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.)

Another Student Interview

I had the opportunity to interview yet another of the students in my clinical class this semester. I chose this student because he is alway willing to talk to me about what is going on. He is a bright boy with some issues in his home life and anger. He tries hard in school and once he gets that hang of something he takes off like a shot and gets things done. I asked him a series of nine questions and he answered very thoroughly and very openly.


Do you enjoy school? Sort of. There are only a few good things I like. Going outside, eating lunch, breakfast, and snack, and making something from paper.

What Kind of student are you? I'm ____________ (he said his name.) Me.

What do you do for fun outside of school? Play tag with my friends. I chase them because I want them to be my friend. I spy on people like The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

How would your classmates describe you? I don't know. Sometimes they describe me kinda annoying. Two people don't want to be my friend (then he named names.)

Who are you friends with? What do you and your friends do together? Megan, Levi, Tristan, Breanna, Jasalyn, Corbin, most of my classmate and Mrs. Skinner. We ply games outside, tag an robots.

Tell me a good memory you have about school. Oh, can I tell you about my old school? (my answer: sure.) My greatest memory, Halloween lunch. I was Spiderman every year or The Pumpkin King, from the movie the Nightmare Before Christmas, you know the movie? (My answer: yes, I do it is one of my favorites.) My family, friends and school mates were there and we had pumpkin treats and lunch together.

Tell me a bad memory you have about school. Both schools. I used to have bad luck here (LES.) I was cursed. At my old school there was a mean teacher. She yells a lot.

Describe a “good” teacher or tell me about a favorite teacher you have had in the past. Mrs. Skinner here. She helped me control my anger and she is always there for me. Mrs. Beth at my old school taught preschool. I got to play in the sandbox and she has Toy Story toys.

What is one thing you wish your teacher knew about you? That I really want her to stop giving out homework. That my family is a good family, but she already kinda knows that, and that she will always be my best friend.

The students then went on and told me:
The baddest thing is that they give out homework and make us work here. By the way it is bad luck here. Antwon does not want to be my friend don,da, don. And one last thing, they make me do different work and harder homework.

Double Journal Entry 8

Situated Language and Learning: A Critique of Traditional schooling
Introduction

1. What is the main challenge being addressed in the book?
     The main challenge being addressed in the book is the ways in which people learn and the language that surrounds learning for people. People are intimidated by different things some find school easy and their thing, but others find it unnerving and a "black hole" as the author describes.

2. What does the author mean by the phrase "ways with words"?

     "Ways with words," in this introduction seems to mean that people understand. People have a way with words that helps them to feel comfortable academically with what is being presented to them.

3. What is the core argument being made by the author of this book?

    The core argument being presented in this book to me are that people can learn but everyone is different. Each and every person has something they fully understand and feel comfortable with; if we can use this to help academically then success may be more easily achieved.

4. Give an example of a specialized variety of a language or "way with words" you have learned outside of school?

     I am a ghost hunter outside of my academics. In the hobby I have had to learn the language of ghost hunting. Entities, K2 meters, spirit boxes, mel vibes, all the technology, all the jargon, all the terminology. The trade is not all about running around in the dark; it takes on a scientific aura and requires language and study.

5. According to the author, how do people learn a specialized variety of a language or "way with words" best?

    People learn variety of language or "way of words" by finding something that are good at and using that as a tool to learn and make language less intimidating for the learner.

6. If people are to be successful in the 21st century, what must they become?

   To be successful in the 21st century one must become accustomed to the use of technology in learning and the language that surrounds this technology.

7. The author states that  learning academic language is NOT sufficient for success in modern society? Do you agree? Why or Why not?

     I agree, yet disagree. Some people have a built in understanding of the things that they read no matter what it is. Some people, like me, have a hard time understanding the things I read because of attention span or other reason; to me I feel that I would need to know academic language if I was reading a textbook in order to take information from the author. Another argument for the author is that the way teachers are teaching more and more often now (hands on and such) the focus is learning language through experience.

8. What do you think about this author's "way with words"?

    I like the author's writing style, he is academic and professional yet he writes so that everyone can understand what he is talking about. I feel that he is writing for example. He writes to explain what he is talking about, and writes in the way that he is talking about.

Student Interviews

For the 75 hour clinical we were instructed to interview a high performing student and a low performing student and record the results to nine questions. The students I interviewed were a high performing young boy and a low performing young girl in second grade. In my class of eighteen students there are eight students identified with special needs; none of the students are completely on level so I chose the highest and lowest performers.

Low Performing Student:
Do you enjoy school? Yes
What kind of students are you? Good
What do you do for fun outside of school? Play, ride bikes, play on swing set
How would your classmates describe you? Nice
Who are you friends with? what do you and your friends do together? Jasalyn, Megan, Isaiah, Breanna. "We play games."
Tell me a good memory you have about school. "It's good"
Tell me a bad memory you have about school. "Nothing"
Describe a "good" teacher or tell me about your favorite teacher you have had in the past. Mrs. Skinner (current teacher) "She is nice and she helps."
What is one thing you wish your teacher knew about you? "I try really hard."


High Performing Student:
Do you enjoy school? Yes
What kind of students are you? Good
What do you do for fun outside of school? Play football with friends
How would your classmates describe you? Nice and funny
Who are you friends with? what do you and your friends do together? Tristin, Zach, and Levi. "Play outside"
Tell me a good memory you have about school. "My first day of school"
Tell me a bad memory you have about school.  "My friend got mad at me"
Describe a "good" teacher or tell me about your favorite teacher you have had in the past. Ms. T- "She was nice"
What is one thing you wish your teacher knew about you? "That I am really nice"

 
I learned that really none of the students in my classroom are really "high performing." The High performing students I interviewed was really just the kid who was the most average. My low performing student really seems to have no idea that she is low performing. She really is just happy and smiley and seems to enjoy that her and her sister are now in the same grade. What she does not realize is that her younger sister will most likely pass her up academically. I know now that I will have to work extra hard with the entire class to help these students achieve. My teacher has a very difficult time with 8 of 18 students in her classroom identified as special needs. These students seem to never leave the classroom more then once a day for extra help. I would love to interview one other student in my clinical classroom (that was absent the day I interviewed) to see what he has to say to the questions because he is very open with me about things.

Journal Entry #7

Challenges to Inquiry approach learning:

• Making sure the learning is meaningful and that it is something the students truly care about.
• If the end result is not what the student expected the teacher has to be there to explain what may have happened.
• If the project is huge (like the Borneo Project) the students must be prepared to accept defeats and that things like this are a part of life.
•  Problem based and project based projects take time, a lot of time, to plan and prep.
• Assessment can be a challenge.
• Tools, software, technology may not all be available.
• Community and school factors (parents may question this style of learning.)

There are many challenges to setting up something like this in the classroom but I am sure in the long run the success is worth the time and effort put forth.

Double Entry Journal 6

1. Read the Introduction. What "dominant paradigm" is showing signs of wear?

            “But our schools remain caught in a web of educational thinking and systems that originated a century ago. The instructional model of the teacher and the textbook as the primary sources of knowledge, conveyed through lecturing, discussion, and reading, has proven astonishingly persistent.” The “old fashion” way of teaching is starting to wear off, but this method is not gone. This could very well be due to older teachers retiring, new younger teachers coming in to the schools, and middle aged teachers having enough background with technology to learn and embrace new methods in the classroom. There has also been a shift in teacher role in the classroom. Teachers are not the sole being in charge of learning the students are now finding that they too play a vital role in his or her education.

2. According to the research, how does Project-Based Learning support student learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies.

            Project based learning has students working on things that could realistically happen. This is a project to be presented in some way. “Five key components of effective project-based learning. It is: central to the curriculum, organized around driving questions that lead students to encounter central concepts or principles, focused on a constructive investigation that involves inquiry and knowledge building, student-driven (students are responsible for designing and managing their work), and authentic, focusing on problems that occur in the real world and that people care about.” The students are helped along in the project and typically gain a deeper understanding of the content. The real situation learning students take away from project based learning can be used to solve other problems later in life. Three benefits of Project based learning are: Critical thinking skills can improve (Shepard, 1998.); Improvement of test scores over traditional school children (Boaler 1997, 1998); and the ability to clearly support reasoning ((Stepien, Gallagher, & Workman, 1993.)

3.  According to the research, how does Problem-Based Learning support student learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies.

            Problem based learning uses reasoning and resources to solve real world problems. For problem based learning students work in small groups to solve. There seems to be a little trial and error to problem based learning because the article says that the group keeps coming up with ways until they find the best way to solve the problem. In the problem based learning system students take an active role in their learning. The teacher is to act a model and pose questions and reasoning skill to the students as they work; but the method does have some traditional teaching components to it as well like small lectures. Three benefits of Problem based learning are: higher test scores (Vernon & Blake, 1993; Albanese & Mitchell, 1993); deeper thinking and decision making skills (Lundeberg, Levin, & Harrington, 1999; Savery & Duffy, 1996; Williams, 1992.); and reflection (Darling-Hammond & Hammerness, 2002).

4.  According to the research, how does Learning by Design support student learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies.

            Learning by design is based on the premise that students learn more deeply if they design or create things to show their understanding and apply their knowledge. There are several opportunities in the learning by design process to go back and revise things as knowledge changes. There is collaboration of the students for the project but each student also has his or her own role to play as part of the group. Students are utilizing 21^st century skills in the learning by design process and this could be the most important part of the entire process. Three benefits of Learning by design: 21^st century skills, Understanding of complex systems (Perkins, 1986)., and providing feedback (Hmelo and colleagues 2000.)

5. What are the differences between the three approaches?

            The tree approaches differ in grouping styles, focus of outcome, and the way in which the students are performing the action that go with the project.

6. In your opinion, what is the most important benefit to learning that is common across the three types of inquiry-based learning approaches?

            I think it is very important that students are using real life situations to think and solve problems. I cannot count the number of times I sat in the classroom thinking, “why do I need to know this; I do not know a boy named Juan and a girl named Sally who were cleaning out a well and I don’t care who did it fastest and by how much time.” Those problems killed me as a student. If I were given an issue that I cared about and time to try and figure it out myself or with a group I think I would remember how I came to a solution much easier and more quickly and with a reason for wanting the problem to be solved.

Double Entry Journal 5

The highlighted quote from the article "Reverance" was very powerful to me. People now are forced to listen and some children feel this at school on a daily basis. Students who feel forced to listen to lessons they do not understand or listen to opinions they do not believe in.

Reverent listening is the gathering listeners who want to listen and want to support others. Reverent listening as shown above in the quote should not be used to humiliate and dominate. Reverent listening is a good type of listening.

In high school I had a math teacher who taught in a my way or the highway style. She did not listen to anyone in the class and if you had a question about what was going on in the class you were automatically deemed an idiot and she told you that. She used people from other classes to scare people into doing everything her way. The way she learned it was the way she taught it and it was the "only way to get the right answer." She was a terrible listener and did not offer support. There was no sense of community in the classroom. The environment was cold as ice.

A "laundry list of value ethics" sounds to me like a derogatory phrase used to brush off ethnic values. I am not sure from the reading that I understand this enough to write about it. But if it is meant to ignore and not listen to people who are from a different ethnic background then I believe that it is wrong. All people deserve to be listened to and these people are just trying to learn.

At my elementary, middle and jr. high schools there were quite a few teachers who would listen to everything; all of our concerns, thoughts, and feelings. In particular Miss. Follett, she was always for anyone who needed her. She taught in the same manner. Miss. Follett always made her students feel great and everyone listened and got along, we were a community.

A toxic school culture can ruin education for students. Teachers who are responsive to student needs build a good environment for students to succeed. Toxic schools do not seem to have a sense of community. Students may feel like they are not a part of anything in the school. They feel unlistened to. I don't want to say that these school do not care but it is difficult to imagine they care enough to fix the issues.

"Teachers are leaders,and one of the most important things leaders do is provide fine examples of the practice." I would do anything to help out my students even if i have to reteach something over and over a hundred different ways. I am happy to put myself out there so that my students know I am there for them.

http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2007/09/freedom-in-classroom-2007-intolerance.html I liked this blog because the author of the post used the article we read and put things into perspective for me. I liked how he analyzed things from the article.

Double Entry Journal #4

From the reading Honoring Dialect and Increasing Student performance in Standard English I learned that students should not have their cultural identity taken from them in the classroom. All children are different even if he or she is from the same place. Another good point I took from the reading was that the "wrong way" is not always wrong. Some children need his or her home culture to boost their learning of something new. The students assimilate and accommodate new ideas into the things they already know or rearrange their thoughts to learn. Third, I learned that a dialect can go from being a hindrance to fostering success. I thought the idea of code switching was very interesting. When I thought about it I realized I code switch when I write all the time. I would not write a paper of this blog in the language and manner that I would write a comment or text message to a friend.
Home voices are important- it is who we are the way we communicate. Teachers can build off of student's language to creatively write and build new skills.
"When we encounter linguistic prejudice, some of us dismiss it while others adopt the stereotypes attached to our dialect." Students need to realize that their dialect and culture is never "stupid" or "incorrect" it is a way of communication and should be embraced. Teachers should not try and stop a student from communicating because they may stop communicating altogether for fear of being "wrong."
Why do we have dialect? This is an important question to discuss with students. It would be very interesting to hear student thoughts on the way an area speaks and writes. This is important to the discovering who we personally are socially. People should know his or her heritage because it is a beautiful thing to know who you are.
Students need to know and understand that stereotypes are not all bad; misconceptions make stereotypes bad. Appalachian dialect is a stereotype but Appalachia is not the only region with a prominent dialect.
With a dialect or with out a dialect students still have distinct learning styles that have to be addressed. Teachers will have to be aware of dialect and how his ir her students react to learning "standard English." For example I am visual and auditory; I have to hear it being spoken and see how it is written.
If teachers do not use a wide variety of methods to teach "standard English" students may turn from the desire to learn the concept. Students may also be under the impression that they already speak/write in "Standard English." 
Students should be encouraged to embrace his or her culture. Some teachers may try and void students of his or her culture in a school setting and this seems hindering to me. we are all different no matter how similar we are. Those with cultures very different from the norm of the area should be even more encouraged to share his or her culture with others.
Students could research his or her culture and use their new skills to create a more formal presentation about it. This could teach children to embrace their culture while embracing new skills. Students could present their finding to the class to show how different we all really are from one another. 
Teachers should know his or her own background and show true interest in all cultures.
The more knowledge students have about our world the more children will learn to be open minded citizens in our ever changing society.
Students can learn from each other. Some students are actually more receptive to learning from his or her peers.
When teachers group students in learning groups he or she can work closer to students and hear opinions in a smaller setting. Students may open up more to others in a smaller setting.
Student perspective should be heard and discussed. Students all have thoughts about subjects and this should be embraced. Classmates can talk and discuss issues but there needs to be rules and boundaries to discussion.
Students can also write about their perspectives and share perspectives if they wish.
Students need to learn to be listeners. Teachers could do listening activities and listening sessions.
Teachers could do lessons on listening skills.
Literacy instruction in the elementary/middle school consisted of basil readers, weekly readers, worksheets, story writing (stories were corrected completely when handed back and a final copy rewritten using the teacher's corrections.) This is all we really did that I remember until we began the Accelerated Reader program. This consisted of reading a book on our "level" and testing for points and if we did not reach our point goal we were given a bad grade that in no way reflected our abilities.

I found the website: http://knowledgeloom.org/practices3.jsp?location=1&bpinterid=1110&spotlightid=1110 . This site explain Culturally Responsive Teaching and thing that teachers should be aware of when teaching in this manner.

Works Cited:
Epstein, P., Herring- Harris, L. (2011, September 15). Honoring dialect and increasing student performance in standard english. Retrieved from http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3655

Culturally responsive teaching. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://knowledgeloom.org/practices3.jsp?location=1&bpinterid=1110&spotlightid=1110

Photo Story Assignment

Photo Story Amber King

Poem for Photostory

I am from Coca-Cola decorations, from Valley High school Friday nights, and singing lessons.
I am from the big white house with columns on the porch that always smells like autumn.
I am from the tiger lilly flowers at Nan and Pap's, and the best friend I've known all my life.
I am from Christmas Eve and dark brown eyes, from Nita and Rob. The Trader's and the King's.
I am from two silly brothers and an adorable niece.
From small town values and many laughs.
I am from a small church of 15 people, Brother Gary and Sister Darlene.
I'm from Wetzel County with an English, German, Irish and American Indian heritage; Alabama biscuits and homemade noodles.
From the time Brady chased a flamingo at Six Flags, to Uncle Allen's Christmas shirt collection, all of Grandma Barbara's elections, and the day Marc proposed.
I am from trips to the mountains, rock candy suckers, swimming pools, family get togethers, and my nieces smiles.
I am from ghost hunting with friends, trips to the mall, and sitting on the front porch with Pap.

Double Entry Journal #3

I had a thought on intelligence while reading Context for Understanding: Educational Learning Theories. The reading said "This justified the belief that certain groups were intelligently inferior to others, particularly to the group in charge." I hope I am not taking this completely out of context but this is how I feel people from West Virginia are thought of. We are seen as an inferior people. Industry also thinks of us in this way; they come in use our resources and work our people but we rarely see the benefits. This makes us inferior to the main "group." My big question is what do we consider "intelligence?"  Book smart/College Educated or Common sense/Street smart? What one group can determine if someone is intelligent or not without really knowing that person?

1. Elementary reading instruction contributes to poor literacy in older children because most students are only taught the processes of reading with no follow up. Students are not reading for comprehension or reading to be challenged both of which lead to improvement in literacy.

2. Reading test scores are good for acknowledging we have a problem with reading and causing a fuss about it. I personally do not believe that standardized test scores can accurately gauge a students knowledge and performance. Some students are not good test takers, some students are excellent guessers, and some students actually know the material and are good test takers.

3. Myth: School writing is essentially an assessment tool that enables students to show what they have learned. This may be true but writing is not just an assessment tool but can be a gateway to creativity. I am a mentor for the Energy Express program in the summer and my kids show so much improvement through creativity in the summer. My kids love to write crazy, fun, imaginative stories each day and share them with me. They seem to want to write more and more each day.

4. Teaching reading in the content areas is a very important task that some content teachers do not believe is their position. All teachers are reading teachers; if a teacher wants a student to be able to read and comprehend information then the teacher needs to strive to make sure the students have a knowledge of the reading skills it takes to accomplish the task.

5. Being crafty was not acknowledged in my school. I am a scrapbooker and not many people know the skill and literacy it takes to turn out a great product. I have to read rulers, recognize pattern, write captions correctly and ledgably, look at lines for straightness, and become and editor before I publish a page.

6. An example of a literacy practice that I found is doing exactly what I am doing right now, writing a blog. Blog are a way to have students write that not only teaches and practices literacy but helps them gain technology skills.

7. A discourse community is a grouping of people who have similar interests. For example I am part of the Pinterest discourse community, the old men you find in McDonald's for coffee each morning are a discourse community, bikers are a discourse community, teachers are a discourse community, and students are a discourse community. Many people fall into multiple discourse communities.

8. If students literacies are not recognized as valuable in the schools then students may give up on the things that motivated their literacies and kept them engaged in the first place. If you take away the engagement then the student may feel as if they are not learning or they may feel uninterested and could fail.

9. a teacher could build in extracurricular literacy by having a current events activity often in the classroom. Students would have the opportunity to do research and execute project using their multiple literacies.

10. When I was in fifth grade my Language Arts teacher always had us do creative writing. We could write about anything we wanted to. The stress was to bring out our ideas and ignore the procedure for the time being. When we finished our writing we would go back and fix everything we saw that needed changed or fixed and then she would lend us a hand and making the rest of the corrections. She wanted us to learn the procedure but she did not drill that procedure was the most important thing. She valued our thoughts and ideas more than the procedure.

11. My schools were a unmulticultural as schools could get. We had one African American student in the entire school and he was a white teachers son. He was a very nice kid and most everyone liked him. But being where I am from there were some racist things that surfaced. I remember all of our teachers talking about racism, what it was, who it was used, and why it was used. 

12. Teachers who gain recognition and respect from their peers also do well on critical thinking, diversity, independence in the classroom, caring, creativity, commitment, professional development, classroom management, and a host of other things.  

Bolima, D. (n.d.). Context for understanding: Educational learning theories. Retrieved from http://staff.washington.edu/saki/strategies/101/new_page_

Adolescent literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Positions/Chron0907ResearchBrief.pdf

Lareau, A, Weininger, E. (n.d.). Cultural capital. Retrieved from http://www.brockport.edu/sociology/faculty/Cultural_Capital.pdf

Huggins, C. (2010, March 25). Cash for culture can boost uk economy, says art alliance. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/mar/25/uk-arts-cash-recession

Cartoon: I'm with stupid. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5511104

Double Entry Journal #2

Double Entry Journal 2

"Again and again we conclude that in developed countries and in third-world countries, learners from impoverished and low-status groups fail to develop as fully and productively literate as compared to learners from sociocutural groups that hold sociopolitical power and favor."

         I had a strong reaction to this quote simply because of where I am from. I live in Wetzel county where most everyone exhibits the same dialect and actions. There are many families where I am from who are no where near the middle class status who have children or where children who have rose to excel in life. I will admit that the school system in which I was accustom was very lack luster so many time we learned through our own curiosity. The deemed "smart" children in my area were mainly self taught in the school and at home.  The text makes some reference to how some children in poverty have parents who cannot read or write. Illiteracy of a parent can make it hard on a learning child because the parent cannot offer aid to the child. This do not deem a child unteachable. Comparing low status group and third world countries does not seem like a justifiable comparison to me. Third world countries often lack a system of educating children if this comparison was true then we would simply be calling our country lazy and ignorant. Countries with no education system have a viable excuse for the non-education of children; Americans have the opportunity to a free appropriate public education and no matter the issue we are supposed to work to help the child succeed. If a child is deemed unteachable then he or she is denied their right to a free appropriate public education.
       An example of a low status student I worked with that shattered the bound of this stereotype was a young boy I worked with in the Energy Express program. Upon meeting this boy I was sucked into stereotype. The program mainly holds a reputation for working with low income, slow learning, and reading deficient students. I arrived with our reputation in mind and began to talk to this boy. He was 9 years old and  I could tell he was scoping me out before he began to speak. The first thing he said to me was that he was a 4.0 student who was reading on a 12th grade level and also had a photographic memory. I was very shocked as I looked around the boys home. The thirteen member family resided in a small apartment with only five rooms. The boy was the most mature of his family and took care of his younger brothers and sisters. The were all very dirty children and ate like they had not eaten in months during meals. At program the boy would say that he taught himself to read by listening to the people around him speak. He learned the sounds that people would say and learned to associate it with the letters that represented the sound. He was the most bright child I have ever met and came from a home with dirt floors.
      To me it seems that literacy knowledge knowing words, writing words and understanding. Children have to know all three to be considered literate. Literacy can include reading signs, posters, books, or anything with text, but a big part of literacy is recognition. Simply recognizing a symbol from a commercial, movie, or favorite toy company is a building block to literacy. stereotypes can affect instruction in many ways. For example if an educator assumes one is slow because of the way he or she speaks the educator may try to compensate for the delay by teaching more slowly or thoroughly even if it is not needed. If an educator buys into stereotype and assumes all students from an area are the same intelligence level and are "unteachable" that educator will most likely not put all of their time and effort in the education of the students. This is very unnerving to think about as a future educator not giving all of my students the opportunity to learning and gain experience. The entire state of West Virginia is a misconception about language and literacy. I know people who can barely be understood when they speak but when they engage in thoughtful conversation are smart as a tack and make very valid points. I do not understand how people judge us for our accent and way of speech. We are not the only state who carries and accent and a pattern of speech. Schools and teachers need to band together to improve the literacy of all students in the state and country. Students can even be given roles in helping their fellow students learn to be literate. I do not necessarily believe in the use of "Proper English"  simply because as it stands right now I do not have a full grasp of it myself. These are the things that I do not believe are taught in some of the schools in my area. I do not remember ever being exposed to "Proper English."
      " My own father spent his life backing up, apologizing for the space he took up in the world. He took the hillbilly stereotype to heart and all of his life believed that he was backward and inferior -- a despair I, too, have been trying to escape all of my life."

        To me this quote is something that all West Virginians can relate to. The older community of the state can still remember the times they were referred to as hillbillies. I do not believe that the people from our past considered themselves to be hillbillies they considered themselves to be independent hard working people who defended what their families worked hard for. Where we come from there are many wild animals so yes, it is common to see our people carrying shotguns around  for protection not to kill outsiders. People from West Virginia are hard working and earn a living doing mainly dangerous jobs. "Outsiders" are making fun of us for our speech and way of life when are busting our backs to heat their homes. People of the younger generation are simply trying to show the rest of the world that we are no different from them. To me it seems like the accent have let up a little from past years. I think there have been a push to speak without the accent to sound more professional. No matter how we speak though, the people have West Virginia have pride for our state and will defend our colors no matter the stereotype attached.

Works Cited:
Purcell Gates, V. (2002). As soon as she opened her mouth. In L. Delpit & J.K. Dowdy (Eds.), in the skin that we speak: An anthology of essays on language culture and power.

O'Brien, J. (2003, May 10). Tall tales of appalachia. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/10/opinion/tall-tales-of-appalachia.html

Stereotypes. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.wvsportsnation.com/2012/02/welcome-to-west-virginia.html

Double Entry Journal 1

Inclusion to me means working together as a team to help those in need to learn. All students have a role in inclusion along with teachers, stuff, parents and all those involved in the school community. Students in need can include special education students, bilingual students, students in poverty, minority students, students with mental health issues, among others. In the article the authors stressed how everyone had a role in the idea of inclusion. When students get involved in their education and their future they take so much from the experience and learn about themselves and the rewards of helping others.  These students can benefit from teachers and the other students in so many ways. Sometimes all it takes is for a student in need to talk to another student that can bring it to a level  they understand.
Inclusive schools work hard with teachers and communities to foster learning for students is needs. Schools have to have a great sense of community and show that students and all community members are respected. Schools must also use a language that all students can understand.

http://www.paulakluth.com/
This is a blog about everything education. There are ideas and thought about practicing inclusion in the classroom. I liked her enthusiastic approach to helping students succeed.

 kluth, P. ( 2012). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.paulakluth.com/2012/06/01/3-questions-keys-to-inclusion/