BLOG 4

I found the reading of Chapters 1 and 8 to really easy reads for me.  The information was very easy to understand and very interesting.  I felt as though Chapter 1 was a summarization of Dr. Boyce's class last semester.  Honestly, I don't remember the name of the class but I do know we learned ALOT about strategies.  Chapter 1 went into more depth on some strategies that I really enjoy.  I am a huge fan of think-pair-shair.  We did this alot in my high school social studies classroom, very similiar to the situations described in the book.  I felt like it really encouraged the whole idea of a classroom community of learning.  I also found it very interesting that the book somewhat broke down the content areas o give the reader a better understanding of the text that students were exposed to in those classrooms.  That was very helpful.

Chapter 8 was also a great read and more of a newer concept to me.  I know that student's obviously write when they are in the classroom.  However, many students are constently writing and have absolutely no idea what they are writing.  Whether it be copying notes from the board or looking up vocabulary words to write many students' writings stop there and there is no learnin connected to it.  I enjoyed reading through the different strategies of incorporating writing into the classroom in unique ways.  These strategies seemed promising in extending the students thinking past the "surface" of a question or writing prompt. In our high school we did the "what if" writing prompts and the style of them changed throughout each content area.  For example, in our history class each day we had "what if" writing prompts.  If we were studying WWII, Monday's prompt may have been "what if Japan would have attacked the continental US?"  There were no wrong answers it was just open to interpretation.  Another example being English/Literature class, "What if Juliet would have not taken the poison?"  It just got our brains going about what the days lesson may be about.

I would like to pose to questions to my reading on strategies and writing in the classroom.  Is there a such thing as too much writing?  I know I can sometimes become complete bored with the writing process and if the student's do become unammused with the amount of writing in the classroom what are some ways to motivate these students to want to write to learn?

BLOG 3

The article on expository texts and their importance in the early grades was very interesting to me.  I related it to my own expeirences that I had in elementary school and I must have been one of the "lucky ones" because starting in about first grade in our school every student had exposure to these types of texts.  I remember reading the kid discovery types of magazines that were mentioned in the article.  Our teachers would always have some sort of text to go along with each different "unit" that we did. 

It is disapointing to know that many students are not getting this type of support in these key grades because I know that I am able to credit my love of new discoveries and just the pure ability to engage myself in those types of readings to the practice that I received long ago.  For some people reading expository text is a "complete and total borefest."  However,I love to read articles and such, especially the articles pertaining to animals.  I credit this to my second grade teacher.  Throughout the year that I was in her class every week a student would get to pick an information book about any animal from the library and the class would read it.  We never took tests on these books and now I see that it was just to help us practice with this type of literature.

In the article what really stuck out to me was the section about how these types of texts motivate students to learn and that is so true. Last semester, Dr. Boyce showed us some great resources to use in the form of expository texts that I beleive would mesh very well into younger grades.  For example, when teaching the class about amphibeans you could have informational text sets for the students to read that would be interesting such as 3d books.  When the students are able to enjoy these types of readings not only are they preparing themselves for the future when being able read this type of text wil be more vital but the are motivating themselves to learn more.

I feel that I have gained a wealth of knowledge just by reading this article.  I know that it is vital for these students to have the exposure to expository texts and it is exciting to think of the possiblilities when incorporating this type of learning in the classroom.

I found this picture and I know that it may not have much relevance to the expository texts but it looked like a fun animal encounter and I talked about animals in my blog.. RANDOM...but funny!

BLOG 2

I really enjoyed reading throuh our classroom blogs and learning even more about my classmates.  The pictures were also great. Gabby and Kaitlin Smith's  blogs really were relatable to me when I was reading them.  Like Gabby I am also nervous about haveing to teacher in the upper grades becasue as she stated, "some are too cool for school."  Its a sad but true reality and it makes added stress on the teacher because many times those students make it hard to have decent classroom management.  Gabby also is anxious about teaching math.  I know that it is just an uncomfortanble thought to think about because I have never like it myself.  Kaitlin and I share the same desire to work with third graders which is few and far to come by.  We also both attended Jones before comming to USM to study elementary education.

The design thinking peice that I read I though was really great.  It was very helpful in providing a step by step script of what could be done in the classroom.  The idea of design thinking sounds great and I know, from having participated in the steps in class this week, that it is a great "tool" to use in order to get students really thinking and motivated to learn.  As with everything there would more than likely be some flaws with the approach that was shown such as internet access.  Although in today's world many of us carry the internet around with us in our pockets or purses there are still some student's that do not have this luxury.  However, I beleive that with a teacher that knows what they are doing andy think can be tweaked for maximum effectiveness.  One of my favorite ideas mention was that the teacher plays more of a "guide on the side" approach in the classroom.  Personally, I love classroom discussion and when you and your peers become not only the learners but also the facilitators I think that the classroom tends to open up. 

I have enjoyed using the design thinking process in our classes and I think that it would be very effective in promoting the students to be more individual learners in my future classroom.