Class on 3/31

During this class, we talked about identity. This is something that I often have trouble talking too deeply about as I am not always very open with people I do not know too well. We did a really great activity where we answered a variety of questions related to our own identity, wrote the answers on a sheet of paper, and then crumpled and threw the sheets of paper into the center of the room. We were then instructed to grab a random sheet and share the responses on it by moving to one side of the room for a YES answer and to the other side of the room for a NO answer. By doing this, people's responses were anonymous, but it also gave us a really great visual of our class' demographics. I will definitely use something like this in a future classroom.

Class on 3/17

In class we did a variety of activities. One of the main ones that I enjoyed was the one minute book report. With this activity, we were asked to give a summary of the book in just one minute. This was an effective technique as it helped us to summarize concisely.

We also made word clouds in class and created iMovies as well. Here is a link to a great website to make word clouds on:

http://www.wordle.net/

This is something that you can do with a book, story, or even chapter in a different subject other than reading that can be incorporated into class.

iMovie trailers were a fun way to get us active in the use of technology and creating in a different way. Using the iMovie trailer was a bit frustrating though because of the exact template you need to follow. However, this may provide the appropriate structure for students to complete a project.

Class on 3/10

In class today, we separated into literature circles and discussed the first section of the stories that we read. The literature circles are a great technique to use when teaching because you can vary the reading level for various groups. This is a technique that I would definitely use. We all have responsibilities for the book such as discussion director, passage picker, vocabulary, and more can be added depending on the amount of people in each group.

We also did two activities. One was called Values Cards and the other Stand in Silence. These are both great community building activities in which students can get to know one another. I have already used the Values Cards multiple times since class with my residents and with the other Resident Assistants that I am on staff with. The premise of this activity is to sort a list of values into most important, somewhat important, and not very important. Then have discussions about the most important values. After that discussion takes place, narrow down the most important values to simply four core values. Then have another discussion about these.

Finally the Stand in silence activity was a way to get us thinking of things that we've been through that we have in common. If a phrase applied to you, you were asked to stand (if you felt comfortable) and it was a great way to share things about each other in a safe space without judgment.

Class on 3/3/2016

In this class, we did a variety of activities that could be used when reading a book with a class. One of the activities that really stood out to me was doing three snapshots of the story where group members are instructed to create a "snapshot" of what is happening in the story.

In the first half of Touching Spirit Bear, we came up with a variety of snapshots to "act out". These included a snap of us standing in a circle with Cole on the outside, a snap of Cole beating up Peter, and a snap of Cole being attacked by the bear. This was a great way that we could summarize our main take aways from the story.

Another activity we did was hold a question and answer of all of the characters in the story. Students were each assigned a character. Those characters would then stand in the front of the class and hold a Q&A where students could come up with any question that they wanted to act out. The one thing that I really did not enjoy about this activity is that if the kids do not know the character well enough, they can confuse their classmates and give inaccurate descriptions of the characters.

Reading Vignette 3

The following is my 3rd vignette highlighting my experiences as a writer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyBunJ-N344

Reading Vignette 2

The following is the second of my reading vignettes that shares of my experiences as a reader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Y-SvTs__A

Reading Vignette 1

The following is the first of my reading vignettes that shares of my experiences as a reader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6kqv1RY1mg