Chapter 10

Observation:

I think that this chapter is dealing with something that a lot of basal and skills-driven classroom are neglecting to do. This chapter deals with making meaning from the text, texts that interest the students, texts that encourage and develop a student's love for reading. 

Connection:

As a personal connection, I remember doing a lot of the example activities back when I was in high school. These activities encouraged me to read more and sparked curiosity in terms of other books that I have not read yet. I just wish I can do this more often with my students.

Question:

I can actually see doing this during my small groups. I am just wondering what are the suggested classroom management strategies can one use when introducing these sort of activities? What should the classroom atmosphere be like? The classroom text sets needs time to build, if you are introducing this for the very first time, what websites can you recommend to help you organize your classroom sets?

Surprise:

What surprised me is the thought that this strategy is doable even when you are using the Open Court Reading Program. It is one method that  a teacher can utilize to encourage better comprehension of themes that Open Court uses. 

Chapter 9

Quotes:

1. With a portfolio as evidence of a student's learning process, it is possible to construct a portrait, "one that a teacher and student can learn from long after the isolated moment of assessment" (Wolf, 1989, p.39)

2. According to K. Goodman (1969), miscues are not random errors, but are based on predictions and hypotheses the reader has about the different cues.

Questions:

1. I agree with all of the alternative assessment examples, however, as a teacher, when should or can you write down your observation or record comments on what each child said, especially if you have 30 kids in the classroom?

2. What other examples and ways you can do alternative assessment? 

Issue:

1. If you are working for the district, and you have mandated assessments to give your students, how can you do these alternative assessments that you like?