Students who speak English as a second language can be helped through studying English words and words in their native language to build on their English vocabulary.  I think that this is a good method for teaching new vocabulary because students are doing more than just memorizing the meanings of different words.   By establishing an understanding of the different parts of a word when they are broken down, they are much more likely to recall the meaning of the word in the future.

I think that Big Books are really beneficial and fun to use in the classroom.  The students in Kindergarten class where I am interning really like the big books and like to point out events in the story based on the pictures and short sentences as the teacher reads.  I think shared reading is really important because it helps students to comprehend events, vocabulary, and structures in the book they might not otherwise understand.

“A “class” or “grade” is an abstraction; it exists in the teacher’s
mind or nervous system…No one has ever seen a “first-grade class,” or a
“fifth-grade class.” What a teacher should “see” is a group of individuals,
unique unto themselves. Not until differences are “seen” is the teacher
ready to teach, because learning the child must precede teaching
him…Differentiated instruction is a way of evaluating and living with a
group of individuals in a classroom that results in a maximum of
development of each individual in terms of his interests, needs, and
capacities.”

I believe it is really important to remember that we are teaching individual children and not just assigning them work that is not at their instructional level.  I agree that it would be much more affective to provide students with instructional-level books as opposed to books that are “on grade-level”.  As a teacher, I hope to find literature for my students that will work for them as individuals.  I don’t want to them begin their experience with reading with a negative outlook because they are frustrated.  I think it is such a good idea to use the instructional-level social studies trade books because similar content can be taught to the entire class while challenging them on their own individual levels.

I liked the ideas the article explained for introducing the unit.  It would be so creative to play pirate music and devote a section of the school day to introducing the pirate unit by filling the room with “pirate” things.  Students would be so curious about what they are going to learn.  I am looking forward to reading each of the pirate books and learning ways to use them in class.

Love That Dog was one of the most enjoyable reads I have had in awhile.  I was constantly smiling to myself as I read Jack’s words about his thoughts on poetry.  The way Creech referenced so many well-known poems throughout the book was really clever, also.  I liked that she showed Jack’s thinking about each classic poem.  As a future teacher, I couldn’t help but think this could be similar to how so many of my future students might perceive poetry at first.  It was such a quick and fun read.

All the Small Poems was entertaining to read because the descriptions of everyday objects were so accurate.  I think it’s such a good idea to have an entire book of poetry dedicated to things students see on a regular basis.  My favorite poem is “Paperclip”.  I really like how it was compared to “a silver fish”.  After reading All the Small Poems, I was inspired to want to write little poems like those found in the book.  Writing these little poems would be a great way for young students to play with words and have some fun with poetry.

Brown Angels was a beautiful book.  As I read each poem and looked at the pictures, I kept trying to imagine the story behind each of the pictures.  I liked that we got to read this book after reading Love That Dog.  I got more out of knowing that Brown Angels was filled with poems by Walter Dean Myers since he is so significant in Jack’s eyes.  Each picture and poem had a special touch to it; whether it was the expression made by the person in the photo, or Myers’s choice of words that captured the image so well.

Howmanyofme.com says that there are only 2 people in the United States with the name “Caitlin Wetzel”.  I think it’s safe to say that my name isn’t all that common.   There is actually another girl who is an elementary education major that graduated from ASU last spring whose name is Brittany Wetzel.  My sophomore year, I had 2 classes with her and we were always asked if we were related.  I thought this was such a coincidence considering ASU is a fairly small school.

There are so many different ways to spell my name.  I’ve gotten so many different renditions; including, but not limited to:  Caitlyn, Kaitlin, Kaitlyn, Katelin, Katelyn, Catelin, Katelin, Katelynn, and the list goes on.  It’s funny to see how people who aren’t sure of the spelling will write it.

I was not aware that there were so many different types of blogs.  I especially liked the idea of a “showcase” blog.  Having a showcase blog would be a good way for students to show their accomplishments in a way that a large audience could view them.  I like that blogs such as this are open to many other people to view because it is true that often times, teachers are the only ones who view student work.

Overall, I was surprised at how useful blogs can be in the classroom.  This article helped me to feel more confident about setting up a blog since it provided examples and discussed how to implement blogs in the classroom.  I think I am more of a believer in the use of blogs since reading this article.  I think of myself as “technologically challenged” a lot of the time, so new technology can sometimes be intimidating.  The Hot Blogging Article made the use of blogs seem a lot less complicated and a lot more useful than I would have presumed them to be.

This summer I took a creative writing class.  I feel as though I learned a lot about myself as a writer and how I can develop and improve my writing skills.  Overall, I had a good time exploring my writing abilities.  Writer’s notebooks would be a positive thing to bring into the classroom because it would give students the opportunity to “test the water” when it comes to becoming writers.  I liked how Buckner discussed how students should “make the notebooks their own”.  Having a notebook that is personalized and special to them as individuals would help students to be more excited, and less anxious, about writing.

As a teacher of writing, I want students to be confident in their own writing abilities.  It is such a gift to be able to express one’s thoughts in writing.  I really like the idea of having students write everyday.  This practice would be positive to the learning environment simply because students would gain more writing experience.  A common theme I noticed throughout the first two chapters was the idea that reading and writing often were the two keys to becoming a better writer.  I believe that everyone would like to read if they found something they are interested in reading.  The same goes for writing.  When a student finds something he or she would like to write about, it is a much more enjoyable experience.

I think I would have students use a spiral notebook with a pocket folder for their writer’s notebooks.  Throughout r college I have purchased countless 5-star one-subject notebooks with a pocket folder.  These notebooks are a good size and come with room for students to store loose class notes or handouts.  I think I would try these for the first year I used writer’s notebooks in class and see how they held up.  If by the end of the school year they are all torn to pieces I would try Composition notebooks next.  It would be kind of trial and error thing for me, I think.

In my experience working with students, no matter what elementary grade I was placed with, the students always want to share their personal stories.  I have noticed that anything brought up in class can somehow be related to a story a student wants to share.  The author talks about how she always had her students telling stories in class and then introduced the notebook as a way for students to record the stories they had to share.  I think this is a really neat way to look at writing and a great way to present to students at this level.  I think I would want to introduce the writer’s notebooks in my own class in a way similar to what they author describes.