Response to tompkins chapter 2( 2-21-08 readings)

After reading chapter 2 of the Tompkins text I notice that My CT uses a lot of the stratagies used in this text. One of which was the Buddy reading. When they read from their level book boxes they are allowed and sometimes encouraged to read with their table partners. Like the Text sates Students are often able to work together to figure out unfamiliar words. I have seen my students actually stop at a word and try to sound it out to together. I think it makes this reading time more fun and less stressful. I think it is a good strategy to use. I have also seen my CT use the Shared Reading Strategy with them. Most of the times she will read the book to the students or have one of us do it, but sometimes she finds really great voice recording of the books. I did not used to like books on tape and I am not a proponent of using them as the only source of shared reading because students are not learning about concepts of print if you are just holding up a book and turning a page when the tape makes a sound. However, some of the tapes my CT has used in the class really brings the characters to life and I think that as a facilitator while you are using the tape you can follow the words along in the book with your finger to help your students see what the person is reading. Make sure to point to the cover when they read the title and to the author when they read the author. Promoting concept of print skills. I would also stop the tape from time to time and ask your students probing questions to enhance the activity. When it comes to writing I have seen them free writing a lot where they just sit down and write whatever they want and I have seen them respond to a prompt. But, I have not seen them revise or edit there writing. However, yesterday while I was doing some filling for my CT she said don’t file those yet they are rough drafts so maybe they have started learning more about the writing process. I think this chapter does a good job of showing you what the steps of the process are and what are so different strategies you can use to teach it. I also think it was helpful that Judy showed up the Compendium in the back of the book. I think it will be useful when I look back on when I plan future lessons.
-Tasha

2/28/08 Blog

I think that book club is a reading group, where all of the students read the same book at the same rate and time. Periodically throughout the book, the group discusses what is going on within the story. Comprehension is taught in book club, because each student discusses what went on in the text, what could happen next, characters, etc. The students learn comprehension through discussion and sharing of ideas. Knowledge of text facilitates comprehension, because there are many contextual clues that you can get from the text, outside of the actual sentences. I think that when students use literary devices and such, their comprehension really increases.
There are a variety of ways to teach language arts with literature. Teachers can read aloud, have students read aloud, read individually, read as groups, etc. They can also access differently too, through book reports, discussions, essays, plays, etc. I think that using literature in a variety of ways helps diverse learners. I think this is the case because each teaching style caters to a different diverse learning style- therefore by mixing it up and teaching using different approaches; it enables students’ needs to be met. I think that students who struggle with reading should be taught the context clues and literary devices- although this doesn’t help them with the actual words and sentences, it will help them with overall reading comprehension.

-Nicki Lendo

2/21/08 Blog

After today’s reading, I realized that there is much more that goes into reading then one really thinks about. I guess I never really thought about how much goes into reading comprehension and how there are different reader profiles. I found the reader profiles interesting. From the text, I learned that I am a literalist and sometimes a quiz contestant. Overall, I think that when I am reading for school (basically throughout my entire schooling) I will go back to where the answer is in the text, even if I remember it or not, and then write the answer as it was literally stated in the book. It may not be word for word, but it is close. I would say I am also a quiz contestant though at the same time. I think this because a lot of time I connect whatever I am reading to personal stories or things that I have heard of and then I will answer based on my other experiences. This kind of sounds like the definition to quiz contestants, “provide answers that are logically correct but disconnected from the text” (p. 121). I feel that most of the kids I read with respond like left fielders or authors. Many of the students either say whatever they think, regardless if it is connected or not, or they completely make up their own story all together. I wonder if their profile will change as they grow older and become more advanced readers?

I am concerned about my lesson plan because I still have yet to meet with my teacher, due to snow days and president’s day. I have some ideas, but I am feeling pretty lost.


-Nicki

2/14/08 Blog

After taking the digital quiz, I realize that I know a lot about technology, however, there is still so much that I don’t know. I feel that I am in between a digital native and an immigrant. I wouldn’t consider myself an immigrant, because I grew up with technology and am very good at using the things that I know how to do. I wouldn’t consider myself completely native though, because there are still so many things that I don’t know how to do. According to Tompkins (p.84) emergent literacy is the perspective on how children become literate. I feel like this connects to my digital literacy, because you become more and more literate the more and more exposed you are to that particular thing.

I really enjoyed the Marcus: Gifted and Challenging article. I found many similarities between Marcus and my younger brother, who was also diagnosed with ADD and ADHD while in elementary school. I thought that this article gave me an insight into something I never could understand with my younger brother- his frustration about school. I couldn’t understand it, because he was so smart, genius on IQ charts. The article taught me that it was frustrating because his motor skills aren’t developed enough and fast enough to produce all of the information that is going on in his head during writing. This makes so much sense to me now, seeing how frustrated my brother was in school. I think it is so important as future teachers that we read and learn about things like this and ways to help students like this, otherwise they just fall through the cracks. I believe that is what happened with my brother- he could never sit still, had a hard time focusing, pretty standard ADHD characteristics- however instead of helping him, his teachers just yelled at him for always moving around and never completing his word on time. This of course made him instantly hate school and this attitude carried with him throughout his entire schooling. I’m happy to say that he just graduated high school (one semester early), but it certainly wasn’t easy and if his teachers would have even done anything similar to Marcus’ teachers, it would have made a big difference.

After looking at my GLCE’s, I feel that they do guide instructional choices to an extent- I feel that teachers feel that they need to accomplish the expectations, however, it’s hard to do because your actual classroom can never really be that scheduled- I mean that some activities take longer than others, sometimes you want to spend more or less time on certain things, etc. I think that all instruction needs to be differentiated to an extent. I feel that students are so different now (from each other- ESL, learning disabilities, different levels of reading, writing, etc), that lesson plans have to be modified to accompany all students’ learning styles. I don’t necessary even think that they need to be modified that much, however, a little modification is usually necessary.

~Sorry this is late~ I'm still catching up from being sick!

-Nicki Lendo

Response to Tompkins Chapter 1 (2-14-08 readings)

After reading these chapter one thing sounds throughout my head "Teachers are spending to much time teaching literacy". I guess I feel this way because I see how literacy is involved in every subject however, in my classroom placements in my time here I have seen very little of the "other" subjects. For example on page 10 in the Tompkins text it shows a teacher working on literacy only with reading and writing from 8:50 to 1:30 and there is only one two hour break from 10:50- 12:50. I cannot imagine doing this in a classroom though I think the techniques this teacher uses are great what she is filling this time with could be shorter. I look at the first grade classroom I am in now and I see how much focus is put into writing time and reading times. I find myself thinking how easy it would be if writing time was spent instead of free writing, or writing to some writing prompt, used through out the day, throughout lessons. After allowing the students to observe a science demonstration or being read part of a science topic I think this would be a great time to integrate literacy. I would now have my students go back to their seats and think about what they saw or heard and write about it. They could write how they thought it happened, or using descriptive words descriptive words describe what they observed. All of this applies directly to what literacy is. I guess my main question is not why spend any time teaching literacy because I do believe that some time should be spent, but why are we spend some much time and short cutting the” other " subjects which could and in my book should be tied into literacy?
-Tasha

Reading Comprehension

Reading through Tompkins chapter 7 brought to my consciousness the processes that I go through in to order to comprehend the text that I am reading. I will admit that I do not frequently do all of these all of time, which I do not think to be possible to do anyway, however, when reading through texts, the strategy that I employ almost everytime is that of connecting. I am always connecting everything that I read to my life in someway. When reading texts about teaching, I am picturing my future teaching career and relating what I read to my future. When I read for pleasure, such as reading novels, I connect what I am reading to events that have happened in my past, pretending that I am a character in the book, or relating the characters in the book to my friends and family. When reading a novel or reading aethestically, I almost always viualize what it is that I am reading. Visualization helps the story come alive and to make reading more interesting. I do predict, identify big ideas, and monitor my own comprehension sometimes as I read. As mentioned in Tompkins, monintoring my comprehension comes to the forefront of my mind when I realize that I do not understand something that I am reading. I very infrequently evaluate what it is that I have read. I also infrequently question by asking myself literal and inferential questions about the text that I am reading. This is something that I feel like I need to work on a lot. It is when one questions what they are reading and answers those questions through the text that the text becomes the most comprehensible that it can be. In the future, I need to work into my comprehension strategies that ability to be able to ask myself questions about the text in order to create a better understanding of what it is that I am reading.

Until next time
*Lisa*

NLCB, Phonemic Awareness and Book Clubs~

I think that NCLB influences language arts curriculum greatly. I think it really puts emphasis on younger elementary teachers because I feel like it is their job to build a foundation for the students’ future education. According to NCLB, it is the district’s responsibility to teach 100% proficiency in twelve years. I feel like in order for the latter years to be effective, the beginning years must cover all basic areas of literacy. Although this seems like it is a good and easy idea, I feel like this is where more students fall behind in school- they never get a good solid foundation in reading and writing, which leaves them nothing to build on as their go through schooling, so it is like they are not given a chance from the start. Due to these factors, I feel that it is imperative to teach language arts at the most basic level as early as possible in a child’s schooling.

I think that there are a variety of teaching approaches that can help children develop phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling. A few things that I have witnessed in my placement are segmenting words into sounds, and substituting sounds to make new words. The students learn different letters individually that have a character, song, and poster that go with them. For instance, Sammy the Seal represents S- he has a song that tells all of the thing Sammy does and then has a poster that goes with these activities~ all of these things start with S, like swim, sand, socks, etc. The students then raise their hands and say any S words that they know. After this is done and they are written on the board, the children as a class say the words sound by sound until they figure out the word~ they also do a hand motion to capture each letter- I think that this is effective because it shows the kids that the sounds of the letters combined create the word. My CT then picks letters that they have already learned and then part of a word on the board. They kids then individually choose different letter sounds to change the word. For example, the word on the board will be “at” and the kids have the option of adding S, P, M, C, etc. Overall, I feel this is a great way for students to be interactive with literacy, while learning phonemic awareness.

I feel that book clubs are a great thing that can bring students together by building a community from sharing opinions and ideas. I feel like each student brings new literacies to the classroom, whether it is their language, culture, home life, etc- I think that all of these things effect how one’s opinion on certain stories, books, and novels. By having book clubs, it allows students to tap into their personal literacy, whatever it may be, and then share it with the group. This supports language learning in the sense that it promotes using and sharing personal vocabulary as well as promoting reading and sharing connections with the story.

~Have a great weekend~

-nicki

NCLB and Book Clubs

While No Child Left Behind seems like a good plan of action for todays teachers and students, the reality is, is that this plan is really not a plan at all. While the plan itself has a great name, No Child Left Behind, that everybody would like to see happen, the plan has been a big flop and a hinderance to the education of many students. Of course, as well all already know, especially as future teachers, it has seemed that the hatred of NCLB has been ingrained into our minds. While NCLB was intended to have all students prosper in the classrooms, it has stifled the learning of many, most of which are the students who are not "mainstream" students, thus putting them at a greater disadvantage at getting ahead in society. Because teachers have to have their students meet certain standards, or achieve high on standardized tests, teachers are limited in their ability to create lessons that accomodate all students or spend an adequate amount of time teaching students the content that is important to success in school and in life. One area in particular is that of Language Arts. I feel like teachers must race through the curriculum in order to meet the benchmarks and to "teach" the students what they must know for these tests. What happens in the process is that students do get left behind, and in the long run the schools must pay for this by not receiving the aid that they need in order to provide students with a better education. The students that really concern me are those that are learning English as a second language. These students, and others as well, may need more time to learn how to read and write in a second language, or in a language that they are already fluent in, than the time restricted NCLB Act allows. For most students, the process of learning how to read and write will begin with phonics and learning the relationship between written and spoken langauge, or the letter sound correspondence. For students who come to the U.S. and enter third grade, for example, or higher, have already missed out on the opportunity to learn how to read and write English through phonics, which is usually taught in kindergarten through second grade. What are teachers to do about these students? The teachers cannot slow down the pace of the whole class or else the majority of students will not learn enough to do well on standardized tests, yet at the same time, they must slow down in order to accomodate those who are learning at a slower pace. What results is an attempt to educate students at a pace that is unreasonably fast and an education system that fails many students. Overall, the NCLB Act influences Language Arts, as well as all other subject matters, in a way that is unacceptable. If students do not learn how to read and write, how will they succeed outside of school? The answer is that they probably won't.
On the brighter side, I really enjoyed going to Mrs. Sturk's class on Monday and getting the opportunity to see a book club in action. I think, that as a teacher I will frequently implement book club style teaching of literature. I really had fun seeing and being part of the book club. In my group, there was a girl who had recently moved to the U.S. I think that she moved to the U.S. on Jan. 8th of this year. From what I saw, she does not know English very well, but she knows enough to get by. I think the book club will be very beneficial to her. Not only will she learn English through reading the book, she will hear Enlgish often from the peers in her group, and she will learn how English can be interpreted in many ways as her group talks about the many meanings of the books that they discuss. Overall, I do not see any downside of doing bookclubs. When students are paired together, they are sure to learn something new. Each student has his or her own ideas, ways of speaking, and ways of interpreting the things that they read. I think that each student in the classroom will become more knowledgeable about literature and language in general as they have discusions with their peers as well as the teacher.


Until Next Time,
*Lisa*

ELL students in the class room (post for January 31 readings)

Sorry this is just now getting posted guys I thought I posted it but I looked on here and it wasn't so if it is posted twice on yours please let me know.
During our discussion in class and through our reading I learned many things about ELL students. Many things I already knew but one thing came up that really got me thinking. While watching the Ivan cases the classroom teacher addresses many facts she knows about the different cultures in the world. Judy later discussed this a little more talking about needing to know about cultures because students can come from the same place but be from different sides of issues or even wars this could effect your classroom community. Well I was thinking about all this and it really got me thinking of something sally told our class last semester. She told us that once you become a teacher you are always a teacher that you will no longer plan vacations for the pure fact of just going to relaxing in the sun but you should (in between relaxing in the sun) ,do activities that will allow you more experience with something you teach (like visiting the holocust memorial center in DC), or picking up interesting shells and rocks to use as props. My SME teacher Jane told us how she has picked up road kill to have stuffed to use in her classroom as props. How does this tie into ELL students you may be wondering? Well as Judy talked about her family and all the cultural things she has learned from them I could not help but think what a valuable resource. It just shows that as a teacher anything you can learn makes you a better teacher. As teachers we will need to up to date on world affairs and current political climates, along with gathering as many resources on different cultures that we can.