Double Journal Entry #11

1. What does the author mean when he says, "Learning doesn't work well when learners are forced to check their bodies at the school room door like guns in the old West." 

I think the author is eferring to the students just coming into school as another person not as a special individual with different experience. All students don't come into school with the same experiences and they don't all learn the same.

2. According to the author, what is the best way to acquire a large vocabulary?
The best way to acquire a large vocabulary is for stucdents to actually experience the "worlds" to which these words refer.

3. What gives a word a specific meaning? 

Words have different specific meanings in different situations where they are used and in different specialist domains that recruit them.

4. What does the term "off the hook" mean in each of these sentences?
a. My sister broke up with her fiance, so I'm off the hook for buying her a wedding        present. 

In this sentence it means you now don't have to dosomething that you were going to have to do.

b. Them shoes are off the hook dog.

In this sentence "off the hook" means  awesome or cool.
   
c. Man that cat was fighting 6 people and he beat them all. Yo, it was "off the hook", you should have seen it!!

In this sentence, I would say the phrase means crazy.


4. According to the author what is the"work" of childhood? Do you agree?

The work of childhood is play. I don't complelty agreee with this statment. I believe that there a lot more important things children work to learn during childhood,but I dounderstand that they come about learning these things through the process of play and that "play" is their main work soto speak.


5.Why is NOT reading the instruction for how to play a game before playing a game a wise decision?

The texts that provide the directions for ganes are very difficult to read unless one has experienced the game which will give the language in the directions specific meaning.


6. Does knowing the general or literal meaning of a word lead to strong reading skills?

Knowing the general or literal meaning of a owrd does not lead to strong reading skills and understanding.


7. What does the author mean by the terms "identity" and "game". Give an example of 3 "identities" or "games" you play?

Children are esentially playing a "game" when they are taking the moves or certain actions or interactions that define them as they take on a role or "identity." I play the game of being a techer by playing out my role or identiy when teaching lessons in my clinical. I also take on the role of a daycare worker when I am going through the "moves" at my job. In the third game I play, as I plan my wedding, I take on the roles of an event planner.

8. According to the author what is good learning?

Good learning depends on the experiences given to young students.


9. How does understanding that being able to build a mental model and simulations of a real-word experience is closely tied  to comprehending written and oral language support of change the way you think children should learn in school?

Model simulations help us make sense of things.  They are not simply facts, but representations of experiences we have had. So meanings of words are not about general definitions. They are building specific game like models for specific contexts. Supplying children in school with many experiences with which they can build useful simulations for understanding diffferent subjects.


10. Why is peer to peer interaction so important for the language development of young children? How does knowing this support or change the way you think children should learn in school?

Young children use interaction with their peer to compare and contrast their perspectives on different things. They learn to reason. In peer interaction children are more likely to seek some way of rationalizing differetnt viewpoints and change their own for reasons they understand. This, to me, completly supports the idea that children are going to learn more working with each other and that educational and posititve talking and discussion should be encouraged between students.