Collaboration

I have enjoyed reading and commenting on blogs of fellow cohort members. It's great to share thoughts with colleagues. I have been commenting with Leia and Christina, other kindergarten student teachers, and hopefully it will be the beginning of a lifetime of collaboration.

... for Leia's blog, click here

... for Christina's blog, click here

Literacy, Winter, Week 7

What strikes me the most about the Mesmer/Mesmer and Au articles are the parallels between the RTI model for students with reading challenges and Au's, as well as yours, Tony, and most literacy experts' assertions about effective and responsive literacy instruction in general. It seems that the strongest classroom reading programs, in addition to providing a diversity of reading opportunities, employ a great deal of targeted small-group lessons and continuous monitoring of progress for all students. This to me is a voluminous and daunting task. It is quite challenging to efficiently evaluate each student and design instruction that aids and motivates each student on a daily basis. But, that is our goal. So, in theory, we as teachers consistently should be using an RTI model for all of our students all of the time. Right?

Additionally, Au's summary of the research on the Warm Springs Reservation certainly reminds me of Routman's Optimal Learning Model. Instruction was tailored to the students' needs, and they were provided with guidance and then allowed to work independently and come to the teacher for help as needed. Another correlation to what we've been learning about strategies for comprehension was Au's emphasis and re-emphasis on having discussions before and after reading to help students "construct their own understandings of literacy." Encouraging students to make connections between their readings and their own lives (even when that is not the process strategy) clearly is an extremely important facet of literacy learning.

Literacy, Winter, Week 6

I really enjoyed the Tovani readings. I would imagine most of us found something in her chapters that we could relate to in terms of our own reading comprehension challenges in school.

Tovani's experiences and anecdotes reinforced for me how essential it is that thinking strategies be part of reading curricula from the earliest stages. I tend to chuckle in my mind a bit when I am reading with kinders and ask them to make a prediction about what Bossy Bear or to visualize the foods in "Yummy, Yummy." However, I am learning that no matter what the text is, developing strategies that become second nature is key to future reading success. I loved the way Tovani stressed that kids need to interact with the meaning as they read the words.

One thing I found particularly heartening in her anecdotes was her talk about changing the lesson when things aren't going as planned (The "Divine Comedy" story). It's a bit intimidating, as new teachers, to think about changing our plans, that don't come naturally to us as it is, in midstream. But, I know that I need these reminders -- that as teachers it is our job to constantly watch and listen for what our students are telling us about their needs and challenges and to not only adapt to them, but to inspire and nurture them in overcoming their challenges.

The Real Week 5, February 2nd

I have pondered many thoughts regarding this week's readings:

* The Optimal Learning Model is a central feature in all of the strategies for reading for understanding, whether it is demonstrated implicitly or explicitly. Even in Ms. Garza's class, modeling was taking place through the posters.

* I have not yet seen the question-generating strategy used in the classroom, as Mr. Lee did, and I would like to see that modeled myself. I could see that being a powerful tool for increasing comprehension - perhaps especially in the upper grades. It seems like it would also encourage students to be more inquisitive and active in their learning in general, across subject matters.

* Both Routman and Cooper talked about the danger of teaching reading strategies in isolation, and how it can, if we're not careful, hinder students from transferring their comprehension skills across disciplines and tasks. This made me think about how, as a teacher, I would need to employ these strategies when modeling writing, as well as work in other subjects. It does seem like these strategies are important tools to use in any subject -- generating questions, making connections, synthesizing info., painting a picture in the mind.

* I have seen "collaborative talk" in my kindergarten main placement. It is a little chaotic mind you, however the lil' ones sit with a partner and share the big ideas of their "See Spot Run" and "Cat on the Mat" books. (It's pretty funny to listen in on these.)

* I was really struck by Routman's statement that "Students don't always read for meaning." This just reinforces for me how much a teacher needs to be aware of this and constantly on top of his/her methods for modeling and individual and group guidance.

* My dyad class used Routman's key points technique a lot. I personally love the reading of current events -- I think it serves multiple purposes in one lesson. I also think students of all ages benefit from think-alouds with reminders to highlight the key points. I still need that reminder.

Week 5, Winter, February 2nd

Week 3, Winter, January 19, 2010

I like Regie. Something tells me I would really like her if I had the chance to meet her. Her practices and philosophies on learning seem to be based not only on research and experience, but also on a genuine love of being with kids and helping them succeed. I enjoy reading her thoughts on having a passion, an inspiration and a sense of urgency when working with youngsters.

As I was thinking about her five teaching points about ensuring that kids become good readers, I reminisced about my dyad class (miss it). This pertains to the point about giving students time to talk about their reading. The teacher makes a point to read Time for Kids with the students every week, instead of shoving it in their cubbies. They gather around on bean bags and take a few minutes to silently read some short news passages from TFK. Then, she asks them to extrapolate the core points, but she also gives each one a moment to say what their favorite news item in their reading was and why. She shows great enthusiasm in learning new things about the students concerning their interests, and she encourages them to read further about the subject matter of their favorite news item.

This time in the classroom always felt genuine to me, because it was productive, but also casual and inviting. I think I would try this practice as well, and work on motivating the students to read more about the subjects in the news readings and share their learnings with the class.

Literacy, Winter Quarter, Week 1 - Jan. 12

I found the Templeton/Morris piece quite insightful. We often hear through our schooling years about Latin and Greek influences in our words, however I certainly was not previously aware of the amount of French influence on English. (Isn't that just like the French - have to impose their styles on everyone else?) Anyway, I heartily agree with their suggestion that spelling be taught, not simply through phonetics and then later on through memorization, but also by teaching conceptually about words and the sound and meaning relationships to the spelling patterns.

In my kinder class, we mostly are working on the traditional blending of sounds for reading and spelling. One practice last week, though, that I was intrigued by was an activity in which the kids created three-letter nonsense words. It seemed to do a pretty decent job of teaching them the composition of one-syllable CVC words, and they really enjoyed it. We tried to reinforce the kids, tie the words to their math lesson (since they had just done patterns and this was letter patterning), tell them they were learning about the formation of words and give them kudos for being creative.

The Templeton/Morris piece also seems to correlate with what our professors are preaching in our math methods course. If we help children develop a base understanding - a solid internal foundation - of the roots and principles of our disciplines, they'll be able to more naturally apply their cognitive skills to come to answers.

On a note about the Routman readings, I loved the "We Can" book idea she discussed, regarding one of her past kindergarten classes. I think I might try that when I start doing more lessons. I might have to change it up a bit. It is the middle of the year - the kids might say, "Duh, Mrs. Bollesen, we've already done that." Maybe the book will be "We do." Anyway, I liked that one.