DJE # 14

Chapter 7

1. What is the most interesting idea you encountered as you read the chapter?

"People can only see a new specialist language as a gain if: (a) the recognize and understand the sorts of socially situated identities and activities the recruit the specialist language; (b) they value these identities and activities, or at least understand why they are values; and (c) they believe they will have real access to these identities and activities, or at least will have access to meaningful perhaps simulated versions of them." ( Gee, p. 93)

2. What connections can you make between Gee's  critique and Sir Ken Robinson's critique of traditional schooling?

They both believe that traditional learning takes away the context and physical action from learning and that's not the way children should learn. 

3. How did this book change or support your understanding of good teaching?

This book has done nothing but shape my understanding of good teaching. Everything that Gee has written in this book is quotable for teachers to live up to and to shape their classrooms. It's important that teachers know their students and to quote Gee not have your students "check their bodies at the door."

DJE # 13

Chapter 6: Affinity Spaces 1. Give an example of a "community of practice" in which you are currently participating in.

An example would be my 75 hour clinical because I design lessons and my host teacher looks out for things that I need to address or some kind of insight to make the lesson run smoother, etc. By us going back and forth with ideas and feedback my lessons have been working out great! 2.Why is the term "community" better defined in relation to spaces rather than groups of people? It's better because in relation to space because not everyone in a particular group is part of the same community of practice. It doesn't make sense to define it that way.  3. What is a "generator"? What is it's counterpart in school? A generator is something that defines a particular space, in school a generator could  be a textbook, or materials such a manipulatives. 4. What is a "content organizer"? What is it's counterpart in school? A content organizer are generated signs that are designed to organize and communicate content. In school it could be personal or academic values, thoughts, or opinions. 5. What is a "portal"? What is it's counterpart in school?

A portal is a place where people get access to interact with the content of generators. In school, a portal can be small group discussions, classroom discussions, or labs

6. What do people have an "affinity" for in an "affinity space"? How does this inform your understanding of good teaching? Affinity space is where a person oganizes their interests. This revolves well around good teaching because we know that it's important to know your students and to teach surrounding their interests such as what we have read from "Funds of Knowledge" and problem based learning. This is where people make connections. 7. How do "affinity spaces" support inclusive classrooms? Choose two characteristics below to make connections between "affinity spaces" and inclusive classrooms. Community members as partners and teachers as partners are two ways to make connections between affinity spaces and inclusive classrooms because based on a child's interest, it's important to get community members to come into the classroom and show students real life situations and problems with jobs and careers that surround their culture or community. Students can make the connections from what they are familiar with and what they like to what they are learning in the classroom. Teacher as partners is great because I believe that if you have a special needs student in your classroom, then you should have a special Ed teacher in the classroom who is constantly co-teaching with you. A special Ed teacher will always have the best teaching solution for a special needs child because it's what they know best and what they are interested in. Co-teaching in my opinion is the best way to teach.

DJE#12

Chapter 5: Learning and Gaming


1 What is the main argument the author is making in Chapter 5.
Schools should structure learning like the way a person learns a video game.

2. What constitutes a theory of learning?
A setting at which learning takes place.

3. Why did the author struggle to learn to play Warcraft III? What needs to proceed before good learning principles?
Gee stated that he struggled to play Warcraft III because he failed to engage with it in a way that fully recuited its solid design and learning principles.  Gee also said the player must have the motivation for an extended engagement with the game for good learning principles to occur with the player.

4. How would have the authors struggle with learning to play Warcraft III been interpreted in school?
Gee believes that his struggle to learn how to play Warcraft III is just seen as a failure, and doesn't correlate to learning something further.

5 What kind of learning experience might be better suited for at risk students?
Video games is a great learning experience for at risk students and if possible if teachers can find ways to incorporate the content being taught in class into a simulation or video game that might work better. Brain Pop videos and games on smart boards are good examples.


6. Why does the school-based interpretation of "at risk" lead to bad learning?
It leads to bad learning because from what I see in my field expeience, at risk students are just working on simplier assignments and to me that doesn't show success. At risk students should have alternative assignments, not necessarily easier.


7. What do schools need to do to function more like a good game?
I think schools need to focus on making every activity or lesson plan connect to previous one's and provide more hands on activities and meaningful learning where students get the chance to really become a part of the learning experience and have their minds become completely engrossed in the lesson with maximum attention and involvement. If anyone has ever played or watched someone play a video game, that is exactly what happens to the players, and thats how you want your students attention to be like.


8. What is different about how good games and school assess learners?
Some students feel completely disconnected from the content being taught in school because they are disinterested do to either boring assignments, routine schedules, or simply not interested in what is being taught. In video games however, children have a task that they must meet, (a challenge), they form an identity with the player in the game, and they typically play games they are interested in. If teachers chould use meaningful learning, cooperative learning such as jigsaw grouping where every student in the group had a specific task in the group that they must master, and relate the topics to their interests, it provides a good learning experience.


9. What are the attributes of a fish-tank tutorial that make it an effective learning tool? How is it different than school-based learning?
The fish-tank tutorial allows students to assess their own learning styles by playing the game.  By doing that, the students will actually learn how they learn best, as opposed to in school, where teacher assesses the students and decide the students learning styles and how they learn best.

10. What is a sand-box tutorial? Why is effective? How is it different that school-based learning?
The sand-box tutorial is where students play the game without it counting, like a practice round for example. The player gets the chance to play and explore the game without it counting for anything. Its effective because the player gets the chance to explore the game without feeling the pressure of getting harmed, losing points, etc. Its different from school-based learning because realistically theire isn't enough hours in the school day or school days per year to allow students to explore every concept first and have enough time to teach every state standard.

11. What is a genre? Why is it important for good learning?
Genre means the type of something is. It is important for good learning because teaching new and different genres helps students require learning skills and knowing the types of things helps make students organize their thoughts and information stored in their long and short term memory.

12. According to the author, what do learning and play having in common?
Learning and play have many things in common. In many cases, player's do not know how to play the entire game before they start playing. A gamer will probably play a couple practice rounds and tutorials to get a feel of how to play the game and then start playing for real. Play as you go, practice makes perfect, etc, are all good phrases that pertain to this. Hands on activities and playing are fun ways to learn.


13. How are the skills test in good games different from skills tests in school?
The author states that the skills test in school are not developmental for the learner and not evaluative.

14. How does RoN support collaborative learning?
RoN supports collaborative learning by letting the players work in groups that consist of people who share their interest in RoN.


15. Match at least one learning principle of good games (on page 74) with each the following learning theorists you have studied in 3352:

Dewey-(22) They allow learners to practice enough so that they routinize their skills and then challenge them with new problems that force them to re-think these taken-for-granted skills and integrate them with new ones. Repeat.

Vygotsky- (5) They let learners themselves assess their previous knowledge and learning styles and make decisions for themselves (with help).

Piaget- (25) They ensure that the learners have and use an affinitiy space wherein they can interact with peers and masters, near and far, around a shared interest (even passion), making use of distributed and dispersed knowledge.

Gardner-(14) They give information via several different modes (e.g in print, orally, visually). They create redundancy.

Bandura-(1) They create motivation for an extended engagement.

Skinner-(15) They give information "just in time" and "on demand."

Fostering High Quality Formative Assessment: A policy Brief by the National Council of Teachers for English.

What is formative assessment? Formative assessment is a way to assess students work and a way for teachers to get feedback for modifications to instruction. What is the CENTRAL purpose of formative assessment? Improving student achievement  is the central purpose for formative assessment. Connect a best practice in formative assessment to one research-based strategy. Providing feedback is one research-based strategy that is great for formative assessment because providing feedback gives students or even teachers the feedback to improve for the future. Give an example of how a specific assessment can be used formatively and summatively. A rubric is a good example because its specific so the students know exactly whats expected and its a great assessment for a final summative presentation, portfolio, project, ect. Give an example from your field placement related to formative assessment and timing. Using a pre and post test to get feedback on what needs need more instruction on and what they already know is an example from my field experience. What are some strategies to help formative assessment be more effective when providing students with feedback? By using a rubric or checklist, students will know exactly what is to be expected. Another strategy is to state concise directions of what is expected and to reinforce what is to be expected. Name two advantages to high quality formative assessment. One advantage for the teacher is that high quality formative assessment allows teachers with the feedback to see what students are struggling, on grade level, above grade level, and what they need to be taught more in depth and what they can move on from. One advantage for students is it gives the students the structure of knowing exactly what to do and what the teacher expects to be done for the assignment.  What are some challenges to implementing high quality formative assessment? TIME, time is a big issue. That is truly the most important thing I have learned in my field experience so far is that time is a huge issue. The teacher is constantly running like a well oiled machine from the time the morning bell rings to the end of the day. Teachers are constantly on a time crunch to get everything he or she needs to cover that day.

DJE #11

1. The author means that learning doesn't work well when children are programmed to sit like robots and just fly through the routine of school.  Emotions and personal experiences needs to be a big part of learning meaning that children must be up and moving while learning and not just sitting at a desk quitely doing worksheets.
2. Students need to experience their work. Teachers need to use real-world vocabulary and experiences to gain a large vocabulary. When you use a larger vocabulary around children, they pick up that vocabulary as well.
3. By experiencing, acting out, or using the vocabulary word, that is what gives a word a specific meaning. It's how the word is used and expressed.
4. a. Off the hook means that she doesn't have to buy a wedding present anymore.
b. Off the hook means that the shoes are awesome, cool, pretty, etc.
c. Off the hook means seeing the cat fight was amazing, unbelievable, something crazy to see.
5. The work of childhood is experience of the world around them. I do agree because as a child it's important that you experience everything and thrive on their imagination and explore what life has to offer.
6. Yes because knowing a large vocabulary increases a students readability. Learning context clues and knowing synonyms and antonyms will lead to better reading skills.
7. According to the author "identity" is used to mean to be recognized, and the term "game" as something we do for fun. Examples of identities of mine are a future teacher I am supposed to be a role model. As a bride, I am supposed to plan a wedding and as a student I am supposed to get good grades.
8.Good learning is when a student can identify with learning.
9. When teaching we need need to connect real world situations to what your teaching in class so that the students get the chance to really grasp the concept and make connects of their own to their own experiences.
10. Peer to peer interactions is very important because building communication skills is important for life. By interacting with their peers they get the chance to experience language and communication situations that occur on an everyday basis.

DJE #10

Chapter 3: Language and Identity At Home 1. What are the features of the forms of language that are spoken in a home environment that align with academic varieties of language? Figurative language, story telling, sympathetic fallacy, repetition, and parallelism all of these applying to Jennie's case. 2. What are the features of Leona's specialized form of language? Leona uses repetition and parallelism when telling stories. Leona also organizes her thoughts with comparing and contrasting patterns and sections. She creates patterns in the stanza's of her stories and builds relationships. 3. Why is Leona's specialized form of language not accepted in school? Leona's teacher thought that when Leona was telling a story she was just rambling and nothing was making sense, and she would consistently get shut down and was not aloud to finish her stories. It was not accepted in school because according to Gee, schools want a linear step by step events or facts organized by a central topic. 4. Explain the contradiction between the research conducted by Snow et al. (1998) and the recommendations made by Snow et al. (1998). Gee states that poor readers are usually associate with particular ethnic groups, poor neighborhoods, and rural towns; but he also states that test scores were going up at the same time as integration was increasing. 5. What other factors besides early skills training will make or break good readers? Another factor that will make or break good readers is the need to have a variety of academic language and to below to a certain social group. 6. Why do some children fail to identify with, or find alienating, the "ways with words" taught in school? As Gee states, children cannot feel they belong in school when their valuable home-based practices (like Leona's) are ignored, denigrated, and unused. They cannot feel like they belong when the real game is acquiring academic varieties of language, and they get no help with this, as they watch other children get high assessments at school for what they have learned not at school but at home.

DJE #9

Chapter 1: A strange fact about not learning to read.

1. What is the strange fact about not learning to read? 

Minority and poor children have a harder time learning to read than privileged children.

2. Why is this fact so strange?

Because SES shouldnt affect development of reading.

3. What is it about school that manages to transform children who at good at learning things like Pokeman into children who are not good a learning?

We are taught that children learn better though learningful meaning and we should always incorporate the children's interests into the curriculum, especially for struggling students.

4. What is the differences between a traditionalists approach to learning to read and more progressive educators?

Traditionalist approach to learning read is based on an instructed process and progressive educators believe that learning to read is a natural progression that grows with the child.

 

5. Is learning to read a natural process like learning to speak a language?

Yes and No. Learning a new language takes time with practice just like learning to read but if your talking about your native language, than thats just genetics and is natural.

6. What is the differences between natural, instructed and cultural processes and which process should reading be classified under?

Natural processes is biological, instructed processes that is specifically taught, and cultural processes Is learned through culture and how our culture affects what we do.

7. How do humans learn best? Through instructional processes or through cultural processes? How is reading taught in school? Humans learn best through a cultural process just like I stated earlier that children learn best though familiar things and their interests. However, reading is taught in school with an instructed process.

8. According to the author, what is the reason for the "fourth grad slump."

 That is the year that children go from learning to read, to reading to learn and it's a huge transition that kids have to face and textbooks can be quite difficult to understand. 

9. What is a better predictor of reading success than phonemic awareness?

How well a student does with language before a student starts school.

10. What is the difference between "vernacular" and "specialist" varieties of language? Give an example of two sentences, one written in the vernacular and one written in a "a specialized variety",  about a topic in your content area.

Vernacular language is how people speak to each other on an everyday basis. Specialist language is an acedemic language that can be shared by collegees. For example: vernacular-you could say that a child just can't read well. Specialized language-Child has trouble reading due to dyslexia.

11. What is "early language ability" and how is it developed?

An early language ability is when students come into school with a rich academic language/vocabulary. It is developed from being surround by family members that use rich academic language around the child for the child to absorb.

12. According to the author why and how does the traditionalist approach to teaching children to read fail?

Because children aren't hearing most of this specialist language at home so they don't feel as comfortable with the language at school and therefore can't retain the information as well. 

13. Are parents of poor children to blame for their children's inexperience with specialized varieties of language before coming to school? Although its sometimes not their fault they are usually to blame in most cases. If the parents are uneducated they most likely will not use a specialized language and their children won't have the experience with specialized language before entering school.  In some cases however, uneducated parents will do everything in their power to help their children succeed in school so they  will have a better life than what they have now.

14. Did you struggle with reading this text? Why? Are you a poor reader or are you unfamiliar with this variety of specialized language? I struggled reading some of this text. I am a poor reader for many reasons. I wasn't read to much as a kid so I blame my lack of liking to read on them for not making reading a priority to me.  But yes if I think about it now, I don't hear much specialized language from my parents. They both graduated from high school but never attended college.