Hello,
In class yesterday we discussed Emergent Literacy and how children learn phonemic awareness, which prepares them for phonics. We also surveyed a variety of children's books and found out how they could be used in reading instruction.
Just a reminder: there is no class next week (Victoria Day). Please read Chapter 4 in our textbook (CMCM) and the three chapters in the handout --Rasinski, Timothy and Padak, Nancy(2001). From Phonics to Fluency. (Chapters 4,5, & 6) Together these four chapters are critical for understanding how children begin to read. Especially note the activities that match each of the stages. We will be talking about this next class and making some charts. Please bring your textbook and the handout to class next time.
Have a great long weekend. See you May 25th.
Crystal wrote:
ReplyDeleteWell today’s reading and conversation hits very close to home, so I apologize in advance for the long entry. As I mentioned briefly in class today I have a son in grade 4 with a learning disability who struggles with reading. I was happy to hear that children should be encouraged to read books – even if a little too difficult, if it interests them, because that is where my son is pushing us, and I would hate to dissuade him from reading now that he is finally excited about it again. This brings me to my second thought. As parents we read to our son a lot in the emergent reader stage and he developed a love of literature. From a very young age he dreamed of becoming an author and was always “reading and writing” in little notebooks and journals all over the place. In grade 3 he was hastily assessed by a teacher coming back from maternity leave and in a moment of craziness she told my son that he was not smart enough to take the weekly spelling test and she would reduce the amount of words because he wasn’t smart enough. AHH! I am trying to convince myself that she had the best of intentions, but regardless of her intent, the result was that he became complacent with his learning. He put away all of his “books” and never wrote or read anything unless pushed to do it. Thankfully we were able to get him into the Teaching and Evaluation Program this year where he learned strategies for dealing with his disability and more importantly gained back some of his confidence. So nearly 12 months later my son has become an active participant in his own education and future once again. He has returned to his writing and reading with gusto and has made huge leaps forward! (His latest realization has been that he can identify what exceeding looks like and surprise the teaching by pushing himself to exceed in all that he does rather than waiting for her to mark his work as meeting or fully meeting and then finding out what he could have done differently). As you can imagine I wholeheartedly agree with (Schunck & Zimmerman p10) when they state that “One of the most important aspects of motivation in literacy-learning is self-efficacy… students who have doubts about their ability to learn something are less likely to try to lean it in the first place, and more likely – when they do try – to give up when they encounter difficulty. Students who have confidence in their own ability to learn something put forth more effort to learn it and tend to persist even in the face of challenges”. It’s my hope that none of you ever tell your students that they aren’t smart enough… and that every child who has ever been told that can someday look back on their lives and say “Well I showed you didn’t I!”
Blog entry: Thoughts on Chapter 1 and 2 and today’s lesson:
ReplyDeleteHi Everyone:
I am still not 100% sure about this blogging deal, I hope I provide some insight and do not go on too long?
Anyway since starting PDP last fall I have found my lovely son to be my own personal study. I watch him in his learning all the time; I learn something and then look to him to see what he is doing. It has been a fantastic journey as a Mum, as well as a teacher.
Tonight what I enjoyed was looking at all the books Sue brought in. I really believe the key to building a love of reading is by “owning your reading” that is, let the reader pick what they want to read. I know for my own pleasure reading (one day when I have time for that again?) I like to read what I am interested in. With Luke (my 6 yr old) I will take him to garage sales, book stores and the school book fairs and say “ok pick out five books”. I love to see his choices, what interests him? What does he “want” to read about? His choices lately are all about farting. Walter the farting dog being a favourite. Which is a super funny book. But he chooses his books, and it increases his love of books, and reading and of being read too. We have a structure of reading times in our home, so one hour before bed Luke can read or be read too. He loves this time and it’s a nice way to end the day. So I have rambled on, but I do believe developing a strong love of books by letting the reader select their books is key. As a teacher that would mean having a class library and letting the students select what they are going to read, whether that be their silent reading book or chapter book in guided reading.
My second thought is increasing the class reading time. As I do believe that reading is the most important part of education, as without it you cannot progress with your learning. I loved my practicum but was most frustrated by the short periods of reading time, in silent reading and guided reading. It was always being cut short by assemblies or other class projects/presentations etc, as well as the rush to get the entire curriculum in. Yet reading is the core (in my humble opinion) of education. As a teacher with my own class one day, I want to incorporate more reading, being read to, and discussion of books into my class. Have reading area set up for my early finishers, and really work on developing that love of books.
I know with my own personal research subject, Luke, I have seen how when my hubby and I read, he will go in his room and get a book. Even if he cannot fully read, he tries to and he loves to look at the books. It is a family priority for us and I can see how it is being instilled in Luke.
Thanks for a great class and I appreciated all the great lesson ideas that came along with the book presentations.
Cheers,
Leah
Hi Crystal:
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing your experience regarding your son, he is sure lucky to have a Mum like you.
Leah :)
Week #2
ReplyDeleteLast night’s class, I really enjoyed having a look at the variety of different books Sue had brought in. For the most part, the images were attention grabbing, the writing was accessible and each book was designed for any and all readers to have success at his/her reading level. Aside from the Shakespeare narrative and Goosebump series, I would like to find more engaging literature for young adults, something that is realistic and won’t insult their intelligence. I have found that many highschools have very limited resources at the junior level and can not offer a variety of choices. I would love to hear from anyone who may know of a good short story collection for 13-16 year olds. I also really enjoyed hearing the many different lessons that were created in such a short time.
When I was growing up as a child I remember myself not interested in reading. I would definitely choose watching T.V any day. I always watched Goosebump on T.V. When I soon realized that they had Goosebump novels I was very excited to read the book. I felt that the novels were more specific and interesting. I would read the novel first then watch the T.V show after. This took my T.V watching into another level, because I started to point out other details that I wouldn’t have noticed earlier. For this reason, I can really relate to how important it is to find reading material that interests and engages the reader. The second thought I found very interesting were all the different strategies and ideas everyone had came up with if they were planning to use their book in a classroom. I appreciate how we are all sharing our ideas and learning from each other, so that we are bring a diverse amount of teaching methods into our classrooms.
ReplyDelete#2 Ashok’s comments
ReplyDeleteI am in favour of “invented spelling” and mistakes.
I do believe the more we emphasize correctness and being strict it will lead to negative pressure which will cause students to lose their passion to write. It is important students learn to spell words correctly and use proper writing structure but it is more important our students develop a passion to write and to use their creativity. For example, in my grade 5 practicum experience I made a point not to use my red pen to correct every single error my students made. If the topic was organization, or sentence fluency then we as a class focused on those areas. Peer editing is a strategy which works well to allow students to learn to edit pieces of writing. I as a teacher did make a point that I am more focused on classroom ideas and creativity.
Will students develop bad habits if they are allowed to use “invented spelling”? Maybe for some, but it’s our job as facilitators to help the student in a positive manner to change his/her habits. I had one student who developed a habit of not capitalizing “I”. So, instead of circling the “I” every single time and continually making comments I felt it was better the student saw the mistake she was making in one of my lessons. I picked a piece of writing from a writing resource book which had mistakes and the students had to identify and edit. She and other students were able to recognize their own mistakes and more importantly they were able to see that mistakes happen and they can be corrected without feeling any pressure.
We as teachers I think sometimes become too egocentric and judgmental that we don’t look back at our own experiences and the mistakes we made. I want to take away the competition which develops in classrooms. Students are very intelligent and they give up if they believe they are never going to be as smart as another student. We as teachers need eliminate competition and the need to correct everything.
“Like learning to play a musical instrument well, learning literacy requires both good lessons and much intense practice” (pg. 12).
Above is my favourite quote from the readings. I like the imagery of comparing a musical instrument to reading. It made me think about how an athlete also trains hard before mastering specific skills for their sport. Having a kinesiology background I was able to connect my sports experience with learning to play a musical instrument and learning literacy.
Feeling is the energizer for reading and writing section was my favourite part to read. It is essential students actually want to read and enjoy reading the materials we present in our classrooms. We need to ensure we have a variety of books which will appeal to a variety of students. We need to critically be aware of why we are choosing certain books and what we hope to achieve with our choices.
I think we as teachers need to show a lot of passion and interest in the books our students choose to read. Furthermore, we need to model the strategies which we expect our students to practice. For example, when I taught a lesson on making connections I shared with the students my own connections which I was making while I read.
God Bless and Drive Safe, looking forward to reading all your responses, peace :)
Ashok K. (go see Star Trek.. really cool)
Week 2 Discussion
ReplyDeleteToday we had an interesting class, and I really enjoyed the discussions that we had. I found the textbook to be very helpful because of all the different ideas that can be used in the classroom to help children become fluent readers and writers. Throughout my experiences in both volunteering as well as 401/402 and 405 I have seen a lot of those examples used in the classroom, especially the word wall. The two things that I would like to further discuss upon are, firstly the importance of not correcting the spelling of students work and secondly, should students read books that are higher than their level.
Firstly, when I did my first practicum in a grade 1 classroom, I thought that my SA was fantastic at teaching students how to read and write and she was known in the school as the teacher who teaches students how to read well early on. When I first started marking the students journals, I wanted to correct their spelling, but she told me not to because that was not the focus of the journal, but rather it was the ideas that the students had collected and organized in their minds was far more important. At first I was not so sure about this approach, but I realized that spelling during journal time isn’t important and I now fully understand the importance of not correcting their spelling. However, a good idea that she had was, to use some of the words that were misspelled and put it into a message at the bottom of the page so that when students write into their journal next time they would first read the message from the previous page first and therefore could see the correct spelling. The only time she marked the spelling of students was during ‘spelling’ because that was her objective. For the rest of Language Arts, she used a ‘ticket’. A ticket was a small piece of paper that students could use to ask the teacher for the spelling of a word if they didn’t know it. I thought that it was a great idea, and I found that students used it a lot or they could use their dictionaries. But before just spelling the word out, she would make them sound it out and ask the student to help her spell it out and if students still struggled then she would guide them and help them with the correct spelling.
Secondly, students were divided into reading groups according to their level and at the end of the day, each student would pick out a book for home reading from a specific basket. I asked if students could take books from the other baskets, and she said no because she didn’t want students to feel like they were not successful and therefore they may be discouraged from reading. But I know that there were a few students who were ready to read more difficult books and she would not allow it until she did an assessment on that students and it showed that the student was ready to move up to the next level. She said that if students didn’t know more than 3-5 words on the page (depending on the book) that they should not pick it out. I understand that it is important for students to succeed, but at the same time, students also need to be challenged. Therefore, I think that parents play an important role as well in educating their children at home and reading novels that are more difficult as well as letting students pick out novels from the library that they wish to read.
Janaya wrote:
ReplyDeleteI am having great difficulty with this blog and hope this gets to where it is supposed too!
My first comment is to Crystal. I think you are doing an amazing job with your son. I help look after my 9 year old nephew who has autism. Last year is teacher was very uninspiring and negative about his future. My nephews parents continued to read to him and practice writing and spelling. This year he is getting 100% on his tests and is working hard at keeping up with his classmates in terms of reading and writing. His teacher this year is very supportive, but most importantly his parents are supportive. I love to read to my nephew. I don't focus on what he gets or doesn't get, I read to him because it broadens his imagination and helps him to make connection to real world events and be creative. I am a huge advocate for reading.
Reading like any other subjects needs to have many points of entry for learning and success. students are different learner some are good at math, others readings and others sports. the point is to make sure in reading ( and all subjects) to create levels where all students can feel success. If students do not feel successful they will be less likely to embrace reading and want to continue on. I believe teachers are responsible to build a community in the classroom that allows for all students to be successful and feel like they can do it.
Great class and it has really generated some interesting conversation. One of the things that really stayed with me after class was the importance of reading with children before they even enter school. Having 2 daughters, we regularly read to them when they were little, but I don't know if I fully knew the impact that was having. What an important message for parents to hear. Of course, it seems logical that reading to our children is a good idea but helping parents understand the value in this is critical.
ReplyDeleteMy other thoughts are around the idea of whether or not to correct spelling errors with children. I think it's been pointed out, but I think it depends on the activity. As mentioned, journaling should be a time where students are allowed to just get their thoughts down and work on the fluency of writing. I think this is so, so important. I did my 405 in a grade 7 classroom and getting students to write continuously for more than 5 minutes was a big challenge. So to encouraging the process of writing from an early age seems so important to developing a love of writing as well. If a student feels as though this process is going to be corrected or marked, it seems they would most likely monitor their thoughts and writing. During my 401/402 practicum, I thought my SA had a great strategy for addressing the misspelled words. While reading through the journals she would jot down the misspelled words of each student in her own log. Once a week, she had an activity called "word work" and she would give each student a list of words that they would work on with either a chalkboard, beans with letters on them, hangman with a friend, etc. It was a great strategy to help students work on the words they had had trouble with without correcting their journaling mistakes. The students didn't know where the word lists came from and each student had a different list so they looked forward to what was going to be on their own. I thought it was a great strategy.
Today was a great lesson! It had brought back many memories as Sue was naming/describing each of the books. When we had the chance to fill out the survey, the one book that struck my attention was the Hardy Boys. It had brought back many memories of when I was young and getting into trouble. My first thought is on the importance of encouraging students to connect to a personal experience as they read. These connections will help the reader engage and think deeper on the subject. In my grade 5 class I did a read aloud on the novel “Hatchet”. As I read, one of the activities I would use is have them draw a scene from the chapter and draw a scene of their own experience that is related, with a brief statement. I found the students loved this task and with them thinking about a personal experience really fueled our discussions after the chapter was read. (CMCM page 6-7)
ReplyDeleteMy second thought about tonight’s class is related to Darcy’s last statement about all the different lessons that were created with each book/novel. I found this task very interesting and useful as we are able to use many of these ideas in our future. Class reading and activities is very important and should be the cornerstone for everything else.
A suggestion for Darcy on his search for a book that suits 13-16 years. One of my favourites is The Catcher in the Rye, you may all know what it is about (most high schools use it). It is a great book about a 16 year old boy and his experience with alienation.
This week’s class was really interesting and I enjoyed looking at all the books that Sue brought in. It was great to get a chance to look at the different types of literature that is out there and to hear different ideas on how to use certain books in the classroom – I came out of the class with tonnes of new ideas for when I start teaching, thanks to all of you!
ReplyDeleteLike many of you, the books that we looked at brought back a lot of memories from when I was younger. I started to think about some of the books that I loved to read as a kid – I especially loved the Berenstein Bears stories. Every night before bed my mom or dad would let my brother and I pick one book each which would be read to us before we went to sleep. I just thought of it as a fun thing to do when I was little but now I realize how much of an impact it had on my development as a reader. Moreover, that nightly tradition really instilled a love of reading in me – something I still have and something I really want to be able to pass on to my students.
My second thought has to do with correcting students’ spelling. During my 405 practicum, in a grade 2 class, I found that the students were always asking me how to spell things. In fact some students were so caught up in spelling things correctly that they often lost their train of thought or were unable to be creative in their writing. I talked to my SA about this and she mentioned that when they start a writing activity she often let the students know what she was looking for so that they wouldn’t be so focused on something like spelling. For example, during a free write on “things I like to do in the winter” she asked the students to write about their favourite winter activities and she emphasised that she was looking at ideas rather than spelling. They were asked to spell the best they could but to put more effort into coming up with good ideas. Watching the students work, and looking at their writing, I found that this simple announcement at the beginning of class had combated their need to spell every word perfectly. I feel that learning spelling is important but not as important as first getting ideas down on paper.
This week's class and readings I found were very helpful. As I am participating in the Learning Disabilities Minor right now, I found the readings to be quite helpful in indicating the different stages and what is beneficial to children.
ReplyDeleteDuring my short practicum in Gr. 1/2/3, I recall one boy who spelled with invented spelling and it was really interesting to see him read out what he was writing. By having him read out what he had written, you could actually make out where he was in his invented spelling. He wasn't just making up something to read. During this practicum, the teacher also taught spelling through a program called McCracken. This program focused on the sounds of the alphabet and she would show the children how to say the letter and have them differentiate whether the letter sound they were hearing was at the beginning, middle or end of the word. In the beginning, I did not quite understand why she was teaching the children this way, as I remembered having actually spelling words and spelling tests.
From the readings and the discussions we had, it makes sense now because children need to learn their phonemes, onset and rime to help them later on when they start to read.
During my long practicum, I really learned the importance of giving students' choice in their reading. The difference was huge when students had to do an assignment based on something that was their choice versus something that they were told to read and respond. Choice definitely makes a difference and I'm glad that there are now more books emerging that are great for boys who may be reluctant readers.
I like how the text gives us some examples and demonstrates ways that we could help our future students in successful reading.
I thought it was great that all of us were able to come up with a lesson plan so quickly and apply it to reading and books. I look forward to more sharing :) Have a great long weekend!
To Deepa: I experienced this when I was doing my practicum with Gr. 1/2/3 students too. They were so focused on getting things "right," that they would lose focus or just get too anxious. During this practicum, I was team teaching, and when I told a student that spelling didn't matter and to just sound it out, they would go to my partner and ask her for the correct spelling.
ReplyDeleteAt the school I was at for my first practicum, they had a school wide "writer's workshop" program running, where students were told to free write and be creative, where spelling did not matter. Once they had gotten down their ideas, then it was time to look over what they had written and start the editing process. They did this with all the grades and it was quite interesting to see.
First of all, I really enjoyed last Monday's class because I did my practicum in a secondary school and I was really unfamiliar with many of the childrens books that Sue brought in. It was fun to peruse the books and check out the fun stories & pictures. It reminded me of a time when I went home (Williams Lake) and was talking to a friend who teaches grade 2. I was saying how challenging teaching little ones is for a secondary student teacher because the dynamic is so different and he responded with "ya, but I'm teaching kids how to read and there's no greater thing than that." He's right. Teaching kids to enjoy reading and writing is a great gift, and I'm pretty excited to learn some strategies for it.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I agree with the statements many of you said when you mentioned that it's important to choose books for your classroom that students will find relevant and able to relate to. I did my long practicum in Burnaby and taught 3 classes of grade nine English. As a class, we were reading the novel 'Speak' and the students were totally hooked from the beginning. It is a novel that deals with many things that they can relate to or have dealt with: highschool setting, peer pressure, homework problems, awful teachers, hating P.E., worrying about what your peers think of you, etc). Choosing a novel that dealt with issues they were facing in their lives makes a big difference in their feelings towards books and reading. Although some may feel that the subject is controversial (the narrator, a grade 9 girl, loses her ability to speak after a terrible incident - the reader doesn't find out until later that she was raped at a party) the students were always begging me to keep reading to them, because they wanted to know what happened next. It was quite powerful to watch students get so involved with literature. It just shows that we need to allow them access to many different kinds of books so they can find something they are interested in.
Enjoy the long weekend!
My name is Ashok, I apologize in advance for my long and frequent responses. I am an on-line nerd.. Ask Tania she will tell you all about it.lol
ReplyDeleteHey Lejla,
Reading your response reminded me of my own practicum experiences. I had a very wonderful and supportive SA. Through her I learned to implement a reading circle. Through my SA I learned a lot on how to provide feedback that would help motivate students to improve rather than discourage them. For our reading circles we also had students assigned to specific reading levels. As a new teacher it is hard for me in all honestly to implement reading circles according to each student’s level. I don’t have the same experience as my SA and the background knowledge of all the elementary reading books. But I was fortunate and blessed in my 405 placement to come in and continue the reading circles that were already in place. Having gone through the practice of teaching reading circles I have a passion to implement and carry it out in my own classes very soon. Reading circles are really awesome!
Hey Deepa,
I agree and it is very important for a child to have his/her parents read to them and with them. Me and my brother are first generation Canadian-Punjabi’s in my family. My parents struggled with the English language somewhat when I was little. But seeing my Dad always reading the newspaper and seeing my mom take a few language course was an inspiration to me. My parents weren’t able to read to me in a “normal fashion” with the “normal” Canadian literature and stories. But the Indian stories and religious stories my parents shared with me are what I remember and value the most. I think a lot of time people just assume if people can’t speak good English then their kids are going to become poor readers. I think there are too many negative stereotypes out there. Anyway, bedtime reading and listening is really cool!
Ashok K.
I really enjoyed looking through all the books Sue brought for us last week. It brought back some wonderful memories. As a child, I remember going to the library once every week. I would spend about an hour there picking out any book that looked interesting to me. My dad always let me choose whatever I wanted and didn’t worry about reading level. This instilled a great a love for books and reading within me. I didn’t realize how important this was for me as a child, but now I can see the importance of having students choose something that interests them and providing them with many choices and selection of books.
ReplyDeleteMy next thought had to do with correcting students spelling. In my 401/402 practicum, my SA made sure journaling was a time for students to express their ideas and creativity. She asked them to try and use their best spelling but not to worry too much about it. During my practicum, she started using the word wall. As this progressed, she asked students to refer to the word wall during journal time and make sure those words were being spelled correctly as they had already been taught previously. I thought this was a really good strategy to use. Differently, in my 405 practicum, students were asked to use personal dictionaries to help them spell words. If the word wasn’t in their dictionary, they put up their hand and waited for the teacher to come around and help them with the spelling. I felt that this took a lot of time and didn’t allow students to focus on their ideas. Too many students spent too much time worrying about spelling rather then getting all their thoughts down on paper. Therefore, I feel like there should be a balance between spelling and expressing ideas. During spelling time, this should be the focus, but during journal time, perhaps the focus should change to expressing ideas and creativity.
When reading Chapters one and two I found it quite easy to read the information being given and see a connection to some of my personal experiences as a struggling reader. For me, a lot of what was outlined in these chapters and then re-addressed in class, had to do with more than just the need for balanced literacy and a shift towards reading for meaning. The message that seemed most important to me, was that as teachers we must find ways to “foster a love for reading” in our students.
ReplyDeleteWhile I love to read now, I can remember a time when reading was the last thing that I wanted to do. Looking back to my early elementary years, I can clearly remember being taught different strategies and tools to help me read more fluently but none of them made me love to read. Instead I just continued to struggle and as I did my inability to read at grade level began to feel like a bad secret that I didn’t want anyone to know about.
I loved stories and being read to, but when reading time came during school hours I can remember sitting with a book in my hands, flipping the pages and scrolling with my eyes, to make it appear that I was reading. But I wasn’t. Without practice, I did not improve in my reading skills very quickly, and it was not until I was in grade 3, that a teacher recognized both the root to my reading problem and the fact that that my lack of confidence was directly tied to making my reading problems worst.
To improve my reading, she developed strategies with me so that I not only felt capable of improvement, but could also feel responsible for this improvement.
Much like we discussed in class, the beginning of my love for reading began when I was told to write my own stories and read them. This gave me great pride. I was also read to a lot and was given the books so that I could read them again to myself. And finally, as my reading improved I began to feel a sense of pride in the books that I could read and enjoyed reading as many books as possible so that I could discuss them and share my understanding with those around me.
As a teacher I think it is really important to tap into what is going to excite children who struggle with reading. And this will most likely be different for each child. Maybe beginning with writing and allowing students to feel like capable story-tellers is the beginning. Maybe finding a book series that is interesting to that child will help to motivate them, but whatever you do the key is that children must grow to enjoy reading. If they don’t, it is my opinion that it wont matter how many techniques or strategies you share with them. They will feel like reading is just something that they can’t do and unfortunately as time goes on, they will become more and more comfortable with this idea.
Scott wrote:
ReplyDeleteThis week’s class got me thinking about how I could better incorporate
literacy into social studies classes. As an SSW I’ve spent a great deal of
time in a number of socials classes, with a number of teachers and have
found no real attempts to integrate literacy into the course. Most classes
seem to rely on the textbook, supplemented by photocopies of articles –
neither of which is usually read, let alone really understood by most
students.
This led to an “ah-ha” moment for me about how to promote literacy, engage
some students, cover course content and promote higher level thinking.
Socials 11 deals with WW 1 & 2 up to present day, and my idea was to help
bring that together for the students with a novel. There are a number of
books that would work for this, but one of my all time favourites is “The
Man in the High Castle” by Philip K. Dick. This story is set in post WW2
America in an alternate reality where the allies had lost and the world was
divided between the Nazis and the Japanese. The political figures and
recounts of battles are real, but all with alternate endings and twists that
could be contrasted to reality in classroom discussions. This story really
drives home what was at stake in these wars and the fact that it wouldn’t
take much to change the course of history.
I have no idea if this would work, or engage the kids any more than the
text, but if it gets some of the kids interested, thinking and reading, it’s
worth a try.
I guess this hasn’t got much to do with emergent readers, but this is what
last class got me thinking about.
Thanks,
Scott.
Last class it was great to get to look through so many books! It was really inspiring to hear all of the lessons everyone came up with. I like that we had the opportunity to share our ideas and learn from one another. It is great to find ways to connect literature with the lessons we are teaching as a way to capture students interest in a topic.
ReplyDeleteRight before I joined my Gr. 2 class for my 405 practicum they had begun a project on ‘Little Miss’ books. The students were all very excited about these books and the teacher used that excitement to get the students writing their own ‘Little Miss/Mr’ stories. She used the lesson to have the students reflect on something special about them and then create a story about that characteristic. The students were all very excited about their stories! I thought this was a great way to get the students interested… use something they already are obsessed (and I do mean obsessed) with. All of the students brought in their books from home and traded them around the classroom for silent reading and group reading. It was great seeing the students excited about reading. I think the fact that the “Little Miss” books are quite silly is one of the reasons so many students enjoy them.
I look forward to hearing more ideas from the class about inspiring reading!
I also think that reading is the most important thing for young children. Through reading a variety of books, children can indirectly experience the world as well as develop their imaginations. During my practicum in a grade 1 class, I found that children who were fond of reading were generally better in higher thinking skills and writing than children who were not. I truly believe that a positive attitude to reading is associated with better language skills.
ReplyDeleteI also find interesting that children who are encouraged to use invented spellings become better decoders and spellers than children who are not allowed to use them. One of my sons is in 1st grade. He has to read a book and write a journal daily for his homework. One day, about 4 months ago, he showed his journal to me. I found many spelling mistakes in his journal. I thought he could be a better speller and writer if I corrected his spellings and made him rewrite his misspelled words. The result was unexpected. The next day, he said he hated writing because he did not know how to spell many words. I felt sorry that I discouraged his motivation for writing. I learned an important lesson that day that correcting spelling was not necessary for young children because enjoyment of writing is more important than correcting grammatical mistakes. This will help them to become a successful writer in life. Since then, I have not corrected his spellings. I have tried to encourage him to write his journal for fun. Surprisingly, his writing has improved a lot. He rarely misspells words and enjoys writing as well as reading.
Here is the promised High Interest/Low Vocabulary Books Reading Lists. Highly recommend you take a look at them.
ReplyDelete1) http://www.orl.bc.ca/teens/booklists/Hi_Interest_Low_Vocabulary.pdf
2)www.monroe.lib.in.us/childrens/booklists/hilobib.html
3)http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/compubs/booklists/Hi-Lo_Booklist/Hi-Lo%20booklist.pdf
These were specifically for boys in Grade 6, you can Google high/low vocabulary and get all kinds of stuff. Have fun exploring and using!It was so useful for me, even the vice principal of the school I was at wanted a copy.
Week 2 post – May 21/09
ReplyDeleteHi all,
Sorry, I have been crazy busy and I am afraid my post is a bit long in coming.
As an English Major (many moons ago…), I absolutely loved the class – all those fantastic books to peruse! There were some sentimental favourites (Three Billy Goat’s Gruff!), as well as a number that I was not familiar with. I loved hearing what other people held as their favourites too.
My eldest, Michaela, has been an avid reader since she was very young – pre Kindergarten. I think that because I read every day with her, she liked to pretend she could do it too. The usual pattern of trying to copy Mommy/Daddy ensued, and soon she was actually recognizing repeated words, and trying to sound things out. It was like a door was flung wide open to the world for her! She was soon reading EVERYTHING, which sounds great, but during a run of errands on a Saturday, you can only imagine the raft of questions I had to field! My youngest, Danica, was hesitant to learn to read. She informed me that she would not do it, because “If I learn to read, then you will stop reading to me.”. That was my “AHA!” moment…it was as important to have me reading, as it was to have story time each night. We got over that hurdle by reading a paragraph, or a page, in turn. Now, she reads for pleasure and with complete ease. My favourite memory of her in that learning to read phase was the way she could imitate me licking my finger to turn the page of the book – even when she couldn’t actually read! That is a perfect example of the level of emulation that goes on with young readers. Everything you do, from your intonation, to the cadence of your voice, to the reaction to the plot – all of this influences how they will in turn read.
In my Middle school practicum, we always had a 15 minute block of reading time after recess – to slow them down after running around, and to just reengage with their minds. I found that after not too long, I could leave them to their books, and after 30 minutes, they were still immersed! It was fantastic, and we soon became regular visitors to the librarian to restock! The librarian at the school was phenomenal, and I was amazed at the diversity of books she brought into the library. It made the kids so excited to go and listen when a new shipment of books came in – they began to have their preferred authors, series, etc. I would strongly encourage teachers to befriend their librarian – they are a wealth of information!
I hope you all had a fantastic Long Weekend past, and are looking forward to all the uninterrupted sunshine forecast for this one ahead! Take your books outside, lay on a blanket and lose yourself in its’ pages...
Jennifer
I found the handout that we read this week, on phonics and spelling, extremely interesting. The use of onset’s and rimes is a great way for primary students to see patterns in words and will help students that may struggle with phonemic awareness. The Elkonin boxes are a great way to introduce the sounds in words to early primary learners, or even to slightly older students that may struggle with reading. I taught a grade five/six split, so when I read Ellen’s lesson that used the fly swatter and the “word wopper” game, along with Justin’s lesson on prefixes and suffixes, I immediately thought the two together would make an interesting game for intermediate students. The fly swatter could wopp a prefix or suffix of a given word and the students would define it. Students could also take turns in partners wopping words, potentially keeping track of how many words they get correct and tallying their points along the way. There are many directions this could go, but I thought it was a great idea and one that students would thoroughly enjoy playing.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend... Cheers, Alanna
Hello everybody--
ReplyDeleteThis was a difficult and somewhat arduous class for me to sit through -- I was feeling really sick and, as it turned out, I ended up missing my classes the following day and called in sick to work… yuck.
I was excited and surprised however, by the incredible number of fun children’s books Sue produced from that humungous bag she dragged in at the beginning of class. I was amazed by the variety and various purposes mentioned for each of these books. During my practicum, I spent a lot of time in the library, as a lot of my teaching involved Language Arts; I was always looking for a good book to use for prediction or description, or suspense... Browsing through the library, and again on Monday, I was reminded about how many great children’s books there are out there. It was wonderful to not only hear about each book, but also understand what each could be used for. The best part was hearing each person’s lesson plan ideas surrounding the books. We have some very creative people in our class. I hope to hear more ideas as the class continues.
During my Educ 424 placement (Learning Disabilities Lab), I tutored a 12 year old dyslexic boy with short term memory and visual tracking issues. He was reading well below his age level, was glued to text and sounding out, and had a hard time comprehending what he was reading. I quickly became aware of the stages of reading and problems that students encounter. He often complained that he “hated reading”, and it was obvious this was because he was struggling and felt defeated. Trying to make things fun for him became my own personal challenge. When he was having fun, he would read much more fluidly and with fewer complaints. BUT it was so hard to keep him motivated. I tried everything to get him to enjoy reading, but I believe he was embarrassed of the level of books he was reading. This was mainly because he would freeze up at the sight of any and all large words. After several lessons on short/ long vowel sounds and associated spelling patterns, and using principles of onset and rime, we dissected large words; we looked for smaller words within the word that would give us clues to sound out, then added initial letter sounds or prefixes, and broke the words into more decodable parts. It sounds complicated, but it worked wonderfully. After 3 weeks, he was reading 3, 4 and 5 syllable words by pulling words apart and adding sounds back on to the parts.
My last comment is about the notion of invented spellings. I don’t want to criticize anyone’s comments, but I really don’t understand what is accomplished by invented spellings but allowing children to spell things incorrectly? I realize that in working with primary children, or perhaps students’ journaling may be an acceptable "invented spelling" situation simply to encourage writing, but might this practice cause students to become used to the “incorrect” spellings of words? Wouldn’t this, in turn, make learning the “correct” way just that much more difficult to learn?
Hope you are all having a great weekend
Mikki
Blog #2 May 23, 2009
ReplyDeleteHi Everyone
An advantage of being one of the last bloggers is that I have become inspired by all of the interesting thoughts, ideas and philosophies that everyone has shared!
The two most recurring themes seem to be the invented spelling debate and the importance of finding reading material that engages children. When my son was in grade two the Captain Underpants books had just been published. Up to that point my son only read when he had to. Despite the criticism about the books –crude humour, and invented spelling for many of the more difficult words, I bought him the first book in the series for his birthday. “Captain Underpants” inspired my son to read. I was ecstatic! My son had been diagnosed with ADD and just didn’t seem to be interested in reading so this was a big deal. He read all of the books in the series as fast as they would be released. He learned that he really enjoyed chapter books, and especially one that came in a series. From there he “progressed” to the Animorphs series (about 25 books) Deltora Quest and so on. The invented spelling in the Captain Underpants books was one of the things that caught the interest of my son. He loved using big words like “congrajewlashons” and “mizery” in his vocabulary so it was great that he could now read those words too. My son is 15 now and reading is one of his favourite pastimes. Is he a great speller? No, but spell check takes care of almost all of his mistakes. I think this little rambling story illustrates two things: One is how important it is for children to find something to read that they connect with and get hooked on. With my own kids I really don’t get care what they read as long as it isn’t porn! It is the good habit of reading that I want them to embrace. They can refine their tastes when they are adults. Secondly, for a lot of kids with learning disabilities, English as a second language, and attention disorders, spelling is quite difficult. I think I would rather spend more time on comprehension, creativity and fluency and let technology take care of many of the spelling mistakes. The reality is that computers and word processors are more accessible and widely used, even in very young students written work, so perhaps, good or bad, spelling will no longer be a big priority for teachers.
I liked looking through that big collection of books last class, and am glad now that I hung on to boxes of books from my own childhood and from my children’s collection that they have outgrown. Soon I will be able to get them out of the garage and into a classroom where hopefully I can inspire my students to read.
Sharon
Dear all,
ReplyDeleteReading is a process; it is a process that takes steps and looking at children’s stories reminded me of this. I think that this process has multiple layers - learning to read is in part driven by curiosity and by a desire to escape into the imagination. In my practicum, silent reading was a period of time at the beginning of the day where students came inside the classroom, handed in their planners, took down their chairs, and got settled for the day. Silent reading was a time for them to transition from talking to their friends outside and getting ready for Language Arts, Music, Spelling, or Math. I believe that silent reading is not only important for students to develop a love for reading but it is also important for students that are learning social responsibility. For some students, it was hard to sit quietly and read for fifteen minutes at the beginning of the day. I found that if students had books that interested them it was easier for them to be engaged and more aware of how their behavior affected the rest of the class. I found that in Writer’s Workshop lessons when I introduced a topic, such as introductions, using the books that they silent read with in the morning lead them to explore different stories that they would not initially select. This allowed students not only to discover different types of stories for themselves individually but to listen to other students’ choices and find their example interesting. Learning to enjoy reading is different for each individual; for some, I found that they loved comic books and graphic novels while others loved novels. I find that as a teacher one needs to look at learning to read and love reading is a spectrum of growth.
When I was younger, my little sister did not enjoy reading. She had a wild and creative imagination but she watched television instead of reading stories. She was, however, really interested in Archie Comic books. My mom saw this as an opportunity to encourage her to read, even if they were comic books as opposed to traditional children’s stories. After a year, she became more interested in children’s stories and had a greater level of confidence as she approached them. Now, she reads a novel in a few days and is interested in classic literature. I know from experience that reading is a process that takes little steps, but in the end it depends on the individual.
Devon wrote:
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed getting to look at some of the books we saw during our last class. As a child, I was a pretty voracious reader and read as much as I could. In large part because of my own love of reading, I really encourage and value reading in children. I do however, have certain things that I will not reccomend myself. While I agree that a child reading anything is good, I also think that it is the duty of teachers to reccommend quality books. Books should encourage reading, writing and speaking skills and I prefer books that can help students learn at least a small amount. For example, while the "Junie B. Jones" books are popular (and pretty funny, I might add!) I find their use of children's improper speech to be both irritating and counterproductive. I want children to experience great language and descriptions when they read!
I really liked hearing people's ideas for how to incoporate certain books into different units and lessons. Even the simplest books, like a Richard Scarry, can be used to really expand and explore a lesson. I often remember reading books in class that tied into our other units and being so happily surprised when we realised it as a class. It was so wonderful to read about people seeing or doing similar things to us-we felt a bit bigger than we had before!
My personal experience with reading and literacy has always been positive and relatively easy for me. With my step-son, I have gained first hand experience of working with a child who does not enjoy reading, and like other pre-service teachers,I have tried applying the many stratagies that I have learned throughout my PDP journey to improving his reading experiences. The most success I have had at getting him to enjoy reading is to select books, magazines, and articles that interest him. For example, he loves baseball so I subscribed to a baseball magazine for him. I've also learned that reading does not only have to include novels. Reading includes joke books, and the Guinness Book of World Records, The Top Ten Lists in Sports, and even the Bathroom Reader! Whatever captures a child's interest and will keep them reading is what is important, not just the content. Like we heard in our lecture and read in our text, it is important to have a classroom library filled with books that will appeal to a variety of interests and skill levels.
ReplyDeleteMay 25, 2009 – After Class #2
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 4, I wish that there had been a more comprehensive book list that included more up to date works. The latest publishing date was 1996, making the youngest book on that list at least 13 years old. I know there have been some quality books published in recent years that could be used to teach phonemic awareness, and I would like to know where I might find a more up-to-date list.
I found Chapter 6 of the photocopied handout most interesting, because it had some more ideas for intermediate kids. This is the area that I want to work in, so it worked for me more. I liked the idea of having a “root word discovery” activity. Another activity that you could do to increase word interest is to have an OED project. I did this in my medieval literature and Chaucer classes here at SFU, but it could probably be done in high school as well, just maybe in less depth. While we were reading Chaucer, we had to choose a word that we thought was interesting, and then look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary. There, we had the chance to trace its usage and meanings throughout history, all the way back to its first recorded use. It was really interesting to see how word meanings changed over time, and to realize that we read meaning into a piece of literature through our modern lens.
Class 3 Discussion: May 25, 2009
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I just wanted to say that I really liked the chapter 4, 5 & 6 articles because they were simple to read and actually very useful. They had a lot of different activities/ideas that teachers can use in their classrooms. One specific activity that I found interesting was Action Phonics. Since I was in the Playworks module, which focuses on incorporating physicality into the classroom, I thought that this activity was great, because it allows children to get up and move around and as “Cunningham quotes one a teacher who uses action phonics wit her students, “They are always in motion anyway. They cannot sit quietly and listen. They just naturally move some part of their bodies. Now they all move together purposefully” (pg. Chapter 5). I also think that it is a great idea to use s (sit) and q (quiet) to get the students to bring the activity to an end. It’s their cue that it has come to an end. I think that this activity would be great in the primary grades. Not only are students learning new words, but they are being active and using their creativity at the same time. Someone in class tonight mention that it would be a great DPA lesson and I absolutely agree.
At the end of class, I really liked the lesson that the group did on “Following the Leader” I thought that it could be a great ‘mini unit’ for the first week of classes.
– “Emergent Literacy adn Developing Ponemic Awareness”
ReplyDeleteI am thrilled with this text choice, there are a lot of parallels with the reading strategies that Adrienne Gear talks about in Reading Power even though some of the terminology is different. I really like her suggestions and have some experience teaching the first 3 powers; connect, question, visualize.
One thing that resonated with me in chapter one p11 of CMCM is that students need to learn to self-monitor their success when reading or writing to help determine for themselves if the strategy they are using is working for them or if another strategy needs to be incorporated. I connected this to the importance of modelling thinking. This helps students see what “thinking” looks like, and this will help them identify methods to improve when maybe they are not able to articulate the way in which they are struggling. I think that if students also have a chance to model their thinking for each other it could generate some great discussion and AHA! moments. I love that the emphasis is on flexibility and a critical thinking approach to explore and find a strategy that works for each student with their involvement rather than the negative message that the student is not a strong reader if the first or second approach doesn’t yield the results that the student/ teacher / PLO is looking for.