Wow! Things are really starting to wind down! I learned a lot this week about the instruction of English Language Learners (ELLs).

Literacy Development of ESL Children

I think I remember reading this particular document in a previous module but it gives some helpful information about differences in English speaking children versus English Language Learners (ELLs). Obviously, learning in English speaking classrooms, ELLs often have difficulty understanding the material or understand what is going on. The text mentioned that English speaking students normally have had 4-5 years of language development before entering school. Now, imagine an ELL in an English speaking classroom. They don’t have the same exposure or practice with the language as their classmates. I can’t imagine how these students would feel! I learned that it is important to help these students acquire metalinguistic knowledge and apply phonological/grammatical patterns. Teachers who have such students must promote shared experiences and use creative and interactive uses of language for ELLs.

Teaching English Language Learners

This document explained that teachers often lack giving effective, meaningful instruction to learners with diverse backgrounds such as ELLs. To prevent this from happening in future classrooms, the text gave some great ideas of how to differentiate instruction in a reading workshop. Some things it mentioned is that teachers should focus on comprehension, meaning, and decoding of words they already know. They should also point out similarities between the student’s native language and English as well as the differences. I learned that when doing activities, hands-on activities are the best way to help them learn! Reading predictable books and reading books more than once is beneficial to these students as well. Parents should be encouraged to participate in their child’s learning and be asked to read to them at home. Bilingual tutors have been found to help these students a lot by helping them understand what they need to do to encourage participation.

Reading Instruction for ELL—Part 1

I thought this was a very helpful article to read. I learned more about what it means to use the Language-Experience Approach on page 3. Ultimately, this practice involves students providing text through dictation. This helps introduce students to reading text. I like this approach because it helps children read with their interests and experiences in mind. It also allows them to learn through age-appropriate text. I liked the example given on pages 4-5 about a teacher giving her students the task of writing a newspaper about a recent earthquake they had. This idea was thought of to help an English Language Learner in the class understand what an earthquake through the process of reading and pointing to words. As I read in a previous article, pages 6-7 addressed the need to provide ELLs with quality pieces of literature. It mentioned that books with patterns and repetition are good ones to use.

Reading Instruction for ELL—Part 2

This article explained even more ideas to use with ELLs in the classroom. The authors suggest that providing students with opportunities to illustrate stories and poems (page 2). I like this idea because students can express themselves without using words and can be used with younger and older students. Also, the articlemention that ELLs could benefit from reading Big Books or oversized books because they present predictable stories and reading patterns that students can easily memorize after 2-3 reads. I really like the idea of having students to make Big Books based on their favorite stories/books (page 3). Another idea addressed here was to allow ELLs to be involved in Directed-Listening Thinking Activities (DL-TA). This is all about helping students make predictions in stories they read. I really like the way the authors described how one teacher named Lisa used DL-TA in her classroom (pages 4-5). I also liked the idea of holding a Readers’ Theater in the classroom as a way to allow students to respond to literature. Essentially, students have the opportunity to act out characters or events from a story (page 6-7). I can see how this would help ELLs because it tells a story without reading. The last thing the authors mention is to have students create story maps (page 7). Here, they can use story grammar or the basic structure of a story to help them remember what the story is all about.

Reading Instruction for ELL—Part 3

This article discussed some ideas to use with intermediate ELLs. One thing mentioned was the use of cognitive maps, or graphic drawings to help them summarize a piece of text. This can improve their comprehension and memory of characters, setting, and plot (page 3-4). The article also pointed out that more advanced ELLs benefit from Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA), much similar to DL-TA except that here, students read the text silently after making predictions (pages 5-7). I like the idea of having student use Literature-Response Journals, or personal notebooks in which they write their own thoughts and ideas about the stories they read. The article suggests giving students questions to spark their ideas and encourage writing in these journals (pages 7-9). Lastly, this article elaborates on the idea of using Readers’ Theater, but using it for more intermediate ELLs. Here, they may go beyond recognizing characters and settings but they create their own scripts for a possible performance. This requires them to be able to identify character motivation and the problems/conflicts they may face (page 9). I think this is a great way to introduce ELLs to more sophisticated elements within a book.

Levels of Language Proficiency for ELLs

This document provided some more helpful information about ELLs. As a future teacher, it will be important to understand the different levels at which ELLs transition into learn in the English language. I learned that the different stages include: Beginning/Reproduction, Beginning/Production, Intermediate, Advanced, Formerly Limited-English Proficient /Now Fully –English Proficient, and Fully-English Proficient/Never Limited-English Proficient.

Scaffolding Reading Experience—Part 1

This article discusses what scaffolding really means. Ultimately, a scaffold is a temporary, supportive structure that assists students or groups of students in something they cannot do on their own or as well without the scaffold (page 3). This places a student in a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). It is the teacher’s responsibility to gradually take apart and rebuild the scaffold so that responsibility can be transferred to the student(s) (page 3).

I learned that scaffolded reading experiences require pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading activities to help students learn to successfully read. The Scaffolding Reading Experience (SRE) involves two phases: planning and implementation. With planning, teachers must consider the different students they have, the type of reading they choose for them, and the purpose of why they are reading. With implementation, this is where the before, during, and after activities are completed (page 5). I like how the article gives possible components of these different types of activities (page 7). Pre-reading activities are given to remind students of things they already know and build on that knowledge, engage them an upcoming book, and more importantly, give them motivation to read (pages 8 -9).

Scaffolding Reading Experience—Part 2

During-reading activities involve having the students do things for themselves as they read and also involve things that teachers do with them. The article mentions that giving students the task of reading silently. The authors feel that this is the most important activity and that with the more practice students get with reading to themselves, the more they will get better at it and become accomplished lifelong learners (page 3). Teachers should also incorporate Reading to Students into their instruction. Oftentimes, stories and other pieces of literature are better understood when they are read aloud. In addition, it usually makes the reading experience more meaningful or powerful when something is read aloud versus read silently (page 3-4). Guided reading is another thing the article mentions for teachers to use. This helps students identify important themes or generalizations to look for as they read. I learned that guided reading often begins as a pre-reading activity but is extended into during-reading activities (page 4). Another activity students do as they read may involve them orally reading text. This is an important task because students can read aloud and then share their ideas about what was read. This promotes the sharing of different interpretations. The article cautions to only use this strategy with more proficient ELLs for reading aloud can be nerve-racking and embarrassing for students who struggle with reading (page 5). Lastly, the article mentions that another activity to do during reading involves modifying the text to make it easier to understand for different learners. If students have difficulties understanding something, teachers may need to find different texts that will help students better understand the text they are reading. Modifying the text may also include drawing pictures or graphs to examine representations (page 5).

This article also goes into detail about different post-reading activities teachers can incorporate into their instruction. These kinds of activities help students create and organize information they remember from reading different kinds of text. Questioning is one thing the authors suggest using. Whether it is answering a question orally or writing it down on paper, questioning often promotes the use of higher-level thinking skills and checks for student’s understanding of information learned (page 6). Engaging in discussions is another activity to be a part of after reading. Letting students discuss can help them learn so much and gives them plenty of opportunities to share their ideas and interpretations (page 7). In addition to discussions, the article talks about Building Connections. Here it is important to lead students to build connections from what they read in a book or piece of text to different parts of their lives. I can see how this would be very beneficial for students in multicultural classrooms (page 7). A lot of teachers turn to giving writing assignments after reading. By doing so, students are able to discover and create their own ideas and interpret their own understandings. This is also used to help ELLs receive practice with writing in English as well as their native languages (page 7-8). Another activity some teachers incorporate into post-reading time is drama. Performing plays, skits, or role play are all ways students can become actively involved in what they learned or read. This is definitely one way they can express themselves and by practicing lines, they are able to practice building reading fluency (page 8). Other ways students can express themselves is through graphic, artistic, and nonverbal activities. Application and Outreach activities also help students in many ways after reading text. This is where students work together or conduct activities outside of class such as surveys or interviews (page 7-8). Re-teaching is the last activity the article suggests for a post-reading activity. It explains that although students may receive a lot of practice applying a certain concept or idea, further instruction may be needed (page 9).

It was great to read about the different sample SREs the article provided. I was able to see what instruction may look like for a simple and substantial SRE instruction using different resources (page 10).

Scaffolding Reading Experience—Part 3

The final part of the article focused more on what a differentiated SRE looks like using a challenging science text. It described doing a pre-reading activity to motivate and engage students about learning what waves are. Here, as a class, they act out what a wave is. Next, the teacher teaches the important concepts of amplitude and frequency and then writes the headings of important things addressed in the textbook on the board (pages 2-4). These items are listed in English as well as the native languages for the ELLs in the classroom.

During-reading activities include reading the first section of the chapter aloud to make the students feel comfortable with the text. The authors also say to prepare and play an audiotape for the ELLs in the class where the text is read at a slower pace and enunciated clearly for them to understand. As these children do this, the other students must be given something to do during this time (page 5). Post-reading activities may involve the teacher gaining ideas and other perspectives by engaging in a discussion. The teacher gives students questions to think about ahead of time and then allows them to talk. Additionally, the teacher may want his/her students to show their artistic side by creating poems, stories, or dramas involving waves. The article mentioned that these tasks could be spread out over a course of several days.

I learned a lot about what an SRE-centered lesson plan looks like. I understand that it is the most appropriate approaches to use in multicultural classrooms. I’m sure this information will come in handy in my future teaching!

Inquiry: A Project Approach With 5th-6th Grade Special Needs Students

This was an interesting video to watch. It was great to see how a teacher took a real problem and turned it into an activity for her students to explore and solve. I really liked the beginning activities she did with her students and made the activities she incorporated meaningful for her students. I think this is a great video to show that learning can be fun for students with many different needs. Teachers can use real world problems (such as the relocation of a road) and use it to integrate all subject areas. I think the biggest thing I took away from this video is when the narrator said that these types of activities help children “learn how to learn” (about 11:15 in video).

Response to Intervention Process for Special Education

This was a great document to read because it gave step by step instructions on what to do when intervention is needed for students to receive the help they need in the classroom. The first step involves screening and testing on benchmarks to identify students who may need intervention. When students do not meet these standards or benchmarks, the second step is to give them additional instruction to increase their reading levels. Step three involves monitoring the progress of the students receiving help. Assessments are given—often multiple times a week to check for improvement. For students who continue to struggle, step four involves teachers to individualize interventions that may include more assessments and additional intervention from other educators or specialists. The final step involves gathering all the data on a given student to determine the need for special education services.

Wow! So I learned quite a bit this week. It was very helpful to read up about the different approaches and strategies teachers can use when teaching English Language Learners and students with special needs.
Thank you for reading my post!
Kelsey

Module 13 Blog Entry

Hello again! I will say that this week was filled with a lot more information but I learned some new things about choosing reading practices in the 21st century.

Different Reading Programs
I thought it was interesting to look through the different reading programs that often used in various schools/classrooms. I am most familiar with Accelerated Reader (AR) since I took AR tests on many books that I read throughout school. The PowerPoint about the Basal program: Open Court was interesting. I had never heard of it before so it was nice to learn what it’s all about. I think it seems like a great tool to use in the classroom to help students develop skills in phonics. I had never heard about the Achieve 3000 program either but I can see how the use of technology through computers would allow students to become engaged in the learning process and come to comprehend what they read. I like how the program allows teachers to set the pace for which students complete assignments. It seems like the process in which the program is set up (Set a Schema, Read for Information, Demonstrate Mastery, Construct Meaning, and Form an Opinion (slides 10-15) would help students develop different comprehension skills. The comprehensive Four Blocks Reading Program is also new to me. As I read through the PowerPoint, a lot of the components reminded me of The Daily 5 program because both programs encourage reading to self, reading to others, word work, and writing. The last type of reading program I learned about here was called the Literacy Collaborative program that aims to help children improve in reading, writing, and language skills (slide 2). I like how it requires the presence of a literacy coordinator at the school (slide 5). I think it covers a lot of the important things children need exposure to (phonemic awareness instruction, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction (slide 7-13). I like how the program comes equipped with different types of assessment and ideas for support (slide 15-16).

Basal Reading Program—Teacher’s Edition
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to look at an actual basal reading program book but reading over the different ones I learned about in this module, I’m sure that they provide helpful information and guides.

SRA Reading Mastery
The video I watched under this section and answered the following questions presented:

What is the role of the teacher? –The role of the teacher is to call out different words for students to listen to and pick out the words with different sounds. She asks them questions about what sounds are different. She uses a script to guide instruction.

What is the role of the student?—The role of the student is to listen for the different sounds in the words the teacher calls out and answer the questions she asks.
Direct Instruction for reading and mathematics are taught in a similar way. What do you think the developers of this program believe about learning?—I can tell that the developers of this program think that students learn better when they are focused on the teacher and have full attention on her.

What type of differentiation do you observe? As claims are made, do you think all children will benefit from this approach?—I don’t see much differentiation in this type of instruction because they are all doing the same thing and giving the same responses.

A head teacher is quoted as saying, “Direct Instruction has been probably the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to the teaching profession.” Would you agree?—Honestly, I would not agree with this statement. This kind of program may work for some teachers while it may not work for others. I don’t think it’s the best thing to happen to the teaching profession but it may have changed some things for some teachers. I think it just depends on the needs and abilities of the students in the class.

What ownership for learning do children have in direct instruction?—They own responsibility for listening to the teacher.

Approaches to Teaching ReadingThis short document was interesting to read because it was a nice summary of how to use the different reading programs I learned about in the classroom.

Best Practices
The article I read in this section was great to read because it helped me see what types of things I need to do to ensure that I am using the best practices when it comes to teaching and talks about what is and what is not considered a balanced curriculum. Integration of curriculum was a big focus in this document as well. It addressed the different benefits for integrated teaching. I noticed that differentiated instruction is another important aspect of teaching because there will be many different types of students in the classroom. It even mentioned that active learning is another thing to incorporate into your teaching. These are all really great ideas I know that I will want to remember.

What is Inquiry?Although we have talked about the Inquiry teaching method in past modules, it was still helpful to read up on what it is and the benefits it has in the classroom. I have mentioned before that I prefer the Inquiry method over others but it doesn’t mean that the others don’t work.

Cambourne’s Conditions
I can tell that the conditions that Cambourne presents in this article are very important for teachers and other educators. He makes a lot of great points and gives great examples of what to do in order to create a constructivist classroom. I know that it will be important to follow the conditions of: immersion, demonstration, engagement, expectation, responsibility, employment, approximation, and response (pg. 5). This was a great read!

Common Core ELA Standards
I know that being familiar with the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts is essential. I have looked through the different standards across the grades K-6 and understand that it is important to know the standards! The Jing Video Dr. Powell posted in this section explained different things about the Standards. She mentioned that the Standards are subject to change from year to year. This just happened during the 2012-2013 school year.

Module 12 Blog Entry

Hello everyone!

The semester is really winding down! Although the blog is optional now for our class, it still helps to talk about what I have learned each week. The modules are shorter now but needless to say, I still learned a lot. As a future teacher, I know that I will have to establish a positive environment for literacy workshop and understand that I will have to conduct culturally relevant practices. The information in this module did a great job of highlighting that.

Guided Reading
I remember reading this document in previous modules. It is evident that this is important information since we keep seeing it and keep reading about it. I think it really gives a lot of helpful ideas when assisting children with their reading. I also like that it answers a lot of questions about the guided reading process such as “What is Guided Reading?,” “What do I need?,” and “How do I begin?” I know these are questions that I would ask myself! It’s great that the document gave a lot of ideas on how to help different types of learners improve their reading abilities. It focused on giving strategies that would help struggling readers and even gave ideas of what to do to allow the fluent readers to make progress. I know this document will come in handy once I begin teaching!

Teaching Children to Care PowerPoint
I really liked this PowerPoint presentation! The quotes on the 2nd slide rang so true because I’ve always felt that school should be a place where children and teachers feel happy to work and grow together. Teachers also need to focus on being the best role models they can be for the children. I like the idea given on slide 3 and 4 of holding regular class meetings. As it was said, I think it can help eliminate and prevent a lot of problems. Ultimately, I feel that it builds a sense of community among the students. The sample Reading Workshop schedule presented on slide 5 was great! It looks like each element would help students grow in a lot of different areas. I liked the many ideas given for different literacy centers to conduct for the workshop (slide 6-11). It was really interesting to read the information and reasons (slide 12-15) for not saying “Good Job!” to students. I will say that I am quite guilty of this. I didn’t think that doing so would hinder their abilities with other tasks they complete. As slide 16 said, a little praise can go a long way. This is definitely something to keep in mind! Slides 17-19 reminded me of what I learned in my Foundations of Education class before starting in the education program at UNCW. As a class, we developed our own rules and discussed the importance of turning the negative rules into positives. I learned that in an elementary class, all of this helps children become hold responsibility for their own actions. I really liked the idea of The Circle of Friends on slide 21. I can see this benefitting all children involved. It like how it addresses the appropriate actions students can take to help their peers who have different needs. I believe this can help prevent a lot of issues that cause bullying. I think this is a great concept! It was helpful to read the rest of the PowerPoint about making the classroom environment positive and free of distractions (slides 22-25).

Workshops and Centers
This document gave some very helpful information! I know that the many ideas given here for different centers to use in a reading and writing workshop will come in handy for future reference!

Developing Culturally Relevant Practices
This article gave a lot of interesting information regarding the need for teachers to become aware of the different cultures students may come to class with. It is important for teachers to learn about student’s home and community practices and recognize differences within English Language learner (pg. 62-66). It was nice to have a short overview (pg. 67) of what the characteristics of Culturally Responsive teaching are. I especially like the last point given where it says that teachers build on what the child knows but takes instruction beyond what they are familiar with. I really liked how the article listed a lot of different multicultural authors. Teachers can refer to this list to potentially find books that would help students relate to a particular student’s culture (pg. 69). It was interesting to be reminded that when leading instruction, a student’s primary language should be addressed when conducting literacy events (pg. 70). Reading the different accounts of how read alouds were conducted in culturally diverse classrooms was interesting (pg. 73-76). It was interesting to be reintroduced to the term: kidwatching. I have heard of it before but this article did a great job of describing it further. Ultimately, it is the act of observing students as they learn and work. I noticed that the rest of the article covered information about how to assess students while kidwatching. A lot of the assessments reminded me of the ones I learned about in module 2 and used on my tutee!

Of course the information I read in this article caused me to begin thinking about how I would create a classroom that creates a sense of community and is “culture friendly.” I can see myself using the many ideas the author presents. I think using the list of multicultural authors is a great item to have when choosing a book to read aloud. Also, I feel that having the students from different cultures share their personal experiences and customs can be beneficial for everyone—teachers and students! As a teacher, I know that I will have to address the different cultures each student comes to class with. This is something to keep in mind!

The Reading Workshop
As always, I enjoyed reading Serafini’s work! I recall reading chapter 3 in a previous module but it was great to be reminded of some of the things mentioned in the text about promoting a sense of community in the classroom and making a space where readers can focus on reading. I like how Serafini describes the importance of displaying books around the room and having a classroom library. I like the suggestion of having different opportunities for sharing such as singing, making food together, and having class discussions (pg. 33-34). I had never heard of shoebox autobiographies or “wallfolios” but I can see how these would be great items for students to showcase their personalities and the different cultures they may come from (pg. 34).

Chapter 4 was also a chapter I remember reading back in a different module. I recall learning about how Serafini selects and develops a focus unit in the reading workshop. I liked how he chose to use the popular children’s book: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and compared it to similar books about children escaping reality and made his own focus unit. I thought it was great that his students could make their own impressions, connections, and wonderings from the various texts.

I learned a lot of interesting information this week! I hope you all have as well. Thank you for reading my blog! See you next week!
Kelsey

Module 11 Blog Entry

Hello again everyone!

Here we are at the end of module 11! Ashleigh and I talked about how much we have learned so far and this week revealed a lot more helpful information! We reflected on what we read about teaching spelling in relationship to reading.

Spelling In Parts (SIP)I thought this was a very interesting article! It highlighted the many issues that a lot of students encounter when learning to spell words. It was helpful to be reminded of different strategies good spellers often use such as sound-to-spelling patterns and visualization. I learned that when it comes to Consonant-Vowel-Consonant and Consonant-Vowel-Consonant-silent e words, it is the children who use sound strategies who are often successful with spelling such words. It was interesting to read about the conversation with Joey. After having some meaningful SIP instruction, it is evident that he did a lot better with spelling. From this article, I noted that the biggest difference lies in a child’s understanding and ability to break a word up into syllables. The article pointed out that successful students often hear a word, apply common spelling patterns, give visual attention to the pattern, and divide the word into chunks. In broader terns, these are known as three major strategies: using visual memory, graphophonic knowledge,and morphemic knowledge. It was interesting to read about how to help students spell big words. Using the SIP strategy seemed to really help the students tackle the bigger words. It was surprising that the class discussed in the article successfully learned how to spell the word communication. For 2nd graders, I can see this being a really big word. I think the Spelling in Parts (SIP) strategy is a great method to use in the classroom. With some practice, I think I would be able to use it to help students in my future classroom. When choosing a word to work on, the strategy ultimately involves clapping out syllables, divide and pronounce each syllable, say the syllable and spell it, circle difficult spelling patterns, identify a mnemonic or analogy to apply to the pattern, CSW (cover, say, and write the syllable), and finally, check and repeat the word.

Spelling Instruction and Assessment PowerPointIt was interesting to begin this PowerPoint with a little test! I did a lot better than I thought but I did struggle with writing the name Abu Ghraib, mainly because I had a hard time pronouncing the word. Although I knew most of the words on the list, I can see how using the SIP strategy to spell would be very helpful. I liked how the presentation pointed out that spelling needs to be taught along with writing. This makes sense because when students write, they HAVE to spell (slide 5). I remember learning in a previous module something about the number of words we have in the English language but it was surprising to be reminded of the rapid growth in words we experience each day. It’s amazing that we already have 1,003,661 words and will add another 14.7 by the end of the day! It was great to learn that the average educated person knows 20,000 words but only uses 2,000 words in a week. However, it is probably true that these people don’t know how to spell a majority of these words. This slide (slide 6) really made me think about how many words I know and use on a weekly basis! The statistics discussed in the PowerPoint indicate that the average American can spell 20% or less of words in the English language (slide 7). When you really think about it, it’s not that much! The presentation also focused on the three major spelling strategies: Sound (phonetic cues), Sight (visual cues), and Meaning (knowing root words, etc.) (slide 8). It makes sense that spelling is often a difficult task because language, especially the English Language, is made up of a complex set of rules and spoken using a lot of different dialects (slide 9). Because of such difficulty, I can see how invented spelling would be encouraged in young children (slide 10). It was great that the PowerPoint gave some ideas of what kinds of words to include in a spelling list for students to practice and eventually master such as high frequency words, homophones, and words from literature or other subject areas (slide 11-12). I reminded that learning spelling patterns can certainly lead us to spell many words slide 13-14). It’s important to understand the meaning behind words before attempting to spell them. The program sequence for teaching spelling highlighted on slide 15 is definitely something to keep in mind, especially when planning to gradually teach harder words. The presentation also gave ideas of activities to use when teaching spelling such as word sorts, spelling inquiries, sound charts, and word webs. It also listed some valuable teaching techniques such as chunking, sorting roots and suffixes, pairing homophones, and doing rhyme reading (slides 16-23). I thought it was interesting to note the importance of knowing Latin and Greek root words in order to spell. A lot of words have the same root word and can mean almost the same thing. If children could identify this concept, then it may help them when learning to spell them (slide 24). As we learned in a previous module, assessment of a child’s spelling is important. It was great to be reminded of how to conduct a spelling miscue analysis. Like any other assessment, it must be an ongoing process (slide 25-31). I like how the PowerPoint gave the different characteristics of effective speller. I learned that they read a lot, are intrinsically motivated to learn words, and use numerous spelling strategies (slide 32). It is unfortunate that a lot of people who struggle with spelling are often good readers but lack the motivation to become good spellers. The presentation pointed out that these people will eventually identify themselves as bad spellers (slide 33-34). I’m glad that the PowerPoint also gave ideas to use to help struggling spellers in the classroom. Teachers can teach proofreading early, have students to reread literature, give fewer words on a test, and use the SIP strategy. More importantly, they must be encouraged and reassured that they can learn to spell. They can learn to become great word watchers (slide 36-38)!

Spelling—What’s All The Fuss?
This document was an interesting read! I learned a lot about what to look for in different student’s writing. Upon first look, I’m sure that most people would think that Carl produced better writing/spelling than Jason. Carl made minor errors while Jason’s spelling indicated that he needed a lot more practice. However, further examination tells us that there is not much difference between each piece. It was revealed that Carl probably structured his writing using what he learned in a reading basal program where he was mostly prompted to write. He limited his writing so he could use more words he could spell. With Jason’s writing, I noticed that he seemed take more risks with writing and attempted to spell words he didn’t know. This is something for teachers to look past since the problem can easily be solved (pg. 1-4).

I thought it was important to note that spelling is basically a continuation of a child’s language development. With anything they learn, it takes time and practice. In order to help them learn to communicate orally, teachers often ask questions, construct shared meaning, and check for clarification. The document raised an interesting point that this should also be done when teaching written language (spelling) (pg. 5). I thought it was very interesting to learn that trying to identify the spelling level at which a student is can be dangerous. Oftentimes, teachers can meet a child at a certain level but forget that the things they learned in previous stages need to be revisited. Children are continually building on their conventional spelling (pg. 5).

I also gained a lot of insight when reading about Sandra Wilde’s principles of spelling: 1) spelling is evaluated using natural writing, 2) spelling is evaluated analytically and not based on right/wrong, 3) spelling is evaluated in terms of children’s strategies, and 4) teachers should evaluate spelling to be informed of student progress—it should not be used as a mechanical test scorer (pg. 6). To add to her principles, Wilde also presents us with five spelling strategies students can use when writing: 1) Placeholder, 2) Human Resource, 3) Textual Resource, 4) Generation, Monitoring, and Revision, and 5) Ownership (pg. 6). Other higher-level strategies include spelling words as the sound, spelling by analogy, and spelling by linguistic content (pg. 6-7). When considering any strategy to use, the document stresses the importance for teachers to understand that no one strategy is better than the other. They are each valuable because each student learns differently! To add to this, the many ways that students learn greatly influence the way in which teachers lead instruction. The document suggests that children learn naturally under conditions such as: immersion, expectation, responsibility, and response (pg. 8).

Of course, it was interesting to read about how all of this looks in the classroom. I liked the opening paragraph that stated “When children are immersed in demonstrations of how texts are constructed and used, the classroom becomes a place where written language permeates the curriculum” (pg. 8). This is so true! The table given on page 9 was helpful because it listed the different functions of languages to use when teaching (instrumental, regulatory, informative, etc.) and gave examples of each. I liked how this section stressed the importance of exposing children to a lot of literature and a variety of authors (pg. 9).

Best Practices—NCTE
Although this was an optional reading, I skimmed through it and thought it would be valuable to save for later. It explained the “best” ideas to use when teaching and learning spelling. It was interesting to read how they compared these ideas to the “not-so-good” ideas as the described them.

Spelling Is More than Lists and Tests
The module guide also listed this item as an optional read but as with the last document, I read through a little bit of it. I can see this being useful for me when I start setting up a spelling program in my future classroom. It touched on a lot of the things we have learned in in previous modules as well as this one. It highlighted the fact that with all of the other things teachers must teach, not much emphasis is placed on spelling. It also pointed out the essential aspects of a spelling program such as phonemic awareness instruction, strategy instruction, homophone instruction, assessment techniques, and more importantly; instruction that encourages students to become word watchers (pg. 3-5). As I mentioned, assessing students in their spelling abilities is essential so it was great to read about the different assessment ideas such as spelling interviews, spelling notebooks, weekly spelling tests, and of course, spelling miscue analyses (pg. 7-9). I also noted how the document talked about using Inquiry techniques for teaching these strategies. It was great to learn about different examples for each grade level (pg. 10-13).

Phonics/Spelling Continuum
Ashleigh and I recall looking at this document in a previous module but it’s great to be reminded of it now since it is so relevant. It’s helpful to read through the developmental stages in which children learn the different vowel patterns, syllables, and combinations. It was interesting to read the module guide explaining that phonics instruction should be complete by the 3rd grade. It makes sense that children should know and understand each item on the list so they can work to improve their spelling throughout school.

44 Phonemes and Spelling Patterns
Ashleigh and I also discussed seeing and using this document in the module about assessing spelling. This is something we both plan to keep in a file for later use. I’m sure this will come in handy not only for my future teaching but for my own information. It highlights the sound, symbols, and possible spellings for different words.

Pinnell and Fountas
Chapter 15 of Pinnell and Fountas’s text Word Matters gave a great description of what interactive writing is and how it is used in the classroom. Ultimately, this type of writing is teacher guided and involves both the teacher and students to share writing by writing a message or text. It was interesting to read that interactive writing can be used to complete simple tasks such as making a grocery list, retelling a story, writing a letter, and giving directions (pg. 191-192). Oftentimes, the process can be spread out for more than one day of instruction. It was great to read about the many benefits interactive writing has on the students. I learned that it engages them into the process of composing stories, describing characters, using spelling patterns, and connecting writing to reading (pg. 192) and allows beginning readers to say words slowly, listen to sounds, remember a known word, and remember how to write certain letters by thinking of how they look (pg. 193). I liked the example given in the text about one teacher using interactive writing in the classroom. She did a lot to help her students during this process because she showed them how to remember by having them to repeat messages and rereading while writing, said words slowly to demonstrate a word solving strategy, and showed them how to take something they already knew and connect it with the writing (pg. 194-195). It was interesting to read about the different examples of how to use interactive reading with the different grade levels. In order to help children learn about words when doing interactive writing, the text suggests for teachers to work on the edge of children’s understanding about letters and words, use it as a resource for studying words, make connections to other curriculum, use demonstration and prompting techniques, and help students learn to write for themselves (pg. 199-203). These are all really great pieces of advice that should come in handy one day!

Chapter 16 presented a lot of information about something we’ve been discussing and learning about in previous modules—The Writing Workshop. This gave a lot of helpful examples of what to do in a writing workshop to help students find and develop their own voices, acquire thinking about writing (asking important questions throughout the writing process), understand the importance of revisiting their work, and helping them see a purpose behind their writing (pg. 207). As I read in the text, it stressed need to analyze student’s spelling and writing. I liked how this chapter included examples of young student’s work as a way to show common spelling patterns in their writing. It was interesting to be reminded that short mini-lessons can be used to address the problems students encounter (pg. 217-219).

The last required reading from Word Matters gave a lot of helpful information regarding the act of guided reading. I like how the opening paragraph listed the two important aspects to becoming a competent word solver: 1) knowing about words and 2) being able to use one’s knowledge while reading words in the text (pg. 233). Pinnell and Fountas talk about using the “before, during, and after” structure when teaching lessons. The “Before” phase includes the process of selecting appropriate text and introducing them to the students. Analyzing the characteristics of different types of text such as number of lines, range of high-frequency words, and amount of multi-syllable words are important things to consider during this time (pg. 234). The “During” phase calls for teachers to observe and support reading to help individuals read text. Prompting one strategy teachers use during this phase. In this case, prompts are often questions or calls to action that help students solve words as they read (pg. 242). As for the “After” phase, the teacher may have a couple of teaching points and reinforce teaching strategies. In addition, students are encouraged to go back into the text to find words they may have had trouble with. Follow-up activities are often introduced to students to help them use the ideas or concepts learned in a lesson. During this additional time, the book suggests that letter work and/or word work activities be available to helps children look at print and think flexibly about words. Everything presented in this chapter was very interesting and I am sure it will be worth revisiting once I begin setting up a writing workshop in my future classroom.


This was another information-filled module! Everything I have learned has helped me to start thinking about the kinds of things I can implement into a future spelling program in my classroom. Ashleigh and I realize that establishing an effective program is essential to information learned this week is very valuable to us!

Thank you for reading my post! See you next week!
Kelsey

Module 10 Blog Entry

Hello everyone!

What another information filled module! Ashleigh and I had a lot to discuss regarding how to teach writing in relationship to reading! As always, there was so much but I managed to get through all of it! We learned about many ways we could set up writing workshops in our future classrooms! This module revealed that writing is a big process—with revision being one of the most important steps.

Similarities between Reader’s Workshop Writer’s Workshop
I recall reading chapters 1 and 2 from The Reading Workshop and read through Chapter 7 of The Daily 5. As I examined each selection, I found a lot of similarities between the reader’s workshop and the writer’s workshop. Below, I have listed and described each similarity.

1) Student Choices
When looking back at the chapters from The Reading Workshop, the first thing I noticed about the workshop is that it provides students with a lot of choices. Chapter 2 mentioned that one of the guiding principles (#2) for the process explains the need for students to make choices about what they read, who they work with in groups, and what how they feel about what they read. I agreed with the authors in saying that teachers must share such control, allowing students to feel important in their decisions (pg. 12).

Looking at this concept in The Daily 5, the authors also placed a lot of emphasis on giving students control over what they read, write, and what they do with their schedules each day. I thought it was interesting how they noted that having control over our scheduling as adults motivates, engages, and causes us to become more productive. The same goes for children (pg. 92). Chapter 7 touched on the idea that teachers should “check in” with students to see what they plan to work on or do during the day. Students have plenty of opportunities to do things such as Word Work, Read to Self, Read to Someone, etc.(pg. 92-94). From reading about this process, I noted the authors reporting that their student’s seemed to benefit from having choices (pg. 95).

As I read through Lucy Calkin’s article about starting a writing workshop, I noticed that she also focuses on letting students have some sort of control of what they do in the classroom. When doing independent work, students were able to choose what they wanted to write/draw about and work to create a story.

2) Opportunities

Another thing I noticed with The Reading Workshop was that along with choices is that students have a lot of different opportunities to become successful readers (pg. 12). The teacher provides the children with a variety of resources and materials to help them in their reading. In addition, they receive opportunities to work with others and discuss what they read.

The Daily 5 also focuses on the need to provide students with many different opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, students have a lot of options to choose from but each option provides them with opportunities to grow and build on specific abilities. I liked what they authors said on page 95: “We have achieved what we set out to accomplish when we began this journey: providing children with meaningful literacy activities that will help them become proficient, lifelong learners while allowing us to work with small groups or individuals” (pg. 95).

Appendix B of the Common Core State Standards also focused on the importance of providing students with a wide range of quality literature/text to learn from. The exemplar texts as well as the sample performance tasks gives teachers ideas to help students become exposed to many different types of genre and activities.

3) Classroom Setup—(Space)

In chapter 2, Serafini lists “space” as a guiding principle for The Reading Workshop. Having a supportive environment is essential for children to learn and grow. The place in which they learn; in this case, the classroom, needs to be comfortable and inviting so that students are encouraged to read to themselves and with others.

The authors of The Daily 5 also stress the importance of classroom arrangement. They suggested creating areas where students can work privately and in small/large groups. Students are able to find what place is more comfortable for them to work in so they can focus more on where they can work to be the best learner (pg. 98-99).

4) Assessment/Reflection

I did notice that under the guiding principle of Uncertainty (#7), it was mentioned that The Reading Workshop allows teachers to assess student performances and reflect on their own practices in the classroom. Serafini described that assessments don’t always tell us a lot about what students truly know so it’s important for teachers to be mindful of how they are teaching. He said that “we need to be able to act on our beliefs without allowing those beliefs to close our minds to new possibilities. In essence, we have to be able to act, while at the same time critiquing our actions” (pg. 13).

Chapter 7 of The Daily 5 also discussed the importance of reflecting and assessing in the classroom. The authors expressed their desire to assess their students while letting students hold responsibility over their learning. They explained that they used a variety of assessments to monitor student’s growth. In addition to anecdotal records and individual reading inventories, the authors said that they met with guided reading groups and individual reading groups to record notes about a child in a notebook. This allowed them to go back and read about a student’s academic progress over time (pg. 97-98).

Similarities Between Reading Process and Writing Process
I know that the module guide for this week called for us to reflect on four similarities between the reading process and the writing process but I wasn’t sure what resources to use so I wanted to reflect on my own ideas based on what I felt were similarities.

1) We All Read and Write For a Purpose

As I thought about the process of reading and writing, I thought it was important to consider why we read and write. Whether we read/write to entertain, inform, or persuade ourselves/others, we are doing it for a reason. There is often a purpose for reading and writing—even if some people don’t recognize it. We even read and write to communicate information and share ideas/knowledge. The reading and writing processes are very much similar because we begin each process with a purpose.

2) Pre-Reading and Pre-Writing
When deciding to read a book or write a piece of work, there are some things that readers/writers must consider before beginning. Oftentimes, readers look into different types of books/genres to choose the one that best fits their interests or focus area. They may ask others about the book or even examine reviews about the book. The same goes for writing. Writers think and plan before starting a story or letter and may ask other’s their opinion about what they plan to write about. I think this is a significant similarity between the two processes.

3) Readers and Writers Check for Understanding
While reading a book/text, readers may come across some words, phrases, or information they don’t know. It is often helpful to go back and expand on these ideas to better understand what it being read. Similarly, writers may struggle putting what they want to say in their own words so they might have to revise meanings and reflect on their own ideas. I think this step exists in the both processes because if the reader/writer doesn’t understand what is being presented, then others will probably not understand either.

4) Review
I think that one of the most important similarities between the reading and writing processes is the need to review what has been read or written. We all know that revision is a crucial step in the writing process. This is where the writer reads over his/her work, fixing mistakes and changing words to make things better. Essentially, I feel that this is also an important step for readers to carry out. I sometimes like to read a book a second time, especially if it caused me to come up with a lot of questions. This is where I can learn new things and come up with new ideas about something I read.

Lucy Calkins on Writing 1
Ashleigh and I thought this was an interesting read because it answered a lot of questions regarding how to set up a writing workshop. I like how it detailed each item and explained what to say to children and what to do with them when introducing them to the idea of having writing workshop. The text mentions for teachers to demonstrate how to think about choosing a topic. I liked the idea of using drawings and writing labels to help students recall certain events they may want to write about (pg. 3). The dialogue provided in this document revealed the teacher giving students a lot of different ideas but I could tell that she really wanted them to come up with unique and interesting stories on their own. Next, the article explains the importance of conferring with students as they write, checking in on them to see how they are doing (pg. 6). The author mentions that the use of a writing folder for each student is a great way to keep track of work that children have completed or pieces of writing they may want to fix or add more to. After holding a writing workshop, the article says to allow students to share their writings. When instructing students to share, teachers should express their desire for the children to give details about their story by describing their pictures. I noticed how the teacher in this case pointed out several student’s great detailed pictures and writings as a way to model how she wanted other students to do with their writings/drawings. I agreed with the text in saying that such a writing workshop should end with excitement so students will be anxious to continue writing (pg. 8)! It was also mentioned that if some students need more time (and they will), then it is important to continue helping them with the process of writing. I liked the idea of using a mini lesson to teach students that writers start by thinking, not drawing. This is a great idea! Lastly, this article revealed that having student’s writing samples can reveal so much about their understanding of the written language. Teachers can use these writings to assess students in many different areas (pg. 10).

Lucy Calkins on Writing 2
This section discussed the process of choosing “Small Moments” after reading a familiar book and turning into a “Big Moment.” It explained to begin with a mini lesson where students take small stories of something that happened to them and then stretching them out to make them longer. Next, the teacher in this case presented students with a book the children knew, focused on an excerpt from the book, and then pointing out the amazing details the author gave. Active engagement involves the teacher getting students to think about the details the author gives and getting them to share what details they remembered from the text (pg. 4-6). I like how the article gave the idea of having students use writing booklets to write down their small moments they will stretch out. Again, the author points out that during this time, teachers need to confer with the students, checking for students who may not be expanding their stories. Afterwards, a sharing session is held students read aloud their stories and teachers reinforce what they want their students to notice in a piece of writing (pg. 8). Children are of course going to need more time to work and expand on the lesson. The article mentions that a great way to do this it to let the class come up with a “Small Moment” together and turn it into a “Big Moment” (pg. 9).

YouTube Videos
Graves:
In this video, Donald Graves gives great ideas on how to create a class of writers! The biggest thing I got from this was that it is important for teachers to demonstrate writing. He said that you just WRITE! Write the first thing you think of. After showing students how writing works, Graves said to pair them off and have them and share their writings. It was a great video! It was short but I learned just as much from it as I would have from a 30 minute video! I could tell he was very passionate about teaching the writing process.

Calkins:
This video made me think about myself as a writer. It was great to be reminded that the things we see every day inspire us to write. The most important thing I learned from this was that we should all honor writing. Everyone should honor their own writings and teachers should honor their student’s writings. How insightful! I thought it was interesting how she demonstrated how writers should read their own writings. The way she explained the importance of writing was very powerful! I learned that as writers, we do need to read our own writings as if they were pieces of gold! This was a very inspirational video!

6+1 Writing Traits PowerPoint
I remember reading about the 6+1 writing traits in a previous module so it was great to be reminded of them here. I’ve always known that writing is a process so the first slide was a great reminder of what goes into the cycle. I touched on this earlier but it fits so well with this sections. Prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing are elements of the cycle. I can see a similar cycle when considering the reading cycle. Before we read, we often search for the right book by skimming through the text and reading a review or synopsis of the book. Next, we read the book, look back over it to look up something we may not know. After clearing up possible confusion, many people like to reread a book—often discovering something new each time! This certainly mirrors the writing process.

Although some characteristics of good writers include writing pieces with a beginning, middle, and end, have good handwriting, use great descriptions, and use a wide range of vocabulary (slide 3-4), the PowerPoint revealed that young children in Preschool and Kindergarten don’t know much about these things (slide 5). I learned that it is important for teachers to focus more on teaching authentic writing and less on prompt writing. Authentic writing helps students in many ways by giving them options, strategies, and an authentic purpose for writing while prompt writing does the opposite (slide 7). The mini-lesson routine on slide 8 was very helpful in that it gave me an idea of how to demonstrate how writing should be approached. The slides about the organization and design of a piece of writing (slide 10-14) was interesting to read and listen to because I recall reading about the different elements mentioned here in the last module. It was also great to be provided with detailed structures of nonfiction genre writings. I learned about the purpose, structure, and signal words used in reports, recounts, procedures, explanations, descriptions, persuasions, and narrative writings (slides 14-28). I wasn’t too familiar with the word: transactional, so slide 29 informed me that many people use this type of writing to send greetings and share news—so I would consider this something like a professional letter. Within this PowerPoint, Dr. Powell also touched on the different qualities within pieces of writings such as voice, word choice/description, sentence fluency and clarity, conventions, and presentations (slides 31-40). There was so much within this presentation but I learned so much about what to look for in a child’s writing.

Instructional Calendar for Writing Mini Lessons
I think this is a great thing to have! Ashleigh and I can see it being useful for teachers when planning what writing areas they want to focus on in the classroom. It is a very detailed schedule that I believe can help teachers stay on track with what they want to cover. I like how the calendar starts off slow but then has something gradually added to each week. I can see how students can grow as writers over the course of 24 weeks!

Linda Rief: Why Revisions Shouldn't be the Most Difficult Part of Writing Skip Video
This video was very helpful because it identified ways to motivate students to be open to revising their work and gave ideas for how teachers can become involved in the revision process. Linda Rief explained that teachers should allow students to write a lot before going back over their work so that they have a wide variety and can choose what piece they want to work on—that’s where revision begins. I like her idea of sharing her own work and allowing students to comment and ask questions about it. She explained that students will know that the format used in such a session will also be used when she goes to read individual student’s writings. It was interesting to note that her students mentioned that conferencing—constant interaction with the students—was extremely helpful when revising their writing.

Annenberg Video #6
This video focused on making connections with reading and writing. Ashleigh and I thought it was interesting to see Mrs. Sanchez giving a lesson about using different writing traits when writing. Her mini lesson using the book was a great way to introduce students to using word choice/descriptions when writing (around 3:30 in video). I will say that the excerpt he read was full of descriptions! I like how Mrs. Tijerina explained that using authentic literature when introducing children to the process of writing is very effective (around 7:00). It was great that she mentioned that teaching writing is not as hard as it seems. As a future teacher, this was very reassuring. I thought it was interesting how one teacher invited an older student to read a personal narrative they wrote to the class (around 11:00). Presenting models of student of writing is important! It was great to watch Mr. Hansen’s class discussing the book he read aloud. They were able to use the descriptions in the book and think about how the characters in the book felt (18:00). They all seemed to be interested and engaged in the conversation!

Annenberg Video #9
This video highlighted the importance of teachers having conferences with their students about their writing. One teacher described holding these meetings at any point during the writing process—before, during, and after (around 1:30). I noticed how the teacher from North Carolina often has his students work on open-ended writings (4:30). I think this is great because students have so much freedom with what they write about—they are not restricted from writing any genre. For some students, I can see how having so many choices can make it hard to pick what they want to write about. This is a great opportunity for conferencing! I enjoyed watching how Mark interacted with one of his students (7:30). It was a teacher/student conference but I like how it seemed more like a casual conversation! Conferencing can also take on the form of quick “check-ins,” just like Mrs. Block did with her students in her classroom (14:00). I like how Mrs. Dilbert gave struggling writers ideas but let her students do more of the talking when conferencing. She asked more questions rather than giving different suggestions (24:00).

Hitching Post Video and Publishing Documents
This was an interesting video about how a publishing center can look. I can see how the mini lesson about revision can help students think about their writings and work to get their work published. I did read over the documents about how to possibly start a publishing center in a school. I have never heard of this before so it was interesting to read about how to set up a publishing house, how to make books, helpful forms to have, and the suggestions for pages to include in books. Ashleigh and I talked about how we thought something like this would help motivate students to work hard with their writings and take pride in what they have created.

Instant Books/Book Making YouTube Videos
The first YouTube video was a great instructional video on how to make instant books. This would be a great thing to do with student’s work from Kindergarten and on to the upper grades. I like it because it’s quick and doesn’t require a lot of tools. I will keep this in mind for future reference! The other video was also interesting because although it required a bit more time and materials, it still made it look like an easy task to complete! There are so many options and ways to present student work—even if you go the professional route (bookemon.com).

Handwriting
The document provided about handwriting was very interesting! Ashleigh and I discussed our thoughts about exploring the three different handwriting models: The Palmer Method/Zaner-Bloser, The D’Nealian, and Handwriting Without Tears. I didn’t know that practicing handwriting could help students develop skills in other subjects such as math and reading. I learned that D’Nealian handwriting has major benefits like cutting down on the occurrence of writing reversals!

Handwriting Without Tears has also been found to help students with printing letters and numbers. The sizes in which the letters are written are right for a child’s natural movement and are easy for left handed writers to use! I never thought too much about handwriting but I have noticed that it is not as big of a deal as is used to be. I understand that handwriting changes over time. I can say that I have changed the way I write letters and numbers many times since middle school. I will often look back at my old schoolwork and read my handwriting. Some of it is just awful so I am glad I have made major improvements. I still don’t have the best handwriting but now I think if these handwriting skills were introduced to me in the early years, then I might have had plenty of practice by now!

NC DPI Statement on Handwriting
This document reminded me of how much emphasis schools used to place on teaching children how to write in cursive. I can see that according to the standards, students need to be able to write documents in print and cursive. In addition, they are expected to practice keyboarding skills. I fully see the need for students to know how to use a keyboard—we are in a technology age. Although I don’t want to admit it, I think we are reaching the point where handwriting in print, let along cursive is becoming obsolete. I still like to write things down myself rather than typing all of the time but children today are being encouraged to use more and more forms of technology. I can remember being taught cursive in 3rd Grade. My teacher warned us that we needed to be proficient in this type of handwriting because we would have to use it in middle school, high school, and beyond. To my surprise, I have not used cursive since then! I think it’s a great tool to teach students. As I read about the different types of handwriting in this module, I learned about how students can benefit from such practice! It would be great to see more time and effort put into such instruction but I know that teachers are limited with the time that they have.

As always, Ashleigh and I learned so much from the information presented in this module. We know more than ever that teaching reading in relation to writing is a vital aspect when teaching children to develop important skills.

Thank you for reading my post! See you next week!

Kelsey

Module 9 Blog Entry

Hello again!

It is safe to say that this week was filled with a ton of information Ashleigh and I learned about using literature in the classroom to initiate meaningful discussion. We talked how we will take what we learned and apply it to our future teaching.

The Reading Workshop
Ashleigh and I remember reading two of the required chapters for this week in previous modules but I decided to skim back through them to answer some of the questions that Dr. Powell asked in the module guide.

I recall chapter 5 of Serafini’s book interesting especially since we were focusing on the developmental stages of literacy in module 4 at the time. Here, I read up on the idea that literature can be used to unite a group of students and help them create relationships based on what they read. He goes further to say that reading aloud to students has great benefits and even gives strategies for reading aloud and gives advice on what type of literature to select for the classroom. The most important thing I took away from this was that you can’t force students to read but there are many ways you can make it fun so that they will want to learn how to read! The information read in this chapter will be very helpful to me one day!

Chapter 6 was a new read for this module and I will say that it also revealed some great information! I learned about what it means to “explore” literature. Ultimately, I myself have learned that reading is a journey. There are so many things to discover and so many things in stories we can make connections with. This is kind of what Serafini touched on. He explained how invested discussions among students help them share ideas and questions about a piece of literature they read. The goal is to have them relate the readings to their experiences and to the world (pg. 69). I took note of the warning for teachers to not get too involved with these discussions and dominate them (pg. 70). The role of teachers is to facilitate the discussion and to be there in case a disagreement gets out of hand. We are to be supporters of student’s interpretations as they explore the meanings of the book. As always, I like how Serafini gives strategies to promote such discussion. He suggests using the following approaches in the classroom: turn and share, making connections, share circles, sharing without raising hands, return to the book, attending to children’s questions, effective listening, and teacher’s willingness to accept possibilities (pg. 70-72). Although I understand the importance of asking students appropriate questions, it was interesting to read Serafini’s thoughts. He mentioned that with the many things that teachers have to worry about and get tied up in, they often ask inauthentic questions, not the type of “invested” questions that would lead them to explore their readings (pg. 72). I like how he points out that he’d rather ask his students “honest” questions rather than comprehension questions. While carrying on an invested discussion, this chapter also addressed the idea of using charts to help students make connections and see patterns among different pieces of literature. I like how an example chart was given comparing different stories about The Three Little Pigs (pg. 76). Among the many benefits of using charts, was that charts help to see connections between reading and writing and also promotes the organization of ideas. Serafini describes using web charts and minicharts to have his students make impressions, connections, and wonderings about what they are reading (pg. 74-75). He goes further to talk about the importance of helping students understand the different elements of literature when comparing text. Such elements include the different parts of a book (cover, spine, index, table of contents, etc.), setting, plot, mood, and theme. His goal was to get his student familiar with these terms so that they became everyday language used in meaningful discussions (pg. 77-79). I like how this chapter touches on another way to approach using focus units in order to help students make connections. While some teachers organize units of studies that are set in stone, Serafini describes coming up with a list and letting his students choose what books they relate to or want to explore further. I like how he exposes them to a variety of genres and ideas (pg. 81). The last thing I learned from Serafini in this chapter was the idea of using “cornerstone” books to build the foundation of a unit of study. A “cornerstone” book can be any type of book used to pull apart certain and change a part of the text to initiate a discussion and lead students to explore different perspectives (pg. 82-83).

I remember reading chapter 7 when I learned about reading comprehension and critical literacy in module 5. I do remember learning so much from this chapter about creating literature circles in the classroom. Serafini explained the process of preparing students to be part of rich discussions. I think it is important to note that students must make the decision to become part of a literature group—not the teacher. Therefore, Serafini described how he gives students a “preview” of what book/piece of literature they will be reading. Furthermore, he hands over responsibility by having committed students sign a contract saying that they are there to stay in the group. This chapter also discussed the process of lit study cycle—starting with a group of potential readers, the reading of a book, discussing the book, class presentations, and having learning celebrations (pg. 98-101). Serafini does stress that the role of the teacher during this time is also to facilitate the discussion and create an environment where students feel comfortable to share their ideas and opinions.
So, with all of that being said, how can literature be the core of your reading program? How can you develop readers who choose to read, not just readers who score proficient on a standardized test? Well, I believe there are many things I can take away from these three chapters to help me answer these questions. I think literature can be the core of a reading program by establishing a community of readers. Chapter 5 highlighted the importance of bringing children and literature together. As a teacher, I know that I will be the ultimate promoter of reading quality literature. I must encourage students to read different types of books and also give them many different opportunities to read. I think a great way to introduce quality literature is to read them during read alouds. I believe this type of exposure to literature can open many different doors! This, along with choosing books that align with a student’s likes, interests, and experiences can help develop readers who WANT to read.

Peterson & Eeds (Grand Conversations)
Wow! So the required reading from this book was a lot! However, it did give some helpful information that helped me answer the question: how can you encourage children to discuss and have “grand conversations” about their books? I found that a lot of the things mentioned in the text was much similar to what I read in Serafini’s chapters I discussed above. The first thing I noticed in the required readings from Grand Conversations was the importance of collaboration in the classroom! It’s all about community! This means that everyone works together to help one another share responses and construct meaning. Doing so helps students initiate meaningful discussion and dialogue; another thing the authors address. I learned that in order to promote effective dialogue, teachers must: 1) respect the interpretations all students give and 2) help in their development of interpretations (pg. 27). I think these are essential steps I would follow when encouraging children to discuss their books. Another vital step to use would be to take the stories and ideas highlighted in a story or piece of literature and help students find ways to relate them to their own lives. Teachers who demonstrate this make it possible for students to identify how the story “lives in them” (pg. 29).

Chapter Four of this text reminded me a lot of chapter 7 from Serafini’s Reading Workshop. Both discuss the importance of organizing literature groups and focusing on listing the different literary elements of a story. Helping students construct meaning by identifying important elements can initiate meaningful discussion about key events in a story. Covering elements such as story structure (plot, tension, etc.), characters, time, places, points of view, and moods all can help students become immersed in discussion and become exposed to many different ideas and perspectives (pg. 31-56).

I think another great point mentioned in chapter four of Grand Conversations highlighted the importance of teachers working to get the parents of students involved with their child’s reading. This is certainly one way to motivate students to talk about their books at home! Like Serafini, this chapter also addressed the importance of doing read alouds in school (pg. 65-67). Since students often look forward to read alouds, I agree that it would be beneficial for teachers to set aside a few minutes afterwards to ask questions and welcome comments from students. They don’t have to be questions that require in-depth answers, just one that ask students what they thought about the book and what they noticed. I think this is definitely a way to encourage students to discuss and have meaningful conversations about what they read!

Literature Response Ideas
I enjoyed reading through the list of possible questions teachers can ask their students after reading quality pieces of literature. I think children really need to think about what they read and find creative ways to convey the important ideas/events they read in a book. This list revealed so many things students could do to showcase their creativity and retell a story. I really liked the idea of letting students choose to write a letter to a character in the book because they can use that as an opportunity to ask questions and give opinions about how they would feel. Students can even retell the story by drawing a picture of their favorite parts, construct graphs of the class’ reaction to the book, and even make a diorama of a scene in the story. There were so many great ideas!

100 Picture Books That Everyone Should Read
Although only found a list of 23 picture books on the New York Public Library website, I will say that it is a great list to have! I’m assuming these are newer books so I have not read any of them but I will have to get started! I also skimmed through the other lists on this website giving the top books in other categories such as children’s chapter books, poetry, fairy tales, and even books by grade level. I’m sure I will keep this website in mind for later use!

Picture Books for Older Readers
I tried to access the list of books for older readers using the link Dr. Powell provided in this section. However, I get a message saying that they are in the process of updating the list so I will have to try again later. However, I did do to the Staff Picks for Kids section this page suggested to view a list of books selected by the staff of the Monroe County Public Library. Just name any topic you can think of and they are bound to have a book listed. They included names of books about things I don’t normally see in children’s books such as ones touching on the topic of adoption, understanding divorce, and even dealing with grief. These sound like helpful, interesting books that are certainly relevant to young children today. I will also keep this list in mind!

What Are Literature Circles and How Do They Fit in Reader’s Workshop?
It was interesting to read more about literature circles in this section. The online article was helpful because it gave answered the all-important question of what literature circles really are! The numbered list on this website ultimately revealed to me that literature circles promote independence with reading, which is something I find very important. Students can choose what books they read, discuss things they want to discuss, and ask any questions they may have. I like how item #9 on this list specified that throughout this process, the teacher does not lead the group, he/she only facilitates and observes. I think this is great because it helps students explore their own ideas as well as their peers’ without having the teacher prompt them with questions. Most importantly, they get to have fun! Moreover, it was interesting to come across some familiar names on this website. It described how literature circles fit into Pinnell’s and Founta’s reading program. It can be seen in the Independent Reading phase next to Reading Workshop (item #4).

Literature Circles Resource Center
Ashleigh and I found the link to the website found in this section to be quite helpful. I explored this website and took time to read the section about how to teach children how to have discussions. The first step described it to identify the elements of a good discussion. Within this section, students (and the teacher) should brainstorm ways they should act during a discussion and what kind of discussion etiquette should be displayed. The next step involves having students experience discussion by letting them jump into the discussion process. I really liked the “fish bowl” discussion idea because I can see how it can help students lose any fear associated with speak in front of the class and become actively engaged into conversation. Students are able to observe their peers who are used to participating in discussions and learn to develop ideas on how to give their input. After experiencing such discussion, the website suggests for teachers to develop guidelines for discussion. Students can give their thoughts about rules they think should be made during a discussion and then ultimately set “Literature Circle Guidelines” such as “there will be no reading ahead” and “everyone listens and everyone shares their ideas.” I also liked how it described the process of having students make a list of ways to make the “fish-bowl experience” successful. These are such great ideas!

Further exploration on this website led me to information on how to choose quality literature books that help initiate rich discussions. I noticed that student choice and interest plays a lot in the selection of books. I also read about how to use discussion to encourage students to write, and how to conduct literature circles in 1st-8th grade. I also liked the extension ideas given that will help students remind themselves of what they read or learned in a book. Activities include making a story quilt, a story hat, and a character bookmark. These were all very interesting ideas to consider!

Getting Conversations About Books Started in Your Classroom—Annenberg Video
The Annenberg video about starting classroom conversations revealed so much about how literature circles can be implemented in the classroom. The students in this video seemed to be so engaged in the discussion process. Katherine Bomer made a lot of interesting points throughout the section focused on her 5th grade class. I like how she mentioned that when she thinks about the things she remembers the best are the things she has talked about with other people ( around 4:18 in video) because it’s true! I couldn’t help but notice how involved Barry Hoonan’s class was into the discussion. They all seemed to agree with one another’s suggestions but I think the good thing about its that he did not give any input—he just sat there and observed the conversation (6:45).

Jonathan Holden described the use of discussions/conversation as a problem-solving tool, which is so true! Students are able to solve problems by contributing their ideas and then combining these ideas to make a plan. I really liked what Latosha Rowley said about students becoming comfortable with sharing their thoughts and ideas with their classmates. With discussions, they can open up and say what it on their minds (10:30). This is so important, after all, we have been reading about how a sense of community should be developed in the classroom. The video touched on the importance of teachers handing responsibility for learning over to their students (11:35). I thought the Consensus Chart idea one teacher gave was a great tool to use to engage student in sharing their ideas and solving what topic they wanted to address as a group (12:30). It was interesting to see one teacher using discussion guidelines and tips on how to have a discussion in her classroom (17:50). This brought me back to the information from the http://www.litcircles.org/ website I mentioned earlier.

I liked how the teacher at 21:40 mentioned that the kinds of questions he looks for in his students are ones that he may naturally ask himself. This is a great point! I think teachers should help students grow in their questioning and learn different ways to reach an answer to higher-level questions. It was mentioned that modeling questions is the best way to encourage students to develop questions of their own while reading or discussing ideas from a book. Mrs. Rowley’s use of a question board in her classroom is interesting because I can see how it allows students to ponder on questions other students asks, potentially opening up for future discussion (32:00). I thought it was interesting how one teacher described how he often has what I would call a “discussion about a discussion” because I can see how students could benefit from talking about how the discussion went and what things could go differently if people were off task (35:00).

Mrs. Bomer made a profound point that I think a lot of teachers overlook. She mentioned how she gives her students opportunities to get used to silence during their community reading time. She will read the book and then ask students questions to write down silently. I’m sure this helps children have time to think about meaningful answers without having the teacher snap out questions in a hurry (37:30).

I liked hearing the teachers talk about the different methods they have their students use to get ready for a discussion. They stress the importance of being prepared before going into a group conversation. I saw students taking notes, writing thoughts, and giving opinions. One teacher had his students record thoughts in a Reader Response Log.

The last point I’d like to point out from this video is the importance of involving all readers. Mr. Hoonan expressed his efforts in allowing each of his students share their ideas while in literature group discussions (50:00). Another teacher made a great point of having students encourage one another to speak up with possible questions, especially the quieter children. I took note of how the teachers talked about the difference between these quiet students because there are some who are not really paying attention/engaged in the conversation and then there are ones who are active listeners. It was interesting to hear this! I often find myself not speaking up in discussions because I just like to listen to others give their opinions. Looking back, I have always been like this, especially in elementary school.

I took the following prompt from the module guide for this week: you may notice that some teachers have been able to allow the children to talk and discuss. Other teachers have a tendency to talk too much rather than allowing the children to talk. Which will you be?I did notice that the different teachers featured in this video chose to sit out of group discussions, while others were part of the conversation. While both can be positive, I think observing students will benefit them more because they are able to explore their own ideas rather than being prompted by the teacher.

ELA Appendix B, Common Core Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks
I followed the module guide for this week and decided to choose the range K-1 to focus on. I learned a lot about how the samples included relate to the goals of the Common Core State Standards. Complexity, quality, and range are all major factors to consider when choosing related tasks. I took the module question: How does what you are learning prepare you to teach at this higher level? into mind. Ultimately, I feel that I can take everything I have learned so far, not only in EDN 340, but all of my education courses and apply them to teach higher level thinking that the Common Core requires. The many examples given in Appendix B pose questions that promote higher-level thinking. Sample performance tasks given here for K-1st grade require students to compare/contrast characters and their experiences in stories and poems while they are encouraged to conduct further research on informational texts. Reading these ideas has definitely prepared me to begin thinking about teaching at higher levels. With these examples, I am able to see how students can go beyond the book and apply their own ideas and research existing facts.

Helpful Resources on the Module Guide
I did find the many links made available in the module guide to be very helpful. They offered ways to model choosing the right book, tips for reading aloud, and even gave an interesting sample on how to do a read aloud on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The examples of questions/prompts students can give during student read alouds was also interesting. This will come in handy for my students one day! The last link provided in this section is one to refer to later to get information on many things such as starting classroom conversations and engaging classroom dialogues.

My Experience With Using a Top 100 Book and Literature Response With my Tutee
After reading through the list of books again, I picked the following three picture books from my public library: Boot and Shoe by Marla Frazee, Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, and Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham. Next, I let my tutee choose one for me to read aloud and he chose Z is for Moose. I looked through the list of possible literature responses to do with each of these books and I chose # 104 from the Arts and Crafts category because he likes to draw and color (I didn’t have time to do three since I only saw him once since reading the list). The activity involved making a bookmark illustrating this story. It says that on the back of the bookmark, have the student write at least 5 words they would use to describe the story. I must say that it went very well! He decided to draw a picture of the moose in the story and then write the different names of animals mentioned in the book. Below, I have included a picture of his completed work. This experience helped me see that using the literature response activities would go well within my future classroom!



My tutee's bookmark drawing



His "describing" words



My Group’s Literature Discussion
My group chose to read the book: Phoebe the Spy by Judith Berry Griffin for our group discussion task. It was a very interesting story about a thirteen year-old girl named Phoebe who was appointed to be a spy by her father, Samuel Fraunces. He got word that somebody was out to kill George Washington (before he became President). Phoebe ultimately discovered the person who was planning to kill him and saved general Washington’s life. My group was to discuss any questions we had about the book and although it started off a little slow, I think it went very well! I enjoyed the book and we all are still curious to discover whether or not the events that took place in the story are true. Within the book, I was able to pick out some vocabulary words that would be great for young students to examine. We did ask some questions that caused us to go beyond the book and do some research. I did get to read up on some things I did not know. I think it was great experiencing how a literature circle works and that I was able to learn so much from my group member’s perspectives.


Ultimately, Ashleigh and I agree that incorporating literature in the classroom is a great way to effectively engage children in content learning. In addition, it can encourage them to work on their reading and writing skills. Working it into such a busy schedule can be difficult but I think you can incorporate literature into any subject. As many resources within this module have revealed, there are plenty of children’s books that relate to the different subjects of math, science, social students, etc. and can help open up student’s minds to new ideas. Ashleigh and I agree that students can achieve in-depth instruction through reading by engaging in meaningful discussions with their peers while having their teacher observe for effective conversation. Literacy is power!

What another information-filled module! I don’t know about everyone else, but Ashleigh and I learned so much! I am looking forward to reading other blogs to see what others have to say!

As always, thanks for reading. See you next week!
Kelsey

Module 8 Blog Entry

Hello everyone!

Wow so we are drawing closer to the halfway point! I have been so enlightened by all of the information I have come to learn in this class. Ashleigh and I both think that this week helped us learn a lot more about phonics and phonemic awareness. I think we learned things that helped us solve the week’s “problem” of how we will teach phonics in the context of reading quality literature. We discussed how many of the things learned in this module will stick with us well throughout our future teaching careers.


Phonics Quiz
I started off this module by taking the phonics quiz again (I remember taking it in a previous module). I was surprised at my results! There were still so many things I thought I knew that the quiz revealed I didn’t! I wasn’t sure about my actual score—I thought I would be able to get a score at the end of each section but didn’t. However, I can say that I did miss a lot more than I should have! Knowing this, it is obvious that I need to brush up on the different phonics rules! It would be interesting to take it again every so often as a means to review and check what words I missed.

Phonics PowerPoint
Ashleigh and I agreed that the PowerPoint presentation in this module was filled with a ton of information on phonics! It was nice to be reminded of some of the vocabulary words associated with phonics and be reintroduced to the development of phonemic awareness (slide 3). I recall learning this information in a previous module as well. It is evident that it is so important to help students develop phonological awareness so it can be easy for them to learn rhymes, syllables, and words. I thought that slide 4 was interesting because it mentioned that the English language requires some “guessing” when it comes to phonics. There are many possibilities for spelling a word when attempting to spell a word using phonics. It can get tricky! As slide 5 mentions, there are some words you cannot “just sound out” because it may have a different meaning than you think. Words such as “present” and “can” fall under the list of exceptions. This is also true with dealing with fluency of sentences with such words. The PowerPoint explains that to understand the meaning, you may have to skim the entire sentence before reading it all the way through. Slide 6 was a great reminder that dialect indeed affects how people read. Living in the South has revealed that because there are many words people may say here that are significantly different than they are up North! Dialects come from many different regions, countries, social classes, and ethnicities (slide 7) but that does not mean that one dialect is wrong/right/better/worse than the other (slide9). At first I thought that differences in dialect could cause problems for readers so I was surprised to learn that natural dialect patterns are often corrected by the time children exit elementary school (slide 8). I was shocked to read the excerpt from Moustafa on slide 10 stating that formal phonics should not be part of primary grade instruction. However, I was relieved to learn that it is important for children to be exposed to reading and that the teacher should help students note certain features of text (slide 11). I was glad to re-learn the different words associated with phonics such as “schwa,” “diphthong,” and “fricative” (slide 12). I haven’t heard those words in years!! Essentially, they are all fancy words used to describe the movement of the tongue when speaking, and the use of accented syllables. It was interesting to read about the 45 phonic generalizations on slide 13 because I learned that only 18 of those are considered useful. Reading the Theodore Clymer’s article reminded me of the importance of teaching children these generalizations—even the ones that don’t always apply (slides 13-14). The “two vowels go walking” analogy was a very interesting rule learned in this PowerPoint. It makes sense because in many cases, the first vowel dominates, both vowels cooperate, and then they separate into different syllables (slide 15). It was great to be reminded of the many activities teachers can do with their students to help them develop phonemic awareness. Activities include reading nursery rhymes, reading poetry, and teaching a variety of strategies (slide 17-18). More importantly, I was glad to read a little bit about the “whole to part to whole” model of blending skill with meaning (slide 16). Slides 19-24 were interesting to read over and talk about with Ashleigh because these are things we both once learned long ago. They were also things we were reminded of when taking the phonics quiz earlier! It’s amazing to realize the things I have forgotten! Many of these rules and generalizations and list of word families can be tricky or hard to remember but they are certainly useful! The last couple slides of this PowerPoint were great because it stressed the importance of following up phonics lessons with application of what was learned. This idea will come in great use for my future teaching.

Phonics Talking PowerPoint
The talking PowerPoint with Dr. Powell provided a lot of additional information about phonics instruction and it’s safe to say they Ashleigh agreed! First of all, it was surprising to learn that one slide 1, phonics instruction can range from 45-60 minutes! To me, this seems like a long time to have children sit and listen to a lesson but I’m sure there is a lot more that goes into this type of instruction than just sitting and listening. Slide 2 reminded me of the previous PowerPoint presentation about the inconsistencies we have with spelling in the English language. Because of this, I can see why “Phonics-First” instruction could be a questionable approach. It was interesting to listen to Dr. Powell describing synthetic phonic approaches. I realize that there are many different resources out there that can help students with phonics (slide 5). Slide 6 describes the importance of helping students identify concepts of print and comprehension with having shared book experiences—something that I have learned is essential for elementary aged students! Referring to slides 7 and 8, it makes sense for students to begin phonics instruction by listening to and examining nursery rhymes because these are stories, songs, and poems that most children are familiar with. The teaching approaches Dr. Powell mentioned here were very interesting! The slide about word families (slide 9) was interesting because Dr. Powell mentioned that children can learn the 30 most common word endings. Also, it was great to be introduced to a couple of new vocabulary words: “onset” and “ryme” to indicate certain phonological parts of a word. The word family lists on mrsalphabet.com was interesting! I was re-introduced to things I once learned in elementary school! Slide 10 focused on the importance of practicing different word ending. It’s funny how Dr. Powell mentioned the “word hat” activity (slide 10) to help students learn words because the child I tutor came in one day wearing an “ap cap” that had words such as “map,” “tap,” and “trap” written on a sentence strip. I learned that there are many opportunities during shared book experiences to place emphasis certain words and ask children questions about the words. Word sorts and “making words” activities are also great tools to use when teaching students to help students determine the features of certain words (slides 11-14). Ultimately, I found this PowerPoint to be very helpful! I was reminded that the most important aspect of teaching phonics is to apply it in connected text (slide 17).

Phokissingfonix
I thought this was an interesting read and that it did a great job of highlighting the different confusing elements of phonics in the English language. I learned that about half of the words in English are phonically simple or can be sounded out with ease (page 1). Moreover, it was interesting to note that phonics is a totally different concept than phonetics—which involves the interpretation of various sounds in language. It was also great to read over the difference between “whole language” and “whole words” (pg. 2). It was interesting to read through this article about the children who learned to read by having their parents read to them. It is evident that shared book experiences and read alouds make a world of difference!! I liked how the author related reading to the act of driving a car. Most adults can drive but can’t take the car apart and put it back together. The same goes with reading. Children are just modeling (and sometimes memorizing) what they have been read to (pages 4-5). This article reminded me of first PowerPoint I discussed regarding languages and dialect. The way people say words changes from country to country and state to state (pg. 6-7). I was also reminded of “synthetic” phonics and the idea of making sense of meaningless words. After reading this, I understand that doing so takes meaning out of words and reading—something that is important for children when learning to read (pg. 9-10).

Phonics and Spelling Continuum
This document lists a variety of phonic rules and word patterns that students should be familiar with by the end of Third grade. Diphthongs, syllables, and vowel sounds are just some things that are focused on here. I know this is something I will keep, not only for my future teaching, but for my own knowledge! There are a lot of different things on this list that are easy to forget—so it will be helpful to have this for future reference.

Teaching Phonics to ELLs
Thinking about teaching phonics to students whose primary language is not English can seem tricky but this document gave helpful tips and ideas to make things easier. As always, the most important thing to remember to do is to make things meaningful for the student. Teachers should focus on having these students do hands on activities, individual writings, and familiarize them with songs, chants, and poems. They should not be placed in large groups of children to complete work. They need guidance and intimate feedback. Rhyming is an important thing to incorporate and teachers should also focus on repeating words for emphasis. The handout also suggests that using onomatopoeias can also help these students distinguish the differences and similarities between sounds in different languages.

Appropriate materials should be used when teaching ELLs. They should be able to use things on their own such as a computer or other device. Published books or materials used with these students should be chosen with the needs of the students in mind. The process of learning a second language can be hard. I think we all learn how to speak by listening to others say words. This is why it is important to repeat words over and over to help ELLs pick up on appropriate characteristics of phonics. Ashleigh and I discussed how important this information is since we will more than likely have an ELL in our future classrooms!

Phonics on the Web
Although this was not a required read, I skimmed through the website and was reminded of some very interesting rules of phonics. Just like the quiz and other previous assigned readings, I was reminded of rules about different aspects of phonics such as long/short vowels, consonants, and blends.

Teaching Technique for Kindergarten and 1st Grade
This Rhyme Reading activity idea would be great to implement into my future teaching or tutoring lesson. I know that before introducing this activity, it is important to have followed the To, With, and By approach. Students need to be familiar with the rhyme before trying it on their own. I think this is a great activity to help children become familiar with high frequency words and memorize rhyming words.

Teaching Technique: Vocabulary Examples
The Slang document provided here presents an interesting way to help students discover the different meanings of words. They can “interview” people of different ages and examine the how meanings can change overtime. Children can use the Word Finder chart to help them find words they may not know when reading and then go back and write the words and what they think it means in their writing/vocabulary notebook. Another activity posed in this section: I Know the Meaning of… involves students to rate different words such as “devoured” and “scrawny.” The Possible Sentences activity requires students to write sentences they think they might see in a given book/text. I think this is a great way to help students predict and then discover the meaning of particular vocabulary words. I like the last activity mentioned here. It involves students taking Latin roots and examining the relationships they have with many words we use in English! I love these ideas and feel like I will used these approaches one day!

Teaching Techniques: Said Words and Lively Words
I think the Said Words activity mentioned here is a great way to help students use other words in place of the word: “said.” I think this is an important thing to help students develop an idea of new words and synonyms. In the same sense, the Lively Words activity is intended to help students find words to “spice up” words we commonly use. They can pay attention to words as they read to help them expand on their vocabulary. This reminds me of a fun thing I did in 6th grade. We had a “word funeral” and got to “put to rest” some of the words we excessively use. We were each assigned a common word and made a tombstone out of paper and Popsicle sticks. We even wrote obituaries about our word and described the words that we would use in place of our given word. It was really fun because the teacher dressed up in a black robe, acted as if she were conducting a funeral, and we stuck our sticks in the ground to symbolize the passing of the overused word. I remember my word was “ugly.” I found words such as “horrible” and “unpleasant” to use instead. The activity mentioned in this module immediately reminded me of doing this!

Teaching Technique: Making WordsI like the activity mentioned here. I think it will help students develop skills in making words out of jumbled letters. It would be interesting to see how many words students are able to come up with on their own and then learn to put together with some guidance from a teacher. I recall this activity being mentioned earlier in the talking PowerPoint provided by Dr. Powell. I can see it being very useful both an individual or group activity. I like the suggestion of using the Smartboard to make things more interesting and hands on.

Ashleigh and I enjoyed talking about these different teaching techniques and discussed different ways we could incorporate them into different lessons in the classroom. We agreed that these are all very effective ways to helps students get interested in learning new words!

Readability and Selecting BooksAshleigh and I remember reviewing the document posted here back in a previous module. I was reminded of the many different ways to find appropriate level books for students. It amazed me that there are so many sites available to help rate and score books such as bookwizard.scholastic.com and booksource.com. I was also brought back to the information about matching the students to books considering their reading abilities and zones of proximal developments (ZPD). I was also reminded about how to choose predictable books for emergent readers and how to find books for efficient readers in upper grades satisfied.

Annenberg Video: K-2 Reading WorkshopIt was great to watch the video of Dr. Paratore’s lecture about setting up a K-2 Reading Workshop. It was interesting to listen to the group of teachers discussing what it takes to create a literature community within the classroom. The instructor started off by saying that effective teachers provide access to high quality books diverse in many areas such as genre and level of difficulty. Effective teachers also have strategic room/wall displays (around 3:46 on video). The video stressed the importance of appropriately organizing the classroom to make the process of reading easier for students. After listening to the lecture, I recall a lot of the many ideas Dr. Paratore gave to help students on all reading levels and even students of different cultures. I like how she mentioned that students can learn about other cultures from reading books. They learn from books that are not about them (around 7:50). A thoughtful selection and display of books is important in the classroom! I think I can take what I saw in this video and use it to set up my future classroom. I learned that when setting up a classroom, it is important to be mindful or what you display, how you are going to display it, and why you are displaying it (9:00 in video).
Another important principle addressed in this video informs viewers that effective teachers provide classroom routines that maximize reading time and requires purposeful reading, writing, speaking, and listening (10:45 on video). I really like what the instructor said in the final moments of the video. She stressed the importance of helping students understand that reading and writing can make a difference in their lives. I fully agree with this!


My Annenberg Video Choice: #7 link Connecting Skills to Text (Charmon Evans)
As always, the Annenberg website gives great insight as to how instruction is given in the classroom. The video featured a teacher named Charmon Evans and her First grade class. First of all I loved how she reviews the alphabet and letter sounds with her students. They go through the alphabet recite and sound out each word or letter combination but the interesting thing about it is that she teaches them the sign language to go along with each letter (around 2:00 in video). What a great idea! I enjoyed watching this teacher working in the small groups with her students and the different strategies she used to help them learn concept of Vowel-Consonant-Vowel words/”final e” (around 5:00 in video). I noted how she did a picture walk in this small group—something I have learned is an effective practice (7:30). I like how Mrs. Evans allows her students to choose what centers they work at. I think this gives them a sense of independence!

The use of the puppet, Aesop is a great way to help keep students engaged in a lesson about phonemic awareness (14:45). She also incorporates a really cute game using one of those play echo microphones and pretends to be the host of a game show where the students identify different high-frequency words (16:00). I really like how she encourages the children to build sentences using the different sight words they have already gone over.

She does a read aloud with the students using a The Littles book. The children seemed so engaged while she was reading and seemed to enjoy the first chapter she read. I like how she had them make predictions about what happened to one of the characters and write/draw pictures in their journals (23:30). Ultimately, I think Mrs. Evans did a great job of incorporating good literature and establishing a positive classroom environment while teaching important reading skills!

Reading Rockets Video and Article on Fluency
I enjoyed viewing the video about developing fluency on the Reading Rockets website. I thought the program to help struggling readers called RAVE-O was very interesting to learn about! I liked watching Mrs. MacDonald use various strategies to help her students with reading such as the word web. I like how it was explained that fluency and meaning are a big part of reading so I think the word web is a great tool to use in the classroom!

I remember reading Jan Hasbrouck’s article on fluency in a previous module. It was great to be reminded of the many strategies to help students at different stages of reading develop fluency. I also recall reading about some of the caveats about fluency. For one thing, there is so much we still need to learn about fluency!

Pinell & FountasThe required chapters for this text involved A LOT of reading, so I won’t talk about EVERYTHING I liked, although there was a lot Ashleigh and I talked about!
Chapter 9 focused on the things children need to know about letters and words. I was enlightened to read about the six core goals a Word Study Curriculum. I noted how the text mentioned that many of the core words children need to develop (goal #2) are high-frequency words that are often found in children’s books (pg. 88-89). As I read this, I was reminded of how I am working on these types of sight words with my tutee in our tutoring sessions. Many of the words we have been reviewing are indeed found in the various books we read together. The example given about Emma and her writing sample (pg. 91-92) was interesting because it also reminded me of my tutee. Although he is not writing much, the words that he does spell or recite are similar to the ones mentioned in this section. I can see how the need for children to develop sound-letter relationships is the third goal of Word Study Curriculum. It was interesting to read over the different word patterns that young children learn such as syllables, vowels, plurals, homonyms, and Greek/Latin roots (pg. 93-99). It was great to be reminded about some of these things for I had forgotten about a couple of these concepts! The Suggestions for Professional Development on page 103 were very helpful because these are things I could take into consideration for when I become a teacher!

Chapter 11 was helpful in that it highlighted the many word strategies teachers often use while teaching their students to become word solvers. I read over the list of roles teachers and learners have during this process (pg. 127). I also learned that teaching and learning is a cycle. Ultimately, it begins with observation which turns into teaching, student application, and teacher reinforcement (pg. 128-129). This chapter also reminded me of using the idea of mini-lessons to approach specific concepts about letters and words. The many samples they gave throughout the text were very helpful and gave me an idea of how to structure a Word Study or Daily Work plan (pg. 133-136).

Chapter 12 discussed the idea of teaching students print and sound knowledge. The text was filled with many strategies and activities teachers can use to alphabet books, name charts, songs, rhymes, and name charts (pg. 137-140). It was interesting to read about the guidelines for appropriate handwriting: 1) it must be legible/easy to read, 2) organized in lines, and 3) produced with some fluency (pg. 144). I know that handwriting is something that will be developed over time, but I was surprised to read that such practice should be accomplished in Kindergarten and first grade (pg. 146). I know a few children at these ages that do not have legible handwriting. Nevertheless, I was able to read up on some strategies to help such students improve in this area. Such activities include letting them trace letters with stencils and letting them write letters in sand on a cookie tray (pg. 146-147).

It was interesting to read more on Inquiry and Word Solving strategies in Chapter 13. To sum it up, Pinnell and Fountas highlight the following strategies for solving words: thinking about the sounds words make, thinking about the way words look by reading/writing words, examine the meaning of a word, make connections about a word, and use various materials to learn more about words through Inquiry (pg. 150). I read that word solving can be practiced using a variety of methods such as word sorting, word searches, and crossword puzzles. One strategy I really liked was the idea of having students find words specified in different categories/clusters (compound words, three letter words, words with particular sounds, describing words etc.) and write the down on a piece of paper (pg. 137 and 161). This chapter also highlighted ways students can develop skills with using dictionaries, thesauruses, spell check, and proofreading. It makes sense that using a dictionary requires skills such as putting words in alphabetical order and distinguishing syllables (pg. 165-166). I know that making age-appropriate dictionaries in my future classroom readily accessible will be highly beneficial!

Chapter 14 from Word Matters was a long read, but it revealed a lot of ideas on how to develop a comprehensive word study program. Reading through the chapter, it is evident that this is a highly structured program. I like how it allows students to learn independently while also and allows them to develop their own open-ended questions to study words beyond what they have learned in class. The words they learn are characterized as core words (words the teacher chooses from class readings and writings) and personal words (words the students choose from their personal writings) (pg. 169). I like the idea of pairing students and forming Buddy Systems to create learning relationships and help students become exposed to new words (pg. 169). Further reading into this chapter led me to a daily schedule teachers can use to implement Word Study in the classroom (pg. 175-178). This was interesting to look over because it revealed the many steps taken each day. The rest of this chapter focused on strategies and techniques used in a Buddy Study System. I like how it gave examples of tools, materials, activities, and mini-lessons used in such a setup (pg. 178-187). I must say that I really like this idea not only because it exposed students to new words, but because I think it teaches responsibility, accuracy, and cooperation!

The Daily 5
Chapter 6 of the Daily 5 focused on writing and word work. A quote given by Ralph Fletcher on the very first page really stuck with me: “You don’t learn to write by going through a series of preset writing exercises. You learn to write by grappling with a real subject that truly matters to you” (pg. 80). I couldn’t help but think about how true this is! One thing I like about the writing aspect of The Daily 5 is that it allows students to choose what type of writing they want to produce. The authors provide a schedule listing the daily focus lessons that include things like teaching writing traits and modeling the “Work on Writing” process before allowing their students to work independently or with partners (pg. 82-83). It’s great that they allow a large part of their Daily 5 program to include Word Work so students are able to experiment, memorize high frequency words, form word patterns, and be introduced to unique words (pg. 85). I like the “I-Charts” listed throughout this chapter because it helps to see the different responsibilities the students and teachers hold during the Word Work process (pg. 86 and 90).

Wow! So that was quite a long module but it revealed a lot of information. Ashleigh and I both agree that we now have a lot of ideas on how to teach phonics in our future classrooms!

Thanks for reading my post. I am looking forward to reading other’s blogs! See you next week!
Kelsey