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.

vocabulary podcasts

As I was listening to these podcasts, I loved how some students made
these vocabulary words relevant to their lives. For example, the
students who used the words "discrepancy," "suppress" and "protrude."
These students made it clear that they understood the words by using
them in sentences that they might actually use in their everyday lives.
Other students seemed to use the words in a school context, like
"embark." However, my favorites are "misconstrue" and "temerity." They had
a clever way of delivering the meaning. I also think that students who listened to these podcasts might have a better understanding of the five words I have mentioned thus far.

This makes me think on how I need to have my students utilize their vocabulary words. I give them weekly lists and they memorize for the week, but three or four weeks
down the road, they have already forgotten them. It's a bit different
in Spanish. My beginning students will not be able to make complete
sentences in Spanish, but they could use an English sentence that
contains the Spanish word. Hopefully, as the semester progresses, they
would be able to create simple Spanish sentences.

how do I......

I loved reading the ideas for mini-lessons in literature circles. All of the mini-lessons seemed to have creative ways for students to become involved. I found that I kept asking myself, "How do I use this in my content area?" In reality, I'm not going to have a book club where there are four or five different books that are being read at a time. I do plan on having my Spanish 1 students read a book, in which I believe I can use the ideas with a little bit of alteration to meet my class requirements. The membership grids are awesome ways to get conversation flowing. I also like the idea of having students draw what they are picture, that can be used for not only books, but for understanding concepts, like conjugating verbs, noun and adjective agreements, etc. I'm still playing with the ideas!

Vocabulary

Reading this chapter made me think of a new way to approach vocabulary words in my classes. My students have fifteen vocabulary words each week. All they do is memorize the words, but they don't really understand the meaning. I realize this, because they don't understand some of the English translations. For example, I've had to explain numerous times what the word "timid" means in English. I've been thinking about introducing the Spanish words as synonyms to the English words, but I also want to go through the English words, what they mean and the connection that many Spanish and English words have. I've also thought about giving them their words in a different fashion. Right now, I write the Spanish words and their English meanings on the board every Monday and the students copy them down. Throughout the week we do certain exercises with these words, now I don't want to quit using these exercises, but I would like to introduce them differently to these words. One idea I've had so far was to write a story with the words. The story would be in English, but the weekly vocabulary words would be in Spanish. I'm still throwing around some ideas and would love to hear any ideas anyone else has!

I've also been thinking about many of the terms we use in Spanish: cognate, conjugate, infinitive, etc. I do have to teach some English grammar aspects in order for them to understand the Spanish grammar aspects. I would love to create a word wall, with these words and examples of these words. I would also like to use them in the classroom for the first few weeks of school. By use them, I mean in conversation and look at English examples of infinitives, how to conjugate, etc. Hopefully, by doing this, they will have a better grasp on the meanings of these grammar words. Again, I'm still throwing around ideas for this as well!!

not chewing on anything now.....

I think it is safe to say that I never want to eat fast food again....not even fast food, but any food that I have ever liked is not no so appealing to me. Besides that reaction, I did like how the book was written. I found that even with the enormous amount of statistics, I was still interested in what the authors had to say. The information was made relevant to almost any consumer, including children. It made me think, again, how important it is to make the information we teach more interesting to the student. I've heard many of teachers say that the students are at school to learn, not have fun. Why can't they have fun while the learn?

As a side note, my lit group met Wednesday after class to complete our podcast. I really like the dynamics of our group and how we all came together to put a different twist on the podcast. Everyone had awesome opinions to add to the group and we built on each other's ideas. There was excitement in our group and again I pondered on how I can transfer that same excitement to my teaching and to my students' learning.

To comprehend or to not comprehend....that is the question.

Most students do feel they are stuck in some type of jail throughout the 7 hour school day. They can't wait for the dismissal bell each day and have countdowns until the closest break. I can remember when I was younger, I was so excited for the first day of school. I was eager to learn. But, by the second or third week I was ready for summer break. What happened throughout those two weeks to make me lose my interest in school? Simple answer, but a complex solution. The learning was not relevant to me, however, I do know that making learning relevant to all students each day is a lot of work!

As I was reading Keene's chapter, my main question was. "Are comprehension strategies really extra content?" If we start teaching these comprehension strategies with our current curriculum, then the students would understand more and be better equipped to build their pyramids of knowledge higher. As teachers, our goals for these students should be for them to "remember" or better yet, apply, the knowledge from the first day of school ON the last day of school. Right now, I feel the majority of students are just memorizing and repeating. It seems that even the students who are "A" students, lack the ability to apply the same as the "F" students. In my opinion, if the students knew the comprehension strategies and if the learning was relevant to them, we would have a higher percentage of "A" and "B" students.

It is up to us to dive into our content areas and to find new and exciting ways to make our students WANT to learn and COMPREHEND what we have to teach them. It might be a lot of work in the beginning, but in the end, it will be worth it!

Literacy.....according to who?

Literacy is at the top of the list for all schools. At my school, we have had a literacy initiative. Students are supposed to be reading and writing in every class, every day. Which, my response to was, "duh." Hopefully, students are reading and writing in every class, every day. However, the lingering question was, what does the board and administration want the students to be reading and writing. The answer: material that will prepare them for CATS testing, open response questions and On-Demand writing. My question to this is, what is the long-term benefit for our students under this criteria?

After reading "Teaching English Language Arts in a "Flat" world," I began to realize that we need to teach our children to be literate in the WORLD, not just for testing and on-demand writing. It is our job to prepare students to be citizens, to be literate, to strive for jobs that suit them and to be responsible adults, among other things. We have to do this throughout the disciplines and content areas. We are teaching future lawyers, doctors, governors, gas station attendants, teachers, garbage collectors, managers, servers, etc, etc, etc. We don't know the future occupations for all of our students. It is our job to prepare them to be literate in any of these aspects. These students must be able to live and survive in the modern world, not just answer an open response question. But, I do believe by teaching them to be literate in today's world, we will be teaching them literacy in CATS testing, ORQ's, On-demand writing, etc. I am still wondering.....is one of these more important than the other?

This is a difficult task, but that is what makes our career so wonderful and why it takes a special person to be a teacher. We have to truly want the best for our students and helping them become literate in today's world is a huge commitment.

Making literacy relevant to students

As I was reading the assigned chapters, I found myself analyzing what I do in the classroom. I thought back to the weekly vocabulary words they had and how even I didn't like some of the words and couldn't wait for the week to be over and those words to be done with! But if I felt that way, I can only imagine how my students felt. Spanish is a lot of rules and memorization, but there is also application. On top of the grammar aspect, students should start to become familiar with the cultures of Spanish-speaking countries.

My students could easily be doing what the students of Best Practice High School do! At this school, they have found a way to grasp students' interest in reading. They are teaching kids to develop their own ideas and to analyze other ideas, not just read and memorize, which is what many of our schools are doing now. It's so easy to fall into that rut because we are pressured to raise test scores and "teach to the test." At our school we are allowed to wear jeans on Friday if we raise student test scores. Even the teachers are extrinsicly motivated to improve student test scores. Yes, we raise students' test scores, but are we really helping to raise their intelligence levels and literacy skills? What, if any, is their depth of knowledge, if they can just simply repeat what they have been told? If we appeal to student interest and are able to get students to read different types of books and write about different topics, then we are intrinsicly motivativing them. If they are WANTING to do this, I have every reason to believe that the Department of Education will get the scores they are desiring. We are going about raising scores in the wrong way. We need to achieve this goal by making the learning and literacy relevant to the student. But the goal itself should be re-evaluated. The goal should be specific to the student, not students as a population.