Action Research Readings

By teachers: 

1. What is the title of the project?

Teaching Science through Inquiry-Based and Hands-On Practices

2. What is the Question?

What are the benefits of using inquiry-based learning in science versus lecture and recitation?

Does asking factual versus evidential questions make a different in science literacy?

4. What strategy is being used to address?

Generating and testing hypothesis through hands-on, minds-on activities. 

5. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work?

The National Science Education Standards and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy. 

6. How will data be collected to determine if the strategy will work?

The teacher will do parent surveys and students' work based on case studies to see if the strategy is working. 

7. How was the data analyzed?

The teacher video taped small groups, and asked whole group questions for documentation. 

8. What were the results?

 The students were asking both factual and evidential questions, but more and more evidential questions were being seen in the classroom including with the students with learning differences (such as ELL, gifted and talented, speech and language, bilingual,etc.

9. How do the results inform teacher practice?

The results tell the teacher that the students are perfectly capable of asking and answering evidential questions the same as factual questions. They also inform the teacher that the students have an easier time asking those questions when learning is inquiry based rather than lecture and recitation. 

 

Student proposal:  

1. What is the problem?

Students in the PDS school struggle with recognizing rhyme and word families in text. The teacher's main goal is to improve the basic literacy skill according to the Strategic plan.

2. What is the rational for the project?

The rationale is that because this is a part of the Strategic plan the student teacher will use rhyming games to try to improve word family recognition and phonemic awareness. 

3. What strategy will be use to address the problem?

Playing rhyming games

4. What is the question?

How can I use a variety of rhyming games to help my students recognize rhyme and word families in text?

5. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work?

The student has a list of references that shows that research says that using rhyming games will improve the recognition of rhyme and word families. 

6. How will data be collected?

Checklists while students are in small groups and whole group reading. 

Struggling Student c:

There is one student in my clinical class who has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) written on her behalf. The IEP is specifically written for mathematics and calls for the student to have 30 minutes of co-teaching during the math block (which at my school is 50 minutes). So for the first 20 minutes, which is usually lecture, my host teacher is the only teacher in the room. Then the co-teacher comes in and stays for the rest of the block, which seems like a good idea because this is when the students are working individually on their homework. However, as I begin to sit and watch what is happening in the classroom, the opposite of what should happen is occurring.

When my host teacher is the only one in the room, this student seems to be paying attention and working through the mathematics. Although sometimes she needs to be cued back to working, the wheels are turning and she is at least copying the work off of the board. However, the minute the co-teacher enters the room the student seems to shut down. Her head drops and she seems to be very discouraged. I don’t quite understand this because the co-teacher is being brought into the classroom to improve the student’s math skills and instead, the student seems to be overwhelmingly discouraged.

Double Entry #15

1. Give an example of an authentic form of assessment the students engaged in a PBL performed well on?
The students who applied geometry to build a playhouse performed very well when assessed. The text says that 84% of the students' creations were accurate enough to build.



2. How does project based learning promote intrinsic motivation?
The students are more excited about the learning because it is students based. The students get to choose the topic and figure out how they are going to get an answer. Also, because students want to learn they reach for higher reading level materials and also find themselves having a better understanding of their own learning styles (working alone in quiet, with a partner or group, or working alone but with noise, etc.).


3. What do students who experience PBL do better than student who receive traditional direct instruction?
Students who have expereiences with PBLs generally not only perform better in testing situations but also have better time management, accountability, and pride in their workd that those inthe tradition direct instruction settings. They get good at setting goals that are achievable and reaching those goals. They also tend to have much better collaboration skills.
4. How does PBL align with John Dewey's philosophy of education?
Dewy believes that the best learning occurs through experiences and that the definiton of prior knowledge is not so much what the students KNOW but rather what they have expereienced. The PBL lines with Dewey's philosophies because PBLs are giving students authentic experiences. The students are learning the KNOWLEDGE through experiences given to them rather than information thrown at them.
5. Why do our assessment practices need to change if we are going to prepare students for the 21st century?
Our assessment practices need to change because currently we are only testing whether or not the students know the content, which sometimes may change. We are not preparing the students to live in such a changing world. The students must learn to problem solve, collaborate, communicate, etc. and a paper pencil test only tests their knowledge, not their skills.

Meaningful Learning Part 2

What are some challenges to inquiry approaches to learning?


Inquiry approaches to learning have multiple challenges for the TEACHER to overcome. First, she has to be willing to really sit down and the plan the activities. The planning process for inquiry learning is much more extensive than that of the traditional classroom. Also, the teacher must have full control over her classroom with good management skills in order for this type of learning to work. The students are going to be up talking and moving around and the teacher needs to be comfortable with this "chaotic" classroom but still be in control. Also, the teacher is going to have to have a full understanding of the content being taught and he or she must be confident in that understanding, which is why most teachers are intimidated with this teaching strategy. Many teachers think that the students aren't able to do this type of learning because they don't have the prior knowledge but truth is, their past experiences are generally enough to get them through the lesson and to teach them those things that they don't have any prior knowledge on.

What are the benefits of group work? Give two concrete examples from the reading.
Groupwork, although many teachers think is social time for kids, has many benefits including using this social time for learning. "Cooperative group work benefits students in social and behavioral areas" and also helps build those classroom management skills such as believing in themselves and their peers, staying on task, and interacting with one another (Ginsburg-Block).
Also, Slavin & Oikle found that group work benefits students in low income and minorities more than that of high income and majorities (?). We are always trying to find a way to reach those students who are less fortunate and group work is a good start.

Name one strategy to support group work and find an example of that strategy on the Internet and link me to it.
Cooperative Learning

Questions by Teacher & Students

In this activity the students had a piece of a picture and they were having discussion about what was happening in the picture. My teacher called this a document based learning because they were learning  based on what they could see on a document (which in this case was a picture). 

• What kind of assumptions can we make by looking at this picture? 
• Its in Africa because of the dark skin. 
• It was taken along a river because you can see the riverbank on the bottom corner. 
• This is a picture of a poor country because they live in huts and there are clothes out on the line. 
• Most of the people in this place are fishermen, because you can see all the boats. 
• These people mostly travel by boat. 
• Maybe this place has been wiped out by a flood or something and it once was a rich place. 
• Okay, this is only part of a picture. What do you think is going to be in the background of this picture when I give it to you? 
• I think its going to be farmland. 
• I think it will be just an open field.
• So you guys don't seem to think that this is on the outskirts of a city right? 
• No, I don't think it's on the outskirts of a city or there would be more city living here. 
• No, there's no city back there, the city would have already crowded in on these people if there was one. 
• Now that you have the next part of the picture, are you surprised?
• Yes, I am surprised because there is some sort of factory back there.
• Well, I am surprised but maybe these people lived out there and now they are being forced towards the water because of this oil factory. 
• So you think that these people weren't always fishermen but this is what they have had to do because fo the factory? 
• No, I think they were always fishermen. I just think that they had to move to this place so maybe their houses were built quickly and that's why they look poor.

This was just an example of one discussion that the students were in with the teacher.  I thought the teacher did a good job of questioning here because she made the students draw on information they already had and asked open ended questions for the most part.

Interest Inventory about School Subjects

I gave this survey to 19 students and was actually very surprised by the answers. My teacher told me at the beginning of the year that one of her main goals this year was to raise her students' confidence in their math abilities. I wish I could have recorded this same interest inventory at the beginning of the year to see if math was originally their overall favorite subject. One of the students actually gave my host teacher the credit for being the reason math was her favorite subject.
Also, I was shocked to see that language and grammar was their least favorite only because they spend 90 minutes a day working on language, grammar, and spelling. It is scary to think that overall, most of the students aren't interested that entire 90 minutes and I wonder if they are disengaging at all.

Meaningful Learning

1. Read the Introduction. What "dominant paradigm" is showing signs of wear?

The particular instructional strategy that is teacher-directed and where the teacher's primary source is the textbook. This is the times that you walk into a classroom and the teacher is in the front of the room, the students all sitting in their seats with their books open, possibly playing popcorn but being stopped throughout the reading to discuss the chapter. 

2. According to the research, how does Project-Based Learning support student learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies.

• It is centered in the curriculum, uses driving questions that lead students to central concepts, focused on building knowledge through inquiry and discovery, students control their learning, and its authentic. (Thomas, 2000)
• It increases the students' critical thinking skills because they can more easily transfer the information they learn. (Shepherd, 1998)
• It also teaches the students to be prepared to support their answers with clear arguments and to come up with plans to solving problems more easily. (Stepien, Gallagher, & Workman)

3.  According to the research, how does Problem-Based Learning support student learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies.

• Students who learn with this approach often score higher on their "certification" tests because they can actually transfer the information. (Vernon & Blake, 1993; Albanese & Mitchell, 1993)
• The information learned by doing seems to be more long lasting than that of the traditional instructional styles. (Robert J. Van Maren)
• Problem Based Learning also enhances a students' ability to apply knowledge and generate hypthesis. (Dochy, Segers, Van den Bossche, & Gijbels, 2003).

4.  According to the research, how does Learning by Design support student learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies.

• Learning by Design teaches the students to design, refine, and assess their work. (Newstetter, 2000)
• It leads to better learning outcomes than the traditional style. (Hmelo, Holton, and Kolodner, 2000)
• It's particularly good at helping students develop hard to reach concepts and ideas. It makes for more concrete thinking to abstract ideas. (Perkins, 1986)

5. What are the differences between the three approaches?

These three approaches are all a way to encourage students to apply the information being taught in more authentic and real situations and to take the knowledge on with them in their future. Project Based Learning is more about building or creating something that is hands-on, minds-on in the learning process. Problem Based Learning is mostly about finding a solution to an authentic situation. Learning by design is about being able to create something tangible, reconstruct it to make it better, and assess it again. 

6. In your opinion, what is the most important benefit to learning that is common across the three types of inquiry-based learning approaches?

The most important benefit is that the students are gaining skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and reflecting that they will need to use in their futures. The students are also learning concepts rather than just a list of facts and therefore, the information will last in their minds for much longer. 

Double Entry Blog #11

Authenticity: This activity was authentic because the students were provided with the opportunities to showcase their work to an audience other than the other students in the classroom. The students created a wiki which is online so that the whole world wide web could see it. Also, the students had the opportunity to present their wikis to the Board of Education and the community. 

Applied Learning: The students worked with their peers, used technology, and organized and analyzed information which made this assignment fit hand in hand with the applied learning piece of the rubric.

Active Learning: The gathering of information process that was used seemed to me to be active learning because the students had to gather it from library and Internet sources. 

West Virginia Content Standards

Science

SC.O.4.1.4 -demonstrate curiosity, initiative and creativity by developing questions that lead to investigations; designing simple experiments; and trusting observations of discoveries when trying new tasks and skills.

SC.O.4.1.5 - recognize that developing solutions to problems requires persistence, flexibility, open-mindedness, and alertness for the unexpected.

SC.O.4.1.6 - support statements with facts found through research from various sources, including technology.

SC.O.4.2.1 - describe the different characteristics of plants and animals, which help them to survive in different niches and environments.

SC.O.4.2.2 - associate the behaviors of living organisms to external and internal influences (e.g., hunger, climate, or seasons).

SC.O.4.2.3 - identify and classify variations in structures of living things including their systems and explain their functions (e.g., skeletons, teeth, plant needles, or leaves).

SC.O.4.3.9 - listen to and be tolerant of different viewpoints by engaging in collaborative activities and modifying ideas when new and valid information is presented from a variety of resources.

Reading and Language Arts Content Standards

RLA.O.4.1.3 - use pre-reading strategies to comprehend text (e.g., activating prior knowledge, predictions, questioning).

RLA.O.4.1.8 - interpret and extend the ideas in literary and informational texts to summarize, determine story elements, skim and scan, determine cause and effect, compare and contrast, visualize, paraphrase, infer, sequence, determine fact and opinion, draw conclusions, analyze characterize and provide main idea and support details.

RLA.O.4.1.13 - judge the reliability or logic of informational texts.

RLA.O.4.1.14 - select and use a variety of sources to gather information (e.g., dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, informational texts, electronic resources).

RLA.O.4.2.6 - write to persuade using order of importance, classifying differences and similarities, classifying advantages and disadvantages.

RLA.O.4.2.12 - use strategies to gather and record information for research topics:

• note taking
• summarizing
• paraphrasing
• describing in narrative form

gathering information from direct quotes, maps, charts, graphs and tables

RLA.O.4.2.13 - select and use a variety of sources to gather information (e.g., dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, informational texts, electronic resources).

RLA.O.4.2.14 - use strategies to compile information into written reports or summaries (e.g., incorporate notes into a finished product, include simple facts-details-explanations-examples, draw conclusions from relationships and patterns that emerge from data of different sources, use appropriate visual aids and media).

RLA.O.4.2.15 - critically evaluate own and others’ written compositions.

RLA.O.4.3.4- create an age appropriate media literacy product that reflects understanding of format, characteristics and purpose.

Social Significance of Patterns of Questioning in Classroom Discourse (#12)

Three things I learned:

• I learned that there is huge implications on your questioning strategies about how you run your classroom and how you feel about the structure of your classroom. On the third page in the third paragraph, Joseph Lukinsky talks about the IRE questioning strategy imposes the idea of teacher having higher power than that of the students in their own education. 
• Because I was a student who wasn't ever afraid to speak up in the classroom, and was relatively bright, I didn't realize until college and through readings such as these, that asking questions with specific right and wrong answers causes for a feeling of an unsafe learning environment.

Two things you found interesting:

• The quote in the first sentence of the third paragraph amazes me simply because it's the opposite of what usually happens in the classroom. Rather than students learning through talk and questioning, many times they are shut down and taught to learn "inside their heads" or by writing, without having that social interaction that is necessary for them to learn. Too often, teachers expect students to stay quiet and just "listen to what the teacher is saying" rather than allowing the social interaction that Courtney B. Cazden is talking about here. 
• It is not to say that low level questions are always wrong, it is just that they should be used to support the essential questions. Drilling students with a million higher level thinking questions will only be frustrating to them, however, if you ask the essential question and then use lower level questioning to get to that essential question, that's okay too!
• When planning a lesson, the essential questions should be known before the lesson begins because they should be based on the standards.

One question you have:

• Is the answer to being able to have an open ended classroom where students lead the learning good classroom management? 

Learning in schools can be enhanced by asking essential questions for multiple reasons.
1. It gets the students engaged because it is NOT memorization so if they don't know the answer they can use their creativity and what they already know to try and come up with the answer.
2. It builds their confidence in their own knowledge because there isn't just one right or wrong answer and the students can figure out multiple right and wrong answers and understand why.
3. The students learn through the communication that goes on when asking essential questions and the talk that occurs within the students' discussions, NOT by what the teacher says.

Pleasant Valley Technology

How many computers are in the classroom?

There are five computer in the classroom, four that are student computers and the teacher purchased her own laptop for the classroom. 

Do they have internet access?

Yes, all of the computers in the classroom have Internet access. 

Can you access Google tools?

Yes, we can use Google tools in the classroom. 

Do you have access to a laptop cart? Can they get on the Internet?

Yes, there is a laptop cart and yes, they can get on the Internet. 

Is there a computer lab? Do the computers have Internet access? Can you access Google tools? How do you reserve it?

Yes, there is a computer lab and each computer has Internet access. Yes, Google tools is accessible. It is reserved by day and hour on a chart. 

How many of your students have computers with Internet access at home?

Out of 20 students in the classroom, 18 have Internet access at home. 

Are there locations in the community where students can access the computers and the Internet?

No, there aren't location within Pleasant Valley specifically for the students to access computers but there is in Fairmont. 

Sorry this was not posted on Friday. I couldn't get the information until Friday and when I got home my Internet was down. That's the beauty of technology!  C: 

Kid Watching

Why is kid watching a critical practice for teacher to use? How is kidwatching informed by cultural difference theory?

Kid watching is a super important practice for teacher's to participate in for multiple reasons. First, it allows the teacher to understand some of the students' feelings about particular activities. The article talked specifically about reading but even when doing other activities, students give signals as to when they are bored, annoyed, confused, stressed, etc. If you are doing an activity and the students don't seem to be enjoying it, it needs to be tweeked. 

Also, teachers who are good at this could get more information on their students without doing an interest inventory. If a teacher watches a student enough and records it, he or she could know which subjects in school the child likes and what he or she likes to do outside of school. 

Kid watching also gives the teacher and idea of a child's attittude about school in general.

Teaching from a Culturally Relevant Perspective

Why is it important to encourage students to use primary language or code switch during literacy events? Does this apply to children with Appalachian dialects? Why or Why not?
Allowing the students to use their primary language when doing reading and writing assignments is the only way to ensure understanding of the material. Also, it allows the students to gain confidence in reading and writing because they know that they can try to write in the second language but can always fall back on their native language. This also teaches the students to change their language based on situations they are put in just as someone who only speaks English changes their language in different situations.However, on that note, lead the students to take risks in English on projects where their language isn't being graded directly such as journals, conferences, discussions, etc.
Yes, this also applies to children with Appalachian dialects because we should teach these students nearly the same that we teach students who are speaking a completely different language. 

What are the differences between reading aloud from a students centered perspective and a teacher centered perspective?

Teacher centered reading aloud and student centered differ in the way that the students respond to the book more than the actual reading of the book. Teacher centered basically means that the teacher leads the discussion after reading the book and the teacher decides who talks and when and what they are talking about. However, student centered means that the students lead the discussion and the teacher plays off of their conversations! I think that a teacher with a lot of flexibility would be better at doing a student centered read aloud. 

Related Resources: 

http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/appalachia.html

References:
I couldn't figure out how to reference this page?

Getting to Know Your Students

Why is it a mistake to group all English as Second Learners together?

It is not a good idea to group all ESL students together for multiple reasons. First of all, making the assumption that they are all the same because they are all trying to learn English simply seems ridiculous. All kindergarten students are also learning English but they are not all the same either. Teachers should be aware of where the students are from. There are a lot of people who speak Spanish who maybe couldn't understand what someone else that is speaking Spanish is trying to say because they are from different parts of the world. It's just like when you go to a different state and they have different slang terms like the difference between a "shopping cart" and a "buggy". If you went to another state and said "buggy" people might not know what you are talking about. The same with pepperoni rolls, pop (or soda), etc. We all speak English but don't always know what each other are talking about. It talks specifically in the article about a Spanish speaking student from Texas and Honduras. 

Also, teachers need to be aware of what age each student began learning English. I think about this as being like the accelerated reading program. Basically, you ask the students to read based on their reading experiences. Not all students who are learning English as a second language are on the same level. Some students may know a couple English words while others can speak in English but simply struggle in writing it. Also, what is the quality of the language they knew before they began learning English. Was their language Latin based or not at all? 

Lastly, but important, is what are their learning experiences in prior grades or cultures? Have the students ever been in a learning institution or have they always been home schooled or schooled at all? The students must be taught accordingly. If they aren't used to being institutionalized then we may have to coach them through group work, individual work, etc.

What is a virtual backpack and how does it relate to Funds of Knowledge?

Pat Thompsom came up this idea of a "virtual backpack" which is basically just a term to coin the things that the children already have learned at home, with their friends, and in other institutions they may belong to such as church, neighborhoods, clubs, etc. These are experiences that maybe won't be seen in the classroom, things that the teachers is probably going to have to reach for to find; such as working for the parents outside of school, like Than, or an understanding of surf clothing, like Alex.

These are much like Moll's Funds of Knowledge because both are the expereiences that the child has whether in school or outside of school. They are both ideas that teachers need to grab ahold of to teach each and every student to the best of his or her ability.

Related Resource: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bWU238PymM&feature=related

Resource List: 

(2010). Esl struggle and straties. (2010). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bWU238PymM&feature=related 

 

Reflection of Digital Story

Samantha Rae (Bartlett) Rexrode
I would like to start by saying that I personally found this digital storytelling an awesome experience as a student and therefore, based on those grounds, I would take it into a classroom. When working on this photo story, I learned so much about myself and the other students in the classroom that it truly made me proud of what I am and who I have become and it also linked me to many of my classmates who have a great relationship with their father too. Much like what Moll talked about in his study on the “Funds of Knowledge”, this dynamic study of myself game me a better understanding of who I am and how I became who I am and by watching my peer’s stories, I also learned what made them who they are. As I was watching particular stories, I also noticed that many of the people in the class are a lot like me in that they were raised playing sports, honoring family, learning “trades” of their families, etc. However, I also learned why I am not your “typical West Virginian” in that I don’t know how to grow flowers, plant gardens, can foods, and all those other trades because most people learn those from their grandparents and all my grandparents died at a very young age or became ill when I was a youngster myself.
Also, when watching the digital stories that were being created I noticed that many of them differed in the way that they were made. Some people had pictures from their own cameras or their own households, while others worked through Google to find pictures that related to their poem. I think that little difference in itself shows that open-ended assignments such as this are a good way to incorporate all learners, no matter what their resources, learning styles, etc. This digital story is a good way to give students who maybe don’t have a lot of literacy awareness a different form of knowledge when it comes to literacy. I keep thinking back to the Purcell-Gates article and thinking about what would have happened if that teacher would have simply given Donny literacy experiences such as these instead of automatically “kicking him out” of her class. Wouldn’t this type of literacy knowledge benefit him just as reading a book or writing? So maybe he’s not a linguistic learner, but let him show you what he is good at which may be representing his thoughts through pictures or song, and by actually doing a project rather than answering a paper and pencil test.
You see, I believe that this assignment take those stereotypes that teachers may have against a student or a group of students and proves them wrong, or proves them to be a good thing. This could help the teacher take the cultural deficit perspective that she walks into the classroom with and turn it in to cultural capital. What I mean is, for instance, for a child like Donny, rather than marking him off as someone who was raised by people who can’t read and write, maybe the teacher could have learned how the parents adjusted to those situations and mock that inside the classroom. I am trying to say that if we would teach students who can’t read or write, like we teach students who are trying to learn a different language we may see some progress. However, if we don’t know the symbols they use, or their “other language” than we can’t teach them a new one.
Overall, I thought this was a great experience and one that I think would be an eye opener inside the classroom year after year. I think that each year you would have a new eye opening experience, simply through this one project.

Here is my reflection online.

Final Draft

Culturally Responsive Assignments

Response:
The most recent activity that I was asked to do here at Fairmont State, that I found to be culturally responsive was the photostory that we are currently working on. In this activity, we had to take a common misconception and try and prove it wrong using our own pictures and our own life experiences. Most people did their on the appalachian culture; however, I chose to do mine on the misconception that children with older generation parents are more likely to have a resentful relationship with their parents. Many people think that because my daddy is as old as most of my friends' grandpa's that I missed out on a part of my childhood. However, in my story I proved that I didn't miss out on anything! I proved that although my childhood may have been different, I would venture to say that my relationship with my older generation father is what made my childhood as good as it was.
Anyhow, through this project, we had to take our own life experiences and make them tell a story or prove a point. Through this experience, we got to show others how our lives may differ or be similiar to their lives.

The video I posted below gives a few ideas to help the classroom be more culturally responsive. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this video! 

Resources:
Principles for culturally responsive instruction. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.alliance.brown.edu/tdl/tl-strategies/crt-principles.shtml

(2010). Culturally responsive teaching. (2010). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW-DRuFzuhI&feature=related

Learning Text through Talk

3 Things I learned:
- I never really thought about pictures, still images, video, and sound as being parts of writing specifically until reading this article.
- Early writing experiences should include students orally representing what a text says whether it's words or pictures.
- Although I knew student to student talk was important in writing, I wouldn't have thought about doing conferences myself with individual students except for walking around the room and commenting and trying to get the students to inform me of their ideas.
2 Things I found Interesting:
- At the early ages when asking students to write, we should allow an abundance of talk also. "... since what children are doing is trying to get speech onto paper."
- "... 'writing' comes to mean more than just scratching with pen and paper." I just thought this was an interesting thought because all too often we do get caught up (especially when teaching young children) in how the students specifically write letters and words, and we miss the point of what is really going on in the work.
1 Question:
- So if we do individual conferences with the students and a the same time we have the students working together through their writing, how do we be sure that they are talking about the writing and that they are fixing and editing their work?

Related Media:
Pages 3-5 of this book are talking about the process of orally responding to observation in order to better understand it. However, I would suggest parts of this book to all teachers so that we can get a better grip on how to encourage talking through text and writing after the talk.

Resources:
Wells, G. (2001). Action, talk, and text: learning and teaching through inquiry. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.Retrieved from http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=oarDDlH_fJoC&oi=fnd&pg=PP7&dq=literacy+through+talk&ots=LEj3hAQiVg&sig=swMQeJxY72kjUhzsG6X2BPDdRxw#v=onepage&q=literacy%20through%20talk&f=false

Daddy's Girl - My Counter Negative

Classroom Isolation

Quote:
"Additionally, in contrast to the households and their social networks, the classrooms seem encapsulated, if not isolated, from the social worlds and resources of the community." 

Response:
Although I have not had a lot of experience in the classroom, I do work with middle school girls on a daily basis each fall semester. It amazing too because the first year, I simply coached the girls the sport and didn't really give them any reason for playing other than to be on a team. However, the next year in October, I bought pink ribbons and tied one in each girls' hair and I brought in a couple people who had breast cancer and invited them to the next game, where we honored those who were dealing with or had already survived breast cancer. It was amazing to see how this touched the girls.
It was funny because it was like a switch went off at this game and they had a reason for playing and so they did their best and worked hard and each of them were having a good time out on the floor. In the same manner, you have to get kids interested in learning in school. Pull from the community resources and events that are occurring around the community at particular times in the school year.
Children should also always be asked to share their thoughts and their stories so that we can get in touch with what's going on. It's amazing how much you can learn about a student and his or her background simply by journaling, but allowing the parents to come into the classroom and teach about something that is important to their family is also an awesome way to join both school and home.
If children don't feel that these two things are connected and their home was their "first love", they are always going to put up a defense at school. The home, community, and school all need to be conjoined in some way so that students feel a particular amount of comfortableness in each place. As teachers, we may not be able to ensure that in the homes except to bring their homes into the school the best we can.

Related Media:
This video is a good way to physically see how you can use the community to teach math skills. But the community should be used in this manner to teach all subjects.

References:
Moll, L. C. , Amanti, C. , Neff, D. , & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Theory into practice. (Vol. 31, pp. 132-141). Taylor & Francis Ltd. 
(2010). (n.d.). Funds of knowledge. (2010). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFJE_8mAeqA&feature=related

Where I am from

I am from a daddy who was proud to have a baby girl at 47 years old.

I am from a hard working father who held Broaddus Hospital’s walls up for 40+ years, who shovels feet of snow in the winter, but always has time to comfort me when I am sick, upset, or hurt.

I am from a comforting father who held me up in water until I could swim on my own and tried to get me to face my fear of dogs.

I am from a traveling father who always made time for a family trip, whether to the lake, to the beach, or to an amusement park like Idlewild or Kennywood.

I am from a supporting father who sat through all day cheerleading competitions, marched alongside parades to watch me twirl, never missed a basketball game, got bleacher butt at volleyball tournaments every Saturday in the fall and tried to be the best gymnastics coach he could be.

I am from a traditional daddy who taught me to color eggs on Easter, sit on Santa’s lap during Christmas, and celebrating the holidays with family.

I am from a sharing daddy who allowed me to wear his clothes, shared his interests, and his birthdays.

I am from a daddy who taught me values, such as the significance of education, family, and to always embrace my inner childhood.

I am from a caring father who always has a place for me and my step siblings and is proud to escort me across the field for homecoming, and eventually down the aisle to the love of my life.

Cultural Deficit

Poor Donny? No, poor personnel!

Quote:
"Donny's failure to learn was not considered worthy of attention, and Jenny's inability to get herself was intimately related to this fact. Jenny wasn't taken seriously as a rightfully concerned mother because it is a deeply held belief, or stereotype, of the middle class that poor urban Appalachians are unfit as parents (Starnes, 1990)."

Response:
My response to this quote is probably going to be rather unexpected being that I am going into my student teaching next semester; however, here's my heart and soul. This quote truly sums up, one major reason why I will not pursure a career as a teacher. These "deeply help belief(s)" that manipulate a child's learning process are ridiculous to me and heartbreaking! I am not going to sit here and claim to be perfect (because I am not!), however, in the little bit that I have been in the schools, whether it be for clinical hours or for my coaching job, I have seen entirely too much of this manipulating already!
For example, I was in a school just last year where special treatment was given to a little girl  because her dad was a part of the WVU Basketball staff. This little girl was praised by the teachers around her and she was excused from doing a writing assignment (two days before the writing assessment) because there was a close WVU game on and one of the teachers had pulled her into her classroom to watch the end of it.
This example, I realize may seem minor. However, the next week I was working witht his little girl on a different writing assignment and she struggled tremendously in both spelling and grammar. In this case, a little girl who needed extra help, was, in at least one instance, denied the help because of "who she was" (or rather who her father was!). This little girl's need for attention in writing was set aside to glorify her for something that she didn't even do.
Also, in this same classroom, there was a child who was very intelligent but who had some social issues. It broke my heart everyday to walk into the classroom because the room was set up in three groups of six people. The only person not in a group was this little girl. I asked the teacher in the classroom why she was excluded from the groups and the teachers response was, "She doesn't like being around people. Her mom is a single mother and she doesn't really care much for her so the little girl has some issues working with people." More than the teacher telling me that, the teacher also didn't require the little girl to do any of her work. Literally, I watched this beautiful (although, poverished) child sit in the corner of the room with her knees up against her chest, head buried in her arms, nearly all day. One activity that I did with the children required them to find the rest of their group by the fraction piece that they had, and the little girl wasn't moving. So I went up to her and I said, "There are six people in your group that are looking for you right now." I'll never forget how she responded, "No one is looking for me. No one wants me in their group. I am invisible to the rest of the kids in this class just like I am to the teacher and my parents." This little girl literally thought she was invisible. I, taken back, said, "No dear. You are a part of that group and they can't do the work until they find everyone in their group. You are an important factor in this game we are playing and I, and your group NEED  you to participate." At first, she said, "Nobody needs me!" Then a little boy in the class called her name and said do you have the other 1/6th piece because we need it and you to complete our whole circle. Yep, and that's all it took. This was a humbling learning experience, but also, heartbreaking to me that only one conversation with this child was needed to make her feel important. And because I wouldn't back down. This little girl wasn't worth of the attention because her mom didn't care about her. To me, that makes her more worth of the attention she needs.
I feel as if the education system is set up for failure for children and I hate it. This article basically explained all my reasonings for not being a teacher. Although I think I could do a good job, I don't think I could sit and watch other children failing simply because of who they are.

Related media:
This article talks about how stereotypes not only affect students directly, at immediate times but also how it affects them as humans later on down the road.

References:
Negative stereotypes shown to affect learning, not just performance. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/07/28/negative-stereotypes-shown-to-affect-learning-not-just-performance 
Purcell-Gates, V. (n.d.). "as soon as she opened her mouth" .