Assignment 7 TJ
Aquarius21
Unit7WritingAssignmentMUD.docx2
Reading for MUD
Directions: Watch the video three times. With each viewing, record your responses and thinking in the boxes provided.
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M Main Ideas |
Title: Balto Endurance, Fidelity, and Intelligence Balto was the leader of a sled dog team. Balto lead his team in the Serum Race. Togo L. Seppalos Leader – Hero of Nome Serum Race |
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U Understanding (What does the author want me to remember about this?) |
Balto and his team made it to their destination, safely. Balto was honored for his leadership of his team and his owner Seppalos. Balto and Togo were intelligent and heroic dogs. “The World’s Greatest” is playing because the best dogs were used to get to Nome.
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D Significant Details |
The sled team endured harsh weather with snow and sometimes ice. Throughout the video, I see snow but in the beginning of the video, the dogs were traveling on ice. Even when snow and ice was not on the ground, it was still cold. I know this because when the dog was breathing, you could see the clouds of condensation coming from his mouth. The dogs and their owner made several stops to rest. The video shows them resting on the ground. The video shows Balto sniffing the ground, so Balto’s nose kept them on track while trying to get to their destination. The sled team made it to Serum safely because one part of the video shows the sled with a bag on it; while another portion of the video shows the sled without the bag. I also know that they made it to their destination because several statues were made in honor of Balto. Balto was even painted by an artist. The townspeople came to see the dogs off and cheer them on. When Balto was honored for his heroic deeds, the townspeople were there to support him. I don’t recall seeing a statue of Togo. |
Reflect on the process you just completed.
After watching the video, each time I watched it, I recorded responses in each section of the MUD document. Each time that I watched the video, I saw something that I missed. The MUD graphic organizer is a great document to get students to take notes and write down their thoughts and concepts. I watched the video before I read the two passages. Therefore, I thought that the sled team was in an actual race. In actuality, the sled team was racing to get medication to a doctor so that he could treat the citizens of the town who had a disease called diphtheria. For the information that I recorded under significant details I felt that I needed to explain how I knew that information so I cited evidence to show how I came up with the information.
How can it help students improve text comprehension?
Using the MUD graphic organizer with a video is a great pre-reading strategy. The students are already thinking before they ever read the passages. Therefore, when students begin to read the text, they will soon realize that the information in the graphic organizer is similar to the text that they read. They have background knowledge of what they are reading without even knowing. Just like I thought that the dogsled team was in an actual race, the students will possibly think the same way. When the students are done reading the text, they can fill in the parts that were missing from the video. This strategy also makes students better readers because they have established background knowledge from watching the video before reading the text. This allows students to get a better understanding of what they are reading because they are breaking down the information into their language. The students can also cite evidence from the video. For example, if students say that the dogs made it to their destination. The can use the video and say that Balto was honored for this or they could state the information about the bag being on the sled when they left. This shows that students can comprehend what they watched. It also gives students more practice with citing textual evidence.
How can you improve on this activity?
I could improve this activity by providing the same graphic organizer for both of the passages. The students would have to read the passages one at a time and fill out the main ideas, what the author wants them to remember, and the significant details from the passage. Once students have all three organizers filled out, they can compare them. What is the same in each graphic organizer? What is different about each one? This allows students to see a visual representation of the story in three ways. It also allows the students to break down the information read into smaller chunks which makes it easier for students to understand what they read. Consequently, the students are engaged in what they are doing because they watched a video and read two passages that relate to the video. Plus filling out the graphic organizers keeps them actively engaged in the learning process.
References
NA. (2008). 1925 Serum run tribute. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxLqqtvqelE
