As I was working with one of my students during Practicum one day, I began to recall a discussion we had during our Reading Class one day in the beginning of the semester. During this particular conversation, we had been talking about all the possible ways of reading a book. Some of the suggestions included books on tape and looking at pictures, among many others. I followed the conversation and agreed with many of the comments made by my teacher and fellow classmates, but for some reason I was still questioning the validity of saying that looking at pictures can be considered reading. Im not sure why I questioned this. Looking back on my own experiences as I write this, I am realizing that even adults read through pictures nearly every day. It is a hard concept to think about though. After being educated in a system that has such a narrow view of literacy (You aren't "literate" until you can read a book fluently.), it's really difficult to not have that narrow view for yourself. My view has now been broadened! I fully believe in picture walking as a valid way to read a book. How many times do I flip through a magazine or newspaper, interpretting advertisements and stories only through pictures? How many times do you do the same?
Let's go back to the experience I had in the classroom which has led me to talk about this topic and the conclusions which I have reached. The best I can remember, it happened on our first day at Glen Alpine. The students were having their AR time, and I was up walking around watching students read, listening to students read, and occassionally stopping and sitting with a student and asking them to read to me. Well, as I was walking around I noticed "Will" sitting over in a corner reading a huge book. Wondering how he was handling all the words on the pages of the book he had, which was about Duke's basketball history, I went over and asked him some questions about his book. He told me a little about it and went on to read with me sitting there in the floor beside him. However, Will's reading had very little to do with the words on the page. He was looking at each picture on every page. And as he closely examined these pictures, he would attempt to read team names and player names on jerseys and predict what had been happening when the picture was taken. And he was so excited about it all! I would venture to say that Will would not have enjoyed this book in least, had he been made to sit there and attempt to decipher words, sentences, paragraphs, and pages, depsite the fact that Duke is his favorite team. Was Will getting anything out of this experience? Absolutely. First, he was using pictures to predict what was happening or to create his own story. This is a literary experience if there ever was one. At the very least, he had a book in his hands and was enjoying himself. This is a great victory in itself, considering the great fun many teachers and schools have taken out of reading in today's education system!
So a picture really is worth a thousand words. Or a least it can be. It's all in what you make of it. I hope to make my classroom a place where students can learn the value of being able to "read" a picture rather than a place where students are looked down upon for flipping through a book only for the pictures. I want my students to understand that books are to be used for learning and for our enjoyment, whether that means reading the words, the pictures, or both. Learning to read the words on the pages does eventually have to happen, but if it happens before a child is developmentally ready for it, then our efforts are worthless and only leave us with frustrated teachers and even more frustrated students. If I had a whole classroom full of Will's on my hands, I would be overjoyed. As long as my students have books in their hands and smiles on their faces, I can assure you I will be a very happy person!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Worksheet Mania!
Especially in today's society, there is one thing that never seems to change no matter what school I am in- worksheets. They are everywhere. I would even venture to say that it is impossible to get through one school day without a worksheet. This was true even when I was in school. It is true of the classrooms in my Mom's school. It is true of the classroom I am in for Practicum. Worksheets are not necessarily a bad thing, but when they are overused, they can be. Why are teachers so determined to use worksheets all the time? In my opinion, I think the main reason is that pulling a worksheet is just simply easier than taking the time to invent something creative for the students to do to learn. Especially in an age where so much emphasis is placed on testing and things of that nature, what teacher has the time to sit down and find something to do besides a worksheet? There are so many resources today that cater to teachers and their lack of time. Textbook companies send resource books full of worksheets, and then are the other random books of resources that are full of worksheets also. In my Practicum classroom, when we walk in the students are always finishing a math worksheet. Then, they have centers. Nearly every center is some type of worksheet. Then, when we leave, they are usually working on some type of worksheet. Not all of the worksheets my teacher uses are bad. Some of them are right on target in helping the students to understand a concept. They have a purpose and aren't just busy work. But some of them are simply busy work- especially the worksheets that the students work on during Centers. They always have a spelling worksheet to do, and it always involves having students sort by ABC order, among other things. Does that REALLY accomplish anything? Does that REALLY help learning to take place? Is it REALLY that important that a 2nd grader know how to put a list of words in ABC order? And after seeing the students working on these worksheets, I am convinced now, more than ever, that busy work accomplishes nothing except for keeping the students busy (hence the name!!). Is it possible that our students are suffering from worksheet overload?
Although I do hope that I can avoid falling into the worksheet trap once I become a teacher, I must admit that this is going to be very, very difficult. No matter how hard and tiring it may be, I hope that I will be willing to find the time to plan things other than worksheets for my students to learn from. If I find some great, purposeful worksheets along the way, then I will take advantage of my resources and use them. Most of all, I just don't want to be the teacher who uses worksheet after worksheet per lack of time and motivation to be creative! I don't want my classroom to be cluttered with worksheets, but instead with students who are busily discovering the joys of learning and books without always having to have a worksheet right in front of their face.
Although I do hope that I can avoid falling into the worksheet trap once I become a teacher, I must admit that this is going to be very, very difficult. No matter how hard and tiring it may be, I hope that I will be willing to find the time to plan things other than worksheets for my students to learn from. If I find some great, purposeful worksheets along the way, then I will take advantage of my resources and use them. Most of all, I just don't want to be the teacher who uses worksheet after worksheet per lack of time and motivation to be creative! I don't want my classroom to be cluttered with worksheets, but instead with students who are busily discovering the joys of learning and books without always having to have a worksheet right in front of their face.
Teaching My "Making Words" Lesson
I had a great time teaching my Making Words lesson the other day! Although I was not as prepared for some aspects of the lesson as I would have liked to have been, I feel like I improvised pretty well. I know that things are not always going to go as planned when I become a teacher, so I think that this experience was a great lesson in flexibility and how to adapt to your class' or group's needs without notice.
My three +'s and a wish are as follows:
+ I had all of my materials prepared and ready.
+ I was very patient with all of the students.
+ I was able to transition smoothly from word to word.
- I wish that I'd had a white board to write my words on.
Originally, I had planned to do my lesson with the whole class. I had planned to have the students make the words as normal, and then I would have used the White Board to write the words. I had not thought about the fact that if I did the lesson with a small group, then I wouldn't have a board to write on. And really, I hadn't even thought about the fact that she might have me do the lesson with a small group. I had told her I was fine with either and then just made the assumption that she would prefer that I do the lesson with the whole class. Oops!
The group she gave me to work with was perfect. It was group of six, which included two of her highest students, two of her average students, and two of her lowest students. I must say, though, that even the lowest students in this class really aren't that far below average. They seeemed to really enjoy the lesson. Although I never would have considered using the Making Words lesson as a small group lesson before now, I do think that it would be very effective if used as such. And I do believe that I may consider using Making Words as a small group lesson in my own classroom at times. I wouldn't use it all of the time, but I am certain that this type of lesson is an effective teaching tool, its a great skill to have, and it may give a little variety to your everyday, mundane reading group routine!
I can't wait to teach my Guided Reading lesson and see how it goes!
My three +'s and a wish are as follows:
+ I had all of my materials prepared and ready.
+ I was very patient with all of the students.
+ I was able to transition smoothly from word to word.
- I wish that I'd had a white board to write my words on.
Originally, I had planned to do my lesson with the whole class. I had planned to have the students make the words as normal, and then I would have used the White Board to write the words. I had not thought about the fact that if I did the lesson with a small group, then I wouldn't have a board to write on. And really, I hadn't even thought about the fact that she might have me do the lesson with a small group. I had told her I was fine with either and then just made the assumption that she would prefer that I do the lesson with the whole class. Oops!
The group she gave me to work with was perfect. It was group of six, which included two of her highest students, two of her average students, and two of her lowest students. I must say, though, that even the lowest students in this class really aren't that far below average. They seeemed to really enjoy the lesson. Although I never would have considered using the Making Words lesson as a small group lesson before now, I do think that it would be very effective if used as such. And I do believe that I may consider using Making Words as a small group lesson in my own classroom at times. I wouldn't use it all of the time, but I am certain that this type of lesson is an effective teaching tool, its a great skill to have, and it may give a little variety to your everyday, mundane reading group routine!
I can't wait to teach my Guided Reading lesson and see how it goes!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Practicum Experiences
I have really been enjoying my Practicum experience so far. One can never know quite what to expect going into something like that, but I have been very pleased with my experiences. Furthermore, I feel that I am really taking a lot from the experience- I have seen things I felt were good, and things I felt were not so good. Either way, they are both allowing me to decide exactly how I want my own classroom to look and feel.
One great thing about Burke County is the small class sizes. No class can have more than 18 students, and when you come from a county where 25 or 26 students was the norm, 18 seems tiny. This size greatly cuts down on the amount of problems one could potentially have in the classroom, and it also allows the teacher to get to know her students better and to spend more time with each individual student. Although I will not have any control over my class size, I will always do my best to give them the maximum amount of time possible.
I could only hope for a class as well behaved as the one I am working in. The students rarely argue or act up, and when they do the issue is quickly resolved and handled without disrupting the entire classroom environment. There is not any sort of discipline chart hanging over their heads all the time. There are positives and negatives about this. I really like it because of the way it subtly takes the focus off of "what if bad behavior happens" and allows their attention to be other places. However, no matter how good a class may be, there are no guarantees that something serious will never occur. Students need to be aware of the discplinary protocol that will take place if they do act out in a serious way. This also covers the teacher if any issue were to come up over whether or not she was treating students fairly. Our teacher uses a lot of extrinsic motivation, of which I am not a fan. But whether I am a fan or not, it works. The thing I like most is that when students are arguing she tells them they need to go talk about it until they have one story. Then, they may come talk with her once they have agreed upon one story. They quickly decide what they want to tell the teacher, the person at fault apologizes, and they get back to whatever they were doing. This, in my opinion, is a genius way of teaching students how to talk their problems out on their own instead of being tattle tales.
In terms of instruction, I am a little disappointed. Because of the time we are at the school and the schedule of our classroom, we do not get to experience much instructional time. By the time we get there, they are already finishing up math time. Then, they have a very short reading lesson(which I will talk more about later on), followed by centers, specials, lunch, recess, read-aloud, AR time, and then they are ususally in the middle of some other type of lesson(either science or social studies) when we are leaving. I wish I could experience more classroom instructional time with the kids. However, I know that even though it seems like I am missing a lot, I am really not missing as much as I feel I am. It's just that the school day is so much shorter than we think it is. It's nearly impossible to make sure that everything gets fit in like it is supposed to .
The student's reading lesson that they have is really not a reading lesson at all in my opinion. The teacher takes a story out of the textbook, and plays the book on tape as the students follow along. There is no instruction at the beginning and she never asks them questions as the story is being read. There is usually some activity that she goes over with them after the story is over, but that is to be completed at the appropriate center, and the students only go to one center per day. So, that means some students may not complete the activity until Friday after they listened to the story on Monday. I do not feel that the students are learning anything from this, except how to copy answers from the teacher's example that they filled out as a class. The class we are in is full of exceptionally bright students, and they are all very capable of completing the worksheets on their own or with their center partners. If it were my classroom, the lesson time would be comprised of more than just listening to a story. I imagine it would probably look a lot like the Guided Reading Lesson model we have been taught. And although having students copy the answers we came up with as a class would probably be appropriate earlier on in the year, I would hope to have students finding some of their own answers by this point in the year. This would eventually move to having them finding all of their own answers even later in the year.
During read aloud time, the teacher uses book on tape whenever possible. I am not sure what her fascination is with books on tape, except that it saves her voice, but I would not use books on tape as frequently as she seems to do it. There is nothing wrong with them. They are a great option, but nothing can replace the expressions of a human voice and face reading a story! Also, it is a lot easier to stop and ask questions to make sure everyone is with you. As a classroom teacher, I intend to make sure that the majority of my read-alouds are read live rather than with a book on tape.
The last observation I would like to talk about is the use of AR in the classroom. I like that there is not much emphasis put on AR in the classroom. Each student has a goal for each nine weeks, and if they meet the goal there is a schoolwide reward day. The goals are very reachable for all the students in our classroom and they are set by the teacher. The feeling I have gotten from talking with her is that she sets the goal for each of them simply so that she can say that it has been done. It not something she really dwells on. However, when students are testing, they always take the book with them and look back for answers. I am not sure I agree with this. AR could be a great tool to help build some reading comprehension skills, but if the students are simply going to sit at the computer and look for answers as the questions come up, they may as well just pick a book theyve never read and take the test for it. Ive already written a whole blog on AR, but in short, if it were my classroom, this would not be allowed. I do plan to have a low-emphasis approach to the program. However, I also plan to use it for what it is good for- building some recall and comprehension skills. Otherwise, I feel it is just wasted time, and we all know there is no time for wasted time in classroom.
I am excited about what I have learned in Practicum so far. I cant wait to see what other types of experiences I get top have and what other things I might learn while working with these delightful Burke County children!
One great thing about Burke County is the small class sizes. No class can have more than 18 students, and when you come from a county where 25 or 26 students was the norm, 18 seems tiny. This size greatly cuts down on the amount of problems one could potentially have in the classroom, and it also allows the teacher to get to know her students better and to spend more time with each individual student. Although I will not have any control over my class size, I will always do my best to give them the maximum amount of time possible.
I could only hope for a class as well behaved as the one I am working in. The students rarely argue or act up, and when they do the issue is quickly resolved and handled without disrupting the entire classroom environment. There is not any sort of discipline chart hanging over their heads all the time. There are positives and negatives about this. I really like it because of the way it subtly takes the focus off of "what if bad behavior happens" and allows their attention to be other places. However, no matter how good a class may be, there are no guarantees that something serious will never occur. Students need to be aware of the discplinary protocol that will take place if they do act out in a serious way. This also covers the teacher if any issue were to come up over whether or not she was treating students fairly. Our teacher uses a lot of extrinsic motivation, of which I am not a fan. But whether I am a fan or not, it works. The thing I like most is that when students are arguing she tells them they need to go talk about it until they have one story. Then, they may come talk with her once they have agreed upon one story. They quickly decide what they want to tell the teacher, the person at fault apologizes, and they get back to whatever they were doing. This, in my opinion, is a genius way of teaching students how to talk their problems out on their own instead of being tattle tales.
In terms of instruction, I am a little disappointed. Because of the time we are at the school and the schedule of our classroom, we do not get to experience much instructional time. By the time we get there, they are already finishing up math time. Then, they have a very short reading lesson(which I will talk more about later on), followed by centers, specials, lunch, recess, read-aloud, AR time, and then they are ususally in the middle of some other type of lesson(either science or social studies) when we are leaving. I wish I could experience more classroom instructional time with the kids. However, I know that even though it seems like I am missing a lot, I am really not missing as much as I feel I am. It's just that the school day is so much shorter than we think it is. It's nearly impossible to make sure that everything gets fit in like it is supposed to .
The student's reading lesson that they have is really not a reading lesson at all in my opinion. The teacher takes a story out of the textbook, and plays the book on tape as the students follow along. There is no instruction at the beginning and she never asks them questions as the story is being read. There is usually some activity that she goes over with them after the story is over, but that is to be completed at the appropriate center, and the students only go to one center per day. So, that means some students may not complete the activity until Friday after they listened to the story on Monday. I do not feel that the students are learning anything from this, except how to copy answers from the teacher's example that they filled out as a class. The class we are in is full of exceptionally bright students, and they are all very capable of completing the worksheets on their own or with their center partners. If it were my classroom, the lesson time would be comprised of more than just listening to a story. I imagine it would probably look a lot like the Guided Reading Lesson model we have been taught. And although having students copy the answers we came up with as a class would probably be appropriate earlier on in the year, I would hope to have students finding some of their own answers by this point in the year. This would eventually move to having them finding all of their own answers even later in the year.
During read aloud time, the teacher uses book on tape whenever possible. I am not sure what her fascination is with books on tape, except that it saves her voice, but I would not use books on tape as frequently as she seems to do it. There is nothing wrong with them. They are a great option, but nothing can replace the expressions of a human voice and face reading a story! Also, it is a lot easier to stop and ask questions to make sure everyone is with you. As a classroom teacher, I intend to make sure that the majority of my read-alouds are read live rather than with a book on tape.
The last observation I would like to talk about is the use of AR in the classroom. I like that there is not much emphasis put on AR in the classroom. Each student has a goal for each nine weeks, and if they meet the goal there is a schoolwide reward day. The goals are very reachable for all the students in our classroom and they are set by the teacher. The feeling I have gotten from talking with her is that she sets the goal for each of them simply so that she can say that it has been done. It not something she really dwells on. However, when students are testing, they always take the book with them and look back for answers. I am not sure I agree with this. AR could be a great tool to help build some reading comprehension skills, but if the students are simply going to sit at the computer and look for answers as the questions come up, they may as well just pick a book theyve never read and take the test for it. Ive already written a whole blog on AR, but in short, if it were my classroom, this would not be allowed. I do plan to have a low-emphasis approach to the program. However, I also plan to use it for what it is good for- building some recall and comprehension skills. Otherwise, I feel it is just wasted time, and we all know there is no time for wasted time in classroom.
I am excited about what I have learned in Practicum so far. I cant wait to see what other types of experiences I get top have and what other things I might learn while working with these delightful Burke County children!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
