Janine

12/6/11 The Shift video was very packed with information, so that I did have to take notes and would like to see my students take notes when watching videos. Point back to comments. What especially struck me was that administrators would begin looking for behaviors in teachers that showed they are addressing the common core. Behaviors such as Using different types of text, talking about how they would approach one text differently from another, asking students to write about text (I thought of QARs), asking students to support their answers from the text. What I especially felt is that saying, "I teach content..... not literacy, will not longer be acceptable.

The article, "Hidden Agenda" is really addressing the reason for implementing the common core. Students are resistant to writing. Many do not see the value of writing to learn because they do not have a chance to practice it in their learning. The Common core hopefully will cause more writing.

11/22/11 I have read over the common core but haven't used it much for developing lesson plans. I am excited to see how this will change literacy focus in the content area.
 * What is your experience with the commone core? What are you nervous about?**

4/1/11 =Reflecting back on the year, can you name an idea/question/ strategy we discussed that you would like to explore further in the future?= I want to learn more about readin workshops. From the article Bringing Literacy Strategies into Content Instructions, Chapter 3 - I am most intrigued by the discussion of learning vocabulary through oral and written means. But specifically using discussions. Creating opportunities for students to discuss and ask questions which provide the opportunity to use the vocabulary words in a variety of settings and have studnets use the words. I want to learn how teachers create conversations about content specific vocabulary in the class so I can help create the right conditions for the spontaneous discussion. =**In what ways would you like to keep the conversation about literacy in the content areas going either with this group, HVWP, or in your own school community?**= Having Saturday workshops or sessions I could recommend to my colleagues and also continuing with the Study Group.

=What recommendations can you make to us about improving the group/experience next year?= We need to get the word out better among the TC's about the group and try to get better attendance. Also having one book read would be good to keep conversation going and having material to reference once the year is over.

2/4/11 Comments on "There's No Such Thing as a Reading Test": This article really spoke to Susan V's comment at our last meeting about the reading - more reading leads to greater vocabulary. She didn't agree with this and I believe this is what Hirsch and Pondisco are saying in their article on reading tests. Its seems as though reading is multifaceted. Yes reading is a skill but no it is not as simple as that. "Domain-specific" content knowledge is also critical to functional reading. But, on the other hand, reading cannot be reduced to domain specific content instruction. This is the problem with a lot of traditional content classrooms. In science I cover a lot of content and content specific vocabulary. Then I assign reading without any attention to reading strategies or practicing strategies "skill" that might help students with their reading. Helping students learn strategies to make sense of the reading needs to be in my classroom as much as it is in the English classroom or in the resource rooms.

I suppose I am naive but I thought that state generated reading tests were generated based on the curriculum the student either covered that year or had covered in the past. If not then state tests should be redone.

My take away from the article is the benefit of teaching an integrated curriculum. Being sure that reading tests are in sync with what is taught in science or math... At the high school level this is difficult at any level other that the state but for elementary educators this should be what all strive to do.

12/3/10 Reflecting on the article Bringing Literacy Strategies into Content Instructions, Chapter 3 - I was most intrigued by the discussion of learning vocabulary through oral and written means. But specifically using discussions. I experienced this just the other day when I was teaching the aerobic respiration cycle. I briefly outlined the cycle on the board and then discussed the key vocabulary terms. The students starting asking a lot of questions which provided the opportunity to use the vocabulary words in a variety of settings and to have them use the words. It was great - they were really wrestling with the terms which I know will help get these terms into a long term storage place in their brains. My question is how to get these rich discussions going. It was so spontaneous with one student leading - I am not sure it could be replicated on a regular basis. Maybe I just need to remember the value of having the discussion and try to create more classroom opportunities for it to happen but if it doesn't happen, have other vocabulary strategies to fall back on. I would love to learn how teachers create conversations about content specific vocabulary in the class so I can help create the right conditions for the spontaneous discussion.

4/9/10 Reflecting back on the year - working across the content areas - can you name and describe a strategy that you can commit to using the future. In response to this question the strategy I most liked and want to explore even more is the learning by questioning. Using content reading to learn and to learn by questions. Then to have them push the questions from basic knowledge into higher levels like composing. I think it helps especially in science as they start with just the data (basic knowledge questions) and then move into hypothesize (inferences) and into conclusions. My Ahha for this

3/12/10 Refelctions on Neil and Nicole presentation. I like Neil's premise that we can teach content through quesitonsing and I find that this fits so well with science. What we need to try to teach students is how to questions and that forces them to construct their own knowledge. With Nicole's journaling it is good to remember all the purposes of journaling - it is so much more than just building community, it also is a knowledge dump and place to do inprogress assessment.

2/5/10 Reflections on Acquiring Cognititve Tools for Reading I liked the part of the chapter that discuss how to get students to learn by questioning the text. The books states it best in the statement, "One of the most powerful cognitive tools for reading comprehension is questioning. Questioning the text makes you engage more actively with it. The type of question also forces you to look more deeply into the text." I like the different level of questions introduced. I don't, however, like the names of the levels of questions, but I do like the descriptions.

Right There Questions, a question who answer is right in the text is a good, is a great title so that is fine. Pulling it Together Questions, a question whose answer is in the text, but the reader has to pull it together from different parts of the text is also very good. But the last two levels of questions, Author and Me Questions, questions whose answer is not in the text but the reader has to use the information provided in the text and their own schema to figure out the answer, and the On my own questions, a question whose answer is not in the text, and the reader does not have the have read the text to answer the questions, are not good titles.

I really want to come up with new titles for the last two levels of questions that are more obvious than they are now.

1/24/10 Research Idea I struggle with teaching students how to use their textbook as a learning aid and just doing the expedient lecture to provide them with information. I usually settle with the lecture but I am not happy with the results. Yes I know that the information was provided to the students but they are not taking it in. I feel this is because the learning is too passive and ignore many aspects of learning such as the social and cognitive parts that is discussed in our group read.

Currently I am reading a college textbook of mine - Strategies for Successful Writing by Reinking, Hart, von der Osten. I want to try the strategies they mention for successful reading. They open with, "Effective reading is not the passive process that many people imagine. On the contrary, it requires the ongoing interaction of your mind and the printed page. Bringing your own knowledge and experience to bear on a piece of writing can help you asses its events, ideas, and conclusions."

For my next unit in science I am going to use the text book as a start. 1. First I will have the students write what they know about the topic in their notebook for 5 minutes. 2. Then I will have the students scan the titles and subtitles and see if they are areas of the topic that they don't know much about and need to know more. We will discuss this as a class in a group brainstorm. 3. Then we will go to slow read of the topics and have the students explain them in their notes. For areas they can't put into their own words, they will write the page number and the question they are having with the material. They will also write down new terms that are critical to the explaination of the topic and what they think the words mean. 4. We will then pair up and read what each learned, circling area, definitions that are unclear or incorrect and discuss them once both are finished. 5. Lastly we will summarize as a group the main topics, identifiying voc words and answer questions that arose from the reading.

1/8/10 - Naming strategies from last session. Eric started his session by stating that he was using the Cognitive Dimension of reading apprenticeship. Students thought about what they learned. They chunked the reading as a group and they broke it down as to what it meant to them.

I do think that was definitely present in his presentation, but what struck me most was part of the Social Dimension of the reading apprenticeship that the technique used. In particular having students read each other's comments on what was read, they were able to use "Noticing a Appropriating Others' Ways of Reading" by noticing the background knowledge and experience different readers brought to the text and how that impacted what they read.

What I liked most about Jack's presentation of a book talk/share is how applicable this technique is to lab writing. I do provide students with a format for lab writing with all the sections but rarely do they use the format correctly. By creating a template of the lab format that they could write over would provide a better basic scaffold for their writing than what I currently use. Then creating a place where all students post their labs would help provide many models of the technique. The idea of allowing more formats for lab reporting such as digital stories and voice threads is real possibility too.