becoming an outstanding teacher...

"We have to accept that political forces will always influence the fields of science and educaion, but teachers can make their voices heard by:

• doing a great job in the classroom, 
• educating parents and policymakers,
• opening up the classroom o show their work,
• helping one another learn, and
• realizing the importance of their work for every child." 

 The article by Pinnell really hit home with me. I am in Trends and Issues this semester and in the class we seem to talk a lot about the negatives going on in the education system. From teachers being so harshly evaluated, to standardized tests, to assuming that every child is the same. Talking about all of the negatives was really starting to get to me, but this article puts teachers back in the positive light. It is good to hear about the positives not just the negatives. Pinnell talks about Carol, a third grade teacher who has taken many steps in order to become the best possible teacher that she can be. Pinnell walks us through what Carol does in her classroom in order to help her be a great teacher but also to help her students. Carol does something that standardized tests do not, she looks at the students as individuals instead of as a whole. She understands that all children are not the same and that they do not all learn in the same way. This is something that we have talked about a lot throughout this semester and it is such an important aspect to education. Many teachers fall short and end up teaching to the test, these are the teachers we tend to look at in Trends and Issues, so it is nice to see what one teacher does successfully. This article goes through many techniques that Carol uses, but some of the big ones are: professional development, becomes involved with many other teachers, makes the classroom fun, realizes that all children are different, and continues to educate herself on how to better understand her kids. I picked the quote at the beginning of this blog because it really stood out to me. There are always going to be policies in place in the field of education, but that does not mean that we have to fall behind because of them. As teachers we need to strive to do our best and to help all of the children that we come into contact with.

finding the "just-right" book

After reading the Rog and Burton article, it was obvious to me that reading levels are both very helpful but also very complex. Children need to find that "just-right" book, but how do we get them to that point? We must first set up a system that lets us know what book is "just-right" for the child and then we must pick a book on that level. I would say, it is going to be hard at first putting a system into action, but once we figure out what works for us it will be well worth it. The problem really comes when it is time to pick the books. Rog and Burton point out that not all book companies use the same leveling system. For instance, one book might be considered a level 2 reader, but at another company it might be considered a 3 or 4. This is a HUGE problem in my eyes. Sure as the teacher, I will hopefully be able to figure out what book is right for the child, but what about the parents of the child? Say they want to go to the library and get a book for their child. They might not realize that the leveling on books are different. This is a problem in my eyes, therefore, we as teachers must educate not only our children on what books are "just-right" for them, but we must also educate the parents. This seems to be a common trend in education. You are not only a teacher for your students but also for your parents. Parents play a huge role in the child's life, so we better get them on board early!

This is the site that Monica showed us last class, but I found it to be very helpful so I just wanted to share the link on here - Reading A-Z
This website gives a few good tips on how to pick a book that is "just-right" - Reading Rockets

Guiding Reading

The article I read for this week was, Guided Reading: A Research-Based Response to the Challenges of Early Reading Instruction by Anita Iaquinta. This was a very helpful article because it talks a lot about what guided reading is and some ways that you can implement it in your classroom. Guided reading involves small groups with children who are around the same reading level, who interact with the teacher on a daily basis. The teacher plays an important role in the guided reading process. Iaquinta says, "Teachers must know how to prompt and guide students as they work to build this self-extending system of reading." Iaquinta goes on to give charts for the roles of the teacher for before, during and after reading, as well as, prompts to use throughout the lesson. The teacher gives continuous prompts throughout the lesson that help the child think critically about what they are reading. Guided reading takes a lot of patience and time, but this is something that every teacher should focus on doing.  According to Iaquinta, one in three children have trouble reading. This is a very disheartening statistic and it shows us that teaching reading and reading skills needs to be number one on our priority list.

Short article on Guided Reading by Scholastic

Guided Reading in the Classroom...

the more words the better..

The article that I found the most interesting this week was the one by Yopp & Yopp, Ten Important Words Plus: A Strategy for Building Word Knowledge. This was such a great article that pointed out so well that the more words you know the better your comprehension will be. Yopp & Yopp discuss the three primary ways of enhancing vocabulary, but what I found the most interesting was the Ten Words Plus strategy. This is a great way to see what reading level the child is on and it also lets the teacher know if the child is comprehending what the book is about. If the child picks 10 words that do nothing for the story then they might not fully understand what they are reading. I also liked that at the end the children made a bar graph of the most common words and then they were able to use prompts to better understand the words. I have not been around many classrooms that have used strategies like the one discussed in the article, but it shows us a great way to help children learn more words which in return will help their comprehension.

Top ten most important words, before and after reading...

Big Words for Little People, a children's book that exposes children to bigger words than they are use to..

 Write It, Build It, Decorate It....the more exposures the better....

don't forget about kindergarten!

The article that I found most interesting this week was the one by Gregory & Cahill, Kindergarteners Can Do It, Too! Comprehension Strategies for Early Readers. We are all told that learning to read needs to start very early in life, but I think many people forget about comprehension. When we are teaching young children to read, we need to not only be focused on teaching the letter sounds and sentence structure. We also need to make sure that we are teaching young children comprehension skills. Mrs. Hope does a great job of this in her classroom. She challenges her students in a fun way and really gets their minds thinking. She has a system that involves the children either: raising their hand in the shape of a "C" if they make a connection to the story, a "V" if they have a mind movie to share, and a wiggling finger if they have a question to ask. I think that it is very important that the children are able to ask questions at any point during the story. Mrs. Hope has this statement written on top of the board that they use to write their questions, “Expert readers ask questions before, during, and after they read” (page 516). This is so important for teachers to understand. I think that many teachers forget to let their students ask questions at any point during a lesson or reading. By having the children ask questions and making connections with the story, you are allowing them to use the schemas that they already have in order to form new ones or to add to existing ones. They are able to get into the story and look at it more in depth than just seeing the words on the page and reciting them. All of the ways Mrs. Hope promotes comprehension are great, but can you think of any more ways to help promote comprehension in children?

Here are some good ideas that I found...

becoming a word conscious teacher...

As I read Lane & Allen's article, The Vocabulary-Rich Classroom, I thought a lot about my childhood experiences in the classroom. I was so amazed by the way Ms. Barker and Ms. Rivas ran their classrooms. They were encouraging their children to use more sophisticated words every day. When I read the part about a kindergartener telling the observer that is was "rather brisk today" I was astonished. I cannot imagine myself as a kindergartener every saying that; heck, I probably never said that in high school. Growing up I think that my teachers used the dumbing down method of teaching. We were never encouraged to use sophisticated words; therefore, as an adult I do not use a very wide range of vocabulary, like I know I should. I WISH that my teachers would have pushed us to learn new words the way these two particular teachers did in their class. As a future teacher, I learned so much from this article and it gave two great ideas of how to implement stronger vocabulary into the classroom. I am continually amazed at how much I am learning from the articles we are reading and very thankful we are being introduced to them.

*This article also talks about the process in which a student goes through in order to learn a new word. Here is a chart that can be put up in the classroom to help with vocabulary instruction. The teacher can introduce a new word and have the children show you, with their hands, what they know about it. 

*Just another way to help children come to know a word. Write it down, what does it remind them of, what they think it means, and then finally what it actually means. Also a good critical thinking skill.

*Finally, this teacher lets the children brainstorm about different words they know or think they know and puts them under the letter it corresponds with.

teachers as the coaches...

When reading these articles it brought me back to my childhood in a way. I remember playing some of the games that Yopp & Yopp discussed in their article and I think it helped my literary development greatly. It also made my think about a little girl I babysit, who is in first grade, who came home the other day singing "Down by the Bay". It was funny to listen to her sing the song because she changed it every time she sang it to me. She might not have remembered the words exactly, but every time she sang it she always came up with new words that rhymed. It was interesting to see how much her vocabulary changed when singing the song, because some of the words she choose were not words she would use in her normal vocabulary. Another thing that I like about this article is that it explains the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics. Truthfully I always thought they were the same thing, but this article explained to us how they are connected but are also separate terms. You learn something new everyday....we are all life long learners.

This website has a lot of good information phonological awareness. Take a look around...the page it is on has some rhyming games or preschool and kindergarten.

http://phonologicalawareness.org/4.html

Reader's Theater Website

Here is a great link that has a variety of reader's theater scripts and plays....hope you enjoy them! : )

http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm

one minute fluency assessment....good or bad?

While reading the article on One-Minute Fluency, my mind was trying to take in all of the information the author gives about fluency. Deeney brings to our attention that until we get a universal definition for fluency we are always going to have problems with the assessment for it. The One-Minute Fluency test is good in some cases, like in the cases for the children who are average or good readers. I do not think that it is the most accurate measure of fluency when it comes to struggling readers. Deeney talks about how it does not measure some children accurately, for instance: the child that will do okay for the one minute of reading, but then if he continues to read his accuracy and the amount of missed words will decline. On the other hand, you might have a child who does not do well in that one minute, but given more time he or she will progress as he/she continues. The One-Minute Fluency measure does not help this children, it just puts them in a certain category and sometimes the wrong category at that.  I found this article to be very informative, but it really points out the flaws of the fluency measures now. We need to think of ways to better test for fluency and also come up with a definition that we might all go by.

Can you think of any other ways to test for fluency?

**This article also talked about how rereading is a great way to increase fluency. Here is a video I found that tests that theory.

all are different and everyone is responsible...

While reading the position statement this week it became very clear to me that all children are different and all come into school with different backgrounds. We as future teachers must recognize that we will have kids from many different backgrounds in our class. We will have some kids who come into our class with many experiences with reading and writing but we will also have some that have not been exposed. We must provide a variety of ways for all children to learn, as well as model good reading and writing habits. When it comes to reading, we must read a loud to children in a group setting as well as let children read to us. The classroom must also have a wide range of books for the children to look at and read. Modeling good writing habits is also very important and understanding that children will experiment with letters is normal. We are not only responsible for educating our children, we are also responsible educating the children's families as well. We must educate the families on how to incorporate reading and writing in the home. Overall, we must be able to work with all children. We must not only teach children how to read and write, but make it enjoyable for them.

Here are some fun ways to introduce new words in the classroom (some are for the higher elementary grades, but still some good ideas):

*Sight words in a puzzle. Children must match the words on the pieces to the words on the board.

 *Pockets full of pronouns. Lift the flaps to see different pronouns.

 *Contraction cupcakes, must match the top with the correct bottom.

 *Pair of Pears...examples of homophones

 *Paint chip word game. Can be used with vocabulary words...must match the first part of the word with the corresponding slip. Also a good way to help children make different words.

 *Letter recognition with clothespins. Good for younger children, helps them match letters and exposes them to letters and words together.

helping children recognize that they read every day...

When children first enter a Kindergarten class they assume they do not know how to read and that it must be taught to them. However, this is not the case. Children are exposed to words all throughout their lives and we as teachers need to help them connect those words to learning in the classroom. In the article by Bell and Jarvis we learn that letting go of the plain "letter of the week" strategy is probably the best thing you can do. Instead have children associate each letter with things they already know. I think this is a great way of introducing the letters to children because it makes it fun for the kids and it also allows them to see that they really know more than they think they do. Another thing that really stood out to me was how this "environmental print" way of introducing the letters really helped the ELL students. In Donna Bell's case, her student Pedro could not identify what letters were what, but he could make sentences and comprehend what he was reading by associating the words with the kids names in his class. Here are a few examples I found of ways to use environmental print in the classroom.

Here you can see that the letter 'C' is being represented by many different artifacts from a child's daily life. I am sure most kids have Capri Sun if not on a daily basis, at least once a week. If they can say Capri then they can make the 'ca' sound, and if they can make the sound and recognize the letter, then they can apply it to other words that they will come across.

Just another way to prove to children that they do know how to read and they can already say some words, like their favorite cereal. 

Environmental print, word walls, and the basic letter of the week approach are all ways to introduce children to reading, writing and the alphabet. Are there any other ways you can think of to teach the alphabet and reading to children?