Working with my Focus Student

For the duration of my time working in my fourth grade class, there is one specific student that I have spent a great deal of time helping. Alexa* is a kind, outgoing, and charismatic fourth grader who struggles in regards to her literacy development. When our spring semester commenced, my CT became aware of my literacy focus for the remainder of the year; therefore, he asked that I spend some quality time working with Alexa on her reading skills (specifically pertaining to her comprehension strategies and level of fluency). Seeing as how I was in the field during the students’ reading workshop time, I was able to spend a large amount of my time working one-on-one with Alexa. At the outset, I had Alexa pick out books she was either interested in, or books she was reading in her reading group, and we would sit in the hallway as she slowly worked her way through the various stories. This allowed the two of us time to develop a friendly, comfortable, and supportive relationship.

As our relationship solidified, I made a point to speak to Alexa directly, in regards to the reasons behind our working together. First, I explained that we’re working together for a reason, and I asked her opinion as to why that is. Alexa is an intelligent and observant kid; she was/is well aware of the difficulties she encounters in regards to her reading ability, and she had no problem articulating this to me. I took this opportunity to talk to Alexa about some specifics; where she struggles, why, how we can help her through our work together, and how she can help HERSELF.

After talking to my CT, I’ve come to the realization that students need to understand and participate in their attempt to achieve academic success. Through direct, and explicit, conversations with students (in regards to their specific struggles), I believe children will feel an ownership, and take more responsibility for their learning; exactly what I was striving for with Alexa.

As the semester has progressed, the activities we participate in together have slowly evolved. About four or five weeks ago, (I think), my CT and I took some time to sit and discuss Alexa’s development. As it turned out, my CT had recently been a participant at a literacy conference that focused on comprehension strategies and the importance of fluency in struggling readers. Obviously, Alexa was at the forefront of his mind. At this point, I had the opportunity to do some research on the literature my CT received at the conference. (I’ve been meaning to ask him the name of the conference, as well as the name of the text, but it keeps slipping my mind). I learned a great deal, and I’ve been able to execute a variety of strategies while working with Alexa.

One Hen

I taught my literacy lesson the week after spring break. That being said, please forgive my short memory and inability to give a full and detailed summary/description of what occurred. Rather than present a full synopsis of my lesson (which would be quite boring, long, and dull, I’m sure) I’m going to briefly explain the general lesson layout, and then I will provide you with some insightful comments on the exciting, funny, surprising, and/or disconcerting outcomes of the day.

My literacy lesson was taught to a fourth grade class, and it was comprised of a read-aloud, a large class discussion (occurring before, during, and after the reading), small group discussions, and a written activity. The story book I read was entitled One Hen and it was an exceptionally well-written TRUE story about an African boy who encountered many obstacles, worked hard, became educated, persevered, and despite his many struggles, became the most successful poultry farmer in all of West Africa (and in the process helped his family, community, and entire country). The written activity required the students to reflect on the story, and engage in high-level thinking. I had the students write a letter to the main character of the story (Kojo), and explain what they will/would do to help their community.

First and foremost, I’d like to say that I was blown-away by how enthusiastic and engaged my students were throughout my two day lesson. My lesson began on Friday afternoon and I completed the lesson on that subsequent Monday afternoon. The students could not wait! As soon as they saw me on Monday morning, I was bombarded with questions; “Are you finishing the story today Ms. Forstat?” and “I can’t wait to hear what happens to Kojo, Ms. Forstat!” etc. It was very endearing. Not only that, but during the discussions, every single student participated; before, during, and after the read-aloud. Normally, I have two or three students who sit back and let his/her classmates take the burden of the work…not this time! I didn’t even have to call on students; they were happily voicing their thoughts and opinions.

That being said, I was surprised as to how difficult it is to facilitate a classroom discussion; as opposed to a “recitation”. In my lesson reflection that I turned in to Judy, I went into more detail as to how much I struggled in terms of taking that step back and allowing the students to take the metaphorical steering wheel. Honestly, I’ve tended to judge teachers rather harshly for their, supposedly, lazy approach to class discussions. I was arrogant enough to believe that they (teachers) were just too “stuck in their ways” to develop a more student-led teaching approach. Well, I’d like to take this time to apologize to those teachers whom I have discourteously judged. A student-led discussion is a difficult strategy to promote and I no longer believe that it can come naturally; this will definitely be something that takes some focus, and sincere thought.

Finally, I’d like to end this post with a comment relating to my students’ innate ability to empathize with human beings who may appear (on the surface) to be different from them. Before I began my lesson, I was worried that the class wouldn’t grasp the underlying themes of my lesson. I was anxious to see how my fourth graders would handle such issues as: global citizenship, poverty and poverty alleviation, perseverance, community, and helping those less fortunate. I NEVER should have doubted their ability. The thoughts and feelings my students shared were insightful, sincere, and extremely empathetic. The fact that these fourth graders are able to understand the importance of kindness, empathy, and global citizenship, when so many adults lack these insightful characteristics, is, truly, inspiring.

By the way, in case you are interested...this website...has wonderful activities, lessons, games, and information about the book One Hen, and about the country of Ghana. Make sure your speakers are on because beautiful African music plays in the background!

Word Posters, Word Maps, Word Sorts, Word Chains....word, words, words....

I just finished reading Chapter 7: “Expanding Student’s Knowledge of Words”, from Gail E. Tompkins’ book Literacy for the 21^st Century: A Balanced Approach, fifth edition. I really enjoyed reading this chapter. I know you’ll all think I’m a huge dork for saying this (I already know I am), but I LOVE vocabulary. I have a vivid memory of my fifth grade class and how excited my teacher was about getting us to use new words, making vocabulary into games as opposed to tests, and giving us a word a day to use in our writing. I think that year impacted me in a very positive manner. I am an English major; therefore, I think I’ve been writing about a paper a week for the past 5 years…crazy. But, it has really deepened my appreciation for words, and I am permanently connected to my thesaurus! Lol, I even had my boyfriend buy me a new one for Valentine’s Day! Lame, I know…But, I really do believe that my ability to use and understand vocabulary has positively impacted my reading abilities, and my passion for reading and writing. I really want my future students to feel this excitement as well!

When I finished reading this chapter, I came away with a few main ideas. I feel that instilling a sense of excitement and fun into a vocabulary lesson is an essential element of a successful language arts curriculum. If students are able to see the joy in learning new vocabulary and using new and exciting words, then they may be motivated to push the extra mile, and perform the work that is necessary in developing a larger vocabulary.

I also came away from this reading with a heightened enthusiasm for…wait for it…READING! Yes, I am incredibly enthusiastic and READY to incorporate NUMEROUS opportunities for students to read throughout the entire school day. Whether it’s through the use of read-alouds, or independent reading, my future students will be AVID readers. One particular reading opportunity I really like is: Sustained Silent Reading (SSR). In this format, students are able to choose a book they are interested in and excited about reading. They aren’t being forced to read a textbook, or something boring. This is highly motivating! I remember my time spent silent reading in elementary school; I loved it. I will definitely make sure to have comfortable cushions, chairs, couches, and what not in a cozy literacy corner in my future classroom!

Reading is incredibly important in order for students to learn new words and enhance their reading abilities. Tompkins stated, explicitly, “the amount of time students spend reading independently is the best predictor of vocabulary growth between second and fifth grades” (p. 226). That being said, if we’re going to have our students go off on their own to read independently, then it is our jobs as teachers to provide the class with tools necessary to help them understand and learn the words they are reading.

There are a lot of strategies throughout this entire chapter that detail ways teachers can model and scaffold strategies for students to utilize when they come across an unfamiliar word. A few of these are as follows:

• Context clues
• Analyze word parts
• Check a dictionary
• Look at the illustrations
• Use logic
• Look at the root words/affixes

These strategies are ALL helpful and the more students have under their belt the better prepared they will be when presented with unfamiliar vocabulary.

Finally, I just want to say that it is important, as teachers, to push our students. We have to give them those tier 2 and tier 3 words. They can handle it.

Strategies in the Classroom

I forgot to mention some things in my last two posts that I really wanted to share with you two. As you may know, I’m currently in a fourth grade class. I’ve been working one on one for the past few weeks with a student who is struggling with reading fluency. My Cooperating Teacher (CT) took me aside and asked if I could review an article he received from a conference on reading strategies. The article gave a very thorough look into ways in which you can help a student gain a higher level of fluency. After I took the time to review and makes notes on this article, my CT and I reviewed it together. He asked if I would use the strategies found in this article to work with my focus student on her fluency.

Basically, what I began doing was picking out books that had a rhythm to them; such as Doctor Seuss books, or books with rhymes, etc. I chose these books because when read with prosody, the reader can easily feel the rhythm; however, when read in a monotone voice, the beat/rhythm, is extremely difficult to make out. So, Alexa* and I would go to the media room and we would read and re-read these books together. I would start by reading the first two sentences with exaggerated expression and I would then have Alexa* re-read exactly what I just read; and so on. If she didn’t utilize the same expression that I did, I’d tell her to try again. Obviously, before we began these activities, I made sure to remind her that we’re doing this so she can develop her fluency and that I wanted her to be able to comprehend what she was reading. At first, Alexa* was REALLY annoyed with all of the repetition; but, as we worked together over the weeks, I think she really got into. She started utilizing a lot of expression in her voice without me even having to remind her.

Another strategy that we utilized was this…Alexa would read a story (at her level) on her own, then she would read it to me, THEN she would go to the back of the room and tape record herself reading it. Once she was through with that process, together, we would listen to the tape and pause and re-start to point out parts where she made mistakes or where she lacked expression.

I just wanted to point out some strategies that I’ve been using that have been REALLY helpful. It’s actually been a lot of fun helping Alexa* and seeing how quickly her fluency is improving.

Once again...Fluency

I read Chapter 6: “Developing Fluent Readers and Writers” from Literacy for the 21^st Century: A Balanced Approach, fifth edition, written by Gail E. Tompkins, AFTER I read the article on fluency that I just posted about. And I have to say, while I obviously found this chapter to be extremely informational, as well as a great resource to look back on due to the vast amount of resources listed in tables throughout the text, I did find it a little repetitive to read both the article AND the chapter during the same week. I would’ve rather have split this two texts up throughout the course of our semester. That being said, I did find this chapter to be very informational. I did appreciate the fact that Tompkins included the concept of writing fluency alongside the concept of reading fluency. Often, I feel that writing fluency is overlooked in the grand scheme of things.

I love reading a text in which an author goes out of his or her way to incorporate strategies, resources, assessment activities, etc. in the reading. It makes for an extremely informational and essential resource that I will obviously utilize in my future. There are numerous tables presented that list high-fluency words, word to incorporate on a primary grade’s “word wall”, mini-lessons, assessment tools, strategies, etc. and I will definitely go back to these when I’m teaching my future students fluency.

I found one specific section of this chapter to be the most beneficial and that was the section that specified the four different strategies that students use to identify unfamiliar words. I found this section to be the most beneficial due to the fact that students of ALL ages must use these strategies. Tompkins stated that “Beginning readers encounter many unfamiliar words, and even fluent readers come upon words that they don’t immediately recognize” (p. 197). That being said, it is obviously important for teachers to help their students develop the strategies necessary for decoding these unfamiliar words. The four strategies include:

• Phonic Analysis
• Decoding by Analogy
• Syllabic Analysis
• Morphemic Analysis

The chart at the bottom of page 197 was very useful in explaining what these strategies are and providing examples.

All in all, the Chapter 6: “Developing Fluent Readers and Writers” had a few main, important facts that I came away with. Those important facts are as follows…

• It is important for teachers to instruct students and enable them to recognize high-frequency words and help children develop a “bank” of sight-words to draw from.
• Teachers need to explicitly teach students a variety of strategies to utilize when attempting to identity unfamiliar words.
  
• Teachers need to use a variety of different procedures that are integrated throughout the day and used repetitively, in order to help develop students’ reading fluency...same goes for writing fluency...and...
• Third grade is an important cut off time for students to have developed reading/writing fluency, and if they haven’t then regular assessments need to occur as they progress through school.

Developing Fluent Readers

I just finished reading the article “Reading Fluency Assessment and Instruction: What, Why, and How?” written by Rosanne F. Hudson, Holly B. Lane, and Paige C. Pullen. I found this article to be VERY informational. Being elementary school teachers, our responsibility lies, not only with teaching students how to read, but also with teaching students how to become skilled readers, and skilled readers are fluent readers. During my junior year, when I was in TE 301, I spent a good deal of time connecting the dots between reading comprehension and reading fluency; however, I had never focused my attention solely on the different aspects of reading fluency and how theses aspects are directly correlated to a student’s level of comprehension. According to the reading, “fluent reading [is] comprise[d] of three key elements” (p. 1). At its foundation, these three elements are – accuracy, rate, and prosody. It’s important to realize that, as teachers, we need to assess our students' abilities to read fluently, in order to accurately and fairly instruct our class in an attempt to foster a deeper level of reading comprehension.

Automaticity is an important aspect of fluency to keep in mind. This refers to how quickly a student is capable of identifying words. Due to the limited capacity of a student’s working memory…when they are capable of identifying words at a faster rate, their cognitive abilities are free to focus on the context of what they are reading as opposed to focusing on word identification.

Another important aspect of reading fluency relates to a student’s ability to accurately decode words. Decoding refers to the process a student goes through when they are reading…it is composed of: seeing a word, recognizing the letter-sound relationship, and blending the phonemes together to create a word. This is a process that, in a fluent reader, should take a split second; however, for a struggling reader, the process of decoding can be extremely difficult. It is the teacher’s job to explicitly identify word-identification/decoding strategies for the class.

One aspect of this article that I found surprising relates to the section covering the importance of prosody. I have never really considered how important a student’s ability to read with expression is in correlation to their reading comprehension. BUT, it makes sense. I mean, if a student reads a question in their text like a statement, then they obviously do not comprehend what they are reading. If they did, then that statement they just read would be phrased like a question.

Not only did this article give in depth details and information regarding exactly WHAT fluency is, but, what I found most interesting, was the amount of information given in relation to HOW to teach fluency and HOW to ASSESS fluency. There are numerous tables and resources given that an instructor can reference and utilize in the future, which I most certainly will; specifically on the fifth and eighth pages of this article, two tables are given with listed assessment strategies and instructional resources. One thing I want to point out is how important it is to be EXPLICIT in your instruction of fluency with struggling readers…for some, fluency comes naturally, but for a majority of students, it does not. We are severely impeding their learning progress by not giving these students ample instruction, opportunities for practice and repetition, and adequate assessments that detail their progress.

I really enjoyed reading this article and it is definitely something that I see myself looking back on in the future.

Reading in a Second Language

First of all, I need to comment on the very first page of Chapter 5: Reading in a Second Language…Pauline Gibbons begins this chapter in an extremely thought provoking, and interesting way; the second, third, and fourth paragraphs consisted of scrambled words, words with vowels or consonants missing, the endings missing, etc. yet, I could still read it! I’ve talked about this a lot in previous years…I’ve taken some TESOL classes and therefore have had a lot of opportunities to discuss ELLs and I have also been introduced to this idea before. Actually, I’m currently in an American Sign Language (ASL) class and when trying to grasp “finger spelling” I’ve had to remember that I only need to know the first and last couple of letters to grasp the word. It really is amazing…I just had to point that out.

But, moving on…another point that this chapter makes, that is SO important, is the fact that readers construct meaning NOT solely from the words and sentence structure, but from the interaction that occurs between the reader and the text. It is extremely important to remember, as teachers, that not all of our students will be able to develop that meaningful interaction; especially not ESL students. I mean, how could they? They are completely unaware of the cultural, social, political, emotional, etc. implications that reside within the text of a story. Can you imagine reading a book that discusses a holiday or celebration that you are completely unaware of? How could you possibly understand, or comprehend, what the story is about?

There are so many different roles/characters that a reader must try on, or become, when he/she reads text. You become a “code breaker, a text participant, user, and analyst”. As teachers, we can’t assume that every single one of our students is capable of putting on this mask when they pick up a story. We have to be patient, and empathetic to the journey every one of our students is taking in the process of becoming literate individuals.

As Brooke said in her post, I found the activities that were provided on pages 84-97 VERY helpful. But, not only is it important to plan and implement great activities, but (I’d almost say this is MORE important) is picking the right books. Picking the right book will help students acquire language AND reading skills.

All in all, it is vital that we, as teachers, “build bridges into the text” (Gibbons, p. 100), and allow our ESL students the opportunity to connect with the text in a meaningful way, and develop a love for reading.

Facilitating Comprehension

After reading Chapter Nine, “Facilitating Students’ Comprehension: Text Factors”, of Gail E. Tompkins book - Literacy for the 21^st Century: A Balanced Approach, 5^th Edition, I’m realizing that one of the MOST important factors of facilitating comprehension with students is simply getting them to engage with the text on a personal level. What I mean is that students need to understand what they are reading…they need to understand what kind of book they are reading (Genre), is it fiction or non-fiction/informational, what kind of audience is the book geared towards, and they need to understand the patterns that present themselves in these texts. When a student has an understanding of these basic text factors, then they are able to develop a deeper connection with what they are reading. Rather than focus on information t hat isn’t important (such as trying to sound out words, stumbling over syntax, etc.) students can focus their attention to the plot, characters, and the conflict/resolution. By taking out the guess-work in their reading activities, we (the teachers) can enhance the level of understanding our students achieve. On page 311 of our textbook, Tompkins states an important finding…“Researchers have documented that when teachers teach students about text factors, their comprehension increases” (Tompkins, p. 311).

Another important point I’d like to make is this…as I said before, by providing our students the opportunity to develop a connection with what they are reading and what they are DOING (as in the subsequent activity) we can instill a sense of meaningful learning within our students. In the first section of this chapter, I read about Mr. Abrams and his fourth grade classroom. One aspect of his story that stuck out to me was when he discussed how he AND his students developed a rubric (TOGETHER) to assess the books they made. I thought that was a really beneficial activity. It creates an environment of collaboration that can really motivate students…and when students are motivated to work hard, they will engage and comprehend on a deeper level.

I’m currently in a fourth grade classroom and I am constantly seeing my Cooperating Teacher (CT) discuss comprehension strategies with this class. It may not be explicit; for instance, he does not say: “When you are trying to comprehend what you are reading, you should notice the text factors”. Rather, he asks questions during shared reading to get students thinking… “What is the author trying to do? How did that make you feel? What do you think is about to happen? What genre is this? Why?”

Not only does my CT guide student thinking to enhance comprehension, but he also does a really good job of incorporating reading/writing and think-alouds into nearly every subject he teaches throughout the day. While I do give him props for that, I do think that he could incorporate a more collaborative feel to his classroom. If students felt that they had more of a hand in their day to day lessons then I think they would work harder and therefore, engage with the material.

I think this was a GREAT chapter to read. The information given is something that I think I will continue to look back on.

Goin' Clubbin'

I love that we are spending time discussing the benefits of incorporating Book Clubs into the language arts curriculum in an elementary school classroom. One question I have, that hasn’t been introduced yet in class, is: at what age should students be introduced to the idea of Book Clubs? I believe any student, as young as 5, could benefit from the concepts that coincide with Book Clubs; however, do the benefits outweigh the difficulties that would present themselves when trying to get children that young to understand and participate in such discussions? Should Book Clubs be limited to students in upper elementary? I’m in a fourth grade class, and I really wish my CT would’ve incorporated these activities with his students. The class is divided into reading groups and he meets with each group where they have discussion, etc. but I feel like the students are missing out. They lack opportunities to interact with each other, and learn the correct way to socially interact through the medium of a book discussion.

I can’t wait to introduce this idea to my future classroom. However, I think that the way we have been discussing this topic and exploring this topic in class has created a slightly “off” perception as to how easy/difficult it is. With all the ideas being thrown into the mix about having “reading roles”, writing prompts, student run discussions, etc., I feel like it’s easy to misconstrue exactly how much work this will be. It appears, on the surface, to be a very smooth running, classroom led, activity; but, I think that the only reason it appears this way, is due to the large amount of work the teacher has put into it. We’re not getting a look at the work that goes into this process at the start of the year. I would like to spend some time, as a class, discussing ways to introduce the idea of peer led discussions, correct ways to socially interact through book discussions, and how to respond to writing/reading prompts. Students don’t walk in on the first day of school, already capable of participating in an authentic Book Club discussion, it has to be taught; and I would love to spend time talking about THAT aspect in our TE class.

But as I was saying, a Book Club sounds like a wonderful tool to utilize in a language arts curriculum. I think that book clubs would GREATLY benefit student’s abilities to comprehend, as well as help each child develop the strategies necessary to aid in the comprehension process. Comprehension is fundamental to criticizing, questioning, analyzing, and responding to literature. A Book Club can teach students ways to read a story that will help them comprehend and therefore be better participants in class. As we said in class, Book Clubs and comprehension go hand-in-hand, and I think that teachers should take the time and energy to put a Book Club into place in their classrooms. There are SO many resources on the web to help in this process…take a look at a few here:

Planet Book Club

Great Schools

eHow

Helping EVERY Child

Helping children with learning disabilities is an essential aspect of every classroom. According to the article “How Can I Help Children with Learning Disabilities” written by Joanne F. Carlisle, there are certain steps a teacher can take when developing a classroom that accommodates ALL students. It is very important that teachers realize that teaching to students with learning disabilities is not a rare occurrence. “About 5% of school-age children are identified as having specific learning disabilities (LD). This means that in a class of 20 children, one child is likely to have a learning disability”. What this means is that we, teachers, need to be aware of the steps to take that will allow children with LDs to not only succeed, but thrive. That is our goal for our students, so why would we be comfortable settling with merely having students with LDs to “get by”. That just doesn’t seem fair to me.

As I said before, there are specific steps a teacher can take to ensure that children with learning disabilities have roper educational care. These steps are characterized by “effective communication and collaborative problem solving.” The first step a teacher should take is to identify whether or not a child has special needs and monitor that child. Teachers need to collaborate with others to prepare a proper educational environment for that child. Communication between educators, the student, and, especially, the parents is VERY important. Regular evaluations are also essential. This ensures that, if any changes occur, the student will continue to succeed. Another step that is important in fostering a caring, safe, and educational environment for a child with learning disabilities is to help that child develop a positive attitude towards themselves and their education. We need to have high expectations for these students; they can live up to them! They just need to be given the chance.

In order to successful complete these steps, teachers should be aware of the ways that they can successfully foster literacy development in their classrooms. Classroom lessons that integrate direct and indirect literacy instruction, with the incorporation of a variety of reading and writing activities that occur throughout the entire day is a very important first step. But, first and foremost, teachers need to create a classroom environment that fosters acceptance. This kind of environment will enable students will work collaboratively and respectfully with one another, and in turn, they will succeed.

"I am not a speed reader...I am a speed understander" - Isaac Asimov

Why is reading comprehension important?? Because it is! Although strong reading skills can help students succeed in language arts and reading class, it is really, only, the beginning. Students have to use reading skills in every single subject they study and in every aspect of life. For example, students need to comprehend challenging science textbooks, work problems, directions, text in an application, as well as the newspaper, websites, etc. It is important, as teachers, that we intervene and address the issues that students encounter in relation to reading comprehension. Those who struggle in elementary school may fall so far behind that they will have limited opportunities as an adult. I don’t want that to be the story of my students.

Currently, I’m spending a lot of time working on reading comprehension with one of my fourth graders. She spends a lot of time in the reading resource room and she struggles with vocabulary and using an “expressive” voice as she reads. All of these issues are negatively affecting her ability to comprehend what she is reading. Often, she will have to read, out loud, a story two or more times in order to tell me what it is about. After talking with my CT about this, we decided that in order to help her comprehension, first, we need to address her fluency. If she can pay less attention to the words, sentences, etc. we hope that she will be able to pay more attention to the content. I think that being able to read expressively without and “choppiness” will be extremely beneficial in the long run. When you can read a story with expression, then you have to understand what is going on. For instance, if you read in a monotone then you miss the exciting, sad, or scary parts of a story; but if you pay attention to those aspects and your voice reflects that, then you will have a much better chance at developing your comprehension.

I like to use the process of “predicting” to help students will comprehension too. I feel that it really forces students to pay attention to what they are reading, seeing, hearing, etc. About half-way through a story, I will stop the student and ask them “What do you think is about to happen? Why?” this forces the students to think about what they’ve read and apply it. They also have to explain themselves and their thought process which is a really high-level metacognitive skill that can promote comprehension too.

According to the National Reading Panel (NRP) “comprehension is an active process that requires an intentional and thoughtful interaction between the reader and the text”. That being said, it is important that we ask students questions during and after reading that forces them to think about what they read and apply it. This interaction between themselves and the text will be greatly beneficial.

New Literacy Project Reflection

Hello everyone! I've decided to post my New Literacy Project Reflection onto our class wiki. Mainly for the reason that I am very long-winded and rather than bog this noteblog down with my lengthy reflection, I just created a separate page for it on the wiki. Take a look at my page, Rachel Forstat's New Literacy Reflection, and feel free to comment there if you'd like.

Thanks! :)

A Balanced Approach

After reading the article, “Balanced Literacy Instruction”, I now understand that literacy instruction is most beneficial when it is taught by combining the essential skills based lessons AND a very holistic approach in which students are immersed in an environment of authentic reading and writing experiences.

The central aim of this article is to help literacy instructors understand the important of balance. Offering students a wide variety of eclectic experiences and practices with reading and writing and also offering frequent instruction in basic skills is the best way to promote a positive literacy learning environment.

There is also an emphasis on the fact struggling readers and writers should not be taught in a different way from the rest of their peers. Obviously, the skills instruction will be more extensive in comparison to readers who are excelling, but the students who are struggling will still be immersed in a large amount of authentic, holistic reading and writing instruction.

An obvious point the article also makes is how important it is for literacy (reading and writing) to be a part of EVERY aspect of the school day. Students who are constantly reading and writing will excel in their literacy development in comparison to students who are only doing reading and writing for an hour or two a day. Scaffolding is also emphasized as an important element of literacy instruction.

Basically, all in all…the article talks about how important it is to immerse your students in literacy instruction ALL the TIME. The article does a great job of providing evidence through the discussion of case studies. Balancing literacy instruction with skill based learning and holistic reading and writing experiences, with a WIDE array of activities and experiences, is the best way to ensure students succeed.

Recitations vs. Authentic Discussions

After today’s class, I spent some time thinking about how my fourth graders interact and communicate with one another through out their school day. Immediately, I thought about the large amount whole class discussion that occurs during the time I spend in my fourth graders’ classroom. After taking the time in class to discuss Chapter 10 from Carol Simon Weinstein’s text, Elementary Classroom Management, I have come to a realization. Initially, I was very impressed at how well my CT handled the class discussions; whether they were during science, math, reading and/or writing. However, I now believe that what I initially viewed as authentic classroom dialogue and discussion, are actually more closely related to an “Initiation-Response-Evaluation” (IRE) recitation. I’ve noticed that my CT asks a question, the students raise their hands, he calls on a specific student, and they give their answer. Once he receives this answer, he usually digs in and forces the student to elaborate and explain his/her thinking. But it typically ends there, and another question is asked, and so on and so forth.

In regards to the aspects of recitation vs. discussion that we talked about in class, there are obviously positives and negatives to each. When my CT initiates a recitation style class dialogue, he uses tongue depressors with each students’ name; therefore, everyone has a turn to talk. That, in itself, is an essential reason for teachers to continue using the recitation method, when appropriate. I think it’s very important that everyone has an opportunity to express themselves and share their thoughts and ideas. This also allows us (the teachers) the opportunity to give informal assessments of our students. Recitations also clip along at a decent pace. This is very evident in my field placement. The school day flies by and there is so much to get through. Obviously, incorporating collaboration and classroom discussion is a priority to many teachers. But how can we incorporate such a time consuming process? That’s where recitations come in; students answer questions, and we move on.

That being said, I believe that authentic classroom discussions are a must throughout the day. The practice of taking a step back and allowing the students take a more active role in their learning is very important, and that is exactly what happens when a real classroom discussion is taking place. Teachers become the facilitators, and then the spectators, and students take the active role of interacting with each other, asking probing questions, participating in meta-cognitive thinking, and encouraging one another to be creative and expressive. Allowing this practice to take place can be really difficult for a teacher. As we talked about in class, teachers are extremely used to being the “benevolent dictator”. Well, it’s time for that role to change.

As I said before…incorporating authentic classroom discussions into our daily teaching practices will be time consuming; especially in the beginning. Students are not used to this sort of dialogue; therefore, its important that we scaffold the process for them. We should have the students participate in role-plays that show the correct process of interacting where there is no right answer. We need to practice the correct ways in which we should interact with each other; i.e., with respect, integrity, empathy, etc.. Students don’t come to class with this knowledge…we have to help them gather it.

One more important thing to consider...authentic classroom discussion does not have to end when the students leave for the day. It is here, that a teacher must consider the benefits that a class blog, (click on the previous link and you'll find 50, must-read, up-and-coming teacher blogs) and/or wiki would offer. A classroom wiki/blog would be a collaborative forum that students could access at any time. They could facilitate their own discussion. Twitter could be used as a way to facilitate classroom discussion. The technology available in the 21st century is astounding and it is expanding our students' horizons for collaboration.

What Am I?

According to the article, "Digital Natives in the Classroom", “Digital Natives perceive technology as their friend and rely on it to study, work, play, relax and communicate.” The article also states that “Digital Immigrants…struggle to understand and master these new technologies.”

"Digital Natives in the Classroom" offered its readers a Digital Natives Quiz to take. I took the quiz…and according to the article and my answers, I guess you could call me a native speaker; meaning, I am comfortable with a wide range of technologies. However, with all this talk about the new D – gen (i.e. the Digital Generation), and how children have been raised surrounded by up-to-the minute technologies, I would not consider myself a part of this category.

Image via Kwout

Yes, according to the quiz, I am a native; however, the level of comfort that I have achieved, in terms of utilizing technology, has only recently developed. I have used computers, the internet, cell phones, digital cameras, etc. for many years throughout my life, but those resources are a miniscule portion of what is available. Over the course of my time at Michigan State University, I have been introduced to an astonishing amount of technology that I was not familiar with before. Last year, I took a course called, “Teaching and Learning with Technology”, CEP 416. This course introduced me to blogging, personal websites, wikis, twitter, Smart-boards, etc. Thankfully, I took full advantage of that course and in doing so, I have had practice working and playing with numerous digital resources.

During the last week of class, we spent a fair amount of time discussing our upcoming project…the “New Literacies Project”. I am really excited to begin the exploration process. As a class, we reviewed a great deal of technologies available for us to dive into! After listening to the variety of resources presented, I realized that, while I am familiar with a large amount of them, I still have a lot to learn. Honestly, no matter how comfortable I feel in terms of the technology available, there will ALWAYS be more.

I was looking through Gale E. Tompkins’ text, Literacy for the 21^st Century, A Balanced Approach: 5^th Edition, when I came across the term “emergent” (pg. 111). Tompkins utilized this word as a way to describe a how a child becomes literate; that is, how a child learns to read and write is emergent literacy (Tompkins, 2010). Right now, I’m going to use the word “emergent” to describe myself. Currently, I am an emergent new, digital literacy learner. I am in the process of learning the ins and outs of the technologies out there.

I can’t imagine that I will EVER be anything other than emergent. Since the influx of technology is so rapid and growing exponentially, there is no possible way that an individual can be anything other than emergent. It just isn’t possible for one person to feel comfortable working with every single technological resource out there.

Here's a funny comic I found online...

Is It Really That Simple?

When presented with the question, “what is literacy?” often, an individual’s initial response is something similar to this: “Literacy is the ability to read and write”. (The previous statement was taken directly from the online resource, Wikipedia). When I was first introduced to the concept of literacy in TE 301, I had a very narrow view of what it represented. Essentially, my ideas directly coincided with Wikipedia’s. However, when you think about it, how long has that been an accepted definition? Society is evolving and I am beginning to realize that it is time for my view of literacy to evolve as well.

Thanks to the pile of educational textbooks I have stockpiled over my years at Michigan State University, I have a range of texts to reference in my search for a twenty first century definition of literacy. According to the book Primary Literacy Standards for Kindergarten through Third Grade (1999), the main concern of literacy is reading and writing (New Standards, Primary Literacy Committee 1999). According to Pauline Gibbons, the author of Teaching Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom (2002), the primary emphasis of literacy education should be focused on reading and writing. While I do agree with the previous two texts, to some extent, I want to take their ideas further.

When considering literacy and literacy education, it is important to consider the world in which our students live in. In order to succeed in the world outside of the classroom, students need to be literate in ways that far exceed reading classic text, and writing with pen/pencil and paper. Children need to be capable of mastering multi-media resources; meaning, students need to learn how to use media (for example, the Web 2.0) as a means to create, communicate, and collaborate. Another aspect of literacy that extends beyond reading and writing is the social aspect. It is important that children be able to share their thoughts and ideas. It is important that children know how to appropriately relate and interact with others.

How about this metaphor…I would like to refer to the concept of literacy as a tree. The trunk of the tree consists of the basic concept of reading and writing. Why? Because, I believe, reading and writing is the fundamental undercurrent to nearly every aspect of our lives. The branches of the tree could be the different aspects of literacy; including, but not limited to: social, cultural, environmental, and media. One could go even further and refer to the tree’s leaves as the different techniques and/or mediums a teacher may use to teach his/her students. When considering some examples that could be considered adequate leaves, I would propose blogging, drawing, cell phones, podcasts, digital storytelling, modeling and scaffolding (techniques), recycling (environmental aspects), etc..

It is easy to think of literacy as a rigid, unchanging concept, but it is not. As society and children evolve, so, too, will the definition of literacy. There will always be a wealth of information to consider when presented with the challenge of preparing children to become literate members of society.

Here is an image of a wordle document I created last week to represent a literacy concept map. One week ago, this image represents my views on literacy. It is interesting to see just how much my views on literacy have changed over one week's time.

A New Year!

Hello to all of you out there in "Blogger Land"! It is officially a new decade and I know I am not alone in my attempt to stay true to those pesky New Year's resolutions. Good luck to you all in your endeavors, I know I need it!

As the year of 2010 commences...my blog will be acquiring a slightly different look. Let's say...new and improved, if you will. Rather than focus on methods of integrating technology into my future teaching practices, this blog will now serve as an online forum (with an emphasis on open communication and collaboration) for a group of my peers. The three of us...Brooke, Heather, and myself...are currently enrolled in a teacher prep. course, TE 402, at Michigan State University! This course is split into two distinct sections and those sections are: Math and Literacy.

This blog will now serve to aid the four of us in our journey towards discovery in the field of language arts/literacy.

I hope you all enjoy the new feel. Please feel free to continue to comment where you deem appropriate. I am sure we will appreciate any and all comments; they may very well lead to bigger and better discussions and debates.