Blog #7

Blog #7 RUNNING RECORD MISCUES ANALYSIS

I observed an ESL class in an elementary school.  The majority of the children in the classroom spoke Spanish as their home language.  There was one girl who spoke Russian and one boy who spoke a Chinese dialect.  I observed a reading lesson.  The class is taught in English, with many visual and auditory cues given as needed.  The children have attended this school for over a year, so they are becoming much more comfortable with the English language, but as I observed, I was able to identify a few errors.  I noticed meaning errors, syntax errors, and visual cue errors. 

I noticed that overall, the children made more errors in syntax and visual cues than they did in meaning.  I noticed that the Chinese speaking child made several syntactic errors, mostly with tenses.  When reading, the child would tend to read words in the present tense.  I noticed that this child struggled with tenses even when speaking.  The Spanish speaking students struggled more with the visual errors.  I noticed that words that began with “B” or “D” were often misspoken.  I could attribute this to the difference in the pronunciation of letters in the Spanish alphabet and that of the English alphabet.   Words with vowel teams and diphthongs were also more difficult for the children to sound out. I would expect this error from most children at their age (1^st- 2^nd grade).   One of the more fluent speaking students in the class made some meaning errors.  The child would miscall a word in the sentence, but the sentence would still make sense.  During the lesson, the children were reading a story about owls.  The child miscalled the word owl, and replaced it with the word bird.  The book did not have pictures, so the child had created enough meaning to understand what the story was about. 

Because most of the errors were syntactic or visual in nature, I would wonder if the children are making much meaning of what they are reading.  I would not worry too much about the child making meaning errors.  The child is reading with errors, but the errors are not changing the meaning of the story.  In fact, the child is gaining enough meaning from the words, that that child is able to switch words and still keep the meaning the same.  As the teacher, I would focus on helping the children making visual errors.  These children are at the basic level of sounding out words.  Because the children are so focused on decoding, and still making errors, I would imagine that very little comprehension is taking place.  As the teacher, I would start teaching strategies such as skip and reread, rather than sound out each sound.  If the child can skip the word they don’t know and gain enough meaning to fill in the gap, they will gain the needed comprehension.  After they have an idea of what the word should be, they can go back and figure the word out.  For example, “The _____ rises in the east and warms the earth during the day”.  Even without the word in the sentence, most students could figure out what was missing based on the meaning of the sentence.  I would recommend the teacher focus on comprehension strategies rather than spending so much time trying to decode each and every word.

For the students making syntax errors, I would repeat what they had said, correctly.  This way the children are hearing the correct usage of the verb tenses.  I find this error hard to correct, but I find setting a good verbal example to be one of the most useful strategies.  For example, I heard one child read “The owl flewed over the field looking for food”.  I would have repeated, “Oh so the owl FLEW over the field . . . What did the owl do?”  The trick is to be consistent, but not make a big deal about the mistake.  The child needs to hear the write tense several times before it clicks.

Overall, the teacher had some really good strategies in place.  I admired the fact that all children in the class were participating, and even though they were all making different errors, she was able to generalize and support the children as needed.   My biggest recommendation would be to focus more on comprehension.  I felt the children were focused on reading the words correctly, but when the teacher was asking questions about the reading, all the children struggled.  I still believe that decoding is very important, but I think comprehension is the ultimate goal, and needs to be addressed at an early age as well. 

Blog #6

Directions: Label each activity (L) for learning/word recognition or (A) for acquisition/sociopsycholingiustic view. Some activities can have both labels. Be prepared to explain your choices.
The students:	The teacher:
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/A 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 A 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 word 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/A 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	L/A Pre-teaches 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 students help with the spelling of difficult words A Asks students to look around the room and find words starting with a certain letter L/A Uses decodable text A Sets aside time for SSR each day L/A Teaches Latin and Greek roots A Has students meet in literature circles L Conducts phonics drills L/A Chooses predictable texts A Teaches students different comprehension strategies A Does a picture walk of a new book L/A Uses a variety of worksheets to teach different skills

Learning vs. acquisition is an interesting dynamic.  I found myself determining a learning activity as one that a child would need to be able to move to the next stage of acquiring language skills.  When completing the task, it was easy to assign the titles of learning and acquisition when I was thinking of young children, but as I tried to make myself think of older children, the task took on a different role.  I found that activities that were labeled acquisition activities were activities that would need some scaffolding or primer activities (the learning activities).  The activities that were labeled both learning and acquisition were done so because I felt that the activities could be learning activities if a child was at a beginning stage.  Children could be simply identifying sounds or words.  If the activity was extended (it was difficult to tell what all was included in the activity), the child could then be acquiring information or language from the activity. 

I believe a strong foundation is key to sustained learning.  I would focus on language activities initially, and as students began to develop the necessary skills, I would then move to more acquisition activities.  I do believe that a good teacher should be able to take any activity and adjust as needed for the students.  Therefore, just about any activity could be a learning activity or an acquisition activity.  The trick is to know where your children are and how best to guide them to the next level.  Some children may be able to recognize letter sounds but still have a difficult time naming the letters.  Because every child is unique, we as teachers need to plan activities that can build the necessary language skills so that all children can focus on the acquisition of both language and knowledge.

Blog #5

Blog Entry #5

The first book I reviewed was titled “Guess How Much I Love You”, by Sam McBratney.  I identified four areas that might affect comprehension.  The first area that I thought would affect the comprehension of this story is knowledge of the vocabulary.  In this story, I feel that children will need to know what a hare is.  Most children are familiar with a rabbit, but may not know that a hare is very similar to a rabbit.  Children may also not be familiar with the word lane.  Lane is a path or road.  Finally, children may not be familiar with the word tumbled.  Tumbled means to turn over or roll over and fall down.  I would allow children to practice these words, act them out and come up with examples and non-examples of the words.
The next aspect of this story that may affect comprehension would be to have knowledge of prepositions.  Prepositions can be very confusing for English language learners.  I have found the best way to teach prepositions is to have children practice by acting out the motions.  For this story, I would focus on up/down, near/far, over/under, in/out and across. 
 
I would also focus on teaching children how to identify the names of the characters.  Most early elementary picture books have characters with one name such as Sam, Owen, Rodney, etc.  The main characters in this story each have three words in their names so this may be confusing to ELL students.  The names do give clues to what the characters are like and help to describe them.  The main characters are Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare.  In their names, the reader can determine the size of the character, the color of the character and what animal the character is.  By teaching children to pick up clues as they read, they will be able to create a clearer picture of what the story is about.

I would spend a few minutes helping children to understand abstract thoughts such as love and wish.  These concepts are more challenging to teach ELL because these are concepts that are not easily represented with visual aids and pictures.  Love and wishing are two main themes in this story, so it would be important for children to have an understanding of what these two words mean.  Children would be given many examples of the two words and given an opportunity to make meaning of these words for themselves.
The second book I reviewed was titled “Stone Soup”, by Marcia Brown.  The first area in the book that I would focus on teaching would be to build some background knowledge of the time period and livelihoods of the characters in the book.  I would focus on identifying what soldiers do and what wars are.  I would also identify how a village is different from a city.  I would identify what it means to have to harvest all of your food as opposed to going to the grocery store.
Another dominate concept in this story is the concept of ordinal numbers and phrases.  Throughout the book, children will encounter words such as 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd.  The story also uses ordinal phrases such as first, next and last.  I could help children identify these words by giving examples and allowing children to put various items and topics in order using the ordinal numbers and phrases.
This story has a strong lesson or moral imbedded within the story.  I would help children identify the conceptual thinking of ideas such as team work and generosity.  These two terms can be challenging and cultural views may differ on the definition and importance of these ideas.  When stories are teaching morals, teachers have to be knowledgeable of how the different cultures may have different feelings toward stories that teach moral issues. 

I believe an understanding of vocabulary is vital to understand any story.  This story has many levels of vocabulary, but a large portion of the story is focused around the characters making soup and the various ingredients they use. I would spend time teaching the various food vocabulary words.  The story uses several food items that children may not be familiar with such as carrots, cabbage, barley, potatoes, beef, and milk.  Children will be able to follow the series of events in the story if they have a basic understanding of the food used in the story.  I would use pictures to help the children identify the various foods.

Breaking apart the stories into the various areas where children might struggle will help to allow for understanding for all children.  As I was developing the areas and strategies I would use, I realized that these strategies would benefit any child, not just ELL students.  I find myself overestimating how many words my students truly understand so I would really focus on building vocabulary.  If the strategy builds comprehension, all children will benefit from the time it takes to teach the strategy.

Blog #4

Blog #4

 This was a very interesting activity.  I have always found myself trying to make sense of conversations I hear in restaurants or malls when others are speaking a language other than English.  I started off trying to make sense of an adult-fiction novel.  The novel was titled “La Luna Roja”.  I have a very limited knowledge of Spanish, but did recognize the title as “The Red Moon”.  Unfortunately, that was about all I was able to make sense of the book.  I started by trying to read the back of the book so that I would have an idea of what the story might be about.  I was unable to make any meaning from the back of the book.  As I started to read the first chapter, I was able to pick out a few words but that did not give me enough clues to make sense of the story.  I spent over 20 minutes on the first page alone, trying to recognize any of the words.  I was able to figure out the story took place 11 years ago during the spring, but that was all I could recognize.  While reading this piece of material, I tried several different strategies such as recognizing Spanish words that resembled English words.  For example, words like pijama and imaginar were found on the first page.  I was able to match these words with English words, pajama and imagine.  Unfortunately, identifying these two words did not give me enough information to make meaning.  I was also able to pick out characters names and names of places with the clue of punctuation.  I found reading the first page very frustrating.  I was sounding out the words (with English rules for pronunciation), moving fairly quickly through the text, but making no sense of the words. 

I then moved to an adult-nonfiction text entitled “Historias de Mexico”.  I found this text much less frustrating to read.  I used the same strategy as I had used in the first story I read, such as finding Spanish words that look like English words and using punctuation.  Because this text was nonfiction, the information included a lot of dates and places where events took place.  I was also able to make sense of some of this book because there were pictures and diagrams to go along with the text.  With the combination of a few words I recognized and the diagrams/pictures, I was able to get a general gist of the information.  I could not read the information word for word, but could give general details from the information.  I could move through the information in this story much more quickly.

I also tried to make sense of a children’s novel.  I even chose a book I was familiar with, but was written in Spanish, “El Leon, la Bruja y el Ropero” or “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”.  It amazed me how much I rely on the words for meaning.  I have probably read this book at least 8 times, but when I was faced with trying to make meaning of the story when it was written in Spanish, I had a really hard time.  I could recognize the characters and pick out a few words, but the details were lost as I was trying to translate the story back into English.  Trying to make sense of a story I was supposed to know was very frustrating, probably the most frustrating of all the books I looked at.  I used the strategies listed above but couldn’t make sense of much.  The story has very few pictures, so the pictures could not give me a lot of information.  I tried to fill in the holes of the story that I could remember with the words I could pick out, but I knew I was missing a lot of the story.  I can only imagine how much information our ELL learners are missing when they are reading text completely in English!

The last book I looked at was a popular picture book “Owen”.  I have never read the story before, but found it easy to make meaning of the story.  I used the pictures predominantly, but once I was able to put the story in order, I went back and tried to make meaning of the words.  The pictures played a huge part in my ability to understand what the story was about.  I would be able to retell the story in my own words if needed.  I think that pictures are a valuable tool for children learning another language, but I would not want the child to depend solely on the pictures.  I do believe it is important to work with the text as well so that a true meaning is obtained and a connection and meaning of the words can be gathered. 

The strategies I used included:

·         Matching Spanish words to English words (look-a-likes)
·         Using diagrams and pictures for nonfiction text
·         Reading stories that are familiar
·         Using pictures in picture books
·         Taking the stories one page, or even one sentence at a time
·         I had to take several breaks to avoid becoming completely frustrated
·         I found myself reading aloud much of the time

Blog #3

    Entry #3: Comment on the relationship between oral language and the reading process.

Oral language greatly affects the reading process.  As children begin to develop oral language, they begin to make rules for language.  I found the reading this week very interesting in that it stated that all children are wired for language, it does not matter what language they are exposed to.  I have worked with many children, both ELL learners and children with limited language exposure.  These children struggle with reading because they do not have the vocabulary to comprehend what is being read.  When children have a strong vocabulary, they are able to make connections to stories.  The children are also able to build on their vocabulary as they read and can make inferences about what a word might mean.  A child may not know what a German Shepard is, but based on the sentence, the child would be able to figure out that the sentence is about a dog.  Because the child has an understanding of what a dog is, they are also able to have an understanding of a German Shepard. 

Oral language development occurs long before reading skills are developed.  Oral language is the foundation of understanding.  I have read several studies that track the quantity and quality of language children are exposed to.  The studies I have read, by Ruby Pane, have found that children in poverty are exposed to less language and the quality of language is poor.  As these children enter school, they tend to struggle more with reading.  The lack of exposure to language can really affect reading. 

When I recall my first reading experiences, I feel like the time my parents spent reading to me made the biggest difference in my ability to read.  I remember reading and sounding out words.  Because I had heard the word used before, I was able to gain meaning of the story.   Listening to language and being able to use language will help children build the necessary skills to develop reading comprehension.

Blog #2

Entry #2: Reflect on the writing instruction you have received. Which view of writing described in this chapter corresponds most closely to your experiences?

As a child in elementary school, I remember spending a great deal of time writing stories.  Creative writing was the emphasis.  The fundamentals of writing were taught in isolation, not included in the story writing sessions.  Writing was done independently, with only a topic presented by the teacher.  As I continued into middle school and high school, the emphasis shifted from creative writing to report writing.  Writing structure was taught explicitly and little deviation from the five paragraph report was accepted.  I believe I was taught writing using the acquisition view during the elementary years.  The conventions of writing were not the focus and teachers graded based on ideas, creativity and organization of writing rather than the conventions and structure of writing.  As I moved into middle and high school, I believe the instruction became more like that described in the learning view.  As I got older, the writing instruction became much more intentional and directive.  Writing conventions were highly emphasized and taught. 

I feel like I have struggled as a writer for most of my academic career.  I believe that if I had reversed the teaching styles so that I was getting the direct, explicit writing instruction in elementary school and a greater focus on the writing process as a middle school and high school student, I would have a stronger writing foundation.  In the time I have spent teaching writing, I have found that most students need the direct, explicit instruction for writing.  There are many steps and processes involved in creating a good piece of writing.  I have found that students are the most successful writers when they are given instruction about writing, starting with the basic concepts and building to a point when students can put together well written, grammatically correct sentences.  As students establish a strong foundation for writing, I could then build on the various writing processes and styles.  As with any topic a student is learning, I believe that a strong foundation is the key to success, and writing in no exception. 

Blog #1

Entry #1: Discuss with another teacher, his/her philosophies about teaching literacy. (This can be a casual, short conversation with the purpose of gathering another teacher’s philosophies on his/her practices of teaching literacy.)

I chose to discuss the philosophies about teaching literacy with a 2^nd grade teacher.  She felt that literacy if the foundation to all other learning, in that, you need a good foundation in literacy to be able to access other information from other subjects.  She believes that children spend the first few years of school learning to read but the remainder of their school careers are spent reading to learn.  This teacher had previously taught 5^th grade and had many children in the classroom that struggled in all academic areas because they lacked a strong literacy background. 

This teacher has a very linear approach to teaching literacy.  She believes in developing a strong foundation for children.  Even in 2^nd grade, she spends a great deal of time on phonemic awareness activities as well as phonics.  She believes that children will have greater success in reading in the future if they have a strong foundation when they are young.  Her school uses a reading assessment program DIBELs to determine the acquisition of phonemic awareness skills, phonics, decoding, and comprehension.  The teacher I interviewed felt that comprehension was the ultimate goal when teaching literacy because once a child can comprehend what they are reading; they can learn from the material and enjoy the material.

The teacher I interviewed believes reading should be an activity to enjoy for a lifetime, but children need the basic skills to be able to read.  Once these skills are developed, children can really begin to explore genres and decide what type of reader they will be for the future.  This teacher feels her role as a 2^nd grade teacher is to continue to build the skills and start to help children explore reading as a means of gaining information and for pleasure.

There are many components to this teacher’s philosophy that I found interesting and enlightening.  I agree with her statement that children learn to read and then read to learn.  I also agree that a strong foundation is important to reading, as with many other skills, to be successful later down the road.  Literacy is such a complex topic and there are so many components to literacy that I can see why she has chosen to break it down into the various components.  I was glad to hear her say that her ultimate goal is to help children develop a love of reading for entertainment value.  I do worry sometimes that schools get so systematic about teaching literacy, that the “fun” of reading can be lost.  As an adult, reading is an enjoyable pastime and this started when I was much younger.  I would like to think that children are developing strong literacy skills and also a strong desire to read for fun and knowledge.

 

Welcome

Hello,

I just wanted to welcome everyone to my blog.  Throughout the next 8 weeks I hope to explore literacy for the diverse learner.  Stay tuned as I share my learning and aha moments.

Thanks,
Jennifer