Thoughts on Chapter 7

I really enjoyed reading Chapter 7. It has some very good key points about students being motivated. The book states, “Motivation can be deeply connected to students’ prior experiences with success and failure.” I agree with this statement, and I have actually noticed it in a school setting before. I work with a young boy who does not try anymore with his school work. He believes he fails at everything he tries to accomplish. This is because he has never had any positive feedback from his teachers. From reading this chapter, I am worried that his feelings toward school will get worse instead of better.
I learned that teachers should encourage all of their students after reading this chapter. Sometimes a child’s feelings about school could come from the teachers actions. Conley states, low-achieving students tend to receive more teacher criticism, less praise, and less helpful feedback than high-achieving students do.” This is really sad to me. I believe that teachers should try to encourage all of their students. They should never make some students feel that they are not important because they are low achievers. The teacher should try to make those students feel that they are important and that they can do anything they set their minds to.
All teachers should try to motivate their students in as many ways as they can. One way that teachers could motivate students is through working with interesting content. My fourth grade teacher used mysteries to get us interested in reading. She knew we loved books like the Hardy Boys, so she used those types of books to get us more involved with reading. Teachers should also present content in interesting ways. This would motivate students to listen while the teacher is teaching. The teacher could use digital text, magazines, and videos instead of just a textbook. These are a couple that I found interesting, but I plan to use different types of motivation in the classroom.

Lesson Plan

Curriculum Standard: 1. Develop an understanding of the state in relationship to the expanding horizon theme.
Objectives:
d. Identify the ideas and individuals that were significant in the development of Mississippi and that helped to forge its unique identity (e.g., cotton as king, Mississippi waterways, music, literature, etc.).

Big Idea: The students will develop an appreciation for the state of Mississippi through language arts and social studies using 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi.

Preparation
Read aloud the book 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, by Michael Shoulders.
Discuss with class these questions:
What are the different settings found in the book?
Did you hear something in the book that you found interesting?
Teacher will place the students into four groups.
The groups will be required to research what part of Mississippi the authors are from and what type of writing style they used. They will present their results to the class.

Guidance
1. The teacher will read aloud the book and stop occasionally to make points.
2. The teacher will ask questions for discussion with the students.
3. Teacher will walk around the room to provide assistance if needed.
4. Teacher gives specific instructions to the groups on what to present to the class.

Application
1. Students will write in their journal what they have learned about Mississippi.
2. The students will compare what they have learned with another student and discuss it together.

Assessment
1. The teacher will grade the presentations, by a rubric, according to the specific criteria that was given to each group.
2. The teacher will read the students' journals in order to observe what they learned.

Teacher Blog

I read a blog written by Garrett Brisdon, Derek Shrubsole, and Eric Simonson. This blog talks about formative and summative assessments. One thing the blog points out is that teachers should be more worried about giving appropriate feedback instead of giving grades. This article gives very interesting information on this topic. I think it would be a great blog for future teachers, and teachers to read. Here is the link so check it out!
http://ageoflearning.blogspot.com/

My Thoughts on Chapter 5

According to the text, students need to bring knowledge, experience, and motivation to a text. By reading this chapter, I understand that it is very importnat for students to have knowledge about a text they are reading. When a student is learned in a specific subject, they can confront more complicated text that deal with that subject. This is because they have a broader knowlege of the subject matter. Experienced readers are also very important when reading a text. When I was in school, I loved to read. Sometimes I would read a book that was not of the best quality, and I would have extreme difficulty trying to understand what was going on. I would use context clues and write them down in my notebook. That was one way I used my experience as a reader. I also believe if a student is allowed to read something of interest to them, it will enhance motivation. This is very important as they grow as a reader.

Information text, narrative text, and digital text were all mentioned in chapter five. The one that I really enjoyed reading about was digital text. The book states, "Digital texts are noteworthy for their prevalence in students' lives." I believe this statement is very true. Many students keep blogs or things on the internet. I also think it is important for teachers' to use digital text in their classroom, since it is so prevelant in society today. Dr.Bishop showed us a digital text on Cairbou on the national geographic website. I think this would be very informative to use in the classroom. Many students do not have the opportunity to travel and see other places or animals, so I think digital text would be a great way to bring it to the students. If a class is studying about Africa, since a field trip would be impossible, the teacher could show digital text of Africa. This could be used in many various, educational ways.

Another point I saw that was very important in the book was finding a variety of texts. Many teachers have a very limited selection of text that are available for the students. I believe that it is important to have a wide variety of text because it will better meet the need of the wide interest areas of the students. Teachers can find great information on different types of text by using the search engines on the internet. The book gives great search engines that could be used including google, yahoo, answers, and dogpile. Teachers really have no excuse for knowing the range of different text that are available for topics being taught. The only thing they must do is find and computer and start searching.

My Thoughts on Chapter 4

Personal Assessments really stood out to me in this chapter. When I was in school, I never had a teacher who really found out anything about me through conversation, interviews, or surveys. I really think that this is a very important thing for teachers to do. The chapter states “Knowing more about students as individuals will help with teaching and learning in at least three ways: one being, motivating students by bringing their backgrounds and prior knowledge into classroom lessons.” After thinking about this statement, I realize how true it is. By a teacher talking to a student, it allows students to become motivated. To me, it would make a student feel like the teacher cares about what they learn.

Classroom observation is something that we have been discussing since we have been in the program, but I loved the way the book talked about observing. When a teacher observes they are not only supposed to be observing for signs that indicate the student understands the concept. A teacher should look at how the student becomes engaged in the learning activities they are presented with. A teacher could see if they are having a problem in a certain area by doing this, and will be able to possibly better help the student. To me, I would consider this actively observing. Some teachers say they observe, but they simply are not watching to see how the student approaches a learning activity. I think that is a key factor to observing.

I also really enjoyed reading about reading attitudes and interest surveys. In lab Tuesday, those are two surveys that we will be giving to the student that we tutor. The book states, “Success in promoting students’ engagement in reading requires that teachers know as much as they can about students’ reading attitudes and interests.” I believe that knowing how a student feels about reading is very important. Sometimes, a student can feel bad towards a subject because they have had a bad experience. I believe it is my job as a teacher to try to do everything I can to turn their negative thoughts towards reading (if any) into positive thoughts. I believe that’s why learning their interests is important. A student most likely will enjoy reading more if they are given the opportunity to read a book of interest.