Learning to Write

Learning to write is hard for me to remember. I remember the early years of learning how to form letters using workbooks and coloring assignments, and I remember learning how to write in cursive in the second grade. But the writing process is another story, I don’t ever remember learning how to put sentences together, what to include, and how to tie them together. In upper elementary school and middle school, I know we learned how to write essays and how to improve our paragraphs, but before that I do not remember specific instruction on how to write. I do not see much writing instruction while I am at my placement. Most of the time is spent focusing on reading comprehension and fluency or spelling. I would be interested to find out how students develop their writing schools, and what most programs are lacking (instruction wise) currently.

Language Arts Lesson Plan

I taught my language arts lesson plan on the book The Diggers. Originally I was planning on using the book Tar Beach, but after input from my C.T. decided on The Diggers. What was interesting about this book is that it begins as a story about things that dig; animals, people, and machines. But then develops into a story about a man and a goal he has. It was interesting to get input from the students about what they liked about the story as well as their predictions. After our discussion I had the students fill out sheets that asked them to tell one thing that happened in the beginning of the story, one thing that happened in the middle of the story, one thing that happened at the end of the story, as well as their favorite part of the story. It was hard to get the second graders to ask questions and have a strong discussion, but looking at their work really helped me see who understood and paid attention to the story. It was also a helpful assessment for seeing their writing skills. I was a little surprised to see that second graders were still having trouble making complete sentences. I saw many answers without capital letters or punctuation. All in all I think that the lesson was successful. The students had to remember the story, discuss what they thought, and recall information in order to write about the story.

Study Student and Literacy

I have been seeing unusual behavior from my study student lately. It seems that her reading fluency is getting worse as the year goes on. My C.T. has noticed this as well, and is not sure what exactly is causing it. The student might be held back this year so that she can improve her literacy skills. I do not know what the right choice would be, but as of now she loves school and is one of the students who actually does all of their work. I find her reading books for outside of class during free time, and taking an interest in reading and writing. So I wonder how is it that her reading skills seem to be getting worse? Have any of you had any experiences like this?

Language Arts Lesson

Renee and I had successfully completed our language arts lesson on The Snowy Day. It was a great experience for the students to relate their own experiences of snow day to the story of the book. During our lesson, I was surprised to know how well students could generate questions; especially, when it was their first time coming up with a question on their own based on the reading we did together, The Snowy Day. The CT was surprised as well in hearing all the great questions from the students. Moreover, the students who were listening to the question paid full attention and even raised their hands to answer their classmate’s question. These behaviors are favored and expected from students when the CT asks students with questions. Students forming questions suited very well to our lesson since we had prepared questions from the book to ask the students for enhancing comprehension of the text. The transition of having students ask questions after ours, it became somewhat easier for the students to come up on their own.

Students also worked on three-part story as an assessment after reading The Snowy Day as a class in which they did drawings and a little bit of writing about a story of activities they do during snow days similar to what Peter does in the book. Students were able to work on this assessment without a problem since it was a familiar activity they usually did in class with the CT. However, there were many stories of same drawings on all three pages or less details drawn to tell what the story of their snow day was about. Through assessments, I realized how students still needed to work on expanding their vocabularies for writing and including details for the drawings.

Overall, I felt good about how much the students have progressed since the beginning of the year.

Learning to Write

I can barely remember how I learned to write, but I do remember there were many tracing and reading. In elementary school (back in Korea), we had notebooks where letters were lightly written for students to trace over in practice of neat handwritings and directionality of each letters. In addition, there were journals to be written over the weekends with drawings explaining how I spent my weekend; and “neat handwriting” and “book report” competitions for each grade where everyone had to mandatorily participate. In order to win and be acknowledged, we had to read many books and practice creative writings outside of school to grab the readers’ attentions since I had to compete against 250 students in our grade. Competitions were a big deal for the parents and the school; hence it could not be ignored but practiced. Therefore, I don’t remember having an exciting moment of learning to read and write when I started learning to write.

When I began to learn English and was asked to write (end of 6th grade), it was the hardest experience in my school years. I had trouble reading in English in which led to challenges in writing. Grammatically, my sentences did not make sense and I could not get my thoughts expressed due to limited vocabularies. Gradually, writing skills developed and is still being developed due to engaging and fun activities introduced in American schools compared to my experiences in Korean elementary school. However, writing is still one of my biggest challenges.

Self Reflection Journal Entry

Over the course of the semester, our blogging group has touched on discipline of children quite a bit and been able to bounce ideas off of one another about how to implement that aspect into our classroom. In conjunction with that, we have spent a lot of time talking about how to generate a genuine, learning-filled discussion outside of the recitation-type that we know so well. In addition, we have spent ample time on how our experiences relate to how we teach and what that means for our future classrooms. It is an enlightening topic to address because we will be faced with a very real classroom next year, in which we have to come up with ideas and balance what we know in our heads with what is before us in the room.

The group does a really great job of challenging one another on certain aspects of the topics on which we’ve written; indeed, it is not uncommon for us to specifically identify a question or challenge for the other peers and give them something to really chew on. I am never disappointed in not being challenged with this group, and I take what my fellow teachers have to say to heart. I, too, try to make it a point to challenge deep thinking and further connections in the ideas being discussed because I really do care about expanding the knowledge of my peers.

Overall, I think that our group greatly benefited from the blog and would reward us with an A for all of our hard work and genuine comments that result in genuine learning.

Tompkins Chapter 2: Reading and Writing Processes

Reading and writing are genuinely related in which a development in reading can also lead to development in writing and vice versa. Hence, it is important for teachers to introduce appropriate processes for both reading and writing as mentioned in the chapter. Also a nice chart on page 66 demonstrates the comparison of the two and how similar they are within different stages. Reading and writing contains several stages of processes in which students can effectively comprehend texts and creatively write. Moreover, the stages have bullet points explaining what needs to be understood by the students to become fluent readers and writers.

The students in the kindergarten classrooms are always reading and writing. Books our CT reads to the class are not always new, there are more times when she reads a same book for several days and works around a book in doing activities. Having students do activities and assessments on a book, they experience more reading and writing related to a single topic in which develops their comprehension and creativity in coming up with more ideas for writing. In addition, the CT’s strategies of working around a book relates to some of the different stages that are listed on Tompkin’s chapter on pages 43 and 52 but in level of kindergarteners.

Tompkins Chapter 7: Knowledge of Words

I have wondered what words were supposed to be up on the word wall, but reading this chapter answered some of my questions regarding which words should be studied and recognized for the students. I believe reading is a great tool of interacting students with unfamiliar words. Hence, a list of unknown words should be listed on the word wall as a class, and use them to go back and understand when more of the same words shows up in other readings or is needed for spelling when used in writings. It is important for the teachers to explicitly teach the meaning and usage of the unknown words since there may be students (perhaps, English language learning students) needing more explanations and examples compared to other students. Moreover, new learned words should be repeated several times for internal learning on meanings of words for the students to truly own them.

It is important to learn words chosen by the teachers when reading, but it is also important for students to be able to recognize unknown words when reading and decide to look them up rather than skip them. Continuous exercise of word learning strategies (using text clues, analyzing word parts, and checking a dictionary) will support students’ word consciousness by developing their vocabularies.

Tompkins Ch 7

Man, whew. That was my first reaction to this chapter. I remember learning spelling words in grade school and how difficult it was to remember all the different meanings to words, and reading this chapter brought back that exhaustion. Being in a first grade class I have seen this being such a struggle for the students. I talked to my CT about some of the ways she approaches this challenge. She told me a huge key is to introduce each meaning and word at a separate time. For example, introducing two and to and too the kids learn better and understand when they are introduced one week at a time. Having them work with each word for a full week alone helps cement it and they learn it. However, there will still be confusion and at times you have to deal with it numerous times. Being in lower grades also, it is often that you will get hung up on the Unknow Word and Initial Recognition. The biggest goal is to help them get as close to the Parital Word Knowledge as possible. Being in upper elementary next year, I will make sure to keep in mind the struggles can transfer up to the higher grades as well. Just another reason to keep this book close next year and beyond =)

Tompkins Ch 2

The Reading and Writing Process is so vital and I sometimes feel overwhelmed when I think about teaching it, but this chapter as well my project helped alleviate some of the stress. A really great part of the chapter was the portion about Online Publication Sites. I think that this is a great way to get students confident and comfortable with their writing. When I was in grade school the local paper would publish Kids Korner which was all local elementary school kids' writing. Everyone loved seeing their writing in the paper, and I rememeber it forcing us to also take great pride and make sure we had little to no errors in our writing.

I have tried to work with my study student on writing and showing him different ways to spell words he doesn't know. The case for not just him but all the students in my class, they just ask myself or CT. I have ran into problems with the process of sounding the word out with him because he struggles so badly with letter sounds. When we work together, we work on the very basic phonetic awareness and I try to sprinkle writing in when I can. He is a great artist so I encourage him to draw first and then write. Another technique that I use is have him write what he can and just spell how he would, then go back and have him read aloud to me what he wrote and write it down and then go back and show him the words he struggles with.

April 6 - Tompkins, Chapter 2, Teaching the Reading and Writing Processes

Prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing strategies are all incorporated into the writing process as different steps to developing a written piece of literature. Tompkins p. 61 explains the incorporation like this: “students use these writing strategies purposefully as they draft and refine their writing.” Skills that are used include content, word, sentence, grammar, and mechanical. These may be applied in think-alouds and reflected in rubrics provided by the administrator.

The writing process is a fabulous tool for effective teaching of reading and writing because it incorporates Tompkins’s principles 3-8: creating a community of learners (by feedback from teacher and peer), adopting a balanced approach to instruction (by focusing on each step of the writing process), scaffolding students’ reading and writing (each grade level can apply more polished pieces of writing than the others as specific content goals are outlined in each level), organizing for literacy instruction (the steps are so easy to follow!), linking instruction and assessment (rubrics are essential), and partnering teachers with parents (by encouraging them to take part in the writing process and be interested in the final product of the literacy).

Some of the strengths of the process include that it is very intricate, many adaptations can be made to meet the needs of any group of students, and tons of reading and writing aspects are touched upon and mastered. Weaknesses, though, include that it is extremely time-consuming for one project. Students may also get tired or bored of the same content being discussed over and over.

March 30 - Tompkins, Chapter 7, Expanding Students’ Knowledge of Words & My Study Student

I love the concept of incidental word learning; I think that understanding it is a huge step to how we as teachers can form realistic expectations for our students and use it in a classroom. Encouraging students to read on their own time and at their own levels by setting time aside in school is also so beneficial in their development of language as well as a classroom community. When my 5th graders Drop Everything And Read, for example, I take note of who is reading what, and then ask them about it later so that they can get excited about what they are reading and practice comprehension simultaneously.Specifically, my study student’s thirst for stories and knowledge enable him to have the motivation to continue reading. I see it daily as he talks unabashedly about his books and what he is learning, and I can see it play out in the classroom because he is a more mature 10-year-old and does indeed have a larger vocabulary.

This topic also reminds me of the video we watched in class about the teacher who had a year-long project called the “word wall.” The concept was used to help younger students with recognizing words, and created a sense of pride in how much they had learned since the beginning of the year (it was something very tangible to see). Not only did the word wall consist of new words, though, they were words that the students worked on weekly and could recognize through repetition and mastery. I would love to incorporate something to that affect in a classroom one day.

Learing to Write

I actually vividly remember learning to read and write when I was in elementary school. I used to get frustrated and embarrassed when we had our book groups (even though my mother was one of the volunteers) because my dyslexia worked so that it took me forever to decode words. I had to learn to read by site rather than decoding much faster than the rest of my peers. Beyond that, though, writing was quite fun for me. Before I knew script or letters, I would make-believe that I was a teacher, writing on a tiny chalkboard (scribbles), teaching my dolls. While in school, I remember having the hardest time with some letters – Y’s and K’s were always backwards, and I could never remember which side of the page to start with (dyslexia, again).

I remember the first long-story I wrote, though. In Mrs. Wernholm’s class in 4th grade, our assignment was to go through the writing process – come up with an idea about a story (our topic had to be animals and myths), write a rough draft, edit someone else’s paper, re-write our own, then draw pictures representing the story and bind the final product in book-form. My story was called, “How the Leopard Got Its Spots.” Something happened where paint got dumped on one leopard, and the rest of his friends wanted to be like him, too.

Language Arts Lesson

I taught my lesson the other day and was SO SURPRISED at the outcome of the discussion and the things the students had to say. I’m used to a classroom without any boundaries – kids getting up and walking out of class when they feel like it, refusing to do class work, fights breaking out, cigarettes being found, suspensions given out – but not this day. I took over their normal reading time, which is usually comprised of reading a story from a textbook silently, then out loud as a class – tedious and boring when it’s the routine every single day. I chose to read a book called “Feathers and Fools,” a fable about two groups of birds who declare war on each other and ultimately leave the habitat desolated, only because of fear and ignorance of the other group. The students were riveted by the story when I read it out loud, and attentive and responsive when I asked them to discuss certain factors of the story. I was able to relate the book to personal life in asking them if they had ever acted wrongly out of fear – to which they admitted! – and then we brainstormed as a class what we could learn from the lesson and how we could implement it in our own lives.

The facilitation part of the lesson did not go as smoothly as I wanted it to - I was hoping for a genuine discussion, with students responding to each other, but they had never experienced that sort of group-talk, so they usually waited for me to evaluate each idea and statement, at which point I had to call on the next raised-hand. I felt really great about the discussion in general, though, and I think it was a huge step in reading and comprehension.

Study Student and Comprehension

My study student is so far behind that comprehension is very difficult to get at. He is so used to not knowing how to solve a problem or get an answer that"I don't know" is his answer for everything, even when he does know. I have seen that if you stay away from the worksheet questions and try to create some that are catered specifically to him that there is some, albeit not much, progress shown.

Being so far behind, the books we read together are simple books that are three to four word sentences on a page. These are hard books to test comprehension on, and ask questions so I have tried to quiz him on the books that he listens to. This also provides a challenge because he is so used to throwing the I don't know card, he uses it all the time. I have seemed to be able to get him to talk about the books that he really enjoys, but it is hard to continuously use those books, as they are not of great substance.

Early Writing Lessons

The biggest memory I have of learning how to write, is the lined paper that had the the dots in the middle of each line to teach me how far to go up for lower case and upper case letters. I also remember writing my name 100 times for practice in first grade. I also remember in kindergarten coloring letter people and making simple words with them. My most prominent memory of learning to write would consist of journals in second grade. We had to keep a daily journal, and funny enough I found it a couple of years ago and it provided a great laugh. I think that daily journals are a great tool for a multitude of reasons, such as students expressing themselves, practice of writing, and also learning how to put thoughts together in a well thought out plan.

I know for my students, daily journals will be a staple in the classroom, but I suppose nowadays blogs are the way to go.

Language Arts Lesson

For my Language Arts Lesson I used the great book Puff and the Magic Dragon. The students weren't familiar with it, which made me feel old, but was good too because they were excited and interested throughout the book. They asked many great questions, and we had a great talk about what exactly imagination was and how we use it. The activity portion of my lesson was a writing prompt titled My Adventure With Puff. The kids loved this and wrote some funny and entertaining stories. There were also heart warming stories, such as one girl who would ride Puff to Texas to see the family she never sees anymore. I also had drawing paper ready for the students who got stuck with their writing or finished early. These pictures were great. I am going to put them all together and make a "Mrs. Strouse's First Graders Puff Story" for their classroom.

Comprehension with study student

During small group readings I have been focusing on comprehension questions at the end. I have noticed that a lot of my students like to read the stories, but they only focus on the part that they are reading. While it is important to be able to read your part, it is also important to get the bigger meaning of the text. There are comprehension questions at the end, but I found it more engaging to ask questions of my own.

I started asking my own questions, and found that it was more successful. Students knew that I was going to call on them randomly, so they had to pay attention to the whole story. I also found that if we just had a free conversation about it after, I could see what the students comprehended and then ask questions going off of what they couldn't remember.

Learning to write

When I was thinking about how I learned to write, the first thing that came to my mind was learning cursive. I don't really remember that much about learning how to write print. I remember writing lots and lots of worksheets. Writing the cursive letters over and over again until I had it right. I remember writing out sentences and using cursive to write my name. I remember learning that it was important to write your name in cursive because that was called a signature.

When it came time learning to write stories, I remember learning to draw a picture first, and then start to write the story. I remember I had a hard time starting to write because I was and still am a horrible speller! I can recall having a picture making it easier to think of things to say. These struggles might have been overcome by being told that spelling didn't matter, it was more important to get the ideas out.

Language Arts Lesson

My language arts lesson that I did was on the book "The Empty Pot". This book took place in China and was about young children and their journey to become Emperor. The Emperor gave each child a seed and told them that the next Emperor would be who ever had the biggest and more beautiful flower. However the Emperor had cooked all of the seeds so none of them grew. But other children switched their seeds and brought back a flower, all expect Ping. Ping demonstrated integrity and honesty and became the next Emperor. After I read this book with my students I had them talk about why it is important to be honest. I had them think of times when they did something and didn't want to tell the truth, but then they did. I had them talk about how it made them feel and if they would tell the truth again. I had them brainstorm different situations where you would tell the truth and why it was important.

My class had never had a class discussion before so there was a lot of facilitation from me, but I think it was a success. The children were really into the book, and took away the message from the book and the lesson.

Comprehension Process

In chapter 8 of Tompkins it talked about facilitating student's comprehension. It listed a few strategies: activating background knowledge, connecting, determining importance, drawing inferences, evaluating, monitoring, predicting, questioning, repairing, setting a purpose, summarizing, and, visualizing. One of the strategies I find to be the most helpful for myself and for students is activating background knowledge. Students often bring what they know to what they are learning. If they are able to relate something to something they have already learned or done then there is more likely to be a connection. The chapter states "the more background knowledge and prior experiences readers have about a topic, the more likely they are to successfully comprehend what they're reading. This will help students fill in the gaps of what they are missing. Making connections also helps students see how how subjects in school can relate to things of their interest.

-Jen

Self-Assessment Noteblog Entry

Over the course of the semester, these blogs have been... well... for lack of a better word, taxing. While blogging about the readings themselves and connecting them to my own experiences has been worthwhile and helpful, I find the organization of the blog quite unorganized. I have trouble keeping up when we are supposed to blog and on what; to that affect, the blog assignment itself is somewhat ambiguous.

As for the quality of my own blogs, however, I believe that I have put much thought into each and every one of the write-ups I do, connecting them to my field experiences and looking for ways to put what I learn here into practice. Specifically, my thoughts and responses to others' blogs has changed the most over time. I am now learning how to question and challenge my peers, as well as provide relative examples to their thoughts, rather than simply agree and restate their ideas. For these reason, I think that I should receive an "A" on this blogging assignment. I do not take it lightly, as I truly believe that our work in the field is the greatest experience that we have in learning how to teach (books and articles can only go so far...).