Connections

I have really enjoyed Esperanza Rising so far. What makes the most excited about teaching is literature analysis. It was so fun to get into authentic literature, and practice the things that I will expect my students to do in the future. In class/Flint when roles were mentioned, I was very intrigued. I never had to take roles in literature discussion in middle school, instead my teacher had us keep literary journals. In these journals we could write anything that we thought about while reading - questions, predictions, connections, history. I think this approach is wonderful, because it does not restrain students to one avenue of thought.

Esperanza Rising

I thought it was very interesting how so many people had not had the experience of having discussion groups for literature. It seems to me to be a very easy way to promote a deeper connection with the book. When you get to hear what other people think and why it helps you to make new connections and build on already established schema. I think it can be a very effective tool especially in higher grade levels when they are starting to think more abstractly.

Esperanza Rising

Only half way into this novel, I absolutely love Esperanza Rising. It has opened my mind to a culture, language, and journey that I am not familiar with. When reading this book, mainly Aesthetic questions, ideas, and emotions came to mind. I really felt for Esperanza when her father passed away as I could not imagine how horrible of a feeling that would be. And then to lose your house, memories, belongings, and be forced to move to the United States where you will then live in poverty rather than enjoying the finer things in which you have always been used to. I think this book is a great one to expose middle school children to because it shows unfortunate events to a very blessed young girl and shows others to not take advantage of what you have and to cherish your relationships rather than material belongings.

Esperanza Rising

I have really enjoyed reading this book. It has been so nice to get away from the text book style writing and enjoy a piece of literature. One of the things that has really stuck out to me through out this text was the use of Spanish words. When the author puts in the Spanish vocabulary, it is always accompanied by the English transition. I think that this is very valuable for students to see other cultures with out being physically exposed to them. Coming from a school that didn't teach Spanish in Elementary or Middle levels, I believe that text such as Esperanza Rising can be critical to a students language development. I remember reading a book where the author took a similar approach to putting both of the translations in the text, and the words that I encountered in that book were the phrases that I can still remember.

Assessment

I found this weeks readings to be very interesting on the topic of assessment. I think that Johnston and Ray make excellent points that one, assessment is filled with social interaction and has a lot more to do with than simply giving a grade. It can affect how a student perceives him or herself as well as his or her literacy skills. I also think an important point that was talked about was the fact that as teachers, we need to look for intentionality in our students' work, so that we can praise them. Assessment shouldn't just be what one need to work on, but rather what they do well and should continue to develop. I think that this is a hard concept maybe for many of us, because it is opposite of what we have experienced throughout our years in school; however I definitely think it is an important aspect to assessment of any kind!

Poems

I really enjoyed the form poems we did in class. I am always curious to find new ways to help readers with comprehension. At first, I was very confused at how these poems worked - but creating one in class (or beginning to) was very interesting. I think, going along with Ray's discussion of writing craft, this will be a great tool for focusing on new vocabulary and how to put into use in current writing.

Reading like a writer.

This week in another class we were talking about comprehension skills in middle school. One of the big problems in middle school is that most content teachers don't focus on literacy skills. We were discussing comprehension and how children with high level skills read compared to how children with low levels skills read. One of the points was that teachers should get the students to "read like a writer." I thought it was interesting to hear this outside of Ray and in a different context. Instead of focusing on "reading like a writer" in the process of writing we were looking at using it as a tool for comprehension. Which makes complete sense. If kids are thinking about the hows and whys of authors they are considering more then just the craft of writing they are making predictions about the text itself. It was really neat to have this skill turned a different way and really made it prevalent in my thinking. After all anything that will help you multitask while teaching is I'm sure a good thing.

Pre-writing Importance

Watching the video and reading the readings this week, I really learned the importance of pre-writing activities. I always thought they were important but never realized the huge effect they have on many areas of a child's writing. I think that Ray makes a good point that when talking about a topic of writing, students should focus not only on what they are going to write about but rather, how they are going to write about it. I think that this brainstorming stage can be the most important to get students to take an idea and run with it as opposed to just writing a simple story that lacks details.

Free week

:)

Cedar Ridge

I feel like I got a lot more out of this clinical visit than last time. I observed Mr. Miles' class and as soon as we got there he let everyone go outside to learn about Phonemic Awareness. I was so intrigued by some of the activities he was doing relating to rhyming, alliterations, etc and even found myself participating and being sort of stumped with some of the words! I liked the way that he cued the class to clap to get them involved. His classroom was set up in a fun yet organized manner and even his classroom management skills were pretty effective from the short time that I was there.

Cedar Ridge

I absolutely loved the observations at Cedar Ridge this time around. I observed several second grade bilingual pull out reading groups. The teacher related her instruction very closely to what we have been reading and the "Big 5." One example was with phonetics, the teacher asked the students to write words that she said. Each student got a small white board and wrote their answers on their own board, sounding out each letter. To start, she allowed the students to do some independent reading on their own. She also did pre-reading activities in which she asked students what they knew about the book and went over key vocabulary words. After reading together, the teacher recapped the story with the students. I think the small group size and constant interaction made the group very successful!

VIdeo & Cedar Ridge

I really enjoyed watching the video about guided reading. I thought it was extremely interesting to compare and contrast the differences that I saw the class after watching the movie. At cedar ridge I was given the opportunity to see a guided reading session take place. I thought that the teacher did a very good job promoting fluency and other components of the big 5. The only thing that I didn't like about the guided reading session was that the teacher couldn't keep her eyes on the rest of the class. In the end it all worked out! :)

Guided Reading

I enjoyed watching the guided reading video tapes. I thought the kids seemed engaged but I also wondered how much of that was for the taping and how a real class room would respond. It all seemed very scripted and almost like a sales pitch. Did anyone else get this impression? Maybe I am being overly sensitive. I think guided reading could be a very useful activity for your class. I can see all the different ways you could incorporate it into your room. I thought the magnetic letters to show the variations on words was a great idea and I will definitely be using that in the future. I like that it is in small groups so it is more interactive for all those in the group.

Lesson Plans and Four resource Model

Before this class and my C&I 204 class, I have never constructed a lesson plan before. When the assignment was presented, I was a bit nervous as I had no idea where to begin. After reading this chapter in Flint and forming ideas based on the four-resource model, I now have tons of ideas that I cannot wait to incorporate into my classroom. While we know how to teach literacy to children, sometimes finding engagements for the classroom time can be difficult as we do not want to send students on their way to read a story and answer questions. Flint did a great job presenting different ideas for future teachers to use in this chapter such as Roots and Branches, Class Homophone Dictionary, DSTA, Four Square, and Vocabulary Squares.

Creating Postcards

I really liked the project idea that Flint talked about on page 243. The idea was that students make postcards corresponding to the text that they have recently read. On one side the student reflects on the theme of the text and write additional comments about how they felt while on the other side they illustrate something they remember from the material. I really liked how this project incorporated art into a reading comprehension strategy. I feel like teachers often get so caught up in teaching the materials and creating successful students that they forget that when you make the material personal to the student (ie: having them draw if they like drawing) it helps them make connections it and remember it.

Reading Exercizes Movie Clip

I thought that the video clip we saw in class about literacy instruction in the bilingual classroom was REALLY good! I love how the teacher gave the students the responsibility of making a list of ways to figure out unknown words. I think it was important that the students understood that one word can be defined by using many different ideas. I think that the reading centers and progression that Flint talks about as well is super important and an activity that applies to all students. I liked how the students progressed to working independently, only after teacher instruction, whole class group work and partners. It's a good way to have students share their ideas and aid their peers by putting their heads together. Because after all, the students all had distinct ways of figuring out the definition of an unknown word in a distinct text. This skill is so important to learn at a young age, because as a bilingual education major, this skill has been stressed throughout all my classes. It is especially important for English language learners to be able to you these skills to identify and understand unfamiliar words.
Another unrelated note: the students were so well behaved in the class and worked so well together. They were even all on task during group work and look the assignment very seriously. I hope that as a teacher I can conduct my classroom in such an organized way!!!