The students:
A- make a Venn diagram to compare two stories
A- read a language experience story they have created with the teacher
A- work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences
A- make alphabet books on different topics
L- look up words in the dictionary to write definitions
L- practice sounding out words
L- read in round robin fashion
L- correct peers when they make a mistake
L- divide words into syllables
L- ask teacher how to spell any word they don’t know
L- identify words on a big book page that start with the same sound
L- on a worksheet, draw a line from each word to the picture that starts with the
same sound
L /A- write rhyming poetry and then discuss different spellings for the same sound
L/A- group cards with classmates’ names by a criterion on such as first or last
letter
The teacher:
A- set aside time for SSR (sustained silent reading) each day
A- has students meet in literature circles
A write words the students dictate for a story and has students help with the
spelling of difficult words
A- teaches students different comprehension strategies
A- does a picture walk of a new book
A- does a shared reading with a big book
L- make sure that students read only books that fit their level
L- has students segment words into phonemes
L- uses decodable text
L- uses a variety of worksheets to teach different skills
L- conducts phonics drills
L/A- teaches Latin and Greek roots
L/A- preteaches vocabulary
L/A- chooses predictable texts
L/A- asks students to look around the room and find words starting with a certain
letter.
Reflection:
According to Freeman I viewed the learning view as providing instruction for students that gives them opportunities to learn each part of the language-the pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. In contrast our reading describes the acquisition view as more of an authentic approach to teaching language. Students are given purposeful instruction that gives them opportunities to understand, speak, read, and write language in a variety of settings that results in a deeper comprehension. Those activities that I labeled L were those that were less engaging and oral or written. Those that I labeled A I felt were activities that allowed students to make more sense out of language and take their oral language to a new level. Finally, those activities I labeled L/A were activities that I believe could be labeled both because they were rich in comprehension, but yet served to also break apart language into simple pieces for the learner.
References:
Freeman, D., and Y. Freeman.(2004). Essential linguistics: What you need to know to teach: reading, ESL, spelling, phonics, grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Adult Publication: The Game of Numbers By: Nick Murray
My husband Nic is a financial representative for Northwestern Mutual and one of 
several books that he has read to extend his knowledge in the industry is called The Game of Numbers by a well known author on the subject of financial advising, Nick Murray. The book is primarily about the many different types of prospecting done by financial advisors, which is easy for most adults to understand. However, within the text there are many financial concepts and terms that are beyond my comprehension. An example of this is where Nick Murray explains to a prospect how to calculate his retirement needs based on the amount of annual income per year, number of years that income is required, the assumed rate of return, including inflation while accounting for limiting risks such as market risk, inflation risk, tax risk, and life span risk. Gibbons states that it is important for teachers to teach students to comprehend the value of learning by doing and enhance their comprehension by providing concrete experiences (2002, p. 49). To help myself comprehend the example above I started to think about my mother retiring and needing a certain amount of money to live off of each year, and the fact that my mother is in good health and can live another 25 or 30 years. Making this concrete connection to my mother’s real life situation helped me comprehend Nick Murray’s calculation of retirement income needs.
My purpose for reading The Game of Numbers is that I lack background knowledge in financial concepts and I feel I should have some level of understanding of what my husband Nic does each day and how he makes a difference in one life at a time. I went back to where Nick Murray describes the variety of different risks in calculating retirement needs and I associated the meaning of each word with prior knowledge. For example I associated market risk with the stock market, inflation risk with prices I pay for goods, tax risk with paying taxes, and life span risk with knowing that I could live longer than expected.
In closing, this task was difficult for me. I chose not to pick a text in another language, but rather an adult publication that to me was very foreign and challenging to understand. Identifying effective reading strategies to help ELLs comprehend is vital. “An ESL reader’s failure to activate an appropriate schema during reading may result in various degrees of non-comprehension” (Carrell, 1984, p.333). Literature argues that background knowledge of text has a major impact on whether or not a reader can comprehend text (Anderson& Pearson, 1984; Bransford, Stein & Shelton, 1984; Kintsch & van Kijk, 1978; Wilson & Anderson, 1986). Thus, it is imperative for English as a second language (ESL) students’ schema to be activated and build schema is essential to help them become successful readers and writers. To help ELLs learn new information it is very important to find out what they already know which demands specific preparation to find out what their previous educational experiences were.
Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: teaching second language learners in the mainstream classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Navarro, A. M. (2008). Building Schema for English Language Learners. Online Submission, Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
several books that he has read to extend his knowledge in the industry is called The Game of Numbers by a well known author on the subject of financial advising, Nick Murray. The book is primarily about the many different types of prospecting done by financial advisors, which is easy for most adults to understand. However, within the text there are many financial concepts and terms that are beyond my comprehension. An example of this is where Nick Murray explains to a prospect how to calculate his retirement needs based on the amount of annual income per year, number of years that income is required, the assumed rate of return, including inflation while accounting for limiting risks such as market risk, inflation risk, tax risk, and life span risk. Gibbons states that it is important for teachers to teach students to comprehend the value of learning by doing and enhance their comprehension by providing concrete experiences (2002, p. 49). To help myself comprehend the example above I started to think about my mother retiring and needing a certain amount of money to live off of each year, and the fact that my mother is in good health and can live another 25 or 30 years. Making this concrete connection to my mother’s real life situation helped me comprehend Nick Murray’s calculation of retirement income needs.
My purpose for reading The Game of Numbers is that I lack background knowledge in financial concepts and I feel I should have some level of understanding of what my husband Nic does each day and how he makes a difference in one life at a time. I went back to where Nick Murray describes the variety of different risks in calculating retirement needs and I associated the meaning of each word with prior knowledge. For example I associated market risk with the stock market, inflation risk with prices I pay for goods, tax risk with paying taxes, and life span risk with knowing that I could live longer than expected.
In closing, this task was difficult for me. I chose not to pick a text in another language, but rather an adult publication that to me was very foreign and challenging to understand. Identifying effective reading strategies to help ELLs comprehend is vital. “An ESL reader’s failure to activate an appropriate schema during reading may result in various degrees of non-comprehension” (Carrell, 1984, p.333). Literature argues that background knowledge of text has a major impact on whether or not a reader can comprehend text (Anderson& Pearson, 1984; Bransford, Stein & Shelton, 1984; Kintsch & van Kijk, 1978; Wilson & Anderson, 1986). Thus, it is imperative for English as a second language (ESL) students’ schema to be activated and build schema is essential to help them become successful readers and writers. To help ELLs learn new information it is very important to find out what they already know which demands specific preparation to find out what their previous educational experiences were.
Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: teaching second language learners in the mainstream classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Navarro, A. M. (2008). Building Schema for English Language Learners. Online Submission, Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Review of Children’s Books
The two children’s books I selected were called Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood by Mike Artell and Amelia Bedelia Under Construction by Herman 
Parish. The first book I chose is another version of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. Instead of a wolf and little girl in the story there is a duckling that was referred to as Petite Rouge Riding Hood and her Grand-mere who was the Alligator. In the mid-1750’s a group of French-speaking people lived in an area of Canada knows as French Acadia, which was then ruled by the English government. In the beginning of the story there is a glossary of the words that children will encounter as they read. Next to the word it gives the meaning in English. I thought that having these words was a great way to discuss the vocabulary before reading the story. Challenges that ELL students or English-speaking students might face while reading this book is the accent in which it is read. Some of my highest students who are reading above grade level could not even read the book until I was able to read it a loud to them. We are currently doing a genre study on Fairy Tales and this was a book that I read a loud in Language Workshop. My students loved it, but they needed to hear it being read first in order to be able to read it on their own. Another challenge that ELL students might face is the missing letters, which are essential to be there for the word to be pronounced correctly. For example instead of the words “of and this” it reads “An’ some uh dis boudin” which means, “and some of this Cajun sausage.” ELL students or English speaking students would have difficulty reading these phrases because they are used to seeing “of” and “th” instead of “uh” and “dis.” Third, the story has many vocabulary words that are in French such as “adieu” meaning “goodbye,” “pirogue” meaning “a narrow, flat canoe that is pushed or paddled through the bayou, marsh, or swamp,” and “maisoui” meaning “yes.” Not only are these words tricky, but also I found myself having to refer back to the glossary while reading to make sure my students knew what I was referring to. The good thing about this story was that while reading the majority of the text is in English and using context clues gave a good idea of what the word meant in the story. Finally, even though the story is a different version of Little Red Riding Hood the story takes place in a swamp instead of the woods and the characters are different. I think ELL students who were not familiar with the story Little Red Riding Hood might become confused with what a swamp is and while reading they could lose meaning by not having enough background knowledge.
I would help ELL students comprehend the Fairy Tale by using a graphic organizer to compare and contrast what is different between the Little Red Riding Hood and Petite Rouge Riding Hood. I would also put the French words on note cards and accompany them with pictures so that each time I read the word or they read the word they could associate the new vocabulary with an image.
The second book I chose was Amelia Bedelia Under Construction. Amelia Bedelia
books include lots of idiomatic expressions that can be challenging for ELL students to understand. For example, the story reads, “I am expecting.” “Expecting what?” said Amelia Bedelia. “An addition,” said Mrs. Hardy. “I can help,” said Amelia Bedelia. “I am pretty good at math.” The word addition has two different meanings. It could mean adding another person to the family, or like Amelia Bedelia thought a math term. Throughout the story Amelia Bedelia thinks that words mean different things. For ELL students this could be challenging to understand because words have multiple meanings. To help I would give students the opportunity to hear, say, and read the words in different meaningful contexts. The article we read this week suggests this technique and I would also explain the vocabulary explicitly by acting out the words, through pictures, or verbal explanations. Another challenge in this story is the vocabulary. Since the family is building a house and needs marble counter tops Amelia Bedelia thinks she needs to put real marbles on the counters and does not understand what kind of marble the characters are referring to. Not only do words have multiple meanings in the story, but also the figurative language is evident throughout the story. To scaffold for my learners I would use pictures, demonstrations, and verbal explanations since they would not be able to infer meaning through the context clues provided. Third, the plot of the story is difficult and could result in a loss of meaning for ELL students. I would provide my students with a story map that they could use to help them identify the parts of the story. I would also make some sequence cards with pictures from the story that they could use to practice putting the story in order and telling a partner the story a loud before completing the story map organizer. Finally, I think ELL students would have difficulty reading some of the names in the story phonetically such as Amelia Bedelia, Eddie, and Andrew. The “ia” “ie” and “ew” chunks can be difficult to read. To help, I would write these names on a white board for students before reading the story and introduce the names before reading. I would also teach them the sounds of “ia” “ie” and “ew” using words they are familiar with so they will be able to associate the sounds with another word they are already able to recognize.
Overall, I enjoyed this task because it opened my eyes to what ELL students experience everyday while reading in the classroom. My own students were also able to identify with the challenge of not understanding a book and not being able to read a book until they were taught how. After being able to listen to the fairy tale, and practice reading it on their own, they loved it, and wanted me to read it again and again. They could connect to the challenges that ELL students face every day while learning English and that was rewarding to see!
Parish. The first book I chose is another version of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. Instead of a wolf and little girl in the story there is a duckling that was referred to as Petite Rouge Riding Hood and her Grand-mere who was the Alligator. In the mid-1750’s a group of French-speaking people lived in an area of Canada knows as French Acadia, which was then ruled by the English government. In the beginning of the story there is a glossary of the words that children will encounter as they read. Next to the word it gives the meaning in English. I thought that having these words was a great way to discuss the vocabulary before reading the story. Challenges that ELL students or English-speaking students might face while reading this book is the accent in which it is read. Some of my highest students who are reading above grade level could not even read the book until I was able to read it a loud to them. We are currently doing a genre study on Fairy Tales and this was a book that I read a loud in Language Workshop. My students loved it, but they needed to hear it being read first in order to be able to read it on their own. Another challenge that ELL students might face is the missing letters, which are essential to be there for the word to be pronounced correctly. For example instead of the words “of and this” it reads “An’ some uh dis boudin” which means, “and some of this Cajun sausage.” ELL students or English speaking students would have difficulty reading these phrases because they are used to seeing “of” and “th” instead of “uh” and “dis.” Third, the story has many vocabulary words that are in French such as “adieu” meaning “goodbye,” “pirogue” meaning “a narrow, flat canoe that is pushed or paddled through the bayou, marsh, or swamp,” and “maisoui” meaning “yes.” Not only are these words tricky, but also I found myself having to refer back to the glossary while reading to make sure my students knew what I was referring to. The good thing about this story was that while reading the majority of the text is in English and using context clues gave a good idea of what the word meant in the story. Finally, even though the story is a different version of Little Red Riding Hood the story takes place in a swamp instead of the woods and the characters are different. I think ELL students who were not familiar with the story Little Red Riding Hood might become confused with what a swamp is and while reading they could lose meaning by not having enough background knowledge.
I would help ELL students comprehend the Fairy Tale by using a graphic organizer to compare and contrast what is different between the Little Red Riding Hood and Petite Rouge Riding Hood. I would also put the French words on note cards and accompany them with pictures so that each time I read the word or they read the word they could associate the new vocabulary with an image.
The second book I chose was Amelia Bedelia Under Construction. Amelia Bedelia
books include lots of idiomatic expressions that can be challenging for ELL students to understand. For example, the story reads, “I am expecting.” “Expecting what?” said Amelia Bedelia. “An addition,” said Mrs. Hardy. “I can help,” said Amelia Bedelia. “I am pretty good at math.” The word addition has two different meanings. It could mean adding another person to the family, or like Amelia Bedelia thought a math term. Throughout the story Amelia Bedelia thinks that words mean different things. For ELL students this could be challenging to understand because words have multiple meanings. To help I would give students the opportunity to hear, say, and read the words in different meaningful contexts. The article we read this week suggests this technique and I would also explain the vocabulary explicitly by acting out the words, through pictures, or verbal explanations. Another challenge in this story is the vocabulary. Since the family is building a house and needs marble counter tops Amelia Bedelia thinks she needs to put real marbles on the counters and does not understand what kind of marble the characters are referring to. Not only do words have multiple meanings in the story, but also the figurative language is evident throughout the story. To scaffold for my learners I would use pictures, demonstrations, and verbal explanations since they would not be able to infer meaning through the context clues provided. Third, the plot of the story is difficult and could result in a loss of meaning for ELL students. I would provide my students with a story map that they could use to help them identify the parts of the story. I would also make some sequence cards with pictures from the story that they could use to practice putting the story in order and telling a partner the story a loud before completing the story map organizer. Finally, I think ELL students would have difficulty reading some of the names in the story phonetically such as Amelia Bedelia, Eddie, and Andrew. The “ia” “ie” and “ew” chunks can be difficult to read. To help, I would write these names on a white board for students before reading the story and introduce the names before reading. I would also teach them the sounds of “ia” “ie” and “ew” using words they are familiar with so they will be able to associate the sounds with another word they are already able to recognize.
Overall, I enjoyed this task because it opened my eyes to what ELL students experience everyday while reading in the classroom. My own students were also able to identify with the challenge of not understanding a book and not being able to read a book until they were taught how. After being able to listen to the fairy tale, and practice reading it on their own, they loved it, and wanted me to read it again and again. They could connect to the challenges that ELL students face every day while learning English and that was rewarding to see!
Friday, May 13, 2011
The Relationship Between Oral Language and the Reading Process
Children begin reading first by developing oral language that consists of both listening and speaking. After obtaining the ability to listen and speak children later learn to read and write. These five elements (speaking, listening, reading, writing, and thinking) all continuously develop together. A child who develops a good listening and speaking vocabulary has formed many concepts and ideas, which is known as prior knowledge. As teachers, once we understand how these elements work together we then can develop an effective literacy program for our students. Oral language is also essential to develop comprehension. The oral language a child develops helps a child to construct meaning, interact with text, and associate meaning with text. Children acquire oral language through experiences and interactions with others. It is important that all schools build literacy experiences around the language the child has developed to successfully establish a connection between oral language and reading.
Writing Instruction Experiences
As I reflect on my writing experiences growing up I believe I was instructed in more of a traditional way. I remember copying my spelling words multiple times in my composition notebook and every day we would have two sentences to correct. We had to copy the sentence and then edit them with a red colored pencil to make it correct. Sometimes punctuation was missing, capitals, or words were misspelled that we had to correct. I also remember a significant amount of time was spent on handwriting practice from learning print, cursive, and even calligraphy. Writing instruction was also traditional. My teachers would give us writing prompts and we had to write a story. Sometimes we would write other genres such as poetry, but usually we were asked to write to a specific prompt, which did not allow room for any creativity.
As a 2nd grade teacher I believe in Process Writing. The school in which I teach at believes in the philosophy of the Comprehensive Literacy Model by Linda Dorn. I use a variety of mentor texts in Language Workshop to teach my students the craft of writing. We have written Fairy Tales, Non-Fiction, Personal Narratives, Poetry, How-To Paragraphs, Persuasive Pieces, and Fiction just to name a few. Within each genre study I use the mentor texts to help teach the genre my students are to write. Between genre studies my students also get to write creatively about any topic they want to. Sometimes they even buddy write. In my Writing Workshop I use my mini-lessons to help model what is expected of my students. As my students write, I also confer with them because it is essential that they get to read their writing a loud and talk through their pieces of writing with someone else; whether it’s with me or another child. Like David and Yvonne Freeman I believe that the Process Writing approach “creates conditions for authentic written responses and helps students express themselves in writing” (2002, p. 29). Furthermore, more than just the teacher views the draft. Child, teacher, and additional peers respond to the drafts that are written. The following link is a website called Writing Fix that I use to help me select mentor texts for mini-lessons in my Writing Workshop. I have also attached a link that was just recently introduced to me. With 21st century learners it is important that we provide students with the opportunity to authentically write using computers too. They can use this kid’s blog to write to their relatives, teachers and classrooms all over the world.
http://writingfix.com/6_traits/voice.htm#mentor_text
http://kidblog.org/home.php
As a 2nd grade teacher I believe in Process Writing. The school in which I teach at believes in the philosophy of the Comprehensive Literacy Model by Linda Dorn. I use a variety of mentor texts in Language Workshop to teach my students the craft of writing. We have written Fairy Tales, Non-Fiction, Personal Narratives, Poetry, How-To Paragraphs, Persuasive Pieces, and Fiction just to name a few. Within each genre study I use the mentor texts to help teach the genre my students are to write. Between genre studies my students also get to write creatively about any topic they want to. Sometimes they even buddy write. In my Writing Workshop I use my mini-lessons to help model what is expected of my students. As my students write, I also confer with them because it is essential that they get to read their writing a loud and talk through their pieces of writing with someone else; whether it’s with me or another child. Like David and Yvonne Freeman I believe that the Process Writing approach “creates conditions for authentic written responses and helps students express themselves in writing” (2002, p. 29). Furthermore, more than just the teacher views the draft. Child, teacher, and additional peers respond to the drafts that are written. The following link is a website called Writing Fix that I use to help me select mentor texts for mini-lessons in my Writing Workshop. I have also attached a link that was just recently introduced to me. With 21st century learners it is important that we provide students with the opportunity to authentically write using computers too. They can use this kid’s blog to write to their relatives, teachers and classrooms all over the world.
http://writingfix.com/6_traits/voice.htm#mentor_text
http://kidblog.org/home.php
Philosophy about Teaching Literacy
I had the opportunity to interview my Literacy Coach Josie Adler at my school. Josie came to Douglas County School District from Virginia. She used to be the reading coach for the entire district and found her home at Renaissance Magnet School where I teach. Josie has been a Reading Recovery teacher and continues to touch many of our struggling readers lives each and every day. I have known Josie for almost 4 years and she has taught me a lot about literacy and about what it takes to teach struggling readers. Josie believes in lots of modeling.Students need to both see and hear what they are expected to do. She also believes that students learn best with mentor texts. Using a mentor text in a mini-lesson engages students, and shows them the craft of a variety of authors.Conferring with readers and writers is very high on Josie’s list. Talking with students about what they are reading, instructing them, and taking advantage of teachable moments is essential. Student’s needs to be engaged in guided reading groups, literacy centers, literature discussion groups, and independent reading and writing. Finally, Josie believes in ongoing assessment. She says, that we need to make sure we are not only administering assessments, but that we involve the child, and evaluate their growth continuously throughout the year. Her famous words are “As teachers you need to be insistent, persistent, and consistent!” Josie Adler is a leader with a wealth of knowledge, that I hope to one day obtain. She is a true example of what a literacy teacher and coach needs to provide her students with in order for them to grow as readers and writers and reach their highest potential.
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