Amanda and I met today and hammered out a few ideas for our project. We are going to be exploring the Jewish culture and what comes with it. We are going to talk about terms and ideas that most people that are not Jewish aren't familiar with, in hopes that they will become familiar with the heritage and culture. We are talking about anything from common Jewish terminology, to the importance of food being kosher.
This project is teaching me a lot in the aspect that everything that happens in the world has its own language, and people that are not familiar with the language being spoken, are going to feel like outsiders. I know I talk a lot about baseball, and someone who is not familiar with the sport may feel bad if I was using baseball terminology in a conversation. Amanda is very familiar with the Jewish culture, and I am somewhat familiar with it, and I see how important it is to become literate in as many different things as possible because it makes the person and student more well rounded and more likely to succeed in every day life.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Balanced Literacy Instruction
Balanced literacy instruction is a "decision-making approach through which teachers make thoughtful and purposeful decisions about how to help students become better readers and writers." (Tompkins, p. 24) A balanced approach is not easy and it requires much effort and planning from the teacher, but it can prove to be very effective and has the potential to work for a high percentage of students. Since a balanced approach is so comprehensive it takes into account all different types of learners which in turn allows students to hopefully find something that works for them. The focus of this approach is equally on reading, phonics, strategies, vocabulary, comprehension, literature, content-area study, oral language, writing, and spelling. I have seen examples of most all of these in my field time. However, I don't spend enough time in class and do not know the curriculum well enough to state whether my CT uses a completely balanced literacy program.
When I have my own classroom I am going to make a concerted effort to have a balanced approach to literacy instruction. This is my goal regardless of the grade level or ability of student that I will be teaching. I think that a balanced approach will give the students the best opportunity for success in their reading and writing. It is easy for me to write all of this now, I only hope that when I do have my own classroom that I am willing and able to put together a literacy program that has students working on a wide variety of skills needed to truly be literate.
When I have my own classroom I am going to make a concerted effort to have a balanced approach to literacy instruction. This is my goal regardless of the grade level or ability of student that I will be teaching. I think that a balanced approach will give the students the best opportunity for success in their reading and writing. It is easy for me to write all of this now, I only hope that when I do have my own classroom that I am willing and able to put together a literacy program that has students working on a wide variety of skills needed to truly be literate.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Potential Vocab Lesson
I would use a book like Roll of Thunder in my classroom if I were teaching in middle school. I think this is a good book to use in literature circles, but there are ways to go above and beyond the circles an incorporate different parts of the curriculum with it. I think at this age level it is important for the students to start recognizing different vocabulary that they aren't used to. Very similarly to Mike [H], I was thinking of a vocabulary activity that had the students find words with which they are unfamiliar. I think that within their literacy groups, they should go through and discuss the words that they didn't know. The recorder that session will write them down and they will go to a computer and look up all of the words. At the end of the class, we will compile an entire list of all the words. This will become the vocabulary list for the week, and will continue this way until the book is finished. The students will be able to learn vocabulary for the novel as well as enrich themselves and others.
Potential Vacabulary Lesson Plan
My potential vocabulary lesson for the book Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor, would be for a 5th or 6th grade class. The goal of the lesson is for each student to learn new words and in the process enhance their vocabulary. Going into the lesson I would expect that each student is able to read the book and to find vocabulary that they need help with learning. If a student is unable to read the book I would look to make necessary adjustments to the lesson for that student. For each assignment within the lesson the students will read two chapters paying attention to not only the story, but also the vocabulary that the author uses. To ensure that the students are doing this, they will have to come to school with two or three words in the writing that they didn’t know and had to look up in the dictionary to find the meaning. Also, the students will have to bring to class two or three words that they didn’t initially know while reading but were able to figure out the word’s definition based on its use in the contest of the story. As a class, students will share the words with each other and we will make a master list of the vocabulary words. This will enable the students to teach each other and work together, hopefully learning new words in the process.
My vocab lesson
For my vocabulary lesson with the kids, I am going to continue working on sight words with my students.
I am going to get the next group of sight words from my CT that we will be using in the class and I will go over the words with my students.
I will then have the students practice reading and writing these words. I will have them write each word three times so they can practice spelling it and seeing it, and I will put the words on big note cards and mix them up and have the students practice going through all of the words until they get them down. The students will also be able to practice the words when I am not in the classroom when the teacher feels it appropriate to practice them.
I am going to get the next group of sight words from my CT that we will be using in the class and I will go over the words with my students.
I will then have the students practice reading and writing these words. I will have them write each word three times so they can practice spelling it and seeing it, and I will put the words on big note cards and mix them up and have the students practice going through all of the words until they get them down. The students will also be able to practice the words when I am not in the classroom when the teacher feels it appropriate to practice them.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Comprehension Strategy Instruction for Primary Grades
For reading comprehension I read the article by Katherine Stahl, "Proof, practice, and promise: Comprehension strategy instruction in the primary grades." I decided to read this article because of my kindergarten placement and thought that I could possibly find connections between the article and my field time.
There was a time when reading fluency was the only emphasis of the early grades. Recent research has indicated that although fluency is important, so too is comprehension. Students need to start learning comprehension strategies as soon as possible because the strategies allow students to read and understand text that they have no previous knowledge of. Stahl writes that comprehension strategies "have the potential to provide access that is removed from personal experience." (p. 598)
According to research and usage, Stahl breaks comprehension strategies into four categories. The first two categories are well researched strategies that are either widely used or in limited use by teachers. The second two categories are strategies that haven't been researched, and are either widely used or in limited use by teachers. The strategies are all connected in that they can be used in some way in the early elementary grades to promote and work on reading comprehension. All of the strategies have the potential to help students, but some are better researched and proven to work. Regardless of which strategy a teacher uses, the point is that the teacher is trying to teach the students how to comprehend and understand the text that they are reading. Learning reading comprehension will greatly benefit the students as they move on to higher levels in their education.
It was interesting to read through the different strategies and think about what I have seen in my kindergarten class. When my CT reads to the students she will guide a discussion where she asks the kids to make predictions, she relates the story to her own life, she asks plot related questions, and she asks many other types of questions related to the story. My CT is in complete control of the discussion and is guiding the students in their comprehension of the story. This is understandable because it would be too much to expect that the kindergarten students could lead a productive discussion of the book. Teacher driven discussion and questions are widely used and researched strategies for teaching reading comprehension. Stahl supports these types of strategies, saying that, "teacher-led questioning can be a powerful vehicle in moving text interactions toward higher levels of thinking and critical literacy." (p. 601)
One strategy that I have never seen used before, but that I think could work well, is literature webbing. To do literature webbing, the teacher writes the events of the story on cards, mixes them up, and then gives them to the students to put in order. After the students predict how the story will unfold, the teacher reads the story to the class. After the reading, the class returns to their original prediction and makes corrections as they talk about what happened in the story. This strategy could be used in first grade, and I believe that with the right book, it could work in kindergarten too. This comprehension strategy isn't widely used, but research does validate its effectiveness. Reutzel and Fawson studied literature webbing and came to the conclusion in a 1991 study that, "first-grade readers using the webbing procedure read the text with higher percentages of accuracy and were also more successful in answering specific questions about the text than a control group." (p. 603)
There was a time when reading fluency was the only emphasis of the early grades. Recent research has indicated that although fluency is important, so too is comprehension. Students need to start learning comprehension strategies as soon as possible because the strategies allow students to read and understand text that they have no previous knowledge of. Stahl writes that comprehension strategies "have the potential to provide access that is removed from personal experience." (p. 598)
According to research and usage, Stahl breaks comprehension strategies into four categories. The first two categories are well researched strategies that are either widely used or in limited use by teachers. The second two categories are strategies that haven't been researched, and are either widely used or in limited use by teachers. The strategies are all connected in that they can be used in some way in the early elementary grades to promote and work on reading comprehension. All of the strategies have the potential to help students, but some are better researched and proven to work. Regardless of which strategy a teacher uses, the point is that the teacher is trying to teach the students how to comprehend and understand the text that they are reading. Learning reading comprehension will greatly benefit the students as they move on to higher levels in their education.
It was interesting to read through the different strategies and think about what I have seen in my kindergarten class. When my CT reads to the students she will guide a discussion where she asks the kids to make predictions, she relates the story to her own life, she asks plot related questions, and she asks many other types of questions related to the story. My CT is in complete control of the discussion and is guiding the students in their comprehension of the story. This is understandable because it would be too much to expect that the kindergarten students could lead a productive discussion of the book. Teacher driven discussion and questions are widely used and researched strategies for teaching reading comprehension. Stahl supports these types of strategies, saying that, "teacher-led questioning can be a powerful vehicle in moving text interactions toward higher levels of thinking and critical literacy." (p. 601)
One strategy that I have never seen used before, but that I think could work well, is literature webbing. To do literature webbing, the teacher writes the events of the story on cards, mixes them up, and then gives them to the students to put in order. After the students predict how the story will unfold, the teacher reads the story to the class. After the reading, the class returns to their original prediction and makes corrections as they talk about what happened in the story. This strategy could be used in first grade, and I believe that with the right book, it could work in kindergarten too. This comprehension strategy isn't widely used, but research does validate its effectiveness. Reutzel and Fawson studied literature webbing and came to the conclusion in a 1991 study that, "first-grade readers using the webbing procedure read the text with higher percentages of accuracy and were also more successful in answering specific questions about the text than a control group." (p. 603)
New Literacies Project
For my new literacy project I am going to be creating comic strips that deal with sports literacy. This wasn't one of the options as far as what type of literacy we could explore, but I feel that there is a language and literacy that is unique to the world of sports. For me, this project is based on the definition of literacy as "knowledge of a particular subject or field." In my case that knowledge and field is going to be various sports. Specifically, I am going to create separate comic strips for about five or six different sports and the language that is unique to each of those sports. This will be done as if students in an elementary class were making the comics to inform their classmates of the language and literacy that is unique to the particular sport that they are interested in. I have always been a fan of comic strips and I think that this is something that students in elementary school would enjoy working with. I have only just now begun working with the software for creating the comic strips and I think that it enables one to express information and ideas in a very unique way. I am looking forward to getting more involved in the project and hopefully I don't run into too many problems as I work with the new technology of the comic strip creator
Saturday, March 14, 2009
New Literacies Project
For my new literacies project, Amanada Z and I are going to be doing a powerpoint presentation followed by a wordle on Cultural Literacy. The culture that we are going to be focusing on is the Jewish Culture. Amanda was born and raised Jewish, and even though I was born and rasied Catholic, my father is Jewish, so this culture has been present in my up bringing. I am really excited to work on and complete this project because it will be allowing me to use different types of technology that I have never used before, and I will be learning a lot about my own culture.
Wordle is a program that I have never used before, but I have seen it used in one of my classes and I thought it was an amazing program. It allows the user to see which words are used to the most, and can give other readers of the wordle a general idea of what is being talked about the most in a presentation.
Wordle is a program that I have never used before, but I have seen it used in one of my classes and I thought it was an amazing program. It allows the user to see which words are used to the most, and can give other readers of the wordle a general idea of what is being talked about the most in a presentation.
Friday, March 13, 2009
New Literacies Project
I have decided to create a classroom blog to keep students and parents updated on things that happen each day in class. The blog will be a compilation of videos uploaded onto Teacher Tube of the different centers or ideas that we are covering in class. It will also be infused with the students’ own work. They will be creating podcasts and videos to share with their families and classmates about what they have been doing in class. The blog will serve as a resource for parents and for the students who have been missing from school. They can look back at the blog to make sure they have everything on task, or parents can use the videos to help their students focus on different things at home. Since parents will be able to access computers and internet at the library, this is something that would be useful for everyone—even those who don’t have a computer directly available at home.
I have already posted my first entry and will keep it updated as I obtain new ideas. Here is the link to my project so you can see it if you'd like:
http://newlitproject09.blogspot.com
I have already posted my first entry and will keep it updated as I obtain new ideas. Here is the link to my project so you can see it if you'd like:
http://newlitproject09.blogspot.com
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Book Club
Book club has been a learning experience for me. This is new to me and I don't remember ever doing anything like book club way back when I was in grade school. We did more of the traditional book reports where we would read the book at home and then write a paper answering predetermined questions according to the teacher's specifications. I remember hating these book reports and not getting too much out of the whole process. Book club has the potential to be much more meaningful and beneficial to students than the book reports that I had to do. What I like most about book club is the versatility of the project for both the teacher and the students. Teachers can adjust the project by changing who is in what group or by having the students focus on a certain theme for a given week. The students can adjust the project by choosing from a number of different activities to express their thoughts and ideas each week. This is great because it puts the learning in the hands of the students and forces them to take a more active role in trying to comprehend what they are reading as they teach themselves about the book. Also, this choice is good for the students because it allows the students to pick an activity that they are passionate about, such as drawing about the book or connecting it to one's own life. This would have been good for me when I was in elementary school because I wouldn't have felt constricted and bored with the traditional book report. When I have my own classroom someday I will use book club over book reports because I feel that the most powerful learning for students happens when they have some control over how this learning takes place.
Book Club
I'm not sure if this is what I'm supposed to blog about this week, but it is on the syllabus so I am going to write about it! I am thoroughly intrigued by the idea of book club that we're using in our class. I think that the ideas on page 93-95 of our coursepack are really helpful things that we will be able to use in our classrooms eventually [some people may be able to use them for their lessons]. I think that allowing the students to pick and choose which activity they will do is an interesting approach. It allows them to choose something they enjoy to express the way they felt about something in the book, making it authentic to them. I do think, though, that it would be wise to group the students based on which activities they chose for that week, not to keep them in the same groups. I feel like this would be more effective, because they will be able to see many different perspectives from the book and not have to repeat one of the "book club" elements from the previous weeks/class periods.
Book clubs are able to facilitate comprehension in that they help students understand different aspects of the book based on the different portions that they hear from their classmates. Everyone will be giving a different perspective of the book, basically everyone did their own special "reading" of the book.
Now, I understand that book clubs are more geared toward older students, so I am having a hard time thinking about even using this idea with a kindergarten class. I am wondering what the two of you think about this, and if you would try to implement something like this with such young students/emergent readers. If you would, how would you do so?
Book clubs are able to facilitate comprehension in that they help students understand different aspects of the book based on the different portions that they hear from their classmates. Everyone will be giving a different perspective of the book, basically everyone did their own special "reading" of the book.
Now, I understand that book clubs are more geared toward older students, so I am having a hard time thinking about even using this idea with a kindergarten class. I am wondering what the two of you think about this, and if you would try to implement something like this with such young students/emergent readers. If you would, how would you do so?
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Book Club
I really like how we have incorporated book club into our class this semester. This is a tool that I will use in my classroom and I really like that we are able to do it as a model in the classroom. I have kept up with all of the readings and I feel that Roll of Thunder is a great book to do book club with. There is a lot to talk about, and it can be thought of on many different levels.
One of the flaws that I have seen early on when it comes to doing the book club is that not everybody in the class is reading the actual book. I know that we don't spend that much time on it in class which is probably why this happens, but I know if i was to implement this in my class I would maybe read the material together the first time, and then the next time have the students read the book on their own. We are also at a level in college that we do not need to have tasks explained to us, we can just sit in the book club groups and talk amongst our peers and have a valid conversation. These conversation tools may not be present in younger students so it will be important to go over all of this with them before turning them lose on their own.
I really like the book so far. The book can be looked at from many different angles. There is obviously the race issue, but students can also compare their everyday life, to the life of Cassie and her family, as well as many other topics that can be explored with a book of this magnitude.
I really like the book club idea, and I look forward to using it in my own class!
One of the flaws that I have seen early on when it comes to doing the book club is that not everybody in the class is reading the actual book. I know that we don't spend that much time on it in class which is probably why this happens, but I know if i was to implement this in my class I would maybe read the material together the first time, and then the next time have the students read the book on their own. We are also at a level in college that we do not need to have tasks explained to us, we can just sit in the book club groups and talk amongst our peers and have a valid conversation. These conversation tools may not be present in younger students so it will be important to go over all of this with them before turning them lose on their own.
I really like the book so far. The book can be looked at from many different angles. There is obviously the race issue, but students can also compare their everyday life, to the life of Cassie and her family, as well as many other topics that can be explored with a book of this magnitude.
I really like the book club idea, and I look forward to using it in my own class!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Adaptations vs Accomodations
Reading this article helped me significantly, especially after reading what Mike and Mike had to say about being special Education majors and having knowledge of these terms. I really didn't know much about it before reading these articles. This is where I feel like the College of Ed may fall behind in things of this nature. I think that it is kind of important for Elementary Education majors to have some form of training on Special Education terms and procedeures. This post may not be fully what it is supposed to be, but I have a passionate argument that I feel needs to be stated.
Going through MSU's College of Education has been quite the experience for me. I feel privileged to be part of such a prestigious program, but I do feel that there are a few flaws--of course this is a personal opinion. One of the most prominent, I feel, is that as Elementary Education majors, we are not exposed enough to Special Ed training. The fact of the matter is that there are many many mainstreamed students who need Special Education in some form or another. There should be at least one required class for El Ed majors regarding all things Special Ed. Why haven't I learned how to accomodate for students with special needs? In the real world, I will have students with special needs in my classroom, and reading one article about it will be helpful to me, but it won't be as helpful as an entire class. Why is it that Secondary Education majors have an entire lab class that focuses specifically on Special Education students in their classrooms, but we don't get that? I think it is important enough for some attention.
Going through MSU's College of Education has been quite the experience for me. I feel privileged to be part of such a prestigious program, but I do feel that there are a few flaws--of course this is a personal opinion. One of the most prominent, I feel, is that as Elementary Education majors, we are not exposed enough to Special Ed training. The fact of the matter is that there are many many mainstreamed students who need Special Education in some form or another. There should be at least one required class for El Ed majors regarding all things Special Ed. Why haven't I learned how to accomodate for students with special needs? In the real world, I will have students with special needs in my classroom, and reading one article about it will be helpful to me, but it won't be as helpful as an entire class. Why is it that Secondary Education majors have an entire lab class that focuses specifically on Special Education students in their classrooms, but we don't get that? I think it is important enough for some attention.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Adaptations
Being a special education major, this was an article that hit close to home. I really enjoy reading about the different accommodations that are out there for the students to use. In classrooms that
I have worked in, I have seen the picture system that is described in this chapter.
This picture system is very beneficial to students who are non-verbal, and it can be key in having a classroom run smoothly on a day to day basis. It rids a lot of the frustration that a student may have while being in school. I could not imagine not being able to communicate with my teachers, and these picture books make it possible for communication (even though its brief) to occur.
Mike and I did a project over this past week incorporating accommodations into a lesson plan, and ways to work it in during everyday classroom life. I think that this really meant a lot to me because I was able to put myself in the shoes of an ELL student, and see what it is like to not have any idea what is going on. It is a really scary and lonely feeling, and that was just how I felt about a worksheet that my own group created.
Even though thinking of and making accommodations to lessons everyday can be time consuming, it is 100% necessary for the success of special education students in the general education classroom. A few more minutes of preparation the day before a lesson can save tears and frustration, for both the teacher and student.
I have worked in, I have seen the picture system that is described in this chapter.
This picture system is very beneficial to students who are non-verbal, and it can be key in having a classroom run smoothly on a day to day basis. It rids a lot of the frustration that a student may have while being in school. I could not imagine not being able to communicate with my teachers, and these picture books make it possible for communication (even though its brief) to occur.
Mike and I did a project over this past week incorporating accommodations into a lesson plan, and ways to work it in during everyday classroom life. I think that this really meant a lot to me because I was able to put myself in the shoes of an ELL student, and see what it is like to not have any idea what is going on. It is a really scary and lonely feeling, and that was just how I felt about a worksheet that my own group created.
Even though thinking of and making accommodations to lessons everyday can be time consuming, it is 100% necessary for the success of special education students in the general education classroom. A few more minutes of preparation the day before a lesson can save tears and frustration, for both the teacher and student.
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Working my way through chapters two and seven in the Tompkins book was helpful to me in thinking about my own reading comprehension and that of the students that I see during field time. Without even thinking about it, through this last year of working on my teaching certificate I have gone through the five stages of reading almost every time I did work for school. Beginning readers have to learn about these stages of prereading, reading, responding, exploring, and applying before they can read most efficiently. The kindergarten students that I work with every week in field are obviously not advanced readers and are just now learning what it takes to be a good reader. However, these stages come naturally to me because I am an advanced reader with much experience in and I know how to critically analyze a text. I, like most all college students, understand that "comprehension is a thinking process. It is a creative process in which students engage with the text." (Tompkins, p. 223)
I like how the term text is defined in the readings as "all reading materials - stories, maps, newspapers, cereal boxes, textbooks, and so on; it is not limited to basal reader textbooks." (Tompkins, p. 46) I have heard my CT on several occasions point out to the students that reading is important because they encounter written words so often in their everyday lives. She has talked with them about signs, menus, writing in stores, and many other examples. Also, I like the above definition of text because often when reading with the students, my CT encourages them to look at the accompanying pictures for clues that may help them figure out words in the written text. The point is that the experience of reading can encompass much more than just the words. Last week I worked with a small group of the lower level students in terms of their reading abilities. As a group we read a predictable animal picture book page by page. When a student would struggle with reading a word I encouraged them to both break it up into sounds and look at the picture. This helped because even though some of the students still struggle with their letter sounds, they were able to figure out the word by looking at the picture of the animal. The students were learning how to use the whole text in comprehending their reading.
I have seen my CT walk the students through the prereading stage of reading and ask the class for predictions before they even open the book. Sometimes she will show the class the cover of the book and ask everyone what they think about the book. This is good because it gets the class excited about the book and it teaches them to get in the right mindset before reading. After group readings I think it is great that my CT usually has the students write about the stories either in their journals or on regular paper. The students don't realize this but they are participating in stage three of the reading process, which is called responding. Even though the students are still beginning readers and writers, my CT still gives them the chance to respond to readings with writing. Being able to write about what was read shows whether or not the student could truly comprehend the reading. I like that my CT does this so often because not only can she see how much the students are comprehending, but it also highlights to the students the connection between reading and writing. This connection is laid out well by Tompkins in Figure 2-9 on page 72. Reading and writing are intricately connected, with success in one depending on success in the other. My CT understands this and that is why she tries to use the two together whenever possible in her classroom.
I like how the term text is defined in the readings as "all reading materials - stories, maps, newspapers, cereal boxes, textbooks, and so on; it is not limited to basal reader textbooks." (Tompkins, p. 46) I have heard my CT on several occasions point out to the students that reading is important because they encounter written words so often in their everyday lives. She has talked with them about signs, menus, writing in stores, and many other examples. Also, I like the above definition of text because often when reading with the students, my CT encourages them to look at the accompanying pictures for clues that may help them figure out words in the written text. The point is that the experience of reading can encompass much more than just the words. Last week I worked with a small group of the lower level students in terms of their reading abilities. As a group we read a predictable animal picture book page by page. When a student would struggle with reading a word I encouraged them to both break it up into sounds and look at the picture. This helped because even though some of the students still struggle with their letter sounds, they were able to figure out the word by looking at the picture of the animal. The students were learning how to use the whole text in comprehending their reading.
I have seen my CT walk the students through the prereading stage of reading and ask the class for predictions before they even open the book. Sometimes she will show the class the cover of the book and ask everyone what they think about the book. This is good because it gets the class excited about the book and it teaches them to get in the right mindset before reading. After group readings I think it is great that my CT usually has the students write about the stories either in their journals or on regular paper. The students don't realize this but they are participating in stage three of the reading process, which is called responding. Even though the students are still beginning readers and writers, my CT still gives them the chance to respond to readings with writing. Being able to write about what was read shows whether or not the student could truly comprehend the reading. I like that my CT does this so often because not only can she see how much the students are comprehending, but it also highlights to the students the connection between reading and writing. This connection is laid out well by Tompkins in Figure 2-9 on page 72. Reading and writing are intricately connected, with success in one depending on success in the other. My CT understands this and that is why she tries to use the two together whenever possible in her classroom.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Adaptations and Accomodations
I was especially interested in the Breitfelder article because I am in special education. I will be getting certified in learning disabilities and am still thinking about getting additional certification in cognitive impairments. Either way, it is beneficial to me to learn about adaptations and accommodations that teachers use for students with special needs. I would actually argue that learning about how best to work with special needs students is important for all teachers, not just those who are in special education. The mainstream classroom is becoming more and more inclusive every year, meaning that all teachers will at some point in their career have students with special needs.
Breitfelder writes early in the article that the "best ways students with special needs learn is by having adaptations and accommodations that can be used for that specific child, to meet their needs, so they can be successful in the classroom." (p. 3) The hard part for teachers is finding out what works best for each student. In an inclusive classroom this is even more difficult because the teacher has all of the regular education students in addition to those with special needs. This article is nice because it gives several examples of adaptations and accommodations that teachers use and with which students these are generally most effective. However, there is no one correct way for every type of student. For example, what works well for one student with autism is not necessarily going to work well with another autistic student.
I read this article on the way down to Cincinnati to visit my parents, both of whom are in special education. My dad does more administrative work right now and my mom is still in the classroom with severe cognitively impaired kindergarten through second grade students. I was asking my mom about school and her students, when, without prompting, she started talking about PECS, Picture Exchange Communication System, and TEACCH, Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication and handicapped Children. Both of these adaptations are described in the article and mentioned as being great tools to use with autistic students. My mom told me how she loves both of them and has been using some form of them in her classroom for years. Actually, in three weeks she is going to another PECS training session. She said that even though she is familiar with PECS and has used it effectively before, she still likes to go to the training sessions because it can only help her as a teacher. The article mentions how beneficial PECS and TEACCH can be, and talking to my mom, who has real classroom experience, reinforced that point.
Breitfelder writes early in the article that the "best ways students with special needs learn is by having adaptations and accommodations that can be used for that specific child, to meet their needs, so they can be successful in the classroom." (p. 3) The hard part for teachers is finding out what works best for each student. In an inclusive classroom this is even more difficult because the teacher has all of the regular education students in addition to those with special needs. This article is nice because it gives several examples of adaptations and accommodations that teachers use and with which students these are generally most effective. However, there is no one correct way for every type of student. For example, what works well for one student with autism is not necessarily going to work well with another autistic student.
I read this article on the way down to Cincinnati to visit my parents, both of whom are in special education. My dad does more administrative work right now and my mom is still in the classroom with severe cognitively impaired kindergarten through second grade students. I was asking my mom about school and her students, when, without prompting, she started talking about PECS, Picture Exchange Communication System, and TEACCH, Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication and handicapped Children. Both of these adaptations are described in the article and mentioned as being great tools to use with autistic students. My mom told me how she loves both of them and has been using some form of them in her classroom for years. Actually, in three weeks she is going to another PECS training session. She said that even though she is familiar with PECS and has used it effectively before, she still likes to go to the training sessions because it can only help her as a teacher. The article mentions how beneficial PECS and TEACCH can be, and talking to my mom, who has real classroom experience, reinforced that point.
Digital Natives Quiz
Well, I too took the digital navites quiz... the answers I didn't know were "modding", "smart mobs", and "wiki". I knew the rest of the answers to a certain extent... but I still feel like there is a lot about technology that I don't know. As the times speed along fairly quickly, technology is created and constantly changes faster than we can blink. I think that this project is going to help us learn how to explore a new technology not only now, but in our future. By doing this, we will have the ability to discover and create our own classroom technologies and that is going to become increasingly important, especially as our students are growing up learning things that we did not.
I am going to try to do something with this project that I have not done before, I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet, as I've experienced most of the options. I may create the option of combining a few of the literacies together for one classroom "experience" if you will. I am thinking of creating a classroom blog, but we'll see how that goes. There is still a lot I need to learn about blogging and the intricacies that come along with it. Overall I will say that I am excited to get going on this project although it may be a little bit overwhelming, it seems like it will be fun because we can personalize it.
I am going to try to do something with this project that I have not done before, I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet, as I've experienced most of the options. I may create the option of combining a few of the literacies together for one classroom "experience" if you will. I am thinking of creating a classroom blog, but we'll see how that goes. There is still a lot I need to learn about blogging and the intricacies that come along with it. Overall I will say that I am excited to get going on this project although it may be a little bit overwhelming, it seems like it will be fun because we can personalize it.
Digital Natives Quiz
As technology has progressed over the past ten years, I have always thought that I knew a lot compared to most people. I have known how to operate a computer well, as long as many other little things such as the GPS my brother got over Christmas. If i haven't used a piece of technology before, I can usually figure out how to use it quickly and effectively. When I took the Digital Natives Quiz, I was alarmed with how poorly I did on it. I did not know about 50% of the terms that were used on that quiz, and therefore I did not do very well on it.
I recently had a class on the technologies that are being used in schools, and I appreciated the class greatly. I know that this upcoming assignment is going to take some time to do, but I look forward to using a new form of technology to teach a subject. I wish that we could have other projects similar to this in the future, and I wish we had more of these in the past. These projects are the real life experiences that we need as future teachers to be effective in the future.
I recently had a class on the technologies that are being used in schools, and I appreciated the class greatly. I know that this upcoming assignment is going to take some time to do, but I look forward to using a new form of technology to teach a subject. I wish that we could have other projects similar to this in the future, and I wish we had more of these in the past. These projects are the real life experiences that we need as future teachers to be effective in the future.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Digital Natives Quiz
I have always thought of myself as being pretty good with computers and have never really been intimidated by new technology. However, when I took the short digital natives quiz in the online article from last week I only got three out of six correct. That quiz, coupled with all of the new technology that we were introduced to during Monday's class, has made me feel out of the loop technologically. I now feel that I am behind the curve on technology knowledge and it will be hard to catch up. I think that this is a feeling that many people have because technology is always changing and improving. Hopefully, working on the new literacy project and then being able to see what everyone else in class does on this project will help alleviate some of my deficiencies in technology.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Alphabet Soup
I actually chose to focus on Tompkins' chapter 4 in which she talks about "Cracking The Alphabetic Code". Mrs. Firpo uses a Basal reading throughout this chapter--I think that this is important to note that a lot of times in our education here at MSU we have been taught that a lot of the "traditional" teaching tools are not effective and that we need to be new and innovative in our own right to provide things in our classroom for our students from a different angle. I think this chapter is a perfect example of how to use something to our advantage although we may not originally think it is innovative enough. Not only does she just use the Basal readers for her students to build phonics, she has a focus wall that incorporates the things they are getting in the books. She makes up little packets [p 112] to have the students use at school and then take home to extend their learning beyond the classroom. "Each week the students receive three take home boks that MRs. Firpo has duplicated, folded, and stabled together; the purpose of these books is to reinforce the phonics focus of the week...The students keep the book at their desks to use for a seatwork activity...they take them home each day. Alraedy they have collected more than 75 books!" [p 111-112]
I think the way that Mrs. Firpo is allowing her students to have this collection of books is enhancing their learning so much, particularly for those students whose parents aren't able to buy books and keep them at home. This is something we will definitely need to pay attention to as teachers at this time in our Nation's history.
Moving on to the phonics in the chapter, I wanted to note something that I see in my placement almost all day every single time I visit. On page 122, Tompkins talks about segmentation. "One of the more difficult phonemic awareness activities is segmentation, in which children isolate the sounds in a spoken word (Yopp, 1988)". Our CT has a list of words with three phonemes in them [for now], and she uses that list to do what she calls karate chopping with the students. She has them use their hands to mark each phoneme of the word. For example “fun” would be ‘chopped’ into /f/ /u/ /n/ Using their hands to karate chop the air in the order of the phonemes. Another way she does this is to give each child three chips. They sit on the floor with the chips in a row in front of them. For each phoneme [she calls them sounds] the students are to push a chip forward. This is a new technique that they’re learning and it is slightly more difficult than the karate chopping that the students are used to. By asking all of the students to participate in sessions like this, it helps them to incorporate these “manipulatives” in hearing and feeling the phonemes in different ways, showing that the words can be broken up into sounds.
I think the way that Mrs. Firpo is allowing her students to have this collection of books is enhancing their learning so much, particularly for those students whose parents aren't able to buy books and keep them at home. This is something we will definitely need to pay attention to as teachers at this time in our Nation's history.
Moving on to the phonics in the chapter, I wanted to note something that I see in my placement almost all day every single time I visit. On page 122, Tompkins talks about segmentation. "One of the more difficult phonemic awareness activities is segmentation, in which children isolate the sounds in a spoken word (Yopp, 1988)". Our CT has a list of words with three phonemes in them [for now], and she uses that list to do what she calls karate chopping with the students. She has them use their hands to mark each phoneme of the word. For example “fun” would be ‘chopped’ into /f/ /u/ /n/ Using their hands to karate chop the air in the order of the phonemes. Another way she does this is to give each child three chips. They sit on the floor with the chips in a row in front of them. For each phoneme [she calls them sounds] the students are to push a chip forward. This is a new technique that they’re learning and it is slightly more difficult than the karate chopping that the students are used to. By asking all of the students to participate in sessions like this, it helps them to incorporate these “manipulatives” in hearing and feeling the phonemes in different ways, showing that the words can be broken up into sounds.
Week 5 Readings
When I read the articles for this weeks class, the one that stuck out to me the most was the Gibbons chapter on Writing in a Second Language. Often as a writer I do not think about all of the processes that I do on a daily basis when writing papers for class, or an e-mail to my father. When I think about it though I do understand that "writing is a recursive process-that writers continually revise and edit at all stages of the writing process..." (Gibbons 52). When I first read this I kind of figured that all good writers do this no matter what language we are writing in, and bad writers do not do this, no matter what language that he or she may write in. Gibbons continued to break it down by saying "They tend not to plan at a whole-text level, and they are less able to anticipate the language and content information that a reader will require in order to fully understand their writing" (Gibbons 52).
This makes a lot of sense to me because people who are learning the language have so much to try and focus on in order to try and write that they do not even think to re-read what they wrote and fix it, more then likely they would not know how to properly fix a mistake anyway. I know that when young student is trying to write he or she can not always put down on paper what is in their mind due to vocabulary or other types of wording issues, and I can imagine this is the same for ELL's.
This makes a lot of sense to me because people who are learning the language have so much to try and focus on in order to try and write that they do not even think to re-read what they wrote and fix it, more then likely they would not know how to properly fix a mistake anyway. I know that when young student is trying to write he or she can not always put down on paper what is in their mind due to vocabulary or other types of wording issues, and I can imagine this is the same for ELL's.
Digital Literacy
I focused most this week on the Buckingham article about digital literacy because Mike and I are presenting on that tomorrow with Michele. Buckingham talked about the evolution of literacy and how as the world advances there are many new media that could be looked at as a literacy. As computers and the Internet have come to dominate society more and more, the idea of digital literacy was born.
Buckingham argues that computers and everything that encompasses digital literacy need to be taught differently. He writes that digital literacy "cannot be adequately understood if we persist in regarding them simply as a matter of machines and techniques, or as 'hardware' and 'software'." (p. 1) This means getting beyond teaching the basic functions of the computer and digital technology, and instead critically looking at the substance of this media. To do this Buckingham points to four aspects of the media that should be analyzed. These are representation, language, production, and audience. Within each aspect, Buckingham has questions that one should ask in relation to the piece of media in order to determine its validity and understand the media on a deeper level. For example, under audience, one should try to figure out who the piece of media is intended for and whether that results in any kind of bias. This critical analysis of digital literacy seems to me to be an obvious benefit to students and their learning. I would take this idea a step further and argue that a critical analysis is important for any type of literacy if students are going to come to a more complete understanding of what they are studying. For example, just as it is helpful to analyze a website for bias and deeper meaning, it could be just as helpful to critically analyze a book in the same manner.
From the other readings this week, I thought that the Tompkins chapter on the alphabetic code was very helpful. Lots of what was in the chapter was a refresher from what we had learned in TE 301, which is always nice to review. In addition to that, there are many potential quick resources that could prove beneficial to me in my education to become a teacher and then during my career. The list of wordplay books for phonemic awareness on page 119 could prove valuable my classroom if I am working on that skill with students. On pages 128 and 129 there are two good charts for rimes and general rules taught in phonics. Also, I really like the chart on page 131 that details the sequence of phonics instruction. We talked about phonics in TE 301, but did not get into the details about when to teach what skills. Looking at this chart and the GLCEs for the corresponding grade levels will give me a better sense about how to teach phonics. Overall, this was a chapter that I am sure I will use in the future as a resource.
Buckingham argues that computers and everything that encompasses digital literacy need to be taught differently. He writes that digital literacy "cannot be adequately understood if we persist in regarding them simply as a matter of machines and techniques, or as 'hardware' and 'software'." (p. 1) This means getting beyond teaching the basic functions of the computer and digital technology, and instead critically looking at the substance of this media. To do this Buckingham points to four aspects of the media that should be analyzed. These are representation, language, production, and audience. Within each aspect, Buckingham has questions that one should ask in relation to the piece of media in order to determine its validity and understand the media on a deeper level. For example, under audience, one should try to figure out who the piece of media is intended for and whether that results in any kind of bias. This critical analysis of digital literacy seems to me to be an obvious benefit to students and their learning. I would take this idea a step further and argue that a critical analysis is important for any type of literacy if students are going to come to a more complete understanding of what they are studying. For example, just as it is helpful to analyze a website for bias and deeper meaning, it could be just as helpful to critically analyze a book in the same manner.
From the other readings this week, I thought that the Tompkins chapter on the alphabetic code was very helpful. Lots of what was in the chapter was a refresher from what we had learned in TE 301, which is always nice to review. In addition to that, there are many potential quick resources that could prove beneficial to me in my education to become a teacher and then during my career. The list of wordplay books for phonemic awareness on page 119 could prove valuable my classroom if I am working on that skill with students. On pages 128 and 129 there are two good charts for rimes and general rules taught in phonics. Also, I really like the chart on page 131 that details the sequence of phonics instruction. We talked about phonics in TE 301, but did not get into the details about when to teach what skills. Looking at this chart and the GLCEs for the corresponding grade levels will give me a better sense about how to teach phonics. Overall, this was a chapter that I am sure I will use in the future as a resource.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Developing as Readers and Writers
In a few of my previous classes we have discussed what it means to develop as a reader and a writer and what needs to be done in order for both of these processes to be done well. One theory of this is to begin knowing the concepts of print through reading and seeing how text works. Then after a student knows the alphabet and begins to write out the letters they can begin to make connections with what letters make up which words, and what each word means.
It takes many years for this to happen, as to this day I know I am still learning different words and quirks to the English language that I did not know the day before. After a student builds up a strong enough vocabulary by practicing reading and writing, they will be more fluent in their own writing, and writing papers becomes easier.
I feel that it makes it easier to read when you practice writing, and I feel that it becomes easier to write when reading is done on a consistent basis. Both of these functions make up literacy, and being literate makes mastering language much easier.
It takes many years for this to happen, as to this day I know I am still learning different words and quirks to the English language that I did not know the day before. After a student builds up a strong enough vocabulary by practicing reading and writing, they will be more fluent in their own writing, and writing papers becomes easier.
I feel that it makes it easier to read when you practice writing, and I feel that it becomes easier to write when reading is done on a consistent basis. Both of these functions make up literacy, and being literate makes mastering language much easier.
Supporting ELL Learners
In a group situation we often forget about how much thought and the amount of processes that need to be mastered before a person can partake in a discussion. If a ELL student is mixed in with the a general education classroom, it can be even more difficult to recognize the struggles that an ELL student is undergoing.
I feel that in order to be a working member of a group discussion a student needs to have a strong grasp of the language in order to comprehend the topic at hand, the questions being asked in the group, the responses that other students bring, and the ability to respond to questions and answers that other students give.
It is amazing how difficult all of this is to put together when you are learning the English language for the first time. In order for a student to master this skill he is going to have to have a lot of support inside the classroom from the teacher, and probably a speech and language pathologist. It needs to be assumed that the student will not get a lot of the English language spoken at home because the parents are probably only fluent in their home language. If a student is in a good classroom with a good group of classmates that are understanding and helpful to the student it will also help in the process.
I feel that in order to be a working member of a group discussion a student needs to have a strong grasp of the language in order to comprehend the topic at hand, the questions being asked in the group, the responses that other students bring, and the ability to respond to questions and answers that other students give.
It is amazing how difficult all of this is to put together when you are learning the English language for the first time. In order for a student to master this skill he is going to have to have a lot of support inside the classroom from the teacher, and probably a speech and language pathologist. It needs to be assumed that the student will not get a lot of the English language spoken at home because the parents are probably only fluent in their home language. If a student is in a good classroom with a good group of classmates that are understanding and helpful to the student it will also help in the process.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Classroom Discussions and Emergent Readers
I am combining these two blogs together, just catching up from the weeks past.
The article pertaining to classroom discussions that I found the most interesting was the Almasi article. She writes about the difference between what a traditional discussion is [recitation] and what a real discussion is considered now. I think this is significant because the things that we see in our placements, and have in our experience as students throughout the last 16 or so years. We are used to being talked at and seeing our students talked at, instead of talked to. Almasi writes "In a recitation there is little interaction among students, so the teacher is a member of the group whose thoughts might influence a person's interpretation most significantly. The fact that the teacher determines the questions that will be asked, the order of the questions, and the correctness of the students' responses to those questions means that the teacher becomes the ultimate interpretive authority in the discussion context." (p 35-6) This passage describes the traditional things that we see in classrooms--and what I see in my placement over and over again. I think that in situations like our placement--which are all kindergarten--recitation type questions are the place that the teacher needs to start, because the students have not developed in their classroom skills to the extent of older students. They are still learning how to interact with each other in the classroom, and how to react to literature and lessons based on it. As students get older, discussions are significantly important. "In a discussion, studetns tend to assume a multitude of roles that are traditionally reserved for the teacher, such as inquisitor, facilitator, and evaluator as well as the more familiar role of respondent." (p 36)
The Gibbons text talked about the layout of your classroom and how to support your students in a classroom talk. This definitely tied into our readings from last week. My students are not at this point yet, I don't believe, like I said previously. Mike talked about the IRF pattern and I will not repeat him--but I will say that I feel it is a good strategy, like we talked about with ELLs... although you are adapting things for your ELL students, it will work well for your students whose first language is English as well. She goes on to mention different strategies for engaging your students in a talk setting. One that stuck out is journal writing. For me, it's the only one I have seen in my placement. Our students will listen to a read-to and then go back to their seats and "journal" about what they have just heard (p 48). They are to write what they are journaling about in their own words [spelling in their own way, the best they can], and then draw a picture. This actually ties nicely into the end of the Tompkins article (p 105-7).
The Tompkins text, as it was for Mike, was very close to what I have been seeing in my placement. From the schedule that Mrs. McCloskey has for her class (p 81), I feel like my CT has been doing almost all of the same things with her students. Literacy is one of the most important components in the Kindergarten classroom. By having the students interact with print in so many different ways, they are able to connect to it in different ways. Literacy Centers (p 83) are also something that are really big in my placement. The games are switched out every few weeks focusing on different aspects of literacy. There are seatwork centers and games of all different sorts, with three to four students in each center group. "The two teachers circulate around the classroom, monitoring chirldren's work and taking advantage of teachable moments to clarify misunderstandings, reinforce previous lessons, and extend children's learning." (p 82) It is important that during centers and all lessons surrounding literacy that the students feel supported, but are still able to learn on their own. I have seen a lot more of the things in this chapter--particularly the traveling books (p 100), which get swapped out each week in our classroom. Involving the family members of the students really helps them learn in a different way. Because the parents are encouraged to promote literacy at home, the students have more support than they would otherwise have.
The article pertaining to classroom discussions that I found the most interesting was the Almasi article. She writes about the difference between what a traditional discussion is [recitation] and what a real discussion is considered now. I think this is significant because the things that we see in our placements, and have in our experience as students throughout the last 16 or so years. We are used to being talked at and seeing our students talked at, instead of talked to. Almasi writes "In a recitation there is little interaction among students, so the teacher is a member of the group whose thoughts might influence a person's interpretation most significantly. The fact that the teacher determines the questions that will be asked, the order of the questions, and the correctness of the students' responses to those questions means that the teacher becomes the ultimate interpretive authority in the discussion context." (p 35-6) This passage describes the traditional things that we see in classrooms--and what I see in my placement over and over again. I think that in situations like our placement--which are all kindergarten--recitation type questions are the place that the teacher needs to start, because the students have not developed in their classroom skills to the extent of older students. They are still learning how to interact with each other in the classroom, and how to react to literature and lessons based on it. As students get older, discussions are significantly important. "In a discussion, studetns tend to assume a multitude of roles that are traditionally reserved for the teacher, such as inquisitor, facilitator, and evaluator as well as the more familiar role of respondent." (p 36)
The Gibbons text talked about the layout of your classroom and how to support your students in a classroom talk. This definitely tied into our readings from last week. My students are not at this point yet, I don't believe, like I said previously. Mike talked about the IRF pattern and I will not repeat him--but I will say that I feel it is a good strategy, like we talked about with ELLs... although you are adapting things for your ELL students, it will work well for your students whose first language is English as well. She goes on to mention different strategies for engaging your students in a talk setting. One that stuck out is journal writing. For me, it's the only one I have seen in my placement. Our students will listen to a read-to and then go back to their seats and "journal" about what they have just heard (p 48). They are to write what they are journaling about in their own words [spelling in their own way, the best they can], and then draw a picture. This actually ties nicely into the end of the Tompkins article (p 105-7).
The Tompkins text, as it was for Mike, was very close to what I have been seeing in my placement. From the schedule that Mrs. McCloskey has for her class (p 81), I feel like my CT has been doing almost all of the same things with her students. Literacy is one of the most important components in the Kindergarten classroom. By having the students interact with print in so many different ways, they are able to connect to it in different ways. Literacy Centers (p 83) are also something that are really big in my placement. The games are switched out every few weeks focusing on different aspects of literacy. There are seatwork centers and games of all different sorts, with three to four students in each center group. "The two teachers circulate around the classroom, monitoring chirldren's work and taking advantage of teachable moments to clarify misunderstandings, reinforce previous lessons, and extend children's learning." (p 82) It is important that during centers and all lessons surrounding literacy that the students feel supported, but are still able to learn on their own. I have seen a lot more of the things in this chapter--particularly the traveling books (p 100), which get swapped out each week in our classroom. Involving the family members of the students really helps them learn in a different way. Because the parents are encouraged to promote literacy at home, the students have more support than they would otherwise have.
Goals for TE 402
I just took TE 301 last semester and feel that I have a nice start on what I need to know to be able to effectively teach a student how to read and write. That course was good because I was able to learn many of the terms and techniques used in literacy education. Also I was able to do a child study on one particular student and in the process get a better understanding of that student's literacy ability. I learned lots during that course, but now hope that this course will take my ability to teach language arts and literacy to a whole new level.
The goals for the class that are spelled out in the syllabus appear to do just that. While TE 301 was an excellent course, I don't think it did enough to teach me how how to plan lessons and effectively set up my classroom for teaching children to read and write. Being able to understand the standards better and how to incorporate them into my teaching will benefit me greatly. Along the same lines, I hope to become more familiar with the general language arts curriculum that is used in schools, across all grades. Also, I look forward to learning about different language arts strategies and technologies that I can use when teaching. I like how one of the goals in the syllabus deals with self-assessment as a teacher. This is one area where I need more work on and which I think will be something that I should strive to do as a teacher if I want to constantly be improving as a teacher. A final goal of mine, which we have already started to do, is to work with and observe how students are involved in language arts. This is probably the most important aspect of the class because I feel that the best learning for me comes from actually being in the classroom and working with students.
Overall, I am excited for this class and feel that it will be an invaluable step as I progress towards being a teacher. At this point we are only three weeks into this class and I am already pleased with what I have begun to learn. Learning about how to best incorporate ESL students into the classroom will be helpful because it is reinforcing in me the idea that a teacher needs to be able to set up instruction that can reach all of their students, regardless of their varying academic levels.
The goals for the class that are spelled out in the syllabus appear to do just that. While TE 301 was an excellent course, I don't think it did enough to teach me how how to plan lessons and effectively set up my classroom for teaching children to read and write. Being able to understand the standards better and how to incorporate them into my teaching will benefit me greatly. Along the same lines, I hope to become more familiar with the general language arts curriculum that is used in schools, across all grades. Also, I look forward to learning about different language arts strategies and technologies that I can use when teaching. I like how one of the goals in the syllabus deals with self-assessment as a teacher. This is one area where I need more work on and which I think will be something that I should strive to do as a teacher if I want to constantly be improving as a teacher. A final goal of mine, which we have already started to do, is to work with and observe how students are involved in language arts. This is probably the most important aspect of the class because I feel that the best learning for me comes from actually being in the classroom and working with students.
Overall, I am excited for this class and feel that it will be an invaluable step as I progress towards being a teacher. At this point we are only three weeks into this class and I am already pleased with what I have begun to learn. Learning about how to best incorporate ESL students into the classroom will be helpful because it is reinforcing in me the idea that a teacher needs to be able to set up instruction that can reach all of their students, regardless of their varying academic levels.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Classroom Talk and Emergnt Readers
The two chapters in the Gibbons text were about how to make an environment in the classroom that allows for the students to engage in productive talks. Gibbons feels that productive classroom talk is important because "development of the spoken forms of language are essential for second language learners as a bridge to the more academic language." (p.14) ESL students are not only learning the new content that is being presented, but they are also learning a new language. Simply listening to the teacher all the time does not allow the students to practice the new language enough. Sadly, classrooms are most often set up in an IRF (Initiation, Response, Feedback) format. This means that the teacher asks a question of the students, gets a simple response, and then evaluates that response as to whether or not it is correct. In this type of an environment the ESL student suffers because they are not able to really practice the new language and hear their peers using language. I would take this point a step further and argue that all students suffer in this situation because I feel that all students benefit from work on their spoken language.
Gibbons goes on to argue that in order to get away from the traditional IRF format in schools, teachers need to get their students to do more group work. This allows the students to hear a "greater variety of language...interact more with other speakers...[and hear language] in an appropriate context and used meaningfully for a particular purpose." (p. 17) All of this leads the students along what Gibbons refers to as the "mode continuum...from spoken to written language." (p. 41) The group work allows the students to work together using informal language, piece together all of their ideas, and then come back together to report their work verbally to the class or write out individually what they learned. Reading through these chapters reaffirmed to me the importance of group work. However, in my placement I have not seen much, if any real group work. This is obviously because I am in a kindergarten classroom and the students are so new to formal education. These students are just now learning how school works and what is expected of them. Effective group work takes practice, and the students in my classroom are far from being ready to productively work in small groups.
The Tompkins chapter was much more in line with what I have seen in field. All of the students in my kindergarten class are at varying levels within the emergent reading and writing stage. At this stage, "young children gain an understanding of the communicative purpose of print, and they move from pretend reading to reading repetitive books and from scribbles to simulate writing to writing patterned sentences." (p.89) Reading about the instructional recommendations that Tompkins has for emergent reading and writing students, found on page 97 in figure 3-3, was like going through my classroom's daily routine and listing everything that they do each day.
I could write for hours about all of the literacy instruction that I get to see everyday. Just last Thursday I worked with the students in the afternoon on their daily journal entries. In a notebook, at the bottom of the page, they write out a sentence by themselves and then above that illustrate the sentence. My CT stresses to them that they are to write the sentence by themselves, carefully sounding out each word as they write. The sentences are very simple, such as, "The alligator bites." The spelling doesn't have to be correct, as the objective is for the students to work on breaking words apart and sounding them out as they spell. Looking through their journals I can already see some improvement for most of the students from when they began back in October. I can barely remember my time as a kindergarten student and my struggles as I learned to read and write. As a teacher, regardless of what level I am working with, it will be helpful to have been in a kindergarten class and to have seen what emergent readers and writers must go through to become literate.
Gibbons goes on to argue that in order to get away from the traditional IRF format in schools, teachers need to get their students to do more group work. This allows the students to hear a "greater variety of language...interact more with other speakers...[and hear language] in an appropriate context and used meaningfully for a particular purpose." (p. 17) All of this leads the students along what Gibbons refers to as the "mode continuum...from spoken to written language." (p. 41) The group work allows the students to work together using informal language, piece together all of their ideas, and then come back together to report their work verbally to the class or write out individually what they learned. Reading through these chapters reaffirmed to me the importance of group work. However, in my placement I have not seen much, if any real group work. This is obviously because I am in a kindergarten classroom and the students are so new to formal education. These students are just now learning how school works and what is expected of them. Effective group work takes practice, and the students in my classroom are far from being ready to productively work in small groups.
The Tompkins chapter was much more in line with what I have seen in field. All of the students in my kindergarten class are at varying levels within the emergent reading and writing stage. At this stage, "young children gain an understanding of the communicative purpose of print, and they move from pretend reading to reading repetitive books and from scribbles to simulate writing to writing patterned sentences." (p.89) Reading about the instructional recommendations that Tompkins has for emergent reading and writing students, found on page 97 in figure 3-3, was like going through my classroom's daily routine and listing everything that they do each day.
I could write for hours about all of the literacy instruction that I get to see everyday. Just last Thursday I worked with the students in the afternoon on their daily journal entries. In a notebook, at the bottom of the page, they write out a sentence by themselves and then above that illustrate the sentence. My CT stresses to them that they are to write the sentence by themselves, carefully sounding out each word as they write. The sentences are very simple, such as, "The alligator bites." The spelling doesn't have to be correct, as the objective is for the students to work on breaking words apart and sounding them out as they spell. Looking through their journals I can already see some improvement for most of the students from when they began back in October. I can barely remember my time as a kindergarten student and my struggles as I learned to read and write. As a teacher, regardless of what level I am working with, it will be helpful to have been in a kindergarten class and to have seen what emergent readers and writers must go through to become literate.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Goals and ELL readings
I am going to try and play catch-up here for the first few blogs.
After reading the syllabus more closely, I have come up with a few goals for myself for this class:
I would like to learn more about how to better implement strategies for emergent readers in my classroom. This has been something that I have noticed in my field that becomes stronger and stronger as the weeks go on. I would like to learn how to incorporate more of the standards into my classroom--maybe even have a "guide" as to when I should be covering specific things [depending on the grade level].
I would also like to develop my portfolio with different aspects of teaching. On top of just simply learning about literacy and how to implement it, I would like to take that and add in aspects of classroom management, and assessments that are grade-level and child appropriate. By this I mean that I would like to gain some resources that I can take with me into the classroom (i.e. handouts, worksheets, etc).
I would also like to learn how to better incorporate Language Arts into all aspects of learning. Since literature is able to be adapted to so many different topics, I think that it is important to be able to incorporate standards from different subjects with LA. This will be something I want to learn a lot about this semester.
ELL Readings:
Last semester I took a class called "LLT 307--Methods of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages". In this class we read many different articles and case studies on teaching to ELLs. I have realized over the last few years that ELLs are on the rise in our elementary schools, and having courses like this should almost be required soon. It is important to have instruction focusing solely on ways that will be easier for students whose first language is not English, because they may not have the prior background to understand context clues or similar aspects of your lesson. Lesinski states, on page 24, "They represent a variety of socioeconomic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. In school, ELLs need to simultaneously develop English compotence and acquire content knowledge. An overwhelming majority of assessment tools are in English only, presenting a potential threat to the usefulness of assessments when ELLs' lack of English prevents them from understanding test items." This section alone shows how important it is to tailor your teaching [and materials] to ELLs. However, by putting things into different terms or allowing ELLs to be assessed in other ways opens the door for students who also speak English, but may be developing at a slower rate. By providing differentiated instruction, you open up a new window for learning for many of your students, not just ELLs.
This will become a more "hot ticket" item on the table as we roll through the years with more and more students in our schools who have different learning abilities, or who aer ELLs.
After reading the syllabus more closely, I have come up with a few goals for myself for this class:
I would like to learn more about how to better implement strategies for emergent readers in my classroom. This has been something that I have noticed in my field that becomes stronger and stronger as the weeks go on. I would like to learn how to incorporate more of the standards into my classroom--maybe even have a "guide" as to when I should be covering specific things [depending on the grade level].
I would also like to develop my portfolio with different aspects of teaching. On top of just simply learning about literacy and how to implement it, I would like to take that and add in aspects of classroom management, and assessments that are grade-level and child appropriate. By this I mean that I would like to gain some resources that I can take with me into the classroom (i.e. handouts, worksheets, etc).
I would also like to learn how to better incorporate Language Arts into all aspects of learning. Since literature is able to be adapted to so many different topics, I think that it is important to be able to incorporate standards from different subjects with LA. This will be something I want to learn a lot about this semester.
ELL Readings:
Last semester I took a class called "LLT 307--Methods of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages". In this class we read many different articles and case studies on teaching to ELLs. I have realized over the last few years that ELLs are on the rise in our elementary schools, and having courses like this should almost be required soon. It is important to have instruction focusing solely on ways that will be easier for students whose first language is not English, because they may not have the prior background to understand context clues or similar aspects of your lesson. Lesinski states, on page 24, "They represent a variety of socioeconomic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. In school, ELLs need to simultaneously develop English compotence and acquire content knowledge. An overwhelming majority of assessment tools are in English only, presenting a potential threat to the usefulness of assessments when ELLs' lack of English prevents them from understanding test items." This section alone shows how important it is to tailor your teaching [and materials] to ELLs. However, by putting things into different terms or allowing ELLs to be assessed in other ways opens the door for students who also speak English, but may be developing at a slower rate. By providing differentiated instruction, you open up a new window for learning for many of your students, not just ELLs.
This will become a more "hot ticket" item on the table as we roll through the years with more and more students in our schools who have different learning abilities, or who aer ELLs.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Readings on Discussions
The readings for this week reminded me a lot of our TE 401 Science course and all of the work we did with inquiry based instruction. The best inquiry based instruction is when the students have complete control of the questioning and direction of their learning. This is the same idea that is behind the student directed discussions written about and supported by Almasi, McGee, Langer, and Goldeberg.
Almasi writes about "recitation" discussions where "there is no collaborative attempt to construct meaning; the answers are already known." (p. 34) This type of discussion is completely teacher driven with the students responding with either correct or incorrect answers. This is the type of discussion that Almasi wants teachers to move away from and try to avoid. Rather Almasi wants teachers to lead discussions that are "interactive events in which individuals collaboratively construct meaning or consider alternate interpretations of the text in order to arrive at new understandings." (p. 31) Basically, Almasi favors discussions where the students take control of the talking and explore the material together. McGee builds on this idea when talking about how in good discussions "children set the agenda for discussion; their comments initiate topics of discussion." (p. 59)
In my field time I have not seen what the authors would consider true student driven discussions. This is because I am in a kindergarten class and the students aren't capable of carrying on their own discussion about a subject. The classroom talks that I have seen are completely teacher driven with my CT asking the questions and guiding the lesson. She doesn't allow any of the students to be shy and not participate in the lesson or discussion. To do this my CT simply calls on each student multiple times every day and does not continue with her lesson until she hears a response. The students aren't directing the discussion, but everyone is involved. These students are at the very beginning of their schooling career and are learning so many new things that it would be a bit presumptuous to think that they could carry on a thoughtful discussion with little help from the teacher. My CT is trying to get her students to that point by teaching them how to participate in school and try to be active learners.
Even though I haven't seen a real student driven discussion in my field work, I do believe that this is an effective technique for teaching language arts. This is something that I as a teacher hope to be able to use with my students. I understand that this will not be easy to do and will require lots of preparation and practice. However, I like the idea behind these types of discussions where the students are taking control of their learning and coming to an understanding of the material by working together.
Almasi writes about "recitation" discussions where "there is no collaborative attempt to construct meaning; the answers are already known." (p. 34) This type of discussion is completely teacher driven with the students responding with either correct or incorrect answers. This is the type of discussion that Almasi wants teachers to move away from and try to avoid. Rather Almasi wants teachers to lead discussions that are "interactive events in which individuals collaboratively construct meaning or consider alternate interpretations of the text in order to arrive at new understandings." (p. 31) Basically, Almasi favors discussions where the students take control of the talking and explore the material together. McGee builds on this idea when talking about how in good discussions "children set the agenda for discussion; their comments initiate topics of discussion." (p. 59)
In my field time I have not seen what the authors would consider true student driven discussions. This is because I am in a kindergarten class and the students aren't capable of carrying on their own discussion about a subject. The classroom talks that I have seen are completely teacher driven with my CT asking the questions and guiding the lesson. She doesn't allow any of the students to be shy and not participate in the lesson or discussion. To do this my CT simply calls on each student multiple times every day and does not continue with her lesson until she hears a response. The students aren't directing the discussion, but everyone is involved. These students are at the very beginning of their schooling career and are learning so many new things that it would be a bit presumptuous to think that they could carry on a thoughtful discussion with little help from the teacher. My CT is trying to get her students to that point by teaching them how to participate in school and try to be active learners.
Even though I haven't seen a real student driven discussion in my field work, I do believe that this is an effective technique for teaching language arts. This is something that I as a teacher hope to be able to use with my students. I understand that this will not be easy to do and will require lots of preparation and practice. However, I like the idea behind these types of discussions where the students are taking control of their learning and coming to an understanding of the material by working together.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Week 2 Readings (Mike Woodberg)
-Everybody learns in a different way, so when talking about diverse learners participating in their learning community, we are talking about how every person needs to do this. One of the ideas that stuck out in my mind was the idea of “Making Meaning Explicit.” The thought behind this concept is that “the more that speakers are doing together and engaging in dialogue, the more they can take for granted” (Gibbons, 3). As discussed earlier by Gibbons, there are three contextual factors in language and these are, field, tenor, and mode. If teachers can make meaning explicit, then there three factors are more easily achieved, and less supports are needed.
-The idea of transmission models is used to try and figure out a concept of how to teach ELL students (Gibbons 6,7). The first idea is to think of a student as a bank, getting deposits of skills or knowledge from the teacher. The second idea is referred to as “progressive” (Gibbons 6). In this method the learner is put at the center of the learning process. These are the ideas that we use to try and teach our ELL students, but they can also be used for students when they are trying to learn how to do anything. It is important to think of a student as a bank, getting deposits of information, or to put them at the center of their own education. Students come to us as teachers needing to gain knowledge and whether we are getting them as an ELL student or a non-ELL student, if a student needs to learn the information it is important to view them at the same level.
-I am going to be teaching special education in the future and with this I feel that it is important to get to know each one of my students at an individual level. It is important to teach to every student and not the class as a whole. I understand that great amount of prep time that goes into this method, but it is crucial for every child to be taught in a meaningful and appropriate way. It is a teacher’s job to do everything possible to help their students succeed and if this means having to teach something in more then one way then it is important to do that.
-The idea of transmission models is used to try and figure out a concept of how to teach ELL students (Gibbons 6,7). The first idea is to think of a student as a bank, getting deposits of skills or knowledge from the teacher. The second idea is referred to as “progressive” (Gibbons 6). In this method the learner is put at the center of the learning process. These are the ideas that we use to try and teach our ELL students, but they can also be used for students when they are trying to learn how to do anything. It is important to think of a student as a bank, getting deposits of information, or to put them at the center of their own education. Students come to us as teachers needing to gain knowledge and whether we are getting them as an ELL student or a non-ELL student, if a student needs to learn the information it is important to view them at the same level.
-I am going to be teaching special education in the future and with this I feel that it is important to get to know each one of my students at an individual level. It is important to teach to every student and not the class as a whole. I understand that great amount of prep time that goes into this method, but it is crucial for every child to be taught in a meaningful and appropriate way. It is a teacher’s job to do everything possible to help their students succeed and if this means having to teach something in more then one way then it is important to do that.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
What I expect from TE 402
It is an exciting time in the lives of just about every TE 402 student (as lame and cliche as that sounds). We are about six months away from being interns and in the classroom four days a week. TE 301 taught us about literacy development, 401 taught us about ways to implement science and social studies in the classroom, and I now look forward to learning about the best ways to teach language arts and math in te 402.
I really have high hopes for myself as well as for the class in 402. I hope to gain as much knowledge and insight as possible while I am in and out of class. I know that these classes are going to be great tools in preparing us for our internship year, as well as for our future profession. I hope that in 402 we learn how many methods of how it is possible to teach students to read and write, as well as different methods to do math work.
I know that assignments for TE classes can be demanding, but I feel that we gain a lot from doing them. I am not a big fan of the 15-20 page lesson plans that I had to write for TE 401, I would much rather do more lesson plans that have smaller write-ups, but any way that we go about doing this I know it will help prepare us for the future.
I look forward to my final semester as a college undergraduate student to be fun and informative!
I really have high hopes for myself as well as for the class in 402. I hope to gain as much knowledge and insight as possible while I am in and out of class. I know that these classes are going to be great tools in preparing us for our internship year, as well as for our future profession. I hope that in 402 we learn how many methods of how it is possible to teach students to read and write, as well as different methods to do math work.
I know that assignments for TE classes can be demanding, but I feel that we gain a lot from doing them. I am not a big fan of the 15-20 page lesson plans that I had to write for TE 401, I would much rather do more lesson plans that have smaller write-ups, but any way that we go about doing this I know it will help prepare us for the future.
I look forward to my final semester as a college undergraduate student to be fun and informative!
Monday, January 19, 2009
First Readings
Reading and learning about ELL students and how to best teach them was helpful to me and something I need to do more of. This issue is of utmost importance because the number of ESL students is rising every year. Lenski writes that this is because "more than a million new U.S. immigrants arrive annually." (p. 24) Lenski goes on to write that these "ELL's bring a wide range of educational experiences and academic backgrounds to school. They represent a variety of socioeconomic, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds." (p. 24)
I feel that recognizing this diversity is a critical first step to teaching ELL students. Teachers need to know that there is no one correct way to teach ELL students. This means that a teacher's lessons need to be adaptable in both the material and assessments to be able to effectively reach a diverse student population. Gibbons talks about teachers doing this in their classroom through scaffolding and building on what each individual student already knows. For ELL students, one form of scaffolding that should be provided is language support. These students are not only learning new curriculum knowledge, but are also learning a second language. With adaptable material and a focus on language, ELL's will be given a much better chance at success in the classroom.
I am in special education, and I think that there are similarities between teaching mainstream ELL students and mainstream learning disabled students. In both situations, a teacher needs to be able to adjust their teaching to reach all different levels of learners that are together in the same classroom. Lenski says that "effective teaching comes [from] the teacher's ability to meet the needs of all students at all points in the educational continuum." (p. 33) I feel that teaching with this perspective is actually going to be beneficial to all of the students in a given classroom. The teacher is forced to get to know each student individually and how they learn best. This will probably result in additional preparation time for the teacher, but ultimately it should make for better instruction that reaches more students. All of the students are on the same learning continuum and it is the responsibility of the teacher to adjust their instruction to best meet the needs of a diverse classroom.
I feel that recognizing this diversity is a critical first step to teaching ELL students. Teachers need to know that there is no one correct way to teach ELL students. This means that a teacher's lessons need to be adaptable in both the material and assessments to be able to effectively reach a diverse student population. Gibbons talks about teachers doing this in their classroom through scaffolding and building on what each individual student already knows. For ELL students, one form of scaffolding that should be provided is language support. These students are not only learning new curriculum knowledge, but are also learning a second language. With adaptable material and a focus on language, ELL's will be given a much better chance at success in the classroom.
I am in special education, and I think that there are similarities between teaching mainstream ELL students and mainstream learning disabled students. In both situations, a teacher needs to be able to adjust their teaching to reach all different levels of learners that are together in the same classroom. Lenski says that "effective teaching comes [from] the teacher's ability to meet the needs of all students at all points in the educational continuum." (p. 33) I feel that teaching with this perspective is actually going to be beneficial to all of the students in a given classroom. The teacher is forced to get to know each student individually and how they learn best. This will probably result in additional preparation time for the teacher, but ultimately it should make for better instruction that reaches more students. All of the students are on the same learning continuum and it is the responsibility of the teacher to adjust their instruction to best meet the needs of a diverse classroom.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Week One
This is my first go at a professional blog, and I am not 100% sure what I am doing, so bear with me.
I have had so many experiences over the past 17 years with education. From pre-K through my senior year in college, there have been many teachers who have influenced the way I think about learning in both a positive and negative manner. I come from a family filled with teachers. My mom and grandma are/were both certified in Elementary Education, while my dad and grandpa are/were high school science teachers before becoming a guidance counselor. Because of this, I have been exposed to all things-learning since I was old enough to remember.
By the time I reached Kindergarten, I was able to read books that many students don't read until at least first grade. I had a very supportive staff of teachers in my school who allowed me to read with them, and even assist the reading specialist in her separate room.
Because I was encouraged at such a young age to keep on reading, I found myself excelling in other things outside of these things. It was these times in elementary school that prompted my thinking about becoming a teacher. I'm not sure I would have been interested in it if I didn't have such positive role models in my past.
Once I got to high school, I fell in love with the Language Arts--or what we called "English" classes. I had great teachers who often pushed my thinking beyond the normal levels, and this excited me to learn more. It was here when I thought I would make a great high school English teacher. [Obviously something has changed!]
I have stuck with Language Arts as my teaching major because I love the English language, and all the things it has to offer, particularly the amount of levels that Language Arts can be incorporated into everything that we teach.
In our TE 402 class, we have a very diverse representation of learners. If you look at us, there are not many diversities on the outside. But "don't judge a book by its cover". We all come from many different places and histories. Not all of us are earning our first degree. Not all of us have the same teaching major. We are all here for slightly different reasons because of the things that we have experienced in our past. This is an important key to our learning because without diversity in the classroom, our learning would be quite stagnant. I'm looking forward to all of the different perspectives from my classmates as this semester rolls on.
I have had so many experiences over the past 17 years with education. From pre-K through my senior year in college, there have been many teachers who have influenced the way I think about learning in both a positive and negative manner. I come from a family filled with teachers. My mom and grandma are/were both certified in Elementary Education, while my dad and grandpa are/were high school science teachers before becoming a guidance counselor. Because of this, I have been exposed to all things-learning since I was old enough to remember.
By the time I reached Kindergarten, I was able to read books that many students don't read until at least first grade. I had a very supportive staff of teachers in my school who allowed me to read with them, and even assist the reading specialist in her separate room.
Because I was encouraged at such a young age to keep on reading, I found myself excelling in other things outside of these things. It was these times in elementary school that prompted my thinking about becoming a teacher. I'm not sure I would have been interested in it if I didn't have such positive role models in my past.
Once I got to high school, I fell in love with the Language Arts--or what we called "English" classes. I had great teachers who often pushed my thinking beyond the normal levels, and this excited me to learn more. It was here when I thought I would make a great high school English teacher. [Obviously something has changed!]
I have stuck with Language Arts as my teaching major because I love the English language, and all the things it has to offer, particularly the amount of levels that Language Arts can be incorporated into everything that we teach.
In our TE 402 class, we have a very diverse representation of learners. If you look at us, there are not many diversities on the outside. But "don't judge a book by its cover". We all come from many different places and histories. Not all of us are earning our first degree. Not all of us have the same teaching major. We are all here for slightly different reasons because of the things that we have experienced in our past. This is an important key to our learning because without diversity in the classroom, our learning would be quite stagnant. I'm looking forward to all of the different perspectives from my classmates as this semester rolls on.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Week 1 Blog (Mike Woodberg)
My own experiences in language arts education have taught me a lot about the teacher that I want to become. I learned to read before I was in kindergarten with my parents at home. Every night before I went to bed I would read with my parents, and this was time that I really enjoyed and really looked forward to. When I was in school, I did not start off with strong teachers in kindergarten and first grade. My kindergarten teacher did not know that I could read until the end of the school year, and this was a skill as I previously stated that I had acquired before entering her classroom. My first grade teacher gave us many opportunities to read which was nice, but she had a way of humiliating young students that struggled in reading as well as any other subject. Fortunately, my teachers from this point on were all very good at their jobs and were able to develop my reading abilities a little bit better. From this experience I learned how to teach and treat children, and how not to teach young students. In my own classroom I will make sure to give my students plenty of opportunities to read and write, and correct them calmly when they make a mistake. It is important to know where each of my students will be at when they walk into the classroom, and even more importantly will be how much they have developed at the end of the year.
I know that in our own TE 402 class that people have come from all different walks of life. I am interested to see and hear about how different and not so different we all are from one another.
I know that in our own TE 402 class that people have come from all different walks of life. I am interested to see and hear about how different and not so different we all are from one another.
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