I know how rudimentary these skills seem, but we need to remember the varying levels of ability and knowledge that will be in our classrooms. It's also important to remember these skills may need to be retaught, adapted as new texts / media are introduced, and rethought as students and their literacy needs change.An example of change would be technology, which the group did an excellent job of thinking about:
It's interesting how well these ideas, normally attached to traditional texts, give themselves over to technology. Just as with traditional texts, you begin at the start: how to turn the computer on, how to turn the monitor on, what the keyboard is for, what the various symbols on the desktop mean. This group also had some really fascinating conversation about technology and the implications it has for the classroom: how much is too much, what is the role of the teacher, and does it do anything more than make things more complicated? Questions we will wrestle with this semester.
I had an instructor in undergrad whose favorite saying was, "Every good teacher is a good thief." She wasn't referencing actual theft, but the synergy of ideas of adapting, morphing and applying those ideas in a variety of contexts. A group worked on thinking about how they would adapt the concepts in this chapter to grades 3 - 6:
Interesting points that were made in this group: as students mature and move into new forms of text, there are new skills that must by learned. How to use a bookmark, mark a page with a sticky note, work in literacy circles / book clubs are all skills that need to be introduced and modeled for students. There was also a lot of discussion about efficiency and how we make the most of the time we are given with students, i.e. how do we keep them reading for the majority of the time we have them throughout the day?
I'm working on a post about reading workshop; that should be up before class on Thursday.
As always, comment with questions.
5 comments:
I was in the group for the adaptations for 3-6 grades, and we struggled somewhat during the first part of our discussion because we thought that the important ideas and concepts in Kidwatching were very basic...it was hard for us to relate what we read to something that older elementary students would do. Nicholas was helpful in sparking some ideas about ways in which older students share books that they have read...we came up with ways such as presentations, projects, and most importantly book clubs. We felt that students should be engaged in their reading and sharing. Reading such things as magazines and newspapers is beneficial to older students because it allows them to broaden their horizons from the typical book reading.
I think it will be important for me as a teacher to keep my students interested and engaged in reading as much as possible. This will take much practice and preparation, but it will be worth it :)
This post isn't up yet but I want to comment on what we talked about in class today (Sept., 16th) in regards to Readers Workshop. It was one of the most useful days in class I have ever had! I feel like we learn about these things in class and in books, and it is all very vague. Like Nicholas has mentioned before, it all sounds good but we don't know how to get actually there. I knew a little about Readers/Writers Workshop but not enough to actually implement it in a classroom. Giving us the actual contents of a Readers Workshop was unbelievably helpful. I also loved how we were given a time frame for the entire Workshop as well as each individual component.
I also loves our discussion about classroom libraries. I have sort of struggled with the idea of whether or not the students should organize our classroom library or if I should. I think at first, and for a little while, maybe I should organize it and then later in the year the students can help organize it. Or maybe that should be visa versa ( I am not sure). But what I was certain of was how many different types of bins and categories of texts should be exposed to children in the classroom.
I enjoyed the kidwatching discussion but since I had already read that book, it was not as benfically as the discussion about the reading workshop. I like Pauline have not have much experience in readers worshop. I enjoyed going over how to step up readers workshop today. The discussion today was pretty basic but it help me out alot because I need to know the building blocks of readers workshop.
I thought the discussion on Kidwatching was useful. The discussion was just reinforcing essential parts of being a teacher. I enjoy listening to the other groups. The one question that I have is about technology. I was just wondering how do we teach about technology if we teach in an underprivelage area that does not have technology? I know one day these kids will have to know how to use technology but they can not learn if they do need have the resources?
I read Kidwatching during my Language Arts/Reading cluster last fall and found it to be very useful. I was with younger kids during my field experience and I felt that it was helping me learn so much about how they read, write, talk and expressions with pictures. It helped me better understand what our purpose was in helping young children develop a literature education. I found the book to be interesting then, while I was learning the basics to being a reading teacher, but I also enjoy reading it now. I was so glad we could split into groups becuase I am very interested in teaching older grades, and being able to meet with others on that same path was really great. We were able to discuss the adaptations on the skills from the book and think about how older kids are still using the skills but in different ways. If we were just reading the book and discussing as a class I do not think our conversation would have been as engaging and helpful for people like me, who have read the book and are interested in older grades as well. I think it was great to split up so we could hear others ideas and also engage in a deeper conversation of transforming lessons for the older grades. The book is good, even the second time around, and really helpful to understand young readers and writers. It has some great examples of questions, lessons and ideas on how to work with your class to make billboards, have discussions, and help our students progress in literature.
Just adding to this class discussion, i really enjoyed the adaptations. i think as teachers, often we are going to struggle with coming up with new ways to introduce and teach material. for inspiration, i think it is important to not lock ourselves into the grade we are teaching. When looking for resources, do not exclude other grade levels. There are always going to be adaptations we can make, and before you know it you may have created a wonderful lesson.
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