Strategy 1
Your Name: Erin Mcintosh
Name of Strategy: Anticipation Guide
Source: Journal of Family and Consumer Science Education, Vol. 23, No.2, Fall/Winter 2005
Link:
http://www.natefacs.org/JFCSE/v23no2/v23no2Bell.pdf
Description: This strategy suggests that the teacher make an “Anticipation Guide” for students to use before reading text. The anticipation guide would have several facts listed with a “Before” column and a “During” column. Before reading the text the student would read the facts and mark “true” or “false” in the “Before” column. Then the student would read the passage. They would then mark “true” or “false” in the “During” column as they read the facts in the passage.
SCOS: Foods and Nutrition: Meats, Poultry, and Seafood
Why will this work and how will it help students to learn?
The lack of reading and comprehension of material is a concern for most teachers. By using this strategy, teachers can evaluate prior knowledge by discussing the answers the students gave before they read. Students are then held responsible for finding certain facts in their reading and understanding those facts well enough to mark their validity. When I use this strategy, I would probably have the students take the facts they were wrong about and write an essay or summary explaining what they learned from the passage.
General Response: Instructional Strategies
Instructional strategies are very important in each and every classroom and there are tons of them out there. On most of the websites I searched I found very similar activities and strategies. The key is finding the ones that work with your specific students and this is done by trial and error. Some of the strategies I looked at seemed like they were set up more for elementary students but I feel like they could be modified for use in upper grades. I really liked the graphic organizers, oral presentation ideas, text marking, scanning, and summarizing. These techniques are things that can be used in every classroom every day. If every teacher used the same techniques, students would know what to expect and be used to the strategies used. I feel like with consistency in a school these strategies would become habit or second nature to the students. The internet is such great resource for teaching strategies and I am so glad that I was introduced to this pool of resources. I think that it is a shame some teachers never look for or use new teaching strategies in the classroom.
Erin McIntosh
Materials Video
I would use this video when talking about child abuse or finding appropriate and quality child care.
Materials 5 for Family and Consumer Science in High School
Name of Site: PBS Teachers
Link to Resources: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/health/abstinence.html
On PBS Teachers I searched under Health and Fitness for grades 9-12 and found a link to a lesson plan about abstinence. This lesson plan is set up to be taught over three class periods. It begins with introducing the topic of abstinence and assigning an article to read. The link to the article is listed in the lesson plan. The second class period is dedicated to assigning two groups and giving them a side of the argument to debate. The debate is “Does abstinence or easier access to contraceptives decrease teen pregnancy rates?” Have each group take a side and do some more research on the topic. On the third day the students get to argue their side in a real debate using information from their research. I love this idea of getting them involved and interacting in class. They also have to take some responsibility for their own learning. I would also probably have each student write an essay about which side they would really take on the issue and use research to back it up.
Erin McIntosh
Materials 4 for Family and Consumer Science in High School
Name of Site: United Streaming
Link to Resources: http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/search/assetDetail.cfm?guidAssetID=4DA2BF30-A160-4C1E-A41C-664CC2BACCFE
I am familiar with United Streaming and have used it several times in my teaching. The AV guy at my school can usually take the videos and put them on DVDs so that I can show them over the television since I don’t have the projector and lap top. This time I looked specifically for information on child abuse since it is a major issue we cover in my Parenting class. I found a video called “Scared Silent” that was a segment from an Oprah Winfrey show. There is segment about a woman who can trace her child abuse back five generations to the Civil War era and she did this because her uncontrollable rage caused the death of her son when she hit him in the eye with a curtain rod. There is another one where a former abuser talks about abuse and how he now lectures against it using his own story as basis. Usually when I talk about child abuse the students listen to all the facts I give them and I can’t help feeling that the information goes in one ear and out the other. I tried using newspaper articles about real cases and that seemed to work a little better. This semester I came in on the day we talked about abuse and was “verbally abusive” to my students about their work and then apologized and talked with them about how they felt for that few minutes and how they think children who hear that everyday would feel. This seemed to get the point across even better. I believe that using this video would take the topic even further into understanding and really make a lasting impact on the students.
Erin McIntosh
Materials 3 for Family and Consumer Science in High School
Name of Site: SAS In School
Link to Resources: http://www.sasinschool.com/products/pathways/pages/interactivities.shtml
In looking at SAS in Schools I didn’t really find anything that pertained directly to my area but I did find a tool that I could use in general. There is an interactive tool with the English pathway called the Writing Reviser. It is a software program that allows students to copy their written work from a word processing tool into its database. It then reviews the paper in detail looking for spelling, grammar, wording, and other writing mistakes. It has a statistics page in which the mistakes are counted and highlighted. You can watch a demo video on the website. I think I could use this tool when doing our Writing across the Curriculum assignments. It would be a way for students to take more responsibility in their own writing and correcting instead of them relying on me to do that for them. The Writing Reviser would be a great tool to help students write with precision.
Erin McIntosh
Materials 2 for Family and Consumer Science in High School
Name of Site: Kathy Shrock’s Education Resources
Link to Resources: http://www.fabriclink.com/Stains/Washable.cfm
Source: Kathleen B. Shrock for Kathy Shrock’s Education Resources
Unknown for Fabriclink
In my Teen Living class we have a unit that discusses clothing and textiles. One part of the unit is dedicated to the quality and care of different fabrics. We discuss washing, drying, folding, and stain removal. Through searching on Kathy Shrock’s Education Resources I found a link to a website called Fabric Link which contained lots of resources for fabric, textiles, apparel, and home furnishings. All of these areas are taught by Family and Consumer Science teachers. I found a link on this website called Stain Guides which listed a stain index for washable fabrics, carpets, and upholstery. For each type of fabric there are a list of common stains and solutions for getting the stain out. In my classroom I would make a chart with some of the stains listed, have the students guess what would take the stain out, and then reveal the real solution. I could also have a lab activity for this lesson and have a few fabrics with some common stains on them. Then let the students experiment with different solutions to see what works best. The lab activity would work well with students of all levels because they can help each other and communicate to make connections.
Erin Mcintosh
Materials 1 for Family and Consumer Science in High School
Name of Site: Marco Polo/Thinkfinity
Link to Resources: http://www.marcopolo-education.org/EducatorHome.aspx
Thinkfinity has a link to the Thinkfinity Calendar which is a calendar made year round with facts about each day of the year. For example, on May 22 it says that Sir Arthur Conan Dolye, author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, was born in 1859 and it is linked to more information on this topic. I know that this is not necessarily relevant to my subject matter but I thought it might be a cool way to start off each class period. I think it is a neat way to learn fun facts. You could have the information up on the board or overhead when the kids come in and maybe have them copy down the information in a notebook or folder while waiting for class to start….sort of a “bell ringer” activity. Then you could read the linked information to them. This kind of thing would get them settled as soon as they come into the classroom because they know that they are expected to have this copied each day and you have time to get the roll taken, papers sorted, etc. You could also make a calendar for each student and have them fill in the information each day. You could take the calendars up weekly or monthly to check for daily grades. I love this idea and think it would be great in any classroom.
Erin McIntosh
Materials: General Response
I started at the top of the list and went through each of the websites. I was not familiar with most of the websites listed so I really learned quite a bit about what is out there. Some of the websites were not helpful to me at all. It is hard to find resources for my content areas sometimes without having to make it a stretch to claim relevance. For example, on PBS Teachers I searched for resources on family structure and life and I found a video called “On the Contrary” that was about immigrant families. It was very interesting and I could probably use it to show differences in families but it seemed more like an Economics video. (You can get a free copy of that video for your classroom on the website.) On most of the sites I found videos or links to videos. I love using videos and clips as teaching tools but I just don’t have the resources in my classroom to use them. I only have one computer and no projection system so when I want to use clips I have to gather all of my students around my one computer. It can be tricky. Also I found some of the websites to be blocked from my school computer so I would not be able to access some of the interactive resources. I really liked the way that some of them linked up with other resource sites so that you feel you have other places to go. Overall I found the websites to be very helpful and I look forward to further exploration and use of them.
Erin McIntosh
Reactions to Readings
In “From Efficient Decoders to Strategic Readers” Vacca makes it apparent that even though early literacy programs are important, it often stops there. Adolescents often get little or no further instruction on using reading and writing. It is assumed that once children learn to read and write, they will be able to use those skills for the rest of their lives. However, without continued training and tweaking these children do not advance in their reading and writing skills causing them to fall behind in middle and high school. These children have the skills but do not know how to use them efficiently.
I agree with Vacca that all teachers in all subject areas share the responsibility of developing literacy skills. In my personal classroom I use several different techniques to work on literacy skills. I use Alphaboxes in which students are asked to read a passage and significant words from the passage in the Alphaboxes. My school also fosters a program called Writing across the Curriculum in which every teacher is required to make every student in every class write on a topic following the writing process. We have to turn these writing samples in three times a year and they are kept in files in the main office. The administration reads a sample from every class and comments back to the teacher on their progress. It seems to work really well.
In “You Can’t Learn Much from Books You Can’t Read” Allington brings to light the problem with textbooks. Most of them are written two or more years above the grade level of the students. Students need textbooks that they can read fluently, accurately, and with high levels of understanding however, policy makers and those above the educators have found it necessary to include “textbooks” in classroom curriculum. I feel that using other texts along with the text book is a better way of incorporating literature into the classroom. I like to use magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and other outside material in my classroom to mix up the readings.
Erin McIntosh
