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.