Ending Thoughts of the Semester

Reflection Questions and Answers:

How will you choose and teach vocabulary words?

I will choose to teach vocabulary in several differing ways. In Blog 3 I discussed the differing ways that vocabulary can be taught. "...Graves urged educators to consider several important facets of vocabulary learning and teaching that are applicable in the content areas. First, he recommended initiating vocabulary teaching with a student-friendly definition and a meaningful context based upon the students experiential knowledge. These contexts can be written texts, concrete objects, pictures, and even video clips" (pg.7)  Some of the activities of using a graphic organizer to find relationships and context clues can help students to visualize an association. Categorizing word commonalities are also helpful for students to understand the usage of words. Vocabulary is a continual journey in speech and writing and as an English/History teacher it will be my job to expand that knowledge for my students. I would like to implement the visual and root ideas to help all students in the classroom. 

 How will you structure opportunities for students to use oral language?

I would have a lot of class discussion opportunities through pairs, small groups, and with the whole class. Giving students the chance to ask questions and give opinions or thoughts produces a socratic academic environment.  

How will you integrate digital technologies?

I will integrate digital technology in as many ways as I can because there are so many wonderful digital tools available to use. I have a class blog started from my ITLS 4015 class started so I would like to have discussions available. Kahoot is a wonderful tool to use for assessing students. Then for my ELL kids having a book in their own language would be helpful so students can understand what we are talking about to participate in discussions.  

What kinds of texts will you make available to your students? 

In both my English and History class I would like to have many differing text for students have a broad understanding of the era and people during the time of the story. This will help students understand why the author wrote the story and what there message might be. In my Blog about Critical literacy I wrote; There are many things that can be done to add to the classroom to enrich learning. Having supplemental and multiple texts available to compare or contrast and interpret stories. Text with differing views can help students to analyze and question information. In teaching students by using critical literacy skills can help them become better students and more informed on issues. It can help students find the joy in learning because they are searching and questioning information instead of being fed knowledge. We as teachers are helping to change the future by encouraging  our students to search information.  We want the future generation have the skills to question and think about issues so they can be life long learners.