Final Update 05/14/10

I personally though this course was a great course for educators specializing in a Masters in Reading. I think it was a little bit stressful for me due to working towards a Masters in Special Education, it required a lot of work to complete the assignments and excessive research. Although I learn a lot and was impressed on how the instructor incorporated technology to keep all student actively involved due to being in a on-line course. I think I did good in the class I just had some difficulties working the web cam along with posting PowerPoint on my blog site. I think I would have done excellent if I was able to complete the above mention tasks. Hopefully the professor will keep this class the way it is and continue to challenge students to do more in order to seek for knowledge about content literacy in all subject matters.

REED 502 weekly progress

This week was a better week than last week. I am fully recovered and had a great time doing my assignment of observing a fellow new teacher Earth Science class. I learned many different techniques on how to engage students by personal experiences to help reinforce the lesson. I was impressed on how observing a class helps me think of important skills to incorporate in my daily lesson plans. It also was a great way to talk to a co-worker about education other than normal conversation which actually support one another's progress. I am looking forward to the end of the semester so i can have a break form excessive work. Overall I am pleased with the valuable knowledge I have obtained while enrolled in REED 502.

04/23/10 Weekly post

This week was the worst week for me as far as health. I had the stomach virus which just about everyone in my school contracted from one another so I been weak and off of work for several days. I had a hard time completing this assignment due to my illness but I got it done. I was impressed on how I incorporated my lesson plans from my class which is biology into my unit so this assignment was rather easy for me. So far this class is wrapping up and things are coming together quite easy. I hope I can complete my final assignment with the permission of my principal who has not given me a answer as of yet. Hopefully I will learn something new from the next assignment observing my fellow co-worker classroom this upcoming week.

04/16/2010

Hey REED 502 here again to post my weekly progress via text. I found this assignment to be interesting but somewhat boring to me because I'm not personally interested in Math in any way so I had to think of way to make the unit that would be interesting outside of the normal assignments given in class. This semester is shaping up quite well I am staying busy with these assignments and looking forward for summer break from school and work. I've learn a lot of techniques to use in the 2010-2011 school year to incorporate in my classes.

04/09/10 Weekly Update

Still no way to load my response via web cam. I though this assignment was rather easy knowing that the first one would be like a template to complete the next one on Social Studies. I was impressed on how I Incorporated the music poetry lesson unit and made an extension to the Harlem Renaissance Social Studies unit. I very love the way our instructor allowed us to become knowledgeable in all subject matters to get a clear understanding of how each is important to all students.

04/02/10 Weekly Response

Still unable to post a video post on this website. I am writing to express my personal thoughts on the assignment of creating a Music Unit plan. I was impressed on how Dr. Jenkins incorporated everything we have learned since the beginning of this semester until now to place in our unit. I learned so much on how to fully engage students in Jazz & poetry with the help of using multimedia and research texts. I had to go to work this week and my co-workers were really impressed on my assignment and how the teacher aligned everything in order to make the assignment successful that some have develop lesson plans for their students to use in class by the use of correlating mini lessons. I personally took a week to complete the assignment so for the least to say it was very time consuming but allowed me to gain valuable knowledge to use in my career as a Special Educator teaching content literacy.

· Students need to be engaged fully by having personal interests in there readings
· Students should try their best to participate even when they are not interested and become worldlier in specific content areas.
· Teacher should try to incorporate different types of media along with materials outside of the traditional textbook for that class being taught.
· Student need to read to learn as opposed to reading to locate answers, the meaning should be incorporated in their learning.
· Students should try to learn the bottom down approach when reading to ensure that answer related to the text can be answered properly especially on standardized test.
· Teacher should learn as many strategies and techniques through the use of professional development and active research to help student become engage in content literacy and the skill set behind it.

03/19/2010

This week I tried to use my friends web cam and was still unsuccessful in uploading or even saving the post. I would like to say that assignment was rather time consuming and a rather a headache for me due to my current schedule and losing two days due to not being able to access Coppin's website due to maintenance of the site. I was impressed how the professor designed an assignment that allowed us to read the entire text from facts and strategies provided by our fellow classmate. This is definitely something I plan to incorporate in my classroom as a teacher as soon as technology in my school is equip to allow this to happen. I was impress on how my classmate spoke about how they plan to used specific skills and techniques in their classroom also. I hope the rest of the semester allows us to learn as a whole and not completing busy work that does not enhance us as professional educators.

03/12/10 Weekly Response

Hello classmates in REED 502 still unable to post my video blog update so I am writing again in text after meeting with professor Jenkins we figured out the problem at hand which is my computer so whenever I get free time I will have to purchase an external web cam or use another laptop. Well as far as this assignment goes for this week everything went smoothly due to completing a similar assignment last week. I found the readings to be extremely helpful and was much in-depth with strategies to incorporate in my current classes. I hope to be on the same page as my other classmates as far as what you guys are learning from the text also. I found the way the information in the text was straightforward along with an easy read. I let one of my students read through it today and she found that the highlighted parts in my book was very true and that she could also relate. One of my colleagues who is an student teacher is interested in the book as well and asked to borrow it over the weekend to learn some skills to incorporate in her class as well. Everyone has became drawn to the textbook due to the title which tells a lot about our society and people personal beliefs written in text. This week has been pretty laid back and just getting use to all of my classes along with my very busy work schedule.

03/05/2010 Weekly Response

Hello classmates I am still unsure of why my computer cannot post a video posting so once again I am using text to update my progress in REED 502. This week is a bit confusing on how the power point is to be completed as far as the hypothetical questions that are considered more opinionated verse actually material covered. I did find that using different media outlet's as oppose to traditional classwork assignments is peaking my interest in this reading course which in my past experiences can be somewhat reading the text and writing lame summaries. So hats off to Dr. Jenkins by incorporating a more hands on approach to other individual learning styles especially in a on-line course. I can say that I am learning a lot about the actual names for the techniques that I currently use in my classroom along with other ways to help enforce the strategies in class.

02/19/10 Weekly Repsone

Unfortunately I am still unable to post my web cam response so with that being said I have to write it. As far as this week I feel more comfortable with using the blog website and had a great time reading my fellow classmates responses along with reading about them and their educational experiences. As far as the literacy toolkit I learned many different strategies that I plan to incorporated in my classes currently and in the near future. During my reading and active research I noticed that educators should provide student the opportunity to Pre & Post test in order to get actual understanding of what content material should be covered again in order to reinforce the lesson for all students. I also learned that the media should be heavily incorporated into the lesson to help students visualize specific information. What I would do differently in my toolkit, I would include a great deal of lessons that touch upon each multiple intelligences that will help my specific students within the field of special education get an opportunity to show their talents in certain content area classes along with keeping their interest at heart. Which will help them learn that subject matter because they are fully engaged.

02/12/10 Weekly Respone Text

By being unsuccessful at posting my video updates I am writing my weekly response: Well for this week I was very frustrated at first with the actual assignment of posting the web cam response which took a lot of time out of my busy schedule but I did learn a lot about actually setting up a blog account and how cool it is to incorporate into the classroom for my students to use in the future, its is especially a great tool for students in the area of Special Education who like to use the media as apposed to traditional assignments. I found communicating with my classmates can open your mind in terms of specific viewpoints. This is very different for me especially when in a traditional online course you never really communicate at all. with your fellow peers. I am very pleased with the course so far but feel that the technological difficulties held me back a bit that is why I am instead of being viewed on a video clip. I hope to gain more knowledge in the field of secondary content area reading skills especially in the realm of using the media outlets.

Content Literacy Toolkit

Theresa Dennis
REED 502
Dr. Jenkins
February 19, 2010
“What to include in your content literacy toolkit”
A professional educator within the field of regular or special education should integrate the following instructional strategies/best practices to increase the content literacy in all subject matter, which will include the following:
· Professional Development
· Monthly trainings with involvement from every staff.
· Modified lesson plans
· Narrative resources
· Content literacy projects
· Research Projects related to that subject matter
· Tools that are related to each student accommodations i.e. (larger print, tapes on books, and easy readers for that subject.)
· Incorporating the use of the different types of media.
· Family involvement
Each lesson in my toolkit will include the teacher and the paraprofessional work together to provide quality instruction before, during, and after reading/ learning the subject matter. Each lesson will include some examples of explicit instructions with the use of:
· Modeling
· Guided Practice
· Independent Practice
· Active Research outside of the classroom setting.
· Materials that help enhance the lesson plans which in most cases are either hands- on activities or visual aids.
In every classroom within eyesight all of the chalk boards and all teacher-made printable will be in “BOLD PRINT” which will allow students to find the description of each literacy strategies by:
· Step-by-step directions for each lesson.
· Charts illustrating information for that unit
· Daily objectives for the material that is to be covered.
Each class will have instructional outcomes that allow students to activate
· Prior knowledge
· Make predictions
· Provide correct answers which untimely ensure a passing grade.
· Clear understanding of material covered.
· Increased test scores either teacher made or on a national level.
· Information instilled in the students mind throughout adulthood.

REED 502

Hey just wanted to say hello to the class and I hope we learn a lot about content literacy this sesmester.