EDRD 7718 Module 3

Encouraging Enthusiasm for Reading 

      I thought this was a very sweet video about children and reading. I loved the quote "Children are made readers on the laps of their parents" by Emilie Buchwald. I think that starting to read to children at a young age is a great way to instill the love of reading within them. Another way to encourage children to read is to read for pleasure yourself because children look up to their parents and if they see that you read they will also want to read. It is vital that parents model reading for their children.

SMART Table- Touch. Learn. Together. / HATCH Smart Table

      This was by far the coolest thing I have seen for a classroom. I have never heard of this but it is such a great, innovative piece of technology. I find myself limited when it comes to using either the SmartBoard or the Promethean board because only one person can use it at a time. This table would allow for the students to actually work together toward a common goal instead of working individually and taking turns in a group setting. This would work great with online manipulatives during math centers or even multiplayer educational games. The Smart Table could be used to create timelines, and match definitions in Social Studies, as well as manipulate passages in Reading.

Science and Math Integrating Literacy in Early Childhood/Expository Text Article 

      This was mentioned in the video but I also know from experience that students love learning about Science and it is something that has interested them for a long time because it is something they can see and understand. As discussed in the expository text article, I found out quickly that having my students read through textbooks on their own was not beneficial at all because they did not understand the way they were set up. The science textbooks can be difficult to read and understand without teacher scaffolding due to the elevated and content-specific vocabulary. Therefore, whenever I introduce new topics or when I am trying to clarify other topics I will find children's literacy that has to do with the topics because they are easier to understand. For example, we read through The Lorax when we were talking about pollution. When we were learning about Georgia Habitats, I rented habitat specific books that went into detail about the animals and landscape. These books told just as much information as the textbooks but were written in a more child-friendly way. Therefore, I have found that it is beneficial to read and discuss the text book, but then reinforce the information with other forms of literacy.

Development of Literacy Strategies

      While I was reading through this PowerPoint presentation, it reminded me of when we were finding our initial information regarding our action research project. We had to know exactly what type of information we were looking for, while also making sure that the information we were gathering was valid and relevant to our study.
   

EDRD 7718 Module 2

4-Information Literacy/Learning Theories PowerPoint

      This PowerPoint was very interesting to me because it really put differentiation into perpesctive for me. I understand differentiation, but this put it in a manner that made everything that much clearer. There were two awesome analogies used within this PowerPoint to describe differentiation. The first one discussed the millions of species in our world today and how this can look messy. The other discussed the replicating of cells. Cells replicating can look extremely messy with no central authority while acting to their environment. At first, learning was looked at as very, very structured and mainly used organizational charts and outlines. Along with these outlines came tons of information. However, as we know this is not cognitively appropriate for our students. We need to teach our students by making learning a building process and allowing the students to learn new information by constructing it from the information or background knowledge they already have. We need to apply the earlier analogies to our classroom by making the classroom more student cantered with constructivist learning and discovery. Georgia has now begun to take part in the Common Core which puts a lot of focus on differentiated learning and allowing the kids to take charge.

Planning Strategic Reading Lesson

      The pupose of this PowerPoint is to discuss strategic reading. I have actually never heard of strategic reading before, but it is led by the teacher who chooses various text for the students to dive in to. Eventually the work the teacher has chosen will lead to student-directed work through activities such as literacture circles. I did get to experience literacy circles during my student teacher, but it was also an experimental year for my host teacher so I do not know if I got the full experience. However, the ability-grouped students would all be reading one book and every few days they would have different tasks they would need to complete and then discuss with their group-mates. They really enjoyed it and I feel like it allowed them to grow independently. Since the teacher chooses the books, the students will get to read various genres and learn different strategies for reading those genres.

Literacy Practice: Promoting Content Area Reading

      Content Area Reading most closely means text books. I completely undertstand that my students would have a hard time reading the text books because there can be difficult content-specific vocabulary and knowing the fact that I continue to have a hard time reading some text books. However, this does not mean that they should not be used, it just means that the students need assistance reading through these types of books. The PowerPoint discusses the concept of scaffolding which means that the teachers supports the students throughout the entirety of the lesson by modeling different reading strategies. We are there to assist the students while they read. As teachers, we need to be sure that we can read and understand the text books before we give them to our students to read, so that we can thoroughly and accurately assist the students and make sure that this text is actually something the students will understand even with assistance. Before reading the text, it is also our responsibility to determine the readability to ensure that the text features and clear and understandable. If after reading the text, the teachers realizes that it is too hard for the students then we can modify the content and put it in context that is understandable for the students at their current levels. As far as vocabulary is cnocerned in the text books we use, I believe that they do a good job of not introducing too many new words at one time. Each lesson usually has five or less new words throughout its length. Usually I introduce the vocabulary first before the student begin to read because that way the students have at least a little background knowledge. I do not recall teaching text features last year in my student teaching, but this year it was a standard that we needed to teach and after having finished the lessons I realized how much they helped the students understand the structure of the text. After the students have completed their reading, we need to do something that will allow for the students to put what they have learned in their own words in order for the information to mentally make sense to them.

Goals for Differentiated Instruction Video

      Differentiated instruction was something that was of upmost importance in my undergrad, so I am glad to see that this is something that is being discussed a lot because I feel like I learn more and more each time. Differentiated instruction is a new way of thinking about the teaching and learning process. None of our students are exactly the same, so we should not treat them that way. In order to effectively meet our students needs, we need to focus on their specific learning styles and needs. We also need to get the students involved in their own learning by setting goals. Within each of our lessons, we need to make sure that each student is being challenged and has found an interest in the current topic. In my undergrad, our lesson plans consisted of an entire area dedicated to differentiated instruction. In each lesson I had to discuss how the lesson was differentiated: content, process or product. If the students are engaged and interested in the topic they are more likely to pay attention and retain the information because they have connected the knew information to something they already knew. 

The Story of Differentiation Video 

      Carol Tomlinson began by discribing her first years of teaching at a school that had a very diverse population. She stated that she had students who were four years below reading level and students who were four years above reading level and that she had no students in the middle. Tomlinson realized quickly that it was pointless to teach to the middle because the students would lose interest due to lack of understanding or boredum. She began implementing classroom rotations where the students were in what she called "flexibility grouping" which means that the leveled groups are interchangeable. She did not want to keep the "low" students together because they would not get as much out of that group as they would if they were pushed academically by their peers. After moving on to the college level, she realized that other teachers were experiencing what she went through, so she started teaching them about the big picture instead of focusing on how to teach the "lower" students. She want to show them that we can allow the students to work twoards the same goal with varying academic levels.

EDRD 7718 Module 1

Exploring Literature PowerPoint

       In order to increase student word knowledge, it is vital that we increase the amount of time students read on a daily basis to give them more experience with vocabulary. The PowerPoint gives examples of activities we could do that would assist in making our students proficient readers. Activities that involve stretching words, blending sounds and asking the students to say words without specific parts of the word would build phonological awareness. I really liked the phonics activity within the PowerPoint because it was transformed in to a card game. The student was asked to sound out the nonsense words and then whoever's card was higher would get the cards. To increase a student's fluency, you could allow a child to read a passage and write down the mistakes that were made throughout the reading. Once the child has completed the student and the teacher will discuss the mistakes that were made. It is also important to show the students vocabulary in passages in order for the students to get used to using context clues.

Expository Texts PowerPoint

      This PowerPoint was very interesting to me because this topic was actually something that I experienced for myself this past semester. The thought that text organization is something that students do not understand blew my mind because in my mind it was something that just made sense. I was very wrong. I quickly realized, much like I read in the passage, that students need to understand the different patterns of expository text as well as their signal words. The students need to be familiar with sequence, comparison, descriptions, cause/effect and problem/solution. Using graphic organizers to teach these to students would be very each beneficial because the students would be able to dissect the passage in pairs or individually. However, when first beginning the lessons regarding each of these aspects it is important that teachers model how to find and recognize them.

Vacca Reading Chapter 14

      Before beginning to read Expository Text, it is important that we not only focus on the process in which the students read through the text, but teachers also need to put an emphasis on the content that is within the particular passage. The content in text books can be very complex especially if students do not have any prior knowledge on the topic. As teachers there are specific questions that we need to ask ourselves about the text before we expect our students to understand the content: How difficult is the text to understand? How usable is the text? and How interesting is the text?. Vacca describes "usable" as meaning how well the text is organized and "interesting" means how easy is the text to relate to. There are actually specific formulas that educators will use that base the readability off of sentence length and word difficulty. I know for personal experience that some of the books that I have had to study from in college were vary hard for me to understand due to the proficient vocabulary. Therefore, it is not a far fetched idea that children would experience the same frustration I felt while taking my undergrad classes. However, instead of strictly focusing on textbooks, teachers could also begin to implement the use of trade books. Trade books are texts that focus in on one subject matter and will go in to more depth.  Also reading textbooks along with trade books allow the students to see the same vocabulary in a different setting or book which will allow for the students to potentially gain more understanding of the needed vocabulary. Vacca describes the benefits of combining literature and trade books as "intense involvement", "schema building", "abilities and interests", and "vocabulary building". 

EDRD 7717 Module 8: Reading Responses

Video Analysis

      As I have been stating from the beginning of the course watching videos about other people's classrooms and teaching strategies is my makes em feel as if I have entered that classroom - or in this case a program. This video was describing the Reading Recovery program and all that this program in tells. The video did describe the program, but it was not very specific as to the teaching strategies. I was hoping that this video would give me more insight into the teaching part of the program, but I was disappointed to find out that it didn't. However, the video did talk a lot about the how the teachers become certified to teach the Reading Recovery program. I loved that the teachers had to attend a class once a week in order to talk about the things that they had experienced as well as learning more and more about the teaching strategies themselves. As much as I love learning new strategies, it would be much more effective if I could see these various strategies at work. The teachers in this program were actually able to watch tutoring sessions through a one-sided mirror where they could see a teacher and a student in an actual tutoring session. This would be amazing to be a part of. I would definitely be interested to learn more about the actual teaching strategies. 

"Factors Involved in Reading and Writing Difficulties"

      This PowerPoint made me feel as if I was back in my undergraduate program, which is not a bad thing, but these concepts were things that we discussed daily. There are a lot of different variables that could effect a child's reading and writing progress, and some were discussed within this PowerPoint. There are cognitive factors, visual processing deficits, language factors, social/emotional factors, physical causes and educational factors that could impede the progress of a child. I actually had a child who we thought was just on the lower end of the students when in actuality we found out that he was having hearing difficulties. He just happened to go to a check-up where they did a hearing test and he failed. After he had tubes put in his ears, it was as if he were a brand new child! It was an amazing turn around. 

  

EDRD 7717 Module 7: PowerPoints

Perspectives of the Learning Process 

      In order to understand how students feel about reading and writing instead of sitting down and having a formal interview with the students, this PowerPoint explains that it would be more beneficial and the students would open up more if we had a simple laid-back conversation with the students. As well as talking to the parents, we could also send home parent questionnaires. This is actually something I have determined that I would do every year because it is nice to have the parents point of view. The questionnaire I use also asks the parents what I could do best to make their child comfortable and this is something that is very important to me. Asking these questions also allows the parents to know that I am going to do whatever I can to make their child feel at home in my classroom. We also have a school questionnaire that each teacher fills out on the each of her students that will go to the next teacher. This questionnaire discusses the students reading level, any struggles, potential behavior problems, and even gives a place where we can suggest that students not be placed in the same class together. 

Comprehension Evidence and Strategies

      This PowerPoint discussed the causes of difficulties with reading comprehension problems, reading difficulties, background knowledge activation, knowledge of text structure, retelling, and cognitive monitoring. All of these common difficulties can be helped through teacher or parent modeling. We need to teach and show the students how to read effectively in order to accomplish all of the above strategies. Before we even begin to read, we must go though the pre-reading process where we inspect the title page and pictures throughout the book. Especially when reading to or with children we must make sure that the children are familiar with the topic being discussed or else they will have no understanding of the information they are supposed to be comprehending. Once the child begins to understand the topic even if they have never experienced it then they would be able to make their own life connections to the topic in order to personally make sense of the content. Once we finish pre-reading, it is important to teach children the importance of questioning throughout the text. Students can make their own predictions while also asking self-monitoring questions about what has already happened. This makes the students think about what they are reading instead of simply reading the text to read. 

Classroom Instruction That Works 

     This PowerPoint discussed different things that will build student comprehension and reading confidence. Students could use various graphic organizers to assist them with questioning, predicting, and summarizing a text. When a child has something they are supposed to fill in such as a graphic organizer it allows them to really think about the text as well as allows them to mentally organize the information they are being fed. It would also be beneficial for the students if we use activities such as Think-Pair-Share, Slate work, ball toss and Numbered Heads Together to allow the students to talk about their ideas with other people. It is also vital that we give the students the confidence they need in order to become successful readers. Some children have the tools they need they just are not confident in their ability because they put too much pressure on themselves. So, this PowerPoint also discussed tactics such as positive reinforcement and Effort and Achievement Charts that will allow the students to keep up with their own progress. 

      

EDRD 7717 Module 6: Opitz Scenario Discussions

      Sally, a first-grader, really knows her letters and their corresponding sounds but is not able to put these letters together to form words, and is therefore unable to recognize many sight words. Considering that Sally has the phonics portion down pretty well I believe that it is not important to begin working with vocabulary and sight words. I would talk to Sally's parents about reading books outloud to her but also allow her to see the words as they are being read. It is important to read simple books at first and then begin to build up because the point is for Sally to begin to recognize the words her parents are speaking. It would also be helpful if she could point to the words as her parents read them. Then allow and encourage Sally to do the same but she will read the text to her parents. This is something that can be done in class as well. We could also work with Sally on sight word flash cards, and again begin slow and build from there.
      Bob, a sixth-grader, began as a strong read, but is now struggling in all subject areas and it is taking him much much longer to get his work done. I believe that this is due to a disconnect between his ability to read and his ability to comprehend, therefore we need to begin to work on his comprehension skills and various strategies that he could begin to use when reading. Even though he is older it would still benefit Bob if we were to involve him in a read aloud think aloud because then he would be able to see the words being read as well as how to go about questioning and predicting while reading. If he stops to ask himself questions it will help him to remember what sorts of things he should be looking for throughout the text. It would also benefit him if we provided various graphic organizers so that he could fill in the appropriate areas while he is reading because this aspect will really make him focus on  the content within the text.
      Mary Beth, a fourth-grader, is a student who would rather rush through her reading to get it done instead of reading for acuracy and understanding. I believe that it would highly benefit Mary Beth  if she were able to have a few one on one sessions with her teacher because the teacher could record segments of her reading in order to play them back to Mary Beth. The importance of understanding rather than speed really needs to be emphasized in this situation and by recording Mary Beth she will be able to go back and find her own mistakes. If this is also done the teacher will also be able to determine if Mary Beth is making the same mistake everytime she reads different text and if that is the case then the teacher can take corresponding action. Since Mary Beth really does not like to be wrong it is important that this is done in a manner that will not embarrass her and that is why I suggested one-on-one time. Also, allowing Mary Beth to find her own mistakes will also take away from her embarassment because she corrected herself essentially.
      Alan, an eighth-grader, does not seem to have a problem with reading; he is simply struggling with his ability to remember what he is studying and reading. The first thing that can be done on a daily basis is memory strengthening excersizes such as the Word Concentration activities suggested on page 325. If done religiously his ability to truely concentrate and remember his infomration will improve. It may also benefit Alan if he takes notes while he is reading because this way he is having to read the information and then put it in his own words throughout the reading process. He could make an outline of the information or he could make different kinds of graphic organizers depending on the subject at hand. Asking questions during class and while he is reading is also something that will benefit his understanding.
      Matt, a second-grader, is struggling with reading unknown texts.  It is important to understand that his self-esteem is already suffering, so there is no need to make working with him something that is known by everyone. Matt needs to learn other ways of decoding what he is reading as apposed to the age old "sound it out" strategy. This will just take a lot of practice using context clues and breaking the word up into readable groups. He can work on this at home and with his teacher when reading with them one-on-one.
     

EDRD 7717 Module 6: Video Analysis

Why I Flipped My Classroom

      I have always been very interested in a flipped classroom, but I have never truely understood how they worked. I feel as though this video was short and to the point which made it a lot easier for me to begin to understand this concept. This seems like a great idea, but I feel like I still have so many questions that I would not feel comfortable enough to put this into action in my classroom. This is definitely something I would like to see in actions such as review the materials and tools that will be used at home to learn the information and then what exactly goes in to the planning for classroom time. Would the materials and tools used at home be a PowerPoint with the information? An interactive website? A video recording of me teaching the information? This video definitely left me hangin as far as drawing me in but not giving me near as much information as I may have wanted, so I think I am going to look more in to this concept on my own time. 

Differentiated Instruction  

      Differentiated Instruction is the way in which we teach children and this is best done when we keep the students' specific learning style in mind when creating lessons. There are a few questions that we need to ask ourselves when trying to plan for our students such as "How can you diagnose your students' needs accurately and practically?", and "How can you provide learning opportunities that increase the likelihood or student success?". As we begin to answer these questions we also need to make sure that our lessons are flexible in nature, challenging (working within our students' Zone of Proximal Development), and that we encourage student response. Differentiated Instruction should be student led because the students should have options as to how they want to learn and how they want to express what they have learned. It also builds off of the students varying academic levels because the students are able to work at their own pace in order to get the most out of their method of learning.

Using Assesment to Improve Instruction

      When most people think "assessments" they may automatically think about vairous high stakes tests that are given to students by the state. These tests are looked at as ridiculous and when we talk about the results of our students on a test like these we usually determine that we know they can test better, but these shorts of tests are difficult to take. However, there is so much more to assessment then these state administered tests such as the ones that we give on a daily basis in our classrooms that true show us our students strengths and weaknesses. I love Mr. Moore's quote of "good assessment tasks are interchangebale with good instructional tasks". By this he means that we already ask our students questions throughout the extent of a lesson and use the information we gain to further help our students. This is an assessment. We use the information that we gain from our students to determine if we can push them a little further if we need to take a step back. In order to truely reach our children we must understand where they are starting from as far as prior knowledge is concerned as well as determining how well they are understanding the new information because those two factors will shape our future instruction.