new literacies thoughts

While doing our new Literacies project, I have learned some great Yiddish phrases that I am excited to teach and I have also learned that I really do know a lot about my religion. Here are some of the common Yiddish words and their definitions:
bubbeOr bobe. It means Grandmother, and bobeshi is the more affectionate form.
chutzpahOr khutspe. Nerve, extreme arrogance, brazen presumption. In English, chutzpah often connotes courage or confidence, but among Yiddish speakers, it is not a compliment.
feh!An expression of disgust or disapproval, representative of the sound of spitting.
goyA non-Jew, a Gentile. As in Hebrew, one Gentile is a goy, many Gentiles are goyim, the non-Jewish world in general is “the goyim.” Goyish is the adjective form. Putting mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich is goyish. Putting mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich on white bread is even more goyish.
kibbitzIn Yiddish, it’s spelled kibets, and it’s related to the Hebrew “kibbutz” or “collective.” But it can also mean verbal joking, which after all is a collective activity. It didn’t originally mean giving unwanted advice about someone else’s game - that’s an American innovation.
klutzOr better yet, klots. Literally means “a block of wood,” so it’s often used for a dense, clumsy or awkward person. See schlemiel.
kosherSomething that’s acceptable to Orthodox Jews, especially food. Other Jews may also “eat kosher” on some level but are not required to. Food that Orthodox Jews don’t eat - pork, shellfish, etc. - is called traif. An observant Jew might add, “Both pork and shellfish are doubtlessly very tasty. I simply am restricted from eating it.” In English, when you hear something that seems suspicious or shady, you might say, “That doesn’t sound kosher.”
kvetshIn popular English, kvetch means “complain, whine or fret,” but in Yiddish, kvetsh literally means “to press or squeeze,” like a wrong-sized shoe. Reminds you of certain chronic complainers, doesn’t it?
Mazel TovOr mazltof. Literally “good luck,” (well, literally, “good constellation”) but it’s a congratulation for what just happened, not a hopeful wish for what might happen in the future. When someone gets married or has a child or graduates from college, this is what you say to them. It can also be used sarcastically to mean “it’s about time,” as in “It’s about time you finished school and stopped sponging off your parents.”
mentshAn honorable, decent person, an authentic person, a person who helps you when you need help. Can be a man, woman or child.
mishegasInsanity or craziness. A meshugener is a crazy man. If you want to insult someone, you can ask them, ”Does it hurt to be crazy?”
mishpochehOr mishpokhe or mishpucha. It means “family,” as in “Relax, you’re mishpocheh. I’ll sell it to you at wholesale.”
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-yiddish-handbook-40-words-you-should-know/

Week 9 Post - Basal Reading

The Tompkins chapter seemed to support the Basal reading program.  In one part of the chapter, they say that some teachers feel that they are limited with the textbooks, while others feel it's a great resource.  I feel that the Basal reading program is an easy way out for teachers.  Students should be reading tradebooks from second grade on.  The Basal reading program does not provide students with the full version of a book, they shorten the stories so the students are not getting the full effect.  I think the Basal reading program is great for first year teachers, but after your first or second year when you become more familiar with the curriculum and your atmosphere, you should step away from this reading program and be creative!  My CT strongly disagrees with the Basal reading program.  The third graders in my field placement read tradebooks and my CT has actually created packets full of comprehension, vocabulary, and prediction exercises for the students to complete as they read through the book.  By reading an entire book, students are able to see the full plot of the story, and learn more about the characters in the story.  The Basal reading program seems choppy, jumping from book to book.  I feel that you can learn the same content, such as spelling, grammar, vocabulary etc... by completing worksheets after each chapter of a book, instead of multiple shorter versions of books.

Vocabulary Lesson: "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry"

If I were to create a Vocabulary lesson based off of "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" I would focus on word choice. I would have students pair up into groups of two and pick out at least thirty words they liked from the chapter they had read. These words could be words they found interesting, words they don't know, words they have always liked, tasty words, etc. Next, I would have students record these words on paper. Then, I would have the students, in pairs, narrow their lists down to ten words, their personal favorites. After this, I would ask students to work independently and do the same lesson over again. Students will create their own list of personal favorite words, this time not only relating to "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry", but to any words they know at all. I will have students record this list in a notebook in which they can refer back to easily for their writing in the future. Students will be asked to update their lists frequently, but every time the add a word one must be eliminated from the list. Students will only exchange words in this process in order to keep them from using the same old "blah" words in writing. Through this process, of collecting words, students will learn to be more in tune to the language spoken and written around them in everyday life. They will learn to use more flavorful and enticing words in their writing and become more familiar with words they may have not known. Also, they will come to recognize more words in books they read and learn how to go about defining them and actually implementing them in their own writing later on. To make this lesson even more vocabulary related, I can have students define each word they add to their list and use them in a sentence, but the key part of my lesson is to get students to broaden their vocabulary use. Also, to get students to start using more enticing and interesting natural language that will authenticate their writing in the future.

Roll of Thunder Vocab Task

If I did a vocabulary lesson on this first chapter, I would break students up into small groups and have them pick out ten words throughout the chapter that they did not know. I would then have the students look up in a dictionary the meaning of those words. After that, I would have them write ten new sentences using each of the ten new words that they found. Then, we would popcorn around the room until we learned every word from every group and what it meant. After that, I would collect all of the student’s papers and type up a list of the new words that they did not know and hand them out to the students. If I felt it necessary, I would have the students learn the words for a vocabulary test that we would take and keep adding to throughout the book. This would only be necessary if they were choosing common words that they should know or would need to know later in life. Vocabulary is always good to learn!

Week 8 Post - Vocabulary Development Lesson

If I were to teach a vocabulary lesson using "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry," I would first teach a mini-lesson on vocabulary.  I would put up a paragraph from "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry" with a word the students are not familiar with in it, and I would read the text aloud to the students.  I would show the students how they can use context clues to help them find the meaning of a word and demonstrate this using a few paragraphs that contain more difficult words.  I would also show the students how to use a lexical resource, such as a dictionary, but they would see that there are usually multiple meanings to words so it is difficult to figure out which definition we are looking for.  After we had practiced this task as a whole class, I would have the students work in small groups to find meanings of words in "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry."  Every student would have their own copy of the book, and they would receive a worksheet with the word they are trying to define, a page number, and a blank space for the students to write the definition.  I would take this a little further and have the students determine if the word is a noun, adjective, adverb etc... and then re-write the word in their own sentence.  Having the students use the defined word in their own sentence would act as a post-assessment to the lesson because I would see if the students really understood the meaning of the word or not.  After the lesson, I would post these words up on a word wall in the class so the students would remember them and use them again in their own writing.

Week 7 Post

After reading the Tompkins chapter on fluency, I have learned how important it is for students to be fluent readers and writers.  In order for students to understand and comprehend the text, they need to be reading fluently, otherwise they will be focusing on how to read particular words, and not the meaning of the text.  As future teachers, it is important for us to include activities that promote fluency in both reading and writing.  In one of the first days of class, we did choral readings with our small groups.  As Tompkins mentions in the chapter, students become increasingly fluent readers as they read and reread text aloud.  The chapter also talks about high-frequency words, which are the most common words used in reading and writing.  Some of these words are difficult to sound out, like could for example, so it's important for students to memorize these words to help their fluency.  Many teachers use word walls to display these high-frequency words so the students become familiar with them.  My CT has a word wall on top of the chalkboard and he changes it every few weeks.  As you all know, I'm in a third grade classroom, so the word wall does not contain high-frequency words, it has "better" words for the students to use.  For example, my CT has big being the "boring" word, and has humongous, colossal, enormous, etc... next to big so the students can choose a more interesting word to use in their stories.

To become a more fluent reader, students can do repeated readings where they practice rereading a book or chapter of a book a few times while trying to improve their reading speed.  Students also need to practice reading books to improve their fluency.  If students read every night as part of a homework assignment, this will help their reading fluency.  It's important for students to read outside of school so they have practice finding the meanings of words on their own, since a teacher will not always be there to help, and to improve their reading skills.

One of the key approaches mentioned in Tompkins, chapter 5, is that explicit instruction is crucial for non mainstream students who may not have the same literacy background as the middle class students have. The book gives several examples of the things that would differentiate these learners. They might not have been read to as preschoolers. In addition they may not have recited nursery rhymes which can help develop phonemic awareness. I can remember when my mom was teaching in Chicago she was surprised at the students unfamiliarity with nursery rhymes. She began finding ways to incorporate these rhymes and poems into her students reading opportunities. Another example that was listed was the students might not have experience with writing letters to family members. I think this is an unfortunate generational loss. I imagine if we were to ask our class when the last time someone received a letter that was not email we would find it is infrequent. Things that we as teachers can do to increase word identification and fluency are:
Post high frequency words on word walls. This cold include adding words from the book club book that will be important to the story. In my placement the students have a personal journal that they keep in their desk that is their personal word wall. In theory it seems like a great idea except I have been their for how many weeks and I have never seen any of the kids actually use it. I have also not seen them add any words to it. ( my intention is to ask my CT during field this week if they put their weekly spelling words in their personal word walls)
Practice reading and writing high frequency words throughout literacy activities
Introduce key words before, during and after reading
Model word strategies with the students during read aloud and shared readings
Practice! Present more reading opportunities. Have students reread passages. The best books for reading practice are ones that a student is interested in and that are written at a level just below their instructional level. In my field placement each student has a bag that they keep the books they are currently reading inside, there are usually between 5 to 7 books in the bag. They get to choose the books by getting them out of the classroom library during their daily choice time. The CT just went through and had the kids bring up their bags and he went through the bags with them. It gave him a chance to see what they are interested in and what type of book they are choosing. He then had them read from one of the books. He would either tell them what a good choice they had made or tell them if they were having trouble. If they missed more than 5 words he considered the book a little to challenging and encourage them to add some easier books to their bags. He explained it to them as the only way that you can get to be a better reader is to read more.
For a mini lesson on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. I would do a quick write to develop writing fluency. The idea that I would like the group to explore is: If you were Stacey and TJ came to you for help what would you do and why? (keep in mind what would be appropriate in this time period )

Week 7

When dealing with students who have trouble with comprehension, it is very important to teach students the skills in order to question themselves throughout his or her reading. It is important for students to learn that it is acceptable to go back and re-read what they just read if they do not understand it or to look up words in the dictionary. I also think that it is important to teach students how to take their own notes while reading because note-taking is not something that comes naturally. In the third grade GLCEs, in fact, there is a section on metacognition that states that:
Metacognition
Students will…
R.MT.03.01 self-monitor comprehension when reading or listening to texts by
automatically applying strategies used by mature readers to increase comprehension
including: predicting, constructing mental images, visually representing ideas in text,
questioning, rereading or listening again if uncertain about meaning, inferring, and
summarizing.
R.MT.03.02 plan, monitor, regulate, evaluate skills, strategies, and processes to construct
and convey meaning, (e.g., decoding unknown words), and use graphic organizers to
deepen understanding of problem/solution and organizational patterns.
and that is all about learning to self question and become a more comprehensive reader.

Week 6 Post

I felt that Chapter 5 in the Gibbons text was really helpful for lesson planning.  Pages 84-97 go over various activities that can be incorporated before the reading, during the reading, and after the reading.  I wish I read the chapter before completing the rough draft for the lesson plan because I was not sure what types of activities to have the students do before reading.  All of the activities listed in the chapter are ways to help the students understand the book they are reading, and to develop better reading strategies.  I thought it was interesting how on page 83, it says "part of learning a language involves learning about the culture in which it is used, and if we restrict what children read to the blandness of the basal reader, we do them a disservice by presenting a reductionist and limiting curriculum."  My collaborating teacher is VERY against the basal reading curriculum.  He has his students read trade books, and created packets of worksheets for each trade book the students read.  It was difficult for him to have this approved by the principal because it is not in the curriculum, but he was able to convince her to allow him to use these books.  He said that the basal books only have portions of stories in them, so the students are not experiencing the beginning, middle, and end of a book.

Chapter 8 of the Tompkins text seemed like a summary of TE 348.  It was helpful to re-learn the different genres, since I took TE 348 my sophmore year, and also to review the elements of a story.  Third grade seems to really focus on the basic elements of the book!  The worksheets that the students complete while reading books throughout the year seem to be about character traits, summaries, predictions, etc... and the basic elements of a book are incorporated into these worksheets.  It was also helpful to read about the different types of poetry since I have honestly not written a poem since grade school.  I vaguely remember learning about limericks, and haikus, so it was helpful to view student examples of these poems.

week 5

In the Gibbons, Chapter 4 they talked about writing in a second language across curriculum. I liked how in the chapter it gave a lot of ideas of how to incorporate writing. This includes lots of modeling. I know I talked about this before but I still lament the lack of writing that I see in my placement. I do see their writer’s workshop twice a week, however that is usually a “ free writing” scenario. The class sees a lot of the finished product of writing but there is not a lot of seeing the CT write. I have only seen the CT write down the students ideas once in my visit to the classroom. There are so many great examples in the book that I think these students could be successful at. I have seen them work on narratives and recount stories for writer’s workshop. I would like to see them do some writing that dealt with reporting. I think this would go over extremely well because so many of the kids are really interested in science related non-fiction books. I would like to see where they would take it with some guidance

Week 4

I wanted to talk a little about the article about Marcus. It is the one I have most related to and that I have found the most profound personal connection. It really hammers home the message about being flexible. It made me rethink some of the ideas that I had of what my ideal classroom would be. As I was reading , all I could think of was how frustrating it must be to have all these great ideas and not be able to get them across to someone else. I imagine that this is the same sort of frustration that is felt by ELL students. It also reminded me of an students I observe a couple years ago. I was volunteering at a summer school writing class for 5th and 6th graders. One student in particular had his parents come in and talk about how stubborn he was and he was unwilling to work on his writing. After watching him for a few days the CT had a specialist come in and take a look, she suspected that he had dysgraphia and just had a problem with the physical act of writing. Once they realized his problem they were able to arrange for him to use a laptop in class and he was able to keep up with the rest of the class. He became more involved and actually enjoyed coming to class. It makes me think of the quote from the article, “Don’t be so afraid of differences in kids, it isn’t necessary for everything to be completely the same for everybody all the time.” That is the advice I am going to take with me.