Chapter 7 Activating Prior Knowledge and Increasing Motivation

Activating prior knowledge and increasing motivation are significant elements of successful education. I believe students’ past experiences, personal identities, and content understandings are key factors of motivation. Students are more likely to be motivated about a topic if they can activate prior knowledge about the topic or if they can relate something to the topic. I completely agree that if students cannot activate prior knowledge about a topic, then they probably will not be motivated about the topic. Therefore, motivation and activating prior knowledge are closely connected and can be interchangeable.

Teachers should have a clear understanding of their students as individuals because all students are different. It is important to know which students might not have background knowledge of a certain topic so the teacher can introduce the topic to those students. For example, if there is a student who has never been to a zoo and the teacher is trying to motivate the students by activating their prior knowledge of the zoo, then that student who has never been to the zoo is not going to be motivated. They could be lost throughout the whole lesson. It is important that teachers think about these circumstances before they activate prior knowledge as a way to motivate students.

I think that the K-W-L charts are a great strategy to use in a lesson to activate students’ prior knowledge. The K-W-L charts can be helpful to the teacher to know which students are familiar with the topic. I was not familiar with the concept-oriented reading instruction (CORI). I enjoyed reading about CORI on pages 207- 210. I learned that teachers should build curiosity according to students’ interests, give clear expectations to students, teach learning strategies to the students, and give feedback and praise in a timely manner. I really enjoyed this chapter because I believe motivation is key to students' success in education.

Expository Text Lesson Plan

Name: Karey Alegria
Lesson Plan: Expository
Grade: Fifth

Parks, R. (1997). I am Rosa Parks. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.

Curriculum Standard:
2. Discover how democratic values were established and have been exemplified by people, events, and symbols. (C, H)
a. Determine how democratic principles developed (e.g., women’s suffrage, civil rights, etc.)

Big Idea: Rosa Parks was an African American woman who fought to end segregation in the 1950s. She started the civil rights movement because she would not give up her seat on the bus.

Preparation:
1. Introduce the book I Am Rosa Parks on the day that the students will learn about the civil rights movement.
2. Ask the students if they have ever heard of Rosa Parks.
3. Ask the students to make predictions about the book.
4. Encourage the students to listen to the story carefully so they will know if their predictions are accurate or not.
5. Read the story and introduce the definition of the terms “segregation” and “civil rights.”
6. Explain to the students that they will be learning about African Americans who fought for laws that would end segregation, protect civil rights, and ensure voting.
a. The teacher will discuss leaders and issues regarding the civil rights movement.
7. Show a short video about Rosa Parks.
8. Ask questions to ensure understanding about segregation and civil rights and provide more examples of segregation and civil rights issues among African Americans.
9. Tell the students that they will write a short summary describing an example of segregation and express how they feel about the situation.

Guidance:
1. Students brainstorm ideas for their summary.
2. Students will write a short summary.
3. Students will share their summaries aloud to the class.
4. The teacher will walk around the room to provide guidance as needed.

Application:
1. Monitor students while they are writing and presenting their summaries.
2. Assess for examples of segregation and thoughts of segregation within the summary.

Assessment:
1. The teacher will use oral questioning, responses given aloud, and a checklist to assess the students' understanding of the segregation and civil rights issues in the 1950s.
a. The teacher will be checking for facts and opinions in the summaries about the civil rights and segregation issues that were talked about in the book, lecture, and video.

Teacher Blog

http://englishteachinglab.blogspot.com/

I think that this blog has valuable information for teachers who are teaching English or Language Arts. There are several websites and practice sites included in the blog that are helpful for teaching ESL students. There is a slideshow that includes resources for teaching Language Arts to students. Go check out this blog! I hope it will be useful to all of you!

Chapter 5 Understanding and Using Texts

As I read chapter 5, I recognized the significance of teachers and students understanding the texts that are being used in the classrooms. I believe that students should have familiarity about a text they are reading. In my opinion, motivation and complexity play a big part in understanding and using text. I think that students, as well as teachers, have to be motivated in a text in order comprehend or want to read it. I believe that students and teachers become frustrated with text if it is too difficult to comprehend or read.

I enjoyed reading the different challenges of informational, narrative, and digital texts. I realize that we have to incorporate informational texts in the classrooms, but I think that teachers should engage and motivate the students in the information being learned. I believe that many times the information in texts is too difficult for students to understand so they get discouraged and do not read the information. As a college student, I find myself getting frustrated when trying to comprehend some of the text in our books. I think that many students can relate to narrative text that they read. I enjoy narrative texts because teachers can engage and motivate students in all subject areas by using narrative texts. I really enjoyed reading about the digital texts. I could relate back to the digital text that Dr. Bishop showed us in class on Caribou on the national geographic website. I believe that students and teachers greatly benefit from digital texts in the classrooms. I have enjoyed doing the blogs, and I think students in certain grades would enjoy doing blogs in their classes.

I have learned in Dr. Ramp’s class that the readability levels of most texts are not on the grade level of the texts. I enjoyed reading this section because I could relate back to what we talked about in Dr. Ramp’s class. Another section that I thought was important in the book was selecting texts. How can teachers or schools select texts for students when there are so many different learning levels among the students in a school? I believe that it is important for teachers to have an assortment of texts. The variety of texts will help meet the learning levels or styles of all the students, and the variety of texts available is motivating and inspiring for the students.

Chapter 4 Ongoing Assessment

Ongoing assessment is vital for creating contexts for students to become more literate, progressively more educated in a content area, and ultimately victorious learners. I believe that teachers should assess students using various forms of assessments for different purposes. I think teachers should use classroom tests, conservations, interviews, surveys, classroom observations, portfolios, and authentic assessments to get to know their students as individuals.

In my opinion, the reading attitude and interest surveys are excellent ways to assess your students. By administering these surveys, the teacher is able to determine the students’ opinions about reading. When the teacher knows the student’s opinion about reading, he or she is in a better position to motivate and encourage each student to enjoy reading. I believe that students should be given interesting materials to read in the classroom so they will be motivated to read. I am excited about administering these surveys to the student that I will be tutoring this semester. I am ready to learn about my student’s interest in reading and to motivate my student to enjoy reading more than he or she already does.

I believe that authentic assessments are excellent types of assessments for all students. I think that students learn better when they can relate the information being learned to their prior knowledge. In my opinion, authentic assessments engage teachers and students in all subject areas and prepare them for real world situations. Since responses from an authentic assessment often require a sophisticated understanding of knowledge in a content area, authentic tests are good preparation for state test and challenges later in life. When I become a teacher, I will utilize authentic assessments in my classroom as much as possible.