Blog # 18 - Reading skills, help or hinder content learning?

My Artifact is the following ..taken from K12 Content Area Reading Literacy. 

 Students need to be able to read because they won't get far in the other areas if they struggle with reading. I once heard someone say, "who needs to know how to read in Math class.?" It is very important to know how to read before math class because you have to read how and why  the math is solved a certain way. Crazy how you have to have a good foundation of reading before performing Math operations. Math also includes many complex terms such as dividend, divisor, radicand, sum, product, associative property and much more. History is nothing but reading. Sorry, you can not even begin to study the subject at a poor reading level. You must first get a grasp on the alphabet before you can sound out the letters, then you move into phonics, phonemes, segmentation and vocabulary. Reading is like any other subject because it runs in succession. Meaning you must first master beginning skill level reading before tackling the difficulty of content learning.

I chose this artifact because it seemed to almost match the same ideas expressed in the Prezi that we saw on April 17th. I enjoyed looking at all of the Science/Space books that could be incorporated into the theme on Space. One time I made a huge rocket ship for the students in my class out of a refrigerator box. The week we talked about and explored Space, we read lots and lots of books on planets, clouds, the Earth, sun, stars and moon. Who knew there were so many books out there on Space.

How to improve content area reading

Text Structure Analysis

Helping students understand how particular content area texts are constructed helps them unlock the information inside them. Teachers should spend time demonstrating how texts are physically structured on the page and how the layout can aid students in understanding the piece. Text features such as illustrations, captions, bold print, footnotes and text boxes should be explored and discussed. In addition, students should become familiar and comfortable with the rhetorical modes used in content area texts. Generally most expository texts are written in the cause-effect, compare-contrast or sequencing formats.

Textbook Walk-throughs

Before students can “tackle” the information in their textbooks they have to understand how they work. This may seem like common sense to a seasoned reader, but many adolescents do not know how to use their textbooks. Teachers should spend time talking with students about how their content area textbook is laid out and where to find information. At the beginning of each unit it is worthwhile for teachers to give students opportunities to preview the chapter(s) they will be reading so that they become familiar with how information is presented and where to locate certain types of information.

Before-During and After Reading Activities

Because content area studies rely so heavily on connecting prior knowledge to new information, a good deal of time should be spent preparing students to read specific content area texts. During the “before reading” portion of a lesson students should be given opportunities to active prior knowledge, develop or understand the questions they will be expected to answer through their reading, make predictions about the text and/or set a purpose for reading. While reading a content area text, students should be encouraged to ask and answer questions and to monitor their reading comprehension. After reading they should make connections and extend their understanding of the topic that they read about.

Questioning

Often times students get so used to teachers asking questions about content after they have finished reading a text that they forget that asking one’s own questions during a reading task is one of the best strategies for ensuring comprehension. Students should be given opportunities to ask and answer their own questions about content area texts. They can generate inquiry questions before reading which they will answer while reading or can ask and answer clarifying questions as they move through a text. The goal of this activity is for students to integrate spontaneous “silent” questioning into their independent reading experiences.

Vocabulary Strategies

Vocabulary is essential for understanding content area texts. Think about all of the subject specific vocabulary words that are necessary to understand a content area textbook. For example, you could not possibly comprehend a social studies chapter on the geography of Africa if you do not know the meanings of the words “desert”, “savannah” and “rainforest”. Each content area expects its practitioners to not only have strong general vocabularies, but also an understanding subject specific words. Students should be encouraged and assisted in learning content area vocabulary words. Strategies such as word maps, collaborative glossaries (content specific dictionaries created by the class) and classification and categorization activities help students develop strong content area vocabularies.

Blog # 20-What I've Learned

I have learned many things in this Literacy class. My favorite part about the Literacy class was being able to use facebook to communicate with the professor and classmates. I have found that the response time for questions posted on facebook is way quicker than email. I have also learned that writing lesson plans and researching websites is very important because it lets you know what resources are available and the lesson plans are valuable because they help me to organize my thoughts about what I want to teach my students. I am very pleased with the work I have put into class; my lesson plans were done professionally and I took pride in all my assignments! The prezis that we watched in class were valuable as well. Another highlight of the class was pinning to Pinterest boards. This is something that I have never gotten onto until this class but I am totally hooked on Pinterest. As a teacher I believe this will be my go to source for fun and exciting new ways to teach the same boring lessons of the past. Pinterest is created by people from all over the world and I believe when we share our ideas, we can truly be connected across the globe.
I really found this class to be a great learning experience in so many ways. I am especially going to keep organizing books I plan to use into groups and categories by theme, author, read alouds and Core Curriculum units. THANK YOU for a wonderful class!

Blog #15- Classroom that supports reading/writing connections

For this blog, I have chosen to include an article taken from the Reading Rockets site as my artifact.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/21825
This article has everything that a teacher needs to prepare her classroom to support reading and writing connections.  I am also referencing this material in order to answer the question of "describe what a classroom that supports reading/writing connections looks like.

Imagine a classroom with words every where; labels on shelves, toys, clocks, walls, and more. I used to work at KinderCare Learning Center and this is what my classroom looked liked. I taught a group of four year olds who could recognize many of the words without pictures, but include them if you have students who are not strong readers. We used journals to write stories about the lesson we learned and took paper and pencils to every center in our classroom. Once we had hard hats and block towers in the block area, so we added pencils, papers, and real life blue prints and just let our imaginations loose. Reading is important and a child can become a better reader the more they are exposed to print.

A second artifact I am including is two pictures of literacy rich classrooms. A word of caution however, too much print can be overwhelming for the students, be careful how print is displayed.

Blog #10-Align Assessments to Standards

Why this Work is Important

• Currently many assessment items are only loosely aligned (at a topic level) with state and national content standards.

• Assessment items, closely aligned to content standards, can be used diagnostically to find out what students do and do not know about important science ideas.

• Assessment items aligned to content standards can give teachers important feedback on their own teaching.

• Assessment items, closely aligned to content standards, can be used in research—for judging the effectiveness of innovative curriculum materials and instructional practices.

My artifact for this blog is a model of how assessments are connected to Learning outcomes, evaluations, content and key concepts as well as useful with teacher planned activities. The best way to align assessments with standards is to go to the PA standards web page and match the objectives with the standard(s) you want to teach. Your lesson plan objectives, rationale and assessments should all cohesively match.

Blog #9- High-stakes tests vs. Authentic Assessments

Just like in a high-stakes poker game, important decisions or consequences are riding on the outcome of a high-stakes test. There is a clear line as to the final outcome of the test; a student either has a pass or fail grade. There is usually no room for error or half mistakes. I am not sure these tests are the best for all students because they present a problem of being bias and un-fair. English Language learners would not benefit at all from these tests because our languages, cultures and mannerisms vary greatly!

Authentic Assessments are "A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills" An authentic assessment usually includes a task for students to perform and a rubric by which their performance on the task will be evaluated.

Authentic

• Performing a Task
•  Real-life
•  Construction/Application
• Student-structured
•  Direct Evidence

Alternative Names for Authentic Assessment

You can also learn something about what AA is by looking at the other common names for this form of assessment. For example, AA is sometimes referred to as

• Performance Assessment (or Performance-based) -- so-called because students are asked to perform meaningful tasks. This is the other most common term for this type of assessment. Some educators distinguish performance assessment from AA by defining performance assessment as performance-based as Stiggins has above but with no reference to the authentic nature of the task (e.g., Meyer, 1992). For these educators, authentic assessments are performance assessments using real-world or authentic tasks or contexts. Since we should not typically ask students to perform work that is not authentic in nature, I choose to treat these two terms synonymously.
• Alternative Assessment -- so-called because AA is an alternative to traditional assessments.
• Direct Assessment -- so-called because AA provides more direct evidence of meaningful application of knowledge and skills. If a student does well on a multiple-choice test we might infer indirectly that the student could apply that knowledge in real-world contexts

Source: http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/whatisit.htm

My Artifact is an article from "The Resource Room".  It defines High-stakes testing
http://www.fundeducationnow.org/resource-room/high-stakes-testing/
I chose this article because I wanted to learn more about the High-stakes testing. It is a shame that the tests results are so important that they determine what will be done about the school and curriculum. These tests never factor in the many students that have test anxiety which would account for low scores.

Blog #13- Principles that guide the teaching of Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the body of words used in a particular language. The English language is the hardest to learn because we have so many words that sound alike but have very different meanings. I am reminded of what a great comedian, Ron White once said in his act. He told a funny joke when he expressed that he wished he knew the difference between anecdote and antidote because his friend that suffered a snake bite would still be alive. The funny comes in play because one is a joke and the other is a remedy. Imagine telling your friend a joke instead of getting him a cure, all because you don't know the difference in the definitions. 

For my Artifact I chose to include some ideas from Pinterest that are sure to be helpful and fun when teaching students about vocabulary. I love pinterest because it is like heaven for teachers. It is a place where we can go to share ideas, and learn some new "Tricks" to teaching

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/42432421463720369/