CH. 15 in WK

BOOK
"We must, at all times, remember that we don't teach a subject, we don't teach to a test, we teach you-- specific children with specific needs." (Ch. 15, pg. 301)

"To be called "Teacher" might indeed be one of the greatest compliments one could ever receive." (Ch. 15, pg. 303)

RESPONSE
Chapter 15 was a great way to end this book. Kylene Beers talks about what being a teacher is all about. She shares some of the common desires of teachers. I like how she added that teachers teach to specific children with specific needs. I am not a teacher yet but from a student's standpoint, I know it can get easy to "teach a subject" and "teach to a test". Being a teacher is a stressful job but at the same time it is so rewarding. Future teachers and teachers of today need to remember they are teaching children. I greatly agree with Kylene Beers' statement: "To be called "Teacher" might indeed be one of the greatest compliments one could ever receive." I really enjoyed this statement because it is true. I can not wait to get that compliment. Before I began in the education field, I had no idea how much work teachers do. It is a special field and I hope the world will realize how important teachers are and treasure them.

BOOK TALK # 2

EMILY EDISON by David Hopkins

Book Chat

The book chat with Dwight MacPherson was an interesting experience. Overall it was good because I had never chatted with an author. I really enjoyed the informal setting because it was relaxing and comfortable. In the beginning of that chat it was very chaotic. I think everyone was a bit nervous and were not sure how to do the whole chat thing, however, once the rules were established it seem to flow very well. Before the book chat I was thinking an hour would be too long. I was wrong! The hour went by so fast and I was a little disappointed. I felt I learned a lot about Mr. MacPherson but I wanted to learn more! Some of the questions that were asked were really good but I don’t think Mr. MacPherson had time to answer them all. I wish he could have gone into more detail on some of the questions. I thought it was interesting that Mr. MacPherson wrote Kid Houdini for one of his sons that has ADHD. This is proof that comic books do work for special education students. I would definitely do a book chat in my classroom if given the opportunity. Because some students may not have access to a computer at home, I would use one computer in the classroom while having each student type a question one at a time and wait for the response. On the other hand, for this class, I think it would have been neat to do a practice round. Not with Kid Houdini but with one of Dr. Rene Saldana’s books. I would love to read one of his books and then have an author chat with him. By doing this, there would be less confusion and hopefully more detailed answers during the book chat.

CH. 12 & 13 in WK

BOOK

Comparison of three spellers … “The problem, however, isn’t with the spelling list; the problem is in presuming that all students should have the same list.”(Ch. 12; pg. 249)

Understanding Sorting (Ch. 12; pg. 254)

Spelling Word Walls/ Homonym Lists (Ch. 12; pg. 254)

Beginning of chapter (Ch. 13; pgs 258-261)

Dormant Readers (Ch. 13;pg. 279)

RESPONSE

As I viewed figure 12.2 and read the passage about the three spellers, it never occurred to me that students do not have to have the same spelling list. It would only make sense to give students an “individualized” spelling list. Some students need more time to fully understand how words work. Students learn at different rates and I think sometimes its easy to overlook a simple spelling word list.

Reading this chapter, as well as listening to my EDLL teacher, my brain goes crazy with all of the spelling rules. On page 254 it talks about sorting, when to sort and add –able or –ible. Looking back, I cannot remember how I was taught to spell. As a young adult, I feel like there are so many rules because now everything is so natural. I was reminded how confusing it can be for young students to learn how to spell.

While working with kindergarten and first grade students this semester, my teacher gave us a mini word wall to use with these students. I think this is great to have however sometimes I feel like the students did not try to spell certain words, their strategy was to look for it on the word wall. I’m just not sure when the word wall gets in the way of them learning to spell the word. The homonym list is a great thing to have in the classroom. I remember having this type of list when I was growing up. I found it very helpful and it helped me to understand when I use the certain homonyms.

At the beginning of this chapter it talks about the power of confidence and when students lack confidence. Reading is so important and it amazes me what an impact it can have on a student. When a student can not read their self-confidence drops tremendously. From personal experience, in my younger years I struggled with reading before I was diagnosed with dyslexia. I hated reading out loud in front of my classmates because it was embarrassing. People tend to correlate not being able to read with stupidity. It’s hard for younger students to understand that is not true.

I am definitely an aliterate. I can read but I choose not to, at least not for pleasure. As I read the types of aliterates, I considered myself being a dormant reader. I do like to read but I do so much of it for school that in my spare time I don’t want to open a book. I hope that when I finally finish school I will read more for pleasure.

CH. 10 & 11 in WK

BOOK
Chapter 10 as a whole

"With little effort, you can understand how a slow reading rate affects a student's attitude toward reading." (Ch. 10, p 210)

Building a Common Vocabulary (Ch. 11, p 223-227)

Chapter 11 as a whole

RESPONSE
Chapter 10 is titled Fluency and Automaticity. As I began reading it defined what reading automaticity was and showed two transcripts about two 1st graders. After I read the transcripts, what immediately came to mind was my EDLL class and the kids I work with during that class. I thought of what I would do to help those two 1st graders, work on HFW/Sight words, model reading, have students reread texts, prompting. All of these things came to mind because every Tuesday and Thursday this is exactly what the students and I work on. As I went on to read, I realized I just read the whole chapter because all of the suggestions were things I was already thinking of and things I already do with students. I like chapter 10 because I am very familiar with it. Fluency is very important. Sometimes when the 2nd graders read to me on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a hard time understanding what their book was about because of their lack of fluency. In chapter 10, Sophie's reading reminded me of how I read when I was younger. I am dyslexic and I remember having to sound almost every word out. By the time I finished reading I had no idea what I just read. Although I am older, at times I find myself working on reading accurately and fluency that the words I am reading are just coming out of my mouth; I am not reading to understand what the text is saying.

On page 210 it estimates how long it would take a slow reader to read 20 pages versus a someone who read at a more faster rate. Although I have had a lot of experience with reading, it takes me longer to process what I am reading and actually understand it. It takes me so long to read a chapter or two out of my school books and it gets so frustrating and old. This definitely has a lot to do with my attitude about reading.

I really like how this chapter defines and gives examples of things like :graphemes, phonemes, consonant blends, onset rhymes... All of things will help me on the TExES exam.

Again, the suggestions in chapter 11 are things I work on in my EDLL classes. It is a good feeling knowing that Mrs. Pratt has taught us things we will definitely use in the classroom with all ages/grades. Suggestion # 4 in chapter 11 is Teach Rime Patterns. This is also called "word families". In out lesson plans with the kindergarten and first graders we have a section designated for "word family practice". Example: We read the book "Owl Babies". Under "word family practice" we choose a word from our book, mice. The words to build from that word are: nice, dice, twice, slice, and rice. The students build these words in that order using letter manipulatives. This is always a fun activity for them and at the same time they are learning rime patters/word families.

Book Talk # 1

Trino's Choice by Diane Gonzales Bertrand

CH. 8 & 9 in WK

BOOK
Likert Scales/ Semantic Differential Scales (Ch. 8 pg. 140, 141)

SWBS "offers students a framework as they create their summaries...decide who somebody is, what that somebody wanted, but what happened to keep something from happening and so finally, how everything works out." (Ch. 8 pg145)

"Text reformulation/ Story Recycling is a strategy in which students transform a text into another type of text..." (Ch. 8 pg 160)

Subtitle: Learning New Words (Ch. 9 pg 176)

Vocabulary Tree "has to do with how you teach root words." (Ch. 9 pg 188)

RESPONSE
This chapter began with two different types of scales, Likert scales and Semantic Differential Scales. When I saw the examples of each of these I really liked them. I think these would be great to use in the special education classroom. I think it would give them a starting point for making generalizations about characters and conflicts.

Throughout this whole chapter I think the SWBS strategy is my favorite. I think this is such a great strategy to use in the classroom. When I first read the acronym I was confused, however when I saw the examples, it made so much sense. I am currently observing in a classroom with seven autistic children. There is a fifth grade student and I think this strategy could really help her. I am going to try it out and see what happens.

When I read the introduction to text reformulation I immediately made a connection. As I read on to read exactly what it meant, I thought back to history class. The hardest subject for me to understand and remember is history. It is so boring to me with all the dates and different names to remember. In class when the teacher would be teaching, everything was going in one ear and out the other. I remember always leaving the class feeling frustrated and annoyed. When I would talk to my boyfriend, which is now my husband, he would put it into narrative form. He would tell it like a story and I found it so interesting. When the information was presented to me in this way I understood it. Unfortunately none of my history teachers ever taught this way.

Chapter 9 begins with a bold heading that says "Learning New Words". When I read the heading it reminded me of the literature festival I attended. During the morning session I learned about teaching students vocabulary. The speaker of this class was focusing on "Getting the Kids Actively Engaged". What she did was divide everyone into groups and each group had a vocabulary word. Some of the words were: ubiquitous, vapid, supine, fedora...At the end of the class we were going to take a vocabulary quiz and when I saw the words I thought to myself "How am I going to remember the meanings?" Each group had their word and were only allowed to use an action/gesture for their word. There was no talking when defining the word. When each group came up with an action/gesture, we went around the room and the group presenting their word said their word, everyone else repeated, they did the gesture and we followed, and then we all said the word again. Each group did this and by the end of the class, we all made 100's!

The vocabulary tree on page 189 was appealing. I have never seen anything like it. This was also another strategy I think would be beneficial in the classroom. As I have been reading about all the strategies I am beginning to feel deprived as a student. I never had anything like the things I am reading about to help me as a young learner. I wonder if I had had this, would I be a better reader, a better student???

CH 6 & 7 in WK

BOOK
"Probable Passage is a brief summary of a text from which key words have been omitted....after discussing what the words mean, students arrange the in categories according to their probable functions in the story..." (CH 6, pg. 87)

"...comprehension begins prior to reading and extends into discussions they have after they've finished reading." (CH 6, pg. 101)

"Dependent readers fail to see reading as an active process....what do you mean active? You sit. You stare. You turn pages. What's active about that?" (CH 7, pg 102)

"Say Something is a very simple strategy that interrupts a student's reading of a text, giving her a chance to think about what she read." (CH 7, pg 105)

RESPONSE
After reading this chapter I thought all of the strategies used would be great to use in the classroom. The anticipation guide and k-w-l both had its positives. However what I liked reading about most was Probable Passage and seeing an example in the book. I really like this strategy which is used for predicting activating prior knowledge, making inferences, etc. I liked reading about what the students were thinking while they placed the words in the correct category. I think this is a great strategy to use to help with predicting and getting the students' minds actively thinking. "It forces them to think about the characters, setting, problem...before they read the story."

This is something I have never really thought about. After I read this I realized how true that statement was. I think when most people think about comprehension they think about answering questions after reading a text, but comprehension beings before you even start reading.

I thought this was interesting because dependent readers really do think like that. It is hard to explain or teach to them that reading is an active process. I enjoyed reading Lavern's response to Ama and Karen. She was so amazed at what they did while they read.

The Say Something strategy reminded me of literature circles but smaller and quieter. I would want to use this strategy in my classroom and use this by grouping the students into groups of two. I think it would have the benefits of literature circles but in a smaller, individualized way.

CH. 4 & 5 in WK

BOOK
Chapter 4 as a whole

Chapter 5 as a whole & " He put down $10.oo at the window. The woman behind the window gave $4.00. The person next to him gave him $3.00, but he gave it back to her. So, when they went inside, she bought him a large bag of popcorn." (Ch 5. pg 62/63)
RESPONSE
After reading this chapter there wasn't specific things I connected to. What I enjoyed most about this chapter was watching, or reading, Kate teach two classes about a comprehension lesson using the book Eleven by Sandra Cisneros. I thought it was very interesting seeing how well she progressed from the first class to the last. I would agree with Kate that teaching things like comprehension to children can be very difficult. It can be a real challenge however I think Kate did a really good job teaching the lesson the second time. After reading this chapter I also thought of how beneficial it is to talk, discuss, and critique yourself with more experienced teachers. People learn from their mistakes but they also learn from others and the knowledge that they can bring.

Chapter five was another interesting chapter. When I think about teaching I don't think about how to teach comprehension, or think about inference. An inference would be hard to teach students if you don't have the appropriate knowledge of how to teach it. As you get older you tend to forget about the things you were taught because it is so natural in your world today. I really liked the paragraph used to get the students to "infer". Before I read on in the chapter I read this paragraph and tried to make inferences. As I read the two classes' response and what they came up with, I thought they had good imaginations. I think reading short paragraphs like these in the classroom everyday or once a week would be great to do. I think students would learn a lot about inferencing and as time passes it will become so natural for them.

Ch.2 & 3 in WK

BOOK
"...remember that anyone can struggle given the right text. The struggling isn't the issue; the issue is what the reader does when the text gets tough." (Ch. 2; p. 14)

"Not being able to read can mean a range of things, depending on the student's strengths and weaknesses." (Ch. 3; p. 24) "Teachers- not programs- are the critical element in a student's success." (Ch.3; p. 38)

RESPONSE
On pages 14 and 15 it described different struggling readers. I really liked reading about this because it is true. The "struggling reader" isn't just the person who sits slumped over in his/her seat or the one who sits at the back of the room. Anyone can struggle with a text. This is important for teachers and students to understand. I really liked the last part of this quote when it said the struggle isn't the issue; the issue is what the reader does when the text gets tough. This came to my attention on the fist day of class when I defined myself as a struggling reader and Dr. Saldana disagreed. I hadn't put thought to that or taken that perspective. Now I understand and agree. This chapter also mentioned teaching students to "struggle successfully with a text". I still think I struggle but I guess I struggle successfully.

Every student is different. What causes one student to not be a successful reader does not mean that same cause is why another student is not a successful reader. Every student has their own strengths and weakness which results in differentiated instruction. Teachers need to recognize their students as individuals. One method may work on one student but it may not work on another. Later in this chapter it mentions how the teachers, not programs are the critical element in a student's success. It can be very easy to get attached to this "high-tech/super advanced world" we live in today. Being a teacher is stressful and with it comes a lot of responsibility. It's easy just to put in a program and say "here, watch it and do this worksheet" or "take this computer test that says you have completed the phonics task for today and go back to your desk". The technology and programs can be great aids however the teacher above all is the most influential and is the one that can make an impact on a child's life.

Literature Circles

Through my experience with literature circles I feel this would be great to use in my classroom. I think it can be very beneficial to students and they would gain a lot in participating. The literature circle with my group went really well. I got a better understanding of what they are all about. I learned some things from my group members and if we were not sure what was going on or had a question, we were able to work together and come up with an answer. Literature circles should start as early as kindergarten and first grade. The more children are exposed to literature circles the more they will actively get involved in the book they are reading involuntarily. For older grades, sixth and seventh, literature circles can build up to something even deeper. As we read the article in our previous class it talked about the different roles students could play, for example: The Connector, the Vocabulary Enricher, and The Investigator. All of these “roles” are great for students and would help them see they are a big part of something. I think this would teach them responsibility. It will also help them in their upcoming school days because they will have more of an insight of what literature circles are all about. By having literature circles in my classroom, I would hope that my students would gain more knowledge about what they are reading, learn from their peers, become better readers, begin to think critically, expand their vocabulary, learn to work with other cooperatively with others, and so much more. Literature circles are a great tool to use in the classroom and would be very beneficial.

CH 2&3 in BK

BOOK
" Learning occurs when the individual is motivated and actively engaged in the experience;" (p.24)

"... describes a "Matthew effect" in reading achievment. Simply put, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer: Capable readers get to read more books and engage in reinforcing activities such as talking and writing about what they have read, while stuggling readers get a steady diet of skill instruction and few opportunities to actually read real books. The evidence suggests that it is the amount of reading that differentiates low-achieving students from high-achieving students." (p. 45)

RESPONSE
I think this is very important for teachers to remember. It is so obvious and simple however I think sometimes teachers forget about trying to get their students to be excited about learning. When a teacher sparks my interest or gets my attention in a unique way of whatever he/she is teaching about, I feel I learn a lot more. I also think teachers should teach in a way that is natural and goes with the flow. A good teacher is not defined as someone who follows the book or curriculum strictly and never gets off topic. A good teacher recognizes his/her students as unique individuals and teaches in way that fits all the individuals' needs. It is important to remember students learn from students.

This was a very interesting analogy and so true. I think the amount of reading a child is exposed to definately impacts thier reading achievement. Students who are exposed to a lot of reading have an advantage over those who have not been exposed to reading. They show to be high-achieving. This is unfortunate for the child who has not been as exposed but it goes to show what a great impact reading has on children and how important it is.

Ch. 14 in WK

BOOK
Chapter as a whole

"So, if I'm going to read, it like better be for a good reason, you know? Like to really teach you something. Not like a history book or anything." Quote by Carter, p. 283

Suggestion #2: Read and Tease ..."Stop your reading aloud at a particularly compelling point so they'll want to read on to find out what happens." p. 291

RESPONSE
As I began reading this chapter, I was surprised as to how much I was relating to the authors' and students' comments about reluctant readers. Reading is somewhat of a struggle for me so I would rather have a short book, a book with short chapters, or a book that I know will not take long to read. However on the contrary, what I want so badly is to love reading. I want to be the type of person who can't put their book down, a person who always reads.

I can relate to Carter's response in that if I have to read a book, I would rather read a book that was going to teach me something. I want a book that I can get something out of and learn. History books are the number one books I can not read. I do not like reading books on what happened 200 years ago. It goes in one ear and out of the other. On occasion when I do read, I tend to enjoy books that are motivating and inspirational/Christian.

Suggestion #2 has always been a good way to get me to read a book. When a teacher would start reading a book and then stop right before the really good part or held me in suspense, it made me want to rush home and find out what happened next.

CH. 1 in BK

BOOK
"... literacy is key to success in school and beyond for effective participation in the workforce, the community, and the body politic." (2)

"...it is poor and minority children who fail to succeed as readers, and their numbers are growing in our schools." (3)

"The diversity of students in public schools today does not support a "one size fits all" program of reading instruction..." (7)

"Taking the learner's perspective turns out to be good advice for researchers as well as for teachers." (17)

RESPONSE
Literacy is not just important in the classroom and in the school; it has a domino effect in a student's life. If a student does very well in reading it helps them in many areas such as vocabulary, critical thinking, etc. Literacy will help a student later on in his/her life.

Why is that?

Every student is different and learns in many different ways. This is so important for people, especially teachers, to understand. One method for teaching reading may work for one student but may not work for all the other students. Teachers should be able to provide appropriate instruction for ALL of his/her students.

In another class one of my professors shared with the class about what another teacher's experience while teaching. The teacher said when she would tell her class to write in their journals about their favorite food or dream vacation, etc... her students' writing was very poor. However, when she allowed them to write about what they wanted to write about, ex: dinosaurs, dragons, etc, their writing was much better. Sometimes teachers need to put themselves in their students shoes and see how they think about things and see what they would prefer if they were that age.

Double-Entry Journals: Lit Circles

Website
"1. Students choose their own reading materials."
http://www.literaturecircles.com/
"9. The teacher serves as a facilitator, not a group member or instructor."
www.literaturecircles.com
"Literature circles guide students to deeper understanding of what they read through structered discussion. . ."
http://www.litcircles.org/

Response
I like how the students get a choice in what they can read. I think students are more likely to participate and share in discussion when they read the books they choose. When students are given a specific book and told to read it, sometimes they have a negative attitude before they even start the book.

I like this statement because it gives students some freedom. If students know the teacher is going to do all of the talking then it is easy for them to sit back and keep quiet. The literature circles are based on the students response to what they have read. It is also comforting to know that if the group gets stuck, the teacher will be there to help spark a discussion.

When students read a passage in a book, each student may get something different out of it. When students share what they think about what they read or what they thought the author meant by a certain quote, everybody is learning off of each other. I think students learn more through thier peers. I think having this type of discussion will be very beneficial for all students.