EDRG 3321 - Chapter 4

This chapter was interesting, I an also taking Foundations of Literacy with Dr. Ferguson and have learned most of the teaching strategies mentioned in this chapter. I have heard of read alouds and did not know that what most teachers practiced with students in the classroom was called a think aloud. I really liked this strategy to ignite the student's critical thinking. Most importantly at the end of the chapter, there was a scenerio about a teacher that was tired of boring vocabulary instruction and decided to take a different route by allowing the students peer interaction. I agree and plan to practice interactive time for students with each other, technology, and myself. Again, the discussions are so critical for a child or student to actually build their lexicons.

Author Profile

Mo Willems has also been recognized with an honor book for the 2008 Randolph Caldecott Medal. His webiste is incredibly student friendly, his icons are cartoons. He offers activities and information about himself. Here is his website: http://www.mowillems.com/. He himself has a blog as well.

Judy Blume writes books not just enjoyable for students but teachers as well. I believe her book are enjoyable for all audiences. Her webiste offers a site just for kids. She's incredibly fun and animated as is her books. Her website is: http://www.judyblume.com/.

EDRG 3344 - Memory to Remember

I might not have much from my mom, but I have my memories. When my mother passed away, my father went into a state of depression. He didn't want a single object that she had possessed and told her family to take it. I have some things that were hers, like her ring, some pictures, and the Disney videos she collected over the years for my siblings and I. One of the most vital memories of my mother was prom night.

Mother was diagnosed with breast cancer nine months prior to prom night, she was said to be in remission, but was far from it. I remember during my mom's treatment, we were financially broke. My mother asked my cousin if I could use her prom dress because we couldn't afford one. I didn't care who's dress I was wearing, as long as I went. My mom tried to put enough money together for my nails, but didn't have quite enough. When I went to the small downtown in Sealy, Texas, Mirena the lady in the nail shop decided to not even charge me. When I asked her, "will you take twenty for my nails?" She replied, " don't worry about it." I felt so thankful and blessed. I was the oldest of six, with a mother fighting cancer, and one parent working, but I was going to prom. The most important part of the evening was the preparation in my room.

I was upstairs in my room which was left of the staircase. I was sitting at the edge of my bed with my sister painting my toe nails. I could barely afford the nails and my sister wanted to help. I love my family so much. My sister was coating my toe nails with red polish and concentrated to make my toes a work of art. My sister's friend who was in cosmetology was brushing my hair, preparing to try and tame my messy mop of hair. My mom was putting my makeup on, blush, lip liner, eye liner, mascara and all the works. When my sister was done, my mother asked me to sit down in the vanity, three mirrors reflecting my nervous face. I didn't have a sweet sixteen, so this was my growing up moment. My hair was not working and I began to cry. I was getting mad and fussy. The curls just wouldn't stay the way I wanted them to. My mother placed beautiful flowers in my hair. Something just was not right with my hair, and I began to cry more. My mom was getting upset with me and told me not to mess up my makeup. Then she said one thing I will never forget, "I feel sorry for the person who helps you on your wedding." I never once, not even then believed that anyone else other than my mother would be dressing me up to get married. I think she knew she wouldn't be there. I looked at her and told her she was crazy. I said, "what are you talking about mom...you'll be there." I didn't give it another thought. Prom was full of fun.

I was married about a year and a half ago, and I remember thinking on my wedding day, where's my mom. She wasn't there to do my hair, fix my dress or put on my makeup. I wanted to cry, but was so happy, thinking she was there. I just couldn't believe that she was not there. My mother, my mommy, the woman who would never die to me, was gone. Amazingly, life had went on. I miss her, but I remember her smile when I left for prom in my best friend's car. Most of all, I remember the hug, the hug that lasted forever. I imagined her smile when I left the alter as Mrs. Powell. I love my mom and miss her dearly, but my memories of her keep her strong in my heart, mind, and soul. These are my memories, my memories to remember forever.

EDRG 3344- RAFT

R-Grass
A-Rain
F-Letter
T-Gift of Rain

Dear Rain,

I am writing on behalf of all the grass and trees in the world. We were in need of rain for three months. It was absolutely excruciating to try and survive on what we had. We had a total of an eighth of an inch on average for three months consecutively. I talked to the trees and they explained that if we didn’t receive rain soon, they wanted to walk away from earth. We have all spoken with your mother but our words didn’t work. Mother Nature said she needed you to learn how to manage your work load.

It has been three months since we spoke with your mother, and we were losing hope. We lost our hope. We began to see our loved one disappear and trees lose their leaves. It was awfully sad. Then all of a sudden, it rained. We had inches of rain in some parts of our favorite homeland in the heart of Texas, San Antonio. After days of raining, we were able to see our children grow. They are green and long, along with the leaves on the trees that are beginning to retrieve their colors. It is beautiful here in San Antonio, Texas. We know that this is possible because you learned how to manage your work load in the time you were given to water the world.

We the grass are sending this letter of thanks for the gift of rain you gave us. We are proud of you for accomplishing your task. Managing your time is hard, we can imagine. The rain has much to do in order to rain. You also have to make sure all countries get rain. Thank you again for remembering us here in San Antonio, Texas.

Sincerely,

The Grass

EDRG 3321- Chapter 3

I believe it's life long need and skill to understand what we read. Comprehension is the child actually being able to repeat, understand, or be able to explain what they read. Goodman and Weaver said this a bit simpler by stating reading is gain-ing meaning from the print. This was to emphasize how important vocabulary is. Without vocabulay and words, reading is just print. Meaning is so important, not just for a child to be able to answer a question on a TAKS test, but to be able to know what joy reading may have. It is the teacher's job to make sure that she builds on letter, sounds, words, and support the importance of a student being able to identify a word and know the meaning to comprehend the material. The teacher must also remember that if a student is not on the level of the rest of the classroom, time is needed. If time is needed to take out of the day for the student, a teacher may need to spend time before or after school for that child to reach the same as every child in the classroom. The fun part of teaching is activating prior knowledge. There are a number of activities a teacher may do, say, or assign for a student to do and not even know they are during a pre stage of a lesson. For example, a teacher may ask students to think about what they do at the beach and then introduce what sand is, what's beneath the waves of the water or creatures of the sea. Discussion is a another very important aspect of comprehension. There can be prereading discussion of an overview of the book or predictions, this time will allow the student to activate prewritting schemata. There's also postreading discussions which allow time to reflect and make connections. Reading is the key to comprehension, and vocabulary and word meaning are needed to comprehend. Learning may be difficult at times, but reading and remembering our lives at home away from school make learning enjoyable.

Author Profile

Brian Selnick has won the 2008 Randolph Caldecott Medal for his book titled The Invention of Hugo Cabret. His website offers a video of the book, resources, related websites, and links about the invention. I believe this would be a great book to introduce to the kids. Here is his website: http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com/about_hugo_intro.htm.

Another author is Laura Vaccaro Seeger. She is an author who has many books and has been recognized as an honor book for the 2008 Randolph Caldecott Medal. She does not have a website, but I believe that the author expresses herself on this website http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/aifolder/aipages/ai_s/seeger_lv.html. Not to mention, a lot may be learned about the author through which the author's produces.

EDRG 3344-The Writing Process

The writing process is a step by step guide for a student to be able to gather their thoughts, organize them, and put them in writing. The writing process is for the students to have an effective essay. There are five steps in the writing process.

The first step is Prewriting. This step is for the student to gather their ideas and put them on paper. Students also identify who they may be writing to and why they are writing. This could be done by using a graphic organizer, semantic map or outline. In the book, it states that this step is for the student to c hoose a topic, consider purpose, for, and audience, and to generate and organize ideas for writing.

When the student has an idea of what they will be writing, they advance to the next step. In the drafting stage, students begin to write their ideas on paper. This stage is not for the intended to be free of mechanical errors, but instead focuses on the sentences being wrote. The content is more important than crossing the t's and dotting the i's. It is common for a teacher to ask a student to skip a line when writing the rough draft to prepare and leave space for revisions.

In the revising stage, step 3, students reread their writing and read out loud to their writing groups to receive outside ideas and perspectives for their paper. After discussions, students make changes reflecting their classmates, themselves, and their teacher's comments. The student is making sure that they have meet the needs of their readers by adding, substituting, deleting, and rearraging material. Once revisions have been made, there may be a conference with the teacher for late revisions or ideas. Then there is editing.

Next students edit their writing. The student may proofread their own writing multiple times from beginning to end and end to beginning. They make corrections as needed. At this time, students may switch papers in a group or with a neighbor to have them correct errors they may have missed. After the student has identified and corrected their mechanical errors, there may be a meeting with the teacher for a final insight on content and mechanical errors.

Finally, there is step 5, pulblishing. When publishing, the students finishehd their masterpice with a final copy of their work. Now and days, students use word processor to perfect their piece of writing. They may display this piece of written art or share it to their classmates. Writing is a process, one step at a time to perfect a piece of expression.

A Basketball Game to Remember

On a cold Saturday morning in January, Sealy High School played Bellville High for a place in the regional playoffs. The players all entered the gym to prepare for a life changing game. When the players reached the locker rooms, gym bags hit the floor, hoodies and sweat pants came off, and jerseys of red and white and blue and gold were revealed. It was warm up time. Players ran out on the court full of adrenaline after warm up and prepared for the rush of the game. It was the start of the game and the jump ball was being thrown up. Ashley, Amber, Kristen, and Sara were all in their places waiting for the pass.

After the first quarter, the game was going great. Plays were being made on the court. Ashley was passing with awesome accuracy. Kristen was precise on her shooting and Sara was blocking shots like a mother protecting her young. The communication from the players were putting numbers on the score board.

All of a sudden towards the end of the second quarter, the game was falling apart. Cici was becoming side tracked with her boyfriend in the bleachers. Sara continued to miss passes. Kristen was not calling the ball and was left open with a shot at the goal. There was no communication. The horrible defense was allowing the opposing team to score with the mistakes that were being made.

At half time, coach called a huddle. She said, " Put your game face on, you can come back and win. Talk to each other, call for the ball, pay attention, and use your team members to score. Let's go!" Half time ended and the game was on.

Coach Harold had spoke words of talen on the girls. They were scoring because they were communicating, paying attention, blocking the ball for defense, and moving the ball around to score. Sealy High School was coming back to win.

the game was tied at 62 points and 10 seconds left on the clock in the last quarter. Amber passed to Kristen and scored. Sealy High School won the game. Sealy was advancing to the regional playoffs.

EDRG 3321-Chapter 2

I could not agree more with the opening quote for chapter two from Joseph Bruchac, "One of the major goals of my work and my life is to help foster understanding and respect for each other-whatever our nation, race, or gender..." I do not believe that Mr. Bruchac is alone on this belief. I too believe that we as teachers must foster understanding and respect in order to have a classroom that welcomes culture, learning, knowledge, and differences. Children need to feel like they are a part of the classroom, in order to learn from it. With the trust they build with each other as students and with the teacher, they are able to relax and take in an education with less struggle and worry. Amazingly, this belief we share is a part of my culture. This is a part of my deep culture. Although no member in my family has earned a college degree, I know that in order to live in a world where employment is becoming scarce, an education is essential to being able to secure employment. That is my value of an education and what I think about the world.

The need for a culturally responsive classroom is so that no child is left out or falls behind. Again, the teacher must become aware and acquire knowledge about the subject in order to ensure that there are no children that fail or leave the system. I believe that it is very important for a teacher to get to know their students, inside and out. They need to know about or a little of the student's surface (out) and deep (inside) culture. We were speaking of home visits. I understand teachers are extremely busy but maybe there should be a helper or school partner who can help with these home visits. I believe that with help, there may be abuse or neglect of children brought to the attention of those needed or maybe insight of a student's family or home environment will allow the teacher to work out a lesson plan fit for all her students. Knowing more than just what a student brings on paper can help incredibly to make a classroom culturally responsive. I know it's difficult to fight with time, but then again our teachers are superheroes! :)

Teachers can meet the needs of all learners, including culturally diverse students by allowing them to participate in sharing their life, family, or culture. To allow a child to share is giving them the power to be in control and feel significant to their classroom family. Show and tell is much more than bringing an item to school, it's more tell. Students tell classmates about themselves and where they from, which is a part of their deep culture. Something that you might not have known if they didn't bring it to share with their classmates. At the same time, children are expanding their horizons and learning about cultures not like theirs. Incorporating culture, inviting religious leaders, members of different cultures or backgrounds to present to the classroom, integrating culture in the lessons is bringing the world to your children (students). This exploration is feeding the growing minds of children and opening doors for them to walk through discover. It's incredibly simple, takes some initiative, but pays back so much more.

There is no doubt in my mind that I agree with this reading. Students are all different physically, mentally, and culturally. They bring more to the classroom. They bring different views, strategies and insight on subjects because of their background or prior knowledge. Literacy is an important factor in developing these relationships of trust and education in a classroom. Without literacy, how would one communicate? It would be difficult for a student to learn or become aware of their surroundings in their community or classroom. Literacy and development go hand in hand, along with experiences, to help welcome students to a wonderful and diverse changing world.

Speaking of drop outs today, I thought it was incredible to hear the Mayor Castro and SAISD superintendent were out and about knocking on doors to bring students back to the classroom. Just thought I would share this light of hope with others. They called this reaching out event exactly what it was, "Reach Out to Drop Outs."

Author Profile

Patricia Polacco is from Missouri and her culture from her life is reflected in her writings. When Dr. Ferguson read this book in class, all students wrote down the title and author, she was one to keep. The book Thank you Mr. Faulker was inspirational and reinforced our meaning as teachers and duties to our students. Her website provides fun activities for students and author information as well http://www.patriciapolacco.com/ .

Another author I found was Mem Fox. She was introduced to me by Dr. Harris. This author is amazing and she not only provides activities for students, but information for teachers. She has worked at a university and has expressed her beliefs at her website as well. The website is entertaining and informative for students, teachers, and parents. Here is her website: http://www.memfox.com/welcome.html . Some of her books include Koala Lou, Boo to Goose, and Hello Baby!.

EDRG 3344-Pre, During, and Post Strategies

Children absorb information like sponges. In order to be able to give them information needed, a teacher must first get the student involved. When the student becomes a part of the book, a teacher has their attention and can use it to ensure a successful learning experience. A pre strategy would be to activate a student's background knowledge by asking questions about the topic or book cover they are about to read and how they can relate to it. A student can connect the book's topic to daily life, at home, or maybe what they like. The teacher can help by giving some of examples of what she thinks of when she hears the title of the book or the pictures. For example, if they are reading Rainbow Fish, she can talk about her fish tank, the fish at SeaWorld (if she lives here in San Antonio), maybe see if any children have been to the zoo, if they have read books or their parents have read a book to them with a fish in it, like the Cat in the Hat. Then she may ask the children how do they like fish, what do people feed fish or what fish eat, where they live, what type of "homes" a fish might have (fish bowl, sea, lake, water). Or the teacher may have an activity before the story, like decorating a fish template. She may even want to bring a fish in the classroom. Connections, brainstorming, and prior knowledge are very important to get the student into the subject. During the reading, a teacher may ask a student to look at the pictures on the pages and describe the scene or predict the next event. She may ask the students what type of other animals live in the sea, hoping that may be on the next page. Keeping the children on their toes and wanting to hear more is critical to keep them focused and at the same time the teacher is enhancing the prediction skills. The teacher may even use a book box or puppet show (characters on popsicle sticks), to take out to assist the children in predicting or following along in the story. After the reading, the teacher may summarize the book by asking the students what events happened from the beginning to end. The teacher may want to know what the students felt was most interesting or important about the story. To get the students to draw a picture in their minds, they can pull out the fish they decorated and post them on the sea wall (water waves made of blue paper on the wall). The teacher can ask the students what other creatures they saw in the book and have the children make them to add to the wall. The students may be instucted to draw their favorite part of the book or scene. Hopefully, this will allow the children to visualize, retain, and relate information in the future to the subject discussed. These strategies or activities are important in order to meet every student's needs in one way or another to ensure that a child is on task and participating in the lesson. These strategies are used to help meet the learning needs of a child, whether they learn hands on or visually. Keeping a child attentive, active and aware of a topic or events in a book is vital to having the student take in and understand the information they are being taught.