Chapter 3 Blog

As educators, we slip into many roles in the classroom to help benefit our students. I agree that it is important that we teach the students to like to read and to want to read. We must find what they are interested in individually and use those to grab their interest. In order for them to get interested, they must comprehend what they are reading. I have noticed from experience that when the student does not understand what they are reading, they get greatly frustrated. They give up on reading so it is important that we help them and encourage them throughout the learning process.

When the chapter was discussing the issue of readability and addressing a difficulty level to books, I was debating on how I would use this in my own classroom. In one hand, I believe that some of the students will be motivated to read some of the more challenging books and if they are successful, then it is beneficial to their learning. However, if they chose a higher level book and were to be unsuccessful in their comprehension, then the student tends to get frustrated. And also, I think that it could be hard on the student if they don’t have success reading a certain higher level material that their fellow peers have had success in. This could be very discomforting to them and could make them feel a sort of failure. If I decided to incorporate this into my classroom, I would have to be cautious on how to use it. I would want to stay away from classroom competition between the paces of learning of my students.

I believe the concept of guided reading can be very beneficial to the students in that the teachers are giving the students a preview of what they are going to be reading. This can make the students interest into what the book is going to be about. Also by looking at the visuals, and some of the readings from the book, the students can get a better understanding of what they are reading well when they actually begin reading the book.

Dramatization of the readings, I believe can be one of the best ways to review what the students have read and perhaps can be use as a prediction of what is going to happen in the story. When I was in school, my teacher often split us up into groups in the middle of the book and had us create and reenact a story of how we thought that the story would end. It helped me review of what we had read and got me a better understanding of what we were learning.

Story maps have been used to help students with their reading material in classrooms, including some that I have been in. I have done story mapping in groups when I was in grade school and it helped us students organize the events, people, plots, and conflicts in the story. Personally, I have never done the comic strips of the sketch-to-sketch approaches in the classrooms, but I can see how the creativity of these projects can be beneficial to students by finding multiple ways to express their interests in the reading material.

When I was learning to read, I think that the most difficult part of the process was the vocabulary that I didn’t know. Most of the time, I would just read around it and figured out what the word meant. This was not always successful though. There are lots of words in our language that have many different meanings and those meanings can be confusing to students like me who were just in the beginning stages of the learning processes of reading.

Discussing the readings before, during, and after the readings I believe is crucial to the learning experience. Pre-reading of the material can be very beneficial to the students especially if the students are unfamiliar to the content of the material. Having discussion during the reading, enhances the understanding of what is going to happen in the story and what might happen towards the end of the story. After the end of the reading is where I feel that the discussion is most important. This shows the teacher whether or not the students comprehended what they read and whether they see the importance of the reading. Discussion as a whole and individually is highly important for full potential of the students.

Chapter 2 Blog

Culturally Responsive classrooms are valued everywhere in our society today. The Unites States today is made up of a patchwork of different races and ethnicities that make us one of the most culturally diverse countries. In our schools, we have an oath to educate each student equally and to the best that we can. There are some issues that educators face that we cannot eliminate but we can try to improve. Although there is no racial segregation that exists anymore, there is a sort of prejudice that still exists, even in our youth today. According to the textbook, studies show that students that are in the minority of their schools tend to least discouraged to progress in school. These students are not comfortable with the other students and don’t feel accepted to the other students. It is important that we as teachers embrace these diversities and find ways to incorporate them into our classrooms. The more comfortable that the students are with their fellow peers and their environment, the more comfortable and the more driven they are to succeed in their studies. Also, incorporating the different diversities in the classrooms educates the other students in the majority and helps them understand the customs and ways of their fellow peers. This understanding and acceptance of each other will help the students bond with one another and gives them the opportunity to learn about other cultures.

Another reason that we need to have a culturally responsive classroom is so that we as educators are informed about the cultures of our students. Some things in our society might be considered offensive or meant differently in other cultures. Hand signals, pats, eye contacts, and others might have different meanings in other cultures. Some of the cultures and religions might require for students to take time out of their day to perform to their customs. For example, some religions might require them to pray during certain times during the day. We must respect their customs and find ways to either give them their time or incorporate it into our schedules. We also have to find ways to do so where they can feel comfortable in practicing in their customs also.

Some cultures and their customs can affect the students learning. There are some of the cultures that don’t appreciate a sturdy education as being important in a person’s life. Working, family values, marriage, and others might be a higher priority in their culture. My personal belief is to try and talk and establish education as a higher priority to their parents and teach them the values of an education without offending them or their ways. I believe that it is vital that we share the importance of a good education in our society and find ways to incorporate teaching and their customs.

EDRG 3321 Teacher Blog

One of my favorite teachers when I was growing up was my 5th grade homeroom teacher, Mr. Folks. Mr. Folks was always willing to go above and beyond to help any of his students in our classroom. There was never a time when he wouldn’t hesitate to have any of his students come in early, stay late, or find any extra time that worked on both schedules where they could meet and have some one-on-one help.

He was also great at finding different and elaborates, fun ways to teach our subjects. He was the main math teacher for the entire 5th grade. I’m sure that math must have been his favorite subject in class because you could tell that he had a true passion for it. His room was constantly filled with books, posters, computer programs, games, and activities that were math-based. During his class, he would focus on his lecture and curriculum, but afterwards he would give us time to go around the classroom and play some of the games, or computer programs, whatever we wanted to do. Then, he would ask us to write down and turn in a piece of paper just stating one thing we learned in class and one thing we learned doing our extra activities, even if it doesn’t relate to anything we were learning currently in the classroom.

Mr. Folks also found ways to make learning fun. He had the personality of a kid, so he was easily relatable. He had that fun enthusiastic, outgoing interest about math and was constantly pulling each of his students in with him by having us participate. Until him, I had been used to going to classes that had been mainly focused on TAKS testing and preparation for it. They were strictly based on that, with no elaboration on any other aspects or concepts. His class was completely different. He managed to incorporate all of the testing material in his curriculum as well as elaboration and further explanation onto each subject. I believe that all of these things about Mr. Folk made him a great teacher and I plan to incorporate the same aspects in my classroom and my teachings.

EDRG 3321 Chapter 1 Blog

In Chapter 1, the book tells of the importance of how the teacher’s beliefs and actions impact the students currently and in the long run. The teacher’s reactions influence the students to behave a certain way, paving the road for how they are going to perform later on in life. In our society today, some teachers believe that some students are incapable of learning so they direct most of their attention and help to the other students who are advancing and comprehending at a faster rate. This is definitely not good teaching beliefs. First of all, all students deserve an equal education. Showing favoritism towards a certain group can seriously damage those who aren’t in that group. Their egos will be harmed and will decline because if they are not encouraged, they are not going to succeed like the other students. They will tend to lose interest in school, homework, and inevitably themselves. These students are the ones that go through their school years and don’t care about their education and tend to drop out before they graduate high school. If a teacher doesn’t believe in the student, the student isn’t going to believe in themselves. Their chances for success were stripped from them, so it is vital that we as teachers are sure to believe in the success in every student.

As a teacher, we must have a true passion for reading and it needs to be obvious to the students so that they may observe and perhaps imitate you. The teacher of a student can be a very influential role model in a child’s life and our actions are crucial to the students. Students need a stable example to follow. Showing your passion for reading, could be very contagious in a learning environment.

Most students that are enrolled in school don’t have the passion to read. Some even resent it. There is a huge push on teachers to teach curriculum that is based around the TAKS testing and preparation. Teachers are stressed to make the curriculum solely involved around testing to improve the school’s achievement results. This isn’t beneficial to anyone. The students are deprived from any creative curriculum. It reduces the number of students to make their full potential. The TAKS testing requires that students read certain kinds of books, while students don’t take interest in those kinds, without the student’s preference on what they want to read.
All of these are considerations that every teacher needs to bring into their classrooms. All of these essentials are components to a great, influential learning environment