I observe a 5th grade class that has reading time everyday. Each child picks a book and fills out a worksheet each day pertaining to the book they chose. I am unaware of what is exactly on that worksheet but I do know that they have to identify the genre and turn in their worksheets at the end of this week. The students are free to choose any book they like from the class library which has books of all genres; biographies, short stories, historical fiction, etc. There does not seem to be any sort of limit or rule on how many books in one genre the students are allowed to read, which does not prevent students from choosing picture books every time. The students also have a free write which is also due at the end of each week. Mrs. C believes writing is extremely important and has the students "publish" their writing onto nice paper after a rough draft. It is imperative to her that the students receive exposure to various genres of writing such as narrative, expository, etc.
While the students are asked to read each day, Mrs. C. does take one reading group at a time to help with the decoding many students have trouble with. There are 8 special education students in our class who read at a lower reading level so Mrs. C feels it is imperative to give the students who need more help the practice they need to at least be able to read through literature. She realizes that without the basic knowledge of decoding, it is difficult for students to further develop their literature skills and form personal connections to reading and writing.
I really enjoyed how Leland focused on the importance of exposing students to critical literature at a young age. I would also implement critical literature into my classroom to open students up to social issues. From Kim's experience, it is obvious that this triggers much more involvement from students. This is a great way to help bring students out of their norm and question society. As a child, it is not surprising to have your parents' mindset, but literature is a great way to help us form our own ideas and question our beliefs.
Not only is it important to involve critical literature into the curriculum, but writing is also imperative to help students develop their skills. In elementary school, we spent a lot of time writing grammatically correct sentences, spelling words, or writing random words in cursive. This does not seem to help with the development of writing skills. By involving creative writing, this could really bring out ideas in a different way. Writing can be an indirect way of evoking one's thoughts and can be a great media for students to ask and answer questions about social issues. By providing students with various creative reading and writing activities, it enables students to see that different interpretations are expected. One great way to help students realize this is the "thought-tappers" idea from the Langer article. This term can help students recognize that answers and questions to literature are not always right on the surface and straight forward; they can involve deeper thinking.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Literacy Instruction
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I really liked that your teacher, Mrs. C, incorporates writing to such a high degree and really encourages them to publish there own writing at that age. I feel like when students get to middle school it is extremely vital to encourage and reiterate the importance of writing so they can continue to develop key concepts for themselves and their future in the real world. I also enjoyed Leland's article on the importance of helping students create their own mindset; we all know our parents values can have an immense impact on our own while reading and writing in school. I believe it is the teachers role as an educator to provide the students with a diverse variety of genres and lifestyles that can be presented to all types of students.
ReplyDeleteI observe in a second grade classroom where reading and writing are practiced everyday and almost all day besides math time in the afternoons. From what I have observed, writing is an essential lesson in my mentor teachers classroom. She has the students write in their "journals" about whatever topic they choose. I have observed and reflected on this activity numerous times since last semester. My thoughts on this vary due to the fact that the idea of writing in a journal is useful however how this activity is played out by my mentor teacher seems to be incomplete. The student will write in these journals everyday and then after share what they wrote to the whole class, I agree with this idea and think it can be very beneficial to the students. On the other hand, my MT does not ever review or revise these journal entries and she gives them no guidelines or prompts to write about when they can not brainstorm their own ideas. in my opinion, my MT needs to revise and edit these writings so the students can learn from their mistakes and be able to improve! I also would suggest that maybe having a prompt for the students maybe once or twice a week would be a good way for the students to understand different structures of writing. Obviously it is important that the students learn how to free write but I believe giving a prompt a couple times a week, instead of free write all week, would be constructive for their learning.
In the Tompkins reading, the author listed a number of ways in which you can incorporate the Internet into literacy learning. One of the suggestions was using the internet for researching informational topics, which I have seen in my mentor teachers classroom. My teacher has taught social studies lessons before about the pilgrims, the government (mayor and taxes), etc. In all of these lessons the students will have a number of questions about the topic, my mentor teacher will have the students think about questions they want answered and then have the students go home and research more about that topic. As stated in the reading, students must learn how to "surf the web" in this day and age due to all the technology development increasing.
In my placement, my mentor teacher does the majority of her reading lessons in circle groups. She has the students separated into groups of 4 or 5, and most of the centers are literacy centers. During this time, she conducts her progress monitoring assessments by rotating the groups and administering them to the same groups of 4 or 5. The center activities usually consist of Junior Scrabble, Quiet Reading (when students bring the stories they got from the school library to the carpet and read quietly), and writing centers. For writing, Mrs. D provides the students with daily prompts to get them started.
DeleteI think that it is interesting to think about literature in terms of genre. Being in the teacher preparation program, I have always had classes where the main focus was on using literature in the classroom and acquiring ways for us to integrate literature in other subject areas. I have not seen my mentor teacher put much effort into diversifying her in-class library. However, I do know that she strongly believes that various religions should be discussed, so that children are open-minded to other religions. I think that this idea was motivated by the fact that she has a student who is a Jehovah's Witness. I agree that it is important to use literature to educate students on various backgrounds. What I find problematic is when the parents are so adamant about their religion and practices that they are not accepting of understanding anything else.
I also took a liking to Leland’s article. I particularly liked the focus that was placed on critical literacy. I think that many teachers are afraid to step out of their comfort zone, and realm of expertise when it comes to “touchy subjects”. However, if they choose not to diversify their class literature, assignments, and story content, then they are limiting themselves as educational professionals. I think that teachers get confused when it comes to critical literacy. They interchange awareness of social issues and integration of social issues. That is to say, that there is a unique difference between knowing about what goes on in various communities, and bringing those issues to the forefront to expound on with your students.
I also enjoyed the Hassett article. After taking TE 348, which focused on various types and forms of literature, I am very familiar with the importance of using texts about various cultures and perspectives. However, I never gave much thought to the fact that font is used to express the mood and emotions of characters within certain books. For example, I have read several of the Mo Willems books but I never paid attention to the way that the pigeon was actually speaking to the readers. I am very interested in using this knowledge the next time I read a children’s book.