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

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

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. :)

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

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! :)