Tompkins, Chapter 7

I never would have thought how beneficial the use of sticky notes can be when incorporated into the classroom. I taught my literacy lesson last week and my CT added the idea of including sticky notes to my lesson. I was excited for the advice and did as she said. Students flagged parts of the story that included vocabulary words and their favorite part of the story. The students loved doing this! The motivation in the room sky rocketed just through the use of sticky notes! After reading in Tompkins the example lesson Mrs. Donnelly taught with her class allowed me to understand the benefits of using the sticky notes were to my lesson. Sticky notes give students reminders of parts in the book that they enjoyed, key points, vocabulary, etc. Mrs. Donnelly used them to have students display their thinking. She used sticky notes to have students mark their strategy they used at the point of the book. The students would return to the their sticky notes after reading to record their notes and thoughts in their triple-entry thinking journal. This journal requires students to make three columns: the chapter, the text, your thinking, and the strategy. Students revisit their sticky notes and record reasons as to why they marked it, what they felt about that point in the book as well as the strategy they used. The neat thing about this Tompkins chapter is that it takes the reader step by step through the process Mrs. Donnelly took when she introduced reading strategies to her students. She did not just teach them all at one time, but she taught each strategy with a different book, lesson, and incorporated previous strategies as well. 

The chapter in Tompkins also provided a chart that provides information of "factors affecting students' motivation". Professors of education majors, and my collaborating teacher is always bring up the word motivation. I always find this to be a stressful concept to handle. I never really knew how to answer the question "how will you keep your students motivated". I find this question especially difficult when it comes to specific subjects. This chart provides not only information of teacher factors that affect student motivation, but also student factors. I laughed when I read the paragraph on collaboration. I agreed with everything Tompkins included under this factor especially after teaching my lesson. When students work in small groups, or pairs they are more interested and engaged because they are able to share ideas and learn from each other. What made me laugh was the sentence on competition. After passing out the sticky notes and explaining to students what they are to do with the notes competition amongst the pairs immediately broke out. Students wanted to have the most sticky notes in their book and were constantly comparing with other pairs. I guess I learned the hard way this point that Tompkins made. I definitely highlighted the paragraph on collaboration several times!