Moody Learning Log Mar 23
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 5: Planning
Instruction for Content Literacy
“Students use strategies to support learning only when they
have the appropriate materials, the teacher
has created an instructional scenario that prompts and scaffolds proper
use, and students are well-versed in both content and strategy expectations.”
(p.135)
From my experience, if students don’t know what to do or
what to use, they won’t perform what you expect them to. You have to teach them and have a plan on how
to get them to where they need to be.
“The purpose of a jigsaw group is for the kids to learn how
to work together, take responsibility for the topic they are individually
assigned, and learn more about their solar system through a way that’s fun for
them.” (p.157)
I thought this grouping was a good idea, I do put students
in groups together, but giving them a specific task to do and teach the other
students is very powerful and engaging.
It gives students an extra purpose to learn if they can help others.
Chapter 6: Activating
Prior Knowledge and Interest
“Unlike out-of-school reading experiences, in-school reading
is often perceived to be uninteresting to many students.” (p.177)
I have heard this all the time, and experienced it myself in
high school. It seems that eventually
there is a disconnect between the books that teachers are supposed to teach
with and the books that students really want to read.
“The story impressions strategy uses clue words associated
with the setting, characters, and events in the story to help readers write
their own versions of the story prior to reading.” (p.181)
This seemed like a cool activating strategy where you give
the students key words for a story and they have to write their own version
before even reading the story.
Reading Motivation
Article
Edmunds, K.M. & Bauserman, K.L., (2006) What Teachers
Can Learn about Reading Motivation through Conversations with Children, The Reading Teacher, 59(5), pp. 414-424.
“Reading motivation: What did the children say? Why readers
selected expository text: 1. Knowledge gained, 2. Choice, 3. Personal
interests. Why readers selected books in
general: 1. Characteristics of books, 2. Knowledge gained. Actions of others: 1. buying or giving books,
2. Reading to children, 3. Sharing books.
Sources of motivation: 1. Family members, 2. Teachers, 3. themselves.
Sources of book referrals: 1. School library, 2. Teachers, 3. Family members,
4. Peers. Why readers selected narrative
text: 1. Personal interests, 2. Characteristics of books, 3. Choice.” (p.416)
Based on the observations collected from student responses I
found that having a choice of book, the opportunity for knowledge gained, and
other people being involved were the best factors in motivation. If students are presented the opportunities
to read, they will be motivated to spend more time doing it and become more
confident readers.
“Another idea we suggest is a variation of Book Clubs or
literature circles called Genre Gurus.
Students participate in groups based on the genre they have chosen to
read. For example, five students have
each read a different fairy tale. In
their group, the discussion revolves around the genre, not the story line of
the fairy tales: How did each book fit into the genre? How are the books alike?
How are they different? What did we learn about fairy tales by reading these
books? Students should create a visual to share their newfound knowledge about
fairy tales with the rest of the class.” (p.422)
This seemed like a neat cooperative learning activity that
could be done with many grade levels. My
first graders could do this as long as they had a specific focus introduced
first. It is a great way to use the
compare and contrast reading comprehension strategy.
