Wow, what a practical bunch of chapters! So many of my questions were answered. The try-its seemed very powerful (and a familiar concept to anyone with a Brownie Girl Scout in their lives). Hale has mentioned avoiding practicing crafts in isolation, and I think the try-it concept is a good way to focus on the craft with a safe space to muck around with it a bit while avoiding too many boring examples of the same thing. Having a small library of crafts for students to refer back to when they need a little inspiration can only be a good thing.
The "research" thing was a bit difficult for me to grasp at first, and I think it was simply terminology. When I think of "research" I think of something that's long and arduous. While I recognize that I have to pay attention to students' writing development at all points, it took me some time to understand that a portion of the research was on-the-spot during the conference. I'm not sure what word I would have used to describe that part of the process other than "research," so I can't even claim to have a better idea.
Chapters 7-9 were just what I needed to clarify much of what I had been wondering about.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Spelling
I am struggling with the whole spelling thing. From my own personal experience I can see that traditional spelling tests are not helpful to all students. Unless a teacher is paying attention and willing to work individually with students who don't transfer their knowledge of spelling into the wider world, it's wasted time for those kids. All the other kids usually already know how to spell the words on the list anyway.
On the other hand, I subbed in a 5th grade classroom today where very few words at all were spelled correctly. Some of the kids could not even correctly copy words that the student teacher put on the projector for everyone to write down. We're not talking about big, challenging words. We're talking about words like, "social," "studies," "bored," "lunch," and, my personal favorite of the day, "fart." Yes, bodily functions were misspelled right and left in addition to more socially acceptable words.
So what to do? When you get a whole class of children who are so clearly behind in their ability to spell, what's the right course of action? They were all able to write sentences and even some decent-sized paragraphs, so it's not as though they were completely behind in all language arts areas. At what point should their poor spelling be corrected? And what's the best way to do that without stifling creativity? Am I back to traditional spelling tests? Word pattern study? What? I'm not sure I'd feel right as a teacher if I didn't at least help students improve their spelling somewhat.
Any ideas?
On the other hand, I subbed in a 5th grade classroom today where very few words at all were spelled correctly. Some of the kids could not even correctly copy words that the student teacher put on the projector for everyone to write down. We're not talking about big, challenging words. We're talking about words like, "social," "studies," "bored," "lunch," and, my personal favorite of the day, "fart." Yes, bodily functions were misspelled right and left in addition to more socially acceptable words.
So what to do? When you get a whole class of children who are so clearly behind in their ability to spell, what's the right course of action? They were all able to write sentences and even some decent-sized paragraphs, so it's not as though they were completely behind in all language arts areas. At what point should their poor spelling be corrected? And what's the best way to do that without stifling creativity? Am I back to traditional spelling tests? Word pattern study? What? I'm not sure I'd feel right as a teacher if I didn't at least help students improve their spelling somewhat.
Any ideas?
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Readings for 9/20
Initial Thoughts
The first chapter in Crafting Writers scared me a bit. I don't journal, and now I'm supposed to write on my own in order to improve my writing instruction? I'm supposed to keep a writer's notebook? Yikes! The most writing I ever do these days is e-mail and grocery lists. Clearly, I have a lot to learn.
The Important Things
The most important thing I got out of the first six chapters is that we need to teach children to craft while they are writing instead of editing after the fact. I know that most of what I learned about writing had to do with editing, so it's completely out of my comfort zone. But I felt Hale had many concrete ideas to offer me in support.
The idea of specific craft was a tad foreign to me, I must admit. But once I learned that my students and I could name these bits of writing anything we wanted (assuming some smarty-pants hadn't beaten us to it and put it on standardized tests), I felt some relief. I have no clue why I felt this way, since I like things well-defined and I'm a rule-follower. Perhaps the idea of hunting down runaway crafts and naming them to make them ours made it sound more fun than memorizing a bunch of rules for how to make writing better.
What also calmed me down a bit was the notion that it's not about using all the "right" bits of craft but about playing with them to get the affect that you want. Variety seems to be key, rather than there being a perfect method, at least with young writers who are still learning the basics. What a relief!
Personally, I really appreciated the chapter on primary writers. As someone with experience working with young children, it's nice to see them given some props. They are so proud of their work and so fearless in their attempts it's good to know that we're supposed to encourage all those visual explorations. I wish there had been a short discussion on play. There have been several studies that show that the more imaginative a child's play when using the simplest of props the better writer that child will be as they get older. Supporting that inner narrative would seem to be an important step toward developing skill in writing. Has anyone named "Once Upon a Time" as a specific craft yet? I'd like first dibs.
Unanswered Questions
Despite feeling a little better about this whole writing thing, I still have questions. These may seem stupid to some of you, but I'm a details person and these things still seem nebulous to me.
What exactly is a writer's notebook? Is it just stuff I've written? Do I put whatever I want in there, like collections of things? I sort of think yes, but I'm really not sure. What am I supposed to write?
Is writer's workshop a predefined sort of program? A philosophy? Or is it just a collection of activities we call "writer's workshop?" Are there mandatory parts? Do they go in a certain order? If I walked into a classroom, would I be able to tell after a day or so if they did writer's workshop if they didn't use that name?
The first chapter in Crafting Writers scared me a bit. I don't journal, and now I'm supposed to write on my own in order to improve my writing instruction? I'm supposed to keep a writer's notebook? Yikes! The most writing I ever do these days is e-mail and grocery lists. Clearly, I have a lot to learn.
The Important Things
The most important thing I got out of the first six chapters is that we need to teach children to craft while they are writing instead of editing after the fact. I know that most of what I learned about writing had to do with editing, so it's completely out of my comfort zone. But I felt Hale had many concrete ideas to offer me in support.
The idea of specific craft was a tad foreign to me, I must admit. But once I learned that my students and I could name these bits of writing anything we wanted (assuming some smarty-pants hadn't beaten us to it and put it on standardized tests), I felt some relief. I have no clue why I felt this way, since I like things well-defined and I'm a rule-follower. Perhaps the idea of hunting down runaway crafts and naming them to make them ours made it sound more fun than memorizing a bunch of rules for how to make writing better.
What also calmed me down a bit was the notion that it's not about using all the "right" bits of craft but about playing with them to get the affect that you want. Variety seems to be key, rather than there being a perfect method, at least with young writers who are still learning the basics. What a relief!
Personally, I really appreciated the chapter on primary writers. As someone with experience working with young children, it's nice to see them given some props. They are so proud of their work and so fearless in their attempts it's good to know that we're supposed to encourage all those visual explorations. I wish there had been a short discussion on play. There have been several studies that show that the more imaginative a child's play when using the simplest of props the better writer that child will be as they get older. Supporting that inner narrative would seem to be an important step toward developing skill in writing. Has anyone named "Once Upon a Time" as a specific craft yet? I'd like first dibs.
Unanswered Questions
Despite feeling a little better about this whole writing thing, I still have questions. These may seem stupid to some of you, but I'm a details person and these things still seem nebulous to me.
What exactly is a writer's notebook? Is it just stuff I've written? Do I put whatever I want in there, like collections of things? I sort of think yes, but I'm really not sure. What am I supposed to write?
Is writer's workshop a predefined sort of program? A philosophy? Or is it just a collection of activities we call "writer's workshop?" Are there mandatory parts? Do they go in a certain order? If I walked into a classroom, would I be able to tell after a day or so if they did writer's workshop if they didn't use that name?
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Discounted NAEYC Membership for Students
If you're planning on sticking with the lower grades, you might think about joining the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). It targets teachers of preschool to age 8. A student membership is only $35 (normally $80) and you get all the same benefits. You get discounted tickets to conferences, their journal, and sometimes other benefits. Have your student ID number handy. I am guessing that as long as your student ID remains valid you can sign up at the student rate.
I've been to two NAEYC conferences and two IAEYC conferences. The state one is kinda "meh" but the national one is fabulous.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Some Useful and Fun Links
Because I am a complete dork, I've added some links over on the right column to a few of the blogs I follow. Joanne Jacobs is particularly interesting if you want one place to keep up on educational news. Some of the blogs are just for fun with a grain of truth to keep you grounded. Enjoy!
I think I got everyone...
I added a list of links to all our blogs over on the right. If I've misspelled your name or missed you entirely, let me know. Thanks!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Readings for 9/13
Sound Systems
I wanted more from the readings in this book. There was a lot of really good information covered, but background information was sometimes missing. I realize that the book might have been huge otherwise, but if this is your first book on these topics I can see how easy it would be to get lost.
Early on there are a few definitions (phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, etc.), but after that you're on your own for anything you don't know. Don't know what a rime is or think it's the same as a rhyme? You'll have to do the legwork on that one. (Just for the record, rimes are parts of words that have stable and predictable pronunciations.)
Information on analyzing writing samples for spelling was very interesting to me. But when it came time to try my hand at it with a little exercise, I had trouble. It was clear that I really didn't understand what some of the categories of errors were. I knew there were errors in the sample, I just couldn't categorize them all properly and I had to look outside the text for help. While it doesn't sound like that would be a terrible problem, I think it would be hard to plan instruction if you don't know what kinds of errors the kids are making.
I was better pleased with the discussion of language arts and content areas. I feel that it's incredibly important to mix language arts into the other parts of the school day. It's much easier for kids to make those mental connections with multiple exposures from different perspectives.
The information on accommodating individual differences was important information. I have other books that cover small group instruction more in-depth, but I'm happy it was mentioned here. It's great that you can work with small groups, but what to do with everyone else? This important question will likely lead people to more reading.
I could have used more information on record keeping. The forms in the back are nice, but how do you manage all that paper to make it meaningful? I intend to focus on how my cooperating teachers keep records on all their students throughout the days, weeks, and grading periods. I'm convinced that it's important to keep these records, but I'm not yet confident that I could keep them in a way that would effectively inform my teaching.
Every Mark on the Page
This article, while about writing, struck me as a more general reminder to teachers about how important it is to communicate with parents. Communication doesn't simply entail giving out school calendars and sending a note home when something is wrong. Explaining to parents what level of performance is expected not only eases parents' minds but can make the teacher's job easier. As a parent myself, I've had plenty of, "What is she thinking???" moments about my kids' teachers. More communication up front might have made me a better advocate for those teachers.
As a nursery school teacher I frequently had parents ask what their child would learn over the year. When I was working with two-year-olds this question was particularly vexing. Our program didn't test kids and the topics in the curriculum were guided by student interests and developmental needs. There's no way I could predict the whole year in August. I did know they'd learn lots of new words, get practice working in a social environment, and get exposure to plenty of math, science, and language arts content. Most parents, once presented with what was realistic and expected, were very reasonable. But without that information, they had nothing to judge what a successful year would look like. Setting expectations with parents can make for a year with a better attitude by everyone involved.
I'll be using some of the methods Cusumano mentions in her article for communicating with parents. I got several new ideas from her list as well.
I wanted more from the readings in this book. There was a lot of really good information covered, but background information was sometimes missing. I realize that the book might have been huge otherwise, but if this is your first book on these topics I can see how easy it would be to get lost.
Early on there are a few definitions (phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, etc.), but after that you're on your own for anything you don't know. Don't know what a rime is or think it's the same as a rhyme? You'll have to do the legwork on that one. (Just for the record, rimes are parts of words that have stable and predictable pronunciations.)
Information on analyzing writing samples for spelling was very interesting to me. But when it came time to try my hand at it with a little exercise, I had trouble. It was clear that I really didn't understand what some of the categories of errors were. I knew there were errors in the sample, I just couldn't categorize them all properly and I had to look outside the text for help. While it doesn't sound like that would be a terrible problem, I think it would be hard to plan instruction if you don't know what kinds of errors the kids are making.
I was better pleased with the discussion of language arts and content areas. I feel that it's incredibly important to mix language arts into the other parts of the school day. It's much easier for kids to make those mental connections with multiple exposures from different perspectives.
The information on accommodating individual differences was important information. I have other books that cover small group instruction more in-depth, but I'm happy it was mentioned here. It's great that you can work with small groups, but what to do with everyone else? This important question will likely lead people to more reading.
I could have used more information on record keeping. The forms in the back are nice, but how do you manage all that paper to make it meaningful? I intend to focus on how my cooperating teachers keep records on all their students throughout the days, weeks, and grading periods. I'm convinced that it's important to keep these records, but I'm not yet confident that I could keep them in a way that would effectively inform my teaching.
Every Mark on the Page
This article, while about writing, struck me as a more general reminder to teachers about how important it is to communicate with parents. Communication doesn't simply entail giving out school calendars and sending a note home when something is wrong. Explaining to parents what level of performance is expected not only eases parents' minds but can make the teacher's job easier. As a parent myself, I've had plenty of, "What is she thinking???" moments about my kids' teachers. More communication up front might have made me a better advocate for those teachers.
As a nursery school teacher I frequently had parents ask what their child would learn over the year. When I was working with two-year-olds this question was particularly vexing. Our program didn't test kids and the topics in the curriculum were guided by student interests and developmental needs. There's no way I could predict the whole year in August. I did know they'd learn lots of new words, get practice working in a social environment, and get exposure to plenty of math, science, and language arts content. Most parents, once presented with what was realistic and expected, were very reasonable. But without that information, they had nothing to judge what a successful year would look like. Setting expectations with parents can make for a year with a better attitude by everyone involved.
I'll be using some of the methods Cusumano mentions in her article for communicating with parents. I got several new ideas from her list as well.
Double Spaces
Has anyone else noticed that double spacing after a punctuation mark in Blogger sometimes makes your formatting go off? You get weird spaces at the beginnings of lines within a paragraph occasionally. It adds a funky character after the space, if you check your HTML. I was always taught to type those two spaces and I'm finding it really hard not to do it! Does this thing have search and replace?
Monday, September 6, 2010
Community Literacy Dig
Introduction
For our community literacy dig our group chose to go to a park with a playground on a holiday weekend. My assignment was to gather and record evidence of literacy. Most of the reading required had to do with following instructions or finding specific parts of the playground, such as the bathroom. The signs fell into several categories: information (for adults and children), decoration, for children to use in their play, and incidental signs that didn't seem to have much connection to how the park is used. No writing is required in the playground other than what someone might scratch into the mulch. I saw no one writing while at the park except for other group members.
Right away you can see information for adults as you walk in the park (the top of the sign is cut off so you don't know what park it was). This sign is at both ends of the park so you're sure not to miss it.
Just in case an adult missed the first sign or didn't read what was prohibited, he or she could read either the words or the picture on this sign. Several signs like this are posted in areas where adults are likely to light up without thinking. One of those areas is directly under where the large play structure has a bridge, meaning any smoke would float up to the children playing there.
Decoration
For our community literacy dig our group chose to go to a park with a playground on a holiday weekend. My assignment was to gather and record evidence of literacy. Most of the reading required had to do with following instructions or finding specific parts of the playground, such as the bathroom. The signs fell into several categories: information (for adults and children), decoration, for children to use in their play, and incidental signs that didn't seem to have much connection to how the park is used. No writing is required in the playground other than what someone might scratch into the mulch. I saw no one writing while at the park except for other group members.
Information for Adults
 |
| Sign at Park Entrance |
Right away you can see information for adults as you walk in the park (the top of the sign is cut off so you don't know what park it was). This sign is at both ends of the park so you're sure not to miss it.
Just in case an adult missed the first sign or didn't read what was prohibited, he or she could read either the words or the picture on this sign. Several signs like this are posted in areas where adults are likely to light up without thinking. One of those areas is directly under where the large play structure has a bridge, meaning any smoke would float up to the children playing there.
The three signs above tell adults which children are supposed to use the equipment, based on age (sorry for that third one, the cell phone isn't the greatest camera!).
 |
| Got a Dirty Diaper? |
If you've got young kids, the koala to the right is a welcome sight. Most parents (and many children) know that the koala means there's a place to change diapers handy. This sticker was very high up on a bathroom door, indicating that it's for adults to read rather than children.
The above signs are for adults because they deal with driving and parking. Both indicate places for special types of vehicles.
Also, see Matt's blog for a sign with instructions for a special swing.
Information for Children
Information for children (as well as the items for children's play) was often graphic in nature rather than words or letters.
Here we've got the sign by the bathroom. Though this sign is readable by very young children because it uses pictures, it was placed fairly high up on the wall by the bathroom door. One of these signs was by each of the two bathrooms.
Though technically a street sign and therefore most likely placed there for adults, children can read this sign, which indicates where the crosswalks are. There were four of these signs next to two painted crosswalks at either end of the playground area so that pedestrians could cross to other parts of the park.
Decoration
This park is beautiful. It's surrounded by trees. Native rock is used in marking off the playground area. There is also a gorgeous mosaic with a quote on it. The full quote is: "We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing. G.B.Shaw"
Children's Play
The signs and toys in the areas for younger children used pictures rather than words. Here is a spinning toy that lets children create a sentence-like picture sequence:
For slightly older children there is a giant tic tac toe board. While it's not important to be able to read the Xs and Os, it IS important to know that they are different and that they are markers in a game.
The above two photos show a musical instrument built into the play equipment. By reading the letters, children can produce recognizable songs. Below, note the numbers and the path of the ball toy, located high up in the play structure. While the toy can still be used by children who can't yet read numbers, it adds an extra layer of challenge to follow the path and/or the numbers.
For slightly older children there is a giant tic tac toe board. While it's not important to be able to read the Xs and Os, it IS important to know that they are different and that they are markers in a game.
The above two photos show a musical instrument built into the play equipment. By reading the letters, children can produce recognizable songs. Below, note the numbers and the path of the ball toy, located high up in the play structure. While the toy can still be used by children who can't yet read numbers, it adds an extra layer of challenge to follow the path and/or the numbers.
Incidental Signs
There were lots of signs that had nothing to do with the park. Mostly they were labels on equipment denoting the manufacturer. Utility poles had stickers on them. My favorite sign that had nothing to do with the park was on a dog being trained to work with blind people. That sign encouraged me to ask about him and chat with the trainers a bit, who had come to the park to practice socializing with him in a public place.
The fuzzy one above is the name of a manufacturer on the side of a bench. It says: "Victor Stanley Inc. Dunkirk MD USA." The yellow numbers and letters are from a utility pole. The other two are manufacturer's tags (don't you just want to CALL that number in Sweden?).
But Wait, There's More!
These are images of the park. To see more images and read more about the group's observations, you'll want to check out the work of my group-mates:
Matt and Courtney: Specialized Language
Arthur: Kinds of Language Used
Jen: The People at the Park
Diana: The Physical Environment
There were lots of signs that had nothing to do with the park. Mostly they were labels on equipment denoting the manufacturer. Utility poles had stickers on them. My favorite sign that had nothing to do with the park was on a dog being trained to work with blind people. That sign encouraged me to ask about him and chat with the trainers a bit, who had come to the park to practice socializing with him in a public place.
The fuzzy one above is the name of a manufacturer on the side of a bench. It says: "Victor Stanley Inc. Dunkirk MD USA." The yellow numbers and letters are from a utility pole. The other two are manufacturer's tags (don't you just want to CALL that number in Sweden?).
But Wait, There's More!
These are images of the park. To see more images and read more about the group's observations, you'll want to check out the work of my group-mates:
Matt and Courtney: Specialized Language
Arthur: Kinds of Language Used
Jen: The People at the Park
Diana: The Physical Environment
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