Blog Six...Due 2-23-09

Looking back at the readings for this week i really felt connected to the Profiles in comprehension by Applegate. Though I knew there were different types of learners, I had never thought of the students having different profiles for comprehending information intake. Applegate suggests that students learn and comprehend differently based on the way teachers pose questions. I thought this was interesting, that my way in words can make or brake a student’s train of thought. Looking over the eight different profiles, I can categorize my focal students as well as most of my whole fifth grade classroom. My first focal student would be profiled under a “Fuzzy Thinker”. She is frequently confused when confronted with a question that requires thinking. Most of the time she can come up with an answer that is in the text, but she has a hard time paying attention. So like most of the class I would also classify her as a “Literalist”. Most of the students believe that their answers need to come from the text. As for my second focal student I feel that he is somewhat of a “Quiz Contestant”, always searching for answers from the memory bank and disconnect with the text and use background information already learned.
After reflecting profiles with my classroom and the students that I focus on the most, I looked back at my learning and tried to classify my learning profile. I think that looking at such profiles can help teachers in the way they pose questions and the way teachers may teach or even set up their lesson plans. These are great things to look at when setting up lesson plans, especially looking at students with disabilities. I feel that I still learn a little bit of information everyday that will always help benefit my way of teaching and the way I take things into perspective.

Noteblog comprehension

I found the readings for this week very helpful especially towards writing my language arts lesson plan. I found chapter 2 in the Tompkins book most helpful. I really liked the examples of minilessons given at the beginning of the chapter. My favorite was the literary opposites lessons and I may use it in my own lesson. I also liked how the chapter went through the reading process and explained what should happen at each stage. These are steps that I will consider and be sure to include in my lesson. For instance, I didn't really think about asking the students to think about what they thought the purpose of reading the text was. I will be sure to do that now, however. The rest of the steps were pretty much already in my lesson except exploring. I think that it is a good idea to have the students go back through the piece and analyze it. This, again, is something I will consider adding.

Noteblog 6-- Due 2/23

After reading the assigned readings for the week I began to recall my own experiences of reading comprehension.  In grade school, we were assigned a reading and then had to complete a worksheet with ten questions on it.  In the article, "Profiles in Comprehension" Applegate notes, "When it comes to assessing the reading comprehension of their students, teachers tend to use a large proportion of of questions that require factual recall of information included in the text... they are calling for their students to engage in recitation."  This is exactly what happened to me in school.  This form of "learning" is not very useful.  Students cannot make connections from their lives to the story, they are simply just recalling/reciting facts from the story.

Reading about the eight different profiles was extremely interesting.  As I began to look back over them, I began trying to classify my students into one of the eight profiles.  A lot of my second graders would fall into the "Literalists, Fuzzy Thinkers or Left Fielders" profile.  One intervention that I thought would be very helpful with all three categories is making a chart.  The chart would consist of important character and their personalities, logical relationships between evens in the story, problems the character encountered and the plan of action the character took in order to solve the problem.  A chart is a good tool for students to be able to visually see what is going on in the story.

Noteblog GLCEs

Since I decided to become a teacher, I have been thinking about and considering the ways in which to include students of all ability levels into one lesson so that all students benefit and walk away with new knowledge. The Grade Level Content Expectations are put into place to give teachers a guideline of what the students should know by a certain point in the year and to also standardize curriculum from school to school. This way, students will be on the same page when it comes to standardized testing (like the MEAP), students who change schools in the middle of the year will be able to pick up right where he or she left off at the last school, and it allows for a way to assess whether or not students are achieving at an "average" level or if they are behind or gifted. However, the GLCEs are not always the way to go about teaching all students. Many students need special attention or accommodated work, especially if the student is behind or gifted. The Breitfelder article discussed different ways to accommodate students with learning disabilities like ADHD, autism, or development disorders. Breitfelder claims that "one of the most effective ways to get students to process language is through the use of visual supports." I really liked how she gave examples of visual supports and explained how to make them and use them in the classroom. The examples seem like they will be very useful in a classroom when I am a teacher. The visual supports give a way to accommodate lower ability students into the school day and lessons. They also allow for the teacher to continue following the GLCEs but by adding the visual supports, more is being done to help the students. I have noticed that at my class at Post Oak, there are not very many visual supports used. I would like like to see more done in my classroom to accommodate visual learners. I will also consider ways to use visual supports in my lessons that I will teach.

Blog Five...2-16-09

After reading the two articles about learning and literacy. I have learned so many new things, about teaching and learning. While reading Marcus' story about his quick development in language and sense of humor, I thought that he would have no problems adapting to school and that environment. My natural reaction to his early development was that he would be picked on for being the "nerd" in his class. In (Marcus: Children with Special Needs)his mother stated, " Our son was very verbal, stringing words together at an early age. He walked by 10 1/2 months". As a reader I looked at Marcus' case and thought nothing about Special Needs. This story made me think about as a teacher I need to be aware of many different things with my classroom as well as my students. Though Marcus succeeded in speech, later on in the story his family and teachers found out that he had a difficult time learning to write. This reminds me of my focal student in a way, she was first put into special education a few years back, because she was said to have a hard time understanding concepts in subjects such as math. Now, in the fifth grade my student is mostly in the classroom more than the special education room. Though now she tries to use this as a crutch and says she cannot so her work because she is "special ed." Through this reading, I have learned that students grow and learn in different ways, though some students may succeed in one area they may struggle in others. As a teacher I know to watch out for different signs to work with all my students.

In the other reading, was very interested in the topic of learning and literacy. In the article "Quick and Easy Adaptations and Accommodations for Early Childhood Students", I learned so much information in a little piece. This article was very benefical to my learning and will help in my future teaching. Literacy used to be such a define concept to my learning and understanding, now I feel more expanded in my learning as well as teaching. I really enjoyed reading an learning how to incorporate pictures and activities with pictures to accommodate students with autism, learning disorders, as well as students with ADD/ADHD. Both of these articles were beneficial and fun. I felt like I could look back to students in my field placement and understand a little more about certain students learning and background to an extent. I would definitely recommend both articles to any teacher or student going into this profession.

Noteblog 5-- Due 2/16

After reading the article about Mrs. Potter and her second grade class I had so many thoughts and ideas. The first thing I noticed was that Mrs. Potter realized that there was a problem/multiple problems in her classroom and spoke with a colleague for advice. It reminded me of our TE 402 class. When I have an issue in the classroom or an opinion about something I know that I am able to talk to anyone in the class and they are always will to offer their advice or opinions on particular topics. Talking with colleagues is a great way to work through an issue. So here is some advice that I would like to offer Mrs. Potter about each of her three students.

Lipita-
Mrs. Potter should talk to Lupita’s parents about in school or after school tutoring. It sounds as if Lupita is extremely behind academically and a little extra one on one attention definitely may help. Instead of not calling on her in class, perhaps Mrs. Potter could call on her occasionally and walk her through, for example, a mathematics problem. I do not think it is appropriate to call on her all the time, but every now and again would be good for Lupita. I would hate it if Lupita thought Mrs. Potter were ignoring her. During an assignment that appears hard for Lupita, modification could be made in order to challenge Luptia at an appropriate level of difficulty. If an assignment is too challenging, Lupita might just give up instead of really pushing herself. Lupita does seem to work well with the other children so even pairing Lupita with another student during an assignment might be beneficial. Working in pairs would help both students. This would be benifical as long as the student was helping her and not simply giving away the answers.

Jonathan-
A technique that I have used with children, in particular the children I babysat for one summer, is using material that interests them in a lesson. Because Jonathan is the star pitcher on his baseball team, reading books with a baseball theme might interest Jonathan more. Also, when assigning a worksheet to the class or anything with directions, it would help Jonathan if Mrs. Potter read the directions aloud as well as asked if anyone had any questions on the material. Telling Jonathan to come ask for help was not working. If Mrs. Potter walked around more often to see the student’s progression of work, it might make him more willing to ask for help.

Eddie-
Eddie’s constant need to move and lack of attention span might be something more serious than him not being interested. Since Mrs. Potter is a teacher and not a doctor, she cannot be certain that there is a medical condition, but speaking with the parents to let them know how their son is acting might be insightful. The parents might have noticed this type of behavior at home or even know the cause of the behavior. Eddie is one of twenty-four students in the classroom so it might just be that he is easily distracted by others. Moving Eddie to the front of the classroom, without secluding him from his classmates, might help him focus better. Instead of not knowing what it is that Mrs. Potter had just asked, Eddie might know what she asked and be able to provide the correct answer. Eliminating distractions as much as possible could possibly be a step in the right direction.

Noteblog digital natives

I really liked the article about digital natives. Working with young children who are exposed to all of the technology like video games and computers not to mention television and other forms of technology has been a concern of mine since I decided to become a teacher. It is definitely a challenge to have to teach students who are used to over stimulation and visuals when you are just in a regular classroom. I really believe that it is a good idea to allow students time to use the computers in the classroom. Also, assigning projects like blogs and other online resources is a good way to keep students who are used to using the computer involved in school. I also feel it is a good idea to use visuals when possible because the children who have grown up in this digital tend be more visuals thinkers. Lastly, I feel it is important that we, as teachers, keep up on the different technologies there are. The best way to get through to the students is to be on there level with technology and to know what the students are currently interested in. As for myself, I did not score a 100% on the quiz so I am not a digital native but I did fairly well, I was not able to define two words. I feel that this is a good thing for me as I am about to become a teacher because it shows that I somewhat understand what the students are thinking as far as technology goes.

As for the readings, I really enjoyed the chapter in the Tompkins book. I like how schools are focusing on phonics more today than just sight words as it was in the past. I also liked all of the activities suggested in the chapter to teach phonics. Understanding phonemes, morphemes and graphemes and how they are related is an excellent skill to have as a young reader or writer. It allows children to sound out words they do not know or to spell words they have never seen before. When I was in school, public schools focused mainly on sight words, built I went to Catholic school where they focuses on phonemes etc. The reading levels at my school were much higher than those at the public school.

Due 2/9 Noteblog Four

Reading about the Digital Natives was very interesting. Before reading this article I had never heard this term “digital natives” which refers to the generation of children that grew up with technology. For example in the article the author referred to this generation as people who were addicted to Nintendo, calling the children “Nintendo kids”. Now students or workers are said to have different cognitive thinking patterns compared to other generations. When looking at “emergent” learning and digital literacy (Prensky “Digital Natives”) Prensky says, “As a result, the challenge facing educational designers is to recognize these cognitive differences and to develop learning offerings that are appropriate to their cognitive learning patterns.” Prensky is talking about digital natives and their different way of learning compared to different generations.

When looking at “emergent” learning Tompkins says emergent learning is, “This perspectives on how children become literate—that is how they learn to read and write.” Emergent learning is very essential to a students learning. Reading and writing is very important it not only allows the students to be literate, but also helps with all other subjects. When looking at English Language Learners (ELL) emergent learning comes later on for learning to read and write in English. Tompkins talks about children and the development of literacy. For reading the child show interest in books, they start to pretend to read. Children will also start to use illustration as cues to the story. As for writing; children may distinguish between writing and drawing. They also start to write random letters on a page or just show an interest in writing. All of my students are passed emergent literacy; though some may have a difficult time reading and writing they are capable of performing some type of reading and writing.

In all I was very interested in the part about “digital natives” and their learning, it would be interesting to learn more about this generation.

Noteblog 4-- Due 2/9

I really enjoyed reading the article, "Digital Natives in the Classroom."  After thinking about how they defined a digital native, I do not think that I would completely qualify as a digital native.  I took the quiz and I knew about half or a little less than half of the words and their meanings.  Therefore, I am an emergent digital native.  I have grown up with and used some of the technology that was discussed.  This blog that we are doing for TE 402 is the first blog that I have ever partaken in.  I actually did not even know how to blog or what a blog was until I began blogging here.  After blogging a few times I can understand why both students and teachers like this new technology.

Having a blog allows students to share their ideas and opinions with others in their class or group.  The blog is more "fun" than just writing a paper and turning it in.  The blog is easily accessible and  allows for students to comment on each others work.  This then will promote deeper thinking, students can challenge one an other.  The more students use technology, the more efficient they will become.  Thus, they will de defined as a digital native.  This is the same for emergent readers in literacy.  The more exposure to literature that students have, the better their understanding of literacy.  This idea is applicable to not just literacy but all other subjects as well. 

The other readings for the week, Tompkins and Gibbons, had a lot of great ides to develop phonemic awareness, phonics and spelling.  One of the ideas that I think and have seen work really well with students is the word wall like Gibbons suggests (62.)  The word wall can be set up in a multitude of ways. The words can be attached to the wall so the students can see then visually, or the words can be used as a manipulative.  Used as a manipulative, the words would work best if they were on a magnetic board on the wall or even a wall with velcro on it.  For example, if one of the words was "dinosaur" on one card would be "dino" and on the other card would be "saur."  The students would have to match the proper word beginnings with their word endings.  This method will help the students with their vocabulary.

Another method that I think would be useful to help improve students vocabulary, spelling ect., is making jumbled sentences.  Gibbons suggests that students can tell the teacher a sentence about themselves and the teacher will write it down on a long paper strip.  Then, cut the strips into single words and "jumble" the words together.  The students will then unscramble the words to create the sentence and write it down (70.)  This can also be used with younger children, use single words and jumble the letter and then have the students re-arrange the letters to make the word.

The readings for this week offered a lot of insightful information that I know I can use in the classroom.    

Noteblog ELL and Emergent Readers

During our TE Literacy class on January 26, we broke into groups to discuss different readings. My group discussed the reading Assessing English-Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms by Lenski et. al. We found it interesting that the reading pointed out that not all students who speak the same language come from the same background, therefore the same assessment does not work for all students who speak the same language. We also saw that a very important point was to know what you are assessing for. This is important with all students, not just English language learners. Also, it is important for teachers to use a variety of assessment tools, not only over time, but also from student to student according to the students needs.



Besides ELL students, another type of literacy learner to focus on is emergent readers. According to Tompkins, emergent readers are readers who are gaining "an understanding of the communicative purpose of print, and they move from pretend reading to reading of repetitive books and from using scribbles to stimulate writing to writing patterned sentences." This level of reading is often found in kindergarten students and may even begin long before kindergarten if the child's parents or caregivers read to the child or point out what written words mean. The process of beginning to read may be as simple as the child just understanding that the word McDonald's has a meaning that refers to his or her favorite place to eat.



I have not had a chance to observe many emergent readers, as I am placed in a fifth grade classroom where all of the students are able to read at a second grade level or higher. However, there are many ways a teacher may help a young student become a reader including writing down his or her own speech. This way, the student will see that his or her words can be written and that words on paper have meaning.

Noteblog 3-- Due 2/2

During the choral readings my group focused on the assessment aspect of ELL students.  We all agreed that assessments were necessary in order to chart the progress of a student.  We, as educators, do not want to simply assume that the students have learned what we taught.  Instead, we want proof that shows the students have an understanding of the material.  In the article Lenski wrote, "The purpose for assessment can be quite diverse; they can range from students placement to instructions decisions and from program development to program evaluation.  It is crucial that teachers identify the purposes for assessing their students before choosing the assessment instrument to be used (Lenski 9)."  Teachers need to make sure that the assessments that they are going to use are appropriate for what they are trying to assess.  There is no point in assessing a child with a test that is inappropriate for what is being assessed.  

I really enjoyed reading the Gibbons text.  The 'mode continuum' was one topic that I found to be especially interesting.  The mode continuum shows how language is connected through a series of processes, each process building on the previous.  As the processes continued through the series, the complexity of the students thinking increased as well.  They began to use vocabulary words instead of saying, "... it doesn't go... it doesn't move... (Gibbons 40)," the students used phrases like, "... magnets attracts some kinds of metal... (Gibbons 40)."  Having the students work together in groups facilitated the ability for them to use the vocabulary in its correct context. 

One final thought, even though I had trouble with the "Where I'm From" poem, it was a lot of fun!  I am excited to see what everyone else wrote.  See you all in class tomorrow =)

Choral Reading and Participation in Class on Jan. 27th

During class on January 27, 2009 we were split into groups to discuss different chapters we were assigned to read for the class. I was put into a group that was o discuss the packet reading A New View of Discussion by Almasi. In our group we discussed the many different ways that we as teachers could assess English Language Learners (ELL). ELL students have a hard time with standard tests in their class room for many different reasons. The two main reasons could be that the student needs the question read out loud to understand the question or it could be that the student has hard time writing, so the student could state his answers orally instead of writing the answer down on paper. I currently have no ELL students in my classroom at the time, but I feel that this assigned reading was beneficial in giving me knowledge for the future.

We also participated in reading and discussing poems, that described "Where I'm From". As I read through a couple of these poems I could pick distinctive features that told me about this exact person. My group used a choral reading method to take turns and one person had thier own paragraph to read. This worked out for our group because we only had four paragraphs as well as four people. This method also worked because we were all confident enough to read on our own. There are other methods used in choral reading. Such as reading all together or split the reading into two parts with two groups. The options are endless. After performing our choral reading with my group and the class it helped me to have a better understanding of different methods to use when working with poems and students. I also realized that you can tell so much about a person in action words. After discussing our own poems and characteristics, we learned that this could be a great activity to do with the students in the classroom.Then once all students are finished, you could make a class book for reference and keepsake.I would one day like to do this activity in my own classroom.