The Vocabulary Chapter

Vocabulary is vital to not only the classroom community but to society as well! Without it, where would we be as humans in our developments of communication? Vocabulary captures everything imaginable and helps us to express whatever we choose and can also miss the expression completely.  There are so many parts of words that rely on each other to build the English language and every other language.  Vocabulary teaches children word meanings and well as spelling, which in turn builds upon all other aspects in the educational curriculum that we teach our students each and every day.  The more vocabulary that is built into student’s memory, the more likely they are to be able to pull words from the sentence to understand an unknown word meaning.  There are also those words that are only connected to their subject area and can have multiple meanings across the subject areas.  If students do not know these meanings and how they are connected to their subject areas, they very well may not be able to pull words within the sentence to make appropriate word meaning.  On another note, the more students are able to see vocabulary words, the more they become acquainted with the word and all of its characteristics.  Students spelling errors will decrease and they will begin to use words more appropriately and in their correct context.  If the world was only made up of symbols, it would be no world of any use. With that principle in mind, if we just communicated with symbols, what kind of humans would be?

Chapter 5: "Why ask, questioning strategies in the classroom?"

The importance of questioning in the classroom is that when teachers question students it creates an atmosphere in which students are questioning what they are learning.  It is teaching them to think beyond the material and relate it to prior knowledge but most importantly to make connections!  Students desperately need this in order to grow in any aspect of their learning education.  Questioning pushes students to obtain an answer or to better understand what they are learning.  Questioning students in the classroom better equips them with the skills necessary to make them successful in the classroom and beyond.

Also the more a student begins to question the more advance the questions become. Students are not as satisfied with the answers that they are being given and want something more.  A more common term for this is higher order thinking or thinking past the average or basic.  Students start to make their questions more complex and precise in order to gather the exact response that they are looking for.  This is an extremely effective tool in the classroom to help promote independent learning for each person.

Lastly questioning can be integrated across the curriculum which helps students relate the skill in all aspects of their lives.  Students receive more practice which in term helps them to become better question askers. By students asking questions, teachers can also better assess where they are in understanding and what to clarify.  Teachers can use this strategy to help students locate information that they have already learned and need assistance in remembering.  It helps students solve problems with little or no assistance at all. 

·         “When teachers use these strategies to ask probing questions, students grow in their thinking processes.” (pg.83)

·         How can you turn questions that are not open ended around and use them to promote higher level thinking?

Picture This! (chapter 6)

“By using graphic organizers, [students] are more apt to see connections between what they have learned and what they are currently learning” (Fisher & Frey, 114). 

            This quote mainly pertains to schema, or background knowledge, but can be related to a student’s retainable information on a daily basis.  Students, whether they realize it or not, are constantly gathering data to further educate themselves and build rapidly evolving understanding and knowledge.  Graphic organizers help students to integrate things that they are learning throughout various aspects of their lives.  Organizing the information using a graphic organizer provides students with the most efficiency possible.  They are able to refer back to prior information quickly and can easily view summative data of a given topic.  Graphic organizers can literally be used in any learning area or in real life connections.  They can be easily adjusted to fit any subject area or type of curriculum.  When students are able to use this important tool, they are not only engaged in what they are breaking down but also connecting different aspects of a particular content. 

            While some students respond well to graphic organizers, there are other students that do not.  It is incredibly important to address all needs of students and equip them with as many tools as possible.  I am all about helping students make connections in order to help them grasp a better understanding.  Graphic organizers have helped me personally in the classroom and I use them outside of school as well. In a soap box, they are basically there to help organize information in order to increase learning.  They help break down information that would normally be too much for the average student to handle.  Organizing the data in this manner teaches students to organize in life events as well.  They are constantly relating information across the board and retaining it by fully understanding what they are learning. 

Stating this, my question would be:

Do students benefit more from creating their own graphic organizer or from ones that are specifically designated by the teacher? Why?

Read Alouds in the Classroom: The Importance of Communication

There are many influential benefits of using read alouds in the daily classroom agenda. Teachers can utilize this strategy in order to help students produce better comprehension of texts as well as promote deeper understanding. It is extremely easy for students to get off task and stretch an exact meaning of something into something completely different. This is why the teacher is there to direct the conversation and keep it on the correct subject line. In the article, the author talks about getting students away from books that contain pictures and presenting them with more text based materials. This idea can be good as well as bad for several reasons. To start with, students may not have any type of schema to branch off of, highlighting their extreme need for something to make a connection to. Students also desperately need something to break up the rigorous solid page of words. I do not see how asking a student to read an excessive amount of words that are crammed onto a sheet of paper be productive. Students can only be expected to stay engaged for so long and even the average adult has trouble with excessive reading. This is one of the many reasons why students need to have items that break up the bulk of the material such as spaces, pictures, fonts, etc. These help students take a slight break and think about what they just briefly read. I personally think that students benefit more from having pictures to relate to because they have visuals for what is being discussed. And yes, sometimes students can infer completely different meanings from a picture than what the text is trying to get across but that responsibility partially remains with the teacher as well. If there is a specific point that the teacher is trying to stress, then the teacher needs to clearly direct the class discussion in that direction. This lets the students know that this could potentially become important and useful for future classes. The teacher also needs to be incredibly prepared and by doing this, the students know that he/she cares about what is being instructed. Students learn by practice and vitalizing the resources that are given to them. When they are constantly directed and shown what is clearly expected, students know what to do. This as well as every other strategy, has its quirks and kinks but I can definitely promise you that if pictures are completely eliminated, engagement will drastically decrease.

1)In the article, it talks about how students talk about their own experiences more readily becomes it is easier to recover. As a classroom teacher, wouldn't you rather students understand how to properly make connections?
2)If teachers are carefully directing read alouds then how are students able to learn from each other, other than by just listening to each other speak?

Chapter 8 and Writing to Learn

In the debate of writing to learn, I have never been one to argue against writing to improve learning.  This can be a great thing but also if not implemented correctly, can cause stifling effects.  Students at early ages are attempting to fully grasp their understandings and abilities to express themselves.  When encourage and not confined, students are able to explore their individual depths and abilities.  In contrast, many times this does not progress to its intended outcome and students are often truncated.  When writing practices are implemented correctly, it can help students through their learning processes but the key word is correct implementation.  Students are building upon prior grammatical understandings each time they place a pen to paper.  They are taking the information that they are being taught and putting it into practice.  Writing, like many other strategies, is a tool to assist students in broadening their educational paths to greater understanding.  Even in the chapter it talks about using prompts to help students more specifically express their thoughts and ideas pertaining to a particular topic.  By writing, students are able to build the foundation in sharing their opinions which can later develop into more oral or kinesthetic types of expression.  When students are able to write, they are also utilizing important skills in organizing their thought processes and understandings.  They are able to clearly see results of their metacognition and incorporate these findings into a strong educational foundation.  This is what writing to learn is all about, helping students to develop pertinent skills that will filter into all life practices. 

1) How can teachers prevent students from experiencing “truncated creativity”?

2) How can students practice writing to learn throughout their academic careers?

Bio Poem

Benjamin,

Silent, frugal, industrious, and sincere

Son of Joseph and Abiah

Lover of poetry, morals, and sharing information

Who feels compassion to lead, curious often, and that there is more to life

Who needs to make a difference, not defend his scientific views, to be more open minded

Who fears American Indians, the open sea, and not being able to witness what lies ahead

Who gives his knowledge, community service as well as influence for centuries to come

Franklin.

Article Critique: Making a case and a place for effective content area literacy instruction in the elementary grades

The article makes a clear and concise argument that teachers can utilize daily in the classroom.  The only issue that remains is the decision to incorporate informational text into daily lessons across the curriculum. 

The initial idea of implanting content based literacy in elementary grades has been a long term debate.  Opinions may differ depending on the varying experiences as well as the individual influences.  There is definitely an importance to include informational text in addition to narrative text due to the fact of state and national testing.  Just like those students who need differentiated instruction, they also need to be able to obtain access to numerous types of literature.  Every student has different interests and reading levels.  Given this statement, a student who has difficulty reading may choose something that is more on a narrative level.  On the other hand, a student who is demonstrating a higher level may choose a text that is more informational.  This is not always clearly defined as to what the outcome may be but does prove the idea of diverse text for diverse students.  By introducing more informational texts at a younger age, teachers are increasing each student’s literacy understanding.  They are better equipping them to not just read what they are accustomed to but also to take those skills and bridge them with other texts.  They know not only what to look for within the text but utilize the skills to the highest potentials and developments.  Teachers cannot simply just give students texts.  They need to know how to effectively influence the students to the level that they are able to independently use the skills.  Students are often repelled by the sudden atmosphere of change flung upon them throughout school.  By introducing a wider variety, students are not as reluctant to the material and eventually become independent readers.  This process is not one that can simply begin in a short amount of time but ultimately depends on the teacher and student relationship.  Students have to be able to trust that the teacher has their best interest at hand and is looking for resources on each of their learning levels.  This is vital when introducing new materials within the classroom and developing higher expectations.  Another point the author makes is solely focusing on the ability of a student to read rather than completely focusing on the exposition of texts.  Before different types of texts can be properly introduced, teachers should defer their focus onto the individual levels of each student to be able to accurately read.  Once these issues are addressed, students are then able to be introduced to these texts.  The motivational level of each student is increased because they are passed the obstacle of interpreting letters into words.  Students also begin to search for those texts that they have interest in and can comprehend.  Students do not feel as if they are restricted to just one specific type of literature but also have the inferred freedom to explore literacy.  If students are introduced to various things at an early level, they are less likely to fear it.  They gradually become more comfortable with it and are able to build upon a foundation that is strong and firm. 

This article prompts me to think:

1)   1)   If all this data has been around for this long, then why have teachers been able to defer from the informational texts at the lower levels?

2)    2)  If teachers decided to incorporate this theory, how would they begin to introduce it throughout the classroom in the school? Would the district have to initiate the policy as well as the administration?