Chapter 7 Class Discussion from 02/03/2021
During class on February 03, 2021, we participated in an activity that strengthened our learning of course vocabulary and that was the conga line. “The conga line, as defined from our book, is a vocabulary game named after a popular Cuban line.(Levine &McCloskey 161)” The idea of the game is to choose vocabulary that is important to the unit/lesson you are teaching to learn at a rapid rate. The teacher hands out specific words to each student, and they are to go home, write down that word on a notecard and include a definition, a description, and an example to bring to class that week. They use a conga line that entails two people to be partnered up, each student teaches the other student what their word is and once the timer goes off, they then switch cards and switch partners. At the end of the activity, each student has learned what each word was in a way that they were going to remember it. One of the benefits that we talked about in our zoom meeting was the idea of teaching/learning what a text meant in the shortest amount of words possible. This makes it easier for students to remember rather than a lengthy version of the definition they would see in a textbook. One of the other benefits of this activity would be the chance for ELLs to participate in learning new words that they hear spoken by their partners. They are then able to repeat those words to get a chance to practice them as well. This could also promote the socialization of ELLs in a way that is not so threatening to participate in, since the card is right there in front of them. This is definitely something I would use in a classroom setting not only for new vocabulary, but it could also be used to help students through specifics about texts that we read as well. For example, we could use the same game, but give each student a character, a certain aspect of the text such as the plot structure, or important dates in a social studies classroom. This can be used with any age group at any point in the class. I feel there was a great benefit for me participating in the game for only a short period of time. If it becomes something that is a regular activity in classrooms, we can easily teach them key points to any lesson. 10/10 recommend.
Chapter 1 reflection from Levine and McCloskey
Prior knowledge is Principle 7 in Chapter one and is defined as “background knowledge that is key to comprehension for all learners(Levine and McCloskey 7).” This, I believe, is one of the most important principles tackled about in chapter one because of the many different areas it can be used in. For example, if you are a teacher that has a new student that is an ELL for the first time, prior knowledge is key to the functionality of you lesson planning as well as their learning. Each lesson can be modified to support the prior knowledge that student has on the subject to make the understanding a little easier for them. For example, if we know that a student is learning these specific categories of lessons/ vocabulary for the week, we can first, teach it or provide materials in their home language and compare them to the words we are learning so they can connect the pieces together. We can also take a step back and examine if that student is ready for the topics that the class is learning about and if they are not, we can start from the group up and pre-teach the knowledge, again in their home language first, to build them up to the same level as the other students in a way they will feel comfortable. Prior knowledge might also be useful in a social studies classroom to see what they students retained over the long period of break they receive during the summer. As we progress throughout our academic career, we are constantly scaffolding the students to achieve greatness in the grade levels that they will be advancing to. So, prior knowledge will be helpful to us to know how much information they retained so we can better understand what we may need to remind them of again or where we need to start from scratch. In both scenarios, the only way we are able to understand where we need to start, we first have to gain prior knowledge of where they left off. One example that I will be using before we start each lesson in a social studies classroom would be doing an “around the room scavenger hunt.” I will provide a list of people and the students need to go around the room and try to match the descriptions on the walls to the people they were given a list of. This way I am able to gauge where each student is at with their prior knowledge and also offer an interactive activity that they can participate in. For an ELL learner, I would first talk with the student, or provide an interpreter to talk with us, to fully understand the background, culture, and history of their family life and life before learning english. I would then be able to relate each and every activity back to something I learned about their life before entering my classroom so they can connect the two together.
Atlas Video: Learning English Vocabulary to Understand the Causes of World War I
Watching this video, there were so many different examples of beneficial tactics that the teacher used to help the ELL students understand the content. For example, one of the tactics she used was repetition. Repetition not only allows the students to understand that this is an important word to take note of, but it also gives them a chance to hear the word multiple times so they can eventually repeat it for themselves. Repetition can be used as a transitory tool to guide the students along the lesson which is what she did in the video. She then started using prior knowledge to ask the students what they had understood about certain words or topics they were reading at before they read it. This gave the students a chance to understand what they were reading about before they even read it. For example, she asked the students what the word “friend” meant to them. She used this as a transitional word to the word “allies” because the students understood what friend meant, therefore she could explain that allie is another term used for friend. This was a way for the teacher to explain a vocabulary word to them to understand it better. The final step she used in explaining the topic she was discussing was the relation to their home language. The teacher used the reference of Mexico as the start of their topic of assasination. We know this is something they are passionate about, because the boy student expressed it was “his favorite.” She may have used her prior knowledge to know how much they knew about Mexico’s history, therefore she was able to relate it to the text in a way they knew. As a future teacher in a social studies classroom, I have a lot to learn from this video. One thing that she did that I will use not only for ELL students but for all students is the use of repetition. This way, if students are taking notes, they will know that this is something they should take note of. Another idea that I want to use in my future classroom is prior knowledge about a student's background. This was crucial in her lesson because of the relation of their home to the text they were reading.
02/11 Reflection: Chapter 8 Levine and McCloskey
One of the strategies for helping ELLs while reading stood out to me, and this was the strategy of shared reading. Shared reading has many steps to work efficiently, but when used correctly, it is very beneficial. Shared reading is “using engaging, enlarged texts that all learners can easily see to involve learners in reading together as you use a pointer to direct students to look at the text being read” The first step is to have the students warm up by rereading texts they have already analyzed and are comfortable with, to get back into the mindset of analysis and evaluation of a text. It also helps with the ELLs feeling more comfortable reading with the classroom because they understand what is happening already. The second step is to lead pre reading activities, including anticipation for the book. Anticipating the book means discussing the basic parts of the book: the author, title, and how the narrative is told. During this step we can also review previous reading strategies mentioned before, and preview the pages and make predictions based on the glimpse we saw. The third step is to do multiple readings of the text. This can be you reading the text for the first time and stopping to allow the students to chime in. Occasionally stopping to discuss reading strategies, comprehension skills, elements of phonics, or conventions of print. The fourth step is to “have the class participate in a variety of activities to follow up on the group reading such as retelling and discussion of the story; mini-lessons on certain reading strategies, text features, or the writer's craft” The fifth and final strategy is to engage the students in group or individual extension activities, such as small-group reading and instruction, listening to the story on an audiotape with follow up activities, creative expression in art, drama, or music, or writing activities using patterns from the text to create new variations. I especially like this strategy of reading because the students can be accustomed to learning through this method, this they get more comfortable with recognizing the different reading and comprehension strategies. This also makes this a habit to follow so our ELL students can feel more comfortable with their learning as well. Stopping during the text can specifically help ELLs because we can discuss any confusion or they can hear the thoughts of others in the classroom so they can feel a little more comfortable about the text they are reading. They can use this time to understand what someone is saying about the text and figure out what vocabulary words were that might have been confusing before, but now with context clues and analysis to back them up in their learning. I would love to use this in my classroom in the future, especially if I am teaching a new unit to the class. This practice will not only help ELLS through their understanding of reading, but can also help students who are native english speakers to understand the texts and concepts a lot more.
02/12 reflection on classroom observation-Social Studies
Today, I had the opportunity to go back home and observe two classrooms in the junior high where I went to school. The first class I visited was a Social Studies classroom full of 6th graders. The first thing I paid attention to was the decor around the room that benefits ELLs. The classroom rules/expectations were posted as the first thing that you see when you come into the room, but it was not just a bulleted list like we have seen in the past. This teacher used her technological skills to create bitmojis that were reflecting the actions she wanted her students to take and what not to take. For example, because of COVID-19 there is a lot of sanitation happening, so she put a picture of her bitmoji next to the words “wash your hands and use hand sanitizer when entering the room.” This was key in helping ELLS understand the classroom expectations because they were able to see an example of “someone” doing this rather than trying to read/decipher what the rule is expecting. The next big thing I noted about the classroom was the weekly schedule on the board for each student to see and utilize throughout the week. The teacher also had each student pull out their planners so they could write down the homework together, along with hearing her read what is due. This gives ELLS the chance to hear what homework they have, see it on the board, and ask any questions if needed. Taking this time to do this every day also helps with repetition and can help the students feel more comfortable with asking for help when they need it on certain days. The third item I noticed that helps all students feel comfortable with reading and that is having multiple bookshelves around the room filled with books at all times. This allows the students to feel more comfortable with reading and by having the bookshelves there at all times, it eventually convinces students to venture out to reading on their own because it is easily accessible. As for the content of the class, the teacher was having a lowkey day with the students that also helps them to remember key words/phrases from the last few weeks of their unit. They played bingo with their vocabulary, key people, and items from ancient Egypt. Playing bingo not only gives the students a chance to have a good time with their teacher and to become comfortable, but it also allows for the students to put their vocabulary to the test and learn which ones they need more clarification on and which ones they already know and understand. By sitting in the few classes that i did, i already had a good idea of what words she had in her deck, so i'm sure with a little more time and a couple more rounds/activities with these terms, the students will have no problem remembering them. I think that the bingo game, and everything she has set up in the classroom reinforces teaching strategies that helps ELL students learn and feel comfortable in the school setting. I will be using a lot of her methods in my future classes, specifically the weekly agenda and the planner activity, along with using bitmojis to represent classroom expectations. I absolutely love books and have already started collecting english and social studies books, so i will have multiple bookshelves in the classrooms.
02/12 Reflection on classroom observation-ELA
The second classroom I had the privilege of observing today was an ELA classroom. The first thing I did when I entered the room was survey the different things posted on the walls and whiteboards. The first thing I noticed was an example of MLA headers on the white board. I think this is a great tool for ELL students because they can input their information into that example and understand what is expected of them. This teacher has 6th-8th graders in her room throughout the day, so she has a giant white board dedicated to just homework for all of them. One of the things that was different about this classroom was the amount of vocabulary that was posted on the walls that were important for the students to learn. One of the main things I had noticed not only in this classroom but the entire school was the hard seating without any alternative seating areas for any of the students. With COVID-19, this is understandable because of sanitation purposes, but after COVID, I hope that the school finds alternate seating for the students due to the extensive research on the subject being beneficial for the students learning. For the content of the class, there was not a lot to it. The students first took a quiz, so there was no instruction happening at that time. The activity they had to complete after they finished their quiz, though, was interesting. They had to complete a crossword puzzle on vocabulary for the upcoming chapter. I thought this was a great way to introduce the words to the students before the content was taught. At the end of this class, she gave out a piece of candy to the students who had their planners filled out for the week, and this reinforced the students to write down their homework and keep it all safe in one place. I had the opportunity to sit in on another class of hers, which did a little bit of different activities. One of the activities featured different verb types that she was introducing to them. She had guided note taking that they cut and glued into their personal notebooks that featured the type of verb they were talking about, she talked through the definitions so they could write it, gave them an example of it being used in a sentence, and had a picture that gave them a clue to what the word meant. I thought this was really beneficial to have because they were able to pay attention to what she was saying rather than trying to write down every single word she said, to just forget what it meant later. That little extra effort she gave to her students will help out their studying for future quizzes and exams. I will definitely be using guided note taking in my future classrooms for many different things. It could be used for important character and plot items in the books we read, key dates and events for history classes, and so much more. The alternative seating that I mentioned before helps the students feel more comfortable and relaxed in an environment that, in the past, had made students feel anxious and restless often. I can't wait to apply what I have seen in just one short day.
Reflection on 02/26 The reflexivity of Pain and Privilege chapter 4
As I was reading this chapter, a lot of what we have learned so far in our class that mentions being culturally and ethnicity aware of our students' backgrounds keeps popping into my head. I keep thinking “I know that we are supposed to pay attention to the backgrounds of our students. I know that we should incorporate it into our classroom,” and so on, but reading this chapter has made me realize why we should be. Hwa Pyung Yoo, a Korean-American student, described to me in great detail the importance of representing his Korean side of his culture in the classroom and not just at home. Unfortunately, the teachers and educators surrounding him at the time of his early education were not so supportive of his Korean heritage. “In fact, my teachers and friends in nearly all circumstances gave no particular attention to my Korean identity(Hurd 78).” He acknowledged that the only people who really tried to make him feel welcome in both his cultural and academic sides were his family, but they were the ones who received most of his anger and resentment. “In recognizing this, I would often also direct the frustration towards myself, frustrated at why I could not be more grateful while brooding over why my family could not just be more like the White families (Hurd 80).” This was painful for me to read as an educator that cares for students so deeply. This was a student who was struggling to fit into not only one of his cultures, but didn’t feel like he fit into either culture. To learn that this is a reality for mostly all TCK students, I knew this was something that I had to be extremely aware of in the classroom and know that past teaching methods could be extremely harmful to students, so a change needs to happen. Hwa Pyung Yoo mentions different ways we can incorporate our students' multi-diverse backgrounds into our classroom lectures and lessons, so here a few I’d like to note. The first being a simple, personal conversation. Although this seems like a little strategy to be put to use, this has an enormous effect. “This would help to provide a strong student-to-teacher foundation on which teachers can validate TCK’s experiences and ethnic identities (Hurd 85).” It also notes that conversations regarding sensitive issues such as racism could help students feel as though these challenges are not their faults or the fault of their ethnic identity. These are a few of the many examples and strategies we can use to effectively integrate TCK students into our classrooms and provide an environment they feel welcome in no matter what. In my future classroom, I plan to center my lesson plans around inclusivity and teach of the amazing identities that each of my students has.
Reflection on 02/26 on The reflexivity of Pain and Privilege ch 5
As I was reading this short story by Paloma E. Villegas, I came to the realization of how much we have stripped away the traditional cultures of some people and made it an “Americanized” culture of our own. There are so many places that consider themselves “mexican restaurants” today that could be considered a slap in the face for the culture it represents. For example, Chipotle, Taco Bell, Qdoba, and many more, we have come to know those as “traditional Mexican restaurants.” To some, this could look like an Americanized version and make it their own, rather paint tribute to the traditions and the foods of the people that represent the culture. One stanza of the story that stands out to this is “I don't come from Puerto Vallarta, or Cancun, or “Cabo” From all-inclusive deals, with margaritas and “guac” (when did it become a thing to shorten people’s food? I don't call a hamburger “ham” or a grilled cheese “grillc”)(hurd 89).” This really hit me to my core because we have changed the way that traditions are being held. Instead of incorporating traditional methods of celebration, of food and drink, and language, we have turned it around to make it something about us. Just like Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo, believe it or not, was a day to celebrate the Mexican’s army’s victory over France during the Franco-Mexican war. It was brought to the United States in the 1960s because Chicano activists wanted to raise awareness with the victory of indigenous Mexicans over European invaders. Today, it is another holiday many Americans, especially in college, have marked as a day to drink, party, and use it as an excuse to let loose. Many people, myself included, had not known the true history of Cinco De Mayo, but have attended “celebrations” in the past. This is something that I want to raise awareness of in my future classrooms. Instead of taking cultural and traditional identities and aspects of those cultures to turn them into ours, we should be paying respect to the traditions and cultures the proper way. We should no longer try to “Americanize” everyone, yet we should support and encourage cultures to represent themselves in the ways in which they feel safe and invited to do so.
Reflection on 03/12 on ATLAS video titled: Analyzing American Literature through a fishbowl discussion
I am always looking for new ideas for lesson planning as a future teacher. One of the best things we can do for our students as teachers is to be up to date on our knowledge and different ways we can incorporate classroom activities into our lesson plans. As I saw the title of this video, I was intrigued by the type of discussion because I had not heard of it yet. Before I started watching the video, I looked up the fishbowl activity. The fishbowl activity is set up with a group of students in the middle of the classroom, and a bigger section outside of the group. The group in the middle is the main part of discussion, it is where questions, statements, and observations are being talked about. Once a student feels they have gotten the answer to their question, fulfilled their conversation about a statement or observation, they are able to let the outer group of students know they are ready to be “tapped” out by putting a thumb up. The outer group of students are then allowed to choose if they want to “tap” in to that position if they have something they wish to contribute to the conversation. This is a great way for students to engage in the conversation on their own. If they have a question, they can simply tap in and ask the question. If they feel they don’t want to participate, they simply stay in the group of observers along the outside and listen in. I appreciate this method because it engaged all of the students in an active conversation about a text, without forcing anyone to participate if they are uncomfortable. This is a great way for ELL’s to participate by simply asking a question they had about the topic, and listening to their peers answer the question, not just the teacher. Asking a question to the teacher can sometimes be intimidating for the students, so asking their peers may be a little easier for them. It has so many avenues that the conversation could be taken in, and this is completely up to the students participation. I would love to use this in my future classrooms because reading a lot of different texts throughout the year can be tough. Switching up activities so the students aren't doing the same ones each week will keep them engaged. I plan to use this activity, especially while reading texts that are harder to digest and dig into. It could be scored as participation points and a way for students to make up those points if they haven't been able to participate previously.
Reflection on 03/12 ATLAS video titled: Engaging in Small Group discussion about Contemporary Social Issues
As a future social studies teacher, it is important for the students to not only learn and talk about issues that we saw in the past, it is also just as important for students to talk about the parts of history that are happening in the present. This video started out by talking about the first amendment. From there, the students were split up into groups and given a current social issue that ties into the topic. The group then works together and picks who will be the recorder, presenter, and the person who will deal with the technology of the project. This gives the students a chance to participate in the way that they want to. If they are really good at writing and recording information, they would be the recorder. If they love presenting topics but aren't good at the grammatical sides of writing, they could be the presenter. And if they want to be completely off the radar and still participate, they are still given a chance to do so by being the tech person. The teacher then lets the students make a mini video themselves, presenting their ideas. This gives the students a chance to create these awesome assignments without relying on the availability of it in their homes. Sometimes, students do not have access to the tools for the assignment at home, so giving them an opportunity to work on it at school is an amazing idea! I love the idea of talking about current issues as well because students are not often given a chance to talk about history as it is changing their present and future lives. I would love to implement this into my future classrooms so the students not only enjoy it during class, but also look forward to working with their groups daily. I think this is a great way for students to participate in the ways in which they would like to participate, without forcing anyone to do anything they don't want to do. This is something that students can work on weekly and present it to the rest of the class so each class has the opportunity to learn everything together, not just from the teacher.
Reflection on 03/24 Reflection over Ch 13 in Pain and Privilege.
Anne Ryen’s identity is as follows: White, East-African, Norwegian, a trumpet player, being part of a majority indigenous population, a professor, a student supervisor, a cancer survivor. · Describe the pain and privilege for Anne in being who she is where she is in her work. She is proud to be everything that she identifies. Although she does love everything about her identity, she does struggle to succeed in society because of the other people around her. She is a female, light skinned, professor at a university in East-Africa. This is something that she struggles with because of her Norwegian background making her a minority race there. Being in East Africa where she works, many of the people there are darker in complexion, making her stick out like a sore thumb. This does not go unnoticed. She recognizes that she is a bit different than everyone else, but that does not stop her. She is successful in her field. She makes it known that she is a powerful woman. Going through not only cancer but also treated very differently because of her identity is something that she has overcome and is very proud of. This is something that I would love to point out to my students. There could be so many reasons people don’t want you to succeed in life. There are going to be barriers that we have to overcome in order to be successful. But each and every student has the ability to push through those challenges. In my future classrooms, we can use this text as a start to a conversation of people who have pushed through adversity. Who have pushed through challenges/barriers and yet, still came out on top. I would encourage my students that just because you have a different skin color, or an accent, or are part of something that isnt considered a white, cisgender person, does not mean it should stop you from following your dreams. It should not stop them from working towards those goals. As teachers, I think this is one of the most important lessons we can teach our students. The lesson being: they are worthy of greatness no matter what. They have someone behind them cheering them on. And, most of all, they are each uniquely amazing people.
Reflection on 3/24 Pain and Privilege Ch 8.
During our reflection questions we posted to the forum’s, we discussed a question regarding our past president, Donald Trump. The question was in no way to spark a political debate, but to bring awareness to racism and injustices that are still happening in our country, even from the representative of our nation. The question stated: Why/How did President Trump’s election “shatter the collective hallucination of post racialism”? This question at first stunned me, because we, as a country, vote for someone to represent us as a unit. As a whole. To have a question such as this in present day society really shook me to my core. The chapter makes a mention of a few things that were completely racist and horrific to read. The first being former President Donald Trump’s hatred toward African American people or POC in general. Donald referred to Colin Kaepernick as a “son of a bitch” when protesting police brutality towards African American people. Another example of racist rhetoric we were shown in the chapter was on January 12th, 2018, when he made a statement regarding Haiti and Black Countries in Africa. He described Haiti and other countries as "shithole countries." This comment gave rise to the notion that these countries are inferior in social and economic structures in comparison to the United States. "As a result, we live in a society, where we are unable to acknowledge or remedy the problem (p. 123)."Because of this, the book described President Trump's statements as contributing to the moral bankruptcy of the state. This causes the state power to primarily lay in the hands of people who are apathetic or hostile to antiracist projects.” Now, why is this important? As educators, we are supposed to guide our students becoming the future of the country. It is important to keep the students on up to date information regarding politics, economy, and foreign powers as well. I would like to incorporate this into not only literature but also history in a number of ways. First, I would like to start the days off talking about world politics or world climates. One I used growing up was in the USA today. The USA today has many different articles reflecting on many different topics. In school, we would start the day by taking 10 minutes to read an article and explain to the class what we read. This is a great example of practicing literature but also keeping the students informed on topics that are important for them to succeed.
Reflection on 3/24 on Ch 2 in Pain and Privilege
Before I read this chapter, I had no idea what micro and macro aggressions were. I thought racism fell into one category and that was just being outright racist. But I was completely wrong. If you don't know what they mean, I'll explain. “Microaggression is a term used for brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized groups.” In other words, being unaware of cultural differences and unintentionally causing peoples of marginalized/ stigmatized groups to feel left out. In schools, for example, scheduling texts and project due dates on religious holidays. Another example would be failing to pronounce/ mispronounce students' names even when they have corrected you in the past. We can also see this in the form of racism towards gender. One example could be assuming the gender of a student, using sexist language, expecting students of any particular group to represent the perspectives of others for their race, gender, etc. Macroaggressions are an act of racism towards everyone of that race; Extreme generalization, putting all races in to their own box. For example: when Trump labels all Mexicans as illegal, drug smuggling rapists who only come to America to do more harm than good. Some examples of macroaggression that we sometimes see of schools are making statements that put African Americans into a bubble because they "won't go far in life anyway" or putting Hispanic Americans into their own unit because "they will never speak English the way we do'' are some sad examples that we have heard. “By making sense of the macro-and micro-worlds the person inhabits, we, as an audience, have opportunities for connecting more subjectively to an individual whore personal choices within specific contexts may jar us emotionally and make us question our perceptions(p 28).” A lot of the microaggressions I mentioned here referred to a teachers role as a leader in the classroom. Because of this, I also think it's very important to talk about the microaggressions students can make towards other students. For example, making reference to a certain piece of clothing someone wears, the way someone styles their hair, or any other comment made towards someone that was not necessarily intently being racist. I think it is important to make a mention of this in the classroom because we want to make the classroom as comfortable and inclusive to each and every student. There are different ways we can incorporate this in a classroom, but my first thought was having a self-reflection check at the beginning of each day. The students can write down how they think they acted as a person and classmate that day, how they can change or do something differently, and think about if they need to apologize to someone. It could be a reminder of our actions and how impactful our actions can be, that way they form a habit out of consciously thinking about it every day.
Reflection from class on 04/04/2021
When talking about identity and what we claim to be as part of our identity, I appreciated our conversation about choosing which parts of our identity that we want to claim. I liked the reference of being at the doors of different identities and choosing which ones we would like to walk through. I, myself, choose to identity as a white, bisexual woman. I choose to walk through those doors and to proudly represent those within myself. I would wish this for any of my students. I think it is important to embrace our identities and walk through those doors willingly rather than being forced to represent them. For example, if our family is of a certain religious affiliation, but we choose to no longer identify with that, that is our every right. Just because we were raised that way does not mean we have to identify with that. I want my students to understand they are not at fault for feeling this way. They should be proud to be themselves in any aspect that they want to represent. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve loved working on my identity project. It made me reflect and realize exactly who I was and exactly how I wanted to identify. In relation to this conversation, i would use the same project in my future classrooms to start the discussion of identity and the pain and privilege that comes with it. I think that the self reflection we do to think about exactly our specific identities is a crucial part of growing up.
Reflection on Ch 11 of Levine McCloskey
As I was reading chapter eleven, I came across a type of assessment I thought was beneficial to students learning from my own personal opinion. This is Formative assessment. Formative assessment is one that takes place as one is learning. It includes the multiple ways that teachers gather information about their students’ learning throughout the instructional process and then use this information to evaluate their own teaching and their students’ learning. I thought this was super important because growing up i would always get super frustrated when it came to test time and i thought i had an understanding of the material and was completely wrong. This is a way for teachers to gauge how their students are doing and make adjustments to their instruction based on how well or not so well they are learning the unit. It also mentions that teachers can assess their students and on the spot they will be able to make adjustments. This is super important to be able to nip bad habits before they become difficult to make adjustments to. Another key component to formative assessment is gathering how we are teaching as educators. It is extremely important for us to always be aware of different ways we can teach, more effective ways of working with the students, and always improving the overall environment of the classroom. As a future educator, I want to incorporate checkpoints that go over all of the information thus far and apply the teachings to an activity. This way I will know that they are not only learning the unit to get by, but learning for an understanding of how we can apply it to the future.
Reflection on Ch 9 in Levine and McCloskey
Chapter nine is all about the writing process. To me, writing was always my biggest downfall. I did not understand how to write and where to start my writing. Grammar was always hard and I always felt that I had nowhere to turn to when I needed help. One of the activities that I read about during this chapter was the shared writing process. Shared writing is a collaborative process through which learner provide content for a text and the teacher provides scaffolding for the text’s construction. This process lets the teacher take the lead in showing learners that when they have an experience, learn something, or think about something they can talk about it, write it down, refine their writing, and share it with others. This allows students to understand the planning and organization involved in constructing various kinds of texts. I loved this point that the book made because as a student, I always felt that I did not understand why we were making graphic organizers for outlines for writing papers. This helps students understand the why of that question. It allows for students to be involved in each and every part of the writing process. I would love to incorporate different activities that we can use in the shared writing processes every time we have a new unit. Writing about the unit is another way to kind of wrap up everything that we have just learned as well as incorporating writing more and more into the lives of students.
Reflection on Ch 7 Levine and McCloskey
The main point that chapter seven is trying to make is the importance of educators teaching vocabulary. It goes over how we should provide direct vocabulary instruction and some of those include: present, pronounce, and define the word, help learners read and pronounce the word several times, provide examples, carry out many activities that help learners engage with the word, have learners create their own visual representations to the target, discuss alternate forms of the word as well as alternate parts, how the word is and is not used, and finally teaching other interesting features of the word. One of the first things that I appreciated about this was helping students pronounce and read the word several times. So many times teachers will allow students to say a word wrong just because they don't want to take the time to correct them. It is extremely important for the students' academic development to be corrected at the beginning of introducing the word rather than correcting when they have already learned their way of saying or understanding the word. One of the examples the chapter uses to introduce new vocabulary words is semantic mapping. Semantic mapping is a tool for providing meaning to new vocabulary. The student writes the word and then writes the definition, a word similar in meaning, a word opposite in meaning, and an example of this word. This helps understanding exactly how to use it and why they are using it. There are so many other examples in this chapter alone that support vocabulary learning in classrooms. I would love to incorporate semantic mapping for each vocabulary word for each unit, and have the students keep a binder for each word so that if they need to reference it or understand it better, it is right there in front of them the entire time. Learning vocabulary will overall help students’ reading and writing skills.
Reflection on class discussion from 04/12
The first thing that sort of caught my eye during our discussion from this class period was the mention of being woke as individuals. The abuse of power to marginalized groups is an occurrence that keeps happening throughout our county. This is a horrible fact about our nation, but unfortunately it will continue for a little while as long as people continue their ways. With that being said, there is a very important conversation to be held within our classroom surrounding these incidents. The first step as discussed in class is to always stay current and stay up to date on the events happening nationwide. The students are going to have questions. They are going to want to talk about what is going on. It is important that we have an understanding of the event to show not only that we care about these marginalized groups but also that we are ready for whatever our students have to say. I disagree with a little bit that was said in class; this being the idea of how many times and when we stop to take time to talk about these things. I think that it is extremely important to not only talk about the incidents that make national news but to also talk about local news as well. I want my students to feel like I care about what is happening in their communities on a daily basis and not just because it made news headlines. The last point I'll make about this conversation is something that i had learned from another class that I thought was very powerful. For us as teachers, it is rocky terrain if we are from cisgendered white families. We have not had to live through what some others have and thus we have a privilege because of that. But just because of that does not mean the conversation stops. It is hard to figure out what to say and how to talk about it to students, so the advice i learned and am passing on to other fellow teachers is to just listen. You don't need to be the one to talk about these incidents and how it makes people feel. We can just moderate the conversation by sitting back and listening to what the students have to say. I have mentioned this before in previous reflections, but I'd like to start my classroom days by talking about local, state, or nation wide news stories. This can keep the students current on not only racism, but also politics, economics, and other current events.
Reflection on class discussion on 03/22
The first part of class we mentioned a hate crime against Asian American students. We talked about whether or not we should have the conversation in class if there are not any Asian American students. I think it is super important to make a mention to every student, regardless of ethnicity or cultural identity because we never know who they are related to at home or who is important to them in their lives. It is also important that we have these conversations to raise awareness that these marginalized groups are still being attacked by other people, regardless of it being a macro or micro aggression. I appreciated what Zach said following this discussion that hate does not have a race. Hate has no gender. Hate has no color. I think that it is important to point out because hate is hate and whatever form of it we should pay attention to it. If we want to strive for equality and equity amongst us, then we should each be acknowledging the micro and macro aggressions coming from each person, not groups as a whole. I liked that we talked about the importance of positioning our teaching in a way that centers around talking about current events and staying current on hate crimes because, to me, a teacher that ignores it is a teacher that is part of the problem. I think that I would love to have daily talks with my students to check in and see how they are doing. I would allow time to talk to each student and have time to digest what is going on in their personal lives so it opens up discussion with the other students how impactful a microaggression can be. I think this also allows us as teachers to become a lot closer to our students that way because we are showing that we care.
Reflection on class discussion 04/05
During this class we had a discussion of two very powerful poems that I believe were very eye opening regarding disability. The first part of the discussion was on Lisa’s poem. She uses three doors to symbolize her life: identity, learning disability, and privilege. They talked about having different spaces that we are a part of and I think this is an important idea to pay attention to. We belong in those spaces because we were born. Lisa is a woman, she has a learning disability, and she has privilege. She is allowing herself to pick who she wants to be in different contexts. One of the most important aspects of the conversation that I believe was overshadowed was the pain of her learning disability. She makes mention of her taking time to heal the wounds that were caused by her learning disability. I think that this is an important part to pay attention to because there will be times that our students will be in those positions. They will be in the state of healing their wounds, so we have to be consciously thinking about them and how we can help them in their healing process. Those words that she used: not good enough, not intelligent enough, those are all thoughts that our students could be having. As middle level educators, we know that there is a lot of development happening both physically and mentally, so we know that there could be a lot going on in their minds that makes them think these awful thoughts. It is our jobs as educators to notice when a student is struggling, and do our best with the resources we have to help them during that process without taking away from their disability. Referring back to the initial thought of her having these doorways that she could walk through and each different doorway could be used at different times. I want my students to be able to use these identities more freely and openly when they choose to. I want them to feel confident in doing that for themselves. I like the idea of using poems because there are a lot of students who feel that they have a hard time expressing themselves in just plain written text. I think this is an artistic and great way for teachers to gauge how their students are doing as well as introduce them to new ways of writing such as poems.