Successful Classroom Instruction- What it looks like

In the Frey and Fischer article Identifying Instructional Moves During Guided Learning reiterizes the importance of helping your class, but not too much. It's a tough balance to make, but the article does a great job of offering tips on how to do so. elaboration, clarification, divergent, inventive, and heuristic questions were all discussed as helpful tools when doing a guided reading activity with students. I like how every type of the above-mentioned questioned assessed students in vastly different ways. With these different questioning styles, teachers can asses how their lesson was received and how to expand on it quickly and efficiently. Personally, I feel that I will question individual students in the style they need more practice it. For me, it's a way to keep all my students on their toes and paying attention to the text, because everyone will be asked the same questions, but in different ways. The different ways will require brand new answers, not only testing the student speaking, but also adding to my classroom's understanding of the text.

The next article The schools we have. The schools we need by Allington puts a mirror on the current school system and begs the question, "How do we make things better?" It is important to remember that ALL students have the ability to learn, not just those with great family support or high-tech schools. We teachers are the tools that unlock our students' minds. In order to effectively teach, you must effectively reach your students. For my classroom I will use individualized lesson plans to make sure every student is "getting" the lesson, not just the gifted. It is important to enable EVERYONE the ability to master a lesson, not just the "star students." For me, I want a classroom where everyone knows their strengths, and that everyone has something they're good at, not just the "gifted" students. My job is to inspire all students to learn.

In Chapter 12 of Classrooms that Work solidified everything we've discussed this semester in class very creatively. It modeled what our literary-filled classroom would look like, and the activities that would probably be present throughout the day. As charming as this chapter was, it was also very helpful and made me less apprehensive on how to effectively teach my students literacy skills. Personally, my favorite piece was the end-of-the-day activities, since that's a time so many teachers dread. With fun-filled activities, my classroom will be less likely to get crazy, and my students will squeeze in a little more learning. I love it!


Here are some closing questions for you:

• What sorts of methods would you all use in your classrooms? 
• How would you make your classroom lessons?
• What did you like about Chapter 12?

Teacher book selection

We have all participated in this University and have shared our stories of terribly dense readings that took hours to comprehend. I can say with utmost confidence that these were no one's favorite readings. The struggling through the vocabulary and the bleak word choice, make these readings difficult. Let me ask you this, which sentences to you comprehend better?

• Pontificating on preferred film choice, a macabre film presented itself successfully. Regarding the antipathy, every filament on my arm piloerected in trepidation.

• I thought about what movie I wanted to see, and the scary movies looked the best. While watching it I got goosebumps.  

We all understand the second sentence perfectly, and I'm sure some of us needed to use our dictionaries for some of the vocabulary from the first. The second paragraphs readability is at a level that is easily understood. In other words, it is easy to read, and more enjoyable for the reader as an end result.  The reading I chose for this week was the Fry article Readability versus Leveling. It compared readability with leveling and how the two help in book selection. We've already discussed how readability shows how easy literature is to read. It is objective and is easily quantified. Leveling is more subjective and coincides more with how the book aids in the lesson, how the images inside help the story, and if the word choice is challenging enough, but still understandable. As teachers we have to include books that challenge our students and ones that are enjoyable. We all need to improve our vocabularies, but to do so, we need enjoyable books.

Guided reading

The Ford and Opitz article Looking Back to Move Forward with Guided Reading provided a quick synopsis on the history of guided reading. It started with the grouping strategy we can all remember as kids. This of course being the groups of bluejays, robins, and crows. Or as the students thought of them smart, average, and dumb. As a fellow crow, I can remember hating this grouping and being so embarrassed about my reading skill. For this reason of negative social stigmatization, these groups ended. However, the need for small group instruction was still necessary for accurate guided reading instruction.

While the bird groups based everyone on ability, the new groups do so through strategy-based constructivism. The new focus would be on teaching learners, not merely covering the material. Guided reading is not about teachers telling their students what to learn, but coaching students on what they need to learn. It uses a scaffolding technique that "weens" students' need for constant aid from their teachers. The end result being autonomous readers.

The end of the article shared 11 facts about guided reading that have stood the test of time. Here they are:

1. All children have the ability to become literate
2. All children need to be taught by a skilled teacher in order to maximize their full potential in reading
3. The goal of guided reading is to help students become independent readers
4. Guided reading is but one component of an effective reading program
5. Reading for meaning is the primary goal of guided reading
6. Children learn to read by reading
7. Children need to become meta cognitive; knowing they they know and the how and why of reading
8. Children need to develop a self-extending system I order to be independent readers
9. Al children need to be exposed to higher level thinking activities
10. Children need to experience joy and delight as a result of the reading experience
11. Specific elements characterize the successful guided reading lesson: purpose, scaffolding, independence 

So here is my article on guided reading, please share with ,e if this was helpful or not in furthering the understanding of guided reading .

Here is a helpful guided reading activity

Vocabulary

Most college students hear vocabulary and immediately start sweating about the GRE. Ask a student in kindergarten what vocabulary is and they will most likely look at you with a blank expression until you tell them that it is words they already know. Vocabulary is an extensive, ongoing task students add to during their entire academic career and beyond. We accumulate new words until the day we die. As teachers, we take on the daunting task of teaching vocabulary to students. With the right tools this can be done efficiently and in a way that turns your classroom into a vocabulary hotspot, where words are continually studied and learned.On the right is a great worksheet students can use when exploring vocabulary.  The Blachowitz and fisher article Vocabulary Lessons teachers some very useful tools for implementing usable vocabulary strategies in the classroom. Teacher should create a POSITIVE words learning environment. This can look like:

• puns in conversational lessons
• implementing scrabble/bananagrams as a center in the room
• allowing student to create their own word walls
• using the STAR method in vocabulary
• select, teach, activate, and revisit
• teach correct dictionary usage 

Luckily, The Lane & Allen reading The Vocabulary-Rich Classroom:Modeling Sophisticated Word Use to  Promote Word Consciousness and Vocabulary Growth added to the strategic maneuvers that allocate efficient vocabulary teaching. One piece from this reading really stuck out to me. This was the teacher that made jobs for her classroom, but as the year progressed, so too, did the job titles. No, the jobs did not change, just their names. For example a weather watcher become a meteorologist and so on. What a great way to teach vocabulary that doesn't outwardly require an outright lesson. I love teaching without the students catching on because the activity is so fun. This is perfect for classroom with low SES students. They are not getting any word conscious teaching at home, so why not go in overload at school? By keeping the lesson fun and permanently scheduled, these students can STILL learn many new words to add to their vocabulary, sometimes with incidental learning. 

On a more technological note, The Dalton and Grisham article eVoc Strategies: 10 Ways to Use  Technology to Build Vocabulary noted the importance of multiple word exposures in different contents. The best content being technology. Teach terminology that goes along with the electronics these students use every day. Vocabulary words like browser, website, and search can all become high frequency words EVEN in younger classrooms. Teacher must use technology to aid in vocab development in this day in age. Power-points made by students FOR students allows them to teach one another and really cement the lesson in their minds. Plus, what a great way to teach autonomy and vocabulary requisition. New words are given through the students' own choosing, letting the class pick the focus point. To the left is a wonderful tool for the classroom that shows a quick look at prefixes and suffixes students can use to help gain meaning with new vocabulary that may uses these "meaning changers."

The final reading I implemented from this week was Classrooms that work Chapter 6. It reiterated the importance of introducing words with real things. Examples include:

• gymnasium for gym
• equipment for playground toys
• hinge for the door connectors

More classroom strategies to implement vocabulary include:

• taking a virtual field trip and studying words we may not know
• rating words on a scale of how difficult they may be a teach accordingly
• allowing students to make their own vocabulary boards and tally words they continually see and choose the "winning word"
• letting students give you IMMEDIATE feedback with new vocabulary
• 5 fingers: I get it, 0 fingers: I'm confused

We had a lot to read this week so what I want to know is what stuck out to you guys and why?

Comprehension- The Full Circle

The Gill article The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction reiterated the importance of pre-reading, reading, post-reading strategies for students. One idea I really enjoyed was the KWL model. Simply stated it is:

• KNOW
• WANT to know
• LEARNED

Students can fill this chart out as they read, making critical thinking just as much of a part of the activity as the act of reading. These students will have a much deeper understanding of the content after this because the KWL model makes them map out their thoughts/knowledge acquisitions. Comprehension is more than understanding the text, it is also connecting it to the bigger picture albeit it the lesson, experiences, or life in general. The chart on the right depicts some great strategies for both readers and teachers to better comprehend the story. This is a great quick tool teacher can post in the classroom or keep on hand, in order to keep comprehension ever-present in the reading lessons. Plus, who doesn't love a little creativity in their lessons? This is a great tool because it offers strategies to help all sorts of different readers. 

The Gregory and Cahill article Kindergartners Can Do It, Too!Comprehension Strategies for Early Readers asserted the importance of teaching comprehension strategies to EVEN THE YOUNG STUDENTS. It is ever too early to start comprehensive strategy connections. The only thing teachers need to keep in mind is keeping the lesson on their level. Here is a great way to help students connect the story:

•  
• CONNECTION - where have I seen this before? 
• VISUALIZE - my mind movie is playing this scene...
• QUESTION - what will happen next?

No, let's not ask students in kindergarten to visualize, let's ask them to tell us their mind movie! It keeps the lesson fun and the objective clear. The same goes along with schema, instead our class can connect their ideas to what they already know. I loved how this article kept everyone involved in comprehension, even the little guys. 

Comprehension-UNDERSTANDING the story

The Pardo article on comprehension was eye opening because it focused on how vast the concept of comprehension actually is. For me, decoding, connecting to personal experiences, and learning unknown words are important facets of comprehension. Decoding is important because it helps students read the words in the text. Connections happen when the words are put into real life. When a student uses a word they already know in connection to something in their life, a student can read the words and understand them in the text. Learning new vocabulary is tricky, but once done, even more of the story can be comprehended. So in the end a student reads the words and understands them in the text while also gaining new knowledge about their newly found vocabulary.

 This weeks's reading also included Chapter 7 in Classrooms that work. In it were plenty of ideas on implementing comprehension strategies in the classroom. Some of these examples included:

• Plays from dialogue
• Making diagrams out of the information
• having equal student/teacher interactions with the text
• group work so students can interact together with the text
• Think-alouds where the teacher can model proper comprehension strategies

Personally, I'm a huge fan of the think-alouds. Everyone knows that read-alouds are highly effective learning tools in the classrooms, so why not use think-alouds as well? These help students model effective strategies that will help them comprehend the stories/texts more effectively. There are many different strategies a teacher can use, depending on what comprehensive item she's trying to arrive at. The image to the right shows a wonderful chart that demonstrates different stem sentences to implement your own think-aloud in the classroom.

Word Study- let's learn it!

I have always loved studying word patterns and building all sorts of words out of a set group of letters. Who knew this would be a great tool to use in the classroom! The Cunningham & Cunningham article, Making Words: Enhancing the Invented spelling-decoding connection demonstrated some great tools that students can use to interactively create words and learn grammar rules simultaneously. Let's face it: Spelling IS HARD. Incorporating play withing spelling lessons should always be a goal. We all love creating things anyway, so why not create words? Students are able to learn when capital letters are used, and more importantly, letter combinations and how some words are spelled similarly. The other part of the article that made me think was about invented spelling. I never put it together that this was a key-identifier in where a student is at within their walk with spelling.  Phonetics are important, just sometimes not so much with spelling, because sometimes students make mistakes like this:

 We all know that this says: Mouth watering pizza, but why did this student spell it this way? s/he did what they were always taught and sounded it out. It is important to understand why this student is spelling like this and how to help them understand letter patterns in the future. The other article by Yopp & Yopp Ten Words Plus made me really want to incorporate a word of the day. Yes, it is important to hammer in those high-frequency words, but I think it would be really fun to teach interesting words either on curriculum, or following the seasons and challenging students to make the most interesting sentence with the word. The only catch is the sentence must use the word CORRECTLY.  Another additive for my classroom will definitely be one of these bad boys:

I can just see the flickering of eyes during writing, as students use this chart of words we will CREATE together as a quick look for spelling. Not only will it be a handy tool to help students master spelling, but it will also teach them spelling patterns as well. Anyone who doesn't speak language as a first language can tell you how hard it is, so why not offer our students a way to tackle their written language more efficiently?

My questions for you guys are:

• What other tools would help with word studies?
• Do you guys think inventive spellings are important for gauging a student's abilities?
• How important do you guys find this idea of "word study" to be?