Module 8

The article I am critiquing is titled Influences of stimulating tasks on reading motivation and comprehension. It was written by Pedro Barbosa, John Guthrie, Nicole Humenick, Kathleen Perencevick, Ana Taboada, and Allan Wigfield. It was published in The Journal of Education Research in March 2006. It is about the effects of reading motivation. The study was done on children in grades three through five. The researchers were not surprised that motivation in reading does affect students’ reading comprehension. They stated that they only studied the motivation of reading, not the motivation of any other subject including math, science, social studies, or language. I was not shocked by these findings either. It is common sense that when students are motivated, they will rise higher and achieve more regardless of the subject. They would have found out the same thing if they would have studied the affects of motivation in science or any other subject. They probally would have found out the same in physical education as well. The affects of not motivating children would probally have the opposite affect on them. They would not achieve as well. Their scores on comprehension and standardized tests would drop tremendously. The reachers have to be somewhat of a coach. They need to cheer their class on and encourage them to try their best in all that they do. When they do try their best we need to praise them even if it is not the outcome that we want. This praise will push them to continue to try and not give up. That is exactly what we want. This is the reward that keep teachers going. The article also states that motivation for reading predicts student achievement on standardized tests and school grades. Again, motivation and grades go hand in hand. The more motivation a child receives, the higher they achieve in tests and grades. What should teachers get out of this article? They should learn that they need to motivate, motivate, and motivate some more. Do not put children down or make them feel bad about their accomplishments. That will only make things worse. In order to keep your students working hard, give them some praise. Have a reward time for when they try their best. Let them have some partner reading time and game time. Do whatever it takes to motivate your class.

Module 6

For the first activity, I would pair my students up for peer reading. There would be one strong reader and one weak reader in each pair. After modeling how to change your voice when reading, they would paractice changing their voices at the appropriate places. They would help their partner and tell them when they made a mistake.
I would have my students interview teachers throughout the school I will have three set questions for them to ask about the layout of the library. They would have to come up with one more question. They would work in pairs and no group would be assigned the same teacher. Afterwards, we would discuss our answers.
After discussing made up stories, I would have my students make up their own story and write them down. We would take turn sharing our stories with the class and talk about if any of them had happened to the class.

Module 11

I would develop a 21st Century Information Skills Program for my library media center. I would set up a blog for students and teachers. I would read the students a story when they come into the library for a lesson. On their own time or time their teacher allows them, they would be able to go onto the blog site. I would already have the ending of the book set up. They would have an opportunity to change the ending of the story. This would require them to follow an inquiry-based process, use strategies to draw conclusions, use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways others can view, and use social networks and information tools to gather and share information. This activity would cover all four of the 21st Century Standards. When the classes came back to the library, I would give them an opportunity to share their ending and explain why they wrote it.

Module 7

I would choose an author that the children enjoy reading such as Shel Silverstein. We would read several of his poems and books. I would also share his information about his life so the children can relate to him and his experiences. We would then write about why he wrote about the things that he did.
We would read two or three books about lighthouses. After reading all the books, we would make a chart showing how they are alike and how they are different. We may carry it on and talk about what could really happen in the stories and what could not happen.
Celebrations would be a good and interesting theme to study. I would choose several books about celebrations. Before reading them, we would look at the cover and chart how we think the books will be alike and how they will be different. We would then read the books to see if we were right.

LEM 500 Module 3

Using the first activity I would read two variations of The Three Little Pigs. After reading, we would make a T chart and list the ways they are different and the same. Then we would discuss the different cultures in each story. After the discussion I would ask students to act out their favorite character.
Instead of using four stories with the second activity, I would use two from different countries. We would talk about the characters and their traits. We would then write about what is important to their culture.
After reading "Sleeping Beauty" and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" we would analyze the story together. I would have to be a guide for the class because analyzing is tough for first graders. I would ask open ended quesitons to ge tthe conversation started. Afterwards, the children would write about the two stories in their journals.

Teacher as Student

In my first grade class, I would read a story to the students and ask them to write about what they felt while reading the book and after reading it. We would do this activity with two books during the week and compare to see how the reactions where different. I would ask a variety of questions for discussion. Where you able to relate with a character? Did you find yourself totally into the story? With the second activity, I would tell the children what multicultural literature is by displaying several books. We would read the book and have a question/answer time with partners with me guiding them. I would ask if they felt any similarities of differences with the culture and did something bother you that happened in the story. For the final activity, I would read two books by the same author just like the book said. Instead of having a discussion, I would allow the students to take a Venn-diagram to their seats and complete it with similarities and differences in the books. This is more of an open-ended type assignment.

Definition of Teaching Children's Literature

Teaching Children’s Literature is using an array of genres to teach children up to the age of 14 or 15, in an exciting way to read, understand, and apply lessons in books and stories.

Field Experience 5

February 17, 2009 11:00-2:30
Total time: 20 hours 30 minutes
Objectives: The student will receive fluency practice with the use of the internet. The student will also use the top row of the keyboard with accuracy.

Today in reading centers, my children listened to books on www.unitedstreaming.com. They received fluency practice by hearing someone read the story accurately. This afternoon we went for our weekly visit to the comoputer lab. While there, the students learned how to place their fingers and type letters from the top row of the keyboard. They also started a lesson on the shift key. Each one of them had to attain a seventy or better in order to move onto the new lesson. If they made below a seventy, they had to repeat it. I printed off the class scores and entered them into the STI system.

Another Field Experience

February 10, 2009 7:30-8:00 & 10:00-12:30
Total time: 17 hours

My class is currently taking timed test on 100 subtraction problems in 5 minutes. Their best grade for the nine weeks is used. Therefore, today I changed the setting on FastMath to subtraction 0-12. My intentions are to bring their scores up tremendously. This year my class seems to struggle with subtraction. Two students were able to use it during homeroom and two more during math class. At reading time, I used my overhead to assess students on the oo, ew, and ui sounds by having them read sentences aloud. We also circled the words with these sounds. In centers, my students used www.unitedstreaming.com to listen to stories. This will model how to be a fluent reader.

Now that my students are completing subtraction facts instead of addition, the data changed. Seven students are slow, 9 are at medium speed, and 2 are fast.

Field Experience 3

February 3, 2009 7:30-8:00 and 10:00-2:30
Total Time: 14 hours

Objectives: The students listened to stories, used the home row on the keyboard, and completed addition facts.
Activities: Beginning when the first bell rang, a student began playing FastMath on my one computer. About three students were able to play during homeroom while the other children did seatwork. During reading, several students engaged in Lexia activities. Lexia is great for building phonics knowledge. Speakers are used in order to hear the instructions. Another website used in reading was www.starfall.com. On this particular day, children used starfall to listen to stories for fluency. When we went to the computer lab, we learned how to use the keyboard. The lesson was on the home row. The students watched and listened as the computer told them where to place their fingers on the keyboard. After figuring out how to do this correctly, each child had to type letters and words as they appeared on the screen. I walked around the lab and made sure each student had their fingers in the right position. Several students tried to simply peck the keys. I stopped them and explained they needed to do it correctly now so they would be able to type correctly and at a nice speed later.


EasyTech is a class required of second graders. I have set the program so that all students have to make a 70 or better to move on to the next lesson. All my students met that goal and most of them made an 88 or better on the lesson.

Field Experience 2

January 27, 2009
8:00-9:00 and 12:30-2:30
Total Time: 9 hours
Objectives: The students checked out books using a bar coded card. The students played an electronic addition game and sorted information.
Activities: Checked out library books, Fast Math, and EasyTech

For the first hour of the day I went to my school library and helped the librarian and students. I was introduced the the Destiny program which is used with collections. Many children come in and out of the library at our school. I stood behind the circulation desk and checked out books to the kindergarten through third grade children. During math class, my class rotated turns playing Fast Math. Currently, all eighteen of my students are working on addition facts. They complete a set of addition facts and then can choose from eight games to play. I monitor their progress each week using the grade tracker. It tells me what speed they performed, which facts each child is on, and how many times they have attempted the facts. At the end of the day, we went into the computer lab for another lesson in EasyTech. Today the students sorted information on charts. If they did not perform at seventy percent or better, they had to try again. As they worked, I walked around the room checking to see if each child was on task and able to complete the assigned work.



Fast Math provides reports on student progress. At this time, 2 students are slow, 11 are at a medium speed, and 5 are fast.

Field Experience

January 20, 2009
6 hours
Objectives: The students performed a variety of tasks including Lexia, Accelerated Reader quizzes, and EasyTech. The students determined their scores after taking an Accelerated Reader quiz.
Activities: Morning announcements, Lexia, Reading lesson, Accelerated Reader, and EasyTech

During the course of the day, my second grade students used a variety of technology. To begin the morning, they watched morning announcements on the television. Our announcements are broad casted by several teachers and a third grade student each morning. They learned all the important events for the day and week. In reading class, I taught my lesson using an overhead projector. The students reviewed the oo and ew phonics sound, introduced new vocabulary, and read the morning warm-up. The transparency helped my students comprehend the question in the morning warm-up. It also was a guide for students to not only hear the oo sound, but to see it in the words also. During center time, individual students built phonics skill on a program called Lexia on the computer. It teaches and reviews all the phonics sounds by levels. After reading, I took my class to the computer lab for our weekly EasyTech lessons. This particular day, the entire class learned how to search subjects on the Internet. I will include their scores in my artifacts. Throughout the entire day, children were taking quizzes on books they read three times. After quizzing, they record their scores in a folder for me to check. This program tests comprehension skills.

The AR goals are to make 85% average or better. As of now, 91%of my students are at their goal.