Notes on 2/24 Discussion

Assigned Roles:


Kris: Discussion Leader


Ashley: Notetaker


Jamie: Tech Manager & Summarizer/Clarifier


Derrick: Connector

Questions asked by Kris:

1)Do you feel the Documentation Webb Anthony created is a helpful strategy for students? (Pg. 5)

2) Can you see the difference in Christine’s teaching of literacy or lessons in general compared to what she did on the first couple of pages? (pg.6-7)

3) How do you guys feel about the Admit slips example?

4) How did you guys like the Book pass strategy?

5) Is there any one quote in the chapter that you found really interesting? If so please explain.

6) Give an example where one of these strategies was used in your CPD experience

 Notes:

-Connection to Stephen and Brown: the students must practice the strategies over and over in order to develop a repertoire that will help them with  different literacy practices


-Interesting quotes:
  

Jamie: “Independent Question( this means you do this one by yourself) What did you learn about the Civil War from looking through the documents? What questions do you have about this time in history?” (p.4 from guided questions through documents)
 

Ashley: “As we teach and learn with a generation of children who have been raised on technology and sophisticated media it becomes increasingly difficult to entice them into reading content texts. Yet when I think bach to my days as a student I have to admiit that I experiences the same attitudeds and difficulties students express today..." (xi on uderstanding the challenges of reading history)
 

Derrick:"At a time when districts have mandated the coverage of elaborate lists of content standards, most teachers are feeling the challenge of covering so much material with students who come to class lacking the interest, background knowledge or content language necessary for reading historical texts." (p.1 building foundations for reading success)
 

Kris: "Learning occurs when the student proceeds the importance between the material being presented and his or her life"

-We all felt that the web (anthony page 5)  was good for organizational purposes and many of us have used them in our student careers 

-We all found the methods in this chapter were very useful 

Overall, we communicated well as a group. For each question a group member responded with evidence from texts and/or from CPD experiences. 

Ashley's Post 2/24

In Reading history: A practical guide to improving literacy, Janet Allen describes strategies that will engage students in the reading aspects of history. In chapter one, Building Foundations for Reading Success (Pre-Reading Strategies for Assessing and Building Background Knowledge), Allen describes techniques that connect to literature. Christine states that it is important to ask students WHAT they know before beginning teaching. This technique seems quite obvious to me, but it is also important in order to know what to teach and how long to teach certain topics. This whole chapter is based on the four broad tasks as content teachers which are: Assessing the knowledge base students bring to the study, providing students with experiences that give them a rich and memorable context for their reading, anticipating words and concepts that may make reading difficult and helping students develop questions they would like to answer so that they have a purpose for reading. For each broad tasks there are examples of student work (i.e. Anthonys documentation web) and other techniques to guide students through the tasks.

I find this book to be very quite informative so far. I believe that as a teacher the most important of the four tasks is to provide students with experiences that give them a rich and memorable context for their reading because it allows students to make outside connections that they can incorporate in the classroom. In my CPD experience at Pierre Van Courtlandt Middle school, my mentor teachers have applied many of these strategies in their teaching. I have witnessed the use of a web as well as asking the students what they already know about a topic before the lesson is carried out. 

Kris' Post for 2/24

           Chapter one of Janet Allen’s Reading History: A Practical Guide to Improving Literacy was very insightful. I like that it started off discussing the building of background knowledge for students. I think its very important for teachers to identify the parts of a reading assignment that student have issues with and to address those issues. I feel that by allowing students to come up with question regarding the parts of the reading that they found difficult is important for trying to bridge the learning gap for students in regards to a certain reading. I agree with this chapter on the importance of gaging student prior knowledge. This way one can address any students that have any misconceptions or false information regarding the topic. I liked the different strategies in the reading. I agree with Ms. Allen that its take the use of primary documents or artifacts to get some student engaged in history lessons. However, at the same time a wide variety of reading material can be used to cater to a student preference in reading.

            Besides the different strategies of assessing student knowledge, I like the excerpt on the Teacher Christine. I could see a big difference in Christine’s teaching in the beginning compared to the methods and strategies she used to get a better input from her students. 

Derrick's Post for 2/24

Reading History: A Practical Guide to Improving Literacy

Chapter 1 Building Foundations for Reading Success

       In the beginning of the chapter Allen pointed out how school districts are demanding teachers cover more material within a short amount of time.  As a result, teachers end up more concerned on trying to get through a lesson as oppose to actually teaching the lesson.  But Allen indicates that it’s more important to make a lesson meaningful, interactive, and interesting, otherwise students won’t be willing to participate in the lesson.  Another important factor to take into consideration when creating a lesson is students’ prior knowledge on the topic.  By identifying this way the teacher creates some sort of foundation to introducing their new unit.

  I personally see this happen in my CPD classes. My mentor throughout his lesson always tries to make some sort of connection between his lesson and his students’ personal lives.  He usually does this by using examples of current pop culture, such as movies, cartoons, music, celebrities, etc.  By doing this he manages to capture his students’ attention while still teaching his lesson.  One reason I think my mentor is good at making these connections and references is because he’s good at thinking on his feet, improvising, and going with the flow of his class.

Jamie's Post for 2/24

   The first chapter of Reading History: A Practical Guide to Improving Literacy by Janet Allen has a great deal of information about the connection between history and literacy. Allen discusses different ways to engage the students into the content, and provides lists of different methods of doing so.  Allen presents ways to engage today's students in lessons about history from hundreds of years ago.  It is extremely important to interest students in such foreign and ancient subjects because without interest they will have a hard time learning, and will definitely not enjoy the learning process.  During my CPD I have seen both of my mentor teachers effectively connect the subject matter to their students.  Their students enjoy the learning process more because they are able to relate to what is being taught. 
   I also think that reading the strategies that Christine uses to employ literacy in history is extremely interesting and useful.  Christine's methods to employ literacy could be very useful in my classroom.  By employing artifacts and readings that my students will find interesting they will want to do the work and even enjoy doing it.  When I was in high school I had teachers in my social studies courses who made learning about history fun.  I never felt like I was doing work, or being taught, I was learning in a way that was so organic and natural; that feeling of enjoying learning is the reason I want to be a teacher.  As a teacher I will try to make my classroom this way. 

Roles

All roles have been assigned.
Schedule:
Friday, 2/24: Chapter 1 (pages 1-28)
Friday 3/23: Chapter 2 (pages 29-62)
Friday 4/27: Chapters 3 & 4 (pages 63-96)
Assigned Roles:
Kris: 2/24 Discussion Leader, 3/23 Connector, 4/27 Summarizer/Clarifier
Ashley: 2/24 Notetaker, 3/23 Discussion Leader, 4/27 Connector
Jamie: Tech Manager, 2/24 Summarizer/Clarifier, 3/23 Notetaker, 4/27 Discussion Leader
Derrick: 2/24 Connector, 3/23 Summarizer/Clarifier, 4/27 Notetaker

Post #1 - Week 1 Schedule and Assigned Roles

Hey guys,
You all know that the book we're reading is Reading History: A Practical Guide to Improving Literacy by Janet Allen.

Schedule:
Friday, 2/24: Chapter 1 (pages 1-28)

Assigned Roles:
Kris: Discussion Leader
Ashley: Notetaker
Jamie: Tech Manager & Summarizer/Clarifier
Derrick: Connector

Posts are due by midnight on Thursday nights!!