Dunnington - Reflection #1

Deb Dunnington

Multimodal Learning for the 21^st Century Adolescent – Thomas Bean

Chapter 1 - (pages 1-29)

Today our professional book study group read the first chapter in our book. Chapter 1 in Multimodal Learning focuses on defining the terms multiple literacies and new literacies. These terms refer to how the idea of literacy is changing to incorporate other forms of media besides print, such as the Internet and the social networking trends of today.

We are in a time where the resources available to educators and students are changing and growing. Where before educators might use an online article as a supplemental resource, now “we can expect electronic forms of text to overtake older, print-based forms” (17). We are approaching a time where we may be forced to use those “older, print-based forms” as our supplement. This was a new concept to me because I was taught that visual aids such as technology or media should be used to further or deepen a student’s knowledge and learning, not replace the print medium. Technology is not an area I am totally comfortable in, but today, technology is a large interest of our teenagers and, as a teacher, I need to think about that and try to incorporate it into my lessons.

Another large focus in chapter one is on creativity. Bean appears to believe that “the more students practice functioning in creative, integrated, collaborative learning domains across all the content areas, the better” (18). By creative, integrated, and collaborative learning domains, I believe the author is referring to those social networks like Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, etc. that allow for people to socialize and discuss topics with others, even those in other locations. These are creative forums, but when reading this, I found myself questioning the text and wondering why we cannot still use print mediums in creative ways because, to me, creativity is not only found online. Bean states, “the possibilities for student creativity and production have never been better” (27). I totally agree with that because by using the technological resources we are giving students another tool to add to their toolbox and another way to build knowledge, I just don’t think it should be at the expense of those older resources we know work too.

Since none of our group had read the book prior to coming to class today, we chose to spend some time reading and then participated in the Last Word discussion protocol. One of the statements we discussed was “books, novels, magazines, and newspapers – artifacts of past generations – still remain on our radar. But, these hard copy paper-based forms of communication are quickly being outpaced by online forms of text, often augmented with appealing and engaging visuals and media clips” (16). Our group discussed that we have to be cognizant that not all of our students may have access to some of the technology and that not only do they need to know how to use the technology, but they still need to know how to use print sources, as well, because our big assessments are still in the “old” format. To me, the word multi says it all – we should use multiple mediums in our lessons.

I had never used the Last Word discussion protocol so in completing this activity I now have another strategy I can use in my classroom. I thought that it was a great way to discuss material and it forces the person who found the statement to listen to the other group members’ opinions and responses before commenting themselves. I thought this was great because I’ve noticed when using discussion in my class that a lot of times kids want to interrupt or dominate but they cannot do that when using this protocol unless they are totally not following the rules.

One reading strategy I used today was rereading. We only gave ourselves about half hour to read and prepare for our discussion and while that was enough for me to skim and find important statements, I didn’t feel as if it was enough time for me to read closely enough to be able to reflect on the reading. Before I could reflect, I reread the passages or parts of the chapter I felt were most relevant to what we discussed and to understanding the rest of the book.

Reflection #1

Elizabeth Meyer-Chapman
Subjects Matter Every Teacher’s Guide to Content-Area Reading
Pages 1-48
Our group used the Text Rendering Experience protocol to discuss chapters one through three. We were able to jump around all three chapters while still having relevant in-depth discussions. The first round of text rendering requires each person to pick a word that they found to be particularly significant and share out why it was significant. Round two, three and four followed with picking a significant phrase, sentence and then passage respectively. The directions for text rendering had indicated to start round one with a passage and then work backwards or down to the word. Before doing the activity, we thought that it made more sense the other way around and so that’s what we did; build up from a word to a passage. After completing the exercise someone in our group brought up an excellent point: “Starting with a passage may be best for students because it helps them build background knowledge. Not all kids have an in depth background knowledge as compared to adults. As a group we agreed that using this would be an effective reading strategy in our classroom because it would quickly become obvious which students had read a chapter and which had not.
One phrase which rang true for me was that, “Textbooks are not enough and should be used more often as a reference tool or supplement.” So often there are errors or opinions are stated as fact in textbooks. Many times when I am helping students comprehend the big ideas in a textbook chapter, I find the student feels overwhelmed with all of the information packed into one page. In an effort to make the text visually stimulating the page becomes an overwhelming barrage of color, text boxes, vocabulary and important facts for students. Building background knowledge is essential before students face this barrage.
The reading strategies I used today were re-reading, annotating, big ideas on post-its and highlighting text. I also have short discussions in my head about what I have just read and from this I write questions or “ahh-has” that strike me. The most useful reading strategy for me is to discuss what I have just read with someone who has read the same thing. I find it deepens my understanding and I enjoy finding out what it meant to someone else. Which makes me think... my students need to engage in more pair and shares about reading or shared journaling then maybe even this thing called blogging.

Book Study Reflection - day 1

Christine Munzer

Subjects Matter – Everyday Teacher’s Guide to Content-Area Reading

Pages 1 – 48 (Chapters 1 - 3)

The text, Subjects Matter really focused on strategies that all teachers can use to make reading in the classroom effective, engaging and fun. For our first book study, we looked just at the first three chapters. These chapters offered very little strategies but really had me thinking about my own teaching, especially when it comes to incorporating a textbook.

The authors, Daniels and Zemelman open up the book with trying to get you to really think about how one is using reading in their own classroom. As a history teacher, I try to incorporate primary source documents, pictures, maps, graphs and to a degree, the textbook. However, is this “real-reading?” Real-reading teaches the kids to be lifelong learners and as teachers we should be getting them prepared for this task. Thus, in this sense, we should be offering authentic assessmentusing tools that can be incorporated to everyday learning. We should be teaching our kids how to read texts that will further their understanding of a concept and in doing so, our kids need to read more than just the textbook. Furthermore, the book goes on to explore how we read. By offering small passages and questions of how we deciphered the text as we read it, Daniels and Zemelman have tried to get the reader to focus on how they go about actually reading a text. The strategies in decoding text in this matter I noticed are things that I do anyways but need to now focus on explicitly teaching students to do the same. Finally, the book offered a great discussion on why we need textbooks in our class – a read I highly recommend to those who can’t fathom teaching without one.

In reading the text, our group used the “text rendering experience protocol” to discuss the three chapters that we read. In this protocol, each student will pick a word, phrase, sentence and passage that would be shared out during the discussion. We decided to work with this gradual build-up from word to passage to help work from the smaller main ideas presented to the big picture concepts. The strategy worked well in our group and I felt that this is something that would be really easy to facilitate with kids. In our discussion, we felt that when using this protocol with students, you’d have to set some parameters. For instance, it would be important to make sure that kids could not pick the same word or phrase and rotate who gets to share first in order to minimize the frustration of being the last one to share. This protocol is one that can easily be student lead and the focus can be shifted depending on the lesson. (i.e. having students find words that they are unfamiliar within the text). The strategy was a quick way for us to work through a very long text.

Sage Rebuehr

Reading Reflection #1

Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry by Jeffrey Wilhelm

Chapter 1 & 2, pgs. 7-40

The first chapters left me with more questions than answers.  Questions that I hope will be answered as I continue my reading. 

Wilhelm begins by defining inquiry learning.  He puts in somewhere in the middle of a teacher-centered, lecture-driven classroom and a student-centered, go-with-the-flow classroom.  I like this definition.  As  a person who likes structures, it made it seem doable to me.  In his inquiry model instead of students reading Romeo and Juliet, they spend time answering the question “What makes a good relationship?”. They will read Romeo and Juliet while answering this question along with lots of other texts as well.  It is the purpose that shifts:  they aren’t reading R&J just to read it, they are reading it to help them answer a questions.

Students play an active role in the classroom and learning through lots of discussion and debate.  The importance of classroom discussion what made evident after reading transcripts from four very different classroom discussions.  Most teachers were able to identify which discussion was the best and yet lots of teachers aren’t doing this in their classroom.  This reinforced my desire to create more time for students talk in my classroom and to model how to participate in a discussion

As I read these chapters, I found myself rereading lots of the information.  Some of the information I found confusing (like terminology used); but I am thinking that most of these ideas will be explained in more detail as I continue the reading. I am interested to learn more about creating these units particularly what happens in the middle part.  How do you go from introducing the question to the final project?

Professional Book Study - Engaging Readers & Writers With Inquiry

Reflection 1
Discussion Protocol
We used sticky notes to highlight main points as our discussion protocol. In beginning the reading, I found that I used the sticky notes to make connections, ask questions, and record opinions instead of recording main points. I had to completeley change my mind-set to read for my particular purpose. I realize that I need to ask my students to include main points in their annotations. It is an important skill that needs to be practiced.
Personal Reading Strategies
I mostly connected while reading the first two chapters of the book. I tried inquiry groups with my sophomores last year and was able to reflect on successes and struggles as a result of the reading. There were quite a few "ah ha" moments regarding the inquiry process in my class and why it was a struggle at times.
Using the sticky notes to record the main points helped me to stay focused and deepened my comprehension.
I am really interested in inquiry so I was on task during the reading. Often times, I have to reread and take more copious notes in order to glean information from tradebooks.
New Learnings
The first two chapters of Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry defined what inquiry is and what it is not. Inquiry is not busy work, booksheets, or school work. The chapters gave me insight on the inquiry process and how to get started as well as different inquiry models. One key thing they focused on was the importance of the teacher role and student role in the inquiry process. The inquiry/learning centered model was identified as a collaborative effort towards understanding.
Ideas for Application
The first two chapters focused on theory. The actual application of how to use inquiry in the classroom begins in chapter 3. I can't wait to get started!

Robert Samsel

June 13, 2011

Professional Book Study Reflection: Multimodal Learning in the 21^st Century

Chapter 1

While reading chapter one I focused on things that maybe were new ideas about how to think about literacy and anything that I could possibly implement into my own classroom. The first new learning that I came across was that multimodal literacy which so far just means reading with links to other types of media like video photographs and music. So now, instead of reading from point A to point B there are many ways that a person can link to other information within the text that can enrich what they know about the original text before they even reach the end.

The second paradigm shift that I reached was that the internet takes advantage of social networking sites and people can interact with one another and the text versus just having the information presented in front of then to assimilate into the cerebral cortex independent of how that same text may influence anther person differently although both individuals are reading the same thing.

Finally, since virtually everyone has the same access to the same knowledge at the same time on the internet it is becoming less important for the population to know a set of facts or information on a certain subject and more about how people can create new way to interact with this information (this blog is an example). This makes sense because authentic learning occurs when one has experience with whatever the subject is. For example, one cannot be an author without writing, a chef can only be a chef by cooking and a person can only become experts by doing. In turn, people are looking to be able to interact with others or have more hands on experiences via the internet in order to merge the facts and information with virtual or real experiences with those fact and information making paper only texts insufficient.

Reading Reflection #1

Katie Horne
Multimodal Learning for the 21st Century Adolescent
Chapter 1

This first chapter we read introduced us the idea of the changing nature of texts. The way students learn in the 21st century is very different from the way I learned in school, which was not that long ago. The wave of the future is more digital technologies and less paper technologies, ie; books, magazines, novels. One of the big vocabulary words that is new for me is multimodal. As defined by the author, multimodal means just what it says-multiple modalities. "Multimodal texts often combine visual images with print, but the key idea here is that the image and visual space dominate and carry the meaning" (Bean, 2010, p. 23). While I agree somewhat with this definition, I also believe our students need to exposed to a multitude of ways of finding information. Students are still expected to read books but not every book has a visual for students to make meaning. The author also described the idea of teacher creativity. During our discussion, Sara pointed out that more often than not, creativity doesn't always equate to rigor. As much fun as it might be for students to create a 3-D diagram, the teacher also needs to think about rigor.

Some of the strategies I used to comprehend this reading include knowledge of text features, rereading, and skimming. Key vocabulary are italicized and there is a glossary in the back of the book. I used the bolded headings to guide my understanding of each section; as I finished a section, I quickly reviewed how it relates to the heading. There are terminology boxes on some of the pages that give definitions and this helped to make the text clearer as I read. I used the terminology boxes before I reread a passage to clarify what the author said. Some parts I skimmed; for example, the vignette at the beginning of the chapter.

The protocal we used was "last word". Each of us read a statement from the reading and we took turns responding to the statement. The original person who read the statement had the "last word". I enjoy using this protocal because it engaged us in a dialogue. Sometimes the hardest part is not saying anything else after the last word is said. The statements that were chosen described the changing nature of texts; how teachers need to be more creative; "attractive things work better" (Bean, 2010, p. 27); and knowledge is no longer sequential but consistently changing.  All four of these topics addresses the idea of multimodal learning for the 21st century adolescent. With technology changing literally every day, teachers need to be aware of this and incorporate different modalities of learning. It's no longer PowerPoint and just typing on a computer. With the technology available today, students in the classroom can collaborate (students can even collaborate with another school in a different state or country). If we think to the commercials we see on TV, there are striking images that stick with us. Bean references the Budweiser Clydesdales (2010, p. 24) and whenever we see those, we automatically think of beer. The way students learn and access technology changes every year and by incorporating this into our lessons, we can continue to shape our students for the 21st century!

Sara Williams
Multimodal Learning for the 21st Century
Pages 1-29 (Chapter 1)

Our book study group just jumped in with both feet - agreeing to read the first chapter of the book and participate in a "Last Word" discussion on the content. As a reader, I typically take some time to situate myself with a text before delving in, but it was refreshing to have a group that just went with it!

Being a book nerd, I first skimmed the book to familiarize myself with how it is organized. This text seems intuitive - each chapter begins with a classroom vignette to allow the reader to make connections and consider how some of the topics addressed reveal themselves in our lives and in our classrooms. There will undoubtedly be many "tier III" words used in this text, as it deals with content-specific topics. A helpful feature of the text is the "terminology" box found when a concept is introduced. I found myself glancing over the quick definition before beginning the section where the concept was discussed at length. Also included for each concept is the requisite "recommended reading" list so I know where to go to get more information. Finally, there are examples of classroom practices using the multimodal resources outlined in each chapter - a must for busy educators who want to see what the theory looks like in practice.

The author argues that "books, novels, magazines and newspapers - artifacts of past generations" are largely becoming obsolete because of online media. This is a key point our group struggled with. We all agreed that it is critical that we embrace and utilize these new technologies, as they are ubiquitous. However, until our high-stakes end products (CSAP, ACT, etc.) look like these online mediums, we are still responsible for teaching the "old way" of doing things through print. When considering the print v. online debate, it's important to remember that some skills are transferable. For example, it is relatively easy to pick up a book and determine whether or not it was published by a reputable source. Knowing what to look for to determine a source's validity and credibility is essentially the same between print and online mediums, you just need to look in different places. Accepting one doesn't mean rejecting the other.

Another issue we discussed was the tendency for multimedia products to be "all sizzle, no steak." Many students focus so much on what a finished product looks like that they don't have time or energy to revise what it is actually communicating. While I agree with the author when he asserts that "attractive things work better - their attractiveness produces positive emotions, causing mental processes to be more creative, more tolerant of minor difficulties," I still demand that what I'm looking at also have some depth. Sometimes we're blown away by the bells and whistles because we're unfamiliar with the technology. By learning the tech ourselves, we can also learn to be less dazzled by the special effects and smooth usage and get to the heart of the student learning demonstrated.

Another interesting discussion point that came about in our group stemmed from the quote, "In the new forms of reading, knowledge is not necessarily set out in such an ordered, sequential manner, but is frequently shaped by the reader in the act of determining/constructing/imposing such order by the new reader." We welcomed this change, as this non-linear meaning-making seemed to allow for richer and more thorough understandings of a concept. We did agree that this more fluid way of thinking and learning is inherent in our students way of processing knowledge, less so with our own. We must strive to be more flexible with ways of making meaning and not expect all of our students to arrive at an endpoint in the same way. Who cares HOW they learn it, as long as they do?

Finally, the author's discussion of the use of visuals in multimodal texts is thought-provoking. Bean argues that "the the screen is now the dominant site of texts; it is the site which shapes the imagination of the current generation around communication. The screen is the site of the visual, of the image. This does not mean that writing cannot appear on the screen, but when it does, it will be appearing there SUBORDINATED to the logic of the visual." This is antithetical to what I've always thought or believed, that visuals are there to support the text, rather than the opposite. I wonder where this will end - will we be a civilization where the sign is everything and words are no longer necessary? Are these visuals just fancier cave drawings? It seems like a step back in some ways...wonder if prominent brows and knuckle-dragging are just a few thousand years away as well.

Posting Guidelines

Guiding Questions:

·         How do we transfer content from professional text to our own classroom contexts?

·         How do we apply instructional practices and theory learned from professional texts to our own practice?

Reflection: After each session, complete a 1-2 page reflection on new learnings, ideas for application, your personal reading strategies used while reading, the discussion protocol, etc.  Your professional book study group will develop an online blog where you can post your reflections and the summaries of the key findings. The blog post is due the following day.

Posting Format:

1. Your Name
2. Book Title
3. Page #s
4. Your response...

All posts are due at the beginning of the following day.