Translations and Formal Writing

I found the article on translation and writing to be very interesting. The article basically showed how in the act of translating a message from one language to another, students retell the message differently depending on who they are delivering it to or what purpose they are translating it for. When we try to teach students in class the differences between writing informally to a friend or formally to a teacher, it is really important to recognize that the kids already know how to do this and know those differences because they do them all the time when translating. I think the most important thing undoubtedly is though that you get students to recognize the relationship between these two processes and feel like they are already a master at it and apply that previous knowledge to this new idea or writing formally/informally. Also, even when a student does not speak to languages or commonly translate between languages, we all relay and retell stories and messages to various people. All students probably speak or retell stories differently, either formally or informally, when they go home from school and tell their parent something versus telling their sibling. It is equally important that we get these students who are not bilingual to also notice this tendency they already have so they to can view themselves as masters of this already!

Pedagogy of Control Article

I really thought that the Pedagogy of Control article brought up a great point. I have recently been thinking a lot about the way that I want to teach, and I have decided that worksheets are not something that I want to overuse in my classroom. I can see some of their value in that they are quick to grade and can sometimes give you good insight into what your students understand or don't understand, but I think for the most part worksheets are just busy work. Teachers tend to use worksheets because it is so easy to just hand out a worksheet and tell the students to do it. You can find a worksheet about virtually anything online, so that saves a ton of time of coming up with something yourself. I think that a big part of teaching is motivating children to learn, and worksheets are not doing anything of that nature. Worksheets are boring and tedious, and often frustrating if they do not provide adequate directions. I was looking through the folder of worksheets that Lara passed around and I noticed that one of the worksheets was handwriting practice for writing lower case i's. The student had written a few i's and then had made one i with a smiley face as a dot. Personally I thought it was really funny, and although it was not technically correct, I don't think I would scold a child for doing this. The child was obviously bored of writing i's. The teacher however had written "NO" in red pen next to it. I don't think that the student actually thought that his i was written correctly, and I don't think that she had the appropriate response. I think that it would be more effective to write something like, "This is very clever but not how an i should look." Or something that would get that point across. I think worksheets like this and the way you grade them can really destroy a child's creativity, which should be something we try to develop and explore in our classrooms.

Mission to Mars Article

One thing that I really liked while reading this article was this quote:

"all children, including those we the find most demanding, “are not asking for less work, or easier work, they are asking for meaningful work""

I really liked this because it made me think of the kids I work with at my summer camp. The kids I work with have spina bifeda and with that comes a very wide range mental and physicals abilities. Most of these kids require some form of special education or instruction, and because of this their teachers and even sometimes their own parents, underestimate their abilities. Sometimes they are given too much slack and not expected to do as much as the other kids, and this frustrates me and them because they are capable of so much more. I think it is extremely important, for these kids and all kids, that teachers make instruction meaningful to their students and not just lighten the load for those who are struggling.

Mission to Mars

As a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Major I feel like I am learning so much about children with hearing loss but I am extremely interested in low vision, blind students. I feel like it would be so overwhelming to try and educate students in a way that is fair to them without training in a program like the one here at ISU. I really enjoyed this article because it gave alot of insight into what will not only help a child with low vision, but others as well. Just like so many adaptations to the world around us that benifit everyone but were put in place for those with disabilities. Things like curb cuts...law mandated they were put in for people in wheel chairs but how many of us on bikes and with strollers love curb cuts?!

Im the same way alot of the adaptations we make in a classroom for students with extra needs will benefit all of our students.

Flint, Johnston, and Class Discussion

This week I was able to apply the readings to my reading partners at the Normal Public Library. I have 3 partners and they are all the same age, but each is at a different reading level. One is at grade level, one is above, and one is below. So the readings directly applied to these students. I was able to use them to help me understand and apply the readings. In Johnston, he talked about how students that read below level tend to choose books that are too difficult for them. I have noticed this with my student who is a struggling reader. The books chosen are always above the appropriate level and I end up reading most of the story. I have also noticed that when the students choose a book that pertains to an interest of theirs, they are much more interested in the story and will often interrupt the reading to inform me of more facts about the subject of the story. This is exciting to me because they are so involved in their reading. One thing we discussed in class today was about students who struggle with reading are often immediately asked to "sound out the word". I have found myself doing this all the time with one of my students. This is the go-to response, but in this particular case, I have found that my student is unable to sound out the words, so I become stuck and just fill in the word. This is something that I will have to work on for when I become a teacher. I will need to find strategies that I will be able to use to help students who face a similar situation to this.

Flint Ch 12

I would like to focus my post this week on the Flint reading. (Ch 12)
I noticed initially the statement the "if students are unable to read and write proficiently, their acedemic performance begins to spiral downward quickly." I believe this is true and is why so many students are not identified as having learning disabilities until later grades. Our current system of education depends so much on a student's ability to read and understand as well as to be able to articulate their thoughts and knowledge using the written word.

"motivation can make the differance between learning that is temporary and superficial and learning that is permanent and internalized."
I can see the truth in this in my own academic life.  The learning that occurred in most of my Gen Ed classes where I was not highly motivated was "temporary and superficial" where as much of what I am learning now...I am highly motivated because the material interests me and I know I will need to have all of the things I am learning now in order to teach students...is "permanent and internalized."

A question I intend to pose in class is about all of the intervention programs...I would assume the school that we are teaching out chooses a program that we must follow, I wonder how that will affect us it the program is against our ideas and beliefs about how to help struggling readers develop literacy?

Article on Process Drama

I found the article this week and just the topic of process drama in general to be very interesting. It was interesting in the article that the teacher was using these activities during the literacy block time and how many of the other school authorities did not approve because they did not think that process drama fit within the realm of literacy. I agree with the article and what it points out about how such process drama activities can accomplish many of the same objectives as traditional reading and writing processes but in a more creative and interactive way that probably had even more of a possibility of engaging the student. Process drama can even go beyond what traditional practices can because many of them ask the student to consider plot lines or background stories not explicitly told in the text. I especially liked the ideas that asked students to put themselves in the place of certain characters and think or act as they might. This not only gives student more insight to the character and their role in the story, but also gives students a chance to look at multiple viewpoints and how culture and background intertwine with a character and his/her behavior.

Process Drama

I thought the drama article was very interesting. It is a new strategy that would be a great option to present to students, especially the younger elementary students. They love getting up in front of their classmates and they will have fun in their learning. This may also be a "safer" way for some students to express their real opinions of the reading-they can be a different character so it will be easier for them to express themselves. Also, it is a great assessment tool for teachers. The students will put a lot of effort into a project like this so the teacher will get a real feel for what was comprehended.

I found it helpful to try some of these techniques and connecting them with Esperanza Rising. It not only helped define what Process Drama is, but how it can be effectively used in a classroom setting. This exercise was also helpful because every group had a different idea, so we come away with multiple strategies.

Ray Ch. 6

I am glad to see that Ray is finally explaining how to go about teaching students about writing craft and "reading like a writer". The first thing that I noticed about this was that she says she reads a book over and over with her class to get to know the reading. At first I thought that this was strange, and that the students would probably get bored of hearing the same book, but then I got to thinking about reading with my parents and how we would always read the same books together (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Tacky the Penguin) and they never got old. I think you would have to pick a really great book to pull off reading the book so many times without the students getting bored.

The next thing I wondered when I was reading was what age the students are that she is teaching. It later said that the students were 4th graders. I thought this was interesting because 4th graders do not often read picture books in class (to my knowledge anyway). I'm sure 4th graders would still like being read picture books, but I wonder if they would prefer looking at novels to learn about writing craft. I also started thinking, how could you really do something like this with younger students? Would they be capable of picking out the things that writers do? I think it would be interesting to see this kind of lesson in action, because even though Ray is describing her process in chapter 6, I still would like to see how it could work. I have never been taught this way, as I'm sure none of us have, but I think that this is actually a really cool way to teach writing and to encourage creativity.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm just thinking out loud... but that's exactly what I'm doing. Let me know what you guys think!

Drama Article

I really liked this article because I think that drama can be so helpful to learning. To say that drama literature activities is not technically literature is crazy in my opinion. By ignoring drama, movement, and hands on activities you are ignoring certain children that may not learn very well when only presented with a text to read and thats it. This article reminded me of a literature/drama activity we did in my eighth grade english class. We were reading Shakespeare's The Taming of The Shrew. My teacher had us split off into groups and assigned us different scenes to rewrite in and theme or way we wanted to. As a class we shared and performed our scenes. Once we did that we voted on which theme or modernization technique we liked the best and then as a class we rewrote all the scenes with our theme of choice (we did western!). Administration read our version, The Wranglin' of the Shrew, and liked it so much they made it our spring play! The whole activity was much more enjoyable and beneficial then just simply reading the play and then moving on. I still remember that play to this day, where other things I've read over the years have fallen by the wayside.