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!!!!!!!!!
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