Conley Chapter 11

Writing is important in the educational setting as well as in our everyday lives. Even though a great deal of communication is now conducted through email, blogging, and instant messaging, these processes still require a person to know how to write. Students must be able to write with a certain proficiency to pass standardized tests. Writing is also required in most occupations. For these reasons, students must learn to write effectively.
High schools are now preparing students for the writing tasks required in college and beyond. Teachers need to provide direct instruction and guided practice for the students in the classroom. Strategies such as goal setting, brainstorming, and organizing should also be taught. Practice of these strategies in various situations should follow the instruction. Lastly, productive feedback must be supplied. In fact, guided practice and feedback help students learn how to write on their own. Perhaps writing instruction in our schools should be re-evaluated to fit the needs of society today. This process would have to be ongoing, however, because these needs are constantly changing.
Students also need to learn different approaches to writing. Writing should not be looked at as strictly an assignment that must be completed. Instructors can consider using email, media, critiques, editorial reviews, and instant messaging in the classroom to add interest and relevance for the students. Students need frequent experiences in writing, responding to writing, and talking about their writing. Teachers should not be the only audience for these assignments. Peer evaluations are also a large part of the writing process.
Educators can do many things to help children with writing. The environment of the classroom should be exciting, risk-free, and provide students with opportunities to sometimes choose the topic they write about. Teachers should also model the entire writing process for the students. Parents should be involved as well. They should be informed about the writing program and student progress.
Various strategies are useful in developing proficient writers. Quick-Writes are excellent ways to start or end a lesson. Brainstorming and goal setting will help produce a nice finished product. The Guided Writing Procedure is particularly helpful to English language learners because it relates to what the student knows. Stop and List helps students with learning disabilities plan and organize their writings.
Journals are a great way to help students learn the writing process. Learning logs are a type of journal that records what the student is learning and how the student is learning. Dialogue journals involve at least two people exchanging information through writing. An example of a dialogue journal is our blogging. Such journals are especially helpful for second language learners and struggling readers and writers. A third type of journal is the double-entry journal. They help a student remember information as they are reading and can be a valuable tool for studying at a later time.
Journals require specific guidelines. All entries must be kept private unless the writer grants permission for the information to be shared with others. Teachers must respond to entries honestly and without condemnation. Instead, they should provide encouragement and constructive criticism. Journals should not be overused, as they can become burdensome for the students and teachers. Grades should not always be assigned to the entries. Credit should be given for the completion of entries.
Students need to be taught the components of a story before being asked to write one. Each component—setting, problems, actions, consequences, and emotions—should be explained and modeled with examples. Similarly, the steps or persuasive writing should be explained and modeled. An effective strategy for persuasive writing is called D.A.R.E. and the steps are: Develop a position statement, Add supporting facts or ideas, Report and refute opposite facts and ideas, and End with a strong conclusion.
A strategy that is new to me is called I-Search. Students investigate topics they are interested in or need to find out about. It is very useful for English language learners and helps students learn how to do research before they begin the writing process. The steps include choosing a topic, planning the search, gathering facts and information, and developing the product. Plagiarism must be addressed for this type of strategy to be effective. Students must also be taught how to correctly cite sources to prevent plagiarism.
Reviewing and revising can be the hardest part of the writing process. Peers can be helpful in the process. Teachers should train students how to give appropriate feedback to one another. Students can also use these same skills to evaluate their own writing.

Smart Board/Promethean Board

I have seen both types of boards used in the classroom, but I have never used one personally. The schools around my hometown still do not have this technology. I would like to learn more about the Promethean Board because I like the way web sites can be accessed during a presentation. As a science teacher, this would be a very valuable asset for my classroom.

Conley's Chapter 7

A student's attitude goes a long way in determining motivation. Experiencing success will often increase motivation while being unsuccessful has a tendency to decrease motivation. Some students nay be seen as lazy when the true problem is lack of motivation due to hardships or struggles with the content. The teacher could even be the reason for the lack of motivation. For example, if a teacher prejudges a student based on his/her previous performance, the student may feel unsuccessful and believe there is no reason to try because he/she always gets things wrong. For this reason, educators should apply an equity principle to all students. In other words, teachers should believe every student can be successful regardless of any previous performances.

Prior knowledge is highly linked to motivation. Could this be influenced by the student's confidence level? I believe this to be a part of the reason. When we feel confident in our ideas, we are more likely to become engaged in the topic. This principle applies to every facet of our lives, not just education. We tend to be more interested in the things we know we can do well.

Motivation is influenced by these three things: 1) personal identity 2) content knowledge and 3) past experiences. Teachers are often the key in instigating motivation. He/She should look at each student on a personal level and consider the types of things the student has been exposed to and has prior knowledge about. Find out where the students' interests lie and try to make connections to these interests in the classroom. Connections should also be made to the real world. Students need to see how content is relevant to their own lives. Other important issues for teachers are to make sure there is a balance between competition and cooperation, use engaging activities such as hands on projects and role playing,and acknowledge efforts made by the students. Educators must also create a supporting environment that encourages risk-taking and learning from mistakes.

Students must activate what they know to learn something new. Teachers play a key role in this process. Teachers should model enthusiasm for learning and arouse the students' curiosity. The prior knowledge should be connected to the lesson being presented and must be deeper than simply asking the students what they know about the topic. Teachers must also model strategies and teach the students how to use them as well as how to determine when to use each strategy. Anticipation guides are a good tool to use for teaching students how to brainstorm. Predicting is also very useful for engaging students' interests. The PReP strategy seems to me to be geared more towards older students. CORI is another strategy useful for arousing curiosity, promoting social interaction, and encouraging engagement. It allows the students a sense of freedom to choose various resources such as videos, books, and experiments.