From WolfWikis

This wiki contains articles, opinions, and other written pieces relating to the ECI 430 and 435 course experience.

Our Insights on Journals / Journaling

1. What We Know About Journals / Journaling in General

2. What Journal Articles / Experts in the Field Have to Tell Us About Journals / Journaling (required)

3. What We're Seeing in the Field with regard to Journals / Journaling

4. What We Have Experienced Ourselves with regard to Journals / Journaling

5. Possible Purposes of Journals / Journaling

6. Possible Formats for Journals / Journaling

7. Other Observations, Questions, Comments regarding Journals / Journaling

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Thematic Unit Ideas / Themes

Devon Banks

• doing this on the QFolio

1. Content Focus Possibilities: A Midsummer Night's Dream 2. Ideas for Themes: love, magic, dreams, etc.

Rachel Blair

• doing this on the Qfolio

1. Content Focus Possibilities: beginning of the 1900s, the Great Depression, WWII

2. Ideas for Themes: Roaring 20s! Progressivism, Civil Rights, Flappers, Alcohol, Industrialization, Inventions

Anna Brinn 1. Content Focus Possibilities: 2. Ideas for Themes: World War I, World War II, Europe, Russia. I will be teaching the end of Europe and the beginning part of Russia. My CT and I talked about doing a jigsaw puzzle appoarch in LA and have different groups read different novels and then place them in groups with people that read different novels and have them discuss them. The books would be tied to WWII because that will be the focus of what I teach in Europe. We are still coming up with the novels and have not yet discussed what we will be doing for the Russia unit. 3. List of Possible Materials:

Sarah Camilli

• Doing this on Q-folio

1. Content Focus Possibilities: Escape From Warsaw by Ian Serraillier

2. Ideas for Themes: My CT is going to be supporting me in teaching the novel Escape From Warsaw about a separated family that is fleeing Poland during World War II and is hoping to be reunited in Switzerland. I will be teaching obvious literary parts of the novel, ie: characters, themes, plot, etc. as well as the larger implications of WWII.

Randal Decker

1. Content Focus Possibilities: a) Japan: WWII; b) China: Great Wall; c) East Asia: Religions
2. Ideas for Themes: a) The Changing Ways of Japan: A look at the expansion of Imperialist Japan and how the war disrupted this plan. b) The Will and Determination of Multiple Generations: Gaining an understanding for why the Great Wall was built and by whom. c) Abraham and Moses Who? Discovering Buddhism, Confucianism, Shintoism, and Taoism - the religions far removed from the West.
3. List of Possible Materials:

Christie Flintosh

• Doing this on Q-Folio

1. . Content Focus Possibilities: World War I
2. . Ideas for Themes: Technology, Politics, Power, Industry

Andrea Gambino 1. Content Focus Possibilities: Trail of Tears, 1920's, Reconstruction in NC, Dred Scott/Slavery and NC's role. 2. Ideas for Themes: Interactive technology exploring the geographical aspects of the Trail of Tears (students will make lotus diagrams to display what they learn about the trail of tears). 1920's...studying the movement of "the flappers." Reconstruction and how NC's economy has changed. Dred Scott/Slavery...music as an escape during slavery and what happened in NC during this time. 3.

Joanna Green

1. Content Focus Possibilities: *South/Central America, Western Europe
2. Ideas for Themes: Latin Music! *"Where Exactly is Central America?", history through pop culture, *natural resources (COFFEE)

• doing this on the Q-Folio

Katie Janke 1. Content Focus Possibilities: Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

2. Ideas for Themes: fantasy elements, death/dying, family, cylce of life- maybe water cycle, journal responses, making pamphlets about Treegap based on web quests

• I am going to do this on the Qfolio because my focus- Tuck Everlasting is being linked to Jennifer's link since she is doing the same thing.

Hannah Jernigan 1. Content Focus Possibilities: I will be doing literary circles. I have not decided on the roles that I want the students to have for the literary circles. The interlocking theme will be the hero. Every Friday we are going to do writing work shops. 2. Ideas for Themes: Heroes 3. List of Possible Materials: Artemis Fowl, Uglies, The Outsiders, Storm Breaker, and The Lightening Theif

Jennifer Jones

1. Content Focus Possibilities: Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (and probably some aspect of Latin America and South America)

2. Ideas for Themes: Fantasy, Immortality/Death, Decision Making/Social Choices, Symbolism (Wheel, toad) Life Cycles (could relate to science)

Lisa Kelly-Rouse

How does Government Work?

• Q-Folio

Elizabeth King 1. Content Focus Possibilities: For my unit, my teacher wants me to spend a month teaching Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. 2. Ideas for Themes: For my theme I am thinking about social justice. I think that I could tie in so much by using that theme (music, art, poetry, short stories, as well as social studies.) 3. List of Possible Materials: more to come.

Shanta Lightfoot 1. Content Focus Possibilities: Eastern Europe/Russia- Nonfiction Texts, Evaluative Essay 2. Ideas for Themes: immigration, evaluative essay, reading nonfiction 3. List of Possible Materials: current events,

• Doing this on qfolio

Melissa Lowder SEE the e-folio

1. Content Focus Possibilities: WWI, WWII, HOLOCAUST, COLD WAR...compare contrast Holocaust to Sept. 11 paper 2. Ideas for Themes: 3. List of Possible Materials:

Catherine Lucas 1. Content Focus Possibilities: NC's role in the Civil War & Reconstruction

2. Ideas for Themes:

• "A House Divided"

Betsy Nay 1. Content Focus: Anne Frank 2. Theme: Loss

Keith Phillips Content Focus- Communicable Disease Themes- Black Plague, Malayria in Africa, Healthcare systems around the world. Materials- ?

Laura Piraino

1. Content Focus Possibilities: Mythology, Astrology; Roman Mythology, Greek Mythology, Inca Mythology

2. Ideas for Themes: 1) Explaining Science through Myths; The Common Thread. 2) Literature among the Stars

3. List of Possible Materials: ? -- working on it

Diana Plum 1. Content Focus Possibilities: 2. Ideas for Themes: 3. List of Possible Materials:

Anna Rollins 1. Content Focus Possibilities: The Outsiders 2. Ideas for Themes: Identity 3. List of Possible Materials: See Q-folio

Lyndsey Thompson

• • Doing this on the Q-Folio **

1. Content Focus Possibilities: Milkweed or A Midsummer's Night Dream

2. Ideas for Themes:

3. List of Possible Materials:

Jeanne Viva Working on Q-folio 1. Content Focus Possibilities: 2. Ideas for Themes: 3. List of Possible Materials:

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Defining Reading/Writing Workshop and Other Ways of Organizing the Middle Grades ELA Classroom

1. What We Know In General About Reading/Writing Workshop

2. What Nanci Atwell and Linda Rief Have to Say About Reading/Writing Workshop

3. What We’re Seeing in the Field with Regard to Reading/Writing Workshop

4. Other Observations, Information, Questions About Reading/Writing Workshop

5. Other Ways to Organize/Structure the Middle Grades English Language Arts Classroom

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Inquiry Topics / Ideas

This section of our wiki includes an evolving and expanding collection of inquiry topics being explored during the semester. From here you will begin the process of developing your inquiry ideas. A list of inquiry topics is below. The first task in this assignment is to develop an inquiry-related idea. Your idea should be of personal value and should be unexplained or problematic. Begin by simply posting your idea. We will continue by exploring various dimensions of your inquiry topic relating to your own knowledge of the topic and your knowledge of how to teach about the topic.

Devon Banks

1. Darfur/Genocide in Africa
2. Pirates in North Carolina
3. Pearl Harbor

Rachel Blair

1. WWII soliders and life on the homefront
2. American female factory workers (1900s)
3. Piracy, Blackbeard, shipwrecks

Anna Brinn

1. Blackbeard and Piracy in North Carolina

Sarah Camilli

1. Homelessness in North Carolina
2. Poverty in Africa-Causes and Solutions
3. Women of the 1950's in NC-- Then vs. Now

Randal Decker

1. The changing promises of democracy in America
2. Should anyone be starving (today) in our world?
3. "Now I lay me down to sleep...." : Scaring children to be good; a method to revisit?

Christie Flintosh

• Children of the Tsunami

1. The Tsunami Disaster in Asia, 2004
2. The Palm Islands of Dubai
3. Frankie Silver
4. Ghost Stories: Reading & Writing about people of the past
5. The Wright Brothers: What if air travel wasn't possible?
6. Learning about Cultures (African &Asian): Create your own Culture & Language

Andrea Gambino

1. How musicians from NC get their roots from the region they are from? Music:

Joanna Green

1. 19th Century British Literature: How are children represented? (Dickens, Bronte, Austen, etc.)
2. Mediterranean Sea: countries bordering, people, culture, religion
3. South American Literature: Famous authors, young adult literature

Katie Janke

1. Children of the Holocaust
2. Sioux Culture and what this tribe is doing now

Hannah Jernigan

1. Ghost Stories of North Carolina: there are themes about when ghost stories pop up...so i want to examine the trends of what points in history ghost stories arise, and try to form a cultural connection. Also, the places where ghost stories pop up are historically rich, so I want to examine the history of the particular place; learn the different versions of the stories. Go visit the site and document the experience history...its ALIVE!!!

Jennifer Jones

1. Dialects/Accents in North Carolina
2. South American language and culture
3. Russian culture/history

Lisa Kelly-Rouse

1. Adolescents on the "Home front" during WWII.
2. Countries of Africa
3. Dyslexia
4. Burial Rites of Different Cultures ***

Liz King

1. Darfur/Genocide in Africa
2. Aids in Africa/ Red Campaign
3. The Holocaust
4. Russian Culture
5. South American Cultures
6. Immigration (Ellis Island)
7. Rasputin

Shanta Lightfoot

1. South American culture-Political Unrest (Eva & Juan Peron)
2. Early exploration of South America

Melissa Lowder

1. Ancient Egypt
2. Finding the cause of degradation of long leaf pines in NC, and southeastern portion of US--also pose questions for prevention and future conservation.

Catherine Lucas

1. The aftermath of Katrina two years later
2. Early settlers/settlements in NC

Betsy Nay

1. The impact and use of journaling in the classroom
2. The changing role of women in the classroom

Keith Phillips

1. Vikings- Exploration and Conquest
2. Incan Empire
3. Drug Cartels in South America- A Subculture of Columbia's Largest Export

Laura Piraino

1. Egyptian Pyramids/ Sphinx
2. Leisure Activity in America
3. Mnt Everest

Diana Plum

1. Race Riots in the South
2. Concentration camps during the Holocaust
3. The Great Depression (causes, effects, impact on North Carolina)

Anna Rollins

1. Human Impact on the Environment: Our “footprint;” What can be done to lessen the impact?; Depleting natural resources, global warming, costal erosion, etc
2. Pollution/Global Warming
3. Nursery Ryhmes: The truth behind the childrens stories
4. The importance of Reader Response in the classroom

Lyndsey Thompson

1. Relationship between Music and Politics
2. Music that makes a statement
3. Protest music during the late 60s and early 70s (Vietnam War era)
4. How does music reflect the social issues in the present?

Jeanne Viva

1. Representation of the desire for change through Icons of mythological proportion. What happens can be the idealized by a group within a culture representing an idea desired for change. I would like to find an example of this happening in the Americas and show how and why misrepresentation happens and how kids then take these ideas to represent ideas of perceived fact.

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Questions About Language and/or the Teaching of Language

Devon Banks

How can I implement more grammar into the class if it's one of the lesser mentioned items in the curriculum?

How do I treat each student fairly when assigning reading and homework?

Rachel Blair

How do I know when to correct a mistake in a student's writing and when to ignore it?

How do I know what I should expect from my students in their reading/writing abilities? How do I know if I am pushing them too hard or not hard enough?

Anna Brinn How do I make it so that my students feel like it's "cool" to read and carry around books? How do I set up a community in which students feel comfortable discussing books and sharing their ideas with the class? How do I teach literature to students with different disablities? How do I teach language arts to students in my class that are on different grade levels?

Sarah Camilli How can I make sure that all my students are getting these grammar lessons, and retaining the information? How do I know my students are interested and engaged? How do I make grammar interesting, and not a chore? How can I get students that don't like to read to read? How can I make sure that students on lower levels are grasping the concepts I'm exploring with the class? What is expected of me as far as ESL students are concerned?

Randal Decker

- How will I be able to convince a non-reader to open a book that perhaps I, a historically lax-reader, have never read?

- What if what I, as a student teacher, recommend to the student is later found by the teacher to be incorrect? Will I loose that student's faith in my assisting them in the future? How will I be able to get it back?

Christie Flintosh

1. Is it okay to teach a lesson on the using a "poetic license?"
2. How do I incorporate using poetry into a lesson or unit?
3. Is Instant Messaging and Texting considered a language and can you use it as an example in class?
4. Can you teach language by using different forms of communication such as morse code, symbols, truckers etc.
5. Is middle school to early to teach professional language versus your own language?
6. Can you teach sentence diagramming in middle school with the noun phrases and verb phrases?
7. So is it you teach English as a language so they understand what the grammar is for?

Andrea Gambino

1. What is an engaging way to teach parts of speech...grammar...etc?
2. Can diagramming sentences be fun for students?
3. What are some good ways to do a study of regional dialects (an integrated study in within NC History) with 8th grade students?

Joanna Green

1. Is it ok to use music to teach grammar or poetry?
2. How do you teach grammar to a wide variety of abilities without losing half to boredom?
3. Is it proper to use more informal evaluation and activity (experiential) based learning to avoid the classic "busywork" associated with grammar?

Katie Janke 1. How do I effectively teach grammar to my students in an efficient way? 2. How do I figure out the ability levels of my students at the beginning of the year?

Hannah Jernigan 1. How does a teacher inspire a student, to learn, to read, to live! What role does the teacher's use of language, and the students use of language have in this process? 2. What role does launguage have in the transition from spectator to living part of history, does the blackballing of the word "I" in intelligent circles reflect a cultural phenmenon, or is it a contributor to the spectator mentality? 3. Should I tell my students not to use "I" in research papers? 4. How do i reconcile the "I" which is shunned in the academic world, while still encouraging my students that they are more than just spectators of history?

Jennifer Jones

• How do I teach grammar to all of my students when they have different abilities without boring some or losing some students?
• How do I balance what my students want to read/learn versus what the curriculum says they have to read/learn?

Lisa Kelly-Rouse

1. Are we free to teach grammar by innovative means or are we restricted to a predetermined curriculum?

2. How much help can we expect to receive for students who do not speak the language at all or students who are severely behind?

3. Knowing we may face criticism for teaching grammar in a way we know now to be most effective(in context, mini-lesson format, not as a means to improve writing),what is the best way to convince parents, colleagues or perhaps even principals of what we believe, without alienating or defying them?

Liz King

• There are some students who go throughout school without learning to read well. Some statistics show that there are those who cannot even read their diploma. How can a student be allowed to graduate high school without being able to read? Who is responsible for this and how can we as teachers be sure we are sending literate students out into the world?

Shanta Lightfoot

• My concern is grammar, I know that grammar was not pushed when I was in school and therefore I wasn't taught it. The class that I thought would teach grammar, was not expected.
• I'm also really concerned about managing time in the classroom so that the things that we are doing are meaningful for the students without giving a lot of homework.

Melissa Lowder

• When suggesting a book for a student, how do I approach them? I want to offer choices, but how do I suggest a book without sounding like they have to read it or making them feel guilty if they do not read it?

• How do I effectively teach grammar if I have not had any formal training to do so?

• I feel very strongly about not giving busy work to students, how do I make sure that all of my assignments are meaningful?

Catherine Lucas

1. As we know students write better and learn more when they are directly involved in the writing process. How can you make sure students are deeply involved in the process? 2. As teachers how do we choose the most meaningful topics of focus for our students? 3. How do we make sure to meet the writing needs of our students through activities?

Betsy Nay

• How do you teach language while still keeping your students interested and curious?
• How do you handle situations when your personal lack of language knowledge is exposed? ie, How do you handle questions you don't know the answer to?
• How should you use context to teach grammar without making papers bleed to death?

Keith Phillips 1. What are some specific ways that grammar can be taught during reading assignments as oppossed to writing assignments that would still engage students? 2. How much time should be spent on the sunject of grammar by itself, if any?

Laura Piraino

• How can I engage my students and know that they are engaged?
• I am a horrible speller and have my fears about writing on the board/overhead; should I discuss this with my students at the begining of the year?

My new questions:

• How can I truly know if my students understand a gramatical/literary concept? Should tests be avoided and essays encouraged?
• I think that it is important to go over a gramatical concept with students before they can use it in context. Is that wrong? How are they soposed to use the concept if they have not seen is before? Can grammar be taught a little of both ways?

Diana Plum

• How can I make my grammar activities content specific?

• How can I teach language and grammar lessons and include all students if I have students at different levels?

Anna Rollins

• How do you teach grammar without putting your students to sleep? What will interest them? What connections can you make that will hook students and keep their attention?
• If research shows that teaching grammar does not make students better writers why do we have to teach it?
• How can I integrate grammer activities into lessons instead of just doing grammar exercises (seperate from what we are studying) every morning?

Lyndsey Thompson

• How can I use music as a means for teaching different styles and forms of language in my classroom?
• How can I effectively language, yet acknowledging and being sensitive to other language patterns of my students?
• How can I gauge students' understanding of mechanics, usage and grammar without being overbearing in correcting their writing?

Jeanne Viva

• Using reflection in the classroom and having the experience be authentic.
• Building upon foundations that the students have expressed interest in writing about and keeping structure within the content.

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