Saturday, January 24, 2009
Language arts vignettes group b 4pm
View the NCTE/IRA vignettes at your level in the pdf standards handbook and then post entries on Class Blog for your group:1)propose “meaty” fat questions to discuss,2) make connections to your teaching and work with students, and 3)Please respond to two of your classmates’s entries in your study group.4) Consider how what you have learned from this book might support the work of your integrated language arts unit
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ReplyDeleteI thought that these vignettes were really interesting, and there was something in almost all of them that I could connect to with my own class of 5th graders.
ReplyDeleteIn the first one, I thought the questions posed at the end of How important is a noncompetitive risk-taking environment to the learning process? a really interesting question. One thing that I have noticed this year while I'm doing whole group lessons like this one, is that I have the same 3 or 4 kids who are always raising their hands to answer while the rest of the class tends to sit back. I've come to calling on kids who don't have their hands raised which I don't like to do but it's tiring and boring to have the same people answer over and over, I've also done a lot of partner sharing to get everyone talking. How do you address this in your classrooms? Tiffany, I'm sure you have a whole different set of issues with your class, but I'm sure some of it is the same.
Within Vignette 3 there was the great description of the project the students completed, I'm wondering how does anyone have time to do something like that with their class? My schedule is so full everyday that I have groups work on projects during guided reading time, but that's 40 minutes a day, and it seems to take them forever to complete a project. And really that 40 minutes ends up being about 25 if I'm lucky by the time the kids get their materials, get settled, and get to work.
Vignette 4 was really interesting to me, because I know many of the students in our school come to kindergarten never seeing a book before the first day of school. We work with a kindergarten class for book buddies and it always amazes me how far some of the students come in a year, but then how far behind some of them still are in June because they have no exposure outside of school to print. What really struck me was the connections Keoni and the other students made between the book, and their home languages and experiences. I have fifth grade students who could not make that connection. Connections are something that we always work on because it's hard to make a connection with really limited vocabulary, and life experiences like what my students come even to 5th grade with.
Vignette 6 with Mike reminded me of a student I had my second year of teaching, I could not get him to pick up a book to save my life. He would hold his book upside down and tell me he was reading. I would have loved to get him engaged in something, but he was so stubborn he would not look at any book we gave him. I'm just wondering how have you handled students like this in the past? Looking back I realize had I given him a sports magazine he probably would have read.
The final vignette really was about apply the strategies and skills that we spend so much time teaching our kids. I've noticed in the last few weeks that my students are really beginning to apply the vocabulary and strategies of the reading program we've been working with this year. We've been using Comprehension Toolkit, which is all non-fiction based and has a lot of cooperative learning components so the students can work together, and they struggled at first, but now they are working much better together and they are using the strategies and vocabulary we're discussing.
I'm interested to hear what you have to say based on your classroom experiences.
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ReplyDeleteHeather, I agree I also thought that these vignette's were quite interesting. Yes, you were right that they are sometimes tough to completely relate to due to the level of my special needs students, however there are definitely some relations. In questioning how important is a noncompetitive, risk-taking enviornment to the learning process, I feel it's so important. One of my students is trying to learn how to read, and has been for 6 years! His mother constantly pressures him with tutors and extra practice with phonics, when in reality I'm not sure he will ever grasp the concept of applying phonics to words. He uses great context clues/pictures to help read simple sentences, and picture assisted software, however he still gets discouraged. When I do math with him he does well and seems relaxed, but as soon as I do reading, he gets so anxious and is just guessing non-stop and twitching. It is sad to see how much the enviornment at home for him with the pressure for reading has almost made him scared and anxious over any type of reading. I find that at times when I make him laugh really quick and then get back to reading he does a little better because he relaxes. It tells me that a comforting risk-taking enviornment is everything!
ReplyDeleteIn vignette 2, I loved how the girls solved thier problem by role playing and visualizing how they could re-write their story, and add a visual to help. This is a lot like how my students do most of their learning, through visuals, and role playing! It was pretty cool to make that connection.
Heather, I agree that in vignette 3 it seemed pretty lucky that they had all that time for writing/researching the water pollution. I feel like there is never enough time as well, and think that a project like that would have to be used in connection with their library class, and science class. Although that seems like a good idea, I think we all know that it can also be difficult to do because there are "things" that need to get done everywhere. I'm really not sure we will ever solve the "time" issue, as long as state testing continues.
I was wondering, after vignette 4, do either of you have a lot of ESL learners? If so, how much do you use their first language to help them, and are they pulled out a lot of class? In Cheshire, I do not, however most of my kids are all still trying to learn to use the English language and speak.
As for the student Mike that was talked about in vignette 6, I agree Heather that everyone has those students. I feel like for those type of students who don't like to read, interest is the first and most important thing to get them to have. Once they can learn to enjoy or at least be slightly interested in a story, then I think you can build on reading skills from that. As for me, I totally rely on interest for many of my kids. They will not focus on a story unless it is of some interest to them, or have some personal experience related to them.
Lastly, I actually wanted to know Heather how the Comprehensive Toolkit is working in your class? Do you like it? About how many strategies are taught through it? I remember you saying you used it last class we had together, and I wanted to know a little more about it.
Tiffany, in response to your question about ELL kids. I have had several in the past, this year I don't have any. My grade level partner has 4 actually, 2 speak perfectly fine English and 2 are just learning the language. They are pulled from the class anyway from 30 minutes to up to 2 hours depending on the results of an ELL assessment they are given several times in a year. My frustration with that is, the test is a reading test, so my student who was identified ELL last year, did not need to go, she was also identified special ed and had a really severe learning disability in the area of reading, and the test had no modifications for that. Back to the question, I do teach all 4 ELL students math this year, so I rely on their native languages to translate key words for them. One student who has been here since September and has a home environment where almost everyone speaks english also is picking up very quickly and I translate her assessments and that's it. We just got a new student last week, whom I will have to translate more for I can already tell. All of our students are Spanish speaking and many of our other students are as well, so they help translate during lessons if need be.
ReplyDeleteWith the comprehension toolkit, the students probably learned 10-15 new strategies in the course of the 26 lessons. Where I have a hard time is there's not a lot of opportunities built into the program to continually practice and perfect a strategy once it's been introduced. We are just about to the end of the program now, so I will find other non-fiction pieces and go back and review the strategies that I think will be most helpful for my students for the rest of the year, and give them more time to practice and apply independently. Next year will be interesting using the Toolkit, because the kit goes K-2, and then 3-6, so our students who were in 4th grade this year, will have already seen all of the articles and stories last year. That's a challenge that will be interesting to face come September.
I feel so bad for the student that you talked about whose mom pushes him to read, when he continues to struggle with it. It seems like he tries and that he is still unable to fully comprehend the concept. I wonder if he would be able to relax and be more confident and capable if his mom would support him and give him the same support he gets at school instead of pushing him to levels he's clearly not at yet.
Heather, so how do you know all of the words you translate for the kids? Do you speak Spanish, or do you have translators in the school that you can use as a resource and ask them to translate assessments and things?
ReplyDeleteAllison, what have you thought of the vignettes? Were there many that you could relate to or any major issues that you saw in them?
Another question I had for both of you is that in vignette 1 they talk about how teachers take data about a group discussion, and I'm wondering what strategies you guys use? Almost all of my assessment is data collection on my specific needs students. I have to be taking data on daily living skills, behaviors, conversational skills, etc, so we are constantly walking around with clipboards of data collection. Therefore this makes it easy for me and my IA's to be keeping track of everything, however I can't imagine how hard it must be for 1 teacher to be keeping track of data while teaching a whole class. How does it work for you guys?
I think the next step for the Toolkit is going to be each grade level finding appropriate pieces they want to use, and each grade level keeping it there, so the kids aren't repeating it all. It sounds like it will be a lot of work though, so good luck!
I speak a very limited amount of Spanish. My grade level partner is fluent in Spanish so she helps me. We also have found a great website called Babblefish where you can type in anything and it will translate it for you. There are so many different languages on there that you could probably meet the needs of a lot of different kids. I've found that all of our ELL kids are really different so we really just look at the kid and do what works best for them.
ReplyDeleteOur school focus is on data driven decision making (it's the district focus also), so we do a lot of thumbnail and informal assessing to see where all of the kids are with the specific skill or concept we are teaching. I've spent a lot of time with my class developing rubrics that we use in math, reading and writing. We've got reading down to a 0,1,2 (modified from the CMT rubric) a zero is red, 1 is yellow and 2 is green so I grade with the colored dots and the kids know to look at the rubric and can see what their work was lacking or strong in based on that, and it makes getting data easy and giving feedback much easier. Someone gave me the idea of the color coded system last year and it's worked wonders to collect and analyze data on all of the students in a manageable way.
Hi Girls,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry I took so long to write but I have been very sick! After reading both of your entries, there are many similarities that I am seeing in my classroom. I liked the vignettes because there are a lot of them I can related to. Many of them focus on interactive reading strategies that we all use in the classroom and I think that is so important. It not only keeps the students engaged, but it also forces students to take risks and share their ideas. Heather you said that some of your students sit back while the same 3 or 4 students constantly participate, and I find that I have the exact same problem! I have been teaching for 4 years and every year I have a group that ALWAYS participates, while others are much more passive learners. One technique that I find that works is I have a Koosh ball and when I ask students a question I throw to them and whoever catches it has to answer. Somehow the boys in my class especially become much more excited about answering questions! It seems silly but I am telling you it works!
Tiffany, you were talking about the role of ELL students in the classroom. One of the things I find very frustrating is how often two of my ELL students are pulled from the classroom. I know that they need to be pulled to receive one on one support, but at the same time they are missing a lot of instructional time which makes me very frustrated! They get pulled for ELL support, remedial reading, math help, and one of them also receives special education services. I really do not use their native languages to help them because I am very unfamiliar with the Polish and Indian language. I am trying to learn some words but it is very difficult.
I really liked the vignette where the two girls had to act out their story because it wasn't making sense. I feel like we need to include a lot more role playing into our literacy program, especially for students who have difficulty developing their ideas and putting things in order. Do either of you use Reader's THeatre in your classroom? If so, do you find it successful at all? Do the students enjoy it?
Also, what is the comprehension toolkit? I have never heard of it! I can't wait to hear from you guys! Hope you had a great weekend!
I just finished writing in my journal about The Arrival and looking at Shaun Tan's website, and listening to the radio interview. One of the things that I thought was really interesting was how the 4th graders on the radio interview totally understood the book and the symbolism behind it. I had written about how the "surreal" pictures were things that were unfamiliar to the immigrant, and how it felt for him to see all these things, however I had never picked up on the monsters at the beginning. For some reason, it never crossed my mind that the only surreal photos in the immigrants "home" land, were the monsters, and that it can be depicted to show something bad. The 4th graders talked about how they wondered if that meant that there was war, or disease going around in that country, which was why the immigrant was choosing to leave and go start a new life for his family. It was such a great thought, and I love hearing about it from students!
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that I really thought was interesting was how much books and T.V. helped shape Shaun Tan's writing now. He talks about how his mother had read to him a lot, and he had a variety of books around to be inspired by. I also feel that people's childhood experience with reading and writing contribute to the readers and writers they become today.
Lastly, it was interesting to read that Shaun Tan feels like he is constantly editing and revising, and putting things together. I like how he writes things, draws things, and plays with where they go, how to re-do them, and how to make them better.
After completing the Before Reading and During Reading activities, I had a lot of time to reflect on all of the messages that Shaun Tan was trying to convey in this book. The first time I read it, I was very confused about some of the pictures. I didn't understand the meaning of the reptilian shapes, the strange language and animals, and the modes of transportation such as the hot air balloon and the time machine. After rereading this book multiple times, and really putting a lot of thought into the theme of this book, I was able to see the deeper meaning.
ReplyDeleteI loved listening to the radio interview because I thought it was interesting that a fourth grade class read and completed activities with this book. I teach fourth grade and I decided after reading this book that I would share it with my students since we just finished our Ellis Island Unit. I thought it was fascinating that many people did not believe that fourth graders could handle this wordless book, and I like how the fourth grade teacher decided to try it out and had a lot of success. I was amazed at how the students were able to make the connection between monsters and all of the scary things that immigrants faced along their journey to a strange new world.
I like how the sepia-toned pictures really lend themselves to being evocative and mysterious, and this book can be interpreted in so many different ways. I also thought it was interesting that Shaun Tan mentioned how his father was an immigrant to Australia and that really sparked the ideas and sketches for this book. I agree with Tiffany about how neat it is that he is constantly editing and revising because being an author really takes patience and constant rewriting which is something I am always trying to convey to my students!