EDRG #10 Homework

I believe homework to be a form of independent practice. I have been out of school for years and do not have children of my own but I have heard that homework has become a parents part time job. Homework needs to either introduce a topic or be a review. I believe homework could be appropriate practice that is on level for a student to complete at home. Homework should not be too hard or too much that a student can complete within a reasonable amount of time and independently. Teachers can keep track of student completed homework and create a goal for them to reach with some sort of reward. Students need have some motivation to want to complete homework and also why they are completing the homework. I have heard many classmates talk about google docs and other technology applications that allow students to respond to each others work or just to the teacher. I believe students these days have an edge on technology and it can also be used a another strategy to involve them in their learning process.

Entry #9 Fiction vs. Nonfiction

Nonfiction texts offer students real life pictures with closely related text. Students are able to use the pictures to aid in the reading and also when reading the text, they can associate a picture. The sentence structure was simple using three or four word sentences. The book offer supporting questions to scaffold or check for learning with the answers available at their fingers tips. The one challenge of nonfiction would be vocabulary. There may have to be some sort of vocabulary instruction before reading or the reading takes place in a large group setting where a teacher can check for understanding.

Fiction texts provided students with repetition and pictures related to the story. Repetition allows students to predict what may come next by following the pattern. The pictures did not always relate to the text but a student could tell a story from the pictures. Fiction does not provide much content or vocabulary learning.

Overall the purpose of the lesson would decide which type of text a teacher should utilize. For example we just finished a unit on the ocean and I used every nonfiction book I could get my hands on to provide my ELL's with concrete examples of what we were learning. When my focus was on story retelling or sequence I looked to fiction books such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Entry #8 Video

This teacher was amazing to watch. She constantly was engaging her students and utilized a variety of strategies that she came up with or allowed the students to guide. The teacher created a community classroom where every student had ownership and an important role. She honored students home languages by allowing a student to share background knowledge of current classroom content in Russian and she also identified her students lack of language skills by listening to several students speak in Spanish. During the road name lesson, she used roads that were familiar to her students as she made the connection that Mexico was once part of Spain and California was once part of Mexico and that is why the streets have those names.

The teacher enhanced comprehension by having the students read the directions to play the math games. She also stopped often during the tape reading to check for their understanding, encouraged children to predict what was going to happen or to infer on what was happening and she use gestures and body movements to define words and actions. She stopped briefly and began a quick preposition lesson with materials ready to go in a moments notice.

The students were engaged throughout the video. She kept their attention through questioning, behavior management and by keeping their interest. The students initiated the use of spinners to aid in vocabulary words review. The teacher also utilized a teachable moment and placed her students in charge of teaching her how to make a spinner and also using something of their interest as a teaching resource. 

Entry #7 Running Record/Miscue Analysis

Pablo: 5 years old, spanish speaking

Pablo used some visual information from print in attempts to make sense of words lake for lady, box for boy, square for squashed. He also payed some attention to sentence structure because the words could occur in the sentence however he did not react to the words he used in error that did not make sense. Pablo needs some practice with pacing and maybe some comprehension. He seems to just be reading to read and not really paying attention to what he was reading. He did make some good word judgements based on the initial letters. Pablo could benefit from some basic letter sound knowledge. 

Lily: 5 years old, Vietnamese

Lily made errors such as girl for lady or man for boy by using her language information but not her initial sounds. All of Lily's errors were the use of meaning and sentence structure. Lily needs extra work with beginning sounds, context clues, and the connection between what is read and the visual text. Lily could  read aloud, record herself, and then listen back to identify her errors. 

Entry #6 Learning vs. Acquistion

After the assigned readings and our class conversation, I came to 

an understanding of traditional and acquisition learning. I believe traditional learning would be the style of teaching I grew up with. I had teachers who stood in front of the class and directly taught specific skills and step by step processes. My teachers provided feedback with grades and encouraged practice on

specific skills repeatedly.

On the other side, acquisition learning is more of a process or understanding. I believe is provides students with an understanding of why they are learning what they are learning. In acquisition learning, skills are acquired with an understanding of why and how you use the things you are learning. The knowledge gained from acquisition learning is utilized outside of the classroom in real world scenerios like reading a restaurant menu. 

Entry #2 Writing Instruction

I am a terrible writer and I believe I always have been. During my elementary school years, I recall writing and then editing over and over and over again. I never remember being particularly proud of anything I wrote and just wanted to get it over with. That attitude has carried over in to my adult education and my frustrations are still here. I write to get the work done and rarely reread or have someone else edit my writing. 

The writing I received in grade school was much like a traditional writing classroom. The teacher taught specific skills and writing styles with a finished product being the goal. I never was given the opportunity to just write or use my own ideas without receiving a writing prompt. I remember being told to use specific words like first, next, and then or making sure you have some description of each of the five senses with in the paper. I never understood the writing process or else I think I would take more time with my writing and edit or even reread what I write. I especially remember receiving grades on everything I ever wrote. I specifically remember one instance where my teacher made me redo a paper several times and eventually I took the sentences from a friends paper, who received a high grade, and was still asked to redo my paper. I never felt confident enough in my writing to share it with anyone and that still sticks with me today. 

I believe I would have benefited more within a classroom of process writing and would have made me a better writer as an adult. Learning the process of writing and even the whys of writing, would help me in creating written pieces. 

Entry #5 ELL Books

I began this blog entry by searching through my classroom books trying to pick out a book that may affect comprehension for a child of a different culture. The only idea I could come up with was a vocabulary difficulty but I felt I needed more. Just then my Para ask why I was staring at the book shelf and looking so lost. I explained to her the assignment and my goals for it and she immediately said Dr. Seuss. My Para who is a Second Language Learner herself explained that she finds Dr. Seuss books to be very difficult to read a loud and also to understand. So I went with If I Ran a Zoo By: Dr. Seuss. This book would be difficult for an ELL learner because of the amount of nonsense words, unfamiliar animals, the story contains content that is not real and the sentence structure contains dialogue and rhyming. This story could be read to ELL learners with a proper introduction of vocabulary. The teacher could discuss the animals in the story using pictorials attached with the animals name. The students could particulate in an animal sort; animals you see at the zoo and animals you see at  Dr. Seuss' zoo. Also a discussion on make believe and real may make the story more understandable for an ELL learner.

The second book I chose to do was found in the room of my districts ESL coordinator. I have seen this book on her self many times and this time decided it was perfect. Faithful Elephants by:Yukio Tsuchiya is a story about war, people, and animals. The items in this text that would make comprehension difficult are the content, the vocabulary, the understanding of what war looks like, and the ability to follow the story from present to past. This story would require an introduction of what war is and looks like and possibly a discussion on WW2. The story tells of animals being poisoned to death which would need to be explained carefully and with full explanation as to why the animals needed to be poisoned. Children will need to know why a war happens and the teacher can create a brainstorm list of why wars happen and how they could be avoided also. The children could sort ideas of what happens during a war and what doesn't along with a vocabulary introduction. I couldn't imagine reading this story to my preschoolers without a month long introduction let alone reading it to children who wouldn't have a clue what I was saying. This story contains life stories, history, and real life experience that need to be understand in order to comprehend the story appropriately.

Entry #4 Foreign Language Text

I chose to examine the language of spanish within a local spanish newspaper and a children's non fiction text about birds. I am somewhat familiar with spanish after some high school spanish and also in my current teaching environment. As far as my teaching environment goes, I speak classroom spanish like table, bathroom, sit down, etc.

I checked out the newspaper first and my initial reaction was utilize my google translate app on my phone but I believe that would be consider cheating and I also taking the easy route. I attempted to use the pictures to make meaning and I was able to identify some articles for a dentist, a restaurant, a beauty salon, and a marijuana advertisement. I was able to recognize numbers in the newspaper however those are pretty much universal in the world. I came across some cognate words that I was able to figure out such as "presidente", "vacaciones", and "importante". In the reading I was able to decipher that President Obama had a taken an important vacation to Hawaii but that is as far as I got. I began to think about how the families within my district feel when they read papers that are sent home in English or how my students feel when I talk and then have no idea what I am saying. There was a word search on the last page with the words Memorial day, Labor day, Martin Luther King day, and Thanksgiving.

The next book was a nonfiction children's book about birds. Even though it was in spanish I was able to identify the books context by the pictures of birds. I was also able to somewhat read the 2 to 3 sentences on each page about the birds. The sentences spoke about the size, color, and what the birds ate. I was able to read the sentences or take a good guess about what the content was from background knowledge. They were also only 5 word sentences.

Overall it was a stressful experience. I looked immediately for the easy way out and was shocked at how fast I was ready to give up. It was sad. I found the children's text much easier to read than the newspaper maybe because of the pictures, simple language or my background knowledge that I was able to use as a tool.

Entry #3 Oral Language and Reading Process

The relationship between oral language and the reading process are vital for an English Language Learner. Oral language is the listening and speaking part of communication that develops naturally. Oral language development are also the building blocks for reading comprehension and success and it related to the academic achievement through schooling. Children are exposed to language from the day they are born. They are surrounded by both oral (conversations, listening, speaking) and written language (environmental print, books) which supports vocabulary development, understanding language structures, and learning the sounds of the English language.

Oral language is essential for both reading and writing. In order to understand language in print, oral language skills are a necessity. Exposing children to books and other forms of print allows them to see people reading and writing in their daily life. Adults can be reading models for children by reading for pleasure, demonstrating directionality, and assist in the understanding of spoken and written language. Oral language and the reading process are two separate skills that are built simultaneously and need one another to be successful.

Entry #1 Literacy Philosophy

For this entry, I interviewed an old coworker of mine who I highly respect as an ECC teacher. I began by asking Bri what factors, she feels, are the most important for a child emerging in literacy. Bri felt that children should be excited and motivated during the learning process. She motivates her children with meaningful experiences such as their names, things about their families, special interests and also uses prior knowledge to enhance literacy instruction. Bri also believes in differentiating her instruction to cater to the needs of all her children. Bri uses explicit writing and reading techniques during large and small groups that benefit children at any level and models writing and reading skills. In Bri's classroom, she allows her children to explore literacy during free choice time through out centers.

I believe my philosophy matches closely with Bri's. We both believe in providing our children with meaningful literacy experiences that reach children at every level. I model explicit reading and writing instruction daily with my children and encourage them to read and write on their own. My classroom is glittered with print and literacy opportunities.