Educating Peter

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

Bubbles, Oh Bubbles

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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!

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 :)