Collaborating Teachers

Being a beginning teacher will probably be the most exciting time in my life! However, it will probably be really stressful. What will probably help most is getting support from the teachers that have been at the school for a while and have lots of experience. We touched on this in class a little bit; Jill talked about how when you are a beginning teacher you will want to latch onto the positive teachers and use them for resources and to not be afraid to ask them for help. I think this little piece of advice really goes a long way! Teachers who work together are more successful, and I have heard that from many, many professors and teachers.
 My friend, Teddy, is a high school Spanish teacher. Teddy always talks about how working together and collaborating with the other teachers in his school really helps him grow and develop as a teacher, as well as come up with innovative ideas for his lessons. He says that without all of this support, he would feel lost and would not have nearly the quality of lessons he does now. This is really astounding! I really am a strong believer in the fact that teachers learn the most about teaching from the people who have actually experienced teaching in a great deal, who have made mistakes, and who are willing to share things that work in their own classroom with new teachers who are looking for new ideas.
It is really beneficial to my classmates and I that we have professors who have been through teaching before, and know exactly what we need to learn in order to be successful teachers. I am very thankful for that because I feel as if I am really learning what I will actually need to know when I am a teacher. I really love hearing real, authentic stories about things that happen in the classroom from professors that have experienced exactly what we will be experiencing in our near futures. These little stories are way more beneficial than some people realize!
I really hope that in my future school the teachers will collaborate with each other and work together to improve their teaching skills. It is literally the easiest way in the entire world to learn! Maybe some day down the road I will eventually return the favor and help out a beginning teacher when I am the more experienced teacher in the school!

Phonetics and Phonetic Awareness

Sometimes we think that the different sounds in words, rhymes, or knowing what the beginning sound of a word is comes naturally and there is no need to teach these simple concepts. However, these concepts don't always come naturally. We may not remember learning that stuff, so we may think it came naturally to us, but it might not have! That is why teachers really need to pay attention to teaching phonetic awareness in their classroom.
Not very much time is required to be spent on phonetic awareness, but some students might need it more than others. Some students that may be having a hard time with reading may need a little work with phonetic awareness. It might be all they need too get back on track! What really surprised me while reading From Phonics to Fluency was that even older students can have issues with phonetic awareness. This can actually cause them to have ongoing reading problems. This makes me feel like phonetic awareness might even be more important than what most people think. Maybe we as teachers should spend a little more time in the classroom with teaching phonetic awareness than 20 hours a year.
Small group instruction when working with phonetic awareness might be a good approach for teachers with only a few students who really need the practice. A teacher could identify students that need work with phonetic awareness and formulate a game or a lesson to work with those particular students on phonetic awareness. This might be the point in a student's life when reading starts to make more sense! Since this may come naturally to a lot of the other students, they will not need the practice.
Teachers really need to make sure they know their students well and know exactly when a student is having issues with phonetic awareness. That way, early intervention will be possible and there will be less students struggling later down the road with phonetic awareness.

My Field Experience

I have not gotten to blog about my field experience yet, so I wanted to take the time now to do so! I am currently placed in a 5th grade classroom with Mrs. Kinkead as the teacher. The classroom is very busy; there are 34 students! Mrs. Kinkead seems to handle it well though. She is always keeping the students busy and has minimal down time, which seems to be the key to success in a large classroom like this!
The students seem very technologically savvy. They all have their own personal iPads. Mrs. Kinkead informed me that these iPads were distributed by the school and that almost all of the students in the school use them in their classrooms now. I would have never imagined this sort of technology being in the classroom when I was in elementary school! The students seem to really like the iPads, and they have a lot of educational use. The students use apps like Quizlet, educational game apps, google docs, etc. These students are definitely "technology natives" and probably know how to use those iPads better than I can! I wonder if when I am a teacher or even when I am student teaching if I will need an iPad? I wonder if the schools also distribute them to the teachers? This may be a question for Mrs. Kinkead!
My case study student is a girl who loves to write but hates to read! She is very friendly, talkative, and outgoing. Mrs. Kinkead has told me that she is a "middle of the road" student reading level wise, and is reading at her grade level. She told me that her favorite genres of books are gossip books, books about friendships, and some mystery books. She also likes to write about these topics, and the writings that I have seen from her have mostly been about real-life situations and drama. She loves writing so much that she writes books all the time at home! I have seen some of these writings but haven't gotten a chance to read them yet, and hopefully I will get the chance. Her books are very long and she seems to put a lot of effort into them. However, she does not seem to enjoy reading nearly as much. She actually told me that she had been reading the same book for a month now and that she just doesn't like reading because it is boring. I am trying to think of ways for her to enjoy reading more. I think I should introduce her to different topics in the same genre that she likes. I have a feeling she hasn't looked very hard for books she would enjoy, so it might be easy for me to make suggestions to her. I am making it my goal to have her enjoy reading more! Another thing I am trying is bringing her books that I personally like to read (or books that I like to read when I was her age) because she seems to really look up to me and see me as a role model. If I like to read, she might be more willing to give it a try. If anyone has any suggestions for me of books that I should introduce to my student or suggestions about where to go next with a reluctant reader, I will gladly take them!

Webcast Thoughts: "Making Decisions for Individual Learners Within a Small-Group Setting"

This webcast was full of important information for all teachers! In particular, what stood out to me was the importance of forming a network of reading strategies. This is something we have talked about in class quite a bit. It keeps showing up over and over. This leads me to believe that it is one of the most important things we as teachers will learn. One interesting fact that I saw in the presentation was that 80% of students will form network of strategies no matter what program/method/philosophy is used, and 20% (the struggling readers) will have trouble constructing a network of strategies.  Yes, forming these strategies comes naturally, but we must teach all of these strategies in order to not leave anyone out! Teaching students a balance of MSV is the most important thing that our students will receive when learning how to read.  That is why we as teachers need to have these strategies and how to identify them down in our repertoire of teaching methods. Being able to identify what strategies our students use well and what strategies our students need to work on is very important in guiding students to the next step in their reading. With a strong understanding of MSV strategies, teachers can come up with a prompting question like, “does that look right?” without even really having to think about it because they have worked on this so much while they were a pre-service teacher.

I really thought the talk about ELLs was very helpful. A lot of ELL students are in my classroom for my field experience (5^th grade), so this was very relatable to my own experiences. Choosing books that are both appropriate to their language level and their reading level might be a little difficult. According to the Level Correlation chart, by grades 4 and 5, the ELLs should be considered “fluent”.  This is often not the case, especially for my classroom.  Some students may have a high level in reading, but not in language, or vice versa. When looking for books for ELLs, we must find a book that is in their reading level, but then make sure it also is parallel to their language level. Often times some of the vocabulary in books are difficult. We need to be constantly asking ourselves, “Is there a book at another reading level that this student might be more successful with?” We shouldn’t just bring students down a level because they do not understand the vocabulary.  I think this is a very important highlight of the webcast. So many times teachers will just say “oh, we should just bring him/her down a reading level” but with ELLs, we need to look deeper into what the student understands, what their language abilities are, and what they are capable of doing. Leveling for ELLs will take a lot more time and a bigger process than English speaking students.

Charts Charts Charts!

Reading Chapters 5 and 10 of "Catching Readers" got me thinking a lot about the importance of chart keeping and organization as a teacher. When you are becoming a teacher, organization and chart keeping becomes not only a daily occurrence, but a way of life! Charts become everything!

Last week I accidentally read the wrong reading for M301 (oops.. I read Chapters 1 and 2 of the CAFE book... but I might as well use my accidental knowledge now!) and what I read was also all about charts and the importance of keeping records. I think the reading in Chapters 5 and 10 coincides with this accidental CAFE reading.  So many benefits come out of chart keeping. With keeping a running record of when you have met for a conference with a student will keep students from falling between the cracks and keep you on task of knowing who you need to confer with next.  That is just one of the many reasons why you need to keep records!

Records and charts can also be a concrete proof of growth in a student. As much as you think you cam remember how much a student has grown from the first day of school, there are many details that you will simply forget if not written down.  This helps you as a teacher analyze your teaching and what to do next with this student.

Keeping charts will keep teachers on their toes.  There will be no scrambling around for ideas of what to teach a student in a one on one conference, because you will have the notes right there with you! You will know exactly what that student has accomplished in the past, as well as what that student needs to work on.

I think chart keeping will be a big change for me as a person. I am not one to write everything down (which I know I really should try to be a person like that). But, when I teach, I want to change myself into one of those people who always has their planner (or charts in this case) on them at all times! I want to be extremely organized in my classroom and this means having a multitude of running records on everything that goes on in the classroom. I want to also be an avid note taker, because I know in the long run it will help. I way to often think of something really great and forget it later because I never wrote it down! So, for the benefit of my students, I am going to start to make the gradual change to a really great chart keeper!

Beyond "Sounding it Out": My Thoughts

Chapter 4 of "Catching Readers Before They Fall" seems to me one of the most beneficial chapters that I have read from any of my books this semester. Something that I had always thought about during my past field experiences is how to handle a reader when they cannot read a word. Chapter 4 gives you many scenarios about what to do/say when readers are struggling. In my classroom, I will definitely be using the "MSV" strategies of word solving with my students. I feel as if this is actually easier for the students to understand than "sounding it out".

When I was in elementary school, I remember teachers constantly saying "sound it out!" rather than, "does that sound right?".  But, like what Johnson and Keier explain, most of the words in the English language can't even be sounded out! The English language is so confusing and crazy that I don't know how people could rely so much on the "sound it out" method. I understand that some words it might work, but I feel as if it would just be too difficult to enforce that strategy with my students. How would they ever know if the word was "sound-out-able"?

In my M301 field experience this semester, I am placed in a 5th grade classroom. By 5th grade, most students have reading strategies down pretty well, but the occasional struggle on a word is quite common among the students in my classroom. Last Thursday, I was reading with a student in their history text book when they came across a word they didn't know. I waited to see whether or not they were going to figure out the word (and to see what strategy they would use) and the student seemed to sound out the word, stop, think, and then finally say the word correctly. I think that this student started to sound out the word then maybe realized that it wasn't working for them, thought about the context of the word, then realized that it was a word that they have seen before. I had not read Chapter 4 by this time and I really wish I had because it would have been a great learning experience for me! Next time I go into my field experience I am going to listen closely to strategies these students use to figure out words that they do not know.

The Importance of ZPD

In just about every education class you will probably hear something about the ZPD.  Whether it is a methods class, a psychology class, or anything else, you have probably heard about it. But why is it so important that it is incorporated into so many classes? After reading Chapter 3 in "Catching Readers Before They Fall" I finally realized why this idea of teaching in the child's ZPD is so important.
 But how do teachers incorporate the use of ZPD in the classroom? I really liked the ideas that "Catching Readers" gave. One example of this was asking children individual questions based on their ZPD. I think this is an extremely good idea. As I was reading I was actually wondering how it was possible to be in each and every children's ZPD all of the time. This is nearly impossible, but asking questions specifically tailored to them is something that teachers should really incorporate into their lessons.  Not every lesson is going to be the same for every student. Some student might think it is too hard, some it might be just right in their ZPD, and some it might be into their ZAD, This idea of modifying questions may be one step toward getting everyone to learn within their ZPD.
I will continue to look for ways to work in every child's ZPD. With little ideas like the question asking idea, teaching can be a lot more successful.