SDAIE Stratagies

During class this week I used the SDAIE strategy of Cooperative Learning in class, by having the class get into groups and jigsaw five different principles of the US constitution. They had to read a small paragraph, and then make a poster representing their specific principle. Each poster needed to have a picture or symbol which they felt matched their portion of the constitution.  Then, the groups would have to present their poster to the rest of the class, while the other students filled out a graphic organizer.

This represents a SDAIE strategy in that the students utilize group communication skills, graphic organizers, and a reduction teacher talk.

Social Injustice

This is a picture of the text books in our class. Not only are they 10 years old and falling apart, because of our large class sizes, students often have to share them. I also believe that history is a continuously changing organism, and that history textbooks should be changed at least every six years (which I believe should be happening anyways). 

Literacy Survey

In my first period class, I gave the students a short survey asking some basic questions about what they like to read, what they don't like to read, how much they read for fun, how they feel about their school reading, and if they have internet access at home. I also included a question at the end about what their favorite TV shows were, just to get an idea of what the students are into culturally.  Here are the questions that were asked.

1. Which of these sources do you enjoy reading: fiction books, nonfiction books, newspapers, Internet sites (blogs, sports, etc.), magazines, comic books, graphic novels, textbooks, other?  If other, write those down as well.

2. Of those listed in Question 1, which sources do you not enjoy reading?

3. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you read for fun? (With 10 being a lot, and one being never)?

4. Would you say that the reading you have to do for school is easy, medium, or hard?

5. Do you have Internet access at your house? Circle one

Yes / No

6. If you answered yes to question 5, would you say it’s easy or hard to access your Internet at home?

7. What are your three favorite TV shows?

The results were kind of interesting. The most popular reading source were novels, or fiction books, which I wasn't really expecting because in our lecture we talked about how kids were more interested in non-fiction books. Non-fiction books were less popular, with only about a quarter of the kids saying that they enjoyed non-fiction books. However, the second most popular source was magazines, which are mostly non-fiction, so I guess that somewhat counts. The most unpopular source was newspapers, with 2/3 of all students saying that they didn't enjoy reading them, even more then textbooks. I am not sure if this is a reflection of the San Diego newspapers, or a sign that kids don't read newspapers anymore (probably the latter). The students also don't read for fun very often, with the average score being just under 4 out of 10 when asked how much they read. 

On a different note, I feel very old after reading the response on what they like to watch on TV, as I have never even heard of most of their answers.