Mr. D'Amato - My Education Blog

Did you complete all the readings and reflect or annotate notes?     - I completed every single reading and annotated all of them. Then when I was going to reflect I would usually re-read them to make sure that I was pulling the proper and important information.  Did you submit artifacts that demonstrate mastery of each lesson? - I would like to think that I did, a lot of lesson plan drafts needed work but I would fix them up in accordance to the professor's suggestions/critiques.  Were you an equal participant in your groups? yes, I worked hard with my group to make sure that we completed all of the work in a timely fashion.  How active were you in our class chat rooms? - About as active as one could be during a summer course. I toned it back eventually because I noticed I was by far the most active and it felt a bit odd.  My Grade- Anywhere in the "A" range I would say. 

audio link I believe that this article took a very unique approach. It used a comparison to how humans and apes only have a 2% difference in their DNA but that small percentage lead to a huge difference in the development of our species. The article takes on the point that being able to have multiple ways of media very easily has changed literacy for the better. There are now ways for people to create media or literacy just by using the web; along with this, they can have multimodal literacies very easily with technology that almost every has, a phone. People process information differently depending on the means of communication that is being used. For example, someone may learn better from reading or someone may learn better from listening to someone read. There are also people who would rather watch a video that combines audio and visual literacy to get the message across. Another option could be the type of text that someone is reading, how the article is broken down, or literally ...

This was very interesting because I never noticed how different the advertisements for the two genders are. The male advertisements have a deep voice that sounds like it is going on a scary mission. The lighting of the graphics seems to be darker and more adventurous. For the females, the advertisements have a higher-pitched female acting like everything is flowers and sunshine. There is no scariness and it makes it seem like girls do not want to go on adventures. Very interesting tool, I have never thought about any of the lego marketing before.  If I were to look at this critically then I would also say that Lego is failing to look at how gender is a social construct. By creating toys or commercials like this then we are forcing the children to lean towards one behavior rather than the other. While some conservative-minded people might think this is good, we should also question why we even do it. Why are we forcing certain people to act a certain way because of their gender? Whe...

Why did we decide college and career ready is more important than civic and community ready? What does this mean? I believe that as a society we are more worried about people being "successful" in the real world rather than them becoming a good citizen within their own community. The common belief may be that if someone is ready for college and ready for a career then they will be forced to be good citizens in the community. However, we can see that this is not always the case for everyone and people often focus strictly on the education aspect of getting good grades rather than learning from experiences. In order to create a better community, we need to change our goal, Beck says   " Critical literacy has as its goal the development of responsible citizens, able to confront social inequities in their many forms and take action against injustices." (Beck) I think it is important to create people who will positively affect the community rather than focusing on grades...

What did you learn about the topic? I learned about the importance of spelling and its relation to pronunciation and reading fluency. Before learning about this topic I did not make the concrete connection between spelling and reading. If a student is able to spell by sounding out then they will also most likely be a more successful reader. I also learned that problem-solving techniques for spelling are very similar to reading. Spelling is also very important for writing and making sure that your audience is able to understand the points that you are making.  How did your group planning go? Very easy, we made an iMessage group chat and discussed what we should do.  Did you communicate well? Yes, everyone in the group said when they would be able to work on certain aspects of the project and it was easy to communicate. Everyone felt comfortable texting and it made it easier to communicate as we are always on our phones. We also all have similar schedules so communication was al...

Moving Slowly https://soundcloud.com/dubl-dd-1/historical-poem-recording There was a dark and eerie feeling that day  January 20th, 2017 It was the Presidents' Inauguration. It was senior year of high school for me  And life was already feeling shaky. I had a teacher who dressed in all black Because she was mourning the victory. I was not into politics But the hatred would drag me in.  Why did everyone hate this man? What history was I missing? Little did I know about what was starting,  The instability would reach a high, The country would begin parting,  I was stuck in the middle  Already confused about my future,  Now I have a country in shambles And major protests to digest.  voice recording 

3 Things I learned.   Disciplinary Literacies is believed to help the students in all aspects of their schooling. Teaching so that the student will be able to learn about all types of information. Whether it is education or not.   Helping kids move across multiple domains will be the most effective way for these students in the future. "You are trying to give access to knowledge production and critique" Disciplinary reading versus disciplinary writing. Necessary Knowledge and Bridging Knowledge "is hard to define but it is the space between the knowledge the child brings to the table versus what they need to take away from the text. "  Need the knowledge to get knowledge from the textbook.  We need to think about the roots of the information that the students are learning, we need to build upon prior knowledge. Subject area text and disciplinary text need to be more closely related.  2 Things I am still wondering:  What if the prior knowledge leve...

     I believe that we should teach students strategies to learn new content knowledge. One of the hardest or most complicated parts of learning is being able to comprehend new information; if we are able to supplement the students with the proper skills to do so then they would be more effective in the long run. I believe that the way we teach these strategies can be changed for the better. For example, we can teach the students about the strategies through some type of literature that will also increase their content knowledge. In order for this to be effective, the students must have an interest in the content and it is up to the teacher to do so.      I believe that in the long run, teaching strategies to students would be more effective so that they will be able to properly comprehend more advanced information. If you are given the tool kit and how to use the tool kit then you will be able to be much more effective with it. But if you are given informa...

    One of the main reasons for the type of education that we have in the United States is because of the economical structure that is built-in. For example, who is profiting off of the education system the most? If you look into it deeply enough it is mostly white people who have a story to tell in their own way, but by doing this they are attempting to erase the important stories of minorities in this country. Their story is just as important and needs to be included into the education system more; their needs to be more truth-telling  in order for these deep-rooted lies to be uprooted.       Assessments are a large part of our education system within the United States, therefore,  how these assessments are created is an important aspect that should be looked into properly. Many of the teachers within this country are white and are often teaching non-white students, however, if both the student and the teacher are coming from completely differen...

     The question is: If the definition of literacy always shifts can we know what meaning-making means?      I argue that no matter how far the definition of literacy shifts that we will always be able to make meaning of something. In order for literacy to be, one must be able to gain information or understand some type of story from it. How this story is told or how the information is given is not the most important part. Certain types of literature may be more amusing than others but if you are able to receive a message of some sort through it then you will be able to make meaning of it.       We can look at the music for example; there are tons of genres and not everyone likes every single genre. However, when you go and listen to a genre that you do not like but listen to the words being said or the type of beat being used then you are able to gain information about the song.      Often we think about how literacy has...