Blog #4 Fischer and Frey

The main focus of Chapter 1 of the Fischer and Frey textbook is teaching students how to read, write, and think. While I was reading the section on shifting responsibility from teacher to students, I could not help but think of one of my own classrooms in middle school. The text discusses how the teacher shifts from generating and asking the students questions to teaching and encouraging the students to generate and answer their own questions. I vividly remember my 9th grade Mississippi History and Geography class. Each new topic that we would discuss, my teacher would constantly scaffold our learning and eventually by the end of the lesson or unit, we would be generating and finding solutions to our own questions, rather than her generating them herself. I found this really helpful and beneficial and retained more information being in a setting like that. The chapter also discusses modeling through instruction of asking questions before, during, and after reading to improve metacognition and comprehension. I believe this is one very beneficial way for students to stay connect to what they are reading and learning and retain information. Teaching them comprehension skills such as that can make all the difference. Other strategies that the chapter mentions are reciprocal teaching, think-pair-share, learning stations, jigsaw, and DR-TA. Over the course of intermediate block, we learned quite a bit about these strategies and how they are used in developing student comprehension and metacognition, helping them recognize how they learn best. One major thing that I enjoyed about this chapter was the reflective teaching. I believe it is so important for teachers to self-question and self-assess to improve their own teaching. This will not only benefit me as a teacher, but will also benefit my students.


I also really enjoyed reading Chapter 8 about writing and writing to learn. I have never been a big writer, nor has it ever been my strong point so this chapter really caught my attention. The part that stuck out to me the most was reading about the different strategies to use to incorporate reading into the classroom. I have briefly heard of the LEA before, but I found it very interesting. This strategy is a good way to involve all students and create something as a class, and display their own thoughts and creations. The writing models strategy hit home for me a little bit. Since I am not a strong writer, the majority of the time I have to have some sort of model or guide to help me along the way. Without a model, I tend to get overwhelmed and not perform my best. I believe students sometimes experience the same feeling, so providing them with a model can help ease the pressure a little bit. Also, I am a huge fan of using writing prompts in the classroom. I was given a writing prompt almost everyday in my high school literature class, and that really helped me to become more comfortable with writing and increase my confidence by repetition. I really liked how this chapter broke down writing to learn in each subject area. It really provided me with lots of resources and ideas that I will implement in my classroom. A few questions that did arise as I read chapters 1 and 8 are how is it possible to motivate and ease the fear of students who are not comfortable with writing (such as myself.)? Also, is it possible to have too much writing in the classroom? Sometimes it can be overwhelming for students so I'm curious about how to maintain a good balance.

Blog #3-Content Area Literacy in Elementary Classrooms

After reading this article by Barbara Moss, I was very intrigued by what I read. I was not aware of how little exposure students receive of expository texts. I found it very interesting that technology was such a huge factor in the change to include content area literacy at the younger grade level. Up until recent times, technology really has not played a huge factor in classrooms, but in this day and age, pretty much everything revolves around technology somehow. When I completed the article, I realized that I was extremely lucky because I have been exposed to expository texts for as long as I can remember. Since I was a little girl, my mom has been sharing expository texts with me, and they were also incorporated into my classrooms at school. Reading this article made me think back to my 1st grade teachers classroom. I remember her having a huge library in the back of the room. This library had two sections: one for narrative and story books and one for expository books. My teacher would always make sure to have numerous expository books relating to the topic we were studying as well as topics we had already learned about.


I believe it is very important to expose students to expository texts early on in their schooling careers. The article identifies three main reasons that content area literacy should be implemented in elementary grades and this really stuck out to me. The first reason is early exposure. It talks about laying the foundation for understanding and I completely agree. It is critical for students to receive a sturdy foundation early on that they can build upon and encourage their learning to grow. Another reason was that informational books motivate students. This I made a personal connection with. In 2nd grade, we were required to participate in the reading fair at school. At my school, reading fair projects were normally done using fictional story books. However, my teacher made my class choose an expository book to do our project on. I remember choosing a book on the Titanic. After reading the book and doing my project, I became motivated to read and learn everything I could about the Titanic, ships, that era of time, the people that were on the ship, and so much more. After that project, I was motivated to continue reading expository texts and learning information as I read. The last reason the article states is that informational texts increase new knowledge domains. I found it interesting and it caught my attention when it said deep knowledge of a particular topic requires long-term study or interaction with the topic. If this is true, in order for students to grow in their success through middle school and high school, they should be exposed to the information or related information at a young age.


This article has opened my eyes a lot more to the effect that expository texts have on students and their learning. I feel very fortunate that my parents and teachers exposed me to expository texts beginning at a young age and incorporated that into my schooling. One question or concern maybe that comes to my mind regarding the article is as the teacher, how do you know what level of expository texts to introduce to the children and when exactly to do it? Also, sometimes it can be challenging to get students motivated to read expository texts if the topic is not interesting to them. So, what strategies can be used to motivate all students while incorporating the expository texts. I learned a lot from this article and I am excited to learn more and eventually incorporate these expository texts into my own classroom.

Blog #2

Peer Blogs- I really enjoyed reading through my classmates blogs and learning a little bit more about them and their lives. One blog that specifically stuck out to me was Courtney Hollins. Like her, I prayed for God to send me into the right field of work and He led me to education. She also mentioned that she is excited to teach Science and Social Studies which are my two favorite subjects. Courtney and I share the somewhat fear of teaching math. Like her, it is not really "my thing" but I know we can both conquer it! Another blog that I related to was Jordan Zila. I have known Jordan for quite a while through school, but enjoyed learning that she would like to teach 3rd grade. Like she mentioned, third grade is a time of transition for students and that provides interesting times in the classroom. When I worked at my elementary school, I always made a connection with the 3rd graders and agree with her completely on that. We also share the feeling of being slightly scared to write a research paper in this class.

Writing to Learn- I found this article very interesting and informational. One thing that stood out to me was the difference between writing to learn and learning to write. The article says that students learn to write when surrounded by models, demonstrations, and examples from the teacher. I personally relate to this because I am such a visual learner and I also learn by doing. For me to be most successful at learning, I need examples and models that I can follow, both correct and incorrect. Rubrics, checklists, and other similar sets of guidelines are also very important in this process. It is critical that students know exactly what is expected of them and that is communicated thoroughly by the teacher. I am a "list" type of person and learner. I like to know exactly what is expected of me and I can somewhat "check things off my list" when completing an assignment, and then receive teacher feedback accordingly, so I believe that is important. The information I read about teacher feedback, rubrics, and checklists, was very beneficial to me as I learn to become a teacher. I had a teacher in the 6th grade who would constantly make us write long papers and essays. However, when it came time for her to grade them, there was no method to her grading, so we as students never knew quite what to expect or how exactly she was going to grade that time around. With the use of rubrics and checklists, this situation can be avoided in my own classroom. A few questions that come to mind after reading that article, are which strategies are best to use in what situations? Also, are certain strategies better used in certain content areas? I believe incorporating writing to learn strategies in my own classroom will be beneficial for my students as well as me.