The Last Year of College....Creating Carolina Memories

Education Case Study

2010-04-25T16:58:00.001-04:00

Education Case Study

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Case Study

2010-04-10T11:20:00.001-04:00

So far my case study has been going alright. In the middle of the semester I decided to change students because I had a student come in with severe behavior concerns. With his BAP we have been able to develop and put in place a plan to hopefully get him through the rest of the school year. I will be interested to see what happens when I am no longer in the classroom and if my CT will continue with the goals and behaviors we have set in place. We have him on a behavior chart where he does earn points and we have to keep track of it everyday. I have several students with behavioral concerns in my class, and I have noticed that these other students would also benefit from having a chart.

April Reading

2010-04-03T19:45:00.002-04:00

For this month I read 20 ways to reflect upon your practice. I found several of these practices very helpful and believe that they will be very useful in my own classroom. The first practice that I found helpful is to audiotape or videotape yourself teaching. I know that sometimes when we are teaching we don't realize what we have said or how we have said it and that can confuse our students. By audio taping or videotaping yourself teaching it will help you be more cognisant of what you say. A second tip that I found very helpful in the reading is to conference with colleagues. I feel that they best thing you can do for yourself is to reflect on your practices and have somebody else reflect on your practices.

Project so far

2010-03-21T15:40:00.001-04:00

Right now I don't feel like I'm being able to spend as much time on this project as I would like to. I find myself focusing on so many other things that this project seems to continuously be in the back of my mind. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I will be able to get more things done with this project. I also just got a new student that has severe behavioral problems and I have been mainly focusing on trying to get this student adjusted to the classroom environment.

March Reading

2010-03-10T20:09:00.002-05:00

For this reading, I definitely found the section on disruptive behavior the most helpful. In my classroom I have a couple of students who are constantly disrupting the class. One student in particular, who I consider the "class bully" is constantly making noises. It is very annoying to myself and the students who consistently ask him to stop making those noises. From what I've noticed the student is most likely doing this for attention, but I am still not sure about the root of the cause. Right now the student and I are really focusing on him using his self control. When he hears "I need you to use your self control," he becomes aware of his behavior and usually makes a change. Now that I have a plan for his issues with making noises, I need to tackle the bullying that he has been doing to other students.

BM plan

2010-02-20T15:47:00.000-05:00

As of this week, so far I have chosen the student that I am going to do my plan on in my class. I actually worked with this student for my case study so this should work out well. I chose to do this student, especially because lately he has been very aggressive towards other students. The other day he pushed another student on the playground and then he gotten written up with a referral to the office. As far as my data collection is concerned, I have just been taking anecdotal notes on his daily interactions with students.

Salend Chapter 7

2010-02-07T15:04:00.001-05:00

One of the most important points that Salend hit on in Chapter 7 was to employ relationship building strategies. Not only does this build a relationship with your students, but it also promotes positive behavior in the classroom. In the classroom, I have found it very useful to use the strategies Salend discusses to promote postive behavior. The strategy that I often use and appeals to me the most is to use humor in the classroom. Not only does using humor develop postive self esteem, but it also makes your students feel at ease and more comfortable in the classroom.

Classroom Management

2010-01-31T15:00:00.000-05:00

As far as my CT's classroom management is concerned, he is pretty good about it. I am in fourth grade and as far as discipline is concerned he usually follows the school wide falcon policy. It takes a lot for him to move a students falcon, therefore most of the students behave well because when they do have to move a falcon it is a really big deal for them. As I am slowly taking over more and more in the classroom, I find myself following the falcon policy more strictly than my CT.

Classroom Management in Inclusive Settings

2010-01-24T14:40:00.004-05:00

I think that this article by Soodak does have many valid points about classroom and behavior management directed toward inclusive settings. This past fall I had a student in my fourth grade classroom with a severe behavior disability. This student did have an IEP and was on a behavior plan that was managed by my teacher and his parents. This approach for the student was through positive behavior supports. While the supports were very positive, I can not say that they particulary worked for the student. By the third month of school, the student had transferred to a school that was specifically tailored towards students with behavioral problems.

As teachers it is important that we have positive behavioral supports for our students. These supports must be consistent "with the goals of inclusive education." I do believe that teachers need to provide supports and do what is in the best interest of the children in their classroom.

Literacy Reflection #8

2009-11-29T09:59:00.004-05:00

Flint Chapter 12 discussed how to work with struggling readers and writers in the classroom. Many of the practices discussed in the reading are practices that I have seen or am seeing now. I do strongly believe that motivation and engagement have a significant role for struggling readers. It is important to make sure that all readers are engaged in the text that they are reading. This comes back to having a classroom that offers a wide variety of choices and relies on the teacher knowing the interests of his/her students.

There were a couple of instructional practices discussed in the chapter that I really liked. I like the idea of scheduling easy reading time. It is a great idea to have a short block in the day where a group of mixed reading levels can come together and have reading time where everyone can read the text. This is definitely a great practice to help struggling and non-struggling readers can gain confidence and fluency in their reading. In my classroom, I see read alouds done everyday. The text is usually above the what readers can read on their own and it is a great way for students to practice comprehension.

Haw River with 4th Graders

2009-11-22T22:02:00.002-05:00

This time around the parachute worked out so much better than it did with the 3rd graders. My partners and I were able to tweak the activity to fit the needs of the students much better than the previous time we did the activity. My partners and I had a group of six students. With these students we had each student drop the parachute using two different materials. We were also able to question and prompt them and they more readily understood the activity when we related the parachute to skydiving. It was great to see the students engaged and having fun. I think that it is important to foster a love for science because it is definitely one of the subjects that gets overlooked in the curriculum.

Flint Chapter 8

2009-11-22T11:10:00.002-05:00

Flint Chapter 8 on Intermediate and accomplished readers and writers really resonated with me this week because I am in a 4th grade classroom and a majority of the day is spent on establishing good literacy practices. Word study strategies is something that I see often in my class. The students spend about 30 minutes everyday focusing on word study. So far I have seen them study affixes, and patterns especially dealing with vowel sounds. Usually the students are given a worksheet that has a few examples of the strategy and then they are given a list of words that they have to identify. I really liked the Roots and Branches activity in the book. That is definitely something authentic that I feel I could incorporate into my classroom.

I also found the sections focusing in reading with fluency and comprehension very informative. Many teachers consider reading with fluency to be fast readers, but I believe that not only must the reader read at a well established pace, but they must also comprehend what they have read. Many times you will get a reader who can read fast, but has no idea what they have just read. Speed does not equate with competence. I think that as a teacher we must address the misconception that reading with fluency means being a fast reader.

As for comprehension strategies, I see a wide range of use of graphic organizers used in my 4th grade classroom. I also feel that making connections (text-to-self, text-to-world & text-to-text) is key to the reading process. Everyday my teacher does an interactive read aloud with the class and she is always focusing on making connections and predictions. This gets the students really involved and by doing the read aloud the teacher is demonstrating the think aloud process.

Flint Chapter 11

2009-11-15T13:11:00.002-05:00

I really enjoyed this chapter because it focused on using inquiry based learning and nonfiction texts in the classroom. In all of our classes we have been learning how to incorporate inquiry based learning into our classroom because that is one of the best ways that students will and can learn. I agree with this. When students are given a choice and are able to feel a sense of ownership in their work they are going to learn so much more than just telling the students what they must do.

I also found interesting how the book talked about sign systems. For my read and share article I read about how to incorporate semantic sign systems into the language arts curriculum. This included the use of dance, drama, art and music. This is a great way for students to gain new perspectives, but it is disheartening because I am not seeing much of this in my classroom. I am seeing the basic draw a picture type of situations. I think that when teachers really commit to using sign systems it can greatly benefit students.

Differentiated Resource

2009-11-08T19:40:00.002-05:00

A differentiated resource that I have seen in my classroom that I highly recommend is www.starfall.com. This is a website that contains literacy activities that can be done at home or incorporated into the classroom. This is great for exceptional children because students are able to read using phonics. Starfall has interactive stories on four different levels. The first level is "ABC Lets Get Ready to Read." This level introduces children to the alphabet and the sounds associated with each letter. The second level is "Learn to Read." This level focuses on developing phonic skills. The third level is "It's fun to read." On this level students can play with fun and interactive games that foster their literacy development. The last level is "I'm Reading." On this level children can read low-level books or have the books read to them. In each book the words are highlighted when they are read. Personally, I think that Starfall is a wonderful educational website that teachers and students can use.

www.starfall.com

SAM ANIMATION

2009-11-02T14:20:00.003-05:00

Literacy Reflection #5

2009-11-01T14:29:00.002-05:00

I think that Flint Chapter 9 was very interesting in talking about the effective assessment practices for reading and writing. My fourth grade class just took a reading and math benchmark last week, which was a summative assessment. When I went to school that Wednesday the students were taking the reading part of the benchmark. It was really interesting have to proctor an exam and see the students struggle to get through that exam. While I do understand the point of standardized multiple choice tests, I do not feel that if fully shows the knowledge your students.

I do find the use of alternative assessments very helpful. In the book it talks about using running records, and this can be very helpful especially during guided reading time. I know that when I do my guided reason lesson on Wednesday I will be using a running record. I also think that it is very important to have a portfolio system set up in your classroom. I know that many teachers don't do them because they can be very time consuming, but it's important to have a collection of each student's work that can show their progress.

ELL Support in the Classroom

2009-10-28T21:42:00.002-04:00

My classroom receives a lot of support for English Language Learners especially because we have two ELL's in the class. Everyday one of the ELL teachers at my school comes into my class to help out during our literacy block. To support these students she uses a lot of visual cues, and modeling. She also uses a lot of expression when she is describing things. Through the use of modeling the students are usually able to understand what she is saying or what they are supposed to be doing. The ELL teacher also provided the students with an Oxford Picture Dictionary for Kids. This is a great resource because the dictionary provides pictures of everyday objects and activities and the students are able to resort to this when they don't understand something.

ELL Strategies

2009-10-28T21:33:00.003-04:00

One strategy that I feel is very helpful in supporting English Language Learners is the use of models, visual aids and diagrams. The use of visual aids not only helps English Language Learners but can help and very useful to all students. Visuals make the language more accessible to ELL students. When teachers can display pictures, diagrams, and charts in their classroom, they are supporting their English Language Learners. This helps these students because they might not be able to speak the language, but their is a good chance that they are going to be able to understand a visual. This is a strategy that I will definitely incorporate into my classroom because it will be helpful for all of my students.

Haw River

2009-10-26T18:28:00.002-04:00

The second trip at Haw River Elementary School was definitely much more successful than the first trip to the elementary school. My partners and I had a group of 6 students to do the parachute tests. For our parachute drop we chose to use and test different canopy materials. These materials were a plastic bag, aluminum foil and a coffee filter.

This time I felt a lot more prepared for the activities and the students also understood the concepts much better. It was nice to be able to relate building a parachute to how parachutes come in handy for sky divers. At first the students did not know what a parachute was, but after we gave them the sky diver example they knew exactly what it was. One of the hardest things to do with this activity was to make sure that the students were dropping the parachutes from the same heights. This was hard to do when there are some tall and some short students, therefore our measurements were not exact. Other than that the activity went pretty well. By the end of the allotted time the students had some idea of how the materials used for the canopy determined how slow or fast the parachute dropped.

Literacy Reflection #5

2009-10-25T11:29:00.003-04:00

I really enjoyed reading chapters five and two in the Flint and Collins because I was able to understand how to put together a literacy block. I have observed literacy blocks, but I have never actually learned how to put one together and these readings were very helpful in learning that. I like how Flint gives literacy programs and approaches and Collins delves deeper into creating literacy blocks.

In chapter five of the Flint reading I identified and related a lot of what I read back to my fourth grade classroom. Under the National Reading Panel's guideline to use scientifically based reading methods, my school system has adopted Reading Street by Scott Foresman and this is its first year in use at my school. With this program the teachers are given specific trade books and an anthology to use with their classroom. The one good thing that I like about this curriculum is the textbook that the students are provided with. I have looked through the book and it has some great pieces of literature, that so far, my students have really enjoyed reading.

So far I have not seen any writing done in the classroom. Durham's curriculum does not start writing until this week, so when I go into the classroom on Wednesday I should be seeing writer's workshop. Previously with the literacy block, my teacher would start with a mini lesson, do an interactive read aloud which the students love, and then move into reading centers. These centers involve independent reading, buddy reading, guided reading groups and library time. For many of my students this is their favorite part of the day and I am able to see how much the students enjoy reading especially when they can read what they want to read and what will be meaningful to them. One of the most important parts of successful literacy development is to have an extensive classroom library. In my classroom our libary is separated into genre's. One thing that I have noticed, which I'm sure is common in any classroom is that the male students usually go for the non-fiction text. This will be something that I will keep in my mind as I am building my classroom library.

Now that I have gotten an overview of literacy programs and approaches, one of the most important things that I am going to have to look at when applying to school districts/systems is what kind of approved literacy program they are using. Then I am going to have to determine how I am going to organize my classroom using basal materials. I wish that teachers had more freedom to choose authentic texts and develop their own reading/writing curriculum without having to use a scripted one. At the same time, I also see why my school district in particular wants things more uniform across the district.

ELL Observation

2009-10-14T19:38:00.004-04:00

For my observation, I chose to observe an ELL/ESL teacher at my school. This teacher partners with my cooperating teacher every morning for the literacy block. The ELL teacher will usually do an interactive read aloud with my class and she also helps my teacher with guided reading groups. During guided reading she will alternate groups with my CT. Usually she has the lower level reading groups. During this literacy time, then is when she also takes aside the two ELL learners in my classroom for about 20-30 minutes. In my classroom, we have a Norwegian and Korean student. Both of these students moved to the United States shortly before the school year started.

One of the main and most important tools that the ELL teacher uses is "The Oxford Picture Dictionary for Kids." This dictionary contains very descriptive pictures with words describing those pictures, and they are usually categorized by a theme (outdoors, school, etc.). In conjunction with the dictionary the teacher also has notebook that has tons of worksheets compiled together. These worksheets contain pictures with fill in the blanks of what actions those pictures entail. These worksheets are very helpful for the students because they are able to connect the words with the pictures.

One thing I also noticed about her is that she uses a lot of examples and hand motions. When she says things to the students she uses many facial and body expressions, especially to express emotions. The students respond well to this because they like seeing how she relates facial expressions and hand motions to words. Another important aspect of her teaching is that not only does she give them information and teach them, but she also takes information from them and relates it to the English language. An example of this would be when the students will tell her a word in their language and then she will relate that word to something in the English language.

Just in the past month I have already seen a drastic difference in both of these students English language abilities. They can now both express their ideas, say sentences and ask questions. This has all been due to the help that they have been receiving at school and the work that they have been doing at home with their parents.

UDL

2009-10-12T16:33:00.003-04:00

Universal Design for Learning is a great practice that makes learning attainable for all students. When I think about UDL I think about other things we have been talking about in our classes such as inclusion, modifications, differentiation etc. I consider UDL to be relatively new and in the last 5 years it has become a more accepted practice among teachers. The use of technology to teach all students is an important aspect because it is important that every student is reached. When I was in elementary school I don't remember the use of much technology, but now we are in the age of technology and teachers should take advantage of its different uses.

As for my classroom, I am not seeing as many UDL practices in my classroom as I would like to. Right now I am seeing the use of technology to help my English Language Learners. In my classroom I have a Norwegian and Korean student in my class who both moved to the United States at the beginning of the semester. Everyday during the literacy block in class these two students are allowed to use the computer to play an interactive game that assists with their English language learning. While this is great for the ELL's I do not know if this can be put under the category of Universal Design for Learning.

When I get my own classroom I do hope that I am able to effectively use UDL practices in my classroom. I hope to do this by incorporating technology that works and is accessible to all of my students. I want to be able to use the technology that can use with all types of students whether they are ELL, ESL, or EC students. The most important aspect of this will be to know each of my students different learning styles.

Literacy Reflection #4

2009-10-11T11:25:00.006-04:00

In this chapter, Flint talks about four theories of literacy development (bottom-up, top-down, transactional & critical) demonstrated by four different teachers. The literacy development practice that is most common in my 4th grade classroom is the bottom-up theory. This theory is where "learning to read is based on a series of small discrete steps from the simplest to most complex." The school that I am placed at has an industrial based model of learning, therefore this practice seems to fit best. The curriculum that we are following has layed out all of the lessons and activities where there is a predetermined series of skills. With this curriculum there is little to no room for differentiation.

In a perfect world I would love to be able to teach from a top-down perspective where meaning is essential to the reading process. Ms. Battle, who was the teacher discussed in the section was able to plan the curriculum based on the interests/needs of her students. Like I said before, in a perfect world I would love to be able to plan my curriculum solely on what the students need, but with No Child Left Behind this is not as prevalent as it once used to be. This model and theory of literacy gives the teacher a lot of freedom what he/she can do in the classroom.

While in the chapter each individual model was described and illustrated separately, I think that it is best to use each model in conjunction with one another. When I get my own classroom, I hope that I will be able to take things from each model to create my own best teaching practice.

Misconception

2009-10-05T19:32:00.004-04:00

With the bubble activity at Haw River Elementary school with the 2nd grade students, I can not say if the student's did or did not have misconceptions. These were students that I had never met before, therefore, it was hard to tell if they had any misconceptions and it was hard to measure their conceptual change. Due to the fact that the students did not know what surface tension was and that the students were only interested in playing with the bubbles I did not notice any misconceptions. If the students did have any misconceptions, I do not know if their misconceptions would have changed by doing this activity. I think that the next activity we do with the parachutes will have a greater affect on changing the students misconceptions.

In my 4th grade classroom I have been able to see my students misconceptions change. Recently we just completed a unit on magnetism and electricity. With this unit the students were able to build circuits and test the strength of magnets. When building the circuits the students had many misconceptions about how a battery and wires could light up a light bulb. Once the circuits were built it was great to see how the students misconceptions were changed with experimenting with the circuits and learning more knowledge about electricity.

It was wonderful to see this in my classroom because in my classroom I will also have to gauge students conceptual understanding. I will do this by organizing principles of science in order for my students to learn new information more effectively. I was able to gauge the students conceptual change when I could notice how the students were able to rethink and restructure their prior knowledge about electricity and magnetism. I want my students to be able to apply their knowledge to new concepts.

Literacy Reflection # 3

2009-10-04T10:58:00.003-04:00

When I read the title of this chapter, "Getting to Know Students: Developing Culturally Relevant Practices for Reading and Writing" I knew this chapter was going to be very beneficial. I found the first part about Bianca very interesting because it related so much to the class discussion that we had last week. Many students that come from different cultural background lose their language because they only want to speak in English. It is immensely important that as future teachers we encourage our ELL and ESL students to keep their home language. In this text Bianca was "ashamed" of her culture/language and this is not something that I want to promote in my classroom.

In my classroom, everyday the ELL/ESL teacher comes in and does the first part of literacy with my class. She usually does vocabulary/concept development and an interactive read aloud. My class is about 60% Hispanic, 20% Caucasian, and 20% African American. During every read aloud that I have seen her do she had been able to relate the material across cultures. I love how she is able to take a piece of information and make it relevant for all of her students. It has been wonderful to see this done in the classroom because this is something that I've never seen before. Through observing her I have been able to learn good teaching practices that will help me when I get into the classroom.

Another thing that I found interesting in the chapter was the attitude questionnaires and surveys. I have seen these done in almost every class that I have been in, even in college. I never really liked doing surveys/questionnaires, but I see how they can be helpful in finding out students' interest and getting them interested in reading and writing. Reading is going to be more meaningful to students when they can read one of their favorite authors or about something that they are interested in.

Educating Peter

2009-09-30T22:06:00.003-04:00

Watching the film about Peter was a very difficult video to watch and I must say that I have mixed feelings about what I saw. I think that is it absolutely amazing how the teacher was able to include Peter and get him involved in classroom activities. When an exceptional child is included in a general education classroom, it is not only an adjustment for the child, but also a adjustment for the teacher and other students in the classroom. It was amazing seeing the students adjusting to Peter and helping them in any way they new how. From Peter, the other students were able to grow and learn from their experiences with him.

At the same time, I feel like it might not have been the best situation for the Peter nor the students. It was really hard watching the video when Peter was physically attacking the other students in the class. I just kept thinking to myself, what if I was the teacher in that situation. I can't begin to think about how I would handle that particular situation. I understand the need to include EC students in the classroom, but I don't know if I believe that Peter's situation was the best situation.

Book Talk

2009-09-27T22:17:00.002-04:00

Bubbles, Oh Bubbles

2009-09-27T11:24:00.003-04:00

Going into Haw River Elementary school I was not confident with the bubbles experiment and it showed when I attempted to do it with my students. From the beginning when we did this activity in our Science class I was not sure how well this experiment would work with 2nd grade students whom we had never met before. It's great that the activity involved bubbles because every child loves bubbles, but overall I believe the concept of the activity was to advanced for them.

What worked with the experiment was the penny, and tooth pick not floating in the water, but we still had trouble making the paper clip float. It was hard to explain to the students why the paper clip didn't float because the paper clip was supposed to float. We even tried different ways of putting the paper clip in, in order not to break the surface of the water. In order to have an item that was guaranteed to float we added hair ties to the experiment. Another difficulty with the experiment was explaining to the students what surface tension means. My partner and I explained that it was the skin of the surface, but the students still did not understand the concept.

If I was to do this experiment again I would change the Bubble Basics activity. I would not use a paper clip because the students and I had difficulty trying to get it to float. I would also come up with another way to explain surface tension, although I still think that this concept is to advanced for second graders. I believe that with some changes this activity could be a good experiment, but it should not be done how it is written in the packet.

Literacy Reflection # 2

2009-09-27T10:30:00.002-04:00

Chapter 2 in the text focused on classrooms being linguistically diverse places and the areas of language use and language development. One thing that I found interesting out of the chapter was how Standard English is said to be the language of power in the United States. Many students come into classrooms with language derived from their cultural and social backgrounds and yes students need to know Standard English but their home language use should also be recognized. Both the correctionist and contrastive approaches to issues of dialects both have flaws. The correctionist approach corrects nonstandard language use but if fails to recognize the child's home language, while the contrastive approach fails to recognize that children must know Standard English. I can not say whether I agree or disagree with either of these approaches.

Daily Oral Language (D.O.L.) is an activity that I remember doing when I was in elementary and middle school. I remember doing this almost everyday in Language Arts and I never really got anything out of it. I did not realize that this was not a productive approach. This makes me think about the hundreds or thousands of teachers who use D.O.L. activities, but do not know that this is not really helping their students. Before I read this text I had contemplated doing D.O.L activities in my classroom, but now I know that the best way to learn about language is through the use of authentic texts. When I begin teaching Language Arts, authentic texts and authentic experiences will be key to helping my students learn about language uses and rules.

A third thing that the chapter discussed that I found very helpful was phonemes and phonemic awareness. I found table 2.6 on page 51 very helpful because I know that I will have to help my students understand and develop phonemic awareness and this will be a great guide to use. While I was reading this chapter I thought about the young lady who came to speak to our class about how she had trouble understanding and recognizing phonemes. I find it very interesting how some students can go their entire educational careers without being phonemically aware. The only way they were able to learn was through memorization of words.

The Higher Power of Lucky #2

2009-09-26T21:12:00.005-04:00

I finally finished "The Higher Power of Lucky." I must say that I felt that this book was a very short read, although this would not be true for elementary age children. Originally it took me a while to get into the book and I found myself not engaged, but once I had finished the first half of the book the pace picked up. The climax of the book occurred after about 2/3's of the book passed which was when Lucky ran away because she felt like she did not belong.

As I was reading the book I still found myself wondering if an elementary aged child would be able to understand the book. Through the first half of the book I was confused and had to reread the first couple of chapters. After the first half, the book became easier to understand because questions were answered. I found myself finally getting into the characters and I was no longer only reading the text, but I was comprehending the text. This is an important distinction because just because a child can read does not mean that they are comprehending what they are reading. An important component of this book to mention is the illustrations that occur every 5-10 pages. I found myself drawn to these illustrations and they helped me understand the book better because each illustration was placed in a specific place on the page which would help me visualize what I was reading. I think that sometimes teachers think that novels should not have illustrations, but I disagree. Illustrations are a great way to help children visualize what they are reading.

Now that I have finished reading the book I would say that this book was well deserving of the 2007 Newbery Medal. I would definitely have to say that this text should be geared towards middle school aged children or advanced fifth grade students because of both the language used and the content discussed.

The Higher Power of Lucky

2009-09-25T17:59:00.005-04:00

For my booktalk I chose to read 2007 Newbery award winner "The Higher Power of Lucky" by Susan Patron. This story is about Lucky a ten year old girl who is trying to find her "higher power." She lives in the desert in a poor town called Hard Pan with her father's ex-wife Bridgette. One of the main reasons why I chose this book was because I know that it has been very controversial and many school libraries have banned or censored the book. I wanted to see why this book caused so much controversy when it won the Newbery Medal.

As a reader whenever I am picking out a book I always look at the front cover of the book. This is what I first see and what ultimately attracts me to the book. Next, I look at the back cover to read a brief synopsis of the story. On the back cover of this book there is no synopsis only snippets of passages from the book. Finally I looked on the inside of the cover and found a short summary of the book.

For me I felt that the book started off really slow and the first page of the book was shocking to me because the word scrotum is used in the second paragraph. When I read the first page I found myself thinking about would a child know what this word is and if they did what would they think? This is an aspect that would be very difficult for a young reader to comprehend. From the first page I was taken off guard by the book and I began to question my book choice selection. After I read the first three chapters I found myself being confused while I was reading, therefore, I read the first three chapters again. This is something I might normally do when I am reading a book.

These first chapters gave me a background on who Lucky is, what she does and why she is trying to find her "higher power." These first three chapters also introduce terms such as alcoholics anonymous and smokers anonymous. These would be concepts that I believe a young reader would question. This is also where I would expect the reader to ask a teacher or ask a parent what those terms mean. So far this book has caught my attention and I am captivated to see what is going to happen next in the story.

Literacy Experience in the Classroom

2009-09-20T10:32:00.002-04:00

I am in a fourth grade class at Forest View Elementary School in Durham. We have been using Reading Street by Scott Foresman which is a scripted literacy program. I believe this program is based on the industrial model of learning mentioned in Chapter 1. Luckily I have had the chance to attend PLC meetings every Wednesday and have been able to look at Reading Street and listen to the discussions that my teachers have had about reading street during their meetings. For the most part it seems like many teachers disagree with it. They believe that it leaves no room to be flexible. There is a set schedule with set lesson plans and set book selection choices. So far reading street has been okay, but my CT and the other teachers on my team are still adjusting to it. Part of the reason Forest View has Scott Foresman is due to NCLB.
My class has been doing really well with the reading aspect of literacy and the students are trying to get as much writing in as possible. Most of the writing occurs through readers response's. From the few samples of writing that I have seen, I can tell that many of my students are below grade level. One of the most important things that I am going to need to do to be able to help my students is to figure out how to effectively use Scott Foresman and to know where I can be flexible with the program.

Literacy Reflection #1

2009-09-13T07:38:00.001-04:00

After having read chapter one, I found the three models of schooling/literacy development very interesting. The school that I am student teaching at follows the industrial model. They are using uniform and standardized model called Reading Street. The teachers are given scripts and lesson plans that they must follow and have little room to deviate from those plans. The industrial model is not what I imagine when I think about teaching reading and writing. The model that attracts me the most is a mix between the inquiry and critical model. Student can learn and be motivated more easily when they are learning about real life things, and with the critical model students are learning on a global context. I want my students to be able to question and challenge themselves. These models allow students a chance to connect to literacy in a meaningful way.
The text also talks about the No Child Left Behind act. Since the act was put into law in 2001, I still find myself wondering if I do or do not agree with this act and the way it is being implemented. What is the point in helping your student's learn if you can not even make important decisions on how to effectively teach your students. Reading from a script is not the way to effectively teach reading. Every child learns differently, therefore teachers should be able to come up with meaningful lessons that incorporate different learning styles/strategies.

Literacy Autobiography.

2009-09-12T17:30:00.000-04:00

My love of literature all started in kindergarten.

My Mother gave me Hooked on Phonics.

Every night I read, every night I practiced, listening to the cassette tapes.

She never read to me at night, but I understand now what I did not know then

She was working two jobs.

First grade came and I was one of the best readers in the class.

One of the kids that always volunteered to read, never stumbled.

Fourth grade and fifth grade I had the book fair.

Oh how I loved the book fair.

Every year I begged my mother for more money and more money.

My book collection grew, full of scholastic books.

Author's that spoke to me as a child:
Judy Blume, Beverly Clearly, Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Loved the reading aspect, but not so much the writing aspect.

I knew how to write, and would write what I was told
But it was a chore.

Short stories, fictional stories, not my forte.

Middle school came.

Still reading, still expanding.

The list of favorite author's has grown and grown.

Bookcases overflowing with picture books, and novels.

Award winners, Newberry and Caldecott.

My favorite class was reading and writing.

Taught by my favorite teacher.

One word to describe her, inspirational.

She challenged me in many ways.

Still loving reading and slowly finding a love for writing.

High school is recent and indescribable.

Ninth grade and tenth grade were not the best.

Eleventh grade I found the language arts teacher that changed my life.

She was the teacher who inspired me to be a teacher.

Things Fall Apart, The House on Mango Street, Invisible Man,
The Great Gatsby, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Anne Frank,
The Things They Carried.

Books that I loved, analyzed and enjoyed.

Books that helped me grow both as a reader and a writer.

Writing was no longer a chore.

Journals were my favorite, I could write about anything I wanted.

Today I am a Senior Elementary Education Major.

Learning how to teach reading and writing so that I can be like the teacher that inspired me.

It will be a challenge, but important to give my students the knowledge and skills needed to read and write.

I'm scared, nervous, excited... all I want is to be a good teacher.

Four Strands of Science

2009-09-11T13:46:00.000-04:00

After reading Chapter 2 of Ready Set Science I found the four strands of science learning very interesting and insightful. Through "understanding science explanations, generating scientific evidence, reflecting on scientific knowledge, and participating productively in science," students will be able to develop the knowledge and skills required to successful learn science. In my classroom I would like to be able to develop effective lessons that will incorporate all of the strands. After reading the text, the stand that I found the most interesting was strand 4 "participating productively in science." When teachers can give students hands on opportunities with science, students will become more involved. I remember in high school my favorite thing to do in science class was science experiments. It gets repetitive when all you are doing is reading out of a book and copying notes off of the board.
The article The Trouble With Textbooks hit many important points on why students are not successfully learning science. It seems that it is the same for all subjects. Publishers, writers, educators etc. are tying to cram to many concepts into one book, and states expect for the teachers to cover every single topic in the book. There is no point in cramming so many things into a book and forcing students to learn it, when after they have taken the test they are going to forget everything. I agree with the article when it says that "science is not just facts to be memorized or terms to learn, but a process of building up a picture and explanation of the world from evidence." Through incorporating the four strands of science, teachers can make sure that students are learning these process and concepts that will build up the knowledge of science. One of the main reasons that I never found science interesting in school was because I felt like I was memorizing vocabulary terms and facts and that was all that I was doing.

Science Autobiography

2009-09-08T11:07:00.000-04:00

Through elementary, middle, and high school, science was never one of my strong points. I attended elementary school in Greensboro, NC and went to General Greene School of Science and Technology which was a magnet school. Every year starting in 1st grade my school held an annual science fair. Each student was required to submit a science project to be shown at the fair. I always loved the science fair and my favorite science fair project that I ever did was to make a volcano. I always find this funny because volcano's are the stereotypical science fair project, but I loved every aspect of it, especially when I got to make it explode! Going to a magnet school that specialized in science really fostered a love and enjoyment for science. I might not have been the best at science, but I loved doing science experiments.
Now middle school was a different story. I do not know what happened between elementary school and middle school, but for me science was not as fun and exciting in middle school. I do not know whether it was the teachers or the subject matter that did not excite me, but in middle school science became on of those classes that I dreaded going to.
In high school science got better. I was able to choose the science classes I wanted to take and this made science more interesting for me. In high school I took biology, chemistry, and environmental science. I must say that chemistry was definitely my favorite class. For some reason I really enjoyed working with formulas, equations and the periodic table. I had teachers that loved doing and teaching science and this bounced off onto the students because the students loved doing science. In order to foster a since of love and enjoyment for science teachers must come up with strategies that will excite students about the subject matter. I hope that I will be able to do this for my students.

Welcome!

2009-09-06T07:26:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone and welcome to my page! I am so excited to be here with all of you and starting my senior year. At my student teaching placement this year I am working with a fourth grade class. I believe that this year is going to be a fantastic one with many experiences that are going to make me a better teacher. I also can't wait to get to know everyone better :)