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Readerly Exploration 7 Semester 2

Mar. 20- Manyak

Take Aways: 

Manyak- This article discusses multiple strategies for vocabulary instruction and provides ways to help students better process the meanings of words. 

Nuggets:

Manyak-  I found the section about deep processing and how it is vital for students to be able to deeply process new word meanings. 

Readerly Exploration: Have a conversation with someone in the class

For this week’s readerly exploration I decided to have a conversation with Morgan about her thoughts on this reading. It was very interesting to hear her thoughts on particular topics and is always interesting to see someone else’s point of view on things. By talking to Morgan about the main ideas of this reading I can better understand how to create these conversations within my future classroom in order for students to share their ideas and understand that it is okay to have differences of interpretation. I found the least compelling section to be establishing efficient yet rich routines for introducing target words because I feel that as teachers this is already imbedded in our minds.  Morgan found that the discussion about teaching dictionary definitions was not correct because we can include dictionary definitions in a way that will be helpful for students. We both found that the most compelling discussion of the article was fostering universal participation and accountability because as teachers we are always searching for ways to have students participate in topics that are not necessarily interesting to them and discusses how we can use assessment that is relevant to student learning and procedural usage of vocabulary. 

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Readerly Exploration 6 Semester 2

Apr. 12- Park

Take Away: 

Park- In this article teachers are incorporating visualization into a girls book club in order to discuss how they are able to see people and the world through texts.  

Nugget:

Park- I found it very interesting that the girls in the book club were visualizing race about the character rather than just what the character would look like in other aspects such as clothing. 

Readerly Exploration: View through particular lens

For this week’s readerly exploration I decided to view this article through the lens of a child life specialist. In the hospital we are often given very minimal information initially about a child or their family. The way that this article discussed visualization through a story of characters was very interesting to me because in the hospital we are given a patients name/age and reason for being there. In these cases we often find ourselves making visualizations and imagining what the patient will look like before ewe even enter the room. I have found myself doing this many times in a book as well so it is very interesting to understand that we do this in situations other than just books. When teaching students it is important for us to understand that students will make these visualizations and it is important to discuss them to see how other students in the class are viewing certain characters or places.

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Readerly Exploration 5 Semester 2

Feb. 20- Tompkins chapter 9

Take Aways: 

Tompkins 9- This chapter discussed how different genres affect students comprehension and discusses three text factors.

Nuggets:

Tompkins 9-  The key to writing a successful poem is a temporary framework so that students are able to focus on ideas rather than on the rhyme scheme.

Readerly Exploration: 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. 

For this week’s readerly exploration I decided to make a character sketch of someone I know that represents something I found very important and interesting in this chapter. I drew a picture of my 11th grade English teacher who was a very poetic person and loved using poems as a way to help students comprehend complex topics beyond just the writing of poetry. The drawing shoes him teaching us a lesson on a book that we read while he’s holding his book all about poetry standing at his podium. I remember being tasked multiple times with writing a poem about books that we read. At the time I thought this was silly, however I still remember those books and some of the silly poems that I created. I will take this into my classroom as a teacher because writing and using poetry can be used in so many different forms for really any topic. 

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readerly Exploration 4 Semester 2

Feb 13- Tompkins chapter 8

Take Aways: 

Tompkins 8- This chapter focused on comprehension strategies for understanding complex texts while helping readers engage in the text and think about what they are reading.  

Nuggets:

Tompkins 8-  While reading something I found the most interesting was the section about comprehension strategies online because this is something that I have never explicitly though about. The text discusses that teachers need to be aware of the fact that achievement gaps still occur in the digital world.  

Readerly Exploration: 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. 

For this week’s readerly exploration I decided to document my initial response to what I have read and consider how these ideas made me feel. Directly after reading this text I was feeling happy that I know these strategies now, but upset in a way that I don’t feel as if all of these were taught to me when in school. Personally, when I was in elementary school teachers were so heavily focused on the speed that students were reading that comprehension was often put on the back burner. As a student in 5th grade I was put in reading support because I was able to comprehend very well, but was reading to slow. Now as an educator I feel as if comprehension should be the main focus rather than how quickly our students can read a passage. While speed is important I do not believe that it is more important that comprehension. This chapter was very helpful in understanding how I can best assist my students and made me think about the various setting they will need these strong comprehension strategies such as online. 

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Readerly Exploration 3 semester 2

Jan 30- Tompkins chapter 1

Take Aways: 

Tompkins 1- This chapter explains the steps to take in order to become an effective literacy teacher that can respond to all students needs including ELL students, those struggling, and those who exceed expectations. 

Nuggets:

Tompkins 1-  Teachers must provide instruction that meets the needs of students rather than just teaching what they are handed at the pace they are suggested to teach at. 

Readerly Exploration: Take yourself on a field trip to a place off campus that connects with the big ideas of your assigned reading(s).

For this week’s readerly exploration I decided to take myself on a field trip off campus that connects with a big idea from this week’s reading.  When thinking about where connects to effective literacy for me I think of work.  Working at a child care center I am surrounded by teachers that have the job of introducing literacy to all age levels. While in the infant room I was sitting on the floor with a child while they looked at the fish and “talked”. I realized that this is part of literacy and the child is beginning to connect the world around with sounds or words. While she can’t read yet or talk she is beginning the process of all of these ideas. When becoming an effective literacy teacher I think it is important to realize when literacy begins. All children move at different paces but no matter what we as teachers have the responsibility to teach them all at a pace that allows them to succeed. We also must let children explore ideas that are interesting to them. 

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Readerly Exploration 2 (spring sem)

Jan 23- Tompkins chapter 2 and 10

Take Aways: 

Tompkins 2- Teachers must foster and promote early literacy development in reading/writing as well as understand the stages of literacy development as students become good readers and writers.   

 Tompkins 10- Explains the 5 reading processes that include: prereading, reading, responding, exploring, and applying that are implicated in order to ensure student growth and comprehension. 

Nuggets:

Tompkins 2- Students understanding of the purpose of reading and writing  reflects how written language is used within their community. (pg. 53)

 Tompkins 10- Strategies are part of information-processing theory whereas skills are automatic and occur without control or direct awareness. (pg. 309)

Readerly 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 week’s readerly exploration I decided to pick a song that communicates similar big ideas of both assigned readings this week. The one big idea that I took away from both readings was that our ultimate goal is to teach students independence and create confident/able readers and writers. The song that came to my mind for becoming independent and able is Flowers by Miley Cyrus. By identifying a song to help me connect with one big idea of these chapters I am able to put a different meaning or level of understanding to the text. In the song Miley discusses how she can do everything on her own which for me really relates to what we ultimately want students to be able to do. We are teaching them using all of these steps and ideas while also giving them room to succeed on their own without taking the joy and power away from them. This will help me in the future to better remember these ideas and keep in mind that while we must teach we have the ultimate goal of letting our students free to succeed on their own. With us monitoring their progress along the way and guiding them they will all be able to succeed on their own. 

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Readerly Exploration 1 (Spring Sem)

Tompkins (2018). Literacy for 21st Century: A Balanced Approach Edition: 7th 

Brighton, et. al. (2015), “Advanced Readers in Reading First Classrooms Who Was Really “Left Behind”? Considerations for the Field of Gifted Education” 

Jan 16- Brighton,  Tompkins  

Take Aways: 

Brighton- Advanced readers are often left behind and studies found that in the span of three years they are the students that grew the least. 

 Tompkins- It is important to integrate classroom assessment within instruction to monitor and determine reading levels/literacy learning by using the four step guide of planning, assessing, evaluating, and reflecting because high-stake assessments do not provide information to guide daily instruction.

Nuggets:

Brighton- RF schools help to paint a clearer picture about what reading instruction looked like during a federally funded intervention initiative and can help provide useful context for future work in this area. 

 Tompkins- High-stakes testing is different from classroom assessment and provide little information for day to day decisions that must be made, but do provide judgment for schools, students, administrators, and teachers. 

Readerly Exploration: Before you read, skim the text for unfamiliar terms. Then take time to look up those terms. 

For this week’s readerly exploration I decided to look up some unfamiliar terms in the Brighton article before reading.  While I was skimming the text there were only two terms that I did not really know. Because of this I also decided to look up three terms that I know the definition of but was interested to know what google defined them as. What I found was that the google definitions varied widely from the definitions that I have learned during education classes. The five words I looked up included: advanced readers, basal reading, differentiated instruction, covariates, and fidelity. By looking these words up I was able to understand the words that I did not know the meaning of and understand other possible definitions for words that I already knew. This allowed me to better understand the article without confusion. Brighton examines the idea that advanced readers are often left behind resulting in these readers growing the least over time. While I do not remember what if any instruction was given to advanced readers in my elementary school I do not believe that they were given any special instruction to match their reading level. If this is the case they would most likely become bored and therefore not grow their skills over time. The topic that Brighton and Tompkins discuss is a critical to understand the potential risk we place advanced readers at by not challenging them and meeting their reading needs. 

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Readerly Exploration 7

Nov 7- Rasinski, Applegate et. al 

Take Aways: 

Rasinski- When taught properly fluency can provide a significant positive impact on reading achievement for all students.

 Applegate et. al.- Fluency and comprehension must go together in order to provide meaning for readers and allow for use of skills together rather than separate.  

Nuggets:

Rasinski- “Students’ excessively slow reading requires double and triple the time of more skilled readers to make it through the same reading assignment.” I experienced this in middle and beginning of high school.

 Applegate et. al- “In the old nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and broke into many pieces.” This really spoke to me and allowed me to think about this article in the simplest way possible. 

Readerly Exploration: Take yourself on a field trip to a place on campus that connects with the big ideas of your assigned reading(s)

For this week’s readerly exploration I decided to take myself on a field trip to a place on campus that connected with the ideas Applegate et. Al shares. I decided to go to the maker space where I spend a lot of time doing school work and thinking of ways to help the students in my classroom become better readers. Throughout elementary school so much focus was placed on us to be speed readers and readers that could just recite words rather than actually comprehending what we were reading. Every time I would be assessed for reading I always got low fluency scores because I focused more on comprehension. This led to me being placed in a reading class to speed up my reading and just forget about comprehension. Looking back this really damaged my want to read and made reading a chore to me. Since I was never taught how to read fluently and also comprehend I had to teach myself this skill as I got older. Looking back on that now as I begin teaching I believe that is very important to teach fluency and comprehension together in order to create truly good readers. The maker space is somewhere that I have been able to do a lot of research on ways to teach reading, share ideas with classmates, and make activities for my students that will allow them to put all of the pieces together and be the best readers. 

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Readerly Exploration 6

Oct 31- Hanford, Lloyd 

Take Aways: 

Hanford- Educators will fail children in learning to read if they are not taught the science of teaching children to read. 

Lloyd- Through teaching children semantic cues, syntactic cues, and orthographic cues we aid them in students in becoming successful readers. 

Nuggets:

Hanford- “For many teachers, the science of reading training was overwhelming at first.” This quote really stuck out to me because personally thinking about having to teach students to read right now in my education seems very overwhelming and unsure of where to even start. 

Llyod- Something I found really important from this article was systematic and explicit. The article describes what both are in a way that allows both educators and parents to understand what they needed to do in order to be successful in these forms of reading education. 

Readerly Exploration: 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. 

For this week’s readerly exploration I decided to document the initial response to what I have read within the Hanford article. While reading this article it was shocking to think about the numbers in a place right in our backyard.  When I began reading I took a moment to think about what I know when it comes to teaching children to read. Right now in my education I could not tell you the exact way in which we should teach a child to read or how we can create successful readers. After reading this article I have a greater understanding of how children learn to read and better understand the science behind it. By beginning to understand this I am able to better help students through whole group, small group, and one on one instruction. The article explains that when reading instruction is organized around a defined progression of concepts kids are able to become better readers. As educators it is our responsibility to read our students quality books in order to help them grow their vocabulary and understand what words mean. Through heavy emphasis on explicit phonics early on students will be better set up for becoming successful readers. 

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Readerly Exploration 5

Oct 24- Bissex, Manyak 

Take Aways: 

Bissex- Students grow their writing ability at different rates, but as educators we need to allow children room to grow within their writing and ask questions in order for them to make progress. 

Manyak- “Phenomes in use” allows for phonemic use in many different activities greatly enhancing students phonemic awareness and letter-sound relationships within reading and writing words. 

Nuggets:

Bissex- I found this article to be very interesting due to the fact that being in a kindergarten room for placement this semester I see the differences of all my students writing ability. I have been able to see how much they’ve grown in their writing ability by asking questions and asking for help to get better. 

Manyak- I found it very interesting to read through the activities listen and think about how they relate to what I’ve seen in field so far. My mentor teacher uses say-it-and-move-it and beginning-middle-end frequently. 

Readerly Exploration: 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.

For this week’s readerly exploration I decided to think about the success and struggles I ran into while reading. Phonemes in use really caught my attention because teaching and understanding phonemic awareness is one thing that I would really like to improve on. While I understand what it is I have not always fully understood how to teach it. After reading this article I feel as though I have a better starting point for teaching phonemic awareness through use of different activities. This will allow me to better help my students improve their reading, writing, and understanding as they grow. One struggle that I ran into while reading this article was that I found myself very distracted thinking about how I have seen this in my experience. While it’s not a bad thing to make connections I feel as though I was not able to fully read through without getting side tracked. One goal I have for my next reading assignment will be to jot my thoughts down on the side or just mark where a connection popped into my head. This way I can go back once I’ve read the whole article and really process what I read and make connections. Another goal that I have for the next article I read is to preview the article. I typically preview articles, but did not for this one. I find it easier to process the articles when I know what I am going to read and have some idea of what the article will be about. Finally, I would like to try listening to the next articles we are assigned to read. To this point I have just been reading on my own, but am interested to see if listening allows me to better retain the articles. 

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Readerly Exploration 4

Oct 10- Fisher, er. al chapter 2 and Lawrence Sipe

Take Aways: 

Chapter 2- Whole group instruction should be used to introduce new information before releasing students to apply the information alone or in a group setting. 

Sipe- By allowing children to show engagement in expressing and performative ways all students are able to better connect with stories. 

Nuggets:

Chapter 2- Something that sparked my interest from this chapter was the 8 steps that should be followed for a direct instructional lesson. Through reading these I was able to make connection between the ideas that we learn in literacy class as well as instructional design and how they should be implemented in a classroom while teaching literacy. 

Sipe- “This spontaneous dramatization demonstrates participation in the story by imitating and physically interpreting what is going on in it.” This is something I found really interesting because often times teachers just read books. But by allowing our students and initiating movement of the story children can get so much more out of it than if we just sit them down and read to them. 

Readerly Exploration: Take yourself on a field trip to a place off campus that connects with the big ideas of your assigned reading(s).

For this week’s readerly exploration I decided to take myself on a field trip to work. I work at a daycare and spend a lot of time reading books to children as well as singing and dancing. Sipe writes about how we can get students involved with the stories in many different ways such as dramatizing, talking back, critiquing/controlling, inserting, and taking over. At work I frequently give students a chance interact with the stories through prediction and thinking about other ways the story could have gone. When I read books to my preschool kids it is a lot of fun to be dramatic with the story and allow them to feel entertained/involved through taking over. Through reading this article I was able to better understand why we do these things when we read to younger children and why we want to get them involved in different ways. It allows them to feel like they are truly part of the story. However, this got me thinking about field placements and how as students get older I have not seen these ideas as much. Once students get to first grade it seem as though teachers are rushing through the content more and don’t spend much time to read to students or get them involved in reading. 

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Readerly Exploration 3

Sep 19- Wessel and Powell, Scholastic, Leong and Bordrova

Take Away’s

Wessel and Powell- Multimodal story telling allows children to engage with literacy in their own creative ways. 

Scholastic- Children learn through play meaning that educators need to provide children with both familiar play objects/situations as well as unfamiliar objects/situations.

Leong and Bordrova- Play is an essential part to cognitive and social development.

Nuggets

Wessel and Powell- Something I found very interesting and neat about this article was the performance put on by the three girls. It was cool to see what props they created and you can tell how much time they spent on creating the story line. They were able to demonstrate understanding in story telling through a way that was more exciting/engaging than just sitting down writing a story on paper that no one but the teacher will ever read. This is also a really cool way to engage a full class because they get to see each other’s work and ideas in action. 

Scholastic- “if you have to take children to the bathroom across the hall, you can help them go quietly by asking them to pretend that they are little mice. Suggest that they walk in such a way that they would not wake up a cat who is hiding in the hall.” Before this class literacy and play were not something that I really put together, however thinking about it now I realize that I do frequently. This quote was one that I really found interesting because working in a preschool classroom I often say “lets tiptoe up the hallway as quiet as we can like little mice” or “let’s take big giant steps up the hallway like dinosaurs” and can now understand that that is part of literacy. 

Leong and Bordrova- Something I learned from this article was that there is such thing as unproductive play. I have always just assumed that all play had some type of learning experience to come from it. 

Readerly Exploration

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.

For this exploration I decided to share something I found interesting form the Why Children Need Play article. My mom is an early childhood teacher so she is able to think about things in an educators view and explain things to me from her view. After reading this article I was left with the question of why the article describes arguing and repetitive role play to be unproductive play. My initial though was if children are arguing in a way that involves reasoning then isn’t that productive? However within listening to my mom’s thoughts I realized that I was thinking about the situation from an adult point of view where when we argue we share reasons for why we believe we are correct. I failed to consider the fact that children often just argue back and forth saying “I’m right you’re wrong” or “no I want to be the mom.” As for the repetitive role play my mom compared it to going to a job where you are just doing the same thing every day. You rarely learn something new or outside of what you know. Being able to hear my mom’s reasoning and reread the article thinking from a young child’s perspective I was able to better understand the importance of switching up play for our students and giving them new ideas to engage in. Ultimately being given the same information in a different context allowed me to fully understand what the article was saying.  

Evidence

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Readerly Exploration 2

Sep 21- Katherine Wolf

Take Away: 

Katherine Wolf- Life is hard and full of challenges but through faith life is still full of joy and good. 

Nugget:

“Life is goodhard.” This saying really stood out to me because these are two words that I have never thought of putting together. However listening to Katherine Wolf explain that life will be hard but it does not have to fall apart and be terrible just because it is hard. This has given me a perspective as a future teacher that instead of pretending with our students that life is either great or hard we should be teaching them that life will be hard but still good. No matter what challenges we face there will still be good and God has made good in our lives even though the tough times. 

Readerly 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.

Katherine Wolf’s words really reminded me of the song A-O-K by Tai Verdes. Katherine Wolf discusses the main idea that life will be hard and will through challenges our way but at the same time life can be so full of joy and happiness. In the song A-O-K Tai sings “I’ve had terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad days but I’m a G, can’t you see that I will always be A-O-K.” These lyrics closely remind me of the message that Katherine is spreading. This song is one that I really like to listen to when I’m having a tough day or just need a little reminder that life is hard but it will be ok. After listening to Katherine Wolf speak I feel the same way in a sense that life has challenges and sometimes you won’t understand why something went the way it did but at the same time life can bring joy and happiness. For me personally, being able to connect Katherines video with this song helped me to simplify what Katherine is saying. By understanding Katherines words I am able to better understand that my role as an educator is not to tell my students everything will either be happy or sad. Because the truth is life can be happy and sad at the same time. When life is hard we have to look for the positives that are also occurring while embracing everything that is going on. 

Evidence

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Readerly Exploration 1

Aug 29- Cambourne and Britsch and Meier

Take Away’s:

Cambourne- Literacy classrooms should mimic authentic learning contexts 

Britsch and Meier- Literacy learning and literacy communities are important for literacy ownership, literacy as an inclusive process, and thinking processes in literacy involvement. 

Nuggets:

Cambourne- “I was continually surprised and confused by students who didn’t seem able to learn the simplest concepts associated with reading…who nevertheless showed evidence of being able to learn and apply much more complex knowledge and skill in the everyday world.” This quote from Cambourne in the beginning of the article really stood out to me and shocked me that he as a teacher and researcher he initially thought this way. When I read that quote the first thought that popped in my head was as teachers it’s our job to make sure that we find ways all children are able to learn concepts; even the ideas we don’t think will/should be challenging. 

Britsch and Meier- This article stood out to me because I work in a PreK classroom and I am able to connect how the teachers I work with implement literacy and how this article suggests literacy is implemented early on.  One thing from the article that I have personally observed is teaching with art. There are many occasions where students draw/write their own stories.

Readerly Exploration: Learn something about the author of the assigned course reading.

When I first read this article I spent a little bit of time trying to figure out why his name sounded so familiar. After researching I realized it's because when I took child development we spent a week learning about Cambourne and his Conditions of Learning. Within researching Brian Cambourne I learned a lot about his background and how he got to where he currently is now which is a Principal Fellow at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales Australia. I learned that Brian began his teaching career working in different mainly one-teacher primary schools for nine years before moving on to further his academics. During further research on Cambourne, I was able to learn how exactly the teaching of literacy today is shaped by Cambourne. Cambourne’s Conditions of Literacy Development set the stage for how we teach literacy in PreK and kindergarten. I have seen these 8 conditions in place while working in a PreK classroom and have been able to learn what as teachers we should model in order to gain students' interest in literacy. Learning about Brian’s background and learning where he began his career as well as how far he has come shows how passionate Brian is about teaching educationally relevant literacy. In reading this article written by Brian I am able to see how he uses the condition of learning within in his idea that literacy within classrooms should mimic authentic learning concepts. Through having a past understanding of Cambourne’s 8 Conditions of Literacy Development and learning about where Cambourne began his teaching career I was able to fully understand the article and why Cambourne has a passion for studying literacy over different subjects.

Evidence: http://www.cambournesconditionsoflearning.com.au/about-brian-cambourne.html