Writing

Brinkmann, Astrid. "Mind Mapping as a Tool in Mathematics Education."

Mathematics Teacher 96.2 (2003): 96.

Academic Search Premier

. EBSCO. Web. 28 Sept. 2010.

This article was a guide as to how to use mind mapping in the classroom for any subject. Mind mapping is a way for taking notes. In mind mapping you put the main topic in the center of the paper and draw lines off of that topic to sub-topics that connect back to your main topic. For the purpose of this article Brinkmann focused on the use of mind maps in a math class and how it helps the students. Arguing that more teachers should use mind maps in math classes because “mind maps enable people to visualize relationships between mathematical objects in a structured way the corresponds to the structure in mathematics”(Brinkmann 97). Brinkmann also gave reasons as to why mind maps are a good idea for a math class. While all of these reasons were interesting the one that stuck out to me the most was that “mind maps can show connections between mathematics and the rest of the world”(Brinkmann 99). At first I didn’t really understand how someone could connect math to the rest of the world. However, Brinkmann argues that through the mind map this is possible, for example when learning about shapes if you take the square just outside of the math class and connect it to a TV or a shoe box it is easier to remember. In every subject we have said that if you can connect what you are learning in class to the students lives it is easier for them to remember as well as more interesting, so it makes sense that this would be the case in a math class as well. Another point Brinkmann made was that since you have to draw out a mind map it is easier to see and help those students that are having trouble. Overall, this article was full of information and very interesting. (Kayla Shaw)


 * Córdova, Ralph A., and Amanda L. Matthiesen. "Reading, Writing, and Mapping Our Worlds Into Being: Shared Teacher Inquiries Into Whose Literacies Count." //Reading Teacher// 63.6 (2010): 452-463. //Academic Search Premier//. EBSCO. Web. 28 Sept. 2010.**

This article was very interesting and filled with great information and great ideas for teachers at any stage of their teaching career. The article discussed how two teachers, in their inner-city schools, took the normal boring curriculum that their students couldn’t relate too and “moved beyond the curriculum while meeting district requirements, and explored how to draw on students lived experience to enhance and extend the seemingly narrow content” (455). The article discussed that by these two teachers joining forces and trying new and different ways to approach the material that they had to teach their students, even though they knew there was no way their students could relate to it, they found that their students responded in ways that they had never expected. By using a fantastic idea, the mapmaking project, the teachers found that they could use the mapmaking project to help the students relate the material to their everyday lives and the project helped the students with their individual learning needs. The teachers started using the students everyday experiences to get them excited, and interested with the material, and a long the way the teachers found that it also helped the students to open up and be able to relate with each other. For example, like Raylen, a student who had never been one for writing was excited and wrote more on his “map” they he had on any other project in school (457). Not only did the mapmaking experiment help the students but it helped the teachers as well. They recorded what they did and how they taught the kids about mapmaking and they went back with colleagues and discussed with each other about how they could improve their teaching styles and encourage the children more. This new and creative idea proved not only to be helpful for the students but for the teachers as well. (Nicole Damon)

** Kissel, Brian. “Promoting Writing and Preventing Writing Failure in Young Children.” ** The article I chose was extremely interesting. The title gives away its main point, and gives examples of how promoting writing and preventing writing failure among the younger children can be effective in the long run and for their futures. Kissel states that “…studying writing development from its genesis in preschool children provides important insights into later writing success” (p.53). I would think that teaching a young child, especially one as young as a preschool student, would be such a difficult and challenging task that many teachers would not think of using the method in order to encourage young children to learn about and like writing. Many children’s lives are composed of playing and being active, that many teachers do not see a purpose in instilling such an important lesson at such a young age. However, writing does not have to be merely about a tough lesson. The author states: “The purpose of exposing children to different kinds of writing is to show them that people write for many reasons” (p. 54). This point alone is one that should encourage teachers to want to begin to teach the important lesson of writing as early as possible. The teacher essentially brings him/herself down to a child’s perspective and writes to exemplify how writing is composed. Ultimately, the child becomes the one to illustrate his or her own thoughts in what they are writing, and they use the pictures they see in their minds (or even if they physically draw a picture) to help them create a story or piece of writing. Overall, t he main point of the article is that “Children have something to say when they write” (p. 56). This statement is what teachers should always remember about their students, no matter what age the teacher is working with.


 * Lane, holly B., and Stephanie arriaza allen. "The Vocabulary-rich Classroom:Modeling Sophisticated Word Use to Promote Word Consciousness and vocabulary Growth. " //Reading Teacher.// 63.5(2010):362-370. Academic search Premier. EBSCO. web. 15 Sept. 2010**

In Ms. Barker’s kindergarten classroom  the class jobs started out simple such as, line leader, weather watcher, zookeeper, cleanup helper and the caboose. These job titles were used to get the children used to the classroom duties. As the year progressed, the job titles became more advanced such as class movement coordinator, meteorologist, animal nutrition specialist, and the custodian. The children’s response to the weather also changed from its sunny to its rather brisk. Ms. Riva taught 4th grade and they started every morning with the children complementing their friends. Their comments were things such as, how nice, talented or creative the person is; then she decided to push the students’ vocabulary by telling them they were affable, jovial and virtuous, which led to the students looking it up in the dictionary and later they used new vocabulary in their writhing. According to Holly B. Lane and Stephanie Arriaza Allen, “Vocabulary instruction should include multiple exposures to a word, teach both definitions and contexts, and engage students in deep processing”(Pg. 364). The vocabulary that one uses depends on the circumstances. There are Four types of vocabulary which include oral, print, productive and writing. When you are selecting words to teach you should consider the three-tier model. Tier 1 is simple words, Tier 2 is more sophisticated, and Tier 3 is low-frequency words. By promoting word consciousness individuals they become motivated to learn more vocabulary and are able to use them skillfully. The most powerful strategy to model sophisticated vocabulary is with the simple vocabulary; when children hear, see and engage with words, they tend to learn better. Ms. Riva would ask a student to pass out papers and when they finished she would thank them for distributing the papers; now they know that to pass out and to distribute means the same thing. Teachers need to realize their student’s level of vocabulary and talk to them on their level, not below it. It is not going to improve the student’s vocabulary by asking them to place words in ABC order if they know what alphabetical order is. If you become a word-conscious teacher, you can create a classroom with rich vocabulary and an environment with sophisticated models that students can follow. (Brittany Scott) **Onan, Feride. “Inquiry Based Learning and Language Teaching.” Articles Base. 29 July. 2009 []. ** “Tell me and I forget, Show me and I remember, Involve me and I understand” (Onan). Inquiry based learning according to Feride Onan is all about questioning and learning without limits. In his essay Onan gives examples on how to ask a student a question and how a teacher should respond to such questions. In this essay you get to view the 7 different stages Onan believes make up inquiry based teaching/learning. Within an inquiry based structured classroom other than a “traditional” based structure, students are given the chance to learn the best way they can with little limitations. One of the main points of this essay is how to specifically ask a question. It’s so easy to ask questions that can be answered yes or no, but do you think that really stretches a child’s brain or is making them want to learn more? Onan feels if you ask a yes or no question it should be followed up by a question of “why” do you feel this way? Or “what” do you think makes this possible? In doing that you are opening the mind to so many different ideas in which no one can be wrong. This idea will then motivate and engage the children to always wonder and look further into what they are studying. A perfect example of why we want to ask a question within a question is stated when Feride Onan quotes Dr. Thomas M. Dana in his essay. “We really want children to be explorers and investigators and we want them to try to dictate for themselves what the problem they should be exploring is and what ways they are going to go about exploring that problem.” This way of teaching inquiry, “provides the students with a learning environment in which they are at the center of their learning.”(Onan) Inquiry in Onan’s mind is the only thing that makes learning permanent! (Samantha Turner)

** Ray, Katie Wood. "Exploring inquiry as a Teaching Stance in the Writing Workshop." //Language Arts// 83.3 (2006): 238-247. //Academic Search Premier//. EBSCO. Web. 14 Sept. 2010. **

“Taking the inquiry out of the teaching would diminish students’ need to read and think like writers, and would most likely diminish their understanding as well.”(Ray, Katie Wood pg. 244) In this article “Exploring inquiry as a Teaching Stance in the Writing Workshop,” Katie Wood Ray, talks about the teachings of a 4th and 5th grade teacher named Emily Steffans. Emily is focusing on op-ed writing (opinion editorial writing) through inquiry in her workshop. In this article Katie Wood Ray uses Ms. Steffans class in hopes of bringing life to the framework of inquiry. Throughout this article you will read about instructional ways in teaching inquiry, and ideas of how Ms. Steffans works with her children through the process of inquiry. One of the main points in this article is that inquiry helps teach how to read like writers. For example Katie Wood Ray quotes an expert, “Students learn to look at texts the way a mechanic looks at cars or a musician listens to music, to use the particular knowledge system of a writer.” (Harste, 1992, pg. 242) Not only do you see the students learning through inquiry in this article, you see how the teachers themselves learn many new things through teaching inquiry. Ms. Steffans works through the whole process with the students so she learns more and more each time which helps her keep teaching exciting and always new! (Sam Turner)