Vocabulary Readings
I found this article to be very helpful and full of useful information! Morphology is something that I do not remember learning a lot of during my schooling career. Morphology is something that students need to be aware of when learning new vocabulary. I think that if students are aware of morphemes they will be more able to get a better and deeper understanding of words and their meanings. It was stated in the article that morphemes is tied in with reading comprehension when students get into the 4th and 5th grade. Students that have a greater knowledge of Morphemes also have a greater knowledge and understanding of Reading Comprehension and get higher scores when testing is completed. Furthermore, teaching our students about Morphemes will be very helpful to them in their futures. If students are aware of morphemes they will be able to become successful readers and writers.
IRI and Struggling Readers
IRI and Integrating Instructional-Level Social Studies Trade Books for Struggling Readers in Upper Elementary Grades.
IRI is known as Informal Recognition Inventory which consists of three different assessment tasks: WRI (Word Recognition Inventory), QWIK (Spelling) and Passing Readings. IRI is a way to assess students to see what kind of reading level they on are. By assessing students to find their reading level, parents and teachers can work more with students to help them achieve their goals for a better reading level. Yes, it is very hard to assess all 20 plus students in a classroom. However, teachers can give a Spelling Assessment to the entire class and it would simply take about 15 minutes (maybe more or less depending on the grade level). Teachers that need to assess students and are unable to find the time could ask for a volunteer to come in and help out with the WRI, which can simply be done on the computer, or with the Passage Readings which do not take very long at all. Assessing students during the first week of school is a necessity for teachers so they know what kind of reading level their students are on. Without knowing their reading level, teacher would have to guess on where they think each student should be. If teachers had to guess reading levels, students would not properly be taught and may never get anywhere in their reading career. The article stated that even though students are on different reading levels they are still ALL able to be included in a lesson. In a classroom, if there are three different reading level groups, the teacher should have three different books that fit each reading level. This way each student is able to learn about the same topic at the same time. (This also makes it easier for teachers; teachers will not be teaching the same lesson 3 different times.)
Yes, there are some students that are not on the reading level that they should be. However, I feel that students who have a hard time trying to read and are asked to read in front of the ENTIRE class will end up feeling embarrassed and they will not want to continue to expand their reading skills. I think that teachers who know that students will not be comfortable reading aloud should not ask that student to read; if the student volunteer to read that would be outstanding and as a future teacher that would be the first student that I would call on to read. Students that are not good at doing something become easily frustrated with that task and do not want to continue with it. When students are asked to read and the teacher continues to push the student, the student will become very frustrated and angry at the situation. From personally experience, when I try to do something and it does not work out the way that I would like it to, I have to leave that task and return later; otherwise, I would never finish a task that is frustrating to me!
Poetry Response
Let me start off my saying that I think creating an I Poem is a wonderful activity for students to do inside of the classroom. By having students create their own poem and using their imagination they are tying in background knowledge of that certain topic into the poem. Throughout writing my poem about Blackbeard I learned facts about him that I had never learned before. I Poems are a great way for students to expand their experience in writing poetry as well as expanding their background knowledge of any topic.
I found the PowerPoint to be very useful when learning about I Poetry. I enjoyed looking at students’ art and think that puting their work in a big book is an excellent idea to display their poems. Another part of the PowerPoint that I found useful was the few slides that described the three different parts of Instructional Framework. The directions for the three steps are written out clearly enough to understand them and also to feel comfortable enough to use it inside of the classroom. By reading the information on the PowerPoint I now have a better understanding on Vocabulary with Pre and Post I Poems.
I have never really thought much of 2 voice Poems, but by reading the I Poetry Webpage, I learned more about them. I think that these poems would be a wonderful way to partner students on the first few days of school and have them work together to learn about each other and then present their poem to the class.
Any kind of poetry is art work where children are able to express their opinions, imagination and characteristic views. Poetry can be written about anything in a child’s life and is a great way for a child to express their feelings. Poems are also a great way for teachers to get their students involved inside of the classroom. On the I Poetry Webpage I read that poems can be a great “icebreaker” for the first day of school. Some students have a hard time of the first day of a new school year, but if those students are able to create something that expresses them they may find it easier to open up to their new class and be more self-confident.
Internet Workshop and Blog Publishing
I found that this article was very easy to read and understand, which is very nice when reading such an article with very in-depth length. With having examples of websites throughout the article it was nice to go to the websites to visit them and learn more about what the article was explaining. I like the idea of publishing the students’ work on a blog. I think that parents would find this idea to be very positive because they would be able to see their child’s work by simple going to a website. It is also a good way for the students to stay connected outside of the classroom and communicating about something that is educational.
Pirates….
I enjoyed reading both articles at the beginning of our Pirate Journey. I think that it is a great idea considering how much history North Carolina has with pirates and such….including Blackbeard! The articles gave great information that I would love to use in my own classroom with a pirate unit. I think that doing a Pirate unit in the classroom would get students involved; pirates are very interesting and fun to learn about. I think that the DED or Double Entry Diary (from the Pull-Out) is a great concept to use in the classroom. By doing DED, students are able to compare facts with their own opinions. DED could also be used with other subjects in the classroom as well.
Response to Poetry Books
When I began to read Love That Dog by Sharon Creech I was very confused on what was happening! However, by the time I got to the end I was glad that Jack found an interest in poetry and I enjoyed reading his letter/poem that he wrote for Walter Dean Myers. I enjoyed the Brown Angels book, my favorite poem was Jeannie Had a Giggle. I liked the way that the poem and the words flowed together like a harmony. There are several wonderful poems in the book, All the Small Poems and Fourteen More. All of the poems are simple but yet meaningful.
Notebook Know-How pages 15-34
Just like the first few pages of the book, these pages were very easy to read and follow. I like how Buckner has ideas in her book about writings and ideas that students can use for their notebooks. I also liked how Buckner laid out teacher and student expectations of the notebooks.
Name Info (Blizzard)
Blizzard is the variant of Blissett, Blizard, Blessed and others. Blissett was altered by folk etymology under the influence of the vocabulary word blizzard.
Crest: A lady’s are erect and round the wrist a bracelet.
Translation: The arm symbolizes an industrious person.
Origin: England
