Module 5

MODULE 5

I read chapters 9, 10, 11, 13; listened to the Lapp-Fisher Podcast and watched the Make Reading Count webcast.

1. The three most important concepts I gleaned from the readings:

1. I am learning how important writing is to becoming a good reader who comprehends what is read.

2. I think I knew this, but having it in front of me makes it more real. I knew that bringing prior knowledge help student’s comprehension, but I always looked at that in a more abstract way – their environment, their experiences, etc. However, in the podcast it is simply mentioned that the more they read, the more prior knowledge a student brings to the table. Very simple, but something that I need to put into practice.

3. Again it has been reinforced that the digital age is before us. In this generation or the next, we will see paper and pencil phased out and all books, assessments, and learning tools will be digital/computerized.

2. How I plan to implement the research into my classroom? What changes I will make to my classroom teaching knowing this new information:

One thing I immediately implemented was a special writing center. I took a garage sale desk, put it in the hall outside my door, added an office chair, decorated the bulletin board above it with information about Barbara Park (and her address) and filled a basket with paper, envelopes, plain booklets and index cards. I put fancy pencils, new crayons, and ink pens out. I also added some pictures for story starters and a battery operated candle. My students fell in love with this! It is a treat to go to the writing center and when finished with a project, my students all ask to go there. They have written letters to Barbara Park, they have written mini books, and I have seen an incredible increase in their reading skills. As a rule, those students who are above level in my classroom want to use the center although it is open to everyone and all have used it at some time. But not only is it helping their reading and writing skills, but it is an excellent enrichment center for those students who are performing above level.

In order to help comprehension in my classroom, I am now reading small stories or discussing events that will happen in our main story of the week. Recently our story was about animals having a picnic so before we started reading we had a class discussion about going on a picnic. Some of the children had stories about picnics with family and I noticed that some children did not contribute at all. I realized that these children had never been on a picnic so they had no personal prior knowledge to bring to this story. I then pulled a couple of leveled readers that talked about picnics and we read those books. By discussing a key element of the story and reading some smaller stories, all the students had enough prior knowledge to bring to the weekly story. When testing on this story came around on Friday, all students scored better than before. This is a practice I plan to implement every week.

I’m afraid that this next implementation is the most difficult for me. Perhaps this gives away my age, but although I know I use new concepts and research based ideas, I still am old fashioned and almost feel I’m cheating when I use computers and my smartboard. However, I know the children in my classroom will be dependent on computers and their ability to maneuver and understand what information is there for them. Last year when my classroom got a smartboard, I taught a social studies unit that normally took me several days in one afternoon. It was hard to swallow that the children learned more and enjoyed this unit of the continents more than when I stood up in front of them, talked and read short stories to them. However, my opinion changed and lucky for my students, we use this technology so much more now. Today, my concern is that I’m not finding good sites fast enough for the children! Next year our computer lab will be updated and I plan to take my students to the lab once a week for instruction on navigating the web and the sites and games we have for them. I have learned to be more open to the 21st century and now I find it as exciting as the children do. I am even purchasing an e-reader this summer – and I’m anxious to see if my opinion changes that nothing can replace a brand new paperback in my purse!

I would like to make another observation on a subject which was not in my top three concepts but is critical: vocabulary. So many times we assume that everyone understands the words we use and read. After reading for this module, I started stopping at almost all words with over 5 letters during read-alouds in my first grade class to ask if they knew what the word meant. I was astounded at how many times I had little heads shaking “no” for words like critter, drowsy, and eager. I now not only tell the children what a word means, but we try to act it out in our classroom so that we have a visual to link the word to. For drowsy we all yawned, for critter we used our hands like claws, and for eager, we all panted like an excited dog ready to eat. Then when we come to those words in our story, we act it out as well. I believe this also helps in our comprehension because difficult words are understood. The best part of this is that now, when we come to a word a child doesn’t understand, they are not shy about raising their hand to ask what it means because they know there will be a fun visual for it.

3. The before/during/after reading strategies I used while I was reading and the effects of it after implementing it in my classroom.

When I began reading for this module, I must admit I was a bit overwhelmed by all the information. I made a similar chart to the K-W-L chart but labeled it S-W-P. These stood for Strategy, What is it and how will it help me personally. Because of this, I could keep notes for myself of key factors and remember what they were later after I had left the readings and then returned to them. It also helped me to simply scan over articles that I had already heard about in the podcast and webcast. I was able to look for new information without re-reading collaborating facts over and over. In my classroom, I used this same type of strategy when we read a lengthy story about animals and what is special about them. We labeled a chart then read the story and labeled it as we read. An example is below:

Animal                       Feature                                 Help

         Elephant                 Tusks and Trunk                   Food and Water

This story talked about ten different animals and when we were finished with reading and charting, the children had an excellent knowledge of these animals and their special features. Much more than if we had simply read the story.