Week 4 Post

   In my placement I mostly see recitation rather than discussion.  I can tell because most conversations with the whole class are teacher-led rather than student-led.  Also, the questions asked require more factual answers rather than opinionated answers.  In a response-centered discussion, teachers really need to learn to take a step back and let students do most of the talking.  To get the conversation started, teachers can ask students how they felt at a certain part of the story or why they think a certain action in the story happened.  From there, students will be able to respond or ask a question to the entire class to obtain clarity on any possible confusion.  All in all, students are able to share their opinions and they do not feel pressure because there is no right or wrong answer.  Teachers should scaffold by asking questions to further students' interpretations.  There are a ton of resources available that have the potential to promote good quality discussion.  For example, in our Weinsten reading, we are given some great examples of props that will encourage shy students to feel more comfortable speaking out.  A few examples they gave were a special pen, a wand, or a toy.  Using a prop like this ensures that each student will get a chance to speak while also preventing outspoken students from dominating the conversation.  For students who are not as active in the classroom, there are many ways a teacher can scaffold.  For example, the Almasi article states that if a student gives a shorter response, a teacher can simply ask the student to provide a rationale.  Furthermore, if a student doesn't give a response at all, a teacher can ask if the student agrees or disagrees with the opinion just stated by another student.  Not only does this get the shy student to participate, but it also puts them in the position of the evaluator.

Week 4 Post

In my classroom I see mostly recitation type interactions between the class and teacher. I see my mentor teacher ask a lot of recitation type questions as she completes social studies lessons. She will ask students to define words, or asks questions from the book that have specific answers she is looking for. The conversation is mainly conducted by her asking questions and choosing students. As Wienstein Romano suggests pulling sticks or marking a seating chart to ensure every student gets chosen to talk, my mentor teacher tends to pick on the same few students willing to raise their hand in class. I also see some interaction each day during the weather report and morning helper. During this time a student or two gets to come to the board in order to do their daily weather or morning question task. Then the class has chances to ask questions and participate. During this time the student becomes responsible for becoming the "facilitator" in a recitation. For example: the weather students will ask the class to guess what today's temperature is in Celsius. This does not allow for the students to engage in higher level thinking.

I think that in order to get my students to begin engaging in meaningful discussions it would be best to start out by putting them in groups. I would group them with students varying academically and varying personalities ( I wouldn't put all the shy ones in one group.) In these small groups I would have them begin discussions using discussion prompts and questions. I would also give the students roles in their discussion to help the students stay on track and thinking. I know that all of the students have many things to say and have the social skills to actively engage in discussion. I think starting them off in a smaller group would help them to gain confidence in sharing their ideas, feelings, and connections, before discussing as a whole group.

The learning resources that are available in my classroom are their poetry and writing journals. I have not seen them all read the same book, but I could collect a passage for them to read and discuss. I think their journals would be great places to start with discussion.

There are a few specific students in my class that rarely participate. I think that in order to help them participate in class is to get them to pay attention. I like the idea of pulling sticks because students never know when they could get called on so they are encouraged to pay attention. I also enjoyed the idea of having students write their response even if they get their stick pulled. I think that incorporating social justice discussions, like in the Moller article would help students to participate. I enjoyed how she had personal conversations with students involving their experiences, like the students who shared knowledge about the Klu  Klux Klan, and scaffold the student to discussing it in his group on his own. I think doing this with my struggling students would be really helpful to them in order to validate their thoughts.

Finally, I think that holding back as a teacher can help me to encourage all students to participate. In order to have a proper discussion it is important that the students are encouraging others to talk and the teacher is not the one asking questions. I think it will be very hard for me to bite my tongue as students discuss away. I think that by working is smaller groups will help to encourage my students to have a discussion amongst themselves and not between myself and the students. This way I can interject when necessary, and listen to each groups ideas.

Week 4 post

Kelli Siebers

Week 4 post

In my placement classroom (of kindergarteners), the only time I see discussion of literature is when the reacher reads a book to the whole class. The type of discussion that results from these reading are only recitation or traditional discussions. The teacher uses the initiate-respond-evaluate structure, where she posses a question that usually is about a specific part of the book and has one or two right answers. Then she calls on a child to respond or answer the question. Then the teacher responds to the child in a way that shows if the answer that satisfactory or not. For every question, the answer is viewed as being located in the text. This structure of questioning occurs at the end of every book she reads. 

In order for response-centered talk to take place, the teacher would need to ask questions that do not have one “right” answer imbedded in the text. Instead the teacher should select a theme or before reading the book, then pose a question that will get the students thinking about this theme. The teacher should then allow children to comment or respond with their classmates thoughts, viewpoints, questions. The teacher’s job during these discussions is to help the class focus on the question then listen. However, before this type of respond-centered talk can take place, the children will need to be able to talk to each other, give others opportunities to talk, accept that there may be views that are not like theirs, ask questions to others and give reasons for their opinions. 

Some resources that are available that might help the children have meaningful discussions are that there are many teachers in the class. This would allow the child to break into smaller groups to be read to and discuss the book. We also have large-open areas that would allow children to sit in a circle so that they can make eye contact. 

There are quite a few children in our class that do not participate in full group discussions. I feel that, if the class was split into smaller groups these children may feel more comfortable participating. Also, the teacher could use recitation in effective ways in order to get everyone involved. A few ways to do this include use of response cards, where everyone has time to think then write down their answer, or allowing several children to answer a question. By providing feedback in a way that will not make the child feel “dumb” to all students, the children will feel more comfortable answering questions in front of the class.

Week 3 Poems

Kelli-From a suburban community, family isn't "perfect" but they get through it, interest in music/writing, home life effected how she will be nurturing as a teacher

Laura-Interest in baking, participated in gymnastics for a long time, cheerleader, Polish, hard worker in athletics caused her to a hard worker in school, optimistic

Sarah-Likde Mary-Kate & Ashley, on pom, had a lot of things in common with each other as children ("could've been best friends"), very supportive family, appreciate the little things in life

Week 3. Literature in Classroom

I have seen literature incorporated into my classroom in a few ways. I see literacy in their classroom through poetry. Each week they memorize and recite a new poem with a group. The group must act out their poem, then answer questions from the audience regarding their performance. I have seen my students do this every week and their performances are every Friday. I have only seen them listening to a book as a class. The teacher read a picture book on the ELMO, then had the students use personal experiences to make connections in the text and write about them. Finally, I have seen them silently reading on their own occasionally. The ideas that are incorporated into literature are connections to personal experiences and the structure of poetry. I have observed the teacher talk about the stanzas and the author of the poem.

After the readings today, I would like to incorporate literature as a class. I would like to see them read a book as a whole and talk about many different feature of the book. I think they would really benefit from a book club or book talk. There are a few struggling readers in the class that I think would benefit from having a conversation about the book they read and benefiting from hearing what others have to say about the text. Similar to what Triplett & Buchanan discussed in their article, I think engaging the struggling readers in these discussions would help to motivate them and brighten their attitude towards reading. I also think that students would really benefit from analyzing text in a deeper manner. Like Hassett & Curwood talked about the different features of picture books engage a reader in different ways and how the features communicate meaning. I think that the students could learn a lot about text by creating assignments for them that do just that. I would like to see them make predictions about the text they are reading and discuss how the different features (of poetry, picture books, or chapter books) make them feel and think, instead of just making personal connections to the text. I think that they have the skills and knowledge to move forwards from this step. I think that this could be done both by doing a writing assignment or by have class discussions regarding these features.

Week 3 Post

I've seen literacy incorporated in my placement in a few ways.  First, I often see the students engaging in Silent Reading for ten minutes after lunch.  They're allowed to pick any book of their liking, but must use the designated time to read and read only (this is sometimes hard for the students since they are in second grade and easily distracted.)  The fact that students are able to choose what book they read at this time seems to really help their motivation.  Second, I've assisted my class when they take trips to the computer lab where they often use a specific educational website.  This website offers students lessons, pre-assessments, post-assessments, games, and more.  This reminds me of literacy because our textbook stated that "teaching students how to read and write online has become a priority so that they can become literate in today's digital world" and students are gaining experience in this area each and every time they use this website. Third, I've seen my students do a few writing assignments where my teacher will pick an emotion, describe what the emotion is, and then have students write about a time where they felt that emotion.  Afterwards, my teacher picks volunteers who would like their story to be read aloud to the class.  This seems to work very well with the students because many are eager to share their stories with others; therefore, they put forth a lot of effort when writing their stories.

After reading the articles, there are a few additions or alternatives I would incorporate.  To begin with, I have seen my teacher read a story to the students, but I have not seen the reading session incorporate open ended questions.  Most of the time, she asks questions with one right answer simply to make sure that the students are paying attention.  Though there is nothing wrong with keeping the students focus, the Langer article states that using open ended questions during literature will make students much more engaged.  On top of that, the Triplett jigsaw aritcle stated that struggling readers actually enjoyed open ended questions that turned into discussions.  These discussions not only kept them motivated to overcome their struggle with reading, but they drastically improved their comprehension as well.  Furthermore, after reading the Hassett & Curwood article, I definitely want to include multimodal literacy into the classroom.  In this type of literacy, children can infer meaning not only through words itself, but also through color, font styles, and more.  It is important that students practice doing this since so much of our literacy today is multimodal compared to what was commonly used in the past.

Siebers week 3

In my kindergarten classroom, literacy work takes up the first half of their everyday routine, excluding a short recess and snack time. They do many different activities that are literacy based including sounding out words, counting words syllables, breaking up words into parts and putting parts of words together to make compound words. The children also play games that involve finding the first and last sounds that words make. In our class, the children also read several short books as a class, and each of these books uses a new sight word over and over. Then the children add this new sight word to their wall of sight words. Other activities the children are involved in that involve reading are getting stories read to them daily, reading with a teacher in a small group and reading to themselves after finishing a task. When it comes to writing, the children almost always have a daily letter worksheet to complete. They also usually have a worksheet that requires them to write out the numbers 1 through 10. The children are also asked to write out sight and other common words on worksheets. 

Personally, I think the children need more practice reading and writing for a purpose, other than to complete another worksheet to take home. I also think that the children need more experiences that involve sounding out new words, as this occurs in the classroom but not on a regular bases.

Based on the “Book Talk: Continuing to Rouse Minds and Hearts to Life” article, I think the children also need more opportunities to discuss readings in the class. When the children read in a small group with the teacher, they do have some discussion, however this seems to be teacher-lead. I think that during these small groups the teacher might want to try having the children ask questions, talk about what they are thinking, and come up with ideas throughout the reading. By encouraging this collaborative reasoning, the children will be more engaged and will learn how to predict and reason with others to make their points. 

The Langer article “Understanding Literature” also emphasis the children’s need to think critically about text. By asking the children open-ended questions, allowing them to make hypothesis before moving on, talking about the characters, situations and settings, children will gain much more from reading a book. I think the teacher could incorporate this ideas into her reading of story books to the children as a class, helping the children to be engaged and thoughtful as they listen. 

The “Theories and Practices of Multimodal Education” made me realize just how important the text of a book can be. However, the books that the children all read in the class are usually just printed out pieces of white paper with simple pictures and plain fonts. Sense my classroom does have a smart board, and the children do sometimes read off it together, I think the teacher should try including stories with more modes of text for the children to read. Another mode that our classroom used to have was books on cassette, where the children could have books read to them by an expressive reader. However the cassette player broke and this is no longer being used. Although cassette players are not new technology, I think this was a great way for children to hear someone read a book and follow along by looking at the book.

Week 2 Post

In this course I'd like to learn all the effective ways of teaching language arts to elementary education students.  As of right now, I do not have a lot of knowledge in this area, so I think this course will be extremely helpful.  I'd also like to learn the main areas that students struggle with in language arts and how I can help students be successful in these troublesome areas.  Lastly, I'd like to learn any classroom management techniques that could correlate specifically with language arts.

-After completing my first semester of placement this year, I think I'd really like to teach in a low income school.  I've seen the huge, positive impact a teacher can have on these students and would love to be able to do that myself.  Not only do students look up to my mentor teacher as a guide for their learning, but they also look up to her as a friend who will support them no matter what.
-I'd like to learn everything about literacy instruction!  Most importantly, I'd like to learn the most effective strategies in teaching language arts.  To elaborate, I do not want to take the "easy way out" when becoming a teacher.  I feel many teachers now-a-days simply do what they believe is the least time-consuming with their students and I'd like to change that trend.  I'd like my students to be actively learning as much as possible in my classroom.
-The Jigsaw Articles helped me in many ways.  For example, the article by Hettinger and Knapp discussed how there are so many ways teachers can encourage struggling students with reading.  It can be something as simple as talking about their favorite books or reading along with the students during silent reading that can make such an incredible impact.  This within itself shows me that it's very important to pay attention to detail as a teacher and to never forget about the "little things" when teaching in a classroom. Second, the article by Diller also taught me very important lessons.  It stated that because classrooms are becoming more and more diverse, it is vital that teachers pay attention to student's learning styles according to their cultural background.  To accomplish this, it is key that teachers get to know each student very well individually and to learn through parents, co-workers, etc. what steps can be taken to accommodate to each and every cultural norm.

Week Two Reading and Notes

Learning Goals:

• I want to learn strategies to teach literacy in my classroom effectively
• I want to learn lesson ideas for teaching different literacy concepts
• My goal is to be able to identify different sentence types and also learn about the components of sentence structure
• I also want to learn about punctuation and grammar rules. I am not confident in the rules myself and would not feel comfortable teaching them to my students in the future. 
• To apply what I know and modify it for students with special needs. 

Notes:

• I hope to teach in a suburban public school. 
• I would either like to teach in a basic skills special education classroom or a gen ed class grades 2-4. 
• I want to learn what literacy instructional tools are meaningful and authentic. This would help me acheive my goals of learning about different literacy lessons I can use in my future classroom, and how to teach literacy effectively. 
• I want to learn how to asses students in literacy. 
• I would like to learn literacy instruction that is also helpful for students with learning disabilties. 
• I would like to know how to include ELL students in literacy instruction. 
• In the Hettinger and Knapp jigsaw reading I gained a low of knowledge on how I want to portray reading to my students. I dont want reading to be something they feel like they have to do or are required to know. I want my students to think of reading as a useful tool in order to get through life. I want them to learn that reading is not something you do just to be smart or something you do in the classroom, but it is something that is enjoyable and you can use it all day everyday. I learned that I want to show students that I enjoy reading and share with them my experiences in reading. This will help me to motivate them bby sharing my authentic story. I also want to be a good listener to my students. I want my students to be able to ask me questions and have an open relationship with me when talking about reading. 
• In the Risko and Walker jigsaw article I would be able to apply this to the teacher I want to be by ensuring that my studnets are aware of cultural differences and learn to be open and educated about cultures. I enjoyed how the article broke down how to prepare and teach cultural modeling with students. This would allow for easy lesson planning. It explained how it is important to think about what the problem is you want to teach, what skills you are interesting in teaching your students, understanding what your students already know, and collecting many materials with different perspectives for your students. As a teacher I what I really want to apply regarding other cultures is to provide many different perspectives. It is important for students to learn about bias and how there are many different sides to one story. I can apply this to my teaching style by providing materials to my students with different perspectives and encouraging my students to create their own opinion based on the facts that they learned. 

Week 2 readings

Kelli Siebers:
The reading "Supporting Underachieving Readers in the Elementary Classroom" really hit home for me. I was (and still am) a struggling reader and it was almost as if this article was written about me. I related to their comment that J.P felt defined by his inability to read and that surfaced in almost all activities within the classroom. Although I had never heard of the term "gifted/learning disabled" I feel that this describes me perfectly as me doing well in other subjects in school led to me not being officially diagnosed with a learning disability and having so much trouble with reading and writing led to me not being able to shine through in school like I could have. The last connection I made with this article was when they mentioned people like J.P and I being vulnerable to performance orientation because we tend to be perfectionists, which is very true of myself.

I also felt a connection to the reading "Opening the dialogue:Using Culture as a Tool in teaching young African American children". This article talked about a white female teaching who had a disconnect between herself and her African American students, particularly the boys. In my TE placement I also feel this disconnect between myself, my mentor teacher and the African American boys in our class. Though every child is different I think I now understand some things that may work better in the classroom for these children.

Both the Tompkins and Gibbons readings reminded me of classes I have taken in the past 3 years where we learning about different psychologist's theories on how children develop and learn. One of there people is Vygotsky, who believes that oral language provides the foundation for learning to read and write. His theory includes scaffolding or providing support by having students collaborate with adults so that they  an accomplish more difficult tasks. He also using the term zone of proximal development to describe the gap between what a child can do on their own and what they can do jointly and in coordination with a more skills person. Vygotsky therefore believes in development between people.
Gibbons also reminded me of the differences between conversational language and academic language. For English Language Learners, conversation language develops within about a year or two. Academic language take between five and seven years. This is because they are learning new concepts and new registers through a medium different than their first language. 

Goals for learning in this course:
- How to be more confident in my own reading and writing abilities.
- How to be an effective teacher when it comes to language arts.
- Some ideas for working with children who are struggling with language arts concepts. 

- I don't have a specific area or type of school I want to work in.
- I want to learn how to make literacy understandable, fun and useful for the children I teach.