Joy Cooper's Blog

Shared Readings: Modeling

joyride1022 — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:09:43 +0000

Modeling for your students is key in whatever you do, not just reading. If you want your students to understand why and how to do things, you must show them and not just tell them. By modeling you help them understand visually and mentally what you want them to do. This article focuses on four major parts where modeling is key: comprehension, vocabulary, text structures, and text features. These four can easily be completed and explained to students by simply modeling. For instance when a teacher is reading to his/her class out loud, he/she should not speed read, or skim the passage, but read at a normal rate, just like you would normally, because not only do you read that way, but your students do to. Teachers do not have to stop and ask questions the whole time they are reading. When students read, they don’t do that..they just read! So model that to them, show them that you can read text without having to constantly stop. My favorite thing that was pointed out in the article is the use of echo and choral reading. This concept was driven into my brain all last semester in my reading class, and it has stuck with me since. Using these two, no single student is pointed out, the class reads as a group, therefore if you have struggling readers, they don’t feel left out or embarrassed because they do not know a word. It allows everyone to participate and enjoy reading time, which as teachers that is one of our main goals. Model to students that by looking at the title of a book, captions or illustrations, can help them better understand the text they are about to read. Let your students read the back cover of books so they can have some knowledge and understanding of what they are about to read. Modeling is a great way to make teaching easier for you and learning easier for your students.

Double Entry Diary-Jack Carpenter

joyride1022 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:14:24 +0000

It was very clever the way the DED is set up. It allows the reader to record important information about Jack Carpenter, but in a fun way. It allows the reader to consider similes, and piratical terms,what life was like on a ship and so on. With the DED it also encourages the reader to pull quotes from the book and then make an inference, reaction, and questions. By doing this, the reader can pull out quotes as a way of supporting what they think or have questions about. Having a DED allows the reader to make connections in and outside of the book, it integrates language arts and social studies in a cohesive way.

Integrating Instructional-Level Social Studies Trade Books

joyride1022 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:19:33 +0000

This article points out a common mistake that many teachers have. So many teachers have grade level books in their classroom, they do not have books on a lower reading level. Often teachers have books that are a higher reading level but why do the struggling readers get overlooked sometimes? Not every child will be a brilliant reader, and those children need to be encouraged to read. If a teacher has various books, ranging in different grade levels, then he or she will be able to accommodate those students who struggle with reading. Many times teachers assume that because a student has made it to fifth grade, sixth grade , and so on, that they have the essential skills needed to be a successful reader. That is not the case! Teachers need to have picture books, small chapter books, magazines..and the list could continue. Having more than just chapter books in the classroom, allows those struggling readers to build self-confidence ; knowing that they can read a book, magazine, or article and understand what it is saying.

My teacher Ms. Beckley does a great job is providing various types of reading material. I am constantly looking around the classroom and noticing what each child is reading. Some are reading Harry Potter, or Judy Blume, or maybe looking at a picture book. When they have extra time to read, they get to pick what they want to read, which is GREAT!! All my third graders are loving and enjoying what they are reading because it is on their reading level, and not just on the grade level.

I will have a variety of books and other reading materials in my classroom and I will allow my students to read what interests them, and not condense their reading to a third grade book only.

Internet Workshops

joyride1022 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:33:14 +0000

I read the article after I completed the internet workshop, and as I was looking at the websites and writing down my information, I realized that the workshop did not seem like “work”. It was fun and engaging looking at various websites and searching for my information. Each website was different, which made the search even more interesting. Then as I read the article, it hit home that teachers are able to provide their students with an internet workshop like this not just for pirates but for anything. Students will enjoy researching and looking at different websites. Allowing them to use computers, and blogs allows them to see that we know and understand that the majority of their world is based around technology. The article gives valuable information on how to start you internet workshop and what the teacher needs to be aware of. In addition, it serves as an easy tool that can be used and perhaps modified to suit other subject areas.

Though searching and navigating through the websites may be tedious for the teacher, in the end it will give them a new way to introduce a topic, and to assess the students at the end of the unit, he or she can easily look and evaluate what their students have posted on their blog, instead of grading 20 papers. I enjoyed navigating through the sites and look forward to learning more about pirates and how to incorporate them into my classroom!

Pirate Articles

joyride1022 — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:23:27 +0000

Pirates in Historical Fiction

Who thought that pirates could be used across the curriculum and allow students to explore pirates in social studies and language arts. The way the teacher introduced this unit was brilliant! What a creative and unique way to introduce students to a new unit by having pictures, maps, books, and other material. This introduction sparks the curiosity and engages them! I would love to use this “pirate concept” in my future classroom. The article also discusses how the teacher can use a various technologies throughout the unit: DVDs, Websites, and so on, which is a great way to keep kids engaged and invites them to explore different types of media. In this article I enjoyed the sample questions the teacher can ask through this unit. These simple yet critical questions cause students to think on a deeper level with enhances their cognitive skill.

Pullout Article:

The idea of using DED is a great method to use while discussing the pirate unit. According to the article using DED “helps students locate important information in a text”, which will help students later on when they start to take the EOG’s. Locating information effectively will save students time as they complete the EOGs. I enjoyed the fact that the article gives examples of these activities so that in the future if we do want to use a pirate unit, we have these examples right in front of us. The resource page allows the teacher to provide more material for his/her students to read and explore. I look forward in starting this pirate unit!!

Love That Dog:Teaching Poetry

joyride1022 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:31:28 +0000

Poetry often has the reputation for being boring, hard to understand, and to find out the meaning of the poem, one has to think long and hard an analyze the poem. In today’s world, poetry has changed drastically. Poetry does not always have to rhyme, or talk about undying love, poetry can simply be a pair of running shoes, a baby doll you sleep, or something as simple as a safety pin. Reading poetry (such as Love that Dog and Brown Angels) allows children to see that poetry can be about anything, anything that inspires you to write. Poetry can contain simple words, and still hold just as much meaning as one using long and hard to pronounce words.

Reading Love that Dog and All the Small Poems has given me excitement, because I know now that I can introduce poetry in a new light, and hopefully engage my students in writing poetry. Sometimes I feel that poetry has become a lost art, andmost people do not enjoy hearing or reading this wonderful language that comes from a writer just placing his or her thoughts on a piece of paper. Students posses that same type of talent and skill, each student is capable of writing his or her own poetry.

Brown Angels

joyride1022 — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:18:05 +0000

Reading Love that Dog, then Brown Angels, allowed me to see the connection between the two. Jack in Love that Dog, loved to hear and write Walter Dean Myers’ poems, and now I can see why. His poems are simple, they contain no long verse, or difficult words, but each poem correlates with the pictures on the page. The pictures in this book are extraordinary. You can see first hand how difficult the times where, yet each child is delighted to have his or her picture taken. The verse “Pretty Little Black Girl” was one of my favorites. What caught my attention the most is that Myers did not just use the word “black” to describe the girls, but brown, tan, and coffee. Each color portrays the various skin tones of the young girls. It is strange to me how just a change of words (tan and coffee) and create such a visualization for the reader. Myers’ usage of words tend to have a ring to them. I noticed as I read, some of the poems could be read in a melodic way, almost sounding like a short song.

At the beginning of the book, Myers’s makes a profound statement that has trapped in my head ever since I read this book, “Why do I love children? I think it is because the child in each of us is our most precious part. Children remind us of a time of innocence, a time of giving, and unfettered love of life”. That statement is absolutely true. Children posses such innocence and joy, and as teachers it is our job to allow them to share that joy not just with us, but with others. We as teachers can have such an impact on students, and we need to constantly remind ourselves that we are there to love them, and help them grow in knowledge and still keep that playful innocence.

Love That Dog

joyride1022 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:21:42 +0000

I absolutely loved reading this book, it allowed me to see writing from a young child’s perspective. I thought it was clever how the words used in the book sounded just like an elementary student. The conversation between Jack and his teacher is priceless! It is important to have Jack write and sound like he is a young adolescent, because it allows the reader to feel more connected to the character. Sharon Creech has truly created an inspiring book. I think more books should be written in this form. Not only does it appeal to students but to the teacher as well. Love That Dog is a book that I would love to read to my future students. It is a great tool to use when considering how to get students writing actively in their journals. Teachers should realize that not all students love to write, but once you get them started and encourage them to write about their interests, they have the potential to create their own poems.

Though the book was a good read, it also was depressing. I have a sensitive place in my heart for animals( as I am sure most people do) and it triggered some unpleasant memories of one of my favorite dogs being hit by a car as well. It was a such a tragic moment for me because animals have a tendency to creep into our hearts and create a special place without you even knowing how deeply you love that animal. It is essential for teacher’s to respect the feelings of students, and encourage them to share their feelings, but not all of them. Everyone is entitled to have their own secrets, fears, and memories ,and whether they want to share those feelings, should be based on the student, not the teacher. Love that Dog is a great example of how allowing a student to express their feelings can cause him or her to blossom into a wonderful writer.

What’s in a name?

joyride1022 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:25:49 +0000

As I was looking at the websites and taking notes on my name I found the following: 139,820 people have the name Joy, and 99.9% of people who have this name are female. Further more the name Joy is typically used when parents are overjoyed at their newborn and want to wish her a happy life.

As for my last name I found that there are a couple celebrities that have the same last name as me. For example: Alice Cooper, who is a famous musician, Bradley Cooper who is a famous actor and is so hot that just looking at him makes you sweat!

What I have learned about my name…

My first name Jennfier came from my birth mother who loved the name Jenny, so my adopted parents decided that my first name would be Jennifer in honor of her.

Joy came from my great grandmother, who was one of the most influential and important people in my Dad’s life. Secondly when my parents where driving to the hospital to take me home with them, they heard a song called” Joy Comes in the Morning”, and my Dad always says that from that point on he knew I was a baby girl.

NickNames:

Cuppycake: My Dad saw this video on youtube of a little child singing a song called “cuppycake” and ever since then he has called me his “cuppycake” because he said I am as sweet as a cupcake (In case you may not have caught on by know, I am a HUGE DADDY’S GIRL ).

Joybelle: I am not sure how I got this name but I have heard it all my life. Most of the time my parents do not call me “Joy” but call me Joybelle (or my other nickname I mentioned). I love both of my nicknames because they have come from my parents, and to me that is what makes them so special, and each nickname has a deep connection between my parents and I. I believe it is important to know how and why you were given your name, it gives you more connection between your parents, culture, or heritage.

All the small poems and 14 more

joyride1022 — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:08:48 +0000

They all say you can’t judge a book by its cover, well with this book you can. As the book says, they are short, but they are sweet. The author chooses such simple concepts to write about, yet each poem can be easily related to everyday life. Simple subjects such as a chair or a dog are turned into something intriguing and beautiful. My two favorites are: “Porches” and “Jewels”. These two poems to me just stand out for some reason, maybe it’s because the words the author uses just seem to capture you and allow your mind to drift to your own porch, and sit quietly and take in all the simple things. “Jewels” is a great poem because it is so descriptive. It goes into detail about how they look, and they are compared to everyday objects. I believe the author did a fantastic job in giving the reader a strong image about these beautiful and rare jewels. Poetry does not have to rhyme, or use big words, or be lengthy. Poetry can be simple, and in my opinion I thoroughly enjoy reading this type of poetry and would love to read it to my future students!