My outside
school experiences have expanded and deepened my subject area content
knowledge. Because I want to teach
multiple subjects I have to have knowledge of many different content areas, but
there are ones in particular that I have sought out to deepen my
understanding. For example, I
became interested in a YouTube channel from the brothers Hank and John
Green. Hank specializes in the
sciences of biology and chemistry and has a series of videos about different
concepts within those fields. John
specializes in literature and world history and also has a series of videos on
those topics. I started watching
the videos in my spare time and learned a lot about things I sort of remembered
from high school, but didn’t have a great understanding of. I even used one of the videos to help
me teach an anatomy lesson in my student teaching.
Our
class discussion of Ball’s article gave me more questions than answers. I think that our knowledge of the
content within the topic we want to focus on is very crucial as well as
questioning any conventional wisdoms, but narrowing what content is within the
topic of reading is difficult. I
have tried to use the discussion to help me narrow down my research, but I am
having trouble. I think spending
more time discussing would have helped.
I
think I am in the early stages in developing a line of inquiry. I have a very broad question of “What
is reading?” and I have tried to look more specifically into reading
comprehension. I know the research
available in this area that relates most to what content I am looking for is
reading acquisition and what it means to read. I have had people talk to me about a teacher who uses the
assessment program Accelerated Reader and I think it would be a useful
experiential source to see how that teacher uses it in their specific
grade.
Responded to:
Monica Mitra
Taylor Franceschi
Responded to:
Monica Mitra
Taylor Franceschi
Enjoyed Katie's line of inquiry question and am excited to see the development of her question.
ReplyDeleteFelt similar during our Ball article discussion and want to know if narrowing research will create clarity in our questions?
Hi Katie,
ReplyDeleteAs I read your response regarding outside influences, I immediately thought of TedTalks. If you have not watched any yet, I cannot recommend them enough. A great start is the ones given by Sir Ken Robinson, but there are so many that are insightful and informative.
I agree with you and Gabe on the Ball article discussion. Part of me feels more discussion on how to decide on which content knowledge to use for our research would be helpful. I also feel that switching this class and 403 might help us have a better idea on knowing more about content.
Good luck!
Jen