Heather's Middle School Literacy Blog

Social Studies is most commonly associated as the boring class about irrelevant information for students. It's often difficult for students to form meaningful connections between themselves and the content. An effective way to engage students in Social Studies includes using interactive resources that allow them to create their own experiences with the content. A helpful resource I found is the Smithsonian Learning Lab . This resource allows teachers and students to view several of the worlds most historic artifacts in a virtual museum. It also provides helpful videos and texts by experts. A feature that I think is very beneficial as a teacher is the "Create" tab. Through this tab, teachers and hand-select the resources they want to use for a given unit. This compiles all of the resources into one space for the students to engage with. Social Studies teachers should definitely consider the Smithsonian Learning Lab as a helpful resource, because it helps bring history to...

How Smart Readers Think Daniels and Zemelman's  Subjects Matter  Chapter 2 discusses how to use appropriate reading strategies to increase reading comprehension. The authors argue that we sometimes struggle as readers, not because we can't read, but because we don't know the right ways to approach the text provided. Not having comprehension strategies established early in our reading careers significantly impacts our overall literacy later in school and in life. To combat this, the authors listed the stages of reading and the goals assigned to each stage to help both students and teachers recognize the steps necessary to approach a reading passage.              The authors challenged me and how I personally perceive reading but showing how complex the reading process is. In order to truly comprehend the text in front of us, we use a variety of processes, often unconscious to us as we read. I often skip t...

I read Dr. Suess' Hop on Pop. This book uses fun rhyming words to help establish foundation reading skills for your readers. The words used help students recognize patterns and similar sounds between words. Though the story has no clear storyline, the diction is specific to young readers learning how to pronounce various words. The illustrations also help students connect words to images, helping them create meaning to what they are reading. Hop on Pop is a fun way to introduce reading and basic comprehension to children.  Word Count: 84