Hello Bloggers

Teaching Flashback!

I taught a language arts lesson where students were to identify the beginning, middle and end of a story. It was taught using a thematic approach being 'pirates'. I dressed up as a pirate and the introduced lesson with a poem about what pirates do. This was followed by a story I composed entitled 'The Pirate's Treasure'. Students were asked questions about events which took place. and learned to identify the beginning, middle and end of that story and any story they come across. 

I believe the lesson was a success and the students enjoyed it immensely!

Regards
 

Hello Viewers,

My name is Tobitha Fontenelle a second year student at the Division of Teacher Education and Educational Administration. Over the past semester we have been learning about the writing process in our LIT102 course. We looked at five genres of writing namely: Narrative, Descriptive, Poetry, Persuasive and Expository writing. 

As part of our LIT102 assignment we were required to complete a Podcast using one of our pieces for the purpose of story telling. I have decided to do a podcast on a Cinquain I wrote about Verbs. This poem was written for a grade two audience for the purpose of teaching them about Verbs. I invite you to sit back and enjoy this short piece by clicking on the link below.

Regards,

Tobitha

Mini Lesson Reflections

For the last few weeks of our Lit 102 classes we were engaged in some mini micro-teaching where we were all placed in groups and had to prepare a lesson to teach on the various stages of the writing process. Teaching a mini lesson was new to our group members and the majority of the class. The first group who went selected the topic and the genre of writing. The topic selected was a Christmas theme and the genre chosen was a descriptive piece of writing. Most of the lessons taught were fun while and engaging and demonstrated the correct way in which the various stages of the writing process must be taught. However, a few groups failed to model to the students which can in turn create the students obtaining misconceptions about the writing process. What really out about this lesson for us was the fact that we were allowed to give each other feedback about the lesson. This in turn helps to improve our skills and knowledge as upcoming teachers. I must say that some groups had very limited time to prepare their materials to teach these lessons as we were required to use the piece of writing from the previous group. There we are of the view that adequate time must be given to successfully execute various lessons.

All in all this teaching experience was nothing but a learning opportunity for us.

Nasha Bailey's Podcast

Hello Bloggers

The semester here at the Division of Teacher Education and Educational Administration is almost at an end. To conclude all coursework, a podcast reflecting one of the writing genres extracted from my writing portfolio was created.

Please sit back and enjoy.

Best Regards

Nasha Bailey's Podcast

To view my podcast video, please follow the link below and allow 15 seconds to load:

http://www.powtoon.com/embed/eF4h8ZYnIKY/

Carina's LIT102 Podcast

Carina Snagg's LIT102 Podcast

Click on the link to view the Podcast: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By-yuCOcX29BYUFDcm8zM2FVV09EbnFZQ25MTEl0S2wtYTRn/view

POETRY- Cinquains and Versed Poems

In our second poetry session our lecturer did two other kinds of poems with the class. We did Cinquans and Versed poems. A Cinquain poem is a verse of five lines that do not rhyme. Miss Polius broke down the Cinquain by telling us that the first line consist of the topic, second line describes the topic, third line has three descriptive words ending in -ing, fourth line makes a statement about the topic and the final line uses a synonym to replace the topic.

Cinquain Lay Out-

She provided many examples of Cinquains to ensure that we understood. Then she asked us to create some of our own. Further, we were given an oppertunity to perform our Cinquans to the rest of the class. Our group members were impressed with the quality of Cinquains that were produced in a matter of 15 minutes. Finally, Miss Polius highlighted that Cinquains can be used to teach a concept in any subject area and she encouraged us to create some that we can use for teaching practice.

Example of a Cinquain-

After learning about Cinquains our lecturer transitioned smoothly into another type of poem. She did this by giving us the versed poem entitled: Chant to Kill a Snake and in groups we were required to perform the poem in our own unique way. This segment had all of us dying with laughter and as we vividly remember Gizelle Antoine's voice saying, "kill him, kill him, kill him I tell you". This was an epic session where shrills and shrills of laughter travelled across the entire block. When we were in a somewhat normal mode again Miss Polius gave us some insight about versed poems. we were informed that a versed poem may not necessarily rhyme and it consist of many verses. We could tell that this type of poem was not the favourite of many of our colleagues as it was a more complex type of poem that requires more time and effort to create. We did not get a chance to write our own versed poem due to time constraints. However, we clearly understood what it was about because Miss Polius enusured that we did.

Your Truly,
TabsNashRina

Poetry Questions

Our group has found this interesting picture which asks some important questions about poetry. It is of vital importance when preparing any piece of writing the writer must take into consideration the audience. These questions can guide a poet to creating an ideal piece for the choosen audience. We hope this is useful to you because we found it to be very useful to us.

Yours Truly,

TabsNashRina