Breanna Christie

When students know their roles and they know your expectations for them in conferences and in the classroom. It also allows for routines to run more smoothly. Always remember to have high, but realistic expectations for your students.

I really like this idea and I can definitely see the benefits of using this type of report card but does every teacher really have the time to do one of these to the full extent for every single student?

Get kids to engage with what they’re reading on a deeper level: to ask questions about what they notice, and to answer those questions based on what’s in the text.

Picture Books for Teaching Comprehension Strategies

I think this role of a teacher is so important. The teacher must first build a trusting relationship or bond with the student (Routman). Once there is trust between the student and teacher, the student will be more likely to let that teacher help or encourage them and to lead them down the right path. Peter H. Johnston talks about Identity in Choice Words Chapter 3. He states, "Children in our classrooms are becoming literate. They are not simply learning the skills of literacy. They are developing personal and social identities-uniquenesses and affiliations that define the people they see themselves becoming." That to me is the most powerful thing he could have said. This is something all teachers need to remember and think about throughout the year. Another comment made my Johnston was "Teachers' comments can offer them, and nudge them toward, productive identities." This is so true and leads me to my next way that a teacher can help build and define a student's identity, which is Compliment Conferences. Jennifer Serravallo reinforces students' strengths with compliment conferences. When a student hears about what they do well or correctly they are more likely to keep a positive tone. When a child is positive, they are more likely to be productive. The last way, that I can think of, to help build and define students' identities is asking questions from a Burkes Interview. The first question I would start off by asking would be "Do you think there are different kinds of readers/writers in this class? Can you explain?" After discussing that question with the student I would ask "How do you see yourself as a reader/writer? What kind of reader/writer are you? What kind of reader/writer do you want to become?" The students responses to those questions and the other ways I discussed should tell a teacher most of what he/she needs to know to start that beginning process of building and defining a child's identity.

This is completely accurate. I saw this first hand when dealing with "leveled" books the other week. The book I had for D was more like an F and the book I had for F was more like a D. I was not the only one having the same issue. It's definitely something to consider when choosing a "leveled" book for a student to read aloud to you.

This is so important. It can turn a child's whole day around depending on the teacher's reaction to what the child is talking about. Everyone wants to feel important. All students want to have the teachers attention, especially in elementary school.

When you ask students "What are you thinking? Stop and talk to your neighbor about it" it allows them to see other answers that are still correct. It allows students to see the different ways of thinking about things. They may be able to understand how there can be a lot of answers to just one question. There doesn't always have to be one right answer.

"The common pattern of interaction between teachers and their students has been called the IRE for teacher Initiates, student Responds, and Teacher Evaluates." pg 53 The I is always a question. I think this is very much how almost every conversation is between a teacher and a student. "This sequence offers an implicit answer to the questions posed above by Parker Palmer: knowledge is composed of facts possessed by teachers, who have the authority to transmit it to children, and children know about the world only through the knowledge that is transmitted to them." pg 54 This reminded me a lot ot agency and how it was defined previously. "The ability or tendency to ask effective questions contributes a great deal to children's agency, and to their development of critical literacy. Dialogical contexts are particularly good for developing this ability, especially when children can ask each other questions while inquiring into something and when it is normal for questions to build on or challenge others' questions (Burbules 1993)." pg 55 "The comment implies that a student has done what in most classes would be unthinkable: evaluated the teacher's comments." pg 57 I just knew angency was about to be brought up in this chapter! I love how Johnston is encouraging students to challenge others comments and questions. That will lead to great, intriguing conversations in the classroom. We discussed this many of times last semester in my science methods course with Thompson.

"Even though every student in the class was a unique individual, there were patterns across students." pg 155 Every child is different but they can have similarities. When similarities have been identified that's when the teacher can start forming groups. Groups can be based on these "patterns." "An easier way to get at the same goal is to give each student a small slip of paper or Post-it note at the start of the lesson. During the active involvement, I ask the students to jot down what they otherwise would have spoken to a partner. I then ask them to pass the papers forward or leave them right on their rug spots. After they have settled into their own independent reading, I take the papers and sort them into piles, and those piles become my small groups." pg 164 I love this!! This is exactly what I did last semester when a science lesson I taught. It was a project for my science methods course. The students did the end of lesson assessment and turned them into me. I was then able to seperate them into different groups based on their answers. After seperating them I was able to decide how I should move forward with them. To me this way makes the most sense. And I love using post its so that's another plus! :)

So Cute & True!

"These are problems of transfer-the failure to generalize learning from one situation or problem to another." pg 43 "For example, in one classroom children had been using the strategy of "stepping into" characters-taking their perspective." pg 43 Learning can be situational. The child's learning environment is so important to take into consideration when teaching. I think it's great when a student can be in a situation where they feel they can take on different perspectives. To me this also relates to a child's identity. It's all very essential to their learning. "Reminding children to begin a new activity by taking stock of what they already know (in current mechanistic terms "activating prior knowledge") has several functions. First, it reduces the magnitude or the problem to be solved. Second, it puts the new problem in the context of old, already-solved problems. Third, it opens the possibility of more connections among the new knowledge and what is already known." pg 45 I love how this keeps being brought up across all of our texts recently. It just implies how important it really is in a child's learning. Prior knowledge is key. "Connections are at the heart of comprehension or understanding. They provide anchors and retrieval routes. The more connections, the more flexibly something can be accessed." pg 46 This is so true, especially for me. I know when I can make a connection on something I'm learning, I'm more likely to remember it and reflect on it. Personal connections or even academic connections are very important.

I had never heard of something like this until this chapter! It's such a neat idea. She tries to stay invisible to the group, hints the name Ghost-Partner Teaching. She's able to support the listener and the speaker while playing the ghost role. This is an interesting thing to me and is definitely something that I would like to try.

In my opinion all of these statements connected. All of this is just so true. It's just like how someone builds someone else up. You make them feel good and important when they are making progress and doing their work correctly. When they put forth an effort it should be recognized by all. To me, children learning the concept of agency at a young age is important. It's something that is always true and will always be. I believe that some people learn from their mistakes and if they aren't making mistakes or in an environment where it's not okay to make mistakes then they aren't really learning. We are all human, we will all make mistakes. It's life.