Beers-Chapter 7

I really like how the author approaches the subject of vocab in the classroom. Even as a student, I realize that vocab is an incredibly important part of education. Especially with the stock colleges take into the SAT and the ACT, and vocab is so important on those tests. There have been a few words I have kept with me throughout my education, (the one that comes to mind is “fop”) but I know there have been more than that. 

Teachers need to come up with more ways to integrate unfamiliar words into everyday class, not the 20 or so minutes that students spend on vocab during the week. I really like the idea of the word wall, with words associated with specific things we read or watch in class, in hopes that these words stay with students longer. 

I liked the example of “tolerance.” It was kind of funny to read what students had to say about that word and what they associate with it. This would be a good exercise to do with students that struggle with a particular word or that word’s particular meaning. 

I remember doing word exercises with words in my middle school reading class. I do know that we all hated looking up words in the dictionary, and none of us learned anything, except who didn’t know their alphabet. There definitely have to be better ways to teach students words. I’m kind of excited to hear some of my other classmates’ ideas about this.

Beers-Chapter 4

I LOVE Chapter 4. I had the same English teacher for 10^th and 11^th grade, and she is the reason I want to be a teacher. Anyway, very few classes of hers were not an environment like the ones described in the book. I always felt comfortable contributing my ideas in her class, and I will always remember the very active debates the class got into about things. I was in the honors English class, and so we had the same kids together for 4+ years of school (we were together in middle school too). I don’t think she took this same approach to her “regular” classes. I have always known that the English class that I loved so much would always be my foundation for the way I approached my own students in my classroom someday.  It didn’t really make sense to me that other teachers were unaware that students love environments like that.

I really like the way the author of the chapter talks about what it means to comprehend. It seems like with NCLB, teachers are not able to devote students for one topic and really nail it before they have to move on to make sure all the standards are covered. Kids really like when teachers spend more than one class period on a subject so that the students can really feel comfortable with the ideas and express their own ideas about them. Again, if the members of the government really understood what students really want/need, they could make better decisions that would benefit everyone, and test scores would probably be better. I know there has to be a better solution out there than NCLB.

Chapter 6 and Reading Strategies

While reading chapter 6, I had to look to see when this book was written because of some of the YA titles they include in the chapter. It is a little bit older, 2006 or so, which helps me understand why they highlight Twilight and not The Hunger Games. It seems like during my generation YA lit has really exploded. I kind of attribute it to the success of the Harry Potter series. Writers seem to get the idea that if a book appeals to a teen audience, then their parents will, in all likelihood, pick it up too. Many of them do, too. YA isn’t just for teens.   

In groups last week, Dana, Katie, and I discussed that in order to get students at the point where they can digest the classics that teachers like to have kids read, they should read YA to build up to the point where they feel more comfortable with classic works. I love the classics. But there is so much YA out there.

I really was able to connect with the reading strategies. Almost all of them have been done in a classroom I was in as a high school or even as a college student. I have thought about starting the week off with an inspirational thought or story (not a devotional) and having the students free write about the story from their own perspective, or work with that theme for the week. I think that SSR is so important to young readers. Our brains are a muscle that must be exercised like every other muscle, and if it isn’t it will decay. Students need to understand this so maybe they put more into the writing/reading exercises we give them.

I do have one question though. I know why I love to read. It takes me to foreign places and helps me cope with life. How do I make my kids understand how important reading is? I will have to try to be a good example and to make my love be transparent. This idea is something I have been struggling with for a long time. Hopefully I can find the answer to that question in this class.

Chapter 3 and 16

I was not learning anything new in these chapters, but I was reading something that seems obvious, at least to me. It seems unfair to me that kids are not learning things in the classroom that they actually use in real life, and vice-versa. If anything, these gaps are doing nothing but growing farther apart, which as a future educator, really frustrates me. Kids really need to be using the technologies in the classroom that they are comfortable with, and so they might actually enjoy doing their homework or group work outside of class. For my advanced writing profile last semester, we were encouraged to use new or comfortable technologies to make a profile that was unique to our own writing styles. I made a blog on Tumblr, which is a technology I particularly enjoy using outside of class. I feel like I got more out of the assignment because I was making something that I knew no one else could replicate, and I was proud to show it off.
Chapter 3 also brings up the idea of digital natives and digital immigrants, and the difference/distance between the two groups. Digital natives are people that I think of as being currently in 10th grade or lower. These kids have been raised on technology. The digital immigrants are the people our parents’ ages and older who are learning how to use technologies for everyday life, but might not be as comfortable with it as the natives. I feel like my generation is somewhere in the middle, which makes us sympathetic with the older generation, but well-equipped to teach the younger generations. We understand the importance of technologies in the classroom.

Chapter 16 brought up a point that I really like. The book says that teachers work smarter to make kids work harder. This is a good point because some of the older teachers really have to work outside of their comfort zone in an attempt to reach younger students that are more and more accustomed to technologies. This also disagrees with the next point I want to make: there was a statistic in the textbook that said that 85% of students cannot read their textbooks independently, but because of the demands of NCLB, teachers have to assign independent reading anyway.  Students are continuing to not do well because teachers cannot stop in the rigorous teaching they have to do. This is because of the idea of “sanctioned literacies” or the idea that some literacies are better than others. We need younger people in the government working on behalf of education. These younger people would have a much stronger opinion of what realistic literacies are for students, not outdated ones that the older people who work for the government do. People that make up policies for students need to be connected with them.  While NCLB is good in theory, nobody can really learn anything that might help them in real life, which is what students care about. Students drop out of high school because Beowulf has nothing to do with culinary arts or mechanics or medicine that they want to study in later life. We need to connect with our students in new ways if we want them to succeed.

Beers Chapter 10

Chapter 10-Beers book

     While reading this chapter, as I did the previous one, I feel that there is something different about this text book. Like the authors were not living in the fantasy land that other education text book writers are in. They really seem to have an idea of what is out there, and how to get usually disengaged high school students involved in literacy and developing their sense of what literacy means to them as an individual.

     Sometimes, it is so easy to think that these people that write education text books have forgotten what it means to be an elementary/middle/high school student. Having three younger sisters, one of which is a freshman at ONU (who coincidentally hates reading), a middle school aged sister who struggles with ADHD and a sister in preschool who is already yearning to read by herself, I personally understand what it means to address issues that each group of students face. Similarly, the people that write these books have been in advanced English and math classes and do not understand how to approach a student that hates these subjects. My fiancé despises English. Though I was in AP English all through high school with other students that were similarly motivated, I understand through him and his English experience what was wrong with it, and I can bounce my educational thoughts on him to see if that might be something that might have engaged him in the English classroom.

     (I really did read the chapter; I just had to get that off my chest.)

     I love what Beers and the other writers of this textbook do. They understand how important it is to make sure students understand why literacy might be important in their future field of study. When students understand why they are learning something, they might actually show interest in learning a topic. (I still have yet to use derivatives or the quadratic formula in my everyday life. Has anyone seen a parabola recently?)

     The author brings up the fact that literacy is constantly changing, and uses the example of the mechanic. Again, using the example of my fiancé, Keith, his father is a top-notch mechanic. People from our church, where he does not attend, call him regularly to get their cars fixed. While he is good at what he does and understands the ins and outs of car mechanics in a way I could never dream, he cannot find work in a shop because of the changing technologies. It is a real problem, and students need to be aware of it.

Throughout the chapter, the author uses ideas to enhance certain aspects of students’ education in order to help them develop a sense of their own skills and specialties. If a teacher uses these skills when teaching a lesson, students might have the opportunity to try them all, and with the help of other teachers might have the chance to find some things they really like and see themselves using. When students are good at what they are learning, they are also encouraged and motivated to keep moving forward.

     The textbook also addresses the idea that the world in which we live is becoming quickly entangled on itself. There is a sense of doing something in the United States, while being instantaneously received in India or somewhere. The world is really ours for the taking at the push of a button.

     I love the idea that students might be more likely to participate if technology is involved. Blogs and discussion boards are generally not liked by my peers, and I think it’s easier to type something up and turn it in hard copy (though this isn’t very good for the earth). I plan on using technology in my classroom, simply because it’s archaic not to. By using things like power point or publisher, or web sites that allow publishing on them, students are better equipped for the world in which they are headed if they understand that technology is so important in our world.

     Overall, I loved the ideas the chapter had, and I enjoyed reading it, because the text book really seems to epitomize how I feel about a lot of things in education.

For the last year, I have been largely uninspired about teaching. I think I would be better suited to spend my days in a library or a museum archive. Chapter one of the Beers text did stir something inside of me, something I haven’t felt since I was a freshman.

I have always been more interested in the real life stories that are almost always overlooked in a textbook. I think of Derek, and how if he was given the opportunity to feel good about his achievement instead of being told that his improvement simply was not good enough, he might have been encouraged to continue learning. Collin was a unique story too. How often in high school do students question why they are learning things that they think they will never use? This attitude does nothing but hamper intellectual development. If Collin was given the opportunity to write something he cares about, he might have showed his teacher what he was actually capable of.

While still unsure if NCLB helps or hampers educational stimulation, I do realize that kids need to be taught in new and creative ways. By using kids’ interests, teachers might see a new side of what that child is capable of accomplishing, and not what test score deems as adequate. Personally, I am not a good test-taker and I know that to gauge my knowledge of a subject area, give me an essay test. If my teachers knew how to test me to see what I was actually capable of, I might have been given different opportunities in high school. Teachers need to have different ways to test the skills of their students. Only by doing so, can teachers realize the actual areas where students need to improve on their tests and address their interests at the same time.