This book was created as an assignment for EDES 362. As I go through the readings and participate in classroom lectures and discussion, I reflect upon my learning. The image on the front of book has special meaning to me as I remember fondly our family vacation, but also the picture of the Colosseum expresses the greatness and the vastness of learning and building together. We can never forget where we came from or what we have learned and the people who got us there. Just as the Colosseum has different meanings to the people of the world, and for developing who we are as people in this world, so does reflecting on our learning. Never stop learning, never stop reading, and always encourage others to do the same. The picture of the lamp for each page of this book represents my reflections and new ideas that were encouraged and generated throughout this course. I would also like to say thanks. Thank-you Ted for being an amazing instructor and for giving me the confidence to teach Language Arts!

Tuesday September 15, 2009

Language arts is a subject that I always excelled in at school, however, the thought of teaching language arts scares me! As this class carries on I am learning new and different ways that language arts can be taught and taught in way that students find interesting and relevant to their student learning needs. Throughout this class and our first class we’ve received different tools to use in our classrooms to aid in classroom management, brain breaks, checking for understanding, and for those moments when you need to “change it up”.
Today we learned ‘Vote with Your Feet’. I think that this activity is great. The title itself appeals to students and makes them wonder what exactly that means. It’s a great way to check for understanding, while providing students with the opportunity to get out of their desks and move around. I also think that this activity is great to use at the beginning of a class also to get a general understanding of students’ prior knowledge. When you understand what your students already know, you can build on their knowledge throughout the lesson.
Today we also received a simplified version of the program of studies for Grades six, seven, and eight. I found this checklist format extremely helpful and beneficial to my learning, because I can easily visualize all the information and find the format much easier to comprehend and work with. I’ve already used it with ease to plan a language arts lesson, after struggling with the Program of Studies on the Alberta education website.
The readings for today’s class enable me to begin thinking more deeply about language arts, and the need students have to express themselves, whether that be through reading, writing, singing, etc. The numerous developmental stages they are going through require us as teachers to create activities and learning experiences that cater to their specific developmental needs. One thing in particular stood out in my mind regarding young adolescents’ developmental stages and changes as listening to Ted during class, “Understanding your students is key to THEIR success.” Our goal needs to be the children, not the subjects or the curriculum, but how we can reach every student so that they can have opportunities to feel success. The other article that stood out to me during the readings is the one by Frank McCourt. When reading this article, I remembered my personal middle school and high school days and remember hearing my teachers give marks to students “just because”. I knew I didn’t want to be a teacher who felt bad for students and gave them marks because of that; it made me realize how specific and different each child’s needs really are and we have to teach and re-teach until students understand the concepts presented.


Tuesday September 22, 2009

We handed in our “What’s Your Story” assignments today, which we received on the first day of classes. I think this is a great way to introduce yourself to your students and to use the information provided to understand your students and their needs, as well as how their cultural and personal beliefs may affect their learning. Part of creating safe classrooms and knowing your students so that you can meet their learning needs is getting to know your students – this activity is a great way to begin learning about their needs, likes and dislikes.
The silent movie mini-lesson that we did today was very interesting and very valuable. In understanding how we are supposed to present our mini-lesson, Ted modelled for us his own mini-lesson. The silent movie was an interesting way for students to explore their imagination and ability to read people’s emotions. After the mini-lesson was modelled, we began to talk about the importance of teaching students how to write, and the importance of writing in general. Free writing is a great way to open up the door for students to begin writing. During this activity students can be given a topic to write about, or just start writing what is going through their heads. Free writing is great because when students have finished writing their paragraph, you can begin to build on what they have written about. From their thoughts and feelings students can develop a full story, building on what they wrote during their free writing time. There are a number of ways to use free writing in the classroom, and personally I would use this activity in my classroom because it gives students to write down their feelings, and discuss what they think about an issue, if they don’t feel comfortable sharing their answer in front of the class. Other ways I thought were great situations to use free writing include providing your students with a quote or controversial topic to write about, writing a description for a picture or art project, and for those students who prefer not to write, this is an opportunity for them to draw what they are feeling.
Another teaching activity we learned for teaching writing is a response journal. In this instance, you provide students with a topic. The example we used in class was writing about something that has happened in school – the Dawe run. Have students describe through writing what was going on through their minds while they were preparing for the run, what was going on throughout the run, and how they felt when it was over. This also allows students to practice their writing, and you can assess the students writing abilities.



Tuesday September 29, 2009

Today the mini-lessons started and I was introduced to some interesting topics and ideas for presenting language arts and other subjects in my classroom. One of the mini-lessons that stood out to me was Lisa’s. She introduced the idea of bringing drama class into mathematics. I particularly liked this activity because it allows students to understand the vocabulary involved with certain mathematical processes. Students also get to develop their own actions and sounds to help them remember the words and the mathematical process. This activity would be beneficial also in other subjects such as science, or anything that requires a process to solve a problem, or there are rules to using certain processes.
We had a guest speaker today – Joe Bower. He presented some very interesting arguments for language arts and for assessment within language arts. He talked about student portfolios and the need for them as they are more valuable for student learning. Some of the things he talked about make sense, however because I haven’t seen them in practice, it is hard for me to wrap my mind around them. One of the things he spoke about is the importance of getting away from “how” and look more at the “why”. I thought this was interesting because too often we focus on how you do something and when students understand how, we move on, rather than teaching them why things are a certain way. He also emphasized that teaching is NOT the same as learning. Prior to hearing him say this, I knew that teaching and learning are not the same thing, but at the same time it was knew information. I think that personally I sometimes forget that my students don’t learn the same as I do, and they have different needs than I did at their age. We have to continually remind ourselves the number one goal is the students and their learning, not planning the best activities or performance tasks.

We learned the fishbowl activity today, and I think this activity would be great to generate discussion within your classroom, and give students the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings about a topic or issue, without any pressure to have to go up on their own. I also think it worked really well for discussing the topics covered by our guest speaker. Joe provided us with great resources however I am still not convinces without seeing the theories in practice. I feel that the arguments are very one sided, incorporating one point of view which makes it harder for me to agree. While I see the benefits of the theories and I believe that Joe does see success in his classroom, I am still uncertain as to how I can use this in my classroom, and don`t agree with everything. There are a lot of things that shape learning and responsibility and when I simply hear about these theories, I don`t feel that those needs are being met. I appreciate the time he has taken to come and talk with us, however I need to see to believe in this case.


Tuesday October 6, 2009

Today’s mini-lesson’s were very interesting and I connected fully with Lacey’s lesson. She addressed an issue that it very pertinent in middle schools, but also in the world we live in. She planned a lesson that appealed to me as a college student, but also would engage middle school students. Her hook was very good, and every student would love to have the chance to write about waking up as the opposite sex. I also thought that Mandy’s lesson was highly engaging for middle school students because her objective was getting students to read the images rather than the text. I think this is very important for students to learn this skill because it enables students to read without reading.
To we learned about teaching writing, and how to do this effectively. We looked at Peter Elbow and Joe Bower, and their thoughts on the writing process, evaluating differences and similarities. In doing this we were able to see the parallels in writing – simple assessment, come from within the student (intrinsic motivation), students should be given choices, and that grades undermine learning. While I agree with many of these points, I find it very hard to assess without putting a grade on the piece of work. Call me traditional, but that’s how I grew up being assessed, and I have trouble fully understanding why a number is different than a letter – they still hold value to the student and they still know that if they got a B instead of an A that they didn’t do as well as they could have or than a classmate. I think that the most important part of teaching writing is exactly that – the teaching part. In relation to the article, the author speaks about how she would constantly tell her students to “do your best writing” and “write well”, or “show me your best writing”. What does that mean? Even as a university student, hearing those phrases has little meaning to me because I do not understand what is meant by these concepts. In order to encourage students to do their best and create “good writing” we have to take ownership as teachers and take the time to model and explain to students what this means. I think that the author of the article, after realizing this herself was excited to learn how to teach students the difference between good and bad writing. In teaching our students what we mean, they will understand that writing is a process and is developmental. When you teach your students what good writing is, you can develop together guidelines that students can foster good writing throughout the school year, and the years to come. When the process is modelled and students have concrete guidelines that they understand the writing they produce will be “their best writing”.
I think today’s class was very beneficial in understanding the purpose of writing and the strategies presented will aid in the writing process for students, and for teaching writing to my students. One strategy I connected with is R.A.F.T.S. I think this approach helps students generate ideas and focuses their writing. We used the example of a lost shoe and it was interesting to hear the creativity that my peers can come up with and I can only imagine what middle school students would do. I like what it says on the worksheet “Designing Writing Assignments with R.A.F.T.S.” It says, “Designing writing assignments using R.A.F.T.S. can help a teacher to identify and incorporate the elements of effective writing. Effective writing assignments enable students to write fluently and purposefully for and audience.” I think this sums up the purpose of R.A.F.T.S. and the reason I would use this strategy in my classroom. Students need to have a purpose for writing and this is a great way to teach them this concept and narrow down the purpose of writing.


Tuesday October 13, 2009

For this article, I would have a giant heart – to represent the personal connection I have when reading this article. I struggled with reading and comprehension throughout middle school and high school. I found it hard to concentrate and read to understand. I would read everything I was assigned by the due date, but would have a lot of trouble making inferences from my readings and often have to read through the material a couple of times. A part from my parents, no one showed me how to comprehend what I was reading or provide me with reading strategies. Teaching students the different reading strategies they can use and showing them how they can improve their reading is important and many students struggle with it. Personally, I have to summarize what I’ve read after I am done to make sure that I understand, I also find it helpful to discuss the material with a partner. This does take up a lot of time, but is essential for me in my comprehension of material. I also think many students may be embarrassed to admit when they don’t understand what they’re reading. Using the strategies suggested here as a whole class activity may help students realize that they are not the only students struggling in this area. I also think that when we teach students different teaching strategies, they are learning the importance of reading to understand, and to take the time to make notes about their readings. When an idea such as the one in the article is done with the whole class, students see the importance of the skill, and it becomes engaging for the students. They don’t realize that they are looking for comprehension as they are putting the symbols on the paper, they might even like doing it! I also think this strategy provides a visual aid for students to see the areas in which they do relate to subject matter, as well as shows them how much or how little they understand while they are reading.
When I first started reading the second article, I was confused. I am not sure if it was the style of writing or that I didn’t understand the words I was reading. I contemplated not reading the rest and coming back to it later, but decided to continue forward. In doing this I realized the value and extreme importance of teaching essay writing from the very beginning, and providing visuals and practical examples (suits, different colour markers on the board). I had a very good high school English teacher who taught us very well how to create topic sentences and thesis statements, but we got lost in the essay writing skill. I think the emphasis on essays as I was in elementary and junior high school was simply the structure – Introduction, three paragraphs, conclusions = five paragraphs in total, that’s it! Unfortunately I never understood what an essay was and how to write one. I appreciate the enthusiasm expressed by the author and how he highlights the importance of teaching students what an essay is – defining it, picturing its shape, understanding the type of writing to use, etc. Before students can jump right into an essay, we need to teach the very basics – something I had thought of, but didn’t think about until reading this article.


Tuesday October 20, 2009

There were many mini-lessons today that I thought were very good, and stood out to me. I related to the content of Tia’s lesson because I remember reading Dr. Seuss as a child and enjoying the stories. Before Tia’s presentation, I hadn’t thought about the implications and “big ideas” involved in his stories, nor did I realize how these themes can impact my student’s lives. In hearing the different ways that Dr. Seuss can be used in the classroom, I became very excited and look forward to using this technique in my classroom. I would definitely use Dr. Seuss books in the classroom for elementary school, or as an analysis or example for middle school for students to find the “big idea”. Having worked mostly with grade eight and nine in my IPT and extended practicum, I worry about how enthusiastic or relevant this topic would be for this age group. I think that these students would understand how to find the themes presented, but I think they would joke around and not take it seriously (the majority of students). I think that this approach would be a great tool for a piece of a thematic unit; however I would have to see it used first hand in the classroom as an entire thematic unit. In the case of elementary school, I believe that using this approach as an entire thematic unit would be very beneficial to the students because they would relate to the subject matter and would be more relevant to their lives. There would be a lot of learning concepts involved that would be new to the students – social considerations that impact them for ate rest of their lives.
Poetry is a great form of literature and is often overlooked by students because they think it is boring or do not understand what it means. Poetry is a beautiful way of expressing yourself. I thought that Trisha’s mini-lesson was very informative and I appreciated her comment about using poetry as a way to vent. I think if you told students this they would understand better reasons for poetry and maybe find it easier to write and see the implications it has on literature and self-expression. Students need to be presented with opportunities to present their feelings and rather than always writing a short paragraph or story, we should encourage students to use poetry also as a means of expressing themselves and see the many different ways it can be used and has been used in the past.
In explaining the different ways poetry can be used in the classroom, Trisha gave us an activity called “Mad Libs”. For this activity, students are given a poem with words missing, and their job, with a partner, is to fill in the blanks with a noun, verb, or adjective, as indicated on the poem provided. Each partner fills the poem out for their partner – they ask their partner for a noun, verb, or adjective and fill the word in as indicated on their poem. The students continue until the poem is finished and they then read their poems out loud to each other. This activity is fun and a creative and interactive way to introduce poetry to your students.

The article “Action Strategies for deepening Comprehension” was very good, relevant, and easy to relate to. The main focus is engaging ALL – good, reluctant, and struggling – readers through the use of “enactment strategies” to motivate students. The opening vignettes provided a number of examples that teacher’s have used in their classrooms. When reading about the strategies it is hard to understand just how much impact these strategies can have on student learning. Throughout EDES 362, many of the strategies listed have been modelled for us, which provides me with confidence that these strategies DO work. As strategies are modelled and we participate as students it is clear to see how motivating and incredibly necessary these strategies are in creating successful reading experiences. As a university student, I need to be actively engage and involved in my learning so that I am increasingly motivated to continue learning; I believe it is the same for middle school students. I think part of motivating your students is contributed to how you teach and treat your learners. Along with Adults, students need to feel safe and trusted within their classroom and must receive a variety of opportunities to feel success in their learning



Tuesday October 27, 2009

This article is helpful as we begin searching for themes for our unit plan. Sometimes it becomes overwhelming when you are developing your theme because you can fire off 100 different activities that students can do but forget the purpose of the theme and the learning that can and needs to take place during the thematic unit. A part the Fogarty makes that clearly illustrates this is “Be clear on your criteria for selecting the theme!” I think one of the most important facets of thematic units is the essential questions. These provide the excitement and encourage deep-level thinking for the students, because the questions can’t be answered without exploring their learning first. I think integrating themes across all the subjects is a great way to increase student learning, but I wonder if the students get bored or tired of using the same theme for a number of classes for an x amount of weeks. How can you ensure that your students are actively engaged throughout the course of the unit?
In the second article, using this approach to increase reading comprehension, in my opinion, seems that it would work very well, as long as the students enjoyed the theme. I think within the theme it would be hard to do a novel study if there were students who didn’t connect with the theme. When you incorporate a number of literature selections within the unit, however, I think it provides more opportunities for each student to connect. I think that providing students with background knowledge is essential for the success of students – start with a theme and ease the students into reading and learning incorporating the theme. Starting with poems, short stories, and music and lyrics, is a great way to do this and then a novel study incorporating the theme will encourage students to enjoy reading the book. To go along with that I think that during the novel student, other common issues that middles school students face should be incorporated and pointed out to the students as the book is read.


Tuesday November 3, 2009

Today’s class was all about connecting with readers. One of the biggest challenges I believe not only in middle school but with many people is that they don’t read because they can’t connect with the books (me included). I think that as educators, but also parents, we have to instil in our students and children the desire to read and to continue to read as it encourages life-long learning. Students need to understand why we read and the enjoyment reading can have in our lives. I was watching Disney’s Beauty and the Beast the other day and as “Belle” was reading to the “Beast” in the library scene near the end, he states “I never knew reading could do this...take me out of this place into a new world where I can forget [about being the “Beast”].” This statement hit me and I thought, people who don’t like to read will never experience this. I think that this statement is huge and can encourage your students to want to read and to help them understand that reading is a means of experiencing different things, of entering into a different reality and letting your imagination expand and develop. Part of engaging readers and connecting with readers is helping them find books they will enjoy and want to continue reading. It is important to do this early for students so that they can continue throughout their life to search for books they enjoy reading and authors they can relate with. This is extremely important in my opinion for engaging reluctant and struggling readers. I think part of the reason they are struggling and/or reluctant is because they can’t find any books they enjoy reading or connect with. I remember in middle school how much I hated J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and I refused to read it because I simply didn’t like the book or make any personal connections to it. I think because I had that experience I understand why some students do not want to read. In order to encourage students to read and to change their opinion on reading we have to provide them with instruments they can use to develop their reading repertoire and encourage them to read for the sake of reading. One of the ways this can be done I believe is through literature circles. When everyone is assigned a role they are kept accountable and without reading the book they couldn’t fulfill their role. I also think that in the development process and the teaching of literature circles, you have to express to your students the importance of accountability and not letting your classmates down. When students understand this it encourages them to read the book, but also I think it allows them to see purpose in reading and to make connections with their readings and to their lives. Literature circles also give students the chance to interact with their peers and express their feelings about the book which is essential for students – they need the opportunity to discuss with one another their feelings and their connections with the book. To go along with that, incorporating activities such as hotseat and tableau engage students with their reading and gets them involved and interacting. Students get to take on roles of characters and put their feet into someone else’s shoes – they get to be someone else, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Students get the chance to make decisions for the character and to express their feelings through the lens of a character in the book. I think middle school students would love this! Tableau is also great because it incorporates drama into their learning. Students are given the opportunity to express their interpretation of scenes throughout the book through creating a small glimpse into a scene from the novel.
This class also informed me of the difference between struggling and reluctant readers and the importance of not letting them fall through the cracks. One of the biggest things, in my opinion, that teachers can do for ALL their students is listen to them and to talk with your students about why. We need to make them feel comfortable and safe and also that we care about their opinions and that they are valuable to the class and to their learning.


Tuesday November 17, 2009

I think the message in this article is “information OVERLOAD!!!” The symbolism of the small pill holding thirteen Christmas dinners is the same as having access to the internet and technology. The internet was created not long ago and therefore, means it hasn’t been around that long – a little scary if you ask me. With the rapid progressions of technology and the instant access to everyone and everything, what will the world look like in five years? Ten? We can never go back to when things were “simple”, and today because of the instant access we have it is very easy to feel like “blowing up”. At the same time how many people – friends, family, etc., can we connect with and talk to all around the world? Technology really is food because we need it to survive. A video we have watched numerous times is one that states we are preparing the current generation of middle school students for jobs that don’t even exist yet. When you really dig deep and think about this statement, how is it possible? Do they need us, or can they just “Google it?”
Technology in the classroom is great, when it works. Today, we have access to technology whenever we want it and whenever we need it. The downside is that we rely on it for everything. We have to keep in mind that purpose is everything. Technology can enhance your lesson, but can also do the opposite. It can be distracting, and there always needs to be a back-up plan in case the technology doesn’t work. Too often we get comfortable using the same technology and doing the same things as we teach. We are constantly encouraging our students to expand their horizons and so do we as teachers. Students know all the new technology that is out there and I don’t think we give them their due credit. We can learn so much about technology from them and have to allow them to do this. To contradict that point, we also need to know when and how to use technology and not get carried away with creating lessons that centre and focus on using it. There are many uses for it in each of the strands of language arts and we do need to utilize these, however we have to ensure there is purpose in what we are doing and that students can see that purpose. Just like the article The New Food we have to ensure that we aren`t overloading our students. We need to provide variety and create students who are not dependent on technology for doing their work – that includes using spell check too!


Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Poetry! To start off, poetry was not something I enjoyed in middle school. I didn`t understand the metaphors and analogies involved in poetry writing, nor did I care to know. All of that changed when I reached grade 11. For my grade 11 and 12 years, language arts became alive and I began to love learning about it and understanding how to synthesize what I was learning and reading. My language arts teacher was not only my favourite teacher but also an effective teacher who understands the importance of talking to her students and ensuring that students connect with their readings. I remember specifically reading a poem in grade 11 that I again read in my second year of college and I was so impressed with myself because reading it three years later I finally understood why it was important to have that understanding and why my teacher encouraged us to take a look at poetry and to dig deep. As we went through the poem, we looked for images, metaphors, similes’, and on a separate piece of paper we represented what each phrase meant to use through drawing. I understood then that poetry is a means of expression and although sometimes the lines are sometimes wacky, they are not always literal and it is our job to uncover their meaning. Poetry became interesting and exciting because I now had to solve the mystery of the poem – this all came from my teacher explaining to me the purpose of reading poetry and dissecting the words. I also think that in doing the illustrations along with the reading and from discussing with my peers I was able to understand what the writer was saying in their poem.
I thought today`s activity of sketch to stretch was awesome! I love using music in the classroom to express a point of view but also to allow students to make connections to their reading and learning. Students would really enjoy that activity and as the teacher you have to do the activity with them. They need a model, but I also think that students would be able to pick out a lot of images that I might miss. I think often students don`t realize that music and lyrics are poetry. They don`t realize that poetry is part of their everyday life and that it can have many different meanings to different people. I think that it is important to start simple when working with poetry so that students don`t feel sacred or lost when they begin. Providing examples and having students recreate these examples using their own words, issues, and points of view helps ease them into poetry writing, and also sets them up for success in their poetry writing.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 08.12.2009

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