Great class yesterday! We are working well and getting through a lot of key ideas in teaching reading. Our list of activities is growing for each of the stages of learning to read. We put this list into practice and created a vocabulary lesson that allowed for differentiation, or making the lesson multilevel-- we incorporated other stages of reading into the lesson without breaking the flow of the main lesson. In this way we could continue to teach struggling readers at their level as well as challenge advanced readers. We also read a case study on "Nathan" and how researchers involved him in his understanding of miscues, which helped advance his reading skills. Lastly, I'm including the link to RAZ Kids (image) that allows students to record their voices. There is a free trial if you want to check it out. Here is the link: http://www.raz-kids.com/
Keep working on those papers and feel free to send me outlines/drafts. Stay cool!
Keep working on those papers and feel free to send me outlines/drafts. Stay cool!
Scott wrote:
ReplyDeleteIt was exciting tonight to get some great ideas to bring into my next practicum. I often really feel like a Socials teacher who bumbles through teaching some of the other subjects like L.A., so it’s nice to have all these brilliant minds that I can siphon off of! The idea of taking a well known text and removing the descriptive words in order to embellish the story in a new way is one I am sure to use as it encourages creativity while developing vocabulary. I also really liked the “mystery word” where a passage can be copied with certain words blanked out for the students to replace with an appropriate word.
Looking at the beginning of the Chapter 14 reading, the poetry exercise described really struck me as something cool. I have been in too many classes where the teacher chooses one student after another to read text out load robotically with absolutely no excitement or emotion. It is an important skill to learn how to engage others when reading out loud (I really understood this when I had kids), but it is also a confidence boost to read out loud after having rehearsed several times and nail it.
A lot of what we talked about in class surrounding reading groups struck home with me as someone who spent their childhood in the low to low-average reading groups (it even said this on my report cards, I still have them). In my low reading groups were the same kids, year after year. We were the low kids, we interacted with the low kids and never really got a chance to work with the higher kids. We didn’t need colours, or names to tell us this, we knew we were “dumb”. Not sure if anyone has good ideas, but changing groupings as well as activity styles frequently seems to be a good idea. I wouldn’t mind being the dumb kid in the group one week if I get to be a smart or average kid in another group next time. This would also help create a classroom community where students help each other, and the advanced kids would have their level extended by helping the lower kids get through material.
Tonight was a very useful class. I liked how we went through activities and strategies to support reading. Somethings we discussed I had never heard of before. For a new teacher, it was great to listen to success people had in their practicum and get first hand feedback about what worked. I will use Tessa’s game, “I have….. Who has”? I am glad I have been able to share resources with Tessa because she has a lot of great ideas.
ReplyDeleteCreating the vocabulary lesson was useful. I am always looking for ways to make this area of learning to read more interesting and excited for the beginner readers, I got some good ideas. What helped the most was discussing differential learning. Group work was important tonight to meet more of the class and share in their experiences. The group presentations gave ideas about how to teach differential learning in one lesson. This was great, because I want to teach with different learning levels in mind and make sure all students feel success and challenged.
I was very curious about the article we read at the end of class that discuses “Miscues”. I have never heard of that word before, but now that I know what it is I know that I have done that as a child and children I have taught and provided childcare for do the same thing. This sort of problem in terms of learning to read can really cause the child anxiety and create a fear of public speaking. I thought it was very powerful how this article laid out the step by step strategy to help this boy. Prior knowledge was explained as well and we were shown how useful it can be when teaching young students to read.
Enjoyed the class and took something away. So far in every class I have learned something and been able to add one extra method, strategy, idea or game into my teaching tool box. As Martha Stewart would say………” Now that’s a good thing”.
June 2, 2009 After Class 4
ReplyDeleteFirst of all thanks for the link for RAZ kids. I am planning to use it with my kids to make recordings of them reading books (to help with their fluency) for their younger cousins for Christmas (to help with their beginning reading). It looks like a great tool! Thanks Thanks Thanks.
Sue’s hook was simple and engaging. It focused our attention, which is not always easy, and set the tone for the lesson. While this may sound silly I have never actually seen that done before… somehow I missed volcano making when I was in school, so I really enjoyed seeing it. Thinking about all of the books that have been popular because of movies or the other way around got me thinking about books that I have really enjoyed and wished they would make a movie for. For me, these are the books that have actually come alive as I have read them, and I can’t put them down, not even to do my housework! Just a few of them are: Eagle of the Ninth, the Artemis Fowl series, and all of the Eragon series (yes I know the first one is a movie already). In my opinion it is so important that students see their teachers actively engaged in reading for enjoyment, and they will be more likely to do the same.
I am amazed at how exciting it was to plan a vocabulary lesson with my group. I acme home ready to cut out golden tickets and read the novel. How exciting that we as mature adults can still get excited about reading and learning opportunities and can pass that excitement on to our students. When you think about it, it is truly remarkable how easily we created lesson plans which only months ago many were agonizing over. So well done everyone.
As a side note, good luck on your Surrey interviews next week all you Surrey people!
Crystal
I also enjoyed the hook at the beginning of the class and will try to use this once I get a class of my own.
ReplyDeleteI found the case study of the young boy, Nathan, interesting and reminded me of my nephew. My nephew moved around a lot and his family is low socioeconomic status, which is probably why he had so many problems learning to read. He would, in many cases, pretend read a book (from memory) to get a thrill of success by hearing others surprise at his talents. Reading Nathan describe his abilities as “I don’t know the words a lot of the time and the rest of the kids have to wait for me,” reminded me of my nephew. I think Nathan’s statement is a great example of why we shouldn’t ask our students to read aloud in front of the entire class. Even I as a young student struggled with reading and hated reading in front of my peers. I used to dread reading and would have immense anxiety when I knew my turn was approaching.
As I don’t live close to my nephew I was unable to help him read. However, the new school he started this year identified him as a struggling reader, and has been working on interventions to help him succeed. My nephew recently had a birthday and I bought him two books, Bone and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. These books are great because they are visual. Bone is more of a comic book series and Diary of a Wimpy kid (series) is written like a diary where the author often draws pictures and the story line is really humorous. He promptly started reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid out loud to all of us and there was a lot of laughing by both him and the adults in the room. I would recommend these books for students that are not interested in reading as kids seem to love them.
Have a great week everyone. Cheers, Alanna
Leah Pells
ReplyDeleteJune 2-2009
Blog Entry: Vocabulary: Chapter 5
Last night’s class provided some great teachable ideas. I keep thinking of the ideas I can use as a TOC, as that will be my goal for the fall. To TOC in SD43 (Coquitlam). I am sure many of us will be doing this for awhile, and so to have some great activities we can do with a variety of grade levels will be very helpful.
I know with vocabulary, taught just as spelling lists or memorizing words, students are not that interested, or they do the minimum and memorize what they need to. But do they learn?
One thing I really enjoyed last night was all the game ideas we generated for vocabulary. Some really fun ideas to inspire students to discover and try new words.
When I was in my 405 practicum, I was in a grade 3 class; I would often just throw in a new word. The students would stop and several hands up, “What does prediction mean Mrs. Pells?” Any new word I throw into my chat, they would notice and the challenge I had was to see who could use the new word in a sentence in the day. I would discuss the word and what it meant and how it could be used with them of course. But what was fun, was I could throw out a new word in any lesson: math, science, socials, really in any subject. What happened by the end was the kids would come to school with a new word and use it on me. I have to admit to having to look up some of their words. It was great as in Guided reading we did vocab with the magic tree house books, so this led us into that.
I believe that it all comes down to interesting ways to reach a student, as Sue was saying at the start of class with Harry Potter, if we can bring in something that they are interested in, it helps so much.
Thanks for all the great ideas. This is one of my classes that is giving me teachable ideas, which at this point is really what I am interested in.
Take care and see you all next week.
Leah
Class 4 Discussion
ReplyDeleteThere were many different and important points raised throughout the chapter 13 article. The one point that I want to discuss in further depth are the relationships that need to exist between teachers and parents. Since parents play an important role in the school system, I find that it is crucial for the teacher to create relationships with parents. During my practicum, I have realized that sometimes parents think that they know better than the teachers how things should be handled in the classroom. However, what parents don’t realize is that teachers not only deal with one student at once but rather 27 students. Although, I believe that teachers don’t need to justify their teaching methods to parents (since teachers are educated and they know what they are doing), in order to have good and positive relationships it is necessary. So, at the beginning of the year, I think that it is a great idea for teachers to write a letter out to the parents and just let them know what it is that they are doing throughout the year. Also, throughout the year the students can keep journals that they take home every Friday, and in there they have a communication log about their school week with their parents. This allows the parents to know exactly what is going on in the classroom.
In chapter 5, I found the ‘Dramatization” section to be a valuable asset to the classroom. I believe that physical activity should be a major component in any classroom, therefore this activity stood out to me. I did a similar lesson when I was teaching my students drama. I gave them each an emotion and they had to act it out. The students were extremely engaged and they had fun doing it. Then I gave them small scenarios, and they had to act then out in front of the class (the scenarios were on social responsibility, since that is what I was teaching them as well).
I loved the way class started yesterday with an experiment (had me entertained). It reminded me of my 405 practicum when I had started a science reading lesson on oxygen with an experiment and the class remained fully engaged the whole lesson and activities. I learnt that not all lessons will work perfectly but the more hooks or experiments (hands on activities) you are able to include the more successful your lessons will be.
ReplyDeleteMany vocabulary lessons were shared yesterday and they will all be very helpful in our future classes. One lesson I really enjoyed was the 3 little pig’s example. This lesson teaches the students to increase their vocabulary by adding descriptive words to plain sentences. I like this idea because it involves each student by giving them their own sentence, and the responsibility to make the sentence more descriptive.
Today’s class was great, everyone have a good week!
Our class started with an interesting hook with an excerpt from Harry potter. Attracting student’s attention at the beginning of a lesson is the key to a successful lesson as it engages and creates curiosity to a lesson. Movies are also a great way to attract student’s attention. I remember watching a lot of Bill Nye the Science guy or Magic School Bus when I was young. These made reading and learning about non-fiction extra more interesting. Romeo and Juliet or even Harry Potter movies were also some other movies I enjoyed. As I’m reading I often create a mind-movie. A mind-movie is imaging what the setting might look like or how a particular scene might be acted out. I find it very helpful to encourage students to make mind-movies because they are creating an understanding through text. After finishing the text, I will show the actual movie, this helps students verify or compare and contrast with their mind-movie.
ReplyDeleteThe creating a Vocabulary Lesson activity was very helpful and practical. I wished that I had the opportunity to have this class prior to my practicum. All the activities and lesson plan ideas that come up in the class would have been very useful. It is very important for a teacher to be aware of differentiated teaching. Each student is unique and has their method of learning. We need to provide a wide range of different opportunities to fit the different needs of students. This is very important especially teaching the basic of reading and writing because students need to develop skill and strategies.
Thank you for the links and resources teacher…
ReplyDeleteThe case study was really eye opening. I know we have discussed the limitations of using a single reading program via articles and discussions. It’s starting to make more sense. For my essay, I will be presenting it on a type of program I have used in both of my practicum experiences. So, this is something that I have been starting to think more about recenlty. I think as a teacher I need to be flexible and adaptable with they type of reading programs I decide to use. Sometimes, it may be a plan that the school wants me to run and therefore I may not even have a say in the matter. No matter what, I as a teacher need to find a strategy and activity which can help and facilitate the learning if each unique student. I can’t and should not accept them to assimilate and when they do not meet my programs expectations I should not blame the student and their learning.
Harry Potter presentation was cool and a good teaching strategy. I really love the idea of having a great “Hook” before beginning a new unit or lesson. By a “Hook” I mean something interesting that will draw the students into a lesson. In my practicum we had a few guest speakers come in and present some interesting “Hooks.” This is something I really want to improve on and incorporate in my own classrooms more often. I am a grown man (well not too grown lol) but I really was drawn by the presentation and the explosion was fun. I liked how the teacher used words and vocabulary from the Harry Potter “language”. I am sure everyone will agree it was fun and a smart technique to use. I have not read or seen Harry Potter films but I have a lot of cousins who are Harry Potter Fanatics. Now I can see why.
Basically, this week I am reflecting on my essay topic and using good “hooks.” Keeping it simple(lol). How can anyone not mention the “hook”(lol)... Enjoy the sun and see you all soon. God Bless :)
Ashok K.
In class this week we had the chance to get into our grade groups to create vocabulary lessons from a selection of books provided by Sue. I find working in our grade groups very helpful for sharing ideas and even just sharing our experiences. I think all of the lessons that were shared were valuable. I like how the first 2/3 group used the stickers provided in their book to create a fun charades game that was inclusive of all learners. The second 2/3 group had an interesting activity where used poster boards to have students access their background knowledge on new or challenging words. I thought the idea presented by the 4/5 group with the Golden Tickets would really connect with the students and be a lot of fun. The activity suggested by the 6/7 group blocked out descriptive words and had the students fill in their own words. I have seen an activity like this done with students and they really enjoyed putting their own touch in the stories. I think all of these activities were useful and could easily be implemented in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to creating more interesting and applicable lessons!
Blogg 4: Todays class was so packed with useful information for lesson plan ideas that I left with my head spinning. I am trying to put some of these ideas together as “ready to go” materials for TOC days. I am doing the 3 Little Pigs idea and planning to laminate the story onto cards stripped down of all adjectives and adverbs like was mentioned by our group. I can see using this is grade 3 – 7 with success.
ReplyDeleteMy son is a struggling reader (grade5) and until now I have felt like my toolbox of ideas and strategies is limited. I have done things with his spelling lists like bouncing a ball back and forth while spelling words, “rainbow letters” where he writes over his spelling word with three different colors then cuts out the letters and does a word scramble, writing letters in the sand tray etc.. All of these strategies have been helpful to a certain extent (improving his spelling test score) but I honestly don’t feel like it has prepared him to tackle new words. I am excited to use some of the strategies we are learning about at home with him.
When I read the article about “Nathan” I could relate his experiences with those of my son. It is very difficult (for me) not to jump in and correct, or give clues instead of allowing him to discover and explain his thinking which would empower him instead of increase his dependency on my clues and corrections. Yikes!
I love the idea Leah shared about introducing new words across the curriculum. How cool that it lead to an opportunity to model thinking by the teacher having to look up the new words they brought in.
Great sharing, I appreciate this open exchange of ideas!
I agree Tania it is difficult to not jump in and correct, or give clues instead of allowing the student to discover. I am learning this as well from our math class, the importance of self-discovery and prior knowledge. Let me know if the strategies and activities we are learning in our course work are really helping your children and students… Good job with the play in math! :)
ReplyDeleteAshok K.
I found Chapter 5 of the text to be quite relevant as assessing prior knowledge and vocabulary make it easier for students to connect to the lesson. Prior knowledge is important and can help to get children’s interest. For those who may have thought they didn’t know anything about a subject may be surprised to find out they knew some things. I think debriefing the students about a lesson before it actually takes place also helps students to feel more confident about taking part in it because they know what is going to happen throughout the lesson.
ReplyDeleteFrom the lessons we created in class, I learned more about the importance of vocabulary. Before we started our lessons, I was always thinking about giving students vocabulary during or after the reading. However, during the discussion in our group, the light bulb came on about giving students their vocabulary before the reading. It made so much sense, as students will know the vocabulary and will not have to stop the reading in the middle to ask what a particular word means. Also, I think it would be helpful for those to understand the text better without have to take pauses and lose concentration of the text. I think it could be easy to go off on a tangent if the reading was broken off for vocabulary clarification.
I really liked the article we read near the end of class. It made so much sense to allow the child to explain how they were deciphering the reading, rather than having the teacher say “oh it’s supposed to be ...” or making changes for the student. From reading the article, it seemed like a great way to give students ownership of their own reading. At the same time, by having the student explain how they were approaching their reading, it helps the teacher understand where they are making their mistakes and can give them strategies that would help with their particular problem. I found this way to make much more sense and seemed to really help students rather than the usual “sound it out.”
I really enjoyed the lessons that we were able to create in class this week and have added a bunch of new ideas that I could use in the classroom, when I get there ... :)
Monday’s class was again helpful and it’s nice, especially now being able to connect more of the reading to the classroom. The different ideas and strategies offered up by the text and everyone else’s experience is great for putting together lists to be used in the classroom one day. Language and vocabulary games, even things like word walls, which would be quite basic for a high school classroom can still serve a purpose for reluctant and sometimes hesitant readers.
ReplyDeleteI found the case study we read in class somewhat farfetched. Every idea and concept was sound and it made sense, I only question how realistic that scenario would be in a real classroom. Resources are stretched thin already and the time involvement needed to help those students would be almost impossible. Are they other ways we can improve a struggling reader’s ability?
Wow! Based on some of the other blogs that have already been posted for this week it sounds like all of you had a really great class, and I am sorry that I missed it!
ReplyDeleteMy entry for this week is going to be largely based on what I read in Chapter 5, and while there were almost too many good ideas- making it hard to hold onto them- I thought that this chapter was really valuable in its emphasis on connecting students with their prior knowledge. This chapters opening statement: “Imagine trying to read or write a passage when you know practically nothing about its topic” really hit home. I instantly thought about university and how frustrated I feel when I am presented with the task of reading or writing essays where I feel lost in the content. I had just never thought about this same frustration being active at the elementary level. I think many of us are probably familiar with the several of the ideas presented in this chapter, such as providing questioning, brainstorming, predicting, connecting, and creating opportunities for vocabulary (games, or word walls) to increase comprehension, but the text really showed me that these types of activities are necessary throughout the curriculum. During Language Arts activities, I think I am more aware of the need for word walls, predictions, connections, etc and I try to tap into prior knowledge with a lot of questioning and prompts. When I am teaching other subjects like science or social studies however, I think these types of ‘prompts’ are not seen as often. Based on this chapter I would like to make a more conscious effort to incorporate the access of prior knowledge into all subject areas. It makes perfect sense that a student who has knowledge about what they are reading or writing will be more successful, but I think they will also have more fun in the process and as a result will have more confidence and a better outlook on reading and writing tasks.
I really enjoyed this week’s class. The lesson ideas that the different groups came up with were fantastic and I definitely plan on incorporating them when I start teaching! Sometimes I find that it’s difficult to think of ways to differentiate lessons, especially for those students that need a challenge. The presentations this week gave me some great ideas and ways to challenge higher ability students while still involving them in whole class activities. One activity that stood out especially was the one associated with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Having a letter patter (at for example) and then having students change the first letter in order to make new words is a great way to teach phonemic awareness. I actually used this strategy myself in my practicum when I was working with an ESL student. I also used pictures so that he could connect the words with the actual object.
ReplyDeleteI know that many of you have already posted about this, but I also loved the “hook” that Sue presented. One of my teachers in middle school used an interesting hook in order to get us prepared for social studies – he pretended to be the explorer, fur trader, prime minister etc that we would be studying – sometimes he really got into it and dressed the part. It was really engaging and fun and sometimes even made boring material (studying the structure of the Canadian government!) bearable.
The miscue analysis was interesting to read, especially because I took Learning Disabilities last year and used it when working with a student with a reading disability. It really told me a lot about what her reading weaknesses and strengths were – this made it much easier to plan lessons that catered specifically to her needs. It was great that the miscue analysis helped the boy in the article improve his reading so much but I was surprised that it was such a vast improvement in such a short time. I wonder how applicable this is to the classroom teacher – how time consuming would it be and could it used by every day teachers?
Overall it was a great class and I’m looking forward to hearing more great ideas!
Week 4 Post
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I have to say that I too loved the science experiment to start the class – what a fantastic way to grab the attention of a class! As well, I wanted to mention that reading to a class NEVER loses its’ lustre – look at how we all settled in to listen to Sue read Harry Potter – I was only sorry she had to stop!! In my practicum, I actually gave the kids a choice; read silently, with partners, or me to them. Hands down, me reading to them won every time. As I said a few weeks ago, my youngest refused to learn to read (although she already knew I suspect) citing her reason as being if SHE knew how, then I would stop reading to her. It was only after I promised that we would then be able to share and read to each other that she really bought into the idea. Once we reached that understanding, there was no stopping her! I do miss that stage where they read EVERYTHING they see – often pronouncing things literally which is always so funny to hear, but difficult to explain.
The lesson of Nathan and his miscues was great – it makes so much sense when you can see it from another perspective. Being “able” to read may cloud the view of a teacher – I need to keep this in mind when I am out teaching. It is very telling how clearly kids know what category they fall into – even when the teacher tries to mask this. The children do a natural sorting, there is a hierarchy that develops. Movement between the levels is possible, and actually meets with the approval of the current “residents”. The danger comes from the feeling of being trapped, that this is their permanent lot in their academic life. The vocabulary lessons that we created were all great in that they may provide a student who otherwise would not succeed a chance to contribute, and find success at their level. I find myself jotting down notes from other groups’ lessons to use in future – thanks to everyone in advance for those!
Like Leah’s new words to her class, I had a running “Dictionary” of words across our subjects that the kids contributed to – sometimes at my request, other times at will and out of interest. It was a fantastic document for them to be able to produce. Referring them to the root of a larger word, or by referencing it to a word that was familiar in some way, they were able to use their prior knowledge to make an educated guess as to its’ meaning. There were, of course, some fairly amusing attempts to define certain words.
Finally, I have to say again how much I enjoy the group dynamics of the class – working with everyone and sharing ideas has really become the mainstay of the class for me. While the text is certainly rich, I love the personal comments and testimonials from everyone.
Now, if only Sue would take us outside and read to us on the grass…
Jennifer
June 6, 2009
ReplyDeleteDeveloping vocabulary lessons in the reading class was fun and useful. By sharing various ideas with other groups, I learned practical vocabulary lessons that I can apply into any subject areas. Most groups came up with a variety of game ideas in order to enhance children’s interests. I like a charades game because children can have lots of fun while they are learning new vocabulary. Any lessons associated with visual and kinesthetic approaches can be interesting for young children. My son (Grade 3) does not know many vocabularies for his level. I want to try some of games with my son to help him get familiar with more advanced words.
I remember that when I was a Grade 7, I tried to memorize many words by writing on a piece of paper repeatedly using definitions in my handbook. Since I memorized words without applying in the real contexts, I easily forgot the meanings of the words that I memorized. That was not positive experience of learning vocabulary and even I felt pain in my fingers. I enjoy reading my textbook (reading) because I can obtain a lot of useful ideas from it. I found a very interesting idea about teaching vocabulary that is called “scavenger hunts” from our reading textbook. Students are put into groups of four or five and a teacher provides each group with a list of new words. Then, students are asked to bring a picture or object representing as many items on the list as they can find. The Teacher should allow the group time to discuss what the different words mean and who might be able to find an object or picture representing each. It sounds very interesting and I am sure students will enjoy this lesson and remember the meanings of new words without pain.
At the conclusion of last week’s class, I came out with many creative and practical ideas for developing vocabulary lessons. When we first approached this exercise, I was at a loss for words or ideas about how to make a vocabulary lesson engaging. It was interesting to see that all of the groups developed ideas that made use of movement and tactile/kinesthetic elements. I can see the interest that these elements would generate in any age group of students, kindergarten to high school. I found that in the primary grades many of the lessons concentrated on the text and the elements on the page of the text. It is interesting to note this because in the readings on early literacy development this focus correlates with the same phase of a student’s development as a reader. The focus is centered on the relationship between image and text, not only to access students’ prior knowledge, but also to create associations they make with the image in the text for later recall. I also really enjoyed hearing that each group took time to concentrate on not only teaching the ‘meat’ of the lesson but also extend it into applications for that day and as a foundation for later learning. It was wonderful to see this extension because then the vocabulary lesson would be that much more meaningful to the students learning it.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading Jennifer’s thoughts on the article about miscues. I found myself thinking the same thing; perspective changes what you think about a certain situation, how you approach it, and how you apply yourself to it. It is an easy to categorize and not look behind the label that a child is given. It is easy to say that the label means that the student cannot and will not be able to work at the same functioning level as his/her peers in the class. However, it is not easy for the student to be aware of and know that he/she has been placed into a category and no longer has the same type of potential as other students. I believe that these miscues partially represent blinders that we put on ourselves – the student enters the class, we read their label, and we immediately seek out the help that they need and deserve. We do this instead of getting to know the student first without the label – who they are, what they are capable of, what there interests are – we let the label direct our thinking. I know that awareness of and understanding of the individual student is where our learning curve begins – to acknowledge, to know, and to listen.
Blog #4 June 8, 2009
ReplyDeleteHi everyone
First a joke to go with our vocabulary lesson:
Jimmy comes home from school one day and says “Mommy, we learned a new word in school today. Can you surmise what it is?”
I think kids generally love to learn and use new words. Some of them pick them up just by exposure, while other students need a more direct approach of vocabulary building. The ideas in the textbook are going to be helpful to include vocabulary building in our classrooms. There is a charades type game that I have played with my family that I think could be adapted to play in class. It is a fun way to explore descriptive words. I call it the adverb game: In the Manner of the Word (the Adverb Game)
Grades: 4 and up
Send one or two players out of the room and then the rest of the group chooses an adverb such as “carefully”, “nervously”, or “angrily”. When the player(s) return to the room they can ask anyone or everyone to do something (a verb) in the manner of the word, for example golf, eat, study, read a newspaper, etc. Up to 4 mimes and guesses are allowed for each word. Once the adverb is guessed, it is someone else’s turn to leave the room. Students can think of their own verbs and adverbs or you can have some words written out for them to choose. Some examples:
Adverbs Actions
Artistically drive
Shyly paint a picture
Slyly pet a dog
Nervously jog
Obnoxiously dance
Happily have a shower
Lazily drink coffee
I tried this with my PTEM classmates for our energizer and we got quite silly pretending to write in our journals drunkenly and dance obnoxiously.
Hopefully this explanation makes sense.
Sharon
I went away last week with many wonderful lesson ideas. In this week’s blog, I want to mention my two favorite ideas that were presented in class. I really liked the idea that one group presented about using a well-known story like “The Three Little Pigs.” Then take out all the descriptive words, give one sentence from the story to each student and have them fill in their own descriptive words. When students are done, it creates a whole new creative story. This was such a great idea. To take this one step further, students could create a class book. It would be motivational for them to read it as it is student created and personalized.
ReplyDeleteThe other idea I really liked was having a class spelling bee. Break the class up into two groups and give a group a spelling word. Each student in that group has to say one letter of the word. If someone says an incorrect letter, the other team is given a chance to steal. This is a great way to practice spelling words in a fun way, and we all know how much more engaging a lesson is for students when we tell them we are playing a game!
Thanks for sharing all your wonderful ideas!
Since I was absent for this class, I am going to make a few comments on the readings.
ReplyDeleteThe readings discussed previous knowledge of subject matter and words that children bring to their reading experiences. I felt that I had seen so much of what I was reading in real life, having worked with Grade 1/2 and Grade 4/5 classes. Any time that students knew a little bit about a subject matter, they had an extra interest in learning more about it, or jumping off into a new topic. I really enjoyed the ideas that the readings included about using previously known words to jump into new words or new endings to those old words. I also really enjoyed the textbooks advocacy of webs that students shout out ideas for. That was the way I most often did KWLs with my students. They loved that they could finally yell out ideas, and at the end, they were always amazed at their collectice knowledge. That might be half the benefit of activating prior knowledge-students start to connect ideas, but they also gain some pride in how much they have already learned.
The case of Nathan is very similar to my daughter who is in Grade 5. She hates to read, but loves to be read to. She enjoys taking turns because we can support her reading. For some time I have seen the same issues that Nathan struggled with, specifically I see the miscues regularly. She will substitute words readily, and then keep on going even though it did not make sense. If you ask her if it made sense, she tells it did not and will go back and reread it. She seems to lack the initiative or the cues to self correct. I have asked for an assessment through the school and everything has come back as within normal ranges, yet they recommended her to go to summer school. I see her continuing to struggle and know we are running out of time for her to correct this habit/miscue. It is frustrating as a parent/teacher to watch your child struggle and hates to read because you love the world it opens up for her. Up until this past week or two I was frustrated trying to figure out how to help her and now I am feeling like I have more tools everyday to assist her through this difficult stage she seems to be tripping on. It is a relief to feel like I can get her through it.
ReplyDeleteBlog 5
ReplyDeleteHello all...
First and foremost, I would like to thank so many of you for mentioning my "Three Little Pigs" activity as one of your favourites... I am glad it was useful :) It was something I invented to use as a short "mini lesson/ practice activity" as part of much larger unit on description and detail in creative writing. The students had fun with it, took ownership of their “sentences” and there was minimal silliness-- and that was with grade 6/7!! I have to say, being able to work with so many people in this class who have already completed their 405 is a great resource to me, as I am just going into 405 this September, but it also serves as a bit of an intimidation factor too. Your feedback is much appreciated and makes me feel like I'm on the right track, here!! Reema, I love your idea of making it into a class book!!
I like the “adverb game” idea written above- I could see students having a great time with this! It seems, if you turn anything into a game, the students will buy in.
Lastly, I have to mention the power of readaloud. Even as we grow up, there is just something magical about being read to; I watched around the room as everyone was instantly swallowed up into the world of Harry Potter. I remember starting in my 6/7 and being completely shocked when my SA picked up a novel and started reading out loud to the class. I was doubly shocked to find out this was not a novel study, and NO the students were not following along in a book. Not only did I assume they would think it was “stupid” and “for babies” but I thought they simply wouldn’t pay attention. I was surprised to see that students were well aware of what was going on in the story, and were making connections to the text.
I decided to try it with an intermediate picture book (The Widow’s Broom, by Chris Van Allsburg, it’s aimed at lower intermediate students— very descriptive, wordy, suspenseful, beautifully illustrated, big book). I chose this book on purpose, because the students were familiar with Chris van Allsburg’s illustrations – we had used them to create stories from a picture in creative writing. But here comes the hook--- there was a big bizarre mystery behind the source of the illustrations they had used for their writing exercise – which only came in a portfolio. I started off the lesson telling them the creepy story of the mysterious photos, and we had a mini discussion about what they thought about the tale (it’s really quite interesting and bizarre!!!) http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/harrisburdick/portfolio_intro.html
Sensing my excitement, and regardless of the fact that it was a picture book, they bought into the story immediately. We did lots of prediction throughout and, even the most non-responsive, and uninterested students in the class were jumping out of their seat to exclaim what their predictions for the end of the story might be, and why they thought so. They were so excited they were having a hard time limiting their ideas to their journals, and wanted to tell everyone in the class! Two days later, I read the ending, they were instantly engaged. I made it suspenseful; I have never heard that room so silent. They were so engaged in what was going on, it was incredible!! There was an uproar when I read the last page of the story and the end was revealed. So many students were so incredibly proud that they had figure out the story before I had read it. Big smiles!