My very first conferences!

I’m so glad I read chapters 10-12 before our field study, because I incorporated my reading into my teaching today.

Hale starts chapter 10 with negative experiences a first year teacher might have, and then she transitions into how to focus on positives first followed by how to improve your weaknesses as a teacher. After the opening, Hale related this personal tidbit on her first day teaching to how to give feedback to young writers in a conference setting starting with the strengths they possess. The first task my teacher had me do today was to have a child read a story to me that they wrote, and I was to edit and publish their story by typing it on the computer. I was able to do two complete conferences of this sort. Both times I let the student read their story in its entirety. I started by conference by complimented them on one or two specific crafts that I saw that they utilized.

My first student wrote, “My sister is really, really, REALLY cute!” I told the student that I loved how she repeated the word really to emphasis how cute her sister is and that she used all capital letters with the last really to make it even stronger. From that point I was able to praise her on her use of adjectives to describe her sister. She said, “My sister has big brown eyes and fluffy brown hair.” I started to read a section that had no periods and asked her what she thought when I read it all together without taking a pause. She said it was too fast. I asked her what type of punctuation I could use to slow it down. She right away wrote two periods in the one, long run on sentence. After her editing, I asked her to tell me what I had just said to reiterate the concept taught like Hale had suggested. She then said that you need to put periods to end sentences to show a pause is needed when reading the story. I was pleased with her answer and knew that she understood. I also asked her why writing the same word more than once is a good writing tool. She also was able to repeat what I had said about making a strong statement. Overall Hale’s tactics proved to be beneficial. I felt the child had learned in a positive manor while also having fun at the same time. I was careful to word my questioning like Hale worded her examples in the book. I said, “I noticed that you used the same word three times in a row. It makes your writing very visual to me and is a good thing to do.” I then asked her if she knew why I might think that.

The next child had different crafts that she did well. She used periods and exclamation marks all correctly, but had many spelling errors. However, the spelling errors were on words that are beyond her grade level, so I knew she was going above and beyond to try new words even if she knew they weren’t always correct. I complimented her on the job well done. I then said that I noticed the word Disney in the title had an “e” in it and I asked her on page one why the Disney on that page looked different. She automatically pointed out the “e”. I followed this question with, “Do you think you need and ‘e’ and why?” She was able to sound the word out and make sense of the vowel. I was very pleased.

My first conferences went well. I tried to incorporate what I learned and by doing so the children proved they learned something new. I did my job as a teacher in respect to this activity. I hope I can continue to build on this experience.

more wows about our book

Several aspects of the chapters we read really stood out to me. First being the benefits to a mini-lesson. I feel the attention span of younger children only allows for about 7-10 minutes of focusing on one topic, which is the time frame Hale sets for this type of lesson. She included a useful table about the four categories of mini-lessons that one can incorporate into their own classroom. I was thinking about concentrating on one aspect each school day and have a free write integrating all of the categories on Friday to review. What do you think about this idea? I’m quite pleased with the idea that 10 minutes on one small concept and reviewing it a few days after will allow what was taught to be absorbed and retained.
Hale also makes a point of saying that if you use literature that is well known, the students can concentrate on the concept you’re teaching rather than the comprehension of the story (100). She even said just pinpointing a few sentences that cover your topic being taught or just a simple paragraph is sufficient for some lessons. From my experience with writing, I don’t recall being so familiar with a text that I was able to dissect different sections of it and relate it to a new concept. We frequently switched texts so our focus was mostly comprehension rather than crafts, mechanics, etc. The “try its” are amazing ways to make sure students are learning. Discussion always leaves room for alterations and understanding, while writing a little bit gets the mind flowing with ideas and uses for mechanics. Allowing students to share their work on the overhead or with small groups gives the student a sense of power and pride (101). I know I feel a since of pride when I share just about anything that’s exciting to me; being praised with words of affirmation makes me want to open up even more with others. It may be the same for students according to Hale.
As for conferences with children, I’m all about it. Each child has different needs and one on one conversation can tell me where a child is and where they need to be. I would like to have conferences with parents frequently too, even if it’s just a short period of conversation over the phone. I will of course begin telling either the student or parent of the strengths the child exudes. After the praises will come how to get more praises by practicing new tactics. Fear sticks in me when I think of how to transition from strengths to weaknesses without hurting someone’s feelings or making them feel stupid. I don’t know how many times I felt stupid when a teacher was talking to me one on one and was telling me the things I did wrong. Any advice on how to discuss what needs work in a positive way?

Crafting Writers 1-6

How can a person critique someone else's piece of writing when they are a poor writer their self? In high school we peer edited each other’s writing. I always found a few grammatical errors, but nothing more in a peer’s work. I wasn’t capable of finding anything else at the time. Once my paper was returned to me, all I could see was red pen. Punctuation wasn’t my problem, for the red marks were in the margins stating that I lacked content and clarity. I always wanted to pour my heart out into my writing, but never got into a groove where everything flowed together nicely. I lacked detail and even when I tried to use some strong vocabulary, other aspects of my writing would suffer. I couldn’t seem to reach a balance. Crafting Writers is a blessing because if I had read this book in high school I wouldn’t even k now what red pen looks like. The book is laid out well with many tables of useful information. Much of it was review from writing tactics I learned at IU in undergraduate classes; However, I found the organization of the concepts easy to comprehend and apply to my own knowledge. I feel that I have better insight to how to write than ever before. I’m actually excited to apply these crafts to my writing. Improving my skills will make me better able to teach children how to write well. Although chapters 1-6 were lengthy, I felt them to be so engaging that it went rather quickly. Sometimes I find myself victim to skimming; consequently, I was sucked in from the beginning and didn’t miss one detail. The writing samples in the book were precious to me. There’s so much to look forward to in grading papers written by children. Their imaginations are so vivid and soar with creativity. I’m hoping their ideas will rub off on me!

Sound Systems initial response

From the beginning, I had a good feeling about this book simply because it started off talking about the Gingerbread Man. That was my favorite book when I was five! After reading the it to my neighbors kids last summer, I didn't go back and have them listen to rhyming words like Ms. Chandler did, nor did I have them divide words by syllables. It was just for entertainment purposes. I've never worked with very young kids who lack knowledge of letter sounds and how to spell basic words. I find it to be challenging based off of the readings in Sound Systems so far. I hope I am able to dive in and teach these kids what they need to know.
The bulk of the reading was about going back to basics of phonics. I don't really recall learning these concepts, but I know that I did or couldn't write this right now. The statement "The more real words children already knew how to read, the more knowledge they had about the pronunciation of predictable letter patterns, and consequently, the more made-up words they could sound out," made me think that the parents have a lot to do with the basics and that elementary teachers must fine tune what has already been taught. However, some parents don't know what to do or how to teach, and we have to step in and take the plunge. One of our colleagues wrote about how she made parent packets with information on how to help their child progress in the classroom. I'm very pleased with this idea and hopefully will incorporate it into my classroom someday. Having all aspects of community and family working together towards the same goal of preparing children for the real world will most likely keep the child in a constant learning state where they will excel beyond the average student.
The chart on linguistic concepts summarizes the basic tools for speaking, reading, and writing. It’s very precise and is a great way to organize what needs to be taught to young children. Phonics curriculum, according to the book, is outlined by grade level and stage of development. The authors break down the concepts by grade in another chart. It seems to be gradual and also cumulative. Everything at the beginning is just being built upon. Chapter 4 starts talking about writing. The writings must be built on the linguistic concepts. When reading a sample of a child’s writing, I had much difficulty in deciphering what was being said. It was scary to think I will not be able to grade papers. But after further investigation and a little more time put in, I was able to understand where the child was coming from. It was nicely laid out in that the children’s stories started from kindergarten and moved gradually to second grade with thorough investigation of how to analyze and critique the work.
There were just so many concepts, I was overwhelmed. I hope over time I will master them and add my own concepts to them.

Literacy Dig

Our group met today at 5:30 at the mall food court. My main focus was what reading and writing knowledge people need in order to fit in to this particular environment and what type of vocabulary was used in customer conversations. I tried to get a basic visual of the layout of the food court as well as what people were there, why they were there, and what they were talking about.
The first thing I noticed about the location was the large signs above each food vendor's counter. There was Stir Fry, Little Tokyo, Chick-fil-A, Luca Pizza, and Sweet City where there were over 20 candy dispensers of different types, each one labeled with the name of the candy inside. I also saw the sign for the restrooms and 3 big department stores: Dick's, Target, and Macy's. Some of the written words were less noticeable in this place because of the sizes of the fonts and placement below most adults’ eye level. There was a hand sanitizer station below eye level that said, "Protect your shopping hands." I also saw small signs about what credit cards the vendor's accepted on glass panes above the counter tops. The menus were large and very legible. The prices were easy to decipher as well. An interesting aspect of the menus was the various pictures that were beside the names of each meal. Pictures would help foreigners know where they can get food and clarify what they want to order even if they didn’t speak English.
Next, I observed that the people in the food court varied in ages from babies to an elderly couple. There were a few students, most likely college level, and some Asian people as well. Many of the workers were of different races. Some spoke different languages. Many vendors were working alone, so there were no spoken words other than those with the customers at the counter. Walking around, I heard a baby say, “gah gah gah” and I also heard a small portion of a conversation in Chinese. A young man my age ran into someone he knew and he said, “What have you been up to?” I heard someone at a counter ask their friend for 6 cents to help with the bill. I watched a mother read math homework story-problems aloud to her son while he wrote down answers. At one point, I stood in front of a vendor’s counter and looked at the menu. She automatically said, “What can I get for you.” It was interesting to see that just looking at the menu meant I was hungry or was planning on eating to the vendor. A group of girls were talking about how people get away with shop lifting. The conversation made sense especially since we were in a location where shop lifting is prevalent. I also heard about an evaluation given to a secret shopper. Once again the word shop was incorporated into a conversation.
In order to be comfortable in a mall food court one doesn’t have to know even how to speak English, although it would be a big help. Pictures conveyed the main message that food is sold here. However, if someone who didn’t speak English had a question about what comes with a meal or if they have to get their own tray, they may have some trouble. Literacy would aid those who have questions about how to pay, or help in making sure that receipts are correct, or even if what they ordered is correct. Literacy at the mall is a big help because if you’re a smart shopper you want the best deals. The only way to know what the specials are is if you can read the signs!