Class Logs by Carmen Lundall (best novels for beginners .txt) 📖

would work very well, as long as the students enjoyed the theme. I think within the theme it would be hard to do a novel study if there were students who didn’t connect with the theme. When you incorporate a number of literature selections within the unit, however, I think it provides more opportunities for each student to connect. I think that providing students with background knowledge is essential for the success of students – start with a theme and ease the students into reading and learning incorporating the theme. Starting with poems, short stories, and music and lyrics, is a great way to do this and then a novel study incorporating the theme will encourage students to enjoy reading the book. To go along with that I think that during the novel student, other common issues that middles school students face should be incorporated and pointed out to the students as the book is read.


Tuesday November 3, 2009

Today’s class was all about connecting with readers. One of the biggest challenges I believe not only in middle school but with many people is that they don’t read because they can’t connect with the books (me included). I think that as educators, but also parents, we have to instil in our students and children the desire to read and to continue to read as it encourages life-long learning. Students need to understand why we read and the enjoyment reading can have in our lives. I was watching Disney’s Beauty and the Beast the other day and as “Belle” was reading to the “Beast” in the library scene near the end, he states “I never knew reading could do this...take me out of this place into a new world where I can forget [about being the “Beast”].” This statement hit me and I thought, people who don’t like to read will never experience this. I think that this statement is huge and can encourage your students to want to read and to help them understand that reading is a means of experiencing different things, of entering into a different reality and letting your imagination expand and develop. Part of engaging readers and connecting with readers is helping them find books they will enjoy and want to continue reading. It is important to do this early for students so that they can continue throughout their life to search for books they enjoy reading and authors they can relate with. This is extremely important in my opinion for engaging reluctant and struggling readers. I think part of the reason they are struggling and/or reluctant is because they can’t find any books they enjoy reading or connect with. I remember in middle school how much I hated J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and I refused to read it because I simply didn’t like the book or make any personal connections to it. I think because I had that experience I understand why some students do not want to read. In order to encourage students to read and to change their opinion on reading we have to provide them with instruments they can use to develop their reading repertoire and encourage them to read for the sake of reading. One of the ways this can be done I believe is through literature circles. When everyone is assigned a role they are kept accountable and without reading the book they couldn’t fulfill their role. I also think that in the development process and the teaching of literature circles, you have to express to your students the importance of accountability and not letting your classmates down. When students understand this it encourages them to read the book, but also I think it allows them to see purpose in reading and to make connections with their readings and to their lives. Literature circles also give students the chance to interact with their peers and express their feelings about the book which is essential for students – they need the opportunity to discuss with one another their feelings and their connections with the book. To go along with that, incorporating activities such as hotseat and tableau engage students with their reading and gets them involved and interacting. Students get to take on roles of characters and put their feet into someone else’s shoes – they get to be someone else, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Students get the chance to make decisions for the character and to express their feelings through the lens of a character in the book. I think middle school students would love this! Tableau is also great because it incorporates drama into their learning. Students are given the opportunity to express their interpretation of scenes throughout the book through creating a small glimpse into a scene from the novel.
This class also informed me of the difference between struggling and reluctant readers and the importance of not letting them fall through the cracks. One of the biggest things, in my opinion, that teachers can do for ALL their students is listen to them and to talk with your students about why. We need to make them feel comfortable and safe and also that we care about their opinions and that they are valuable to the class and to their learning.


Tuesday November 17, 2009

I think the message in this article is “information OVERLOAD!!!” The symbolism of the small pill holding thirteen Christmas dinners is the same as having access to the internet and technology. The internet was created not long ago and therefore, means it hasn’t been around that long – a little scary if you ask me. With the rapid progressions of technology and the instant access to everyone and everything, what will the world look like in five years? Ten? We can never go back to when things were “simple”, and today because of the instant access we have it is very easy to feel like “blowing up”. At the same time how many people – friends, family, etc., can we connect with and talk to all around the world? Technology really is food because we need it to survive. A video we have watched numerous times is one that states we are preparing the current generation of middle school students for jobs that don’t even exist yet. When you really dig deep and think about this statement, how is it possible? Do they need us, or can they just “Google it?”
Technology in the classroom is great, when it works. Today, we have access to technology whenever we want it and whenever we need it. The downside is that we rely on it for everything. We have to keep in mind that purpose is everything. Technology can enhance your lesson, but can also do the opposite. It can be distracting, and there always needs to be a back-up plan in case the technology doesn’t work. Too often we get comfortable using the same technology and doing the same things as we teach. We are constantly encouraging our students to expand their horizons and so do we as teachers. Students know all the new technology that is out there and I don’t think we give them their due credit. We can learn so much about technology from them and have to allow them to do this. To contradict that point, we also need to know when and how to use technology and not get carried away with creating lessons that centre and focus on using it. There are many uses for it in each of the strands of language arts and we do need to utilize these, however we have to ensure there is purpose in what we are doing and that students can see that purpose. Just like the article The New Food we have to ensure that we aren`t overloading our students. We need to provide variety and create students who are not dependent on technology for doing their work – that includes using spell check too!


Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Poetry! To start off, poetry was not something I enjoyed in middle school. I didn`t understand the metaphors and analogies involved in poetry writing, nor did I care to know. All of that changed when I reached grade 11. For my grade 11 and 12 years, language arts became alive and I began to love learning about it and understanding how to synthesize what I was learning and reading. My language arts teacher was not only my favourite teacher but also an effective teacher who understands the importance of talking to her students and ensuring that students connect with their readings. I remember specifically reading a poem in grade 11 that I again read in my second year of college and I was so impressed with myself because reading it three years later I finally understood why it was important to have that understanding and why my teacher encouraged us to take a look at poetry and to dig deep. As we went through the poem, we looked for images, metaphors, similes’, and on a separate piece of paper we represented what each phrase meant to use through drawing. I understood then that poetry is a means of expression and although sometimes the lines are sometimes wacky, they are not always literal and it is our job to uncover their meaning. Poetry became interesting and exciting because I now had to solve the mystery of the poem – this all came from my teacher explaining to me the purpose of reading poetry and dissecting the words. I also think that in doing the illustrations along with the reading and from discussing with my peers I was able to understand what the writer was saying in their poem.
I thought today`s activity of sketch to stretch was awesome! I love using music in the classroom to express a point of view but also to allow students to make connections to their reading and learning. Students would really enjoy that activity and as the teacher you have to do the activity with them. They need a model, but I also think that students would be able to pick out a lot of images that I might miss. I think often students don`t realize that music and lyrics are poetry. They don`t realize that poetry is part of their everyday life and that it can have many different meanings to different people. I think that it is important to start simple when working with poetry so that students don`t feel sacred or lost when they begin. Providing examples and having students recreate these examples using their own words, issues, and points of view helps ease them into poetry writing, and also sets them up for success in their poetry writing.

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