Children and Writing

Readings:
Ch. 4: Day One: Help Children to Write and Keep Writing
Ch. 7: Conditions for Effective Writing

Chapter 4 will be a great resource for me once I have my own classroom.  It contains many different examples of how to get students' attention and turn writing into something fun that they can understand.  It discussed the need for children to understand why writing is important.  If we ask them to write before they understand writing, they will not be motivated to perform.  I really liked the idea of passing students small notes to convey important messages or discussing signs and how they convey meaning.  Once you can relate writing to the students' lives, they will begin to understand why teachers think it is so important.
The other topic that Chapter 4 addressed was alternatives to narratives.  Not all children feel comfortable with personal narratives, and they might be much more responsive to writing something like a list instead.  Making lists is a great way to excite children about writing, because they are happy to talk about how much they know about a topic.  Kids like to be experts, so listing will help them feel like they know a lot and give them writing practice, while also possibly sparking their curiosity for further research on the topic.
Chapter 7 focused more on how to create a perfect classroom environment for writing.  There are many aspects of a normal classroom that are not conducive to writing or learning to write.  Students need to be able to write every day.  This will help them to enjoy it, instead of dreading the time of writing block.  Students also need the freedom to choose their topic.  When given options, students become more comfortable with the task of writing and they begin to enjoy it more.
Reading these chapters was a funny experience, because right now I am attempting National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo), which is the task of writing 50,000 words of a story over the course of 30 days in November.  Therefore, all of this writing advice is something that I took very much to heart.  All of what these articles have been saying is the point of this exercise: to write every day, to choose your own topic, to not review/edit everything that you write right away.  So I know from first hand experience that these tips do indeed work!  NaNoWriMo has a young writers program that has been used effectively in classrooms many times, and I would love the opportunity to use it in my own classroom some day.

Embrace the Mistakes

Reading
Every Mark on the Page by Katie Foley Cusumano

I found this article to be extremely enjoyable.  It was both very informative and very easy to read, which is the best combination.  It deals with a very important issue: writing.  More importantly though, in my opinion, is that it deals with mistakes.  Often times people have the wrong idea about mistakes, especially parents.  This is understandable.  Parents only want the best for their children.  They think that in correcting them, they will help them succeed.  And why wouldn't they?  The mentality that we need to leave mistakes alone is a little counter intuitive, but treating mistakes in this way would change the entire outcome of a child's education.

My teaching philosophy since freshman year has involved what my roommate Elisa calls the Miss Frizzle (of The Magic Schoolbus fame) philosophy: "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"  Possibly every parent's nightmare, but an educator (with the right mindset)'s dream.  When students make mistakes, it means that they are taking chances.  They are trying.  This is incredibly brave of them, really.  They are attempting new and difficult tasks every day.  How many adults can say that?  Adults have forgotten what it was like to be children.  Maybe they even blocked it from their memories on purpose.  But we need to understand the scale of what school age children are doing every single day in school.  They are trying to make sense of the world around them - a world that most adults can't fathom not understanding.

So, when kids make spelling or grammar or punctuation errors in their writing and get relentlessly told to correct them, it is discouraging.  They are focused more on conveying meaning at a young age then conveying meaning exactly right.  It is similar to someone who doesn't know very much Spanish trying to communicate with someone who only speaks Spanish.  They might not get the structure or the words exactly right, but it doesn't matter to them as long as they can get their meaning across.

So I take the message of this article deeply to heart.  We need to embrace our mistakes.  We don't need to ignore them - they will have to be dealt with eventually, of course.  But we need to be mindful about when we deal with these mistakes.  And when kids are starting at the beginning and still being brave enough to try this new thing called writing, that is perhaps not quite the right moment.

Phonemic Awareness

Readings:
Teaching Phonemic Awareness by Rasinski and Padak
From Phonics to Fluency by Rasinski and Padak

Learning to read is not all work; some of it can be fun and games!  Phonemic awareness is one of those topics that can be very fun for kids to learn and practice.  There are many games, songs, rhymes, and poems that can be used to work on this skill.  I love that the article highlighted this element of teaching, because often times, especially with the growing push towards standardized test, the fun of learning is skipped over in favor of more practical or efficient methods.  I believe, however, that if learning is fun, then that method will be the most effective method.  I think that kids should enjoy their school and learning experience, just as I think that college students or adults should.  Nobody wants to invest themself in learning something that they do not enjoy discussing or researching or practicing.

The article also highlighted the importance of mastering phonemic awareness in order to become better readers.  Numerous studies have shown that phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors for how well students will learn to read in the beginning years of school. Some students come in with lots of phonemic background, but many come in with very limited experience.  In my mind phonemic awareness is one of the building blocks of reading.  It forms the base, as it is one of the most basic, yet important, aspects of mastering language.  If the base is wobbly or if it is removed, you cannot build a tower that is structurally sound.  The bigger the base, the bigger the tower.  Possibly a lame metaphor, but I think it is great at illustrating the importance of this concept.

Phonemic awareness is crucial; it is also fun!  Combined, it should be something that is both easy and enjoyable to incorporate into a classroom.

WHOA!

Reading:
Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch. 7 I Thought I Knew How To Teach Reading, But Whoa! by Johnson/Keier

I would like to preface his post by saying that the handwriting in the pictures on page 111 is unreal.  Like, it might actually be perfect.  I feel like there is a very high standard set for my handwriting, and I do not know if I can live up to these expectations!

Anyway, this chapter talked about what to do when you are struggling with struggling readers.  It is easy to see how it can become frustrating to work with struggling children, pour tons of energy into helping them, and see little or slow progress.  There are several strategies and specific things to work with these children on.  However, whether they need to learn which direction to read of what sounds certain letters make, working with them will take patience.

Not all students are easy.  Many have different backgrounds that we do.  I know when I was first thinking about teaching, I expected all of my students to be like I was: a precocious child who learned easily and excitedly.  I realize now, of course, that that is very far from the truth.  But that is what I originally thought.  That is what I'm sure many others with no experience think as well.  And that is still sometimes what I hope for.  It would make my job easier.  It is hard to put yourself back into the position of not knowing that text goes from left to right or that we start to read at the top of a page.  It is hard to remember what it was like to learn these things.  But we have to realize that many children have yet to discover what to us seem to be obvious facts of life.

My mom recently found an old video from when I was in first grade.  It involves my entire first grade class sharing artifacts that they have chosen to represent the various letters of the alphabet.  As students walk up to the microphone, they mumble their names and pause as they try to remember what their letter is and how it relates to their object.  When it was my turn (I had the letter R, in case you were wondering), I marched briskly up to the mic and announced loud and clear that I, Rachel Knuttel, had brought in rattles to represent my letter.  I then proceeded to shake the rattles in a demonstration, before, striding away and letting the next student approach the stand and mumble their name.  I laughed upon seeing this video, because I remember doing this project, and I remember my parents laughing at how much more confident I seemed to be than the other children.

It might sound bad to say that I was the kind of student I dream of having, but I am the kind of student that I have the most experience with.  I, and others, need to make sure to look past the idea of having only confident students brimming with background knowledge enter our classrooms.  There will be students with disabilities or with no previous knowledge or who are learning English for the very first time.  No student will have the exact same background that I do.  And therefore, we can not depend on our memories of ourselves as students to determine how we will teach our future students.  We must open our minds and prepare to learn many strategies, but especially the ones that we didn't need ourselves.

Working with Groups and Individuals

Listening:
Making Decisions for Individual Learners within a Small Group Setting webcast by Reading Recovery

The webcast from the Reading Recovery website touched on several very important issues.  There were several great points that they made which I had not previously thought about.  The first of those was to teach to readers, not to the books.  I know I would be guilty of picking certain books for the sake of using said books.  That, or I would find stories that I like and find an excuse to base a lesson off of them.  And this is okay, but I need to make sure that I focus on what the readers need.  You can pick a book that will focus on the readers, but you should not make the readers the secondary focus of the lesson and the book the first.

I also really liked the comment on how reading was more non-visual than visual.  It really is thinking, and I think many people overlook that.  People who are not avid readers to not appreciate the amount of thinking that goes into reading a text.  When you read, your brain is constantly working to imagine scenes and scenarios and predict what will happen and comprehend the text and make connections.  These things are what we must teach to young readers so that they can understand and appreciate what they read.  Without this brain work, reading is difficult and dull, and struggling readers are hard-pressed to continue when they don't see any point.

They also talked about giving students an adequate amount of time dedicated solely to reading and writing.  This is something we have discussed often, but that does not make it any less important.  I think it should be highlighted frequently.  It is something that people think is obvious, but that tends to fall by the wayside once teachers get into the swing of things.  Therefore, it should be brought up as much as possible.

I also really liked the discussion on ELL students that took place.  These students will be included in our classrooms and we are going to need to know how to best serve them.  However, they learn differently than our native English speakers will, so it is important to realize that.  It is especially important to realize that talk is critical for these students, and that reading and language cannot really be separated.  The more that we talk to these students and expose them to English, the easier they will be able to learn.  We must work to make sure that they have access to texts that are easy for them to connect to and interesting to them in order to help encourage the process.  ELL students require a little extra attention, but they are just as capable of learning.

Variety in Literacy Framework and Assessments

Readings:
Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch. 5 A Comprehensive Literacy Framework by Johnson/Keier
Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch. 10 Assessment by Johnson/Keier

Chapter 5 of Catching Readers Before They Fall covers the many different aspects involved in a "comprehensive literacy framework."  In short, it discussed the importance hitting reading and literacy from many different angles.  This part of the book reminded me of the Daily Five.  It all revolved around reading, but sometimes there was reading alone, sometimes reading with other students, sometimes reading with the teacher, and sometimes just having the teacher read to the students.  This system bypasses all of the extra reading tasks that Allington hates so much.  However, it still uses different methods to give students variety and also target different aspects of reading.  There is writing involved too.  This can also be done individually or as a group.  I particularly liked the example of group writing in the book.  Letting students work together but also show off there strengths will help them gain confidence, as well as help the teacher identify each students' strengths and weaknesses.

The chapter on assessment tied in nicely, again discussing the importance of variation.  I agree with the fact that although standardized type tests certainly have a place in our educational system, it is not the place that they are currently in.  Some students excel at tests, but others flounder.  Stress and anxiety can massively affect student performance.  Students with different learning styles show their knowledge best in different ways.  Giving all students the same test is like teaching all of them the same thing, which we have already decided is not the best idea.  I like that the book provided many methods of evaluation to use, especially since reading is a difficult trait to evaluate by exam.  I especially appreciated the two profiles of different students, Edward and Hannah.  This is the perfect way to show that two students require two very different methods of evaluation, assessment, and assistance.

Each student is different, meaning that they would, in a perfect world, have their own individualized education plan.  Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to do this.  The best that we can do is offer options in every aspect possible, including methods of reading/literacy instruction and especially assessment.

Don't Sound It Out

Readings:
Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch. 4 Beyond "Sound it Out" by Johnson/Keier

This chapter brings to light what everybody working with a child on reading has experienced.  "Sound it out," you say when they stumble over a word.  "S-ch-o-o-l...sCHool!" they exclaim, proud to have figured out the letters. "Actually no," you are forced to say, popping their bubble of success, "that word doesn't follow the rules."  The thing is, there are a lot of words that don't follow the rules, and when nothing follows the rules, it is hard to use the rules.

Kids deserve better than just "sound it out" as the go to response.  This is likely to confuse and deflate them much more than it will help them.  If you are constantly telling a child to use a technique that won't work half the time, they will begin to lose confidence in themselves and their reading abilities.

This chapter delved into more ways to help kids figure out what that mystery word is.  The authors focus on three different ways to solve the problem, thinking about what makes sense, what sounds right, and what looks right.  While these are great strategies individually, they are most useful when utilized together.  If we begin to emphasize these strategies more, then we will be helping students learn truly useful strategies instead of one that works just sometimes.

By using these more realistic strategies, we will help even struggling readers boost their confidence levels.  Since there is no longer a focus on only the phonetics and letters in the word, the child is more likely to find the correct word instead of something wrong or invented.  This means less "actually no"s and more "good job"s.  Something as simple as that could make or break reading confidence in a struggling student.  The balance between self confidence and self doubt is precarious, and we need to do everything possible to tip the scales in the right direction. 

Reading as a Second Language

Readings:
Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch. 1 Expanding Out Paradigm of Reading by Johnson/Keier
Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch. 2 How Reading Works by Johnson/Keier
Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch. 3 Vygotsky Takes a Seat in our Classrooms by Johnson/Keier

This week's reading focused a lot on thinking about reading as a complex process. For people like us, who have been reading for many years, it seems like such a simple, natural process.  However, for children just learning how to read, it is a difficult task.  We forget how many steps are truly involved in decoding words and interpreting their meaning.

Reading is almost like learn a whole new language.  Essentially it is, since children are still figuring out English and how the language works when we teach them in schools.  But talking is very different from writing/reading.  Many people who grew up in bilingual homes claim that they can speak their second language (i.e. Spanish) very well, but due to the lack of technical instruction in school, have poor reading/writing/grammar skills in that language.  English though, which may not have been their first language, is what they have more technical skill in, since that is what was taught in schools.  So if you look at reading in this way, it really is it's own separate entity from speaking.

Therefore, in order to remember what it was like to learn to read, it would be helpful for teachers to learn a new language.  The best option would be one with a totally different system of written language, like Russian or Chinese.  This would be an excellent exercise, even if only for a day at a professional development workshop, to get teachers back in the head space of their students who are just learning to read.  Everyone has already taken a foreign language in school, and therefore remembers whether they thought it was easy or hard.  If it was easy for you, it was likely that reading and writing was easy for you.  If you were the type of person who struggled with a foreign language, it is likely that you might have struggled with reading as well.

Another important thing to consider is Vgotsky's Sone of Proximal Development.  This learning theory is perfect to relate to reading instruction.  It emphasizes focusing on only what children are ready to learn. Often times we expect an entire class to be on around the same level, but some students end up struggling or being bored.  Te ZPD focues on finding the appropriate level of instruction.  This fits n nicely with the idea of "good fit" books and leveled reading.  Vygotsky's theories compliment our current reading practices nicely.

If we were to ignore the ZPD, it would be like placing a student who has never spoken Russian in a 400 level college class, where the professor speaks no English to the class.  This panicky feeling would be similar to that of a student being forced to read a book that is not the correct level for them.  Vygotsky's theory just reminds us how important it is to provide proper instruction to each child.  This way, nobody is allowed to fall through the cracks.

Reading a Lot of the Right Books

Readings:

Ch. 2 What Really Matters: Kids Need to Read a Lot - Richard Allington

Ch. 3 Kids Need Books They Can Read - Richard Allington

Practice makes perfect.  That goes for basketball, playing the piano - anything.  It goes for reading as well.  This is the topic of Allington's Ch. 2.  He stresses this endlessly, citing numerous studies and research projects that back up his ideas.

I firmly agree with this idea.  A lot of this is based off of my own experiences as a reader and a student.  For whatever reason I adored reading from a young age, devouring book after book.  The more I read, the more I wanted to read.  It is a self propelling process, and once you start it is hard to start.  I credit the fact that I have done well in school partially to the fact that I have gotten so much practice reading.  I would follow Richard Allington's statistics very well, I think.

There is still the question, though, of whether students will read more because they are good at reading, or whether they are good at reading because they read more.  This is almost a chicken-and-egg question, and I doubt we will ever truly know the answer.  Whatever the true root is, it is important that we continue providing quality literacy education to students from a very young age.

What is a quality literacy education?  This is what Allington discusses in his second piece, Ch. 3.  He stresses the importance of not only reading a lot, but reading the correct books.  Books that are too easy or too hard are both equally likely to throw a developing reader off track via boredom or frustration.  Our students need books that are designed to be on their specific reading level.

However, they also need books that interest them.  Reading material that does not grab your attention is the most difficult to get through, and yet we constantly force children to read books that they do not choose.  Giving a little bit of a selection will help them to become excited about what they are reading.  Finding appropriately leveled and interesting books will always be a challenge.  This is why teachers must utilize the school library or media center, as well as focus on building a large classroom library of their own.  This is a part of being a teacher that I really look forward too.  I cannot wait to introduce my students to books that I have loved as a child and to have them introduce me to books that they enjoy as well.

Allington also states the importance of involving reading in areas other than "language arts."  Readings, books, articles, and magazines can relate to lessons in social studies, science, and more.  Why should they not be included in lessons?  Allington is also a fan of uninterrupted learning time, especially when dealing with reading.  Finding time in the day to focus on nothing but the actual act of reading will likely be challenging, especially with the large amount of standards we are forced to teach too.  But some creative thinking and careful planning will hopefully make it possible.

These chapters form an important basis for what the core of literacy/reading/writing lessons for children should be.  The best way to get kids interested in reading is to make it easy, accessible, and interesting by providing a lot of the right books.

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