C4T #3

For this post, I am commenting on Mrs. Diane Dahl. She is a teacher in Texas and her blog is titled, For the Love of Teaching.

The first of Mrs. Dahl's posts I commented on was from November 3rd of 2013. I went back this far because I wanted to read this one a little more. I loved the posters she had pictures of and it intrigued me. It is titled, Thinking Across Content - Good Mathematicians Poster. The very first lines in her post are, "We all know that students who monitor their thinking while reading do better. Therefore it follows that students who monitor their thinking across ALL subject areas will do better in other subjects as well."

She goes on to state that the problems students face is not even knowing they can monitor their thinking in other subjects. I completely agree with her, seeing as I was one of those students and unfortunately my daughter as well. She says there is a language to learning and that the brain looks for patterns to know what knowledge to store. We as teachers need to use this language to help students make inferences, predictions, and determine importance.

Mrs. Dahl created these posters to help her students see the bridges between subject for her students. She uses the same vocabulary, but gears them towards each subject. These are amazing posters and I will definitely use these in my classroom. (Or maybe make a simpler version for the younger students) Mrs. Dahl is a very intelligent person and extremely creative when it comes to helping her students better themselves.

My Comment:
I commented that my daughter and I are those types of students that have trouble monitoring our thinking during other subject and that I found her post to be helpful. I also told her that I was going to save the links to her work for future use. I left a link to my blog and EDM 310 class blog as well.



The second post I commented on was from November 9th of 2013. It was titled "How To Plan And Schedule Guided Reading Groups". As the title suggests, it is her advice and instruction on how to develop reading groups according to the students reading levels. First you determine the reading level, then group them about 4 to a group determining from the previous year. Next you schedule the groups on a calendar, setting them into rotation from lowest levels to highest, planning around assemblies and such. Mrs. Dahl then plans her lessons around this schedule and keeps a great record for the future.

My Comment:
Mrs. Dahl, I have really enjoyed your blog and this one is most helpful for me also. I am still so nervous about making sure my schedules are well planned and organized. I am not the best at either of those and am working on them daily. I like that you plan from the previous year, but am curious how you arrange them as the yer progresses and the students with it. Do you change their groups or just leave them there throughout the year? Again, I have enjoyed reading your posts and as I mentioned before I will be referencing them in my class blog as well. Best Wishes and God Bless! Sabrina Stapleton