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@edrd431
How can we, as teachers, help studentās build and define their own identity?
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...
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A quick read on text levels from Fountas From the text... "We did not intend for levels to become a label for children that would take us back to the days of the bluebirds and the blackbirds or the jets and the piper cubs. Our intention was to put the tool in the hands of educators who understood their characteristics and used it to select appropriate books for differentiated instruction.... In our best efforts to use assessment indicators, we want to be sure that our purposes best serve the children we teach and give families the important information they need. This may not mean using labels such as book levels that hold more complexities and are intended for the use of the educators as they make day-to-day teaching decisions."
Love this visual!!
We cannot over-depend on any one cueing system. The goal is always meaning making, and to properly make meaning, we need to employ all three systems evenly.Ā
Choice Words Chapter 8
"Children make sense of language, and themselves in the context of it all." pg. 77Ā
"If we are angry with a child or disappointed, or think he or she is learning disabled or gifted, we might not directly say it, but traces of it will be in our speech." pg. 77Ā
"The way we interact with children and arrange for them to interact shows them what kinds of people we think they are and gives them opportunities to practice being those kinds of people." pg. 79Ā
Dear George, I'm quite sure that I introduced the short stories and novels we read that year in class by telling you all something about the author or something about the plot. Perhaps, for a little variation, I sometimes introduced some vocabulary words. I didn't understand how important it was for you to be thinking about the selection before you began reading the selection. Tapping into prior knowledge meant seeing if you had read another story b that same author. I was the only one doing something before we began reading--and I wonder why I was confused that you all were sometimes so passive. Reading is an active process and that activity starts long before you turn to the first page of the book. ................................................................................................................... Dear George, I was always so impressed at how well you listened to what I said about stories before we read them. Then, I head you tell someone in the hall, 'Yeah, if you listen to her before we read the story, then it's okay if you don't read it or don't get it. She's already told you all the important parts.' So, while I was busy providing meaning for you, you were busy figuring out what you needed to remember so that you didn't actually have to comprehend anything on your own. We were quite a team, George. Quite a team.
Kylene Beers, When Kids Can't Read What Teachers Can Do, pp. 73/101
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Dear George, I gave you after-school detention one day for mouthing off to me. I thought I had done such a great job of setting up the premise for the story we read--a great mountain-climbing adventure called 'Top Man'-and then had read most of it aloud to the class. You, along with everyone else, were supposed to read the rest of it on your own and then, that night for homework, answer one question: Who was the top man? The next day, when I asked you who you thought the top man was, you just shrugged. I asked what the shrug meant. 'I don't know,' you replied. 'You don't know the answer to the question or you don't know why you shrugged?' I pressed. 'The question. It didn't say who was the top man.' 'You're supposed to make an inference, George, you know inferencing. That's how you answer the question. Make an inference.' You stared at me for a moment, then said, 'No, I guess I don't know. Don't you think if I did know, I'd just do it and get you off my back? Jeez.' Obviously, George, twenty-three years ago, it took much less for me to send a kid to detention. Honestly, though, I think I gave you detention because your answer was just too honest. I backed you into a corner and then punished you when you defended yourself. If I was so good at making inferences, I wonder why it took me so long to figure that one out? ................................................................................................................... Dear George, On the last day of class, you handed me a note. 'Read it later,' you said, then headed off for summer vacation. You had barely walked out of our classroom door before I had unfolded your note. There, in your familiar pencil-smudged scrawl, you had written: 'Sometimes what we show on the outside doesn't really match what's going on on the inside. Thank you for being my teacher.' My inferencing skills weren't too good, as I was never quite sure if the 'we' meant students, in particular you, or the 'we' meant teachers, in particular me. In either case, your words meant more than I ever had the chance to tell you. By the time I got into the hall, you were gone. I dreamed you a summer of basketball, skateboards, and fishing...I have hoped you a life of success.
Kylene Beers, When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do, pp. 61/72
From the article:
āAcquiring the habit of turning to books for pleasure or to find out what you want to know does more for reading development than working on decoding words or trying to speed up fluency.ā
Dear George, I thought if I just explained the story to you, you'd understand it. And, I suppose you did. We had an interesting pattern--you'd try to read something, or I'd read it aloud to the class, and then I'd tell you to answer the questions at the end of the story. You'd come and stand at my desk and point to any, or all, of the questions and ask for help and I would tell you the answers. You'd nod and go write something down and then come back. Never once did I explain how I got the answers; I just explained the answers. Now I see the difference--sort of like 'if you give a man a fish, you feed him for one day; if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.' I fed you one day at a time. ....................................................... Dear George, Not only did I never teach you how to fish, I don't think I even showed you how to bait the hook. I guess I hoped the osmosis plan would work--that as you stood near me, how to think about a text would just magically move into you. But comprehension isn't sleight of hand; it's hard work that can be examined, modeled, practiced, and learned.
Kylene Beers, When Kids Can't Read What Teachers Can Do, pp. 40/60
In light of our recent conversations surrounding text levels and Lexile scores, check out this piece of intellectual stimulation. "The mix of Lexile levels, Common Core expectations, and teachers not understanding just what the Lexile actually measures is creating a nightmare for young readers. There is a generation of readers being created who are looking for a number on a book, rather than looking for something that will capture their ideas, imaginations, and feelings." How do you plan to support passionate, life-long readers?
"A recent National Endowment for the Arts study found that reading, to more than half of all Americans, isn't something they do outside of school.Ā The survey found that fewer than half of Americans read literature, and the decline in reading rates for people ages eighteen to twenty-four fell fifty-five percent from the last survey, done only twenty years earlier.Ā Americans can read--we have a literacy rate of about ninety-nine percent--it's just that Americans don't like to read.Ā This is a crisis."
~Serravallo & Goldberg, p. 7
What can WE do about this to promote engaged readers who choose to read, both in and out of school?
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The Three Cueing Systems
A review from last semester, and a recap from Wilde, Ch. 2...
Graphophonemic (letter/sound relationships): One of the important questions for educators, is of course, how readers acquire this ability to use phonics knowledge as they read...it's important to realize that an explicit phonics approach posits that learning to read is primarily a matter of learning what sounds go with each letter or combination of letters and then blending them together, while a holistic view suggests that readers who begin with repeated reading of whole texts can eventually abstract out how phonics works...
Syntax (sentence structure): All languages have a syntax, with many variations across the world's languages, but in all cases they are systematic patterns that carry a broad variety of information about underlying meaning.Ā
Semantics (meaning): Words in their arbitrary uniqueness, linked with what they represent, are the core of the semantic system of a language.Ā
Understanding that these language systems operate when we read is tremendously useful when we see readers' miscues.Ā
If You Knew Me as a Reader You Would Know...Words of Wisdom from our Second Grade Small Teachers
"I like really funny and silly books, books by Mo Willems, and Snuggle Bunny...reading is my adventure and my super power." ~Keishun
"I like sports books, scary books and gorilla books." ~Jordan
"I like to read Mercy Watson, The Cat in the Hat, and princess books." ~Aniyah
"I love books! I love picture books and Vampire Marshmallow Bunny books." ~ Sania
"I love books like my mom. I love books with friends, Judy Moody, and First Day Jitters. I love to read to my teacher, and I love happy books." ~Darius
"I love to read! I love Magic Tree House, Junie B. Bones, Pete the Cat, books about dogs, people in the community, and science.Ā I don't like the books that you get from Chick-fil-A or McDonald's." ~Samantha
"I love books because it's education." ~Devin
"I love to read great books.Ā I started reading when I was 4 or 5Ā I read books like Dr. Seuss and I eat candy and read books at the same time." ~Alijah
"I'm a good reader and I love chapter books and Pinkalicious. I'm good at looking at pictures." ~Kayla
"I love to read SO much! I love reading the pictures.Ā The more you read, the more you'll learn." ~I'yanna
"I love animal books, and books about snakes, bats and cheetahs.Ā I love true books!" ~Nathan
"I'm 7 years old and I read with my sister.Ā I love Pete the Cat and Judy Moody.Ā I love to read." ~Jayla
Equal vs. Fair
Several of you reflected on your P&P about our equal vs. fair discussion from class this week. Below I included a quote from what Richard Allington has to say on this matter...The quote below begins after Allington discussed studies in first-grade classrooms, where successful teachers provided more small group instruction to students who needed more literacy support, while the remaining students completed student-directed reading.
"Some teachers, the less effective ones, thought that fair meant distributing instruction equally to all students regardless of their needs. The exemplary teachers we studied, however, thought fair meant working in ways that evened out differences between students...providing struggling readers with greater amounts of teacher direction, at least early on, produces improved reading outcomes for these students..." (pp. 10-11)
Authentic Questions
Here are some of your authentic questions from your literature discussions this week...thoughtful thinking! As you continue to read and reflect, jot down any key phrases or ideas that come to mind. We'll honor those in class and build our understanding about teaching, learning and assessments as a community.
-How do you balance the standardized testing emphasis with classroom based assessments that should be focused on the students?
-What strategies do you feel are unconscious to us as adult readers that might be valuable to our students?
-What are the best ways to gather and use information from assessments?
-What is a way to assess students without doing a formal test or project?
-What do you think Serafini meant by the role of teacher as a researcher?
Dear George, Much too late in the year, I asked you what you needed me to do to help you be a better reader. 'You could just do it all for me,' you said, hiding behind what I was coming to recognize as truth hidden behind flip responses. 'I'm afraid I can't do that. What's your next choice?' I said. You stared for a moment and said, 'What makes you think there's anything you could do? I can't read. That's it.' ......... Dear George, Looking back, I'd have to say that the only things that guided my instructional decisions that first year were our literature book and grammar book. Had I only known then what I know now, I'd have plotted a much different course for you. I'd have known how to assess your strengths and weaknesses as a reader. That assessment, rather than textbooks, would have guided instruction. Then perhaps I would have been a teacher who made a difference in your life.
Kylene Beers, When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do, pp.23/29
While we're not reading this text together, I find that you all have so many thoughtful connections in class to what Beers writes about. These letters to George came from a chapter titled "Assessing Dependent Readers' Needs."Ā This week in class many of you discussed and sketched the significance of building instruction from students' needs. This semester you'll have the opportunity to do just that as you work with your small teacher each week and support his or her growth as a learner.Ā Here's a short list of some of the things Beers says proficient readers do (many of these could lead to nice mini lessons with some of your small teachers too)....
Ā - readers recognize that the purpose for reading is to make meaning
Ā -readers use a variety of comprehension strategies
Ā -readers make a range of inferences about texts
Ā -readers use prior knowledge to inform inferences
Ā -readers monitor their understanding of texts
Ā -readers evaluate their engagement and enjoyment with texts
Any of these sound familiar? I made lots of connections to our "If You Knew Me as a Reader" sharing.... How about that!!
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Our understanding of learning from a sociocultural perspective is inextricably linked to identity, so much so that identity and learning may be considered interchangeable terms. (p. 63)
Halverson, E. (2011). Do social networking technologies have a place in formal learning environments?Ā Horizons, 19(1), pp. 62-67.
This isnāt required reading for you, but I came across this quote while working on a manuscript for a twitter case study I conducted a little over a year ago. I thought it was interesting, particularly in light of the chapter from Kidwatching for this week.Ā
Identity is such a loaded term and we often get caught up in the idea that identity - BEING - is something that is fixed. Really, though, being is more of a BECOMING. We are constantly in processes of change and transformation as we encounter new things, ideas, and people. When we think about childhood identities as becomings, perhaps we can attend to the multiple and constantly-in-flux ways of being that children take up and negotiate in and out of school.
(via edrd345)
If You Knew Me as a Reader You Would Knowā¦
ā¦as a child I loved Junie B. Jones books and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly ~Breanna
ā¦it is my all-time favorite past time ~Chelsea
ā¦I love Dr. Seuss, always have, always will! ~Emmie
ā¦that I have always been a fan of mystery books ~Fallon
ā¦you would know that I like to read the most popular childrenās literature so I can refer books to my students ~Tabor
ā¦I love reading childrenās books ~Megan
ā¦that I am always asking myself questions about a book as I read it ~Taylor W.
ā¦I always enjoy the books better than the movie ~Katie
ā¦I donāt like reading from a tabletā¦I have to hold a book and turn the pages ~Taylor E.
ā¦I love reading out loud and not to myself ~Kayla
ā¦I still make time to read every single day ~Danielle
ā¦I love to laugh, I love to cry, and I love to FEEL the story! ~Haley
ā¦I love to disappear into books and the world it brings me to! ~Allyson
ā¦Sometimes while reading, my brain wonders, so I find myself having to re-read ~Sam K.
ā¦I spend more money on books than anything else ~Sam M.
ā¦I love books about South Carolina or by South Carolina authors ~Pharen
ā¦I re-read the Harry Potter series every year ~Laura
ā¦I absolutely love to read childrenās book, and I love reading aloud to children even more! ~Elizabeth
