April’s Teaching Blog

Pretty much have read my sunny Sunday afternoon away, but I can say that I’ve taken some valuable information away with me in the process.

I drew a heart on top of the article Revisiting the Language Experience Approach.  Loved it. It’s easy to sometimes to get bogged down in the planned curriculum and pacing guides that the county you teach in gives you, but the LEA is the way to go.  The LEA “draws upon the real life experiences of students.”  What 5-year-old doesn’t LOVE talking about themselves and the things that they do?  And to think how beneficial this approach is to our English-language learners.  I loved the idea of creating a whole class story on chart paper where each students gives a sentence, Ive never done that before.  Then I had the idea to create a class “big book” where each child creates a page on chart paper.  Also, to have copies of the students writings and the class stories for the kids to read.  Guarantee that would be some of their favorite reading material.  This article also gave me the brilliant idea to have kids write about their art work.  Once they have finished a painting in art center, have them write at the bottom about their art!  I’m all for the LEA.  The article that used LEA with process writing was also a good read.  It kind of incorporated what administrators like to see in your classroom with the developmentally appropriate LEA.  I really like the fact that students “publish” their work because I think it gives them so much ownership in their writing.

Then, I read everyone’s favorite 36 page article…Social Contract for Writing.  At first, at the risk of sounding dramatic, the task of reading seemed a little more than I could handle.  Once I started reading, though, I was rolling.  I don’t have much experience with 2 year olds.  They are probably the age group (from birth to kindergarten) that I know the least about their development.  This article did a really good job of informing me what a white, middle class, suburban, Mommy’s Day Out 2 year old could do.  I’m not going to knock her though, throughout the article she admitted the articles shortcomings, and agreed that there should be further research on children of diverse backgrounds.  When I read the title, I thought, “Social contracts?  Shes getting these kids writing contracts to not hit and bite one another…how odd.” But I was pretty off.  I like her idea of describing the way that children interact with writing is a form of social interaction.  Writing is so social, its social in kindergarten when you share your one sentence writing with the person beside you, its social in 5th grade when you write a letter to your friend about the boy you are totally in love with, and its social right now, as I write this blog at 24-years-old.  I love her idea that kids get the “point” of writing right from the start, rather than learning the specifics of letter formation first.  I really liked the way that she analyzed their responses to the centers, but did anyone else notice that most of her interactions occurred on January 11?  Almost all of her transcripts of interviews with children were on this day.  Maybe a coincidence.  Anywho, I liked her approach to it all, I’d just like to see studies of children who were not all the same, maybe who had limited access to materials at home (deficit thinking?!?!), who didn’t speak english as a first language (would definitely be hard for these kids to talk about their pictures and writing), or who had delays and disabilities. 

I think that my favorite part of blogging is making up the titles.  I love to rhyme and play with words, maybe that’s why I love teaching kindergarten. 

The reading on CALP was particularly eye-opening because I really struggle with the best way to reach ELL students.  Having only taught for one year, I have only had one ELL student that I could call my own.  Manny (name has been changed ) came to me with no school experience and very frightened, understandably.  Manny had an older sister in the 4th grade and I was really thankful for her.  She helped me communicate with Manny (she came after school when I would work with him one-on-one) and when Manny had some behavior issues, she was able to relay messages home to their parents when my limited Spanish ability could only communicate bits and pieces.  His family was WONDERFUL about coming in and meeting with me and the were so happy to work with Manny at home. They were great.  Manny had no problem communicating with his peers, he had so many friends!  But just like Joaquin in the reading, he could not answer questions in class when I asked him.  I thought that he was nervous to speak in front of the class.  He always brought items for share time, but never wanted to talk about them, he just wanted to show them to the class.  I would encourage him to talk about his objects, but until around winter break, he always declined.  I spoke as much Spanish as I could to him, and he really liked that.  Around Christmas, I asked him to start sharing in Spanish and he really liked to do that. He had plenty of BICS, but his CALP was where he was struggling.  He was one of my brightest students, and given a puzzle he could put it together faster than I could, and he could build structures with blocks that looked like an architect had designed, no lie.  His artwork was gorgeous, I asked if I could keep some of it and displayed it proudly on the front of my desk.  He was gifted.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I read on page 3 of the article “Rather than students like Joaquin being written off as stupid…”  SKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKIRT! (the sound of squealing tires) WHAT?!?  STUPID?  Who would write a child off as STUPID?  As a teacher, I am called to teach.  Not make a judgement about a child who cannot speak my language in the classroom setting.  I am not perfect, nor do I claim to be.  But I would NEVER say that about a child.  I may say a child is struggling within the classroom, but STUPID?  Jeesh.  I want to help ELL children learn English WHILE maintaining their Spanish and help them to be successful.  That right there is deficit thinking at its worst. 

Reaching ELL students is so important.  These children have just as much to offer in our classroom as students who speak English so to marginalize them as “stupid” is just absolutely redicuolous.  I did like the article pointing out how important it is to recontextualize for our ELL students (as well as english speaking students).  I think that the key is respect thier language differences and to try and bring as much of their language into the classroom as possible.  ELL students in our classrooms did not choose to come to a school where no one spoke their language.  It is our jobs as teachers to make them feel as welcome and important as possible. 

I feel like as I read articles for class now, I’m looking to be able to spot the “deficit thinking” and when position papers are pushing their point of view on me as a reader.  I must just be a ding-dong.  I’m sure that the NAYEC/IRA position paper is just chock full of their own agenda, but I just don’t see it!  I want to be critical!  I want to be able to say, “Oh, see there?  That’s where the IRA is really lobbying to the government for such and such.”  Oh well, hopefully I’ll get better at this as I continue in grad school.

I must not be very good at spotting deficit thinking, either.  In reading “N is for Nonsensical” I see that they are saying what children from lower SES homes have a deficit in, (access to books, highly educated parents, etc.) but it is hard for me sometimes to not know the “deficit” (HATE THAT WORD!) and then create a plan to get the end product.  What I mean is that as a teacher, I like to see where a child is coming from, and then that helps me to see what I can do best to get that child to where we would like them to be.  This includes knowing the home situation, both what IS in and what IS NOT in the home.  I know that it is possible to address these concerns without deficit thinking, but admittedly, sometimes it is hard for me.  I have to choose my words carefully.  Deficit thinking is such a harsh word.  Maybe we can call it…”getting to an even playing field thinking” I don’t know, I’m up for suggestions.

On to what I would use from these articles in my classroom….The “Interactive Storybook Reading” article was a good reminder of what a read aloud is all about.  I myself am guilty of using a read aloud as a filler for when I may need to run an errand and my assistant is with them alone or about 5 minutes, and I am also guilty of using a read-aloud for all sorts of wonderful activities and enrichments.  I, however, would argue that children can be exposed to both ways of interacting with a book and come out of kindergarten academically unscathed.  I think it is important for children to interact with high quality literature in a teacher-led, thoughtful manner with extension activities, focus on vocabulary, and “book talking”.  AND I think that is also good for children to sit quietly after lunch and listen to a story read just for the sake of enjoyment.  I read tabloids, and I read research.  You can do both!  One is for enjoyment purely, and the other is to further my education.  I see the merit and value in both in my own life, and I see the same merit in my kindergarteners lives with both types of read-alouds. 

I would love to read an article that had tons of examples of high-quality children’s literature with examples of activities do with each story.  Maybe one day I could create that resource.  Like I have stated in my other posts, I love love LOVE to have concrete examples to go with the research and theory behind them.  The “Interactive Storybook” article has a short list of kindergarten read-alouds (all of which I think are wonderful) but it would be wonderful to have a super-huge list of these.  My favorite activity to do with each story that we read (if the story lends itself) is to act it out.  I think this gives the kids a chance to be introduced to drama as well as it helps them to comprehend the story through retelling.  With or without props, this is one of my favorite activities within my own classroom.  I really believe that books are not just a vehicle for learning, they are the “tour bus” and “tractor trailer” of kindergarten…they let the children see things they may not be exposed to in real life and they expose them to new vocabulary.  Just like a tractor trailer they carry loads and loads of information, and just like a tour bus they are one big party!

This is why I love Grad school- it gives me new ideas and encourages me to reflect on old ones.  I really enjoy reading the articles that we are assigned because they keep me thinking about new strategies, how to “tweak” old ones, and constantly has me thinking deeper about my instruction.  I am in a different situation this year by not teaching, but I feel like as soon as I set foot in my new classroom in August, I am going to have an unmatched arsenal of ideas and strategies supported by best practices research. 

I have to say that the “Life of Ms. A” sounds ideal.  Half day?  Awesome!  I think that half day programs are really wonderful in that although you have a short amount of time to instruct the children it can be spend so productively, and I think that the time Ms. A has is spent well.  I love how they encourage literacy through play, and I firmly believe that in early childhood classrooms (as well as kindergarten, although since it is in Elementary School is tends to not be considered “early childhood”) this is a wonderful way to supplement small group and one on one instruction.  Small group activity works best in kindergarten, and if support exists (assistants, volunteers, etc) this is the most fabulous way to spend instructional time.  Ms. A’s class seems a lot like my classroom last year as far as a lot of questioning (Ms. A’s question of the day), rhyming, and her use of poem charts.  Last year I also had a sign in sheet, a place to put your materials at the beginning of the day, and center choices, as well as a full-time and very helpful assistant. It was very ideal.

The IRA position statement was less interesting to me, but it did help to clear up the confusion that I had about phonemic and phonological awareness.  This article also encourages “play with spoken language as part of the broader literacy program”, and in my classroom we spent a good amount of time with Dr. Jean.  Dr. Jean is a singer/songwriter that has about 12 CD’s that are designed for what I would think are Pre-k to first grade learning.  If you’ve never listened to Dr. Jean, I personally would recommend her.  Her songs are designed for calendar time, rhyming, counting, letters and sounds, weather, etc.  The kids really enjoy them, and some of her silly songs are just too funny, while ALSO teaching play with words and sounds. 

The third article, “Supporting Phonemic Awareness Development in the Classroom”, was my favorite of the three.  It gave a chart of the definitions of terms used, such as ‘phoneme’ and ‘auditory discrimination’, and also included examples of the terms. I love charts, so I found the charts throughout the article helpful.  It gave concrete examples of phonemic awareness instruction, and also gave examples of activities that focus on rhyme, syllable manipulation, onset-rime manipulation, and phoneme manipulation.  I thought that all of these were useful, and I would definitely use the majority of these in my own classroom.  Theory can sometimes be hard for me to understand, but when I have concrete examples of how to use the theories I begin to understand the theory much more clearly, thus why I particularly enjoyed this article. 

Woot woot for new ideas!