Group 5 Discussion Leader 5

Current issues
Motivation and Scripted material

On Monday we were given some articles to read one was Assessing Motivation to Read.
You may want to take a look at the article for these questions.
1. Lets say you administer the motivation to read profile and you now know the motivation level of the student is low. When you begin changing things to motivate this student how do make sure that you aren’t simply:
a. Changing the requirements for required work?

b. Lowering the level of difficulty and not challenging their potential?

An example given in the article was: (If a child indicates on the survey that “reading is very hard” and that “reading is boring,” the teacher can suggest books of particular interest to the child that the child can read with ease. Pg 530)

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The motivation to read survey is designed to “initiate an informal, conversational exchange between the teacher and the student.”(pg 525) This section goes on describe how these interviews are social events that provide depth and valuable information. The conversational interviews are scripted but it’s recommended that the teacher deviate from the script in order to “glean information” that could otherwise be missed. So here’s the question.
2. Schools using scripted lessons are becoming more and more common.
a. Do you think the reasons the article lists for a teacher not to follow the script while

performing this interview make a point about schools that use scripted lessons?

b. That they don’t provide depth, glean information, elicit insight and that they may miss
information?

c. Does a teacher interact and work with the student for their benefit while conducting an
interview in some of the same ways they would teaching a lesson?

d. Can we really compare these two things (conducting a motivation interview from a
script and teaching a scripted lesson)?

No Parent Left Behind

Just a little something I thought everyone would enjoy to read :)

No Parent Left Behind

These are real notes written by parents in a Tennessee school district.(spellings have been left intact.)

• 
  My son is under a doctor's care and should not take PE today. Please execute him.
• 
  Please exkuce Lisa for being absent she was sick and i had her shot.
• 
  Dear school: please ecsc's john being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and also 33.
  
• Please excuse Gloria from jim today. She is administrating.
  
• Please excuse Roland from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.
  
• John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.
  
• Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part.
  
• Megan could not come to school today because she has been bothered by very close veins.
  
• Chris will not be in school cus he has an acre in his side.
  
• Please excuse Ray Friday from school. He has very loose vowels.
• Please excuse Pedro from being absent yesterday. He had (diahre, dyrea, direathe), the shits. [Words in ( )'s were crossed out].
  
• Please excuse Tommy for being absent yesterday. He had diarrhea, and his boots leak.
• Irving was absent yesterday because he missed his bust.
  
• Please excuse Jimmy for being. It was his father's fault.
  
• I kept Billie home because she had to go Christmas shopping because I don't know what size she wear.
  
• Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday We thought it was Sunday.
  
• Sally won't be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend her funeral.
  
• My daughter was absent yesterday because she was tired. She spent a weekend with the marines.
  
• Please excuse Jason for being absent yesterday. He had a cold and could not breed well.
  
• Please excuse Mary for being absent yesterday. She was in bed with gramps.
  
• Gloria was absent yesterday as she was having a gangover
  
• Please excuse Brenda. She has been sick and under the doctor.
  
• Maryann was absent December 11-16, because she had a fever, sore throat, headache and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick, fever and sore throat, her brother had a low grade fever and ached all over. I wasn't the best either, sore throat and fever. There must be something going around, her father even got hot last night.
  

Now we know why parents are screaming for better education for our kids.

Group #5 - Discussion Leader #4

Many of the classes I have taken this year explain the importance of providing a specific area for your students to read. Many of the places described have had bean bags, small couche(s), or comfortable chairs different from their regular classroom chairs. In one example I saw, it was decorated like a forest with bean bags and a large rug. In both of my practicums the rooms were very small. Every wall in the room was covered by a cabinet, shelves or bulletin boards. The only area for reading was the kidney shaped table pushed in the corner, and most of the students were cramed in tight. I know some of the older schools have larger classrooms, but many of the newer schools are extremely small. So here are my many questions:
Has anyone seen a classroom that has a creative reading area for their students? If so, what did they do?
When we are dealing with small spaces what are some ideas we could use?
Do you think the group table in the back is enough?
Would you replace that table for a bean bag reading area instead?

Group 4: Discussion Leader #5

Well I thought that it would be interesting to blog about the assessments that we are giving in our practicums for assignment number 3. I feel that these assessments are really very interesting and I really enjoy giving them. The student that I chose to assess is a very bright child from China who has only been here for 9 months. She came here not knowing one word of English and now speaks fluently and reads at a higher level than most of the English speaking students. She does have a heavy accent so sometimes the tests given were a little more difficult but over all it went pretty smoothly.

These tests were very time consuming and I do not see how a teacher could do these one student at a time. There is just not enough time in the day. I think it would probably take about half the year to assess each student on each of these tests if one teacher was doing it him or herself.

My favorite test to give would have to be the running record. I just thought that it was neat to make the marks and listen to how she would read things and how some things could be left out or completely changed. I also enjoyed tallying up the points at the end and making the decision what level she was best at. I just think that these assessments are really important if you want to get to know where your students stand. As a teacher it would help you to accommodate to their needs that way they can actually learn and not just struggle or things be too easy.

Group 2: Dicussion Leader # 4

Hello, I am currently tutoring a kindergartener and I am still having trouble with her comprehension. We've been reading the same book every session for our familiar read (seven times), but I can't get many detailed events out of her. I've had her sequence the story and she's been writing sentences of the events in order, I've talked with her about specific events that happened, I've had her draw pictures, but her answers are always the same when I ask her to retell the story to me. When I ask her to tell me about the beginning of the story she replies with, "His friend is sad." Her response for the middle of the story is, "His friend is still sad." Her reply to the end of the story is, "His friend is here now." She understands the very basic points of the story which is good because I realize that she is still young. Should I accept her responses and move on or should I keep trying to pull more detailed responses out of her? If so, do you have any suggestions as to how I can help her remember more events about the story?

Athena Ako

Group 3- Leader #4- older literacy students & attitude

Hi group! I teach 4th grade, so I obviously work with older elementary age students. One problem I have found when working with older students who have problems in literacy is that their attitude is often what gets in their way of success. It may be true that the students who are struggling with reading or writing do have some type of learning disability or impairment that could slow them down- however, it’s the adolescent behavior that blocks them from seeking the help that they need. I feel like my biggest struggle when helping lower achieving students is to break through the mentality that they don’t need help because it isn’t cool or breaking through their coping strategies and getting them to try. What do you think? Do you find similar problems if you have worked in older grades? Any suggestions for how to deal with this problem?

Group 3- older literacy students & attitude

Hi group! I teach 4th grade, so I obviously work with older elementary age students. One problem I have found when working with older students who have problems in literacy is that their attitude is often what gets in their way of success. It may be true that the students who are struggling with reading or writing do have some type of learning disability or impairment that could slow them down- however, it’s the adolescent behavior that blocks them from seeking the help that they need. I feel like my biggest struggle when helping lower achieving students is to break through the mentality that they don’t need help because it isn’t cool or breaking through their coping strategies and getting them to try. What do you think? Do you find similar problems if you have worked in older grades? Any suggestions for how to deal with this problem?

Group 6- Leader #4 Michelle Saxe

Hey Group!
I have decided to write about my tutoring experience and an issue that I have faced. Maybe there is some advice out there and some techniques that you could send along to me.
My tutee is a third grade student who will be entering into 4th grade this coming year. My issue with him, among many, is that he has issues in word study with vowels. I started working on long vowels with him, but he seemed to understand them well enough, that I decided to move on to something else. One of the issues that I am noticing with him is that he has trouble sounding out words, to figure out what they are, and he has trouble spelling them as well. I see these two things being related to one another. During the last session we were working on "ow" sound, say owww. But of course the english language is not perfect and so there are some exceptions to that rule, such as "tow" or "bow". So even though I explain it, he still really does not understand the reasoning behind it. Also, he never learned to count his vowels, so that the first one says its alphabet name and the second one is silent. Those kinds of things.
So my question is, how does a teacher or anyone for that matter, approach this kind of issue. Is this the situation where you start instilling these rules into the student?
Another thing is that, when we were writing today. My tutee was writing the word "looked" and he thought that it was "lookT" because of the way it sounds. It seems that he does this with many of his words. I do know that he is in the within word pattern stage, where they use and confuse vowels. But I'm not sure how you move a student like this further into the next level. I have used word builder cards as well as word sorts, but I feel kind of like I am out of ideas.
Thanks Group!! =)

Group 8 Leader # 4 Katie Allred

We have been talking about reading and writing workshops in class and I have a concern about presenting the workshops to my future students. I think that they are great activities, but with all the enforcement at schools to do voyager or Trophies how is it really possible to do Reading and writing workshops? If you don't know what reading and writing workshops are they are mini lessons to help students. Reading workshops usually allows the students to choose their own book, they work on strategies to develop comprehension and create responses to their readings. In writing workshops students focus on creating a piece of writing and work with the teacher one on one to develop strategies to increase writing abilities. I love the idea of the reading and writing workshops I am just not sure how we will be able to implement them as well as our required literacy programs. Any ideas?

Group #4 Anila Hylviu

I personally believe that reading and writing shoud be inseparable from every literacy activity. They supplement each other and promote students' reading and writing skills. Extending reading activities into writing activities will help students to think more deeply about what they have already read, and will provide them with the opportunity to apply their critical thinking in the writing process. Many researchers agree that as students write about what they have read, they actually unravel their thinking and at the same time, elaborate on and clarify their responses.
During my tutoring sessions,I have tried to connect reading and writing activities together,by encouraging my tutee to write about 1. something interesting she learned out of a book; 2. make comparisons between one of the characters of the book and family member/or a relative, 3. describe her favorite part of the book and explain why etc. I have noticed that she enjoyes writing the most, especially when she has something to share from her personl life. She feels so excited about that, and is quite eager to quickly jot down her ideas.
As future teachers, we should be cautious about the interests of our students, expose them to books which have meaning in their lives, and best of all provide ample opportunities for them to try to make connections and incorporate them in their writing. Isn't that afterall our job, to be aware of the students ' interests, and find ways to integrate them into literacy activities that are quite relevant and meanningful to the students? What do you others think?

Group 9 Leader # 4 Balyan

Hi everyone!
I am in a first grade classroom. The teacher of that certain classroom uses only graphic organizers (worksheets) for all subjects. She doesn't teach a lesson. She just hands out the papers and let them to work on their own. The classroom has students with different levels of education and some of them are not able to work alone. And basically they don't learn anything. They need someone who can help them to learn because that's why they come to school. I am worried about the kids in this classroom and all classrooms if they have teachers like the one in this classroom. I would like to know is this another method of teaching reading and writing, and math? She doesn't include social studies and science.

Group 7 - Discussion Leader #4 - Jennifer Moore

I had the opportunity to observe my CT conduct a literature circle yesterday and got some really cool ideas. Let me know what you all think 8)

The groups consisted of 5 students, each one being assigned a job within the group. They were given laminated cards with their job descriptions on them. The jobs were as follows:

1. Discussion Director: Your job is to make a list of "FAT" questions for your group to discuss. A "FAT" question can not be answered with yes or no. Write the discussion questions down in your reading notebook. A few sample questions might be.....What was going through your mind when you read this story? How did you feel while you read this story? What personal experience were you reminded of while you were reading? What suprised you while you read?
2. Literary Luminary: Your job is to find several passages from the story that you would like to read aloud. Mark the passages with sticky notes & jot down why you thought the passages were important. A few sample passages might be.....something funny, something interesting, something confusing, something well-written, something new that you learned.
3. Concept Connector: Your job is to make real life connections with the story. Look through the selection you read & think of something that the story made you think of. Mark the part of the story with sticky notes & jot down your ideas. A few samples of ideas of connections may be....a trip you have taken, an experience at school, something funny, another book you have read, something sad.
4. Word Wizard: Your job is to make a list of interesting words from the story. Put sticky notes under each word you choose. In you reading notebook write the word, the page where it was found, and it's definition. During your sharing meeting, share the words with your literature circle. See if they can predict the meanings. A few kinds of words may be....funny words, unusual words, words used in a new way.
5. Artful Artist: Your job is to make an illustration related to the story. Your illustration must be original. Keep your drawing to yourself. At the literature circle meeting, have each group member try to decide what you illustrated. After everyone has had a guess, share your picture. A few sample illustrations may be....a scene from the story, an exciting part of the story, a diagram, a main character's reaction to a problem.

The students were really motivated, they enjoyed being assigned a job and being in charge of that job. I love it when you get to see students really enjoy learning and have fun while they're doing it.

Group 1 - Discussion Leader 4

Hello all! I’m sure most of you know that the tutee I was assigned to this semester does not want to be there. He is going into the 4th grade, has been in this program for three years, and just seems as if he is tired of it. Before each session, I try to find out about his exciting day at camp and try anything I can to at least make him smile or seem happy to be there. We read stories he likes I try to find out about different things he likes and still I get nothing. My question is, has anyone ever been in this situation either in their practicum or a classroom you may have observed or worked in where a student just seems miserable and it is hard to get responses from them? And does anyone have suggestions or strategies on anything that may help with a student like this?

Bilingual comprehension difficulties

Students who speak one language at home and another at school have
major difficulties comprehending the second language.

Group 6 Kristi DeBerg

Hello group! What I have been thinking about is using pictures to teach literature. In one of the classes that I am taking the teacher has us write quite a few two page papers based off of pictures in a book. I have not seen this strategy done anywhere else in a classroom. Is it common to have the students learn about history by only discussing pictures? or is it best to have a combination of Pictures and then actuall teaching of facts. I just found this interesting and full off different interpurtations. Please comment back on your feelings on using only pictures to teach a point.

Group 9- Matthew Goode- Read Alouds

Hello, group! I was wondering if in any of your classes, does the teacher do any read alouds? I'm with a 5th grade class, and my teacher reads a picture book to the kids every day, 10 minutes before lunch. Sometimes it's a little awkward because the picture book is at such a low reading level and seems very kindergarten for what 5th graders should be reading. In no way do I have a problem with my teacher using picture books for read alouds. I think they're actually quite beneficial. But sometimes I wonder about the book choice. What's too low? Is there even a limit? I mean... she's not reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to them. But sometimes it doesn't seem too far off. The students seem to enjoy the story no matter what it is, so long as it has appealing pictures... So I guess it doesn't really matter. It's not like they're going to be tested on the book, right? It's just for fun.

Group 1 Discussion Leader

Hello:
As I was flipping through the book I came across the term “Goldilocks Strategy” developed by Oblhausen and Jepsen (1992). They suggest students choose books by categories “Too Easy” books, “Too Hard” books and “Just Right” books. This model comes from the folktale story book of “The Three Bears”. As I read the information, I thought about the kindergarten students I am observing using this model. Many students are still not reading but do recognize most letters. There are a few who able to read a couple of sentences as I noticed when they do reading activities on the computer. In the class I am in, students are able to pick their own book after all seat work is done. As I have observed, many students flip through their books fast, close the book and go get another one. Other students do take the time to create their own stories as they read. Then there is the neighbor student who just says “You can’t read that one because it’s too hard”. The student may ask why! The neighbor then replies “Look at how big it is”. Listening to their conversation made me think of the term “ Goldilocks Strategy“. I realize that this is not exactly how it’s suppose to work but I found it amusing. When you think its been a long day working with all those kinder students moments like this just help make the day better.
This strategy is suppose to work at all grade levels. Do you see it working out any different than I did for the Kindergarten student?

Group # 5

I am relieved to find out that pop corn or any kind of reading that makes a child read by themselves in front of anyone is not a good way to teach. I hated reading in front of anyone. I still do. I am just now feeling comfortable reading in front of my second graders. So many children feel uncomfortable or embarrassed to read in front of the class. Even children that read well don't like it. My teacher has the children read pop corn style once a week. There is one child in the class that really struggles with reading. She is rarely called on by other students to read but when she is she looks like she is about to cry. It breaks my heart every time I see her read in front of the class. When I am a teacher I will not have my students read by themselves. It is suprising to me how many teachers choose to have students read this way instead of coral reading. Have you all seen your cooperating teachers practicing pop corn/ round robin reading or have you seen them choose to read to the students or coral read?

Group #2 discussion leader

Hello,
I have a 2 questions to ask. Im in a first grade class and we have this student who is on a behavior plan, and his single parent mother is a elementry school teacher. He loves to prove the teacher wrong and talk back. He loves to get attention, and purposely misbehave. Last week we were doing father day poems to send home. As we were presenting the project the class was very excited. He yells out no , you know I hate doing anything about fathers. The class got silent and my teacher asked me to take him outside. She had a talk with him, but he constantly does things like this. He is a very bright boy but becomes unengaged in alot of the class activities, what could I do to help him become more behaved, and less of a distraction to the class? My next question is on a student who just came in as a new student last friday. He doesnt want to say a word to us, we have tried in english, and in spanish. He usually nods his head if its a yes or no question. He does his work in class, but up to now has not brought any homework back. He dosent talk to his peers either. I have tried talking to him one on one, but he won't budge. We have notified our speech therapist, and prinicpal. What could we do to make him speak it will be a week in 2 days ? We have had testing all this week in math, reading, and today writing. He did awful in math, very well in reading, and he got sick in the middle of his writing test today. We have also tried talking to his parents but they speak very little english, and don't seem to care. We checked his history, and he has been out of school since beginning of May. Any suggestions?

Group #8--PJ Cantwell--Rubrics

In addition to this course, I am also currently taking Classroom Assessments. The topic we began to discuss in tonight's class ironically was similar to a topic we talked about in this afternoon's Literacy class: Rubrics.

My age might show here, but I don't remember ever seeing anything like that when I was in school. (Of course, I went to Catholic school, and there is a great chance that rubrics are forbidden by the Vatican.) I have found that rubrics are extremely helpful because they clearly state what grade may be earned by explaining and articulating what criteria needs to be met. So my question is this: first, am I the only one who has recently been introduced to rubrics? Do you plan on using rubrics in your future classroom? If so, will you seek student input in the creation of your rubric?

Group 10- Justin Materna- Writing in the classroom

Today in class we had a discussion within our table regarding writing in the classroom, and how often our cooperating teachers have the students write during classroom time. I was suprised to hear that many of the classes rarely do in class writing. Currently my cooperating teacher has the students writing one story a week. He does usually have to guide them by giving them some sort of topic to write about, but the topic is really broad and the students have quite a bit of freedom. My question is, how important do you feel writing is in the classroom? I personally feel it is an essential part of education, and should be done often. I also feel the students enjoy it, it gives their creative minds a chance to work, and for at least one part of the day they are in charge of what they are doing.

Group 3-Taliah Gipson-Popcorn Reading

I thought the discussion over popcorn reading was interesting. My cooperating teacher uses this method in her classroom. She does not point out students and tell them to read, but students raise their hand if they want to read aloud. The students are ususally very eager to read aloud. I can see how popcorn reading can be seen as a negative method, but in my practicum class, the students seem to love it. I guess I am kind of torn on what I think of popcorn reading. I have only seen the positive side of it so far. My teacher's students love it. She has two ELL students in her class and they both raise their hand quickly whenever the class is asked to read aloud. Could it be a matter of opinion and teacher's judgement ? Honestly, I am not sure if I would use popcorn reading in my class or not. Some of the students in my practicum class were struggling readers. The ones who were struggling to read are now reading quite well. Whatever my practicum teacher is doing, seems to be working. I am curious to know what you all have seen in your classrooms. I haven't been completely convinced that popcorn reading shouldn't be done but I do understand the negatives. What are your thoughts?

Group 4- Laura Brett- Guided Reading

When I had my own classroom last year, our principal implemented guided reading groups as our primary way of teaching reading in our school. When I was told this I was very excited. In my undergraduate program at Washington State University we were tsught that guided reading is the most effective way to build student comprehension and reading skills compared to whole group instruction using a basal reader. Some new teachers find guided reading to be overwhelming and cumbersome. However, once you complete a lesson plan, called a zone lesson plan, it is quite easy. A zone lesson plan is used for each guided reading group. When you develop this plan it is not a new one for at least two weeks. The zone lesson plan is user friendly and can be developed for any grade or group.

There are five stages to move through with guided reading. From the text and class discussions they are pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, and applying. I moved through each of these stages with all of my groups. My students seemed to thrive through the use of guided reading. The year before our school just used the basal reader and the whole grade was taught the same story and had to take the same comprehension test every Friday. This did not work well in my classroom because most of not all of my students were English Language Learners (ELL) and their primary language was Spanish. I am so glad our school district is slowly moving towards guided reading which allows teachers to develop more differentiated instruction since our students are each individuals.

As future teachers, will you implement guided reading in your classroom? Pretend a parent comes up to you during parent/teacher conferences and states they think guided reading is pointless because they learned from reading a textbook. What would you tell them to support your views and use of guided reading in your classroom?

Group 7 Discussion Leader #2

Hi All,
I am tutoring a third grade boy who is reading at a seventh grade level. He has comprehension like you wouldn't believe-but his attention span is very short! My main focus with his is fluency and spelling (complex suffixes are difficult for him), so the familiar reading will help with fluency-but do you have any ideas for spelling that will keep his interest?

Group 2 Discussion #2 Joan Phillips

Hi everyone:

I have two pre-K children, and one of my reading tutoring goals is to have them use prior knowledge and picture clues to aid in comprehension. Any ideas on activities and ways to document their progress?

Group 9 Discussion # 2 Monica Stirling

I am tutoring two girls for literacy, and they are on totally different levels. Their initial assessments put them relatively close, but they seem to have strayed from the running records that were performed. I understand that this is real-world, as our studetns , even in the same grade/classroom, will not be on the same level, but it is difficult to plan a lesson when one will be done and bored long before the other will complete the assignment. Any suggestions for differentiating instruction for these girls? What about during reading time--should I just partner read with them individually, rather than having them partner read together? Any suggestions for writing? (The slower one writes more slowly, too).

Group 8 Amber Thorsen (2)

My tutee's writing is not very descriptive or interesting. The actual writing does show proof of good sentence structure with accurate puncuation and capitalization. What are some suggestions that I can consider for my future lessons without the use of worksheets? (student is going into 5th grade)

Discussion Group #2

Hi everyone,
My tutee is a five year old kindergartner. His teacher requested him to be held back and repeat kindergarten, if he doesn't repeat K, than his teacher is confident that he will need to repeat first grade. Of course, his mother doesn't want this to happen and has provided me with a list of areas he needs to work on. This list has become my goal guideline for lessons. Here are a few of the areas: know beginning and ending consonant letters and sounds, vowel patters, blending sounds, practicing reading using sight words and sounding out words. My question is: He is proficient when it comes to knowing all 26 letters of the alphabet and their individual sounds, but when I have him spell and say the words out loud listening for each beginning or ending sounds, he is not able to correctly answer. He is an ELL student and his mother has a hard time speaking English. Does anyone have any suggestions for activities that his mother could help him with, even though she doesn't speak fluent English?

Group 4-Discussion #2 Samantha Campbell

I am doing my practicum in a first grade classroom. During this practicum, I have been learning so many useful and effective techniques. One of them being how to incorporate writing workshop into the scheduled day. I know that all teachers do this differently but I thought I would share one that I found to be really helpful. The students are taught the five stages of the writing process and move throughout the five stages on a weekly basis at their own pace.
First, they all start out by prewriting. During this they are to draw a bubble map about one particular subject. The students are able to choose any subject that they want to add a little more creativity to their writing. Once they have made their bubble map they move onto drafting. When they have completed drafting, they move on to conference. The conference takes place with the teacher. The teacher and the student then sit together and discuss the student's writing. Once they both have gone over the story together the teacher gives the students 3 grades. One for genre, conventions, and composition. I found this technique of grading so useful because grading writing can be so hard especially at the primary grade levels. Once the teacher has given the child the grades they return to their seats to work on editing/revising and then they publish their work. Once they have published a story which includes drawing a picture to accompany their writing, they are able to share their stories with the class during sharing which happens right after lunch. The teacher as well as the students all know which stage of the writing process they are at because they are able to move a picture of themselves on a pocket chart located in the front of the classroom labeled Writing Workshop.
The students seem to really enjoy the way this system works. Especially when it is their turn to share. Once the students are finished sharing their story, they call on 3 students to tell them something they enjoyed about their story.
Like I mentioned, I have been learning so many useful techniques and feel as if I will never stop learning from others especially when I become a teacher.

Group 5 Reading Programs

I am doing my practicum in a school where they use the Voyager Reading program. This is the first time that I have been exposed to this program. In this program, all the lessons are scripted. The teachers basically have no say in what they do. The teacher’s just do all that the programs says step by step.
The fist week of my practicum, I was placed in a second grade class and using these Voyager books, all the students did was read and then fill out worksheets. Then they went on break so I got switched to third grade. In this grade, it’s also Voyager but they have more hands-on activities. I have heard many different opinions on reading programs. Some teachers are completely against them and some in favor of them. I am not really familiar with any other reading programs and I wanted to know what you guys think of them.

Group 3 - # 2 reading for enjoyment

By high school I hated to read on my own, but always read the assigned novel for lit. class. It is the only time I would have read what are considered great novels and I usually enjoyed reading them. Do you think assigning novels to read in upper elementary school discourages reading for pleasure or does it increase their enjoyment of reading by exposing them to types of books they would not chose on their own? should we let students chose their own novels to read, as in a reading workshop, or should we keep assigning novels to expose them to new, different kinds of novels?

Group 10: Discussion #2 Kelly Shea

I have noticed that many teachers will assign at home reading records for students to log in the amount of time they spend silently reading at home. However, I have also heard from students themselves that often times they just have their parents sign off on the reading record. In reality, the student has not read the actual 30 minutes assigned, or the parent does not know what their child is reading. Now, I do agree with doing reading records, and I think it can be an effective way to have students read at home. My question is, does anyone have any ideas of how to make this reading strategy effective so that the student is not just having their parent sign off on a sheet of paper each week?

Group 6, Discussion Leader 2 Katie Yardley, "What is Comprehension?"

The assessments we just completed with our tutees has really made me think a lot about comprehension. When my tutee first read to me I wondered why he neede tutoring because he is a pretty fluent reader. But, then I conducted the CRI and found out that he has trouble comprehending what he has read. He currently finished 3rd grade and is going into 4th. In "Literacy for the 21st Century, A Balanced Approach" the writer states "In the primary grades, developing reading fluency is an imprtant component of comprehension instruction because students need to learn to recognize words automatically so that they can concnetrate their attention on comprehending what they are reading (Samuels, 2002)" p. 227. I will be concentrating on helping my tutee learn the Eight Comprehnsion Strategies from the Tompkins text page 229. Comprehension is important because if a student does not understand what they are reading then reading will not be pleasurable for them and they will not continue to read. Comprehension is also important in writing. If students cannot clearly state their big ideas and relevent supporting detaiils in informational books and essays then the reader will not be able to understand what the writer has written. When this happens if means that comprehension has failed and the compositions are unsuccessful. Teaching comprehension will need to be a main focus in almost everything we do as teachers, from building background information, teaching minilessons on revising, and ecouraging students to ask questions to guide their reading.

Group 2- Tara Bauman- Phonemic Awareness

For my first practicum I am working with some lower level students who are having problems recognizing their sounds. Every day we meet in groups either reading or writng with the same 5 or 6 students. Every student speaks English but maybe speaks a different language at home. Some students have speech problems and some have low self- confidence. We will start with writing a sentence, which has to inlcude a spelling word for the week. When we start sounding out letters some of these students do not even know the letter sounds and start guessing b when I make a g sound. They have been working one on one with a teacher all year, but still have issues matching the sounds to letters. What are some ways that you guys are practicing sounds of letters in your classrooms, how are you praticing writing the words out? We do centers every day that give these students about 30 minutes every day to practice writing.

Group 7 - Melissa Bower - Integrating Technology and Literacy

The class that I normally observe was on a field trip today so instead I observed in another 3rd grade classroom. This classroom is known as the technology guinea pigs. This classroom is equipt with 3 computers and enough laptops for the rest of the students to have one each. Today they were learning how to create a 5 page power point of how a volcano erupts; adding sentances of information to each. The program they were using was called Kid Pixs.
I believe this program is a great way for the students to have fun with the program while learning how to apply technology to their everyday lives, in bother reading and writing. The students can even use this program to create stories with pictures that they find or they create. On the other hand, nothing beats a pencil and paper with the system crashes or files get lost. So my question to you is this: How do you feel about integrating technology into the classroom when it comes to reading and writing? Do you think it is a good idea for each student to be able to access thier own laptop? Last, what would you do, as a teacher, if technology is required in your lessons but, you have a parent that refuses to let thier child use it?

Group 10-Lauren Fraser- Interest Inventory

"Does anyone ever read to you?" Sean's response, "No." This was one of the questions we had to ask in our Interest Inventory assessment. I was surprised when the student I was interviewing, Sean, answered with a flat out no to the question asking if anyone ever reads to him. What I thought was even more interesting was that Sean told me he does not like reading at all and he especially does not like reading aloud. I started to wonder whether or not Sean would enjoy reading more if he had a family member at home or a teacher that read aloud to him. What do you think about that? Do you think a persons success or enjoyment in reading depends on whether or not someone reads to them on a regular basis?

Group 4—Deb Lim—Assessing Students’ Literacy Development

I liked the statement at the beginning of the chapter that affirmed “the purpose of reading and writing assessment is to collect meaningful information or data about what students know and are able to do” [p. 298 (italics mine)]. It is a reminder of our main focus as teachers: to enable students to become independent learners. We cannot do this without knowing the individual student’s level and on what areas the instructor must concentrate with him/her.

I was interested in the writing rubric on p. 313 as it very concisely outlines expectations, acting as a reference for both teacher and student. It is difficult to grade writing as opposed to mathematics, science, or another more linear subject because generally speaking, when it comes to language arts, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” It is practically impossible to be completely objective when you are reading someone else’s work. The writing may be perfectly coherent and well-expressed to one person and yet be absolutely confusing and senseless to another. That is why a rubric is valuable. It offers a tangible guideline for grading—something that holds both parties accountable. As a sideline, it also provides a safety net for teachers who need to explain their methods of marking to higher authorities or irate parents who believe their child deserved a higher grade.

Group 1-kindergarten-Wendy T.V. "Phonemic Awareness"

The kindergartens from my class are beginning to write simple sentences. Everyday they develop their ability to hear and manipulate the sounds of spoken language. The teacher reinforces their phonemic awareness through dynamic activities that direct their attention to sounds in words, such as rhyming and alliteration games. The teacher also allows them to experiment with the language and create their own rhyming words; however, in the end she makes sure to clarify which ones are make believe words. Everything goes well in the classroom, but when the children go home many of them do not get to practice what they have learned in class for they do not count with support and guidance at home. In addition, many of the children speak a language other than English, and therefore are not exposed to the sounds of the English language enough so as to increase phonemic awareness. How could we help these children to continue practicing in their home? What activities could effectively strengthen their ability to recognize and manipulate sounds of oral language -considering the fact that English is not the primary language spoken in their home?

Group 6-De'Ana Mauldin-Balanced Literacy

Since starting Practicum 1, I have been placed in both a first grade class and a second grade class. I can honestly say that even though the children in these grades are very close in age, their literacy abilities are a bit different. In observing the second grade class, I have noticed that their literacy abilities are a bit more advanced. For example, in my second grade classroom, I witnessed a firsthand experience with Balanced Literacy. What I witnessed was Interactive Writing. I felt that it was wonderful to experience a teacher and her students making a collaborative effort to write text. The teacher and her students developed a story together (this was based on the sun and various components of the Solar System). One great thing here was that the teacher was able to review the writing skills of her students. This was mainly because of this assignment being a collaborative effort. Now that I have provided an example of Interactive Writing, I would like to raise one question about it. Do you feel that another component of Interactive Writing could possibly receive more emphasis than the review of student writing skills? Maybe you will fill that increased spelling knowledge, opportunities to apply what has been learned, etc. will receive more emphasis. Lastly, as I was looking through the book "Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach," I found this to be an interesting quote, "We must teach students the processes of reading and writing, as well as how to use reading and writing as learning tools (11)." What exactly is being interpreted here? In regards to this quote and Balanced Literacy, I feel that children can develop strategies to enhance their ability to engage in independent reading. I also feel that children will utilize many reading and writing resources that will relate to their everyday lives.

Group 5-Shannon Lively-Reading

I am currently doing my practicum in 2nd grade and I have noticed that they do a lot of independent reading. First thing in the morning when they come in they spend about 25 minutes silent reading. Later, after lunch, they spend another 15 minutes silent reading. The students have a structured reading block as well which consists of using their reading books. The reading block begins with the teacher read aloud followed by the teacher reading a story and leading a class discussion. Throughout the day, if a student finishes work early, they are instructed to silent read. The students pick their own books and there is no assignment that goes along with the reading. I have observed students changing books very quickly and not really engaged in the reading. They turn a few pages and switch books, but never really read much. What are your thoughts on reading this much each day? Do you think that students will like reading if they are forced to silent read so many times a day? What are some ways that we can help our students be engaged in reading and enjoy it? I feel that it is so important that students at any age find books that they like, and not all reading should be assigned reading. Having said that, should there be an activity that the students complete after reading a story so that they read for a purpose?

Group #8- Nadine Bauer, "Reading Assessments"

The reading assessments that are given to the students in third grade, are really valuable tools for the teachers and parents. I have seen in my co-op teacher assessing students on their reading abilities and it just blows my mind. I had a chance to view the assessments from the beginninng of the school year compared to now. One of the assessments was "timed" reading, where third graders must be able to read 110 words per minute. The first set of assessments only about 3 of the 18 students could read about 100 wpm. I was amazed to see that the recent tests showed that more than half the students in a class have increased their wpm by at least 20-40 more!! My teacher is very into having them read, they must read out loud especially at home. She is constantly reminding them that listening to experienced readers will help them become better readers, reading needs to be done fluently and with clarity!! My co-op teacher explained to me that even though these are important assessments, it does take time to complete, but to make sure to get it done so that you have evidence to hopefully show improvement.

Group Three-Alexandria Smith-Interactive Writing

Something that I found really interesting was on page 102 of Literacy for the 21st Century. It states that interactive writing is children and the teacher both take part in creating a text and “share the pen” as they write text on chart paper. The text is composed by both the teacher and the students, and the teacher guides children as they write the text word by word on chart paper. Children take turns writing known letters and familiar words, adding punctuation marks, and marking spaces between words on the chart paper. I like the fact that all of the students participate in creating and writing and correcting the text on the chart paper and they also have the chance to write it again on small white boards or whatever is used. This is repetition for them. There are different methods of using this process. Some are predictions on a story, letters, or reports. Students can learn concepts about print, letter-sound relationships and spelling patterns, handwriting concepts, and capitalization and punctuation skills. There are different concepts in one idea. Do you think that it is a good idea for every student participates even if they don’t want to or don’t know the answer? This may cause the students to participate in case they get called on. What do you think?
I have noticed, in the morning, with my practicum class that the teacher writes sentences on a white board and have the students correct them. There will be two sentences or one long sentence to correct. The teacher writes how many mistakes are in each sentence. The teacher reads it to them, gives them some clues and then gives them a couple of minutes to correct the mistakes or as many as they can find. The students also rewrite the sentence on a piece of paper that is provided. The teacher then gives them the answer. Do you think that it is a good idea to give out the answer or let some of the students to correct the sentences?

Group 9-Simone B- forms of literacy

In my 4th grade practicum, I am in the class during their reading and writing block. During journals I've noticed that many students have trouble writitng more than a couple sentences and others are writing half a page. Many of the students chose to draw after they write something and they usually ask, "is it okay if a draw a picture of this...?". If there are a couple of sentences the teacher will usually say "okay". If they are drawing about what they wrote they are connecting the subject, and I know that some students are very visual, but I feel like allowing students to draw all the time is hindering their writing ability. I've worked with kindergarten classes and they were prompted to draw a picture with their writing, but I'm in a 4th grade class. Some students do have trouble wrtiting and organizing their thoughts but I don't think drawing is really helping them rather distracting them from writing. Do you think encouraging drawing is beneficial or a hinderance for writing? Does it depend on their ability? And should drawing be discouraged after a certain age?