Week 7 (February 23)

The readings today really made me evalute my own reading strateties. First, I was suprised not only how often I used the strategies the texts discussed, but how often I saw them used in the classroom. It was exciting for me. I was really able to understand the reading, because I could apply it to my experiences. For example, the Text described the reading process in five stages, Prereading, Reading, Responding, Exploring, and Applying. I have seen my teacher relate the readings to her life, and that of her students. I have seen her make predictions and apply stratigeies to help the children understand what they are reading. The children are always given time to respond to the text in both discussion and writing (or drawing). Then the children will work with the text to explore it, and then complete projects to apply what they have learned. It was exciting and rewarding to read the text and be able to connect it to what I have seen.

The text also helped me learn a great deal about comprehension and how to help readers who struggle with it. For example, I thought that comprehension was simply understand what one read. I never thought how background knolwedge or making inferences or motivation could influence comprehension. I have always wanted to do good in school, and have been very motivated in all areas, so I was suprised to see how this has helped me comprehend what I was learning. I took motivation for granite. It was intresting to see how teachers can influence students, espically in regards to motivation. The text pointed out how attitiude and community along with instruction are all ways that teachers can influence students positively, and encourage them to learn, makeing them successful at comprehending. The text really made it apparent that comprehending goes beyond relaying what the text says, but really understanding and working with the text to make it meaningful.

Finally, the Proflies in Comprehension text was very intresting. It made me aware of the differences in children and how they interperate the text. The article made me realize how children may appear to not understand what they are reading, but in reality they just do not know how to answer. I was excited to read the stratigies on how to help the different profiles acheive comprehenshion. These strategies seem helpful not only for the different proflies, but for all children in learning comprehension.

In all these ways, the texts have helped me understand more about comprehension and how to help children learn to the best of their ability.

Week 7: Reading, Comprehension, and Helping Students With Learning Disabilities

Today's articles were very interesting to me because they drew upon my experiences not only as a teacher in training, but also as a student and how I have come to learn and comprehend things as I have.
First, the Applegate article about Profiles in Comprehension really made me analyze my learning in the past. It was a little disappointing for me to learn that I think that I am a mix between a Fuzzy Thinker and an Author because even though I can always respond to questions in a fairly confident manner and can give short descriptions of the reasoning behind my answer, I am unable to explain my true meaning because I am too overly worried about seeing all the perspectives so that I have reached an "intelligent" and well-rounded conclusion. For each of the Comprehension profiles I was able to remember that description by lableing them with one of my friends or family members that has that profile and it was very interesting for me to see the differences. Seeing these differences was very important because we are going to have to deal with many differences in comprehension styles in our future classroom someday and it is crucial that we do our best to accommodate all of them.
The Carlisle article about helping children with learning disabilities was also very important because it is something that I face everyday when I go to placement in my kindergarten classroom where the students have not yet been tested for learning disabilities (LD). The author points out certain strategies that a teacher should use in order to best accommodate this type of students. First, it is crucial that there is collaboration between the student's mainroom teacher, the other teachers that work with him, and also the students' parents. When there is teamwork with all these 3 parts working together, there is more likely to be success. Second, regularly assess the students with learning disabilities, as well as the other students in the class and try very hard not to single out the students with LDs. Also, it is very important to use a variety of activities and tasks with these children where they are given the maximum amount of exposure to reading, writing, speaking, and other skills. The author also suggested to have the students pair up for work or become involved with group work so that they are able to collaborate with the minds of their peers. In addition to the strategies that Carlisle pointed out, the Tompkins text was also very informative on explaining different activites that a teacher should use to have a lot of variety in the classroom. Tompkins also mentioned group and pair work several times and how it is important to have purposeful discussions as a class to benefit all students. It is important to give students the best well-rounded view of all literature in order for them to fully comprehend it.
Finally, for our lesson plan, Michael Holter and I (who are in the same kindergarten room at Gier Park) are planning our lesson around the book The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. Our CT has helped us come up with multiple ideas to incorportate reading and writing into our lesson and will hopefuly gain suggestions from her to better our lesson plan for the final draft.

Week 2

After reading the first chapter if Gibbons as well as the assigned articles it is clear that no two children are the same. 5 students who are all ESL may each require a different teaching strategy and support system. We read in the Gibbons book about a girl who had been in America for 6 years and appeared fluent in English to her teachers and others who she was familiar with, but still struggled with unfamiliar faces and felt very timid speaking the language. I think this is very intriguing and we as future teachers need to recognize these students so if they ever struggle we know how to go about assisting them. 

Teaching to ELL learners in a mainstream classroom can be beneficial to everyone. It is important to be able to teach language and content at the same time which I think is a great challenge for teachers. As an Elementary teacher there will still be students in my classroom who have English as their primary language but still struggle speaking or writing correctly. Therefore, integrating language in with content or vice versa can only improve the speech and writing for everyone in the classroom. 

Week 6

Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCE's) are standards developed by the state governments that all schools need to abide by. The GLCE's are what ensures that all first graders across Michigan are learning the same concepts. These are helpful for teachers and parents. For teachers, we are able to look at the GLCE's for each subject and know what we need to be teaching about. These are helpful in planning our lessons and units. For parents, GLCE's are available to know what their child is learning in school. Also for the teacher/parent relationship, if a parent ever questions a teacher's doing, we can refer to the GLCE's for backup and reasonings behind our lessons. 

I enjoyed the articles we read this week especially because my placement is in a kindergarten classroom. The Marcus article was intriguing to me because I can completely see how as a teacher it would be easy to assume because one student is gifted in one area they are gifted in all and not learning to write was purely behavioral. However, as I was reading, I was thinking about in my classroom. At the kindergarten level the students all seem quite eager to learn. There is some frustration when a student cuts away from the line or can't make their picture look how they imagined in their head, but for the most part the students like to learn new things. This made me think that if I had a student that was unwilling to do something I would probably wonder if it was because the child was not able to. 

The Breitfleder article talked about how to accomidate early childhood. Entering school for the first time can be scary and having routines and daily things students can expect makes the adaptation easier. I see this everyday in my classroom. Although the centers the students do are different, they do them at the same time everyday and between each center the students "freeze" look at the chart, and know exactly where to go. I also see these visual supports in the morning time. Every morning the students go over the calendar and the weather. Also, before lunch they always line up in "abc" order. This helps the students adapt to school and feel comfortable because they know what to expect. 

Week 6 Post (February 17)

I really enjoyed these readings. From working in the child development lab, I have seen many of the visual supports described in the "Quick and Easy Adaptions and Accommodations for Early Childhood Students." I know not only what they look like, but I have seen how they work. Several of these visual supports, like the daily schedule and weather chart were used beginning on the first day of school. Other supports, like an individual chart with specific choices for free choice, and PECS books were implemented after school began. I was able to see how these tools affected the independence of one of the autistic boys in the classroom. Before these supports were used, he might wander around the room during free choice, or cry uncontrollably when he could not do what he wanted to. The chart helped him know what to expect for the day, and the individual choices helped him see what was available in the classroom and decide what he wanted to do. The PECS book helped him communicate how he was feeling and what he needed, allowing the teachers to cater to his needs and be more effective in calming him down because the teachers now knew what he was feeling. Both of these options GREATLY increased his independence in the classroom. I was also excited to read about these supports, because I feel like we have not had much guidance as to how to best include children with special needs in our classroom. This chapter provided many useful ideas that I have seen work. Because the chapter detailed how to make each visual aid, I feel confident not only in how to use them, but how to create them and make them fit my classroom perfectly.

I was intrigued by the reading on Marcus. What still haunts me from this reading is the passage, "However, because of the gifted characteristics of Marcus demonstrated, his slowly developing fine-motor control was interpreted as stubbornness and poor attitude. The expectations in the gifted class placed heavy pressures on him to perform in writing, which he was not physically able to do." (Emphasis added) This reminded me of something very important. Just because children excelled in one area does not mean they will excel in all areas. Because Marcus was so gifted in some areas, teachers assumed that he could do everything, he just didn't want to. In reality he did not want to because he did not want to fail. Having this misconception caused many negative feelings between Marcus and his teacher, to the point that his parents moved him to a different school. If that teacher would have challenged herself to believe that Marcus wanted to write, and that the problem was not his attitude but another factor, perhaps he would have had a more pleasant school experience. If his teacher was able to explore how he could write, or how he felt about writing verse telling stories, or differentiated instruction in anyway, she could have learned that Marcus physically could not do what she was asking him to do. This would cause anyone frustration. This points out how important it is to meet the needs of all students and become really in tune to what they can and cannot do, and what they enjoy. This will make us all better more effective teachers.

Week 6 Post: Differentiated Instruction

Learning about the Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCE's) are a necessity for teachers. The GLCE's are guidelines that are compsed by the state government for teachers to use as assistance for planning lessons. These guidelines were very well thought-out and carefully implemented. These guidelines are organized by grade level so that a teacher is able to look at the grade level that they are teaching, as well as the GLCE's for the year prior and following to know what also needs to be touched on in the classroom. The combination of the benchmarks and standards are what the lesson plans of a teacher should revolve around. As a future teacher, we have had a great deal of experience with this document, especiallly when planning lessons.
The articles for today, Marcus' story and the Breitfleder article, both are written about adaptations and accommodations for special students in the classroom. The Marcus article was very intriguing to me because of this child's story of going from a student who appeared to be gifted to one that actually needed special assistance. In addition, the Breitfleder article about how to accommodate early childhood had some great ideas for my future classroom. Many of the ideas in this article are things that my CT already does in our classroom, which is very interesting because the students are so young (kindergarten). I asked my CT why she uses these strategies in her classroom and she told me that it is for a couple different reasons. First, she does many of the things from the article, such as a daily calendar, schedule, and special helper, because the students are in kindergarten and they need some type of predictability and organization in their lives because it is their first year. Second, she also told me that she uses these strategies in particular because due to the students' young age they have not been tested for learning disabilities yet, so it is possible that some of her students possess a L.D. My CT told me that by using these strategies she is able to assist in the future L.D. students' learning by trying to accommodate them the best that she can. The strategies written by Breitfleder are very important for me as a future teacher to read and understand how to implement because it is very probable that many of the students' in my future classroom will be in serious need of these techniques and strategies. It is our job as teachers to do what we can for our students and these techniques are simple strategies that can be implemented to make a huge difference.
Finally, I read chapter 1 of Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry for this week. So far the main characters are Cassie, Little Man, their siblings, their teacher, and Mama. The children are at their first day of school and the first and fourth grade rooms are put together with the same teacher, so Cassie and Little Man are in the same room. Little Man, who is typically very well-behaved and respectful, throws a tantrum when he opens up his textbook to find negative notes about his race inside. He refuses the book, as well as Cassie, and both students get in big trouble, while their teacher sees no problem with this unjustice.

Week 5 Post: Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants

This week's articles and topics were very interesting to me because they address the issue of changes over time in education. First, the concept of digital natives versus digital immigrants was one that made me reflect very deeply on my own schooling as a young child. I can vividly remember the very first time I used the internet and it was in the fourth grade. Prior to that year, we had a computer class once a week to get us familiar with this "new" form of technology. After fourth grade, we starting having computer class twice a week to learn all the things that could be found on the web and how it would be useful to our education. Since elementary, I have always tried to keep up with the latest technology, but there are now too many things out there to learn to know everything there is to know. One great thing I have done is enrolled in the CEP 416 course here at the university to try to improve my computer and internet skills. Even though I have always tried my best, I was shocked to find that I only knew 2 of the terms on the Digital Natives quiz. Even though I was very limited in my knowledge on that quiz, I do consider myself more of a native than an immigrant with technology because I have constantly been around it since a very young age. Becoming "literate" in digital technology is a process that has many similarities with the process of becoming literate described in Tompkins book.
I found Tompkins information to be very interesting because it made me remember back to when I was learning how to read and write. Even though there are some components of my learning that I don't remember learning vividly, such as phonetics, I was able to relate to Tompkins' work by reflecting on my learning of the Spanish language still to this day. The strength of Tompkins piece is that it covered all the parts of becoming literate, not just speaking, writing, reading, and listening seperately. I really enjoyed the illustrations and found this chapter to be very useful for my future students' learning. In addition to Tompkins, Gibbons book on Scaffolding Language and Learning was also very interesting because it made me realize that there are a variety of ways to teach language arts to children. I can remember that each year in language arts my teacher would have us complete a certain number of book reports, a certain number of papers, and always work on spelling and grammar. Those assignments always turned me away from language arts because they seemed so boring to me. Gibbons' ideas for how to let students be creative and how to vary the assignments were very interesting to me. With the No Child Left Behind Act and such strict time constraints, teachers have been more reluctant to allow their students to be creative in order to prepare their students to pass the state tests. In the long run, as Gibbons points out, allowing students to have a more well-rounded creative experience with language arts will actually make them become more literate and perform just as well on state tests. By utilizing the information found in the readings from this week, I look forward to experimenting with a variety of teaching strategies and lessons to create strong levels of literacy in my future students.

Week 1 blog entry

My personal experiences in Language Arts have a direct influence on my teaching ideas. I have had really positive experiences in Language Arts throughout my schooling and I think that has built my confidence a lot. Also I have been in LA classes that are very organized, structured as well as free writing classes so have seen that LA can be taught in various ways. 

I found that I do better in classes where I can integrate personal thoughts and experiences into my writing. For example when reading a book in high school we had to compare an event in the story to an even in our own lives. We then had to write about how the events were similar, how we handled the event compared to the character. I remember loving this project because it was personalized. As an educator, this is a great way to see what the student took away from the book, test their comprehension skills, as well as make the student think deeper and relate the story to an outside source. I want to be able to do this in my classroom and I think it can be done at all levels of teaching. Students love to tell stories and allowing them to personalize work I think will make them put more effort and time into their final project. 

I really did not like multiple choice questions about a book. I always found when I knew i was going to have a quiz over a book or a multiple choice test I read differently because I was scared to miss details. I often ended up missing major points because I was too worried about what color hair the main character had. I also prefer deadlines. I hated being handed a book and having to have the entire thing done by a certain date. I'm a slow reader as well as a procrastinator so the combination always landed me in trouble. When I need students to have a book read, I will give them mini deadlines to keep them on track.

As far as our learning community, I think we have very diverse learners. We have students in our classroom who are all striving to be teachers, but at different levels and are specializing in different subject areas. Also, we have students who came from large school in GR and Detroit area and students who came from small local schools. We saw from the first day drawings that we have learners who love to travel, read, play sports, listen to music etc. Interests affect how we will run our classrooms and it is great to be able to have a community of diverse learners and share ideas!

Week 5

I thought the Digital Natives in the Classroom article was interesting. I took the quiz and was only able to define two of the terms, but I think I am more of a Native than an Immigrant. A digital native is one who has been brought up using technology and is fluent and confident in the various uses of the internet, video games, mtv etc. A digital immigrant, however, is generally someone older than 30 who was not brought up in an age where technology was prevalant. 

I remember in early elementary school using computers. We had a computer lab that we went to once a week and played math munchies and oregon trail. Although I did no have a computer at my house at the time, nor did I really need one to complete school work, I was being introduced to technology. Although I was only able to define two of the terms, I feel that I have had enough experience with technology that I am able to navigate my way and figure out how to work websites or new technologies based on my experiences. This would make me a digital native. 

In the classroom, I think it is important to recognize that technology is very appealing to students. Although video games and looked heavily down upon, when students are brought up with technology it is important for us as educators to figure out ways to integrate in the classroom. In regards to technology in the classroom the article quotes "In 2001 the second highest ranked course among Executive MBA students at Harvard Business School was a simulation used to teach global logistics". This proves that video games in sense, and other technologies can influence learning in a positive way.

My only worry as a future teacher is that students will stray away from reading books. I see it now with my brother who is in third grade. It is like pulling teeth to get him to read for pleasure rather than playing his video games. My goal as a teacher is to get my students to read for fun and enjoy it as well. Although technology is fun and exciting we can't forget about the simple pleasures of a book :)

Week 5 (February 9)

After reading for this week, I became very interested in "The Curriculum Cycle." I always believed that children would be more involved in their writing if they had open assignments. It was my belief that they would be able to turn the assignment to their interest, allowing them to become extremely involved. However, "The Curriculum Cycle" changed this belief.
It first got me thinking when it said, "It would be foolish to suggest that good writers are unaware of traditional narrative writings; indeed, it is precisely this awareness that allows them to exploit and manipulate their writing in new ways, and to make conscious choices about how they write." This really opened my eyes. I love reading novels, and I love exploring different writers. Although they are all novels, each author provides me with a different experience because they write in different ways. It is interesting and intriguing to me. How will my students be able to change the 'typical' writing styles to make them their own and to make them interesting, just like the authors I love to read, if they never learn the 'typical' writing styles. I also loved how this approach was so inclusive. It wasn't just a small lesson, but a whole unit. I saw how this approach could easily be used to support a social studies or science unit. We could research different colonies, or write and complete science experiments using "The Curriculum Cycle." Finally, I loved how it is helpful to all students. Not only students learning English, but other students who have not been exposed to different genres of literature benefit from "The Curriculum Cycle." Instead of just assuming that they know how to write, teachers can guide their exploration, making the learning meaningful and interesting. When the children gain a mastery of the cycle, they will gain confidence and appreciation for writing. If the children were just told to write like they always do, they will take no value in their writing, because they will have no learning to compare it to.

I also enjoyed reading the mini lessons in the Tompkins book. The mini lessons took what the book was teaching me, and applied them in a real life situation. This made the learning meaningful, as I was able to see how to apply the lessons, and see why they work. I remember learning about phonemic awareness. I hated every minute of it, feeling it was dull and boring. The mini lessons showed how to make segmenting, blending and rhyming words interesting and meaningful to children. Finally, I like how the book criticized spelling tests. I did terrible on spelling tests my entire elementary career. I like that the book gave suggestions on how to make spelling meaningful to the students. Instead of a random list of words, the text suggested choosing a large list of words that the children are exposed to in the literature they are working with, and then allowing the children to pick which words they would like to use. This way the students feel personally responsible for their spelling list, because they see the words in other areas, and they were involved in making their specific list.

Week 4 Blog Post (Febuary 1st)

The articles made it apparent how teachers need to learn about each child and where they are in terms of literacy development. Because children start learning literacy when they are born, their first literacy lessons come from thir parents. This means that each child enters school with a different level of literacy. It is necessary for teacher to understand this and adapt their classrooms to meet the needs of all children from varying backgrounds and varying levels.
I was both intregued and excited to see how teachers structure their classrooms to support literacy development. After reading how exposing children to the same text several times can increase their understanding of the text and their confidence reading, I was suprised. I never thought about this point. I thought that reading the same text several times would be boring and pointless, but as the article continued to discuss how beneficial it is for children, espically those learning english as a second language. I was most impressed with the different learning groups. By putting children in specific groups, the teacher was able to give a level of insturction most approptiate for the children. All the children would be working with the same text, but discussing it and working with it in different ways. It instantly became evident to me how beneficial this is. I also liked that all the children were working with the same text. This could prevent stigatism of different leveled groups.
The article that discussed learning centers was also very intresting to me. I loved how the children could choose what activity to do. By setting up the classroom this way, the children were able to do what they felt comfortable doing and what they enjoyed. This puts them incharge of their own learning. They will be more engaged and take more from the activity when it is meaningful for them. Also, the centers gave children the chance to explore something new. The children could move at their own pace and try and fail alone, without being compared to the rest of the class (if they were all doing the same activity at the same time.) If it took a child longer to complete the activity at the center than other, it could appear that the child is simply very engaged or doing more work with a single activity. I feel that this learning environment would be very comfortable for all learners, espically those with learning disibilities or those learning language as a second language.