Thanks, everyone!

Thanks for your dedication to making this course a productive learning environment. I've enjoyed learning about your teaching experiences and admire you all for the hard work you've done this year. It's really been a pleasure to get to know you.

A lesson that worked

I originally wrote this blog in a word file and was writing it on my wish list, but then I ended up teaching a lesson on one of the things I said that I wished other teachers would teach... and it worked! So rather than recount my lengthening list of things I wish my students would walk in here knowing I here's a bit about a recent lesson that worked.

I meant my lesson to be a quick brush up on using sines and cosines to find x and y components of vectors, but what I found was that the students really didn't even know how to punch sine and cosine into their calculators, much less have any idea of what they meant. However, since I have been making a big stink in my class about how I really don't care if my kids can punch numbers into calculators or even plug them into equations, I forged ahead with my "review" of sine and cosine as the ratio of lengths of the sides of a right triangle. (maybe you remember Soh Cah Toa ?)

As it turned out nearly every one of the students ate up this more basic, version of sine and cosine than whatever they had been working with since first taking geometry or whatever. In physics, the point of doing such analysis is to find out what portion of a vector "goes in a certain direction". We talked about how pulling on something in the direction you actually want it to go is more efficient than pulling at some angle and that the bigger the angle, the less force actually ends up "going" the way you want it.

Nearly every student had one of those lightbulb moments right in front of me. Even though I thought the lesson was about as boring as could be, over half of the students said it was one of the best lessons they had this year and that they wish I had taught them sine/cosine in the first place! To be honest I think that the result was more due to the fact that the students had covered the material many times before, but it was satisfying nonetheless to see them actually get excited about learning some math.

What I'd like to think made the lesson work was the fact that it was applied math. It makes me want to work more to find lessons that integrate into them the learning of things they should already know. Too often I find myself trying to teach lessons that merely depend on them knowing things they should have already learned. It makes me want to find a way to help the students learn applied math in the first place, as opposed to learning math and then trying to apply their skills in physics. I think that the fact that the stated goal of the lesson was not to learn some math was important. The students seemed to treat the whole thing as if they were learning something other than math, and, since they claimed never to have seen it done the way I was showing them, they acted as if the whole thing were new and interesting!

Blog Posting: Information and Technology Literacy

Here is the blog post that I presented on last week.

-Dara

On the topic of technology and education, there are two areas of focus:
1. Technology used by you to demonstrate or illustrate something for your students, and
2. Technology used by your students for their own self-directed instruction

1. I won’t delve too deeply into the first topic, simply because it is mostly common knowledge. Digital projectors, movie clips shown to the class, demonstrations on a computer screen, music used as part of a lesson, and even something as simple as having a typed assignment rather than a handwritten one all obviously have a tremendous impact in the classroom. Textbooks often come with demonstration software (especially math and science), and even if your particular textbook didn’t, other publishers’ books may. (This weekend, I picked up 4 statistics textbooks at a used book sale, all of which came with software.) This, coupled with the ample Java applets, pictures, media clips, etc. available by simply Googling whatever it is you’re teaching, takes care of the visual. (If your school has youtube and Google videos blocked, save the entire webpage to your hard drive while you’re at home and then demonstrate with the saved copy.)

2. The second topic is much broader, and much more controversial. It can again be divided into two subcategories:
A. hardware, and
B. software

A. Hardware, including calculators, computers, timers, cameras, etc. are obviously useful, but their long-term practicality has sparked a lot of debate. A constant concern for math teachers is if having calculators available to all students, all the time discourages mental math, and students may find themselves reaching for their calculator to perform simple calculations that they should to be able to do in their head. Another concern is that the calculator (or other technology) is perceived as giving the “right” answer, even though may be far from the case, and thus the critical evaluation of answers is bypassed. Finally, a calculator may hide process and as a result a student may not be aware of it (or may give it a lower priority to the eventual result). A 1986 review of previous studies by Hembree and Dessart (JRME, March 1986, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 83-99) concluded “across all grade and ability levels, students using calculators possess a better attitude toward mathematics and an especially better self-concept in mathematics than students not using calculators”. While the age of the review could call into question the results, and studies such as one on the effects of calculator use on tests of mathematical reasoning (Bridgeman, Harvey, and Braswell, JEM, Winter 1995, Vol. 32, No. 4 pp. 323-340) have found the benefits of calculator use on standardized tests highly variable, I believe both critiques are missing a very key point: technology puts power (quite literally) in the hands of the students. I might lead and demonstrate, but they are the ones computing the results. While a demystification of hardware is essential in ensuring an overall positive affect, and hardware cannot be used without students first having an understanding of process and an ability to predict and evaluate answers on their own, the technology is empowering and, in my opinion, overwhelmingly successful. After all, our students know how to send a text message, download a ringtone, upload to MySpace, and get around a firewall; learning to use a graphing calculator to do more than just add and subtract is not at all out of their reach (and from watching my classes, they love exploring its functions and finding features on their own).

B. The field of educational software is much more extensive, and controversial, than I had imagined. Without trying to be too subject-specific (because I’ve largely focused on math so far!), there are seemingly countless software programs touting improved conceptualization, increased student interest, higher student engagement levels, differentiation and customization tailored to individual student needs, and in general an absolute indispensability to the learning process. With this apparent wealth in resources also come reviews of the software (http://www.educational-software-directory.net/reviews.html provides a guide to online reviews of educational software).
However, a recent Department of Education Study (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402715.html?hpid=topnews) has not only doubted the overall effectiveness of educational software in raising test scores, but also questioned the legality of some major software purchases. The study cited the ineffectiveness of software in some schools to be a result of lack of teacher training, as some instructors were using it as a replacement for rather than a supplement to instruction. As a matter of personal opinion, I believe that software is secondary to hardware. If a student knows that a computer can help them reduce data, whether or not they use Excel or the software program that came with the physics equipment is secondary. As far as the games-as-instruction method goes, a lot of the software that I have seen does not link the knowledge with its delivery method. After all, shooting at spaceships while learning to type is one thing, but shooting at spaceships when you get the correct solution to a question on standard deviation is definitely another. There should not be a disconnect between process and result. In fact, I feel that the major benefit of educational software is not the program itself but the fact that it’s encouraging students to use the computer in the first place. The goal of technology in general should be at least in part the technological empowerment of the student.

Web log 3, matthew hallahan

ok this is not a lesson that worked, but it is something I am getting more interested in doing. I've noticed my students are really bad at making deductions, analyzing the data they are given. We've talked alot about being critical readers, but I've become interested in students as critical consumers. We are bombarded by media and our students need to be able to dissect it.

I'm heard this either in class or another seminar. I liked the idea. It was to have students analyse advertizements (print, radio, television, internet). The students will have to identify what claims are made, if these claims can be substantiated, who is the target audience, etc. In the end, i think it doesnt make much difference what we teach kids to be critical towards. I bet there's alot of carry over.

I'll somehow have to tie this to math.

blog post 3 - wish list

there are lots of things that i wish my kids would do, but i think the most prevalent thing is not immediately to shut out anything that is related to schoolwork. they shut down when they see any work they must complete. it seems like no matter how interesting i try to make the material, as long as they think i'm teaching them a strategy...forget it. they will sometimes work on the assignment, but i find it very challenging to get them to actually think about their answers, they simply want to fill in the lines.

i guess i just wish that they would connect with the material, and have an open mind. i think many of them want to learn; however, if there is no immediate payoff, they think it is a waste of time. i wish they had more examples of people like them who have used education for a payoff.

next year, i think i will work much more to get them to see the power of words and reading.

Post 3

I very strongly echo Hayley's sentiments, and only have one major to add: I wish my students had a better mental filter.

1. I want them to actually engage their brain when taking notes. I can't count the number of times I've seen things written sideways on *their* paper because I had run out of room on the board and written it sideways. They write down things that make no sense and copy stray marks from the board. If they skip a word when writing, they don't catch it, and they think that whatever I say or write is the absolute truth. They write down only what is exactly on the board or what I tell them to, even though I often write more than they need to and say more than I've written. I could say a sentence like "take the cosine of the hypotenuse" and it would be written down, verbatim, without them actually evaluating the validity of what I said. Sounds good, teacher said it so it must be right, my brain isn't engaged to tell me that that statement is a mathematical impossibility. (It *does* make catching cheaters a whole lot easier though, because they copy exactly from their friends!)

I have emphasized time and time again that I do not care about the math definition, the glossary definition, the dictionary definition, or the exact words that come out of my mouth. What I do care about is their articulation of a *concept* no matter what words they choose to use. I wish that teachers took emphasize off of memorization.

2. I want them to use their mental filters to predict and evaluate answers. What *should* the side of this triangle be? Around 10 inches, maybe a little bigger or smaller but if I get 150 inches, that can't be right. Does the answer I get match what I thought it should be? I did it and got a negative number...but how can a side of a triangle have a negative length? (Most common response: Oh well, that's what the calculator told me!). I try to emphasize the real-world use of math in the sense that, in real life, it doesn't matter how you got the answer. What matters is that you got the right answer, and that you can explain and *justify* how you got it. After all, we're past the days of grades based solely on effort. Use the calculator, don't use the calculator, compare your answer with someone else (compare, not copy!), discuss, ask questions, look at your notes, I don't care, just predict, execute, and evaluate.

3. I want them to be extremely critical of what other people tell them. Don't accept the word "seems." This seems like the right answer because the teacher said it. This seems like a good investment because the graph is going up. This seems like the correct conclusion because somebody told me it was. When someone says "this seems..." you say "prove it." They are completely aware of things like bias and the fact that numbers can be manipulated any way you want, but they don't apply that knowledge. Someone says something is good, you say "how good? Give me a number." Ask questions, be critical, and be aware of fuzzy concepts and solutions that are presented as absolutes.

Blog 3

My Wish list

There are tons of thing that I wish my students had before they came to me. I'm only going to say a couple. One, I wish they were taught to read directions. Now, I'm not saying that other teachers aren't teaching it, because I fully believe that they are teaching it. I'm just saying that the students are not doing it. So many issues would be solved if they would just read the directions. Then, there is the second necessary step, they need to think about what they have been taught and apply it to the question they just read. I can sight so many examples of times that students have asked a question to me and my response is, "Did you read the question?" or "read the question aloud to me". Then, I spark their memory by saying the question again. I'm not changing the wording or anything. Just saying it again. Then, they get it. They just never take the two seconds to read the question and then think about what they know.

I guess this all boils down to problem solving skills. These kids have little to no problem solving skills when it comes to normal educational (tested) standards. These kids can solve problems when they aren't in school (not always well but they do solve problems), they just never apply this to school. I wish they would apply these skills to school. Our job as a teacher is to teach them how to apply those skills. I feel in my situation though, I learned the problem solving skills in school and then I learned how to apply those skills outside of school, and I find that I am working to do it the opposite way.

I feel that if students came to me with the knowledge of how to apply their problem solving skills to the classroom and had average reading comprehension, then I could teach them the math that they need for this grade.

Blog 3

What I wish other teachers would teach...

I wish my students understood what it means to earn a grade. I have many students who ask for "just a D" and don't realize having just a D means that they have learned 65% of the material. I realized at some point that teachers were handing out grades and not teaching students how to learn. I have students who can't write a comprehensive paragraph, let alone an essay, and they have an A in English. Then when I give them an F, because that is what they earned, there is a disconnect between how they earned each of these grades. It becomes what the teacher gave me, not what I earned.

How can I expect my students to take notes, do class work, and use these tools to study, if I am the only one of their teachers asking this of them? I have found that not only do my students lack study skills and learning strategies, but they also don't see the need for these skills. I wish my students weren't so resistant to do work because in other classes they are given busy work that is just for credit. I wish my students would learn the process and not just try to have any answer of his or her paper.

Most of the basic skills I wish my students knew, I believe, stems from elementary school, such as read, writing, adding, and subtracting. And I think much of the disrespect comes from the lack of a positive family structure. These are things I think we are all trying to correct, but at the same time, sometimes we are going against something that we found too late. But I think in middle school and high school if nothing else my students should be able to distinguish between quality in work and how to receive what they earn.

Many of the teachers at my school seem to give a student s grade just to make the problem go away, but this isn't doing the students or other teachers trying to instill the value of learning any favors. I don't want a kid in my Geometry class that didn't earn a passing grade in Algebra, or who is a 11th grader because they have passed 3 English classes, but can't formulate ideas on a proof.

Wish List

I wish that other teachers would make a big effort in teaching students how to communicate professionally and appropriately in class, rather than accepting their use of informal or colloquial dialogue.
I run my classroom like a corporate office and demand professional behavior, language and integrity so that students will be prepared for communicating with peers in college and the workplace. I also find myself explaining and the students accepting that professionally and formal codes of communication does not mean "acting white." Rather that they are communicating on a level that will get people to respect them and in turn give others respect. I have found that they really enjoy being polite, even if they just do it for extra credit!
I cringe when I hear teachers administrators and security guards, using slang or unprofessional language with the students so that they would like them. I think it reinforces their poor communication levels that I am tyring to raise. They have so much great things to say in class dialogues, but cannot wait their turn and shout over each other.
I really want my students to raise their speaking skills because I think it will drastically change their writing skills, and also their behavior and the value that hey put into their education.

Tamarah's 3rd post

While I would love for my students to know how to read books and write paragraphs, what is more important to me is that my students are able to use learning strategies. I would love all teachers at my school, especially in the ninth grade, to focus on teaching students to take notes, make connections, apply knowledge, and other learning strategies that will give my students the tools to do algebra and remember it.

I know that I have overlooked the importance of these learning strategies, because I did not really realize that my students could not do these things until about halfway through the year. I think we all overlook teaching these strategies, because they are so innate to us that we cannot believe that our students do not know them.

Having a focus on learning strategies in all classrooms would benefit all content areas, because these learning strategies are applicable and necessary in all content areas. I would love to discuss more ways to explicitly teach learning strategies in my classroom, and get other teachers at my school behind the idea.

Blog 3: SBA's post

This discussion comes at the perfect time. According to DCPS’ English/Language Arts standards, I’m suppose to teach my 6th and 7th graders to write research reports. I have to be honest – I would love to ignore this standard (just like the other two English teachers in the building are doing). But I know that ignoring this standard is a disservice to my students.

So, how do I teach my students to write research reports when I only have one computer with Internet access and no school librarian? (Our library hasn’t been maintained since the last librarian left five+ years ago.) That’s what I’ve been struggling with for the last few weeks.

I’ve decided to look at this as an opportunity to build the skills my students will need to write research reports in the future. I’m still debating if I’ll actually have them write one this year. I probably will but keep it to just a page or two. I’m struggling to come up with a topic or a least some parameters to help them choose theirs.

The research skills I plan to focus on aresummarizing, note taking, paraphrasing and evaluating sources. (This could also be a chance to review lots of writing and grammar skills.) I’ll work plagiarism in since I know many (most) of my students think a research report is copying verbatim off the Internet or from a book. I may touch on evaluating sources. We did citations a few months ago for science fair.

I also plan to walk over to the Anacostia Library (actually the interim library while the real one is being renovated) and see if I can get any support from the librarians there. I might have them put some books on hold so the students can come and do research on their own time.

Finally, I’m thinking of having them work in pairs on this. Each student would have to turn in their own report on their own topic, but they’d have someone to work with on the skills. I'm worried about how to do this in my inclusion class where I have 8 special ed students and an inclusion teacher that rarely leaves her chair.

Any other ideas and suggestions would be appreciated.

Cross-content wish-list

What I wish my students learned before coming to my class is to try out things, and to think independently. Unless I show students exact example, they do not know how to solve problems. They do not even try. In my study skills development class, if I give the students a handout with exact explanation how to do something, they do not read it, and just tell me “I do not get it”. And, honestly, I am getting a little tired of that response. If they at least tried! Always everything was presented to my students in a straight-forward way, and it seems like they did not have to use their brains at all to figure out new things. Maybe I am expecting too much from the 7th graders that I teach, but I do not think so. So slowly, we are all learning how to deal with this issue – some of the students are starting to try out new ways of solving problems (really, only very few…), and I am learning how to present problems to them so that they have a chance to solve them but still have to try. Teaching 7th grade math would be much easier if the students learned in previous years how to try something out and see if it works, if they learned how to think independently. This could be done in any subjects, from math to English language, social studies, are, etc…

Small successes

I really like the after school tutoring program that we provide in my school. It gives me a chance to tutor students who want to learn, and I can do it in small groups. This tutoring has helped a lot those of my students who were not confident to ask questions in the class. Sometimes I pre-teach the students in tutoring the lesson for the next day, so that they can actively participate in the class discussion. I have noticed the students who participate in tutoring are asking more questions and always let me know when something is not clear to them during the class instruction. I would call that a success. And yes, the achievement of those students is improving. Not rapidly, but small and slow improvement is still improvement.

Reading #8

Reading #8
Chapter 13 - Active Reading

I again made use of my scanner and scanned in some images of my notes and underlining of the actual pages in the chapter.

Reading this chapter reinforced an idea that I had when I began teaching: that trial and error would be crucial to the endevour. Literacy coaches have to constantly look for strategies that will work for their students. This can mean studies that sanctioned by the National Reading Panel report and it may mean other studies that were not sanctioned for various reasons.

As I have gained experience this year, I have gained tools that work for my classroom. Next year should be much easier and I believe it will continue to get easier until I acquire a tool box that truly works for me and the students I teach.

One resource offered for keeping up with Literacy news: http://www.all4ed.org/

While I took notes on various pages of the chapter, I will just upload two as examples. I hope this is sufficient.

1) Pg. 398
2) Pg. 399

Reading #7

Chapter 12

Anticipation Guide/Graphic Organizer

Before Reading:

Looking at just the chapter title and outline in the table of contents, I brainstormed five ideas that I thought the chapter would bring up or cover.

I thought:

1. It is important to choose literature that will be interesting to the students.
2. Reading literature will improve the reading ability of students while also helping them become more interested in reading.
3. Students should be encouraged to respond to literature in ways that help them see the connection between the stories and the course content.
4. Reading fiction can be good in a social studies class because it might allow for those with other interests or abilities to buy into the social studies content.
5. Stories about diverse peoples can raise student awareness of diversity.

After Reading:

I then read the chapter and wrote down whether the author had anything to say about each idea and whether he agreed or disagreed.

Authors wrote:

1. What is interesting to students? This can be difficult to answer, especially to a new teacher - and it is probably changing and varies greatly on the individual. The authors do write about the use of "Free reading time," where students pick their own books to read. This way students can't complain that the content is not interesting, I suppose. The authors don't seem to write to much specifically about finding content that connects with students - but this probably is a given.
2. This seems to be one of the general ideas of the authors. They say specifically on pg. 366 that reading can increase the vocabulary of students, including content-specific terms. The also write that "good experiences with reading breed motivation to seek other reading experiences (367).
3. The authors write that literature can be a catalyst for thoughtful analysis of different issues (367). They also write that it is important not to overwhelm readers by asking them to respond to much to questions. They write about finding a balance between "efferent" reading and "aesthetic" reading. Efferent reading focuses "attention on public meaning abstracting what is to be retained after reading" while aesthetic reading focuses "on what is being personally lived through, cognitively and affectively, during the reading event. Finding a balance seems to make sense to me.
4. I did not notice the authors use this as a specific example of a benefit of using literature in the classroom. Though I still think that students who love reading stories in English class, but do not like their social studies textbooks would appreciate this. The authors do say that literature does go beyond the facts of textbooks which can give readers a deeper understanding of the material.
5. The authors write a very similar concept on pg. 367, writing "Literature allows readers to experience other times, other places, other people and other cultures with empathy." The authors go on to write more extensively about using multicultural literature on pages 381-387. There are different concerns to take into account when choosing the write book to encourage empathy for diversity in the classroom.

Blog 3: A Lesson That (kind of) Worked

For about a month, I decided to work on standard 5-paragraph Essay structure.

I came up with my own Outlined format for the students to follow. But it ended up being rather close to the "Mr. Brown's Format" or something like that that the 7th-grade English teacher was teaching. I teach social studies, by the way.

So, I decided instead of giving a test for the chapter, to work on an essay with my students. It took longer than I expected. I suppose what I did was more of a unit than a lesson.

Basically I started with a topic (How does the physical environment affect or change human culture?) and then went through the steps of planning out an essay. Prewriting techniques such as brainstorming, knowledge web drawing, and outlining.

My goal was for the students to pick up the techniques and be able to organize their essay in the format I was looking for.

We started out just by brainstorming about the topic. Then I tried to get them to group their brainstormed ideas into main ideas (which I explained would be their paragraphs).

Then we wrote the introduction together (Thesis and three main ideas). We then wrote one paragraph of the body at a time together (three main ideas - three paragraphs). For each of these, we also brainstormed examples to support the main idea. Finally we wrote the conclusion together - in which we just reworded the Introduction.

Part of the problem is that it would often take a long time to get through just one paragraph. Or it might have been to tedious to do more than one paragraph in a period. My AU adviser suggested that I mix things up by just doing one step in a class and then doing two other 20 minute activities. She has suggested this to me more than once, and I'm trying to adjust my lesson planning to have 3 20-30 minute activities to better keep the attention of my 12-13 year old 7th graders.

When it came time to write their own essays a handful could actually write a good essay that was the reverse question (How does human culture change the physical environment)? We did things the same way: one step at a time.

I decided to have them write on any topic they chose and a good number were actually able to do it in the format I was looking for. I was very happy about this.

All in all, if I were to do it again, I would try to plan out the steps more thoroughly and and also mix it up more on a day to day basis. My adviser suggested teaching grammar rules in parts that I thought they could use help with. I also would probably start off with a topic I thought the whole class could complete with relative ease (including the brainstorming steps)

It was a very interesting experiment in teaching writing. And I was happy that it went alright.

A lesson that worked well

This is a lesson that I used when teaching "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston. For those that have not read the book, it was written during the Harlem Renaissance, and takes place in rural Georgia and Florida. The author chose to write the character dialog in a southern black vernacular to make it more authentic, but this also makes the text harder to follow for some readers. In addition, Hurston often uses colorful figurative language to describe situations. I found that many of my students were taking these figures of speech literally, and decided to spend a day deciphering some of the figurative language.

I like this lesson because it helps students visualize figurative language in their heads and get a better understanding of what the author means. The drawing at the end helps cement this notion of picturing what figurative language would really look like. Before this lesson, when students read "...didn't keer nothin' fo' the land, ah could throw ten acres of it over de fence..." they didn't understand why this character would throw ten acres of land over a fence.

I think the transfer to other areas would be any lesson that had the students breaking down something that they were learning into a visualization to help it make sense.

Here it goes:

Do Now: What is a simile? Metaphor? Hyperbole? Personification? Give an example of each.

I used this as a Do Now to try an activate prior knowledge. Most of my students have been exposed to figurative language in the past, but needed some prodding.

Mini Lesson: Go over these four types of figurative language, give examples, explain how they are different. Why are they used? Why not describe things literally?

The mini-lesson is just a refresher for students who knew these, but mainly for students who forgot, or only knew one or two types of FL. I found that many students thought that everything was a hyperbole ("it's exaggerating, because you don't have eyes like the sun."), so some clarification was then in order.

Mini-Lesson pt 2: How to find figurative language and know what it means. RATATA (Read Aloud, Think Aloud, Talk Aloud) from Chapter 2. Read a passage and discuss how I found figurative language and how I figured out what it means. Explain how I picture in my mind what this figure of speech would literally look like (i.e. "The sun was gone, but he had left his footprints in the sky.") and follow by thinking of what the author really means. Read a passage with the class and have them find one piece of figurative language, explain why it's figurative, and what that looks like. How does it help you understand the passage better? What does it add to the meaning of the passage?

This part it to show how to find these types of figurative language and how we know the difference between literal and figurative. It also begins to teach how we make sense of these figures of speech.

Classwork: Each table (4-6 students per table) is assigned a six-page passage from the book. They read the passage marking down any figurative language they find. After 15 minutes, the table takes turns sharing the figurative language that they found and as a group they decide a) is it figurative language? b) what type? c) what does it mean? After discussing all of the figurative language from the passage each person takes a different phrase and write it down on a piece of paper. Write down the answers to the above questions, and then draw a visual representation of what this would look like literally (from the i.e. above, show the sun walking through the sky leaving footprints). When groups are done, jigsaw members from each table to share with other tables what was found and what they thought it meant.

Here's the transfer of knowledge, where they find it on their own and have to make sense of the meaning as a group. There were some interesting debates as to what different phrases would look like or what they mean. Also helped show that their are different interpretations of literature.

Assessment: turn in the sheet with the figurative language and drawing.

HW: Read Chapters 5 and 6, write down any figurative language you find while reading.

Blog 3: Cross Content Wish List

In class last week we talked about what you'd like to write for your last blog assignment. Suggestions included a lesson that worked well - perhaps one that supports literacy at the same time as the class content.
Another suggestion was to send a message to your colleagues in other content areas about what you'd like them to teach which will help students in your content area.
So please take your pick from these two topics.

blog post - arts in literacy

Washington DC is blessed with an abundance of museums, theater, and architecture that a teacher can use to supplement through all kinds of projects and field trips. I will be writing about American University’s partnership with DCPS professional development in a course to encourage the use of art and architecture in classes.
The course has a variety of offerings including all day workshops, evening lectures, and a three week summer institute. Each year the course has a different focus, most recently a conference on developing a city-wide art curriculum. However, the 2005 program seemed most interesting: Incorporating Art, Architecture, Geometry, and History. This program centered on lectures and programs teaching instructors about the architecture of Washington DC, and taught them how to design a curriculum with original assessments that follows that particular course. As an English teacher, I saw many possibilities to connect this program with the curriculum. I envisioned teaching my students about the design of DC and reading some of Thomas Jefferson and other founding father’s documents, and deciding if the architecture of DC embodies their ideas. Furthermore, I could envision a math teacher using the math behind the monuments and buildings for countless lessons in geometry, algebra, or trig.
As I am sure many of my colleagues agree, many of our students are very visual. They demand instant gratification, and require pictures to augment their understanding. Using art or architecture to illustrate a concept is of enormous value. I used a beautiful book called, The Great Migration to illustrate the idea of migration – RAMP-UP’s unit 2 theme. The students responded to the powerful paintings by Jacob Lawrence. It assisted them picturing the idea of population movement.
I would recommend looking into the AU course http://www.american.edu/cas/soe/pdf/SETH_Annual_Report.pdf if you have the option of designing your own type of curriculum. However, it seems like a great investment of time, especially if you do not have the opportunity to use it. You can find out more about it at http://www.american.edu/cas/soe/tip/index.htm.
Additionally, Professor Robbins showed me an article about a Newark school program where students took a class: American Studies: Art Across the Curriculum. In this specially-designed course, the students gained critical thinking and discussion skills and a greater appreciation of American history, through observing and responding to artwork. This program seems excellent because it empowers the students through choice (they choose the artwork they like and can choose which to respond), and it encourages the students to interact with history. Although the skills the students learned are not the ones directly tested on standardized tests, it would be a great reward or way to encourage students that were resisted direct instruction.
With the National Gallery, Smithsonian portrait, Corcoran, and other smaller galleries, DC has a wealth of visual resources (many admission free) to supplement our instruction. In fact, while researching for this presentation, I felt very guilty that I had not used these resources. I am definitely going to use these resources for next year. Even if a field trip is not possible, there are many resources through visual, and multimedia interactions.
I would like to close this blog post by listing resources for teachers in only some of the many museums in the area.
• The National Gallery of Art has a huge education section with online, print, and multimedia resources. It also has opportunities for workshops, school visits, and student volunteer opportunities. http://www.nga.gov/education/index.shtm• The Smithsonian museums also offers myriad options including the Anacostia Community Museum, with lots of interesting African-American history. http://anacostia.si.edu/Resources.htm• The Corcoran Museum is the largest non-federal museum in DC. It has a program called “Artreach” which focuses on community art classes and beautification. http://www.corcoran.org/education/artreach.htm• The Arena Stage is a great theater that offers creative, interesting performances. They produced an August Wilson play earlier in the year. They offer a D.C. Ticket partnership that includes up to 35 daytime or afternoon tickets for only $3 per ticket. It also offers supplemental materials for teachers. http://www.arenastage.org/outreach/education/student-performance-packages/ Every DCPS high school and most jr. high and middle schools are members of the Ticket Partnership.
• The Folger Shakespeare Theater is valuable for teaching the Bard. Right now, The Tempest is playing. http://www.folger.edu/index_sa.cfm?specaudid=2
In conclusion, although teachers have so much on their plates, and so many things to deal with, it is vital to consider the arts from time to time. Especially with art and music being slashed in favor of test preparation, the responsibility of art education is falling onto core subject teachers. The Arts are so valuable to enrichment, that we must sneak it into standards-based lessons as much as we can.

Small Successes

It's hard to claim success sometimes in this first year. Even when grades go up, and student work improves, I'm not sure that I'm at a point where I feel that I can take credit. Not to be self-deprecating, but I think that in general I'm just too green to know the difference. I hope to figure that out one day so I can better understand what's been working, what hasn't.

As I turned in grades before spring break, my number of Fs had gone down drastically, and my numbers of Cs, Bs and As all went up. Part of this is me being more lax on my late work policy - no one got marked down for turning in their essays late (and many of them were quite late). Part of this is creating a project where the students got to pick their own poet, their own poems and write their own essay prompt. They like having some control over what they learn - I don't blame them. Part of this is me getting better about reminding students again and again what is due, when it's due, how much it's worth.

I can look at one student in first period who got 40% the first advisory (F), 60% the second advisory (F) and 81% this advisory (C). I told her that at this rate, I'm expecting a 100% for 4th advisory. With her, it seemed like not letting her give up when the first draft wasn't great helped. She has a "fuck it" (her words, not mine) mentality and as I tried to change that (though it's usually an uphill battle), it seemed like she did more work.

Another student who had the skills but never turned in the work first semester. Both advisories she got 64 or 65% - barely a D. Changed up the seating, put her with someone that was a great student, and suddenly she's turning in an A essay, doing good revisions, doing well on tests and gets a B overall in class.

It was nice to call some parents last Friday to let them know how much better their kids were doing. You could feel the relief coming through the phone.

Then again, all this came as I finalized the grades. Most of the advisory it was just too hard to tell how everyone was doing. All juniors at my school have to take AP English, and most days I feel like I'm boring the advanced kids and losing the kids who need some basics. I guess if I'm going to get one day where I feel like a difference is being made, it should be the last day of the advisory. One day is better than none, right?

Reading #6

Chapter 11 – 10 Questions (+2)

1. What ways could our school (or myself as a teacher) do a better job of motivating students for the DC CAS? (I think this would be good to consider for next year, as there is only a week to prepare for this year).
2. How can I consistently incorporate previewing of the text with my students?
3. How can I best teach students about criterion tasks? This is something that may become more important when my standards are geared to my textbook (this year DC switched the standards but we did not yet start teaching them)…I think I have the correct understanding that a criterion task is the standard students are supposed to be able to fulfill.
4. What is the best way for students who miss class to do make-up work, so that they have a better opportunity to gain domain knowledge?
5. How can I best assign interactive homework assignments to students’ whose parents are not often the most involved?
6. Will assigning interactive homework assignments lead to greater parent involvement?
7. Are there other interactive methods beyond interviewing family or community members about different topics or collecting data by recording things such as ingredients for different products at the grocery store?
8. How can I assign more “practice-based” homework, which is meant for students to practice what I have already guided the students through in class?
9. What kind of preparation and extension type assignments might I be able to utilize in my class?
10. How can I best introduce task awareness (or knowing what’s important) to my students, using methods like SQ3R?
11. How can I systematically teach some of the great “observable” and “in-the-head” study strategies? How can I make them a part of my routine in the classroom?
12. How can I teach students to be more aware of their performance (understand relationship between their understanding of the task and using the appropriate strategy for accomplishing it)?

Reading #5

Chapter 10 - Double Entry Journal

FACTS
1. “When students commit ideas and knowledge to writing, they must be more thoughtful, organized and precise than when speaking” (292).
2. One problem with leaving writing to English teacher is that writing is different in different core subjects. (293)
3. Writing essays improves students thinking about the content.
4. In a social studies study, teachers used brainstorming, writing, and reading and found that this helped students synthesize information.
5. The writing process involves: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Editing, and Postwriting or Publishing.
6. Prewriting involves deciding on a topic, collecting one’s thoughts, gathering data, organizing ideas mentally or on paper, rehearsing in one’s mind what will be said or written. In Revising, the focus is on content or meaning. In Editing, the focus is on form (spelling, punctuation, grammatical convections, and finding the right word).
7. Writing process is not strictly linear. Writer can go back and forth.
8. Students need to be provided with incremental modeling, guidance, and practice in the different phases of the writing process.
9. Concerning African American oral and written traditions, the authors note that they “are highly prized and effective conventions in many contexts, although they may not be awarded points in the five paragraph persuasive essay or history term paper” (298).
10. Learning logs can be a beneficial way for students to practice writing and reflect on content. Teachers can provide prompts.
11. Hierarchical summaries, REAP and GIST are three formal procedures for teaching summarization.
12. Guided writing procedure involves brainstorming and writing before reading an assigned text selection.
13. Report writing can be very difficult, but different strategies can be utilized to help. One is called I-charts. Also, teaching outlining and paraphrasing is very important. (Start with smaller passages, then build up to larger ones).
QUESTIONS, OPINIONS, THOUGHTS
1. I agree with this and I think it is very important to my students. I have tried to work with them on the organization of their writing with varying levels of success.
2. I find that this is true, though there is a lot of overlap. I still have no doubt that my students can use the extra writing skills practice in social studies class.
3. I think this is very important. I did one unit on essay writing. Next year I plan to do the unit earlier in the year and then to have students write more essays throughout the year.
4. I think this is great. I also have tried to incorporate these things and would like to do more so.
5. It’s great to see this laid out here. It’s been some years since I learned the “writing process” in a classroom, and I would like to have a solid structure to pass on to my students.
6. These explanations/clarifications are helpful. Prewriting can involve brainstorming and knowledge webs.
7. I’d like my students to understand this as well. It was exciting to get try to teach them the writing strategies – I am still developing my approach.
8. This is something I tried to do. I mostly focused on the prewriting and drafting phase. If I do it again, I will set up a more comprehensive plan for guiding my students through each phase in the process. I tried to teach my students strategies for brainstorming and outlining, while at the same time trying to explain the basic structure of an essay and paragraphs within. This could work for the prewriting and drafting phases and I may go on to the revising phase, and try to help students make better paragraphs using the “Power Writing” model.
9. It is interesting to see what one study found to be more traditional in the African American community. I think I recognize some of the things like rhyme, word play, etc in spoken speech. I have not so much found this to be as developed in the writing as well, but that could be because I have not done a lot of free writing in my classes.
10. Learning logs are something I considered trying early on, but never got off the ground. I think this would be a great way to review information while also practicing writing. I may try to get back to this when I start out next year and make it part of the weekly routine.
11. More and more I have thought about the importance of summarizing – and of learning it in middle school. I’ve heard more than one person say that they remember doing a lot of summarizing in 7th grade. I’d like to try some of these strategies with my students.
12. This would be an interesting thing to try, but I’m skeptical as to what subject topics in my geography class my students would feel ready to write about before reading about. It is definitely something to consider.
13. I am not quite ready to tackle a report in my classroom, but I do want to get there and some of the strategies could come in handy.

Reading #4

Chapter 7 – Outline

I seem to be having some problem with the formatting, but I hope that this is sufficient.

I. Reading to Learn
A. Constructing Meaning with Text. “Learning from text involves constructing meaning from the author’s message” (191).
b. Reading can be viewed from both a cognitive and social constructionist view.
B. Helping Students Comprehend
a. Influenced by: “text, prior knowledge, strategies a reader can use, and the goals and interests of the reader” (192).
b. Student-centered comprehension: teaching specific comprehension strategies.
c. Content-centered comprehension: using materials (like graphic organizers) to make text more comprehensible.
1. Teaching Students to be Strategic
a. National Reading Panel’s 7 categories of comprehension instruction with research support: Comprehension monitoring, cooperative learning, use of graphic and semantic organizers, question answering, question generation, story or text structure, summarization.
2. Direct instruction of comprehension strategies
3. Making text comprehensible
4. The Role of Fluency in Comprehension
a. Fluency is a precondition of comprehension.
b. “Fluent readers are able to comprehend texts of various types
with speed accuracy, and appropriate expression” (195).
c. According to NRP, “guided oral-reading procedures have a positive impact on students’ fluency and comprehension across a range of grade levels and ina variety of regular and special education classrooms” (195).
d. Panel did no recommend independent silent reading as effective to improve reading achievement. This is controversial.
5. Guided oral-reading procedures
a. Includes “repeated reading, shared reading, paired reading, and other similar procedures” (196).
b. Include: reading same text over again, one-to-one instruction including tutoring (peer and cross-age), audiotapes or some other means of guided oral reading practice. Unlike whole-class or round robin oral reading, guided procedures maximize amount of time any one student spends practicing fluency.
c. Examples of Guided Oral Reading Practice: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/67
6. Independent silent reading
a. Hard to judge effectiveness.
C. Questions and Questioning
a. “Using questions to help students learn is at least as old as Socrates” (197).
b. Different questioning strategies should be used in an ability level and culturally diverse classroom.
1. When to Ask: The Right time and the Right Place
a. Before, During, and After Questions
b. Physical proximity of questions to text is also important – question guides with keyed to particular sections can help.
2. What to Ask: The Relation between Questions and Answers
a. Fact Questions (Lower level)
b. Critical thinking questions (Higher level – require high level abstraction such as the application of a principle).
c. QARs (Question-answer relationships):
a. Textually explicit (literally stated in text) versus Textually implicit (suggested or implied in text) versus scriptally implicit (reader must draw on prior knowledge, from his or her “reader’s script” (200).
d. Or “In the Book” (Right there or Putting it Together) versus “In My Head” (Author and You or On Your Own)
e. QARs can be taught explicitly
3. How to Ask: Question Strategies
1. Questioning the author
a. Initiating queries (What is the author trying to say?) vs. Follow-up queries (Does the author explain this clearly?)
2. ReQuest
a. Roles are reversed. Students come up with questions for the teacher for a selection of text. The teacher responds.
3. Self-questioning
a. Guide students on asking specific types of questions
b. Show students how to ask questions about causes and effects or comparisons and contrasts.
4. Questioning strategies for English language learners
D. Comprehension Guides
1. Three-Level Guides
2. Selective Reading Guides
3. Interactive Reading Guides
E. Sensing and Responding to Text Structure
1. Common Text Structures
1. Simple Listing
2. Sequence or Time Order
3. Compare and Contrast
4. Cause and Effect
5. Problem Solution
2. Teaching about Text Structures
1. Teacher modeling with Think alongs
2. Graphic representations
3. Guides to organizational patterns
4. Story maps
F. Summary

Reading #3

Reading #3
Chapter 5 - Knowledge Web

You can click on the image to view my knowledge web for "Assessment of Students" more clearly.