Monday, May 2, 2011
Final Reflection
Before you write this please take the time to read through all of the blogs written by you and your classmates. This is an opportunity to think about how your thinking has changed in terms of teaching reading and how your thinking impacts what you do in the classroom. What do you think that you didn't think before? What are you more aware of in your teaching when working with struggling readers? All of your readers? How does content play into this thinking? Are you a teacher of reading and what does that look like? These are just a few questions to get you started in your reflection. You do not need to answer every question. You just need to reflect on your practices and define them in writing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
My thinking and teaching in regards to reading has definitely changed over the last few months. I think one of the most important things that the class has reiterated for me is quality vs. quantity. I have found the rate of my teaching to have slowed down quite a bit. So often I feel like I am rushed for time and I stress myself out to “get through” material and to try and stay on task with my lesson plans and pacing and what everyone else is doing in their class.
ReplyDeleteI believe that like most learners, I learn well with hands-on examples. Some of the lessons that were taught in this course have really resonated in my mind and I have begun incorporating many of these lessons into my class and thinking about how they will fit into future plans. I’ve used a couple of variations of the “Say Something” activity and the “Thought Bubble” activity. This week, while working on essays with our informational text focus we read an essay entitled “Hearing the Sweetest Songs.” I read the essay aloud after we previewed it. After reading the first paragraph, I stopped and had students write on paper their reaction to what was read. I let them know that this could be a question, a comment, or a connection to the text. I gave students a couple minutes to write and then we joined back together. I shared my thoughts first.Once I shared, I opened the floor up to students. It started off a bit slow, but they eventually began to open up and our discussion became quite in depth. The essay was written by a woman who has severe hearing loss and it was great because there was a student in my class whose father is deaf. We made so many wonderful connections and students respectfully heard each other out.
We continued to read, thinking aloud as we went, and stopping periodically to have students respond on their own paper. Toward the end I called on a struggling reader whom we had yet to hear from in our sharing. When I asked her what she wrote, she looked blankly at me and I knew she wanted nothing to do with sharing. I walked over to her desk and read her paper, honestly not expecting her connections to be as significant as some of the other students because she struggles so much. I was amazed at what I saw. On her paper, she had made a connection with her brother who has hearing loss and who often gets yelled at by his mom because he can’t hear. The last line on her paper was a line that she connected to the author of the essay. The author felt like her hearing disability made her different. My student said that she understood the writer because she feels like her classmates hate her and that she is not equal to them. I did not make this student read her writing with the class and while I felt quite empathetic for my student, knowing that school is so hard for her, I was also so happy because of how much she understood and connected to this essay.
Before this class, I honestly think I would have done this lesson and my class would have made some connections, but I know that I never would have reached as many students to the extent that I did. The lesson that I taught was based on reading and writing essays and different types of nonfiction text, but the moral and message that it taught was so much more important to me than the form of the actual essay. It was a lesson in comprehension, connecting, and most importantly accepting differences.
ReplyDeleteSo, yes, I am a teacher of reading and writing. I love being a teacher of these things and I love that I have more tools to use in my classroom to enhance my teaching and most importantly to enhance students’ understanding of what I teach.
We began studying WWII and I’ve made one whole wall our “word-storming wall.” You were right Tomasen, the students were frustrated saying things like, “Hey, that was my word!” I chose to use this after we had made it through one lesson and I plan to keep it going throughout the whole unit, checking back in about once a week. I am also looking forward to using the RAFT activity and have two plans to use it already. I love that I have a few new quality tools to use in the classroom!
When reading back through the blogs that people have written, two of Denise’s really stood out to me. She talked about slowing down her pace and thinking aloud. She mentioned thinking aloud more than she actually reads in her read-a-louds. I think this modeling is so important for students. They need to hear teachers talk through texts to understand, because so often reading does seem to be a passive act. Kids need to know that reading is connecting, understanding, relating, enjoying, and learning. And as Denise also said, read-a-louds help her to create a strong sense of community in the classroom. Students can enjoy and connect with the same text and share the same experience. I just started a new read a loud and am already pleased with the slightly slower approach I’m taking and the excitement of the students in my classroom.
I definitely feel that I’ve gained a lot from this class. I will continue to try new ideas in my classroom and will continue to focus on quality vs. quantity. I’m looking forward to continuing in the fall…
Pam’s Final Reflection
ReplyDelete5/8/11
This class, its assigned readings, my personal reflections and those of my peers have reminded me why I teach and have enriched my knowledge of the process of reading. I find myself referencing the ideas as I create lessons. I think about what I’ve learned as I work with students. I’ve made more efforts at modeling and have referred to inferencing during class. I’ve asked students questions that guide rather than tell. I am more likely to look at one of my assignments and think about what part of it could pose a problem for a student with comprehension issues. I wonder how many changes I will make to my curriculum in order to better support the struggling readers that walk into my room.
I’ve noted that we have all learned, questioned, and reprioritized. We’ve all seen our children a bit differently and come up with new ways to reach out to them. We’ve slowed down and modeled to make reading skills more accessible. We’ve recognized the difficulty students have transferring life skills into school skills and seen students to whom it seems like too much effort, and yet we persevere. We’ve reached out to other teachers. We’ve come together with a goal, and I am encouraged. I look forward to continuing this work in the fall and am inspired to be a better teacher of reading.
Over the last few months I have developed a different perspective on how students read, and how to teach the reading process to students. Prior to taking this class I would assign students different readings based on their ability levels. I assumed that some students were able to do more than others and that was it. This class gave me strategies I will use to help lower ability readers comprehend difficult material, and help higher ability students get more out of their reading.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest breakthroughs I had during this class is the idea that you can help students with reading comprehension before they read. By analyzing words and central ideas about the reading students are able to interact with the material before they even pick up the book. This gives struggling readers a framework to make connections with the text they can build upon.
In addition to pre-reading strategies I learned a lot about how students interact with a text when they read. This course made me think about what actually goes on in the mind of a reader. I realized that as a strong reader I constantly interact with the text as I read, and that struggling readers may not have the ability to do this. In this class I learned strategies to teach students how to slow down, make connections, predictions, and ask questions about what they are reading. Teaching these strategies will give struggling readers the tools they need to thrive in the future.
Before this class I assumed that if a student didn’t understand what they read they should simply read it again. I assumed they had missed something the first time because they were not paying attention, but in reality it may have been much more than that. I now have not only strategies to teach these readers, but more importantly I have the mindset that something can be done in the first place.
In the future I feel confident that I can assign higher-level readings to my students if I properly frame the material. I will no longer look at reading as a static endeavor, but a skill that must be learned and practiced. In the future I will use Kyleen Beers’ book as a resource to find reading strategies for the classroom to help the high ability readers, low ability readers, and everyone in between.
I am so glad that I was able to have the opportunity to take this course, an invaluable resource. There has been SO much great information that has come out of this session. I am excited that we will have the opportunity to continue the class next school year- that we do not have to rush through the rest material; as I feel that happens far too often in school.
ReplyDeleteBeing able to learn new things and listening to colleague’s stories and experiences is refreshing and always an eye opening experience. When I started teaching at a public middle school I was surprised at how many students that I was teaching were struggling readers. I would often ask myself, why can’t they read? How could they have made it so far in school not being able to read? It all just seemed inconceivable that a child could continue to be promoted to the next grade and not be able to read. Maybe I was just naïve; my first six years of teaching was spent at a small private school in Florida- all students there were at or above grade level.
My thinking has evolved and I have also had some clarification that I have been doing some good things in my class. One thing that I firmly believe in is that every student can learn; most just need more time to complete and a reduction in quantity of work in favor of quality. I work with students who are not functioning full time in the general curriculum, the majority of them have a difficult time selecting goals for a task, planning and organizing an approach to problem solving, initiating a plan, blocking out distractions, holding on to a goal, and being flexible when trying a new approach. All these things are attainable with them, BUT there needs to be REPETITION, REVIEW, and OVER LEARNING!!
I am excited to continue to read on in Kylene Beers book and revamping my units!
I’m really glad that I joined this class. I have taken many classes on reading and reading comprehension, but this semester just reminded me of how much there still is to learn! I think the number one thing that sticks with me right now in inferring. I had a few strategies for teaching this before, but now I feel that I have so many new tricks to use for this skill. Also, I think that many of my students are just thinking this way more naturally now. When I do my read aloud, I will pause before an important section and say, “Ok, I want you to listen carefully to the next section and tell me what you can infer about the character from what you learn”. They now know exactly what I mean. I can tell that students are also looking for it in their own reading as well. The reading conferences that I do are reflecting this. Sometimes students are telling me about their inferences about setting or character and how they arrived at that idea.
ReplyDeleteI am more aware of all of my readers now. That may sound weird, but I think that in the past I knew that my struggling and even marginal readers needed certain supports before, during and after reading. Now I have started to notice that even my “top” readers are benefiting from some of these strategies. Last week as we worked our way through a non fiction piece about the shirt waist factory fires in New York City at the turn of the century, one of my stronger students noted, “Hey, this is hard”. I think that as I expect them to slow down even more, reread, reflect and dig deeper, my stronger readers realize that sometimes they were able to read and get done easily in the past. Now, with deeper understanding required, what they thought they understood was more of a surface understanding. I was really glad to hear some of them say this!
Content has been important in my own learning as a reading teacher throughout this class. My science classes are deep into research about endangered species right now. I find myself having students reread a resource, even though they have already taken notes from it. We have had some great conversations about how much “deeper” their understanding of their animal and its’ environment is now as compared to the first week they chose it. I have done this science project for quite a few years and it feels different this year. In the past I have focused on it more as a writing project, but now I also realize how much of a reading project it is. Throughout our time with animals I have brought in new books about different species and read excerpts and done a “think aloud” about new vocabulary or difficult language. I guess I always new how tough these books are to read, but this year I feel like I have given my students more support. The other important thing I have done is give my students more time. They asked for it and even though the next unit may be cut short, I decided that good teaching takes time!
I wish that I’d been able to take a class like this my first year, when I was beginning a 2-year loop with a team that was 25% special education students. I had kids whose reading levels ranged from The Hungry Caterpillar to War and Peace, and I didn’t have a clue how to reach more than half of any class.
ReplyDeleteThat’s not to say that everything in the Dover Reads and Writes class was brand new to me, but a lot of it was and it was helpful getting a refresher on the parts that weren’t. I think that the main lessons/reminders that I took from the class were that depth beats breadth and that slow and steady wins the race. Also, don’t be afraid to pile on the clichés.
As for specifics, Elliot already said everything that I was thinking. The pre-reading activities have been extremely useful, both for helping struggling readers and for engaging the entire class in the new content. When the kids have a framework and a context for new (especially abstract) information they’re better able to understand the complex concepts and less likely to just tune them out and give up. The class also got me thinking about the actual process of both reading and thinking, and especially about all of the deductive reasoning skills that my students unknowingly possess. That was an important insight because it made me realize that the challenge isn’t to teach kids how to think, but rather to bridge the gap between their subconscious reasoning skills and the new material to which I want them to apply the aforementioned skills.
All in all, I still don’t think I’d call myself a reading teacher, but I’m at least at a point where I can imagine being one. It’s a start.
Christina Said:
ReplyDeleteChristina McGarty
LTT Final Reflection
May 11, 2011
Here are some of the points and thoughts that I walk away with at the end of our discussions and readings.
Re-Reading and Revising. Rereading is a strategy that aids in comprehension when done correctly. I realize that rereading done without a purpose seems to be useless. I think it is important to teach students when to reread, why to reread and how to reread effectively. I think it is also important to teach students to revise their thinking as they read and not to be afraid to do so, in fact that is what they should be doing. I think sometimes students are so bent on having it “right” that they are worried to let their ideas change. The activities we have done together have reinforced that concept for me.
Excerpts. I have found myself struggling with finding the right texts or novels or guided reading books that I am familiar enough with to teach. Through our activities and discussions I have realized how much you can do with small pieces or excerpts from texts. I now find myself using smaller pieces to focus in on one reading strategy and then reusing it with another strategy or activity, especially with inferring. By using smaller texts I can easily expose my students to a variety of levels and genres of texts.
Always model. As a teacher I know you should always model what you expect from your students. I know that it is something I am successful in doing with math, but our discussions left me questioning myself whether I was doing it enough with reading. I have been trying to do more thinking out loud with my students. I have gotten over the notion that I don’t want to give anything away and that I need to model what strategies I use when reading. This is important for students to see so that they understand what is expected, what the strategy looks like and also helps to confirm that their thoughts are valid. It will continue to be a reflection point in my teaching.
Discussion. I have been thinking about the importance of discussion with students about our reading. Students need to hear what others are thinking to see things a different way or to confirm their thoughts and strategies. It is through our discussion and our modeling as teachers that students can see appropriate and important ways to use their thinking while they are reading. In my classroom, I have started to use more activities where students work in small groups or partners to work on strategies with a text so that I can hear the thinking that is going on and the “ah-ha” moments that students have after listening to their peers.
Inferring. Having discussed inferring in depth, I find myself using the word and the strategy more often with my students. It is such an essential skill in reading and other subject s and I think it is important to teach students that they are doing it all of the time. I plan to keep incorporating and trying the activities we have read about and experienced in class.
Christina Went on to Say....
ReplyDeleteNeed to prove. We have had some really great discussions about pieces of text where everyone has thought something different, which was ok because they could prove it from the text. I think it is so important for students to have the evidence to support their thinking. I find that my strong readers are very good with this, but my struggling readers need help with this. By asking them to back up their thinking with evidence you can see their misconceptions or guide them where to reread. Often times, they are able to self-correct because they have taken the time to reread or think deeper about their answer and realized that they actually think something else, rather than just the first answer that comes to their head. Often students think that by asking them to prove it, they have the “wrong answer”, but you need to teach them that it is just reflection about their reading.
Graphic Organizers. There seems to be a graphic organizer for everything in every subject. Through this class, I have found and used ideas for organizers that students can use to demonstrate their thinking while reading. The ones that we have used are simple, versatile, and can be tailored to the specific skill you want to practice.
Linda S. Said:
ReplyDeleteReflection on Learning Through Teaching Class
Linda Scribner
May 11, 2011
As I read through all the blogs (Thanks, Tina, for sending them to me) I am struck by how much reading support and instruction is going on in this building. Teacher’s who are working so hard to make connections, to help that struggling reader choose a book and stick with it long to realize that he/she wants to read the rest of the book, to notice that a student is ripping through book after book but not really becoming involved with the characters in the book. Social studies teachers who are working on inferencing, language arts teachers who are giving assignments that can be worked on by students on any level of reading and writing, and all teachers in this group who are looking to be better reading teachers so they can get their point across in their subject matter.
I think that all teachers are beginning to ask, “What do I do when kids can’t read?” This, I think, is the heart of the matter. We all realize when students cannot read. Some teachers are looking for a place to send the kids who are struggling readers. But we are all asking the question. Some of us realize that the teaching of reading is the responsibility of all teachers and only if we all participate will we, as a school district, create students who are readers for a life time and not just for a time! As we become more aware that each classroom in every school must be invested in reading, then our students have a chance to become informed members of society able to make their own decisions!
All of us continue to learn that students have to be able to relate the learning to their own lives or they are not going to truly learn the material. In order to do this we have to know our kids and teach to them within that environment while expanding that environment at the same time. This is a huge commitment and we appear to have jumped in with both feet. We all are doing direct instruction with students, all students, and bringing them into the world of reading and letting them express themselves in their own way.
The activities in the book, What To Do When Kids Can’t Read, add a shot in the arm to our lessons. It reminds us there is always another way to teach the material and there will always be another, “George,” in the classroom who has no idea how to make his way through the curriculum without our guidance and directions!!
Reading is an essential skill in life. The methods new use and the connections we help students make to the reading that they do will help them be successful students and continue to help them make the choices they need to make decisions throughout their whole lives!
Linda Madden Said:
ReplyDeleteReflection
Having missed the first class I wasn’t sure what to expect. Initially I was worried that the course might not be applicable to the High School level and then I was concerned it might not be applicable to me in my current position. I was pleasantly surprised to learn this was not the case.
I have a deeper understanding of how we can help struggling learners at the high school level. I feel more knowledgeable about what I should be advocating for and I realize the problem won’t be solved by bringing in a presenter for one day. I look forward to sharing the strategies learned in this course with my department next year.
Looking back I find myself appreciating the structure of the class. It felt more like a Community of Learners rather than a typical Graduate course. It was a relaxing safe place to learn and share. After reading all the blogs I realized how fortunate the Dover School District is to have such dedicated teachers. I enjoyed reading about the various activities they tried and the results of their efforts. I was encouraged reading about their successes and the positive impact on their students.
I found myself wanting the same opportunity for our teachers at the high school. I think it would be worth having a conversation with Gary, the DHS Principal and Tomasen to see how we might develop a similar effort at the high school level.