Encouraging Enthusiasm for Reading
I thought this was a very sweet video about children and reading. I loved the quote "Children are made readers on the laps of their parents" by Emilie Buchwald. I think that starting to read to children at a young age is a great way to instill the love of reading within them. Another way to encourage children to read is to read for pleasure yourself because children look up to their parents and if they see that you read they will also want to read. It is vital that parents model reading for their children.
SMART Table- Touch. Learn. Together. / HATCH Smart Table
This was by far the coolest thing I have seen for a classroom. I have never heard of this but it is such a great, innovative piece of technology. I find myself limited when it comes to using either the SmartBoard or the Promethean board because only one person can use it at a time. This table would allow for the students to actually work together toward a common goal instead of working individually and taking turns in a group setting. This would work great with online manipulatives during math centers or even multiplayer educational games. The Smart Table could be used to create timelines, and match definitions in Social Studies, as well as manipulate passages in Reading.
Science and Math Integrating Literacy in Early Childhood/Expository Text Article
This was mentioned in the video but I also know from experience that students love learning about Science and it is something that has interested them for a long time because it is something they can see and understand. As discussed in the expository text article, I found out quickly that having my students read through textbooks on their own was not beneficial at all because they did not understand the way they were set up. The science textbooks can be difficult to read and understand without teacher scaffolding due to the elevated and content-specific vocabulary. Therefore, whenever I introduce new topics or when I am trying to clarify other topics I will find children's literacy that has to do with the topics because they are easier to understand. For example, we read through The Lorax when we were talking about pollution. When we were learning about Georgia Habitats, I rented habitat specific books that went into detail about the animals and landscape. These books told just as much information as the textbooks but were written in a more child-friendly way. Therefore, I have found that it is beneficial to read and discuss the text book, but then reinforce the information with other forms of literacy.
Development of Literacy Strategies
While I was reading through this PowerPoint presentation, it reminded me of when we were finding our initial information regarding our action research project. We had to know exactly what type of information we were looking for, while also making sure that the information we were gathering was valid and relevant to our study.
Krista – I really enjoyed the encouraging enthusiasm video too. I thought it is very true that “Children are made readers on the laps of their parents” since I still remember my mom reading books to me. Even as an adult, I love when people read stories aloud, especially if they change their voice for characters like I do for my students. I also find the Smart Board limited since it is not a multi-touch screen like the table. This would encourage students to work collaboratively together. I teach fourth grade and my students love to read their textbooks but I also find that some of them are not receiving the whole picture because of the text complexity. I preview vocabulary and we have plenty of textbook activity guides where they can go on a scavenger hunt or fill-in notes to find specific information. I find these activities to be the most useful because they help scaffold but also let the students become semi-independent. I agree that is it important to supplement their curriculum with other reading materials. I am often at our school library or county library checking out books to help support my lessons.
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