Web Site Review
c. 1990 – 2007
http://www. oyate.org/
Oyate (People) is a nonprofit organization with an all Indian board that sponsors evaluative and educational work. This Native organization evaluates books and curriculums with Indian themes. They present “Teaching Respect for Native Peoples” workshops. Another responsibility is that they manage a small resource center and reference library. These people distribute books and material for all ages with Native people as writers and illustrators.
The Web Site designers are Abejo, Palma, Prado, Ryan and Szoke. Rudolph got it done with additional funding help from Slelten.
Under the link, “Broken Flute” two book reviews were listed. One was “A Broken Flute (2005) Seale and Slapin and the other one was “Through Indian Eye” (1987) Slapin and Seale. The first book won the 2006 American Book Award while the second book in 1999 won the Skipping Stones Honor Award.
A “Broken Flute” is a brutally honest bibiliography review on childrens and teenage books from the 1900’s through 2004 through the Native American perspective.
“Through Indian Eyes” is a collection of article reviews of the often subtle, stereotypes and mythology that abound about Native American in children’s books.
After a third grade class play on the book, “The Courage of Sarah Noble”; a Native American girl, Raven Hoaglen was teased and bullied unmercifully. This happened because the book said, “Indian people were savages and murderers and chop your head off and eat you alive.” She was made to feel sad and so ashamed that she did not want to attend school any more.
For this reason, I feel that teachers need to be very cognizant of what stereotypes and characteristics are shown by the individuals in fiction and nonfiction stories they have their classes read.
Links available at Oyate are: About Us, Our policy statement, FAQ’S, How you can help, a Broken Flute, Resources, Workshop, Our catalog, Order form and Books to avoid.
Ida M. Rounds
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Using the Internet to Increase Multicultural Understanding
Chapter 10
Teaching with the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times
Leu, Leu, and Coiro
When I think about multicultural understanding, I think about several things.
One incident was when my brother returned from the military with a German wife and two year old. She and the child spoke very little English. My husband and I later went to Germany and visited her parents in Gernsbach, Germany.
The other occurrence was when a high school Foreign Exchange Student gave a talk at our rural community building – the country schoolhouse. She shared information about the cowboys in her country and their dress. Their cowboy hats had strings under the chin to keep them on while most of our cowboy hats do not have this. We learned many other unique cultural differences and facts from her, too.
Last of all my parents sponsored a fourth cousin and his wife to immigrate from England as farm laborers in the fifty’s. Although we spoke the same language, they used many different meanings for words such as a boot is a trunk of a car. Their British accent was different. I can remember barely understanding what they were saying when they first got off the train in Rapid City, South Dakota late in the evening that first day they arrived.
So the main idea of this article is to remember that it is very important to have diverse ideas represented in the world’s problem solving. Having lots of ways to look at an issue gives us more ideas to help in making solutions to problems. We know that our world is constantly expanding and we need to prepare our students for changes. A very powerful source of help comes from using the Internet and Literacies to develop a greater understanding of diverse populations and having greater respect/appreciation for our differences.
Since our two fourth grade classes plan a cultural education field trip in May, I particularly wanted to look at and share with these fourth grade teachers Web Sites that would be helpful to them in teaching about diverse populations and appreciation of the differences of individuals. A Webquest I thought that looked interesting was Native American in a Natural World. A Registry site would be Registry Global School Net Project Registry. Then Directories that could be helpful would be “Index of Native American Resources on the Internet”, “Native American Sites Awareness”, and “Yahooligan: Around the World”. Other interesting sites would be the “American Indian Education” site, “The Circle of Stories” site, “Evaluating Native American Web Sites”, the “Oyate” site, and the “Alaska Native Knowledge Network” site. The Internet Project Registry had a current project regarding the Native American Tribes. They wanted basic information about the Tribes in a simple design format. The student, teacher and school would get credited for the research done. Then the Evaluation of Native American Web Sites was very helpful and could be used to evaluate other types of sites.
Then because we have many Spanish speaking families in our school and community, I wished to find Internet URLS that would be helpful for the teachers and our students. I believe that I could set up a whole page on my PBWiki with ELL and ESL information and Directories for Latin Americans. Since my daughter-in-law teaches Spanish, I could share these sites with her. For assisting the individual students the “ESL Independent Study Lab Activities for ESL Students” would be helpful.
Many other sites had very helpful, useful information. I liked Miscositas, TESL/TEFL/TESOL…..Directory, Activities for ESL Students, E.L. Easton: Materials for Teaching English, FLTeach: Foreign Language Teaching Forum, Center for Applied Linguistics, and Interesting Things for ESL Students. The Tower of English had a World Clock site where you could set up times to meet with others in other countries using the World Clock.
The last Web site I was interested in was the "Cranes for Peace" site which represents the 50 year commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima. A teacher at our school had the children in his class make lots of cranes which were made into a huge mobile that is now hanging in our library. I thought this teacher would be interested in this particular site.
Again looking at all the above sites would be very helpful in teaching cultural awareness of others. Lots of information is available for the teachers to use.
Teaching with the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times
Leu, Leu, and Coiro
When I think about multicultural understanding, I think about several things.
One incident was when my brother returned from the military with a German wife and two year old. She and the child spoke very little English. My husband and I later went to Germany and visited her parents in Gernsbach, Germany.
The other occurrence was when a high school Foreign Exchange Student gave a talk at our rural community building – the country schoolhouse. She shared information about the cowboys in her country and their dress. Their cowboy hats had strings under the chin to keep them on while most of our cowboy hats do not have this. We learned many other unique cultural differences and facts from her, too.
Last of all my parents sponsored a fourth cousin and his wife to immigrate from England as farm laborers in the fifty’s. Although we spoke the same language, they used many different meanings for words such as a boot is a trunk of a car. Their British accent was different. I can remember barely understanding what they were saying when they first got off the train in Rapid City, South Dakota late in the evening that first day they arrived.
So the main idea of this article is to remember that it is very important to have diverse ideas represented in the world’s problem solving. Having lots of ways to look at an issue gives us more ideas to help in making solutions to problems. We know that our world is constantly expanding and we need to prepare our students for changes. A very powerful source of help comes from using the Internet and Literacies to develop a greater understanding of diverse populations and having greater respect/appreciation for our differences.
Since our two fourth grade classes plan a cultural education field trip in May, I particularly wanted to look at and share with these fourth grade teachers Web Sites that would be helpful to them in teaching about diverse populations and appreciation of the differences of individuals. A Webquest I thought that looked interesting was Native American in a Natural World. A Registry site would be Registry Global School Net Project Registry. Then Directories that could be helpful would be “Index of Native American Resources on the Internet”, “Native American Sites Awareness”, and “Yahooligan: Around the World”. Other interesting sites would be the “American Indian Education” site, “The Circle of Stories” site, “Evaluating Native American Web Sites”, the “Oyate” site, and the “Alaska Native Knowledge Network” site. The Internet Project Registry had a current project regarding the Native American Tribes. They wanted basic information about the Tribes in a simple design format. The student, teacher and school would get credited for the research done. Then the Evaluation of Native American Web Sites was very helpful and could be used to evaluate other types of sites.
Then because we have many Spanish speaking families in our school and community, I wished to find Internet URLS that would be helpful for the teachers and our students. I believe that I could set up a whole page on my PBWiki with ELL and ESL information and Directories for Latin Americans. Since my daughter-in-law teaches Spanish, I could share these sites with her. For assisting the individual students the “ESL Independent Study Lab Activities for ESL Students” would be helpful.
Many other sites had very helpful, useful information. I liked Miscositas, TESL/TEFL/TESOL…..Directory, Activities for ESL Students, E.L. Easton: Materials for Teaching English, FLTeach: Foreign Language Teaching Forum, Center for Applied Linguistics, and Interesting Things for ESL Students. The Tower of English had a World Clock site where you could set up times to meet with others in other countries using the World Clock.
The last Web site I was interested in was the "Cranes for Peace" site which represents the 50 year commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima. A teacher at our school had the children in his class make lots of cranes which were made into a huge mobile that is now hanging in our library. I thought this teacher would be interested in this particular site.
Again looking at all the above sites would be very helpful in teaching cultural awareness of others. Lots of information is available for the teachers to use.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Web Site Review - The Ruler Game
Web Site Review – The Ruler Game
http://www.rickyspears.com/rulergame
By R.S. Innovative and Ricky D. Spears.
This is a site that I used while teaching measurement to several small math groups. Prior to using this site for practice these fourth grade children worked on seeing the fractional parts of a unit and then of a one inch line. They would write 1/8, 2/8, 3/8, and so forth under each part of that inch line. We spent about an hour practicing on the computer with the ruler game. All of the children enjoyed this game activity and got a lot of practice with measuring with the standard unit of an inch.
Directions:
1. They can first of all select the timer or not.
2. They can select the increment level that they wish to start on. Since it is a four inch ruler, they can start on a whole increments, halfs, quarters, eighths, or finally sixteenth increments.
3. Then they click start a new game. With this game, it is three strikes or X’s and you are out. Then you can start a new game again.
4. Points are awarded.
5. They can change the increment level and set it for timed when they are feeling confident about measuring correctly.
The children looked forward to this activity and really were focused while performing it.
Ida M. Rounds
http://www.rickyspears.com/rulergame
By R.S. Innovative and Ricky D. Spears.
This is a site that I used while teaching measurement to several small math groups. Prior to using this site for practice these fourth grade children worked on seeing the fractional parts of a unit and then of a one inch line. They would write 1/8, 2/8, 3/8, and so forth under each part of that inch line. We spent about an hour practicing on the computer with the ruler game. All of the children enjoyed this game activity and got a lot of practice with measuring with the standard unit of an inch.
Directions:
1. They can first of all select the timer or not.
2. They can select the increment level that they wish to start on. Since it is a four inch ruler, they can start on a whole increments, halfs, quarters, eighths, or finally sixteenth increments.
3. Then they click start a new game. With this game, it is three strikes or X’s and you are out. Then you can start a new game again.
4. Points are awarded.
5. They can change the increment level and set it for timed when they are feeling confident about measuring correctly.
The children looked forward to this activity and really were focused while performing it.
Ida M. Rounds
Towards a Social Contextual Approach to Family Literacy
Elsa Roberts Auerback – Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 59, No 2 May 1989 Univ. of Mass., Boston
I think that Auerback’s new approach to Family Literacy was a very worthwhile article to read. It certainly dispelled my attitude that these particular types of homes lack literacy support. They just have a different kind of support in a hurry-up world.
One study was a model of children reading to their parents (Tizard, Schofield, Hewison, 1982) which really stood out in my mind. I even shared this insight with the classroom teacher immediately. It is that children who read to their parents regularly make the most gains. They made even more gains that those students who receive extra reading instruction from reading specialists. This shows that the context and regular parental help is most valuable for these students. One fourth grade teacher insists that the children read to their parents nightly and the parents even have to sign a form indicating that their child read to them and they list the amount of time it took.
One other main idea was the study by Diaz (1986) that indicated that community practices can be a basis for informing and changing school practices. Children are more interested in reading and writing about their social values – youth gangs, unemployment, immigration, and the need to learn English. So teachers need to adjust and incorporate family interests into the classroom teachings.
In this article there were five assumptions listed regarding transmission of school practices to the participants. These assumptions were explained and eliminated.
This article indicated that more studies need to be done in this area and it also dispelled a lot of myths.
Ida M. Rounds
I think that Auerback’s new approach to Family Literacy was a very worthwhile article to read. It certainly dispelled my attitude that these particular types of homes lack literacy support. They just have a different kind of support in a hurry-up world.
One study was a model of children reading to their parents (Tizard, Schofield, Hewison, 1982) which really stood out in my mind. I even shared this insight with the classroom teacher immediately. It is that children who read to their parents regularly make the most gains. They made even more gains that those students who receive extra reading instruction from reading specialists. This shows that the context and regular parental help is most valuable for these students. One fourth grade teacher insists that the children read to their parents nightly and the parents even have to sign a form indicating that their child read to them and they list the amount of time it took.
One other main idea was the study by Diaz (1986) that indicated that community practices can be a basis for informing and changing school practices. Children are more interested in reading and writing about their social values – youth gangs, unemployment, immigration, and the need to learn English. So teachers need to adjust and incorporate family interests into the classroom teachings.
In this article there were five assumptions listed regarding transmission of school practices to the participants. These assumptions were explained and eliminated.
This article indicated that more studies need to be done in this area and it also dispelled a lot of myths.
Ida M. Rounds
Friday, April 4, 2008
Special Ideas for Younger Children: Using the Internet in the Primary Grades
Chapter 9
Teaching With the Internet K – 12: New Literacies for New Times
Leu, Leu, and Coiro
Again this week, I responded to the four suggestions of what we should be able to do according to the textbook. I reviewed Websites that were available for each of the four suggestions listed. I took a thorough look at about ten or more sites.
At recess time, I talked with our building Computer Specialist to let her know our Social Literacies Class was working on Preschool – 3 use of the internet. I told her there were some sites for Parents regarding the child’s safe use of the internet and also information about commercialization of not only .com sites but also of the educational sites. Great suggestions were given in the text to help counter these problems such as try not to use sites that have ads. Teach children not to open any ad site or to write their name anywhere without parent permission on the web sites. Our Computer Specialist encouraged me to publish these safety sites URL’s for the teachers. Perhaps the P.T.A. newsletter would be willing to publish these sites as well for the parents.
Since I don’t work directly with the K-3 students, the only way I could really assist is to share some of the exceptional sites that I have looked at. When I looked for emergent reader’s information, I found a really fun site that was recommended by others. It is www.professorgarfield.org/parents_teachers/home. There were colorful pictures, sound, action, and helpful topics. The child could go fishing for initial consonants or final consonants with Garfield with action and sound. There were electronic field trips to pick from. Then the Dolch words were listed and printable for Word Walls for PrePrimer on up. Lots of other fun activities could take place at this site.
Mrs. Silverman’s Webfolio was an impressive site to share with teachers at our school, also. Although it has to be searched out more carefully to find what is useable and where it is located.
I found that the Mind’s Eye Monster Exchange had no Wyoming schools involved in it. But for an Internet project this site would be very educational and a helpful site. There are lesson plans, time lines, and the objectives of reading, writing, drawing and technology. It is set to run the spring of 2008 for those who are interested.
This past week our class has been solidifying their multiplication facts. I have work sheets with 20 problems on each of the times two, times three, times four, and so on. They take a one minute test on it. When they get all twenty problems correct, they move to the next level as from the times two to the times three. We have taken one test a day. I needed printable flash cards for the students to practice with. These I found at www.funbrain.com/flashcard/ so that I could make a set for each child who wanted a set to use to practice. Today after they had gotten their flash card sets, they were eager to practice with a friend without even being told to. I believe that this idea could be used with younger student also.
Today, I used the A Plus Math site to make some division worksheets from scratch. The teacher can set up the parameters for number size, number of problems, types of problems, number ranges, how far apart, and so on. What an exciting tool to learn how to use.
So this coming week, I plan to share a few of these exceptional useable sites for the Preschool to third grade teachers but it will be sent out to all the building staff. It will be interesting to see if it generates some greater technology interest by the staff for the young ones at our school.
Teaching With the Internet K – 12: New Literacies for New Times
Leu, Leu, and Coiro
Again this week, I responded to the four suggestions of what we should be able to do according to the textbook. I reviewed Websites that were available for each of the four suggestions listed. I took a thorough look at about ten or more sites.
At recess time, I talked with our building Computer Specialist to let her know our Social Literacies Class was working on Preschool – 3 use of the internet. I told her there were some sites for Parents regarding the child’s safe use of the internet and also information about commercialization of not only .com sites but also of the educational sites. Great suggestions were given in the text to help counter these problems such as try not to use sites that have ads. Teach children not to open any ad site or to write their name anywhere without parent permission on the web sites. Our Computer Specialist encouraged me to publish these safety sites URL’s for the teachers. Perhaps the P.T.A. newsletter would be willing to publish these sites as well for the parents.
Since I don’t work directly with the K-3 students, the only way I could really assist is to share some of the exceptional sites that I have looked at. When I looked for emergent reader’s information, I found a really fun site that was recommended by others. It is www.professorgarfield.org/parents_teachers/home. There were colorful pictures, sound, action, and helpful topics. The child could go fishing for initial consonants or final consonants with Garfield with action and sound. There were electronic field trips to pick from. Then the Dolch words were listed and printable for Word Walls for PrePrimer on up. Lots of other fun activities could take place at this site.
Mrs. Silverman’s Webfolio was an impressive site to share with teachers at our school, also. Although it has to be searched out more carefully to find what is useable and where it is located.
I found that the Mind’s Eye Monster Exchange had no Wyoming schools involved in it. But for an Internet project this site would be very educational and a helpful site. There are lesson plans, time lines, and the objectives of reading, writing, drawing and technology. It is set to run the spring of 2008 for those who are interested.
This past week our class has been solidifying their multiplication facts. I have work sheets with 20 problems on each of the times two, times three, times four, and so on. They take a one minute test on it. When they get all twenty problems correct, they move to the next level as from the times two to the times three. We have taken one test a day. I needed printable flash cards for the students to practice with. These I found at www.funbrain.com/flashcard/ so that I could make a set for each child who wanted a set to use to practice. Today after they had gotten their flash card sets, they were eager to practice with a friend without even being told to. I believe that this idea could be used with younger student also.
Today, I used the A Plus Math site to make some division worksheets from scratch. The teacher can set up the parameters for number size, number of problems, types of problems, number ranges, how far apart, and so on. What an exciting tool to learn how to use.
So this coming week, I plan to share a few of these exceptional useable sites for the Preschool to third grade teachers but it will be sent out to all the building staff. It will be interesting to see if it generates some greater technology interest by the staff for the young ones at our school.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Using Weblogs in LIterature Circles
Additional Information for Last Weeks Web Review
Educational Weblog
http://mustangblog.typepad.com/
Since I didn't obtain the information that I planned to from this Web Site review last week, I would like to add this information to it this week. This time I went back to check out the literacy site on the home page of the Educational Weblog. It was absolutely amazing. I just happened to be reading a book called, _The Secret Life of Bees_ which I had just happened to pick up at the Senior Center acouple of weeks ago. When I opened the site on _The Secret Life of Bees_, I found it to be a Literature Circle. I opened up the recent discussions on the book and found about eighteen comments on it. What a coincidence! What a motivator too! Ida M. Rounds
Educational Weblog
http://mustangblog.typepad.com/
Since I didn't obtain the information that I planned to from this Web Site review last week, I would like to add this information to it this week. This time I went back to check out the literacy site on the home page of the Educational Weblog. It was absolutely amazing. I just happened to be reading a book called, _The Secret Life of Bees_ which I had just happened to pick up at the Senior Center acouple of weeks ago. When I opened the site on _The Secret Life of Bees_, I found it to be a Literature Circle. I opened up the recent discussions on the book and found about eighteen comments on it. What a coincidence! What a motivator too! Ida M. Rounds
The Biographies Project - Coauthor Enid Figueroa
Opportunities for Math and Change in the School Library
Chapter 8
Literacy, Technology and Diversity
Cummins, Brown, and Sayers, (2007)
“Connecting Math to our lives was organized by a Gobal Learning Network Project De Orilla a Orilla and the Pacific Southwest Regional Technology in Education Consortium in collaboration with International Education and Resource Network (iearn)” p. 183, Cummins, Brown, and Sayers.
Bob Peterson, a fifth grade teacher and Rethinking Schools editor was the inspiration for the biographic activity described in the CMTOL project.
An easy-to-use data collection form was used by students in their schools. The teacher set up links with other school classes as an audience for their writing and to obtain a broader data base.
Third, family members accompanied students while they obtained information from the San Francisco Public Library. Parents acted as facilitators.
Finally, the results were shared globally inspiring others nationally and world wide.
I was surprised to find out that this project was compiled by grades 1, 2, and 3 in schools that bilingual.
Through explicit teaching and collaboration at each step along the way the teachers helped these children decode what they needed to find in the big nondecodable biography texts in the school and city libraries. First of all they practiced by writing their own friend’s biographies. Then they wrote biographies of children in the other school. After they understood this process, they were able to collect the data. Information gathered was about race, occupation, class, disability, gender, and dead or alive from the biography text. They could use graphs, percentages, or fractions to describe the collection. They gathered all the information pictorially on a wall chart so that even the first grade children could understand it. Then eventually both schools shared their data on the Internet with each other. Finally after both schools had collected information from their own school libraries, they branched out to visit the city public libraries. Last of all they all met as a huge group and visited one city library together with their parents assisting.
After all this information was collected and recorded they shared it with the Global community. Finally to obtain change, the students wrote a letter to the libraries recommending the type of books that they felt should be obtained to make it a fair coverage including more biographies on women and people of other races.
All the way through the project students used an online date base to record their information, E-mail to coordinate activities, a mailing list, and Web based forum, word processing and graphing software. They covered a number of curriculum areas and went way beyond that.
These student were empowered to make changes for the good in their community and to promote fairness with the knowledge that they obtained from the data gathering.
Chapter 8
Literacy, Technology and Diversity
Cummins, Brown, and Sayers, (2007)
“Connecting Math to our lives was organized by a Gobal Learning Network Project De Orilla a Orilla and the Pacific Southwest Regional Technology in Education Consortium in collaboration with International Education and Resource Network (iearn)” p. 183, Cummins, Brown, and Sayers.
Bob Peterson, a fifth grade teacher and Rethinking Schools editor was the inspiration for the biographic activity described in the CMTOL project.
An easy-to-use data collection form was used by students in their schools. The teacher set up links with other school classes as an audience for their writing and to obtain a broader data base.
Third, family members accompanied students while they obtained information from the San Francisco Public Library. Parents acted as facilitators.
Finally, the results were shared globally inspiring others nationally and world wide.
I was surprised to find out that this project was compiled by grades 1, 2, and 3 in schools that bilingual.
Through explicit teaching and collaboration at each step along the way the teachers helped these children decode what they needed to find in the big nondecodable biography texts in the school and city libraries. First of all they practiced by writing their own friend’s biographies. Then they wrote biographies of children in the other school. After they understood this process, they were able to collect the data. Information gathered was about race, occupation, class, disability, gender, and dead or alive from the biography text. They could use graphs, percentages, or fractions to describe the collection. They gathered all the information pictorially on a wall chart so that even the first grade children could understand it. Then eventually both schools shared their data on the Internet with each other. Finally after both schools had collected information from their own school libraries, they branched out to visit the city public libraries. Last of all they all met as a huge group and visited one city library together with their parents assisting.
After all this information was collected and recorded they shared it with the Global community. Finally to obtain change, the students wrote a letter to the libraries recommending the type of books that they felt should be obtained to make it a fair coverage including more biographies on women and people of other races.
All the way through the project students used an online date base to record their information, E-mail to coordinate activities, a mailing list, and Web based forum, word processing and graphing software. They covered a number of curriculum areas and went way beyond that.
These student were empowered to make changes for the good in their community and to promote fairness with the knowledge that they obtained from the data gathering.
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