Lifelong Writer's

     One of the biggest things that I got out of the Andersen's text was a teacher's goal should always be to create lifelong writers. A lifelong writer is someone who understands that writing is a part of everyday life and does not shy away from it but instead embraces it. Throughout the text Andersen points out what we as teachers need to focus on when giving both writing instruction and assessments to our students. These points are: understanding your student, having the proper conferencing techniques, and make lesson that support your students. We have discussed these ideas in depth in our class and they are supported by other professional text.
    I think the most important skill Andersen talks about is knowing who your students are. It is important to understand what drives your students so you can properly assess their writing. Taking the time to know your students will help create a trusting bond and it is with this bond that you can find ways to take the student's work to the next level. A way to do this (as state by Andersen and many other professionals) is through active listening. Active listening shows the students that you are taking a genuine interest in their writing and that you want to be their partner and not just a person who can pass or fail their work. Teacher's must also understand a student background knowledge. This information will help you understand where your student is coming from and what experiences they can use to create meaningful pieces.
     A writing conference is the key to a good writing unit. Andersen describes many different conferencing techniques that he finds help make the process easy and efficient. I really enjoyed that he used example of conferences that he had with students. I found it practically interesting that some of these conferences were with students that he had just met and he still found a way to help them successfully implement some new skill into their writing. I think conferencing is time when the student sees that the teacher is taking an interest on their individual work instead of just flying through a bunch a papers. It is during this time that meaningful conversations occur and students develop the skills need to understand how to critique and improve not only their own work but also their peers.
     Andersen stresses having lessons that are challenging and also speak to your students. I thought it was interesting that he advocates not to have a writing unit planned out before getting to to know your students. Instead you should make your lessons cater directly to what your students are struggling with. I think this can be a little scary because you might not be able to plan as far in advance as you'd like but it will help students be able to directly apply the lesson into their writing. I like the idea of letting your students fully explore topics that interest them. I think that it might be hard to let go of control but students will make more meaningfully connections when they have a power in where their writing it going.

The Importance of Failure

                So, the flu caught me last week and I was unable to attend class. I caught up with a couple of my classmates from class and they informed me that we had a discussion about failure in class. I thought and I thought and then I thought some more about failures role in the classroom and even now as I’m sitting on a train listening to a man who has self-appointed himself tour guide, I can’t say that I fully have my decision 100% made on failure’s role in the classroom but this is what I have so far. I do believe failure is a necessity in learning because students need to know how to handle failure. Now I’m not saying that failure means getting a F on a paper or 2/10 on worksheet; failure means different things to different individuals. When I was in elementary school it meant getting a B. I almost had a heart attack when I got a B in English in 5^th grade. Now let me give you some background to better understand that heart attack.
       I grew up in Brookfield, Il (yes near that famous zoo and no I could not hear the animals at night) and went to Congress Park Elementary school (go dolphins!). School came easily to me (it did help that my mother was a book worm and my father loved numbers so they passed those passions onto me) and I was considered gifted. My school did not have funding for a full on gifted (or extended learning) program- in the beginning a special teacher came once a week and pulled a group of about 5-8 out of us out for reading and again for math then by fourth grade there wasn’t enough money for the teacher so they made an extra packet for us and sent us out into the hallway to do it during regular class time. In fifth grade the packets were gone and I began to coast (an attitude that I still struggle against to this day). I wasn’t challenged and when I finished my work early I’d get in trouble for talking so soon I began to space out and slowly complete my work with ease because I could. I always got A’s and never struggled to understand a concept even when I missed a day due to illness. I guess I was coasting a little too much and when I say my mid quarter report of a B in Language Arts, I wanted to cry. This is an opportunity I wish my teacher would have taught me to stop my coasting ways and help me find ways to make things more challenging so I would not lose focus instead I did every single extra credit opportunity to get the 70 points I needed to move my B to an A.
        Now some of those extra credit opportunities were definitely meant for students who struggled with Language Arts but my teacher did not say I couldn’t so I made 10 bumper stickers and easily whipped out another 10 poems (most of which were not very good). I moved away after the 5^th grade and went to a middle school that had an amazing gifted program (PAL classes), where I was challenged but still did not have to stress ever about school. My 8^th grade teacher Mrs. Babcock for language arts kept warning us of some wall, we would hit and usually the response was “What wall?” I did not hit that wall until freshman year of high school in honors English and boy did I hit that wall hard. I struggled in honors English until junior year when I made the decision to drop down. Part of me wishes I could have handled not being the smartest person in the class and understood this struggle would help me later in college and may have bitten my procrastination problem in the butt. Instead of coming to terms with my failures I decided to shy away to the back of the class and just stop trying (what was the point of trying if I never got higher than a B, anyways). I wish I had a teacher that would have explained that failing is not the end of the world that failing does not mean I’m dumb and that the classroom is a perfectly safe place to fail in fact fail all over the place in elementary school and middle school-learn from every mistake so when you get to college you understand what works for you! If you have any comments about the idea of failure or want to share your story with me please share! 

I think, think I can

     So I am a major klutz and broke my computer with a few drops of water (let that be a lesson to the world to keep your water  bottle at least 100 yards away from your computer). I'm currently writing this on my smartphone so this will mostly need some editting once I fix my computer(please computer Gods let my computer awaken  tomorrow morning). Now it's time to get to the real post about my think aloud. I decided to use the same student as I did for my miscued just because I thought she'd be more comfortable with me. I was in luck when I noticed her reading the Hunger Games earlier in the week. I had already read The Hunger Games and was very comfortable with the book. I decided to focus on making predictions mainly because I know that's something her teacher always wants the students doing.
     I decided to use the talk through strategy for my think aloud. The student and I took turns reading the story aloud, during this I would pause occasionally to share my thoughts and ideas while encouraging the student to do the same. Once again it took awhile for the student warm up to me but when she said she couldn't stop talking. She had so many ideas yo share which turned into a great discussion about the book. ,in order to focus on predictions, I would occasionally ask her to think about where she thought the story was going and what evidence she had to support her idea. I want to show her that in order to successfully be able to predict she has to have evidence from the text to support her ideas. When we finish reading I provided her paper to write a paragraph about where she thought the story was going while I did the same. I was pleasantly surprised to see her writing enthusiastically. After she was done she shared her prediction and then I shared mine. I asked her after what she thought of the think aloud and was again surprised when she saidthat it made writing her prediction ten times easier. After spring break I will be in charge of teaching half the class a book discussion and after seen the think aloud work so well I can't wait to try it on an even bigger scale.
     Doing the think aloud gave me some great insight into my student's mind. We had a very mature discussion about how the book related to the real world. I was proud of her from making connections with her own life, which proves Miller's ideas that by making meaning and connections to the text students will be able to retain more information. She was able to retell most of the story because she felt a connection with the main character and in a way her journey in the book became my student's journey as well. Not only did the think aloud connect with Miller but also with Tovani. This book has become so much more than a book, it's become an adventure (and that's such a powerful tool). I want to incorporate think alouds regularly into my classroom for numerous reasons. I believe they help the student see that teachers do not know everything but they also have questions as well and it models how to process these questions that arise during reading. It also helps promote higher order thinking by prompting so many discussion with the text. I think it would be interesting to do the think aloud with an older grade and use a picture book. Please share your experiences with think alouds-I'd love to know more!

Don't forget to check out the links for Miller's text and Tovani's in previous post

Diversity in Literature

     The topic Tony and I chose to explore is diversity in literature. I think diversity is an important topic that should be actively incorporated into every aspect of the classroom but that research pinterest board would be enormous and very daunting, which is why we just narrowed it down to the literature aspect of it. I remember being in school and hating the generic textbooks- I wanted to read books about far away place or better yet a book about a girl like me. I want my students to be able to explore and relate to different cultures so that when they do come face to face with diversity they know how to appreciate it instead of being confused. Our research will focus on a wide variety of cultures, races, and ethnicity so students can be exposed to as much as possible.
    I know that I want to explore textbooks and articles about diversity in the class but I'm still searching for articles. I want to use Debbie Miller because I have read two of her books and like her approaches to literature. Miller thinks that giving student choices allows them to feel greatly empowered in their reading journey. I want to find ways to incorporate these choices with the diversity activities and books that we find. The texts I've read have only touched on Miller's stance on diversity in the classroom so I'm interested in seeing more of her opinion on the matter. Another book I want to re-explore is The Girl with the Brown Crayon: How Children Use Stories to Shape Their Lives. I remember reading this book and being inspired at how the kindergarten class was making such amazing connections to the Leo Lionni. I'm curious to see if the author Vivian Paley has any other articles, blogs, or books because I was inspired at how she created a year long author study at such a young age.
     I am in a 6th grade class this semester for practicum and after spring break we will be diving into the book Esperanza Rising. This was one of the first book I truly connected with as a child. I remember asking my grandma if Mexico was really like how Esperanza described it and listening to her stories of growing up. I'm excited to see how my practicum teacher addresses the culture of the book while still having discussions about the normal literary aspects (metaphors, similes, tone, etc.). I will be teaching half of the class so it will give me an opportunity to test some of the activities and discussions I want to have in my classroom while having an experience teacher's opinion and help.
      Our topic relates to many topics that we are covering in class. One big idea that goes with our topic is reading for meaning. By picking books the serve a great purpose (learning about diversity) students have to work hard to make connections and understand another culture's point of view, which will allow them to gain so much more from the text. Students will often have to explore outside the text to understand a character or to learn more about a country. These types of books can easily be incorporated into other lessons making students see how literature plays such a large role in the classroom. I can't wait to continue our research and see how incorporating diverstiy in literature can be an easy and beneficial thing to do.