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.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
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.
Monday, January 26, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, January 23, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, January 19, 2009
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.
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.
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