Teacher Tales

A practicum teacher who is learning content literacy. I want to bring creativity back to schools so that children can learn to be themselves and thrive at that.

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Nearing the End

It's crazy to think that this semester is coming to a close.  I'm going to be a senior soon! It seems like being a senior in high school was so long ago, yet the time has flown by. And what's even crazier is how much I have learned, changed and grown since my time in high school. (Thank goodness).  Each part of my college experience has played a crucial role in my growth, and I can say with confidence that junior year has been one of the most difficult, and probably one of the most growing! Being in the classroom last semester taught me so much about myself and about why I want to be a teacher.  So many things were new and challenging, but I learned so much. (I promise I'm getting around to reflecting on this class!). I think anytime that I'm stretched beyond what I think my capacities are, whether that is physically, emotionally, or mentally, I tend to grow...and my capacities were definitely stretched last semester! 

With all of that said, being in this content literacy class after being in the classroom has allowed me to look back on experience and see what worked, what could have worked and what probably didn't work (and I probably shouldn't do again...). I really love reading and writing, but I chose math as a subject area. (Makes sense, right?) This class really allowed me to see that teaching reading and writing can go in any subject area! I can help my students better understand math by having them write about it or read about it.  Word problems are so crucial to math, and with a better foundation for reading, students can make more sense of their work.  

One of my favorite parts of the class was being able to discuss how we as teachers can help different kinds of students.  I have a heart for students who aren't pinned as the students who will excel, but rather their labeled as troubled or difficult or slow, etc. These students need to be cared for and thought for and loved! If we as teachers are working hard to keep all students engaged, I think that students will see that someone is working hard for them on their behalf.

I'm sure that I learned much more, but these are the things that stood out to me. I've enjoyed my time in this class, and I'm looking forward to being able to put what I've learned into practice. 

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Group Work and Other Strategies

Most of us can attest to frustrations having to do with group work. There was always one person who would slack off, so one of us had to pick up the slack.  We might have been in a group without our friends, and group work was awkward.  Naturally, if we felt this as students, so do our students! In the text, Tovani discusses group work.  I love that she thought to ask her students how they felt about group work.  Students listed frustrations, and Tovani was able to create student and teacher actions based off of those frustrations.  I think this is really helpful because students can feel included.  She created very real practical steps to take to avoid problems with group work, including giving separate grades, and requesting different groups. I think that group work is incredibly beneficial for students, but in order for students to know that it is beneficial, they have to be in a good environment to learn from each other.

Introducing a new strategy in a classroom is great, but it needs to work in order to be able to continue using the strategy.  Tovani says that students should be able to understand why they are using a strategy, which can mean that they need a good understanding of metacognition.  While students are reading or writing, they can monitor their thinking by writing down what they are thinking and feeling. Students can also come up with their own strategies that they find themselves using to understand a text.  Teachers should also be assigning work that monitors students understanding.  Assignments need to be just as important to teachers as they are to the students. 

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Putting Thoughts Together

In this blog, I'm going to sift through some classmates' blogs and respond to what they had to say! 

"The worst thing teacher can do is leave students alone with their textbooks." edunite.tumblr.com

I couldn't agree more with this. I feel like I am a professional faker sometimes when it comes to school! We are really good at looking like we're doing work, especially if we don't understand something.  Like how many times have you tried to read something and end up reading the same sentence over and over? Am I right or am I right? How much more are our students doing this! Let's help them understand what they're reading! We feel their pain.  There are probably many many ways to help students understand a text. Writing down thoughts, questions, notes on sticky notes is one way!

"Just as it takes time for adults to read and form a reaction or response to a text, it takes students the same time, if not more!" geauxempower.tumblr.com

So true.  Sometimes, I think it is really easy to get lost in results, and not focus on the process.  Students need time and space to learn and grow in their learning.  If our goal as educators is to help students understand a text, then we have to be patient. That kind of learning takes time! 

"When a student is highlighting or underlining or whatever it is they do, this means that the student is engaged with the text on a deeper level." teachtothink.tumblr.com

This quotation is so practical.  It's easy to talk about the big picture and vision of where we see our students, but it's so necessary and good to dive into the nitty gritty of how that vision becomes a reality. I completely agree that if students are writing down what they are thinking about a text, they must be thinking about it more than they would if they just read through it.  This is definitely something that I will want my students to do in the future! 

"So if you have students writing clear thoughts on their sticky notes, take those and put them on the board for the whole class to see, or you can have students switch notes and discuss what they think the other students is learning from the text." teachingtochange.tumblr.com

I think this is another great idea! I could see this either working really well or maybe not working at all, but why not try? I love seeing students interact with each other and learn from one another.  

"So what do we do when something isn’t interesting to us? We have to make ourselves take an interest in it." educationdawg.tumblr.com

I think this highlights a key problem with students and reading. They just aren't interested! So how do we help them take interest in something? This is probably a question that will plague me for my entire career as a teacher. Honestly, I think it has so much to do with knowing our students well enough to know how to help them learn best.  However, at some point students will be reading uninteresting things. I think this is when we pull in all of the practical things like taking notes because if they write it down, they will most likely remember it. 

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Where do you even start with content literacy? 3/27/2014

We talk a lot about how important content literacy is and how we need to make sure that our students are learning about reading and writing across content areas, but how do we get there?? 

In Cris Tovani's text, she gives many good ways for students to understand what they are reading while they are reading. It's similar to metacognitive strategies. You know, thinking about your thinking? Only, this time students can be thinking about their reading rather than trying to remember everything they read at the end of their reading.  Reading is already hard, but understanding what you read is even more difficult.  Students need strategies to help them think. I love the Mark Twain quote that Tovani uses, "No one is smart enough to remember all that he knows." We need help.

A good place to start is allowing students to sit down with a pen and a text at hand. They can learn to mark on the text. They can underline quotes, and then talk about those quotes with a partner.  Tovani also recommends sharing a statement about the text emphasizing what the students believe or think about the text.  

Taking notes while reading a text requires much patience.  Thinking about what you're reading takes time and effort that we don't usually expend.  Tovani accounts for this too, so she gives helpful tips to keep students involved in the text without giving up.  I'm just going to quote her here so I don't botch her words:

"1. Trust the author. Don't panic if at first the text doesn't make sense. The author will slowly reveal clues. 

2. Ask questions....

3. Slow down. Give yourself time to read, reread, and paraphrase what you've read.

4. It's okay to go back. Sometimes readers go back and reread confusing parts of texts. "

I love those tips. I think they're even helpful for me as I learn! How great (and humbling) is it when we realize that things we want our students to do are incredibly beneficial to us as teachers as well! Tovani gives some practical ways such as sticky notes and double-entry diaries to help students walk through a text towards the end of the chapter, as well. 

So happy reading, y'all! 

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We Should Know Our Students 3/20/2014

The way that children's brains work is fascinating to me.  Their imaginations  come up with some amazing ideas and questions.  I always love it when children tell me crazy stories, or recount stories while adding elaborate details.  The other day, a little boy told me everything that I would ever need to know about Angry Bird Racing (or Angry Bird Cars, not sure??). He told me by drawing pictures of everything and making sure that I knew each of the cars' names and special features.  It was so cool.  I could have never remembered things like that so well! It made me think about how their is a wealth of knowledge and imagination inside of a child's brain that we as teachers should unlock and unleash on the world.  Each child thinks so differently, and I think that our job is to help students see that, and not only see that but be comfortable in their own skin.  

The more I thought about this, the more I started to wonder how I would be able to encourage children in my classroom.  My hope is that I will able to see each child as an individual.  Ideally that would help me know my students and be able to see the strengths and weaknesses of each child.  This way, I would be able to cater to each student, i.e, differentiate.  

I think that knowing each student well can help us teach content literacy.  The more I know a particular student, whether they might be gifted, on the autism spectrum, have a behavioral difference, etc, the more I can help them learn! I think this takes time and effort, and much of that time is probably going to be outside of the classroom.  But, I would say it's worth it. 

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Progress

As I have been in this content literacy class, I am learning more and more about how to incorporate reading into my content areas.  Content literacy can be anything that pertains to reading, writing, speaking, or listening, so it's beginning to dawn on me that I get to have fun with this! At first, I thought that putting a reading component into a math class would be burdensome and honestly, a little annoying.  However, I just don't think that's the case.  I LOVE to read, and I get to let my students in on that.  In math class, we could learn how to read math problems by learning how to solve riddles.  In both cases, you have to pick out the information that is necessary and throw out the rest.  And, riddles are pretty fun (for the most part).  As much as I love math, social studies is what wakes me up in the morning. Well, not actually...that would be slightly nerdy, but I do love it so much! An idea that I would love to do in a class would be to have the social studies class to write in a journal everyday that would recount the events, emotions, and thoughts of the day.  Each day, a few different students would write at the end of the day in order to get multiple view points.  At the end of the year, we could read back over the story and read our very own history! How great would that be?!

I find content literacy to be difficult when it comes to differentiating.  I want each student in my class to feel engaged and supported, and that inevitably means that different students will need different things. From a 30,000 ft level, differentiating is great.  The concept that all students are receiving what they need is wonderful, but when I zoom in to say a 5,000 ft level, I begin to see all of the details and different aspects of differentiation. It's hard! But it's also a challenge that I want to work at and learn from.  The students are  so worth it. 

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Text Sets for Specific Content

I really want to be able to teach social studies when I graduate.  Social Studies is one of those areas that has so much information and dates and important people, and it can seem overwhelming and yes, even boring.  I hate that history has become almost synonymous with boring! I think it has do with the lack of meaning and relevance that social studies seems to have, but I also think that there are ways to combat the boring history class.  When I look back in history, I see so many amazing, tragic, crucial and interesting moments, but someone who doesn't care for history may see simple events that mean very little to them.  Our jobs as teachers are to let students into to the interesting world that we see inside our heads and to communicate the meaning of past events.  I think this requires much time on our parts but much time that is well spent.  

Practically, this could look like putting together materials over a time period or event that we will be teaching.  For example, if I am teaching about the Holocaust, I could put together a list of texts, websites, pictures, etc in order to engage my students.  Students need to see why something is important, and by bringing in outside sources, they can begin to make connections.  Something like the Holocaust especially cannot be taught with a textbook alone.  I don't even know that anyone can gain a full understanding of it, but we can look at pictures, read first hand accounts and read the facts in order to see the scope of this tragedy.  Through teaching the Holocaust, students can learn about the good and bad in society and see how inhumane this treatment of a whole people group was.  They can translate what they see and learn and feel into a compassion for people who are different from them.  There is no way to put a hopeful spin on the Holocaust, but we can teach our students to care for people and treat everyone like a human being.  

So...I put together a text set for the Holocaust that I think is really helpful!

The Jewish Virtual Library

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/wiesenthal_glossary.html

This web page has a list of terms that would be great for activating prior knowledge on the subject of the Holocaust.  Students can begin to answer and make connections about the who, what, when, where and how of the Holocaust.

  The Poisonous Mushroom – Nazi Writer, Fips

http://cycloneteam.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/poisonousmushroomstoriesandquestions.pdf (This is a really helpful resource on teaching this book)

This was a propaganda children’s book.  The message was to instill in German youth that Jews were dangerous to society.  This book can give insight into the way that Nazi’s thought and how they dedicated they were to getting rid of the Jews.

  “The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students” http://www.ushmm.org/learn/students/the-holocaust-a-learning-site-for-students

A resource to give students an overview of the Holocaust.  Students can use this site to browse through different aspects of the Holocaust through photographs, audio clips, maps, etc.

  The Diary of Anne Frank

http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Frank-Diary-Young-Girl/dp/0553296981

This diary would give students an inside look into a young person’s life that was around their age during this time.  Students could read excerpts from this diary in order to gain a better insight to what it was like to live as a Jew during this time.

  Photographs of Nazi camps and survivors

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-holocaust/pictures

Students need to see that these camps were real and the people in them were real as well.

  Map of German-Occupied Europe

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/campmap.html

Students can see the influence that Germany had on Europe during the war and just how far their oppressive viewpoints reached.  This map shows where Nazi concentration camps were located. (differentiates between extermination camps and “holding” camps)

I hope this is helpful! I know it's definitely something that I will use in the future. 

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Sticking with The Struggle

In this week's reading of our textbook, Cris Tovani talks about the problems with difficult textbooks.  Students do not understand the texts and their learning suffers because of it.  A logical solution would be to take out textbooks or use less difficult ones, but does that endanger the rigor of the classroom? Tovani argues that it doesn't at all, but if teachers can find accessible readings, then students will learn so much more.  An accessible reading would be something like historical photographs, a magazine/newspaper articles, quotes, primary sources, etc.  I think that this is a really wonderful proposal because students can read information that is engaging and meaningful.  Yes, textbooks have meaningful information, but it is not always engaging.  

I don't necessarily agree that textbooks should be done away with due to the reality that many college professors require them.  I think it would be a great idea to chuck information in textbooks, and then pull in supplemental information like primary sources, in order to make meaning of the text and put it in context.  This would work especially well in history classes!

As a practicum teacher, it's so strange to think that I could actually be applying these concepts in my own classroom one day.  One of these days, I will be making decisions about whether or not to use a textbook, and that day is not far off! I'm excited to be able to teach young people.  I love seeing students learn, and I love being a part of their learning.  Even more than that though, I am excited to support these middle schoolers through tough times. (You remember those middle school days, right?) Middle school students need someone to care for their mess and their struggles in school.   I think that my job as a teacher is not confined to the content, although that is extremely important, but I have the opportunity to make a difference, even if that difference is seemingly insignificant.  

The thought of sticking with people in their struggle is a little scary. I remember days in my practicum experience when I would come home in tears because I wanted my students to know that they were valuable and worthy to be educated.  Many of them had hard home lives and struggled in school because of it, and I couldn't fix it.  I wanted to. I wanted everything in their lives to be okay and easy because they are so young, but life doesn't work that way.  As I was thinking back on my experience, I realized that the best thing I could offer was consistency and good teaching. I could be a consistently supportive teacher who pushed them to learn and care for their education because they were worth being taught.  

With that being said, walking into a professional that requires so much of my mental, emotional and physical capacities is a little scary, but I am so excited to walk into that new season of life. 

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Reading is cool and all, but how do you teach it?

I really love the idea of teaching reading across all content areas. I agree that it should be done whole heartily, but sometimes I have no idea how that should be done.  Of course we can tell our students to write about something, but what about those students who don't like to write.  My hope is that all students would be able to write with none slipping through the cracks.  For that to happen, I think that we have to teach our students certain strategies, which also means that we have to know those strategies well ourselves. 

In a Choice Literacy podcast, Penny Kittle talks about teaming up with other teachers to teach students literacy.  This would most likely look like a content teacher, say a social studies teacher teaming up with an English teacher in order to help their students better understand reading and writing.  I really like this idea because more often than not, the English teacher will have a better idea of how to teach reading and writing. And more often than not, the content teacher will know what those students need to know specifically. It seems like a magic team that could really work and really help our students, so why not take a stab at it? For anything to work, we have to try it first.  

A strategy that we have talked about in our content literacy class is something called a think aloud, or read aloud.  The teacher would demonstrate to the class how he or she would think through a reading or a diagram, etc.  This way students can follow a model and begin to take ownership of their thinking process. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKvaEPbOO9g

This is a really good example of a read/think aloud that we could do for our students.  Of course, it would probably be good for you to cater it to your students depending on what they need. 

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Reading Can be Good

I think that we can all say that reading is tough.  It may be tough on different levels for all us.  For one person, reading a novel is tough; for another it's a math problem or even a social situation. I struggle with graphs and charts so much so that I can still say that high school economics is my least favorite class.  And then there's poetry.  Why can't poets be straight forward sometimes?? Anyway, on some level, we struggle with reading, so if we as future teachers and teachers understand the difficulties of reading, we should also know that reading is tough for our students as well. 

In Cris Tovani's textbook, Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? she writes about the difficulties of reading for herself and for the students she teaches.  One thing that I love about reading this text is that Tovani is authentic.  She does not downplay her struggles, but instead she uses them to help students who are struggling.  One strategy that she gave is something called reading aloud or thinking aloud.  She demonstrates this in front of the class by asking herself questions and asking the class questions. I also really love that she wrote down all of the questions that the students asked on the board in order to refer to them later. As soon as she began to model this kind of thinking for the students, the students began to ask questions and think for themselves.  It’s also really important to remember that reading will look different across content areas, so the way that we read a novel will be different from the way that we read math problems.  Tovani points out that if we are reading a math text, we will pay close attention to charts and diagrams because those give insight into the mathematical concepts being presented.  In a novel, you are probably going to focus on setting and character development, etc. 

Before our students can even get to the point of being able to read a math problem or a novel, it’s important to set up the reading before beginning.  I think many of us know the word schema, or a student’s prior knowledge of a subject.  It’s a good idea to scaffold students’ knowledge of something before diving into a text.  For example, if you are about to read a text on the Civil War in America, it is probably wise to see what students know about the Civil War. This could mean asking questions, making a chart, or writing down words associated with the Civil War.  Really anything that helps the students have better background information of the text at hand will be helpful.  If students go into a reading confused, most likely they will remain confused throughout the reading. 

In our last Content Literacy class, we came up with starters (Bell Ringers, etc.) that incorporated literacy and content.  Since one of my subject areas is math, I thought it would be a great idea to give a student a math problem, maybe an algebra problem or even a ratio and have the student assign real-world context to the problem.  This would allow the student to think in terms of meaning rather than algorithms, and the student would also be using their writing skills.  It also gives students the space to be creative and think outside the box.

As I continue to read more about content literacy, I am really starting to see the freedom that comes with teaching literacy.  It’s not a formula, but instead it’s a way to be creative and come up with new ideas to teach content like math and science! I’m excited to be able to use these ideas in the classroom!

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A Push for Creativity

Last class, we discussed using Double-Entry Diaries.  I don't know about you, but I've always done these in school...and I have always disliked them. They have always felt like busy work to me, but I was able to see a different way of doing them.  Typically, I have always seen text on one side and reflection on the other, but there are so many ways to do this strategy.  I think that's why I have grown to like them.  You could put something that stood out to you from the text, article, lecture,  etc on one side and the significance on the other (or some variation of that).  I was also able to see how these double-entry diaries could work in math, as well.  By using a diary, students can write out and keep track of their thinking.  I think my change in opinion and perspective on this strategy is more proof of how I am constantly learning and growing as a student and a future teacher. 

Talking about the flexibility of this strategy is a great segue into an article that I read about creativity:  http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2013/01/10/30-ways-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom/

The basic push of this article is to teach creativity as a skill, not just as something that you're born with. In the article it says that, research has found that innovation is an essential skill in our global economy. I mean, why are we not teaching creativity more?! The rest of the article provides many points and ideas for teaching creativity. I'll give you some of my favorites:

We should be teaching different kinds of creativity. Big C creativity inspires movements and new ages. Little C creativity helps to solve everyday problems and issues.  Students need both. Who knows what our students are capable of! We teachers can help them become creative and innovative members of their communities.

We need to create a safe environment for student's creativity. Students need to know that they are free to express their thoughts, ask questions and make mistakes.

The more students learn to be creative, the more they will take ownership of their learning.  And that's what we all want as teachers, right??

Let students make mistakes. Without making mistakes, students will not take risks or be original.

The thought of students taking ownership of their learning, coming up with creative solutions to classroom problems, homework, essays, etc is so exciting to me. The whole time that I was reading this article, I kept thinking that by teaching creativity, we are ultimately teaching students to be themselves.  My dream is to see students discover what they are good at and find ways to use their talents to help others and help their community! And I want to help them do that.

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What Is Content Literacy Anyway?

“Content Literacy” is very much a new term for me.  Before coming into this class, I had never heard of it.  So, as this class progresses, I am hoping to grow in my knowledge of the term as well as how to incorporate it into the classroom.  From what I’ve gathered, content literacy has to do with teaching reading across all content areas.  Reading does not just include looking at words on a page, but rather being able to listen, speak, interpret and communicate with the content.  In today’s age, we have to do so much more than simply read words on a page.  This is my working definition, and I’m sure throughout the semester it will continue to grow.

One thing that I really appreciate about this class is that we are learning not only about content literacy, but also how to structure and manage our own classrooms one day.  When we come into class, our teacher has the instructions for the day on the projector.  It’s helpful because I know exactly what it being expected of me for the day.  I know that most people probably appreciate this, but students with learning disabilities can really benefit from this kind of structure.  I think it’s a great way to make the classroom beneficial for all students without singling any students out.  It creates an environment to learn without distractions.

Podcast Reflection:                                                                               

After listening to a podcast about science and content literacy, I am even more convinced that content literacy is important.  The teacher in the podcast says that she finds multiple ways to include literacy in her classroom such as lab books, classroom newsletters and even emails to other classrooms explaining what they have learned.  She says that one really important strategy for teaching students reading is to give them choices.  Students should be able to choose between reading fiction and non-fiction books.  I really loved how this teacher placed her students’ reading of great importance.  She seems like she cares for her students deeply, and I think that’s something that I can really learn from her!

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About Me and "How Important is Reading in all content areas?" Reflection

People ask me all the time why I want to be a teacher, and then I tell them that I actually want to be a middle grades teacher. That really throws people off. But I love to tell people why. Teachers can have such great impacts on their students, and I want to be able to impact my students.  Not necessarily for them to who I am, but for them to leave my class with a greater sense of who they are.  I want students to feel free to be themselves, to be able to be creative and pursue their passions, whatever those might be! Middle grades students are especially feeling the pressure of finding their identity, but I want them to know that they don't have to be someone else. Each student has a unique wiring, and I want to help students find that wiring and use it to grow and help others grow.

Currently, I am in my 3rd year of school. I am writing this blog for an assignment in my content literacy class, but I am also hoping to find and be a part of a network of teachers and future teacher like myself. I am still young and have so much learn, so I want this blog to present opportunities for me to continue learning and growing! So I would love for you to help me in that process, and hopefully I can help you as well.

For my reflection:  

At a first glance, content areas like math and science don't seem to need reading or language skills incorporated into them.  Why does a math teacher need to teach reading? It's all about formulas and stuff, right? And science? Don't you just need to know how to do experiments and blow things up? Oh, but reading is so much more than just looking and words on a page and knowing what they say!

In Rebecca Alber's article about reading in all content areas, she argues that literacy is about "being able to make sense of and engage in advanced reading, writing, listening and speaking." So if this is what literacy is, then of course we should be teaching it to our students in areas like math and science. 

In math, students have to make sense of word problems and be able to pull out the crucial information in order to solve the problem at hand.  If students do not understand the words in the problem, how are they going to solve the problem? And it's similar with science. Students must be able to decide which information they need in order to make their experiment go as it should.  

Even more than using reading in the classroom, Alber makes the case that students will be future professionals and citizens of wherever they choose to live, and they need to be able to function well in society. These future professionals should be able to listen and speak well and read situations in order to say the right thing at the right time.  They will be going to interviews, interviewing others and could even be the teachers for the following generation!

So, I completely agree! Teaching literacy in all content areas not only helps the student, but it will help that student grow into the person that they wish to be.