Ch. 7 Getting It Down: Making and Taking Notes Across the Curriculum

"Taking good notes trains students not only to pay attention but what to pay attention to." Jim Burke (2002)

That was the attention grabber for me at the beginning of the chapter.  As a student myself I can truly understand the difficulties of proficient notetaking. All through my educational career until about two years ago I have failed miserably at taking notes.  I did the outlines, concepts maps, and even tried typing notes on the computer and none worked for me.  The thing that got me is that it worked well for others but just not for me.  It wasn't until I was in nursing school that I found out how to take effective notes.  There I was taught the Cornell method and it truly is a miracle to me.  I often wondered, even now, why I haven’t learned this before!?

In the text it says that you can use various strategies of notetaking for all subjects but it is up to the teacher to organize lectures in ways that make it possible to create notes.  That is the teacher’s responsibility not the students.  It states that it is instructionally sound to introduce the sequence of topics and concepts for the day's class because it prepares students for learning.  Also, ending the class with a review enhances the memory and retention and allows students to make corrections to their day's notes.

Taking notes is more than just "writing something just to be writing".  This is learning in another aspect.  While taking notes students don't realize that they are transmitting important information and getting a deeper understanding.  We (as teachers) cannot just assume that when our students come into our classroom that they already know how to take excellent notes and that we can just carry on with our lesson and not have a care in the world about their notes. WRONG! Like I just said earlier I didn't know how to take effective notes until two years ago....meaning I was in college at the time.

Questions:

-Since it took me so long to learn how to take good notes and realize how many strategies there are, my question is how and when do you start this with younger students? It seems like some strategies might be too difficult to try to teach.  I know that there are notetaking courses that are available in college but are there any classes in high school or junior high that students can take?  If no then why not?

Blog 5

This week I was assigned to read chapter 3 out of the book about vocabulary development across the curriculum.  The chapter is very insightful and most interesting to me so far.  It started off with an excerpt about a student writing a poem but having trouble thinking of a "certain word".  His teacher gave him good advice and the end result of his poem was AWESOME. So awesome I had to reread it to my boyfriend and he loved it as well.  Throughout the chapter the author touched bases about vocabulary acquisition, vocabulary instruction, and strategies to use for each content area.  A thing that caught my eye in the beginning of the chapter was that it said that the vocabulary gap for many students is so large that it is difficult where to begin. That really touched base with me because currently I am tutoring a student for CIR 411 and she is having trouble with comprehension and vocabulary and I am at lost with where to start as far as helping her.  As I read more and more it enlightened me with plenty of "ah ha" moments.  Vocabulary and comprehension go hand in hand.  One cannot be understood without a full understanding of the other.  Instruction is often relied on rote memorization of definitions followed by weekly vocabulary tests.  The words are rarely derived from the students texts.  Honestly that was how it was when I was in grade school.  Instead of learning the difference between concepts and labels, students (including myself) are just thrown a couple of random words, told to get the definition and memorize it.  No reinforcement and not actually learning to "know" the word.

All in all, teaching vocabulary involves many effective strategies.  Many strategies stated in the chapter I know I will definitely use in my teaching career.  One strategy that I read about, the electronic vocabulary journal, I started doing myself.  That is a great idea!  I know my vocabulary can be better and this is a great strategy to use to better myself!

Two questions:

-The strategies that are listed in the book, is there an age limit for those?  I've seen word walls in lower grades but not in any upper grade classes.  I honestly don't remember any vocabulary strategies while I was in high school.

-Besides differentiated instruction, are there any other ways to help students develop task value orientation?

Blog 4

Unlike most textbooks I must say that this one is quite interesting.  I liked reading about the common text styles and learned that history texts uses a wide variety structures besides the usual chronological and cause and effect format.  It also stated how to build metacognition to develop reading comprehension.  I absolutely love the model that it showed.  Last semester I used that model several times in my lesson plans and I can say that they really work.  When I used this model it was for students that really didn't have a metacognition/comprehension problem.  The question that I have is that I know students need modeling  and scaffolding to achieve this level of independent and effective reading but how long should you use this model if you don't see any improvement? Like what is the next step after this if this fails? I know that each child/learner is different and they all aren't on the same "schedule" but is there an estimated time?

Also another thing that I found interesting was the strategies to develop writing skills.  I love the writing models. I would definitely use the "I Am" poem in my class.  Power writing is pretty cool too.  It's sort of like a free write to me and I love those, especially if it is on a topic that I like.  Another question that I have is about the writing to learn in mathematics part.  There were only two models provided.  I know that majority of math problems can be word problems are the two models that were provided the "only" ways?  I am terrible at math and I can say that it is my least favorite subject.

This past week the class visited the student think center.  It was awesome.  I hate to say that I have NEVER heard of that place!  I love the atmosphere.  From the lighting in the room down to the cool tables with the paper on it for you to write.  Besides all of that the presentation was really good.  Needless to say I learned a lot about myself and what type of learner I am.

My Eleanor Roosevelt Biopoem

Eleanor

Caring, generous, and courageous

Niece of Teddy Roosevelt and wife of cousin Franklin Roosevelt

Loved bringing hope to and helping others

Felt ugly, helpfulness, and faith

No rights for minorities, homeless, young people and Indians, scared for the millions during the Great Depression, worried for our country's soldiers during WWII

Arranged for Marion Anderson to sing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, recognition for the speeches and writings for the poor

Wanted peace and equality for everybody

Former resident of the White House

Roosevelt


.... sorry I just found this awesome app and had to post these pics of my "Love Butt"...Well you can just call him Stewie lol!

                                  Pretty pearly whites!

Blog 3

As I read Betty Ray's Design Thinking piece the part that first grabbed my eye was that the goal was to break through the negative thinking that plagues the big, thorny issues, and to come up with one prototype idea for solving one aspect problem.  Also I liked the "no idea is too stupid" mantra.  I am all for making ideas and situations positive.  I like the fact that this can be used in many situations and that it requires group work.  By having a class do this they are learning another way to work together with peers to solve problems. 

The second article that I read was Content Area Literacy in Elementary Classrooms.  It is a very interesting topic that should be taken very seriously.  It states that it is very important to teach content area literacy instruction at an early age. Out of the three factors that were stated that have converged to create change in the face of content area literacy instruction technology stood out to me.  With today's technology and that the U.S... economy demands a higher level of literacy than ever before these two run hand in hand.  The internet can help one go through information faster than looking through books.  Another main point was making the case for content area literacy and why should teachers give more attention to instruction involving expository text.  Early exposure, motivation from informational text, and the increase of new knowledge domains from informational text are the main points.  I definitely agree that informational texts increase new knowledge domains.  With personal experience I feel that it contributes to schema development in many ways.  By developing new domains at the elementary level it helps ensure the success in upper grades. The article also states how to integrate literacy instruction with content area study.  The activity chosen was learning logs.  I think this is a great idea.  Now to be honest I have never done a learning log until this past week for CIE 302 but from doing it I loved it.  This can definitely be used in any subject.

The article sums up with other ways such as providing access to a multiplicity of text types and providing immersion in content through inquiry-based experiences.  All in all this is an excellent article and very informational.


Questions:
-I see that Design-Thinking is an awesome tool/strategy to use but I am sure that there will be some students who won't think that it all that. How can I get those students to be as excited about it as I am?
-I know that you can begin to teach content area literacy at an early age but how early is too early?

Blog 2

I read over my classmate’s blogs this past week and I really enjoyed getting to know them a little bit better.  When it came to talking about the syllabus, I saw that a couple of people and myself seemed really psyched about the Elizabethtown Project.  When I read Kayla's blog she stated that she was confused about how the education majors at Elizabethtown were going to see our blogfolios.  For some reason I didn't think of that.  At all.  Also as I read Adrianne's blog I saw that she said that she is definitely not excited about teaching English because it is her worse subject.  I can definitely add to that.  English is my WORST subject.  I honestly am worried about teaching it.  It's just so many things about it that I am scared I might leave something out.

The "Writing to learn across the curriculum: Tools for comprehension in content area classes" article is great.  As I read it and how it was talking about the differences between writing to learn and learning to write and the many strategies suggested helping students, review, summarize, and prepare for assignments.  It had me think about the CIR 407 class I took last semester where I learned about all the different types of strategies for comprehension.  A lot of the strategies listed in the article such as the guided writing procedure is a really good one.  Reading this article was very beneficial.  I truly enjoyed it.

During class, we watched the TED video.  I absolutely loved it!  He made sense of everything!  The two exercises that I tried were Savoring and Silence.  For savoring I listened to my dishwasher.  I wouldn't say that it was something worth 'savoring' but it was okay.  For silence, I tried it this morning when I got up.  I just laid in bed and zoned out.  I really liked that.  It actually helped me relax.  Just hearing complete silence let me rest and handle all of my thoughts without any disruptions.

Hello world!

Hello fellow classmates!!  As most of you know I am Alyssa Williams and I am so glad and excited to be in senior block!  

I am from the coast--Moss Point, MS and I can pretty much say I am a homebody.  Since I am away from home it is just my boyfriend and me so I guess that can be our excuse for always being at home.  I can stay at home and watch tv all day or read a book and be perfectly fine.  I am a reality show fanatic but also love the classics like I Love Lucy and also stand-up comedy.  Love it.  I just recently got a new puppy, her name is Reaux and she is the sweetest thing ever.  

Helping children and realizing that they are our future is what brought me to education.  My ideal grade is either Kindergarten or 1st grade.  The things that I am excited to teach are the foundations such as the alphabets and numbers.  Also if I were to teach a higher grade I would love to teach science.  To me that is the most interesting subject of all.  The content area that has me most nervous of all is math.  Math just isn't my niche.  There are so many ways and short cuts to get around math I would just be both nervous and concerned whether or not if I am teaching everything they should know.

After reading the syllabus for this class I was very excited.  I look forward to doing the assignments, especially the Elizabethtown Pennsylvania Project.  Having a "pen pal" that is also a preservice teacher would be awesome!  I like the fact that there are a lot of projects instead of the “usual work”.  Things like that keeps me engaged.  I look forward to getting started in this class.  I see that everything is going to be beneficial!