Spanish Read Aloud Idea

Tonya,

Try reading aloud some really simple children's picture books by having students translate them into Spanish as you read. I think this would be great at helping improve vocabulary. This might also pull in some of those terms that you may not normally cover in class. As the students get better at this, you can use harder books. I really like this idea because it has a picture that will help students associate the Spanish with the terms that they are learning.

You could also use this as an assignment. You could have students work in pairs and translate a book. Then you could have them read their Spanish version to the class while showing the pictures from the book.

Just a few ideas.

Book Pass

I tried a book pass with my students to get them reading a novel this semester. This was a wonderful experience for my students. Many of them fell in love with some of the books, and they even fought over the books. If you have not tried the book pass, you should. It really worked well for my students!

How to accept an invitation to join the blog

Since so many of you have been having problems accessing blogger I volunteered for Teri to test the system. She invited me and within 1 minute I received the invitation to join. I followed the steps listed below and now I am posting. If you or your teacher friends have problems please email Teri individually. She will be happy to help you gain access to the blog.

1) Teri has invited you to the blog and you will receive an email entitled "You have been invited to contribute to Blog Moderator".

2) Click on link under "To contribute to this blog, visit: http://www.blogger.com...."

3) You will be directed to a sign in page.

4) It should say "create your account now"

5) Enter your primary email address, the mailbox at which you received the invitation.

6) Create a password.

7) Put in your display name. Make this your real name as this is the name which your peers will see when you post. Nicknames are difficult to trace.

8) At the bottom of the sign in page there is a word verification blank. You have to copy the letter you see above it into the blank.

9) *IMPORTANT* Now, you need to check the "accept terms of service" box.

10) Click continue.

11) You are now back to the sign in page. Your email will appear automatically as the user. Type in your blogger password.

12) Click "accept invitation"

13) The blogger opens to "Manage your blogs". The blog, RAISSE-ing the Bar, appears here. In addition your display name appears in the upper right hand corner.

14) From this point, you can click "+ new post" or click "view blog" to see other peoples post. Click this if you are ready to make your own comments.

15) Later in the day you will receive a confirmation email from google. There is a link you must click on to verify your account. Cut and paste the link into your browser. Once you are connected to the site, your account is verified automatically and by default you are taken to the blogger sign in page. At this point your registration is complete.

Multimedia Movie Project

During the last week before Christmas break, I decided to try a short animated movie. When the students arrived for class I had a journal entry on the board where students would go on the Internet and look for information on Dreamworks Studios. Mainly they were trying to find out what software was used to create the Christmas Capers. This class was on the portion in the textbook where we were talking about animation. I thought that it would be a good idea to do some research on how this short film was created. Most of the students had never send the movie and I thought that it was a great way of opening their eyes to an animated production.

SSR and Journals

This semester my students will have sustained silent reading every Monday-Wednesday for 10 minutes, followed by a journal prompt. In the past week it has been a great tool. Most everyone has been very receptive to the routine. My journal prompts range from "curriculum-related" questions (If you had to lose one of your senses, which would it be and why? while studying The Miracle Worker) to free writes related to personal entries and SSR reflection. My favorite part is getting to know my students each week when reviewing their entries.

Reflections

Whew! My first semester of teaching has ended and now I have "prior experience" under my belt. I tried my first book club with a Holocaust unit and will be tweaking it to only incorporate one book in order to facilitate more whole class discussions.

I am looking forward to continuing many of the strategies that I used last semester with my new students. Having a bit more familiarity with the routines of block schedules and the course curriculum, I am anticipating incorporating additional strategies that I have obtained from Burke and others. I will continue to keep y'all updated!

"Great Gatsby"

At the end of 1st semester, I did our "Movie Activity" for Raisse. We had finished reading "The Great Gatsby" and discussing the colors that surround and are associated with each character in the novel. (white=purity, Daisy) Then I had the students watch the film and document how the characters and their colors are portrayed by the director of the film. Afterwards, they wrote a short comparison/contrast essay about the use of color in the novel vs. the film and why the director might have made any changes or editing choices. For example, at the end of the film, Daisy is seen in a black, rhinestoned dress and cap to show her fall from grace and purity. It worked out well and prepared them for the short answer questions on the final exam.

To do "The Scarlet Letter" or not to do "The Scarlet Letter"?

English teachers, or anyone who has read Nathaniel Hawthorne's symbolism rich novel, I have a conundrum. For the past three semesters, I have chosen not to use this novel, but after speaking to some colleagues who feel that it is integral to the American Literature experience, I may try to integrate it into my curriculum. My problem is, WHERE DO I FIT IT IN? What do I cut? I don't feel I have the time necessary to devote to reading the novel in class (I have multiple struggling readers,) time to discuss the symbolism, character relationships and themes. I enjoy the novel, but I have students who are lower level and I just feel that it will be torturous for them...and me. Am I being selfish or realistic? Any ideas? Go ahead and try it, or let it be for now? I'd appreciate any candid responses.

As I am getting ready to start the unit on inquiry, I am plannig to do a read aloud for my students on A. G. Bell's discovery of the telephone. I did this one a number of years ago, before Raisse, but I did not have the students write their reactions. We just talked about it. The key point in this activity is that Bell actually did not follow the scientific method. This proves that sometimes scientific discovery comes from a serendiptous accident. I am looking forward to this activity

Native American Oral Tradition

I started my English 3 American Literature classes with a read aloud today. It is an adaptation of a Native American Legend called "The Hidden One." The legend is basically about a young girl who has been mistreated and abused by her older sister. The sister would lie and cover up her abuse so the father would never know. In their village lived a great hunter with his sister, and the hunter was invisible; only a woman with a pure heart and brave spirit could see him and become his bride. The older sister goes to "See" the hunter to marry him, but pretends to see him when she cannot. Her lie is revealed and she is disgraced. So, the little sister goes to "See" the hunter and is taunted by the village for her audacity since she is ugly and scarred by her sister's beatings. She truly does see the hunter and her ugliness and scars melt away to show a beautiful young woman. She and the hunter are married and they each are invisible no more.
My Raisse-ers found this for me at the start of last semester and I used it then as a read aloud with only myself reading. This semester I made copies for six students and asked volunteers to read the different parts of the legend. The class enjoyed it, the response was more enthusiastic than last semester. After reading this, we discussed possible genres for this story, and what other stories it might remind students of. (i.e. Cinderella) Then I launched into the class notes for Native American Oral Tradition, and how stories are passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. This has become a great introduction to this material. Thanks Raisse-ers!

Cell-Phone Novels are best sellers in Japan

My read aloud today was about an article I read over the weekend. I read portions of it and summarized it mostly. Novels being written by text messaging in Japan have been very popular for a few years. Students love cell phones and this grabbed their interest right away. Even though this was an algebra 1, part 1 class and the very first day, I wanted to get them interested, thinking and writing. Part of their class assignment was to pretend they were text messaging and write a few lines of a novel that they would write about their favorite thing to do. This would help me get to know about something they liked and also give me some insight to their creativity. It went over very well.

I also have a problem with seeing the same old faces again and again, etc....... In some cases the repeaters act as if they have never seen the material before, which just may be the case based on their previous scores. Others decide that they got away with the same behavior the last time, so they try it again. I actually have had one student who really did change his ways and acted like a whole new person. I discovered by accident that it is best to treat the repeater like it is the first time. ( it helps that I have a lousy memory for names and faces!) This at least removes the tendency to be biased towards former students. Another thing that helps is asking these students to do special task, or to help set up labs. In most cases these kids are the ones who failed because they were "too cool for school." So, they actually do have more knowledge of the subject than they are aware of. The biggest thing is that I try to connect with them, as if they are an old friend, and I am really glad that they are back.

More ideas!

At the end of the semester, with time to spare after the EOC, I had my algebra one, part two class do an activity involving using the newspaper. I took the idea to practice finding percents, but I noticed as the papers were on the desk that they did get a good bit of perusing the news. It sparked conversations among the class members. It was nice to hear them collecting information and conversing on matters in the news. Now that the new semester has begun, I am looking for reading material for my algebra students. I cannot see using class time to give silent reading because I have the pressures of the EOC bearing down on me and cannot "afford" to give up enormous amounts of time to reading. I would like ideas of books that are math motivated to introduce math concepts. I have used Curious George and the donut shop book to introduce scientific notation. It was great, but I simply cannot find more books to help me teach upper level math classes. Any ideas are welcome.

Need ideas!

I would like to do more read alouds in my Spanish classes. If anyone has any suggestions for some books (not necessarily in Spanish) that would be good for me to use please let me know. Thanks in advance for any input!!