Final Language Arts Post

As hard as it is to believe, this will be my last blog post for the purpose of language arts education. Over the past semester, I have learned so many amazing things to implement in my future classroom. By gaining an understanding of the reading and writing processes, I will have a greater idea of where my children are and where they should be going. After all, we have to meet children where they are to bring them to the next level. I also learned different types of reading to incorporate in my classroom. I think time for children to read should be worked into the classroom every day. Reading aloud to my students is also on the agenda. I have enjoyed listening to Sahara Special, and I can remember my elementary school teachers doing this as well. Even in younger grades when all of us might not have been reading chapter books, several of my teachers would read a chapter book aloud every day. This was always one of my favorite parts of the day; I feel like this encourages children to read and work their way up to chapter book reading. Also, I think that making the book really helped me gain a better understanding of the writing process and is a great tool to use in the classroom. The digital book could especially be useful in a listening center. Children could listen to each other's books, which I think would be enjoyable.

Also, this past semester I have gotten to know the art of blogging. At first, I did not enjoy this at all and almost forgot nearly every week. Now, I look forward to expressing myself through writing. It helps me make sense of the material and specifically apply it to my life. Even though I was not a fan of blogging before, I want to keep up the blog while I'm in Denmark. I think it will be a great way to let family and friends know about my travels, so I am glad I have everything already set up!

Overall, I have really enjoyed language arts this semester. I have learned so many new things to put in my classroom one day!

Magic Talk

Magic Talk involves writing a statement on the board and having students respond only by writing back. This can be very useful for children who are especially shy and do not enjoy speaking up in class. However, I feel that it should only be used every now and then because otherwise students would take it for granted. I think it should be a "special" activity in the classroom. It would be great to use to introduce topics. The teacher can put a picture up and have the students respond using written words. I also think that magic talk requires students to be more thoughtful before speaking. I know I found myself examining the words on the board and analyzing what I wanted to say. For some reason, words seem to have a sense of permanence when they are written down as opposed to when they are just spoken. It also can help students synthesize their thoughts. I know some students can talk in circles trying to express their ideas, so this could help them make their thoughts more concise. Magic talk is definitely something I plan to use in the classroom one day. I feel that this can even be used during younger grades, even if it was simply word association or drawing.

Listening

In language arts, there are four types of listening: discriminative, aesthetic, efferent, and critical. Before discussing this in class, I didn't realize there were four types of listening, but once you think about it- it's really obvious. I feel that some teachers do not incorporate all styles of listening into their classroom, but this should be done. I think for the sake of time and because of standardized testing- aesthetic listening is often left out. Aesthetic listening is something that I definitely want to incorporate as a daily part of my classroom.

I believe people often take listening for granted. There are so many times when I think I am listening, but when someone gets done talking I find myself having no clue what they just said. If anything could possibly distract me, it will. Actually, I was just listening to one of my best friends tell a story as I was writing this and couldn't even tell you what she said. This just goes to show that just because you hear someone, does not mean you are listening to them.

Propaganda and persuasion are two reasons we should be especially careful listeners. I for one know that I fall victim to propaganda every day. I love commercials- and I especially love infomercials, but let's be real, if every exercise program was as simple, easy, and effective as they made it out, no one would be overweight. I loved the propaganda activity we did in class. Some of those commercials I see on a weekly basis, but I never realized how ridiculous they actually are. By teaching children to be critical listeners, we will be preparing them to differentiate propaganda. I think commercials would be a great and fun way to to teach propaganda in an elementary classroom as well.

Field Experiences

I have been observing a Kindergarten classroom at Washington Elementary school for the year, and this semester I have been paying particular attention to language arts instruction. Usually, I am at Washington on Monday mornings for at least an hour and half. When I am there, the students are coming back from specials, have morning meeting, centers, and meet again before lunch. Mrs. Brown is so great to observe. She has been teaching for more than twenty years, and it shows in her natural ease when working with children.

My favorite thing about the semester had been watching students grow and developing relationships with them. In addition to observing language arts, I also help Mrs. Brown out and work with individual or small groups of students. Usually the students I work with need help in a particular area, so it has been so interesting to see how they have improved throughout the year. It has also been great practice figuring out what works and what doesn't work. I have been able to see activities I want to adopt and activities I don't particularly like.

There has not been a visit I did not enjoy. Each time I leave, I take away something positive. I am constantly seeing course applications, especially Language Arts, but also in my Child Development and other education classes. I am so excited and thankful to be getting this experience early in the game.

Planning for Reading and Writing

One book I have always loved is Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I feel like this book would make an amazing literary unit because there are so many different things you can do with it. First of all, this is a great book for making predictions. Students can predict what they think the book may be about based on the title or taking a picture walk through the illustrations. Also, this book gives a lot of opportunity for writing. Students could write a letter to Alexander to make suggestions on how to turn his day around, which teaches students empathy and coping skills. Students could also write and illustrate about a bad day they have had. This book could also be tied into math. Students could list of all the things that happened to Alexander or what makes them have a bad day, and then vote and make a graph on which one is the worst. Students can also practice sequencing with this book. I always enjoyed reading this book as a child and think it would be really fun to incorporate it into my classroom one day. The classroom I work in at Fuller Elementary recently went to see the play Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I think that would be a great way to finish out the unit.

Decisions.. Decisions...

It would be par for the course for me to change my mind about what I want to do three years in. My past three years of school I have been 100% sure of my life. Child Development major. K-6 Licensure. Done. Well, several factors have gone into me questioning these decisions. Don't get me wrong, I still love child development and I still want to teach, but I have been toying with the idea of adding on a B-K licensure. After meeting with the Preschool Coordinator of a great school system, I have started to envision myself in a special needs Pre-K classroom. Also, working at the Ellen Brewer House has only solidified my love for the 'little ones.' The period form B-K is extremely important developmentally, and I would love to be a part of this process. Now I must make the difficult decisions regarding which classes to take next year, and to be quite honest, it's stressing me out. The main advice I get is, "Do what your heart tells you." Unfortunately, my heart seems to be telling me two different things.

On a lighter note, I will be studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark for six weeks this summer and I could not be more excited! I am sure this will be such an amazing experience and bring great insights to my classroom.

Spelling and Writing

Throughout this week we have learned a lot about the writing process and spelling development. While we were discussing the writing process and as I was preparing for the mini lesson, I found myself reminiscing about writing when I was in elementary school. When I was in school, especially when the state writing test was involved, we always practiced the writing process. We had writing workshop folders that we kept all of our work in. We would always brainstorm, put those thoughts into a thinking map, write a rough draft, peer edit, and the write a final draft.

My opinions on writing haven't especially changed over the semester. I have always felt that writing was a great way to present ideas and thoughts, but never especially enjoyed it in a school context. Writing papers always makes me feel overwhelmed, even with the writing process involved. However, when I was a junior in high school we had to keep a journal. Some days we had specific things to write about, but other days could be free writes and we were able to fold the page over if we didn't want the teacher to read it. I always enjoyed that assignment.

I have enjoyed having a blog. It has helped me reinforce course concepts and relate them back to my personal and professional life. At first, I was not at all excited about having a blog, but I have really came around to the idea. I think it would be interesting to use in upper elementary and middle school as well.

I haven't finalized what I want to write about yet, but I think I will write about my experience at being a camp counselor at Camp Friendship. Camp Friendship is for children with cancer and their siblings. I did this for Junior Enrichment for Teaching Fellows, and at first I was dreading going. However, it was an amazing experience that changed the way I view a lot of things in life.

Social Skills and Language Arts

I believe that language arts skills are directly related to one's social skills. Our abilities to communicate are founded in reading and writing, and if these areas are delayed or weak, then communication can be difficult. This is a huge issue in the classroom. Students who may be delayed in reading and writing may suffer from low self-esteem which can cause them to feel inferior to their classmates. In addition to an elementary school setting, so much of today's society communicates through technology. Whether it be email or text messaging, a lot of social interaction, even as young as elementary school, is founded in text. Students communicate by writing and reading what the other says, and if there are delays in this area, students social skills may suffer.

In observing in different classrooms, I have seen how delays or disabilities in reading and writing can affect students' social skills. Many students only feel comfortable socializing with students who have the same abilities. One student I tutored never especially socialized with many of her classmates. However, I don't think it was a language barrier by any means because she was in constant conversation with her one friend in the class, who was also pulled out for help with reading.

As a teacher, we must first realize the connection between language arts and social skills. It is our job to differentiate to where every student feels successful. Students spend so much time in our classroom that we must realize we have a huge impact on their self esteem. We should help develop their comptence and sense of self to aid in their social skills. Also, some students may need you to directly teach social skills and role play social situations.

The Reading Wars

The reading wars is a hot topic in education involving which way is best to teach children to read: phonetics or whole language. When I was learning to read, my teachers used the phonetic approach. There was a letter to talk about every day. I especially remember going over long vowels and short vowels and making the different sounds. I don't especially remember word walls in my classroom, but I remember having a set of flash cards at home with different sight words on them.

When we are reading, sight words are automatically recognized. I believe that we create our own sight words based on our exposure to certain vocabulary. Simple words such as "the" and "it" are definitely sight words that we do not need to decode because these words are used so often in daily life. The more children are exposed to text, the more sight words will automatically click for students to gain a better understand and become more confident readers.

Symbols have a huge impact on literacy learning. At EBH, we have several picture books that the children look at. These books have the words girl, boy, apple, banana, doctor, etc. and then a picture of what the text is describing. The children recognize the picture, point to it, and identify it. By doing so, they are associating the symbol of doctor with the word doctor. Symbols are so important to literacy learning. I have seen many teachers label everything in their classroom. This association of a symbol with a text plays a huge impact in children becoming comfortable with using words. All of the sudden, it clicks that the letters c-h-a-i-r are symbolic of what the student is sitting in.

Good Writing

Although grammar and sentence structure are important, I think that what makes writing worth reading is when the words say something that requires a person to think deeper about whatever the topic is. Good writing should cause a person to feel some type of emotion and feel that they are a part of the text. The heart of the message of the writing is what makes it worth reading, but there are some parts of writing that can hinder the main message. If writing is not organized well and does not have a clear flow, then no one can understand it. Therefore, the reader would not be able to take away the ideas that the author was hoping to express.

I also think that what makes writing worth reading is completely based on personal preference. Some people enjoy a good love story, but to others this would be a waste of their time. Others have favorite authors, and they particularly enjoy that person's writing style. To them, this is something that is worth reading. All in all, I feel that writing is worth reading if it is enjoyable and one can get something out of it. This "something" could be anything from a deeper understanding of a certain subject to feeling a certain emotion.

The Reading Process

There are two main purposes for reading: to be entertained and to retrieve information. When one is reading to be entertained, this is referred to as aesthetic reading. When people participate in aesthetic reading, they focus on the experience of reading. Images, thoughts, and feelings are very important in this type of reading. When one reads to retrieve information, this is called efferent reading. People who participate in efferent reading focus on the words and symbols, not reading as an experience. My favorite type of reading if definitely aesthetic. I love to read a good book that I can just be immersed in the story.

There are five stages of the reading process. The first stage is prereading. When students preread they are building background knowledge, setting a purpose for reading, and previewing the text. An example of prereading is skimming through the pages to look at the illustrations or looking at the table of contents. The second stage is reading. There are five types of reading (independent, with a buddy, shared, guided, and listening). This stage also involves reading from beginning to end, applying skills and strategies, and looking at illustrations, charts, and diagrams throughout the text. An example of reading is the teacher reading aloud, while the students follow along with their own copy. The third stage of the reading process is responding. Responding can involve reading logs or discussing the text with classmates and the teacher. An example of responding is the teacher asking students to write a journal article on what they think will happen next in the story. The fourth stage is exploring. Exploring involves diving deeper into the text by rereading, examining how the author writes, learning vocabulary, and participating in minilessons. An example of exploring is asking the students to pick out vocabulary words in the text that they are unsure of and then looking them up. The last stage of the reading process is applying. This can involve creating a project, connecting with relating books, or valuing the reading experience. An example of applying is asking the students to create an art project on their favorite part of the book.

To develop a capable readers, there are four key factors that must be present. These include word identification (recognizing the word instantly), fluency (quickly and using expression), vocabulary (learning more words every day), and comprehension (using existing knowledge while reading).

There are several different means in which students can read. These include shared reading (teachers read aloud while students follow along), guided reading (students grouped by reading levels and guided by the teacher), independent reading (read and sometimes chose text independently), buddy reading (two students), and reading aloud to students. The teacher and student can use the reading process in the classroom by using reading workshops. The teachers can use this opportunity to remind students of the reading process and help them come to a greater understanding of what they are reading. Also, reading workshops would have a project at the end, which is stage 5: applying.

The Six Language Arts

After attending the first class, we learned that there are six language arts: reading, writing, talking, listening, viewing, and visually representing. I found these surprising at first because if someone asked me about language arts, I would assume that there were two types: reading and writing. However, after thinking about this, all six make perfect sense. I found it interesting that the six include talking and listening. These are often neglected in schools, but are so important. Without good talking and listening skills, students are not able to communicate well. I feel that the reason I would forget to include viewing and visually representing on my list is that these weren't a big part of language arts when I was in school. Digital media was not used as often as it is now. However, because technology is rapidly expanding and is a part of children's daily lives, I think it should definitely be included on the list of language arts. By adding these to the list, we are not merely condoning all of the digital and media influences on children's lives, but instead taking the technology that children have at their disposal and teaching them to use it in a responsible and positive way.

When I was in elementary school, reading and writing are the main things that stand out. However, I do remember my teachers reading aloud stories for us to aesthetically listen. I do not remember talking, viewing, or visually representing being a focus. We were constantly tested on reading comprehension and writing abilities, so I feel that these stand out as the most important. I always enjoyed reading more than writing when I was in elementary school and still do today; I do not see that changing.

I loved listening to Sahara Special. Based on my time in public schools, I have seen that same student sitting out in the hallway. I can also relate to Sahara's mother. In one of my child development classes we discussed relationships with parents and the school, and how it is so important to let parent's know they are their child's first educator and to make them involved in decision-making, but this does not always happen. I think Sahara's love for writing at home will help her succeed in school.