Ca never have too much TALK!

In class last week we discussed how valueable talk is. Sometimes in classrooms I believe that talk gets looked over. Children should have the freedom to talk and discuss on topics they feel passionate about, of even topics they don't care about. Talk is a way to communicate that is differentiated. When students discuss and talk I believe it is the teacher's job to make sure that all the students feel comfortable and have equal opportunities to discuess. In Freedom Writers, the teacher let the students discuss things that were on their minds that portrayed to their personal lives. She listened while they talked. I think that this is what we as teachers forget, we need to sit back and listen to the students talk, because we can learn just as much from them as they can learn from us!

The Importance of Listening

I believe that listening is a key component not only of education, but of communication as well. As a teacher you should always listen to your student, and hope that your students listen to you in return. Listening branches off from respect. But, unfortunately listening is one of the most neglected of the 6 Language Arts (talking, reading, writing, listening, viewing, and visual representating).

Within listening there are four different types. These are discriminative, aesthic, efferent, and critical. I believe that on a personal level I exclude efferent listening, which is listening to gather information. We take listening for granted on a daily basis. A lot of times, we want to hear what we want to hear and don't listen to other's point of view. It sounds completely selfish, but it is true. I am trying to make myself more aware of what others are saying and COMPLETELY listen to them. Once I sit down and think about it, I want others to listen to me, s I should listen to others just the same.

There is a difference between listening and hearing. Hearing is when you just hear the sounds and words, but listening is actually processing the information and put it to use. People on a regular basis put the two in the same category and they are completely different.

Propaganda
I believe that this is effective if it is used in an appropriate way. When propaganda is used against others and in a cruel way I do not think it should be used.

Field Experiences

I have been observing Mrs. Kimball's class for the past few months at Wildwood Elementary School. I am so glad that I got to observe her class because she is a wonderful teacher. She adores her students and they love her too. She is always so pumped about teaching and it makes her students even more engaged in learning. She always makes lessons interesting and fun for the students. I have seen writing workshops and reading workshops as well. The students are always wanting to learn more and the class seems very organized. The students have worked on learning the writing process and publishing a piece of work. They have also worked on poems. With reading workshops they have worked on inferring and the author's message. I had a blast every time I was in this classroom, and she honestly made me want to be a teacher even more now.

This was an amazing experience and I enjoyed every second of it!

Give a Mouse a Cookie...

I decided on the book "Give a Mouse a Cookie" because it excites children and is very funny. There are a lot of things that the students could get from the book, this could be predicting what the mouse would do next, concluding what the author's message was, or even writing a new story from the young boy's point of view. The students could do a lot of hands on activities like do each of the activites the mouse did in real life, write down the sequence of their daily life, or even predict what the mouse would do next. This is a fun book and would be an exciting adventure for the class to go on.

I decided to do this book as a literature focus. I chose this because it is all I have seen done in my Reading Workshops that I observed. The teacher I observed does similar activies like I listed above. She would read one book and they would do author's message, infering and predicting, and point-of-views.

Being creative in the schools...

I have been observing a 2nd grade classroom for the past month and I have learned so much from the teacher. She makes learning fun for the students and is always so excited to teach. The last class I went to observe the students were getting ready for the "writing cafe". They had written poems in class and the following day they were to wear all black. The students were going to act out their poems for the class and pretend as if they were a cafe. The students were so excited and I even got a preshow. Everyone was having so much fun, and to think that these students were doing it while learning. I will use a lot of her techniques in my own classroom. Creativity is a key to a successful classroom!

Ms. Kimball's Class

I am observing a second grade class and I absolutely love the teacher I observe. She is not only an excellent teacher, but she is a great friend and role model for the students. I have been to her class during the reading and writing workshops. She is always there to guide their students, but she allows the students to do their own work at their own pace.

Reading Workshop: This was a workshop on inferring. She read aloud to the students and they had to listen for words that they didn't know. After the story was over she called on students to come up and write the words they didn't know. Then they had to use context clues, pictures, and their schema to gather a meaning of the word. And for each word she called on three different students to hear what their interpretation of the word was. Then after "circle time" they went into pairs. In the pairs they had to read to each other and while one was reading the other one had to come up with questions. The trick was that the questions had to be "burning questions". This allowed her the opportunity to observe each student individually.

Writing Workshop: During my visit she had the students write a poem on a topic of their choice. But, they had to use the 5W's, what, who, where, when, and why. Then after they wrote their poem they shared with the class.

This class is amazing because the energy is so high and the students are very well behaved. Each time I have been there the students did not sit at their desks and they were always moving around. And surprisingly they got their work done in a speedy manner and they were in an envirnoment that they personally feel comfortable in!

Write, Write, Write...

I have found throughout my years that writing has come to be a passion of mine. I enjoy free writing and expressing myself through it. I am a quiet person who hold a lot in and can let it all out on paper. As a teacher we have to understand that we will have many students like myself, who express themselves more through writing than any other way. It is important not to put limitations on writing in the classroom, but to give guidelines.

Blogging is a way a new form of journaling. The difference is blogging is usually not as private as a journal is, but is still very personal and informative. I love to blog, but I must admit I still keep a personal journal and that I write my private thoughts in that I will not share with anyone except the paper.

I am super excited to begin writing my book for EDU 300. I believe that my book is going to be about relationships and how they have transformed, grown, and even disappeared. I want it to be about how these personal relationships have shaped my life and allowed me to become who I am today!!

Delay in reading or writing...

Growing up I did not have a problem learning how to read and I loved to write. I give my parents all the credit for this, because they were constantly reading to me and putting a pencil in my hand. But, they did the same thing to my brother and it didn't come as easy. He didn't enjoy reading or writing and because of that he was weak in those subjects. But, I believe that it was because of his teacher's awareness of this and giving my extra help and tutoring that allowed him to experience reading in a new way. All children learn differently and at different speeds. My mother was terrified when she found out that my brother couldn't read as well and I did when I was his age, but the teachers reassured her that he was going to be okay.

You see as a teacher it is my responsibility to understand each student and their abilities and how much they can be pushed. All students are going to learn differently and at different speeds just like my brother. The key component to teaching a lower level learner how to read and write is patience and trial and error. Parents are key in teaching their child how to read and write, but it is my responsibility to build upon what they already (or in some cases don't already) know. I want all my students to be able to read and write well, but more importantly I know all my students want that for themselves and I will do everything in my power to make that possible.

Personal Experiences

Many times I sit and wonder how am I, one person, going to be able to teach 25 individuals. It freaks me out at times because I am afraid I won't be able to conquer the goals and I will be a failure. But then I remember how my teachers were able to meet all the needs for me to be a successful student. And it all began with Language Arts. We had to be able to talk, read, and write before we could do anything else. It is a necessity in life!

I learned to read by phonics and how to sound out words. My teacher constantly worked with us on sounding out words using the consonants as the hard sound and then always followed by a rhyming ending. For example, cat, hat, pat, and bat. Once we knew the rhyming we could move on to bigger words. It is all about learning in phases. I just remembered being pushed and pushed until I knew how to sound out words until I was able to recognize the "whole language" and read the words without sounding them out. Can we now read from memory or from sounding it out still...or a little bit of both? It is so amazing how once someone is taught how to read and write they can never degress. It may become more complex, but it will always be needed.

I will learn from my teachers examples and use all the tools that they gave me growing up to teach others how to read, write, and talk. I also I have to take into consideration that not all students will learn at the same pace or by the same technique. It is going to take a lot of practice and tons of patience. But, I consider myself a great person for the job!

The Reading Process

I have never thought about it before until I learned about it in class last week, but there are two ways to interpret reading. There is efferent and aesthetic reading. Efferent reading is when one reads for content only. And aesthetic reading is the way one reacts to what they read and form their own opinions and ideas about what he/she reads. Since I seem to lean towards the aesthetic side, it is hard for me to understand and comprehend efferent reading. I am trying to learn about it and comprehend it because I know in the future I will probably have students who will learn and read in that particular style.

The process of reading is so much more important than people realize. Students can't just jump into a book without having previous knowledge, more in depth knowledge, and post knowledge about what they are reading. And that is where I get to step in and teach them what they need to know!
--> The prereading stage consist of going through the book and looking at the pictures, the title and author, and even reading the back of the book. The teacher may also provide extra information on what they are reading, so they will have knowledge prior to what they are reading. This helps the student to understand what they are reading (or listening) to.
--> The reading stage is very straight forward. It is how the book is read. This could be by themselves or listening in a group as the teacher reads aloud.
--> The third stage is responding. This is when the students respond to the book. This could be alone, with a buddy, or even in a large group. It is to tell others (or themselves) how they felt about the book and the main ideas from the book.
--> Exploring is the fourth stage, which is when they reread the book (or at least part of the book) to explore deep thoughts about what the author was trying to express. This is important for students because it allows them to think in ways that they may not have ever been exposed to before.
--> Applyer is the last stage and this is where they use an activity to apply what they have learned from the book to their everyday life!

There are also four areas that need to be exposed for capable readers. This includes word identifications, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
-->Word Identifications are words that students should recognize automatically. These are words that they should site and know and should not have to sound them out.
--> Fluency depends on the reading speed, word recognition, and then expression in the voice of the student.
--> Vocabulary is extremely important because it is constantly being built. The best way to build ones vocabulary skills is by reading.
--> Comprehension is to use strategies before, during, and after reading in order to understand the text.

Lastly, there are different ways that students can participate in reading. These include reading and writing workshops, thematic units, and literature circles.

Woo, does this seem overwhelming to you, well it sure does to me. Reading is a huge thing that everyone has to have to function on a daily basis, but it is a lot of work that a teacher has to put in to making these students successful. But, that is what I am learning how to do and quit frankly I can't wait--> it will be rewarding to be just like it will be rewarding to them in the end!

Back to School...

I am a student at Meredith College who can not wait to be a teacher! As I enter my first day of classes I wonder how the children of our future must feel when they enter school after a glorious Winter Break. As students are learning about reading, writing, science, and mathematics, I am learning about how to teach these students Language Arts.

How much is Language Arts used in the classroom. Lets think about this, Language Arts is used in reading and writing. It brings in imagination for all ages. Language Arts is used as early as kindergarten and continues until...well beyond college.

Language Arts covers a wide array of what we take advantage of every single day. There are six Language Arts that I will be responsible for making sure students know. The six consist of listening, talking, reading, writing, viewing, and visually representing. You see I learned these at an early age and then I took advantage of knowing them.

Out of the six, two of them are often neglected in schools. These two are listening and talking. But, these two are so important. Listening consist of three sub-categories. Aesthetic is emotional response, efferent is focused on information to be learned, and critical is comparisions of facts versus opinions. Reading is also very important because we have to be able to read to survive. There is independent reading, shared reading, guided reading, buddy reading, and the read-a-louds. Writing is also another must in Language Arts and as teachers we have to remember that spelling and writing always count! The stages of writing are pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing. Commericials and billboards are also extremely important. As a teacher I have to teach children these things and how to do it on their own. The most newly added categories are Viewing and Visual Representing.

It is now so obvious how important Language Arts is and how I have a huge job ahead of me, but I am more than excited!