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.