Historical Vocabulary

Colony
Revolution
Expansion
Civil War
Abolition
Industrialization
Depression
Communism
Cold War
Containment

With the exception of one word listed above, all of these words not only pertain to United States history, but also Modern World History. Knowing the definition of each of these words can help guide students to a better understanding of the cause and effect of history. About half of the words above are causes and half are effects (I did not notice that until just now). For example, the Cold War led to a policy of containment, and colonies often time lead to colonial revolutions. For U.S. history, these words are the main ideas or main issue of an era in the U.S. Without understanding what these words mean, students would not be able to understand anything in that era. For example not knowing what a colony is would make understanding the American Revolution virtually impossible. It was difficult to only choose ten words, but I feel these are the most important because they can be applied to all kinds of history, not just American.

Resource

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Teach-to-a-Diverse-Classroom-of-Students&id=436

Culture

Chapter 3 from Content Area Reading brought up some very interesting ideas that I have to say are things that I have not really thought about. Growing up, I did not really experience much diversity in my classroom because I went through Catholic schooling my whole life, and it was predominantly white. I do think that it is very important for teachers to be aware of the different cultural background each individual student comes from. Having a good understanding of other peoples cultures could greatly help teachers understand why some students may act the way they do. One part of the textbook i found interesting was the section about integrating multicultural literature in the classroom.  I think it would be a good idea to use texts from different cultures especially in a history class. By choosing multicultural texts it could provide a much different side of the story in a history class. It is important to recognize different perspectives on issues when studying history, and using these types of texts could offer students that opportunity to earn these different points of view. Another part of the chapter I found interesting was the section on Linguistic differences in schools. This is important because communication is one of the most crucial things a teacher must be able to do, if not the most important. I also found it interesting that immigrant students who maintain a strong identification to their culture tend to do better academically. It is important for teachers to recognize that just because a student has a hard time understanding or speaking English, doesn't mean that they are incapable of learning. The text talks about this as being able to recognize a language difference vs a language deficit. As future educators, we all need to be aware of this distinction.

demonstration reflection

I think that my demonstration had its up's and down's. For some reason I was really nervous to present, which is very unusual for me. This kind of caused me to freeze up a bit and I forgot a lot of what I had practiced, so I felt a little unorganized. I do think I did a good job demonstrating the strategy, but I might have been more specific in my directions. I also think that it was a good idea for me to include pictures while the students continuously wrote. I think this was a good way to get the students' memories going to make writing for 2 minutes a little more manageable. In order to include more scaffolding during strategy, I could have had the class time me for 30 seconds or so so that I could demonstrate how a non-stop write works. Then I could have read it allowed. I still am not sure of the best way to assess a non stop write, but I think grading for relevant topics would be a good idea. Especially if this strategy was used at the end of a reading, movie, or lesson. Otherwise if it was used before a unit to get the memory going, a formative assessment may be reasonable if I was able to use a clicker quiz or something similar to see what the students knew from their non-stop writes.

Organization is key

The overarching theme that I was able to get out of the chapter was that it is important to stay organized when reading and studying text information. I really think that the textbook does a great idea listing and explaining different strategies that can be used to ensure that students can get as much important and relevant information out of readings when they are studying or reviewing. I really liked the examples given on organized note taking. I think this is important especially in my content area, which is history, because many of the strategies that are listed in the book are incredibly common in a social studies classroom. One in particular is the T-note system. I could not tell you how many times I have had to use this strategy in class, and how many times I have used this strategy on my own when I am studying- even to this day. It is an excellent way to to compare and contrast two different ideas, and lead to a general conclusion about the two. For the purposes of comparing events or ideas in history, I feel that this is the best strategy that can be used. That's just my opinion. The double-entry reading log is another idea I really liked from the textbook, and I used to use a modified version in middle school. We kept two column notes-one for the book and one for class. I think the double entry reading log is great for keeping track of challenging terms or vocabulary like the examples show. I think using these types of organizational methods can greatly increase a students learning, and I hope to put some of them to practice in my own classroom.

I think the rubric and "grade scale" used to grade the different reading strategies listed blackboard article does a good job pointing out that not all of the widely used reading strategies in classrooms are useful. For example, I used the round robin method all the time until late middle school. I know for sure it was very prominent in my fourth and fifth grade classrooms, so it was very interesting and pleasing to see it ridiculed in the article by saying it was closer to malpractice than effective practice. The highest grade strategy that involved the students in "critical literacy". The teacher must be able to not only be aware of the students' learning environment, but also relate the text to a broader concept so it is easier for the students to understand. What I take from this article is that reading is not a "hands-off" classroom activity where either the teacher does all the work, or the students. Both the student and the teacher have parts to play in classroom reading.

Motivation

I think that motivation and self-efficacy are key for engaging students with reading. I personally fall into the category of loving reading until i hit late elementary school and middle school. Then you couldn't get me to read anything unless it was funny or had pictures and as little words possible. I think part of that problem with me losing my interest could be common among many other students. I never found any motivation to read anything because everything i was assigned to read for school was so boring, or I had no way to relate to it. It was not until I was given a book about baseball (something that sparked my interest) that I actually found reading to be enjoyable, and even fun. The textbook talks about "students' motivation for reading and learning with texts increases when they perceive that text is relevant to their own lives". I think it is important to give students options when assigning books to read for a class like the text describes. For example, in high school I was forced to "read" the book Rebecca with the class, and needless to say that was not something that interested me. I remember not having anything to say during discussion, and the discussion didn't even spark my interest to read part of it. However, whenever we were able to pick which books we wanted to read for English class, I had no problem sharing what my book was about and participating in discussion. I think this strategy would be more effective because I know I would relate to anyone in the class who found absolutely no interest in the book.

Another strategy I think could be very useful is the story chain and story prediction the textbooks show. I think that could be a good way to motivate students to read if you pick the right words in the story chain. Looking at the example given from Gulliver's Travels, the story chain sounds exciting enough for me to want to read it. I think this would also be a great strategy to use when you are just beginning a lesson, similar to a non-stop write activity because it would focus students on what the next topic would be, and it just a good way to get your mind on gear for what is to be discussed. I think this would be great in a history classroom particularly for topics that tend to be a little dry. I would love to use this in my classroom especially because I think of history as one big story as it is.