“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.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, January 26, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, January 19, 2009
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.
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.
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.
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.
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