Blog #2

My first response will be to Alex Moore blog #1.  She pulled from the syllabus a statement that I just glanced at while I was reading, "literacy is the core of teaching and learning".  As Alex stated, we often hear about literacy but never really understood why and what was the use of it.  I feel that in this class we learn literacy on a higher level and how to teach older students.  Literacy is demanded in the classroom and it is important that students can use literacy to improve their educational performances.

My second response will be to Crystal Wolf blog #1.  Chrystal and I noticed the same thing in the syllabus which was how this course will integrate literacy with technology.  Students love hands-on activities and technology.  Integrating technology with literacy gives students a better outlook on literacy and they are more eager to learn.

This article was very informational and the strategies presented in this article were helpful.  When I began to read this article, I knew it was definitely something I wanted to read.  A part of literacy is writing and as stated in the article, writing helps increase reading comprehension.  As I started reading reading this article, I noticed the statement "writing to learn differs from learning to write".  Once I read that I asked myself, "How will I teach the difference?"  Then I continued reading that "writing to learn" is basically expressing yourself and improving comprehension.  "Learning to write" is learning the basics of writing such as grammar usage and sentence and paragraph structure.  One of the assessments this article focuses on is assessing writing and how the teacher feedback is important.  When accessing writing it is important to keep in mind the fundamentals of writing and how the student writes.  This article also points out how rubrics and checklists are helpful for teachers so they want be as bias when they grade.  My question is, "How will I be able to assess students' writings?"  I know that as a teacher I must teach writing based off the present curriculum so students will learn the required material.  I must have students do activities such as reading logs to enhance their thinking and make them think critically.  

Content Area Literacy M/W
http://fu-ctge-5548.wikispaces.com/file/view/Knipper+and+Duggan.pdf