The Words on the Wall go Round 'n Round

Of the activities that we have done in class, the one that I am the most intrigued by is the carousel brainstorm.  During the activity, students have the opportunity to get up and move, comment as an individual and a group, write and read responses, reflect and dive into deeper thinking and understanding of the topic chosen by the teacher, and view multiple perspectives on what is being discussed.  The carousel activity is one that I can see myself using in my own classroom.  I feel that it reaches many different types of learners and can create a sense of autonomy amongst the class because as groups are moving and writing answers, they are not saying who has said what.  That way if students do not feel comfortable sharing to the whole class they can still share what they feel is important while they are in their individual groups.

As students partake in this activity, the developmental domains that are being focused on are physical, intellectual, and social.  The other two domains, moral/ethical and emotional/psychological, are being addressed, but not to the extent of the other three.  The physical domain is being addressed by the pure fact that students are up and moving around the classroom.  It helps them to stay active physically, and intellectually.  The carousel activity is active learning.  It makes students do the describing and higher level thinking of the material that they already have some experience within and outside of the classroom.  This activity also allows students to work as a group and socialize to some extent as well.

In order to facilitate this activity I would have students already have read some information on the topic, or in the case of using it in my ELA classroom I would possibly do an activity using a book that we have just read.  Questions and topics of each poster or chart could be on the author, what they found interesting in the book, what they have learned from the book, what the moral of the story is (the theme), etc…  Next, I would divide the class into small groups of three to five, depending on the number of students and posters/charts in the activity.  I would have already had students think about the story, and would use this activity more as a wrap up of all the information.  After students have gone through and answered all of the questions, I would have students go back to their original poster and pick out the main ideas and have one group member explain what those are to the class.  This would hopefully lead into a class discussion on the book and create an even deeper understanding of the material.  I would end the class period with my students writing down the main ideas from the book for their own information to reference to in the future. 

As I have already alluded to, the most appropriate time to use this strategy is at the end of a unit, when students have already had time to think about and discuss the book, poem, unit, etc…  This can help students to gather all of their thoughts and put them down on paper, while allowing the teacher to assess what students know.  However, one down fall is that some students may not do the work prior to the carousel brainstorm, so it ends up that not everyone participates at the same level.  It is also difficult to assess individual understand of the material when it is a group effort to put all the facts together.  No matter the case, I think that this activity has potential to be effective in creating a safe environment that promotes higher level thinking.  

Decoding and Vocabulary: What's the Big deal?

Reading and Literacy in the Middle Level grades is a delicate situation for students who struggle as readers.  They have a sense of wanting to succeed, but at the same time probably don’t want to ask for help or be embarrassed by receiving extra help.  Therefore, any additional instruction offered needs to be given extra thought.

When ELA teachers are needing to teach decoding and vocabulary in their classrooms, a few things should be taken into consideration.  First, decoding is much more than being able to “sound out” words.  It is the ability to understand and comprehend what the text is about as well as the phonemes and phonics of reading.  From the readings done in this class, I feel that the best way to learn decoding is by offering support to nudge the reader to begin to read independently.  Teachers should guide students to figuring out words and be asking what exactly the text is about as an assessment to see how much the student is understanding.  Teachers should ask guiding questions while reading, such as, “Can you figure this word out?” “Prepare your mouth to say the word.”  The suggestion to “prepare your mouth” is from the text When Kid’s Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers.  She says that this will help students to take an active part and start to put together the sounds of the word as an active participant instead of just staring blankly at the page. 

After the foundational skills of phonics are in place, if students are still having problems with decoding, the teacher must teach students how to find and use the context of the reading.  This must be done with careful consideration of individual student’s abilities to recognize when the author is giving the definition, a synonym, or even an antonym within a sentence or two.  If students do not know how to do this, the teacher should help students to be able to find context clues.  Also, if there are pictures included on the page, a teacher can ask if the word makes sense in comparison to the picture.  Students should eventually learn to make sense of what the whole meaning is by learning to look at what is on the page.

One part of learning what is on the page is to look at the vocabulary on the page.  Knowing what words mean is one part of decoding that should not be separated from it.  However, vocabulary instruction should not be a passive product of having students look up definitions to words, memorizing them, and then having a test on them at the end of the week.  When vocabulary is being introduced, students should define the words in a way that makes sense to them and put the definition in their own words.  After this, the teacher should find an active way to use the word, such as using the word every day in class.  Also, there should be no more than 10 words on the list, 5-8 words has been said in When Kid’s Can’t Read to be an ideal number.  Any more words than that and students are overwhelmed and cannot learn the terms in a way that is conducive to long term learning and remembering of the words.

Overall, I think the general message of learning to read and understand reading is that it should be an active process by both the student and the teacher.  Both should see that if additional instruction is needed that it is not a bad thing, and that the student should not be embarrassed or ashamed of needing extra help.  One concern that I still have is, what is the best way to pull aside students for extra help when you have 25-35 other students who are watching your every move?  Where would the best place be to give additional support?  When and how often should additional instruction be given?

Attributes of Effective Middle School Teachers

As my last post implied, there is much more to middle school than academics.  Middle school is the breeding ground to a productive lifestyle.  Therefore, people who teach middle school must have special qualities that make them exemplary. Here are a few qualities that I believe are fine qualities of a middle school teacher:

1. Patience in any situation that middle school students will put you through.

2. The willingness to be a counselor when needed, but also knowing when to bring in outside help for the student.

3. Open to talking to students about what is on their mind.

4. Understands what middle school students are going through intellectually, physically, emotionally, socially, etc…

5. Has a strong sense of how they can help middle school students.

6. Knows the fine line between being a “friend” and a teacher mentor.

I feel that overall I posses most of these attributes, including patience, openness, and understanding of what middle school students are going through.  This mid-level literacy class has helped me to be more comfortable in these areas.  The areas that I am unsure about are a strong sense of how I can help middle school students, and knowing what the line of being a friend and a teacher mentor is in the professional realm.  I’m sure that eventually these qualities will come to me, but for right now I know they are what concern me the most about teaching middle school students.  I have a tendency to be more of a friend figure because I want to be liked, but with students who are the ages of my sister it becomes a difficult challenge to differentiate the two. 

To overcome this obstacle, I can talk with my peers about their experiences.  One of the most important things I can do is to get the advice of the teachers I will be working with in the middle school.  In my opinion, experience is everything and is the best teacher.  I know that I learn best by experience and so my goal is to get as much experience as I can with this age group.  I also will try to get the most out of the readings and class discussions in order to help me prepare for teaching middle school.  

Middle School Goals... Much more than Academic

I think one of the most important learning goals for middle level students is for them to learn to accept themselves for who they are.  Middle schoolers are searching their own thoughts and ideas, as well as others to figure out who they are.  For the first time in their lives they are beginning to see that they don’t have to think what mom and dad think- they can think for themselves.  It is a scary time for them as a result.  They are also going through a trying time physically and emotionally.  Hormones are raging and nothing seems to fit the way that it used to when they were younger.  The sooner they see that it is ok to be themselves and be different, the sooner they will see what truly matters in their lives.

Another goal that I believe Middle school students should have is to learn to become organized.  Organization is a part of becoming an adult, which is stated in the text, “In the Middle.”  Nancie Atwell makes strong convictions that being in middle school is a small step into adulthood.  It is our job as teachers to help them through this rough time and show them what they need to know, and how to succeed during the rest of their lives.

In the middle school level, most foundational skills have been implemented.  There are more occasions than one would think where they are not there.  However, this allows for further understanding of the material and to also focus more on developing more as a whole person.  In the elementary classroom the emphasis is more on learning the foundational skills that are needed for the rest of their time in school.  Middle school is about diving into new water and becoming a new person, an individual. 

Posting Guidelines

Of the four pages we were given to look at that contained regulations for blogging, the five listed below are the ones that I find to be of most relevance.   The other guidelines were good to follow as well, but these were some that I thought our group should definitely follow to show professionalism online.

Guidelines for our class:

1.       Only post information that you can validate as fact, or support opinions with facts.  Factual information makes a stronger argument and allows for less misinterpretation.

2.      Make sure that posts are well written, grammatically and in content. This guideline is one that will show a blogger’s professionalism.  If a blog has a lot of errors, it shows the reader that the author does not care enough to correct mistakes.

3.      Before posting ask these questions:

a.       Would you want your family/friends/future employer to read this?

b.      What may happen if I do post this? Will there be repercussions?

c.       These questions can help an author decide whether he/she should be posting the information.  If anything bad can come of it, then it probably shouldn’t be posted.

4.  When posting, use pseudo names, or at least no more than first names.  Blogs are public, meaning that anyone and everyone can see them.  We need to protect the identity of people we are talking about in our blogs.  Plus, due to confidentiality, if we are talking about students we cannot post their names or pertinent information.

5.      Do NOT post any personal information in order to protect yourself and others around you.  This is just a common rule that should always be followed. It helps to create a safe posting environment for you and others who are close to you. 

First Post Do's and Don'ts

Well, I have blogged before, but never in the realm of a professional blog.  I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to share my thoughts, ideas, and opinions as well as receive feedback from others in the same field.  So join me in this new endeavor as I start a new style of blog.

In my opinion, there are two types of blogs: personal and professional.  Even though both should be monitored with precision, a professional blog should be just that, professional.  What that means to me is stating correct information and portraying  it in a way that could be used as an interview piece.  In class we were given different blogs to look at to find characteristics of strong and weak blogs.  I looked at four in depth and found that the blog titled History Tech was one of the most professional blogs that were listed.  I thought that it had valid sources and cited them well.  It was also very well written and to the point.  However, the author did not include proper citation, as far as where a person could find the source.  Another blog that I found to be a relatively professional was the one entitled Blogging in Education Today.  This blog is set up in a simplistic way with a format of briefly explaining and then continues  with a few links of examples for the reader.  What I did not like about it was that the explanations were very short and did not fully explain why that blog was best and etc...  The blogs with what I  believe to have the least amount of professionalism are Practical Theory and Hey Jude.  Although each had their strong points, for example Practical Theory talked about a specific school and Hey Jude talked about a specific student activities, both had grammatical errors and were set up more as a conversational piece.  Therefore, it came across to me as if they were put together with little thought and time.

In general, characteristics of a strong blog include one where sources were cited, explained, and the author gave reasons as to why it was important.  They were done in a way that was interesting, but that was also professional, i.e. no grammatical errors, at least some correct citation, and relevant information.  Blogs that had more weaknesses consisted of a lot of grammatical errors and were done as if they were more personal blogs asking colleagues what they thought.  There is nothing wrong with having a personal blog, or one that only your colleagues comment on, but I think those should be kept private and not for the whole world to see.  A blog is in part a representation of who you are and what your skills are in and out of the work place.  It could in fact be a first impression, which should be the exact reason why it should be well thought out and done in a professional matter, especially if it is open to the whole world.

Readers can expect a blog that is interesting, informative, and thought out.  I plan to explain my thoughts and ideas, but also to keep it short and to the point.  I am going to try and include bullet points whenever possible because I find it easier to read and follow.  If my blogs are longer, I apologize in advanced.  Readers can expect my blog to contain relevant information, with citations so that they can use the same sources I have used if they want further information.