Resource Blog #1

How Art Can Help You Analyze
(Click title for video link)
As future content teachers, this idea of using art to teach and to practice analyzing a variety of items stood out to me. While this video does not mention anything about reading and analyzing a certain text, it talks about the process of analyzing which can be easily applied to the classroom. The steps mentioned in the video were: study thoroughly, analyze the elements observed, articulate them succinctly, and formulate questions to address the seeming inconsistencies. I instantly thought of math word problems, when thinking about how I could apply this same process to something else. In a word problem, you must study the problem, see what numbers or components are given, see how they work together and their relationship to one another, then form a question as to what is missing or what you need to find.

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What is reading, anyways?

Before reading the material this week, I looked at the guided question to see what my thoughts
were. I would say that reading is the acquisition of information through the eyes whether it is for
leisure or studies. I would also include the comprehension and understanding of words on a page.
Now after reading, I would define reading as a process of using prior knowledge to understand,
comprehend, and gain information from a specific text, whether it is content specific or not. It is
much more than reading words on a page.

After reading and digesting the information this week, many things came to my attention
about the reading process. Growing up in school, I would not have considered myself the best
reader. I was a good student, but when it came to reading passages and textbook, I had some
difficulties. Reading this material brought me back to being a student who needed the so called
“prereading” activities to facilitate in my understanding and comprehension of any text.

One thing that really caught my attention is the concept of schema. As a future teacher, I
think it is important to know where the students stand on prior knowledge and to be able to
facilitate them to retrieve that information to be able to gain more knowledge. This idea is stated
very well in the text, “You have to assimilate the information into an existing schema or revise
an old one to make the new stuff fit.” (Daniels & Zemelman, 2014, 33) This is how teachers are
going be able to meet students at a level of comprehension, but also set goals for students that
will help lead them to success. From what I believe and understand, this is what Common Core
Standards strives for.

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