Determine Learning vs. Acquisition and explain your answer.
Overall, I would say the biggest difference that I see between learning and acuisition in the activities is who initiates the direction the process is taking and whether the acitivity is concrete or higher level thinking. One of the most solidly clear learning activities is directed by the teacher and is mostly drill and practice like when a teacher has a sturdent look up words in a dictionary and write the defiitions. A clear acquisition acitivy is when student chooses a book and does a picture walk of a new book. Some of the activities where it wasn't clear which type it was were when students were given perameters by the teacher but choice also within those guidelines like only reading books that are within their reading level.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Blog #2
Reflect on the writing instruction you have received.
This is a really hard question for me to answer, because I don't remember much about learning how to write. Overall, the memories are do have are traditionalist in nature. My earliest memories come from 5th grade where I had to copy definitions. I remember the word "bust." I hated copying that definition. It had like three and was really long. I did learn the meaning of the word. However, I think I have said the word maybe once in my lifetime. One instructor used the traditional writing methods of drill and practice with worksheets showing us where to punctuate when we had a series of three things, or how to change the verb tense. I don't feel like this was bad, because as I help my own students punctuate their sentences the image of this process pops in my head. Therefore, it must have worked for me. There were other times when the teacher either skipped skills or assumed I had acquired them, because I don't remember being taught how to combine clauses. It wasn't until college when I had a teacher traditionally instruct me on how to fix a run on sentence or a fragment.
In about seventh grade, I did have one teacher who made me keep a writer's journal, and I could write whatever I wanted in it. I wrote poems, drew pictures, complained, etc. She would read it and comment on the content, but she would not correct my grammar. She was the first teacher I had that was more of the process writing framework. I could guess that as I got older, the release of responsibility and movement from traditional to acquired probably grew. However, I don't remember well enough to say that for certain.
This is a really hard question for me to answer, because I don't remember much about learning how to write. Overall, the memories are do have are traditionalist in nature. My earliest memories come from 5th grade where I had to copy definitions. I remember the word "bust." I hated copying that definition. It had like three and was really long. I did learn the meaning of the word. However, I think I have said the word maybe once in my lifetime. One instructor used the traditional writing methods of drill and practice with worksheets showing us where to punctuate when we had a series of three things, or how to change the verb tense. I don't feel like this was bad, because as I help my own students punctuate their sentences the image of this process pops in my head. Therefore, it must have worked for me. There were other times when the teacher either skipped skills or assumed I had acquired them, because I don't remember being taught how to combine clauses. It wasn't until college when I had a teacher traditionally instruct me on how to fix a run on sentence or a fragment.
In about seventh grade, I did have one teacher who made me keep a writer's journal, and I could write whatever I wanted in it. I wrote poems, drew pictures, complained, etc. She would read it and comment on the content, but she would not correct my grammar. She was the first teacher I had that was more of the process writing framework. I could guess that as I got older, the release of responsibility and movement from traditional to acquired probably grew. However, I don't remember well enough to say that for certain.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Blog #5
Review 2 children's books and determine what components in the book might affect comprehension because of cultural aspects.
The first book I chose was I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words by Michael Frith, because it is very reflective of American society and culural values. First, it shows the concept of caring for pets like fish, cat, pig and dogs. It also has animals that are not pets like a moose, bear, mouse, and goose.Finally, it has animals in a zoo. You could teach the difference between wild and domestic animals with a picture sort. Once they understood the concept of a pet, you could teach the care of animal with a web. I invision putting a picture of the animal in the middle, and they cut out from magazines or newspapers, items and actions used to care for a pet. The glue these around the images, and we write the matching vocabulary words underneath.
The other domestic concept that is found in this book is the idea of an American houses with a fence, the need to paint it, roads, and the maintence of the lawn. Using a two column graphic organizer, the students could draw or post a picture of what their cultures housing is like on the left, and on the right, they can cut out, draw, or post pictures of what the American equivalent is. We can post the vocabulary words next to the images.
There are societal concepts in this book as well like neighbor, mayor, occupations and hobbies/sports. I would teach these concepts with act it outs, because the movement involved and the location of objects really impact the understanding of the vocabulary word.
The second book I chose was Olivia Saves The Circus by Ian Falconer. In this book there are concepts around household living as well, which could be taught the same way or added on to the previous book. This book looks at the indoor living aspects of indoor plumbing and having your own bedroom. You could do a fun lesson around uniforms and accessorizing by having a paper doll and discussing the vocabulary as the students created, added and adjusted the styles. This book aslo had a scooter and sailing which I would teach the same way I did with the societal concepts of the previous book. Finally, and obviously, there is the concept of a circus with a trapeez, trampoline, tight rope, and the animals. Here you could do a compare and contrast chart with these vocabulary words. This part also lends itslef to the study of animals from the previous book.
The first book I chose was I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words by Michael Frith, because it is very reflective of American society and culural values. First, it shows the concept of caring for pets like fish, cat, pig and dogs. It also has animals that are not pets like a moose, bear, mouse, and goose.Finally, it has animals in a zoo. You could teach the difference between wild and domestic animals with a picture sort. Once they understood the concept of a pet, you could teach the care of animal with a web. I invision putting a picture of the animal in the middle, and they cut out from magazines or newspapers, items and actions used to care for a pet. The glue these around the images, and we write the matching vocabulary words underneath.
The other domestic concept that is found in this book is the idea of an American houses with a fence, the need to paint it, roads, and the maintence of the lawn. Using a two column graphic organizer, the students could draw or post a picture of what their cultures housing is like on the left, and on the right, they can cut out, draw, or post pictures of what the American equivalent is. We can post the vocabulary words next to the images.
There are societal concepts in this book as well like neighbor, mayor, occupations and hobbies/sports. I would teach these concepts with act it outs, because the movement involved and the location of objects really impact the understanding of the vocabulary word.
The second book I chose was Olivia Saves The Circus by Ian Falconer. In this book there are concepts around household living as well, which could be taught the same way or added on to the previous book. This book looks at the indoor living aspects of indoor plumbing and having your own bedroom. You could do a fun lesson around uniforms and accessorizing by having a paper doll and discussing the vocabulary as the students created, added and adjusted the styles. This book aslo had a scooter and sailing which I would teach the same way I did with the societal concepts of the previous book. Finally, and obviously, there is the concept of a circus with a trapeez, trampoline, tight rope, and the animals. Here you could do a compare and contrast chart with these vocabulary words. This part also lends itslef to the study of animals from the previous book.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Blog #4
Choose a text in a language that you are not familiar with... Make meaning. How did you do it? What are the implications to your teaching?
The book was Stuart Little. I have knowledge of that story in English, so that helped with guessing at the plot. I have knowledge of the text structure of a novel. This helped, because they do not use quotation marks for dialogue. They use dashes, but I could figure this out, because they still tabbed in a new paragraph and a new line with a new speaker. The punctuation is similar but utilized differently. I could tell what word meant chapter.
The book in Spanish was easier, because I have past experience with the language, so I had some background awareness to draw upon. Plus, the alphabet is similar to English, and they are both Romantic languages which helped, because I could guess at words that looked similar. Words like "una, su, and la" could be more easily deciphered, because of their syntactical clues. Knowing the phonetic sounds of the letters helped, because I could sound out the words, and sometimes it sounded like words I knew. If I couldn't read the text at all, I looked at the images. The book was Stuart Little. I have knowledge of that story in English, so that helped with guessing at the plot. Even in the chapter book, the small images on most pages helped.
This will impact my teaching. To begin, I need to try to find the same text or a similar text in the student's native language to give them some security and background knowledge. Also, taking the time to preview the text structure can be helpful. Providing text with images is really important. Choosing key vocabulary to pre teach can really add to the understanding of the story. Finally, allowing students a way to process their understanding and to keep it/ store it while processing further can also be useful.
The book was Stuart Little. I have knowledge of that story in English, so that helped with guessing at the plot. I have knowledge of the text structure of a novel. This helped, because they do not use quotation marks for dialogue. They use dashes, but I could figure this out, because they still tabbed in a new paragraph and a new line with a new speaker. The punctuation is similar but utilized differently. I could tell what word meant chapter.
The book in Spanish was easier, because I have past experience with the language, so I had some background awareness to draw upon. Plus, the alphabet is similar to English, and they are both Romantic languages which helped, because I could guess at words that looked similar. Words like "una, su, and la" could be more easily deciphered, because of their syntactical clues. Knowing the phonetic sounds of the letters helped, because I could sound out the words, and sometimes it sounded like words I knew. If I couldn't read the text at all, I looked at the images. The book was Stuart Little. I have knowledge of that story in English, so that helped with guessing at the plot. Even in the chapter book, the small images on most pages helped.
This will impact my teaching. To begin, I need to try to find the same text or a similar text in the student's native language to give them some security and background knowledge. Also, taking the time to preview the text structure can be helpful. Providing text with images is really important. Choosing key vocabulary to pre teach can really add to the understanding of the story. Finally, allowing students a way to process their understanding and to keep it/ store it while processing further can also be useful.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Blog #3
Comment on the relationship between oral language and the reading process:
In the spoken word, phonemes are
the smallest parts of sound. To become proficient at phonemic awareness, a reader
must have the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds
within the spoken language. Also, one must demonstrate the understanding that
the sounds of spoken language work together to make words. The goal of phonic should be to teach the reader that there are
systematic and predictable relationships amongst written letters and spoken
sounds. This will help them in recognizing words and decoding new words.
Once
phonetic awareness has increased, fluency should be the focus. Fluent readers
read aloud effortlessly and with expression, because they recognize words and
comprehend them at the same time. Vocabulary
acquisition helps with fluency. Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize
or use in print. We need to know them to understand what we read. Most
vocabulary acquisition is done indirectly (context-embedded language). However, some of it can be taught (context-reduced language).
Indirectly, students increase their vocabulary by engaging daily in oral
language, listening to adults read to them, and by reading extensively on their
own.
Students
who are Second Language Learners will need more support along the way, because
their native language will most likely have had different rules surrounding the
manipulation of letters, sounds and words. One of the most difficult skills a
person has to do is to relearn. ELL students are learning a totally different
set of rules for a task they were probably already proficient at doing.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Blog #1
Discuss with another teacher, his/her philosophies about teaching literacy.
I discussed this topic with two teachers and a student. When I posed the question initially, the one teacher and student focused specifically on the writing portion of literacy. We all agreed upon these principles of instruction at the middle school level: Instruction should be fun, provide choice, be authentic, be rich in new topics of interest, be challenging, have high expectations, and allow for flexibility in the process.
I then talked with another instructor who utilizes the philosophies associated with "reading like a writer and write like a reader." We both agreed that reading good mentor texts are critical in inspiring good writing. We also feel like we want and need more tools to be able to help our low readers. As middle school teachers, we lack instruction around emergent literacy, and we strive to acquire it, so we can put in place interventions that are severly lacking at the middle school level.
Ultimately, all of us believe that we can all improve if given the right tools, guidance, and motivation.
I discussed this topic with two teachers and a student. When I posed the question initially, the one teacher and student focused specifically on the writing portion of literacy. We all agreed upon these principles of instruction at the middle school level: Instruction should be fun, provide choice, be authentic, be rich in new topics of interest, be challenging, have high expectations, and allow for flexibility in the process.
I then talked with another instructor who utilizes the philosophies associated with "reading like a writer and write like a reader." We both agreed that reading good mentor texts are critical in inspiring good writing. We also feel like we want and need more tools to be able to help our low readers. As middle school teachers, we lack instruction around emergent literacy, and we strive to acquire it, so we can put in place interventions that are severly lacking at the middle school level.
Ultimately, all of us believe that we can all improve if given the right tools, guidance, and motivation.
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