Blog #7: The Conclusion

From this whole experience I've basically learned that you can't takes students understandings for granted. I think that when I first went into this I assumed that I would be explaining mostly science terms, however as the weeks passed I noticed that I defined regular vocabulary words as well and scientific words. If anything this whole experience has taught me how on track Readicide is with today's students. I've really had my eyes opened when it comes to using vocabulary in the classroom and how important it is to help students understand that reading isn't just done in the language arts classroom but it can be done anywhere with anything. I also think that it is important to stress to students that while they are in the science classroom, they are scientists and as such they need to be able to read and write like scientists. I think this intimidates a lot of students but if we as teachers make them understand that reading as scientists or mathematicians or historians or artists or whatever is not necessarily different from just reading as much as they will be looking for different things and writing in different ways. This whole experience feels like an affirmation of the things we done in class and I hope that when I have my own classroom I can continue to use these techniques to encourage students to read no matter the subject.

Blog #6

Prompt- Field experiences relating to content literacy- observations, interactions, and questions. Response to Readicide. Suggestions for seminar topics on 3/08, progress with literacy explorations and strategy lesson, reflection for how to avoid readicide in your content area.

I've realized some things this past week with teaching. There are some of my kids who are very smart and know a lot of things and pick up things quickly and then there are the ones that surprise me with how little they know. I had a student come up to me the other day and ask me what inject meant. That was not a word I was anticipating having to explain to a 15 year old. After I asked her to repeat her word to make sure I had heard it right. I explained that it was "like when you got a shot from the doctor, when they put the stuff in you, that's injecting." It constantly amazes me how smart these kids are but at the same time how little they know. The things that I take for granted that they should know, they don't. Also, I've learned don't let a group of 9th graders go out in the hall to "discuss" an article, it won't end well and you'll end up getting complaints from not only them but other students who were in the hall as well. I just kind of assumed that since I did it, and preferred that, they could handle it. Well it was a failure for the first period that I did not repeat for the rest of the day. I led all discussions after that and the classes went much better.

Blog #5 - Better Late Than Never

Suggestions: Field experiences relating to content literacy- observations, interactions and questions. Response to Readicide.

These first few weeks have been going really well. One thing I've noticed and discussed with my host teacher is the student inability to really think independently. The first week I was there they had a test in the middle of the week. My host teacher gave them study guides to fill out and then reviewed them the day before the test. what surprised me was when she asked the students questions off the study guide, just reworded a little so they had to think they were unable to figure out the answer. One simple example would be word choice, she used the word advantageous instead of good trait to describe one of the questions and the students didn't know the word (even though the school has words of the week required that are similar). In addition a scientific word that the students had been tested on multiple times but wasn't on the study guide stumped them for credit on not only the review but the test. When I spoke to the teacher about this she explained that 9th graders have a hard time thinking independently which is why she rewords the questions ( to make them think). She wants them to be exposed to not only scientific terms but everyday words as well. I think that was one of my first real lessons in content literacy.

Blog #4

Ideas for literacy explorations, response to Readicide, enduring questions and concerns about content literacy, inquiry project process, further understanding of reading as a learner in your discipline.

There are several things that I'm interested in incorporating into my literacy explorations and inquiry project. One of the things is this idea of an article of the week, another is a graphic organizer. I think both of these will help my students get a better understanding of vocabulary. I agree with Readicide in that a lot of times teachers are teaching for the test rather than critical thinking. I also agree that in a lot of cases students aren't reading nearly enough and it's affecting their understanding of not only the subject matter but also the world around them. I think that it's important to incorporate reading no matter the subject and this class has definitely given me some ideas to use so that my students can learn for the test and for critical thinking.

Readicide Response 1

Response to Readicide: What is the message? What is your reaction? What are your connections to school experiences? What are ways you now understand will help students read more effectively in your discipline?

I feel that the message for the first chapter and introduction is that in modern classrooms, teachers are teaching for tests rather than for critical thinking. The teachers are being forced to teach for standards for a test and in the process losing some of the basic fundamental (i.e. content literacy) that students need. My reaction is a blend of attitude and hopelessness. I feel like while I may make a difference in my classroom, that's only a few hundred kids over my teaching career. The attitude comes from the rebellious side that says why do we have laws in place that don't benefit students. Like the Texas "Miracle," this program that was subjected nation wide lied about their results. How is it fair to hold teachers to a standard when the legislation is already against us.
When I observed at BHS I saw the standards on the wall and the teachers concern over making sure that the standards apply. I saw the pre and post tests for the CRCTs and the benchmark tests that the teacher was forced to give up days of class to devote to in order to show that the current method of judging retention isn't as awful as it seems. I see these things and it makes me wonder if I can do it, if I would really teach the test if I absolutely had to.
I think it's important for students to know that colleges want students to think outside of the box that high school puts them in and that all literacy is important. I think it's important for students to have the basic critical thinking skills because they will help on the test even if they don't give the answers for the students to memorize.

Blog #2: Inquiry Project Intro

What are your initial thoughts and ideas about your inquiry topic? What are you beginning ideas about your contribution to the inquiry project? How are you now understanding reading in your discipline?

The focus of my inquiry project is going to be vocabulary. This is because for science, there is a heavy reliance on vocabulary that intimidates or puts students off. In my opinion vocabulary makes up about 65% of biology in a high school classroom and the concepts take up the other 35%. One aspect of vocabulary that I am very interested to incoporate in my classroom is the concept of a word wall. I think that a lot of science teachers disregard things like that because it's a english classroom technique. Also using the word sort activity that we did in class, I think this will help create a relationship between the meaning of words.

Right now my ideas about hot to contribute to the inquiry project aren't concrete. They are more ideas that keep changing as I read. One thing that I've read about is definition map. The purpose is to allow students to define and gain a comprehensive understanding of the words. The students answer three main questions: 1, What is it (How is the word categorized?) 2. What is it like (What are some characteristics of the word?) and 3. What are some examples (what examples can you think of that are related to the word?). Another technique I'm interested in using is Personal clue cards. This is a substitute for looking words up in a chapter and defining the (which I did a lot of in science in high school). Students make mental associations to come up with their personal cards. Mainly I'm hoping to contribute a fresh perspective for students to learn the all important words without pulling teeth and creating meaningful connections so that they don't just learn the words for the test and then forget them.

I've come to understand that reading in my discipline is boring for most people, especially if you can't understand the vocabulary that is being used (see above). However, it is important to be knowledgeable in science content reading because science is a huge part of our lives and will only get larger. A lot the the concepts that are read about in biology are often misrepresented in popular media so it's no wonder vocabulary is so hard to understand with the movie industry butchering terms to suit people's terror of the vocabulary words. Despite my dislike for the way popular media displays some aspects of science, there are books out their that are related to science that are good and make connections to other things you've learned in other contents. Reading is important no matter the content, it may not be enjoyable but it is important.

Blog #1

What are your perceptions of content literacy and the adolescent reader? What are your experiences involving content literacy? What are your initial observations of effective reading in your discipline?

Many students struggle with science content literacy no matter the age or type of science presented. The word "science" has gone from an academic word to a word that invokes fear in many students. There are many reasons for this fear, some justified, others absurd, regardless of the reason for the fear, the point is taht for many students this fear is unjustified.A lot of students are scared of science literacy because they aren't exposed to it and shown that like other subjects there is a language that is represented in these articles and if you can decipher the language, then the rest is easily understood. A lot of published scientists like to use large words to show why they earned a PhD and that can be intimidating to students (this doesn't just happen in science content either). In my opinion as soon as the students see large words, fear sets in and that undeveloped frontal lobe backs it up and they give up without really having started.

My own experiences with science content literacy are limited to either my early years (i.e. picture books) with a large gap until I got to college and declared a science major. I didn't get much exposure to science based articles in high school and only slightly more than that in middle school. Most of my science exposure when I was in those grades came from my own interests and I was the one to pursue the magazines (never journals, I wasn't that brave/nerdy) and occasional book. My science teachers were more concerned with our grades rather than making us read. Once I got to college, they took it mostly for granted that most of the students hadn't read science content literacy and seemed to take it in stride and fill that gap in our education.

My initial observations of effective reading in science would be that many students lack the instruction how to properly dissect the readings to get what they need out of them. They see large science words and immediately blame their lack of knowledge in the fact that they are "bad at science." The other response I see is that many science literature is geared towards small children (to explain natural wonders) or college students (professional scholarly journal articles) with not much between to allow for students to grow. I think that it's important for students to be exposed to science content literacy even though most are not and that even having "baby" books (children books) in the classroom might provide the student who was never exposed to the concepts in the books with answers and clear one more pre-conception that isn't correct. While science articles can be hard to read it is still important to expose children to them and work with them to understand.

Bloggist

I can now officially add bloggist to my list of accomplishments :)