Semester Synthesis

How will you incorporate comprehension instruction into your discipline?

I think it is really important to be able to read and comprehend difficult scientific text. Even though reading a textbook can be boring, it is an important skill to acquire before college. That is something that I had to learn on my own in college. I wish I had a teacher that taught us how to analyze scientific text. With that in mind, I plan on selecting small segments from scientific text, such as research articles, textbooks, encyclopedias, etc.We will read it together and we can interpret it. I will also have them do small research projects so that they can immerse themselves in scientific literature. 

How will you support your students in writing texts and producing other representations in your discipline?

Like I mentioned, I would like to have the students do small research projects. One idea i had, is to have them research about a scientist and talk about their accomplishments. I also think it is important to have lab write ups. Often times, students need to explain what is happening to really understand the basic concepts. It's not always enough for them to do the lab without explaining it.

How will you integrate digital technologies?

There are a lot of ways to integrate technology into the classroom. First off, I am a huge fan of PowerPoint lessons. They are such a help for me. In the PowerPoint you can have all sorts of aids that enhance the lessons, such as pictures, videos and simulations. You can also have games like jeopardy, which I have used. It was fun. I have considered making a class webpage or maybe a blog. That way I am integrating social media, which is prevalent in the students' lives.

What kinds of texts will you make available to your students? 

After making the text set, I realized there are a lot of different types of books that can be made available for students to read. I really like autobiographies of scientists, so I will probably have a lot of those. I also like books with pictorial representations of concepts. I want to have books that break down hard concepts into small simple principles. Lastly, I would like to have a book for projects/ experiments. That way they can use it for formal projects in the class, and fun activities that they can do on their own.

Thanks for the great class!

Oral Language

Physics is a really hard subject to have full discussions. In fact, most of my classes have mostly been lecture-based. I have had a few really good teachers who manage to ask good, thoughtful questions that allow for some dialogue. I am not very good at remembering specific lectures or concepts that really drew me in, however I remember a teacher that I have had that consistently involved more student interaction. Her name was Professor Davis and she taught physics at BYU. The class was so fun. I could have listened to her for hours. She asked a lot of questions and was dynamic. She did demos and asked for volunteers. 

Her discussions weren't the same as a regular conversation, where one person bounces off the other. But she asked a lot of questions that sparked a lot of questions. She created a good "questions source" as the article would say. The best questions come from the students and that is where the real learning happens. We all became interested because she asked good questions. She asked "authentic questions" herself. She wasn't looking for a particular answer. Most of the time she asked us for predictions of what was going to happen and why. She would also ask clicker questions, then have us turn to our neighbor and explain why we chose our answer. Then we would re-pole our answers.This was good "uptake". When we would answer the second time, if there were still questions she would continue to cover the subject instead of moving on. She would change her lesson plan according to the needs of our class. 

She implemented the 5 elements of effective discussions, but she did especially well on those three. She was inspiring to me to be a teacher because of how well she involved and intrigued the class. Physics was so fun because she made it fun. She implanted desire in our hearts by asking great questions. She was a great example to me. 

Critical Literacy

Response to #2

Even though I am a science major, I decided to read the article about Anne Frank. It was enlightening to see their view on critical literacy. As I understood from the article, critical literacy is trying to understand a concept or story from more than perspective and not letting previous conceptions inhibit you from finding the truth. The article related three different versions of The Diary of Anne Frank, one written by Anne (without editing), one with editing by her father, and one from an institution. They said that each was presented in a different light. When you have more than one perspective, you are able to see a bigger picture. 

The article also talked about the preconceived notions of the students diminished the reality of the situation. They called it the Americanization of the story. In our schools it is taught, in most cases, that Anne Frank's story is a hopeful, optimistic one. The students don't associate the challenges of WWII and concentration camps, because they already know the story in some vague sense. They know that Anne was a happy girl and very optimistic. Since most students have already heard the story, it is hard to help them see another perspective. The article says it is a good idea to gain a sense of how much knowledge the students have prior to teaching the topic. 

Teaching critical literacy is important because the students can develop analyzing skills. It also opens their minds. They begin to accept that their current knowledge isn't always enough or correct. When they realize there is more, they have the capacity to learn and understand more. Some things that I plan on doing after reading this article, is to ask a lot of questions regarding the conception of the text. (Who wrote it, What were they like, what were the times like, Why did they write it, etc). I think giving context of who wrote the book and a little about their life sheds light on topic. 

I can do this in my field (science) too. The class I am in right now is a good example of that. We are studying famous scientists and their discoveries. We study a lot about who they are and what their lives are like and a little about the history of the times. It helps us understand what lead to the discoveries and why they were so miraculous at the time. 

I would also read and compare more than one account if possible. That would give them more than one perspective. Giving them more than one perspective gives them the choice of thinking another way instead of imprinting one opinion into them. Overall I felt that the article was beneficial. 

Teaching Philosphy

I decided to become a teacher because of my own educational experiences, both good and bad. After spending time comparing the classes that were most influential to me and the classes that I struggled the most, I have been able to learn how I learn best and how I can help others to learn in a way that is compatible for them. I often had teachers that made me think, “If I were a teacher, I would never do that” or “If I were a teacher, I would model my teaching after him/her”. I discovered that I learn better with visual aids and demonstrations. It took me a long time to figure that out. Sometimes I would feel unintelligent because I didn’t always understand or remember lectures. Now I know my way of learning better. I want to help students learn how to learn. I want to teach them according to their needs, like the teachers that touched me.

As a teacher, there are three things that are most important to me: 

1. To teach them how to learn
2. My relationship with each student is important 
3. Science is cool

For a lot of people school is just a game. They can learn the system and make it through with good grades. For others, the technique of school is more of a mystery. I want students to know that school is more than a check off list of things that need to get done. I don't want my students to just remember the information long enough to take a test on it, that's not what school is for. I want them to develop a way of thinking. I want them to feel the need to know more. I want students to retain the information. I am not talking about the details of subject, but the essential concepts. They need to leave knowing more than when they came, otherwise it was a waste. It is important to me to help them learn how to learn. It takes time, but they need to figure out what works for them. I want to give them my time and attention to help them become better learners.

It is important that the students know that I care about them as people. They are not just another person in a class of thirty, or grade on a paper. I want them all to succeed, so I will urge them to do their best, but their grade does not impact the way I see them. They are individuals with personalities and experiences to share. I will spend time trying to get to know them so that we can grow together.

Lastly, science is cool and I want to show them. They can directly interact with science, which makes it personal. I am going to be a physics teacher and there is so much to show them. There are demonstrations and projects that we can do to bring science to life. Students grow to love science through engaged meaningful lessons. They can get out of their chairs and experience it. I will work very hard to make sure that my students have the opportunity to be involved in the classroom so that it becomes a meaningful experience.

Three Links to Blogs (these are ones that were posted in 2012)

• http://blogs.goaj.org/gfraher/
• http://5s2012.edublogs.org/
• http://upps.global2.vic.edu.au/

Digital Text Reflection

I decided to make a whiteboard video. It was pretty user friendly and easy to learn. I chose it because I like watching videos where there is someone drawing on the whiteboard, while someone else talks. However, I didn't make it in relation to my content area. Since we were just playing around, I made it more fore amusement. 

I think that this digital text could be useful in the classroom because it gives the students the opportunity to be creative and apply it to their content area. For example, students can use these types of videos to give summaries of concepts in a way other than in a paragraph. They can draw it out like a diagram or create a dialogue. Either way they can personalize it and share with others. I thought it was pretty fun and I know they would too. You can find my short video here.

http://goanimate.com/videos/00Iut-FPJwiA?utm_source=linkshare&utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=usercontent

There were a few things that stuck out to me from the reading. It starts out talking about how social media can give more people the opportunity to participate. People feel that they can contribute to something because they feel like they can connect with individuals. I think that is a great way to think of social media and science. Sometimes science is intimidating for people, but when you bring it to their level, they will be more willing to engage. They also said that teachers should fill the gap between in-class literacy and out-of-class literacy. Adolescence especially spend a lot of time online anyways. If we as teachers can give them educational resources at sites that they are already visiting, then we can expose them to more literacy than they even realize. For example, NASA has a twitter account. It is easy to get fun facts and it is right at their finger tips. It would be more fun for them.

I like that the tweets are linked to substantial articles and other artifacts that back up the statements. This is good because then the student will have access to more information when they are interested. I think it is a really smart idea for teachers to start using social media for educational purposes. We live in a different time, where a lot of time is spent online. Instead of resisting that in schools, it might be better to just embrace it. You will most likely have a better relationship with the students, but they will also engage more in learning.   

Power Point Particulars

I thought the power point was really informational. One thing that I enjoyed was this realistic sense that I felt towards writing. For example, not all writing has to be perfect and that teachers should give some slack on spelling errors. When I wrote essays in school, I would think of this great word, but I didn't know how to spell it. So I would substitute it with a less meaningful or intelligent word. I did this because I didn't want to get marked down for spelling or I didn't want the teacher to think I was stupid. 

I think it is really important to refrain from using writing as a punishment. Writing already has a bad connotation for students as it is, we don't want to deepen the dislike. 

I thought it was a great idea to have the different levels of writing. That way students can gather their thoughts together without fear of grading. It also sparks creativity. Another thing that encourages creativity is giving choice to the writing topic. I remember my favorite papers or assignments where I had a choice of what topic to write. Even just a list of options made it seem more fun. I remember once I had to pick a historical figure to do a report on: I chose The Romanovs because I was interested in the mysterious story of Anastasia. It was so fun to do the research.

Another thing that I learned from the power point was to give the students an audience to write to. Now looking back over my schooling experience, I can see the effect that the audience had. Any time I had to give a report orally to an audience, whether it be the class or a parent, I double checked everything to make sure it was the best. One time, in elementary school, we had to write a summary of the life of a president. Then we dressed up like that president and each of us had a pretend button on our shoulder. We had a presentation night where the parents went around and pressed our buttons. We had to recite our summary from memory. It was a creative way to get us to learn about the presidents and the audience made us more careful. 

Teaching Vocabulary

In my science classes I have had teachers that weren't very good at explaining new words and some that were good. Most of my teachers had us look up words or have a definition posted on a slide show. Very little instruction was dedicated toward vocabulary. I remember I had this one physics class where I felt like my teacher was talking in code. He would use a lot of math terms that made it difficult to understand the physics. I had heard them before and probably used them, however, I hadn't mastered them. When he would lecture I would lose attention so fast because he wasn't speaking in a language that was clear to me. As a student, it is hard to translate everything into meaningful language all of the time. I was in a seminar last semester and the speaker said that is how ELL students feel all the time. Students will be more engaged and understand more if they already know the words. Then they don’t have work so hard to understand the material. The vocabulary reading says, “A rich receptive vocabulary, however, can enable learners to process texts more efficiently and fluently by providing them with the ability to make connections what they read and hear and to articulate their understandings of any domain when they speak or write” (pg. 2).

I once had a great teacher, who helped us expand our vocabulary.  He wasn’t a science teacher. He was my humanities teacher. Before the class started, he told us that he was intentionally using words that he hoped we wouldn't understand. Therefore, we were to ask what they meant. We were at school to learn and expand our knowledge. I thought that was a great thing to do, because it made students comfortable asking questions.

Some things that have helped me in my science classes, even though I can’t think of a specific instance or teacher, is when they relate the material to something I already know. My Earth Systems teacher did that this week. He said radioactive leakage of radon in the decay of uranium to lead is like someone eating your popcorn before you can count it. Basically saying that it is hard to account for how much is gone because you don’t know how much you started with. It helps me when teachers use layman’s terms to explain a new concept.

I wish my teachers in the past would have used more ideas from Harmon, Wood and Hendrick. There are some things that I plan on doing that implement some of their ideas. I like the idea of word consciousness. I think the more I use the words, especially in different contexts, the more the students would understand. The text gives the example of puns as a way to familiarize them with words. This is brilliant and I would like to do that. I would also like to implement what my Humanities teach did: I will tell them that I will use words that they don’t know and I expect them to ask about them. Then I will write the words they don’t understand on the board as a visual reminder that they can refer to during the lecture, especially if the word is used again. Another thing I plan on doing that the texts suggest is to make that I teach the new words. Obviously, I cannot predict all the words they won’t understand. That is why I will pick words that are essential for the unit. I will try to teach them in context so that it has more meaning for them. Lastly, I would have them share what it means to them. Maybe I would ask them to tell me a short story with the new words or I could have them simple share how it influences them in their life. Of course they would have to understand it by the time they share, but I will know if they really understand if they can explain it in the context of their lives. Hopefully they would remember it better that way.

All in all, I feel vocabulary has a huge impact on our ability to learn. It is of great importance that we teach our students new vocabulary so that they can excel in future classes.