Blog #8

        Good evening! Hope everyone had an awesome day in the heat.  It was extremely hot and humid outside.  Overall I love this time of year because I can relax and enjoy freedom of my time from work.  Im also anxious to travel. This evening I would like to focus on why textbooks are or not important in the learning process of our students.
       Being a teacher in today's public school system, we are accustomed to use paper back text books to highlight specific information that we are teaching.  Most teachers depend on texts books to help form the curriculum of the specified content area.  However, now days, students are technology savvy and their interest in using technology is greater than their desire to read a boring text book.  I believe that teachers should still use the text book as a reference source, while implementing the affective domain approach by using the media projector, supporting educational websites to help enforce the content being taught.  This in itself will engage students enough to listen, absorb, and part take in the learning process.  It has been proven that students are apt to respond to something that they are familiar with or their prior knowledge.  In my opinion, affective domain is always essential to the learning process of the students.
        The next topic I would like to discuss is the readability formula.  The readability formula determines the readability of materials.  It allows teachers to search material and identifying reading materials at a level that students will be able to comprehend. I believe that teachers should make sure that the selected reading material includes something that will influence the reading desired of the student.  Some students, even after receiving a text book that they can understand still may not have a desire to want to read.  The should contain something of their interest to engage them into the text and eventually elevate them to more complex readings on an advanced level.
        The next topic that I would like to discuss is writing across the content area.  How can teachers include writing in content their specific content area?  I believe that because technology is so advanced and our students are gravitating to it, students are loosing the need and desire to write.  In my opinion, writing is very essential to learning because it helps with reading comprehension skills.  Students must learn how to write and be grammatically correct in any content area.  I feel teachers in their specified content areas can allow students to keep a journal of things that they learn and things that they don't necessarily understand about the information in the content area.  
        In conclusion,  I feel that the ability to write is kind of going out of style because of technology enabling students to do anything just at the touch of a button.  As teachers, what are some ways that we can strengthen the writing skills of students and motivate them that writing is important?

Blog #7

        Happy Summer EVERYONE!  I'm so glad to be on summer break.  I can't express how happy I am.  I kind of miss teaching a little bit.  JUST little bit, as well as my kids that I've taught this year.  They're all growing up and going to be older next year.  I hope that their behavior improve greatly so they send their teacher up the wall. lolol
        This evening I want us to focus on diverse learners in the classroom.  Just to start off our discussion forum tonight, what are some common issues teacher's encounter when dealing with diverse students?  What are some ways that teachers can teach special needs students?
        Diverse learners are defined to be those students who are at risk of academic failure and need special attention and understanding during their learning process.  These students often have a diverse intellectual ability, social and emotional background, language proficiency, racial background, cultural background and physical attributes. Certain circumstances such as these present students with the opportunity to prepare for living in a global environment.  I believe that students need to know how to cooperate with people that have differences at an early age.  This builds their ability to be sociable and also allows them to make new friends, which fulfills a childhood desire of wanting to be accepted by peers.
        Along with diverse learners, being able to identify at risk students and being able to help them is essential to their benefit both mentally and academically.  Most "at risk' students demonstrate poor reading skills and lost of motivation.  These students often react in a negative manner, such as not accepting instructions, rebellious, fearful, and frustrated.  In order to proceed in helping an "at risk student," teachers must remain a positive attitude.  However, proven data has shown that many "at risk" students have not remained under that category after they've graduated form high school and college, due to tailored instruction and close monitoring of academic improvement.

        Targeted instruction emphasizes content area literacy development influenced by receptive and expressive language skills.  Targeted instruction was designed to help develop ELLs academically.  Teachers must make content information more accessible to students that provide adequate language support for ELLs.  ELLs also need targeted instruction due to their distinct learner profiles.  ELLs come to the U.S. with varying levels of first or native language, proficiency, different degrees of formal education experience, and a distinct understanding of what school and its related routines and behaviors.

I-search Paper Blog #6

Greetings fellow educators and welcome to Blog #6!

I hope that you've had a wonderful week.  It is almost that time, our pupils will be sent home until september.  whew...lolol (laughing out loud) what a long year.  I finally get a chance to relax my mind for a change.  But anyway! Tonight, I want to discuss an important topic to me, which is, "Low reading comprehension skills among African American children."
        Throughout my teaching career, I have noticed in most schools that I've taught, that the majority of African American students suffered from reading comprehension skills.  I noticed that some of them were unable to pronounce words, or able to break apart syllables, draw context clues, and simply being motivated to read.  This problem made me feel very sad and disappointed.  I began to think about what could've happened to cause them to not understand.  I wondered if parental support may have been an issue or not, or was it just the child being, defiant, or simply just didn't care about their education.  I absolutely didn't know what to think.
        I believe that this situation needs to be addressed and a solution is greatly needed.  Each child desires an adult to lead, guide, advise, instruct, and love them.  In my opinion, I strongly believe that most African American children suffer from not having a stable home, meaning a (mom and dad), workforce moms not having the extra time to cultivate children in enforcing what is being taught in school, or reading to them at night to demonstrate the importance of reading.  Children have to see demonstrations of what is being taught to them in order for them to understand or even desire to do it.  To most children, their parents are their strongest influence, whether they are right or wrong.
        During my research, I was able to come cross 2 articles that really captured my attention dealing with this topic.  They are, "Durable Effects of Concentrated Disadvantage on Verbal Ability among African Americans," and, "The Language of Poor Black children and Reading Performance."  These 2 articles deal with problems that hinder African American children from achieving success in reading comprehension, giving details on why such problems exist.  My only goal is to find a solution that benefits all children in reading comprehension.
       In conclusion, what would be some deficiencies African American children face that would prevent them from achieving a high reading comprehension level?  Name a few then give (1) solution to the problem.



I-search Proposal

Topic:  Low Reading Comprehension amongst African American children.

Questions:  What causes African American students to fall short in reading comprehension?  What is necessary for teachers and parents to do to eliminate this issue?  Can the school form a program dedicated to strengthen, encourage, and provide multiple avenues of success in reading comprehension for African American children?

General Resources:  JSTOR articles and WorldCat articles.

People to Interview: Principal and Assistant Principal at Douglass Park Elementary and Parkview Elementary.  (DPES) Mrs. Renee' Hailes and (PVES) Mrs. Wilson

Title of articles planned to use: JSTOR "Durable Effects of Concentrated Disadvantage on Verbal Ability among African Americans."  WorldCat "The Language of Poor Black children and Reading Performance."

Notes:  My purpose is to find out personally what the issues are and ultimately find a method that I could use to help African American students in elementary school to improve their reading comprehension skills.  I want to find a common ground with them that will not only motivate and inspire them to read, but give them hope and desire to continue in being academically successful.

        Good evening everybody and welcome to blog #5. Hope you had a good day. Just a week and a half left before school is over. I know every teacher is excited about that. But anyway, this evening we will be discussing teaching vocabulary. I'm elated to talk about this problem because its desperately needed in our school system today in literacy content areas. With that being said lets get started!!!!

        Teaching vocabulary to our youth is very essential to the development of reading literacy. I remember when I was in elementary school and we would start out with the word of the day. I thought that this is was a very interesting assignment. For me, this gave me the opportunity to expand my vocabulary and make me feel like I was smart lol...(Laughing out loud). However, my desire and personal motivation to broaden my vocabulary is not how every student perceives vocabulary. Conation focuses on the student's will and desire to learn in conjunction with their determination to achieve success in learning. Motivation plays a huge part in a childs' learning process. My first question to educators is, what are some ideas or methods that can be used in making vocabulary study appealing to students?

        Content-specific vocabulary refers to the vocabulary that is critical, yet specific, to a particular discipline or unit of study. These are the terms commonly targeted for instruction prior to a textbook chapter (P.169). In contrast to content-specific vocabulary, academic vocabulary encompasses a set of terms often found among expository texts and formal presentations or speeches, but which is not unique to any content or academic discipline. These terms are rarely found in narrative text or used in everyday conversation, but they are important for gaining full understanding of expository text (p. 169).

        The next topic I wanted to discuss is vocabulary and school failure. According to recorded data, this normally occurs with disadvantaged students, at risk-populations, and among poor readers. It is said that their is a mismatch between school expectations and students' achievement concerning this issue, focusing in on struggling readers. I would say that I agree with what they are saying (p. 172). It is true, despite compensatory educational programs designed to reduce the conceptual and language deficits of culturally disadvantaged and minority children. Children in these circumstances are often taught through the rote method exercises. Meaning they learn by completing vocabulary assignments that consists of extensive dictionary definitions of technical specialized terms.

        Most poor readers over use action words in their conversations. They use processes to facilitate information rather than memorizing an extensive written vocabulary. This prescriptive approach has been described by researchers as minimally effective, resulting in temporary retention of material, student disengagement, and little student understanding of text.

        In conclusion vocabulary is a much needed necessity in our public school system. Students' must feel motivated and inspired to want to improve their vocabulary and learn the meaning and how to use mature vocabulary to open their intellect along with developed communication skills.

        Greetings everyone.  Welcome back to Dr. Education's Blog #4.  I want to say first of all, I hope everyone has had an awesome day with very little complications.  If by some chance you've experienced obstacles and minor set backs today, then just know that things don't have to stay that way.  You always have something to be grateful for. So smile and be happy!
        Today I want to discuss different topics centered around the idea of, "Reflective Learning in Reading."  Before getting into further details concerning this topic, lets identify the definition of the term, "Reflective Learning," this is simply when an individual recalls or reviews information learned during a previous reading.  In relation to students in reflection learning, It is said that after an activity is given, the student needs to be in a relaxed environment to reflect on the assignment.  This process is also referred to as post reading reflective strategies.(p. 108)  I believe that this is the most important part of reading comprehension.  Students must be able to process what they've read in order to gain substantial knowledge concerning the content given within the reading.  Since we've discussed reflective learning I think that it is necessary to discuss reflective thinking.
      Reflective thinking is defined to be the retention of material to further learning. Students are expected to learn more and assume more responsibility for their thinking.  This includes remembering key points, main idea, order of events, and identifying primary and secondary characters.  According to John Dewey, He considered reflective thinking to be careful thought persisting toward an objective of coming closer to the truth.  He also was credited for being the first educator who introduced the term reflective thought into literature (Shermis, 1999).  It is also a proven fact that the longer students reflect, the longer they will remember what they've read.
       Another topic I want to talk about communication skills.  I feel that students must learn how to communicate clearly the information that they've reflected upon.  Communication is an important tool for proving that students have successfully processed the material read.  Interestingly, I found that in an Australian study discovered that teachers are in need of training to use communication skills in promoting student thinking.  As educators, we must always challenge our students to enhance their comprehension level.
      The understanding of critical thinking seriously needs to be taught to both students and teachers.  Critical thinking is the process of thinking thoroughly enough to link recent and early experiences together to promote a more complex mental schema.  Pretty much critical thinking bridges the gap between past and present experiences to formulate a more concrete hypothesis.
        In closing, what activities would teachers assign to students to help them understand how to use critical thinking skills? Should critical thinking assignments be assigned daily to students?

Learning Blog #3 (Ch. 4)

Greetings everyone! Welcome once again to Dr. Education’s Learning Blog!  I just want to say that I have had a marvelous time with all of you that visit and comment on my blog postings.  This has been an adventurous 2 weeks of discussing the toss and turns of our educational system.  As teachers, we can talk for hours about the many different obstacles that we face everyday in the public school system in working with children from versatile backgrounds and various stages of comprehension levels.  As I say in all of my blogs, PLEASSSEEEE comment on my postings and make sure your voice is heard.  We are all learning and striving to become better educators.  Now lets get to the good stuff!!!!!!

This week I want to focus on the topic of assistance in learning.  Students often need to be reminded that they are not in the struggle of learning by themselves, their teachers are right in the midst offering them a plethora of opportunities to be assisted in retaining the content knowledge of a particular subject.  A great start to assist a student in learning is to prepare them for what they are about to do.  For instance, if the class is about to part take in a reading assignment, one of the most used methods of reading preparations is to define the vocabulary terms that are found in the chapter.  This method of learning is described to be, “Preparation to Read.”  Its somewhat like what we discussed in the last blog.  Many of us have heard of the term PAR (preparation, assistance, and reflection.) The most important part in the PAR lesson is the assistance stage.  Students are in great need of this stage of PAR because this is the part that they absorb information and learn how to apply it to what they are reading.  In most cases, students feel most comfortable with interacting with their peers about their work and they have the opportunity to utilize what they’ve learned and are capable of explaining why they believe what they believe.  It is necessary that a reader apprehends and ponders the significance of the content.  This analysis must also set their own purposes for reading and in future reading. 

Another important method of teaching is reciprocal teaching.  This is when students and teachers establish a dialogue and work together in comprehending text.  This method of teaching consists of prediction, summarization, questioning, and clarification.  For example, the teacher assigns a paragraph.  Then the teacher summarizes the paragraph and asks students several questions about it.  The teacher then clarifies any misconceptions or difficult concepts.  Finally the students predict in writing what will be discussed in the next paragraph or segment.  The goal of this process is that the students will be able to follow the same steps process on their own.

When students can make sense of their learning by developing a knowledge base or constructing their own purposes for reading a selection and developing tasks on their own that demonstrate their learning, they are constructing meaning.  The process of wherein knowledge is actively constructed and based upon prior knowledge, attitude, and values is known as constructivism. In my opinion, prior knowledge must be validated in order for it to be worthy of building upon for future knowledge.  I feel this way because sometimes prior knowledge is not factual or its just hear say.  Another positive way of learning is the direct reading approach.  This approach simply helps the student to understand that each segment of text can help them figure out the next segment.  Studies by Stahl (2008) and El-Koumy (2006) have shown that the DR-TA is beneficial in teaching referential and inferential learning. Because the text is divided into smaller portions, students can focus on the process of responding to higher order questions (Fisher & Frey, 2008). As advocated by Stauffer (1969a), the DR-TA has three basic steps: predicting, reading, and proving.
In conclusion, what are some positive effects of reciprocal teaching?

Learning Blog #2 (Ch. 3 & Article)

Welcome everybody!  This is week 2 of Dr. Education's learning blog #2.  As stated in the last blog, please feel free to comment on the issues discussed.  Don't be afraid to voice your opinion either for or against each situation.  Keep in mind that no one knows absolutely everything, as a result, we all can learn from each other.  With that being said, lets start talking!!!!!!

        This weeks blog is covering the topic, "Preparation for Learning."  I decided to talk a little about what this topic consists of because its very important as an educator to realize what it takes for each student in your class to achieve success in learning. Lets take a first year teacher and briefly discuss his or her expectations of classroom teaching.  Most first year teachers come in fresh, not really having strong classroom management skills, expecting the majority of their students to be well behaved and scholarly or having some form of basic knowledge of what is being taught, looking for everything to run smoothly without any mistakes, and using what was taught out of the books in college in whatever teacher preparation program as a guide to be a successful teacher.  Now with all of this being said,  we, meaning experienced teachers, know first hand that this is NOT in some cases what happens once becoming  full time educators.   We know that teaching students is a learning process and that you should expect mistakes to be made concerning instructions, preparing lessons that are very clear and precise in direction and content, developing teacher student relationships, and learning how your students respond to your delivery of instructions, and etc....We also understand that teacher preparation programs give you BASIC knowledge on how to develop in becoming a teacher, but it doesn't give you everything that you need.  Experience in the teaching field helps refine your teaching ability.  My reason in saying all of that is, taking the time to discover the prior knowledge of your pupils in the beginning of the year is most needed.  Learning exactly what each of your students know and don't know can be very helpful in planning lessons to compensate them and assist them in grasping the knowledge that they need to pass the SOL's.  We often as educators wonder why certain students, after we've done absolutely everything that we possibly could do, still just don't get it.  You always must remember, being a teacher you have got to learn how to use fore sight and cause and effect.  For example,  If I have an African American student that lives in an at risk environment and have parents that don't really show parental support in anything that he or she does, and have an Asian student that lives in a middle class environment and their mom is very active with activities in the school and with the academic success of their child, which of the two students would you think obtained the most prior knowledge before entering into the new school year?  We all would say the Asian student. Which is right!!!  The reason I used that as an example is because, most students that are very knowledgable about something is because they've heard it discussed in their homes or with family members.  Children that don't have the luxury of their parents actually teaching and re-enforcing the learning material being taught in school to them at home are at risk.  Usually in that case, the teachers have to put that child in remediation and play catch up with him or her to get them up to pace with everybody else.  So,my point is that teachers have to take all of this into consideration while preparing for lessons to teach their students.

       The next topic I wanted to discuss in this blog is, "Preparing the Learner through Building on Prior Knowledge."  How many of yall remember back in elementary school, your teachers would assign you definitions before reading a chapter in your social studies book?  Then they would ask you to answer the questions at the end of the chapter? EXACTLY!! This would include everybody!!!  A lot of us still use that same exact method today!  This form of activity helps to enhance the reading experience of the student while reading the chapter.  It allows students to prepare themselves for what the chapter is discussing by assigning them definitions of words that appear in the reading and the questions at the end of the reading allows students to go back inside their mind and remember the most important facts about the reading and word it into a complete sentence.  I found that this method embellishes the student's mind about whatever subject being discussed.  It even works for those students who may not have prior knowledge of a topic.  Of course, I just gave one example of how teachers could build on prior knowledge, but this process can be worked so many different ways.  Teachers can be creative with this and really help bring out the best in their students.

        The last thing that I wanted to cover in this weeks blog is, "Content Area Literacy Strategies."  Though the article that I viewed listed 10 strategies of content area literacy, I want to focus on one in particular, the use of vocabulary.  Using engaging vocabulary during lessons can be very effective.  It gives students a chance to be introduced to proper english other than that filthy slang language, such as, Yo, Wassup, and I'm down,and etc...  Please forgive my lack of knowledge of these slang words of today.  However, in order to evolve in reading comprehension and even writing ability, students must know a plethora of different vocabulary and know what they mean and be able to write complete sentences using those vocabulary words.  If we as teachers constantly implement new vocabulary words not only in instruction, but in our regular conversation with the students, this will intrigue students to take the next step in learning new vocabulary.

        In conclusion to our blog this week, I want to close with a question and I want to know exactly what you think about this and PLEASSSSSSEEEEEE leave your comments and give supporting details about what you think.  I'm itching to hear from you. The question is, Considering our discussion concerning the use of vocabulary into content area literacy, do you think that teachers should use slang and try to become friendly with the student by coming down to their level or establish a professional yet nurturing student teacher relationship and speak to them using vocabulary that will provoke them to broaden their ability to speak proper english?  TALK TO ME!!!!!   UNTIL NEXT TIME MY FELLOW TEACHERS!!!!!!!!!