Marion Blumental Lazan

21 October 2010

       This week, instead of having class, we were required to go to Corey Union function room to hear Holocaust Survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan speak. I thought this was an awesome opportunity because I had never had the opportunity to hear a Holocaust survivor speak. Although I thought it was really awesome to be able to hear her speak, she hardly ventured from the stories that she tells in her memoior: Four Perfect Pebbles. I was anxious to come and hear the un-told stories, but it was quickly made clear that she had already told her entire story in the book. I think it's pretty cool that she was so honest in the book, but I think she should have left some to be told in person. Maybe that is just a personal opinion.

Text Issues

      I'm finding it difficult to prioritize reading the Keene text. So much of the context is personal stories of experiences that the author has had. Yes, I think these stories are inspirational, but they are her personal experiences. I cannot really relate to her personal endeavours. I would much rather prefer a text that incorporates teaching literacy throughout the curriculum. I want ideas and techniques to someday use within my classroom to help incorporate literacy in all subjects as well as use literacy to teach other concepts.
     I think that Four Perfect Pebbles is a good book. It's well written and can be incorporated in both literacy and social studies. I think that I would only be able to use the text if I was a 6th grade ELA or SS teacher. It is in 6th grade that students cover old world history. Although it is a good book, I think that we are taking entirely too long on the text. I think that most, if not all of the students have already finished reading it and have moved on to Three Cups of Tea. I, personally, finished the book over a month ago and just skim it over before class to refresh my memory on the context. I think that for such an easy reading level, the text could have been incorporated differently within the context of the class. I think that we could have covered a lot more material over the context of the course had we covered more content each week and less time reading children's picture books.

Keene's Confirmation

9/30/2010

I found myself enjoying chapter 3 in To Understand by Ellin Keene. I think that she made a lot of very good points. I was astounded by the story of a 5 year old kindergardener who's curisoity and understanding was way beyond what would have been expected of him. I really think that's our problem... we underestimate kids. We set expectations for them and are thrilled when we meet those expectations, but are we limiting them?
      I very much agree with the message that Keene was making. She was basically saying that we need to encourage students to facilitate their own learning. If a child is feeding their own drive to learn, then they are going to be more eager to understand. When I am curious about something, I am very eager to learn. I go online, read books, look it up on Youtube, etc. I go to these measures because I am interested in it. How can we expect kids to foster their own learning when the topic is of no interest to them? How can we expect them to want to understand something they have no cares about understanding at all? Just a thought...

Making Connections

I found it interesting to be reading a book of such an easy reading level. I'm used to British Novels and Mark Twain. I think it's important for a teacher to read books that their students are either currently reading on their own or that are popular at the time. By reading these books, the teacher can make connections to the plot lines within their classroom and curriculum.

Keene talks about drawing connections to the lives that kids live with the content that is being studied. It's a lot easier for a child to make inferences and understand content when they can relate to it. I think her point here was very valid. I have done such things on numerous occasions in my classroom and it's definitely beneficial.

What does "make sense" mean?

      This passage of reading was very interesting to me. All too often we teachers over-estimate the comprehension of our students. We use 'big' words and assume that out students know what they mean. At first we need to over explain so that we can determine what the level of understanding is amongst our students. It took a group of researchers to get Jamika to finally vent that she didn't know what "make sense" means.
     Another concept that I found very interesting was when Keene said that "...we aren't necessarily teaching comprehension, we're actually assessing comprehension" (Keene, pg. 5). This statement makes complete sense. we are always asking students if they understand but we are neglecting to teach them HOW to understand. It's a very enlightening statement....

First Day of Class

09/03/2010
          We had our first day of class yesterday. Our assignment was pretty simple. We were told to go online and create a blog; this blog. This is something that I have never done before, but I am excited to try something new. Twitter is a huge rage these days but I've always refused to join the masses in that fad.
          This is my only Literacy course that I am taking this term so I'm a little nervous about the different content than my general math & science education courses but I think that the variety will be nice. I also appreciate that it is later in the evening, especially since VanHoesen is not air conditioned.