View the NCTE/IRA vignettes at your level in the pdf standards handbook and then
engage in an online discussion group on our class blog.
1)propose “meaty” fat questions to discuss,
2) make connections to your teaching and work with students, and
3) respond to two of your classmates’s entries in your study group.
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Hi Girls,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the vingnettes and there are so many things I wante to write about and ask you! I think I will just start by focusing on the first couple for now. In the first Vingnette, I liked the teacher's idea about posting a chart which read, "Strategies We Use to Understand What We Read". As readers, we use a plethora of reading strategies all the time, but we do it subconsciously. I think it is a wonderful idea, for beginning readers especially, to be reminded of the strategies they can use. Being conscious of reading strategies and utilizing them, will only help them to become habits. At the beginning of the year, I began a chart similar to this with my kindergarten class. I hung it up on our reading bulletin board but never added additional strategies we learned later in the year. I would like to make a valient effort next year to keep adding onto the list and perhaps even have the kids read it chorally once in a while, too.Do either or you do something similar to this in your classroom? Suggestions are welcomed!
I like the question posed at the end of the first vingnette which stated, "How important is a non-competitive risk taking environment to the learning process?" I believe that this type of environment is crucial to your classroom community. So often we ask students to think "outside of the box", analyzing beyond the text. Sharing an idea such as this requires students to take some risks. In my kindergarten class, I try to give my students a chance to rehearse their idea before sharing it with the whole group. I do this through the use of turn and talk partners. I pose a question and give my students some think time. Then, they share their thoughts with their turn and talk partner. Finally, I ask them to raise their hand and share it with the class. I was really impressed with the class in Vingnetter 2. Based on the actions of the students, I believed that the teacher established an environment where the students felt free to take risks. This was evident to me when the two girls shared their stories willingly and then accepted the constructive criticsm so well in front of the entire class and even used the criticsm to revise their work not once but twice! Whoa!
Finally, I really enjoyed reading about how drama helped the two girls revise the part of their story that didn't make sense. How do the two of you incorporat drama into your classroom? I taught third and fourth grade for five years and incorporated it a lot in my students' learning. Now that I am in primary, I am looking for new and fresh ideas.....Chat with you soon!
Jessica:)
Hi Girls-
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed reading the vignettes, topics are so relivant and there is so much to talk about. First, I was also very interested in the Strategies poster that the teacher created and thought it was great that she added to it all year. It is somthing I want to add next year. For my second graders, I began a bullitan board behind my reading area (rather large wall) that says ____ helps me understand what I read. As I taught a new reading strategy it would go into the blank and samples of student work practicing that strategy would go up on the board. In the beginning of the year I made a poster for each reading strategy and for one unit, the children had to make 1 posting during reading time of a strategy that they used that helped them understand what they read. They would post onto the strategy chart. This helped me see which strategies were most popular and needed the least attention, and which ones were the students less comfortable using and more instruction and modeling was going to be needed. The kids loved seeing that their friends used strategies too.
The non-competitive enviornment is such an important aspect of a classroom, when it is set up, the children are far more comfortable taking risks. I loved how the girls shared their story, accepted the suggestions and continued to work on it, and were ready and willing to share again. My student teacher started two stars and a wish for givving suggestion, the children say two positive comments and a wish/suggestion to a peer sharing writing. I was most imporessed when I saw the children doing this in their partnerships weeks after my student teacher finished and with out directions to do so. They positive comments and contructive feedback was important to them.
One question was how do you make a student understand that revision is more than correcting spelling-
I think that it is by modeling revision and not focussing on spelling first, during the drama example, the girls focussed on the content of their story and fixed a problem with an event before they worried about capital letters spelling errors and punctuation. As a teacher we need to be the ones to put value on revision, and help the children know what to look at first. If we see a paper and immediatly fix spelling, they are going to look at spelling first. How do you deal with that in your classrooms?
I also wanted to move ahead to Vignette 3-
ReplyDeleteI thought that the interdisciplinary project about the water pollution issue was so exciting and engaging for the students. The children were able to practice so many LA skills, reading, writing, listening, interviewing was a great skill for students to practice as well as getting to have a tour of the water filtration plant which gave them so much background knowledge about their topic. Including a debate was also a nice way of looking at their issue.
I obviously couldn't try anything quite this in-depth in my classroom, but my children did all about books this year and having the opportunity to research a topic they chose and already knew a little about was so meaningful. The topics ranged from all about soccer, to all about boyscouts, to all about camping, or dogs. The children were excited to learn about something that interested them, and in turn, produced some of their best work. How do you adapt your curriculum to allow choice in a project such as the water pollution project?
Hi girls ~ sorry I am not as prompt with my posting. I am not able to get work done during my school day. I liked the vignettes, I love readings which are applicable to my teaching and offer situations to learn from. I liked the idea of using a chart to track reading strategies. I have a few posters that I use as a reference. I will bring them in to share next class, along with the online source. I work in a different setting, as I am in a private special education school, but I definitely find a connection to my teaching. In the children's school at my school, we departmentalize reading and I run a remedial reading group with several 4th and 5th grade boys who read at a Kindergarten level. In adddition to offering these students the direct instruction on how to decode, or read unknown words, I always point out when they have used a good reading strategy. I find myself saying things like "I like how you reread the sentence after you figured out that one tricky word, that made the sentence flow nicely". I would definitely like to make the strategies part of an everyday review before reading along the lines of 'what strategies can you use, and when is it a good strategy'. At one time I had come across a book mark which listed some strategies, but I have not seen one since.
ReplyDeleteIn the second vignette I was really impressed with the two girls writing the fable. A question was posed a the end of the vignette saying "what kind of instruction and guidance must this teacher have provided to get a group of students to achieve this level of independence?" I was happy to see this was a discussion point because it was the thought which occupied my mind as a read. I would imagine that this teacher provided a lot of modeling in the beginning of the year around working with a partner for shared writing activities. I would also assume that this teacher began the process by spending time as a member of the group, offering suggestions, etc. and then relinquished all control to the students as they became more comfortable with the process. I thought the drama worked beautifully for these girls to make revisions to their writing. In reading a great strategy to make sense of text is to picture it in your mind like a movie, and in the same sense acting helped these girls make sense of their own writing. I would love to get my students to achieve this level of independence, though partner work is a struggle for my students due to social and behavioral difficulties. But I would like to look into building in partner work next year and setting expectations for my students.
I also liked the vignette about Mike, the skinnybones kid. I often end up selecting a book for a student to browse, knowing their interests but have some downfalls to my classroom library. I have many books and have labeled and categorized all my books by genre and have many kids who love browsing through...but I have trouble with some of my non-readers. These kids love to be read to but are reluctant to browse a book independently. Jessica, you have Kindergarten students, do you do any silent reading time? If so, how do you structure it and what are your expectations? I often show my students how to make up their own story based on the pictures, but they tend to get off task during book time. Any ideas?
Jenna - I agree with your thoughts on the revising the two girls did who were writing the fable. The content should always come first in my mind because, if students were to edit their writing for grammar and spelling and then go back to revise, they may end up eliminating or rewording the exact sentences they just perfected. I generally have students do editing only if they are going to publish. I like to focus more on the content of student writing, the details they add and the organization. After students have a piece they are happy with I do go through with them to show them correct spelling or punctuation for future reference because I want them to see correct spelling, etc. I have one student in particular who gets very anxious about writing because he feels the need for everything to be perfect, in that case I do not go back through every piece with him to edit, instead I give him more choice around which pieces he would like to edit and when.
ReplyDeleteIngrid-
ReplyDeleteMy second graders just did a great project where they wrote a story using simple comic strip pictures, they were excited when I told them they would be using comics and it helped them really slow down the action and talk about what what happening. I can bring you in a set tomorrow.
I also really liked the vignette about skinnybones, Sometimes I feel that the only piece missing for a struggling reader is a book that they want to read to practice. Sometimes, it takes quite a bit of time during the year to find the book that hooks them. It was so nice to see that the boy remembered that his teacher helped him find that book, and how important that was for him. One of my students just became hooked on the Cam Jansen series, I think she may read them all by the end of the summer. She was one of those readers just getting by, because she didn't really feel like it, but was capable. She now borrows a cam Jansen book from my classroom every few days and is so excited to read the next one, the trick will be to find another series to hook her into when she runs out of Cam Jansen books.
ReplyDeleteHi again ladies!
ReplyDeleteWe are having some great online discussions here! Jenna, your research project idea is great. The "All About" project would totally interest all grade levels, even kindergarten. I did a little reserach project of my own this year. The children chose and animal picture book (I collaborated with my librarian) and completed a little booklet where they needed to find out their animal's habitat, size, appearance, what they ate, and some interesting facts. The purpose of the project was two-fold. First, I wanted the children to understand what is meant to "research" and introduce them to that word. Second, I wanted my kindergarteners to practice the reading strategies of telling the story by looking at the pictures and noticing. As I mentioned before, the children chose their animal from a group of about thirty-five. Their booklet incorporated writing and illustrating, which also intergrated other forms of literacy. This Friday, we are actually having a Reading Celebration where the children will be sharing their Animal Reports with the parents.
Ingrid, in regards to your question about independent reading, it definitely is tricky in kindergarten! What I usually do is have a center three times a week that I call "Read to Self" (but next year, I think I might refer to it as "Independent Reading"). Anyway, each child in my class has a "Book Bag". Inside is a "Look Book" (a book that the students are interested in but may have to read by retelling if it is a familiar story or reading the pictures. They also have two "Just Right" books (leveled guided reading texts) and "Sight Word" books (books that the children create that have simple text including many of our kindergarten sight words. The children either choose or make all of the books in their "Book Bag". While the children are reading these books during the center time, I am going to each student at the center and having an individual reading conference with them. I tried it that way this year and may tweak it a little for next school year but overall it went well.
Going back to Vingette 3, I was thinking that the Water Pollution project reminded me more of a research project than an inquiry but I believe that inquiry projects, either done in science or in reading as a literature inquiry, could spark the same enthusiasm and interest. My third graders (when I used to teach third grade) LOVED inquiry in science. However, many teachers at my school were very hesitant to do full inquiries because the teacher really does need to give control to the students in activities such as this. How is inquiry viewed at your schools?
Jessica-
ReplyDeleteYour animal reports sound great, it impressive that kindergartners could do all that!
At my school Inquiry is not really talked about. I have tried to incorporate it into my classroom occasionally, but like we were talking about Tue night, my science topics are not the most exciting, dirt, nutrition and matter (but not changing states) only lend themselves to a few projects. I was thinking about adding more inquiry into my classroom next year, during my writing class last semester a research paper I read talked about guided writing groups specifically writing non-fiction. When the children were done with the writing workshop mini lesson the teacher would have a small guided writing group that was inquiry based. This allowed the children to have a common experience to write about and was very engaging. Has anyone used inquiry for writing?
I don't do a ton of inquiry based activites, my students are very young and developmentally are not ready for such an independent task. Jessica, I think that animal project is a great way to introduce inquiry to young students and start the process of researching at a young age. I am sure that project made their learning memorable and they had ownership of their knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to comment on the last vignette where the teacher discussed different reading strategies, particularly picturing the text in your mind. I think that having students own their strategies and understand what works best for them helps them apply reading strategies during different settings and with different types of text. This metacognition, and awareness of themselves will help gain competence with their reading. I definitely want to spend more time discussing with kids the strategies they use and what works best. The second question after that vignette asked what a teacher could do for those students who rely on one strategy? Jenna - I think you definitely address this by having kids post the strategies they use. It's a built in way to gather data about the most used reading skills and those that require some direct instruction, exposure, and modeling.
I like how this blog evolved into more of a conversation.At first it seemed more of a summarizing of articles and then from there it launched into a real discussion with lots of connections to your own settings.
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