Ch. 15 letter to george

The final letter is addressed to Beers' student named George. Georgre has been a recurring example throughout the entire novel as an example of how she failed him as areading teacher.

I think the final chapter is good in that it teaches about reflection on our teaching styles, not just what we teach. If we can learn from our mistakes and become more independent teachers we can become better teachers. All in all I really liked this book. It gave personal anecdotes and provided multiple methods for reaching each goal. if one way didn't work try another. i think this is good, because each student is different and the same methods won't always work twice.

Ch. 13 Creating the confidence to respond

This chapter discussed ways to maek your classroom an enviorment where kids feel they can respond to questions. This follows along the safe-and-fun learning enviormant ideal taught to me in my classroom mangement class. If the kids feel safe in your class they will be more likely to answer.

I particualrly liked the section on the ways to engage the students. I liked the large discussion groups idea. I have been a big fan of socratic seminars since High School. Socratic Seminars are basically large literature circles that the whole class participates in. Students ask the questions they want to ask and respond the way they want to respond, without teacher involvement. I plan to use these in my future classroom.

ch.12 Spelling

The section I found most interesting was the section detailing the stages of spelling development. I didn't even know there were stages in the development of spelling. The stages are as follows: emergent, letter name, within-word pattern, syllable juncture, and derivational constancy.

It would be important to know what stages your kids are in because it will help you vary your instruction. For example I know that if I can see how the student is trying to spell a word then I can figure out ewhat they need to work at. If they are trying to spell the word based on syllables, then I can focus on prefixes and suffixes to explain why the word is spelled that way.

Ch. 11 What's after sound it out

The section I found most beneficial was the building a common vocabulary list on pg. 223-227. Beers listed several difeerent strategies and then fleshed them out later in the chapter.

This beneficial to me, becuase I did not know much on how to teach pronunciation and word sounds. I had forgotten being taught how to sound out words so it is agood refreher. I am going to have to study up a lot more on this chapter later, becuase I don't know if my memory is good enough to teach it at the moment.

ch.10 Fluency and Automaticity

I found the section on teaching phrasing and intonation directly. I had an issue with this just the other day when one of my students was confused by aphrase. The phrase was "Dang it, I was asleep." She was reading it fairly flat nd was confused about why he realized he was asleep once he wasasleep. I read it aloud with her to demonstrate that he woke up and realized that was sleeping, not that he had fallen asleep. I demonstrated how the inflection changed the meaning of the phrase, and you best your inflection on the text.

Ch.9 Vocabulary figuring out what words mean

Assign Word Study, not Word Memorization.

I liked this idea of word studies. In the past I have just memorized definitions, becuase people told me to, but that never really helped. It would be in my head for the test and out afterwards. The words that have stuck with me are the ones from My sat prep course from High School. Our teacher would make us use words in sentences, find synonms, and create analogiew; rather than just give the definition. It really helped me to retain the information later.

ch.8 Extended meaning After reading strategies

This section detailed what students should do after reading their texts. some strategies listed inlude make connections, summarize, identify main characters, draw conclusions, and question. This section was beneficial for me, b/c I had never thought about after reading strategies. I usually just summed up what had happened, or asked the kids to do so. By listing them out the ch. gave me alot of ideas.

Ch.7 Constructing meaning

This chapter's aim was to teach strategies to "students focus on constructing meaning while reading a text." strategies listed on pg. 105

After getting the list of strategies I looked for which strategies my Cent. Students used during their read alouds. I noticed they made connections to personal experiences, attempted to clarify their information, and questioned. One of the main problems they had was that they did not monitor their understanding of the text. They could read and read, and could figure out what the page said, but would not realize they had missed the meaning of the section. I worked them on this by having them stop after each pg and write a short sentence summary after the story tevents. They would then put their sentences together to figure out what happened.

Ch.6 Frontloading Meaning

This section was about how you introduce texts to students. It mainly focused on accessing background knowledge of the topic.

I am a big fan of good introductions for anything. I always try to start off with a seemingly unrelated question, which I then connect to my topic. A good intro catches the student interest and makes them more open to the topic. I am also a big fan on building background knowledge before reading. When I started teaching Hank the Cowdog to my Cent. students, I asked them what they knew about cowboys. We made a alist of cowboy characteristics, and as they read I had them look for parallels in Hank's personality. It seemd to work well and gave them a better view of Hank's character.

ch.5 Learning make an inference.

Thuis chapter was about how to teach inferencing. I tend to infer alot when I read, becuase I like to predict a stories outcome. The more information I infer the more evidence I have for my predicions, and I am usually right. It used to bug my brother, because I could ruin a book series' ending just by reading the first couple of books. We were rarily surprised, except for when Dumbledore.. you know.

This chapter was helpful afterr I read it. I have been trying to work with my Centennial kids on inferencing. I wanted them to infer character traits of Hank the Cowdog. I was having trouble, becuase initially i agrred with Beers that inferencing can't be taught it is "inferential." IAfter reading the section I decided to borrow the bumper sticker lesson. I wanted to teach alesson where a car has several bumper stickers, and the students have to figure out the drivers's personality based on the stickers.

Ch.4 Explicit instruction

This chapter detiled how teachers should teach about comprehension. Beer introduced several strategies and differentiated between direct instruction and scripted instruction. The different comprehension strategies can be found on pg. 41. After introducing the section beers lays out an outline for a lessson teaching one of the strategies. Her chapter mirrors her lesson s by introducing the terms first and then providing case studies to mirror the lesson.

I liked the section on the difference between direct instruction vs. scripted instruction. In my various education classes we have been discussing the role the government and district plays in determining what is taught. I disagree with the scripted method, becuase it undermines the work of the teachers. By telling them exactly what and how to teach, they made the teacher's college education unnecessary. There would be no need for all the education courses since the teacher wouldn't be the one teaching.

Ch. 3

This section further fleshes out what a dependednt reader is. It gives alist of characteristics and possible strategies for working with the reader. The chapter included several case examples to help clarrify the points made.

I liked the characteristics of a dependednt readers on pg. 24-27. It basically gave achecklist for what problems a student may have with reading. I tried to us this lisst with my kids that I work with at Centennial. They had issues with several items on the list so I had to come up with several different lessons addressing one or all weaknesses.

When kids can't read ch. 2

This section fleshed out the difference between independent readers and dependent readers. An independent reader is one who struggles through a text, but can figure out how to ifnd the answers on their own. A dependent reader is a person who may be able to read the words correctlyand know what they individually mean, but be ab unable to comprhend what the text actually said.

I think my generation of students is made up of many dependent readers. The only difference between traditional DR's and us is that we know where to go to get the answer, spark notes. If we had any trouble with the text we would just go to get the spark notes, smooth sailing from there. We knew what the text meant, but not why it meant that. I think in my classroom I would pay a lot more attetnion to the why as oppose to the what. This means this becuase... rather than this is the answer.

Chapter 2&3

These chapters introduced the various theoristys such as Piaget and Vygotsky. I talso addressed how we learn and what affects our learning. It seems I can not escape the theorists, so far every education class I have had has mentioned Piaget and vygotsky at least once. I agree their therories are important, especially Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. I believe the ZPD is important to know and figuring out how to teach in it is essentail. I find it difficult though to figure what the ZPD for each student is, I guess it is something that I will learn through practice.

I really enjoyes the third chapter. I like solving problems, but I am alittle dense at figuring out their is a problem. The lists of signs of at risk readers will be beneficial for me in the future, since it gives me a check list. It can only be a starting point though since every child is different. I would have to be careful of not discriminating against my students based on reading backgrounds.

Chapter 1 building a knowledge base

Part I liked: Teachers need to understand uses and values of literacy in the various cultures of children in the classroom.

This chapter was difficult for me to read at first. It began with all these percentages and rates concerning test scores. While the information is important it sould have been presented in another manner. Once I saw all those numbers and abbreviations I found the reading daunting, and I began to xzone out.

I did enjoy the section on how social cultural and linguistic factors influence learning. Through various information I have read a common theme appears on connecting culture and teaching. It seems that before you teach any leson or address any subject you have to figure out a way for it to connect to student experiences or teach in a manner reflective of their culture. For example in aculture where older siblings teach younger siblings, bring in reading buddies. This will teach the students in a manner known to them. It seems diversity awareness issues should not be kept seperated from the lesson plan, but integrated into it.

Connecting Students to culturally relevant reading

The article discussed how introducing students to books that are culturally relevant to themselves will catch their interest. While tI found this interesting it didn't sem to be a new idea to me. No matter what we read or watch ther is always some aspect of it that catches our attention. Some characteristic that resembles our lives or catches our attention. It is agood start though, but should not be the end all, be all to your strategy. You will still need to find books that are well written and entertaining. I mean there are plenty of white male, middle class writers, but that doesn't mean I want to read the majority of their stuff.

Daisy Kutter

Literature Circle experience

I thought the literature circle was a neat experience. It is helpful in that it allows for the members to compare what each thought was important and interesting about the story. It also helps the reader look deeper into the text so that they can come up with topics for conversation. It was difficult at times, because the group would get off topic. A moderator should be assigned at the start of each circle to keep the rest of the group in check. I liked Oddly Normal though I seemed to be the only one. My group decided it was because I was the only one to read it straight through in a single sitting rather than spread it out. Although I dislike stopping in the middle of reading, I would force myself in tho future, so that I could be on the same page as the rest of the group.

Book Chat

I enjoyed the book chat last night. I liked how it was set in such an informal setting, it allowed you to get to know the author better than in a formal interview. It was pretty crazy at first, but it slowed down towards the end. I would have liked it better if he could have answered questions in more detail, but the time constraints and number of questions made that almost impossible. It might be a good idea to have two chats going on side by side with one just for questions to the author nothing else, no responses, nothing. You could then have a second chat open for him to respond and talk with the students in. I did think Mr. MacPherson was a pretty cool guy to talk to, he was very knowledgeable, and personable.

Ch. 14

WK: "Book by Book" idea

Response: I am trying something similar with one of the students I tutor. However instead of helping him read, I am trying to help him study. We have been trying to figure out a good way for him to take notes over his readings so that he can bring up his English grade. I give him a different strategy every week to try and if it works we keep it, and if it doesn't we try another one. Last Friday I asked him to try taking notes using the double entry journal style, I'll find out if it works on Friday.


WK: "Some illustrations-even small ones at the beginning of chapters."

Response: I agree with this statement. I remember when I was reading the Harry Potter books, they had those thumbnail size pictures at the beginning of every chapter. Those little pictures could be interesting enough that sometimes I would keep reading, even though I had already decided to stop for the day. Illustrations can revitalize as well as enlighten


WK: "Plots with lots of action that begins right away"

Response: I had trouble with this as a kid. My Mom used to tell me to read at least two chapters before deciding whether or not to read it. However some great stories had such boring beginnings that I didn't read them until much later. The 1st chapter in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was so boring that I didn't want to read the book. I had to read the 2nd book before I was interested enough to go back and read the 1st book, n ad even then I would skip the 1st chapter.

Double entry jounal 1

Discussion: Students choose their own books.
Response I don't understand, why is it a literature circle only if students choose the books. It seems to me the books could be assigned and the students could get together and discuss it.

Sites and Discussion: Literature circles in general
Response: I really liked the idea of literature circle. I participated in something similar in high school and I reallly enjoyed it. The main difference though was that our whole class participated in it. We were required to either respond to a question or ask a question five times to get full points. However, what we discussed was up to us as long as it is relevant.

Sites: Teacher serves as a facilitator.
Response: I like this idea, but I feel it would be difficult to achieve. If the teacher is not careful the students could just get together and discuss other things and not focus on the material. I saw similar happenings during my field work.