I thought this class was so much fun. I actually looked forward to going to class and discussing what we were reading or working on. It was formatted in such a great way too. Beers really focused on finding books that peak the students' interests and letting them choose their books, and this was modeled excellently in our class. We could pick out books that suited us and made us enjoy reading them. We also learned how to hook students' interest by reading and teasing a book. This was even modeled in the class by Dr. Pytash reading parts of books we may find fun to read. I think the best part of the class were the days when we came in to discuss the books we had read. I loved getting in our groups and seeing what exercise we would be doing to discuss them. It gave me some great ideas to use in my own classroom. My favorite exercise was when we had to draw pictures representing the book, and then pick one quote for it. I honestly believe that I will use this in my classroom.
Overall, this class was great. I learned so much by being in it and through reading the textbook! It was the one class I looked forward to being in, and the one textbook I didn't mind reading!
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Chapter 14: Finding the Right Book
Earlier in the semester (my first blog post actually) I mentioned how my boyfriend hated to read. Throughout this semester I had been finding all different books for him to spark that little piece of interest in reading. It's funny how it all started with that, and now in the chapter that is assigned, it talks about finding the perfect type of book. Well guess what? I found it for him. Nikki Heat by Richard Castle. He LOVES watching the TV show, and when his favorite character was releasing a book in real life he always showed a little interest. So I went and got it for him. I caught him reading it almost every day until the book was done and now he wants the next one that has been released.
I can see how teaching with Young Adult literature can be so important now because on pages 287 and 288 the list of requirements for books for non-readers explains these books to a T! It states that non-readers want characters their age, characters with tough choices, realistic language, and an easily defined conflict. If that doesn't define a young adult novel, then I don't know what does!
The idea of ways to get stuednts interested in books was interesting too, and I even recognized a one way that Dr. Pytash did this. She used the read and tease to start a lot of our classes and get us interested in different young adult books. I think this strategy really works because I wanted to add almost every book that she read to my "To Read" list.
I can see how teaching with Young Adult literature can be so important now because on pages 287 and 288 the list of requirements for books for non-readers explains these books to a T! It states that non-readers want characters their age, characters with tough choices, realistic language, and an easily defined conflict. If that doesn't define a young adult novel, then I don't know what does!
The idea of ways to get stuednts interested in books was interesting too, and I even recognized a one way that Dr. Pytash did this. She used the read and tease to start a lot of our classes and get us interested in different young adult books. I think this strategy really works because I wanted to add almost every book that she read to my "To Read" list.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Chapter 13: Creating the Confidence to Respond
I really enjoyed this chapter! I think some of the best classes I've ever been in have been classes that felt like a little family. I had a writing class at a community college, and there were about 13 people in the class. We all had become comfortable with each other because we constantly had to read each other's writing. We also had to read our writing out loud, but since we had become so comfortable with each other, we had no problem reading out loud or sharing what we thought about the writings. In this writing class, we also weren't allowed to say anything negative, or if we did it had to be sandwiched in two compliments.
I liked that we had to give compliments, and when I read about the ding-a-ling idea I laughed, but thought to myself, "Oh boy! How true is that!" I think it's great that the students began telling each other not to say bad things because they didn't want to hear the bell ring. I think the ding-a-ling bell transformed the students into people who cared about other's thoughts. just the fact that they were consciously trying to be nicer shows how well this idea worked.
I liked how Beers turned it onto teachers too. Even in a whole room of teachers, there was still shyness and fear of being wrong. As teachers, we're taught to be kind and still teach and try to be open to all answers. So why can't we lose our fear being wrong and set an example for our students? I know I'm not the best one to speak because I know that I get shy in classrooms where I don't know anyone, but I think this is just human nature. It's important that as teachers, we recognize this and make our classrooms open forums for our students.
I liked that we had to give compliments, and when I read about the ding-a-ling idea I laughed, but thought to myself, "Oh boy! How true is that!" I think it's great that the students began telling each other not to say bad things because they didn't want to hear the bell ring. I think the ding-a-ling bell transformed the students into people who cared about other's thoughts. just the fact that they were consciously trying to be nicer shows how well this idea worked.
I liked how Beers turned it onto teachers too. Even in a whole room of teachers, there was still shyness and fear of being wrong. As teachers, we're taught to be kind and still teach and try to be open to all answers. So why can't we lose our fear being wrong and set an example for our students? I know I'm not the best one to speak because I know that I get shy in classrooms where I don't know anyone, but I think this is just human nature. It's important that as teachers, we recognize this and make our classrooms open forums for our students.
Chapter 10: Fluency and Automaticity
When reading aloud in my high school classrooms, I always got upset when the teacher called on a student that I knew would read slowly, sound out words, and read in a monotone and it seemed like my teachers ALWAYS chose those students. From chapter 10, I learned that my fellow students just didn't have fluency and automaticity. I thought it was interesting that Beers explained that students that lack these skills usually need to see the words four times as many times as students that can read fluently. I'm wondering if my teachers knew this, and that's why they called on the students that needed practice?
I really liked suggestion three in improving fluency. The exercise where you would stress different words in a sentence even helped me, a seasoned reader, understand fluency. Something else that I've noticed in students is that they don't always pay attention to the punctuation and read all of the sentences in a monotone. I like the exercise of putting different puntuactions at the end of the same sentence to see how the students changes the tone of their voice with the punctuation.
On a last note, I really found it helpful that Beers said not to correct the students, but to prompt them to figure the word out through sounding it out, finding other words in it, and asking if they recognize the word.
I really liked suggestion three in improving fluency. The exercise where you would stress different words in a sentence even helped me, a seasoned reader, understand fluency. Something else that I've noticed in students is that they don't always pay attention to the punctuation and read all of the sentences in a monotone. I like the exercise of putting different puntuactions at the end of the same sentence to see how the students changes the tone of their voice with the punctuation.
On a last note, I really found it helpful that Beers said not to correct the students, but to prompt them to figure the word out through sounding it out, finding other words in it, and asking if they recognize the word.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Chapter 9: Vacublary
Oh wow. This chapter really threw me for a loop! All of my vocabulary lessons in high school were the generic way of giving us the words, giving us the dictionary definition, and then leaving it alone until test day. Before the test, we'd breifly go over the words to refresh our memory. But, to this day, I couldn't tell you one word I learned that way. I thought it was interesting that teachers just tell students to look the word up or to use context clues, but what do we do if the students don't know how to use the context? Or how to spell the word?
Something that I thought looked fun was the Vocabulary Tree. I think it's a great way to show how words relate to each other and it gives visual learners something to reference. Another visual reminder is having the students draw pictures for each vocabulary word.
Beers brought up that as a teacher, we need to ask the right questions. I think that this is one of the most important things to learn from this book because if we can't ask the students the right questions, they can't give us the right answers, and in turn they can't as US the questions they need to ask!
Something that I thought looked fun was the Vocabulary Tree. I think it's a great way to show how words relate to each other and it gives visual learners something to reference. Another visual reminder is having the students draw pictures for each vocabulary word.
Beers brought up that as a teacher, we need to ask the right questions. I think that this is one of the most important things to learn from this book because if we can't ask the students the right questions, they can't give us the right answers, and in turn they can't as US the questions they need to ask!
Chapter 8: Extending Meaning, After-Reading Strategies
After reading a text its very important that one can understand what they just read and piece the work together. Not only do they have to understand the plot, but also the motives that drive the plot. I think one of the best ways to exercise this understanding is through Beers's Somebody Wanted But So chart. I think this is a great way to see how the plot is driven forward. It's important though that the teacher ask what happens next, or what else was happening. The only thing that bothers me about this exercise is that it may not work with a book that has a lot of different plots that come together to create the story. You might need a LOT of these charts in that case!
I feel like the It Says-I say- So exercise would really bother me. I'm one of those people that believe it a book says it then its true, so let's leave it at that. I would find the exercise so repetitive because the "I say" section for me would just be me writing whatever the book says or eleaborating on it. However, this is also a good strategy for making the students think about questions that the book doesn't just come out and ask. They have to search for the answers to better understand them.
I feel like the It Says-I say- So exercise would really bother me. I'm one of those people that believe it a book says it then its true, so let's leave it at that. I would find the exercise so repetitive because the "I say" section for me would just be me writing whatever the book says or eleaborating on it. However, this is also a good strategy for making the students think about questions that the book doesn't just come out and ask. They have to search for the answers to better understand them.
Chapter 7: Constructing Meaning, During-reading strategies
I think we've all found ourselves in a situation where we read something and it just doesn't make sense! While most of us will reread the section that we don't understand, some of us skip past it and try to move on. But when skipping our reading, we're not learning. In chapter 7, I thought Beers came up with a few great strategies to "unstick" yourself when you get stuck reading.
My favorite of these strategies started on page 106. In Say Something I think it's great to pair students up to start reading and have them talk about the text while they read it. Not only will this strategy help the students make inferences, but I also think it will bring out different perspectives on the reading. Another idea I had for this was to have the whole class involved. We could read outloud together (one person at a time) and go up and down rows with the next person saying something about our text. The teacher could start to get things going.
Another one of my favorites was the ABC's of comparing and contrasting. I loved how the student would use different colors or writing untensils to compare different characters. I do better when I have different colors to help me tell the difference between things, and for visual learners this would be a great strategy to use. Plus, as Beers says, its a great stepping stone to writing a paper about comparing and contrasting the characters.
My favorite of these strategies started on page 106. In Say Something I think it's great to pair students up to start reading and have them talk about the text while they read it. Not only will this strategy help the students make inferences, but I also think it will bring out different perspectives on the reading. Another idea I had for this was to have the whole class involved. We could read outloud together (one person at a time) and go up and down rows with the next person saying something about our text. The teacher could start to get things going.
Another one of my favorites was the ABC's of comparing and contrasting. I loved how the student would use different colors or writing untensils to compare different characters. I do better when I have different colors to help me tell the difference between things, and for visual learners this would be a great strategy to use. Plus, as Beers says, its a great stepping stone to writing a paper about comparing and contrasting the characters.
Chapter 5: Learning to Make an Inference
In chapter 5, I thought it was interesting how Beers explains that everyone's inferences are different. I actually always had a hard time making inferences and I always thought I was wrong, but reading this I just see that my answers were different because I was reading differently than other students. The list of things to do on page 63 was very helpful in understanding how to make an inference. Even though it seemed so obvious, I never realized that simply figuring out who the pronouns referred to could help out so much.
I think the best tool to teach students how to make inferences is the list offered on page 69 through 71. I especially liked number three because it gives the students hope. I know a lot of people that get lost and can't just find the information they need to make inferences, but when a teacher tells them that the author puts information in the text for them, it can help them find what they need. I also thought that number five was a good strategy because it helped the students interact. Plus, who doesn't love cartoons!?
While it can be hard teaching a concept that isn't as concrete as grammar or vocabulary, teaching inferences is made easy through this list, and by putting examples with what you're asking from your students, it makes life that much easier for the both of you.
I think the best tool to teach students how to make inferences is the list offered on page 69 through 71. I especially liked number three because it gives the students hope. I know a lot of people that get lost and can't just find the information they need to make inferences, but when a teacher tells them that the author puts information in the text for them, it can help them find what they need. I also thought that number five was a good strategy because it helped the students interact. Plus, who doesn't love cartoons!?
While it can be hard teaching a concept that isn't as concrete as grammar or vocabulary, teaching inferences is made easy through this list, and by putting examples with what you're asking from your students, it makes life that much easier for the both of you.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Chapter 6: Frontloading Meaning
I really liked the use of the KWL chart in this chapter. In school, I always hated filling them out, but now I see how they can help a student use the text to learn. Also, it can inspire a student to do outside research to answer the questions they have that were not answered by their reading.
The strategy that stood out most to me was the tea party strategy. I thought that this was such a good idea to help the students get ready for what they were about to read. While they may be wrong with their "We Think..." statement, this exercise still motivates them to think about the text they're about to read. I also liked how this offered them the opportunity to get up and move around the room and teach each other instead of the classroom being strictly teacher-centered. After they've read the text and find that their predictions were either wrong or right, I agree with Beers in bringing everyone together and going over the original phrases so the students can see how the author made the phrases make sense compared to how they made the words make sense.
Overall I think frontloading is one of the most important things a teacher can do for a student. It can be as complex as using charts, or as easy as having students share their experiences that you know will correspond with the text.
The strategy that stood out most to me was the tea party strategy. I thought that this was such a good idea to help the students get ready for what they were about to read. While they may be wrong with their "We Think..." statement, this exercise still motivates them to think about the text they're about to read. I also liked how this offered them the opportunity to get up and move around the room and teach each other instead of the classroom being strictly teacher-centered. After they've read the text and find that their predictions were either wrong or right, I agree with Beers in bringing everyone together and going over the original phrases so the students can see how the author made the phrases make sense compared to how they made the words make sense.
Overall I think frontloading is one of the most important things a teacher can do for a student. It can be as complex as using charts, or as easy as having students share their experiences that you know will correspond with the text.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Chapter 4: Explicit Instruction in Comprehension
The story about Al really opened my eyes. "How do I know unless I already know?" Throughout school, we're told what to do, and most of the time we're not told how to do it. I really liked this chapter because it showed me how to actually teach the strategies that I'll be telling kids to use in order to read. I always thought that it was just common sense on how to read and how to pick up on different strategies, but I suppose it's not.
I liked that Beers put her interaction with Kate in this book. I can see myself in Kate's shoes making mistakes while teaching and then correcting them. I liked how she refined her technique and got the students involved with discussing by having them use strategies. Just by the simple change of having them tell her what they thought the story was going to be about based on the picture showed that she was teaching them a reading strategy instead of just expecting them to know to look at the picture. We know that some of the students probably already looked at the picture and figured out what the story was about, but for the few that didn't it brought them up to speed with the other students.
I liked that Beers put her interaction with Kate in this book. I can see myself in Kate's shoes making mistakes while teaching and then correcting them. I liked how she refined her technique and got the students involved with discussing by having them use strategies. Just by the simple change of having them tell her what they thought the story was going to be about based on the picture showed that she was teaching them a reading strategy instead of just expecting them to know to look at the picture. We know that some of the students probably already looked at the picture and figured out what the story was about, but for the few that didn't it brought them up to speed with the other students.
Chapter 3: Assessing Dependent Readers' Needs
First of all, I must say I would LOVE to have a chart like 3.1 and 3.2 for all the challenges in life! Something that these charts really made me see was that there is no set solution for any one problem. We start with saying that a kid "can't read" but then move into they "can't answer questions about the text" and we have to figure out why they can't answer these questions. So we have to help them with a multitude of solutions to see which one works. What overwhelms me is that we're not going to just have one child that needs help. We may have an entire class of thirty students that need help with reading, and with different aspects of reading.
The story of Mike warmed my heart. When he said "You know I can't read this stuff" showed to me that no one had ever really worked with him to give him confidence. This also shows why some students could be embarassed to read out loud in front of their classmates, and if they already have a hard time reading, being snickered at by their classmates will probably increase their reading anxiety, causing them to give up all together on learning how to read.
Through these different case studies presented in this chapter, Beers shows us that solving a reader's problem is never a simple step. We have to test out all different solutions and sometimes mix them together to get a result.
The story of Mike warmed my heart. When he said "You know I can't read this stuff" showed to me that no one had ever really worked with him to give him confidence. This also shows why some students could be embarassed to read out loud in front of their classmates, and if they already have a hard time reading, being snickered at by their classmates will probably increase their reading anxiety, causing them to give up all together on learning how to read.
Through these different case studies presented in this chapter, Beers shows us that solving a reader's problem is never a simple step. We have to test out all different solutions and sometimes mix them together to get a result.
Chapter 2: Creating Independent Readers
While reading chapter two, I realized something- Would I have passed my tenth grade chemistry class if I had become an independent reader when reading my chemistry book?
When I thought about this, I wondered if with some materials we're dependent, and others we're independent. I know that I always hated reading my math book, science books, and even some of the literature I was forced to read in school. It was hard for me because I was uninterested and I found myself in George's shoes saying "I don't get it." However, I always read outside of school; I was interested in novels, poems, even my cell phone manual, but because I knew I could get something out of these books. While I didn't care why I needed to know chemistry, I knew that I could change settings on my cell phone because I read the manual or receive the pure feeling of enjoyment from reading a novel.
I knew how to read, and I could understand what I read, but for me it was a matter of me wanting to read it. I find myself as a teacher (and a girlfriend) facing this problem with my boyfriend. I have a book I want him to read, that I know he'll enjoy, but he tells me how he hates reading because it's too hard. Does this mean that he's a dependant reader? I found myself asking him the same question that Beers brought up, "Have you ever tried to find a good book?" and I get the reply that books are boring. This brought me to the chart on page 18. The chart shows that when someone lacks social and emotional confidence in reading they cannot read for enjoyment. So I've come up with a challenge: I hope to continue reading and learn how to boost my boyfriend's confidence in his reading and maybe he'll pick up a book on his own and read!
When I thought about this, I wondered if with some materials we're dependent, and others we're independent. I know that I always hated reading my math book, science books, and even some of the literature I was forced to read in school. It was hard for me because I was uninterested and I found myself in George's shoes saying "I don't get it." However, I always read outside of school; I was interested in novels, poems, even my cell phone manual, but because I knew I could get something out of these books. While I didn't care why I needed to know chemistry, I knew that I could change settings on my cell phone because I read the manual or receive the pure feeling of enjoyment from reading a novel.
I knew how to read, and I could understand what I read, but for me it was a matter of me wanting to read it. I find myself as a teacher (and a girlfriend) facing this problem with my boyfriend. I have a book I want him to read, that I know he'll enjoy, but he tells me how he hates reading because it's too hard. Does this mean that he's a dependant reader? I found myself asking him the same question that Beers brought up, "Have you ever tried to find a good book?" and I get the reply that books are boring. This brought me to the chart on page 18. The chart shows that when someone lacks social and emotional confidence in reading they cannot read for enjoyment. So I've come up with a challenge: I hope to continue reading and learn how to boost my boyfriend's confidence in his reading and maybe he'll pick up a book on his own and read!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)