What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?
Students practiced pre-reading strategies. They are learning how to make the text meaningful. We connected the text, Flat Stanley, to prior knowledge by visualizing what it would be like to be flat. What could you do flat? What couldn’t you do? Also students explained how they became flat…it was a riot. They came up with some hilarious flattening situations.
Students also learned about thick and thin questions. They applied these questions to the reading and then decided with their group which thick questions would help us understand the text best. Since currently this has been a group effort, it’s easy to see that at least some students really understand it…it will be hard to identify strugglers until getting back tomorrow to look at their personal thick questions (they are going to sticky thick questions in their IDR book today and tomorrow).
I did have behavioral strugglers. We talked about proper reader and listener behavior and several students were still off task, even after reminders. I haven’t got to the big content of my unit yet (brainstorming, letter writing…), once I do I’ll better be able to identify how students are doing. Basically, so far all we’ve done is read Flat Stanley (that and a pre-reading activity).

What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?
Indeed. During group reading sessions, I had a group where the following behaviors were observed: listeners not looking at the reader/book, listener playing with the plant, staring off into space. Now, conventionally I would see then and think that there’s no way that student is paying attention. But I wondered if perhaps that was how this student listened best…with something to occupy her hands. The same thing goes with doodles, I saw a handful of students doodling during group reading until expectations were reinforced. Only a select few students actually doodle to pay attention though, and my suspicion is that most of these students were just genuinely off task…expect for plant girl maybe. Again, I’ll better be able to read my students’ performances and products once there are more of them.

What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?
Until this point I had only worked with my reading three reading groups. An ELL group, an at level group, and a group of higher readers. I did not know what groups below a P reading level looked like. Now I do, and although I suppose I should have surmised what that would look like, in reality I was caught off guard a bit. I learned about the incredible imaginations that my student’s weave into their learning everyday. I think sometimes we forget about this as teachers.



When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?
I kind of already had to make one revision for this. The group readings were taking way to long so I did a mini-mini-mini lesson on what being a good reader and a good listener looks like and then proceeded to read the book myself to the class, with groups following along in their book.
If I need to reteach the letter writing material to any students…it will depend on who the student is. If they are in my reading group then I will continue to work on that skill with them during group. If not, then it might become a morning work activity or maaaybe could become integrated to my teammate’s official “writing” time block.
Again, how to re-teach will depend on who and how many. I’m thinking a small group would be the most beneficial way to help students.

If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?
For my initial pre-reading activity, I think everything went well. The only minor change that I would make is making the expectation clearer for what I wanted them to write down. There was a section where they were to sketch a drawing, and then three other sections where I was expecting text. Some students got stuck in a drawing mindframe and gave me pictures for all four sections. I could still evaluate their thinking, but it just wasn’t what I expected. I would make that clearer next time.
As far as the group reading went. I would have spent more time initially on what being a good reader and good listener looks like. I had them write their predictions in there notebooks which was good, but made it hard for me to assess if they were predicting or not. It would have been cool to have groups present these predictions to each other, but there simply just isn’t time for that. But by spending more initial time on what being a good reader/listener looks like I think that students learning would have been improved because we could have gotten done with that part it the unit more quickly providing more time for the post-reading/letter writing part of the unit…which I now feel like I have to try to squeeze in before Thanksgiving.

Reflection on Three Lessons

1. What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?

Through my first three lessons of the Legends unit that I taught, my students were able to learn about three different legends stories, The Legend of Michigan, The Legend of Sleeping Bear, and The Legend of Mackinac Island. As part of the activities that the students did for every Legends lesson, they learned about the components that make up a legend story: the title, main characters, the plot, magical/mythical events, the setting, and the concept or idea in nature that the legend explains. They were able to identify these components in each of the legend stories and apply them to a legends matrix worksheet to organize and compare each of the stories. A few students struggled while listening to the stories because they became unfocused on the story and were disrupting the students who were sitting next to them. I quickly got the students focused again by separating them and giving them a warning. Also, a few struggled with writing the information into the legend matrix worksheet because they were slow writers. I was able to help them by freezing the image of my worksheet on the document camera and handing the worksheet to the students who were slower at copying the information so they could see the document up close. This seemed to help them catch up.

2. What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?

Through my three legend lessons, I was able to see that my students sometimes have a difficult time sitting at the rug and listening to a story book for a long period of time. They can get distracted fairly easily with snacks, water bottles, wrappers from their snacks/water bottles, poking each other, etc. I made it a point to remind them to sit next to a person who they will not be easily distracted from before I began reading every time. Also, in one of my legend stories, there were pictures of naked fairies, which really set the students off! They were saying “Ewww!” and “That’s disgusting!” I had to remind the students to keep their comments to themselves and that the fairies were part of the legend. I probably should have addressed the “naked fairy images” before I began reading so it wasn’t such a shock to the students and a disruption to my reading.

3. What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

I learned that my students love listening to new stories and seeing new illustrations. For the most part, they loved the illustrations in the stories and how the illustrator interpreted the stories and created the drawings and paintings to follow along with the story. They were able to make text-to-text connections to some of the legend stories because some of the stories would incorporate other elements from the other legends that we had read (for example, one legend incorporated Lady Slipper flowers in the background and a student raised her hand to point out the flowers because we had read The Legend of the Lady Slippers previously).

4. When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

For the students who need additional support, I will meet with the students during free time or recess to go over the stories and reread any information that was necessary for the legend matrix worksheet. I will make sure that they are able to identify the legend components in each story because this is a necessary skill that they need to master in order to create their own legend story (the final writing project that the students will do at the end of the unit).

5. If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

To be honest, I don’t think I would change much if I were to re-teach my lessons again. I thought they went very well – the students were able to identify the components in each story, they were very interested in the stories, they correctly filled out their matrix worksheets, and seemed very motivated to write their own legend stories. I feel that I have achieved all of the objectives that I created for each lesson and that the students have comprehended most everything that I have taught. In the future, something that I could change is to be a little more prepared for catching students up that were absent during a lesson. A few students missed a day where we read a legend story and filled in a section of the matrix worksheet. When they came back the next day, they had to fill in two sections of the matrix and this made them be a little behind the rest of the class. For future lessons, I should photocopy the sections that they missed and have the students glue them into their matrix so they are not so far behind the rest of the class.

Lesson Reflections

Overall I think that all of my students learned from my lessons. One of the biggest struggles I encountered was getting all 50+ students to listen and pay attention during the large group parts of my unit. The lesson plans that I wrote and turned in were for the first 3 days of my unit. My CT feels very strongly that when you are starting a new unit, you have to find some way to “hook” the kids’ attention. Thus, one of the major focuses of these lessons was to get the kids excited and interested in my unit. I guess I should stop here and tell you all what I’m doing- I wrote an author study about Roald Dahl. Basically, I chose three books and split my 52 kids into three groups within which they will focus on one particular book. For my first lesson, I read a biography about Roald Dahl and a short excerpt from a Roald Dahl book to the kids. I was pleasantly surprised with how well this went over. Reading the excerpt from the book seemed to really get the kids going. They were so anxious to find out which book they would be reading, and then after they did, they were excited to begin reading. I have always enjoyed reading, but I feel like the majority of people I know don’t like it as much, so I wasn’t expecting as much enthusiasm as I got. For my second lesson, I had the kids make predictions about what they thought their book was going to be about based off the title, front and back cover, and back excerpt. Since the book my group was reading has a picture of the characters on the front and back cover, most of my kids made predictions about the characters, instead of the entire book. I’m not sure this is a bad thing, as it shows that they were really paying attention to the covers. To make sure that my kids really understand predictions, I will be stopping them at many other places throughout the unit and asking them to predict what might happen next. This will give them more practice.

One thing I would for sure do differently next time is to include the biography on the author information worksheet. This time around, I read the biography and then had students answer a couple questions. This was problematic because many kids couldn’t remember the answers. I feel a little silly for not anticipating this, but I think that giving the students a copy of the biography to look back on next time would really help them. There isn’t anything wrong with looking back, and this would force all students to answer every question, as this time around I allowed the students to only answer what they could remember and then we discussed the rest of the answers as a large group (thus, leaving some kids to fall behind and zone out).

I am still not completely done with this unit, but so far it’s been going pretty smoothly! The kids are just starting to read the books, so I am anxious to hear their thoughts.

Three Lessons - Reflection

1. What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?

After teaching my three consecutive literacy lessons, I am able to conclude that the majority of students learned what the reading comprehension strategy of visualization is. Furthermore, I think my students learned how to use the strategy, visualization, to help them better understand and enjoy what they read. For most of my students, using visualization while reading was a strategy they were introduced to in second grade. I assessed my students understanding of this concept by looking at their use of textual support to describe their mental pictures. Throughout these lessons, I had three students who struggled with the concept of visualization. They continued to say that they were not able to create any mental pictures while I read the text to them. They said their minds were blank while listening to the text being read to them. When I pulled these students aside, I had them practice closing their eyes and to really focus on the words and phrases the author uses in the story. This seemed to help them understand how visualizing works. I also made sure to read each of the words slowly and with inflection in my voice. That way, these students could really hear the words emphasize in a way that would support their visualizing.

2. What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?

My students were able to support the drawings of their mental pictures by listing the helpful words and phrases from the text. These words and phrases came directly from the text and they supported the students visualization process, which was apparent in their drawings. Underlining the text and then generating a list of those words/phrases took the visualizing process to another level. Students were not only asked to draw what they saw in their minds, but also refer back to the actual text and author's words for support. As far as working together well and being respectful of one another, we are still working on that. My students performance during whole group discussions and partner discussions need a little more practice. Although my students have made tremendous improvements in respecting our community of learners, we need to work on being good listeners while others are speaking.

3. What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

After teaching these three lessons, I learned a little about my students’ literacy practices which extend beyond my objectives. I learned that my students are enthusiastic about drawing and coloring pictures to express their ideas and thoughts. They demonstrated intrinsic motivation when I told them they were going to be drawing their mental pictures. My students could not wait to express their ideas and thoughts through artwork. I also learned that my students need work on their listening skills. Listening is a skill which needs to be modeled, taught, and practiced. In order to continue to progress into more student led discussions, my students need to practice listening skills.

4. When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

For these three lessons, I did not have any students who needed to have the material re-taught to them. However, as I mentioned above, I had three students who were confused during the lesson. I pulled these students aside during the second lesson (students drew their pictures in this lesson) and talked to them in a small group setting. After a few minutes and an exercise which involved closing their eyes, these students began to understand what visualizing meant and how it could be used. One of them even said they used visualizing all the time while they read; this student used the strategy naturally and did not even realize it. That was the case for a handful of my students. Some of them used visualizing naturally while they read, while others needed to think and focus in order to consciously use the strategy.

5. If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

If I were to teach these three lessons again, I do not think I would do much of anything differently to be honest. I was very happy and impressed with the way my lessons went. The students did an excellent job and I feel as though they met the learning objectives for the lessons. I have even created a bulletin board outside of our classroom to display my students beautiful artwork and textual support examples. The bulletin is all about how they visualized to help them better understand the book, Cherries and Cherry Pits. The one thing I would do differently, however, is be more strategic about which students are partners during partner discussions and shares. I thought my students could handle being paired up at random, but they need some more guidance next time. I think this simple change would improve all students' learning because students would be less apt to talk out of turn and be disruptive. The ability to stay on task would positively influence partner and whole-group discussions.

Seminar 6 - Emily Sicheneder

I believe that there is a direct relationship between fluency and comprehension. There should be an appropriate balance between fluency (their rate of reading)and the comprehension of what the students are reading about. A lot of the times in my classroom, students will become embarrassed if they ready slowly or choppy out loud to the rest of the class and generally, students will only volunteer to read out loud if they have a quicker reading speed or feel confident enough with their reading abilities. While they're independently reading, they think the fastest reader is "cooler", however, if you assess the student who speeds through their book, they have very little recollection of what they had just read. The pressures that the students place on each other to be a good reader/"cool" reader is increasing the loss of comprehension that the students could be acquiring.

A good way to promote reading and comprehension that I am incorporating in my classroom is Read Aloud. I think its important for students to enjoy and be interested in what a book can teach them. Even if it's a realistic fiction story, new experiences and ideas can be learned through reading and when the students are able to be read to, I think it's an easy way for the students to learn to love reading.

One way that my CT and I have been assessing my students' fluency and comprehension is through the DRA. There were specific sections of the scoring sheet for the DRA that assesses their fluency/reading rate and there are comprehension questions that the student must fill out about the selection that they read. These answers help to show us if they have acquired any information from what they read. I really found the DRA scores to be useful in understanding where my students are in regards to fluency and comprehension.

Seminar 6- Amy Benson

After reading Mosiac of Thought I have a new idea about how reading comprehension and fluency are related. I think it is possible for these things to be totally connected, and for these things to be disconnected. I’ve heard before that students can be reading with prosody and fluency and not comprehending much of what they are reading. I’ve seen this happen in my classroom. Sometimes students hear about the new “cool” books and want so badly to read them that they will sit there and read the entire book without really understanding the story. I’ve also read and heard from my mentor teacher that students improve their reading level the most through reading books that are “just right” for them. Although that is a little beside the point, I thought it was interesting.

On the other hand, I feel like it is possible to completely comprehend what you are reading and still not be able to read it aloud fluently. I think that one of the best ways students learn fluency is by hearing teachers read. This gives students an idea of how to read with expression. Students learn a lot through the power of modeling and I don’t think that reading comprehension and fluency should be any different.

There was one part of the reading that really stuck out to me. There was a paragraph that talked about how important it is for teachers to do read alouds simply for enjoyment. It was saying that sometimes we get so overwhelmed with fitting everything in and teaching every comprehension strategy that we forget about why we want to read books in the first place. Even at a 3/4 level students still LOVE hearing the teacher read books to them. Not forgetting the pleasure of reading is huge.

I’m not sure yet what strategies are used to assess fluency in my classroom. Other than observing some ELL tests from a distance, I haven’t seen any students reading aloud to a teacher. This could be because we are still on a crazy schedule due to the MEAP or it could be because we don’t do it (which I doubt). We have spent significant time talking about visualization, making connections, predictions and retells, but not a lot specifically about fluency. I tend not to think about fluency when I think about reading comprehension strategies. This is probably something I should look into.

Seminar 6 Post, Fluency and Comprehension- Kendall Philip

Reading comprehension and reading fluency go hand in hand in literacy development. The ultimate goal is to provide students with opportunities to develop as a proficient reader, who understands what they are reading too. According to the Rasinski (2006) article, oftentimes teachers focus on developing fluency more than comprehension, which results in “faster reading with little improvement on comprehension.” There needs to be a balance in teaching and learning how to read. Approaches which are used to assess fluency in my classroom are short paragraphs. Depending on students’ reading level, they will take home a paragraph for the week. They are directed to read this paragraph three times each night, as a way to develop their reading fluency. Students were all tested, using the DRA, as a way to assess their reading level, including reading fluency and reading comprehension. Due to the MEAP schedule, I have not seen fluency exclusively being taught in the classroom yet. Beginning this week, my CT is going to get all of the guided reading groups started. I will then observe the ways in which she teaches fluency to students, depending on their reading level. In order to fully understand my students’ reading development, I think I need to participate in more one on one conferencing, as well as observe some reading groups. In order to truly understand each of my students’ development as a reader, I need to take the time to do activities which promote and teach comprehension skills. Fluency can be increased through practice and reading strategies, such as decoding words and developing sight words through vocabulary practice. In the upcoming weeks, I plan to get to know my students even more as readers by sitting down with reading groups and leading some one on one conferencing; conferencing is a great opportunity to hear students read and then ask questions about what was read on an individual basis.

Gill

Write a short summary of your piece, featuring the 'big idea' or 'take-home message' you gained from reading it (about 100-200 words)
Poetry has always been a boring unit in school. I can remember reading Dickinson, that dude that made his text appear all goofy on the page, and other great poets. I remember all of this as boring; it didn't connect to me. In fact, only frost's Road Less Traveled had any interest to me because at least with that "great" poem, there was interpretation involved--something to figure out. This is what Gill's article is about; the misunderstanding that kids get of what exactly poetry. They think that it is this esoteric thing for adults and certainly not something the children such as themselves could do. Hill argues that poetry need be defined differently in schools and that texts chosen to be used for poetry units be ones that offer this new definition: "Poetry is a way to share our thoughts or feelings that is enjoyable to read and write."
Discuss whether and how you would use this approach at your grade level, where it could fit within the language arts curriculum in your classroom, and what it offers for enriching writing instruction beyond what you thought about as you completed Task 1 of this module.
This could be a very fun way to get the creativity out of students as they write. I think it is absolutely essential to use this approach for poetry in schools otherwise I believe that students will come out with a negative attitude about poetry as so many adults do--school doesn't help you appreciate poetry (currently). The people who do enjoy it I would be willing to bet found other means of educating themselves about poetry.
Also identify what you think you need to learn to do as a professional in order to use this approach well with your students.
I would need to use the article's advice to find texts that represent poetry in this way.
Lastly, how have any of the ideas in this module (writer's workshop, assessment, analysis of student work, jigsaw articles) helped you to think about the types of assessment necessary for informing your unit development? Even if your unit is not focused squarely on writing, what might you need to consider about your students as WRITERS, as you plan for instruction? (To review an example of how writing assessment informs a 3rd grade teacher's instruction more broadly, review pp. 82-3 in Book Club Plus!)
This mod has helped me to see the many different ways that assessment can be used in writing assessment. My lit unit is one of those that definitely is not focus very much on writing (writing is present though). So one that I will have to do is make sure that what little writing is included is something that helps me to learn about my students. What kind of assessment will be most able to help me with that? Since I don't know a whole lot about my students writing abilities just yet (we haven't done much writing in class) I need to remember that there will be all sorts of different achievement levels...so perhaps when planning it will be best to try to reach writing through the reading strategies that we are focusing on because those two things are linked (as we saw in one of the second grade videos).

Online Seminar 5 Task 4- Sharon Ruth Gill

1. The big ideas or "take-home message" from Gill's article, The Forgotten Genre of Children's Poetry was about the importance of children understanding what poetry is and how it can be significant in their lives. When poetry has a special connection to a child's life, it becomes more than just rhyming words on a page. Poetry helps children to understand new ways of incorporating their five senses into written text and how to choose specific words based on their sounds or meaning.

2. I think that a poetry addition to our writer's workshop would be a great way for my students to broaden their writing styles and genres. They would be able to incorporate more descriptive words, different senses, and learn about different rhyming schemes. My students could even write a poem about a topic in their writers' notebooks. Turning a narrative or opinion paper into a poem is a fun way for students to get excited about what their writing and how their readers will interpret their writing.

3. As an instructor, I would have to learn more about how to teach the poetry genre to my students and different poetry works or authors that I could share with my students as examples. I would need to research what components are necessary to include for different kinds of poetry and what forms of assessments would be appropriate to include based on the GLCEs for fourth grade.

4. Through this module, I have learned that ultimately it is important to always ask myself "What am I learning from this student as a writer?" while I am assessing a student's writing. The kinds of assessments that are used for a student's writing should be appropriately aligned with the GLCEs from that grade, the topic of the assignment, and the resulting outcome of what you are expecting to see from the writer. It is important to fully understand each student's abilities as writers so that you can appropriately assess them and determine how they can improve their writing. A combination of anecdotal records, final drafts, and evidence of revisions should be considered while assessing a student's writing.

Online Seminar 5- Kendall Philip

Sharon Ruth Gill
The forgotten genre of children's poetry

In reading this article, I took away an understanding of the importance of children's poetry in literacy. Children should be exposed to new and exciting forms of poetry, rather than simply reading the “classics”. Poetry should be something used in the classroom for students to enjoy and participate in. Instead of simply reading the words of great poets, students should be given opportunities to write their own poetry, talk about themes and meaning, and what poetry actually is. Instead of always using poetry as something to read, students should practice writing poetry with the guidance of some of the various poem structures. To build a classroom collection of poetry, the teacher should work with students to create their own collection in the classroom. This collection should include work done by children poet’s as well as innovative poets who write children’s poems.

I would use poetry at my grade level in a variety of ways. From time to time, during literacy block, I would have my third graders focus on writing poems, talking about themes and meanings, and/or simply reading and exploring poems written by other children. I think poetry could absolutely be incorporated into the language arts curriculum in my classroom. Poetry exploration offers a lot for enriching writing instruction because it allows students to express their ideas and thoughts through a new outlet. Poetry can be used for anything; to express feelings and thoughts, relive a memory, evoke emotion, etc. Other literary aspects such as theme and genre can be addressed while instructing poetry as well.

In order to use poetry in the classroom, I think I need to learn more about good resources to get the poetry from. I think having the resources to build the classroom collection of children's poetry is a significant part of using poetry in the classroom. I want students to want to learn and explore through accessible and relative poetry, rather than just reading the “classics”.

As I plan for instruction for unit, I need to consider my students as writers. I need to consider how well students are able to communicate their ideas through written English. I also need to consider students’ understanding of sentence structure, grammar, spelling rules, vocabulary, and use of evidence to support their ideas/thoughts. In analyzing students' writing samples, I will be able to analyze the things that they need further instruction and practice in so that they will continue to develop as literacy learners.

Online Seminar 5: Task 4 - Amy Benson

Sharon Ruth Gill
The Forgotten Genre of Children’s Poetry

This article talked about the decreasing amount of quality poetry instruction in elementary schools today. Students are not learning about poetry as a means of expressing feelings in a real, purposeful way, but instead they are only learning about the different types of poems and old famous poets. The big idea I got out of this article was that it is our job, as teachers, to keep poetry around and alive in our classrooms. We need to show students how to really use poetry in a meaningful way so that it doesn’t disappear from our instruction altogether.

I really enjoy poetry. I agree that a lot of its meaning is lost on students (and probably even most adults) and I would love to use it more often in my classroom this year. I think that my kids would have a lot of fun doing a poetry unit. I know that at the 4th grade level discussing genre is a big deal and it would be neat to be able to also introduce more poetry in there. I’m not totally sure how I would use it in my classroom, but I think I would start with a few read alouds. I would want the kids to be able to understand that poems are used for real reasons, and they don’t all have to rhyme. I would encourage them to try to write their own poems about meaningful experiences that they’ve had. When I was writing my response to task 1, I was certainly not thinking about poetry. However, now that I am thinking about it, a poem would make a great mentor text (that was the topic of the lesson I watched). It seems like almost every time I’ve written a poem in school, I based the structure off of another poem. I think that using a poem as a mentor text could really enrich the writing my students do. Poetry is a combination of free form and structure at the same time, so it would be interesting to read what my kids come up with.

As a professional, I would have to learn more about poetry writing and instruction myself. I know I like to listen to poems, but I don’t know a whole lot about how to write them or the names of many famous children’s poets. I would need to study up on this myself before I try to teach it to a group of 8 year-olds.

As I plan for instruction, I need to get to know my students better as writers. I am going to be designing a unit (it will mostly be a reading unit) in which I will split my students into three groups (ideally a low, medium and high group). In order to do this, I need to better understand their ability levels; I want to make sure I put students in the right group. Finally, most of the written work my students will do during my unit will be comprehension based, so I will need to carefully construct my assessments. I’m thinking that I may need to design some type of rubric addressing what I am looking for in my student assessments. Assessment is always the most challenging piece of lesson plan writing for me and it is going to take me some time to think it all through.

Sem 4

Like all of you, blogmates, my class is also prepping for the MEAP. Man will we all be glad when that is over. I haven't even really had time to see lit assessment in my class except for in the case of MEAP studies. That was actually pretty cool though. My CT read to the entire class an example of a previous MEAP writing sample and the kids got to score it as the MEAP scorers due with a basis for why they gave that score. I do think it was helpful...seeing what makes a good score will help you to write a piece that earns a good score.
Though we are busy with MEAP prep I am seeing some BCP items in my classroom. We have a semi-regularly scheduled read aloud with a great book, Ida B. Applewood. It is a text that is above the instructional level of many of my students but can be readily understood and appreciated. Like was said in Chapter 10, a teacher read-aloud allows this and has many other benefits as well. My students can hear what fluency and prosody sounds like. Also, they hear good writing and can see how different conventions can be used to improve their writing. When we have our read alouds however, they aren't very planned for...that is to say that they are a...hey-we-have-15-minutes-let's-read-some-Ida-B. I’d like to plan more for these “lessons” like the book suggests and find specific places to hold discussions and get the students listening more actively. When I read Ida B. I am reading with much prosody, intonation, and emotion in my voice...although I kills any attempt of smooth transition, (secretly) one of my favorite things is when I leave the kids with a bit a cliff hanger when we run out of time and I hear them all go “awwwwwwwww!” I can tell that this read aloud is making reading enjoyable for them, some of whom I’d imagine may not normally enjoy reading. The read aloud is a very useful tool, but so far we have just been using it as a fun pastime and I look forward to making it more book club plus-ie.

Seminar 4 Post- Kendall Philip

The ideas discussed in Book Club Plus! about talk in the classroom and managing our literacy program are very similar to what I see in my own classroom. Our literacy program consists of literacy block, where students are given time to independently read and write. Within the literacy block, we practice writer’s and reader’s workshop structure. So far, we have spent that time working mostly on independent reading and writing. Sometimes, students are writing a response to a question and other times they are free writing or generating lists/ideas in their writer’s notebook. Similar to what is mentioned in Book Club Plus! regarding literacy block, my CT uses literacy block as a time to explore and learn through literacy in a variety of ways. Thus far, I have seen independent reading and writing, shared reading, and one on one conferencing. In the future, my CT said we will get into doing literature circles and Book Club. We have also been working on Read-Aloud Literature, as discussed on page 148. My CT and I have the same basic philosophy that the authors of the books have: "When you read aloud, you create a common literacy context for the whole class" (p. 148). Both my CT and I believe read-aloud is an important time for the class to come together, regardless of reading level, and get to participate in similar literacy activities such as: comprehending, predicting, recalling events, retelling, discussing story elements. I also like how BCP talks about the importance of modeling fluency during read-aloud. I think it is just as important for students to be read to and to practice the literacy of listening, as it is for them to actually be reading. The more they are able to hear fluent sentences, with inflection and phrasing, the more familiar the reading process becomes.

Seminar 4

Like Amy's class, my class has been prepping for the MEAP for the past few weeks and very little emphasis has been placed on reading, other than reading writing samples and directions.
Other than the MEAP prep, one of the few reading tasks that my CT incorporates during our
Literacy time is Read Aloud. Read Aloud was one of the first tasks that I took over and it has been going great! I have read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume and am reading Gregor the Overlander to my students right now. They really enjoy our Read Aloud time and beg me not to stop reading once I find a nice, "edge of your seat" place to stop. What's nice about the Read Aloud activity is that you can include and teach reading strategies to the students while you read. At the beginning of every Read Aloud, I always have the students remind me of what happened in the story the previous day. We recap the big events that took place and also make text-to-text connections between Gregor and Fourth Grade Nothing. The students are getting really good at finding those connections! I also have them make inferences on what they think certain scenarios or vocabulary terms mean. Today, a girl raised her hand while I was reading and said "Ms. S, I know why he's called an Overlander now! It's because he lives above the Underland and the crawlers call people Overlanders." In the story, we never get the real definition of an Overlander, so it was great for her to make that inference within the text! After about 20 minutes of me reading to the class, we predict what events might happen next so they can practice making predictions with the text. It's also nice for the students to hear my different expressions and voice while I read the story. It gives them a different visual that they might not have while reading it to themselves. I think we have a great Read Aloud activity set up in my classroom.
If I were to try out some of the book club techniques, I would group my students more frequently and maybe test out the fishbowl activity. I think it's a great idea to put your students into groups while reading because you're able to mix different opinions, ethnicities, personalities, and reading abilities within each group. Through experiencing these differences, a student's reading comprehension and perception could drastically change. I think the fishbowl activity looks really interesting and like something I would be willing to try out. It's great to include new activities for the students to use while reading so that their routine never gets old and boring.
Well, that's it for now. See you all tomorrow!

Seminar 4 - Amy Benson

Answering this week’s blog questions is a little bit difficult for me. My class has been focusing so much time during the past couple of weeks on MEAP preparation that we haven’t had a lot of extra time to include many aspects of Book Club Plus into our daily routine. During the past couple of weeks, my classroom’s literacy program has consisted of handwriting for about 10 minutes in the morning, and about a half an hour of independent reading time in the afternoon. Thus, there isn’t much to compare. I do know that my CT is very familiar with the Book Club Plus framework, so I am anxious to see the comparisons once we start spending more time on them.

The readings did touch on one thing that I see a lot of in my classroom: creating groups. Even for creating things like seating charts, organizing students is huge. There are a couple students that can’t be in a group together, there are students who need to be with other students, there are students that you want to reward for good behavior by grouping with friends, I swear it’s like a giant puzzle. Before implementing this aspect of book club into my classroom I would have to really think about how I want groups to be set up.

If I were to try out some aspects of book club in my classroom I would definitely have some type of self-evaluation for the students to do. My class already does a lot of self-evaluation in other subjects, so this would be a format that is familiar to them. My students recently filled out a parent FYI form about how they think they are behaving in school so far, and it is extremely interesting to me to see how the students “grade” themselves. There are a handful of students, of course, who give themselves perfect scores when they really should not have, and there are also some students that grade themselves pretty hard, when they are actually doing very well. Having students reflect on their own participation and effort gets them thinking about those things.

I think it would also be helpful to give students some type of guidelines or rubric up front. This way, students know what the teacher is looking for and they can come up with a plan so that they can achieve the goals. This could also help the teacher. If you know the goals of what you would like your students to be able to do, you can better plan lessons that will help students get there.

I’m not sure I totally answered the questions, my blog got a little off topic, hopefully that’s okay.

Sem 3

The four main components of book club, teacher read aloud, shared reading, independent reading, and writer’s workshop, are all seen within my classroom. So far I have been reading from a chapter book called Ida B. Applewood. This story is above perhaps half of the class’s instructional level but is still at a fully age appropriate level. This is good for the students because they are able to hear an entertaining story without having to struggle through some of the harder vocabulary. I read with a lot of intonation and prosody which is something else that I think would be lost upon many if they were to take on this book individually. The best thing (I think about a read aloud) is that it lets the reader’s passion for reading shine through and hopefully be absorbed by the listeners.
We don’t do shared reading quite like Book Club Plus suggests, it is more of a “Johnny, read number 1…Sallie, read number 2” kind of thing, so perhaps that one isn’t seen in my classroom. But we do have independent reading each day for at least 15 minutes. During this time students read their choice of book from the guided library. Students know their letter and are encouraged to read at that instructional level but are free to choose a lower or higher book if they want.
Just this week we are started book club and I will be very interested to see how it plays out. To begin groups will not be student led at all, but fully teacher lead. Students will read their books outside of club. So far it appears that will be following the book club plus model fairly closely.
The different literacies can be seen in my classroom all throughout the day. Starting with morning meeting each student is given an opportunity to both speak and listen and we try to develop their social literacy by encouraging them to be open with one another and hold self facilitated conversation. Good old fashion reading literacy is being driven home currently because we are preparing for the MEAP. During this time we directly teach comprehension strategies as suggested in chapter three. For writing students get to use a daybook which helps facilitate both reading and writing practices and conventions.
As we delve into bookclub in the coming days I look forward to comparing more deeply the philosophy found in our book to what I see in the classroom.

Seminar 3 Post - Kendall Philip

How does this book club model compare and contrast with what you are learning about literacy instruction in your classroom context?
Literacy instruction in my classroom context is similar to what I have been reading about in Book Club Plus! The philosophy of my grade level team is that students should be given equal opportunities to engage in and work with a variety of literacies. Students are given these opportunities during, what we call, “Reader’s Workshop” and “Writer’s Workshop”. Students are directed to pick a book of a certain genre and level from the media center to work with during literacy block. Thus far, I have seen students work independently on both reading and writing, as well as in guided reading groups. We are in the process of finishing up our DRAs, which will tell us more about each students individual reading level. Every student in my classroom is unique and their reading levels resemble that. Literacy block should be a time for all students to make meaningful text to text, text to self, and text to world connections through different literacy centered opportunities. I look forward to seeing the ways in which my classroom integrates and overlaps with some of the aspects of Book Club Plus! It would be great to see students given opportunities to respond to texts through pictures at some point. So far, students have been responding to reader responses (using words and sentences) in their journals.

Where do you see reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and other literacies in your classroom literacy program?
Overall, I see reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing integrated into all subject areas, and throughout the entire school day. More specifically, I see reading and writing during our literacy block. Students are expected to read for about 20 minutes independently, fill out a reading log, and then answer a reader’s response question in their journals. Students all write independently in their “writer’s notebooks” too. These notebooks are safe places for students to write freely and generate ideas (sometimes with prompts from my CT). Students are given opportunities to listen and speak during Making Meaning lessons, as well as throughout all subject areas. During Making Meaning, students interact with both myself and their partners. Also, throughout the day, we use the document camera a lot for students to see various pictures and pieces of text. My students also view educational movies on the television in our room, which is another opportunity for them to experience literacy.

What opportunities do students have to write into a text, through a text, or out of a text?
Students have opportunities to write into a text during social studies. This week, students completed a packet on the city of West Bloomfield. There were places throughout the text for them to draw pictures, color, and write their own ideas about the community. Students also write into a text during math. They have student journals where there are various blanks places for them to answer questions and record their answers. It is an excellent way for students to interact with text that correlates with each math lesson. Students write out of text after independently reading. They respond to a reader's response after reading, which to me, is an opportunity for students to write about a text.

Seminar 3

One of the ways that my CT has incorporated the book club model within my class's literacy curriculum right now is through individual reading and read aloud. The fourth grade students in my class spend at least 20-40 minutes reading their "Just Right" books as part of their Literacy curriculum for the day and to fill in any free time during other subjects. We have also incorporated a whole-group activity, where I have been reading a chapter book to them for the past few weeks and we discuss and predict events that will or have occured in the story. We recently finished the book and drafted a summary chart for the book, listing it's genre, main characters, plot, and a rating.
A lot of emphasis is placed on writing in our literacy program. The students have multiple composition notebooks (one for every subject and 2-3 for Literacy). They have an "Ideas Notebook", where they can respond to prompts about their environment, school activities, etc, and a "Writer's Notebook", where they write more structured paragraphs about topics that they've learned in school. Their Social Studies and Science notebooks are used as a textbook and a notebook. Often my CT and my students' science teacher will give my students worksheets to cut and glue into their notebooks as references, as well as "fill in the blank" sheets to answer questions, describe situations, or review for tests and quizzes.
Of course, I observe my students speaking, listening, and viewing all day long in every subject. I find its very important to incorporate as many of the five senses as possible to ensure that every child has a chance to be engaged and be provided with the best way of comprehending new information.

Online Module Task 4- Reflecting on the Community- Kendall Philip

What did you notice?
While exploring the West Bloomfield Township Public Library, I noticed the amount of people who were there. Before going to the library, I assumed that people may not be there because of the time (dinner time). I was happy to see that people of all ages were at the library enjoying and exploring literacy and technology. Physically, the library was huge, and made up of three different sections. There are sections for young adults, children, and the main library with a large section for tables and computers. The inside of the library was very modern and beautiful. Everything was very accessible and the colors were vibrant in the kid’s wing, which made the atmosphere very exciting. I was very excited to see all of the awesome resources for community members of all ages. Even in the kid’s [large] section of the library, there were computers and audio sets for them to use, as well as a reading stage, play areas, and various games involving literacy.

What surprised you? What didn’t surprise you?
I was surprised, as I mentioned above, by the amount of people at the library. There were about 30 people using the computers in the main area; most of them looked like high school and college-aged students who were doing homework. There were also about 20 kids and parents/tutors in the kid’s section of the library as well. I was not surprised by the amount of literacy I observed throughout the library. Members of the community were taking part in all aspects of literacy, speaking, listening, looking, writing, reading, etc. Literacy was also in a variety of forms throughout the library; there were bulletin boards, book shelves with the genres labeled, computers, music, books, paper, theatre section (for kids), audio materials, etc. I absolutely loved exploring this library; I cannot wait to go back and partake in some of the activities this year.

How has this community experience helped you learn about your school, students, and families?
This community experience taught me a lot about the possible resources that my students can use, right in the community. In talking with my students about the library, I have learned that many of them take trips there with their families. Knowing that students take time to go to the library tells me that students and their families find literacy to be an important part of developing as a learner. I would love to take a class field trip to the library or just continue to encourage kids to go by keeping them updated with upcoming events at the library. I also learned that the library can be a great place for ELL students to go and explore too. There are an abundance of resources catered to kids or adults learning English, and vice versa.

How will this experience help you in your teaching?
I think this experience will help me in my teaching because I can now check-out books from the library and encourage my students to do the same. I see the library as a new resource for both myself and my students. Page 449 in the Compton-Lilly article says, “Heath noted that even children who were considered deficient by school standards brought rich experiences and understanding to the classroom that teachers could build upon, access, and develop.” I also think exploring the community of my students will allow me to better understand their interests and experiences. This will facilitate me in my quest to make connections from the students to the academic content. As Heath mentioned in the article, every student comes to the classroom with their own knowledge and experiences. It is the job of the teacher to pull that knowledge and those experiences out of the children to both gain insight into their world and work to make meaningful connections.

How will it influence your thinking about your students’ as literacy users and learners?
Exploring the West Bloomfield Township Public Library will influence my thinking about my students’ as literacy users and learners in a few ways. Being at the library reminded me of how much technology is a growing part of my students’ everyday lives. This means I need to say on top of the newest technologies as well. At the library, students were able to grow and develop as literacy users and learners through the diversity of books and available technology. I strive to keep my students interested in what we are doing in the classroom by bringing in hands-on literacy opportunities as well as opportunities to explore literacy through different medias (reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing.)

For Seminar 3 - Amy Benson

I see most of the components of the Book Club model in my classroom. My students participate in Writers Workshop every day. Lately they have just been finishing up a personal narrative story but they are moving into writing text to-(self, text, etc.) comparisons. We usually have a teacher read aloud about two times per week. These are typically shorter picture books, even though my students are in third and fourth grade. My CT uses these texts to help explain more complicated ideas (such as the phases of the moon) and also to develop reading comprehension strategies. I have not yet seen any shared reading but independent reading is a major part of my classroom. My teacher incorporates at least 30 minutes of independent reading time every day. Sometimes students are reading a book of their choice and other times they are reading an assigned book. Lately my fourth grade students have even been doing a structured book club activity; they meet in small groups and talk about discussion questions based on the book they are reading. It is interesting to see all of the various Book Club Plus components in action in my own classroom.

My CT is also spending a little time each day focusing on helping students become better speakers. My students each brought in a small box filled with a few of their “treasures” and each day two students share what they brought with the class. After sharing, other students can comment on what they thought their classmates did well (i.e. “you spoke loud enough for everyone to hear”). Though this does not exactly fit in with Book Club Plus, students are still learning the many components of being effective public speakers.

I know that my CT is familiar with the Book Club Plus model and therefore I see a lot of strong comparisons in my classroom. One chapter that stood out to me in particular was chapter 3, Making Meaning with Text. The graph of Teacher’s Roles in Instruction on page 31 was very familiar to me. When my CT teaches a comprehension strategy she always begins by explaining it explicitly and giving an example of it herself. She then has the students try out the strategy in their own reading and eventually is only there to periodically remind students to use it.

Community Exploration

1. Where/What will you visit? Why did you choose to go there?
We initially chose places we wanted to visit in search of finding evidences of math. But since we also wanted to be connected to the community--Novi, which has a culturally diverse student body--we sought out a way to look for that same cultural diversity in the community as well as other important things. We planned to check out a variety of different restaurants (looking for the multicultural aspect), paradise park (our students talk about this all the time), and the newly renovated public library (all of the teachers said we've got to see it. We may decide to check out more areas in the community tomorrow since we weren't thinking too much about literacy just yet. I think a return trip to the library is definitely in order. It would also be way cool to check out a sporting event of our students if possible.

2. What do you expect to see, hear, learn?
I hope to see kids at the library. Many kids. Kids with their parents or kids there alone. Often when I pop into my local library I see maybe two kids in the children area but mostly its just adults. So I hope to see lots of kids taking advantage of all the different things that their library has to offer them.
I expect to learn that there are maaaaaaaany different places and ways that literacy is connected our students. Because we are so used to them, it's easy to just pass over things that could be helpful to our students learning literacy, like signs and video games and symbols (men and women bathroom pictures). I expect that once we're out and actively searching for them we will find many.

3. How do your visits confirm or disconfirm your expectations?
Our visits will tell us this. Later, our detailed notes will help.

4. Relate 1,2, and 3 about specifically to literacy.
Whoops, guess I was kinda doing that all along.

The library was way cool. I was glad to see students when I went there after school and I was also happy to see so many different forms of learning taking place. I think that I was slightly (and happily) surprised to see this because I had a sulking feeling that perhaps this would not be the case. But there were kids with books, on computers, on computers with head phones, and checking out the interactive map.
At Paradise Park I felt like a little kid. What a cool place. Its educational value may not have been apparent at first, but I think that it can actually serve as a powerful tool and linking inside-the-classroom work with outside-the-classroom experience, making that work feel real and authentic. It was surprising how at Paradise Park and overall there was so much literacy and so many different kinds present, but you really had to look for it.
The volume of different kinds of restaurants available in Novi was one thing that wasn’t surprising. The cultural diversity in our classrooms is reflected in the community and that leads to different pallets and different cuisines. I’ve noticed, more so during lunch trips than community visits, that while the culture of the restaurant is the same as patrons who dominate its tables, there are always people from different cultures present too.
I see my students as “multi-learners”. Due to both their community around them, but more so the global era we find ourselves in today, my students absorb information in a multitude of ways. The strong parental support of Novi families greatly supports this. Knowing this about my students will help me to teach them because I understand that to be as effective as I can be I will need to use a variety of instruction and learning methods.
It’s like the Learning to Change video. The outro of it shocked me: “it’s the death of education, but the dawn of learning.” As an educator I wasn’t sure how I felt about that at first, but I think I understand what it’s getting at now. The old ways are diminishing (and good riddance), today’s education—a different kind of learning—is accomplished so differently, that we need to rethink our schema of education as a whole. Novi is a community where this is happening. Deerfield is one of the schools talked about in the video, where new things are being tried all over the world. To reach my students as literacy users I will try to match that and try new things.

Online Module Task 2- Community Exploration

1. Where/What will you visit? Why did you choose to go there? I decided to visit the Walled Lake City Library for my Inquiry 1 investigation. I had overheard a few of my students mention that they had visited the library to check out books or use the computers and I was interested in seeing what other kinds of literacy they were able to use at that location.

2. What do you expect to see, hear, learn? At the library, I expect to see many kids (between ages 5-18) and adults (18 and older) reading, surfing the web, playing games, or attending one of the events that the library puts on. I anticipate hearing whispers and quiet conversations between kids and adults. I expect to learn the different parts of the library, the procedures of checking out the books or signing up to use a computer, who comes to the library in Walled Lake, and their reasoning for coming.

3. How do your visits confirm or disconfirm your expectations? So far, the majority of the people that have been at the library have been adults. I haven't seen many kids at the library (probably due to the time that I'm going...after 6pm). This has surprised me. I would've expected more children to be at the library at that time. Other than that, my expectations were correct. There were a lot of people reading and using the computers. There were not any events taking place at the time, but there were small reading groups scattered throughout the library.

4. Relate 1,2, and 3 about specifically to literacy. A library is one of the few locations where you are able to see just about every aspect of literacy taking place. It is very common for a person to read, write, speak/communicate, listen, and watch/look in a library. This is one of the reasons why I chose this location. I was able to witness every aspect taking place in the Walled Lake City library. I witnessed people taking notes from a book they were reading, have conversations with another person, and listen to another person read a story out loud.

Online Module Task 4- Reflecting on the Community- Amy Benson

After spending some time in the Novi community I noticed that overall the area is very nice. It’s clean, modern, developed and unique. The area is unique because it is home to dozens of different multicultural restaurants. Though Novi does have its fair share of chains, there are many privately owned eateries as well. I was surprised by the sheer volume of these restaurants. I was also surprised by some of the types of cuisines that we found, such as Middle Eastern. Judging from the population of students in my classroom, I was not surprised to find as many Asian and Indian restaurants. However, it was interesting (I’m not sure if I would also say surprising) to find that many Asian restaurants have everything written in both Chinese or Japanese and English. I think that this is representative of the Novi population in general; many people visit these restaurants even if they are not totally familiar with the cuisine.

This experience has helped me learn a lot about where my students are coming from. It’s probably safe to say that many of my students may speak a second language. Also, even those students who do not are at least exposed to the idea of it when they go out and about in their community. This experience will help me in my teaching because I will be better able to pick materials that students can relate to. I think I could also use the community surroundings to highlight different cultures and give students ideas of places where they can go to see these things for themselves.

Finally, this experience has gotten me to think of places around the community in terms of literacy. This will help me tremendously when I think about what I want my students to be able to know and do. My students will need to be culturally literate; this could mean focusing on how children behave in other cultures. My students will also need to be able use literacy to make and communicate a choice. For example, if a student was out to eat at a Thai restaurant, they would have to be able to read the menu and descriptions to make a choice, and then communicate that choice to the server in a way that the server can understand. Literacy is everywhere and this experience has helped me to think about how to better prepare my students to learn and use that.

Compton-Lily sums it up nicely when she says that “Teachers can also learn important information by visiting students’ homes to get to know families, become informed about their interests and literacy practices and become familiar with their funds of knowledge that family possesses” (pg. 456). Although I did not visit any homes, I think this quote can also be applied to visiting different places in the community. It is important to note that through experiencing the community where our students come from, we are gaining a better understanding of what funds of knowledge they are already coming to school with. Students learn a lot both in and out of school, and it is essential for teachers to be aware of that.

Online Module Task 2- Amy Benson

Okay- I’m not sure if I did this right but here are my answers the questions given in part 2 of our online module. At least, I think these are the questions we were supposed to answer?

1. Over the past few weeks my group has noticed that Deerfield is a very multicultural school. As a result of this, we have decided to visit a number of different restaurants in the community that highlight the various types of cuisine we often see during lunch and snack time. We have chosen to visit these places to get a better feel for where our students come from and what their home (eating) life may be like. Novi is a very multicultural community in general, so it seemed like the obvious choice.
2. I expect to see and hear other languages than English. I expect to learn which cultures are most prevalent (simply judging by number of restaurants we can find) and maybe more about how people from these cultures interact. For example, students may address adults differently in one culture than another.
3. After spending some drive driving around the community we found a variety of different cuisines. We found a few that I wasn’t expecting, such as Middle Eastern, and many that I was expecting, such as Japanese and Indian. At these restaurants we saw a lot of Asian writing on menus and quite a few dishes that I was not familiar with. Though I did not hear many other languages, I heard a few accents.
4. I expect to see a lot of interconnections between reading and writing at the restaurants we visit. Customers will have to read and understand menus, recite their orders to a server, and use the correct amount of money to pay their bill. Even though customers may be from another country they will have to understand numeracy in order to be able to pay. Another new literacy I might see is cultural literacy. As I mentioned above, it will be interesting to observe how the community members interact at the various restaurants. Finally, I expect to see text written in multiple languages so that all customers can read and understand things such as menus, specials and meal descriptions.

Online Module, Task 2- Community Exploration

1. Where/What will you visit? Why did you choose to go there?
- For my Inquiry 1 investigation, I have chosen to go to the West Bloomfield Township Public Library located at 4600 Walnut Lake Road in West Bloomfield. I have chosen to explore and observe this location because I know many of my students live in the area and enjoy spending time reading at the library. As always, I want to find more ways to experience what my students are interested in.

2. What do you expect to see, hear, learn?
- When I take time to visit the library, I expect to see people of all different ages enjoying the books and using the technology. Furthermore, I expect to see a variety of book shelves with sections for every genre. I also expect to see a designated area for children to explore resources, as well as an adult section where most sophisticated resources will be located. I expect to hear mostly whispers and quiet conversations. The library should be a place to concentrate and focus, while still having various opportunities to explore and learn. While visiting the library, I expect to learn a lot about the community and how other cultures within the community use the library, refer to resources within the library, as well as what sorts of programs the library uses. I hope to see differentiation at the library in that there are many valuable resources for all cultures within the community, considering that West Bloomfield is a very diverse city. I hope to see a resources which cater to ELLs, programs for children and teens, and sections where adults can research and explore more sophisticated texts/materials.

3. How do your visits confirm or disconfirm your expectations?
-My visits to the West Bloomfield Township Public Library both confirm and disconfirm my original expectations. Each time I visited, I went after school, around 5 p.m., which may have affected how many overall people were present at the library (my visits were around dinner time). As expected, however, I saw people partaking in using the computers (technology) and reading various genres of text. I also found areas within the library which catered to ELLs (translation texts/materials), programs for children and teens, and sections where adults can research and explore more sophisticated texts/materials. For both kids and teens, and adults, there were calendars with all of the different programs for the months of September and October. The library also has a website, http://www.wblib.org, which is an excellent resource for community members to research books and upcoming events.

4. Relate 1,2, and 3 about specifically to literacy.
- At the library, I expect to see all types of literacies, including reading, writing, listening, and communicating. I also expect to see some new literacies, such as visual and digital throughout the library. I expect to see the community using the computers to blog use, use the internet, and use various sites of public communication (such as Facebook). I expect to see all types of writing while at the library; there will be a variety of texts categorized by genres which contain writing. I also expect to see computers which will provide opportunities for the community to write using a keyboard.