SED 445 Cheryl's Writing Space

I think Linda Christensen is my new hero!  I can not remember any other text that offered guidance and examples that I could readily use in my classroom tomorrow.  Once again, we read that when students are passionate about the content, the teaching, and subsequently the learning, become a bit easier.  Christensen states, "During these units I probe for their passion, exploring the link between the social context, the text, and the students' lives."  This reminded me of the rhetorical situation, genre, purpose and audience, that we discussed earlier in this class.  Combining these two "triangles" gives an additional way to look at what we teach keeping the interest of our students as the priority.  My take-away to use in my class tomorrow is definitely the character silhouette.  In my literacy class, we are reading aloud The Journey Back  by Priscilla Cummings.  The protagonist, Digger, is a complicated young man having to face many life-chan...

When previewing Ms. Christensen's chapter, I read all of the poems first before reading the actual content.  The poems were beautifully written.  They were unstructured and stirred different emotions.  I must admit that although I enjoy reading poetry, I struggle to write poetry on any level.  I'm a bit envious of my peers who not only enjoy poetry, but also have a wonderful talent for writing it as well.  The poem that I am going to share with the class is one written by my oldest daughter when she was in sixth grade.  I remember her ELA teacher, Mrs. Silva, instilling a love of poetry and encouraged her students to publish their own books.  Poetry is definitely an area that I do not enjoy teaching, it intimidates me.  Thinking back to previous poetry units, especially in the primary grades, I remember using templates where students could simply fill in parts of speech that they would use to describe themselves and then, viola!, a poem!  Thi...

The three readings this week resonated with me in different ways.  Being a student, in addition to teaching a team of students, I look at all opportunities to add to my existing tool box.  Each of the readings enabled me to add to my resources and/or challenge me to reflect on my own practices. Initially, I was excited to learn about infographics and the prospect of creating one for my critical essay.  After better understanding the purpose of an infographic, I decided that it may not be the best medium to use for this assignment.  Turner and Hicks state, "Effective infographics rely on a tightly focused message, they rarely present an alternative perspective, let alone a fully formed counterargument."  As we discussed in class, and especially with Ms. Richer, standards are a part of our teaching.  Educators need to understand the standards and then create lessons that balance high expectations along with scaffolding and differentiation to enable all stud...