Tompkins Chapter 3

As I read through this chapter, I am reminded how important it is for teachers to be educated and knowledgeable about the subjects they are going to teach. A lot of the issues covered in this chapter are discussed in my CEP 301 class. The CEP, for those unfamiliar, are special education classes. The class is similar to TE 301, except the focus is on students who are struggling with reading and writing. Students with learning disabilities have an uphill battle with language. Many students who are in special education exit behavioral problems related to their academics and difficulty in expressing themselves. Even though I hope to work with an older group of students than this book often deals with, knowing the stages of emergent, beginning, and fluent readers and the qualities that contribute to these stages will be helpful for struggling readers of any age. Knowing what to look for will help me know where a student is having the most difficulty, the area most holding them back from being able to express themselves and enjoy the art of language. ELL students develop reading and writing skills similar to young children learning how to read and write, but the thing that sets students with learning disabilities apart is that their development in these stages is not typical. For example, a student might read fluently but struggle with comprehending anything they read. I think the chart on p. 97 is going to be particularly helpful with this group of students because it gives ideas to help students in the different stages, and most of the suggestions could cross a spectrum of ages. (It's often an issue trying to find age-appropriate activities and materials for older students struggling with reading and writing.) The section on handwriting is another point we talked about in CEP 301. Again, there are certain traits of writing older, struggling students exhibit. The idea of writing centers is another idea this book gave to help students learning to read and write that could be designed with an older group in mind. Of the chapters I've read in this book, I think this one is the most applicable to what I want to do in the future.

Tompkins Chapter 3

When reading this chapter, I could draw on a lot of what the book was saying from experiences that I have had in the field this year. The book at one point talked about shared reading and how the teacher will read a book that is important to the children but would be at to high of a level for the students to read themselves. In field the CT reads aloud to the students everyday, usually the book swirls around an issue that is being talked about either in class or in the real world. For example, she read a book on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during his birthday celebration, talking about diversity and equality. The students really got into the book, but would be unable to if they were reading it themselves because they would not be able to understand some of the words.

I think the most controversial and interesting thing talked about in the book was the Language Experience Approach (LEA). In this approach the students tells the teacher a story and the teacher writes down the student's experience. From there the student will read back their own story as a book. I think this is a great idea to get students excited about reading and also stay engaged. I think in teaching making the content personal is a great way to make the content meaningful, and by doing this the student will read more and learn more. However, I think for this to be successful this is only the first step in a semi scaffolding practice. Eventually the students should start to be writing their own stories, whether it be from memory or talking into a voice recorder than writing their story down. Then reading and writing are directly linked while still keeping the personal meaningful idea behind the context. Although the first step would be a great way to teach a student how to read in a lower grade level.

GO GREEN!!!!

Tompkins Chapter 3

After reading this chapter, I gained a lot of insight into how to foster reading and writing skills into my classroom. What I enjoyed most was reading Ms. McKloskey's reading lesson. I especially liked how she started with comprehending the story and moved to reading skills. I had a teacher in elementary school who just had us follow along with our finger on the word every time she read. It helped with reading skills no doubt, but I rarely had any idea what was happening in the story because I was so focused on the words and not putting it together. By reading the story once and discussing the story's purpose, students put meaning to the story when they work out technicalities with the literal ability to read. It broadens their focus, and when there is meaning to the text it makes reading more fun! It just amazes me to think about the language that young readers are exposed to all the time, and I was reminded of that while reading the text. All the visuals, print, technology and spoken language that is everywhere makes me really excited to find new ways to incorporate it all into my teaching.
I did become slightly skeptical about the LEA approach. Because the oral language vocabulary is so much more extensive than the written for children I can see that it is a great idea for teachers to put their verbal language in writing. Children like to read stories by them as well, I just wonder if the room to grow becomes limited. One huge bonus about reading are all of the new things that you are exposed to, even in children's books that might seem simple. I think that if I were to use this method it would be used sparingly. I think it needs to be counteracted with children's books and lots of writing lessons.

Tompkins Chapter 7

This chapter reminded me about a lot of the things we are talking about in CEP301, particularly about how a balanced language arts program is so important. I feel like good teachers are going to try to pull from many different kinds of activities and that this, coupled with an awareness of what a balanced program, will make implementing a balanced program not very difficult. I felt like the chapter hinted that going beyond a textbook and worksheets will get you halfway there. I like the strategies they talked about in the book and many of the activities to teach those strategies, but I think I wouldn't spend as much time as the teacher in the chapter did on teaching these strategies. I agree that good readers use multiple strategies at one time, but I don't think that every good reader uses every comprehension strategy, and especially in a classroom, teaching comprehension strategies means that there are going to be kids who aren't getting anything out of the lesson because they won't use the comprehension strategy. Having a few stragglers every class might be distracting. Kids should still know what the strategies are, but perhaps spending more time emphasizing using multiple strategies rather than on each particular strategy would make the most of every student's time. Another thing I liked about this chapter was the description of comprehension as being a series of behaviors. We cannot teach students how to understand, we can only teach strategies and behaviors that will hopefully lead to understanding. This puts a lot of pressure off of students to think about comprehension in this way. Finally, I liked the idea of a grand conversation. I think conducting a discussion in this way will encourage participation and get kids thinking about what others in the class are thinking.

Tompkins Chapter 7

I think that this chapter is one of the most important chapters that I have read from this book. Comprehension is key for, not only understanding and personalizing what you read, but also for loving what you learn. This chapter talks about all of the effects that comprehension has on a learner, and how these benefits are connected to their lives outside of school. As the book discussed, the first main step to teaching comprehension are strategies. If a reader doesn't know how to approach a book and what to look for, it's unlikely that connections will be made or that what they are reading will have any context beyond the ability to read. Once a reader is able to use these strategies simultaneously, it takes practice for deep comprehension to develop. I feel like teachers should allow time for students to read according to their interests. I really like when teachers give the students research opportunities with a little freedom. This allows teachers to accomplish their goal on a given topic, but allows students to explore in a way that excites and motivates them. Activities like this also allow integration between topics and a time for students to practice their comprehension skills in a wide variety of areas and in a way that interests them. This semester, I was asked by my CT to do a reading circle about plate techtonics with a small group of students. It was extremely frustrating for me because, no matter what comprehension strategies we used or how relatable and exciting I tried to make the text, some students just really struggled comprehending what they read. Of course, not everything you learn about is going to be your favorite in all honesty, but I think that reading should be enjoyed and I hope to create that atmosphere in my classroom where reading is a journey and something to love.

Tompkins Ch. 7

The book defines comprehension "as the reader's process of using prior experiences and the author's text to construct meaning that is useful to that reader for a specific purpose". I think this definition is an excellent meaning of comprehension because through reading students will rely on their previous knowledge acquired to make sense of the view point the author is trying to convey then using both of these to construct their own viewpoint. If a reader is just reading with no previous knowledge or no understanding of what the author is trying to get across, the reader will be able to read all the words but the reader will not be able to interact with the text in a meaningful and educational way. Odds are that the student will become bored with reading the book and might lose interest in reading all together. I think it is necessary for silent reading in classrooms, but the books that the children are reading need to be carefully selected. I have seen children reading books that a high schooler would have a hard time understanding. The elementary kids enjoy the pictures but are not reading the text and if they are they have zero previous experiences with the text and therefore can not interact with the text and make meaningful insights about the idea or ideas they are reading about. "Students must comprehend what they are reading to learn from the experience; they must make sense of their reading to maintain interest; and they must derive pleasure from reading to become life long readers". To me this underlines the main goal of reading in a classroom. Its not to do better on a standardize test, it is to become life long readers and to read and evaluate different perspectives and viewpoints than their own. It's to learn about the world and how it works with the different people that inhabit it. It's also to form their own opinions on topics and to question others.