DoubleEntry Journal #9

Chapter 1: A strange fact about not learning to read.


1. What is the strange fact about not learning to read?

That we are in a "reading crisis" and  a lot of children are not learning to read well enough. Traditionalists say its because thes students do not get enough phonics instruction. Also poor and minority groups are the main studentsthat struggle with reading

2. Why is this fact so strange?

The people from poor and minoruty groups believe that they hve to be unaffiliated with the school for many reasons.


3. What is it about school that manages to transform children who at good at learning things like Pokeman into children who are not good a learning?

Students learn Pokeman easily because it is something that they are interested in and they do it outside of the school setting.

4. What is the differences between a traditionalists approach to learning to read and more progressive educators?

A traditionalist approach to teaching deals with the overt instruction from the teacher. The students will listen to the teacher and that is how they will learn. The progressive educators believe we should let students experiement and let them learn on their own through exploration.

5. Is learning to read a natural process like learning to speak a language?

The book says no but I believe that if a child is exsposed to reading at an early age at home then reading can be a natural process for some students.

6. What is the differences between natural, instructed and cultural processes and which process should reading be classified under?

A natural process is when a child is exposed to the right sort of imput and enviornment. For example when a child learns to walk or talk. Instructed process is when something is taught to a child by overt instruction. For example mathematics and physics. Cultural process is something a child learns that is important to their culture. For example in some cultures women are made to learn how to cook. Like I said before if a student is exposed to a reading enviornment at a young age then it could be a natural process but if a child is not exposed to a reading enviornment then the process for learning to read would be instructed for that child.

7. How do humans learn best? Through instructional processes or through cultural processes? How is reading taught in school?

Humans learn best through the cultural process because instruction is a less efficent process.Reading is taught by the instructional process in school so that may be why we are in a "reading crisis".

8. According to the author, what is the reason for the "fourth grad slump."

The fourth grade is when you have to start reading on standardized test and since students struggle with reading they do bad on this portion of the test.

9. What is a better predictor of reading success than phonemic awareness?

If students know the meaning and structure to language. If they know these things then they will also aquire good phonemic awareness skills.

10. What is the difference between "vernacular" and "specialist" varieties of language? Give an example of two sentences, one written in the vernacular and one written in a "a specialized variety", about a topic in your content area.

Vernacular varieties of language are in the native dialect of a specific population or group of people. Specialized varieties of language is language connected to learning or a specific content area.

• Vernacular Sentence: The farmer used a tedder to rake their hay.
• Specialized Sentence: The word ray in mathematics is different from the word ray that comes from the sun.

11. What is "early language ability" and how is it developed?

Early language ability is the ability to read and have phonimic awarness at a very early age. These in vocabulary, the ability to recall and comprehend sentences and stories, and the ability to engage in connected verbal interactions on a single topic. and  It is develeoped through family, school, and community language enviornments where children interact a lot with adults and very advanced peers where they are ingaged in challenging talk and texts in many genres of oral and written language.

12. According to the author why and how does the traditionalist approach to teaching children to read fail?

Most student start learning academic language and home but if a child has never been exposed to academic language it is not started for them at school. They just teach students to read through phonics and mostl through vernacular words.

13. Are parents of poor children to blame for their children's inexperience with specialized varieties of language before coming to school?

Yes and no. If the parents are poor they don't have a lot of resources to help their children before they enter school. Although they should talk to their students about specialized varieties of language so that they will be exposed to it before they enter school.

14. Did you struggle with reading this text? Why? Are you a poor reader or are you unfamiliar with this variety of specialized language?

No I read this chapter just fine. I thought it was a lot easier to read than the introduction.

Student Interviews

I have a Kindergarten classroom so the students I interviewed didn't have much to say.

Struggling student = (SS)      High Performing Student = (HPS)

•Do you enjoy school?
(SS): Yes
(HPS): Yes


•What kind of student are you?
(SS): Good
(HPS): I am a good student.

•What do for fun outside of school?
(SS): Go to the slide and play with friends
(HPS): I pass football with my dad.

•How would your classmates describe you?
(SS): Good friend
(HPS): Fun

•Who are you friends with? What do you and your friends do together?
(SS): Morgan and Haley, Play on the playground.
(HPS): Nicholas, Sam, and Matthew, We play tag, play with cars, and chase kids.

•Tell me a good memory you have about school?
(SS): Playing
(HPS): Coloring

•Tell me a bad memory you have about school?
(SS): None
(HPS): I don't have one.

•Describe a "good" teacher or tell me about a favorite teacher you had in the past.
(SS): Someone who is fun
(HPS): Letting us play outside

•What is one thing you wish your teacher knew about you?
(SS): My name
(HPS):Where I live

Conclusion
It was really hard to get any answers out of the struggling student. I had to ask each question more than once before she would answer because of her attention problem. The high performing student acted very nervous and said he wanted to answer everything right even when I told him that there was no right or wrong answers.

Double Entry Journal #8

1. What is the main challenges being addressed in the book?

• The new ways with words
• The academic laguage or "jargon"
• Connecting school language and home language

2. What does the author mean by the phrase "ways with words"?

• He is trying to say the way in which you use your words is important. The way you talk or write has an affect on your aduiance and what kind of audiance you will attract.

3. What is the core argument being made by the author of this book?

• That we need to coneect our ways with words to the modern word that our students are living in.

4. Give an example of a specialized variety of a language or "way with words" you have learned outside of school?

• I learned the farming ways with words. For example most people would not know that a goose neck is what we called a trailer.

5. According to the author, how do people learn a specialized variety of a language or "way with words" best?

• They learn it best by actually beinging involved is something that has a specific way with words. For example, belonging to a certain discourse community.

6. If people are to be successful in the 21st century, what must they become?

• Specially designed spaces (physical and virtual) constructed to resource people tied together (Gee, 2004)

7. The author states that learning academic language is NOT sufficient for success in modern society? Do you agree? Why or Why not?

• Yes I do agree because academic language is becoming a thing of the past. More people are starting to use their own language they are learning from this discourse communities and they use those words to communicat now.

8. What do you think about this author's "way with words"?

• To be honest I think that the introduction was kind of hard to follow. I had a hard time comprehending what she was trying to say. Her "way with words" was very different than I am use to.

Observing a struggling student

I am in a Kindergarten classroom and I have one little girl in my class that is really stuggling. She struggles with writing . She can't understant that you have to push down hard with the pencil so that her writing will show up. She also has a hard time making her letters so she has really bad hand writing. So with both of these issues combined you can't really read her writing. She also has a hard time following directions. This is mostly because she is not listening to the teacher and is staring into space so she is lost and doesn't know what to do. She also has a hard time trying to read simple sight words so she can hardley read at all. She also seems that her head is always in the clouds. She is always talking to the other students and more worried about whats going on around that classroom than doing her own work.

Double Entry Journal #7

What are some challenges to inquiry approaches to learning?

• Teachers need to develop a new classroom management techniques.
• Teachers must be able to create inquiry-based lesson to meet a variety of criteria.
• It is hard to teach if a student lacks prior experience in the approach.
• Some may think the the approach is "unstructured".
• Teachers miss oppurtunities to advance the learning because they can't hear all of th esmall group discussions.
• High-income students don't benifit as much as lower-income students in small groups.
• If a teacher doesn't have help or support if will be hard to use in the classroom.
• The approach may fail to provide proper scaffolding.
• Students have a hard time generating meaningful questions.
• Students may lack background knowledge needed to make sense of the inquiry.
• Students may find it hard to work together.
• Students might have a hard time managing time.
• Students may find the work very complex.
• The teacher may find it hard to motivate the students.

Resource:
Barron, B., & Darling-Hammond, L. (1991). Teaching for meaningful learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf

Double Entry Journal #6

In the introduction of this article itsays the the "dominant paradigm" is showing signs of wear. When they say "dominant paradigm" they are referring to all the students learning comes from either the teacher or a textbook. The students will obtain the information by reading, listening to lectures, and discussions. The article says they we are stuck in a way of teaching that was created a century ago. They are saying we need to move from this kind of learning to project-based learning.

Project-based learning is when students complete a complex task and usually result in a real product event or presentation. Learning this way allows students to actually think more and have a product at the end where the traditional approach is just students listening or reading."Generally, research on project-based learning (PBL) has found that students who engage in this approach benefit from gains in factual learning that are equivalent or superior to those of students who engage in traditional forms of instruction (Thomas, 2000)." By students actually doing hands-on activities they will retain knowledge more than just listen to someone lecture the whole time. The article also says that"the students engaged in project-based learning demonstrated a significant increase in scores on a critical-thinking test, as well as increased confidence in their learning (Shepard, 1998). This shows that students are learning more and that the critical-thinking skills are improving as well. "Other short-term, comparative studies of traditional vs. project-based approaches have demonstrated several benefits from projects, such as an increase in the ability to define problems (Gallagher, Stepien, & Rosenthal, 1992), growth in their ability to support their reasoning with clear arguments (Stepien, Gallagher, & Workman, 1993), and enhanced ability to plan a project after working on an analogous problem-based challenge (Moore, Sherwood, Bateman, Bransford, & Goldman, 1996)." As you can see project based learning is a better choice than traditional learning. The students gain more knowledge, they are more involved in their learning, there is a purpose for their learning, and they are gaining more knowledge about real world situations and tasks.

Problem-based learning is kind of like project-based learning. In problem-based learning the lessons usually have an activity that focuses on using reasoning and resources to solve a problem. "In problem-based learning, students work in small groups to investigate meaningful problems, identify what they need to learn in order to solve a problem, and generate strategies for solution (Barrows, 1996; Hmelo-Silver, 2004)." Students are learning how to solve problems by working with others as a team. "Similar problem- or case-based approaches have been used in business, law, and teacher education to help students learn to analyze complex, multifaceted situations and to develop knowledge to guide decisionmaking (see, e.g. Lundeberg, Levin, & Harrington, 1999; Savery & Duffy, 1996; Williams, 1992)." The students are learning to use problem solving to analyze situations that they will use later on in life.It also says that "They also experience larger gains in conceptual understanding in science (Williams, Hemstreet, Liu, & Smith, 1998)." Students will improve in science because problem solving is the basis of science.

Learning by design are lessons that have several features to make them ideal for the subject matter. In a sixth-grade classroom using learning by design they say that "the design project led to better learning outcomes than the traditional approach to instruction (Hmelo, Holton, and Kolodner, 2000)" This shows that tradition learning needs to be used less and use the new resources that we have avalaible to us today. "Researchers also observed that design activities are particularly good for helping students develop understanding of complex systems, noting that the systems can be presented as a united whole whose structure is adapted to specific purposes (Perkins, 1986)." When students have a larger understanding of the subject they will learn about the subject in more of a complex way. Through learning by design studnets build websites and the article says "to date, more than 30,000 students have created more than 550 Web sites through this competition (www.thinkquest.org/library/)."

So to review project-based learning teaches students to explore real world problems and challenges. Problem-based learning is to teach students problem solving skills as well has help to acquire knowledge and skills. Learning by design is a project-based inquiry that deals with reasoning.

In my opinion, the most important learning aspect that is common among the three types of learning is that students are learning knowledge and skills to use in the real world. Students need to learn these life skills that they will use in their everyday lives.

Resource:

Barron, B., & Darling-Hammond, L. (1991). Teaching for meaningful learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf

Double Entry Journal #5

Reverent listening is when you respectfully listen to what a person has to say. Reverent listening should be used by every teacher who wants to use culturally responsive teaching in their classroom. If teachers respectfully listen to what their students have to say they will learn about the cultures and the backgrounds of their students. This will allow the teacher to learn more about their students and help mold instruction around the cultures and the backgrounds of the students in their class.

"Reverent listening is not to be confused with humiliation and domination by others who force us to listen, and even less so, with the kind of incompetence that wants to be told what to do." This quote applies to a lot of teahers today. They force students to listen of forcefully tell their students what to do. This attitude by the teacher forces students to not listen and makes them tune the teacher out. For example, in 4th grade I had a teacher that made us listen to her all day long and we never really got to talk in class. I never wanted to go to school because our classroom enviornment wasn't welcoming and I felt like I had no say. I never want to make my students feel that way that I felt in my 4th grade classroom. I want my students feel like I listen to them and care about what they have to say.

This artical uses the phrase a "laundry list of value ethics". To me this phrase means that someone has a long list of values ordered in degree of importance. Teachers more than likely will teach their values and culture to the class and not touch on the values or cultures of the other students. This is an exapmle of a teacher being non-culturally responsive because they don't teacher others values and cultures, just their own.

I had an amazing 2nd grade teacher. She was a reverent teacher and really cared for her students. She always gave the students a voice in the classroom and was always there to listen to her students. She always made you feel important and very special. I felt very comfortable in her classroom and it was one of my favorite years all throughout school.

Today there are many schools that have a "toxic" school enviornment. If teachers don't listen to to thier students or give them a voice in the classroom it creates a bad school enviornment. Teachers need to listen to what their students have to say and allow them to talk during instruction so they feel a sense of belonging to the class. Also teachers need to represent a sense of respect in the classroom between teachers and students as well as the teacher respecting the studnets.

"Reverent listening in teaching involves respect." I really liked this quote from the article. In order to reall listen to your students and care about what they have to say they need to respect their students as human beings. In my philosophy of education I never mentioned listening to my students so this quote will change my philosophy because I know see how important it is to listen to your students and give them a voice in the classroom.
I found a video on establishing classroom routines on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_jNR-aGj1w It is very important to have routines within your classroom especially when you have a younger classroom.

Resource:
HepburnsHelfulHints. (Performer) (2012). Establishing classroom routines [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_jNR-aGj1w