Constructing Blog posts: IRT lessons for young students

              I think that creating a blog post is a great lesson plan because it is very hands-on and allows the student to interact with their learning. It is also great practice that touches upon audience awareness. To begin this lesson, first have the teacher write a response to a book that most students have not read. Then, give the students sticky notes in which they will ask questions pertaining to the teacher's response. Teachers should model thinking aloud, modeling is always helpful for students of all ages. The teacher should read the questions out loud and ask the students why so many questions were asked. It is important to make the point that writing for a particular audience requires writers to think about the information the audience might need or want and to include it in the response. I think that the next phase of this lesson is more beneficial and valuable.
               In the next phase, have the teacher and students should put the questions into categories based on the type of information that it asks about (i.e background information of the book, information about the author, etc.). This requires collaborative work and allows students to evaluate their decisions. Next, the information should be analyzed. This is important because it allows students to understand the significance of the information and also understand why making a response to a universal audience is important. In this phase, students are constantly checking their understanding and interacting with knowledge! After this the teacher can also have students work in small groups. This should help them think of additional information that would contribute to a worldwide audience. In the end, students should be able to come up with their own personal responses. I like this approach because it scaffolds learning independence and involves social collaboration. It is important to have students consider the audience and have them assume that the audience has no prior knowledge of a subject, this results in more detailed and thorough writing.

Where The Wild Things Are Book Review

             Where the Wild Things are is a famous children's book written by Maurice Sendak. The book got made into a movie in October 2009. I chose this book because it does not have a typical message that children's books touch upon. One message of the book is to embrace your imagination while you are young, your imagination can take you to many places. Also, don't judge people by their looks. At first the main character, Max, thought that the wild things were terrible. Max ends up leaving them because he was lonely, the wild things liked him and even made him king of their land. Where the Wild Things are is a one-of-a-kind book and should be read to all young children.   

Chapter 5 Sites and Selection Criteria for Ebooks

              Online ebooks fall into two categories, online read-alouds and interactive storybooks. The book mentions a website called storylineonline.net. Famous actors read children's books out loud. I think this is a great way to engage a student's attention, regardless of whether they know the actor or not. The website is very easy to use, you can listen to stories that have been added recently or earlier. The books on the website are also in alphabetical order. Once you choose the book you want, the page will ask you if you want to view the video with YouTube or Schooltube. From there on, all you have to do is play the video. I especially enjoy this website because some of the actors get really into the reading. Background music also follows the reading. Each video comes with an activity guide for teachers. The guide lists the themes of the book and provides a lesson. It states what a teacher should do before, during and after the video. It also has lessons that touch upon various subjects such as art and social studies. Worksheets/fill-in charts are provided as well. This site is a good resource for teachers. A short summary of the book is provided as well. I think that this website would be helpful, especially in March during reading month.
            Storylineonline.net is easy to navigate and use, it is quite straightforward. I also like how the description of the book tells how long the reading is. Teachers can plan accordingly and choose the duration of the book based on the age group of the children (I don't think that teachers shouldn't choose a reading that is more than 10 minutes for younger children). I think that the website allows a students to form a love for reading. The site is simple to use and students can learn to navigate it easily. The video can be paused, stopped or replayed. This is helpful, especially if students are short on time or if they have a question about the book.

Chapter 4 Vocabulary and Fluency

               An IRT lesson for younger students that involves a read-aloud is provided! I like read-alouds because books that are chosen for this type of reading are developmentally appropriate but are written above the student's reading level. Students are also actively involved in this reading experience. The first step in this lesson is for the teacher to decide what kind of book will be read, highlight vocabulary words, model word learning strategies and decide what video to use to enrich the vocabulary from the read aloud. Videos will be used to support vocabulary instruction. I think this method is helpful and brings word-learning to life. I think this is also beneficial to ELL students. Visuals can be a great way to teach ELL students of words and concepts, it allows them to make connections to what they already know. It is important for the teacher to choose books that are frequently used in the text, these words are probably the most important to the book.
                 Like in every lesson, it is important to activate prior knowledge! This jogs the student's mind and gets them going. 🏃 Explicit instruction is also helpful for younger kids, direct instruction is always best! For instance, when the teacher comes upon an important vocabulary word in the book; he or she should directly state its definition. Making connections when reading is always good and again, activates prior knowledge and creates new knowledge as well. I think that a K-W-L chart would be helpful when teaching a new topic. It allows a student to make connections to what they learned and increase their knowledge.
              Reiterating the importance for students and explain why being able to integrate information from many sources allows students to make connections and synthesize learned information. Using a video as an aid to a book increases a student's multi-tasking skills and allows them to feel comfortable with using more than one source to obtain and learn information. I think that using videos can be helpful in the classroom, but like anything, should be used in moderation and should not be the only source of information. 😄

Chapter 6 Using E-tools to Scaffold comprehension of E-Literature

              Most of the lesson plans, specifically the IRT lesson plans in this book, follow a systematic structure. These IRT lesson plans consist of three phases, the teacher modeling phase, teacher and student demonstrations phase and the independent practice phrase. Lesson plans for younger and older students is provided for comprehension strategies for reading digital texts. In the beginning stages of both lesson plans, modeling is a key step. Modeling allows students to see how they will go about to finish the task. Thinking aloud is also used in the lesson plan for younger students. This strategy is based on listening skills, I think thinking aloud is effective especially with younger children. In the lesson plan geared towards younger children, it mentions to make connections with traditional text and digital text. I like this approach because it makes connections with prior knowledge on print books and compares them to digital text. One difference between digital and traditional print is that digital text has access to search for specific words. In the lesson plan for younger children, children partner up and in the second phase. They have to think aloud with a partner and determine how the illustrations in the e-story extend their understanding of the story. In the last phase, students try to engage in a online storybook independently. I like this approach because it scaffolds a child's learning. The approach gradually leads to independent work. First, the work is modeled, then students work with others and at the end they work by themselves. This approach is similar for older students. 
          Follow-up activities are not necessary, but I think that they serve as an evaluation. Follow-up activities allows the teachers to see if students understood the lesson. Minilessons are great ways to follow-up on student learning. A minilesson could focus on navigation skills. An example of a navigation skill could be selecting search strategies that best accomplish a particular task. This saves time for the student and improves productivity. I think that follow-up activities are beneficial to students because it further commits what they've learned to long-term memory.