Probable Passage

I used this technique with a copyright class I taught yesterday. I had been trying to find something to help the students realize copyright was a legitimate concern - not just something else adults used to harass them! I found a great article on NPR about DJ Danger Mouse, a rapper who had mixed some music from the Beatles White Album with some music from The Black Album by Jay-Z. (To be honest, I had never heard of DJ Danger Mouse or Jay-Z!) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1722774

Then I found the transcript by using PowerSearch in Discus. ("Profile" DJ Danger Mouse's 'The Grey Album' mixes Jay-Z and The Beatles.") I then selected 20 words and phrases that were important in the article and had the students arrange them into categories. I decided to let them decide on their own categories. Most did really well! My favorite was the group that put William Shakespeare in with some of the legal terms because "he sounded like a lawyer!"

I passed out the transcripts and played the audio file from NPR - a read aloud with someone else doing the reading! The students really seemed to like it - maybe because it had music embedded in the audiocast.

This particular article was rather lengthy, (1415 words) but all of the students seemed to be listening to the entire broadcast. I suspect that the pre-reading activity had a lot to do with that! Thanks to Nicole and RAISSE!

Choral Reading

I have tried Choral Reading with my ninth grade students and was surprised at the results. It actually went very well. I read the passage first to them and then they read it aloud as a class. They read the passage two times and improved their rate and accuracy with the second reading. I do this activity about three times per week. I don't recommend this with a large group of students. I only have five in that class.

The Scarecrow's Formula

Using movie excerpts is an excellent strategy for hooking students and getting them focused on a particular lesson. I plan to use a movie excerpt to introduce the Pythagorean Theorem to my Geometry classes. We all know that the Scarecrow went to see the wizard to ask him for some brains in the MGM's 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz. After having made the long and perilous journey, the great and powerful OZ bestowed upon the scarecrow a diploma with an honorary degree of Th.D., i.e. Doctor of Thinkology. Once the scarecrow received his "brains" he immediately tried to impress his friends by reciting the mathmatical equation, "The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side". The sounds very familiar to the Pythagorean Theorem in mathmatics. However, the Scarecrow's Formula is incorrect. Showing the movie clip to the students would lead into a discovery lesson on "The Validity of the Scarecrow's Formula" versus "The Validity of the Pythagorean Theorem". This is still a work in progress. I will keep you posted on how it turns out.

THE GREAT FLOOD WEB QUEST

To introduce evolution to my students I read a short children’s book about the great flood. I asked each student to come up with a hypothesis as to why there are great flood stories in so many cultures and to discuss their ideas with their lab group. The students were then asked to find evidence of a 7,000 year old great flood through a web search. They were given 45 minutes to find 5 articles about documented floods and to write five facts from each article. They were asked to decide if the great flood did occur. If so was there enough evidence available to design an experiment to prove that the great flood did occur throughout the earth. This discussion was added to the bottom of their web quest. These students will be asked to do the same thing with fossil evidence to prove evolution.There was lots of lively discussion and interaction as students worked on this assignment.

"Rithmatic" and the other "Rs" too

As I was reading an educational journal, an article on fractions and algebra caught my eye. Lots of good points about how hard it is to learn these two topics and as they addressed fractions, I actually think that they may not want us to teach fractions and just hand kids the calculator. I was shocked, and dismayed, but one statement did make up for the disappoint I felt with the writers opinion: "For mathematics to make sense to students as something other than a purely mental exercise, teachers need to focus on the interplay of numbers and words, especially on expressing quantitative relationships in meaningful sentences. For users of mathematics, calculation takes a backseat to meaning. And to make mathematics meaningful, the three R's must be well blended in each student's mind." I absolutely, do not want to dummy down the curriculum to accomadate those that cannot understand fractions, but I did agree with this part of the discussion and how I can better address the issue of "numbers and words". I may address the algebra part of the article in a later blog.

Don't Forget To Have Some Fun

Hey Gang,
I will say a little prayer for you that the presentation goes well, but know it won't all be work down in the "Holy City". Lotsa great food and music down there....make sure to enjoy yourselves a bit! Right now I'm sitting in the DO writing questions for the upcoming test on waves. Who is having more fun right now? My money is on you!

Looking forward to this Weekend

Hey, guys, here's something you can all look forward to. Your 7 RAISSE leaders are off to Charleston this weekend to learn new things and meet authors and other literacy leaders from across the state. I am sure that we will come back to our schools with even more wonderful strategies to share and even more exciting, more great books or ideas for books you can use in your library, as read alouds, or as class sets.

Say a little prayer for us, too, as we will be presenting on Monday at the conference. We will try to represent all of you well. :)

Problems with the Blog ???

Hi, Everyone

I've been receiving comments that the blog is "not working" for some folks. I don't know what that means unless I receive individual emails with specific problem descriptions and contact info. from these folks. For those of you who are not having problems, please, share my email address: debruhlt@gwm.sc.edu with the folks who are having problems. I need to know what their specific problem is to see if I can assist them.

This is my first blog that I've set up that people are continuing to use. I'm a bit of a newbie, too, but I'm pretty good at problem solving.

Thanks...
And, I am glad to see that a lot of you are blogging on.

Happy Holidays!
Teri DeBruhl

Clubbing

I am using book clubs with my English II Holocaust Unit. The students have been given a choice in their reading selection between Maus I, The Diary of a Young Girl, and Night. Each group member is responsible for a certain role to prepare for the next scheduled book club. I am giving students time in class, on days we do not have book club meetings, to read for an allotted time. I will keep you posted on how this goes! Wish me strength and patience. *smile*

Current Events

Working in a computer lab allows me to use technology everyday. One of the opportunities I have in a computer lab is the access to the Internet. Once a week I have students find current events and summarize these articles. I will ask if anyone read something they would like to discuss and then ask a few other students to share. The emphasis is on the ability to summarize what they have read. This skill of summarizing helps with note taking.

I decided to try a read aloud to my class one day. It just so happened to be a book we're currently reviewing as a choice for Literacy Day next year called The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. I read the last half of the first chapter to my Biology 1 Theory class, and boy did it ever work! Every student was intrigued by the book! They did not want me to stop. This also led to a great discussion about viruses that really reinforced the unit on DNA we were finishing up. Several students told me that they even went out and got the book so they could read it themselves. I was thinking this would be a great strategy for a class with students that really have no interest in reading. Even if you don't read the whole book, just a small section of it could really peak their interest and might actually encourage them to go out and get it so they can find out what happens.

Using Newspapers

I have my math students use the newspaper to gather data. I'll give them a set of questions pertaining to the day's paper and they'll have to search the paper to find the answers. I include fun stuff, like "What does your horoscope say for today?" along with activities like "Find the average price of the dogs advertised for sale in today's paper" and "Find the median price of the items advertised in the Dillard's ad on the last page of the first section". The students also have to pick one article and summarize it. By choosing questions from each section of the paper, the students are exposed to all parts of the newspaper and may learn about things happening beyond the doors of PHS.

Long Term Read Alouds unsing Young Adult Novels

I used a young adult novel called The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan in conjunction with the teaching of The Odyssey in ninth grade English class. It is a modern story with modern characters that are intertwined with the Greek mythological gods. There are sequels that go into mythology even further called, The Sea of Monsters and The Titan's Curse, with another on the way. I don't know that all of these could fit in to the time period of study, but I have had several students who rushed to the library and finished the book before we did in class, and now have read all of the current sequels. Also, students excitedly asked if we were going to have a chance to "read The Lightning Thief today?!"

Not just for kids.

If you look carefully, you can use picture books to emphasize a concept. Most high school students, I have found can relate to the book if you present it properly. It would also be a learning experience for students to create their own picture books. I have done this in the past and some of the books were fantastic. Just show them a large variety of books, or they could do an alphabet picture book. Hope this helps.

We use of a variety of methods to encourage students to read in Physical Education I. Many students do not think there should be much reading in Physical Education so we have to incorporate games and other methods to make reading interesting. We recently covered a chapter on the proper way to stretch and how to stretch. There were good and bad stretches listed in the chapter. Students had to demonstate and explain why stretches were or bad. They then had to explain what types of stretches were listed. In order to this they had to completely read the chapter for these explanations. They also had to list the muscle areas which were affected.

Reading

I will have to say that read alouds have worked well in my class. Students have taken well to them. I am working on picking out better books for the read alouds. If you have any ideas, I will take them. Another assignment I did last year, was I required my students to read a book and then present the book in a PowerPoint. This was also very successful for me. If students finished and assignment early, they could read silently. Students really enjoyed sharing their books with the class. I also enjoyed the presentations. It is a really good idea to try. I have also tried another project that my students are currently working on. My students are creating digital books using PowerPoint and Microsoft Movie Maker.

Useless Information

I ventured into Books a Million last night to find some "fun" books for my classes and purchased a great one titled The Book of Useless Information: Thousands of things you didn't think you needed to know...and probably don't.

I placed the first tidbit on the board today without any type of journal prompt to see what type of response I would receive. Overall, students found it interesting that Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird...especially those students that like to hunt the beloved turkey!

I plan on adding journal prompts to some of these facts to entice students to think on paper. I'll keep you posted!

RAISSE-ING at PHS

Project RAISSE is helping me realize that using my geomety textbook, as the only resource, is not the best strategy to use in enhancing student learning or encouraging students to read. The literacy strategies that I have tried so far and seem to work well with my students include webquests, games, read alouds, exit slips, silent graffiti, journal writing, and guided reading. Cartoons can also be used as an excellent strategy. Some cartoons can be used to teach from and are academic, not entertaining, in nature. They make excellent bell-ringers. One of my personal goals in Project RAISSE is to try to develop literacy strategies that will assist my students in better comprehending word problems in math. Who would have ever thought that I would be doing this in math? This approach is foreign to most math teachers. However, I am already seeing positive results.

Literacy Days

Has anyone ever been a part of a Literacy Day at another school? Looking for ideas.

Any new strategies Working

Has anyone tried anything lately that really worked and would love to share?

I Haven't Blogged In Years....at least 3!

I am really enjoying our RAISSE class and the strategies from the text. Our leader is doing a great job of demonstrating the strategies to our class of "seasoned and sometimes reluctant" learners. I was surprised how many of these same strategies were taught by our guest speaker at the in-service sessions on October 26th. (Gretchen Goodman @ LHS)

First Time Blogging

This is my first experience blogging. I was happy to get successfully logged on and read the comments. I am looking forward to more group discussion and continuing to learn new ways to bring reading strategies into my science classroom.

Never too old to try aomething new

This is a first for me as well. It is wonderful to be in a class that reminds you that students need some concrete learning strategies and then gives you the tools to use. I used a vocabulary game a few weeks ago that was similiar to PASSWORD for the students to learn their words. I was surprized at the participation level as well as the retention after playing. I have also given the students notes on the left side of the paper and blanks on the right for them to make notes or write questions that they have while studying. This was a boost also.

Old Dog, New Tricks

Being on the downside of a career in teaching, I have been witness to a decline in reading skills that is rather alarming and sad. Most students simply will not focus long enough to absorb content through reading it. I can either complain that students won't read or do something to make a difference. I guess I am, with some trepidation, doing the latter. This past week I used the "bookmark" strategy for the first time. We learned it in our last meeting, and it sounded like something simple that even I could try. Well, most of the students actually did it! There were questions about "why", of course, but most got the idea that it focuses your attention on the passage and allows you to very briefly summarize your reading with a few key ideas. It also gives you a place to jot a question you may have. And last, but not least, you have a bookmark!

Raisse-ing in Mathematics

At first a little skeptical about teaching reading in high school mathematics classes, I wondered how we would have time to meet the required topics and teach literacy. I have changed my mind and decided that we have no other choice. Our children, many, sad as it is, cannot read. Project Raisse is addressing this state of affairs. While researching since our last study group, I have found some good sites that emphasize teaching with original historical sources in mathematics, but not just reading the history and biographies, but my particular preference is using analysis of some of the “great problems in mathematics”. One website suggested examining the evolution of certain “great problems”. Let the students use their own “discovery methods”. The students should then write about the mathematical details of the problems, in their historical context, and their thoughts while trying their own problem solving techniques. These writing assignments should help in understanding as well as provide the much needed writing and reading time.

Bingo

In the business classes I teach one of the subjects we cover consists of computer safety. This can be a lot of reading for the students. I created a bingo card that highlights certain key words and phrases. As I read through the information students cover their card. We play 5 in a row and the cover all. After we read through the information they have their vocabulary words for the unit. They then take the card and write definitions in the particular box.

GHS Raissing

Hi,
Just wanted you to know that the sessions at GHS did a lot to jog my memory and renew my passion for teaching. In my classroom, the focus may be slightly different from most regular ed. classes. I actually am teaching the students reading. We have used some of the ideas and need to experiment with more.
One thing that I do is to conference with students about their reading. I take notes when they read and answer comprehension questions. Each student has a folder in my notebook with anecdotal information about their literacy. It doesn't take long to see where the needs lie.
Making learning 'fun and interesting' is key. I liked the review games you all mentioned and used a template for jeopardy and Millionaire for whole class review. It worked. There are also a lot of United Streaming videos that correlate to SC and my functional academics standards. I don't know if that is exactly literacy, but it gets the content across. I usually stop the video and emphasize this point or that and they usually have some sort of practice sheet to go along with the video. Often the makers of the video provide a short quiz in related materials.
The problem I have with all of these good ideas and strategies is that there are not enough hours in the day to prepare properly and use them. I have done read alouds and have found that they need to be super interesting to hold the class' attention. I still go over textbook structure and probably will for the rest of the school year. I am seeing some independence in the students' answering questions without constant one on one help as they know to use the text structure to help them find the word or answer to a question.

1st Time Blogging

I hope that I am doing this correctly.

My study group had a good meeting the other day. We discussed "read aloud" activities that many of the instructors performed in their classroom. Also, I shared a review game called "Zip It." Basically, a defintion or question is read and another student will read the answer off their card. It takes a little bit of time to create the cards, but it is a quick review. If anyone wants to know more, just e-mail me.

Happy Teaching!!

Midlands Writing Project

Just a quick comment to share that I participated in the Midlands Writing Project in the mid-80's . It is a fabulous project and offers great resources for the classroom teacher-reading and writing resources. I would like to suggest using The Midlands Writing Project link as a possible tool in the classroom. For instance, there is a link to Essays, Stories, and Poems written by Teachers on the left side of the home page. I took the time tonight to select several selections to read. I found the ones that I had selected quite good and thought-provoking. Just thought that these selections could be shared with individual students or even a class; however, here is my question---can these selections be "printed and copied" to share in our classrooms.

The "Blog" concept is quite interesting---and fun, too! My first time "Blogging". As one of the "older" participants in Project Raisse I love adding "first time things" to my career experiences.
pwr

Hello

I hope I am doing this correctly. One thing I am trying is letting 2 students each day read the newspaper and give the 9:35 news in class. It does get them reading for content. Usually, they give headlines, weather, and sports in about 5 minutes. The rest of the students are on computers working on individual work and stop for the 'news'.
I also am teaching my students how to use text features to find information in text books quickly-table of contents, index, glossary, appendices, bolded words and subheadings, etc.

Lessons

Please post any lessons you have done or ideas you have come up with that are RAISSE-ish. There is no point in all of us inventing a wheel if some one else has already come up with something great. Please put great read-alouds, internet sites, or lessons that you think went really well.

Keep coming up with great ideas !

RAISSE at GHS

Hello RAISSE participants. I am blogging. I have enjoyed our discussions in class. I have heard such positive feedback from the participants. The instructors are doing an excellent job. I am looking forward to observing many more teachers using these strategies in their classrooms!
Happy reading!

Welcome to the Study Group!

Hi, Everyone

Welcome to your Study Group for Project RAISSE blog! I have given all of you the permisssion rights to post. Now, I need to see the posts to know that it's working.

Happy Blogging!

Teri