Discussions

• After reading the Almasi article on A New View of Discussion, I realized that my teacher uses mostly a recitation approach to discussions. There are active discussions that happen all across the subjects, but for the most part they are lead by the teacher, with mostly a IRE approach as was discussed in the article. My mentor teacher mostly asks questions that have specific answers, and when there is someone in the discussion other than herself that acts as a inquisitor, she offers the explanation instead of going to the other students for potential ideas.
•  Looking back on some of the discussions we have had in the class, particularly one last week when we were talking about Martin Luther King Jr., I realize that with quick easy modifications from the teacher in terms of how much she was contributing, what types of questions she was asking/wanted answered, that this could have become a discussion instead of a recitation. 
• For example, the students were making connections from their selves to the text, with one student asking "So where were all the Mexicans at during this time?"  (making a connection to the fact that he was part Mexican). The teacher simply answered the question to the best of her ability. I feel as if this could have been an opportunity to get the other students involved in a discussion, asking their opinions on segregation and what not. During this discussion there wasn't much of a collaborative attempt to construct meaning, mainly questions being posed and answered by the students.
•  The teacher could does do a good job of getting everyone involved with answering questions during recitations but doesn't ask the questions that promote rich discussions such as, Why? How does that make you feel? What do you think about that? Who has something to say? The students in my classroom are a very talkative bunch and could really benifit and would get a lot from more discussions and exploring each others thoughts and ideas.

Jan. 28: Discussion-Based Lit.

From the readings, I noticed that my classroom is largely recitation-based. Ms. M reads to the kids and asks them follow-up questions like the ones in the Almasi article. She calls on students to answer questions by drawing their sticks out of a cup or calls on students she thinks haven't been paying attention. I think the curriculum sort of calls for this type of instruction, however. The school uses Reading Street which lays out lessons and questions. Ms. M doesn't like Reading Street, so I'd like to see how her class would go if she didn't have to use it.
I think the students would need a lot of encouragement in order to have a discussion. I have never seen one in the classroom, except for when I tried to have a science discussion with them last semester. It didn't go as I had planned. The students would have needed scaffolding to bounce ideas off of each other and direct the conversation themselves. They haven't had any practice with it.
The way the classroom is set up wouldn't really encourage class discussion. They could have discussions in table groups, but the teacher wouldn't be able to listen to everyone at once. When they have whole-group time, they sit in rows on the carpet and would have to turn around to face who ever was talking.
One student does not participate well. When she is called on, she takes a long time to answer and answers really quietly. I feel like she is not motivated to answer the questions because she feels like Ms. M already knows the answer and doesn't understand why she has to repeat it back. I think she could do well in discussion with scaffolding because she talks at other times. She would just need help comprehending the literature first so that she could try to make connections.
I can't imagine how discussion in a first grade room would go. But I could see the more talkative students participating.

Discussion and educational talks in my classroom seem to be the middle of the road. After read out loud's in class Mrs.R talks briefly with the students. The discussion is normally all carried out by Mrs.R. The student's rarely interact with each other during discussion. I pretty much expect this however because the students are in 3rd grade and I think a discussion run by students that young wouldn't get very far without "scaffolding". After reading the article I believe my students engage more in a recitation.

The students who don't respond are numerous. I suspect it's because they either don't have confidence in their answer or they don't think that it is worthwhile too share. These types of students need a ton of encouragement when sharing their ideas and opinions. I think this isn't just a discussion scaffolding issue it is an entire school day issue. Students need to know that their opinions/ideas/conclusions are valued and that they benefit the class when they share. From the reading a lot of students responded when asked about why they need discussion "so the teacher can tell if we were paying attention" or them being able to answer the right question. This mentality needs to be reversed, students shouldn't want to have a discussion based off of the fact that their is right or wrong. They need to explore ideas with each other even if they are off-based or unlikely. That's the power of discussion, seeing all ideas and coming up with conclusions and even more ideas based off of what was previously said.

A simple resource to use to enhance discussion would be the students writing journals. During reading students should write down 3-5 things that they thought were interesting, had meaning or anything that they found to be thought provoking. I think this would help so students know some of their ideas going into this discussion and when they hear other student's ideas it might change their own and make them eager to share.

Where I'm From Poems

Things we learned about each other:

• Where your roots are; not necessarily who you are today
• Qualities each person values and where they came from
• Learned a little about parents and how their values have shaped us
• Shows where you feel like you grew up; you might have lived in a couple different places but we wrote about the memories that stuck out to us the most, and those represent "where" we grew up
• Understood where we grew up geographically and got a picture of it

week 3

•  I don't see a lot of literature in my classroom, due to the times I go in but there was one time that my mentor read the students a book from the elmo. It was an Amelia Bedelia book and my mentor teacher read to the class while showing them the pictures on each page. Occasionally she would point out pictures but there wasn't much discussion that took place about the book. 
•  Speaking from not having seen much literature or literacy and not hearing much from the students about it, but knowing the classroom dynamics I think book talks would be beneficial. Considering the students come from different backgrounds and each bring meaning to the text differently because of this, I think in small book talk groups would be beneficial in opening the door for discussion about opinions, ideas, and beliefs. Students should learn that literature isn't always about the right answer to reading questions, but about the perspective you bring to the book, and how that can affect your opinion about it. 
• Another means of bringing literature into the classroom that I believe would be beneficial is bringing a different variety of books into the classroom. Because the students reading levels are all over the board, I think bringing more picture oriented books into the class could only benefit the students. I remember back when I was in school the more "comic type" books were shunned and we weren't allowed to read them, which is interesting because one of the articles addressed how these types of books can be positive in terms of interpreting text. 

Week 3 Post

In my classroom I see the most literacy during teacher lead read aloud. Mrs.R is very good about reading to the students. Nearly every time I am in the classroom I have seen her reading various books to the students. She has a read aloud time everyday in which the students listen to her read a novel of some sort. In addition to this she also reads to supplement other teaching. For instance when the students were learning about Native Americans she read aloud a few short stories about Native American culture. This is a very frequent activity that is done in the classroom. She is also very interactive with the students during these reading, stopping at appropriate breaks in the story to ask the students how they feel, what they think is going to happen, whether or not they understand a word or what they expect of certain character. I think Mrs.R is great at covering a broad range of important thought processes that a student should go through when they are reading. Touching on how it makes them feel focuses the student on looking inward where as predicting what may happen forces the student to analyze what they know about the story and what it is leading up to. Other than Mrs. R's read aloud activity and before a special subject I don't see during my time any other forms of literacy routines or activities that they do.

I think the reading that had the biggest impression on me in terms of implementing new ways of literacy development  is the Langer Article. She touches on 4 different types of questions to probe students, "intial understanding", "developing interpretations  "reflecting on personal experience" and "elaborating and extending". With these types of questions in mind she focused on how there shouldn't be pressure to go into lengthy detail for each one rather let it be a genuine feeling when going through the perspective of each type of question. If you can't draw conclusions just yet or are still spit-balling the idea in your mind that is fine. I also liked how she discussed how literacy isn't as straightforward and there aren't always right and wrong answers in literacy, a lot of it has to do with the reader. I would really like to get my students to understand that concept. I think having students be required to at the the end of the week to write down how they felt during a certain experience or have them do free writes and really stress the importance of the thought process behind it and not whether it sounds good or if it's right or wrong.

Jan. 22

Literature is implemented in my classroom during read-alouds and in centers.
During whole-group literacy time, the students sit on the carpet and listen to a short story from the Reading Street teacher edition. After she reads, she will ask a few follow-up questions about story elements such as character, plot, and beginning, middle, and end.
She also reads a short story off the Smart board which highlights letter-sound, and asks the students questions throughout about it. For example, if the focus that week is the /o/ sound, the teacher will ask students to point out words on each page that have that sound.
The teacher reads picture books to the class at varying points throughout the week during various subjects. As she is reading, she points out things like illustration and vocabulary and asks her students what those elements bring to the story. I have also noticed that she references book characters or conflicts throughout the day when she is explaining something or helping students problem-solve.
At three of the six reading centers, students are engaged with short stories or books. At my center, there is usually a supplemental worksheet about character, setting, plot, etc. which I guide students through using the book as a reference.
I liked how in the Hassett & Curwood article Tess guided her students through a multi-modal story-making process using their read-aloud book as inspiration. The students really showed their creativity and learned how authors use multi-modal text to add to a story. I would really like to do something like that in my classroom. I also think it's important to guide students through the process of making connections between the literature, their lives, and other literature. I think it could lead to a fun class discussion. I liked how Willa's students were able to express their thoughts openly during whole-group reading while staying on-task. I think it's important to direct student thinking towards how a book makes them feel or what ideas it gives them, and it is clear that that's what she does.
I was surprised as how easily Ms. B in the Tripplett & Buchanan article could address social and economic situations through the medium of literacy. I was impressed at her unconventional way of addressing comprehension, and I hope to someday be that kind of teacher.

Week 1

My learning goals for this course:

• Learn and practice methods of intrinsic motivation for literacy learning
• Learn how to incorporate diverse media in literacy lessons to motivate students in a way that is more accessible and has real-world implications for them
• Become more comfortable with blogging and social media as they are used in school
• Develop a good base knowledge of literacy learning in the 21st century for creating interesting and enriching literacy lessons for my placement and microteaching lesson
• Learn how to comfortably use literacy to discuss social issues with students K-6

Professional goals:

• I could see myself teaching anywhere, but if I could choose a preference, I would want to teach in either a middle-class, mostly white school or a middle-class school with a range of ethnicities represented. The thing that intimidates me, however is going into a diverse school as a first-year teacher with little to no experience with ELL and ESL students. I'm afraid that I won't be able to help all of my students in the different ways they need it. I would feel disappointed in myself watching an ELL student struggle in my classroom because I can't give them what they need.
• Being in a mainly white community like the ones I grew up in would be more comfortable for me because it's what I know. But I love learning about students' cultures and I love being challenged, so being in a diverse school would be a rich experience.
• I want to learn how to get students excited about language arts. On the first day of class when we made graphic organizers to talk about language arts, I only wrote down things that I did when I was in elementary school--book reports, writing stories, reader's theatre, etc. After our discussion about multimedia in literacy learning, I felt really stupid for not thinking about that. Even though I have learned about technology integration, I was ashamed that it wasn't something I thought of right away.
• I want to learn what sorts of lessons would prepare students best.
• I want my students to become more literate as the school year goes on without even realizing that they are working hard. I want it to be fun for them. I want them to keep assimilating and building on their background knowledge smoothly and significantly.
• I want my students to become confident in their communication with others in several different ways. 
• The Fleming article on urban classrooms inspired me at first. Obviously I am nothing like urban students. There is no way I can understand what they go through. But I can try. I would feel dedicated to getting to know my students and understanding that other things come into play that can distract them or cause them to lash out, act out, lose focus, etc. I want to be there for them. Be on their side when it comes to their learning. Maybe that's not realistic as a first year teacher...or as a white, middle-class woman.
• I don't really think there is much training that can be done to prepare teachers in urban schools for the challenges they will face. Every student is different; every teacher is different. How a teacher chooses to handle situations and how dedicated a teacher is to getting to know his/her students will be different for everyone.
• On the other hand, I would have a hard time being disrespected on a daily basis by my students whom I am working hard for. It would also be nearly impossible to integrate technology into the classroom. There is also the money issue...teachers spend lots of money equipping their classrooms.
• With students so under grade-level, I feel very discouraged to teach in an urban school.
• I really like the Hettinger article about struggling readers. They give some good ideas for supporting those students. I really like the idea of having volunteers make books on tape for the classroom. Maybe a parent rotation would be fun so that parents can take an active role in the classroom and make students feel proud that their parents are the ones reading. Partner reading is good to an extent...it shouldn't be used too much because it would be unfair to put all the work on the "good readers." Responding to text in ways other than writing would add variety to students' learning and teach them different communication mediums.
• These articles make me want to try even harder to be compassionate and give students a variety of learning modes.

week 1

Goals:
- learn the ways to help "fix" all the problems we are going to be facing as teachers.
     - we are told a lot about the problems that we are going to encounter as teachers, but aren't too often given the tools and techniques to learn how to deal with these situations.
- learn more effective classroom management techniques
- understand how students learn better, so that I can teach better,
    - the reading from the 21st century lit book touched upon the different types of learning theories, most being "student centered".

• After reading the article by Fleming I can see how a lot of teachers would steer away from teaching in high-priority schools. In all honesty if it came between choosing a job in a nice school district verses a high need school, I would pick the nicer school district. That being said, after a few years under my belt I feel as if I would be more fitting for the task of working in a high need school. 
• Within the article it talks about how many teachers aren't prepared to work in urban schools, and fail to recognize how much a child's socioeconomic status affects their learning and learning environment. It also explains how most teachers within these schools have only 1-3 years under their belt. 
•  As much as I would love to think I could run to the rescue straight out of college and perform as a top teacher and help students living in these areas I know I'm going to be facing enough challenges just being a first year teacher in itself to attempt to tack on all the other conditions that come along with being in an urban/high need area. 
• In terms of what I want to learn to help me reach my goals, would be more techniques to become a better at teaching literacy
• figuring out ways to better teach students who are are struggling with literacy
• The jigsaw readings aligned with my initial expectations of what to expect as a teacher when it comes to urban areas and ell learners. 
• The article that addressed ELL learners and the way to accommodate for them relates to my original desires to become a teacher. I originally was Special ed: Deaf ed major, but the program was cut during my freshman year and I was no longer able to complete it. . I realized while I was in the deaf ed program that my desire was not necessarily to teach at an all deaf residential school, but moreover if there were to be a deaf/hearing impaired child in the district, to be a classroom that student could be mainstreamed into. I realized a lot of the ways the ELL's were talked about in the article could be related to deafness and that bridging the gap between communication in both should be the ultimate goal.
• Being placed in an urban area showed me a lot of things that the article explained in terms of school conditions, home life, etc- ex. my teacher has to bring her own paper to school for the students
• The kind of teacher I want to be is one of which that can fix all of the problems within urban ed schools and with ELL learners, and although that isn't realistic,  I want to be the kind of teacher that is making a difference in some way, and promoting learning/ instilling hope in students. 

Goals:

• learn how to engage students with reading
• learn how to motivate  students intrinsically to read
• Find a balance between reading, writing, comprehension in my teaching

Learning Future: 

• teaching students in an urban environment
• i would like to learn to use literacy for more than just teaching, I want to use it to help students explore themselves and find out more about who they are.
• One of the jigsaw articles about teaching black students was interesting and it made me think about inner city schools who have a very different demographic compared to an urban school. How do i teach students who are vastly different to me in terms of culture? 
• Going into special ed throws a twist on everything i learn in this general education classes. Will my students be high functioning or low functioning? What type of literary capacity will they have? I hope I have students who are able to read and write fluently but it is a gamble with special education.