Better Late Than Never!

-
Hi All,

I'm here! Hope everyone has a great semester.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

That Unit Wasn't So Bad, Was It?

-
I have put the finishing touches on my unit and am ready to turn it in. As an elementary educator I am used to writing lessons cross curricula so that was not the difficult part. I have not ever had to take one TEK and try to match it to 3 other content areas (other than the writing process). I chose a TEK that involved media literacy and how it is used, conveyed, etc. I chose Home Ec (do they still have this class), Fine Arts, and Social Studies to make this unit. It was actually pretty easy and I found it fun to try and make the content meaningful to the students. For Home Ec they had to create a menu that conveyed what their recipes were going to be as well as a commercial for their eatery. They also had to come up with a name and a logo. Fine Arts was assigned the task of an ad agency who's client was difficult and wanted an ad for their eatery but only gave the agency a name and menu. Students had to create 3 ads that the eatery could choose from. Social studies was easy as we...
Read more

What is a good reader/writer?

-
I don't believe there is one clear definition or defining characteristic that makes one a good reader or writer. I truly believe reading and writing is domain specific and I may be a fantastic reader/writer in one area but not in another. If I had to define a good reader/writer, I would say it is someone who keeps at it trying to improve, this might mean you slow down, reread, look up words, do it for learning, enjoyment or information. I would say I am a good reader because I do all of the things I listed above. I also read anything I can get my hands on even if it seems weird, irrelevant or not important to me because I think we should all have a little knowledge about everything. When everyone is sitting around talking about Comic Con (I may not be into it) I want to know what they are talking about. In order to teach students to become effective readers and writers I think we have to share with them the specific domains, for example if you are a math or science major you mu...
Read more

The writing process, but how do you start?

-
Yes, writing is a process. Yes, we all learned the process steps in school. Yes, we are expected to teach students the steps as they follow. Prewriting-like brainstorming Writing- first draft, getting ideas onto the paper Edit-checking for grammar, punctuation etc Proofread- re-read over it and fix anything that needs it Publish-write final draft, ready for all to see Ok, here's the real question? How are we going to get them to write? I can know the writing process all day long and force them to follow the steps but if they have no desire to write, you will get a mediocre assignment that might net them a 2 on the TAKS (soon to be STAR). Ok, so here's the answer, engagement. This may mean you let them write a persuasive paper convincing you why you should play the new Harry Potter Lego video game. It may mean letting them persuade you to let them have a game day. It may mean letting them inform you of all the benefits of recycling. We can run our classrooms anyway we ...
Read more