How mathematics has influenced Origami art‏

Very interesting TED talk, this guy is a former physicist, now Origami expert, who has used mathematical theory and geometry to help revolutionize Origami. He calls it "using dead people to help you do your work".  The

The students at my school did a huge origami event; to send paper cranes to Japan.  The ideas expressed in this video would be a neat way to integrate the cranes into math. 

Ipod Touch Reflection

After reflecting on my experience with my Ipod touch in the classroom, I have mixed feelings.  I really liked the opportunity to explore and test out new and fun ways to integrate the Ipod Touch in the classroom, but I found this harder than anticipated.  In a previous post, I had mentioned that I felt unsure how to utilize the Touch in older graders verses younger grades.  This opinion might be skewed though because of my experience with my own younger child and all the uses I have found for him. As a result, I have thought a lot about this, and realized that it might have been easier if I was told exactly how to use the Touch. I generally like the freedom to explore and find solutions without directions, but in this case I feel that I was unable to fully take advantage of this technology because I did not know how to integrate it into my 5^th grade classroom.  As a university class, we discussed some of the issues that arose for us, and someone brought the idea of using the Touch with only one student and not the other 25.  Our professor made the good point that many classrooms don’t always have class sets of each resource such as dictionaries; therefore, the argument of using this technology when not every student had access at the same time needs to be disregarded.   Overall, I still feel that I would have benefited from more instruction of best practices and uses for this amazing and potentially helpful form of technology.   

Reflection

             After reading through all my blog posts from the last quarter in addition to my own reflection over the last few months, I believe that I have gained a lot of useful ideas when working with children in mathematics.  I understand that as a class it would be impossible for us to cover the curriculum that is taught in the intermediate and middle school levels, therefore I appreciated the conversations that we have had in regards to dealing with teaching a diverse group of students.  What I have also come to internalize is that manipulatives MUST be used in the classroom.  Students need a concrete understanding of why a concept works, then students can move into the abstract; manipulatives offer students the concrete.

                This quarter I have also reflected on teaching by not merely telling students the answer or showing them short-cuts; real learning occurs when students are able to explain and make sense of their own ideas.  One of my favorite quotes from our readings this quarter stated; “my definition of a good teacher has changed from ‘one who explains things so well that students understand’ to ‘one whom gets students to explain things so well that they can be understood” (“Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say”).  I have interpreted this to mean that students need the opportunity to explore and discover the answers themselves allowing them to actively think and become engaged; therefore students are able to help each other and share their thinking.      

                The last big idea that I have reflected on this quarter is the use of technology in the classroom; technology can offer curriculum a fun and interactive way for students to learn. By engaging students into the world of  computers, students experience math virtually which then allows them the potential to enjoy exploring and playing with different concepts while they discover and make connections to their learning. 

              

               

Math Blog Feb. 28

In class tonight we were introduced to the online tool, Tinker Plots.  This tool allows students the ability to manipulate data on a graph and allows the user the ability to explore all the different attributes on a graph and how they can change when one variable is manipulated.  I love the idea of children making connections through their own exploration.  I know that as a student of math, I solve problems and understand equations at a pace different than many other people; in addition I enjoy learning on my own terms.  What I have learned from this is that by offering my students the tools that they need to explore a problem; chances are they are going to learn.  I have realized that math isn’t just standing in front the classroom telling students different concepts; it’s about group work, collaboration, exploration, and connecting to the real world.  I have also learned that teaching in this style is not easy and it takes a lot of planning and creative thinking on the teachers end, but I know as a student myself, this style of learning is much more fun and relatable to real life. 

The implications for this style of teaching in the classroom is huge.  Aside from student’s engagement through fun interactive means, I think that students will remember these concepts better.  One of my biggest struggles as a new teacher, is that I have never taught before, and aside from what I have been taught recently, my other frame of reference comes from my early schooling in math where there was a lot of plug and chug; as a result, I still struggle with the why question when students probe me for more.  Therefore, I have learned that it is important to educate students with the why explanation and through methods that allow students the ability to manipulate and explore new concepts introduced to them. 

Math Blog: Technology

1.  What did I learn?

Today was an exciting day!  We were introduced to some new technology that we could use in the classroom.  I love learning about the different ways to integrate technology into the class, I do not see it used a lot in my main placement, therefore the more I am exposed to it in other classes is great.   I am not afraid of technology, but if I am not familiar with how to apply it in the classroom, chances are that I will not, as a result even the minimal amount of exposure is helpful to me and my potential teaching strategies. 

For example, in my dyad placement I visited a neighboring 6^th grade math class several times; this particular math teacher loves technology and using it with his kids.  On one of my observations of his class, he told me about using the graphing calculators with temperature probes to go outside to take data sample of different things.  I did not get a chance to ask him specifically how it worked, but I got a better understanding after class on Monday.  If each student had his/her own graphing calculator along with a temperature probe, once the data is collected the calculators are connected into a computer and can be graphed comparing all students’ data! Amazing and so cool! 

2.  What do I still have questions about?

What are some good teaching resources for learning about different ways technology can be used in the classroom?

3.  What are the implications for classroom practice?

The implication for the use of technology in the classroom is huge!  Kids today are not strangers to technology, I am sure many of them could run circles around me in some areas.  So as a result, using technology with students will get them engaged and will allow them to use a tool that they are already familiar with to facilitate their learning in new areas.  I think that a lot of fear still exists regarding technology and how to “control” it, but if we allow our students the opportunity as well as the trust along with proper expectations, we can allow our students the ability to access so much more knowledge than one person can facilitate. 

Math: Feb. 7

1. What did I learn?

I enjoy our math class a lot; I never leave feeling overwhelmed…well maybe a little overwhelmed at the idea of the abundance of curriculum we will have to learn, but our professor does a great job telling us like it is.  I really appreciate her honestly as well as her ability to support us as new incoming teacher.  Our professor does a great job informing us about the areas where she believes teachers need to do a better job at teaching, in addition to the importance of making our lessons inquiry based.  I believe that as a new teacher I will be faced with many challenges, challenges that I never even prepared for, but if I can begin my career with the intentions of making math fun for my students, then I believe that I may make my life as a new teacher more manageable.    

2.  What do I still have questions about?

I wonder what a lesson of math would look like in your class.  How would you include a lesson about new material and at what point in the lesson would you facilitate this knowledge? And would the students all work on the assignments together? Would the assignments be turned in at the end of class?

3.  What are the implications for classroom practice?

I think that as a new teacher unafraid of technology, I will be able to challenge myself to find more interactive ways that my students can about mathematics.  I enjoy the idea of having the freedom to take what has already been created and modifying it for my purpose as well as my student’s needs.  I think that there are so many resources out in the world of education and through collaboration as well as workshops we can find more effective ways to teach our kids math.    

ITouch Update

Since my last post, in relation to technology in the classroom, I have yet been able to implement my ideas of using the Itouch in the classroom.   I have seen opportunities where the Itouch would be beneficial, but I am having a difficult time figuring out if timing is appropriate.  I also wonder would one student using the Itouch and the rest of the class using a worksheet be fair?  I almost feel that it would be better if I introduced the Itouch only to students whom I was working with independently…. I guess I am still unsure how to use one Itouch in a classroom of 25?

On the flipside, I have been given an amazing opportunity where I am teaching a science unit to a small group of 5^th graders.  The unit we have begun is food chemistry, and I have been brainstorming ways I could use the Itouch with them.  I have some strange circumstances, I have to teach in the hallway, and therefore I do not have any access to technology unless it is wireless, in the form of an Itouch or a laptop.  As a result, my first idea was to use the Itouch to show a YouTube Video on learning about sugar, or nutrition labels, but then I realized that the screen was going to be way too small for nine bodies to group around.  My most recent idea has been to obtain an app that provides information about the different food groups and allows users to look up food facts about different foods.  I could use this application to allow my students to have access to information and take that information and graph it or use it to explain to me more about their understanding of the different nutrients in foods… I will have to do a little research.

Literacy Update: Moving from Assessment to Instruction

Jill is a motivated learner and is engaged through mystery, adventure and fantasy.  She enjoys writing and learning about new things; I have had a great time working with her.  Jill has taught me a lot about how to facilitate the literacy growth of young budding writers and readers.

As I have mentioned before, Jill has expressed to me that she considers herself to be a “slow reader and writer,” she has also mentioned to me that sometimes while reading she “gets lost” in the words.  I am not sure what it means when she says that she gets lost in the words, but I can summarize that because she sometimes gets lost, she reads slower to make sure that she catches all the words. 

Interestingly enough, after I gave Jill the grade four reading fluency test, according to the Hasbrouck and Tindal Oral Reading Fluency Data,  her performance in fluency (and speed) was right where it should be for the fourth grade winter months; she had a score of 114 WCPM.  The reading that I had Jill recite was a narrative about Amelia Earhart.  My goal from her reading this narrative was to see what her reading fluency was and also to see where her level of comprehension was.  Though her fluency was age appropriate, her comprehension according to the retelling questions I asked of her that were either implicit or explicit, told me that she was in the frustration level of comprehension.   Because fluency can be a predictor of comprehension, and her fluency rate was fine, I would like to see Jill read another four grade story, so I can retest her fluency in contrast to her comprehension.    

Since I have begun working with Jill, I have collected a few pieces of information into her reading and writing abilities.  I know that in relation spelling, Jill would benefit from working on digraphs and blends, long vowel patterns, and other vowel patterns.  As a result Jill would fall into the writing stage of Transitional and the spelling stage of Within Word Patterns.  As a result, being in the transitional stage of writing, and based on these predictors, I believe Jill is approaching fluency in reading and writing and she would benefit from work on her spelling, specifically long vowels with the aim that through knowing the correct spelling of words, the correct pronunciation of these words will also occur. 

Therefore, I would like to encourage Jill to read books a little lower than her tested ability, to help increase her fluency as well as her comprehension. 

Math Blog 4

1.  What did I learn?

Class today began with an overview of creating a lesson plan. From this discussion I picked up some key ideas that I appreciated.  The first was that when planning a lesson always make sure that the objective is measurable; if the objective is not measurable it can be extremely hard to know whether or not the students have learned anything.  The second idea was that through planning a unit in mathematics it is helpful to follow these tips; take problems out of the text book that are not required as homework and use them on a test, create your final test first and work backwards based on what you want your students to know, and make sure to always do the homework problems that your students do.  I also enjoyed the ideas shared from the book called “What’s Math Got to DO With It.”  One of the ideas from this book states that students are motivated by their intrinsic success, or in other words when they feel successful. Therefore, as a math teacher it is incredibly important that I set up my students for success and help facilitate their own learning while doing my best to explain the same problems in multiple ways because no learner will be the same. 

2.  What do I still have questions about?

After class, I was left feeling overwhelmed at the task at hand.  I have many questions regarding how I will ever learn teacher strategies to all the concepts that my students need to know.  Fortunately I am learning that I will not know everything right away and my learning as a teacher will be a climb, therefore my goal will be to not become discouraged and frustrated at the challenge and instead take every challenge as a learning opportunity to improve myself as a teacher.

3.  What are the implications for classroom practice?

The implications these ideas will have on me as a teacher will be huge.  I understand that as a new teacher I am going to be at a disadvantage over any teacher who has taught before based solely on fact that I lack experience, but I have to remember to put it into perspective and to think back upon how far I have become since last spring and the leaps and bounds I have made since then.  I have accepted that I will be a life longer learner as well as a lifelong student and I believe in myself.   

Writing Analysis Update

First I want to thank everyone for their thoughtful as well as helpful comments.   I have spent a lot of time thinking about the questions that were brought about regarding my choice of lesson plan, and based on the rough draft that I had of Jill’s work, I felt that paragraphs and run-on sentences were a real issue in her writing.

The interesting thing about this student was that her final draft was actually edited and typed by her teacher, which I found surprising.  I had my buddy read out loud her final draft to me, while I followed along on her first draft and I had a hard time following because the final draft was so different.  Initially, I was not aware that her teacher had typed her final draft, but when Jill was reading the last paragraph she fumbled with the words because the teacher had used the wrong name in the story.   At this point I realized that my buddy had not even read her final draft, in addition to not having the opportunity to create a final draft.  Jill told me it was because she was a slow writer and that it would have taken her too long to publish. 

Therefore when analyzing my buddies work, I felt that her writing could use some help regarding editing, and focusing ideas.   This made me think about paragraphs, but I feel that I could even go further and begin with sentence structure like Tess mentioned.   But my goal is that through working on creating a strong paragraph my student will also practice sentence structure.  Jill is very sharp and can comprehend really well, even though her reading and writing skills are fairly low, therefore I am thinking that working on paragraphing, sentence structure will also be gained through this activity. 

As for spelling, I really struggled with whether or not I should focus my lesson plan there, but I decided that both spelling and paragraphing were places that she needs help with, and I was more inclined to work with paragraphs than spelling.  I based this decision on what my buddy told me about the words she misspells or misreads, she is not familiar with those words, and they are not in her vocabulary. 

I have decided to maintain my original lesson plan, but I hope emphasize the concept of sentence structure into the lesson as well. 

Math Blog 3

1.  What did I learn?

In class today, our groups finished our GapMinder data tables and placed them on display for the class to see.  GapMinder is a virtual program that contains data on various things from around the world.   As a group, we each choose data to represent a story and then worked to compile a visual that would represent that story.  The purpose of this assignment was made very clear at the end of class when we debriefed about what we gained from this activity.  The end result was as follows: people construct data differently and people present information differently.  The lesson learned is that as a teacher it is very important to clearly present; just because it makes sense to you does not mean that it makes sense to everyone else.   

2.  What do I still have questions about?

When group members have completely different outlooks for presenting something visual, how do you help to facilitate the situation so that both views are included? Or can they?

3.  What are the implications for classroom practice?

The implication for the classroom is that required knowledge can be learned and taught in fun, interactive ways.  As a class we were given the lesson of producing a story through a data table; what the story was was left to our own interests.  This gave us, the students the ability to take our own interests and incorporate it into what the teacher wanted us to know.  Giving the student choice in their learning can be a very powerful tool. 

Analysis of Student Writing and Lesson Plan

Analysis of Student Writing and Lesson Plan

Part 1: Analysis

This analysis is based on one piece of writing from my 4^th grade buddy (which I will give the pseudo name Jill) , one 25 word spelling inventory, and an informal reading conference. 

Meaning:

                The piece of writing that my 4^th grade buddy shared with me is a short story called “Blabbing Max.”  The story is fictional, but based off of real events in her life.  The idea for this story was prompted by the teacher whom introduced several optional ideas to write about; Jill chose the writing prompt, “When Pets Can Talk.”  Within Jill’s story, Max is the main character and also her pet; Max loves to eat.  One morning Max wakes up talking, but only to Jill.  Max tells Jill he is hungry and excited to eat breakfast.  The plot thickens when Max decides to take a nap to waste time until Jill’s mom gets home, but ends up sleeping through the night.  When Max wakes up, it is morning and he is hungry and no longer can talk.  This story is a fun and lovable interpretation of what Jill’s dog experiences throughout the day. 

                Within Jill’s writing is it obvious that Max is a well loved family member.  There is a deep connection between Max and the author; the interactions that take place in her story reinforce what Jill told me about her relationship with her dog, that Max is her best friend. 

The 6 Traits of Writing:

Ideas: 

When looking at Jill’s ideas within her writing, everything seems as important as everything else; I had a hard time sifting out what was important.  In addition support was attempted, but Jill didn’t go far enough in describing the key issues.  Here is an example of this:

Ex: Instead of chasing for the blue jay he stared rolling in the flowers and finally he went to the bathroom.  He went in the flufy flower and the bushy bushes when was done he pranced on the window and put his mudy paws on the window because he steped in a mud pudel.   

Organization:

In terms of organization, Jill had a hard time making connections between ideas.  Therefore the sequencing of her story shows some logic, but not under control enough that it consistently supports the development of ideas.  Here is an example that supports this:

Ex: When Max whent to bed he woke up to eat agin. I stared to star at him. I was hoping he would not see me. But just then he turned around and he cout me looking at him quckly.  Max went to his bed and dragged it to me . 

Voice:

Jill has written a story with a sense of purpose, but needs to work on selecting content and structures that reflect it. Here is an example of her voice:

Ex: I feel on the flor.  Max pranced and yelled in my ear, saying “Get up lazy head.” I said ok Scardly. I thought this was a dream. So I pinched my self and I said that hurt really bad.

Word Choice:

Within Jill’s story, she typically used familiar words and phrases to write her story. At times word choice appears to have developed from the first thing that popped into her head.  Here is an example of word choice used in Jill’s story.

Ex: He was done before you’d know it he ran out of breth he was thirsty and he was really really tyerd so he got a drink of water.

Sentence Fluency:

Jill’s phrasing of sentences does not sound natural; she needs to work on run-on sentences and the word choice in which she begins her sentences; many of the sentences in Jill’s story beings the same way, with an “I” or an “after.”

Conventions:

Jill’s story contains spelling that is usually correct or reasonably phonetic on common words, but more difficult words are problematic.  Her story also contains missing paragraphing as a result it becomes difficult to follow the structure of the text. Here is an example of commonly misspelled words:

Ex:  screming, racoona, agin, quckly, flor, feelt, and feel (instead of fell).

Ownership of writing:

After speaking to Jill about her writing, I know that she enjoyed writing about her dog Max. When I asked her about how she felt about her writing she responded that she “is a slow writer.”  I told her that speed does not matter and I pointed out to her the amount of pages she had written in her short story; she had written 6 whole pages!  She started to smile and told me that when she took her story home to finish, she worked on it for a long time, she only stopped when her wrist began to hurt from holding the pencil.  I have yet to get a good understanding of how Jill feels about herself as a writer, but I fear that because she thinks that she is slow at writing her confidence as a writer might be affected negatively.

Spelling:

During my first meeting with Jill, I administered a spelling inventory.  The inventory contained 25 words beginning with sight words and moved up to more challenging words; the score that Jill received was 11/24.   Jill seemed nervous when I told her we were going to take a spelling test, but I explained to her the purpose and she seemed to relax a little.  After analyzing the words misspelled, Jill would benefit from working on digraphs and blends, long vowel patterns, and other vowel patterns.  As a result Jill would fall into the writing stage of Transitional and the spelling stage of Within Word Patterns.  Being in the transitional stage of writing, Jill is approaching fluency in reading and writing and she would benefit from work on her spelling, specifically long vowels with the aim that through knowing the correct spelling of words, the correct pronunciation of these words will also occur. 

Lesson Plan: Writing a Paragraph

Objective:

Student will be able to define a paragraph including the proper parts and structure.

Student will be able to write a paragraph that includes a main idea and topic. 

Standards:

EALR: 3. The student writes clearly and effectively.

Component 3.1 Develops ideas and organizes writing.

3.1.2 Organizes writing using a logical organizational structure.

Materials:

Pencil

Paper

Paper with paragraph definition and paragraph rules.

Instructional strategies:

-Begin by talking about what a paragraph is; asking what is a paragraph? and what pieces of information need to be in a paragraph?

-Introduce the definition of a paragraph: A paragraph is a group of sentences that tell one idea. Then I will introduce a sheet that contains the rules of the paragraph, we will talk about each rule and what it means.

-Paragraph rules are as follows:

·         Indent the first word in a paragraph (start the first word of the paragraph a little to the right of the left-hand margin.

·         Start a paragraph with a topic sentence, which states the main idea of that paragraph.

·         Any time you begin writing about a new idea, begin a new paragraph.

·         Paragraphs answer questions about a certain topic

-I will introduce an example paragraph and talk about how it follows the four rules of a paragraph.

Example Paragraph:

 (indent) → Skiing is a sport enjoyed by many people. One kind of skiing is called downhill skiing. Skiers ride up a ski mountain on a chairlift or gondola. Then they ski down the mountain on ski runs and start over again on a chairlift.

(new idea) → Another type of skiing is called cross-country skiing. Skiers begin skiing on flat ground and continue gliding their skis through the backcountry. They don't need a chairlift to take them up a mountain. They stay on a trail or make their own trail in the snow.

I will work with the student to write a paragraph describing their favorite animal. She will use 3-5 sentences in her paragraph. I will emphasize the importance of making sure the sentences stay on the subject of their topic sentence.

Assessment: 

Teacher will assess whether the student was able to define a paragraph including the proper parts and structure by checking her 3-5 sentence paragraph looking for a paragraph that includes a main idea and topic and follows the four paragraph rules. 

Apps in the Class

The classroom that I am student teaching in has a range of abilities; the range of ability levels is what I feel would be comparable to most classes within the general Seattle area.  Recently, I have received an IPod Touch from the University of Washington Bothell to use with students to help differentiate instruction in the classroom.  I have personally owned an IPhone since their first generation, and I am very comfortable with the ability of functions that this form of technology contains.  I learned early all about the educational value that IPhones or IPod Touches contain from my son.  My son just turned four and is a complete wiz using all the applications this technology offers.  I began purchasing letter games and virtual story books when he was younger, and now he uses different phonics reading games as well as puzzles.  Therefore when I considered ways to use this piece of technology in the classroom, I thought of three particular ways that would be helpful in my 5^th grade class:

1.       Working with kids with special needs.  The Itouch contains a stop clock, some students with special needs are very particular to time and need timers to help them transition into the next activity.  The Itouch has a stopwatch feature that is very easy to use; the student could even start it themselves.  (This feature could also be used in whole class instruction when students are given a specific amount of time to individually or pair-share).

2.      Working with students whom need extensions.  For this example I am thinking about a student very strong in math, if he was to finish early he could use the Itouch to graph date tables from data he collected in class.  We are currently working with stem and leaf plots and it would neat to allow this student the ability to take that information further and input the data into the graphing calculator application, allowing him the ability to see the data being graphed in multiple ways. 

3.      Working with students whom need a little more practice with their math facts.  There are a few students whom need a little more practice with their basic facts.  So to help them move from the counting stage to the recall stage, practicing these problems would help.  There is an application called Math Drills that offers students extra practice with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  The app offers a review section and a practice session.  The review section is really nice because it uses a number line to visually show how 3+5= 8!

As the needs of my students become more apparent to me, I know I will discover many more helpful ways to utilize the Itouch in the classroom. 

Week 2 Blog

1.  What did I learn?

I was able to take a lot of useful ideas from the assigned reading for class; the reading was titled “Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say.” This is an article written by a practicing teacher regarding what she has learned, and seen to work, when teaching children.  The main idea realized by this teacher was that by merely telling students the answer or showing them short-cuts, students don’t learn; therefore she believes that real learning occurs when students are able explain and make sense of their own ideas.  One quote that I really liked from this articles states, “my definition of a good teacher has changed from ‘one who explains things so well that students understand’ to ‘one who gets students to explain things so well that they can be understood.”  I have interpreted this to mean that students need the opportunity to explore and discover the answers themselves allowing them to actively think and become engaged; students are able to help each other and share their thinking to one another.    

2.  What do I still have questions about?

When students are exposed to new ideas or concept, shouldn’t the teacher model different strategies in the beginning to help them get started?

3.  What are the implications for classroom practice?

The largest implication this methodology would have on the classroom would be that the focus would be taken from the teacher and placed onto the students.  The teacher would help facilitate their learning by asking them the best possible questions and encourage students to listen to fellow classmates for strategies.

Week One

1.  What did I learn?

In class today we worked in partners to solve algebraic math problems.  After the first problem, counting the garden squares, my partner quickly solved the problem and immediately shared her solution with me.  I found it great to hear how she solved the problem, but I had needed more time to solve the problem for myself; in addition the method she developed differed from where my mind was trying to go.   I immediately noticed that when I did not have enough time to solve the problem myself, listening to how other people solved the same problem did not help me; it confused me more!  For the second problem, my partner gave me more time to solve the problem before we shared our thinking; from there I was able to understand her method.  I found my situation interesting because I could imagine the same scenario occurring with elementary students.  From this I learned that students need individual time to process, and the amount of time to process will vary for each student. 

2.  What do I still have questions about?

Is it ok to allow students the option to work independently or with a partner? What if a student prefers to always work alone?

3.  What are the implications for classroom practice?

The implication for classroom practice is that students learn differently and students think through problems differently, therefore it is important that a classroom cater to all the needs of the individual learner by offering a variety of opportunities for each type of learner to thrive.   

Fostering great literacy in the classroom

I have been very fortunate this quarter to get the opportunity to observe and work in an amazing English classroom.  Unlike any other classroom I have experienced, the walls are lined with student art work and popular bumper stickers such as Kill Your Television, and a particularly large banner stating Skateboarding is Not a Crime.  The classroom embraces all who enter it and turns no one away.  Here I have been able to experience some phenomenal teaching as well as learning.  These students become facilitators of their own learning, with the teacher simply guiding them.

I have obtained many helpful tips when it comes to teaching literacy at the higher grade levels, here are some of the more helpful:

1. It is incredibly important for students to learn how to interpret and understand meaning within their text.  A method for teaching students how to successfully interpret their text is by encouraging them to make notations in their books (or on sticky notes) while they are reading; students read and mark for evidence, meaning their notations should back up their understandings.

2.  Creating a Writing Comments to Remember paper.  This paper consists of three categories, punctuation, spelling, and writing techniques.  Here students are required to record notes made by the teacher regarding their writing in hopes that the same mistakes won’t be made twice. For example, if the student has made an error through the use of comas, the student would record that error under writing techniques.  Here the student would reference this paper every time a new writing piece was due, to ensure that their errors were not repeated.  I love this idea; students are held accountable for their own work and learn to edit their own writing. 

3.  Another idea that I love is the idea of “Hawk Eyes.”  This is what I would call small writing groups or peer editing.  Here are the expectations:

Purpose:

Have fun sharing

Proofread

Constructive feedback

Process:

Positive comments

            Velcro words

            Specific plot and description

Questions or suggestions

Share comments orally

            Positive first

            Then questions (clarification)

Afterwards:

Staple peer comments to paper

            Put in notebook

Exit ticket:

Tell teacher one thing that worked

Tell teacher one thing that needs to be changed or worked on

These are just a few of the many amazing ideas that I have had the opportunity to experience.   

Tech Posting

I love this

What about Phonics

          According to Barbra Fox, author of the 4^th edition, Word Identification Strategies: Building Phonics into a Classroom Reading Program, people whom read and learn to read must know phonics in order to understand that letters represent individual sounds.  Fox believes that words are a combination of patterns and interpretations in addition to the idea that letters and sounds form a relationship, along with onsets and rimes.  In chapter four, Fox discusses the importance of children learning how to identify onsets and rimes in words which can help children to “sidestep the need to learn exceptions to the conventional way letters represent sounds in the English words” (Fox, pp. 94).  In other words when children learn how to say a family of onsets and rimes they can apply that knowledge to other words that they do not know to help give them clues about how to read the new word. 

          I mentioned in an earlier post, that I did not grow up learning phonics, but as an emergent teacher and mother of a developing reader, phonics helps support readers of all levels.  As a beginner to the many aspects of teaching, I am finding a lot of comfort in books like Fox’s.  I look forward to the many experiences that I will encounter as a new teacher and all the things that I expect my students will teach me, yet getting the opportunity to read books that explain in detail how to best serve a specific child’s need is incredibly helpful. 

         

Learning to write

As children we were taught the proper formation of letters of the alphabet, lower and upper case, and in most instances we were taught cursive.  We were taught proper syntactic and semantics of writing along with the various formats of essay writing, but what for?  As I have grown older and experienced the required practice of assignment writing, it was not until I began to write without a purpose, or for an assignment, that I understood the individual satisfaction of writing.  It is not to say that I do not appreciate the rigor of practicing format and structure, but was content, creativity and descriptive writing forgotten?  Maybe not, but for me as a child, those things definitely took back seat to being grammatically correct. As I have begun the process to teach others about writing, I have begun to think about writing differently.  Does being a writer mean being a booklover?  Does reading correlate to being a better writer?  I am not sure of the answer to these questions, but from what I am learning, it definitely does not hurt to be a person who reads, when it comes to writing. 

I have begun reading the book titled Bird by Bird, written by Anne Lamott, a realistic and funny guide to the challenges that writing can bring; the title comes from the idea that writing comes in steps, processes and ideas.  Lamott describes her struggle with choosing writing as her career path, but she finds value in teaching others about the truth of writing.  As Lamott describes, “good writing is about telling the truth….(yet) telling the truth in an interesting way turns out to be about as easy and pleasurable as bathing a cat” (pp.3).  From reading parts of her book, I understand that teaching others to love writing can be challenging, because writing is challenging.  Most people want to be good at new things immediately, but most of us are not; we need practice, and more practice and most importantly we need connection to what we are writing. 

I am currently working with a young reader and writer, whom is just at the beginning stages of the writing process.  According to Barbara Fox, and her book ,“Word Identification Strategies, he is in the stage of partial alphabetic, meaning he is just beginning to understand the alphabetic principle  (Fox p.18).  As I have begun to work with him, I quickly learned that his favorite thing in the world is SpongeBob.    I have decided to use this knowledge to help gain his attention, by incorporating SpongeBob literature and books into our interactions.  Through his own personal interest in SpongeBob I hope to gain his curiosity in learning more about reading and writing.  My goal as a teacher is to help motivate and facilitate honest, creative ideas while maintaining the principle that we all make mistakes and we just need to use those mistakes to help us learn.   

Week 2

As a child, I learned to read typically, meaning that I do not remember struggling with reading or having any negative memories associated with learning to read.   I also do not remember the method or methods that I was taught to read, phonics maybe, but I cannot be sure.  After reading “Word Identification Strategies,” by Barbra Fox, I was surprised by the amount of phonemic strategies used to help all types of learners at any level to read. 

What I have learned is that to teach someone to read requires very specific intentions, what I mean by this is that the strategies teachers use to facilitate a reader will be specific to their reading needs; there are a lot of ways to read and there are a lot of ways to teach kids to read.  According to Fox, it is important to use phonics and teach phonic awareness to young readers.  Phonics is helpful to young readers because it connects what the students already know, spoken language, and connects it to identifying written words that they do not recognize. 

As a teacher, it is so important to understand the stages associated with learning to read, with this knowledge comes the ability to apply different strategies to best help the stage the specific learner is at.  The quicker a reader can learn word identification strategies, the quicker they can develop their comprehension skills.