Ch. 11 Developing Content Area Writers

Conley says "writing skill benefits from direct instruction, demonstration, feedback, and practice." Students should not be given a topic and be expected to be a successful writer on their own. Teachers should take the time to actually teach students to become good writers instead of thinking that they should already know. I know for a fact that several high school students who cannot write a paper without plagerising, are receiving a grade of an A for the semester. What a short sale for these students. Writing is a part of almost every program of study in college. A great many students have discovered that they were not as hot a writer as they thought they were before freshman comp. If we expect students to be great writers, we need to show them how to become them.

Journaling is a favorite pasttime of mine. I enjoy keeping a journal in my personal life as well as my professional life. It is a way for me to keep track of what is happening in my life and also a way to vent my anger or frustration sometimes. Journals can be brought into the classroom and become a very effective tool at measuring a what students are learning or understanding. By allowing students to journal about what they learn it involves them personally in the learning process. Students who journal about their personal lives may see journaling in the classroom as way to make the learning process more personal to them. Also, it activates schema for those students that are alread familiar with this process. According to the textbook, "journal writing can be used to capture the "what" or the knowledge students are gaining from their studies. Journals, especially those that summarize what students are learning, are successful means of writing in content areas because of the way in which journals encourage engagement with a subject."

One prominent force that was mentioned throughout the text reading was the fact that teachers to model students in every thing that we do. Under almost every heading, major and subheadings, the instructions for carrying out the strategies or ideas includes the word modeling or demonstrate. I believe that modeling for students is a vital part of student understanding. If we expect students to create a project or participate in some form of activity, then we, as teachers, need to make sure that we show them exactly what and how to do the processes that are required. It is amazing how much easier it is to understand what someone is saying if they are modeling what to do along with their speech. Students will be much more successful and become better writers if a teacher takes the time to model the writing process for them. Demonstrating can be the most effective means of instruction available to students when done correctly.

Smartboard or Promethium Board???

I can honestly say that I do not have experience with the Smartboard at all. I have limited experience with the Promethium Board because of my Classroom Management class from Intermmediate Block. During this class, we had a visitor come and explain some advantages of using the Promethium board. Before the instructor came to talk to us about the board, we were to take a tutorial online showing us how to use the Promethium board to our advantage in the classroom. I must say that I enjoyed learning about this new technology and seeing it in action. I think that I would definitely like to have the Promethium board in my classroom in order to show students different things firsthand immeidately, instead of them having to watch a video on a VCR. In addition, the Promethium board has added aspect to it called Activote. I am fascinated with Activote, it is like playing jeopardy. Each student is given an answer keypad and they enter their answer as soon as they know it. Immediately the teacher can see which students got the right answer and which ones chose the wrong answer. This tool would be great in studying for a test. Furthermore, I like the fact that the students can interact with the board. They can physically walk up, write on the board, and immediately see what they have written. By using new the new types of technology available to us, we can benefit our students in the greatest way possible for their education.

Chapter 7 Activating Prior Knowledge and Increasing Motivation

In Chapter 7, Conley mentions the phrase, that “when teachers fail to acknowledge what students know, they risk alienating them by ignoring a big part of their personal identity.” I am big fan of including a student’s prior knowledge in the classroom whenever possible. Students are more likely to take part in the learning and conversation going on in the classroom if a topic they know is being covered. Teachers that act like their students have nothing to offer definitely alienate their students in my opinion. This alienation makes students feel as if they are on a lower level that others in the classroom who might know more about the subject. Therefore, when the student actually knows about the topic, they are not going to participate because the teacher has totally made them uncomfortable about themselves and their knowledge.

The chapter also mentions anticipation guides. I personally am not a fan of these guides. I had a teacher that used them for every single chapter and the guides only made me feel like I was stupid because I did not know some of the questions. I know that Conley says that they provide some type of background knowledge for the students when they are used. However, if the student does not get any of the questions right, then is there schema not wrong because they answered wrong on the guide. I guess in my case, I could have just gotten burnt out on them, but I am not fond of them at all.

Conley discusses KWL charts in Chapter 7. I absolutely love KWL charts, even though some of my previous teachers made us feel like they were only to be used for earlier grades. I definitely disagree with that statement because sometimes teachers need to revert back to simple strategies to help students understand. The KWL is a perfect example of this type of strategy. KWL can be used with more complex topics that some students are not familiar with. Also, they can be used to enlighten students about a topic that they thought they knew a lot about, when, after reading about it, they learn they did not know as much as they thought. The KWL is a wonderful strategy to help guide students in the knowledge that is correct and well informed.