Chapter 4

In this chapter, we learn that it is important to meet the interest of the students. Now we're talking about students of all ages and each have their own preferences. The text gives us a perfect example on page 61 of how to approach the students to find out the type of literature they are interested in. Our professor also encouraged us to pass out a survey to the class to get to know our students and to make the perfect selections of literature. Growth has wide variations; children change at different rates and their development is affected by many social, cultural, and biological factors (Kasten, Kristo and McClure). Not every child read at the same level. We are given helpful tips of selecting the perfect literature on page 63. We have a wide range of books and it is possible that the child would want to read a certain nonfiction book, but it may not be in there reading level. I learned that we need to be careful to select a book that is easy for them to read to help build confidence. It's a good thing that we can give options to the children of what they would like to read. I would like a great response from my class having great interaction and feedback. Another important review was the cultural influences, to find literature based on their unique background. I remember as a child that one of my elementary teachers read this book about how people from Mexico celebrate Christmas. I could relate to the book because i would celebrate the same way when i would travel to Mexico to visit my family. I connected right away. We should connect our readers to the story.

Comprehension is the understanding of what you read. I like how Frank Smith describes what comprehending is in the text book and he quotes," It is the interaction between the visual information a reader perceives and the nonvisual information that the reader connects to". In other words, every letter, word, and other symbolswe read in a book, our ninds paint a picture of how it would be like or look like. Our imagination kicks in. Our role as a teacher id to find good literature that relate to their interests and experience. Not everything students read suit their interests and so it is important to engage our students into reading to expand their minds. One thing i learned on this chapter is about scaffolding. It is a very supportive teaching tool that enables readers to grow and to make the as independent as possible. The importance of making the child read is to enlarge the reader's vocabulary and word knowledge. When scaffolding, we are getting the feed back of the student to see what they got from the reading. By asking questions or opinions about the reading gets the students involved instead of having the whole focus on the teacher. There are different ways of assessing comprehension listed in the chapter and each are great tools to use. There is no such thing as just one way to do it, but we find different creative ways to to examine the students to see how well they are comprehending. We want to get the attention of the students and not bore them to death. Reading should be fun!

Chapter 2

I found chapter 2 to be very informative. When I hear the word "culture", it catches my attention and makes me curious of what its about. I learned that there are two kinds of culture. The first one is called surface culture which, to me, has to do with the outer appearance. When one bumps into someone who is wearing boots, a charro suit, and a sombrero right away thinks, "Oh! He's from Mexico". People judge from what the eye sees on the outside like how they dress, what they eat, and the type of house they live in. A true exploration of culture refers to deep culture. This consists of characteristics, values, and beliefs. These are not so apparent and it is important to get to know and understand our students. I will be aware of all this now and as a teacher I will let my students express themselves and let them draw their cultural background and show us how special and unique they are. School culture was an important topic we talked about in class. We have a variety of cultures that meet at a school that is only singled down to one kind of culture. Here in America, we follow a schedule for the beginning and the ending of the school day. We are divided by grade-level classes and have certain instructional practices as well as discipline. I've heard that in some other countries, children work by day and go to school at night. I bet that it can tough for foreign exchange students to get adjusted to our customs. It can make them feel out of place. This also leads to mismatched cultures causing serious issues in schools. The school is like a big pot of multi-cultures mixed in, but the school wants to keep it just one flavor. This chapter has been very helpful in breaking the ice in a classroom. There's a section that talks about cutural responsive model and it is a good tool and shows us how to make the students feel comfortable and valued.

So, here I am exploring blogger. Anyone out there? LOL I need some blogger friends!