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.