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.
For the most part I agree with your analysis of the Sound Systems reading. I felt very lost in the first few sections and felt like I needed a degree in speech pathology to understand what the authors are talking about. The section on record keeping also struck me. I thought it would be an interesting concept if an entire school used the same type of recording keeping (with accordance to grades and academic progress). This way when a child graduated on to the next grade level his records could go with him and the new teacher could use those and not spend as much time getting background of the children.
ReplyDeleteAs for Cusumano's piece, it struck me as a reminder that even though a child has left the school building at the end of the day, it does not mean their learning needs to end. And for this to happen parents need to be active in the philosophies of their child's teacher.
Patti - I didn't address it in my own entry on "Sound Systems" but I do agree with you that the advice for working phonics instruction reinforcement into other subjects such as science and social studies was great. I think that too often subjects can be taught as unrelated blocks instead of integrated to enhance learning across disciplines. This bit of the reading reminded me a lot of the Constructivist theory and its little "blue dots" that we learned about in last week Math readings. I'm starting to see the interconnected nature of all the works our professors have us reading and its quite exciting to make those connections, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI like Paige's idea of the school using the same type of record keeping - so much of the teacher's time at the beginning of the school year is spent just figuring out what academic level the student is at. Trying to assess an individual student in a large class is difficult and if teachers had a basis from the same test of where the student was at at the end of the previous school year would be beneficial for both the student and the teacher. I believe that the students get worn out with all of the testing that is now required of them.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with integrating language arts into other subject areas. I once worked with a Social Studies teacher who had her students write a report about Indians, they were given no direction about writing their report and when one of the students asked about it she told the student that they should have learned that in their English class, I couldn't believe it.
I also think that Paige poses an interesting idea about record-keeping; it would be an excellent way to assess and track student progress (or lack thereof).
ReplyDeleteBecause language arts is composed of two very necessary and fundamental tasks, reading and writing, it seems that it should be relatively easy to incorporate into other subjects (e.g. making observations, creating inferences, and then writing about how the inferences were made).
Patti, I also got a bit mixed up with the the jargon as I tried to classify the mistakes into certain categories...so you're not alone! :o)
Courtney, I agree that reading and writing are such fundamental parts of education that they could be easily connected to making observations, creating inferences, etc. After all, children often need to be able to write to communicate these inferences and observations. In addition, I think that we often tend to categorize aspects of education into Language Arts and the more science-y, math types of lessons. How beneficial would it be for children to see and make connections between the, what seem to be, two main subgroups of content in schools? They could not only gain understanding in each content area, but also make connections across all avenues of subjects, which could, in turn, help them better understand their worlds.
ReplyDeletePatti,
ReplyDeleteMuch the same as our Math text is encouraging us to help student connect skills to their everyday lives so can we help them in Language Arts too. From the other end it is always so cool when I am home with my girls and they "get" something from school and are able to apply it to whatever we are doing.
I loved your thoughts on effective parent communication. Before my music student teaching, I had to write an introductory letter for all of the parents. In my letter I said what I wanted to teach and what I was most looking forward to experience from my 16 week journey. Let's just say that not all of the parents were thrilled that a student teacher was now teaching....My supervising teacher got some angry e-mails and phone calls from parents because they wanted the official teacher in charge. It was quite shocking but once the parents got to know me, then they eased into the idea a bit better. I believe communication is key when informing parents about yourself, your teaching philosophy, and your curriculum.
ReplyDelete