Blog Post for Feb 25

From the readings I can make some connections with my own reading comprehension process. I have always been a very visual learner, and I like to write things out to get them out of my head. So the use of the visual posters that help map out thinking were very appealing to me. The strategy poster, connections chart, and the triple thinking entry journal are all things that I would like to do when I was younger, now I do some of the same things while writing just not as literal. The use of multiple literacy strategies I think always kept me engaged as well, so the information was not presented in the same way over and over again. I can see this problem happening in my own classroom where they are constantly doing the same thing and I can see the kids getting bored and not interested in it. The Profiles in Comprehension Table has a unique table breaking up the types of profiles, I can say I have at least one in each category, literalist, fuzzy thinker, left fielders, quiz contestant, politician, dodger, author, and minimalist. I realize that you can not label each kid with one but it helps guide what types of reading comprehensions work best for those individuals. I can make connections as well as group up children and  combine different profiles together to see the interventions that might work for them and be able to incorporate them into my classroom. It helps you understand how those individual students do think instead of seeing it as how you think which I find hard to do a lot not only in this Language Arts focused TE but Math as well. These readings helped me understand that I need to consider all types of reading comprehension processes since there isn't just one way.

Blog post for Feb. 18

What should Mrs. Potter do:

Lupita:
When reading about Mrs. Potter's concerns with Lupita I would have to say I'm a little confused as to where exactly she is concerned with her academic performance. Does she believe her lack of academic skills is due to her being quiet and shy? Or because she is a migrant student unfamiliar with several tools available in the classroom? To help with her shyness I think Mrs. Potter should allow some in-group activities to be present in the classroom, and done so often. Working in groups takes away the anxiety some students get to participate in front of the whole class, and this way Lupita may become more familiar and open with her fellow classmates. It also explained how Lupita was good at working with puzzles, which means she could be a 'visual' or 'hands-on' learner. With this being said, Mrs. Potter should give the students an assignment that includes using materials or visuals. Also Mrs. Potter said that she rarely calls on Lupita because of her lack in academics and I do not think this is the right thing for her to do. Students all around struggle with things and sometimes calling on them and putting them on the spot (every once in a while) can help children learn the material and become better at participating in the long run.
Jonathan:
In one of the readings assigned for us to read it mentioned that visuals in a classroom; such as photographs, hand-drawn pictures, graphics, or computer generated tasks, often benefit children who have trouble reading. With this being said, I think putting up visuals around the classroom would help Jonathan and his reading progress. Mrs. Potter says that Jonathan just keeps doing the same thing over and over again, which involves him sitting at his desk while not reading nor asking for help. However, maybe if Mrs. Potter changed up her assignment for Jonathan this would help him. Maybe in order for him to change his ways, she may need to change hers (and that doesn't mean just reminding him to ask for help). Maybe she could have Jonathan working at a computer using a program that guides him through his reading and helps him better understand things. He may get easily distracted/bored and using a computer gives visuals, which makes assignments more enjoyable, while allowing the students to learn.
Eddie:
When reading about Eddie, I immediately thought back to myself as a student because I am one who suffers from ADHD. Now, I am not saying Eddie is a child with ADD or ADHD, however I have several of the same symptoms; the restless legs, constant movement, tapping of pencil, etc. As a student today because of my ADHD, I love hands-on activities or ones that involve movement, and I think these types of things are something for Mrs. Potter to consider when dealing with or teaching Eddie in the classroom. He likes to be up and moving so it's best if she assigns some things that allow him to do so. Another idea would be to allow the students to get up and move freely around the classroom for 2 minutes every 30 minutes or so. This allows their blood to get moving and will allow Eddie to get his anxiety out from sitting so long out.

Blog post for Feb 11th

Although I was unable to collect some writing samples from my students this past week (due to the snow day) I wanted to post a blog talking about what I do know about their literacy skills involving reading, writing, and spelling.
Each week my students do a spelling test on Friday afternoon. They are divided up into three different groups depending on their educational level; high, medium, low. At the beginning of the test, the students grab a piece of cardboard (used as a blind to prevent cheating) with a specific color; blue, red or green which represents what level they are at and what list of words they need to be tested on. My teacher will read one word from the blue list, then one word from the red, then one from the green and the students with that colored cardboard will spell out the word on their sheet of paper. This is done until about 15-20 words are completed.
While this is going on, the students who got a 100% on the previous weeks test get to enjoy silent play time which can involve reading a book, playing a game, or playing in the sand box. Although I think this can be a distraction to some of the students taking the test, I feel its my mentors way of motivating them to do better.
I got to thinking that this would be a good time for me to to design a literacy center (in another room) for the students that got a 100% (which mostly ranges from 3-8 students) and get to enjoy free time while the others are testing. I feel it would be best to have them doing something fun, yet productive so that they can have more time to improve their educational development.
Since the students who did get 100% could be from the blue green or red group I think it would be best to do an activity that is at all of their levels and one that certain students (lower leveled) wont feel it is too challenging for them.
I know the students enjoy read aloud stories so I've come up with a center that focuses on a story I would read aloud and spelling.
-Prior to class, I would read the book and come up with main ideas/parts in the story, place them on strips of paper then cut them out.
-On the strips of paper, I would leave a blank space for them to fill in the blank by spelling the word correctly. For example; "When Jimmy went to the _____ he lost his dog". If the correct word was "park" they would have to remember it and spell it out.
-Then during the center I would read the book to the students and tell them to pay close attention because they will have to recall some events that take place.
-Afterwards I would explain that I put important parts of the story on all the strips of paper and we as a group were going to rearrange the strips to make the story complete again. I would also explain the spelling they had to do on the blanks located on each strip.
This would allow them to work on their spelling, sequencing of events, and comprehension as they would have to remember exactly how the story went.
(or I could have two sets of strips and divide them into two groups and have them work in their groups to put the story back together, then we could come together as a whole) 
I believe the kids would really enjoy this because it seems like a game, yet they would be learning a great deal at the same time.

Literacy Centers

Currently in looking over my students work, I have noticed that they have a difficulty with their blends. Overall it seems like they have a difficulty sounding them out and decoding them as well as hearing them and encoding them. A literacy center that I think would help be beneficial to the classroom would be to have a listening and writing center to hear and write down different types of blends as well as a wide variety of the different words that have those blends. I think it helps for students to hear them so they can become familiar with the sounds.

Classroom Talk

 

In my third grade classroom, each of the classroom talks discussed in the readings are used.  However, some are used more than others.  Everyday, my mentor teacher uses text talk and book talk with the students when performing read alouds.  Before lunchtime, my mentor teacher will read a chapter from the book “Because of Winn-Dixie” and use text and book talk to discuss the story.  She will occasionally pause after different sentences and prompt questions relating to the text.  One question that she asked a few weeks ago was if the students knew what the Civil War was.  After the students made it clear that they did not know what it was, my mentor teacher explained that it was a war fought between the North and the South and how it impacted the U.S.  She then prompted questions that related to how someone fighting in the war might have felt at the time.  Even though the students did not know what the Civil War was at first, after listening to “Because of Winn-Dixie” being read aloud they were able to expand on how characters in the book may have felt and also make better sense of some southerner phrases that the characters in the story used.

Response-centered talk is also used regularly in the classroom.  Last time I was helping out in the classroom my mentor teacher was evaluating student’s reading comprehension levels.  She had the students read short stories aloud and then asked them questions based off of the stories.  The stories were really basic and allowed the students to expand on them however they wanted to.  The teacher prompted questions to a group of students she was evaluating and had them explain why certain characters did what they did.

            For this type of classroom talk, my mentor teacher encourages students to think beyond what is going on in the story by prompting questions and having them look deeper than what is written on the page in front of them.  She helps them expand on their thoughts and encourages the students’ ideas.  I think to successfully use classroom talk it is necessary to provide encouragement and positive reinforcement especially to help get the more quiet students involved.