Week 5

    
     To be completely honest, there are very little discussions that take place in my third grade classroom that I would consider to be "rich." Given that there are 32 third graders with a lot of energy that enjoy talking out of turn as it is, I feel that my mentor teacher has kind of given up on the idea of having meaningful, educational, rich classroom discussions about a reading. Although she often asks questions after "Read Aloud" and has the students predict what they believe may occur next in the reading, the conversation always comes back to her. I rarely see the students build off of what each other say (this is where I feel it would be helpful for my MT so say "agree, disagree or add on"). Additionally, when my MT asks a question and calls on more than one student to answer, they often just repeat what the first person who answers the question said in another way.  This I feel is not helping anyone because it is almost discouraging students from having opinions/thoughts out their own because they are fearful to disagree and/or answer incorrectly.

     Another interesting thing that I have observed during reading time is that the amount of time and discussions the students have with in their reading groups and with my MT is contingent on   students’ level of proficiency.  Although I understand that the lower functioning children require more attention when it comes to learning how to read, I find it interesting that the students who are high achieving never even have group discussions with one another about what they are reading.  Given all that I have seen, I am under the impressions that the students who are not considered “behind” have a week to read a book that is at his or her level of proficiency and as they read that must complete a packet with various questions about the reading.  Although they get practice both reading and writing and their comprehension is tested with the packet, there is never a single discussion between peers and or students and teacher. 

            As for the learning resources available to the students in my classroom I am happy to report that they have a classroom library that has many books in it that are labeled given the books reading level.  There are many different types of genres for the students to choose from and each student has a dictionary in their desk to use as an additional resource when they are unaware of a word’s definition (however- this does somewhat discourages students from having meaningful conversations with a neighbor about what a word may mean).  However, I am still yet to see the 5 classroom computers utilized as an additional resource, and I also feel like the classroom’s Smart Board is not being used to its fullest potential.  I have never once seen the computers on, and the Smart Board is only used when there is an interactive video that goes with the specific chapter from the book that the students use.        

Week 4 Blog Post

As I sit here and think about the literacy curriculum that is included within my classroom, I am a bit shocked at the lack of utilization of materials and resources . Although my MT does have a few computers, reading textbooks, and printed assessments, there is still no classroom library. Therefore, when I assess what materials our classroom holds, I feel as though we are missing the most vital one, being the classroom library. As discussed above, my students have reading textbooks which simply includes a book full of short stories that are made for first graders. Although these books are nice in that they speak to the abilities of my students reading, they fail to challenge them in that they are strictly designed to go in an order as a class instead of individually. Furthermore, these books are the only books that my students can read out of when they finish their work throughout the day; you can only re-read a book so many times before it becomes boring and uninteresting. The computers that we have in class are programmed with a slew of websites that are supposed to be for working on reading and literacy. Unfortunately, when I was in the classroom the other day, they were playing coloring games online and the one reading website they had was seriously the most boring website I have ever seen! There is not an alphabet posted anywhere in the room so it is quite common that my students ask what a letter looks like or how you write a letter. This not only frustrates me, but also makes me feel unprepared in the classroom as I don't want to step on my MT's feet in order to improve this scenario. My students are able to visit the library once a week, but they are not permitted access to these books during the day so their opportunity to read is greatly reduced.
          In addition to all of this, I feel as though my classroom does have the materials, but they are not utilized to their fullest potential. While it is great to have computers to use, they are only beneficial if they are used appropriately. Furthermore, I think it is of the utmost importance to provide students with selection that goes beyond what they are comfortable with and sets them up for a challenge as they learn new words. When I sit and read with my students at their desks, it brings me great joy to see the improvement they have made since I first met them this year. Unfortunately, this improvement is short lived when I hear how far behind we are in reading as well as how many of the students are behind. I know that the resources we have can be used better, but it takes change for this to happen. Without question, the need for classroom books is beyond important as I see that classroom money would be well spent if we decided to travel down the road to have a classroom library.
         As described in the reading by Dawnene D. Hassett and Jen Scott Curwood, titled "Theories and Processes of Multimodal Education: The Instructional Dynamics of Picture Books and Primary Classrooms", they state that multimodal texts are texts that "Include various pathways to follow, parallel displays of information, extensive cross-referencing elements, evocative graphics and images that extend, often replace, the printed word as the primary carrier of meaning" (271/2). Although this description can be simplified down to the idea that multimodal texts include the transfer of information through technological venues, the idea of multimodal texts are only beneficial if they are used correctly. There may be many computers in my classroom, but if the students are not using websites correctly or ones that include a great deal of literary development they are going to waste. Therefore in order to make this situation better, I would go through and eliminate any additional websites or programs from the computer that do not deal directly with learning. I want to take away anything that distracts the teachers and students from using the computers as busy work.
           In addition to all of this, I would also only use the textbook/reading books for supplemental help not the only resource for reading on part of the students. Having students all reading the same book in the same order keeps some of the students confused, the other part on track, and fails to challenge the rest. This is not the model of effective learning that adheres to the many needs of our students, especially the ones in my classroom.

Emily Hoag-Goals for this course!

Week 2:
After reading through the syllabus and the readings for this week, I have developed some new goals for this course. I really want to learn about the development of language arts skills and how to work with students at varying levels of abilities in reading and writing. I have learned about language arts concepts in other courses, but I know that this course will teach me more concepts, as well as strategies, to help me better teach language arts in a diverse classroom.
I plan to teach in an urban school district in an urban community. I am aware of the challenges that I will face, which I felt were outlined well in the Jigsaw article I read (Fleming, et al). I do, however, wish that the article had not been so negative and also reflected upon some of the rewarding aspects of teaching in an urban school. I know that I will have a classroom most likely filled with students with varying reading and writing levels and I hope this class can teach me some strategies to address those varying levels and still allow the students who are excelling to continue on their paths as well as help those students that are struggling to begin to make sense of things for themselves.
I am very aware that I do not know much about literacy instruction. I know that I am a great reader and love to read books aloud, but I am not sure how to teach other language arts concepts in a way that is effective when teaching the 8 year old children I work with on a weekly basis.  I am hoping to gain more skills in this arena throughout this class. I am passionate about language arts, so I look forward to learning strategies for effective instruction for my future classroom!

First Day