Many thanks to all our presenters -- we were treated to many good lessons. For today's blog, please complete two tasks. First, on this prompt, share the title of your paper and your thesis statement (or a brief description of your paper). Students with similar interests can contact one another. Second, please post some feedback in each of the group presentation prompts below. You can comment on what you liked about the lessons, what you found interesting, ask questions and share what you may have seen in other classrooms related to the activities.Just a reminder: for those who presented today, please send your Lesson plans as soon as possible. Also, your 1-2 page (double-spaced) Reflection is due next Thursday.Finally, this week's topic was "Assessment". Please fill in the handout and we will go over the activities next week.
Well, the class is really going well. It’s not an easy course and is very challenging because there are so many ideas and strategies to be learned. Being a beginning teacher I can’t imagine what it would be like to implement a reading program in kindergarten or grade 1. I am used to grades 3-5. As a teacher I feel more comfortable in the grades 3 and up. I think there is more you can do with integrating and allowing time for more subjects areas. In the lower grades like k-2 so much time needs to be spent on the foundations for basic reading and writing. Honestly, before this class I wasn’t aware of how much Language Arts takes to plan and implement especially in the lower grades. In the upper grades a lot of reading and writing is so easily integrated with other subjects. Not knowing where you are going to teach and what resources you will most likely need is the hardest part of not being a full time teacher I would imagine. It becomes very overwhelming at times how much time LA can take up. My favourite subjects are PE and Social Studies. Sometimes, because I am used to the upper elementary grades it becomes really confusing and frustrating imagining how much time LA activities could potentially consume. Well, if anything my blogs are authentic and honest, maybe a little too much at times. It was a good week of lesson presentations and the groups did a great job. With my essay, I was satisfied but not overtly happy the way my essay turned out in the end. However, it is something I will re-visit sometime later in my teaching career. With Sue’s help I was able to focus in on my original idea/thesis. I wanted to discuss the pros and cons of the program which I used in my teaching called The Reading Power by Adrienne Gear. Honestly speaking, I struggled to highlight many cons of this program because it’s so personal to me now. I realized this soon as I got very deeply involved with my paper. I thought it would be easy and I could un-biasedly perform the task of the pros and cons of this program. I couldn’t do it at first because like a car salesman I want to sell this program and how great it is. I love this program. With Sue’s help I was able to put aside my biases and focus back on to what I needed for my paper. However, I didn’t and couldn’t focus a lot on the cons and find a balance between pros and cons of this program. I still feel there are a lot of pros and the cons can be turned into pros by good teachers. So, basically listing cons and then believing those cons can be adapted is frustrating because I feel I have to write something dishonestly. The paper is still well written and expresses a lot of my experiential successes and some failures with this program. Maybe, I feel I could have done a better job if I chose to have argued for this program rather than arguing how there is no perfect program. It’s probably harder, and wrong, but I would have rather tried to defend the program and its greatness over other programs knowing I would not fully succeed in doing this but however just to try and defend something I value and believe in would have made me happier perhaps more with my essay. Maybe doing this and receiving a lower grade would have made me happier. However, the task and exercise of examining my program and myself highlighting the cons proved how strong of a writer I can be and how well I can argue against something I believe. I do agree with my paper and my thesis statement but I think it would have been more interesting to argue from a different point of view. All this being said, I think it’s one of the best papers I have written, in this type of format. I put a lot of hard work into it maybe that is why now I am still thinking about it and exploring the variations I could have made to it. Here is my
ReplyDeleteAshok K. (part I)
Big Idea from my paper:
ReplyDeleteTitle: Teaching with Reading Power.
There are advantages and disadvantages of any type of reading program. I was fortunate in my practicum experience that I came across an adaptable reading program. However, it is important that I as a growing professional continue to find ways to build upon Gear’s Reading Power and find different methods so I can help many students in my classroom. For young teachers I believe it is important to practice and use different programs and strategies. Teachers need to be expanding their resources and strategies because there is no single perfect method or program….
Ashok K. (part II)
God Bless I will add my comments to groups now...
Leah Pells
ReplyDeleteJuly 6th-2009
Paper Topic:
My paper topic was “French Immersion and Early English Readers: A Comparative paper on Bilingual readers versus Monolingual readers.”
I chose this topic out of personal curiosity, as my son just finished French immersion in grade one and my husband is a French immersion teacher.
Overall the research is very strong to show that French immersion students do surpass English readers eventually, as they have two systems for decoding in reading.
It was a very interesting paper to write and there was a lot of great research to work with.
Cheers,
Leah
I enjoyed tonight’s class. It was great to see different lesson ideas, plans and strategies. Thank you to everyone who presented tonight. I will take some of what I saw tonight and re vamp my presentation for next week, hehe!
ReplyDeleteMy paper: The Benefits of the Interactive Reading Model”
I did this paper because I am very interested in how students read, partly because I think it is a very difficult think, but also because I love reading and I want to incorporate reading into my classroom all the time. My question was how to go about doing it, what is the best approach. I did research and decided that I like the approach balanced literacy. Balanced literacy is a 4 part approach: Read Alouds – Shared Reading – Guided Reading – Independent reading.
The parts have different levels of teacher involvement. It is kinda like gradual release with a monitoring system in place. I enjoyed writing this paper, and I think Sue enjoyed reading it. I worked hard for this paper because I needed to learn more to be a better teacher. I feel from writing this paper I have a solid framework for how I will implement reading in my classroom (when and if I get one). Joke, we will all be successful teachers some day!
Sorry I had to miss this class, there were complications with work and a overwhelming amount of homework, so I decided that I had to miss last night’s class. I wish I saw the lessons I hear they were all very good (I will read everyone’s comments).
ReplyDeleteMy topic for my paper was on the ‘Effects of technology on reading’. It was a very interesting idea that I really wanted to look deeper into. I addressed that how now children are exposed at an earlier age to the internet and owning their own cell phones. And my argument was that a majority of their reading is from these devices. Now the problem is that the words they are reading are often abbreviations (for example: wat u doin 2day?) With this exposure it teaches false learning and very bad habits. To finish my paper I counteracted the negatives and because technology is here to stay, how teachers can use it in a positive, effective, and meaningful way in their students learning. I enjoyed writing the paper as I learnt many strategies teachers can use to positively incorporate technology in the classroom.
The reading this week was very interesting (assessment). There were many strategies that stood out and can be very helpful in properly giving students feedback so they can see their own growth and progress. One part of the readings that stood out for me was the importance to include student’s attitudes and interests in our assessment. I found this interesting and realize that by doing this it would help promote growth and possibly increase their positive attitudes towards reading (observation checklist).
Paper Thesis: What are the components of Balanced Literacy.
ReplyDeleteBalanced Literacy classrooms focus on four different types of reading experiences. The first reading experience is called Reading Aloud, which is where the teachers read a part of a pre-selected reading aloud to the students. The second is Shared Reading, which is when the teacher and the students read the text together. The third is Guided Reading, which is when a teacher puts students into groups according to their reading level. Lastly, Independent Reading, which is where the students read on their own.
My paper ideas:
ReplyDeleteMy paper was based on the Reading Power program by Adrienne Gear. Through this program students have been able to use different strategies during their reading process to engage in a more interactive and thoughtful experience. I examined how this program is beneficial to students and as a devil’s advocate. I constructively critique the shortcomings of this program and discussed whether this program would be appropriate for all types of learners. I also, incorporated my experience with Reading power and discuss whether it was effective in my classroom.
Mable
I really enjoyed all of the lesson presentations from this class. There were so many good ideas and strategies shared and I can’t wait to try them out in my own classroom one day!
ReplyDeleteFor my paper I wrote about the Reading 44 program developed by a group of teachers from North Vancouver. I was very interested in learning more about this program after completing my practicum in North Vancouver. My school associate was a strong believer in the program and incorporated many of the ideas and strategies into her classroom activities. One of the ways the strategies from this program can be implemented is through a Guided Reading program. My school associate had a Guided Reading program that included trained volunteer parents who used all or most of the twelve strategies presented in Reading 44.
I found writing this paper very helpful for reflecting on the strategies I already used and discovering new ideas for lessons I could make using more of these strategies.
July 7, 2009
ReplyDeleteThe topic of my paper was “Are comic books and graphic novels beneficial to struggling reader, or are they inherently detrimental to their literary growth?”.
And I must say that I have to answer that question with a resounding, YES they ARE Beneficial! Yeah!
My essay was on reading success: pre-alphabetic and partial-alphabetic phases.
ReplyDeleteIt focussed on a logographic study, struggling reader intervention, and alterations for older struggling readers.
This topic was extremely interesting.
The thesis of my paper was that first nations students face challenges different from non-first nations and affect how they learn. I then go on to identify the challenges facing them and offered researched based solutions that could work in a grade 4 classroom.
ReplyDeleteThe title of my paper was "Relucatant readers: How do we help them?"
ReplyDeleteAs I was encountered with reluctant readers during my practicum, this was something that I wanted to learn more about and see how I can, in the future, make reading more meaningful and interesting for them.
From reasearching for this paper, I learned that there were multiple ways to make reader purposeful and more interesting. Some ideas were reader's theater, Y-RAP (young reader's art project), and making audio books.
My paper was on French Immersion. There were 2 focuses on this topic. First of all, I discussed the cognitive and linguistic benefits learning a second language and how this also strengthens the strategies one uses for their first language as well.
ReplyDeleteThe second portion of the paper focused on the advantages and disadvantages of the different entering stages of french immersion-early, middle and late.
The topic of my paper was Emergent Literacy. I discussed what emergent literacy was, how it predicted later literacy, if it could be learned or if it had a biological basis and what competent emergent readers felt about reading.
ReplyDeleteI was interested in this topic after watching the video in class where the teacher (I can't reall the details at this time!) said that at Grade 1, a child's future reading success is set. It was an interesting topic to cover and look into, especially keeping our class discussion in mind.
This week’s class was very entertaining and fun. I really loved seeing how much hard work went into the lesson planning and it showed. Each group had diverse ideas and they all concentrated on one thing – to involve each learner in an engaging and interesting way, whether it was through movement, conversation, singing, or the senses. I enjoyed seeing how each group thought about how to adapt their lesson for different learning styles and multiple intelligences. In the classroom, there are so many things to consider and so many ways to help facilitate students learning so they will feel more confident in their abilities and themselves. I know that I will use these ideas in my classroom because they are inclusive.
ReplyDeleteMy paper topic was adapting a strategy for teaching the alphabet to Kindergarten
students. One of the main strategies the articles I read discussed the own-name strategy, a
“process by which ‘children learn those letters earlier which occur in their own names’ (Justice, 2006). In a study by Head Start Child Outcomes Framework in 2002, ‘87% were reported to have learned a personal name first… the child’s own first name… [as well as] names of family members… and favorite characters’ (Treiman 2, 2006).”
Considering this, I discussed the possible adaptation of this strategy to teaching the alphabet to this age group. It would be beneficial because of a student’s ability to relate to their peers, creating a sense of ownership as this relational factor gives them an onus to learn the letters and build classroom community. I titled the paper, “The World at the Tip of your Tongue: Learning the A, B, C’s.”
My essay looked at secondary level ESL students the supports available to them. I found it interesting that the level of support at the elementary level was much higher than at the secondary level. Support has actually dropped over 20% for students at the secondary level, with many districts not having any special program or assistance available to these students.
ReplyDeletePaper Topic:
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Five is not only a literacy program, but also a management system that teaches students about working independently in the classroom. This program, created by sisters Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, focuses on five activities that each student completes everyday: Read to yourself, read to someone, listen to reading, work on writing, and word work. Although the Daily Five is a well-balanced literacy program that integrates many important aspects of both reading and writing whilst taking students behaviour into consideration, I argue that it should not be the only program used to facilitate literacy in the classroom as it is not a one size fits all model.
My paper was on guided reading and how by modifying the guided reading program, and including lessons that explicitly teach vocabulary, comprehension and different reading strategies, can help ELL or ESL students develop into strong readers.
ReplyDeleteThe paper outlined some factors that may cause ELL or ESL students difficulties when they begin to read/write in English including – the difference between peer appropriate conversation skills and academic reading/writing skills, cultural differences, learning vocabulary out of context and reluctance to ask questions. I then went on to show how guided reading can combat these problems while also building the self esteem and confidence of ESL and ELL readers.
June 29th class written on July 11, 2009 Sorry this is late, I have been nursing an injury that made typing difficult so here is my input.
ReplyDeleteHere is the BC government documents about recognizing child abuse and protocol is navigating your suspicions. It may also give you insight into professional ethics as well. http://www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/child_protection/pdf/child_welfare_your_role.pdf
The only extra I would add would be:
• when you try to decide what is suspicious or not when it comes to bruises and injuries, when inquiring about it does the injury and the story fit, does it seem reasonable, plausible--remember kids do crazy things!
• a childhood injury is usually but not always is common places, ie bruises and scrapes are common on shins, elbows, palms of hands, even shoulders -- think about how you would land in an accident or when you trip. Also, bruises are not uncommon on thighs, butts and upper arms when the child has run into something, I have one on the back of my hand right now from hitting it on the counter. suspicious bruises often have shapes rather than dispersed like a common bruise ie a hand or a buckle
• the head is a common place for bumps and bruises. Repeated black eyes may be a sign of a need for glasses.
• things like broken bones in ankles and wrists are common in active children especially if they play sports, uses skateboards, etc. and have a trampoline.
• The small of the back just at the rear-end can have a darkened, even purple bruise like hue that is found on dark skinned children, including Aboriginal, Spanish, Asian, etc. children.
Take a look at this document it is a good one. If you have any specific questions I may be able to answer them or I can lead in the right direction. If researching for yourself, remember child protection is universal but the legal aspects and enforcement are provincial, and each city has its own protection agency. There is even some Catholic and Aboriginal agencies, the laws are the same the approach is different.
Child abuse issues are delicate issues, don’t be afraid to ask question, assume nothing, involve the administration (they have seen way more than you and they have a great deal of wisdom with these issues.) I always hated doing the investigations but always felt relief knowing a child was safe. I hope that none of us ever encounter anything that needs to go to the next level.
Part Two!!
ReplyDeleteWow, a great deal of writing this week! My essay was “Motivating the Reluctant Reader”. I discussed the factors behind a reluctance to read. The self-efficacy and self-regulation underlie a child’s ability and interest in reading. They are the foundations for fluency. Motivational reading strategies and techniques included high interest material, reader’s theatre, technology and graphic novels. I found this topic to be not only interesting but also very useful. I have already told my daughter that August will be reading remedial month. She was not happy until I told her she can earn her vacation spending money by co-operating! Now there is a motivator we can’t use in the classroom.
I gleaned a great deal from everyone as we discussed philosophies of teaching and interview questions. There were certainly things I did not think of. I am really just beginning to see what is inside the doorway that leads to teaching. It is a vast world that we are just entering. It is so rich, fun, rewarding and certainly challenging.
The title of my essay was Oral vs. silent reading: The most effective use of classroom time. In my paper I cited recent research from the National Reading Panel, the National Institute for Literacy, and other studies that state there is no evidence to confirm that instructional time spent on silent reading improves overall reading performance. I have to agree. The problem with silent reading is that often the good readers get better and the poor readers either just pretend to read or fidget and procrastinate to avoid reading. I think if I am going to have silent reading in my class at all I would use it as a time to instruct small groups on specific reading strategies. The most important thing that was confirmed for me is that teaching must have purpose to be effective. If silent reading is included in the daily plan then students need to have some kind of direction and purpose for reading to make the activity have any kind of positive effect.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of my paper was to look at different reading intervention strategies to see which are the most succesful at helping struggling readers. The focus of my paper was on the 'Reading Racers' reading intervention program offered in School District 42.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in more information about North Vancouver's Reading 44 program.
Thanks for all your nice comments. I am glad that you all enjoyed our lesson.
ReplyDeleteThe tricky part for me was placing them so that each group was strong at the end. I didn’t assign roles to my students; I just wanted them to figure it out on their own and it worked out really well. If the play had two female characters and three male characters, I would place 2 female and 3 male students in that group. The one thing that I noticed during the presentations was that students who never talk in class actually participated and were so powerful and great at presenting their part.
As for how long I would do it, in my classroom I gave students about 4 classes (45 minutes) to work on it and create props and then the following week, the students presented the play to a grade 1 class. The grade fours were very proud, and the grade 1 very excited. Then I gave the students another play the following week where I changed up the groups. I think that a great way to end the Readers Theater Unit would be to allow students to write their own scripts and then present them to the class; this would allow students to also work on their writing skills. I also video taped their presentations and then we assessed them together as a class. This allowed students to see what they needed to work on and what they did very well. They also enjoyed seeing themselves on TV.
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteThanks for being such great participants in our lesson last week!
The title of my paper is:
“Barriers to Reading; A Biological Argument For The Assessment and Remediation Of Language Based Reading Disability”
The thesis asserts that a Reading Disability is biological in origin, founded on a neurological deficiency that prohibits successful acquisition of language- based skills. Therefore, assessment and remediation must be individualized according to the students’ specific needs.
I have found the amount of crossover between our class and the Learning Disabilities class that many of us are taking to be striking, and helpful. Learning to read seems like such a forgone conclusion for every child, and yet for some it seems an almost impossible task. For our Reading class purposes, I have been able to apply much of what we are learning to the LD child, and really begin to not only empathize with them and their family, but also to prepare for how I may have to approach such a situation as a teacher - how would I best be able to help the child?
Thanks for a great class as always, looking forward to the upcoming presentations!
Jennfer
Hi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteGreat Lessons this week!
My essay focused on the Reading Recovery Program (RR)which is an early intervention program for reading. I have just added my thesis to this blog so that everyone can get a good sense of what my paper was about...
"With an increasing amount of literature and research suggesting that a child’s early level of success in reading may be a critical indicator of future academic achievement, a renewed focus has been placed on ensuring that all children are given every opportunity and resource early on, to develop into successful readers. Educators do not want to wait for students to drastically fall behind their peers, and with dwindling resources there is a sharp realization that they cannot continue to inappropriately categorize low-readers as ‘learning disabled’. As a result, researchers and educators alike have been turning their attention to programs based on Early Intervention services that “address children’s literacy difficulties before they worsen and need further long term” support (O’Connor, 2002, 1). One of these programs, known as Reading Recovery (RR), is considered by many in education to be one of the best reading interventions available. Backed by the claim that it can bring the lowest performing children up to the average grade level (of their class) by the end of first grade, it has been implemented internationally with high levels of documented success (Grossen at al., 1997). Yet with this acknowledged recognition, Reading Recovery has also gathered considerable negative attention. Extended research findings suggest that it may not provide equitable intervention for all students, that its success rates are backed by a flawed data collection system, and that its installation in each school is overly expensive. To help define the critical decision of whether or not to adopt, expand or terminate this literacy program, this paper will take a closer look at both sides of this debate. It will provide readers with a clear analysis of this program’s reported benefits and costs while also striving to determine whether Reading Recovery is as effective as it claims."
If anyone has any interest in this topic or wants more information just let me know.
Thanks!
The title of my paper: Global Perspectives & Children’s Literature: The Beginning of Transformation.
ReplyDeleteI examined the potentially transformative nature of children’s literature when it is presented in a bias-reducing and stereotype-challenging way. I looked at the example of The Indian in the Cupboard and the stereotypes it promotes, and then discussed how these stereotypes are formed at a very early age. I then suggested that in order to combat these stereotypes, the teacher her/himself must make it a priority to integrate global perspectives as a part of their regular curriculum – not as a special event on an international holiday.
My paper was called Readers Theatre: A Lesson in Fluency. In it, I described the theory behind reading fluency, showed the benefits of Readers Theatre, and how the two tie together. Essentially, by incorporating a mixture of several fluency strategies (Teacher Read Aloud, Choral & Echo Reading, Repeated Reading)melded into one, Readers Theatre gives the students the opportunity to practice and perform a script, bringing an authentic and purposeful context to the work they do. In addition to promoting students' attentional and prosocial behaviour, RT is both useful and feasible in the classroom, and gives students a sense of accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteBefore writing this paper I had little knowledge of RT, and now I am intrigued by its benefits-- I fully intend on trying it in my practicum classroom.
Blogg 9:
ReplyDeleteMy paper deals with kinesthetic learners and the traditional reading class. In the past I wrote a paper on ADHD and now looking back at that information I have found that many of the behaviours expressed by these children to be similar to children who are kinesthetic learners forced to sit still for extended periods of time. I wanted to look into this connection in a more formal fashion and connect it to reading. I have a son who is a kinesthetic learner and a struggling reader. I am going to steal your bribe idea Rose and hang vacation spending money on the line in exchange for co operation in some August reading activities. Here is the intro. to my paper:
Should Educators Consider the Needs of Kinesthetic Learners in their Classrooms?
Traditional methods of teaching reading include approaches that involve extended periods of seat work, focussed listening and little movement. These methods engage learners who are visually or auditorally motivated, but unfortunately neglect learners who are kinesthically stimulated. By examining traditional methods of teaching reading, and enhancing them with movement based lessons, we can create an environment where more students become successful learners. This paper will analyze how kinesthetic based reading strategies can enhance and motivate learners who may otherwise be struggling academically and behaviourally.
Tania.