Response and Reactions
Shannon Wilson
Article 1 Response and Summary to Pirates in Historical Fiction and Nonfiction: A Twin Text Unit of Study and Swashbuckling Adventures on the High Seas: Classroom Activities for a Unit on Pirates
I thought that both of these articles were practical in the sense that they gave real life examples along with handouts of how a teacher could use this unit in their classroom. I liked the ideas that were presented in the article like the Double Entry Diaries and the Data Retrieval Chart. I think that these are great ways for students to respond to text and it gives them authorship over their creation. I have used these techniques in my college classes and I thought that they worked really well. I liked the idea of the notebook that the students kept about all of the information that they have collected during the course of the unit too. The notebook idea is a great way to keep all of the student’s information in a central location and not have lost papers. The notebook gives the students something tangible to take home when the unit is done. I think that the techniques and examples given in these two articles can be transferred to a variety of subjects.
Article 2 Response and Summary to Internet Workshop and Blog Publishing: Meeting Student (and Teacher) Learning Needs to Achieve Best Practice in the 21st Century
I think that this article makes several good points about technology in the classroom. I think that some teachers may be afraid of how to utilize technology in their classrooms and this keeps them from trying new things. I agree with the article that in order to achieve 21st Century learning, teachers need to branch out to more up to date methods of teaching. I really like the classroom bogs idea. Since this is my first experience with a blog, I am still learning how to use it. However, I do see myself using it in my ELA or SS class as a way for students to access their published materials, show others their work, find links to other sites, and read other student’s work.
I am not sure about how the Internet workshop would play out for me. I would need to experiment with this before I turned them loose on it. I like the idea of giving them specific sites to look at and responding to questions about the topic. Too often, I think that teachers “turn kids loose” in the computer lab and don’t really know what they are looking at. I like the idea of guided internet research.
