I am very happy to hear about the topics you are choosing for your papers -- you are taking on significant issues in the field and analyzing practices that are in place in the schools. Can't wait to read them!
Yesterday in class we watched a video, "What Children Need in Order to Read", narrated by Marilyn Jager Adams. If you would like to see this video again, it was borrowed from Langara College.
We were also able to update our activity sheets to now include what teachers can do to advance reading fluency.
Lastly, we discussed the controversial issue of sex segregation in schools, either by grade or by subject. Research reported in The Vancouver Sun, "Men Teaching Boys" suggests elementary aged boys may do better in reading and writing if taught separately by men. Other research has shown similar results for high school females in math and science classes. However, other reading experts assert that the gender of the teacher doesn't matter as long as students' interests and needs are being met. In our complex, multicultural society, this issue isn't likely to be resolved soon.
Have a great weekend -- stay cool!
Last nights class was great. I really liked the video we watched. It gave some great ideas on how to teach reading. I know in my practicum class they did buddy reading with the grade ones. I asked my teacher on how she buddied up the students. She explained that she put them together based on their ready ability. I was amazed by the impact that it had on both students. The students were able to work together and figure out the problems by using strategies of looking at the picture for clues, sounding out words or looking for root words. Another aspect that I liked was using the guided reading method. Four or five students would sit with the teacher as they read. The teacher would listen and mark down the strategies that the students used in order to understand the meaning or solve a problem. It was amazing to watch the students read because when they realized the mistake they made they corrected them selves. If the student did not catch the mistake the teacher would ask the student to re-read the sentence and they would often figure it out. After a couple times of them self correcting, the students were making fewer and fewer levels. It was great to watch the students read as in many cases empowered the students making them want to read. I agree with the comments that we have to make reading enjoyable. I know from having a reading disability reading t can be hard. I like know that peple are creating positive opportunities for reading.
ReplyDeleteThe second aspect of the class that really struct me was the concept of inventive reading. I don't see a problem with inventive reading as I think it makes reading fun while they are learning. I have seen kids make up stories from the pictures in the book. They see a picture and makes a meaning of it through fluency. If students have the opportunity to explore with language and reading they will develop a passion for reading. Should we correct it? NO WAY. Its like the whole notion should we correct students spelling. Students are expressing who they are and what they know. Inventive reading allows for immagination and fantasy which they are proud of. If we as teachers are too critical in the beginning students will create a negative disposition towards reading. Eventually students will be able to read properly, let them discover what works and what doesn't. Furthermore, inventive reading will lead students to recognize sounds and words, thus building their vocabulary and sight words.
Just my thoughts
Helen
The portion of the class spent discussing and analysing the pros/cons of same sex reading classes was really fascinating. I am not sure how much place traditional stereotypes have in today’s classrooms. While we may be able to make big generalizations of what types of materials boys likes to read versus the types girls like, I think we would be doing children a big disservice of grouping them in same sex reading classes. I believe children should be exposed to a large variety of reading materials, to give them a balanced education. In their free reading time, students may tend to favour a type of reading/book and this must be encouraged for it helps inspired a love of reading, something that is extremely important. However, students learn to appreciate various types of readings, something they may not get in same sex classes. There is also the issue of socialization, and I think that students benefit for growing up with friends and classmates of both genders.
ReplyDeleteSomething else that stuck out for me in this week’s class was the concrete activities we can do with students to help their reading fluency and comprehension. Building word walls of “word families” can be so helpful to students, both primary and intermediate. In the high grades, word family walls can be used in language arts, social studies, math and science. I think as teachers we can never assume that all students have the same level of background knowledge or vocabulary. Taking time to explore new words (where they come from, what they are similar to) will help students with their confidence and help them attach meaning to their learning, something that is proven to help they gain true understanding.
Week 5
ReplyDeleteOur last class was wonderful. I loved the topics that were addressed and found that I learned many things. I was not really aware of what exactly fluency was, and now feel that I have a better understanding of it. I enjoyed the readings and the activities that were discussed in both the text and in class. I have seen some of the activities being done in classrooms, but was never really sure why, now I can understand why teachers use these strategies. One of my favourite things to watch children do is readers theatre. After practicing the passage and adding expression etc. students seem so confident and seem like they are really enjoying themselves. I have also seen students do buddy readings, this is great as the little buddies really like to be read to and the older buddy builds confidence when reading to a younger student. In the readings I appreciate that it states how the activities should be carried out by the teacher, this will be a great reference for us to use when working in a classroom.
The conversation about the article that addressed separating classes according to gender was interesting. It was great to hear Harpreet’s experiences from India in an all girls school. Our group had a lot of discussion around the social aspect of school. By separating males and females they are missing out on a huge learning experience on how to interact with the opposite sex. See you all next week!
Unfortunately I had to miss last class, however after reading over the blog entries above and the class overview I found the topic of co-ed classrooms intriguing. I agree, as a few people have already mentioned, that co-ed classrooms are beneficial to the social growth of children and adolescences. Although I have never experienced a school where there was only one gender I feel that school is a place where children and adolescence develop and play with roles, interactions and relationships between the opposite and same sex through friendships and relationships. To remove these opportunities would be a disservice to children, as they are going to have to experiment eventually, however it may not be in such a safe, supervised and forgiving setting. If children need to wait until they are adults to experiment with relationships (friendship or other) with the opposite sex they are at a disadvantage when they have to go out into the world and interact with the opposite sex on a professional level, where the consequences are greater and peers may not be so understanding or supportive.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to be in class to hear all of the other arguments on this topic!
The newspaper article about the segregation of sexes into different classrooms brought up some interesting discussions. I have never been in a segregated classroom as a student nor have I witnessed on as an adult but in contrast to that article I think there would be some definite negatives to the learning process that comes from segregation. First off, using one teaching strategy for boys limits the different kinds of experiences they will get. If the whole class is focused on “male” stereotypes, and the boys are not allowed to express, or witness other modes of learning how are they expected to develop new interests or hobbies. Secondly, the same way two different males teach two different ways a female and a male teach differently. Being forced to be taught strictly by a male once again limits the exposure to new ideas and ways of thinking. Further, a class of just boys will foster conversations from one genders perspective. A mixed classroom will have the inclusion of both sexes’ opinions and both sexes will gain from that interaction. These examples are all focused on how the academics of the segregation will be affected. The other matter is one from the socialization of the segregation.
ReplyDeleteInventive reading can be a problem but at the same time, I think it fosters creativity and imagination. I realize it does not help the reading process but learning can be done in other ways as well. Personally I think there is a limit to the amount of inventive reading that should take place. I think it is great to get students interested in reading, but if they are relying on inventive reading as they get older they will begin to struggle mightily. For example, reading a book about the dog Rex, the student may use the pictures to develop the context of the book. The student may be calling the character “the dog”, when in fact the text in the book is about the character Rex, who is a dig. Essentially the student will get the idea about the book, but will not be effectively decoding the text. This lack of decoding skills would become an issue as the student try to tackle more and more complicated books.
This was mentioned briefly in class this week, but we didn’t really talk about it… Does anyone out there have a strategy they use to prevent kids from correcting each other during oral reading? I agree this is something I’d like to prevent in my classroom, but I wasn’t really satisfied with the textbook’s recommendation to have all the other kids close their books and just listen while one student reads. I found in my class that having the other students follow along was vital if I wanted to ensure they were paying attention. I also remember that as a student I always had difficulty recalling information that was only presented orally. If the teacher read us a story and then made us answer questions about it, I always did poorly. I did much better if I was allowed to follow along in a copy while the reading was being done. I wouldn’t want to ask students’ to close their books during oral reading because I know that like myself, that would make comprehension more difficult for some of them. One thing I liked from the text was the emphasis that the goal of oral reading should be comprehension not accuracy. I think to help prevent students from correcting each other, I would share this goal with them. I think the example of someone replacing the word “automobile” with “car” would also be good to share with an intermediate level class for them to see how some mistakes in oral reading actually do show comprehension.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of whether or not to separate genders for language arts was interesting. I think that like any kind of grouping you do in a classroom, separating genders should be temporary and for a specific purpose. I wouldn’t want to separate the boys and girls all year long, but maybe for one novel study unit. I also question how much modern children actually fit into typical gender roles, so I agree with the idea at the end of the article that students just want to see their interests reflected in the curriculum. I think a teacher could introduce two stories to the class; one that may be of high interest to boys and one that may be of high interest to girls, without mentioning this gender distinction. Then let the students decide which story group they want to be in. It may be that all the girls end up in one group and the boys in the other, or it may be that the groups come out fairly well mixed. Looking back at the class I had in my practicum, I think it would be very difficult to choose one book that would have appealed to all the girls in my class or all of the boys. Likewise, even the activities mentioned in the article such as making paper bag puppets would not have appealed to all my girls, and I definitely would have had a couple boys that complained because they didn’t get to make a puppet.
As I read through chapter 3 on ways to improve fluency I found many helpful strategies and ideas. Many ideas I have been doing but didn’t realize what they were called such as choral and echo reading. I often do ‘ read to them, read with them and they read it back,” I have found this helps in so many ways. Not only do they hear the same story over a few times it helps when it comes to comprehension. One area that I have students do but didn’t realize it may be more detrimental then good was when I have them partner read the instructions are well one reads the other follows along and helps with words. The text describes the problems with this in that students are not given a chance to self-correct, and sometimes they are not listening to see if it makes sense. I have used it as it has shown me that the partner who is listening is paying attention. I now see that there are many better ways that will develop better fluency. I am excited to try some of these new strategies such as have partner close their book and just listen to see if it makes sense. I also like to idea of have students practice poems and readers theatre and then have them share it after they feel confident.
ReplyDeleteReader’s theatre is something I have had little exposure to using. My own children have done it many times with their class and love to come home and practice and share the stories. I think this is something I would like to explore more.
The idea of having children read and re-read stories even if they are too easy for them will help with fluency. I must admit I had one of my students remove a story from her home reading, as it was the only book she wanted to read over and over. I gave it back today as it is a favorite and it will help with fluency. It speaks to the importance of letting children chose their own literature.
As for the gender issue of teaching, I think there are pros and cons to each and a lot depends on teaching styles and learning styles and how well these are messed. Our group had a great discussion about some of these issues. I would love to see more of a male influence in the elementary setting. With our school district having middle schools we have lost a large part of the male influence in elementary schools. With family dynamics changing it is more crucial to see positive male role models in elementary schools.
I greatly appreciate our groups’ discussion on segregation on the basis of gender. I strongly disagree with segregation of boys and girls because I personally experienced the segregation. First, when boys and girls go to same school or a class, they learn social skills from each other and also, learn how to be friends with opposite sexes. Can you imagine learning to work with opposite gender when you are an adult or to be friends with them? Secondly, both the sexes, when they go to universities, they see each other as an object of sex, not more then that. Thirdly, they do not how to behave with each other and they are unable to initiate any conversations. Furthermore, they face many difficulties to see each other as friends with opposite gender. I have seen girls scared of boys and talk about them as a sex objects and they never thought that boys can be friends. For instance, for some girls it was extremely difficult to relate to boys and sustain any conversation. In my case, it was different because I was brought up little differently and I have a great relationship my father which made me more open to boys and be comfortable with them. Yes, I agree that boys and girls can be taught in different class rooms for some subjects, and still be together in the same school. I do not see any harm to them learning some subjects separately.
ReplyDeleteReading the book, I learned great new idea; “Don’t let children correct one another”. I never new this before and I always corrected my students because I was not aware of it. Moreover, no body ever told me or discussed with me. I know now and I will never correct my students while they are reading or writing. I realized that students’ confidence go down if you correct them and more importantly, they loose the ability to correct them selves. Furthermore, they loose the interest to try again and it affects them negatively. The crucial point struck to me that self-corrected ness is very important in order to be a fluent reader.
The other new concept, I learned about eye-voice span. It was amazing to see how eyes move a head of the brain, while the brain makes sense of what has been read. I believe that it is very important that students must know high-frequency words in order to be fluent readers.
June 4,
ReplyDeleteI greatly appreciate our groups’ discussion on segregation on the basis of gender. I strongly disagree with segregation of boys and girls because I personally experienced the segregation. First, when boys and girls go to same school or a class, they learn social skills from each other and also, learn how to be friends with opposite sexes. Can you imagine learning to work with opposite gender when you are an adult or to be friends with them? Secondly, both the sexes, when they go to universities, they see each other as an object of sex, not more then that. Thirdly, they do not how to behave with each other and they are unable to initiate any conversations. Furthermore, they face many difficulties to see each other as friends with opposite gender. I have seen girls scared of boys and talk about them as a sex objects and they never thought that boys can be friends. For instance, for some girls it was extremely difficult to relate to boys and sustain any conversation. In my case, it was different because I was brought up little differently and I have a great relationship my father which made me more open to boys and be comfortable with them. Yes, I agree that boys and girls can be taught in different class rooms for some subjects, and still be together in the same school. I do not see any harm to them learning some subjects separately.
Reading the book, I learned great new idea; “Don’t let children correct one another”. I never new this before and I always corrected my students because I was not aware of it. Moreover, no body ever told me or discussed with me. I know now and I will never correct my students while they are reading or writing. I realized that students’ confidence go down if you correct them and more importantly, they loose the ability to correct them selves. Furthermore, they loose the interest to try again and it affects them negatively. The crucial point struck to me that self-corrected ness is very important in order to be a fluent reader.
The other new concept, I learned about eye-voice span. It was amazing to see how eyes move a head of the brain, while the brain makes sense of what has been read. I believe that it is very important that students must know high-frequency words in order to be fluent readers.
I found the discussion this week about separating classes by gender very interesting. I think that just like everything in life there are positives and negatives to both sides of the argument. If separated, perhaps students would be more comfortable discussing certain touchy subjects. However, I lean more towards not separating students. Someone mentioned that interests could be tailored more to gender preferences but this causes generalizations and stereotypes, I.e. teaching boy’s sports related themes; not all boys are interested in sports, some like cooking. In everyday life we must relate with people of both sexes so it is a benefit for children to learn to socialize with each other and appreciate each unique point of view. My father was a horrible man, so I am very grateful for the wonderful male teachers I had in high school, who were role models of good male behavior.
ReplyDeleteI think that Marilyn Adams offered some helpful tips for teaching kids to read. She stressed the importance of learning the alphabet by playing with letters and using games to get kids interest. The idea of using alphabet soup for learning brought back memories of doing the same this as a kid and how much fun it was to identify the letters. She stressed the importance of reading to children about things they have an interest in, so that they enjoy reading, and want to learn how to read. This is good for their development and helps them gain an understanding of things they have never been exposed to (i.e. other countries, animals, new concepts). Marilyn mentioned that students learning to read by the end of grade one is a predictor of how they will do in later grades. I have read this statistic in many other textbooks and I am surprised that if this is such an important grade why more specialized attention is not directed here.
There was some really interesting discussion in our group about the issue of gender and whether or not there is better or worse practice. It seems that there are so many pros and cons on each side of the argument. I find it difficult in some regards to make general statements about what would be best for students. I work with students who have behavioural and emotional difficulties and their needs are so specific. It is easy to assume that if a student is really active and into "guy" stuff that he'd do better with a male teacher. In some cases, I'm sure this is true but I've seen the opposite happen. Some boys have been with male teachers who do more hands-on teaching, but if there is a lack of true connecting, the hands-on learning isn't nearly as meaningful to that child. I've actually seen some boys develop an edge with their male teacher and walls seem to go up. I'm not sure what the common experience is, but that is what I've seen.
ReplyDeleteAs for the advantages of segregating genders, the only one I can think of is not having the other gender as a major distraction. I rarely see this happen to an extent where it seems like we can't have boys and girls together. I would be concerned that we would have very socially inept students who wouldn't know how to interact with the opposite gender. On the other hand, I am making assumptions based on our culture that generally doesn't segregate genders. I don't seem to hear about the culture chaos that is created because of this in nations that have always segregated. As for whether or not this is something that would be beneficial in North America, segregation in the past conjures up feelings of caution and uproar. That's just my thought.
Esanju
I found this week’s discussion on gender segregation extremely interesting!! Several interesting points were brought up and many concerns voiced. My chief concern regarding the introduction of gender segregation into the Western school system surrounds the social implications and consequences. Being a member of the Indo-Canadian community, I know that often times Indo-Canadian children, particularly adolescents, are not encouraged to socialize with members of the opposite sex unless of course they are relatives. Therefore, for these students most of the exposure to the opposite sex is acquired at school. And although many parents belonging to Asian cultures may not agree, I feel the ability to socialize and interact with members of the opposite sex is an essential part of the adolescence maturation process. Therefore, if these students don’t experience this during their adolescence years they may experience feelings of shyness and nervousness later in life when surrounded by members of the opposite sex.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I felt if segregation was to occur in the school system it would make most sense for it to happen based on learning styles instead of student sex. Chiefly, because it is a huge generalization to assume all male students prefer a kinaesthetically based learning environment and all female students like the color pink and princesses. In my experience several students, both boys and girls, enjoy learning which includes some type of bodily movement. Therefore, instead of segregating students based on their sex it makes much more sense to place students in groups with those who learn in a similar manner!
Last class was a very intriguing one. I am finding that I am learning a lot every week about teaching reading in the classroom and different approaches and ideas on how best to reach all of the students in a classroom. When reading the chapter on fluency I was interested in one of the “Did you know” boxes about the average words per minute reading rate of children in grades 1-4 and adults. This is something that would be interesting to test and see where students are at for the beginning of the year and then end of the year. I would also like to know if I fall into the “average” adult category of 250-300 wpm. I was also attracted to the automatic reading and spelling high-frequency words section. I was not aware of the difference in misspelling words you do not write often, compared with those that you do, such as thay for they. I have not had a lot of exposure to teaching these types of high-frequency words that are usually meaningless, abstract, and connecting words. I found these activities most useful and enlightening.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the class and group discussions on gender in the classroom. Working in a middle school, we are often confronted with challenging situations of when to separate the boys and girls. At this age the distraction of flirting and attention seeking from the opposite sex can be an impediment to learning and work completion. The question was raised however, about the social implications of such segregation in schools. Is this something that is unique to North America’s ethnic melting pot? Something I do not feel prepared to comment on but is important to bring into consciousness. As for whether boys do better with male teachers or girls with female teachers, I genuinely feel this is an individual preference. Perhaps more than gender, it is a matter of developing a true connection with students on an individual, one-on-one level. Many of our students are lacking positive, relatable roll models. For me as a teacher and a professional, it is important to stay true to who I am and what I believe so that my students know what I am about. Taking into account learning styles, being aware of your interactions with students, selecting materials that are not gender biased or a variety of materials relatable to both genders and ensuring students have an equal opportunity to participate are perhaps areas we as teachers can attend to, guaranteeing equal prospects for all students.
Something that struck me while learning about fluency was that it is critical to reading comprehension due to the attention factor. While I agree that students who read words slowly, miss on the comprehension, I do not fully support this idea. There are exceptions to this rule. For example, the boy I tutor has excellent vocabulary and reading comprehension. However, he is still in the decoding stage and reads stories slowly. How then, is it possible?
ReplyDeleteI also did not realize the importance of re-reading a passage for fluency. But now I do. Last week, I taught a grade one class and they were putting together a performance based on silly poems they had picked themselves. They were reading the poems over and over again, each time using a different kind of voice. It sure made things interesting to listen to. It was almost like a reader’s theatre but with props and actions. I am thinking that if they were still decoding the words in their poems, students would not sound very expressive with their voices. However, I do wonder that if students re-read books over and over again, how can teachers know if they are fluent or not if they have eventually memorized reading the passage of a book?
I really enjoyed our discussion on gender segregation of teachers and the effects it may have on boys. It got me thinking about this issue from both sides of the debate. I think for many of us, we will agree that an all boys/girls school isn't helpful in social situations, but I think they tend to be more competitive with each other in achieving high marks in school.
One thing that really has stood out to me during all of our readings and even in the video is the importance of reading to children at home. When a student is read to at home, they have a much more likely chance of succeeding with reading and writing in school. I think that this is very true, and I have begun to see it with my daughter who is 5 and will be starting kindergarten in September. I have read to her since she was a newborn. When I began reading to her when she was not even a week old, I would not read children’s stories, I read the books that I was interested in. I know that for her the only benefit that she got was from being held while I read and by hearing my voice. However, once she was a few months old, I started to read her children’s books. She knows how to hold a book, she knows what titles are, and she knows that we read from left to right. However, my boyfriend’s daughter who is 6 days older has not experienced this. She comes to stay with us on the weekends and has told me that she is never read to at her home. She also does not go to daycare, so unfortunately the only person that reads to her is me and that is only one of two days a week. Last weekend, she picked a book and asked her father to read it to her and he said no. I was actually very mad at him for this, and told him that if she wants a story read he needs to read it. He said that he does not like reading out loud. I think that this was a horrible message to send since we had three children in the room at the time. However, I then picked up the book and read it. I have noticed that with this little girl who is very rarely read to that she does not have the patience to sit still through a story. She is constantly moving around and talking and the talking is not about the story. I think that this is very sad, and had she been read to through her childhood, things would be different. I have also noticed that when she does pick up a book she often will hold it upside down just because she has not seen enough people reading to pay attention to how to hold a book. In addition, when she writes down the few letters that she knows she often writes from right to left. It makes me very sad, and I wish that all parents knew the importance of reading their children.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed our discussion in class over male vs. female teachers. I do not think that boys should be separated from girls to be taught. Even if it does have some benefits, it is not realistic. In society, people are not separated from the opposite sex. I hope that it is the approach to teaching that is making a difference rather than being taught by a male. With my own personal experience with men who are interested in teaching children or childcare, I think men have a different sort of energy than women. I know that I am completely generalizing, but I think that men can bring something to the table that women do not always bring. I think that often they are much more playful and energetic around children. Perhaps, that is part of the issue that makes them seem as though they can be more effective teachers than women for some subjects. However, I do not think that a child’s education needs to be any different depending on if their teacher is a man or woman. I think that once you have built a connection with students you can teach them equally well regardless of your gender.
As I was absent from class on Thursday evening due to my sister’s graduation ceremony over at Douglas College, I attended Sue’s Monday night reading course instead. I think that one of the highlights of this class for me was the Marilyn Jager Adams video, “What Children Need in Order to Read.” I personally found this video to be jam-packed with great ideas for educators. It was a light-hearted and authentic glimpse at the phases children go through in order to read. One strategy to help with early literacy that stuck out to me particular was the idea of having a small group of children sit in a circle and identify letter names, while practicing how to write the letters on their chalkboards. I loved this activity because it allowed another student to be the “teacher” and therefore allowed for more student independence.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I didn’t quite agree with in this video was the notion that children who struggle in Kindergarten and Grade 1 are bound to struggle throughout their entire academic careers. From personal experience I have found this not to be true. Both my sister and I were recommended for learning assistance in the early primary grades because of some difficulties with reading and writing our teachers suspected we both had. The truth was neither of us was in a classroom environment that supported us in the ways we needed to be supported. I was having trouble with phonics (i.e. I mistakenly pronounced the letter “s” in the word “island” during oral reading) and my sister was reversing her “b”s and “d”s. In no way were we doomed to academic failure, as both of us would later have the chance to prove. What I know I needed myself was for my teacher to express that she believed in me. So I think many different factors can influence our successes and failures, but that we are always capable of more. At any point a child can make a change in his or her own learning. Similarly, we as teachers can always improve our practice so that we can be of greater help to more of our students. No one factor is a predictor of our future.
Discussions in last weeks class were very stimulating and interesting. I particularly enjoyed Marilyn Jager`s video on early literacy. She talked about the grade one year being crucial for reading development in children and their future success being dependent upon it. I believe this to be quite accurate from my observations of many students I have taught in Kindergarten over the years, who struggled with early literacy skills in kindergarten, and then continued to struggle throughout grade one and on into future grades. Some of the grade 3 and 4 students I currently provide learning support for, I taught in Kindergarten and they had difficulty then developing their phonemic awareness skills. This, of course, is not true of all students who struggle in Kindergarten and grade one.
ReplyDeleteAs a Learner Support teacher, I am finding it very interesting to observe the different areas of literacy that my students struggle in. For example, some are very fluent, expressive readers but cannot retell the story or accurately answer questions about it, and others who are not as fluent or expressive, are able to accurately answer questions about it.
Just the other day, I had a group of grade 4 students work together on a short vowel sorting activity. Each row of short vowel words rhymed. When I asked the students what the words in each row did, they told me many different things but weren`t able to tell me that they rhymed! So, needless to say, we reviewed rhyming words… a very important phonemic awareness skill in early literacy development.
It is important to recognize that not all children who have had exposure to a literacy-rich environment before entering school, will be successful in reading and writing. Children who have learning disabilities will undoubtedly find reading and writing challenging and might never become fluent readers. Also, this is often not diagnosed until grade 2 or 3 even though children can receive extra support before then. Children with learning disabilities usually love being read to (again and again), love music and anything rhyming and nonsensical. They require even more exposure to and repetition of early literacy activities. I have observed this in my teaching practice and as a mother of four (now all adults), two of which have learning disabilities.
Hello everyone! I thought that last week’s class was really informative. I thought that our discussion about the same-sex classes was very interesting. It seems as though most people are in the consensus that same-sex classes are not as half successful as similar ability grouped classes. Many of us felt that generalizing all individuals of the same gender as having same characteristics and learner styles is an incorrect; it is an inefficient way to divide students because there may be different learners within the gender group. It also encourages stereotypical male and female interests, such as woodshop for males and painting for females, and can potentially give off the idea that diversity amongst the sexes is not acceptable.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if approached correctly, separating genders may have some positives because it may have the potential of changing certain dynamics in a school setting. It may encourage more females to take on leadership roles that are typically typecast as “males”. It also may help males learn more female dominated skills, such as cooking and sewing, if courses such as Home Ec are offered in an all male high school and males are encouraged to take them.
Yet, if males and females are separated solely for the reason of learning style, I completely disagree with this form of education. Individuals – male or female – all learn in their own ways, so assumptions cannot be made about this. Pre-assessments and testing needs to be given to all students in order to help teachers learn about their styles and strengths, rather than assuming they have certain characteristics because of their gender.
Discussing the readings in class was also very helpful. There are some new and innovative ideas in the book that will be very helpful in practice. The idea that an experienced reader often reads a few words ahead of time to make sense of what they are reading is new to me, but makes perfect sense. I tried this out on myself and realized that when I am reading a book, I will know what type of emotion the character has before getting to that part because I scanned a few words ahead of time. That is why it is important not to correct a child for any mistakes that they make that do not change the meaning of the word; these mistakes in fact demonstrate their growing skill in reading rather than their hindrance in reading. By correcting these mistakes, a teacher is actually slowing their reading progress because they are making them too aware of each individual word and not learning how to read holistically.
As others have mentioned, I also enjoyed our group and class discussions surrounding segregation in schools. In my group, we tried to look at the pros and cons of segregation, rather than just arguing one side. I thought this was a great way to approach the issue since everyone has different opinions. I think it’s important that students experience a variety of situations and exposed to different teachers and teaching styles. I think it would be a shame to separate boys and girls for the whole of the schooling because there is so much value in diversity and the opportunities to learn from others. On the other hand, I think separating boys and girls in certain situations could be beneficial, for example, if students were given the choice of co-ed, girls or boys only gym class in high school, it might alleviate some self-esteem or performance anxiety issues if they were able to participate with same-sex peers. The key there is CHOICE. As we discovered in our group discussion, some of us felt more comfortable and preferred co-ed gym classes, whereas, others of us felt more comfortable and preferred the opposite.
ReplyDeleteI also connected with the “Promote Word Fluency in All Subjects” section in the textbook. I think it’s so easy to separate Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies and teach them as distinct subjects; however, linking the different subjects and looking for opportunities to help children build their vocabulary and fluency in those content-areas is a wonderful idea. I liked the example of the bulletin board where the teachers use it as a topic word board. Three or four words that are key to understanding are posted each day as they are introduced. The students are then encouraged to use those words in writing and can help students develop a positive attitude towards learning new and large words.
Last weeks class there were many informative issues and things that I found interesting. The first thing I really thought about was ways in which we could get students more practice in reading and writing. One of the key ideas from Chapter 3 is to give students self-selected reading time in class so that they can transfer their joy of reading and hopefully carry it home. Something I think sometimes we forget about at the secondary level is that students often lack access to reading unless they are gaining it in school. For them to become fluent, and begin to comprehend things they read quickly they need to have access to reading skills during class time so that they can be monitored. Some of the ideas I was thinking about was that in any subject matter, schools could include more reading time. I would even suggest that there be a mandatory 15-25 min of reading worked into the block schedule at high schools. Would anyone really complain when you take 5 min from each block to have students go to a homeroom and just read? When we consider that one of our focuses in many districts in the lower mainland is literacy, we seem to be spending much of our focus in the early elementary years. I think that high schools need to do a better job of bringing reading into their schedule every day so that students can continue to become better readers all throughout high school. I think many of them get away from reading once they hit grade 8 because many teachers think there is no time for it in the day anymore. I argue that there is time and that enhanced reading skills in our youth will help students in math, science, English, socials, P.E and any other subject they encounter. As well as create better writers.
ReplyDeleteThe other issue that I think a lot of use have strong opinions on is the gender segregation issue. I am definitely strongly against segregating our schools. I can see the argument that boys and girls often learn differently and that having them in the same classrooms is not as productive. However, I argue that segregating students would hurt their education and social skills in many levels and more than I could explain here. However, I will share, that learning to adapt to different learning and teaching styles is what life is about. Nothing is ever going to be your way, so it is a good skill for students to learn different ways. Plus there are many things in which boys or girls bring to the classroom that would help each other learn. It is unfair to take away the learning experiences from girls for example in math, when perhaps some of the boys in the class would be very helpful in some explanations. Also, I think this would lead to boys and girls learning different things. Would girls still have the opportunities to compete in sciences and math or would their curriculum be different? I feel that segregation would be a step backwards in our education system because it would be stereotyping girls ands boys and going back to old beliefs about what is a good girls education and what is a good boys education. The social implications would also be profound. I couldn't imagine boys ans girls not associating on a daily basis. This seems like a throwback to prep schools, which have more or less been extinct because of these gender issues. There are always going to be some areas where girls and boys should be separated like talking about sex education or some believe physical education ( not me) but I think we would be loosing out on valuable social and academic knowledge and skills if we think that segregation is the answer.
One thing I really enjoyed last class was our group discussion about segregated classrooms. It was interesting to hear different opinions and thoughts on such topic. I never experienced being a student in a segregated classroom, but just like many of my group members, I think that although segregated classrooms can benefit some students, they can also deprive others from reaching their full potential. When it comes to reading, children should be exposed to a large variety of reading material regardless of their gender. Personally, I don’t think that all boys avoid fairy tales or that all girls hate reading books about cars and trucks. Both genders should be given a large variety or reading material so they can choose what interests them most. Furthermore, I think that gender segregated classrooms deprive students of many important preparations for real life and worlds of work and family where gender segregation barely exists.
ReplyDeleteAnother part that I really enjoyed from both, the reading and the movie, were different activities we can use to help children become better readers. The Reader’s Theatre and Word walls are my favourite. During Reader’s Theatre (RT), children do not have to memorize their lines but they practice them so that their reading if more fluent and expressive. Besides just the reading and speaking, this activity offers a rich experience in listening as well. I found RT especially useful as it gets those reluctant readers to participate more, especially if they are working on a funny topic. Word walls represent an important way to focus students’ attention to high frequency words. Even though I did my practicum in a grade 6/7 class, I used word walls every time I introduced a new unit. At the beginning of each unit, I would identify the key vocabulary needed to understand the main concepts. S the unit progressed, the students would record interesting, important or confusing words related to our topic. For us, as teachers, it is impossible to directly teach every single word (as the list can get pretty long at times). However, I did my best to identify sight words for students which will best represent the concept. This doesn’t mean that other words are not important, but students get an opportunity to use them as they write/ talk about what they’re reading/studying. Therefore, we should not restrict the use of word walls only to primary grades as they can benefit intermediate students just as much.
I took a workshop during my first practicum on reading. It was in Vancouver and was focused on teaching reluctant readers and writers. The workshop was led by Paul Kropp, a retired teacher of 22 years and author of several books. I thought of this workshop as it pertains to both fluency and the importance frequent writing and the controversial topic of gender in language arts. He did indeed state that often the boys of the class are the reluctant ones when it comes to language arts. He elaborated claiming that this is because the common “Okay, sit down and write for a half hour” does not appeal to them. Obviously, this is a generalization (as some have brought up already in discussion), but he asserted that many of the boys of the class need a game to begin the writing process or need to move their bodies more to retain reading strategies. He mentioned a game that I thought would be useful to share. He called it “story-in-the-round.” Students sit in groups of four in a circle. Each student writes the start of a story. The main character of their story is the person to the left of them. The student begins their own story and passes it to the right. The person on the right receives it and adds to it for two minutes. This goes on until everyone has had a chance to write for each others’ stories. The person who ends up being the last to write ends up being the main character of the story (from the beginning). The students love it because they end of being the main character of the story (fun!) and the timed element gives it a game-like quality
ReplyDeleteTo help address students’ need to move, I tried to think of a game. So, recently when TOCing an energetic grade 1 class, I modified a version of duck, duck, goose. Instead of the children tapping each student and saying duck, duck, duck, they would be required to say three words (more or less) that would add onto the story. So, the first person would start the story and each person would add to it as the person walked around the circle. The teacher would choose a ‘secret’ word. Hence, the chasing would begin when a student said the secret word in their story addition. This activity would help students get used to the idea of creating new ideas and adding onto story starters. I think it would be a useful exercise for those students that constantly claim they “can’t think of anything to write” and the boys (and girls too!) that need to move their bodies to stay sane.
What an exciting and exhilarating class! From class discussions to reading fluency, it definitely gave me a lot to think about.
ReplyDeleteOne issue that really interested me had to do with segregating boys and girls for specific subjects. Because this hits so deeply at culturally-based value systems, it is hard to discuss. What no one mentioned was that the reason for segregating genders was to try and overcome lack of participation in subjects that are often unevenly represented by gender. Another thought that came to me was that boys and girls typically separate themselves by gender at different stages in their development, with or without adult help. I am not saying this justifies segregation, but perhaps, if we allowed them this separation during certain sensitive periods, children in the classroom might feel more comfortable about participating without having to worry about what the opposite sex thought of them. Boys in elementary school might not feel overwhelmed by girls who typically develop their linguistic abilities earlier than boys, and girls in middle school would not have to worry about being "too smart" for the boys in the room. I think it doesn't hurt to offer the option of separate groupings at least part of the time. Perhaps a male and a female teacher in, say grade 4 or 5, could get together and team teach, splitting up their students for periods of time, but not for every part of the targeted subject. Groups of students would not always have to be taught by the teacher of the same gender. In this way, students could get the benefits of interacting with a variety of peers as well as male/female teaching styles. A variety of teachers also provides role models for both boys and girls. Very young children (say, the early primary grades), probably wouldn't need this, but middle elementary and some early secondary students might appreciate it.
It was also suggested by some people that boys and girls be split for P.E. and discussion on sensitive topics, which might be an option they would enjoy. I do not think that splitting whole classes based on learning styles is a good idea, because different learning styles tend to round each other out, but offering options of working in groups with students of similar styles, or offering the option to work alone, can be very effective, just as offering choices of projects and presentation modes can accommodate different learners.
Another thing I mentioned last week, but have to go back to, is the material on fluency. What an intelligent way to promote comprehension, confidence and smooth reading! Teaching fluency also unifies several language strands, including spelling ,decoding, writing, and automatic word recognition. I really liked the part about “eye-voice span”, as this is something I have tried to promote, but wasn’t sure how. I also think having students practice reading in phrases is a very effective way to promote fluency and ease of reading. Giving students productive reasons to do many repeated readings of texts, and using ability-level materials are also excellent strategies. The repeated practice of readable texts, together with measurable indicators of success, would be very motivating for students learning to read and share their reading. After all, reading (like a good book), is meant to be shared with others.
Last class really sparked some great discussion and I thought that those discussions would be the perfect thing to talk about in a blog. The two things that I want to talk about are based on the video from class with Marilyn Adams and the newspaper article on gender difference.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn Adams video mentioned some very interesting points about reading and learning to read. Some things that really stuck out was her point about the children's choice of their favorite books. There will be some times that a child will want to read the same book over and over again but she mentioned to make sure that you stop and allow children to stop at every indication and talk about it. She states that the children want to continue reading the same book because there are some things that the child just hasn't worked out yet. Allowing a child to read their favorite book repetitively allows them to develop language and it builds understanding.
Marilyn Adams also stated that Grade 1 is a huge predictor for a child's future. How well a child can read after grade one can determine drop out rates and how well they can succeed. Hearing this as a "soon-to-be-teacher" adds a little bit of stress to the agenda but I think hearing this also just emphasizes how important it is to have great teachers in the business.
Lastly, the newspaper article about gender differences and the discussion that arose from that, I thought was very worthwhile. The article was basically getting at the question of whether or not students learn better with a teacher of the same gender. It was found that gender is magnified when the genders get separated. I think the example was boys will talk about trucks and girls will talk about princesses. Someone mentioned an interesting issue in regards to gender and they stated, "what about those boys that have more feminine qualities, and what about those girls that have more masculine qualities?" This would be very interesting to consider with the whole gender issue. Sue also raised another topic to keep in mind and that was dealing with the situation of when boys and girls are separated at school in different cultures. Our group discussed that this most likely would have lasting effects on each gender. It is known that the boys and girls view the opposite gender as objects and cannot relate to them.
Week 5: Wednesday, June 10, 2009
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the video “What Children Need in order to Read”, I was struck by the enormity of teaching young children how to read. In the last few weeks, I have read several articles that addressed the importance of developing strong reading skills in grade 1 students. The fact that current research is suggesting a direct correlation between children’s reading ability in grade 1 and their future success in reading (and life!) is rather daunting. Even though I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the enormous responsibility this entails, I really do appreciate all of the “tools” I am collecting in this course to help develop successful readers. By the end of this course I hope to be well prepared for the challenges and rewards that a grade 1 class will provide.
Another issue that arose in the video was the “common error” of young children (emergent readers) seeing words as pictures. I am curious to know exactly what was meant by this statement. Do they mean that children actually see a word spelled in their “minds eye”, like the word “Cheerios”? Or do they literally see a picture of a cheerio in their mind? Either way, I am not sure I see why this is necessarily an “error”; especially since one of the “FOR INCLUSION” activities in chapter 3 (page 62-63) uses a visualization technique to help students who are struggling with high frequency “function words”. Specifically, the strategy asks students to “pretend their eyes are like a camera and to take a picture of the word and put it in their mind”. Does anyone have any insights that would help me clarify this apparent contradiction? I think I need more information about both ideas before I can “side” with either one.