Waving, Wishing Curriculum & Personal Connection!

I would like to share my ideas and findings with those who are interested. I would like to continue to search for sources and ideas that will continue to keep all children interested in reading, as well as learning. Callision said, "children can learn a great deal by themselves, with guidance, and they can learn a great deal from each other, with facilitation." Since this is also a personal connection, I plan to search for more resources for my son.

While completing this assignment, I struggled a great deal just to have time to finish it. So that was my weakness. As far as my strengths and challenges of the project, the topic itself was very important to me, as well as others. I was able to find many articles that touched on the same topic, which made it easy for me to find information. Next, I would like to interview male students in the classroom to find what interest them and what would they like to see in the school library.

Curriculum Connection:

1.For primary grades: children who are struggling to read would benefit from listening to books w/Cd's, audio books, or using a technology device that will read the story to them. This will also help them to answer questions about the story.

2. For Secondary grades: listening to an audio version of a play and/or story would benefit those students who don't like to read. Then having group discussions about the story and assessing the students from the discussion groups. Nevertheless, having them write a personal reflection that connects them with the story.

Wrapping

While browsing the Internet, I found a video on my topic, which I thought would be useful to parents, teachers, librarians, and others who are interested. The video is an interview with Dr. Tiffani Chin, director and founder an educational program, who gives Elementary School Reading Tips, and expert advice on how to keep all children interested in reading, as well as, sources to help them throughout their educational experiences.

Webbing & Wiggling

I used a number of search tools to gather information about my topic. After reading articles from a previous course, I decided to elaborate more about the topic, since it was also a concern of mine with my own son. I used online databases, google searches, and a family member ( I have a sister who is a middle school teacher) and I found some interesting articles and gained meaningful feedback. The topic or search of "how to keep boys interested in reading", is a large topic and many people seek answers for this question. I explored several types of formats from articles to videos and books. Nevertheless I interviewed my relative for her input.

Since there is a lot of information on this topic, I tried to shift to what was really important to me, which is how to keep boys interested and stay motivated to read. By working in a public library, I try to question my population and find out what they like to read and their formats, such as, audio books, books on CD's/tape, etc. I found a lot of the boys enjoy reading comics books sources of some type, for example, manga, magazines, easy reader books, sports, etc. Also, my son will bring home non-fiction books, which I think is great because it's a start in reading some materials. I also try to introduce books on CD to many parents to help their child who is behind in their reading level and when they return the books, they always say "thank you and that was very helpful".

Watching

After, brainstorming with a few ideas of interest, I decided to elaborate on a topic that will truly benefit me personally, as well as educators and parents. My topic is "how to keep school-age boys interested in reading and learning. I have come across many young boys who just do not enjoy reading books. Starting with my own son, from being a teacher, to now a Children's Library. I have asked myself many times, "Why don't boys enjoy reading and how to keep them interested in learning. From my personal experience with my son, who is in the fourth grade, he has a difficult time reading and would rather watch Television than pick up a book. Then, I'm frustrated as a parent because for one, I see him losing interest in his school work, and two, I loved to read books as a child. Also, while I'm working, I ask children about their favorite books or to read after-school and they would rather play on the computers. I know this is not for all boys, but this is a good topic for my inquiry project, because I came across several articles to help explain the process and plan to present a product which may be useful for others.