Where Do You Stand?

I really enjoyed this strategy lesson. Personally, I always loved a good debate in school. It was a chance for me to take a side and really present to someone how I felt and what I knew about the topic. I think this lesson is good way for students to develop their own opinions, and even stray away from what they believe and try taking a stand on the opposite end. It allows students to get up and move which can keep them more involved in the activity. It also allows them to be sociable. I would definitely use this in my classroom because it allows for the students who tend to keep quiet to have a voice. Everyone has to participate and share their position. What I also like about this lesson, is that it involves other reading strategies as well, such as annotating the text and activating prior knowledge that they’ve already learned on the topic. One thing that was brought up in class today that I really liked was teaching the students beforehand how to debate appropriately or respectfully. I think that is really important so students don’t get out of hand while participating in the lesson.

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Help For Struggling Readers

In one of my classes I am currently taking, we have a lot of different print outs that we have to read. However, these readings are not easy to understand. For that matter, our professor has us mark all over it as we read, make comments, ask questions, underline important details, etc. then, when we come to class, he goes over it with us again so he can answer any questions we have or give us feedback on our thoughts as we read it. He also, if he feels like the reading is way too hard, condenses the readings and shortens it into his own words so we can understand it better. I can express how much this has helped me in that class, and it’s exactly what I thought about while I was reading this chapter. He gives us materials that we can successfully read so we do not feel defeated afterward, or so we don’t feel like we just read that for nothing because we didn’t understand anything. It also helps using reading strategies such as text-marking, and then coming to class and having discussions about the reading. I feel like this chapter is very helpful to us in helping students who struggle with reading.

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Inquiry Units

I really like the idea of incorporating inquiry units in the classroom. I feel like the students would enjoy doing them. In Vanessa’s classroom inquiry unit project, she let her students choose the country they wanted to do research on. Her students thoroughly enjoyed it because they had a say. They were able to choose something they had interest in and they got creative with it. I think it is a good way to incorporate two subjects together in a creative way and it’s useful in all subjects. It also teaches them how to research and use different sources. They can gather information about their project through articles on the internet, newspapers, books, etc. The sources are unlimited.

There are also many different types; Mini-inquiries, curricular inquiries, book club inquiries, and open inquiries. All of these go through the same steps of research; immerse, investigate, coalesce, and go public. During these steps students build background knowledge on the topic, develop research questions and search for information, narrow their topic and dig deeper, and most importantly, they share what they have found and learned to an audience. I especially like this because students get to present all their hard work to the peers around them. I think for this reason that they will want their presentation to be the best.

All in all I would love to do an inquiry unit in my classroom. It gives students a chance to have class discussions, it can boost their confidence when going in front of a classroom to speak, and it gives them a chance to show their creativity.

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Midnight Rising Podcast Discussion