We all have come across a point in our lives when we did not know how to study for a test. It is overwhelming to know that you have a test coming up and have a few chapters to study. It is even more stressful when you know that the questions will not be multiple choice. It is scary not knowing how to study hundreds of pages for an upcoming test, which is why it is important that we design a studying plan, even if we do not use it all of the time.
One of the most important things we need to know as students is how to study for a test. If we do not know how to study for a test we could fail a course that we are good at. In the book Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the Secondary Content Areas, Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) talk about how to study for tests. One of the most important things to know is how to make study guides. The authors of these texts books discuss formulas that can be used to study. One of the formulas that they discuss is called SQ3R, Dornan et al. discuss what this stands for. The following is directly from the book.
1. Survey the material before reading.
2. Ask Questions based on the headings and subheadings, and about what is already known regarding the subject.
3. Read the material to answer the questions.
4. Recite a short summary of what was read.
5. Review the ideas by periodically retuning to the material.
(p. 154)
This formula is very simple to remember and it allows us to better prepare ourselves for an exam. The authors also discuss a similar formula, PORPE. The following comes directly out of the text book.
1. Predict potential questions.
2. Organize the information.
3. Rehearse through recitation and self-testing.
4. Practice through writing.
5. Evaluate for accuracy.
(p.154)
I personally like the second formula better, it is more hands on. I cannot learn without writing something. Just reading and reciting is not enough for me to learn. It does not matter which of these formulas students are good at, or if you use a different one, what matters is that we teach them how to study. Most of students that I come across with, that do bad on exams, claim that they were never taught how to study for an exam. We need to teach students how to study for tests even though they might not use that formula forever or at all. It is always easier to come up with a formula that works bests for us when we already have a template in our heads.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Questions
Asking questions is not only part of our education, it is a part of our everyday life. It is important that we teach our students to ask questions because we can teach them how to be successful not only in school, but in life. Asking questions pertains to every subject from math to social studies. In Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the secondary Content Areas three levels of questions are described. The three levels of questions are: literal level, interpretive level, applied level.
Literal level is also referred to as factual level. In this level students learn to ask paraphrase. Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) explain that at this level., "students are called upon to recognize main ideas that are made explicit, as well as to be able to identify stated fact that appears in the original text" (p. 152). The next level is called interpretive level, also known as comprehension level. This level of question pushes the reader to interpret what the author intended to say. At this level, "students must combine two or more explicit statements to make generalized statements about the relationships between the facts" (Dornan, et al., 1997, p. 152). The last level known as applied level, or evaluative level. Here students learn how to link what is in the text to their own experiences, "they are asked to be creative, curious, and rational" (p. 153).
Asking questions is one of the most important things that we have to teach our students. We have to teach them to not be embarrassed when they are confused about something. I believe that if students asked more questions there would be higher grades. How many of us have been in a classroom where the teacher asks are there any question and no one responds? We have all been in one of those classrooms. Sometimes we are even the ones that are too embarrassed to ask a question. I have a sister, she is a year older than me, and in college we got to take a math class together. When she found out we were in the same class she wanted to drop it because I have always been very good at math. She was very upset when she could not drop it due to schedule conflicts. We took the class together and everyday when we would leave she would walk next to me. She would always tell me that I asked a lot of questions. She told me that I was doing the best out of the entire class, but yet I asked so many questions. I replied to her that I need to be one hundred percent sure, I told her that I could not go home and work on the assignment unless I was comfortable. She was not doing to good in that class. One day I finally asked her why she never asked questions if it was obvious she was struggling. To that she replied that she felt stupid for asking a question, especially so many like me. I am one of those students that if a teacher shows me something, again, and I do not understand I will tell the teacher that I do not understand. I am will not pretend that I do understand when I do not. I got my sister into the habit of asking questions and she passed that class with a B+. At the end of the semester she told me how happy she was to have taken that class with me.
Literal level is also referred to as factual level. In this level students learn to ask paraphrase. Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) explain that at this level., "students are called upon to recognize main ideas that are made explicit, as well as to be able to identify stated fact that appears in the original text" (p. 152). The next level is called interpretive level, also known as comprehension level. This level of question pushes the reader to interpret what the author intended to say. At this level, "students must combine two or more explicit statements to make generalized statements about the relationships between the facts" (Dornan, et al., 1997, p. 152). The last level known as applied level, or evaluative level. Here students learn how to link what is in the text to their own experiences, "they are asked to be creative, curious, and rational" (p. 153).
Asking questions is one of the most important things that we have to teach our students. We have to teach them to not be embarrassed when they are confused about something. I believe that if students asked more questions there would be higher grades. How many of us have been in a classroom where the teacher asks are there any question and no one responds? We have all been in one of those classrooms. Sometimes we are even the ones that are too embarrassed to ask a question. I have a sister, she is a year older than me, and in college we got to take a math class together. When she found out we were in the same class she wanted to drop it because I have always been very good at math. She was very upset when she could not drop it due to schedule conflicts. We took the class together and everyday when we would leave she would walk next to me. She would always tell me that I asked a lot of questions. She told me that I was doing the best out of the entire class, but yet I asked so many questions. I replied to her that I need to be one hundred percent sure, I told her that I could not go home and work on the assignment unless I was comfortable. She was not doing to good in that class. One day I finally asked her why she never asked questions if it was obvious she was struggling. To that she replied that she felt stupid for asking a question, especially so many like me. I am one of those students that if a teacher shows me something, again, and I do not understand I will tell the teacher that I do not understand. I am will not pretend that I do understand when I do not. I got my sister into the habit of asking questions and she passed that class with a B+. At the end of the semester she told me how happy she was to have taken that class with me.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Standardized Testing
Standardized testing is a part of all public schools. Each standardized test is different in every state, and each states have different expectations. Standardized tests are also used to determine how certain ethnic groups minorities are doing compared to everyone else. Although standardized tests are used nationally they can be very misleading.
I remember taking standardized tests when I was in school, they were just so frustrating. I remember that I would always do very well on the first section that we did each day, then by the middle of the day I was just guessing on my answers, this got even worse towards the end of the day. One of the hardest things for me was if we finished early we had to read a novel. Seriously we were forced to read a novel, like if all the work we did was just not enough. Or like if we did not have to continue taking the standardized test in fifteen minutes, and continue for more hours and days to come. Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) talk about standardized testing in their book, Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the Secondary Content Areas. What these authors focus on is the problematic issues with standardized testing. Dornan et al., talk about seven problems with standardized testing they are as follows:
1. Reading tests based on an inappropriate model of reading.
2. Inappropriate norms.
3. Impact of small variations in raw score.
4. Use of statistical devices to produce scores.
5. Ambiguous, irrelevant, poorly written, or purposely hard questions.
6. Guessing.
7. Test administration.
Dornan, Rosen, & Wilson, 1997, p.118
The problem is not that there are issues with standardized testing. The problem is that we judge our students as being smart or not smart based on these scores. Sometimes we even base our teaching capacity off of the scores. These tests are very difficult especially because students never know what to expect. I also believe that these test writers try to trick students, purposely posing very difficult questions or trick questions. Another problem that comes from standardized questions is simply that there are to many questions. Each subject contains hundreds of questions and most of the subjects have multiple parts. I do not believe that either of this predictions are correct, I agree with Dornan et al., the standardized tests are problematic and many factors, not just intelligence, determine whether a student will do well or not.
I remember taking standardized tests when I was in school, they were just so frustrating. I remember that I would always do very well on the first section that we did each day, then by the middle of the day I was just guessing on my answers, this got even worse towards the end of the day. One of the hardest things for me was if we finished early we had to read a novel. Seriously we were forced to read a novel, like if all the work we did was just not enough. Or like if we did not have to continue taking the standardized test in fifteen minutes, and continue for more hours and days to come. Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) talk about standardized testing in their book, Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the Secondary Content Areas. What these authors focus on is the problematic issues with standardized testing. Dornan et al., talk about seven problems with standardized testing they are as follows:
1. Reading tests based on an inappropriate model of reading.
2. Inappropriate norms.
3. Impact of small variations in raw score.
4. Use of statistical devices to produce scores.
5. Ambiguous, irrelevant, poorly written, or purposely hard questions.
6. Guessing.
7. Test administration.
Dornan, Rosen, & Wilson, 1997, p.118
The problem is not that there are issues with standardized testing. The problem is that we judge our students as being smart or not smart based on these scores. Sometimes we even base our teaching capacity off of the scores. These tests are very difficult especially because students never know what to expect. I also believe that these test writers try to trick students, purposely posing very difficult questions or trick questions. Another problem that comes from standardized questions is simply that there are to many questions. Each subject contains hundreds of questions and most of the subjects have multiple parts. I do not believe that either of this predictions are correct, I agree with Dornan et al., the standardized tests are problematic and many factors, not just intelligence, determine whether a student will do well or not.
Friendly Texts
We all have had trouble reading, especially textbooks. Sometimes it just seems that teachers choose the most complicated textbooks to teach out of. I have had this problem in many of my college classes. I read a page and have no idea what I just read especially science textbooks. I am not referring to the terminology that is used in the book, but to how sentences are worded. Sometimes I would have to read a paragraph a few times before understanding it, which made the reading endless. At times I would just wonder if it was really necessary to teach from a hard to understand textbook, instead of using a more user friendly one. One of the subjects that Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson bring up in their book, which I thought was very interesting, are friendly texts.
Friendly texts consist of the following:
1. Chapter and section introduction.
2. Chapter and section conclusions.
3. A consistent pattern.
4. Use of meta-discourse.
Dornan et al., 1997, p. 82.
The use of chapter and section introductions are very important. They provide the reader with an understanding of what they will read in the chapter. They also allow students to link what they have previously learned to what they will learn-- they are able to make predictions. Chapter and section conclusions are also very helpful, they let students know what was the most important part of the chapter, or what they should have learned from reading the chapter. Chapter and section conclusions are also a great way to study. When I need to study I go over the chapter and section conclusions, if I know everything in the conclusions I usually just skim over the chapter, but if I do not understand or do not remember anything in the conclusions I take a good look over the chapter before my test. A consistent pattern is another thing that is very important. Consistency makes it easier for a student to learn. There is nothing worse than just getting comfortable with something then you have to switch it up. Meta-discourse is also important. It is important for authors of textbooks to link to their previous chapter. Through meta-discourse writers can provide a link between the text and our daily lives. I do not know how many times I hear kids say, "I'm never going to use this," what better way to engage them in learning than to prove to them that they will use it or it does pertain to everyday life.
Friendly texts consist of the following:
1. Chapter and section introduction.
2. Chapter and section conclusions.
3. A consistent pattern.
4. Use of meta-discourse.
Dornan et al., 1997, p. 82.
The use of chapter and section introductions are very important. They provide the reader with an understanding of what they will read in the chapter. They also allow students to link what they have previously learned to what they will learn-- they are able to make predictions. Chapter and section conclusions are also very helpful, they let students know what was the most important part of the chapter, or what they should have learned from reading the chapter. Chapter and section conclusions are also a great way to study. When I need to study I go over the chapter and section conclusions, if I know everything in the conclusions I usually just skim over the chapter, but if I do not understand or do not remember anything in the conclusions I take a good look over the chapter before my test. A consistent pattern is another thing that is very important. Consistency makes it easier for a student to learn. There is nothing worse than just getting comfortable with something then you have to switch it up. Meta-discourse is also important. It is important for authors of textbooks to link to their previous chapter. Through meta-discourse writers can provide a link between the text and our daily lives. I do not know how many times I hear kids say, "I'm never going to use this," what better way to engage them in learning than to prove to them that they will use it or it does pertain to everyday life.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Changes in Dialect
We all have done it. We all speak differently depending on who we are around. We do not talk to our friends the same way that we talk to our parents. Also, we do not talk to our parents the same way we talk to our boss. We all have to change our dialect depending on what role we are portraying. According to Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) dialect simply, "denotes that all speakers speak a particular variety of the language that includes geographical, ethnic, class, and gender features" (p. 51). Dialect is not different languages it is simply the different ways that people talk. Ethnicity has a lot to do with someone's dialect. Around New Mexico families incorporate a lot of Spanish words into their daily dialect. Accents are also a big part of dialects. A British accent, a Boston accent, and a Texan accent are all very different even though the language remains the same, English. Switching dialects is very important, not only in speaking but in writing as well. We all write different depending on why we are writing. If we are completing as assignment for school we all talk formally, we would do things such as use slang words in the assignment.
Dornan et al., also explain that, "The belief that speaking a certain dialect of English reflects a lack of education at best, or lower intelligence at worst, has led many people, including well-intentioned educators, to negatively stereotype speakers of a dialect whose speech patters differ from standard language patterns" (p.51). We all have seen a movie that pretty much makes fun of someone. This person is usually a farmer, if we are watching an American movie, and this farmer usually has a southern accent. The setting is usually in Mississippi, Alabama, or some other state in the south. This is very stereotypical and it has led many people to believe that some dialects are "stupid" or "ignorant." We have a knowledge of "standard" English that according to this textbook, Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts, there is no such thing as "standard" English. The media is the one that sets our standards for English. I believe this to be true. When have you ever seen a person with a southern accent from Mississippi host the news? The fact that a stereotype exists for certain dialects would just make it difficult for these people to even get hired. I think it is importance that we realize that a person is not dumber just because of where they were raised, just because of their accent.
Dornan et al., also explain that, "The belief that speaking a certain dialect of English reflects a lack of education at best, or lower intelligence at worst, has led many people, including well-intentioned educators, to negatively stereotype speakers of a dialect whose speech patters differ from standard language patterns" (p.51). We all have seen a movie that pretty much makes fun of someone. This person is usually a farmer, if we are watching an American movie, and this farmer usually has a southern accent. The setting is usually in Mississippi, Alabama, or some other state in the south. This is very stereotypical and it has led many people to believe that some dialects are "stupid" or "ignorant." We have a knowledge of "standard" English that according to this textbook, Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts, there is no such thing as "standard" English. The media is the one that sets our standards for English. I believe this to be true. When have you ever seen a person with a southern accent from Mississippi host the news? The fact that a stereotype exists for certain dialects would just make it difficult for these people to even get hired. I think it is importance that we realize that a person is not dumber just because of where they were raised, just because of their accent.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Proficient?
Read this paragraph below:
"As Joe walked back to the lodge, his friend met him, wondering what Joe's story would be this time.'How was the Fishing, Joe?' he asked.'Not bad,' Joe said, 'except that I let the big one get away. It ripped a a hole in the net and swam right though it. "It would have been one of the the biggest fish I ever caught'" (Dornan, Rosen, & Wilson, 1997, p. 30).
Even all of you that college readers that are proficient in the English language may not have noticed the two consecutive "a's" or the two consecutive "the's". The majority of you probably pronounced the word "though" as "through," at least I did. When the authors pointed out that the "r" was missing in that paragraph I had to go back and re-read it. It was until I actually re-read it that I realized that the paragraph did say "though"and not "through." I think that if I would have re-read this paragraph again, without the authors explaining what mistakes were in it, I will would have over the looked the two "a's" the two "the's" and the word "though."
The fact that a student does not catch those mistakes does not necessarily mean that he or she is not a proficient reader. It could also be that just like the college student they have become more proficient and instead of proofreading they are actually trying to find the purpose of the paragraph. We all make some kind of prediction when we are reading without even having to think about it. Our reading skills are so developed that we are able to make predictions, "Our linguistic, semantic, and global knowledge allows us to make predictions about meaning and structure, and encourages us to overlook the features that don't fit into out predictions" (Dornan et al., 1997, p.31).
Dornan et al. (1997) also explain how unfortunate it is that students nowadays are taught to read more like "proofreaders" rather than to read to gain knowledge. Training students to become "proofreaders," will only make their proficiency, fluency, and understanding suffer. Dornan et al. (1997) also explain that the most proficient readers are more likely going to overlook these types of mistakes because these readers would be looking for the meaning behind the text, they would be analyzing the text, not looking to proofread the text. (p.31)
"As Joe walked back to the lodge, his friend met him, wondering what Joe's story would be this time.'How was the Fishing, Joe?' he asked.'Not bad,' Joe said, 'except that I let the big one get away. It ripped a a hole in the net and swam right though it. "It would have been one of the the biggest fish I ever caught'" (Dornan, Rosen, & Wilson, 1997, p. 30).
Even all of you that college readers that are proficient in the English language may not have noticed the two consecutive "a's" or the two consecutive "the's". The majority of you probably pronounced the word "though" as "through," at least I did. When the authors pointed out that the "r" was missing in that paragraph I had to go back and re-read it. It was until I actually re-read it that I realized that the paragraph did say "though"and not "through." I think that if I would have re-read this paragraph again, without the authors explaining what mistakes were in it, I will would have over the looked the two "a's" the two "the's" and the word "though."
The fact that a student does not catch those mistakes does not necessarily mean that he or she is not a proficient reader. It could also be that just like the college student they have become more proficient and instead of proofreading they are actually trying to find the purpose of the paragraph. We all make some kind of prediction when we are reading without even having to think about it. Our reading skills are so developed that we are able to make predictions, "Our linguistic, semantic, and global knowledge allows us to make predictions about meaning and structure, and encourages us to overlook the features that don't fit into out predictions" (Dornan et al., 1997, p.31).
Dornan et al. (1997) also explain how unfortunate it is that students nowadays are taught to read more like "proofreaders" rather than to read to gain knowledge. Training students to become "proofreaders," will only make their proficiency, fluency, and understanding suffer. Dornan et al. (1997) also explain that the most proficient readers are more likely going to overlook these types of mistakes because these readers would be looking for the meaning behind the text, they would be analyzing the text, not looking to proofread the text. (p.31)
Predictions
One of the things that I have found the most interesting to read in Multiple Texts, Multiple Voices is the role that predictions play on reading. The authors of this text provide an article from the newspaper and they take out a few words and replace them with blanks. The authors then ask readers to fill in the blanks, “Readers are asked to fill in the blanks with single words that are appropriate to the meaning they construct from the passage” (Dornan, Rosen, & Wilson, 1997, p. 27).They argue than just knowing the context of the newspaper article enables readers to fill in the missing words. To be able to fill in the blanks readers most posses meta-knowledge relating to the article, “To be able to fill in the blanks successfully, the reader must have knowledge of the syntactic structure of English, an understanding of the morphological system, appropriate vocabulary to express the notion suggested by the context of the article, and an understanding of the semantics and the meaning of a passage” … (Dornan et al., 1997, pg. 28).
It is incredible how much we know about our first language without actually realizing it. We know how to put a sentence together. At the same time there are a lot of things that we do not know about our first language becomes it is just kind of innate. As I was taking a linguistics class at the University of New Mexico I realized how much people didn’t know about their first language, English. My first language is Spanish, therefore I learned English as my second language in school. When I took this linguistics class I was surprised at how many people did not know what a prepositional phrase is or something simple like an adverb, or what a dependent clause is or an independent one. They didn’t know things like how many past tenses there are in English or how many future tenses there were. There were just so many things that I realized that native speakers did not know about English. Then I stopped a bit to think about it and I realized that I did not know all of these answers for the Spanish language. I know there are fourteen tenses in Spanish, but I would not be able to name them all.
It is incredible how much we know about our first language without actually realizing it. We know how to put a sentence together. At the same time there are a lot of things that we do not know about our first language becomes it is just kind of innate. As I was taking a linguistics class at the University of New Mexico I realized how much people didn’t know about their first language, English. My first language is Spanish, therefore I learned English as my second language in school. When I took this linguistics class I was surprised at how many people did not know what a prepositional phrase is or something simple like an adverb, or what a dependent clause is or an independent one. They didn’t know things like how many past tenses there are in English or how many future tenses there were. There were just so many things that I realized that native speakers did not know about English. Then I stopped a bit to think about it and I realized that I did not know all of these answers for the Spanish language. I know there are fourteen tenses in Spanish, but I would not be able to name them all.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Changes in Education
Education changed rapidly by the 1920's "many changes had already taken place in language arts classes. Student reading was adopted on a wholesale basis to replace recitation and reading aloud. Techniques for teaching children to read without sub-vocalizing (moving their lips or tongues) brought new discussions to teacher education classes in the 1920's" (Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson 13). Every movie that I have seen in a classroom with a 1920's setting has all of the students repeating after the teacher. I did not know that it was not till the 1920's that sub-vocalizing was beginning to be replaced. Some kids find it more effective to read aloud while others find it more effective to read to themselves. It was not until the 1920's that flashcards started being used. I think that flashcards are very helpful for elementary education. With flashcards we can demonstrate to students how something looks at what the answer (math) or pronunciation (language arts)is. Flashcards play a role in secondary and post secondary education as well. Flashcards are very useful for studying purposes. You can write the question in the front and have the answer on the reverse side to see if you truly know what the answer to the question is. With the introduction to flashcards attention was suddenly given to speed work, "increasing the number of words that readers took in during an eye fixation and attempts were made to ensure that each student's eye movement shifted from left to right" (13). I think that the 1920's contributed to the problems we are facing today in education. It seems to me that it was in the 1920's that students started learning merely to take tests instead of being imposed to critical thinking. I can also see students developing problems like Jeremy. They were all of a sudden forced to improve their speed without necessarily having to know what the words meant, as long as they could pronounce them. This just robbed the kids being able to contextualize their readings.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Making a Difference
In their book, Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts the authors, Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson, provide great examples of how education has changed. Education has changed to adjust to society as the centuries go by. There are still some Middle Eastern countries that do not provide a big emphasize on education. Of course there are a lot of differences in education from country to country, but Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts deals with education in the United States. Toward the nineteenth century education began having drastic changes. Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson write, “The traditional view had been that the only effective education methodology was a step-by-step procedure that instructed in manageable increments.” Children would first have to master one part of the lesson to be able to move on to the next. This provided for a lot of many bored kids, very often referred to as trouble makers in the nineteenth century. In the nineteenth century there were no programs that were offered to advanced kids. There were a lot of people that tried to counter this method amongst them was John Dewey.
Since I did not know who John Dewey was I decided to do a little bit of research about him. Wikipedia describes John Dewey as, “an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology. He was a major representative of the progressive and progressive populist philosophies of schooling during the first half of the 20th century in the USA.” Dewey was one of the philosophers that impacted education in the twentieth century. Dewey came up with educational theories that were presented in a few of his books among them, My Pedagogic Creed and The Child and the Curriculum. Through his different writing he carried on a similar theme, he argued that education and learning are social and interactive process, thus social reform had to take place in the school. Dewey believed that preparing kids for the future gave them authority over themselves.
I agree with John Dewey’s belief that more real-life lessons should be applied to school. I think that critical thinking is one of the most important aspects of education. Without critical thinking all we can do is answer several multiple choice questions or answer a question that is bluntly addressed in the textbook. I have met a lot of students who can read something out of a textbook and answer one of the questions perfectly, sometimes they do not even read the textbook they just go on a scavenger hunt for the answer. Although these students can answer these questions and memorize dates or facts for exams they have a hard time with critical thinking, with answering a question that is not directly answered in the book. I think that we need to make students stronger critical thinkers as opposed to having them go on scavenger hunts everyday as part of their education. By doing this, children are getting robbed of a strong foundation.
Since I did not know who John Dewey was I decided to do a little bit of research about him. Wikipedia describes John Dewey as, “an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology. He was a major representative of the progressive and progressive populist philosophies of schooling during the first half of the 20th century in the USA.” Dewey was one of the philosophers that impacted education in the twentieth century. Dewey came up with educational theories that were presented in a few of his books among them, My Pedagogic Creed and The Child and the Curriculum. Through his different writing he carried on a similar theme, he argued that education and learning are social and interactive process, thus social reform had to take place in the school. Dewey believed that preparing kids for the future gave them authority over themselves.
I agree with John Dewey’s belief that more real-life lessons should be applied to school. I think that critical thinking is one of the most important aspects of education. Without critical thinking all we can do is answer several multiple choice questions or answer a question that is bluntly addressed in the textbook. I have met a lot of students who can read something out of a textbook and answer one of the questions perfectly, sometimes they do not even read the textbook they just go on a scavenger hunt for the answer. Although these students can answer these questions and memorize dates or facts for exams they have a hard time with critical thinking, with answering a question that is not directly answered in the book. I think that we need to make students stronger critical thinkers as opposed to having them go on scavenger hunts everyday as part of their education. By doing this, children are getting robbed of a strong foundation.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Book
Like I had previously mentioned, I am reading the book titled Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the Secondary Content Areas. To draw the reader in, the book starts with a very descriptive story about children in a classroom—about literacy. “This book is based on the transactional model of learning and presents a classroom model that integrates reading, writing, listening, and speaking within a whole language framework” (Dornah, Matz Rosen, and Wilson 3). I really like the fact that this book will not only be about reading, it will also be about other aspects that effect reading skills.
Reading is a very important part of our everyday lives, “This book argues that literacy must be redefined to underscore the relationship between literacy and action, between knowing how to read and write and using these skills to change the world or at least a corner of it” (Dornah, Matz Rosen, and Wilson 4). By reading “Two Student Readers” in Mosaic of Thought, we were able to see that there is a big difference between knowing how to read and write and actually using these skills. Schools widely use Hooked on Phonics to teach students how to read, not really taking into account that sounding out words does not necessarily mean that someone “knows” how to read, it just mean that they are able to read. Reading not only allows us to dream, but it allows us to become wiser. Therefore, reading allows our meta-knowledge to grow. The more that out meta-knowledge grows the easier it is to analyze and understand a piece or writing.
One of the biggest problems in public education is that the teacher to student ratio is way too high. Teachers do not have the capability of meeting each student learning necessities and or capabilities. Every student learns different, making it very difficult for each student to gain the most out of each and every homework assignment. In Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts, Dornah, Matz Rosen, and Wilson write “education should value each child as an individual to be nurtured, as a whole person taking steps toward a higher quality life. Dewey and others called for educating children to think and speak for themselves” (7). For a long time students were made to feel inferior, if they couldn’t grasp a subject they were just believed to be dumb. The fact that a student or students were not learning in a classroom never had to do with the teacher’s way of teaching. If a student did not learn it was because they were either stupid or because they were troublemakers.
Reading is a very important part of our everyday lives, “This book argues that literacy must be redefined to underscore the relationship between literacy and action, between knowing how to read and write and using these skills to change the world or at least a corner of it” (Dornah, Matz Rosen, and Wilson 4). By reading “Two Student Readers” in Mosaic of Thought, we were able to see that there is a big difference between knowing how to read and write and actually using these skills. Schools widely use Hooked on Phonics to teach students how to read, not really taking into account that sounding out words does not necessarily mean that someone “knows” how to read, it just mean that they are able to read. Reading not only allows us to dream, but it allows us to become wiser. Therefore, reading allows our meta-knowledge to grow. The more that out meta-knowledge grows the easier it is to analyze and understand a piece or writing.
One of the biggest problems in public education is that the teacher to student ratio is way too high. Teachers do not have the capability of meeting each student learning necessities and or capabilities. Every student learns different, making it very difficult for each student to gain the most out of each and every homework assignment. In Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts, Dornah, Matz Rosen, and Wilson write “education should value each child as an individual to be nurtured, as a whole person taking steps toward a higher quality life. Dewey and others called for educating children to think and speak for themselves” (7). For a long time students were made to feel inferior, if they couldn’t grasp a subject they were just believed to be dumb. The fact that a student or students were not learning in a classroom never had to do with the teacher’s way of teaching. If a student did not learn it was because they were either stupid or because they were troublemakers.
Monday, June 13, 2011
My Blogging Experience
At first, blogging posed a problem for me. I have never blogged before in my life. I had no idea how to set-up my blogging space, but I took it one step at a time. All it took was for me to overcome my fear of something new and get started, and in a matter of minutes I had my very own blogging space. One of the most difficult things that I had to do was make link to the wiki with my page. My biggest problem was that instead of saying Judith’s Blog, my link actually had the URL on the wiki looking something like this http://...... I did not want to leave it with the URL; therefore I used Google to find a solution to my problem. I found an easy step by step guide of how to insert link on to a blog. I was thrilled when I figured out how to make a link! Now it seems fairly simple to me. The part that I enjoyed the most was customizing my blog. I really like the themes that are provided, but what I like the most is that even though templates are provided each blogging space can look unique. The
I found a few blogs that I really enjoyed. Out of all the blogs that I found my favorite is Baby Topics - Guide for New Parents. This blog has been up and running since 2006. This blog informs parents about everything they need to know about babies. Topics range from how to sponge bath a newborn to top ten foods to give a baby then he or she first starts eating. This blog even provides a guide to how to buy the right stroller for a baby. This blog is very insightful and informative—especially to new parents. Baby names are also provided for anyone who needs help choosing a name, making the blogging space a bit more personal. This blog also provides other great baby sites such as Johnson & Johnson, Huggies, and Babys R Us.
The thing that makes a quality blog is being able to relate to your audience. This means that adaptation might have to be an option. I think that adding pictures also makes the blog space more friendly and more welcoming. It is also very important to take the audience into consideration, not only by reading and answering their comment; but by offering them more of what they want to see. This can sometimes mean try something new from time to time, but you never know if you are going to like it unless you try.
I found a few blogs that I really enjoyed. Out of all the blogs that I found my favorite is Baby Topics - Guide for New Parents. This blog has been up and running since 2006. This blog informs parents about everything they need to know about babies. Topics range from how to sponge bath a newborn to top ten foods to give a baby then he or she first starts eating. This blog even provides a guide to how to buy the right stroller for a baby. This blog is very insightful and informative—especially to new parents. Baby names are also provided for anyone who needs help choosing a name, making the blogging space a bit more personal. This blog also provides other great baby sites such as Johnson & Johnson, Huggies, and Babys R Us.
The thing that makes a quality blog is being able to relate to your audience. This means that adaptation might have to be an option. I think that adding pictures also makes the blog space more friendly and more welcoming. It is also very important to take the audience into consideration, not only by reading and answering their comment; but by offering them more of what they want to see. This can sometimes mean try something new from time to time, but you never know if you are going to like it unless you try.
Book
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I have already started reading the book I chose from the book list-- Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts. You can find this book at the following website: http://books.heinemann.com/products/0417.aspx So far this book is very interesting; I have enjoyed learning the different kinds of methods that have been used to improve reading and how the methods have changed throughout the years.
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