Laura Granger Blog # 6

In the article, Including Students with Special Needs in a Writing Workshop by Fu and Shelton, it covers different methods a teacher can use to help special needs students fit in with the mainstream students. Every child has different needs that a teacher must meet but the real question is how can a teacher do this. If a child doesn't know English or cannot write their letters the chances of that student writing is very slim to none. However, there are other ways that a student can express his or her ideas. For example, the article talks about this one student who draws pictures instead of writing what she thinks about the subject. The teacher can ask the student about her/his drawings and write down what that student has to say. This method can be very helpful when dealing with students who cannot write yet. The teacher can also simply expose the students to different genres and throughout the year students will pick up on different elements that a story requires. Many times a student needs to have independent time to go over the story and figure out what makes up that story.

As a future teacher, I found this article very helpful because it dealt with the emotional as well as social needs of the child as well. You do not want to cause a child embarrassment because their confidence is one thing that will help push them to succeed in writing. A teacher must make it comfortable for a student to have room for error. If and when a student makes a mistake the classroom atmosphere must be accepting and realize that everyone makes mistakes and that we are all here to grow. Being creative and having different ideas is also a part of writing. Without imagination writing cannot be achieved and since everyone has an imagination writing is possible for anyone, regardless of how that is expressed.

Laura Granger Blog # 5

In this article, " Let's Talk 2.0" by Michele Knobel and Dana Wilber, they talk about how technology is greatly impacting our schools. Teachers are starting to teach differently and incorporating technology into their lessons. The internet has become a major part of our every day lives and we are constantly using it to learn more, to be entertained, and for communication. Teachers can have whole lessons on the Smart Board and have students play games on computers to further their learning. One aspect that was brought up in the article was that "outside of school, many students are accomplished authors, filmmakers, animators, and recording artists" (21). This statement couldn't be any more true. The invention of You Tube literally makes people become famous over night. Everyone has the opportunity to get their opinions out and to be heard. It takes a minute to create a web cast and share your opinion about something going on. People will watch it and give you feedback and this creates an online community. People can write blogs sharing their experiences, writings, and photographs for the world to see are also very popular now.

Teachers can incorporate this into their lessons and give the students the most important a teacher can give to a student and that is creative control. Students are free to explore the internet and create new stories and ideas that sometimes can't be expressed with a pen and paper. Students can use graphics to make a story come alive. There are so many options out there now and it is going to be interesting to see how the next generation is going to take this to the next level.

Laura Granger Blog # 4

An article written by Espinosa and Fournier called "6 Stepping Stones: Literature in the Classroom" talks about the challenges teachers face with bilingual students. Picking out literature for bilingual students can be especially hard on teachers who only speak one language. This article gives many pointers and answers many questions that teachers will be asking. First, the children need to have questions raised in their minds while reading books. How does a teacher do this? A teacher could start by reading books about famous people from history. The teacher could then go on to ask the students how they relate to them or if they even relate to the people they are reading about. The students will start thinking about the information they have received and how it applies to them in their own lives.

Another way would be that the teacher has careful preparation as to which books they are picking out for the students; teachers need to do some research before they read a book to the students. Teachers should talk to other teachers and get ideas as well as running it past the school board. The article states, " it takes a lot of thought and mental preparation to know exactly why you're reading this book or why this book is going to fit" (Espinosa and Fournier 85). The key point for teachers to remember is that we must be intentional with everything that we do. Every event in the classroom should be an opportunity to learn.

Making sure that the children get a chance to share their ideas is a key point when reading a text. Many times it is hard for teachers to get all 25-30 opinions from their students but there are techniques that can be used in order to conquer this. A child must first know that the teacher feels like their opinion is important and that can be done by the teacher saying to the class "everyone's ideas are important and we need to respect those ideas". The teacher can also form small groups and have the students share their ideas with their peers. Understanding where people and coming from and what their ideas are builds a stronger classroom foundation and gives students more confidence to share their answers.

Laura Granger Blog # 3

The article, "Asking the Experts: What Children Have to Say about Their Reading Preferences" by Davilla and Partick was a real eye opener. Not only did the article talk about how adults are generally the ones who pick and chose what a child reads but it goes one step further and breaks down what boys like and what girls like to read. The article states, " Adults control the world of children's literature: adults write the books, adults choose which books to publish...adults purchase the books for their homes, stores, and libraries " (Davilla and Patrick 199). As a future teacher it is really important to have a book nook that is very diverse and meets the needs and interests of all of the students. The first step though before a teacher begins planning a book nook would be to get to know the interests of his/her students. One way to do this is by using surveys in the beginning of the year asking what does the student like to do and what their interests are. If a student sees a book in the selection that they like chances are they are going to pick it up and read it.

The article also mentioned that as students age their love for reading usually decreases. Middle and high school students are told what to read and how to display what they know, whether it be by taking a test or by doing a project. Rarely, do they get the chance to take out a book that they are interested in and read it. If given the chance, I am sad to say that most of them wouldn't know where to start when picking out a book for themselves. It is a teacher's job to help nurture that need for direction but also taking into consideration that maybe not every student wants to read about the Scarlet Letter or The Grapes of Wrath. (which I personally think are both great books but do not meet the needs for every student).

Another point to bring up would be that there are books out there that are very popular with both boys and girls of any age level and any reading level. Harry Potter is a prime example of this because it has something for everyone, action, comedy, suspense, drama, and romance. It was a book that students wanted to read and learn more about because it was fun. Children are supposed to have fun while reading and we need to remember that.

Daniella Fusaro- Blog #6

Frey, Fisher and Berkin
Chapter 6- Great Readers Read to Learn

Not all children like to read and getting them to read informational texts or non-fiction text is an even bigger challenge. As mentioned in the article it says that teachers should expose their students to these texts from the very first day of school and that 50-60% of what students read should be informational. A great way to do this is with read-alouds and simply sharing with students that informational texts are not boring or contain too much information. On the other hand this is actually the perfect time to share with them because you are there to answer any of their questions that they may have. I will be the first one to admit that I would rather read a fiction book than non-fiction especially at a younger age. It was not until I was older that I enjoyed reading about real life stories and events that took place.

This article provided some very useful information especially on how to involve and engage students with informational texts. I never realized how important they really were until actually reading this article and seeing it used in my Clincial 1 experience. It also discussed using disagrams and charts that go along with text features and just yesterday my class used a flow chart to describe sequence of events. All of these practices come to life so much more and have such a deeper meaning after seeing it up close.

Laura Granger Blog # 2

In the article, " Using Textbooks and Trade Books for Content Area Instruction" by Alvermann et al, the topic of using trade books is brought up to the reader. Growing up we all were used to the idea that textbooks were the only way that we could learn information from a book. Many times we received the textbook in the beginning of the year put it in our desks or lockers and it was rarely to be seen throughout the year. There would be groans from the students as the teacher would have us take out the textbook to look at a paragraph or read a chapter for homework. So as a future teacher this article really stood out to me because it shows a different approach when it comes to finding information.

Trade books have a lot of strengths to them and are more interesting to a child because it doesn't give information that the child sees as useless. One of the key strengths that really stood out was that trade books are available to all reading levels. The article states, "Publishers such as Rigby, Sunshine, and Newbridge have whole catalogs listing and describing informational books for emergent, early, and transitional readers" (Alverman 45). Unlike a textbook where everyone has to read the same information the same way, a trade book can keep everyone on the same topic but provide the information in various ways. Also, trade books can be ordered for ELL students. Trade books include pictures and short sentences about different topics that make it easier for ELL students to understand instead of overwhelming them with a huge textbook full of words they don't understand.

Lastly, trade books can be used with textbooks as well. The students can look at textbooks for more information on a subject if they need to. The two go hand in hand which is great for teachers because this way more resources are available to them. I really think this article is useful and the strengths out number the limitations.

Daniella Fusaro- Blog #5

Chapter 5- Story Elements
Frey, Fisher, Berkin

I found this article to be very helpful with understanding the different story elements. As mentioned in the article, "The need for story manifests itself from the beginning of a child's life, because a child needs to organize the wold in order to understand it". This goes to show how vital readig and stories are for children and that we need to begin to introduce stories to children very young. I feel that it is never too early to read to a child or introduce text to them. The younger we start the more familiar children will become and when they get older it will not be so foreign to them.

I felt that this article was informative and useful in understanding all the types of story elements. It was also a great review for me because these are simple elementary school things that we should know and I have to admit that I forget what a hyperbole is half the time. It was nice to have everything all in one article and easy to read. It also gave questions on different aspects such as understanding characters or plot and they were to make sure the students were on target.

These elements of stories are things we think students know and take for granted but we need to go over them every once in a while to make sure all students are on the same page. We cannot forget about them once students know them because when I was in school that is what happened and all through high school no one ever reviewed them. A simple review for 5-10 minutes a day or once a week cannot hurt anyone and will only benefit our students. Overall, I enjoyed this article and thought it was very helpful.