20 Key Words

1. Context
2. Literacy
3. Literature
4. Formulaic Writing
5. Literacy Crisis
6. Functional Literacy
7. Standard
8. Education
9. Learning
10. Method
11. Theoretical Context
12. Classroom Context
13. Writing
14. Reading
15. Evaluating
16. Revising
17. Peers
18. Technology
19. Editing
20. Communication

Book Club Presentations: Day 3

In class on Thursday, October 24^th, I was the student for both presentations.  The first presentation was on the book, “Write Like This”.  I thought they did a pretty good job overall explaining everything.  It felt a little rushed, but I realize they did have a limited amount of time.  I think the best part of this activity was finding the different pictures within the one big picture.  I also liked the activity with the poem, however, we were rushed through it and weren’t given a lot of time to think and collaborate within our groups.  I would use both of these techniques in my classroom to get my students to realize that they need to read things more than once to fully understand it and would continue to practice this technique with their readings. 

The second group that presented had read the book, “Nonfiction Matters”.  They did a great job giving an overview of the book and it really caught my attention.  Their activity was based on the K.W.L chart (what we know, want to know, and what we learned).  This was very similar to some things I came across in the book I read, which was based in an ELL classroom, so it was good to see it in another setting as well.  I had fun with this activity, learning about sharks, and would definitely use this in my future classroom.  Overall the day went well and I learned a lot.

Book Club Presentations: Day 2

Today I was both the student and the teacher. The first group that presented was the Wondrous Words book club and I thought they did a great job.  Their activity was interesting and something I’ve never seen before.  We did what they called “chorus reading”.  We picked a line out of a text that stood out to us and then got into groups to put our phrases together.  Putting the phrases together was very fun and it was interesting to see what everyone came up with.  Their ignite talk went well; the only thing I would have done differently is to not have words on the PowerPoint.  The words they had up there were what they were saying and it distracted me from the speaker more than helping me follow along. 

   My group had the book “Ladybugs, Tornadoes, and Swirling Galaxies”.  I think our presentation went fairly well.  The activity part got kind of hectic, but I hope everyone understood what we were doing and why we were doing it.  We didn’t really stick to our “parts” we talked about, so while some input was good, it got really jumbled and confusing at the same time.  I think it would have been better if we acted out our whole presentation as a group to see how it would go, but it always goes differently with real students.  Overall this was a great learning experience for me.

Book Club Presentations: Day 1

We had our first day of book club presentations and I was the student for both of them.  They were both very different.  The first presentation was “Practical Poetry” and they did a good job giving an overview of the book.  Their presentation wasn’t timed correctly though so I think they got a little off track.  When it came to the activity it was really rushed and we weren’t given a lot of time to think.  Also, it would have helped if they gave us their own example before having us do the activity.  In their overview of the book they talked about how you can connect poetry to other subjects so this would have been helpful for them to show with the activity.  There were only two guys in this group so I think they did a great job with having to do all the work by themselves.  The second presentation was “Don’t Forget to Write” and theirs seemed to go very smoothly.  The ignite talk was timed well and they got all the important information to us.  Their activity was a great thing to be able to participate in.  It was fun and allowed us to use our creativity.   It was also something that I could actually see myself using in my future classroom.  I like how they had each member of their group help the groups with their story outlines so everything was made very clear.  The only thing that could have helped their presentation was to make their demonstration as creative as they wanted us to be.  Both presentation groups did a great job and I’m excited to see what everyone else read about.