Change!

I think that I have changed some over the course of this class. I have most definitely learned a lot about Language Arts that I had not known beforehand. I have learned about the different types of writing, listening and the 6 Language Art! I have really been amazed about all the things I had forgotten. I realize that I am not very good at grammar and will have to look over it before I begin teaching my students. I have also realized how much I love read alouds! I am going to have them in my classroom. Listening to the books that Dr. Duncan read made me want to go out and read all of the books. I want that same thing to happen to my students in my classroom. I also think that I will try to do writers workshops in my class, depending on what grade I am in. I might not do them if I am teaching a preschool class. I also want to try and do a literature circle in my class. I think that they students will like these activities. I have really learned a lot of fun and exciting things that I can do to promote literacy in my future class.

Field experience!

I have had so much fun in my field placement class this semester! My teacher has a literacy activity everyday in her classroom. I have observed her doing small group work and mini lessons with the whole group. I have really seen a lot of the topics that we discuss in Mrs. Biven's class when I go and observe. This has really helped me to put what we have learned and apply it to a real classroom. I think that after learning about literature groups and writers workshops, I could really tell in the class if the activities they were doing were falling into one of these categories. I think that these observations at me placement have really made a positive impact on my out look of literacy in the class. I think that I have gotten a lot of great ideas and will be using them when I become a teacher.

Peer revisinng/editing

During class we did peer revisions and editing to our narrative stories. I really enjoyed doing this. I thought it was very helpful to get feed back from a peer on the content and structural parts of my paper. I also liked being able to read over another peer's paper to try and help them. I think it gave me good practice on revising a paper so I will be able to revise my students papers in the future. I also think that this activity would be very helpful in the classroom. I think the students will be more motivated to try if they know that a peer will be looking over their paper. This will also give students good experience with knowing how to give feed back to a peer. It will also help the students know how to revise his or her own paper better.I think the same concept will be good for doing this activity with middle and high school students. I think that they students will benefit from this activity by working together to try and produce the most effective paper possible.

My experiences with Literature Circles

I never remember doing Literature Circles in Elementary school. I think that we read the same book all at the same time and we all know that is not real Literature Circles!! :) The first experience I had with Literature Circles was last semester in Dr. Duncan's class. I really enjoyed them. I really liked how there were different books being read in the class and how we got to share the stories with one another. I also liked the fact that there are different jobs that the students in the Literature Circle can do. I think this is a good strategy for students in a classroom. It gives the students a job and helps them to stay involved through out the completion of the Literature Circle. It also lets the children tell their perceptive of what is happening in the story. I think that I will definitely use Literature Circles when I am a classroom teacher.

Assessment is a topic we talk about a lot in Child development. To me it means, a form of finding out how much a child knows and where there are different strengths and weaknesses in their work. There are different types of assessment. The one that I had to most growing up was testing. We had tests and standardized tests on everything. I do not think that this is necessarily wrong but, I do think that there are other ways in which a person can be assessed. I have learned many different ways of assessing students and I plan on doing more than just standardized testing with my students. I think in some cases, testing is important but in other cases, there are many other ways in order to assess an individual. I may do projects or ask the child to present on a topic. I could also take anecdotes in order to see how far a child is and how far he or she has come over the year.

Books for future classroom!

I have so many books that I would like to use in my classroom when I become a teacher. One book that has always been my favorite is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Depending on the age group I work with, I defiantly want to use this book in one of my lessons. This books' theme is all about the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. The story is fun for younger children. It discusses what the caterpillar ate and what events led up to the transformation to the beautiful butterfly.
One activity I could do is a pasta caterpillar to butterfly art work. In this activity, the children get to make the different stages of a butterfly out of different types of pastas and noodles. The egg is made out of a piece of rice. The caterpillar is made out of a spiral noodle. The chrysalis is made out a shell noodle and the butterfly is made out of bow-tie pasta. The children get to place the pasta on a piece of paper and label the different stages. Another activity I could do is turn the students into butterflies. We would first crawl around the room like we are caterpillars. Then, each student would lay down and put a scarf or blanket over top of them. This would symbolize them being in a chrysalis. Then we would all stand up and use the blanket as our wings for the butterfly. It would be fun and active.
I am really looking forward to sharing different books and activities with my students.

What makes writing worth reading?

Hey my name is Joe, and I work in a button factory. The other day, the boss came up to me. He said, "Hi Joe, are you busy?". I said, "No". He said, "Push this button with your left hand".
Was this worth reading?
Was it worth the time to look over and process?
What makes writing worth reading?

I think that something that is worth reading is something that will be of interest to me. I love reading things that are funny. I also love reading things that will help me learn and become more knowledgeable in a certain area. Sometimes, I don't think that things on facebook are worth reading. In some cases, I do not need to know every place a person is going and what time they are going to bed.
After thinking about it more, I believe that anything that is written can be worth reading. Reading is an important to anyone and everyone. I think that even if you are reading something that is not important to you, it is important to the one that wrote it.

I am rubber and you are glue. Whatever you say to me , bounces off of me and sticks to you!

I have always hear the saying,"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me". I even remember saying it when I was a child. But, I now realize that words can be the most hurtful thing in the word. I get more upset and hurt when I hear someone saying mean things about me or someone else. I have also seen it a lot more with the children I work with and babysit. Once, when I was babysitting, one of the kids said something mean to another. The next thing I know, the little girl that was hurt was crying and had locked herself in her room. I also see how people can twist words around in order to hurt people even more. Sticks and stones can easily break my bones, but words can kill my spirit.

How did I learn language?

I was thinking about it and I really can't remember how I learned language. I know that I really wanted to have hooked on phonics when I was a little child. I think that we learned whole language more in school. I remember I could not sound out words in elementary school. I still have problems now when I look at certain words. I think that the tricky sounds in the English language trip me up. I remember never really being able to sound out the words that did not follow a certain pattern. I think that in schools, there should be a mix of both whole language and phonics. The balanced language approach should be done in schools because it helps to have more ways of helping children learn. I am still learning different things about language and I find that it is very interesting. I hope that by learning more I can help the students in my class.

6 language arts

I was surprised most that talking and listening were included in the six language arts. I guess I never really thought of them being apart of the language arts spectrum. I always think of the basic reading, writing and grammar when I think of language arts. Now that I see that these two are apart of language arts, I get the connection better and understand how they go hand in hand within the six language arts.
I think that viewing and visually representing should be on the list for the 6 language arts. I think that viewing and visually representing help some children to understand the full meaning of the story. Some children learn better by seeing rather than just reading a story. I know that if I can see a picture or a visual aid, I am more likely to retain the information for a longer period of time. I do not think that we are condoning the media in children's lives if we are showing some educational material that goes along with a language arts lesson. If a teacher told the class that they were just going to watch a movie and not read the book before hand because it would take to long, then yeah I think that would be condoning the media. But, integrating the technology into the lesson is a great way for the children to learn. I have always enjoyed reading. I loved when I was in elementary school and the teacher would let us relax out on the floor and she would read us a story. I would always get so captivated and did not want it to end.I also like being able to just pick out a book and read it for the fun of it. Reading helps me to think more creatively and distress from a long day. I also think that it is a fun way to introduce new vocabulary and concepts. I think I will always like reading.

What do I think about blogging

I have never blogged before today. I have heard of people blogging and did not really think much of it. I always thought I never had enough time to sit down and blog about something. I also thought anything that I would want to blog about would not be anything that anyone would want to read about. I think blogging is cool but have never had the interest in blogging myself.