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LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
Write an autobiography of your own reading. What was the first memory you had of a book, of listening to stories? Who read them? Who told them? What were your first memories of writing? As you developed what were your experiences in learning to read and write?
The writing of this personal history will be 'a work in progress' as you revise it during the course. The final revision will be shared with your colleagues along with type-written copy to be handed in. You will begin the initial writing during our first class session. This should not be a 'last minute' piece of writing. The final copy should reflect a well-crafted, thought-out, and thought-provoking piece of quality writing.
Include an ending paragragh describing your own educational philosophy regarding teaching and learning. What role do you believe "reading" plays in the educational process? What are some of the questions, concerns, and/or comments that you have?
Read Aloud
Each student will have the opportunity to read a chapter aloud in each of our sessions. A chapter book will be chosen in class.
BLOG Discussion Forum
"Experience without reflection is hollow" as Cooper and Collins noted in their book The Power of Story. You will be asked to post your comments, reflections, opinions, attitudes, experience on our online discussion forum throughout the class. The website is at https://unm-farmington.tripod.com/invitation/
Learning Record Assessment System
The Learning Record (LRO) is a product of the Center for Language in Learning, whose mission is to offer a fair and trustworthy student evaluation which integrates classroom based assessment and assessment for public accountability. The LR is discussed in our Reading Reminders text on page 118.
In this course, instead of completing a learning record on a student in our classroom, we will complete a LRO on ourselves as students. This process will provide an opportunity to reflect on our own learning, thus experiencing the assessment process first hand.
The purpose of the LRO is to assist and engage students in reflecting about their own development as learners and helping them take more responsibility for that development, and encourages them to pursue it actively.
Part A gives students an opportunity to reflect on their development as readers, writers, and thinkers as they enter the class. The data collection section is in two parts; it engages students in making first-hand observations of ongoing activities, and in selecting relevant examples of work demonstrating their own development over time. In the summary interpetation of Part B, students engage in synthesizing and analyzing the fragmentary data provided by the data collection section in the light of Part A. They develop interpretations of this data as representative of their development across five dimensions of literacy learning: the dimensions of confidence and independence, skills and strategies, knowledge and understanding, the use of prior and emerging experience, and reflectiveness, and they connect these dimensions to the key themes or goals of the course. Finally, in Part C, students present an argument for a grade, based on the reasons and evidence they have developed and provided for readers. At the midterm, they reflect on what they hope to accomplish for the remainder of the semester, and make suggestions for improving the functioning of the class.
Panel Discussions
Initial and final panel discussions are a forum for synthesizing and communicating what students know, what students want to learn, and what students will learn about literacy in this course (KWL).
Readings from Professional Literature
To augment, challenge, and extend the contents of our complementaty texts, students will also read from professional literature - one journal article and one academic book.
Discussion of the book should model the Socratic Method of Inquiry and Reciprocal Teaching. The Socratic thinking will be used throughout our course.
Journal article presentations are oral deliveries of 10-15 minutes (approximately) with the presenter summarizing the article and leading a group discussion with initial questions. Journal articles will be selected and assigned by the instructor and will be on file in our classroom.
Academic book presentations are oral deliveries of 15-20 minutes (approximately) with the presenter highlighting key points leading a group discussion and initiating questions. Obtaining books are the sole responsibility of students.
Reading Strategies
Each student will present a 'Show-N-Tell' demonstrating 2 reading strategies including purpose, process and example of a lesson in the context of a content area of study.
See checklist of Assignments
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