by lots of other things and my teachers that I had from the second time around in 4^th grade-8^th grade all really impacted my life. They gave me a chance and took an actual interest in me for once instead of just over looking me again. The article “Making a case and a place for effective content area literacy instruction in the elementary grades” pointed out that if teachers would just teach the students the basic skills that help them read expository texts then they would read to learn. Then most importantly the teachers could continue teaching content literacy area instructions alongside the standard for the language arts standards. This article was all full of things I loved and could remember Dr. Boyce teaching us about in our class last semester with comprehension. I truly enjoy reading to learn this week while reading this article!

 •What personal connections did you make this week to other teaching and learning experiences, particularly experiences tutoring or other interactions with youth?

Last Thursday I was finishing up in my last class of the day and I was paired up with the same boy from the week before who needed help spelling out the words: magic, monster, place, fairy tale etc. This week I didn’t allow him to just copy down the words from his handouts that were given to him from the power points the class was looking at. Instead I helped him and coached him along to sound out the words he didn’t know and then I would cover up the word I wanted him to write and then ask him to write it down by sounding it out for me. We worked on the word “Fiction” and every time he knew the f-i-c part but could not remember the rest. So I gave him other words that had the same ending sound like: action, fraction, motion, and so on… I told him they all have something in common… they end in t-i-o-n and make one sound kinda like “Shun.” He tried to understand what I was saying and then when he saw the word “action” as he was reading he was like, “Oh! That’s what you meant they end in t-i-o-n.” By the time I got finished with him for the day he could spell the word “Fiction” out for me and write it down too. I was very proud of him for working so hard and told him that too. Because it seemed to me that he has never really had anyone take the time to be interested in him long enough to see that he doesn’t have a behavior problem and is not stupid, but he just simply hasn’t learn how to do or hasn’t been taught the things he “should know” being in the 8^th grade and all. I’m excited to go back this upcoming week and work with him and the rest of the class because I will get to teach a lesson this week to them.

Questions:

How is it that we are taught as teachers to not be so sarcastic and negative towards our students after getting so burnt out from them and CHOOSE to still be a positive force in their life instead of a negative one? I see it in the classes I observe and it truly hurts my heart because the students to me are all just begging for some kind of attention, support, or stability in their lives.

Why is it so hard to see the big picture for our students rather than pointing out every small thing they do wrong?

I have a lot of passion in my heart for students and I know that I am new at all of this, but it feels like every teacher who started out loving children and loving their job, now hate their job and have a hard time trying new things to help their students. I don’t want to be just another “new bubbly teacher” I want to be an Impactful, Leader not just for my students, but also for the teachers around me who have been teaching for so long. I feel like they just need a Mental Health Day to rejuvenate and find that spark in them that made them want to teach in the first place.