EDRD 7718: Module 3 Summary

Module 3 Summary:

            I found all of the videos to be very interesting and engaging. The initial video that hopes to encourage parents to read with their kids was very sweet. Reading is one of the most important things to share between parents and children, so encouragement of furthering that interaction is very important.

            Also, watching the videos about the smart table was very interesting .At the school I did my internship in, they had two smart tables for the school, so occasionally we placed it in our classroom. The students were immediately drawn to the table and were so interested in the lesson or skills being assessed. They loved the hands on effect and the fact that it is a huge, touch screen tablet was very exciting to the students. We used different programs such as long vowels sounds or puzzles with different shapes, but despite what we were doing, the students really enjoyed the activity. I would recommend smart tables to all educators, despite the topic being studied.

            The final video about literacy was a great explanation of what it means for a young child to be literate and also, the reminder that assessments aren’t tests; rather they are great means of observing and helping students improve on what they are struggling with or identifying that struggling area. I enjoyed watching the video and learned a lot from it.

            The graphic organizer that explained the five expository text structures was very interesting and helpful. At times, I can have a hard time trying to determine what different key aspects I need to be teaching my students, but reviewing over this chart made it much more clear the different features I can focus on when teaching particular reading lessons. I think teaching these different expository text structures are so important because they cause our students to think outside of the box. Through reading these types of texts, students are also learning many different ways to become informed and educated about a certain topic. Through making connections or building new knowledge, students are learning how to interpret and understand certain texts that are filled with information and detail, versus a narrative type of text. We use a lot of these strategies during our non fiction unit. The students benefitted tremendously from learning detailed information and applying very specific and informational methods of understanding these types of texts. I plan to use these graphic organizers again the future.