Week 4

The type of talk I have seen in my classroom is recitation type.  I haven’t seen too much talk about literature in general. Normally when I see literature, I see the students reading to themselves or quietly reading to someone else. The teacher reads a book to the class in the morning and there is some small discussion after, but typically she just calls on a few students to ask what the story was about and then moves on to the next subject.  Do you guys see anything different in your classrooms? I never even realized it before that there wasn’t much discussion about reading. The Triplett article that I read stated that one of the reasons that teachers don't have book discussions is because they are trying to keep up with the curriculum development that had "emphasized phonics and phonemic awareness training for young readers and for struggling readers -- not comprehension and not discussion (64)." Do you think this is really the reason that teachers avoid or don't incorporate book discussion?

In order for my classroom to have response-centered talk, my ct should ask fewer questions to the students. It would be beneficial to model good questioning for students and encourage interaction among the students, not just answers to the questions being asked.  Normally my ct gives feedback as to if responses are correct or not, and this qualifies as recitation rather than discussion (refer to figure 3 of the Almasi article).  Another helpful scaffolding concept would be to act as more of a facilitator to lead the students to discuss a central topic which can further lead to a richer discussion of understanding.  I did not read the article that discuss specifically response-centered talk, so let me know if you guys came up with any other ideas that would be beneficial in the classroom!

I wouldn't consider the school that I am placed at to have too many resources. There is a small bookshelf in the classroom for the students to use, and the teacher has a bookshelf with books organized by season/holiday or important seasonal events that she chooses a book from to read to the class everyday.  The books that the students read during read to self are typically from their "read a bunch of books" bags that my CT sends home with them to practice reading with.  There is a school library that (I assume) children can check books out of but I have only ever heard of one student telling me that she needed to return a book to the library, so I'm not really sure how that works or if it is encouraged among the students to check out books or not. Another resource in the room that could promote rich discussion is the audio section of the classroom. Students can listen to a book and then they are required to fill out a worksheet after with four questions- the title, their favorite part, what did this remind you of, and rate it out of four stars. I think that instead of having a worksheet with simple questions, they could discuss this book with the other students that were listening and ask each other questions around a central topic given by the teacher. Do either of you have any other resources that would benefit rich book talks in your classrooms? I can't think of anything else, but maybe after hearing examples from you guys it will trigger something for me!

There are a handful of students who do not participate in daily classroom discussion on any topic.  After reading the Triplett article I learned that this may have something to do with the need to have interest in the reading or topic at hand. There were other factors that included race, gender, and home issues that were not being represented in books in their classroom so they felt like they weren't being included or didn't know what to say about the reading. Once they read something that was more of interest or related to them, they had more to say about the reading. There was even a student who was being told not to be friends with other races, and this was shown when she had a book discussion and began talking about the color of the characters in a picture story. I thought this was really interested and I'm curious as to if this would be helpful to any of my students when it comes to reading. Having diverse and appropriate materials for all students in a classroom, especially the quieter ones, could be beneficial to increasing their interest in book discussion.  Some other ideas I liked are using names in a jar or popsicle stick names, something like that, encouragement, and including physical activity to maintain interest (Weinstein & Mignano, 328).

Week 2: LA in Our Classrooms

This week’s readings hit a note with me, especially in terms of last week’s post. In a way I think I wouldn’t want to teach in an urban school because I would have such a hard time relating to the kids there. At the same time I foresee myself having difficulties in a rural school when I need to teach about social issues. This is once again because I have a hard time feeling like I have any kind of authority with issues like race. It was nice then to read the article from Leland that showed how texts could be used to help address these issues. I can actually see me learning as much as the kids using some of these methods.

At this time, I am still trying to get a grip on the language arts curriculum in my 5^th grade classroom. The first half of the day is devoted to language arts and the second half is devoted to everything else. Last semester I went for the everything else half of the day and this year I’m going for the first half. I’ve only seen one language arts period because of this. (We went to a play on my first day.) What I’ve learned is interesting to me. When I was observing science and social studies I saw that the school didn’t have a set curriculum they had to follow. There was just a set of guidelines and the teachers were allowed to use whatever sources they wanted to reach them. Language arts seems to be drastically different. I’ve been told that they are held to very high standards and accountability for teaching out of a curriculum called Reading Street. I’ve explored it a little and it seems to be a textbook that is full of stories. The teachers guide is specifically laid out for the State of Michigan and explicitly states which GLCE’s are covered in each section and what the teacher should do in order to achieve each expectation.

I find this approach odd when I consider our readings. In one sense it says that language arts is more important and teachers need to make sure they are covering each expectation. When the readings are considered it says that we may be taking away the critical thinking aspect of literacy. I didn’t see evidence of multi-media being explored like Hassett or Tompkins recommend. I didn’t see social issues either. These are things I want to look for when I go in next week.

I’ve been in the class at all times of the day now too. One thing I’ve never observed is the teacher reading to the students. I have done it and they have a procedure for it, so she must read occasionally, but it is definitely not regularly. I wonder if it is because they are too old for picture books, if there just isn’t enough time in the day, or if there may be some other reason. This is something else I intend to discuss with my CT.

I’m looking forward to hearing the other perspectives you guys might have. Is my classroom missing something or is this just the way it is now?

The First Readings

The reading that struck me the most is the Fleming Article on teaching in urban settings. I?m doing my internship in Chicago next year, and a lot of the article was based on the Chicago area. I found it very fascinating that the article focused on a very big problem with teacher preparation courses; new teachers are never taught a lot of the things they need to know before they are actually put in a classroom. It?s so true too, we ourselves have never had a class, or even part of a class, that focused on classroom management, one of the most important aspects of teaching. Most of our curriculum is focused on the theory and some methods of teaching, but like the article says, ?Sometimes we need to learn that the textbook gives us good methods and theories, but Piaget is dead. Freud is dead?these are kids of the 21st century?. We are taught idealistic teaching, but situations are rarely ideal. Personally, I feel very unprepared to interact with parents from more of an urban area because I?m not sure whether or not I can relate to their situation or how they might see and perceive me. Another thing is that these kids have to go through more than your average student, and we were never really taught how to deal with those situations either. Most of these kids have adult responsibilities outside of school and may not cooperate as well with authority as a result. We aren?t prepared to look at other ways of dealing with and reaching children like this, and that can be a big problem.

I think our teacher education program is a very good one, but there are still a lot of important things we are not taught in the classroom. Our placements can?t fully prepare us for all of the situations we will find ourselves in either once we are in charge, so a lot of our profession is left up to our judgment. Kind of a scary thought at this point in our education!

The University of Chicago has realized those types of issues and is specifically providing curriculum and instruction to better prepare their teacher education students for those types of situations. Even if you don?t plan on teaching in urban areas, it is always helpful to have at least some point of reference to look back on if you do find yourself in a situation where you are dealing with irate or hard to deal with parents, a very strong-willed child, or anyone having a problem with you as a teacher in general. You can never be too prepared when you are a teacher and dealing with all sorts of people from all kinds of backgrounds.