Wow Priscilla! Great job. When I first learned a dietician was going to be in the class, I was a little confused. After meeting with you and discussing your goals and challenges, it made perfect sense. You are as much a teacher as any health, chemistry, math, or any other content area teacher. There were several things that you brought up during class that deserve more discussion and attention. One was the lack of nutritional education md’s have. The other was the point about the need for those in your profession to have more training in the area of instruction. For that matter, educational courses could benefit many people in dozens of professions. Now on to your unit…

Your unit not only demonstrates a good understanding of the reading process but also the learning process. I particularly like your questioning. After speaking with you about your students I understand the source and goals of those questions. They are based on encouraging students to engage more in meal planning and thinking ahead and considering more than cost, ease of preparation, and taste. The research you pulled definitely applies.

A couple of things I’d like to see added to part one are the things you verbally discussed in class. One important challenge was the difficulty you have communicating with students of lower socio-economic status.

The points you pulled from A Framework for Understanding Poverty would fit in nicely into part one. Then the person reading this would better understand the goals and direction of your questions. I totally get it because we talked about it. Just write it in a very casual and conversational tone. There’s two reasons I recommend this:

1. Your work is too good to keep to yourself and your students. This could serve as a really great professional development workshop for other dieticians. If you can imagine yourself presenting this to your peers, part one is how you hook them by commiserating and identifying with them on a personal level. It is very easy for me to imagine you presenting this because I learned something new every time we spoke.

2. I’m also thinking about using your work as an excellent example of adapting instructional strategies to accommodate the learning needs of lower income students. The student teachers I will be teaching in fall may be working in Madison, E.St., Alton, G.C., etc. They will get more out of it of they understand the purpose of the questions.

I am impressed by your project and I admire your work and dedication. If you have any questions my email is rcanada@ecusd7.org and my cell number is 978-1845. Don’t be a stranger.

Rob Canada

Literary and Nutrition Education

Priscilla Mathewsptmathew@illinois.edu

CI 540

Content Area Literacy

PART 1

Introduction

Challenge

Goal

What, where and how long?

• I teach nutrition for the University of Illinois Montgomery County Extension.

• My sites for youth nutrition include all schools in Montgomery County Pre-K thru 12th grade

• My sites for adult nutrition include food pantries, WIC, public housing, free meal sites.

• I have been working in the program area for the past fifteen years.

Reading is…….

The process of gathering information and knowledge through the printed word whether performed aloud or silently.

A complex skill involving word recognition, comprehension and fluency.

What is reading? An Excerpt from Reading for Understanding

• Reading is not just a basic skill

• Reading is a complex process

• Reading is problem solving

• Fluent reading is not the same as decoding

• Reading is influenced by situational factors

• Proficient readers are… -mentally engaged -motivated to read and learn -socially active around reading tasks -strategic in monitoring the interactive processes that assist comprehension

Challenges and Goal

Challenges• Student engagement in the

classroom• Applying differentiating

instruction with nutrition lessons

• Adult learners with motivational and learning issues

• Using prior knowledge as a building block for making better food choices

Question• How can I increase

student engagement and comprehension during my unit on healthy grocery shopping?

PART 2

Key Concepts about Comprehension

Three Types of Assessment

• Diagnostic----determining what the student knows about the skills or topics.

• Formative---carried out through the project or unit and used to support the learning.

• Summative----carried out at the end of the lesson to evaluate the knowledge gained.

PART 3

Unit General Description

Let’s Go Shopping

• Vary your veggies• Focus on fruits• Get your calcium-rich

foods• Go lean with protein• Make half your grains

whole• Know your limits on

fats, salt and sugar

Let’s Go Shopping continued….

Food shopping will be conducted in the classroom as we view the videos of the different sections of the store and we place food selections in our cart based on the theme of our lesson…..

• Budget• Healthy choices• Nutritional restrictions• Fresh (raw) or processed• Improving our diet• Portion control

Shopping for Fresh Produce

• Why do we need to eat fruits and vegetables?

• What vegetables do you buy for your family?

• How many servings of vegetables do you need each day?

• Which vegetables are the best for you?

• Which fruits are the best in the spring?

Nutritional facts for fresh vegetables and fruits

Fresh fruits and vegetables do not come in a box or can. They are the best way to add vitamins and minerals to our diets. The following charts help us discover the nutrients that our body receives from eating fresh fruits and vegetables.

Which fruits would be the best for you to eat?

What is an antioxidant?

What is your favorite fruit?

What fruit colors do you find in this chart?

What do vitamins for your body?

What is a free radical?

What do free radicals do to your body?

Shopping for meat….

• What nutrients are found in the meat group?

• How many servings of meat do we need each day?

• What is a serving size of meat?

• What kind of meats do you eat?

• How do you prepare your meat dishes?

• What types of seafood do you like?

Shopping for meat continued…..

• What meat, poultry or seafood dishes does your family like to eat?

• What kind of things influence your choice of meat, poultry or seafood?

• How often do you serve meat, poultry or seafood to your family?

• How do you try to save money when buying meat, poultry or seafood?

Shopping for the dairy

• What is your favorite dairy item?

• How many servings of dairy do we need each day?

• What type of milk is the best for you?

• What dairy choices are available if you don’t like to drink milk?

• What items are available for you if you are allergic to dairy foods?

Shopping for grains

• What are some of your favorite breakfast cereals?

• Which cereals are a better choice?

• What kinds of bread do you like to eat?

• Which breads would be a better choice?

• What is the difference between multi-grain and whole grain foods?

• Which is better for your diet?

PART 4

Student Engagement

Interesting resources….

There are many web sites that are available for learning about healthy eating. They add games and interactive features that helps each student learn more about their individual needs and requirements. Here are a few that aid not only adults but kids as well…….

http://www.mypyramid.gov/

http://www.nourishinteractive.com/kids/en/label-game/label-game

http://www.nourishinteractive.com/kids/en/build-a-meal/build-a-meal

Part 5

Reflections

What I have learned….

This class has challenged me to look at nutrition programming from many new and different angles. The food shopping videos will add a fantastic visual component to my lessons. I have many new ideas for using these as my classes work their way through the grocery store with a “shopping theme”. I am quite frustrated with the formatting problems I encountered putting the videos into my power point presentation but will still work with them to use them as a powerful teaching tool. The many and varied ideas that I did learn in the two short weeks of this class will be put to use and are invaluable! I found the interaction from the instructor and fellow students a very positive experience. Since my work time is divided between adult and youth learners, I find that I need varied and flexible approaches to teach health and nutrition. Technology is one area that I want to explore and incorporate as much as possible.

THANK YOU FOR A FANTASTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCE!

Literature Review

Cognitive strategies that are helpful in teaching students to become an effective reader would include--

activating prior knowledge, inferring, monitoring-clarifying, questioning, searching-selecting, summarizing and visualizing-organizing

7 Strategies of Highly Effective Readers

Elaine K. McEwan (2004)

Literature Review Continued…

Schools need to provide insistence, expectation and support for students in their learning environment. Students need cognitive strategies, appropriate relationships, coping strategies, goal-setting opportunities and instructions. “The true discrimination that comes out of poverty is the lack of cognitive strategies. The lack of these unseen attributes handicaps in every aspect of life the individual who does not have them.” Effective responses by schools is the development of preschool programs, reducing class size, promoting projects of prevention and support and supplemental reading programs. Payne (2005)

Literature Review Continued…..

Strategies for motivating reading and writing include

1-Choice 2- Challenging 3- Social Collaboration

4- Allow for success 5-Involve technology and playFamily literacy is highly important—the success of

the school literacy program frequently depends on the literacy environment at home. Marrow (2004)

Literature Review Continued…..

The ability to comprehend text is “caught rather than taught”. If reading meant catching a meaning known only to the author, teaching reading had to mean finding out whether or not students got it.

Keene & Zimmerman (1997)

References

Cziko, C., Greenleaf, C., Hurtz, L., & Schoenbach, R. (2000). What is Reading?. The Quarterly, 22(3), 1-3.

Mcewan, Elaine K.. Seven Strategies of Highly Effective Readers: Using Cognitive Research to Boost K-8 Achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2004. Print.

Morrow, Lesley. Literacy Development in the Early Years (Book Alone) (5th Edition). 5 ed. upper saddle river: Pearson Education, 2004. Print.

Payne, Ruby K.. A Framework for Understanding Poverty. New York: Aha Process, Inc., 2005. Print.