Blog Week 7 - Entry #10

Homework Structure

Homework provides students with the opportunity to extend their learning outside the classroom. Therefore homework can be so very beneficial to students…as long as it is presented correctly and that it correlates with the information being learned in the classroom. Using homework to help students can make a HUGE difference in their learning. The following are some benefits of homework! First, homework helps students attain mastery of skills and knowledge. Next, it teaches students discipline as it makes them take responsibility for their own learning, and teaches them time management and organization. In addition, homework helps students develop good study habits for the future. Also, completing homework reinforces classroom skills and provides review, which in turn produces an increased retention of the material.

The following are my personal views on homework, or my homework policies, and what I believe are the best teaching practices for homework.

1. There will always be a clear purpose for the homework assigned. This means that I will never send home busy work or homework that is not directly related to what is happening in the classroom.

2. Assigned homework will give students the opportunity to show their learning. This means that I will never send home work designed to teach new skills, instead it will be work to reflect what they have already learned.

3., Homework will be assigned Monday through Thursday each week (unless it is a short week.) There will not be homework on weekends unless I have assigned a project your child is to work on at home over a long period of time. In this case, I will send information home far in advance so that you and your child can prepare for the time it will take to complete the project.

4. In the fourth grade, your student will have about an hour of homework each night. If your child is spending a significant amount of time more or less than this on homework each night, please contact me and we will make adjustments to your individual child’s homework. Although I try to strictly follow my homework policies, nothing is ever set in stone and I will always work with your child to help them succeed in my classroom!

5. Because I will be using homework to gain a better understanding of each students individual understanding of the material, homework will be modified to fit students individual needs and abilities. Understanding that all students are different, that they learn different and show that they have learned differently, I will create homework that will benefit each individual student best.

6. Parent/sibling/grandparent/neighbor/friend help should be minimal. Students should be able to complete their homework with little to no help the majority of the time. Your child’s homework again will cater to their abilities and therefore will be at their independent level. You should not need to sit with them each night, nor should you at any time do their homework for them. If they are struggling, I need to know this so that I can get to the root of the issue and help your child. Homework should not be too difficult and should not take too much time to complete – should not overwhelm students and they should be able to complete it on their own.

7. Feedback is also extremely important for students. Therefore, I will provide feedback on homework in a timely manner, and the feedback I do provide will be very specific as well as corrective. This means that it should help students understand how to correct their mistakes rather than simply telling them that they indeed made a mistake.

8. Your student will be given a planner at the beginning of the school year. They will write their homework in this planner EVERY night. When they have completed their daily homework, they are to show an adult (parent or guardian) that it is indeed finished, and that adult needs to sign their initials in a designated spot EVERY night. Students who come to school without this signature will miss out on 10 minutes of recess for the first offense, 20 minutes for the second offense (in a row), ALL of recess for the third offense (in a row) in addition to a call home where a plan of action will be discussed with parents. For students who bring a signed planner every day for 15 days in a row will be rewarded each time 15 signatures are accumulated without a break!!

9. In addition to their planner, students will also have a “Homework Journal.” This homework journal is EXTREMELY important, as this is where I will provide specific feedback on homework. Rather than showing corrections and suggestions on the actual sheet of homework, I will do so in this journal. This will give me more room to explain and show how to correct mistakes. I will try to be as clear and specific as possible when writing in your student’s homework journal. So when your student turns in their homework every morning, they will also be turning in their homework journal. This is also where I will communicate with and give feedback to parents regarding homework.

Ultimately, the purpose of homework is to help your students gain better understanding of what I am teaching in the classroom, which is why I am sharing my policies with you now!!! When we are working together and are all on the same page, your student is more likely to succeed!! I will at times also be assigning various educational websites for your students to visit for homework to practice specific skills. These too will give your child the opportunity to work independently at their specific level in a fun and different way!

Blog Week 6 - Entry #9

Non-Fiction:

My favorite graphic organizer to have student’s use when reading Non-Fiction is a KWL chart. I’m sure we are all familiar with KWL charts, but here is a brief description of what they are. The K stands for Know…meaning what the students already know about a particular subject or idea, the W is for Want to know…meaning what would the students want to know about the subject or idea, and the L stands for Learned…meaning what the students learned after reading about and exploring the topic. KWL charts are a great way to introduce a new idea or topic as it helps students activate prior knowledge, gives them a reason to focus on what they are reading, and shows what they have learned when they are finished reading!!! Here is why I love using them for Fiction. Again, and I apologize for repeating myself, while I have a teaching degree and license, I have not taught in my own classroom yet. However, during my student teaching, I had the opportunity to teach a 5-week unit on Non-Fiction. With the students, we read a variety of Non-Fiction pieces, and explored their purpose, how they were written, what elements each type had and so on. I used the KWL chart before each Non-Fiction piece we read as was recommended by my cooperating teacher, and it was amazing how greatly it increased understanding for the students!!

Fiction:

Again, because of the work I did with the 4^th graders I student taught, I found a graphic organizer that I thought was very useful for Fiction. In many of the Fiction books I read with the students, to the students, or that I learned about from the students, there were characters that were very important to the concept of the entire book, and therefore, I relied a lot on Character Maps. Character Maps can truly be beneficial with Non-Fiction, Fiction and Poems, however, I especially like to use them with Fiction because many fictitious main characters can be so complex and deep. Exploring who they are and why their specific features are important can be just as interesting as the book they are in and very beneficial to understanding the concepts and ideas in the book. Using the Character Map helps students to describe in great detail who the main character or characters are, thus helping them greater understand the story/book/novel they are reading.

Poetry:

I have never taught poetry nor do I know anything about teaching it. When there comes the time when I do have to teach it, I will be looking back at what I learn from all of your suggestions! So for this one, I simply looked online to see what I could find. Truthfully, I did not find a lot. The one I ended up choosing to share with you is one that I personally know would be beneficial to me when reading poetry. I am not big on poetry, and therefore I know that I would need a lot of help trying to find the meaning of a poem, and this particular graphic organizer does just that as it has the reader examining ALL aspects of a poem. Here is the link to the graphic organizer. Let me know what you think!!

http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/DMGetDocument.aspx/Grade%209%20-%20Poetry%20Unit%20-%20Poetry%20Analysis%20Graphic%20Organizer%20Task.pdf?p=6CC6799F8C1371F6C8F6D3B2C917CE78B237D1F66FB5CD14B59DCD1C61437825&Type=D

Blog Week 5 - Entry #8

In the sheltered literacy lesson shown on the videos I watched, the teacher does many different things to promote comprehension. Fist, she has prepared for the lesson by writing down the goals and instructions for the day. She begins with the students by going over the goal for the day, which is for the students to “begin to understand how to make inferences from reading a passage” and explains that it is directly related to what the students have been learning over the past week. She then explains that where the passage they will be reading is coming from and begins a discussion with the students about reading strategies that the students may need in the lesson. She writes what the students say on the board. Then she goes over vocabulary she feels the students may need help with before beginning reading the passage, and she had visuals to go along with each vocab word. She also makes relatable inferences for the students to remember the words. Once she has the students get out their books, she begins reading slowly and clearly to the students as they follow along. As she is reading, she also reminds students of different reading strategies. She goes over different sentences in the story, and talks about using background knowledge to infer what will happen next. She provides many opportunities for the students to review the vocab words and to make connections with the text with either their personal lives or other texts they have read. She constantly gives the students opportunities to talk about the text, and this gives them great practice in using the language they are learning. When the teacher is done teaching the lesson, she also reviews with the students everything they covered that day. The students are completely involved in and engaged in the entire lesson, they are participating, and they are obviously learning. They are given opportunities for clarification by the teacher, they are involved in whole group work, and they are able to participate in hands on activities which all help shelter the lesson for them. The teacher shows patience throughout the lesson, and gives the students a ton of constructive feedback and always makes sure they are on the same page with what she is doing at the time. This is a VERY well taught lesson, and I am impressed with the students levels of participation and their ability to stay focused.

Blog Week 4 Entry 7

Blog Entry #7

Context: This activity increases awareness of the struggles connected to language development as compared to literacy development for all readers.

Task Description: Conduct a running record/miscue analysis on 2 second language learners, one that speaks Spanish, and one that speaks another language. Analyze the miscues for M-meaning, S-Syntax, and V-visual cues. Are there some features of the errors that reflect the first language? Are there miscues that are universal to all readers?

What are some next teaching points based on this data? Answer these questions and discuss possible strategies or assignments to address the reading challenges you saw on your blog. Log 2 field hours for conducting running records and record the time in your field log.

Blog Week 3 - Entry 6

The students:

L - look up words in the dictionary to write definitions *Word Recognition – students are pre-taught words “they may not be able to figure out using phonics, sight word skills, or structural analysis” so that when they encounter them in their reading, they are familiar with the words and know what they mean.

A - make a Venn diagram to compare two stories * Students are given the opportunity to create authentic written responses to express themselves. (Freeman p.

L/A - practice sounding out words * “Letters and sounds serve as an important source of information to be combined with information from other sources.” However, alone, sounding out words does not necessarily give meaning to that word, therefore other information is needed to determine meaning. (Freeman p.27) (Oral drills are used to practice language – L)

L- read in round robin fashion * “During round robin reading, teachers or other students usually correct students if they mispronounce a word” (Freeman p. 28).

L - correct peers when they make a mistake * Students focus on conventions in handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and organization (Freeman p.30)

L - identify words on a big book page that start with the same sound * “Use phonics rules to sound out words” (Freeman p. 25).

L - group cards with classmates’ names by a criterion on such as first or last letter * Students are able to sound out letters.

L - write rhyming poetry and then discuss different spellings for the same sound * Students are pretaught words they “may not be able to figure out using phonics, sight word skills, or structural analysis” (Freeman p. 28).

L - ask teacher how to spell any word they don’t know * The importance of correctly spelling words is emphasized with a teacher who follows the Learning view. (Acquisition is more concerned with meaning than conventions)

A - read a language experience story they have created with the teacher * “Students read extensively so that they can acquire vocabulary as they encounter words in a variety of contexts.”

A - work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences

L - divide words into syllables * “Students learn to break words into parts and identify them” (Freeman p. 25).

L - on a worksheet, draw a line from each word to the picture that starts with the same sound * Students use phonics skills to sound out words.

A - make alphabet books on different topics

The teacher:

L - preteaches vocabulary *Word Recognition – students are pre-taught words “they may not be able to figure out using phonics, sight word skills, or structural analysis” so that when they encounter them in their reading, they are familiar with the words and know what they mean.

A - does a shared reading with a big book * Students need to “read extensively so that they can acquire vocabulary as they encounter words in a variety of contexts,” and “by seeing the word several times in slightly different contexts, students can figure out its properties.” A shared reading gived them the opportunity to see the words as they are read and then allows the students to read them on their own, constructing their own meaning.

L - makes sure that students read only books that fit their level

L - has students segment words into phonemes * “Readers learn a set of skills that allows them to make a connection between the black marks on the page and words in their oral vocabulary” (Freeman p.24) Students learn the sounds of letters and then learn to blend the sounds to identify words and get the meaning of a text.

L - writes words the students dictate for a story and has students help with the spelling of difficult words * The teacher corrects each piece of writing” (Freeman p. 29)

L/A - asks students to look around the room and find words starting with a certain letter * With the Learning view, students are taught to recognize letters and their pronunciation, which would help in finding words with a certain letter. With the Acquisition view, students are using their background knowledge and other tools to figure out how words sound to attempt to find words that start with a certain letter.

L/A - uses decodable text * “Use phonics rules to sound out words” (Freeman p.25). Also, “phonics is the primary tool for word identification” (Freeman p. 27).

A - sets aside time for SSR (sustained silent reading) each day * During this time, students read texts that are not only at their reading level, but are also books that they choose and are therefore interested in. This gives them the opportunity to build their vocabulary!

L/A - teaches Latin and Greek roots * “Readers may make use of their knowledge of word parts to construct meaning (L)” (Freeman p. 27), however, “the ability to break words into component parts and use that information to help construct meaning has only limited value during normal reading” (Freeman p. 27). Teachers who teach according to the Learning view will teach the meaning of these root words and possibly leave it at that. However, the Acquisition view teachers will move beyond just teaching the roots, teaching them in addition to other things as another tool for students to construct meaning.

A - has students meet in literature circles * Students are given the opportunity to talk about the literature they are reading and therefore are able to gain more strategies they can use to construct meaning if they come to a part of the text they don’t understand. (Freeman p.28)

L - conducts phonics drills * “Students practice language by engaging in oral drills and written exercises” (Freeman p. 34).

A - chooses predictable texts * Students are given the chance to use their own knowledge of the world to make sense of what they are reading, and different readers construct different meanings depending on their personal background knowledge. (Freeman p. 26)

A - teaches students different comprehension strategies * “Teachers provide students with a great deal of language input and use various techniques to make the new language comprehensible” (Freeman p.34).

A - does a picture walk of a new book * At first, students listen and read to build up a store of language. They focus on making sense out of the new language” (Freeman p. 34). A picture walk helps introduce new language through the use of pictures so that the students have a visual of what new words and concepts mean.

A - uses a variety of worksheets to teach different skills * Students have the opportunity to read/write “extensively so they can acquire vocabulary as they encounter words in a variety of contexts” (Freeman p. 28)

Blog Week 2 - Entry 5

This week, for Blog Entry 5, we were to review 2 children’s books and explain which components of the books might affect an ELL’s comprehension because of cultural aspects. The two books I chose are Dr.Suess’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the second book I chose is There’s a Fly on my Toast, which is a compilation of poems written by Justin Matott.

I will begin with There’s a Fly on my Toast. The reason I chose this book is because my daughter and I had the opportunity to meet the illustrator of the book, John Woods, a couple of years ago, and we fell in love with the poems in this book. Most of the poems are silly and make us laugh, but many of them also deal with relatable childhood occurances…at least those you can expect to see in our country! One of our favorites is called Jello’s in my Nose and it is about a girl laughing so hard Jello comes out of her nose. Another one that makes us laugh is called My Feet Sure Stink. To an ELL learner, a book full of poems like this would be fairly difficult to understand. First of all, many of the words used in a lot of the poems are nicknames for things, and for an ELL who is just learning basic English words, these would make comprehension nearly impossible. One way to help with the nicknames would be to discuss beforehand what these words mean or what they are related to. Vocabulary in general would also hinder an ELL’s comprehension. There are many words in these poems that are difficult and are not words that we see every day. For instance, in the poem Why do I Snort When I Laugh, there are the words chortle, giggle, snickering and of course snort. While a fluent English speaking student would have an easy time understanding that all of these words relate to laughing, an ELL would not. Again, before reading a poem like this, I would maybe pair the ELL student with a fluent English speaking student and have them brainstorm and write down other words for laugh. I would then have them get a thesaurus and look up other words for laugh, maybe having them act out the different types of laughing. Finally I would go over the specific words in the poem that I felt would not be understood by the ELL, so as to build background knowledge before reading. A third problem that may arise for ELL’s when reading this book is much of the subject matter is very “American.” For instance, one of the poems is called Cheeseburgers, and while many people around the world know what a cheeseburger is, not all people do, and if a child comes from a place where they have never eaten or seen one, the poem would make more sense. Before having a student read a poem like this, I would introduce what a cheeseburger is, even going so far as to show them a video of what one is. Another problem ELL’s would have with this book is that the rhyming may make the subject of each poem difficult to understand. As we know, poems that rhyme do not always make complete sense because the author will use a word simply because it rhymes not always interested in whether it fits with the topic. This could be very confusing for an ELL student. I would try to explain and discuss the reasoning for this with the ELL student before having them read a book like this.

The second book I chose is How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The first component that might affect comprehension is the idea of Christmas. I had a student from Africa that truly had no clue what Christmas was, let alone all the aspects of Christmas. So of course, for a student like this, I would find a very simple picture book that helped explain what Christmas was to build some background knowledge, and I would maybe even involve the class and have everyone talk about what holidays they celebrate and what they involve. It would also help an ELL student to understand why the Grinch dresses in the Red Suit and her puts antlers on the dog and uses a sled. Santa is a big idea all on its own, so it would be important for an ELL who does not know about Christmas to know who Santa is. Vocabulary would be another challenge for an ELL with this book, and I would definitely introduce and discuss difficult or out-of-the-ordinary words to them beforehand. The fact that the book is somewhat of a tall tale may also affect comprehension, so explaining to an ELL what a tall tale is and how this story while based on real ideas is not completely realistic would be very beneficial.

After reading these two books and reviewing how they may be difficult for ELL’s to comprehend, I now better understand how I can help prepare my ELL’s for reading material that may have cultural aspects which make it more difficult. Students must be given as many tools as possible to help them succeed!!

BLog Week 2 - Entry 4

Blog Entry #4

This week, for Blog Entry 4, I had to read a text at my reading level, which is written in a language I am not familiar with and attempt to make meaning of what I was reading. The text I chose is a book called Par de Detectives and it is written by J.A. Jance. I chose this book because the title caught my eye. I love mystery/detective books, and even though the title was in Spanish, it seemed as if the genre fit my interests. First I read the back cover to see if I could get an idea of what the book was about. I took Spanish in high school, (so like15 years ago) and thought my limited memory would help me…boy was I wrong. Being that some Spanish words, as many people know, are similar to English words, I was able to get a small amount of information as to what the book was about, but not much. According to the first sentence on the back cover, a famous artist from Seattle is dead in a morgue in Arizona. After reading this, I began thinking to myself, how awesome, I may actually be able to understand what I am reading. Then I read the second sentence, and then I read the second sentence again, and then I read it two more times. Beyond a couple familiar words, I had NO IDEA what was going on. After attempting to understand rest of the back cover, I decided to open the book, and I began on the first page of the Prologue. Oh my was this overwhelming. I recognized a few words, but other than that, I could not make any sense of what I was reading. Being that I did take Spanish in high school, I began to get frustrated that I could not remember what certain words were and also that I did not recall the rules of syntax in Spanish. Ultimately, after a half hour of really trying to find out what this book was about, I gave up. Some of the strategies I used to attempt to read this book were trying to connect the Spanish words to familiar looking words in English, trying to use my previous knowledge about the Spanish language, connecting any meaning I got from one sentence to the sentences before and after it, and rereading the sentences to see if I could make sense of them. This was a LOT of work, and I cannot even imagine having to do this for 6 hours a day.

Now, more than ever, I truly feel such compassion for ELL students. We teach without stopping, and they just have to sit there and do the best they can to follow along, when they probably get almost next to nothing accomplished compared to if it was in their first language. In the future, I will make sure that I am aware of what stage of second language acquisition each of my ELL students are in, and I will attempt to include adaptations in all of my lessons so that their individual needs are met!