Picture This! Reflection

1. "...when the sole purpose of a graphic organizer becomes filling it out correctly, it is nothing more than a worksheet."  I picked this quote from the book because it made me think of how we used graphic organizers in school. Most of the time, it was something we turned in for a grade, and we completed them like a worksheet. I think that considering how the graphic organizer is to be used is very important. I think that we need to know how to use them in the classroom to where they will be beneficial to the students instead of using them as a worksheet.

2. How do you keep a graphic organizer part of everyday instruction without it turning into a worksheet?

3. Last week I substituted for a third grade class, and I had to go over concept maps. I made one on the board to model for them how to create one. After they completed their concept map, they had to use it to write a descriptive paragraph about their topic. My favorite was one a little boy did. He brought his to me and asked me to look at it. He decided to do his on Spiderman. They only had to write six things to describe their topic, but he had ten things. I handed it back to him and said, "This is great. You sure do know alot about Spiderman." He looked up at me and said, "Well, yeah, I'm kinda his biggest fan." This chapter brought me back to that experience since it was all about graphic organizers.

Text Article and Chapter 4 Reflection

                Read alouds have always been one of my favorites. I like how read alouds put every student on the same playing field. Since below level readers may stumble over words and struggle to get to the end of the paragraph, they generally do not worry about comprehending the text because their goal is to finish reading the text. However, when they are able to listen to the text being read to them, they do not have to worry about getting the words right. They are able to clear their mind and use their listening comprehension. Another key aspect of read alouds is allowing the students to communicate with each other about what was read. I like this because it allows students to feed off of each other. What one student got from the text may not be the same as another due to different background knowledge and experiences.

                After reading the article, it made me realize how hard it is for elementary students to focus on the main ideas of a book because they pay more attention to the pictures. However, don't teachers bring this upon themselves? When introducing a book, do they not do a "picture walk" and ask the students to predict what is going on by looking at the pictures? Teachers condition the students to pay attention to the illustrations of a book to help them with the story so why would read alouds be any different? If teachers want the students to focus more on the text, then teachers need to teach the students how to hone in on important details. As a teacher, it is our job to teach the students how to think more  in debt into the text.  As the article started talking about questions to aid in comprehension, I thought about past experiences. Most teachers that I had in elementary school asked the one word answer questions and then praised us for getting it right. Then, they were content with thinking that we were comprehending what the story was actually about. I like how the article emphasized asking questions that stimulated critical thinking and then using student answers to come up with more questions to guide their thoughts. I also like that the article also stated that it is important to allow the students time to think about what was just read.

                After reading chapter 4, I became more familiar with how to use read alouds in a secondary classroom. At the beginning, the chapter mentioned how important it was for the students to have a copy of the text or at least be able to see it. I also feel that is important, but I do not feel that if you are doing a read aloud that it is imperative for the students to follow along with text. As we saw in class last Tuesday, some people were able to comprehend the text being read aloud better because they had it in front of them, whereas others, were distracted. The chapter also mentioned allowing the students to talk about the text either whole group or small group. Again, I think that this is important because you get to see others' perspectives.

                The chapter talked about a strategy called "zinger questions." The students come up with questions for other groups to answer. If the other groups cannot answer the question, then the group asking the question gets a point.  I thought that this was pretty cool because it motivates the students and appears to be a strategy that forces students to learn without them knowing they are learning. Another strategy mentioned in the chapter that I liked was the peer tutoring. The reason that I like this is pretty simple: if you have to teach it, then you learn it 100%. Finally, I liked how the chapter stated that as a teacher, you cannot go into a lesson or in this case a book not prepared.  In order to give your students the full  benefit of a read aloud. Students know when a teacher is just winging a lesson and has not put in his full potential. This shows students that it is acceptable for them to do it, too.  

Chapter 8

I have never really given much thought to putting math and writing together. Although I do know the amount of pressure that is forced upon teachers to incorporate writing into all content areas. I have always thought of math as just numbers. It is a lot easier to see how writing fits into other areas. For history, the students can write an essay about people, major events, etc. In science, students keep logs of their experiments and take notes on their observations. Then, English is all about writing, and reading and writing complement each other. But as for math, I thought that this is where students got a break from writing. The only form of writing I have had to do for math is write an essay about a mathematician. However, this chapter has showed me how incorporating writing is important.

                One thing I liked about the chapter was it talked about having the students write down everything they already know about a topic and any questions they have about the topic before it is discussed. I like this because it prepares the students for learning. This also lets the teacher know exactly how much the students already understand about the concept, which lets the teacher know where she needs to begin her teaching. However, if the students are doing this at the beginning of class and are writing about the day's topic, when does the teacher have time to read the students' responses before teaching the concept? If the idea is to use the responses to gauge where you begin teaching, then, doing it the morning of defeats the purpose. I think I would do this at the end of the class period before I planned on teaching the concept. Then, I would be able to use their responses to shape my teaching.

                Another thing I liked that the chapter mentioned is explaining how and why you answered a math problem the way you did. I like this because it lets the teacher know that the student truly understands what he is doing or if he is just guessing. I also think this is a great way to help students gather their thoughts and keep their thoughts organized without becoming overwhelmed.

                The reason I have mainly focused on math is I want to be a fourth grade math teacher. Therefore, the ways to incorporate writing to learn math stuck out to me the most. However, I did like the RAFT approach which can be used in all content areas. I think that this would have helped me tremendously in history because I had a hard time concentrating on the main idea. All I did was memorize what I needed to know for the test and then I forgot it. I feel that if I would have been given a strategy like RAFT, I would have been able to actually learn what it is I needed to learn. Ina conclusion, I think that the ideas in this chapter should be carried with us to our future classroom because using writing to learn is instrumental in helping students understand. This chapter also left me with a question. What can you do for the students who struggle with conveying their thoughts through writing?

Response to Moss article

The article focuses mainly on giving students the opportunity to read more informative text at a younger age. I agree with this to an extent. I feel that when children begin to learn how to read, they need to read something that sparks their interests. The students should be allowed to read whatever it is they like to read in the early years, whether it be a children's book or a baseball card. Before students begin to read for comprehension, they need to be fluent in their reading so I do not think it should matter what they are reading as long as they are reading. However, I do not object that the students should have more access to informative text. I feel that students should have a variety of text available to them. Once students are able to comprehend what they read, why would they not be able to comprehend informative text if they can comprehend narrative text?
     The article also mentions that a majority of the time, teachers read informative textbooks to the students. For our lab today, we talked about this. Teachers read the textbook or a book to the students while the students follow along in their book, and then, the teacher ask questions. When the students reply with the correct answers to the questions, teachers think that the students are comprehending the text. When in reality, the teachers are only testing their listening comprehension. This practice does not ensure that the student could read the same text on their own and comprehend it. While discussing this, we tested the readability of some elementary textbooks. The textbook that I had was for a fourth grade science class. Its readability turned out to be on a ninth grade level. In fact, a majority of the text books turned out to be way over the grade level. How can you expect a fourth grader to read this information on his own when it is not even on his grade level? 
       Another thing that stood out to me in the article is it mentioned several strategies to test a student's comprehension. I substitute a lot, and I see that schools use Accelerated Reader to get students to read more. They read a book and then take a test to determine if the student is comprehending what they read. As they answer questions correctly, they gain points. Once the student has earned so many points, they get a prize. Each student has a goal, and if he doesn't meet his goal, he is penalized by not being able to participate in something fun. I am sure this started with good intentions; however, I see that students are merely picking up a book, not reading it, and taking a test on it to see if they can guess correctly enough to get points. I think they would be better off by using some of the strategies mentioned in the article like learning logs, fact books, alphabet books, etc.
     Finally, the article made the comment that elementary children choose to read informational texts over narrative text almost half of the time. If informational text is what motivating students to read, then why not allow students access to it? In conclusion, I feel that students should be exposed to a variety of text throughout their reading experiences.