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Readerly Exploration #7 03/11/2020

Tompkins - Chapter 9 

Big Take Away: Teaching students to use text factors to help them while reading. Text factors will help students to understand what they are reading, as well as make connections. 

Nugget: One thing that I really liked about this chapter was the emphasis on equipping our students with knowledge on how to use the text factors when they are reading. I think that enabling our students to use the text factors when they are reading can be a complete game changer for our students, and their reading comprehension. 

Readerly Exploration: For this readerly exploration I decided to create a drawing that represents my personal response to the reading. My personal response to this reading was that teachers are in charge of setting our students up for a successful literature journey. One of the many things that we need to provide our students with is knowledge of text factors. I decided to draw a picture of a teacher handing a student a book about text factors. This wouldn't be done by simply handing a student a book about text factors, but by teaching them about each text factor and its components individually. I drew the book with text factors written on it to symbolize the teaching that would have taken place. I drew a thought bubble for the little boy. He says that now that he knows about text features he can comprehend what he is reading. Text factors set our students up for success in their literature journeys. 

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Readerly Exploration #6 03/09/2020

Tompkins - Chapter 8 

Big Take Away: Our students need to motivated to read what they are reading in order to comprehend it. 

Nugget: One thing that I took away from this chapter was that there are a variety of strategies that teachers can use in order to help students gain comprehension skills. 

Readerly Exploration: For this readerly exploration I decided to write down two goals for myself as a reader for my next reading assignment. I think that this chapter shows how important it is that the reader is motivated in what they are reading. As a future teacher, why wouldn’t I be motivated in reading about how I can help my future students? 

My first goal is to scan the reading before I actually read the chapter or article. I think that doing this will spark motivation for me. If I know that I am going to be learning about ways to help my future students or things that I can do better as a teacher, I will be much more motivated to read the chapter or article. 

My second goal is to highlight important pieces while I am reading. I think that this will help me to keep track of the important things that I am reading. Highlighting will also allow me to look back on what I have read.

I think that setting goals as a reader is an important part of reading. I will definitely encourage my future students to set goals for themselves as readers. 

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Readerly Exploration #5 02/26/2020

Tompkins - Chapter 10

Big Take Away: Teachers have many ways to plan literature instruction in their classroom. There are positives and negatives to all ways of organizing literature instruction.

Nugget: One thing that stuck out to me from this chapter was that guided reading was thought of as another way to do reading instruction. I was always under the impression that guided reading was used in addition to regular reading instruction. 

“Seven Rules of Engagement: What’s Most Important to Know About Motivation to Read” by Gambrell

Big Take Away: In order to ensure that your students are actually learning, your students must be motivated and engaged in the topic. 

Nugget: I thought it was really interesting how much they emphasized students being interested in what they are learning about. I also liked that they mentioned a lack of interest in reading can be a result of students lacking independent reading time. I think that independent reading time can increase student interest because they will be interested in a book that they get to choose.

Readerly Exploration: For this readerly exploration I decided to create a character sketch of my fourth grade reading and language arts teacher, Mrs. Hart. Mrs. Hart always motivated her students to read. Mrs. Hart is full of life and always encourages her students to make choices for themselves. She had a vast library full of books, of varying topics and at varying levels. Much like Dr Fischer, Mrs. Hart never told a student that a book was too difficult for them, and she never got upset with her students’ reading levels (even when I would walk to her desk for help with a word at least four times per chapter). 

Mrs.Hart encouraged us to challenge ourselves, but more importantly she encouraged us to read books that we were interested in. Mrs. Hart would allow us to vote on books that we’d like to add to our classroom library. Then she would buy the books that we were most interested in. Mrs. Hart was the perfect example of a teacher that allows students to choose what they would like to read. As a result of this, all of her students are motivated to read. I decided to draw a picture of Mrs. Hart and her bookshelf.

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Readerly Exploration #4 02/24/2020

Tompkins - Chapter 1: “Becoming an Effective Literacy Teacher”

Big Take Away: This chapter provides teachers with many ways that they can make their classrooms more appropriate for all types of learners.

Nugget: I really liked that Tompkins emphasized community in the classroom. It is extremely important that students feel welcome and wanted in the classroom. In my placement this semester, many of the students come from rough home lives. Some of them only feel welcomed at school. This element of classrooms is so important.

Readerly Habit: Read texts deeply in order to interpret, critique, and analyze the various layers of meaning a text might offer to a reader.

Exploration: Learn something about the author of the assigned course reading and use that to draw conclusions about the motivation behind the reading.

Gail E. Tompkins was the daughter of a US Army Officer. She saw a lot of the world at a rather young age. Tompkins went on to graduate from the University of Nebraska. She then taught first grade for eight years.Tompkins later went back to school to earn her Ed.D in Reading and Language arts. She was awarded many teaching excellence awards over her life. I can imagine that throughout her education she strengthened her passion for wanting all teachers to be effective literacy teachers. She most likely spent a lot of her time thinking about ways that teachers could perfect this craft. She even worked with elementary school teachers up through college professors to encourage them to “write for publication.” Gail E. Tompkins left a legacy of being an effective literacy teacher. I am so glad that we have the opportunity to learn from her expertise.

Higgins, P. (n.d.). View GAIL TOMPKINS's Obituary on FresnoBee.com and share memories. Retrieved from https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fresnobee/obituary.aspx?pid=187273500

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Readerly Exploration #3 02/17/2020

Reading 1: Tompkins - Chapter 2: The Reading and Writing Processes

Big Take Away: The chapter explains the reliance that writing and reading have on one another. Without reading there cannot be successful writing, and with out writing there cannot be successful reading.

Nugget: This chapter really emphasizes the importance of the relationship between writing and reading. It is important, as future educators, to know about and be mindful of this relationship. Our students will benefit greatly from having a balanced education that values reading and writing equally. I will definitely carry this belief into my future classroom.

Reading 2: Tompkins - Chapter 6: Developing Fluent Readers & Writers

Big Take Away: There is a direct correlation between writing and reading. When students become more fluent in reading, they are in turn more fluent writers. When a student becomes a more fluent writer, they become better readers.

Nugget: This article emphasizes the point that students will show both speed and automaticity when they are fluent readers and writers. Fluency is achieved with the aid of high frequency words.

Readerly Habit: Engage in the reading process to increase the likely hood of text comprehension.

Exploration: I decided to create a work of art that represents my personal response to the reading. I think that the readings both emphasize the relationship between reading and writing. I decided to draw a clown fish and a sea anemone because of the direct relationship that they share. The clown fish is protected by the sea anemone, and given a place to live. The sea anemone is cleaned by the clown fish, and sometimes given prey by the clownfish. This relationship has a positive correlation, similar to the one that reading and writing share. The longer that a clown fish lives in the protective sea anemone, the cleaner and more fed the sea anemone is.

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Readerly Exploration #2 02/10/2020

Reading 1: Tompkins - Chapter 3, “Assessing Literacy Development”

Big Take Away: Assessments play an extremely important role in instruction. They should aide the teacher with instruction, and help the teacher to see gaps in their students’ learning. 

Nugget: This chapter emphasizes that instruction time does not need to be “taken away” by assessments. It is suggested to use assessments to aide instruction. I really like this outlook on assessments in the classroom. I try to have a positive outlook on everything. Even though I don’t have my own classroom yet, I like that I already have a positive view about assessments. 

Reading 2: Tompkins - Chapter 11, “Differentiating for Success”

Big Take Away: This chapter emphasizes the importance of using differentiation when planning instruction. Teachers can differentiate learning in the content, process, and product of instruction. 

Readerly Habit: Read a wide variety of genres and formats to grow in their knowledge and experiences as a reader. 

Exploration: Throughout our readings on differentiation, I couldn't help but think about the song “People are Different” by Florida Georgia Line. One line from the song is “this whole world would be a better place, if we’d all just embrace the fact, that people are different.” This struck a chord with me that schools and education in general “would be a better place” teachers would embrace the fact that students are different. If all teachers practiced differentiated learning, advanced students might experiences a significant increase in their scores. Students that are behind would also benefit from this differentiation. Another line from “People are Different” is “Old school, new school, everything in between.” Although this line is most likely referring to traditions, I’d like to relate it to old school teachers (the older generation) and new school teachers (younger generation). No matter where you are in your teaching career, it is important to remember that all of your students are different and will benefit from differentiated teaching. 

Here is the link to “People are Different”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkp5uKTr_UU 

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Readerly Exploration #1  2/7/2020

Brighton, C. M., Moon, T. R., & Huang, F. H. L. (2015). Advanced Readers in Reading First Classrooms: Who Was Really “Left Behind”? Considerations for the Field of Gifted Education. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 38(3), 257–293.

Big Take Away: Students of all abilities benefit from differentiated learning. Teachers should have the freedom to scaffold their teaching for students at varying levels. 

Nugget: One thing that stuck out to me from this article is the amount of success that can come from teachers putting in a little extra work to differentiate learning. Many teachers go above and beyond what they are expected to do, for the benefit of their students. This point that advanced readers can benefit so much from differentiated learning was so impactful to me.

Readerly Habit: Reflect on the contributions of reading experiences to reader identity in an effort to better articulate who he or she is as a reader.

Exploration: The Readerly Exploration that I chose is creating two goals for myself as a reader for my next reading assignment, based on your successes and struggles reading this text.

Goal 1: I would like to become better at “borrowing ideas” from things that I read. I would like to start a list of things that I read about running a successful classroom and benefiting my future students. I think that I can create a great list of things from our readings this semester, while also adding things that I read for other classes. 

Goal 2: I will download or print longer readings so that I can highlight important information. Sometimes when I read articles online I get distracted and miss key points. From now on I’d like to highlight or write down key points from articles. 

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Readerly Exploration 11/20

Pennington (2018), “Should we teach reading comprehension strategies?”

Big Take Away: Reading comprehension strategies can aid students in practicing reading skills, but the true value in these strategies is the thought processes that come along with them. 

Nugget: I personally found the idea that teachers cannot teach the process of reading very interesting.

Miller (2013), Chapter 6, “In January and February

Big Take Away: Miller suggests the use bookclubs. She instills in readers that bookclubs should involve rich discussions that engross the students in a natural and comfortable setting in which they can enjoy books. 

Nugget: In this chapter Miller emphasizes the importance of informing students that they are ready to engage in learning conversations, not just social conversations. Miller suggests questioning strategies to aid students in taking the conversation deeper. 

Readerly Exploration: Hannah and I chose to share your thoughts on the Miller reading. Hannah found the bookclub idea that Debbie Miller brought up to be a very compelling idea. She loved how Miller brought her real life experiences of book clubs into the classroom. Hannah agrees that if students are able to communicate in social settings than they should be able to communicate about education. I found the asking questions portion to be compelling, because it is crucial for students to learn how to ask “good” questions. As a child I asked a lot of questions, and some were very obviously not good questions. Teachers would give me a degrading look, and usually not answer my questions. I expressed to Hannah that I will ensure that my future students have the experience and knowledge to ask good questions, but I will also except and answer all questions from my students. This discussion helped us to deepen our understanding of the importance of allowing our students explore what they are reading. 

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Readerly Exploration 11/06

Silverman and Crandell - Vocabulary Practices in Prekindergarten and Kindergarten Classrooms

Big Take Away: There are proven ways to increase students’ vocabularies during a read aloud such as explicitly describing words, acting out what you are reading, and using words in new contexts. 

Nugget: I like that the authors emphasize that children with different levels of vocabulary will respond better to different types of instruction strategies. 

Williams - Word Study Instruction in the K-2 Classroom

Big Take Away: In order to produce early literacy learning for students, teachers can use strategic instruction during word studies and guided practice. 

Nugget: One thing that I really liked about this article is the number of ways to implement word studies. She provides readers with nine ways to use word studies in the classroom. 

Readerly Habit: Explore Relationships with other people through reading by using texts as a shared experience with another person to gain insight into the perspective of another person.

Exploration: I decided to share Vocabulary Practices in Prekindergarten and Kindergarten Classrooms with my friend Xie. Xie is a math major with an economics minor. She is also from Malaysia, and I interviewed her for my TESOL English Language Learner paper. She found this article extremely interesting. When she was learning English, she found that the vocabulary was the most difficult thing for her to pick up on. She explained to me that if she had been exposed to more vocabulary early on, she might have had more success learning the language. The article really stresses the importance of using vocabulary in the classroom. Xie vowed that she will make sure to use a variety of vocabulary words when teaching her children English someday. 

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Readerly Exploration 11/04

Bissex - Watching Young Writers

Big Take Away: Our students have the ability to self correct their writing. Our purpose in their education is to teach them. They will learn to spell and fix grammar and punctuation as their schooling progresses.

Nugget: I really like that Bissex emphasizes that when a student is struggling, we should look for our next step in order to educate rather them than immediately correct their mistakes.

Patrick C. Manyak -Phonemes in Use: Multiple Activities for a Critical Process

Big Take Away: Teachers should use multiple ways of practicing phonemes daily. This ensures that students will not simply memorize the strategy or procedure.

Nugget: I like that Manyak brings up that teachers should remember to use words that are spelled exactly how they sound when having their students sound stretch words.

Readerly Exploration: Read texts deeply in order to interpret, critique, and analyze the various layers of meaning a text might offer a reader

Exploration: Learn something about the author of the assigned reading and use that to draw conclusions about the motivation behind the reading or the credibility of the writing.

Patrick C. Manyak is an education professor at the University of Wyoming. His Research Gate profile states that he focuses on literacy development, specifically on “comprehensive vocabulary and writing instruction at the elementary level.” This would explain why Manyak is so motivated to inform teachers that they should use multiple ways to practice phonemes. Manyak also advocates that when having students practice sound stretching, teachers should use words that sound exactly how they are spelled so that students do not become confused. Manyak’s education and interests are very evident in this article and play a large role in the main emphasis of this piece.

Resource: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Patrick_Manyak

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Readerly Exploration 10/18

Talking Back & Talking Over: Young Children’s Expressive Engagement During Read-Aloud Storybooks

Big Take Away: Giving students the freedom to respond during read-alouds can aid in students having a better connection to the text and lead to more participation.

Nugget: I really like that Sipe emphasizes the importance of allowing students to “speak during read-alouds.” When I read to small groups in my placement I always try to allow my students to make connections to things in their lives. Sometimes I will prompt them with questions like “have you ever done what this character is doing?” It was reassuring to read that allowing this is not teaching the students to be disruptive, but allowing them to create deeper connections with the books.

Readerly Exploration: Explore relationships with other people through reading by using texts as a shared experience with another person to gain insight into the perspective of another person.

Exploration: I chose to create a character sketch of someone that I know that represents the big ideas of the assigned course reading in some way and share it with that person.

I created a character sketch of a boy in the classroom at my placement. This little boy, lets call him Dan, is always calling out to tell his classmates and teachers when he has done something that the characters in our story are doing. He likes everyone to know his opinions on what is going on in the books as well. Sometimes I start to think that Dan just enjoys hearing himself talk, so this article helped me to realize that he is just making connections. Dan especially enjoys when our teacher asks whole-group questions like “what do you think will happen next?” and “have you ever seen something like this?” When I shared my character sketch to Dan he deemed it “super cool” and proceeded to show me a drawing that he had made of their class pet turtle. He made the connection of me creating a drawing of him, to him creating a drawing of the turtle in the classroom. 

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Readerly Exploration 10/9

Miller - Chapter 4 “In October”

Big Take Away: Miller emphasizes that students will gradually create meaningful connections with their reading, and that this is a process. 

Nugget: I really liked the “authenticity matters” portion of chapter 4. I agree that teachers need to choose their own books and tools, and not just trust what another colleague might suggest. The educator must have a connection with the materials if they have any hope to inspire their students to create a connection, and therefore make students eager to learn.

Worthy et. al.—“What are the Rest of the Students Doing? Literacy Work Stations in Two First-Grade Classrooms”

Big Take Away: This article emphasizes the importance of monitoring the un-manned stations during literacy groups, rather than solely focusing on the small group, teacher led activity that is taking place. 

Nugget: I like that the author brings up the issue of labeling students as “struggling” or “low.” I think that it is extremely important for teachers to use student first language. Students will be more willing and excited to preform and learn if they are referred to with student first language. 

Readerly Habit: Read a wide variety of genres and formats of texts to grow in their knowledge and experiences as a reader.

Exploration: Identify a song that communicates the same or similar big ideas of the assigned reading and choose an excerpt that represents those shared ideals. 

The song that came to mind while reading this article is “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. It is a silly song to imagine in a first grade classroom atmosphere, but I believe that it displays the same big ideas as the article. During the introductory illustration, the author paints a picture of what I would consider the average classroom during literacy centers. There are students on task, slightly on task, and way off task. The author states that the teacher musk “quickly scan” the room while working with the students in her small group. She redirects the students that are off task, while not sacrificing the concentration of the students in her small group. The illustration ends by stating that the off task students are the “same students” everyday. This is what truly lead me to think of the song “Every Breath You Take.” Unfortunately, or fortunately, most teachers find the easily distracted students early on and learn to keep a closer eye on them. This lead me to recall the lines “every move you make, every step you take, I’ll be watching you.” It is funny to imagine that song playing, during literacy centers, but I feel that many teachers find themselves to be watching certain students more than other for off task behaviors. 

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Readerly Exploration 10/2

Miller - Chapter 2, “In September, Part One”

Big Take Away: Similarly to the classroom that I am placed in this semester, the main goal of early September is to set students up for success. This is done by establishing routines, expectations, and a positive learning environment.

Nugget: I really liked the “Reflection and Sharing” portion of this chapter. I think that students respond really well to repetitive songs that signal for a certain class activity. I also like that she uses this reflection time to focus on their learning goals.

Miller - Chapter 3, “In September, Part 2″

Big Take Away: The routines and expectations that have been set during the first part of the month lead into the second half of the month’s goals. The second half of September should be used to encourage students to find their reader identities. 

Nugget: I really liked the “Record Keeping” portion, particularly where she writes about the 4-by-6-inch notebooks. I think that this would be a great way to check in with students about their learning styles and to monitor their progress.

Readerly Habit: Reflect on the contributions of reading experiences to reader identity in an effort to better articulate who he or she is as a reader.

Exploration: The Readerly Exploration that I chose is creating two goals for myself as a reader for my next reading assignment, based on your successes and struggles reading this text.

Goal 1: I would like to take more notes as I read. I usually come across great teaching techniques and ideas; I found this especially true during these two readings. I would like to hold myself accountable to be able to use these teaching techniques in the classroom that I am placed in now as well as in my future classroom. This will help my awareness of various techniques that I can try with different levels of student involvement as well as students’ social, emotional, and academic needs. 

Goal 2: I would like to section my reading into more manageable sizes instead of reading it all at once. I believe that there is value in reading a piece all at one time, but I also believe that some readings need to be split up for better comprehension. In order to do this, I will have to look over my readings in advance and look for subtitles that might signal a good stopping place. If I deem this strategy to not be appropriate for a reading, I will simply do each reading on separate nights instead of both readings in one night. This will ensure that I fully understand the reading and that I am focused on the particular meanings of the reading. 

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Readerly Exploration 9/20 (#1)

Reading with a Crayon: Pre-conventionalMarginalia as Reader Response in EarlyChildhood

Big Take Away: When one views children's scribbles in books as meaningful it is evident that there is a purpose in their developing annotative skills. 

Nugget: I like that you consider that many adults do not value children’s scribbles and view them as devaluing. I think that this is an interesting point about how adults view children and their relationships with books. 

Chapter 1: “Guiding Principles”

Big Take Away: Teachers guide reading in the classroom by teaching students how to behave when their classmates are reading and having to adapt which principles they used based on their students. 

Nugget: I really connected with the “Building Relationships” portion. I think that creating a learning environment that is both comfortable and productive is the key to having a successful classroom. 

Readerly Habit: Explore relationships with other people through reading by using other texts as shared experience with another person/other people 

Exploration: The Readerly Exploration that I chose is sharing the “Building Relationships” excerpt with my mom and getting her insight on it. I chose this Readerly Exploration because I thought that I would benefit from my mom’s point of view on the excerpt. 

I truly resonated with the “Building Relationships” piece of Chapter 1. I believe that having a strong relationship with each student is a great way to ensure that students feel valued. When students feel valued they are happier and therefore more prepared to learn. During the summer I babysat two children, ages 8 and 5. At the beginning of the summer I noticed that the children did not often use proper manners. I began to model when and how to use manners to the children. I did this by using please and thank you when asking them to do something, as well as pausing to give them a chance or prompting them to use manners when asking me for something. I would also commend them when they would use manners. Once during the summer I forgot to say please before I asked the 5 year old to take her plate to the sink. She stopped and raised her eyebrows, mimicking me, trying to prompt me to say please. Clearly, my modeling had made a lasting impression on her. 

After reading the excerpt on “Building Relationships” my mother concurs that modeling social skills for children is the most effective way to teach them. She has even found that this can work with adults. She has five people working for her and she has often needed to model social behaviors in order to keep the team functioning properly. She recommends that I incorporate relationship building and modeling into my instruction to help build a team atmosphere in my classroom. 

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Simulation Journal #1

Part I.

The district puts a strong emphasis on the value of teaching students, not just improving their test scores. Mrs. Fletcher has made many points about “not stressing” over test scores. However, the district also determines salary and whether or not they will rehire a teacher based on students’ test scores.

Part II.

Reflecting on our simulation helps me to keep in mind that my goal is to benefit students. This reflection has reminded me that the end goal is not to have the highest test scores and the highest salary; it is to educate students. Our course question is something that will be beneficial throughout our entire teaching careers, because it holds teachers accountable for more than just improving test scores.