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Readerly Exploration 7

5/1/2020 (Week 6)

“A Different Kind of Reading Instruction: Using Visualization to Bridge Reading Comprehension and Critical Literacy” (Park)

Big Takeaway: The article focused on visualizations of critical literacy theory and how it is taught in the classroom.

Nugget: I thought it was really interesting that most students envisioned certain characters as white unless otherwise explicitly stated. I see myself falling victim to that too and it made me think about how I can take proactive steps to overcome this barrier.

             I chose to practice the readerly habit of engaging in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension by skimming the assigned course reading(s) for unfamiliar terms. Then, I took the time to look up the definitions of those terms. These are my results:

·       Visualization: the formation of a mental image of something.

·       Social Constructivist: a sociological theory of knowledge according to which human development is socially situated and knowledge is constructed through interaction with others

·       Critical Literacy: the ability to take apart various texts in media or writing to find any possible discrimination that the author might have embedded in his or her presentation of the world since authors have social and political influence

Researching these words helped me to better understand what I was reading. The author used the term “visualization” frequently throughout the article. It was extremely helpful to know the definition of this word before even reading the article. While I had known the definition of “social constructivist,” it was good to get a refresher on the meaning of the word. Lastly, Lastly, I already had a pretty strong idea of what critical literacy was, but I thought it would be good to look up a definition online to compare. Overall, this activity benefitted me greatly. 

I like the idea this pictures portrays, that contrary to popular belief, children hold their own opinions just as much as adults do, and are sometimes even eager to talk about them. 

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Readerly Exploration #6

4/17/2020 (Week 4)

“Chapter 12: Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum” (Tompkins)

Big Takeaway: Effective teachers teach students to use reading and writing as learning tools, have students use writing to demonstrate what they’ve learned, teach students to use content area textbooks effectively, and focus on the big idea in thematic units.

Nugget: I love that the book touched on teaching students how to study. I grew up going to a high school where I barely ever studied and was still a straight A student. When I got to college, I had to teach myself how to study so I think its important that we are teaching students how to study at young ages.

“Does Disciplinary Literacy Have a Place in Elementary School?” (Shanahan)

Big Takeaway: The article investigated what was the best age to start teaching disciplinary literacy. While there are no evidence based benefits for starting disciplinary literacy instruction early, there is also no harm in it. The article encouraged more early disciplinary instruction.

Nugget: I really liked the idea mentioned about teaching disciplinary literacy using text of the same subject. There are lots of ways to teach reading of different disciplines but I really liked that idea.

For the article reading, I chose to practice the readerly habit of Reflecting on the contributions of reading experiences to reader identity in an effort to better articulate who he or she is as a reader. I did this by talking to a classmate about what stood out to him or her in the assigned course reading. I talked with Alex Bishop about the course readings. He talked about how his history teacher practiced disciplinary literacy and he learned a lot from it. He thinks that it is extremely important to incorporate this into all classrooms. I agree. My mentor teacher from this semester was really good at this concept. He would teach the students how to read what they were reading before he would let them loose. This was especially true in science. I hope to teach in a K-2 classroom. it is important to me to start teaching them how to read different texts even at this young of an age. 

This is a picture of a few of the education majors at Alex’s 21st birthday a few weeks ago!

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Readerly Exploration #5

03/11/2020

Big Takeaway: This chapter revolved around text factors and the qualities to determine them, such as narrative genres. It separated text factors based on stories, nonfiction, and poetry. The end of the chapters emphasizes how to teach text factors to your students.

Nugget: I actually learned more about poetry in this chapter than I have in other classes. I love poetry and it was cool to see the different types of poems and how text factors are used within them.

 I chose to practice the readerly exploration of exploring relationships with other people through reading by using texts as a shared experience with another person/other people or to gain insight into the perspective of another person by choosing an excerpt from your assigned course reading(s) and share with a family member to get his or her insight and perspective on it. I shared the excerpt about mini lessons with my mother, who is a middle school study skills teacher. I talked with her about how she uses mini lessons in her classroom. She said that although she doesn’t touch a lot of literacy, she will use it in her math and science lessons. She will often times spend about 10 minutes at the beginning of the class teaching material and then scaffold them as they try out the material themselves. I thought this was really cool to relate this strategy to non-literature things. I can relate to this because my mentor teacher uses the strategy of minilessons during writing time. Right now we are working on poetry and my teacher will introduce a technique or poem style and then let them lose to try it. I had the opportunity to try this on Tuesday because I got to teach Haikus to the students. It went really well and I was really happy to have this experience before I read this chapter. 

This is my mama at the school she works at (and I graduated from) at my high school graduation.

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Readerly Exploration #4

03/07/2020

“Chapter 8“ (Tompkins)

Big Idea: This chapter focuses a lot on the strategies used to understand a text that a student is reading. It also gives teachers ways that they can teach those reading strategies to their students.

Nugget: I really enjoyed the part on English Language Learners. It talked about how comprehension can be a lot harder for ELs because they typically lack the background knowledge and vocabulary needed to understand how to comprehend a text.

 I chose to practice the readerly habit of reading a wide variety of genres and formats of text to grow in their knowledge and experience as a reader. I am practicing this readerly habit by finding and reading another text from a different genre and connecting the two in some way. I chose to read Max Lucado’s “You are Special.” I chose to read this book because it is a children’s story book written by a Christian author. Although the story doesn’t say anything about God, it creates a picture of what God is like. The children reading the book won’t necessarily gather that information without using the comprehension strategies stated in chapter 8 of Tompkins Text. A lot of times I use this book with the 5-7 year old’s at the summer camp I work at and then have a discussion about the book afterwards regarding what they learned. I have actually used the book with my teen campers, and my staff members. Sometimes the adults have realizations about the book in the same way the children do. It is awesome to see the way that literature can be used with all ages of people, regardless of who it was intended for. 

This is the cover of the book that has had an incredible impact on my life as I grow in my faith and help children grow in theirs. 

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Readerly Exploration #3

02/23/2020

Chapter 1 (Tompkins)

Big Takeaway: Effective teachers understand how students learn, support students use of the cueing systems, create a community of learners, adopt a balanced approach to instruction, address standards, scaffold students’ reading and writing, organize and differentiate instruction, and link instruction and assessment.

Nugget: I really liked the little blurb about ELLs. The authors of the book emphasized the importance of the teacher’s attitude toward minority students. This is such an important concept especially if you work in more heavily populated areas.

           I chose to practice the readerly habit of reading texts deeply in order to interpret, critique, and analyze the various layers of meaning a text might offer the reader. I practiced this readerly habit by researching the author of the assigned course reading and using that to draw conclusions about the motivation behind the reading or the credibility/quality of the writing. Gail E. Tompkins is a professor at California State University. She frequently works with teachers of kindergarten through eighth grade and does professional development in literary areas. Recently she was awarded the prestigious Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at California State University. Because of her expertise in reading, writing, and all sorts of literary topics, I believe Tompkins is overly qualified to be writing this book. She has a lot of experience and has clearly done her research to earn the career and title that she holds. This readerly explanation helped me to interact with the text better by understanding that the text is accurate. I now understand more about why it was written and the passion the author holds for elementary education. 

The lovely Gail E. Tompkins

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Readerly Exploration #2

02/16/2020

Chapter 2 (Tompkins)

Big Take-away: The reading process follows the steps of prereading, reading, responding, exploring, and applying. The writing process follows the steps of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing

Nugget: Writer’s craft is a set of six traits used to capture readers attention and keep them engaged in the reading process. I found this section especially interesting because it was new to me. I remember learning about the reading and writing processes in school, but I don’t remember the writer’s craft techniques.

Chapter 6 (Tompkins)

Big Take-away: Chapter 6 revolved around reading and writing fluency and the obstacles that get in the way of achieving them. The chapter presented many obstacles and ways we can overcome them.

Nugget: I thought it was really interesting that speed is used to assess fluency. I think it need to be used to some extent but it makes me think about how we bash speed testing in math and what the view is for speed in literacy. 

I chose to practice the readerly habit of reading a wide variety and formats of texts to grow in their knowledge and experiences as a reader by identifying a song that communicates the same or similar big ideas and choosing an excerpt that represents those same ideas. I am going to focus on chapter 6 and choose the song “Life is a Highway” by Rascal Flatts. I like to look at the chorus in the song in reference to the reading:

“Life is a highway I want to ride it all night long If you're going my way Well, I want to drive it all night long”

I think we can replace “life” with “reading and writing fluency” for our purposes. Reading and writing is really hard for kids to learn, but if they look at it with a growth perspective, they are bound to succeed. The second sentence kind of makes me think about how a student will react if they have a teacher that is pursuing them as they conquer these really hard tasks. 

I chose lightning McQueen because every time I hear this song, I think of this movie. He also has a go-getter attitude that may inspire children to do hard things to chase their dreams.

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Readerly Exploration #1 (Spring)

2/7/2020

Advanced Readers in Reading First Classrooms: Who Was Really “Left Behind”? Considerations for the Field of Gifted Education (Brighton)

Big Take-away: The Reading First program is most beneficial for on- or below-level readers. It shows little increase in students that are excelling in literacy.

Nugget: There was a part that talked about how the teachers were forced to teach to the core and stick strictly to the curriculum they had in place already with no variance. This made me very sad because all students don’t learn the same way and I don’t believe we will be doing what’s best for the students by doing this.

             I chose to practice the readerly habit of choosing an excerpt from the course reading and sharing it with a former teacher. I decided to shift this habit a little bit and share with my mentor teacher for this field placement. I am in a 3rd grade classroom with 2016 messiah graduate, Adam Marshall. I shared with him the same excerpt from my nugget from page 272. I talked to him about whether he had to stick to a strict curriculum or not. He said that the school actually doesn’t have a specific curriculum for a lot of their subjects. The teachers just have a list of standards that they have to hit each year. He also talked about having a really good union and how they fight for their teachers a lot. I thought that was really awesome. Honestly having a good union makes me want to teach there more because I have seen how frustrating unions can be through my mother. It has been very interesting for me to watch. I Greatly appreciated seeing such an enthusiastic teacher talk about the way he loves his school. It will be a good encouragement for me throughout the semester. 

I didn't want to awkwardly ask for a picture of my mentor teacher who I just met, so I looked up this picture of the school sign, which represents the values that Wellsville supports in having some fluidity in what their teachers do with curriculum.

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Readerly Exploration #8

12/4/19

Hard Words: Why aren’t Kids Being Taught to Read? (Hanford)

Big Takeaway: Many educators don’t know the science behind the importance of reading. Research shows that data does now sway people into understanding the importance of literature instruction. Because of this, we need passionate educators who can show others how to make a difference rather than force statistics down your throat.

Nugget: One part at the beginning really stuck out to me where it said that students who don’t learn to read by 3rd grade are likely to remain poor readers for the rest of their lives. It makes me wonder what’s so significant about 3rd that qualifies it to be the cut off point.

 Top Five Reasons to Eliminate Guided Reading (Masten)

Big Takeaway: Guided reading takes away the child’s love of reading and makes it boring for them. Year-long independent reading programs are a much better alternative to this.

Nugget: I like the results from the article regarding how many books students read each year. With a guided reading program, students were reading less than 10 books each year. Through an independent reading program, low-achieving students were able to read nearly 30 books a year and high-achieving students read up to 90 books a year.

               The readerly habit I chose was engage in the reading prices to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying). I chose to explore this readerly habit by documenting my initial response to what I’ve read. I’ll consider how the ideas I read about made me feel and what they made me think about. I completed this readerly exploration on the Masten article, Top Five Reasons to Eliminate Guided Reading. Honestly, my initial thoughts were hesitation. I was hesitant because we have spent the last few weeks learning all about different types of literacy instruction, the importance of them, and even constructed and led our own guided reading centers. Initially I felt like this article went against a lot of what we had been learning, but by the end of it I felt that this would be an article that doctor Fischer would get behind because of its emphasis on independent reading. One part that really stuck out to me was the overall big picture that guided reading decreases students love of reading. Reading starts to become more of an automatic task than a leisurely one. I see this happen in my kindergarten field placement. We kid write with the students every day, and I have seen a major transformation in the student’s explanations of their pictures. Unfortunately, it’s been discouraging for me to see this process. At the start of my field placement, the students would craft these marvelous stories about the picture they drew that we would then summarize in a sentence. At this point in the semester, when I ask the students to tell me about their picture, I get a cut and dry, choppy sentence that is exactly what they want to write on the page. I miss the expression in their voices when explaining their picture and their interaction with the learning that I saw at the beginning of the semester. Sure, they can spell more words and write complete sentences, but are they enjoying the learning as much as they used to?

How do we implement a year-long independent reading program in place of guided reading if our school requires us to use guided reading? 

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Readerly Exploration #7

11/20/2019

Should we Teach Reading Comprehension Strategies? (Pennington)

Big Takeaway: Comprehensions strategies should be taught but should take up little instructional time. It is the analysis of the text and the authors writing that is valuable, not the strategy in and of itself.

Nugget: Many comprehension strategies cannot be defined and assessed. The author pointed out the few that can: summarizing the main idea, making connections, rethinking, interpreting, and predicting.

Chapter 8 In May (Miller)

Big Takeaway: In May, Miller focuses on helping students figure out how to grow themselves as readers by deciding what stories they like and how they can be actively reading outside of school. Miller helps the students use these new pieces of information to figure out how to recommend books to others.

Nugget: I like that Miller specified the difference between retelling and synthesizing. This had me a little confused before it was explained. Miller said that retelling is about what happened in the story; whereas, synthesis is about that and the readers growing understanding of the book.

               For these readings, I chose the readerly habit of engaging in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying). I will practice this readerly habit by skimming the assigned course reading for unfamiliar terms before I read. Then I will take the time to look up the definitions of those terms. I decided to use the Pennington article to practice this readerly exploration. Before I read, I skimmed the article for unfamiliar terms and found the following:

-          The alphabetic principle: the understanding that letters represent sounds which form words

-          Syllabication: To form or divide into syllables

-          Analogizing: to make use of an analogy (similarity or comparison) in reasoning, argument, etc.

This readerly exploration was quite easy. It wasn’t very time consuming; however, I’m not the best skimmer. I don’t like reading for a long time off of screens, so skimming isn’t my favorite thing to do. I am thankful for the quickness of the activity though.  Engaging in this readerly exploration helped me better engage with the text by helping me to understand things that I was confused about before I even read the first sentence. It definitely made me more comfortable in approaching the reading. I would recommend doing this activity regularly if you are someone who struggles to comprehend what they read. I can see this being especially helpful in a science setting. This exploration helped me to become a better reader. 

Vocab is cool

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Readerly Exploration #6

11/6/2019

Vocabulary Practices in Prekindergarten and Kindergarten Classrooms (Silverman & Crandell)

Big Take-Away: From the research done, some vocabulary instruction practices will benefit childrens vocabulary development. It largely depends on the environment, the vocabulary the child already possesses, and how the vocab is measured.

Nugget: I thought it was interesting that the act it out instruction was effective for students with low previous knowledge of vocabulary but less effective for those with high previous knowledge of vocabulary.

 Word Study Instruction in the K-2 Classroom (Williams)

Big Take-Away: This article gave nine helpful ideas on how to implement a word study in grades K-2. The researchers found that students begin to spell words correctly as they get more specific instruction on it. The tips the researchers give are based on this information.

Nugget: Tip 4 talks about how word studies focus on word knowledge, not just word memorization. I thought this was cool because it can be applied to many different words, not just one.

 For these readings, I chose the readerly habit of exploring relationships with other people through reading by using texts as a shared experience with another person/other people to gain insight into the perspective of another person. I chose to practice this readerly habit by creating a character sketch of someone you know that represents the big ideas of the assigned course reading in some way and share with that person. I drew a picture of my friend Regina. These readings reminded me of my friend regina because in my opinion she has a very strong vocabulary. I shared my drawing and idea  with her and we brainstormed some of the reasons why this might be. She was home schooled in her early years, which means that she had a lot of 1 on 1 instruction that helped her vocabulary growth. She has immersed herself in literature all of her life. You can always find her in a book. Her imagination is glorious. She has fantasies all the time about her future husband or her friends romances. Currently Regina works in an educational field at a college as a recruiter. Lastly, Regina sees the importance of children in a society and the huge potential they possess. For all of these reasons, Regina has been immersed in strong vocab development throughout all of her life. I enjoyed chatting with my friend and applying my course readings to real life situations. This experience was very valuable to me. 

My character sketch of Regina was a little sketch...

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Readerly Exploration #5

11/1/2019

Watching Young Writers (Bissex)

Big Take-away: Students learn a lot in the early elementary school years, but it takes time. We can’t expect them to instantly be perfect at writing. Sometimes that can even limit them. I like what the article said at the end, “Children come to see themselves as they are seen by others.” As teachers, we need to see all of our students as curious kids who are excited to learn, even when they’re not outwardly expressing it.

Nugget: I thought it was so interesting that when students start writing, they think that the length of the word correlates with the size of the object they are writing about. For example, a child might draw more scribble/shapes for the word “cow” than for the word “chicken” because a cow is larger in size than a chicken.

 Phonemes in Use: Multiple Activities for a Critical Process (Manyak)

Big Take-away: This article talks about the importance of students understanding phonemes and how to incorporate them into instruction. Manyak proposes 5 different activities you could use in the classroom to support this learning goal.

Nugget: I thought it was interesting when Manyak pointed out that the individuals sounds in words are more hypothetical. This tends to be the bulk of what and how we teach children how to sound out words.

 I chose to practice the readerly habit of Exploring relationships with other people through reading by using texts as a shared experience with another person/other people or to gain insight into the perspective of another person. I practiced this readerly habit by choosing an excerpt from the Bissex article and sharing it with a former teacher to get her insight on it. The excerpt I shared with them was:

Children come to see themselves as they are seen by others. Do we see our students as learners or as mistake makers? Do we see ourselves as nurturers of growth or as collectors of errors- as gardeners or as animated red pencils? We teach by what we see as well as by what we say.

My 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Hess, responded to this similarly to how the author did. I called her on the phone, and we spent a while catching up before I was able to share this excerpt with her. She said that she has seen a lot of students lose imaginative qualities as they learn to write more and more. Mrs. Hess said that she herself has been guilty of speaking to the mistake rather than to the learning. Mrs. Hess was a phenomenal 1st grade teacher, but it is hard to remember encounters I had with her while I was learning to write. What I do remember is the kindness and love that she always showered over her students. I think that speaks a lot more to her character than how well her students mastered the concept of writing. Having this conversation with my former teacher helped me to expand on the reading by hearing about a real life example of this from someone that I know well. 

A picture of me proudly showing off my scarecrow to my grandma in my 1st grade classroom <3

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Readerly Exploration #4

10/17/2019

Talking Back and Taking Over: Young Children’s Expressive Engagement during Storybook Read-alouds

Big Take-away: This article analyzed children’s expressive engagement during read-alouds. The author determined that the five types of engagement (Dramatizing, talking back, critiquing/controlling, inserting, taking over) could be used for the benefit of learning if we change the way we look at and engage with them within the classroom.

Nugget: I thought Barthes idea of pleasure versus bliss was interesting. Pleasure has to do with familiarity and expectation while bliss is delight from the newness of situations.

The readerly habit I chose this week was to read texts deeply in order to interpret, critique, and analyze the various layers of meaning a text might offer a reader. I decided to explore this habit through learning something about the author of this course reading and using that to draw conclusions about the motivation behind the reading or credibility/quality of the writing. When I googled Lawrence Sipe’s name, the first thing that came up was his faculty page from Penn GSE. After doing some sleuthing, I found out that he taught in a one room schoolhouse in Canada for two years after getting his bachelors degree. I thought this was very interesting. Sipe put a lot of time and effort into helping students voices to be heard during read alouds. I wonder if his time spent in the one room schoolhouse helped form his value for this. He probably had a lot of one on one time with kids to hear the awesome things they had to say. I also thought it was interesting to see that he became a priest during his lifetime. It is cool to see influential work like this being carried out by a Christian educator. I am sure that his faith greatly impacted his beliefs and the work he was doing.

I really enjoyed doing this readerly exploration. Taking ten minutes to research who is writing your readings can really help you understand the authors purpose behind writing the paper. It is cool to be able to take a step deeper into the thoughts of the author to help us better see the big picture of what was important to them. 

Lawrence R. Sipe was an influential educator who really cared about the students he worked with, and wanted to make sure that their voices were being heard. 

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Readerly Exploration #3

Chapter 4 (Miller)

·       Big takeaway: Chapter 4 talked all about how intimidating it can be to start instruction with the end-of-the-year target in sight. Miller emphasizes the importance of thinking out loud, making connections, and building on what the students already know.

·       Nugget: I really like what Miller said about authenticity and how everything needs to be genuine from our book choice to our planning of assignments.

What are the rest of the students doing? Literacy work stations in two first-grade classrooms (Worthy)

·       Big Takeaway: Work stations have the opportunity to be helpful when used correctly, but often times end up being more for the teacher to complete small group work than for the enhancement of student learning.

·       Nugget: I really liked how Pamela had “station contracts” for the students to complete. This allowed choice among the students; however, I struggled to see how first graders could manage themselves for that long of a time.

 The readerly habit I focused on today was read a wide variety of genres and formats of texts to grow in my knowledge and experiences as a reader. The corresponding task for this readerly habit was to identify a song that communicates the same or similar big ideas of the assigned reading and choose an excerpt that represents those ideals. I chose to relate Worthy’s article to Shawn Mendes’ “There’s Nothing Holding Me Back.” The excerpt I chose is:

“Oh, I've been shaking

I love it when you go crazy

You take all my inhibitions

Baby, there's nothing holding me back

You take me places that tear up my reputation

Manipulate my decisions

Baby, there's nothing holding me back

There's nothing holding me back”

I like to envision this song through the eyes of the student. Although it can be hard to make literacy stations effective as a teacher, I believe that it can help some students advance quite a bit. The line “there’s nothing holding me back” might resonate with a gifted student who is energized by the freedom given to him to work on assignments that challenge him through literacy groups. I also found it funny that the song says “I love it when you go crazy” because often times the teachers will have to remind students who are “going crazy” to refocus on the work in front of them. This song helps me better engage with course content by reminding me that literacy stations can be very effective when used the right way, but also offer a lot of opportunity for misbehavior. It encourages me to create literacy stations in my future classroom that are suitable for all learners- keeping them focused and engaged throughout the entire cycle. 

Applying songs to the concepts of education!

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Readerly Exploration #2

10/2/19

Reading with Meaning: Chapter 2 (Miller)

·       Big Takeaway: Reading and learning have a bigger importance for children than just doing well on assessments; they promote understanding of themselves and the world, emphasize that smart is something you get, make children into problem solvers, engage them in conversations with open hearts and minds, an promote lifelong learning.

·       Nugget: The author had the parents write notes about their students to the teacher so that she had some knowledge of them before they even got to her class. I thought this was an incredible idea and I would love to use it in my classroom someday.

Reading with Meaning: Chapter 3 (Miller)

·       Big Takeaway: Teachers can keep track of how readers are growing and understand through showing students how to make appropriate book selection based on content of the book and background knowledge, motivating the students to read a variety of genres and giving their reading a purpose, assessing in a way that involves the growth of the student and the teacher, and keeping track of the students progress throughout the year.

·       Nugget: The teacher’s philosophy about teaching literacy was, “I love reading. I know you will, too. Let me show you how.” It got me thinking about how students’ perspectives on math and other subject might change if we started emphasizing and showing our excitement for them like we do with literacy.

This week, I practiced the readerly habit of exploring relationships with other people through reading by using texts as a shared experience with another person/other people or to gain insight into the perspective of another person. I decided to choose an excerpt from an assigned course reading and share with a family member to get their insight and perspective on it. I called up my 17-year-old brother to see what his opinion was on an except from Miller. At the start of our called, I shared an excerpt from page 54 that goes “When I read allowed a favorite book to children……I love reading. I know you will, too. Let me show you how.” The passage talked about how Miller motivated her students to read through leading by example. It was a little rough getting started with our conversation, but Brody really supported the authors view on this subject. He talked about how students’ social skills can also be built up from a young age if encouraged in the right way by their teacher. When I asked him if this excerpt reminded him of any of his teachers, he mentioned that his current teacher was exhibiting some of these traits. He is in a senior English class where they are currently reading Beowulf, which has some hard language. The teacher will read aloud to the class, pausing frequently to talk about the language being used and its meaning. Rather than feeding the student the information, she will ask students their input before filling in the blanks. I was really proud of my brother for all that he had to say about this excerpt. By completing this readerly exploration, I learned to appreciate getting another person’s point of view on things. It was cool to see Brody’s appreciation for education having grown up with a mother that was a teacher and now a sister who is going to school for it, even though that isn’t a field he is particularly interested in. 

My brother tends to wow me with his knowledge and perspective on life. 

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Readerly Exploration #1

9/20/19

Reading with Meaning: Chapter 1 (Miller)

·       Big takeaway: By establishing a framework for how you believe literature should be taught, you can guide learners toward more independence and create a culture for building relationships, establishing trust, and encouraging thinking.

·       Nugget: Real classroom communities are more than just a look. They flourish when we bring together the voices, hearts, and souls of the people who inhabit them.

Reading with a Crayon: Pre-conventional Marginalia as Reader Response in Early Childhood (Fischer)

·       Big takeaway: Drawing in picture books in early childhood and interacting with them as developing artists shows that children can and do understand text.

·       Nugget: Drawing/Scribbling is often seen as “fun” for the child or a task to keep them busy, but research shows that it aides in emotional and physical development.

 This week, I practiced the readerly habit of exploring the world through reading by using texts to answer questions about the world or generating new questions about the world from texts that are read. I decided to take myself on a field trip to a place on campus that connects with the big ideas of my assigned reading. Looking at the reading by Dr. Fischer, I decided to go to the library and see what they had in terms of Little Golden Books. I looked on the library catalog, but had no luck at all with finding locations of Golden Books. I even tried to look up names of specific golden books, but most of them were absent from our library. After no success in this area, I decided to just peruse the children’s book section and see what I could find. I spent about thirty minutes looking around, and only found one Little Golden Book. It may sound like my exploration was unsuccessful, but I learned a lot through it. My knowledge of Little Golden books is almost non-existent. I do not remember reading a lot of them throughout my childhood, so it was cool for me to get my hand on one. I like the simplicity of the story and the bright colors in the illustrations. These qualities most likely draw young children to the stories. This exploration also made me aware of the lack of appreciation for Little Golden Books. If the library contains more, they are hidden extremely well. It makes me wonder why we do not have more, especially with the research being done by Dr. Fischer. I would love to see more abundance of them in the years to come. It might even be cool to get a stack of Little Golden Books to keep in their own small section for professors’ kids to do with as they please when they are on campus. This would give the college students an awesome opportunity to learn and research more about young children’s marginal scribbling. 

The only Little Golden Book in Murray Library, and its not even little. 

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Simulation Journal #1

Part I.

Now that you’ve made it through your New Teacher Orientation in our simulation, talk about an instance in which what is expected of you in this district might be at odds with your teaching philosophy and/or an instance in which what the district says they believe might be at odds with how things are actually run.

Dr. Fletcher talked a lot about how much the district cares about classroom environment. It seemed like there was a huge emphasis on this area of Daniel’s Domain. She explained that the teacher evaluations she will be conducting are not something that we should worry about and that “it’s not a big deal”; however, She also quickly mentioned that those evaluations will determine whether or not we keep our job and what our salary will look like next year. She was very contradictory in what she said in this area. 

Part II.

How does reflecting on our simulation in this way help you think about our course driving question differently? (Driving Question: How can teachers create effective instruction that is good for children and maintains the integrity of their philosophy within the constraints of administrative and other external mandates?)

It made me think about how important it is to maintain your beliefs in the classroom about the environment, while also staying inside the district and state guidelines. The teacher we watched a video of was a good example of how to create a good classroom environment and engage your students. It was cool to see that her work was paying off through the kids high test scores. It’s all about finding the right balance.