Miss McHugh

This is an amazing post that sums up a lot of things we have learned. From Bloom's to Wood Ray she puts everything in parent friendly language. I think this is great not only for me as a teacher to have as a reminder, to keep in my guided reading folder. Also as a resource to share with parents of struggling readers to help them understand some of the terms that may be used in conferences. 

I have learned so much about my students attention spans during my two weeks of full time teaching! Go Noodle has been my lifesaver. This great FREE resource has super brain breaks that take two or three minutes and the kids really enjoy. Once we do these my students are much more focused for the next fifteen minutes since they had a chance to get their wiggles out. 

Answer: Through this semester I have learned so many skills and strategies to teach students to help them grow as readers and increase their reliance on various cueing systems. This raised the question as to how book clubs can help aid this instruction as well. I have realized that as each student brings to the table a different set of needs and a different fund of knowledge (Moll) they can help each other grow together. This idea of course being rooted in Vygotsky's social learning theory and the necessity for immersion in the content as Cambourne taught us. I now believe that book clubs can aid in reinforcing the ideas taught during reading conferences and mini lessons to increase use on the semantic cueing system by encouraging students to create meaning from the text. This of course requires that these book clubs be structured so that students know the type of thinking and talking expected. Since we want students to rely on each cueing system evenly this is a strategy to either increase or maintain a reliance on semantics while reinforcing graphophonemic or syntax in conferences. Students will also be able to practice use of all three cueing systems in these groups. 

This quote really shows how important reading clubs are for our students growth. This embodies Vygotsky's social learning theory and helps increase students confidence. I cannot wait to use this in my own classroom. 

I love this quote so much because it connects so closely to my philosophy on education. As a child who was raised being paid $20 for every A I received in school and having to pay my parents increasing amounts for anything lower than that this hits close to my heart. Students do not need to value themselves based on a grade they get, they need to be taught to have a strong sense of self-worth and to be reflective in what they are learning and to understand we grade to measure growth. 

This quote I feel is exactly the authors purpose for writing this book. Our words are so important to students and they are much more attentive than we think to what they hear out of our mouths. We create their confidence and can easily break it in one exchange. Our awareness to our interactions with students will help these moments be positive and helpful for students. 

This is a great website to allow students to create brain maps online. I think it would be great to use in writing workshop to organize their thoughts like the heart maps we used from Ralph Fletcher. You do have to purchase the software or subscription but I think it is a worthwhile investment that can be used across content areas. 

If we do not use our assessments to inform our instruction what is the point? Everything we do as teachers should be purposeful!

"Reading and writing, it turns ut, are natural venues for learning about others." p. 66

This is a great resource to use in any classroom! They take any content and set it to a rap, this makes the content so interesting and relatable to students. Once students can connect to the content and relate it to their own funds of knowledge (Moll) that they bring to the classroom community it will stick with them. It also makes content culturally relevant and as Bomer taught us we want to create a democratic environment that builds off of students identies. Ladson- Billings was all about making our lessons culturally relevant and exploring new methods of instruction. I think flocabulary would be a great example of what he was talking about!