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April 12, Park 2012

Julia Del Vecchio– Readerly Exploration #7

Main Idea: Teachers can use visualizing as a reading strategy to help students develop specifically in “critical literacy” and explore the world, difficult issues, and text connections. 

Nuggets: In this reading, I appreciated the real quotes about how students visualized characters. It was helpful to read through an actual discussion to see what kinds of connections students make. One of the discussions involved the girls envisioning themselves in a character's place and also envisioning the character themselves. I also loved seeing how they asked each other questions and saw similar thinking as communal knowledge instead of a competition where someone took someone else’s ideas. 

Readerly Habit and Exploration: Explore 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. Create a character sketch of someone you know that represents the big ideas of the assigned course reading(s) in some way and share with that person.

I decided to draw a sketch of my 8th grade ELA teacher, Mrs. Theroux. She was really good at asking us to visualize what was going on in the novels that we read. I remember discussing certain books in her class and getting to give our feelings about it. She did not really have an agenda as we read our novels, instead she opened up for questions as this article mentioned. Reading the novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers was super fun. I remember really visualizing the characters and setting of that book when we read it. I will always think of Mrs. Theroux when I think of reading strategies, gaining insight from novels, and sharing perspectives. This helped me understand the reading more because I was able to draw on my own experience to understand how students explore and engage with readings personally, and use them to ask questions about the world.

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March 20, Maynak 2014

Julia Del Vecchio– Readerly Exploration #6

Main Idea: Limited vocabulary knowledge poses a risk to students’ long term academic success, which means the quality of vocabulary instruction must improve across grades in schools. Effective vocabulary instruction is multifaceted, and involves rich and varied language experiences, teaching words and explicit definitions, teaching word learning strategies, and developing word consciousness.

Nuggets: Something that I took away from this article is the deep processing word review activities. One mentioned in this article is “character trait writing.” This is similar to what my students do in field experience right now. Once they finish a novel, they name major and minor characters and use character traits to describe them. I like the idea of other students evaluating their usage of words. 

Readerly Habit and Exploration: Read a wide variety of genres and formats of texts to grow in their knowledge and experiences as a reader: Get inspiration from the assigned course reading(s) to find and read another text from a different genre or format and connect the two in some way.

This week, I felt inspired by the course reading to read a chapter of Fredrik Backman’s fiction novel, A Man Called Ove. Because I do not get much time to read for fun, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get to enjoy another chapter. The book has some interesting vocabulary in it. To connect this week's article reading to my fiction reading, I will collect a list of any vocabulary words that are unknown or funny or that simply stand out to me. Then I will discuss the different contexts in which they could be used since this is a point of the Maynak article. Below are the words that I pulled out:

Lanky– a person who is ungracefully thin and tall

Blithely– in a way that shows a casual and cheerful indifference considered to be callous or improper, or in a happy and carefree manner

Imbecile– a stupid person 

Sniggers– laugh in a half-suppressed, typically scornful way

Brightening

Context: in the story this work was used to describe someones mood shifting from dismal to hopeful and happy

Coup d’etat– a sudden, violent, and unlawful seizure of power from a government; a coup.

Superfluous– unnecessary, especially through being more than enough.

Felled– to cut down a tree, or to stitch down to lie flat

Sod– the surface of ground with grass growing on it

Context: in this story, a character is referred to as an “old sod” which is an offensive word for a person, especially a man, that you are annoyed with or think is unpleasant, however it was used in a more joking way as this particular “old sod” was actually missed by someone

This reading helped me to understand the part of Maynaks article that mentioned vocabulary connecting to comprehension. Giving the definitions of these words helped me to understand what the author was trying to say and how the words were being used to paint a picture. This also helped me to see more value in vocabulary and the power that it has in literature. Also, it prompted me to start thinking about vocabulary words that are in fiction books. When my students are reading literature, they will likely come across words that they do not know, and I will have to figure out how to introduce them to these words and the ways that they can be used in a meaningful way. 

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Feb. 20, Tompkins Ch. 9

Julia Del Vecchio– Readerly Exploration #5

Main Idea: There are three main types of text factors: genres, structural elements, literary devices. These are present in stories, nonfiction, and poetry and aid in comprehension.

Nuggets: I love how many book suggestions/examples were mentioned in this chapter. I was really able to connect to the chapter because of those examples, and they brought me back to my childhood. I talk more about specific ones in my reflection.

Readerly Habit and Exploration: Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying) 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.

Thoughts after reading:

When I read the beginning excerpt of Mr. Abrams class I thought about the phases of reading. I think he does a good job of pre-reading by letting his students preview the text and figure out the genre themselves. He could have easily just told his students the genre, but allowing them to figure it out themselves requires more thinking about the text. I also liked that he had questions to guide the students through nonfiction readings because I presume that it would be difficult to pay attention otherwise. He also had the students re-read the texts during other reading times. I love that the children incorporated illustrations in the stories that they were required to write as well! Highlighted terms which seemed important in this lesson:

KWL chart

Learning logs

Shared reading

Revising groups

Rubric

Word wall

These terms came back around towards the end of the chapter when it was explaining how to teach text features. I like that the beginning of the chapter incorporated them in an introductory lesson example first.

Text factors: genres, text structures, and text features

There are so many different ways that stories are categorized! Genre is fascinating. I took notes on this section to help me with my zene project. Rosie’s Walk was mentioned! Grace told me about this book, and I think I might get it for my classroom. I liked how this section laid out stories that illustrate the elements of structure. One of the examples I noticed is The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe which is a story that I love! I also remember reading Tuck Everlasting in middle school! This one highlights the story element, theme. I remember the themes of this story dealing with immortality, growing up, nature and civilization, and love. Under the plot section is the book Hatchet which we also read in middle school. This one definitely emphasizes plot as the whole story is centered around the survival of one person. Lastly, the book The Giver caught my eye. This was my favorite book for a long time and I specifically remember reading it twice. Looking at the plot diagram is reminding me of when we learned about the climax of the story and we started being able to pick that part out when we were reading. The mini lesson on page 305 relates to hatchet, and I love how she creates a sort of graphic organizer to display the themes that her students were proposing. 

Moving to the text factors of Nonfiction section– I felt a bit sad reading this section because the previous one was so fun and I had some questions about the first paragraph. I wonder if the reason why stories are so popular in elementary school is also because they allow students to think more creatively and “outside the box.” The book states “it has been assumed that constructing stories in the mind is a fundamental way of learning” but where did that assumption come from? Is creativity simply not as valued in the older grades because we want students to be realistic about things? 

Cause and effect is part of teaching nonfiction. I am teaching a lesson on this in 4th grade next week. I am beginning to mentally organize where some of the standards fit into specific lessons. For example, I might teach sequence in a nonfiction unit, and then move to comparison and cause and effect because those fit well into nonfiction. I am excited to use some of these nonfiction text examples in my class someday. 

Poetry– It has always been hard for me to get into poetry. I think this is because people have very creative ways of saying things using poetry, and I have a hard time deciphering what they are trying to say/what they mean. My teachers could always pick out a specific meaning from a short line of words, and I did not understand how they knew what it meant. I think I also just lacked depth of vocabulary. The poems I always liked were the ones that rhymed and sounded like a song. I do like that poetry uses more sophisticated words and phrases though. Reading about poetic devices was helpful in understanding how meaning is conveyed through poems. Maybe if I had a more solid foundation in these I would be able to grasp poetry better. 

After reading through the chapter, I saw how everything came together to explain how teaching these text factors support comprehension. When students know what strategy the author is using to convey something, they will understand the text on a deeper level. Reflecting also helped me to understand more about the reading process as described in this textbook. This readerly exploration was about responding, a significant part of the reading process. Because I made so many personal connections to the chapter, I am more likely to remember them as we are talking in class, and I am more likely to be engaged with the material. I have already thought of some ways that I might apply what I have just read about in my future classroom. 

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Feb. 13, Tompkins Ch. 8

Julia Del Vecchio– Readerly Exploration #4

Main Idea: Comprehension is the point of reading, and the comprehension process allows students to really dive into and engage with texts. Teachers should give students opportunities to apply comprehension strategies (like predicting, connecting, visualizing, monitoring, and evaluating).

Nugget: I really liked the comprehension strategy under connecting titled: open-minded portraits. I think it would be such a helpful activity to write journals from character perspectives because it allows students to engage with the text more deeply and apply it in the context of journaling. 

Readerly Exploration and Habit: Explore 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. Choose an excerpt from your assigned course reading(s) and share with a friend in another major to get his or her insight and perspective on it. 

This week I shared my reading with my roommate, Faith! She is a psychology major who has discussed literacy topics with me before and teaches dance classes. Some of the connections that we were able to make in this chapter were to the definition of comprehension, importance and benefits of grand discussions, and a few specific strategies to comprehension. Faith defined comprehension as “the ability to paraphrase– to think about it in an original way and tie it to meaning in your brain so that you can explain/summarize it.” We talked about how something that helped with comprehension was getting to reflect personally on the reading, then chat in small groups, and then come together in a whole group to discuss. She found this mostly in her literature class when unpacking CS Lewis texts. She was very high as a reader and remembers being above grade level, so she said that she preferred independent reading and felt that others slowed her down when reading in groups in younger grades. In terms of strategies, KWL charts were really prevalent in her schooling and we discussed incorporating these into her dance classes since some of her students want to learn how to do different types of moves. She said, “Even if KWL isn’t super helpful for the students, I think it's helpful to have that feedback for the teachers because it lets the teachers know where their students are at and how to go about planning.” Then we chatted a bit about how useful data is, metacognition, and how her mom read a lot to her when she was little. Also, she was an awesome speller and won the fourth grade spelling bee. This does not surprise me because she is amazing at articulating things and has a very diverse vocabulary. Overall, Faith and I both benefited from this conversation and said that she likes reflecting on how she learned to read. I understood the reading on a deeper level because of all the reflecting we did on our own experiences. Also, a few other friends came in and it even sparked greater conversation about learning to read. Since they were all above grade level readers, they talked about their experience with comprehension and fluency, and brought up some things that they did not like which was very helpful to me.

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Feb. 6 Tompkins Ch. 10 and Gambrell

Julia Del Vecchio-- Readerly Exploration #3

Main Ideas: CH 10– In order for students to meet reading and writing standards, effective teachers organize their instruction by combining guided reading, basal reader, literature focus unit, literature circle, and reading and writing workshop programs. Gambrell– The role of motivation in literacy learning is important because interest in reading affects students comprehension. Gambrells seven rules of engagement are research based and are a good first step in promoting student's intrinsic motivation to read. 

Nuggets: In chapter 10, I really enjoyed reading about guided reading since it reminded me of what I am seeing in field experience currently. While the teacher works with each group of students on a rotation, the groups she is not working with get other tasks. One of the groups in my class got to play a game testing the literacy skill of making inferences. In Gambrell’s text, I appreciated reading the rule that students should engage with the text by discussing it freely with their friends! I used to love talking about books that I read with my friends because we always had such interesting opinions and things to say. Plus, we can bond over having the same thoughts.  

Readerly exploration and habit: Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying): Before you read, learn something about the author(s) of the assigned course reading(s) and note how what you learned impacts your motivation and/or your purpose for reading. 

Earlier this week, I could not get the assigned Gambrell text open. I decided to try looking up the author's name on the Messiah library database and found that Linda Gambrell has many pieces of writing. It looks like she has written around 5 books and plenty of articles! All of them surround themes of either motivation, reading engagement, or comprehension. She seems to have much specialized knowledge about student motivation. Once I found the article that was assigned for this week's reading about the rules of engagement, I was much more curious to see what she had to say. Her passion for the subject is clear and that makes me want to read her work even more. I also found online that she has a past as a reading specialist, teacher, and was  president of the International Reading Association and the Literacy Research Association! Knowing this, I have high expectations for this article. Learning about the author helped me to understand the text better because I could see how her passion truly impacted the way that she suggests we engage students in reading. Her tips are very practical and I know that they are based in research because of all of her qualifications!

I also read about Gail E Tomkins. In the beginning of our textbook she speaks a little bit about who she is. I like that she establishes that her identity “first and foremost” is teacher, and that she strives to understand her students and meet their expectations. She continues to explain that her students have taught her just as much as she has taught them. She has taught many teachers and has been writing college textbooks for 30 years, being careful to anticipate our questions while reading. With this in mind, my purpose for reading through chapter 10– Organizing for Instruction– changed to focus more on how Gail incorporated questions into her chapter and instruction in organizing for it! This helped me to understand the content of the chapter better because I saw how her questions throughout the chapter were designed to help us become better teachers and organize better for instruction. For example, on one page she asks, “How effective is my instructional program?” and this was answered with a checklist that teachers could use practically to evaluate their own organizing for instruction. 

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Jan. 30 Tompkins Ch.1

Julia Del Vecchio-- Readerly Exploration #2, Week 4

Main Idea: In order for teachers to be effective in helping their students reach their full potential in literacy, they must take a balanced approach to literacy. They know how students learn to read and write, scaffold appropriately, create a community of learners, and prepare and organize their instruction based on standards and knowledge of assessment.

Nuggets: I appreciated the box on page 9 which listed the multicultural booklist. This is such a helpful list. It also separates each section by Primary, middle, and upper grades. I love how organized this list is and will be using it when doing my TESOL internship senior spring. 

Readerly exploration and habit: Explore 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: Take yourself on a field trip to a place on campus that connects with the big ideas of your assigned reading

I was in a creative mood while reading for this weeks readerly exploration. I chose to take myself to a place on campus that I go to almost every day– Lottie. Chapter 1 in our Tompkins text was all about becoming an effective literacy teacher, and I felt that Lottie was a great example (in comparison to the other dining halls on campus) of an effective dining hall. I applied the big ideas in the reading to this dining establishment which I have listed and explained in the document below. 

Overall, this helped me to understand the content of this chapter better because I organized all of the concepts of what it means to be a quality, effective teacher in a whole new way. They were laid out differently in the book, and this helped these concepts which we have been thinking about for the past 5 months to stick in my brain better. I liked connecting the responsibilities of two very different careers as well because the chapter is a bit overwhelming with so much information on what you have to do as a teacher. In comparing it to other professions I feel more encouraged to do my best work as the Lottie workers do for me.

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Jan 23. Tompkins Ch 2 + 6

Julia Del Vecchio-- Readerly Exploration #1

Main Idea: Ch 2: Reading and writing are constructive, meaning making processes. Ch 6: The ability to read and write accurately, quickly, and with expression (known as fluency) can be developed through instruction, guided practice, and independent reading and writing.

Nuggets: While reading chapter 2, so many things stuck out to me. First, I remember reading The Giver and I absolutely loved that book! I liked the Mini Lesson to come up with literary opposites because all I could think about is how it would be such a great opportunity to learn from my students! Secondly, I remember a readers theatre performance that we did in 6th or 7th grade after reading the story of Esperanza Rising. The girls did their own play with costume changes and everything and the boys did their own; it was hilarious! Lastly, the point about using computers to write was interesting to me. I never used computers in middle school to write papers, it was always by hand. I think using a computer would be much easier, but I would also miss the traditional, old school sense of using a pencil and paper. Sadly, I do believe there are many downsides to technology for children these days. In chapter 6, i appreciated the section on prosody. It is no question that expression and phrasing play a huge part in understanding the meaning of the author. I would be interested in reading more about how to build students skills in this area.

Readerly exploration and 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: Based on your successes and struggles reading this text, write down two or three goals for yourself as a reader for your next reading assignment.

As I was reading, I was reflecting on how I really struggle to read textbooks like this. I’m glad that this is an option for a readerly habit and I think it will be a good one to start with this semester because it will get me thinking about how I can get the most out of these readings. I have never been the best at reading comprehension and it is hard to focus or be engaged when the readings are pages and pages of information. I don’t find that I retain most of it unless I am taking copious notes which takes hours, and it feels like wasted time. Sometimes the big picture is hard for me to pick out and so I read and overthink every sentence to try to see where it might fit into a big picture theme or main idea when I should just read through the whole text.

For my next reading assignment in a textbook like this, my goals are to:

Begin to make a list of things from the textbook that I actually want to incorporate in my future classroom– I think this will give me a lot more motivation to read and I will take more practical content from the book

Weed out the things that aren’t as important– If I am struggling to read a section and I’m not attaching any meaning to the words while reading over them, then its time to move on to a section which I can actually grow from to make better use of my time and keep my engagement with the text (I can return to the section im struggling with later) 

Either workout before reading, or read in the morning so that I can focus better/be more productive when I set out to read for long periods of time

I think this reflection was helpful in my understanding of this week's readings because it is (hopefully) a large step in becoming a better reader which is what this reading was all about. Just by setting reading goals for myself, I was able to connect more with the intent of the author of this literacy textbook. They obviously dedicated much time and effort to giving teachers more knowledge, and organized steps/systems to help make their students better readers (like explaining in detail the 5 steps of reading and writing in chapter 2, and supporting fluency development in chapter 6). 

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Nov 7. Silverman, Crandell, and Williams

Julia Del Vecchio– Readerly Exploration #7

Main Idea:

Silverman and Crandell– This study examined vocabulary instruction practices which have shown to improve vocabulary outcomes for children under certain conditions, and when implemented by teachers during both read-aloud and non-read-aloud time. 

Williams– This article advocates for the use of the word study approach to literacy development in K-12 classrooms. Williams provides 9 tips based on research to support implementation of this program.

Nuggets:

In Silvermans article, I enjoyed reading about teacher training! I was especially happy to discover that part of the training included making connections between storybook context and classroom experiences. During the beginning half of the semester, we talked about how moving information from working memory to long term memory involves making connections from previously learned/known information. It seems like the science was taken into consideration when making this training. I was also glad to read how much it impacted the students. They grew in receptive and expressive vocabulary over the course of a school year and outperformed the control class. 

I really appreciate how Williams begins her article with shout-outs to her incredible co researchers and lists their qualifications. What I found most important was her explanation of their obvious dedication to the field and to children's development of literacy. I also thought that using the frequently misspelled words in students' journals to organize spelling lists for the coming weeks was a great idea! 

Readerly Habit: Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying) Exploration: Choose one resource in the citations of the assigned reading(s), track it down and read it.

Reflection: For this week's readerly reflection, I chose to pick a reference in one of the assigned readings for this assignment. I really enjoyed reading Williams' article about the word study approach. One of the most interesting things that I learned from this article is that word study shows students how to use their knowledge of words to help them spell and decode unknown words. Another interesting thing that I learned is that sociocultural theories are a huge part of this research. I am passionate about the social and emotional wellbeing of students, so it made me happy to read about what sociocultural theorists believe, and how their research involves engaging students in observation, participation, and social interaction. I was able to find an article on sociocultural perspectives on literacy education by James Paul Gee. After reading it, I feel that I have gained more knowledge in the “New Literacy Studies” perspective and I could relate a lot of it to what we are talking about in classes this semester (such as the distinction between natural oral language and more learned and structured written language). The author expresses that we must understand the ways that children encounter and experience literacy in various social practices, and use this information to guide our teaching. Another interesting thing that I found by looking at the references in this article was that Cambourne’s “Toward an educationally relevant theory of literacy learning: Twenty years of inquiry” was also referenced in this writing! After participating in this activity I gained a more comprehensive knowledge of the academic community and the collaboration of researchers. I also was able to more deeply ponder over the reading which used these sources, and try to understand where each authors point of view overlapped.

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Oct 31 Hanford and Lloyd

Julia Del Vecchio– Readerly Exploration #6

Main Idea: Hanford– To set kids up for success in reading, educators must not resist the science which shows that teaching explicit phonics instruction is how children learn to read best. Lloyd– Rather than dwelling on the tension of the past debate, we must now discuss what explicit and systematic phonics instruction should look like because we have examined the clear science.

Nuggets: Hanford– Something that I related to in this article was the quote, “Education as a practice has placed a much higher value on observation and hands-on experience than on scientific evidence.” Sometimes in teaching, you plan one thing, and it just doesn't work. Teachers are constantly modifying and changing their instruction. I can see how at first, explicitly teaching phonics could have been a real struggle in the classroom, as interesting stories (such as the Frog one from Reeves perspective) would have been much more engaging and may have seemed like they were working. However, I also believe that teaching is a science as well as an art and as educators we must find ways to make the evidence based, data driven methods of instruction fun!

Lloyd– Something that I related to when reading this article is how hard it must be for children to not understand why their guesses are wrong. It does not matter what the teacher wants to do, it matters what is best for the students. Lloyd stressed this point from beginning to end of his article. What would give students a little more confidence and control is explicit instruction because it teaches them how to figure words out systematically. Lloyd mentions that this would give students more wins.

Readerly Habit: Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying) Exploration: As you read, annotate any questions that arise for you in the margins.

Reflection of readerly Exploration: This week I chose to record the questions that came up during reading the two of these articles. The reason that I chose this is because I believe it is always good to be asking questions and furthering research for the benefit of students. One of the things stressed in both articles was looking at scientific research and data to understand how students learn, and I believe that this is especially important in learning how to teach them. Many of the questions that I had can spark future research and would be interesting to look into. Writing down and thinking about these questions made me feel more involved in the issue at hand in these articles. I also understood the reading more because I ended up googling some of the topics of my questions and was able to read with a depth of knowledge on the topic of phonics instruction vs. whole language instruction presented. This exploration also led me to find some great phonics resources online as well.

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Oct 24 Bissex and Manyak

Julia Del Vecchio– Readerly Exploration #5

Main Idea: 

Bissex–  Teachers should aim to understand the depth of children's understanding and the huge task that writing is in order to be more aware of how they learn and tailor our instruction to their needs and allow them to guide their own learning. 

Manyak– Because of the importance of phonemes in children's acquisition and understanding of the alphabet, teachers must teach phonemic awareness effectively. This article explains that research shows effective phonemic instruction involves “a variety of activities combining phoneme segmenting and blending with letter–sound instruction” (Manyak, 2008).

Nuggets: 

Bissex– I really enjoyed learning about how children’s environments are saturated with language rules. Bissex defines instruction as explicit teaching, availability of information in the children's environment, and presence of reasons for them to engage in it. Both speaking using language and writing are very available in children's environments through adults who communicate and talk and everyday items which have meaning conveying writing. They both also have reasons to be engaged in, such as when a child wants more food or needs to do basic things like use the bathroom. They can use writing and reading to explain things that they are referencing or their drawings. This knowledge provides children with a basic system that is consistently revised and updated in their little minds. I never thought about how looking at a toothpaste tube showed us so much as children.

Manyak– I loved the research based activities provided for phonemic awareness in this article! I specifically enjoyed reading about the Say-it-and-move-it activity. I love that this involves some movement and kinesthetics as that is often an overlooked type of learning or just simply hard to integrate into classroom instruction. I like this too because it can be done as a whole group, small group, or individual activity. In my field placement, I have not seen anything like this done, but I can imagine how excited my mentor teacher might be to try it out. The kindergarteners I am with are just learning letter names and sounds so this will be beneficial now as Manyak explains.

Readerly habit: Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying)

Exploration: Before you read, learn something about the author(s) of the assigned course reading(s) and note how what you learned impacts your motivation and/or your purpose for reading.

Reflection of Readerly Exploration: 

Glenda L. Bissex is the author of “Watching Young Writers.” Upon researching more about her, I found that she’s the author of around 2 or 3 books. One of which is her most popular, called “Gnys at Wrk: A Child Learns to Read and Write.” This book is about her son's journey learning to read and write and according to it includes the first in-depth case study of a child’s confrontation with written language. It reveals much about how the child's mind works in this regard. Much of her writing has to do with research. Based on the description of this work of hers, it seems as though this author is very passionate about the subject of reading and writing development. Her research is fueled by a genuine interest and care for appropriate instruction which satisfies the developmental needs of children. After reading the article by Bissex, I understood a lot about her descriptions and investment in the children's drawings that she used in the article, and I appreciated her conclusion even more because I could sense that her love for her son was also how she felt about the kids that she teaches.

Patrick C. Manyak is the author of “Phonemes in Use: Multiple Activities for a Critical Process.” Upon researching more about him, I found that he has a PhD, and is currently teaching fifth grade students, and has written many works about literacy and enhancing vocabulary instruction (similarly to Bissex). He also does a lot of work with English Language learners so I wondered if he would say much about ELLs in his article about activities. After reading the article, I feel that my initial research on who Manyak is/Manyaks passions for teaching fifth graders and ELL students helped me to more deeply understood the activities he presented. He did a fantastic job of backing them with research but also just explaining how they might be presented and work in a classroom because he is a teacher himself, hands on and in the thick of the scene daily. I love this perspective and his contribution to

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Sept. 26 Fisher

Julia Del Vecchio-- Readerly Exploration #4

Main Idea: Chapter 1– Elementary students read and write most efficiently when instructed in a balanced literacy classroom which uses both informational and narrative texts, direct and dialogic instruction, and evidence based approaches in other areas. Chapter 7– To maximize development of independent reading habits, teachers must provide opportunities for students to actually read books that they like, in a variety of formats, and in various places, and for a long time.

Nuggets: I appreciated how Fisher discussed gradually increasing and prioritizing time spent reading in the classroom. My first grade teacher during sophomore year of field experience had her students sit on comfy chairs on the floor or wherever they wanted to do independent reading which got them excited for reading time. She had the students reading for about 10-15 minutes during center time, but also had them do activities based on smaller readings that they focused on throughout the week. One of these activities included creating illustrations for each page of the story and then presenting the illustrations in groups. I thought that she did a great job of giving students opportunities to grow in reading!

Reflection of Readerly Exploration: 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– Make a concept map or timeline of your comprehension of this text from when you started reading to when you read the last word.

For this week's readerly reflection I decided to make concept maps for each chapter. I thought it was a good way to organize all of the helpful content in preparing for creating a fruitful literacy environment. As I went through chapter 1 of Fisher's book, discussing “balance”,  I realized that I was taking very frequent notes. I thought it would be more efficient to chart the main ideas using colors to help me remember and for future reference. Two things that I wish I added were green squares for speaking and listening as part of the balanced literacy classroom, though I felt that those were implied and not specifically focused on throughout the chapter. As I went through chapter 7, I thought much about building my future classroom library. Something that really interested me was how much Fisher mentioned teachers who had their students reading things online. Books are not the only devices with which reading can occur. Whether we like it or not, we read all the time on electronics. I think looking for kid friendly material online is a good practice to establish to build familiarity and prepare students for adulthood. Having a comprehensive assortment of books for children to choose from has been a huge theme these two chapters. One of my biggest takeaways was that it is important for students to have access to not only narrative, but also informational texts as they begin to explore and experience "the biological, physical, and social world.” Though, narrative stories are good for students to analyze characters' actions and behaviors and learn socially and emotionally. I enjoyed creating concept maps for these chapters and thinking about what my future classroom library and reading habits are going to look like!

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Sept. 20 Katherine Wolf

Julia Del Vecchio-- Readerly Exploration #3

Main Idea: Comfort and absence of pain are not what make our lives truly good, and we must teach the children that “life can be hard and good at the very same time.”

Nuggets: I love how Katherine sees each of our lives as a story which is ultimately good. She also redefines what it means for something to be truly good. Let me explain what I realized from looking at life with this perspective. At the end of my life, it will have gone exactly the way that God wanted it to go. By nature, he cannot write a bad story that does not bring him glory at the end. And bringing him glory is what life is about. It is not about us. But the coolest thing ever is that God wants to share that glory with us. So in everything we go through, we can know that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God and interceding for us/pleading on our behalf, he is always with us, he loves us, and he wants the best for us which is sharing in his glory for eternity. Even though we sometimes can’t see in the moment how our lives are being used for the purpose God has made them for, we can have hope and joy in hardship because we know that he has equipped us “to do the hard in the good story he is writing”. Because of this, we must teach children that “life will be hard but good at the very same time.”

Reflection of Readerly Exploration: 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.

For this assignment I connected Katherine’s speech with a song by John Mark Pantana. The song is called “I Know Just What You Need” and the lyrics are written from God’s perspective. They are: 

"Every time

Yes every word

You've thought or dreamed

Inside your world

Oh I'm loving you

Your messy symphony

Every smile is just like a poem

My lovely child that I composed

Oh I've crafted you

Your every part is from me

I know just what you need

I know just what you’re feeling now

That constant little heartache

Is crying for a fire from my love again

Every fling

And every cry

You’ve had and poured out from your eyes

Oh I’m near to you

Just bring it all to me

Your every cells just like a home

That I can live and love and hold

Oh I’ve crafted you

Your every part is from me

I know just what you need

I know just what you’re feeling now

Your heart's inside of mine

And I’ll pour the wine that I made for you again

I know just what you need my love"

John did a beautiful job of articulating how God knows us, and unconditionally, unreservedly, and ferociously loves us. It made me think about the assignment that He has placed on each of our lives. Katherine explains that God has equipped us for this life with everything we need-- mostly himself because He sustains us.

I also thought about how just what we need might not be just what we want. One of the lyrics from another John Mark Pantana song called "Taste and See" (my favorite) is, “Sweeter than the honeycomb, richer than the wine, better than the finest things that we can taste in this life… survey all the earthy goods and they'll fail you every time.” Comfort in life does not grow us, but pain does, and our kids NEED to know that. What a connection these songs are to the deep "peace of conscience, joy of the holy spirit, fruition of his presence in this life and assurance of his face in the next” that Katherine discussed. Earthly comforts cannot satisfy like this hope can. In all of the unexpected, hurt, loss, and suffering, God is writing an ultimately good story that he has prepared us for and in which he is giving us exactly what we need (even though we may not realize it). We must go through hardship to realize our need for him to fill us... to realize that we must change who we are and live life with opened hands so that we can receive all of what he has for us. Overall, listening to this song helped me to view parts of Katherine’s speech in deeper ways; and gave me more of an appreciation for its message. Now, not only do I feel more comforted, but I feel a more urgent calling to share hope and love with my future students!

[juliadelvecchio]

Sep. 5 Fischer

Julia Del Vecchio-- Readerly Exploration #2

Main Idea: Children's marginalia demonstrate that they understand the media on which they are scribbling, are deeply engaged with it, and find it pleasurable to respond to the text as they explore the experience of drawing.

Nugget: The part of this article about Elijah’s interaction with his book by turning it a different way and then scribbling in between two characters' heads moved me. Thinking about Elijah being intrigued by that page in the book made me question why myself, and then I felt engaged along with him. His markings there seemed very intentional although they would have easily been brushed off by many as unimportant or meaningless. This gave me a whole new perspective on childrens’ marginalia, and it made me want to look in children's books for scribbles to see the places that caught the attention of a little, yet rapidly growing mind like Elijah’s.

Reflection of Readerly Exploration: I decided to head to Murray library to flip through some children's books and see if I could find any scribbles or markings made by a child. I thought that if I couldn’t find any books scribbled in by children, I would look for something that might sweep away a child’s attention, or even my own attention. I began looking through some books and one specifically caught my eye–  Zen Shorts by John J Muth. I picked this one up because the cover was beautifully illustrated with a light sunset and a gentle looking, dancing panda who was holding an umbrella. I was intrigued. As I flipped through, I was drawn in by the artistic style and colors used. Though there were no childlike markings in it, I paid attention to the way that the book made me feel. It made my world feel larger, more aesthetic, and took me out of reality a bit. This might have been what it felt like for Elijah to read Jake and the Neverland Pirates: A Skipping Day. I also can relate to Elijah’s wanting to share the happenings in the book with others. If I were with anyone, I would have shown them the cute and fun characters. Another book that caught my eye was one called Island Baby by Holly Keller. As I opened this one up, I saw two childlike scribbles on the page just before the beginning of the book. One of them looked partially like a star with a long trailing tail and the other was a lot of large, almost circular circles. Though the drawings didn’t make sense to me, I could see how the child reading this book may have been holding their pen and focusing on manipulating the angle of the book and its pages. Some of the pages were even a little torn. This allowed me to picture the child who read it even more invested in the pictures and story. This experience caused me to reflect on the article reading more deeply because I was able to put myself in the shoes of Elijah or Hannah as they read their books described in the article. Both children were locked in on the text before them, as was I; and I could better grasp that the marginalia was not only an expression of artistic exploration but a response to how the book made them feel and a response to the things that grabbed their attention.

[juliadelvecchio]

Aug. 29 Cambourne and Britsch & Meier

Julia Del Vecchio-- Readerly Exploration #1

Main Ideas Cambourne: Literacy classrooms should mimic authentic learning contexts. Britsch & Meier: Bringing literacy to life through the promotion of ownership and opportunities for social exploration within classrooms strengthens early childhood programs. 

Nuggets Cambourne: I relate to Cambourne when he talks about reflecting in his personal journal. I love journaling and will definitely be keeping a journal for my professional experience. Britsch & Meier: I like Meiers focus on the inclusion of students and use of small group format. I always performed well in small reading groups.

Reflection of Readerly Exploration 200-300 words I decided to talk with my friend, Faith, who is a psychology major for this week's activity. Faith teaches dance students, and puts much emphasis on Cambourne's condition of demonstration. Because of our conversation on the importance of learners receiving demonstrations– I better understood Cambourne's quote “learners are more likely to engage deeply with demonstrations given by someone they like, respect, admire, trust, and would like to emulate”. We explored the following questions: What are the qualities of an admirable teacher and how can our demonstrations draw students into deep engagement? We discussed and came to the conclusion that encouragement is one of the most important things in a student's learning experience. Encouragement makes students feel as if they are capable which eases anxiety and keeps them focused on their strengths in the context of learning. Stats was the dreaded psych class for Faith but the professor made all the difference because of her encouragement. She also mentioned that as a learner herself, responsibility is important for her too. It is not the teachers job to put the thing being learned into practice. Especially when it comes to dance, she often learns from making mistakes. Overall, this conversation helped me to understand Cambourne's points towards the end about what makes learners more likely to engage deeply with demonstrations.