final reflection

Standard 1: Foundational Knowledge

• Analyze classroom environment quality for fostering individual motivation to read and write (e.g., access to print, choice, challenge, and interests).
• I do not yet have classroom experience. I would think that access to a variety of materials would be the best way to get all students involved in reading and writing. If there are more choices, I would think that students would be able to find some genre they were interested in, like mysteries or autobiographies. For this course, I began with a rather proficient third-grade reader, so when I chose The Giving Tree for our first selection, she breezed through the reading and comprehension questions easily. The good part about the book is that it did manage to keep her engaged even though it was a lower-level text. From this experience, I began to realize that I needed to choose different books, so that she was given more of a challenge in her reading and comprehension, but she is such a good reader that none of the books I chose were truly difficult for her, they just took her a little longer to read.

Standard 2 Curriculum and Instruction

• Provide appropriate in-depth instruction for all readers and writers, especially those who struggle with reading and writing.
• Through the reading Rockets website, I learned a lot about struggling readers, from the facets of dyslexia to the way parents play a big role in getting children interested in reading. I think that the key to getting students interested in reading and writing is to make it fun and exciting. One article suggested to make reading a special time to converse with your children, whether it is taking them to the library to pick out their own books or playing words games in the car to develop their vocabulary. No matter how you look at it, the most important part of instruction is to be consistent in your assignments and assessments and assist struggling readers when and where you see the issue and to do that Immediately.

Standard 3 Assessment and Evaluation

• Administer and interpret appropriate assessments for students, especially those who struggle with reading and writing.
• Analyze and use assessment data to examine the effectiveness of specific intervention practices and students responses to instruction.
• This is probably one of the most important standards to investigate. You cannot truly know how your students are doing without administering assessments/evaluations. For example, students who struggle with spelling would benefit greatly from weekly spelling tests, to be sure they are heading in the right direction. Another assessment that I enjoyed in school was the vocabulary test. I think these were beneficial in every course, not just language arts courses. In biology, you need to know what the scientific words you are using mean, the same goes for English, foreign language for sure, and even math.

Standard 4 Diversity

• Provide differentiated instruction and instructional materials, including traditional print, digital, and online resources, that capitalize on diversity.
• Yes! A variety of materials is crucial in reading and writing. All people need to learn the value of every type of text from print to digital or even audio/video recordings. There will be a time when cursive is completely taken out of the curriculum (unless it is already) and I think that is sad. Students should definitely be able to read and write in cursive. A lot of documents from our antiquity are written in cursive, like the Constitution. If students are unfamiliar with cursive style writing, they will never be able to read these documents. Even in digital media, business names and other things will use a cursive font and those text styles need to be seen and known by students and people everywhere.

Standard 5 Literate Environment 

• Understand the role of routines in creating and maintaining positive learning environments for reading and writing instruction using traditional print, digital, and online resources.
• I believe routines are important to children of all ages. Children need schedule routines, chore routines, homework routines and especially school day routines. Children need to feel secure in their environment and routines help create that atmosphere. I know, as the parent of a 1.5 year-old that routines make the day so much easier to manage. If my daughter’s routine shifts, she becomes cranky and irritable. I can tell that she needs to rest and am pretty strict when it comes to her bedtime routine. I can imagine that this type of routine is going to be important throughout her life, as I know that if I skip a step in my own daily routine, I begin to feel confused and it can last all day. When we did our reading interview at the beginning of this course, Miss Judah said that her favorite place to read was in her room, on her bed, with her light. This is her reading routine. She has created this space where she feels most comfortable and undisturbed.

http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target

There are many problems a struggling reader may face. The article gives these as examples:
For example, children who have problems with phonemic awareness almost always have problems in word decoding and phonics; children with fluency problems usually have comprehension weaknesses; and a weak vocabulary also impacts comprehension. 
The authors recommend that you act as soon as you think a student has a reading issue so that they can get the help they need immediately. They also say parents play a very important role and must stay involved in getting the child help. The authors also say that a thorough reading evaluation should be done to target the specific areas of trouble. They give a quick tutorial for teachers and parents to review to give insight into targeting the trouble areas.

Story Sequence

This article talks about the importance of teaching story sequencing. The article gives the following three reasons as to why teaching story sequencing is important.

• It assists with comprehension, especially for narrative texts.
• Sequence structures help students of varying abilities organize information and ideas efficiently.
• Sequencing is also an important component of problem-solving across the curriculum, including science and social studies.

For Language Arts courses, the authors also advise to use story maps and teach transition words so that students have an easier time moving through a story they are reading or writing. There are even lesson plan ideas given in the article.

Reading Tips for Parents of Third Graders By: Reading Rockets

This article gives some specific guidelines on how to keep your child interested in reading and how to help develop your child's reading comprehension. For example, the article says to make reading into a special time. Taking your children to the library can help them think of it as a special and fun time to spend with parents. The article also states that you should help your child use a dictionary to look up unknown or unfamiliar words. They also recommend introducing your child to all sorts of genres of writing so that they can explore all the options of reading. They even suggest using car rides as time for word play games, like explaining how "jam" can mean something you put on toast, or when there is a lot of traffic.

Final: Summary

I will be using my blog to create a reflection on my first voicethread assignment. I think that this will allow me to see how far Miss Judah has come in the class from the first assignment.

Final Voice Thread

I chose The Bot Who Wore All His Clothes for this Voicethread.  I will use the following questions to guide Judah's comprehension:

from p. 280 D1-e
1. is the story believable?
2. Can you give an example of why you think that?

from p. 301 D2-b
1. If you had to give a speech about this book, what would be important to tell the audience?
2. What are some other ideas that yout hink would be important to include?

WEEK 11 Reading Rockets

About Stephen... and Fresh Starts

By: Brenda Dyck

This article is from the teacher's perspective . SHe has been working with an ADHD student and requested to continue working with him in the upcoming school year. Three important things I learned from this article are:

1. Teachers can give students fresh starts and new hope. 

2. Your reputation (even as a student) precedes you:  Negative information about your past experiences does follow you.

3. You can be the difference in one student's life/education/academic career.

However, the most important thing I learned was: She believed she had made learning breakthroughs with Stephen that she wanted to continue to nurture and stated: Langston Hughes so astutely observed: "When people care for you and cry for you, they can straighten out your soul."

WEEK 11 Chapter 8

I am going to ask questions from Section C2-b in Chapter 8 of our text. I think these questions are relevant because I chose the book: "The Great Spaghetti Mystery"

1. Consider different possibilities for the most "interesting" or "surprising" part?
2. Think about WHY this part was interesting or surprising?
3. Tell WHAT was interesting or surprising.
4. Give an example from the text.
5. Tell WHY you were interested or surprised.

Reading Rockets Week 10

I read "How to Help an At-Risk Child http://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-help-risk-child

Three important ideas/things from the lesson today are in order to help at-risk children, parents should seek prompt, appropriate intervention for any ongoing difficulties, such as language or hearing problems in the preschool years, introduce a comprehensive, high-quality program of early reading instruction, and practice close monitoring for any signs of reading difficulties in the early grades so that these difficulties may be addressed as quickly as possible, but the most important thing I learned today is knowledgeable teachers and first-rate pre-service teacher preparation are vital for providing children with this kind of instruction.

Reading Rockets Two

I chose an article about dyslexia. "Clues to Dyslexia in Early Childhood" http://www.readingrockets.org/article/clues-dyslexia-early-childhood

Three important ideas/things from the lesson today are clues can include trouble learning nursery rhymes, complaints or aversions to reading, and persistent baby talk and mispronounced words, but the most important thing I learned today is  the inability to learn to associate letters with sounds, such as being unable to connect the letter b with the "b" sound

.

Chapter 7

The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein

Can you give me a summary of this book?

Who is the main character?

What is the problem that the main character faces?

What do you think the problem is caused by?

In the end, what happens to the main character?

How did the main character solve its problem?

Using the character trait words given on page 187 of the textbook, can you describe the main character?

Use that same list to describe the “perfect piece”?

The BEST word to describe the main character is:

An example from the book The Missing Piece that shows this trait is:

Chapter 6

 Course ActivityHelp on this Pagelink opens in new window

Directions

Print

March 15 VoiceThread for Chapter 6 Forming a General Understanding

Please add a reflection to the end of each of your VoiceThreads. Use the following quesitons to shape your reflections:

What went well?

What would you differently next time?

Submit a link to your VoiceThread into TaskStream and into this Google Form

Evaluation Method

Web Links Section   link opens in new windowJudahlink opens in new window

http://voicethread.com/#thread/6631016/34561357

Week 8 Reading Rockets

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/top-10-things-you-should-know-about-reading
 I chose the article: Top 10 Things You Should Know About Reading By: Reading Rockets.

I found this article to be very interesting. Three important ideas/things from the lesson today are that thirty-three percent of American fourth graders read below the "basic" level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test, difficulties in decoding and word recognition are at the core of most reading difficulties. Poor readers have difficulty understanding that sounds in words are linked to certain letters and letter patterns. This is called the "alphabetic principle", and What preschoolers know before they enter school is strongly related to how easily they learn to read in first grade. Three predictors of reading achievement that children learn before they get to school are:

• The ability to recognize and name letters of the alphabet
• General knowledge about print (understanding, for example, which is the front of the book and which is the back and how to turn the pages of a book)
• Awareness of phonemes (the sounds in words)

, but the most important thing I learned today is as many as two-thirds of reading disabled children can become average or above-average readers if they are identified early and taught appropriately (Vellutino et al., 1996; Fletcher & Lyon, 1998). These facts underscore the value of having a highly trained teacher in every classroom.

Week 7: Course Activity and Readings

Chapter 6: I will use the following questions to help Miss Judah in her reading comprehension of The Giving Tree. I am planning to focus on the main ideas, themes, problems, solutions, and feelings of the characters in this book. I think that these elements would be easily identifiable in such a book. I am hoping that these questions are grade-level-appropriate, as our textbook states. I am hoping that this will also help Miss Judah to understand the larger ideas/themes that are going on in this text and help her to identify the feelings of the two main characters involved in it. I think that some of these questions do sound a bit challenging and hope that together we can work through the answers and she can gain full comprehension of the story.

LESSON

1.       What lesson does THE TREE learn in this story?

2.       The lesson in this story is:

3.       At the beginning of this story, the tree was

a.       Here is an example  

4.       At the end of the story, the tree was

a.       Here is an example

TITLE

1.       Another good title for this book would be:

2.       This is a good title because the text is mainly about:

3.       Here is a detail from the book that shows this:

FEELINGS/Characters

1.       Using information from the story, write a brief description of how the tree felt when the boy took things from her.

2.       When___________happened, the tree felt_____________. The tree showed this by:

PROBLEMS/SOLUTIONS

1.       How did the boy solve his problems? Give a detail from the story to explain.

2.       The boy’s problems in this story get solved when:

3.       Here is one specific problem that was solved:

CHARACTER CHANGES

1.       How did the tree change from the beginning to the end of the story?

2.       At the beginning of the story, the tree:

3.       At the end of the story, the tree:

4.       Here is how the tree changed (give a specific example from the story)

Chapter 4:  “Three important ideas from today’s lesson are talking about ideas is a great way to develop reading comprehension, collaborative work is essential in this comprehension process, and being sure all classmates are involved/no one is left out helps to build a culture of collaboration, but the most important thing I learned today is that collaborative work is more relaxed and it is not as scary to participate with only a small group.

Chapter 5:  “Three important ideas from today’s lesson are that great answers always reference the text in a specific way, identifying a reading strategy helps students in their assessments, and an idea must be elaborated upon in order for the reader/teacher to understand it fully, but the most important thing I learned today is that a longer answer is not necessarily a better answer.

Chapter 3 Reading

Three important things from this chapter are: Explanation, modeling, and bridging, but the most important thing is moving toward independence. ". . . we must persevere until the strategies for reading and writing have become automatic and a blank piece of paper has taken the place of the answer frame with its scaffolded sentence starters."

Voice Thread 1

https://voicethread.com/new/share/6587075/

Course Activity 5

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Shel Silverstein is an outstanding children’s author. Silverstein’s first book was Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back, written in 1963. One year later he wrote The Giving Tree, which he had a difficult time publishing. Publishers agreed that it was too sad. Silverstein remarked that life “has pretty sad endings.” Shel was born in Chicago in 1930. He not only wrote books, but also songs for famous singers such as “A Boy Named Sue” for Johnny Cash. In 1984, he won a Grammy for Where the Sidewalk Ends. He was also a playwright and in 1981 wrote The Lady or the Tiger. In 1988 he co-wrote a film with David Mamet, Things Change. Silverstein died in 1999, leaving behind quite a legacy of writing to remember him by. In 2011 a new collection of his poetry was published as Everything On it and left us with even more text and drawings by the awe-inspiring author. (www.shelsilverstein.com)

The Giving Tree is the book I have chosen to focus on with my reading student, Judah. I asked Judah if she had read this book before and she has not. Next week, (weather permitting) I will give Judah this book to explore. I chose this book because of the amazing life lesson within its pages. Silverstein’s amazing ability to relate adult themes in children’s literature is an inspiration. In The Giving Tree, Shel portrays the self-serving nature of a little boy who takes advantage of his supposed-best-friend, the tree. The tree’s unconditional love for the boy is apparent from the beginning of the book until the end. I am hoping that this theme will be easy for Judah to pick up on and that she will be able to express her thoughts to me for the comprehension assignment that I hope is coming next.

This book is a picture and text book. I believe that the pictures go great with the text. They help to further enforce the ideas behind the words. The characters are multi-dimensional. The language is very rhythmic with varied sentence structure. I believe the reading level is probably appropriate, in that Judah will be able to understand what she is reading and be able to read the book in one session. I hope that the text is simple and brief enough that she can easily pick up on the themes which I certainly believe reflect real-life emotions and make connections to the world. The book varies its text by sometimes putting only half a sentence on a page to putting entire paragraphs on other pages.

As for multicultural literature, I am not sure that this book shows diversity between different cultures, but I undoubtedly believe that it is a book that could be easily adaptable to any culture. Love is universal. The Tree is a female character and the boy, obviously male, but their parts are not equal. This book shows that the male character is the taker and the female character, the giver. The book does not really portray multiple cultures realistically either.  So, I would have to say that as far as the criteria in the multicultural rubric go this book does not really hit high marks. Maybe my opinion is too narrow. I would love to hear the thoughts of my classmates who may have read this text.

READING 5

Although I do not have experience yet in being a reading teacher, I do have some experience in being a reading and writing tutor. I have never had to choose a text for a struggling reader, but I have created tutorials on how to use certain web applications for struggling adult readers for the Tri-State Literacy Council in Huntington, WV. Although I was not able to see how the tutorials were implemented, after some minor revisions, the Director expressed that she was very happy with the work and all of the effort. The only other experience I can share is making an instruction training manual for an advertising company I worked for in Hilton head, SC. Within its pages were instructions on how to identify each type of ad, how they were coded, how to proofread an ad, how to copyedit an ad, and the procedure of resubmitting ads to the graphic design team. Although exhaustive, the manual came in as a handy reference guide for all the new proofreaders that I had to train. I am not sure these examples quite fit the assignment criteria, but it is all of the experience I have thus far. 

Portrait of a Reader

Three goals I believe that Judah and I should set are:

1.       Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

2.       Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and explain how specific word choices shape meaning and tone.

3.       Read complex texts independently, proficiently, and fluently, sustaining concentration, monitoring comprehension, and when useful, re-reading.

I also believe, from what I have read in That’s a Great Answer, that a good book choice for her might be Dear Mother, Dear Daughter by Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple. This book is listed as one choice for readers grades three and older (p. 290). I also like the questions the questions that the Bibliography of Objectives has to offer at the end of That’s a Great Answer (p. 330). Some example questions listed are:  “Using information in the story, write a brief description of how_____felt when_____. “ and “Can this part of the story be described as:  a definition, a description, an explanation a conversation, an opinion, an argument, or a comparison? How do you know?”

I think these questions are good for comprehension, which is something Judah and I will soon be working on. When I did the other course activities, I just had Judah tell me about her reading habits and read a small section of text for me. We did not get into the comprehension of the text. So, I feel like we will need to go back to the Winnie the Pooh book, briefly, just to be sure she understands what she is reading. What we concentrated on for the purposes of the Running Record were individual words and groups of words that she may have struggled with, but we did not go over the meaning of the entire text.

 In reading the “9 Components of Effective Reading Instruction” I think what we need to concentrate on next is the “Fluent, automatic reading of text.” This step acknowledges that children who read with fluency, comprehend the text simultaneously. This step also deals with independent reading levels, which is one step I wish for Judah and I to focus on.  I would like us to also work on the text comprehension step, as we did not focus on that before, and I want to be sure Judah is aware of what the text means and can comprehend small details as well as overall themes. I think this will happen with some follow-up questions once we re-read the Winnie the Pooh excerpt. I also have That’s a Great Answer to refer back to for some other comprehension question ideas.

So, far, I believe Judah is a competent reader who struggles mostly with individual words, but is not afraid to ask for help. I think this characteristic of her reading is very important to her comprehension of the texts that will be given to her for future assignments. I was not able to get with Judah this week to re-read Winnie the Pooh, but will work on that in the next few days so that we can assess where she needs to grow in the comprehension realm. 

2015 Reading Three

 What do you like about the book?  I like her honesty about what she decided needed improvement in this 2^nd edition. I also like that she said that teachers liked the 1^st edition too much. At first, I was thinking, “haha, what?” but once I read her rationale about this text becoming the instruction instead of a helpful manual, I got what she was saying.  I also like that she had included a CD and bibliography full of resources.

What resources will be helpful? I think all of the information provided will be helpful: the CD, the text itself, and the bibliography. I think it’s extraordinary that she thought about using the CD in a tech-savvy course with an overheard or whiteboard.

Concerns about the book? I don’t have any concerns about the book, yet, but we are only through the introduction. I may voice concerns as our reading progresses, but I believe that this author has her bases covered so far. 

2015 Course Activity Three

For Miss Judah, I chose a passage from a children’s story book. She did very well while reading the passage. She stumbled on a few words, but ultimately did amazing. She surprised me by knowing some of the larger vocabulary that I initially thought would present an issue. The following is the passage and notations that we looked at this week.

From Winnie the Pooh’s Bedtime Stories:

“It was the time of year that the A V inhabitants of the Hundred-AV Acre Wood called fall because that was when the leaves on the trees decided to do just that. Transforming from green to all those bright autumn tints and T Vhues was obviously quite exhausting. So, before the cold of winter arrived to SCredden the ends of noses and SCtickle toes (no matter how warmly cradled in sensible boots, and stockings so woolly that Oa pastureful of them would make a SCshepherd look twice), the leaves would drift drowsily down to sleep away the season under the blankets of snow that would soon be arriving.

Making sure the leaves were arranged properly for their winter’s nap was a responsibility Winnie the Pooh and his neighbors took very seriously, or as seriously as a bear of very little brain could take anything that didn’t involve eating.”

Miss Judah only made two countable errors according to the chart provided through taskstream. Out of 104 words, Judah missed omitted one word and was told one word. According to the accuracy chart, Miss Judah garnered a 98% accuracy rate. Her self-correction ratio is 1:22. This means that the first text I chose was an “easy text” and the taskstream Running Record recommends that I “move the child to a higher text level.” I had a feeling this might be the issue as I am a novice to teaching and was unsure what a third-grader’s reading level should be (other than googling some ideas). We will attempt a longer portion of text next time as well, as I believe that may have been part of the issue as well. I was not sure how long of a passage I needed for this assignment. So, next time we are going to focus on Hamlet, that’s totally a joke.

As for Judah’s Reading Behaviors, she did great at sounding out the words she did not know and when she came to the word “acre” she pronounced it “Ack-ree” and immediately said, “that just doesn’t sound right.” Judah was very self-aware of the words she stumbled on and had a great rate of self-correction.

All in all, I was very pleased with Miss Judah’s results and feel that once I have selected appropriate texts, then we will really see what we need to strengthen and focus on. Miss Judah was accurate when she said, in the reading interview, that when she comes to a word that does not make sense or is difficult to pronounce, she asks for help. That’s great—she certainly did. I wish all people were so eager to ask for assistance when necessary.

            

2015 READING TWO

How Standardized Tests Shape—and Limit –Student Learning

Article Summary:  This article looks at the negative effects on student learning through standardized testing. It says that although these tests are not in themselves high-stakes tests, they are used as such. The article focuses on the limitations, especially in ELA, that these tests embody. It is difficult to measure true ELA outcomes because this type of test mostly focuses on reading comprehension and writing as multiple choice items. The article also states that subjects such as foreign language, music, art, and social sciences are left out of these types of tests and that hey focus mostly on computational skill. These tests are also hard for teachers as they must gear their teaching toward mastery of standardized test and not other important tasks. This type of test is being  used to shape the curriculum and the types of learning that go on in the classroom and teachers are losing valuable teaching time. The end of the article does give some solutions to using these standardized tests as such a high stakes test by allowing multiple formative and summative tests and using these tests along with other tests, not just as an end-all type of assessment for teachers and students alike.

Interpretation:  I think this article gives a good glimpse of the limitations set by standardized tests for all involved. I know that in my own experience with taking tests like the SAT, GRE, PRAXIS, etc. that they are not true measures of a person’s skill. I am not a great test-taker and my test anxiety pretty much takes over as soon as I sit down in the test room. I think that the best advice given in this article is to use standardized tests ALONG WITH other types of tests. I remember that a portion of the GRE was to write an essay which would then be scored by some sort of panel of experts. I am, by no means, a great writer, but I am not a poor writer either. It is difficult, though, to be given a topic and a time limit to shape a good and effective essay without the time to revise and re-revise your text. I think writing is a process and not a product as soon as it hits the paper. A student should be allowed the time to collect their thoughts and not just vomit words onto paper in their 45-minute allotted time slot, that’s just messy no matter how you take it. It is also concerning that we are teaching toward reading comprehension and not toward a greater understanding in literacy. If teachers are to prepare students for higher education, we are doing them no favors by teaching solely to comprehension. Higher education is all about critical thinking, unpacking meaning, and every other new-fangled buzzword that relates to extracting the hidden agendas inside of a text. We want to create feeling, thinking, compassionate beings, not just tiny yes-men. I will never agree with or understand the concept of trying to fit 100 different individuals into the same-sized box. If we are all created differently, how can we be judged by an invariably standard test? Nonsense!

Course Activity TWO

Today, I interviewed “Miss Judah.” She is “mostly eight” and will be turning nine in March. She is in the third grade. The following is the interview that we conducted together this afternoon:

DO YOU LIKE TO READ? WHY/NOT?  Sometimes, because some books are more interesting than other ones.

HOW MANY BOOKS DID YOU READ LAST YEAR?  Like six.

HOW OFTEN TO YOU READ AT HOME?  I mostly read at home.

WHAT BOOKS HAVE YOU READ RECENTLY?  Lost in Las Vegas, it was really good.

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN A WORD DOESN’T MAKE SENSE?  I try to sound it out, but if I still don’t know it, I ask my mom or teacher.

DO YOU LIKE TO READ OUT LOUD?  I like to read out loud in my head because there is usually a lot going on around me.

WHAT ALL DO YOU LIKE TO READ?  Books and magazines mostly.

IS READING HARD FOR YOU? Sometimes, maybe not really.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE PLACE TO READ?  Yes, on my bed where there is a light that shines on it and it is the perfect place to read.

DO YOU LIKE THE LIBRARY?   Yes, the one at school.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE BOOK?  Yes, Lost in Las Vegas was really good.

WOULD YOU MIND READING A FEW BOOKS FOR ME THIS SEMESTER? I would be glad to help you read.

                Judah enjoys reading and although she sometimes faces difficulties, it does not deter her. I believe she gave a great answer when she said that she “asks her mom or a teacher” when she does not understand the text. I have also spoken with Judah’s mother, a long-time friend of mine, who says that Judah is an avid reader who asks for help when she comes across something she does not understand. Although, I know we are concentrating on students who are more struggling readers, I think that this student is appropriate for the course because she is not only a willing participant, but she is willing to ask for help when she is struggling. I was also happy to hear Judah say that she has a favorite place to read and a favorite book. She commented that she likes books that are “not real” because they “take you to different places.” I am excited to share this endeavor with Judah and think this will help her strengthen those literacy skills she may be struggling with this school year. I also told Judah that I will be choosing around ten books for her and she will choose the four that she would like to read. I also told her that if they are not books that she is interested in, that we could decide on different ones that she may like better. I am looking forward to this being a remarkable partnership.

I used one of the surveys that were listed on taskstream and changed/added/adapted some of the questions to fit the needs of this interview:   http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/10/gathering-information-about-my-readers-interviewing-them

introduction

Hello! I am Shannon DeWitt. I am in my second semester of the MAT program. Previously, I've earned two degrees at FSU. I have a BA in French (2003) and a BA in English  (2011). I attended Marshall U to work on an MA in English, but was only able to complete 20 hours before I found out I was pregnant. It was a high-risk pregnancy and I decided to take a break from my education and move back to Harrison County. I am now the doting mother of a 13-month-old daughter,  Raylie, who is my world! I hope to teach English to grades 5-12 in this county or one nearby. I hope we all have an amazing, productive, successful,  and rewarding semester! Cheers!
As a child (and an adult) my favorite children's book has always been The Giving Tree. There is just something so tender about Shel Silverstein's writing. iI have enjoyed all of the books that I have read by him.

Spring 2015: Reading One

Shannon DeWitt

READ 6360

CCSS

“Although many are creating partnerships with higher education, only 16 states plan to align college admission or first-year undergraduate curriculum with CCSS.”  (p. 1-2)  I think this seems counter-productive if only about one quarter of the states are actually trying to prepare students for college. What if your family moves from a state that honored the alignment to one that does not? Or, vice versa. I think there should be more of a conscious effort made by all states to prepare students for higher education, especially if that’s what we are all aspiring toward.

The CCSS is by no means a perfect system, but I think that it should help all states to have the same standards. I think that this would benefit anyone who may move from county to county or state to state to stay on top of their academic studies.

Censorship

“Censorship has similarly negative effects on teachers. It devalues their expertise as it prevents them from drawing on their knowledge about specific students, available materials, and the local context to make instructional decisions.”  (p. 2)  I had not thought about it in this way, but it makes sense. I am not sure an approved reading-list is the best solution. Who can say that what is on that list won’t offend someone anyway. I believe we currently live in a world where everyone is offended by something and they are more than willing to Facebook about it. Personally, I loved “banned books” week at college, especially. It was interesting to read what was and is banned, yet some other stories are allowed to be told with no repercussion. I have to admit that the comment about the Scarlet Letter being filth made me giggle. There are tawdry little tidbits in so many stories (i.e. Shakespeare-anything).  And, another thing, how many of these irate parents let their children watch television that isn’t G-rated and have access to social media that is by far the best of the world’s nonsense and trash? (of course, I have a Facebook account).

Comprehension

“Preparing students to read complex texts effectively is one of the most important and most challenging responsibilities of schools.” (p. 3)  When I read this, I immediately thought, “well, yeah, hasn’t this always been the case?”  Why is this a new idea? What have we been promoting in the past? This is definitely the most important part of preparing our students for higher education. Students need to be able to pick a part a text, compare it to other texts they have read, and truly extract meaning from what they are reading. Without these things, we are not fully developing literacy in our students. I think both textual complexity and close reading are important for understanding what we read. I do not think they are as independent from one another as they are presented in the article. Both of these processes need to be involved in developing a full literacy capability.