Amanda FeltsWeblog

Amanda Felts

Discussion Notes

Tools for Reading, Writing, and Thinking

Link:  http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/tools/discussionsnotes.pdf

Summary:  This is a worksheet that students fill out as they read.  It gives them promting questions to think about as they read.  This worksheet prepares students for a discussion after they are done reading.  It gives them a place to take notes and a few sentences to lead into what they may want to bring in to the discussion.  The worksheet gives very specific directions about what to look for and at.  It gives the students questions to ask themselves after they read so they can capture and write down thier thoughts. 

NCSCOS:  This worksheet will help prepare students for the writing test, and the reading and science EOGs.  This worksheet teaches students to look at what they are reading and to ask questions and take in what they read and interpert it into thier own words. 

How will it help students learn? Students will learn how to pull out information in what they read and be able to look at the notes that they took to add into a class discussion.  This worksheet will also aid the shy students into becoming more open about what they read and say in class.  This will help students learn to focus in on what they want to say in a class dicussion. 

I believe that this will work, because student love to talk, so giving students the opportunity to share thier thoughts and how they understood something, will help others understand a concept.  The main reason this will work is because no two students view what they read the same way, so pulling in more ways to see or understand something, as a teacher you will be able to reach more students.  Personally I always got more out a class if I am able to share my understanding of what I read with others and I get the opportunity to look at what we read in thier shoes by them sharing thier ideas with me. 

Amanda Felts

Strategy:  Sticky Notes

Before-During-After (BDA) Reading Strategies

Link:  http://www.pde.state.pa.us/reading_writing/cwp/view.asp?a=196&q=98157

Summary:  This allows students to write down thier thoughts as they read.  Since they are not allowed to write in the book, this is a way for students to be fully engaged while they read.  It is kind of like when teachers show a movie or a documentary in class and have the students write down interesting facts about what they saw or heard.  With the sticky notes if a student had a question about something, they could write down thier question, place the sticky note where thier question is and when the reading is gone over in class they will be able to point out directly where thier question is and ask it. 

NCSCOS:  This strategy can be used with any topic on the standard course of study.  When you assign anything for the the students read you can be sure they are engaging in the assignment by watching them stick thier sticky notes to the text or what they are reading. 

How will this help students learn?  This will help students learn by them being engaged in what they are reading.  I do this myself, and since I have strated doing this I have gained so much more information and comprehension from what I have read.  Some of the note I may write could be, “Thats just wrong” or “I need to look up more information about this topic”.  By doing this students will be looking at what they believe and what they may have questions about, but do not relieze it until they read it. 

I think this will work because I have seen it work.  I have seen this same technique used, but the students were allowed to write in the book.  When I went back and looked at what some of the students had written, I saw how they were bringing in old knowledge and applying it to what they were reading to come up with questions.  On some of the articles that the students were assigned they would write, “I do not think that was nice”  or “Global warming is a problem, that we need to fix.”  When students are asked to put in questions, or describe how something makes them feel as they read they pull out all sorts of things, rather than just skiming through what they are assigned to read to answer the worksheet with ten questions before the end of class. 

Amanda Felts

Dense Questioning

Reading Strategies Scaffolding Students’ Interactions with Texts

Link:  http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/intruction/ela/6-12/Reading/Reading%20Strategies/dense%20questioning.htm

Summary:  This strategy teaches students how to ask different questions.  It basically teaches students to ask questions in many different shoes.  For example a student might ask, ” How does this affect the world I live in, and how does the world view this?”  The three steps to this is:  comparing text to text, comparing text to self, and comparing text to world connections. 

NCSCOS: The course of study could e addressed in many ways, for example if I assigned my students to read a current event about the Ozone.  I would have them compare what they read to other things they have read, to what they know and then compare to what the worlds view is of Ozone.  Then I would have them advocate for what they read, for themselves, and for the world, by asking questions as if that is what they were. 

How would it help students learn?  I think that having the students think outside the box about what is happening in class will help them develope thier own points of view as well as kind of push them to research on thier own to find out more about what ever the topic may be in class. 

Why will this work?  Middle school students are full of questions, but as teachers all we ask of them are for answers.  By having the students develope questions and having them think about everything that they know about a topic, you will create a very accepting atmosphere in your classroom.  With that type of atmosphere student will not be shy to ask questions, or to defend something that they believe.  To me if a student can ask complex questions about a topic and defend something that they advocate for they know what is going on with that topic. 

Amanda Felts

Name of Strategy:  Interactive Notebook

This Strategy comes from Addison Wesleys History Alive Program

Link:  http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Reading/Reading%20Strategies/interactivenotebook.htm

This Strategy I thought would be really easy to use in any classroom.  The students use both sides of thier spiral note book to take the same notes differently.  On the right side of the notebook you have the students write down lecture notes, book notes, and other notes just as they appear in the classroom.  On the Left side of the spiral you have the student write how tey can relate old knowledge to newly learned material.  They can draw pictures to represent what they are learning in thier own way.  It is a great way to check for understanding and comprehenision in any subject. 

The NCSCOS would be addressed in this activity by the students taking notes and putting them in thier own words.  Since this activitity could be used in any subject and topic the NCSCOS applies by whatever you are teaching. 

This would really help all sorts of learners learn and comprehend much more, because students are given the opportunity to put what is done in class in thier own words, and understand topics in thier own way.  For example: the visual learner can draw pictures on the left side of thier notebook to demonstrate to themselves how something works and interacts. 

This strategy will work because the students will get out of it what they put into it.  So if you set very high expectations for students in your classroom, they will go the extra mile to make sure that they can understand something thier own way rather than the way everyone else does. 

Amanda Felts

Name of Strategy:  KWL Chart

Link:  http://www.pde.state.pa.us/reading_writing/BEFORE-DURING-AFTER_READING_STRATEGIES.pdf

The KWL chart is a very neat and collection idea.  I would use it when I would assign students a section to read in thier textbooks.  K stands for what they already know.  W stands for questions that they would like to be answered.  L stands for what the student learned from reading the section.  I would personally assign this as homework or group work, just because no two students know the exact things that another student does or they will more than likely not have the same questions. 

This activity does not really have a praticular subject or topic that this can only be used for.  I have personally seen this used in SS and in Science. 

I think that this will help students learn, because they are pulled in personally.  Since the chart asks for what the students want to know and what they learned, that keeps thier mind constantly engaged in what they are reading, so thier reading comprehension is going to rise. 

I beleive that this KWL chart will work because the students are being asked to process the information and ask questions rather than answer questions that the NCSCOS needs them to know.  I believe that any time that you have a student ask questions and have them reflect on what they already know you are going to get some great reading comprehension from them. 

When I looked at the Study Guides adn Strategies site I liked how everything was laid out.  It seemed to look at each phase a teacher goes through when planning, teaching, assigning homework or classwork to preparing students for thier test. I really thought it was neat that it had sections that advocated for the student athlete and ADHD. 

The Kathy Schrock’s Guide For Educators was neat is its own way, because it had different subjects and links to good resources for the topics you may be teaching.  I did not really see anything that really struck me as a Instructional Strategy, I may not have been looking in the right area though. 

The Educational Reference Desk was cool.  I liked how it had different instructional strategies for reading a text book, or Television Companion materials.  I am going to explore more about the different links to aid students in reading textbooks. 

The best of the resources was the Graphic Organizer site.  I like how while students read they can pull out a topic and add more bubbles to that topic which gives the student more time to comprehend and think about what they read.  To me the more students are provoked to stop and think about what they read, then to write down bits and peices of what they understand or what they may have questions about they will learn and remember that material alot better. 

The Global Classroom site looked to me to be more for younger elementary students rather than middle school.  Some of the links that I opened on the site looked as if they could be used for the middle school classroom.  This site though did only focus on LA and Math.  I never did find anything for Science or Social Studies. 

Amanda Felts

You Tube

www.youtube.com

7th Grade Science studying severe weather

I would use this video to provide the students with an introduction of tornadoes.  This video would I believe spark interest and questions which would in turn lead to being an interesting class. 

For EC students, I think that this video would bring to life what is happening in class and it also shows all the weather that is assocaited with a tornado. 

The video would allow students to see the damage associated with a tornado as well as the other weather conditions that are sometimes associated with these storms.  I would have the students write down at least tree questions or concerns that they have so that we could have class discussion on tornados.

Amanda Felts

Name of Site:  Middle School Science

Site Address:   http://www.middleschoolscience.com

Author:  Liz LaRosa

Group:  7^th grade Science

I would use her lab book to organize the labs for the year.  I may not use all of her labs, I would have to use some from other sites, but I think that she has many well-organized ones.  Some of the Labs that she has would fit into the 8^th and 6th grade too. 

For the EC student I would select the things that they would be responsible for, and have them only to answer those questions. 

I would use this site so that I could be prepared to teach my classes.  I think that being organized is a big step to being a successful teacher.  I also think that the more that I am prepared I would be setting a high example for my students to follow.  In being more prepared and organized, the classroom structure would allow students to learn better, and feel as if they can do anything.   

Amanda Felts

Name of Site:  Life Science Connections

Site Address:  http://vilenski.org/science/humanbody/hb_html/skin.html

Author:  Roger Ludlowe Middle School, Fairfield, CT

Group:  Seventh Grade Science Class

I would use this site as a web quest and as a way for students to study for their test. 

This material on this site is easy to move through and understand.   The worksheets on this site are very simple to do and very fun looking.  I think the only modification that would have to be made for these student s would be in the work load so that they do not get overwhelmed.  The online notebook would allow for the EC students to get their notes if they miss a day, to catch up or to even be used as an advanced planer.

I would also use their online notebook.  Also a project tab allows the students to be a doctor and answer questions that a patient might have.  This assignment would aid students is applying what they know.  The worksheets can be given as homework or class work, but they are very easy to understand and use.  Another thing about the worksheets is that they look fun.  This site also even has games for students to review what has been learned for example it has Who Wants to be a Millionaire for Life Science. 

 http://www.thefutureschannel.com/dockets/realworld/lightning/

Amanda Felts

Name of site:  The Futures Channel

Link to Resources:  http://www.thefutureschannel.com/index.php

Author:  Unknown

This site would be good for almost any subject, but I am just looking for middle grades Science. 

Description:    This site has many different videos that really can illustrate the importance of a topic that you may be teaching in science, or any subject.  I personally would use these videos to show students what jobs take what knowledge.  I think that a short little two minute movie clip as an introduction to what is being studied that day in class is a great tool to entice a student’s interest.    

I could use the movie clips as an introduction to what is happening in class, and have the students write down one thing they learned, one thing they found interesting and one thing that they have a question about.  As for the EC students, they would get a chance to prepare themselves for what is coming that day in class, and possibly spark a personal interest.  Some of the videos showed how things worked in real time, so that would allow EC students a chance to see in real life how something works.

I would use this material to keep my students interested and excited about the many fields that science has in it.  It is also a wonderful way to let them see the different jobs that use science and how science has improved our daily lives.  The students will learn the topics better because they will be able to see for themselves how something works.  It will also show them that there is more to science than just sitting in a laboratory.