Allowing students to choose their own reading material or how they want to present information can bring to mind images of a chaotic classroom. However, in Chapter 18, written by Richard L. Allington from the book, Adolescent Literacy Turning Promise Into Practice, edited by Kylene Beers, Robert E. Probst and Linda Rief; allowing students to choose from a set list provides greater student interest in the material.
Having a list of material from a student to choose from, or a list of ways in which to present information narrows the field of options for the student and creates some uniformity in the classroom. Students get the benefit of choosing material they are interested in and the teacher enjoys more engaged students and less chaos than if everyone just chose something they liked form an endless array of choices. Also, by having a list of choices, the teacher ensures that students have an opportunity to control what they are reading and the teacher knows that no matter what they pick, they will be learning the same content as the other students.
Allowing students to pick from a variety of materials to read or use in class is an excellent way to jigsaw information. There might be interesting and important aspects in every piece of literature on the list, but it would be difficult to read them all in a class. This allows students to become experts on their material and learn from other students what other texts had to offer. Choice is important in the classroom so that students feel that they are collaborating with the teacher as a team of learners. This is also a method of culturally responsive teaching, each student can choose something that is relevant to their lives and that they are interested in. The selections may also allow them to demonstrate their prior knowledge or a skill that they might have.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Nonstop writing
Nonstop writing is a simple idea. Ask students to write for a given amount of time without stopping, keep the ink flowing! I came across this idea for writing in the classroom in Chapter 4 of the book, Content-Area Writing Every Teacher's Guide, by Harvey Daniels, Steven Zemelman and Nancy Steineke. I like this approach to pre-writing because there is no right or wrong answer. There is no set amount a student should write and it doesn't even have to make sense to the reader. The teacher gives a prompt and students write about whatever comes to mind when they think of that word, then connections to that word, until time is up. Usually, the final thoughts are pretty distant from the initial prompt word, but that is the idea in nonstop writing. Get all the thoughts down on paper.
I recall doing this activity a few times in grade school and high school. I did not see much value in it because we never did anything with it. It would have been interesting to see where other people went with the prompt or to take an idea from the nonstop write and explore it futher. It is important to use the product of a writing strategy in the classroom so that students do not see it as simply an exercise in releasing ink from their pens.
I recall doing this activity a few times in grade school and high school. I did not see much value in it because we never did anything with it. It would have been interesting to see where other people went with the prompt or to take an idea from the nonstop write and explore it futher. It is important to use the product of a writing strategy in the classroom so that students do not see it as simply an exercise in releasing ink from their pens.
Podcast for Reader's Writer's Project
http://dethom00.podomatic.com/entry/et/2007-07-04T19_02_45-07_00
This is a link to the podcast I made for students entering a Spanish I class.
This is a link to the podcast I made for students entering a Spanish I class.
Writing Storyboard
In Chapter 13 written by Linda Rief, of the book, Adolescent Literacy Turning Promise into Practice, edited by Kylene Beers, Robert E. Probst and Linda Rief; I found an instructional tool that would not only help me, but be of use to students as well.
One of the more frustrating aspects of writing for me is the order in which ideas should be presented in a piece. This often leads to many pieces of paper crumbled on the floor next to my desk until I find the order that fits the thesis best. In Chapter 13, it suggests the use of a "tellingboard" to draft a story. This is a wonderful way to be able to get ideas down onto paper without the permanence of words. Pictures often convey more meaning than words, additionally, it is easier to move a picture than a paragraph on a piece of paper.
I think that this idea may be of use to students because they are able to change their writing around without having to worry about changing sentences to fit the new thought arrangement. I think this idea also has some implications for visual learners as they are able to see what their story will look like, and use pictures to guide their writing. Being able to pick and choose what to move around before writing is easy because it allows for fast revising and deletion. Similarly, if more detail or another part of a story is necessary, ideas can be added with a picture on a piece of paper which can easily be moved to fit the piece.
This strategy could easily be augmented through the use of ToonDoo. This site allows students to quickly create cartoon images that could be used in a "tellingboard." The benefit of a tool such as this is that students do not have to worry about artistic ability and can add words as necessary. Cells can be printed and moved around on a tellingboard or easily deleted and changed within ToonDoo.
One of the more frustrating aspects of writing for me is the order in which ideas should be presented in a piece. This often leads to many pieces of paper crumbled on the floor next to my desk until I find the order that fits the thesis best. In Chapter 13, it suggests the use of a "tellingboard" to draft a story. This is a wonderful way to be able to get ideas down onto paper without the permanence of words. Pictures often convey more meaning than words, additionally, it is easier to move a picture than a paragraph on a piece of paper.
I think that this idea may be of use to students because they are able to change their writing around without having to worry about changing sentences to fit the new thought arrangement. I think this idea also has some implications for visual learners as they are able to see what their story will look like, and use pictures to guide their writing. Being able to pick and choose what to move around before writing is easy because it allows for fast revising and deletion. Similarly, if more detail or another part of a story is necessary, ideas can be added with a picture on a piece of paper which can easily be moved to fit the piece.
This strategy could easily be augmented through the use of ToonDoo. This site allows students to quickly create cartoon images that could be used in a "tellingboard." The benefit of a tool such as this is that students do not have to worry about artistic ability and can add words as necessary. Cells can be printed and moved around on a tellingboard or easily deleted and changed within ToonDoo.
Monday, July 2, 2007
I believe....
I believe that writing in the classroom is empowering. Students who are given the opportunity to write about something that is important to them are given an outlet with which to voice their beliefs. This can be empowering for students as they are able to find out what matters to them and tell others through their writing. This is also an opportunity for students who do not feel comfortable speaking out in class to express their ideas.
Writing is important to practice. It is not something that comes naturally to most people and like all other skills, such as soccer or clogging, it must be practiced. Writing is multifaceted. For this reason it is important to try many types of writing and practice them as more than one type of writing will be used throughout one's life. Learning to write in many ways is augmented by reading different types of texts. As readers become more confident with understanding and taking apart texts to uncover meaning, they are also finding ideas and styles that they might want to try in their own writing.
Writing gives students a voice. This voice needs to be explored through reading and writing and writing and writing. It is in the process that students learn what is important to them and they find a style that suits them. Writing can evolve as the student grows and finds that other styles suit them better, this is found through practicing writing. Being able to grow as a writer is empowering because it is evidence of having discovered one's voice as it changes over time. I believe that writing in the classroom is empowering because it gives students the opportunity to learn something about themselves and it is an outlet for their ideas.
Writing is important to practice. It is not something that comes naturally to most people and like all other skills, such as soccer or clogging, it must be practiced. Writing is multifaceted. For this reason it is important to try many types of writing and practice them as more than one type of writing will be used throughout one's life. Learning to write in many ways is augmented by reading different types of texts. As readers become more confident with understanding and taking apart texts to uncover meaning, they are also finding ideas and styles that they might want to try in their own writing.
Writing gives students a voice. This voice needs to be explored through reading and writing and writing and writing. It is in the process that students learn what is important to them and they find a style that suits them. Writing can evolve as the student grows and finds that other styles suit them better, this is found through practicing writing. Being able to grow as a writer is empowering because it is evidence of having discovered one's voice as it changes over time. I believe that writing in the classroom is empowering because it gives students the opportunity to learn something about themselves and it is an outlet for their ideas.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Writing
When I think of the writing assignments I completed in high school and even college, most of them had something in common. The main goal of the writing was not to explore an idea, but to learn the process of writing. This process was painfully slow for me. It took a long time to learn how to write clear cohesive papers in the correct format. While learning how to do this, I wrote a lot of papers answering boring questions and making comparisons between foils in a book.
In Adolescent Literacy Turning Promise Into Practice, edited by Kylene Beers, Robert E. Probst and Linda Rief; Chapter 12, written by Donald M. Murray talks about writing assignments and writing in general. One of the points made is that students are asked to write about things that do not relate to their lives and that they are not interested in. This is directly responsible for the quality of writing that students produce. When students are interested and engaged in a writing topic, the quality of writing increases. Similarly, when students are asked to write about something in which they have little interest, this is too is reflected in the writing. This is good to keep in mind as I think about writing assignments for students. Keeping the topics interesting, fresh and relevant will yield more interesting writing as students write because they are engaged instead of simply required.
In Adolescent Literacy Turning Promise Into Practice, edited by Kylene Beers, Robert E. Probst and Linda Rief; Chapter 12, written by Donald M. Murray talks about writing assignments and writing in general. One of the points made is that students are asked to write about things that do not relate to their lives and that they are not interested in. This is directly responsible for the quality of writing that students produce. When students are interested and engaged in a writing topic, the quality of writing increases. Similarly, when students are asked to write about something in which they have little interest, this is too is reflected in the writing. This is good to keep in mind as I think about writing assignments for students. Keeping the topics interesting, fresh and relevant will yield more interesting writing as students write because they are engaged instead of simply required.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
House On Mango Street book trailer
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=2001877134014909447&hl=en
I had no idea that making a book trailer with MovieMaker would be so easy! I think this is a great replacement for the more traditional book report. The students would enjoy it more and I think they would get just as much out of a book trailer as a book report. Although, there would have to be more structure as to what to include in the trailer. For a foreign language classroom, this would be an interesting way to do a report on a country. It could be used for a video tour of the country or a city, instead of a more traditional brochure. Additionally, I think that by posting work on the Internet, the quality of work is increased. Students who know that others may see and comment on their work may be more enthusiastic about a project and do their best work if they know it may be viewed by anyone on the planet!
The most challenging part of the whole experience was downloading the video to the Internet and subsequently creating the link in my blog. I thought that the book trailer could be copied and pasted into the blog; evidently, this is not how it works. I did not realize how many movies were on sites such as video.google.com or youtube.com. What an interesting resource to use. There is plenty of educational material that can be found on both of those sites and many students are probably already familiar with those sites and the video making and downloading process.
I had no idea that making a book trailer with MovieMaker would be so easy! I think this is a great replacement for the more traditional book report. The students would enjoy it more and I think they would get just as much out of a book trailer as a book report. Although, there would have to be more structure as to what to include in the trailer. For a foreign language classroom, this would be an interesting way to do a report on a country. It could be used for a video tour of the country or a city, instead of a more traditional brochure. Additionally, I think that by posting work on the Internet, the quality of work is increased. Students who know that others may see and comment on their work may be more enthusiastic about a project and do their best work if they know it may be viewed by anyone on the planet!
The most challenging part of the whole experience was downloading the video to the Internet and subsequently creating the link in my blog. I thought that the book trailer could be copied and pasted into the blog; evidently, this is not how it works. I did not realize how many movies were on sites such as video.google.com or youtube.com. What an interesting resource to use. There is plenty of educational material that can be found on both of those sites and many students are probably already familiar with those sites and the video making and downloading process.
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