Chapter 11 Discussion

In Chapter 11, the book discusses the importance of shared reading and guidance reading in the classroom. The chapter explains that there is no set age to start with shared reading. I believe that the younger a child is when introduced to shared reading, the more apt they are to become interested in reading. Of course it is a good idea to expose children to reading and books before they are enrolled in school and even before they can read. Picture books especially are designed to capture the attention of young readers and provide an opportunity to follow along with the story as it is being told. In a sense,they are being able to read as well. When my nephew was about three years old, I used to read these picture books to him. He had a few that he made me read over and over again to him. Once I read these to him several times over, he decided that he was going to read them to me. I was surprised and interested to see how he was going to accomplish this. I knew he didn't know how to read yet, so he just flipped through the pages and followed the pictures and described the story to me, almost exactly as it was told through the book.

Many children are striving for that sense of independence so when they are familiar with the reading or are early learners of reading, they want to learn things on their own. As teachers, there are many tools that we can use in order to help achieve this. The use of big, bold, easy-to-read text is a great way to help those students who are learning to sound out words and using the sound-it-out as they go along method of reading. Plus, bigger font is easier to read than the smaller words and it gives the child a better view of how letters look so that they become more familiar with them. You can also do "picture walks," even if they are considered controversial. My teachers in elementary schools used to do picture walks before many of our readings in class in order to get the students to guess what was going to happen in the story. Also it gave us a visual of what the characters would look like and it would get us interested in what was going to happen.

Guided reading is grouping the students together with other students who are on the same reading level and grade level with each other. This gives the students the opportunity to help each other when they learn something new with the assistance of the teacher. Once the student's abilities change, the teachers changes the groups around to accommodate for the change. I believe that this is a good strategy in that it gives the students the ability to scaffold the other students and therefore, they are being able to share what they learned with the other students. I also believe that in some circumstances it is better for a student who comprehends a subject to teach another student because they are on the same age and level that they can translate it in a way that they will understand.

Chapter 10 Discussion

Chapter 10 discusses the importance of bringing reading alive in the classroom. This was probably one of the most intriguing chapters that I have read from the book. I highly agree that we as teachers we must teach hem the importance of reading and encourage them to take it up to our best ability. Having the students just read text from the book, by themselves, silently, isn't going to encourage anyone and they won't learn a thing about what they are reading, except for the fact that they don't like to read. It is draining for them and they won't understand all the concepts from the reading. Students need to have discussion and some kind of involvement in an activity relating to the reading in order to get a better understanding. As teachers, we can find different methods to have our students involved in the reading. This can be as simple as reading the story outloud to the class. Students, typically younger students, hold their focus more when their teachers read the stories outloud and create different voices for the characters in the story. When I was in kindergarden, my teacher had our class sit and listen to the story and then she would ask us who we liked in the story and why. This was my first introduction to reading in the classroom and the first time reading actually sparked an interest.

Later on in my grade school experience, I had teachers that would assign the students different roles of the characters from the story and we would have to act out a scene for the other students. That was always fun and this way the students get to use their creativity and imagination and bring their own personality to the story. The students who watch the scenes learn more about the scene and have a visual of how it would look like if it were real. This is also a great way for us teachers to make sure that the students actually grasp the story and its understanding.

Another way to involve the students in their literature is by having them create their own stories that relate to the story, such as changing the plot or switching the roles of the characters. I feel that this was one of the most intriguing ways for students to get involved. They have the freedom to create whatever they want to that relates to the subject. Having the students publish their own work also brings an accomplishment and they feel like they have contributed to the class. The more involvement the student has in the story, the more likely they are to understand the story better and the greater it is that it will improve the number of those who will find and interest in reading.

Chapter 9 Discussion

Chapter 9 Discusses the importance of nonfiction writings. Nonfiction writings tell stories that are based on actual events. Most of them were created to mark a monument of history or record actual events, making them permanent so that their stories won't fade away in time. Personally, I love nonfiction stories being told by the person who actually experienced them. It gives the story more realism and I feel like I can relate to that person on a new level. Reading nonfiction is a learning tool for me throughout my life. I read stories of people who are experiencing something similar to what I am going through and see if they are feel the same way as I do and also see how they approach it. I love to see what they learned and how these events changed the people in the stories lives. Nonfiction books about the history of our culture or of the wars especially spark an interest in me. I already love history so it intrigues me to discover something that was experienced first hand. One of my favorites was "The Diary of Anne Frank". It is an incredibly sad story that was written by a girl named Anne Frank whose family and her were in hiding during the Holocaust. To see what someone had to go through during these times shines a new light on what actually happened and gives a new appreciation for understanding honor and bravery.

I believe that I will mostly use nonfiction writings in my classroom as support for the subjects that I am teaching on, especially history subjects. Listening to people's stories during those times will relate them to characters and they will sympathize with them and give them a better understanding of what actually happened.

Chapter 8 Discussion

Fictional readings were some of the my favorites to create during my school years. They gave me a chance to use my imagination and have no boundaries on what I read. The chapter describes 4 different categories that Fictional readings contain: Realistic, Contemporary, Fantasy, and Science Fiction. For me, reading realistic readings were my favorite. I think the reason that is is because I can relate to the characters or to the situations that the characters are going through. Like many other reading types, there is a plot, characters, conflict, theme, setting, etc. When reading realistic books the reader is drawn into the plot and setting because they are situations that can actually exist. It is intriguing to see the possibilities that can actually exist. When creating fictional stories in school though, I mostly focused on creating Fantasy stories. They were my favorite. There were no limits. There wasn't a situation that I couldn't create that happened in my stories that would stand out from the rest as being unbelievable because it was all unbelievable.



When teaching fantasy in the classroom, I will make sure that I give the students the chance to enhance their writing skills and helping their brain development by having them create their own fantasy works. Whether it is creating their own works of writings or illustrating pictures to go along with the stories, the students can show how they interpret the stories and how they visualize the stories. This brings out their inner creativity and excites the students feeling like they are contributing to the story and their work is being noticed.

Chapter 7 Discussion

Picture books were probably my favorite books to read when I was growing up. They are the reason that I am a reader leisurely today. When I started reaading, I was mainly reading picture books. The words in them were some of the first words that I read. What attracted me to the chapter the most is the fact that picture books are still used at every age. The majority of the picture books are concentrated to attract younger children, however, there are picture books created for older readers as well.



One of my favorite picture books is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" It was a cute story but my favorite part were the pictures. They were different than the other drawings that I had seen in other books. The characters of the story I believe are created from colored or painted tissue paper. The pictures were the crucial aspect of the story. They provide support for the text and rovide a visual aid for the readers.

Picture books will definitely be found on the shelves in my classroom, especially if I am going to be teaching younger students. Younger students learn more visually because they are just learning on how to read. Reading words without having the visual support will just burn them out and frustrating them. Children their age get easily distracted and getting side tracked is a problem for every teacher. The differenciating and colorful picutres help to keep the focus of the children while sparking their interest in the story, and into reading.

Chapter 6 Discussion

Traditional literature is text that is mostly fiction stories that consist of plots, settings, characters, themes, and styles. The traditional literature story line has a beginning, middle, and end. It is contains such a broad number of seletions that includes myths, fairy tales, folk tales, myths, legends, and nursery rhymes. Most of these stories are easy to follow and have have predictable outcomes. Traditional literature is used to explain many things and from many of the ones that I have read are stories that are trying to teach the readers valuable lessons.

Some of my favorites include "The Three Little Pigs", "A Christmas Carol", "Curious George", "Princess and the Pea", and "Cinderella". Many for the stories that are made for younger generations are those with a "happily ever after" ending mainly due to preserving the innocence and belief of hope in children. Many of these stories are old stories that originated by a person or people and were mainly stories that were put down in words after years of being passed around by mouth. The problem with this is, from story telling to story telling, the aspects of the stories can change and alter far from the original. Just take the game known as "Telephone". One person starts off and passes a sentence or phrase to the next person and then that person tells the next person and so on. By the time the last person repeats what he/she heard, it can be totally different from what the original person said. Once they have been put into writing, then it tends to stay in the norm range of what is written. However there are books that are written that are an exaggerated version or an alternate view from a story that is an original. An example of this is Jon Scieszka's "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs". It tells the story of the wolf and how actually he wasn't mean and vicious and how everyone got it wrong. These books are fun to read, expecially if you love the original. Little twists and changes can alter the way you look at a story.

When I start teaching, I plan on integrating both the original, well known classics in my classroom for students to be free to look at. I also want to incorporate some of the twists and some not so known readings into my curriculum, broadening the knowledge of my students and introducing them to something new. It will give them a chance to explore different situations and perhaps learn new lessons.

Chapter 5 Discussion

I remember reading poetry in grade school and loved it. Most of the poetry I read was easy to read and fun, like Dr. Seuss and such. They had rhythm and rhyme and they were so much fun to read over and over again. Reading "The Cat in the Hat" and like were some of the poetry that we children got into. We can relate to the stories and they are short and they get to the point. Fragmented sentences that create interest in just a few words, is a gift that many people does not possess. Especially when it captures the imagination and focus of young children. The attention spand of young children is very short and doesn't last long. These authors find unique and creative ways to find words and phrases that are one of a kind and so inticing that children get wrapped up in the story.



I would definitely find ways to incorporate poems into my classroom readings. One of my favorite past times was being able to create poems of my own. I especially loved to create ones that rhyme. The students need to learn the basis of poetry, how it is created and why it is important in our culture and history. Poetry has been an important element in our history today. All the great founders of literature and art of our time have embraced poetry that has been the backgrounds of all great literature.

In my classroom, I want there to be a ton of poetry selections that the students can chose from. I will also have time during the class that will be dedicated to the children creating their own poetry where they would either publish them and hang them on a wall or put them together in a classroom portfolio. It will give the children the opportunity to create poetry while embracing their own creativity and imagination.

Chapter 4 Discussion

Like I have said before, I believe that if we as educators want to be successful in teaching our students to read, we must take initiative in our classrooms and find out about our students’ backgrounds and their interests. However, like the chapter discusses, we also must show interest in their reading and find ways to incorporate the readings in the classroom other than just simply reading the story and leaving it as is. If this was the case, the students would just read the information and not know the relevance of the information being taught in the story and they will soon remember nothing from the story. The information would be short term and therefore, pointless. We need to encourage further exploration of the topics and educate them as to the importance of what they are reading.

The response of the reading to the students is a way for the students to review and a way for the teacher to make sure that all of her students comprehend what they are reading. Having the students give a short little response to what was read or discussed in the class that day would be a great way to see how different students respond to different texts, especially on controversial issues and multicultural books. Some students will find interests in some areas of the reading and feel an emotional pull from it, while others take interest to another part.

Rosenblatt also expresses that it is important that the teacher gives breaks during the reading time to review, explain, or predict the outcome of the story. This way, the students are readily on task with the reading while not being burnt out completely on taking in all the information. It gives them a little break while retaining the information that they have learned. It is very beneficial to them to stop and review on what they had read so that the instructor makes sure that everyone in the classroom is caught up and understands what is happening. Prediction of upcoming events in the book is a great way to get the students to use an upper level of thinking. I remember when I was in the fourth grade, every reading that we read in that class we did some kind of prediction on the outcome of the story. She would have us predict what we thought would be the ending to the story, come together as a class and act out what we thought would happen, or write what we wanted to happen in the end. I loved doing this in class because I got to hear about what all the other students in the class were thinking was going to happen and consider those outcomes as well.

After the students have completed the reading, there are still activities that can be done to enhance the learning and reasoning from the reading. They could review with their peers of what they have read or other activities. One of my favorite times in my English classes was the times that the teachers allowed us to create our own endings to the story. This was especially beneficial if we didn’t like the ending outcome of the story. It gave us a chance to express our creativity and enhance our understanding of their understanding. Expressing creativity could be fun for the students, thus furthering their interest in reading in and outside of work.

There are many activities other than the reading that can help the students get a better understanding of the reading. There are many ways to incorporate these into your classroom, such as reading, writing, creating literature response journals, literature models, dictated response, and book responses. These give the students the opportunity to further explore the reading and bring up any questions, concerns, or opinions about the reading. Also, there are oral practices that the students can contribute to the classroom about the readings. The students can create their own songs, lyrics, chants, conduct debates, and other oral responses in the classroom. This could be a fun outlet for the students to share their interpretations of the reading so that they can compare them to other’s opinions and take their opinions into account.

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