All Good Things Must Come To An End

The only words that come to mind when I think about our Literacy and Learning III class are “simply amazing”. I did not think that I could take away so much valuable information from just one course. The readings, assignments and class discussions were so well thought out, that I feel so much more prepared to teach literacy than I did five months ago. I understand how important reading and writing are, and the skills and concepts that I have learned this semester will help make my classroom experiences meaningful to my students’ lives.

Even though the assignments may have been stressful at times, they were well worth the time and effort. For example, I am now more confident in my abilities to conduct a highly effective read aloud (including the process of selecting a book that is meaningful for the class). Also, projects such as the OTSMA, instructional conversation, writing assessment, etc. ensure that I am ready to apply them as a teacher once I begin working. Furthermore, the class readings and discussions were extremely helpful to my learning in regards to literacy. Before this class, I was only able to slightly envision what my classroom would look like, but thanks to discussions and readings (such as Debbie Miller) I can visualize how I might setup my room to promote and integrate literacy into my students’ lives.

One idea that I really took away from this class (that I did not think about as much before) is the idea of conferencing with students. The more that I get to know my learners individually as readers and writers, the better I will be at constructing important and relevant lessons for them. I always knew that you could check on students individually as they were writing, for example, but various discussions and class texts have specifically provided me with the correct tools and knowledge to conference with my kids.

If I were to continue to write about everything that I have taken away from this class, however, I would be able to write a novel’s worth for all of my ideas. Not only has this information helped me, but the ideas and information that comes from this class will positively impact my students’ lives as well.

Tech in the Classroom

This week, in our Literacy and Learning III class, we discussed the importance of technology in the classroom. Personally, I don't know any young teachers who are against using technology in their classroom nowadays. Many individuals are aware that this generation of children been exposed to a lot of technology, so incorporating it into one's lessons makes it more interesting and hands-on. This week I led a discussion as a group D leader and these were some of the questions I asked:

1)    What is your view when it comes to using technology in the classroom? Do you have any concerns? In what ways do you see your classroom teachers use technology in their lessons? Do you believe that they use enough technology in their room?

2)    How do you feel about using smartphones in your classroom? In what way will you incorporate them into your lessons if you do plan on using them?

3)    Who do you think should provide the devices children or schools? If there is not enough technology for every student how would you solve that problem?

4)    According to the article by Bridget Dalton, “A recent survey shows that many teachers feel unprepared to integrate literacy and technology into their classrooms.” What can the school districts and community do in order to fix that problem in their area? What do we think about the teachers who do not like technology in their classroom?

Many of these questions led to a very interesting discussion in our small group. As a whole, we agreed that we would definitely use tools such as SMART Boards, computers, Ipads, etc. in our classroom. The only item that we were a little skeptical on was the idea of smart phones in school. Many students may become distracted if cell phones are permitted in the class and may even use them for negative things such as cheating. Many schools even ban cell phone use due to these concerns. If there was a way to prevent students from such behavior in school, then maybe it would be an idea to consider, but until then, it does not seem like the best idea. 

Instructional Conversation

 I found the instructional conversation to be a very pleasant experience and I am very excited to try them in my own classroom one day! Sadly, as a pre-service elementary teacher, I truly believe that many students are still not exposed to enough instructional conversations, and are in classrooms that are very teacher centered rather than student centered. In Claude Goldenberg’s article, Instructional Conversations: Promoting Comprehension Through Discussion, he argues the same points as I do, saying, “Yet teaching aimed at these important goals is presently most notable for its absence from U.S. classrooms (316).”

I was very lucky in the sense that the group of students that were assigned to my small reading group are, overall, very eager to participate during discussions. I will give you an example of a conversation that took place but first let me give you a little background knowledge of the scenario (this was included in my paper):

Megan, Sierra, Carter, Dave, and Kumar are in third grade and assigned to my small reading group. We meet as a group Monday through Friday in the morning for about twenty to thirty minutes. All five students are in the middle of their class when it comes to reading and writing; they are not struggling readers, but are also not considered advanced (or proficient) by any means. This group overall does pretty well with fluency and comprehension for third grade, but could improve with overall reading strategies and digging deeper into the text.

The book that we are currently reading is a scholastic book titled, Cat and Mouse in a Haunted House. My classroom teacher assigned this book for us to read in our small group. If it were my own classroom I would select a more meaningful story that was based off of my students’ needs and interests, but in practicum I do not have a lot of say in the matter. My group of students seems to fairly enjoy the book, however, because it includes a lot of humor and is even suspenseful at times. Our group meets in a separate room (in the library) where it is quiet and we can form our chairs into a circle. The students are used to working on mini lessons that tie into the story and partake in many group discussions. For this particular meeting, my classroom teacher wanted me to emphasize and discuss the skills of predicting and making inferences

Talking points

This chapter is called Mouse Bones and Rat Skeletons.

Carter- “A huge copper pot hung inside the fireplace. It had a picture of a snarling cat engraved on it. I looked closer and noticed a strange white object lying inside of the pot.”

Kumar- I think I know what’s going to happen next* like what’s going to be in the pot. It’s a bone!

Me- Kumar tell me more about that. What led you to make this prediction?

Kumar- Because I remembered the title says Mouse Bones and Rat Skeletons and it says, “a strange white object lying inside of the pot.”

Dave- And there’s a picture of a bone right on top of it!

Me- Wow we have some really fantastic points here! Kumar and Dave made an educated prediction based on the clues and evidence in the story. We have talked about this before, and how to use things such as book covers, chapter titles, pictures, etc. to make predictions.

Megan- I know *--- I mean this one time I saw a real bone before. There was this animal and it was dead next to the park because it was like run over and stuff and me and my friend went right up next to it, and um it had white stuff in it and my friend told me that was the bone!

Sierra- And we saw owl bones in class remember when Ash/

Dave- Nah that was owl palettes! Not bones

Sierra- then Ms. Hooker showed them on the computor

Me- Sierra and Megan I like the way that you just made a text-to-world connection. This is a strategy that many good readers use to better understand the book.

I could not believe how thoughtful some of the talking points were, especially for third graders! The only thing that I would make sure to change for next time is to not chime in as often, and let the students continue to talk.

Writing Assessment Analysis

Last week I chose to do a new writing activity with my third graders! In our small reading group, I decided to do a lesson on cinquains. For those of you who have never heard of a cinquain it is, at the most basic level, a five-line poem or stanza. It was created by the American poet, Adelaide Crapsey, about 100 years ago and is very popular because of its simplicity. The poem only focuses on one topic, and it involves details that describe the topic’s feelings and actions. Right now in my practicum classroom I do not think the kids are exposed to enough poetry lessons, let alone meaningful writing experiences. Since April is national poetry month, however, it doesn’t hurt for me to try to bring more writing to the table!

Here is an example of a cinquian format:

Line1: A noun

Line2: Two adjectives

Line 3: Three -ing words

Line 4: A phrase

                                                       Line 5: Another word for the noun

None of my students were familiar with this type of poetry and seemed a little hesitant, at first, to try it. As I continued to discuss and reassure them how much fun poetry writing can be, they started to become more and more relaxed and even excited! I shared some examples of cinquain poetry and gave them some information about it. We talked a lot about:

·     What are the reasons for writing poetry?

·     Why is language and word choice important in poetry?

·     How is the form of poetry different from other types of writing?

·     Where can we find poetry in our lives?

·     How is the writing process (that you have experienced in your class) applied to poetry?

·     The similarities and differences of a cinquain vs. other types of poetry.

·     Expectations/guidelines to think about when writing our poems.

·     Brainstorming some possible ideas of what we could write about

After this engaging discussion, I handed the students a rubric and a graphic organizer printout to use to help them organize their thoughts and structure their poems correctly. Then I simply let them get to work. I did walk around to help students who had any questions or concerns but other than that I really made an effort to hand the writing time over to my young writers! 

We needed a couple of days to work in our small groups for this particular writing assignment. I had the students write their first drafts in their writer’s notebooks and then come and conference with me when they were felt ready to do so. I also continued walking around to observe my students at work. According to Carl Anderson, author of Assessing Writers, it is important to gather information about your students and make meaning out of that information during the entire time that I am with them (pg 146). I even used the same record keeping forms as the author suggested to make notes about each student individually, stating what I believe the students need to work on to grow as writers.

After taking time to review my notes from the conferences and student work I realized how much I learned about them as writers. For example student #1 did a very nice job including nouns, adjectives and verbs that were juicy with description and helped the reader see the meaning of the poem. After meeting with student #1, however, I noticed that he needed more experience just going through the writing process itself. For example, he stated that he was bad at self-editing and wanted me to do it for him. We discussed different strategies on how to go through one’s work such as circling words/sentences that we are unsure of or reading a draft aloud to listen for errors. I also suggested that he share his work in progress with other classmates to get feedback. That way, the student can at least attempt to self-revise/edit his or her own work instead of just handing it off to the teacher saying, “I’m done”. Student #2 did a very nice job adding illustrations to the poem that related to her theme and were very well planned! I would say that student #2 and #3 overall could both benefit from learning different strategies for planning a draft. They were both very eager to jump into their draft, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but maybe it would help their final product if they took more time to plan. If they really want to start writing their draft right away, then they should at least think about their structure and let it emerge as they write. Anderson points out in his text, “it’s important to notice which students think ahead and imagine how they’re going to write for important reasons (how to get a piece done so that he/she can get it out into the world) as opposed to being indifferent on how they will approach their writing (pg 35).” It would be really cool, for instance, if my classroom teacher had more examples of various authors who write poetry to allow the students to see how they think thoughtfully about language and word choice. That is one suggestion I have and is why I brought in some examples of cinquains, so that the students would at least have some ideas. Student #4 needed some extra reassuring that he was doing a good job. One idea that came to mind for student #4 is to discuss what a good writer does and then reinforce how that student is working hard to do just that. This student used the entire time dedicated to writing and even needed extra time to think.

The following are just some examples of what we talked about, even though my paper on this assignment has more suggestions and details of what we discussed and how I would plan my teaching around it.

Thanks!

What Have We Tackled?

Wow, I can’t believe how long it has been since I wrote my last blog post! I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago, for spring break, and it’s difficult getting back into the groove of things. I am not going to lie and say that while I was at the beach I was thinking about literacy, but I have had the last week back at school to channel my thoughts in the right direction. This post, specifically, is supposed to discuss a major topic (or theme) that we have discussed in our Literacy Learning and Teaching III class. Strangely, I think that this blog assignment is the most difficult one that I have to write because we have read and discussed so many important ideas so far. How can I just choose something to narrow in on when I find so many areas useful for my future career?

Before break, I was a group leader for my small discussion group. We focused our conversation around chapters 1-4 of Carl Anderson’s Assessing Writers textbook. A lot of what Anderson talks about ties into my core beliefs in education (such as taking the time to really get to know your students). For example, he discusses the value of assessing writers everyday, which I will definitely want to include:

-It allows teachers to get to know their students (their strengths and needs) as writers.

-Helps us create individual learning plans/mini-lessons

-Makes sure that we modify our teaching to students’ needs in writing conferences.

-Also helps educators create units that we should all work on as a class

“Assessment gets to the heart of teaching and lets us decide how and when to offer support as writers (pg 66)”.

Another big idea from the textbook that aligns with my beliefs is the idea of getting students to become initiators of writing! I have always stated that not only do I want to create meaningful lessons that touch on students’ interests, but I also hope to get students to love learning! When it comes to writing, I want my students to be initiators of writing which, according to Anderson, means they:

-Find writing to be meaningful

-Write for many purposes

-Have a range of genres they write about

-Write for real audiences

Since the beginning of the semester, we have tackled so many strategies (involving reading and writing) that will be incorporated into our future classrooms. We have discussed ideas such as what our rooms will be like, conducting over the shoulder miscue analysis/read alouds, teaching for understanding and engagement, effective reading and writing strategies, writing assessments, etc. With all of the valuable information it is important to remember the “self” in all of this. In Debbie Millers, Teaching With Intention, we learn the importance of defining your own teaching beliefs and aligning them with your lesson plans and practices. As we have discussed in a large group in class, all of the researched based strategies and ideas that we are given in college will mean very little if we do not think of our own beliefs first. If I do not stick to my guns on what I consider important in regards to literacy and teaching, I may see myself making mistakes.

Thanks for reading! 

Think About Think Alouds!

Hello fellow bloggers! I hope you are enjoying this beautiful Sunday afternoon (I know that I am ;-)). I can’t help but smile knowing that I have worked so hard these past couple of weeks in order to conduct my FIRST think aloud! I’m not going to lie, I was pretty nervous because I wanted it to be great! The more I thought about it, however, the more that I realized that this experience was not about doing a perfect job. The purpose of this assignment was to reflect and discuss what I have learned from the task. Since it was the first time I did a think aloud with an elementary student, I believe that it went fairly well. More importantly, I learned a lot about myself, as a teacher, and my student as a reader.

I chose to conduct my think aloud at the elementary school where I am placed for practicum. I am getting to know these students pretty well so I thought it would be just the right place for the job. To prepare for the activity I read through the book that was suggested to me by my classroom teacher. She found the book to be appropriate for the 3^rd grade student that I was going to work with. I was only given one female student to do the read aloud with because the other students must have been preoccupied with work. She is somewhat of a skillful reader, but definitely could improve on some reading strategies. The fictional book is called, Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell. I read through the story a couple of times to see how I would, as a reader, personally interact with it and then marked the areas that I needed to pause to discuss.  For this particular read aloud, I wanted to teach my student (and focus on) how to predict, question, clarify, connect and summarize/reflect a story. I also chose to narrow in on strategies for think aloud collaboration and gradual release of responsibility that we talked about in our Lit III class. In other words, I did a combination of a somewhat free-response think-aloud that included text tagging. This is discussed in Whilhelm’s book, Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies: Modeling What Good Readers Do.

The modeling portion of the think aloud went better than I expected! The student was very engaged in the text as I read aloud and I stopped to model my thinking at appropriate places. I think the student really noticed how I paused often to make predictions, ask/answer questions and make connections. I even modeled how to post notes to record my thinking (using different colors for different strategies), as many good readers tend to do. I think that it really benefited my student that I took the time to introduce the book and discuss some of the strategies proficient readers use to make meaning.

The think-along phase, on the other hand, was a little harder than I had hoped it to be. It took me a couple of times to get my student to finally collaborate with me during this important process. I told my student that they are welcome to chime in when they want to make a prediction, ask a question, make a connection, etc. Maybe I was not clear enough with my directions, or the student was nervous, but I had to keep repeating to the student, “Hmmmm let’s stop here, what do you think?” or “Can you help me____________ based on what we have read so far (for example make a prediction)?” Although it was very difficult to get my student to talk, once she did, it became very natural and spontaneous for her throughout the rest of the book. I noticed a great deal of confidence bloom from my reader once she realized that I was here to support her and make her a better reader. She allowed me to step back and let her try it on her own (with support). My reader was really good at making connections to real-world experiences and other texts. I would say that this strategy was definitely one of her strengths because she did it many times. She also figured out how to ask important questions throughout the text and then went on to answer them later as they came up (i.e. clarified). What my student really needs to improve on is making predictions more often, staying on task, and text tagging. This rarely occurred during our session, which is fine, but now I know what to work on with her next time. From this experience, I learned that this young reader needs more reassurance on her reading skills and more opportunities to collaborate with others to discuss ideas and strategies regarding a text.

As a literacy instructor, I need to learn how to slow down for my students. A think aloud should be a calm, natural process that is not rushed. I was short on time, which made me rush the procedure a little bit. I also had a harder time releasing the responsibility to my student because I thought that I was making her nervous, so I took over even longer than I needed to. I also should have taken some more time with the guided practice portion. I could have asked more questions to get my student thinking instead of worrying about getting my student to talk and try it on their own. Lastly, the next time I do a think aloud, I would like to work with more than one student and have the opportunity to select a more meaningful text.

I can’t wait to use the think-aloud strategy in my classroom one day! This technique will help my young readers verbalize ideas they use while reading to better their overall comprehension and strategies as readers (from the article The ABCs of Performing Highly Effective Read-Alouds). 

Thanks for reading and happy blogging!

Ms. B's Inquiry Topic

I have done a lot of work over the past couple of weeks! A great deal of my time has been spent on assignments such as the over the shoulder miscue analysis (OTSMA), think-aloud and recently, my Inquiry Topic (or territory). Even though these particular tasks have taken a lot of time and effort, they have helped me positively grow as a pre-service elementary teacher. As I move on to my new task at hand, I cannot wait to see what else I learn!

While I am waiting for spring to arrive, (which I am begging for it to be soon) I am spending some time focusing on my inquiry topic, which is about effective classroom learning spaces/setups. This personal interest of mine has been building up ever since I stepped foot into my first classroom as a novice educator. I have seen various classroom layouts/designs and I wonder, according to research and studies, which ones were truly effective and designed for optimal student learning and which ones needed more work. I also have further questions in mind such as;

 “How much do classrooms differ from grades K-6?”

“Are there common errors that teacher’s tend to make when they setup their learning environments?”

 “What are some ‘must-haves’ that one should see when they step foot into a room?”

 The combination of further readings, class discussions and my pins on Pinterest will help me discover the correct answers to my questions and more.

I am still in the process of researching, but I have already found helpful published texts, journals and articles around my inquiry topic. Some of the authors of interest include Carol Bradford Cummings, Debbie Miller, Joyce McLeod, Jan Fisher, Ginny Hoover and James H. Stronge, Pamela D. Tucker and Jennifer L. Hindman. These are only authors that I have selected as of right now, but there will be more to come in the next few weeks. I am sure that I will find these readings to be useful and fascinating. I also think it will be interesting to consider my practicum classroom once I am further into my readings. As of right now, I believe that my classroom teacher has her room purposefully setup to benefit all of her learners. Even though my C.T.’s room is a lot smaller than one would hope, she makes the best of it and has everything setup with a purpose.

As the semester progresses, I will continue to provide my classmates and followers with important findings from my resources. If you are also on Pinterest, please feel free to follow me and witness my board grow as I find more sources on my inquiry topic. It is great to see how my research ties into some of the topics we have discussed and read in my literacy III class. For example, one of my previous blogs focuses on the classroom and its arrangement. The more that I explore around this topic, the more abled I will be to connect my research and practice!

Thanks!

Ms. B