Another aspect of the book that differs from the Disney movie Peter Pan is that it shows that a pirates life wasn’t very pleasant. This is evident in the slop with things wiggling in it that the boys were brought as food. It is also shown in the description of Black Stache when his hair was described as being greasy from years without washing and his teeth as being brown as tree trunks. The book also showed another reality of pirate life when Black Stache wanted The Wasp for his own. Finally, the treasure-what every pirate dreams of!

Morphology plays a large role in vocabulary. It is important for students to learn the roots of words. Also,in some words  students will be able to more easily identify relationship between the roots. For instance, in the article it states that students will have an easier time going from dryer to dry that to see the relationship between strength and strong. Another aspects that students must learn about is prefixes and suffixes and how they change words. Students must know that adding a prefix to words can completely change the meaning. We see this when the prefix un is added to the word acceptable.  Also, adding a suffix to a word often changes the tense.  For example, by simply adding ed to the a word changes the tense from present to past.

There are many ways to help students gain a better grasp the meanings of words. As teachers we must use every resource available to help our students grow their vocabularies. One way we can do this is by reading on a consistent basis. We can choose words from passages and discuss their meanings with our students. We can teach them decoding skills such as using the other words in a sentence to try to figure out what the unknown word means or using their background knowledge. Another tool that I believe would be useful is to have different types of word walls in the classroom. We could have one for prefixes and suffixes and others for root words, etc. We could also create charts that shows students as many possible tenses of the word as possible.

Another thing that impressed me about this article is that in it the teacher models that she did not know the definition of the word “atmosphere”. Since she did not have a glossary to look it up in she told the students she would ask another teacher. I think sometimes in life we get a little stubborn and don’t ask for help when we should. What we must understand is that these students are watching what we do. Therefore, if we do not know the answer it is best to admit it; not try to pretend we know. They will be able to tell. Then we can let them watch us through the process of obtaining the desired information. Also, when they see that even we need help, they will feel more confident in looking for help themselves when it is needed.

Another important aspect of modeling is teaching the children to take the time to observe the text structures in their readings. I know that there are many times when as a student I have just wanted to get things read to be finished. So I skipped tables, charts, captions and other things that were placed there to help me comprehend what I was reading. When I finished I often did not understand what it was I had just read. I think it is very important to model for students how to use this added information to help them understand what they are reading. Often times people will make sense of things more from a diagram than they will from a paragraph. So it is important for us to teach children to pay special attention to the text structures that are provided for them.

Another part of the study that is important is the use of technology for research and presentation. Computers and the internet are such a large part of our world and that is not going to change. Students often turn to computers first to do research. I think that when teachers choose to do an intensive study of a subject or unit it is of utmost importance that they are in control of the information that the students will be viewing. This is why it is so critical to find and comb through the sites that students will be using to find their data. Also by creating a page of hyperlinks for the students use and with close monitoring I believe a teacher can prevent students from viewing inappropriate sites or those that are irrelevant to their purpose. Finally, blogs are a great way to post student assignments and display student work. However, I would definitely want the pages to be password protected. I know that we can use another name or give the students an assigned number but I just have a bit of mistrust within me and would want to protect these children as much as possible. With that being said what a great way to show off what they have learned and to encourage them to write with more depth. I can imagine a student’s parent seeing their work and bragging on their child; what a great confidence boost!

Going through the process of trying to write my poems helped me to understand what children will face when they begin studying poetry. It may seem odd to them if they have not been exposed to different types of poetry. This is what happened to Jack in Love that Dog. He tried but could not write a poem at first. He progressed in time and created some very good work. Also, he went from being afraid of poetry to proud to have his name placed at the bottom of his work.

Out of all the poetry we were asked to read I preferred Love that Dog.It shows that with encouragement from a teacher, students can find a type of poetry that  they will enjoy. Also, students can pattern their works after their favorite author or authors. This will give them a point of reference for their own creations.  Another reason I liked this book was that they poems did not have to rhyme. Jack wrote his thoughts down and his teacher typed them into stanzas; turning his words into poetry. This is a wonderful way to encourage children to write poems.

I believe a writer’s notebook can serve many purposes. First, it gives a student a place where they can freely record their thoughts. If they are having a bad day and need a release they can write their feelings down. Second, students can learn the art of writing in their notebooks. With help from their teachers and through continuously writing, they can master grammatical and punctuation techniques. Also, by writing consistently students go from a mentality of “having nothing to write about” to writing about whatever topic they so choose. 

My goal as a teacher is to making writing an enjoyable experience for everyone. This is why I liked the idea of giving the students a topic such as their best experience ever and letting them create a list of things that had happened to them. Then they have ideas of stories they can tell in their writer’s notebook. This makes writing personal for each student instead of asking them to write from a prompt. I was also impressed with the idea of using class discussions (and the teacher waiting patiently) as a way to help a topic for writing to be revealed. There is not a more perfect time to have students record their thoughts then when they have a story that they must tell.