Week 3 Readings

TEXTBOOKS!!!
The ever dreaded high school text book. As stated in the reading some districts will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new editions of textbooks or adopt new ones every 5 or so years, which means the districts themselves, especially if they are public school districts, must account this into their yearly budget on how to pay for these books that some students wont even open throughout the year.
The students that do though, usually, are expected to return the book how it was given out, with a little bit of wear, and should not write in them, which for many college textbook readers sounds like the worst thing in the world.
We know as undergrad and grad students some of the most accurate and valuable learning comes from the annotative marks that are made in book and without the tool to do this it can sometimes be ineffective for students to gain a deeper knowledge out of their 20 pages of Psychology reading from their textbook.
The authors pointed out 4 key concerns with textbooks.
1: Inconsiderate texts. No sequence in the writing, jumping from topic to topic. This type of writing causes retention rates to diminish in the students and the reading is just rendered useless.
2: Inaccuracy. Not all information is factual. As stated there were 113 errors in a best selling science textbook as found by a concerned parent featured on 20/20.
3: Inappropriate reading level. Up to 40% of students are reading textbooks that are above their reading level; No wonder they don't understand the reading!!!
4: Negative student reactions: Students come into classes dreading textbooks and some don't even attempt to read them because they have a thought that they simply will not understand the information.
Know who will be reading these books. Using Trade Books. Understand your students reading levels and plan accordingly!

Write to learn!
Short, spontaneous, exploratory, informal, personal, one draft, unedited, ungraded.
Writing to learn allows the students to begin to be comfortable, if they aren't already, with their writing. Since it is should be an ungraded activity, it allows the students more freedom to with what they please. This could be anything from becoming more creative, exploring a particular style of writing, or simply being able to state facts about whatever the topic of writing is that day.

Taylor Mali Video

A simple yet very moving poem about "What Teachers Make" by Taylor Mali.

Content Reading Chapter 4

"Don't tell us the only way to teach a child is to prepare them to fill in the bubbles on standardized test"
-Barack H. Obama


Learning how to assess students is, in some ways, a lot more difficult than I had originally thought it may be. There are a few different ways in which this can be done according to Vacca^2 and Mraz. As instructors we can do this through the following: High Stakes/Formal, Authentic/Informal, and Portfolio Assessments among others.

When we think high stakes, it is sort of what it sounds like. These are the higher stakes assignments, papers, essays, formal tests and the real bulk of what some students really fear. Which is why more and more teachers are pushing for the more Authentic assessment practices which is more or less what "you do with your students or help them do for themselves." These authentic assessments can be done through interviews, observations, and others, which since I plan on going into both Social Studies and Spanish I can absolutely see myself utilizing these authentic ways more than the high stakes because I knew when I was in high school I dreaded the days I had 3 tests, all formalized, and knew I had to cram the night before. Using these more informal ways we would be able to do them 2 or 3 times a week and making sure our students are focusing in class as well as retaining new and reviewed information. The background I will have in psychology will also allow me to utilize these more focused observational skills to find if these students are understanding the information and assess to see how engaged they are in a specific sub-topic.

These high stakes assessments really, in my opinion, begin to shed the students of their creativity and almost force teachers to begin to teach to these tests, or as the Obama quote I included above, preparing them to fill in bubbles.

This chapter in the book has also given many different assessments that can be used along with some ways to figure if a text is going to be "okay" and not to difficult for the students to retain and learn on their own if need be.

QUESTION?????

What do you think will be your favorite way to assess your students?

Content Reading/Writing Ch. 1

The students in the coming generations are writing more and more whether it is via the internet (email, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, etc.) they are understanding and writing every single day. The issue that is brought forward though is the fact that these students enjoy this much more than writing an essay for a class they have had to read a book in or research to find the answers to a particular question. So as the authors touched on, these students KNOW HOW TO WRITE, they just have the impression that writing via the internet and for a class is so drastically different, when in reality, they are using words, forming sentences and communicating their ideas in a way that isn't just speaking.
The next issue that arose was the fact that in class there just isn't enough TIME for writing practice or daily writing every day, which would help the writing and begin to eliminate the fear of writing. To do this, include it into the curriculum, so they are writing a response and as a result, they are still learning yet they are getting practice in for writing.
I also liked what they mentioned about "taking" a class. They compared it to "taking a pitch" in baseball, where it is what it is, you just take it, you get nothing from it. It should be something more to the extent of you are engaged in, exploring, or loving a particular class.
The last big idea is that writing brings out the character inside the student. It allows them to say what they want, saying what the need, and expressing creativity and playfulness within the student.

As I had my own thoughts about this, Content Area Teachers still have to teach to read!! It is obviously important to be literate and be able to help students with any assigned reading that is for the specific class. Content and Process as they say. Each class deserves a good teacher. A good teacher is knowledgeable about reading and able to help no matter what the subject or content. This is why we are to be more focused on it as instructors and
Reading To Learn. Much like writing to learn, but you can't learn about, or from a book if you can't read! Helping the class get through difficult material will show them you believe they can do this and will give them the extra motivation to begin to do more of it on their own and they will be more comfortable doing it.
Use comprehension strategies -- > Activates vocab knowledge -- > Decodes words -- > Reads fluently!

PSYCH PHOTOS