Final Post/ Blog Refelection

The blog I created at the beginning of this semester has been a true learning experience and has evolved into a skill that I can take with me as a student and as a teacher. I found that although there were many important words to discuss or define during the course readings, I was drawn more to the words that I could connect to my own teaching experiences. I have even included some of the words that my students came across in their classes. Much of my reading has been concentrated on assigned readings for the classes in which I am enrolled. I have pulled vocabulary mostly from those readings because of the number of vocabulary that is important for me to know and use in my everyday teaching. Looking back on my blog, I am impressed at how much I have learned and used in my own classroom. I have even found a way to incorporate some aspects of this  blog activity into my classroom. Instead of having each student do an individual blog, our class has a vocabulary blog that we are using to identify words within our reading that pertain to our inequality unit. The blog that I have written this semester has been a great model for word learning that I can now use in my own classroom.

            As a word learner, I have gained a tremendous amount of understanding of how much one word can influence learning. There are many words that I chose to include in my blog that are very common, but I never have had a great definition for the word. This blog helped me to focus on the vocabulary and come up with a meaningful definition. The vocabulary that I chose were never difficult words, however they were all pertinent to my teaching, reading, and understanding of key concepts. Keeping the blog as an ongoing process has allowed me to look back on my learning and reflect on the importance of specific readings, especially during the weeks that I pulled four to six words from the reading. I also learned a new skill during and after the reading process. I realized the importance of stopping and examining the vocabulary to enhance my understanding of the reading or the concept during reading. Then after reading, going back and using vocabulary to summarize the material to integrate the concepts into my teaching. Having a place to write these ideas or thoughts down and keep a record of them is an important part of the learning process. By using the blog as a way of writing to learn, I was able to organize my thoughts and provide a professional record of my learning throughout the semester.

            While taking the vocabulary tests was not one my favorite activities, I did recognize that it helped me to be accountable for my own learning. Because the vocabulary words were not only my words, it required me to read my peers blogs and be more involved in their learning process as well. Reading the blogs of my peers each week gave me a greater understanding of the text or what was happening in their lives. Since the beginning of the semester, I was anxious during each vocabulary test, however, because it was of words of my choice and my peers’ choice, it was a more meaningful test and therefore caused less anxiety. I now understand the importance of giving students choice for vocabulary tests in order to make them more meaningful.

            The most important skill I learned and will take with me is finding meaningful ways to keep track of vocabulary and learning.  Although I will not be creating a blog for each of my classes or books that I read, I will be finding other ways to professionally record my learning and understanding.

12:5 RAFT

When and where did I find the word:  The acronym was found in the assigned readings for this week.  It was found in the following book:

Daniels, H., Zemelman, S., & Steineke, N.  (2007).  Content-area writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann

What it means: According to Daniels, Zemelman, & Steineke (2007), Doug Buehl reports that RAFT stands for role, audience, formant, and topic.  Each is defined as follows:

Role - the idea of role describes the character's viewpoint and personality. 

Audience - this decribes who is going to be reading a a given literary work, the purpose of the work, who is 

                going to be persuaded by the work.  

Format -  This describes the format (news story, letter to the editor, etc) in which the text will be presented. 

Topic - this describes the subject that is covered by the work.  

In this context, a RAFT is a piece of writing that is based on the student's choices for each of the four characteristics of RAFT.  

Level of Familiarity: I was not familiar with the acronym RAFT, but I was familiar with the individual components of RAFT.  I was also not familiar with the use of RAFT.

Do I want to know this word well and tell why?   I can see the utility of RAFT as a closure activity for a unit.  It is a good way for students to use faction.  The students can take the facts that they've learned and weave a fictional story into them.  I can see how students might find the process of "RAFTing" engaging and how this might facilitate learning.  As such, I do want to know about this word.

Do I think others should know this word well....if so who and why?  I think building a RAFT is a useful closure tool and that content area teachers might be able to make use of this concept to help solidify learned materials.   I think that this is a great way to differential students' learning and scaffold the writing process.  

12:4 Faction

When and where did I find the word:  Faction was found in the assigned readings for this week.  It was found in the following book:

Daniels, H., Zemelman, S., & Steineke, N.  (2007).  Content-area writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann

What it means: According to Daniels, Zemelman, & Steineke (2007), faction is the combination of factual research and imagination that is most popularly used in genres such as historical and science fiction.  A write who uses faction researches a topic and then creates a story around the topic.

Level of Familiarity: I was not familiar with the formal definition of faction; however, after reading about it, I realized that my husband is an avid reader of novels that utilize faction.

Do I want to know this word well and tell why?  I think that faction is an important concept because it is a way to present what might be mundane information in an interesting fashion.  Daniels, Zemelman, & Steineke (2007) use the example of Michael Crichton's Jurrasic Park as a faction-containing novel.  Crichton's Jurrasic Park is a vivid story about reviving long-extinct dinosaurs in an amusement park type setting.  The story is interesting, but after reading the book (or watching the movie, I suppose) you realize that you've not only been entertained by it, but you've also learned about dinosaurs, chaos theory, and cloning.

Do I think others should know this word well....if so who and why?  I think that teachers and writers of educational materials should know this word.  Teachers might select classroom texts that utilize faction as a way of engaging student interest.   Writers of educational texts might also use faction as a way to engage reader interest (and perhaps increase profits).  

12:3 Quick Writes

When and where did I find the word:  Quick writes was a term found in this week's assigned reading.  It was found in the following article:

Knipper, K.J., & Duggan, T.J. (2006).  Writing to learn across the curriculum:  Tools for comprehension in content area classes.  The Reading Teacher, 59(5), 462-470.

What it means: According to Knipper & Duggan (2006), quick writes are one of many informal means of engaging students in thinking about an upcoming topic.  Quick writes are teacher-directed questions.  Students' responses can be recorded in various formants and can be used for teacher reference or sharing with other students.  

Level of Familiarity:  Quick writes are similar to 1-minute papers or admittance or exit slips.  I have successfully used these strategies in my classroom.

Do I want to know this word well and tell why?  I like the idea behind quick writes as I think that they are a useful tool in engaging students in a topic.   I also think that quick writes are a good way of assessing prior knowledge of a subject and assessing progress in learning a given subject.

Do I think others should know this word well....if so who and why?  I think that many teachers can benefit from using quick writes in their classroom as ways to engage students and assess their knowledge of a given subject.  I can see how quick writes can be helpful in preparing students for reading assignments.   

12:2 Checklist

When and where did I find the word:  Checklist was a term found in this week's assigned reading.  It was found in the following article:

Knipper, K.J., & Duggan, T.J. (2006).  Writing to learn across the curriculum:  Tools for comprehension in content area classes.  The Reading Teacher, 59(5), 462-470.

What it means: According to Knipper & Duggan (2006), a checklist is a tool used in the strategy of writing to learn and is a set of concrete, observable behaviors that are organized in a sequence that is logical.

Level of Familiarity: Even thought I was not familiar with the idea of writing to learn, I am familiar with the idea of creating a checklist in this context.

Do I want to know this word well and tell why?  I think that writing to learn is an important strategy that can be used to create interest in a content for students.  Using checklists is one method of assessing one's progress in writing to learn.  As such, I think the checklists in this context are important as they combine the idea of writing to learn with concrete, observable behaviors.

Do I think others should know this word well....if so who and why?  If someone is going to use the strategy of writing to learn, the idea of using checklists would be important to him/her as it is a good way to measure progress on writing to learn.  Checklists, when provided to the student, gives students goals for writing as well as demonstrate a good finished product.  In essence, a checklist can also be used as a rubric for the finished product.  

12:1 Writing to learn

When and where did I find the word:  Writing to learn was a term found in this week's assigned reading.  It was found in the following article:

Knipper, K.J., & Duggan, T.J. (2006).  Writing to learn across the curriculum:  Tools for comprehension in content area classes.  The Reading Teacher, 59(5), 462-470.

What it means: According to Knipper & Duggan (2006), writing to learn is a catalyst for further learning and making meaning out of what one has read.

Level of Familiarity: I have never heard of the term writing to learn before; however, after reading Knipper & Duggan (2006), the process seems familiar and is similar to exercises that were used during my undergraduate education.

Do I want to know this word well and tell why? I think that writing to learn is an important concept.  According to Knipper & Duggan (2006) writing is often left out of content classrooms as a way to de-emphasize the process writing; however writing to learn is an opportunity for student to gain interest in an already familiar subject.

Do I think others should know this word well....if so who and why?  I think that content area teachers can make good use out of this strategy of writing to learn. From my experience as a student in secondary education and at my undergraduate institution, I think at lot of emphasis was  put on the final product of the writing process rather than what I learned from the process of writing about a given subject.  Knipper & Duggan (2006) provided some interesting insight on the process of writing to learn and how to make valuable assessments from this process.  

11:4 Goal setting

When and where did I find the word:  Goal setting was a term found while researching for my reciprocal teaching presentation.  I found it in the following article:

Davis, S.J. (1990).  Applying content study skills in co-listed reading classrooms.  Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 33(4), 277-281.

What it means: According to Davis (1990), goal setting is setting a reasonable purpose for studying.

Level of Familiarity:  I think the idea of setting a goal is a term that is pretty well generalized across disciplines.  I set goals not only related to my professional/academic life, but also in my personal life.

Do I want to know this word well and tell why?  Goal-setting is an important process.  Setting a small, acheivable goal by which one can measure his/her own achievement is an important task.  Not only is it a way to measure success, but appropriate goal setting can be a way in which to gain motivation.

Do I think others should know this word well....if so who and why?  In this context, it is important for teachers to know this term and to be able to use it effectively.  Setting goals for the individual is important to measure growth for that individual, but also setting goals (and determining if those goals were met) for a group of individuals is important to measure the effectiveness of one's own teaching.