Diversity in the Classroom

I agree with Kali that using the “Where Are You From” poem or something similar is a great way to get to know your students personally. This is a way to get to know your students through their eyes and not just standard questions relating to their home life, their past, etc. Do not get me wrong, I believe that questions that relate to home life and so forth are important, but they only let you get to know your students on a surface level instead of a more personal level. A good template for getting to know your students home life, I believe, is in the Lenski article “Assessing English-language learners in mainstream classrooms”, Table 2: Predictability log questions. These questions are meant to help teachers assess English Language Learners, though I believe that it hits on crucial things that a teacher needs to know about their students’ background in order to teach them better. The types of questions include: what is the student’s family situation?, who are their best friends?, how do they dress?, what are they interested in?, what is their schooling background?, and what do they enjoy doing outside of class?.

As a teacher, I could learn about my students not only by standard questions and where they are from poems, but also by getting to know their community. Being involved in your students’ community is critical to get to know your students because you can get a better feel for their life and surroundings and events going on in their neighborhoods or communities. Especially if you move to a new city or state and they speak a dialect that is different from your own. You will need to become familiar with their dialect and sensitive in order be respectful of their customs, similar to the Wheeler article on codeswitching. This involvement allows a teacher get to know their students from multiple perspectives so they can get a better feel for them as a learner and a person.

Diversity In The Classroom

I believe that our activity “Where I am From” poem that we discussed in class is a fantastic way to learn about the diversity in your classroom. I learned in class today that it’s hard/nearly impossible to just look at your students and know what their background is and where they come from. During our computer activity looking at the different accents and distinguishing where each one derives from, I realized that it’s easy to just assume that everyone has similar backgrounds. It’s important not to make this assumption but to get to know each student and maybe understand what their prior knowledge is or their style of learning is like. The “Where I am From” poem even showed me the differences and similarities between my partner and I during class that I would never have guessed. It’s a great “get to know you” activity and classroom community builder. Getting to know each other in the classroom can really help the environment be more positive and for the children to feel more comfortable opening up to one another.

In the Lenski article, it stated that ELL teachers should become aware of their student’s backgrounds before assessment takes place. I think this goes with not only ELL teachers, but all teachers. It’s important to understand where the students come from and how they learn to educated them as best as we can as teachers. Also, the Wheeler article made me realize how to address students speaking AAVE and to not think that they are any slower, less able, or less intelligent than a child speaking Standard English. It’s important to know what family they were raised in and what their dialect is; what they’ve been taught at home.

General feelings

I have really enjoyed reading your posts thus far. I have noticed some overlapping ideas in regards to your feelings about what is literacy and how it affects you and your future classroom. The idea that literacy is a changing view and not stagnant is important to remember. Literacy is always changing and adapting to the world.
I would strongly suggest commenting back and forth with each other within the blog. Get some discussion moving within the ideas we have discussed in class and you have written in your blog. Communication is a valuable tool for furthering our learning and understanding.
Keep up the wonderful insights and comments. Push yourself to discover new insights about your own learning. Make sure you are submitting your blogs on time and keeping up to date.
Remember from time to time I will comment but I will always be reading your blogs.

Definition of Literacy

I'm with Stefanie with the basic definition of literacy. When I first hear the word, I automatically think the ability to use language to read, write, listen, and speak. However, after this initial thought process I then think back to my TE 301 class where our TA drilled the meaning of literacy into our heads using the literacy project. Many of you might recall this as the huge novel we spent countless hours on during the semester. After this project, I realized that literacy can mean a variety of things from phonological or phonemic awareness to concepts of print (even just reading from left to right, top to bottom of the page).

I was unable to attend class last week because I was sick, however I did learn from previous classes and the readings assigned. The article that stuck out the most to me was the Leland article. There was a part in the article that said "There are four resources or types of knowledge that are essential to the process of becoming a truly literate person: decoding practices, text-meaning practices, pragmatic practices, and critical practices." Based on a portion of literacy which is reading, I think that this is a great way to look at different types of literacy knowledge and to realize that there are all sorts of ways to read a book. Like this teacher did, I believe it's important to go beyond the textual concepts but to build on the awareness of critical literacy as well.

I also wanted to relate to the Cambourne article which stated a variety of ways for students to become enthusiastic about learning literacy. I think that the conditions of learning shown in this article is what my classroom will mimic in the future. These conditions show a positive classroom community where the students can walk away from the class and have learned something and be excited about literacy. I believe that the most important part of teaching is developing that safe environment for the students to feel comfortable and voice their opinions.

What is Literacy?

When first asked to define literacy, automatically I thought to myself: literacy is the ability to read and write. Plain, simple and to the point. However, as our class started to define it within small groups then together as an entire class, I started to modify the meaning a bit. Although literacy does encompass the ability to read and write, it involves much more than that.

Within my group, we discussed how literacy really is the foundation for all other learning (I am agreeing with you Jess!). Thinking about all the aspects of literacy such as concepts of print and phonemic awareness these form the base of all the knowledge we build throughout our schooling. Through these concepts we learn what each letter is as well as letter-sound relationships they have. Once we understand letters and can recall them, we learn to recognize and identify them in text and other various ways. It is only after understanding these basic principles that we can learn anything else. It is literacy that makes learning possible in all other areas.

In an ideal classroom setting, I would have access to an unlimited amount of books, ranging all reading levels and abilities. My classroom would be highly interactive, where learning games would be implemented and encouraged. I truly believe students learn best from interacting or experiencing their learning in visual ways. I would also love to create an atmosphere enabling students to feel safe and positive about learning, even if they are not the best readers. My main goal would to create a support system for my students and to encourage them to do the best they can. As the teacher in a literacy learning environment, I would also strongly encourage my students to have reading buddies with older students. This would be beneficial for all students, regardless of learning level. 

Another aspect of my ideal learning environment for my students would be to incorporate ways for students with disabilities to be accommodated. With Special Ed being my focus, I would make sure to provide a very structured layout and learning plan for my students so they can and prosper in literacy at their own level. Some things I may include in my classroom may be interactive computer software, games, learning tools (digital books, etc.). Basically I want all my students to feel comfortable.

Literacy

My definition of literacy is fairly flexible and constantly evolving. To me, being a literate person means more than simply being able to decode text. Literacy means dissecting text, making connections, and using that information in a new and purposeful way. Being a literate individual means being able to comprehend what you're reading and being able to apply it in some way.

Therefore, my ideal literacy environment would be conceptually challenging to students. It would contain a wide range of literature that would stimulate students to make connections and think critically. I think that a good literacy curriculum pushes students to think for themselves and grow as individuals. I think that students should feel challenged at their own level. Students who struggle with reading print should be able to access the thoughts and ideas in books through other media. Allowing students to access text in a variety of ways, involving peer-peer interactions, and using real life applications make a difference in student success in the classroom.

An environment that is stimulating in this way fulfills the conditions of learning outlined by Cambourne. Students who are immersed, engaged, and held to high expectations in literacy will succeed at a higher rate. After our discussions and reading various children's books I have a better understanding of the importance of involving these elements in a classroom to help students become literate, critical thinkers.

Literacy

My definition of literacy is that it has many aspects to it such as reading, writing, speaking, listening, communicating, and the understanding of ones language. It involves integrating all of these skills and thinking critically to become a literate person. Also, literacy skills provide one with the ability to participate in society.
Some significant points that were brought up in the discussion that helped me further define my definition of literacy are: literacy is the building block of life; literacy is the ability to carry out functions such as questioning, reflecting, finding deeper meaning, connecting, and critiquing to help with ones reading, writing and using these functions in the outside world. Also, from writing my own definition and the discussion, I realized it is really hard to pinpoint a definition of literacy. This is because it is an ever changing field and we learn more about literacy from new experiences and research. Each situation requires a different set of skills or functions needed for certain persons to be considered literate. For example: an adult who reads and writes at a 2nd grade level can still fully function in society by listening, speaking, communicating, questioning, reflecting, making connections a so forth.
The Cambourne article discussed ways to intrigue students to learn about literacy, become excited about learning literacy and getting a lot of out learning literacy. I think that my ideal literacy learning environment would look similar to “The Conditions of Learning” as discussed in the Cambourne article. Such as: immerse students, demonstrate, engage, have expectations, give responsibility, approximations, employment, and response. I believe that all of these conditions are crucial to having an efficient literacy learning environment, where students will succeed in a friendly environment without pressure, become more involved and eager to learn. In my classroom I would also include a wide variety of books, varying from reading levels to books that cover all major types of books from historical fiction, to science fiction, to critical books and more. This will allow my students to be able to expand their horizons of books. To cover all the aspects of literacy, I will have literacy workshops and centers that will focus on students reading, writing, listening, interacting skills as well as many others to make it less repetitive and more comfortable through games and working with their peers.

Goals and Expectations

For my TE 402 experience in Language Arts this semester, my primary goal will be to take in everything I can and apply it to what I already know as well as to the experiences I will encounter this semester. Being a Special Education-Learning Disabilities major, focusing on Language Arts, I have had the opportunity to take classes where literacy is broken down into the basic building blocks in order to accommodate and assist students with learning disabilities. Although I am grateful to know how to apply this to students who may struggle in Language Arts, this also makes me worry how I am going to apply this knowledge to other students. 

I want to learn and understand how to teach Language Arts to an older age group and know how to teach it to them affectively. Literacy is extremely important to children of all ages and I want to be prepared to teach an array of students, no matter what level they are learning at. In order to accomplish this, a goal I have set for myself is to learn and use all resources that are provided to me in class because they may be the one source to provide me with valuable materials and information. Another personal goal is to learn multiple teaching strategies enabling me to present information to my students in a visual way. I too, believe learning material visually is highly beneficial to students, regardless of their age, gender, or learning preferences.

Perhaps most importantly,  my expectation for myself is to act in a professional manner which includes exhibiting respect, honesty, integrity, and cooperation with my professors and peers. The best way I can accomplish this is to be prepared for class (completing reads, writing blog posts, etc.) in an orderly fashion and demonstrating a positive attitude towards the learning process as a whole.

Goals For This Course

My goals for this course are to learn a variety of ways to teach literacy in the elementary classroom. Being a language arts major, I am well informed and educated on the many famous Shakespearean plays and classic novels. However, I've lacked lessons on how to utilize literacy in a meaningful manner. In my previous TE classes I've learned quite a bit on literacy and have applied what I learned in my placements for TE 250 and TE 301 which have been in urban settings. I do wish to learn more meaningful and engaging ways (activities, games...) to help children get the most out of my lessons as a future teacher. I hope that our readings assigned and class time will give me more knowledge and ability to apply and test what I will learn with the students in my placement. I hope to "bloom" by becoming knowledgeable on the variety of methods to teach a meaningful literacy lesson. I hope to keep children intrigued and excited about literacy in a positive and significant manner. I hope to be a teacher, guidance, and role model to the children, showing them just how important literacy is.

Goals for TE 402

My goals for this course are to learn more strategies on how to be an effective language arts teacher. I do not have a strong background in language arts instruction because I am not a language arts/English major or minor. Through this course, I also hope to be able to add to my developing teaching pedagogy.

I have had placements in urban settings before in both TE 250 and TE 301 working with literacy instruction. I believe that literacy instruction needs to be hands on and taught in many different forms. I think that it is more beneficial to students learning if literacy instruction is varied, thus non-repetitive. I also believe that one word alphabet picture books do not help students learn to read and that students rely on the pictures and not the words to “act like they are reading”. I hope that this course will help me to come up with more ideas on how to vary my literacy instruction and workshops and or centers that will be beneficial to all ranges of learners, especially students with a low level of literacy.

I want to learn teaching strategies that are effective for language arts instruction. I want to “bloom” this semester by becoming a more successful teacher of language arts and become more confident in my teaching of language arts.