Discourse Consistency- 4:1

Discourse Consistency- 4:1

Sunday, September 30th, 2012

When & Where: I discovered this word/concept in the Friendly Texts and Text-Friendly Teachers article by Mariam Jean Dreher and Harry Singer (2001). Although I have encountered the word discourse in multiple texts, particularly those texts relating to my graduate literacy classes, I have not seen these two words grouped together. With only 4 classes left in my graduate program of Literacy, I was very intrigued to find a concept that was unfamiliar to me.

Definition: "A uniform style of presenting information is referred to as discourse consistency" (Dreher & Singer, 2001, p.99). Specifically, this concept relates to how an author organizes his/her text and whether or not it's format provides for a consistent, predictable order.

Level of Familiarity: Like I mentioned previously, I have knowledge of the word "discourse." I have even used this word in speaking and writing. My level of familiary of this word is based on my background knowledge from the course LTED 609. In that course,  we explored the defintion of "Discourse" (with a capital D) and little "d" discourse, both of which were defined by James Paul Gee (prominent literacy/language researcher). Based on the context of the article Friendly Texts and Text-Friendly Teachers, the idea of discourse consistency pertains to James Paul Gee's (1990) idea of little "d" - discourse- which means one's language-in- use.

Reflective Commentary: This concept, discourse consistency, really struck a chord for me in terms of my teaching experience. I believe that texts come in multiple formats. The idea of text can include movies, games, music, profiles, powerpoints, and even podcasts. Although the article focused on traditional written texts, I believe there is something to be said of the idea of discourse consistency among all types of texts. This year, I have decided to make an iMovie at the end of each unit to share on my webpage but to also summarize our monthly unit. I decided to stick with one multimedia format for consistency and to also faciliate more learning. Additionally, the layout/organization of the iMovie will be similar each month. I will seek to define tier 2 vocabulary words that pertain to our unit in each iMovie. Last month, our theme was on school rules so the entire movie sought to define the words: respectful, responsible, and productive. As opposed to images I found on google, I used real pictures of the kids being respectful, responsible, and productive. I then had the kids record their voices to the criterion of being respectful, responsible and productive. What I found most promising about this activity was that the process we used facilitated learning.

 

Ubiquitous - 3:2

Ubiquitous – 3:2

Monday, September 24, 2012

When & Where: I came across this word, ubiquitous, while reading  Fisher and Frey’s (2009) beliefs on comprehension and what critical piece is missing in reading instruction (background knowledge).  In context it appeared as “Although ubiquitous in the educational world, terms like reading comprehension, inference, and cognitive ability represent the type 0f academic language unique to our profession” (Fisher & Frey, 2009, p.12).

Definition: As defined by dictionary.com, ubiquitous means “existing or being everywhere, especially at the same time.”  

Level of Familiarity: : Although I know I have had exposure to this word in other texts, I really had no idea what it meant. My comfort with the word is minimal even in terms of pronouncing it. Despite me looking up the definition, I still really didn’t have a grasp on what “ubiquitous” really represented. What helped me to grasp the word meaning was searching through the wide of array of ubiquitous images.  

Reflective Commentary: Now that I have some level of meaning with the word ubiquitous, I will definitely use when trying to describe a concept or idea that is widespread or appears everywhere. I particularly like the picture displayed above because it really speaks to the definition of ubiquitous. When searching for images to represent this word, I found a variety of images all illustrating this word meaning. More interestingly, I found that this word could be used or seen in a variety of content disciplines. While undergoing my search (through the google search engine)for the perfect image, I found diverse disciplines using the word “ubiquitous” to describe an area of their field. This word really speaks to Fisher and Frey’s (2008) category of Tier 2 words, “those high-utility words that often change meaning in different contexts” (p.12).

Turkish-Get Up (TGO) 3:1

Monday, September 17th, 2012

Turkish Get Up- 3.1

When and Where:  I came across this word or concept when I was participating in a Crossfit class at Flower City Crossfit (the gym that regularly go to). CrossFit is "a strength and conditioning program that uses a cross between all forms of fitness training" (http://chrisbeatcancer.com/what-is-crossfit/). 

Definition:  Turkish Get-Up, as defined by myomytv.com, is "an excellent full-body exercise that incorporates many challenges into one sequence." 

Level of Familiarity:  When I read these words on the white board listing our "workout of the day" (WOD), I had absolutely no idea what it meant or looked like. Once, I saw the other gym members doing a sequence of steps that looked unfamiliar to me, I realized they were doing the Turkish Get-Up. Although, I was able to figure out what the phrase represented (in terms of physical activity), I really had no idea where the phrase came from and why this physical activity was named this.



Reflective Commentary: This phrase "Turkish Get-Up" is really useful for cross-fitters to know and to be able to do.  It's an exercise that is used universally in cross-fit gyms. I could see myself using the phrase if describing to a group of people how cross-fit exercises differ from traditional gyms. This phrase is not a tier 2 word that is essential for understanding in all content disciplines. It is very content-specific (Tier 3) and would maybe be mentioned in a physical education class if the instructor had knowledge and experience in Cross-Fit.