Group Literacy Invitation: Bullying

The topic of my groups literacy invitation is bullying. Often times bullying is looked over as kids just being kids, but reality is that bullying gets more serious and produces bigger results as the years pass. "Almost 30% of youth in the United States (or over 5.7 million) are estimated to be involved in bullying as either a bully, a target of bullying, or both. In a recent national survey of students in grades 6-10, 13% reported bullying others, 11% reported being the target of bullies, and another 6% said that they bullied others and were bullied themselves." (National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center) Too often you hear of students committing suicide due to some form of bullying. It is up to educators to monitor their students and make sure that they know bullying is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Doing this literacy invitation not only will allow students to take a deeper look into bullying, but at the same time it will invite them into literacy based around the topic. I look forward to this invitation, I know a lesson like this will one day come in handy in my future classroom.

Literacy Moves on ch.1-5

Making connections between classroom literacy and everyday texts is one of the main topics that stood out to me amongst these chapters. When you think of elementary literature; basals, poems, published children literature, and things of the sort come to mind, but rarely are tv advertisements, magazine ads,toy packaging, etc. considered. Using invitations based around these forms of literacy really draw the student into the lesson. Using everyday texts in the classroom can build a connection between the students' world and education. Its always important to teach in a way that interest the students. The greater interest a student haves the greater work he or she will produce.
The Toy Packaging Invitation is amazing. After reading about it and then doing the activity in class I could see how many topics could be covered while students are at the same time having fun. Just about anything involving toys will keep a child interested and is more than appropriate for their age level. Examples of lessons that could be taught are creating personal toys, developing story to go along with toy, creating logos, etc. All opportunities need to be left open when thinking of ways to reach and teach students; the possibilities are endless and if looked at the right way may really allow the student to take his/her work to the next level. Teachers must always keep their minds open.

Seedfolks

We so often spend life looking through our own lenses; we fail to realize others around us and the ways separate lives are lived differently yet impacted by many. Seedfolks is a book that is built around this concept. Developed around a garden that brings a community together, this story coves the lives of about 12 different people. Each person tells his/her own story within each chapter. As you read the chapters you realize that most of the lives inter wind with one another, just seen from a different perspective. One aspect of Seedfolks that made it interesting is the fact that all the characters are from a different ethnicity. There are Koreans, African Americans, Caucasians, Haitians, Hispanics, etc. A simple read with a deeper meaning; this would be a wonderful story for a 6th grade class. The activities we did in class gave me a good understanding of how you can take this book to the next level; good activities make all the difference in a students comprehension and application.

MGRP Process

The Multi Genre Research Paper is one of the best academic projects I've ever done. It allows the researcher to have such a vast variation of topics to use and genres to do. The genres are really what makes this project so unique. In all typical research papers topics are picked, multiple resources are used to gain information, and in the end and findings are reported in a paragraph/ document format. These same aspects of a research paper still apply in the MGRP, but instead of stopping there things get took to the next step. The genres that can be used range from journal entries to movie trailer clips. A majority of genres like this allows for the students to pick how they want to complete the assignment; they allow for variation. My topic was learning/teaching in poverty and activities that allow variation are what these children need. Overall this project helped me as a teacher. I was able to pick a topic that will relate to my future and not only held my interest but also taught me a lot on the issue. I give the experiment/assignment an A+...perfect for any area, any class, any student!

The Donut House

Never put a limit on a child's ability to understand. After reading this article I realize that children can comprehend more than adults think. This article was about applying real world literacy into the classroom. A urban kindergarten class created their very own donut house in their classroom. What made this activity so spectacular is that the children went through the real-life process of starting a business to start their donut house. The teacher set up a trip for them to go see how donuts are made, they wrote letters to banks for funding, had a building expection, etc. Once the project was done students "felt a sense of accomplishment after they had worked toward and achieved their goal". This type of 'real-life' learning allows the student to feel like their doing something that matters in the world. I know we can all remember the times when we were little asking the teacher if what we were learning would ever be used in the real world...creating lessons that are built around real-life situations ensures that the answer to that question can be yes!

MGPR Project: Learning/Teaching in Poverty

I want to cover the topic of learning/teaching in poverty. As a teacher, one already has an idea of where they want to teach and the students that the environment will bring. Growing up in an inner city/ urban area allows me to understand the students that are in the shoes I was in. I've always wanted to work in a public school setting. Teaching in poverty is hard, but learning in that environment is even harder. The students that are in these schools have backgrounds that many children shouldn't have to experience. They may have parents that work multiple jobs in order to survive (leaving them alone to work on homework and study), they may be responsible for their younger siblings (cutting time away from their school work), or they may go home to an environment where nothing positive is present. All children are different and the situations that I listed above are unfortunately typical situations. I want to do my research paper on various ways to connect with these students, help them, and make them grow. No child should receive less of an education compared to the next; they shouldn't be punished for their parents situation (not saying that it's always the parents fault either). Teachers have such influences on children and I want to be that teacher that makes a difference. I want to expose my children to life outside of the city, allow them to see the potential that each of them have, and get them on the right path to a better future. The research I conduct and the results that I find will definitely be put into use in my future classroom. I want the best for my students...which teacher doesn't??

Week 4 Blog: Shared Writing

This week (week 4) I wasn't sure if we were suppose to write a blog for homework or not so instead I'm writing about class. I want to discuss shared writing. It's funny how you do things that you never notice you do. I've been to many classes where they demonstrate shared writing, and I've done activities myself where the classroom is doing shared writing, but not once have I actually examined the technique and saw what all it is good for. Shared writing is when the whole class writes as a whole or in small groups. This is very common in the earlier grades of elementary. The example that we watched in class was of a class writing a thank you letter to one of their visitors. Shared writing allows the students to learn from one another and to grow as a group. The importance in shared writing is to keep all students engaged. Lets say one student comes to the front of the class to write the heading to the letter; while that student does that the other students can practice the same thing on their leg or hand so that everybody is doing some sort of work. As the teacher you must make sure that as many students as possible become involved in the writing. For Example, each sentence can developed by the whole class but wrote by 2 or 3 depending on length. Another big aspect of shared writing is what to do when the student is wrong? This will have a big effect on the student. If a student comes to the front of the class and writes the wrong thing or spells the word incorrectly, then what does the teacher do? As a teacher, you have to make sure to correct this student, but do it in a way that he or she does not become embarrassed. The student is now in front of his/her entire classroom/peers, this means the embarrassment has now doubled. Give praise to the child for their good try then ask if they may help you to correct the issue; sound out the word if its spelling, rewrite the word if its wrote wrong, etc. Shared writing can take students a long way; you just have to know how to use it properly.