Mr. D'Amato - My Education Blog

Why is it important to include many cultures in realistic fiction? Good realistic fiction books provide the opportunity for all students to be able to connect with the text; many cultures have different societal norms that are expected or acted upon. By allowing students to connect with the text, then they will feel that their culture is represented properly within the text. By involving many other cultures in realistic fiction you are allowing for students to also learn about different cultures that they may not be familiar with. When you familiarize students with different cultures then it will make it more normal and comfortable for everyone when they recognize the differences in real life. This also helps students appreciate the differences in cultures and will help them understand why one person may have a certain point of view in comparison to someone else from a different culture. In order for realistic fiction to be a genre for all people then it must include all different type

Duke Ellington by Andrea Davis Pinkney was a great biography to read and would work well for most elementary-aged students. This book combines the use of pictures on every single page while also providing the students with great information about Duke Ellington's musical career. The book attempts to connect with the audience by starting off with his childhood and what he liked to do. This will help engage the students and hopefully inspire them to be great like Duke Ellington. It also talks about Duke Ellington and how his parents wanted him to do certain things that he did not want to do; almost every child deals with this at some point so it should be relatable to the students. I believe that all of the students in the classroom even if they do not want to become musicians would enjoy this book because of the message that it is sending. There is also a magical feeling to the story; Andrea Pinkey wrote it in positive terms and is eager to share the positive outcomes even after sha

      First, they use a picture of MLK when they are introducing what the read-aloud is going to be about; this helps put a face to the story for anyone listening. When they brought up what he noticed when he was younger they put up a picture/animation of him and his mother. Then the video switches to a picture of what the read-aloud is actually saying; this way the person watching the video can briefly read along.       Throughout the video, they switch between pictures of what is going on and pictures of the text. This is basically an interactive picture book that encourages both reading along and taking advantage of the use of pictures to better understand the story.      In some scenes, they combine the pictures and the text to go along with each other. This gives a choice to the audience, they can either read along or just listen and look at the pictures. This is traditionally how picture books are interpreted when being read live.      The switching between pictures and text is v

I believe that my lesson plan went very well; I believe that I was able o provide the students with a great format for planning their passion project. I was able to successfully model an idea for them and how to use the tool that I was providing to them.  If I were to have done this before I would have been able to show the students a project that was completed but this was my first time doing this type of project. After presenting, I believe that I was doing my best to engage with the students even though sometimes it hard to through zoom.  I was able to answer any of the questions that the students had; one student asked if they could make a game which was a great idea that I forgot to mention.  I look forward to using the skills that I learned by creating this lesson plan in my future classroom especially if I am teaching remotely. 

    Today in fieldwork we had another mentor present for the first time this semester. This was a great learning experience because even though I have been watching Dr. McVerry present, it was good to see someone with the same amount of experience as me doing it. I was able to learn some important transitions and ideas on how to engage the students. Since I am going next week, it was refreshing to see that I am definitely prepared to do the lesson plan.          Once again, Dr. McVerry did a great job of engaging the students even though he was not presenting very much at all today. It is important (especially during camp) to be able to have natural flowing conversations with the students. A good way to make sure that this continues is to keep up to date with the current interest of your students. I personally think that this is an underrated and important part of being a fun and relatable educator. I believe the best educators are great at teaching and just as great at connecting with

 The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires is a great book for young elementary students who still have a lot of creativity when it comes to picture books. The book is great for younger students because it breaks down how to complete a task which will help the students understand the topic of organization and doing things in order. The book uses humor to keep the students engaged but it also uses suspense about what this "magnificent thing" is going to be. The book is also great for younger elementary students because of the vocabulary that it uses; it talks a lot about shapes, tools, and different steps that are necessary to create something. This book would definitely capture the interest of younger elementary students who will be intrigued to figure out what she is making while laughing at the silly mistakes. I believe the students will find many parts of the book relatable when the little girl having trouble with her project. The book has a happy ending which is good fo