Chapter 3 Learning Log

Chapter 3 Learning Log
1. A diagnostic teacher creates a classroom that invites all cultures to engage in literate activities.
a. In my one tenth grade class last year I had a very diverse student population. I had students from the local area, Korea, Russia, and the Congo. This was my first time with such a diverse population, and I wasn’t sure how well I would do with them, let alone how the other students in the room would interact. Furthermore, I felt they might be challenged with the novels we read in class. One of the first things I did was learn simple phrases in all of their languages, such as hello and other greetings, to make them feel welcome. This interested other students in the class and prompted them to converse with each other more easily. Also, some of the novels we read, such as Anthem and Animal Farm, related heavily to some of their native country’s history. They could share how Russia, for example, looks back on the Russian Revolution while we read Animal Farm. Overall, it was a blessing to have so many different types of students with me in class.

2. When choosing a text, the diagnostic teacher considers not only an appropriate reading range, but also the extent of students’ prior experiences and cultures.
a. This idea is great, but it seems difficult to implement 100% perfectly in a lot of classrooms. Teachers in high school typically have a list of novels to choose from to teach, despite the fact that they may have students who are way below the designated list’s reading level. I remember beginning last year with The Lord of the Flies in a tenth grade inclusion class. I read this book in an 11th grade Honors course in high school, but it shows how different various schools’ book lists are. I tried to follow the above strategy and choose books that somehow connect to any prior knowledge that may have acquired in history class to make some novels more easily accessible. A lot of books are also chosen because they are good to use on state exams, especially the 11th grade Regents exam. All teachers in my school taught Of Mice and Men because it hit on a lot of themes that were regularly used on the exam.

3. The diagnostic teacher needs to increase wait time and know how to deal with inappropriate answers.
a. Wait time is something that I really need to work on. When I ask a question of a small group or the entire class, I have the tendency to pick on the first student who raises his or her hand. This isn’t fair to a lot of students. Just because they do not have their hands raised immediately doesn’t mean that they aren’t processing information – they may just have a different technique to their thought process. I think this comes from the fact that I sometimes feel rushed for time during a 40 minute period. However, I have been getting better at having students explain their thought process and how they came up with certain answers, especially since we have been getting ready for ELA exams recently.

4. The diagnostic teacher sets aside time for students to read for their own purposes.
a. Students do seem to really enjoy reading for their own purposes. I took part in a book club with several of my male students earlier this year to hopefully show them that boys like to read too. We read a teen murder mystery, and at the end of each section I would just ask them to share what they thought. I didn’t have any formal task or assessment for them, but we were still building literacy abilities and the boys really enjoyed it as well. They did not put up any sort of resistance to the process as some of them did during class time when things were more formal or structured.

5. The diagnostic teacher encourages self-assessment, which helps readers evaluate and recognize their strategy use.
a. When I do ask students how they arrived at an answer, the most common response is “I don’t know.” I really like the idea of the check sheet from the text. I have used something similar to this before, but it was with a student’s behavior. To have a student reflect on how they read that day and what his strengths or weaknesses were would really help students understand their literacy strategies. I can imagine this having a huge impact on certain students and it is definitely something that I am going to work into my course. For instance, as the students read an article in preparation for writing an essay, I could ask them questions or give them a list of different reading strategies and have them circle the ones they used in helping them complete their task.

First Class Blog

Hello everyone! I have created my class blog for EDU 572 and have attached my reading log from chapters 1 and 2 below. See you soon!

***My address is http://tmcarter-mcater.blogspot.com

Mike Carter

EDU 572/Warham and Callahan

Chapters 1 and 2

1. As the diagnostic teacher instructs, she adjusts her original plan to ensure learning.

A. Teachers are always told that “preparation is key.” While a well-planned lesson typically ensures an active learning environment, teachers must also be able to adjust plans quickly. If a lesson is going according to plan, but then several students begin to lose understanding or struggle with a certain aspect, the teacher must change the direction of the lesson. This has happened to me many times. For instance, in my writing class at the beginning of this year we were doing a lesson on compound and complex sentences. While students seemed to grasp the initial idea of the lesson, it soon fell apart when I brought up the word “conjunction.” I explained what that part of speech was, but the only example they knew was “and.” So, the direction of that lesson changed, as well as the course in general. The rest of that lesson we learned about the parts of speech. Now, when a new semester begins, the course starts with the parts of speech to ensure that all students understand the basic vocabulary of the class.

2. A reader’s schema, or personal worldview, can determine how the reader views a text or ideas within the text.

a. When a student receives a new text to read, whether it is a novel, article, or poem, he or she may have a pre-constructed view of the subject matter. The example in the book about the child assuming that the book about baseball will center on a boy and not a girl is an excellent example of what can happen with many readers. Recently we read an article about gun control in preparation for writing a persuasive essay. During the pre-reading exercise, students looked at the title, the different sections of the article, and some key words. Many immediately figured out what it was about. Students began their own discussion on their views of gun control. I assumed that many of these ideas were based on their home and family situation, but it was amazing how many different ideas and reasons they had to back up what they believed. It was very intriguing for a seventh-grade classroom and they were very passionate about what they read. Although the article did not end up changing any of their minds (to my knowledge), I thought it was good that they were faced with some concepts that may have challenged their original mindset.

3. Teachers must go from asking literal comprehension questions to asking open-ended and non-literal questions.

a. This is a process that begins easy for many students but then begins to frustrate them because the answer isn’t in the actual text. I often hear students say “I can’t find that answer” when being asked an open-ended or analytical question. I began doing this more last year when I taught high school. Study guides or activities would at first ask literal questions to ensure that the students comprehended what was going on in the novel. As students worked through the activity, the questions were more non-literal. I sometimes use the 5 W’s strategy. I being what the who, what, where , when and later on in the questions I change it up by asking the why and how. I sometimes tell students at the beginning of the year that there isn’t any wrong answer to the latter questions, but over time I begin to ask them to provide textual evidence to support their analysis or idea. This is also a good strategy to use when writing essays since they need to include textual evidence and details to prove a thesis or claim.

4. Social interaction plays a huge role in literacy, and students have different preferences for how to interact in the classroom.

a. Socializing about a text is very important for all students. I have worked this into my classes at different grade levels in a variety of ways. When I taught 11^th grade, at the end of a novel we would do collegial circles. This was completely student-centered and operated. Students would sit in a circle and all of them must come with three questions or ideas about the novel to share with the class to help start discussion (good examples were modeled). One student acted as a moderator; his role was to select students and keep things organized. This was tough at first, but over time students really got the hang of it and became very useful. Also, in middle school I now have students discuss ideas or questions with their partner and then present their answer to the class as a whole. I also have them work in smaller groups of 3-4 students to discuss open-ended questions on an article and develop a thesis statement for an essay. This keeps them socializing within a smaller audience and then gives them the support of a group when presenting their work to the class.

5. Many instructional techniques focus on developing literacy skills during reading and not after.

a. I love this strategy. While I do use a lot of post and pre-reading skills, it really challenges students when they are asked questions or given tasks in the middle of a text. While teaching novels, I may photo copy a section of it and have questions written in the margin. This makes the student stop reading and focus or think about what they have just read to check for understanding. I like this because it helps to tackle any problems that the student has while he is reading it and not after. Over time this strategy also helps many students to actively question themselves without my prompts. Students begin to make predictions, ask why characters do certain things, etc., while they are reading.