Entry #10 Homework

I feel that homework is an important part of the learning process especially for ELL learners. It allows them to work with the content taught in the classroom at home. The student then has a chance to work at their own pace and reexamine what was learned. Homework is not busy work or worksheets; it is an extension of what has been taught in the classroom. As educators we know that we cannot do it all in 6.5 hours and repeated exposure is what helps students learn and retain knowledge.


Homework must be meaningful; that is why I like to do a lot of journaling for reading responses and I also like the idea of the interactive notebook. The students have to take ownership of their learning and feel good about it. 10 worksheets are not going to make a child feel better about what they are learning. But creating a collage might extend their understand and make the student work harder because it is designed by them.

Family participation is important with the ELL student. However it is not the job of the family to "help" with homework. Meaning that the parents should not have to help the student with the assignment due to lack of understanding. I think that the family needs to value education and ensure that their child is getting the work done and practicing at home. So I ask parents to be accountable by signing off on reading responses and signing the students homework log or planner.

I allow a period of time for my students to discuss their homework with each other. I call this time "kid talk" it is awesome to hear discussions between kids. Let's face it as educators we can talk until we are blue in the face and get nowhere, turn to a student and ask them to explain it and the room lights up. During this time I check the students notebook or reading response journals. I feel that giving them one on one feedback is more important than a grade on a paper. It gives me time to ask the "W" questions. What did your family think of the journal? Why is this important? What do you mean by________? It allows for a dialogue that a grade just doesn't give.

As far as technology for a first grader I do not use it. One year I tried to have the students use a simple graph online to track progress of assignments, but it became cumbersome, However I do still email parents if assignments are not complete or I have the students call home. If I was in a higher grade I would make the students create spreadsheets to keep track of their progress.

Entry # 9 Nonfiction and Fiction Texts

Fiction

*clear story structure
*appealing illustrations
*fantasy
*sounds like spoken Language
*written for entertainment
*pictures often can tell the story

Nonfiction

*photos
*graphs
*non linguistic representations
*heading
*indexes
*Factual information
*Academic language

I think both types of literature will support the ELL. Both types expose students to content that is helpful in learning the English language. Fiction might be challenging because it is fantasy and may cause confusion if the students are unable to grasp the content. However, fiction provides great language and illustration's that can be used to help the students with their writing. Nonfiction is difficult because of the academic language that is often used. Many ELL may have a hard time with vocabulary. Nonfiction actually allows the learners to access more background knowledge and learn about new topics.

Entry # 7 Running Record/Miscue Analyze

After the administration of my two running records I noticed may common errors of my students. I administered running records to a Spanish speaking and Korean speaking student. The majority of their errors were in meaning and comprehension. Since the books that the children were looking at were picture books there was not a real problem with visual cues. The syntax mistakes were common for the age group. Some of the words that they had trouble with were: eight (ate),  knew (new) and hard. The lack of understanding of the story made these words hard to understand. They often looked to the pictures for clarification, but the pictures were somewhat misleading. When I asked a few questions about the story it seemed that they understood the story, but lacked good solid details that could be supported by the story.

If I was teaching these students I would use many pre reading strategies. I would introduce vocabulary and talk about homophones to help clarify eight and knew. I would also do a picture walk with the students to allow them to look at the pictures, make predictions and clarify exactly what is happening in the pictures. I also the students would have benefited from echo or choral reading to allow for better understanding.

entry #6--Learning v. Acquisition

Determine if the activity is L or A
L for learning/word recognition or A for acquisition/ sociopsycholinguistic view.
The students:
_L_ look up words in the dictionary to write definitions. Words are pretaught students look up words and define them.  (Freeman and Freeman, p. 28).

_A_ make a Venn diagram to compare two stories. “The sociopsycholinguistic view, on the other hand, emphasizes that reading is a process of constructing meaning,” (24).
_L_ practice sounding out words. “ Phonics is the primary tool for word identification."  (p. 27)

_L_ read in a round-robin fashion. “Another classroom practice consistent with a word recognition view is to have students read aloud on a regular basis and help students with difficult words.” (p. 28)

_L_ correct peers when they make mistakes during reading. Teacher and peers help sound out words and help each other during round-robin reading.

_A_ identify words on a big book page that starts with the same sound. Students begin to make connections between the oral reading and the print (p.25).

_L/A_ group cards with classmates' names by a criterion on such as the first or last letter. Names make for good reading. The names can help with letters and letter associations.

_L_ write rhyming poetry and then discuss the different spellings for the same sound. “use phonics rules to sound out words” and then discuss different spellings for the same sound (Freeman & Freeman, 2004, p.25).

_L_ ask the teacher how to spell any words they don't know. “In many traditional classes, the form of writing becomes much more important then the content. Students who focus on form may not even try to use new words for fear of misspelling them,” (p. 31).

_A_ read a language experience story they have created with the teacher. Teachers help students and give them strategies to communicate, (p. 34).

_A_ work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences. Teachers use engaging text and stories that student are familiar with.

_L_ divide words into syllables. Students “learn to break words into parts to identify them.” (p.25)

_L_ on a worksheet, draw a line from each word in the picture that starts with the same sound. This is a way to practice language and different skills.

_A_ make alphabet books on different topics. “Students who listen and read and build up a storage of language can then later use the language to accomplish different things” (Freeman & Freeman, 2004, p.34).

The teacher:

_L_ pre-teaches vocabulary. “In word recognition class, teacher often preteach words that they thing students may not be able to figure out” (p.28).

_A_ does a shared reading with a big book. “Another classroom practice consistent with a word recognition view is to have students read aloud” (p.28).

_L_ makes sure that students read only books that fit their level. Students who read text at their own level have a better chance for comprehension.

_L_ has students segment words into phonemes. Segmenting words helps students become better readers.

_L_ writes words the students dictate for a story and has students help with the spelling of difficult words. It is important for the students to use their own thoughts and not put as much emphasis on the spelling.

_L/A_ asks students to look around the room and asks students to find words starting with a certain letter. A way to test students knowledge, and the student is using knowledge for different purposes.

_L_ uses decodable texts. Helps with word recognition.

_A_ sets aside time for SSR (sustained silent reading) each day. Sociopsycholinguistic’s view of reading is that it should be done silently. When students become stuck, they are to apply the scaffolding strategies the teacher provided (Freeman & Freeman, 2004, p.28). 

_L_ teaches Latin and Greek roots. “Students can identity longer words by breaking them down into components or parts. For example, they can divide the words into its prefix, root, and suffix,” (p.27).

_A_ has students meet in literature circles. By meeting the teacher can instruct, differentiate, and scaffold for each student.

_L_ conducts phonics drills. Phonics helps students read and drills are good for practicing skills.

_A_ chooses predictable texts. Predictable text helps students become better readers and provides confidence.

_A_ teaches students different comprehension strategies. Teaching strategies will help the students become independent readers.

_L_ uses a variety of worksheets to teach different skills. Worksheets are like drills they reinforce the skills learned.

Entry#5--Review of 2 children's books and how they can affect comprehension

The two books I chose were The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and The Emperor's New Clothes by Marcus Sedgwick and Alison Jay.

The Giving Tree is a book about a relationship between a young boy and a tree. The tree provides the boy with everything he wants.
1. What is a giving tree?
2. How can a tree take care of a boy?
3. How can a tree give?
4. How can a tree be happy?
It is important to explain the vocabulary to the students. Words like; selfless, needs and wants, relationship. The students need to understand that the book is teaching us a lesson about life and goes beyond the pictures on the page.

The Emperor's New Clothes is a book about a king that wants to be better than his subjects and wants to have the best clothes for the up coming parade.
1. What is an Emperor?
2. How can clothes be invisible?
3. Why is a Lion the leader of the animals?
4. Why didn't the lion know that he did not have clothes on?
Preteach vocabulary for understanding. It might be interesting to bring in the original story to compare it to this version. Talk about different types of leaders in the world and maybe the students might have their own knowledge of a leader of their country. Talk about the king of the jungle to help explain why the lion might be in charge.

Entry #4--unfamiliar text

As I sat to read an article off the internet written in German, I had no idea where to start. I began by looking for similarities to my language. I looked for words that had similar spelling patterns or words that looked like English words. I only knew two words and they were iPhone and iPod. I found a translation page through google and I looked up a few words to figure out what they thought of the iPhone and iPod. The words I initially looked up were words like sleek and light. These words made me think that the Germans liked the product. I still however could not make much more sense of the article. I found my mind wandering and it was very hard to stay focused on my task. Since I had become very frustrated I went to complete translation and read the article. All of my frustration was immediately alleviated. I then did a side by side of the German version and translated version and tried to make sense of the article. After a while I found similarities in the text which made the article a little less confusing. I can't imagine how our ESL students must feel if they have no connection with our language. I was praying for a picture to guide me through this article. So I now know that it is important to provide other things besides the text if we are expecting students to learn. The more realia the better. Using scaffolding and differentiation is key for ESL students, but can also help the other students within the classroom.

Entry #3--Relationship between oral language and the reading process

You cannot learn to read without good oral language. You have to know how to use words and speak them in order to interpret them within text. Students that come from a rich oral language environment seem to learn to understand the reading process better. When a child picks up a picture book and can tell a story based on what they see in the picture that is a part of learning to read. Adding words to pictures and relating to a book is an important part in the beginning stages of reading. Oral language also happens when you read a book to a child. A child can "read" a book based on what he hears, by repeating the words he has heard someone say when reading the book. Having conversation about books also helps learn listening comprehension. Asking questions like what do you see, and what might happen next are all great examples of this. A child can also hear the sounds of words and the make up of sentences. Oral language is not only for early education, but also it is important for students who have learned to read and have trouble comprehending what they read. Exposure to words can help the older students become more comfortable with text.

Here are two great links to an article about oral language and reading

http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/content/oral

http://www.ilsp.gr/homepages/protopapas/pdf/Mouzaki_etal_2005_ProcLDW14.pdf




 

 

Entry #2--How I learned to write and what my experiences were

I remember as a child being asked questions over and over by my parents for clarity. I think that this helped my use of language. My mother recalls that people always used to tell her I talked like a little lady. My vocabulary was more complex than others of my age group (so they thought). I thought that it was because I was surrounded by adults. I think that having a very talkative home helped me learn more about language. However, after my readings I learned that my knowledge of learning to talk was innate.


As I was reading Essential Linguistics it was interesting to find out that the behaviorist theory of learning language by positive reinforcement had so much oppositional research. However, after reading the opposition's point of view it made much more sense to me. The studies showed that no matter what type of household a child comes from, that language development is consistent across all children.

My experience learning to write in school is hard to recall. I do not remember any formal writing instruction like I currently teach my students. I do recall making a lot of what I call "blank books" (white paper folded in half and stapled). The teacher used to let us make the books if we had finished our work or during free time. This was a time to let my imagination run wild. Not only did I get to write the book, but I also drew illustrations to go along with them. I did not have to worry about sentences or grammar. The books were mine and not graded. The teacher did let us share them, but she never criticized them.

One thing that does stick out in my mind about my elementary school years was writing to prompts. There would be a question on the board, or a story starter and we were then required to write about it. I would say that I identify with the "empty vessel" teaching style. The teacher would tell us what to do and then expect a good product. She would walk around the classroom and point out what students were doing wrong, but never really modeled what she expected of us. I remember taking standardized tests that asked us to perform the same kind of writing without any really instruction. So it makes me wonder if the teacher was teaching to the test, and preparing us for the lack of instruction and the testing setting.

In other subjects like science and social studies, writing was much more fun. The teacher would model what she expected from us. We would have science notebooks and be able to work in groups to come up with notebook entries. We would do a kind of report out or pair and share. The teacher would model the notes that we should be taking and what she expected us to have in our notebooks. In the text Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning I identified with; students reporting out on other students and student teacher talk. These strategies were used a lot during science and social studies.

Entry #1--A teacher's Philosophy about teaching literacy

After talking with Ms. Swanson I had a clear understanding of why she thought literacy in primary education was important. She said that children learn language by using it, reading it, and applying it. It is her job to make sure that the students in her classroom do all of these things. She uses all mediums to help students learn. It is her job to model what good reading and writing looks like. She does this by reading to, with, and by (students reading to her) the students. She uses all components of reading to help her students obtain all the important parts of learning to read. She uses guided and whole group reading to ensure that all students learn. She also does this with writing. She uses the Writers Workshop model to help her students understand the writing process. Using the Writers Workshop model gives students voice and allows them to write in a more authentic way. She believes that without literacy students cannot be successful in school.