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!

Blog Week 1 - Entry 3

Entry #3: Comment on the relationship between oral language and the reading process.

As children begin using oral language, they start off babbling, then they “produce syllables with a consonant-vowel structure (Freeman),” then they start to use individual words. From here, they begin talking in short, basic sentences, and gradually start using longer, more descriptive sentences to “express complete ideas more fully (Freeman).” Through their oral language growth process, children are learning the order in which words make sense, the context in which words can and should be used, the meaning of words, grammar, and so much more. Without oral language, the reading process would not be possible…oral language in essence builds a foundation for reading. In my opinion, the two are dependent on one another. A child would not be able to read if they did not first learn to speak, or at least understand the structure of oral language.

In my field experiences completed during my undergrad, I had the opportunity to witness first hand the connection between oral language and the reading process. I had a 4^th grade boy named Daniel whose first language was Spanish. In addition to being an ELL, he also had difficulty speaking and pronouncing things (in both Spanish and English) and because of this, he was reading at a 1^st grade level. His issues with oral language directly affected his ability to read.

Blog Week 1 - Entry 2

Entry #2: Reflect on the writing instruction you have received. Which view of writing described in this chapter corresponds most closely to your experiences?

Honestly, I don't really remember ever receiving any writing instruction myself. Writing always came very easily to me, and I enjoyed doing it, so I probably blocked out the learning part of what I was doing. The only time that I can even recall learning about writing was during my freshman year of high school when we were taught how to structure paragraphs so that our ideas, while different, all flowed together in the piece we were writing. In my opinion, I would have to say that I was taught based on the "empty vessel" model or view of teaching, where I was just filled with information and expected to remember it and use it.

Answering this question from another point of view, up to this point in my teaching/educational career, I have received NO instruction as to how to TEACH writing. I took classes on how to teach Reading and Math and Science, but not Writing. However, within the school where I completed my student teaching, Writing was a major area of focus for all teachers grades Kindergarten through 5th grade. At each weekly staff meeting, ways to improve the writing of all students were shared, discussed, and explored. This opened my eyes as to how much I needed to learn in order to be effective for my students in the area of writing, and so I was constantly asking questions and gathering information on what works, what doesn't work, and what I need to do to meet the needs of all of my students. Of all subjects, teaching writing is the one that scares me the most, however I believe this is simply due to lack of experience, and I have faith that in time, I will be able to conquer my fears and effectively teach writing!!

Blog Week 1 Entry 1

Entry #1: Discuss with another teacher, his/her philosophies about teaching literacy.

The teacher I discussed this topic with is Debbie Durkee, the fourth grade teacher with whom I completed my student teaching last fall. Debbie has taught 4th and 5th grade for almost 25 years in various schools in which many of her students have been English Language Learners. Debbie explained that she has always found teaching literacy to be an uphill battle, but that the most important factor to help students be successful in reading and writing, is to help them be successful and confident and whatever level they are at. She mentioned how important it is to use scaffolding to help ELL's especially when it comes to reading, as it can make all the difference in the world if a student is given the opportunity to be successful and comfortable at the same time. She also explained that she is not one of those teachers who will let a child move up a reading level if they are not comprehending what they are reading. Debbie has seen many teachers base a child's reading ability only on their fluency, and it frustrates her to no end because so many kids, while able to read the actual words, will come to her in 4th or 5th grade having no idea as to what they are reading. She would rather a child take an hour to read a book that is at the first grade level and be able to tell her what it is about, then have a child read the book in 2 minutes and not remember a thing. She values literacy and believes that reading and writing creates a foundation for children to succeed in all other areas. Without being literate, to quote Debbie exactly, "a child's chances of growing up and becoming a successful adult are slim to none, and all children, English speaking or not, deserve a fighting chance to thrive as adults."