Blog #5 - Strategy to help diverse learners

I feel the one strategy that will help me the most when teaching diverse learners is to get to know them. If you approach an already frightened child from another country whom you know nothing about; you may ruin your chances at building a strong relationship. From the start, give the child space and make the child feel comfortable with you.  Read up on the students culture and traditions. When you turn your classroom into a culturally diverse oasis, the children will feel more at home. I remember talking about the books on the library shelf during class the other day. I loved when they said, "If your library does not represent everyone in your class than you need to rethink it." Same goes for a child who is not fluent in English; if they do not have the feeling of being "wanted" than you will have problems with them wanting to learn.

I also feel it is important to look up words in the child's language. You can use smart phones or ipads and download translation apps. A word of caution however, some words are not going to be 100% correct for the context you are using them in. I had trouble looking up a sentence I was supposed to write in Spanish class and it turned out wrong. Use many visual clues and body language to tell the child what you wish for them to do.  The more you try to use their language the more they will want to learn ours.

ARTIFACT:
I chose this article that goes into further detail the benefits of getting to know your students. My favorite part of the article was when it mentioned that even though they still have high expectations for their students, they are flexible about changing the curriculum to meet individual needs of the students.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/development/documents/diversity/diversity_article.pdf

Qualities we should have when dealing with diversity!!

Blog #4 Diverse Learners

The biggest factor that I feel hurts diverse learners in learning to read is that the English language has so many words that sound the same but mean different things. Vocabulary is especially hard for young readers, so could you imagine how difficult it would be for an ELL student?

 Here is a website I found that shows some difficulties ELL students face when learning to read. http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/33830/ I chose this website because it mentions the many things a teacher could try in order to reach the ELL students. This website is also the very same site that I used with my Education 110 class when I did a full research paper on ELL students.

Examples of words that may be difficult are as follows

• there, their, they're
• see, sea
• pare, pair, pear
• plane, plain
• bear, bare
• be, bee

One good thing about the English language vs. Spanish is that some words sound alike, such as:

• guitar-guitarra
• school-escuela
• mom-mama
• republic-republica

Blog #16 Quality children's literature

My artifact is a web page about how and why we select quality children's literature. http://www.education.com/reference/article/selecting-children-literature/

On this webpage it gives a detailed list of do's and don'ts, so to speak, on selecting books for children. The one most important thing I have learned from the website was to select books that the kids in your class would be interested in. Yes, this means you will have to rotate your books periodically because the likes of the kiddos change often!

As a teacher it is my job to select quality books for many different reasons. I cannot share a story book with children that is not developmentally appropriate. The language in the books has to match that of what the children are learning. Would you select a chapter book for a group of Kindergartners?

Select books based on what children will enjoy learning about. Be careful choosing books that are stereotypical or ones that are banned.  If you have questions regarding which books to choose, you can ask the parents which books they allow their children to read.

Blog #3 Teaching with Technology

You either love technology or hate it! When it works it is great. I find though that it is hard to use sometimes. I will give an example; I could not view my math textbook online because my computer was so jam packed with nonsense tools and gadgets. My computer ran slower than a snail on speed. I had to delete  so many programs by uninstalling them from my computer. Eureka!, it worked!

I taught my son how to read by slowly showing him words on my phone. I downloaded an app of sight words and we practiced them together every night. There are so many fun and interesting games you can find for your phone or Ipad.

My Artifact is a picture of the latest tech/ gear out there for children, teens, and adults. I wanted to show the many cool devices you can buy to supposedly make your life a little easier. I have seen a growth in my son when it comes to wanting to learn. The fun interactive games that can be downloaded to an iphone or ipad are easy to do and very educational.

Blog #2 My beliefs and personal experiences

I have always had a love for reading until I became a parent of three young boys. Now I think, who has the time to read anything? I love Dean Koontz books, as I have mentioned before. His writing just has a flow to it. I have tried to read other author's books but just can't get into reading them because of how the wording is.
I believe kids will only read what interests them, let me rephrase... I believe anyone only enjoys reading what they are interested in.  It is hard for a student to be a good reader if they are made to read a book about snakes when they may be terrified of them.  As a teacher, I will first get to know what the students are interested in and tailor what they enjoy to their reading level. I hate to say I will force a kid to read, but really if you don't give them a little "push" to keep reading now and then, they will get lazy and stop reading all together. It is a balancing act to keep them reading, but don't push too fast because they will see reading as a chore and lose interest.

My biggest memory about reading was when I sat in front of the tv every afternoon to watch "Reading Rainbow" on channel 33. I still remember the theme song. "Take a look it's in a book, Reading Rainbow".

Blog #1 Why am I taking this course

I am taking this course because it is required for graduation and because I love stories.  I am not the greatest at reading and I really only have one favorite author: Dean Koontz; however, I love to travel to many different places just by  opening a book.
I learned how to read by first learning to recognize letters and the sounds they make. If I close my eyes and think back to my Kindergarten days, I can still see the letter cards that encircled the room. I think I will teach kids in my class how to read by first teaching them the letters and showing them how they are used with in the words in context. I will also teach them by showing them pictures of objects with the written word underneath. The more print they see the easier it will be for them to read the words around them.
Kids pick up on words quickly and before you know it they will go from saying, "what's that say, to "hey, guess what this says!" I enjoy seeing the glow in the kids's eyes when they can read for themselves.