Podcast

I was very weary of podcasting before we podcasted our literature circle on Friday. That fear was based on ignorance. I didn't know how it worked and was quite skeptical regarding its educational value. I saw how easy it was after completing one and I began to think how this could really benefit me in a Social Studies classroom. I think this strategy would be very beneficial for oral reports. and presentations. It would be a change of pace from having students stand up and just present. With the podcast they could create their own radio or talk show related too something about history. This would also be beneficial for having students demonstrate to their parents and the school administration what they have been learning in class. I will definitely incorporate this technology in my classroom because it is not only effective, but very easy to set up!

Chapter 5 BPR/ Discussion

As a teacher I am always looking for new ways to start discussion in my classroom. I think discussion is pivotal for learning and understanding social studies. I have employed many different types of discussion such as whole class, fishbowl, and Socratic seminar. I view myself as a moderator by posing questions that direct the students to particular issues or gets them to explore issues more in depth. SO in essence I agree with the statement in Chapter 5 that says the teachers role in a discussion is to keep it organized and keep it flowing. However, I do have a problem with creating a rubric for discussion. How do I grade someone in a discussion. Traditionally, I have just graded for participation, but would it be possible to grade based on the quality of each students contribution or would that alienate some students from participating?

Chapter 7 BPR

I am left with questions after reading Janet Allen's example of how we can use vocab instruction to increase content knowledge. The example assignment titled The Poop on Poop made me question whether the student would really delve into a discussion about the words or rather look in the back of the text book or dictionary to find the word and quickly finish the assignment. How could we structure an assignment like that so that students would be engaged in a discussion over vocabulary words? I also like the idea of the graphic organizer but that could consume a great deal of instruction time in order to get through it. Could you pretest for vocabulary words related to the unit you are teaching and then have students create graphic organizers over the vocabulary words that most students didn't know?

Chapter 15 BPR

As I was reading this chapter(p.237) I asked myself the question, Are we in the business to provide immediate gratification for students and does this prepare them for life? I feel like that we as a society rely too much on instant gratification. The current upswing in bankruptcies in the United States is an example. Too many people wanted to buy too many expensive houses and they didn't want to wait for them. We also see people with more debt than ever before. Are these traceable to our values that we instill in our kids in school?

Chapter 10 BPR

In this chapter Jim Burke discussed using the internet to have open threaded discussions. I like this idea because he said it was designed to compliment the instruction in the class. He used an example of this when he talked about summer reading. Burke stated that the transcript from this discussion was over forty pages long. That is amazing! As a teacher I think this idea is good because when I lead discussions I spend a great deal of time probing. By being able to read a transcript I can cut my probing time down because I know the hot spots of the discussions. In fact, a teacher could use the transcript to guide much of the discussion regarding an issue.

NCLB and Literacy (Chapter 1)

In the first chapter of the book Adolescent Literacy, Beers attacks No Child Left Behind saying that the program does not take into consideration various backgrounds of children. The example of Derek shows how students can really work to improve their ability, and still not be considered "adequate" in the eyes of the federal government. However, the government faces a double edged sword. For example in the business world if you don't make the sale you don't make the sale, it doesn't matter how hard you tried. That mentality is what the federal government must deal with when speaking to its constituency. Furthermore, everybody wants better schools, but most don't want to pay higher taxes. While I believe that there should be better means to help children, I am not against setting benchmarks for children's success.