Saraheisenhauer's Blog

Pirate DED’s (Double Entry Diaries)

Sarah Eisenhauer — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:01:38 +0000

Below are the double entry diaries that I have done for Sections I-IV for Pirate Diary: The Journal of Jake Carpenter. They are also posted underneath the Pirate Page.

Double Entry Diary 1

Shared Readings: Modeling Comprehension, Vocabulary, Text Structures, and Text Features for Older Readers

Sarah Eisenhauer — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:40:51 +0000

I have always thought that I wanted to teach in the primary grades, mainly first grade. Because of my internship and the experience that I have had in this class, I am seriously reconsidering this notion. These article have been so helpful and light-shedding! I believe the main reason I haven’t wanted to teach these grades is because I was afraid of the content and how to teach it. These articles are helping me overcome that fear. I really enjoyed reading about “shared reading” in this article. I’ve studied the different types of reading, such as choral reading, cloze reading, echo reading, but I was not sure how it fit into the big picture, such as shared reading. It is clear that this article focuses on shared reading because it actually works. It involves teacher modeling readin by focusing on word or sentence-level work. The article claims “that shared readings have potential with older readers and should not be limited to use with emergent readers.” It kind of goes with the saying “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” These work well with young, beginning readers so why shouldn’t it work with older students? I thought it was interesting that due to the study, they came up with four major areas of instruction: comprehension, vocabulary, text structures, and text features. I also liked how the teacher primarily focused on thinking aloud. I believe that thinking aloud what is going on in your head really helps children understand how you came to a conclusion. It models how you want them to be thinking as they read and they definitely will catch on to this. Finally, I liked how they modeled inside-the-word and outside-the-word strategies. Inside-the-word strategies use context clues and uses the text to figure out a meaning for a word that is uknown. Outside-the-word strategies use outside resources, such as a friend or a dictionary, to come up with the meaning. It is very important for students to develop these skills. This article is completely beneficial for classroom instruction and I’m interested to see how it plays out within my internship classroom.

Instructional Social Studies Books Article

Sarah Eisenhauer — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:23:01 +0000

I think what made this article so captivating was the way that it started out. It brought to life some very startling statistics. When you think of reading in upper grades, you do think of having everyone on grade level and not necessarily having to do reading groups. Many of the same kids read the same books. When they are asked to read outloud, there are those that struggle and those that think they are too easy. One of the lines that struck a cord for me was “Given material that is too difficult to read, few students are able to sustain interest and motivation.” This is all too true and I believe it is essential for a teacher for ANY grade to realize this. Like the article says, reading at their instructional level will provide them with the material to move into reading and writing more without creating a negative attitude towards the two. The article also says that trade books used in content areas can provide more in-deptch coverage topics than a textbook, while accomodating various reading levels. Wouldn’t you as a teacher want this? The only problem is finding these resources. Finding quality children’s books at a lower reading level is hard. It is suggested that you use thematic studies, genre studies, and author studies as three unit approaches. This article does an amazing job of explaining WHY it is important for children to read on their instructional level and not their frustration level. It goes further by actually giving the reasources that can be used to implement it in the classroom, and that is why I appreciate this article so much more.

The Not-So-Jolly Roger and related Internet Workshop

Sarah Eisenhauer — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:20:07 +0000

I’m not usually into the whole “pirate theme” for literature, and if you had told me how much I would enjoy this book I would not have believed. I think that this is an incredible resource for kids. The book grabbed my attention from the second I started reading it and kept it until it ended. What I really enjoyed is the fact that I believe most kids in my classroom could read and understand what is going on in this book. Scieszka did an excellent job of keeping up the anticipation and action while not overwhelming children with ideas and vocabulary. Students can learn from this book but it isn’t like a traditional textbook or resource. I believe that the kids can be captured by this book and want to keep reading. It wouldn’t surprise me if they just automatically wanted to move onto the next book. I also liked that it was short enough to do in school and not have to do a whole reading unit on it.

The activities that went along with it (the internet workshop) was incredible. While looking at the national geographic website, I was really impressed by all the information available on it and how kid-friendly it was. I learned much more on that website then I would have by reading a text book. It was very interactive and used simple vocabulary so students would be able to do this on their own with minimal teacher help. I liked who the DRC was used to compare between the book and the internet resources. I found a lot of similarities between the two. For example, on the website I saw that when preparing for battle, Blackbeard’s crew drenched towels and left them on deck so they could put out fires. I also saw this happen in The Not-So-Jolly Roger. It seemed that the author stuck pretty closely to Blackbeard’s life. I really honestly believe that between these two excellent resources children really could begin to become enthralled in schooling and this unit. I definitely plan to use them within my own classroom.

Internet Workshop and Blog Publishing: Pirate Unit

Sarah Eisenhauer — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:46:46 +0000

This article was packed full of excellent resources to begin the pirate unit in a classroom! I couldn’t believe all of the advice that was given. I highlighted certain things within the article that I’ll mention within this post that I thought were beneficial.

First of all, I really enjoy how technologically involved this inernet workshop is for the pirate unit. I think teachers nowadays tend to think just reading something off an overhead or reading an article on the computer is considered using technology. This is not correct. What I like about this internet workshop is that the kids are hands-on and involved in the information gathering. The teacher bookmarks all the sites that are useful so they don’t have to waste time trying to find the sites, but the students still read through the sites and find the relevant information that is needed for the task. It takes planning on the teachers part and it takes time on the students part to ensure that they find what is needed. The second part of the unit is for students to refine, display, publish and share their work. Once again, this is completely technologically based.

Taken directly from the article, “the workshop provides a scaffold and support for students as they gather and evaluate information.” This is so true. You don’t just send your students to the computer lab and let them go at it. You plan accordingly and introduce this step by step. You guide them through the activity. You give them the tools that are needed and they produce the results. One thing I really liked about this article is the fact that they gave so many examples of great piratical websites that can be used in this unit. I know that finding links and search engines related to kids can be time consuming and tedious, but here there are great resources that can already be linked. The more time the teacher puts into it and makes sure that the information is relevant and useful, the more your students will get out of the workshop.

After the students find all of their information and do the internet workshop, there are several ways to publish their work. One of the ways discussed in the article is about blogging. Obviously this is a great way to get children’s work up onto the internet where people around the world will be able to see. The article mentions that kids work harder when they know that more people are going to see the end result, and I couldn’t agree more. I know when I was in elementary school I worked harder when I knew my family was going to see it. The teacher needs to be aware of his or her options, such as editing posts, reviewing comments before posting, etc. All in all, I am really excited to see how this unit pans out in the classroom.

Swashbuckling Adventures on the High Seas & Pullout Articles

Sarah Eisenhauer — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:30:23 +0000

The fact that we are moving into our Pirate Study unit is very exciting! I really enjoyed reading about the different topics in the first article. First of all, I think it’s amazing that you can incorporate this very language arts oriented unit with a social studies unit. Not only does it look at the language arts aspect of it, it ties in very heavily with pirates and the effects on the United States. It showes the economic impact on the American colonies, the roles that pirates and privateers played, the absolute and relative location, and the emergence of democratic piarates. We have spent so much time in class focusing on our writing notebook and how we can use it in our classroom. I love that this is a perfect example! KWL’s are an excellent way to find out what students know and what they want to know. The notebook is a perfect place to do this. I also like that it gives them a place to write down all of the new vocabulary and the new content that they are learning about pirates. One of my favorite aspects of the unit deals iwth the twin texts. I think it is really important for kids to be able to establish the difference between fiction and nonfiction works. This unit has great examples of both and it also helps children realize the difference.

I liked how the second article, Swashbuckling Adventures on the High Seas, gave very specific instructions on how to implement the unit within the classroom. The Double-Entry Diary method of taking notes is extremely useful. I like how it provides an area for kids to write down specific factual information and the right side lets them write their responses to the text. With the books, I like how there are different approaches. It strengthens independent reading but also checks for comprehension while the teacher reads aloud. Another great social studies content area is described when children have to do individual research as their project. One of the most important aspects of this article were the examples that are given and the different resources listed. Kelley Wilson is a teacher on the hall that I’m interning in and I can’t wait to see how this is implemented! I’m very interested to see just exactly what kind of learning goes on during these lesssons.

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson

Sarah Eisenhauer — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:12:52 +0000

This poem was so much fun! The boy in the poem’s name was Lonnie CollinMotion, Lo Co Motion for shot. Him and the family used to dance along with the locomotion song. Doing this seemed to bring the family together.I feel that maybe this was such a big deal because it was popular during the time period. At first he’s not too sure how he received his name until they are doing this dance together and his mom explains why she named this. They are having so much fun singing and dancing together. I feel that maybe this song and dance was used to explain his personality; he’s fun and energetic. The voice used is a child’s voice looking back on the event of figuring out what his name meant. He makes stop at certain places within the poem to prove something even if it is in the middle of the sentence. I feel that you can use this poem in a lot of ways within your classroom. Maybe sharing this would inspire kids to write about their name. I think it would also inspire them to realize how fun the story behind their name can be.

Ordinary Things

Sarah Eisenhauer — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:43:34 +0000

Here are pictures of two ordinary things that mean a lot to me.

Brown Angels

Sarah Eisenhauer — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:33:04 +0000

All in all, I enjoyed reading this book of poems. I felt that it was really inspiring. I enjoy reading this poems because I feel that the author wrote them to connect with a lot of different people. The author obviously appreciates diversity and was able to show that in his writing. When you open up the first page, there is a poem on friendship. I love this because everyone in the class will be able to relate regardless of race or gender. What makes the poems throughout the book so powerful are the pictures that go along with them. This is perfect because I think pictures help the text hit home with kids who struggle to read. I also think that this would be a really helpful tool in the classroom for you yourself to promote diversity. This lets children see that there are other writers out there that may be different from them. I think that teachers today struggle with diversity within text. These poems let children see inside a race that may be different from theres. It’s also great because it lets them see that there are writers out there that aren’t just white, which is what I think sometimes is portrayed in school.

Love That Dog

Sarah Eisenhauer — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:27:39 +0000

I thought that this book was so cute! There were several different aspects that I loved about it. First of all, I thought it was very simple and easy to understand. I think a lot of kids get hung up on what they think poetry should be. Because of this, they tend to not think of their writing as poetic. This was a great example to contradict this. Technically, Jack was telling a story. The way it was written made it seem more like poetry. He spaced out lines and also didn’t have one sentence per line. Because of this, it looked more like poetry. It shows the transitions throught Jack’s school year and how his writing improved. At first he was really hesitant for the teacher to even put his poem on the board. He definitely didn’t want his name on it. After awhile, he was ok with Miss Stretchberry putting his poem on the board. Slowly but surely, when he realized that his classmates supported his writing, he was ok with putting his name on the work. Throughout the course of the year he learned a lot about poetry, not just what it is “supposed” to be. We also saw that Jack’s writing began improving and he was able to compose longer stories and poems towards the end of the year seemingly without effort. I think this an absolutely amazing tool to use in a classroom of reluctant poetry writers. It will inspire them while also letting them read poetry. I also really liked how the end had Miss Stretchberry’s section. Not only could you read Jack’s response to the poem, but you also were able to read the poem itself. I definitely will be using this in my classroom!