Cause and Effect @ the Station

   Last week I wrote about the different types of comprehension strategies that we should teach and model for students. The last strategy is using text structure. Every author organizes their text in a way that emphasizes the main details and important ideas they want their audience to learn. This is done through comparisons, sequencing, and cause and effect. We talked about cause and effect in my literacy class this evening. Authors explain the effects that are caused by specific and identifiable events that take place throughout the story. There are many words that are used as textural clues such as; if, then, therefore, because, as a result, and many, many more. These phrases help students identify the different events that take place, which cause another event to occur. This is an important concept for students to learn because it helps them understand that decisions and events cause things to happen. This can be connected to their own lives. We should look for ways to get students thinking about specific events in their lives that have led to a particular consequence or situation to take place. For example, we could ask students what happens if they do not turn in their homework, or what happens if they don't pick up their toys after their parents ask them to. It is important to think of cause and effect in a positive light too. Ask students what happens if they pay attention and participate during activities or if they help their little brother or sister with their homework at home. It is important that students can see cause and effect in their own lives because it will help them pick up on this concept within a text as well! One way to help students learn cause and effect is, but of course, to apply literature! My teacher modeled how to use a story to teach cause and effect. She read the book A Million Fish...More or Less by Patricia McKissack. She had us fill out a graphic organizer to write down the cause and effects we heard throughout the story. She stopped us at various spots in the story and encouraged us to think about a specific sentence or phrase, helping us to identify the possible cause and effects we heard. This is a great way to model and teach this strategy to our students. Below is an attached graphic organizer I made to be used for cause and effect lessons! Enjoy!

Cause and Effect Graphic Organizer

Some information taken from:

Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach. (5th ed). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, In  

Four Square, Vocabulary Care

      Vocabulary words are an important part of our students' literacy development. I have learned a lot about vocabulary in my Integrated Literacy class this semester. Vocabulary words are words children can understand during reading and use in their writing. They need to be able to associate printed words with their meanings. There are two types of vocabulary words: sight words and general reading vocabulary. Sight words make up 50-70% of the words students read. These are words that students need to immediately know to be able to fluently read and comprehend a text. Children need to learn 3000 words each year! To be able to understand a story, children need to understand the meaning of the words in a text. One strategy my class went over is the Four Square Vocabulary Strategy. It helps students get to the deeper meaning of words. First, students identify the word they are thinking about. Next, they write a brief definition in their own words! (I believe that words are easier to remember if you come up with your own definition!) After that, students should draw a picture to help them visualize the meaning of the word. Once students can define and visualize what a word means, they can begin to make personal associations or connections to the word. The last portion of the strategy has students come up with antonyms and synonyms to help analyze, compare, and contrast the meaning of the word to other words. They will be critically thinking about words! I have attached a sample four square chart for you to enjoy and try out in your classroom! :)

Four Square Vocabulary Chart

Have you ever used the Four Square Vocabulary Strategy? If so, tell me about what you heard, saw, and learned...         

Soaking It All Up

      A sponge...and no I am not referring to the kind of sponge used to soak up messes and wipe off counters. I am referring to an even greater sponge! Throughout the school day, teachers have to transition students from one class or activity to another. This occurs several times throughout the day. This is where sponges come in. A sponge is a quick, 3-5 minute activity that students can do to practice using a concept or skill they have already learned. This activity should require few, to no materials, and it should be easy to complete anywhere. Sponges allow every minute of a child's day to be full of learning. Atypical school day has about 8-10 transitions. They usually last 3-5 minutes. Let's say there are 9 transitions in a second grade classroom. These transitions typically last 4 minutes. That means there are 36 minutes of transition time throughout the day. If there are 175 days throughout the school year, then that means there are 6,300 minutes of "wasted time." That is 105 hours over the course of the year. That is 16.15 whole school days worth of time! Think of how much learning can take place if we take the time to plan meaningful activities to place into those quick, 3-5 minute transition times! Wow! Turn wasteful time into learning time! Below I attached some sponges that could be used in a first or second grade classroom. Enjoy!

Sponges 1-2

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Fluency: The ability to read a text quickly and without error. This was my focus this past Friday in my second grade practicum classroom. I have sat down with all the students for the past two weeks, and timed their reading of a short text for one minute. I've recorded how many words each student reads in one minute, and then had them graph their words per minute (WPM). The texts were different both weeks, and the students have never read them prior to sitting down with me.

Here are the students' scores for both weeks:

    (*indicate an increase in WPM)

Week 1       Week 2

   102              106*

    90                98*

  100               98

   61                59

    90                91*

  151               136

  115               115

    40                 56*

    70                 74*

   78                 80*

  97                 71

  136              139*

    --                 30

  109              104

   58                 42

   36                 35

   75                 64

  136              141*

    59                89*

  85                85

 129               104

 129               110

    22                 56*

 147               142

  50                 26

      Only 10 students saw an improvement in their WPM during their second reading compared to their first. When my practicum teacher saw this, she seemed a little disappointed. It is good to see an increase in WPM each time a child reads. This text incorporated some big numbers (100, 500) and harder words (Isabel, inchworm, Blake). This caused a lot of the students to incorrectly say the word or number and then self correct soon afterwards. I think this played a significant part in the decreased WPM. I am curious to see where students score the next time I record their WPM. I think maybe reading the numbers out loud decreased their overall fluency.

"Stuffed" Holiday-Literacy Connections

 

   Happy Holidays! Well, Thanksgiving is just about here and children are becoming more anxious and excited that Christmas is right around the corner. (Let's not forget to mention the wonderful Starbucks holiday cups for us adults. It's not the holidays without them) :) Love that. Well, the holiday season offers us teachers a giant palette to work with! We have the opportunity to take our eager and excited students and engage them in fun, holiday literacy activities. In my practicum classroom, the students got to partake in a fun literacy writing activity for Thanksgiving. A few weeks back, students were given a plain old, uncolored, turkey cutout. They were to take home their turkey and come back with a "disguised" turkey! There turkey could be anything BUT a turkey! How fun :). You would not believe all the cute and creative turkeys that came back! Then they wrote a explanation of what their turkey was disguised as. I passed out their turkeys before they began writing and I have never seen them more anxious to begin writing! This elated me! :) The holidays give us so many great opportunities to engage those students who may not be engaged normally. The teacher could have handed out the turkey, told the students to color it and write a story about it....How boring would that have been!? I think students got engaged in this writing activity because they could do anything they wanted with their turkey, make it whatever they could think of, visually represent it, and then write about it. There were no limitations and no restrictions. It was an opportunity for students to think to the stars! :) Nothing is more special than to see a student do so, and smile when they are finished. Now, that is a true gift for the holidays...

Here are some of the wonderful "turkeys"...Enjoy!
(Click Image to See Full Size)

                        

                      

What are some holiday-literacy connections you've seen?

Literacy-Math Connections

      Did you know that literature is a great way to help students grasp a math concept or skill?! I never would have thought this prior to my education of teaching young children. However, it is true! Children love to listen to and read stories. What could be more fun than hearing a book being read during math time! Tonight, I was amazed at all the wonderful math lessons I got to see by some of my fellow classmates. They did an awesome job incorporating literature into math! I heard some great stories that will aid in the development of place value, early algebra, and data analysis. The books provided students with a great introduction or closure to the math concept or skill being taught. It helps children           visualize math in real life. :) One classmate taught a lesson on graphing. Gray Rabbit's Odd One Out by Alan Baker told of a young rabbit that could not find his favorite book in his giant mess of toys! He sets out to sort the objects by types, colors, and any other way he can until he finds his book. This helps students grasp the concept of sorting objects by particular criteria, which leads into their discussion on graphing. When students graph, they sort information based on a specific feature or trait. For example, another classmate had students sort buttons by different colors, and provided students with opportunities to place these buttons onto a homemade graph!

Goodnight Moon is a great book that teaches students about patterns in writing. The same words and phrases are seen in patterns throughout the book. One classmate read this book aloud, which led into a math lesson of making patterns. Her lesson will teach students to make patterns with apples and oranges and provide them with great pattern-making activities in centers as well! The book was a great transition into a math discussion of patterns. It's exciting to see all the connections between literature and math. I believe that incorporating a story into a math lesson will help students think of the concept in a more "real"way and be able to identify and use the skill more easily in their everyday experiences with numbers! :)

What is one book you recommend using in math? What concept or skill does it help teach?

Comprehension @ the Station

      Reading is the skill but comprehension is the purpose! We read in order to comprehend. It is not enough to teach our students to read the specific words of a text fluently and without error, but the real goal should be placed on our students' overall comprehension of a text. Tonight I learned a lot about comprehension in my Integrated Literacy class. I learned that effective readers:

• Are active (they are engaged, thinking, and questioning the text)
• Place goals for reading 
• Look at a text prior to reading to identify structure and make predictions
• Think about prior knowledge and how it connects with the text
• Monitor how well they understand a text and make necessary adjustments 
• Think about the author and their purpose for writing a text
• React to and connect the text to their own lives.

     Students do all of these things THROUGH comprehension strategies. There are 8 Comprehension Strategies that students need to become skillful at in order to comprehend and cognitively think about a section of text. The strategies are:

1. Predicting
2. Questioning
3. Visualizing
4. Connecting
5. Monitoring
6. Summarizing
7. Inferring
8. Using Text Structure 

      As teachers, we need to know the important details that will help us effectively implement these strategies into our students' curriculum. I heard some great feedback from a bunch of my fellow classmates tonight that I want to share with whoever is interested.

1. Predicting -Formulating a guess about what a story might be about, as well as the predictions of important events or endings that might take place. Prediction can be done individually or in small and large group settings. Students should ask questions, make charts, or write predictions down on sticky notes throughout the book. Prediction should take place before reading and during reading.
2. Questioning - Asking questions about a text while reading. Students can clarify misunderstandings as they become engaged in a text. They can evaluate and reflect after they read. Have students brainstorm!
3. Visualizing - Creating mental images of a text during reading. Students can stop throughout their reading to close their eyes and create or draw a mental or artistic image of what they have read. 
4. Connecting - Making connections and discovering the meaning of a text. As teachers, we should model connections by giving students examples of text-to-text connections, text-to-self connections, and text-to-world connections. Reading logs provide students opportunities to think and reflect on how the text relates to their own life or prior knowledge.
5. Monitoring - Keeping track of text understanding during reading. Thinking out loud or silently about the purpose, structure, and meaning of a text will aid in student comprehension of a text. We can model how to monitor our comprehension through mini lessons. This skill can be used individually or in small and large group settings.
6. Summarizing - Picking out the most important "big ideas" of a text. As a large group, have students vocally summarize a text, or if they are working independently, have them complete a concept map to summarize the text. This skill should be done at the end of reading or used to help students remember what they may have read the day before.
7. Inferring - "Reading between the lines." Students can activate their background knowledge and connect what they know to the purpose or theme of the text they are reading. Ask students questions during and after reading to help them make connections and link prior knowledge to new knowledge gained from their reading. 
8. Using Text Structure - Coming Soon...

     Now that we have named the strategies we can use to aid in our students' comprehension, it is important to understand how to implement effective questioning to check for text understanding. Comprehension is either behavioral or cognitive:

      Behavioral - Students answer questions about the text by reading.

      Cognitive - Students connect prior knowledge about the topic to new information read.in the text.

There are two types of questions we can ask our students to assess their comprehension of a text:

      Literal Questions - Students repeat answers straight from the text.

      Higher-Order Questions - Students infer from their text about what they already know.

We should question students through:

1. Main Idea Questions - Summarize/describe what a text is about.
2. Detail Questions - Identify small details within a text.
3. Cause and Effect Questions - See the relationship of how one thing will make another thing occur. 
4. Sequence Questions - Recall events in order of when they were seen within the text.
5. Inference Questions - Provide logical answers based on evidence within the text. 

      When assessing students' comprehension of a text, it is important to use the proper questions based on their ages, abilities, and what is expected of them academically. :)

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notimeforflashcards.com      

     Friday I completed my videotaped literacy lesson in my second grade practicum classroom! It was a fun experience. I taught my students about prediction by using the book Two Bad Ants. The students saw me walk towards the front of the room with my stuff, and they asked me if I was going to be teaching. When I informed them I was, they screamed "Yayyy" and then asked me what I was going to teach them. :) It was a great start to the lesson. I started out my lesson by asking students if they liked to make guesses. When they excitedly said yes, I told them that in math, they make guesses, or estimations, about numbers. I pulled out a jar of bugs! Don't worry, they were just made of plastic. I asked them to think about what they already know based on what they can see. I helped them by pointing out the size of the jar, as well as the size of the bugs inside. Based on the knowledge they already know, I had students guess how many were inside (to avoid an outburst of guesses, I drew three popsicle sticks from the "Name Cup"). The three students guessed "40" "40" and "44." There were 37! Pretty close!

      I explained that in reading, they can also make guesses, or predictions. They can think about what they already know and make a prediction based on those ides. To get them started, I pulled out the book. I told them to look at the cover. We discussed how the cover and title had 2 BAD ANTS. We also did a quick picture walk (just looking at the pictures in the story). Based on these images, I had students write down what they predicted the story would be about. I told them that while they are listening to the story, they should think about their predictions and look for clues in the story that would confirm their predictions or not. As I read the story, students predicted two other parts of the story. I modeled my predictions to give them ideas on how to form a prediction. As we discovered new information, I encouraged students to think about their prediction and if they thought they should change their predictions, they could. I modeled an example of my own change of prediction based on contextual clues in the story.

      Once we finished the story, I had students share some of their predictions (used the Name Cup again). We then checked our predictions using the text. After the lesson, I looked at the papers the students wrote their predictions on. All the students participated in the lesson, and ALL of them were able to use this skill very well. It was evident that the majority of the students changed their predictions throughout the story! :) They totally grasped prediction! Each student left my lesson with a great understanding of this skill, as well as a new plastic bug friend! :)

      Playing back my lesson, I got to see myself teach for the first time. It was both exciting and intimidating. I saw many areas of needed improvement (stop saying "So"!!). This video was a great resource to use in my personal teacher development. I recommend that all teachers in training do this! :)

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      Yesterday was another exciting whirlwind of learning in the second grade classroom!  I learned a lot about the reading program put into place. On a typical day, the second graders spend their entire morning on literacy! That's right, an entire morning. 9:00-12:00. 3 hours. 180 minutes. 10,800 seconds of 100% reading and writing! I don't know about you, but I never saw anything remotely close to this when I was in second grade. I remember my mornings being about math, science, maybe we would get to read something when we were done with our math and science work....and then there was the occasional story or spelling worksheet. I guess I do remember some writing prompts and such, ones of which we never got to share with one another... My how things have changed!
      In my practicum classroom, each week has an overall theme or concept that is being taught. This week the students are learning about story charts. They are identifying problems and important events that lead to the solution of that initial problem. They were introduced to the story Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin...

      On Monday, the students had a read aloud by their teacher. She modeled how to read the new vocabulary and pointed out new concepts and ideas that were found in the context of the story. They then split up into pairs and reread the story with a partner
      Yesterday, the students were to read the story again, this time on their own. One by one, the teacher called the different reading groups back to read with her. The students are divided into groups based on their reading levels. The lower level readers practiced reading the same story with the teacher, whereas the more advanced students were reading chapter books within their groups.

The class is divided into 5 reading groups:

PURPLE: DRA 14-16 (Grades 1-2) 

GREEN: DRA 16'ish (Grade 2)

RED: DRA 18-20 (Grade 2)

BLUE: DRA 24-30 (Grades 2-3)

ORANGE: 30-34 (Grade 3)

      When the teacher meets with each group, the students take turns reading their text out loud. This provides students with the opportunity to verbally read text out loud and hear themselves pronounce words. It is also important for the teacher to hear each student read and comprehend text. It is a great way to assess the reading development of her students.
      I was eager to see what the rest of the students would do while their teacher was meeting with a group in the back of the room. I expected some might hang from the ceiling, thought others would meticulously run around their desks in perfect, complete circles, and...nahhhh, they all sat in their seats diligently reading and writing. Every morning, students are given "literacy tasks" to complete. Once they finish these tasks, they can choose to finish their incomplete literacy work, or pick something exciting to write about from their "Literacy Menu." The Literacy Menu is a great writing prompt guide students can sit down and work on when they have extra time. My practicum teacher switches out the menus when some time has gone by. There are times when the students have literacy centers they can rotate in an out of throughout the whole morning. They are starting some fun and exciting literacy writing centers next week....more to come on that!
      Overall, today taught me about differentiated instruction. The leveled reading groups do not push the lower level readers too hard, or keep the advanced readers from moving forward. All the students need to read the story of the week, and learn the new literacy concept. The reading groups allow the students to branch off and read at their specific levels, furthering their understanding and development of reading. The entire morning was so clean and organized! The students were on task and always knew what to do. I could tell that my practicum teacher enforced routines and rules very well at the beginning of the year. Talk about classroom management. I will definitely consider implementing reading groups into my future classroom. I think it is a great way for students to collaborate with each other in small groups, as well as find time to meet one-on-one (even though they are in small groups) with their teacher. It allows student to practice reading out loud, and it provides the teacher assessment opportunities, as well as helping students develop their reading at their own specific level.  :)

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      Helloooo Running Records! Recently, I have been introduced to running records as a means of literacy assessment. Students read a piece of text out loud to the teacher and the teacher records all the correct words and incorrect words or errors the student has throughout their reading. Once all the errors have been recorded, teachers then look for times when students self-corrected their own errors. These errors do not count in the overall calculation of errors. This assessment allows teachers to identify each child's error ratio, accuracy percentage, and their self-correction ratio. It will help teachers to identify where the child falls as far as reading levels go, and if the selected text was too hard, too easy, or just right for the student's current reading level.
      Yesterday, I performed my first running record with one of the second graders in my practicum classroom. In a previous post, I introduced you to some of her work. She is at a much lower reading level than most of the students in her class. My practicum teacher said she was at a DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) level of 14, and most incoming second graders are hoped to be at a DRA level of 18. I chose to read a book my NAU teacher read in one of my literacy classes, Dear Mr. Blueberry. The book cover says it is appropriate for children ages 4-7. I did not know going into the reading, that the book would have such a high DRA level. The book is for children very young, but as far as independent reading goes, it would be way too hard for most students in this age group. The book falls under a DRA level of 24, which is still a second grade reading level. I thought this book might be a bit challenging, due to some of the vocabulary words, but I did not realize how hard it would be for this student. My practicum teacher told me that all but 8-10 students in her classroom would be able to read this book without it being too hard. For my next running record with my student, I have chosen a book at much lower reading level.

Total # of Words: 445
Total # of Errors: 94
Total # of SC: 1

Error Rate: 1:3.73 (for every word she said correct, she had 3.73 errors)
Accuracy: 78.9% (this falls under Hard 50-89%)
SC Rate: 1:95 (she self-corrected once out of 94 errors + her self-correction error)

Here is the running record that I did for my child assessment student:

(Click to enlarge)

      My student struggled in the read aloud but she did not get frustrated or quit :). She said she has a hard time with long chapter books but she likes reading because she can learn more and learn lots of new words! She said she spends an average of 20 minutes reading during every sitting. If she is reading a chapter book, she either reads one chapter, or cannot put it down until she reads the whole book. 

      I did a reading interest survey with her and discovered she likes to read about animals, plants, friendships, fashion, and famous people (including her favorite magazine: People) She also enjoys reading science fiction books as well. The book she is most excited to get her hands on is Diary of a Whimpy Kid. 

      Overall, the running record was a bit challenging! I took a small recorder with me and got the student's permission to record her reading the book to me. Later, I wrote down all the words and listened back at her read aloud. Due to the number of errors, I found the far right columns on the running record a bit overwhelming and very challenging. It was hard to tell if her errors were due due to her knowledge of meaning, structure, or visual information. I hope that over time, I will be able to decipher which is which and how to identify errors more accurately. 

Waiting for Superman

      Waiting for Superman is a new movie that discusses the problems facing the United States educational system today. We are ranked 25th in math and 21st in science. I love how the trailer talks about our standings in literacy...oh wait.... However, children in the United States rank #1 in confidence. If students have the confidence and mindset of success, we as educators, need to give them the necessary skills and foundations to reach the goals and dreams they set for their lives. I am looking forward to watching this film, and I recommend that all teachers take the time to check it out.

      Have you seen Waiting for Superman? Any thoughts?

Singapore Math: Love It or Hate It?

       The New York Times posted a great article entitled, Making Math Lessons as Easy as 1, Pause, 2, Pause..." The article discussed the increasingly popular national math system called Singapore Math. Just incase you were wondering, this is not the actual math OF Singapore.  This approach to math is much slower-paced and uses a three-step learning process: 1) Concrete, 2) Pictorial, and 3) Abstract. Most math programs in the United States focus on the concrete and abstract steps, which often confuses students because they do not focus on the step that helps students picture their math. The Singapore math program's slower pace allows students to really hone in on their knowledge of individual numbers. The article talked about a teacher that was apprehensive to integrate Singapore math into their curriculum because they could not see how students could spend 45 minutes talking about one number. He was surprisingly pleased to discover that his students learned more through a longer open-ended thinking time.

      How do we know if this math approach works? Students using Singapore Math are ranking at or near the top on international math exams dating back to the mid 1990s (http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/1997/st00297.htm). This approach teaches fewer topics to make sure students are really grasping the concepts they are to learn. They incorporate detailed instruction, problem solving, questioning, and scads of hands-on learning activities. This allows students to gain a solid base of math knowledge to grow and develop through more mathematical instruction. They are less likely to forget what they are learning when the pace is slowed down and students are allowed to spend more time learning the important math concepts. From that, they can build a stronger knowledge in math with each passing year.
      One downside to the Singapore math approach is its cost. It is said to be a pricey implementation into your curriculum. How much is the question that is probably on your mind. One school district in New York spent over $144,000 implementing the books and teacher materials. This program also requires a lot of teacher training. The time and money required to implement the actual program might be more than you are looking to spend, but teachers can take the basic concepts and ideas of the Singapore math program and incorporate it into their curriculum without buying the actual program.
       Teachers should definitely do their research on the Singapore math program and weigh the pros and cons of their mathematical approach. Take a look at the article and do some research on their web site. What do you think about Singapore math? Would you like to try it in your mathematical instruction in your classroom?

Information obtained from:
Hu, Winnie. (2010). Making math lessons as easy as 1, pause, 2, pause... The New York Times: September 30, 2010.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/education/01math.html?_r=1&ref=education

Singapore Math web site:
http://www.singaporemath.com/aboutus.asp

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      Friday was another exciting day in the second grade classroom! I felt more like a teacher when my practicum teacher told me I should give the spelling test to the students that day. I remember thinking, "Wow, that won't be too hard."....Then, there I was...standing in front of a room of eager and nervous students. I looked at the sheet of paper and saw a long list of contractions. Sure, saying the words out loud was no big deal, but then I had to think of sentences to go along with these words. This was a bit challenging considering contractions don't give you much "context" to form an interesting sentence. If the word had been "evaporation," I think a sentence might have come to my head much quicker. This challenged me and made me realize that when I begin student teaching and have to give spelling tests, I will look at the list in advance and write out clever and interesting sentences that I can use to add a little more fun and excitement to the tests. All in all, I think it went pretty well! I will most likely be giving the students their spelling test the rest of my practicum.
      The great thing about the school I observe in, is the opportunities they have for students who are a bit more advanced in their spelling. The more advanced students, who do well on their initial pretest of the regular words, are given the opportunity to take an alternative test with harder words.

Here are the regular words for the week: 17 out of 19 students scored between 10-15 

1. don't
2. we've
3. aren't
4. didn't
5. I've
6. won't
7. we'll
8. doesn't
9. hasn't
10. let's
11. she's 
12. he'll
13. we're
14. they've
15. couldn't

Here are the advanced words of the week: 4 out of 5 students scored 9-10

1. solid
2. liquid
3. gases
4. property
5. mixture
6. condensation
7. evaporation
8. precipitation
9. temperature
10. water vapor

      Friday I chose the student I will be doing my student assessment assignment on. She is young girl who compared to the rest of her classmates, is a little low in reading. I have not spoken with my practicum teacher about other areas yet, but I plan to focus more on her overall development in my next observation. Here is a sample of a literacy assignment and spelling test:

Spelling Test

      The student scored an 11 out of 15 on the regular spelling test this past week. I graded the test, and I noticed that she is having trouble with e and the e sound. In aren't, she spelled it arn't....forgetting the e. She spelled doesn't, dus'nt, and hasn't, has'nt. These incorrect spellings show that she is missing the e sound and not sure of where to put her apostrophe. In her spelling of the word we're, she wrote wer'er. She is unsure if the e can stand alone. I would recommend that the student be re-familiarized with her e sounds. 

Literacy Assignment

      In this assignment, the student was to read the provided story above and answer the questions. It appears that she is not reading her directions. In number one, many students chose to write the word hungry. This does not have a gr and a long a sound. I am curious why many students did this. In number two, she wrote down a word that means the same thing as little, but the directions clearly said to choose a word from the story. This would be the word small. While the student understood the concept of a synonym, she did not read the directions clearly. The rest of the questions were testing the students on their comprehension. The student struggled with getting some basic facts about the story correct. Overall, the student needs to spend a little more time with carefully reading stories and directions. I recommend that the teacher spend a little one-on-one time with the student for the next assignment like this. This will help them gain perspective on how the child is thinking about reading stories and answering questions.

      Overall, the day provided me great new experiences with testing and grading. I had to grade the literacy activity and spelling test above, and I got good insight on where the students are at in their learning and development. 

##### Straight Off the Tracks #####

      My practicum experience this semester is with a second grade teacher in the Paradise Valley Unified School District. She is also a fellow Lumberjack of Northern Arizona University. Today was another day chalk-full of experience!
      I got to conduct "Just Right Reading" this morning with several of the students. Each week they have a bag of three books of their own choice. They meet with me and read a section from two of the books. I was told to ask them various questions to gather how much information they took from the text. This was a major eye-opening experience for me. At the second grade level, the students are all on very different levels of reading. 
      I had one student who was reading dialogue like she was in a play! She enunciated all of her words and spoke in voices. She had an exuberant love for reading! You could just hear it in the way she read the book. She was even more excited to answer questions such as:  1) What did you like about the book? 2) Who was your favorite character and why? and 3)What was your favorite part about the book? 
      Another student struggled to decode the words she was trying to pronounce. She often looked up at me, waiting for me to help her sound out the word she was stuck on. This did not shake her confidence whatsoever. She pressed on! 
      It was pretty evident that another student did not read her book at all. When they sat down with me, I told each student they could pick any part in the book to read aloud to me. I told them it could be their favorite part of the book, or perhaps the beginning, or even the end. This student started from the beginning. When I asked her what the rest of the story was about, she could not answer. Perhaps her shyness played a vital role in her vague discussion with me about the book...or perhaps she didn't read. 
      Overall, I really enjoyed getting perspective on where the students are at in their reading development. I will continue to do do "Just Right Reading" with the students throughout my practicum. I cannot wait to see the development take place in all the students over the next few months. :)
      These second graders are becoming great writers! I observe one day a week, and each time I am there, they are working on a different rough draft. Today they had the opportunity to share theirs with the class. I was bummed to see that most of the students "passed" on their opportunity to share what they wrote with their fellow classmates. It got me thinking...How can I get students to want to share their writing? You are going to have your shy students of course. That is inevitable. But how can I get the discouraged students to share their writing?.....

###### Straight Off the Tracks ######

      Straight Off the Tracks are posts that I will share after each of my practicum experiences. I will write about what I see, hear, and learn during my time in the classroom. The best way to decipher what we learn is to think and reflect right?!

Effective Teaching?

      What is an effective teacher? This is a question placed on the minds of every teacher and every student aspiring to become one. As a "teacher in training" I have heard the words "effective teaching" many times throughout my education. It is a bit daunting to think of how I can be an effective teacher when I have my own classroom one day. There are many different views on how one can become an effective teacher. Here is a video I found when I searched YouTube for "effective teaching." I thought it would be fun to see what kinds of views other educators or students may have regarding this idea. This video was one of the more intense out of the ones I viewed, and I think you will see why! I am pretty sure it was created by a group of students, most likely for a class project. I find that it is helpful to gain perspective on what other students are learning, and see what connections I can make to their learning and mine. The key to success is knowledge. The more knowledge and insight we can gain on effective teaching, the better effective teachers we can become! Enjoy!

      What did you think about the video? Did you like/dislike it? How can we be effective teachers in today's society?

Welcome!

      The Education Station is a place where you can board and take off onto a wonderful world of literacy learning! The purpose of this blog is for personal reflection on my growing knowledge of teaching young children! I have also created a "mock" Parent's Cabin page to practice communicating with my future families. I will be posting some great websites on my Resources page as I discover more and more amazing stuff online for teachers. Through my program, my philosophy and beliefs on educating young children have changed and expanded. Throughout the rest of my education, I know my philosophy and beliefs on what makes an effective teacher will keep growing and growing. Through this blog, I will highlight on important topics that I learn and give great examples and links to helpful websites. This is going to be a place of ongoing learning about the wonderful activities and approaches that we can take towards teaching our students to read and write. The ultimate goal of literacy instruction is to instill a genuine and lasting love of reading and writing for students of all ages. So grab a seat and get ready to nosedive into the wonderful world of literacy! All aboard!