The document consists of a series of posts from students discussing critical reading, writing skills, and instructional strategies in education. Key themes include the importance of literacy and critical thinking, the role of organized writing and questioning in teaching, and the application of various teaching methodologies. Each student shares personal reflections and strategies for improving their writing and understanding of educational practices.

1. DUE IN 12 HOURS
Each set of 2 responses has its own instructions:
READER RESPONSE- comment on the posts of two classmates
BRIDGET’S POST:
In listening to the lectures and reading over Writing Contexts in
The Little Seagull Handbook, one of the things that struck me is
the idea of critical thinking and how it relates to critical
reading. I've always thought of myself as a critical thinker. I
enjoying trying to understand why people do the things they do
or why things happen the way they do, but I realize now that I
can apply critical thinking to the things I read as well as what I
write. I have been out of school for over 20 years and training
myself to be a student again is going to be a struggle, but
hopefully I can apply my own critical thinking skills to other
areas like writing and reading as well. I want to be able to ask
myself if there is a deeper meaning in what an author wrote or
how a character reacts? I also want to try and write in a way
that is more than just superficial and at-face-value.
DILLON’S POST:
Module 1 has covered the basics of effectively writing and
organizing parts of what you read and also covering the basics
of plagiarism. I feel that critical reading is a very important
stepping stone to apply what you have learned onto paper. It
should involve you getting a deep understanding of what the
writers main purpose is. You should do so by taking notes,
highlighting important topics, thoroughly analyzing the writers
thoughts, and considering reference works.

2. Ive also learned that is is important to prepare for what you are
going to write. It should start with brainstorming and getting an
abundance of important ideas that fit the target topic. After
getting ideas you should break down these ideas into different
sections to effectively apply them into well worded paragraphs.
I find it is also important to go over what you have wrote
multiple times by proof reading and fixing any spelling or
grammatical errors that you can find.
Although I have learned much in this module, I have a very long
way to go to become a good writer. This subject is something I
have always struggled with, but I hope this course will better
my knowledge and capabilities.
LIFE & LITERACY - comment on the posts of two classmates
HAILEY’S POST:
Literacy holds a special place in everyone’s life, whether they
believe it or not. From the fairytales and bed-time stories, my
father would read to me every night to the poetry we write and
share now. For me, writing is a way of facing my fears as well
as expressing the emotions I could not say aloud while being
able to accept the grievances and losses I have overcome. In
school, we explored many different genres and time periods in
which we compared authors, poets, and even playwrights with
one another, seeking their true meanings behind each line or
phrase. We would analyze the author’s every thought from
sentence to sentence, sometimes even word to word within a
sentence. When it comes to my job, I am often faced with the
need to be a detective with critical reading and thinking skills. I
must determine who checks are being made to from different
companies and if they are meant to be sent to companies or

3. personal clients. Even when given a recipe to make, I must
carefully read over all the instructions before beginning, or else
I might mix the ingredients out of order which can cause the
entire recipe to come out wrong. In conclusion, literacy is as
important as food in everyday life- without it, you will be
hungry for the experiences you missed.
ALYVIA’S POST:
Literacy can best be described as a person's capability to read
and write. The importance of this is to be able to have the
freedom to speak clearly on what you believe in as well as
understand what's going on around you. People who tend to lack
literacy have poor education skills which lead to them failing in
life. Personally, being able to have the ability to read and write
gives me the opportunity to do well with school assignments
and achieving job opportunities. Being able to read and write
for fun leads me to express my feelings towards certain things
and communicating with family that does not live close. When
it comes down to school, it makes it easier to pass certain
classes that I attend to graduate. When working, literacy
becomes handy when communicating certain ideas or scheduling
days to meet with business partners. With all this being said
literacy is a way to success in life, without it many will
struggle.
WRITING WELL - comment on the posts of two classmates
HAILEY POST:
When figuring out what abilities contribute to writing well,
three things come to mind. The use of proper grammar,
organized paragraphs with good sentence structure, and strong
language when it is appropriate. Using proper grammar may
include the use of commas, semicolons, and where other
punctuation is used, as well as the spelling of words in their

4. proper forms (for example, their, they’re, and there). Organized
paragraphs usually have a read and response structure. The
author is given a quote or concrete detail and in turn, responds
to it in their opinion or what they may analyze it to mean.
Sentence structure is determining when to combine two
independent clauses to make a complex sentence or when to
omit parts of the sentence or phrase to make it more precise
when needing to show emphasis. Strong language is knowing
when to use a figure of speech such as a metaphor or hyperbole.
This carries over when determining whether to use a dictionary
or a thesaurus. A dictionary will show the detailed definition of
the word being used and its part of speech with a shortlist of
synonyms and antonyms. A thesaurus, however, will show a
much longer list of synonyms and antonyms of the word that is
searched for giving different words to substitute in place of the
word used in the search or original context. A thesaurus cannot
be used as a dictionary, it has examples of new words to use
that each has a similar meaning or the opposite meaning of the
word in the original context, but each word has its own details
in its definition to make it unique.
DILLON POST:
The ability to write well can be very important for many
different reasons. It allows the reader to acknowledge and stay
interested in the topic your are discussing. Communication in
this day and age consists of many different forms including
email, texting, speaking, and phone calls. Doing any of these
well requires good writing skills. Good writing is being able to
think about something and express it for an audience to follow.
Writing out these thoughts can make it easier for you to
organize your ideas for better results. Your writing may also
benefit your listeners if you reach them in an emotional way.
I feel that a dictionary can benefit you in writing by allowing

5. you to look up spelling and pronunciation errors and better your
understanding in the meanings of different words. A thesaurus
is basically a dictionary of synonyms. For example, when you
feel you have used the same words too much, it allows you to
have other options. You have to be careful too though, using
words that aren't commonly used can possibly stray the reader
away from your writing.
Respond to at least two classmates’ postings.
Rosemary post:
Which do you feel is more relevant to today’s classroom, why?
I feel that Marzano’s “9 best practices” are more relevant in
classrooms today. It is because they focus more on giving
learning choices for students and teachers. According to our
book, Bizar and Daniels have given seven best methods that
educators can use to provide instructions or directions in their
classrooms. In today’s classrooms, there is a need to define the
educational goals for the pupils. However, it helps make
teaching more beneficial because educators already know what
they need to teach before teaching. Plus, they already know
what their students need to learn and are supposed to learn
before teaching the subjects or the lessons. Marzano’s best
practices are likewise more suitable because they concentrate on
providing responses and exercising collaborative education. In a
global world, pupils must know how to communicate with other
human beings. Collective learning guarantees that pupils
understand how to come together or collaborate with other
pupils from various backgrounds.
Choose a researcher whose best practices will work best in the
classroom you plan on teaching; why?
A researcher whose best practices will work best in the

6. classroom that I plan on teaching would Marzano. I like setting
goals and give back meaningful feedback to my students
because I would love to see my students succeed and learn
something new every day because even outside of the
classroom, we are always learning something new. This makes
it much easier to set goals and choose what materials I can use
to help them learn or create a lesson plan for the day. I also like
the idea of having them do group work together so that they can
learn how to work with others. However, I would frequently
assess them and give them meaningful feedback. Also,
homework may be given to the students to refresh their memory
when they have learned while in class.
Which of Marzano’s best practices do you feel will enhance
instruction in your classroom, based on your own style and
personality?
One of Marzano’s best practices is that enhancing instruction in
my classroom would require nonlinguistic representations
because I am a visual learner. I love being able to show people
instead of telling people sometimes because if I can learn in this
way, so can some of my students. According to our book, it
states that “knowledge is stored in forms: linguistic and visual –
with the visual accounting for the majority of learning for
humans” (Hansen, Buczynski, & Puckett, 2015). Therefore, I
can have my students represent what they are learning with
graphic organizers, pictures, drawings, etc.
References:
Hansen, C.B., Buczynski, S., & Puckett, K.S. (2015).
Curriculum and instruction for the 21st century
[Electronic Version]. Retrieved from
https://content.ashford.edu/
CIARA’S POST;

7. · Which do you feel is more relevant to today’s classroom, why?
Bizar and Daniels " Small Group Activities." I see more and
more classroom resulting to the use of small groups. With
technology and the use of a online teacher assistant for lack of
better words; the teachers have been able to group students
together who are at the same level intellectually to offer more
specified help.
· Choose a researcher, whose best practices will work best in
the classroom you plan on teaching, why?
Bizar and Daniels Strategies of using small groups because the
classroom that I will be working in has a mixture of different
grade levels. the reason being is because this is a small private
school.
· Which of Marzano’s best practices do you feel will enhance
instruction in your classroom, based on your own style and
personality.
Identifying similarities and differences, because I like to help
students to ponder and develop critical thinking. I want the
students to ask more questions and not just accepting
information given to them without examination, asking
questions and searching out the facts.
Respond to at least two classmates’ postings.
DESIREE’S POST:
Hello Everyone,
Identify those two main components and describe the elements
of each of them

8. .
1. Expository
Expository teaching can be done in many different forms.
Teachers can us a lecture style accompanied by a PowerPoint
notes to breakdown what is important. According to Hansen,
Buczynski & Puckett, 2015 the lecture method is not the most
effective expository teaching instruction. Lecture does have
advantages and disadvantages.
2. Questioning
Questioning is a great way to promote class discussion. Asking
questions is good and can help with learning but Hansen,
Buczynski & Puckett, 2015 put it into a great perspective when
using questioning it should allow the students to think deep ad
critically. The teacher must be using the questions effectively
(section 6.3).
After reading the advantages and disadvantages of lecturing,
take a stance on lecturing and defend whether you feel it is an
effective strategy.
Lecturing to me is a great tool when teaching students grades 7
and above. Meaning these students can benefit from getting the
material quickly to help guide them through a lesson or
assignment. Lecture allows the teacher to present the important
information to all students then if they still are not sure can ask
questions to gain a better understanding.
Questioning is complex, summarize what the author is stating
about questioning as an instructional tool.
What the author is saying about questioning is that it needs to
be effective and guided toward the outcome desired for a lesson.

9. Most educators use literal questioning which is good when
looking for a basic answer with not in depth thought process.
When using this method the educator needs to allow a wait time
to allow students to process the question and come up with an
answer before they just answer the question themselves. The
best type of questions to ask are open-ended questions which
allow for more than just one specific answer.
Explain why educators need to ask questions that require
students to use higher order thinking skills.
As an educator who does use the questioning method daily with
my students it is important to allow the students to think about
what is being asked and promote curiosity or critical thinking to
figure out the answer that would not be a typical answer.
Promoting higher order thinking helps students understand
material and the world around them in a different light.
Sincerely,
Desiree Beck
Resources:
Hansen, C.B., Buczynski, S., & Puckett, K.S. (2015).
Curriculum and instruction for the 21st century
. Bridgepoint Education
BRITNEY’S POST:
Good afternoon everyone
Identify those two main components and describe the elements
of each of them.

10. The two main components of direct instruction are expository
teaching and questioning? Expository teaching is in the form of
lectures, where teachers explain the concept/learning objectives.
Lectures usually get students in the mindset that learning is
about to occur. Questioning is what teachers spend most of their
day doing. They are asking questions to check for understanding
and get students thinking.
After reading the advantages and disadvantages of lecturing,
take a stance on lecturing and defend whether you feel it is an
effective strategy.
Lecturing is an effective strategy because I think the
disadvantages can be turned into advantages for students. For
example, if lectures are too rapid-paced and become
overwhelming for students, the teacher can chunk the lesson
into smaller concepts. The teacher can take a break from talking
and have students think, pair, and share what they have learned
so far. In a lecture, the teacher can add technology and visuals
to have another way of experiencing the content presented.
Questioning is complex, summarize what the author is stating
about questioning as an instructional tool.
When teachers use questioning as an instructional tool, the
questions need to be stated so students can think deeply about
the question and provide a well thought out answer. It is best to
avoid literal one answer questions so children can think about
an answer before responding and then ask other students if they
agree or not and explain reasonings. The questioning section
also suggests using Bloom's Taxonomy, Depth of Knowledge
(DOK), and questioning methods to create better questions and
increase participation. Blooms taxonomies can be used as a

11. guideline for asking questions based on the verb's cognitive
thinking level. DOK is making sure students understand the
concept from beginning to end, including necessary steps. The
questioning methods include giving students enough time to
answer a question, asking open-ended questions, and questions
where students must explain their reasoning (Hansen et al.,
2015).
Explain why educators need to ask questions that require
students to use higher-order thinking skills.
Educators need to ask questions that encourage students to think
deeper and explain why they gave that answer. Questions are a
part of the learning process. If a student can answer a question
and explain the reason, they have fully understood the material.
Communication is one of the four skills that the CCSS wants
students to be college and career ready. Through open
discussions, students get plenty of practice with their
communication skills.
Reference
Hansen, C.B., Buczynski, S., & Puckett, K.S. (2015).
Curriculum and instruction for the 21st century.
EDU 381: Curriculum and Instruction for the 21st Century - 6.3
Teacher-Directed Models of Teaching (ashford.edu) (Links to
an external site.)
Respond substantively to a minimum of two peers
TAMMY’S POST:
Week 3 Discussion: Phase Models in Group Development

12. As a Head Start Family Advocate a few years ago, the
Advocates had to introduce themselves to the classroom and
acquaint themselves to teaching after the part-time afternoon
teacher suffered a life-threatening emergency. Her assistant
filled her place while the Advocacy team was appointed to fill
the teacher assistant’s place. Creating teams for any reason is
beneficial and should meet or exceed expectations of the task or
tasks at hand; however, when a team does not cooperate, no
cohesion occurs, and tasks are left unfulfilled.
Phase one of forming was scheduling the teaching team to one
hour in the classroom daily. One hour was insufficient to the
classroom’s needs since this particular class had behavioral
challenges. The time frame was increased to two hours daily,
added a floating teacher and ‘Grandma’ for occasional check-ins
from the full-time classroom. The impact of being overextended
began to take its toll. Adding to the stressors was the holiday
and cold & flu season absences. The schedule was unmet and
led to contention among the staff.
Stepping onto phase two, storming came when several advocates
deviated from their obligations to meet other desires. For
instance, one Advocate blatantly refused to assist the team
feeling the request was out of her job description. Another
advocate would leave with an excuse. A third advocate would
leave early for her children but not return as advised. The fourth
would attend her children’s extracurricular activities. Teachers
and teachers assistants from other classrooms adamantly
adhered to their set schedule.
In phase three of norming, instead of balance and harmony,
venting became ammunition to attack another. No one was
doing their part yet complained and instigated drama when
confronted. Worse, the supervisor consistently hesitated to
address the issues. Reporting the circumstances to superiors
above the Advocacy supervisor also failed to resolve the issues

13. at hand.
In the fourth phase of performing, the facility and faculty
deteriorated. The turmoil between the teachers and advocates
grew due to a lack of relief. The parties refusing to contribute
began to lash out as a means of defense. Unfortunately, the
environment became hostile with clashing of emotional chaos.
The bare minimum of tasks was achieved.
No fifth phase of adjourning occurred due to a refusal to
collaborate efforts. The teacher who was initially out due to
trauma resigned after a brief return. The teacher assistant and
four of the advocates later resigned (myself included). Two
other teacher assistants were terminated. This ordeal later led to
a generous grant that now funds an abundant staff.
According to Lindred Greer (2014), the dilemmas could have
been remedied instead of ending in destruction. Instead of
becoming cohesive for child education and welfare, the team
launched an emotional warzone. At no point did leadership
effectively address or resolve the underlying issues; the team
destructed. Greer (2014) states that the conflict that occurred
within the Head Start was the worst type of conflict because it
is interpersonal, ‘sucks’ others into the feud, which led to a
viral escalation.
References
Greer, L. (2014). Managing conflict in teams [Video file].
Retrieved from Lindred Greer: Managing Conflict in Teams
Jones, D. (2019). The Tuckman’s Model Implementation,
Effect, and Analysis & the New Development of Jones LSI
Model on a Small Group. Journal of Management, 6(4).
SHEMAIAH’S POST:

14. In order for a group to maintain effectiveness, healthy
collaboration, and productivity it is necessary that the group
monitors concerns while simultaneously addressing challenges
that occur amongst group members. Tuckman developed the
Model of Group Development to outline each stage a group
undergoes as it develops. As an educator I have been placed on
a grade level team in which I am required to collaborate with
six varying educators on a daily basis to plan and execute lesson
plans and make grade level decisions based on implementing
procedures that are in the best interest of the students that
attend our school. The team that I was placed on this year
consist of two teachers I have previously worked with, three
teachers I became acquainted with through trainings, and one
teacher who I did not previously know. When I juxtapose what
has taken place in my team to Tuckman’s model of group
development I realize that my group has only successfully
moved through the forming stage. The forming stage focuses on
the group’s ability to initiate relationships with each other by
engaging in opportunities for each member to get to know each
other on a deeper level (Adams, K., & Galanes, G, 2017, p.91).
When evaluating the forming stage I realize that the members
on my team successfully established commonalities and overall
group goals we wished to achieve. This allowed my group to
successfully transition to the subsequent stage.
The second stage outlined by Tuckman is the storming stage.
During this stage, individuals in the group assume the
responsibility to address serious matters (Adams, K., &
Galanes, G, 2017, p. 91) . When this stage is applied to my
group, I realize that at this stage my group began to experience
difficulty. Although several group members established initial
relationships with ease, these connections were challenged as
differing opinions surfaced. In addition to this, the group began
to disunity as some group members began to work to destroy
relationships between group members and assumed an attitude

15. of utter disregard for other members. The norming stage refers
to the group’s ability to establish specific normality’s (Adams,
K., & Galanes, G, 2017, p. 92). For the reasons listed above, the
group that I am in did not transition to the norming stage.
Therefore, group members did not experience conflict resolution
amongst group members.
Moreover, the performing stage marks the group’s ability to
collaborate within the group in an organized and effective
manner (Adams, K., & Galanes, G, 2017, p. 92). Because the
group struggled in the previous stages, the group did not
transition to the performing stage. Therefore, group members
did not successfully collaborate with one another, as meetings
are often met with awkward silences or disagreements that are
unable to be resolved. Finally, the adjourning stage identifies
the relationships that maintained when the group is no longer
necessary to operate or when the group’s interaction diminishes
(Adams, K., & Galanes, G, 2017, p. 92). At this time, the group
that I am is still operating, however this is likely to change at
the end of this school year.
Adams, K., & Galanes, G. (2017).
Communicating in groups: application and skills
(10th ed.).
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill