Ashley Hebert's Blog

Dr. Groce here they are!

ashleyhebert — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 21:15:22 +0000

I Poems

ashleyhebert — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:49:58 +0000

I think I poems are an excellant way to facilitate student learning. It challenges the child to not only research and dig up facts aboiut their subject but to put themselves in the shoes of their subject as well. They need to know their subject well enough to be able to think like them and know what they would desire or dream of. I would say that if the student has discovered all those things and he has written an I poem putting all of that information in one place, that he really understands and has learned a lot about his subject. Also this is something that would be exciting for students and keep them engaged. As I can tell from the student examples in the power point, they really took this seriously and did an excellant job.

Seals!

ashleyhebert — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:20:29 +0000

4^th grade Science Objective 1.03:

Observe and discuss how behaviors and body structures help animals survive in a particular habitat.

What physical characteristics do seals have that help them survive in their environment?

What is a seals diet?

Who hunts seals?

Where do they live?

Reciprical Teaching and Discussion Director

ashleyhebert — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:47:50 +0000

Reciprocal teaching takes place in individual, group or whole class settings in the form of communication between student(s) and teacher using four basic strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. The purpose of this style of teaching is to strengthen the students ability to comprehend and ask questions as they read. The job of a discussion director is to create challenging, thought provoking questions about the selected reading. This is usually done with a small group of students. Both strategies encourage critical thinking and require students to not only ask questions in a class setting but as they read as well. These strategies help the students to better comprehend what they read as they read it and give them the skills to have meaningful discussions in class. The difference between the to is that in reciprocal reading each student has a specific job; summarizer, predictor, questioner, clarifier. In discussion director the teacher guides the discussion and models how to ask good questions and have discussions.

Integrating instructional-level social studies trade books for struggling readers in upper elementary grades.

ashleyhebert — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 21:45:38 +0000

This article pointed out many important issues. Teachers need to know that their students’ will not all be on the same reading levels and if you push them too far past that level it is going to result in the student hating the subject. Teachers need to be fully aware of their students’ abilities and make sure the reading is appropriate for each student. I think teachers are afraid of the students throwing out that one phrase every teacher hates to hear “That’s not Fair!” Teachers are afraid that if they assign different books then some students might complain. But my question is this, is it fair to assign the same book to every student and then have some students falling behind and being so frustrated they start to hate reading. I think this is why the reading assessments that we will be conducting this semester are so important. We will be able to help the teachers at Hardin Park understand the needs of their students and hopefully prevent cases like Jon’s from happening there.

I also think it is equally important to keep that in mind for our multitext assignment and make sure that we have texts and other resources that cater to a variety of reading levels so it can benefit and engage every student.

Pirate Articles

ashleyhebert — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 02:32:18 +0000

I really enjoyed reading about this amazing piratical adventure. You could definitely tell that so much time and effort was put into to making this unit as beneficial and fun as possible for the students. I loved the thought of having all the pirate artifacts and books spread out across the room for the students to explore and ignite their curiosity. This was such an easy way to get them interested and asking questions and also to allow them to access their prior knowledge to be better able to fill in their KWL charts later. The other activity that really caught my eye was the DED’s. I think I liked it so much because it really allowed you to see the students thinking process as he/she completed an entry. (Honestly, this lesson sounds like so much fun I want to do it myself!) Then to allow the students to independently research and learn more about a pirate they were interested in was fantastic. I am a big fan of putting the learning into the child’s hands and this unit really allows the students to take charge of their own instruction.

Poetry

ashleyhebert — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:48:46 +0000

Here is one of the poems I wrote in my writing notebook:

Yellow as the sun in the sky.

Brown as the dirt beneath my feet.

Like the sound of a child laughing to my ears,

equal is the sight of these most happy flowers to my eyes.

To see them brings a smile to my face,

no matter what time, mood, or place.

Whether I see them in the wild,

or on the store aisle,

Sunflowers can always make me smile.

Mini lesson

ashleyhebert — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:05:24 +0000

Minilesson- choosing a topic

HOT Blogging response

ashleyhebert — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:46:19 +0000

This article really opened my eyes to the great effectiveness of blogs to develop higher order thinking. I am pretty new to the world of blogging and my professor last year did not leave me with the best impression of them, but now I realize it was because he didn’t know how to use them effectively. His questions never allowed me to think critically instead I would just spit out the answers word for word from the articles, which never helped me understand. I really liked how the students’ were able post their own questions for discussion, which not only allows them to think critically about what questions to ask but also puts them in the driver seat for a change. The article also talked about how blogs create an authentic audience for student work which is very true. I know if I was able to share my work with the entire world wide web that would have gotten me excited and motivated to produce my best work.

Notebook Know-How Ch 1-2

ashleyhebert — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:41:03 +0000

What are your overall impressions of the book?

So far i think this book will be very interesting and even helpful to myself not just my future students. I personally am not very comfortable in writing and I hope that this book and this class can make me a better writer.
What is the purpose of a Writer’s Notebook?

Just as Buckner describes on page 6 the purpose of these notebooks is to “provide a place for students to practice writing. It’s a place for them to generate text, find ideas, and practice what they know about spelling and grammar.”
What might be your goals as a teacher of writing?

I think that my goals as a future teacher of writing would be to instill a love of writing in my students instead of the “chore” that they usually see it as. I think that using writers notebooks would be a good way to spark this passion in my students.

Launching the Notebook?

I think the strategy that Buckner used was genius! She waited until they all had a story to tell and then introduced the notebooks too them so they had a story to write without even having the notebook in their hands yet. She introduced the notebook as an outlet for the stories they wanted to share but didn’t quite have the time in class to share. I would probably use this method also because then the students begin this notebook journey with excitement and not impending doom.

Organization of the Notebook?

I too would use a composition book for this project as well because I wouldn’t want any loose leaf paper to fall out and then be missing parts of their stories. As far as organization I think I would leave most of that up to the students because I want the students to feel that the notebook is their own and be comfortable with it.