Gibbons Chapter 4

This Chapter of Gibbons was extremely interesting to me because I have not had a lot of experience with second language learners so far. I liked reading about all of different teaching strategies that can be used. I also liked to see that my teacher uses these strategies with all of her students not just the second language learners. There were three strategies that stuck out to me while I was reading this chapter: modeling, scaffolding, and inventive spelling. After subbing in many classrooms I have found that modeling is so important. If you want students to do as you ask then you better make sure they know what you are looking for. If they don’t know then they just make it up and then you have work that didn’t want. Modeling for second language learners is extremely helpful because it shows him or her the exact steps that they need to take once they start to work independently. It puts all of the expectations out on the table for the students to take and follow. If second language learners do not know what to do they spend more time focusing on their peers and not on the content of the lesson. The intent of any lesson if for students to focus on the big picture and not on the small details as second language learners tend to do if they do not understand what to do. They become lost, confused, and frustrated and that gets them nowhere. So as teachers we need to make sure that are letting our students know exactly what we want them to do. Scaffolding is also extremely important when it comes to teaching literacy. The teacher needs to make sure that he or she has a close eye on the second language learners. These students to be questioned so that the teacher can see what they are thinking. Students may not be able to express themselves on paper but can verbally. By having the students discuss there ideas they are no longer focusing on the spelling and writing portion of the activity they are focusing on the content. This leads right into inventive spelling. If students don’t have to worry about how they spell things they are more focused on getting their ideas down on paper. This is the first step of writing, getting all of your ideas down on paper and then later students can revise and edit. My teacher uses this strategy during our writing workshop time. Students are not allowed to ask questions about spelling until the final stage in writing. This allows the students to focus on their ideas and not about writing their ideas on paper. Second language learners need explicit directions that are modeled to them and they need to be scaffold throughout their learning career.

Balanced Literacy

Toward an educationally relevant theory of literacy learning: Twenty years of inquiry

By: Brian Cambourne

• Brian found that while he was teaching he had ‘normal’ students who would fail to learn in the classroom environment and then because of this be classified as deficient. They weren’t deficient they just didn’t learn from the style of teaching the teacher was using. To figure out how stop this from happening in the classroom Cambourne decided to look at the most complicated process that students learn, how to talk and communicate with the world. He found the steps that children take to learn to talk and then applied them to a literacy classroom. He found that they had to be altered when applied to the classroom but also found that his new technique worked really well for all students. The following bullets describe the difference processes found!
• Created ‘conditions’ that are particular states of being such as doing, behaving, and creating when learning how to talk. These conditions have to co-occur because they both affect and are affected by each other.
• Immersion – Constantly immerged in the topic to be learned.
• Demonstration – Ability to observe an action or artifact.
• Engagement – When learners engage in the demonstration. (Hands on)
• Expectation – Learners are given reachable goals to accomplish.
• Responsibility – Learners decide what they pay attention to and what they internalize. They have are able to choose what they do next.
• Approximations – Learners do not have to do each task right the first time.
• Employment – Learners are given an environment to practice their new skills in.
• Response – The feedback given to the learner about their progress.

 

• When these ‘conditions’ were applied to the classroom they became four compact conditions that could not co exist without the other.
• Transformation – When a learner has taken the information given to them, makes meaning of it, and then demonstrates it to others.
• Discussion/Reflection – The language process that enables students to explore and clarify meaning.
• Application – When a teacher asks learners questions that will make them further their understanding that was created through the transformation and discussion/reflection process. It is here where the learner can show others what he or she has learned.
• Evaluation – Learners are evaluated based on their performance in the transformation, discussion/reflection, and application conditions. The feedback should be given in the form of a question to help the students extend their thinking or rethink their misconception.

 

• An educationally relevant theory of literacy education should have the following characteristic:
• Internal Consistency: It should be able to explain both successful and unsuccessful literacy learning.
• Ecological Validity: It should be applicable to both in-school and out-of-school contexts.
• Theory-into-practice congruence: It should be the basis for the design of instructional structures, processes, and activities.
• Pragmatic coherency: It should not make sense only to teachers and students, it should be ‘doable.’
• Transferability: The principles inherent in the theory should be extendable to contexts other than literacy learning.
• High success rate: It should work in the sense that a significant number of learners acquire literacy as a consequence of applying the theory.
• From the steps that have been written we can see that this strategy can be classified as balanced literacy because if all of the steps aren’t used then the process of learning literacy will fail. All steps have to be used together in order for this teaching strategy to work correctly.

Writing: Past, Present, and Future

“Practice, practice, practice writing. Writing is a craft that requires acquired skills. You learn by doing, by making mistakes and then seeing where you went wrong.” - Jeffrey A. Carver

I thought this Jeffrey Carver quote was a fitting way to begin this post. Some may find this a surprising concept, and some may disagree entirely, but writing is a complex process. It is difficult, time-consuming, and requires an abundant amount of practice. I am 23…almost 24, and no matter how many papers I’ve been assigned, I still dread the moment when I have to sit down, and write a paper; whether its 1 page or 15! If adults feel this way…imagine how intimidating it must feel for children?

When I look back at my writing experiences while growing up, the fact that I’m an English major continues to surprise me! Writing never came naturally to me. I was continuously reprimanded for my prose; “You write how you speak, it’s too informal!” or, “Your spelling and grammar are horrible! You need to re-write this!” and so on. It wasn’t until the end of my freshman semester, that I developed the ability to adapt my writing style to fit the required writing “mode”. What boggles my mind is this: “Why did it take so long? How come I didn’t develop this ability in ELEMENTARY school?”

I think children need to be introduced to the variances in writing at an early age. Had I been privileged enough to learn and understand the different categories that comprise WRITING while in elementary school, I believe I would have been better prepared, in later grades, to meet my teachers’ lofty expectations. Personally, I’m going to make sure my future students are, at the very least, aware of the different writing categories; such as:

• Narrative: Describing an experience, event (or sequence of events) in the form of a story.

• Expository: Providing information (for instance: giving directions.)

• Persuasive: Giving an opinion and trying to influence the reader's way of thinking.

Hopefully, I can create a nurturing environment that supports children during the writing process; through explicit instruction, one-on-one guidance, modeling, scaffolding, and finally…practice, practice, practice!

Learning to Write as a Child

Although I don't remember much about learning to write when I was in elementary school, I do remember several things. One of the main things that I remember from not only elementary school, but also middle and high school was the time that we got for free writes and independent writing. Many of my teachers put a great emphasis on giving at least 15 minutes of the day for us to write about whatever we wanted. This could be a journal for us, something to write our feelings, or something to simply write what we were going to be doing that day. The mechanics and form were not an important part of these activities, rather it was for us to practice writing and express our ideas. These free writes were not graded, but just something to get us involved with the writing processes and practicing on a regular basis. I really enjoyed this activity throughout my K-12 schooling, and hope to implement something like that into my classroom in the future. The students do not feel the pressure to make a grade, rather they are able to talk about their own experiences without even realizing that they are working on improving their writing skills. Another thing I remember from learning to write when I was younger was the fact that we practiced, practiced, practiced! Early on we spent a lot of time learning how to properly write the letters, which then turned into practicing words, sentence structure, paragraphs, essays, etc. Each of these steps was a building block for the next more complex step so it was important to master each one before moving onto something more complicated. These were several of the things that I remembered from my writing experiences when I was younger.

Narrative writing and expository writing are both very important parts of writing that offer students the practice to work with various types of writing styles. Narrative writing focuses more on telling a story or a part of a story, while expository writing is an oral or written piece that is used to explain, describe, inform, or give information about a specific topic. In order to help students learn to write, we need to offer them different types of writing and genre to use and learn from to give them the best variety of writing. I remember when I was learning to write, I preferred expository writing over narrative writing. I always liked writing about specific facts and doing research on different topics to come up with a written project or paper. I never really enjoyed narrative writing because I had a hard time coming up with my own stories and ideas of how to explain a story. I did practice narrative writing throughout my schooling to try and get better at it, but it definitely was an obstacle for me to overcome in my ability to write. On the opposite, I enjoyed narrative reading rather than expository reading. I enjoyed looking at a novel and reading the story rather than reading a book for facts or specifics. It's funny how the preference changes from reading to writing on expository or narrative reading/writing, but as long as we are exposing students to all types of reading and writing genres, its okay to have a preference and lean towards one more than the other!

Gibbons Chapter 4

Learning to write in a second language can be a tough task to face, but an absolutely necessary one to accomplish for students who are ELL. "Effective writers are likely to think about and plan their writing, at least in a general way, before they begin. They understand that writing is a recursive process-that writers continually revise and edit at all stages of the writing process, from first draft to final product" (Gibbons pg. 52). One of the most important steps in teaching children to write in a different language is showing them that good writers make a plan before they begin and are constantly re-reading their work to make it the best as it possibly can. Sometimes it can be hard for ELL students to learn, because in the western society, they put a great emphasis on understanding the processes of language and implementing that into their writing, which may not always be the case for these ELL students. Grammatical structures can also pose a great difficulty for ELL students, but preparing students with the proper guidelines for writing, such as organization, proofreading, and editing will help them be successful.

There are several explicit teaching strategies about writing that Gibbons presents in chapter 4. One of them being process approaches which put the learner at the center of the learning process which encourages them to use their own expressive language to write about their own experiences. At this stage of writing, "meaning is more important than form, and writing should take place frequently and within a context that provides real audiences for writing" (Gibbons, pg. 57). Structure and the actual mechanics of writing are not nearly as important right now in this stage of learning to write for ELL students, as it is to start expressing themselves in writing and getting the practice that is necessary to help them be successful.

Another important point that this chapter brings up is called 'The Curriculum Cycle", which is a way that particular text types can be made explicit to students. There are four stages in the Curriculum Cycle that allow students to get a better understanding and recognition of how exactly that are supposed to go about learning to write. The stages include, Stage 1: Building the Field, Stage 2: Modeling the Text Type, Stage 3: Joint Construction, and Stage 4: Independent Writing. Each of these stages are equally important to go through and introduce to students, even though it can take several weeks to accomplish all of these steps. One important point to note is that "not all activities will be appropriate for all ages, and they also are not all appropriate for use in the teaching of every text type. In addition, from your general teaching experience you can no doubt think of other language focused activities and ways of developing the topic" (Gibbons, pg. 61). Although these stages are beneficial to helping ELL students learn to write, it may not always be the best approach for every type of text that is introduced to the class, so the teacher has to use their best judgment to recognize what will work best for the students.

Scaffolding is extremely important for students to learn writing, because teachers need to scaffold and model beneficial processes in order for the students to learn properly. "The more planned and responsive the scaffolding, the more likely it is that students will write effectively, feel they have control over what they are writing, and gain confidence in using written language" (Gibbons, pg. 76). This quote sums up the chapter and shows how significant it is for teachers to be an integral part of instruction and teaching ELL students to learn to write.

Children and Writing

Chapter Four: "Writing in a Second Language Across the Curriculum, An Integrated Approach" from Pauline Gibbons' text, Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning, provides readers with a look into an English Language Learners (ELLs) struggle with the written word. Writing is difficult for MANY students; it's a process that involves numerous steps and understandings...ranging from brainstorming, free-writing, planning, outlining, drafting, editing, revising, etc. This process requires an understanding of language structure, an author's "purpose", linguistic features, and genre (to name a few), and children who are only beginning to grasp a second language may not have even begun to understand writing in their OWN language, let a lone, a foreign one. Can you imagine?

Personally, writing was a struggle for me when I was in elementary school. I had a difficult time understanding that the way you write changes, depending on your audience, and the genre. Gibbons' chapter emphasizes the importance of understanding different genres and their features when learning to write (specifically, learning to write narratives). I agree with Gibbons. Helping students develop a meaningful understanding of genres and their features is an important part of, both the writing, AND the reading processes.

Another point Gibbons made in Chapter Four, is how intricately woven language is in an individuals' culture. An ELL student not only is unfamiliar with the language, but doubling their struggle, is the fact that this is a whole new culture for them too. There is no reference point for these children. That being said, I believe taking time for explicit instruction on genres, their cultural connections, and writing is very important in elementary school for ELLs.

Scaffolding and modeling are essential tools that we, as teachers, can utilize when attempting to help and instruct ELLs. I think it is very important that we create safe environments that allow children to learn to appreciate writing and learn to value their abilities to be good writers. When our students are able to feel proud of themselves and the work they are creating, then we are doing our job well.

Scaffolding Vocabulary Learning

The article by Lapp starts out by saying, "The proportion of difficult words found in a text and a reader's general vocabulary knowledge predict how well a reader can understand a text. Research also indicates that early differences in vocabulary knowledge affect reading achievement scores in later grades" (pg. 276). Having students focus on vocabulary development is only going to help them later on down the road when they are needing to read more complicated text and derive tougher meanings. Also, it is vital that students have exposure to vocabulary when they are young because the achievement gap is likely to be closer than farther apart. This article discusses the achievement gap in low income areas, because often times children are one or two grades behind reading achievement and word recognition than what they are supposed to be. Effective instruction needs to be administered to students all throughout their literacy learning because having early exposure will help them as they move on in their literacy development.

"Differences in the type of language structures, interaction styles, and vocabulary found in many homes means that the language of schooling is significantly different from the language many students encounter prior to entering school" (pg. 276). While it is important that students have exposure to language no matter where they are; in school or at home, we as teachers have to understand that the type of language being used at home may be very different than they type of language that is being presented in instruction time at school. Conversations between children and adults can be beneficial to their literacy learning and development of vocabulary. This type of conversation can come from simply communicating with children about their day or random small talk, but one of the most effective processes is to read aloud to children. "Findings from several studies indicate that reading aloud to students can contribute to vocabulary growth" (pg. 277). It is important for students to find strategies that can help them increase their exposure to vocabulary as well as their understanding of new words, and how those can be used in real life readings and writings.

Word learning and vocabulary development takes place over time and is not something that happens right away. It is a process and continues to develop even into adulthood. Although children have vocabulary explosions early on, they still learn vocabulary as they continue on in school, just not at such a rapid rate. Along with that, there are various different types of instruction that is to be implemented when teaching different types of words. Some words that are specific to a subject require conceptual learning/instruction because that way they can see how the word pertains to certain real life examples. The overall goal of vocabulary is to derive meaning from words and apply that in a bigger scheme of things that allows us to understand an overall meaning of the text. Developing word consciousness is important in creating an environment where students can understand words and the meanings of texts. Exposing low income students to vocabulary and increasing the amount of language they are familiar with, will close the vocabulary gap that has become ever so prevalent in our schools that are lacking resources and effective teachers who can deliver instruction.

Tompkins chapter 7

Expanding student's knowledge of words and being able to increase their vocabulary is an important part of literacy for both reading and writing. The first main point that I noticed from the reading, was understanding how students learn vocabulary words. "It seems obvious that to learn words at such a prolific rate, students learn words both in and outside of school, and they learn most words incidentally, not through explicit instruction. Reading has the greatest impact on students vocabulary development" (pg. 225). Students learn vocabulary at an alarming rate, but their learning does not only increase from instruction, but also by incidental learning and experiences with real life activities. Engaging in conversation, and having real life experiences where they are surrounded by language allows students to increase their knowledge of words.

Vocabulary and word knowledge are very important for several reasons. First, "students with larger vocabularies are more capable readers, and they know more strategies for figuring out the meanings of unfamiliar words than less capable readers" (pg. 227). The main goal of vocabulary and word recognition is being able to derive meaning and using context clues around unfamiliar words, to come up with an overall meaning of what is going on in the text. There are several procedures that teachers can incorporate into their classrooms to promote vocabulary development. One of the most common ways to display vocabulary in the classroom, is word walls. A word wall allows students to be able to see commonly used words on classroom walls so they can reference these when needed. This is a great way to display various types of words including synonyms, antonyms, homonyms etymologies, and figurative meanings of words. Aside from word walls, word posters, word maps, word sorts, and word chains are all great ways to expose students to new vocabulary, in a creative and interesting way that allows them to familiarize themselves in the classroom.

When working on vocabulary, it is also important to take ELL students into account, because they are not always going to be at the same level as other students who have English as their first language. Recognizing Tier 1, 2, and 3 words is important to using vocabulary that can help with reading and writing development. Tier 1 words are words that are familiar to English learners because they appear to be the same in their native language. Tier 2 and 3 words are more complicated vocabulary that is essential to know for specific topics such as science or math. "Using context clues, analyzing word parts, and checking a dictionary," are all strategies to use when students encounter a word they are unfamiliar with (pg. 244). It is important to teach students these strategies because they can use these to help them when taking tests, completing assignments, or going through an assessment.

Bridging the Gap

Chapter 21: “Scaffolding Vocabulary Learning - Ideas for Equity in Urban Settings”, from the text: Teaching All the Children: Strategies for Developing Literacy in an Urban Setting (written Judith A. Scott, and edited by Diane Lapp) was taken from my course-pack. I am so glad this article/chapter was assigned reading. I just finished reading and responding to the chapter concerning vocabulary form Gail E. Tompkins’ textbook and I have to say, I’m very disappointed in Gail. I’m not sure why she felt it was okay to leave out such pertinent information; that children whom are “economically or culturally outside of the mainstream…are being underserved, underfunded” (p. 471-472) and left out to dry, in terms of vocabulary learning.

It’s such a strange (yet being a teacher… familiar feeling) to go from feeling so excited about teaching one moment, to being completely deflated and saddened the next. There’s such a huge job ahead of us. As I said before, it is SO important to provide our students with as many opportunities as possible to read in school. After reading this article, I am reminded that there are students who may come to my classroom, and the reading they do with me could be the only experiences they have with books, with reading, and with writing ever. It breaks my heart. And I’m ashamed that this isn’t a constant thought in my head. I just can’t imagine a life like that. I can be as empathetic as possible for my students, but no matter how aware and educated I am, I will never have some of the experiences that they are having.

But, hopefully, because I am aware, and because I CARE, I believe that I can serve a thoroughly beneficial role in their lives. They (i.e., minority students, students from economically disadvantaged areas, students whose families are on welfare, etc.) need REPETITION, in regards to vocabulary usage; they need to be held to expectations that require them to push themselves. They have a huge gap to cross. According to the reading…“By grade seven, they were more than 2 years behind the norms [in regards to economically disadvantaged students defining literary words]” (p. 459). Since these children are not receiving the help, support, and advocacy from home, they need their teachers to do that.

These children need to understand the important of words and they need to realize that they are capable of developing a vocabulary that enables them to succeed academically. Words are tools for success and every single child should have access to those tools.

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.