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?
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Monday, June 16, 2014
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
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.
Monday, June 2, 2014
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?
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?
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