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Week 12

Week 12

●      Due Date

○      4/12/21

●      Title

○      Chapter 12

●      Take Away

○      While reading and writing may seem mundane, it’s up to teachers to implement creative and diverse forms or the concepts in order for students to have full engagement in as well as pull away effective knowledge from their instruction.

●      Nugget

○      I really liked how the chapter said that too frequently students are not introduced to reading and writing reports until high school and are quickly overwhelmed. Implementing little bits of reading and writing reports on a simple scale can help to alleviate future stress for the students.

●      Readerly Exploration

○      Explore the world through reading by using texts to answer questions about the world or generating new questions about the world from texts that are read

■      Take yourself on a field trip to a place on campus that connects with the big ideas of your assigned reading(s)

●      Multimedia

○      For my exploration this week, I really thought about what I was going to choose. Knowing that this chapter was regarding reading and writing I figured that maybe I would go to Boyer or the Library. However, the more time I read the chapter and the longer I processed what was in it the choice was clear. I chose the simplest yet safe space I could find, my living room couch. When we are teaching students, not matter the content, we first and foremost have to make sure they are in a safe and nurturing space. When thinking of a living room couch, there is a plethora that you on do on it. You can jump up and down, lay down and take a nap, watch a movie with your family, eat dinner, family game nights, catch up with an old friend, play video games, read a book. The possibilities are endless. When we are teaching our students, the way that we teach or the strategies we implement hold endless possibilities. Although the chapter was more about the possibilities as opposed to the environment, I couldn’t help but think about the environment. We must create an environment that is open to possibilities, like a couch, while also allowing for the nurturing and safe aspect that it holds as well.

[ka1283]

Week 10

Week 10

●      Due Date

○      3/29/21

●      Title

○      Four Practical Principles for Enhancing Vocabulary Instruction

●      Take Away

○      As teachers it is important for us to implement ways to strengths our student’s vocabulary comprehension such as establishing routines, providing experiences, responding to confusion, and fostering participation in our students.

●      Nugget

○      I love the word wall that was given as an example for providing review experiences. It shows that students are able to understand by seeing actual pictures along with the words in order to help them process the word meaning itself.

●      Readerly Exploration

○      Explore relationships with other people through reading by using texts as a shared experience with another person/other people or to gain insight into the perspective of another person

■      Choose an excerpt from your assigned course reading(s) and share with a friend in another major to get his or her insight and perspective on it.

●      Multimedia

○      I chose to talk to my friend Meagan about this week’s readerly exploration. Because Meagan is in the counseling field, I feel that she is always able to show me a perspective on things that I wouldn’t otherwise see myself. She is able to see two sides of a story as opposed to just her own. I really admire that in her and I feel that knowing her makes me a better teacher. She is able to hear about something going on in my classroom and give me a perspective that I wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise. In this case she was able to show me the perspective of being a student that really struggled with reading. I never worried about struggling academically because school always came easy to me. I was able to hear a definition or learn a word and then hold onto the word in my back pocket for further. With Meagan, reading did not come so easily. She needed extra time, practice, and support in order for her skills to be sharpened. While I read this text and wasn’t super impacted by it, Meagan was able to pull out memories and examples of teachers implementing these similar strategies to her benefit.

[ka1283]

Week 8

●      Due Date

○      3/15/21

●      Title

○      The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction

○      Assigned Procedures

●      Take Away

○      Universal tools such as the Matrix can help teachers to properly select activities that meet exactly what their students need and are interested in and therefore should be used thoroughly.

○      Because not each student struggles with the same aspects of literacy, instructional procedures can help teachers to find various ways to help enrich students and provide them the instruction that best suits them.

●      Nugget

○      I thought it was extremely interesting that various experts described the three major factors that effected comprehension were the reader, the text, and the situation/purpose. That just goes to show that although each student/school/situation may be different learning is universal and it is important to recognize that and accept help from other professionals.

○      I love the idea of a hot seat for not only teaching students comprehension but also empowerment, acting, research, emoting, and so many other things. An actvity like this allows for students to take a reach and fully and completely make their own opinions about it through research.

●      Readerly Exploration

○      Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying)

■      After you read, document your initial response to what you’ve read. Consider how the ideas you read about made you feel and what they made you think about.

●      Multimedia

○      For my five various procedures I chose Choral Reading, Grand Conversations, Hot Seat, Readers Theatre, and Tea Party. Each of these five structures allow for students to have fun with the activity and be fully engaged in the learning process. Choral reading helps students to feel as though their reading is collective and they are able to be proud of their “performance” because it is a group effort as opposed to a bright spotlight just on them. Grand conversations allow students to just simply talk about what they read/think/feel. This allows for students to once again be part of a larger process and build off of each other collaboratively. Hot seat allows for students to pretend they are a certain character or person and fully immerse themselves in their reading experience by putting themselves in their readings shoes. Readers theatre helps students to even more so immerse themselves into a text by acting out what they are reading. They are able to feel responsible and empowered by their learning. Tea Party helps for students to collaborate with their peers and have their own opinions by moving around and forming their internal opinion/thought-process about their reading. I particularly chose these five because I felt like they were all titled something that sounds like a game. I believe that learning should be fun and engaging. I can’t even count how many times I wished I cared about a subject or a topic but I simply couldn’t because the way that it was taught was so disengaging that I was unable to be exciting about the material. I long for my students to be engaged in reading. So frequently we drive home that ELA is all about standards or meeting marks that we forget about the actual love for reading.

[ka1283]

Week 6

● Due Date

○ 3/1/21

● Title

○ Chapter 8: Promoting Comprehension: Reader factors

● Take Away

○ Comprehension means not only allowing students to understand what they are reading but giving them the proper instruction to guide their reading as well as the steps to understand themselves.

● Nugget

○ I love how the chapter says, “Comprehension is not only the goal of reading, but it is why people read.” We don’t open a book with the intention of sitting and just looking at the words for an hour without absorbing anything. You want to leave a text knowing more than you started with at the beginning.

● Readerly Exploration

○ Explore the world through reading by using texts to answer questions about the world or generating new questions about the world from texts that are read

■ Take yourself on a field trip to a place off campus that connects with the big ideas of your assigned reading(s).

● Because I am not able to go home during this Covid time, I asked my sister to send me a picture of our kitchen, specifically with the sink in it. I feel like a huge theme that kept coming to mind during my reading of Chapter 8 was the word absorption. When I think of comprehension I can’t absorption. We want students to absorb information as they read, to be incredibly focused and engaged in a text, that they walk away with the knowledge they just read. The best thing to compare that idea to is a kitchen sponge. When a student is able to comprehend, they are absorbing the information they are reading. When properly prepared to read, students start out as a sponge that has been squished and is ready to absorb more information. However, if we don’t prepare our learners or give them the tactics to read or process, then they begin already full of not focused and therefore cannot absorb any more information. It is up to us as teachers to give our students the techniques to allow themselves to not waste their time with a text, but to fully absorb what is in front of them.

[ka1283]

Week 4

●      Due Date

○      2/15/21

●      Title

○      Chapter 1: Becoming an Effective Literacy Teacher

●      Take Away

○      In order to be an effective literacy teacher, we need to create a balanced and organized learning community that not only supports, but also applies and differentiates, the proper development and standards that we are wanting out students to be assessed and succeed in.

●      Nugget

○      I love the sociolinguistic theory of learning that allows for students to talk while they are learning. I personally am a verbal processor and am able to process things such as content, conversations, readings, etc so much better when I am able to explain it as it’s happening on debrief afterwards. Little kids are the same way. Because their minds race a mile a minute, they need to be able to process and solidify the information that is actually important.

●      Readerly Exploration

○      Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying)

■      Before you read, learn something about the author(s) of the assigned course reading(s) and note how what you learned impacts your motivation and/or your purpose for reading.

●      Gail Tompkins started out as an army brat turned 1st grade teacher. She had a love for learning and a love for children that pushed her to teach and ultimately want to teach others to teach. After graduating from the University of Nebraska, Gail stepped into the role of first grade teacher. After following that path for 8 years, she earned her from Virginia Tech for Ed.D in Reading/Language Arts. Taking off her elementary teacher hat, she spent 25 years fostering relationships with and teaching college students. She held teaching positions at universities such as Miami University, University of Oklahoma, and California State. While a professor, she taught various classes about the importance of good teaching and supporting students to not only be the best readers and writers, but learners that they could be in and out of the classroom. Sadly, Gail passed away in November of 2016,  but is remembered fondly by all those knew her as well as all those that are still learning from her writings.

[ka1283]

Week 3

Due Date

2/8/21

Title

Tompkins, Chapter 2, “The Reading and Writing Processes”

Tompkins, Chapter 6, “Developing Fluent Readers and Writers”

Take Away

While reading and writing may seem like separate simple pieces of literacy, they are actually reciprocal of one another while also individually being both sequential and intricut

In order for students to truly become fluid readers and writers, it is up to teachers to assess, monitor, remediate, and properly support their students as well as the students to take the steps toward progressing their ability to be as successful as they can be.

Nugget

I really like how Tompkins added the section about ELs. When reading, I was thinking through the difficulties and victories of students who are below, at, and above grade level, but I didn’t even take into consideration the students who don’t speak English at all. This definitely opened my eyes a little to the reality of overlooking these students' experience in their lives. I am not even leading a classroom, just reading about it and I forgot to think about these students.

I was really surprised by the Dysfluent section of the reading. While I understand there has to be a name for these types of students, I really don't like the label as dysfluent. I feel like any student can be fluent, it is just dependent on the scaffolding they receive as well as the goals/standards that are set in place. I also wonder where the line is drawn between dysfluent readers and students with a learning disability, such as dyslexia.

Readerly Exploration

Explore relationships with other people through reading by using texts as a shared experience with another person/other people or to gain insight into the perspective of another person

Choose an excerpt from your assigned course reading(s) and share with a family member to get his or her insight and perspective on it.

Reading various texts about hypothetical classrooms or about hypothetical students always makes me want to question the students that the readings about. Over and over we read about reading types, gifted/advanced students, or so many other classroom specific things, but we are not always able to see these situations ourselves. I decided to facetime my younger sister, who is in 4th grade herself, for my readerly exploration in order to get the input of an actual student when it comes to reading in the classroom. I specifically wanted to ask her what the reading and writing process looked like in her classroom and if she felt like she was being helped or if she was being hurt by it. She expressed that all of the techniques that I read about she is familiar with in some way. While she may not know the exact names of the things, she can pinpoint ways that each process has helped, and never really hurt, her to be able to read and write. As teachers we often think of things from a teacher's perspective as opposed to students perspective. I think it;s incredibly beneficial to get into the mind of a child sometimes and dig into the way they process and absorb info.

[ka1283]

Readerly Exploration Week 1

Due Date

1/25/21

Title

-Tompkins Ch.3

-Advanced Readers in Reading First Classrooms

Take Away

-Assessing students literacy development is not as much a one test system, but a gradual process of assessing various forms of communication over time and should take time and devotion from the teacher in order for students to be as empowered and successful as possible for future tests or assessment.

-While it is important to make sure that below grade level readers/students are given the help and support they need, teachers cannot forget to focus and challenge the advanced readers/students because they deserve the chance to improve their knowledge as well.

Nugget

-I think the words that Ethan writes in his “words I know” are so telling of the things he is reading. They all seem to focus around some sort of Social Studies or science, may that be geographically, socially, or historically. This goes to show that when a student is engaged in a subject or topic, they are more able to process and absorb information.

-I think it’s really interesting that in the beginning of the article, an advanced reader was described as, “Advanced readers find enjoyment in the reading process; they read often and with enjoy-ment; they read for different purposes; they seek and enjoy the depth and complexity in reading.” I actually would argue that this is a great generalization for readers. My younger sister is considered a “gifted student” and would actually not fall under that description.

Readerly Exploration

-Read a wide variety of genres and formats of texts to grow in their knowledge and experiences as a reader

-Get inspiration from the assigned course reading(s) to find and read another text from a different genre or format and connect the two in some way.

-Reading these texts, especially the Brighton article, reminded me of a pretty common, yet impactful, passage in the bible. In Matthew 18:12-14, Jesus talks about the idea of a shepherd leaving the 99 sheep he has to go and find the 1 sheep that has gone astray. He says that, “it turns out that when he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray” (NAS, Matthew 18:13). While we, as teachers should obviously not leave 99 students alone, the idea does hold true. We cannot focus so much on one group of students that we forget another. While students who are struggling may seem to need more help when it comes to scores and standards, our advanced students also need the opportunity to improve. For example let's say that at the beginning of a school year a teacher tested their students' word knowledge. One third of the students were able to recount 4 words, one third recounted 12 words, and the last third recounted 28 words. If at the end of the year all students recounted 28 words, would that really be a victory? Yes, the middle level and lower level students improved greatly. However the advanced students made 0% imporvement. If we are so focused on the 99 that we let the 1 slip through our fingers, we are not only doing a disservice to our degree, we are doing a disservice to those students.