Tech Readings

This was an amazing video! Not only did it send a great message but the way it was done looked really cool! I agree that we need rethink a lot of things because of what the web has become and what technology has become. Seeing all the things we are capable of doing with technology made me realize that I still have a lot to learn.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Blooms Digitally
This was a neat article! There is so much happening in the world of technology and bringing it into the classroom. This definitely requires students to learn an entirely new set of skills. This article brought that to light for me. Re-working Bloom’s Taxonomy and including all the verbs that have to do with technology made me realize how much you need to know to survive in our blooming technological world.

New Versus Old: Which is the Way to Better Learning?
Again, another great article! I have seen a similar situation first hand. I have had experience this year with older teachers who resist using technology because they don’t want to take the time to figure it out. These are the classes that seemed boring, even to me. I think it is important to teach in a way that students are going to learn best. If kids today are good at multitasking, are good at using technology, then I think that is how teachers should teach. The study in this article seems obvious to me. Of course students who are being taught in the way they learn best are going to do better on the test! I don’t want to imply that “older” ways of teaching are bad, they are not; they are just different. At the same time, I also think the older more traditional teacher should talk to other teachers who are comfortable using technology and learn from them. Maybe then they wouldn’t feel so intimidated by it.

Chalk Up another One for Blogging
I have to admit, I am not a fan of blogging… But, after reading this page about why Dan Meyer blogs, I can at least see the benefits of it. I think I resist blogging right now because it is an assignment and we have to blog about certain things which takes me longer than if I were writing about something I want to write about. If I were teaching and choosing to blog about what I am doing, then I may have a different opinion. I could see using a blog as a form of communication with students and even parents. It is an open, public, form of communication, which may have its limitations, but it at least could be used to keep parents informed about what’s going on in the classroom.

Getting the Word Out: Slaying Myths about Video Games
As I read this article, I couldn’t help thinking about the argument that chocolate is a vegetable because it is made from the cocoa bean. I’m not I agree with the idea that World of Warcraft is educational… My brother plays that game for hours at a time, completely cut off from the outside world with his headphone and mic. I think that games can be educational only if that was their purpose for being created. Sure there are games out there like WoW that can teach strategy skills or if we stretch it farther, communication skills, but there is NO way it would ever be approved to use in the classroom to teach those things!

Orchestrating the Media Collage
This article talks about a new kind of literacy; about being able to read and write in different types of media as well as being able to create something using different kinds of media. This article was harder for to follow and understand than the others… I don’t really agree or disagree with anything in this article. It seemed to simply present the facts about how technology is changing the definition of literacy.

Lamott

I haven't done a post about Bird by Bird yet, so that's what I decided to do this time. As I have been reading the book, I was first looking for quotes that I liked for whatever reason. When I read back through those, I didn't see any connection to how they would help me as a teacher. From then on, I have only marked passages that I could apply to kids (which are few and far between, but really great ideas!)

"If you write a long piece, and it is your first, and you are wondering if it's publishable, and it isn't, even by a long shot, someone should tell you this in a way that is gentle and yet not patronizing, so that you are encouraged - maybe not to pursue publication, but to pursue writing. Certainly this person might suggest you get a second opinion. But if he is too strident or adamant, ditch the sucker. Would you stand for someone talking this way to your children - for instance, telling them that they are not a very talented painter and shouldn't even bother? Or that their poetry is not very interesting? Of course not. You'd want to pay this person a little visit with your flamethrower" (Lamott, 169-170).

This idea directly relates to what my vignette is about. It is a teacher's responsibility to help kids learn to write. If they are harsh and say ideas are not good or that the child is not a good writer it will completely defeat them! Of course you want to point out what needs to be fixed, but it needs to be done in a way that is constructive; a way that is also a learning opportunity. This passage also relates to what Routman says in Chapter 9 of Writing Essentials. The chapter is all about conferencing with students and teaching them how they have the tools to be good writers. Children need encouragement in order to feel comfortable taking risks; however it should not get to the point where they are so dependent on it that they need approval at each little step along the way. Showing children that you value their efforts and letting them know gently when something needs to fixed will help develop strong, confident, young writers.

Blog Comment - Learning is Messy: Writing Phones

What a fantastic idea! This is a great way to give each student privacy but at the same time get them listening to how their writing sounds. I may "steal" this idea in the future :)

Structural Analysis

I am going to write about Fox Ch. 6 this week because it intrigued me. Structural analysis comes so naturally to experienced readers and I would never think to explicitly teach it. It makes sense to teach it, but there are so many exceptions to the rules! I saw a lot of exceptions to rules in the section about Syllable Patterns. English is such a complicated language... Why make rules about spelling, grammar, anything when there are just going to be exceptions to every one of them? Every student learns these exceptions but some master them and some don't. I still am never sure if "i" really comes before "e" or not! There is so much to learn and remember when learning the English language. I think it really is a marvel that we all generally turn out ok.

Exceptions aside, I do think it is important to teach Structural Analysis. It give students clues to meaning when they are able to see base words or Greek and Latin roots in longer words. These same elements are also very helpful for younger students who are still working on sounding out words as they read. Compound words are a young reader's best friend! Even if the meaning of the whole word has nothing to do with the meaning of the separate words, those smaller words are still clues to pronunciation. Structural analysis is a more advanced reading strategy but definitely a very useful one.

Added to Cohort Wiki

Free Worksheets I used one of these for my direct instructions lesson for Jean's class. They are all pretty simple, but look like they would get the job done. (http://worksheetplace.com/)


Ideas Galore! I found this when I was searching for thematic unit ideas. They have a ton!!!! Lesson plans are included :) There is a bunch of stuff on this site that I haven't ecplored yet so check it out!!!! It all looks great! (http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/)

Here is a great way to think about division when students are first being introduced to it.




This is a fantastic video from Scholastic about how to structure Reading Workshop. There are many other videos and teaching resources here as well!