The Double Life Of A Slippery Axolotl

Axolotl is also known as Mexican Walking Fish to Australians and New Zealanders; however, the Axolotl is an amphibian, a salamander. Also, it belongs to Urodela, tailed amphibian. Since the axolotl is a salamander, it is part of Amphibia, in which also the frogs and toads, and the mainly eel-like order, Gymnophiona, represented as the Caecilians, are included. Some people think the Axolotl and other salamanders belong to lizards or reptiles: this is one common misunderstanding about Axolotl. The fact is what amphibians are not in the group of animals. The difference between reptiles and axolotl which is amphibian is that reptiles have a four-chambered heart, like human beings: amphibians have only three chambers. This misconception shows how

Students need to engage in an activity that encourages them to ask questions, make suggestions and engage in ideas and concepts after reading the article (McLauglin, 2015). This strategy helps students solidify their understanding of the article, helps students identify key points and relate it to important science concepts. The extended thinking strategies used in the lesson plan is a mind mapping activity and a deductive reasoning activity. A mind mapping activity is a creative way to increase students reading comprehension, it helps students structure and organizes their thinking (Writing Across the Curriculum, 2017). A deductive

This resource is an externally available lesson plan from the Balance Literacy and Numeracy program. This program can be used in Year 2 as it clearly explains how to teach the essential mode of literacy which covers reading. The lesson plan is designed so it can be used to explicitly teach reading using different approaches like group discussion, modelling and role-play, in which the teacher requires the Year 2 students to participate through discussion. Using group discussion, the teacher will be able to assess student through the observation checklist (Mead & Rubin, 1985) as it is a great tool to assess students on their speaking and listening skills (O’Sullivan et al., 2006; Levy & Stockwell, 2006).

During lessons students should be aware of what is expected of them throughout the lesson. To ensure that students are aware of what is expected it can be helpful to have daily objectives on the board and review with the students. When beginning lessons it can be helpful to start the lesson by reviewing and asking questions about key vocabulary and content from previous lessons that can help connect prior knowledge to new material. Students should be encouraged to use notes from different lessons to help answering questions. This type of instructional practice can help promote students to want to participate and feel confident in the answers. The environment in the class can change from the teacher teaching the students to the students participating

Students were posed with questions found throughout the chapter after reading. Students had to work together to respond the questions, ensuring that each member of the group knew each answer. As we discussed the questions as a class, I would call on a table and then choose a number to respond to the question.

The method is one where the teacher models for the students’ strategies which help the students learn to constantly monitor their comprehension. The teacher and student interaction is almost continual process. Even when the students are working independently, the teacher is circulating through the room to offer assistance/support as needed. The students are offered many opportunities to be engaged with the text in order to practice the skills. The students also have opportunities to engage with

As students navigate through the prescribed text, opportunities will be provided for scaffolded discussion to allow students to actively dissect in each other’s knowledge and in this way filling any voids they have, and thus, creating useful correlations about meaning (Burke, 2013, p.167). Gilles (2004) proclaims the importance of communication and giving rise to a “dialogic classroom” in order to achieving quality teaching. Burke (2012, p.239) reaffirms the value of discussion as a way of aiding student during their course of learning of a concept, as well as actively developing a broad spectrum of communication and social skills in tandem with greater participations amongst through enhanced socialisation with peers (Gilles, 2003, p.35). However, educators must be vigilant to remove any marginalisation by creating a balanced and rounded discussion that is valuable to all students. Literature circles are a useful reading strategy to aid collaborative teaching and particularly in regards to this classroom context, since it has found to be of assistance to bilingual students in encouraging them to participate in productive group discussion (Daniels, 2002 p.8). Therefore, structured classroom discourse shall be focused and developed upon as it will style the format of their assessment in this Area of

The task for the students will be to demonstrate knowledge of print on books; print will consist of alphabets and one syllable words with consonant vowel consonant (CVC) in English. The objective will be for the students to exemplify an understanding of print within text through their self-efficacy skills. For example, recognition of letters and sounds as CVC is incorporated in single words for beginning reading. Students will work in small group and each student will be given a white board and asked to write down the word the teacher has written on the Smart Board; thereafter, students will be asked to break down the sound using CVC or phonetic awareness. Thus, the teacher will encourage students to work independently through self-efficacy skills. According to Krashen (1982), self-efficacy allows ELL students to gain confidence in their learning environment. As students are encouraged to build self-efficacy through their lesson, the teacher will model for students’ different sections of the selected books (front, back, top, bottom, inside, point to

Chapters six in Do I Really have to Teach Reading details strategies that aid students in focusing their thinking while reading, as well as remembering and reusing information in order to become an active reader. This chapter outlines the importance of assisting students in making connections and becoming active, independent readers, by utilizing a variety of tools and methods to hold thinking during reading. Highlighting, sticky notes, double-entry journals, and questioning are some of the devices also presented throughout the text to catch students thinking and assist in comprehension of different materials. As I read through chapter six, I evaluated what I was reading, and implemented some of the strategies Tovani discussed in the section.

Facilitating the class discussion was a new and unique opportunity. While every week we read each of our classmates’ discussion board posts and reply to many of the posts, leading the class discussion required a deeper level of analysis by asking more questions and providing more facts in order to create a further discussion and engaging our classmates in this. Organization and attention are required to lead a discussion, plus as described by Laurie and Courtenay on their reflection, it requires to fully comprehend the literature and lectures for the week, as well as encourages and requires the student’s leading the discussion to expand their knowledge beyond the information provided.

In the real world, the daily interactions and experiences in which we use language, writing, reading, mathematics, science, and social studies do not occur in isolation. Rather, we draw upon our knowledge and understanding in each area as we explore, investigate, and learn each day: "Just as scientists use mathematics and language arts as tools, children should have opportunities to apply and enhance their mathematics, reading, and writing skills while investigating the natural world" (Bass, Contant, and Carin, 2009, p.231). In the classroom, the primary focus is the learning of each student. The teacher follows the required benchmarks designated by the school district as they apply directly to their grade level of instruction. To help keep the students and the teacher on the right track and at the right pace, each educator must write lesson plans as a guide toward discovery. This final lecture will take a backward look at the various topics discussed over the past 7 weeks. Using the ideas and concepts that have been presented will result in integrated lesson plans that will excite the learner and create an enthusiastic classroom learning environment.

After the puzzles, the teacher will begin a classroom discussion: The importance of this discussion is to talk before writing. I will have the students tell me out loud what they are going to write about. Teach the class that writing is just simply putting their speeches down on the paper.

To simplify the activity, the students will read their reactions to the statements after the read the statements. The other group members will share their reactions to the statements and then move onto to the next student’s statement. After the students have discussed in small groups, each group will share their group 's most important ideas with the class and there will be a class discussion.

When teachers are trained in the most effective discussion techniques and questioning methods, students assume considerable responsibility for the success of the discussion by initiating topics and making unsolicited contributions (Danielson, 2007, p. 82). Fully student-led discussions must be explicitly taught to students through the gradual release model and practiced regularly. The ultimate goal is that students assume considerable responsibility for the success of the discussion, initiate topics, and make unsolicited contributions (Danielson, 2007, p. 82).

After the collection of baseline data, students learned several Accountable TalkⓇ (AT) techniques to improve discussions around chosen texts and, in turn, increase student engagement. The teacher utilized the AT Sourcebook (Michaels, O’Connor, Hall, & Resnick, 2010) and Questioning the Author (Beck, McKeown, Hamilton, & Kucan, 1997) to familiarize herself with the different types of “talk formats” that can exist in the classroom and to plan instruction. The formats that encouraged student contributions to conversation included: teacher-guided whole class discussion, teacher-guided small group discussion, teacher-student conferences, student-led group work, peer conferences, and hybrid talk formats such as the “turn and talk” or