Chapter 6- Making inferences can be difficult because it requires some deep thinking and concentration. Lots of times this is very hard for children to do this because of the way it is taught to them. Teachers introduce this by saying “read between the lines” and I can remember this as a child and taking it so literally. Reading between the lines means making connections, what is the author trying to say. I like this chapter because it gives a very good story on how children were trying to make inferences. Ellin shared a great story because she shared all the strategies she used; what worked, what didn’t work. She was not afraid to share how she had to rearrange her thinking; I think that caught my attention the most. When she paused to recollect her thought the children did as well and she was not expecting that. I always think to myself, What if I mess up or get stumped on something in the classroom. What do I do? Reading this showed me that it is okay. Making inferences allows us as readers to get a meaning out of the text that is not obviously there. In order to do this we must use logic, life experiences, values and lots of other things. Thinking aloud in the classroom helps students with making inferences but they must be done right. Another way to help students with inferences is by having conferences with them; share their thinking with the teacher. This gives the student and the teacher the time to check for areas of improvement. What is it that the student does not understand? What way can the teacher help the student? Thinking about this makes me wonder what I will do some day. I want to come up with different strategies that will stimulate the students’ minds so that they can make strong inferences. I don’t want them to make predictions that are obvious, I want them to go beyond that.
The author states on page 145 “inference is part rational, pat mystical, part definable, and part beyond definition. Individuals' life experiences, logic, wisdom, values, creativity, and thoughtfulness, set against the text they are reading, form the crux of new meaning. Because each person's experiences are different, the art of inferring takes the reader beyond the text to a place only he or she can go. With little children this is so true, so visible. I like to compare them to a sheet of typing paper,( today I guess we would say they are a blank page in a word processing program like MS Word) some with no writing, some with very little. They are erasable bond (typing paper that is erasable), if the writing is incorrect, we can erase it and start again. Little children are bound by their limited life experiences, but also limitless in those vast imaginations they posses. Inferring is rational/and definable because, as teachers, we can talk with students and explain “why” it is. Two plus two will always be four, we can pull out counting blocks/beads and prove it. We can use the few life experiences they have and make them understand, two cookies in the right hand and two cookies in the left hand is always four cookies. It is mystical and beyond definition, because little children still see the “wonder” of things. An empty Pringles can covered with contact paper and labeled the “I can” can, has the power to ease the pains of frustration and allow the student to start over again. This makes them some of the easiest people on the planet to teach. We all know that children who are good or fluent readers have lots of experiences from which to draw upon, experiences they can use to make inferences. The wonderful thing about little children is that we can create experiences, make them real for our students, they can and will use those “man made experiences” to make inferences. This year a simple lesson on the life cycle of a plant became a unit study on life cycles. We studied lima beans seeds and we amazed that seeds “wear coats”, that those coats have to come off in order for the plant to grow. The students were amazed when we opened up a seed and saw a tiny plant inside waiting to grow. They were awe struck over the fact that one seed from any vegetable, if cultivated properly, could yield ten more pieces of that same vegetable. That simple lesson became the springboard for life cycles up to and including hatching chickens in the classroom! As we completed each level of life cycles they were able to build upon prior knowledge and infer about what could happen on the next level. Inferring, to me, is teaching our students to read, apply the new information to experiences they have had, and make thoughtful decisions about what the new information means. It is teaching them to think.
Chapter 6 was all about creating meaning or inferences. One of my favorite quotes was on page 141 and it states, “They need to know that they aren’t “wrong” if their inferences are different from those of their teachers or classmates.” I think that this is very important when trying to get children to make their own interpretations. I think that too often students shy away from speaking up in class because they are afraid that they will be wrong or that their answer doesn’t match someone else’s answers. Growing up I was very shy and I too felt that I did not want to volunteer an answer in fear of it not being correct. I was afraid that I would get into trouble or that everyone would think I was wrong. As teachers, I think it is our responsibility to make our students feel comfortable in the classroom environment. I think that our students need to first feel that they can share anything and then they need to know that everyone is going to have a different view on things. They need to be aware that everyone is different and that we all have different views and opinions. Once students can realize that there may be more than one right answer or that no one’s answer is right or wrong, then I feel that students will be comfortable enough to make these important inferences. I also liked the quote found on page 146 that states, “To push beyond a dry, literal understanding, to add our own opinions, knowledge and ideas-that is to infer.”I think Ellin creates a great understanding of inference through this quote. I think that in order for people to have a great understanding of something they need to be able to add their own ideas and prior knowledge. If students are only getting the literal understanding of things then they are not applying it to their lives. They need to be able to apply what they are reading to what they already know. Then they need to add their own interpretations and ideas. The book also said that think-alouds are one of the most important tactics at our disposal. They provide students with a real world example of how someone uses their thoughts and prior knowledge to infer about a particular reading selection. I really liked how this chapter gave us multiple examples of using think alouds and how in the beginning they struggled but after a short while they became successful in executing great think alouds that intrigued the students. I think it is great that this book highlights not only examples of how to do strategies correctly but, also what to do when strategies do not work out the first time. Another quote that I found interesting was on page 152, “Too often we leave a child who pauses or blurts, I don’t know!” I can see this happening a lot in classrooms all over. Instead of doing this they suggest to encourage these students to take the time they need. As a teacher we can reread a portion of the book or restate what the child has said to help them remember what they were trying to say. I think it is extremely important that we do not give up on our students and that we help them along every step of the way.
Chapter seven focuses on bringing the text to life and enhancing comprehension. I enjoyed reading about creating sensory images when reading. Page 176 states, “Text comes alive through the creation of sensory images.” This means that we are able to better connect to the text when we are create images as we read. I know that this is something that I tend to do a lot as I read. No matter what type of book I am reading I find myself creating images in my mind as I go along. I know that this helps me understand better because I am able to create a picture in my head and visualize the words. In a way the text is coming alive, just as this chapter stated. I also enjoyed reading about the different ways that children can record their thinking about books. The book listed multiple written means, artistic means, oral means, and dramatic means for children to express their thoughts. I really liked this section because it made me think of how different everyone really is and how one thing may work for someone and not another person. As a teacher, I am going to have to keep this in mind so that I can reach all of my students and all of their styles of learning. I really enjoyed reading this chapter because I feel that it made me realize the importance of teaching to multiple abilities and styles.
Chapter eight is all about determining importance, separating the essential from the nonessential. One quote that I found interesting can be found on page 208 and it states “Thinking about how the text reminds you of your own life is one way to decide what’s important.” I never really thought too much about this until just now and it makes perfect sense. I tend to get more out of reading that I am interested in and that matters in my life. When I am reading something that does not mean as much to me I tend to zone out and not really comprehend fully. However, when I come across something relevant and exciting I tune in more and am able to recall it later. I enjoy reading these chapters because they make me stop and realize the simpler things. The Infotext reading selection discussed the importance of understanding vocabulary. I learned that there are six types of vocabulary knowledge, production, recognition, organized, unorganized, immediately learnable, and potentially learnable. We learn vocabulary in all different types of ways and this is something that I did not think about. I think that it is important that students have experience with words both inside and outside of school every day. When students read different types of books they will be exposed to different vocabulary and this will hopefully expand their own vocabulary knowledge.
Post for 6/13 "Picture this," "Imagine for a second," "Just imagine," Three of many expressions we have all used as an attempt at enhancing the quality of a story we are telling to a friend. If one is unable to picture how something is when they are hearing about it or reading about it; how much life do the words still have? As a lover of all literature it has been my experience that if I am not creating images than I am not interested. This thought I have is most likely shared by many individuals; think about the last time you watched a movie after you read a book, not that good, right? The imagery one creates while reading cannot be duplicated, not even with top rate actors and all the special effects in the world; generally the actors are not the same and the special effects are not special enough :-) The problem is many students are not creating images, they are not diving in the text deep enough, "The fact is many children spend a lot of time in front of screens - movie, television, video, and computer...........they don't realize they have the ultimate computer between their ears and enormous capacity to create their own images"(Keene 177). How do we change this and help students make the realization that when they create their own imagery from involving themselves in a text "those images take on a three-dimensional quality in our minds and connect us personally, often permanently, with the text"(Keene, 176). The reiterated method of choice for Keene is thinking aloud, sharing the images which are coming up when good readers read. This, like questioning and inferring can be nurtured if students only see how important it is to create your own images in making text-to-self connections and comprehending what is being read. I found it amazing the images which were developed by Ciella during the think aloud Sabrina conducted with her students while reading Remember by Toni Morrison. How incredibly moving is it that Ciella used the stories of her grandmother to create her own images which related to the story which was being read to her. The only way this child makes that connection is through a classroom environment where her unique thoughts and images are valued and encouraged as a member of the learning community. This event resulted in the evolution of the reading and writing workshop into the Composing Session and how amazing is it that the acts and decisions of one student made the instructor aware that some changes were necessary. When teachers make adjustments to accommodate and support interests of individual students that alone can make the difference between getting a student to read because he or she has to but because he or she wants to. Further into the chapter the same thing could be noticed in Todd's fourth grade class.
6/13 cntd. One student (Kent) hates reading and is never engaged.....but following some think alouds and reading time focused on visual imagery that is created by capable readers Kent begins to open up with the imagery which he had been creating. From here Todd developed the four "capture thinking" areas where students could explore all of their strategy studies (theater, book talk zone, artist's studio, and writer's den). Each area had something unique to offer each reader and by allowing students the power to choose exactly which area they felt driven towards it really gives those students a sense of ownership and undoubtedly much pride in the work which they are creating.......because it is authentic and not forced. Too often students are made to work on stuff which is not of interest, not valid, and honestly boring; what quality of work do we expect when students are pushed into it under these circumstances? Altogether the goal in any literacy instruction should be to create lifelong readers who are capable of creating images which validates what they are reading. The only way to do this is to teach students how good readers create images, give them time to create images, and finally to support them regardless of whether or not their images are what we expect but instead whether or not the images are what comes to mind when the student is reading.
After reading the Chapter 7, in Mosaic of Thought, It is amazing to me how two people can realize so much about the importance of background knowledge and its role before, during, and after reading to improve reading comprehension and memory. I actually enjoyed the little boy’s knowledge on the Anasazi. I have had children in classes I’ve taught in, that have had as much or more knowledge of topics (of interest to them, but not particularly to me) than I have. I worked in a 3rd grade classroom that had a high level autistic boy, who could wrap circles around my knowledge of dinosaurs. It did not take any effort to activate his schema on dinosaurs. Everything else was an effort for him, just not dinosaurs. The Gradual Release of Responsibility model is what teachers incorporate in our district, but I am not sure if they label it by that name. I believe they refer to it as simply scaffolding, but in a broader sense of the word. They have book collections and access to a teacher resource room library with amazing books that are useful for modeling and using during think-alouds. They also each have the “Making Meaning” series that not only employs activating prior knowledge, but also works using both nonfiction and fiction texts. The Making Meaning series has all the mentor texts included. Teachers often share other quality literature with students so that students can see how different authors incorporate different text features. The authors began with planning. Next they use modeling and then they implement the partner “turn and talk” procedure allowing children to become more involved along the way. We too use these procedures and have seen much success with implementing these procedures. I do like how Debbie makes it seem so natural to pull that book off the shelf and remember where she wanted to pause and think aloud, but I prefer sticky notes to guide me through my lesson. I probably have not used the same book enough to know exactly when and where in the book I would want to stop and think aloud. Children seem to understand the text-to-self and text-to-world connections quicker than the text-to-text, in my opinion, so this is another reason it is so important to have quality mentor texts available to elementary students. When Debbie taught the word schema to the children, it caused me to reflect back on my amazement the first time I heard a first grader use the word. Now, I hear it so often it is not nearly as astonishing. I have used the chart idea quite successfully. Debbie listed the “text-to-self” books she read. In addition, I added a shrunken copy of the actual cover of the book and examples of connections students had made to our chart. Since it was early in the year in a first grade, I also made quick sketches and included them with labels. I agree that it is important to use books that the teacher loves. Not only will his/her enjoyment of the book be conveyed, but he/she will know the book well. It is easier for a teacher to find an example if one is comfortable with the content of the book. I also love how the kindergarteners in that school were exposed to the word metacognition, just as our kindergarteners are. Prior to exposing students, our district provided the parents with the necessary background knowledge so that they would understand what their children were talking about when they tried to share their metacognition at home.
Part 2 of chapter 7... I like how over and over in the chapter, she tells children that the strategies are all aimed at helping the reader understand the book better. I say that over and over with each mini-lesson I present on comprehension. I found it important and insightful how she talks about introducing the idea to students to sort out the important experiences and connections they’ve had. This way they can concentrate on the experiences that help them understand the book better. Some children get lost in making connections to connections and don’t actually understand that there is a reason for sharing them. I like the examples of using the strategies in other subject areas. The use of “way in” texts seems to be quite valuable in building schema. Students could be guided or encouraged to select at least one “way in” text when shopping and making choices for new books. This way they could still feel some empowerment with making choices, while gaining background knowledge that will serve to make future connections. I also thought it was insightful when Kathy allowed Max to read Through My Eyes at independent reading time, by adding some conditions. I was excited to see a compromise to the dilemma that I often face with students wanting to read books not yet at their level. I felt like it gave me an option, but gave the students some power. I can’t wait to try this
Chapter eight explores determining what is important in a passage and how readers need to make comprehension decisions at the word, sentence, and the whole text or idea level. It looks into how good readers focus on contentives or key words in sentences. Since this was a new concept for me, I had to try it out. It did seem that in their example, I focused on the contentives so there seems to be some validity to this statement. I am thinking that I might be able to use this with some of the struggling students that I work with. A good starting place with students might be to pose the question what are the important words in that sentence that help you understand what it means. We might have to look at isolated vocabulary first and make sure they understand any challenging words along with concepts. This chapter includes specific text features for students to look for, which we begin teaching in first and second grade. One idea I found useful in this chapter is the way the author breaks down understanding by making sure students comprehend at the word and sentence level. We do use “stop and jot”, but generally stop at the paragraph level. It may be helpful to break the passages down into sentences first. I also like the way the authors talk about the main idea being found on standardized tests rather than in everyday nonfiction writing. This is so true and is probably why I have been in classrooms where we are working on selecting the main idea from a passage and students present good strong cases for a couple different main ideas. Sometimes we determine that there is more than one main idea or we look closer into the author’s purpose. Occasionally, I see situations where students read their own beliefs into what the author is saying. They change the author’s ideas so much that it modifies the message that he/she is trying to convey. This chapter could also be useful for writing. It would help students to learn to write with a main idea in mind. The example of Rachel deciding what fourth graders needed to know could be used as a mini-lesson for writing. It is a great example of writing or developing a presentation for what the reader or audience need to know. Sometimes children forget to think about their audience and including this can make the difference between a boring and a great piece. At my son’s recent honors night, a speech was given by one of his peers. He drew everyone in to his ideas by comparing his education to the nachos that the cafeteria served each Thursday. He compared the nachos themselves to the foundation of the salad, just like his education has provided him with a foundation for life. Even the principal commented on how he will now look at those nachos differently than he ever did before. I also think the paragraph on skepticism is important. I think we spend so much time filtering what children can read and accepting only certain sources as reliable that some of the children’s job as decision makers is taken away. Unless we talk to children about what makes information questionable and give them opportunities to decide, they will be less equipped to determine these things for themselves when they have the need. Lastly, I think the determining importance in text ideas, which is discussed at the end of the chapter, could be used with students. I would go through each of these strategies as individual mini-lessons and begin a reference chart to serve as a reminder to students of what great non-fiction readers do to understand main ideas.
Infotext BLOG for week of June 13… Vocabulary comprehension is an important concept to understanding the content. Feathers strongly substantiates the idea that having students look up definitions for words is not an effective method for children’s learning. It discusses that memorizing definitions does not mean the student understands. It further indicates that children learn words by experiencing and using the concept. The example she uses is water and how young children make discoveries about it. When we label concepts with young children, those words make sense to them. The vocabulary labels we teach in school are typically not taught this way. I agree that we would do better to teach the concept by exposing children to activities and other information that would allow them to understand the concept and then introduce the word. This reminds me of a math lesson I taught in a fourth grade classroom about factoring. We worked on what we know about numbers and actually discovered how numbers could be related by factoring, before the actual word factoring was introduced. Students worked in pairs to factor all numbers up to twenty-five and we discussed all the factors so they had a good working understanding of the concept, prior to learning the word. I thought the section on “Learning Vocabulary Many Concepts one Label” was interesting. The many concepts for one vocabulary word make me think of the difficulty this could present for ESL students. This makes a good case for learning and teaching vocabulary in context. This section also advises against just teaching vocabulary that are subject related terms by using text features, context clues, or reading on. These are all strategies that can help for some students, some of the time, but not all the time or for all students. The text talks about how again there are obstacles that can interfere with learning when these strategies are relied on. It offers options that seem to make more sense for vocabulary comprehension. Feathers emphasizes the use of making predictions, sticky notes for trouble spots and discussing them later if they remain troublesome, and writing a summary of the book as strategies, which will allow the student to understand the concept in the context, rather than the vocabulary word in isolation. She endorses the use of charts and sematic maps to aid in comprehension. All these ideas seem not only reasonable, but also worthwhile to me because here as in other strategies, the ultimate goal is to promote independence in reading. This is so important if children are to be able to experience the joy of reading for the rest of their lives. I thought the section on “Learning Vocabulary Many Concepts one Label” was interesting. The many concepts for one vocabulary word make me think of the difficulty this could present for ESL students. This makes a good case for learning and teaching vocabulary in context. This section also advises against just teaching vocabulary that are subject related terms by using text features, context clues, or reading on. These are all strategies that can help for some students, some of the time, but not all the time or for all students. The text talks about how again there are obstacles that can interfere with learning when these strategies are relied on. It offers options that seem to make more sense for vocabulary comprehension. Feathers emphasizes the use of making predictions, sticky notes for trouble spots and discussing them later if they remain troublesome, and writing a summary of the book as strategies, which will allow the student to understand the concept in the context, rather than the vocabulary word in isolation. She endorses the use of charts and sematic maps to aid in comprehension. All these ideas seem not only reasonable, but also worthwhile to me because here as in other strategies, the ultimate goal is to promote independence in reading. This is so important if children are to be able to experience the joy of reading for the rest of their lives.
Chapter 6 I believe I’ve posted about Chapter 6, but certainly didn’t cover all the great information it contains. Another important topic is conferencing with students. When I’ve taught writing, I spent a lot of time going over students’ writing with them. I found these one-on-one meetings to be extremely helpful because we could focus on one student’s specific needs. I agree with the authors that it’s important to keep a narrow focus and not to try to force the student to work on more than one or two aspects of their reading or writing. I circulate when students are reading independently in my social studies classroom, which gives me the chance to check in with individual students if they are struggling with any part of the text. I would like to do more conferencing on the writing students do in my social studies class, but haven’t figured out a way to carve out time for it. I have helped students individually after school, but have not led a writing workshop during class time. Students usually write their papers at home, not in class, although they do write in journals in class. Another important section for me was the discussions on helping students select good books for independent reading. I teach social studies, not language arts, but I’m dismayed by the choices students make for their independent reading. While a few pick a variety of books and some challenging texts, many pick the same kinds of books all the time, either science fiction or “chick lit.” Young readers need more variety and they need to be challenged, even by their independent reading books. I’ve lent history books to my students, including American Lion about Andrew Jackson, Gangleader for a Day, a study of gang culture, and Persepolis, a graphic novel about growing up during the Iranian revolution. I think it’s a good idea to encourage students to move out of their reading comfort zone. It’s great to read a lot, but if they read the same things all the time, they are not really growing in terms of learning new ideas and perspectives.
For week 6/13/11 This is probably my favorite chapter in the book so far. Because this is what I LOVE to do. I love, almost, making up my own characters in stories. Even in expository text, I am able to comprehend the facts by relating them to something else, by giving it images, by making it come to life! One thing I want to comment on before I get deep into the text is the argument that, in today's age, we can simply put on an "audio tape" and get real images in our head and think and make the characters up in our heads just the same as we can with reading a book. Well, for all those who think that way, think again. Half of reading is for enjoyment, but when we are talking about our students, it is about the "READING" too. Are they "reading" the text? Comprehension and reading go hand in hand. You can comprehend without reading (Listening) but you cannot read without comprehending, this is bad. Reading is essential; you are not always going to have a play button to hit. Anyways, When Ellin is talking about her reflections; again, just as the whole book does collectively, she goes back to the basics and then catches up to the chapter. Meaning, she is still "asking questions' and "drawing on past experiences". Now she is adding in "what would I see, what would I smell, what would I taste etc." In a sense, this book is like Math. You learn how to add and subtract, then, with those basic skills you can learn and do algebra, then trig and so on. Like this, reading and comprehension is not something that is going to develop over night. It is our job to see to it that the students recognize what they are doing, how they are progressing, learning, and knowing what we can do to propel them further. We can always go back to basics and build if need be, but we should always be looking ahead to grow. Creating sensory images reminds me of that fabulous book that Kevin brought in. We can take away so much from that book, and like reading, we can see something different every time. We can feel a different vibe every time. I remember in the last chapter, Ellin talked about how her feelings and past experiences were totally different from someone else’s. I think this is very important to keep in mind when talking about sensory images. We need to apply the same principals to this. No one’s images are wrong! We should encourage students to share how they view something. Everyone can benefit from it. Ellin gives examples like "thinking-aloud". This is honestly one of my favorite things to do with students. (However, we must caution the pure reason for reading as noted in prior chapters: Enjoyment). This is the best strategy to use for the students who just "can't get a VIVID image in their heads." I love how on page 179, Ellin is successful with getting ideas and images out of children’s heads and out in the open. However, the best part: She does not stop there...she asks "probing questions". We could literally do this for hours and hours, and what is cool is that it just makes the reading and comprehending experience richer and fuller for not just the two people discussing the images, but for the whole class too! This may jog others' memories and feelings to alter and make THEIR mental images stronger and MORE vivid. The power of asking more questions and EXPLORING is so powerful! (see next)
At the top of page 187, something stuck out for me. The text says: "He had noticed too many of his students didn't stick with a book long enough to develop an interest in it, and if they did, didn't notice much more than the most literally stated events." This was me when I was growing up. We would go to the library and pick out books and I would loose interest. I still kind of do. I am the same with video games. My friends think I am weird because I do not finish a game, or a book, that I started. If you asked most people, they would say I am the most creative person they know, and is always looking for fun ways to do things. I am always thinking. How is this possible if I cannot finish a game or a book? According to this book, I lack ways of vividly interpreting text and getting deep into reading. Doesn't that compromise imagination? Just something, I was thinking about. I found it interesting how much different it can be for young students in primary grades, to students in Intermediate grades. One thing that they focus on is the whole modeling factor. I think this would be more of a challenge to do since many of the books are longer and more detailed. Sometimes, the books are so open that it up to you to determine what something looks like. I think this is a major difference. On the contrary, there are many similarities, such as "thinking aloud", I wouldn't think to use this as much in the higher grades, but I now see that it can be used more than I ever knew. Even though the books are longer and take more at it, there are defiantly many opportunities to insert our ideas and feelings. We can paint a picture with anything. What do you think about the setting? Where can you think of a place that is similar around here? Picture yourself there. What do you see/ what do you smell? Is it nice outside? On the other hand, is it gloomy? Just like before, asking probing questions is one of the best things we can do. I think it takes harder work and more MODELING to do this with higher grades. I think this because like said a few pages earlier, the students will say, "why are we doing this?' "We know how to read!" yes, but how much MORE could you ENJOY the reading and take something from it you’ll remember and appreciate? With the higher-grade kids, we can do more, as far as classroom management goes. Of course, we would probably have to do mini lessons and establish how it is going to work, but we have more opportunities. With that said, I LOVE the idea starting on page 190, and will DEF use it in the future. The theater, book talk zone, artist's studio and writers den. You are pretty much covering ALL forms of Language arts in a collaborative classroom. This just builds and builds and builds upon all of the imagery you are getting from multiple angles! I love this too because I think we can adapt it for a broad range of learners and be able to teach differentially without a sweat. This can also be a very good 'self-running" apparatus that will allow us as the teachers to walk freely and participate, model, scaffold, help, fix, answer, question, and explore. I think the best thing to do is to keep relating the information they are learning to what they know, what they are asking about and what they are learning. Link these to sensory. The whole point is to be absolutely immersed into the text and activities to give you the skills and mindset to do it with ALL book and readings. Lastly, on the last page of chapter 7, there is a great list of ways we can evoke images. The first one is great and is what we should all aspire to do: "Proficient readers spontaneously and purposefully create images while and after they read. If we can get kids to do this all the time, at any level, we are doing something great. (Chapter 7 done, chapter 8 follows)
(6/13 cont.) That really is the number one questions isn't it? Determining the importance of reading. I like how they related it to today’s world with all of the choices we have in the world. So many options. What is important is that students need to realize when something is important, and furthermore, recognize when it may be a good idea to "re-read something" and ask, "Why is this important?" After time, we can do this all at the same time. Building blocks my friend. Building blocks. When determining what is important, I think part of it is determined upon what kind of text you are reading. Use the text factors, which we have all learned about. Determine the importance of the words; find the bold ones. Chances are, it is an important word. This is for expository text however. What about narratives? Characters names, places we feel we need to remember, etc. Other than this, they say these decisions are influenced by our background knowledge, our purpose for reading, what we find pleasing, and how often or much the author repeats something. This is a good outline to determine what is important and knowing what to pay attention to. How do we portray this to our students? Think alouds! Get them to talk about their choices (pg 211 bottom). Something as simple as taking a break and doing a comparison. This will give meaning. We are relating text to self, text to text, and text to world. What better way to find meaning and getting to the heart of the matter? The info text sort of ties a lot of the reading in, and has some underlying meanings to the above readings: 1) Vocabulary, I believe, is best learned and recorded in the brain by experience. I am a firm believer that the more you read, the better your vocabulary. So really, "searching for importance", and "thinking about what you are thinking" are just ways we get experience. When you are searching for meaning and self-questioning, you are going to naturally look for context clues for a word you do not know and not even realize you are doing it. 2.) Furthermore, the books both talk about what seems to be text factors: highlighting passages or sentences of meaning, recognizing bold words. Are these not important words to pay attention to and half of the time they are meant to build vocabulary? 3) The info text says that we need to anticipate the problems so they can read independently with fluency. I am also a believer in if someone asks a question, give them time to REALLY think about it. In my mind, how are kids going to LEARN if we just GIVE them the answer? Make them think. Have them ask the question, give them clues, and let them think. I call this time for them to think, "Quite time". This is the part where the teacher does not say anything and lets them ponder, and ponder and ponder. It is not cruel, because what is really going on in their heads? They are DIGGING! I think this can be very beneficial to vocabulary learning, on top of everything else and all the other strategies in the info text, such as context clues, reading on, textual aids, and consulting another source. Many of these can be done on the independent level too, again, provoking thinking and digging in their heads. (6/13 end)
Vena Phillips Chapter 7, and 8 Chapter 7 started with the short story called The Cough. The story the Cough took me back many years ago to my father Mr. Napoleon Phillips. He lived his life providing for his family of seven children five boys and two girls, each child needed something a pair of shoes pants for the boys and dresses for the girls. My dad worked twelve hours a day six days a week and as soon as the money came in it went right back out. Times got better and that’s when the cough started there was overtime but we had gotten older and didn’t need as much. So, the cough got worse but he refused to see a doctor and my mother just worried and kept begging my father to get that cough looked at. It wasn’t until my father’s voice changed that he decided to go see about the cough. Dad sounded like a bull fog, he was having trouble swallowing the food he ate things got real messy but he stilled worked the overtime. Susan gave her reflection about two men first the man in The Cough and the man who she knew as her father he had a cough too from Pneumonia which he picked up in Africa but the cough killed him at the age of 77 which was not bad. My father died when he was just 57 years old it was lung cancer that took this man of great strength and will to the level of being carried up and down the stairs to use the bathroom he couldn’t even pull his pants up nor walk on his own strength. This story has opened my box of images that I left behind some time ago. Susan just can’t keep her mind off the young father and the coal mining towns near the Appalachia she also mentions the miners in the English mining towns. Like Susan I feel a part of this story The Cough the factory workers who are no longer here anymore I can still see them walking into the plant tall and strong. Ellin’s reflection speaks of her museum catalog collections of Impressionist Paintings it was Jan Dole who gave Ellin of Museum painting book. These paintings caused Ellin to smell the cigar that the bachelor is smoking and she hears the movement of the newspaper “ A picture is worth a thousand words.” Mnemonics that emphasize imagery has been researched this means that we mentally represent objects or actions that are not physically present. Instructions were set up to test for highest recall using repetition or imagery instructions this demonstration is a simplified version of a study by Bower and Winzenz (1970). They used concrete nouns in their study and tested participants in several different conditions. In the repetition condition, for example, people repeated the pairs silently to themselves. In contrast, in the imagery condition, people tried to construct a mental picture of the two words in vivid interaction with each other. After learning several lists of words, the participants saw the first word of each pair and were asked to supply the second word. The results showed that people in the imagery condition recalled more than twice as many items as did the people in the repetition condition. The only way we as teachers can teach students to develop images is by thinking aloud at the beginning of the comprehension strategy. Ellin stresses the drawing of images that students are able to see, they can talk about the images. Ellin suggests that you describe what you see as an image what you smell, taste, touch and feel. Ellin was a staff developer at Douglas County Middle school here she used picture books to create images to increase comprehension in the eighth graders. She knew the students would have a problem with her reading aloud a picture book. The students did not disappoint her at all the comments like “do we have to sit and listen to you read.” Using the think aloud Ellin used images that she heard tasted and touched, she then asked the students to tell about the pictures they see in their minds from her reading. The teacher knew that the ability to see images in your mind about what you are reading is a indication of how well you comprehend what was read.
I do agree with the reading in the book Infotext when they talk about the importance of learning vocabulary the students must be taught the concept and the word not just the word. I think this holds true for imagery first teach the concept by reading aloud then start the thinking aloud to engage the students then ask questions so that they can learn what the word image means. Then the final step in comprehension is to discuss terms that are similar to the strategy you are teaching them. Next the teacher can explain how that strategy can be used in other subjects to understand what is to be learned by each student. Then the teacher can build on making the student a independent proficient reader. In all that you get, get understanding and that includes Stockings written by Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried; this took me to another level of imagery and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had to read the piece twice just to get more comfort in imagining what it would be like for me to have my man wear my stockings around his neck each day while he was off to war. The reflection spoke of all the things these stockings represented to Henry Dobbins a strong and dedicated soldier in chapter 8. Maybe I am a romantic but I had a reaction to the piece that caused me to wander why no one pointed out the miracle of love and how it can create a armor for those who find themselves smitten by its true power. The fact that Henry Dobbins even escaped the snare of a bouncing Betty proves that nothing can destroy the connection between a man and women in love. The husband Paul even gives us a taste of the struggle that exist between the past generation and the present. In the past men fought and lost their lives just to keep our country free and when it was time to enlist the men left their families and went to the war in Vietnam. The present generation steps to a different drummer they have no allegiance to their country at all it is all about doing your own thing and making sure you are getting pleasure from it and no responsibilities are attached. I also did not appreciate the word Paul used to account for the stockings Dobbins wore on his neck Paul said it was a copping mechanism what’s wrong with giving some credit to love and the power that it has over life and death. When I look at the piece and ask myself what personal reactions I have about this my answer is that it seems to be a declaration of what really matters in a young man’s life when he is called to war. It is the sum total of all the worthwhile feelings we experience in this life we all need something to care about and someone to care about us. Let’s say that I read this to a college level class of students I then could express to them what it means to be really human and there is nothing more real in the world then and man and a woman interacting together while experiencing life with each other. This is how I connect what I am reading with what I already know. In my opinion they did not have to even mention the Dear John letter at all because the power that the stockings had could stand on its own and make a powerful statement by itself. The text ask what is important here and I ask the same question but I still keep coming back to the same idea which is the mighty power of love, there is more to this piece like the ability to walk into danger and not look back I sense peace and intimate places where his mind could go to hide whatever danger might befall him. Henry Dobbins made his platoon into a group of men who had one belief with one mission and that was to stay alive under the power of love. Ellin and Mimi started a reader’s and writer’s workshop for fifth graders. Ellin, returned to Mimi’s
Chapter 6- Making inferences can be difficult because it requires some deep thinking and concentration. Lots of times this is very hard for children to do this because of the way it is taught to them. Teachers introduce this by saying “read between the lines” and I can remember this as a child and taking it so literally. Reading between the lines means making connections, what is the author trying to say. I like this chapter because it gives a very good story on how children were trying to make inferences. Ellin shared a great story because she shared all the strategies she used; what worked, what didn’t work. She was not afraid to share how she had to rearrange her thinking; I think that caught my attention the most. When she paused to recollect her thought the children did as well and she was not expecting that. I always think to myself, What if I mess up or get stumped on something in the classroom. What do I do? Reading this showed me that it is okay.
ReplyDeleteMaking inferences allows us as readers to get a meaning out of the text that is not obviously there. In order to do this we must use logic, life experiences, values and lots of other things. Thinking aloud in the classroom helps students with making inferences but they must be done right. Another way to help students with inferences is by having conferences with them; share their thinking with the teacher. This gives the student and the teacher the time to check for areas of improvement. What is it that the student does not understand? What way can the teacher help the student?
Thinking about this makes me wonder what I will do some day. I want to come up with different strategies that will stimulate the students’ minds so that they can make strong inferences. I don’t want them to make predictions that are obvious, I want them to go beyond that.
The author states on page 145 “inference is part rational, pat mystical, part definable, and part
ReplyDeletebeyond definition. Individuals' life experiences, logic, wisdom, values, creativity, and thoughtfulness, set against the text they are reading, form the crux of new meaning. Because each person's experiences are different, the art of inferring takes the reader beyond the text to a place only he or she can go. With little children this is so true, so visible.
I like to compare them to a sheet of typing paper,( today I guess we would say they are a blank page in a word processing program like MS Word) some with no writing, some with very little. They are erasable bond (typing paper that is erasable), if the writing is incorrect, we can erase it and start again. Little children are bound by their limited life experiences, but also limitless in those vast imaginations they posses.
Inferring is rational/and definable because, as teachers, we can talk with students and explain “why” it is. Two plus two will always be four, we can pull out counting blocks/beads and prove it. We can use the few life experiences they have and make them understand, two cookies in the right hand and two cookies in the left hand is always four cookies. It is mystical and beyond definition, because little children still see the “wonder” of things. An empty Pringles can covered with contact paper and labeled the “I can” can, has the power to ease the pains of frustration and allow the student to start over again. This makes them some of the easiest people on the planet to teach.
We all know that children who are good or fluent readers have lots of experiences from which to draw upon, experiences they can use to make inferences. The wonderful thing about little children is that we can create experiences, make them real for our students, they can and will use those “man made experiences” to make inferences.
This year a simple lesson on the life cycle of a plant became a unit study on life cycles. We studied lima beans seeds and we amazed that seeds “wear coats”, that those coats have to come off in order for the plant to grow. The students were amazed when we opened up a seed and saw a tiny plant inside waiting to grow. They were awe struck over the fact that one seed from any vegetable, if cultivated properly, could yield ten more pieces of that same vegetable. That simple lesson became the springboard for life cycles up to and including hatching chickens in the classroom! As we completed each level of life cycles they were able to build upon prior knowledge and infer about what could happen on the next level.
Inferring, to me, is teaching our students to read, apply the new information to experiences they have had, and make thoughtful decisions about what the new information means. It is teaching them to think.
Chapter 6 was all about creating meaning or inferences. One of my favorite quotes was on page 141 and it states, “They need to know that they aren’t “wrong” if their inferences are different from those of their teachers or classmates.” I think that this is very important when trying to get children to make their own interpretations. I think that too often students shy away from speaking up in class because they are afraid that they will be wrong or that their answer doesn’t match someone else’s answers. Growing up I was very shy and I too felt that I did not want to volunteer an answer in fear of it not being correct. I was afraid that I would get into trouble or that everyone would think I was wrong. As teachers, I think it is our responsibility to make our students feel comfortable in the classroom environment. I think that our students need to first feel that they can share anything and then they need to know that everyone is going to have a different view on things. They need to be aware that everyone is different and that we all have different views and opinions. Once students can realize that there may be more than one right answer or that no one’s answer is right or wrong, then I feel that students will be comfortable enough to make these important inferences. I also liked the quote found on page 146 that states, “To push beyond a dry, literal understanding, to add our own opinions, knowledge and ideas-that is to infer.”I think Ellin creates a great understanding of inference through this quote. I think that in order for people to have a great understanding of something they need to be able to add their own ideas and prior knowledge. If students are only getting the literal understanding of things then they are not applying it to their lives. They need to be able to apply what they are reading to what they already know. Then they need to add their own interpretations and ideas. The book also said that think-alouds are one of the most important tactics at our disposal. They provide students with a real world example of how someone uses their thoughts and prior knowledge to infer about a particular reading selection. I really liked how this chapter gave us multiple examples of using think alouds and how in the beginning they struggled but after a short while they became successful in executing great think alouds that intrigued the students. I think it is great that this book highlights not only examples of how to do strategies correctly but, also what to do when strategies do not work out the first time. Another quote that I found interesting was on page 152, “Too often we leave a child who pauses or blurts, I don’t know!” I can see this happening a lot in classrooms all over. Instead of doing this they suggest to encourage these students to take the time they need. As a teacher we can reread a portion of the book or restate what the child has said to help them remember what they were trying to say. I think it is extremely important that we do not give up on our students and that we help them along every step of the way.
ReplyDeleteChapter seven focuses on bringing the text to life and enhancing comprehension. I enjoyed reading about creating sensory images when reading. Page 176 states, “Text comes alive through the creation of sensory images.” This means that we are able to better connect to the text when we are create images as we read. I know that this is something that I tend to do a lot as I read. No matter what type of book I am reading I find myself creating images in my mind as I go along. I know that this helps me understand better because I am able to create a picture in my head and visualize the words. In a way the text is coming alive, just as this chapter stated. I also enjoyed reading about the different ways that children can record their thinking about books. The book listed multiple written means, artistic means, oral means, and dramatic means for children to express their thoughts. I really liked this section because it made me think of how different everyone really is and how one thing may work for someone and not another person. As a teacher, I am going to have to keep this in mind so that I can reach all of my students and all of their styles of learning. I really enjoyed reading this chapter because I feel that it made me realize the importance of teaching to multiple abilities and styles.
ReplyDeleteChapter eight is all about determining importance, separating the essential from the nonessential. One quote that I found interesting can be found on page 208 and it states “Thinking about how the text reminds you of your own life is one way to decide what’s important.” I never really thought too much about this until just now and it makes perfect sense. I tend to get more out of reading that I am interested in and that matters in my life. When I am reading something that does not mean as much to me I tend to zone out and not really comprehend fully. However, when I come across something relevant and exciting I tune in more and am able to recall it later. I enjoy reading these chapters because they make me stop and realize the simpler things. The Infotext reading selection discussed the importance of understanding vocabulary. I learned that there are six types of vocabulary knowledge, production, recognition, organized, unorganized, immediately learnable, and potentially learnable. We learn vocabulary in all different types of ways and this is something that I did not think about. I think that it is important that students have experience with words both inside and outside of school every day. When students read different types of books they will be exposed to different vocabulary and this will hopefully expand their own vocabulary knowledge.
Post for 6/13
ReplyDelete"Picture this," "Imagine for a second," "Just imagine," Three of many expressions we have all used as an attempt at enhancing the quality of a story we are telling to a friend. If one is unable to picture how something is when they are hearing about it or reading about it; how much life do the words still have? As a lover of all literature it has been my experience that if I am not creating images than I am not interested. This thought I have is most likely shared by many individuals; think about the last time you watched a movie after you read a book, not that good, right? The imagery one creates while reading cannot be duplicated, not even with top rate actors and all the special effects in the world; generally the actors are not the same and the special effects are not special enough :-) The problem is many students are not creating images, they are not diving in the text deep enough, "The fact is many children spend a lot of time in front of screens - movie, television, video, and computer...........they don't realize they have the ultimate computer between their ears and enormous capacity to create their own images"(Keene 177). How do we change this and help students make the realization that when they create their own imagery from involving themselves in a text "those images take on a three-dimensional quality in our minds and connect us personally, often permanently, with the text"(Keene, 176). The reiterated method of choice for Keene is thinking aloud, sharing the images which are coming up when good readers read. This, like questioning and inferring can be nurtured if students only see how important it is to create your own images in making text-to-self connections and comprehending what is being read. I found it amazing the images which were developed by Ciella during the think aloud Sabrina conducted with her students while reading Remember by Toni Morrison. How incredibly moving is it that Ciella used the stories of her grandmother to create her own images which related to the story which was being read to her. The only way this child makes that connection is through a classroom environment where her unique thoughts and images are valued and encouraged as a member of the learning community. This event resulted in the evolution of the reading and writing workshop into the Composing Session and how amazing is it that the acts and decisions of one student made the instructor aware that some changes were necessary. When teachers make adjustments to accommodate and support interests of individual students that alone can make the difference between getting a student to read because he or she has to but because he or she wants to. Further into the chapter the same thing could be noticed in Todd's fourth grade class.
6/13
ReplyDeletecntd.
One student (Kent) hates reading and is never engaged.....but following some think alouds and reading time focused on visual imagery that is created by capable readers Kent begins to open up with the imagery which he had been creating. From here Todd developed the four "capture thinking" areas where students could explore all of their strategy studies (theater, book talk zone, artist's studio, and writer's den). Each area had something unique to offer each reader and by allowing students the power to choose exactly which area they felt driven towards it really gives those students a sense of ownership and undoubtedly much pride in the work which they are creating.......because it is authentic and not forced. Too often students are made to work on stuff which is not of interest, not valid, and honestly boring; what quality of work do we expect when students are pushed into it under these circumstances? Altogether the goal in any literacy instruction should be to create lifelong readers who are capable of creating images which validates what they are reading. The only way to do this is to teach students how good readers create images, give them time to create images, and finally to support them regardless of whether or not their images are what we expect but instead whether or not the images are what comes to mind when the student is reading.
After reading the Chapter 7, in Mosaic of Thought, It is amazing to me how two people can realize so much about the importance of background knowledge and its role before, during, and after reading to improve reading comprehension and memory. I actually enjoyed the little boy’s knowledge on the Anasazi. I have had children in classes I’ve taught in, that have had as much or more knowledge of topics (of interest to them, but not particularly to me) than I have. I worked in a 3rd grade classroom that had a high level autistic boy, who could wrap circles around my knowledge of dinosaurs. It did not take any effort to activate his schema on dinosaurs. Everything else was an effort for him, just not dinosaurs.
ReplyDeleteThe Gradual Release of Responsibility model is what teachers incorporate in our district, but I am not sure if they label it by that name. I believe they refer to it as simply scaffolding, but in a broader sense of the word. They have book collections and access to a teacher resource room library with amazing books that are useful for modeling and using during think-alouds. They also each have the “Making Meaning” series that not only employs activating prior knowledge, but also works using both nonfiction and fiction texts. The Making Meaning series has all the mentor texts included. Teachers often share other quality literature with students so that students can see how different authors incorporate different text features. The authors began with planning. Next they use modeling and then they implement the partner “turn and talk” procedure allowing children to become more involved along the way. We too use these procedures and have seen much success with implementing these procedures.
I do like how Debbie makes it seem so natural to pull that book off the shelf and remember where she wanted to pause and think aloud, but I prefer sticky notes to guide me through my lesson. I probably have not used the same book enough to know exactly when and where in the book I would want to stop and think aloud.
Children seem to understand the text-to-self and text-to-world connections quicker than the text-to-text, in my opinion, so this is another reason it is so important to have quality mentor texts available to elementary students. When Debbie taught the word schema to the children, it caused me to reflect back on my amazement the first time I heard a first grader use the word. Now, I hear it so often it is not nearly as astonishing.
I have used the chart idea quite successfully. Debbie listed the “text-to-self” books she read. In addition, I added a shrunken copy of the actual cover of the book and examples of connections students had made to our chart. Since it was early in the year in a first grade, I also made quick sketches and included them with labels.
I agree that it is important to use books that the teacher loves. Not only will his/her enjoyment of the book be conveyed, but he/she will know the book well. It is easier for a teacher to find an example if one is comfortable with the content of the book.
I also love how the kindergarteners in that school were exposed to the word metacognition, just as our kindergarteners are. Prior to exposing students, our district provided the parents with the necessary background knowledge so that they would understand what their children were talking about when they tried to share their metacognition at home.
Part 2 of chapter 7...
ReplyDeleteI like how over and over in the chapter, she tells children that the strategies are all aimed at helping the reader understand the book better. I say that over and over with each mini-lesson I present on comprehension. I found it important and insightful how she talks about introducing the idea to students to sort out the important experiences and connections they’ve had. This way they can concentrate on the experiences that help them understand the book better. Some children get lost in making connections to connections and don’t actually understand that there is a reason for sharing them.
I like the examples of using the strategies in other subject areas. The use of “way in” texts seems to be quite valuable in building schema. Students could be guided or encouraged to select at least one “way in” text when shopping and making choices for new books. This way they could still feel some empowerment with making choices, while gaining background knowledge that will serve to make future connections.
I also thought it was insightful when Kathy allowed Max to read Through My Eyes at independent reading time, by adding some conditions. I was excited to see a compromise to the dilemma that I often face with students wanting to read books not yet at their level. I felt like it gave me an option, but gave the students some power. I can’t wait to try this
Chapter eight explores determining what is important in a passage and how readers need to make comprehension decisions at the word, sentence, and the whole text or idea level. It looks into how good readers focus on contentives or key words in sentences. Since this was a new concept for me, I had to try it out. It did seem that in their example, I focused on the contentives so there seems to be some validity to this statement. I am thinking that I might be able to use this with some of the struggling students that I work with. A good starting place with students might be to pose the question what are the important words in that sentence that help you understand what it means. We might have to look at isolated vocabulary first and make sure they understand any challenging words along with concepts.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter includes specific text features for students to look for, which we begin teaching in first and second grade. One idea I found useful in this chapter is the way the author breaks down understanding by making sure students comprehend at the word and sentence level. We do use “stop and jot”, but generally stop at the paragraph level. It may be helpful to break the passages down into sentences first.
I also like the way the authors talk about the main idea being found on standardized tests rather than in everyday nonfiction writing. This is so true and is probably why I have been in classrooms where we are working on selecting the main idea from a passage and students present good strong cases for a couple different main ideas. Sometimes we determine that there is more than one main idea or we look closer into the author’s purpose. Occasionally, I see situations where students read their own beliefs into what the author is saying. They change the author’s ideas so much that it modifies the message that he/she is trying to convey.
This chapter could also be useful for writing. It would help students to learn to write with a main idea in mind. The example of Rachel deciding what fourth graders needed to know could be used as a mini-lesson for writing. It is a great example of writing or developing a presentation for what the reader or audience need to know. Sometimes children forget to think about their audience and including this can make the difference between a boring and a great piece. At my son’s recent honors night, a speech was given by one of his peers. He drew everyone in to his ideas by comparing his education to the nachos that the cafeteria served each Thursday. He compared the nachos themselves to the foundation of the salad, just like his education has provided him with a foundation for life. Even the principal commented on how he will now look at those nachos differently than he ever did before.
I also think the paragraph on skepticism is important. I think we spend so much time filtering what children can read and accepting only certain sources as reliable that some of the children’s job as decision makers is taken away. Unless we talk to children about what makes information questionable and give them opportunities to decide, they will be less equipped to determine these things for themselves when they have the need.
Lastly, I think the determining importance in text ideas, which is discussed at the end of the chapter, could be used with students. I would go through each of these strategies as individual mini-lessons and begin a reference chart to serve as a reminder to students of what great non-fiction readers do to understand main ideas.
Infotext BLOG for week of June 13…
ReplyDeleteVocabulary comprehension is an important concept to understanding the content. Feathers strongly substantiates the idea that having students look up definitions for words is not an effective method for children’s learning. It discusses that memorizing definitions does not mean the student understands. It further indicates that children learn words by experiencing and using the concept. The example she uses is water and how young children make discoveries about it. When we label concepts with young children, those words make sense to them. The vocabulary labels we teach in school are typically not taught this way. I agree that we would do better to teach the concept by exposing children to activities and other information that would allow them to understand the concept and then introduce the word. This reminds me of a math lesson I taught in a fourth grade classroom about factoring. We worked on what we know about numbers and actually discovered how numbers could be related by factoring, before the actual word factoring was introduced. Students worked in pairs to factor all numbers up to twenty-five and we discussed all the factors so they had a good working understanding of the concept, prior to learning the word.
I thought the section on “Learning Vocabulary Many Concepts one Label” was interesting. The many concepts for one vocabulary word make me think of the difficulty this could present for ESL students. This makes a good case for learning and teaching vocabulary in context.
This section also advises against just teaching vocabulary that are subject related terms by using text features, context clues, or reading on. These are all strategies that can help for some students, some of the time, but not all the time or for all students. The text talks about how again there are obstacles that can interfere with learning when these strategies are relied on. It offers options that seem to make more sense for vocabulary comprehension. Feathers emphasizes the use of making predictions, sticky notes for trouble spots and discussing them later if they remain troublesome, and writing a summary of the book as strategies, which will allow the student to understand the concept in the context, rather than the vocabulary word in isolation. She endorses the use of charts and sematic maps to aid in comprehension. All these ideas seem not only reasonable, but also worthwhile to me because here as in other strategies, the ultimate goal is to promote independence in reading. This is so important if children are to be able to experience the joy of reading for the rest of their lives. I thought the section on “Learning Vocabulary Many Concepts one Label” was interesting. The many concepts for one vocabulary word make me think of the difficulty this could present for ESL students. This makes a good case for learning and teaching vocabulary in context.
This section also advises against just teaching vocabulary that are subject related terms by using text features, context clues, or reading on. These are all strategies that can help for some students, some of the time, but not all the time or for all students. The text talks about how again there are obstacles that can interfere with learning when these strategies are relied on. It offers options that seem to make more sense for vocabulary comprehension. Feathers emphasizes the use of making predictions, sticky notes for trouble spots and discussing them later if they remain troublesome, and writing a summary of the book as strategies, which will allow the student to understand the concept in the context, rather than the vocabulary word in isolation. She endorses the use of charts and sematic maps to aid in comprehension. All these ideas seem not only reasonable, but also worthwhile to me because here as in other strategies, the ultimate goal is to promote independence in reading. This is so important if children are to be able to experience the joy of reading for the rest of their lives.
Chapter 6
ReplyDeleteI believe I’ve posted about Chapter 6, but certainly didn’t cover all the great information it contains. Another important topic is conferencing with students. When I’ve taught writing, I spent a lot of time going over students’ writing with them. I found these one-on-one meetings to be extremely helpful because we could focus on one student’s specific needs. I agree with the authors that it’s important to keep a narrow focus and not to try to force the student to work on more than one or two aspects of their reading or writing. I circulate when students are reading independently in my social studies classroom, which gives me the chance to check in with individual students if they are struggling with any part of the text. I would like to do more conferencing on the writing students do in my social studies class, but haven’t figured out a way to carve out time for it. I have helped students individually after school, but have not led a writing workshop during class time. Students usually write their papers at home, not in class, although they do write in journals in class.
Another important section for me was the discussions on helping students select good books for independent reading. I teach social studies, not language arts, but I’m dismayed by the choices students make for their independent reading. While a few pick a variety of books and some challenging texts, many pick the same kinds of books all the time, either science fiction or “chick lit.” Young readers need more variety and they need to be challenged, even by their independent reading books. I’ve lent history books to my students, including American Lion about Andrew Jackson, Gangleader for a Day, a study of gang culture, and Persepolis, a graphic novel about growing up during the Iranian revolution. I think it’s a good idea to encourage students to move out of their reading comfort zone. It’s great to read a lot, but if they read the same things all the time, they are not really growing in terms of learning new ideas and perspectives.
For week 6/13/11
ReplyDeleteThis is probably my favorite chapter in the book so far. Because this is what I LOVE to do. I love, almost, making up my own characters in stories. Even in expository text, I am able to comprehend the facts by relating them to something else, by giving it images, by making it come to life! One thing I want to comment on before I get deep into the text is the argument that, in today's age, we can simply put on an "audio tape" and get real images in our head and think and make the characters up in our heads just the same as we can with reading a book. Well, for all those who think that way, think again. Half of reading is for enjoyment, but when we are talking about our students, it is about the "READING" too. Are they "reading" the text? Comprehension and reading go hand in hand. You can comprehend without reading (Listening) but you cannot read without comprehending, this is bad. Reading is essential; you are not always going to have a play button to hit.
Anyways, When Ellin is talking about her reflections; again, just as the whole book does collectively, she goes back to the basics and then catches up to the chapter. Meaning, she is still "asking questions' and "drawing on past experiences". Now she is adding in "what would I see, what would I smell, what would I taste etc." In a sense, this book is like Math. You learn how to add and subtract, then, with those basic skills you can learn and do algebra, then trig and so on. Like this, reading and comprehension is not something that is going to develop over night. It is our job to see to it that the students recognize what they are doing, how they are progressing, learning, and knowing what we can do to propel them further. We can always go back to basics and build if need be, but we should always be looking ahead to grow.
Creating sensory images reminds me of that fabulous book that Kevin brought in. We can take away so much from that book, and like reading, we can see something different every time. We can feel a different vibe every time. I remember in the last chapter, Ellin talked about how her feelings and past experiences were totally different from someone else’s. I think this is very important to keep in mind when talking about sensory images. We need to apply the same principals to this. No one’s images are wrong! We should encourage students to share how they view something. Everyone can benefit from it. Ellin gives examples like "thinking-aloud". This is honestly one of my favorite things to do with students. (However, we must caution the pure reason for reading as noted in prior chapters: Enjoyment). This is the best strategy to use for the students who just "can't get a VIVID image in their heads."
I love how on page 179, Ellin is successful with getting ideas and images out of children’s heads and out in the open. However, the best part: She does not stop there...she asks "probing questions". We could literally do this for hours and hours, and what is cool is that it just makes the reading and comprehending experience richer and fuller for not just the two people discussing the images, but for the whole class too! This may jog others' memories and feelings to alter and make THEIR mental images stronger and MORE vivid. The power of asking more questions and EXPLORING is so powerful!
(see next)
At the top of page 187, something stuck out for me. The text says: "He had noticed too many of his students didn't stick with a book long enough to develop an interest in it, and if they did, didn't notice much more than the most literally stated events." This was me when I was growing up. We would go to the library and pick out books and I would loose interest. I still kind of do. I am the same with video games. My friends think I am weird because I do not finish a game, or a book, that I started.
ReplyDeleteIf you asked most people, they would say I am the most creative person they know, and is always looking for fun ways to do things. I am always thinking. How is this possible if I cannot finish a game or a book? According to this book, I lack ways of vividly interpreting text and getting deep into reading. Doesn't that compromise imagination? Just something, I was thinking about.
I found it interesting how much different it can be for young students in primary grades, to students in Intermediate grades. One thing that they focus on is the whole modeling factor. I think this would be more of a challenge to do since many of the books are longer and more detailed. Sometimes, the books are so open that it up to you to determine what something looks like. I think this is a major difference. On the contrary, there are many similarities, such as "thinking aloud", I wouldn't think to use this as much in the higher grades, but I now see that it can be used more than I ever knew. Even though the books are longer and take more at it, there are defiantly many opportunities to insert our ideas and feelings. We can paint a picture with anything. What do you think about the setting? Where can you think of a place that is similar around here? Picture yourself there. What do you see/ what do you smell? Is it nice outside? On the other hand, is it gloomy? Just like before, asking probing questions is one of the best things we can do. I think it takes harder work and more MODELING to do this with higher grades. I think this because like said a few pages earlier, the students will say, "why are we doing this?' "We know how to read!" yes, but how much MORE could you ENJOY the reading and take something from it you’ll remember and appreciate?
With the higher-grade kids, we can do more, as far as classroom management goes. Of course, we would probably have to do mini lessons and establish how it is going to work, but we have more opportunities. With that said, I LOVE the idea starting on page 190, and will DEF use it in the future.
The theater, book talk zone, artist's studio and writers den. You are pretty much covering ALL forms of Language arts in a collaborative classroom. This just builds and builds and builds upon all of the imagery you are getting from multiple angles! I love this too because I think we can adapt it for a broad range of learners and be able to teach differentially without a sweat. This can also be a very good 'self-running" apparatus that will allow us as the teachers to walk freely and participate, model, scaffold, help, fix, answer, question, and explore. I think the best thing to do is to keep relating the information they are learning to what they know, what they are asking about and what they are learning. Link these to sensory. The whole point is to be absolutely immersed into the text and activities to give you the skills and mindset to do it with ALL book and readings. Lastly, on the last page of chapter 7, there is a great list of ways we can evoke images. The first one is great and is what we should all aspire to do: "Proficient readers spontaneously and purposefully create images while and after they read. If we can get kids to do this all the time, at any level, we are doing something great.
(Chapter 7 done, chapter 8 follows)
(6/13 cont.)
ReplyDeleteThat really is the number one questions isn't it? Determining the importance of reading. I like how they related it to today’s world with all of the choices we have in the world. So many options. What is important is that students need to realize when something is important, and furthermore, recognize when it may be a good idea to "re-read something" and ask, "Why is this important?" After time, we can do this all at the same time. Building blocks my friend. Building blocks.
When determining what is important, I think part of it is determined upon what kind of text you are reading. Use the text factors, which we have all learned about. Determine the importance of the words; find the bold ones. Chances are, it is an important word. This is for expository text however. What about narratives? Characters names, places we feel we need to remember, etc. Other than this, they say these decisions are influenced by our background knowledge, our purpose for reading, what we find pleasing, and how often or much the author repeats something. This is a good outline to determine what is important and knowing what to pay attention to. How do we portray this to our students? Think alouds! Get them to talk about their choices (pg 211 bottom).
Something as simple as taking a break and doing a comparison. This will give meaning. We are relating text to self, text to text, and text to world. What better way to find meaning and getting to the heart of the matter?
The info text sort of ties a lot of the reading in, and has some underlying meanings to the above readings:
1) Vocabulary, I believe, is best learned and recorded in the brain by experience. I am a firm believer that the more you read, the better your vocabulary. So really, "searching for importance", and "thinking about what you are thinking" are just ways we get experience. When you are searching for meaning and self-questioning, you are going to naturally look for context clues for a word you do not know and not even realize you are doing it. 2.) Furthermore, the books both talk about what seems to be text factors: highlighting passages or sentences of meaning, recognizing bold words. Are these not important words to pay attention to and half of the time they are meant to build vocabulary?
3) The info text says that we need to anticipate the problems so they can read independently with fluency. I am also a believer in if someone asks a question, give them time to REALLY think about it. In my mind, how are kids going to LEARN if we just GIVE them the answer? Make them think. Have them ask the question, give them clues, and let them think. I call this time for them to think, "Quite time". This is the part where the teacher does not say anything and lets them ponder, and ponder and ponder. It is not cruel, because what is really going on in their heads? They are DIGGING! I think this can be very beneficial to vocabulary learning, on top of everything else and all the other strategies in the info text, such as context clues, reading on, textual aids, and consulting another source. Many of these can be done on the independent level too, again, provoking thinking and digging in their heads. (6/13 end)
Vena Phillips
ReplyDeleteChapter 7, and 8
Chapter 7 started with the short story called The Cough. The story the Cough took me back many years ago to my father Mr. Napoleon Phillips. He lived his life providing for his family of seven children five boys and two girls, each child needed something a pair of shoes pants for the boys and dresses for the girls. My dad worked twelve hours a day six days a week and as soon as the money came in it went right back out. Times got better and that’s when the cough started there was overtime but we had gotten older and didn’t need as much. So, the cough got worse but he refused to see a doctor and my mother just worried and kept begging my father to get that cough looked at. It wasn’t until my father’s voice changed that he decided to go see about the cough. Dad sounded like a bull fog, he was having trouble swallowing the food he ate things got real messy but he stilled worked the overtime.
Susan gave her reflection about two men first the man in The Cough and the man who she knew as her father he had a cough too from Pneumonia which he picked up in Africa but the cough killed him at the age of 77 which was not bad. My father died when he was just 57 years old it was lung cancer that took this man of great strength and will to the level of being carried up and down the stairs to use the bathroom he couldn’t even pull his pants up nor walk on his own strength. This story has opened my box of images that I left behind some time ago. Susan just can’t keep her mind off the young father and the coal mining towns near the Appalachia she also mentions the miners in the English mining towns. Like Susan I feel a part of this story The Cough the factory workers who are no longer here anymore I can still see them walking into the plant tall and strong.
Ellin’s reflection speaks of her museum catalog collections of Impressionist Paintings it was Jan Dole who gave Ellin of Museum painting book. These paintings caused Ellin to smell the cigar that the bachelor is smoking and she hears the movement of the newspaper “ A picture is worth a thousand words.” Mnemonics that emphasize imagery has been researched this means that we mentally represent objects or actions that are not physically present. Instructions were set up to test for highest recall using repetition or imagery instructions this demonstration is a simplified version of a study by Bower and Winzenz (1970). They used concrete nouns in their study and tested participants in several different conditions. In the repetition condition, for example, people repeated the pairs silently to themselves. In contrast, in the imagery condition, people tried to construct a mental picture of the two words in vivid interaction with each other. After learning several lists of words, the participants saw the first word of each pair and were asked to supply the second word. The results showed that people in the imagery condition recalled more than twice as many items as did the people in the repetition condition.
The only way we as teachers can teach students to develop images is by thinking aloud at the beginning of the comprehension strategy. Ellin stresses the drawing of images that students are able to see, they can talk about the images. Ellin suggests that you describe what you see as an image what you smell, taste, touch and feel. Ellin was a staff developer at Douglas County Middle school here she used picture books to create images to increase comprehension in the eighth graders. She knew the students would have a problem with her reading aloud a picture book. The students did not disappoint her at all the comments like “do we have to sit and listen to you read.” Using the think aloud Ellin used images that she heard tasted and touched, she then asked the students to tell about the pictures they see in their minds from her reading. The teacher knew that the ability to see images in your mind about what you are reading is a indication of how well you comprehend what was read.
I do agree with the reading in the book Infotext when they talk about the importance of learning vocabulary the students must be taught the concept and the word not just the word. I think this holds true for imagery first teach the concept by reading aloud then start the thinking aloud to engage the students then ask questions so that they can learn what the word image means. Then the final step in comprehension is to discuss terms that are similar to the strategy you are teaching them. Next the teacher can explain how that strategy can be used in other subjects to understand what is to be learned by each student. Then the teacher can build on making the student a independent proficient reader.
ReplyDeleteIn all that you get, get understanding and that includes Stockings written by Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried; this took me to another level of imagery and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had to read the piece twice just to get more comfort in imagining what it would be like for me to have my man wear my stockings around his neck each day while he was off to war.
The reflection spoke of all the things these stockings represented to Henry Dobbins a strong and dedicated soldier in chapter 8. Maybe I am a romantic but I had a reaction to the piece that caused me to wander why no one pointed out the miracle of love and how it can create a armor for those who find themselves smitten by its true power. The fact that Henry Dobbins even escaped the snare of a bouncing Betty proves that nothing can destroy the connection between a man and women in love.
The husband Paul even gives us a taste of the struggle that exist between the past generation and the present. In the past men fought and lost their lives just to keep our country free and when it was time to enlist the men left their families and went to the war in Vietnam. The present generation steps to a different drummer they have no allegiance to their country at all it is all about doing your own thing and making sure you are getting pleasure from it and no responsibilities are attached. I also did not appreciate the word Paul used to account for the stockings Dobbins wore on his neck Paul said it was a copping mechanism what’s wrong with giving some credit to love and the power that it has over life and death. When I look at the piece and ask myself what personal reactions I have about this my answer is that it seems to be a declaration of what really matters in a young man’s life when he is called to war. It is the sum total of all the worthwhile feelings we experience in this life we all need something to care about and someone to care about us. Let’s say that I read this to a college level class of students I then could express to them what it means to be really human and there is nothing more real in the world then and man and a woman interacting together while experiencing life with each other. This is how I connect what I am reading with what I already know. In my opinion they did not have to even mention the Dear John letter at all because the power that the stockings had could stand on its own and make a powerful statement by itself. The text ask what is important here and I ask the same question but I still keep coming back to the same idea which is the mighty power of love, there is more to this piece like the ability to walk into danger and not look back I sense peace and intimate places where his mind could go to hide whatever danger might befall him. Henry Dobbins made his platoon into a group of men who had one belief with one mission and that was to stay alive under the power of love.
Ellin and Mimi started a reader’s and writer’s workshop for fifth graders. Ellin, returned to Mimi’s