Blog Post 3

Blog Post 3

        The passage from the NES English Language Arts 301 textbook reminds readers how important it is to stay conscious of all aspects when participating in a discussion, especially if facilitating the discussion. On pages 134-135, the text dives into all aspects that involved members of the discussion should be contributing successfully to the group. The headings, that were broken down by paragraph and elaborated on to explain a why they are important and how they can be displayed were: posture, movement, gestures, eye contact, voice, volume, and pitch. I think each and every one of these characteristics is important when trying to achieve a professional and successful discussion amongst students, peers, etc. 

I also really enjoyed the information on page 130, Skill 16.1 “ Understand purposes of listening, listening strategies, and challenges to effective listening”. I thought this portion of the text was stated beautifully and in a way that was easy to understand and apply it to oneself. I can definitely apply the information here to my teacher tool belt, and in preparing to become a teacher. I liked the fact that were stated in order to help soon to be teachers learn more about students. For example, on page 130, “...students are captivated by the reading aloud of good literature”. As a soon to be English teacher, information like this is helpful to remember and exciting to know that we can apply this to our classes someday. 

As for the Common Core State Standards, I found this perusal of the site to be quite enlightening as to what we as teachers will have to help our students reach by the end of the year. However, I did find it a bit challenging to really picture how I would incorporate these standards when they are broken up by several grade levels, instead of just by single grade level. I was stuck on the idea that different teachers may repeat the same Common Core Standard in a 7th and 8th grade class, but could completely gloss over another just by miscommunication. I think it may be more helpful to have the Standards divided by each grade level, that way no child misses learning what is expected of them.