Wednesday, January 28, 2009
A great teacher EDRG 3321
I chose Mrs. Weaver my sophomore English teacher as my favorite teacher because she inspired me. She also saw the potential in me that she and I knew was there. She was constantly challenging me to push myself. I think I learned more about myself as a student that year in her class than any since. I want to instill that drive and ambition in unsuspecting children that have the abilities to do great things, but no one to believe in them. Everyone always told me to shoot for the stars, she made me feel like I could actually reach them.
Blog 1 EDRG 3321
In chapter 1 we talked about values of literature for children, promoting child development through literature and children's response to literature.
Reading to children creates a love of books. Books are a major means of transmitting literary heritage from one generation to the next. It gives children a look at the past. They experience folktales and lives of previous generations. Literature also helps us understand and value cultural heritage. It is important to create an appreciation of the heritage of ethnic minorities in American culture and society. These various experiences of literature result in personal development in children as well as a pleasure of reading.
Children learn in stages, some faster than others, but they all must pass through each stage to become a mature adult. These stages are language development, cognitive development, personality development, and social development. Poetry collections are a good source for language development. In cognitive development, children's literature is effective for developing the operations associated with thinking. They are observing, comparing, classifying, hypothesizing, organizing, summarizing, applying, and criticizing. Personality development is also achieved through literature. For example books show children it is OK to be different from their families.
Everyone has different values and of those values some are more important than others to different people. My most important values are love and family. I can't choose just one because I feel they are connected and to me you can not have one without the other. Love and family were taught to me mainly by my parents and grandparents. They are what I aspire to be like on a day to day basis. Unfortunately when I was younger I took them for granted. It wasn't until I married and had my own family that I truly understood the values of love and family. It is too late to thank my grandparents for instilling these values in me, but I cherish the time I spend with my parents now more than I ever have.
The values of love and family can be taught in many ways. The best way is lead by example. People learn love and family by witnessing it first hand. Invite someone who may not have a great family life to have dinner with your family. It is surprising how many people haven't ever sat down as an entire family and enjoyed a meal. The more these values are observed and experienced first hand the quicker it will be come a part of an individuals value system.
Reading to children creates a love of books. Books are a major means of transmitting literary heritage from one generation to the next. It gives children a look at the past. They experience folktales and lives of previous generations. Literature also helps us understand and value cultural heritage. It is important to create an appreciation of the heritage of ethnic minorities in American culture and society. These various experiences of literature result in personal development in children as well as a pleasure of reading.
Children learn in stages, some faster than others, but they all must pass through each stage to become a mature adult. These stages are language development, cognitive development, personality development, and social development. Poetry collections are a good source for language development. In cognitive development, children's literature is effective for developing the operations associated with thinking. They are observing, comparing, classifying, hypothesizing, organizing, summarizing, applying, and criticizing. Personality development is also achieved through literature. For example books show children it is OK to be different from their families.
Everyone has different values and of those values some are more important than others to different people. My most important values are love and family. I can't choose just one because I feel they are connected and to me you can not have one without the other. Love and family were taught to me mainly by my parents and grandparents. They are what I aspire to be like on a day to day basis. Unfortunately when I was younger I took them for granted. It wasn't until I married and had my own family that I truly understood the values of love and family. It is too late to thank my grandparents for instilling these values in me, but I cherish the time I spend with my parents now more than I ever have.
The values of love and family can be taught in many ways. The best way is lead by example. People learn love and family by witnessing it first hand. Invite someone who may not have a great family life to have dinner with your family. It is surprising how many people haven't ever sat down as an entire family and enjoyed a meal. The more these values are observed and experienced first hand the quicker it will be come a part of an individuals value system.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Blog Entry 1 EDRG 3344
Children learn using five basic strategies. They rehearse by repeating words over and over, they predict by trying to anticipate what will happen, they organize by grouping information into categories, they elaborate by expanding information, and they monitor by keeping track of progress.
The six components of Language Arts are listening, reading, writing, talking, viewing, and visual representation.
I believe that how children learn and teaching Language Arts are connected in many ways. Children are obviously talking when they are repeating words over and over. For example, when studying vocabulary.
As a teacher you can use almost all of the six components of Language Arts to help them predict. Keep them guessing. Some of the classes I learned the most in where the ones where I kept wondering "what was going to happen next." I was paying attention!
Most of the Language Arts components can also be used to help children organize. They are going to group things together anyway. An example would be to show them how to organize their notebook. In which the children would be listening to instruction, writing their dividers, talking about how they will decorate the binder, looking at the prepared binder and in the end they will have their own visual representation.
Children have such imaginations and the language arts components, especially talking and writing, can be used to help them elaborate. When I think about my 4th grade teacher, I remember growing a bean in her class as part of a class project. I couldn't wait to get to class to see if there was anything growing out of that little paper cup. We were constantly monitoring it's growth. We had to write what we saw and talk about it with other students. We then would predict how much it would grow by the next day.
There are many examples of how children learn and the teaching of Language Arts, I hope some of my thoughts and examples have helped to prove my opinion.
The six components of Language Arts are listening, reading, writing, talking, viewing, and visual representation.
I believe that how children learn and teaching Language Arts are connected in many ways. Children are obviously talking when they are repeating words over and over. For example, when studying vocabulary.
As a teacher you can use almost all of the six components of Language Arts to help them predict. Keep them guessing. Some of the classes I learned the most in where the ones where I kept wondering "what was going to happen next." I was paying attention!
Most of the Language Arts components can also be used to help children organize. They are going to group things together anyway. An example would be to show them how to organize their notebook. In which the children would be listening to instruction, writing their dividers, talking about how they will decorate the binder, looking at the prepared binder and in the end they will have their own visual representation.
Children have such imaginations and the language arts components, especially talking and writing, can be used to help them elaborate. When I think about my 4th grade teacher, I remember growing a bean in her class as part of a class project. I couldn't wait to get to class to see if there was anything growing out of that little paper cup. We were constantly monitoring it's growth. We had to write what we saw and talk about it with other students. We then would predict how much it would grow by the next day.
There are many examples of how children learn and the teaching of Language Arts, I hope some of my thoughts and examples have helped to prove my opinion.
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