Week 1 - A confusing beginning
During the first week, I learned not only about the material in book, but also about how I'm going to work with other students in class.
The material in part 1 helps me to know about myself like visual is my learning style, night time is when I'm most alert, and my intelligence. A reading about Louis Armstrong is also a perfect moral for me. Thanks to the story about Louis Armstrong, about his love to music and his amazing motivation to reach his goal, my determination to reach my dream is higher than ever. My confidence is also gained since I figured out that my IQ is higher than average even though my verbal and general knowledge talents are not really good.
To construct a paragraph, writers have to have a specific purpose or direction in mind so that they can collect other elements like details to support main idea, and create a clear and logical paragraph. In part 2, I learned not only about the writer's purpose, paragraph's structure, but also about elements which create a paragraph. Since I've learned about these lessons before, it didn't take me much time to review everything. However, paragraph diagrams are new tools which help me to locate main idea in each paragraph more easily (page 96). Visual learners like me work more effective with charts, pictures, maps, and diagrams; therefore, paragraph diagrams are very helpful to identify main idea from details. Also, transition words, which show the relationship between ideas with sentences and paragraphs (page 177), give me more information to identify patterns of paragraph organization, improve comprehension, and take a better note while reading.
First week of class was really confusing to me because I had no idea what I have to do at home and how can I turn in my homework, which was written on the syllabus, and who is my pattern for each project. But thanks to other students in the class most of my questions were answered clearly. I'm quite worried about my accent because I have to read and help other 6th grade students to improve their reading skill. However, the project sounds pretty exciting to me so I think rather worrying, I should start to prepare for my project and have fun with these kids.
The material in part 1 helps me to know about myself like visual is my learning style, night time is when I'm most alert, and my intelligence. A reading about Louis Armstrong is also a perfect moral for me. Thanks to the story about Louis Armstrong, about his love to music and his amazing motivation to reach his goal, my determination to reach my dream is higher than ever. My confidence is also gained since I figured out that my IQ is higher than average even though my verbal and general knowledge talents are not really good.
To construct a paragraph, writers have to have a specific purpose or direction in mind so that they can collect other elements like details to support main idea, and create a clear and logical paragraph. In part 2, I learned not only about the writer's purpose, paragraph's structure, but also about elements which create a paragraph. Since I've learned about these lessons before, it didn't take me much time to review everything. However, paragraph diagrams are new tools which help me to locate main idea in each paragraph more easily (page 96). Visual learners like me work more effective with charts, pictures, maps, and diagrams; therefore, paragraph diagrams are very helpful to identify main idea from details. Also, transition words, which show the relationship between ideas with sentences and paragraphs (page 177), give me more information to identify patterns of paragraph organization, improve comprehension, and take a better note while reading.
First week of class was really confusing to me because I had no idea what I have to do at home and how can I turn in my homework, which was written on the syllabus, and who is my pattern for each project. But thanks to other students in the class most of my questions were answered clearly. I'm quite worried about my accent because I have to read and help other 6th grade students to improve their reading skill. However, the project sounds pretty exciting to me so I think rather worrying, I should start to prepare for my project and have fun with these kids.
Week 2 - Getting better
In the second week, I learned about Part 3 which emphasizes on reading as an interpretive process and Part 4 which focuses on modes of writing.
There are lots of things to learn in Part 3 like figurative language which is an expression that I can’t understand by its literal meaning (page 259), analogy a special type of comparison, and allusion. I also took a quick review of inference and the difference between verbal irony and situational. There are also some emotional readings in this part that I love. First is “The yellow ribbon”(page 278) a warming heart story about forgiveness and love of a wife to her husband after 4 years waiting for him, and “Thomas Broderick” (page 245) an amazing person who can overcome hardships and help others who in his shoe believe in life again.
In contrast with Part 3, Part 4 is a quick review about modes of writing and modes of organization. However, I have a chance to learn about relationships between birth order and family member through a reading named "Sibling Relationships and Birth Order" (page 349). This reading caught my attention immediately when I saw its title. I have two older sisters so thanks to it, I now can understand all pressures that my sisters have had from my family.
This is also the first week I spent with my reading partners. First, I was very worried not only about my accent, but also about my ability to teach the kids how to recognize modes of writing and modes of organization in just 25 minutes. Luckily, my first partner was a Vietnamese - American girl. Her name is Nyla. Therefore, there are some kinds of connection between her and I, and we got to know each other in just a moment. All of the kids are very sweet. Even though the material that I prepared was boring, they all tried to learn. I knew there is something missing in my meeting with them, maybe a fun part, or something that can get their interests. Therefore, in the next meeting, I created a separate paper which includes a summary of my lesson and pictures for decoration. It was showed to my kids all the time I was explaining my lesson to them. The result was more than what I expected. All of them were able to get the material and did a good job on the assignment that I gave. I was very proud of my kids. However, there is a problem at my second meeting. I got a new kid named Carlos. Everything was going smoothly until another group came in and cut off our time. I looked at a clock and realized that Carlos’s group was late. Although I just had about 10 minutes with Carlos, I was so pleased when I saw him laughing and having a good time when I was reading a book to him.
There are lots of things to learn in Part 3 like figurative language which is an expression that I can’t understand by its literal meaning (page 259), analogy a special type of comparison, and allusion. I also took a quick review of inference and the difference between verbal irony and situational. There are also some emotional readings in this part that I love. First is “The yellow ribbon”(page 278) a warming heart story about forgiveness and love of a wife to her husband after 4 years waiting for him, and “Thomas Broderick” (page 245) an amazing person who can overcome hardships and help others who in his shoe believe in life again.
In contrast with Part 3, Part 4 is a quick review about modes of writing and modes of organization. However, I have a chance to learn about relationships between birth order and family member through a reading named "Sibling Relationships and Birth Order" (page 349). This reading caught my attention immediately when I saw its title. I have two older sisters so thanks to it, I now can understand all pressures that my sisters have had from my family.
This is also the first week I spent with my reading partners. First, I was very worried not only about my accent, but also about my ability to teach the kids how to recognize modes of writing and modes of organization in just 25 minutes. Luckily, my first partner was a Vietnamese - American girl. Her name is Nyla. Therefore, there are some kinds of connection between her and I, and we got to know each other in just a moment. All of the kids are very sweet. Even though the material that I prepared was boring, they all tried to learn. I knew there is something missing in my meeting with them, maybe a fun part, or something that can get their interests. Therefore, in the next meeting, I created a separate paper which includes a summary of my lesson and pictures for decoration. It was showed to my kids all the time I was explaining my lesson to them. The result was more than what I expected. All of them were able to get the material and did a good job on the assignment that I gave. I was very proud of my kids. However, there is a problem at my second meeting. I got a new kid named Carlos. Everything was going smoothly until another group came in and cut off our time. I looked at a clock and realized that Carlos’s group was late. Although I just had about 10 minutes with Carlos, I was so pleased when I saw him laughing and having a good time when I was reading a book to him.
Week 3...
This week, I learned about reading critically, which is one of the hardest skills that I need to gain in order to prepare for CRE 101. However, it was interesting when I learned about propaganda which refers to the spreading of ideas to further a cause (page 497). Propaganda is used for advertising and political parties. I had seen, and heard many advertisements before without acknowledging about this technique so it is very useful to be aware of propaganda techniques in order to evaluate the accuracy and fairness of the message. I also learned about persuasive techniques like tear- jerking stories being empathy to people and causes, psychological appeals appealing to people's desire for power, prestige, or popularity, figurative analogies, and manipulation of tone (page 523-525). Last part of the text book is about improving classroom skills like using scanning to quickly find answers to specific questions (page 574) and skimming reading material quickly to gain an overview of points (page 559). Annotating, outlining, mapping, and making chart are also parts of my last lesson. It was necessary to be aware of these techniques in order to get used to organizing; however, I just took a quick review because the material was familiar to me, and I spent more time to my reading project.
Last time I used chart, pictures, and summary to help my kids study, and it worked so well that I decided to do it again. Finding a picture book about social issue was really a challenge this time. I spent hours at the library but I still couldn't find anything; therefore, I decided to find a book which can help me to teach my lesson. A story that I chose was about Mike Milligan and his steam shovel. At the beginning of the story, Mike says that his steam shovel can dig in a day as much as a hundred men can dig in a week, which is an opinion because he isn't sure about that. Until the end of the story when he can prove to everyone that this is true, his opinion becomes a fact, so I think this story is a perfect example for my lesson, fact and opinion. There were a lot of surprises on the last day. Each of my kids gave me a card which I would never expect to receive from them. I was so happy and speechless when they said they would miss me. That was a very special day to me.
