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.