Veronica's Self-Assessment Noteblog Entry

I feel that my group's thinking and learning has grown a great amount since the beginning of the semester in making connections to what we are learning in class to what we are seeing in field placement. As we first blogged our entries, our entries were discussed in general terms but now I can say we included specific details and situations that coincide to our readings. Through our blogging, group members and I have contributed to one another's learning since we are able to "peek" into other second grade classrooms and discuss what's working and not working. We have also extended our learning by asking each other questions about comments we post. This allows for another point of view to be seen. Taking all these ideas into consideration, I recommend that my group members and I receive a letter grade of an A because our thinking and discussions have developed throughout the course of the semester.

Veronica's Week 11 Post

On page 235 of our course pack, I found great information that explained a Critical Literacy. It states that critical literacies "involve people using language to exercise power, to enhance everyday life in schools and communities, and to question practices of privilege and injustice". Within the two pages of our course pack, there are numerous examples that teachers can authentically use a critical literacy within their lessons. As I read the pages, I first thought of my class lesson on discussion. For my lesson, I read the book tittled The Story of Ruby Bridges (picture book), I also used the book Through My Eyes (autobiography) to add a real-life event connection from the picture book to the autobiography. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Ruby Bridges was among one of the first African American students in Louisiana to attend a desegregated school. For our discussion, students were able to make text to self connections about challenges and difficulties they have experienced in their lives as did Ruby Bridges. During the school year, students in my field placement are learning 10 characteristic traits. For my lesson, students wrote a letter to Ruby Bridges about a time they had perseverance like her.

I think many grade levels can benefit from having centers used in their classrooms. This can be done not only for Literacy but for other subjects such as Math as the article suggested, and for Science and Social Studies as well. It is important to make center activities hands-on to provide students with opportunities for meaningful active involvment and not busy work. Activities should meet the needs and abilities of students within the classroom. To have centers, it must take a significant amount of planning from teachers and also maintain classroom norms for students to stay on task.

Jami's Week 11 Post

“Critical literacy is an active, reflective manner of reading texts in order to better understand power, inequality, and injustice in human relationships. For the purposes of critical literacy, text is defined as a “vehicle through which individuals communicate with one another using the codes and conventions of society”. Accordingly, songs, novels, conversations, pictures, movies, etc. are all considered texts.” 1 I think this would be a great way to teach students different tasks. It seems that children learn better through song or through pictures or movies. For example the ABC’s-is a song, the Magic School Bus series, which is shown in almost every elementary school. When students have conversations with each other about what they have learned they seem to grasp the concept much better, having talked about it with someone else. Students respond well to these types of “texts” and I have seen proof of this in my placement.

According to the Literacy for the 21st Century book, Basal Reading Programs are comprehensive core reading programs. They are scientifically-based reading programs. The Reading First legislation demands that reading programs in Kindergarten through 3rd grade are based on scientifically-based reading research. In my field placement the program that my students use I believe is Reading First. I have read through some of the books that they use and they seem to cover a wide variety of content and really touch on different aspects of fluency such as: phonemic awareness instruction, systematic explicit phonics instruction, fluency instruction, vocabulary instruction, and text comprehension instruction. When I taught my lesson I used the teachers guide to find a story for the students. In that guide there was a great deal of instruction and ideas that teachers could use based on fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, etc.. I thought this was great because it allows for the teacher to gain ideas from the book as well as use her own. It really guides you as a teacher which would be wonderful for first year teachers just getting the feel for this stuff. The basal reading programs have many different components and are very expensive. They are sold directly to school districts and the schools use them as they please. I think it is important that all districts use the same reading program so all of the students are on the same level. Once they get to middle school they will all be together and will all be expected to know the same information.

(1) Robinson, E., & Robinson, S. (2003). What does it mean? Discourse, Text, Culture: An Introduction. Sydney: McGraw-Hill Book Company, p. 3.

Jamis Week 10 Post

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry-Mini Vocabulary Lesson

After presenting these vocabulary words to students, have them make a chart like the one shown below. Ask them to list each word in the first column. Then students should think about their familiarity with each word and make a check in the appropriatecolumn. If they can define the word, they should write the definition in the next column. Once the charts are completed, invite those who can define a word to do so for the rest of the class. Challenge these volunteers to use the words in sentences. Then direct students who did not previously check the second column to write the word's meaning in that column. After reviewing all the words, encourage students to go back and circle in red any words that they are still not sure of.

meticulously
penchant
verandah
morosely
dubious
obnoxious
raucous
fallow
careened
exasperation
despondently
chignon
acrid
ashen
malevolently
knell
amenities
subdued
emaciated
shroud
proprietor
disposition
temerity
snidely
concession
monotonous
reprimand
plantation
noncommittal
maverick
crescendo
boycott
languidly
flaunting
chiffonier
insolently
reverberated
adamantly
resiliency
feigned
lethargically
imperiously

Mini Vocab Lesson

Hi again :)

Story: The Ugly Garden by Grace Lin

Vocabulary Words: Garden, blooming, prickly, muscles, aroma, scent, trade

Using main vocabulary from the story (see above), I will have students look up these words using a dictionary. Once students record the definitions on a sheet of paper; they will use the words in sentences so I can make sure they understand the meanings. We will then read the story together and stop at the vocabulary words. When I stop, I will call on a student to share what the meaning is. Once we finish the story, we will talk about the vocabulary words in the context.

Veronica's comment: I think its so great you are using dictionary with young learners, second graders! It allows for a teaching opportunity for students to learn "how to" use the dictionary, alphabetical order or one word may have many definitions and students must decide which definition fits the context of the book they are reading. In addition to having students write their own sentences, they can also draw a picture representing the definition of the word. This will further extend their understanding of each word they are learning about. I like how you plan to stop at each vocabulary word and discuss its meaning in the book.

Veronica's Week 10 Post

Topic: Content Related Vocabulary Words
Grade: Second grade
Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour

Introduce the topic: Book- The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting will be read the day before Valentine's Day. Before story is read, students will be asked to look at the cover and predict using context clues from the picture to tell what the story will be about.

Share Examples: Students and I will make a text to self connection that as bears need to hibernate and get their rest during the whole winter season. Humans need their daily rest of 6-8 hours of sleep everyday.

Provide Information: I can also provided additional information to students about bears and hibernating through informational text. There will also be information text at their reading level so the students can read on their own as well. Together, we will explain and determine the meaning of each words that pertain to bears and their environments.

Guided Practice: At centers, students will be able to use word sorts within the vocabulary presented. They can determine which word fits in the group based on their meaning. Students will also have a cut and paste of matching, this page will also include space to write a few words that describe the picture.

Assess Learning: Learning assessment will be done in students' writing journal. During the last day of the week or when the mini lesson on bears is over, students will have a morning journal message to write their Kindergarten reading buddy, everything they know about Bears. Students will be informed to include the vocabulary they learned. I will be assessing whether or not students used the vocabulary correctly and if they understood the definitions.

Jami's Comment:
First of all I love the idea of the bears and how you associated it with Valentines Day. Very cute! I really think that this is something that students really enjoy and from what I have witnessed they pay more attention when reading books that deal with a holiday or some event taking place. I did a lesson not too long ago that dealt with text to self connections. They seemed to do pretty well with this. It is very important for students to be able to see text to self connections. I also think when they see something in a character that has to do with themselves they comprehend the book much better. I think word sorts are a good idea when working with young children. This helps with vocabulary in your case, but also comprehension. If students are cutting and pasting words or phrases they have to have some sense in what they are doing. For comprehension the students could cut out words or themes from the book and place them in the correct order. This way students are being forced to think about the book and sequencing in a fun way. I also like the idea of having the Kindergarten reading buddies. I think it is very important for children to be able to talk through what they have learned. They may be able to write it out-or put words or phrases in order, but do they really understand it? By having them explain it to someone else it forces them to think about it and express what they have learned. This is great for both the Kindergartner and Second grader. I think this also forms a type of friendship between the two. Cute idea, I really like it!! :)

Veronica's Week 9 Post

Reading fluency can be taught in Book Club in various ways by allowing students to pick their favorite passages, quotes or paragraphs from the book they are reading and practice rereading it 3-5 times. This can improve students' reading speed, decrease the number of errors they make, allows for students to chunk words into meaningful phrases and read with more expression (175). It is also interesting to learn that researchers have found that through repeated reading, students will deepen their comprehension of the book they reread; in this case the book used in Book Club. In my field placement, the second grade students have kindergarten reading buddies which they will read to every Friday afternoon. They often choose books they have read before in their guided reading groups; this allows for an additional opportunity for students to practice words they are learning during their Language Arts instruction. Through guided reading, teachers can assess students' word identification and fluency or by asking them to think aloud and explain how they used decoding to spell a particular word.

In this chapter (Chap. 5- Literacy for the 21st Century), I also found very interesting that word walls are used not only in primary grades but in upper grades as well. This chapter states, second grade teachers often begin the year with the easier half of the high frequency words already on the word wall and they add 50 to 75 more words during the school year (158). Teachers in upper grades can create word walls of common words students need to learn as well as words that students often misspell or confuse with other words.

Jami's Week 9 Post

In Tompkin’s article on Developing Fluent Reader’s there is a great deal of discussion about word walls. I especially liked the idea of making a word wall that revolves around a topic that the students are working on. This way when they write about that specific topic they can refer to the wall for words to use and how to spell them. Most teachers use word walls that have high frequency words for the younger grades and most teachers add more words per week. In my placement I have noticed that my CT has a word wall which is in alphabetic order. She had this word wall posted at the beginning of the year and I don’t think she has added to it thus far. Teaching word recognition is very important. There are different ways in doing this a teacher can: introduce the words in context, have children clap and chant the words, have children practice reading and writing the words and finally have them read and write the words. When assessing student’s word identification and fluency it is important to look for accuracy, reading speed, and prosody. I have noticed that my students in field are very accurate in their reading. Their reading speed is something that needs work as well as their prosody. They do not read very fast and they just “read”. They do not really read with any emphasis, use expression or include punctuation while reading. It just seems as if they are reading one giant sentence. It is important for students to practice their reading-having daily opportunities to do so. In order to increase their reading speed the students need to practice reading aloud at their level. They should practice 3-5 times with the same book. While teaching prosody a teacher should show students how to chunk parts of sentences and read with real expression. This all just takes practice.

One mini-lesson that could be taught with our book club book would involve having centers in which the students can discuss the book with their classmates and/or do small activities involving both fluency and the book Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry.

Topic: Roll of Thunder Centers
Grade: 5th
Time: 60 minutes

Introduce the topic:
Students go to one of the 4 centers. They are as follows: Retelling Center (the students talk to each other and retell what they have read thus far in the book), Word Sort Center (Students-on their own- pick out words from what they have read so far that they do not know the meaning of and define them), Writing Center (the students are given a prompt and they are to write about it, this prompt will be on some issue of the book), and with each letter of the title of the book ROLLOFTHUNDER, the students choose a word beginning with each letter and write one sentence (that makes sense) with that one word they chose for each letter.

Share Examples:
After centers are complete students will share with each other what they came up with in their centers. This way they practice reading aloud as well as public speaking.

Provide Information:
In the first center I can explain to the children why it is important to recall events of a story which involves having good reading comprehension. In the word sort center I can show students that there are words in the book in which they may not know and also how to look them up. In the writing center I can demonstrate for the students what they need to write and how they need to write it. I can write up an example paragraph for them to get an idea of what I expect. With the last center I can also demonstrate for them how to do it. This helps students with fluency and word recognition and sentence formation. For example R= Remember to do your chores.
O= Once you have your coat on, please go to the car.
L= Leave your shoes at the door.
L= Learn a new language tomorrow.

Guided Practice:
Each child will share their work with the class. With this I will point out what they did really well so others are able to see and demonstrate the same thing. I will be showing them and guiding them through the centers and how to do each one.

Assess Learning:
After each child shares their work I will collect them and re-evaluate everything. I will have folders that each child is assigned to and this is where they will keep their work until I collect it. This is how I will assess their learning and make sure they are staying on task and doing the right amount of work.

Veronica's Comment: I am so glad you mentioned "word walls". I have only seen this used in my first grade field placement for TE 301. Since I was in the classroom during literacy centers, I was able to see the students develop writing and reading comprehension skills. There were many times that the students would ask how a word was spelled, therefore, I am not so certain they were aware of their word wall or why it was there. It would be so beneficial if your CT added WORDS to the word wall in the classroom, its an ongoing process to have students recognize these high frequency words. Everything that you mentioned above is a great way to clarify high frequency words that are easily confused as well as it gives students more practice with them.
To help your second grade students become fluent readers they can have more practice with a reading of their choice, this way they are very familiar with the text and are able to distinguish difference in the tone. Have you seen opportunities where students read along with their teacher? This also helps promote reading fluency.

Jamis Week 8 Post

In the beginning of Tompkins, Facilitating Students’ Comprehension: Text Factors there were different ways described in which students begin learning and different comprehension strategies. I have noticed that KWL charts work well. This is a great way for you to figure out what your students know and what they don’t know. It then discusses having student write in their learning logs. I also think this a great because it lets students reflect back on what they had just done, without having to talk in front of the class. In placement my students have a writing journal, but they just use it in their free time. I think it would be useful for students to use their journals to write questions and analyze their work. I also think that writing groups would be very useful to have in the classroom. These writing groups are used for proof reading of others work and revising. This is helpful for students because it lets them catch others mistakes while having to recognize what the mistakes are.

There was also another section describing stories consisting of a beginning, middle, and end. In placement my students are currently working on stories and how to write them. We have a writing specialist who comes in and works with the children. She said that it is never good to have the students (when they are first learning to write stories) do the entire thing. You should start out with the beginning and have them work on that, and that only. The entire week you should have students writing beginning of stories describing to them how to do it, what kinds of words need to be used (nouns, verbs, etc.), and have them draw a picture of the beginning part of the story. This lady brought in different colored paper with nouns and verb; nouns were purple and verbs were green. When the students used either a noun or a verb they used the corresponding colored pen. These lists had a selection of words for students to use so they don’t spend the entire time writing trying to think of words. This was a great idea because there are so many times where I find the students just sitting and trying to think of a specific word, or how to spell it. With the sheets they know both and can’t waste time. The following week you work on middles of stories and then the week after that the end. Once students have all of the beginning, middle, and ends complete; they can form their own story with all of the components. I have to get more information on this technique because it is new to our school, but I thought it was great.

Veronica's comment: I am glad that this chapter started with the class using a KWL chart and later followed up explaining what it was and how it is beneficial in the classroom. I was not aware what a KWL chart was until someone mentioned it in our Social Studies methods class. As these are used in classrooms, it would be great to make a big KWL chart and display it in the hallway. This way, parents and visitors can see what the students are studying and what information they have found. Frequent writing promotes fluent writers, so essentially your CT wants her students to use this journal as an opportunity for unassisted practice of writing.
What a great opportunity your class is experiencing to have someone come in and help them with story writing. I know that young learners have the tendency to want to tell stories but at times they have no correlation to what the teacher is discussing, or these stories seem to have no end. Your second graders are now able to see the steps they must take to develop a story that has details and a plot. I wonder if the students are having trouble piecing together the information? Do they start one story at the beginning and change it to another one at mid story?

Veronica's Week 8 Post

Comprehension is a thinking process that involves a series of behaviors that occur over time (Tompkins, 223). For students, the comprehension process begins as they preread or preview the text to activate their prior knowledge and continues to develop as they read the text, respond to reading logs during book club as well as explore new ideas or feelings from the text. Students may also apply their readings from Book Club and make “connections to their own background knowledge-including knowledge of the world, cultural knowledge, and knowledge of the generic structure” (Gibbons, 81).

Comprehension is taught in Book Club through the 8 comprehension strategies that teachers use to guide their students’ reading. The 8 comprehension strategies are: Predicting, Connecting, Visualizing, Questioning, Identifying the Big Ideas, Summarizing, Monitoring and Evaluating (Tompkins, Figure 7-2, 229). As I read chapter 7 in Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach, I felt that many of the Reading Log squares in our course packet directly correlated to the comprehension strategies stated in this textbook. For example, Questioning; “activates background knowledge and students make predictions before reading, to engage with the text and clarify confusions during reading and to evaluate and reflect on the text and the characters’ experiences after reading”, can be used as a “Questions For My Group” Reading Log, “Sometimes there are things in the story that I wonder about. I can write questions to ask my group so they can help me to understand the story better. Sometimes I might write questions to ask my group members how they feel about the story or a certain part of the story” (course pack, 94)

As I finished this chapter, I enjoyed reading that teachers can create an expectation of comprehension when students are involved in authentic reading and writing activities every day, my field placement students write in their journals every day on various topics. I read them poetry book of my own and they enjoyed this very much, this can be seen as “have students read and write in a variety of genres”, though they may need additional practice in creating their poems. Another strategy, teachers can create an expectation of comprehension is by “providing students access to well-stocked classroom libraries”. I can not wait for summer to come so I can start buying tons of books at garage sales, though book orders or borrow them from the public library.

Jami's Comment:
I was JUST thinking the same exact thing today. I too can not wait for summer so I am able to go to garage sales and buy children's books. For some reason children's books really excite me, and I find at times I would rather spend my money on children's books than anything else. Last summer I went to garage sales and got some really good deals on tons of books. I just heard last week, that children's books are growing the most in regards to book sales and book stores are constantly expanding their children's sections because the books are in such high demand. I was very excited to hear this, because it tells me that children are becoming more and more involved in reading and parents and teachers both are beginning to incorporate books into children's everyday lives! Anyways, I also found the information about the book clubs interesting-but that is probably because that is what we are currently working on in class. But I do think that they are a great way for children to reflect on the chapters that they have read and I think it will keep children engaged in the reading. If they were told to read a book-and in 2 weeks they would have to write a report on it, I can almost garentee that half (if not more) of the children would read the book at the last minute and do a poor job on their reports-not really getting anything from it. Book clubs make it so children have to keep up with the book and are able to talk with their peers about what they are reading. It is even fun for us to read a couple chapters and then discuss it, especially if there was something in the book that made youreally happy or really angry; such as chapter 5 in Roll of Thunder. In field I have noticed that the children read with my CT but don't do much of a "book club" style of reading/writing. Now, I am only in a second grade classroom so they would have to read a book that is on their level and have writing prompts that are also on their level.

Veronica's Week 7 Post

I can better understand my own reading comprehension process by becoming aware that many different comprehension types exist. By doing so, I can see which profile or profiles I best fit in and also understand my students. Before reading this article, I did not know there are 8 profiles of student comprehension. These profiles can be used for increasing teacher's awareness of the different cognitive approaches students may show as they discuss what they read. To better understand your students' comprehension or observe their thinking habits and skills it is important to engage in questioning that encourages students to participate in discussions. Through a discussion, students will acknowledge multiple viewpoints and require them to think about ideas and not simply recall details from the text such as defending their thinking about the reading.

In the article, "How Can I Help Children with Learning Disabilities" I found ideas I would like to share such as the importance of maintaining communication among the the classroom teacher, the special education teacher and the parents. This way, the struggling student will gain a more positive attitude toward their learning abilities. I also found ideas that contribute to the literacy development of struggling learners such as storybook reading and discussion, journal writing and engagement in "free reading" times. I mention these three ideas because the students in my placement do all three. Everyday they write in their journals, if they are done with their work early; they know to find a book to read and I recently lead a storybook reading and discussion of the book titled The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting. I modeled the steps and processes of listing the main characters, setting, conflict/problem, solution/conclusion and also including important details from the story.

Jami's Comment:
I did not realize that there was so much that went along with comprehension and that it was categorized into so many different categories. However reading over the articles I have noticed that in my placement- I have at least one child who fits under all of the comprehension categories. Like you had mentioned I do think discussion is important no matter what grade you are in. This gets students thinking as a whole group and allows for everyone to be heard. I also think that through discussion-if a child misses an important point there will be someone else there to bring it up and talk about it. Discussions can point out all of the important parts of an article and if a student has trouble with comprehension- this could really help them. I know that in field when we discuss stories students tend to grasp the concepts a little better than when we just read it aloud and have them write about it. I believe that the two of these things go hand in hand and can be very beneficial for those struggling.

I also believe communication is key between all teachers the students work with. Like Jessica had mentioned in class her brother loved music and no one knew until the music teacher had said so. If his teacher was aware of this there is a greater chance that there could be some type of musical incorporation within the assignments. It's not hard to put different sayings or strategies into a sing song format. Journal writing is great as well because it allows students to get their thoughts out there. However, I have noticed that some of my children will use that as "free time" and sit and look at their paper. This is something they are clearly not engaged in and have a hard time staying on task. I think it works for some students, but not others. So maybe there could be a discussion about the story (which is key) and then two options: journal writing and something else that involves the students ideas being expressed-but not having to write them out in a journal.

Jami's Week 7 Post

After reading through the articles I have learned a lot about my own comprehension and found it funny that some of the scenarios discussed sounded exactly like something I would have done in elementary school. I know that I am definitely a literalist. When asked a question based on the readings I always go back and try to find it rather than thinking about certain aspects of the story and putting them together to formulate the answer. I have always been the type to go back to the reading and look for the answer. I have noticed that even in field-if the students are having trouble answering a question I have them go back to the readings and find the answer. I also think that I am somewhat of a Quiz Contestant. I feel like if I have to answer a question I need to come up with some reasonable response even if it doesn’t deal directly with the readings. I just assume that if I say something and the teacher doesn’t like it she will just move on. I figure at least I said something and that is better than nothing. I am also a Type B Minimalist. I hate to be wrong when answering a question. Even though I am aware that not everyone is correct and it is okay to have a wrong answer, I hate to give one. I get really embarrassed and feel dumb. I never ask the question, “Did I get it right”. But I am certainly thinking it! After reading through these articles, I thought a great deal about how I comprehend. I know that comprehension was and still is not one of my strong points. It is probably something I struggle the most with when reading.

In the article “Profiles in Comprehension” I found many ways that teachers dealt with these issues with students. I found that many of the strategies involved modeling for the students and showing them exactly what you want from them. Maps or Venn Diagrams were also used a great deal. These strategies allow for students to see what is asked of them and they are also able to make comparisons across characters and situations in the story. I think knowing that I struggle with comprehension I will have more patience with students and be able to come up with my own strategies to help students. I was never taught anything that really helped me to comprehend-but maybe the maps and diagrams will really help students to grasp the information. I also think that underlining and starring key points in the story help students to comprehend. This way they are able to go back and look at key parts and see what is important. I also take notes in the margins when I read-which helps as well. I think comprehension is something that is very hard to teach students, but it is something we can help them with.

Veronica's comment: Modeling is not only an important strategy to use with ELL students,but can also be used to show how to complete a story map or Venn diagram. It might be helpful to send a laminated story map home; students can keep this map at their home and they can fill it out using various books that can also be sent home. Students will be working to develop their comprehension with help from their parents. Ultimately, students will be able to complete the story maps on their own and share their findings with their families.

As I read your post, I wondered how would you go about dealing with a student that is a Quiz Contestant? This student may want to blurt out answers causes a great disturbance when a group discussion is being lead.

Veronica's Week 6 Post

As I read"Marcus:Gifted and Talented" from our course packet, one paragraph made me think about a student in my field placement. He is a student that is in special education, during Literacy, he will go to the resource room to receive additional help. Since he is gone for most of the morning that I am in placement for Literacy, I am able to work with him during Math. My field placement students are working with the regrouping of double digit numbers in subtraction. This student struggles with this concept, I believe he can begin to understand it, if he was able to use manipulative's such as Base-10 blocks. In this article, Marcus' mother mentions that it is important to "allow children to use hands-on activities." Just as Marcus was better off using hands-on activities, this second grade student at Lewton Elementary will also benefit from visualizing math concepts.

I found the whole article by Breitfelder very interesting because I have seen picture schedules be used in a classroom for autistic students. This classroom has students that are autistic from kindergarten through the third grade since they have different inclusion class schedules, they have different picture schedules as well. Their schedules are Velcroed to the top of their desk and it includes every picture imaginable to sequence their day. This also helps their teacher and 3 assistants follow a schedule. As a class, the students' behavior charts are posted in front of their classroom. Every student has a tree with 3 bugs posted on it, if they misbehave throughout the day or have a loud outburst a bug will be taken off. If a student has maintained all 3 bugs, they will receive a sticker for them to take home and a sticker that is placed on a calendar once they fill the calendar with stickers they are able to have lunch with their teacher at Mc Donald's.
This classroom has many picture sequencing, it can be found for their lunch menu, calendars that include seasons, weather, day of the week and directions for students to follow such as: color (first) cut pictures (second) paste (third).

Jami's Comment:
I think it is SO crutial for autistic learners to have a picture schedule to follow. I absolutely love the bug idea that you mentioned. It is such a good idea! In my classroom I have a child who seems to be autistic-yet has not been diagnosed as such. I think this would be a great thing for him to have because there are many times throughout the day where he will just have an outburst and get very upset over something very minor. I think the McDonald's lunch is a great way to help the students to stay on track-I mean who wouldn't want to eat out for lunch in elementary school. I have only heard and read about the picture sequencing schedules-and am a little unsure of how exactly teachers do this. I know this sounds strange but if there is any way that you could make a copy or take a picture of one of the students schedules, I would love to see how the teacher has this set up. If your not able to I totally understand.

Jami's Week 6 Post

New Technologies

In class today we did many projects that involved new technologies. To be honest I got very bored with this exploration. That is probably because I am already familiar with many of the technologies discussed. I did want to work more with skype because it is something that I hear a great deal about and a tool that seems to be very useful. Being that I am doing the Chicago internship I think skype is something I will be using quite a bit. I did enjoy some of the activities such as the comic strips and how to make those, but other than that I felt it was a waste of time.

For my project I want to focus on social literacy. I am planning to make a website and include links to other resources. I may also use a WIKI, but that depends on how I am about to fit it in. I am also thinking about creating a digital story and placing that into my webpage. Digital stories are very fun for students and at the same time very informational.

Veronica's Comment: I can understand how you may have gotten bored with the exploration of the new technologies because we "really" didn't know how we would be using them to correlate them with our new literacy project. If the assignment was first explained, we would have time to think about which technology best fit the literacy we wanted to work with. Going through technologies seemed to be pointless in the sense we had no clue how we could make it connect with our literacy. As we explored the new technologies, I thought about Math class and how important it is to allow students to "play" or explore with the manipulative's that will be used this way they will focus better for the lesson, since they have gotten out a natural inclination. Maybe this was Judy's way for us to explore?

You have great ideas for your project! You seem to be very much computer savvy, can't wait to learn about it ALL- I need it! :) ( Becoming more computer savvy!)

Veronica's Week 5 Post

As I completed the digital natives quiz, I felt so lost! There were words on the quiz that I have never heard of and some words that I was familiar with such as blog and IM. After taking the digital natives quiz, I feel that I am a digital immigrant since I had a prior knowledge of only a few words and the rest seemed very foreign to me. I am able to use the computer for surfing the Internet, email and using Microsoft word features. I feel that my digital literacy is emergent since I will have opportunities through MSU or proffesional developments that will expose me to have a greater digital awareness.

While I read Chapter 4 in the book Literacy for the 21st Century, I learned how important phonemic awareness is for students to use sound-symbol correspondence to read and spell words. This chapter mentions the components of phonemic awareness that children learn to hear and manipulate words; they are: identify sounds in words, categorize sounds in words, substitute sounds to make new words, blend sounds to form words and segment a word into sounds. I was able to see students learn the components of phonemic awareness during my TE 301 placement. I was placed in a first grade classroom, here, I was able to see the students participate in Literacy centers that allowed them to make words using magnetic letters or "write the room", in this center students wrote words that labeled in their classroom. I liked that this book also listed great ideas, I could use in my own classroom to help promote phonemic awareness. A suggestion that I found interesting was to tell students to "think it out" when they asked questions about spelling a word, this encourages them to think about spelling patterns, root words and affixes rather than just sounding it out. The students in my field placement struggle with spelling,at times, I think it is because they are not willing to put effort in trying and would rather ask me. I was glad to see a method that was mentioned in the book is being used in my field placement. Everyday, the second grade students will be a given word to make other words with letters from the original word. This helps students to pratice spelling words and to review spelling patterns and rules (141).

Jamis Comment:
I agree with the first part of your blog about the digital natives quiz. I was very familar with some of the words but the first couple I have never in my life heard of. It's really amazing to me the way that technology is emerging and how illiterate we actually are and don't even realize it. I look at my parents who have no clue how to even copy and paste something-but it is because they didnt grow up around the computer like we did. It is interesting to me as I wonder are we going to be like that if we do not keep up on these new technologies. I feel like I know quite a bit about technology, but I think I am wrong after looking through the website and taking the quiz.

I really like the "think it out" idea as well. I have never really thought to tell a student that, but its so true. So many words are part of other words and if students would take the time to think it out they would get it. I think it is hard for students to just simply sound out a word, because not all words are spelled like they sound. There are words that have an "e" on the end, but you don't hear it. I was playing a game with the children I babysit for and I asked them to spell the word "comb". They obviously said c-o-m and I said there was one more letter and they guess "e", but then I explained that spelled come. When I told them there was a "b" at the end of the word they could not believe it! This was just an example of how not all words are how they sound. So using prefixes and root words is a great way to get the students thinking differently and in my opinion much more helpful.

Susan - Post - 2/9

I took the quiz, but I didn't have a definitive answer either way. I knew all the terms except for mobbing and smart mob. I guess that makes me a digital native.. partial immigrant. For this blog I want to focus more on the question of "What are “new literacies” and what literacies are students likely to bring to the classroom?" Students bring to the classroom knowledge about types of writing they see in their homes. These tend to be newspapers, fliers, and maybe a few books. Children (most) don't know about the multiple genres that are available to write in. I like the approach that is discussed in Scaffolding (60-61). There are four stages listed.. these include finding out how much the students know about a topic, modelling the formate several times, and then moving to indepentant writing. ELLs, especially, would have a difficult time of jumping right into a new genre without much practice first. Gibbons discusses on page 54 that even English is written differently by different cultures; so explaination of the "rules" we use in the United States is needed to clarify. However, teachers need to understand that these differences exsist and work with the students. One should never assume that a student is blatanly refusing to comply with written norms.

Jami's Week 5 Post

By taking the Digital Natives quiz I have found that I am a digital immigrant. However, I was aware of half of the words and have used IM’s, Blogs, and Wikis. I did not know much about the computer gaming information. That is most likely because I have never played games on the computer and never intend to. I am an emergent learner when it comes to certain technologies. I have grown up around the internet using e-mail and Instant Messaging. However, there are many more technologies that are being used in the classrooms and all around the world. Many classrooms use a smart board which is something that I am still learning to use. I am becoming more familiar with the different sites offered by Google i.e. Google docs, web pages, portfolios etc.. However, if it wasn’t for the CEP 416 class that I took last semester I would have no clue what these things are or how to use them. Everyday I learn about new things involving technology and it amazes me how far we have come since I was a child.

The No Child Left Behind Act promoted an increased focus on reading. It also “reauthorized a number of federal programs aiming to improve the performance of U.S. primary and secondary schools by increasing the standards of accountability for states, school districts, and schools”. This influences the Language Arts curriculum by putting more stress on reading and writing and not other subjects. It makes it so reading is the most important thing for teachers to focus on. New literacys are new reading comprehension and learning skills required by the Internet and other emerging information and communication technologies. Everyday students are learning how to use technology. It is something that will take over and soon students will not be writing with a paper and pen-but with their keyboard. Like us-children are also emergent learners when it comes to technology and how to use it. The earlier they are exposed the more they will comprehend and utilize the computer and other digital accessories. Today many students are able to use the internet and type. They will bring this with them to the classroom. Some children already know how to use Google Maps and Blogs. Our children are learning so much and will be able to bring what they know into the classroom as well as being open to learning new things.

Veronica's Comment: I have worked in schools that are Reading First Schools, everyday the classroom I was in; had a literacy block in morning. I feel it could be possible to combine what students are learning in literacy and new technologies that are available. This way students will begin to have exposure to new technologies outside of the time they have allowed for their computer "special". Some students will come into the classroom with limited knowledge of technology and are digital immigrants, therefore, it is up to us as their teachers to begin a learning process for them. We will also be learning about the new technology as they do!

Week 4 Post - Susan

To start off with, I still haven't received my 21st Lit book, so I can't talk about what is in there.

As far as the Scaffolding text, I have that one!

It makes a lot of sense that exposing ELLs to more discussion with their peers is going to help their spoken language skills. However, as with many groups I have been in, not much talking occurs. Finding activities where students must talk to complete the task is essential. This was the one group suggestion that stood out to me as being different from all other group work parts I have ever heard about. One that was mentioned that I feel is important for any group work is making sure students know how to work in groups. Two group activities that I thought were useful were picture sequencing and problem solving. This would work well for me in a classroom because I feel more comfortable in other subject areas, and these can be used in those other subject areas quite well.

Teacher-guided reporting was a completely new idea for me. I have always thought that when students share ideas the teacher should not say anything. This allows for the teacher to help students' thoughts be explored more by helping to walk them through thoughts. I have always been nervous when it comes to sharing my ideas outloud in front of a group. All throughout my schooling, the teacher would just sit and stare at me, making the experience more nerve racking. I wish that my teachers would have helped me along in this way. Even though I was not an ELL student, I feel it would have helped. I find that to be the best part of learning how to help ELLs, that they may not be the only ones struggling in some areas of LA. These tactics allow for teachers to give added support to all students. (As aposed to singling out certain students, such as ELLs.)

I think that the idea of journal writing is great. It is a way for students to practice writing and putting their thoughts down on paper. Many times in field last semester, my CT would have the students write about what they learned during our lessons. This helped students to, first, think over about what they had just been taught, and, second, to put those thoughts into words instead of just telling the CT. I was never given the opportunity to write journals like this. Starting in the 5th grade we wrote journals, but we always had a certain topic to write on. I was never allowed to express my words in writing. By this I mean, I was learning to talk in one way, and write completely different. As though the two were not connected, so to speak.

I attempt to learn Spanish for a few years, but I had trouble with it. Looking back, I think it had to do with a strong emphaise on writing and not on the spoken word. I did great with writing papers and reading to myself, but once I tried to speak sentences I had trouble. This personal experience gives me more understanding about needed to focus on both writing and oral when dealing with ELLs.

Jami's Comment:
I totally agree with one of your first statements about teaching children how to participate in a discussion. I really didn't think about this aspect of it in such detail. But if students have neevr had the oppertunity to be part of a large group discussion they may not know how to do it. We should demonstrate how to do it as well as posting some questions maybe for them to think about or samples to ask. At first they will probably just use the questions that we have posted but thats okay. Once they learn how to be apart of the discussion they will learn to formulate their own questions and get a better understanding of how to think about things. This is a great place to start with discussions. I also think journal writing is a great way for children to get their thoughts and ideas out there. In lower grades letting them know the various ways to write will allow them to be more expressive and free with their writing. Like we saw in the video yesterday in class-the teacher showed the different ways for children to write. This is great because they won't feel discouraged if they can't do something. For us in second grade I think it's important to give the students a very broad topic and let them write what they want on that-like your CT did. This way if they are still writing something down and expanding on what it was that they understood, not some topic that they may not have fully grasped and have only a sentence to write on.

Veronica's Comment: I wanted to add that I think you made a good point about the emphasis that is placed on writing and reading for students that are learning a second language. Although, it is very important for students to understand the concepts of reading and writing in the second language; there should also be a time for ELL students to interact with students that fluently speak the second language. Through this interaction, the ELL students can hear dialogue and participant in it as well.

Veronica's Week 4 Post

As I read chapter 3 in Literacy for the 21st Century, I was glad to see that one activity listed in Instructional Recommendations for the Three Stages of Reading and Writing, Figure 3-3 (p.97) was a Language Arts activity I see frequently in my field placement. The class has two pen pals from MSU. They had to write a letter of response about how they also manage their time. I go to field placement on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I am able to see a continuation of their work. On Wednesday, the had writer's workshop; where they sit with a partner and talk about suggestions for their writing. As listed in the table this will help promote a fluent reader and writer.
While reading Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning, I found ideas that I would like to highlight. On page 26, it stresses the importance of working in groups for ELLs as well as non ELLs. I think it is important for ELL students to have experience with working in groups since it exposes them to learn the norms of working with others as well hearing the language being spoken, and they are able to interact with other speakers of that language. On page 37, I also found it interesting to read about "wait time" not only is it important to increase "wait time" for ELL students but for all students. This will allow for students to say more and show how much they know. I know this is something I have to work on.


Susan's Response: I like the ideas of having students work together. Working in pairs and in groups seems to help students develop their writing. I remember in school that writing was an activity you did by yourself. You were not allowed to work together, but I am glad to see those ideas changing. I see students in field that benefit greatly from working together on writing, and I plan to use this approach in my own classroom one day.

Jami's Post-Participation Week 4

Because I left class early due to being sick; I did not participate in the reading of the poems-so I am not able to write about that.

Emergent literacy begins at birth for all children and continues throughout their preschool years. Children are constantly interacting with print: books, papers, magazines, signs, etc. everyday of their lives. This helps them to learn and understand that they need to use language to express their ideas, thoughts and feelings. It helps chidlren early on in their development of speech and language and most importantly literacy. Teachers can prepare an environment to support literacy development by putting name tags on things in the classroom. They can learn the d-o-o-r spells door and they physically see what a door is. This helps them to relate words to actual objects that they come in contact with everyday. This is especially important for ELL’s. They are new to the English language and do not understand what words go with certain objects. It is also important to talk things through. When you are holding an item in your hand you should repeat what it is a couple of times and have the students repeat the words with you. This helps them again to visualize what a compass is. They hear and see it.As noted in the readings picture sequencing is important. It is an activity in which students can put pictures in order to tell a story. This again helps students to see the story, while not having to put specific words with it. There are many things that we as teachrs can do to promote emergent literacy of young children. Repitation of words, sticky notes with words or phrases, signs, posters, etc..

Jami’s Post on Discussions Week 3

While reading Janice Almasi’s article A New View of Discussion, I found that she made many wonderful points that I fully agree with and have never even thought of. She discusses the difference between a discussion and a recitation, and how much more beneficial a discussion can be. “Thus discussion supposes cognitive engagement to the extent that the participants are actively involved in a dialogic conversation with one another rather than passively reciting answers to questions that may not be personally meaningful” (31). This is so very true. In field I have noticed that when children are asked questions they give simple one word answers. This does not promote thinking between the students. They just rattle off answers and if they are incorrect than it doesn’t really matter. I think in the classroom we need to get students involved in questioning things on their own and formulating their own discussions between themselves with little help from the teacher. Students are constantly wondering about things so why not prompt them to discuss it among themselves. I have found that my CT does not prompt much discussion between the students. In fact, I have never seen the children have a discussion in the classroom. They are in second grade and should be able to come up with their own ideas and not have to sit in a recitation type setting all the time. Discussion will get the students thinking for themselves and interact with each other. They will begin to see that they can have meaningful conversations with each other. It will give them a chance to act as the teacher in a way by assuming the role as the facilitator, inquisitor, or evaluator. As I have observed children love to play the teacher role and I think my classroom would really enjoy having a discussion with each other about a book or something else they are working on in class.

Veronica's comment: I think you made a very good point that 2nd. graders can carry a discussion. With a little guidance from your CT, they can do it. It would also be important for them to set ground rules on how the discussion should go and what are appropriate behaviors for the discussion. Given the opportunity, 2nd. graders would love to share their opinions with others!

Susan: Learning Goals

I am minoring in both mathematics and history. I really do not enjoy reading and writing. One goal that I have for this semester is to find some parts of Language Arts that I can be enthusiastic about, and, in turn, teach LA in an enthusiastic way to my future students. I also want to expand my ideas about what LA is. Right now I feel that it is students reading and writing stories. However, this is what turned me off from LA in the first place. I want to discover new ways to teach these subjects.



Jami's Comment:
I totally agree with you on expanding ideas about what Language Arts is. There is so much that goes along with it. It is not just strictly reading and writing, but it is hard to understand what exactly it is and how we need to apply it and teach it to our students. For me I loved writing stories when I was a child which is why I decided to focus on Language Arts. A great deal of it is reading and writing-but we also need to know how to get our students to do so correctly and teach them the correct ways to read and write if they don't know how when they enter our classrooms.

Veronica's Comment:
I think it would also be very interesting to learn ways to make students enthusiastic about Language Arts. Everyday, my field placement class does a D.O.L (daily oral language) assignment; it usually includes a story problem that incorporates both Math and Language Arts. They also do an exercise where they have to make different words from a word given by the teacher. Last week, a word they had to use was inauguration. They have a lot of fun making words since they like to get as many different words as possible than their classmate did. When I was in second grade, I remember having to write in a journal every day. We could pick topics of our own or our teacher would select topics for us. This was a fun way to incorporate writing since it also gave us choice.

Goals for learning

Veronica- As I have spent time in the classroom either for TE classes or while I have subbed in classrooms, I felt like I wanted to do more for students in the aspect of spelling. I would like to learn what is nessary for students to feel that they can sound out letters to spell a word. Many students struggle at time. With a growing technology of spell check on computers or quick text on cell phones, our future students may struggle even more with spelling skills.

First Post: Goals for Learning

Jami-
My concentration is Language Arts. I really do not feel as though I am prepared to teach it, at least not yet. My goals for this course are to first learn to teach students how to read, write, comprehend and ask questions. I feel this is one of the most challenging parts of teaching. If you have a student who can not read or write you will face a whole new challenge. I want to make sure I know how to do this effectively. Another goal of mine is to learn how to question readings and take what they are saying and implement them into my own teaching. When I read some piece of information I usually just believe it to be true because it is in print. I dont know how to look at it from another perspective and question it. One of my largest goals is learning how to teach ELLs without having to teach two seperate lessons to my students. I want them to be fully included in what is going on and be able to keep up with the rest of the students. I really just want to walk out of this semester and have a better understanding of how students learn to read and write and what types of strategies I can implement into my classroom. I want to be able to accomidate all of my students without taking too much time away from learning.

COMMENTS
Susan; Response: On the topic of ELLs, I feel extremely unprepared to teach to that group of students. I also hope we get some info on how to teach to them.. and also how to find out or gauge the amount of knowledge these students have in the world of LA.

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