Learning Log

Theme 5

Being a literacy coach, in today's education system, must be tough. Imagine being the person going into a room of very veteran teachers and showing them ways to "change". When I was asked to be a reading coach-- starting this school year-- that was one of the things I thought about. And though I understand the point of a reading coach, I wonder what others think about reading coaches.

Some complaints descriptions I have heard:
   1. People who give me useless trainings.
   2. Someone who just comes and watches us teach reading.
   3. While she watches us teach, she writes things down.
   4. Did I do something wrong?

#4 is the most common complaint because teachers by nature are controlling in ways. So the moment someone drops by for an unannounced visit- WATCH OUT! While, I don't care-- especially if you know the reading coach walks around EVERY Tuesday-- but I hear it a lot as the fourth grade team leader.

After reading chapter 12, I might just start handing people the textbook. I think this chapter lays out nicely what a literacy coach can be used for. This year we received numerous new reading coaches at the district level, due to retirement numbers. We also got a new, common core ready, complex text analyzing reading series. :)  So while we learned the new series, so were the reading coaches. The 12.1 figure, p. 403, is a neat way to graphically see what Literacy Coaches are for. And this is what I would like to share with teachers. Reading coaches are not there to spy, but it is their job to realize when a teacher is not doing something that is working. Our reading coach, who is just wonderful, has even said it's not about doing it the same, but getting the same results. We all want kids to get it, but of course the process for one class or even teacher may not work for another.



A huge job of the reading coaches is to provide Professional Development (PD) to teachers. I think the survey on p. 411-- figure 12.3-- is great. It is simple and basic. By doing this at the beginning of the year, reading coaches can then decide if certain trainings are needed/wanted by grade levels or by individual teachers. If it is individual teachers maybe they can come model a lesson.This year, our new reading coach has done an awesome job at trainings. Collaborative structure is a big piece of the newer puzzle and before this year I was really good at cooperative learning, but not even close with collaborative structure.

I chose an article about reading coaches and found quite a few. The one below talks about a Lit coach in an urban school.

Pomerantz & Pierce (2013) also reiterate the usefulness of having reading coaches. Their study showed the importance of having a reading coach and how it helps failing schools. Of course this is important. Urban schools tend to be "troubled" schools that have parents who may not know how to help their child or just don't. But shouldn't we be pumping all schools with these tools.Because as a non-failing, middle of the road school I get upset. We share our reading coach with other schools-- we only have ONE day a week when we get our reading coach for sure. We are a K-8 with 40+ reading teachers. In the eight years I have taught-- all at the same school, I have watched our parent support go down and our school population become more transient and poor-- county unemployment rates are pretty high. We have dropped from an A to a C and probably will be a low B or high C again this year. But since we are not Title 1, we do not have a reading coach on an almost daily basis. Because we are title one we don't have math or science or writing coaches either. So while I understand studies like Pomerantz & Pierce (2013), it actually is upsetting. For schools like mine, where we are middle of the line. We have a 60% free and reduced lunch population, but not title one, I feel as if we are like the students that slip through every year with a C. Why don't we get reading coaches all the time too? If all students are going to test with the same standards shouldn't all schools get the same tools?

Pomerantz, F & Pierce, M. (2013). When do we get to read? Reading instruction and literacy
    coaching in a "failed" urban elementary school. Reading Improvement, 50(3), 101-117.

Teachers as Readers Theme 5

"The Finale" 

 This last few weeks, I actually read a few books. I read the short novels that were part of The Returned by Jason Mott. That book was used as inspiration for the TV series called Resurrection. I also am a Amazon Prime Member for super cheap-- thank you Master's Program-- and this gives me access to not just one free book to loan on their lending library, but one free book a month to keep. Every month, they send you 4-6 options to choose from. Not popular books by all means, but ones that give that author a way to peak interest in people. I chose The Barkeep in the February pick, and just got to reading it. 

But the book that got to me the most was A Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Now I know this book is YA, but wasn't the Hunger Games? Harry Potter? And I could go on for hours about those books. My home library is dedicated to a HP theme. 

So when my younger 25 year old sister told me to read AFIOS, I was like "No, no. Lame." WRONG! I read the book in 36 hours and could not put it down. AFIOS is about a girl named Hazel, who has terminal cancer, and while at support group-- which her mother forces her to go to-- she meets Augustus Waters-- a teenage boy with bone cancer. Slowly Hazel, who normally likes to be a hermit, finds herself connecting to Gus. I won't go more into the plot because it would ruin it, but I do recommend it. 

Readers, I feel, can completely connect to this book-- even if their life has not been touched by cancer in some way. My mother is 3 years in remission of breast cancer, but not once did I really connect this story to her or the experience we all had as a family. This story made you wonder about the strength of people. It made you question how you would react to the news of having cancer. 

Also, without giving too much away, Gus shares his "Wish" with Hazel, since we find out she had already used hers. Which then brings up the question-- what would be the one wish you would ask for-- obviously has to be grantable! 

As I read, I laughed and smiled and cried-- a lot. I really do think this would be a great book to read in the 8th grade and up setting. I feel the questions I  thought of above would be good ones for students to think about as well!

Learning Log

Learning Log

Theme 4

Chapters 7 and 8 talk about the development of comprehension and vocabulary. Though these are two different areas of reading, they both are necessary for students to have a full understanding of what they are reading. In both chapters, the authors lay out different strategies teachers can work on with their students.

In chapter 7, the textbook talks about working with the different types of questions. Sometimes students can understand the text, but not always sure how to answer questions put in front of them. We tend to see this a lot with readers who have great listening comprehension, but cannot pass a reading test with much higher than a D. On page 200, the strategy QAR—questions-answer relationships—is discussed. I chose this strategy for my comprehension strategy project as well. I have heard of this strategy, but have never used it before. I find this strategy interesting because it helps the students understand not just what the question is answered, but how to answer the question. If unsure how to answer the question, students may simply pick an answer they think is best. Also, the text talks about QTA—Questioning the Author. I was interested in this strategy because it something we do a lot of in common core, but never realized it could be categorized as a strategy.

This strategy can also be necessary when studying text (Chapter 10). In Chapter 10, Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz (2011) talk about the use of graphic organizers and writing summaries. Using organizers to lay out the other’s text structure helps analyze why the author did something—going back to QtA. Graphic organizers are such useful tools. My intern and I were just talking about this the other day. She tried teaching a writing lesson the other day. She allowed them to think, pair, share. They whole group discussed and then she said write. Two thirds of them stared at her like she was nuts, or because it was the first day back from spring break--- who knows right? But the best part was, when we were at lunch twenty minutes later she was like: “That was awful. No graphic organizer? What was I doing?”

Graphic organizers, as discussed in Chapter 10, are also extremely important when you talk about the acquisition of vocabulary. Word maps (p. 257) and Semantic features (p. 259) are just two examples of graphic organizers students can use for vocabulary. Another way to build vocabulary with students Is having them learn how to analyze words in context. I feel in fourth grade this is a difficult concept, which is why teaching prefixes, suffixes and root words are so important. By teaching students to break about words by their parts can be highly beneficial. Magic squares, on p. 265, is something I have never seen before, but find it to be quite interesting. It is a neat way to incorporate math into other subject areas. The necessity for providing students the chance to play with their words and interact is a big part of the research completed by Baumann, Ware, & Carr (2007). They show an example of a word scavenger hunt, which resembles the Frayer Model. The student is asked to define the word and make connections by using it in context. The next part about models like this is that we as teachers can adapt this organizer to fit our needs. We can ask students to sketch a picture or write a synonym for the word. Though Baumann et al. (2007) talk about using context clues and words parts, they believe vocabulary instruction must be more than that too. Sometimes it is okay to teach individual words and then allowing students to explore with these particular words. Allow students to use tools like their thesaurus or textbooks to make those connections.

Just the way graphic organizers play a role in comprehension and vocabulary, they are huge when it comes to writing across the curriculum. I love the list of writing types on p. 308. I think this is a great list to have, to try and vary the types of writing students are doing. I also think this is beneficial to teachers in the content areas because it gives them a list of ideas they can use in their classrooms. Also, I find it frustrating as a writing teacher when I see how we should properly teacher writing, but then give the students Florida Writes. Every textbook and manual talks about teaching the writing process, yet our standardized testing goes against that in every way! I love some of the ideas in the response journals section. I just implemented an interactive notebook into my fourth grade class this year. The first 50 pages are considered to be reference pages. Each page represents something like Author’s purpose. There we discuss what that skill is. We make graphic organizers—kind of like a learning log. Then they practice the skill at the bottom of the page with writing or pictures.

 

Baumann, J., Ware, D., & Carr Edwards, E. (2007). “Bumping into spicy, tasty words that catch your
                tongue”: A formative experiment on vocabulary instruction. The Reading Teacher, 61(2),

                 108-122.

Vacca, R., Vacca, J. & Mraz, M. (2011). Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across
                the Curriculum. (10^th ed). Boston: Ally & Bacon.

 

Making Text to Self Connections

Teachers As Readers

Theme 4

 

I finally had time to sit down and read an actual book! Spring break is always good for that. Well over break, I read The Things We do For Love by Kristin Hannah. I had never read any of her books before, but have many of  them due to a half price book store I like to visit when in Ohio.

The book centers around Angela, a woman who is in the wake of her divorce. Her husband, Coltan, and she were no longer able to be there for one another. They fought the battle of infertility and the failure of a botched adoption. Angela moves home—the Pacific Northwest—where she works with her mother and two sisters in the family restaurant. Her father had recently passed away, so the family was battling a failing restaurant.

I found myself making lots of connections to the characters in the story. Not one specific character in the story, but the family dynamic. Like Angela, my family is Italian. There are three of us daughters that drive my parents crazy. The whole time I would read the sections about the sisters getting together, I could not help but to think of my own sisters. Just like my sisters and I, each woman in the book is different. They are fighting a different battle or in a different part of their life.

Over the last four and a half years, since I have moved home after my own divorce, my sisters and I have become much closer. We also have developed differently, while dealing with family issues of family members passing away, weddings, and babies.

It was wonderful to read a book about a family—with a similar dynamic to my own.

Theme 3 Learning Log

Theme 3 Learning Log

During this theme, our chapters focused on planning the actual lesson in the content area and then activating the prior knowledge and interest of our students. For my choice article, I chose to continue to reading about activating prior knowledge.

Chapter five was full of great information. The items that stood out to me the most was:

• Explicit instruction
• The well-designed unit structure
• Classroom discussion

Explicit instruction is the steps we should take as teachers to teach lessons or units. The book goes through each step and for those who are familiar with the gradual release model- I do, We do, You do together, and then You do alone-- this sounds familiar. When I work with my interns, I explain how important the gradual release model is. One thing I think is really important is remembering it does not have to all be done in one day. I loved the unit planner on pages 132-133. This breaks down a unit the teacher is doing and it is spread over the course of five days. While the students work, it starts with classroom discussion-- which is a great way to activate the background knowledge brought up in chapter 6-- and lays out the expectations of what the students will be doing. After the "we" discussion, it is clear the teacher has learning objectives for the students and it allows them independent practice to work together.

This also links to my other favorite part of chapter five, which was the classroom discussion. In the chapter, the authors talk about the use of classroom discussion. Collaborative structure is becoming a "necessity" in my school district, as well as cooperative learning taking a major role. During whole group reading, we are encouraged to take as much time discussing, as we do reading the story. Jigsaw, talked about on p. 152, is a common term used in my school. How can we have each student contribute something and then work together with others and put it all together? Though I struggle to do this in the whole group reading, due to the fact we have a very strict pacing guide, I tend to use this more in writing. Students have put together newspapers this year, and each student was responsible for one aspect of the newspaper. However, one thing I am working on tremendously this year, is think pair shares. Students becoming listeners is very important in this strategy because both partners are supposed to contribute. At the beginning of the year, I would see students turn and start blabbing at the same time. Now I have their desks numbered and tell them which number has to start the discussion. After we learned to that effectively, we moved onto telling me something your partner said and starting answers with phrases "We discussed" or "Johnny explained". I feel that makes them responsible for explaining to me what their partner contributed to the conversation.

Where I still need to work is on keeping the focus. I find if I give them longer than a few minutes to discuss multiple questions they get distracted. I am trying to give them one question at a time, with a shorter time period. That way there is no time for other discussion.

I feel that the cooperative learning not only lets them learn from each other, but allows them to get interested, which is part of chapter 6. When students get to work together, they are always more interested than just letting us explain things. This is why my district is making the big push for cooperative and collaborative working. Since I have started my masters, I have done a lot more predicting and story walks with my students. I feel when I do this, they get more excited about the story beforehand. Also, fourth graders tend to still be followers. So if they see classmates getting excited and then me getting excited about the answers I hear, they get more into it. I like the anticipation guides the textbook talks about on p. 181. I feel this is something I could easily implement as a "Do Now" once the students learned the procedure. As soon as the came in they could sit and do their prediction/anticipation guide. Then they can work together to discuss how theirs differed or was the same as what actually happened in the story. For starters, I would probably start with the figure 6.8 to break them into it. Maybe have them fill that out the day before we read and then transfer these to a short summary of their predictions. I think with a checklist, the fourth graders could completely do an activity like that.

The other idea I would like to try from this chapter is the ReQuest on p. 188. Right now, we sometimes generate questions for our ticket out into centers. Kids then sometimes look to see if they can answer their own questions or a friend's. However, I find their question generation is lacking. They want to just write a question to get into centers. I think by adding in an activity like the ReQuest, it would encourage them to seriously generate questions if I am the one to answer them. This would probably spark their interest more as well.

In the article, Fisher and Frey (2010) discuss how teachers can build background knowledge directly and indirectly. I know, like other teachers I have talked to, I am horrible at modeling. Doing teacher think alouds, I feel ridiculous. However, this year, I did a master's research paper and studied the use of comprehension strategies. During that time, modeling was a big part of my paper. So I know I did it more this year, but unsure of how well I did it. However, the article does mention reading a wide range of text and I do have 800 books in my classroom. These are organized by non-fiction and fiction and then into genres from there. It is quite pleasing to see students reading historical fiction and information texts because their background knowledge is being opened to a wide range of materials.

The article also gives great ways to check for understanding to ensure our activating background knowledge made a difference. Fisher and Frey (2010) mention the KWL, which happened to be the practice activity video I watched on our EDU lab for OAR 3. This allows students to think about what they know, what they want to learn, and then at the express what they learned. This is great way for teachers to check for that understanding. Sometimes the jigsaw or cooperative learning does not work there because I want to know individual instruction.

However, this theme gave more great ideas on how to improve classroom instruction. Though I do not officially teach content area, we have many expository texts in our book, so I know this will be helpful!

Article of choice:

Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2010). Building and activating background knowledge. Principal Leadership:

      Ready for Anything, 11(4), 62-64.



Gardening... What was I thinking?

Gardening... What was I Thinking?

Theme 3: Teachers as Readers

Well to be quite honest, I have the mind of a 9 year old. I find one idea and stick to it and then switch it up. Some call this ADHD, I call it constant learner! :) So for now I put the Italian books aside. I mean we have a whopping three and a half months til we leave. Aaron laughs, as I explain how three months is a lifetime and let's not forget the super long plane ride, let alone even longer drive to Ohio where we are flying out of. Now in my rat's nest (the area on the floor between my bed and end table) are my Italian language phrase book and Frommer's guide. Both filled with colorful sticky notes.

In the last few weeks, I have decided becoming a gardener would be awesome. Who doesn't want to grow their own fruits and vegetables? It will be a hobby and I always love to learn a new hobby.

So for my first source of information, I received a copy of the Farmer's Almanac from a friend. Hello information overload. After taking notes from here, I decided to put together a gardening folder. I even made tabs to keep my readings organized. However, I get very overwhelmed with non-fiction and explanatory papers, so I put this aside for now and I figured I would use it for a reference tool.

For more reading, I went to www.lowes.com. Lowes has a great how to section, which I love because forget all the magazines they sell in store, when they have articles posted on their website. From there, I searched the gardening articles and started printing away.

Ex article: http://www.lowes.com/cd_Vegetable+Garden+Basics_1264080256_

As I read the article(s), I felt myself gravitating towards the headings. Certain things about gardening does not pertain to Florida. Certain items can be direct seeded, because our soil and temperature in late March and August are perfect for allowing those seeds to germinate. But using the headings allowed me to not get stuck reading information that was not pertinent to me. To me this was extremely important while reading gardening articles. I have a horrible non-fiction reader and I find myself really hanging onto the NF text features when I negotiate and make my way through this genre. For example, another article I read was about raised beds and why they are awesome for Florida gardens. So I started researching how to build a raised bed. Some websites had wonderful articles, but I felt myself gravitating towards the ones with diagrams because it took all the text that was there and made it visual for me. I now had a diagram with labels.

Another thing that helps while negotiating the text in the articles is my binder. I find myself asking what the purpose and main idea of the article was because some talk about multiple topics. I then place the article in the correct tab category, but place a note in the secondary to remind myself I have an article that may help in another section.

Now that I have planned a wonderful vegetable garden, I actually have to do it. Aaron tells me to wait til we get back from Europe since so many vegetables can be planted in August. Which is a great idea, but I think it is his way of getting out of building me a raised bed until then! :)

Theme 2 Learning Log

Loving Theme 2 Chapters!

There was so much great information in these chapters. I am not a huge textbook reader, but there are lots of post-it tabs in these chapters!

With new standards comes new definitions of literacy. According to chapter 2, new literacy is shaping how we teach literature and how students have access/learn literature. Because of things like the internet, social media, blogging etc., students have access to so much more information at a much more rapid speed. This, to me, leads to one important question: How do schools keep up with all the new media and literacy?

Two terms used in chapter two, which I found to be interesting, were “hypertext” and “hypermedia” (p. 37). Just the list of options available for these terms is incredible. Anything from videos, to website text, to sounds. It is incredible what students have at their fingertips. However, sometimes having too much at their fingertips can be a problem. That is where teachers, and parents, become so important. How can we teach them the appropriate tools to use and when? On p. 40, we see a chart that needs to be taken into account. I think teaching students about internet reliability is very important. I have a research center during my centers, and I have to do the rundown about how wikianswers and ask.com are not really reliable websites. Webquests, which are talked about on p. 46, are a great way to get students started on the internet at the beginning of the year! I love doing webquests, but must admit that is has been awhile since I have done one. I think adding one at the beginning of the year next year, would be a great first week of computer centers!

Blogging is a great way to get students to communicate using new literacies. Sites like kidblog.org and goodreads and safe and friendly for students. Some districts have even started implementing moodle. Moodle is a social network site that is fully school related and kids can communicate with students and teachers on it. I do not have experience with moodle, but have found that as of now it seems friendlier for older students. I think it might be a few more years before my fourth graders go fully online with me! However though blogging falls into new media, I feel that it helps out tremendously with authentic assessment. The rubric used on p. 41 is great for students. It gives them a rubric, so they clearly know what to do. Also, it gives teachers a great authentic assessment to use in their classroom. Blogging also gives students new ways to study texts collaboratively and while using technology.

For my personal choice article, I chose an article on New Media Literacies. In this article, Lin et al. (2013) talk about how simply exposing students to new media is not enough. For this type of literacy, just like all types, students need to interact and be able to be the one producing the new literacy! Also during their article, they do a great job of tying the Blooms Taxonomy into using these literacies. I found this article interesting because some of ideas in the textbook could be placed on this spectrum. By doing that, teachers are able to decide at what level their activity is “hitting” (for lack of a better word).

Chapter 10 was fantastic and focused a lot on studying different types of texts. Graphic organizers was a big focus in this chapter and it gave lots of great examples. Graphic organizers are such a powerful tool. This is the first year in many that I have not been the ESE inclusion homeroom. I found that organizers were a great way for my students to get their thoughts together. One thing I must say is, in my opinion, there should be some leeway on these organizers. I have seen some teachers who think all graphic organizers should look the same. I do not believe this. I hate Venn Diagrams for instance. The similarities portion is TOO small. Students struggle with this. So I like to show them different ways to do comparing and contrasting. I also show them how to adapt the diagram. Some kids are list orientated, while some are bubbles. I think this goes to different types of learners.

I believe that chapter 2 and 10 are very important towards chapter 11. Chapter 11 does a great job of talking about other resources outside of the textbook. However, just like websites, teachers should think about the list on p. 40 which talks about what should be taken into account. Chapter 11 talks about different texts, and some of these may be new to your students. Instead of doing a webquest, students can take a bookquest. I think it would be cool to allow them to explore nonfiction texts. Each group can be given a chapter and they have to take a walk and then present it to the class. Do they see headings? Pictures? Captions? Graphs?

Another way to tie in new literacies and trade books is allowing students to form literature groups. Though not everything can be tied into technology, teachers have so many options. Allowing students to have an online book club is a great to integrate discussion on books and writing as reading responder—talked about on p. 387. Students can blog their written responses and then discuss each others’ on the message board. Students can do research projects on authors or the subject matter their group is reading about. All of this can be used as an authentic assessment as well. Chapter 11 talks about unmotivated readers as well. Tying new literacies and using authentic assessments in place of simple paper/pencil tests can allow your unmotivated readers to want to participate. Another way is pairing them up with a motivated reader who may have the same interests as them.

The chapters this week, I found were quite interesting. Because though this class is a lot about content area, I think my job as a language teacher is to tie in content area. Students are interested in science and social studies. To me, this is an advantage and would benefit me highly to find ways to incorporate.  I also am a big fan of new media literacies, but wish I had more materials to use to implement these!

 

Citation for personal choice article

Lin, T., Li, J., Deng, F., & Lee, L. (2013). Understanding new media literacy: An explorative theoretical
                framework. Educational Technology & Society, 16(4), 160-170.



Pizza, Vino and Gelato.. Oh my!

An Italian Learning Experience

   With summer travel plans set in stone, we have one small issue-- the language barrier. Though I have worked with ESL students and came out of my undergrad ESOL endorsed, I officially am THE ESOL student. Aaron knows enough German to get us through Germany-- he took four years of it in high school. However, though I have wanted to learn Italian since my "Eat, Pray, Love" phase, I still have yet to learn anything. So though I own two other Italian manuals, it made me feel better to purchase the official Rick Steves' Italian Phrases manual.

  

   Now I will give it to Rick. He has clearly set this out for travelers. So I am thankful he skipped most of the unnecessary lingo. To help myself overcome this daunting task, I whipped out the infamous post-its. I have a variety of colors, so I marked sections in three colors:

     a. Yellow= most important

     b. Blue= I think will come in handy

     c. Pink= Probably will never use, but just in case.

     d. Green= pronunciation page

The green is definitely the most important because I find myself flipping back there constantly. As does an English dictionary/glossary, this book has exact pronunciations of each letter. I have learned that the C makes the CH sound in Italian. But like English, I have found myself pronouncing words easier (at least I  think so!) after becoming comfortable with the building blocks of the language. I also, to audibly check myself, find myself using google translate to hear the word and double check my pronunciation. I find that even when reading to myself, sometimes I have to read something out loud if it is confusing me. Sometimes that silent reading does not do all the processing and I feel by reading it out loud I gain a better understanding. So I am very happy that google translate is free. But honestly, by tabbing the necessary, I feel I have scaffolded (?) my learning. Now I feel less overwhelmed by the amount of pages in the manual.

After two weeks of starting to read and using the above tabbing system, I put stars on ones around the house now saying random phrases.

My favorite is Verremmo una caraffa di vino rosso because who doesn't want a carafe of red wine!

Learning Log from Theme 1

Theme 1 Learning Log

    I am a fully concrete sequential person, so please bear with me and my lists! When reading, I started first with the article we got to choose. I chose to read the article "I'm Not Stupid": How Assessment Drives (In)Appropriate Reading Instruction.

For me, the quote at the beginning sums up so much! Today it is all about their scores. Now I understand, if a student constantly fails tests and never knows the answer there is a problem. But so many students feel stupid these days because of test scores. However, if you asked them to explain it to you they will orally give you a fabulous answer. I am a firm believe that tests are not going anywhere. I had to take how many tests to become a teacher? I need to pass how many tests and classes to receive my masters? However, there is a point when we are just ruining our students with assessment.

During the article, Dr. Dennis talks about how she breaks her students down by individual needs. And as it was talked about in the article, she had to figure out these needs based on a single test. A test that labels the student either advanced, proficient, or below. This does not tell the teacher what they need to do to help the student. This test used was a high stakes test, and just like in Chapter four of Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz, testing is at its highest point and the stakes in high stakes testing keep rising. There have been a plethora or concerns about this test, which I believe is appropriately brought up in the "I'm Not Stupid!" article. High stakes testing do not tell me about my students. Informal assessments tell me more about them personally. Dr. D used informal assessments to really look into the needs of students and talks about having the students help set up their literacy goals (p. 289). However, the thing that stood out the most was how these results help differentiate instruction in their remedial setting. Though students are still instructed with mandatory materials, you can as a teacher direct certain aspects of a lesson towards a specific student without other students even knowing. But without the smaller IRIs, informal checklists, or student work samples you cannot get a full scope of what students need from high stakes testing. This also falls into the Reading Endorsement competencies. Teachers must be able to interpret data from many sources and not just rely on standardized assessment.

Sticking with chapter 4 Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz, they do a wonderful section on portfolios and how these stack up against testing. Though there a some pros under the testing column, I feel that the portfolio column truly has more benefits. The portfolios give a wide range of ways for students to be assessed and give them the opportunity to make their goals and adjust as they meet them. Students who fail third grade FCAT do go through a portfolio process before being retained in third. So why do not just use portfolios in the first place? Students who fail the portfolio then take the SAT 10 and go to summer school, with a small glimmer of passing and going to fourth, but why not skip the stressful testing. I do believe students should standardize test to show us how they stack up against other students, classes, schools, etc., but can't we use the test for the correct reason?

I was very intrigued by figure 4.8 on page 111. This is a really neat way to assess students in reading. I like how to includes all types of questions-- inferring and recall-- but trades between being able to use the book and not. Students nowadays get used to instant gratification and answers-- tablets, computers, etc. give them instant access to a world of answer. Sometimes I think they forget to think for themselves. So it is nice when testing their comprehension giving them opportunities to use the book, but making them work themselves and work through the thought process as well. I actually showed this figure to my social studies teachers-- we are departmentalized-- and asked how we can do this too! Again, I feel this figure could work with any concept.

 Looking at Chapter 3 of Vacca, Vaccam and Mraz the major topic of multicultural literature comes up. Multi-cultural literature gives the students opportunities to really look into different background and gain background knowledge they cant get anywhere else outside of traveling. However, I feel teachers are lucky when they work with students in different backgrounds. But not all schools have diverse populations, so I feel working with multicultural literature is important. Of course, time is a problem. However, I think exposing students to different cultures does not always have to be whole group. It can be done during centers, or built into a collaborative structure.

Besides multicultural literature, Chapter three does a great job of focusing on ESL students in general. Though some teachers believe ESL students will never make the same gains as their English speaking students, this is far from true. By understanding how to work with your ESL student and setting goals for them, doing a portfolio on your ESL students would work wonders. Yes, there goals might be very different than the English speaking student, but that's the point of differentiation. Like Chapter 1 mentions-- knowing your grade level content and standards is important. By knowing this information, you can plan the steps you should take with your ESL student to ensure they hit those standards as well.

Staying with the knowing of content and standards, I tell my interns that all the time. It is great to use  this wonderful basal reader that some company put together. But it is not the do all say all. You know a much better way to teach comparing and contrasting without using that story in a textbook please do it. However, take into consideration your standards. Are you hitting your standards with your stand alone lesson?

The part of chapter 1 that stood out the most was the way we are teaching is changing. My favorite quote from p. 7, "For centuries the most common use of the term literacy had been to denote one's ability to read and write a language with competence. Today, however, the dynamic nature of literacy is such that it encompasses more than the ability to read and write black marks on a printed page. Literacy has come to represent a synthesis of language, thinking, and contextual practices through which people make and communicate meaning." In today's schools, especially with common core, we have started to go so much further. We ask kids to delve into minds of the characters on the page to assess why the character did what they did. We ask students to take a few clues and imply meaning in multiple ways. We now are asking that they apply these skills to their every day lives. And it is a great idea, but what teachers and politicians are debating now is whether we are applying this grand idea in the best way. All of those best practices that the IRA mentions, are we doing those in the classroom by throwing these new standards in one year and changing how we assess them the next?

With these new standards and new types of literacy we have started to push onto our students has changed our jobs completely. Going back to multicultural literature, of course we don't always have enough time. According to my new reading series, I have to test every five days. Math? Forget about it? We have more lessons than there are until FCAT. We have built a textbook that has more lessons than days to teach it. So though we can follow competencies and thoughts of best practices from the IRA, can we do them with this load that is not lightening? If we do a great job of breaking down our kids and I have a kid that needs phonics in fourth grade is he going to make the comprehension gains on those tests that they are judging him and me on? Out went the old literacies and in came the new-- but without extra time or thought on how these change the education world. 

Game of Thrones

The Labyrinth Know as G.o.T.

"You have to read it!" That what was I kept hearing anytime Game of Thrones (GoT) came up in conversation. Or for those who had never read it, I was told it was necessary to watch. So after reading the premise of the books on Amazon, as well as the reviews, I decided to ask for it for Christmas... in 2012! I got the first four books in a box set and I will admit, I picked up book one, but there was so many characters and settings and family members, I truly struggled to keep it straight.

When I would bring this up to fellow GoTers they would tell me to watch season 1 before reading the book. That there is so much in the book, it would not hurt to watch the first season and then read the book. However, I cannot do that.

So after months of letting my book collect dust, I picked it up again during Christmas break of 2013. :) At the time I type this blog post, I am 75% of the way through the book and season 1, which I got for Christmas 2013 collects dust in its box, but not without calling my name when I walk by! I am determined to read this book, so I told myself to read how I would want my students to.

While reading this book, I have completely set up a packet of paper for it. I one set with family names at the top/what their land is called-- ex: Stark/Winterfell. Then as we meet characters in the family, I add to their family tree. Then as the characters are killed off or married off, the times of Kings and the Realm were very active, I make adjustments to the trees. By doing this, I felt it has made the books much easier to read and understand. There are four more books-- five is in hardcover-- so I know by the time I finish, my packet will become a binder!