Module 4 Blog Entry

Hello again everyone!

Wow! It is amazing the amount of information I have learned in just four short weeks. This week—module 4—was filled with tons more information to think about and potentially apply to my future teaching. After discussing what we learned in this module, Ashleigh and I felt like we agreed with a lot of the things brought up in each assigned reading! It’s great to have someone to share thoughts and ideas with to reflect on what was learned.

I started off this module by looking over the Developmental Characteristics of Children’s Language, Behavior& Book Handling Skills document (Gymboree). As I read through, I was reminded that babies begin communicating—as soon as they are born! They immediately take on behaviors such as hand gestures and producing sounds to indicate that they have needs to be met (food, diaper change, etc.). I took note of a lot of similar characteristics I’ve seen in infants, babies, and toddlers. Although I don’t have children of my own, I was able to think back to when my niece and nephew were babies and toddlers. As we all know, the normal reaction people have when they see a baby it to engage in “baby talk.” The baby will normally respond with babbles, laughs, and smiles. When my nephew was around 7-9 months, he loved to hold books and look at bright, colorful pictures. In their toddler years, both my niece and nephew displayed many of the behaviors mentioned on the list. When any baby/toddler reaches a memorable milestone, parents and adults offer praise and encouragement. This was the case when my niece and nephew said their first words and started to give names to different objects. My niece, Reagan, is three years old right now so it was interesting to be reminded of common characteristics children her age often show. The first one saying preschoolers “are high in energy” is especially true for her! I was recently able to observe her as she played at home. Although Reagan has had some issues with learning how to talk and forming sentences we could understand, she still is able to use words she knows to communicate with us. Unfortunately, she has not been fully weaned off of the pacifier (she only uses it for naps and bedtime), so she will sometimes rub her mouth to indicate she wants her “passy.” I often notice my sister encouraging her to ask for it by name and say what she wants instead of using signals and other forms of communication. I think doing this is just one way my sister supports the oral language development of her daughter.

The talking PowerPoint provided by Dr. Powell (Developmental Literacy Stages) was very informative and revealed a lot about how young children develop the ability to read. First, it was great to read and listen about how we all have theories about reading and how it applies to children (slide 2). The Reading Readiness theory, developed in the 1900s, was an interesting thing to learn about because I have never heard of it before. The PowerPoint explained that within this readiness program, are sets of skills and experiences that children are believed to possess at certain stages. I like how the presentation gave sample activities of what readiness activities may have looked like (slide 3). Learning about the first stage of literacy learning: Emergent Literacy was very insightful! I was reminded again that although young children are not able to read, they are surrounded by letters and words and know that adults use them to read and communicate feelings and emotions (slide 4). The pictures and explanations included (slides 5-15) reminded me that young children are constantly exposed to brand-name prints and pictures/logos and know to associate certain pictures with certain items (for example, they know the “golden arches” means McDonalds—however, they cannot read the sign telling them that it is McDonalds). Having been around a lot of children throughout the years, things like this have never surprised me. Kids are smarter than we sometimes give them credit for. However, after listening to Dr. Powell talk about context clues and the role they play in a child’s literacy development was quite interesting to me. Since younger students cannot read, they use context clues to identify a particular object or place.

Although I thought I had an idea of what some of the characteristics of emergent readers were, it was great that I was able to learn more about it on slide 16 of the PowerPoint. These types of readers and writers understand that printed words are meant to carry messages. These children often listen to/discuss storybooks with adults, and experiment with rhyming words. I also learned that during this emergent stage, these types of children develop concepts of print and learn these concepts by being read to and constantly seeing words being read by others (slide 17). This information really helped me see the just how important it is to expose children to reading every opportunity you get. This could mean reading a bedtime story each night or simply reading the tags of items in a store. I think this really opens their minds! The slide about having shared reading experiences (slide 18) brought me back to when I was a young child. I remember having my parents read to me! They often presented me with large books featuring my favorite Disney characters. I recall following their fingers swiping across the page as I read along with them. Of course I would want to go back and re-read the story, so I was able to pick up on certain words. I can say that engaging in shared reading played a part in helping me learn to read and made for great memories!

Speaking of shared book reading, I thought the YouTube video featuring Eric Carle reading Bill Martin Jr.’s book: “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” was great! Mainly because I remember reading that book when I was in school! I haven’t read it in so long but I can now see a lot of predictable qualities within this book. First of all, there are a lot of rhyming words that children can pick up on. I think the book is also predictable in that children will begin to understand that the previously mentioned animal is going to see a different animal of a different color. The pictures are colorful and go a long with the words. I like how the ending reviews all the pictures of the animals mentioned (as well as the words). This gives students a great opportunity to be reminded of what they remember from the beginning of the book! I also enjoyed viewing Mr. Carle reading “The Very Hungary Caterpillar”—another one of my childhood favorites!

One of the most interesting pieces of information I took from the PowerPoint was when Dr. Powell mentioned that out of the 43 years she has taught, she worked with ONE student who had a legitimate case of dyslexia. This really amazed me! There are a lot of times I hear of parents/teachers suggest that their child/students have dyslexia, so learning such an astounding fact really helped me see that letters and numbers are the only thing a child cannot reverse (slide 21).

As I continued to follow along with the PowerPoint, I was able to gain some knowledge about Novice Readers and writers (slide 22). The biggest thing I took from this was that novice readers tend to take more risks and apply different learned strategies. I really liked how she pointed out that at this stage, children begin to take responsibility for their own reading. I think this is where the role of a teacher is vital in a child’s life! Next, I learned that transitional readers and writers (slide 23) take on more responsibility and become stronger in using strategies to aid them during the reading process. They learn to become more independent and lose the need to rely on the teacher for constant help.

The slide displaying the drawing of how the reading process works in proficient readers and writers was a whole lot different than the drawing Ashleigh and I came up with in the first module. There is certainly a lot going on here! It is evident that there are a lot of things readers consider as they read. I agreed with Dr. Powell when she mentioned that as proficient readers, it’s hard to stop and actually take a look at what goes on in our heads when we read. I don’t even think I want to know what goes through my mind! Haha. It’s a lot to take in! I think reading about the characteristics of proficient readers made sense—I guess because this level is the highest level a reader can achieve. Since I pretty much consider myself a proficient reader, I can say that I can read and write with a critical perspective, use effective strategies when reading/writing, and read/write with fluency. The last slide of this PowerPoint was very helpful in that I was able to hear about ways to take running records from emerging readers and getting a writing sample after reading such books. I found these ideas to be very helpful for when I begin assessing and teaching my tutee.

The short Environmental Print Task assigned in this module expanded on the things I learned in this PowerPoint. For the assignment, I chose to work with my three-year old niece, Reagan. The focus item I used was an empty, colorful Hi-C Flashin’ Fruit Punch juice box. I presented her the item and after asking her what it was, she told me it was apple juice. I accepted this answer even though it was fruit punch—at least she thought it was some kind of juice! I was not surprised she could identify the item since she is so used to drinking drinks out of boxes and pouches like that. However, when I presented her with the other 3 items, she yelled out: “apple juice!!” At this point, I wasn’t quite convinced that she really knew that’s what it was. After the second picture I presented her with, I think “apple juice” was a predictable answer. I think she wanted to be cute and funny by repeating the words. Nevertheless, the fact that she was able to tell me what the item was without being able to read it tells me that children as young as Reagan can recognize things given that they have colorful images or logos. Since children are constantly surrounded by words with pictures and fancy writing, they are capable to identify something; normally when it’s in its original context. These emergent readers can pick up on a lot of things. We often don’t give them enough credit as they deserve. It’s amazing what young children are able to learn! I enjoyed conducting this short activity and seeing Reagan apply her knowledge of colorful words and images to identify the juice box.

Although I have learned a lot in EDN 340 so far, I am a little hesitant to say that I have a full understanding of what reading actually is and how to begin making it possible for a child to read. It was great to be able to listen to watch the short video Dr. Powell provided (through one of her old blog entries) to gain more insight. Ultimately, I learned that language and meaning go hand in hand! If we start teaching letter recognition by saying: “this is a B,” then students won’t know what this means. Therefore, it confuses them and makes things more difficult! We don’t want to give them reason to hate or have negative thoughts about reading. I thought it was interesting that she said that such negative thoughts take up a child’s short-term memory in the brain, making it impossible for them to learn! This was a pretty amazing thing to me! I like how she gave an example of a way to review individual letters—one in particular the use of an anchor chart!

I realize that learning to read and write is one of the most important things children will learn in school. With all this talk about literacy development and the different ways to approach it, I think it was easy to forget that as a future teacher, I will more than likely have students whose first language is not English. The Literacy Development for ESL Children document really opened my eyes. I like how the document pointed out that children who grow up in English speaking homes are exposed to the language as soon as they were born—however, children who speak other languages may only be exposed to English at school! That is amazing to me! I often lose sight off this fact, and I was reminded that teaching these types of students is a whole lot different than teaching English speaking students. These children need plenty of opportunities to hear and discriminate words. I learned that English Language Learners (ELLs) do not benefit from strictly learning about phonics because it lacks meaning for them. It is essential to consider ELLs when teaching phonics in the classroom. I like how the document gave ideas of effective language development practices for these types of students. I noticed that the things on the list all seem to involve the use of the child’s native language while gradually introducing words in English.

As I learned last week about assessing many different types of students in different areas, the video on the Annenberg website gave a lot of extra helpful information on the topic. It was interesting to be able to see Mrs. Perez use assessment in ways that lead to effective instruction. First of all, it was interesting to read about a typical day in her classroom. I noted that a lot of time was spent on reading and literacy development. I took a lot from the video, but the one thing I learned from Mrs. Perez, was the importance of helping children become independent readers. She uses ongoing individual assessment to guide instruction in many ways. One way I took note of was her use of running records—an all too familiar concept now! She mentioned that she uses these assessments to get to know her students as readers and to see exactly where they are in terms of their reading abilities. I see this as a form of ongoing assessment because it is something that can always be done more than once. She can choose to assess students at any time if she feels they can move up a level or need to go down a level in their reading. If she finds that some students don’t work well with others, she can always switch up groups/partners. I think assessment is an ongoing process and teachers are always looking for indicators of whether or not a child has grasped information or needs more time/help. I think observation will always be integrated into my own classroom practices!

Mrs. Perez also does a great job of engaging children at different developmental levels. She has a set time for shared reading and literacy learning. Here, she uses a poem that used different types of words. She explains that from these readings, she pulls out a phonics lesson. This supports her student’s problem solving skills because if one child seems to struggle with a certain word or concept, they all try to solve the problem together. Such shared reading experiences (developed by Don Holdaway) are intended to involve a poem/text/story being read TO students BY the teacher encouraging the students to read along WITH him/her. I feel this is an important technique in teaching children to read. They are able to take risks with their reading but have someone there to correct them if they make a mistake. It is evident that Mrs. Perez puts this into action in her classroom!

I like how Mrs. Perez also organizes her classroom to fit the diverse learning needs within the class. I noticed her letting students choose different literacy activities that fit their interests and/or needs. I think she is able to observe the students completing these activities to see where they are and how they like to do things. This is also helpful for her when she pairs/groups students up for group work. She can choose to take students with certain strengths and weaknesses and pair them up to work with students of differing strengths and weaknesses. I like the activity she came up with involving the poem about the silly fish. She saw how much the children enjoyed the poem and decided to extend it into a writing activity. I thought about how great this is! By having her students finish the sentence: “My fish can _________,” she is able to read their responses and assess them on a variety of areas; reading, writing, and spelling! Other activities involve students developing their phonemic awareness using pictures and letters.

During guided reading (GR), Mrs. Perez is seen discussing a book with a group of students who, at the beginning of the year, were found to have similar levels of reading. She explains that her goal with GR is to have them develop better fluency and make sense of what they read. She finds it important for them to verbalize their thinking and strategies because “the more you verbalize, the more it gets internalized.” I thought about how true this is! I understand that encouraging my future students and tutee to talk about what they are thinking can help them make sense of what the text really says.

Throughout the video, I was reminded of the use of Inquiry teaching and learning. Mrs. Perez did a great job of incorporating this into her teaching! I enjoyed reading the document about inquiry, mainly because it was bit of a refresher of what I have learned about in previous classes and even in module 2 of this course. My favorite thing about inquiry is that it is a learner-centered process—meaning that students are in control of where a lesson goes, what is said during the lesson, and ask questions they may have. In such cases, the teacher is simply a “moderator” and listens to students interact with one another. He/she may ask a few questions, but stands back to allow student to share thoughts, ideas, and opinions in hope that they begin to see things from different perspectives. Mrs. Perez had a lot of things for children to choose to do but they always seemed to be the ones to discover things for themselves—with just a little bit of questioning from the teacher. I like how the document about inquiry (on Blackboard) mentioned that schooling is not about individual students—rather “the coming together of the child’s interests with those of society.” As read, I thought about how true this statement is. I think it’s important to give students plenty of opportunities to seek advice and work with others. After all, this is what they will grow up to do when they choose a career and begin working alongside co-workers.

The video of Dr. Powell discussing the link between literacy development and poverty was very interesting, yet startling! I have always known that poverty was a big issue here in the U.S. but I was astounded to learn that about ¼ children live in poverty! I agree that this is unacceptable! Especially one of the most developed countries in the world! This is a sad realization—but I glad to hear that statistics show that children who are exposed to such conditions usually grow to become responsible, successful adults. This really puts it in perspective because if children can overcome such obstacles, they can be expected to achieve in the classroom. This video really helped me see just how important a positive home life is in a child’s life and how it affects the educational development of the child. It is disheartening to know that a child’s health issues, premature exposure to drug use, and trauma/abuse can all affect his/her brain development. The statistics are staggering and I know that the numbers of children who enter poverty each year is increasing while their chances of excelling in school are declining! If it is like this now, I can only imagine how it will look in a couple of years when I begin teaching! Since I plan to teach in the state of North Carolina, I know that I will more than likely have students in my class living on or below the poverty line. It was shocking to learn that we are ranked #14 in the country with the highest poverty rates! One thing Dr. Powell brought up in this video that I have always thought of was the varying annual costs for a prisoner in N.C. versus the annual amount spent to send a child to school. Ultimately, I figured that an extra $21,475 is spent on keeping a criminal in prison, rather than on an innocent child in school. I think this is crazy! I imagine the endless possibilities we could do with that kind of money in ours schools! I can see it going towards meeting the needs of those less fortunate children who come to school. To gather more information about poverty, I accessed the articles on americanprogress.org and huffingtonpost.org. It was saddening to learn so many negative statistics about our well-developed country and where we are in terms of poverty compared to other underdeveloped countries.

Ultimately, this video helped me see that there are many opportunities for teachers and schools to make a difference despite the widespread issue of poverty. Ashleigh and I discussed the importance of helping our future students, especially the ones who may live in poverty. They may not receive any attention at home, so giving them positive attention at school can do wonders for their education development. We 100% agree that children deserve the best education they can get!

Ashleigh and I also talked about things we found interesting in chapter 5 of Serafini’s text. I think we agree that it was hard to pick out the best parts because it was all very interesting! We both said that we love what Serafini said about we can’t make children to read but we can show children how and why we read (pg. 55). This is so true! As a future teacher, I hope that I can make reading fun so students will want to read. The author shares a quote from Shirley Brice that makes an astounding point: “children become iterate by establishing a bonded relationship with a joyfully literate adult (pg. 55)” I think this is a very important thing to keep in mind; especially as a teacher. I like how the book discussed and provided a list of the strategies and benefits of reading aloud (pg. 56-57). I thought it was interesting to read the Serafini often invites special guests to come read to his class (pg. 58). This is a great idea! I think this would help grab the attention of more students. It’s a break from listening to the same voice students hear at school for hours a day. As I got to page 61 of the text, I was stuck on such a profound statement. The author mentioned that as teachers, we need to provide students with access to a variety of materials to read and uninterrupted time to facilitate their reading development. They need time. They need choices. Being able to read is not a privilege, it is every child’s right! That is really something to think about! Although he has plenty of responsibilities in the classroom, Serafini described some of the responsibilities students have when it comes to reading in his classroom. They must choose their own books, keep a record log, and work together in groups (pg. 62). I like how the book lists many things to consider when choosing different types of books to read aloud. I am sure this will come in handy when it comes time for me to choose books for my future classroom (63-67).

Chapter 8 of The Reading Workshop gave me a better understanding of using instruction to facilitate a child’s development as a reader—something I have read all throughout this module! I like how Serafini opened up the chapter by explaining the three types of instruction: “1) providing demonstrations, 2) allowing time for self-initiated exploration of texts, and 3) direct reading instruction (pg. 106-107).” I agree with the facilitated reading approach because the teacher works alongside the student as they read. I like how Serafini mentions how he is constantly on the look-out for “teachable moments” to help his students make sense on reading (pg. 107). As I read through the chapter, I was glad that Serafini addressed and discussed answers to the questions: “1) What strategies will I teach? 2) What resources am I going to use? 3) How am I going to group students to provide reading strategy instruction?, and 4) What learning experiences am I going to provide to develop these strategies? (pg. 109-116).” Ultimately, I learned that not all strategies will work for every student. That’s the art of teaching—you have to find ways to fit the needs of every student. I like how the text stresses that the most important thing to teach children about reading is their understanding (pg. 116). Ashleigh and I talked discussed how true of a statement this is! After all, that’s what reading is all about—making meaning/sense of words.

As a future teacher, I feel that the “Fonics maid simpel???” document will come in quite handy—so it is great to have access to it! After reading through the list of phonics rules and words, I noticed that there were a lot of simple rules I had forgotten about or just never realized since I have become an efficient speller/writer. Ashleigh and I talked about how easy it is to forget about such rules and learn to spell/write words because “that’s just the way you spell it.” It’s nice to have this list to refer back to if students have similar questions about phonics.

The great deal of information I read about developing a mini-lesson plan was very informative. A little overwhelming, but informative. The document about the 5-Es was helpful. I learned that literacy lessons almost always begin with a piece of literature---but that just makes sense to me! I also learned about how the 5-Es are to be incorporated into such lessons. First, a teacher must ENGAGE students to establish a “need to know” situation. EXPLORING strategies come next followed by EXPLAINING and EXTENDING/ELABORATING. I was reminded that by explaining a concept to students, teachers can often surprise themselves because they make real-life connections for the learners. EVALUATION, the last “E,” is an important thing to consider during a lesson. Here, teachers can look back at what was taught, how it was taught, and how it was received by students. At this time, they are able to evaluate their performances and find ways to improve on them for future teaching. I believe this is something I will keep in mind while working with my tutee and my future students.

The “Going Deeper: Teaching Writer’s Workshop in K-1” document went into much greater detail about mini lessons and the 5-Es. I like how this gave a sample schedule for K-1st grades. I noticed that the mini lesson is of course done first thing before instructing students to work on independent work. I like how the document gave examples and ideas of what goes on in each “E” step. I know the Mini Lesson Planning Form provided by Dr. Powell will definitely come in handy when it comes time to plan my mini-lesson! It’s always nice to have a step-by-step format, especially after reading so much information about planning. I think it can really get overwhelming!

Wow! After reading over what I wrote, I feel like I have learned so much about the developmental stages of literacy and the many strategies to facilitate the reading process for them. Ashleigh and I had a ton of information to talk about this week!

Thanks for taking a few minutes to read my post. As always, I had a lot to say!
See you next week!

Kelsey