After reading both of the chapters, I feel that they were both similar in some ways, but mostly different. They were similar due to the fact that they both gave strategies to use in the classroom. This was helpful and insightful, but only targeted specific groups for each book.
In Graves, the focus was on younger students, specifically kindergarten and first grade. Reading this chapter was really interesting to me because I understood how teachers go about teaching kids to learn how to read. Before starting this class (and reading this chapter), I was intimidated about how teachers do this. I feel that it is such a complex concept that I am not sure how teachers get through to everyone. I loved that this chapter really cleared things up for me. All of the different strategies and activities seemed really helpful and perfect for teaching the students. It was neat to see the break-down of all of the different concepts to teach and ways to teach them. I also enjoyed how they added a kindergarten day schedule with specifics to see how a teacher manages everything. Although I liked reading this chapter a lot, I could not relate to it. Wanting to teach middle school math does not involve teaching the alphabet and phonics, but I did like how this chapter helped me understand how students start off learning to read.
In "Creating Literacy-Rich Schools for Adolescents", strategies were also a main concept of the chapter. I did find this text more helpful to my area of study than the Graves chapter, but I also felt that some parts were very irrelevant. I thought the story about Abdurashid was so fascinating! The fact that he learned so much material while learning English in such a short amount of time is crazy to me. I also loved how Herbert Hoover High School really made big improvements in their school by creating common strategies to teach/learn by. I really liked the anticipatory activities because I feel that it is very important to truly engage your students and make them want to learn! Being a future math teacher, I also loved the graphic organizers. I know I will be working a lot with graphs and charts, so this section was very helpful to me. However, the five page description on vocabulary instruction did not seem very relevant to me.
The two chapters related in the sense that good strategies were explained in great detail. Yet the two chapters focused on completely different age groups, and therefore did not have a lot of connections. Overall, I enjoyed the Graves chapter better just because it made the concept of teaching how to read clearer to me.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Literate Environments and Reading Reasons
After reading both Graves Chapter 3 and "The 9 Reading Reasons", I have found a new way to look at reading and to motivate my future students. Although I am going to be a math teacher and sometimes it is hard to relate, I did find that some topics in these pages applied to me and were neat. In fact, reading these chapters almost made me want to switch to a reading core because they were so interesting!
The readings were similar because they both involved ways to motivate students to read. The difference between the two readings were the different ways they got the students to want to read. In Graves, my favorite part was the focus on a "literate environment." I loved reading about the different ways to create this environment and remembered how my elementary teachers would use these techniques. For a reading teacher specifically, I feel that the amount of time reading in class and the choice of the book are the most important. I remember having 20 minutes of silent reading a few days a week during my fourth grade class where we were encouraged to choose any book we wanted to read. I absolutely loved reading when I was younger and read several different book series that I can recall (Magic Treehouse, Series of Unfortunate Events, Gossip Girl, Junie B. Jones, etc.), so I always looked forward to this time.
Some other techniques in Graves could be beneficial in any classroom. These include modeling, a "print-rich classroom", and the climate. When I am a math teacher, I plan to incorporate these things into my classroom to make it a more literate environment, even if it is a subject that involves more numbers than words. I plan to model the way to problem solve, have writing and posters on the walls (even if they are not always directly related to math), and create a positive and supportive atmosphere for the students. A teacher of any subject can create this kind of environment for their students.
As for the "Reading Reasons" chapter, I thought this was an interesting read, especially for older students. Growing up, I did not consider half of these reasons to read. This was probably because I loved reading so much already that I did not need something to motivate me. But nonetheless, I truly enjoyed reading this and would definitely consider telling some of my future students this if they start asking questions. My favorite reasons were "Reading is Rewarding" and "Reading Makes You a Better Writer" because I can relate and believe in both of these. Reading for pleasure is one of my favorite things to do in my free time (which is rare during college). Getting lost in a good book is so very enjoyable. Some of my favorite series I have read multiple times just because of the amazing feeling it gives me. I also believe that writing goes hand-in-hand with reading. In the third grade, I remember that we had to write a story and draw pictures. While most of my peers' stories were about a page of notebook paper long, mine was almost 12 pages. This was probably due to the fact that I read so much and loved writing stories equally as well.
I enjoyed reading both of these readings, but I would have to say that I liked "Reading Reasons" best because of the new outlook it gave me on motivation to read.
The readings were similar because they both involved ways to motivate students to read. The difference between the two readings were the different ways they got the students to want to read. In Graves, my favorite part was the focus on a "literate environment." I loved reading about the different ways to create this environment and remembered how my elementary teachers would use these techniques. For a reading teacher specifically, I feel that the amount of time reading in class and the choice of the book are the most important. I remember having 20 minutes of silent reading a few days a week during my fourth grade class where we were encouraged to choose any book we wanted to read. I absolutely loved reading when I was younger and read several different book series that I can recall (Magic Treehouse, Series of Unfortunate Events, Gossip Girl, Junie B. Jones, etc.), so I always looked forward to this time.
Some other techniques in Graves could be beneficial in any classroom. These include modeling, a "print-rich classroom", and the climate. When I am a math teacher, I plan to incorporate these things into my classroom to make it a more literate environment, even if it is a subject that involves more numbers than words. I plan to model the way to problem solve, have writing and posters on the walls (even if they are not always directly related to math), and create a positive and supportive atmosphere for the students. A teacher of any subject can create this kind of environment for their students.
As for the "Reading Reasons" chapter, I thought this was an interesting read, especially for older students. Growing up, I did not consider half of these reasons to read. This was probably because I loved reading so much already that I did not need something to motivate me. But nonetheless, I truly enjoyed reading this and would definitely consider telling some of my future students this if they start asking questions. My favorite reasons were "Reading is Rewarding" and "Reading Makes You a Better Writer" because I can relate and believe in both of these. Reading for pleasure is one of my favorite things to do in my free time (which is rare during college). Getting lost in a good book is so very enjoyable. Some of my favorite series I have read multiple times just because of the amazing feeling it gives me. I also believe that writing goes hand-in-hand with reading. In the third grade, I remember that we had to write a story and draw pictures. While most of my peers' stories were about a page of notebook paper long, mine was almost 12 pages. This was probably due to the fact that I read so much and loved writing stories equally as well.
I enjoyed reading both of these readings, but I would have to say that I liked "Reading Reasons" best because of the new outlook it gave me on motivation to read.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Culture
When I think of culture, I truly am not sure of what all the word can contain. It is such a broad term that is used for any number of reasons, and a word that I have heard used all my life. In my opinion, culture is what defines a person. It is certain descriptors that show the identification of a person. Culture is unique for each individual, yet we all share some of the same aspects of culture with others. There are certain groups of people that we put ourselves into a category with, yet we each have different cultural groups.
As for myself, I have a culture of my own. I am a female, daughter, sister, student, Ohioan, American, athlete, friend, girlfriend, volunteer, Christian, helper, future teacher, etc. All these things describe who I feel I am as a person and are an accurate way to define me. Another way to use culture to describe oneself is done physically. This can involve things such as one's ethnicity, heritage, and physical traits. For example, I am Czechoslovakian and Irish, white, with brown hair and blue eyes.
When I am reading, my culture truly impacts how I interpret something. When people come from different cultures, they understand certain knowledge better than others and make different associations with the text. Reading one text can give several people different meanings based on their culture and experiences. For example, if a book is mentioning how beautiful the snowfall was as a character went for a walk, I can clearly imagine what this feels like. Since I am from Ohio and snow has always been a part of my life, I can relate to the feelings of the character. Being from a specific culture, I know what snow looks and feels like in person. I can easily put myself in the character's shoes. But an individual who has lived in Hawaii their entire life might struggle with the concept of a walk in the middle of winter. Maybe they can picture in their mind what snow must look like from images or movies, but they cannot imagine what it feels like. Their culture and way of life does not involve snow, so it might be hard for them to have the same experience reading the text as an Ohioan does. Culture truly affects how one interprets and adds meaning to reading.
As for myself, I have a culture of my own. I am a female, daughter, sister, student, Ohioan, American, athlete, friend, girlfriend, volunteer, Christian, helper, future teacher, etc. All these things describe who I feel I am as a person and are an accurate way to define me. Another way to use culture to describe oneself is done physically. This can involve things such as one's ethnicity, heritage, and physical traits. For example, I am Czechoslovakian and Irish, white, with brown hair and blue eyes.
When I am reading, my culture truly impacts how I interpret something. When people come from different cultures, they understand certain knowledge better than others and make different associations with the text. Reading one text can give several people different meanings based on their culture and experiences. For example, if a book is mentioning how beautiful the snowfall was as a character went for a walk, I can clearly imagine what this feels like. Since I am from Ohio and snow has always been a part of my life, I can relate to the feelings of the character. Being from a specific culture, I know what snow looks and feels like in person. I can easily put myself in the character's shoes. But an individual who has lived in Hawaii their entire life might struggle with the concept of a walk in the middle of winter. Maybe they can picture in their mind what snow must look like from images or movies, but they cannot imagine what it feels like. Their culture and way of life does not involve snow, so it might be hard for them to have the same experience reading the text as an Ohioan does. Culture truly affects how one interprets and adds meaning to reading.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Literacy
In my opinion, literacy is the ability to read a text with fluency and be able to interpret it, add meaning to it, and make connections both within and outside the text. Starting to become literate is very confusing for children at a young age. It is a very complex idea to a child who cannot read and must be incredibly difficult to teach to kindergarteners.
I imagine that being an elementary school teacher is one of the hardest jobs because teaching children to read is one of the most important things, if not the most important thing, they will ever learn to do. Being able to teach something of that kind of importance is intimidating being only a sophomore in college on my way to becoming a teacher. Teaching a child the reading process might be the greatest challenge one could face as a teacher. Even though as a future middle school teacher I will not be directly teaching children how to read, it will still be something that I need to know because children have difficulties with this complex process even at older ages.
I am not sure when I became very literate. I believe that the entire reading process is so strange because I cannot remember how it happened to me. Typically one can remember something when they actually perform the action for the first time and usually can become automatic with it after multiple experiences (like the example of driving a car in the book). But for reading, even though this process is now automatic for me, I cannot seem to remember how I started out. The process of learning to read does not take place in a few days or even weeks, but years. Even as a college student, I still look for ways to better improve my skills as a reader. The process of becoming a great reader is almost a life-long experience, because we are able acquire new skills and read new texts all the time.
As for the texts, I believe that culture and the Sociocultural Theory play a huge role in the reading process. I remember reading texts in elementary school and sometimes not understanding what they meant, while other students did. For example, when we started reading about different wars in history, I had a difficult time understanding because I had no previous knowledge on wars. My family had never discussed wars with me and although I had heard some basic concepts before, the details were all very new to me. Yet other students seemed to catch on right away and understand the texts enough to read with automaticity. This was a challenge for me because I had no background knowledge on the ideas. The idea that a student's social and cultural background have an effect on their learning is a huge part of an individual's reading process.
I imagine that being an elementary school teacher is one of the hardest jobs because teaching children to read is one of the most important things, if not the most important thing, they will ever learn to do. Being able to teach something of that kind of importance is intimidating being only a sophomore in college on my way to becoming a teacher. Teaching a child the reading process might be the greatest challenge one could face as a teacher. Even though as a future middle school teacher I will not be directly teaching children how to read, it will still be something that I need to know because children have difficulties with this complex process even at older ages.
I am not sure when I became very literate. I believe that the entire reading process is so strange because I cannot remember how it happened to me. Typically one can remember something when they actually perform the action for the first time and usually can become automatic with it after multiple experiences (like the example of driving a car in the book). But for reading, even though this process is now automatic for me, I cannot seem to remember how I started out. The process of learning to read does not take place in a few days or even weeks, but years. Even as a college student, I still look for ways to better improve my skills as a reader. The process of becoming a great reader is almost a life-long experience, because we are able acquire new skills and read new texts all the time.
As for the texts, I believe that culture and the Sociocultural Theory play a huge role in the reading process. I remember reading texts in elementary school and sometimes not understanding what they meant, while other students did. For example, when we started reading about different wars in history, I had a difficult time understanding because I had no previous knowledge on wars. My family had never discussed wars with me and although I had heard some basic concepts before, the details were all very new to me. Yet other students seemed to catch on right away and understand the texts enough to read with automaticity. This was a challenge for me because I had no background knowledge on the ideas. The idea that a student's social and cultural background have an effect on their learning is a huge part of an individual's reading process.
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