Sam McGrath Literacy 2.0

Samantha McGrath Teachers’ impact                 It is not surprising to read about how much of an impact teachers have on their students. You are with them for almost seven hours a day, five times a week. This doesn’t even include after school activities and tutoring sessions. The smallest of actions can greatly affect a student’s outlook on school and their learning process. This chapter discusses some of the things teachers do to help a student feel welcome and inspired. Some of the things mentioned being making eye contact and facial expressions. It is critical that the teacher knows what each student needs to succeed. Whether it be extra help after class, a graphic organizer, being paired with a partner and so much more. It is also essential that teachers make their expectations extremely clear. If a student feels lost or overwhelmed, it is likely they will shut down and fail to meet the assign...

Samantha McGrath Different Types of Learners                 Every student learns differently and there is no one correct way of learning. This concept has been expressed to me constantly through the education courses I have taken so far. I was reminded of this as I was reading the beginning of chapter four. This chapter discussed the importance of creating lessons that respond to a child’s expressive and receptive modes. Being able to create a lesson that a child can not only listen to but read and view is essential. I decided to write about this topic because I didn’t know that having a lesson that simultaneously uses these three senses. Having this knowledge will greatly benefit me when I have my own classroom because I will try and plan my lessons around the needs of my students. After learning this, reading about the use of multimedia to help with learning new words was very interesting. Letting stud...

Book Review                 I chose this book to review because I happened to have just read it to my preschool students today. There is a series of these books similar to this one and my students absolutely love them. The repetitive nature of the book allows the children to get involved and is helpful when they pretend read to themselves or their classmates. The pictures in this book were also a huge hit in my classroom.

Samantha McGrath Online Comments                 I immediately took notice to the example given at the beginning of the chapter where a young third grade student was writing a book review. He noted that he wanted it to be good because not only was the teacher going to see it but his fellow classmates and his grandmother as well. This stood out to me because I could relate to the child’s concerns. Knowing that your peers are going to see and comment on your writing motivates the children to do their best. This is a huge plus to writing online reviews. Children want to do good so as to impress not only their classmates but whoever takes the time to read their work.                 This strategy would go hand in hand with creating a classroom blog as mentioned in the chapter. The student can use not only their prior knowledge to ...

Samantha McGrath Step by Step                 I just took the foundations of reading mtel not to long ago and I noticed many topics that were similar to what can be found in this specific chapter. I was always interested in the steps it took to complete a lesson and for signs to look for indicating which stage developmentally a student is at. On page eighty eight in chapter six, the author lists some skills that teachers should look for while students are reading. The chapter provides navigation skills, comprehension strategies’, strategic behavior and comprehension skills. I was especially intrigued by the strategic behaviors teachers should look for in their students. I noticed that it was mentioned here that students should be asking questions before, during and after reading but not in the other charts found at the beginning of the chapter. I noted this in my chapter summary as well because I was co...