Genre

Out of all the readings this week the idea that interested me most was Routman's talk about genre. I was taught (as I am sure many of us were) about each genre in isolation, learning all the characteristics of the genre and writing to fit them. I really like how Routman in Ch. 8 talked about just teaching good writing and the different genres would happen more naturally. She also mentions that as teachers, we need to nurture students and give them what they need in terms of writing. If a student feels she needs to express herself with a poem, that would be a good moment to give her a mini-lesson about poems. In Writing Essentials, Routman said that, "The purpose for writing determines the genre or form the writing takes, not the other way around" (194). I completely agree! I have seen it done the other way around and seen kids struggle through an assignment just to get it done. They had no investment in the assignment whatsoever. I think the important point to take away here is that all we need to do is teach good writing and the rest will follow.

Grading Writing

In Elbow he mentioned that not every writing assignment has to be graded and Routman pointed out that like reading, becoming a good writer takes practice. I think these two ideas go hand-in-hand. Grading everything students ever write is not only time consuming for the teacher, but also sends a message to the students that they need approval.

I think that writing workshop (or something similar) is a great way to integrate writing time into the classroom. I feel that writing is usually done in spurts and are usually fairly substantial assignments. Writing every day is the only way that students will become better writers. This also means that students need to be free to write about whatever they want. That's not to say that there can still be assignments where students write about specific things (something has to be graded to show their progress!) Giving students that time every day just to write is necessary. It also means that teachers would have an overwhelmingly huge amount of grading to do, therefore, don't grade every piece of writing!

Lamott

I haven't done a post about Bird by Bird yet, so that's what I decided to do this time. As I have been reading the book, I was first looking for quotes that I liked for whatever reason. When I read back through those, I didn't see any connection to how they would help me as a teacher. From then on, I have only marked passages that I could apply to kids (which are few and far between, but really great ideas!)

"If you write a long piece, and it is your first, and you are wondering if it's publishable, and it isn't, even by a long shot, someone should tell you this in a way that is gentle and yet not patronizing, so that you are encouraged - maybe not to pursue publication, but to pursue writing. Certainly this person might suggest you get a second opinion. But if he is too strident or adamant, ditch the sucker. Would you stand for someone talking this way to your children - for instance, telling them that they are not a very talented painter and shouldn't even bother? Or that their poetry is not very interesting? Of course not. You'd want to pay this person a little visit with your flamethrower" (Lamott, 169-170).

This idea directly relates to what my vignette is about. It is a teacher's responsibility to help kids learn to write. If they are harsh and say ideas are not good or that the child is not a good writer it will completely defeat them! Of course you want to point out what needs to be fixed, but it needs to be done in a way that is constructive; a way that is also a learning opportunity. This passage also relates to what Routman says in Chapter 9 of Writing Essentials. The chapter is all about conferencing with students and teaching them how they have the tools to be good writers. Children need encouragement in order to feel comfortable taking risks; however it should not get to the point where they are so dependent on it that they need approval at each little step along the way. Showing children that you value their efforts and letting them know gently when something needs to fixed will help develop strong, confident, young writers.

Structural Analysis

I am going to write about Fox Ch. 6 this week because it intrigued me. Structural analysis comes so naturally to experienced readers and I would never think to explicitly teach it. It makes sense to teach it, but there are so many exceptions to the rules! I saw a lot of exceptions to rules in the section about Syllable Patterns. English is such a complicated language... Why make rules about spelling, grammar, anything when there are just going to be exceptions to every one of them? Every student learns these exceptions but some master them and some don't. I still am never sure if "i" really comes before "e" or not! There is so much to learn and remember when learning the English language. I think it really is a marvel that we all generally turn out ok.

Exceptions aside, I do think it is important to teach Structural Analysis. It give students clues to meaning when they are able to see base words or Greek and Latin roots in longer words. These same elements are also very helpful for younger students who are still working on sounding out words as they read. Compound words are a young reader's best friend! Even if the meaning of the whole word has nothing to do with the meaning of the separate words, those smaller words are still clues to pronunciation. Structural analysis is a more advanced reading strategy but definitely a very useful one.

Shared Writing

Writing Essentials Chapter 4:
Consider the optimal learning model Routman introduces in this chapter in terms of teaching and learning writing skills. What do the components of the model mean? What do they look like in practice? How do these connect, compare, and/or contrast to your field experiences or past schooling?

The components of the model explain the different level of involvement for the teacher and the student. It starts out with the teacher being completely in control then gradually releases the control to the student. This model reminds me of a direct instruction lesson. The steps of direct instruction are "I do", "we do", check for understanding, and "you do". The "I do" is when the teacher is in control and is directly teaching the class. There may be some student participation but they are mostly listening. This is the same as the demonstration stage of the optimal learning model. The "we do" of direct instruction matches with shared demonstration. This is when the teacher is still doing most of the work but the students are involved in answering questions or giving suggestions (for example). Checking for understanding coincides with the guided practice piece of the optimal learning model. Is this stage the student is doing most of the work and the teacher is there simply to guide. Students may be asking questions of the teacher to clarify their understanding of the topic but they are not completely on their own yet. Once the teacher feels the students have a good understanding of the topic, they move on to "you do" and independent practice. Students are off working on their own in the classroom. This stage may also where homework assignments come into play. Homework is the ultimate independent practice activity since the teacher is not at home helping the student along. However, just because students are working independently doesn't mean they can't ask for support!

Writing

Writing Essentials Chapter 1: Consider the writing essentials listed on page 13. What is your response to these, as a writer and as a teacher? Which do you think are easy, and which are challenging? Does one strike you as being particularly powerful or problematic?

As a writer this list seems overwhelming! How is someone supposed to think about ALL those things at once and still get something down on paper? As it turns out, these are things that come naturally when writing about something that interests us. We don't even have to think about it, it just happens. Looking at the list as a teacher is a little different. It is still overwhelming, but in a different way. It makes me wonder how to go about teaching these things to our students. It doesn't make sense go through each one individually because they all need to be used together in order to produce a good piece of writing. However, it is a lot to focus on at once! There has to me a middle ground somewhere...

I think the easiest one is writing for a specific reader. Depending on the type of assignment, the reader should be pretty easy to determine. If the assignment is to write a letter, then the reader is whoever the letter is written to. If the assignment is a persuasive paragraph, the reader is mom who you are trying to convince to buy you that cool new video game for your birthday. Determining the reader is easy when you give students assignments where they are writing for a specific, meaningful, purpose. I think the hardest one is embracing language. Voice is up there too, but it students are writing for an authentic purpose, their voice will naturally come through in their writing. Embracing language is something that can seem forced. For example, if a student is very concise in the way they speak and just the way they are, it will be difficult and maybe even unnatural for them to experiment with language. It's just not who they are. It's still a skill they need to learn, it just would be more difficult to master.

Writing Essentials Chapter 2: "All students, especially those who begin school with limited literacy skills, need to think of themselves as readers and writers, see the processes as meaningful, and have positive attitudes about literacy before they can successfully engage in literacy practices" (p. 34). How do you respond to this quote? What connections can you make between this quote, your field placement, and/or your own experiences?

Students need to feel confident enough in themselves to take risks. Learning to read and write are HUGE risks to take! There are a ton of mistakes to be made before becoming a fluent reader or becoming a great writer. If students do not see themselves as readers and writers and/or do not have positive attitudes about reading and writing, they will not be willing to take the risks. Above that, the reading and writing they are being asked to do must be meaningful. If it's not, they will be even more unwilling to risk learning how to do it. When writing, especially, has meaning it will give the student more confidence because they will be passionate about it and maybe won't care as much if they "mess up". I have felt unconfident about my writing many times in the past. I could never think of a good way to start anything! It had to be perfect before I could move on which sometimes led me to just give up. Even now I have to really think about where I am heading before I begin writing. My reading experience has been different. I hated reading as a kid! I would choose to do ANYTHING rather than pick up a book. It didn't help that I was (and still am) a really slow reader. Thinking back on it, I never read for pleasure. I was so busy with other activities (mainly gymnastics, then theatre) that I only had time to read the books assigned to be form school. Once I was in college and had a bit more free time, I discovered how enjoyable reading could be. I relished the opportunity to live in someone else's world for a while. Until that point, reading held no meaning or purpose for me which caused me to hate doing it.

Writing Essentials Chapter 3: Routman asks us to examine our lives as writers so that we can more authentically and effectively teach writing. She poses four questions on page 41 for us to explore. Consider these questions and write a response about your writing process and yourself as a writer.

When I write, I have to think about where I am heading. I usually have a general idea so I can get started, then I refine it sentence by sentence as I go. When I don't have another thought, I re-read what I have so far. Doing this usually refocuses my attention and the next thought comes easily. During my re-reading I revise and edit if I find mistakes or things I don't like. By the time I am finished, I have probably read my work at least 5 times already (depending on how long it turns out to be.) When I am writing a bigger piece, I do this process paragraph my paragraph. Once I am satisfied with one paragraph I don't include it in the re-reading again. Once I am completely finished, I will re-read the entire thing (short and long pieces) a few times to make sure my spelling and grammar are correct; to make sure everything sounds right and makes sense. If I am stuck on a certain part and can't quite figure out how to make it sound right, I will read it out loud an few different way until I find the one that works. In general, my method of writing is to revise and edit as I go.

Word Identification

Fox Chapter 2:
Isolating Sounds: Activity 2.22 Picture-Sound-Letter Sort
*The focus of this activity is to sort pictures according to their shared beginning sounds and identify the letter that makes that sound.
*Hold up a picture and ask children to say the just the beginning sound. Talk about the letter that represents that sound and look for other words in the room that share the same beginning sound. Have one child glue the picture into the correct column on a piece of chart paper. Write the letter of the beginning sound next to the picture.
*My assessment for this activity would be to call on each student during the group activity and make sure they are able to put the picture in the correct column. Another option would be to continue the lesson and have students do their own word sorts. In these word sorts I would also be looking for correct placement of pictures in their corresponding columns.


Isolating Sounds Activity 2.34 I Spy (I like this option because it is something that can be used as a filler if there is extra time!)
*The focus of this activity is to check for students' understanding of beginning sounds by looking for objects in the classroom with a specific beginning sound.
*"I spy something that begins with ____" Students must guess the exact object the teacher is thinking of by using the beginning sound of the object as a clue.
*Assessment for this activity is to listen for the students' guesses of objects that match the beginning sounds the teacher has specified. It's a nice bonus if they can guess the exact object :)


Fox Chapter 3:
I can see both sides of the invented spelling dilemma... It is great to encourage students to use what they know about sound-letter relationships to guess how spell a word. However, I can see a potential problem when students are guessing at blends or some long vowel sounds. For example, an invented spelling for boat may very be bot. Continuing to spell boat that way could potentially lead the child astray and they may never fully understand the oa spelling of the long o sound since they have already come to their own understanding of how to spell boat. Their own long o rule could be generalized to other words with the same long o sound. Invented spelling can only be allowed for so long. Maybe one solution could be to add the conventionally spelled words to the word wall every time you see an invented spelling that could lead to a misconception.

Emergent Literacy

Sulzby and Teale Article:
Think about classrooms you have visited. What aspects of emergent literacy have you observed in young children? How have you seen teachers support the growth of young children's literacy?

Every so often when I have a chance I will sit down and read with niece (she is now in 1st grade). For her birthday this past February I told her I was going to take her to the bookstore and she could pick out any book she wanted. She looked at me and said, "I want a book that will teach me how to read!" It was the best thing I have ever heard come out of her mouth! We found such a book, a set of books really, and she couldn't wait! When we got home she opened it up and looked at the books. She couldn't read all the words in them yet, which I think bothered her. But the set also came with a bingo game where you match letter sounds with pictures. For example, if you spun the spinner and it landed on R, you had to find a picture on your bingo card that started with an R. She could not get enough of this game! She loved it because she was able to be successful in identifying the first letter and first sound of words even though she couldn't quite read the books yet.

In the classroom have seen teachers support the growth of literacy in the form of partner reading. Last year I worked in a 1st grade class at a private school. All these students already knew how to read and loved doing it! Whenever they were given reading time they always asked if they could partner read. Two girls in particular LOVED to read to each other! Often, one of them would take the role of the teacher and read to the other one as if she were the student. They helped each other sound out words when they got stuck and sometimes even told their own stories to go along with the pictures in the books. The teacher allowed this to happen because the students ended up getting more out of their reading time when they had someone to share it with.



Mason Article:
Identify and summarize the main points of the article.
Identify a specific quote, topic, or issue for discussion with your group.

The Mason article gave examples of how teachers read three types of books to their Kindergarten students: storybooks, informational books, and short phrase books. For each type of book there was a dialogue between the teacher and students that directly illustrated different ways to introduce each type of book, to check for comprehension during reading, and to summarize the book after reading it. For the most part, the technique for storybooks and informational books were very similar. The technique for the short phrase books involved the students more directly in the reading of the story with fewer interruptions during reading.

“…kindergarten teachers use a number of techniques to foster kindergarteners’ understanding of book” (61). Just like everything else in teaching, there is no one right way to teach kids how to read. There is not one way of reading books to a class that will work for everybody because each group of students is different. The more we learn about different techniques the better off we will be because there will be more ideas to choose from when the first one doesn’t work out.