mf1346

[mf1346]

Week 10

Due Date: 10/30

Week 10 : 

Articles:

Mesmer (2019), Chapter 2, “Assessement that Shows You What to Teach”

Mesmer (2019), Chapter 3, “Phonics Lessons for Real Literacy”

Big takeaway 1: Figure 2.2 breaks everything down into what grade should be learning what and at what point in that grade they should be learning the content. 

Big takeaway 2:That as teachers we need to be planning systematically and explicit lessons as well as  using inductive tension, providing helpful feedback and avoiding verbal clutter. 

Nugget 1: As a teacher you need to know how to organize content for kids; how to present it and paste it so that students will respond. You need answers to questions such as “Should I teach consonants or vowels first?” and “Should I be teaching our controlled valves or words with short vowels?”

Nugget 2: Do not be drawn into a forced choice about word analysis. ignore people who say that it is wrong to analyze words out of context or people who say that all children need is out of context phonics instruction. research simply does not support either of those positions, especially for beginning readers. 

Paragraph: 

For my multimedia experience I “took” myself On a field trip off campus which for me was my field placement. Which I'm not sure if that's completely considered a field trip but for me after reading the assessment chapter and looking at figure 2.2 where it breaks down when kids need to be learning this content, I couldn't think of a better place than to take a look inside the school district I'm in and in the classroom I'm in and seeing if there is alignment in their letter lessons. First I just read through the chapter and then I picked my multimedia based on figure 2.2, So I went into the field and kind of compared what Mesmer said the student should be learning to see if that's what they were learning in my school district. I think the thing I struggled with is that at the first half of kindergarten they talked about learning letters for your name and learning letter sound correlations and in my field placement I noticed a lot of separation between the letter names and letter sounds. My students really struggled with connecting the letter name with the sound because there's been a new push to focus on sound instead of letter name, Which I think is important for them to know the sound, however they still need to be making that connection. This task made me realize that every school has a different way of going about things and as a teacher I need to make sure that my students are on task with the school but also on task with what they need to be learning.

Multimedia :

[mf1346]

week 11

Due Date: 11/6

Week 11: 

Articles:

Mesmer (2019), Chapter 6, “

Big takeaway 1: Vowel digraphs are challenging for students to learn and understand. 

Nugget 1: It is critical to have activities where the students can practice and work out what they're learning; in stages of decoding, spelling and then reading. 

Paragraph: 

First I broke my reading down. There was a heading for every section and so after I would finish a section I would do a self-summary to help my knowledge for reading the next part. When it came to reading and looking at the graphs and organizers that they had on the pages I would normally look them over before I read the section during and then after. And those really broke down for me the author's purpose. I think the only thing that I really struggled with was just getting the motivation to sit down and read the textbook. Highlighting different parts that I think Incorporated the purpose of what Mesmer wanted to say was the easier half of it. I think overall what enlightened me in this chapter was how all of this builds on top of each other and the foundational knowledge that students have.  

This multimedia exploration that I chose was Extremely helpful in preparing for the project that I did with my group members on Beyond First sounds. This reflection set me up for success because I was able to articulate what was important for our project and what should be highlighted and how. I picked to do this one because I knew that it would be beneficial for me in the long run and I was successful in that. 

Multimedia : Excerpts from the chapter that reflect the author's purpose.

Overall purpose: How to teach properly and activities that can help your students with their growth

The purpose of the “decode it” phase is to create opportunities for students to be able to remember certain patterns in words or to give students the chance to compare words. During the decode it phase, it is important to emphasize the pattern that will be addressed and focus on it with the students. A few things you could use to support decoding are: word sorts, word wheels, word changers (use sticky notes to change letters) , and this or that practice (which word fits the pattern). When it comes to spelling, students' understanding of patterns that are being taught is their ability to spell those patterns. This also includes synthesizing which is when students can spell the various patterns (matching each pattern with the proper word.) As for Decodables, they are a great way to assess and track each student's progress by identifying this sound/letter pair by checking their book for highlighted marks.

[mf1346]

week 9

Due Date: 10/23/23

Articles:

Mesmer (2019), “Introduction”

Mesmer (2019), Chapter 1, “Know the Code: Teacher’s Reference on How English Works”

Big takeaway 1: What is phonics? Why are we teaching it? 

Big takeaway 2: Understanding and Learning about how the english system of writing works so that you teach properly and support well

Nugget 1: The brain wants and needs a “big picture,” and it wants and needs a strong Filing system to store information around the big picture. 

Nugget 2: Looking at the side by side of oral language and written language, I haven't really looked at it side by side and been able to analyze it and I really understand now why it's harder for students to take what they hear and write it on the page. 

Paragraph:

For my multimedia, I decided to make a list of three or four questions about literacy classrooms that come up for you as you read. Then, do some preliminary research on one of them. First I started off by going through the chapter and looking at the headings of the sections and the subheadings. After I did all of that I went and read through the article, after I looked at all of the videos that are attached in the book. While I was doing all of this I was writing questions or writing things that stood out to me in the chapter. The first question I came up with was extremely easy for me but the other two were slightly more difficult because I was really stuck on why I personally don't remember having phonics lessons in my educational background and how some of these terms were in this book I couldn't even properly define. It was very enlightening to realize that if I don't remember these lessons I want my students to have the proper phonics instruction. Making these questions helped me to realize what my goals are as a teacher and it also helped me to realize big pictures in the text. It also very much reminded me of why I want to be a teacher and why I feel it's so important and I feel called to teach the younger grades because these are such foundational concepts.  

Multimedia: 

Questions 

Why do I not remember phonics lessons and teaching in my schooling career? 

How can I best implement this into my own classroom? 

Should we be prioritizing Ela and phonics instruction earlier in students' careers then we are right now? 

Research: 

For starters this book came out in 2017 and I was in high school at that point in my schooling career. I've also found that there's lots of debates on how to teach phonics or how we should be teaching ELA and most of these debates have come up since I have exited Elementary School meaning I'm getting the education that a lot of people are now navigating against. For example there are a lot of opinions on the topics of science of reading and balanced literacy and which one is better and which one is more effective. In the early 2000s, educators believed phonics were the correct method to teach reading. The same educators who believed phonics were the correct method disapproved of the whole-language approach to reading instruction.

[mf1346]

week 8

Due date: 10/9/23

Articles:

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 2, “Whole-Class Reading Instruction: High-Level Support for Learning”

Sipe (2002), “Talking Back & Talking Over: Young Children’s Expressive Engagement During Read-Aloud Storybooks” (CANVAS)

Big takeaway 1: Supporting students with high levels of learning in a whole class setting is incredibly important. 

Big takeaway 2: Understanding how to express engagement with students while reading stories 

Nugget 1: Shared reading and interactive read-alouds have a big difference in what the students see. In a read-aloud, we may show pages of the text like Ms. Matlovsky did, but the focus is not on students reading along as the teacher reads. As such, read-alouds are very useful in building students’ listening comprehension, vocabulary, and knowledge base.

Nugget 2 : A student’s culture context can influence on their expressive engagement in stories

Paragraph: For this exploration, I decided to write down three goals (2 for my reading assignment and 1 for teaching) based on your successes and struggles reading this text, for myself as a reader for my next reading assignment. First, I read the article as a whole and then I went back to the parts of the article that really engaged me and the sections where I knew I wanted to grow and use in the future. I am using the Sipe article “Talking Back & Talking Over: Young Children’s Expressive Engagement During Read-Aloud Storybooks.” I really enjoyed this article as I love reading books in the classroom and like reading in my personal time. I struggled more with writing goals for my personal reading journey (for my next reading assignment) as opposed to thinking about creating goals for my future classroom. It was enlightening to create goals for myself again instead of for my future classroom or goals I will complete in the classroom to benefit me future wise (TEP weekly goals). I feel like this readerly exploration helped me better comprehend what I read and deepen my mastery of course content by helping me see how I can apply this to my current life as it is right now, not just future wise. I feel like alot of our assignments right now are to benefit future us so it was nice to take a step back and work on now. 

Multimedia: Goals 

The second point in the article was talking back to the story or characters. So my goal is to make sure I am reflecting and “talking” back to the text. 

The third point was Critiquing/controlling. Now as I can’t suggest alternatives in plots, characters, or settings. Since that is not appropriate for my “age range”, my goal is to critique the article and see how I think it applies and “works” and the successes of it and struggles. 

As for my classroom, my goal is to make sure I have a classroom environment that encourages students to dramatize, talk back, critique/control, insert and take over.

[mf1346]

week 7

Due date: 10/2/23

Articles:

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 4, “Collaborative Reading and Writing: Learning in the Company of Peers,” (pp. 82-96)

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 5, “Small-Group Reading Instruction: Targeted Support through Guided Learning,” (pp. 114-128)

Big takeaway 1: Meaningful learning requires balancing purpose (deliberative practice and knowledge building) with a growing capacity for our learners to self-manage. In the sections that follow, we will examine each of the elements needed so that our students continue learning outside our direction.

Big takeaway 2: How to properly create and instruct small group reading instruction/interventions

Nugget 1: Building capacity of self regulation through a month program being broken down by 1st 10 days, 2nd 10 days (For older students and younger) 

Nugget 2: The instructional contingency rubric for increasing levels of help  

Paragraph: First I found a concept map template to use for this activity and then I wrote the overall concept of the article and wrote it in the middle. After that I put concepts or details about the article in the other circles. I put the bigger topics in the bigger circles and in the smaller circles I wrote the smaller details. It took me back to my elementary school days when we used to do them pretty frequently in ELA, so it was pretty easy in the sense I knew what to do but deciding what was the most important information in the whole chapter was a bit tricky. It reminded men to make sure that my students understand what the most important concepts are and the key information. This activity better helped me understand the text by just focusing on the most important information and concepts that I will need it in order to have the article impact me and be able to have a conversation with peers about. It reminded meof all the different ways we used to interpret knowledge when we were young and how much it was actually affected.It also helped me to be reminded of how I can help my students learn how to pick out important information to help them be successful and confident in learning. 

Multimedia: concept map

[mf1346]

Week 6

Due Date: 9/25/23

Articles: 

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 1, "Defining Balance, Finding Balance"

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 7, "Independent Reading:

Practicing, Applying, and Extending Learning"

Big Take away 1: Balanced literacy learning requires maintaining equilibrium across reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing, making sure that students have access to instruction in foundational skills (phonics, fluency) and vocabulary and comprehension. As well as varying instructional delivery modes; direct, dialogic, and independent.

Big take away 2: The goal of reading instruction is to ensure that students become independent readers and research shows struggling readers spend more time doing activities about reading. 

Nugget for article 1: The terms constrained skills (once they have been mastered, there is no room for additional growth) and unconstrained skills (these are continued to develop across our lifetimes.  

Nugget for article 2: One rule I learned is that students should not make more than 3-5 errors every 100 words when reading independently.

Paragraph: For my activity I decided to document my initial response to what I read. I considered how the ideas you read about made you feel and what they made you think about. - I wrote for independent reading. I really connected to this article while I was reading it so it just made sense for me to document my initial response to the article. So I just wrote down my thoughts to the main things that reminded me of school or just was interesting to me. Which also helped me to determine the main ideas and my nuggets of things I learned. It was pretty to just write all my thoughts out and then organize them into a paragraph. It reminded me of when we had to talk to the text in elementary school but it was nice to be able to just write my thoughts and not have guidelines like we did in upper elementary school. This activity helped me better comprehend what you read and deepen your mastery of course content by helping me connect to the article in a personal way, through this I was able to deepen my understanding because I related it to my experience in elementary school and the experiences I have had in field so far. 

Multimedia: Initial thoughts: This article is reminding me of my elementary school years and learning how to read. Talking about little reading book bags I can remember doing this in elementary school and our books in our bags had to do with whatever reading intervention group we were in. This also reminds me of being in the classroom because in the second half of my sophomore year the teacher I had had book bags in the back of the kids chairs, however it was the same book. She also had them silently read to their stuffed bears that they had at school. During the time that they would read to the Bears is when we would go around just like Mrs Ross in the article and check their reading comprehension and their reading skills. As for selecting the right book, I do not recall ever learning this in school, it was more just like “oh you pick books with a green circle and sally picks blue” So in my classroom I want to make sure that I help my students properly learn how to select a book for themselves. In elementary school we had “reading conferences” but they were not called that. I can remember doing all of those “tests” with my teachers and them writing down everything. When I was little I was super shy and did not talk so I know that this was probably hard for my teachers to deal with but they never got angry at me (that I know of.) 

[mf1346]

Week 4

Due date: 9/11/23

Articles: Wessel-Powell, Kargin & Wohlwend (2016), “Enriching and Assessing Young Children’s Multimodal Storytelling”

Leong & Bodrova (2018), “Why Children Need Play” Scholastic (2018), “Building Language and Literacy Through Play”

Big take-away article 1 – Learning how to implicate and strategies multimodal storytelling in your classroom

Big take-away article 2 – How dramatic play can increase and benefit academic skills

Big take-away article 3 – You can do create interactive play to promote language and literacy

Nugget for article 1: Expansion of writers’ workshop through dramatic storytelling, including a performance checklist for assessing children’s written and embodied expression

Nugget for article 2: Children create a pretend scenario by negotiating and talking to peers and use props in a symbolic way. Children create specific roles-and rules-for pretend behavior and adopt multiple themes and multiple roles.

Nugget for article 3: This ability to separate the function of an object from the object itself (using a pencil to stir, pretending you stir with a spoon) is the foundation for more advanced symbolic representations, such as the written word as a representation of a spoken word.

Paragraph:

I choose to learn something about the author of the assigned course reading(s) and use that to draw conclusions about the motivation behind the reading or the credibility/quality of the writing. I wanted to know more about who wrote this article and see if this article was just a one time research or if this is something the author’s were truly invested in. I looked at the authors and saw that both Leong & Bodrova had Ph. D. I did a quick google search at 1st of the authors individually and looked at the same sites who had a bio or information on them. Deborah J. Leong. has her Ph. D in Psychological Studies in Education and Dr. Bodrova holds a Ph.D. in Child Development and Educational Psychology. They both helped create a program based on Vygotskian and post-Vygotskian theories of learning and Luria's theories of brain development, hence the article we were assigned to read. I thought it was very engaging to look into what these ladies have studied and what they are involved in to know that they do truly care about this topic. It was not just a one-time thing, they are actively developing and creating content about child development. There ar5e also links in the article to lists of books they recommend which I think is a great addition since they have done research on topics like this.  

Multimedia: https://toolsofthemind.org/about/history/