Blog 9

The reading talks about starting the day for a younger group of students in the classroom setting.  The classroom can be set up in a way that best benefits the teacher and the students.  Having young students can be very difficult in the sense that classroom management has to be drilled into their heads before any curriculum can be taught.  Some Kindergarten teachers spend the first few weeks of school teaching their students to be disciplined and teaching them the flow of the day.  The reading talks about bringing all of the students to the carpet to start the day, which is exactly what my teacher does in my field placement.  She calls her students to the "pit" to start the day.  In the pit she goes over the date, the weather, and other items to start the day.  The children know exactly what to do and when to do it, but my teacher said it was not easy to get them to that point.  The reading also discusses different ways to get children to not only read and write, but to get them to discuss reading and writing.  Children have a hard time talking in front of their peers, so I think it is important for teachers to think of ways to get children to discuss.  My teacher in my field placement always opens the discussion to something that the children can relate to, because children love talking about personal experiences. 

Blog 8

Some parents are overly concerned about the mechanics of their children's writing.  Writing isn't all about readable handwriting and correct spelling.  Writing is a form of communication, and as long as young children are doing some sort of communicating through their writing, then they are on the right track.  Writing is about being able to express what is in a child's brain on paper.  The very first time I asked my case study student to write, she mainly drew pictures.  She then was very eager to talk about her pictures and I learned a lot through those pictures.  After I read to her, I have her draw pictures of the setting and characters.  It is a good way for me to test her comprehension.  In the weeks to follow, I plan on working more on writing with her, but pictures were a great first start for her.  I think drawing is a great first step to anyone's writing career. 

Blog 7

The reading discussed the basic concepts and terminology of phonics.  A syllable is a group of letters that are produced as a unit and contain one vowel sound.  There are different syllable patterns that make up different words.  The Kindergarten classroom that I am currently in works on syllable patterns each day during their carpet time.  Each day one student gets to write their name on the board and the class decides how many syllables are in the name.  They then clap out the syllables and say a little chant to go along with it.  I just really thought it was a cute idea, and I would love to incorporate that type of activity into my future classroom.  It is something that the students enjoy doing, and it also covers syllable patterns, which is a very important part of phonics, as discussed in the reading. 

Blog 6

            There was a lot of information presented during the webcast, but there were definitely some points that stood out to me as a future teacher.  I want to focus on Pat Johnson’s part of the webcast that discussed instructing students how to read.  It is important that teachers teach students more than just how to read, but how to understand the material that is read.  Often times students will read the text without any mistakes, but they have no recollection of what the reading was about.  Students need to learn how to actively make meaning of the text, and it is the teacher’s job to make sure students do so. 

            Pat discussed three main ideas about how students read using the methods of meaning, syntactic, and visual.  Students may use the pictures to help understand the text, which is the meaning method.  Students will sometimes just know the text from speaking words, which is the syntactic method.  Lastly, students may use their phonics skills to help read the words, which is the visual method.  All students are different and learn differently, and they should all use the methods of reading that works best for them.

            Pat also discussed how teachers need to realize that reading is not always about accuracy, but it is about looking ahead to see how the reading will help the students grow as better readers.  This is something I will really need to work on as a future teacher, because I want my students to read the correct information right in the beginning, which is definitely not realistic.  I need to focus on the big picture and help my students be the best they can be.  Reading takes practice and time.  It is also about meaning making, and I need to make sure the students comprehend the text that is being read.  This webcast was very beneficial, because it allowed me to look at the full concept all the important aspects of reading. 

Blog 5

I have been working with my Kindergarten student each week on her reading and writing skills.  Last week I had her do a writing sample, and I was pleasantly surprised with how well she did.  I was expecting her to draw pictures and maybe write her name, but she wrote two complete sentences and even used some punctuation.  I knew that my student was advanced for her class when I first started working with her, but this assessment really showcased her skills.  From looking at what she did last week, I think I want to work on using the correct punctuation at the end of her sentences and work on when to use capital letters and when to use lower case letters.  I would have never thought that a Kindergartener would be this advanced in her skills, but it just goes to show that we as teachers should never underestimate our students and their ability to perform in the classroom.  I am excited to see how my student excels throughout the semester, and I am going to do my best to help her advance. 

Blog 4

Chapter 5 discusses the many different ways in which reading and writing can be done in the classroom.  I want to focus more on the reading aspect for this blog, because I see great modeling of reading using the different techniques discussed in the reading in my current field placement.  Reading can and should involve reading to children, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading.  The reading talks about how all of these different methods of reading are beneficial for students, because students retain information in different ways and each student needs to find which method works best for them using the different techniques discussed above.  I mentioned in class how my field placement teacher has a great set up for her literacy block, and she uses all of the methods of reading during that block.  During that block, the students rotate to different stations and each station has a different activity that uses different reading techniques.  The students love it and it is very beneficial for them, because it increases their reading skills.  

Another topic mentioned in the book was how some teachers feel that reading aloud to students should only be used for entertainment.  It discussed two different types of ways in which teachers can read aloud to students, traditional read aloud and interactive read aloud.  I personally think that if a teacher just reads a book to the students without using any type of comprehension techniques, the reading will go in one ear and out the other.  Teachers should use different techniques like inferring, visualizing, questioning, and ect.  Interactive reading will engage the students and allow for better comprehension of the material read. 

Blog 3

There are many different strategies that can be done in order to teach students how to not only read but to pronounce the words they are reading and make since of the meaning.  In the reading it talked about how teachers use modeling to show how to properly correct mistakes made.  The teacher wrote a sentence on the board and used the word “look” instead of “took.”  She modeled how important rereading is to her students and how once reading the sentence out loud, the mistake can jump out.

In class, we modeled different strategies to use during reading time, which I think closely relates to this reading.  The strategy that really stood out to me in class was the “make a picture or mental image” strategy.  This strategy can be used while reading a book to allow the students to use their imagination.  The teacher will read a page to the students without showing the picture, and the student will then draw an image in their head about what is happening in the book.  This strategy keeps the students thinking during the whole time and using their imagination to draw mental images in their heads.  This is one of many strategies discussed in class this week, but they are all definitely beneficial in their own way. 

These strategies along with the ideas presented in the book are all great methods to use while teaching children how to read.  The book focused a lot on phonics and how to teach students how to pronounce words.  Teaching phonics is not an easy task and there is really no right or wrong answer on how to do so.  Like I mentioned in my previous blogs, every child is different and struggles in different ways.  It is up to the teacher to think of reading techniques in which all children can succeed.