Question 4: How does the central or supporting idea/s of this author intersect with other voices in the field? The ideas presented in Chapter 2, which illustrates the importance of anticipatory activities when working with a new or challenging topic for students, intersect with concepts found in Kelly Gallagher's book Readicide. Both books, Improving Adolescent Literacy: Content Area Strategies at Work and Readicide, share a philosophy that teachers should use anticipatory activities to prepare students for reading a text, to connect students to the subject matter, to gain student attention, and to shift from teacher to student responsibility when reading. The texts differ though as Kelly Gallagher strongly warns against overdoing such anticipatory activities and creating "readicide" in our schools. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey do not put up such thick caution around the use of anticipatory strategies. Both texts cross again as they call educators to heed their advice - anticipatory activities are not meant to purely entertain students. This means there must be an educational purpose to the activity - engagement is the key, but not leisure. Obviously, anticipatory activities are important features in the classroom. The problem may occur, however, if the teacher kills the reading flow with too many prereading and stop and go reading activities. A conscience teacher will create a dynamic balance to ensure engagement of all students.
I agree with you that teachers should be selective with how often they employ these strategies. I am not working in a public school, so I have a bit more flexibility to give visual demonstrations (my favorite tool is YouTube for short culture and grammar videos) without worrying about pacing. I write my own curriculum and am not bound by state standards or standardized testing. However, as you said, "engagement is the key, but not leisure." When reading this chapter, I really enjoyed how every activity was purposeful. If they called for a demonstration in science class, there was an outline of guiding questions to go along with the activity. There is a form to fill out for guest speakers in social studies and a KWL for research topics in art. (I did wish there were some concrete examples for Spanish class, but of course, I will pull ideas from all the content areas and mold them to fit my own needs.) In short, the students and teachers were both accountable no matter which anticipatory activity was chosen. The students did not have the option to sit idly by; there was independent work and a discussion piece to go along with each activity. The teachers also needed to make sure the strategy they employed was relevant to their content and allowed students to draw on background knowledge to enhance the meaning of the current topic.
Moreover, it seems to me that many of these demonstrations could be inserted into the introduction or conclusion of a lesson and do not necessarily need to eat away at whole class periods. Many of these might only take about 5-15 minutes, and they could be used instead of "Do now" quizzes or activities. Further, as the book states, technology is a great teaching tool. Students can be asked to view a video at home and be prepared to talk about it in class. "Flipping classrooms" is an innovative way to add more minutes to collaborative work (ex/ class discussion, practice time) by saving the lectures and demonstrations for independent homework.
I like how Corinne connected the anticipatory activities with the "flipped classroom." Using videos/other technology is a great way to get the students attention and interest. If the assignment has a clear focus, the students come in ready to discuss/explore the concept further. Their prior knowledge is activated and the in class time can be more about application.
At my school we have two 50 minute blocks of math a day, and it is structured so that each block is typically one objective. Not being able to flip my classroom because of technology issues, my coteacher and I try to strategically combine objectives to put the notes and guided practice in the first 15 minutes of class, and then giving them the majority of the block to practice. For some, the notes that they write down at the beginning of class are enough to carry them through the practice, for others they need the teacher to keep cycling back to them. Perhaps after utilizing more of the anticipatory sets or graphic organizers discussed in in the chapters (especially chapter 2) fewer scholars will need intervention from the teacher, and will be able to show a stronger mastery of the concept of the day.
Question 1: What passage did you find most compelling? Explain. In the beginning of chapter one, the author states that "If students are to reach high levels of achievement and understanding, both in terms of literacy and content knowledge, they have to read, write, speak, listen, and view on a daily basis." This may seem obvious as we would expect students to improve their literacy skills only if they are exposed to a literacy-rich environment. However, what struck me, as a math and science teacher, is that if I expect my students to answer questions using scientific or mathematical language, I need to spend the time explicitly teaching them how to do this. Admittedly, I often get very involved in teaching concepts and focus on my demonstrations and explanations rather than spending time on having students write responses. I often require students to verbally explain concepts to me, but they only infrequently write paragraphs. I notice in the above quote from the chapter that the author uses the word "and" rather than “or” to connect the necessary literacy activities. This convicts me to think about how I can incorporate a wider variety of literacy tasks on a daily basis. As I try to think of how to do this, I wonder if I should have students use their books more in class rather than simply expecting them to read their books at home to reinforce the material taught in class. Because I teach eighth graders, I assume they have the ability to independently comprehend their text (following a lesson on the concepts) but I would welcome any input as to how to use the textbook most appropriately for this age group. Finally, after reading this chapter, I have come to realize that I have to strengthen my skills in teaching students how to effectively write informational paragraphs.
I like that you chose this quote to talk about, as it was one of the first quotes I highlighted in the text. It also goes hand in hand with "over time, her teaching role will shift from generating questions to coaching students to generate and respond to their own questions,". This excerpt is similar to yours in that in order for students to be able to create thought-provoking questions, they must first be taught how to do this. Once the teacher helps students' master questioning techniques, then he or she should be coaching students on reading, writing, speaking and listening techniques. All of this will inevitably help students succeed in any classroom setting, and the world beyond the school. Since nearly 75% of middle-school texts are informational (Chapter 1, pg 4), teachers in any subject area must not only explain what they expect the class to read, but they must also prepare writing prompts and perhaps even verbal discussions to make the information easier for students to digest. Even though as teachers we assume that students come to us with prior knowledge in our subject area, it is very likely that we need to refresh prior knowledge, and then build upon it. Linda, you mentioned that you teach science and math. I like that you are thinking about incorporating the text into your classroom time. I feel that students who struggle may get a better grasp when they are able to verbalize any questions that could not be answered from doing the readings at home. I also think that using the informational texts in these classes will allow students to have more informational-based conversations, which could lead to more informational-based writings in your subjects.
Like Biancha and Linda discussed, one of the current expectations we have our of students is for them to be able to read informational texts and generate insightful, well-constructed verbal and written responses to them. As an English teacher what I find problematic is that it seems to me that the bulk of the “work” of teaching this skill in many schools is left solely in the hands of English teachers despite students quite regularly being confronted with informational texts in other subject areas such as Math, Science and Social Studies/History. I found the receptive attitude of Linda and Biancha to be very positive and couldn’t help but think how much could be accomplished as a team with all members sharing that belief!
During my common planning time observations for the previous MLED course, English teacher and former Teacher of the Year in Smithfield, RI, Robin Behringer, explained how much Common Core has changed the course of her instruction and how she and the other English teachers now spend a great deal of time teaching students how to read informational texts and less time reading works of literature. I will soon be performing observations of her class and will be eager to see what types of structures she might utilize in her classroom, such as Think-Pair-Share, Learning Stations, Jigsaws, Reciprocal Teaching, and Anticipatory Activities, in order to support adolescent literacy development. I am also eager to hear more about how the non-English teachers feel about sharing the responsibility of explicitly teaching this skill.
I love the point that Biancha made about having the text in front of them to be able to have more informational-based conversations. I know that a big testing push is having students identify exactly which pieces of evidence defend a particular claim, so having the students practice identifying important pieces of information from the text to support their answers in class certainly sounds like a good way to help students practice this skill.
In math, part of my daily exit ticket each day is informally assessed. On the front of the exit ticket, I have the students answer skill questions, defend correct answers or prove them wrong, etc. These are all graded as evidence of mastery. What I often find to be more informative is the question that I ask them to answer on the back. It varies, depending on the objective taught for the day, but always asks the to summarize the lesson or highlight key parts of the lesson in their own words. This lets me know what language to focus on the next day in a Do Now to either help it stick in their brains, or clear up any misconceptions. I also find that asking them to answer in full questions when they give their answer helps them to work on that content specific language as well (and clues in any other scholars who may have tuned out for a second). Linda, hopefully you can use some of these ideas to continue to make your classroom excel.
9. Would this author find corroborating evidence for his or her perspective in your teaching setting? Explain.
I felt very positive about reading the first two chapters of Improving Adolescent Literacy, mainly because these are the tools and strategies that I have been employing in teaching my class. In particular, on page 3, I was pleased to see the use of the 5Ws (Who? What? Where? When? Why?) especially because I often incorporate my former public relations background into the classroom. I tell them that they need to act like newspaper reporters and explain that the first paragraph of a press release usually has all the most important information for the reader – the basics. But the WHY comes next and that is where the meat of the information is shared. I think this author would appreciate that I am using anticipation guides and KWL charts as well as quick writes. I often use visual displays or a quick YouTube video to start a conversation or trigger background knowledge. However, I also think the author would encourage me to use Think/Pair/Share more often (and it seems to be the most popular suggestion after teacher evaluations). In addition, I always enjoyed when we used the Jigsaw method in many of my graduate courses, but I haven’t tried it in my own classroom. So, the author might suggest that I get on that! Lastly, I feel like I am the queen of graphic organizers. Because I have so many struggling writers (as I am sure most of us do!), I tweak the living daylights out of my organizers. I continually question whether the organizer is helpful enough, or clear enough, or ridiculously clear! We'll call that "reflective" teaching!
I love your response to this question! As someone who also greatly enjoys the use of graphic organizers, I cannot wait to use more of them in a classroom again. I am going to steal your newspaper reporter idea and use it myself, I like that verbiage and think my students probably will too.
I found many similarities between Lisa's experience reading the text and my own. Many of the strategies introduced were familiar and are part of my teaching "repertoire" which made the text easily accessible and enjoyable. As you read, you can't help but have this second dialogue in your head that is tweaking the example given and modifying it to fit into your classroom. "Setting the Stage" was an aptly named chapter for it has possibly inspired me to step out of my comfort zone and begin my unit on Midsummer Night's Dream with a Discrepant Event. I have never felt the urge to dress up in character and create a scene, but for my students, I do think it will be highly memorable. My performance could quite possibly tap into the "neural pathways" I would like to activate to access their memory-- at the very least, they will laugh as they hear directly from Hermia about her issues with her father and his ultimatum. What I hear in Lisa's response is less a clinical study of the book and more an active application of its contents. That is why I enjoy the glimpses into other teacher's classrooms-and Lisa's--that the text allows. That is how I learn/appreciate the importance of these strategies.
While reading Chapter 2 of Fisher & Frey, I kept highlighting the benefits of anticipatory activities. Though I was familiar with most of the activities mentioned, I realize I do not employ them as much as I could and I began to see ways in which these focused activities can help me to better engage my students in their learning. Teachers within my district (and I imagine around the state) have been closely analyzing the rubrics being used to evaluate our Professional Practice. A central idea throughout the rubrics is the emphasis on student-centered learning. Our evaluators are looking for teachers to “direct the students’ natural energy toward the content of the curriculum” and to develop “conceptual understanding through clear scaffolding and connecting with student interest.” (RIDE) I have been a part of many conversations about the strategies we can use to gain student interest, move away from direct instruction, and become more student centered. The anticipatory activities presented by Fisher and Frey are examples of how we can structure lessons/units to guide student-centered learning. The anticipatory activities have the purpose of gaining student attention, not for entertainment, “but to scaffold learning so that the cognitive responsibility for learning shifts to the student.” (Fisher and Frey 32) The activities are to be used in a way that activates the student’s prior knowledge and engages them in the process of learning. For the math classroom, I like the example of creating advance organizers to scaffold comprehension and help students make connections to previous years. I often say to my students, math is all about connections and building blocks. Each concept and skill they are learning this year connects to the foundational skills they have learned before. Though I tell my students about the important connections, I have never created an organizer to show them the connections. It would be beneficial not only for the students to see the connections, but it would also help guide my instruction. Maybe, if they have a better understanding of how these concepts all connect they will be more engaged and curious about the content.
6. How might this article influence your teaching? As a math teacher, I often struggle with incorporating more of the “fun literacy” activities in my class. I agree with Abigail that I don’t always do the best job using activities to engage scholars in my classes. Whenever we are provided with PD on engaging strategies at my school, the math department is always sent off to have a data meeting, or some other activity that does not help the math team connect with scholars in a meaningful way through student centered activities. Starting this whole cohort this year, I have been inspired to give the scholars more interactive ways to engage in their learning, but never before with a focus on literacy. Reading about anticipatory activities in Ch. 2 really inspired me to have different bell-ringer style activities to not only recap what the scholars have already learned, but also to prepare them and get them excited for the rest of the lesson. Starting this literacy class I am already reconsidering how I give the scholars information, and how/when I should explicitly teach into vocabulary for math. These chapters, and this class as a whole, are inspiring me to fight for the opportunity to be in the ELA/Science/Social Studies PD’s that exist, so that I may be more aware of the vocabulary and terminology that they are using for their strategies, graphic organizers, etc. As it states in Ch 1, the intention of teaching into these strategies is to give more time to the meat of the lesson rather than setting up the activity and wasting a portion of the class. I feel that if I can participate in these PD’s, the common language will transfer through all of the classes that the scholars take and it will have a huge impact on the time I have to teach and how effective my lessons are.
Question 4: How does the central or supporting idea/s of this author intersect with other voices in the field?
ReplyDeleteThe ideas presented in Chapter 2, which illustrates the importance of anticipatory activities when working with a new or challenging topic for students, intersect with concepts found in Kelly Gallagher's book Readicide. Both books, Improving Adolescent Literacy: Content Area Strategies at Work and Readicide, share a philosophy that teachers should use anticipatory activities to prepare students for reading a text, to connect students to the subject matter, to gain student attention, and to shift from teacher to student responsibility when reading.
The texts differ though as Kelly Gallagher strongly warns against overdoing such anticipatory activities and creating "readicide" in our schools. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey do not put up such thick caution around the use of anticipatory strategies.
Both texts cross again as they call educators to heed their advice - anticipatory activities are not meant to purely entertain students. This means there must be an educational purpose to the activity - engagement is the key, but not leisure.
Obviously, anticipatory activities are important features in the classroom. The problem may occur, however, if the teacher kills the reading flow with too many prereading and stop and go reading activities. A conscience teacher will create a dynamic balance to ensure engagement of all students.
- Amanda Grundel
Delete(I guess I should have included my last night when setting up my profile!)
I agree with you that teachers should be selective with how often they employ these strategies. I am not working in a public school, so I have a bit more flexibility to give visual demonstrations (my favorite tool is YouTube for short culture and grammar videos) without worrying about pacing. I write my own curriculum and am not bound by state standards or standardized testing. However, as you said, "engagement is the key, but not leisure." When reading this chapter, I really enjoyed how every activity was purposeful. If they called for a demonstration in science class, there was an outline of guiding questions to go along with the activity. There is a form to fill out for guest speakers in social studies and a KWL for research topics in art. (I did wish there were some concrete examples for Spanish class, but of course, I will pull ideas from all the content areas and mold them to fit my own needs.) In short, the students and teachers were both accountable no matter which anticipatory activity was chosen. The students did not have the option to sit idly by; there was independent work and a discussion piece to go along with each activity. The teachers also needed to make sure the strategy they employed was relevant to their content and allowed students to draw on background knowledge to enhance the meaning of the current topic.
DeleteMoreover, it seems to me that many of these demonstrations could be inserted into the introduction or conclusion of a lesson and do not necessarily need to eat away at whole class periods. Many of these might only take about 5-15 minutes, and they could be used instead of "Do now" quizzes or activities. Further, as the book states, technology is a great teaching tool. Students can be asked to view a video at home and be prepared to talk about it in class. "Flipping classrooms" is an innovative way to add more minutes to collaborative work (ex/ class discussion, practice time) by saving the lectures and demonstrations for independent homework.
I like how Corinne connected the anticipatory activities with the "flipped classroom." Using videos/other technology is a great way to get the students attention and interest. If the assignment has a clear focus, the students come in ready to discuss/explore the concept further. Their prior knowledge is activated and the in class time can be more about application.
DeleteAt my school we have two 50 minute blocks of math a day, and it is structured so that each block is typically one objective. Not being able to flip my classroom because of technology issues, my coteacher and I try to strategically combine objectives to put the notes and guided practice in the first 15 minutes of class, and then giving them the majority of the block to practice. For some, the notes that they write down at the beginning of class are enough to carry them through the practice, for others they need the teacher to keep cycling back to them. Perhaps after utilizing more of the anticipatory sets or graphic organizers discussed in in the chapters (especially chapter 2) fewer scholars will need intervention from the teacher, and will be able to show a stronger mastery of the concept of the day.
DeleteQuestion 1: What passage did you find most compelling? Explain.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of chapter one, the author states that "If students are to reach high levels of achievement and understanding, both in terms of literacy and content knowledge, they have to read, write, speak, listen, and view on a daily basis." This may seem obvious as we would expect students to improve their literacy skills only if they are exposed to a literacy-rich environment. However, what struck me, as a math and science teacher, is that if I expect my students to answer questions using scientific or mathematical language, I need to spend the time explicitly teaching them how to do this. Admittedly, I often get very involved in teaching concepts and focus on my demonstrations and explanations rather than spending time on having students write responses. I often require students to verbally explain concepts to me, but they only infrequently write paragraphs. I notice in the above quote from the chapter that the author uses the word "and" rather than “or” to connect the necessary literacy activities. This convicts me to think about how I can incorporate a wider variety of literacy tasks on a daily basis.
As I try to think of how to do this, I wonder if I should have students use their books more in class rather than simply expecting them to read their books at home to reinforce the material taught in class. Because I teach eighth graders, I assume they have the ability to independently comprehend their text (following a lesson on the concepts) but I would welcome any input as to how to use the textbook most appropriately for this age group. Finally, after reading this chapter, I have come to realize that I have to strengthen my skills in teaching students how to effectively write informational paragraphs.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHi Linda,
DeleteI like that you chose this quote to talk about, as it was one of the first quotes I highlighted in the text. It also goes hand in hand with "over time, her teaching role will shift from generating questions to coaching students to generate and respond to their own questions,". This excerpt is similar to yours in that in order for students to be able to create thought-provoking questions, they must first be taught how to do this. Once the teacher helps students' master questioning techniques, then he or she should be coaching students on reading, writing, speaking and listening techniques. All of this will inevitably help students succeed in any classroom setting, and the world beyond the school. Since nearly 75% of middle-school texts are informational (Chapter 1, pg 4), teachers in any subject area must not only explain what they expect the class to read, but they must also prepare writing prompts and perhaps even verbal discussions to make the information easier for students to digest.
Even though as teachers we assume that students come to us with prior knowledge in our subject area, it is very likely that we need to refresh prior knowledge, and then build upon it. Linda, you mentioned that you teach science and math. I like that you are thinking about incorporating the text into your classroom time. I feel that students who struggle may get a better grasp when they are able to verbalize any questions that could not be answered from doing the readings at home. I also think that using the informational texts in these classes will allow students to have more informational-based conversations, which could lead to more informational-based writings in your subjects.
Like Biancha and Linda discussed, one of the current expectations we have our of students is for them to be able to read informational texts and generate insightful, well-constructed verbal and written responses to them. As an English teacher what I find problematic is that it seems to me that the bulk of the “work” of teaching this skill in many schools is left solely in the hands of English teachers despite students quite regularly being confronted with informational texts in other subject areas such as Math, Science and Social Studies/History. I found the receptive attitude of Linda and Biancha to be very positive and couldn’t help but think how much could be accomplished as a team with all members sharing that belief!
DeleteDuring my common planning time observations for the previous MLED course, English teacher and former Teacher of the Year in Smithfield, RI, Robin Behringer, explained how much Common Core has changed the course of her instruction and how she and the other English teachers now spend a great deal of time teaching students how to read informational texts and less time reading works of literature. I will soon be performing observations of her class and will be eager to see what types of structures she might utilize in her classroom, such as Think-Pair-Share, Learning Stations, Jigsaws, Reciprocal Teaching, and Anticipatory Activities, in order to support adolescent literacy development. I am also eager to hear more about how the non-English teachers feel about sharing the responsibility of explicitly teaching this skill.
I love the point that Biancha made about having the text in front of them to be able to have more informational-based conversations. I know that a big testing push is having students identify exactly which pieces of evidence defend a particular claim, so having the students practice identifying important pieces of information from the text to support their answers in class certainly sounds like a good way to help students practice this skill.
DeleteIn math, part of my daily exit ticket each day is informally assessed. On the front of the exit ticket, I have the students answer skill questions, defend correct answers or prove them wrong, etc. These are all graded as evidence of mastery. What I often find to be more informative is the question that I ask them to answer on the back. It varies, depending on the objective taught for the day, but always asks the to summarize the lesson or highlight key parts of the lesson in their own words. This lets me know what language to focus on the next day in a Do Now to either help it stick in their brains, or clear up any misconceptions. I also find that asking them to answer in full questions when they give their answer helps them to work on that content specific language as well (and clues in any other scholars who may have tuned out for a second). Linda, hopefully you can use some of these ideas to continue to make your classroom excel.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete9. Would this author find corroborating evidence for his or her perspective in your teaching setting? Explain.
ReplyDeleteI felt very positive about reading the first two chapters of Improving Adolescent Literacy, mainly because these are the tools and strategies that I have been employing in teaching my class. In particular, on page 3, I was pleased to see the use of the 5Ws (Who? What? Where? When? Why?) especially because I often incorporate my former public relations background into the classroom. I tell them that they need to act like newspaper reporters and explain that the first paragraph of a press release usually has all the most important information for the reader – the basics. But the WHY comes next and that is where the meat of the information is shared. I think this author would appreciate that I am using anticipation guides and KWL charts as well as quick writes. I often use visual displays or a quick YouTube video to start a conversation or trigger background knowledge. However, I also think the author would encourage me to use Think/Pair/Share more often (and it seems to be the most popular suggestion after teacher evaluations). In addition, I always enjoyed when we used the Jigsaw method in many of my graduate courses, but I haven’t tried it in my own classroom. So, the author might suggest that I get on that! Lastly, I feel like I am the queen of graphic organizers. Because I have so many struggling writers (as I am sure most of us do!), I tweak the living daylights out of my organizers. I continually question whether the organizer is helpful enough, or clear enough, or ridiculously clear! We'll call that "reflective" teaching!
I love your response to this question! As someone who also greatly enjoys the use of graphic organizers, I cannot wait to use more of them in a classroom again. I am going to steal your newspaper reporter idea and use it myself, I like that verbiage and think my students probably will too.
DeleteI found many similarities between Lisa's experience reading the text and my own. Many of the strategies introduced were familiar and are part of my teaching "repertoire" which made the text easily accessible and enjoyable. As you read, you can't help but have this second dialogue in your head that is tweaking the example given and modifying it to fit into your classroom. "Setting the Stage" was an aptly named chapter for it has possibly inspired me to step out of my comfort zone and begin my unit on Midsummer Night's Dream with a Discrepant Event. I have never felt the urge to dress up in character and create a scene, but for my students, I do think it will be highly memorable. My performance could quite possibly tap into the "neural pathways" I would like to activate to access their memory-- at the very least, they will laugh as they hear directly from Hermia about her issues with her father and his ultimatum. What I hear in Lisa's response is less a clinical study of the book and more an active application of its contents. That is why I enjoy the glimpses into other teacher's classrooms-and Lisa's--that the text allows. That is how I learn/appreciate the importance of these strategies.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Chapter 2 of Fisher & Frey, I kept highlighting the benefits of anticipatory activities. Though I was familiar with most of the activities mentioned, I realize I do not employ them as much as I could and I began to see ways in which these focused activities can help me to better engage my students in their learning. Teachers within my district (and I imagine around the state) have been closely analyzing the rubrics being used to evaluate our Professional Practice. A central idea throughout the rubrics is the emphasis on student-centered learning. Our evaluators are looking for teachers to “direct the students’ natural energy toward the content of the curriculum” and to develop “conceptual understanding through clear scaffolding and connecting with student interest.” (RIDE) I have been a part of many conversations about the strategies we can use to gain student interest, move away from direct instruction, and become more student centered. The anticipatory activities presented by Fisher and Frey are examples of how we can structure lessons/units to guide student-centered learning. The anticipatory activities have the purpose of gaining student attention, not for entertainment, “but to scaffold learning so that the cognitive responsibility for learning shifts to the student.” (Fisher and Frey 32) The activities are to be used in a way that activates the student’s prior knowledge and engages them in the process of learning.
ReplyDeleteFor the math classroom, I like the example of creating advance organizers to scaffold comprehension and help students make connections to previous years. I often say to my students, math is all about connections and building blocks. Each concept and skill they are learning this year connects to the foundational skills they have learned before. Though I tell my students about the important connections, I have never created an organizer to show them the connections. It would be beneficial not only for the students to see the connections, but it would also help guide my instruction. Maybe, if they have a better understanding of how these concepts all connect they will be more engaged and curious about the content.
6. How might this article influence your teaching?
ReplyDeleteAs a math teacher, I often struggle with incorporating more of the “fun literacy” activities in my class. I agree with Abigail that I don’t always do the best job using activities to engage scholars in my classes. Whenever we are provided with PD on engaging strategies at my school, the math department is always sent off to have a data meeting, or some other activity that does not help the math team connect with scholars in a meaningful way through student centered activities. Starting this whole cohort this year, I have been inspired to give the scholars more interactive ways to engage in their learning, but never before with a focus on literacy. Reading about anticipatory activities in Ch. 2 really inspired me to have different bell-ringer style activities to not only recap what the scholars have already learned, but also to prepare them and get them excited for the rest of the lesson. Starting this literacy class I am already reconsidering how I give the scholars information, and how/when I should explicitly teach into vocabulary for math. These chapters, and this class as a whole, are inspiring me to fight for the opportunity to be in the ELA/Science/Social Studies PD’s that exist, so that I may be more aware of the vocabulary and terminology that they are using for their strategies, graphic organizers, etc. As it states in Ch 1, the intention of teaching into these strategies is to give more time to the meat of the lesson rather than setting up the activity and wasting a portion of the class. I feel that if I can participate in these PD’s, the common language will transfer through all of the classes that the scholars take and it will have a huge impact on the time I have to teach and how effective my lessons are.