January 24, 2010

Another "catchup" blog...this time about Routman's "Top Five" things to do to create successful readers. Difficult to choose just one, as they are all connected. What I predict will challenge me most as a teacher is: "Teach strategies students need to know to process and understand text." Kids are not equally fond of reading. For some--reading comes easy and is very enjoyable. For others, they struggle to get through assignments and can't comprehend the enjoyment factor (life my own son). In my main placement, the teacher creates a weekly reading packet broken down by daily reading and short writing responses. I have seen that students respond well to this manageable approach to required reading.

Within the daily assigned reading, students are asked to make choices within a table with headings such as comprehension, learning target, vocabulary. I'm sure my teacher spends a lot of time creating these packets. But she does this because she knows her group of learners, and she wants them all to be successful. She also provides a final section called extensions. This can be completed by those students who work ahead of the daily schedule; it's a "challenge" section. Most of our students aspire to reach this section.

With this packet, the teacher can easily monitor who is on schedule and who is struggling. She often has one-on-one chats with students about their personal goals to fulfill the responsibilities of the assignment (reading packet). This ensures that students don't fall too far behind. This, of course, ties into Routman's fifth item of evaluating students.

The "Put Reading First" report addresses the importance of text comprehension. My teacher's strategy to help students is similar to the graphic or semantic organizer strategy described in this section. Again--it makes comprehension more manageable--for all level of readers within a classroom.

I don't think students often realize the painstaking efforts teachers make to help them learn. The reading packet my teacher uses is invaluable. It helps those students who find it difficult to reflect and write about their reading. And it's ideal for those students who enjoy accomplishing "to-do" lists of work. A big hope is that all students can look at reading as something to enjoy and relate to in relation to their own lives. How they "digest" reading as kids will inevitably reflect in who they become as older readers--in school and in their personal lives.

March 12...a note about a comment I made on Steve Rencher's blog:
Steve's discussion of chatting informally with kids about books makes me think about the value of conversation. Kids can pick up on so much if they are willing to verbalize their thoughts about what they are reading. Steve's passion for books and the way in which he shares this with young readers is a huge step towards kids being able to digest their reading better!

January 24, 2010

I'll talk here about Cambourne's Conditions of Learning. I appreciate seeing these conditions modeled frequently in my main placement. My supervising teacher creates the environmental conditions essential to literacy learning.

With regard to language immersion, students in our class are accustomed to the routine of discussion, whether it is via individual response, small groups, or whole group discussion. They are also constantly exposed to written text as my teacher successfully incorporates an interdisciplinary approach to her teaching. Students are often asked to respond to teaching with quick writes and/or journal entries. This ties into how the teacher demonstrates her assignment and her expectations. I have to mention that here is where a teacher's love of learning shines powerfully. Students will recognize a teacher's enthusiasm for learning. If they respect that teacher, students gain confidence as they try out what the teacher asks of them. A really good teacher will also empower his/her students with managing the choices they need to make to be successful in their learning.

Practice, practice, practice...students should be given lots of opportunities to use what they learn--and across the curriculum. And it's the teacher's responsibility to provide a safe environment in her classroom to allow students to try things out, make mistakes. In my 6th grade class, the teacher has taught the students the value of sharing their mistakes. During math, after a mini-lesson, and after small group work sessions of math problems, students are asked to share their findings on the Active Board. She praises not only the correct answers--but also demonstrations by students of how they made errors in their work. Chances are someone else made the same error; everyone learns from this sharing.

Finally, students of all ages (even us "older" ones!) appreciate feedback. Sometimes we are asked to reflect upon ourselves or our classmates. Sometimes the teacher evaluates our understandings. Whatever form it takes--it gives us constant affirmation of our accomplishments. An example from my placement classroom: Buzz Time. Kids form small groups of 2-4 students each. They share what independent reading they have done for the week by way of responding to a prompt. Examples: "I was most surprised when..." or "I can relate most to the character of..." They report on a classmate's response. This way, students are sharing in each other's self-reflections of reading. Fun--and very engaging!