I Poetry
12 Oct 2010 1 Comment
I Poetry
When looking at the Powerpoint, I went back and made connections to my educational psychology class when we talked about Vygotsky and scaffolding when students are learning. It was good to refresh my memory about this. I believe that scaffolding is a great tool, but when thinking back to what we have learned in Re 4030 this year so far I think modeling is an even more effective tool and I think it should be done first before scaffolding.
When thinking about instructional scaffolding, and after my meeting with Dr. Frye this morning, I really love the “Ownership” section of this powerpoint. I think that when you allow students to take ownership in what they are reading or writing or creating, I think they put a lot more effort and energy into it. For example: when talking about an “I” poem, letting them decorate it and illustrate it, the students think this makes their poems the best! They feel so good about their work and in return we as teachers get better work to assess.
Rhyming has always been something that I feel like I have struggled with—especially when I am put on the spot and asked to rhyme. I am twenty one years old and it still can be challenging at times. Thinking back to when I was in elementary school and how frustrated I must have been when I was learning to creat a poem—just learning how!—and the teachers made us make the poems rhyme too! I feel that, that is just too much all at once to throw on our students. Teaching them and modeling for them a good poem, like I will when I teach my students at my internship how to write an “I Poem” is really essential. It may take a little longer to model how and get their feedback while you are doing it, but its really worth it and boosts their self confidence when they are to create on their own.
I love the poetic formulas! Anything that makes it easier on our students when they begin to write and create poetry is something I am in favor of. Making them brief and to the point is also good so the students do not spend all of their time reading the formulas and not completing the poems themselves. Also gives them freedom with punctuation, capitalization, and syntax.
Over all, after reading this powerpoint and reading all of my information about the “I Poems”, I feel confident that I can teach these. Knowing that these poems are in first person, where the kids write from the perspective of another person or object is a great help. Also relating these poems to informal poetry really makes the kids less stressed, in addition to not worrying about making the poems rhyme. These poems still allow for creativity but have a guide for the students if they need.
To complete an “I Poem”, the students need to make sure they do some for of mapping and/or take notes while they read. Afterwards, having a whole class discussion really helps. Finally, the template, like I said before, really guides the students and puts them at ease about the poetry they are about to create. Making sure the students are able to share their work also goes back to the Ownership part of instructional scaffolding. This really makes it a lot better for the kids and they take pride in what they make because the rest of the students will see theirs and they get to present it.
Response to Reciprocal Teaching and Discussion Director
04 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
“Reciprocal Teaching” and “Discussion Director”
Reciprocal Teaching is more of Dialogue between teachers and students about the text. Reciprocal reading forces the students to think their own thoughts while they read. It also helps them to actively involve and monitors their reading while they comprehend what they are reading. This also teaches them to ask questions while they are reading to deepen their understanding and comprehension. I find it very interesting that you should use it before reading, during reading and after reading. This makes it a very important component because it is so versatile. Also very useful that students can use it alone, with small groups, or as a whole class. To make it effective, the students should be taught how to summarize what they read, question while they read, predict what is to come, and clarify what they are confused about while they read.
I really like the preparation for the actual reciprocal teaching. I like that its very hands on with note cards and allows them to explore in groups! Giving them roles also holds them more accountable for what they are reading and for the comprehension because they have to be prepared to share with their groups. Also giving them sticky notes to mark the places that they feel are important so that they don’t have to stop reading and write it down.
Also, very convenient is that there is a part in this that is for differentiated instruction for students who are English language learners, students that are low reading skills or high, and younger students in your classroom that are younger learners. There are a lot of good ideas given like: pairing lower and higher students together for extra help, as well as asking students to write out questions in a story that they do not understand.
In the discussion director, this gives students a lot of responsibility like the reciprocal teaching when they read. The students have a “job” to involve the students in their group and to think about what they just read and actively talk about it. Making sure the director has to think about “thinking questions” is also important. Avoiding yes and no questions is a must. I think that adding the “fat, juicy, thinking” to the questions adds more fun and more excitement to the questioning.
Modeling good questions for the students is something that they really need. They need to see what they are to be doing before they are expected to do it. I really like the list of questions added to show the students. This is different from the reciprocal teaching because they are not given question examples for that.
Also making sure they know what all of the words are before they are expected to find them is important. Making sure they know what the setting is, what the main idea is, theme, plot, and so on. These are all words that should be defined for the students beforehand. The reciprocal teaching does not really cover these either.
Breaking words down to build meaning: Vocabulary, morphology, and reading comprehension in the urban classroom
30 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
Breaking words down to build meaning: Vocabulary, morphology, and reading comprehension in the urban classroom
When doing lessons in the classroom, the most important thing to do is to integrate other subjects into that subject. Most always, reading can be integrated into whatever lesson you are teaching. This is a great way to expand vocabulary in a new and more different way, when you tie it into a unit or another subject. This makes it seem less boring. Learning about something cool in history and the vocabulary words that go along with it—like in the piratical study, they learn about different pirate names, slang, and other historical terms. Being specific when it comes to a word and how it’s used in a text is very important. A great way to be sure this is done would be with an in class reading where the teacher reads aloud and the students follow along and the teacher can explain words that come up, explain them in the sentence and suggest other meanings to that word, which are also important. For example, in the piratical unit, the teacher does a class reading and models for the students how to rummage through an unknown vocabulary words and use context clues before and after when reading to find out the definition of a word. Defining words in general is a place where most students struggle. This is where the teaching of vocabulary words really comes into play. When they know the vocabulary words, they can read more at ease. Words won’t stump them and they can read more accurately and thus increase their speed of reading. This will also help their reading levels and move upward and not lower. English Language Learners are a struggling group. They really are lacking the vocabulary they need to comprehend the readings that they are being asked to complete. Having the background knowledge of vocabulary and definitions makes reading go smoother and makes for them to understand the culture they are reading from better. Taking time to help them as a teacher will greatly impact their whole life long reading and prepare them for the work place one day. In general comprehension struggles because of the lack of academic vocabulary and ability to read; as well as knowing the meaning and the option to move on with the subject. When you bring all of this together and plan units with lots of vocabulary and definition type things in them to learn, everyone will benefit from this in the long run. Students will learn to read more with ease, more accuracy, and a higher number of words per minute read. This will better equip them for the future: for jobs, for higher education, as well as communication.
Integrating instructional-level social studies trade books for struggling readers in upper elementary grades
27 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
I really agree with the article when it talks about the kids struggling with reading accuracy and words per minute and only being allowed to have a certain amount of time to read a section—they don’t get done! And it’s a terrible thing for them because they get behind and get so down about reading in general because they stress about not getting things read in time because they are not given an appropriate amount of time for their reading level. Most of them are not on grade level! I am experiencing this in my classroom at Millers Creek. All of my kids are not on the same level and they are given the same books to read sometimes because it’s an in class reading and they struggle. My teacher tries to provide them for an extra amount of time and when they are finished to read another book that they have in their desks. This is essential too because they will get extra practice. But, what about the kids who don’t ever finish early and never get that extra practice? It’s frustrating!
One of the things that I do like however is that some of the readers that aren’t quite on grade level, are pulled out for extra help so that they do not have to be the joke of the class and they have extra time for practice and phonics because this is what they need!
I always knew reading testing was hard when it came to assessment of the children but I never knew how hard it was until I had to do it myself. When thinking about all of the factors that the teachers have to take into consideration when deciding what reading level they are at. Learning about what level is the level of frustration for the child is important because this is the level that will take the most time for them when it comes time for them to sit down and read books on that specific level. Also it is important because they need to know about the actual level that each student is on. At Millers Creek they do Reading Counts tests on books so they need to be on an appropriate level to make sure that they can get points and not fail the tests that they take.
When listening in and helping to assess the little girl at Millers Creek I was thinking about how much work and time it must have consisted of to make up a reading assessment! There is so much that has to go into it; the formulas, the words per minute, the mistakes made, and the accuracy! Also things like being able to hear the student and deciding what levels to start them on! Theres so much to be considered and I was proud to read about how they came up with some of this in the article I think reading assessments are a great asset and aid to the schools!!
Shared Readings: Modeling Comprehension, Vocabulary, Text Structures, and Text Features for Older Readers
22 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
“Shared Readings: Modeling Comprehension, Vocabulary, Text Structures, and Text Features for Older Readers”
Modeling of reading is extra important because it is one of the first steps to reading literacy for the students. I really never knew it was supposed to be divided into four categories of: comprehension, vocabulary, text structures, and text features. But after reading them and thinking about them, I see the importance of all of them! It is so important for the kids to know how to comprehend what they read because after all if they can not comprehend what they are reading then their reading is pointless! I struggled with comprehension of what I read all through school, and I still do some now as a college student. Vocabulary is also so important for the students to know because as a teacher, I want my students to comprehend what they are reading and in order for them to comprehend what they are reading, they need to be able to understand the meaning behind the words that they are reading; the vocabulary.
Echo readings, choral readings, as well as cloze readings are also really good tools to use in the classroom. Having students repeat you will build their pronunciation and annunciation. I think it is a really good idea for the teachers (as suggested) to pause in a sentence to see if the students can go on and pronounce the word that is next. I don’t think that shared reading or any other reading idea like this one should be cut out! We need to be able to use these tools in our classrooms! These are such great ideas where students can feed off of each other and they can learn from their teacher! Why would we cut something that was an aid in phonemic awareness?
Another thing I liked was for reading comprehension; having the students to look at the picture and recall what happened on the last page and think about the relationship to whats happening on this page. This is really important and this is a great help to the students because they are able to take the time and look at the pictures and talk themselves through the book and thus causing memorization to what is going on through out the book.
In reading, when the teacher pauses to take the time to explain a vocabulary word, having the students say it too, this helps with their memorization as well as their vocabulary expansion. They now know how to pronounce a word, and know its definition and they are able to read it as well as know what its meaning is!
Pirates Articles
20 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
“Swashbuckling Adventures on the High Seas: Classroom Activities for a Unit on Pirates” In this article I was happy to see the double column notebook. When I was in Elementary School we had to buy Steno notebooks and we did the same thing in them with the two columns. I think it is great for them to take notes of things that they like in a story or things that they need defined or things that they do not like. Then, this gives them the time to reflect on why/why not they liked something, and to do research on a word, place or person that they do not know about. I also liked how the teachers are asked to model everything that is done for the students. Showing them how to brainstorm ideas when they write is essential so that they know how to brainstorm their own ideas and questions. I also think it best for the teachers to model for the students how to perform research on a specific pirate. This may be the first time the students have been required to do research of this nature, so modeling is best. Graphic organizers and handouts are also very important so the students have something to hold onto and fill in themselves. This helps them organize all of the information that they find and then it all seems clearer to them. Data Retrieval Chart is also important because they can store information on it and fall back on it throughout the whole pirate unit. “Pirates in historical Fiction and Nonfiction: A Twin-Text Unit of Study” I think this summary of the interdisciplinary unit is really accurate and thorough. I really like how quality literature is used throughout. Integrating social studies and language arts is also important! This unit really goes in depth with the pirates; economic impacts, American colonies, roles that pirates played, location of major landforms, as well as the Pirates Code. LOVE the opener for the unit, with the music and having the kids walking in to a decorated room! How fun and exciting to get them enthused about the Piratical Unit! This makes it seem so real for them! Then, allowing them to write about what they have just experienced is a great way to get thoughts on paper and to brainstorm about what they for see the unit to be like. Having the teacher to walk around during this time is really important also because they can ask the students to expand what they write about using who, what, when, where, why, and how. Also having them write KWL: what they know, want to know and have learned, all make for great journal entries for expanding upon pirates and writing more and more everyday to increase fluency. The notebook for this unit is a great idea! Allowing them to use it for more than just writing is a great idea! The dictionary in the back of it where they organize piratical words by alphabet is a great concept because they are allowed to define them themselves with words or pictures, but they are also allowed to do research to find the definition so this makes it more interesting for them. KWL pages are also a great idea because they can always look back and see if what they think they know is true and if they learned many new things or not. This is something they can keep to use for future reference. Having students to explore with different books, DVDs, and other ways are really good because they appeal to the different learning styles of the kids in the classroom. Reading and learning the information is informative and very straight forward. Adding the pictures to the reading just adds an extra touch of expanding the learning that is going on. Watching a DVD about the pirates takes it even further and turns words, to pictures to a whole scene that unravels and is so mind wrenching that it causes a permanent image to become stuck in your head. Providing the teacher questions is a great idea. Sometimes having that extra expansion of knowledge questions really improves the higher order thinking levels of the students and causes them to dig deeper into a topic. Having these questions on hand for teachers is excellent. “Internet Workshop and Blog Publishing: Meeting Student (and Teacher) Learning Needs to Achieve Best Practice in the 21st Century Social Studies Classroom” Learning that Social Studies educators have a lot of responsibilities reminded me that all teachers have a lot of responsibilities. Teaching students the knowledge, skills, and values to be good citizens can be more than just social studies. Making sure all the activities are meaningful and rich is something that must be considered before the activity is presented. You want the kid’s time to be spent on worthwhile things. These activities require lots of planning and use of instructional strategies. Always keeping in mind that the students may not be able to read on a higher level is something to keep in mind when deciding on what literature to use with your class. As a teacher you will know what level your students are on so picking your literature appropriately is important. If you lack useful resources it can also hinder the student’s growth and learning. Also how the unit is divided into two sections to keep the thoughts organized and to keep it from being so overwhelmed. Finally, I like that the teachers are the ones who create the research activity. Afterall. They are the ones who know their students best and will know what they like/dislike and be most interested in. this also allows them to be independent learners! Sharing their findings is also a great idea; in workshops because this allows them to bounce ideas off of each other and dig deeper into the content. Making sure the teacher does the research first is important so that she can get child-friendly sites for them to look at and gain information. Having them to post their findings on a class blog might also be appropriate.
Free Verse-Small Moment
13 Sep 2010 1 Comment
My small moment was with my best friends little girl, sitting looking at a leaf.
Little leaf
So small
But so large.
Such a wonder
Such a beauty.
A little one holds you
Ever so tight
You are her
Green wonder
During the night.
Poetry
12 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
I really have a facination with poems. I think they are incredible, IF they are short, easy to read and aren’t overly emotional. I know, I take it a little over the top huh?
Well, I like poems when I can get into them. For example, when they rhyme and I can look for the rhyme in each stanza, or if they are creatively shaped and I am able to wrap my head around the words as I turn the page of the poem around so I can read it. I also enjoy when poems have lots of fun fonts and colors, these poems are inviting.
I dislike it when the poems have a lot of meaning invested in them and they have words that are so big that I can not wrap my head around them. I think these are too hard to read, let alone to try and find meaning in. I also think that these should not be used in Elementary School, Middle, or really high school. These kids are still trying to understand what a poem is!
