blog 10: blook club presentations 3

This, the final day, was the best! But I am a little biased because I was one of the groups presenting. 

Our power point malfunctioned at first and the timed portion of the presentation was not working. After tinkering with it for a bit I gave up and just decided to manually switch the slides. I’m pretty sure our presentation was longer than five minutes but that is ok. We went through a lot of information but I feel we covered the book well. Our activity also went really well, better than we expected.

The second group did really well also. I want to buy their book as well. Their activity was a lot of fun! I would definitely use it in my classroom in the future. We created a KWL chart about sharks: what we knew, what we wanted to learn, and what we did learn. It was really fun to learn that sharks can have up to 100 “pups” in one pregnancy.

Blog 9: book club presentation 2

I watched two more ignite presentations for our book clubs and this time was different than the other two. 

 

For the first group, I liked their activity and their presentation but I wasn’t sold on the book. I was supper busy this week and didn’t have time to post about it right away so I cannot tell you what I liked about the activity, I just remember being lost during the talk and laughing during the activity. 

The second group, I really liked their ignite presentation, so much that I might even buy the book! I loved it! The book was the Lady Bug one and I loved how the author discussed integration of Spanish and talked about activities teachers could do for ELL students. However, their activity was really confusing. Their directions were not that clear and we were a little rushed for time. The directions were to ask questions based off of a giant book; I had no idea what kind of questions to ask, like were we supposed to base them off of the title, the contents, were we supposed to read the book and ask questions off of that? I wasn’t sure.

Blog 8: book club presentation 1

I watched an ignite presentation for the books Practical Poetry and Don’t Forget to Write. Both books seemed very interesting but I think I might actually want to buy Practical Poetry for a lot of reasons. 

1: I love poetry and I think it is a great thing for children to learn to read and produce. 2: from what the presentation said, it looks like it could be filled with a lot of great activities which I am always interested in accruing. And lastly, 3: poetry can be used in other areas besides just English, and I learned that through the ignite talk. This book is definitely one that I was to add to my reading list for break. 

Don’t Forget to Write peaked my interest when I was trying to figure out what book I wanted to use for this project; but I am glad I chose the book that I did. Don’t get me wrong, this seems like a great book. The activity we did was really fun. I really enjoyed bringing out the creative side in ourselves and making up an amazing vacation we would go on (I think my groups was the best!).

blog 7: formulaic writing

I am a little confused about where to start; I know exactly what I want to write about for the later part of the assignment, but not so much for the CCCSS. When I browsed over the CCCSS, all I saw was what to teach in a classroom, and sometimes the structures behind it. But I saw nothing creative within. I guess that is what is being asked, how a teacher would make it imaginative and creative. First off, I really agree with what Mrs. Maier did in her classroom; she created an environment that made reading and writing seem like it is the greatest thing in the world. I want my classroom to be just like hers and I think all classrooms should do the same. I don’t see why not all children don’t already love reading and writing! It is essential and such a beautiful thing life when a child gets the spark from reading and/or writing.

Wiley is warning us about not being able to stray away from the formula and being able to write freely. He states “Formulaic writing of the kind Schaffer advocates forces premature closure on complicated interpretive issues and stifles ongoing exploration. In attempting to take the mystery away from writing and make it more accessible, the formulaic approach winds up hindering students from exploring their ideas, reactions, and interpretations-the rich chaotic mess from which true insight and thoughtfulness can emerge” (64). I do not know if I agree with this because I was able to break away from the formulaic writing, but maybe I am an odd student. However, I could see how children would have a hard time with this; many students do not know how to do something that has not been taught to them.

            When it comes to Wiley, I can completely relate to his article because I was taught the Jane Schaffer method when I was in high school and we used it throughout my AP English classes. This article did give me a better understanding about myself because I realized I was able to transition into non formulaic writing easier than most students and that I had a really good teacher. I like writing the Schaffer way because I the system, I like having a strict way of writing. I understand that it is not ideal for all essays but it is a good place to start.

           

Blog 6: co-authoring classroom texts

I chose these first two pictures because it reminded me of the vast library Mrs. Maier had. The way Joanne Larson discussed how many books the children would read and on average a week and a year astounded me. It also amazed me to hear that the children were reading between 10 and 12 books a night when they took them home in the zip lock bag. I think it is simply amazing what Mrs. Maier has set up for the children and how she grasped their interest in books and turned it into something so much more. Because she was able to have the children read so often – and love doing it – makes me believe that she has forever impacted how they will view reading in high school, college, and for pleasure. I want to be able to install reading into children like she has, so it will be viewed as a happy thing, and not a tedious punishment as some children think.

 

 






 
Writing is such a useful and necessary tool in life, but it is also a way of expressing thoughts, feelings, and imagination. The second picture was chosen because I wanted to talk about the excitement the little boy has when he ran in from the playground, excited to write and share his thoughts. It’s this excitement for reading, writing, and learning that made me want to be a teacher; I love seeing this excitement in the children. When he ran in, I knew I was going to want to read what Mrs. Maier had done in her classroom so I could do the same. I want to be just like her now; I want make the children WANT to read and 
WANT to write and WANT to share their thoughts.

I chose this third picture because it reminded me how Mrs. Maier would walk around the room during writing time and stop to “work with students. She did not pull students to a separate area to talk, but used this opportunity both to instruct individual students in writing directly and to instruct those students sitting at the same table indirectly” (487). I thought this was a very good learning/teaching tool that I should remember. Also, I could not find a picture that portrayed a teacher modeling writing so I figured I would just talk about it here. I have always thought that teaching writing should mainly be done through modeling; it is when I look at an example and compare mine to it when I learn the most, so why not start at young age with this technique? I loved how Mrs. Maier actually wrote in front of her students; she wrote her feelings and her thoughts, showing the students that they should do the same. She gave them the beginning of some sentences to help kick-start their writing, which I also thought was great, and after writing she would read it. Every night she would take their journals home and read what they wrote and respond. This made writing personal and fun for the student. Also, at every major holiday event she would look at every individual student’s work and look at their progress. Wow, I do not know many teachers that would take the time to do that. I enjoyed this reading.