Choral Reading

I have actually learned about and participated in choral reading activities in the past, but I always find it interesting to see how different people interpret poems and stories. I think an activity like this is very powerful for young readers to see how chunking words together, emphasizing tone, and expression can really effect how the passage may sound, and perhaps effect the meaning as well. I hadn't realized how many different ways you could actually do a choral reading, and it was interesting for me to see how each group chose to read their books and why.
My group chose to do a "leader and chorus" style of choral reading where one person read the main part of the story and the group read the refrain/ chorus in unison. I think this style of choral reading could easily be incorporated into a lower elementary reading activity, especially since children often unconsciously participate in this type of choral reading, reading along with the part that they know or that repeats. I would love to incorporate a choral reading activity into my field study classroom! I think that as early readers, this activity would really be beneficial in improving students expression, fluency, and comprehension with reading.

NoteBlog_ChoralReading

I thought Choral Reading was a good experience and something I had not thought a lot about using. It was really interesting the way each group in class read their story differently.Our group read Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear and took turns each saying one part, other groups read the story all together, echoed each other, or added more people saying it together each time. Giving students choices about what ways to do the choral reading makes it more interesting and gives students a sense of ownership for their performance. Choral reading was fun, and I can imagine my students would like it as well. It will be a great way to improve fluency and foster enjoyment.

Choral Reading

For our choral reading, we chose the book "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear?" The most logical form of choral reading to us was call and response, since each page asks a question and answers it. One person could read the question and another person could answer the question and ask the next one. This also is helpful for children for understanding voice and who is the person talking through the story.

Comment on your blog

Hey everyone!

Nice job so far. I like how you responded to each others, talking about what you noticed from other people and how that changed what you were thinking about now. The questions and goals you raised are also good. For a few them, I wonder why that is a question or goal, though. We will be working a lot with standards this semester, and hopefully our activities are helping you see how you can teach language arts to your students.

Also, you did a nice job of bringing in the readings and tying it to what you see in your classrooms. I especially like how Monica brought up a problem with working in a reading first school. How do you think you can work around that? I also like how Rachel made connections to other courses and Alison connected the readings together.

I look forward to reading your other responses and posts.

NoteBlog#2_Discussions

The readings all focused on discussions about literature, and making those discussions more valuable to our students.

The Langer article focused on the ways students interact with a text and the ways talking can help students understand a text better. A teacher can ask questions that guide students and draw on their "initial understandings, developing interpretations, and personal experience" and help the students to reflect and elaborate.

Relating to the Langer article, the McGee article talked about the ways teachers should reframe the ways we use and discuss literature in the class to embrace a more response driven, rather than right-answer driven style of teaching. Response driven talk means that a teacher should let the students take the wheel and form their own questions and answers about a text. It also means a teacher needs to be well prepared, have chosen a book that allows for such discussion, and can guide the conversation when needed. I think the role of the teacher is even more important when the discussions are response centered because a teacher needs to know just the right time to add to the conversation.

Almasi talks about the roles teachers and students should have in conversations about literature, and that to best help students understands, these roles must me more discussion based rather than based on recitation. She proposes that typically teachers think they are having a discussion with their students by actually are facilitating recitations. This make sense, as most of the discussions I have seen in the field have been more like recitations. It is very rare that when asked about how students feel about a story that it goes beyond liking or disliking.

Noteblog #2: Discussion & Scaffolding

Very rarely have I seen the students in my class have a discussion-based lesson. In reference to Almasi, most of what I see is recitation style. After reading short stories, the students answer questions posed by the teacher that check for comprehension. Literacy lessons are more reading and writing based (worksheets, for example) than speaking based so whole class discussion is limited.

Last semester, however, we planned a "science talk" for the students, which generally follows the discussions Almasi refers to. Although the subject is science, many of the discussion principles can be applied to language arts. Since they are only in second grade and this task was new to them, we knew we had to scaffold. In small groups, each of us asked one very open-ended question. The activity served as a pre-assessment, which is why, as teachers, we chose the question, which follows the Instructional Conversational model. The students then discussed among themselves possible answers. We encouraged students to respond to each other to allow for a connected discussion by starting their statements with, "I agree, but…" or "I disagree, but…" Without this scaffolding for conversation structure, I don't know if the notion of the students talking with each other rather than with the teacher would have been as successful.

All of the students participated in the science talks, and each group's discussion was detailed and elicited thoughtful ideas. With this experience in their repertoire, the students can use the discussion techniques to construct meaning about the literature they read. After this experience as the evaluators, the students could be gradually introduced to being inquisitors and facilitators, provided some scaffolding just as before. Students will need to be told that questioning the text and being curious about it is acceptable since they are so used to answer right or wrong questions. Eventually these three roles can be combined to increase the quality of discourse in language arts.

Noteblog # 2

The Triplett and Buchanan article that I read discussed the benefits of book talks when used appropriately in a classroom. However, I have never seen any evidence of these kinds of book discussions used in my field study classroom. Although there is a large focus on language arts/ literacy and the majority of the days schedule is comprised of some type of reading and/ or writing activities, very little of this time is spent actually discussing what is being read. More often than not students will read a short passage and complete an accompanying worksheet. My field study elementary school is required by Grant to use only literacy materials provided by the Houghton Mifflin publishing company, therefore many of the reading and writing exercises resemble this type of worksheet activity. The Article I read discussed the benefits of book talks on reading comprehension. Most recently the students at my field study were completing exercises to help with speed and fluency in reading, yet when I sat one on one with a student and asked them to tell me what the story was about, very few children were able to explain the story to me. This makes me think that these students really need to start focusing more on book talk- type activities.

One of the students in my field study classroom that could benefit from scaffolding in particular is actually an ESL student. He is a very bright boy and often does not comprehend what is being asked of him on the first explanation, therefore he benefits from rephrasing and simplifying the request until he is able to best comprehend what is being asked of him.

Response to Noteblog # 1:

After having read Alison and Rachel’s noteblog entries describing their goals and concerns for this course, I realized that we have many common goals and interests. Our most common concern seemed to be with the language arts curriculum and standards. Although we all know the stress that is put on this content, we have more often been advised to avoid teaching to the tests and to find creative ways to incorporate these standards, rather than discussing exactly what the curriculum and standards may entail.

One thing that Alison and Rachel focused on in their noteblog’s was their desire to learn more about actually teaching language arts. I had not included this as one of my goals, but it made me realize that I really don’t have much experience with creating and facilitating language arts/ literacy lessons. I have taken several other courses on childrens literature and I have been exposed to numerous examples of great children’s and young adult literature, but I really haven’t had the opportunity to teach the material. This is definitely something I am interested in learning more about this semester.

NoteBlog#1.5_CommentsAboutLearningGoals

Something I notice that seems to be very important about this course is experience. We are all hoping to have new experiences associated with language arts and teaching that will help prepare us for our internships and future classrooms. Being able to try things out, in a lower pressure situation, is a valuable experience for us. We also all hope to have a better grasp on what it means to teach language arts in todays schools. Standards and testing have put a high priority on students ability to read and on the language arts generally, but language arts should also foster creativity and critical thinking. Improved use of technology is also a commonality, we all see the importance of using technology in our classrooms as we prepare our students for the world.

Reaction to Noteblog #1

One common goal we all have is to learn more about language arts curriculum. Not only have we not been students in a K-12 language arts class for some time, but now we must re-examine language arts from a teacher’s perspective. What reading/writing skills should students acquire? When? In addition, what are other branches of language arts that should be incorporated? I noticed that Alison brought up speeches and viewing movies critically. These are both important skills that I did not originally think of, and I’m sure there are more that would be considered language arts. I think it will be valuable for us to learn what is expected of us before we can decide how to fulfill those expectations.

Learning strategies to use to meet those curriculum standards is something that seems important to us all. Monica mentioned making technology applicable in the language arts classroom. Although I am familiar with technology in the classroom, I would like to learn more specific ways to use for language arts. Also, learning about resources beyond this class are also important to me. Alison mentioned sources such as web resources or journals. Collecting resources such as these that will change over time will be useful for life long learning.

NoteBlog#1_LearningGoals

As a language arts teaching major I have felt over the last year, unsure of what it means to actually teach language arts. I have read a lot of great books, both adult and children's literature, but do not know how to translate those experiences to the classroom. Here are some questions I hope to get answers to:

• What is my responsibility as a language arts teacher? How do I fulfill that responsibility?
  
• To get students to read? To enjoy reading? To write creatively? To write research type papers? To be able to give a speech? To understand grammar? To teach technology? To view a movie critically? To be aware of genres, and parts of a story, etc? To teach vocab and spelling?
  

• How do standards effect the way LA is taught?
  
• Can I still foster creativity and enjoyment and get my kids to pass tests? How?
• And how can I use a Basal effectively?
  

• What resources will help me be a better LA teacher?
• On the internet? Organizations? Journals?
  

• How can I use technology to help my students learn LA content?
• Although I have more experience than many with technology, I want to become an expert in integrating language arts and technology. How do I use the internet to provide an authentic audience for student publication? How do I let students create something meaningful to them using technology (like maybe comic strips)?
  

NoteBlog 1: Goals for my learning in the course

Monica Nakonezny

A33578840

1/15/08

Noteblog 1:

Goals for my learning in the course

The syllabus describes the 7^th standard for Michigan’s entry-level standards for beginning teachers. This standard, and focus in this course, deals with developing fluency with technology. Furthering my understanding of technology and its applications in the classroom is definitely a personal goal for my learning in this course. Although I am fairly familiar with basic computer functions, there is so much more I would like to know about using technology for educational purposes. Although Alison and Rachel have introduced a few forms of technology to our class, such as smart board and story board on windows movie maker I am interested in becoming more accustomed to these types of technology and their uses. This is also a goal for my learning in the course because I am interested in developing a personal web page or electronic resume for professional purposes.

Developing an understanding and more thorough knowledge of the curriculum and standards/ benchmarks is an important goal for my learning in this course. I understand the importance of becoming familiar with this content in order to best prepare myself as a literacy teacher. Not only do I think it is important for me to become comfortable with the curriculum, but one of my goals is to also learn how to best teach that curriculum.

Another goal of mine for learning in this course is to further develop my abilities to work with others and accommodate for different types of people. Not only is this goal important in helping achieve collaborative learning, it is also important in helping me prepare for working with colleagues and parents in the future.

Goals for Semester

* Become familiar with curriculum and assessment of that curriculum

• Also become familiar with Grade Level Content Expectations for grades I plan to teach

* Teach literacy lessons so that I can reflect on them - Experiences help me decide what I would or would not do again
* Learn how to plan lessons for and teach language arts to a diverse group of students
* Learn strategies for integrating language arts and other subjects, including technology
* Organize my ideas about teaching language arts and formulate a philosophy