Did you like chapter eight?? I did very much. It gave me a lot of great ideas of how to develop and keep discussions in the classroom.
The topic of conversations did not intrigue me that much because that is kind of a basic tool in the classroom, although it is very important and teachers are encouraged to use it. Small group conversations are beneficial especially to discuss the topic or the book they are reading, but it also allows students to learn how to begin a conversation with a group, how to continue it, and how to end it. It also allows them to learn how to deal with problems or issues that arise within the group. A lot of times students don’t agree on something said in the group and that issue becomes the central topic of conversation among the group and then the purpose of meeting is not met. If the students know how to resolve and issue in a small group they will benefit from that and be able to accomplish more. Grand conversations are also a very good technique to use that I liked. It is good to get students used to leading class discussions about a book or topic, with the teacher acting as one of the students and not giving too much feedback. The students also take responsibility for what they learned prior to this grand discussion. They can talk about things not making sense to them, what they think is interesting or not so interesting, personal connections (text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world). This is a good way to start running a classroom, in the early elementary years, so students become used to this method that is occasionally used in high school and college. Instructional conversations are similar to grand conversations but they differ a little bit. This type of conversation gives students opportunities for students to talk about the main ideas they are learning in the different units. Participating in these types of conversations, students enhance their academic language proficiency. Teachers have a little bigger of a role in this type than in grand conversations. The teacher is a participant just like the students but they clarify misconceptions, ask questions, and provide instructions. This method is more teacher lead than the other one. Students provide hypothesis, ask questions, give information, and clarify ideas of their classmates.
Were you surprised at all about the part of the chapter, “Talk as a Learning Tool??” I thought it was very interesting. It wasn’t a surprise that the most common type of question is literal questions. Literal questions require simple recall, and they don’t require students to analyze, interpret, evaluate, and offer opinions, which are the skills they need to have. More in depth questions allow them to analyze and use those skills. Teachers mostly ask and use critical and/or inferential questions, which allow students to think a lot and analyze and interpret. The IRF cycle is a good system to use with the students. The I stands for Initiate, which is when the teacher asks a question, the R stands for Response, which is when the student answers the question, and the F stands for Feedback which is when the teacher responds to the students answer. This cycle is used for assessment a lot of the time. Teachers can assess students through this cycle because it shows whether they understand the material and/or the question being asked by the teacher. K-W-L chart is a very commonly used way to activate students prior knowledge and to build knowledge during units. The letter K stands for “What we know”, the letter W stands for “What we want to know”, and the letter L stands for “What we learned.” This is a good resource to use before the class does a unit or reads a book about a specific topic, but sometimes it is over used, and used for everything. I like the idea but Im not a big fan of it, to use more than once or twice. Oral Reports and Debates are good ways to have students talk and raise their confidence levels by speaking in class. Interviews allow for students to refine questioning skills, and use oral and written language for authentic purposes. The hot seat is a very neat idea that I would love to use because it gives students the opportunity to play the role, which includes a little bit of drama, and they get to answer their classmates questions. Debates allow students to use oral language to persuade their classmates, which is a very good skill for them to learn.
Drama is a huge part of education, and should be integrated into the curriculum, and students really enjoy it because they get to let loose. Do you agree?? Improvisation is very neat for students to participate in, where the teacher narrates or gives them a topic or a scene and they are in the role of that character and they act that character or scene out without talking, only using movements. Students find this very fun and entertaining, but they also learn from it, which is important. Process Drama was invented by Dorothy Heathcote and it helps and allows students to explore stories they’re reading, social studies topics, and current events. That is a very creative way to integrate drama into the curriculum for social studies, reading, or current events, or anything else that it would fit in to. Puppetry, Theatrical Productions, and Script Writing, and producing Video Scripts are all different and interesting ways to incorporate drama into the curriculum that you should consider doing with your class.
Do you like these ideas?? Let me know what you would incorportat and use in your classroom!!
My Little Dog-Dixie
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Tuesday Experience (Week Five)
This week when I went to my Tuesday Field Experience I observed and took part in a lot of actitives that our book talks about, and also topics that we have talked about and learned in class. I always like when I am able to connect our text and classwork to outside field experiences, I have included some of my findings int he blog.
This tuesdays field studey started off quickly when the students came in a were told to get right to work on their morning work. Today’s morning work involved reading and interpreting the text. Students had to read through a passage critically and correct what needed to be corrected in the passage. This is helping the students develop there reading and writing skills. Tompkins say in our text that it is crucial for students to read and analyzes other pieces of work and that this will help improve there own writing. Once students have had sometime to work alone they go over the worksheet as a class. I have learned form the text and within my Language arts class that it is god to go over worksheets as a class because then he students can see the correct way to write. Students can take what they learned during this short and brief lesson and apply it to there own writing.
During the Reading And Writing Workshops today students either worked by themselves or in a small group with Mrs. Dibble. In Tompkins it is mentioned the reading and writing workshops are important to use in the classroom. Within this section of the text on page 41talks about important strengths that go along with the reading and writing workshops they include: Students are able to read a book on their reading level independently, the teacher is able to work with the student independently. My teacher is doing exactly this. I have noticed that my teacher is able to accomplish a lot during this time of the day and so are students. During the writing workshop student worked independently on their own snowman stories and Mrs. Dibble conference with student who were ready to revise their snowman stories.
Another part of the day was for spelling. Every week students are give new spelling words that they have to learn for the week. Mrs. Dibble went over tem for the first time today with the students. I was glad to see that Mrs. Dibble takes spelling seriously in the classroom, because in our text on page 164, Tompkins states that vocabulary is an important part of language arts for all student especially the ones that struggle with language. I was able to connect this part to the classroom that I am in because there area few students that struggle with language in Mrs. Dibbles class. I have been able to sit down with one of these students throughout the day today and work with him on these words and other words. Tompkins states on page164 that pronouncing words correctly and understanding words meaning, and being able to comprehend that by using It in a sentence is crucial. I was doing just this when I was working with the students. We were breaking down the words in syllables, spelling them and then using them in a sentence. After working with a struggling student on this, I agree with Tompkins that by conduct this with a student who is struggling with spelling and word sentence structure that this really helps them understand and comprehend the words better.
When Tompkins talks about assessment in the book she outlines very useful ways for a teacher to do this. On page 52 of our text there is a list of some of the assessment tools, they are as follows: document milestones in students language and literacy development, identify students strengths on order to plan for instructions, and document the students ability through projects. I feel that my teacher does all of these three assessment strategies with her class. I observed today her doing one of these. My teacher is always conferencing with students during their DEAR time. This is when she is able to check for the students language and literacy developments. She often has a student read a chapter from a book or a passage while she conduct a running record on them. I have learned through Tompkins and our text last semester that Running Record are important and a great way to assess students reading and comprehension abilities. These should be done as often as they can and when ever there is free time to do them. Mrs. Dibble seems to always have time for these and I have found that it is a good practice.
Another good practice that I saw today in class was during the students “shared reading” time. Tompkins talks about shared reading on page 103, saying that it is important for students to talk about books and connect the books to themselves, another, book , and to other things in the world. When students do this they are digging deeper into the story therefore that are using their “higher-level” thanking skills. During this part of the day students broke up into there reading group sand talked about the book. They shared things about the book with each other. I was able to sit in on one of the groups. I found that This didn’t only benefit the students, like Tompkins talked about, but it also was something they enjoyed doing as well. Usually during this group time students are given a worksheet that they need to fill out so they the teacher knows that they were being productive that day. This is a good practice that Tompkins talks about on page 78.
This tuesdays field studey started off quickly when the students came in a were told to get right to work on their morning work. Today’s morning work involved reading and interpreting the text. Students had to read through a passage critically and correct what needed to be corrected in the passage. This is helping the students develop there reading and writing skills. Tompkins say in our text that it is crucial for students to read and analyzes other pieces of work and that this will help improve there own writing. Once students have had sometime to work alone they go over the worksheet as a class. I have learned form the text and within my Language arts class that it is god to go over worksheets as a class because then he students can see the correct way to write. Students can take what they learned during this short and brief lesson and apply it to there own writing.
During the Reading And Writing Workshops today students either worked by themselves or in a small group with Mrs. Dibble. In Tompkins it is mentioned the reading and writing workshops are important to use in the classroom. Within this section of the text on page 41talks about important strengths that go along with the reading and writing workshops they include: Students are able to read a book on their reading level independently, the teacher is able to work with the student independently. My teacher is doing exactly this. I have noticed that my teacher is able to accomplish a lot during this time of the day and so are students. During the writing workshop student worked independently on their own snowman stories and Mrs. Dibble conference with student who were ready to revise their snowman stories.
Another part of the day was for spelling. Every week students are give new spelling words that they have to learn for the week. Mrs. Dibble went over tem for the first time today with the students. I was glad to see that Mrs. Dibble takes spelling seriously in the classroom, because in our text on page 164, Tompkins states that vocabulary is an important part of language arts for all student especially the ones that struggle with language. I was able to connect this part to the classroom that I am in because there area few students that struggle with language in Mrs. Dibbles class. I have been able to sit down with one of these students throughout the day today and work with him on these words and other words. Tompkins states on page164 that pronouncing words correctly and understanding words meaning, and being able to comprehend that by using It in a sentence is crucial. I was doing just this when I was working with the students. We were breaking down the words in syllables, spelling them and then using them in a sentence. After working with a struggling student on this, I agree with Tompkins that by conduct this with a student who is struggling with spelling and word sentence structure that this really helps them understand and comprehend the words better.
When Tompkins talks about assessment in the book she outlines very useful ways for a teacher to do this. On page 52 of our text there is a list of some of the assessment tools, they are as follows: document milestones in students language and literacy development, identify students strengths on order to plan for instructions, and document the students ability through projects. I feel that my teacher does all of these three assessment strategies with her class. I observed today her doing one of these. My teacher is always conferencing with students during their DEAR time. This is when she is able to check for the students language and literacy developments. She often has a student read a chapter from a book or a passage while she conduct a running record on them. I have learned through Tompkins and our text last semester that Running Record are important and a great way to assess students reading and comprehension abilities. These should be done as often as they can and when ever there is free time to do them. Mrs. Dibble seems to always have time for these and I have found that it is a good practice.
Another good practice that I saw today in class was during the students “shared reading” time. Tompkins talks about shared reading on page 103, saying that it is important for students to talk about books and connect the books to themselves, another, book , and to other things in the world. When students do this they are digging deeper into the story therefore that are using their “higher-level” thanking skills. During this part of the day students broke up into there reading group sand talked about the book. They shared things about the book with each other. I was able to sit in on one of the groups. I found that This didn’t only benefit the students, like Tompkins talked about, but it also was something they enjoyed doing as well. Usually during this group time students are given a worksheet that they need to fill out so they the teacher knows that they were being productive that day. This is a good practice that Tompkins talks about on page 78.
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