Week Eleven 3/30/09 M.Clover

This week we are supposed to blog about our New Literacies project and I have to say that I’m very pleased with the way our project (Brad and I) is coming along. We were originally going to create an inventory of podcasts using Google reader and Thewildclassroom.com but we decided that the amount of information we were getting wasn’t enough to really do what we wanted to do SO, we have now decided that we will be using multiple online sources to get podcasts from in order to create a “bank” of information for students and then a separate “bank” for teachers. We’re assuming this would work best for a teacher and for students who are upper elementary or maybe even Middle school. As of right now things are going rather smoothly, we’re getting a bunch of podcasts a day on random science topics and attempting to sort through them. We’re going to try to sort them out so that a teacher could possibly use them in different units, but we’ll just have to see about that! Overall, I think it’s really neat and I like this project!

New Literacies

So I'm not quite sure if this is where I am supposed to be posting this, but I went to the wiki and it said to post on your blog?  Anyways, I am doing a scrapblog, which is basically like making an online scrapbook.  You can put your own pictures and videos and things on the pages and then decorate and display them however you want to.  You can also share you scrapblog with friends/family and even print it off if you want.  I pretty much think of it as a digital scrapbook which can be much more efficient and inexpensive than real scrapbooking.  It is almost in a way like a powerpoint that can be personalized with pictures, backgrounds, images, placement, font, text, color, etc.  There are an endless amount of choices when creating a scrapblog and it allows you to play with the layout and other options before making it permanent whereas in a traditional scrapbook you only get one chance to place everything the way you like.  A scrapblog can be modified as many times as desired and allows the person to edit if they change their mind and want to rearrange things.  I am learning a lot about the scrapblogging world, something I was not familiar with at all before.  It is apparent some people put a lot of time and effort into their scrapblogs and a lot of a person's personality can be seen through what they create.

I have also learned a lot about emotional literacy.  This is a very important concept to be familiar with as future teachers because we can help students deal with their emotions in a more positive and effective way.  Emotional literacy holds students accountable for their emotions as it teaches them how to understand, express, and deal with emotions using words.  It helps students to know which emotions they are feeling and why and express their feelings in a way that they can reflect and monitor their actions and behavior.  Emotional literacy statements should always begin with "I feel" and not "I feel like/that/you"  and be followed by an emotion.   There are also positive and negative words that can describe our emotions and it is important to attempt to use positive words.  It is also important when expressing emotional literacy to be direct about our feelings or they could be miscommunicated.  Emotional literacy stresses the importance of being consistent, clear, and honest in communication to work through conflicts that may arise.  

Week 10 Blog Kelsi Vidal

I thought the Tompkins chapter was beneficial for me to read because I have not been in a classroom that uses a Basal Reading Program and this gave me a better idea of what they are.  I have obviously heard of them and had a little bit of knowledge about what the program was and how it was used in the classroom.  This seems like a good way to take a comprehensive look at a book and discover all of the elements and components.  It definitely seems like you would have to have an entire morning or at least a good portion of the day devoted to literacy to do lessons like Mrs. Ohashi demonstrates in the book.  When I visited my placement classroom for next year, the teacher told me a little bit about what an ordinary day might look like and she mentioned having the entire mornings as uninterupted literacy blocks and it sounded like she implemented similar kinds of lessons and stations focused around stories.  I am interested to see what this actually looks like when I go observe in May.  This chapter stressed the differentiation in the way students learn and strategies we can use to attempt to reach all of our students.  This is a point that is brought up again and again and it reminds me that we need to use different approaches and strategies to help students learn.

The article on centers by Linda Holliman was something I could really relate to because my CT implements centers everywhere in her classroom!  There are countless numbers of centers in the classroom and the students use them all the time.  Many of the areas in the classroom I didn't know could be considered centers, but after reading this article it makes sense why they would be considered centers.  Students have nothing but choices when choosing what centers to use and that was an important aspect in using centers in the classroom.  The article also talked about the teacher not being behind her desk, the classroom not being chaotic, but definitely not quiet.  I think this perfectly describes my CTs classroom because in the beginning I was surprised at how much freedom she gave the students and how she allowed the students to pretty much do what they wanted with minimal interference.  Now I am used to it, but before I wondered how she managed to let students have free range on what activities they wanted to do and do them as they pleased (the classroom definitely seemed like "controlled chaos" even though it may not have seemed like it my CT had complete control the entire time - which is a positive for center use).  I am also continually impressed with my CT as every week she seems to have come up with a new activity for students to engage in.  She will buy little things from all over the place and create new lessons and games for the students.  I'm sure this is a skill that comes in time, but she always seems to be thinking up new ideas and integrating them into her classroom...it's amazing!  

Response 10

I really loved the ‘What is a Center’ article by Linda Holliman. I have always been very interested in centers and as I’m sure you all will agree, have seen them used in a variety of ways throughout my experiences in the classrooms. This article did a wonderful job of laying out all of the elements that make up a great center. While they may look like they are just thrown together, this article went in depth on how to make a successful center that is educational and engaging for the students.
The started off by stating that a center should, “Provide opportunities for children to be actively involved in learning and making choices in a variety of ways” (CP 291). That statement immediately caught my attention as it states that the children will be actively involved while making their own choices; how great as they are not being taught to, they are discovering ways to teach themselves. I really like how they illustrated that centers will allow room for different learning styles and will also give the teacher the opportunity to meet the needs of each student, whichever level they might be on through varying activities and allowing more one on one time with each student individually.
The article also stated that centers are created through careful thought and planning; almost like a lesson plan. They even gave a Center Activity Planning Sheet which I thought was awesome. This provides structure, and a reference to refer back to for future planning and for accountability with the school and/or parents. The structure it provides is also just enough for the teacher to get the most out of the center but allows the students to still have choice. So, it’s structure with room for choice; too great!
I also really liked how they illustrated the use of themed structures and how you can meet GLCE’s (or other state/curriculum goals) through centers. I just never appreciated centers enough I guess, but definitely do after reading this article and am very excited to get started on my own centers. I think it would be great to fill out a few of these center plans to include in a portfolio. Along with all the technology we have been learning about, this would look awesome to a potential future employer. This article was really to the point too which I know we all love at this point in the year. I definitely give this article two thumbs up! What do you guys think!?
As for the other two assigned readings, both Tompkins and Avalos, were beneficial but things I feel we have covered before. More ways to allow for integration and gateways to reach lower level students or ELLs. Not that I didn’t think they were good pieces; I just feel we have touched base on this topic a lot. Of course there is always room to learn of new ways of creating conducive plans/environments for students like these but I just enjoyed the center article so much more as it was something that we really haven’t touched base on yet but is still an important part of the classroom.
The New Literacies project is going well. We have been working on our digital story which will highlight the lifespan of a butterfly through a variety of vibrant images and enthusiastic narratives. While I am anxious to see how it will turn out, I am even more anxious to watch everyone else’s. I really feel that this is a useful activity that we will all be able to use in our future classrooms and portfolios. I’m sure we can all agree that we are learning that there is so much more to the digital world than we once imagined and that we are having fun discovering and playing with it all! As interesting as it as been, I can definitely say that we have a lot more work to do before due date! All in good time I guess!

Response 8

Woops! I totally missed a blog! I was absent that week and didn't think we had to post but after reviewing everyone else's I realized I was mistaken and went right from 7 to 9 on my own so here is my response to Literacy/Fluency in regards to Tompkins and other articles we have read thus far:
Firstly as we have seen throughout all of our readings regarding fluency we have come to understand that fluency isn't just the ability to read a word/sentence with fluidity. It is so much more than that. As teachers we need to make sure that our students not only know how to identify/read words but also know what the words mean, and understand their context. As you all know, I am in a Kindergarten classroom and even they are working on perfecting their fluency with words. My CT has integrated Literacy into nearly everything she does (even using math based journals)! There are star words located around the room (which was in the skit Brittany W. and I presented to the class as a vocab/fluency lesson), color words posted, month/day words, weather words, etc. all over her room. She also has the students read through the morning message as a class and circle certain patterns in words or vocab words they have been working on; she even has them go through and fix words that sound right but are actually spelled wrong. All of this at the Kindergarten level! And you should see their writing journals! One student in particular wrote a whole paragraph about how she went ice skating one weekend; totally amazing at that age. I feel that these examples are great motivating factors for me and to all of us as future teachers. While the idea of teaching fluency and literacy in general appear to be daunting tasks for us inexperienced educators, they really are more than manageable and can be incorporated/integrated into almost anything. If Kindergartners can make stabs at fluency and other literacy elements, I'm sure we can learn to teach it!

Week 9 Response

For the vocab lesson for Roll of Thunder I would have to take a different approach when planning because I am in a Kindergarten classroom. I would likely pick several small passages within the book that were appropriate for the students and read them aloud to the students. Before I read anything aloud I would give them "green light/red light" sticks so they could show me if they were confused on any of the vocabulary. IF they were confused on any word I would have them hold up the red side of the stick and I would make a note to address that word. This would help keep the lesson moving and the students on task as they would be listening for words but addressing their confusion without disrupting the entire lesson. After the passage is complete I would write all of the words on the board and would define them for the students in language that they understand. I would also have the students act out the vocabulary so they could physically express themselves and learn while doing so; ideally making the vocabulary more long lasting! The students could also draw pictures of these words being acted out. Both of these activities would help them know what the word looks like being acted out and help them better understand it; especially since these are Kindergartners who use visual illustrations to help 'read' stories.

Week Nine 3/23/09 M.Clover

This week we were to plan a mini-lesson for vocabulary development for "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" and I've decided to create one that would be fitting for the placement classroom that I'm in right now, however I would never use this book for my first and second graders so I'm going to write this lesson as if I were using a different book then I'll make some adjustments for "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" with more specifics.

My students have a pretty hard time reading and I'm in a 1st/2nd grade class (all students are below the level they should be). So I've decided that if I were to use this book in my classroom, firstly I would only pick out a portion of the selected book I want them to read (and make sure it's an appropriate portion) I would read the selection aloud to the students and then have the students pick out the words that they don't understand. Perhaps I'd give them all a copy of the selection or I'd write it on the board and they'd have to circle the words they didn't understand. From here, we would talk about context clues, picture clues and spelling in order for them to try to create an understanding of the words they don't know. Being the teacher, I could predict which words the students would be unfamiliar with so for part two of the lesson I would write the words they didn't understand in a new sentence, in order for them to be able to draw more conclusions about the "meaning" of the word. Lastly, I would ask students to write their own sentences using the new vocabulary terms and probably ask them to draw a picture to go along with it.

After reading, I'm sure you can easily see how it could be adapted for an older audience using "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry". Simply changing the book and the chosen selection from the book would make the lesson more appropriate for older students. Also I probably would not ask 6th or 7th graders to draw me a picture accompanying their sentences :)

Meryl McLaughlin: Week 9

This week I found the readings to be very interesting and pose a very challenging idea about fluency and comprehension. Fluency seems like a huge challenge to me to teach on its own. When I think of a child reading fluently I think about them understanding the word meaning but that is not really true. Looking at it from a college perspective I see how beginning readers would be able to read a word but have no idea what it means, simply because there are times when I do that now with my homework. Then when you tie in the idea of comprehension I can see where students get slowed down in their reading. What I struggle with is how to do you keep teaching both fluency and comprehension to such a large group. In small groups I feel like it would be very manageable but what happens in the case where it is a teacher and 20 students?

An idea for a fluency lesson for Roll of Thunder would be for the students to be broken up into smaller reading groups that are being facilitated by an adult. There will be a selected passage that the adult reads first. Next the passage will be read by everyone in the group together. Then one by one each of the students reads the passage aloud to the group. Then to work on comprehension there will be a small discussion about the passage.

In my classroom there is something similar that happens with learning letter sounds. Each letter of the alphabet has its own book with 10 sentences or so what have a lot of the initial letter sound. They read the book together and circle words and letters they are familiar with.

Week 9 Blog Kelsi Vidal

While reading for this week I was reminded of how difficult it can be to gain word knowledge and what going through it was like in elementary school.  The eight components of word study (concepts and word meaning, multiple meaning, morphemic analysis, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, etymologies, and figurative meanings...yikes!) were very overwhelming to learn from what I remember.  I think for a student who is just being introduced to these concepts they can be intimidating and confusing especially because there are so many little things to remember for each.  I think it can be difficult to differentiate between the spelling of certain words that may sound similar or to become confused when dealing with words that have more than one meaning.  It is not only a challenge for students to learn these concepts, but also can be complicated for teachers to instruct students in.  There are often not concrete explanations for rules like these and that can be difficult for students to comprehend since it is not tangible.  It was interesting to me that students learn the majority of their vocabulary outside of school and incidentally, not through direct instruction.  Obviously this depends on a child's experiences, social situations, and home, but i found this to be quite surprising.  Although teaching vocabulary strategies at school remains an important part of literacy development, it is not the primary place where word study takes place.  When you think about a figure like, students vocabularies can grow at a rate of 3,000 words per year, it is amazing to think about how many words students really do pick up in their everyday life whether it is through direct instruction or somewhere outside of school.  

A couple of vocabulary minilessons that I liked from the book involved the use of a word wall.  The first one had students make their own word wall out of a piece of paper.  They would divide a piece of paper into squares and label each one with a letter of the alphabet.  As they go through the book or a chapter, they write down words that they think are important or that are confusing to them in whatever box the beginning letter of the word corresponds with.  Then as a class or with a group they can share and discuss the meaning and importance of the words from the book.  The lesson had a word wall that was organized by parts of speech (noun, adjective, verb, adverb) and was one large word wall for the entire class.  The students would then go over the more important words for understanding the story with the teacher and discuss them in context of the story.  These lessons are for older students because of the content and level the book is written.

Week 8 Blog Kelsi Vidal

The readings for this week proved to me that fluency, word identification, and comprehension are all interrelated concepts that are essential for reading and writing.   I think it is also important to remember that reading and writing go hand in hand and that to be fluent in one is essentially to be fluent in the other.  One statistic I found interesting was that for first grade students the 300 high frequency words account for 72% of the words that they read.  This conveys to me how truly important it is for students to develop word recognition and fluency through practice and experience to become successful readers and writers.  I think the book also brought up a good point that many students do not come to school with the experiences and exposure to a literacy rich environment and that is something we need to remember as future teachers.  Also, although students may be able to read words and seem as though they can read fluently, they may not be comprehending what they just read.  I tutor students in literacy twice a week and many of them are able to read fluently, but have difficulty with comprehension.  This is something we are told to address as tutors because students often do not monitor their comprehension while they are reading independently so this is something we try to encourage.  

A mini lesson in fluency for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry could involve the teacher first reading a passage from the book aloud while the student follows along silently.  Then, after the teacher finishes reading, the teacher and student could read the passage together.  Finally, the student can read the passage aloud independently and hopefully feel confident.  This is a strategy we have been taught to use in tutoring because it takes the pressure off students if there are unknown words and gives them multiple opportunities to follow along and then try reading it on their own.

Week Eight 3/16/09 M. Clover

Ahhh Spring Break has totally messed with my schedule. So, I’m not even sure if I’m addressing the right topic in my blog today but I’ll take a shot at it. Assessing fluency and word identification seems like a pretty general topic in the world of literacy. I say this because I’m aspiring to be a lower elementary teacher and I really think that these are large parts of goals for lower ed teachers. I mean, when you think of a successful reader and writer, you have an image of a student who can read and write with out having to stop every two seconds to sound or spell something out. I think that I usually assume that fluency and word identification come AFTER comprehension, but after the readings, I can understand how that is not always the case. I used to think that comprehension was more important that fluency because as long as you understand the reading then it doesn’t matter how fast or slow you read it. However, I now see that if you are fluent in reading, then you may be better able to comprehend because you’re not stuck on how to sound the word out. So ultimately, if you can read more fluently, you can comprehend quicker. This is not to say that I think you should be fluent before you comprehend, because I really think that both concepts should be worked on together.

As far as a mini-lesson goes for fluency, I would say that you could have student’s role play parts in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. You could have them read and re-read the lines until they are fluent in understanding them and then when they come across those words in the future, they would be able to identify them and read them with ease.

Week 7 Response

In the Gibbons chapter, Reading in a Second Language I found a few very powerful quotes that seemed to link together. The first was on page 78, “When you are unable to bring personal knowledge and understanding of a topic to a test, you are effectively robbed of the ability to make use of a key resource for reading”. The quote is so true. If you cannot tap into a prior knowledge or experience related to the topic you are being deprived of a normally easily accessible resource. For the student who has been immersed in the main culture/language of the classroom, tapping into this resource is easy but if a student isn’t familiar with the dominant cultural forms, they would have a very difficult time using experiences to their benefit. This is yet another edge the English as a main language students have over ELL students; an edge that we as educators need to be aware of and do everything we can do overcome. Another quote, similar to the first is, “As a text participant, the reader connects the text with his or her own background knowledge—including knowledge of the world, cultural knowledge, and knowledge of the generic structure” (81). This quote again emphasizes how important the student’s background is to their education and if that background doesn’t coincide smoothly with the culture of the classroom and/or the material, the student will have a difficult time.
The rest of the chapter went on to give a number of different activities that can be used for all students before, during and after reading. I thought all of these were useful, creative activities that could be applied to any classroom and to any student.
The Tompkins readings made me think of something I just did today with my dad! It’s interesting to me that some people, ELL students especially, are not familiar with certain terms, cultural stories and grammar tricks that I have become so familiar with over the years. From slang terms to the standard fairy tale to tricks like the magic/bossy E, some individuals have not been through experiences with these things. Take my dad for example; he is a terrible speller. He was never taught phonics or tricks like the Bossy E. Today I was talking with him about these readings (random I know!) and he was telling me how he feels like an outsider in his own community/culture sometimes because he was never exposed to these types of LA concepts. When I told him about the Boss E and how it makes the vowel in a word say it’s name he was amazed. You would have thought that I was teaching English to an ELL student! It really was strange to see. What we may see as standard could be the exact opposite for someone who is ELL or who, like my Dad, was simply never exposed to such issues.

Meryl McLaughlin: Week 7

With this weeks comprehension readings and English Language Learners I really began to think more about the figures of speech within the English language. There are so many phrase used everyday by me and my peers that without the cultural and social contexts I understand where people would have no idea what something means. It is also confusing all of the different ways words can be spelled and how their spelling changes their meaning so drastically. Then you also have the words that are spelled the same, but the simple difference of a long or short vowel (like in the word live) or a change in a capital or lowercase letter (Polish, polish); it is really a very confusing language. This would also e a challenge because many times the students do not speak English at home. If you think about how much time they spend at school versus how much time they spend at home with family, the instruction at school becomes vital. They not only need to be immersed in the language but in the social context of the language.

I feel like this approach would also be useful when thinking about mainstreaming students, particularly with autism. See appropriate student to student and student to adult interactions is an important part of their development. Putting them in a separate classroom all day, with others who lack this knowledge does not give them the advantage they need. While I feel that full time mainstreaming is not the right thing for every student, I do feel that some type of mainstreaming is always possible. How are students supposed to grow and relate if they are never put in a situation to experiment?

Week 7 Blog Kelsi Vidal

The comprehension articles this week were informational and again brought up comprehension strategies that we sometimes take for granted.  There are so many factors that go into comprehension while reading and these are connections that students must make to make sense of what they are reading.  The Tompkins text brings up three factors that are crucial to comprehension (text structure, genres or categories, and content of text)  which I completely agree with. For example, if a student is reading a fantasy book and takes everything for face value that he/she reads, what they take away from the story and how they apply their new knowledge will be skewed.  A person must first understand the implications behind each genre before they can comprehend their meaning.  The context of what a person is reading is extremely important in comprehension and if ignored can affect comprehension.  Also, knowing the elements of a story (plot, characters, setting, point of view, and theme) and how they fit together is imperative when approaching comprehension.  I'm sure we have all read the fairy tales (for example The Three Little Pigs) that have many versions of the story and are all told from a different point of view.  I have read Three Little Pigs stories from the points of the pigs, the wolf, a narrator and each one is a little different depending on whose point of view it is told from.  The character can completely change the context of the story and our understanding of the events that have taken place in accordance with their point of view.  

In the Gibbons text I really liked all of the examples they gave of things we can do that ELL students would struggle with.  The sentences written with jumbled letters, missing letters, and misspelled words at the beginning of chapter 5 was easy for me to decipher because I had background knowledge and was able to fill in the information.  This proves to me that having background knowledge is an essential part of reading and another obstacle for ELL because they must acquire and consciously learn things that we have inherently gained through exposure.  I also saw connections to the Tompkins chapter we read when they talked about knowledge of the content or topic and knowledge of the kind of genre.  When we see the headings "Bank Robbers Hold Hostages," "Area Manager required, permanent position," and "The Sly Cat and the Clever Mouse," we are able to predict not only what these titles content will be about but also the nature of the title by the way it is written.  Most of us know that these would be a newspaper article, job ad, and a book title but for people who did not grow up in this culture or are just learning English these titles would hold no meaning. Context clues and the way (format) they are written has no significance for beginning ELL students and I imagine this would be  very frustrating for students to not be able to understand what they were reading because they did not understand the context.  This chapter basically says to me that background knowledge and the context of what something is written is invaluable! 

Week Seven 3/2/09 M.Clover

This weeks readings about comprehension and different types of texts made a lot of sense to me. I feel like all of the points that the author made were more like facts about how children learn rather than his own ideas, like a foundation of where to begin when teaching literacy skills. What I got out of the reading was that students need to know what to expect in order to be able to comprehend the reading and incorporate it into their literacy knowledge. For example, students would having difficulty becoming completely literate if they thought that fairy tales were things that happened in real life. In this case, if they did think this, they'd be looked at as sort of crazy in the real world and not as a knowledgeable/literate person. The Tompkins reading was also a bit of a recap from TE 348 as well, which was good since I'm getting ready to have my own Book Talk with my 1/2 graders and my book is a legend. It was nice to have all of the facts about legends right there in the readings because I now know what exactly to hit on so that students will be able to recognize a legend when they see one (hopefully!).

The Gibbons reading was very interesting to me. I'd never thought of second language readers as being "robbed" like they stated in the text but it makes total sense. Second Language readers are robbed of their background knowledge. When I was reading about the "procedure that is quite simple", I has NO idea what they were talking about because I was "robbed" of the background knowledge and it was really frustrating to me! I found myself rushing into the next paragraph to try to figure out what this paragraph was all about (ending up being laundry,ugh.) I really like how this book puts us in a second language reader's position, it's a unique place and one I've never been in before. Lastly, I really like this text because it always gives ideas of what to do with ESL students. It not only gives the problems that they face and why they face them, but it gives solutions which are SO helpful!

Meryl McLaughlin: Week 6

The readings on comprehension really interested me this week. Looking back on my own comprehension history has really helped me to understand that there are many different way students learn and think about different topics. I really liked the idea of letting your self as the teacher become a part of the discussion, and not just lead. I know something I struggled with was coming to college and having a discussion about a book with both my peers and the professor, versus having the main concepts told to me while I take notes. This idea of discussion would also be helpful as a teacher to see what concepts the students found to be important or memorable, because this could help draw on their own comprehension techniques.

Along with watching how students answer questions and participate in discussions, I want to address the article on special education. Being a special education major I feel that general education teachers seem to send students out far too often. There are numerous students in my placement classroom that are pulled out for things that could be easily accommodated within the general education classroom, but are not. It is also very frustrating that MSU general education majors do not take any classes on accommodating students or even a basic class on identifying disabilities; it is primarily their job to refer students to special education, and with no formal training that could postpone the process thus putting the student at a greater disadvantage.

Week 6 Response

Profiles in Comprehension gave a way more in-depth view into comprehension that I was originally aware of. It begins by establishing how important the teacher’s questions are, “The questions that teachers ask help to shape the student understanding and expectations about reading comprehension” and “Teachers who regularly use such higher order questions to engage pupils in discussion are likely to find that their students read more” (CP 161). How that for a challenge to educators?! Like we have been reading throughout this semester, these quotes further illustrate the importance of scaffolding the material for our students.
The article also discusses eight different comprehension profiles: Literalists, Fuzzy Thinkers, Left Fielders, Quiz Contestants, Politicians, Dodgers, Authors, and Minimalists. I had never heard of these before so I was really interested in what the author’s were saying here. I thought the politician one was absolutely hilarious, “Politicians will do their best to tell you what they think you want to hear” (CP 167). I literally laughed out loud when I read that! Some common intervention/helpful strategies amongst the profiles were the ideas of creating concept maps, story maps and group work. I really liked how the authors not only discussed the profiles, but also gave strategies that can be used to help each individual profile/student. I feel like works that actually provide applications are hard to come by in this field! They are all about shelling out definitions but when it comes to applicable ideas/strategies…good luck! I guess they figure since we’re teachers, we can teach ourselves?!
The other reading for this week, How Can I Help Children with Learning Disabilities, really hit a sensitive spot for me. On the first page of the article the author states, “Teachers are responsible for providing educational services appropriate for their needs-a responsibility they share with special educators” (CP 173). While I do agree that this is responsibility to be shared, I feel that all to often teachers rely too much on special educators; basically pawing off these poor students because they don’t want to deal with them. It really saddens me. My brother is a prime example of this instance. Instead of being given a little more patience and attention by the teacher or even experiencing the said shared relationship between teacher and special educator, from a young age he was ‘pawned off’ to a resource room specialist so his elementary teachers could focus on other, less ‘needy’ students. By doing this, his teachers basically labeled him and that label has stuck with him all through his education. The authors also state, “When the different teachers who work with the child stay in touch with each other, the child receives an integrated education” (CP 172). Again, I’m on the fence with this statement as well. While it is crucial to keep the lines of communication open between all parties involved, educators need to be careful that they aren’t labeling the student and passing judgment along the way. If one person sees the student like so and tells the other person involved their feelings, that other person is very likely to have similar feelings initially. While every party should be kept informed of progress and status, the individuals working with the student must take caution and not label and/or pass judgment.

Week Six 2/23/09 M.Clover

Whenever I think about my own reading comprehension process, I try to remember exactly what I did when I was learning how to read. However, because that was SO long ago and my memories are beginning to evade me, I'm not sure that I can recall exactly how I go about reading and comprehending something. I swear there are times when I could read a whole article or chapter of the book and have NOTHING to show for it. This leads me to believe that I'm not a very "accomplished" comprehend-er. Meaning that I do not sit down and think about what I'm reading EVERY time I read something. I have to really have a vested interest in order to read it.

I think that knowing this about myself will definitely help me teach reading comprehension to my students in the future because I understand that not everything they read is going to be interesting to them. I know there are multiple techniques, which Tompkins talks about in order to get students interested in their own reading comprehension, but the idea I like the most is to acknowledge the fact that your students have different interests and that they may only want to attempt to comprehend readings that they feel are important to them. What I'm trying to say is that I think in order for students to be successful comprehend-ers they must be interested in the readings. Or that they must know the "purpose" of their readings.

I also am a very large fan of the idea of participating in discussions ( of course that is if students behavior will allow it). After all of the readings and work we've done for TE classes, I think the importance of whole class/small group discussions have really stuck out like a sore thumb. In reading comprehension there is no difference. I know that in TE 348 when we had to read many different childrens books, I found, through classroom discussion, that there were many more view points of the story and that each person had interpreted the story in a different way than myself. It was not only really helpful to know that this happens but really neat to hear other people opinions and see what they had and hadn't noticed. When it comes to discussions in the classroom, I think that book talks or book discussions are one of the most important.

Week 6 Blog Kelsi Vidal

The readings this week about developing comprehension reminded me that students need to be specifically taught strategies.  I think comprehension strategies are something I take for granted and don't really think about consciously using because I have been using them for so long that it just kind of comes naturally by now.  However, for students who are just beginning to learn and connect comprehension with reading and writing it is important for them to be explicitly taught strategies and be made aware of reader and text factors.  I think it is also important to recognize and be aware of the prerequisites for comprehension because without an adequate background knowledge or fluency it is impossible to comprehend materials at a higher level.  I found it interesting in the section about purpose that if students are not motivated or do not have a purpose behind their reading that they certainly will not comprehend what they are reading.  As a future teacher, I feel this is something important to remember and to always present a purpose behind what is being read.  

I found the "Profiles in Comprehension" article to depict different types of student comprehension in an interesting way.  In the beginning it sort of seems like the authors are generalizing and putting students into categories, but I like how the article later says it is not trying to label students but rather trying to describe the way certain people think so that the teacher can better adjust and assess to the way that their students learn best.  I think this can be an effective way to monitor comprehension as long as it is not used to specifically label students in a negative way.  The profiles themselves were quite intriguing in the way they described the different learners.  It was interesting to read about all of the profiles and the characteristics of the students in each.  I also appreciated the 'intervention' section after each profile that gives ways to help students step out of that profile.  I'm wondering how you would approach the situation though if students are identified within more than one profile?  And also if students in a classroom all fall under different profiles, how do you approach a lesson and meet all of the students needs?

Meryl McLaughlin: Week 4 & 5

The past two weeks have completely gotten away from me, so I have some catching up to do!


Week 4:

I really enjoyed the poetry and choral reading that was done in class. I took TE491 fall semester Junior year and it has totally opened up my eyes to poetry and the different ways it can be used in the classroom. When the class was given just a few poems to pick from to present, it was great to see all of the different ways people portrayed the poem. The poem also took on a different life when it was presented in a different fashion. Having the poem read numerous times helped to make the poems memorable to the point where on Thursday, a classmate and I still laughed about it.

I also really enjoyed brainstorming and then writing my own personal poem. Just the prompts along brought back so many found memories that it was hard to pick a few to touch on in the actual poem. This would be a great assignment to do with students when getting to know them, or even as a form of assessment on a story line of a book, etc.

Week 5:

I could not believe all of the amazing technologies we were introduced to during class this week. It was great to be able to go around and play with the technologies and have an expert there to ask questions to or show you some of the hidden tricks. I also loved how easy they were to use and feel comfortable with, even after a few minutes. The one thing I would like to see expanded on was the station of accommodation technologies. It was nice to see the different key boards and physical accessories, but there are so many wonderful digital technologies that could have been presented. Another suggestion would be show all of the different disability accessibility options with all of the other technologies presented. Through different laws at both the state and national level there are certain options every program must have or it is discrimination, I wish I would have looked more closely to see how accommodating they are to different users.

This rotation we did reminded me of something we did in one of my special education classes last semester. They had us go around and do similar things only it was focusing on low-tech accommodations instead of simply technology. It was a great experience, and we replicated it for our TE401 class, to see the simplest things can make the biggest difference.

I believe that technology used positively in the classroom can do the same thing. We are so dependent on having technology skills in today's world, that to not include technology in your classroom is really putting your students at a disadvantage. Even being in a kindergarten class I am looking at the different types of technologies I could use. I think sometimes we get too caught up in thinking about what the children can and can't do as far as GLCEs go, but there are so many ways we could be teaching children using technology and kind of "kill two birds with one stone", if you will.

Week 5 Blog Kelsi Vidal

I thought having the iTECs come in and introduce us to new educational technology was very beneficial!  It also kind of made me feel like I wasn't a digital native because I wasn't familiar with some of the stations, but I guess its hard not to feel that way when technology is constantly changing and evolving into something new. I think learning about all these new technologies will put us at an advantage and help us bring new ideas into the classroom. I actually didn't get to explore many of the stations, so I am looking forward to seeing everyones presentations and use of technology.  I think it is fascinating how many different ways technology can be presented and used in the classroom as compared to what we used to have growing up.  

I think students will appreciate the use of technology in the classroom because their lives are centered around it. Technology will have the ability to connect us to our students and "bridge the gap" between teachers and students. I think students would enjoy using blogs, digital stories, skype, or comic strips to communicate or present information.  I know last semester when we visited the 4H Children's Garden and Norm (the man that showed us around and worked with elementary students when they visited) said students loved to post of the Wonderwall which was technology based.  

The classroom I am placed in is a kindergarten classroom that doesn't use much technology.  They have computer class once a week and really enjoy it, but don't use technology in the classroom at all.  I wasn't sure if that was because it was a kindergarten classroom or the teachers preference?  The computer room has a smart board in it, but I have never seen it used besides for a projector.  I know this is a great tool and they are lucky to have one, I am just wondering why it isn't used and taken advantage of?  

Week Five 2/17/09 M.Clover

I loved the technology round-a-bout thing we did in class on Tuesday. I feel like I learned so much in just one class. I was with Evan, so that was really helpful as well (that guy knows his stuff!) I thought that growing up with a computer would have made me a digital native, but after all of the new info I learned on Tuesday, I'm not sure that I' in that category anymore. I suppose that I would think of myself more of an in-betweenie. haha. I mean, I'm able to work the computer and a lot of technology, but I'm no expert.
As far as this assignment goes, I think it will be very interesting to both learn new technology and notice what is needed in order to learn it. I think this is a project that I'm actually looking forward to doing and I can see how it would have great classroom relevance. However, there is one thing that sort of worries me. I have noticed that in my CT's classroom, there is hardly ANY technology. I mean, she has one working computer and it's from like, the 90's. There isn't even an overhead projector in my CT's classroom.
We talked a bit about this today, when I was talking about our latest project and I told her that we had to learn a new technology in order to incorporate it into the classroom. She laughed at me. (not kidding) and said that I'd be really lucky if I found a classroom that would have the types of technology that we're trying to learn. I know that the Lansing district isn't the wealthiest district, but we talk about kids being so technologically advanced and I don't understand why we don't try harder to get new technology into the classrooms. Perhaps it would be more wise if our project for this class was trying to get us involved in obtaining funding for the schools we're in in the future? Do you know what I mean? I just think that knowing how to use these technologies is useful, but it might be MORE useful for us to learn how to obtain these technologies for our class? Thoughts?

Week 5 Response

Last week I considered myself a digital native; up to speed on all of the wonderful, new and emerging technology. However, after class on Tuesday, I felt like a digital immigrant! I had no idea there were that many digital options out there for the classroom. There must have been 10 different avenues that I had never explored before. Some of the ones I really liked were the classroom blogs, YAK PAK, Digital Storybooks, Comic Strips and Skype.
I know we have all done our fair share of classroom blogs but the way the teachers set their blogs up for their elementary students was awesome. What a great motivator for students to get their work done in a quality, timely manner. By posting their pieces they are not only sharing their ideas, opening up the opportunity for a wonderful classroom environment, but they are also becoming more familiar with a form of technology/digital literacy. I was in the group that talked about the Buckingham article so I am now a firm believer in the importance of technological integration within the classroom! I really feel that this blog was a great idea in so many aspects: students sharing work, becoming familiar with the technology and being motivated to complete work, the teacher’s ability to monitor work and communicate with students and the opportunity for parents to be in the know with their child’s education/progress.
As for Skype and Yak Pak…Wow! I had never used either of those tools so I was really interested. How amazing is this technological age we are in; we can communicate to anyone, anywhere with an ease that is truly amazing. I really liked the Yak Pak idea for the aspect of not only providing classroom communication within your own classroom but also with classrooms from other parts of the world!
The comic strips and the digital storybooks were great too. I really am jealous that we never had these options growing up. Instead of writing a yet another boring summary on something, these students get to be engaged and excited about their projects. What kid doesn’t like cartoon/comic books! Talk about getting a kid excited to participate and pay attention; and pictures to express your ideas/feelings, too cool.
So to sum up my experience of Tuesdays class; amazing. There really is a whole other world out there of digital literacy/technology to be explored. I cannot wait to dive deeper into these and add some of them to my portfolio. How cool will it be to walk into a job interview and lay some of these works on the table. Talk about blowing away the competition! I’m excited to see everyone’s projects and also looking forward to learning more about an issue that will really be a tangible, beneficial tool for all of us in our education futures.

Week 4 Response

The Choral Reading we did in class was really cool. It was really interesting to listen to see how different each group’s reading was. Even though most of us picked the same poem, every group made the piece sound special and unique. This would be a great activity to do with a classroom. It would really get the students engaged and interested. They would likely enjoy this much more than sitting back and listening to yet another piece being read to them. Like the other readings we have gone over, student involvement is highly beneficial!

Digital Natives:
This article did not come as much of a surprise to me. I think we are definitely apart of a digital generation. From names like, “Digital Natives, Generation-D (digital), Nintendo Kids, the MTV generation” this generation basically eats, breathes and sleeps technical. For example, I don’t know about you guys but my cell phone is literally like a life line for me. It’s my alarm clock, planner, map, communication tool (phone, e-mail, text), weatherman, etc. I’m not sure what I would do without it. However, my mother only uses her phone for calling when she’s not at home to use the landline. We are definitely from different generations than even our parents.
When I took the quiz, I was expecting to do pretty well. I ended up with a 4/6 because I wasn’t familiar with the terms ‘modding or smart mobs’. The rest, I knew from prior experiences or like blogging and wikis, were terms that I became more familiar with from my experiences in my Education classes.
On another note, I was really intrigued by the term, ‘Digital immigrants’; it makes perfect sense! Immigrants have a difficult time with adjusting to their new lifestyle as it is so throw in a totally different generation and they will definitely have it harder than most. Anyone not familiar with this digital lifestyle could almost be considered an immigrant. My mother for example, once again, would be classified as a digital immigrant. The technologies that are being used to today are as foreign to her as a new language would be to an ELL student. She must start with the very basics on any new technology before she masters it and it takes her a little longer than most to figure it out.
“Digital Natives perceive technology as their friend and rely on it to study, work, play, relax and communicate. Natives dominate the seats in our classrooms and are an increasing presence in the entry-level workplace.” That statement sums up the digi-lifestyle extremely well. Technology in this day is definitely our friend. We use it for everything and continue to learn from it. It’s constantly expanding and we’re following right along with it. Like the article states, everyone from the United States Army to Harvard Business School has jumped on the Technology Train and is using it in as many ways as possible in hopes of effective expansion and inclusion of more individuals.
The final issue that struck my attention was the relation of ADD to this generation. What did everyone else think of that because I really wasn’t sure how I felt about it! On one hand there have been an increased number of students being ‘diagnosed’ with ADD but to say that it’s a bi-product of this digital generation is going off on a whim in my opinion. I personally found the shirt to be quite dead on when it said something along the lines of, “I don’t have ADD I’m just not listening to you”. I feel that if teachers had a little more patience with their students they would find that the students do not need to be ‘diagnosed’ or labeled as I like to think of it; they merely need a little more guidance and attention.

Week 4 Blog Kelsi Vidal

I would consider myself a "digital native" for the most part as I have grown up using technology in my every day life and "perceive technology as a friend and rely on it to study, work, play, relax and communicate."  However, technology is quickly evolving and there were a couple of the concepts on the digital natives quiz that I was not all that familiar with (modding and smart mobs).  I think the term "emergent" applies to my own digital literacy when I am using a new program or introduced to a new technological concept, I am developing an understanding and beginning to create understanding associated with that tool.  When a program is newly introduced I am in the emergent stage of development in regards to my connection and comprehension to that program.  Emergent digital literacy relates to children's emergent literacy in that both are new concepts that lead to further development whether it be through reading and writing or technology.  A digital immigrant "struggles to understand and master new technologies" which is the same problem an emergent literacy child might face, but in regards to understanding and mastering new strategies in reading and writing.  Both require the learner to acquire new skills and learn the basics as emergent literacy learners before they can build on their knowledge and develop further.

Week Four 2/10/09 M. Clover

The readings in Gibbons this week really opened my eyes to what it would be like to be an ESL student. They talked a lot about the different types of information and the proper or appropriate writing in each genre. This seems like an immense amount of information for a young ESL student to handle. I mean, we grew up this way…seeing the news, reading magazine articles etc. We know what is expected, even if we don’t actually learn it in school. It’s one of those things which we take for granted and if you’re not in the ESL student’s shoes, I think it is very hard to understand what they go through.
When I really think about it, I feel like there should be a special school for students who are ESL students, even though I know that would be impossible. It just seems that the way our teaching system is set up doesn’t promote ESL learning in any way, shape or form. ESL students need a lot of specialized and one-on-one instruction in order to keep them up to pace with other students. So, we’re back to square one. I do enjoy how Gibbons gives examples about what to do with ESL learners. This book is a keeper for me.
I really enjoyed reading how Mrs. Firpo teaching phonics in her 1st grade classroom. That is one thing that I feel I haven’t been able to touch on in my CT’s classroom(1/2 split). I know that there are at least 3 students who are still having trouble with phonics and therefore are having trouble with reading and writing (obviously). I think that my CT takes more time working on site words because they have to be memorized (according to GLCE’s) rather than working on phonics, because the majority of students do understand phonics. But it’s not working for everyone and some students are still being left behind. I know these students go off to a “reading special” in the afternoon. I’m going to try to follow them this week so that I can see what they are working on.
Overall, I felt that this reading was significantly different than a lot of reading I’ve done for TE. It was insightful and helpful.

Meryl McLaughlin: Week 3

This weeks readings continued to discuss incorporating English Language Learners in the classroom. The main point I took away from the readings is that the bottom line for ELLs is to improve their communication within this new culture. A way to think of this is similar to the way we are taught to think about literacy. Literacy is not just reading and writing, it has so many more components such as listening, comprehending, explaining, requesting, etc. but they all go back to this idea of communication.

The idea of including the ELL students in the general education classroom reminds me a lot of bringing special education students in as well. The more we read in each of out TE classes I find that everything comes back to interacting with your students’ one on one to get to know them, and then customizing instruction. I think this is something that teachers often let fall between the cracks. It is understandable that making each student’s lesson or assessment slightly different is unrealistic, but it could be a trend among a group of students. The same is true for ELL. Just because you have 3 students in your class that are all learning English, and all speak a different first language doesn’t mean they can’t all benefit from the material being presented in a similar fashion.

Week 3 Blog Kelsi Vidal

I enjoyed the Tompkins text this week in the "Literacy for the 21st Century - A Balanced Approach" book because it provided a lot of useful information and tools for success for teachers while teaching reading and writing.  I liked in chapter one where they mentioned teachers needing to understand how children learn to be effective teachers and connect information in meaningful ways.  

I also enjoyed the idea of critical literacy that involved using students and teachers as "agents of social change."  This is often not a concept we think about, but with the examples they provided such as teachers interacting differently with boys and girls, students being silenced in the classroom, differing expectations for minority students, etc. it is apparent these can be modes for social change extending beyond the classroom.  This is something I think is important to remember especially with the increasing number of ELL students and students from various cultures found in classrooms today.  The classroom can be a good starting point to present equality and hope they will extend on into the community and beyond.  

The idea of modeling and guiding students in reading and writing practices was interesting to me because it is something I have seen in my classroom.  Sometimes we forget that younger students don't know how to do simple things we may take for granted or forgot we were once explicitly taught how to do things.  In the kindergarten classroom I am in the teacher must remind students how to work in groups or how to have a group discussion.  Being in school so long, this is something many students internalize and eventually just know, but for students just being introduced to concepts in reading and writing it must be modeled and laid out in an very specific and procedural way.  I know from personal experience it is always less intimidating and more productive if I have an idea of the task at hand and so modeling seems like a positive method of instruction to me.   

Something I found impressive and amazing while reading was in the section about cueing systems was that children have a vocabulary of approximately 5,000 words when they enter school and acquire 3,000-4,000 more each year in the elementary grades.  These numbers seem astounding when you think about how many words that actually is.  The fact that young students have such an extensive vocabulary coming into school and learn 8 to 10 new words each day really conveys to me that students are "sponges" and will absorb new experiences (word interaction).  

I also believe the link between school and home is infinitely important and I feel I can attest to this first hand.  I had positive experiences with reading and writing at school and at home and remember my parents being involved in my literacy development throughout childhood.  This reminds me that for students who do not receive this at home may need more help at school and can be at a disadvantage.  If students are not encouraged at home in reading and writing, are there ways to still keep them interested and ahead in literacy development?  I have and am currently tutoring "at-risk" students and it is difficult to get them excited and interested in reading and writing when they are only encouraged at school and by tutors.  When there is an extreme between home and school life, it is hard to create a balance.  I also find that many of these students are not motivated to read or write at home and do not enjoy it.  Is there any way to get students more excited and involved with reading and writing if they already have negative feelings about it?

Week Three 2/1/09 M. Clover

When reading the Tompkins book for class this week I had another round of Deja Vu. ( I say another round, because I have the same feelings towards the Math section of TE 402) I feel like this is all information which we learned/talked about in TE 301. Not that I don't think that it is useful information, but I just feel like I've already absorbed this information and now we're re-hashing it. So, here goes nothing.....

Whenever I read about the stages of literacy development, I instantly compare what the author writes to how my 4 year old nephew would be viewed. I think about what he can and can't do, and what I could do to help promote his learning. The more I think about it, the more I feel like it is out of my hands because I don't see him as often as I'd like to. Then I begin to think about what his parents should be doing and end up coming to the undeniable conclusion that in order for students to be fluent in literacy, they must have both parental and school support. In my future classroom I plan to let parents know how crucial their role is in their students learning! ( I like the idea of the take home bag that Tompkins talked about!)

Anyway.....Although I feel that my nephew is coming along quite fine, I begin to think about the students in my classroom who are 5 or 6 years old and how little they know about literacy. I'd have to say that the majority of the students in my class are in the beginning stages of learning to read and write... or as the author states, they are still beginning to "crack the alphabetic code". Many of these students do not see themselves as successful readers or writers, they get caught up on what letters look like and spelling, instead of trying to convey a message to someone else through text.

Last week, my CT had the students in my classroom tell a story about a time that they did something with a friend. We brainstormed as a class, talked about stories having beginnings middles and ends and then finished with allowing the students to tell their story on paper. In the end of the lesson, only about 5 students actually had a story which somewhat fit the description that the teacher was asking for. Many of the students only wrote one sentence, other just drew pictures and some refused to work at all. I think the teacher was very frustrated with this ( as was I!).

After reading this weeks readings, I think something that I'd like to try in her classroom would be the Language Experience Approach that was talked about. I think that this would show the students that their own text can easily be written (or changed to a different mode) and still be seen as successful. Also, since the teacher would actually be writing the text, the students wouldn't be as worried about getting things correct and they could learn a bit about the concepts of print, which is something that I feel they really need to know as of now.

Lastly, I really enjoyed the Gibbons book because for ONCE it gave examples of how to work with ELL students, instead of just telling us what not to do! (They even made it sound kind of easy!?)

Week 3 Response

“Language is therefore not just a means by which individuals can formulate ideas and communicate them, it is also a means for people to think and learn together” – Neil Mercer, The Guided Construction of Knowledge. That quote serves as the basis of importance when reading this weeks pieces. In both books, Literacy for the 21st Century and Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning we are presented with ways in which students, mainly ELL, communicate and how important it is that they can do so with fluency and understanding.
I found chapter two of SLSL to be very intriguing. The chapter poses the idea that when ELL students struggle to be understood, they often learn better than if they were not in a more pressured situation. Being that ‘interaction is a significant factor in language development’ it is crucial that all students, ELLs especially, engage in plenty of communication/interaction with peers. As we read in the last articles IRE (Initiation, Response, Evaluation) and recitations do not offer many opportunities for students to effectively communicate with each other and as this chapter stresses the importance of such action, it is even more clear how important it is for us educators to steer away from such limiting teaching practices. Page 17 of SLSL states, “The teacher in fact says far more than the students do”! Now, if we are trying to aid ELL student’s communication ability why are we limiting their practice of speech and interaction? We already know we can talk and communicate effectively so why don’t we just take a backseat and listen to them for awhile?!
We need to form a classroom community which engages with each other in comfort and positivity. Whether it be through group work, discussions or games like “Find the Difference”, our students need activities like this if they are ever going to be successful communicators. Other useful tools for communication practice are, journal writing, vocabulary exercises, teacher-guided reporting, experiments and any other activity that provides students with the chance to engage in speaking, listening and thinking in a communicative manner.
As we have seen from both the last week readings and this weeks, on top of the importance of student interaction, the other crucially important and related issue at hand is the role a teacher plays in the classroom. As mentioned previously, if we talk too much we are potentially silencing our students. However, as we obviously must talk in order to education we need to remember the powerful role of the ‘scaffolder’. It is up to us to find the balance which will allow our students to express themselves, think and learn but also be guided in a conducive manner that will result in concrete knowledge and understanding.

My TE 402 Literacy Goals

Being that my focus is Language Arts, I clearly have a passion for literature. One of my goals is to discover effective and engaging ways to share that passion with my future students. I also want to learn ways to expand the realm of literacy. One of the articles I'm reading now for our group presentation discusses how literacy is so much more than an ability to read and write. I would love to develop this idea further and find ways to express that idea to the fullest!

Week 2 Response

I'm sorry this has taken so long for me to post! Blogger wouldn't let me post this because it said my html was wrong and my connection kept being interrupted! I've been trying to get this thing on here since Monday night!!!

Prior to reading these four course pack articles and Weinstein/Migano chapter, I would have never guessed there were that many ways to discuss discussion and recitation within an elementary classroom setting. I was definitely surprised to see all of the pieces centering around those topics.
Throughout all of the articles a common understanding is the fact that as humans, regardless of our age, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status or what have you, are influenced by others. For this reason, recitation and discussions can be very beneficial. However, in recitation, only the teacher influences the class. Within a discussion, both teacher and students are allowed to contribute, therefore influencing the surrounding classroom.
Due to the student’s ability to become involved in a discussion, I find this mode of communication to be more beneficial for the students. They are able to express their opinions and as many of the article stated, change the minds/contribute to their peers interpretations. Also, as page 33 of the CP states in the article, A New View of Discussion, “Traditional discussions consist of repetitive chains of this nature providing little opportunity for students to interact with one another”. Students should be able to use each other as resources as each and every one of them will likely have someone special/unique to contribute. Every student is different and makes up a unique classroom environment; therefore, every student’s differences create classroom uniqueness which will ultimately lead to special discussions throughout the numerous classrooms. (No student is the same, no classroom can be the same and therefore no discussion will be the same).
While it is important for teachers to scaffold the discussions, they should not be the dominant role player. The teacher should do as A New View of Discussion states on page 41 of the CP and create a discussion that will guide the student’s to have “richer understandings and interpretations” of the story/topic. The teacher should also establish a comfortable classroom environment where students feel comfortable participating and sharing ideas. Some of these procedures are discussed on page 325 in the Elementary Classroom Management text. To sum them up would be to ensure the students are respectful and attentive of other student’s opinions, be able to politely support, defend or question opinions and participate without taking over the discussion.
There were countless other portions of these pieces that I highlighted, stared and noted upon but these past issues were ones that I found to be some of the most important. However, in addition to the many ideas concerning discussions and recitation, I found the Elementary Classroom Management chapter to provide a number of general classroom tips such as the concept of a steering group (320-21), the action zone phenomenon (313), Pick Me sticks (310) and writing down questions to come back to on the board (307) among many others.
As a final food for thought, if you will, I found an interesting tie from the past article dealing with the ‘Parent Assignment’ to the ECM chapter. On page 311, the teacher states that she prefers to select certain students for certain questions. This is very much like that article because as teachers, both use a student’s prior knowledge/experiences to foster particular discussion. These articles further stress the importance of getting to know your students. Not only does it help build better bonds/classroom community, it can also aid in discussion and help with smoother pacing as teachers won’t have to deliberate over who to call on because they already know which students could provide useful/unique information.

Meryl McLaughlin: Week 2

I really enjoyed these weeks’ articles because I felt that I could relate to them on a first hand basis. The McGee article is one in particular that stuck out in my mind simply because the whole idea of response centered discussion intrigues me. Currently I am placed in a kindergarten class that is very active and not very productive. When I was reading the in-depth discussion that had been happening in the books examples I was amazed at the possibilities, when given the children the right structure and instruction of course. This idea of children leading the discussion reminded me of an assignment from TE401. We had to do a science talk with a group of students, it didn’t necessarily have to be the whole class, but a large enough range of students to get an idea about what misconceptions they have on a particular topic, which also happened to be the topic you would eventually teach your lesson on. My class had a terrible time with this. I had a group of 5 students and when the beginning question was posed all of them just kind of looked at me. I made sure that before I posed the question I went through and modeled with that discussion would look like and showed them how to respond to their peers when they agreed, disagreed, or had another idea to discuss. But for some reason this was the hardest thing for them. Looking back it very well could be their understanding of the topic and not really having anything to say, but I still believe that with the proper instruction and practice even kindergarten aged students could have a response-centered talk.

Week 2 Blog Kelsi Vidal

I thought the articles this week brought up some good points about having group discussions in class.  In the Almasi article "A New View of Discussion" I liked when she talked about students gaining new perspective, constructing meaning, or considering alternate interpretations of text by sharing ideas with their peers.  I think it is beneficial for students to construct their own meaning and bounce ideas off one another rather than just having the teacher tell them the answers or ask multiple questions.  The new view of discussions helps students make sense of the material by allowing them to obtain different roles such as inquisitor, facilitator, and evaluator rather than merely responding to questions with a single answer.  I think this view really helps students investigate the depth of the story and consider different dimensions through discussion. I thought the McGee article "Response-Centered Talk: Windows on Children's Thinking" related to the ideas of the new discussion.  Both articles focused on having discussions on a book and allowing students to share ideas and construct meaning and new understanding from that discussion and their peers.  The articles also have the teacher participating minimally in the discussion and only guiding students and responding when necessary.  I feel that these methods are a positive way to promote a classroom community and let students use each other as funds of knowledge.   I also think discussion is less intimidating if the students are in charge of responding to one another rather than being questioned by the teacher.  Students are fully involved in the learning process and creating meaning themselves as opposed to being told by a teacher.  

I am in a kindergarten classroom and do not see much discussion like this mainly because students do not have the attention span, social skills, or cognitive development to carry out an in depth discussion on a book.  The books read in class are also mostly picture books and do not offer "opportunities for interpretive work" which the McGee article claims is an important feature of books used for response-centered talks.  My CT will usually inquire into students thoughts on the story as she reads, but does not really turn it into a formal discussion. We do have discussions on the books read in class, but the teacher is always an integral part of it as students are unable to lead themselves through the discussion at this point.  Is there any way to modify talks or discussions so younger students can participate?  Do you think teachers should attempt to have response-centered talks at such a young age or wait until students are more developed and can obtain meaning in a more significant way?

Week Two 1/26/09 M. Clover

This weeks readings about classroom discussion made me think back to my own classroom discussion experiences and how I felt about them. Firstly, in “A New View of Discussion”, “Response-Centered Talk: Windows on Children’s Thinking” and Chapter 10 of Mignano, they talked about the difference between a recitation and a discussion/response-centered talk. After reading these articles, I see a huge difference between these to terms and I have had experiences with both. As an elementary student, I feel I had more recitations about literature and less discussion but as a college student I feel that I’ve had more discussion than recitation. I think this might be because the idea of younger students being able to carry out a discussion is rather new and recitation is an assessment for comprehension, something elementary teachers really need to focus on. Overall, I do like the idea of having students discuss material rather than teacher focused recitation, but I wonder if recitation is necessary at some times? I can see that response-centered talk is useful and important in many ways, but I feel that these articles say it’s the ONLY way, which I do not agree with. I think that you need to have a bit of both in order for students to be successful in comprehending literature.

In the 1/2 classroom that I am in right now, the teacher does a lot of classroom recitation. She will read books aloud once or twice and then have students repeat happenings in the book. She gives questions and the students give responses. Sometimes she’ll have the students relate the story to their own life but this doesn’t necessarily get them to view the story in a different way or recreate thoughts about the story. I would really like to work on having a class discussion about a book and see how the students respond. They all love to talk, so I’m sure that will not be an issue!

On a different note, I enjoyed the article by Judith A. Langer called “Understanding Literature”. I felt that this article broke down the way students interact with literature very well. She created steps of learning or comprehending, which I found to be intriguing and potentially useful. I highlighted pretty much the entire article for future use! Haha. I’d like to use this article to help me with my classroom discussion in my placement class.

Meryl McLaughlin: Week One

This weeks readings really got me thinking because all of the topics seem to play a part in my placement classroom. With the first reading about "Opening Quality Lines of Communication..." I love the idea of having the parents explain how they see their children. In my placement classroom something very similar to this is done, however this year my CT has found that what the parents write and what she sees as the teacher are slightly different things. An idea I had is to have the parents do something like the article explained a couple times a year, possibly before conferences so the different "letters" can be compared.

Being a special education major the topic of English Language Learners (ELL) comes up often. This article was very overwhelming just because it is still something I am not comfortable with as a future teacher. What I did find particularly helpful was how the article shared common mistakes teachers with ELL in their mainstream classrooms make. Sometimes it is better to learn what NOT to do in situations than hear only one method. Something I connected the ideas from the article with was this idea of individualized education. It seems that this is something every student could benefit from, not just ELL or students with some type of disability.

Perhaps the most interesting piece we read this week was about the use of code switching in the classroom. I see this too in my placement class as many of the students use what some call and African American dialect. It is also something that is talked about in many of my formal teacher education classes and linguistic classes I have taken. Within my placement class the teacher seems to have the rule that as long as the students are doing informal peer-to-peer interaction she lets any "incorrect" grammar go un-noted. However when she is teacher a lesson or the students are sharing ideas at circle time, once their thought is said she goes back and clarifies with and depending on the way the student spoke originally, she may have them repeat it.

Week 1 Responses

The readings for this week were very interesting! I feel that they will all be very beneficial tools for my future teaching endeavours.

While I did enjoy the Scaffolding Language reading and how it brought up the importance of cultural collaboration/awareness, I found the course pack articles to be more rewarding.

In Assessing English-language learners in mainstream classrooms, I started highlighting after the very first sentence. However, the quote that really caught my attention was, "An overwhelming majority of assessment tools are in English only, presenting a potential threat to the usefulness of assessments..." (CP 4). How difficult for a teacher to truly assess their student and how terrible for the students themselves. As if it was not hard enough for them to adjust/learn; even the assessments prove to be an extreme challenge. I liked how this article gave the problem right off the bat and used the rest of the piece to stress the importance and give examples of ELL beneficial and friendly assessments.

As for, Opening Quality Lines of Communication, I was very compelled by the author's story. While it may seem ovbious, I would have never thought to question the parents in that way, using them to provide such valuable information. The fact that the teacher gave the parents this 'assignment' was beneficial in so many areas.
1. It opened up the door for comfortable/quality communication between parent and teacher.
2. It provided the teacher with highle valuable information; most of which may not have ever been attained elsewise.
3. Gave the teacher and student a bond as this letter showed the students how much the teacher really appreaciated and cared about them and who each and everyone one of them really were and what they were all about.

Codeswitching was a little more difficult for me to absorb. One one hand, I agree with the fact that students should not be reprimanded every time they speak 'improper' English grammar. As the very first page states, "Rather than risk the embarrassment of being corrected in front of the class, students became silent", it is crucial that we as educators never silence our students in such a way. However, I do believe in the importance of codeswitching depending on environment. For example, when the teacher was discussing with her students about how individuals dress different depending on the situation, I would have immediately tied in how codeswitching is just like that; we should change how we talk depending on the situation, environment, people involved, etc.. I felt that this article was a little too reserved on stressing the importance of speaking respectfully, clearly and 'school' appropraitely. While I would never want to silence my students or make them feel uncomfortable or unappreciated, I do believe there is a time and a place for more lax language.

Week 1 Readings

Overall, I found reading these articles to be very beneficial because this is a topic I don't have a whole lot of experience with and is definitely material I need to become familiar with. 

The first article I read, "Scaffolding Language and Learning" from the Gibbons text was very informative and brought up a lot of points I might not have initially thought about in approaching ELL students.  I think keeping in mind that every situation has a cultural context as well as a situational context is imperative to remember when dealing with ELL students because this is something that differs among cultures.  As I was reading about the different views of learning I wondered whether the "banking/empty vessel" or the "progressive" approach was more effective and thinking about instances when I had teachers that used these methods.  Do you think one method is more effective than the other?  Would you choose to use one method over the other in a particular situation or while teaching a specific subject?

The second article I read was "Assessing English-language learners in mainstream classrooms" which brought up a lot of unfair aspects of testing students that are learning English as a second language.  One of the statements from the article said that "an overwhelming majority of assessment tools are in English only," which will obviously not gauge a students progress if they cannot understand the questions.  It is important for teachers to administer a fair assessment that is multidimensional to provide authentic assessment.  

The third article I read was "Opening Quality Lines of Communication: Seeing my Students Through the Eyes of Their Parents."  This article was very interesting to me because it demonstrated a way to connect with parents while at the same time gaining invaluable information about students.  Something I found that was of significance while reading a reflection that teacher Joellen Maples had after the parent essays were returned.  She stated, "We don't teach students.  We teach human beings...children...someone's "treasure" or "blessing."  We are entrusted on a daily basis to provide them the best possible education we can and to see them as they really are-not who we think they are or what the stereotype tells us."  This comment just stood out to me as something we must keep in mind about students as future teachers.  I also saw the students being used as funds of knowledge through the information provided in the letters which is something that may not have been able to take place without the essays.

The final article I read was, "Codeswitching: Tools of Language and Culture Transform the Dialectally Diverse Classroom."  I really liked the way this article approached English language differences and cleared up misconceptions about students who speak in vernacular in the classroom.  Although students in the classroom speaking in AAVE (African American Vernacular English) may be seen as academically inferior or with poor grammar skills it is important to remember that they are speaking correctly in regards to the language of their culture or community.  There is an ongoing debate about whether structural and semantic differences between AAVE and other dialects is the primary cause of reading failure.  There is no solid evidence to prove this even though they appear to be correlated.  Do you think the use of AAVE could affect students in the failure of reading because there is such great difference in the structure, verb use, etc. between languages?  How would you approach a student using AAVE in reading/writing exercises without discouraging him/her?

Week One Blog 1/19/08 M.Clover

This week’s readings evoked many different feelings for me. The first article I read was “Assessing English-language learners in mainstream classrooms” and I have to say that after reading it I felt really, really overwhelmed. I personally, have very little experience with ELL students and have found teaching them to be a very difficult task. This article just seemed to point out all of the things you could do wrong and how important it is to stay on top of your game when you have ELL students in your classroom. I really liked the idea of the Predictability log though; I think that this can be something which helps you get to know your students, much like the “Tell me about your child in a million words or less” assignment that was talked about in the article by Joellen Maples.
The Maples article was the most interesting to me because a large part of my pedagogy involves knowing your students. I personally think that this is of utmost importance when it comes to teaching and the homework assignment for the parents it a great way to get to know the students. I like this idea because the students enjoyed it and the parents know that you’re invested in their students. A cooperative learning environment between home and school is something I value and hope to obtain in my future classrooms. One thought I had about the parent’s assignment though was how it would make the students feel? Maples talked about how some parents opened up, “They were funny, sad, hopeful and proud” she said. If a parent wrote some disappointed personal feelings about their child and the child got to read it, how does that make them feel? Is there a way that you could have the parents do this, yet have it be confidential? Perhaps they could email or mail it to you instead of having the students bring it in?
Lastly, the article on codeswitching was very interesting to me. All throughout my college education in the teaching program, the question of appropriate English ALWAYS comes up. I think that this article does a good job of explaining why we shouldn’t correct students when they speak informally. This article also gives an example of how to teach formal and informal English which I think is very useful. Having the students know the term “codeswitching” and being able to do it appropriately seems to be the best way to solve this dilemma.