Note Taking and Making in the Classroom!

Wow, first I want to start off with saying that this chapter was extremely interesting to me.  I got a late start at this assignment due to family obligations, but much to my surprise I enjoyed reading the chapter and found myself really engaging in the information.  Often times I found myself relating the instruction of note taking to my mentor teacher at Oak Grove.  She does a great job of teaching her students in her math class to follow along with her notes and to take them out and use them as well.  I believe it is important that teachers begin teaching students how to take notes early on.  My mentor teacher teaches at the 5th grade level, even though she helps them a lot throughout their note taking process, she is still teaching them responsibility.  I found it interesting how she helps them, but when they begin to ask her questions on a specific subject she instructs them to refer back to their composition notebooks (where their notes are located) to find information they covered previously.  By instructing students to take notes, it encourages them to learn while the teacher is lecturing or while they are reading.  More times than none it takes a student a while to find their own personal style of note-taking, but by being encouraged to take notes and exploring the different ways from the teacher will only speed up the process.

Questions:
1. You can only do so much as an instructor to help your students with their note taking or making skills, as a future special educator what are other ways a student can retain and focus on information if note taking is not their thing?

2. Another question is how early is it recommended that teachers begin teaching students specific note taking skills should be implemented?

Read-Alouds in Middle School

I am a big believer in reading aloud to students.  I am a very hands on learner and I learn best when I am experiencing the topic in a different light other than just reading a textbook.  I do believe however that it is important to scaffold learners into becoming independent learners.  Using supplemental text to encourage students to read specific topics encourages their learning and provides them with a better understanding of the subject. I found it interesting that research shows that read aloud's not only promote interest, but the students actually selected having a teacher read aloud rather them read silently.  To be honest my initial thought is the middle school age would grow out of having teachers read to them, but little did I know that this was not the case.  It makes me think of being a sophomore in college and having a specific teacher read the class a children's book daily.  It seems immature, but we enjoyed it tremendously! Not only were we exposed to ideas for our future classrooms, but I sound myself engaging in the lesson from the beginning of class to the end.  Back to the article, before going any further I want to quote the article.  There is a specific quote that I think sums up the whole article "scaffolds to understanding because the teacher helped to make the text more comprehensible or more interesting to them (students)." As stated earlier I believe that reading aloud benefits students in multiple ways including scaffolding exercises.  As I was reading I came across a statement saying teachers often read to students because it ensured all students were exposed to the information in the text.  I found this really interesting because it is difficult to remember students who may not be exposed to information outside of school and to make sure they are all getting equal exposure is crucial for retaining the information.  I found it very interesting that only 14% of teachers who attempted the survey stated they did not read aloud in the classroom, but out of that 14% none of the teachers chose the option of "I do not think that reading aloud is an important instructional practice."  I find this amazing that not one single teacher disagreed with reading aloud; however there were still teachers who did not read aloud. It is difficult to fathom that teachers are mainly reading text from chapter books or announcements. These teachers who are not taking time to implement supplemental text into their daily classrooms are hindering the learning of students.  Sometimes I think it is just the special educator in me, but I am a big believer in encouraging students to engage in any way possible.

Writing to Learn

September 1, 2012

I have to begin by saying writing is not my strong point! Often times I immediately lose confidence when being assigned a specific writing instruction.  In more ways than one I can relate to the many strategies used to help students improve their writing and comprehension.  I believe that is is crucial for a student to understand how they learn and what specific strategies can improve their way of writing as well as learning.  All throughout high school incorporating writing with understanding subject matter was never something instructors focused on.  I believe that this had a major impact on my ability to learn how to become a better writer. 
With today's common core standards, comprehension plays a major role in what is expected of students.  Many students struggle with understanding and processing the information they are learning.  As presented in the article Writing to Learn Across the Curriculum, teachers are provided multiple learning tools that help build comprehension using writing within their classrooms.  Writing has a strong stereotype that leaves a bad taste in students mouths.  Often times students are afraid of writing and completely reject the idea of learning how to become a better writer.  After reading the article and certain pages in the book, there is much more to writing than what meets the eye.  To become a better learner, students have to discover strategies that allow them to incorporate writing into other subjects.  In order for students to positively progress throughout their educational career, the instructor must provide insight and knowledge that help each individual student develop as a learner, thinker, and writer. 
The amount of strategies available for students are unbelievable.  Tools that help build student comprehension range depending on how specifically the student learns.  There are many ways the teacher can help the students, they range from providing a rubric or checklist for students to use while writing to developing a note taking system that allows the students to explore prior knowledge and build on it.  Overall writing plays a major role in education and learning specifically, without confident writers students will struggle throughout the rest of their educational career.  It all begins with a teacher who is willing to incorporate and encourage students to be self-directed in order to master writing and content learning.