Mullettam's Blog

Vocabulary Articles

mullettam — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:30:52 +0000

These articles go more in depth to what we have discussed in class about vocabulary in the classroom and its importance. The other day in class we were discussing how to break words down into their smallest unity leading us into morphology. This article is very beneficial as a classroom teacher and kind of intimidating at the same time since I feel vocabulary is not my strong suit.I love the charts in the article and hope to use them as a reference if I ever need them.

The Peter and the Starcatchers Vocabulary article is very hands on for students. I like how they used the online dictionary to find the definition and then decide themselves how they are using the word in the book. This will help them understand and retain the information more effectively.

Vocabulary Instruction

This concept cannot be stressed enough…READ in a variety of texts-the more you read, the more words you learn; multiple encounters with words are necessary.

Section 3 & 4

mullettam — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:27:00 +0000

Effect: Jack Rattenbury was hanged	Cause: taking part in piracy
Bloody Mary	Question: Is there any connection between the Bloody Mary in the book to the “Bloody Mary tale”

Part A

1)Who were the colonist?

The colonist were people who lived in the twelve colonies who were loyal to Britan.

2) What are the Navigation Acts?

The Navigation Acts is a series of laws that forced the colonists to trade only with England, using English ships and English crew.

3) How did the colonists feel about the Navigation Acts?

The colonists did not like the Navigation Acts because they were forced to accept low prices for the foods they produced. The Navigation Acts were often ignored by the colonists and they would partake in selling their goods whenever they could at fair prices.

4) Who were freebooters?

A freebooter is a pirate who smuggles goods in under the nose of tax collectors.

5) Describe the relationship between the colonists and the pirates.

Since the colonists did not believe the Navigation Acts to be fair they often sold their goods to pirates by sailing to the Caribbean ports occupied by the French.

Part B

1) What did you learn about the different kinds of pirates?

I learned about the different pirate’s names and the time period that they are associated with. It also explains the pirate groups name such as: New World Pirates, Bucaneers, etc. The most exciting thing to learn about is the specific pirates and the unique stories that make them stand out from all the others.

2) Out of all the pirates mentioned in this section, which ones do you find most interesting? Please explain why.

I enjoyed learning about Sir Henry Morgan. The most interesting fact about Sir Henry Morgan that I read was the fact that his grave was swallowed by the sea when an earthquake struck Jamaica. I found this statement to be very ironic considering the fact that he was a pirate who hung all his pirate friends after he became governor of Jamaica.

DED Enteries

mullettam — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:16:36 +0000

“If this boy is not to pay for his stupidity, then YOU shall—and doubly so.”	Reaction/effect: I was shocked when I read that Jakes uncle took up for him so that he would not be whipped. The effect of taking up for Jake also cost him his own life. Will was beat with the rope on his back and thrown overboard without any provisions.
“Why should we Americans pay taxes to an English king who cares nothing about us and gives us no say in the way our affairs are run?”	Effect: These pirates and may others don’t want to pay taxes so they avoid England and Jamaica ports where fees are charged.
“From them I learned my letters. This was my schooling.”	Inference: I’m going to assume that Jake is not from a wealthy family. His father was a doctor, but he did not partake in school. He learned from his two aunts his letters.Connection: We have also learned in class that pirates steal things to get wealthy. Why would Jake need to be on a pirate ship if his family had money?
“Every part of this ship has its own strange name”	What are these called?Answers: Front of the boat: fore, stem, or bows Back of the boat: aft, abaft, stern, or astern Right side: starboard Left side-port(some call it larboard)
“Our captain grudgingly agreed to give them a barrel, for we had plenty, and we shortened sail, slowing the Greyhound so that their men could come aboard”	Are these pirates on the other ship going to raid the Greyhound, or are they simply getting water?

“Pirates like this couldn’t really be successful. But he looks like a pirate, doesn’t he? You know what pirates look like because you’ve seen them in movies and books, right?	Inference: I think that this statements means we are being mislead in books and movies when it comes to what pirates look like. In movies and books character traits are often exaggerated so that you get the main idea of what the character looks like.
Pirates & privateers-Whats is the difference?	Connections: We talked about this in class and learned about the letter of marque. The only difference is that privateers had a piece of paper allowing them to steal and they had to share their booty with the government. Pirates were working for themselves. I believe that if privateers weren’t working for the government they would still be pirates and raiding ships.

“Our captain grudgingly agreed to give them a barrel, for we had plenty, and we shortened sail, slowing the Greyhound so that their men could come aboard”	Answer: “At this signal, the ship’s hatches flew open and out rushed a swarm of the fiercest men I have ever seen”I knew it was too good to be true! Tricky pirates!
“I could see that the pirates had hauled down their Dutch flag, and hoisted a black flag with an hourglass and crossed swords on it”	Connections: Throughout our internet activity we learned that pirates trick other ships by placing the identical flag up so that they can get close enough to attack and then they put up their pirate flag at the last minuteInference-In the book the picture of the pirate flag is different, but does have a cross figure on it. When I think of pirate ships I think of skull crossbones, but this ship had crossed swords.
“The pirates take these rules most seriously, for they draw them up and agree to them amongst themselves”	Connections-I do think that these laws correlate to a democratic society seeing as how they voted amongst themselves. Every person had a voice to vote. These pirate laws also seem to have the “trickle down effect”. The captain gets a full share and all others have one share, so when the captain has a lot, so do the others. When laws are broken you will be punished(just as when civil laws are broken)

“Sailors slept in hanging cloth beds, hammocks, which rocked to and fro as the ship rolled”

Opinion-I could never imagine having to sleep in a hammock every night. I think it would be really uncomfortable and would rather sleep on the ships wood floors.

“The first flag was the red flag, called the jolie rouge in French(our “jolly roger” comes from this)

Connection: In class we read the not so Jolly Roger about Blackbeard. This makes more sense now because when a ship flies the jolie rouge flag they are offering officers and sailors to go free if they promise to pay a quarter of the next years taxes. If the red flag does not work, they then put up the black flag. This was the flag that meant. No more Mr. Nice guy. If the ship didn’t stop right then, they would kill everyone aboard.The book was referencing that Blackbeard was not a “Jolly Roger” kind of guy and took things to the extreme level with his ruthlessness.

DED Pirate Diary

mullettam — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:42:02 +0000

I found the pirate Double Entry Diary to be very accommodating for students. Throughout the DED children can make inferences about what they have read and connect it to personal experiences, world experiences, or simply connections within the text. Keeping a DED allows children to internalize what they have read and to regurgitate the information in a way that makes sense to them. Students will retain information when they comprehend what is going on and learn the information when they are allowed to individualize the assignment. For example: Students have different personalities and will create different questions to place in the DED. This activity would be wonderful to do with any unit in a classroom where the children are participating in reading different types of books on one subject. I also really enjoyed the information the teacher gave the students to think about while reading the book. As a student, I stay more focused when I know what to mentally highlighting as I read along. The books were VERY EXCITING! Children will love them, especially the Pirate Diary: The Journal of Jake Carpenter, because he is a child to and he experiences so much while out on the sea. This article has made me so excited and I hope that someday I can implement the pirate unit into my classroom. I can imagine creating a captain and crew in my classroom and seeing the children’s face light up with thrill.

Persona poetry/I poetry

mullettam — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:37:07 +0000

I found the power point very interesting. I loved the fact that there were examples from children to show that it really does work inside the classroom! I now understand more about how the DRC’s that we have been completing can tie into further instruction for the pirate unit. While I was completing my I AM poem on Blackbeard I had fun with it knowing that I learned all these things on my own. I did stumble upon how I should word it a few times. I also feel that I could make a revised version that would be even better since I have let Blackbeard marinate in my mind for a while. The I AM poem give children satisfaction in knowing that they have done the research on Blackbeard and get to CREATE something in their own words to explain Blackbeard. This also will promote internalization because it is their own work. There are many different ways to use I AM poems in a classroom. I think it would be fun to use as an introduction in an upper level class for the teacher and the students! I am so inspired I think I will create my own…

I AM

I am loving and free

I wonder about who invented commas

I hear a radio inside my brain

I see the mirror reflection looking back at me

I want to be a wonderful teacher

I am loving and free

I pretend to be a dancer

I feel an angel’s love

I touch children’s hearts

I worry about violence in the world

I cry sometimes when I watch commercials

I am loving and free

I understand my family

I say follow the Golden Rule

I dream to have a happy heart, always

I try my best at math

I pray for peace

I am loving and free

Integrating Insrtuctional-Level

mullettam — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:50:15 +0000

I completed a WRI and passage reading last semester with a first grader. After completing these assessments hands on and reading the article I agree 100% with the them of the article. It is crucial for a child to be placed on their reading level to make any growth. If a child is placed in a lower reading level they will get frustrated and dismiss all that they have read, not comprehending the story. If a child is placed on a higher reading level all of their time will be spent on decoding the vocabulary and sentence structure and they forget what they have read by the end of the passage. When the child is reading on appropriate grade level their word automaticity will increase and they will be able to comprehend these words in the stories that they are reading. An important statement in the article that stuck out to me was “Struggling readers need books they can read–accurately, fluently, and with strong comprehension–in their hands all day long in order to exhibit maximum growth”. This sticks out to me because last year I focused my case study on an ESL student. I watched him struggle in small groups while they read freckle juice aloud,knowing he didn’t understand at all what was going on in the paragraphs because he was stumbling along the sentences. Social Studies Trade books would be a good investment for children like “Bob” who are reading below grade level. In their third grade classroom they were reading about pilgrims and the teacher could have found a book for “Bob’s” grade level for him to learn about the topic and time period. It was really sad to watch my case study student struggling to read along with the class and to take part in computer lab activities when he couldn’t read the information on the website. I am so excited about the list that has already been created that can help me in the future as a teacher with my struggling readers in Social Studies! I long to help children like “Bob”!!!

Shared Readings

mullettam — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:58:30 +0000

I found this article to be very beneficial as a future teacher. The article broke the important components of literacy down into modeling comprehension, vocabulary, text structures, and text features. I would rate this article very highly because of the examples real life teachers demonstrate throughout the article. Sometimes it doesn’t come naturally for adults to step back and be able to teach children what it is that we already know; such as predicting throughout a story and summarizing it along the way. Here are a few examples that I found helpful…

Comprehension: “Another teacher added, “Yes I agree. And it’s also metacognition–knowing that you’re doing this, but not paying attention to it.” I found myself using comprehension strategies naturally as I read the national geographic website about Blackbeard. A specific example is where it talks about Blackbeard wanting a medical chest. I thought to myself, why would Blackbeard want a medical chest, and then made a prediction about the story. We all make predictions subconsciously as we read along in books and as we watch TV, this is what keeps us coming back for more. We naturally make guesses and want to see if our predictions are correct so we continue to read the story or watch the same television show.

Vocabulary: As one teacher stated in the article, “I don’t have time to tell the students the meaning of every word they’ll encounter.” This teacher is right, but it is our job to teach them the tools necessary to figure out what those words mean. These tools include: inside-the-word strategies,outside-the-word strategies, and the use of resources.My personal favorite is to use context clues! As I was reading the Blackbeard website I came along a word that a child may not know. The word was menacing. The child could use context clues to figure out what the word meant. Here is the sentence: He stuffed the burning rope under his hat to make himself look more ferocious and menacing. He scared everyone. Even if the student didn’t know what menacing meant they could read the following sentence that says “he scared everyone” and lead to the assumption that he was mean so the pirate probably didn’t have a very loving exterior.

Text Structures: The structure of the text is very important for children so they can organize the story sequence as they go along. On the website about Blackbeard a good example of sequencing it that the party he had foreshadowed his death because Captain Maynard’s crew trapped him and killed him after getting wind of the big party he was throwing.

Text Features: Text Features are very important and lead to clues on what the story/chapter will encompass. The text feature posted on the website stated Blackbeard was British held key information about his childhood and gave us more background information on his as a young mate.

The NOT-SO-JOLLY Roger

mullettam — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:40:36 +0000

I really enjoyed reading The Not-so-Jolly Roger and thought it was an easy read. Maybe it was an easy read because it is a third grade level, or maybe because its packed with adventure that keeps your imagination intrigued. The book also contains personal information about Blackbeard, although some of the info is incorrect, the book gives children basic knowledge about Blackbeard. This book is a great tool to kick off a pirate unit about Blackbeard to tie in North Carolina history seeing as how he settled in Bath, North Carolina. Children will also love this book because the events in the book are happening to children so they will get excited about that. So far I have thoroughly enjoyed the pirate unit!

Pirate Articles

mullettam — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:34:51 +0000

The pirate articles were AWESOME! At first I thought, pirates, ehh…I don’t know about this. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy looking at pirates that look like Johnny Depp, but thats about it. After reading the articles I truly believe that students will love lessons on pirates! The way the article talks about introducing pirates makes it fun and individualised each experience through inquiry learning. The CD’s, books, photographs, maps, etc will draw the students in and have them “hooked” arrr. I also like the idea of a notebook where they can write down the definitions to pirate words. The example of the double entry diary using two column notes would be very helpful for students. As a future teacher, this double entry diary would even be helpful for me because I have not been introduced to these piratical words before. The data retrieval chart is similar to something I did in high school where we made WANTED posters of ourselves. This proves that you can adapt lessons to go along with the pirate theme. I really enjoyed making my wanted poster when I was in ninth grade, so I know younger children will get a thrill out of it! I am REALLY excited to read our pirate books and to sail the seven seas with my imagination!

Ordinary Items

mullettam — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:35:07 +0000

Teddy Bobby

A fungus, usually of the class Ascomycetes, that grows symbiotically with algae, resulting in a composite organism that characteristically forms a crustlike or branching growth on rocks or tree trunks.

I have a piece of lichen that hangs from the fire sprinkler in my bedroom. This lichen is a betoken of love. Past love, new love, ALL love. You see, lichen is a fungus and an algae growing in sync. During a hiking trip with my boyfriend Eston, we picked up the lichen and he proceeded to teach me about how it is neither a fungus or an algae, but both. Eston, a NC State biology graduate, encompasses a personality like night and day of mine, but boy does our love shine. I like to consider our love like the lichen. I’m the fungus, he’s the algae, and together our love grows symbiotically in nature.

lichen