MGRP
Chapters 5 & 7 in Allen's book cover both how to make writing come alive and some examples of how to use the arts for a multi-genre research paper. While I appreciated the tips in the writing chapter, there are probably many more books available with even more information. I did like that the author did a rewrite for her students so they could see the process. So often we only show children the steps to the final product but not the process, with all its bumps and decisions. I certainly see myself encouraging students to include the arts, but I'm not sure how to incorporate them into my own MGRP. Lynne has ideas simply flowing out of her. It will be a bit of a challenge for me, I'm afraid.
Seedfolks
I've already read this book twice, so I confess to skimming. If I end up with a little spare time before class on Monday I'll do a more detailed rereading. The first time I read it I remember thinking that I would have preferred someone warn me about the organization of the book. I went in looking for a full narrative that would bring in all the voices in some big, final ending. I had to reread the book with an adjusted perspective in order to really enjoy it. This book is more a collection of vignettes about the same space. There is some small narrative movement that gathers steam at the end, but by that point in the book I almost wanted time to slow way down so I could live with the characters through the whole growing season.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Readings for 10/25
MGRP
I literally laughed out loud while reading that poetry was a good way to ease into writing. What? Is Allen ON something? There are very few poems that touch me when I read them and I certainly don't like to write them. Perhaps I'm just insensitive. Perhaps my love of sci-fi leaves me predisposed to ignore anything that doesn't happen far, far away. I don't know.
Luckily, Allen presented some very doable forms of poetry I think I can probably work with. We'll see, I guess!
Invitations
I first learned about invitations for the tradebooks class, which I took two years ago. I remember the things we read from Van Sluys. I think invitations are a bit hard to wrap your head around, particularly when there's so much other stuff that has to happen every day at school. Once you try making one I think you'll see where they can have a place. When I took the class the instructor insisted that our invitations be on a social justice issue. The process of creating the invitation was worthwhile, though I have no clue if what I think will be interesting will be interesting to students.
One thing that struck me as I was reading: differentiation. When Lynne and I did our presentation on differentiation last spring we learned that differentiation is not about giving everyone a fun activity, but about making sure each student learns a certain minimum (and much more) by engaging them in the way they learn best. This brings me to to the invitations. I think it would be very tempting to create fun invitations that really didn't involve much deep learning. The point of the invitations is to give students the opportunity to get even deeper into the thinking process regardless of the topic.
I really enjoyed making one on a social justice issue two years ago, so I'm hoping I can do one with some other topic to get some broad practice.
I literally laughed out loud while reading that poetry was a good way to ease into writing. What? Is Allen ON something? There are very few poems that touch me when I read them and I certainly don't like to write them. Perhaps I'm just insensitive. Perhaps my love of sci-fi leaves me predisposed to ignore anything that doesn't happen far, far away. I don't know.
Luckily, Allen presented some very doable forms of poetry I think I can probably work with. We'll see, I guess!
Invitations
I first learned about invitations for the tradebooks class, which I took two years ago. I remember the things we read from Van Sluys. I think invitations are a bit hard to wrap your head around, particularly when there's so much other stuff that has to happen every day at school. Once you try making one I think you'll see where they can have a place. When I took the class the instructor insisted that our invitations be on a social justice issue. The process of creating the invitation was worthwhile, though I have no clue if what I think will be interesting will be interesting to students.
One thing that struck me as I was reading: differentiation. When Lynne and I did our presentation on differentiation last spring we learned that differentiation is not about giving everyone a fun activity, but about making sure each student learns a certain minimum (and much more) by engaging them in the way they learn best. This brings me to to the invitations. I think it would be very tempting to create fun invitations that really didn't involve much deep learning. The point of the invitations is to give students the opportunity to get even deeper into the thinking process regardless of the topic.
I really enjoyed making one on a social justice issue two years ago, so I'm hoping I can do one with some other topic to get some broad practice.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Readings for 10/18
Mmmm, Donuts...
The Powell and Davidson article, "The Donut House..." made me think about how, when trying to spread a good idea around, the true benefit gets diluted. How many of us have gone on a field trip, maybe taken notes or drawings during the field trip, written or drawn up a report, and maybe written a thank-you note? The field trips of my youth certainly weren't wasted, but they weren't milked for everything good that could have come out of them. The classroom in the article didn't just go on a field trip, they investigated, explored, and recreated the process of setting up a business. The teacher made the effort to sustain the activity until real work (aka, learning) happened. While I don't know this for a fact, I'm guessing the teacher made sure that props and equipment were available during all free play times so that her students could continue to refine their ideas and extend them in new ways.
To me the approach in the article is reminiscent of some of the philosophies behind the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. You may have seen schools advertised as "Reggio-inspired" and the like, and there have been attempts to bring the philosophies to the US with varying degrees of success. The students in those schools study things, and much of their learning revolves around the things they are studying. Young children are expected to take notes, build models, and have ideas that the teachers use to extend the learning as far as it can go. Through their study topics they cover literacy, math, science, music, art, and history. Isn't that more interesting that studying the letter of the day or writing whatever the teacher tells you to write? I think so. Typically, they study something close enough to their school that they can walk to it, much like the doughnut shop in the article.
MGRP
Allen's book on multigenre research papers has so far been practical and filled with good examples. I'm feeling a little better about the genre part of our paper, but it's still scary for me. One thing that stood out, that I'm sure the author didn't intend, was the internet portion of one chapter. Note to self: If I write a book, don't be specific about technology! Any teacher following the advice in the book due to ignorance would find herself losing credibility with her students. This is the second book in the last few months that has had the same outdated tech problem, so I would encourage anyone who publishes anything to be less specific.
The Powell and Davidson article, "The Donut House..." made me think about how, when trying to spread a good idea around, the true benefit gets diluted. How many of us have gone on a field trip, maybe taken notes or drawings during the field trip, written or drawn up a report, and maybe written a thank-you note? The field trips of my youth certainly weren't wasted, but they weren't milked for everything good that could have come out of them. The classroom in the article didn't just go on a field trip, they investigated, explored, and recreated the process of setting up a business. The teacher made the effort to sustain the activity until real work (aka, learning) happened. While I don't know this for a fact, I'm guessing the teacher made sure that props and equipment were available during all free play times so that her students could continue to refine their ideas and extend them in new ways.
To me the approach in the article is reminiscent of some of the philosophies behind the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. You may have seen schools advertised as "Reggio-inspired" and the like, and there have been attempts to bring the philosophies to the US with varying degrees of success. The students in those schools study things, and much of their learning revolves around the things they are studying. Young children are expected to take notes, build models, and have ideas that the teachers use to extend the learning as far as it can go. Through their study topics they cover literacy, math, science, music, art, and history. Isn't that more interesting that studying the letter of the day or writing whatever the teacher tells you to write? I think so. Typically, they study something close enough to their school that they can walk to it, much like the doughnut shop in the article.
MGRP
Allen's book on multigenre research papers has so far been practical and filled with good examples. I'm feeling a little better about the genre part of our paper, but it's still scary for me. One thing that stood out, that I'm sure the author didn't intend, was the internet portion of one chapter. Note to self: If I write a book, don't be specific about technology! Any teacher following the advice in the book due to ignorance would find herself losing credibility with her students. This is the second book in the last few months that has had the same outdated tech problem, so I would encourage anyone who publishes anything to be less specific.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Spelling
Lynne and I are working on spelling (aka "Grappling with Spelling Instruction") for our MGRP. We're still grappling. So far, it's been pretty interesting, but it's a little frustrating that there aren't any answers. If anyone's got data on what spelling methods are best, we haven't found it. We have found some interesting and useful tidbits, though. I'm going to keep them secret so you can't sleep when we share with the class after the papers all get turned in. Because you all care about spelling, don't you? I thought so!
Monday, October 4, 2010
How to Save Your Blog for Printing
I found a great tip for printing! You can, of course, print straight from the screen, but if you're printing at home you'll waste a lot of ink and paper. Try this:
1. Go to your blog, but use the following as the URL: http://blogname.blogspot.com/
(tip: change "blogname" to be the first part of the URL for your blog).
2. In your browser, save the web page. If there's a "complete" option, choose that because it'll get all the graphics you've put in your posts. I'd tell you where save is, but since I don't know where it is on every browser I'm not sure. Look for a Tools menu. In Chrome it's under the wrench icon at the upper right part of the screen.
3. Open up the file in Word. You will, most likely, want to get rid of the background so you don't waste ink. That's under Page Layout-->Page Color-->No Color.
Blogger does have an export feature, but it dumps xml. I couldn't find an easy way to translate that into a file for humans to read (though if you like xml you'll like the dump, it's detailed). If you wanted to back up your blog, you'd want to use that export feature because you can directly import it back.
1. Go to your blog, but use the following as the URL: http://blogname.blogspot.com/
(tip: change "blogname" to be the first part of the URL for your blog).
2. In your browser, save the web page. If there's a "complete" option, choose that because it'll get all the graphics you've put in your posts. I'd tell you where save is, but since I don't know where it is on every browser I'm not sure. Look for a Tools menu. In Chrome it's under the wrench icon at the upper right part of the screen.
3. Open up the file in Word. You will, most likely, want to get rid of the background so you don't waste ink. That's under Page Layout-->Page Color-->No Color.
Blogger does have an export feature, but it dumps xml. I couldn't find an easy way to translate that into a file for humans to read (though if you like xml you'll like the dump, it's detailed). If you wanted to back up your blog, you'd want to use that export feature because you can directly import it back.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Readings for 10/4
By the time I'm writing this about a third of the cohort has already posted, so I think we've covered the Hale chapters pretty well. I got as much out of these chapters as I did the previous three. This book makes me want to try everything.
I'd like to focus on Karen's article. As someone who feels connected to multiple ways of looking at young children's writing, I felt a bit angry at how the teacher felt forced to do things against her personal philosophy because that's what the people above wanted. I am reminded of the Teacher Town Hall on MSNBC last weekend when several teachers were grateful that teachers had even been asked to join the conversation. It seems to me that while it may be up to governments and administrators to determine what gets taught, teachers need to have some input on the how and when based on what researches have found out.
Karen's article surprised me in my own response a bit. For example, I didn't realize how strongly I felt about teaching children when they are mentally and physically ready to learn until I read about Ashley. There are still some countries that test children for school readiness by having them copy an adult do a specific motion that crosses the midline. The motion varies slightly depending on the culture, but children who cannot do it wait until they can do it and children who can go to school. I can demonstrate for anyone who's curious the next time we're together. It's very interesting, and studies seem to indicate that this simple test is a pretty good indicator of readiness for school for a variety of reasons. I don't want anyone to take this to mean that kids who aren't ready in those ways aren't teachable. What I think is that it means they need more exposure and time to play with literacy in a less formal way than what many schools in this country provide.
But I think I'm a bit of a mishmash when it comes to the various discourses. Following the chart on page 342, I'm probably least in line with the "Skills and Mastery" discourse, at least for young children. Giving kids lots of exposure to lots of different kinds of literacy when they are very young is still, I'm convinced, the way to go. I may have posted this before, but for anyone interested in a parent-friendly discussion on getting children ready to read, I highly recommend Mem Fox's Reading Magic. Sadly, the book's been overhyped in a bad way and Mem herself would be the first to tell you she doesn't like some of the "magical" claims that have been made about her book. But it's a quick read and worth it.
I'd like to focus on Karen's article. As someone who feels connected to multiple ways of looking at young children's writing, I felt a bit angry at how the teacher felt forced to do things against her personal philosophy because that's what the people above wanted. I am reminded of the Teacher Town Hall on MSNBC last weekend when several teachers were grateful that teachers had even been asked to join the conversation. It seems to me that while it may be up to governments and administrators to determine what gets taught, teachers need to have some input on the how and when based on what researches have found out.
Karen's article surprised me in my own response a bit. For example, I didn't realize how strongly I felt about teaching children when they are mentally and physically ready to learn until I read about Ashley. There are still some countries that test children for school readiness by having them copy an adult do a specific motion that crosses the midline. The motion varies slightly depending on the culture, but children who cannot do it wait until they can do it and children who can go to school. I can demonstrate for anyone who's curious the next time we're together. It's very interesting, and studies seem to indicate that this simple test is a pretty good indicator of readiness for school for a variety of reasons. I don't want anyone to take this to mean that kids who aren't ready in those ways aren't teachable. What I think is that it means they need more exposure and time to play with literacy in a less formal way than what many schools in this country provide.
But I think I'm a bit of a mishmash when it comes to the various discourses. Following the chart on page 342, I'm probably least in line with the "Skills and Mastery" discourse, at least for young children. Giving kids lots of exposure to lots of different kinds of literacy when they are very young is still, I'm convinced, the way to go. I may have posted this before, but for anyone interested in a parent-friendly discussion on getting children ready to read, I highly recommend Mem Fox's Reading Magic. Sadly, the book's been overhyped in a bad way and Mem herself would be the first to tell you she doesn't like some of the "magical" claims that have been made about her book. But it's a quick read and worth it.
Friday, October 1, 2010
My Pen
Several of you have asked about my pen. As I write on special paper, it records what's going on in the room. I can, at any point, tap on where I've written and the audio will play back. It's like a tape recorder with bookmarks. I can put my notes on the computer so they're searchable. You can also buy software that transcribes your notes so you can use them with word processing software, but I'm too cheap to do that. You can share the notes as .pdfs or as a pencast where the audio is also available. You can do this in a secure way by requiring that everyone who will access your pencast create an account with Livescribe, the company that makes the pen. There is also translation software and some cute apps. I can show you the piano app sometime if we're all bored.
I know that a newer version is out now, so I did a little research. My pen, which is functionally identical to the new one of the same storage size (4GB), is now a lot cheaper. It's called the Pulse pen and that link goes to the cheapest price I found. The new version is called the Echo. As I mentioned, it's functionally the same, but it's black and has more standard connectors (standard headphone jack and mini USB, to be precise). There is also a bigger storage size pen available that also has removable storage. It's also an Echo, just 8GB instead of 4. You get 100 hours of recording for every gigabyte of storage, so the smaller pens will most definitely get you through a semester.
You do have to buy special paper. Along with the Echo pens, it's available at Target and Best Buy. There's no benefit to buying the paper at Amazon because it's the same price and you have to pay shipping if you're not a Prime member. Don't forget, you're supposed to list online purchases in your taxes now, so you're not even really getting away with sales tax. I could not find the Pulse pen the last time I went to Target, so I'm sure they're phasing those out.
Let me know if you have questions!
I know that a newer version is out now, so I did a little research. My pen, which is functionally identical to the new one of the same storage size (4GB), is now a lot cheaper. It's called the Pulse pen and that link goes to the cheapest price I found. The new version is called the Echo. As I mentioned, it's functionally the same, but it's black and has more standard connectors (standard headphone jack and mini USB, to be precise). There is also a bigger storage size pen available that also has removable storage. It's also an Echo, just 8GB instead of 4. You get 100 hours of recording for every gigabyte of storage, so the smaller pens will most definitely get you through a semester.
You do have to buy special paper. Along with the Echo pens, it's available at Target and Best Buy. There's no benefit to buying the paper at Amazon because it's the same price and you have to pay shipping if you're not a Prime member. Don't forget, you're supposed to list online purchases in your taxes now, so you're not even really getting away with sales tax. I could not find the Pulse pen the last time I went to Target, so I'm sure they're phasing those out.
Let me know if you have questions!
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