Interesting Thoughts

For this blog post I went and read my classmates blog posts. I picked out a couple of quotes from a couple of blogs that I found interesting and important to talk about.

“In one of my classes now our teacher has us read electronic copies of her own personal text, which she has marked up herself. I actually find this to be extremely helpful to me, because the text in that class is very challenging for me and it sometimes can just be overwhelming.” http://teachtothink.tumblr.com

I loved this idea of giving students texts that you marked up yourself! I think that would be very helpful for students especially if they are struggling when reading. I know form personal experience that marking up a text isn’t easy. Like I had talked about in my last blog, I always found myself highlighting a whole page and not what is actually important. This idea of giving the students texts that are already marked up is very smart and a good way to teach students how to properly mark a text. They can read the thoughts that go through your head as you read a text and see what information that you point out as important. I thought this was a great idea and it is definitely something that I am going to use in my classroom.

“Whole-group thinking is a good strategy to use when the whole class is doing the same activity like reading the same book.” http://newteacherbeginnings.wordpress.com

I have always loved whole-group thinking and class discussion. I found this very helpful because it helps to hear what other students took away from a text. Discussing with the class will clear up any questions or misunderstanding that you had on the text. It is very important to hear other peoples opinions and be able to form your own opinion. Whole-group thinking also allows you to ask the class questions that you had written down while reading. Some students may understand a text better or think about it differently. It is always interesting to hear other peoples thought processes.

“As a teacher it will be an open classroom. Open to all thoughts. While yes we can disagree (& we should, or else I would think something is wrong) there will be no disrespecting. We all know how it feels to be disrespected and who likes that. Not me for sure.” http://teachingoncanvas.tumblr.com

I found this quote to be very important! All classrooms need to be open classrooms that allow people to express their opinions. Sometimes not everyone is going to agree, but that is what makes a good discussion. Hearing both points of views is very important and helpful when trying to understand a text. Everyone’s opinions need to be treated with respect. If students are disrespectful in the classroom then that will cause other students to not speak up because they will be scared of getting shut down by other students. Respect is a classroom rule that needs to be made clear in the beginning of the school year.

“When we read a text, the goal is to take something away, form opinions, and ask further questions not answered in the text.” http://peachyteachy123.tumblr.com

Reading a text is very difficult, but students need to understand what goals you are trying to accomplish before reading a text. I think that as a teacher it is important to explain these goals to your students before reading a text. Show them examples that will help them understand what it is that they are looking for in a text. Every student needs to have questions, summaries, and opinions after reading a text. This will help them to better understand the text and lead good discussions in class.