Week 14 - Literacy Moves Ch. 6-10

I thought it was really neat to see all the students perspective on the Beanie Babies. They were able to do group discussions, draw different diagrams, give their insights, and most of all they were collaborating in groups that showed their opinions. This helped the students organize their thoughts and tell everyone in the group how they felt about the Beanie Babies. The Beanie Babies initially brought out a good discussion on marketing and other tools. This activity gave students the opportunity to respond to important issues, introduce popular culture, and encouraged students to be critical consumers.
In chapter nine they talked about villains and heroes. I think its important for students to get a good taste of fiction and fantasy. This allows the students to see creative writing and different techniques of writing. I did not start reading books until Harry Potter came out. I thought this book was so interesting and I just kept reading. From this book, I started reading more and more because I finally liked reading. I think that Fantasy can do that for children in many ways. It can open their mind and their imagination.

Week 13 Children Reading Stories In Print, Film, and Computer Games

Many people argue whether computer games and media can affect learning negatively or positively. Throughout this chapter the author discusses ways on how computer games can help children in their learning. Some computer games enable students to use critical thinking and problem solving. Although I don't suggest students work on computers all the time, I think there is a time and a place for students to have the opportunity to work on computers and do different games. Students are going to be intrigued if they are able to work on computers. One huge plus to all of this is that students can play games and not even realize they are doing work and learning. It

It is also very important for children to become immersed and engaged in the text. The author states that immersion is being "fully committed to the world inside the text" and engaged means "moving inside and outside the text world." When students are reading they need to have both of these in order to fully understand the text. With immersion the reader can pick a single schema and can interpret all sorts of things in the text. When a reader is engaged they can relate from world and the text and make connections. I feel that this is very important in a student's reading and comprehension.

Week 12

During our class we have been discussing many types of genres. Yesterday we had our fair and had the opportunity to see everyone's genre pieces. I enjoyed it very much. It helps to see different ways of incorporating these ideas into the classroom. There were so many ideas and as a teacher we can give ideas to our students to do the same. This way they can express their views on their topic of their paper and do it in a creative way. Creativity is a component that I always want used in my classroom. I want every student to have the opportunity to show their creative side. Some topics in school can get so repetitive and boring that students just don't have fun with learning. These genre pieces would be a great opportunity to have fun and learn. We also worked with our puppets which was hilarious. I can only imagine how much fun the students would have with these puppets and presenting different books they have read.