Week 1

 

In the first week of class we discussed some of the reasons that older students aren’t able to read on grade level. Reading usually taught in the first few years of school. After about 4^th or 5^th grade teachers stop teaching students how to read. Over the years the difficulty of material students read continues to increase. We have to continue to support students reading journeys in their later years. This could be the reason older students don’t like to read as well. They are having to teach their self these new literacy skills they are seeing in their favorite books. I personally believe this is what happened to me. However, if it was a book in my favorite content area, like science I was more willing to work harder to read it. When read poetry and novels in English class, like Shakespeare, our teachers helped us break down and analyze the text. It helped us understand the context and also built our vocabulary skills. She even let us act out the characters, which helped us follow along with the story. Trying to read Shakespeare alone would have been confusing and discouraging. I wouldn’t have been able to understand the overall idea of the story.

I believe that social networking is beneficial to students since technology is so popular in todays

time. Even though there are some downfalls for using social networking with secondary

classroom instruction, with proper guidance our students can benefit from it greatly. I don’t

believe we will ever live in a time where we use less technology than we do now so learning to

use technology correctly can be a skill that students take with them into their futures. One major role of secondary teachers is to also help prepare students for life after high school whether its college or the work force. Social networking is a great skill to build for a student’s future. It can help connect students with likeminded individuals and future job opportunities.