5th and Final

Literature Circles
I used Swimmy by Leo Lionni for my literature circle. I thought this was a good book because it was on a kindergarten level but contained themes that would inspire an in-depth discussion on friendship, courage, and being different. “A lot of children's books deal with sharing and getting along with others. A lot try to help children be themselves. The brilliance of Leo Lionni is that in book after book he brings these two ideas together, showing children that they can be themselves and care about others at the same time.” Taken from http://www.amazon.com/Swimmy-Knopf-Childrens-Paperbacks-Lionni/dp/0394826205 . Because my students are early second language learners, I chose to read the book to them because none of them are able to read on their own yet. I also designed a reflection sheet that only required them to check yes : ) and no : ( as I read it aloud to them. I found this idea online about writing discussion questions on a beach ball and letting them pass it around the circle. They really enjoyed this. The only problem was that they couldn’t read the questions themselves so I had to read the questions to them. It was really hard for this discussion not to be teacher directed since my group is at such a beginner level. I had to try really hard not to direct the conversation and simply help them with what they were trying to say. I also was careful not to pressure a student to talk who wasn’t comfortable. The students loved the book. I think that the book choice is very important for literature discussions. The students were excited to talk about the book because it was engaging. Several of the students related Swimmy to Finding Nemo which I thought was funny. I think that literature circles are great for second learners. Because their conversational language develops quicker than their written language, they can have more in depth discussions verbally than if they were writing down there thoughts. My students are not able to keep literature journals yet but the literature circle activity was a great way for them to express their thoughts about the story and make real life connections.

My Journey through Fieldwork
This class has by far been the best one! I feel like I learned so much just by being able to talk to my mentor. It really is true that real experience is the best experience. I was able to see many strategies we have learned put to practice and observe ways to make them better. I was also really glad that I was able to find a Kindergarten ESL group to observe because that is what I am most interested in teaching. I think that my Early Childhood degree and this endorsement have prepared me to be the best possible first year Kindergarten ESL teacher. Now all I need is my own classroom : ). I only lack one more semester to complete my C & I Masters and one more class to finish my ESL endorsement. I am very grateful for all the links and resources this class provided for licensure and praxis help. These will come in very handy in the spring. Good luck to all you who are graduating in December and I’ll “see” the rest of you in January!

A+ for Case Studies

I really enjoyed doing this case study. I chose to do the same kid that I interviewed before and he was also one of the students I chose to examine in my neighborhood profile. I was really glad I did this because it showed me what different kinds of information you can gain from each of these things but how one of them doesn’t really describe the child. It took all of these to make me feel like I really had a feel for where this student was coming from. Case studies are such good tools for gathering data on a student. In the first interview I didn’t feel like the student really told me anything. The biggest thing I learned about him was that his father didn’t speak English and that he would try to “show” his father English when he went home from school. Through the case study and the ethnographic narrative, I leaned the most through his drawing. He drew a typical looking house, square with a triangle roof, two windows and a door. But then, he drew a truck coming out of the side of the house. He then told me he lived in a “truck house”. I knew that this student lived in a trailer because he lived in one of the homes I visited for the neighborhood profile. I thought that it was very interesting that at 5 years old and after only being in school for a few months, he already recognized that he was different than some of his peers because he lived in a “truck house” or trailer. I not only learned more about his home life but also about the ways he learns best. This ethnographic case study is so important because it helps you focus on one specific child. I think as teachers we get very caught up in the class as a whole and sometimes group all the students together. It’s important to look closer and focus on one particular student at a time and really examine how that specific student is reacting to a lesson, the classroom environment, and his peers. I learned that my student is very competitive. He shuts down when he loses at a game too much. He also is very cocky when he is winning. All of these observations have taught me some very specific ways to increase this students learning.

1. Use engaging instruction: Mo interacted and learned the most about the letters and their sounds when the instruction was in the form of a game or song.

2. Make instruction meaningful: Mo really likes astronauts and was more inv

olved in the lesson because the teacher incorporated his likes into the lesson.

3. Work from student’s strengths: Mo was good at the memory game so he was more involved. It’s important not to make the material too hard that the student gets discouraged. He needs to feel some success with every activity.

AR Thoughts:

What an awesome way to learn “hands on” how to fix a problem! Every student is different and every class is different. Something that worked for somebody else might not work for you. But you will find out really quick what does and doesn’t work in your classroom if you implement action research. There is so much to be said for studying other people’s research and talking to experienced professionals, but I learned firsthand through this project that sometimes that isn’t enough. My ESL mentor was adamant that in all her experience the main way to increase comprehension for second language learners is through visual aids and it was obvious through my observations that this was the only tool she used. Once I started to collect data, it helped her realize that she was zoning in on one strategy too much and that by incorporating and rotating strategies, the students actually comprehended more.

My Ideas

• Everyone has some prior knowledge, it’s our job as teachers to help students activate and connect it.
• Assessment don’t always answer all the questions, sometimes they create more.
• Students could bring in items from home that relate to the subject matter, this helps them make real-life connections

I Suggest…

• Utilizing mini action research projects many times throughout the year.
• Use pictures and video clips, not just written notes. Sometimes we short cut the information if we are trying to take quick notes and you can get much more concrete data by using technology
• Change up the way you group your books. A lot of times in elementary classrooms books are grouped by subject matter or theme. Try grouping books with the same vocabulary words in them too.
• Mix it up! Comprehension isn’t gained through just one strategy so use them all in different combinations!

Factoring in Cost of Living

I read the article called Teachers’ Cost of Living Matters More by Danielle Georgiou. I thought that this was a very informative piece because too be honest I didn’t realize that cost of living was not factored in to teacher pay. I have always been told how teachers don’t make a lot of money and I have looked at several school districts websites to examine the highest teacher pay in the area. However, I did not realize that those charts do not give any indication about the cost of living in each area. Too be honest I thought that teacher pay depended on how large the district was and that larger districts would have higher cost’ of living. Apparently this is not the case. Is education the only area that salaries are not dependent upon cost of living? My father is an industrial engineer and has moved 3 times because of his career and each time his pay was agreed upon after the cost of living in each area was discussed. In one instance he moved somewhere that the cost of living was lower therefore; on paper he did not get a pay raise however when the salaries were compared with cost of living he actually was making more because of the move. My boyfriend also just recently moved because of work and cost of living was a factor in the salary decision. I suppose I just assumed that this was the way salary settings were in every job.

It seems to me that it would only make sense to think about the cost of living in an area when analyzing teacher’s salaries. I certainly will be careful to examine the cost of living more carefully when I start applying for jobs. I recommend checking out the cost of living calculator at http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/cost_of_living/cost_of_living_calculator.asp . For instance, I found out that the cost of living in Chattanooga is higher than the cost of living in Murfreesboro. If you make $100,000.00 in Murfreesboro and move to Chattanooga, you will need to make $105,646.04 ($5,646.04 more) to maintain the same buying power. You can compare any two cities in the US. Another good website to check out would be http://www.teateachers.org/cms/Average+Classroom+Teacher+Salaries+%28by+system%29/896.html This is a link off of the TEA website that provides a list of average teaching salaries in different Tennessee school districts. I think it would be a good idea to compare different cities in these districts with the cost of living calculator to determine whether or not the teacher pay is fair.

Classroom Diversity

I had never heard the term cosmopolitanism before but I really liked how Hirsch described it as being a member of humanity as a whole. I think that we have been focused a lot lately on “multiculturalism” and what it means to respect other cultures. However, not everyone fits into one stereotype or cultural box. Each person is different. Therefore, I think it really just comes down to getting to know our students. Each and every student not just certain culturally groups of students. I also agree that just because we are respecting a culture does not mean that we have to allow intolerance if it is a part of their culture. We have laws for a reason and while being aware of what others believe is important it is not ok if their beliefs cause harm to other people living in this country. I think an important question came up in one of the readings about how other countries offer their children more equal educational opportunities. My question was, do they?
To be honest I don’t think that they do. Yes, our country may have a gap between low and high socioeconomic education mainly in comparison of test scores, but we also have the most diverse country in the world. I highly suggest reading, What ‘Superman’ got wrong, point by point by Rick Ayers http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/what-superman-got-wrong-point.html . Ayers says, “According to this piece in The Nation, ‘In the Finnish education system, much cited in the film as the best in the world, teachers are – gasp! – unionized and granted tenure, and families benefit from a cradle-to-grave social welfare system that includes universal daycare, preschool and health care, all of which are proven to help children achieve better results in school.’" Why does Finland have such high test scores? According to Wikipedia, “The country is ethnically homogeneous, the dominant ethnicity being Finnish people.” How can we compare our multicultural education system with a country that has no minorities or different ethnicities represented?

Now with that said, I do think that we can fill that gap we just have to understand what we are dealing with. We are dealing with students who all have different home lives, experiences, and learning environments. There is all this push to change curriculum in order to increase test scores. Has anyone thought that maybe we should change the test to match the curriculum and not vice versa? If you want to know more about the Core Knowledge Foundation and their curriculum ideas, check out http://www.coreknowledge.org/the-k-8-sequence .

The Multicultural Challenge

Where are these people that have these “Aryan” views? I was highly disturbed by many thoughts in PJ Tobia’s article. To be perfectly honest I never realized there were such opposite opinions regarding multiculturalism. It doesn’t seem like it should be this complicated of a debate. In my mind, multiculturalism simply means respecting others people’s beliefs and cultures. You don’t have to believe what they believe and you certainly don’t have to agree with it. However, you do need to accept the fact that they can have their own opinion.

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter, don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss

It is very easy for people to cross a line when they are arguing equality. For instance, I think the minority quotas in work places have gotten out of control. In theory it sounds like a wonderful idea. You have to have a certain number represented of every demographic to ensure equality in the workplace. But if you have already filled you “Hispanic” quota does that mean no one else with a Hispanic background can get a job even if they are more qualified than the other applicants? Why does it even come down to race? I thought the point of equal opportunity America was that everyone had an equal opportunity REGARDLESS of their color not BECAUSE of it. Why is financial aid based on your ethnic background more than financial NEED?

When it come to education, I just do not see how discussing and learning about different cultures could possibly have a negative effect. No one is saying rewrite all the history books and offer a different curriculum for each ethnic group, because that is unrealistic and Samuel Taylor’s article. However, why can’t we bring in books, movies, and speakers from different backgrounds to teach us about where they come from? What makes some people think they have nothing to learn from anyone different from themselves? I recently read Inside Separate Worlds by David Schoem for another class and I think that Sherri Campbell said it best when she wrote, “A white person in America who does not associate with other races will never know how others feel and, in effect, will deprive himself of education” (Schoem, p.126).

Standard English and Grammar Usage

I always viewed Standard English as the kind we learned in school. English in itself has many different dialects all of which are acceptable depending on where you live, where you are from, and who you are talking to. I agree with the argument that there really is no single standard of English. However, I do believe that there should be one standard form chosen to be taught as a basis in a school setting. I also think it is very important to teach students that there are different times and places to use different dialects and accents of English. Obviously the way that we speak and the way that we write are completely different. But it is important to remember that the way we speak also differs depending on the setting. I think that all students personally vernacular should be acknowledged because it is part of their culture. My parents both grew up in New Jersey and moved to Tennessee when they were pregnant with me. My mother stayed at home with me for most of my early development years and I spoke like her, with a northern accent. When I entered school I was surrounded by the southern accent influence with caused my speech to change. However, at the same time I was learning “Standard English” in school. I picked up very quickly on the fact that my classmates would make fun of me for saying “northern” words. However, when we went back to New Jersey to visit family, all of my cousins would make fun of me for using “southern” words. Unconsciously, I began to change my dialect depending on who I was speaking to. I think this is something that many students learn to do automatically; however, I think it’s important for students to be aware and exposed to different dialects besides their own.

Another interesting thing I noticed about Standard English is that I very rarely hear it spoken. I think that this is why it takes the longest to learn. I think that the best way to learn Standard English outside of English class is through books. Written or book language most often follows the Standard English rules. The realization that Standard English does not involve pronunciation was a new one for me. I had always just assumed that it did. This is an interesting point especially regarding ELL students. They can master “correct” Standard English and still pronounce things differently, just like I can speak “correct” Standard English whether I am pronouncing things “southern” or “northern”.

Now grammar is a whole different discussion all together. I am very interested in descriptive grammar. I think that it is fascinating to observe the structure of the language and how it is actually used by speakers and writers. However, I students should be taught prescriptive grammar initially. Students have to know the way that grammar is expected to be used in the academic society. I have always thought that grammar had to do with errors or correctness and that was it. I had never thought about how grammar can make a sentence sound interesting or make it come alive. I think this is an important lesson that I never really understood in school. Grammar is the way we make our sentences come alive for the reader. The structure of our sentence can determine what kind of picture the reader sees in their head. Show your students how grammar helps their stories come alive. Because I am a big believer in Vygotsky’s scaffolding teaching strategy, I also align with the inductive approach to teaching grammar. I will use lots of higher order thinking questions to guide the students through interactive grammar exercises. I think this is the most developmentally appropriate way to teach any student, especially ELL grammar and Standard English.