BPR CH 12

I think we teach students to write how we were taught to write. Writing
is not so straight forward. There may be rules to structure and
grammar, but there are no rules to ideas! It seems that many teachers,
including myself, teach writing in a formal, boring manner. Writing
shouldn't be boring, it should be a useful tool in expressing oneself.

After
reading Donald Murphy's chapter, I started thinking about how I have my
students write. I keep reverting back to their portfolio pieces. It is
my job to teach them the structure of a feature article, but it is up
to them how to write it. Which before I would have thought it's the
same thing, now I realize the are different. I have thought of ideas to
use, for example, using the index card idea that he explains in his
chapter. Now, I can start by having them write about whatever they
want, to get used to the idea, then I can give them another card and
tell them to write about anything that involves thehispanic or latino
culture. Then they can pick their topic for their feature article and
write everything they know about that topic. Honestly, I am just
brainstorming, but I have to start somewhere! I am just thinking about
"my writing" and how I write.

Reader's/Writer's project

I am still working on my reader's/writer's project, but it has made me
think so much that I thought I would take the opportunity to blog about
it.

At first, the idea REALLY intimidated me and while I am
still a little intimidated by the idea, I am looking forward to using
the idea in my classroom.

My question is "how do I integrate
technology into the classroom that is relevant to my students?" I can
use technology in the classroom, but the students could really care
less about most of it. I have decided to create a wiki and I am having
a blast with it. I am going beyond using what is necessary forEDTP 620,
but I actually am thinking about how to make it useful to my
students....it's not just a project for me to complete, it's a tool I
am working on for my students! On my wiki, I will have links to helpful
websites, schedules (upcoming homework, tests, projects, etc),PowerPoints, vocabulary podcasts, newsletters, syllabus, Spanish related books, and I am still thinking
of ideas. This is still a work in progress. I imagine I will still be
working on it even after this class is over.

Brainstorming.....mindomo

I really enjoyed to today's class. I liked having a hand's on opportunity to explore different ways to teach writing with technology. I think we, as a culture, get to bogged down in sterotypical requirements of writing. It doesn't always mean a 10 page typed paper on some topic that I'll never talk about again. Writing comes in many different shapes and forms.

I use brainstorming with my students alot. The reason I do it is because it helps to build on their prior knowledge, which I feel is a big confidence booster, especially for Spanish! In the beginning of the year I brainstorm on Spanish words my students already know. I really like the idea of mindomo to use in my classroom with brainstorming. I think using this application would be a good way to incorporate the beginning of the year brainstorming activity with technology.

DZS Chapter 5-6

These chapters really struck me. One because it made me reflect on the types of public writing I have my students complete, like their portfolio pieces. I recognize that I do give them a choice, but it has to be relevant to the Hispanic community. They write a feature article on any topic from the Hispanic community. I give them ideas, of course, but they can also venture out on their own. They become really frustrated with these pieces because they have to do one in every class, which can be a little daunting. I find it hard to teach them how to write a feature article, because I don't recall learning how to write one in my educational background. If I was taught how to do it, it was never made clear that I was learning about feature articles. Right now, I'm tackling "how to actually write the stuff." I've gotten better over the past two semesters, but if I seem confused and can't answer their questions, how are they going to tackle the writing process and be successful in their writing?

DZS Chapters 2-4

I liked reading about different writing techniques. Especially at the
beginning of chapter 2 about the Writing to Learn. I think sometimes we
get so caught up in making our kids write, that we forget how to make
writing relevant to them. Writing a research paper, even on a topic of
their own choice, won't necessarily be relevant to them.

After
reading Chapter 3 I realized that I have used most of these techniques
in some shape or form in the classroom. I do Venn Diagramsalot , but I
want to do different types of mapping. It's a graphic organizer for
them to better understand their learning. But I also get stuck on
something that I really like. Once I find something that works, it's
hard for me to change gears. I want to get out of that rut. Just
because it seems to work for some students in one class, doesn't mean
it'll work for all.

Chapter 4 had more techniques that I have heard of, but never really used. I like the idea of Carousel Brainstorming. I do alot
of brainstorming in class. At the beginning of the year for my Spanish
1 students, I have them brainstorm on all the Spanish words they
already know. I would like to employ this system of brainstorming to my
class. I can have sheets of paper around the room with different topics
like: salutations, foods, nouns, adjectives, etc and have them classify
the words they already know. Right now, I can fill the board up with
words one class already knows when walking into my Spanish 1 class. I
definitely got some great ideas from these three chapters!

Book Trailer - The House on Mango Street

This was one of the best assignments I have ever worked on. One, it was
great to work with Brandi because we always work so well together! Our
ideas came so easily and they just flowed so well. I couldn't believe
how little time it took us to come up with our idea for the book
trailer. We picked out certain quotes that stuck in our head and we
seemed to have the same quotes!

I really liked The House on
Mango Street. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be, but I can
see how it would be a task middle and high school students could
accomplish. I would like to use this book in my teaching next year and
would even like to show the book trailer Brandi and I created to help
get them excited to read the book. I found it interesting how SandraCisneros
didn't use quotation marks. I would like to know why she didn't,
because she wrote as if different people were speaking. You would think
it would be confusing without the quotation marks, but it really
wasn't.

I am looking forward to using Movie Maker to introduce
my classes, for my students to use the application for projects and to
even use it to introduce certain grammar concepts. It will be a new way
to introduce ideas and topics.

This I believe

Writing is extremely important in my classroom. It takes on different
forms. In the past it has been Venn Diagrams, letters to absent
students on grammar concepts, On-Demand writing on the importance of
studying a foreign language and utilizing their weekly vocabulary words
in sentences. Sometimes the writing in Spanish does seem pretty
elementary, but these are students who are learning a new language.
They are out of their comfort zone. They don't get to grow up tolistening
to different people speak, they may have two or three teachers to help
them learn the language. I believe it is important for me to develop
their writing in English as well as in Spanish. They will not be able
to successfully utilize the Spanish language, if they don't understand
how their own language works.

Next year I plan to incorporate
different types of writing, like weekly journals on what they are
learning, blogs on certain grammar aspects and evenpodcasts on vocabulary words.