Greetings, future teachers! This blog has been created so that you, RDG 4320 students, can ask questions, discuss strategies, and comment on past and future teaching experiences regarding reading in the content areas. Please use this blog as a place to share strategies you are excited to use, as well as those you would like to learn more about. I look forward to reading what you have to say!
(Please include insightful, proofread blog posts of at least 150 words or more)
Hey guys, this is Amy.I'm trying to stay on top of my assignments. With my other classes it already seems time consuming. I met with my principle this morning. I really like him. I plan to observe 15 hours in my major and 15 hours in my minor so I can see different teaching styles. One of my teachers is pregnant. My son attends her class and said she is getting grouchy. This should be interesting. I hope I can squeeze in enough hours because they are 45 minute classes. But all in all I am excited and I love the principle. Good Luck everyone!!
ReplyDeleteHey everyone, I'm Teresa. This semester is definetly going to be a challenge, I have a four year old that is retesting his limits and a two month old that has just learned that she has the ability to squeal. When I'm not home I'm at school either in class or working in the education department, so I'm at the school at least 6-7hrs a day. Now to throw into the mix I have 30 hours of observation to do (looks like in Christoval) and my husband has 3 more week long trips out of town this semester. I will be observing theatre classes and hopefully I can space out the timing so that I can see some different projects go on in the classroom. I'm excited about observations and I can't wait to meet my principle and teacher so that I may see what's in store for me. Hope everyone has a good semester.
ReplyDeleteIt will get easier. My children are 14, 11, and 9. They entertain themselves for the most part while I do homework. They pick out their own clothes and bathe themselves. My husband works out of town often too. I feel your pain! You can do it!! Good Luck!!
DeleteHer everyone. I understand out blogs need to be centered around reading. Talking with the students that I will observe, they all dread reading and say that they do not do it. I'm hoping to observe my teacher techniques to get the students involved. I have been in this classroom before and I know the teacher has an awesome relationship with her students. I am hopeful to learn how to engage them. They are Juniors and are very active in sports and social lives. I'm not sure what motivates them, grades possibly?
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ReplyDeleteHi! I'm Lauren. I know that for a lot of students, reading isn't fun because they don't know how to read properly. Instead of trying to read for comprehension, they "speed read" to get done with the assignment and afterwards have no idea what they read! I think as teachers it is important to stress reading for comprehension. Having students break down reading assignments into smaller sections so that they can reflect on the material before moving on would probably help retention levels. I tutor students in mathematics, and I’m always amused by how many of them HATE word problems! They see a paragraph in the math book and instantly tell me they don’t know how to do it. I try to get them to see that if they look for the important parts of the text, they can condense it and it will make more sense. I believe students have learned to be intimidated by reading, and therefore try to stay away from it rather than to conquer that fear.
ReplyDeleteHi everyone, my name is Kristin. I am definitely a listener rather than a reader. It is evident even when I play piano (which is my major! Yikes!). I usually prefer to listen to the music then occasionally glance at the sheet music to make sure I'm on track. I'm aware that the same idea happens when I read and I know that it is not the best characteristic to have as a musician or teacher. I don't spend enough time to really comprehend what I read. I like that Lauren stressed how important comprehension is. I'm hoping that by observing teachers and students, I will appreciate the importance of reading and comprehension. I would like to see several options presented when teachers pull out literature to read so that every style of learning is addressed. I want to gain confidence in my own reading (music or literature) so that I can be a better teacher.
ReplyDeleteHi, my name is Caitlyn. Teaching reading is probably going to be a challenge for me because I started reading at such a young age that I do not remember it, so it has always come naturally to me. However, i do mostly remember learning to read music and the processes are very similar. Even then, reading music comes pretty naturally for me and I am part of a minority of musicians who enjoy sight-reading. Sight-reading, in non-musical terms, is like reading a new book: you don't know where it is going or how it is going to get there and it is completely new territory. I only hope that this class will help me to learn how to share my positive experiences with reading enough so that my students love reading as much as I do.
ReplyDeleteHi! I’m Amanda. I am currently in my sixth semester at Angelo State. I am a softball player and we just finished our first games this past weekend and I’m very excited about the season ahead. Reading is a issue with some students and second nature to others. I was one of the ones that always had an issue, and my dyslexia didn’t help. One strategy that I wish a teacher would have tried with me when I was a student is the Post It strategy. I will definitely use this strategy with all my students, because I believe it can be beneficial to good readers as well. I will also encourage my students to read recreationally, and I will set an example by reading in my spare time. I love to read now and I will tell my students that struggle to keep trying because they will see success. Reading is such and important thing that I will always keep it as a focus in my classroom.
ReplyDeleteHi, my name is David. Teaching students to read is something that will define a great part of my content area. I plan on becoming a Spanish teacher. Most of my students will be challenged to read in a different language. Fortunately, there are many strategies that will help me guide my students. A strategy that I found very interesting is called readers' theater. Teachers can instruct students to focus on certain parts of a text. They should first begin by developing a list of attributes that describe certain characters from the text. The teacher should then go into character and provide a demonstration for the students. This will give them the confidence and inspiration needed to begin acting out the material. Dramatizing a text will enhance the students' visualization skills and their imaginations. This strategy not only allows learners to become engaged in the reading process, but it also provides them with a better understanding of the content.
ReplyDeleteHi, my name is Katy and my content area is math. At first I wasn't quite sure how a reading course was going to be very beneficial to me, but just in these first few weeks I have begun to realize how important reading is in every content area. Often times students are given word problem in math and understanding the information given and the question asked are crucial to solving the problem correctly. I really liked the "think aloud" reading strategy introduced in the video. I think it is a perfect reading strategy for me to use in my math class. Having students talk themselves through steps of a math problem is such a great way for them to learn the method for solving it. I will also be doing a lot of "think aloud" when teaching my class. Hopefully when my students watch and hear me work my way through a problem it will make it easier for them when they have to work a similar one on their own. I'm really interested to see all the different reading stratgies out there that will specifically be helpful in math. I think it's really great that our midterm is just a big collection of all kinds of reading strategies. I think that will be so helpful for us as new teachers. I think that it's easy to assume that all students can read well by the time they are in our high school classrooms, but that just isn't the case. We have to be prepared for thoes students who are still struggling with reading, no matter our content area.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see a common thread already in the blog posts-- dreading reading. This is an important observation, as it is also why a course like this is needed. The literacy rate in the U.S. is extremely low, and students are often not forced to read at all. They find ways around it, or teachers give up because they don't know how to deal with it, and create an easier way for students to access material. This continues the cycle of illiteracy. Without practice, without critical thinking, without guidance- how can we expect students to get better? Think about the differences you have experienced just between high school and college reading. Do you think that would have been an easier transition if you had had more literacy instruction as a K-12 student? This course will help you better prepare for this. I look forward to reading more of your blogs.
ReplyDeleteHey everyone my name is Jerry Dean. I feel like this is going to be a great class. I’m never used blogger before and he going to take time to get used to but I like trying to new things. I really hope to understand the tricks to figuring out how to get to students to read that is interesting to them. What are some good ways for them to learn easier and how they become a more developed reader? By end of this course I hope I can answer these questions.
ReplyDeleteHello Class my name is Amanda Feely. I feel that this is going to be a challenging yet rewarding class. I am really looking forward to learing rading tips for my future students aswell as myself. I do believe if i had more pratice and instruction growing up I would have a stronger drive to reading. I have never bloged before so this is already a new learing experince I am going to have. Bind the end of the corse i'd hope to have learned better stragities and tricks to becoming a stronger and excelld reader and past that on to future students.
ReplyDeleteHey guys, my name is Denver Lewallen. I feel that this class is going to pay huge dividends for me when it comes to my future in teaching. My content area is focused in Chemistry and reading can be a hard thing to address when trying to teach this class. I know that some reading strategies I am going to address are the double entry note taking method and thinking aloud method. I think these will be helpful for my students since chemistry deals with a lot of theory and math. Do you all have any ideas in which would be a good reading strategy in which I can apply to the subject of chemistry? I am also new to the blogging things but I look forward to it, and I believe that this could be a great way to get good ideas from everyone. I look forward to this experience and it helping me become a better teacher.
ReplyDeleteHey this is justin crutsinger, im not guna lie im so supper comfused right now, this is all new to me and im sorry if im a little late, when Dr.W was talking about blogs i thought it was somewere in blackboard! Um come to find out i cant do evaluation at the schools i wanted so now i have to go outta town, dose anyone have any suggestions? im doin agriculture and im not sure what to do now. And this blogging thing is new to me aswell!
ReplyDeleteHave you found a school yet?
Deletenope not just yet .....
DeleteMight try Bronte, they are pretty good. This is where I observe.
DeleteMy name is Vincent Del Vecchio and I am a music major. As far as reading goes, I learned at an early age and can not remember the process, but like my fellow musician Caitlyn, I can remember the process of learning to read music which I believe is very similar. I am sure that this reading class is going to translate over to my content area even though it may not be direct. Many of the strategies I have observed are very useful in a musical setting. Marking music, understanding, and conceptualizing. These are meant to represent three of the reading strategies that translate to music and are regularly used in a musicians world. I believe that the things I learn in this class will be used in my classroom when I become a teacher.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Jerry Dean Shimek.Keeping students interested and motivated to read is sometimes a difficult. Exposing young children to informational text early on can help them to handle the literacy demands. Practical instructional techniques can be used to promote understanding and enjoyment of informational texts. We read to children for all the same reasons we talk with children is to entertain, to inform or explain, and to inspire. But in reading aloud, can help a child's brain to associate reading with pleasure, create background knowledge, build vocabulary, and provide a reading role model.
ReplyDeleteReading in my content area is obvious because itis English. The students just did projects over books they have read. It was obvious who had really read the book and who had not. The teacher has a good repor and is encouranging. I know that I'm observing but I see things she doesn't. The kids are texting, sleeping and things of that nature. I think I just caught her on an off day. I did notice the principle come in and check on things. He does this regularly and it is evident by the confort level of everyone that is in the room. One of the things I noticed is that the teacher has a running log of books read by her students on all grade levels. The students see this every time they go in and out of the classroom. If I was an underclassmen, I might enjoy looking to see what my older classmantes read. I look foward to more observations.
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My name is Corey Murphy and my major is math. This is my first online class which I am finding difficult, not the class itself but the whole online class thing. I don't like online classes but I do understand how important this class is which is why I trying my hardest not to fall behind. This is also my first attempt at a blog so I am not entirely sure how to handle this. It doesn't seem to hard but with all new things until I get a better understanding of this I will feel that I could be doing something wrong. It is an annoying trait but it could be much worse. This class seems interesting; I bet I will learn much from this class. As a future math teacher I am curious about just how much I will use what I learn from this class in my career.
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