Below, you will find your book club assignments. Please purchase your book club book in the next week or two to ensure you have a copy.
Black Ants and Buddhists
Kristie R.
Kristine B.
Jessica W.
Chelsea
Growing Readers
Ashley
Whitney
Carly
Sam
Devon
Crafting Writers, Group 1
Kelli
Lily
Winnie
Jessica C.
Crafting Writers, Group 2
Lauren
Emily
Brooke Sc.
Brooke St.
Kristin
As always, comment with questions.
21 October 2008
13 October 2008
06 October 2008
Text Sets
As strategy presentations begin, here are my expectations for the text sets. Text sets will be posted here on the blog - you will be responsible for posting them. Elements of a text set:
* 3 books per person in the group.
* Graphic of the book cover. You can upload pictures you take yourself of the book covers. There is a button on the blog posting page that will walk you through uploading photos from your computer:
* You must link to a webpage where we could purchase the book. You can use Amazon, Powells, etc. to create this link. The link button is five buttons from the left, next to the text color button.
* There must be a synopsis of the book.
* You must connect the book with the strategy you presented on.
I've put together a text set for schema that shows you how I would like the set laid out:
Fox, M. Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Patridge.
Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Patridge, a boy who isn't very old, lives next door to an old people's home. His favorite old person is Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper, who he tells all his secrets to and how has, according to his parents, lost her memory. Wilfrid begins to ask various people at the old people's home what a memory is and collects objects that spark his own memories to share with Miss Cooper. He shares his box with her, his shells, puppet, grandfather's medal, football, and an egg, and she begins to rememeber her own memories.
Strategy Connection: As children begin to think about schema and strategy instruction, memories and the objects, visuals, and experiences that trigger them, become very important. This book provides a jumping off point to begin talking about experience and how our experiences shape how we interpret texts, objects, and experiences. It calls to attention that our schemas are different and may lead to different interpretations. This would be an excellent book to utilize before a strategy unit on activating and connecting previous knowledge.
Lionni, L. Swimmy
Swimmy lives in a corner of the sea with a school of little red fish. Swimmy, however, is "black as a mussel shell," which allows him to escape when a hungry tuna gulps up the school of little red fish. Swimmy is left alone and wanders the sea, finding a jelly fish, a lobster, strange fish, seaweed, an eel, and sea anemones, until he finds another school of little red fish hiding in a cluster of rocks and weeds. They hide because the big fish will see them, which Swimmy finds sad and declares they must think of something so they may play in the sea. Swimmy begins to arrange the small red fish into the shape of a large fish and they learned to swim together like a big fish, chasing other big fish away.
Strategy Connection: This book highlights how we use experiences to shape our thinking. Swimmy is the lone survivor of the Tuna fish attack on his school of friends and uses that experience to help his new friends think of a way to avoid becoming lunch for another tuna. This book is a great conversation about how do we figure out how to do things? How much do our previous experiences shape how we solve problems? Excellent questions as we begin to be more conscious of our own reading and book choices.
Yolen, J & Teague, M. How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?
This story follows a group of dinosaurs as they prepare for bed. The book starts out with the dinos doing all of the things that could be considered unpleasant: pouting, shouting for another book, and even roaring. The book concludes with the dinosaurs going to bed quietly, with just one more kiss and a hug.
Strategy Connection: The power of this book is in how children know when the dinosaurs are not going to bed in the "correct" way versus when the dinosaurs are. They are using their schema about how to go to bed to make a value judgement about the dinosaur's behavior. How have they learned these concepts of right and wrong? Probably through experience, which has influenced their schema.
As always, comment with questions.
* 3 books per person in the group.
* Graphic of the book cover. You can upload pictures you take yourself of the book covers. There is a button on the blog posting page that will walk you through uploading photos from your computer:
* You must link to a webpage where we could purchase the book. You can use Amazon, Powells, etc. to create this link. The link button is five buttons from the left, next to the text color button.* There must be a synopsis of the book.
* You must connect the book with the strategy you presented on.
I've put together a text set for schema that shows you how I would like the set laid out:
Fox, M. Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Patridge.Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Patridge, a boy who isn't very old, lives next door to an old people's home. His favorite old person is Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper, who he tells all his secrets to and how has, according to his parents, lost her memory. Wilfrid begins to ask various people at the old people's home what a memory is and collects objects that spark his own memories to share with Miss Cooper. He shares his box with her, his shells, puppet, grandfather's medal, football, and an egg, and she begins to rememeber her own memories.
Strategy Connection: As children begin to think about schema and strategy instruction, memories and the objects, visuals, and experiences that trigger them, become very important. This book provides a jumping off point to begin talking about experience and how our experiences shape how we interpret texts, objects, and experiences. It calls to attention that our schemas are different and may lead to different interpretations. This would be an excellent book to utilize before a strategy unit on activating and connecting previous knowledge.
Lionni, L. Swimmy
Swimmy lives in a corner of the sea with a school of little red fish. Swimmy, however, is "black as a mussel shell," which allows him to escape when a hungry tuna gulps up the school of little red fish. Swimmy is left alone and wanders the sea, finding a jelly fish, a lobster, strange fish, seaweed, an eel, and sea anemones, until he finds another school of little red fish hiding in a cluster of rocks and weeds. They hide because the big fish will see them, which Swimmy finds sad and declares they must think of something so they may play in the sea. Swimmy begins to arrange the small red fish into the shape of a large fish and they learned to swim together like a big fish, chasing other big fish away.
Strategy Connection: This book highlights how we use experiences to shape our thinking. Swimmy is the lone survivor of the Tuna fish attack on his school of friends and uses that experience to help his new friends think of a way to avoid becoming lunch for another tuna. This book is a great conversation about how do we figure out how to do things? How much do our previous experiences shape how we solve problems? Excellent questions as we begin to be more conscious of our own reading and book choices.
Yolen, J & Teague, M. How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?This story follows a group of dinosaurs as they prepare for bed. The book starts out with the dinos doing all of the things that could be considered unpleasant: pouting, shouting for another book, and even roaring. The book concludes with the dinosaurs going to bed quietly, with just one more kiss and a hug.
Strategy Connection: The power of this book is in how children know when the dinosaurs are not going to bed in the "correct" way versus when the dinosaurs are. They are using their schema about how to go to bed to make a value judgement about the dinosaur's behavior. How have they learned these concepts of right and wrong? Probably through experience, which has influenced their schema.
As always, comment with questions.
Gradual Release of Responsibility and Leveling Books
Today, in class, we talked about the idea of gradually releasing responsibility to students as instruction continues over time. I found this graphic on the web and thought it did a much better job of illustrating the point than my scribbles on the board did. This will be an important concept we will revisit over and over again as we continue to talk about strategy instruction and methodologies for teaching reading and writing.
We also had the chance to explore reading levels. I found this chart that correlates with the chart handed out in class today but goes further in terms of grade level and includes other leveling systems:
Leveled books are integral to the guided reading approach - we will see why next week. As you looked through books today in class, you had the opportunity to see how the levels change in difficulty, word structure, plot complexity, topics, etc. Some resources on the web that help us place levels on texts:Leveled Book List :: This website does an excellent job of listing books that you may already have in your collection that can be leveled. It organizes the books based on their author, title, and even grade level. Definitely a bookmarkable site!
Teacher Book Wizard :: This is a new website for me, but looks like it could be an excellent resource for matching students to texts that will interest them based on the level they are currently at. Plug in some information, select your leveling system and the engine will search for matches. I'm unsure how successful it is in the long run, but the thought seems good. Try it out and let me know what you think.
05 October 2008
writer' workshop
When I was in my field experience. I observed a kindergarten classroom doing writer's workshop. I just did not see the purpose in starting writer's workshop so early in the school year when they are still learning to write their letters of the alphabet. The teacher had words written on the board that they could use but they did not recognize them because they cant read yet. Although I think it is important for children to express their thoughts, I don't believe the children were ready to do this without proper instruction. I think the writer's workshop should have more directions.
28 September 2008
Strategy Instruction Presentations & Text Sets
Below, you will find the schedule and groups for strategy instruction presentations. It is unfair to expect the same products from all groups given the unequal distribution of people within groups, so I'm going to amend the text set requirement. Rather than having a flat number of ten books you must have in your text set, you will need to have three books for every member of your presentation group. For example, if you are presenting alone, you will have to create a text set of three books that go with that strategy. If there are five people in your group, your group's text set will need to contain fifteen books to go with that strategy. Book sets are not due to be posted to the web until two weeks after your strategy presentation.
Connections and Background (10/6)
Winnie
Jessica
Questioning (10/13)
Samantha
Kelli
Lily
Chelsea
Carly
Visualizing (10/20)
Lauren
Kristin R.
Emily
Devon
Determining Importance (10/27)
Ashley
Summarizing and Synthesizing (11/3)
Jessica
Kristin D.
Brooke Sc.
Brooke St.
Kristine
As always, comment with questions.
Connections and Background (10/6)
Winnie
Jessica
Questioning (10/13)
Samantha
Kelli
Lily
Chelsea
Carly
Visualizing (10/20)
Lauren
Kristin R.
Emily
Devon
Determining Importance (10/27)
Ashley
Summarizing and Synthesizing (11/3)
Jessica
Kristin D.
Brooke Sc.
Brooke St.
Kristine
As always, comment with questions.
22 September 2008
Reading Workshop
Reading Workshop is a powerful way for teachers to introduce new reading skills to children in a comfortable, social environment. As discussed in class, there are three major parts to the Workshop:
* The Minilesson (10 - 15 minutes)
The minilesson is meant to be a concentrated lesson focusing on one element of reading. These minilessons tend to fall into one of three categories: management, strategy, and what Joanna Hindley calls "literary gossip." Management are those lessons you will begin with at the very beginning of the year, establishing what your workshop will look like so you can engage in strategy and literacy gossip lessons without having to worry about structure. A look at the first six weeks of a first grade reading workshop can be found here (the link will download as a .doc file). Additional sources for minilesson ideas can be found at the Learning Pad.
* Independent Reading (students) & Conferencing (teacher) (30 - 40 minutes)
After the minilesson, the students are released to practice their skills. This looks differently in different rooms. In my own classroom, students spread throughout the room, sitting in chairs and on the carpets; the only rule was no sitting under the tables because I'm old and don't want to be crawling after anyone. Other teachers have their students reading at their tables, some have their students only reading in a particular area of the room. Depending on your own comfort level and your classroom setup, this portion of the workshop could look many different ways.
While children are reading, you are conferencing with students to gauge how well they are using their strategies, what books they are currently reading and which directions they need to move in to become even better readers. This is the most important element of the Reading Workshop - where the teaching happens. Conferencing can get sticky, but that time you spend with individual children and groups of children who have similar skill levels is invaluable. For another, more detailed view of conferencing, look at Bayview Education. They also have several forms available for download for record keeping.
* Sharing (10 - 15 minutes)
Sharing is an opportunity for students to collaboratively talk about their progress as readers, sharing their use of strategies and celebrating their successes. You can work this section several ways - sign up for kid's share, have a daily schedule, or choose students based on what you saw in conferences that day. It's very flexible. Sharing is also so important - it allows kiddos to hear about what works from other children, who may explain it in ways you didn't. Reteaching is always a beautiful thing.
Additional Internet resources for the Reading Workshop:
Karen McDavid's Reading Workshop Page: An excellent page with a lot of great information, including minilesson ideas, professional books suggestions and forms for record keeping. Contains a list of additional links that are worth checking out.
Jennifer Myers' Reading and Writing Workshop Page: Another excellent page containing video of minilessons, children's work, and background in establishing the Workshop structure.
Differentiation in a Reader's Workshop: This Scholastic article addresses the many ways that a teacher reaches the variety of different learners in their classroom. There are several downloads here that are worth space on your hard drive.
Hopefully, this entry on Reading Workshop is helpful, even though I realize it barely touches the surface. If you come across additional links that are useful, please comment.
As always, comment with questions.
* The Minilesson (10 - 15 minutes)
The minilesson is meant to be a concentrated lesson focusing on one element of reading. These minilessons tend to fall into one of three categories: management, strategy, and what Joanna Hindley calls "literary gossip." Management are those lessons you will begin with at the very beginning of the year, establishing what your workshop will look like so you can engage in strategy and literacy gossip lessons without having to worry about structure. A look at the first six weeks of a first grade reading workshop can be found here (the link will download as a .doc file). Additional sources for minilesson ideas can be found at the Learning Pad.
* Independent Reading (students) & Conferencing (teacher) (30 - 40 minutes)
After the minilesson, the students are released to practice their skills. This looks differently in different rooms. In my own classroom, students spread throughout the room, sitting in chairs and on the carpets; the only rule was no sitting under the tables because I'm old and don't want to be crawling after anyone. Other teachers have their students reading at their tables, some have their students only reading in a particular area of the room. Depending on your own comfort level and your classroom setup, this portion of the workshop could look many different ways.
While children are reading, you are conferencing with students to gauge how well they are using their strategies, what books they are currently reading and which directions they need to move in to become even better readers. This is the most important element of the Reading Workshop - where the teaching happens. Conferencing can get sticky, but that time you spend with individual children and groups of children who have similar skill levels is invaluable. For another, more detailed view of conferencing, look at Bayview Education. They also have several forms available for download for record keeping.
* Sharing (10 - 15 minutes)
Sharing is an opportunity for students to collaboratively talk about their progress as readers, sharing their use of strategies and celebrating their successes. You can work this section several ways - sign up for kid's share, have a daily schedule, or choose students based on what you saw in conferences that day. It's very flexible. Sharing is also so important - it allows kiddos to hear about what works from other children, who may explain it in ways you didn't. Reteaching is always a beautiful thing.
Additional Internet resources for the Reading Workshop:
Karen McDavid's Reading Workshop Page: An excellent page with a lot of great information, including minilesson ideas, professional books suggestions and forms for record keeping. Contains a list of additional links that are worth checking out.
Jennifer Myers' Reading and Writing Workshop Page: Another excellent page containing video of minilessons, children's work, and background in establishing the Workshop structure.
Differentiation in a Reader's Workshop: This Scholastic article addresses the many ways that a teacher reaches the variety of different learners in their classroom. There are several downloads here that are worth space on your hard drive.
Hopefully, this entry on Reading Workshop is helpful, even though I realize it barely touches the surface. If you come across additional links that are useful, please comment.
As always, comment with questions.
21 September 2008
Martha Blogs, Interesting Visuals and Other Web Stuff
A quick break from our normal programming to look at some interesting stuff going on in cyberspace.
Martha Stewart, the purveyor of all "good things," recently had a show featuring bloggers and how they engage in their writing process. On her own blog, Martha posted a how-to about starting your own blog, which I found really interesting both as a researcher and teacher. With mainstream celebrities like Martha Stewart now endorsing and even encouraging the creation of blogs, do you think they will be looked at as a legitimate and meaningful print source? As you engage in this blog, do you think you would ever create posts of your own or even create your own personal blog space? What blogs, aside from this one, do you read if you read any at all?
Ray Rohmer is the chair of Strong American Schools as well as the director for ED in 08. He keeps a blog and recently posted a YouTube video from a roundtable in Colorado, asking where the national will is in terms of education. He takes the position that, without focus in this area, we are at risk of becoming a second-class nation. Take a look at the video - warning: it's decently shaky, but definitely not Cloverfield shaky - and express your thoughts. Do you feel as though candidates have made their education agendas clear or have they been glossed over in favor of other platforms, such as the "polar bear syndrome?"
Indiana University is sponsoring a video contest through the Celebrate IU Website. Use your creativity to create a 60-second or less video and upload it to the YouTube Celebrate IU group. There are cash prizes and cash is always good.
Last, but definitely not least, I noticed this piece of clip art on the Indiana Department of Education's website:
Such an interesting image. As we prep to begin talking about visual literacy, what does this image convey to you about the ISTEP test?
As always, comment with questions.
Martha Stewart, the purveyor of all "good things," recently had a show featuring bloggers and how they engage in their writing process. On her own blog, Martha posted a how-to about starting your own blog, which I found really interesting both as a researcher and teacher. With mainstream celebrities like Martha Stewart now endorsing and even encouraging the creation of blogs, do you think they will be looked at as a legitimate and meaningful print source? As you engage in this blog, do you think you would ever create posts of your own or even create your own personal blog space? What blogs, aside from this one, do you read if you read any at all?
Ray Rohmer is the chair of Strong American Schools as well as the director for ED in 08. He keeps a blog and recently posted a YouTube video from a roundtable in Colorado, asking where the national will is in terms of education. He takes the position that, without focus in this area, we are at risk of becoming a second-class nation. Take a look at the video - warning: it's decently shaky, but definitely not Cloverfield shaky - and express your thoughts. Do you feel as though candidates have made their education agendas clear or have they been glossed over in favor of other platforms, such as the "polar bear syndrome?"
Indiana University is sponsoring a video contest through the Celebrate IU Website. Use your creativity to create a 60-second or less video and upload it to the YouTube Celebrate IU group. There are cash prizes and cash is always good.
Last, but definitely not least, I noticed this piece of clip art on the Indiana Department of Education's website:
Such an interesting image. As we prep to begin talking about visual literacy, what does this image convey to you about the ISTEP test?
As always, comment with questions.
16 September 2008
Literacy Snapshots, Literacy Definition, Beliefs and Understandings I
A smattering of the Literacy Snapshots that were presented in the gallery walk in class this Monday:
I was struck by the variety of literacy activities you all engage in, particularly those activities you engage in online and on your cell phones. Short messaging service (SMS), or texting, was a huge part of your literacy lives - definitely a change from students in years past. I was also struck by the use of Facebook - many of you had written that you checked it at least once a day. Having thought about our own literacy habits and looking at others', we constructed the following chart reflecting our understandings of literacy:
We've broken literacy into separate purposes: information, communication, and entertainment and went even further to list activities that fall into each of those categories. It is interesting that Facebook is thought of as a literacy activity that encompasses each of the purposes - is this the case for all technology?
Given all this work we've done surrounding the idea of literacy, what would you define literacy as? That is the topic of exploration of this first draft of the Beliefs and Understandings paper. Engaging in the Literacy Snapshot assignment has prepared you to write about your own literacy practices - feel free to bring your own schooling experiences into this narrative. The second section of the paper is to outline what literacy will look like in your own classroom, paying special attention to how you will engage kiddos in literacy. Feel free to think out of the box here, thinking of your own literacy practices, as you create classrooms where kiddos emerge ready to engage in the literacy practices of the 21st century.
You will find a rubric for the Beliefs and Understandings here.
As always, comment with questions.
I was struck by the variety of literacy activities you all engage in, particularly those activities you engage in online and on your cell phones. Short messaging service (SMS), or texting, was a huge part of your literacy lives - definitely a change from students in years past. I was also struck by the use of Facebook - many of you had written that you checked it at least once a day. Having thought about our own literacy habits and looking at others', we constructed the following chart reflecting our understandings of literacy:
We've broken literacy into separate purposes: information, communication, and entertainment and went even further to list activities that fall into each of those categories. It is interesting that Facebook is thought of as a literacy activity that encompasses each of the purposes - is this the case for all technology?Given all this work we've done surrounding the idea of literacy, what would you define literacy as? That is the topic of exploration of this first draft of the Beliefs and Understandings paper. Engaging in the Literacy Snapshot assignment has prepared you to write about your own literacy practices - feel free to bring your own schooling experiences into this narrative. The second section of the paper is to outline what literacy will look like in your own classroom, paying special attention to how you will engage kiddos in literacy. Feel free to think out of the box here, thinking of your own literacy practices, as you create classrooms where kiddos emerge ready to engage in the literacy practices of the 21st century.
You will find a rubric for the Beliefs and Understandings here.
As always, comment with questions.
15 September 2008
Class Norms
I've spent some time drafting the class norms for our time together - I'm on draft five, if I remember correctly. There are several pieces I'm very happy with and others that I feel are lacking. Please read through the norms I've written up and if you feel there is something lacking or something that is well stated, leave a comment.
In order to create a learning environment that is productive and encouraging to all, the students and instructor of E342 realize there are several norms that will assist in our preparation as superior educators. We take equal responsibility for preparing for class: the instructor will design and prepare experiences that will be beneficial to the development of language arts teachers and students will thoughtfully and with purpose engage in classroom readings, learning experiences and discussion. We will engage in each other in conversation, realizing that no learning takes place in a vacuum, being active listeners, respectful collaborators and gentle handlers of our peers. We will be aware of time, the constraints placed on other’s time, as well as our own. As students and instructor, we will be reasonable and fair to one another as we engage in learning and manifesting ways to convey our learning in the language arts.
In order to create a learning environment that is productive and encouraging to all, the students and instructor of E342 realize there are several norms that will assist in our preparation as superior educators. We take equal responsibility for preparing for class: the instructor will design and prepare experiences that will be beneficial to the development of language arts teachers and students will thoughtfully and with purpose engage in classroom readings, learning experiences and discussion. We will engage in each other in conversation, realizing that no learning takes place in a vacuum, being active listeners, respectful collaborators and gentle handlers of our peers. We will be aware of time, the constraints placed on other’s time, as well as our own. As students and instructor, we will be reasonable and fair to one another as we engage in learning and manifesting ways to convey our learning in the language arts.
13 September 2008
Literacy Snapshot Captions
There have been some questions about the captions I used on my Literacy Snapshot so I'll take this opportunity to explain them in case you decide you would like to use captions on your own literacy snapshot. I'll document the captions clockwise around the poster, beginning at the very top.
Traditional Texts - My bedside tabel is home to most of the traditional texts I'm currently working through. I read every night for approximately an hour, usually split up between readings for class and non-required reading. As you can see, I have a stack to work through.
Communication - I use my email to keep in touch with friends, events, and news. I check it, on average, twenty-five times a day, sending about twenty emails a day and receiving forty.
Other Forms of Literacy - I am a directionally-challenged individual so when I decided I would start my Saturday morning grocery shopping with Bloomington's Winter Market, my pulse raced a little at the thought of navigating the city. Luckily, I have superior MapQuest skills and only got lost once. I also scoured through the weekly ads to compile my grocery list after referencing cookbooks to plan my menu for the coming week. I tend to make a lot of lists: things to do, books to read, phone calls to return.
News - Throughout the course of the week, I rely on a variety of sources for information about the world. I read the NYT every morning, which is delivered to my email, as well as check an ever-growing list of blogs throughout the day. On the weekend, I catch up on the latest issues of The New Yorker and any extraneous newsprint I've picked up throughout the week.
Hopefully these captions from my own literacy snapshot give you an idea of how to structure your own. See you in class on Monday and, as always, comment with questions.
Traditional Texts - My bedside tabel is home to most of the traditional texts I'm currently working through. I read every night for approximately an hour, usually split up between readings for class and non-required reading. As you can see, I have a stack to work through.
Communication - I use my email to keep in touch with friends, events, and news. I check it, on average, twenty-five times a day, sending about twenty emails a day and receiving forty.
Other Forms of Literacy - I am a directionally-challenged individual so when I decided I would start my Saturday morning grocery shopping with Bloomington's Winter Market, my pulse raced a little at the thought of navigating the city. Luckily, I have superior MapQuest skills and only got lost once. I also scoured through the weekly ads to compile my grocery list after referencing cookbooks to plan my menu for the coming week. I tend to make a lot of lists: things to do, books to read, phone calls to return.
News - Throughout the course of the week, I rely on a variety of sources for information about the world. I read the NYT every morning, which is delivered to my email, as well as check an ever-growing list of blogs throughout the day. On the weekend, I catch up on the latest issues of The New Yorker and any extraneous newsprint I've picked up throughout the week.
Hopefully these captions from my own literacy snapshot give you an idea of how to structure your own. See you in class on Monday and, as always, comment with questions.
08 September 2008
Due Date Change
The due date for the read aloud reflection has been changed to December 1st, 2008.
Please adjust your syllabus accordingly.
Literacy Snapshot
As we begin to think about how we think about literacy as teachers, I want us to explore the role literacy plays in our everyday lives. One way to do this is to create a literacy snapshot. Over the course of the next week, I would like you to document your use of literacy, whether it be writing emails to friends, posting to your facebook, reading a textbook for class or attending an art show. While you are documenting these events, I would also like you to collect artifacts that supplement your documentation about your literacy activities. Artifacts could include magazine clippings, photos, or screen shots. Once you have engaged in several days (think about five or so days) of documentation and artifacts, create a visual representation of your learning about your own literacy practices. You will bring this visual representation to class and we engage in a gallery walk to observe our similarities and differences as literate beings.
This is my visual representation of my own literacy practice last spring. Note the variety of artifacts I chose to include, including the admission that I regularly read perezhilton.com. I'm okay with it.
To make your documentation process easier, I have created a template for you to use. It is a Google doc, which you can use here. It is my hope that this activity will help you think about beginning your Beliefs and Understandings paper.
Literacy Snapshots are due in class Monday, September 15. Please email me with questions or concerns - or, even better yet, leave a comment!
This is my visual representation of my own literacy practice last spring. Note the variety of artifacts I chose to include, including the admission that I regularly read perezhilton.com. I'm okay with it.To make your documentation process easier, I have created a template for you to use. It is a Google doc, which you can use here. It is my hope that this activity will help you think about beginning your Beliefs and Understandings paper.
Literacy Snapshots are due in class Monday, September 15. Please email me with questions or concerns - or, even better yet, leave a comment!
20 August 2008
Greetings and Salutations!
Welcome to the blog for the TAL section of E342, Reading and Language Arts Methods!
My name is Nicholas Husbye and I am excited to be along for the ride as we explore the multiple ways to engage students in reading and writing in ways that transcend school. A little about myself: I am a second-year student in the Department of Language Education at Indiana University. I am originally from Michigan, where I earned my degree in elementary education at Michigan State University. After graduating, I team-taught in an urban second grade classroom before moving into a first-grade position in a small school serving a diverse group of kiddos south of Ann Arbor, Michigan. In addition, I have also taught technology to elementary students and have run tutoring programs in a variety of contexts.
Our collective experiences as learners and as teachers will be important as we work together as a group to define our beliefs and understandings about teaching language arts in the classroom. We will use these experiences to connect to our class readings, presentations and activities to better understand ourselves as educators and the charge we possess as such. I will be totally honest with you: there will be questions we tackle over the course of the semester that we will not have the answer to, questions that remain unresolved throughout the course of the semester. Unanswered questions are rampant in teaching but hopefully, as we move through this course, we will come closer to some sort of answer. Please be prepared to think deeply, question often and engage with one another.
There are two core texts we will be using for this class everyone will need to purchase. They have been called into the bookstore and should be arriving shortly. You will not need them for the first day of class.
Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis's Strategies That Work was a book I continually came back to as a teacher. It outlines the strategies most often used by successful readers and then describes lesson plans to teach those skills in a variety of classrooms. It is an easy read - Stephanie and Anne write beautifully and with wonderful clarity, making it an indispensable resource for you as you begin your teaching career.
My name is Nicholas Husbye and I am excited to be along for the ride as we explore the multiple ways to engage students in reading and writing in ways that transcend school. A little about myself: I am a second-year student in the Department of Language Education at Indiana University. I am originally from Michigan, where I earned my degree in elementary education at Michigan State University. After graduating, I team-taught in an urban second grade classroom before moving into a first-grade position in a small school serving a diverse group of kiddos south of Ann Arbor, Michigan. In addition, I have also taught technology to elementary students and have run tutoring programs in a variety of contexts.
Our collective experiences as learners and as teachers will be important as we work together as a group to define our beliefs and understandings about teaching language arts in the classroom. We will use these experiences to connect to our class readings, presentations and activities to better understand ourselves as educators and the charge we possess as such. I will be totally honest with you: there will be questions we tackle over the course of the semester that we will not have the answer to, questions that remain unresolved throughout the course of the semester. Unanswered questions are rampant in teaching but hopefully, as we move through this course, we will come closer to some sort of answer. Please be prepared to think deeply, question often and engage with one another.
There are two core texts we will be using for this class everyone will need to purchase. They have been called into the bookstore and should be arriving shortly. You will not need them for the first day of class.
Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis's Strategies That Work was a book I continually came back to as a teacher. It outlines the strategies most often used by successful readers and then describes lesson plans to teach those skills in a variety of classrooms. It is an easy read - Stephanie and Anne write beautifully and with wonderful clarity, making it an indispensable resource for you as you begin your teaching career.
Phonics is a word that makes me shutter a little, but is an essential instructional strategy for teaching children to read. Patricia Cunningham does an excellent job outlining a variety of lessons and games that will teach children those ever-important phonics skills while helping teachers understand ways to make them fit into their every day routine. Another great resource book. Unfortunately, this is a new edition so I'm unsure there will be used copies.
We will also be engaging in book clubs and you will choose one additional text to read in a small group - I have ordered these from the bookstore, but you will not need them until further on in the semester. I will post links and descriptions of these books at a later time.
When teaching first grade, I would ask parents to send in a letter about their child with them on the first day of school. It was so helpful in forming understandings of who individual children were and how I would be able to best relate to and teach them in the classroom. In preparation for our first meeting on September 8th, I would like you to write a letter about yourself. I would like to know about you as a person so I might help you as a student. Your letter is very open-ended; you can tell me as much or as little about yourself as you feel comfortable. Why do you want to be a teacher? What was the last good book you read? How can I help you as a future educator? Do you pronounce ramen "raw-men" or "ray-men?" This is an ungraded pass-or-fail assignment but please tell me enough so that I have a decent idea of how best to meet your needs over the course of the semester.
I look forward to meeting you! Enjoy these last few days of freedom!
We will also be engaging in book clubs and you will choose one additional text to read in a small group - I have ordered these from the bookstore, but you will not need them until further on in the semester. I will post links and descriptions of these books at a later time.
When teaching first grade, I would ask parents to send in a letter about their child with them on the first day of school. It was so helpful in forming understandings of who individual children were and how I would be able to best relate to and teach them in the classroom. In preparation for our first meeting on September 8th, I would like you to write a letter about yourself. I would like to know about you as a person so I might help you as a student. Your letter is very open-ended; you can tell me as much or as little about yourself as you feel comfortable. Why do you want to be a teacher? What was the last good book you read? How can I help you as a future educator? Do you pronounce ramen "raw-men" or "ray-men?" This is an ungraded pass-or-fail assignment but please tell me enough so that I have a decent idea of how best to meet your needs over the course of the semester.
I look forward to meeting you! Enjoy these last few days of freedom!
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