GLT Reflection

So I JUST realized that when I posted this blog previously it never actually posted. Gotta love technology!

I learned a lot while doing my guided lead teaching, and it had many results, both expected and unexpected. In the end, the unit I taught was not at all the unit I originally planned, though I still got the results that I originally wanted.

Several lessons into my teaching of the writing trait Voice, I realized that they were not getting what I was trying to teach them at all. Because of this, I completely replanned my unit so that I could still accomplish the objectives that I had set forth.

Because of this, I learned a lot about flexibility. At first, I was really reluctant to change my plans. I thought that it would admit failure if I admitted that I needed to change something. It took me a while to realized that that is not what it was admitting. It was admitting that I was inexperienced, which is true. I tried to take on too much at one time, and I fully admit that now.

However, I was amazed at the results that I got in the end, even though it took a longer windier road than I had originally planned. The voice that they put into emotion in their stories was incredible, and it will be a great stepping stone to adding voice to other aspects of writing as well.

I gained a lot of confidence in myself, and I learned a lot about myself. I know that this will not be the first time that I have to redo a lesson or a unit. I'm very fortunate that the first time that it happened I had my CT there to help me and back me up.

Reading their final drafts has given me so much excitement to take on lead teaching and continue teaching literacy, probably because it has made me less afraid to make mistakes.

GLT Reflection

After completing my guided lead teaching I felt that the unit went extremely well overall. I felt that for the most part my students did learn a great deal about what it means to visualize and how it can help them as readers. When I think specifically about the three consecutive lessons that I did, I feel that even in that short period of time my students were grasping what visualizing was. The first three lessons of my unit focused on the introduction of visualization and how to use this strategy. Further into the unit is when I got into teaching how and why visualization an help us as readers, but the first two lessons focused on what it was and how I used it as an example. Students would try to do what I did when I modeled visualizing for them during think aloud, however for the most part it was trial and error. The students were just getting a feel for what it was on a basic level. Because I began this unit on a Wednesday, I had them do this trial and error for about two days- just feeling visualization out. And that Friday I had my students illustrate their visualization from our poem of the week. Students are used to doing an activity like this illustration activity. Students usually illustrate the poem of the week on Fridays, so it worked perfect to incorporate something they do regularly into the visualization unit- however usually it is just okay think about the poem and draw a picture. This time it was more of an assessment for me to see if they understood the concept of reading the words, imagining what that would look like for them, specifically and then illustrating it on paper. Having them illustrate gave me a hardcopy of an example of them visualizing based on the introduction of this unit.

Overall I felt that the majority of my students did learn visualization as a comprehension skill. I felt that I had a couple students who struggled with the difference between making text to self-connections and visualizing. I had numerous students give examples of their visualizations as related them to something they see themselves doing like the person in the book was doing. This is more of a text to self-connection than visualization. I tried to reiterate and re teach that a visualization is illustrating the book in your mind, so instead of seeing yourself doing what the character is doing—you should actually create a picture in your mind of the actual character doing what you are reading about, and visualizing what that character looks like in your mind.

Based on my students’ interpretations of the poetry from their visualization illustrations I found that many students actually really tried to illustrate based on the exact text. For example, the poem read “Come said the wind to the leaves one day,” I had students who drew actual wind and dialogue saying, “wind” including quotation marks. I felt that for the students who did that it was so easy to interpret that they understood what visualization was. I also had quite a range between students who illustrated that way and students who kind of drew leaves of all different shapes, colors and sizes—in non-traditional leaf or outdoor colors, and initially I felt these students maybe did not understand visualization. But I think I changed my interpretation because I feel that I taught visualization in a very subjective way that because we all have our own knowledge and experiences our visualization are based on OUR minds, and OUR schema. I made a point to teach visualization in this way so that students would get a chance to express their imagination, and see that because we are all different we all have a different schema, therefore we all have different visualizations. So initially I found that I was only thinking some of my students properly visualized the poem, but then I realized that between first and second graders visualization illustrations can embody a wide range of drawings. So instead of looking for specific things from the text, I just looked to see that the drawings were obviously coming from the poem. Meaning- I looked for leaves, and some sort of sky or wind in the pictures. This was only the first hardcopy type of assessment I had collected, so I was solely looking to see how students had begun to interpret visualizing and the idea behind it.

I do not think I am going to re teach a lot of this information, because by the end of the unit I felt that the students really had a good grasp of the material. I know that visualization comes up again each year in the making meaning curriculum—but I felt that we spent enough time on it where my students were benefiting from it. If I were to teach these lessons again- instead of having the poem illustration on the first Friday I would have done something a little more specific. I would have had the words from the poem, or another poem separated onto a blank piece of paper. I would have sentence by sentence and then a space to illustrate their visualization for that specific sentence, I did this later in my unit for a book we read that I only showed some of the pictures and we illustrated our visualizations of the pages I did not show- this was a really great lesson that helped me to really assess how they were understanding visualization. If I were to do these lessons again, after the initial introduction lessons on days 1 and 2, I would do the poem on day 3 but just having it separated so that I could really have students focus on reading a certain line and then visualizing that certain line. I think this change would help the students to better understand why visualizing helps us to understand our reading. This would allow students to practice reading a sentence and then visualizing that sentence, this practice would show them how they are really paying attention to one specific part of the text to better understand.

Unit Lesson reflection

My three lessons were based on the program making meaning. For this unit we focused primarily on making self to text connections and depicting the parts of a story such as setting, characters, problem, solution, and conclusion. During these stories vocabulary terms students may struggle with, especially ELL, were highlighted. This was modeling comprehension for the students and stopping to reflect what we read and how we understand what we are reading.

After completing three lessons I think students definitely began to grasp the concept of text to self connections. They are also doing very well with parts of a story and depicting these parts. Students are, however, now confusing comprehension questions with self to text connections. When I ask students to discuss a certain part of the story a couple will respond with a connection as opposed to reflecting on the question provided. I am thrilled that they are eager to participate and discuss connections they have made with the book but they are confused about what is actually being asked. This also goes for students making self to text connections. Some students will write down what the book is about, providing evidence from the text, but not connecting to their own lives. This is still a work in progress.

Other interpretations I gained from these three lessons are that many of my students are struggling with comprehension in their own reading as opposed to read aloud. Students were able to read silently on their own and then write on a sticky note a connection they made to the text. Many more students struggled doing this as opposed to talking about it with their making meaning partner and then sharing with the whole class. I had thought that this was the case but I now can pinpoint more accurately who is struggling with this and how to address this.

As for my students’ literacy practices that extend beyond my objectives, I learned that many of my students do well when they are given an assignment that is quick and structured. For example, I just had them jot down their ideas on a sticky note, which was a quick assessment that allowed every student to feel successful. Often times some of our strong writers will write a great deal while others only write a sentence. The sticky note challenged students to keep their idea short and allowed every student feel as if they can complete an assignment like this.

Because the main focus of these lessons were based on making connections and elements to a story we will be revisiting these topics a great deal. These lessons were completed at the beginning of the unit and we focus on these skills throughout the unit to reinforce what is being taught. Students who are struggling will have an opportunity to answer the same questions but based on a different story.

After reflecting on my lessons I think I would have made a couple changes. I needed to set the ground rules for making meaning before each lesson which is to sit with your partner, no talking unless I tell you to turn and talk and all eyes must be on the book. Some students who did not understand the lesson fully were playing with their shoe or their neighbor’s hair etc. Overall I would be stricter in management but I am currently working on this as the rest of the unit progresses.

Lessons Reflection

Each of my lessons were different from each other, as well as similar.
Over all three of my lessons students learned how to make predictions, why we make predictions, comparing and contrasting stories and characters through a venn diagram, making text to self connections, text to text and understanding theme. There were lots of different concepts here that students had to work through and learn about. Many of them did well and were able to succeed, I knew this because they could retell what happened in the stories- make inferences on what would happen, give me comparisons, stories, etc. Those that struggled were students that could not understand what was being taught- whether that is because they are choosing not to, they are very low and cannot understand, they are ELL and have no idea what is being said to them or they just were not listening because they 'didn't feel like it' these students struggled during the three lessons. They could not give me all the details and stories, comparisons- even when asked it was hard for them to understand.

I always took alternate reads of my students during the three lessons (I do this throughout the entire day actually) looking at students body language. Their eyes- are they focused? Their bodies- are they moving around because they are bored to death? Their comments they are making- do they relate or are they off topic? Are they interrupting because they don't know how else to participate? These were questions that I took into account during each lesson. If I noticed that this was happening I would try to think of something that I knew they liked or were interested in and if I could relate it to the story. I would try to ask them personally or give them praise in order to get them involved. These reads were able to help me determine how I can improve other lessons that I teach them to make sure these students are staying on track and are part of the classroom learning.

Throughout each of my three lessons I learned that my students (when they were paying attention) were able to meet my objectives and certain students were able to go beyond them. Unique in each lesson my students were able to look back on their predictions and determine if they were correct or how they were different. This was a surprise because I did not include this in my objectives. They also were able to show me an understanding for venn diagrams. I was skeptical on this because for second grade I was not sure if they would be able to grasp what this was and why we use it. For some of my students they had a great understanding and were doing it on their own- going beyond my objectives.

I will be re-teaching all of the material listed above throughout the rest of my time in this classroom. Everyday we are making predictions, comparing and contrasting, looking at theme and the big idea of a topic in all of the subjects. I will be focusing on these ideas during literacy when we have other read aloud, when we work on literacy ideas and in writing. Throughout the entire day, throughout the rest of the year. I will provide these students with additional support because I want them to succeed in what is being taught and I will work one on one with them in the areas (when I can) that I notice they are lacking. Re-teaching the material throughout the year will hopefully give them a chance to find an understanding in an area.

If I were to teach these lessons again what I would do different would be unique to each individual lesson. I have reflected on this idea in each of my individual lessons that we are turing in but I can do a quick re-cap here. I would try to include the students that were showing boredom by asking them personally questions and giving more praise. I would give more examples and provide more models for the students that need the additional support because it gives them a chance to 'piggy back' on an idea and this will help them then think of their own down the road. I would make sure that students were listening and make sure that everyone was trying to enjoy the story. It is impossible to always please everyone but sometimes I noticed that students were bored because the stories were a bit long ( I might pick shorter books next time as well.) My class cannot sit as long as I made my lessons so I had to adjust them as I went along. There are always things that I think I can change for all of the lessons that I teach- that is how I learn and I know that is how my students learn.

Lesson Plan Reflection

My lesson involve my students taking a deeper look at character traits. Students were placed into groups and then given an Arthur character to study. I wanted my students to become experts at distinguishing between internal, external, and the thoughts/ideas of their character. Being able to collaborate and work with others was another big portion of my lessons because almost the entire project involved small group work. 

I believe that all of my students learned how to better work with others. This was my biggest fear going into my lesson because my students are so young and this lesson involved lots of small group work. This is a skills that will transfer to so many other areas of their lives and I am excited to have given them the opportunity to expand on this skill now. All of my students definitely struggled with determining a character’s thought process or ideas. This was a brand new concept coming into my lessons and I do not think that the Arthur lessons were a good for introducing this concept. I had seven different character groups which made it very difficult to include every character in every book. This is what made it extremely difficult to understand a character’s thought. For example, the character Binky is not in ever book and is definitely not the main character, making it difficult to grasp his thought process. Next time I teach these lessons, I will teach thought/ideas using another book or prior to these lessons. 

I was very surprised with how my students performed. It was so exciting to see students at all levels getting into this assignment and working so well with others. Looking back at the students work, I can see just how much prior knowledge and information they gathered from the Arthur website they used in their assignments. I never taught nor did I emphasize students to draw on the information from books, websites, prior knowledge, etc. I wanted this to be a natural act. My students did a great job and definitely drew on their resources.

My students need much more support than I ever expected when choosing different character traits. During discussions, students did a great job and they were able to pick tier two words. However while they were in their groups, students began choosing certain hobbies or items that their character liked. It was very difficult to change a 2nd graders thinking so that they could use what their character liked to do and change it into a trait. My objectives never touched upon students thinking so literally. Next time, I want my students to involve themselves in deeper leveled thinking.

I do not think that I would change anything for students who need additional support. In my classroom, I have ELL learners and also some students that are well below grade level in literacy. I had numerous conferences with groups to make sure they were on the right thinking track which helped me to clarify any misconceptions that the students had. Conferencing so often was a great way to re-teach certain material that was misunderstood.

If I was to re-teach this lesson again, I would make sure that my students had a strong understanding as to how to determine a character’s thought process and/or feelings. My students struggled with this aspect of character traits and I do not believe that these lessons are good for introducing this concept. Making this slight change would improve students’ learning drastically. 

Fluency and comprehension

Unlike the other contributors to this blog, I interning in a third grade. When dealing with fluency and comprehension, I feel that there is a major difference in skill level between the two grades. That being said, we do have five students who are not reading in my class.

I have really been thinking about one of these students lately. She is a "newcomer" as my school calls her. She recently moved from another non-English speaking country. She is completely literate in her native language, but that language uses a different alphabet. Since moving to the United States in September, she has completely learned the new alphabet and the sounds that go along with all of the consonants, as well as some of the basic vowel sound rules.

At this point her fluency is better than some of the other children in our class. The principal of Vandenberg often invites English language learners to read for her as a way of encouragement. The child from my class was already invited to read for her. She got to read two books, and got all but one word right. One of the children in our class heard her practicing before she got to go. She was really excited for her classmate. In fact, she said to me, "I had no idea she knew how to read. That is awesome!" The principal's reaction was similar to this child's classmate. When I spoke with the principal, she was exclaimed about how far she had come in a month and a half.

However, she also spoke of one other thing. The principal asked the child questions while she was reading. She said to her, "What does jump mean?" The child got out of her seat and jumped. The principal then asked, "What does tap mean?" The child looked at her blankly.

Is this child reading? The answer to me is simple. She does not speak English. She knows some basic words that have been specifically taught to her. Her vocabulary is expanding every single day, but the fact remains that she is not even socially fluent yet, let alone academically fluent. She is great at pronouncing different words, but that does not mean that she knows what she is reading.

There are two components of reading, and both really need to be present to be able to say that a child is really reading. While this child is in a great position to be an efficient reader because she is learning the words she needs for comprehension, and her fluency is making great strides every day, right now she is simply pronouncing words.

Fluency and Comprehension

This is an interesting topic when working with emergent readers. People often think that students are fluent so they can read. Parents can't understand why their child is in a lower guided reading group because they can read all of the words correctly. But what is reading really? As the readings have pointed out fluency is the act of decoding and "reading" words correctly but comprehension is actually understanding what all of these words mean. Without comprehension, students are not effective readers and cannot learn or process what they read.

This struggle between fluency and comprehension is especially prevalent within my classroom. Out of 27 students i have 14 that are bilingual and are English language learners. We had an incredibly interesting professional development seminar during one of our staff meetings based on our ELL learners because many of the teachers in the buildings are new and have no experience working with ELL students who come into the classroom with little to no English background. During this seminar we learned that although our students can survive in our classroom with basic commands, can speak english with their peers, and can read this is only the beginning. Our students who are learning English for the first time will pick up phrases and will be able to decode words. They even might have a high level of fluency but comprehension is so crucial for these students. Teachers and parents struggle with separating the two and this was an emphasis at the meeting. We learned that ELL will not be able to actually read for context fluently with comprehension and retain information until they have been immersed in the language for 4-7 years. Teachers need to be aware of this and really focus on comprehension along with fluency.

After this meeting I saw this exact phenomenon in the classroom. I have an Arabic student in my class who is an ELL learner. He is completely fluent in speaking and communicating but is a struggling reader. In first grade he was originally scored at an 18 DRA level but after recent DRA testing his score has gone down to an 8. After progressively testing him at easier and easier levels we noticed that it was not his fluency that is not up to par but it is his comprehension. He could not reiterate simple stories and tell us what was occurring within the book even though he was fluently reading with intonation, heading punctuation and correctly decoding words. As a teacher this was a learning experience for me. He was an excellent reader but did not have comprehension. Now we have sent home a list of questions for his parents to ask before, during and after reading. We have already seen improvement in this student and believe he is going to fly through his reading group!

Fluency/Comprehension

The relationship between reading comprehension and reading fluency within my classroom is that of making sure that the students are understanding what we are reading to them or what they are reading to themselves. I have noticed that my students when they read aloud to themselves during silent reading time- they have a better fluency pattern as well as a better comprehension pattern. For example, I was sitting with a student and she was reading a Clifford book to me. Of course she was reading it aloud and her fluency seemed to be going well. She had a few stop-ups here and there but that is expected of a second grader. I then asked her questions at the end of the book to see if she could re-call what she had read and she did very well. I thought, that was interesting because I have never looked at the two relationships before. I then had a different student read a book silently to themselves and I had prepared myself to ask them questions when they were done (reading through the book first) I noticed that they seemed to stay on a page longer than ‘normally’ and when I went to ask them questions their answers were fuzzy and un-clear. I made the conclusion that it is harder for the students to read in their heads because when they hear themselves saying it aloud they can hear the mistakes that they make and correct them, verses reading to themselves. I thought it was an interesting find. So I think the relationship between reading comprehension and reading fluency is very close and if a student is able to fluently read they will have a better time comprehending because they already know what they are reading and do not have to worry about just getting through the story but understanding it.
Approaches that are used to assess and teach fluency in my classroom include as I stated above sitting and reading with students to help them become better readers by giving them hints to sounding out words, helping them use sight words to help them pronounce other words that they may not know. As well as observing students during their reading time. This is a great tool because you can see exactly where students are struggling and where their strengths are. I find that observing students and then looking back at the notes is a great way to assess them and them help them improve. Fluency is taught in my class through read aloud instruction and examples. Students work with the teacher when we are circulating around as well as they are listening to how a story is read to them with inflection and punctuation.
What I need to know to fully understand my students reading development is in my opinion the number one most important facet would be the students attitude toward reading. If a student hates to read and has no interest in it, they are going to be poor readers because it is more of a chore than something to be learned and gain experience. It is ‘dreadful’ to the student and therefore reading is put into a negative category. Finding out their attitudes toward reading will help me understand my students better and give me more opportunities to help them improve. I could do this through a reading survey or just asking students randomly what they like about reading and what they don't. I also think it would be helpful to find all the students strengths within reading and make sure that I complement them on their strengths and then help them improve on their weaknesses. I can find this out through observing and note taking during their silent reading or writing time.

Fluency

I love that this is this weeks post because I was actually doing a quick assessment of students' fluency during Daily 5 today. In TE 301, the biggest thing about fluency that was stressed to me that you cannot be a fluent reader unless you comprehend the text. Deeney describes a fluent reader as "any person who reads smoothly, without hesitation, and with comprehension" (pg. 85). It is very easy for a student to read the words on the page quickly but if they do not understand what they are reading, they become just good decoders. Therefore, it is so important to check with a student to make sure that they know what they are reading. During my assessment today, I made sure to focus on a couple of items. First, I had the student read to me for a minute or two and I simply listened to their fluency. Secondly, I looked at the book with the child so I could monitor his or her accuracy. Finally, I asked the child after a page or two, what we read or another question pertaining to the next. From my previous classes, I know that my anecdotal notes would have been somewhat useless if I did not link these couple of items.

During my assessment, I also noticed that some children's fluency changed drastically when the next they were reading changed. For example, one boy chose a Magic School Bus  book to read. This book was full of scientific terms and names that he he had never heard of. This meant that he spent a majority of his time reading, decoding the different words. Decoding had sucked all of the fluency out of him and he was left not even understanding what he had read. However when we changed the text he was reading to a narrative, his fluency and comprehension improved. It is amazing how quickly his literacy skills were improved by just changing the text.

My CT has yet to start reading groups, but I know that this is where fluency, comprehension, accuracy, and expanding vocabulary will be worked on. (We use the C.A.F.E. literacy program in our classroom). My CT will assign the different reading groups based on the students DRA scores. I am excited to see how reading groups work and what types of mini lessons she will perform.

Salch and Marino 2010

This article was all about writing conferences between a teacher and student. It gave tips and ideas that would make the conferences as successful as possible. Some of the tips included: giving praise, tell them how you felt as you read it, keep the conferences brief, and when giving tips, apply them directly to their story. It also gave hints regarding how to deal with situations where children do not want to write. Instead of just forcing them to sit down, listen to them tell a story and then encourage them to write it all down.

We do use this technique in my classroom. I took away a few ideas from the article that I plan to use in my classroom, actually. For instance, we have one child who repeatedly attempts to tell us that he hates writing, and that he is a terrible writer. The next time this child tells me a story, as he does almost daily, I will encourage him to write it down. I will relate it back to storytelling in writing as opposed to orally.

I need to get myself to think on my students levels as opposed to on my level. I routinely keep reminding myself that they are third graders and therefore will write as third graders, not as adults. It is the only area of teaching that I sometimes struggle with getting myself to think like them.

This module made me think about the need for various forms of assessment. Looking at their work alone will not do me any good unless I am talking to them about the issues that I notice. Unless the I know where they are coming from, I will not be able to identify where their mistakes took place.

Joanne Hindley Salch and Marianne Marino

This piece was incredibly interesting and focused on the conferencing portion of writer’s workshop. Teachers discussed how they often feel like this is the most difficult part of writer’s workshop because there is not script guiding you towards making you students better writers, it’s all on the teacher. Often time’s teachers feel as if they have to correct every mistake in their students writing. Other times they feel as if they have to reprimand students for not working as efficiently as they could be. But, the main focus of this article is to teach us how to conference and what types of things we can say or do to help guide our students. Guiding our students is the main concept of the writer’s workshop student teacher conference. Teachers are viewing their students as writers and are guiding them to use their suggestions. One method that was brought up was to recap the student’s story and ask them if that is what they wanted the reader to get out of it. This way, students are acknowledging that they may have left something out and the teacher is not pointing it out directly but leading them towards self-discovery and independence.

We do use writer’s workshop in my classroom but we have not implemented the program yet. I am so glad that I read this article before jumping into writer’s workshop because now I know where my conferences should go. I am incredibly quick to correct all of my student’s errors and realized how frustrating this can be for students. I especially hated this when I was writing and carried this feeling even through college. After reading this piece I now know that I am that teacher but I understand what conferences should look like and how to engage students in their writing as opposed to make them dislike the process.

This form of writing instruction I believe one of the most important. If teachers communicate with their students one on one they can not only understand student’s strengths and weaknesses, but also show them that they care about them as writers and people. We can learn about our students through writing and conferences open this door.

As for what I need to learn about this topic I feel like I need to learn a lot but mainly I need to practice. I realize that I will not be great at conferencing initially but with practice I will become better. I plan on not only reflecting on my students work but my ability to conference with them as well. I feel like this is crucial to my development. Overall, I am excited to try some of these methods with my own students when writer’s workshop begins.

Lastly, when it comes to assessment I feel as if teachers are constantly assessing student’s knowledge throughout the day but it is always more beneficial to write down notes or use an assessment scale. Because we haven’t started writer’s workshop yet I may want to have the students do a self-evaluation based on their feelings about reading and writing. This will be crucial for me to understand where my students stand on these topics. I could also use more writing samples to further assess the different levels and needs my students have.

Helping Struggling Writers Succeed: A self-regulated strategy instruction program

Lisa Helsel
Daphne Greenberg

Helping Struggling Writers Succeed: A self-regulated strategy instruction program

Summary:
This article is about different ways to help struggling writers come out in their writing and change their bad habits that they have before they reach higher level education. One of the main goals of the article is to get across the point that teaching self-regulated writing strategies to students is the best way for them to improve on their writing. This gives the students the tools to be more independent in their writing and write through using ‘tasks.’ By this the students are working towards a common goal that they can set for themselves and be more independent with their writing. Shying away from always asking questions and wanting the teacher to scaffold their writing. One of the ways that students can self-regulate their writing is through making an outline of what they are to be writing about. This allows them to see their ideas before they are put into sentences and paragraphs to make sure that everything is making sense. I believe that this is very helpful, although in the younger grades it may be more challenging for the students to comprehend that they are making an outline and then writing in paragraph form. The students then take this outline and begin to write a summary from what is in the outline. Lastly a way for struggling writers to be more part of the classroom with their writing, teachers can lower the expectations for these struggling writers to their ability and slowly over time raise these expectations.

Discuss:
These writing strategies would fit into my classroom in our writer’s workshop. At the grade level in which I am currently at (second grade) I believe that the student’s that are struggling writers would need instruction in making outlines and the other strategies to improve their writing. I don’t think that it would be a bad idea for all students in the class to learn how to write outlines and then write summaries from those outlines. I would make sure that writing outlines was practice. I would also want the writers that are struggling in the same areas to be placed into groups with the same students at their level so the students are working together through their writing but also learning how to write independently. During writer’s workshop students would experience this learning and self regulating strategies to improve their writing through instruction and then independent work. This allows students to organize their ideas into categories and then properly put them together into sentences that make sense. Students can get into the habit of doing this and then their writing over time will improve. Once the ideas are organized students can then write more clearly with grammar and spelling. As a professional in order to use this approach for my students I would need to find a way to make sure that all students were understanding what an outline is-of course fitting it to a second grade level. Possibly a concept map or a spider map with very little writing at first to show the students exactly what is expected of them. I will also need to make sure that my students are organized into their right level groups.

After this module I have learned that for my assessments of my unit plan I need to make sure that student’s are understanding what is being taught. I am going to be doing read aloud’s and word work. The type of assessments necessary for my unit would be giving students different word work activities to make sure that they have an understanding of the different word sounds, word recognition and understanding other word sounds. Also students need to have comprehension in order to understand the read aloud’s. I need to plan assessments that will give my students understanding of all of these things. Questions, examples are the best way for these two topics in my opinion for me to assess my students. My students as writers are all across the board in levels. I want to make sure that I am assessing my students at their correct level and pushing those that need it.

Gill 2007

Sharon Gill's article discusses the lost world of poetry in elementary school classrooms. It has been engrained in our society that poetry has to be piece that only academic scholars can understand and evaluate (Gill, pg. 622) . For this very reason, poetry is viewed as not being appropriate for elementary aged students and therefore, not taught in schools or even found within public libraries. Gill's article focuses on bring poetry back into the classrooms. Her approach to poetry is meant to enjoy, to feel, and to participate in. Gill provides countless examples of good poetry for children and also provides the simplest of ways that it can be added into the classroom curriculum. "Helping children enjoy and appreciate poetry is as simple as sharing a favorite poem and letting students talk about what they notice" (Gill, pg. 623). Bottom line, poetry should not be ignored within the classroom setting. Poetry can be a great asset to any child's education.

For the past few weeks, my students have been learning all about visualizing. My CT has just focused on providing children with numerous examples through read-alouds and oral stories. Once, we used a short poetry piece to pull out detailed words which helped us to visualize what the author was trying to portray. I never once considered focusing on poetry to help students learn visualizing but after reading this piece, it is easy to see that poetry is the perfect type of literature piece. Students would have to use their senses to really connect to the piece. They cannot rely on visual clues which forces them to really create their own picture. If poetry was the first bit of literature introduced to my students when visualizing was being taught, I believe that their work in Writer's Workshop would have been much better and much easier for them to write.

As a professional, I believe that I need to have more experience with poetry myself. I grew up without much exposure to poetry and therefore do not feel comfortable with working with this type of literature. If I want my children to learn from poetry and apply the things that they learn while reading poetry to their own literacy development, I must do the same.

My students are currently learning the different steps involved during Writer's Workshop. The sole purpose of learning these steps at this moment is for DWA testing. Learning more about Writer's Workshop has shown to me that this cannot be just a week long lesson. Students need to be constantly learning how to improve during each step of the writing process and should also be applying the new skills that they learn during reading to their own writing. Reading and writing are very much interconnected and I do not believe their is much of a bridge between the two subject areas. I hope that during my unit, I will be able to connect both subjects.

Book Club Plus reading reflection

After reading through the through the assessment chapter I found that some of these forms of assessment rarely cross my mind. When students discuss texts as a group in a book club format I would just assume that participation is enough for students to receive some sort of grade, but then how to teachers actually assess students? The chapter was incredibly insightful and specific in the types of discussion students should be having. Students should be respectful, stay on task, bring new ideas into the discussion and support their team members. One of the main criteria for assessment that I thought was important was the concept of using evidence from text and connecting this to student’s prior knowledge. I thought that it was incredibly interesting and my students are working on this right now. When they eventually get into their book club groups they will be able to do this flawlessly because of the practice they have received. We also have reading logs students need to fill out, which is yet another for of assessment, but our reading log is not as specific as the one listed in chapter six. The reading log we use just tracks the student reading by the minute. But, as the year progresses I think that at second grade level they may be able to take notes and actually interact with the text while reading. As for now, we are focusing on students reading and comprehension and maybe towards the end of the year we will be able to create a more in depth assessment for their reading logs.

The other form of assessment that I thought would be useful in the classroom was the personal assessment students fill out based on their own work. We have not done this type of assessment in our classroom but I am interested in trying it out to see what our students have to say about their own work. Lastly, writing samples are taken constantly in our classroom and this is mainly what we focus on. Students are constantly writing and we are able to assess both what they read and how their writing is developing.

The classroom management chapter was intriguing as well. I though that it was interesting that one of the main topics was to choose an engaging theme so student’s interests are peaked. The idea that literature will either capture of set off a group student is so powerful and literature is at the basis of classroom management. If students are at a low level and are reading difficult books they will choose to give up and management is lost. Grouping is also key and we are working on that with our students currently. All of our students know that they will work with everyone in the class and they have to learn to work cooperatively. If these standards are set up in the class a classroom community is created and students are expected to work together. I also enjoyed reading about the types of groupings that are possible in the classroom and hopefully as the year progresses my students will be able to try a fish bowl activity. I would love to do this but understand that I would have to plan out the activity more fully.

Lastly, chapter eight reinforced standards that are need to be met for books clubs. Although as teachers all of this may seem “fun” to students, our job is to make sure we are meeting standards out students need to learn. I thought this reading was incredibly helpful and hope to use a great deal of these techniques within the classroom this year.

Classroom Talk

Chapter 6 in BCP was very interesting in term of the material and what I see within my own classroom. A variety of different assessments were demonstrated like a basic rubric, self evaluation, a "do" list, etc. All of these assessments were interesting in their own way but what really surprised my was what goes on in my classroom. My mentor has yet to set an assessment for any sort of literacy. I have asked her if I should start reading logs (because I am doing the Making Meaning program and that is apart of it) but she has told me not yet. With the chaos that school brings, I have yet to ask her why not. However, after reading about these assessments, I can see why my teacher has decided to forgo them at the moment. As I read the book and assessments were described more throughly, it made me understand that my teacher wants to simply focus on creating a classroom community. During our literacy, (especially during reading-to-self) students know what the expectations are but second graders are still learning about how to be students. It is important to teach kids how to act in school before they can learn about more specific goals.

This brought me to the next chapter about classroom management. There are so many different aspects to literacy, especially in elementary school, that it is very difficult to meet every students' needs as well as create a well-rounded classroom environment. Talking is one aspect that cannot go wrong in my opinion. It is so important to teach students how to properly communicate with one another while respecting each other's ideas. Book clubs provide student with the necessary opportunity that they need to become better readers and student members. One suggestion that was made that I found very interesting was to show a video or listen to an audio of a book club discussion. Book clubs are not yet created in my classroom so this piece of advice really stood out. Second graders are easily influenced and learn by example. Seeing how a book club should work first hand in my opinion, would be very beneficial. My teacher has done a great job modeling different strategies that we have been using in our class like read-to-self. The students not only created their own rules as a class but they were able to see how they should look while performing read-to-self. I think that too often we forget how important demonstrations are.

I would love to incorporate the Fishbowl Model. I have heard of using this technique but I have never actually seen it used. I think that it would be very interesting to see how the students do while under the close supervision of their peers. I love the idea of having students monitor one another but I do feel that a strong set of rules must be in place for both those within the fishbowl and outside of it. Students must understand what is proper criticism and what is just mean. I do worry that my ELL may suffer with this sort of dynamic. I believe that my mentor teacher, a strong community, and a great set of rules would be my main support if I do chose to incorporate this model into my classroom.

Blog Post 4-BCP Comparison

Within my classroom there are many different strategies to classroom talk and managing the classroom and literacy. Each day it varies on how the students respond to the types of management that are put into place based off the attitude of the students. SImilar with BCP one of the assessments that is talked about is one that my students do as well with a slight variation. Currently my teacher and I are working on getting students into their guided reading groups, it is taking longer than expected because of the amount of students and the range of their scores from the previous year that were (sin some cases) falsely recorded. Students are getting into groups and discussing different books that they may be reading at D.E.A.R together. They are allowed to read together and talk if they are quiet. Students do a lot of writing that follows certain books that the students have read or different genre that the students will listen to as the teacher reads it and then write a prompt about it. For example the teacher read a book to the students on Rosa Parks and the students then wrote a biography piece on her, connecting the two.
When it comes to classroom talk in my classroom many of the ideas that are in BCP are very similar if not exactly what is done in my classroom. Getting the students to relate to the stories, asking what they know, what they want to know and what they want to learn. Getting the students to see the three “texts” that help them connect and comprehend with the story. Students are also asked many questions before (sometimes during) and after reading to make sure that students have connected to the text and are getting meaning out of the story and its context. As in BCP talking about selecting a theme that is important for students to connect to and develop and sense of rhythm around a certain topic. As with the same example that is listed above reading each day about different important people that have made a difference in the world and then having the students do certain literacy assignments on non-fiction biographies are a great way for students to see a theme throughout literacy. My teacher explained to me why she selects certain books for a theme because she wants connections to be made between the text and the writing. Many of the books that my teacher picks depends on her feelings on how long the students can sit through the story-depending on its length and if it is to difficult for students to comprehend. Within the book there is talk of the fishbowl style of literacy instruction, I have not yet seen this in my classroom but I heard that is can be a very effective style of literacy instruction.
My teacher has many of her books leveled and placed into categories to help her decide what books are appropriate for each of the guided reading groups and to help students decipher which books they want to chose to read for themselves when preparing for literacy groups.
If I were going to try out some aspects of a book club the support I would need would be first and foremost the students reading levels so I assign the appropriate book for each group. I would need my students to be prepared to understand what a book club entails and how it is going to enhance their reading. I would need support in my questions and comprehending techniques with my students to make sure that all students are reading and comprehending at the level they are supposed to.

Literacy in the Classroom

So far literacy instruction has been somewhat sporadic in the classroom but I do see some elements of the book club model. Because we have not assessed all of our students with their DRAs yet, we have not started guided reading but we have been incorporating mostly the read aloud models so far. We are trying to engage students and start to get them thinking about concepts such as characters, setting, conflict, solution, author’s intent, and self to text connections within the book. After each read aloud in the afternoon, we go over elements of a story and often pause during reading to reflect and model good reading strategies. We stop and ask questions, make predictions and ask why. The goal is to get students thinking about these questions on their own, which will take a great deal of modeling to reinforce.

Until guided reading and book groups begin in the classroom, reading is seen throughout the student’s day in smaller doses. When students finish any task at their desk they have it checked by a teacher and then must get a book out of the classroom library to read. After lunch students are also expected to silent read for 15-20 minutes. And lastly the teacher will do a read aloud everyday in the afternoon. Book Club Plus really reinforced this concept of reading to students each day and it is especially important in our classroom because half of the class is ESL learners. Even if students do not fully understand the words they are being exposed to reading, intonation, illustrations and the language. Writing occurs each and every day both in their journals and we also just began going over the stages of writing so students have been writing about what is important to them.

We have not, however, written much about the books we read due to the fact that reading groups have not started at this point in the year. Speaking happens often when students are able to work with one another and share ideas. Students also have one day a week where they can share during our classroom meeting. Listening is beginning to become a problem in our classroom and we have to reinforce that it is polite to look at and listen to the person who is speaking. We are working on mechanics of a conversation and how students need to listen to each other when they share. All of these are building blocks to their book clubs and guided reading groups. Students need to begin thinking like good readers, listen to each other’s ideas and share ideas with their classmates.

As for writing into, through and out of a unit or text my students are practicing these skills verbally with guidance from the teacher for now. As a class before any reading we access prior knowledge and ask questions we may have just by looking at the cover of the book. While reading we identify important information, details and vocabulary and after reading students are able to make connections. Once we begin reading groups this will be student driven as opposed to teacher directed.

I am excited to see how book clubs and reading groups progress throughout the school year!

Literacy

In my classroom, my teacher has done a great job teaching me how this week's readings view literacy instruction. At my school, we use a couple of different literacy programs including the Daily Five and also Making Meaning. My teacher has already incorporated both into our classroom curriculum and has shown me some of the little tricks. For example, Making Meaning is entirely a reading comprehension program. It involves grade level stories and includes group read-alouds, individual reading, whole group and partner discussion, and also a few writing activities. However, we also have the Daily Five program in my classroom which involves five key jobs including Read-to-Self, Work on Writing, Read-to-Someone, Word Works, and Listening-to-Reading. My mentor will gradually teach the class these jobs until they fully understand what is expected of them until Literacy Block can occur. 

Literacy Block features guided reading, which allows teachers to work with students using texts appropriate to their reading level. Students not working with the teacher use their time for small group and independent practice including journaling, computer activities, spelling, process writing, etc. Literacy Block is the context in which teachers can explicitly teach, coach, and scaffold students' use of concepts, strategies, and skills tailored to their instructional level-including word-level work, vocabulary students and sight word practice (Raphael, pg. 4).

My teacher has shown me the different ways the programs overlap and has saved me some time and energy so I do not repeat certain lessons when teaching both programs. It also allows for the students to get literacy instruction that transfers over many areas.

Out of the two programs, Daily Five incorporates a majority of the literacies. The students learn the basic skills they need to read by themselves early on. The group practices building their reading stamina, while gathering the necessary tools they need to become successful readers. My mentor will incorporate writing into this procedure by providing students with a brief mini lesson. Last week, the students were taught all about visualization and were able to apply the lesson to their own reading. They were asked to expand on their ideas through own writing and drawing. Once the students were complete with their work, a group discussion/sharing time was offered. This simple exercise hit on all of the main literacies; reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. My mentor is constantly interconnecting Reader’s and Writer’s workshops so that her instruction creates a bridge for the students and their learning. 

Everyday, the students are able to write about what they or reading or a piece of literature that we read together. It is important that students get to create their own ideas from literature because it helps them evolve as readers and writers. I loved some of the lessons that my CT did while teaching visualization. For example, we read the book Pigsty a couple of times throughout the week allowing the students ample opportunities to apply there newfound knowledge. At the end of one lesson, all of the students were asked to draw a picture from any scene in the book that they visualized and then write a couple of sentences to go along with it. Some students drew rooms that were disasters, while others drew clean rooms. It was great to see how easy it is to connect different literacies. It just requires some thought and work! 

Blog post for week 9/28- Book Club Plus relation to classroom

Starting right from the beginning of the book there were many things that I noticed are similar within Book Club Plus and the literacy work that we do in my classroom. The five different components of the literacy system that is described within the book is what we use in my classroom. Writer’s Workshop is done every day in my classroom. Students are given a prompt and then are to write for the entire time that we allot for them. Students use scrap pieces of paper to write down words that they do not know how to spell. Most of the writing prompts that we ask the students to write about are based off of books that we have read in class. For example, we read a book called The Selfish Giant. The base of the story is about friends and making friendships. The students then wrote about a friend that they have or a friend that has helped them in some way, based off of the story. We had them make a connection between reading and writing. Teacher read aloud is done twice in my classroom daily and students are asked questions and can make comments at the end of each reading. Independent reading occurs daily as well where the school day is blocked off for about 35 minutes where students will sit independently at their desks and read. They are allowed to get up and get different books and can read aloud if it helps them read better but we try to get students to not read aloud so it does not cause a distraction for other students. Shared reading is done during our guided reading groups where students sit in groups of about five or six working with a teacher on reading and comprehension strategies.
The curricular target areas are similar in which our students are working towards each day when they are writing, comprehending, having conversations and learning about different aspects of literacy. Within writing which has been my class biggest focus for the past few weeks of school. “Writing as a tool for thinking” is a great way to incorporate metacognition into writing as the students make reading logs and think sheets when they have ideas that are not fully developed and need some work. Making meaning in text is very important for students to understand and work within reading and writing as one. I have seen the three principles of comprehension instruction within my classroom. My teacher and I do a great job of explaining the comprehension instruction and making sure that students understand what they are reading and the meaning of understanding a text. The modeling of comprehension for students and what is expected of them. Lastly scaffolding what students need to know and helping them make a connection is a key aspect in making sure that students are comprehending what they are reading. My teacher asks lots of questions and makes lots of text to self and text to world explanations and meanings with my students. Making predications is a great way to get the students involved in thinking about the text and what they feel is ‘coming up’ or will give them their own meaning of the text verses what they are told.
Something that is in the Book Club Plus book that I have not seen happen in my classroom is speedwriting. We do have students write for the entire time that we give them but they can stop and they have to write about a focused idea. With speed writing students do opposite of what they normally would do for a piece of writing. I would like to see this worked out in my classroom. Just last week my students and I worked on a KWL for our meal worm project that we are going to be doing this upcoming week and had students tell us what they know, what they want to know and what they will learn. Many students had ideas about what they wanted during the meal worm project and gave us great insight into what they already know and what we need to incorporate into the lesson.
Writing happens everyday within my classroom right after a story is read to the students. This gets the students making a connection with reading and writing. Reading happens when students are read to and when they read independently. Students are also reading throughout the day when they are reading directions and other subjects that happen during the school day they are reading all the time. Students are speaking when they are having conversations with each other or with the teacher or working together. Even times at lunch and recess are vital to students performances in literacy because it puts them in situations where they have to respond and think of things to say a great practice for student comprehension. Students are listening throughout the entire day when they are listening to directions and listening to each other. Students are viewing words, and reading and writing all day. My classroom has a world wall where there are many different words and names for students to look at. Mostly sight words for students to get familiar with them and know them right from the bat. Other literacies that occur within my classroom during the school week are working with letters and words on the computer and having a spanish instructor come into the classroom three times a week. Students are learning many different spanish words, such as numbers, body parts, desks, chairs, books, labels, etc. It is a great way for students to learn literacy in a different language and have fun doing so.
Students have opportunities to write into a unit/text when we do class work all together about a certain topic we will be writing. When a new topic of unit or text is introduced for students to write about, it is discussed on the easel with the entire class. The entire class brainstorms ideas and ways to start writing about this certain text. The teacher asks the students questions to get them starting to think and focus on certain words that they should be using, as well as giving them real world examples so they can connect to the text they will be writing about as well. Sometimes students are asked to share what their thoughts are or their examples so other students can think about the same things in their own way. Students have opportunities to write through a unit/text when we put everything down on the easel where they see the writing and information happening that they are to be writing about. It is identified what is expected of them, what supporting thoughts or ideas are needed (explaining why “so and so” is their best friend or why they like something, etc.) Students have the opportunities to write out unit/text when they are doing the actual writing and brainstorming of their own ideas. They are relating what they are writing to the text that is the example and being based off of. Students are constantly making text to self, text to text and text to world ideas because they are thinking about their lives, thinking about the book and its comprehension as well as thinking about instances and examples they can bring to their writing.
There is a lot of literacy that occurs within my classroom. Many parents have told me that they have requested my mentor teacher as the teacher for their students because of her focus on literacy. It is great to be part of a classroom with such a great focus on literacy.

Post Community Visit

After driving around the city of Southfield our group learned a great deal more about the community on many different levels. Before searching the city we noticed the diversity within the school itself so we were wondering if this diversity was apparent throughout the community. We were also wondering if languages would be represented in the city of Southfield just as languages are represented in the small community of our school. So, this is what we found…

We noticed that people were partaking in activities that made sense to that particular place. For example people were using technology at the library and checking out books. Children were in the children’s section of the library reading with caretakers. It was great to see parents reading with their children. At our school many of the teachers are concerned that our students don’t have books at home and always try to work with parents and use the library as a resource. This is just one example of how our school is bridging the gap between home and school and trying to understand parents just as the Learning Alongside Families Powerpoint displayed. The library was a great resource and we learned so much just from flyers available to the public. There were technology classes that members of the community could take, upcoming cultural events taking place at the library were advertised and there was even a brochure for specific grade level activities.

We also went to grocery stores to see what types of literacy we could find there. We realized how much literacy is needed to do a simple task, such as buying groceries. Students need to have numerical literacy in order to use money, they need to be able to read products and advertisements, and they need to have the language to purchase an item or ask questions. With multiple languages represented in our school our student need to be able to function in the community and a grocery store is even a great classroom tool to get students talking about purchasing items and dialogue that forms around this task.

After visiting these two places we were surprised at how little the actual languages that people in the community speak were under represented. Although some languages were represented on cultural or religious buildings, there were no translations in the library or the grocery store to help families who speak a language other than English. At our school, signs are translated in three languages, the languages that are prevalent the most: Arabic, French, and Spanish. Students are able to feel safe in the school because the signs are there to guide them. We did not see languages represented the same way in the community and that was somewhat a surprise.

This experience taught us a great deal about the community, our students and families. We now know what resources are available to students and we can make real life connections within the classroom. After talking to teachers and educators within the building we realized how many resources we have within the school itself. When putting these two concepts together we are taking the resources we have within the school and pulling in outside information from the community creating the ideal learning experience for our students.

As literacy learners, we know that our students struggle more because many are ESL students. After going out into the community and realizing that out students languages are not represented we can try and do this within the classroom. We can teach them life skills for example the language to check out a book or to buy groceries and simulate this within the classroom. Going out into the community helped us understand only some of the experiences our students have on a day-to-day basis and now we can bring these into classroom discussions and help our students make connections and become thinkers. Overall this was an engaging project that was incredibly helpful. We will continue to learn more about our students and where they come from as the year progresses.

After Community Visit- Update of first blog post

After Community:

Going into the community was a great way to learn more about my students, their background and where they come from. There were so many different places to go and explore that it was a bit overwhelming but it was also fun. My group and I decided to drive around, take pictures, have a discussion and explore the community all together. We went into the experiences with no expectations because we wanted to have an open mind about the entire thing and not feel like we were going to miss out on something if we didn’t get to it.
One of the first things that we noticed about the community was the busyness of the streets and shops. We noticed many people out and about walking on the sidewalks or into stores. We also noticed how many students walk to school with their family members. Something about the community that stands out is the difference in people and their cultures. Also the difference in the ‘atmosphere’ from the business district to the housing district. There is a huge difference in appearance of the two different districts. What stood out to me most about the community from eye sight glance was the people moving about, it was nice to see because I live in an area where there are few people walking and biking and more driving.
Some things that surprised me about the city of Southfield in certain areas was the lack of different language signs for how many people who attend my school that do not speak english. I thought that in neighborhoods and areas that there is a high volume of non-english speaking people there would be some type of different language signs. The only place that those were spotted were at religious centers. Something that also surprised me was the neighborhoods and how similar many of the houses were- also how close they were together. Possibly because of the prices or the amount of houses that the builder wanted to have on one spot of land. Some things that did not surprise me were the busyness of the city because it was just about at rush hour time. The amount of shops and stores that were open and selling items because in many cities business is always booming when it comes to food and gas stations.
This community experience has helped me in so many ways learn about my school, my students and their families. It has taught me that it is always helpful to explore the community in which you are working (no matter what job) because it gives you a better sense of the type of people that you will be working with, the places that they may visit after or before school and the areas in which they are learning and playing. This experience has helped me learn about my students in many ways. I was able to look at and explore places that they travel to after school and hang out. We went into music stores, shops, restaurants, etc. I was able to explore the type on interactions they were to encounter and think about the things that they may need to learn in school in order to facilitate those encounters correctly. I learned that there are many places for students to go with their families and enjoy family time and spending time talking about what they did at school, what their goals and dreams are and just being a ‘kid.’ I learned that my school is in an area that is very diverse and therefore gives all students a chance at learning about different cultures and ideas that they may never have gotten to learn about had they not attended or are currently attending the school. I learned that the different languages that are taught are from all over the world and that those students who come into the school not speaking a bit of english in the beginning of the year come out at the end of the year doing very well and speaking plenty of english. It is the school and the community that has helped them reach this point because they have had experience in talking and communicating different thoughts and ideas. I also learned many things about the families. This is a great thing because learning about the student and their families gives the teacher a great sense of who they are as a person and where they come from because each family is different and does things differently which effects how the students learn and behave in school. To quote Compton-Lily in her article on Listening to Families over Time: Seven Lessons Learned about Literacy in Families, “While it was often assumed that parents did not realize how school personnel viewed them, this was not true. Parents did talk with their children and were aware of what happened in school. What we say and do in school matters, and we must remember that quick judgments can be detrimental to the collaborative relationships we strive to build with families.” (Page 455.) This statement could not be more true. It clearly states that students share with their families what happens at school and there can be no assumptions made about the families because each family is different and each student is different, which is what makes the classroom so wonderful- a ‘mixed salad’ idea of students, their ideas and their learning techniques.
This experience has helped my teaching through learning more about my students and where they come from. It has allowed me to realize that I can be judgmental sometimes and as a teacher that is the last thing that I need to be doing because everyone is different and everyone deserves and equal chance at learning and being who they want to be based off of where they come from. This experience has helped me think about who my students are as people. Which is a great way to look at the students no matter what age they are. Each student has something different about themselves that makes them stand out in the crowd and add color to the classroom. Knowing what students are going to be doing after school and the places they may be going while being familiar with that can also bring great lesson plan ideas to the classroom because you can incorporate places and fun things that they may enjoy doing into the school curriculum.
This experience will help me learn about my students as literacy users and thinkers in many different ways. It has helped me see the different types of languages and signs that they see on a daily basis and must know how to read and comprehend and how this would be a great way to get students into learning more about their city while learning in school. It has helped me think of new ideas and ways for students to use their brain to think about many different ideas that will be thrown at them in the classroom. Overall, I think that this experience has helped me see my students as more than thinkers but as learners and learn about how they will interpret literacy in their daily lives.

Post Farmer's Market Visit

The Farmer's Market was somewhat what I expected. There were not very many people there, despite the wonderful weather. I believe that this was due to my timing which occurred right around dinner time. Although the actual size of the Farmer's Market was quite large, there were only about 20 people there. Everyone appeared to be of Caucasian decent but I did notice a couple that looked Chaldean and some that also appeared to be Indian. Although there were not very many people, I would still consider the market make-up to be diverse.

Thinking about Farmer's Markets, I would not suspect to find so many items such as a kid's activity table, jewelry, and even musical performer. It was very refreshing to see that there were so many different individuals from the community bringing their talents to one central location. I was also quite surprised to see that there were not very many people. It was so beautiful today that I thought the market would be overflowing with individuals. However, it was extremely slow and many of the booths did not have a single individual at them.

I feel as though the Farmer's Market reaffirmed that English is the primary language of Maple Elementary's community despite the vast amount of diversity in the school. This reminds me as an educator, that I need to open up teaching examples to spread across different ethnicities and I also need to find ways to connect to my students on more personal levels. I do not want my classroom to seem like the community these children are living in; focused on the white, Christian society. Regardless of where I end up teaching, I want diversity to be in my classroom more than just by the skin color that walks through the door. As the "Learning to Change" video discusses, our society is changing. It would be extremely beneficial to my students as well as an easy resource for myself to incorporate technology into my classroom. With technology becoming such a large part of our culture, it feels as though it is an easy connection for all different types of children from different socio-economic classes and different ethnicities.

In literacy, I see how different text and the outside community surrounding Maple Elementary focus on the Caucasian, Christian class. This can be extremely difficult for students to create personal connections to literacy. I believe that is important to bring in new literacies into the classroom that may offer easier connections for students. I want to see stories with diverse characters and hear those with different oral languages. With the advances in the internet, it is extremely easy to find items that have both diverse characters and different oral language that what our society is suffocated in.

Southfied Literacy Tour: Expectations

1.) We chose to visit a library, music store, grocery stores, neighborhoods, apartment complexes and restaurants within the city of Southfield. We thought that because our school is so diverse we needed to drive around and target many places in order to fully understand the city and our students. The library is obviously a good resource for literacy learning, grocery stores are where students go with their care takers, music stores give us an idea of the music our students are listening to and restaurants show us where families go out to dinner. Lastly, we thought that driving around neighborhoods and apartment complexes was important because students spend most of their time in their own homes, so we needed to gain perspective on where our students live.

2.) We expect to see the diversity found in our school also reflected in the city. By targeting all of these places we expect to see people taking part in the activities that fit these places. For example checking out a library book at the library, purchasing groceries at the grocery store and hopefully families outside of their homes and children in the area. We are hoping to hear some of the languages represented in our students within the school outside of the school as well. Lastly, we expect to learn a great deal about the community, not just in a literacy perspective, but also learn more about the families and places where our students come from.

3.) The visits confirmed my expectations. In all of these places we could expect people to be doing what they normally do depending on the location. We found culture within the community, but not as many people were out because it was after school when people were still at work. Because the city has such a large population we still saw people interacting with their community, regardless.

4.) After discussion we expected to see many new litericies specifically related to the culture of the city and the diversity in language. We think that there will be buildings related to religious practice and honoring languages and culture. Also, we chose to visit the library where traditional litericies are found in books but there was also technology or new forms of literacy. We also found examples of litericies, such as signes and labels of the area, which would be usual for any city. Oral language is found throughout Southfield in the vast amount of languages spoken. Writing will be found throughout the community as well. In our school, signs are written in three languages: Arabic, French, and Spanish, the three dominant languages represented within the school. My question is then, will these languages be honored on signs within the community because there is a prevalent population within the community, or will everything be written in English, making it incredibly difficult for families to communicateand function within the city? I am interested to see how language is treated within the community itself.

Community Exploration

I have no idea why all of my post are #1 but here we go...

1. I chose to go to the Wixom Farmer’s Market. This is only a few miles from Maple Elementary and because Walled Lake Consolidated School District is so large, I am assuming that many of our students travel to this market because it is so large. 

1. Going to the Farmer’s Market I believe I will see a diverse group of individuals. Going off of the ethnicity make-up of Maple Elementary, there are individuals with Chaldean, Japanese, German, Lithuanian, Chinese, and Korean. With such a diverse population, I am assuming that the Farmer’s Market population will be diverse as well.  With a diverse group, I am sure that I will hear many individuals referring to items  in a different language or they might possible call an item by a different term. There is no definite or correct term for an item and therefore, I believe I will learn how other cultures refer to different things. I also believe I will learn more about the community around my elementary school and I will get to experience what my students may experience on a daily basis. 

1. The market, I believe will not be as diverse as I expect. I believe that this will mainly be because of the time that I will travel there which will be right around dinner time. Everyone that I encountered during my math exploration spoke English and referred to the different items using the terms I am used to. I am somewhat disappointed by this encounter because I was hoping the community outside of my school would be as diverse as my school community. I do believe that the market will focus on the English language with their signs and will maybe not be inviting to those of another culture or those that speak another language. However, I will be extremely cognisant of what my English Language Learners may feel like when traveling to the Farmer’s Market. It will be somewhat disheartening if the English language is so abundant because I know how rich my little elementary school is in different languages. It will be wonderful to see more diversity or at least more acceptance of those with different backgrounds.  

1. In order for students to make self-to-text connections, they must draw from their different experiences and personal life. Traveling out into the community, it is apparent that the English language is the primary focus knowing that Maple Elementary is made up of so many diverse individuals. I believe it is important as an educator to become familiar with the world outside of school that our students are apart of in order to make better and more meaningful connections to the literacy promoted within the classroom. In regards to the Farmer’s Market, students will be mainly be sharing in oral text. Learning how others refer to a tomato or cabbage is extremely educational. Also, discussing the different ways the items at the Farmer’s Market are used can provide students with more background knowledge about different the different characters in narratives. I expect that oral language will be the main literacy element seen at the Farmer’s Market. Small signs and different billboards will probably be present but I do believe that these will focus on the English language.  A question I may pose depending on the market would be, where do those of a complete different language shop or how do they interact in a predominately English community? I know that many parents at Maple do not speak any English, so I am wondering how a literacy connection is created in regards to signs, language, etc. 

1. I know that this is not really apart of the post but as I was thinking more about literacy and the ways I could incorporate the Farmer’s Market into the actual classroom. For examples students could participate in sharing in their backgrounds of different language will allow for sharing and learning to take place. A story encouraging the use of a variety of languages could be used as traditional literacy upon returning from the Farmer’s Market. This could be similar to Esperanza Rising in which Spanish is sprinkled in throughout the book and a glossary of Spanish terms is given in the back. 

Book Club Post 1- Online Module Activities

Task 1-No posting on Blog


Task Two:

1. We are going to be going around the city of Southfield. We plan on visiting the Library, Civic Center, Music Store, Restaurants, Grocery Stores and homes/apartments. We chose these places because they are all big parts of a city and are places that our students and their families frequent often.
2. We expect to see many different diverse people, families and people working and shopping in these areas. We expect to see students and people using the library and civic center as well. We expect to hear conversation and learning taking place. We expect to learn everything that we can about the school, the students and their families and the community.
3. Our visits confirm our expectations through learning about new places and ideas and seeing our students and their families in their “natural community” doing what they normally do, being people. Our visits, in my opinion do not disconfirm my expectations. I feel that there were not any expectations that I placed on this inquiry because I wanted to go into it with an opened mind. So for this question I say N/A.
4. Each of the three questions above relate to literacy in many ways. In all locations that we are going to view and have viewed there is literacy everywhere. On signs, people talking, asking questions if you are not sure about something. Reading menus or books in the library. Listening to music and comprehending what you are hearing. Seeing, hearing and learning about all the different aspects of our community involve literacy in every way possible. Like stated earlier in order to understand what you are seeing, hearing and learning you need to be literate and able to comprehend the world that is going on around you. Students develop this as they grow but in order to develop this, they need to learn how to read, write and speak.


-The types of interactions that we are likely to see while we are investigating are people communicating and having conversations, people writing down information for example if a waitress is writing down an order in a restaurant, people talking and giving directions orally, different types of languages being spoken as the city is very diverse, etc.

Sample Questions:
1. We expect to see lots of new literacies within the community including- churches, shops and restaurants owned by those of a different culture than American.
2. We expect to see traditional literacies in neighborhood communities and within churches. Possible a Jewish Church or an Arabic Church with different language written.
3. Oral texts that are shared in the community include all signs on the streets and within stores and shops and restaurants, churches, civic centers, the library and schools.
4. There will be writing all over the community and we are expected to see many different writing of different languages (in some areas of high volume of a certain culture.)
5. Expectations, surprises and questions are all different from each person within the group and we each took something different away from the activity. There are many things in the community that allowed us to look at our students in a deeper light and learn about their culture and community from which they come.
6. A question that we have is this, there are so many stores, shops, restaurants, etc. for people to work at and live but our school has the highest poverty rate in all of Southfield, how do these things correlate?

Task Three:


Questions from task two above:
1. We noticed many things from the ‘investigation’ and found out lots of new information. We didn’t want to put expectations on ourselves because if we wanted to have no bias or opinions at all, just facts. We were surprised by the sense of community shared by many. By the beautiful library and civic center to keep students and families busy during summer and even the school weeks to help keep students out of trouble. We were surprised by all the different homes and how they looked so similar. We were surprised by in certain areas the lack of different languages written on common signs for such a high volume of diversity.
2. Again, we did not want to have expectations because we wanted to have a free and clear mind on our assignment and not pressure ourselves if we did not find what we wanted to. We felt that this experience was helpful in us learning about our students and their cultures and their homes- in sense we saw them as more than students but as people and part of a community.

Task Four- Blog for 9/28