Week Four: Classroom Talk

After reading about the different types of classroom talk I took some time to observe and reflect upon the strategies that my mentor teacher has been using to stimulate discussion in her 4th grade classroom. In my classroom there is a very strict and regimented literacy program that leaves little room for free flowing class discussion. My mentor teacher spends the majority of her literacy lesson lecturing and pointing out different elements of the text. She then asks them questions that may be answered in one word, or just a short phrase. My mentor teacher scaffolds her students by pointing out specific passages in the text, or asking questions that prompt the students to respond. She occasionally calls on students that usually struggle with literacy or are not paying attention during her lesson. I find that this method of teaching doesn't require the students to think so much as simply regurgitate answers. One positive aspect of her lesson is that she encourages her students to provide evidence for an argument based on what they read and can prove from the text itself. This strategy will definitely come in handy when the students have to write essays and research papers in the later grades.
  The jigsaw article that I chose to read for this week gave information about the Instructional Conversation Model. By following this model there is a potential for rich classroom discussion. The model has teachers placed in the role of "discussion leaders." The teachers prompt students to think about certain themes and ideas, but they don't take over the entire discussion. This model also promotes deep critical thinking because the questions that teachers ask are now ones with just one "known answer" but a more complicated and in-depth questions that get kids to have real conversations with each other.
There are some students that have trouble participating in response discussions and classroom discussions in general. One student in particular has trouble speaking in front of the class because she is an ESL student. She moved from Pakistan a year and a half ago and is still becoming familiar with the English language. I have noticed that she has a particularly hard time with words found in the textbook stories and with examples that the teacher uses to explain words. For example, the teacher may ask the class a question about why a character in the story enjoys pudding, but the student will not be able to fully understand or answer the question unless she is familiar with the word pudding. I think that some scaffolding that could be done to help these kinds of students is to provide lots of different examples and try to explain things in different ways and with different words. To promote classroom discussion, it may be a good idea to ask the students to talk in pairs, small groups, and as a whole class. This is because students that have a hard time talking will first get practice in less pressure filled situations.

Week 3: January 22

Although I do not see much English Language Arts instruction in the time that I am in my placement, I know that my mentor teacher has restricted morning rituals and activities to primarily literacy development.  Just when I arrive at my placement, my students are either in groups or by themselves in an area of the room of their choice with piles of books next to them.  Many of my students are exposed to very few forms of literature at home, and many times, none at all.  For some students, allowing them to simply become familiar with books has improved their understanding of the concepts of print, has exposed them to multiple types of texts (i.e. expository, narrative), and has helped them to better decode words.  Many of my students are below grade level in reading, and many of the kindergarteners specifically, have little to no understanding of the concept of a letter and can identify very few words.  My mentor teacher frequently tells them that you can read a book multiple ways, and one in particular, seems to have stuck with many students; many of them read books by looking at the pictures and make up their own story.  Many days, I work with these students to help them identify high-frequency words and easily decodable words while they are doing picture walks.  

In addition to the independent reading time, my mentor teacher does many read-alouds with our students.  After lunch, she reads a chapter from Junie B. Jones books while the children put their heads down and relax.  When they are in group and she does a read-aloud, she typically summarizes the book as soon as she is done reading it and begins a discussion with questions that only have "one right answer".  This was discussed heavily in the Langer reading.  I believe that doing multiple read-alouds throughout the day promotes a multitude of literacy concepts; however, I think that group discussions can be improved.  This was heavily discussed in the Langer reading; teachers often do not ask enough "thought tapper" questions to aid in students' meaning-making of a certain text.  According to Langer, there are four types of thought tappers:

1. Initial understandings - the teacher begins with final envisionment questions that encourage students to share their responses to the piece
2. Develop interpretations - help students explore motivations, causes, and implications
3. Reflecting on personal experiences - connections between reading and personal knowledge
4. Elaborating and extending - students become critics of the text

As stated before, although many of my students have not yet developed a deep understanding of the concepts of print and have little exposure to different types of literature outside of school, I believe that encouraging them to analyze the texts that they read and to make deep connections between the texts and their personal lives will help them to become better readers, and also writers.  Although the books that they read are quite simple and the students are still quite young, analyzing and connecting are important parts of literacy development.

In terms of multimodal texts, the books I have seen and read in my classroom are rather traditional, and do not particularly classify with the features of multimodal texts discussed in the Hassett and Curwood reading.  However, she does use the SmartBoard provided in the classroom every day, but not for literacy instruction.  If it is possible to download digital texts and do read-alouds using the SmartBoard, it would be easier for the students to examine the images of the text, follow along with my mentor teacher as she read, and interact with the text and illustrations using the pen feature.  For example, my mentor teacher could circle or underline the word of day in the text or the letter the students are currently learning about.

The Internet would also be something that my classroom could utilize more frequently to add variety to literacy instruction.  It seems as though many of my students are more familiar with how to operate a computer than how to write with a pencil as I observe them in the classroom and during computer time.  I believe that instruction should be attuned to and parallel to the constant developments and discoveries in technology; if students are constantly exposed to traditional instruction with little use of technology, they will be disadvantaged when it comes time for them to enter the real world.  As discussed by Tompkins, the Internet is "rapidly changing what it means to be literate".  Today's children are using various forms of technology to read rather than looking at actual books or printed text.  Therefore, similar to what was said about the SmartBoard, it may be beneficial for my students to practice reading using texts provided on the web, or playing online games that improve different areas of literacy development.  In turn, they will be better prepared for the ways of instruction in higher grades, in college, and in the work force if they have early exposure to one of the most used tools in our society. 

Post #1: Course Goals and Future Plans

Course Learning Goals/Future Literary Instruction

•  New classroom management skills and ideas
• Interesting activities and books that I can utilize in my future classroom
• I want to sharpen my own ELA skills so that I am prepared for the internship year and beyond.

Future Plans

•  I would like to work in a school that values math, science, social studies, and English.
• I prefer to work with students in the 3rd-5th grades
• I am uncertain of what type of setting I would most enjoy working in.
• I enjoy working with ELL's. 

Jigsaw Articles

• Cultural Modeling is an interesting concept that I think would be extremely beneficial to students of all ages and backgrounds. 
• Cultural Modeling can help develop students' higher level thinking skills, which is something I would want to focus on in my classroom. 
• One of my goals is to help students grow and learn about themselves as they continue their education.
• Support students and make the classroom environment a safe place.

Week 2: January 15

Goals for Learning in the Course

• Learn a variety of instructional strategies for word recognition, comprehension, writing, and fluency building.
• Obtain multiple ways to format a language arts lessons
• Learn about ways to include and enhance the learning of ESL students
• Be able to identify and form a deeper understanding of each and every component of language arts
• Learn to better collaborate with peers and engage in professional discussion
• Learn ways to build a learning community using language arts
• Overall, be a better teacher for my students

Notes

• Before my placement this year, I had the idea that I only wanted to teach in a suburban or rural area.  But, after being with my students and getting to know the staff members of my placement so far this year, that idea has totally changed. I currently have no preference as to where I teach, just as long as I am able to get a job.
• In order to reach my goals, I would like to read about recent research that has proven various strategies to be successful, as well as research on ESL students in addition to that in this week's readings.  In order to be able to pick from a variety of lesson plan formats, I would like to be provided with examples of lesson plans and participate in another microteaching lesson.  I believe that all of these things will help me in better understanding the components of language arts, as well as in becoming a better teacher overall.
• I read the Risko and Walker-Dalhouse article, as well as the Diller article.  The classroom I am currently placed in is the most diverse classroom I have ever been exposed to.  There are multitude of races, languages, backgrounds, and learning styles among my students.  Learning about these particular aspects of each of my students has helped me to better tailor my instruction towards their needs, as well as have better relationships with them.
• For example, the Risko and Walker-Dalhouse article discusses the importance in cultural modeling and how it particularly improves text comprehension and written performance.  In what I have observed, when my mentor teacher picks texts that our students can identify with, they are more engaged in discussion and ask more questions in group.  A similar trend is seen in writing time; they tend to provide more details in their writing and are more engaged in the activity.  Therefore, based on my observations and the information provided in the article, I hope to infuse my instruction with cultural topics, examples, and experiences to maximize my students' achievement and engagement.
• Additionally, Diller discusses the ways in which she had to be open to different ways of thinking and teach children different from herself.  I have struggled with this many times in my classroom.  I have discovered that many forms of behavior are cultural, in which some behaviors are acceptable and appropriate in one culture but may not be in another.  I have had to punish some of my students for talking without raising their hand, commenting during activities or directions, and interrupting.  This is a necessary skill to master in a student's educational career, but I have had to stop myself before punishing these students to think about the cultural aspect; typically in the African American culture, it is acceptable to behave this way.  Recently, I have been trying to teach the appropriate behaviors rather than constantly reinforcing and punishing the students.  Thus, I believe that this mindset can also be applied to classroom behavior in addition to academic instruction, which I hope to improve on.

Exploring diversity - Lorraine

Who are "diverse learners"?

• I think every learner is diverse in the fact that everyone has strengths in different areas and learn information in different ways. No two students are people learn or act the same way, so for that reason I believe that everyone is a diverse learner. 

what types of support do diverse learners need to participate fully in the learning community?

• One support that I think diverse learners need is the support of teachers and other students, to be aids for the student in the struggling subject. 
• Also, I think a learning environment that supports each other and helps others succeed and not bring down people because of their struggles. 
• scaffolding, Bruner talks about how it is a way to help students "develop new skills, concepts, or levels of understanding" (Bruner). This helps provide the students knowledge and confidence in a struggling area.  

to what extent is good teaching for ELLs good teaching for everyone?

• I think teaching for ELLs is good teaching for everyone, you cannot assume that ELL students have the same background and experiences just because they speak the same first language. There can be totally different experience for each student and that is what teachers need to remember for all their students. 
• I also think that by not focusing on the weakens of the student, for example not being able to speak well in english but focusing on the student learning the content is what is important. The language will come but making sure students do not fall behind just because of one struggle they are having is what is important. 

what are ways to learn about students from multiple perspectives?

• Seeing how students interact with other students 
• seeing how students interact with their parents 
• provide different opportunities for students to show what they know (book reports, papers, projects, plays, reading to the class)
• modifying different tests so that students struggles do not interfere with the test if there struggles are not the thing being tested. 
• If a students struggles with reading but is taking a science test then have the test read to the student. 

Scaffolding Language, Pauline Gibbons

• A couple of things I found interesting while reading the book 
• "it requires more linguistic skills to use language for academic purposes than it does to use it in everyday conversation 
• this is why an ELLs student can appear to be a strong english learner when listening to the student speak to their friends however academic is a lot more difficult to master 

Tompkins, Chapter 1 

• "the constructivist theory describes students as active and engaged learners who construct their own knowledge". 
• by allowing students to be engaged in their own learning and involve their previous knowledge in what they are currently learning and to connect the new information to previously learned knowledge. 
• teaching students how to read and write online has become a priority so that they can become fully literate in today's digital world
• I do not agree with this section of the text, I do not think time should be spent in class to teach students how to navigate through the internet and read different types of information. I feel like computer class is the time for this, I understand helping the students understand that different resources on the internet have different strengths of reliability and I believe in students learning how to look up information on the internet. But, to take time out of the day to teach students how to read articles on the computer. I personally do not see the difference between reading a book that you are holding or reading a book on the computer. 

Assessing English -Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms, Susan Davis Lenski

• "teachers of ELLs should conduct multiple forms of evaluation, using a variety of authentic assessment tools to fairly assess the placement  and progress of their students and to plan instruction
• this way the teacher develops a better understanding on what the students strengths and weakness are and what areas of instruction that need to be modified. 
• If a students is evaluated in different ways it is less likely for the information to be miss evaluated because of the test or students difficulty to understand the test.  

Supporting underachieving readers in the elementary classroom, Hillary Rae

• I totally agree with involving other teachers, parents, older students to provide more help and time to students that are struggling. I feel that reading is very important in our education since our school systems strongly use reading for learning different information. 
• I also agree providing students with different resources and see if there is a book on tap that the student can read along with, providing options to students so that it is not to frustrating for them and that they are able to read books that interest them.