Education 3700 Reflection

 LITERACY lOGIC from the HEART

1. All students can be successful.

2. The more literate a student is, the more successful the student will be.

3. Our greatest impact in our students lives can be measured by the relationships we build with students and how successful they remember feeling in our classrooms.

4. Therefore, building literacy that builds success should be our primary concern.

My job, as I see it at the alternative school is to be "irrationally crazy" about my students. (Uriel Von Effenbrenner) and help them along their path by providing a literacy rich experience.

READING THE WORLD
 Interpreting the world, understanding intentions, negotiating the complexities of the demands of the 21st century learner is my passion. I build courses with those literacies in mind. Last year we had a CTS boot camp at the beginning of the year. We did CTS courses such as Workplace Practises and Safety, Maturity and Development, Digital Citizenship, Financial Management, first Aid, Safety and Sanitation in the Kitchen and Personal Training and Development. All of these courses build literacy. The handout we received yesterday allowed me to categorize the literacy strands more cohesively.

Many of our students are ESL and reluctant readers. They score more than 3 grade levels below expectations. We have to imbed "learning how to read" in courses. I have always considered this my weakness as a teacher. I was a voracious reader and never had any difficulties with reading or negotiating literacy. I have learned by reflecting and taking this course that reading has to be practised. Whatever strategies we can imbed in our lessons will build literacy skills in our students. Practices such as think-pair-share, graphic organizers, assist ice technology, literacy rich environments, students' interests, guiding questions, choice in reading, modelling reading and discussions and activities that promote reading comprehension. I can enrich my school's environment by sharing my love and passion for reading more overtly. Literacy needs to act like a contagious virus that I intentionally spread.

Writing can be a daunting task for students who have been raised with screens. The students in my school, at-risk are far more used to being passive watchers than active participants. Writing is intimidating and exposes vulnerabilities. I give recipes for writing which are a step-by-step approach. T-3, SEXEXS in every paragraph, conclusion. (Thesis with 3 arguments, statement from thesis, explain, example and sum up in every paragraph, conclusion). This year, I want to create a student driven writing community and self-publish their work. I believe this will build success. I have done Napi Legend art projects that students researched Napi stories, wrote them, portrayed them on murals and presented them (they are on display at the Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump). Cross-curricular, success building projects such as these build writing competencies and literacy. I will plan one of these this year as well, depending on student interest and needs. Writing literacy is intentional and success-building!

I have been working in the curriculum for quite awhile, however, I am excited about the treasures I have been directed to find on the Alberta Education web site. The implementation guide is a treasure trove of activities and ideas. I have also added to my toolkit a plethora of activities. The performance poet, Shane koyzcam is a new favorite. The Canadian Literarure presented and displayed added to my resource base! I am going to create a dross curricular unit of study for social studies and English that is literature based. History is a masterful teacher of curriculum.

The "take away" I have from this course is the one page guide! I will share this with my staff. The 1/3personal, 1/3 others/ 1/3 world is a great way to divide planning! The intentional literacy skills are going to be a focus for my teaching and assessing. Being a great citizen, GLO 5,has not been intentional as it is difficult in module, individualized learning. Now, I have skills to make this more evident. Being literate for my students is actually the goal of the school "get 'er done and graduate". We help them get 'er done. I have always wanted to become "that" teacher that is counted as one of the helpful ones, not the ones that horror stories are passed from generation to generation! But hey, that's literacy too! The oral tradition lives!

Literacy is a language that we can all learn and teach! I speak French and I love second languages. I believe using literacy language and vocabulary in our daily practice will make literacy an imbedded practice that enriches our school community.

Best literacy strategies July 27

Resources to build literacy: novels, photos, letters, video lip
Evaluation or assessment : photo essay, research, paragraph, reading test
RAFT: use a compelling format-texting, soundtrack, tour brochures, claymation, author interview, advertising, write a play
English student learning assessment: literacy awareness and literacy knowledge and understanding
Learner awareness and task awareness
Rules of learners, information, construct meaning and communicate meaning
Different types of learners, different types of literacies!
Kindness and fairness
Make a difference by putting students first!
Read with to about from students....
Help students become great people 😇

Teaching literacy in content areas July 23

Social studies: guest speakers, novel, poetry, kwl, 6 strands basis critical thing using performance tasks
Math and science: charts, maps, numerical literacy, guest speaker, field trips, word wall, vocabulary, proof and justify, games and activities, fish bowl discussion, debate

Drama and fine arts: using your voice as an instrument, using images and color, describing tableaux, creating a play and a voice, acting and representing, readers theatre, art history, aesthetic expression

PE: goal setting using books and films. Rules of games, health has 6 strands and can include literacy and guest speakers. Pattern of movement, and alphabet

3Texts to Save the World rubric

Researched pertinent information
Why this book-intro rationale and overview
Worthwhile activities-outcomes and student engagement
Assessment-formative and summative
Evidence of teacher thinking: 6 strands,glo and unit outcomes with cross curricular

Meaningful texts Andrea: The Heart in the Bottle

A children's book about a girl's curiosity and pushing her emotions aside! A very complicated theme presented in a very innocent way. Metaphors enrich and deepened the meaning. A book about loss and grief.

Planning for units July 22

July 22
Unit Design
Organization
User friendly
Overview page
Cross curricular
Formative and summative tasks
Differentiated instruction
Designed for teachers but aimed at kids
Calendar of activities
Flow of synchronous activities
And asynchronous
Table of contents
For/as/of
Parent letter: what and why
Big picture and specifics
Extension and enrichment for differentiation
Glo and strands

Real writing: July 21

Format:
Audience:
Message:
All wrapped up in a context
Developing the self
Esthetic writing
Informational writing

Forms of writing
Expressive for the self
Transactional to exchange
Persuasive
Narrative to tell a story
Skills
Handwriting
Punctuation
Capitalization
Spelling and grammar
 Pre writing---writing---respond-- revising---editing---publishing: teach it
Curriculum of writing: intentions ---display-- activities-- evaluation : IDEA
1/3 personal
1/3 literary
1/3 expository -informational
Read your work out loud...you can hear the errors
Teach personal writing to teach knowledge of the self: topical and real-- reflections
Teach literary writing: poetry biography narrative drama --educate  and build imagination
Teach expository writing: description reports explanation persuasion argument process and procedure
Teachers role
Motivation
Discipline
Deadlines
Build community
Context
Energy
Relationship with students
Attitude toward writing
How do you enable them? Collaborate journalism literary to learn contextualized grammar sentence
Am I reading? Am I editing? Ask students which role they want you to be!
4 needs: good substance in context, skills, structure, style
Evaluating student writing: self, peer, rubrics, portfolios, class anthology, contests, class literature, exam writing diploma
INVOLVE your STUDENTS
Writing assessments in 6 lessons
Multiple performances:write write write
There is no proxy! Be a writer yourself!
Construct being measured is clearly defined! What are you looking for?
Consistency through dialogue
Real audiences matter
Attend to consequences: what do you want from this writing
What do you need to know to complete the task
Skills that are necessary
Audience
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Know something
How language works
Format and audience
Meta cognition
How does this process meet the curriculum outcomes
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Guide to implementation
Appendix a templates
Appendix b; assessment! cHECK THIS OUT!