Reader Comprehension

I found these articles quite interesting! Not only do I understand the type of reader I am, but I could identify many of the students in my Ct's classroom. I find myself identifying my reader type depending on what I'm reading, and what I'm interested in. If I am very interested in the story or content, I feel I am a literalist. I am able to break down all of the content, find the meaning, and have deep discussions on it. These are books that I'm interested in and read for pleasure, such as in my book club or for reading for enjoyment. I am a fuzzy or Quiz contestant type of reader if I am reading the material for academics and it is assigned to me. If I am forced to read it and it is not meaningful I identify with the term fuzzy or quiz contestant because I do not make connections with the content, and give okay responses that I will get credit for, and wait to discuss them in class. Unless I am interested or it is meaningful I am not a literalist reader. The students in my CT's class demonstrate author type of readers to me because they listen to the story lines but it seems they do not make connections with it and create their own story line of story details. As amusing as it is, I start to notice that maybe they aren't being creative, and are just not making a connection with the literary references.
These readings help me to understand the students in my classroom. I have noticed that their fun, creative, out of context answers are probably not them simply being creative, but them not understanding the context or directions. I don't think they are making connections to the readings because they are not meaningful or similar to their lives. I think that after these readings I will be able to help them make more meaningful contexts and connections. If I make the reading more important to them, maybe they will be more meaningful to them and easier for them to make a connection. Teachers who push and motivate their students with challenging discussion questions are more likely to have more advanced readers by stressing the importance in reading.
Lauren and Rose, do you find your CT is doing a good job engaging your students into the readings, and what type of readers do you see in your classroom?

urban literature

For the Jigsaw readings I chose to read about Urban Literature, and found it extremely helpful and useful information. I think I will be placed in an Urban setting for my internship, so any type of advice I find very helpful and see these readings as tools that I can use next semester. I thought the five questions that they chose to ask the experienced teachers were great questions: “Needs of urban learners, principles/theoretical framework for literacy teacher, literacy instructional practices, and evaluating outcomes.” One thing that was said was students come into school already feeling defeated. This is vital information for teachers to know and understand. If students walk into school already feeling that they cannot achieve anything and its pointless to be there they will not put in the effort they will need to succeed. As educators, I feel we are obligated to encourage learning and show the positive effects of what one can achieve if they follow their education.
Another thing that I found very interesting was that “what they had to say with respects to teaching principles is that no one said the same thing, and yet in many respects they were very much on the same page in terms of what underlies literacy instruction that will reach urban children across the elementary and middle school grade level.” In my placement I haven’t really seen any that much outreach in motivating students to get more involved in literacy. This could be partly because they are in kindergarten, however I think its really important for students to feel confident and good about literacy from a young age. The earlier students feel positive about literacy the better they will feel about school in general. The article also said “the motivational issue is closely linked to authenticity” although this seems fairly obvious I think its something a lot of instructors don’t think about, and needs to become a priority. It reminds me a lot of the book Freedom Writers Diary, Mrs. Gurwell related literature to what her students to relate to, and were written by people who could relate and had similar experiences to them. Literature needs to be authentic and interesting to the students in order for them to be full engaged in their reading.

Writing samples

The writing samples I collected from my classroom showed the stages of spelling development because I took one from one of the first days of school out of two student’s folders, and one that was more present. The improvement was subtle, but noticeable when you looked deeper into the vocabulary expansion, spelling errors from the beginning of the year to the same words that are spelled correctly. I can see improvement, but I think that there should be more improvement when realizing that they are practicing literacy more than any other subject in school. The entire morning and some of the afternoon they are practicing their reading, having discussions, or writing in their journals. The amount of time spent practicing their writing should be shown in their work, but it’s not obvious enough. I can see that they are working hard on their writing because I am there to actually see it, but when you look at the work from the beginning of the year to now, it does not do them justice.

I think a part of the reason there is not a significant improvement would be that they are bored. Yes, my CT has them writing about topics that are fun, but it is very repetitive, and has become very boring. My ct really does care and have fun with the writing, but I think that if she made the writing topics more meaningful, something they would be proud to share, then we would see a larger improvement in their writing.

My idea of having a center that would improve their spelling would be a spelling game. They are so competitive with each other, and I think that in a fun, competitive atmosphere, with something to strive for, such as more recess time, or some type of appropriate award, they would be more into the assignments, and proud to share. In their art classes, every student is constantly showing me their work, they are so proud of it! If we can get that type of environment in writing where they are so proud they just have to show you, then we will definitely be getting somewhere! I noticed one day that when I played a card game with two girls, they did better than they normally do with me during one on one time because they were having fun competing to see who knew the site word that was on the flash card. If we make two large teams in the class, and play the spelling game at least once at the end of the day every three days, they would be able to take the spelling words and patterns they saw during their game to their writing the next morning!

Writing Samples

I took a writing sample from three different students; each student is at a different level of achievement in terms of their literacy abilities. Each sample was taken from the students story book. Every day my CT has them either write a new story, or continue a previously started story and have them illustrate their work. Mike, the lower achieving student wrote one line of words. All of this letters blend together, appearing as if his story is one word. Clearly, this was not his intention because it is clear to see that he was trying to write the words “I went to a” however these words are clearly part of the Early Phonemic Spelling development stage. This is evident through his letter choices, he clearly recognizes that letters are represented by sounds, however he uses one or two sounds to represent the entire word.
Harper is in the middle in terms of ability for literacy between Mike and Charlotte (the third student that I took a sample from). Harper is closer to Mike’s development stage then Charlotte’s. Her words are spaced out, which shows me that she understand that words are made by letters that represent sounds. Although her spelling is incorrect, you can for the most part make out every work that she is trying to say. I think Harper is still in the Early Phonemic-Spelling development stage; however I think she is on the end of the spectrum for this stage. I feel the writing sample is not enough for me to say she is at the Letter-Name stage.
Charlotte, my higher achieving literacy student has the most developed story and elaborate illustrations. Her story takes up the entire writing space, however her spacing is not yet as developed as Harpers. You can see that Charlotte understands that letters are represented by sounds, however her spelling is not quiet there. When I asked my CT which student she believed would have the most advanced story she without hesitation said Charlotte, and it is clear to see that she has the best foundation of what story’s should look like and how words are formed and represented. I think Charlotte is also at the very end of the Early Phonemic-Spelling development stage, and could be at the beginning of the Letter-Name development stage.
For these students I think writing centers would be very beneficial for them and their understand of how words should look on a piece of paper. One center that I think would beneficial is to have words already written on a page and students had to copy re-write the words in the correct order. This would help then with the physical aspect of writing and also the spacing of the words.

Digital Denizen and ELLs

After reading the information on the digital denizen website, I believe I fall into the category of "Digital Native." I say this because I use digital technology many times throughout each day including things such as: cars, computers, calculators, t.v., microwave, etc. The list goes on and on, however if I am unable to access the computer for a few days, I am OK with that. I grew up in an age where computer usage and cell phone usage began to boom. Because of this, I believe I am pretty technologically aware, but not extremely savvy. I think it is important for us as teachers to try to incorporate as much technology in the classroom as possible because it is used so much in the world today, especially developed countries such as our own.
"To achieve parity with their English-speaking peers and to maximize educational opportunities, ELLs should receive consistent, congruent, and comprehensive instruction" (Mohr, 2004). I completely agree with this statement. In field, I have seen way too much of excluding the ELL students from the main lessons because teachers feel they do not know how to incorporate them into the lessons without taking away from the other students. Though it may be a little more work for the teacher, it is their JOB to include and teach ALL their students to the best of their ability, which I have not seen much of. We need to move away from the linear and passive instruction of ELL students and strive toward more fast paced, integrated, enriching, and engaging instruction. Too often teachers are leaving ELL students out of discussions and allowing them to simply copy their peers work. We can move away from this by engaging all our students and coming up with more meaningful and interactive lesson plans. Many teachers believe they are helping the students' self esteem by allowing them to watch the lesson. This however tells them they are not as important as the other students and that they do not bring anything to the table to help others learn. This is ludicrous and needs to be ended because all our students deserve to be included in our classroom learning and the more diversity you allow them to bring to the table, the better off the learning will be for all of your students.

From Cheryl: Interesting Ideas!

Dear DJ Teach,  I've been enjoying reading your posts and have found that you are raising some really interesting ideas.  This week's posts show that you used the ideas in the readings to think about how they do or might apply to your own classroom situation, and that you took each other's ideas into consideration. Now I'd like to encourage you to engage in more 'cross talk' which can be done by posing questions to one another, talking about a particular issue that intrigues you in one of the readings and asking for the input of others, or simply constructively disagreeing with the author of a blog post or article.  I think that would deepen your conversation and push you all to dig even more deeply into the ideas in the readings and your own comments.