Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal teaching is the idea of using predicting, question generating, clarifying and summarizing as a means of understanding what they are reading. In the prediction they will predict what they will see in the text, what will happen next, they activate their background knowledge so that they can give their reading a purpose. Question generating is when students can create questions that they’d ask themselves or others. This helps them to decide what information is important enough to ask a question about. Clarifying is the strategy that helps students that don’t always understand something at the first attempt, students will be able to understand how to break down elements of a story or book, and new vocabulary or concepts. When students are reminded that these things may be needed to be reviewed, they can regroup and reattempt the reading. Summarizing lets students understand what the most important information of certain texts are. This is important so that students can learn to comprehend when they will be able to pull out the main idea of sentences paragraphs and even entire stories.

Like everything that we’ve learned in this class, it is absolutely key to model each element of reciprocal teaching. We talked in the class about how students will begin to mimic the things the teacher asks in the conversations such as “What do you think about that?” or “Could you tell me why you think this?”. I especially like the idea of having a discussion ‘cheat sheet’ this allows students to go back and remember what proper language is used during the discussions. After they have modeled the correct procedure, teachers should become a student or become part of the group and observe how discussions are going. I liked the idea in one of the videos of selecting a ‘student teacher’ to help or lead the class in discussion. I think in elementary school classrooms, this would be an honor to the students that get to be a student teacher, and all of the students will want to imitate good reciprocal teaching procedures so that they may get the opportunity.

I liked how the teacher in the second video was very explicit about what she was doing during the discussion. Similar to how we were writing the questions for the shared reading model, she was saying things like “I want to know more about this so I think I will ask this question”. This seems silly for us, but for elementary school students this is something that will help them to do as I stated in the previous paragraph and imitate the teacher. Eventually this imitation will become natural and after practice students will be able to lead meaningful discussions amongst themselves, which is something that I wouldn’t expect elementary students to be able to do.

 

Here is the link to my wanted poster! : http://fritzle26.glogster.com/gylfiewanted/

The very beginning of this article related a lot to what we had done in the worksheet on The Capture. In this example, the teacher prompted the student to use context clues to find out what the word meant as well as find an everyday application. When students can use something like the word “popularity” in a sentence relating to their school or home life, they are more likely to remember it in the future.

In the paragraph explaining what students may do when they come across a word that they are unsure of, such as finding the root word, that they know and using the context clues around it. I know that this is the process that the students use but it is fascinating to me that with practice, these things can become so second-nature to proficient readers.

There was a part in this article that discussed the statistic that students will learn on average 3,000 words per year, and that most of these will come from context. This is something that we had talked about in class, and it was good to have it reiterated. Vocabulary is such an essential part to learning in all ages. I myself wish that I had a much larger vocabulary, and am determined to stop when I’m reading and find out what a word means. While I was a good reader in grade school, my vocabulary knowledge has seemed to have plateaued. I am making the same mistakes that young readers make. Rather than read a word and try to understand what it meant or how I can use it in a sentence, I skip over it. This just stresses to me even more how important it is to teach students theses strategies, and instill this in their minds.

As a teacher I want to make it clear, that this isn’t just an activity we’re learning how to do for a week and then we will move on. This habit of not only decoding but deciphering words needs to become a daily habit for these students. I can start this by being an example myself. When I’m reading books I will always come across at least one word that I don’t know or that I would never have thought to use in a sentence. During a time like silent reading, if I am modeling reading a book of my own, I need to sit with a dictionary beside me and a stack of post it notes or a pen, and learn these words that I’m used to skipping over. I can even stop the students every once in a while and tell them that I just learned a new word. This will show the students that not only are they using these techniques with every book they read, I do the same thing too, and they should always do this for as long as they read, which is hopefully forever.

–This is just an aside, but though I did like this article, I wasn’t a fan of how generalized they were towards urban schools. The way this article was written made it sound as though all urban schools are full of only ELL students and students that are completely uneducated. While I know that this is not always the case, and the article didn’t use such a sweeping generalization as the example I gave, it has that constant theme running throughout. While it is a known fact that urban schools are more likely to have a higher population of at risk students or ELL students, I don’t think people need to make light of the more privileged schools. There are students in even the best elementary schools in the state that don’t have the vocabulary that they should for their grade level, and they shouldn’t be overlooked.

Internet Workshops

The internet workshop is such a great idea for students. It allows students to make a connection with the content or the readings on a much more personal level that they can more easily connect with and remember. After teachers find these kid friendly websites, they are able to send their students to essentially explore on their own to find the information, but still keep it in a student friendly environment and not searching through the entire internet. A lot of the questions in internet workshops are open ended. This way students can get excited about what they are exploring and find information that is meaningful to them, and it also eliminates all of the students finding the same facts over and over again. In this way students can blog about what they’ve found and begin discussions with other students on things they’ve found that others didn’t come across. Blogging is an effective way for students to post the materials they’ve used in finding the research, as well as the creations they’ve made from doing the internet workshop.

I really like that the students can almost create their own internet workshop with their blogs after they’ve found information that they think is important. Students can see each others blogs, see what others have found interesting and react to others thoughts accordingly. This not only sparks student conversation and interest in learning, but it allows for the teacher to use it as an assessment tool to see if students are grasping all that they should from the assignments. Internet workshops are such a great way to make learning exciting and hands on. Rather than stand up in front of the class and lecture about barn owls, students do their own investigation and research, and are able to see all different types of media to gather their information. I think when they’ve been to a number of sites and can see something like a live video feed of a barn owl, or a video of a barn owl in flight, it not only gives the student a different perspective but it sparks their interest as well. This is such a great way to build background knowledge before reading a text or a book.

 

1. List the barn owl’s scientific name.

Tyto alba alba

2. What does a barn owl look like? (color, size, etc.) What kind of sounds does it make?

Barn owls are seriously one of the prettiest birds I’ve ever seen. They are a snow white, with a heart shaped face and brown and auburn feathers. They have long legs, and measure about 25-45 centimeter, but their wingspan is triple that. Barn owls are extremely light and weigh from 350-500 grams. It makes a horrible screeching sound unlike the hoots of other owls.

3. Describe the habitat of a barn owl: Where do they live? What kind of shelter do they need?

Barn owls need to be protected from the rain, if their feathers get wet they become unable to fly. Barn owls tend to live in barns that are infested with mice, this helps them to hunt indoors when weather conditions are poor.

4. How is the barn owl especially equipped to catch its prey? (Describe its camouflage and other adaptations.)

Barn owls have exceptional hearing and their entire facial structure is shaped to help them hear better. The feathers surrounding their head are curved in a parabola shaped to kind of cup the noise towards the ears. The barn owl also has extremely large eyes for a bird. It can catch more light which allows it to see with hardly any light. Their feathers are also very soft so they are very quiet while flying and hunting.

5. What do barn owls eat? Where do they find their food?

Mice. Barn owls can tell where the direction of the noise that the mouse is making by it’s hearing. It has a time delay from one ear to the other, so if the owl hears it first in the left ear and then in the right, it’s coming from the left. If the owl can hear it in both ears at the same time the owl will know that the mouse is directly in front of it. They find their food from flying or hovering over and listening for rustling in the branches. They are also able to detect movement very easily even at night.

6. Describe any “special talents” of the barn owl.

While the barn owl is flying, it’s left year listens to the sounds below, while it’s right ear listens for sounds above it. They are also able to fly quite slowly compared to other birds without constantly having to flap it’s wings. This allows the owl to hover over it’s prey and listen/watch for movement.

7. Describe the life cycle of a barn owl. (including reproduction)

The breeding cycle can begin in the first year of life for the female owls, and it usually begins in the winter. Nests can be found through all times of the year, but most owls lay eggs in the spring time. They do not build nests, but they will just make room in the previous years nest or break up owl pellets to make a soft covering they usually lay about 5 to 6 eggs and begin incubation immediately. Winter is the hardest time for these owls, because they can’t put on additional weight, they can’t save up fat storage to stay warm, also the amount of prey decreases in the winter.

8. What are some cool “WOW” facts that you learned?

I was surprised that they can’t put on much weight at all during the winter because their feathers are so light. I also didn’t know that they couldn’t hunt in the rain, that makes it difficult for barn owls to get food a lot of times.

They only weight about 400 grams!!! That’s insane. I also thought it was crazy how young they are (28 days) when you can already see the characteristic heart shaped face.

DED-As Good As Anybody

Here is a kid friendly website that shows a short biography on many of the civil rights leaders that worked alongside Martin Luther King and elsewhere to make a difference: http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/civil_rights_leaders.htm

 

Lauren Fritz

DOUBLE ENTRY DIARY (DED)

 

1.  Passage from the Book

What it means to me… Connections, Questions, Ideas, Comments

Martin grew up and became a minister like his dad. “The way things are,” he told his congregation, “is not the way they always have to be. Don’t ever forget that you are just as good as anybody!” Word spread about Martin’s sermons. Some Sundays it seemed that half of Montgomery, Alabama, crowded into his little church.

I really like this page because it showed Martin as a grown man still believing the teachings of his father from when he was a young boy. In the pages just before it discussed that Martin didn’t want to wait for the world to change, and when I read it there I thought of it as just his impatience as a young kid, but I realized it had a deeper meaning or foreshadowing that he was going to do something about it himself, because he didn’t want to just sit by and wait for something to happen.

 

 

2.  Passage from the Book

What it means to me… Connections, Questions, Ideas, Comments

When Abraham arrived in Warsaw, he was tired and hungry and cold. He stomped his feet outside his childhood home. His mother threw her arms around him. “Perhaps in the next world, people will live together in peace,” she cried.

This part in the book gave me chills. I had made this connection before of the WWII and the civil rights movements, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this clearly. It’s so frustrating to think that we fought this intense war on genocide and mass oppression of a certain type of people acting as heroes who didn’t ever want to support such a horrid thing, yet we were supporting the same values in our own country. Seeing the juxtaposition of these two young boys really allowed that to set in for me.

 

 

3.  Passage from the Book

What it means to me… Connections, Questions, Ideas, Comments

After months at sea, Abraham rejoiced to see the Statue of Liberty, but his joy was short-lived. Hitler soon invaded Poland. Most of Warsaw’s Jews, including Abraham’s mother and three of his sisters, were killed. Abraham marched all over America speaking out for peace and equal rights. Wherever he saw injustice, he reminded people of the beauty of life. “God did not make a world with just one color flower,” he said. “We are all made in God’s image.”

I absolutely loved the imagery in the last part of this page. I have heard similar sayings but not one that put such a vivid image or thought into my head. This idea that the world is made up of so many beautiful colors in nature, helps you to think of how ridiculous it is that people used to (and some still do) think that there should only be one acceptable race of people. Variety is the beauty of life, and we should be able to recognize that no one person is made exactly the same as the other, and we should embrace that and love that we are all different and unique beings!

 

 

4.  Passage from the Book

What it means to me… Connections, Questions, Ideas, Comments

On March 21, 1935, in Selma, Alabama, Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King Jr. prayed together. Then Martin stomped his feet and Abraham stomped beside him. The time had come for action. The white man and the black man joined hands. The Jew and the Christian joined hands. Three thousand people stood behind them, cheering.

The stomping of the feet is what really stood out to me in the part of the book. It immediately brought me back to the beginning pages of Martin as a young boy stomping his feet at the things he didn’t like. Fast forward to 1965 and he’s stomping with purpose. He is standing up for what he believes in and rather than stomping because of frustration he’s doing something about it. I also loved how it talked about “the white man and the black man joined hands” it provided such rich imagery. The fact that the author not discussed race but religion as well emphasized this idea that we should all learn to accept each other for who they are and not judge or oppress others because they are different.

 

 

 

 

5.  Passage from the Book

What it means to me… Connections, Questions, Ideas, Comments

There were not enough police in the state to hold the marchers back. There were not enough mayors and governors and judges to stop them.

I think this my favorite part of the entire book. There is something about how simple those two sentences are, that have such a great impact when you read them. The fact that they also mirrored each other in how the sentences started off was really great too. The point was that they were unstoppable and no amount of lengthy sentences could’ve gotten that point across any better than the way it was written here. It was written so well here.

 

 

Shared Reading

Lauren Fritz

 

Shared Reading Article:

When we were discussing shared reading in class, the only shared readings I had heard of were the ones with a big book, or with a classroom set of books. The article also discussed some procedures that teachers might do during a shared reading such as choral reading, and echo reading. While I saw that this could be effective for younger students such as kindergarten through second grade, with those that were beginning to learn, I couldn’t make the connection as to why a shared reading would be effective for the upper elementary grades.

This article helped me to see that shared reading isn’t just pointing word by word to a giant book and having students mock what you say. While those techniques do model fluency, they don’t show the modeling of the actual thinking process that we want our students to be habitually utilizing. I have never seen a shared reading done in this way and I’m sure this will be very effective.

When we were talking about sustained silent reading and discussing how to monitor reading comprehension, and suggest that students monitor their own comprehension, I wasn’t quite sure how to implement that, but with a shared reading such as this one, you can show students techniques as to how to monitor what they’ve learned, and what they are continuing to learn.

I also loved the idea of modeling how to understand new vocabulary words. So often, the teachers I had in elementary school just went over the basics of how to use context clues, handed us a worksheet with a few short paragraphs with words we didn’t know, and asked us to identify what they meant from the context clues. The irony of this was that the technique of using context clues was used out of context from our everyday reading. It is important to show students that they should stop reading if they don’t know what the word is and try to figure it out. Modeling this also shows students other alternatives if context clues do not work such as using a dictionary or asking someone around them. I feel that this points out to students that it is ok that they don’t know every word in a book, and that it is important to find out before they try to continue reading, or else they might miss something that has great importance in the book.

 

 

 

Shared Reading

 

Text Structure: This story is a narrative story that has a problem and a solution, a cause and effect, descriptive text, and story grammar structure that includes plot, setting, character and conflict.

 

Pg. 4

“John Henry’s skin is the color of browned butter.”

“My skin is the color of the pale moths that dance around the porch light at night.”

 

Activating Background/Questioning: I know from what I’ve read so far, that these boys are best friends, but one boy is white and the other is African American. From what we’ve read about the time period that this book has been framed in, does this seem out of the ordinary?

 

Pg. 10

I have two nickels for ice pops, so we put on our clothes and walk to town. John-Henry doesn’t come with me through the front door of Mr. Mason’s General Store. He’s not allowed…””You gonna eat these all by yourself?” My heard does a quick-beat. “I got one for a friend,” I say, and scoot out the door.

 

Questioning/Activating Background/Connecting: I know that John-Henry is not allowed in the store, but I’m wondering why the narrator was so scared to answer Mr. Mason’s question. I wonder if the narrator would be criticized for being friends with John-Henry.

 

Pg. 11

Annie Mae makes dinner for my family every night. She creams the corn and rolls the biscuits. Daddy stirs iced tea and says, “The town pool opens tomorrow to everybody under the sun, no matter what color.” “That’s the new law,” Mama tells me. She helps my plate with peas and says, “It’s the way it’s going to be now— Everybody Together— lunch counters, rest rooms, drinking fountains, too.” I wiggle in my chair like a doodlebug. “I got to be excused!” I shout, and I run into the kitchen to tell John Henry.

 

Inference/questioning: I wonder if John Henry and the narrator will go play in the pool tomorrow. How do you think people will react to this new change? Talk with a partner and see what guesses you come up with about what might happen next.

 

Pg. 17

County dump trucks are here. They grind and back up to the empty pool. Workers rake steaming asphalt into the hole where the sparkling clean water used to be.

 

Vocabulary:

I see this word asphalt but I’m not really sure what it means. I know that the story talked about the dump trucks backing up to the pool and filling the pool with it, and that it’s replacing the sparkling water. I’ve also seen trucks in the picture on the side of the road, so I think that asphalt is like the tar, and rocks that makes up a road, and they’re using it to fill the pool so no one can swim in it.

 

Activating background/Questioning/inferencing: I know the boys were really excited about playing in the pool. I bet that both of them are really sad and disappointed. Why would they be filling the pool like this?

 

Pg. 19

 

But our feet feel stuck, we can’t budge. So we hunker in the tall weeds and watch all morning until the pool is filled with hot, spongy tar. Sssss! Smoky steam rises in the air. Workers tie planks to their shoes and stomp on the blacktop to make it smooth. Will Rogers heaves his shovel into the back of an empty truck and climbs up with the other workers. His face is like a storm cloud, and I know this job has made him angry. “Let’s go!” a boss man shouts, and the trucks rumble-slam down the road.

 

Vocabulary: I’m not sure what this word hunker means. I see the context clues around it that tell me where they are and what they are doing. The boys don’t want to leave even though they are not supposed to be. If they are hunkering in the tall weeds to watch, I bet that means to sit down or crouch down so no one can see you.

 

 

Pg. 23

 

John Henry’s eyes fill up with angry tears. “I did,” he says. “I wanted to swim in this pool. I want to do everything you can do.” I don’t know what to say, but as we walk back to town, my head starts to pop with ne ideas. I want to go to the Dairy Dip with John Henry, sit down and share root beer floats. I want us to go to the picture show, buy popcorn, and watch the movie together. I want to see this town with John Henry’s eyes.

 

Questioning/Inferencing: Do you think John Henry and the narrator will ever be able to do all of the things they want? I wonder what things the boys will try to do next and if there are going to be any troubles.

 

Pg. 26

 

“Want to get an ice pop?” John Henry wipes his eyes and takes a breath. “I want to pick it out myself.”

 

Summarizing/Inferencing: I see that John Henry was in a better mood after the narrator asked him if he wanted to get an ice pop. I think this was because John Henry knew that he could finally go into that store because the Law allowed it. I bet he is starting to realize that this is all going to change and that they will be able to do all these things together that they have been wanting to do.

Reading Aloud

For my read aloud in 4th grade, I read the book Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble by Judy Schachner. This is one of a series of books about a siamese cat that thinks he is a chihuahua. He goes on these crazy adventures in his room, and pretends to meet with his fellow chihuahuas the Chimichangos pack. When I asked for a suggestion from Mrs. James, she gave me two of these books to choose from, because the kids absolutely love these books.

I was so intimidated when I got these books and took them home to practice them. Several of the lines throughout the book were in spanish! I never took spanish in high school, only french, so the only spanish I knew, I learned from a mission trip to Guatemala and a vacation to Mexico; neither of which gave me a wide variety of spanish vocabulary. I read through the words as best I could when I practiced and looked up the pronunciation for several of them. When I read aloud at home I added so much expression to what I was reading, but once I was in the classroom I was so nervous about the spanish that I don’t think I did as well as I could have. Some of the lines were written so as to be read with a spanish accent such as “you seely leetle beast” instead of you “silly little beast”. There were two more things that scared me throughout the book. There would be an entire page that was written entirely as a tongue twister with a ton of alliteration, other parts of the book were meant to be in song, during which the children would clap after every line.

I felt good about the reading that I had done in the class. I haven’t read to a group of 4th graders before, and because we are only there on Friday I don’t feel like I have gotten to know them that well yet. When I taught 3 and 4 year olds at the daycare I would read them stories all of the time, and I became a lot more comfortable with them. I think as far as changes in the next time I would do a read-aloud, I would like to read something that is deeper than the story I read. This was just a cutesy story that had no impressive plot, or meaningful ending, not to say that all read-alouds have to have a specific purpose or depth, but I would’ve liked to have had something that we could discuss afterwards. Also, for my first time in a group of 4th graders I would have probably not picked something with a different language and tongue twisters in it until I got more comfortable. I guess the way I look at it now though, is that everything else I read aloud should seem easy compared to this one!

I did love to see the kids be completely captivated by reading a story. They were elated when Mrs. James told them we would be reading a book, and it was amazing to see their eager eyes waiting for the next turn of the page. It was hard to keep some of them calm, because a lot of them were so excited they added their own interjections and stories as I was reading. I would listen for a second and say, OK, let’s see what else is happening in the story, and that would usually cease the hand raising for the time being. All in all I had a good experience with reading aloud, even though it stressed me out!

R5 Sustained Silent Reading

I like how explicitly this article pointed out that Sustained Silent Reading has its benefits, but it can also have many weaknesses too if it isn’t carried out correctly. This article stresses the idea that students won’t be able to benefit from these reading activities if they are constantly reading below grade level. It’s important to give students a sense of accountability when they are reading in order for them to understand that reading isn’t just about decoding words and understanding text.
There is a student in the 4th grade class in which I’m interning, that will crawl under the round table in the back of the room during SSR and read. He seems absolutely captivated by his book. Sometimes I forget he’s even there until I can hear a page turn. Unfortunately the books he’s reading are graphic novel type comic books. They are similar to the Captain Underpants books that kids like to read. While I absolutely love that he is so enthralled in this text that he seems to retreat into his own world, it upsets me seeing that he isn’t challenging himself, or reading at his independent  reading level. I would love to find him a book that is closer to his reading level, that he can still be captivated by, but that will be a productive use of his sustained silent readings.
I would imagine that, with the students in this example, many of the students read below their grade level because it wasn’t challenging for them to understand once they’ve decoded the words. When a book is at or above their grade level, it takes more conscious thought for those students to decode words, and learn the meaning of these words. Because of this, students will might lose their ability to comprehend everything they had read and recall it. This is why the strategies for tracking comprehension are necessary.

Acrostic Poetry Article

I found the article on acrostic poetry extremely useful. I felt that it validated a lot of the things we’ve been discussing in class. For example, when we talk about the importance of the teacher modeling how to compose any written work by each step, it reminded me that it’s important to show students that we as teachers are only human. We need to show kids that we are not perfect and frankly, far from it. This is what makes us interesting as people. If we could just crank out perfect literary masterpieces at the drop of a hat, we’d be robots.

I like the word ‘vulnerability’ as it was used in the context of this article. Vulnerability is something adults often attribute to children, and it can be a very scary thing to them. It’s important to show these students that writing is a process and to remind all students that this is something that they will have to work with every day.

I think the idea of an acrostic poem gives the students enough structure to not become overwhelmed with possibilities during their first introduction to poetry, but still gives them room to show their own creativity. I like that these poems are extremely easy to look back over and revise.

The greatest thing about this article to me, was what was brought to light about integrating these writing skills in other subject areas. We have been talking in all of our classes of the importance and the benefits of integration, but I haven’t found any good, concrete examples of these. This is the first time that I’ve been introduced to something that I would really be excited to introduce to my class. In fact I am strongly considering using this as one of my integration methods for the IDP. Seeing the Blackbeard acrostic poems made me thing of using this for the Lost Colony. I think that the subject of the Lost Colony is something still quite abstract to young students just as poetry can be. Showing students how to simplify information but still assign creative language and meaning, might better help solidify the content in their minds.

This is also a good way to stress the importance of using a wide variety of vocabulary. Students won’t be able to use “good, bad, happy, sad” for their poems. They will have to find new ways of saying things and open an entirely new array of vocabulary in order to do so. This will show students the importance and purpose for having this bank of vocabulary words to go back to.

Poetry

I absolutely adore the book Love That Dog. I’ll be honest and say that I almost cried while reading it. Sophomore year in college, my World Lit For Children teacher read this to us, but there is something more in reading it by myself. I was able to read it slowly and actually imagine the boys writing. I love that the author chose to leave the teachers part out. It was cool to be able to infer what the teacher was saying by the response of the boy. I really felt as though I could hear him talking. His poems were so meaningful too. It gave me chills reading the part of the speeding blue car, and realizing the gravity of the meaning he attached to it, when he finally told the story about how Sky died. I think this would be a great way to introduce the writer’s notebook, or at least a segment on poetry that the students would write in their notebooks. I also think this would be a good inspiration for those that don’t like to share what they’ve written like Jack did. It took him a while to be completely comfortable with the teacher putting his name on his work. I still don’t think he was 100% confident in it, but you could see that it was motivating him. You could also see that it was motivating the other students in the classroom to write something that was worthy of the pretty paper and the post on the bulletin board. I love love LOVE this idea. (Inspired by Jack)

As for the free verse poems in the book, I’m afraid I’m not so enthralled. I was really trying to get through the poems with an open mind and finding one that I really liked, but I couldn’t. There is just something about the abstractness and the abrupt end of the poems that frustrates me. I’m on page 70 and I intend to continue reading, hopefully I’ll either get used to them, or I’ll find at least one that I like. I really want to like them, because I never have found an appreciation for poems such as these, but I’m finding it somewhat difficult.

Kneading The Notebook

I wasn’t sure how the kneading the notebook idea would work for me, but as it turns out it was a catalyst for the longest, and most introspective journal entry I have written yet. I can only re-write it here, as I have no other way of explaining how this technique helped me.

Identity:

As I was reading the strategies for Kneading the Notebook I thought to do the strategy of finding patterns. I liked the idea of writing from a different point of view but I didn’t have much in the form of narratives in my journal yet. I was skeptical at first because the students were looking over a series of weeks or even months to find patterns and I didn’t think I had enough entries to find one.

I was mistaken.

As I looked through the pages of scribbled text, I saw my entries about my friends here at Appalachian, entries of my family members, and entries of my anxiousness towards the future. I realized that all of these were related to my identity. The identity I formed as a child was shaped and molded by my family. As a college student my identity was formed through my friends and my experiences. And now, I stand at a crossroads.

This is my last year of college. I’m moving, all by myself to a state where I have no family, to a place I’ve only visited a few days at a time. People say that college is your first time on your own, but that’s not true, -not for me at least-. Moving to a new state without my family is completely on my own. It’s my choice, my decision, my beginning of my own, new and separate life from the life I’ve known with my family. I don’t mean that that time is over; my family will always be a part of me, but my life is changing drastically and only recently have I become so aware of it.

Apprehension sets in.

I want to revert back to childhood where big decisions weren’t left up to me, where the only decisions I made were who I was spending the night with and what color Play-Dough I was using next. But I can’t…

…and that’s a good thing.

It’s time to move on, grow up and find out who I am when no one else has a say.

Identity is ever changing. There is a constant process of finding yourself again and again, learning how you react to every new situation or obstacle. That is the beauty of life: the struggle of knowing who you are and the rewarding feeling of finding that out will never stop.

Just as the ocean never ceases to swell and surge, our lives never stop changing. Memories may fade away like the footprints and sand castles, but whats left is the ocean of knowledge and self-worth we’ve created. It’s our constant search for who we are, where we fit in, and where we’re going that keeps us afloat in our ever-changing world.