Chapter 8 from Tompkins emphasizes the importance in students’ reading comprehension strategies. From the twelve comprehension strategies, I value the importance in connecting comprehension strategy. In my kindergarten classroom, the students are still learning to read in which the CT has to read the text out loud for them. The CT reads the story couple times with the class before she asks the students to make connections. The process takes more than a day, and by reading the same story repeatedly to the students, they are able to inherently comprehend the story. Sometimes, the students memorize the entire story from numerous repetitions in which some of the students find it boring to read a same story over and over again. However, I believe the habit of reading a story repeatedly helps students with comprehension since the more you read, the more things you realize from the story.
When the CT decides to transfer students’ comprehension of the text into creating their own story through text-to-self connection, the CT asks the students to pay special attentions to a specific moment that she had previously depicted from the text when she planned her lesson. Most of the times, the specific moment chosen by the CT has to do with students’ daily experiences. Through this activity, the CT can make observations on the process of students’ comprehension level along with their writing and visualization skills from the created stories.
Renee and I have planned our literacy lesson plan in having students make text-to-self connection on a chosen text by the CT. Hope students can still make connections when we plan to read only once through the entire text.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Comprehension
I really enjoyed reading this chapter. Comprehension is really what reading is all about, and I think that as teachers it is imperative that we monitor to ensure our students are understanding what they are reading. Being in a first grade classroom, I observe every time I go read with some of the students that don't often understand what they read. I liked how in chapter 8 there are several tables throughout and they really provide a lot of good strategies as well explain them in great detail. I really like the strategy of repairing. I think that evey chance we can take to put the children in control of their learning, the more likely they are to respond to the task. Repairing puts the reader in control and has them figure out what they are struggling with. I really think this is so much better than having us the teacher try and figure out where our studetns are getting confused. I also really like Setting a Purpose. If we have our students set the guidelines for what they want to learn, chances are they will be more motivated because they are striving for what it is they want to know. Overall I really see this chapter being a huge help when it comes to teaching Comprehension and really spells out different ways we can teach our students
Monday, February 8, 2010
Talk Talk
Being in a first grade classroom it is difficult because most classroom discussions are simply blurt out. In Chapter 2 it talked about how collaborative efforts among students can produce better answers, but to me, this is something that wouldn't work for younger kids. Whenever the students in my class work together the only thing that gets accomplished is the class gets off task. I do however, see the benefits of this in older grades. I loved the idea of after giving instructions, have one of the students recite them and write them on the board. This helps the students have one of their peers explain to their classmates and then it might be easier for them to understand.
I also think that the Teacher Guided Reporting could be a helpful tool to put in the teacher toolbox. I think that by doing this it helps mapout how you want a discussion to go, yet with the commentary column gives the flexibility to tinker to what the student needs.
Being in a first grade class, I have observed that the teacher tries to get all the students involved, but this can lead to a slew of headaches. As hard as you try to keep the students on track, there are always a handful of students who raise their hands to tell you what they did the past weekend. This is extremely hard to deal with because it easily takes the whole class off track. This also leads to only the students we know traditionally have the correct answer on more often. There has to be a balance of how to handle this, but I do fully understand how difficult it would be to combat this tendency, even though it it completely necessary.
I also think that the Teacher Guided Reporting could be a helpful tool to put in the teacher toolbox. I think that by doing this it helps mapout how you want a discussion to go, yet with the commentary column gives the flexibility to tinker to what the student needs.
Being in a first grade class, I have observed that the teacher tries to get all the students involved, but this can lead to a slew of headaches. As hard as you try to keep the students on track, there are always a handful of students who raise their hands to tell you what they did the past weekend. This is extremely hard to deal with because it easily takes the whole class off track. This also leads to only the students we know traditionally have the correct answer on more often. There has to be a balance of how to handle this, but I do fully understand how difficult it would be to combat this tendency, even though it it completely necessary.
Talk Talk Talk
Discourse in my 5th grade classroom usually takes one of two forms:
The first is slightly trivial, taking the form of bickering and full-out arguing between students and students or students and teacher, but I do include it as a form of discourse because it takes up a massive amount of daily time. In fact, I would guesstimate that a good 70% of verbal interaction between everyone in the classroom is in the form of a complaint or argument. I therefore think it should be considered when evaluating the type of talk and learning that goes on in the room.
The second is presented in the proverbial IRE recitation style (Inquiry by the teacher, Response by the student, Evaluation by the teacher). Unfortunately, for both my boredom level and the attention span of the children, classroom discussion is seldom practiced. It is quite the shame that most children get reprimanded with talking out of turn more than they are encouraged to speak their reactions to course material. On the other hand, however, I understand the teacher's dilemma in maintaining control of her 33 10-year-olds.
My questions still remains: how on earth do we lead a discussion, interact with students on the minimum, and still maintain a learning atmosphere that never deviates from the desired topic?
The first is slightly trivial, taking the form of bickering and full-out arguing between students and students or students and teacher, but I do include it as a form of discourse because it takes up a massive amount of daily time. In fact, I would guesstimate that a good 70% of verbal interaction between everyone in the classroom is in the form of a complaint or argument. I therefore think it should be considered when evaluating the type of talk and learning that goes on in the room.
The second is presented in the proverbial IRE recitation style (Inquiry by the teacher, Response by the student, Evaluation by the teacher). Unfortunately, for both my boredom level and the attention span of the children, classroom discussion is seldom practiced. It is quite the shame that most children get reprimanded with talking out of turn more than they are encouraged to speak their reactions to course material. On the other hand, however, I understand the teacher's dilemma in maintaining control of her 33 10-year-olds.
My questions still remains: how on earth do we lead a discussion, interact with students on the minimum, and still maintain a learning atmosphere that never deviates from the desired topic?
Different Types of Talk
I have observed various forms of talk in my classroom. Every morning my CT or one of the 402 students reads a book to the class. After the book is read students have the opportunity to ask a question or say a comment. The students are allowed to say whatever they want and my CT does not facilitate any discussion questions herself.
Another type of talk I have observed is when the students do their morning journal on Monday's they brainstorm ideas as a class and my CT writes them on the board. This helps students who may have a hard time remembering what they did the previous week. This also lets those students who actively always want to participate to have a productive way to participate in class.
There are a few students in the class that have a problem with blurting out. These students need to be scaffold on how to participate productively in a conversation. There are also a few students who are ESL learners. You can not tell by listening to some of them speak but it is more evident in reading.
Another type of talk I have observed is when the students do their morning journal on Monday's they brainstorm ideas as a class and my CT writes them on the board. This helps students who may have a hard time remembering what they did the previous week. This also lets those students who actively always want to participate to have a productive way to participate in class.
There are a few students in the class that have a problem with blurting out. These students need to be scaffold on how to participate productively in a conversation. There are also a few students who are ESL learners. You can not tell by listening to some of them speak but it is more evident in reading.
Types of Talk
What types of talk are you seeing in your classroom? What scaffolding is needed for response-centered talk to take place? Are there students in your classroom who need particular types of scaffolding?
I am in a second grade classroom at Averill Elementary, and I see many of the 'types of talk' described in the Gibbons reading. Most commonly, I see the IRE model of classroom discussion. The reading suggests that IRE might not be the most sucessful way for students to pick up language, but my CT addresses some of these issues including allowing students to input more on the given topic. When she asks questions, she allows all of the students who want to answer an opportunity to give their opinion. She doesn't immediately give them feedback, she allows them to explore their thoughts and build off of what the other students have shared.
Another talk type that gibbons suggests using is group work. This is not something I have seen a lot of during my placement, but the advantages mentioned seem worth while. I want to plan my lessons around the idea of having the students work in groups. Some of the benefits include; hearing more language, interacting with other students, the language that is used is contextualized, and students are exposed to different uses of language.
I am in a second grade classroom at Averill Elementary, and I see many of the 'types of talk' described in the Gibbons reading. Most commonly, I see the IRE model of classroom discussion. The reading suggests that IRE might not be the most sucessful way for students to pick up language, but my CT addresses some of these issues including allowing students to input more on the given topic. When she asks questions, she allows all of the students who want to answer an opportunity to give their opinion. She doesn't immediately give them feedback, she allows them to explore their thoughts and build off of what the other students have shared.
Another talk type that gibbons suggests using is group work. This is not something I have seen a lot of during my placement, but the advantages mentioned seem worth while. I want to plan my lessons around the idea of having the students work in groups. Some of the benefits include; hearing more language, interacting with other students, the language that is used is contextualized, and students are exposed to different uses of language.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Type of Talk
There are minimal discussions present in our kindergarten classroom. However, I have observed CT ask questions regarding comprehension of the book in form of recitation than discussion, which the differences are mentioned in Almasi’s reading, “A New View of Discussion.” I understand why CT is only providing simple answer questions, and that is due to the importance in practicing to understand the concepts of comprehension before the students can lead their own opinionated discussions in a classroom.
Not all students think the same and have the same answers to the given questions in which some of the students need in depth instructional scaffolds for equivalent understandings of the texts. In our kindergarten classroom, students are eager to answer all the questions asked whether they know the answer or not. When the students don’t have the correct answers to the questions of the readings, the teacher still provides extra time for them to rethink about the text and the question so they can make connections themselves. However, not all students can do the thinking alone in which the teacher asks sub-questions that can lead students to think again within the primary question.
Not all students think the same and have the same answers to the given questions in which some of the students need in depth instructional scaffolds for equivalent understandings of the texts. In our kindergarten classroom, students are eager to answer all the questions asked whether they know the answer or not. When the students don’t have the correct answers to the questions of the readings, the teacher still provides extra time for them to rethink about the text and the question so they can make connections themselves. However, not all students can do the thinking alone in which the teacher asks sub-questions that can lead students to think again within the primary question.
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