Take some time to write and reflect on anything you are thinking about in the area of literacy. Perhaps we can even get a conversation going on line here as you might decide to respond to what someone else wrote as well. I am curious as to what you are thinking about and why!
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ReplyDeleteLiteracy....
ReplyDeleteWell we are reading The BFG aloud at about 2 pm each day. It is rude, crude, funny, and foolish. It's also incredibly hard to read aloud, with so many multisyllabic words that almost sound like they might be swears, save for a letter here or there.The kids are loving it. They smirk, laugh, and look at me as if they are the only ones that get each pun. One day, SG said her Mom wanted to borrow a copy. The next day, Gram wanted one. AW borrowed one for his dad, who thinks he read it as a child. We try to always have a chapter book going, something separate from the Trophies program. They have to be able to see that chapter books are within their reach, they are manageable, and the time is worth the investment. They come to see that can recall what has happened from day to day, or even week to week.
PS Happy Spring to all.
Literacy Focus:
ReplyDeleteMy biggest concern right now is the movement away from developmental learning and exploration in early childhood and more emphasis on direct instruction. In early learning programs, children are getting less time for creative pursuits and imaginative play in preschool and kindergarten. Yes, the new push is for direct literacy instruction is preschool! I have read several articles by prominent early childhood educators who are lamenting that preschools are teaching phonics and sight words and are getting rid of blocks and play kitchens. Of course, the concern is that this type of teaching in the early stages of social and cognitive development might have deleterious effects on the young child’s creative, intuitive and critical thinking skills (abilities that really count in the business world. Just ask The Donald!). Even today, with the big push toward early literacy intervention, most early childhood specialists endorse creative open ended projects and imaginative play as the most appropriate types of activities to enhance early literacy development. A great article, Why Preschool Shouldn’t Be Like School, by Alison Gopnik, can be read on the Website slate.com.
It presents an interesting experiment with two groups of preschoolers. One group was taught directly how to use a creative puzzle toy and the other was given minimal instruction and was encouraged to explore the toy freely. Guess which group figured out way more things to do with the toy? The free experimenters, of course! The children who were given direct instruction merely mimicked the teacher. Early childhood (which most experts agree is between the ages of six to nine years) is the most critical time to develop one’s curiosity, imagination and wonder. It is not the time to worry about phonemes and diagraphs!
OOOPs! Correction: Early childhood years are from birth to nine years. Yes, Noreen, your third grade class qualifies for early childhood so get out the crayons and paste that tastes like old Mentos (don’t ask why I know this).
ReplyDeleteFrom Ted- Assessment is on my mind. I am sick of it and yet I like data. I guess I keep thinking why are we giving the same tests to all students. I also been thinking about learning styles lately and what happened to honoring all the students and their styles? How can we honor more learning styles through our reading and writing instruction/ structure?
ReplyDeleteMy kids love the true RtI of room 1! (reading to instrumental music) I am trying to continue to find time during the day to get this in. They are so engaged! When they have the freedom to choose the books that they are interested in, outside of the Harcourt program. They are sharing and laughing with one another. It is so great to see. I am finding a few favorites circulating the classroom. There may only be one copy so they will buddy up with someone and share.It's a peaceful time in class and I have the opportuntity to conference and see my students have a true love of reading.
ReplyDeleteKate B
ReplyDeleteI think you need to work for the DOE asap.
By the way I am still in 4th, but next year I will enjoy the demotion to 3rd and more crayola time.
Good night Friends
Hmmm...Since Feb. vacation, I have been reading two books. I started to read Teaching Reading in Small Groups by Jennifer Serravallo. I read about 130 pages and decided it wasn’t teaching me what I wanted to learn. I read about small groups to teach comprehension strategies, conversations, and skills that proficient readers need to tackle a specific level of book. I kept reading the word “explicit,” and wanted to know more. I felt teased. I was intrigued when the author mentioned that she sorted the post its that her students completed. When she found ones that demonstrated surface level comprehension, she explicitly taught them to think deeper. How? It was killing me. So, I decided to go back to the basics.
ReplyDeleteI found a copy of Mosaic of Thought in the teacher’s room. I had never read it before. From various reading, I thought I understood and could teach the comprehension strategies successfully. I realize now that something was missing. I struggled to delve into deeper comprehension myself. I could never understand how high school or college classmates could interpret poems differently. I struggled with symbolism. I thought my college professor was crazy when he attempted to help us unravel the meaning of Paradise Lost. I really started to feel less than smart. Now I know that I was just never taught the skills I needed to interpret.
Now, as I read Mosaic of Thought, my goal is to learn as much as I can about determining importance and delving deeper into comprehension. I want to be aware of my own thinking processes, in order to teach my students to be aware of theirs. I truly think that my growth as a reader will help me engage my students in more meaningful conversations about reading. I know that many of my students lack a strong foundation of background knowledge. Therefore, conversations about reading will truly help them grow.
I have to say that I did go back and continue to read the first book. I decided to use it to help me think about how I teach different text levels instead of focusing on comprehension.
I have nonfiction on the brain...the advantage to being in two classes at the same time, I guess. I've spent a lot of time in the last two weeks really thinking about the role of nonfiction in my classroom and how I can better meet the needs of my struggling readers by using nonfiction. I started by asking my students to become active participants in their classroom library. We started by reclassifying and sorting all of the 3000 books I have into fiction and nonfiction and then categorizing them by topics that make sense to the students.
ReplyDeleteFrom there I restructured my literacy block to incorporate a nonfiction center each day. This gives my students who are more interested and engaged in facts the opportunity to connect with a text on a new level. My students will be exposed to both fiction and nonfiction in a variety of ways over the course of each week, with a conscious and deliberate effort on my part. I'm excited for the changes and hope that it makes a difference in how my students engage in reading and writing.
In literacy, I am thinking about the need to provide more opportunities for students to read at their own level during the school day. Each classroom would need displays/baskets/buckets/ of books that range from two years below their current grade level to books that are two years (or more) above their grade level. The more reading students do, the better readers they will become.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Ted--I'm sick of testing, but I do want meaningful data that will help to target areas of difficulty(processing issues, language issues,academic weaknesses) to support students. I am concerned that educators are feeling 'testing burn-out'. In my area of special ed, we do a lot of testing. What testing is needed to paint a clear picture of a given student as a learner and what specifically s/he needs from us to be successful? That's the testing I want to do.
ReplyDeleteAck! I just spent a very long time composing and posting a very long comment only to have it disappear completely when I hit 'post comment'. When I have recovered and calmed down, I will try again.
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