Nancy 3-2-1 reflection on chapters 1-4

Chapter 1
1. Too often the youth of our schools hear about their weaknesses in school and how they need to fix them, they hardly ever hear about their strengths and skills that they already have. They deserve to have assessments that will spotlight their strengths.

2. We should use trade books from the school libraries in a combination with the textbooks. This allows for an improvement in the instruction the students recieve from the teachers.

3. While learning to read is a life long process if we do not understand the meaning of the words we are reading then there is really no true learning being done. It is the learning of word parts and their meanings and how I can teach them that has been the main learning points for me during this class.

1. I already use several different technology components in my classroom, but I intend to add many more, since it will be through technology that we reach our students.

2. I will be providing more instruction in the use of graphic organizers, since this will not only help the students with their reading but will also aid them in a better understanding of what they are reading from the textbooks.

1.While we as teachers know that it is going to take a school-wide approach to reading in order to help our middle school to high school students improve in the area of reading has there really been a big move to do so, even with the No Child Left Behind law (page 11)?

Chapter 2 
1. I know that when I was working on getting my B.A. in Special Education I had to take a class on how to teach reading in the elementary grades. The professor really liked the ping pong reading as a tool. I never did understand why we were directing our focus to a product, which was getting the correct answer and not to actual teaching.

2. When the students are depending on teachers to give them their insights on the subjects being taught we are not really teaching them anything except to regurgitate what the teachers have said.

3. The idea of having two brains instead of just one was something I had never read before. I mean one for use at school and one for use with the rest of the world, shouldn't we be thinking more along the lines of one globle brain for each of us?

1. As I read this chapter it stated that students read the text without stopping to think about what they are reading. I will be planning for the teaching of the text structure in my lesson plans this next year and from here on out, this will aid my students in gaining a better comprehension of what they are reading.

2. As the students begin to have a better comprehension of what they are reading and learning I will begin to become more of a mentor, since the students will begin to take responsiblity for their own education.

1. How can we teach our students that they need to become metacognition thinkers and learners and to stop being just cognitive learners?

Chapter 3 
1. We as teachers need to face the fact that most of our middle school students are not motivated and this a very important requirement for the classrooms. Yet knowing that they are not motivated ,we, as teachers, still expect them to be self-motivated. 

2. Because most of our students today fear failure and then having it broadcast to their peers they need to feel complete support from us, their teachers.

3. I cannot imagine teaching in a classroom where the students do not openly voice their questions and opinions along with their ideas and prior knowledge. When the students are allowed to talk and discuss knowing that they will be listened to then there is no need for a weekly or daily paper and pencil assesssment, the students are telling you what they have learned.

1. I would like for my students to state what they want to get out of their education and then have them posted in the classroom as reminders to the students.

2. I would like to have more time in the classroom to teach my students reading strategies  and how they will work across the curriculum.

1. How important is it for an educator to know and understand the developmental changes that students in the middle school grade levels are going through?

Chapter 4 
1. Nation wide there are too many students, in spite of the No Child Left Behind law, that can not read and are falling further and further behind. The question is are we the only industrialized country this is happening in and if not what is being done about it globally? If not what is being done differently in the other countries that is preventing the problem? What is being done in this country to really address the problem? If we want our students to become global thinkers and action takers then we need to fix this problem now, not next year or the year after.

2. These students who cannot read begin to feel that they will never be successful in anything they undertake and begin to give up on us and even worse themselves. This is one of the saddest states in this country, since our future depends on these same students and if they give up on themselves then our country has no future.

3. There is plenty of documented research as well as many educational philosophys that show that all students except perhaps the most mentally challenged can become better readers. The problem is that there does not seem to be much intervention going on in schools for the middle to highschool students who need the help.

1. I want to do a better job of motivating my students and showing them why learning to read is so vital to them.

2. An area that I do need to improve in is to become a better mentor and guide for my students. I have the same student year after year and they all feel that they can come into my classroom and feel safe, but I still think I need to do more for them.

1. What can we do to become better mentors, guides and motivators when they may be thinking more about where they will get their next meal or will mom and dad be home tonight, or will there be bullits flying through there homes due to some gang? 

Chapter 5 
This chapter is the one that I presented and I have already posted on it.