Classroom Talk

In my classroom, there is a lot of book discussion, but it is not quite the same as described in the article by Almasi. Almasi talks about students leading the discussion and talking about topics they are interested in. I do not see that in my classroom. Instead, the teacher gives the students a worksheet with some questions about the book and after answering those individually, they discuss them as a class. It is a little more formal than the discussion in the Almasi article, but I do not see it as the bad recitation format described by Almasi. The questions asked in class are not simply comprehension questions. There is no right or wrong answer and the questions are open-ended. For example, while reading the book about Columbus one of the questions that the teacher asked was “Are you surprised that the queen let Columbus go on one more expedition after everything that happened? Explain and provide evidence backing up your thinking”. There are two sides to this question and as long as students defended their answers, they got credit for them. That is what most of the discussion questions are like in that class. I can pick out several different discussion types from the list on page 10 of the Triplett and Buchanan reading that I see in the classroom on a weekly basis. I often see predictions, personal connections, and vocabulary discussions. Depending on the book and the amount of pictures it has, I have also seen picture talks.

I think that in order to have response centered talk, a teacher needs to scaffold by providing the basic rules of a discussion. Page 325 of Weinstein and Mignano gives some good guidelines for students to use during the discussion. I think some of the most important ones for students to be aware of before a discussion are: everyone should have a chance to talk, students should listen to each others’ ideas and respond, and students should ask each other clarification questions if they do not understand something.

As far as learning resources go, I believe the type of book plays an important role in response-centered talk. In our classroom, the students are reading several different books about Christopher Columbus. This topic has many sides to it, so it fosters discussion. Books including issues of ethnicity, race, or gender also provide very useful topics for discussion. Basically, it is important to choose literature which includes a lot of topics to talk about, literature that fosters discussion.

There are a couple of students in the classroom that I am in who never raise their hands. I think that may be why the students write out the answers to the discussion questions. This gives the teacher some feedback as to whether or not the students have a good understanding of the text without the shy students having to raise their hands. At the same time, it is good to encourage everyone to participate and I think that classroom environment plays a big role in that. If students do not feel like they are being graded on their responses, they will be more likely to participate. Also, as with Courtney in the article by Triplett and Buchanan, if students can connect to a book more (if it matches their interests) they will be more likely to speak up. That is one to get quiet students more involved in the book discussions.

Literacy Learning

I don’t really notice that much literature being taught at my placement. I notice many more spelling and grammar worksheets than reading literature and discussing it. There was one day in the classroom all year that I saw the students reading a story out of their BASIL readers as a class. It was a story about the Apache Indians. The class read the story and then moved on with their school day without discussing the culture or differences or comparisons of the tale with other tales they are perhaps more familiar with. Of course many of the students like to read as much as they get the chance to so when they finish their worksheets they read their library books or books in the classroom.

I would definitely argue that literature should be included in the literacy curriculum more than it is. Based on the readings for this week and some of my own ideas, I can think of a few additional ways to incorporate literature into the curriculum. I think it would be really neat, too, if we could hear all of our classmates’ ideas so we can have a huge list of techniques or activities.

In the Langer article, they author talks about the four major stances in the process of interpretations: 1) being out and stepping in, 2) being in and moving through, 3) being in and stepping out, 4) stepping out and objectifying the experience. It also talks about creating a lot of discussion through literary texts and using them as guidelines to encourage student questions and interpretations and help them move beyond the text itself. Questions should tap initial understanding, develop interpretations, reflect on personal experiences, and elaborate and extend the lesson.

The Leland article suggests using story time to help students build their understanding and learn more about other cultures or groups of people that they don’t know much about. This is a good way to touch on possible controversial topics that will get students thinking and perhaps giving them something to talk home and talk to their families about. Leland says, “children who experience a critical approach to literacy learn to “read between the lines.” The authors also discuss the importance of drawing and writing.

Hassett and Curwood investigate that it means to be a text and that in today’s society a text is more than just words but has become multimodel, including elements of text, visual images, and design. They talk about making sure that what teachers are using in their classrooms are based around the students’ knowledges and what they bring into the classroom.

Week 1 - Learning Goals

When reading through the syllabus, I noticed that there are three goals of the course: 1) developing your vision of standards-based teaching, 2) developing your pedagogy, and 3) engaging in ongoing self-assessment. I feel that developing my pedagogy is at the top of my list. I also really like the idea of ongoing self-assessment because I think it will be really beneficial to understand myself as a teacher and a learner and where my strengths and weaknesses are.
Another goal in this class that I have is to develop a lesson that I can effectively teach to my students in Spanish (I am in a spanish immersion program). I hope to gain more confidence in my teaching of Spanish through the experiences in this course.
Since Jen warned us about the new literacies project being frusterating in the beginning, I also hope to make the most out of the project. I hope to not only learn from my project, but from those of my classmates as well since I think the idea of new literacies sounds interesting.

Like most future teachers, I plan to teach wherever I can get a job. However, the ideal setting for me would be in an elementary school in a small, rural town, similar to where I grew up. I want to be able to inspire and make a difference in students lives who don't have all the resources that many others do. While I will be certified through 8th grade in spanish and math, I would prefer elementary grades, especially second or third.
(Another, much different, possibility that I have been thinking of is working for the Department of Defense and teaching on a military base, as I am engaged to a Marine).

I feel that the experiences in this course can prepare me for any of the contexts where I might end up teaching. It will give me a versatile teaching philosophy that I will be able to mold to fit my context and students.

I feel that I learned a lot about literacy in 301, so I hope to scaffold upon that knowledge in focusing more on instruction in this course. I hope to learn about how to accomodate different learning styles in my literacy instruction.

I want to "bloom" in any way possible. I want to bloom in incorporating different technologies in my teaching. Although I took CEP 416 last semester, I feel that in my field placement because of the lack of resources there are so few that I could use. I want to bloom as a teacher and a learner in being knowledgable about how I and others learn. I want my confidence in speaking in Spanish to my students to bloom as well. Finally, I hope for my teaching philosophy along with ideas for literacy methods to bloom.