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[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Exploration 7, Semester 2

Due March 20th

Chapter "Four Practical Principles for Enhancing Vocabulary Instruction" 

Big Takeaway:

Educators are responsible for enhancing students' vocabulary to make sure they excel in the future.  

Nuggets:

There is a large learning gap of  vocabulary for those families of low income and non english speaking.  The education to this day has still not been able to lessen the gap.

There are three guidelines that help with planning and preparing for vocabulary instructions.  The last guideline discourages just teaching vocabulary from the dictionary but recommends providing a variety of resources using or focusing certain vocabulary.

Table 2 is an informative model helping future educators introduce target word meanings.

It is important for educators to use a turn-nomination during vocabulary activities.

On page 12 there is a take action step, providing a resource for educators to properly prepare to exceptionally teach vocabulary.

Paragraph:

This afternoon I read through this article, "Four Practical Principles for Enhancing Vocabulary Instruction" and took notes on it.  I took notes pointing out things that were interesting and things that I could apply in the future as an educator.  A few hours later my sister joined me to work on school together and I talked about this article with her.  Since she is a business major she was relatively confused and got annoyed at me towards the end but I enjoyed sharing what I learned with her.  After I talked with my sister I wrote my big takeaway and my nuggets.  This article helped me understand the importance of properly teaching vocabulary to elementary school students.  It is important to not just provide words and definitions but to provide resources that make students ask questions about words and learn on their own.  It is important for educators to prepare well to ensure that their students are set up for success.  Vocabulary is important to help students in the future not just in school but in how they interact with people outside of school.  Overall this article was a very engaging and informative structure that provided resources and tools to help me educate my future students on vocabulary.  

[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Exploration 6, Semester 2

Chapter 12 and "Does Disciplinary Literacy Have a Place in Elementary School?"

Big Takeaway:

Chapter 12

Educators are called to utilize reading and writing in the ways they teach students while making sure students have a comprehensive understanding of content-area textbooks..

 "Does Disciplinary Literacy Have a Place in Elementary School?"

Educators need to understand the importance that disciplinary literacy relates to elementary students and that goals play an important role in helping students succeed.

Nuggets:

Chapter 12

Learning logos help students record and react to materials in content areas.

Simulated journals offer creative voices to encourage students to see different point of views.

In figure 12-3 shows what a note taking and note making sheet look like and how it helps students organize their thoughts.

A mini lesson on pager 414 shows what incorporating content area textbooks..

Planning guides provide examples and creative aspects of content area textbooks on pages 422-426.

"Does Disciplinary Literacy Have a Place in Elementary School?"

Disciplinary literacy is teaching specialized ways of reading, understanding, and thinking used in specific scholarly fields.  

Educators should use disciplinary literacy because simple reading can only help students understand material so well.

Disciplinary literacy helps uncover writing bias and personal narratives in facts.

Educators need to provide students with different informational texts to help understand differences in reading formats.

Educators can help students understand another level of literacy by using multiple texts on the same topic.

Vocabulary can help students understand in depth terminology.

Paragraph: These were two of the most interesting articles I have read out of the other chapters and texts.  While reading chapter twelve and the article written by Cynthia Shanahan and Timothy Shanahan, “Does Disciplinary Literacy Have a Place in Elementary School?” While reading these two pieces of materials I took notes highlighting interesting points made by the authors and any questions I had about the material.  After reading these materials I contacted Sami and we discussed what we read and the importance of what we learned and how we can apply it to our future.  This was a fun and interactive conversation with Sami.  Chapter twelve taught me the importance of utilizing content-area textbooks and how they help students grasp material and reading and writing.  From the article, “Does Disciplinary Literacy Have a Place in Elementary School?” I see that teachers are accountable for helping students not just read and write but understand what they read.  Teachers should help students identify different points of view, writers bias, and to pinpoint facts from opinions.  Overall these two chapters will help me prepare to educate students in how I provide a wide range of resources and different types of materials to my future students.

No picture proof 😪

[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Exploration 5, Semester 2

1/9/2023

Chp 3 and “Advanced Readers in Reading First Classrooms: Who Was Really “Left Behind”? Considerations for the Field of Gifted Education”

The Big Takeaway:

Chp 3: Educators need to be able to assess student’s literacy progress and identify students strengths and weaknesses and help students overcome obstacles.

“Advanced Readers in Reading First Classrooms: Who Was Really “Left Behind”? Considerations for the Field of Gifted Education” : Educators need to be prepared to assess students strengths and continue to get better and their weaknesses and help them overcome their struggles.

Nuggets

Chp 3:

The steps to classroom assessment our (1) planning for assessment, (2) monitoring students progress, (3) evaluating students learning, (4) reflecting.  

In step 2 of the assessment process the author gives a checklist on how to assess students.

The multimodal assessments in section 3 our creative points that help students dive deep into evaluating students projects

Figure 3-1 provides ways to assess students learning

The author discusses different diagnoses of students strengths and weaknesses.

At the end of this chapter the author provides ways to showcase the students hard work through “Portfolio share day”

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

The article addresses reading goals established by the federal government.

The attributes of advanced readers, enjoy reading, read above grade level, process information well, advanced language skills.

The data analysis the research used was only relevant data.  

The results provided four methods that emerged, (1) strict adherence to RF core program defined program fidelity, (2) Compromises in the curriculum and instruction, (3) The degree of fit between the RF core programs and advanced readers, (4) Efforts to differentiate reading instruction for advanced readers.

The purpose of this article was to understand reading growth and to describe how educators assist students' needs.

Paragraph: To complete this assignment I read chapter three and the article, “Advanced Readers in Reading First Classrooms: Who Was Really “Left Behind”? Considerations for the Field of Gifted Education,” by Catherine M. Brighton, Tonya R. Moon, and Francis H. L. Huang.  These two pieces of research were very lengthy but I was able to read them both and take extensive notes with things that both stood out to me and things that puzzled me, asking questions regarding this material.  Later that day I looked over my notes and had a fun conversation with Sarah discussing things we both learned and identified from the chapter and the article.  Chapter three helped me understand that teachers are to be held accountable for assessing students' progress.  This chapter also provided many tools to see students' improvements through different creative assignments and projects.  Chapter three also highlighted why assessing students progress is important as a teacher, doing this helps students see their strengths and their weaknesses.  The article helped me see the facts of what advanced and struggling students look like and how to assess this through research and data.  These two resources emphasized the importance of maintaining systems to evaluate students' progress to identify their strengths and the things they need help in.

[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Exploration 4, Semester 2

Due Date: January 23rd

Chapter 2 & 6

The Big Takeaway: 

Chapter 2

Educators are responsible for demonstrating the reciprocal process of reading and writing to their students, this means educators need to strategize and organize effectively to ensure their students are in a place to succeed in the crucial abilities of reading and writing while providing their students with reading processes, opportunities to practice and demonstrate progress.

Chapter 6

Educators are responsible for helping their students become fluent readers and writers, educators do this through examples, lessons, activities, and speed and accuracy.  

Nuggets: 

Chapter 2

The complex reading process components like, phonemic awareness, word identification, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

The four stages of reading.  Pre Reading (stage 1), Reading (stage 2), Responding (Stage 3), Exploring (Stage 4), and Applying (Stage 5).

Different types of reading addressed in Figure 2-2 on page 44. This includes types of reading, their strengths and weaknesses. This was during stage 2 of the reading process.

During stage 5 of the reading process, discuss readers' theater ideas.  This helps readings apply what they have learned, visually and creatively.

The writing process. Prewriting (Stage 1), Drafting (Stage 2), Revising (Stage 3), Editing (Stage 4), and Publishing (Stage 5).

During stage 1 of the writing process figure 2-5 discusses writing genres.  This figure examined activities for the different kinds of writing genres.

The presentation of reading and writing means making the final text look good.  On page 59 it discusses ideas on how to do this like adding features, arranging illustrations, using good handwriting, and word processing effectively.  

The importance of reading and writing are reciprocal.  Meaning these tools help each other as students progress in these skills.

Chapter 6

State Standards are good in the idea that they emphasize the foundational importance of reading and writing fluently.

The word identification strategy helps prepare educators to help students understand unfamiliar words through, phonic, decoding, dividing syllables, and morphemic analysis.  

The Prosody theory of reading encourages students to make words personal and dramatic, helping them add meaning to their words.  

The assessment snapchat on page 195 is a rubric to help educators evaluate students skills.

In obstacle four it discusses how teachers can assist students to read and write faster.  

Paragraph: To complete this assignment I read chapters two and six. During my first reading of this chapter I took notes identifying questions and key aspects of these chapters before going to bed.  The next day I looked over my notes and talked to Natelie about the chapters comparing ideas and questions I noted while reading the chapter the previous evening.  Later that day I reread the chapter and wrote this analysis, pulling from my notes and my discussion with Natelie.  This chapter helped me understand the similarities between the reading and writing process and how to help students succeed in these reciprocal processes.  Teachers are held accountable to their students to help them grow and succeed in reading and writing.  Teachers are responsible to help their students utilize reading and writing as a resource and how it is important for them to be fluent in both of these skills.  Overall these two chapters will help prepare me in how I conduct my lessons of reading and writing while holding myself accountable to helping my future students excel.

Multimedia Document: 

[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Exploration 3, Semester 2

Due Date: February 20th

Reading(s): Tompkins Chapter 9, “Promoting Comprehension: Text Factors”

The Big Take-Away(s):

Educators teach students that stories, nonfiction books, and poems each have unique text features and encourage students to apply their knowledge of text features when reading and writing these genres.

Nuggets:

The three most important types of text features include genres, text structures, and text features.

Genres are made up of three broad categories: stories, nonfiction, and poetry.  Each Genre has its own subgenre.

Text structures are used to organize and emphasize texts and important ideas.  Three examples include sequence, comparison, and cause and effect which are internal patterns used to organize nonfiction texts.

Text features are used to achieve a particular effect in their writing. Examples in nonfiction texts include symbolism, headings, and indexes.  For poems, the page layout is an example.

Stories can categorized in different ways, one of which is according to genres. Three general subcategories are folklore, fantasies, and realistic fiction.

Folklore usually are short, have characters that are animals and one-dimensional, the setting is barely sketched and could be anywhere, and the theme is stated as a moral at the end.  Folklore includes fables, folktales, myths, and legends.

Fantasies usually include extraordinary events, have realistic settings, have human or animal characters, and the theme can be a conflict between good and evil.  Fantasies include modern literary tales, fantastic stories, science fiction, and high fantasy.

Realistic fiction stories usually include real people or animals as characters, with the real world as its setting, and the story dealing with ordinary occurrences.  Realistic fiction includes contemporary stories and historical stories.

The most important story elements are plot, characters, setting, point of view, and theme. They work together to structure a story, and authors manipulate them to develop their stories.

Booklist: Stories Illustrating the Elements of Story Structure on page 298

One thing I have learned this semester is that science isn’t really about memories all these facts about the world, its about asking questions and looking for answers.  Nonfiction books are an important resource for students to use when they ask questions.  I hated and still struggle with nonfiction books.  As a kid, I wish I had realized the beauty of these books and taken them more seriously and not considered them as boring had tos but exciting get tos.  How can I teach this to my future students or even the students in my field placement today?

Text factors in poetry are more varied than I would have thought.  There is picture-book versions of single poems, specialized collections, and comprehensive anthologies.  There is also more forms of poetry than I would have guessed, including rhymed verse, narrative poems, haiku, free verse, odes, and concrete poems.

There is also such a thing as poetic devices, which are tools poets use to express their ideas.  These devices include assonance, consonance, imagery, metaphor, onomatopoeia, repetition, repetition, rhythm, and simile. 

It is not enough that students can name the characteristics of a myth, identify cue words that signal expository text structures, or define metaphor or assonance: The goal is for students to actually use what they’re learned about text factors when they’re reading and writing.

Paragraph:

After prereading and noting the various topics the chapter would discuss, I choose to do the activity where I noted any questions I had as I read.  I then read the chapter.  I especially enjoyed looking at the book list and wondering how these books would compare to my inquiry project.  As I read, I noted some questions or thoughts I had.  While reading, I also filled out the notes above.  I would say this was a fairly easy thing for me to do as it really only took a few extra seconds of my time to write down questions I had while also enhancing my reading experience.  I was able to relate what I was reading to my inquiry project and my personal reading experience.  I did struggle with coming up with too many questions, although the questions I did ask were very helpful to my reading experience.

Multimedia Document:

THE QUESTIONS

If poetry is so important, why do the PA standards barley mention them?

Some of my favorite poems to read are by Shel Silverstein because of his use of pictures and page layouts. What makes authors choose the look of their ending product?

The students in my field classroom just finished reading about fables and folktales. It made me remember when I went through a phase of reading fables and folktales. What made the curriculum, school, my mentor teacher, whoever, choose to look at fables?  How do folklore, fantasies, and realistic fiction relate to my inquiry project of what makes a book worth buying for my personal use or use in my future classroom?

How do books and TV shows and movies overlap within their genres?  Is the requirement for each genre the same across the board, whether it be book, movie, or TV show?

I remember studying these in drama and creating stories that had to have these elements during improve. It was hard. And writing a story with all of these is very different. I wonder how different authors plan and prewrite their stories.

Inquiry Project. While I know fiction books have been the majority of what most elementary students read, and there is a current rise in nonfiction books, what does good look like in between these categories?

[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Exploration 2, Semester 2

Due Date: February 13

Reading(s): Tompkins, Chapter 8, “Promoting Comprehension: Reader Factors”

The Big Take-Away(s):

Educators understand that reading comprehension includes both reader factors and text factors; make sure students have sufficient background knowledge, reading fluency, and vocabulary that is needed to comprehend a text; they teach students what comprehension strategies are and how to use them; and they support and encourage students every step of the way.

Nuggets:

“Comprehension is the goal of reading; it’s the reason why people read. Students must understand what they’re reading to learn from the experience; they must make sense of the words in the text to maintain interest; and they must enjoy reading to become lifelong readers.” (p253)

“Struggling readers… are frustrated; they don’t understand what they’re reading, don’t like to read, and aren’t likely to choose to read in the future.” (p253)

This was and is me as a reader.

There are two big categories of factors that effect reading comprehension: reader factors and text factors. (p254)

Reader factors include background knowledge, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension strategies, comprehension skills, and motivation.

Comprehension strategies include “activating background knowledge, connecting, determining importance, drawing inferences, evaluating, monitoring, predicting, questioning, repairing, setting a purpose, summarizing, and visualizing.” (p259)

These strategies fit into the reading process, as seen in figure 8-4 on p 266.  In the prereading stage, strategies for comprehension can include activating background knowledge, predicting, questioning, and setting a purpose.  Under the reading stage, strategies include monitoring, repairing, and all other strategies. The responding stage includes connecting, determining importance, drawing inferences, evaluating, questioning, and visualizing.  The exploring stage includes determining importance, drawing inferences, evaluating, and the summarizing strategies.  Under the applying stage include the connecting, evaluating, and questioning strategies. (p266)

Comprehension skills include “recognizing details, noticing similarities and differences, identifying topic sentences, comparing and contrasting main ideas and details, matching causes with effects, sequencing details, paraphrasing ideas, and choosing a good title for a text.” (p265)

Text factors include genres, text structures, and text features.

There are also several factors that effect the complexity of the text, which can be categorized into qualitative dimensions, quantitative measures, and reader and task considerations. (p254)

“Teachers create an expectation of comprehension in these ways: involving students in authentic reading activities every day, providing access to well-stocked classroom libraries, teaching students to use comprehension strategies, ensuring that students are fluent readers, providing opportunities for students to talk about the books they’re reading, and linking vocabulary instruction to underlying concepts.” (p267)

“Teachers can’t assume that students will learn to comprehend simply by doing lots of reading; instead, students develop an understanding of comprehension and what readers do to be successful through a combination of instruction and authentic reading activities.” (p267)

The fact that comprehension is an invisible mental process makes it difficult to teach; however, through explicit instruction, teachers can make comprehension more visible. They explain what comprehension is and why it’s important, and they model how they do it, by thinking aloud. Next, teachers encourage students to direct their thinking as they read, gradually releasing responsibility to students through guided and independent practice. Finally, they move students from focusing on a single comprehension strategy to integrating several strategies in routines.” (p267)

Paragraph:

This was a very interesting chapter for me to read, as my reading comprehension is worse that worse.  At least partly it is due to my ADHD, but I also think part of it was due to eye problems while learning to read, a hatred for reading, my mother/teacher not truly knowing best how to help, and me fighting my mother/teacher on so many other things school wise that at the end of the day she had to pick her battles.  Beyond teaching the actual skill of physically understanding written words, my mother resorted to improving my love of stories through countless read alouds.  She would books such as The Giver series, The Hobbit, The Iliad and Odyssey, and more aloud while my sister and I would color, play with Lego quietly, or paint our nails.  We would then discuss what we read and moved on to the next thing.  This was my personal reading experience, which has added up to a lack of reading comprehension in adulthood.

After prereading this chapter, where I connected the topic to my background knowledge and experience through these thoughts above.  Next, I read the chapter.  During this stage, I was particularly interested by the lists and graphs that there displayed.  I also went along and filled out the above section of this readerly exploration as I read.  Lastly, I had a fantastic conversation with one of my residents I have connected with.

During this conversation, my resident, who we think also has ADHD, realized how different were where in our reading experiences.  My resident was public schooled and had great support from her family and school.  She had fantastic teachers who know how to best help her.  I am not saying my mother was an awful teacher or anything, cause really she was amazing and I was a sucky and struggling student who would prefer to do literally anything else than school, especially reading.  Ally loves to research and remembers most of what she reads.  I avoid reading, especially is it is school related, meaning it is non-fiction or a story I am not interested in.  More often, I choose to listen to audiobooks, especially audiobooks I have listened to a hundred times before.  Together, Ally and I found this chapter to be very interesting and our stories to be very different and enlightening. 

As with everything else I read for school, this was not something I would consider easy.  Because I have built up such a distaste for reading, I tend to strongly procrastinate and avoid reading to the point where it is physically and mentally challenging for me to sit down, open the book, and actually read.  I get distracted about a million times and struggle to focus on the smallest section.  The conversation, as with most conversations I have with Ally, was easy and fun.  We literally have spent hours talking together about anything and everything and could talk all night long.  

I found Ally’s experience to be very enlightening.  And while I loved being homeschooled with all of my heart, I also kind of wish I had been pushed more when I was younger.  My poor mother did the best she could. 

Reading is one of the reasons I originally wanted to become a teacher.  I want to show students that there is hope for them, that they can do it, that it is important to know how to read, and that reading and stories are so magical.  This is one reason I am excited to become an educator.

Multimedia Document:

Ally and I after our discussion of Chapter 8.

[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Exploration 1, Semester 2

Due Date: January 30th

Reading(s): Tompkins, Chapter 1, “Becoming an Effective Literacy Teacher”

The Big Take-Away(s):

Effective teachers 1) understand how students learn, 2) support students’ use of the cueing system, 3) create a community of learners, 4) adopt a balanced approach to instruction, 5) scaffold students’ reading and writing, 6) organize for literacy instruction, 7) differentiate instruction, and 8) link instruction and assessment.

Nuggets:

I enjoyed looking through the book lists on page 10 and 11 and seeing if there were any books I had read or heard of.  The sad truth is I had only read Smoky Night and The Giver.  I read Smoky Night for my mini lesson and my mother read the whole Giver series to my sister and I in middle school.  When my Inquiry Project is complete, I would love to come back to these books and consider purchasing some for my future library.

It was also a good review for me to look through the chart on page 13 with the systems, their terms, and applications. I have an awful time remembering which term is which so this was very helpful for me, especially having them compared like that in writing right next to each other.

I enjoyed reading through the characteristics of a classroom.  Respect is something I am personally nervous about building in my own classroom. I am nervous I am going to be so stress and try to plan too much out that I forget to remember that my students need time to be students or that mistakes and misunderstanding happen.  I am also nervous about setting expectations that are within the students ZPD.   Lastly, I am nervous when working alongside families, as I have not had any experience yet but have heard some interesting stories.

Figure 1-5 on page 23 was interesting to look at as it had the levels of scaffolding and how they interacted with reading and writing right next to each other so I could review and compare again.

Paragraph:

Readerly Habit: Choose 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 was originally thinking about doing the readerly habit of looking up unknown terms before actually reading the text, but since chapter 1 was mostly a review for me, or at least used a lot of familiar terms, I decided this was not a good habit for this chapter.  I then decided I would talk to my mom about the chapter as my habit.  Thus, my next step was to actually read the chapter.  This was honestly very helpful for me, as it reminded me of terms I had forgotten or concepts I needed reminded of.  I did find the book list very helpful, and like I mentioned above, I would be very interested in going back to take a look at some of those texts after I have finished my inquiry project on what makes a good children’s book.

After I finished reading the chapter, I called my mom and we had some really good conversation.  She was able to relate the 8 steps to being an effective literacy educator to Duolingo, which I found very interesting.  My struggle with this analogy was that I did not have the best experience on Duolingo, but she has been enjoying it.  When I put my own personal opinions aside, I do see how the different steps in Duolingo match up with the 8 things the chapter mentioned.  This analogy put these effective teaching practices into a example I had seen before and beyond the scope of teaching literacy.  All in all, I enjoyed the insight my mother gave me on this chapter and feel like this conversation I had with her was very helpful.

Multimedia Document:

Readerly Habit: Choose an excerpt from your assigned course reading(s) and share with a family member to get his or her insight and perspective on it.

Below is me and my mom after talking about Tompkins’s Chapter 1.

My Mom is the BESTEST!

[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Exploration 5

Talking back and taking over: Young children’s expressive engagement during storybook read-alouds

By Lawrence R. Sipe

This is Balanced Literacy Chapter 2

By Fisher, Frey, and Akhavan

Due 10/10

Finished 12/9

Big Take Away:

Talking back and taking over: Young children’s expressive engagement during storybook read-alouds

There are many ways students can respond to text that can help them experience the text on a deeper level, including dramatizing, talking back, critiquing/controlling, inserting, and taking over.

Chapter 2

Whole class instruction is the best place to teach new phonics concepts and skills, however, for students to truly grasp these lessons, they also need to be able to work in small groups and alone where they can practice these skills.

Nuggets:

Talking back and taking over: Young children’s expressive engagement during storybook read-alouds

Children respond to stories in various ways. They may seek to understand a story through analyzing its plot, setting, characters, or theme—the commonly called “narrative elements” of the story. To understand a story, they may also compare or contrast it to other stories they know; other cultural products like movies, TV programs, and commercials; or visual “texts” like paintings.

At times, young children seem almost mesmerized by a story, and their receptive engagement at these times is anything but passive: We can almost hear the cognitive wheels turning inside their heads. However, engagement can also be expressive and performative. Children demonstrate this type of engagement with words and physical actions. They become active participants in the story.

When teachers read stories to children, they translate, as it were, the visual illustrations and the written language to expressive spoken language. For example, teachers may read dialogue by changing the tone and volume of their voices to interpret those of the characters in the story. In other words, storybook read-alouds are interpretive performances by the reader of the story. By acting out the story, children extend this performance to include themselves—their actions, gestures, and expressive language.

Children who make such responses seem to view stories as invitations to participate or perform. Stories are understood not as fixed and rigid but as changeable texts, and the reader’s role is not simply to understand but to actively control stories. We can change stories, resist them, critique them, even use them for our own purposes. These five types of response not only show children actively engaging with stories, they show children making stories their own.

Chapter 2

Whole-class instruction is useful for developing skills and knowledge that everybody needs. The key is to keep whole-class instruction at grade level, so that students can apprentice into the type of knowledge and thinking that is appropriate for their age.

The text should provide an opportunity for us to model some aspect of reading or thinking. What we should model should be based on students’ needs.

The text selected should be appropriate to the content being learned, students’ social and emotional development, and students’ interests.

The text should be a strong piece of literature that students may use as a mentor text when they write. When students are exposed to a wide variety of writers and explore the ways that texts work, baby begin to internalize writing structures and tools, thus improving their own writing.

Modeling is part of both shared readings and read-alouds. We are apprenticing students into academic thinking. Remember that thinking is invisible, so we have to talk about our thinking such as students can witness how others utilize cognitive and metacognitive processes to make meaning.

Activity

As you read, highlight excerpts from the chapter that reflect the author’s purpose.

First, I copy and paste Sipe’s article into a Word document so I can listen to it as I read it.  As I was reading and listing to Fisher chapter 2 and “Talking back and taking over: Young children’s expressive engagement during storybook read-alouds” by Sipe, I highlighted or underlined sections I found either interesting or that the most important and reflect what the author’s main point is.

Reflection

              As I read, I actually always underline and highlight texts.  It helps me stay focused.  Whenever possible, I always copy texts into word and hit read aloud.  This is how I learn best.  For this text, it has helped me understand that Fisher, Frey, and Akhavan understand how important whole group instruction is.  I was especially interested in the section Modeling in Read-Alouds and Shared Reading because it gave clear suggestions and directions teachers, including me, could use in their classrooms.  Here, they include 2 vitally important behaviors and ways  teachers can do when modeling shared reading and writing to students.  In the classroom, I have seen my mentor teach in field model word solving, which Fisher, Frey, and Akhavan also suggested to do during shared reading. 

Foundational skills should be taught in a whole group setting, which I have also noticed in my field placement and have even had the opportunity to teach.  Even though this lesson was planned by my mentor teacher, it was handed to me at the last minute.  I found it a hard lesson to teach.  I have also found myself struggling slightly in Heggerty when I segment words.  I was talking with my mom about this and she mentioned how I struggled at this skill as a student. 

I also found the section Foundational Skills in Whole-Group Reading Instruction interesting because again, I have struggled with these skills.  As a TESOL minor, every time I see the word emergent, I think of the term emergent learner in the context of a ELD, which really impacted how I read this and other sections of the book. 

I have seen the five levels of literacy taught in my mentor skill and I myself taught an intervention based on level 3, blending sounds and words.  Many of my students either had a speech impairment or were ELD students or both.  The lessons I taught not only helped my students understand phonemes and blending, but me as well.

Multimedia Documentation:

Below are samples of highlighting and underline I did from the texts read.

[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Exploration 4

This is Balanced Literacy Chapters 1 and 7

By Fisher, Frey, and Akhaven

Due 9/26/22

Finished 12/8/22

Big Take Away:

Chapter 1

Balanced literacy with differentiated instruction, using materials and texts, and a mixture of direction and dialogic instruction is the best way to teach students how to read and write.

Chapter 7

Students need to practice, practice, practice reading, inside and outside of the classroom, which improves their fluency, vocab, and comprehension.

Nuggets:

Chapter 1

… students enjoy reading nonfiction as they explore the biological, physical, and social world around them (Leal & Moss, 1999). (p4).

In planning instruction for a  balanced literacy classroom, you likely design or implement units of study that allow students to access a wide variety of genres. (p5)

There is power in writing, not only in terms of reading, but in being able to share (and clarify) one’s thinking and potentially impact the thinking of others. (p6)

The goal of balance literacy instruction is to build both skills and knowledge. Accordingly, lesson should include a focus on the knowledge that students gain from the experience. (p7)

… the GRR model of instruction should just that the cognitive load should shift purposely from teacher-as-model, two joint responsibility, to independent practice and application by the learner. (p12)

Chapter 7

Students need to read, and read a lot. There is evidence that students who are struggling readers spend more time doing activities about reading, like worksheets or skill lessons, and less time actually reading (Allington, 1977). This is important to note, because the goal of reading instruction is to ensure students become independent readers who choose to read. And we're pretty sure that doing a lot of worksheets rather than actually reading is counter to building interest in reading and may actually interfere with their willingness to read. What they need is to experience success with reading itself. Success builds motivation. (p162)

Students need some choice in the materials and topics they are reading independent reading. (p163)

Whether they are reading by choice or not, there is no evidence that readers can independently learn from texts they cannot read. Thus, independent reading should be a time when the text selections are comfortable for students. (p164)

Learning how to choose books is an important skill that needs to be taught and practiced. (p169)

The first thing you will want to do to build stamina with your students is to talk about effective and efficient reading habits and how readers sit and read for a while, but may stop to think about what they are reading, reflect, or check their comprehension. Sometimes readers just need to move about and refocus their attention… Students will also need to know how to reengage themselves if they lose attention. These are all natural behaviors that readers use when reading independently, but your students may not be aware of them. They need practice to develop these habits. (p171)

Activity

After you read, sit down with a classmate after you have both done the assigned reading and discuss what you found to be the most compelling about what you read and the least compelling.

I first read chapters 1 and 7, underlining things I found interesting, I met up with Will Reeder and we discussed the chapters and our thoughts.  Since we are also placed in the same school for our junior field experience, we were able to talk about our how we have seen balanced literacy in our classrooms.  We discussed when and how students are taught phonics lessons and encouraged to read both inside and outside the classroom.  We were also able to discuss our personal literacy journeys.

Reflection

              I have always struggled reading.  I first struggled with my eyes physically focusing on the words.  I had to take vision therapy, which I hated and did not improve my desire to read.  Later, I was diagnosed with mild ADHD.  I never enjoyed reading, and yet I loved stories.  I could spend hours listening to my mother read while I colored. 

              Because of my discouragement with literacy and reading, I became inspired to become a teacher, I want to help the students who struggle realize it is possible.  Although today my distaste for learning now includes the association that I have made between it and must do homework assignments, I still wish to improve my own reading habits to model and inspire my students.

              In our current field placement, Will and I have seen how our mentor teachers have incorporated both phonics lessons and time set aside for reading.  Our mentor teachers incorporate an app called ReadingEggs and WEB books for the students to take home, but they have reading centers where students can listen to books or activities, practice reading books they choose, practice handwriting, and practice reading for the teacher at the table.  Our mentor teachers also incorporate a read aloud that incorporates students’ writing lessons and vocabulary that is well above their reading levels. 

              The most interesting thing I read during these assigned readings was how it is a skill to know how to choose a book and know when to drop a book.  When I first read the Percy Jackson books, it changed my views of reading.  When I read the Hunger Games books, I went from taking weeks to read a book to reading a book within a day.  These books changed my view of reading, at least for a while.  The books students read have to potential to change their view of reading.

Multimedia Documentation:

Below is me and Will Reeder at Lottie when we were talking about chapters 1 and 7, our reading journeys, and what has been happening for literacy in our fields.

[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Exploration 3

Enriching and Assessing Young Children’s Multimodal Storytelling by Christy Wessel-Powell, Tolga Kargin, Karen E. Wohlwend

Why Children Need Play

By Deborah J. Leong and Elena Bodrova

Building Language and Literacy Through Play

Due 9/19

Finished 12/3

Big Take Aways:

Wessel-Powell, Kargin, & Wohlwend:

Multimodal storytelling and play enhances students comprehension and literacy skills and learning beyond what just interactive with the story in one platform.

Leong & Bodrova:

Play teaches students more than just literacy and academic skills, but it also teaches them social  skills and expectations that are crucial inside and outside the classroom.

Scholastic:

For play to be useful in a classroom setting, there must be imagination, planning, examples, encouragement, opportunities, expanded language, time, and with little guidance.

Nuggets:

When children create text, they may not only write but also act out or show their stories in many other ways besides on paper. (Wesself-Powell, Kargin, & Wohlwend)

Multimodal storytelling includes writing craft practices from writers’ workshop and dramatic performance practices from literacy playshop. (Wesself-Powell, Kargin, & Wohlwend)

Play is especially beneficial to children's learning when it reaches a certain degree of sophistication. (Leong & Bodrova)

When children engage in this kind of play for most of their early years, they learn to delay gratification and to prioritize their goals and actions. They also learn to consider the perspectives and needs of other people. They learn to represent things symbolically and to regulate their behaviors and act in a deliberate, intentional way. (Leong & Bodrova)

teachers of entering school-agers do hope that the children who come into their classrooms can concentrate, pay attention, and be considerate of others. These areas are developed not by using flashcards or computer programs, but through interacting with peers during play. (Leong & Bodrova)

Except for the short periods of snacking, cleaning up, or listening to a book, almost everything children are doing at school could be described as "play." (Scholastic)

When children act out new themes, they practice new vocabulary associated with these new themes. (Scholastic)

Another important thing children learn as they act out new themes and new roles is that there are many reasons for people to use reading and writing. (Scholastic)

Because of its open-ended nature, play often causes more arguments among children than other activities. Most of the time, these arguments are not caused by children's aggression but rather by their lack of knowledge about roles and rules of a specific play scenario. (Scholastic)

When children are aware of different roles involved in a play theme, of what each person does, and how they interact with each other, they are less likely to argue. (Scholastic)

When children plan together, negotiate their roles, or correct a playmate whose actions do not fit the role he is playing, they learn how to delay gratification. They learn to do things that may not seem to be the most attractive choices at the moment, but are needed for sustaining play in the long run. (Scholastic)

On average, it takes from a half-hour to an hour for young children to develop and act out a good play scenario. (Scholastic)

Activity:

Make a list of three or four questions about literacy classrooms that come up for you as you read. Then, do some preliminary research on one of them.

With expectations for teachers being so high and there being only one teacher for every 20 some kids maybe, how can teachers find time and energy to helping students use play to help them learn more about a text?

What does play in the classroom actually look like? How can it be implemented? What are some specific activities?  Are some play and activities more effective than others?  What should the teacher’s role be in this?  How guided or free should this play be?  What about the students who do not want to participate?  

Can play be helpful with older students, like middle school and high school students?  How can it be presented in a way that the students are still interested?

Are the play activities we can suggest families do at home to help their student’s literacy?

How can we get students excited to play without their electronic devices?

Are students playing at home or just on their electronic device?

Are game on their devices teaching them anything related to watch play teachers?

Is it still play if we have to teach children how to play?

Should recess stay open as free-for-all play or could guided play be used during recess?  Do the students’ brains and bodies need recess to be a full break or just different than being in the classroom or doing academics?

Response Paragraph:

As these readings were on play and literacy, which is what I am doing my inquiry project on, I was excited to read these articles.  As I read the articles, I noted various questions I had, which can be seen above.  I also reflected on my experience as a pre-student teacher in the classroom I am in.  There is honestly little to no imagination play in this first grade classroom, yet students still find ways to make an activity resemble a type of play.  I am not sure how my students would react if I went into the classroom, read a read-aloud story, and instructed them to act it out.  I believe it would be utter chaos, with students too excited to focus, students not wanting to participate, and students being confused.  While I like the ideas listed in these articles, such as having a unit of fictional storytelling involve students actually creating and telling stories, I also know that my classroom has been very limited on time.  Many of the questions running through my head now are so personal, such as how can I do it all in my classroom without burning out, that many of them are nothing more than what ifs or hows with not finish to the question.  There are several questions I asked before even beginning reading or right when I was beginning to read, that were later answered, such as asking for specific examples of how to incorporate play in the classroom.  I found the Scholastic article most helpful for answering many of the general questions I had.

Multimedia Documentation:

Below is me with my math intervention group.  They are working to count the bears then find their corresponding number card.  This is the closest we have gotten in my classroom to play.  This I would say is a game instead of out and out play.

[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Exploration 2

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

By Sarah Fischer

Due 9/5                                                        

Finished 12/3

Big Take Away:

While popular belief is that children are defacing a book when they are coloring within the margins of it, they are actually understanding and responding to the text in the book, which can only be seen truly by observing children while they are drawing.

Nuggets:

‘‘marginalia arouse strong feelings’’

By studying pre-conventional marginalia in the context in which it is created and in light of what we know about children’s orthographic and artistic development, we have a unique opportunity to gain new insights into this phenomenon.

‘‘We can say that a page in a picture book is an icon to be contemplated, narrated, explicated by the viewer. It holds the story until there is a telling’’

From the time children make their first mark with a writing instrument they are drawing to know the world and themselves (Lancaster, 2007). They draw to explore future possibilities and to tell and respond to stories. Children draw for both aesthetic and kinesthetic pleasure, as well as to communicate with others (Wilson & Wilson, 2009).

Activity

After you read, visit the Teacher Exploration Center Maker Space and create a “response” to what you read.

I first read Reading with a Crayon: Pre-conventional Marginalia as Reader Response in Early Childhood by Sarah Fischer, taking note of what the article was about and some nuggets of information I found interesting, which you can see above.

I then decided I would read a book and try my had at drawing to the story and see how that enhanced by own understanding and knowledge of the book.

I pulled up If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff on YouTube.

I then grabbed some paper and a pencil, since I was lacking crayons, which I was hoping I would have to help my experience.

As I listened to the story I began to draw.

In the end, I found that my drawing truly helped change my understanding of the book. 

Reflection Paragraphs

              While reading Crayon: Pre-conventional Marginalia as Reader Response in Early Childhood by Sarah Fischer, I was remembering how I used to draw pictures to go along with stories on extra paper as my mother would read aloud to my sister and I.  Later, for a class I was given the assignment of re-imagining and drawing the cover of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  Both these experiences had helped my literacy experience, so after reading  Crayon: Pre-conventional Marginalia as Reader Response in Early Childhood by Sarah Fischer, I decided I would find and read a children’s book and draw.  I decided I really had all the supplies I would need in my dorm room so I did not go to the Maker’s Space.  Instead, listened to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff while drawing on a blank page with a pencil. 

While I was drawing and listening to the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, I felt myself relating to my younger self and possibly other children who draw either in books or about books.  The act of drawing was relaxing and helped me to open my mind to the book, and focus on what was being read.  In the end, I found that drawing helped me to remember the book better, relate to the book, and relax.   In the future, this is a technique I would like to use while preforming read aloud lessons with students.

Multimedia Documentation:

Image drawn by Elayna Lauterbach while listening to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff.

[elaynajeanne]

Readerly Explorations

Toward an Educationally Relevant Theory of Literacy Learning: Twenty Years of Inquiry

By Brian Cambourne

AND

Building a Literacy Community: The Role of Literacy and Social Practice in Early Childhood Programs

By Susan J. Britsch and Daniel R. Meier

Due 8/29/22

Big Take Aways:

Cambourne discussed his theory of learning and pedagogy, specifically when discussing language and literacy, that includes discussions about conditions, immersion, demonstration, engagement, expectations, and responsibility and how each relate and influence the learning process.

Britsch and Meier discuss how the education of literacy in young children and various tactics that teachers can use or avoid to help their students not only learn literacy, but independency, ownership, and inclusion.

Nuggets:

Cambourne:

An educational relevant theory of literacy education should have the following characteristics:

Internal consistency, ecological validity, theory-into-practice congruence, pragmatic coherency, transferability, and high success rate.

Britsch and Meier:

Three critical themes for literacy learning and literacy community building in these early childhood programs:

(a) the importance of literacy ownership for both children and adults,

(b) the notion of literacy as an inclusive process, and

(c) the role of thinking processes in the children’s evolving literacy involvement.

Activity:

After you read, document your initial response to what you’ve read. Consider how the ideas you read about made you feel and what they made you think about.  

Learning, especially learning literacy, can be fun and engaging, not just workbooks or spelling and reading lessons.

Learning literacy can start with learning to love stories.

Learning literacy is power and powerful, it is a tool that is used in almost every aspect of our social life and gives children the power to take part in that life.

I want to be the type of teacher who takes the time to reach beyond the workbooks, teaches to love stories and imagination, and teaches to be independent and try and fail and try again.

I want to teach that failure is an acceptable way to learn and is part of everyday life.

Paragraph:

              Before reading the texts by Cambourne and Britsch and Meier, along with text assigned from EDUC 303 Mathematics: Climate, Curriculum, and Instruction for Primary Grades by Dr. Buckley, my past views of lessons of literacy and math included boring lectures and forced memorization with little learning happening and no one wanting to to learn. I had viewed lessons full of math facts and spelling tests that were painful for students, teachers, and parents and helped no one learned anything.  However, as I read through and reflected on Cambourne and Britsch and Meier's text, I was once again shown how teaching is more than my personal past experiences and more than its reputation. Teaching subjects and lessons I once considered boring, I now see as a challenge to engage students. I am excited to see the enthusiastic looks on students faces and A-Ha moments as they learn their letters and begin their reading journeys. I am excited to pass on my love of stories and the adventures and experiences they share. While I know there will be challenges to teaching literacy, I can see beyond the boring spelling and math lessons to lessons that are engaging and where students are learning more than the subjects.

Multimedia documentation: