Book trailer bloggin'

I was reading some the blogs about the book trailers. It seems like everyone is enjoying it. I know my group had a good time making ours, and it didn't take us a super long time. We had a lot of fun and got it done. We all really enjoyed our book, and it is something we can use in are content area, which I think made the project more enjoyable. I hope the have good time making your trailer. You Should check out ours . I have attached it to my blog, check it out and check out the book. "The invention of Hugo Cabret", they have a copy at the U of L library.

dreambloggin' about blogspot

I found the blogspot stories interesting. I try to be an avid reader, and usually have something on a burner. It was interesting hearing the degree in these people started their libraries, or the age I when they became avid readers. I always feel like the polar opposite of the people at blogspot, or any person who calms to be well read. I am always reluctant to make that statement.

I didn't read at all until I discovered Vonnegut My freshman year of college. I was like "wow" some actually writes books that are interesting. I even remember reading a Vonnegut story in my high lit class and thinking it was awful. I think I only pick reading as a social thing all my friends were always reading this or that and were telling me I should check it out. It's funny we have the book circle, and I have had a informal book thing with all my friends for such a longtime, we will recommend something, loan, or borrow. I buy my best friend books a lot as presents, because every time he loans out to me. I ended up doing something to defile it( that's really the best term). We have a running joke about " yes ", "I will take this, run over it with my car and give back to you". "Is that cool". I am lucky though I have diverse taste in reading material, and I am always getting recommended something new and interesting.

I read a far amount of books. Some I should have, some I wish I hadn't, I don't buy a lot of books. I go to the library, or borrow books from friends. I use to buy some books, and donate them to the library when I finished them, if the library didn't have them.
That my story, "Books Checkem' out"

Podcast blog

I found the pod casting interesting, and they seem like a good way to get students active in the classroom. I didn't mention in me last blog, but in my jigsaw group discussion my article discussed cross content vocabulary strategies. One of which was a list of academic vocabulary, that all content areas would try to work into their material. These podcast seem like a useful way to go about it. Having one of these podcast as a part of the morning announcements, a daily word, or something.

These podcast also seemed like a good length, I believe they would be an easy way the get even the shy student involved. They can work with an partner, they aren't an excess length. I also like how they gave a little context along with the definition. I feel that more important than having just the definition. It helps students build their schema and can connect with their prior knowledge.

Jigsaw reading

Although I seemed brain dead in class today I found the jigsaw project really useful. I got a lot of good strategies today. I also like all the easy assignments we have been getting, I can confess that all the recent hoops have got me tired of jumping.

Actually I found my jigsaw reading very informative, It was section D, Janet Allen's article about "Making Vocabulary Instruction Meaningful". Vocabulary seems to have been a hot topic in recent classes, especially since we all have a specialized content, that has it's own vocabulary. I am no math major but I am aware that it is key to know what the "sum of two numbers" and the "difference between two numbers " is key to solve equations, and that math students really need to know it.

Janet's approach seemed very useful, instead of focusing on definitions, and matching she was suggesting that vacab activities focus on word usage, context, relationships, and meaning. Having students predict materials content based on vocab. Using cross content vocab, and assessing vocab by using concept circle, and word relation activities. I can personally say when students ask me what a word means, I don't usually read a definition of the top of my head, I usually try to compare it to some thing that they are more familiar with. I just liked her approach, it wasn't rocket science but it was very practical. I hope my jigsaw group got this information from my discussion.

Chew on this chapters five and six

Hey ,Hey what to say, I finished "chew on this " last night, I hope you all are also at this point. I am glad I finished it, so much to read so little time. I enjoyed this book it was a light read and was to the point. I am a vegetarian, I haven't eaten meat since I was like 17, I also seen "Super size Me" and "Bowling for Columbine", so "Chew on this wasn't telling me anything new, but I liked it's pace and it's reading level, is appropriate for our students. So it's something we could use in our class. I don't know if any of you all are "Heavy Users" or not, but you all should check out "super size me" it will change the way you think about fast food.

Chapter five I found very interesting, I personally like to have to discussions in my classroom, I like to get students active, thinking and talking at the subject, If their active they are usually interested, I think. I liked the strategies on page 57 . I personally tell a lot of stories in the classroom that relates to the material, They display everything from problem solving to decision making. As for active writing, I had a student teaching class that would drive me nuts, call discussion was like pulling teeth, but I could never get them to stop talking when I had to stop an activity. I would get three word answers on ORQ's, and yet I was always telling student to stop writing notes, and to stop texting on their phones. I found this chapter very useful, indeed.

Chapter 6 is every fan boys dream come true, validation that comics and graphic novels are useful tools for literacy. Have a few friends who are big into comics. I personally was never a big comic book fan my brother was. Which that in itself shows that it is a useful tool of literacy. I love me brother, but he is a lazy man, he barely got through high school, but he read comics religiously as a teen and beyond, I was suppose to be the smart the only reading I did for pleasure was Thrasher magazine. I finally started reading books my freshman year of college, my brother has yet to get bit by the literature bug.

It good though, it is another tool we can use for literacy. in my teaching have seen plenty of students reading the manga, and I have even used Literature books that had illustrated stories in them. Whether it is used for scaffolding our students, or something like "Maus" that helps us tackle sensitive issues. Whether it's "batman" or "Ulysses" if are students are reading it's a good thing.

bookclubs and vocabulary

I found the chapter on book clubs very informative. It seemed to cover all the aspects of how to plan book clubs. I personally like the idea students having different roles in the club and having to work as a group on projects related to their reading. They seem like a good way to assess the students reading and comprehension.

I found today's lecture on vocabulary more informative, or at least I more connection to it. I think we all know the importance of using a rich vocabulary with or students. Will they listen? " Luke, warm the water". In chapter 7, I did like the graphic organizer on page 94, although I believe it could be more useful if you were using for larger context than just vocab words. I also found the research chart on pages 89-90 interesting. This chapter gave a lot interesting strategies dealing with vocabulary.

the third blog inspired by the third reading.

Well,well,well, I had a busy weekend and it put behind in the reading, I did get the reading done today, but it was long and painful. Chapter 15's emphasis on flow, did not flow briskly through the stream of my conscious. I did get the point. chapter 4 went more smoothly, it gave a lot of useful strategies on building student comprehension, and emphasized modeling. For those of you just starting the program, I advice you to do a lot of modeling for you students. Whether it's behavior, how you want them to turn in their work, classroom procedures, anything, in some ways your students want to what's right, and your modeling your expectations gives them just that.

2nd blog, 2nd reading

I enjoyed this reading more then the reading for a number of reasons. the first being that there was less to read, that always makes me smile. The second being that this chapter had more focus than the others. I also like the concepts in this material. Getting students to understand the diverse roles that they make have to take on while working in groups seems to be extremely practical. Especially in this day and age, when everyone has to wear more than one hat while on the job. I know I have experienced having to "multitask" different roles in some of my previous jobs, so "Yea life skills".

I like using discussion in classes I have taught, which the Socratic seminars and the school loop appear to be an extension of. We all know that children are expressive and want their voice to be heard. When you can get students to have a meaningful discussion, hopefully they are also putting some meaning full thought into the discussion. This will hopefully build their interest in the material and understand it relevance to their lives. Or they will put their heads down and say " My head hurts, do I have to do this, it's boring". I liked this material more so, and can only hope I will get a response similar to Mr Burke's, when have discussions in my classroom.

1st Blog about 1st reading

I read the first two chapters in "Adolescent Literacy" and the first chapter in both "Content- Area Writing", and "Subject Matter". I have the same view of this material as the majority of the class, It was informative, but as introductory material it didn't reveal to much. I didn't like reading the percentages of the drop out rate. I did like the information about trying to diversify what our students our reading, and getting materials from different sources, as opposed to using the same textbooks. This information is relevant to our times especially since using materials that our students can connect to is a key part of their learning. The information in "Content -Area Writing" about students hating writing is also a sad reality, but as we talked about in class yesterday that also has more to do with the relevance of what students are writing for.