Group
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Initiators
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Summarizers
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Responders
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Illuminators
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1
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Michael Gillis
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Karin Logerquist
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Molly Nelson
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Ian Gorton
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2
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Nicholas Gaudette
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Jesse Vavreck
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Nancy Nair
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Laura Mayo
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3
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Kaylee Wiens
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Kris Latcham
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Paul Garlock
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Jonathan
Reeves
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4
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Sara Stein
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Erik Krueger
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Michelle O’Connor
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Sean Johnson
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E. In this last small discussion group, you will begin the study of adolescent readers.
Preparation for the discussion: Please read:
- Adolescent Reading: position statement of the International Reading Association. https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reading.org%2FLibraries%2Fresources%2Fps1079_adolescentliteracy_rev2012.pdf
- Delbridge, K. (2008). What we know about the teaching of adolescent reading. In what research really says about the teaching and learning to read (pp 158-175). National Council of Teachers of English. Urbana, Illinois.
- To access the Delbridge article (article listed above) you can locate it on D2L-Content-Readings OR under Forms and Doc on the Website OR use the link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3RBFhdurd8ec0Vac2xQTEZiQWs/edit?usp=sharing
Postings: After reading these introductory readings on classroom adolescent readers, compare the reading to your own experience (either as a K-12 student, a practicing teacher already, or a teaching support person in schools). What impressions insights do you gain from this comparison and the reading itself. What are the big ideas in this reading that we as teachers should walk away with? What do these readings tell us in terms of how we should teach in the content area?- To access the Delbridge article (article listed above) you can locate it on D2L-Content-Readings OR under Forms and Doc on the Website OR use the link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3RBFhdurd8ec0Vac2xQTEZiQWs/edit?usp=sharing
Roles:
There are 4 people in each conversation group. You only respond to those in your own group.
Initiators start the conversation. They must do the reading immediately and get their entries in during the first day or two so others have material to respond to. Grading will be based on the quality of questions, speculations, and thought-provoking prompts that will get people really considering the ideas presented in the content. You must include your own responses to the ideas as well. If another Initiator has already posted his/her ideas, the next Initiator to post must enter new ideas. In other words, don't repeat what's already posted.
Responders directly address and extend the ideas that the Initiators have thrown out for consideration as well as adding your own unique responses to the readings. It is not enough to say, "I agree", or "That was a nice idea." Responders need to enlarge the conversation, make connections to their own experiences, and draw from other material in the readings to expand on the conversation. Responders need to get their ideas in at least 48 hours before the due date so the Summarizers can do their work (below).
Illuminators teach, guide, edify, and enlighten. They take their own and other people's ideas beyond surface statements to broader and deeper ground. They pull from other sources, such as pertinent internet sites, they have encountered to shed light on questions or confusions. They clarify. Illuminators add their contributions after the Initiators, before or after the Responders, and before the Summarizers (i.e., before the last day).
Summarizers pull together and consolidate all the key ideas from the group. They are the last to make their entries, probably best done in the evening of the deadline day. Every participant (except fellow Summarizers) should be named, and the contributions of each acknowledged in the summary. Summarizers should be organized and concise. Capture the essence. (If there are any group members who have not submitted by 8:00 p.m. of the deadline day, you do not have to wait for them — just summarize those who have submitted up to that time.)
Respond at least once to another member of your group with questions, clarifications, or other ideas. You will not likely be able to respond to the summarizer, as they will be summarizing all ideas and discussion at the end (Sunday). The Summarizer will need to respond to at least one person during the week before you summarize. This would be a good time to ask for clarification on ideas to help write the summary at the end. Make your response postings before Sunday, November 3.
In the first article the first thing that stood out to me was the point number 3 - Adolescents deserve access to and instruction with multimodal, multiple texts. When I first read this I was a little confused by what it meant, however with doing further reading I understood it is talking about using technology in our teaching. I liked the story about Janelle and how she used her phone for so many literacy things - Facebook, texts, videos, homework, etc. I also liked how her teacher used technology in class to keep the students engaged. I'm curious about how many of you would have thought about all the technology as literacy in the classroom and also how you could use this type of literacy to enhance the teaching of your day-to-day lessons. I really do see the use of technology becoming greater and greater as time goes by. It will be important for us as teachers to be able to pull technology into our curriculum. In a school that may not have as much technology available, how can we still pull technology into our classrooms?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I have to be honest as I would not have necessarily thought about all the technology as studying literacy. As I continued to read about it in the first article, it completely made sense. I have been placed in Burnsville High School for my long term placement and not every one of the FCS classrooms has a smart board in it. The school did not have enough money and so they determined that FCS was a subject area that did not need them in all classrooms as it is an elective. In my mind, this is a shame as there are so many tools available on websites that would be great to use on a smart board, but I will not be able to use due to there not being smart boards in the classroom. I can see myself using things like my own personal technology and an overhead projector to show things on the board in order to get around the fact that some of the classrooms I will be teaching in do not have some of the newer technology.
As I was reading through point number 8 - Adolescents deserve access to a wide variety of print and nonprint materials - this really got me thinking. Since I'm student teaching in my old high school I have been able to see how things have changed over the past 20 years. The library now has 4 different computer labs in it and many of the books have disappeared. The reference books, like encyclopedias, are still there but the whole second floor of books is now just empty shelves. Sure there is a small section that has Manga books and a couple other choices that are popular with the students, but that is about it. Have you noticed that this is true in the school you are at? If it is true how does this trend support point number 8?
I find this to be sad at Burnsville High School. I believe that the kids basically go to the library to use the computers and that is how they are finding most of their information. Very rarely do I see any books being checked out. My daughters go to school in Farmington and each student is assigned an iPad for the school year. They have access to look at things online, but their library allows them to check out ebooks. In the example in the reading Rosetta's reading improved because she was able to look at books about horses. If we begin to take out books from the school libraries like this, how can we encourage reading based on interest? Is it harder to become interested in reading if anything of interest needs to be found online? Manga is not going to appeal to everyone at Burnsville High School.
Kaylee,
DeleteI think it is great that you can compare and contrast what the school was like then and now. I was wondering if thought it all improvement?
Paul
I haven't decided if it is an improvement or not. Unfortunately not all content areas have the same access to the technology. If a school is going to limit the books in the media center, then it seems like they should have a technology solution to replace it. Maybe it doesn't matter if it is equal amongst the content areas?
DeleteTechnology in the classroom is huge but you're right... Like in your school, our district has technology in some classrooms and not in others. Teachers are expected to keep updated on the new technology, but that seems rather impossible when they don't have it. On the flip side of that are the teachers who have the technology and don't use it because they don't understand or don't want to use it. I think the students benefit from the use of technology. I've seen students become more interested in what is going on in class if they get to record their song, record a rhythm exercise, or play a game on the iPad or Smartboard. There are other students who seem reluctant to participate. For some it's too overwhelming while for others, they do get distracted and would rather search what's on the iPad rather than complete their assignment. I feel like the use of technology provides another avenue to address all learning types though. The visual learners seem to thrive as they get a visual that is also interactive.
DeleteIt's an issue when districts don't have the funds for updates of technology. I know in our school our IT people are pretty good at getting things fixed as soon as possible which helps out tremendously.
In the second reading, having students participate in discussions and be able to relate what they are reading to their personal lives helps the students get meaning out of what we are having them read. I completely agree with this and it made me start thinking about how we can get students doing this in all our different content areas. What is one way that you can incorporate this into your content area in order to help the students understand more fully what you are teaching? Also, each of our content areas have different types of reading. Music is going to be very different from Social Studies. How might this look different because of your content area?
ReplyDeleteI think that in Family Consumer Science, this can be easy in some courses like Social and Family Living and harder in other courses like Fashion during a sewing unit. It can be easy for students to relate or figure out what is different about their family situation during a relationships unit in Social and Family Living. If a student has never done any sewing, it could be really hard to get a good discussion going about how to relate sewing to a real life experience. I find this thought to be a good kind of challenge for me as I think about covering this aspect of literacy in my classes.
When we were in class last week we found it really difficult to come up with a set definition of what reading is. How can we help our students understand that reading is more than just figuring out words and reading them off a piece of paper especially when each of the content areas we teach may require a different type of reading skills?
This is a question I was pondering quite a bit as I was doing my reading and thinking about things to write to start a discussion. I'm going to have to do much more technical type reading skills in my cooking, sewing, and family finances classes than in my life skills, child development, and social and family living classes. I'm going to have to figure out how I can get students to not only read and understand words, but also how I can have the students relate to the readings with life experiences and prior knowledge. This is going to look so different for each class that I teach that sometimes just thinking about that question makes my head hurt. I can now see a better bigger picture of how all content areas can work together in order to work on different aspects of reading/literacy to help a student be well rounded when he/she graduates so he/she is ready to tackle whatever the world around them throws.
Very good information, I think it is great that you can see a correlation from your area of content to other areas. I am sure you will find ample opportunity to work with other content areas to help support and inform to one another.
DeletePaul
In the first reading I was struck by point #2, Students deserve a culture of literacy...I think that this is of the utmost importance. If literacy truly is as important as the article suggests, and I agree, literacy has to be adopted as a habit throughout the school. In the 24 by 7 world we live in information is ubiquitous. Students that we may or may not reach during the school day are bombarded with information all day and all night, if we make a literacy a priority we give them the needed tools to dissect the information and learn far beyond what we as teachers could give them. Making literacy a way of life in a school would be such a wonderful adventure. But, in our real world of high stakes testing and mandated must do's the goal sometimes gets lost in the madness of it all. I am often reminded of the old saying that is hard to remember you goal was to drain the swamp when you are hip deep in alligators.
ReplyDeleteI think the second reading gives some great ideas. I have found in my field work, as a para, and even personally anytime theory or text book information can be brought back to my real world the information sticks. Using current events in Social Studies to relate to the past is a wonderful way to bridge the gap for the students. Abstract to concrete, what more can an educator do for a student.
I completely agree with bringing back information to the real world. I'm guessing that most people remember things better when it can be brought back to something we already know.
DeleteI am sad how the "mandated do's" have taken over as priority in our classrooms. Sometimes it feels like students miss out on so much because of this. Academics are important but so are some skills that are not standardized tested.
Here Here! I think that bringing back information to help students learn is a must. The focus on the testing has gotten completely out of hand. There are several days when my music students have to miss class to complete the testing that is being done. How is this helping them? I get that they need to test in order for the state to compare where they are at with the state/national average but there are way too many tests. The concentration on fulfilling the standards is a good focus of course. There are so many standards and updates that it seems hard to keep on top of it all. I know last year the edTPA changed a couple times a week or more. It was confusing to do lesson plans because each time we would get to class (at SCSU), the professor would have to change the criteria. So... in short.... can't we get back to the basics?
DeleteMy first response is to Kaylee's first post about the point #3 of the article read regarding technology and it's use in the classroom. You touched on many of the types of technologies used and addressed some of the surface functions of these types of tools, but what do you think the research says on technology and education? How does it help and what ways might it pose some challeges?
ReplyDeleteI can say from personal experience that certain students seem to benefit from things like 1-to-1 ipad designation in school, while others find themselves becoming distracted and off task, which then leads to increases in missing work. In our district of ISD 192 (Farmington) we saw the 1-to-1 ipad rollout last year and by the spring we saw an increase in missing assignments by 100% in all grade levels. The worst grades as far as missing assignments go, have been in the high school and the biggest concentration was within 9th and 10th grade. That is not to say that every school has such negative statistics when it comes to 1-to-1 ipads, because like I said, this is simply within ISD 192.
According to: educationnews.org:
"Students in more than 2,000 school districts across the country are now using electronic devices to aid their education following a radical shift in the way schools view modern mobile technology in the classroom. As programs pushing iPads in the classroom have led the technological revolution in education the role of teachers"
Many of these districts within our own backyard....
But, what does the data tell us? Unfortunately, nothing at this point as far as I can tell and while many highly educated people have offered opinions on the subject of the movement/fad---the facts really aren't there yet, to say either way what research shows. In a New York Times interview Stanford professor Larry Cuban said this:
“There is very little evidence that kids learn more, faster or better by using these machines,” said Larry Cuban, a professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, who believes that the money would be better spent to recruit, train and retain teachers. “IPads are marvelous tools to engage kids, but then the novelty wears off and you get into hard-core issues of teaching and learning.” nytimes.com
What are the facts of the matter regarding technology and the classroom? I think that it comes down to cost vs gain and for me, the ipad fad is not it. I completely value the use of smartboards and believe in requiring teachers to buy ipads with their own money because not only does it save the school money, but it can be claimed as a tax write off and therefore is much more cost effective. As for the smartboards---these are very expensive, but work well with other technologies and allow for greater depth and understanding regarding a subject and it is done in an interesting way without simply allowing students to search ipads all day long.
Thoughts? (Agree or disagree--you decide #CNNstyle).
Thanks for sharing about the iPads in Farmington. I have two students in my house that have the iPads. One never puts the thing down and it is a distraction and the other one basically just uses it for homework. There are some nice benefits like being able to turn things in online and I'm sure saving on paper costs for the schools, but you are right I don't think it is necessary for each student to have the technology in their hands 1-to-1. I find it interesting that they have found missing assignments have gone up. I'm sure they were not expecting that.
DeleteI do really like the smartboards and wish that the district I am placed in had them in all the FCS classrooms. I would love to take my student teaching experience to be able to practice using them. When I was placed in Lakeville last year, they also did not have a smartboard in the FCS classroom. Considering the price, I guess I understand a little bit why the more academic classes get the boards first. I do happen to agree with you that it might be best for the teachers to be in control of the technology instead of the students.
Interesting information about the iPads and your discovery of how the high school students are not turning in assignments. I would have thought it would intrigue them enough that they would complete their work. In our music class, we have the kids go into a practice room and record rhythm exercises on the iPad. They can also do it at home and email it to the instructor. The students seem to love this (maybe because it's new) and almost race to see who can get theirs in first.
DeleteThe distraction factor is one that I see in our school as well. We sometimes find students trying to surf the net or search for games rather than doing the exercise that was assigned. I was rather hoping once the newness of the iPads wore off that things would change. Sounds like research is proving otherwise.
In summary of the readings and all of our groups thoughts...
ReplyDeleteTeaching adolescents to comprehend what they are reading is going to be an ongoing task. It is the responsibility of all teachers in every classroom. I believe we all agree that helping the students to comprehend what they've read will involve bringing prior knowledge into play through discussion and research. Teaching literacy in our classrooms will involve various strategies including the use of technology when it is available, discussion groups, getting students to relate to what's going on in their own lives, relating the readings and subject matter to their cultural and personal environment, and activities that engage the students to use their thought process to comprehend.
Kaylee and Jonathan mentioned the use of technology and how it affects students. First of all, if technology, such as iPads, is available, students respond differently. Some students tend to be distracted, some frustrated, and others thrive on the technology and see it as a fun way to learn. The articles mentioned that we need to be providing a variety of methods for students to gain literacy skills. I think we all agreed that it depends on the student's learning style as to how each individual will benefit from the use of technology or not.
Paul and Kaylee talked about relating life experiences and using current events to relate to the past events that have made a mark in time. By using current events, I think it engages students and helps them to think about what is happening around them. This will affect them and how they comprehend information in life. If we can provide information through various methods of texts/visuals/etc. we can hopefully reach all the students and help each one comprehend and retain information better.
Paul mentioned that literacy is a tool to dissect information. Whether we are having students read or discuss a subject, have them participate in a project, or write a paper, we are teaching literacy. Students are learning through doing and experiencing.
The definition of literacy takes on many forms. Each of the articles we read along with our individual interpretations seemed to float around the concept that literacy is learning by experience, relating to our cultures and backgrounds, reading, comprehension, talking/discussing, and seeing or visualizing. Teaching literacy is not just teaching students to read....