Literacy Moves On Chapters 6-10

In chapter six it discusses opportunities to promote literacy development. This can be done through providing children with opportunities to respond to important issues, encourage children to make critical consumers in today’s market place and lastly use children’s popular culture interest as a starting point for literacy activities. Chapter seven puts the child’s identity to work. This can be done by engaging in a artifact audit to the texts produced in the classroom, incorporating place-based activities in the literacy curriculum and finally develop a critical literacy approach to the reading and production of texts. Chapter eight explains the importance of linking reading and play in the middle years. Students should be encourages to play around with texts, value children’s home reading interests in school and find out how to set up a curiosity kit scheme. Chapter nine teaches us how to fuse children’s knowledge about popular fantasy texts with school-based literacy requirements. This can be done by taking an interest in the child’s out-of-school literacy practices, allow all the students to contribute to what they already know about storytelling, allow children to benefit from being experts about aspects of popular culture, structure writing activities that encourage collaborative work and allow the children to retell their stories, emphasize the importance of being critical about the texts, tolerate differences in taste and in individual preferred modes of creativity, and finally involve parents as much as possible. Finally in chapter ten it discusses making meaningful connections between culture, community, and school. This is done through acknowledging that children critically evaluate their worlds, work at creating a dialogical classroom, recognize that children live with oppressions of their families/communities, allow children to identify their generative of words and themes, honor children’s products and celebrate their work, and finally create a classroom that is multiliterate.

Literacy Moves On Chapters 1-5

Chapter one is the introduction of multimodal texts. It tell us as future teachers to look more closely and identify the different affordances of text, think about observe and describe in multimodal text productions in the classroom, help children to make choices in relation to the different reading pathways they can take through texts, and finally what can be done to help children to move from one to another. Chapter two is an introduction of using media in the classroom thru creating moving stories. Suggested implications of practice include media education in the early years curriculum, provide opportunities for the children to engage in digital editing, compare and contrast versions of the same story told in different formats, encourage children to retell stories using different media, and finally use children’s prior expertise in this area as a starting point. Chapter three moves on to explain to us how children interpret stories in print, film, and computer games. This is done through acknowledging the students experiences and expertise with different narrative forms, be aware of the differences among students and consider the implications for classroom organization, take advantage of students broad experiences with more common media forms to help with the exploration of different kinds of narrative understandings, do not assume expensive technology is necessary, remember the power of talk, and finally do not waste a fascinating opportunity to look at ways of telling stories. Chapter four explores the children’s on screen identity through; encouraging them to experiment with writing using computers, providing opportunities to use email for varied purposes in the classroom and by valuing and celebrating children’s productions of multimodal texts. Chapter five gives of examples of how to create opportunities for critical literacy with young children. This can be done through critically looking at popular culture artifacts as soon as possible, paying close attention to opportunities to work critically with texts, and lastly by valuing and encouraging children’s use of multiple ways of knowing about texts.

MGRP Chapter 5 and Chapter 7

In chapter five the book teaches us how to bring the students subject to life thru show, don’t tell, and by creating a class character (by asking questions about the subject). In some cases students have a very hard time beginning to write a great way to start them is by using the quick write and revise method. Will revising kill clichés, remove fillers, avoid repeating the same word, keep sentences and paragraphs concise, and read the draft aloud. In chapter seven we move on to expanding the student’s thinking. This can be done through decorative papers, art work, computer programs, web pages, internet photos, costumes and memorabilia, drama, music, commercial videos, student- designed videos, crafts, demonstrations and models, artificial artifacts, posters, dioramas, and photography.

MGRP-Chapter 4

Introduce your students to poetry by sharing your favorite poem. Also have the students write their own and share it with the class, an example would be the where I’m from poem we did in class similar to the I am example in this chapter. Other examples include a list poem, shape poem, six- room poem and acrostic poems.

MGRP- Chapters 1-3

Chapter One explains the author’s connection to Multigenre research papers and gives examples of all the different parts of one. Chapter two is getting started on a multigenre research paper. You start by planting the seed; explain to the students what you are looking for and ask them what they are interested in. Next you create a resource notebook with them containing three different sections. In section one the students will place examples of different kinds of writing. In section two the students will keep all of their drafts of their writings and finally in section three the students will have a folder with pockets where they will keep all of their research notes and any print outs. After the notebook is created the teacher must connect with the parents explaining the upcoming project. Next a time line is created to keep the student on task. While keeping the students on task the teacher must create an evaluation rubric. An easy way to see if the student is staying on task is to use a response journal and see their daily progress. Finally be sure to schedule time to use computers for research. Chapter 3 explains the importance of finding a topic for your students that inspire them. One way to get the ball rolling on a student’s topic is to have questions that the student should consider; a good way of doing this is by using K-W-Ls. Before beginning research students must the taught the process of the note-taking system and recording resources. As a teacher be sure to make a connection with you school and local librarians, these are vital resources for your students. The students should also use the internet, videos, interviews, primary resources, and on-site visits.

The Sipe Article

In this article they show us different ways to teach spelling. I really liked the have-a-go part because I feel it is important for students to discover things on their own and this will also show us what that student needs to work on. Other suggestions they made were hearing sounds in word, interactive writing, and linking what the students already know to something new.

Writing and Spelling by Olgan

In the article Writing and Spelling they separated types of three categories; reluctant, developing and independent. I found this to be very help full, I had never thought of it this way. They also separated the spelling strategies; letter name, spelling it as it sounds, placeholder, representation, overgeneralization, transposition, visual, articulation, one letter, and multiple strategies. That help me to figure out how the students are thinking and how to help them become better at spelling and writing. It is also important to recognize reluctant spellers early so you can give them the help they need.

Dilemmas and Discourses of Learning to Write: Assessment as a Contested Site

In the article Dilemmas and Discourses of Learning to Write: Assessment as a Contested Site I liked the part where it discussed it says to master the skill of writing you have to practice. I completely agree with this I feel that practice makes perfect. I also found it interesting that children will begin to write when they are ready, they will attempt in their writing in their own way. I also liked that what environments changes how a child rights, in the right environment they will gain confidence and a better understanding of writing.

Chapters 10-12 in Crafting Writers

In chapter 10 I found it interesting that the key to keeping a conference productive and efficient are transitions, naming skill, saying why it’s good, say back to me, and record the teaching. Transitions are little sayings that you use to complement the student and then show them how to improve. Naming the skill is pointing out a skill they used properly and complimenting them on it. Saying why its good is a great way to encourage them to continue to use a skill as they were. Say it back to me is a great way to see if the student comprehended the information you just went over with them. By recording the teaching you can go back and review the way you have taught a student a certain skill and see what you need to work on as a teacher and see if you missed any signals your students is giving off. Chapter 11 shows us how to conduct group conferences. A down fall of group conferences is losing one on one time, but you feel as though you have accomplished much more in a short period of time. Chapter 12 teaches us the role of assessment. Create a rubric with the students before they do the first draft. It is a great way to show the students what is expected of them and if they help create the rubric they will understand everything on it.

Chapter 7-9 of Crafting Writers

In Chapter 7 she provides us with many different ways to teach students writing through live writing, mini lessons and try-its. I found the try-its interesting, including the turn and talks, quick prompts, and saying “Ready, Go.” Chapter 8 was on finding a student’s strengths through conferences; it provided me with two different ways of setting up writing conference. This chapter also taught me how to evaluate a student through a conference by having them read their works aloud, look for related craft techniques, explain what to do when strengths are hard to find and how to put it all together. It also explained what strengths to teach through mini lessons. Chapters 9 tells us to have the students run their own conference and just help them through the process by continuing to look at what they need to improve on and come up with crafty ways to fit into a mini lesson.

Chapters 4 and 5 of Crafting Writers

Through chapter 4 of Crafting Writers I read about the five main topics this chapter was split into: the five senses, show not tell, dialogue, sentence variety, and word choice. When I was reading the five senses section I had never thought of using my five senses to describe a certain situation. I found that to be a very unique way of describing. I found sentence variety and word choice to be a common way of spicing up a child’s writing and not as interesting as the five senses and dialogue. Dialogue seems to be a great way to bring the story or memory to life for young children. I think sentence variety and word choice wouldn’t be as exciting for a young child. In Chapter 5 it taught us how to teach children how to use punctuation. In the beginning it told us that children will use punctuation excessively when they are first learning. I have never thought of commas as a way to “pack more ideas into one sentence”.

Literacy Dig

The literacy dig took place in Seattle’s Best Coffee Shop located in Borders. While there I discovered that literacy play a major role in their atmosphere. Everyone was either reading a book or magazine, working on homework, or working on their laptops. The cliental mostly consist of older people and the environment was very relaxing and calm. The walls were painted very neutral colors and had advertisements on them for different types of coffee available. It also had light jazz playing in the background and stands with different items for sale including coffee, coffee cup and different gadgets.

The Talkback Project

Throughout the article it discusses a teacher's trial with blogging and her students. Each student created a blog and wrote about the novel they were reading once a week. After receiving feedback from her first trial run she tweaked the previous lesson and tried again. In November 2005 the project was put on hold because an administrator found a child’s neighborhood listed in a blog and they were forced to go back to written journals. The Talkback Project was used to show how students and teachers can bridge the gap of learning with technology.