Class reading--August 2

I read chapter 11 in our book Classrooms that Work and found it very helpful in providing some instruction on differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction is a very important concept that has to be present in almost all aspects of teaching. It involves knowing your students in order to provide activities and lessons that are tailored to their individual needs. I really liked the Garfield quiz that Monica passed out in class the other day because this is a great way to provide your students with differentiated instruction. After you know what your students interest are, you can better provide things for them that will help them learn to their full potential. One of the activities that I enjoyed reading about in the chapter were the literature circles. I used to really enjoy these when I was younger and I think they can be really helpful for students now, too. I think they can be useful to students who are more advanced because they can "teach" the rest of the group what they see that the rest of the students might not and then also for the lower students to hear what the rest of the group has to say. I think they are a great way to provide differentiated instruction and group work at the same time. Click here for TIPS

Real Life Inquiry Project

For my real life inquiry project I spent time reading with a little girl who is 5 and about to start Kindergarten. She knows her letter really well and can read some words but not many. I wanted to see how well she read a book that she had had and enjoyed for some time versus a book that I brought to her that she had never read before. In the first book we read she did very good because it was a book that she and her mother had read many times. She new exactly what each page said and if she didn't, she relied on the pictures to spark her memory. If I hadn't known that she had read this book many times, I would have thought she was reading at a very high level for her age. I brought her another book that was on the same level of reading difficulty and we read it together. She knew only a few words and she knew them from their similarities to words in the other book or by looking at the pictures. She also knew the sounds that letters made because they started with the same letter as her name or her mom's name. She would also correlate a certain letter with another word that started with that letter. This being said though, she could not "read" the second book near as well as she did the first that she had memorized. The way in which she read related to the article by Bell and Jarvis that states that children can learn to read by correlating what they know, like the letters in her first name and her mothers that she sees often, to things that they don't know and making sense out of them. The students in the article, "Letting go of 'letter of the week'" did this too with common things like McDonald's bags and the letter of the first name of the kids in their class. After seeing the little girl "read" so much of what we have learned in class came to light. She relied heavily on the pictures and the first letter of each word to try and sound out the rest of the word. She hasn't been in school yet though, so unless she has memorized the word, she doesn't read it really well. I think this shows the importance of first letter sounds and how much kids really do relate certain concepts that they know to new concepts. Like in the article, I will definitely be implementing a word wall with pictures on my wall if I teach young students. By providing them with this scaffolding you are providing them with independence and a better opportunity to learn which letters make which sounds. I think it's so important to remember things like this because it provides us with tool to help struggling readers. Also, in my time spent with the little girl I realized how, as we have talked about in class, so much of a child's reading is memorization at that age. I got to thinking on it after I left and I thought, maybe it isn't such a good idea to expose kids to the same book over and over. I thought it might limit the words that they know as well as prompt them to memorize, not actually learn to read. But after thinking on it a little longer I thought about how the little girl used her knowledge from the book she memorized and applied it to the brand new book I brought her. Although it may seem counterproductive, memorization is also a really good tool for young readers to learn. After my time spent reading with the little girl I have learned that there are many things as teachers we must consider when teaching a child to read. Memorization and letter correspondence are both very important tools to keep in mind.

Class Reading--July 31

After reading the article "The vocabulary-rich classroom..." by Lane and Allen, I was really intrigued by the examples given of teachers using vocabulary in the classroom. Vocabulary is something that isn't always given a lot of attention, so I think it's a great idea to incorporate it into other activities. Vocabulary words are almost always included in science and social studies text books and this is also a great way to increase a students vocabulary. This being said, I think the way Mrs. Barker and Mrs. Rivas used vocabulary was really a great idea. By doing things with vocabulary that children enjoy and feel ownership of, they are going to learn more words in a smaller amount of time. This is something that none of my teachers really focused on when I was in elementary school and when I went to middle school I really struggled in English because I was a really good writer, but I used no new, interesting words. Teaching children new words not only increases their vocab, but makes them more confident in themselves that they can actually use those words and know what they mean. I saw this picture on Pinterest and it is a board that you would post in your classroom and when you want to ask the class about a vocab word, you can ask them to do their "fist to five" which allows you to see what they know about the word, and how many students know the word and how many don't. This is a quick gauge that can be used in everyday conversation in other subjects that allows you to quickly see what your students know without spending too much time talking about it. I think this would be a great way to incorporate vocab into the classroom.

Class Reading--July 26

     After reading the book chapter on Developing Thoughtful Comprehenders in Classrooms that work,  I have really thought about some aspects of reading instruction that I would like to use in the future. The first thing I really liked was the concept of a "think-aloud." I think this works best with really young learners, but can also be used at aid older learners. I would like to teach 4th or 5th grade, and when you think of "think-aloud" or "read-aloud" you normally think of children that are younger. This being said, I do think that it can be beneficial for older students as well.Relating to what we had learned earlier in the semester, allowing students to see what you think, read, and write is a great way to encourage them to do the same. Another thing I liked about the article is the concept of a KWL chart. I think these are great for almost anything and can be applied to almost all subject matter. I was even thinking about using this in a math lesson. I have always struggled with math and I think this would fit in great with a lesson on any type of math. This also aids in the process of comprehension when reading, which is so very important.

Fluency Activity--Choral Reading

Choral Reading is one way to promote fluency through reading aloud in groups. 

      "Choral reading is reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students. Choral reading helps build students' fluency, self-confidence, and motivation. Because students are reading aloud together, students who may ordinarily feel self-conscious or nervous about reading aloud have built-in support."

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/choral_reading/

One way we would like to implement this in the classroom is through short, daily choral reading. We would like to use choral reading throught the use of song lyrics. This activity would be done once a day before they leave school for the day. We would a six week grading period with a popular and appropirate song. Each child will be given a copy of the lyrics to read along with the class. On the first Friday of the six weeks the class will be split into five groups. Each group will be instructed to write their own song about a topic given by the teacher to the beat of the popular song that was used that week. After doing so, each of the following 5 weeks, one of the groups songs will be used as the daily fluency activity. 

An example to start with might be a popular Justin Beiber song like the one below. 

Baby, baby, baby, oh
Like baby, baby, baby, no
Like baby, baby, baby, oh
I thought you'd always be mine, mine

For you, I would have done whatever
And I just can't believe we're here together
And I wanna play it cool, but I'm losin' you
I'll buy you anything, I'll buy you any ring

And I'm in pieces, baby fix me
And just shake me 'til you wake me from this bad dream
I'm goin' down, down, down, down
And I just can't believe my first love won't be around

Class Reading--July 24

      After reading the article about one-minute fluency measures by Deeney, I have to agree that I don't think the one-minute measures are a teachers best option. This being said, I think time is of the essence in the classroom and it's sometimes hard to fit in more than that with each student. I think it can be done though. The article suggests:

• Increasing automaticity 
• Decrease readability levels
• Read interesting texts
• Increase reading volume
• Increase expectations
• Reread books
• Engage parents and caregivers

     These are all really good things to keep in mind when you want to increase both fluency AND endurance for reading. These ideas are all really important in helping students to become better readers. I think one of the most important ones would be reading interesting texts. When I was in middle school, we started reading books as a class that really turned me off from reading. Although they were probably really good books, I didn't always enjoy them. In elementary school the books we read that were really interesting and my teachers always had great activities to go along with them. One book I remember reading that I enjoyed was The Chocolate Touch. My teacher related this to all of the things we were doing in class like social studies and math. It was a fun way to be actually interested in the book we were reading. I think it's important to remember that even though students may be older, it is still vital to make things interesting and fun so that learning is more meaningful. I will be certified through 12th grade and although elementary activities aren't appropriate if I was to teach upper grades, I would like to still be able to make lessons fun and interesting. 

Class Reading--July 19

While reading the article about phonemic awareness by Yopp and Yopp I got to thinking about the discussions we have had in class about phonics and their role in teaching children to read. As Monica mentioned, there is a constant debate over whether phonics should be focused on or not. I am on the fence about the subject because of all the convoluted rules and oddballs that accompany phonics instruction. My small group and I also talked about the fact that sounds and phonics are especially difficult in the South. Because I have lived here my whole life, there are sounds that my mouth just will not make, that people from elsewhere can make with ease. I think that poses a problem when teaching children to "correctly" pronounce a word. I would really like to look more into what approaches have to been taken to correct or provide uniformity to the way we teach phonics. I think the we speak adds to the confusion of the "rules" that come along with phonics instruction and is one reason I would steer away from that route of teaching. I found one article that talks about the differences in dialect and how it influences phonics, at http://www.celtlink.org/. I would like to know more about what is thought about this though. I also found this website that might be something that teachers could use to incorporate some phonics instruction into other instruction. http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/starting-to-read/. It corresponds with the picture that I included.

Class reading--July 17

After reading Clark's "What Can I Say Besides 'Sound it Out' ?" I got to thinking about how vital classroom "coaching" is. There has to a mix between guiding the students and not always putting them on the spot causing embarrassment. I can remember a teacher I had in second grade made me terrified to read out loud because if I did come to a word I didn't know, her response was, "sound it out, you should know this." It made me feel awful every time! I think that this article is really helpful because sometimes it seems like that is the only real answer we have to give the students. But by practicing these steps and being well versed in how to actually coach a child through the process, we can build confidence within our students and actually help them learn more than they might if they just sound it out. I also thinks this leads us to the concept that sometimes the work and student does on an individual scale can be really important. By working and reading with children one-on-one, you are allowing for those mistakes to happen without all of the pressure that comes along with reading out loud to the whole class. Also, this is important for student's because their weaknesses can be targeted more effectively when they are alone. Although it does take a lot of extra time, it is worth it. In my future classroom I would love to be able to work one-on-one with each of my students at least once a week. That way I can track progress, target insufficient skills,and build their confidence as well. I found a good example of this on Pinterest this week. Shown above, in the picture, this is an example of one of the programs that The Young Storytellers Foundation does each week. One person said, "In just one hour per week, mentors are able to give elementary school children the one-on-one attention they need to feel confident, intelligent, and creative! The children tell us that they perform better in their classrooms because they feel stronger about their abilities to share ideas. I love this program!." They do a lot of other things, but I thought this was a perfect example of how important individual reading coaching can be. Here's a link to their website if your interested Young Storytellers Foundation

Class Reading--July 12

      When reading the two articles for class today I started to not find them very helpful to me personally because I want to teach older elementary grades, like 4th and 5th. I got to thinking that the majority of the kids that enter those grades may be behind but know the basic concepts of reading and writing. Then, when reading "Letting go of the Letter of the Week" by Bell and Jarvis, I came across the part about Pedro. Because Pedro could recognize few letters, his teacher discovered a round-about way of helping him learn. I I think it's important for me to remember such cases although I don't plan on actually teaching my class to read, I may have students who have fallen behind or are ELL students. I don't want those students to just fall further behind in my classroom. I would like to take whatever measures possible to help them learn and progress at their own level. I think sometimes I get caught up in what skills I will expect for my students to have when they come into my classroom instead of being prepared for all sorts of situations. 

       It's important to remember that students who are older not only feel left out because their peers are reading, but they have little confidence. After reading the rest of the article about instilling confidence in kindergarten students, we should always remember to do the same by focusing on our students strengths. If there is an ELL student in 5th grade, I think that the same concept of viewing them as readers and writers, who just didn't know it would also apply. I'm glad I read these articles because it really made me think about the way I look at the difference between younger kids and older kids and their literary competence.

Butterfly Project--long term example

This is a picture of the Butterfly project I mentioned in the comment. This was geared at younger students, but could be applied to any elementary grade. I think it would be a fun project with endless possibilities. 

Class Reading-- July 10

     Today while reading the article by Richard Allington, I found it very interesting and helpful to find that one of the things mentioned about impressive teachers is that many of them focus on longer tasks. In other classes when having to create a lesson or unit plan, I always feel like my plans are too long and time consuming. I think this is due mostly to the fact that I have spent time in several elementary classrooms that seem like they are constantly jumping around from subject to subject with little connection to what they learned days prior to the current lesson. I think that more long term projects or lessons are a valuable idea to consider because, although they make take more time, students learn more than they would if they were constantly jumping around from one thing to the next. I am glad to know that this is something that is of importance and it is definitely a practice I would like to use in my future classroom.