Melissa

6/15/11 An area I'd like to highlight in this beginning post is from Buehl's book __Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning__. This particular area, guiding comprehension through text frames, exemplifies the title of the book. It is a strategy that teachers and students can use. Text frames also allow all who use them to interact in an organized and thoughtful fashion. The text frames set up a "frame of mind" for the reader. As Buehl states, "Researchers use the term //text frame// to describe a set of questions that reflects how authors may organize their writing." (Buehl, 2009, p.22) Furthermore, Buehl expands on these questions as, "the right questions, focus on how an author chose to connect information to communicate ideas, concepts, themes, or conclusions." (Buehl, 2009, p.22) There are six text frames discussed in the text: problem/solution, cause/effect, compare/contrast, goal/action/outcome, concept/definition, and proposition support. I'd like to start by stating that these text frames would have been a helpful tool in my own elementary tool belt when I was in school. Any quick and easy organizational method I would pick up quickly on. Especially if it is a method of making my life easier, more focused, and hopefully more successful as a student. Next, text frames are something that I could actually see myself teaching my students. Come on, admit it! We have all been in in-service, workshops, and conferences where we are bombarded with the next "new thing", the one size fits all fixes all. How many of those strategies do we actually take to the classroom? I first thought of science when I was reading about the text frames. Let me explain why reading was the subject to jump into my mind. The past two years another teacher and I have been teaching social studies (her), and science (me) to a class of students who based on progress monitoring and PSSA data, scored Below Basic and Basic. The first year we divided the students in half with a 13:1 student/teacher ratio. Upon being told we could not do that this year, due to me not being about to grade regular education students as a learning support teacher, we all wound up in the same classroom. Anyway, the point of this model is to teaching content through a reading approach. We are working to reinforce reading skills, teach additional skills for nonfiction text, and overall empower these lower end students in their abilities by adding necessary tools to their tool box. From my science point of view, the text frame of concept/definition could slide easily into science. The cause/effect frame would also work nicely. Upon pondering the others, problem/solution, and goal/action/outcome could be tied to inquiry activities and sanarioes that lead to an experiment. The last two, compare/contrast, and proposition/support, could also be workable when comparing and contrasting ecosystems and biomes. Students could also read texts on solutions to the endangerment of animals and the depletion of the rainforest. Upon thinking about these text frames for this post, I amazed myself at the fact that really all six can be incorporated into science at different times. These frames would hopefully start transferring in to the students' other subject areas to aide them with those texts as well!
 * Melissa Bersano **

6/16/11 Melissa , I, too, was amazed at how well these text frames can fit into other subject areas. My science text book is by Scott Foresman and it does a fabulous job of providing various graphic organizers for each section. I now know from class that every section of text is written in a particular style. It will be interesting when I go back to see how many of these text frames fit into the text. I am also excited about understanding what type of text is used so I can locate the graphic organizer that fits it perfectly. I also need to be more consistent with using these graphic organizers for science because often the information is so overwhelming for children. This will definitely help students to organize the information and hopefully to understand it better! It is amazing that you found six text frames that can fit into science at different times! ~Julie

Melissa, I also think that the text frames described in Buehl's book would have been helpful to me when I was in school. I was a student who often felt overwhelmed with information and it would have been extremely helpful to have a way of organizing what I was learning. That is why I feel it is so important for us as teachers to guide the students as much as we can in this type of thinking process as they read. I too, want to use these frames during instruction with my students to help to organize information and make it more meaningful. I am excited to figure out what text frames will work best with our fourth grade curriculum in the different content areas! Heidi

6/17/11 Smart Answers to Tough Questions

Let me just begin by saying this book is a textbook I could pick up and have trouble putting down as an educator. It is much different from the majority of textbooks that, let’s be honest, make great sedatives and put us right to sleep. Furthermore, I think this is a great book for any teacher, undergraduate, and dare I even say maybe parents. I do think though that some of the stances and thoughts in the book would lead it to be placed on the administrators banned list. Just a hunch!

Section II-#5 Worksheets and Homework I think the discussion about homework really caught my attention. What if parents knew that homework is not supported by research. I’m sure there would still be parents who welcome the full backpack and the busy children, however, I can think of a particular parent this past year would love that tid-bit of information. Especially with the students I see, I really stopped to think about all the times I’ve had conversations with parents about what happens after school: the stress, the fighting, the taking away of video games, and the lack of interest in learning. I actually started to feel bad for assigning homework. I know parents look at me sometimes and think, “Well, what does she know? She doesn’t have any children.” But my school days are not that long ago, and I really think that homework promotes being mature and responsible, requires developing time management skills in middle and high school, and promotes hard work and good habits. I don’t think homework needs to be overwhelming, just a reinforcer to the day’s lessons. I also feel by assigning no homework your colleagues that do will probably have something to say about it. It would probably need to be a team, grade, building, or district policy.

Section II-#7 Independent reading or SSR This part of the book made me feel more comfortable. I’m not the only one who has witness children who are supposed to be reading silently, but are not. I’m also not the only one who has difficulty with children picking level appropriate books. I know one area that I need to be more disciplined on is reading when the students are reading. Either the students are reading while I’m working on another task with a student, or it was an extremely trying day and I’m tending to something else. I think another problem is mine is the timing of SSR. I assign 15 minutes of SSR homework Monday thru Thursday nights. We have a 40 minute FLEX period at the end of the day where students meet with teachers, go to band or chorus, work on math facts, or start homework. Usually my learning support students are in my room and we get right to work on homework. I usually have them do their Social Studies or Science first, then math homework, then spelling, and if there is any time remaining they may start their 15 minutes of reading. If we could possibly reduce the amount homework the students receive I could rework how I do SSR. The text stated that 30 minutes a day is reasonable for SSR. What I could do is what the regular education teachers do at the beginning of FLEX. The students would come in and be required to read 10-15 minutes silently. This would calm the energy in the room and refocus the students. I wouldn’t have this count as their assign SSR reading though. I do think parents need to take the initiative to promote reading at home as well. Teachers and parents should be the guides for children.

6/20

Melissa, I agree that I need to rework my use of SSR time. I do assign 15 minutes of SSR each night, and I then hold students accountable for 500 pages per marking period with student-led book talks. Booktalks are where students talk with either myself, a volunteer parent, or my instructional assistant about the book they have read, sharing summaries and personal connections. Most students in my fourth grade class far exceed this goal by reaching closer to 1,000 pages per marking period. Still, I have a few students who don't see "Read 15 minutes" as actual homework every night. Unfortunately, not every parent sees "Read 15 minutes" as actual homework either. With that in mind, I would like to build in more time for SSR in the school day, and not just for five minutes here or there when I am tending to another task. I remember in elementary school having that set time after lunch for SSR, and I would like to build the same thing into my classroom. I feel that SSR after lunch helps students regroup and settle back in for the afternoon. Currently, I am told to begin my whole group reading lesson right at 12:00, the minute that students return from lunch. At this point, the students are very rowdy, and it takes me a good 5-7 minutes just to get them all settled and focused for the lesson. I feel that this time would be much better spent as SSR for the first 15 minutes. I may approach this idea with my building's literacy coach to see if I can rearrange the afternoon schedule to accommodate for this. Just as you mentioned, SSR time is a great way to calm and refocus students.

-Rachael Berger

Rachel, That is very impressive that students nearly double the required 500 pages per marking period! - Melissa

6/20/11

Classroom Strategies- Author Says/I Say pgs.49-51

This classroom strategy reminds me of my reading of chapter 7 in Cobb & Kallus’s __Foundations of Reading in the United States__. This strategy recognizes the internal dialogues readers have with texts. Though readers are committed to reading the author’s words, we also provide our own thoughts, arguments, and questions. Thus reading is more of a conversation with the author or writer. The table on pg.50 would be a great template for students to record the inner dialogue that occurs while they read. It would give an interesting look at the thoughts students have while reading. It would also provide the teacher with some concrete evidence of reading, comprehension, and engagement. The Say Something Read-Aloud is another interesting strategy. This strategy I think would be easy for my student population being it requires only reading and speaking, instead of the written table in the previous strategy. I think this strategy would also be beneficial to my students in a large group setting. It can often be stressful, and embarrassing for my students to read aloud for the whole class. Very few times to they even volunteer to do so. If they were paired up with one other person that they were comfortable with, they would be more willing to read and engage with the text (especially the Social Studies and Science texts).

Pg.66-69

The concept/definition map really caught my eye. The tundra example on p.68 really caught my eye because I teach the biomes in fifth grade science. This graphic organizer (LFS!) would be fantastic in poster size. At the end of direct instruction of the biomes, I could break the class down into groups, one for each biome. As a review they could use their resources from the chapter to assist them in completing the map. The explanation box at the bottom is a nice way for the group to tie together the information they listed on the map. They could even draw pictures around the map to represent animal and plant life in the particular biome!

I’m going to have so many ideas for the fall between my classes! My colleagues better get ready! Melissa – I am glad you are finding some good resources in the text to take back to your classroom. I agree about your colleagues! Dr. P. 6/22/11 Smart Answers: Rewards and the Accelerated Reader Program I was more wound up over the rewards part of this fantastic tough question: “In other classes, the teachers give rewards like stickers and parties for kids who read a lot. You don’t do that. Why is my child missing out on the inspiration of rewards for reading and completing her work?” Seriously? Now I’m sure all of us have been asked questions by parents where we would love nothing more than to give them out brutally honest answer. If I were the recipient of this question, I’d probably be speechless with my mouth hanging open. As it is I have quite the opinion on rewarding children in school, period. I have a big problem with other colleagues in the district suggesting special incentive plans for students who have behavior issues, or are not completing their work. What about those students who do what they are supposed to and you don’t even have to prompt them? And where is my sticker for keeping track of all these charts you hand me and that are my responsibility to keep track of? Anyway, that’s my little rant. Back to the question. This past year as a group project some of my colleagues came up with this reading program to motivate the school building to read. It was all well and good for the first few months, but even I realized both the students and staff in charge, doing absolutely nothing with the program. Students would receive key chains and other rewards for reading so many books, with the goal for the year being 25 books per student. The students should be reading that number of books with or without the program. Beside the semi-motivating pep talk on the loudspeaker in the morning, there was not much left of the program by April. In the SRA series that I use in learning support the students are “supposed to” earn a certain number of points or no points for the different exercises. It starts out as a motivator, but after a while it loses its appeal. It is, can I say “annoying”, as the teacher to keep track of the points. They should be doing their best with or without the incentive. Plus, the way the system is setup it is not what I consider user friendly.

Melissa, I have really found the vocabulary maps to be useful in my classroom, especially for the content areas, as you mentioned. I find that my students really retain a lot more from the repetition and the manipulation of the word. Also, the maps provide different types of experiences with the words that is really meaningful for the students, such as sentences, pictures, etc. :) Christi
 * Thursday, 6-23-11 **

//Melissa, // //When I began teaching I never thought about the harmful effects of rewards for reading and other activities. After reading our text and listening to others in class, I have a whole new perspective! What I noticed this past year was that the rewards system hurt my gifted readers and did nothing for my struggling reads. I am done with these types of systems and plan on speaking to my parents about it next school year. I'm tired of students asking what they will get in return for doing what is required. This is not the attitude I want students to have about reading and learning! Chapte //r 3 of __Literacy Lessons__ //talks about motivating the reader. I plan on using the ideas in this chapter to change my students' views about reading.// //Brandy//

Melissa, First off, there is NOTHING motivating about SRA (we already know this). It was like pulling teeth to have students chart progress in the back of the book. I totally agree with you on the rewards thing; however, what are some good ways to motivate "non-readers" to read? My idea is to introduce a new book to my students every week. When I was a high school student I wasn not exposed to enough books. Of course I could have went to the library and found books myself but what kind of jock does that? VARIETY EXPOSURE FUN BROADEN THE HORIZON. There is more to life then classic novels. Once we can get the high school english teachers to let our students in on this secret we shouldn't need stickers and parties and pep talks to read. Sharing graphic novels and other new genres to students will expand their selection. All we want is to be comfortable. Students who aren't comfortable or interested with reading __The Pearl__ will not get what us as teachers want out of it. Forcing novels like __To Kill a Mocking Bird__ down the throats of students is a major reason why we have the reluctancy to read. I know I am going off on a tangent, but I was that reluctant reader that STRUGGLED through high school. We are teachers, we are taught to be flexible and accomodating to our students needs. It is time we break through the walls of BORING and find supplemental readers that can go along with the ANCIENT texts. I hope that this makes sense and you all understand where I am trying to go with this. I have been making a habit of posting really late and I tend to let all my frustration out before bedtime because they say not to go to bed angry. But, the underlying idea of this post that you made was to encourage reading. The more exposure to texts the more opportunities we give students to pick up a book. Stickers and extrinsic rewards are not the answer. Finding the inner-interest in the student is what will help them open the book and continue to the end. Let's be real, if I wanted a pizza party or ice cream party or homework pass or a sticker bad enough just for reading a book, then I'm going to skim through the book and say I read it just to earn that next point. We don't want our students to cut corners, but when we dangle rewards in front of them they will do anything it takes to get from point A to point B the fastest... which usually isn't the proper way.

Josh

6/24/11 Literacy Lessons- Chapter 3: Motivating the Reader To piggy back on my last post about reader motivation, chapter three of __Literacy Lessons__ focuses on many aspects of reader motivation. The first section that caught my attention was on reading interest inventories. I believe there are two questions on the student interest inventory I have my students complete at the beginning of the year that reference reading interests. I do though use their other interests such as hobbies, career aspirations, and favorite animals, to guide my instruction as well as literature selections. Students must have an interest in what they are reading. The next section that got my attention was the section that showed the differences between picture books, and picture storybooks. I will now be able to say that students in my classroom usually seem to enjoy the picture storybooks. This is to my advantage being these storybooks include story elements and literary devices my students need to start recognizing, and can enhance my instruction. One down fall in my classroom is that the SRA Series takes such a chunk out of my reading and language arts block, it is often hard to fit the picture storybooks in. The third section that engaged me was on classroom libraries. Often my students enjoy my classroom books more than the regular library due to the fact that the school library has books that are often too difficult for my learning support students to read. I was lucky enough to have a classroom aide my first year of teaching who donated a bunch of her children’s books to my rather sad classroom library. The donation included many of the __Magic Tree House__ books, chapter books with dog characters, and other lower level chapter books. I personally included many of my picture storybooks I had from when I was a child, such as the Berenstain Bears. Often all the students need as motivation is my personal connection to that book for them to pick it up and read. I have also purchased books on my own on subjects that students seem to look for such as bugs and insects for one of my autistic students 3 years ago. The last section that interested me was the Censored Authors and Text section. I remember talking about this in undergraduate, and perhaps here and there with teachers in my building. I will have to make it a point to investigate this when school starts. I wonder if we have a specific list in my district that addresses these authors and texts. Melissa – Your posts on your own page and those of your peers show strong connections and excellent thinking. Dr. P.

6/27/11

Literacy Lessons pg.116 &119

I liked the fact that Mary Lehman of Bermudian Springs took a different approach to reading strategies and behaviors. The sports strategy analogy provides students a connection between sports related terms and behaviors, and reading behaviors. Teachers would be “in” if their students had an interest in the sports used in the analogies. The clipart that accompanies each strategy is also kid friendly and represents different ethnic groups (tennis), and disabilities (basketball). I also tied the sports strategy analogy into the comprehension beach balls or teach balls. In the description of teacher made balls made my connection. They stated that these teacher created balls could help students look beyond the literal interpretation of a text. What if a teacher somehow put the icons from the sports strategy analogy on different part of the ball. After teaching the strategies of course, the class could use the ball to select a specific reading strategy to focus on each day. Both students and teacher could integrate visualizing, predicting, monitoring, questioning, inferring, summarizing, and identifying important information using the teach ball. I think this strategy would work well for my students especially being I already need to integrate these skills into the SRA series myself, and on a more frequent basis to be beneficial to students. Everyday a student could have a turn at rolling the ball, and it would obligate us to practice that particular strategy.

Literacy Lessons pg. 134

Figure 5.2 entitled Lesson Ideas for Television Viewing sparked some ideas for the upcoming school year. On occasion parents I have will ask what they can do to reinforce skills at home. Why not tie in what kids enjoy? TV! The three examples provided already give a variety of choices from history, to the thrill of sea fishing, and sports. It would be an interesting search to look for other ideas along the same line. I’m sure the internet would help. It would even be a neat idea to ask the students what types of programs they enjoy watching (even with a parent) and then develop lesson objectives around those programs that can be met during commercials.

6/29/11 Classroom Strategies pgs.118-120 "Mind Mapping"

The explanation of mind mapping seemed to be another approach to the concept/defition graphic organizer on p.68. The explanation of mind mapping also made me refer back to my other class Teaching Science in the Elementary School. Concept mapping was discussed in detail in the course textbook, and I also watched a case study this week in which a teacher implemented concept mapping in his science class. Mind mapping requires the same process and would be beneficial for constructing knowledge from various text materials. What is neat about mind/concept mapping is that fact that it is really rather open-ended. Students can construct their map to show their individual understanding of a text and their individual understanding of connections within the text's information. The Classroom Strategies book however did encourage drawing representations of information and using color as another means of structuring understanding.

7/1/11

Smart Answers: Section V-Fluency

This section reinforced what I learned while conducting the research for my paper. Fluency is not only speed. It includes accuracy and correct phrasing as well. I myself was unaware of the correct phasing component (prosody). During the school year it is constant progress monitoring of speed and accuracy. While reading this section it definitely made me think and agree that by forcing fluency too much we are being counterproductive and interfering with comprehension. I think this coming year I really need to stress to my students that yes, I’m going to monitor your speed and accuracy while reading, however, your understanding of what you read is more important. I thought the exercise for workshops would be interesting to use with the faculty and administrators in my building and district because there always seems to be a focus (as far as my learning support students/IEP) on fluency. At the same time it is something that is expected to occur in the classroom and any sort of change takes some time.