Self-Evaluation

My progression throughout this semester has been one that has bolstered my understanding of how to promote literacy with young learners,  forced me to incorporate meaningful literacy activities with high school students, and challenged my time management skills.  Working within a collaborative group “Courdroy” has certainly created a useful, multi-aged format where experiences, challenges, and learning opportunities could be shared between other professionals and students.  I compiled a few popular quotes that illustrate my experiences while enrolled in the emergent literacy course.  Enjoy!      ~Kelly Ruff

“I am definitely going to take a course on time management… just as soon as I can work it into my schedule.” – Louis E. Boone

“Managing multiple projects is like being the parent of a large family that you have to feed. Each aspect of your job can be like another child that needs nurturing. You can’t neglect any one of the ‘children’ and expect to have a healthy family.” – Peter Turla

“If it weren’t for the last minute, a lot of things wouldn’t get done.” – Michael S. Traylor

“Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand . . . what he learns and the way he understands it.” Soren Kierkegaard

“Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”
– Abigail Adams

“ Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand. ”

“ I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn. ”

Albert Einstein 

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.  Arthur Koestler:

Informational Texts

What a great idea!  Young children should certainly have the opportunity to be exposed to informational text.  When thinking back on the days when I worked with two-year-olds at a child development center, there were just a few informational books in our classroom library.  I recall them being more like picture books that featured real photographs of instruments, construction equipment (tractors, backhoes, etc.), & animals.  There was also another book that contained pictures & descriptions of various community helpers of different cultures & abilities.  The children actually enjoyed thumbing through the textbooks independently. 

I feel there is value in creating an interesting, stimulating classroom environment.  As an elementary student, what impacted me most during the transition from 2nd to 3rd grade was seeing & reading more informational texts & predicting how boring it would be tolearn about important historical figures & completing science projects.  However, Mrs. Leak, discovered a simple, yet creative way for students to enjoy reading informational texts . . . Every Friday, I anxiously awaited the weekly delivery of Weekly Reader.  It was a thin, paper magazine, written on a kid’s level & featured cool articles about animals, weather, & crafts.  Another magazine I looked foward to reading was called Ranger Rick.   These types of child publications provide interesting topics that cause children to ponder, explore, & perhaps experiment.

Using LEA with Process Writing

When working with young children during my previous lifetime, I implemented journal writing on a daily basis.  I usually provided topics for the students to choose to write about and gave them the option to draw a picture that illustrated their writing.  While working with a volunteer, the students had the opportunity to read & rehearse their stories.  At the end of the week, we had a show & read — each student read their favorite story they had written that week.  After reading this article, I discovered that I could have enriched the writing experience by presenting a whole-group, child initiated writing activity, where each child could participate & suggest ideas for revisions & editing.  Now that I am working with teenagers, I can still implement the LEA/process writing approach, with an intended general topic (this probably contridicts the process writing approach. . . ???)  As a class, students can decide to write a group draft on any topic dealing with children & hygiene.  After revisions/editing, the students can create a class book.  To extend the activity, students can then write their own books about some topic about children & hygiene.  Their books would be made of cardboard, feature text, vivid ilustrations, a minimum of ten pages, & a fictitious publishing company.  Any suggestions as to how I could better incorporate an LEA/process writing activity in a child development class?

Early Literacy & Technology

I think it is wonderful that there is a growing number of young children becoming technologically astute. I have a couple of four-year-old family members who enjoy visiting the Nickelodeon website and various interactive websites referenced on the sides of popular cereal boxes! In my day-to-day life, I find that high schoolers are more technologically savvy than I was at their age. Still, others do not have access to the internet at home or their parents limit their time/experiences with the internet. Some students have a limited concept of how to effectively search for topics on the internet. As one of my professional goals for this school year, I have committed to incorporating more technology within my curriculum (it is also strongly recommended that I do so by my curriculum area administrator). In the past, I have created assignments that allowed students to search topics related to child development and create a powerpoint presentation and a handout about the information they found. Students enjoyed the project, but I would like to provide activities they would not have done in other classes. Borrowing from our class format  ,  I have thought about creating a child development blog for my students so they will have the opportunity to write (type) journals in school.  This type of journaling will seem familiar to most students being that many of them have MySpace, Facebook, or BlackPlanet pages.  While the increase in media in classrooms can be beneficial, I still wonder if students can become too dependent on the internet/technology and think of the traditional sense of school or the classroom as being boring and slow-paced . . . .

Aukerman: “A Culpable CALP”

I agree with the author of the article in reference to teachers starting from each student’s perspective and  working from there to help the child learn academic material.  It is challenging to do this with “regular education” students, but how do I effectively assist ELL students new to the United States, with minimal mastery of the English language?  As mentioned in a previous post, I have two ELL students in one of my child development classes – ” Anahy” and “Alma”.  As far as general classroom procedures are concerned, “Anahy” will follow directions such as, “You may get a textbook so that you can refer to the English-Spanish glossary.”  Even after saying her name, “Alma” will not get up to get a book, will look at me with a blank stare, and will offer no response.  I will assume that 1.) she did not understand  my instructions to her in English or 2.)  she did not  want me to think less of her because she needed the assistance of an English-Spanish dictionary.  “Anahy” and “Alma”  took a child development test last week.  “Alma” made the lowest grade in the class.  Within the next week, I have to make time to work one-on-one with “Alma” so that she can better understand curriculum-related terms such as conception, emotionally mature, shared beliefs, and latch-key.  How do I find out if “Alma” even knows the translation/meaning of these terms in Spanish?  Any suggestions?

Writing

Chapter 4 in our textbook touched upon how to assist children in developing their writing skills.  When I worked with kindergarteners at an after-school program, I frequently provided children with opportunities to practice independent writing by having a ten-minute journal time each day.  During that time, the children could write a story (beginning, middle, or ending prompts were provided) & then draw a picture that illustrated their writing.  A classroom volunteer worked with each student.  When the child finished his/her journal, the volunteer would write down the story as the child dictated it.  Currently as a high school teacher, I have been challenged by finding ways to incorporate meaningful, subject-related writing activities.  A few of the writing tasks I assign to students include making a children’s boardbook about hygiene or mealtimes, listening to kid’s songs/nursery rhymes & then creating a storyboard & perform a commercial advertising baby supplies/equipment (ad had to incorporate a jingle that was to the tune of a kid’s song/nursery rhyme), & creating a comic strip about handling/feeding a newborn.  Students seem to enjoy the activities but I’m not sure if they are enhancing students’ literacy skills.  Any thoughts?     

Phonemic Awareness

This week’s reading provided me with a clearer understanding of phonemic awareness (recognition of the segment of sounds used in speech) & how it is a component of the more general idea of metalinguistics.  As a high school teacher, I encounter students who are poor readers.  There are a variety of reasons as to why these students experience challenges in spelling, reading, & comprehension.  For a percentage of them, could it be that they did not have purposeful & plentiful opportunities with phonemic activities during their formative years in school?  In addition, I am thinking about ways to adapt some of the classroom activities mentioned in the Yopp & Yopp article for the Spanish-speaking students in my class who are new to the American educational system.  Creating a literacy rich classroom will certainly benefit all students in my class & will assist them in learning vocabulary/language related to child development, as well as promoting the theme of writing across the curriculum.

First Blog

OMG!! How cool!  I visit blogspots daily (celebrity gossip) but I’ve never commented.  This is actually pretty interesting — what a great way to incorporate technology within my curriculum.  High school students would enjoy using a blog as an interactive learning tool.