Chapter 2, 10, 11

Moody Learning Log 2/23/14

Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J. A., & Mraz, M. (2014). Content area reading: literacy and learning across the curriculum(Eleventh ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

Chapter 2

p. 37 “The great thing about technology is that these will still be accessible long after the student has moved on.”

Students and parents love having copies of their work, it is something to be proud of.  The permanency of a file stored on the internet can follow you through the years.  This is great for student motivation.

p.44 “Although we live in a new media age, some educators are concerned that we will lose ‘book knowledge’ as a society; that today’s students are so tuned into their mobile phones, iPods, and laptops, they won’t know how to speak, write, or read anymore.”

I don’t think this will happen, reading, writing, and speaking are our ways of communication.  That’s why we started learning it in the first place.  Technology would be useless if we didn’t know how to read, speak, or write.

Chapter 10

p.337 “A study guide based on text patterns helps students perceive and use the major text relationships that predominate in the reading material.”

I think the headings within a text really help the reader know what the reading is about, most study guides I’ve seen follow these headings to help the reader find out what is most important.

p.318 “The research base for graphic organizers shows that when students learn how to use and construct graphic organizers, they are in control of a study strategy that allows them to identify what parts of a text are important, how the ideas and concepts encountered in the text are related, and where they can find specific information to support more important ideas (National Reading Panel, 2000).”

I encourage my students to use lots of graphic organizers because I think it does give a visual connection to the text and helps look for the important parts of a story.

Chapter 11

p.354  “By using nonfiction trade books in the classroom, teachers can bridge the gap between students’ in- and out-of-school reading, and capitalize on their interest in this genre.” 

Many students don’t have opportunities to read outside of school, so building more background knowledge with trade books should balance that lack.

p.371 “Reader response refers to the way a person reacts to hearing or reading a piece of literature.  It describes the unique interaction that occurs between a reader’s mind and heart and a particular literary text (Hancock, 2007).”

Allowing students to get their thoughts out in a reading response will certainly make the reading more meaningful and keep their interest alive.

Extending Readers Theatre: A Powerful and Purposeful Match With Podcasting

Vasinda, S. & McLeod, J. (2011). Extending Readers Theatre: A Powerful and Purposeful Match With Podcasting. The Reading Teacher. 64(7) p.486-497.

p.487 “Because Readers Theatre has an auditory product, the technology match would need to capitalize on the auditory nature. Podcasting, as a purely aural medium, is an ideal means to authentically integrate technology, widen the audience for student readings, and maintain the integrity of Readers Theatre goals.”

Podcasting a Readers Theatre is an excellent idea!  It allows you to keep the premise behind Readers Theatre and adds a broader audience which makes it more meaningful for the students.

p.490 “The students also monitored their volume by watching the sound waves produced by their voice on the computer display.”

I thought this was an interesting concept because you can technically “see” how your voice sounds.  This is great for students who aren’t good at listening, but are good at visualizing.

Below are some good Readers Theatre resources I didn’t want to lose from the article:

■ Aaron Shepard's RT Page: www.aaronshep.com/rt/index.html

■ Adrian Bruce's Free Educational Resources: www.adrainbruce. com/theatre/plays.htmI

■ Stories to Grow By: www.storiestogrowby.com/script.html

■ Teaching Heart: www.teachingheart.net/readerstheatre.html

■ Timeless Teacher: www.timelessteacherstuff.com

Chapter 1,3,4

• Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J. A., & Mraz, M. (2014). Content area reading: literacy and learning across the curriculum(Eleventh ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
• Chapter 1 - Literacy Matters
• p.13 "Because they are the first generation to be immersed in information and communication technologies for their entire lives, they have at their fingertips more information than any generation in history (Considine, Horton, & Moorman, 2009)"
• Students now have so much information they can access, our job is to teach them how to comprehend it and navigate through it.
• p.21 "To use written texts strategically and effectively, you must first be aware of the powerful bond between reading and knowledge construction."
• Students need to learn how to learn with texts, in order for the learning to be meaningful and to comprehend the text which will lead to knowledge construction.
• Chapter 3 - Culturally Responsive Teaching in Diverse Classrooms
• p.66 "Teachers cannot assume, for example, that a modern Mexican American person child will be able to relate to a book about Mexico."
• When selecting text for a student or classroom, you can never assume that they will automatically relate to it, you need to consider their background.
• p.68 "It is crucially important to be aware that students from diverse cultural backgrounds bring different ways of knowing, different styles or questioning, and different patterns of interaction to school."
• Every student is different, as a teacher you need to be open to the fact that students might now have the same ideas and values that you do.
• Chapter 4 - Assessing Students and Texts
• p.99 "For students who struggle academically, high-stakes testing can diminish both their self-efficacy for learning and motivation."  
• When students don't succeed on this one high stakes test, they aren't motivated to want to keep doing well because there is so much pressure put on them, even though they might be making personal progress. 
• p.101 "NCLB unfairly penalized schools and actually lowered standards as states adjust their proficiency requirements downward to preserve federal funding, thus giving an illusion of progress when test scores increased."  
• Creating an illusion is not helping the teachers and administrator pinpoint what the students need to know in order to be successful in the working world.
• Dennis, D.V. (2009). "I'm not stupid!": How assessment drives (in)appropriate reading instruction. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 53(4), p. 283-290
• Standardized test scores tend to limit students into a broad category. They could then become labeled into exceeding proficiency, proficient, or below proficiency.  All this tells the teacher is that the students are below level and not specifically what that student needs help with.  As teachers we need to focus on these specifics when grouping students because they each have individual learning needs.  It doesn't make sense to waste time teaching and practicing something they already know.  Also, when teaching content it is important that we are giving the students opportunities to read text at their own level.  If they are reading something harder they are going to get frustrated and de-motivated to learn.