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.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
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.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
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).
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.
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.
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.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Online Seminar 5: Task 4 - Amy Benson
Sharon Ruth Gill
The Forgotten Genre of Children’s Poetry
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.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, October 4, 2010
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!
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!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
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.
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.
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