California State Universities Expository Reading and Writing

The “California State Universities Expository Reading and Writing Course Assignment Template” was a great source of strategies, assessments, and explanations on how to teach reading and writing to students. The first half suggested many different questions to be asking students for them to fully comprehend and engage in their reading and writing. There is little that could be added to further enhance how students could be learning. The second half of the template, the appendix, contained the many different examples of assignments to use in the class.

                 Formative assessment is a major part of a lesson plan, a teacher is always supposed to include one in their lesson every day. Appendix B lists numerous formative assessment options, one I found interesting was the one-sentence summery which is explained as “answer the following questions on a particular topic: Who? What? When? Where? Why? They then condense their response into a single sentence” (38).This strategy is a quick way for students to show they understand a topic, and a quick way for the rest of the class to hear and understand the main concept of a topic. Another strategy I liked was student generated test question, this has the students write questions over material they read and studied that they think would be on a test. It is a good way to see what student find important, and also shows if students or correctly focusing on the main points. While it is nit said in the article, it is also a good way to show that sometimes it’s not easy to think of good test questions to ask.

                In my placement classroom I have noticed that most students do not know how to cite sources. Appendix I is a fantastic section that illustrates the ways to avoid plagiarism, such ways are: quoting sources, paraphrasing sources, summarizing sources, framing and responding to quotations, documenting sources, and MLA format. The more strategies the students know, the easier they can avoid plagiarizing. 

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts

I enjoyed reading the handout about the challenges of using common core. For years now the U.S has been going through a standardizing process from “no child left behind,” which as the article talked about, left teachers simply teaching towards the test. Students were/are not getting the full depth of knowledge and critical thinking that is possible. I myself am not very fond of standards as they can be restricting. The article mentions how each class, school, and state are different, which is beyond true. Having standards that seem to pander to a certain kind of student type or learning type will only leave all the students who do not fall under that particular category of student to fall behind. My placement school I am placed at is populated by low income children and has a high diversity rate. My placement school and the high school I attended are different in that way, and I can see that the kids in my placement school do not learn the same as I did. They need more movement, and assignments that interesting and worthwhile to them.

                The article discussed how students will react much more positively to an assignment if they are interested in it. Common sense dictates the accuracy in that statement, and it is all the while true. If students can pick a topic, or have topics chosen for them that relate to them directly, then the students will try harder, and more likely participate in the assignment. Common core is nice in the fact that it does not have super specific learning content to meet, but more specific as to how to teach/what a student should get out of learning whatever content is chosen. Common core is not perfect, and I still find it a little restrictive at times, but it is a big step in the right direction, and a good balance of creativity and standardization. 

Brookfield's “Discussion as a Way of Teaching”

Brookfield had many interesting and useful ideas on how to have a proper discussion in class. Something I found interesting was that in “circle of voices,” it is said that while going around in a small group and participating by random may seem more relaxed than a fixed order, the opposite is true. Instead of students having to worry about when they will talk, the student will already know when they will say something, so they can concentrate more on what they will eventually say when it is their time to speak or they can listen to their peers more intently.

“Hatful of quotes is a nice idea to get students engaged in a particular quote, and for students to think of original things about a quote, but I think having more than two students having to say something original about a quote is a little much, they will more than likely simply repeat what was already said, so I think a nice variety of quotes is essential for this activity.

One of my favorite activities by Brookfield is “Rotating Stations.” My master-teacher at my placement school always talks about how important it is for there to be movement in the classroom, a chance for students to physically move their body. Students are then more engaged. “Rotating Stations” lets students move around, as well as still let students work in small groups. On top of that, students are still able to interact with the whole class and see outside ideas other than their own, and I love that about this activity.

Apart from specific activities, something I struggle with when I teach a class is keeping the discussion going. It never seems to last long. Brookfield offered numerous questions to ask students so that discussion is not short, and that will come in handy in the future.