"Large Sea Street" by Joseph-Jean Charlemagne

Joseph-Jean Charlemagne painting this view of Saint Petersburg, “Large Sea Street” with the building of the headquarters of the Chevalier Guard Regiment. At first glance, it is a very stiff and simple picture of just a street and buildings but taking a step closer and a more in depth look, the detail within the picture is outstanding. With the consideration of all the detail, this picture would be a great one to bring into the Math classroom when discussing shapes. Just look at the road itself, it is made up of a repetition of circles. Not only can you talk about that but the detail within these circles. Each one is a specific size allowing for there to be as little of a gap possible for the horse carts to be able to go down the street with ease. The buildings are made up solely of different shapes. Form cylinders to rectangles, the importance of what shapes can do to make up a city is presented in this picture. Student tend to spend a lot of time wondering and asking how math relates to the real world and creating an activity, such as having them pick out as many shapes as possible from the building and then discussing how every building is just made up of a combination of shapes would allow the students to connect more closely to the material.
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The opportunity to do book clubs in class was a great way to better understand the pros and cons to it. I really enjoyed this because it not only allows for students to include more reading within their classes but you can add different strategies and class topics relating to the book. The great thing about book clubs is that it can teach students how to work together and accomplish the task at hand. With other subject aside from Language Arts, having book clubs or a type of reading club allows for the class to incorporate the skill of reading comprehension. The important thing to note is that reading an entire novel takes time. When incorporating something like this into your lesson plan it is important to schedule properly. Learning about different ways like reading certain parts of the novel or splitting it up between students could be very beneficial. The downside to book clubs is that not all books are written in a way that could be sectioned. I will be using book clubs in my classroom because I think it brings a lot of beneficial things into the class. A math class especially because it will  provide not only more opportunity to include literacy but a different way to present the material.

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Reflection: Sketch the Text

Sketch the Text was a great strategy to present to the class. Taylor and I went through the definition of what Sketch the Text exactly is. It is a simple strategy that could be helpful to some students. Starting with what it is and what it includes, we then did the strategy for the class. Doing this, I believe, helps the class see exactly what the strategy is supposed to look like. Being the classes first time seeing this strategy, we did a very simple example using evaporation. Following this, we allowed the class to do their own example and then talk with their groups about what they drew. By having them compare their drawings, it allowed them to see how different students view the readings. When the class finished the discussion, we came back together as a class and had two students share with the class. This was a good tool because it showed the class that even when you are reading the same thing as the class, every student pictures it differently. As teachers of this strategy, I think that we could always go into more detail about the strategy and when best to use it and when it is not such a great idea to use it. There are always moments when teaching that there are always moments of silence that are important, as a teacher, to fill or ask questions.    

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