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.

Miscue Analysis

     I haven't had the greatest experience with miscue analysis so I wasn't very thrilled when I had to do this assignment in fact it induced flashbacks of me begging a student to read just one page, just one word, anything! This miscue analysis was completely different though and it was much better than the formal one I did in the past. This time around I had a reader who was more inclined to read and have a discussion, where I got to empower her and show that her miscues help her get through readings.
     I worked with a sixth grade girl from my reading practicum. She is an average reader and according to my cooperating teacher usually excited to do one on one activities with teacher. My cooperating teacher said that she would be a good student to have discussion with and offered me the book series that they use in language arts. Since the class is mostly focusing on nonfiction stories I chose a story from the beginning of the year that had not been chosen for group reading. We read Agent for the Stars by Bette Frisk. I wish I had gotten to know my reader a little better because then we would have picked a different book. I believe that most of her miscues were from her nervousness (I've only been in the class 5 times) so we mostly discussed how miscues were a good thing and not bad. I talked about how I make some of the same miscues to help her feel more at ease. We mainly focused on talking about meaning and characters. We only began to scratch the surface when my student had to leave for band practice, which was quite unfortunate.
     The retelling was were I got most of my information. She was able to retell but in fact struggled with digging deeper and talk about the meaning without some prompting. A lot of this had to do with the rush time we had and the fact that we didn't really get into the meat of the story so it was hard for her to fully understand and connect with the characters. I think if I got to pick a better story or we had more time then the retelling conversation would have gone more smoothly.

This miscue analysis did bring it into a more positive light. I did not like them because of the terrible first experience I had. I think this informal method helped put me at ease and not recording the student helped her feel a little less nervous. I liked how this miscue analysis was more focused on discussion and not formal coding. The discussion allowed me to connect more with my student and share some of my reading experiences. I think this helps the student see me as a partner in their reading adventure instead of just an authoritative figure.
  Overall, I think it went well considering certain problems (not knowing my student very well and the time rush we had). I did learn a lot about the student and thought of some ideas that I would like to apply to my future class. I think this type of miscue is easy to implement in my everyday class and will give great power to my students. I hope to learn how to better my technique and be prepared for any situation that may occur with miscue analysis.

Our Classroom, Our Home

     I've fantasized about my classroom for as long as I can remember. I've thought about the cute bulletin boards that will adorn my room with catchy phrases and how my class will come together as a group (The Cyz Superstars was going to be such a great bulletin board with the kids names in stars). I can't wait to decorate a room that will encourage learning and this week something was brought to my attention. The classroom should not be my space but it should be our space. A fun way to do this is have students design what they want their class to look like on the first day and try to find ways to incorporate this into our classroom.
     In Debbie Miller's book Teaching with Intention, Miller discusses how your classroom space should somehow support your teaching beliefs. If I want students to see that I believe that are in charge of their learning then I need to show them by giving them a chance to have ownership of their learning space. I know this might be difficult to do at first but I think the idea of having a blank canvas (aka your classroom) will help your students see that you are on the learning adventure together. One idea I hope to incorporate is the idea of using the walls of the room as a timeline for the class. The students will do opening day activity such as a 10 Things About Me activity, which will serve as the beginning of the timeline and decorate one of the walls. As time goes on the class can vote on which activities in class they would like to display on the timeline. I also think I'd like to have student groups decorate some on the bulletin boards during rotation. By decorating the bulletin boards students once again are able to play a more active role in their learning because they have to come up with a way to display the learning topic to their fellow classmates through pictures and few words. I want to cater to all learning styles. I think a way to achieve this is to have stations throughout the rooms that are specific to each learning style. An example of this would be a kinesthetic station would included a table and few chairs with lots of hands on activities. A learner that is auditory would include headphones with parts of the lessons used with music or tapes that students can listen to again and again.
     Another one of my beliefs that I want to incorporate into my classroom environment is diversity. I think a great way for students to truly learn about another culture is to see and experience it. Every month or couple of weeks I want to have a board or section of the room that will be decorated to match the culture we are visiting. I think that by having the culture so interactive students will be able to relate more and get excited to learn about it. Once again after the first month students can be in charge of the area. I hope to get the class involved in a "class trip" of sorts that will give students the power to chose the countries that we will visit throughout the year. Though this will definitely mean a lot more work for me I think it will make the activity more meaningful to the students.
    I want my students to feel at home and I think a wonderful way to do this is to have a homey reading area. Not only will students feel comfortable but they will always be more excited to read, which is something I hope to instill in my students. I will make the reading area more personable by asking students their ideas to make the reading area comfortable. I also want to have book bins by theme not by reading level. I think students are smart enough to chose a book that they can understand and by sorting by theme students can explore topics that interest them not just what level they are in.

My Teaching Beliefs

"When teachers have a set of beliefs that guides our work, we know where we're going. There may be twists and turns along the way, but we always know where we're headed." 

-Debbie Miller  Teaching with Intention     

     I've been asked to consider my teaching beliefs and I think this is an interesting point to do this. I'm currently in one of my last semesters before I actually become a teacher so I'm full of experiences from my teaching classes but those experiences considerably outweigh my experiences as a classroom teacher. Essentially this beliefs are my foundations and I'm aware that once I actually begin to teach they may change so it will be interesting to have a place to see my beginning ideas and maybe even useful (for those days when I'm feeling down and stressed from teaching). 

    So without further ado, here is my foundation:

1. Diversity will be welcomed, celebrated, and accepted in my classroom.

     I grew up in two very different schools (one that was filled with minority and one where I was the only minority). While the affluent middle school I went to have many resources that my elementary school didn't have it lacked something incredibly important: diversity. I want my students to learn about diversity as I find ways to regularly incorporate it into lessons. I think by learning about diversity (even if it's not present in the school environment) then students will broaden their horizons and be able to comprehend the whole world around them. Celebrating cultures helps show my students how to respect different cultures while all seeing how cultures differ. I will show my students to be accepting of other cultures by being a role model and show how I am accepting myself. I hope students will feel comfortable enough sharing their different cultures and by doing so can come to understand their fellow classmates more and create deeper bonds.

2. My students are individuals and therefore I will respect their individual learning styles and help find ways to match it in lessons.

     Every student has their own learning style and to teach the class as if they all have the same style would not help students succeed. As a teacher if I come to understand each students learning styles then I can figure out ways to address the styles in lessons so that every student can understand. By using different learning styles then I'm also showing students that I'm not disregarding their learning and instead empowering them to embrace different ways to learn.

3. The classroom environment should welcome and be a safe place for students.

     Students spend 8 hours a day in the classroom and it soon becomes a second home. I think that students should not fear being in the classroom but instead be excited. When students feel comfortable in the classroom then they be more inclined to sit in the classroom and learn. Sometimes home life is not always the best for students and their only escape may be school; if that is the case then students should feel safe at school. I think ways to accomplish this can be giving students ownership of their classroom (this can be done a variety of ways that include name tags, student art on the classroom, student based rules, etc.), making sure there is food and water in the class for students who are hungry/thirsty, and providing jackets for some students when it get cold. When school becomes a safe place for student then they will thrive because they are getting their basic means met. 

4. All students can learn.

    Sometimes students get written off due to their reputation and they slowly begin to believe that they can not learn but that is the furthest thing from the truth. All students have the ability to learn and sometimes it just takes a little work to help the students find their passion. Students may be acting out for other reasons and once a teacher help the student solve them then a student is better able to learn.