Danielle Long

Welcome to my LLED 400 and 401 Blog. This should be fun, eh?!

[daniellelonglled-blog]

Response to Ranker Quote

This entire article just reminded me of Poptropica, and all that can be done and further explored with children's interests. As a future teacher, I know that it is important to be very open to new ways of doing things. Basing a writer's workshop off of video games is something that is uncommon, but has the potential to be engaging and important. There will constantly be new ideas I can bring into my classroom, and there will also be new ideas my students bring into my classroom. It is important to work with that and take it into consideration deeply. 

[daniellelonglled-blog]

There is so much to learn about the challenging landscape of communication and the new literacies that students bring to school.

There's Fire Magic, Electric Magic, Ice Magic, Ranker

[daniellelonglled-blog]

Response to Boldt Quote

This is something that I have heard over and over again, especially considering ELLs. Each time I hear it, I think in my head, "yeah, but how do you know how to make a careful decision? How do you pick what to correct and when to do it?" I think that TOO much intervening, especially when a teacher writes all over a child's work, is not good. As a teacher, I want to encourage Kyle's enthusiasm, but at the same time, my job is to teach him how to write correctly and deeply. I think that this quote is mediocre. I agree that we need to pick and choose when to intervene and everything, since that is our job. At the same time, I wouldn't want to crush Kyle's enthusiasm and imagination.

[daniellelonglled-blog]

The teacher's role in that scenario is to make careful decisions about when to intervene to direct the student to more conventional spellings, or uses of capital letters, spacing, and punctuation.

Kyle & the Basilisk, Boldt

[jennaghackett-blog]

Fluency Assessment: DIBELS vs Miscue Analysis

DIBELS      - read a predetermined passage for a set amount of time      - teacher takes notes as kids are reading      - asks comprehension questions after      - benchmarks determined and can be increased by WPM

MISCUE      - not timed      - not as threatening, more relational      - quality not quantity of miscues            - high quality- doesn’t change the meaning            - low quality- changes the meaning

[kaitlynfelty]

[katieverbitsky]

Markings for Miscue Analysis

[oflaim29]

The Reading Workshop

Affordances of the Workshop Model:

time

space

choice

Components:

Mini-lesson (20 min max)

Guided practice

independent reading

sharing

[daniellelonglled-blog]

Dictation

www.kidwriting.homestead.com

[melissazuccarini-blog]

[stephduthie-blog]

Differentiation and Decentration

Differentiation: learners start with whole or bigger concepts (like marks on a page that tell a story) and then begin to move toward a specific understanding of how it works

Decentration: learners begin to understand that in order for a wider audience to understand their writing, there is a need for shared conventions 

[daniellelonglled-blog]

Helpful Website

www.animated-literacy.com

[jennaghackett-blog]

“Teachers need to find out what children already know about written language in order to tell where effective instruction can start”

Bissex, Animation 5 (via jennaghackett)

[daniellelonglled-blog]

Reaction to Cooper: "Literacy Learning & Pedagogical Purpose"

Paley uses storytelling in her classroom to encourage literacy. I think that storytelling is such an interesting way to engage in literacy in the classroom. It is effective in giving children a huge sense of autonomy. The children are telling the stories at times, and they have control over what they are saying. There are many options to build upon the stories children tell. Reader's theatre is an awesome option to use in the classroom. In particular, I think storytelling is really effective for ELLs. In Ecuador, I was able to use storytelling and Reader's Theatre in practicing language in a unique and engaging way. It is redefining what society views literacy as.

[hap5072-blog]

Why read to kids?

Increase literacy skills

Show enjoyment

Build connection

Increase attention span

Relate stories to experiences

Stimulates their imagination

Children can begin to learn to read as soon as they are ready to

Reading readiness does not exist

Actively involved with...

[oflaim29]

4 Participatory Stages for Children's Reading

mumble reading

cooperative reading

completions reading

echo reading

[daniellelonglled-blog]

Response to Wohlwend

This excerpt from Chapter 2 displays one of my biggest fears of becoming a teacher. I know what I want to teach. I know I want children to explore literacy through various modalities. I know that I want to treat children with an unbiased respect. I know that I want to cater my teaching to the learning styles of my students. I fear that with the governmental and administrative pressures, that I will not be able to do all of these awesome things, that to me, make teaching worthwhile and meaningful. In early literacy classrooms, I guess this will be something to explore further, as laws change and adapt, and as I enter into student teaching and first year teaching.

[daniellelonglled-blog]

Ironically, at a time when educational researchers are reconceptualizing and expanding what counts as literacy to include multimodal ways of knowing, governmental policies rely on constricted definitions of literacy and achievement (Siegel, 2006). Rather than recognizing the imaginative power of children’s play as literacy that expands meanings and encourages collaboration, recent accountability measures (e.g., No Child Left Behind in the United States) challenge kindergarten and primary teachers to justify play activities within an increasingly academic curriculum.

Wohlwend, pg. 44