Lorraine

Response to Wiki Question
The wiki could be beneficial for responses and discussions about other school issues and not just lit strategies. I also see this as a forum for things that need to be discussed between meetings.

Success!
I am presently taking a class called Models of Teaching. During the class I have the opportunity to view videos of various teachers from all around the United States. One of the videos talked about building on our students' previous knowledge. According to the video, many non-English teachers give students vocabulary words but then do not encourage them to utilize them during the course of the class. Therefore students do not retain the terms for use at a future time. As a result of this video, I took the opportunity to "test" my students vocabulary by asking them questions during their cooking lab and made them utilize the cooking terminology that they had learned during a previous class as well as describe or define the term. Some of the terms included terms such as knead, cut-in, and making a well. Most of the students did quite well where others had to refer to their notes from class. It helped me to see which students had comprehended the previous lesson and which students needed a better understanding of cooking terms

Lorraine, I love the idea of collaborating with other teachers around the country. We can certainly learn by looking at others classrooms. I know we do in the Global Physics Department. We video tape ourselves and the others view and critique. Maybe by looking at other classrooms it can make you more aware that you do need to use those words for the students to master them. Great job. - pam