Barb Rentenbach Presentation

I thought Barb Rentenbach's presentation was fascinating. It was so interesting to hear Barb's writing, and recognize her amazing language abilities. Her thoughts were so deep and she had a very unique perspective on life. I also loved her witty sense of humor that was so evident during the question and answer session. After seeing how long it takes her to type, I am amazed at her patience and dedication in writing an entire book. The main thing I took away from this presentation is how intelligent Barb is and how she does not let her autism hold her back. When I have students with autism in my class, I will work very hard allow them to communicate through whatever means necessary. I now fully recognize that verbal communication is no indication of intelligence and that someone can be extremely intelligent even without being able to communicate verbally.

Group Differences Forum

I thought the group differences forum was very interesting. I learned a lot from the article that I read about poverty. I was not surprised that poor White and Hispanic children were less likely to be involved in organized activities. However, I was surprised to learn that Black children were equally likely to participate in organized activities such sports or church choir, regardless of whether or not they were living in poverty. I would have liked to learn even more about the effects that poverty can have on children.

I was also interested in what the other groups talked about. The first thing that really stood out to me was the disability group's discussion about inclusion. I felt like this was a very important concept and it was nice to hear everyone's opinions. Secondly, I was very interested in the discussion about religion. It is such a controversial topic, and that was obvious even just from the differing opinions in our class. Honestly, I would have liked to spend even more time discussing that topic.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the group differences forum. The only real suggestions I have to improve it would be to give more time for discussion. There was so much valuable information, and I feel like we could have easily discussed it for several class periods. However, I realize that this might not be possible because of everything else that needs to be fit into the semester.

PLE #10 Language Development

Language plays a very important role in cognitive development. I hope to work with 4th or 5th grade students, who would generally be in the 9-11 year old age range. According to Ormrod, students in this age range have knowledge of about 80,000 words, have the general ability to understand figurative language, and are working on subtle refinements in syntax (mostly as a result of formal instruction). Ormrod suggests several strategies to use when teaching language arts to students in this age group. Some of these include: distinguishing between similar abstract words, exploring complex syntactic structures, and considering underlying meanings and messages in poetry and fiction. I hope to someday incorporate all of these techniques in my classroom.

Below is a link to an article with some great tips for teaching language arts using basic office supplies
Everything I Know About Teaching Language Arts I Learned at the Office Supply Store
Some of my favorite suggestions from the article include...
* Use post-it notes to mark figurative language in a text. Write each one on an index card and allow students to select one to use as the first sentence in a piece of fiction that they are going to write.
* Use post-it notes to mark new or interesting vocabulary words.
* Have students highlight "hot spots" when writing. For example, anytime a student has to pause to guess how to spell a word, or to wonder if they need a comma, or if they should use "I" or "me," they highlight that spot in the draft and keep writing. Later, when they're ready to consider mechanics, they go back to the "hot spots" and double-check their guesses with a dictionary, grammar handbook, or proofreading partner.