Continuing the Conversation...

Extending the Conversation: New Technologies, New Literacies, and English Education

"Like the reader of print texts, the reader of digital texts takes an active role

in the creation of meaning." (p.356)

I didn't fully understand this statement until I kept reading.  The reader takes part in reading in different ways when it is in print than when it is in digital format.  I related to this statement in how I read about current events online and in the newspaper.  Different meanings are formed based on the writings, pictures, videos, sound, etc.  After relating to this statement on a personal level I thought about how the students relate in the classroom.  They are much more engaged when reading includes more than just text.  Technologies have helped us all be able to have more meaning and connections to the text.   

J. Swenson, et. al. (2006). Extending the conversation: new technologies, new literacies, and English education.  National Council of Teachers of English. (p. 356).

Where will technology go from here....

I enjoyed class Thursday night as we explored various digital tools.  Dr. Long was right when she stated that we were unlikely to explore these tools on our own.  I am glad she made me sit down and "play."  I think I could be a better teacher by learning to use some of these things.  RSS Feeds could be a way to stay up to date from the classroom.  My class subscribes to Scholastic News Magazines  and Highlights Magazines.  I am curious to see if these companies have RSS Feeds.  I will be adding this to my to do list to check into.  Back in undergrad I added educational internet sites to a bookmarking site like Diigo, but it was a different one.  I never continued to use the site after that semester.  I now see that I should have.  I think I could be better organized if I had kept it up.  There are several sites I want to search to help me in the classroom with my students.  It would be much easier to be able to locate these sites from any computer/place.  Animoto - HOW COOL!!  I loved it.  As I played with it in class I thought of using some pictures I had at home I would like to upload and put to music.  I hope to get to that this weekend.  I love to play with this more to learn how to use it to benefit my students.  I think this is something that could really catch their attention.

Everyday Literacies

Everday Literacies is exactly what it means.  Everyday literacies is the print that children come into contact with on a day to day basis. 
In my classroom I have a wall of environmental print. These are posters that I made myself out of different things in the newspaper, such as people, places, even food ads, and road signs.  I find that I and the kids refer to the wall quite a bit. It is so helpful and the kids can read more of it than they think because they are so used to seeing such print around their home, stores, and town. 
I have decided it is time to remake my posters and update them since they are a little fadded.  A summer task...after grad school!

StReSsEd = DeSsErTs :)

I am sitting at home on a Friday night...........eating a piece of leftover birthday cake!


Nonetheless I am working on school work (for my kiddos and myself).  It has been a long week however  the weeks seem to be passing fast.  I feel quite stressed as if I have so many things that need to be done.  I wonder if I will get it all done.....  I feel like things will calm down eventually.  I do better if I get ahead and stay ahead.  This year at school has been quite different.  We have had three meetings during this week, leaving little time to prepare for my students during my planning time.  This group of students is very challenging and not like one I have had in the past.  They are teaching me how to eat, talk, and play all the while I am trying to teach them how to spell, read, and write.  I wonder if we will end in June with everyone being taught a little more about ourselves!?

Art Show

Chowan University Faculty Art Exhibition 

Fall 2011

*There were many different pieces on display - graphics, pottery, floor art, painted pieces.  I enjoyed this field trip and it forced me to look more into why I like certain pieces of art

I chose to reflect on the following piece:
     The Wishing Tree
          by Jennifer Groves
     Acrylic on Masonite

The title reminded me of Shel Silverstien's book The Giving Tree.  This is one of my favorite children's books for its meaning.
I also chose this piece because of the title.  At this time in my life there are several things I wish for.
I did a free hand sketch of this picture, however to share that with you would do the art justice, compared to what I saw in person.

Marc Prensky article

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants 

by Marc Prensky

When I first read the title of this article I really felt as though I was going to be reading about people native to a certain land and those that were coming in as immigrants.....however I saw the word 'digital', so I wasn't sure that was correct...

After further reading I grasp this:  "Digital Natives" are the children we teach that have grown up with all things related to technology.  We as teachers are the "Digital Immigrants" that consider some of these pieces of technology a foreign piece to our teachings.  

When I think back to 26 years ago when I was in first grade and six years old, all I can say is, "My the times have changed!!!!"  I remember a cassette player and an overhead and big desktop computers with a big floppy disk.  My students would be lost in a world that only contained these items...they are so accustomed to CD Players (hardly knowing what a cassette is), cell phones, iPods, iPads, Laptops, Playstations, Jump drives, SMART boards, Projectors, flat screen TV's, and field trips on the computer.  Do these children know how lucky they are to have so many different things to learn from?  I now must wonder where we will be in the next 26 years when I will be retired?  

Not growing up with these cool technological pieces can make us uneasy to learn how to use them.  But we must remember that this is what our children know and this is the language our students speak.  We need to speak this language to get on their level and educate them.

The second sentence in this article stood out as I began reading.  Prensky (2001) strongly states, "Our students have changed radically.  Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach."

Jeffrey Golub's article on the Common Core

I found this article very easy to read and well written.
I have heard a lot about the Common Core Standards through our graduate classes and a little bit through our district and school.  I enjoyed Golub's analogy of comparing the CC to the library sinking.  Sometimes we take on so much as teachers and try to do our best, but are not able to be well grounded becuase we are too loaded down.

As I read this article I looked at each of his aspects and how I felt about them.

1.  I think this is true, even with our NCSCS.  I think the CC could be beneficial with students that may move from school to school.  It seems we always hear this but then again are still required to teach certain things and in a certain way.
2.  Yes, reading comprehension does involve more then just reading the text.  Is this where we as teachers have to 'read between the lines' of the CC and continue to teach that which we know is important (such as comprehension, engagement, and experiences through reading)?
3.  We have seen evidence of this statement through some of our previous readings and classes.  We all know things have changed since we were in school.
4.  True - We continue to prepare for the future "test" that we miss out on opportune times to take advantage of teachable moments and teaching from our heart.  Those are some of the best and most enjoable moments in my classroom.

This article allowed me to think about teaching in general a little bit more.
I do agree with most of what Golub has to say about the Common Core Standards and enjoyed seeing his point of view.

Task 3: Infographics

What in the world is an infographic!  I have never heard of this before.  Now I am kind of feeling like my grandparents when I would mention the World Wide Web or Internet and they gave me a dumbfounded look!

Infographics – (my definition) a visual tool to present lots of information in an interesting way in the classroom (or even office).   Through the video it looks like they are giving examples similar to Thinking Maps, Word Webs, Graphic Organizers.  This seems to be a very technological way to get the meaning across through media and art. 

Teaching with infographics could offer visual support to those types of learners.  It seems to me that the writing process or scientific method could be represented through infographics. Sequencing a story …….  Study guides to break down information need to know for a class or test ……  Showing important events in ones life.

How long have these been around?   If this is the new thing….I bet we hear more about them!

Task 1: Tragic Events: Remembering 9/11

I teach first grade and honestly find it difficult to discuss 9/11 with students.  Discussing any tragedy can be hard.  But when we do talk about tragedy I try to be as honest with them as possible and talk about it on their terms with words they understand.

When 9/11 first happened I did have an open discussion with my students.  We would discuss what happened, the good and the bad of it, the students would color a picture of the American Flag, and I had a story that was written specifically about 9/11 from Scholastic (I think).  We even made a red, white, and blue chain to hang in the halls of our entire school.   For a couple years after that we would continue to discuss it within our classroom and school.  As it is now ten years past, we don’t do so much with it anymore.  I do still think it is important to remember what happened that day and how we can help one another ten years later.  However, when 9/11 happened my students this year were not even born until four years later.  I don’t think I will discuss it and have to explain it all to six year olds that might come up with many questions and not really interpret the actions of that day (with no living memory).  I think they may do better learning about it through a history class as they get older. 

I agree to the eSchools article about maybe having a discussion about 9/11 in high school where students were about eight or nine at the time and may not be emotionally connected to the situation.  Although I would think this might especially be hard if you were a teacher in a high school in one of the places where the 9/11 tragedy took place and the students did have an emotional connections, (whether they knew someone part of the tragedy or witnessed it close to their homes or schools).  I would think you would have to choose words and activities carefully to not make any student have a traumatizing experience remembering the events.

Reading the other resources posted were very eye opening and made me think a little bit about teaching 9/11 differently.  I think this would be an appropriate time in school to discuss bravery, honesty, friendship, peace, and conflict and at the same time give honor to 9/11 and its heroes and victims in a different remembrance way.  I liked some of the lessons I found under one resource.  It honored 9/11 by teaching students about culture and the American Flag,

Ending another semester...

What have I learned?

Over the past couple months I have learned a great deal about integrating the curriculum.  Curriculum integration definitely seems to be the way to go for the students to get the most out of what we want them to learn. 

One specific thing that I learned about was authentic experiences.  These experiences are important in teaching our children.  Life will always be full of problem solving and offering real life investigations (in school) will help in ones life.  The more real or genuine experiences can be, the more we learn.  Authentic experiences should be available in all subject areas. 

Another specific thing I learned about was the difference of topics, themes, concepts, and big ideas in teaching social studies.  After understanding this way of organization it was easy to pick out a theme for our integrated unit.  We focused on Time, Continuity, and Change in looking at the past, present, and future of transportation.  I enjoyed reading about some different strategies in chapter 4 of Schell and Fisher.  Some of them I already do but I also read about some that I might want to try with my next years group.

Even though this summer session has felt a bit rushed at times, I am coming out of it a better teacher.  I am more educated on how to use integration in my classroom.  I have many strategies and information that I get to take with me.  A lot of that will come from the teachings and readings, but I also gained a lot of knowledge from my classmates.   It is great to hear someone else’s ideas.  I wasn’t sure about blogging in the beginning, but through learning it and working with it weekly I think it is a good opportunity.  It is a great way for us to express ourselves and learn from many others

Assessment Practices

Assessment is an important tool in teaching.  However I think there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it.  I think we do more assessing then we might realize over the course of a day or week.  Assessment doesn't always have to be paper and pencil.  Sometimes we can learn a lot from our students just by observing them and/or their work.  I find that I tend to do a lot of informal assessment when I am working with students in stations, small group, one on one, reviewing their homework/classwork.  Through observation I am realizing what I might need to go back and reteach.  I think that I need to do more on record keeping and keep anecdotal notes about what I am observing during my informal assessment.  We keep student portfolios on each student while they are at our school.  Their portfolio keeps their state/district assessments from Prek-3rd grade.  These can be a great resource as they travel from grade to grade with the child.  As we have been working on our unit, we have decided to utilize a rubric for one of our assessments of one of our lessons.  I have gotten more ideas on how to incorporate assessment with my group as we complete our unit from our readings this week.

"Me" Portfolios

I enjoyed reading pages 198-203 of Daniels and Bizar (2005) about the “Me” portfolios.   As I read I thought about creating time capsules.  I have never done them with students but I did do one myself when I was in middle school.  At the beginning of each year I always feel the need to introduce myself and allow the students to get to know me as a person, before they know me as their teacher.  I have a poster titled “Who’s the Teacher?”  I have included various pictures of my favorite things, my family, my favorite colors, my favorite animal, etc.  This past year I used an activity at the beginning of the year to get to know the students.  They have a circle map in which they create about themselves.  They draw about 4 pictures of things they like or that represent them.  I also help them list important people in their lives.  This is a great sharing opportunity and a way for us to get to know each other.  These activities/times of sharing allow us to begin to create our school family and care for each other’s ideas. 

Task 1 – Teaching Social Studies: A Literacy Based Approach by Emily Schell & Douglas Fisher

Chapter 4 in Teaching Social Studies: A Literacy Based Approach by Emily Schell & Douglas Fisher gave a lot of good ideas to remember as my group and I prepare to create our integrated unit on Historic Murfreesboro. 

At this time my group has planned our integrated unit on Historic Murfreesboro to be centered on grade 1 and transportation.

Reading the whole section on the author’s discussion of topics, themes, concepts, and big ideas made a lot of sense on the way to organize social studies information to teach.  Topics are mostly stand alone, clear and direct, facts provided with a focus on people, places, and/or events.  Themes are a way to integrate in all subject areas and expands from the topic teaching providing a way to incorporate multiple examples contained under one theme.  Concepts include facts and ideas focused solely on social studies in an abstract way.  Big ideas are usually stated as a statement and planning is done through a focus on standards and objectives, and stresses an importance beyond the areas of study to other subjects.

Some of the ideas I really liked and may try to include in our unit are:

-Timelines – Where students compare long ago to now and record different transportation used and the time frame of when it was used. 

-Simulations – Students could explore/pretend different ways to get around a long time ago compared to now (such as horse and carriage and/or boats where you had to row)

-Read Aloud/Book talks – We had discussed reading a few books that relate to Amelia Earhart or the Wright Brothers.  We could incorporate having a book talk after reading these books. 

Task 2 - Integrating Language Arts & Social Studies by Melber & Hunter

After reading Unit II in Integrating Language Arts and Social Studies by Leah M. Melber and Alyce Hunter I found a great activity that I could modify for use in my classroom.  I chose ‘Strategy 7’ on pages 48-54, titled “Developing Map Skills.” 

To develop map skills in my classroom I would first explore different kinds of maps with the students.  These various maps can include (but not limited to) town, state, country, world maps; road maps; and theme park maps.  Different sources could be used to explore these maps such as books, the Internet, Google Earth, and the globe.  We would also discuss the importance of using maps and how they can help you explore places around you or help you get from one place to another.  We would explore our school and create a map of our school.  We would decide what symbols to use to represent different places within our school.  We would create this together.  Students could also then be asked to make a map of their home. 

I have actually taught maps in the past.  Some of the ideas I listed above are things I have done with my students.  The students always seem interested to explore different maps and try to locate where they live on the map.  We refer to maps several times through the year to locate a specific place we are learning about.  We also have a story that creates a map to show the journey on a farm and what is seen.    

Task 3 - Arts Integration Lesson

North Carolina Museum of Arts

Grade 4

Art/Social Studies/Language arts/Science

Works of Art referenced:

            1.  John Beerman  Three Trees, Two Clouds, 1990

             http://ncmoa.org/artnc/object.php?themeid=5&objectid=41

            2.  Claude Howell   Ocracoke Harbor, 1964

            http://ncmoa.org/artnc/artifact.php?artifactid=55

3.  Elizabeth Matheson   North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, 1982, 1982

http://ncmoa.org/artnc/artifact.php?artifactid=56

This lesson will be using three different works of art to show the landforms specifically for NC.  Each picture shows an example of the coastal plain, piedmont, and mountains.  As a class we will discuss the differences shown in each art piece.  We will have three read alouds and each one would represent one of the landforms.  For example we would read a book that takes place at the beach, in the mountains and in the city.  We would complete a circle map after reading each book telling about the story and the landform it represented.  Students could also be an artist and create their own masterpiece showing one of the three landforms in a drawing of painting.  We would use a map of North Carolina and segment it into three parts.  Each student would be responsible for drawing on the map ways to show the separate landforms in NC.  Students could also have an ongoing project to do a shoebox diorama of one of the landforms.   A way to tie in science would be to discuss the plants and animals seen in the different parts of NC.   We could also take virtual tours at museums on the Internet and look at other works of art to decide what landforms were created in a particular piece of art.

Ending out another year!

So the end of the year is not far off....eight days I might add left with the students for the HCPS ladies.  I imagine the rest of you are not far behind.  The last eight days should be a breeze...but its far from it.  I feel like I am in survivial mode to make it to the last day.  The kids are ready for summer just as I am.  All of our testing has been completed, we have no encore classes, no breaks for the teacher, its really hot outside...... 
There are still discussions I wish to have with my students and activities I'd still like to do with them but I feel I lack the energy I once had before Memorial Day Weekend. 

I feel very uncertain about beginning another year....in just a few months (or less) I might add.  With all the changes that are happening (Pre-K, instructional partners, and not knowing when we will return - early or late Aug.) its makes it hard to think about the newness of a new year.  I hope after closing out this year, cleaning up the classroom, and ending summer school, I will find that new refined energy I am missing right now. 

Good luck ladies.  I know I am not alone in how I feel.  We can do this - afterall we are amazing!

Memorial Day Reflection

When I think about Memorial Day I often think about a day off work, cookouts, time with family and friends, and summer time is coming.  Memorial Day is a day off for me however its meaning is much more important than that.  I think that Memorial Day is day to remind us about why we live in the USA.  I live here to have all the freedoms I can, but I wouldn’t be here without the help of others.   I think it is important to remember all the men and women who stand up for us around the world.  It is important to remember those who are still alive and those who aren’t.  I don’t come from a big military family background but I married a ten year veteran of the Navy.  Being married to a veteran has changed my views of the military and I am very proud to call him my husband, but more so one who has fought for our freedoms and life here. 

I do try to address the importance of Memorial Day with my students.  As we discuss its importance we also read books about our flag and our country.  Some students are open to talking about their family members who have served in such branches as the Coast Guard, National Guard, and Army.  In the past we have collected items to send overseas for the troops there.  Sometimes it is hard for six and seven year olds to make such a connection to a very adult topic.  Through class discussions sometimes the students will realize they want to be in the military when they get older. 

Reflection: Reading as Thinking

Reading Chapter 2, Reading as Thinking, encouraged me to think about reading in a different way.  I think reading can be a complex subject area to teach at times.  I enjoyed reading about these strategies and thinking about what I do in my classroom.  I think it's important to ask questions before, during, and after reading a text.  Sometimes before reading a story we will make a word web or circle map about a topic we are going to discuss/read about.  This enables me to see what prior knowledge my students might have.  It's helpful to revisit our web or map as we read or even after.  Sometimes students will read stories aloud to their class and they will get upset when their reader doesn't show them the pictures, in which I encourage them to paint a picture in their mind.  We also use a highlighter as a way to find specific words with phonics patterns or parts of a story before and after we read.

WELCOME

Welcome to my blog.  This blog will record my ideas about integration.

1st time here!

This is very new to me....hopefully I did everything right if I made it this far!