--curricular areas (pp 16-17) as possible target areas for your unit development.
-Using context clues. This is something that I think the students could really benefit from. A lot of them struggle with comprehension and certain words or phrases and I feel that if they had a unit on using context clues to decipher meanings, perhaps within the genre unit texts they are reading, their comprehension would be much better. As we all know as teachers, when a student comprehends a certain piece of literature on a deeper level it opens up doors for richer, more powerful writing, conversation, etc.
-Secondly, under the Interaction heading I found some curricular links that sounded particularly interesting to me. Specifically, the “work with peers to explore ideas.” I think this could be an extremely powerful and effective tactic to use for literacy learning in my classroom. As in most classrooms, we have students with various needs. We have some very strong writers and then we have a large majority of struggling writers. I think a lot of their struggle comes as they try to write independently and lack the confidence to move forward and improve since they have picked up on the fact that they are at a lower level than the rest of their peers (since students very often tend to pick up on where they are in comparison to their peers) Therefore, I feel that by having students explore texts and writing as a group, learners of all levels could benefit. Those that are strong in writing could be placed in each group amongst struggling writers. The struggling writers could hopefully benefit from their more advanced peer and the strong peer could benefit because when a student, or any aged learner, has to explain/teach concepts to another it tends to help their own personal comprehension. At first I was a bit skeptical of this idea because group work can be challenging and sometimes the social aspect and group dynamic gets in the way of learning. However, the book does a nice job of giving suggestions for avoiding these issues. For example student interaction guidelines: “everybody talks, talk one at a time, listen to each other to get good ideas, respect each other, talk about the books” (21).
---think about where you have opportunities to try something new for Guided Lead Teaching.
The chapters offered a lot of information at which I will need time to internalize and more time in the classroom to fully understand. I do feel that it has given me a lot of new ideas for my own teaching. For example, one idea I found simple but insightful to keep in mind was one about modeling, “students need multiple exposures to good models before they’re able to adapt and internalize the use of a strategy” (30). I will most certainly keep this idea in mind as I plan and teach my unit. Sometimes when we as adults are proficient in a skill we forget that our students need it broken down and modeled for them numerous times before it can begin to be meaningful.
----How does the book club model compare and contrast with what you are learning about literacy in your classroom context?
-I see so many of the book club concepts and strategies being used in my classroom but not necessarily called the same things. For example, the comprehension strategies: “background knowledge strategies- what do I already know that helps me step into the world created by this text?” (32) I have seen my mentor teacher give students prompts on a topic of a certain book or genre prior to reading. This helps them make a connection and access prior knowledge unknowingly and in an unthreatening manner even before beginning the actual text. Although my teacher might not use this technique in as elaborate of a way as the book club plus program suggests, it is still present.
--Where do you see reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and other literacies in your classroom literacy program?
Well, currently my class is working on a genre unit. My mentor teacher introduces a genre to the class and then allows them to access their prior knowledge by discussing that genre (for example fantasies and what a fantasy text is). She then continued on by introducing the text and reading passages aloud to them on a regular basis. This was followed by discussion and journal writing. Throughout this process she would have students ponder a certain thought and then say, “discuss this with your neighbor.” This allowed students time to verbalize their thoughts but quickly and without causing them too much anxiety from the sometimes social pressures that this age group tends to struggle with. It was quick and effective at getting them to work on verbalizing their ideas to their peers.
The one thing I really notice in your post is when you talk about having struggling writers. In my classroom there are three or four students that really struggle with writing. Some days they will write nothing or only a sentence or two in the 45 minute writing period. I have seen after read aloud the students write a summary and then compare with a partner to add in things that they may have forgotten or just left out. This seemed to work somewhat. I would like to see more chances for the students to write as a team or in groups to see if the struggling writers get involved or continue to struggle.
ReplyDeleteI think working with peers to explore ideas is a great idea for any curriculum. Students can always learn from each other, even the more advanced students. It’s proven that you learn more and truly connect with material when you teach the material; therefore, students teaching other students would also benefit. At the same time the students who need the extra help would benefit. I think it would be good to have the students share their writings with a partner and work through different writing techniques together. They could help each other edit and revise and discuss what was wrong with the paper, how to improve the writing, and also what they liked about the writing. I think giving positives about what you see is also very important for students so that they realize even if they’re at a lower level there is always something good about their work. This will help to build the students’ confidence and I believe that students need confidence in their writing, or any other work, in order to improve and succeed. I think having the students write one piece, as a group, is a great idea as well! I’ve seen students write and then work in groups to correct their writings but I’ve never seen/tried having a group of students work together to write one writing piece. Allowing three or four students to write one piece of writing together would help them to think of all aspects of writing because each person would have something different to contribute. Everyone has a different strength and by using all of their strengths they could write a great paper and the struggling learns would see the finished product and be proud of their work. They would also see what a strong piece of writing should look like and how to get to that point so hopefully they would be able to take what they learned from their group writing and apply it to their own writing. I will have to keep this idea in mind and I would love for us to try it with our students! However, I completely agree that giving the students guidelines for group interaction is necessary, especially with our students. I also think including the students in making the guidelines is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteModeling is very important for all curricular areas, but especially writing. My students wrote a paper in the beginning of the year without any modeling from my CT because we wanted to see where they were. All she told them was to fill out the 5 square organizer that they were given and that they should then write a paper based on the information in their graphic organizer. Each square on the organizer would form a paragraph of their paper. Then the next paper they wrote my CT modeled a lot for them. She gave them an example of a five square organizer that was already filled out and then showed them a paper that went along with that organizer. She then modeled a five square organizer by filling it out herself and then walking them through the process of writing a paper from the information on the graphic organizer. She then also modeled how to edit and revise the paper she had just written, which would then lead to writing a final draft. The students were then released to write their own papers on the topic she had modeled for them, their special place, and the papers were all then times better than the first set of papers. It is amazing how much students can gain from watching their teacher model the correct way of doing things, especially writing. So I agree that modeling is very important!
I find it interesting that you discuss the concept of activating their prior knowledge a few times throughout your blog. I agree that activating the students’ prior knowledge is so important, but I often forget about this. I’m glad you have reminded me! I think prior knowledge is especially important for reading because as teachers we will then know what the students know about what they will read and what we need to teach them in order for them to learn the most that they can learn from the book they’re reading. I LOVE the idea of having the students “share with their neighbor.” I think this is a great way to get the students quickly thinking about the topic and hearing from someone else about what they know as well. I agree it’s helpful so that the students don’t have too much anxiety about sharing something with the class. It allows them to verbalize their thoughts and prepare for what they are about to learn. My students have done this a few times in math, but never in reading and I would like to try it for reading as well.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s so interesting to see what happens in your classroom verses mine and the ideas that you get and other ideas that I get since our teachers work so closely together but yet have different teaching ideas and strategies. It’s a wonderful learning experience!