Week 10

Sorry, I completely forgot to post this last week.

The best way to teach vocabulary at the grade level I am currently working in I believe would be to have students find words they don't know. This would provide some intrinsic motivation for students to allow them to learn words they want to know. So I would have students take notes of words as they read the chapter. Each student should find 5 words in each chapter. The students would then be responsible to first write a definition of what they believe the word means from the context and then write the dictionary definition for the words. Finally words that are unique and not chosen by others students so one list of each individual word could be written on a projector or the board and discussed.

New Literacies

When the project first began it admittedly started a little slow. It has been hard to first find podcast to collect. Since then things have started to progress quite nicely. We have began to find some nice podcasts that are very informational and interesting.

What I have begun to learn is technology is very fun. It is interesting and a blast to work with, however there always seems to be an initial scare with a new technology. This new literacies project and podcasting in general were particularly hard. Also Megan and I had some initial problems uploading podcast, but google reader has worked nicely and efficently for us now.

new literacies

I have loved learning my new technology.  I have been working on a scrapblog.  It is an online scrapbook.  You make pages with photos and stickers and text and all kinds of things.  It is so fun because each page you can try something new and use your creative juices.  

When I first started I thought that there would be new things to learn and figure out but I would be able to do it no problem.  But I did run into a few challenges.  It took me a little while to figure out how to get the photos and the stickers and all of that stuff actually onto my pages.  I tried clicking things, double clicking things, and so on.  Eventually I realized that you have to drag and drop what you want onto your page.  I actually had my sister play around with it and she figured it out for me.

Another challenge that I had was patience.  There are so many graphics and details on the scrapblog that it takes a little while for the action you want to be completed.  I would get really antsy waiting for new backgrounds or stickers to load.  It took me a while to just relax and not push the button 100 times before it loaded.

The last challenge I faced was actually publishing and viewing my scrapblog.  They gave me a link once it was published.  I viewed it but once I closed it I realized I didn't know the link.  I tried for so long to find the link to by blog.  After some time I thought it would just be easier to republish and save the link then.  

But overall, scrapblog is really user friendly.  There are really no tricks or hard things to do.  The website has done a really good job making things easy to figure out so that even children can make these.  They have everything you need right off to the side so that you do not need to fish through tons of menus to find what you want.  

So I finished my scrapblog and thought I should share my hard work with as many people as possible.  I decided to make a scrapblog about where I am from.  I took my I am from poem and turned it into a scrapblog.  

http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/vw_full.aspx?sbid=1497652

week 10

I think that vocab is taught in book clubs by exposing students to new words and then having them find out what they mean.  We learn so many new words from reading.  For a lesson I would have students create a spot, either a piece of paper or a spot in a notebook.  While reading if they come upon a word that they do not know they will write it in the book along with the sentence that they found it in.  Then they will look it up and write the definition.  Then during book club they can all share the words they came across so that each student learns that word.  This will teach students to not be afraid of new words and it will help them expand their vocabulary.  

Week 9

This past week was a crazy experience. I began to substitute teach so I spent a great deal of time in the classroom over break. The week began a little rough as I taught in downtown to junior and seniors. It really made me realize classroom management skills. My approach had to be completely different to those students than the ones I normally work with at 5th grade in Okemos. However, I also got to see the other end of the spectrum at kindergarten on Friday. The students were awesome to work with and so excited to learn. After this week I really realize why I want to be a teacher. But, enough with this what I really want to mention is a few of the classroom ideas I saw.

The biggest thing I noticed as a substitute and as future teachers I believe we should realize is our own disciplinary procedures importance to a sub. It takes a great deal of time to become familiar with each teachers procedures before using them effectively. So what I suggest is as much explanation for procedure as can be offered. It nearly needs its own lesson plan. With effective procedures laid out, especially at the higher grade levels for you even if they are not necessary, a sub can be much more effective. Lesson plans are great and nice to teach. But you will always have the student trying to act out and who needs to be treated accordingly, setting the tone for the rest of the day.

Week 9

I think word walls are really good for students word identification. You can see exactly what words students do and don’t know. I also think running records are a good way to assess a students fluency because you can see what words or sounds give students the biggest trouble.

For a mini lesson for my book club I would have my group take turns reading paragraphs in the book. I would do a type of running record but disguise it by making them go around and read part by part. Then I would mark any words they had trouble with. I would use just one chapter, maybe even the first chapter because it is a good length.

Week 7

I just finished leading a small group book club in my class. Each week I would give them a section of the book to read and things to look for and come back with to talk about the next week. I was really worried that the students would not read or they wouldn’t want to really talk but I had such the opposite turnout. They always read and they always came back with material they wanted to talk about or questions they had. And the questions were really good. They were really thinking deep about why the author did certain things. I think the students really used their comprehension skills to understand what they were reading and then make connections.

Week 7

The Gibbons chapter was very interesting. I have seen things like the introduction where you read with missing pieces. However, I did find one thing. In paragraph form I could read the material, yet I struggled to comprehend the first to paragraphs. I was spending so much energy decoding the words that it was rather difficult to comprehend the first time I read the passage.

When reading this it also reminded me of the funds of knowledge article for the math portion of class which talked about how some student environments promote learning comprehension before phonics and other word and letter related things. Which would also need to be taken into account. I do really appreciate this chapter and will reference the ideas presented with things I encounter in the future. It is especially important that books don't go to far in assuming cultural things that can't be connected to by ELLs.

Week 6

This week I particularly liked the article my small group read to present to the class. It really made sense and made me realize the reason for my old school feeling I talked about last week. We need to assimilate things in our minds and feelings before we can fully accommodate them. Without first assimilating it is vary hard to get a true feel for something. Especially since things are not usually developed simply to do something never done before. They are instead usually completed to allow for the easier use or completion of something already possible. Once we know how something else helps us complete a task we can than use a new technology to do its own thing.

Week 6

I am still playing around with the scrapblog. So far I have made a few practice pages. I am still learning what all of the buttons do and what types of different things I can put on my scrapblog. I found the stickers the other day. They had a lot of different ones based on what kind of page you were making. They have different categories like food, love, music. They all are really cute and creative.

Another thing that I found, which I thought was really cute were the text balloons. If you wanted someone in your picture to be saying something they can have a balloon with text in it. But I am still playing around with the logistics of all of this.

Week 5

Technology and Literacy are very interesting. I hate to say it, but I do somewhat consider myself old school. I am skeptical about new technology before I warm up to it. Much like an older person. It is not that I am scared to use it, but somewhat set in my ways and happy with what I already have. If we begin to think about technology and literacy the first thing that comes to mind is texting, e-mailing, and IMing. We as a society use these things everyday to communicate. They are easy and efficient. However, I now for a fact that as we talk about languages in the classroom. The forms of language used for the things I listed above is a completely different language than what we use in a paper. When I was in middle school the teachers had to implement and crack down on our writing because it resembled the abbreviated format used everyday. I'm sure this will only be a bigger problem or a task that we as future educators must face. Since it is such a viable communication. I agree with the idea of technology as a category of the GLCE's that you mention Karen. However, I would take not being suprised one step further and say that I expect it in the very near future. If not a new literacy maybe even its own seperate portion of the GLCE's.

week 5

I was thinking idea that technology is becoming a “new literacy” and I didn’t know how I felt about that. But really I think that it is in some ways true. Even today so much of what we do it digital. For example, Angel. Almost every class that I have taken here has had an angel account. If I didn’t know how to use the internet or even a computer I would have a really hard time getting valuable information for those classes.

Of course there are a million other examples. And those examples will keep growing as technology becomes more central to our everyday lives. Now it is going to be our jobs to not only educate students on the basics but also on technology. I would not be surprised if, within our lifetime, we see a technology category added to the content standards.

Week 4

The Gibbons chapter was as if to prove the presentation I did with Megan and Evan last week. It broke down the scaffolding of completing the writing. We presented in a fashion that was to promote the learning of writing for young children. Where as the chapter by Gibbons combined the things and created a way of teaching writing to ELLs. I also like how the chapter discussed the writing process as steps and building on them so that students could create a finished piece that was complete and free of mistakes. So many times it as if writing in school is a math problem. Where your given the things to add and you need to find what it equals or the final piece. Then the student is told whether their piece is write or wrong. If instead we work through the problem the answer the students come to or their final piece will be much more effective. Also it will be easier to see where they went wrong writing. That way it is more than marking up the paper when it is finished with a red pen and saying next time you should do this and that.

Week 4 readings

My CT allowed me this past week to give the spelling test to the class.  I talked to my CT to find out how she picked the spelling words each week.  Normally the words will all be similar like week, seek, peak...But my CT actually has a pretty interesting way.  The whole school is on the plan where beginning in first grade they start their list with the most common english word.  There was research done and ranked each word by how frequently it is used.  The students learn those words in order.  I thought that was a really interesting approach.

I also liked how in Tompkins chapter 4 they talked about word walls.  I am sure I have mentioned this before but my CT has word walls all over the room that the students make up during their writing lessons.  They may be good describing words or words to use when using dialogue.  These lists really help students develop their writing and make it more mature.

Week 3 Readings

I agree with Karen's comments about the Thompkins chapters. It is neat to see the actual logistics of teaching young students to read and write. However, it is hard build a realistic picture of since it is not something I see in my 5th grade classroom. My students seem to have developed past this stage. As would be expected, though if students must read fluently by the 3rd grade like was mentioned.

My favorite chapter was chapter 2 of the Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning Text. I know, atleast for myself, that in my past experiences that I have had times that my class has been asked as a young student to sit quitely and do individual work. It felt as though we were not allowed to talk unless explicitly talken to. This is necessary at times. Yet, because of this I guess I never really thought of the relevance of Talking to the classroom. Especially since it is Literacy that is taking place all of the time, even though we might not think about it or even realize it.

Week 3 readings

I had a hard time relating to the Tompkins chapter.  It was focused at younger grades.  They were talking about helping the students with writing by actually holding the pencil with them and guiding them.  With reading they discussed word walls and labeling objects in the classroom.  I am in a fourth grade classroom and those things seem so weird to me because my students can read and write pretty well.  There was one thing in that chapter I liked and related to.  They said one good thing to have in the classroom are signs.  My CT has signs everywhere.  And they are signs that she makes with the class.  They make them to help them remember things as the are writing.  Some of these signs include good transition words, words to use after a quotation such as stated or yelled or exclaimed.  I think these signs help students remember good writing practices and it helps makes those practices habits while writing.  

Week 3 readings

This weeks reading was a true eye opener. We have such a great responsibility is teaching our students to read. In chapter 3 of the Tompkins book it said that the goal was to get all children to read fluently by 3rd grade. That is quite a task! When students have this fluency in reading they will be able to understand what they read better and read things faster. This is why it is so important to get children reading at the 1st and 2nd grade levels. If they fall behind here than it is so hard for them to catch back up.

The chapters in the Scaffolding Language book also provide some good information for teaching fluency. This fluency was in speaking rather than writing. Gibbons was saying that ELL need to be able to express their thought in spoken words before they put it down on paper.

I was interested in the many activities that were shown to encourage group and individual talk. One game that was interesting was the Find the Difference game. There were two different pictures and two groups. The one group had to ask things about the other groups picture to find out what was different between the two. This was a great way to exchange dialoged between the two groups.

Week 1 readings

Diverse learners need support to participate fully in the learning community. Some types of support are from parents, extra instruction, extra help, patience from the teacher, and a conducive environment for the student.Good teaching for ELLs can be good for everyone when lessons can be taught from the ELLs percpective. One example used in the readings was using AAVE (African American Vernacular English.) The language structures were compared by the teacher as formal and invormal but the integrity of the AAVE was still kept by the teacher.A teacher can learn about their students from multiple perspectives. Some of these are to ask parents, talk directly to students, assessment, and observation.

Week 2 readings

The articles read this week were very helpful because they showed ways to engage students in discussion. Once students are engaged in a discussion they will learn more than if the forum was a recitation dialoged.

One of the ways to get every students attention was the popsicle stick method. In this method each student would have an opportunity to get picked. “Using the ‘Pick Me’ sticks helps me to make sure that I get around to everyone.” (Weinstein and Mignano, pg. 310) This teacher used the popsicle method to reach all her students during class discussion. With every student having a chance to participate there would be a greater interest in the discussion.

Also response cards could be used for a discussion. These could be in the form of a notebook, personal chalk board, personal dry eraser board, or other device to respond to the discussion question. (Weinstein and Mignano, pg. 312) These can be helpful so everyone is participating in some way during the discussion even though they are not speaking.

The fishbowl method also grabbed my attention in chapter 10 of the Classroom Management book. In this method there are four students in a group carrying on a discussion while their classmates surround them and listen in. This keeps a small discussion but at the same time keeps everyone involved.

These are some of the methods used in the true classroom discussion. Just asking questions to the children will not help them learn. The teacher has to use methods were true discussion takes place.

Week 2

This weeks readings for me really relate back to the idea of the science talk last semester. It shows that students don't need to simply be taught by a teacher, but can still learn a great deal from their peers. A recitation approach that was talked about does not allow students to develop ideas fully in their minds. If I relate back and think about it, I wonder if this might not be a reason why I begin to dislike reading. Especially since in the classroom, I was simply reading for an answer to a written or verbal question from my teacher and not reading for the pleasure of the book. Therefore, I was creating a concrete image for myself or reading for enjoyment. I enjoyed the analogy by Rosenblatt quoted by McGee where it talks about readers only using text as a blueprint. We need to remember this as teachers and give students the opportunity to fill in the gaps and build their own "building" using the blueprints instead of creating or forcing them to build it our way.

week 2

I found this week’s readings to be really interesting. I have always hated discussions in class, especially college, because teachers put so much emphasis on the fact that your grade requires you to participate. For me, and I am sure this is true for many others, that adds so much stress to the class time that I get more worried what I am going to say than what is being discussed. I feel like I lose out on what others are saying.

I also know that when done correctly a discussion can be really powerful and beneficial. However, it is a hard to tell how to go about a discussion so that every one is attentive and participating. You have to determine the students who feel more comfortable just listening opposed to the students who are just not paying attention.

The Almasi article and the McGee articles both helped me see that there are affective ways of running a discussion where everyone can participate. I really liked how Almasi distinguished between a recitation and a discussion. The aspect of the recitation that really hit home with me was “students are called on by the teacher in order to participate and to maintain topic coherence” (37). That was the exact reason why I would get anxiety during “discussion” based classes.

However, McGee pointed out that in a response centered talk, which is a form of discussion, students get to react to the material instead of being asked questions that have right or wrong answers. They get to decide where the discussion goes. I think if you tell students that right off the bat they will be much more comfortable adding their ideas because they know they cannot be wrong.

I think these ideas would be very useful in my classroom because I can tell that the students in my classroom have a lot of great ideas. I have not seen much discussion done in my classroom yet so I am not sure if they have really lively discussions or if scaffolding is needed to draw out their ideas.

Week 1

Learning Goals:

I am not completely sure we are supposed to write our learning goals here, but I do believe the schedule mentions to do this as part of the week 1 blog. For me my goals for the course are pretty simple. I would like to become more adequately prepared to teach literacy. While becoming more prepared I would also like to push myself to become more interested in reading. Normally I would consider myself one who doesn't read. But, recently I have come to the realization that I read constantly. Especially ESPN.com and The Detroit Tigers Official Site! Not to mention sports magazines. In the future I hope to show students like myself that they can participate in reading of literacy in other ways than simply reading books.

Readings:

What can I say that you guys have not already mentioned about the Maple article? It is simply ingenious. I like every part of it. Any response at all from the parents including no response at all can help to teach you so much about the students. Especially if the parents don't respond you could take a sensitive approach to the student and ask them to explain why the think their parents didn't complete the homework and be on their side which they likely may need. Instead the students could explain what they think their parents may have written in the letter.

In the Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning book I found it especially interesting how they took an approach to ELLs as if they were young children learning a language. I also enjoy the idea of scaffolding students and helping them work towards the goal. At first they may need lots of help, but before long less help will be needed and eventually they will be capable on their own.

Finally, probably my favorite article in terms of future usefulness was the Assessing English-language learners in mainstream classrooms. I will most definitely use the Predictability log questions or a form similar to this. To me it always seems like were talking about ELLs, but that is all were doing and it never goes anywhere. With some questions which can be answered it would give a teacher a good base to work with and build off of when teaching and assessing. This type of quesitonare may even be something that could be incorporated with an assignment like we talked about in the Maple article.

week 1 readings

Of all the readings I really enjoyed the Maples article.  I sometimes wonder how teachers are able to get to know twenty some students so well throughout the course of a year.  It seems like such a daunting task.  However, Maples' idea, to me, was genius.  Who else knows the students better than their own parents.  Plus it encourages parent involvement, which we all know is extremely important especially when dealing with literacy.  

Not only would you get parent involvement, you get to learn things about your students that you may have never known before.  You get to know them on a deeper level.    

I had one concern when reading this.  What if the parents get annoyed that they have to write it?  I know there are many parents out there who work non stop and may find this activity annoying.  Besides that small concern, which she addressed, I thought that the idea was extremely clever and I think that I will try this in my classroom one day.