Final Blog Post for the Semester

This semester has been a worldwind for me, but one of the classes i really enjoyed was language arts. This blog is not something i would start on my own, but i find myself liking it, posting the thoughts i did not want to speak in class and others i thought of after class ended. It was another thing to keep track of, and i am not sure how often i'll come back on in the future, but i know that i'll try. I like how freeing blog writing is since it's just you, your thoughts, and the computer. I would like to encourage my peers to start a blog simply for the benefits of venting out frustration or any other feelings.
For growth of language arts, i feel that putting myself in the student's shoes by participating in the writing process really helped me grow in my own writing ability. Having not done the whole process in a long time made me nervous about the book in the beginning but i realized that this is how my students will feel. Sometimes relating to the children can give a teacher the mind set they need to teach the best way. For writing, a teacher needs to write themselves in order to get students interested in it or at least attempt to like it. This can be said for reading also. Reading instruction has no right way as i learned this semester. The teacher needs to look at each class and each student as individuals that may or may not need a different approach to understand the concepts.
Reading and writing are important skills for children to learn and they need to start off on the right foot to achieve their highest potential. While a love of both would make improving the skills easier, a teacher that can get students at least like and try their best when it comes to reading and writing will be the most effective teacher. I was not sure of my ability to teach language arts before this course, but having the knowledge/background of reading and writing, strategies to teach both, and knowing how i am as a writer, i think that i can teach it in a way that all students will succeed.

Talk is a Valuable Instructional Tool

I thought that the magic talk activity was a great way to allow student participation. Students who do not have the confidence to speak up in class can use this activity to say what they want. Of course, magic talk does require students to read what others wrote so that they can respond back. This can help them practice both reading and writing skills. Although speaking can be seen as an important skill for students to develop, other forms of communication should also be encouraged. Writing, reading, sign language, and plays are great ways for students to express their ideas as compared to talking.
I agree that speaking in public is a skill students need to develop, but making them do oral reports is far more stressful than helpful. In this case, students could use props to help them tell their stories such as puppets. To give opportunities for students to speak up in a safe environment can encourage talking. Teachers need to accept the attempts students make to express themselves, no matter what from it takes.

The Importance of Listening

I think that the biggest mistake a teacher can make is to assume that students know how to listen. This is taken for granted and we get mad at students who don't listen. When any little thing can take away a child's attention, how can a teacher just expect that a child is listening? Attention skills are still developing in the elementary school years and in order for a child to listen, they need to pay attention. Listening and hearing are different things in that you may hear something but not be listening. To listen involves engagement of the child. In a world where everyone can choose to either hear or listen, to assume that listening is a skill that does not need to be taught is the worst mistake a teacher can make. Without listening, students will not understand the material because they are not processing the information.
As for propaganda and persuasion, it is very scary to think what it can make people believe. The commercials we viewed in class selling products and services prove how our society has used this tool for company and individual success. It is important for students to recognize this so they are not fooled into buying or doing anything inappropraite. This type of activity will help students realize that not everything can be true. It is important to research topics to get the facts and to hear both sides of the story before believing and/or supporting one side.

Field Experiences

For my field experiences, i was assigned a first grade class at Wildwood Forest Elementary. I mostly went during their Reader's Workshop, but did see their Writer's Workshop one Friday afternoon, which they were learning about editing. This was interesting since i was in the group that did their mini lesson on editing. I enjoyed this lesson the best because i saw the students using one step of the writing process to the best of their ability, helping their partners out. Since this was a free write, i saw many topics in the student's stories and also saw an interest from the children in what they were doing. My least favorite lesson was one in which the teacher focused on asking questions before, during, and after reading. This lesson was interesting at first as a whole group, but when the students were asked to read independently, many did not use the strategy, they just read. I had many students want to read to me that did not use the strategy even after i suggested that they might want to so they could better understand the book. Through these experiences, i learned that teaching reading and writing is a process students need to master one step at a time. I learned from my teacher that you will have students who do not like to read or write and will give you the bare minimum in an assignment. Teaching them to love reading and writing may not be accomplished in the one year you have them as a student. By giving them multiple chances to may help teachers, but the most important thing is that they have the skills necessary for reading and writing before they move on.

Planning for Reading and Writing Instruction

A book that i have always enjoyed as a child and i believe would be a good thematic unit is Mr. Popper' s Penguins. The class i observed for the field experiences was reading this book as a class and the students really seemed to enjoy it. I would use it for an animal unit in learning about penguins and birds in general. They are considered to be birds but do not fly, an interesting exception for students to observe. With reading each chapter, i would let the students free write about what they expect to happen next and allow them to draw pictures if they wanted. Since the book is about penguins living in the city, i would ask the students to write about what they would do if they were in Mr. Popper's shoes or how they would react if they were Mrs. Popper. Another activity would be to write a story as the penguin exploring a new environment for the first time. After seeing the interest in the first grade class, i know students this age would really enjoy this book and writing about it. To end the unit, i would ask the students to write about the bird of their choosing, using non-fiction books to find facts to incorporate into a story about that animal's life. I really love this book growing up and want to share it with my students.

My School Thoughts

As the semester keeps going on, I am starting to see the end of this chapter and the beginning of another. This realization came when i met with my advisor and saw how many classes i had left before student teaching next spring. This feels unreal to me because it seems like yesterday that i was a freshman just starting out. While i am nervous for student teaching, i really want to be in the schools. I am getting out to the schools more, especially for assignments this semester and i am lucky to be in kindergarten and 1st grade classes. Seeing the lessons, the students, and working with them enforces my belief that i want to be around children this age. Teaching seems the most logical place to start, but i am open to other options with my child development major. I see the hectic schedule the teachers i work with have and think " I know i can do this. The children make it worth it." I know teaching is not for the faint of heart and there will be struggles, but everything worth while is not easy and it makes you appreciate the success more.

Stages of Spelling, Writing Process, Personal Writing

My experiences with the stages of spelling come from other classes, mostly child development that review these stages for how children first begin to write. I had one project last semester where i did a case study on a child. For a work sample, she drew a picture and this was her random scribbling stage. She progressed with her second picture in which she started naming her scribblings. As for writing, i saw this process in the field experiences for this class. One writing session was spent on editing their stories. They had a editing checklist that both the writer and a peer had to use. I have never done personal writing although i was given a diary for a birthday present a couple of years back.
Having a blog has been an interesting experience for me as i am not a person that writes to get things out. I usually vocalize my feelings or keep them in. Although this was my first feeling about writing, i now see how writing things down can benefit me. I always understood the importance of developing reading and writing skills in school, but using it for personal reasons should also be encouraged for students to do. Writing things down can provide great memories and i am trying to do this now so i can look back years from now and remember certain parts of my life.
My topic for my book will be about changes. I am going to write about the biggest change that has occurred in the last 2 years - getting my first job and meeting the people there. I still work there but not in the same position. I met one of my best friends there and it baffles me that if i did not take this job, i would have never met him.

Social Skills and Language Arts

Having a disability or delay in either reading or writing can affect social skills because both reading and writing are used to communicate ideas to others. Having a problem in these areas may carry into social relationships because these methods of communication become important to children as they learn them. If every child can read and write to their peers, then a student who can not will feel left out, not part of the group. This can affect self-confidence and self-esteem causing the child who is left out to not try to reach out to other children.
I have seen this in classrooms and when i was in school myself. Children who are slower in reading and writing have a harder time expressing themselves and other students grow tired of waiting for them. They understand the reading or completed the writing assignment ten minutes ago and do not understand why the slower child is taking longer. From what i remember in school, the children that were slower readers were always assigned to the same reading group so the faster readers could get their assignments done faster. We all knew they were slower so when groups were mixed up for other subjects that may involve some reading/writing we did not want certain people in our group because we would have to wait for them or just do all the work. I've been in many groups where it was obvious that i was supposed to guide the other group members and i hated it.
For a teacher, this concern needs to be addressed because reading/writing are important skills students need to succeed in today's world. Although these skills should be taught because of the necessity, teachers should look at the child's social skills and perhaps give suggestions of what they could do to get some of their classmates' attention. School is a social time for students too and every student should have the skills to talk to other children. These relationships are too important not to address the social skills necessary for students to form them.

The Reading Wars Debate

I believe that i learned my langauge through both the phonics and whole language approaches. I remember sounding out words and having site words that i knew right away. In first grade there was a board that had the words we were learning that week. I remember singing songs such as "Down by the Bay" to learn new words. Spelling lists were used starting in second grade. For me though, i had problems saying s, c, and t words so i went to the speech teacher. I remember practicing the s sound - sissing like a snake. I got bored within the third year of speech and was pulled out because my mom knew that i was not paying attention to the teacher anymore.

I think that we do naturally create site words because we connect certain words to experiences we've had. This is different for every person so site words can vary from person to person. I also think that very common words become site words because they are taught very early. Words such as and, the, at, is, in become memorized starting in knidergarten so by the end of that year or in first grade, it is expected that children know these words as site words.

Symbols make up words if one considers the individual letters as symbols. We are taught that each of these symbols makes a certain sound and when you combine them together, you will get a word. This concept, the phonics approach, can help children understand how each letter(symbol) comes together to make a word. Without this understanding, children cannot connect the reading process. The symbols, in this case letters, are concrete and children need that visual reminder to understand the concept of reading.

Why write?

When i think about the question,"What makes writing worth reading?" the first thought that comes to mind is enjoyment. Some people write to get their thoughts together or to let others know their positions on certain topics. Blogs are a good way to do this although many do write for no one else to see. I think that with children, writing allows a teacher to see what they know and what they think about on a daily basis. A daily journal could reveal changing interests, questions, and problems children may experience throughout the year. This type of writing would be interesting to look back on later on in life. Writing is used to assess a child's knowledge in many subject areas while improving the skill itself. In today's society, we expect writing skills at a certain level depending on the job and to not have them makes life very hard.
Although writing should be important and taught throughout a child's schooling, writing needs to have other purposes for children too. Whether it is for enjoyment in writing a silly story, releasing emotions through a journal, or keeping in touch with loved ones, children should want to write. When teachers see a passion through student's writing, it makes teaching it worth while. Writing can reveal growth, both personal and academic which is what all teachers strive for in their students.

The Reading Process

The difference between aesthetic and efferent reading is the purpose the reader has for reading. If it's for pleasure and entertainment, then the child is aesthetically reading. If it's for information such as reading a chapter for a class, then the child is using efferent reading. I favor aesthetic reading because I read a lot in school. I would bring a novel to read, especially in middle and high school. Unfortunately, I now use efferent reading more because between classes, homework, and a part time job, I have little time to read for pleasure. I also feel that I got out of reading for enjoyment but want to change that.

The five stages of the reading process are prereading, reading, responding, exploring, and applying. Prereading introduces the children to the book, providing background knowledge on the topic, setting a purpose for reading the book, and planning for reading the book by skimming the book. A teacher may let each student choose a book from a list after going through background information for each book and providing a set of activities to complete. The students then have a purpose and can look through each book before choosing.
Reading involves shared reading in which the teacher reads the book aloud, guided reading which involves the teacher reading to groups of students at the same level, independent reading which students read to themselves, buddy reading which involves the children reading with another classroom, and reading aloud to students which involves teachers read aloud to students to model correct reading strategies. The type of reading needs to match the grade level. Buddy reading would not be good for two kindergartners, but two third graders could do it.
Responding involves writing in reading logs. Students can write about the story by using open-ended prompts and participating in grand conversations which lets the students share their personal reactions to the story. Students can write about their personal feelings in their reading logs also.
Exploring includes rereading the selection, examining the author's craft, focusing on new vocabulary words, and participating in minilessons. A book may have many new words for the class that the teacher may add them to the word wall and encourage the children to look for these words in other books.
Applying involves using the other steps to complete projects relating the the book. A research project on a book about horses may involve the children researching a certain type of horse.

A capable reader learns word identification strategies to figure out new words while reading.
They have fluency in being able to read quickly and with expression, and a large vocabulary because they read more and learn new words as they go. Capable readers also have comprehension because they use past experiences and the text to create an understanding that relates to their life.

Students could use literature focus units, literature circles, reading and writing workshop, and thematic units. Each of these ideas allows the teacher to use the reading process to prepare, read, respond, explore, and apply new knowledge while helping children improve their reading skills and comprehension.

The Six Language Arts and Sahara

What surprised me about the six language arts were the different ways of listening and how listening is not taught in schools because teachers assume that children already know how. Students may want to listen if it's aesthetic listening as compared to efferent listening. Another surprise was in the many types of reading; I like buddy reading the best, especially if it can involve students from separate grade levels.
I think viewing and visually representing should be on the list because the media is already a part of children's lives. For teachers to use film, internet, video, and computer games for learning, a child might see that they can learn while having fun at the same time. Some students are better learners if they can see a visual representation so these two categories are beneficial for teachers to include in their lessons.
For me, the first four language arts - reading, writing, talking, and listening were important in school. The one that stands out for me is writing and its stages. I was never good at prewriting and getting a draft started as I would constantly changed ideas throughout the process. I believe this to be true today but hope i can become a better pre writer. I do see the importance of viewing and visually representing as these concepts come up more in my college classes with projects. As I continue on with classes and my career, I believe that my views of the six language arts will change as I take on new roles career wise.
I really enjoyed Sahara Special so far and hope that if I get a child like her in my class that I can connect to her and make some difference in her life. I can relate to her in being misunderstood as I can close off myself and not let anyone in. Sahara has the confidence in herself to not care what others think and I envy her for that. I think her relationships with her mom, Peaches, and Jeremy will change and she will form a friendship with Jeremy.