Every Mark on the Page

Sources:
"Every Mark on the Page: Educating Family and Community Members about Young Children's Writing" by Kate Foley Cusumano

This article focuses on the importance of educating family and community members about children's writing. Educating people outside of the school environment about children's writing can allow for a more effective experience for the children when learning how to write. Family members need to learn what techniques and strategies work for their kids and what doesn't work so they can help them as much as possible outside of the classroom. Additionally, parents and teachers need to be consistent about teaching the kids the same materials and techniques; otherwise, they could get very confused.

One idea that the article discussed that I really liked was the writing workshop for family and community members. I had never really thought of this, but I think it could be very effective for both the children and the family and community members. Writing workshops teach everyone the same strategies and allows for everyone to be on the same page. The teacher can teach the family and community members how to effectively and efficiently teach the children how to write, and the teacher can also tell them what not to do to avoid making it more difficult for the children. However, in order for the writing workshop to be successful, the article discussed a few things that need to be incorporated while organizing the workshop. Some of these things include: defining writing, talking about the school's goals for each grade level in regards to writing, showing examples of children's writing, providing rubrics and having the audience participate in grading different pieces of writing, and discussing the risks of too much intervention. I think these are all very beneficial elements to the writing workshop, and I also think this is something that family and community members would really appreciate from the teacher. I want to try this out in my future classroom!

A Fresh Look At Writing

Sources:
Chapter 4: Day One: Help Children to Write and Keep Writing

Getting children to write and keeping writing can be very challenging. Most students say it is boring, time-consuming, or useless, but in the grand scheme of things writing is one of the most important things students should learn how to do. However, in order for students to be motivated to write, the teacher needs to introduce it in a positive way and show them where writing comes from and how to begin to write. Chapter 4 discussed this and talked about several approaches that can be used in the classroom whether it is individually, in small groups, or as a class. One approach that really stood out to me was the writing conference, and I think it stood out to me so much because I can relate to it and I have actually conducted a writing conference with my case study student at University Elementary School. The first writing conference I conducted with Braelyn (my case study student) was random and I did not prompt her at all because I wanted to see how creative she was and what she could do on her own without any assistance. She had some difficulties with this and ended up writing about the first time she learned how to spell her name. Before she started writing she put together an organizational graph and wrote who?, what?, when?, when?, and how?, and then from there she wrote her story. This gave me a good starting point and helped me see where I can help her writing abilities improve in the future. After she finished writing I talked to her about it and she explained her writing to me and why she chose the topic she did. The next week she read a book to me about Clifford and then I gave her a writing prompt based on the book; the book was about Clifford and his friends, so I had her write about her favorite memory with her best friend. She wrote a lot better when I gave her a prompt than she did when I had her randomly write for me the first time. She had clear ideas and had a introduction, body, and conclusion. This showed me that she can write well, she just needs something specific to write about in order to work up to her full potential; she needs some direction. With that being said, throughout these past couple weeks I have been introducing her to new topics and getting her to think and explore different areas that she may not be as familiar with.
Writing conferences really are beneficial, and it helps the teacher track the improvements of the student throughout a specific time period. This is something that I want to carry into my own classroom one day so I can help my students more effectively with their writing.

Phonemic Awareness

Sources:
Teaching Phonemic Awareness by Rasinski and Padak

Recently we have been talking a lot about phonics in E339, and to be honest I didn't realize even realize phonemic awareness was a term until we started learning about it in class. In order for children to learn how to read, they first need to learn phonemic awareness. As the article, Teaching Phonemic Awareness states, "Recent research suggests that phonemic awareness is a very important precondition for learning phonics as well as reading (pg. 43)." A lot of children develop phonemic awareness naturally; however, some students enter school with insufficient awareness of language sounds. I think this puts a huge responsibility on us teachers to teach those that are suffering the correct sounds and spellings because this is something they will use for the rest of their lives, and phonics is the framework for a lot of students' success.
In my classroom I want to assess phonemic awareness more often than not so I can get the struggling students on the right track. The article gave a lot of fun and concrete activities that I want to use in my classroom to teach and nurture phonemic awareness. I think the fun and engaging activities are more appealing to the kids because it allows them to be silly while also learning at the same time. It talked about bringing nursery rhymes, chants, poetry, and songs into the classroom in order to learn sounds, and I think this would be very enjoyable for the kids and motivate them to learn. For example, playing with nursery rhymes will help them grasp the concept of the same sound and then you can alter the nursery rhyme so the students can practice different sounds. This is also an activity that the students can connect with because most students probably have heard most of the nursery rhymes throughout their childhood.
Phonemic awareness was something I developed naturally as a child whether it was while I was playing with friends, singing childhood songs and nursery rhymes), being around family, and even just watching cartoons. Since it is something I developed naturally I didn't really view the idea of phonemic awareness from a teacher's perspective, and I didn't realize that it is something we will most likely need to teach in our classroom. It doesn't come naturally to all children, so it is important for me to be patient with those that need help and teach them in a way that is easy for them to understand.

Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch. 7

I Thought I Knew How to Teach Reading, but Whoa!
This chapter was all about teaching kids how to read and how to read fluently... reading fluently is key. Classrooms these days are becoming more and more diverse, meaning that some students may have high literacy levels while other students may need a lot of extra assistance from the teacher. Throughout this chapter it discussed a lot of different strategies to use for struggling readers at the emergent levels who need lots of support as they learn to take on the earliest strategic action. This chapter made me a little nervous to have my own classroom because I never really thought of having many different types of learners in the classroom; I always imagined a picture perfect classroom where I can do whatever strategies and lessons I please, but that is not realistic at all. This chapter kind of put things into perspective for me and made me realize that I won't have all highly intelligent students.
I really liked the five different assessment tools that were described at the beginning of the chapter. These different tools would be very beneficial to do at the beginning of the school year so I can get a feel for the different literacy levels in my classroom. This will form a good framework for me to work off of for the rest of the year. I think is is important to know the different individual literacy levels in my classroom so I give them texts and activities that are appropriate for them and will help them grow and learn. I can get frustrated very easily, so as I am working with the struggling readers it is very important that I stay calm and patiently help them work through their difficulties. As the book says, "Know that these students do have strengths; it may just take a bit longer for you to discover them (pg.110)." Every student has their own strengths and weaknesses, but it might just take a little more work and interaction on the teacher's part to bring those strengths out of the struggling readers. Another quote that stood out to me was, "there are no set teaching sequences: there is no prescription to learn this before that (pg. 110)." I always feel like there is a set sequence to teaching and that I have to follow specific lessons, rules, and guidelines, but that is not true! Yes, there is certain curriculum and standards that we have to follow as teachers, but we do not have to follow a set teaching sequence. As the book says, we need to remain responsive to the needs of EACH child, making sure we are linking what they already know to new learning. Before we start teaching the students new information, we need to make sure they have a good grasp on the information they already know. All of the students' knowledge builds on top of each other and if they don't understand something before learning new information it could mess up their whole learning experience. Readers also draw upon their background knowledge along with the pictures to predict a story line, so students need to be clear on their background knowledge so it is easier for them to draw meaning and understand different books.

Webcast Reflection

Making Decisions for Individual Learners Within a Small Group 
Throughout the podcast, the speakers really stressed the importance of small group work and having the students work together. Literacy is a very important component of the learning process and it is important that students learn all the different strategies that go into reading and writing so they can work and learn efficiently and effectively.
The first speaker discussed the sources of information that students use to draw meaning and understand the text that they are reading. The three different sources are meaning, syntactic, and visual information; students use these three sources of information to understand words. However, I learned that is it important to teach the students to balance these sources so they understand the text to their full potential. The speaker gave an example that if the student is mostly using their visual source of information and hardly touching on their syntactic and visual sources, then you, as the teacher, need to encourage them to use all three together. Students need to get in the habit of using all sources together and balancing all three so it is easier for them to read more complex text when the time comes. Additionally, the speaker stressed the importance of using a network of strategies while reading instead of focusing on one specific one; this is something we learned in our cluster as well. The speaker said that the network of strategies should be "interconnected, flexible, overlapping, fluent, and self-initiated." This is something I will remember for my future classroom because I think it is really important for students to use different types of strategies instead of just a few because it will get them to understand the text better and become better readers. A quote by Frank Smith that they mentioned was ,"Reading depends more on what is behind the eyes-- on the non-visual information than the visual information in front of them." This really stood out to me because I never thought of reading in that sense. Elementary students who are first starting to read need to dig deeper than the text on the page in order to understand the true meaning on the book. This will help them develop good comprehension strategies as well, and it will help build a good foundation of literacy skills. Every word in a book has a meaning behind it, so as teachers I think it is really important to teach the students that.
The second speaker talked about making instructional decisions and knowing the strength of the readers in the classroom. I didn't really understand the importance of this until after listening to this podcast. I learned that it is important to know the strengths of each student because you don't want to give students books that are too complex for their literacy level because they won't learn anything; they will be more focused on how to say the words they don't know. In order for teachers to know the strengths of each student they can look at the student's interests, experiential base, language, and the strategies they use. It is also very important to assess student processing by keeping a record of some sort to assess the needs for strategy instruction; it is the teacher's job to help the struggling students and point them in the right direction if need be. A good strategy that the speaker discussed that I will be sure to use in my classroom to assess independent reading is sitting next to individual students while they are in a small group and listen to them read. This is a good strategy because the teacher isn't necessarily singling any student out; they are just discreetly listening to different students read aloud. As the students read the teacher jots down notes and then discusses with the student things that they need to work on and what they are doing a good job at.
Lastly, the third speaker talked about ELL and closing the gap between ELL and their English-speaking peers. This section of the podcast freaked me out a little bit because I have not learned a lot about working with ELL and teaching them English as their second language. I am not fluent in any other language besides English, so I will need to learn how to communicate with and teach ELL in an effective and efficient way without embarrassing them in front of their peers. However, I did learn some strategies in this podcast that I can use in my classroom. The speaker talked about the importance of small group instruction and guided reading lessons and how they are great ways to improve ELL; this is a good way for the students to learn from one another and help each other learn English. In order for this to be effective though, the students need to be placed in groups with students that are have similar literacy levels. There were many other strategies mentioned in the podcast and I can't wait to use them to become a better teacher for the future ELL in my classroom.
This podcast was very useful and I learned a lot of useful strategies and tips to create a classroom full of fluent readers. I can't wait to have my own classroom and help my students grow every day in the literacy department and in other parts of their lives as well. I get more and more excited to teach every day!

Update On My Field Experience

Working at University Elementary School, where I am doing my field experience, has been such a joy. I absolutely love working with the kids and helping them grow, and my case study student has been so fun to work with also. For the most part she is a very good reader and writer, and she loves to read to me while pretending to be the "teacher." At times she will get stuck on a word when she is reading or need help spelling a word when she is writing, but that is something we work through together in order to help her learn. Language arts and literacy is not one of my stronger subjects so it has been a little challenging helping the students in this area, but I try my best to use the strategies and techniques that we have learned in class thus far.

It is really exciting to actually work in the classroom and get a feel for what is it like to be a teacher. The past two years of college have consisted of me sitting in a classroom learning and preparing to become a teacher, so it is neat to finally be able to work in a real classroom with students and get a taste of reality. It also makes me that much more excited to have my own classroom someday. I already have so many cool ideas from Mrs. Cowden's room, my field experience teacher, and I can't wait to incorporate them into my classroom. 

Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch. 4

     This chapter, Beyond "Sound It Out," was prominently about helping students put sentences and words together in a way that makes sense. A lot of students skip over words they don't know while reading, or they will pronounce a word completely wrong and not think anything of it, as discussed in the book. This is something I really noticed in my case study student the past couple weeks I have been working with her, so this chapter was interesting to me and there were a lot of helpful techniques and strategies I can't wait to use with her to help her become a better reader. While reading Braelyn, my case study student, will skip over words she doesn't know and she does not monitor for 1:1 matching. For example if the book says "come and play baseball with us" she will say, "come play with us." She has a tendency to shorten the sentence and not say every word, but still manages to get the point of the sentence across. However, as a beginning reader that is not a good technique for her to develop because as she gets older she will have to learn how to read every word of a sentence correctly and in order for it to make sense. The book gave a lot of great examples and strategies to use, so I can't wait to try those out and help Braelyn progress! 

      Before reading this chapter I didn't realize how much work goes into reading and helping students read correctly. As an adult, like me, it comes naturally so it is hard to put yourself in the shoes of an elementary school student and help them start from scratch. Every student reads differently and has a different way of thinking, so as a teacher it is so, so important to be patient and help them every step of the way. I also noticed a pattern throughout this book; in every single chapter it stresses how important modeling is, so I really want to be sure to use modeling while working with Braelyn and all of my future students and help them become a stronger reader every single day.

Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch. 5 and 10

In chapter 5 it referred to the classroom environment as a “comprehensive literacy framework,” and that really caught my attention. Throughout the chapter it discussed different components of the comprehensive literacy framework in regards to reading and writing, and that is something I really want to be sure to encourage in my classroom one day. As I was reading through the different components it made me realize how much patience, effort, and work goes into reading and writing on the teacher’s part and how crucial it is to help the students develop a solid literacy framework.  One thing that really stood out to me was the importance of a book’s introduction. Whenever I read a book I don’t spend a lot of time on the introduction; instead I just skip to the body of the book and start reading. As a future teacher that is something I will really have to work on especially when working with elementary students because the introduction is what will get them “thinking before reading” as the book said, and it will get them to engage in the book.

            Another quote that stood out to me in chapter 5 when it discussed scheduling groups for reading was, “Being fair does not always mean equal time with the teacher. It means providing children with the kind of instructional support required for them to continue to develop as a reader (pg. 81).” I think this is so, so important to understand as a teacher. I think a lot of teachers are constantly trying to be fair and give all of their students’ equal attention and time, but it just doesn’t work like that especially when it comes to literacy. It would not be fair of the teacher to spend the same amount of time with a struggling reader as they do with a very advanced reader. If a student is struggling I think it is important that the teacher focuses on their needs until the student feels confident. Literacy is something the students will use throughout the duration of their lives, so I think it is understandable if the teacher spends more time with the struggling students and doesn’t take into account having “equal time” with all students.  However, teachers do need to give attention and be there for the more advanced students as well.

            I think a lot of people mostly think of reading when they hear the word literacy, I know I am guilty of this, but writing is just as important. Community and independent writing is so important in the classroom. I think community writing is a great way for students to learn from one another and reflect on other student’s work to come more efficient on their own. Independent writing is a good time for the students to see how much they can do on their own and to apply the techniques and strategies they have learned in class. Writing is a crucial component to one’s life whether you are writing for school, for fun, for extracurricular activities, etc.; therefore, as a teacher it is important to start the students off as early as possible and have them writing all throughout the day to get all the practice they can get to become fluent writers. As they discussed earlier in the book…. practice makes perfect.

            Teaching kids how to read and write is imperative, but as teachers we can’t forget to be observers as well as discussed in chapter 10. When doing my field experience and volunteering in classrooms, I always feel uncomfortable observing and watching my students work because I don’t want to make them feel weird or put too much pressure on them that they can’t complete their work. After reading about different strategies and tools however in chapter 10, I do feel better about it and I feel like I know more about assessing and appropriate ways to do it. One specific test I particularly liked to assess student learning was the developmental reading assessment 2 on page 183. I like this test because it focuses on many different aspects of the child’s literacy level such as instructional level, comprehension, and fluency. This test can be used for beginners or experts in the literacy department and I look forward to trying it out in my classroom!

Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch, 1, 2, and 3

        As discussed in the book, every child needs to learn how to read; however, every child learns at a different pace while also using different strategies. Struggling readers do not do the kinds of thinking that proficient readers do in their heads as they read, so as it said in the book, classroom teachers really need to serve as a strong safety net for their students. I strongly agree with this statement especially at an elementary level because the students look up to their teachers so much at this age and view them as a role model. Yes, it can be difficult dealing with a struggling reader, but I think it is so important for teachers to never give up and keep pushing their students as hard as they can. The book listed out a set of beliefs about teaching reading to primary students and one that really stood out to me was "observation and assessment should drive our instruction as we build on students' known skills and strategies in order to help them integrate new learning (pg. 3)." This really stood out to me because I always find myself helping students right away whenever they are struggling and not giving them a chance to fix their mistakes on their own. Observing and not helping students right away is so important because it helps you understand the child's way of thinking and their learning style, which will help you even more as the teacher when you do step in to help them. Assessing what the students have learned is also important because you want to make sure they are taking in all the information they are reading.
       In chapter 2 it mentioned how some teachers believe it is the reader's own fault if they are struggling due to a deficit or disability. Some teachers are so cruel to think that their learning strategies must be effective if most kids in the classroom are learning just fine, and if students aren't successfully learning then it is their own fault and they need to get tested. I cannot believe some teachers actually think like that; that is horrible. If some students are struggling, I think it is the teachers job to take a step back and look at his or her teaching strategies and how they could improve them to suit everyone. I believe that all children are capable of reading; everyone just learns at different paces. Every student is not going to get it right off of the bat, so it is the teachers responsibility to be patient and work with each student at his or her own pace. But then the question is, how much class time should teachers take to teach struggling readers to read without taking time out of other lessons? However, at the end of the day I think it is most important that students are learning how to read effectively and efficiently. That should be one of the top priorities of the teacher.

Kids Need to Read A Lot

In order for kids to be experts in reading, reading needs to be enforced and incorporated in the classroom multiple times a day. In the reading it talked about how the schools that incorporated more reading into their classroom had higher scores on their reading comprehension tests than those that did little reading in the classroom. As it said in the reading, "practice makes perfect." In order for the kids to develop an accurate and high-comprehension reading level, they need practice; children, especially at a young age, are not experts right off the bat and they need the guidance of their teachers and parents.
In the reading it talked a lot about different strategies teachers use to increase the level of reading comprehension in the classroom such as homework assignments, in-class readings, flash cards, silent reading, and Go Fish games; however my question is, what if these strategies don't work for everyone? As a teacher, how do we come up with an activity or assignment that will benefit both the higher-achieving and lower-achieving readers. Sometimes students get embarrassed if they get called out of the classroom to be read aloud to because they aren't at a high-level of reading comprehension, so how do we as teachers create an environment in the classroom for all types of readers without singling anyone out?
The reading also talked about interruptions in the classroom such as specials, instructional support programs, or even public announcements. These interruptions can really take away from reading time and cause these students to get distracted and take their mind off of reading. It is my goal as a future teacher to enforce reading in the classroom as much as possible no matter what obstacles and interruptions I face. Reading is the foundation to a successful life, and if I have to take time out of other lessons in order for my students to have more reading time then I will. I want my students to love to read and I want them to realize how important it really is. If they learn how to read at a young age, then it will come naturally as they get older and will be that more successful.

Kids Need Book They Can Read

The article, "Kids Need Books They Can Read," talks about books that are "just right" for the elementary level specifically grades K-3. However, before students start reading more complex books to increase their reading-comprehension level, I think it is important for them to start with the really easy books and work their way up. Reading really easy books can help the students develop a positive stance towards reading, which is really important. You want the kids to like to read, so if you give them entertaining and easy books to read at first it will motivate them to want to read more and eventually increase their reading-comprehension levels.
       If we want students to achieve any academic achievement, we need to assign instructional books that they can read fluently and effectively, as it talks about in the article. I think some teachers assign books that are way too complex for their students as a way to challenge them, but instead of really taking the information in, the students are just trying to figure out how to read and pronounce each word. If the teacher assigns a book that is appropriate for the students and at their reading level, then they won't have any problem reading and it will be easier for them actually comprehend the text.
       The article also mentioned an accelerated reading program that benefits each student because it matches students with books at their reading level while also challenging them a bit, but not too much. I think this is a great idea, and I actually did a similar thing at my elementary school and I loved it. We had to read on AR (accelerated reader) book a week and then we would have to take a ten question quiz over the book to see how much we comprehended. This is an activity I would really like to use in my classroom as well because it holds the students accountable for their reading and encourages them to pay attention to the book.