In my current Kindergarden observation room, my cooperating teacher reinforces the importance of writing on a daily basis. These five and six-year-old children, though they struggle with handwriting and spelling, are being exposed to the communication process which writing involves at a very early age. Because of this exposure, they learn and discover multiple ways to express themselves through words and in doing so learn more about content and concepts encountered.
Writing is a powerful tool that can be considered a "catalyst for further learning and meaning making." When writing is considered an important part of one's education rather than a tool for testing, students can stimulate parts of the brain with more intensity, and in doing so, develop more effective ways to communicate throughout their lives. Writing and reading are often seen as two areas of study that go hand-in-hand because together they help students to think critically about information. Because of this, however, writing can sometimes be lacking in a classroom's content if the teacher puts significant emphasis on reading. Teachers must reinforce writing in the classroom because it encourages confidence in student ability to convey, explain, and support ideas, not only in academics but also in everyday life communication.
There are various styles and methods to writing. Prompting students for an on-demand response actually inhibits their writing ability because they are limited to a narrow scope of response. Authentic writing, on the other hand, often forces the students to think more creatively while completing a more broad assignment task. Authentic writers may create things like blogs, wikis, podcast, brochures, speeches, etc that engage the writer in a more in-depth thought process of what they are producing on the page. In addition to these types of writing, there are also many methods that teachers many use to properly introduce writing into the classroom. Through a series of stages, teachers can provide prewriting, writing, rewriting, and post-writing techniques that keep students engaged and invested in their work. Assignments that require lengthier products or more comprehensive skills would benefit from these staged strategies to provide the students with opportunities for skill progression.
The PAR framework is very conducive for a heavy influence of writing across content areas. Preparation, assistance and reflective tools are often enhanced by writing either notes or products that the teacher can also use as formative assessment throughout lessons. In my kindergarden class, students are invited to write throughout the day as either note-taking guides or reinforced practice to grow in their understanding of content. These strategies are very powerful tools and must be upheld by teachers if we are to produce fully proficient writers in and outside of the classroom.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
Reading Beyond Traditional Textbooks
Preparing students to read in the 21st century cannot be based solely on course textbooks. The young minds entering our classrooms today have been raised in an age of information that values communication, speed, and technology. Many of the children in this Digital Age will come into a school setting with more technological savviness than some of their teachers, and we must be prepared to cater to this learning style.
Textbooks are frequently used tools by many teachers and still act as helpful references in learning; however, research supports that students are more motivated in classrooms when they have opportunities to work with manipulatives or to engage in multimodal platforms. Overuse of a textbook nowadays is seen as a limitation in a student's learning; though the strength of a textbook is its source of information, the undeniable weakness is its inability to provide the depth to pique a student's curiosity about new concepts. The days of reading a textbook chapter and answering questions at the end are outdated; teachers must be prepared to provide students with resource multiplicity in all content areas. Along with textbooks, resources such as trade books, magazines, newspapers, internet sources, websites, video clips, computer programs, etc must be used in classroom today to truly expand a students method for learning.
Teachers need plans of action for incorporating more diverse methods of literature, beyond the textbook, in lesson framework. Read-alongs and read-alouds are student and teacher based tools for stimulating attention and enhancing content understanding. When a teacher adapts their classroom for a particular type of learner, they are improving the classroom climate for learning. For example, a student may ask the teacher to read aloud a portion of the day's reading assignment to the class before independently reading themselves so they have a deeper understanding of the inflection or pronunciation of words. Teachers cannot abandon these practices in the class if it is beneficial to the students.
A teacher must be prepared to set the learning environment in a way that supports all facets of learning media. When providing bookshelves, teachers can include all types of folders, newspaper clippings, baskets of books, etc, that a student will browse as if in a bookstore. This provides a supported learning environment that includes much more than a wordy textbook, and effectively engages all types of students in literature content.
Textbooks are frequently used tools by many teachers and still act as helpful references in learning; however, research supports that students are more motivated in classrooms when they have opportunities to work with manipulatives or to engage in multimodal platforms. Overuse of a textbook nowadays is seen as a limitation in a student's learning; though the strength of a textbook is its source of information, the undeniable weakness is its inability to provide the depth to pique a student's curiosity about new concepts. The days of reading a textbook chapter and answering questions at the end are outdated; teachers must be prepared to provide students with resource multiplicity in all content areas. Along with textbooks, resources such as trade books, magazines, newspapers, internet sources, websites, video clips, computer programs, etc must be used in classroom today to truly expand a students method for learning.
Teachers need plans of action for incorporating more diverse methods of literature, beyond the textbook, in lesson framework. Read-alongs and read-alouds are student and teacher based tools for stimulating attention and enhancing content understanding. When a teacher adapts their classroom for a particular type of learner, they are improving the classroom climate for learning. For example, a student may ask the teacher to read aloud a portion of the day's reading assignment to the class before independently reading themselves so they have a deeper understanding of the inflection or pronunciation of words. Teachers cannot abandon these practices in the class if it is beneficial to the students.
A teacher must be prepared to set the learning environment in a way that supports all facets of learning media. When providing bookshelves, teachers can include all types of folders, newspaper clippings, baskets of books, etc, that a student will browse as if in a bookstore. This provides a supported learning environment that includes much more than a wordy textbook, and effectively engages all types of students in literature content.
Monday, March 31, 2014
I-Search Research Proposal
How do the curriculum requirements that are
practiced in public school versus private school affect the teaching methods?
Potential source: The Department of Education's, How Public and Private Schools Differ
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/97983.pdf
Potential source: The Department of Education's, How Public and Private Schools Differ
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/97983.pdf
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Supporting Diverse Learners
Every learner is unique. Many of us have specific styles and preferences of how we learn; these styles cater to our personalized learning levels. In an ideal classroom setting, teachers must invite students into equal learning opportunities that adhere to their intellectual ability, social or economic background, language proficiency, physical ability, and so on. Some of these diverse learners are often at risk for academic failure and require special understanding and attention. In recent years, the United States has experienced a shift in cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic differences in classrooms. Because of this diversified population, achievement gaps have become a new challenge for teachers in mainstreaming students. Today's teachers are faced with an urgency to fundamentally shift their knowledge, skills, and assumptions about diverse students to truly narrow the gap among learners.
To narrow the gap we must first broaden our prospective of learning. Teachers must provide an "equity pedagogy" to provide effective instruction and successful learning opportunities with respect to all the present differences in the classroom. In inclusion classroom, especially, the teacher's philosophy of learning must maintain the right of all his or her students to receive an appropriate education within general curriculum requirements. An inclusion setting can be a teacher's best friend or worst nightmare depending on the effectiveness of strategy and, almost more importantly, attitude.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, has served an astounding number of students who receive special services in school since its establishment in 1990. In 2008, for example, about 95% of students in the United States ages six to twenty-one received services listed under the IDEA principles. Among these principles, 13 disability categories are identified as either high, low, or special learning need disabilities that may appear in school systems across the country. The IDEA provides explicit rights, accommodations, familial services, curriculum-based measurements, and many other services that aim to provide optimal instructional programs for students that fall under the umbrella of special needs.
Because the classroom teacher is the main instructor for all types of diverse learners, specific guidelines are provided that help teachers work most effectively with their inclusion students; sensitivity to conditions, awareness of student health, and proactivity in positively affecting a student's life are all examples of how a teacher can best cater to this population in the school system. Most importantly, the teacher must strive to build an interpersonal relationship with the included students as well as among the peers in the classroom. A star teacher will effectively include these diverse learners by developing a knowledge of the student's feelings, a respect for the student's ability, and a responsibility to aide the student's every learning opportunity.
To narrow the gap we must first broaden our prospective of learning. Teachers must provide an "equity pedagogy" to provide effective instruction and successful learning opportunities with respect to all the present differences in the classroom. In inclusion classroom, especially, the teacher's philosophy of learning must maintain the right of all his or her students to receive an appropriate education within general curriculum requirements. An inclusion setting can be a teacher's best friend or worst nightmare depending on the effectiveness of strategy and, almost more importantly, attitude.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, has served an astounding number of students who receive special services in school since its establishment in 1990. In 2008, for example, about 95% of students in the United States ages six to twenty-one received services listed under the IDEA principles. Among these principles, 13 disability categories are identified as either high, low, or special learning need disabilities that may appear in school systems across the country. The IDEA provides explicit rights, accommodations, familial services, curriculum-based measurements, and many other services that aim to provide optimal instructional programs for students that fall under the umbrella of special needs.
Because the classroom teacher is the main instructor for all types of diverse learners, specific guidelines are provided that help teachers work most effectively with their inclusion students; sensitivity to conditions, awareness of student health, and proactivity in positively affecting a student's life are all examples of how a teacher can best cater to this population in the school system. Most importantly, the teacher must strive to build an interpersonal relationship with the included students as well as among the peers in the classroom. A star teacher will effectively include these diverse learners by developing a knowledge of the student's feelings, a respect for the student's ability, and a responsibility to aide the student's every learning opportunity.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Teaching Vocabulary
One of the most important factors in reading comprehension is knowledge of word meaning. Teaching vocabulary to students can be a tricky task because each learner experiences their vocabulary differently. Word knowledge is a very dynamic in nature- it changes and grows over time as students experience, manipulate, hear, read, and write in various circumstances. Building a vocabulary, therefore, is a multidimensional and complex task for both teacher and student.
Today's generation has some obstacles to consider when improving an academic vocabulary. Because technology and other medias have such an influence on society, students are sent off to secondary or college environments with ill-equipped vocabularies. The popular use of abbreviated or "coarse" language has become colloquial among many types of written communication, and so lead to a less formal conversational type. Its wide acceptance in daily life contributes to the decline in vocabulary test scores among students and effectively challenges instructors to develop different principles and strategies in teaching vocab skills.
In typical classroom settings, teachers may assign rote memory exercises to force vocabulary on students. For example, a teacher may assign a chapter of reading for homework and have the students define twenty unknown terms before reading as a vocabulary exercise. This task is decidedly dull and rote in its method; it is no surprise that students do not learn vocabulary well (or show any interest or eagerness in reading..)
To intervene and provide more direct instruction for learners, vocabulary growth among students must be carefully aided by teachers. For example, rather than providing students with rote definition exercises, focusing on root word derivatives or etymologies may better peak a student's understanding of vocabulary. Take the word print; this word may show connections to many other words such as printer, printed, imprint, etc; describing true word meaning while broadening a student's perspective of the vocabulary. This can improve a student's content-specific vocabulary tools, which are used to relate terms among specific disciplines. If a student can access their contextual knowledge while they engage in an academic vocabulary, they are more likely to succeed with a wider lexicon.
Today's generation has some obstacles to consider when improving an academic vocabulary. Because technology and other medias have such an influence on society, students are sent off to secondary or college environments with ill-equipped vocabularies. The popular use of abbreviated or "coarse" language has become colloquial among many types of written communication, and so lead to a less formal conversational type. Its wide acceptance in daily life contributes to the decline in vocabulary test scores among students and effectively challenges instructors to develop different principles and strategies in teaching vocab skills.
In typical classroom settings, teachers may assign rote memory exercises to force vocabulary on students. For example, a teacher may assign a chapter of reading for homework and have the students define twenty unknown terms before reading as a vocabulary exercise. This task is decidedly dull and rote in its method; it is no surprise that students do not learn vocabulary well (or show any interest or eagerness in reading..)
To intervene and provide more direct instruction for learners, vocabulary growth among students must be carefully aided by teachers. For example, rather than providing students with rote definition exercises, focusing on root word derivatives or etymologies may better peak a student's understanding of vocabulary. Take the word print; this word may show connections to many other words such as printer, printed, imprint, etc; describing true word meaning while broadening a student's perspective of the vocabulary. This can improve a student's content-specific vocabulary tools, which are used to relate terms among specific disciplines. If a student can access their contextual knowledge while they engage in an academic vocabulary, they are more likely to succeed with a wider lexicon.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Learning through Reflection
The PAR lesson framework offers a variety of instructional and strategic learning methods that focus on these three steps: Preparation, assistance, and reflection. The reflection phase, however, is in essence the most crucial component of this framework.
Critical and reflective thinking are the focus of this learning phase. As students read to learn, they must also communicate and reflect in a meaningful way about their learning. Reflective thought is a term coined by educator John Dewey, that introduces the necessity of reflection time during learning as it persists towards objective truths. When a student reflects on something they have learned, the information is more likely to be not only remembered, but also used and translated into further inquiry. Case in point, this blog is my personal learning tool for reflective thinking! I see and learn about multiple texts and teaching methods, and then respond to this stimuli through a systematic thought process, which informally evaluates of my own understanding. By reflecting on this information, I am able to make connections between prior and/or future knowledge; for example, this concept of reflective thinking prompts me to consider the value in teaching multidisciplinary lessons so that students can retain material in many facets of their learning and reflect on it throughout multiple content areas.
To practice this reflective behavior, students must be prompted in multiples forms of discussion, debate, lab, application, writing, rehearsal, etc so that they may interact with the given schema. In utilizing these practices, we will engage students in becoming autonomous learners. To provide students with an autonomy for learning, I believe, will be my biggest feat as a teacher. For a student to organize information, read meaningfully, or take personal account for his or her study behavior, proves that student to be outstanding. In order to provide students with this autonomy, however, teachers must provide a classroom with many independent skills.
Communication is a skill that effectively enhances every facet of life. In a classroom, communication must be seen as an informative tool for teachers to manipulate. Listening, speaking, writing, and reading are all communicative arts through which a student makes sense of things. In a study conducted in 2003, American researchers travelled to Japan to witness the classroom dynamics as they compared to the United States'. Japanese schools, with standardized rankings significantly higher than those of this country's, provide a classroom where the children are actively exploring, analyzing and reflecting on discrete problems. This difference in learning leads me to believe that we must think of students as independent researchers in their own critically thinking rather than steeped vessels of memorized information.
Critical thinking is a huge skill that many students, and teachers, shy away from using. Some teachers believe that to think critically means to find fault and emphasize negative components of learning; ironically, this is a negative perspective of how to approach the critical thinking process. When students think critically about something, they have to consider multiple view points and sources of information to conceptualize and then synthesize important information into a concluded thought. This skill, that truly optimizes any learner's life, can be taught to elementary students through critical literacy; which teaches students to read between the lines, detect any bias, or juxtapose two contrasting perspectives.
Reflecting in a learning process is a natural response that many people take advantage of everyday. In elementary settings, students must be taught how to harness and manipulate these skills so that they grow into self-controlled thinkers and autonomous learners. Providing a student with individual accountability for their learning is the greatest gift we can give as educators and life-long role models.
Critical and reflective thinking are the focus of this learning phase. As students read to learn, they must also communicate and reflect in a meaningful way about their learning. Reflective thought is a term coined by educator John Dewey, that introduces the necessity of reflection time during learning as it persists towards objective truths. When a student reflects on something they have learned, the information is more likely to be not only remembered, but also used and translated into further inquiry. Case in point, this blog is my personal learning tool for reflective thinking! I see and learn about multiple texts and teaching methods, and then respond to this stimuli through a systematic thought process, which informally evaluates of my own understanding. By reflecting on this information, I am able to make connections between prior and/or future knowledge; for example, this concept of reflective thinking prompts me to consider the value in teaching multidisciplinary lessons so that students can retain material in many facets of their learning and reflect on it throughout multiple content areas.
To practice this reflective behavior, students must be prompted in multiples forms of discussion, debate, lab, application, writing, rehearsal, etc so that they may interact with the given schema. In utilizing these practices, we will engage students in becoming autonomous learners. To provide students with an autonomy for learning, I believe, will be my biggest feat as a teacher. For a student to organize information, read meaningfully, or take personal account for his or her study behavior, proves that student to be outstanding. In order to provide students with this autonomy, however, teachers must provide a classroom with many independent skills.
Communication is a skill that effectively enhances every facet of life. In a classroom, communication must be seen as an informative tool for teachers to manipulate. Listening, speaking, writing, and reading are all communicative arts through which a student makes sense of things. In a study conducted in 2003, American researchers travelled to Japan to witness the classroom dynamics as they compared to the United States'. Japanese schools, with standardized rankings significantly higher than those of this country's, provide a classroom where the children are actively exploring, analyzing and reflecting on discrete problems. This difference in learning leads me to believe that we must think of students as independent researchers in their own critically thinking rather than steeped vessels of memorized information.
Critical thinking is a huge skill that many students, and teachers, shy away from using. Some teachers believe that to think critically means to find fault and emphasize negative components of learning; ironically, this is a negative perspective of how to approach the critical thinking process. When students think critically about something, they have to consider multiple view points and sources of information to conceptualize and then synthesize important information into a concluded thought. This skill, that truly optimizes any learner's life, can be taught to elementary students through critical literacy; which teaches students to read between the lines, detect any bias, or juxtapose two contrasting perspectives.
Reflecting in a learning process is a natural response that many people take advantage of everyday. In elementary settings, students must be taught how to harness and manipulate these skills so that they grow into self-controlled thinkers and autonomous learners. Providing a student with individual accountability for their learning is the greatest gift we can give as educators and life-long role models.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Assistance in Learning
When students read or learn something that is new, how can we be certain that they are really retaining this new information? Providing them with strategies to construct some meaning from these concepts can help them to better retain information and develop understandings during a lesson.
One of the most important steps in the PAR framework (preparation, assistance, and reflection) is the assistance phase in which students deepen their understandings of learning activities. Teachers cannot simply force understanding or fluency onto readers, so instead we must provide the students with independent tools to self-correct, predict, and confirm hypotheses while they learn. Comprehension during reading is affected by a variety of components; the student's specific knowledge or worldly knowledge of a topic may influence his or her interpretation of the text. Therefore, teachers must encourage a variety of possible interpretations to engage students in a process known as constructivism. Based on the constructivist learning theory, constructivism emphasizes the importance of learning through actively constructing concepts based on prior knowledge, rather than passively receiving information. To me, this theory is reminiscent of a problem-based learning strategy that encourages students to inquire, consider, assimilate, reshape, or transform information into a thought that makes sense for themselves.
Another self-check strategy for learning assistance can be self-awareness while reading, or metacognitive awareness. The Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory, or MARSI, is a test that teachers utilize to gauge a student's awareness of concepts while reading. The word metacognition, as defined by Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia, means the awareness of or analysis of one's own learning or thinking process. I have often witnessed elementary teachers use this same term around students to offer up questions or discussion time for any student who is foggy on some material. Including a student in this process is a wonderful way to get the reader thinking about what they just read, and if it truly makes sense to them.
Additionally, some final in-class strategies that aide both teacher and student learning may include: reciprocal teaching, collaborative reasoning, concept mapping, and discourse analysis. All of these strategies, referenced in Richardson, Morgan and Fleener's Reading to Learn in the Content Area, explicitly encourage a kind of duel teacher/learner strategy that assists learners in conceptual understanding and allows teachers to formatively assess their student's comprehension of material. All of the listed strategies can provide a wonderful classroom dynamic while students learn together. To provide this ultimate learning climate, I think, students and teachers must both be simultaneously engaged and inquisitive in the learning opportunities at hand.
One of the most important steps in the PAR framework (preparation, assistance, and reflection) is the assistance phase in which students deepen their understandings of learning activities. Teachers cannot simply force understanding or fluency onto readers, so instead we must provide the students with independent tools to self-correct, predict, and confirm hypotheses while they learn. Comprehension during reading is affected by a variety of components; the student's specific knowledge or worldly knowledge of a topic may influence his or her interpretation of the text. Therefore, teachers must encourage a variety of possible interpretations to engage students in a process known as constructivism. Based on the constructivist learning theory, constructivism emphasizes the importance of learning through actively constructing concepts based on prior knowledge, rather than passively receiving information. To me, this theory is reminiscent of a problem-based learning strategy that encourages students to inquire, consider, assimilate, reshape, or transform information into a thought that makes sense for themselves.
Another self-check strategy for learning assistance can be self-awareness while reading, or metacognitive awareness. The Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory, or MARSI, is a test that teachers utilize to gauge a student's awareness of concepts while reading. The word metacognition, as defined by Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia, means the awareness of or analysis of one's own learning or thinking process. I have often witnessed elementary teachers use this same term around students to offer up questions or discussion time for any student who is foggy on some material. Including a student in this process is a wonderful way to get the reader thinking about what they just read, and if it truly makes sense to them.
Additionally, some final in-class strategies that aide both teacher and student learning may include: reciprocal teaching, collaborative reasoning, concept mapping, and discourse analysis. All of these strategies, referenced in Richardson, Morgan and Fleener's Reading to Learn in the Content Area, explicitly encourage a kind of duel teacher/learner strategy that assists learners in conceptual understanding and allows teachers to formatively assess their student's comprehension of material. All of the listed strategies can provide a wonderful classroom dynamic while students learn together. To provide this ultimate learning climate, I think, students and teachers must both be simultaneously engaged and inquisitive in the learning opportunities at hand.
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