Creativity in Schools

Check this out! It is about 20 minutes long but very thought provoking.

Precommunicative Spellers

My kindergarten buddy D is a very active young boy. When looking at D you can just see the wheels in his head turning around and around. He wrote a note on the back of a picture for me that if I remember correctly looked like this nIcEToMEETYA. When D wrote nice to meet ya, I think most if not all letters where capitalized without any spaces between them and all the same size letters throughout his writing. In another sample of writing he wrote, “HOWDOYOULIKEOURSCHOOL?” with help from me on spelling or finding words he wanted around the room and then writing them. He seems to be a precommunicative speller in that their is no spacing in between words but other than that he doesn't show any other of the characteristics of a precommunicative speller: mock letters mixed with real letters, pictures more visible than writing, same letter repeated, writing randomly around the page. When D uses resources around the room to spell how close is that to invented spelling? Is it a step before?

In relationship to his writing D seems to be ahead in his reading. We read, "The Giving Tree" and when I asked questions about it his answer showed comprehension of the story. He also did not just repeat words and phrases or paraphrase when he read the "long parts" which he specifically asked to read.

The progressive and relationship of writing to reading is very interesting to me. It seems similar to the chicken and the egg question in that when I ask myself which comes first it seems they both support the other. I am looking forward to the reading assessment to see if my observations will be supported or not. And just to add another level of mystery and consideration for myself as I was leaving on Tuesday D held up his Hh card and proceeded to say don't forget your a Hh and with me, as he made the /h/ sound as he held up his card.

Why Literacy?

I would argue that literacy is linked with the development of critical thinking skills. Literacy in my opinion is not just knowing how to read but making choices from what you are reading; comprehension. A certain level of understanding and comprehension needs to be reached to make choices from reading. Some might say being able to decipher from fact and fiction or at the very least questioning what we read as being fact or fiction is a needed skill in our society.

A shift from learning to read to reading to learn should be made in education after students know how to read. Reading to comprehend what the author is saying is I think the first step, then being able to agree or disagree in an informed way is the next.

Policy in our country is at a pinnacle of change or could be. To help students become active citizens in society as a teacher, I will have to be able to teach them to decipher the massive amounts of information available now as fact or fiction and how to make informed decisions.

This set of skills just enforces, in my opinion, why it is important to have student autonomy in the classroom at all levels. So students can begin to make decisions and know that their actions have reactions for not just themselves.

Emergent Perspectives

"Even though the way in which children develop literacy strategies are different from adults they are still logical and understandable, ONCE WE TAKE THE CHILDREN'S PERSPECTIVE." This statement just emphasizes that as a teacher I need to keep an open mind and let my students development in literacy be their own. I am only a mentor, an assistant to help them develop in their literacy. It seems I am not the leader as they will naturally start to decode language at a very young age. I found this very fascinating, that just by listening to an adult make a shopping list or a story over and over again helps build literacy in a child. I wonder than how harder or more of a challenge it is for a child to become literate at home if the adults they are around are not literate? Does it affects the child at all?

I also like the idea, that stems from the aboved mention characteristic of literacy in children in my opinion, that we should teach reading and writing to all children no matter the age as literacy is a developmental skill that changes with a child. I can identify with this change in strategy as when I first went to college I became a more active reader, in highlighting, asking questions, and defining words unknown as I read which in the end led I think to better comprhension for myself.

In my main Dyad placement class, for simplification later on I'll call it Room 20, the master teacher read to the students a book and together they marked main idea pages to understand plot summary with an emphasis on just going over main events. But in the afternoon when only spanish is spoken (Room 20 is a dual language classroom), a book was read to the class but new vocabulary and phrases unknown where identified instead of a board plot summary. Though I think (if my spanish isn't too rusty) a summary was discussed a bit through out by asking questions like "what do you think will happen next?" or "Is this a problem or a solution?" These lessons in Room 20 was a specific example how learning literacy needs to fit the development of the student. If the master teacher structured the spanish lesson the same way she structured the english lesson many students may not have enjoyed the story as much due to their level of spanish. Does structuring literacy this way helps both students who are strong in spanish but lower in english or vice versa to develop their literacy skills? Or not? I wonder how she knows one way or the other.

BEDUC 406 Day Four

There are multiple ways to transition in a classroom with students or get from place to place as well as multiple ways of classroom management. It seems though that the most important thing is to know your students and yourself in order to use what works best for EVERYONE!

I am a detail person; I like to have details. I am anxious to meet my dyad placement teacher since I will be meeting her and her students at the same time for the first time in little over a week.

I am excited to see how a dual language classroom works!

Can I come back in January, to my main placement and pick up where I left off with students in rm 402? Errr... with only seeing them maybe once a week, if at all, maybe not so easy to do?

Book Reports Made Fun!

My master teacher has a great system for book reports. Each student does three a trimester but each book report has to be a different genre. The genre coincides with what assignment they do for their report. For example if a student reads a fantasy book they would write five things that support it being a fantasy book but if a student reads a mystery book they would need to interview the main character about events in the story with at least five questions. All they would rate their books on a 1 to 5 star system and provide reasoning for the rating. My master teacher also emphasized that the report can be as pretty as possible but if details are not given enough so that it seems the student has read the book... Wrong, no credit!

I like this because it enables students to be more creative in their assignment AND writing. Also students end up reading a type of book they might not normally choose to read. This could broaden their horizons and open up new interest in types of book to read!

Drum roll please!

HAHA! The simplest thing can make part of an activity fun. Today Room 402 started on a new country for their caravan unit. Each group was assigned a different country. The group name would be called with a drum roll. Students would drum on their desks, all thirty of them, with huge 6th grade grins; the biggest smiles I've ever seen on some of these students thus far in the year. A drum roll can be more than just noise and interruption it can be a way for students to take a more active way in desicion making. Though yes, this may not work with all students, with this group at the end of assigning groups countries, attention was brought back to the teacher and learning commenced!