February 6, 2010

Routman and Cooper were oh-so-similar with their strategies to help with comprehension, I wanted to see who published their list first…it was Regie Routman (2003). Cooper et al. published their article about helping students construct meaning in 2009. Their list was nearly identical to Routman’s. It’s a great menu of options for helping our students.

For myself, being the dreamer that I am, I need to highlight or take notes while I read school books or articles. Otherwise, I nearly always need to go back and re-read to grasp key material. And, like kids, it helps if I have some questions to reflect on while I read.

In my 6th grade class, the teacher creates a weekly organizer for students. It provides kids with daily assigned reading and questions about that reading; most questions pertain in some way to their understanding of the text and relate to several of the items in our strategies lists (e.g. prediction, making connections, identifying main ideas). This has worked very well since the start of the year. It makes reading more manageable for the students by breaking it down into sections. The teacher also provides extensions for kids who work ahead.

I like Cooper’s addition of “evaluating” as a strategy. I think this is another important component of a student’s understanding of their reading by requiring them to make judgments about what they read. By letting kids express opinions about their learning, we are saying that we value their opinions and the life histories that they bring to the group and as individuals. Evaluating is also important as it helps develop students’ critical thinking.

March 12: In responding to Cara Byrne's blog I was drawn to re-reading my own blog here about comprehension. Cara wrote about the value in informal reading conferences. The one-on-one approach is idea for working with students to determine personal reading goals. However, while you (the teacher) are trying to meet with individuals, we also need to have students work on different strategies in reading which will highlight where they might need further assistance. For me--it is the reading packets. They become a great source of conversation when meeting with individuals. We can sit together (teacher and student), read through their responses, and talk about where their strengths and their struggles lie!

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!

Two of Everything

Last Tuesday, December 1, me and my dyad partner (Heba) led a short math lesson in our first grade class. The lesson included a read-aloud of a children's book called, Two of Everything--A Chinese Folktale, written by Lily Hong. Following the story, I created a practice activity to teach them about doubling numbers--or counting the same number twice. I showed our students a big pot--my "magic pot!" I also showed them a basket of various small items. Unbeknownst to the kids--I also had the same number of same items hidden on the bottom of the pot. As was told in the story--every time I put items in the pot--I could pull out double the number of items--magically! We did this several times. Each time, I asked the students..."If I put in this number of items...how many will I pull out? (Answer: double the number)Most of the kids were in total awe and were also able to guess the correct number outcomes. I felt like a magician! There were a few boys who kept creeping closer to the pot...they guessed that I already had those items on the bottom of the pot.

I loved this activity. I can't believe I just thought of it that morning. It was great to see the kids so engaged and having fun and doing math all at the same time.

For a wrap-up, and to see if kids "got" the concept of doubling, we asked them to complete a worksheet: a picture of a big pot. They had to draw items (two equal sets) in the pot and fill in the blanks of a picture sentence...___ plus ___ = ___ (something like that). The kids were able to use their imaginations in choosing what they wanted to see doubled. We walked around visiting kids during this time and made sure they understood the doubling idea...Most got it!

Response to Educational Leadership article...

In Ohler’s article, “Orchestrating the Media Collage,” we are informed about the need to include digital literacy when considering the definition of literacy. Ohler describes how students are trying to get along in a “digitally distracted world” and how teachers need to figure out how to incorporate digital literacy or media literacy into their educational journey. This requires us to continue teaching effective writing for students to be able to successfully create, contribute or collaborate in the digital world.

Ohler states, “Students need to be media literate to understand how media technique influences perception and thinking.” When teachers engage students in meaningful learning about social issues, the use of technology should always be included. Media is powerful, and we need to arm students with information to aid with the choices they make in their use of technology.

Many teachers are not exposed to the array of technological advances available to students and their families, nor are they aware of the positive contributions technology can make in learning. Ohler believes teachers do not need to be technological wizards in the classroom, but that they should serve as consultants (“guides” or “managers”) to their students. Digital literacy is here to stay, and teachers have a responsibility to add it to their list of teaching essentials.

For me—before we began our technology classes in this program, I considered myself pretty naïve and lacking confidence in the area of computer literacy as it relates to education. I have been resistant. Now—as we have been required to learn some new technology, I am excited about all the possibilities. As a teacher, I feel I can actually bring some great tools to my students to boost their learning and bring them into the 21st century. Wish me luck!!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Regarding Routman's chapters on teaching and organizing writing (ch. 7, 8):

I greatly appreciate being in the different placements and visiting other classrooms to see how teachers teach writing. I'm happy to see teachers who really try to help their students enjoy and care about what they are writing. Conventions, traits of writing, and editing will emerge next. I can tell if teachers enjoys writing themselves. I've witnessed a certain kind of contagious enthusiasm whereby students' writing is honored and the students are ecstatic to be noticed!

Identifying the writer's AUDIENCE will be very helpful to students as they approach writing assignments. I've seen my supervising teachers issue fun and engaging writing exercises for students. In sixth grade, students were asked to write a letter to the principal about why the school should continue to support field trips for students. The students, by way of trying to convince the principal of their position FOR field trips, learned how to write a strong, persuasive piece. Another writing task involved a paper about the importance of good food being offered for lunches at school. These were topics that were "life applicable," that kids could care about and express a personal opinion.

As a teacher, I will want to try to follow the Optimal Learning Model for teaching meaningful writing. There's nothing worse for students than to be taught that learning how to write is REQUIRED. Of course it is--but we can ease students into an appreciation of their own writing through a multitude of processes--several presented in Routman's book. Students do need to assume responsibility gradually. Our goal is for them to become independent in their writing, but first they need to experience writing as a shared activity and through meaning gained through the teacher's (and sometimes peers') modeling.

Focusing on the trait of VOICE, Routman emphasizes the need for teachers to train kids to write and think out loud. Then they will get a better sense of noticing or identifying an author's voice. I think the trait of voice is key to students developing a love of writing; they are given permission to maintain their own personality or identity in their writing. Routman also talks about the important practice of reading writing out loud. Listening to yourself as a reader--not just the writer--is critical for reorganizing or revising the writing for the purpose of strengthening that piece of writing.

Routman proposed so many ways in which to immerse students in writing. I only hope I can make it a priority in my teaching. I especially appreciate that you can incorporate writing into most subjects in school. I agree with Routman that writing needs to happen daily. I appreciate the reminder about provided choices to students, also. Routman says, "Sometimes, we just have to plunge in" (p. 179). Writing should be part of the classroom routine with emphasis on prewrites and freewrites, peer conversations about writing, and a trusting classroom climate.

December 2, 2009

I've heard it from both my placement experiences--first grade at one school, and sixth grade at another...writing assessments are a BEAR! And the rubrics provided are over-the-top long and ambiguous.

While assisting my supervising teacher in the sixth grade class, I was confronted with a stack of students' responses to the district writing prompts for assessment. I stared (for quite a while) at those glorious pieces of effort and thought to myself: Where do I start? How can I begin to evaluate these when I know students tried so hard? I do know that the teacher provides a rubric on which they will be assessed. I am overwhelmed!

In my first grade class recently, right before conferences, I was able to peruse the folders of student work of which the teacher was going to review with parents during conference time. The teacher carefully collected samples of their writing (even while often messy and brief!) from the beginning of the year through current practice. To me, it seemed a pretty valid indication of how those students were successful in making progress in the right direction--even though they may not be at grade level expectations.

Routman stresses the importance of assessing the "validity" of students' writing rather than the narrow focus on a checklist (the rubric). I agree with Routman when he talks about making sure we use rubrics which are age-appropriate. Time spent on test preparation will decrease with good teaching of writing and simply doing a lot of it. As teachers, we can't be hyperfocused on test prep; the joy will be sucked right out of writing. Routman provides many examples of how to teach writing well so that we can reduce the stress felt by students, teachers and parents. Both my supervising teachers incorporate writing into their teaching every day. This routine practice lessons the hardship of the required writing for the students; they expect it daily. The other magic to getting kids to concentrate on the quality of their writing is to get them to the point of self-assessment, or at least peer-assessment. These students will be much more prone to good learning. Routman believes in the need for assessment--but not solely from testing.

Routman would agree with Elbow's contention that assessment/ranking is being incomplete and unreliable. I've heard from more than a few teachers who concur with the C.S. Lewis quote, "People are obviously far more anxious to express their approval and disapproval of things than to describe them." Seems everyone would agree that we need better ways to measure a child's writing efforts and success. We are in danger of shifting focus from writing as individual expression to writing as meeting someone else's expectations in order to assign a grade.

Elbow seems to like the term, evaluation, better than ranking/grading. Evaluation, he implies, forces the reviewer to more thoughtfully determine what works well and what does not work for a piece of writing. Similar to Routman's wishes for assessment--evaluation should not be an act of just filling in blanks with numbers; it needs to include some pondering on the part of the teacher. As with many teachers, this pondering should occur more often than just testing time. It needs to happen daily or at least frequently as students become more relaxed with writing and as they receive encouragement and positive feedback from the teacher.

Okay--I had to re-read the Elbow's "liking" hypotheses more than once. I believe what Elbow points to is developing the skills of discernment (and/or discrimination). We, and our students, need to be taught to delve deep into writing, to read a piece multiple times, with different sets of eyes, in order to establish the good and bad of that piece. Routman does not express this kind of evaluation in so many words, although he gives us a sense of this in explaining how to get students into self-assessment. I get the impression that Routman feels evaluation, aka grading, aka assessment, is inevitable, but that there are ways in which we can work to make them more meaningful for student learning.

The two writers, Routman and Elbow, provide us with great perspectives on judging our students' writing. Routman seems to offer more concrete methods or strategies to vary our means of assessment. Elbow's article more thoroughly explains the variations in the art of judgment. As teachers, we may need to post our grades on students' writing accomplishments, but we can also take it many steps beyond and look more closely at what makes their writing good. The more desired descriptive form of evaluation can then be used in conferences with parents and the students themselves so they know what they need to work on and for what we are praising them.