Blog Reflection

This last year I taught kindergarten for the first time in six years.  I regularly visited a number of blogs to collect ideas on updated strategies and activities to use in the classroom.  The blogs I visited were colorful and included cute graphics, fun fonts, links to additional resources, and an abundance of research based information on running an effective kindergarten classroom.

At the beginning of this course, as I set up my blog, I tried to recreate some of the positive characteristics I enjoyed in the sites I visited.  I found a limit to the backgrounds available on the blogster website I used.  I selected a background that was appealing to the eye, but it wasn’t the cute and fun background I was hoping for.  I was able to use a fun font throughout the blog.  A little variety with font would have been fun, but again, the choices were somewhat limited.  The blog I created was satisfactory for this purpose, but it wasn’t the cute, engaging blog I was hoping for.  I found myself wondering how the kindergarten blogs I visited were created.  Did they use a different program or website to begin with?  Where did they get their backgrounds, graphics and fonts?  Did a separate company create the blog for them and they just maintained it?   I find myself looking at these blogs with new eyes.  Not only am I collecting creative information about teaching, but I’m also looking at how the page is put together so that I may someday create a fun blog as well. 

This last year we sent a homework menu home each week.  The menu included a reading log and various assignments to be completed during the week.  After creating and maintaining a blog for this course, I think posting the homework menu on a blog would be a terrific option.  Parents would have the option to visit the blog and view the homework menu.  If they have questions, they can post them (perhaps there are other parents with the same question) and I can respond.  In instances where a worksheet was used, that could also be posted.  Posting homework menus on a blog would save copy paper and time.  The only issue would be for parents who do not have access to the internet. 

I enjoyed visiting the blogs posted for this course.  They were all so different.  However, I missed following discussions on the forum as we have done in other courses.  I felt as though we were all posting on our blogs and occasionally visiting and replying to a blog, but I missed the community feeling and group learning that comes from the forum discussions.  I sometimes felt a little bit disconnected.  So, although a blog might be a good idea for a weekly homework menu, I’m not convinced it is a great format for a class like this. 

I will continue to visit blogs to continually update my teaching strategies and activities in the classroom.  Blogs are a valuable resource to teachers across the country.  As I visit, I will continue to collect ideas on how to create a classroom blog that is pleasant and easy to understand.  I think it would be a terrific resource to parents. 

Comparing Fiction and Non-Fiction Texts

The books I selected for this comparison are books that might be found in a kindergarten or first grade classroom.  Dinosaurs are a popular theme at these grade levels.  Students would be eager to enjoy these books. 

Sheltered Lesson Video

           The video showing a sheltered literacy lesson was obviously filmed in a secondary classroom.  Because my principal focus throughout my career has been elementary, specifically the primary level, I naturally watched it with that frame of reference.  From the beginning, I wondered if all of the strategies demonstrated by the teacher would be useful with primary students. 

In the introduction to the video, the environment was identified as a home economics classroom.   My first thought was whether the environment, which was irrelevant to the subject being taught and which included kitchenettes and posters on topics specific to home economics would be distracting for the students.   I had the same thought again as we saw the white board and chart paper the teacher was using so enthusiastically.  I felt that the copious amount of written notes across the white board and on the chart paper could easily be overwhelming to students who may still be learning the language. 

Prior to reading, the teacher did a terrific job of helping students activate background knowledge.  Providing each student with an opportunity to share his very unique background prior to reading helps students more easily understand the text.  The guidelines described in the video for vocabulary included selecting key words, saying them aloud and writing them on the board, and providing context for understanding.  The teacher in the video was introducing new words to the students.  Looking at the list of words, I wondered if it was necessary to introduce so many at one time. In my work with primary students, I tend to select only a few words for a specific passage or text so as to not overwhelm students. 

At one point in the video, I noticed that one student seemed more open to responding than the others.  Although students need to build confidence before feeling comfortable offering a response, I wonder if the teacher should nevertheless have encouraged other students in the class to share their thoughts. 

During the reading, I think it is especially important for the teacher to model fluent reading as students follow along.  At the beginning of this course, as I attempted to read a text in French, I came to the realization that having someone fluent in the language read the text and model reading and the language for me would have been very helpful.  This teacher did an excellent job of stopping occasionally as she read and sharing her thoughts about the text.  These think-alouds are especially important for young students who are learning to read for meaning.  I think that wait time is imperative for ELL students.  Wait time is important for all students, but for students collecting their thoughts in a new language, it is essential. 

Although teacher modeling is important, students should also be reading.  Round Robin reading has been found to be an ineffective technique for building both skill and confidence.  Additional strategies can be found in a book called Goodbye Round Robin by Michael Opitz and Timothy Rasinski. 

After reading the text, it is important to review the reading strategies the teacher modeled and the students practiced.  Students should also be given an opportunity to review important vocabulary.  Retelling or summarizing the story will help students ensure they understood the entire story.  I think it would be especially important for ELL students to work in groups on hands-on activities after reading.  This gives them a chance to talk to other students about the text while using new vocabulary.  They are able to share their connections to the story with other students, deepening understanding of the text by all students.  This kind of group work provides struggling students an opportunity to vent frustration and learn more informally from their classmates. 

The teacher in this video has a terrific strategy sequence for her students.  She starts with visualization.  Secondary students may be able to handle this exercise fairly well, but it can be a more difficult for primary students. 

The next skill she mentioned was questioning.  I think this is a difficult task for all students regardless of age.  While questions such as “What color is the sky?” are mastered fairly early, asking deeper questions such as “If air is invisible, why is the sky blue?” is much more difficult for students to do.  Perhaps we should allow students more time and practice in order to master this skill.

Inferencing is the third skill she teaches.  Skilled readers can infer from a text without conscious thought.  However, because this skill is more conceptual, I think it is not only difficult for students to learn, but often difficult for teachers to teach as well.  

I found the teacher in this video to be knowledgeable, skillful and enthusiastic.  While some of her strategies would work well with students at all levels, I have reservations about others.  The almost overwhelming notes on the white board, for example, would probably not be useful in a class of primary students.  Nevertheless, I found this video over all to be both helpful and thought provoking.

Running Record Comparisons

I always enjoy the opportunity to listen to children read to me.  Although it is occasionally frustrating to listen to a student struggle through a text, it is also exhilarating to listen to a student conquer a challenging text. 

For this activity, I listened to second and third grade students read to me.  At the school I have been working at, the only second language is Spanish.  I will be comparing a second grade ELL student, a third grade ELL student and a second grade student whose native language is English.  All three students were assessed using the same texts at Level J from readinga-z.com.  The Level J book is called The Laughing Lady about a lady that laughs at everyone because it is her way of showing how she cares about them. 

When looking at the second grade ELL student’s running record, I see that she made three visual errors, and a syntax error.  She said “left” for “felt”, “chenkly” for “chuckle”, and “was laughing” for “laughed”.  She read the 102 word passage in one minute and four seconds.  The third grade ELL student made two visual errors, and two meaning errors.  She missed the word “once” but did say (w).  Instead of “chuckle” she said “chokey”.  She also said “the” instead of “a” and “the” instead of “his” the other time.  She read the passage in one minute and twenty seconds.  The second grade student whose native language is English made three syntax errors and a visual error.  He started to say “giggle” instead of “chuckle”, but caught himself and self-corrected.  He said “sometimes” for “someone”, but self-corrected.  He skipped the word “and”.  He also said “more than” instead of “everyone so”.  The sentence did not quite make sense, but he did not self-correct.  He read it in one minute and thirty nine seconds. 

As I look at the errors that these students made, I do not see errors that are specifically related to learning a second language.  I would have expected to see pronunciation errors, but I did not.  The errors I saw were universal.  I saw students who need to practice reading for meaning.  They need to be constantly checking that their reading makes sense.  When the sentence does not make sense, they need to learn to go back and take another look at the text.  I also saw students who need to slow down and look more closely at the words they are reading.  I thought it was interesting that the two ELL students read the story more fluently than the native English speaking student. 

Instruction for all of these students would include teaching them to look for familiar letter chunks in unfamiliar words.  Going forward, I would also spend time practicing simple sight words, since they were substituting the word “the” for “a”, or “his”.  Students may practice reading short passages to ensure they are monitoring understanding as they read.  Although the two ELL students read the passage more fluently than the native English speaking student, it would be a good idea to set up a fluency exercise daily.  They could read the same passage all week.  They would be timed on their first read, and read it aloud at least three times before reading it for time again.  Practicing reading this way and then answering a comprehension question daily will help students read more fluently and ensure they understand what they are reading. 

All three of these students need  a routine that will help them focus on the word that is written, break unfamiliar words into familiar letter chunks, monitor understanding as they read, and make sure they read basic sight words accurately.    I believe small group instruction is the best way to provide that support.

Learning Model vs. Acquisition Model

Sometimes it seems that language is something that just happens.  Parents have watched in awe as their children develop language.  Every mother is overcome with joy the first time their baby calls them “Mama”.  Before long, the child has developed a repertoire of words and they begin to experiment with ways to combine words in an effort to have their needs met.  Missionaries visit a different country and before long, they are able to speak fluently with the native population.  Many of us took a second language in high school and college.  Some people have successfully learned a language through these more formal courses that focus on the individual pieces of language before putting the pieces together and creating fluent language.   

Experts have studied how language is developed.  The question is whether language is acquired or learned.  If we look at toddlers as they learn to speak or missionaries who go to a different country without knowing the language and eventually find they can speak the language fluently, we might say that language is acquired.  No one taught them formally how to speak the language, but through total immersion, they managed to develop the language.  On the other hand, high school and college courses have broken foreign languages down into manageable portions for us to practice and learn.  Many people have learned to speak a foreign language this way.  Of course, there are those who maintain that once a person gets to a certain age, he can no longer learn a second language at all regardless of the method. 

Experts (specifically, Krashen) have determined that language can be developed in one of two ways.  Language can be learned or acquired.  The traditional strategies used to help people develop a new language follow the learning model.  More recently, the acquisition model has risen to favor.   After reading about the two models, I wonder if a combination of these strategies would be more successful for the second language learner. 

Learning Model	Acquisition Model
Language is taught through a series of exercises and drills on portions of language (vocabulary, verbs, pronunciation).	Language is subconscious and taught through immersion.  The second language learner learns the language by using it.
Language learned through the Learning Model is learned in a classroom and can be tested.	Learning Language through the Acquisition Model does not necessarily need to happen in school and cannot be tested.
Language learned through the Learning Model may be quickly forgotten if not used immediately and regularly.	Second Language Learners using the Acquisition Model not only learn specific vocabulary, but how to speak the language accurately.
Specific errors can be corrected so second language learners understand how the language components fit together.	Errors will occur, but the focus is on maintaining meaning and being understood.

Although there are people who are able to learn a second language through the Learning Model, I have not been successful with those strategies.  I believe I would more effectively learn a second language through the Acquisition Model.  In circumstances where I have needed to use second language skills regularly, I was more successful in learning and retaining the second language.  I have also learned that if you don’t use it, you lose it.  It has been several years since I used my second language skills and I’m not sure I would be terribly effective anymore.  That being said, it appears that the jury is still out on the exact formula for successful second language acquisition.  Some research has suggests that children who are learning English are more successful when they learn their first language alongside English as their second language.  However, it appears that complete immersion in an exclusively English only environment may not be as successful as some have suggested.  “Studies have shown that when students have full native language proficiency, including the ability to do academic reading and writing, they can transfer this knowledge from their first language to the second.”  (Freeman & Freeman, 2004). 

As is so often the case, balance appears to be the solution.  Students  engaged in a balanced bilingual program that offers both immersion and more formal classroom opportunities  are likely to be more successful than those in programs that offer English immersion or formal study exclusively.  

The Students:
L: Look up words in the dictionary to write definitions
A: Make a Venn Diagram to compare two stories
L:  Practice Sounding Out words
L: Read in Round Robin Fashion
A: Correct Peers when they make a mistake during reading
L: Identify words on a big book page that start with the same sound.  

L:  Group cards with classmates' names by a criterion on such as first or last letter
A: Write rhyming poetry and then discuss different spellings for the same sound
A: Ask the teacher how to spell any word they don't know
A: Read a language experience story they have created with the teacher
A: Work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences
L: Divide words into syllables
L: On a worksheet, draw a line from each word to the picture that starts with the same sound
A: Make alphabet books on different topics

The Teacher:
L: Preteaches vocabulary
A: Does a shared reading with a big book
A: Makes sure that students read only books that fit their level
L: Has students segment words into phonemes
A: Writes words the students dictate for a story and has the students help with the spelling of difficult words
L: Asks students to look around the room and find words starting with a certain letter
A: Uses decodable texts
L/A: Sets aside time for SSR (Silent Sustained Reading) each day
L: Teaches Latin and Greek roots
A: Has students meet in literature circles
L: Conducts phonics drills
A: Chooses predictable texts
A: Teaches students different comprehension strategies
A: Does a picture walk of a new book
L:  Uses a variety of worksheets to teach different skills

Reference

Freeman, D. & Freeman, Y. (2004).  Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach 

            Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics, Grammar.  Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.