Bean, Baldwin, and Readence Chapter 6 Reflection

I really enjoyed Bean, Baldwin, and Readance’s chapter on improving comprehension. This chapter made me reflect about my education and how I progressed in reading comprehension skill and then I reflected about my expectations for my students when they read  passages I tell them to read. As teachers are already so stressed for time as it is, many teachers simply state to their students read pages… Scaffolding pre reading activities, during reading activities, and post activities requires time and effort from teacher and student. While the time required for comprehension strategies may be a major negative to many teachers, but I feel the benefits far outweigh the cons.  Not only does it give excellent activities to increase student comprehension, it gives teachers activities that can be useful in nearly all classes and a variety of situations.

Most of my students have used KWL’s before and have been met with groans of discord. However, the other comprehension strategies may be newer to them and would therefore be deemed more acceptable. I would like to use the quick write or mini study guide strategies in accompany to an article we would read. The quick write strategy seems to be a great way to introduce a unit. Students could write down everything they know about the topic and then read an article. The mini study guide allows students to focus on key aspects of readings and could easily be attached to articles or text passages on whatever unit we happen to be on at the time. Overall, this chapter provided a great array of strategies for teachers to increase student reading comprehension.

Daniels and Zemelman Chapters 3 and 4

Chapter 3 of Daniels and Zemelman is a continuation of the chapters we read previously. “The textbook used in your classes maybe less of a choice and more of an imposition (Daniels & Zemelman, 2004, pg 36.)” Sometimes teachers are forced to use the textbook by higher authorities. The reasons for not using a textbook can be quite numerous, for instance many students lack the skills to efficiently read textbooks, however it is often easier to simply use the textbook, but doing so can be detrimental to our students’ education. “Perhaps the book has flaws, gaps, and problems that drive you nuts (Daniels & Zemelman, 2004, pg 36.)” In my case the textbooks we do not have enough textbooks for the entire class and therefore are only able to have a class set in the classroom. This can be an obstacle if I want students to read a section and be exposed to some content so we can do an activity the next day. This is not the only problem, recent discoveries have made some of the content in the very old textbooks incorrect and I would rather teach my students about it with new journals than with old incorrect information. I understand that textbooks may not be the best source of information for our students, as they are often outdated and schools simply do not have the money to replace them, but they can be helpful as an additional source of information. I would never use the textbook as the sole source of information to my students but it can act as a side source of information. However, I do need to teach my students the necessary skills to properly read a science textbook in order to make their learning a little more efficient than it may be currently.

Daniels,H., & Zemelman, S. (2004). Subjects Matter: Every Teacher’s Guide to Content-Area Reading. Portsmouth, NHL Heinemann.

Daniels and Zemelman Chapters 5 and 6

Chapter five consists of tools teachers can use in their classrooms. These reading strategy activities are impressive. There were a few that were very familiar from my education classes but there were so many that were new and contained activities I never would have thought to do. The authors even included when these activities and strategies would be most useful whether it is before, during, or after reading. I enjoyed the post it response notes activity and I may be able to use that in my classroom. If I can find an article or a passage from an article that is at the right reading level for my class this would be perfect for them. I also liked the “Sketching my way through the text” activity. Many important ideas in biology can be better understood by drawing the concept out. I think a lot of my students would like this opportunity more than simply taking notes. All of the activities seemed like they could be helpful to a wide variety of classes.

Chapter six focuses on ways to make textbooks friendlier to our students.  I have learned from my experience in my school that I can assume my students know nothing. Often I am astonished at how little they know. This does not mean knowledge in my content, but general education skills such as note taking skills. I have to tailor my teaching to include these skills as well so naturally I would have to assume that some students may not know how to effectively read a textbook. Similar to chapter five I found the activities and strategies to interesting, some of them have real merit and could be used in my classroom. The vocabulary word sorts would be useful in my classroom. There is a lot of vocabulary in biology and it really drives the content in a lot of occasions. By getting students to confirm what they believe some vocabulary to mean and guessing at other words they can test their hypothesis later when they learn what the vocabulary actually means, which is a SPI the state likes to emphasize. I do not believe my CP high school students will be as enthusiastic about reading the chapter as Kathleen’s students were, but it could still be effective. Overall, both chapters five and six were good. I found the reading strategies/tools to be valuable and many have possibilities of being incorporated into my classroom.

Tovani Chapter 3 Reflection

Science literacy can be difficult for students. Often it is drastically different from articles or journals read in other subjects. I like the idea of modeling how to read science literature. It is true that depending on the content you may read an article or paper differently by focusing on different things. A great way to teach students how to read through various subject’s eyes can be done in a variety of ways. I like the idea of modeling how to read a scientific article. Tovani says that teachers “can show students through modeling their own reading process how proficient readers attack different kinds of texts (Tovani ,2004, pg 26.)” Science articles can be difficult to read, even for experienced readers. Science articles are often filled with data tables, graphs, and scientific jargon that many students can be confused by. By modeling how I read this type of literature I can teach how to effectively read science literature. I can find several articles rooted in real-life scenarios, so students are immediately interested, and interweave them with the curriculum. This way students start to use the content I teach as background knowledge that will reinforce what they know while learning new information. I could even structure the lesson so students only read part of the article and then meet with other students to share a summary of their part. This would allow them to collaborate with peers and simultaneously work on their reading skills.

Web Resource Review 1

 

Learn. Genetics is a site created by the University of Utah that truly lives up to its name. The pros to this site are numerous. It contains all of the topics contained in the genetics unit of the Biology I curriculum as well as a majority of the cell unit and even some material on variation. While the amount of content is commendable the applications regarding the content is where this website seems to shine. Not only does it contain the material in text form, but it also contains videos or animations on many of the pages to allow students to visually see the content. The animations are extremely well done and all the animations I opened featured full audio descriptions of the animations. This site also includes virtual labs on various topics included in the curriculum. Some biology classes, like mine, cannot perform many experiments as they lack space or may become too much of a hassle to be used effectively. In these cases virtual labs could be a tremendous asset in science classrooms to provide another resource for science teachers. The website is good, but not great and there is one con that keeps making an appearance as I continue to explore the website. While the animations and the amount of information are very good, the site is not very interactive beyond the virtual labs. I would like some inclusion of quizes so students can test themselves or some puzzles for extra practice. Despite the lack of interactivity this is a worthwhile website for science teachers and students. While a university created this website the grade level does not indicate that it is meant solely for college students. Students in high school can use this website as a resource when at home. This website could be used for my lower reading skilled students as well as be useful to my students who could be in honors or even AP leveled classes. My favorite part of this website is that it is free. Often science websites that contain wonderful animations and this much content require either the user sign up or payment.

Learn.Genetics

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/