I cannot believe that this semester is almost over and that this is our last blog-where did the time go?? If I had to be honest, I am not the biggest fan of writing. I cannot tell you enough, though, how thankful I am that I took this class. I thought I knew all the basic information that I needed to know when it came to the digital world, but I have honestly learned so much more than I ever expected. Before this class, I had never created my own blog before, nor had I ever used Google Documents or Google Reader. After using them, however, I can see how beneficial they are to not only the students in the classroom, but for the teachers as well. I cannot believe I went all this time without using any of these digital tools! Since students nowadays are using more and more technology, I think it was VERY important for me to take this class and learn everything that I needed to know to be up to par with my future students. As a future teacher, I now cannot wait to use these digital tools in my classroom someday. With a little more practice, I will be able to teach any students like me, who have never used any of these tools before.
When looking back on the syllabus to the Student Learning Outcomes, I would have to say that each and every one of them were sufficiently met, in my opinion. When looking at the first outcome, I feel like I was able to receive a clear understanding about each of the genres and how I could teach them to students within the classroom. In some of my other blogs through out the semester, I have gone into more depth on certain genres and the many different things that I had learned that I had never knew before. After this class, I now feel more comfortable going into a classroom and teaching about each of the genres.
The second outcome is something that I have been thinking about a lot more when writing my blogs as well as my genre pieces. I feel like I was one of those students that would always think of the teacher as my audience and no one else. That could be the reason why I never enjoyed writing-I got bored with the same audience! With writing blogs, I had to keep in mind that not only were my peers and teachers going to read and respond to my posts, but there was a possibility of people that I don't even know finding my blog on the web and reading it. That made me write more carefully and gave me more of purpose.
With the fourth outcome, I felt like there was definitely a strong relationship between reading and writing and my view of that relationship blossomed. My writing seemed to change every week depending on the readings assigned to us. Each of the readings had a different tone and purpose, which in turn created a different audience and gave me a different purpose for my writing.
The last outcome I want to talk about is the sixth outcome. Being assigned our individual blogs, working with Google Documents and Google Reader, and having to create a E-portfolio, have helped me blossom in the digital world. If I had not taken this class, I would have never created nor worked with any of these digital tools. Now that I have learned about all of these tools and what they have to offer to students as well as teachers, I can't wait to be able to use them in my future classroom. I still plan on practicing some more with these tools, but I can for sure say that I have a better understanding of everything.
Overall, I thought that this semester was a fun learning experience for me! To think that if I didn't take this class, I wouldn't have been introduced to all of the digital tools that I thought I knew about. This class gave me the knowledge that I needed to know about the digital world so I will be able to use them with the students in my classroom someday, It also was able to give me a deeper understanding on each of the genres and the different ways that I could use them and teach them to my students. I'm sure that there are a lot more tools out there in the digital world and there will be a lot more to learn, but that is why learning is so important-it's a never ending process!
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Entry #11...Overview about the Genres
It's hard to believe that we have completed all of the genre presentations and that we only have four classes left this semester. It seems like just yesterday we started this class and now we are starting to wrap everything up. Walking into this class, I thought I knew each of the genres discussed in Tompkins pretty well. I had my favorites as well as ones that I highly disliked. After some of the presentations, however, I learned that there was a lot more to each genre and some of my feelings actually changed based on those new discoveries.
Before the very first presentation, which was on the descriptive genre, I thought it was all about adding explicit details to your writing. What I didn't know, however, was that the descriptive genre consisted of five techniques: specific information, word choice, sensory image, figurative language, and dialogue. I didn't know that there were these five techniques that writers used to make their writing more descriptive to help readers create a picture in their head. According to Tompkins, "Descriptive writing involves using words to paint a memorable picture and evoke a distinctive mood. Students need to be keen observers, attentive to word choices, and sensory images" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 136). While reading, I came across something that I found to be really important for everyone to remember:even though descriptive writing is found in all of the other genres, it is important to remember that it is its own genre!
During the persuasive genre presentation, it really hit me how much persuasive writing in used in our media nowadays. I guess I never really thought about it that much until Sarah, Kristine, and Regina shared their presentation with the class. When I thought of persuasive writing I thought of testing and how we would have to write a persuasive piece on the state tests sometimes. I also thought of all the debates that we would have to do in class, and that was something that I HATED doing. The one thing that I learned from their presentation was that there are three different ways to persuade the readers:ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), or logos (logic or reason). I never knew that those three ways ever existed! The persuasive genre is used so much everyday that some kids have a difficult time coming up with a longer piece of writing. "Persuasion is a part of everyday life...as students write persuasive letters and essays, they learn to think critically, differentiate between persuasion and propaganda, analyze arguments, and use oral and written language effectively in their appeals" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 252). They see it can be done with just a sentence or a phrase. If they want to back up their arguments, however, they need to be able to share their thoughts verbally as well as on paper.
Before the presentation on the poetry genre, I could definitely say that I highly disliked poetry. I was never good at writing it in school and would always dread that unit. Now, after the presentation, I can now say that my views have changed a little. I used to think of poetry as rhyming or their having to be a certain number of syllables in each line. I always would have trouble trying to say what I needed/wanted to say in my poems. I didn't like the way they turned out and the message I was trying to get out didn't happen because of all the rules there was to follow. I learned, however, that you do not need to follow all those rules in poetry and that you can write however and which ever way you wanted to. It was all up to you! The creativity part of poetry finally makes sense to me now! I'm not saying I love poetry now, but I am for sure going to give it a try now instead of shunning it like I have all of my life.
The genre that I wanted to focus on and learn the most about was the expository genre. I am currently working on this genre with my child from clinic so I wanted to make sure I knew everything I needed to know about it so that I didn't teach any false information and that I knew what I was talking about. I knew that expository text were informational texts, but that was about it. I didn't know that there were five different text structures to this genre:description, sequence, problem-solution, cause and effect, and comparison. Compared to all the other genres, the expository genre is different whereas it is used to give facts and explain information about a certain topic. Since it doesn't tell a story, like most of the other genres do, it does not need to be read from front to back in order to understand what it is about. Looking back, I have read many expository books and even written a few pieces myself if I remember correctly, but not once did I ever realize that the five text structures ever existed!
Overall, I really feel like I understand each of the genres more than what I had before. With all the different examples of activities that my peers presented, I now feel more comfortable and somewhat confident in explaining each of the genres to future students and what they have to offer. I want my future students to be excited about their writing and not just feel like they are writing for a grade and that they have to follow each and every rule to get that grade. My goal is to have them enjoy it! "Writing is a process, not just a final product" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 226).
Tompkins, G. E. (2012). Teaching writing: balancing process and product. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Before the very first presentation, which was on the descriptive genre, I thought it was all about adding explicit details to your writing. What I didn't know, however, was that the descriptive genre consisted of five techniques: specific information, word choice, sensory image, figurative language, and dialogue. I didn't know that there were these five techniques that writers used to make their writing more descriptive to help readers create a picture in their head. According to Tompkins, "Descriptive writing involves using words to paint a memorable picture and evoke a distinctive mood. Students need to be keen observers, attentive to word choices, and sensory images" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 136). While reading, I came across something that I found to be really important for everyone to remember:even though descriptive writing is found in all of the other genres, it is important to remember that it is its own genre!
During the persuasive genre presentation, it really hit me how much persuasive writing in used in our media nowadays. I guess I never really thought about it that much until Sarah, Kristine, and Regina shared their presentation with the class. When I thought of persuasive writing I thought of testing and how we would have to write a persuasive piece on the state tests sometimes. I also thought of all the debates that we would have to do in class, and that was something that I HATED doing. The one thing that I learned from their presentation was that there are three different ways to persuade the readers:ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), or logos (logic or reason). I never knew that those three ways ever existed! The persuasive genre is used so much everyday that some kids have a difficult time coming up with a longer piece of writing. "Persuasion is a part of everyday life...as students write persuasive letters and essays, they learn to think critically, differentiate between persuasion and propaganda, analyze arguments, and use oral and written language effectively in their appeals" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 252). They see it can be done with just a sentence or a phrase. If they want to back up their arguments, however, they need to be able to share their thoughts verbally as well as on paper.
Before the presentation on the poetry genre, I could definitely say that I highly disliked poetry. I was never good at writing it in school and would always dread that unit. Now, after the presentation, I can now say that my views have changed a little. I used to think of poetry as rhyming or their having to be a certain number of syllables in each line. I always would have trouble trying to say what I needed/wanted to say in my poems. I didn't like the way they turned out and the message I was trying to get out didn't happen because of all the rules there was to follow. I learned, however, that you do not need to follow all those rules in poetry and that you can write however and which ever way you wanted to. It was all up to you! The creativity part of poetry finally makes sense to me now! I'm not saying I love poetry now, but I am for sure going to give it a try now instead of shunning it like I have all of my life.
The genre that I wanted to focus on and learn the most about was the expository genre. I am currently working on this genre with my child from clinic so I wanted to make sure I knew everything I needed to know about it so that I didn't teach any false information and that I knew what I was talking about. I knew that expository text were informational texts, but that was about it. I didn't know that there were five different text structures to this genre:description, sequence, problem-solution, cause and effect, and comparison. Compared to all the other genres, the expository genre is different whereas it is used to give facts and explain information about a certain topic. Since it doesn't tell a story, like most of the other genres do, it does not need to be read from front to back in order to understand what it is about. Looking back, I have read many expository books and even written a few pieces myself if I remember correctly, but not once did I ever realize that the five text structures ever existed!
Overall, I really feel like I understand each of the genres more than what I had before. With all the different examples of activities that my peers presented, I now feel more comfortable and somewhat confident in explaining each of the genres to future students and what they have to offer. I want my future students to be excited about their writing and not just feel like they are writing for a grade and that they have to follow each and every rule to get that grade. My goal is to have them enjoy it! "Writing is a process, not just a final product" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 226).
Tompkins, G. E. (2012). Teaching writing: balancing process and product. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
"Bless, Press, and Address"...Entry #10
When reading through some of my peers blogs, I really felt like I could relate a lot to Alyse's entry #9 about poems. I really liked how she talked about her dislike for poems and that she has hated writing them ever since high school because of bad experiences with them. Her view on them, however, changed once she was introduced to the different ways of writing them during Jaci and Lexi's presentation on poetry last Wednesday. I too, never liked poetry and could never think of a "creative" way to write them like my teachers wanted me to. There were always too many rules to follow and I always feared that mine would turn out all wrong and not be what the teacher was asking for. What I wanted to say would never fit into the lines or space that the rules for the poem asked for. I hated it. For this reason, I want to bless Alyse's entry #9.
Once I reached college, I started to see poems that were written freely and to me weren't really poems at all. I grew up thinking that poems had to rhyme or have a certain number of syllables in each line, so when I read poems that didn't follow the rules I was taught I brushed them off. I didn't think poems could be written like that and if they were I didn't think of them as poetry. My teachers in elementary school had brainwashed me! They taught me about poems that had all these rules and if there was a syllable missed or if lines two and four didn't rhyme, then points were marked off. They didn't seem to care so much about the meaning or the message behind the poem, we just HAD to follow the rules! If we only knew that we could write poems freely and address what we wanted to say, then maybe I, along with many others, would have enjoyed poetry. "When students know how to write poems and use poetic devices, they can create vivid word pictures, powerful images, an touching emotional expressions" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 156). Maybe I could have created some really amazing poems if there wasn't so many rules to follow.
After Jaci and Lexi's presentation last Wednesday, I looked at poetry in a whole new light. I now understand that poetry doesn't need to consist of all these rules that we learned about. It can be about whatever you want and written however you want to get the message out to people. That's where the creativity comes from. As Tompkins states, "Poets choose words carefully and structure lines and stanzas in creative ways" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 156). I wish teachers would teach this to students early on so they can learn to enjoy poetry and writing it unlike myself and many others I know. It has been proven that when given a choice and freedom on what to write about, students produce better pieces. I just wish we were given that choice growing up.
Tompkins, G. E. (2012). Teaching writing: balancing process and product. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Once I reached college, I started to see poems that were written freely and to me weren't really poems at all. I grew up thinking that poems had to rhyme or have a certain number of syllables in each line, so when I read poems that didn't follow the rules I was taught I brushed them off. I didn't think poems could be written like that and if they were I didn't think of them as poetry. My teachers in elementary school had brainwashed me! They taught me about poems that had all these rules and if there was a syllable missed or if lines two and four didn't rhyme, then points were marked off. They didn't seem to care so much about the meaning or the message behind the poem, we just HAD to follow the rules! If we only knew that we could write poems freely and address what we wanted to say, then maybe I, along with many others, would have enjoyed poetry. "When students know how to write poems and use poetic devices, they can create vivid word pictures, powerful images, an touching emotional expressions" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 156). Maybe I could have created some really amazing poems if there wasn't so many rules to follow.
After Jaci and Lexi's presentation last Wednesday, I looked at poetry in a whole new light. I now understand that poetry doesn't need to consist of all these rules that we learned about. It can be about whatever you want and written however you want to get the message out to people. That's where the creativity comes from. As Tompkins states, "Poets choose words carefully and structure lines and stanzas in creative ways" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 156). I wish teachers would teach this to students early on so they can learn to enjoy poetry and writing it unlike myself and many others I know. It has been proven that when given a choice and freedom on what to write about, students produce better pieces. I just wish we were given that choice growing up.
Tompkins, G. E. (2012). Teaching writing: balancing process and product. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Entry #9...Expository Genre
For a few weeks now, I have been reading articles, tradebooks, and chapter 9 in Tompkins about the expository genre for our Teaching the Genre presentation. I am actually working on expository texts and writing with my student in clinic for my TARP, which was my reason for choosing this genre. I wanted to know everything I needed to know about expository text to help me in clinic and with my TARP as well. Before reading about the genre, all I thought of when I thought of expository text was information. I had no clue about all the text structures included, and all the different features included to help the reader tell if the book is expository.
Tompkins talks about the characteristics of the expository genre in chapter 9. With expository writing, the writers focus on a single topic, they use text structures to organize their writing, and also use cue words to help guide the readers through the reading. Writers also use nonfiction features as well as formatting that is reader friendly to help guide the readers through the book. Tompkins states that, "when writers are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their topics and organize their ideas logically, their writing is more effective" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 202).
Tompkins goes onto explain and describe the five text structures involved with the expository genre. These fives text structures include: description, sequence, comparison, cause and effect, as well as problem and solution. Before reading this chapter, I had no idea that these text structures actually existed within this genre. There is so much more to it than I ever thought. The one piece of information that Tompkins mentioned that I found very interesting was no to confuse the description text structure with the descriptive writing genre. In this text structure, writers describe a topic by listing the characteristics and features of the topic, whereas, the descriptive genre focuses on adding sensory words and figurative language to make the topic come alive (Tompkins, 2012). Once these new text structures are learned, writers use their new knowledge to write nonfiction books. Working with a student who has a difficult time with writing, I did not introduce all the text structures to him at one time. I decided to work on one at a time, starting with the description text structure. Knowing all of this information at once would just scare him away from writing even more than he already is.
Many times students read informational books without even knowing it. If a student has trouble selecting a book in this genre, Tompkins talks about some of the features to look for when trying to decide if a book is an expository book or not. Some features to look for include: a table of contents, heading and subheadings, a glossary, and an index (Tompkins, 2012). Because of the way informational books are organized, readers do not need to read them from front to back to understand it. They can use the different features in the book to look up the information they want to focus on and jump to that part of the book. No matter how they choose to read the book, they will be able to understand the topic of the book.
After reading about the genre and learning lots of new information that I was not aware of before, I plan on using some of the examples that Tompkins talked about in my own classroom someday. I really like Tompkins idea about the "All About...Books". I feel like they could be modified for any grade levels, but I particularly like them for an elementary classroom during writing. Students usually draw a picture and then write a sentence or two about it. They end up creating a booklet, which turns into their own story. I actually used this with a student that I worked with in the past and I feel like it helped motivate him to write. He did an "All About Me" book and it told the readers things about him. He was really proud of himself and very excited to share it with others.
Now that I have learned more about the expository genre and different ways that I can teach it and use it in the classroom, I am excited to try it someday. I think I would want to introduce the five different text structures one at a time so that it is not so overwhelming to students who don't enjoy reading or writing. That is the method I am taking now and it seems to be working ok. I also would like to use the "All About..Books" since I have had good experiences with them in the past. I feel like students are more motivated to write when its something that they want to write about. Choice is everything to them. They have to have an interest.
Tompkins, G. E. (2012). Teaching writing: balancing process and product. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Tompkins talks about the characteristics of the expository genre in chapter 9. With expository writing, the writers focus on a single topic, they use text structures to organize their writing, and also use cue words to help guide the readers through the reading. Writers also use nonfiction features as well as formatting that is reader friendly to help guide the readers through the book. Tompkins states that, "when writers are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their topics and organize their ideas logically, their writing is more effective" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 202).
Tompkins goes onto explain and describe the five text structures involved with the expository genre. These fives text structures include: description, sequence, comparison, cause and effect, as well as problem and solution. Before reading this chapter, I had no idea that these text structures actually existed within this genre. There is so much more to it than I ever thought. The one piece of information that Tompkins mentioned that I found very interesting was no to confuse the description text structure with the descriptive writing genre. In this text structure, writers describe a topic by listing the characteristics and features of the topic, whereas, the descriptive genre focuses on adding sensory words and figurative language to make the topic come alive (Tompkins, 2012). Once these new text structures are learned, writers use their new knowledge to write nonfiction books. Working with a student who has a difficult time with writing, I did not introduce all the text structures to him at one time. I decided to work on one at a time, starting with the description text structure. Knowing all of this information at once would just scare him away from writing even more than he already is.
Many times students read informational books without even knowing it. If a student has trouble selecting a book in this genre, Tompkins talks about some of the features to look for when trying to decide if a book is an expository book or not. Some features to look for include: a table of contents, heading and subheadings, a glossary, and an index (Tompkins, 2012). Because of the way informational books are organized, readers do not need to read them from front to back to understand it. They can use the different features in the book to look up the information they want to focus on and jump to that part of the book. No matter how they choose to read the book, they will be able to understand the topic of the book.
After reading about the genre and learning lots of new information that I was not aware of before, I plan on using some of the examples that Tompkins talked about in my own classroom someday. I really like Tompkins idea about the "All About...Books". I feel like they could be modified for any grade levels, but I particularly like them for an elementary classroom during writing. Students usually draw a picture and then write a sentence or two about it. They end up creating a booklet, which turns into their own story. I actually used this with a student that I worked with in the past and I feel like it helped motivate him to write. He did an "All About Me" book and it told the readers things about him. He was really proud of himself and very excited to share it with others.
Now that I have learned more about the expository genre and different ways that I can teach it and use it in the classroom, I am excited to try it someday. I think I would want to introduce the five different text structures one at a time so that it is not so overwhelming to students who don't enjoy reading or writing. That is the method I am taking now and it seems to be working ok. I also would like to use the "All About..Books" since I have had good experiences with them in the past. I feel like students are more motivated to write when its something that they want to write about. Choice is everything to them. They have to have an interest.
Tompkins, G. E. (2012). Teaching writing: balancing process and product. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
"Bless, Address, or Press"
For this weeks entry, I would like to bless Alyse's entry "A Fluke". I really appreciate and can relate with the fact how hard it is to find the time to keep a balance between everything going on in your life. I have felt and overwhelming amount of stress with trying to balance the amount of homework and assignments and also with keeping a clean house, dinner on the table, making sure my fourteen month old son is cared for and played with, and also that I am maintaining a healthy relationship with my family and friends. It has been a lot on my plate and it has been starting to show now more than ever. I sometimes get so stressed that there is not enough time in the day to get everything done that I have been taking it out on others, and it is not ok.
I can also relate with Jacki's Entry #8 when she also talked about struggling with blogging. I have been finding it difficult in finding the motivation to write my blogs. I feel as though blogging was something totally different than what I am experiencing now. I thought that it was more like a journal where we would be able to free write, where WE were our own audience. With each entry I write, however, I have found that I was wrong. I always seem to be missing something in my blogs and I just can't seem to fix whatever is missing. Anytime I write now, I expect something to be missing and it makes me not look forward my next entry. Hopefully I will be able to get past these feeling so I can have the motivation to write my blogs each week.
I would also like to bless Kristine's entry on March 5th. She talks about her negative experiences with professors and how they would provide negative comments on almost all of her assignments she got back. I could definitely relate with her frustration and how discouraging it could be experiencing this with every assignment. I myself have had experiences with a few professors that no matter what you do, nothing you did was what he/she wanted. It made me dread completing any assignments because I knew what I would see when I got it back-a bunch of marks all over my paper. It was really frustrating because it made me feel like nothing I could do was right. This leads me to agree with Kristine in that teachers should provide 2 positive comments for every negative comment they place on a paper. As a teacher, that is something that I want to make sure I do. I don't want my students to ever feel the frustrations I have when it comes to writing. I want them to be able to enjoy it and I want my comments to help them rather then hurt them emotionally.
I guess I really didn't have one person to bless, address, or press. As I starting writing, I realized there were a lot of other entries that I could mention. I think that everyone brings up some really good points and issues, but these were just a few that stood out to me.
I can also relate with Jacki's Entry #8 when she also talked about struggling with blogging. I have been finding it difficult in finding the motivation to write my blogs. I feel as though blogging was something totally different than what I am experiencing now. I thought that it was more like a journal where we would be able to free write, where WE were our own audience. With each entry I write, however, I have found that I was wrong. I always seem to be missing something in my blogs and I just can't seem to fix whatever is missing. Anytime I write now, I expect something to be missing and it makes me not look forward my next entry. Hopefully I will be able to get past these feeling so I can have the motivation to write my blogs each week.
I would also like to bless Kristine's entry on March 5th. She talks about her negative experiences with professors and how they would provide negative comments on almost all of her assignments she got back. I could definitely relate with her frustration and how discouraging it could be experiencing this with every assignment. I myself have had experiences with a few professors that no matter what you do, nothing you did was what he/she wanted. It made me dread completing any assignments because I knew what I would see when I got it back-a bunch of marks all over my paper. It was really frustrating because it made me feel like nothing I could do was right. This leads me to agree with Kristine in that teachers should provide 2 positive comments for every negative comment they place on a paper. As a teacher, that is something that I want to make sure I do. I don't want my students to ever feel the frustrations I have when it comes to writing. I want them to be able to enjoy it and I want my comments to help them rather then hurt them emotionally.
I guess I really didn't have one person to bless, address, or press. As I starting writing, I realized there were a lot of other entries that I could mention. I think that everyone brings up some really good points and issues, but these were just a few that stood out to me.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Entry #7
Over the last two weeks, I have been doing a lot of work on the Teaching the Genre presentation. My genre is on expository text and every article that I have read has talked about how important learning to read expository text is for a child's comprehension. They push teachers to introduce expository text to students as early as possible in their reading careers so that they will be able to develop the skills that they need to learn from such texts (Gregg & Carver-Sekeres, 2006). Children seem to enjoy reading these kinds of texts, so why are we seeing so few children reading informational texts within our classrooms? Why not have them available and make it a habit to read these kinds of books if we know our students are interested in them?
One of the articles that I read talked about the importance of direct instruction and how it is essential if teachers want students to become good readers of expository text (Gregg & Carver-Sekeres, 2006). Teachers need to be able to plan their instruction very carefully, by making sure to pay attention to three main things: building and activating background knowledge, teaching new vocabulary, and scaffolding. I feel that background knowledge is something that can be very easy to teach. I know that a lot of students come from different background and may not have the same amount of background knowledge as other members in the class, but all a teacher would have to do is build on their knowledge by teaching that student about the topic or having their peers teach them what they know so that they too can add that information into their background knowledge for the future. With informational text, there is frequently going to be new vocabulary within the readings, which is why it is most important for the teacher to teach any of these unknown words. The more practice and access students have with these kind of texts helps them learn to process information in new and different ways during their readings.
Another article that I read talked again about the lack of direct instruction on comprehension strategies and how important it is for a child's comprehension. It talked about the importance of teaching student's the text structure of expository text and how it would have a positive effect on reading comprehension. The author says that, "expository text structure awareness is one reading comprehension strategy that should be explicitly and systematically taught" (Dymock, 2005, p.177). I feel like the author makes a great point about teachers needing to take the time to teach the text structures of an expository text and how they are different from others. They need to understand that you do not need to read the text from front to back in order to understand it. Once students understand the text structure, it will in turn help them better understand the text and will improve their comprehension of expository texts. I, myself, actually learned about the two different kinds of text structures: descriptive and sequential. These both were new to me. I learned that the descriptive structures focus on the attributes of something, whereas the sequential structure focuses on a series of events that progress over time.
After reading different articles about how important teaching students about expository text is and how it can improve their reading comprehension, I want to be sure to include it in my future classroom someday. I want to be able to provide my students with informational books in the classroom that they will be able to read and become familiar with. I will also make it a point to read these kinds of books with them, in case some students don't take it upon themselves to read them on their own. The most important thing that I want to make sure I do is to teach my students the expository text structures so that it will help them better understand the books during their readings.
One of the articles that I read talked about the importance of direct instruction and how it is essential if teachers want students to become good readers of expository text (Gregg & Carver-Sekeres, 2006). Teachers need to be able to plan their instruction very carefully, by making sure to pay attention to three main things: building and activating background knowledge, teaching new vocabulary, and scaffolding. I feel that background knowledge is something that can be very easy to teach. I know that a lot of students come from different background and may not have the same amount of background knowledge as other members in the class, but all a teacher would have to do is build on their knowledge by teaching that student about the topic or having their peers teach them what they know so that they too can add that information into their background knowledge for the future. With informational text, there is frequently going to be new vocabulary within the readings, which is why it is most important for the teacher to teach any of these unknown words. The more practice and access students have with these kind of texts helps them learn to process information in new and different ways during their readings.
Another article that I read talked again about the lack of direct instruction on comprehension strategies and how important it is for a child's comprehension. It talked about the importance of teaching student's the text structure of expository text and how it would have a positive effect on reading comprehension. The author says that, "expository text structure awareness is one reading comprehension strategy that should be explicitly and systematically taught" (Dymock, 2005, p.177). I feel like the author makes a great point about teachers needing to take the time to teach the text structures of an expository text and how they are different from others. They need to understand that you do not need to read the text from front to back in order to understand it. Once students understand the text structure, it will in turn help them better understand the text and will improve their comprehension of expository texts. I, myself, actually learned about the two different kinds of text structures: descriptive and sequential. These both were new to me. I learned that the descriptive structures focus on the attributes of something, whereas the sequential structure focuses on a series of events that progress over time.
After reading different articles about how important teaching students about expository text is and how it can improve their reading comprehension, I want to be sure to include it in my future classroom someday. I want to be able to provide my students with informational books in the classroom that they will be able to read and become familiar with. I will also make it a point to read these kinds of books with them, in case some students don't take it upon themselves to read them on their own. The most important thing that I want to make sure I do is to teach my students the expository text structures so that it will help them better understand the books during their readings.
Dymock,
S. (2005). Teaching expository text structure awareness. The Reading Teacher, 59(2), 177-
181.
Gregg,
M. & Carver-Sekeres, D. (2006). Supporting children’s reading of expository
text in the geography classroom. The Reading Teacher, 60(2), 102-110.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Teacher's Comments on Student Assisgnments
Reading some of my peer's blogs, I would have to agree with Nicole with the fact that it has been sometimes hard to write some of these blogs considering I do not have my own classroom at the moment. It is kind of unrealistic in a sense to think of my "dream" classroom and what I would do in it. I don't know the kind of classroom I will have down the road let alone the kind of children that will fill it. So it is difficult to think of the different things that I would do with the children in my future classroom. However, as someone who has always been discouraged by the pen marks all over my paper, I found Sommers' article to be very appealing and something that I could relate with. Having experience with the topic, I could at least talk about what I would do in the future, based on the experiences that I have had as a student myself.
Every time I would have a paper returned to me, whether it be in elementary school, high school, or college, I would always look at the amount of writing on the paper before actually reading the comments. I didn't read whether they were positive or negative comments, I just looked at the amount of red pen on my paper. I thought that if there was a lot of marks then that meant I did something wrong, which would make me upset and it made me feel like I was a poor writer. After reading the article by Sommers, however, I realized that not all comments are have to be negative and that teachers should have a balance of positive and negative comments. This way the teacher doesn't make the student feel like there writing isn't good enough and scare the student away from writing.
As a future teacher, I don't want my students to feel the way that I would feel every time I would get a paper returned to me. I want my students to be able to benefit from the comments that I leave on their papers by making any changes that I may suggest to better their writing. However, I want to also make it a point to write positive comments on their papers as well. I don't ever want my students to get so discouraged with my comments on their papers that they are too nervous to hand in any pieces of writing in fear of what I will say to them. My goal as a teacher will be to create a balance of positive an negative comments so that my students will learn to enjoy writing instead of fearing it like I sometimes still do.
Every time I would have a paper returned to me, whether it be in elementary school, high school, or college, I would always look at the amount of writing on the paper before actually reading the comments. I didn't read whether they were positive or negative comments, I just looked at the amount of red pen on my paper. I thought that if there was a lot of marks then that meant I did something wrong, which would make me upset and it made me feel like I was a poor writer. After reading the article by Sommers, however, I realized that not all comments are have to be negative and that teachers should have a balance of positive and negative comments. This way the teacher doesn't make the student feel like there writing isn't good enough and scare the student away from writing.
As a future teacher, I don't want my students to feel the way that I would feel every time I would get a paper returned to me. I want my students to be able to benefit from the comments that I leave on their papers by making any changes that I may suggest to better their writing. However, I want to also make it a point to write positive comments on their papers as well. I don't ever want my students to get so discouraged with my comments on their papers that they are too nervous to hand in any pieces of writing in fear of what I will say to them. My goal as a teacher will be to create a balance of positive an negative comments so that my students will learn to enjoy writing instead of fearing it like I sometimes still do.
Sommers,
N. (1982). Responding to student
writing. College Composition and
Communication,
33(2), 148-156.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Class so far...
Dear Dr. Jones,
Class so far is going great! I signed up for this class because it was the only elective that I had left to take and to be honest I wasn't too excited to take it. I have never been a big fan of writing, it just has never came easy to me. So at the start of this class I didn't really know what to expect because of my past feelings about writing. However, being over a month into this class, I couldn't be more pleased with what this class has to offer. I have never had so much freedom to write about whatever and however we wanted to. It allows me to enjoy the writing more, which I feel helps to improve my writing overall.
Over the past few weeks that we have been in class I have learned so much already and have enjoyed every minute of it! Although I have heard about blogs I have never used them before so everything was new to me. I have learned how to set up blogs as well as post and respond to others. Now that I have learned how to do them it is something that I can see myself using in the future-not only for myself, but with my students in the future as well. However, the one major thing that I found most interesting so far is the challenge that Hicks makes against the definition of writing. He tells us that we should think of writers not merely as writers, but as composers as well. He talk about photo-essays as being a form of writing, which I disagree with. I feel that writing should be visual letters written on paper instead of a bunch of picture put together to tell a story. However, I feel that if we add some writing to our pictures or if we add pictures or even podcasts into our writing, writers can be thought of composers and writers all in one.
When I write, I tend to do a lot of thinking to make sure I get everything that is needed or that I want to say down on paper. I think that I sometimes over think, which I feel could be the reason why I have always had trouble when it comes to writing. I tend to edit and revise as much as possible while I write, when I should be focusing on the flow of the writing and the content. One thing that I feel that I need to work on more is my prewriting. I need to plan better about the topics that I plan to write about since 70 percent of writing is spent on the prewriting part. That is one thing that I have never spent much time on, which has probably been my biggest weakness when it comes to my writing.
Blogging and wikis are two strategies that we have been taught that I feel will be very beneficial to use as a teacher of literacy. I want my students to have the change to learn from other people's writings and responses to their writings. They could share their thoughts and ideas with others and make changes to their writings if they feel the need to based on the feedback they receive from their peers as well as their teacher. Wikis will also provide my students the opportunity to work collaboratively with one another on writing tasks, which I feel is an important thing to be able to do.
Overall, I really wouldn't say that I am struggling in any certain area. I definitely think that I need to continue working on everything that we have learned about this semester so far, considering it is pretty much all new to me. The more practice I am able to get, the better I will become at everything that is new to me.
Sincerely,
Krista Urbanczyk
Class so far is going great! I signed up for this class because it was the only elective that I had left to take and to be honest I wasn't too excited to take it. I have never been a big fan of writing, it just has never came easy to me. So at the start of this class I didn't really know what to expect because of my past feelings about writing. However, being over a month into this class, I couldn't be more pleased with what this class has to offer. I have never had so much freedom to write about whatever and however we wanted to. It allows me to enjoy the writing more, which I feel helps to improve my writing overall.
Over the past few weeks that we have been in class I have learned so much already and have enjoyed every minute of it! Although I have heard about blogs I have never used them before so everything was new to me. I have learned how to set up blogs as well as post and respond to others. Now that I have learned how to do them it is something that I can see myself using in the future-not only for myself, but with my students in the future as well. However, the one major thing that I found most interesting so far is the challenge that Hicks makes against the definition of writing. He tells us that we should think of writers not merely as writers, but as composers as well. He talk about photo-essays as being a form of writing, which I disagree with. I feel that writing should be visual letters written on paper instead of a bunch of picture put together to tell a story. However, I feel that if we add some writing to our pictures or if we add pictures or even podcasts into our writing, writers can be thought of composers and writers all in one.
When I write, I tend to do a lot of thinking to make sure I get everything that is needed or that I want to say down on paper. I think that I sometimes over think, which I feel could be the reason why I have always had trouble when it comes to writing. I tend to edit and revise as much as possible while I write, when I should be focusing on the flow of the writing and the content. One thing that I feel that I need to work on more is my prewriting. I need to plan better about the topics that I plan to write about since 70 percent of writing is spent on the prewriting part. That is one thing that I have never spent much time on, which has probably been my biggest weakness when it comes to my writing.
Blogging and wikis are two strategies that we have been taught that I feel will be very beneficial to use as a teacher of literacy. I want my students to have the change to learn from other people's writings and responses to their writings. They could share their thoughts and ideas with others and make changes to their writings if they feel the need to based on the feedback they receive from their peers as well as their teacher. Wikis will also provide my students the opportunity to work collaboratively with one another on writing tasks, which I feel is an important thing to be able to do.
Overall, I really wouldn't say that I am struggling in any certain area. I definitely think that I need to continue working on everything that we have learned about this semester so far, considering it is pretty much all new to me. The more practice I am able to get, the better I will become at everything that is new to me.
Sincerely,
Krista Urbanczyk
Learning and Incorporating Blogs and Wikis into the Classroom
Before last semester, I had never used, let alone heard of a wiki before. We had to use them in an online class that I was taking. I enjoyed being able to see everyone's thoughts and writings about each of the topics that we were given. Wikis allowed us to put our writings together and allowed us to give our peers different ideas for their writing. Since I have only used wikis once, I'm sure that I don't know everything there is to know about them just after one semester, which makes me want to work with them more in order to learn more about them. The more that I learn about wikis now, the better I will be able to help students in my future classrooms learn how to use them as well so that they can collaborate with their peers on different writing pieces. I want my students to have the chance to read others writings and be able to give them their ideas about their writing. And since every update you make to your writing is saved, it makes it easy for students to go back to anything they need to so that they can see what they previously wrote.
Another digital tool that I have had little to no practice with are blogs. Yes, I have heard of blogs before, but before this semester I have never used blogging before. In the beginning of this class, I had a few glitches with blogger since it was the first time that I had ever used it. However, I am finally starting to figure it all out and I am actually starting to see all the benefits that blogging can have for both students and teachers when it comes to writing workshop. I enjoy being able to continue my writing at home and then posting it so that others can read it and comment on it with their own thoughts and ideas. It also allows the teacher extra time to read every students writing on their own time and give the student feedback just like they would in a face-to-face conference. As Hicks says on p. 37, by having writings and responses captured digitally it "provides a permanence that talk during a face-to-face conference does not". It also allows us to pause and reflect on what others have to say. From the time I have spent so far blogging, I could really see myself using this in my future classrooms. I think that it is a great idea to have everything electronically saved so that it is easy to access it whenever needed. The best thing that I found that I like about blogs so far is that as soon as you post it, it is date stamped so that it is easy to find in the future if necessary.
In the past two semesters, I have learned about how to use two new digital tools. I think that they are both very valuable and beneficial to both students and teachers and they are both something that I want to incorporate into my classrooms someday. When it comes to writing workshop, I would for the most part like to give my students the freedom to choose the topics that they want to write about so it will drive them to better writing. I would encourage my students to look at others writings and post their thoughts and any ideas that they may have for their peers. I will want my students to take part in collaborative writing as well and to do this I would post weekly wikis that the students would be responsible for completing. I feel very excited about trying this in my own classroom someday and I can't wait to be able to do so.
Hicks, T. (2009). The digital writing workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Journals within the Classroom
Looking back, I never really enjoyed writing in journals when I was in school. To me it was just busy work to give the teachers some extra time to do something that they needed to do. I didn't really see the point of it at the time. However, as a future teacher and with the amount of education that I have received since then, I now have a totally different prospective on journal writing.
If I ever taught in the upper grades, I would want to have them use wikis or blogs as their journals. I would want to be able to assign work that they would have to do on their own at home. I would expect my students to read their peers writing and comment on it and give them ideas on how they could make their writing even better. In the upper grade levels, I find collaboration with peers to be very important and for me wikis and blogs are a way to make that happen in any classroom. It also allows me to revise or interact with my students while at home and it saves time spent meeting with students face-to-face,which can be very time consuming.
Written journals and digital journals both have their advantages and disadvantages for everyone, but for me they are most definitely something that I plan and want to incorporate in my classroom someday. Funny how the years and knowledge helped to change the way I felt about journals!
When I get my own classroom someday, I definitely want to incorporate journal writing in my daily instruction. I plan to use a variety of journal writing methods: personal journals, dialogue journals, and depending on the grade level I am teaching I may introduce digital journals, like wikis or blogs. I feel like each of these types of journals have many advantages that I would like to have in my classroom.
By using personal journals or dialogue journals, it allows the student the freedom to write about anything that they want, as long as the teacher doesn't give the students a specific topic to write about. The students know that anything they say in their journals stay between the teacher and the student, so they are free to say whatever they want or feel. With dialogue journals, teachers can write back and fourth to the student and they are able to have an ongoing conversation. It is also a way for the teacher to get to know the student better and create a personal trusting relationship with the student. There are a lot of kids out there that don't have many people to talk to or feel safe talking to nowadays, so it is important to me to incorporate these journals into my classroom so that my students will be able to talk to me about things that they are normally would not talk about.
Written journals and digital journals both have their advantages and disadvantages for everyone, but for me they are most definitely something that I plan and want to incorporate in my classroom someday. Funny how the years and knowledge helped to change the way I felt about journals!
Digital Writing Workshop
Thinking back on the last classroom that I was in I would have to say that there were a variety of different individuals among the students that I had. I remember that they were separated into two different groups: the green class, which were the lower level students and the gold class, which were the more advanced group of students. Knowing the levels of all the students and what they were capable of, I knew that my green class would struggle with the digital world if I made it available to them. A lot of the students in the green class also came from a lower socio economic status so they had very little access and experience with computers. The gold class, however, knew how to do pod casts. For some of our projects that were required within the grade level, the computers were necessary for all students. They needed to be able to look up information and create a paper, or more, afterwords. The gold class had no problems with this project, however, when supervising the green class during this project, I found a lot of them stuck or playing with other things on the computer. I found it extremely helpful having four adults in the classroom because we were all able to walk around and assist the students with their projects on the computer.
The one thing that we had in place in order to begin our digital writing workshop was a classroom set of laptops. The computers were shared within the grade level so they weren't for our classroom personally, but it was very useful to rent out the cart and have each student have their own computer to work on within the classroom. There was no need to travel down to the computer lab or the library to work on our writing pieces every time we needed to write. We were able to stay right in the classroom and work with the students individually in a more comforting environment for them. I also seemed to notice that it was a lot less distracting staying in the classroom and working then if we had been working in the computer lab or the library.
Since I had two very different groups of students who were at two very different levels, it was hard to allow one group to do one thing when my other group couldn't. Even though my gold group was capable of creating a pod casts or a blog page for example, I didn't want my green class to wonder why the other class got to do those things when they couldn't. I just knew that at the level that they were at, that they weren't ready to learn how to create those type of things on the computer. Looking back, in order to make the digital writing workshop more successful, I would need more time with those students so that I could spend the time teaching the digital world to my green class. I would have loved to teach them how to create a blog page so that they could go online and write journals to me about the books that we read. I would have also liked to posts wikis so that I could have posted questions for homework that they would have had to go answer. I feel that if I would have had more time to accomplish this with my green class then I wouldn't have had to hold the gold class back and my digital writing workshop could have been successful.
The one thing that we had in place in order to begin our digital writing workshop was a classroom set of laptops. The computers were shared within the grade level so they weren't for our classroom personally, but it was very useful to rent out the cart and have each student have their own computer to work on within the classroom. There was no need to travel down to the computer lab or the library to work on our writing pieces every time we needed to write. We were able to stay right in the classroom and work with the students individually in a more comforting environment for them. I also seemed to notice that it was a lot less distracting staying in the classroom and working then if we had been working in the computer lab or the library.
Since I had two very different groups of students who were at two very different levels, it was hard to allow one group to do one thing when my other group couldn't. Even though my gold group was capable of creating a pod casts or a blog page for example, I didn't want my green class to wonder why the other class got to do those things when they couldn't. I just knew that at the level that they were at, that they weren't ready to learn how to create those type of things on the computer. Looking back, in order to make the digital writing workshop more successful, I would need more time with those students so that I could spend the time teaching the digital world to my green class. I would have loved to teach them how to create a blog page so that they could go online and write journals to me about the books that we read. I would have also liked to posts wikis so that I could have posted questions for homework that they would have had to go answer. I feel that if I would have had more time to accomplish this with my green class then I wouldn't have had to hold the gold class back and my digital writing workshop could have been successful.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Perspective on my own Writing Experiences
Looking back on the different classrooms that I have been in, I would have to say that there really hasn't been a whole lot of writing. Yes, writing was present in the classrooms, but not as much as I remember doing when I was in school. Being only a substitute teacher and a student teacher, I wasn't able to change the way the teacher ran her lessons when it came to writing. However, the little bit of writing that I was able to do with the children was successful, in my opinion.
In one of my student teaching placements, I had the opportunity to work in the reading room with a small group of children who were struggling with their reading and writing. There were four adults in the room so we were all able to take a group of kids and work more closely with them. Before breaking into groups, the whole group was given a general topic and from there they were able to choose what they wanted to write about. The class then broke into their groups with their assigned teachers and started writing independently. Within my group I would go around and see how each child was doing and helped them with ideas or word choice. I feel that working in the small groups with the teachers right there to help you with whatever questions you may have was very helpful for those students and really helped them feel more comfortable when it came to writing. When they were finished composing their piece, they were able to share it with the rest of their peers by sitting in the authors chair that we had for them at the front of the room. For some pieces, we would have the students type them up on the computer so that they would then be able to see their work printed on paper. We Dodoma's do this with every paper because it was very time consuming with the group of kids that we had.
When I get my own classroom someday I know that I am most likely not going to have as many people as I had in that classroom working with me, but I plan on using the small group method for writing. I feel like it is not only useful for the child with helping them feel more comfortable with writing, but it also allows the teacher to push them in the right direction if they see that they are spinning off track.
In one of my student teaching placements, I had the opportunity to work in the reading room with a small group of children who were struggling with their reading and writing. There were four adults in the room so we were all able to take a group of kids and work more closely with them. Before breaking into groups, the whole group was given a general topic and from there they were able to choose what they wanted to write about. The class then broke into their groups with their assigned teachers and started writing independently. Within my group I would go around and see how each child was doing and helped them with ideas or word choice. I feel that working in the small groups with the teachers right there to help you with whatever questions you may have was very helpful for those students and really helped them feel more comfortable when it came to writing. When they were finished composing their piece, they were able to share it with the rest of their peers by sitting in the authors chair that we had for them at the front of the room. For some pieces, we would have the students type them up on the computer so that they would then be able to see their work printed on paper. We Dodoma's do this with every paper because it was very time consuming with the group of kids that we had.
When I get my own classroom someday I know that I am most likely not going to have as many people as I had in that classroom working with me, but I plan on using the small group method for writing. I feel like it is not only useful for the child with helping them feel more comfortable with writing, but it also allows the teacher to push them in the right direction if they see that they are spinning off track.
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