Double Journal Entry #11

Chapter 4: Simulations and Bodies

1. According to the author, "Learning doesn't work well when learners are forced to check their bodies at the school room door like guns in the old West." means that people learn things as a cultural process and that means that their bodies are involved because cultural learning involves experiences that facilitate learning and not just memorizing words.

2. To acquire a large vocabulary, you must read and read A LOT.Reading a lot is not the only way to achieve these large vocabularies though. One must experience the "worlds" to which these words refer.

3. A word has a specific meaning when you can "play" the word in a specific situation. A word may have many meanings but the "player" must know when to "play" the word in the right way.

4. a. The phrase "off the hook" in this sentence refers to the sister no longer having to get her sister a present.
b. "Off the hook" in this sentence means "cool", "awesome", "sweet", "hip"and whatever other kinds of slang terms you want to throw in there but it basically comes down to that whoever said that phrase likes the shoes and thinks they are very nice.
c. Once again, in this sentence the phrase means "awesome", "cool', "crazy" even. The person is saying that you should have been there to see it.

4.5. According to the author, the "work" of childhood is play. I think I do agree with this statement. Unless one has been involved in the situation, how can one say that they fully understand it. I think children need to play and experience things in order to get a better understanding of life.

5. If you haven't experienced the game, then the instructions are going to be confusing. At least try the game out once before reading the instructions so when you go to play the game you will have a better understanding of how to play the game.

6. Its both. First you should know the general meaning of the word when reading it so you know about what it means and then knowing the literal meaning can help you further define it. The general meaning seems to stick with a person longer than the literal meaning.

7. Three identities or "games" I play would be: student, daughter, and fiance. I would "identify" myself as an appropriate student, daughter, and fiance. I am making all the right "legal" moves in all three of those "games".

8. Good learning is understanding word meanings in their contextual situation.

9. I believe that children need to experience more things in order to get better understanding within all subjects of school. Physically experiencing things and being able to touch, see, smell, and hear things helps children learn so much more than one would think.

10. Communication is the way of life. Children need to practice peer to peer interaction as soon as they start talking. Being able to communicate socially with one another is so much more important than you would think. In my clinical, there is a little boy that is just one of the brightest kids in the class but due to him being the youngest, he just doesn't quite know how to socially interact with the other kids and he speaks out in class way too much and disrupts the class quite often. He likes to think that he is mature and will take over the role as teacher when he pleases but he just comes off as immature. Due to his lack of social understanding, he is always getting into trouble.