Literacy

As we have explored in this semester, the definition of literacy has expanded in my view. From the start literacy was only thought of as reading and writing, but as we have learned it can be so much more. And even including the "new" literacies which before I would never have included in this heading. I thought it was very interesting to see the different definitions that people found and posted on the wiki. This just goes to prove that it is a difficult word to put only one meaning to.
The internship for next year should be interesting. I'm mostly okay about it, but a little concerned that I don't know enough about the special education portion of it or how it will work. I need to find out a few more answers before I will be comfortable about it. I thought that it was a great idea to have this years interns come in to speak to the class. I really learned alot from them. Over all I'm excited to get into the classroom and continue my education.

Literacy: Then and Now

Over the course of this semester, the term literacy has become a much more broad concept than I used to think of it. Even after four years of college, my definition of literacy did not even begin to cover the definition I now know. But with that thought, I should say that my "new" definition of literacy is not really a straightforward dictionary type of definition, but rather a collection of ideas or multiple definitions.

I feel as though I have learned a lot during this course. I really appreciate the fact that I have been able to "broaden my horizons" of literacy, so to speak. I really was dreading the technology/new literacies project, but I have to say that I really did learn a lot by doing it. I was not only able to increase my knowledge significantly on one certain literacy (cultural), but I was also forced to deal with the scary monster of technology. I look forward to checking out the other projects as well so that I can learn more about the other new literacies.

Thinking ahead to internship year is a scary thought. But, I will say that I feel better prepared for it now than I ever have. I look forward to implementing what I have learned about literacy in my placement and I feel much more confident in being able to do so. Technology has always scared me, but I know that it is important to incorporate into my teaching, especially since so many students are using so many forms of technology on a daily basis.

New Literacies Project: Cultural Literacy

I chose Cultural literacy as my focus for this project. When I first started looking up information, I wasn't coming up with a lot that seemed relevant or usable for this project. However, the more time I spent on it, the more I found.

I don't think I can actually post "my notes" in this blog, as they consist of many many pages of paper and post-it notes, but I will write about what information I've found and where I've found it.

First, I read a book with the title "Cultural Literacy" written by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. Hirsch has many good things to say about cultural literacy, but his views have been challenged by a lot of people. This book was the only real source I had for a while, so I decided to dig a little deeper.

I used the MSU Libraries website to look up "scholarly articles" about cultural literacy, and while not all the search results proved relevant, I did go away with a couple of pretty good sources. I would recommend this site if you're having a hard time finding information for your project.

Another good source I ended up using was NPR, which was really cool because I didn't think I'd find anything relevant there, but was mistaken, as I found a couple of really useful broadcasts.

Vocabulary Minilesson

1. Introduction of Topic
Scott O’Dell’s Sing Down the Moon has already been introduced to the class. Students should have read the first few chapters at least already. Explain to students that there are plenty of words in this book (as well as others) that may be new to them; and that there are words which may be familiar to them, but seem to be used in a different way than they are used to. Offer the seven words printed on the handout as examples: (sled, flounder, swell, stunt, bear, league, draw).

2. Share Examples
Distribute the handouts and ask students for initial thoughts on definitions or meanings of the words. Have them write down these thoughts for some or all of the given examples. As an example, take the first word, sled, and ask for definitions, or offer one such as “Santa’s vehicle”. Then look up the page that the word is located on and have the students read the sentence. “Out of the two willow poles and a blanket we fashioned a sled and put him on it, hitching the sled to the strongest horse”.
Ask students how the word used in this context relates to the definition offered before reading the passage. What is similar/different? A possible question could be: Usually when we think of the word sled, we think of snow—but these characters are in the deserts and canyons of Arizona—what does that make you think about the word?
Look up the definition of the word in a dictionary and/or thesaurus. Discuss findings about the definition(s) of the word.

3. Provide Information
Explain to students that it will be to their benefit if they make use of dictionaries/thesauruses, and the skills to find out more about words they don’t know or that are used in a context they’re not used to. Offer examples of ways they can look up words such as those discussed—with technology (websites, online dictionaries, etc.) books (paper thesaurus, dictionary), and others.

4. Guide Practice
Have the students look up the rest of the words on the handout in the novel and continue with the steps as followed for the example. Spaces on the handout are provided so that students may add new or interesting words that aren’t included on the list that they may choose to look up and learn about. Students should be encouraged and required to fill in at least two more words on the sheet.

5. Assess Learning
After the handouts are completed, probably during the next lesson, ask for volunteers to share findings on any of the words on the list. Compare these results with those of other students in the class. Also, ask for volunteers to share new words they added to the list and the findings for those words as well. A list or poster can be created in the classroom to show findings and offer examples of “multiple definition words”.

Language Vocabulary Lesson

Angela Lowry
03-31-09
TE 402 mini lesson/ language vocabulary
Sing Down th Moon

• While reading the story I would have the students write in their writing journal two action or descriptive words from each chapter and write down next the word the page number so they can find the sentence the word came from.
  
• When we are finished reading the book we will look at their lists, with 23 chapters they should have about 45-46 words.
  
• I will have the students pick 20 of those words and write them on a separate paper and each student will get a Thesaurus.
  
• Then they will look up the words and write down two more words that are synonyms.
  They will then rewrite the sentence that the original word came from with one of their new words. The new word should be underlined.
  
• I hope to have the students recognize that there are more words out there that can be used is similar situations. This will increase their vocabulary and make them better readers and be more aware of the words that they are reading. They will also learn that you can uses other sources to find similar words and meanings (dictionaries, thesaurus).
  

Some examples are
Chapter 1

Original word-steep
page number-1
two new words- towering, ascending
sentence- "Warm winds melted the snow and blue water gathered under the trees and ran through the meadows and down the towering barrancas."

Original word-scatter
page number-3
two new words-disperse, spread out
sentence-"When we left the trail it was fun to see them disperse out over the meadow to crop the first young grass, as though they had never eaten in their lives."

here is the vocabulary lesson plan that I came up with




Vocab. lesson rational: to increase word knowledge the students will make a list of words that are not familiar to them from the book.
Objective of the lesson: to help students expand their vocabulary
Materials: large piece of butcher paper, construction paper, and art supplies

Introduction to the lesson: Inform the students that the class will be reading the novel,” Breadwinner” and that the book may contain words that are unfamiliar to them. Explain that in order to enhance the students understanding the class will be making a word wall of unfamiliar words that they can explore further.
Outline
- assign small groups of students to skim specific chapters for words that they do not recognize
- have each group make a list of words to share with the class
- The class will compile the lists on to a piece of butcher paper
- Assign each student a word to look up or research
- Students will make a poster to visual represent each word
- Posters will be presented and displayed in the classroom for students to refer back to as they read the novel.
- Reorganize the words on a word wall into groups based on parts of speech or topics.

Example word:
Nooria
Parvanna
Kabul
Taliban
Shalwar Kameez
Malali
Burqu
Ongoing assessment: Set aside some time for the students to take turns reading the novel aloud as a group. when a word wall word is used stop and ask a child what the word means. If the child is unable to remember have him or her refer to the posters.

Mrs. Potter write up

In reading the article about accommodations that can be made for children in the classroom who have specific learning needs, it seems that each child that Mrs. Potter described could benefit from some form of visual support in the classroom. In Lupita’s case it seems that her only difficulty is the language barrier. The use of signs to label objects around the classroom that featured visual images along with words would help her expand her vocabulary. Putting pictures with the directions would also help her to become more self sufficient with English based assignments.

Regarding Eddie’s situation it appears as if he has a case of ADD. In dealing with such students the article suggested that visual aids such as schedules and work diagrams. These will give Eddie direction on where to go and the steps that he should be doing in an activity.

Thought it is hard to specifically identify Jonathon’s barriers to learning it seems that it giving pictorial directions or steps that he can follow to accomplish a taste would also benefit him as well.

"Gifted and Challenging"

After reading the "Gifted and Challenging" article (Kostelnick, 2002), I started thinking about the students in my placement classroom. There are more than a handful of "challenging" students among my first graders, but the article has caused me to look closer, looking for the possibilities of gifted and talented students among the challenging ones.

Some of my students who tend to be "off task" a lot of the time may in fact just be bored with the work they are doing. I know that a lot of them are struggling with the classwork, some more than others, but I never thought to think that their "problems" may not be just behavioral but educational--I need to start paying closer attention to these students to get a better look at what really is happening.

I think an important lesson I took from this article was that (as we've heard many times before) students learn in different ways with different needs. As teachers, it's vital that we are sensitive to these differences so that all students can achieve to the best of their abilities.

new literacy

In doing all of these things with media all of a sudden I really am beginning to feel illiterate when it comes to technology. It is great that I am beginning to learn all of this stuff as my students will probably have an understanding of all these things and I will want to use forms of technology that will be rel event to their live. The down side is only that it can seem overwhelming to tackle all at once. Another frustrating this to think about is that by the time I feel that I have a form of technology down there will probably be new forms I will need to learn. Despite the frustration getting a start on this learning is still important.

Digital Immigrant

After taking the quiz, I now know that I am definitely a "digital immigrant"--which I find a bit scary since there were only about 6 terms to define. I found the information on the website to be quite interesting, although it seems as though it was suggesting that this "Generation-D" includes all those who were born after the inception of the game Pong. I grew up with Pong and Pac-Man, and all the other Atari games as well as the original Nintendo when it came out...but I am nowhere near being a "digital native" for having done so.

Technology still scares me, mainly I suppose, because of my lack of knowledge and experience with it. I have been introduced to new technologies during my college career, but I am not completely comfortable with all of them yet. As the website noted, "digital immigrants perceive technology as something to be feared tolerated or at best harnessed to one's purpose" and I feel that this is where I best fit in.

As a future teacher I understand the importance of technology, not only for its benefits in teaching, but for the sheer knowledge that "Digital Natives perceive technology as their friend and rely on it to study, work, play, relax and communicate". The students we will be teaching will most likely be digital natives, and so I know that I need to not only get over my fear of technology, but also embrace it and learn how to work with it so that my students will be able to benefit from it as well.

Digital Natives in the Classroom: http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/digitalnatives/index.htm

emergent literacy and technology

When I was taking the Quiz about how well I know technology. I have heard of over half the words but I could define under half of them. Sometimes when people are talking about technology I feel like they are speaking a second language. in light of this, it is interesting to think about it in terms of literacy.

In chapter four of our Tompkin's book emergent literacy is defined as gaining knowledge, and understanding of the communicative purpose of print. the only way to gain knowledge and understanding is through the hands on experience with elements of literacy such as scribbling as a way to explore writing and pretend reading as a way to explore oral language.

Some kids speak the language of technology better than they speak "school language." that is why it is important that we as teachers are able to learn their language in order for us to communicate concepts that are foundational to the the development of the child.

Teaching Phonemic Awareness

As we read in the Tompkins text, "teachers nurture children's phonemic awareness through the language-rich environments they create in the classroom" (117). The text pointed out 3 different criteria for teaching phonemic awareness, one of them being that "the instruction should be planned and purposeful, not incidental" (118). I think that this point is especially important, because it seems as if many teachers may touch on phonemic awareness during instruction, but it often seems like a side-note or someting. For example, a teacher may read a story to the class and then decide to point out the sounds of certain words or alliterations that may occur in the story. This may be good to do, but I think that actually planning this out ahead of time will result in a more effective instruction of the concept.

If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff is a book that could be used for teaching phonemic awareness. This book contains a lot of "P" words, and if planned out properly, could be an excellent way of teaching the phoneme /p/. This lesson could also incorporate the third criteria noted in Tompkins which says that "phonemic awareness activities should be...integrated with comprehension, decoding, vocabulary, writing, and spelling activities" (118). I'm sure there are numerous ways to include all (or just some) of these concepts into a well-planned lesson.

Classroom talk

Ok I'm a geek. I was at my brother's house last week and completely forgot to blog. So here is last weeks subject about scaffolding in the classroom. In my class of fifth graders most of the time their language is on level with their grade and age. There are a few children that will use "be"(as in "I be done with that"), "are" and "is" incorrectly. Most of the time if the correction is repeated back to them or pointed out then they will correct themselves. Sometimes during reading aloud I have also heard students stop and self correct. I have also heard students correcting other students, but mostly in a positive way, not too harsh. Some of the language is just where the students come from or where they live and what they hear at home and away from school, like several of the students have older siblings that talk"cool slang" so that gets picked up as well. My CT uses a lot of vocabulary and will frequently stop in the middle of a story of instruction and ask if anyone can explain a word or meaning of a phrase. This gives him a better idea and an informal understanding of where the the students are in their language understanding and acquisition. So, other than building vocabulary there is not much scaffolding in language in my classroom.
As far as the overall communication goes, me CT lets most students talk if what they are sharing deals with the topic at hand. During free time he does not mind low conversation between the students, as long as the subjects are school appropriate. I would not say the he dominates the conversation, he asks open ended questions and a lot of summarizing questions, like "so what happened ", "why do you think that happened" and informational and opinion questions that the students have to think about.

Classroom Talk

I am currently placed in a first grade classroom in which the students sit in groups of 6-8 desks per group. Before reading about group work and classroom talk, I had not put much thought into the groups my students sit in...but now I have a lot to think about:

Although the students are sitting in groups, group work is never encouraged or even allowed during my time in the classroom. I have to say that this is more than a bit contradictory. How can these students learn from each other if they are not allowed to work with each other? Moreover, what is the point of having students placed in groups if group work is not part of the classroom instruction?

I have noticed that in my placement classroom, the "classroom talk" is dominated by the teacher and a select few students who seem to have high levels of confidence. I am in the classroom for 5 hours at a time and on some days, I do not hear a third of the students speak. This is very troubling.

I think that the Gibbons readings offered some very good ideas on group work. I am especially interested in the ways to make sure that all students are participating in the group work, while still making sure the group work is productive. I hope that I can learn to incorporate these ideas into my placement and my own classroom someday.

classroom talk

In my placement I am seeing a great deal of the communication being teacher led. The children do sit at tables of four but they are encouraged to work independently. I have never seen the teacher facilitate a class discussion. She mainly asks questions and calls on someone to answer the question. We do have ESL students but they rarely get a chance to practice their verbal communication skills. I realize the importance of group work and group learning but in my experience there has always had the person who sits back and lets the rest of the team carry them. I found the suggestions from the Gibbons reading for overcoming this helpful. Having students work together in groups in a productive way is not just something that happens the moment you divide up the class. students must be trained in this just like every other thing. I is important to give each student a position and role within the group. The class is a class of kindergartners who have difficult staying focused for 5 mins. straight. I want to have time that the students can work in small groups but even centers time is so unstructured that not much is accomplished. I feel like I am not in the classroom enough to even prepare students to productively work in groups.

Learning about our learners

I very much like the idea of giving the parents "homework" and having them write about their own child, or maybe a short video or tape recording about what their family or culture is like. I also like the idea of each month having a couple of students talking about their culture to the rest of the class, teaching their peers about different ways of life.
It is also important to ask the students open ended questions or to summerize what you have said (and vice versa) to make sure that they understand. In Weinstein/Migano it is suggested to keep the pace of the conversation and allow the students to talk (most classrooms the teacher talks 2/3 of the time). The chapter also mentions to have equal participation amoung the students too, not just call on the students that raise their hands but encourage all students to speak.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Learning About the Diversity of My Students
When I first read this blog prompt, I immediately thought of the Maples article we read, Opening Quality Lines of Communication: Seeing My Students through the Eyes of Their Parents, and the "In a million words or less, tell me about your child" assignment. I really think that this is a great idea and found it amazing that this particular teacher received such wonderful feedback from it. I realize that not every attempt at this "assignment" may get the same amount of response, but I do think that any response would offer a much deeper and more thorough evaluation of students and their cultures or personalities than could be gained right away by the teacher alone.Another good way to gain multiple perspectives on diversity in the classroom is to just listen to the students. Discussions, and not just recitations, could possibly allow for a teacher to obtain a lot of information about the students' cultures, beliefs and personalities. We read in the articles about discussions that if the teacher is not just asking questions that require yes/no answers and instead asks questions that require the students to think before responding, that the answers will often include information that can aid the teacher in learning more about her students personalities and cultures. These types of answers will also be more abundant if the teacher is not monopolizing the bulk of the conversation and allowing the students to take the roles of facilitating and evaluating the conversations.
Posted by Kimberly at 9:28 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

My goals for this course is to learn more about and put into practice technology for helping children learn to become better readers without loosing the basic fundamentals of children knowing what a book is. I also want to learn more teaching strategies for spacial/deaf education students that sometimes cannot hear the sounds and words being pronounced. I am interested also on how these self assessments will happen and hope that they will give me an accurate idea of what I need to work on to become a better teacher.I have to admit that with all my other classes and the amount of reading for this class and the others combined I am a little worried about completing all of the reading assignments.
Posted by Angela M. Lowry at 8:49 AM 0 comments

Monday, January 19, 2009

Course Goals for TE 402
While looking over the syllabus for this course, one word seemed to jump off of the page at me quite a few times: technology. Technology and the use of it in the classroom tends to make me a bit anxious; but I am looking forward to learning more about it and how I can incorporate it in the classroom.Another course goal mentioned that I know I need to work on is ongoing self-assessment. Last semester was mostly a chaotic blur for me and I never really had (or made) the time to take a look at myself as a learner or a colleague. This semester I intend to pay more attention to myself as a learner and a colleague, as I am sure it will help me be better at both.After completing the first readings, I find myself even more excited about this course. I am very interested in exploring literacy and all of its aspects.
Posted by Kimberly at 10:41 PM 1 comments

Goals for TE 402

Goals for TE 402
In reading the goals for the class, I agree that I want gain experience covering the required materials based on educational standards. I also want to continue to acquire positive and effective teaching, curriculum building and class management skills; and I want to take an active part in my learning in order to be able to benefit my students as much as possible.I know for myself that in order to accomplish these goals I need to make other goals such as not filling my schedule so full that I do many things OK and nothing well. also I need to take the time to read and reflect on resources given in class not in order to check it off my list but for understanding. Writing down questions and using my instructors and peers as resources will also me helpful.This semester I also want to build better relationships with my classmates as they will me my colleagues in the field of education. there is much to be done this semester but also much to learn. I am looking forward to this class and hope that travelling to my afternoon class will not cut into my learning.
Posted by Donnalee at