Persona Poetry- I Poetry

After reading information on ipoetry I have found that this is an awesome idea! It is great because it helps the students go more into depth with their text and their subjects. By creating this poem students are able to explore their subject, research it, display creativity, show emotions, expand vocabulary, and have fun!  If you asked the student what the subject was before the iPoetry they probably wouldn’t know but after they could write lots of information about the subject. It is important to discuss the poem before you get to far into the book so the students can begin to pick up on cool ideas to incorporate in their poem.  After the poem is written you can also expand on vocabulary that was used and the students will have a greater understanding of the words. I love that this includes so many great aspects of language arts by meeting so many different goals that we have set for ourselves. The students would be so proud to have a book that displays how much they know about a subject.  I think this is an awesome idea that should be incorporated into all of the books explored!

Seals

Science Objectives Grade 4:

Competency Goal 1: The learner will make observations and conduct investigations to build an understanding of animal behavior and adaptation.

Objectives1.01 Observe and describe how all living and nonliving things affect the life of a particular animal including: Other animals. Plants. Weather. Climate. 1.02 Observe and record how animals of the same kind differ in some of their characteristics and discuss possible advantages and disadvantages of this variation. 1.03 Observe and discuss how behaviors and body structures help animals survive in a particular habitat. 1.04 Explain and discuss how humans and other animals can adapt their behavior to live in changing habitats. 1.05 Recognize that humans can understand themselves better by learning about other animals. Language Arts Objectives- Grade 4: Competency Goal 2 The learner will apply strategies and skills to comprehend text that is read, heard, and viewed. 2.03 Read a variety of texts, including: fiction (legends, novels, folklore, science fiction). nonfiction (autobiographies, informational books, diaries, journals). poetry (concrete, haiku). drama (skits, plays). Questions to include in the internet workshop: 1.  What is another name for the Harbor seal? (Common seal) 2.  What is the most powerful predator for the seal? (Killer whale) 3.  What does the seals diet consist of? ( fish and squid)

Reciprocal Teaching/Discussion Director

Reciprocal teaching is a great idea because it gets the students to engage their classmates and themselves as well.  I think that if we challenge our students and give them this responsibility they will be more intrigued.  The four components of this strategy include summarizer, questioner, clarifier, and predictor.  This allows the students to do these things during their reading to better comprehend the text.  The discussion director is one person in each small group of students.  I would have them alternate each time.  This person comes up with a lists of questions and guides the discussion.  This person in a way plays the role of the teacher because they read and prepare before hand, then act as a tour guide through the text.  This is very beneficial to the individual because they learn the material thorough enough to assist others.  It is beneficial to the rest of the group because they are seeing a fellow classmate facilitating the discussion therefore they want a turn and it causes them to read and prepare the text.  These strategies are similar because the teacher is not facilitating the class the whole time it is done by the students.  Also they are both ways to make sure the students are comprehending the texts they are reading.

Breaking words down to build meaning: Vocabulary, morphology, and reading comprehension in the urban classroom.

This article taught me a lot about how to teach children vocabulary.  The article discussed how we should teach our students morphology which is breaking up words into prefix’s and suffix’s, so they are able to notice any words they already know.  This is a great way to teach children vocabulary because children know so many simple words within larger words so they are able to to break it down to get the basic meaning.  The child will be able to infer that if the word is “popularity” and the child already knows what “popular” means, then popularity has something to do with popular’s definition.  The multitext study relates to this article because there is a sheet where the students are given a word and the have to come up with the noun, verb, adjective, and verb form of it.  They also have to give the synonym and antonym of a word.  It is great that students are introduced to this because they see how many words are related.  This strategy allows them to identify more words since they can see all of the relations.  The vocabulary hand out for Peter and the Starcatchers relates because on the sheet they have to fill out they are given a word and they have to come up with the noun, verb, verb past tense, and adjective.  This once again gets the child thinking about all of the different relationships between words.  The students also are asked to come up with their own child friendly definition for the words which helps them to understand them better.  This article was very hopeful and has shown me a successful way to teach vocabulary!

Integrating Instructional-level social studies trade books for struggling readers in upper elementary

This article relates to our multi-text study and our reading assessment in many ways.  It relates to our reading assessment because our goal is to determine what grade level the child is reading on.  In this article is says that it is important for students to read material that is on their personal grade level.  If a student who is on a second grade level is reading a fourth grade book with the rest of their class their rate and accuracy are a lot lower, therefore they are not getting as much out of the reading as they could be if they were reading on their own level.  The best way to figure out what level each student is on is to have them read out loud with you and together determine what grade level would be appropriate for the student.  It is also important to find texts on subjects that the students are interested in so that the child will actually enjoy reading!  This article also relates to our multi-text study because in the article it suggests using an informational text and fiction text.  By doing this the child is able to learn factual information while also enjoying a fictional read.  The student can learn from both of these texts are able to compare and contrast between the two books.

Shared Readings: Modeling Comprehension, Vocabulary, Text Structures, and Text Features for Older Readers

This article was very informational on how to conduct a shared reading.  I practiced shared ready often during block 1 but we were never told what the four important factors were.  I think that it is true that you need to incorporate as many factors as you can but also that it is ok to strongly focus on one during a lesson.  The four components are comprehension, vocabulary, text structures, and text features.  When talking about comprehension it is important to use multiple ways of checking comprehension.  You can do this by activating background information, inferring, questioning, clarifying, predicting, and so much more.  Children benefit from a variety of ways so it is a good idea to include multiple ways to check their comprehension.  Vocabulary can be identified through context clues, word parts, and resources.  Sometimes when you come across an unfamiliar word you are able to figure out what it is through the clues around the word and other times you need to break down the word to find out the meaning.  When you are unable to figure out the meaning of the word by these options you may use a dictionary, which is important for students to learn how to use.  Text structures consists of cause/effect, problem/solution, setting, plot, etc.  This gets students familiar with the texts and allows them to go more in depth with them.  Finally there is text features which includes captions, bolded text, diagrams, etc.  The author usually puts this in to grab your attention to a certain spot or to help the reader understand what is going on.  One of the teachers said that she used to skip over the text features but then realized how much they helped the reader understand.  This was a great article to keep in mind when you are completing a shared reading.

P.S.  I strongly agree that shared reading should be done in older grades also because students still benefit from modeling by the teacher!

Poetry!

Poetry is a precious thing.  It can be intriguing, exciting, interesting, depressing, and so much more!  It is a beautiful composure of any kind of feeling you could ever think of.  It can rhyme or not.  It is precious because it is personal to every single person that writes or reads it.  Everyone can take a poem in as they please and it can mean different things to different people.

Love that dog was a wonderful novel because it started out with a little boy who thought poetry was for girls.  He isn’t interested in the poems his teacher reads in the beginning but as the year progresses he becomes confident in his poetry.  He was embarrassed to have his name attached to his poetry posted on the board but eventually he was proud of what he had done and didn’t mind having his name attached.  I think this takes place in classrooms a lot because boys stereotype poetry.  Or in general students do not feel confident in their work there for they give up and don’t push through until they become better.  I think that as a teacher we need to build students confidence up and keep encouraging them so they will feel comfortable with the content we are presenting.