My Comprehension Process

            It is hard thinking back on my own comprehension process, but various events stuck out in my mind while reading Tomkins and the two articles for this week’s reading. I remember being a literalist like the Applegate article described. I had a harder time thinking outside the box and “reading in between the lines;” if the answer was not directly in the text I would get nervous. In the sixth grade I was a part of the Book Bowl club. This was a very question-answer based club for my team and I had to remember explicit details about ten books. Since I was a literalist this really helped.

            However, to help develop my comprehension my teachers taught me very good visualization techniques even from a young age. As the Gregory article states, even Kindergartners can begin using strategies such as questioning and visualization or “making movies.” This “making movies” strategy has helped me because it keeps me focused on what I am reading. One pitfall I struggle with in comprehension is drifting off. If I know I am not visualizing then I know I am simply reading words on a page.

            Thinking back I did not have one specific teacher who stood out in teaching me strategies and asking me higher ordered questions, but rather is was a combination of all of them. With that being said I know my elementary education could have been better at asking more of those higher ordered questions and using more strategies. The comprehension discussed in these articles goes far beyond the skills I learned in school, but I want to make sure my future students are learning these strategies and continuously make connections and dig deeper.  

Classroom

             I have noticed a lot of the behaviors in regards to comprehension in my placement classroom that I read the readings. A few weeks ago students read to me their “Backpack Reader” stories and I determined if they were able to read the story well enough to start reading a book that is a little harder. While there are many benefits to this program I also see weaknesses. Most importantly is that I did not have to assess whether or not they were comprehending the text. Therefore, I took it upon myself to ask my own questions to make sure they were. While these were not higher order thinking questions it was still a start.

            The first behavior I noticed was that if a student was not fluent at reading a book they had a harder time answering my questions. Tomkins discusses how fluency is a huge factor in comprehension. Another behavior I noticed was their motivation. If students did not want to be reading to me they were simply getting the words out as fast as they could so they could be done. Lastly, I witnessed what Tompkins calls repairing. When I read with a particular child she read the sentence, but knowing that it didn't make sense she went back and corrected the word.

            Both Gregory and Tompkins discuss how comprehension should be active and visible. Children should connect to their own experiences and make meaning out of their reading. I see in the classroom how when given the opportunity they love talking about their text to self connections. They are truly story tellers. I think the teacher should do more in catering to this excitement. While I do see predicting and question and answer (literal questions) I do not see very much questioning, text-to-world, text-to-text.

            

Eddie is a student in Mrs. Potter’s class who is imaginative and well liked. However, he has not been getting his work done and often has trouble sitting still. It is clear that Mrs. Potter needs to make some accommodations for Eddie to learn to his fullest potential. The first thing I would tell Mrs. Potter to do is talk to Eddie’s parents or guardians. These are the people in Eddie’s life who know him the best and Mrs. Potter can learn a great deal from them about his behavior at home. In addition, I would suggest that Mrs. Potter try a few “tricks” mentioned in this weeks’ readings.

First, I would give Eddie something to hold onto during group time or any other time where he does not need a pencil in his hand. The Kostelnick article talks about how Marcus was able to attend to a lot more things if he had something to hold onto. Therefore, I suggest proving Eddie with a small squishy ball to work with or a smooth rock to stroke. I have learned in my child development classes that if you provide something for one child you should provide it for every child. Therefore, something to hold onto like a fidget should be made available to everyone, but soon most children will realize they don’t need an object to help them focus and will choose not to use it.

 Secondly I give Mrs. Potter the idea of providing Eddie with lots of visual supports. For example, if Mrs. Potter were to assign a worksheet to the class, she could provide Eddie with a first/then or a behavior visual like those mentioned in the Breitfelder article. A first/then visual would have a picture of completed homework on the ‘first’ side and a picture of a boy drawing a picture or something else Eddie enjoys doing on the ‘then’ side. This will help him see what is expected of him at that time and what he gets as a reward if he completes the desired task.

During the tadpole lesson Eddie was excited to look at the tadpole jar, but could not repeat how many eggs a frog can lay. Therefore, group lessons may also need lots of visuals to keep Eddie interested and focused on something. If the teacher is just talking, Eddie may zone out and not pay attention. If there is something to look at he may connect the words the teacher is saying to the pictures on the visual and be able to focus and keep himself engaged with the discussion.

The bio of Eddie also mentions that he is well liked by his classmates. I am wondering if more group work would be beneficial for him. Strategic planning of groups can help children. For example, Mrs. Potter could put Eddie with children who stay on task and could positively remind him of the assignment they are to complete during the group work.

Another idea I have is to make things very active and engaging for Eddie. He seems like he needs a lot of time to strength his muscles and use his gross motor skills. Learning can be done in multiple ways and one of those ways is to have class outside.

EDDIE

        

            Eddie’s behaviors seem to fall into the category of Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).   According to Kostelnick common characteristics of ADHD include difficulty sitting for long periods of time and difficulty attending to tasks.   Eddie is a very active student and reminds me of a boy in my placement classroom who shows some signs of ADHD.  I think that Eddie would benefit from doing more hands on activities, such as learning centers, rather than worksheets.  Eddies seems to find excuses to get out of doing his work such as getting out of his seat and going to the bathroom. This shows low confidence in his ability to get his work done.  This behavior is similar to Marcus’s, a gifted child diagnoses with mild ADHD from the Gifted and Challenging article.  Like Marcus, Eddie has low motivation to get his work done.  This could be due to fear of trying things where failure is a possibility. I think that helping Eddie come up with a structured work plan (such as deciding what materials and skills are needed to carry out the assignment) would give him confidence that he is able to complete it on his own.  During group time Eddie seems day dream and has trouble focusing, as he did during the science lesson.  To support his participation and focusing Ms. Potter could make him more involved in group lessons by having him ask questions and use him in demonstrations.       

Eddie has difficulty paying attention and seems to daydream and not focus on the teacher.   

More information is needed but based on the information given, I would recommend that the teacher further evaluate him to determine if he is gifted and just bored in the classroom or has attention problems, or a combination of both.  According to Kostelnick, a child who daydreams and does not get his/her work done is a common behavioral characteristic of giftedness and/or ADHD.  It is important to have an accurate diagnosis because ADHD may be misdiagnosed when, in fact, a child is gifted and just bored in the classroom.  

Lupita

            I think that Mrs. Potter’s concern about specific students in her classroom and what she has observed shows that she is perceptive and observant in each and every one of her student’s needs. Some students are able to follow along with the pace of the class and the processes, and that works for them. There are some students, however, that just don’t or can’t. While it is stressful to have to tailor teaching toward individual students and make adaptations, a teacher’s job is to make each of their student’s chances of learning equitable. Equality doesn’t always mean that teaching practices look the same for each and every student. I absolutely agree with the chapter from Kostelnick about Marcus, a student that needed special adaptations to help him be able to participate and be successful in his classroom community. While there were certain things that the teacher needed to do differently to accommodate Marcus, they were not huge sacrifices for the teacher at all, and they helped Marcus stay on task, behave well and be happy a lot better.

            In the case of Lupita, I think that Mrs. Potter needs to take this idea of equitability to heart. Lupita deserves a fair chance in being able to learn all of the material and have access to the available resources that other students are able to take advantage of. Lupita definitely fits the profile of an English Language Learner, as a student that was raised in Mexico and does Spanish work. According to the Freeman article, she seems to fit in the category as “limited formal schooling” like Pepe. Lupita was not exposed to supplies and things that other students her age were exposed to, and she does not seem to have academic proficiency in her L1. This means that she is even more behind in becoming both conversational and academically proficient in her L2, English.

            If Mrs. Potter knows that she has had little experience with supplies, puzzles, toys and interaction, it is important that she provides these opportunities for Lupita now. Designing assignments that include these items, where other students are able to help scaffold and interact with Lupita, and where the teacher has designed extra support is essential to help Lupita grow and learn more. As Mrs. Potter designs lessons, it is essential that she keeps Lupita, as well as Eddie and Jonathan in mind.

            There are specific helpful adaptations that we have talked about in class to aid in the learning of English Language Learners. The Breitfelder article even makes a good point about the use of visuals as adaptations. While this article mainly focused on students who have diagnoses of autism, ADD, and other disorders, visuals can be extremely helpful for English Language Learners, as well. Any support that helps students with the language content of an assignment or lesson can improve their comprehension and learning of English. Using pictures, graphs, maps, organizers, gestures, and even the white board or overhead can help support an ELL greatly. Giving directions in several ways, such as verbally, on the board, and on a worksheet give ELLs more opportunity to understand the assignment.

            Another adaptation that Freeman suggested was teaching content around themes. This helps organize the content for ELLs and begin to grasp academic content and grow in academic proficiency. An extremely important accommodation that we have talked about throughout the semester is valuing an ELL’s home language and culture. Making Lupita feel like Spanish and her Mexican heritage are important makes her feel like she is part of the classroom community and has access to the content given. Using literature or other background knowledge that relates to Lupita’s culture and language would help greatly in developing her proficiency. Something that could help with the knowledge of this culture and language is developing a relationship with Lupita’s parents or guardians. Including them into her learning would only help her school life and home life align.

            Mrs. Potter was able to observe Lupita’s skill with puzzles and her seemingly enjoyment of them in her free time. She was also able to see that lead to natural interaction with her peers. Using this knowledge to help promote interaction would help Lupita’s proficiency levels. Discovering other things that Lupita is interested in would also be helpful in knowing how to use Lupita’s gifts and talents to help her learn about things that she may not be as interested in or help her develop her language skills. Sitting down with Lupita and taking the time to interview her and learn more about her, as well as paying close attention and observing her in class are good steps that Mrs. Potter could take.

            English Language Learners have a lot on their plates with not only trying to learn the academic content of what is being taught in there classroom, but at the same time trying to learn the language that the content is given in. In order for Lupita to be growing and developing, it is essential that Mrs. Potter take the time to create accommodations and adaptations for Lupita’s learning. She owes it to each and every one of her students to get to know them, their strengths and weaknesses, and specific things that need to happen in order for them to continue to grow and develop as learners.

Jonathan

Jonathan is a friendly kid with many interests, and is an average student in math.  However, when it comes to reading, Jonathan is far below grade level.  There are many strategies that can be used to help Jonathan improve his reading, but the first thing I would do if the teacher has not done so already, is talk to his parents.  I really loved the idea from the Maples article of having parents write a letter about their child at the beginning of the school year, but simply meeting with the parents would be fine as well.  This would help the teacher to really get a feel for who Jonathan is, and the student he has been in past years.  Actually, meeting with them face to face would be great because the teacher could then take the opportunity to discuss with the parents how to best go about helping Jonathan.  If he has always struggled with reading, maybe they would be interested in looking into a reading specialist.  Maybe the parents never work on reading with Jonathan at home, and the teacher could recommend that they do and even show them some appropriate books to get started with.  It could possibly even be something as simple as Jonathan needing glasses. 

           

As far as helping Jonathan with his reading in the classroom, I would first work with Jonathan to see where he is at regarding his phonological awareness.  This could be done through a series of simple assessments.  There are also many different reading strategies that can help Jonathan develop his fluency.  Practicing various ways of reading, such as echo reading, simultaneous reading, repeated reading, and paired reading will provide Jonathan with multiple ways to practice reading in a way that will build his fluency, and as a result, his comprehension.  Another way to build reading skill is trough Reader’s Theater.  This is a fun reading activity that allows the whole class to be involved, and helps them to develop their expression when reading as part of fluency.

            Another thing about Jonathan is that he does not ask for help when he needs it, even after the teacher has made it clear that it’s important that he does.  After reading the Breitfelder article, I think that something that might help Jonathan in this area is a regular system for asking for help.  The reading talked about creating setting up daily schedules and routine patterns for centers so that the students come to know exactly what to expect and also what is expected of them.  Perhaps by putting some sort of system in place for asking questions or getting help, the students will develop this same sort of respect for the system as they do for class schedules.  This will make asking questions and getting help a normal part of every day in the classroom.  Another reason Jonathan may be hesitant to ask for help is because he feels that it singles him out and makes him feel incapable.  Having a system would also help remedy this problem because it would be in place for all students.  If Jonathan sees that other students are asking questions too, he may learn to not be quite so hesitant to do so himself.  The system does not have to be anything extravagant, as long as it’s regular and the students have a good understanding of how it works.  For example, it could be something as simple as having the students think of at least one question that they’d like to ask after a particular lesson and ask that question to a partner.  If the partner cannot answer the question, then it goes to the teacher.  If this is the case, it is likely that more than just that one student was confused about a particular concept in the first place. 

Classroom Talk

The classroom talk that takes place at my placement is recitation base.  The teacher will read a story with the children and ask implicit and explicit questions to get them thinking about the book.  Although this encourages the children to talk and share their ideas, there are many pitfalls to this method and instruction that limits their overall comprehension of the story. Unequal participation is a main limitation that I notice in my classroom.  My teacher calls on student volunteers to answer the question.  This is an issue because it is normally the same handful of students who are volunteering to participate.  This allows students to get in the habit of thinking that they can zone off and not pay attention because they will not be called on.  The students in my class get easily distracted and I notice them fighting and focusing on other tasks rather than paying attention to the story being read.

 I notice that there are a handful of students who don’t ever participate during literacy discussions.  One student in particular, who has an IEP plan, will sit through our literacy readings and recitations but have no comprehension of what was just read to him.  The reading discussed multiple methods that can scaffold response-centered talk to take place in the classroom.  In order to promote responses from students my mentor teacher could use the Popsicle stick method to evenly distribute student’s chance to participate.  This will support students in thinking about their response to the questions ahead of time, in anticipation of them being called on.  Resources such as Popsicle sticks and small white boards have the potential to promote a more in-depth discussion by allowing for more students response in the classroom.  I know my mentor teacher has enough white boards available for the students to use.  Students could use white boards to write out their response ahead of time, allowing them to think for themselves before sharing with the class.

One way to scaffold student’s comprehension during a story would be to provide individuals who need extra support with their own book to have in front of them as the teacher reads to the class.  This will help them follow along as the teacher reads to the whole class and not get as easily distracted by other things in the classroom.  

Post2, Incorporating Literature

I know that incorporating literature into a classroom is crucial in developing students' literacy. I have heard this time and time again, through many of my MSU classes, but also from personal experience. I took a liking to reading from an early age, and throughout elementary and middle school, it was rare to find me without a book. I would pick reading over almost any other past time; I would even get in trouble for reading through teachers' other lessons in school. I believe that because of my high exposure to literature from an early age, my literacy skills became strong. To this day, my reading, writing, and other literacy skills are the strongest skills that I have. To be able to foster this same development in my students, I want to motivate them to make literature to be a big part of their lives, and provide opportunities to do this. 

In my Mentor Teacher's classroom, however, I think literature is lacking. My MT has a small bookcase as a classroom library, but I rarely see the students checking out any books. I know they have a library time, but I never see them with their library books in the classroom. My teacher uses textbooks whenever available, meaning that students have a math textbook, a social studies textbook, and a literacy textbook. This is where all of the lessons in that subject come out of. In literacy lessons, they are always teacher focused and are always focused on just the content of the reading out of the textbook. When students finish assignments early or have some down time, they are not encouraged to pull out books, they either cause a disturbance or bother the teacher.  

Tompkins brings up another important idea of preparing students in the field of literacy - the new literacy of the Internet. Print sources are not the only important forms of literacy, but online documents are, as well. Tompkins explains that these online sources have a different structure to them and require different strategies for literacy, as well. I believe that preparing students for online literacy also has a place in the classroom. In my placement, my students have computer time in the library and they spend time playing literacy games online, reading online books, and writing e-mails and blog posts. I like that my MT sees the importance of giving her students time to work in this medium. 

Hassett and Curwood also stress the importance of making literacy instruction relevant to our culture today. Realizing that our culture is highly connected to technology in all aspects and that literacy is "multimodal" is important for incorporation in the teaching curriculum. "Multimodal" means that writing is no longer the only form of literacy today, that our culture sees it as only one form of communication, next to other visual communication such as graphics, images, gestures, facial expressions, or sounds, oral language, etc. Instead of just looking at a certain literacy piece, Hassett and Curwood stress teaching about context and how social relationships affect meaning. They stress that interaction with the text is important, and that teachers should foster that. My MT doesn't talk about design of a piece or how the kids might be reacting to what they are reading at all; she just asks them comprehension questions. Being more aligned with Hassett and Curwood is how I want to teach literacy in my classroom. 

Langer really challenges our teachers today to re-think what literacy means, because it hasn't been re-thought in many decades. She believes that literacy instruction is more about the students' development than we traditionally put weight on. She also think that teachers have to re-think the idea of what "success" in literacy means - does it mean getting all the comprehension questions correct, or something deeper? I agree with Langer that we should focus more on how the reader is interacting with the text, rather than what is the perceived "correct" answer to the question. I think that teachers should get students to read for different purposes, including informative, making connections, expanding perceptions, etc. I think these ideas can go across subjects, as well. Rather than just using literature for "literacy time," I think that literature can be used across disciplines for a variety of purposes, and that this helps students see how important literature is to their world. 

Another important factor to think about is literature in terms of bilingual students. Martinez-Roldan displays a picture of Hispanic bilingual students engaged in inquiry-based learning about a piece of literature. The kids are allowed to communicate their thoughts freely, and in whatever language they choose. Codeswitching is a norm. While this may not necessarily be relevant to all classrooms, the idea of inquiry and unrestricted communication can be. These students are allowed to engage with the text without things that may hold them back, like a list of comprehension questions they have to complete or what language they have to speak in. This is very relevant in my classroom, as I am in a Spanish immersion classroom. The kids, save one, all understand both Spanish and English. While it is important that they are developing in both languages, it doesn't seem inappropriate to have some time to speak Spanish, English, Spanglish, or whatever they choose so that they are able to focus  more on content than restrictions. 

I like the idea that a teacher is more of a facilitator of a lesson than the center of it. The kids in the Martinez-Roldan article sustained discussion with each other for almost an hour, and the teacher was nowhere near the focus. I like that they were able to talk about real issues like gender within a piece of literature. This made the book relevant to their lives and engaging. Re-thinking what literacy looks like in the classroom is a good idea. I want to be doing that throughout my teaching career.