Minilessons

Link to both minilessons:

https://docs.google.com/a/msu.edu/document/d/1846NnmDS4g4M5CiT7JCmSYwXJONSV143C6fYhBLxeDk/edit

The student I chose to do the high-frequency lesson with did much better than I had originally anticipated. Out of the list of 84 sight words that my MT gave me to work with, she quickly and correctly identified 82 of them. The students do a lot of work with their sight/word wall words throughout the year and it seems like this is really paying off. By using them in the their journals and playing games that require the kids to physically point out words on the wall, the first graders have become very familiar with how to identify them. The only two words she stumbled on were "hear" (which she pronounced as "hair") and "went" (identified as "wait"). She was also able to write sentences that used the preselected sight words accurately and appropriately.

For the fluency minilesson dealing with chunking, I worked with a different student who has had some problems with fluency in the past. He doesn't have any issues with identifying or sounding out words, but his reading is often choppy and doesn't flow as well as my MT would like it to. We used a book titled "Hospital Party" to do the lesson- one that was introduced to him and put in his book box about a week earlier. He had only read it in a guided setting one time and it was considered to be at his independent level. I read through the book before I pulled him out in the hallway and chose the pages we would be focusing on. After making copies of the selected pages, I marked the papers with the spots that I thought sentences could successfully be "chunked" into. He seemed a little confused when I first introduced the concept of chunking, but after going through the first few sentences, he caught on quickly. Overall I would consider the minilesson to be successful- when I handed him a physical copy of the book and asked him to read me the same sentences one more time, he read a noticeably quicker pace and did a better job of having the entire sentence flow together.

Mini Lessons

Link to both mini lessons: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ppYxkGvFP_49JHdxVMd8ImHQSj2sB4BjuMTVJJ1S11A/edit

Reflection:
I completely underestimated the first student.  I knew he was passed the kindergarten reading level but I was hoping he would struggle with a few words on the first grade sight words list.  However, he breezed through the sight words without ANY problems.  So instead I decided to scrap my lesson altogether since he really did not need any help segmenting.  Instead I had him read me a chapter from a chapter book he was currently reading (probably at least around the 5th grade level) and then retell it to me using his own words.  I thought a little comprehension practice would benefit him more than segmenting parts of words. 
The second lesson went a little more smoothly.  She knew some of the kindergarten sight words easily because they have been working with them a lot.  But she still struggled with more than half.  This gave me a good opportunity to review the sounds letters make and then take a few of the sight words and show her how to break them down into sounds so they are easier to read/sound out.  Once we worked together on a few words I had her try to read some of the words she struggled with on her own and she really seemed to pick up on how to segment.  It was good to see that a simple thing like segementing the hard words into sounds she knew really helped her and now she has this strategy to use in the future when she comes across difficult or longer words.

Struggling Reader- Comprehension

After conducting my mini lessons and reading chapter 11 of the Tompkins text I started thinking about comprehension.  Some kindergarteners are surpassing the class in terms of reading.  They are fluent and have no trouble with decoding and vocabulary.  However, I think that some of the them made be focusing too much on the words and are missing out on the comprehension aspects of readings.  For my letter I would write to the parents of a student who struggles with understanding and comprehending books and stories that are both read to the class and that they read themselves.  It would look something like this:
Dear ________,
While "James" has exceeded all of my expectations of where a kindergarten student should be at in terms of reading, I feel like he is missing out on the key themes and morals of what we read as a class and what he reads to himself.  It seems like he is focusing too much on reading the words as he flys through the pages at a very fast pace but when asked to retell a story or answer questions about what he read he struggles quite a bit.  In class I plan on spending some time teaching comprehension strategies with ALL students.  It is important for every student to understand that comprehension and understanding what they have read is just as important as learning how to read.  I plan on teaching students how to build background knowledge about something before reading, how to retell a story, using sequence boards to help retell a story and setting a purpose for reading.  I think these will benefit James a lot because it will focus his thinking and my goal is for him to learn good comprehension strategies to use when reading so that he will be able to understand the stories more.
It would be very helpful if you would work on these comprehension strategies at home with James so he will get more experience with them.  I will send home some retelling and sequence board worksheets along with some books so that he can practice with them. Thank you for your time and please let me know if you have any quesitons or concerns.

Sincerely,
Chelsey Pearson

Mini Lessons

Link to Reading Lesson #1 Lesson Plan:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1qSp_dpvVxgc-v4gsANaFrZWimQQ8qLhdSzfbySvkTpk

Link to Reading Lesson #2 Lesson Plan:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=12Ui1lRi6Js25oFZsK-re_k3JseuXhcg6ERIUmtO3Vv8

Reflection(s):
I conducted both of my lessons with two students. Overall, it went well. The idea of treating the identification of sight words (and in the second lesson, phonemes) as a type of "scavenger hunt" was a great motivator. The students seemed eager to locate the words or sounds I prompted or asked for. The texts that were used were appropriate in the sense that students knew most of the words but also were able to expand their word recognition as well as vocabulary (the word "ill" was foreign to them as meaning "sick") with a few select words. Upon the completion of the lesson, both students were able to successfully identify all of the sight words present in the stories as well locate or produce the prompted sounds at the end of the second lesson. Prior to the reading, students mixed up the words "in" and "on"- but were successful in using these words upon completion of the lesson.  As expected, there were minor instances in which the students got off track- as one student complimented the other's "Justin Beiber earrings" and wished to proceed talking about said earrings. As discussed in my lesson plan, I reminded the students of the task at hand and they quickly returned to our reading. In regards to applying their knowledge to the future, the students were eager and said they could use the word "on" in their writing and even new words they didn't know how to read such as hill, and even eager to use a new word for "sick" in the form of "ill." Overall, the lessons were both successful and beneficial to the students!

The Writing Process

In Chapter 2 of Thompson, the Writing Process was heavily focused upon and I was pleasantly surprised to realize how much my kindergarten students engage in the writing process at such a young age. Most prevalently, as I have discussed in relation to other topics throughout TE 402, the students in my placement engage in the writing process through their daily “Reflections” activity. During Reflections, the students first engage in the Prewriting stage by taking a moment to individually think of potential ideas to write about. Some students take this very seriously and actually “rub their brains” to “help stir thoughts.” They proceed to gather and organize ideas; which is also mentioned in the reading, as they ultimately decide upon one topic to write several sentences on. Drafting takes part as the most detailed aspect of the process, as students take turns suggesting various sentences that could be used on the topic at hand, with collaboration in rewording and finding the right “fit” for the actual sentence to be used. Once the sentences are written, the students read the entire Reflection piece aloud, which typically leads to step 3 of the writing process, revision. It is important to note that in the beginning of the year, the process stopped at drafting. However, I have noticed the students beginning to ask the teacher to add more details or suggest changes to the sentences. My MT is not only encouraging of this process, but proceeds to show students how it’s ok to “have a messy paper” with drawing various “arrows” to designate the new detail being added to the sentence etc. The only step missing during the “Reflections” activity is “editing” as the students typically do not focus on misspellings, grammar, or mechanics at this point; especially because my MT writes the sentences for the students at the front of the class. Instead, they move straight to the fifth step outlined by Thompson, publishing. My MT types up their “Reflection” and one student each day gets to draw a picture of the day’s events, to be added to their “Reflection binder.”

While the students are engaging with many steps of the writing process as a whole group, it is important to mention that in the students’ independent writing, less of the writing process has been established. Students spend time writing in their journals frequently, at which time they do engage in both the prewriting (brainstorming) and drafting stages of the writing process. Sometimes they are encouraged to “go back and add details” which would fall into the revision stage, but this is rare as it takes most of the students’ full engagement to reach the drafting point as they are still learning to formulate words and sentences.

My own involvement in working with students and the writing process is significant. Nearly every time I am present in the classroom the students engage in literacy centers, during which time I have worked with students at various points of the writing process, mostly focusing on developing literacy based skills that will help students grow in their writing. 

3 Tiers of Vocabulary

The book that I'm reading for book club is Maniac Magee. The chapters are relatively short (mostly between 2-4 pages), so I looked through a few different chapters to come up with the following examples for each tier of vocabulary words:

Tier 1 (Basic): Simply, jumped, unused, confused, rolling, scrubbing

Tier 2 (Academic): Practically, plunked, unthinkable, sneered, crumpled, loaned, hemisphere

Tier 3 (Specialized): Fishbelly, cast-iron, gingersnap

The words I chose to put in the Tier 1 category are words that are used frequently in everyday conversation. Students who are fluent in English will most likely have heard these words several times before and will know their meaning. The words I listed for tier 2 will probably look familiar to students but they may not know the exact meanings.  As the Tompkins chapter described, these are words that students could possibly pronounce and use in a general sense.  However, diving deeper into the definitions and uses of the word will be beneficial throughout their academic careers. For example, the word 'unthinkable' may be familiar to children but can also be somewhat confusing.  At first glance students might think it is referring to not being able to think about something.  However, when it is used in Manic Magee, it's actually describing something that is controversial.  The specialized tier 3 words I selected are pretty specific to the book itself and may not have much meaning in other contexts.  The word "fishbelly" is used several times throughout the novel as a nickname for the main character. As a Caucasian boy spending much of his time in an African American area, his peers refer to him as "Fishbelly" because his skin is white like the belly of a fish. Explaining this to students would be helpful in understanding the storyline of the book but would probably not be useful in other aspects of learning.

Effective Fluency Assessments

Fluency is a major component of literacy and I think it can be assessed easily as well.  As for the Tompkins reading, I think the running record scoring sheet is effective because it assess's accuracy as well as reading speed if the assesser records the speed.  While it seems like a lot of work for the teacher or assesser I think it is very effective in assessing fluency.  I also really like the "Words I Know" test on page 73.  I've never seen an assessment like this before but I like its simplicity.  While it might be the most effective way of assessing fluency, I think it will give the assesser a better idea of what words the student already knows well (sight words) and what the students might need to work on more.  I also think that reading books with students is also an effective informal assessment.  It is a good way to assess students prosody.

As for my placement, since I am in a kindergarten classroom and it is getting closer to the end of the year, fluency is something they are focusing on right now.  My mentor teacher focuses on literacy with the students so I get the opportunity to see how she assess students as well as get a chance to see the students grow and improve.  The students have really grown as far as sight words.  At the beginning of the year they would need my help to read or write just about every word but now I am so impressed at how much they can do on their own.  Also, not only do they have more sight words but they have also learned how to sound words out which has helped them a lot as far as fluency is concerned. 

New Literacy- Chelsey

1. Conceptual understanding:

The way I view literacy has definitely changed since the beginning of the semester.  In the beginning, I was under the impression that literacy was just the understanding of how to read and write.  However, now I know that literacy can mean understanding all types of things from different cultures to the way emotions work and how we express ourselves effectively.  By completing this project I was able to learn about all different types of literacies while I was trying to decide which direction I wanted to take as well as various new technologies that will definitely be helpful when I have a classroom of my own.  I had no idea that so many technologies were out there and available for free and that they were so easy to use, it makes discovering new things a lot less scary.

2. Effective Liteacy Instruction:

I now know how important it is to teach students the various types of literacies and not just focus on reading and writing.  Not only did completing this project help me learn about cultural literacy but by reviewing another persons project I was able to understand how crucial it is to teach students about emotional literacy and how to express their emotions in a safe and positive way.  All classrooms with be diverse and as a teacher I feel like I am now equipped with the right information so that I will be able to teach my students about all different kinds of literacies in new and exciting ways.  I know how important it is not to focus on one type of literacy because they all hold an important place in our students learning and will help them continue to learn and grow after they leave our classroom.

While I think it may be hard for kindergarden students to use a technology such as creating a website, I do not think it is impossible.  With the right instructions and help students can work with an older student or adult to create their own website and use it to express their ideas and the information that they have learned.  However, I think creating a website (or scrapblog) would be a GREAT tool for teachers to use with older students who can spend time outside of the class working on it and will not need as much help and specific instruction as younger students would.

3. Lesson plan:

Target area and rationale:  For this lesson I would l like my students to take away how to use a new technology: scrapblog, while they learn how to teach their classmates about a specific culture that may differ from others in the class.  The target grade level for this lesson is 4th grade.

Objectives: Common Core
1.  Add audio recordings and visual displays to presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.

2. Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

Materials needed: Teacher example of own cultural scrapblog focusing on the Irish culture (for St. Patricks day), access to school computer classroom or laptops for at least 1 hour a day for a 5 day week, classroom computer with hook up to SmartBoard for presentations

Outline of key events:

* Teacher will show his/her own scrapblog to the class and then have a short discussion about how the project will entail, showing the basics on how to use scrapblog and how to look up information about the culture they want to explore.

* Students will then have an opportunity to explore their culture and gain familiarity with that culture using the internet or library as resources.

*Students will then use the next few days to create their scrapblog in class or in a computer room using the information that found about their culture.

* Time will be spent during class on the last day of the week for students to show off their scrapblog using the SmartBoard.

Closing Summary: From this project I hope students will not only learn about a new culture and be able to teach their classmates about what they have learned but also how to use a new technology that they will be able to use in the future to help get their point across in a fun and engaging way.

Ongoing assessment: Teacher will be able to assess the students presentations while they are presenting to the class but as an ongoing assessment, the teacher will be able to assign projects using this new technology in the future that the students will be able to do in their own time without much class influence.

New Literacy - Emily

Understanding Literacy

         Throughout the course of this semester, I have come to understand the definition of literacy in a much more broad sense.  In previous classes when we have talked about literacy, it has been emphasized as being able to read, write, and comprehend.  But the readings that we have done and the class discussions we’ve had over the past several weeks have made me realize that literacy includes much more than that. 

         This project itself was a great way to prove that point- I never would have associated ideas like culture or emotions with the word “literacy”.  After creating my own website and looking over the projects created by my classmates, it’s obvious that there are not only multiple types of literacy, but multiple ways to interpret them. For example, there were several projects that focused on cultural literacy (the subject that I chose as well).  However, each of the other websites or scrapblogs that I saw were extremely different than my own- we all chose to emphasize or focus on different aspects of the same literacy.  This goes to show that literacies can be interpreted in many different ways.

Effective Literacy Instruction

         If there is one main lesson I learned from this project, it’s that effective literacy instruction goes far beyond simply teaching children how to read.  As teachers, we need to be fully aware of the many different types of literacies that exist and of the strategies we can use to teach them to our students.  Using a variety of teaching strategies and taking advantage of as many resources as possible has never been more important.

          Living in a world where it seems like new technology is emerging on a daily basis, we have to make constant adjustments both to our learning and our teaching.  Whether we like it or not, technology use has become a vital part of day-to-day classroom operations.  With countless numbers of free or cheap websites available to work on and customize, teachers need to make sure to expose students to as many different options as possible.  Molding children’s technological literacy is just as important (if not more important) that the formation of the various other types of literacy.  Websites, scrapblogs, online concept maps, etc. can be paired with more “conventional” types of literacy instruction to create the most beneficial experience for students.

Lesson Plan

On the Weebly page I made for cultural literacy, I included an idea for a class-wide project focusing on cultural and using the technology of creating a website. I adjusted the standards and objectives based on a 5^th grade classroom.

Lesson Summary & Rationale:

To take advantage of the many free web-design opportunities that are available today, the teacher will assign an individual or small-group project lasting several weeks that requires students to do in-depth research on a specific culture using multiple sources of information (including texts). As a finished product, students will use the information they have found to create a website or other online resource about the culture.

Common Core Standards:

RI.5.3. Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.

RI.5.9. Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

SL.5.4. Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

SL.5.5. Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.

Objectives:

• ·      Students will spend several weeks researching a previously assigned culture and compiling their findings to create an online resource
• ·      Students will demonstrate in-depth understanding of their “culture” and will be able to answer basic questions posed by their peers and the teacher
• ·      At the conclusion of the assignment, students will provide a brief presentation of their work and will demonstrate understanding of how the technology works

Lesson Closing & Post-Assessment

Over the course of several days at the end of the project, each student will present their work to the rest of the class. Students will be assessed on the evidence of work time and quality put into creating the project as well as demonstration of deep understanding of their assigned culture. Links to each final project will also be sent out to parents and the rest of the school, allowing the students' work to be shared on a wider basis.

Jessie's New Literacy Learning

1) YOUR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:

My understanding of literacy has changed tremendously since beginning this class. Initially, I thought of literacy of basically encompassing one’s ability to read and write.  I placed high emphasis on the value of literacy, but again, only on the value of being able to read, comprehend, respond, compose, etc. However, from my research on emotional literacy, my ideas have transformed tremendously. In only focusing on one new literacy, I now understand how one’s ability to be “literate” in other avenues are just as valuable and necessary to a student’s learning and performance in school. For instance, in regards to emotional literacy, the ability to understand one’s own emotions as well as others is incredibly helpful in promoting student’s learning as a strong culture of acceptance and togetherness is formed, encouraging more positive learning environments.  The instance of bullying may be drastically reduced as well, helping to create a safe learning environment. Specifically, emotional literacy spans much farther than simple academics, stemming into one’s personal life and affecting their everyday endeavors. Many websites found via Edutopia t me realize the full potential of emotional literacy, as the prevalence of discussion of emotional literacy via educators on Twitter. It’s truly an integral topic in regards to education and helping students become well rounded individuals prepared not only to engage in academic learning, but to engage in society as effective citizens.

2) EFFECTIVE LITERACY INSTRUCTION:

I now understand that providing “effective literacy instruction” does not simply encompass teaching a student to read and write. From my research on emotional literacy, I now find myself compelled to argue that in fact, a child should be provided with ample opportunities to become literate in several avenues.  Emotional literacy could be especially crucial in reaching diverse learners, as creating a culture of understanding and acceptance is crucial to helping diverse learners feel safe and accepted, a crucial first step that must occur before academic learning can occur. If students do not feel part of their learning community, they are less likely to engage in the academic learning process.

I actually engaged with this type of literacy for my critical literature discussion. In working with Kindergarten students, a story was read that dealt with various emotions such as excitement, anger, and regret. Students were incredibly open to discussing the emotions present within the story and applying the emotional responses to their own life experiences.  Their final activity included drawing a picture of a time they felt one of the emotions the main character experienced in the story. While a form of technology was not used for this lesson, in perhaps a later grade level a similar lesson could be conducted in which students use a medium of technology that allows them to express the same type of goal, perhaps using Storyboard to make the experience into a story in which they can use their own experiences or create their own character. In general, helping students gain awareness of how one’s emotions, attitudes, and behaviors can affect every avenue of their life inside and outside of school is necessary for allowing students to reach their full potential.

3) LESSON PLAN: 

As discussed in the prior section, learning to identify and relate to various emotions is an important aspect of emotional literacy. While I began to discuss various options, in developing a integrated lesson for lower elementary students, I believe creating a Storyboard in response to the reading of a story would be appropriate.

  

• Target area and rationale: As discussed throughout this post, emotional literacy is crucial for helping students reach an understanding of self and others to foster a positive learning environment. This literacy is also beneficial in analyzing characters in various forms of literature, helping to integrate the overall lesson’s objectives. The technology used in this lesson will help further integrate, providing students with an opportunity to not only become literate in emotional awareness, character analysis, but also in technology use.

• List your objective(s):
• Students will be able to identify main character’s emotions as present throughout the narrative
• Students will be able to relate character’s emotions to occasions in their own life in which they have experienced similar emotions.
• Students will be able to engage in the process of emotional awareness and character analysis using a new form of technology.

• List the materials and supplies needed:
• Grade appropriate piece of literature that highlights a main character experiencing various emotions. (Ex: Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse) (This material is open to teacher’s selection in accordance to grade and classroom culture as an array of narratives are available)
• Computers/Laptops for accessing technology resource: Glogster
• Outline of key events (use bullets)
• Teacher and students will engage in reading the story, paying careful attention to main character’s emotions
• Students will discuss (with guidance of teacher as needed) the emotions experienced by main character, relating emotional experiences to their own personal experiences
• Students will create a “glog” in which they highlight 3-5 (depending on grade level, could be less) different emotions, including a personal recollection of a time they experienced such emotions as well as how they responded. Visuals are expected to help students and viewers make stronger connections between the experience, emotion, and response.
• Closing summary
• Students will share their Glogs whether through class website or class wiki, and respond to a peer’s glog with any similarities or differences they found in regards to emotions experienced
• Ongoing assessment
• Students will be assessed throughout the lesson in regards to their participation in the class discussion, their identification of emotions in the glog, and their response to a peer’s glog. 

Student Support: Jinx Braxton

Student Profile:

“How’d you get the name Jinx?!?” is the first question asked by many people who meet Jinx Braxton for the first time.  Jinx tells her friends that she was born on July 13 which fell on a Friday.  When her older brother came to the hospital and saw his baby sister for the very first time he called her “Jinx” and the name stuck.  “I like having an unusual nickname,” says Jinx, “because it’s a neat way to get to know people.  They’re always asking me about my name and anyway, my real name is Irene, same as my Mom’s, so it’s nice to have a different name that’s special to me.”

Jinx is a very outgoing 11 year old who spends part of her school day in a resource room for children who are gifted and talented.  All through her life learning new things has come easily for Jinx and when she started kindergarten her teachers spoke to her parents about what seemed to be a great number of Jinx’s special talents.  Her parents, Bob and Irene, who operate a hair salon, were surprised to hear about their daughter in these terms.  Jinx’s mother knew that her daughter was full of surprises and that she crawled, walked and talked months earlier than did her older brother when he was small.  And Jinx’s dad remembers that by the time she was two, Jinx was reading a number of road signs as she sat in her car seat riding to the day care center.

After the school personnel administered a number of psychological tests, Jinx was placed in a program for gifted and talented children.  Her parents are very proud of her and the work that she does, especially in mathematics and in art, but they have learned that it is important that Jinx have the time and the opportunity to be a child first.  Jinx’s friend, Brenda, is an important part of her life and the Braxton’s are careful to allow Jinx the time and the freedom to have friends her own age and to develop interests that are appropriate for an eleven year old.  But even though her parents are aware of the “genius syndrome” and work to keep Jinx from being perceived in that way by her peers, there are times when Jinx must work through the potential social difficulties that being a very bright person can present. 

Jinx tells her friends that learning is more than getting right answers or all “A”s, and that there are things that are hard for her, too, and that she must work at learning just as they must.  Jinx points out to Brenda and Renaldo and to her parents, too, that she is a multi-faceted person with likes, dislikes, hopes, fears, talents, and problems similar to those that all children have and that being bright is just one part of being Jinx.

http://ezzo.pbworks.com/w/page/24277584/Rethinking%20Diversity

Support:

During a discussion-based lesson, it will be very important to allow Jinx’s strengths and opinions to come out while also making sure she does not dominate the conversation.  Since her thinking is more advanced than many of her classmates, she might be able to make connections that the other students do not initially come up with.  Because of this, the teacher may want to utilize Jinx as a discussion-starter if her peers are struggling to take the conversation in the right direction.  However, the teacher should also take steps to avoid letting Jinx be the only student to have a say in the conversation.  From what I’ve seen in both my own schooling and my placements, children have a tendency to let who they consider to be the “smart” students do most of the talking.  Implementing some type rule for who speaks and how many times would be a good way for the teacher to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard during the discussion.

For any post-assessments following the discussion, differentiating Jinx’s assignments might be beneficial to her learning.  This could be done by giving her a slightly different prompt, asking her to write a greater amount, or giving her a more extensive chart and/or table to complete.  Additionally, the teacher should not automatically make any assumptions that Jinx will be able to complete her assignments without support and should be sure to check on her progress while circulating the room.

Student Support: Diane Delaney

"Diane Delaney is eleven years old and is in the fifth grade at Woodburn Elementary School. Diane is currently being treated for acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer. Diane began her chemotherapy treatments immediately after diagnosis and had her external catheter put in shortly thereafter. About a month after her first treatment, Diane’s cancer went into remission because of the chemotherapy she received. She is now able to return to school. However, she will continue to have treatments for about two years to make sure that the leukemia doesn’t come back. Sometimes, these treatments will mean that she will have to miss school because of side effects. Diane has been receiving and will continue to receive additional instruction from a tutor to help her keep up with the other students in her class. She is quick to explain, though, “I don’t want to be treated any differently just ‘cause I have leukemia.”" http://ezzo.pbworks.com/w/page/24278324/Diane%20Delaney

Student Support: Thankfully Diane is in remission which actually makes things a little less complicated.  However, I had a family member who went through this cancer and I have seen what the side effects of chemo are. Diane will probably continue to miss school and may be late regulary.  She also may become sick during school and may need to sit or even go home.  One of the most important things that I would like to remember for my lesson is that Diane does not want to be treated differently.  If she was present for my lesson I would make sure she had a chance to speak right from the beginning.  This would give me a chance to see if she had the background knowledge to understand what my lesson and what the book was all about.  If I got the feeling that she did not have much background then I would go into more detail about the story I am going to read and what the idea of the lesson is.  However, I would not make it seem like I am only doing this for Diane, just that I want to give the class enough information to grasp my lesson.

If Diane missed my lesson I would try and talk with her tutor and see if there was a way she could read the book with Diane and have a short discussion with her and try and complete the worksheet together.  However, if this wasn't possible I would try and get some one-on-one time with Diane.  During this time I would discuss the ideas behind my lesson and still try to get her to tell me what she knows about it and if she has any stories she can recall.  I would then ask her to take the book home and read it with a parent or older brother and complete the worksheet as homework.  I would give her ample amount of time to do this (about a week) because I know her home life is probably a bit hetic.

Student Support

Student Profile: Tufuku Zuberi

Tufuku is a second grader at Woodburn Elementary. He has one older brother and one younger brother. They all live with their mother who has a full time job and supports the whole family. Tufuku’s family recently became citizens of the United States. Their home land used to be in Africa.

Tufuku’s family moved to America about two years ago, and he has made great strides in his English language learning. He is at grade level in his reading and writing skills, but he sometimes still struggles with his speaking. There are moments when he is hard to understand because he speaks very quietly and retains an accent. He has been working with a speech language pathologist to help him learn how to form the different sounds that are in the English language.

Tufuku’s and his family worked very hard to study for the citizenship test.  They were very honored to receive citizenship and sent the class pictures from the ceremony. Tufuku is very excited to be an American citizen and shows great pride in his family and his new country.  He watches the other boys in class carefully and tries to copy their language and mannerisms.  

Support:
In regards to the support this student may need if present during my discussion-based literacy lesson, I believe the most prevalent support is in regards to linguistic. As mentioned in the student profile, Tufuku's speech is sometimes hard to understand and he has been working with a speech pathologist to help learn how to form the sounds present within the language. In general, as a teacher, I should be very careful to enunciate and clearly pronounce my own speech as to make it easier for Tufuku to improve in his own speech. In regards to supporting Tufuku's speech development during the discussion, I believe it is important to provide the student with opportunities to speak. If the student is uncomfortable speaking in front of the class, a culture of acceptance must be established prior to the lesson. In order to alleviate embarrassment or fear of failure, as a teacher, I will not "overly-correct" but rather simply use a form of "recast" in which his comments are repeated, thus allowing the student to hear the speech with the correct sounds without making it seem as if he is being corrected. 

As for social support, because it was mentioned in the student profile that Tufuku watches other students in the class closely as to mimic their behavior and language, I feel this is a great base to build from. Small group work with other students is crucial to help Tufuku's language development, thus, perhaps I should thus adjust my literature discussion to break off into small groups at times before coming back together as a full group, as to grant Tufuku with opportunities to interact with his peers in a less threatening environment as well as allow him to help develop his comfort with the culture of his peers. 

What Do You Think? Case Study

            I think that it is very possible for Mrs. Potter to tweak her teaching style and methods to better suit these students without disrupting the learning of the other children in her class or having to put in a ton of extra work.  If she is willing to take some time out of her schedule to do a few minor assessments and/or observations of these three cases, she will likely be able to get a good sense of where their strengths and weaknesses are and differentiate certain assignments based on her discoveries. 

            In the case of Lupita, I believe that Mrs. Potter needs to rethink her initial assumption that she “lacks academic skill”.  Not only is she finishing her assignments early, Lupita is also displaying the cognitive ability to solve puzzles quickly and attempting to share her knowledge with her peers.  It is very possible that she is actually a very bright student whose ability is being hindered by a language barrier.  One way Mrs. Potter could make her classroom more friendly for Lupita and any future English language learners would be through the use of visuals.  As discussed and pictured in the article “Quick and Easy Adaptations and Accommodations for Early Childhood Students”, creating easily accessible visual representations of schedules, assignments, and expectations is a great way to improve communication between teachers and students.  Author Leisa Breitfelder explains that the use of visuals can be an efficient way to improve transitions, behavior, and overall quality of work.

            Mrs. Potter needs to consider making some adjustments in Jonathan’s typical daily activities in order to give him more reading support.  Additional time spent reading with him one on one or in a small group setting will be a good way for his skills to improve.  If she usually includes silent reading in her schedule, she could use this time to work individually with him and focus in on the specific problems he is having.  Additionally, she could devote certain literacy centers to reading improvement or time spent reading with her.  It also sounds like Jonathan is afraid or embarrassed to ask for help.  Because of this, Mrs. Potter should be sure to circulate the room while the students are working on assignments, taking special care to stop by his desk multiple times.  Another thing she could change would be to create some sort of special signal for Jonathan to use if he needs help with his work.  This could be something like a laminated card placed on his desk with one side displaying green if he is doing well and the other side showing red if he needs assistance.

            From the sounds of it, Eddie may be suffering from some type of attention disorder (possibly ADHD).  His desire to always be up and moving around is interfering with his learning but is probably something that Eddie doesn’t have much control over.  Because of this, Mrs. Potter should include plenty of opportunities for movement throughout the school day.  As I previously mentioned for Jonathan, the use of centers might be beneficial in this case as well- not just for language arts, but for all subjects.  As mentioned in Literacy for the 21^st Century by Gail Tompkins, centers offer students a wide variety of activities that can be engaging and interactive while also advancing knowledge.  Eddie and the other students should be given the opportunity to choose, either daily or weekly, which centers they would like to participate in.  If Eddie is given the chance to pick what activities he is doing throughout the day, he will most likely choose the ones that interest him most, which will (hopefully) lead to a greater desire to complete the tasks and pay attention to what is going on.

Emily's Venn Diagram

Chelsey's Venn Diagram

Spelling Stages

In analyzing the writing samples I have gathered from some of my kindergartners, the results vary tremendously. One of the students is certainly classified within Stage 1, Emergent Spelling, as she is learning how to make letters and understands the direction of writing on a page, but also tends to incorporate several scribbles into her writing. Because of this, I wonder if she has clearly distinguished the difference between writing and drawing as her entire page is filled with pictures, letters, and scribbles. There is not yet any demonstration of letter-sound matches.

Another student may also be classified within Stage 1, Emergent Spelling, as she has clearly made a distinction between writing and drawing, neatly keeping her drawing within the specified space and her writing within the specified lines. She has learned to write letters and follows the direction of writing on a page. She is also learning to make sound letter matches, such as “bk” for book perhaps almost to the point of classifying her as nearing the beginning of stage 2, Letter Name-Alphabetic Spelling. Further supporting the idea of her being classified as the beginning of stage 2 is the fact that her entire writing sample is written in capital letters.

Perhaps also in between stage 1 and two is my next student, who has mastered all of the concepts like student 2, but has incorporated some words that include vowels. I’m unsure if this is classified as stage 2 however, as they are sight words such as “mom” and “dad.”

The next two students are both easily classified within stage 2. Both students have mastered the alphabetic principle as well as consonant sounds. One of the students is still learning to work with vowels and diphthongs, as represented in her interpretation of the word outside as “owtsid” and friends as “freds.” However, the last student, at least in the writing sample I have gathered, seems to be mastering more complex vowel combinations such as “went” and “jumping.”

Students in this class will benefit from a range of “sorting activities”, in which some students in more emergent stages of spelling may sort pictures based on the beginning letter sound of the word, while others in a later stage may work on identifying the vowels within a word in a similar way. This could be implemented by focusing on select letter sounds at a time, rather than having a wide set of “options” as the alphabet provides. Perhaps there are five sounds represented at one time, and with vowels maybe only one or two. Students could possibly cut pictures out and glue them under a column labeled with the corresponding letter/sound. 

See below my embedded Venn Diagram comparing two New Literacy topics!

Digital Native

I'm sure a lot of the students in our class will say they are digital natives.  Most of us have grown up with technology, computers being one of the biggest sources of technology that we use.  I too would consider myself a digital native but I also would say I am a bit of a digital addict as well.  I have not only grown up using technology and have become fairly knowledgeable about using new technology but I am also very dependent on it as well.  I am constantly using my computer and the Internet for school purposes but also for social purposes (facebook, pinterest, skype).  Not to mention my reliance on my iPhone.  I can not even begin to imagine life without these things.  However, while my reliance on technology may seem like an awful addition I think technology can serve a lot of useful purposes.  It keeps people connected and allows for things like homework and grading to be readily available and easy to work with.  It is also very useful in the classroom (smartboards, ipads, laptops).  Overall I would say that our world is constantly evolving and technology holds a firm place in our lives and I think sometime in the very near future we will all be digital natives.

As for the way Tompkin's talks about emergent literacy for children on pages 118 and 119, I definitely can see some similarities between digital literacy and literacy for children.  During both emergent stages, knowledge and understanding of how words work is being gained and children are learning the skills needed to work effectively for both.  Another similarity is that teachers have the ability and knowledge to teach the children the skills necessary for both types of emergent literacy.  However, one big difference that I see is that digital literacy is easier for students to pick up on.  There are more ways to learn using the various technologies that are available to us and students seem to pick up on them more than the traditional reading and writing forms.  I think this is because technology  is meant to make things easier for us and it engages us more as well so the young emergent children are able to master digital skills faster and without much struggle.  For example, in my placement I have noticed that most of the students who are still working on their letters have a much easier time working on the smart board or on a laptop.  Using these technologies they enjoy themselves while learning instead of doing the traditional worksheet type activities.

Response-Centered Discussions

Although I see a lot of language arts time in my placement, I hardly ever see any kind of discussion take place.  My MT relies mostly on independent work time for reading and writing-based activities.  Any discussions that do happen are what Almasi would call "recitations", where the teacher asks a basic question and calls on volunteers for responses.  The students in my classroom haven't had much experience working constructively with their peers- everything is either done on their own or as an entire class.  The few times I have seen my MT attempt to use groupwork strategies, it has ended with the students interrupting each other and getting off-task.  Because of this, I think a lot of scaffolding would be needed to have a successful response-centered discussion.  The kids would need to practice waiting their turn to speak and answering each other's questions rather than responding to what was said by the teacher.

Creating a classroom with response-centered discussion norms would take a lot of work, but I believe it would definitely be worth it.  As Almasi described, students benefit greatly from being able to use their critical thinking and reasoning skills and have thoughtful discussions with one another.  In addition to educational benefits, kids also receive social and emotional benefits from these types of activities as well.  A good way to initiate these discussions would be to go over the "roles" of response-centered talks and have a few practice runs in which the teacher is still relatively involved in the conversation.  As time goes on, the teacher could slowly remove his or herself from the discussions and allow students to take over.

Literature within Literacy Curriculum

Describe how literature is included in the literacy curriculum in your classroom.  Based on today’s readings and your own ideas, what thoughts do you have about additional ways to incorporate literature into the curriculum?

So far this year, I have been impressed with my CT's structure of literature presentation within the classroom. In general, many pieces of literature are incorporated to specifically highlight a desirable personality trait or attribute, (off the top of my head: confidence, kindness, commitment, integrity, patience, open-minded) working to not only raise awareness of such characteristics, but to also encourage students to engage in similar behavior. In general, I have witnessed the success of this mode of literature integration as students repeatedly refer to these traits in their daily endeavors (with the help of the teacher pointing out traits at times). Students seem to go out of their way to demonstrate these traits, and their behavior is reinforced through positive reinforcement and recognition. 

However, after reading about Critical Literacy and having been in TE 448, I am saddened to say, I have not seen literature addressing significant critical issues presented in the classroom. After engaging with children's literature addressing such critical issues through TE 448, I have become excited and even eager to employ a variety of texts in my own future classroom to provide students with an opportunity to grow in their understanding of the world around them. However, after reading the Langer article, I am now even more convinced this type of literature engagement is a must in every classroom. I previously only realized the obvious benefits of creating a culturally accepting, sound classroom environment prepared to effectively participate in the outside world. I now realize the many additional academic and social benefits that may stem from such critical engagement. Overall, critical engagement with literature is crucial.

Goals for Learning

Like a lot of our other classmates I am majoring in Language Arts and minoring in TESOL so this class is really something that I hope to gain a lot from.  Especially for my TESOL minor, having a lot of language and literacy knowledge is extremely important.  From this class I hope to further my knowledge on effective ways of teaching literacy.  I am also becoming a more hands on teacher and student and I would like to learn more ways of teaching literacy through fun and engaging activities.  While I think this class will definitely help me learn more about teaching literacy effectively, my field placement is also really beneficial.  I am working in a kindergarten classroom and my CT is awesome! She focuses on literacy and keeps me very involved with everything she does in her class. I have seen a ton of various literacy activities that keep the young ones engaged.  Something else that is really cool is that she is letting me test them for their mid year report cards and I am getting to see their progress first hand.  Overall, I would have to see that one of my biggest goals for this class is to continue learning in our classroom and then using that knowledge and applying it to my field placement so I can see what really works and what doesn't.

As for my future teaching, it would be ideal to teach in lower elementary grades in a suburban community.  However, I wouldn't mind teaching in an urban area because I think it would be a great experience and it would make me a better teacher.  My CT has taught in very poor urban areas before and she said while it was tough at first she eventually got the hang of it and it taught her so much about herself and the type of teacher that she wanted to be.  She says that once you teach in an area outside of your comfort zone teaching becomes more natural.  In these type of communities I think literacy is the most important subject to teach students.  Some may be very far behind and I would love to be the difference between them learning to read and them not learning. That is why I feel like this literacy class in particular will help me a lot to become the best teacher I can be.