Flint Chapter 10

This chapter really proved to me that students can have meaningful and rich discussions about texts. I have not seen such discussions in my placement and would really love to incorporate them and teach students how to have them. I think students can learn a lot from each other in these types of situations. It is important for students to learn how to have group or small group discussions to. Not only will students use these to discuss books they are reading, but with other subjects, and later in high school/college (I know that is far off for some, but why not start them early!?). I also like the idea of giving the students roles in their discussions if the teacher is not present and using tape recorders so the teacher can go back and listen to multiple discussions.

The Invitation for the Classroom on the QAR Strategy is really helpful. I think this is something that can easily be placed into classrooms for students of all levels. It seems that this strategy really will promote higher levels of comprehension and reflection. This strategy also would be a great way to get discussions started, especially if students are first starting out with literature discussions. I also think this could be something to teach students to do while reading even if you are not going to have a literature discussion about it.

Flint Chapter 11

This chapter really got me thinking about inquiry based curriculum and using nonfiction texts in the classroom. I realized that most classrooms I have seen do not do or use enough of either of these. There needs to be more questioning and experimenting done by students. This gets the students more involved with what they are learning. I think it is great if students can research their own topics. This is a great way to have differentiation in your class because students can use tools at their level and find their own ways to show what they know.

When the book discussed the importance of nonfiction texts, I thought about the class I am in now and how more nonfiction can be incorporated. It really seems quite easy to put these texts in place. I think students do need to be taught more about how to use and read informational texts. I really liked how the book had the “Twin Texts”. I have never thought about having a fiction book and then having the nonfiction to go along with it and introduce it to students. It really does seem like it would encourage students to learn more about the topic or read another type of book.

Two of the Invitations for the Classroom that I liked were the Word Mapping and Text Transformation. I thought the Word Mapping is an easy way for students of all levels to learn words and really be able to use them. The Text Transformation is such a great idea. This is another thing that all levels of students can do and teaches students about other kinds of texts.  I think you would be able to use this across the curriculum too.

Cameron Park- Science Reflection

Overall, I was more comfortable with this science lesson than with the 2nd graders. I also felt I knew more about the topic coming into today than I did with the bubble lesson. I enjoyed seeing the students work in pairs and actually create a parachute. The students worked surprisingly well together too which was great! Some things that went well during the lesson were the student involvement, student understanding, and timing. I felt that all the students were involved with the lesson. Some were more interested than others, but everyone did speak and everyone worked together nicely when they were paired up.  The first activity that we did with the falling and floating objects helped with students understanding because they saw exactly how the two pieces of paper (crumpled and flat) fell at different rates. We discussed air resistance with this and had a couple students give some good feedback about it. The last thing that went well about the lesson was we actually got everything done that we had planned!

Something that I would do differently is have the students actually do the tests for falling and floating objects. I think this would grab the students’ attention a bit more. I would also have more objects for the students to test. This could help them see more examples and they could choose what they wanted to test if they had doubts or curiosity about something in particular. I think some of the students had a difficult time visualizing their parachutes at first. We did give them paper so they could draw out what they were thinking and make a plan, but for a next time, it would be beneficial if we had shown them different examples of parachutes.

The second day, we discussed what we had done on Tuesday and discussed how we were going to change the parachutes. We compared a small canopy to a large one (that they created Thursday). After timing both parachutes, we helped the students average their numbers. We discussed the differences and what caused this. Most of the students said something about air resistance or a larger surface will make the parachute fall slower than a smaller one. One thing I would have done different with this part of the experiment is to let the students use their imagination more and come up with their own alternative canopies. Although I think the students understood, I think having other materials to use as canopies would have been helpful (and more fun!).  I wish we had a little more time to wrap up this lesson but on the whole I thought it went well.

Technology

Last week’s technology day was really helpful. I liked seeing what the iTouch looked like that a student might use. There are so many games and tools out there that they can use on it.  I think this makes learning more fun for ELL students (and students in general).  I appreciated the reading group from this past week’s presentation on technology. They gave us some great websites and ideas to easily incorporate technology. My favorites were the Weebly and freetech4teachers.com. A Weebly seemed very user-friendly and students can easily get in on the action. The website offered endless ideas and other websites that teachers can use.

Flint Chapter 8

I really enjoyed this chapter because it addressed the older grades! A lot of the information was relevant and I related back to my classroom often. One of the main things that stood out to me was the discussion of reading with fluency. One of the suggestions was to have students read more “easy” books to boost confidence. Reading easier books allows students to comprehend and teaches them reading basics. After I taught a guided reading lesson, I had a question about “easy” reads. I felt like the text I shared might have been too easy. However, during the guided reading, the students were engaged and had great conversation about the text after. Thanks to the reading, I know that these “easy” reads are beneficial and I should continue to include them.

Some of the strategies I liked from the book are the reading bookmarks, QuICS, and a more structured schedule for literature discussions. The reading bookmarks are a great tool for students on all reading levels. I think many students in my class would benefit from using something like this while they are reading. It is teaching them what a good reader would do and what they might be thinking. QuICS is such an easy way to check in with students, get them writing, thinking, and making connections with text. This is another strategy that would be beneficial to all students. I would really like to try some of these and see if they have any effect on students’ reading.

Flint Chapter 7

This chapter gave a lot of ideas and strategies for and about teaching the primary grades reading and writing. This is something that sometimes can feel a little irrelevant to me but I have found it very informative and helpful. I felt that there were many things that could be modified for the older grades. I really liked the ideas about flipbooks and word lists. Both of these are things that older grades (like my classroom) could do all on their own. I was glad to read about having students make connections, make predictions, and visualize. I think this is something that a lot of students miss out on in younger grades and therefore struggle with it later. So, the more these teachers do this, the better.

I really enjoyed reading about the read aloud workshops and the strategies for read alouds. I thought the book really emphasized the importance of the read aloud. Read alouds are important and should be in all grades. I liked how they showed some examples of read alouds and commented on what was going on. It shows just how much of an impact read alouds can have. For the writing workshops, I liked how the book showed a few types of conference sheets. These are helpful for me to see what might work best for me. I am still nervous about having all these conferences and meeting all the students’ needs.

 

 

Flint Chapter 6

This chapter highlighted some of the most important early literacy experiences children can have. I think that so many students miss out on these experiences because there is a disconnect between home and school. This chapter reminded me of just how important I think it is for parents to be involved with their childrens’ academics. This could just even be reading to them before and after they know how to read. I know my parents did everything they could to help me learn and become a successful reader and writer. 

This chapter offered many strategies for emergent reading and writing that I have not seen. Even though I know that I want to teach the upper grades, these strategies are important and will be helpful for me. I know I should be prepared to teach anything though! One of the most helpful things from the chapter was the chart on page 154. This is something that is shared between home and school. Most of the activities in the chart are fairly simple and can be done at home. Another aspect of this chapter that I thought was helpful was the technology. Today, there are so many technology resources that we can use in the classroom and that are used outside the classroom. So I thought it was appropriate that the chapter discussed some ways to incorporate it for emergent readers and writers.