Module 7 Blog Entry

Hello again to all!

I hope you all agree with me in saying that there was a lot of helpful information in this module! Ashleigh and I enjoyed discussing our thoughts on all the materials provided and worked together to solve the “problem” of finding appropriate and effective was to teach students concepts and vocabulary. I think the information we read through helped us come up with many great ideas!

J. Bruner on Concept Development
The document about concept development was very insightful! I liked reading through this because it reminded me of a lot of the different things I learned about the constructivist theory in my previous EDN courses. I enjoyed reading through the various definitions of the Constructivist Theory using the website we were given. It’s amazing how there are so many perspectives and interpretations of what the Constructivist Theory really involves. I agree with the teaching strategies presented in the article and liked how it stressed the importance of teacher-student interaction. Essentially, the goal here is to meet students where they are and build up on their prior knowledge. As he emphasized on the context of mathematics and social science programs for students, Bruner focuses on their language learning development. The example given about how to go about teaching prime numbers to students was interesting. It’s evident that when learning to new concepts such as this, children learn best when they are able to visualize patterns. The principles listed in this document were very helpful! Essentially, I learned that through concept development, 1) “instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn,” 2) “instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student,” and 3) “instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps.” As I read through the two websites about Jerome Bruner, it was great to learn more about him and the impact he made on education. It was interesting to learn that he worked alongside other notable psychologists such as Howard Gardner and even attended Duke University. The information about him on the Annenberg Learner website revealed more of his thoughts about Inquiry. He explains that we are driven by a natural curiosity to ask questions and search for answers. So essentially, Inquiry IS learning.


Vocabulary in Context PowerPoint
The PowerPoint presentation about vocabulary in context was very interesting! I was astounded to hear Dr. Powell say that since we live in an information age, the amount of information has DOUBLED within the past five years and have grown to 1,001,704 words in the English language. With that said, I can see how the need to understand vocabulary is essential! Slide 2 pointed out that students have the ability to analyze the context and structure of vocabulary. This means they could study the different prefixes, suffixes, etc. of words and examine text to gather clues surrounding the words. As Dr. Powell pointed out that because of this, children are more apt to learn the different roots of foreign languages. It is evident that teachers should heavily rely on the need to help students develop vocabulary concepts. Additionally, slide 3 explains the idea that vocabulary instruction should provide students with many different language experiences, teach individual words, teach strategies for word-learning, and promote something Dr. Powell calls “word-watching,” This may mean pointing out words you night find “interesting” when reading aloud. I like the idea of having students use Post-it notes to mark such words they come across when reading on their own. Later on, slides 13-15 discuss ways to foster “word watching” such as using alliteration in poetry, using figurative language, and adding slang or onomatopoeias to writing. I liked the ideas presented in slide 5 about teachers creating word walls to familiarize students to important vocabulary words. I have seen this done in many classrooms and plan to implement this strategy in my future classroom. The “tired words” idea is great because children do tend to repeat words in their writing. As I learned in slide 6, the instruction of individual words can be given through “the word of the day” and word charades—just two ways I would like to implement in my teaching. I liked how Dr. Powell stressed the importance of using anticipation strategies to help students develop strong abilities in reading and spelling. As always, graphic organizers were mentioned as a great tool to use in this are—you can never go wrong with a graphic organizer! This PowerPoint presentation helped me understand that there are many different types of context clues to use when reading and that you can apply them using the 5-E model (slides 9-12). Creating interest in using vocabulary words in all contexts is essential! It was interesting to hear that vocabulary divides us in many different ways but we can be united through vocabulary—if we teach it, they will learn it! I was reminded that providing hands on, visual, and auditory experiences is important when teaching concepts that connect with vocabulary words.

Reading Across the Curriculum VideoI enjoyed watching the video on the Annenberg Learner website. The teacher featured in the video, Gage Reeves was very enthusiastic as he lead instruction. I noticed how he applied a lot of the same strategies and ideas discussed in this module to his teaching. For example, he used sticky notes to mark the vocabulary word: locket. I liked how he kept reading but marked this word to go back and talk to his students about it. Additionally, he instructed his students to use this strategy further on in the video (16:30) as they did their silent readings. He also taught his students to use a specific strategy to solve unfamiliar words: 1) sound out the word, 2) look for the root word and make a connection, 3) re-read the word for context, 4) choose a synonym, and 5) look up the word in the dictionary (around 6: 50 in the video). The rhythm and rhyme session the class had was quite entertaining to watch and I could tell that the students had fun with this type of learning. It was evident that the different group/partner activities the students participated in helped them develop a better understating of the main idea of the article. I liked how Mr. Reeves came around to each group and helped them build an understanding of unknown vocabulary words. I learned a lot by watching how he walked them through their five-step strategy of coming to know these particular words.

Kappan: School as InquiryAshleigh and I discussed our thoughts about the Kappan article. We both enjoyed reading this document about the positive impact Inquiry based learning can have in the classroom. I thought it was interesting how the author pointed out that schools today are doing a good job teaching basic reading, math concepts, and other important facts but are lacking in the area of motivating students to become interested in the world around them. I can see how this is true. The article revealed there are many students who when asked, are not able to tell the things they learned in school months ago. I think the article does a great job of helping readers like me realize that inquiry teaching is useless if students are not eager to ask questions and search for answers of things they learned in class. I learned that teaching the subject of science is taught using the Inquiry method. It makes perfect sense because science itself requires questioning, investigation, and trial and error—characteristics similar to that of Inquiry. I like how the article explains how Inquiry should be part of a teacher’s life—it needs to be a culture where they “live a life filled with learning, thinking, reading, and debating” (pg. 9 in document). To add to this, the article explains that inquiry should be used as a way to helps students explore ideas and facts using real-world resources such as documentaries or internet articles. This would be an alternative to using a textbook. What a great way to introduce students to other ways of gathering information! To tie this into the topic for this module, I can really see how such options would help students expand on their vocabulary! As always, I was brought back to the importance that dialogue and discussion has in the classroom. I like the quote given by Roger Simon: “Inquiry learning cannot happen in an academic culture of silence” (page 11). This is such a profound statement! The thing I like most about Inquiry is that students get to make various choices about what they learn and how they learn. As the article pointed out, I think it’s important to take a student’s interest on a particular subject and expand on it. Due to a teacher’s desperate need to follow particular standards or curricula, I know this may seem impossible to do this with every topic students may want to explore. However, finding time to fulfill a student’s need to know is vital! There are many different ways to incorporate each child’s interest into a lesson that covers required materials teachers are required to teach.

Inquiry Mini LessonAshleigh and I agreed that this short video/voice over was a great recap of what an Inquiry mini-lesson is and explained each step of the 5-Es. It’s great that any reading, writing, or spelling concept can be introduced and taught in 15 minute time frame. The many documents made available in previous modules really helped me as I created my own mini lesson. At first, I struggled with the idea of creating a mini lesson but after developing one of my own, it wasn’t as hard as I had thought! It was great to be able to take things learned in this course and apply it to this assignment. I really learned a lot.

The Daily 5Chapter 2 of The Daily 5 was an interesting read! This chapter went into detail about what principles are able to emerge through the use of The Daily 5 in the classroom. It was great to read that the authors felt that fostering good relationships with their students is one of the most important things. I also find this very important!! I feel that with any relationship, trust is an important element. So a teacher-student relationship requires a lot of trust, especially when the student is learning to read independently. The authors mention that students will be able to learn even when they are not being “managed” by the teacher (pg. 18). To go along with the idea of forming relationships in the classroom, this chapter touches on the importance of building a sense of community among the students. Maintaining a healthy relationship with students is essential to their learning (pg. 21-22). I think it’s great that the Daily 5 program allows students to make some of their own choices. When choosing classroom activities, children must asked themselves important questions such as “What will I do first?,” “What will I accomplish?,” and “What was I working on yesterday that I want to continue today?” (pg. 20). Although I found a lot of other things in this chapter interesting, I thought one of the most important things I read about was for teachers to stay out of the student’s way! Although this may be difficult to do for some teachers, they need to understand that students need independent reading time without teachers hovering and asking questions. The strategies they have learned and the stamina they have built up in the Daily 5 lessons will help them with their own reading (pg. 25).

Chapter 3 of this book also revealed a lot of interesting information about the materials, concepts, and routines for The Daily 5. I thought it was interesting how the authors discussed the importance of finding “good-fit” books for students to read. Things like a child’s interest in a topic and their level of comprehension are things to consider when finding the right book (pg. 29). I liked the “I PICK” model the authors used (page 30) in their classroom to help students find the right book books to read. Additionally, I liked how they compared the process of finding a “good-fit” book to the process of finding the right shoes. I thought this was a great idea (pg. 30-31)! Anchor charts were also mentioned in this chapter. It’s great that I am learning so much more about this because I honestly didn’t know they had a name! This chapter also focused on the importance of establishing signals and check-in times to gain student’s attention. The author’s use of chimes was an interesting idea because the students know what the sound means and begin to gather around as a class (pg. 38-39). What a great idea! Lastly, I liked how this chapter pointed out that it is important it is for teachers to model the correct and incorrect behaviors for their students. Sure students know what they are supposed to do, but they sometimes don’t fully understand what is considered unacceptable (pg. 41-42).

So I don’t know about everyone else, but Ashleigh and I agree that the materials we read and viewed in this module helped us identify solutions to this week’s “problem.” There are many strategies, concepts, and ideas we read about that could help us teach vocabulary to our future students. We certainly learned a lot!

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