Double Entry Journal 14

Chapter 7: Shape-Shifting Portfolio People * Chapter 8 A final Word the content fetish

1. What was the most interesting idea you encountered as you read the chapter? I really liked the part about educational shows for children. I absolutely loved Barney growing up and my little brother watched Bear in the Big Blue House. These two shows focused a lot on social emotional issues and things if that nature. My one year old niece is in total awe of Dora the Explorer. Dora teaches a little bit of everything and a foreign language. I think it is reall good of Nick Jr. and Disney Jr. to begin teaching children at a young age. I think this can foster a love of learning for a lifetime.

2. What connections can you make between Gee's critique and Sir Ken Robinsons' critique of traditional schooling? Gee and Robinson both endorse the idea of letting students express themselves  their way, on their terms. They like the idea of letting students learn through the things that they are interested in.

3. How did this book change or support your understanding of good teaching? Good teaching is so many things, but this book has gone to further my belief that you have to engage and interest students in their learning. If students are bored all the time and do not want to do the work then those students are not going to want to put forth the effort. In my placement I did a lot of hands-on activities because of the special needs of the room I was in. I tailored my lessons to fit all the students and they were all very excited to get to do these sorts of lessons.

Double Journal Entry 13

Double Entry Journal #13
Chapter 6: Affinity Spaces

1. Give an example of a "community of practice" in which you are currently participating in. I am a member on AmeriCorps (active in the Energy Express Program). We teach over the summer and try to help children gain a love for reading while also participating in many community service projects.

2.Why is the term "community" better defined in relation to spaces rather than groups of people? Label are thrown around according to the author. If they label the people of the community it tends to look like everyone in the community is that way but if they label the place it doesn't seem quite as bad.

3. What is a "generator"? What is it's counterpart in school? A Generator is the space. Examples of this are teachers, books, student materials and more.

4. What is a "content organizer"? What is it's counterpart in school? Content organizer is the design of the content presented. It can take place in discussion form, activities, labs, circles and many more forms.

5. What is a "portal"? What is it's counterpart in school? a portal is a way of accessing the content. Portal can be used in either in groups or individually. Students can engage in thoughtful work, lads, discussions and more.

6. What do people have an "affinity" for in an "affinity space"? How does this inform your understanding of good teaching?

7. How do "affinity spaces" support inclusive classrooms? Choose two characteristics below to make connections between "affinity spaces" and inclusive classrooms. It is all about interests in things. Good teacher can take into consideration the interests if their students and work to accommodate these into teaching.
 A Sense of Community - An inclusive school is a school where every child is respected as part of the school community, and where each child is encouraged to learn and achieve as much as possible. In order to achieve that sense of belonging for each child, many schools have found that fostering a sense of community is of primary importance. A good teacher can take interesting engaging activities and build a community of learners and these students will become learners who care and have a love of learning.
 Parents as Partners - A significant addition observed in inclusive schools is the solid
inclusion of parents as full members of the school team. Recognizing the valid perspective
of parents, addressing their concerns and dreams for their child, and incorporating their wishes into the educational plan are all aspects of a successful problem-solving team.Parents are interested in the education of his ir her children. Parents for the most part want to help out if they are able. Getting parents involved in the school can boost the want for students to do their best so that their parents can see how hard they can work and how bad they want to achieve. It can build a bond between parents and their children.

8. How are traditional classroom different from Affinity Spaces? The traditional classroom is children sitting in seats and doing work, affinity spaces lead to students working together and sharing ideas rather than keeping everything to themself.

Fostering High Quality Formative Assessment

 Formative assessment is assessment that is ongoing. This occurs before, during and after instruction is complete. Learning is student centered in this approach and is an assessment for learning  (not an assessment of learning.) Formative assessments can be formal or informal and feedback rather than number scores can be given to the students.

The central purpose of formative assessments is the feedback , like "comments only" given to the students. Students can receive good quality feedback from a formative assessment in place of a score. Students are given the opportunity to take the lead in formative assessment and good feedback can help them see exactly what they are achieving and what they can do to improve. 

I believe that the practice of student centered learning can connect to the research based strategy of reinforcing effort. Students are being held accountable for his or her learning in formative assessment there for if they do not put the effort into their learning and success it can lead to failure in the assessment. If the students are encouraged and reassured they will put forth the effort to succeed.

. If the students in a classroom are given the assignment to write a paper about one the presidents of the United States they would be given the opportunity to write rough drafts, turn those in to receive feedback, conduct peer and self evaluations, hold a conference with the teacher, and possibly turn them in two or more times before they hand them in for an actual grade.

My students did an project with me this morning on the life cycle of the frog. When the lesson began we talked about how things are babies before they become adults. I then gave them cards with the life cycle printed on them and not having seen the life cycle of the frog before they had to try and put the cycle in order, they were allowed to consult me but I would not tell them what order anything went in until they were correct completely. I would give hints but I would not directly tell them. After they made corrections the students had to draw the cycle they decided on and submit it for a summative grade.

When providing feedback one must remember to provide good and helpful feedback. Also it is good to give positive feedback so the confidence is boosted and not torn down.

Two advantages of high quality formative assessment are that students are given a real role of responsibility and that teachers can see what students are motivated and help build the motivation of the ones who show less.

Some of the challenges of providing formative assessment are time (it is very time consuming for the students because of drafts and final products and time consuming for the teacher because they have to provide feedback to all of the students,) and parents, parents may think that the teacher is not teaching when using this method because it is student driven.

Double Journal Entry #10

Double Entry Journal #10
Chapter 3: Language and Identity At Home

1. What are the features of the forms of language that are spoken in a home environment that align with academic varieties of language? Children can take on the role of speaking like an adult when telling literary stories, children's use of explicit language, and adults reading to children. 

2. What are the features of Leona's specialized form of language? Leona uses parallel lines in her story, she broke down her story into stanzas, she uses her vernacular in the wording of the story (she wrote it exactly how she would say it.) This is most likely a product of her home life or "social group: according to the author.

3. Why is Leona's specialized form of language not accepted in school? Leona's story was broken down in a way that it made it almost poetic instead of story like. She used her vernacular in the story/poem which is almost discouraged in the school setting. She write in the manner that she speaks and hear things which gives her and 'uneducated sound.' But I am sure this is not the case. 

4. Explain the contradiction between the research conducted by Snow et al. (1998) and the recommendations made by Snow et al. (1998). Snow contradicts himself by stating that the "Black/White gaps" was closing from the 60's until the 80's. But the research showed that the children who were part of the lower or poverty level achieved lower.

5. What other factors besides early skills training will make or break good readers? Belonging to the group is a big factor that can make or break good readers. One of the students in my classroom does not feel like he belongs with the other students and he does not try to read or want to try. He only cares about making the other students like him and he shy's from reading and writing.

6. Why do some children fail to identify with, or find alienating, the "ways with words" taught in school? Students find this alienating because they are not accustomed to this way of words in the home. Some students feel low when they do not know what the teachers are saying to them. The feel alienated and disengaged from the group.

Double Entry Journal Entry #12

Double Entry Journal #12
Chapter 5: Learning and Gaming

1. What is the main argument the author is making in Chapter 5. Video games can be a great segway to learning and teachers can use the concepts of video games in the classroom to enhance learning. Children love video games and take pride in learning and achieving in the video games. If teachers can make students feel this way about school then much more meaningful learning can take place.

2. What constitutes a theory of learning? To create a theory of learning the teacher must know what they believe about learning and what they expect of the learners in the classroom. The teacher can then add in ways they plan on teaching.

3. Why did the author struggle to learn to play Warcraft III? What needs to proceed
before good learning principles? He thought it was too hard at first, he had to learn more about the game before he could play better; where his brother picked right up on the game.


4. How would have the authors struggle with learning to play Warcraft III been
interpreted in school? It was a precursor to future learning in the game and in school. It can scale the learning from failing to high level learning.


5 What kind of learning experience might be better suited for at risk students? Students need to make choices in their learning. Students need to be engaged in learning.


6. Why does the school-based interpretation of "at risk" lead to bad learning? When a student becomes labeled they tend to fall into that label. Students who attain the label "at risk" know that failure is a stereotype that fall with those students. "At risk" sounds very negative to me from personal experience. When I was in high school there were many classmates who had this label attached to them. They would tell you them self that as soon as the label was attached to them they received less help and guidance. Not always from the teacher but school in general and from them self. Some felt that the label  was a get out of jail free card that said I am "at risk" so I don't have to do anything.


7. What do schools need to do to function more like a good game? Schools need a good, well designed program to function like a good game.


8. What is different about how good games and school assess learners? Games assess learning in lives and challenges accomplished, school assess learning by testing.


9. What is a fish tank tutorial? It is a set of stages that progress to an advanced level to go with advancements in skills.

Double Journal Entry #11

Chapter 4:Simulations and Bodies

1. What does the author mean when he says, "Learning doesn't work well when learners are forced to check their bodies at the school room door like guns in the old West." To me this means that learning is minimal when students are forced to sit and watch in the classroom like statues. Students who are engaged in learning with bodies and minds can take much more meaningful learning from a lesson. For students with learning difficulties and those without sitting and not engaging in learning is boring and difficult. Some students may feel as if they are sitting in class with Charlie Brown as the lesson just WA WA WA's its way to the end.

2. According to the author, what is the best way to acquire a large vocabulary? The author says that real world experiences and using vocabulary can build vocabulary. Reading is also talked about as a means of building vocabulary, but reading alone cannot be relied on to extend student vocabulary.

3. What gives a word a specific meaning? Words are given specific meaning by how they are used. In the English language in general one word can have multiple meaning and generally the only way to know what meaning the word takes on it has to be read in a context. In the book the example of coffee is given as a liquid, grounds, and cans and depending on what happened to the coffee in each sentence there were different methods of clean up required. If details were not given in the sentence, then the reader would be unaware of what he or she is dealing with.

4. What does the term "off the hook" mean in each of these sentences?
a. My sister broke up with her fiance, so I'm off the hook for buying her a wedding present. My sister broke up with her fiance, so now I don't have to buy a wedding gift; what a relief.
b. Them shoes are off the hook dog. Them shoes are awesome dog.
c. Man that cat was fighting 6 people and he beat them all. Yo, it was "off the hook", you should have seen it!! Man that cat was fighting 6 people and he beat them all. Yo, it was crazy, you should have seen it!!

5. According to the author what is the"work" of childhood? Do you agree? Play, I agree because when children are playing they are learning from  one another. This is important to to building social interactions between children.

6.Why is NOT reading the instruction for how to play a game before playing a game a wise decision? One may not know the language of the manual before playing the game. If the player has a handle on the language then it will be easier to read and gain meaningful information from the instructional booklet. 

7. Does knowing the general or literal meaning of a word lead to strong reading skills? People need more than a literal meaning for words as they are reading so that there is room for interpretation. No one takes the same thing from the written word. Literal means are here for a reason but can lead to problems when faced with new never before seen materials. General means leave the words open to interpretation and help the readers to build meaning.

8. What does the author mean by the terms "identity" and "game". Give an example of 3 "identities" or "games" you play? I play the role of teacher when I walk into my clinical class, gamers play the role of the character they play as in the game, The president plays the role of commander and chief but at home he may play the role of father. 

9. According to the author what is good learning? Meaningful learning where students can navigate words and create meaning and uses successfully.

10. How does understanding that being able to build a mental model and simulations of a real-word experience is closely tied  to comprehending written and oral language support of change the way you think children should learn in school? Real experiences aid in comprehension because it is putting the student directly into the subject of the lesson. They were there, they did that, they understand how it went and why. I is huge when a student has an experience they can build meaning off of. 

11. Why is peer to peer interaction so important for the language development of young children? How does knowing this support or change the way you think children should learn in school? Students depend on teachers for learning but many have learned that depending on their peers is an even more helpful. Some students can learn more easily of they have someone on their level (or someone who can explain something on his or her level) reteach the material to them. This is a great opportunity to use think pair share or shoulder buddies to discuss what is going on in the lesson or unit of study. 

Double Entry Journal 9

Chapter 1: A strange fact about not learning to read.

1. What is the strange fact about not learning to read? Some professionals believe that there is a link between poor reading and race and class. There is a grouping of children who fall into a reading category and some of these labeled poor children do not fall into the category and therefore do not read. 

2. Why is this fact so strange? Because learning to read should have no bearing on where you come from. People are people and all people can learn one way or another (possibly excluding major cases of neurological problems.) It seems to me like some people are just wanting to write off and give up on children because they are a certain socioeconomic status or race. I happen to know a very gifted young man who is of very low socioeconomic status.

3. What is it about school that manages to transform children who are good at learning things like Pokeman into children who are not good at learning? We drill and kill phonics and things into the curriculum and forget about the things that interest and motivate student learning. 

4. What is the differences between a traditionalists approach to learning to read and more progressive educators? Traditionalists want to maintain the drill and kill learning of phonics to foster reading programs. They think that students are not getting enough practice on the sounds and letters that make up the words they are reading. They want to build skills, as the book says "assembly line" the skills where one builds off the other in order to learn to read. Progressive educators value a more meaning driven approach. Students should make meaning of what they are reading. It is more of a whole language approach to learning.

5. Is learning to read a natural process like learning to speak a language? Whole language advocates say that learning to read is like learning to speak. One picks up the ability to read like they pick up the ability to speak; by seeing and hearing others doing it.Linguists say other wise, they say that reading is not a natural occurance in life and that is has to be taught in some form or another.

6. What is the differences between natural, instructed and cultural processes and which process should reading be classified under? Natural occurs on its own and is picked up over time. Instructed is teaching one how to do something. Cultural is when a culture deems something useful and makes sure that all in their culture learn it. Reading can become an instructional process, but works much better as a cultural process.

7. How do humans learn best? Through instructional processes or through cultural processes? How is reading taught in school? Learning is better through the cultural process but schools generally try to turn it into an instructional process. Reading is taught by learning skills in the schools which takes on a more instructional process.

8. According to the author, what is the reason for the "fourth grade slump." Fourth grade students can read the words but some fail to read for comprehension when the materials begin to become challenging. 

9. What is a better predictor of reading success than phonemic awareness? early language ability, this is a poor term to use though according to the author.

10. What is the difference between "vernacular" and "specialist" varieties of language? Give an example of two sentences, one written in the vernacular and one written in a "a specialized variety",  about a topic in your content area. Vernacular is used in face to face everyday conversation and specialized are used for special events like academics, talking about something that has it's own language (video games.) "We went on a field trip yesterday and I sat with Lucy and Kaila, and Jenny, and Katie, and Megan." "My class went on a field trip yesterday. On the bus ride I sat with my friends."

11. What is "early language ability" and how is it developed? Early language ability is the developing of skills that can aid in the learning. Most students enter school understanding stories and things of that nature. This is an acquired ability that is learned through experience.

12. According to the author why and how does the traditionalist approach to teaching children to read fail? The traditionalists focus on the skills. They tend to teach drill and kill. They teach skills and how to read the words but it is not focused on making meaning from the words the students are reading.

13. Are parents of poor children to blame for their children's inexperience with specialized varieties of language before coming to school? No, not in my opinion. Some students who are "poor" have very good language and reading skills. Parents can only do so much at home for language and learning skills because they themselves my only have a limited language from their life and school time. some parents do the best they can to help.

14. Did you struggle with reading this text? Why? Are you a poor reader or are you unfamiliar with this variety of specialized language? I did not really have any trouble reading this text, I kind of enjoy reading some of the points that Gee makes in his writing. I am pretty good with the language things and I did understand the all of the Pokemon references (I never played the games but Pokemon was huge when I was about 10 years old.)