Last of the Semester

At first, I couldn't possibly understand why I needed a class based on literacy when my subject area is math. I quickly realized how much apart of math literacy really is. I didn't realize how much work could be done in such a class either, but learning how students learn and different approaches to get them to participate and think critically have now become important roles that I need to incorporate into my classroom. I've learned the different types of literacy - it doesn't just apply to something like english. Literacy can include computers, music, art, etc. - it doesn't just apply to words.

It was a great idea to have all of us share different lessons we would like to do with our students from our unit plans. Because they applied literacy, I think it's possible for many of those different activities to be interdisciplinary.

The hypertext activity was a real eye-opener, and I would like to try that with a group of mature high school students to see how they will react.

Thank you for a wonderful and incredibly insightful class, Dr. Dana!

last post

This class has taught me the possibilities of a literacy involved inter-disciplinary unit. I now am filled with new ideas for future unit plans that will involve traditional phys. ed. concepts with more of an educational value. I think this class has opened up my eyes and looking back would not say that I feel I did not get to learn something that I wanted prior to coming into this course.

what I learn in this class

I think this class was great, I didn't think this class was going to be this good just because the title of the class. I feelgood now about reading because Dr. Dana made feel good when she said that we all good readers because we read daily and reading can be fun when you willing to it. reading does seem as bad now after taking this course. But I do think schools need to get rid of those textbooks that nobody could understand. In this class I learned that we use and need literacy in our daily lives. We need to integrate technology in to our classes because the upcoming generations will be so knowledgeable about technology, it would be a great way to teach and get students involve in our classes. Technology is playing a big role on how and what we read in our daily lives.

Last Post :(

I really want to say that by taking this course I feel a bit more comfortable in being able to go up in a crowd of people and teach about a subject that I truly enjoy. Even though I might not be in a classroom setting all the time with being a physical educator, I feel that many things that I learned in this classroom will greatly benefit me in a good way. I now have an awareness in what different ways one could process information or as what we like to call it learning. I have the opportunity not only to teach students how to be healthy but I have the chance of making a positive impact on someones life. I really enjoyed coming to class every week and discussing very interesting topics that surround our field. I really like seeing the variety of teaching methods especially with the rise of technology it will be amazing to see what new tools us teachers can use.

thank you,

last post

It is only fitting that I am posting this final blog late. I had a hard time keeping up with the blog all semester, I would forget to post or not be able to and most of my posts were late so it is only right that this final one is as well.

I enjoyed this semester. I enjoyed working on the unit plan and thinking about how to incorporate literacy into the lessons. Literacy is important and it was good to learn more techniques to use to implement literacy.

The one thing I did not like, actually two, is posting to this blog and using the wiki. My connection at home to the internet is slow so it would take a long time to load wiki and blogger so many times I would get frustrated and give up. Despite those two little things, I enjoyed the class and enjoyed meeting people from all majors.

thank you for a good semester

I've been reading your blog posts and thinking about how hard this class is, initially, for all of us to get our heads around. It's the most diverse class I teach, in terms of including every kind of teacher major (or almost), and the connections to literacy are much clearer in some cases than others. What I appreciated so much about this class was that you were willing to look at literacy in different ways, making new connections to your subject field that I think will enrich you as teachers.

I know that made this class a challenge, especially for some, and I always respect those who meet a challenge head on. I think a lot of you are this way, and that aspect alone will help you be the expert teachers you will become. I also tried some new things in this class, like a class blog instead of individual ones and although some of you struggled with that as well as the wiki, you were all willing to give it a shot. So thank you.

My best wishes for the holiday season and a new year.
Dr. Dana

The Final Stretch

I would have to say I had a lot of fun in this class. I still remember our first day of class back in September like it was yesterday (chills). All I kept wondering was what the hell is this class going to be about. I must say I learned so much in this class. I never had such a diverse class when it comes to subject matters. I am normally am in all PE classes with PE majors so I only knew PE students. To get back to my point I had a great time hearing and learning what other students in different majors had to say about teaching, and literacy, and most importantly their philosophies. Reading was not my for tee which was announced on the first day, but since then I also declared how I wanted to change that. I learned Reading and Writing is for anyboy especially children/students. Even though I already knew the importance of Reading but now I have an even better picture of it. With out doubt I will always encourage my students to read and because of this class I have a sharper, more clever approach to inspiring them. There really were not any bad things I did not like about the class, just that I really wanted to hear someone sing the Tea-Pot song at least once. So before I depart I want to once again thank everyone in the class, my PE crew, and my new friends in the Arts, Science, Music, English, History, and Math departments. Thank you again Dr. Wilber and everyone have a safe and hopefully mentally long month off.

The Final Chapter...

I'd like to start out by saying that I did not like having to post to a blog. Everytime I write an entry and hit publish, I get a response back that there was some sort of error. Even though I'm told that "Now Blogger saves your drafts automatically!", it never seems to be saved. After several tries of the past week I finally gave up out of aggravation, and am trying once again.
One thing I got out of this class was working on interdisciplinary lessons. It is now easier to think of teaching an art lesson incorporating other subjects, like reading, writing, history and math.
Something that I did not like about this class (similar to this blog), was haivng such a strong focus on technology. It was a reading theory and process class, not a technology in the classroom one, and it felt as though everything we did focused around forcing computers into every aspect of a childs life. I think our schools should be less focused on forcing technology down a childs throat and concentrate more on teaching them to read and write English.

r407 Learning Experiences...

I learned that reading is fundamental in all subjects, we as teachers must incorporate readings in a way that meets the students' interest because literacy does keep the youth out of trouble, the more they read and learn the less time they will have to spend time on the streets (this of course with the help of parents). Without incorporating reading, it creates a habit among students so consistency in reading is very important.As we heard it in class that 70% of all inmates are illiterate meaning this is related to crime. I am a Health Education major and literacy is a big chunk in the learning process of the Health subject. If a student can not understand a prescription he or she will end up with an overdose, or might not take into account warnings, secondary effects, or allergic reactions.A person who does not have the habit of reading will lose the connection of comprehending a reading and therefore when they are exposed to reading they will draw wrong conclusions. For instance, not being able to interpret a food label, they may end up overfeeding themselves or intoxication from a vitamin or mineral overtime.Reading keeps us healthy, we heard in class that the more one reads the less likely to develop or the more likely to delay Alzheimer's disease, so in conclusion by incorporating reading the students' learning are in good hands and consistency in making sure students understood the material, went over the vocabulary, and most importantly are making reading a habit that will remain for life.

What I got from this course

This was the first class that I feel like I did something that I will be doing in my teaching career. I really enjoyed doing the unit plan because I had never done one before and it gave me an idea about what I will be doing in the future. I also learned something about real world teaching. It's one thing to talk about teaching methods but until you actually get out there it's tough to know what it will be like. Philosophy has it's place but Dr. Wilber gave us some first hand examples about what it will be like when we step into the classroom and some of the questions we have to ask ourselves when we do.

Last Post from Alex

This class has been very interesting. I intitally sign up because it is mandatory but I am glad I did. There are two major things that this class did for me. The first one is this class help me to create effective lesson plans; a skill that i am going to use through out my career as a teacher. The second thing is that this class got me really thinking about teaching in real world conditions. i mean, life is not picture perfect and sometimes teachers have to be willing to sacrifice in order to reach students. Also,society and technology are changing so fast that I have to be able to adapt in I really want to connect to my students. I would definitely recommend this class to others

Final Post

When I registered for this class I was not sure why this course is a required course. I knew reading was important, I knew literacy was involved in all aspects of education, but I did not realize how much. This course has opened my eyes wider in more than just my subject area (English). I learned how important literacy is in all subjects including PE. I knew that in teaching English, is not just about reading and writing, we need to be able to teach our students to be literate. I learned that there are many more tools out there that can be used besides books, film, internet and that I need to be creative in ways to incorporate all of the tools that are available and even ones that might not be readily available.

Overall I enjoyed this class. I now understand why this is a required class. I think this class really does get us ready for the classroom. The one thing that i would have liked more is not to have everything due almost at the same time. Having the book project and the unit lesson plans due so close together with our personal philosophy statement made it a little hairy. With that said, to me this class has been the most beneficial class thus far in the education towards my goal of being a teacher.

Final Post

As an English Education major, I already knew that literacy was going to be a needed skill in my classrooms. This class has helped to expand my understanding of the broadness of the concept of literacy. Literacy includes any system of meaning, any form of gleaning information from symbols. This will apply to every facet of my teaching: reading, group discussions, hypothesizing, etc. The book project that was required for this course, which was was designed to foster our literary abilities, is an example of the type of projects that I will be assigning to my students.

When I first entered this class i truly wondered why i needed to take it. While "reading" itself is a very useful tool, i never really looked at the literacy aspect. This class has taught me that reading is MUCH more then just the letters and words in a book. Literacy in Physical Education is nothing without being able to read and be literate, especially in various different situations. As a softball player it was easy to see after it was described to me. This class has also opened my eyes to the fact I will most definitely have students with problems, and who knows, maybe I might be the right person to help them.

Over all I really liked this class, but I do feel that towards the end here things started getting a little confusing. I feel as though communication could have been a little better over these past few weeks. I just felt a little rushed in completing the assignment in terms of email responses. But all together this class has gone above and beyond teaching me about how to make a unit plan. I am leaving this class with a better understanding of how I can and will work with my future students. This of course is the whole point of taking these classes.

Final post

As a p.e. major i naturally felt that this class was going to be a waste of my time. I did not see where a connection between reading and physical education could possibly be made. That being said i found after going through the assignments of the class that i could use literacy in my P.E. and health courses, and came to realize that integrating literacy into my classes would ultimately benifit my students. My job as a teacher is to educate my students to the best of my ability, i would hardly being doing so if i left literacy out of my lessons.
Throughout my time in this class there were many times i felt as though i did not belong, and then there were times were the thought of literacy in my classroom made perfect sense. The one thing that I have taken from this class is that every student should have an opportunity to learn, and that we as teacher are responible not only for teaching, but also recognizing when a student needs help, and to help those students in need.

Final Blog.

When I came into this class, I wasn't sure what we would be doing really. I thought we would just read in class, and do things such as discussions. But from taking this class, I have learned the proper definition of literacy. I thought literacy just involved reading. It didn't occur to me that it had other parts. I knew before hand that a teacher must not just use the textbook, but also other learning tools. One must use technology for instance. It is everywhere, from the moment we wake up, we check our emails, we turn on the television and see what the weather is or what is going on in the world, check our messages on the phone and so on. It was good to go into that in more detail. I liked how we were doing the reading on line for that one article in class, and the discussion we had about that vs. a printed version. Technology is important in learning and everyone should use it. I also learned to have essential questions, and how to incorporate more critical thinking questions into my curriculum and lesson planning. I really liked how the class was student oriented in discussion, with Dr. Dana being the facilitator.

Final Post

What did I get out of this class? I feel as though I am better able to define what literacy means to me. I also feel as though I learned alot about how to think critically. I think I will be able incorporate literacy in many ways into my teaching when I enter into the teaching world in the next year. Overall, I think this class was a great experience for all involved. There were several thought provoking classes that I am glad to have been a part of.

Last post...

As an education major here at Montclair we are taught to actively incorporate literacy and critical thinking into our lessons. As a physical education major at first glimpse at these topics everyone's response is how can that fit into PE...you're not supposed to learn in that class. Well you are! We are given a basis in our classes about how we can begin to incorporate these things into physical education but it is classes like this one that make us take our basis of knowledge and run with it. This class opened my eyes to this not only by the teachings of Dr. Dana but also by my fellow classmates and the idea's they presented to the class no matter what content area it may have been. It made me explore the vast definition of literacy and how it is applied to all areas. Also as much as I am the type of person who does not like to read unless it is my own personal choice of topic, I really enjoyed reading Teacher Man. It is comforting as a future teacher to hear the stories of the trials and tribulations of teaching....some that scare you, and some that bring a smile to your face.

There is only one comment I have to make about a class like this. I learned A LOT from the students in the class who were of different majors. However, sometimes especially in physical education I wish there was more information. It is difficult to find books that even present the thought of literacy in physical education. Yet, I thank Dr. Dana for incorporating physical education into the class because some teachers lack the information in that area so they totally disregard it.

What I Did or Did Not Get from this Class

What did you get from this class?

Having taken this class, I now have a better understanding of what the term “literacy” means. Originally, I had thought that literacy was comprised of reading and writing skills only, so I was surprised to learn that speaking and listening skills were also part of the equation. Another thing that I learned from this class was how I can better support struggling readers. The textbook for this class offered a lot of new and innovative techniques (e.g., anticipation guides, bookmarks, double-entry journals, etc.) that I will definitely be incorporating into my own teaching repertoire. Since Dr. Dana is also really interested in technology in the classroom, I also learned new ways to teach content through technology. In particular, I thought that using iPods to give lectures or to give pronunciation drills would be great for my ESL kids. Before I had thought about teaching students language through music, but I had never really thought about using the iPod for anything other than music. Finally, this class helped me to shape my own personal definition of literacy. I realized that it’s not shameful to have magazines, comic books, and other less prestigious reading materials in the classroom. While I had planned to use these materials to teach literacy before, I had thought that most administrators and other educators would dismiss this idea and that I wouldn’t have the conviction to support it further. Now that I’ve heard other people confidently vouch for these materials, I feel more confident in their usage as well.

What didn't you get that you wanted to learn?

One thing I think I did not get from this class was feedback, and it drove me nuts. I am not a very confident person, so if people don’t tell me I’m doing a good job, I’ll think that I’m not. I never really knew where I stood in the class or whether or not I should be changing anything. In particular, I really would have liked if we could have had workshop days in the class for the unit plan. In other classes, I’ve had teachers review my lesson plans and then give me feedback. They helped me to write better lesson plans by keeping an open dialogue with me. Since I don’t feel like I got that from this class, I don’t know if I wrote lesson plans that really emphasized literacy. I just have to hope that I did. I also would have liked to learn more about the signs that indicate struggling readers. I don’t think we really covered this in this class, and I think it would have been beneficial to do so.

Last Blog of the Semester

With the semester wrapping up, I actually took a lot away from this course. Beginning with the first articles we were assigned to read, I learned about tips on how to be a successful reading and on how to read more. I also learned about literacy, which I always knew what it was, but I did not know of all the components such as application, interpretation, comparision, etc.. and how it applies to everything in life because you need to be able to read to pretty much do anything. One of the most important concepts I learned through this course was the idea of moving away from the textbook and incorporating other sources. As a social studies major, this concept applies greatly to me because social studies is always learned through a textbook, but there are so many other ways to teach students such as primary documents such as articles, videos, pictures, books and whatever else. From this course, I also took away from it on how to use preparation activities in the classroom like the KWL charts, Double Entry Journals and Mapping. Before this class, I did not realize how important it was to use them in the classroom.

When I took this course, I did not have any expectations coming into it because I did not know what to expect. I was not really sure what this course was about and all I knew it was a requirement. I believe I walked away with plenty of information that I will use in the future both in and out of the classroom.

What I learned in Read 407

Along with taking our Reading Theory class this semester I was also enrolled in Teaching Writing; both classes were most helpful for they explored the thinking process that students go through when they read or write. I already knew that reading impacts one's writing ability, and I am sorry to say that I learned more in my Teaching Writing class than I did in our Reading Theory class. I already knew the reading process for I had to discover the process on my own when I was only four years old. Our Reading Theory class only reinforced the information I learned when I was four.

My Teaching Writing class was more helpful for one because I was required to tutor students in their writing skills. I worked as a tutor for fifteen hours in Mt. Hebron Middle School this semester either reading a student's draft and then discussing what they wrote, pin pointing what i liked, what they might want to change, and what I would like to know more about so that they could rewrite their draft; or sitting in an office and reading the papers that the students wrote and filling out a response sheet that allowed me to explain to the student in writing what I liked about their paper, what I would like to know more about, and suggestions I might have for their revision process.

I know how helpful my tutoring experience was for me in understand the student's writing process and perhaps if the Reading Theory class also required that we tutor students in a school on the reading process that we could better understand the reading process that students go through and where they struggle the most when they read, what factors are an issue for the student, for each student processes the information that they read differently and different factors upset the understanding the student has about what they just finished reading. When I took my Grammar for English class we were also required to tutor students in reading and writing on the elementary school level, and learned a lot with that experience as well. I know that I could have drawn on these experiences from my past and incorporate them into our Reading Theory class, but it is easier to learn when you are allowed to apply what you learn at the time you are learning the information.

I did learn the difference between phonics and phonic awareness and was able to explain the difference to another English major that was having difficulty understanding those concepts. Also, I was able to have the opportunity to write and create my dream unit on teaching Romeo and Juliet and I know if I didn't take this course, that I would not have had the opportunity to create the tragedy unit that I will be teaching next semester.

I wish that I had learned more about the reading process, why people read and interpret information differently, why do students misunderstand what they read, how to improve a student's thinking and interpreting skills, and how can I as a teacher reach my students if they are all at different reading levels. I think I could have gotten more out of the class if I was able to research what I was interested in learning as an English teacher trying to improve student's literacy skills.

My Thoughts on Read 407

I don't think I knew exactly what to expect from this course. I knew that reading and writing were important elements of school and encompassed all the different subject matters, but I didn't see why a whole course was necessary on it. Throughout the semester the idea of literacy, what it means, and the depth of its use were of constant focus. It began to occur to me how narrow my scope was on what literacy actually was. I too often made the mistake of looking at reading and writing as basic parts of learning that all students should have mastered during the early years of their education. I realized I took forgranted that many students, while being able to read, might not understand the content or meaning of material, or while being able to write, might not be able to do so effectively. This course really helped me to realize how challenging literacy can be for many students and why it is so important to incorporate it in ways that help as many students as possible. I had previously known that literacy would play a huge role when I taught social studies, but I neglected to think of all the ways in which assignments might be confusing or ineffective for who students who struggled with literacy. I believe above all else this course has taught me to be more aware of how I use literacy in my classroom and to be more conscientious of the kinds of problems students might face with literacy (and also that literacy is not just reading and writing!).