Right away it stuck out to me that telling students they are smart vs. you are very thoughtful. I love the attention to detail in which a teacher should respond to students. The points towards the end about how questioning a student through a choice they made will allow them to really think through their choices. That is such an awesome strategy that I would like to try next time I have to speak to a child about a choice they made. This sounds like a great book, that would go along nicely with what we’ve learned in our courses. Nice job with the book review. I am interested in reading it. I loved the strategies you introduced- thank you.
The first couple of sentences summarizes the main idea of the book really drew me in. I think this is because this is a topic us as future teachers can find really useful in our future classrooms. I myself have a goal to create an environment that allows my students to feel welcomed and comfortable enough to share ideas and ask questions. Who knew that our choice of words could affect this so greatly. Of course we know that how we communicate to our students, such as the tone we choice as Johnston also discusses, contributes to our classroom environment but I never thought to focus on the words I choose. The example you used about praising hard work vs intelligence is something we talk about some in our courses but I have not taking the time to pay attention to my word choice. I am sure I accidentally say phrases such as "you are so smart" all the time. I would love to read this book so that I can be more aware of my word choice! You pointed out how Johnston references "Opening Minds" and fixed and dynamic frames. This concept actually came up in one of my online course and when reading about it it only gave a couple of examples of how the language we choose helps to create dynamic frames. I would like to read Choice Words to go further into that idea!
The main idea of the book, which is language in the classroom, is something that is so important for teachers to think about. Johnson gives many different strategies for us to use in the classroom. Prompting is something that we use often as teachers. I like that he brought up fixed and dynamic frames because this is something we are always going to be seeing in the classroom. Tone is also crucial in the classroom, especially when we are trying to create a positive classroom environment. The ideas in the book related to what we have talked about in class with communication. It is important to have positive communication with our students. Not teaching to the test was mentioned and we talked about that a lot in class. As teachers many times we are faced with not being able to chose what we are doing in the classroom and testing is part of that. Since language is so important in the classroom I think this book would be a good read as a first year teacher. It will help me to think about the language I use as a teacher but also the language my students are using.
The main idea of the book of language in the classroom is something that I never really thought about before taking my education classes at WVU, but it is so important to use the right language to allow student growth. I would really like to read this book because I think it would be a great reminder and allow me to learn about the topic more. Even though we have discussed this topic in our other classes, I feel I haven't had much experience with it or noticed it a lot in my teaching. Great review ladies!
I think this book would have been a good read for all of us considering we are all going to be first year teachers next year. We still have so much to learn, especially next year when we are by ourselves with our own group of students. I think language is something all of us will need to work on. I like the quote you all provided about "who do you think you are" and how it is actually telling you who they think we are. That is such a good point to be made! Tone means everything, so I think that is what we need to establish first. I don't think it could hurt to think about and write down some of the things you have caught yourself saying and think about how you could say them differently.
The way you connected the book to our class was really cool. I like the point you made that we teach to the test too often when we really need to be teaching life skills. It is a shame that we have forgotten the true meaning of education because of some silly test that isn't really that great of an assessment. The language we use should not be to provide answers, but to create decision making skills and become strategic thinkers that allows students to build relationships with one another.
I agree that we need to use language to question our students rather than punish our students. We need to use language to build relationships and have conversations. The language we set while doing so will return in our teaching.
I am so please with your groups book review because it has helped me a lot with my philosophy on critical literacy. I definitely want to use this book as a piece of literature for my online portfolio because as a teacher I strongly agree on how certain language an affect a students learning and self esteem. I always try my best to teach my lesson as clearly as possible using language and vocabulary terms they would understand. I would love to read this book to get better when it comes to the language I choose to use when talking to my students. I loved that you guys mentioned how the author address fix and dynamic frames, which happens to connect to one our of 8 lenses. I enjoyed how members of your group incorporated personal experiences during student teaching about their struggles with teaching the meaning of the content instead of teaching to the test. I wish we were exposed to these books before our 5th year because I would have benefited from this book before I student taught this fall. Nice job!
This book is so intriguing to me. Just from your opening paragraph, I feel that this book would provide a lot of insightful information for young teachers. The wording we choose to use in our classrooms definitely affects the culture of the classroom and at times even affects how our students learn. This also reminds me of the math courses we have taken and how choosing words poorly when explaining mathematics topics can lead to misconceptions. I also like how you talked about how this task can be challenging. Also, I thought it was very cool that the author also discussed fixed and dynamic frames from his other book, as we discussed these mental frameworks so much last year. I like that he made the connection of creating a dynamic frame with our choice of words. I also would not have thought about tone of voice being a part of this. How insightful! Great job in making such a strong connection with the course in talking about teaching to the test as well as discussing your personal experiences with it. Great work!
This language that we use in the classroom is very interesting to me. For one of my vignettes I wrote about dynamic and fixed frames. As I am teaching, or commenting on how my students are doing, I think about how to phrase what I am saying. There was a section where you discuss communicating with students. I feel that with my students I am very open, funny, and silly, but my students can tell when I am angry. I've personally always had a problem and have seen problems in the classroom with teachers who did not watch their tone when speaking to students. You've mentioned that sometimes there is a power struggle between students and teachers. In my classroom, I never want my students to feel like I am better than them. I want to have an appropriate relationship with my students that allows me to communicate with them.
With just focusing my action research on writers workshop, I found this book review to be very insightful. We have had so many discussions on language in the classroom, but have never really seen it done successfully. Thinking about how much it can affect fixed and dynamic mind frames is something that all teachers should be aware of. Especially with being first year teachers soon, we want to be able to set up the atmosphere right away. This seems like it was a great read and probably got you to think more critically about your teaching. I would definitely be interested in reading this novel too! Nice work!
This sounded like a great read. The attention to language is very important and many times overlooked. This book made me think of the quote “people may forget what you said but they wont forget how you made them feel”. It speaks to the idea of tone and certain phrases that can affect students learning and self esteem. The way you speak to a student can take an impact on how a student may behave in class that day or what they will learn. This book would be great read for all first year teachers to help them think about and reflect on how their tone and language will impact their students and the type of tone they hope to use. The way I speak to my students can cause them to have a fixed or dynamic frame and I hope to always encourage my students to be open to that dynamic frame. Great job!
I was really excited to read your book review because this is a book that I found myself wanting to read and learn more about. Language is so important when it comes to the way that we interact with our students inside and outside the classrooms. The lens on fixed and dynamic frames really ties in well with the idea of how we talk to our students and use language in our classrooms. When we go further into your book review, you begin connecting the book with course materials. I think it is important the we allow our students the opportunity to use higher level thinking to solve problems and answer questions. This is one way in which we can allow our students to grow. I enjoyed you book review and I would love to read this book in the near future!
Reading this review gave me a much better insight into the book. When I read the title, I thought it was only going to describe how to get students using correct language within the classroom. I found that reading about how our own language affects students caused me to pause and think about the words that I use when talking with my students. I need to make sure to always use correct terminology when describing the content I am teaching as well as using phrases that promote constant improvement and dynamic frames of thinking as opposed to stagnant thought and fixed frames of intelligence.
Overall, it sounds like this book was very informative and a great help to beginning teachers and experienced teachers alike. I am interested in continuing to learn about this topic by reading this book for myself! Great job!
Glen Smithberger The title of the book is interesting but very fitting. Your purpose sentence really grabs me and gives me a desire to look into this book a little more. We as teachers have been taught to make that purpose part of our purpose. We may not always succeed but we need to try. I don't remember what class it was but recently I had a conversation with a fellow student about how students are always looking for the "right answer" and not as interested in their ideas being heard. Prompting can be really hard but your review reminds me that I need to keep working at it as it will benefit my students. Proud of you (whoever you are) for not teaching to the test! This review may have done the best job of mixing the information with the course content or I just happened to enjoy reading it the most. Very beneficial information. While it may be overlooked or a small note, the questioning aspect of learning and your paper is really important especially as we continue to grow as teachers. Thanks for a great review.
I really enjoyed reading this review! I think it is so important to make sure you are using words that promote students rather than words that make students unsure what they are able to attain. I believe that we must be aware of how we talk to students so they feel more confident about what they can achieve rather than what they are or are not characteristically. We also need to be aware of the type of language we use to make sure our students are not gaining a fixed frame from out words. We need to instill confidence in our students to give them the best chance at success.
Christianna Shaffer:
ReplyDeleteRight away it stuck out to me that telling students they are smart vs. you are very thoughtful. I love the attention to detail in which a teacher should respond to students. The points towards the end about how questioning a student through a choice they made will allow them to really think through their choices. That is such an awesome strategy that I would like to try next time I have to speak to a child about a choice they made. This sounds like a great book, that would go along nicely with what we’ve learned in our courses. Nice job with the book review. I am interested in reading it. I loved the strategies you introduced- thank you.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAlicia Hinshaw:
ReplyDeleteThe first couple of sentences summarizes the main idea of the book really drew me in. I think this is because this is a topic us as future teachers can find really useful in our future classrooms. I myself have a goal to create an environment that allows my students to feel welcomed and comfortable enough to share ideas and ask questions. Who knew that our choice of words could affect this so greatly. Of course we know that how we communicate to our students, such as the tone we choice as Johnston also discusses, contributes to our classroom environment but I never thought to focus on the words I choose. The example you used about praising hard work vs intelligence is something we talk about some in our courses but I have not taking the time to pay attention to my word choice. I am sure I accidentally say phrases such as "you are so smart" all the time. I would love to read this book so that I can be more aware of my word choice! You pointed out how Johnston references "Opening Minds" and fixed and dynamic frames. This concept actually came up in one of my online course and when reading about it it only gave a couple of examples of how the language we choose helps to create dynamic frames. I would like to read Choice Words to go further into that idea!
The main idea of the book, which is language in the classroom, is something that is so important for teachers to think about. Johnson gives many different strategies for us to use in the classroom. Prompting is something that we use often as teachers. I like that he brought up fixed and dynamic frames because this is something we are always going to be seeing in the classroom. Tone is also crucial in the classroom, especially when we are trying to create a positive classroom environment.
ReplyDeleteThe ideas in the book related to what we have talked about in class with communication. It is important to have positive communication with our students. Not teaching to the test was mentioned and we talked about that a lot in class. As teachers many times we are faced with not being able to chose what we are doing in the classroom and testing is part of that.
Since language is so important in the classroom I think this book would be a good read as a first year teacher. It will help me to think about the language I use as a teacher but also the language my students are using.
The main idea of the book of language in the classroom is something that I never really thought about before taking my education classes at WVU, but it is so important to use the right language to allow student growth. I would really like to read this book because I think it would be a great reminder and allow me to learn about the topic more. Even though we have discussed this topic in our other classes, I feel I haven't had much experience with it or noticed it a lot in my teaching. Great review ladies!
ReplyDeleteI think this book would have been a good read for all of us considering we are all going to be first year teachers next year. We still have so much to learn, especially next year when we are by ourselves with our own group of students. I think language is something all of us will need to work on. I like the quote you all provided about "who do you think you are" and how it is actually telling you who they think we are. That is such a good point to be made! Tone means everything, so I think that is what we need to establish first. I don't think it could hurt to think about and write down some of the things you have caught yourself saying and think about how you could say them differently.
ReplyDeleteThe way you connected the book to our class was really cool. I like the point you made that we teach to the test too often when we really need to be teaching life skills. It is a shame that we have forgotten the true meaning of education because of some silly test that isn't really that great of an assessment. The language we use should not be to provide answers, but to create decision making skills and become strategic thinkers that allows students to build relationships with one another.
I agree that we need to use language to question our students rather than punish our students. We need to use language to build relationships and have conversations. The language we set while doing so will return in our teaching.
I am so please with your groups book review because it has helped me a lot with my philosophy on critical literacy. I definitely want to use this book as a piece of literature for my online portfolio because as a teacher I strongly agree on how certain language an affect a students learning and self esteem. I always try my best to teach my lesson as clearly as possible using language and vocabulary terms they would understand. I would love to read this book to get better when it comes to the language I choose to use when talking to my students. I loved that you guys mentioned how the author address fix and dynamic frames, which happens to connect to one our of 8 lenses. I enjoyed how members of your group incorporated personal experiences during student teaching about their struggles with teaching the meaning of the content instead of teaching to the test. I wish we were exposed to these books before our 5th year because I would have benefited from this book before I student taught this fall. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteThis book is so intriguing to me. Just from your opening paragraph, I feel that this book would provide a lot of insightful information for young teachers. The wording we choose to use in our classrooms definitely affects the culture of the classroom and at times even affects how our students learn. This also reminds me of the math courses we have taken and how choosing words poorly when explaining mathematics topics can lead to misconceptions. I also like how you talked about how this task can be challenging. Also, I thought it was very cool that the author also discussed fixed and dynamic frames from his other book, as we discussed these mental frameworks so much last year. I like that he made the connection of creating a dynamic frame with our choice of words. I also would not have thought about tone of voice being a part of this. How insightful! Great job in making such a strong connection with the course in talking about teaching to the test as well as discussing your personal experiences with it. Great work!
ReplyDeleteThis language that we use in the classroom is very interesting to me. For one of my vignettes I wrote about dynamic and fixed frames. As I am teaching, or commenting on how my students are doing, I think about how to phrase what I am saying. There was a section where you discuss communicating with students. I feel that with my students I am very open, funny, and silly, but my students can tell when I am angry. I've personally always had a problem and have seen problems in the classroom with teachers who did not watch their tone when speaking to students. You've mentioned that sometimes there is a power struggle between students and teachers. In my classroom, I never want my students to feel like I am better than them. I want to have an appropriate relationship with my students that allows me to communicate with them.
ReplyDeleteWith just focusing my action research on writers workshop, I found this book review to be very insightful. We have had so many discussions on language in the classroom, but have never really seen it done successfully. Thinking about how much it can affect fixed and dynamic mind frames is something that all teachers should be aware of. Especially with being first year teachers soon, we want to be able to set up the atmosphere right away. This seems like it was a great read and probably got you to think more critically about your teaching. I would definitely be interested in reading this novel too! Nice work!
ReplyDeleteThis sounded like a great read. The attention to language is very important and many times overlooked. This book made me think of the quote “people may forget what you said but they wont forget how you made them feel”. It speaks to the idea of tone and certain phrases that can affect students learning and self esteem. The way you speak to a student can take an impact on how a student may behave in class that day or what they will learn. This book would be great read for all first year teachers to help them think about and reflect on how their tone and language will impact their students and the type of tone they hope to use. The way I speak to my students can cause them to have a fixed or dynamic frame and I hope to always encourage my students to be open to that dynamic frame. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI was really excited to read your book review because this is a book that I found myself wanting to read and learn more about. Language is so important when it comes to the way that we interact with our students inside and outside the classrooms. The lens on fixed and dynamic frames really ties in well with the idea of how we talk to our students and use language in our classrooms. When we go further into your book review, you begin connecting the book with course materials. I think it is important the we allow our students the opportunity to use higher level thinking to solve problems and answer questions. This is one way in which we can allow our students to grow. I enjoyed you book review and I would love to read this book in the near future!
ReplyDeleteReading this review gave me a much better insight into the book. When I read the title, I thought it was only going to describe how to get students using correct language within the classroom. I found that reading about how our own language affects students caused me to pause and think about the words that I use when talking with my students. I need to make sure to always use correct terminology when describing the content I am teaching as well as using phrases that promote constant improvement and dynamic frames of thinking as opposed to stagnant thought and fixed frames of intelligence.
ReplyDeleteOverall, it sounds like this book was very informative and a great help to beginning teachers and experienced teachers alike. I am interested in continuing to learn about this topic by reading this book for myself! Great job!
Glen Smithberger
ReplyDeleteThe title of the book is interesting but very fitting. Your purpose sentence really grabs me and gives me a desire to look into this book a little more. We as teachers have been taught to make that purpose part of our purpose. We may not always succeed but we need to try. I don't remember what class it was but recently I had a conversation with a fellow student about how students are always looking for the "right answer" and not as interested in their ideas being heard. Prompting can be really hard but your review reminds me that I need to keep working at it as it will benefit my students. Proud of you (whoever you are) for not teaching to the test! This review may have done the best job of mixing the information with the course content or I just happened to enjoy reading it the most. Very beneficial information. While it may be overlooked or a small note, the questioning aspect of learning and your paper is really important especially as we continue to grow as teachers. Thanks for a great review.
I really enjoyed reading this review! I think it is so important to make sure you are using words that promote students rather than words that make students unsure what they are able to attain. I believe that we must be aware of how we talk to students so they feel more confident about what they can achieve rather than what they are or are not characteristically. We also need to be aware of the type of language we use to make sure our students are not gaining a fixed frame from out words. We need to instill confidence in our students to give them the best chance at success.
ReplyDelete