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READERLY EXPLORATION #7 

Due Date: 4/15/19

Tompkins Chapter 12, “Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum”

Big Idea: This chapter of our text touched on various tools to help students read to learn, touched on how to read content area textbooks, and touched on how to make thematic units.

Nugget: I really liked the fact that this text dedicated three pages to explain how to include English Language Learners in their instruction. Most texts I’ve seen outside of my TESOL classes only have a little blurb here and there. I appreciate the intentionality of this text.  (I also liked how it outlined how to develop a unit, I’ve been wondering how to do that) 

Shanahan & Shanahan, “Does Disciplinary Literacy have a Place in Elementary Schools”

Big Idea: This article highlighted the argument about whether or not elementary teachers should introduce disciplinary literacy in the early grades.  

Nugget: I really liked how this article identified the different types of reading within subjects especially regarding history and science. Making those differences explicit helped me to conceptualize the difference and will aid me when explaining the difference to my students. 

Readerly Exploration:

Reflect on the contributions of reading experiences to reader identity in an effort to better articulate who he or she is as a reader

For this readerly exploration, I decided to create an art piece to represent my personal response to this reading. I very much loved this chapter because it identifies explicit ways to make reading to learn manageable for students. As a student, I was never a big fan of textbooks. I was often a slow and reflective reader, which just didn’t fly when you had to read 30-50 page chapters a night. This means instead of taking advantage of all the tools offered in a textbook, I would often just try to read as fast as I could to finish the chapter. But some textbooks were harder to read than others. History had a lot of terminology that I did not understand but I did not want to take the time to understand because it would only take me longer to read. In my previous schooling, I do not remember much explicit teaching of learning tools or intentional practice with using these tools. I know how to use them so they must have been introduced to me at some point but not introduced well because I struggle to use them well. I think I would have greatly benefited from pieces like double entry journals and simulated journals. But more than that, I think my education was missing the prereading stage for textbook reading. If we had taken time to break down bigger words or preface the reading by using anticipation guides, I may have gleaned more from the reading by seeing a purpose and having the more difficult terms prefaced. Often textbook use was only for homework, never to be referenced again in class. This make it difficult for me to find the value in textbooks and made it difficult for me to learn how to read a text book effectively.

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READERLY EXPLORATION #6

Due Date: 4/8/19

Manyak, “FOUR PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES FOR ENHANCING VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION”

Big Idea: This article focused on four principles to enhance vocabulary instruction that emphasize efficiency, routines, and rich yet varied vocabulary experiences. The four principles include: Establish Efficient yet Rich Routines for Introducing Target Words, Provide Review Experiences That Promote Deep Processing of Target Words, Respond Directly to Student Confusion by Using Anchor Experience, and Foster Universal Participation and Accountability.

Nugget: I really like how the leaders of this study emphasized efficiency for the lessons but still maintained the deep exploration of the words within the routine.

Readerly Exploration:

Reflect on the contributions of reading experiences to reader identity in an effort to better articulate who he or she is as a reader

For this exploration, I decided to interact with a classmate by asking them what stood out about the text and compare how our reading processes were either the same or different. With my response, I discussed how I found two aspects of the “Establishing Efficient yet Rich Routines for Introducing Target Words” significant. My first point of discussion centered around the David example and how efficiently he broke down defining vocabulary words. I valued the simplicity and the versatility of his routine and how any word can be used in the structure he provided. I also enjoyed how even though the structure was simple, the examples and the contexts were rich and allowed for a lot of student critical thinking. My second point of discussion centered around the quote, “mastery of the [word] meanings did not need to occur in the initial introduction”. I appreciated this quote because I feel like many teachers get concerned if students do not have a complete understanding of a concept after the first lesson. I loved how the article pointed out that this was not a realistic expectations and that mastery will come with continued use of the word in varied contexts.

    The classmate I interacted with was Matt Royer and he valued the author’s discussion about authentic review time specifically regarding the examples connect two, two in one, character trait writing, and concept word precis writing. He thought it was beneficial for students to have to compare multiple words in different contexts. His favorite example was the character trait writing example because it involved knowledge of the definition and know how it can be used to describe a person, like with the MLK example.

    For our reading processes, we both valued the intentional use of different contexts to further the understand of vocabulary. Also we both identified an example in our sharing of what we thought stood out from the text. Our reading processes differed when we identified different principles of the text. I focused more on the initial learning and the push for efficiency whereas Matt identified the review process where the authors were more intentional about going in depth with a word through varied examples and multiple uses. Our processes also differed in that I connected my response to a real life teaching concern I've seen in my field experience whereas Matt focused his response specifically to the reading examples.

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Media: When you do the readerly exploration that has you respond to the text and you actually understand the text better because of it.

READERLY EXPLORATION #5

Due Date: 3/31/19

Grave, “Words, Words Everywhere, But Which Ones Do We Teach?”

Big Idea: This article defines how teachers should go about selecting vocabulary terms to teach students. The article breaks it down into for types of vocab terms: essential words, valuable words, accessible words, and imported words.

Nugget: I liked how the author connected valuable words to Vygotsky’s zone of proximal vocabulary development. 

Tompkins (Chapter 7), “Expanding Academic Vocabulary”

Big Idea: This article expands on academic vocabulary by addressing types of vocabulary, word consciousness, word-study concepts, word activities/strategies, and assessment.

Nugget: I liked how the book breaks down levels of word knowledge by differentiating between unknown words, initial recognition, partial word knowledge, and full word knowledge. I especially liked the distinction between partial and full word knowledge.

 Readerly Exploration:

Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying)

           For this readerly exploration, I will engage in the responding aspect of comprehension by documenting my initial response to the Graves reading. At first, I thought it was a bit term heavy and I was a little thrown off by the acronyms like MCVIP and SWIT. At first, I thought they were two separate programs but after rereading I gathered SWIT was a part of the MCVIP research program. But as I continued reading, I gather that it was about how to select vocab words rathe than defining what words to use. When I looked at the approaches to select vocab to teach, I was confused by the word list approach but got on board with the genre approach and the tier approach. After our discussions in class, I see the importance of defining vocab differently depending on the genre or the subject. Then with tier approach, I got really excited because I remembered this idea from previous classes and was excited to see this knowledge be applied to practical learning. Then when discussing SWIT I remember having a hard time differentiating valuable words from accessible words. For that, I associated valuable words as the terms dependent on it’s relation to the text and the age, grade, and vocabulary knowledge of the student. Then with accessible words, I associate with English language learners but particularly liked the description of it as the gap between Tier One and Tier Two words. How these words are frequently accessible to students because they are between the two Tiers but require a higher level of vocabulary knowledge and background knowledge. Then I loved imported words. As a student, I always loved coming up with the theme or the central idea of a book so this term was right up my alley. The steps for identifying vocabulary terms were helpful and the different types of instruction were clearly identified and demonstrated through helpful examples. I also enjoyed how the conclusion addressed the fact that it is a time-consuming process but is one that gets faster as it is practiced and implemented. Overall, I though the article was well written, easy on the eyes, and combined and effective amount of practicality and theory.

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READERLY EXPLORATION #4

Due Date: 3/25/19

Gill (2008), “The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction”

Big Idea: This article defines and breaks down comprehension buy identifying the theories that make up comprehension, defining the comprehension matrix, and identifying reading strategies for prereading, reading, and post-reading means.

Nugget: I found the questions the article came up with for post-reading to be insightful

·       What do my students know about this topic?

·       What specific terms or concepts do they need to understand before they can understand this passage?

·       How can I get my students interested in this topic?

·       What purposes can I provide for the reading?

·       What activities will help my students engage in this text?

·       What strategies do my students need to learn?

·       What strategies can I demonstrate with this particular text?

·       How can I help my students understand the vocabulary and concepts in the text?

Readerly Exploration:

Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying)

For this readerly exploration, I decided to create a work of art that represents my personal response to the readings. For this work of art I started by creating a student reading in the center and having the word comprehension circling around the student. This is meant to reference a whole or complete understanding of comprehension since the article said that comprehension is not often taught for understanding. Outside of the circle has three clouds branching from it. Each cloud represents a main component of comprehension referenced from the article. These items are in cloud shapes because all of these items will be in a students’ mind when engaging with comprehension. Within the theories, I identify the three main theories: Schema, Transactional, and Constructivist. For Schema theory, I highlight the main part of the definition where students must have adequate background knowledge to comprehend. For the Transactional theory, I highlight the part of the definition that discusses how students with different experiences can find different meaning from a story. Then with the Constructivist theory I drew a hammer to represent the word constructing to say constructing your knowledge. Then in the second cloud I address the Comprehension Matrix which is broken down into 3 parts: reader (R), text (T), situation (S).  I will address these components in context under the comprehension strategies, this is why I put a capital letter next to the 3 part so when I reference the letter the reader can connect them back to their corresponding part. Then with the comprehension strategies cloud I break up the strategies into prereading, reading, and post-reading. Underneath these categories I picked out the strategies for the reader, text, and situation.

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READERLY EXPLORATION #3

Due Date: 3/1519

Tompkins, Chapter 8, “Promoting Comprehension: Reader Factors”

Big Idea: This chapter addresses comprehension by defining the various types of comprehension and how comprehension should be implemented by using strategies such as activating background knowledge and connecting.

Nugget: I liked the way this chapter defined reading fluency, by recognizing words automatically so cognitive resources aren’t depleted by decoding unfamiliar words. (it finally clicked why fluency is so important) 

Readerly Exploration:

Explore the world through reading by using texts to answer questions about the world or generating new questions about the world from texts that are read.

For my readerly exploration, I found that I was struggling to focus on the text because I was so stressed. To fix this, I created a relaxing environment to do my reading in. As I read this text, I found the definitions and the informational paragraphs to be helpful, but I find I remember the stories from the beginning the most. While I cognitively know comprehension strategies like connections and prereading are important, I realized I’ve never been told why. As I read through the beginning example where Ms. Ali teachers her class comprehension strategies, I realized I was just as confused as her 5th graders as to why we used these strategies. It was really helpful to see theses in context examples and I loved how the text explained various aspects of the strategies as the teacher was implementing them. For example with predicting, they used an example of the teacher reading the book The Garden of Abdul Gasazi for the students to use their predicting strategy. I always knew you made predictions at the beginning of the book, but I never realized that you were suppose to make predictions in the middle of the book especially at the point when you were most confused. By providing a story like example of the students becoming confused about the fate of the dog in their story helped me see why it was important to keep predicting throughout the entire book. It made me realize I wish the entire textbook was set up in this manner. Not that I don’t gain valuable information from the informational style of the text, but this storytelling version helps model for me how I could implement these strategies in my future classroom. It amazed me that I was able to read the storytelling section easily even when I was stressed, but only immersing myself in a relaxing environment made reading the informational text tolerable. It makes me wonder how much more effective this text would be if it taught it’s material through this realistic storytelling manner.

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READERLY EXPLORATION #2

Due Date: 2/26/19

Tompkins, Chapter 10, “Organizing for Instruction”

Big Idea: This chapter addresses the many ways to apply reading and writing strategies to the day to day classroom and shows the pros and cons to each application.

Nugget: One strategy that really stood out to me was the Goldilocks Strategy on page 355. I often struggle with this idea of telling students what they should and should not read because I don’t want to take away their passion. But this chart is a fun way to gently redirect children to pick texts that are right for them without a teacher “telling” them what to do or how they must read. Plus it is presented in a fun and engaging way.

Gambrell, Seven Rules of Engagement

Big Idea: The article discusses 7 rules/concepts for a classroom to take note of to encourage intrinsic motivation and perseverance with reading.

Nugget: I really loved the idea of choice from the chapter. I’ve seen it in my life and have seen it in my students’ lives that when we get the opportunity to have a say in the assignments and projects we do, we take more pride and responsibility for the end product. I was also pleased to see that this rule not only encouraged motivation but also showed that students did better on assessments than students who did not get a say in their assignments.

Readerly Exploration:

Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying)

For my readerly exploration, I decided to focus on highlighting excerpts from that chapter that reflects the author’s purpose. Throughout my reading career, I have never been the best at highlighting. Often, I was the student that would highlight too much of her readings, and honestly, I probably still do. So, I thought it would be an interesting challenge to try to limit my highlighting for this assignment.  There was one page on the Gambrell article that I thought I did a good job highlighting. It was just very clear to me that the one line I highlighted was the summary of the author's purpose for that chapter. It was the line, “Simply put, reading practice helps students become better readers”. It was so simple but it just rang with so much truth, I knew that was the point the author wanted to get across for rule number 3. With textbooks though, I find it much harder to highlight the author’s purpose because the author has so much to say. For chapter ten from Tompkins, I decided to try to focus more on the figure and images to discover the main points because when I normally read, I skip those pictures to try to finish the reading. But I found them to be super helpful in furthering my understanding of the chapter. The examples like the Goldilocks Strategy really helped me to see the concepts in action and showed me the real-life purpose the author is trying to show in the writings.

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READERLY EXPLORATION #1

Due Date: 2/17/19

Title: Tompkins Chapters 2 & 6

Takeaway: While a lot of this information was familiar to me I really valued the specific techniques presented in both of these chapters. They were a little hard to read since I currently don’t have an immediate context to apply them to but I know I will appreciate these tidbits in the future. From chapter two, I specifically enjoyed seeing clear and structured approach to reading from stage 1: prereading to stage 5: applying. As a linear thinking I appreciated this clear and helpful progression. For chapter 6 I really enjoyed the practical teaching suggestions such as with high-frequency words where the author created a 7 step chat and clap procedure to help make meaningless words more meaningful. 

Nugget: One thing I really loved about this reading is how it threw off my idea of what the writing process was. I always knew about prewriting and drafting but I never realized revising and editing were two different things. I always thought editing was just the part where you had to find and fix all of your mistakes. But I like how the book said, “Revision isn’t polishing”. I was always intimidated by the editing part of the writing process because I struggled with grammar. But it’s nice and way less intimidating to break it down into two parts.

Revising: is adding, substituting, deleting, and rearranging material through the process of rereading through draft, sharing in revising groups, and revising based on feedback. 

Editing: focusing only on the mechanics not the meaning via proofreading, and correcting errors

I also love that finding errors and correcting errors are two separate processes. I was ok at trying to find errors but always hated trying to correct them. 

Readerly Exploration:

Based on your successes and struggles reading this text, write down two or three goals for yourself as a reader for your next reading assignment.

It was interesting to read these chapters because I loved it but also found it difficult to get through. At first, I started off with a lot of great stamina. I loved the example around the concepts the book was teaching and really valued the teaching methods the book was presenting. I know I’m really into a text when I can imagine myself implementing the concepts from a book to my own life. But as I saw the clock ticking and realized how much time I was spending on this reading when I needed to do other things took out the fun for me. At this point the reading became a chore, something I had to do, so I began to do it mindlessly. It was also hard because I found that I already knew some of this information and in became more definition based than story based so I really started tuning it out. From this reading, I learned that it would be valuable for me to start a little bit of it in the beginning of the weak so I have the time, and the option, to put it down and choose when I get to read it. Because when I had time, I really valued imagining and processing the information I was learning. But when crunch time comes, it’s not fun, it’s a chore. And even if I’m caught in crunch time, I need to mark down the things that I don’t understand or don’t pay attention to so that I can come back to it when I have a fresh mind. That way I don’t waste my time and still have an opportunity to get something out of the reading even if I’m not completely into that day. 

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Due Date: 2/8/19

Title: Advanced Readers in Reading First Classrooms: Who Was Really “Left Behind”? Considerations for the Field of Gifted Education

Takeaway: This article discussed how a program created to advance average-ability will still benefit advanced-ability student but the growth will not be proportional to that of the average-ability students. Also, complete fidelity to a program without allowing the flexibility to modify/differentiate the program to advanced-ability learners can be a hinderance to their learning.  

Nugget: I really like the part of the article that discusses how the philosophy of differentiated instruction can be misunderstood in the belief that higher level thinking skills are only for students who are identified as advanced learners. I thought that was a good thing to point out.

Readerly Exploration:

Read texts deeply in order to interpret, critique, and analyze the various layers of meaning a text might offer a reader

For my Readerly Exploration, I will be analyzing my text through the lens of a pre-service student teacher applying this reading to her current context. I actually found this text very informative to my first day of junior field. While the scenarios are not identical and there are similarities between the two contexts (between the text and the school). More importantly, the themes and the spirit of the article is comparable to the scenario of the school I am in. For my placement, I am working with a teacher who has done her job for 14 years. She has worked in the same grade at that school for 13 years. But this year, my teacher is experiencing a change in curriculum. Instead of being able to do the teaching she knows to be effective, her school is making everyone do a program that requires stations and guided groups for both math and reading (or ELA). They are required to have these subjects go on for a certain amount of time, for example, 90 minutes, and are not supposed to deviate from how they are instructed to perform this. This scenario reminded me of the strong and inflexible fidelity that was required of the program in our article and how the article mentioned certain time requirements. It was interesting to think that I had the opportunity to view this article through a more authentic lens after hearing my teacher’s concerns with the program being implemented in her classroom. Because she is dedicating so much time to this new system and the fact that it’s taking up so much time out of her day means that the other subject she gets to teach if she has time to teach them, are not as well thought out and not very engaging. This comes as a detriment to all students but especially the advanced-ability students who have no opportunity to engage with critical thinking questions and activities. Quite often, I saw students get very bored with the material and could see them losing interest in the subject. It was hard to watch. It’s hard to see, in a sense, all student suffer because the teacher has to take time to, not only learn this new program but, take time away from other subjects that could provide the higher level thinking activities that are vital not only to advanced-ability students but rather to all students. Overall, I found it both interesting and insightful to read this article and then go into the field with the mindset of teaching to gifted students. It gave me a new lens through which to view education of all students not just struggling ones.

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Readerly Exploration #8

Reading: Why Reading Fluency Should Be Hot!

Take away: That fluency goes beyond simply being able to read a text quickly but rather requires both automaticity in recognizing words effortlessly and prosody using expression to connect words with the texts meaning.

Nugget: I loved how repeated reading was seen and used as more than just memorization and speed but rather was used to emphasize prosodic features in a text to make it more meaningful to the reader.

Reading: “She’s My Best Reader; She Just Can’t Comprehend”: Studying the Relationship Between Fluency and Comprehension  

Take away: That many teachers are viewing students as “strong readers” only by assessing speed, accuracy, and prosody. This completely excludes being able to comprehend a text and by isolating those skills from comprehension is what creates this oxymoron of a strong reader that is unable to comprehend the text.

Nugget: I find it interesting that even with prosody added to fluency the tasks that teachers have students perform emphasize remembering and reciting.

Readerly Exploration:

For this readerly exploration, I took myself on a field trip down memory lane and revisited some old pictures of me performing in theatrical productions. As a child, I did not always like reading, but when I went on stage, words came alive to me. I remember what it felt like be on stage in the setting my character lived and having to bring that character to life through the words I spoke. To do this, it was vital to understand my character and the show I was performing. To really understand my character, I would go home and run my character’s lines constantly. I would say them in different ways, practicing different expressions, volume, and emphasize until the phrase sounded the way I thought the character would say it. This process is very similar to deep reading and repeated reading done in the prosody side of fluency. In revising that memory and reading this article, I realized how important prosody was to my comprehension of the show and my character. That connection to acting made the point of emphasizing prosody in fluency very real to me. For instance, if an actor didn’t have prosody it would be easy to tell that they didn’t understand their character, much like if a student cannot read a story with the right expression it’s easy to tell they don’t fully comprehend the story. From my acting career, I can see how prosody can lead to comprehension. But I can also see how trying to drill and isolated skills of prosody like reading with expression can miss comprehension by not focusing on the context of the story. It’s easy to see how a teacher could make these tasks more about remembering and reciting to encourage reading speed. In that context, it’s clear that children are only practicing a skill rather than engaging with the text. Therefore, it’s important to remember that fluency is far more than just some isolated skills but it is the application of those skills used to bring the text to life. 

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Readerly Exploration #7

Reading: Vocabulary Practices in Prekindergarten and Kindergarten Classroom

Take away: This article hit on some vocabulary instruction and determined the following: Acting Out and Illustration positively impacted children with low initial vocab knowledge and negatively impacted children with high initial vocabulary knowledge, Analyzing Words Semantically showed no effect but could have been a study error, Applying Words in New Contexts worked better for children with higher vocab knowledge, Defining Words Explicitly in Rich Context worked for both children.

Nugget: I liked how the article analyzed the vocabulary instruction through how kids with both a higher and lower initial vocabulary knowledge would benefit ( or not benefit) from that instruction. I feel like that is something that is overlooked when a teacher chooses instruction for read alouds/ non-read aloud time.

Reading: Word Study Instruction in the K-2 Classroom

Take away: That there are 9 tips that help with word study instruction that veer away from memorization to better understanding the alphabet, patterns in words, and meaning layers of words.  

Nugget: I find it interesting that the word wall had mixed results in effectiveness for children. Though it is especially interesting that it is more often used when the teacher is seen using it as a tool. That informs me how effective teacher suggestion can be in the classroom.

Readerly Exploration: Read texts deeply in order to interpret, critique, and analyze the various layers of meaning a text might offer a reader: Viewed through the lens of an ELL teacher

In the article Vocabulary Practices in Prekindergarten and Kindergarten Classroom the authors discuss how word study, reinforcing vocab through attention to letters and sounds, is effective in supporting early vocab growth. This goes along with the idea that children understand vocabulary better when can connect the sounds with the spelling. The article also specifically mentions that word study is recommended for ELLs in the early stages of literacy. This makes sense because ELLs need to learn the basic phonemes of the language especially if their language does not have those phonemes. Student ELLs would also greatly benefit from Acting Out and Illustrating Words. In kindergarten, it is very likely that you will have students in the silent stage. In this stage, the student’s comprehension is high but they are not yet comfortable or do not yet understand how to speak. Therefore, a visual for vocabulary is especially helpful for ELLs since pictures are universal. Also in the Word Study Instruction in the K-2 classroom, it is helpful that the authors are pinpointing specific strategies and word patterns for learning vocabulary. For example, using the words on the word wall to point out patterns like the double ee spelling of the long e vowel. As with any language learner, it is helpful to point out patterns in certain words. It takes the learning away from pure memorization to finding strategies for many words. This makes the daunting task of learning English a little easier for your ELLs.

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Students will quickly learn that the English language breaks a lot of its own rules. So it’s nice to give them a few tricks while their young before they learn how complex English can get. 

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Readerly Exploration # 6

, Reading: Watching Young Writers by Glenda L. Bissex

Take away: That we are so proud of children when they say “wa wa” but are worried about their development if they try to spell water and they spell it wrong. We see it as an error rather than information used to tell us what the students already know and where we should start our teaching. 

Nugget: The idea that children don’t come into schools “standard” rather they all start and end at different places in the writing process and that is ok. Standardized test don’t always show the process and progress children make throughout the year and judge them using the same standards even though kids don’t start at the same place or all start on a standard playing field. 

Reading: Phonemes in Use: Multiple Activities for a Critical Process by Patrick C. Manyak

Take away: That there are effective ways to show both spelling and phonetics in one activity in a way that is clear, precise, and visual. 

Nugget: I loved how in the word wall boxes, the teacher asked the students to write the letters that represent each phoneme in the corresponding boxes. Like “th” going in one box and “e” going in another. I thought that was a smart way to combine spelling and phonics. 

Readerly Exploration: For this readerly exploration, I am going to connect the articles we read to a song called “Ten Thousand Hours” by the rapper Macklemore:

“The greats weren't great because at birth they could paint The greats were great 'cause they paint a lot I will not be a statistic, just let me be No child left behind, that's the American scheme I make my living off of words And do what I love for work And got around 980 on my SATs Take that system, what did you expect? Generation of kids choosing love over a desk Put those hours in and look at what you get Nothing that you can hold, but everything that it is Ten thousand”

This song is about the many hard long hours Macklemore put into his songs and becoming a famous rapper. But the part of the song I specifically want to touch on is this segment where he talks about his experience with school. He talks about No Child Left Behind Act which was the start of the standardized testing era. This segment shows that Macklemore’s representation of school is primarily based on test taking. And I do not think it’s a large leap to say that a lot of students and teacher view school this way. In the article, “Watching Young Writers”, it talks a lot about how two students started off at different places when entering first grade. One could be viewed as “ahead” of his peers and the other could be viewed as “behind” his peers. But instead of taking either stance, the teacher in this article simply observed where each student was at and what they were saying. This teacher saw what most teachers would see as “errors” to be information directing the teacher in what the next steps were for future instruction. This mindset is more of a growth mindset rather than a mindset of stress that comes with need each unique student to measure to the same unchanging standards. This article also mentions how the classroom environment should be one that gives a space for students to guide their own learning and to, “inform us [the teacher] of what they need to be taught (113)”. This gives the learner some autonomy over their own learning and allows them to direct it based on their own needs. This article concludes with the idea that “children come to see themselves as they are seen by others”, where the author points out that, as teachers, do we the students as, “learners”, or as “mistake-makers (113)”. That perception makes all the difference to students and their school identity. Which makes me wonder if Macklemore’s teachers along with standardized testing made him feel like a mistake-maker, despite his many strengths and talents.

The other article addresses five methods for teaching phenomes. I found this article very helpful because, as a child and even now, I am not a very good speller, and always struggled with spelling when I was younger. I don’t remember the lessons I was taught as a kid but I do wonder that if I was taught in this clear, explicit, and visual way if I’d be better off as an adult speller. I guess as a future teacher, I will only be able to tell if it helps the students I teach one day in my classroom. 

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Readerly Exploration #5

Date: 10/21/18

Big Idea: This article focuses on the interplay between the official classroom community and the unofficial community created and maintained by the children.

  Nugget: I thought it was interesting that students did not get mad at the teacher for banning the war games and also that the students specifically said that they were playing “fake war” not real war. 

Readerly Exploration: View the reading through a particular lens (faith, socioeconomic, disability studies, feminist, environmental, critical race theory, etc.) to consider the implications of the reading for a specific audience.

For my readerly exploration, I am going to view this article through the lens of play theory. During the spring semester of my sophomore year, I took a Play and Development class at Messiah where we discussed war play in class. In our class, we watched a video on two children playing war with each other, running around in the backyard shooting at one another until one child went down and the game ended. Afterward, we had a discussion on war in play and asked if it was appropriate to allow children to engage in that type of play, especially with the Florida school shooting that had recently happened. According to our professor, play violence is much different than actual violence and will not encourage violent behavior. Now according to the Bandura study, the more violence a child is exposed (especially by adults) they will model and copy. Therefore, parents should have a discussion with their children about the proper way to handle conflict. But for play, it is not abnormal to see kids engaging in war games and to prove it does not encourage actual violence, students will often call an adult if a friend actually does get injured. But it’s interesting to see that in the article we read, the children specifically said the teacher did not realize that they were doing “fake war” not real war. So even students cognitively understand there is a difference between the two.  

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Readerly Response #4

10/18/2018

Reading: Talking back and talking over: Young children’s expressive engagement during storybook read-alouds

Take-away: One significant take away I found in this reading was the fact that a kid who straight up disagrees with the story in a disruptive manner could actually have one of the highest and most creative forms of engagement.

Nugget: That critiquing a book is considered a positive and valid way to engage with the text.    

Readerly Exploration: For my readerly exploration, I decided to explain the continuum of engagement with my fellow RA, Steven (in the orange). In our conversation, I described each type of expressive engagement giving examples for all five. From there I asked him if he personally ever remembers engaging with texts in this way. I learned about some of his favorite books from childhood and how he often engaged in the talking backstage when he read since he is a verbal processor. In college, we found that critiquing approach is often found when reading books. Steven, as an engineer, seeks to find the most efficient answer to the questions he has so he often will find himself critiquing what he reads and engaging with the text in that manner. This exploration was helpful for me because I was able to see how these different forms of engagement could be lived out in another person and it allowed me to process how I was expressively engaged with books in my life. Through this discussion, I realized that the first time I ever engaged with text in a memorable way was in 5th grade when I read Twilight. I hated reading before then, but once I read this book I was hooked and I often remember myself critiquing the book and talking back with the text when something was about to go terribly wrong. This exploration showed me how this study is actually very true for my own life, giving me some real perspective as to how this is even more true for the students I will one day teach. This article continues to challenge my thinking on what it means to have an orderly classroom while allowing the students the freedom to learn. For my readerly exploration, I decided to explain the continuum of engagement with my fellow RA, Steven. In our conversation, I described each type of expressive engagement giving examples for all five. From there I asked him if he personally ever remembers engaging with texts in this way. I learned about some of his favorite books from childhood and how he often engaged in the talking backstage when he read since he is a verbal processor. In college, we found that critiquing approach is often found when reading books. Steven, as an engineer, seeks to find the most efficient answer to the questions he has so he often will find himself critiquing what he reads and engaging with the text in that manner. This exploration was helpful for me because I was able to see how these different forms of engagement could be lived out in another person and it allowed me to process how I was expressively engaged with books in my life. Through this discussion, I realized that the first time I ever engaged with text in a memorable way was in 5th grade when I read Twilight. I hated reading before then, but once I read this book I was hooked and I often remember myself critiquing the book and talking back with the text when something was about to go terribly wrong. This exploration showed me how this study is actually very true for my own life, giving me some real perspective as to how this is even more true for the students I will one day teach. This article continues to challenge my thinking on what it means to have an orderly classroom while allowing the students the freedom to learn.

[yesrachelg123-blog]

READERLY EXPLORATION #3

Due Date: 10/16/18

Reading: Shared Book Experience: Teaching Reading Using Favorite Books

Take Away: This reading emphasized the importance of holistic learning regarding literacy in that learning to read should be a natural process full of joy and intrinsic motivation rather than painful, hard work.

Nugget: One nugget of information I found interesting was the most literacy growth happens when children are thrown into an environment that is richer than their current reading ability. 

Exploration: My readerly exploration of connecting this article with a fiction text was interesting, especially since my connection is not easily seen. I first read the article and found myself very fascinated by this idea about how we expose young readers to all the authentic joys and challenges of reading even when they are not linguistically ready yet. But when they enter school, we take away the books (the entire reason they want to learn) and drill them with mindless facts so that they are “ready” to read. We tell them that since they are not perfect readers, they are not ready to try and we take away the joy of reading, the joy of trying, and the joy of failing. That whole idea then reminded me of a quote I heard which said, “children are smart and then we educate them”. And that quote was what lead me to my non-fiction novel, The Little Prince. In this book, a little boy draws a boa constrictor that was digesting an elephant. When he showed his drawing to the adults they only saw a hat, so he drew another one so the adults could understand, commenting on how adults always need an explanation. Then because they still didn’t understand they told him to put his childish things away and focus on his studies. Anyways, to make a long story short, this got me thinking about how many great ideas and great developments children have are only seen as “hats” instead of masterpieces. Then, because we don’t understand we tell them to put away their childish things and focus on mindless drills instead of diving into a book they love and actually authentically exploring literature in a deep and meaningful way. It’s funny how we adults say we know best, but then we deprive children of the meaning and expect them to still love reading when we finally deem them “ready” even though they had everything they really needed all along.

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Simulation Journal #2  Rachel Grundusky 10/5/18

Part I. 

At the moment, I think I've felt pretty ok for two reasons. 1) As we discussed in class, others have made it through and it is very obvious that our teachers want us to succeed so I have faith that we will make it through. 2) I have not seen a bad grade yet, once I see one of those I will then enter crisis mode and make some life changes/ increase my stress levels. I think another comfort is that we are all people. If something isn’t going well deadlines can always be moved and more clarification can always be given. As we also mentioned in class, the point is to grow, not to be punished with bad grades and I've seen my teachers validate this point so I trust them when they say it.

As long as I don’t see bad grades I’m pretty ok with ‘giving it a go’, in fact that’s how I normally like to do things because then you know where you stand and can improve from there. So in that regard I am excited to see how the giving it a go works and excited to learn the things I don’t know. I find that if people are ok with me messing it up the first time, I do a pretty good job learning it for the second time. So to be given that chance to safely fail is actually pretty effective for me as a learner. I’m curious to see how this can be incorporated in to my future profession in an effective way. 

Part II.

How does reflecting on our simulation in this way help you think about our course driving question differently? 

I think this is good practice for the real world. I think as teacher, with our ever changing curriculum, there is always going to be some things we don’t know and still be expected to teach well. Therefore it is important to understand that in our jobs their will be many times that we will have to just, “give it a go”, hope for the best, and be ready to try again tomorrow if it doesn’t work out. Most importantly, we cannot to be too critical if it flops. Because, as teachers, one of the best ways we teach our students is how we model our learning. And I want my students to learn how to be like Einstein, the man who saw not 1000 failures but rather 1000 ways not to make a light bulb. That is where true learning comes from and I am determined to teach my students how learning is all about giving it a go, especially when you don’t know all the answers. 

It’s also a comfort to remember that your administrative staff are people too. They are their to help you achieve your goals, and you are their to help them achieve theirs too. Most likely you both will have similar deadlines and goals, and while those deadlines many not be able to be pushed back, you do have a whole team behind you working to achieve the same thing. At the end of the day, if something should flop, but you have the attitude that says I’m ready to learn and try again tomorrow, there is no doubt in my mind that the instruction we give as teachers will be good even with the constraints of external mandates. 

[yesrachelg123-blog]

Due Date: 9/28/18 Course Reading 1: Christy Wessel-Powell, Karen E. Wohlwend, Tolga Kargin—"Enriching and Assessing Young Children’s Multimodal Storytelling Big Take Away: This article is about how dramatic play can be used in a classroom setting that promotes storytelling and allows for a creative way to assess children on literacy skills and other strengths. Nugget: I thought it was interesting that even the most emergent writers with limited print reading could get recognition for their storytelling abilities. Course Reading 2: Deborah J. Leong, Elena Bodrova- “Why Children Need Play” Big Take Away: This article discusses the importance of mature dramatic play in aiding the development of children’s social and cognitive abilities. Some of these benefits include developing negotiating skills, talking to peers, understanding various roles, and regulating emotions. Nugget: One nugget of information I found to be very interesting was that TV, videos, and the computer are toys that do not build imagination or interesting dramatic play themes. Yet this is one of our most commonly used “toys”. Consequently, this makes me wonder TV, videos, and other sorts of technology limits ways of thinking in children or programs them to only think a certain way. Course Reading 3: Scholastic- “Building Language and Literacy Through Play” Big Take Away: This article discusses how dramatic play encourages children to expand and learn literacy by creating meaningful context for learning literacy, exploring new roles, and utilizing symbolic representation to advance literacy. Nugget: One piece of information I found was that pretend play should not be limited to the dramatic play center. Rather this play should be extended to other centers and introduce different situations to gain all the benefits. Readerly Exploration Experience: Habit: Explore the world through reading by using texts to answer questions about the world or generating new questions about the world from texts that are read Exploration: Take yourself on a field trip to a place on campus that connects with the big ideas of your assigned reading(s) To connect the big ideas of these articles, I decided to engage in my own form of play by being out in nature. I took a development and play class last semester so I decided it would be most beneficial to be outside in a more open-ended play environment to enhance my understanding of the text. For this, I took an hour to be outside of Boyer and explore the creek. I first began my adventure by rolling down one of the hills like did when I was a kid. This gave me a more childlike perspective. From there, I explored the woods imagining what it would be like to be a painter capturing the beauty of the nature around me. I then continued some open-ended exploration of the woods and later returned to class. At first, I found it difficult to engage in such childish play in the collegiate setting. But once I rolled down the hill it became more comfortable. For me, this experience really enhanced my understanding of the text. That one hour of my day was more memorable than any other activity I did. If that experience had such an impact on a college student I can only imagine what it would do for elementary students. I was also very impressed with how much creative thinking happened in my experience. This type of experience would definitely benefit the social and cognitive growth of younger students. Then, by bringing this freedom and creativity into the classroom through using a teacher-developed literacy playshop curriculum, one could easily incorporate valuable literacy learning and the social/cognitive growth as mentioned in our readings.

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Readerly Exploration #1 Continued

Baby Power!

That’s right, this little guy has a lot to say with his scribbles! He is claiming his book and his characters!