Week 14 - "Our Families Don't Understand English!"

Vasquez and Felderman Chapter 4

Podcasting

A podcast is "an Internet broadcast, program, episode, or show that one can download and listen to using a computer or other mobile device such as an iPod" (p. 40). Podcasts are usually subscribable so listeners can have podcasts be automatically downloaded for listening whenever a new podcast is available.

Podcasting has many practical uses in the classroom. In this particular situation, the teacher involved the students and used podcasting as a way for students to talk about different social issues. The teacher wanted the topics to be about concepts that interested the students; this also was the reason behind the creation of the title of the podcasts - 100% Kids. One of the main issues that the students wished to address with the podcasts was the issue of language domination. Many of the family members of the students in the class did not understand English, the "dominant" language in America. The children discussed the advantages that English speakers have with access to more texts, television, and other mediums like podcasts in their own language. They discussed what Janks (2010) referred to as the relationship between language and power. The students made it their goal to have a more inclusive podcast.

Before starting the podcasting, the teachers talked to the kids about internet safety and issues of identity on the Web. Children chose radio names for the episodes in order to protect their identities.

One of the teachers involved, Carol, knew that translating the podcast into different languages would be a difficult task. Many of the children were able to speak other languages, but they were not able to read or write in that language. Also, some were self-conscious to speak their native language.

Despite the hurdles, the class was able to include sections of the podcasts that were translated for Spanish speakers.

This chapter highlighted Subrina, a student from Guatemala who moved to the U.S. with her family when she was five years old. Subrina did not have a steady home environment. Subrina and her family eventually moved in with her friend Amy's family. Subrina loved any opportunity to speak Spanish and loved the Spanish Reading Club that met once a week. Subrina was one of the leaders who pushed to include a Spanish translation of the podcast. Subrina was assessed to be reading at an end-of-first-grade level when the podcasting project began in January of her second grade year. But, her oral and listening skills were considered to be on grade level. According to the district, she was still considered to be one step above beginner for her English language learning. This concerned her teachers since Subrina had been attending an English speaking school for two-and-a-half-years. . Throughout the podcasting experience, Carol saw Subrina grow in her degree of comfort with engaging in conversations. Previously, Subrina would not usually share what was on her mind or participate in literacy activities in the classroom. Once she began podascting, Carol saw her excitement grow toward school and Subrina was also instrumental into getting other kids to be excited and participate in the podcasts.

The podcasts allowed students to play and use their imaginations as they constructed the podcast each week. The text mentioned that the use of play is important to English learners because "it affords them time to participate in learning environments that are not part of scripted learning models such as readiness programs" (p. 48). Play can also change how students see the world and how they think about the future.

The text outlined their podcasting weekly schedule:
Monday - planning

• Listen to last week's show 
• Figure out what topics, issues, and events to include in each segment
• Segments would be assigned to different groups of students

Tuesday to Thursday - research

• gather info
• writing, editing, and rehearsing scripts 

Friday - recording 

• one of the teachers, Vivian, would record the audio and edit over the weekend 
• show released Monday morning 

The podcasts became a way to seamlessly integrate content across the content areas. Originally, podcast planning time was done during Language Arts, but it developed into something that needed more time during the day. 

*Resources are provided in the chapter for podcasting sites and a step by step process to creating a podcast. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS!

I think that this question represents a concern for many teachers who teach in a diverse area.

Janks (2010) Literacy and Power
"How does one provide access to dominant forms while at the same time valuing and promoting the diverse languages and literacies of our students and in the broader society?" (p. 24)

Have you ever thought about using podcasts as a way to build the confidence of English language learners in your classroom?

Week 14- Differentiation

Differentiating Vocabulary Instruction

Universal Design for Learning

 UDL is meant to guide the design and development of curriculum that is effective and inclusive for all learners.  UDL is based on three neural networks in the brain that focus on processing certain kinds of information.  They are recognition, strategic, and affective networks.  Children differ greatly in each area.  Recognition has to do with the visual aspect of learning words.  Teachers can support comprehension of words by highlighting relationships and fostering the processing, visualization, and manipulation of information.  Strategic learning has to do with the ability to plan, execute, and monitor actions and skills.  Teachers can foster this area by helping students use words in a variety of ways.  Also helping students goal-set and monitor their own learning helps build strategic networks.  Affective learning refers to the emotional part of learning.  The more emotional a task, the more it leaves a lasting impression.  Choosing topics that interest children help develop this area.  By using UDL for vocabulary instruction, teachers can provide multiple ways for children to access word meaning and demonstrate word knowledge.  UDL helps children who are below, on, or above grade levels.  

How to Use UDL in the Classroom  

Connect Prior Knowledge

Children learn words quickly when their prior knowledge is activated.  Connect words and concepts to prior lessons.  

Offer Linguistic Support

Teachers can help students understand words or concepts within a difficult subject.  The support can come from providing definitions, giving verbal cues, and for ELL students, making connections to their native language.  

Use Multiple Representation to Present Words and Concepts 

Give definitions verbally and nonverbally.  Showing a video can help students understand concepts.  Having students act out vocabulary words is another way to nonverbally demonstrate words.  

Use Graphic Organizers to Highlight Critical Features of Words and Relations among Words

Helping student learn to organize words through a graphic organizer helps students see connections.  Graphic organizers help students identify important concepts about vocabulary words.  

Use Paraphrasing, Role-Play, Visualization, and Mnemonics to Support Memory for Representation

Student’s can have difficulty remembering meanings of words, but when they define them in their own terms this helps them memorize better.  Using memory aids can be helpful in remembering words.

Multiple Means of Action and Expression

Offer Alternative Response Modes

Offer different ways for students to demonstrate they know word meaning.  Teachers can provide fill in the blanks, open ended questioning, drawing, or writing opportunities. 

Provide Added Support and Opportunities for Practice

Extra support and practice may help students learn words.  Simply giving previews of words before learning and review of words after learning can provide the extra help students need.

Support Strategy Use though Goal-Setting, Step-by-Step Instruction, Think-Alouds, and Self-Monitoring

Teaching students strategies to use while reading can help them independently.  Teacher modeling can provide support for how to use those strategies.  Modeling can show students how to set goals and work through them as they are reading.

Multiple Means of Engagement

Promote a sense of word ownership by allowing students to choose words they want to learn.  Using small groups that are at the same level and learning the same words, open up peer discussions of the words being learned.  Talking about words with peers establishes an authentic context for word learning and sets the stage for developing depth of word knowledge.  As students learn words, they can self assess and reflect on their learning.  When children appreciate their effort in learning, it becomes more meaningful.  

Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners 

Culturally Responsive Vocabulary Instruction

Culturally responsive teaching involves respect for children’s home culture and language, recognitions, and funds of knowledge.  Building vocabulary upon a student native language and culture supports children’s academic vocabulary.  Teachers can support student’s culture and backgrounds by support their culture within the classroom.  

Vocabulary Instruction for ELLs

ELLS have varying levels of English proficiency.  These student could also have varying levels of native language support.  By helping ELLs, teachers can (1) take advantage of students’ first language, (2) ensure ELLs know the meaning of basic words, and (3) provide review and reinforcement.  The Input-interaction-output model is useful for supporting language development and vocabulary acquisition.  This model shows that ELLs need comprehensible input, meaningful interactions, and purposeful outputs.  

Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds

Teachers can help these students by providing resources to help build background knowledge.  Teachers can provide multiple means of representations, action and expression, and engagement.  Also appropriately using multimedia can help these students with vocabulary instruction.

Children with or at Risk for Language-Related Disabilities

Students with these struggles typically have problems processing, organizing, and recalling information.  Using Response to Intervention can personalize instruction for specific learning disabilities.  Using the Tiered vocabulary approach helps teachers break down instruction.

Chapter 16

The Interactive Strategies Approach to Early Literacy Intervention 

The Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA) is not a program.  It is not tied to particular instructional material.  ISA offers a way to conceptualize early literacy development and to support children as they learn to read and write.  ISA is based on the premise that the process of constructing meaning from text is dependent upon relatively effortless identification of a high percentage of the words in the text, syntactic and semantic knowledge about how words relate to one another and the concepts they represent, content-relevant background knowledge, and motivational and intentional factors that result in active engagement with the text.  

ISA focuses on instructional goals of students instead of components of instruction.  They include the following: motivation to read and write, alphabetic principal, word learning, and meaning construction.  The purpose of this is to help teachers deliver instruction that is goal oriented rather than activity oriented.  

The chapter summarizes a general reading lesson.  The first aspect is to help build fluency and confidence.  Allow children to read books they have read before.  Rereading helps develop comprehension and word knowledge.  Rereading also supports alphabetic principals.  The next aspect is phonological skills instruction.  This area addresses alphabetic code.  It also supports word learning particularly the Strategic Word learning subgoal.  Instruction can include explicit teaching.  Once new phonics skills have been learned, three types of instructional activities are used.  The first involves word building.  During this time children move letters to build words.  The next phase includes teachers building words and students identifying them.  Finally, children write words dictated by teacher.  The next part of an effective reading lesson is reading a new book.  Strategies for new word learning are learned during this aspect.  Teachers should provide as much support to help students who are learning new words.  There are three parts of the book reading: before, during and after.  Before reading activities should include picking appropriate books.  Then the teacher can do a book walk and discuss the pictures.  New words can be introduced through this stage.  The goal is to help students become as fluent as possible the first time they read the book.  During reading student can read independently or in pairs.  While reading the teacher can provide as much support that is need without giving to much.  After children read, students can share their ideas and make meaning.  These conversations should not just be comprehension checks, but thoughtful dialogue about what was read.    

Chapter 17

An Evidence-Based Approach to Response to Intervention

Response to Intervention (RTI) requires educators to provide effective reading instruction before a child is referred to a specialist for educational services.  It involved high quality instruction and interventions for students to help educators make important educational decisions.  In order for students to be identified as LD, a tiered instructional approach is often implemented, and it’s usually a 3 tiered approach.  Their 1 students are provided high quality in classroom instruction.  The child do not show adequate growth, they move to tier 2.  During this tier students extra instruction is added within the school day (small group, pullout, etc).  Tier 3 instruction provides one on one instruction with a specialist.  

Case Study

Taylor is a struggling reading.  The following is a case study that outlines six research-based principals to guide teachers through implementing necessary elements of RTI.

1. Expert Teachers Provide the Instruction

Allowing Taylor to stay in the classroom and receive quality instruction from her teacher would have been more beneficial.  Taylor received instruction through a paraprofessional, which research has shown has little positive effect.  Teachers should be using their knowledge to instruct these students.  

2. Match Text to Readers

Taylor clearly had specific interests.  His interest were not being met through a scripted curriculum program.  The text he was reading had no interest to him.  Also providing text that is at their appropriate skill level will help keep student engagement.  

3.  Dramatically Expanding Reading Activity

Taylor was only pulled out during normal reading instruction hour in the classroom.  He received no additional support, which he needed.  Practice helps struggling readers.  

4. Use Very Small Groups for Tutoring

Teachers are able to better meet the needs of the learning when the learning groups are small and intimate.  Instruction can be better differentiated.  

5.  Coordinate Intervention with Classroom Curriculum

Aligning instruction for RTI students that coordinates with classroom instruction helps students receive a more in-depth study.  They build upon each other and support one another.  

6. Focus on Meaning and Metacognition

Students need to understand the purpose for reading.  They also need to know the process of thinking through text.  By understanding these concepts, they develop a deeper understanding on text.     

  

Week 14-Home-School Connections to Support Word Learning

S&H 9 Home-School Connections to Support Word Learning

Background

Vocabulary is crucial to early learning; however, there are often to many words for students to learn in a year. Therefore, it is important for teachers and parents to work together towards this goal. Parents are students’ first teachers for vocabulary, and it is critical that they continue this role  throughout the early learning years. Teachers and parents should work together so that the role of word learning and literacy and the way in which they are taught are congruent.

Home Communication

Figure 9.1 shows a comprehensive chart about what parents want to know from teachers about teaching vocabulary. Teachers must communicate with parents; this can be done in a variety of ways including newsletters, emails, texts, phone calls, websites, etc. The focus should be on specific themes and words and skills and strategies that parents can use with their children. Teachers should be mindful about what they send home; this includes being sensitive to both available time and materials. Teachers should be specific about expectations.

Figure 9.2 shows a helpful example of a vocabulary word newsletter with accompanying activities, and Figure 9.3 provides a descriptive chart of activities that would be suitable for home use. Figure 9.4 presents information about word learning routines that parents and children can perform at home. Some supportive guidelines for building literacy and word learning include using home language (ELL), viewing educational programs, and using a variety of texts (print and digital).

Involving Parents in Vocabulary Instruction in School

Teachers can also invite parents to participate in in-school instruction of vocabulary. This helps parents to become engaged in their children’s learning, helps them learn how teachers are talking about books and words in school, allows parents to share words in their cultural context, allows children more opportunities to talk about what they are learning, and gives the teacher extra help in the classroom.

There are several ways that teachers can invite parents to support word learning. Teachers can invited parents to come tell a story or read a book that relates to the theme or words they are learning. Teachers can have parents come to school to read with individual or pairs of children who may need extra support. Teachers can also invite parents to introduce a weekly mystery word in class. Parents describe the word before revealing it, or they can tell a story or read a book using the mystery word.

Family Programs

·         Family Program-Dialogic Reading

Dialogic reading approach includes questioning and prompting children during reading to foster extended conversations about texts. In this program, parents are taught to: 1) ask their child open-ended questions, 2) follow their child’s answers with questions, 3) repeat their child’s answers, 4) assist their child as needed, 5) praise and encourage their child, and 6) follow their child’s interests. Parents follow the steps in Figure 9.5. Parents help their students with both contextualized and decontextualized language during dialogic reading.  Dialogic reading is simple and it is easy to train parents how to use this activity.

·         Family Program-Oral Language ~Project EASE

Project EASE includes monthly in class meetings and then weekly follow up activities to be done at home. It includes the topics of storybook reading, working with words, letter recognition and sound awareness, retelling family narratives, and talking about the world through the use of nonfiction text. Vocabulary is the main focus, but language is also addressed. Parents met with a parent educator each month who presented information on the current topic. Immediately after, parents did related activities with their children. Parents were given take-home activities to use regularly with their children. This program is heavily guided through parent support and guidance that continues throughout the program.

·         Family Program-Reading and Writing

This program focuses on book reading as well as interactive writing. The program included bimonthly workshops ad ample materials. This program found its strength through focusing on reading and writing and attention to vocabulary within each domain, focusing on how children develop over time and how parents can support them at different stages of development, and focusing on the role of parents in modeling and guiding children to become proficient readers and writers.

·         Family Program-ELLs

Project FLAME focused on the needs of Latino parents who were learning to speak English with their children. It provided English as a second language instruction to parents and taught them how to support their own children’s language and literacy development. It places focus on family in culture, which is very important to Latino cultures.  Figure 9.9 includes a chart of the workshops included in the program.

·         Family Program-Specifically Targeted Vocabulary

This program was tied to the curriculum and followed many of the same strategies that were already being used in school. Parents were taught the words students were using in school and then they discussed how they chose word and how to define words for young children. The strategy would be reviewed each night and the parents could practice with their children. They discussed using words in both English and Spanish, the many ways to explore words, and encouraging students to try new words. More strategies and games were suggested such as I spy and word walls.

Conclusions:

Families need consistent support, and programs should focus on explicitly supporting vocabulary in context of reading and writing. Family literacy programs should be responsive to parents’ strengths and needs. Family programs should build a bridge between what is learned at home and what is learned at school.

Questions:

What do parents need to know about vocabulary?

What do you do/would you do to get parents involved with vocabulary in your classrooms?

Pick a vocabulary strategy from the text or create one that you would have students do at home:

Week 14: Reading and Writing in Different Contexts (Parent and Family Involvement in Literacy Learning)

B&M Ch. 1: Parent Involvement Supporting Early Literacy Achievement

Children should be “collocated in two overlapping environments”—home and school. Both realms influence their literacy development. Relationships between teachers and parents must be made through communication, so there is trust between these two parties. Schools should be accessible for families and parents of all economic, social, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds. There are many research based practices that show how parents can be involved in their child’s school experience.

Research and Theoretical Background: 

There is much research to support the idea that parental involvement benefits their children’s education. This involvement can be direct or indirect depending on the cultural background of the parents.

Research shows that some parents do not get involved in their child’s school life until their child is identified as struggling or at-risk. Another study found that children whose parents take on a more instructional role help their literacy development rather than when their parents took more of a monitoring/supporting role.

Selecting Best Practices for Parent Involvement:

Based on the research evidence to back them up, practices are rated on a scale of likely influentialàprobably efficaciousàeffective.

• Highly influential=When skills practiced seem to correlate with later reading abilities or development.
• Probably Efficacious=When the practice has been evaluated in relation to two or more randomized trials that show that doing the practice is more effective than not doing it.
• Effective=When the practice has been evaluated in two or more randomized trails by independent researchers that find the practice is better than the established idea already in place.

Practices for Making at At-School Involvement More Accessible to Parents (See Table 1.1):

Table 1.1 outlines several activities teachers can draw from to get parents involved in the classroom, as well as strategies to increase parent participation. Providing personal invitations, providing these activities outside of school hours, and expressing clear expectations seem to be the best methods for improving parent participation in these types of activities.

At-home Bridging Activities for Improving Aspects of Literacy (See Table 1.2):

Table 1.2 outlines strong, research-based strategies that can be carried out by parents at home that will help early childhood students improve components of reading. For each activity, the aspect of literacy it ties to, grade level, strategy explanation, accommodations for diverse learners, and level of effectiveness are given. This table also tells how teachers can “scale up” or “scale down” these activities based on the child’s ability and the parent’s willingness or availability. Each of these activities has a way of providing the teacher feedback about what the child learned or improved upon from these at-home activities. Because feedback is built into the activities and relayed back to the teacher, these home strategies provide formative assessments for the teacher.

Knowledge to Practice:

Encouraging Parent Involvement in School Setting: Parental involvement means different things to different parents, based on their cultural or personal backgrounds. Teacher sometimes mistakenly believe that if parents do not volunteer, attend field trips, or do extra work with students, they do not value education. This is usually not true. Parents may have limited involvement in their child’s educational experience for a variety of reasons: low personal academic self-efficacy, feelings of inadequacy, amount of social capital, language barriers, transportation, childcare for younger siblings, mental health, financial worries, and stress. Teachers who go above and beyond to make sure their students’ parents are well-informed of school/classroom activities (providing information in home language), able to attend the flexible times given, and made to feel comfortable in the physical school building will have greater parental involvement.  

Encouraging Parental Involvement with Literacy Development at Home: This area involves three components.

•        Creating a physical context for learning
•        Monitoring and setting rules for children’s school attendance and homework
•        Direct involvement in learning—reading, tutoring, playing educational games

Engaging in these three areas improves literacy skills and abilities. Parents’ knowledge, resources, time, and cultural differences can be barriers to these three things. The most important thing parents can do at home to help with literacy development is to value education in front of their children.

Creating a Bridge between School and Home: Schools can do much to create connection or bridge between themselves and their students’ homes.

• When sending home an activity, teachers should explain how that activity will help the child.
• Teachers can provide the materials and resources needed (books, audiobooks, iPads) for families to engage in interactive readings together.
• Teachers can use the feedback loop to connect at-home activities to their classroom instruction. Parents’ evaluation of their children at home gives teachers valuable information about those children.
• Teachers should use direct, pedagogical-free jargon when conversing with parents.
• Schools should try to use more flexible means of communication with parents: face-to-face meetings, phone calls, translators, translated notes.
• Teachers should provide parents with frequent, short information about their student’s academic progress.
• Teachers can encourage parents to engage in literacy activities in the family’s home language.
•   Parents with disabilities should also engage in literacy activities at home. Technology-related activities are very effective with these students.
• Teachers can provide training (face-to-face meetings or videos) to parents on how to complete and lead at-home literacy activities.
• All at-home activities should be enjoyable, easy to do, and require little time.  

Discussion Questions:

1. Thinking about Table 1.1, have you tried any of the ideas in the first column to get parents involved in your classroom? Did you employ any of the strategies in the second column to increase parent participation?

2. Table 1.2 provides lots of great strategies that can be used at home. How would you initiate a program that uses these strategies? How would you communicate your ideas to parents? How would you use the information you received back from the activities? 

Week 14 - Reading and Writing in Different ContextsEffective Early Children Education Classrooms

B&M - Chapter 4 – Supporting language and literacy development in quality preschools

Overview

• ·      75% of young children age 4 and 50% at age 3 attend preschool
• ·      Children begin literacy learning long before entering preschool
• ·      Different experiences at home lead to different literacy outcomes 

The brain develops rapidly in early childhood and there is a “window of opportunity” that establishes certain capabilities. This development period makes a moderate to large effect on early literacy skills and later achievement. The absence of critical literacy experiences can have detrimental effects. So there is a definite relationship between preschool experiences and later achievement.

Not all interventions are the same and not all produce the same results. The quality of teaching, attitude toward children who have gaps in literacy, and the quality of intervention all make a difference in long-term literacy gains.

High-quality preschools include the following ideas:

Oral language is taught intentionally, where effective teachers engage children in meaningful conversations where they intentionally model communication skills. Teachers use explicit methods of vocabulary instruction. Teachers read aloud and discuss the stories or text with the children. This encourages retelling, summarizing, and overall comprehension.

Playing various games and singing songs can develop phonological awareness. For example, clapping out or stomping out syllables, separating and blending onsets and rimes, playing rhyming games, and singing songs all help develop phonological awareness.

Alphabetic knowledge should not be taught to preschool-aged children using a “skill and drill” approach. There should be a large literacy context where there are many opportunities to discuss letter names and sounds, beginning with children’s names. Teachers should use many forms of letters, like stamps, magnetic letters, and stencils.

Concepts of print refers to what emergent readers need to understand about how printed language works. How to hold a book, reading from left to right, and discerning the front from the back are all concepts of print. Shared reading experiences and discussion helps develop this skill. Also, teachers should place books of both narrative and informational text around the classroom, not just in one spot. Meaningful labels help children recognize print as well.

Writing development begins when preschool-aged (or younger) children put marks on a page and understand that those marks communicate a message. Teachers can provide opportunities to develop writing in writing centers, where children have many types of writing tools and papers to use. Dramatic play areas can incorporate writing as well, like creating signs and menus.

There is an excellent and comprehensive chart on pages 70 and 71 that summarizes the critical preschool language and literacy classroom content.

B&M – Chapter 14 – Strengthening play in early literacy teaching practice

Overview

• ·      Not much research on play and how it supports literacy
• ·      The play-literacy research that has been done supports literacy education
• ·      Play includes environment, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and teacher’s attitude/belief system 

Literacy-enriched play environment design

Not all early childhood classrooms implement play. There is Table 14.1 on page 253 that summarizes the basics of literacy-enriched play design. Some features of the physical environment in the classroom include: space, signage, books and writing supplies, storage, and appeal (both visual and physical).

Topic-oriented dramatic play

Topic- or theme-based dramatic play is helpful to developing an appropriate early childhood literacy area. This area can be modified to adapt to specific subjects, like social studies or science, and it should be aligned to curriculum goals. More research is needed on the efficacy of dramatic play areas as they relate to literacy gains. There is a process for topic-oriented play, which includes instruction (tapping into prior and background knowledge and introducing relevant vocabulary); choosing a setting; embedding props, roles, and language; and posing a problem for children to solve in that play environment.

Play-contingent literacy instruction

Play activity should be wedded to specific reading skills. One such type of play activity is called thematic fantasy play (TFP), which involves a repetitive plot and a small number of characters. Story drama is one way to use TFP. Story drama involves choosing a story for reenactment; reading and discussing it; selecting events from the story to practice as roles; to establish the setting; dividing the class into groups who act out characters from the story; and having a play where students read their parts of the story while reenacting it. This is one way to monitor reading comprehension (retelling).

Play planning activities develop children’s self-regulation abilities by having them draw/write play plans and follow through with their plans in play activity. Implementing play planning can be complex and may require professional development and/or training. The chapter provides a step-by-step guide how a preschool classroom can adopt play planning (pages 257-259).

Assessment of play maturity

Play is often overlooked by teachers in their observations and evaluations of students, but it shouldn’t be.  Pretend play provides insight into cognitive growth of preschool age children. Formative assessments reveal a child’s maturity, and when a teacher observes a child playing, she can use the information to encourage more participation. Play serves a vital role in preschool-age child development and should be taken into consideration by early childhood teachers when setting up their classrooms and creating lessons.

S&H – Chapter 10 – Implementing vocabulary instruction in prekindergarten through second-grade classrooms

Overview

This chapter provides four models of effective vocabulary instruction, beginning with prekindergarten through second grade. Vocabulary instruction changes as children grow and develop.

Prekindergarten

This classroom was an urban, English-only, predominantly African-American, low socioeconomic classroom.  Using the Inventory of Vocabulary Instruction (IVI), teachers can see what aspects of instruction they already use in their classrooms, and what areas they could improve upon. In this case, two teachers co-taught, following a thematic curriculum with related vocabulary words. They used whole-group, small group, and centers to help differentiate instruction. There were high expectations for all students. These two teachers used research-based instructional methods including continuously reviewing new concepts learned (spiraling), providing examples, defining and pronouncing words, and acting out to illustrate words.

Kindergarten

This classroom was in a semi-urban area with the majority of students Spanish-speaking ELLs.  In this scenario, the teacher prompted the children to recall target words and explicitly taught the words for a few minutes. Then, the teacher used multiple means of representation, like acting out and pictures, to get the children to understand the vocabulary words. Children were paired or in groups to create a buddy system for authenticity and accountability.

First grade

This first grade classroom was suburban, middle class, and ethnically diverse. The teacher wanted to develop vocabulary depth, breadth, and comprehension, and to do this, he used read-alouds, reading groups, content-area lessons, and home-school connection activities. He chose texts that paralleled the content-learning objectives and selected vocabulary words that required deeper investigation. He used explicit instruction, guided practice, and reading of rich and authentic text as ways to teach. In addition, he used graphic organizers, use of context clues, and small group work to help students understand vocabulary.

Second grade

This scenario occurred in a semi-urban school in a diverse neighborhood, with a disproportionate number of students from Hispanic and Asian backgrounds. There were two teachers (one who was and ELL teacher). The ELL teacher helped the ELL students by scaffolding their learning, explicit instruction, and nonverbal supports (like pictures) to help them make vocabulary connections. The two teachers met weekly to discuss student data and to plan lessons. They also met across grade levels. Homeroom teachers introduced a word of the week and students were rewarded for finding and using those words throughout the week. The target words were presented in a thematic way and small-group activities were stressed. Children were grouped strategically in order to provide differentiated instruction to all. Extended learning was addressed by sending home seeds for students to plant with their families, so the discussions and vocabulary use would continue at home.

The take-away

Children who have limited vocabulary and language skills will be limited academically. Effective instruction in the early grades can help atone for this deficit.

A few questions/wonders

1. What do teachers tells parents and administrators who aren't used to seeing children play as a way of learning? How do we teachers disspell old-fashioned notions that play is exclusive of learning and school --- that there's no place for it in school? Similarly, what do pre-service teachers do once they start work if their new school doesn't embrace this style of teaching? How do they rectify this disparity between what they've learned is reasearch-based practice and what is actually being done in the ECC (assuming play is not incorporated into the curriculum)?

2.  It seems to me there are some very common themes in what the ECC classroom looks like: direct, explicit instruction, teacher modeling, thematic units, communication with other teachers and parents, and group activities, to name a few. What other similarities do well-run, effective ECC classrooms have in common?

3. I like the idea of extending learning by sending home activities parents can do with their children. I wonder how much fun it would be to send home a journal and have children and their parents journal together as they do the extension activities. What great conversations those journals could generate.
 

Week 13: Reading and Writing in Different Contexts 2

B&M Chapter 7: New Perspectives on Literature for Young Children

A main point in this chapter was the need for teachers to focus on more than just the text of picture books. More meaning can be added to the text by interpreting and focusing on the illustrations.

Illustrations can function in five ways:

1. Illustrations can be redundant and match the written text explicitly.
2. Illustrations can be complementary, where they are required for full comprehension of the text.
3. Illustrations can enhance a text by adding more to the text.
4. Illustrations can tell a different story than the written text.
5. Illustrations can be contradictory where the reader creates their own interpretation of the meaning.

Teachers should also think about the visual images present in texts. By looking at the colors, types of lines, shapes, locations of shapes, textures, and perspectives used the reader can interpret another layer of meaning in the text. Illustrators use these visual elements purposefully hoping for children to question and discuss them.

Postmodern Picture Books

Postmodern picture books not structured around a linear plot, rather they “encourage a reader/viewer to co-create the plot with the author.” (p. 122) These books allow students’ to draw their own interpretations and meanings from the books. Teachers help students create meanings by facilitating discussions and conversations about the text and its complex illustrations.

Characteristics:

• Nonlinear: The reader works with the author to create a message through going back and forth between the pages to determine the meanings.
• Self-referential: These books are not purely for enjoyment, but readers are asked to question how the book was constructed and to become a part of the story.
• Playful and Sarcastic: These books may poke fun at particular subjects or societal norms.
•  Against Authority: These books don’t have to be set against authority, but sometimes they are. The reader is asked to make a judgement about a particular rule, law, or societal norm.

It is important to note that children do not have to be taught how to read these books. They naturally question and explore these books to draw their own understandings. Children enjoy flipping through the pages and easily have conversations about them.

Books Making Connections Between Paper and Electronic Media

There are many books that are exploring the relationship between paper and electronic media. They show the unique ways written and multimedia text interact. These books exemplify the fact that children are Digital Natives, and are tech-savvy at very early ages. Notable titles include: It’s a Book, Goodnight iPad, Blackout, and Press Here.

E-Books

E-Books are print books that have been converted to a multimedia format, sometimes with added animations and features. As adults, we feel strong emotional attachments to print books and save them on shelves. On the other hand, our students don’t feel this attachment—they are learning to read using screens. There interaction with print books is lessening as they grow older.

Advantages of E-Books:

• Can be accessed through digitized libraries.
• Cheaper than print books
• Come in a variety of genres including narrative and informational.
• Easily shared with whole class using projectors, document cameras, or Smartboards.

E-books can be used in homes as well as at school. Many young children do not differentiate between reading print books and reading e-books. Children who are familiar with and use technology on a regular basis at home have no trouble navigating e-books or apps. They see these two mediums as a connection between home and school. 

App Picturebook Interpretations

App picturebook interpretations are apps for specific books or authors. There are also apps that have a collection of picturebooks to choose from.

What makes a good app?

• Right amount of interactive parts
• All parts are enjoying or motivating, so much so that the child wants to repeatedly use it.
• Easy to navigate
• Make “turning the page” just as exciting as if reading a printed book
•  Add to or extend the book.

Informational Picturebooks

In the past, teachers have been hesitant to use informational picturebooks because teachers preferred fiction, these books were associated with dense nonfiction (encyclopedias, textbooks), these books are more expensive, and there were myths that students thought informational texts were boring. Today, there many developmentally appropriate, affordable, and high-interest informational picturebooks available. They can cover content areas in math, science, social studies, and the arts. Steve Jenkins and Seymour Simon are prolific informational text writers that offer books appropriate for early childhood classrooms.

How to use informational picturebooks:

Teachers must model for their students that informational texts do not have to be read in a particular order or in their entirety. When sharing these books with younger students, teachers may choose to only read small chunks instead of the entire text in one sitting. They must draw attention to the text features of these books, such as maps, diagrams, illustrations, and photographs to show how much these visual features add to the understanding of the content. Interestingly, B&M draws the conclusion that reading of informational picturebooks is similar to how we read websites.

B&M Chapter 8: Read All About I.T.!: Informational Text in the Early Childhood Classroom

Informational Text (I.T.) can be broken down into three main subcategories:

• Informative/Explanatory Text: primary purpose of this text is to give information about the world using various text features. Tends to be more authoritative because it is based on facts. (Kucer alert: We know that informative/explanatory texts aren’t bias free. They usually reflect the values and ideas of the group in power.) Uses timeless verbs and generic nouns. 
• Procedural Text: primary purpose is to teach someone how to do something. Tends to be a subject to interpretation—not every person will tell the steps to a process in the same order or create a product in the same way. Uses imperative verbs and gives materials lists.
•  Persuasive Text: primary purpose is to convince someone to change his/her beliefs and/or take action. Tends to be subjective in their interpretations because they are based on a claim. The types of evidence used to support the claim is what gives these text authority or limits the text’s authority. Uses claims, evidence, and counter arguments.

The three types of I.T. have varying degrees of authority and interpretation. They are each useful for different purposes, tasks, and audiences. Each of these subgenres has different text features, structures, and layouts. See Table 8.2 on page 137 to see the specific features of these three types of text.

Why Use Informational Text in the Classroom?

Many state and national standards are requiring that classrooms at all levels use I.T. at varying degrees. Fourth grade classrooms should be using I.T. 50% of the time. There are also parameters for the genres of writing students should be engaging in. Narrative or experience writing is only about one third of the writing that early elementary students should be doing. This is far different than early childhood reading and writing of the past. See Table 8.1 and 8.3 for more percentages.

Benefits of I.T.:

•  Children’s Interest in I.T. : BOTH boys and girls are interested in I.T.  and prefer it over other genres. One study found that though both genders enjoy these types of text, both genders perceived that boys preferred informational texts while girls preferred narrative texts. (Kucer alert: another example of how gender roles affect literacy experiences.) Using I.T. in our classroom allows for us to expose children to this genre who may not know yet if they like it or not.
•  Increasing Content Knowledge with I.T.: Much of what children learn about the world outside of their own experiences is through reading or viewing informational texts. Studies show that students take on the knowledge they hear and can engage in conversations about it.
•  Increasing Language Knowledge with I.T.: Through interactions with I.T. young children can increase their vocabulary and word learning. They hear language features and words that are specific to I.T. and being to incorporate into their own oral and written language.

There are many ways to incorporate I.T. into early childhood classrooms. Two studies mentioned in the book used different strategies and methods for teaching I.T. One used I.T. to teach comprehension strategies, vocabulary and text structure. Another focused on reading and writing real-world procedural texts. Both studies showed that explicit instruction with I.T. showed gains in knowledge. I.T. is important because it will increase as students continue their school career, and it is used frequently by adults.

There were many engaging strategies and examples given for how to incorporate I.T. texts and features into the early childhood instruction. We will explore these in our discussions.

V&F Chapter 2: Teaching and Learning with VoiceThread

VoiceThread: is an online software program in which slide shows are created using images, videos, and text. Then, leave comments using voice, text, audio file, or video.

Why Use VoiceThread?

At the time of printing of the book, Educator accounts were free, but when I looked they were $79 a year. 

• Can have up to three slide shows at a time with up to 50 slides each
• Students can have their own username/password to leave comments
• Owner of the account can decide which comments are shown
• Can be inserted into another website or blog
•  Can be exported/downloaded to portable devices or DVD
• Goes along with “textual landscape” children and adolescents are familiar with
• Allows interaction with people in the educational community and all over the world

Playing with VoiceThread—Kristin

Kristen’s goals for her project with VoiceThread were for her students to become more familiar with technology, increase access to computers, learn how to type their names, and see if VoiceThread would work with 4-year-olds. She created a VoiceThread slideshow about a community walk the class took. She put pictures in of the things they saw on their walk. Students were given 5 opportunities to go to the computer lab and add comments to these slides.

The children in her class exceeded her expectations and almost changed them! The “envisaged curriculum” she had prepared took on a life of its own and become the REAL curriculum. By the end of the time, Kristen’s students could confidently use the program and computer (including using the keyboard, mouse, and manipulating tools). They also had improved their access and literacy with computers by repeated use. Half of the 4-year-olds learned to type their name.

Using VoiceThread of Social Change—Katie

As a result of critical literacy discussions and students’ connections to various causes, Katie’s students decided to use VoiceThread for social change. Because the students had a direct connection to Lubo’s cause and had heard their teacher talk about Guatamala, they had authentic purposes for creating each VoiceThread. They also cared more about the project because it was important to their lives.

One VoiceThread raised awareness about the Lost Boys of Sudan. They included slides about the Lost Boy, Lubo, one of those Lost Boys, and what needed to be done to improve education in Sudan. The second VoiceThread was about raising money for schools in Guatemala. The students compared what they had in their schools to what students in Guatemala had. Through their VoiceThreads, this class was able to persuade viewers to give $300 to these two causes. Through this process, Katie’s students learned that they could make positive change in the world even at a young age!

V&F Ch. 3: Yes, We Can! Using Technology as a Tool for Social Action

Three classrooms used technologies to enact social change locally and nationally.

• Travel Trunks: While doing a study on environments, students in Vivian’s preschool class realized that there species of animals that were endangered. After reading about and discussing this issue as a class, they decided to help by making Travel Trunks. They solved the problem of expense by only creating four trunks. The other Travel Trunks included a small toy animal, a stapeless book (see readwritethink.org) with information about the animal, a note explaining why the class made the trunk, and a stamped postcard for the receiver to send back to Vivian’s class. Vivan found other teachers who wanted to participate in the project and were willing to pass the trunk along when their class was finished.
• Sustainable Communities: PreK students in Georgia wanted to improve water usage and decrease water pollution. After finding out that most water usage was a result of flushing toilets, they came up with an idea to create something to decrease the amount of water toilets used while flushing. They consulted experts (plumbers), websites, and local authorities about the best way to do this. They decided to create plastic containers with sand or rocks in them which are placed in the toilet tanks around their community.
• What’s the Weather?: Kevan’s class was disturbed by their class weather song only having 4 types of weather in it. They had all experienced more than four types and wanted to make some revisions to the song. The class brainstormed new ideas, voted on what to include, and rewrote the song. They decided to share it by creating a video for their school’s closed circuit television program. 

The thing that ties all three of these experiences together is that they were based on inquiry. In each scenario, students were studying something and extended their own learning into some kind of project. These projects were student-driven, and students were given authority to make decisions about their learning. The teachers in these classrooms made space in the prescribed curriculum for their students’ interest to influence what the class studied. A willingness to change and a willingness to allow long-standing activities/routines/texts to be interrogated was another important aspect of these projects, especially in the weather song.

S&H: Using Multimedia to Support Word Learning in the Digital Age

Videos: Video allows for words’ meanings to be more fully realized through the use of action and images that cannot be conveyed verbally. Studies show that short video clips help students’ receptive and expressive language skills. This medium also increases vocabulary depth and breadth. Videos are especially helpful for ELL students because they show nonverbal information about words. Videos are best used in conjunction with other texts and activities.

Digital Texts/E-Books: These books work well for vocabulary development because they present both verbal and nonverbal information about words. Some E-books also include hyperlinks to glossaries and dictionaries, animations, and narrations. Both informational and narrative digital texts can be used to teach vocabulary. Low socioeconomic or immigrant children may benefit even more from digital texts. These texts are also effective when used in partners or small groups.

Computer Programs/Games/Apps: Computer games, apps, and programs can help increase children’s knowledge about words, but not all games do. Different kinds of games have different effects on word learning. Games, apps, and programs should include explicit teaching of words with engaging activities to be truly effective.

Living Inquiry Article

This article outlines practices that Michelle uses in our classroom to foster inquiry through the use of informational texts.

Why I.T. Matters:

• Throughout their everyday lives, kids see I.T. in action—grocery lists, newspapers, instruction manuals, recipes, and in books. Ironically, their classrooms have a shortage of I.T. that is so present everywhere else. Many attribute the “fourth grade slump” to the lack of instruction and experience with I.T. in the younger grades. I.T. matters because it necessary for students to engage in inquiry-based learning. Michelle displayed Wells’ ideas that inquiry should invade all classroom activities, and children are allowed to pursue their inquiries. One chief way students research what they have questions about is through I.T.

Teaching and Learning I.T.

• Building A Community of Inquiry: Inquiry was present throughout the school day. Michelle allowed her students questions to shape and drive her curriculum not just in social studies and science, but also in language arts. Because inquiry guided lesson plans, I.T. was used throughout the day and in a variety of ways. Students read informational books, newspaper articles, magazine articles, as well as wrote observation records and word banks. Students interacted with I.T. in small group, whole group, and independent reading times.
• Capitalizing on Inquiry Moments: Michelle structured her lessons and routines, so they allowed opportunities and times for exploring I.T. But, much of the inquiry in her class came from inquiry moments when students spontaneously wondered about something. Michelle would try to capitalize on these moments even if it meant abandoning her lesson plans. When she did this, it showed her students the value of inquiry.
• Exploring and Documenting: Learning About Informational Texts: Michelle focused on text structure, features, and purposes of I.T. throughout her students’ inquiries. After first introducing text features, she created “living” charts that students continually added to as they encountered the features in their various reading/writing times. Micheelle also modeled “dipping into and out of” informational books. She showed that it is okay to read an informational book just to find a certain piece of information; one does not have to read the entire text.
• Inquiry Units: Michelle occasionally had entire units on inquiry, like the one discussed about habitats. Michelle introduced this unit by showing two articles from the local newspaper about habitats. She used a touchstone text to continue teaching about features and structures, as well as build background knowledge. Michelle flooded the room with books, and gave the children time to read them and build background knowledge. They continued to discuss what students were learning and adding to their living charts during this time. A few weeks into the unit, students were grouped according to which habitat they wanted to learn more about. The students researched this habitat using informational books, articles, internet searches, and videos.  Finally, students created a tri-fold poster that shared information about the habitat, food chains, and potential changes to the food chain. 

What can we learn from Michelle for our own classroom?

• Include I.T. daily in our classrooms
• Integrate language arts instruction with science and social studies. Allow for in-depth study of particular genres or topics.
• Encourage and model ways of using I.T. practically (showing lists, reading the weather forecast from the paper, sharing emails)
• Nudge students toward critical inquiry and reading I.T.

Critical Literacy and Inquiry:

Michelle helped her students to read texts critically and to not blindly accept what texts said. This is evidenced in the first example of the article about Benjamin Franklin. When they found discrepancies in texts they were reading, students were given opportunities to investigate the question and revise the incorrect texts.

Questions: Please answer #1-2, and then choose one more question you are interested in.

1. Select an activity B&M shared in chapter 8. Briefly summarize it. Using Kucer’s table 9.1 on pg. 232, what type of literacy does it fall under? Does this activity ask students to interrogate or question the text?
2. Share your reflections from V&F’s table on pg. 38.
3. Have you ever observed or organized an inquiry-unit? How can we do meaningful units like this in a world of pacing calendars and checking off state standards?
4. Have you ever experienced or observed a time when a teacher allowed the “real curriculum” (students interests and inquiries) to take precedence over the “prescribed curriculum?” Tell about that experience.
5. Choose one of the types of texts mentioned in any of the chapters, whether print or multimedia, and discuss the pros and cons of it in relationship to children’s literacy. 
6. What are some motivating and engaging ways you teach/have taught informational text features and structures? Tell about your experience with these activities and methods.