CH. 11 Developing Content Area Writers

As I read this chapter, it reminded me of class last week. We had the necessary steps in order to lead us in the right direction. Students are able to write to learn. By this statement, I seriously think it means that students are capable of building their own form of thinking and formatting how they think. An example of writing to learn that I noticed in the chapter was, "Building Bridges." I thought it was really neat how the teacher took a simple design of a bridge and made it an investigation for their learning. For instance, on page 312 the teacher opened discussion by asking students what it means to make a beautiful bridge or connection. I think this means that students could use this analogy to connect their purposes of what they are writing about.

Two other strategies that got my attention in the was STOP and LIST. On page 320, it tells us that STOP stands for Stop and Think of Purposes. Most of the time we loss sight of what we are writing about. We literally have to stop and think of what we are writing about. It questions the students on the purpose for their writing. Also on 320 is LIST which means List Ideas and Sequence Them. In this strategy it is to place things in corresponding order. This is necessary for students to organize their writing.

From personal experience, it is easier for me to use the LIST technique. It seems to help me organize my writing regardless of what kind of writing i am writing. I like to get everything out there and then organize it. It is easier for me to set up my paragraphs and sentences to create an awesome writing piece. Strategies like this one has helped me to enjoy writing.

Promethean Board

At Petal Upper Elementary, the school has a board that functions like a Promethean Board. During clinicals, my mentor teacher gives me the opportunity to learn how to use the board. They are very fun. It is connected to the teacher's computer. Anything that she would like to show to the class, will appear on the board. It is quite interactive too. You can create pictures and work on math problems on the board. You can even make marks or circles directly from webpages for students to make notes. I think it is very cool. What is even cooler than that is the students have became technological experts. It gives them training on how certain computer applications work because they can watch the teacher as she does so. Another good thing about the Promethean Board is that it comes along with clickers. The teacher can play games and have the students click their answers in. It gives the amount of students that got questions correct or incorrect without pointing at one particular student. This way the teacher can address information that the students may not have clear.

Ch. 7 Activating Prior Knowledge and Increasing Motivation

Prior knowledge comes from the student’s community and experiences. As stated in the book on page 191, some students may know how computers work because they watch their parents at home. A personal experience that I have witnessed myself was the one where my one year old niece is becoming familiar with Chinese greetings. She often speaks to me in Chinese and has taught me how to do so. (Ni, Hao= Hi) On the chart on page 191 it gives phases as to how a teacher can motivate his or her students. Often students are bored because teachers do not focus on motivating students with facts that they already know. In this chapter, Conley gives ways a teacher can motivate students.

One thing that caught my eye was to create a pre-reading plan. On pg. 199, it gives students a chance to show the teacher what they already know. Teachers can then reflect on the things that their students do not know on the reading selection. Another technique is the KWL chart. I have personally used it several times. The K represents what the students know. However, the W represents what the student wants to know and the L represents what the students learned. It is an excellent way for students to self-monitor what they know and what they want to know and value. These two processes can help increase motivation because it involves the student. For example, I am more excited about my classes when I am given the opportunity to actively engaged. Some things to keep in mind when performing these activities. These things are on page 204-205. Some of them that I thought was important was to emphasize predictions that students make and provide regular feedback. This is the way students apply the knowledge that they are building. By providing feedback, the teacher shows students relevance of what the student feels is important.

The last thing in the chapter that caught my eye was CORI which stands for Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction. It is explained on page 207. It is a planning framework that will add motivation while the students are learning about a particular concept. It activates student curiosity by allowing social interaction and allowing students to become actively engaged in their classroom. CORI goes through many four phases which are mentioned in figure 7.6 on page 208. It shows how students are engaged with others in order to achieve the knowledge that they need to know or value.