Cultural Literacy Refelction

The new literacy project has taught me a great deal about cultural literacy as well as scrapblogging. I took a course on diverse children's literature and completely fell in love with the topic. I never realized how important diverse lit was for students and I felt that more future teachers should realize this too. However, spreading this information was not as easy as I thought. this project allowed me to do this in a way I had never thought of before.

I decided to multicultural literature instead of focusing on just one specific culture. I find them all to be important and I could not chose just one. After looking at some other projects, I saw the importance of focusing on just one culture. I gave small amounts of information about many different cultures and I hope my peers will find the information helpful, but I was great to see other projects go so in depth about one specific culture. Hopefully my project will encourage people to learn more about different cultures.

Using a scrapblog was a lot of fun. Since I am rather technologically challenged, it took me some time to figure out how to use the scrapblog. I spent quite a deal of time experimenting with different functions of the technology and playing around with different applications. However, after looking at other scrapblogs, I realized that there are many functions that I did not know it had.

Although I struggled at first, it encouraged me to use my creative side and add my own flair to each page. I think this technology would be great for students to use; however, I would suggest it for older students (high school and up). While I already found the topic to be very interesting, I allowed me to present it in a way that was interesting to others. I was able to describe different cultures and also provide examples of books they could use in the classroom. I hope my peers have to opportunity to review some of the books I included in my project and think about using them in their classrooms one day.

New Literacies Project Reflection

I must say that I really enjoyed completing the New Literacies Project. I chose to focus on emotional literacy because throughout my life I have been an extremely emotional person and it would have been beneficial for me as a student to be able to share my feelings without anxiety in the classroom and also have my teachers and peers understand my feelings and emotions. My aim for this project was to discover how to incorporate emotional literacy without making students feel overwhelmed. With this is mind I wanted to involve actual students into my project in order to make the topic of emotional literacy more relevant to myself and anyone else viewing my project. I had never created a movie before and I thought it would be a great way to show students interacting with emotional literacy.

The main idea that I have gained about emotional literacy through this project is that there are many different aspects that lead to a person becoming emotionally literate. It is not simply about sharing feelings and emotions even through this is a key part of it. However, emotional literacy involves a person being aware of their emotions and feelings and knowing why they are feeling that way and then being able to express those feelings. Further, emotional literacy also involves students being aware of and understanding the feelings of other people. Emotional literacy involves using the reactions and facial gestures of other people to make an informed decision about how they are feeling. This involves a person's ability to have empathy for another person, that is putting themselves in another person's shoes and thinking about how they would feel in the same situation. As I said, there are many aspects that make up emotional literacy.

Another key idea I have taken away from this project is that you cannot expect the reactions and the feelings and emotions that students are going to have about different situations. The use of the movie technology really helped me to see this. As part of the project I wanted to record the initial reactions of students. With the videos and voice recordings I gave the students their prompt and then immediately started to record. This technology not only helped me to capture the initial reactions of the students but it also helped me to reflect back on exactly what the students had to say. I was not dictating their answers but cutting and pasting what they said into the movie. I think that using video recording and voice recording in the classroom is an excellent tool, especially in capturing the feelings and emotions of students.

The technology also helped me to see the student responses right next to each other. The movie moved from clip to clip without a break so I, as well as my viewers, were able to see the differences right away. This is especially important for teachers trying to understand emotional literacy because it demonstrates completely the kinds of differences they can expect in their classrooms. Some students gave in depth responses while others gave one word responses. This helped me to understand that students have different comfort levels with sharing emotions which is why it is important to set norms and make the classroom a safe place for students. What was even more enlightening was that these students still varied in responses even though I had a personal connection with each one of them. This showed me that even when you form that bond with students and they feel comfortable with you, they may not always be comfortable sharing their feelings and emotions. One thing to take away from this is that emotional literacy is not about pushing students to share their emotions, but encouraging them to do so. There is a fine line between the two and we have to remember not to put students in a situation they do not feel comfortable with.

The last main idea that I have taken away from this project is that teachers need to be emotionally literate or at least moving towards it, in order to teach emotional literacy to their students. Teachers need to be aware of their own feelings and know that other students may not share the same ones. We can become defensive of our own feelings and emotions so being aware of possible difference and keeping our emotions in check it very important. Although I had different interpretations of the activities the students were doing in my video, I couldn't let that get in the way of what I was trying to get from the students. Teachers need to take ownership of their emotions but also be respectful of the emotions of the students. Also, teachers need to be aware of the feelings and emotions of the students. We need to look out for students who seem to be uncomfortable, or angry, or sad, not just in emotional literacy instruction but in day to day classroom activities. Emotional literacy is not something you turn on and off. If we are going to expect it from students, we need to live it every day.

I am excited to use some of the classroom incorporation ideas that I came up with for emotional literacy. Along with these, I think I will also try to incorporate the use of movies for my students. Although there were times that I was frustrated with the technology, I was very happy with the end result and I took a lot of pride in what I accomplished. I think that students could have the same reaction to movies, as well as any technology for that matter, and it is important to give them the opportunity to use different technology for class projects. I really enjoyed this project and I feel like I took a lot away from it.

Digital Literacies

For my digital literacy project I chose to create a video, using iMovie, about visual literacy. Once the project was finished, I posted it to YouTube, making it accessible to the public. Although I have always been interested in photography, and interpreting pictures to find meaning, I have never considered using it in the classroom. Once the idea was introduced to me, I realized what a powerful tool visual literacy can be. I understood the concept of visual literacy very quickly once I was given a definition which I found online (http://k-8visual.info/). In my free time I often peruse the images on the National Geographic website and various creative advertisements I find on the web so I immediately began thinking of images I have viewed in the past which demonstrated the concept of "reading" an image. This assignment may have been more difficult for someone who had not had the hobby of viewing images on the web.

I have also had experience using iMovie before. This time around, I used a newer version, which is acutally quite different from the version I have used before, so there were a few things I had to learn while creating my project. I was unfamiliar with how the program published projects and how to add sound to my video. Because I had used the program before, I was already literate with how it worked in general. Also, it would be helpful to have experience using Mac computers while making this project. All of these technologies can be learned, but often, it takes time to be able to learn how to manipulate the programs in the way you would like.

I believe that this program might be suitable for middle school students to use, but might be difficult for elementary students. A more user-friendly techonology that creates movies with sound from pictures is Photostory from microsoft. With this program, children could easily create movies using images they have taken themselves, or have found on the internet, to create a powerful visual literacy project. With the program that I used, I was able to convey the exact message I had pictured in my head, but children could accomplish a similar task using a much easier program.

From the beginning of the semester, my idea of literacy has been altered greatly. I once thought that literacy only involved picture books and novels, I now understand that literacy can be found in many real-life situations. It is very common for children to use the internet on a daily basis. Children today are bombarded with advertisements and images through various media devices. If our students already have the capacity to understand literacy through various technologies, and through images, why not utilize this understanding to create a new type of ecucation that is more suitable for the 21st century.

Visual literacy is a more effective tool for teaching many subjects. Sometimes, a picture can explain a concept in a much more meaningful way than words. Students should learn how to "read" these images in order to gain the knowledge necessary for meaningful learning. Although text will obviously always be the most essential piece of literacy, there are other pieces that can be used to make a more complete picture.

Cultural Literacy Reflection

Having completed the New Literacies project, I can say that I've learned a lot not only about my own topic, Cultural Literacy, but the literacies as well through my peers' projects. I chose to do my project on cultural literacy because I feel that in our society today it is impossible not to interact with another person from a different background. Also, as a future teacher, it is vital to know and understand where your students are coming from, what they have experienced, and how these ideas of cultures can benefit the classroom.

Being culturally literate goes beyond knowing how to read, write, or speak a language. It's knowing the language and culture enough to work, live, and be a contributing member of society. Having applied cultural literacy to refugees, I can see how the definition fits into a real life scenario. Refugees have to learn an entirely new language and culture from their own. It's really interesting, because the government only gives refugees funding for six months. In those six months, they are expected to find a place to live, a job, and be able to live in this new country on their own. Having worked with refugees, it often takes YEARS before this is accomplished, which is why it's so important to be aware of the struggles that refugee youth as well as their families are going through. Keeping this idea in mind, while focusing on the difficulties refugee youth may find is what I chose to focus on.

In completion of my project, I was able to see where discrepencies fall with how our government funds refugees and perhaps considers them able to be contributing members of society, and long of a process it really is for refugees. This is especially important to remember as future teachers, as many refugee youth have added responsibilities in their families, such as translating for their parents, compared to their American peers.

Through the project I was able to make connections to what I've learned to how I will work with Cultural Literacy in a classroom. It is vital to understand and get to know your students. This may be difficult if you were to have a refugee who is still learning the language. But there are ways to build trust between student and teacher in order to build a trusting relationship. In the classroom, refugee youth should be able to share aspects from their own culture, while learning a new culture. By doing this, the teacher and students may be able to see similarities, as well as learn something new!

Basal Reading Program

I had never realized all the material given in basal reading programs. The teachers are given so many different activities to to with the students and provide differentiated instructions to adapt to all students. I can see how this information can be incredibly beneficial in the classroom. The day to day lesson plans are already planned out and this could be a great stress reliever for new teachers.
While these programs can be a great tool, there seems to be way more activities than could ever be used in a lesson. I think it is important for teachers to pick and choose activities that will be most beneficial to the students and ones relevant to GLCEs that are trying to be covered. Basal reading programs were used quite often when I was in Elementary school, but I see them being used less and less in schools now. I've heard teachers say that basal programs are the east way out and teachers who use them are lazy. I see how they could think this but I do not completely agree. Basal programs offer great staring points for many lessons and many can be adapted to fit specific lessons. I would definitely use basal programs in my classroom.

Balanced Reading and Basal Reading Programs

Implementing a balanced literacy program would be an excellent way to teach the different aspects of literacy in the classroom. By using this type of program students are learning reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. In addition, when used appropriately, students are learning in a variety of different ways—such as reading different genres, with different reading practices, writing different genres, using different techniques. This makes it so not only is the child not bored when approached with literacy, but is actually working with a program that fits her or his needs. Balanced literacy program would work really well in any classroom, especially since the program can be adapted to fit any ability, as well as work for English Language Learners.

Basal reading programs offer a lot in terms of the different aspects of literacy as well. Within this program, students will learn about reading, writing, fluency, comprehension, listening, speaking, etc. However, with the basal reading program, there isn’t much room for variation and so much information is to be covered in each topic. It would be difficult to implement a program such as this in classroom and expect to cover everything. With that—it may be useful for teachers who are just starting out, as long as the teacher realizes that she or he may pick and choose what they want to cover. This way, the teacher may pick certain activities that suit their students best.

Basal Reading Programs

Basal reading programs can be very useful to teachers, especially new teachers, but should not be depended on in a classroom. Basal reading programs offer one level of reading that all of the students can follow. This is helpful when conducting large group literacy lessons, but teachers must keep in mind that every student is at a different reading level. Students who are either above or below the reading level presented may not get as much out of the text as those students who are at that reading level.

Basal reading programs have also been criticized for lacking authentic literature in the stories they provide. When stories are presented to children that lack an interesting or relative plot line, children often become unengaged and uninterested. When choosing literature for children it is vital to present them with something they can relate to and diverse experiences.

Because of their standardized nature and already laid-out nature. Basal reading programs can be excellent tools in classrooms when used with authentic and diverse literature. My CT, for example, reads a few stories out of the basal book per week with her class. She also reads the children many other books outside of the basal reading program and provides her students with original lessons.

Balanced Literacy and Basal Readers

The whole purpose of balanced literacy is to bring students a variety of literacy instruction. Teachers using balanced literacy tailor the literacy instruction to the needs and interests of the students. By relating the literacy instruction to the students, they start to form a love for reading and writing. Within balanaced literacy instruction, teachers bring a variety of reading materials into the classroom the help enhance students' reading ability.

Although basal readers are included in balanced literacy instruction materials, they should not be the sole text used for students literacy exposure. Basal readers provide a number of stories but the reading level is not varied. In a normal classroom not all students are at the same reading level and although the basal readers would be appropriate for some, not all of the students can read them. Also, the stories used in basal readers are not tailored to the interests of the students. Although some of the stories are very interesting and exciting, some of the texts can be boring for students which can decrese their interest in reading in general. Therefore, solely using basal texts in literacy instruction does not coorelate with balanced literacy instruction because it lacks variety and personal connection.

However, I do feel that basal readers can be very useful to begninning teachers because of the numerous lesson ideas that they provide. Some of the stories in basal readers can be great for students and teacher do have the ability to adapt the basal lessons to meet the needs of the students. Basal readers provide teachers with suggestions and guidelines for instruction but teachers still have the liberty adapt the lessons to work in their classrooms.

Vocabulary Instruction

There are many different strategies for teaching vocabulary to students. One of the most effective ways in through reading. The Tompkins book talks heavily about reading and its impact on the ability of students to learn vocabulary. Reading encourages students to use strategies such as context clues to figure out words they don't know. Reading constantly exposes students to new vocabulary in a meaningful way. Another way to teach vocabulary is by using word walls. Word walls can be used for any subject to highlight the key vocabulary words. By having the words visible to students, they are able to see the words over and over. The repetition so to speak helps the students to internalize the words and it also helps them to look for those vocabulary words in their text books or other reading materials. When students find these words in the text they can use the context to derive the meaning of the word if they are not completely sure what it means.



Another way to teach students vocabulary is to have them practice with identifying root words and affixes. Acitivities where students have the meaning of each word part and put words together using those parts help the students to decode the meaning. Also, by seeing words broken up, students can start to see how to break up words they are unfamiliar with.

Vocabulary Blog

Vocabulary can be taught in several different ways. An effective way to enhance vocabulary is to put words on a word wall. This will benefit all children as it can become a resource for them in terms of spelling, and using the word. Also, if there are any English learners in the class, putting a picture with the word will help them to learn the language and make the word meaningful. An important idea in terms of vocabulary learning is that if a student learns one word, she or he may actually be learning several words as we use prefixes and suffixes. I think it’s also important to integrate literacy learning throughout all subjects. This can be done easily by incorporating vocabulary learning within other subjects.

I really enjoyed some of the stations that we used during class to learn about vocabulary. I think by going through the centers it was easy to see that the main idea behind vocabulary learning is making meaning with the words. Instead of going through rote memorization of learning words, making meaningful connections by drawing pictures, and incorporating other subjects.

Vocabulary Instruction

Learning vocabulary is a constant process and is never finished. Connecting to background knowledge is the best way for me to learn new vocab words. It creating a deeper meaning in my mind and aids me in remembering new terms. While this is the best form of instruction for me, it may not be the best way for others and different approaches for vocabulary instruction is necessary in the classroom. Another way is by repetition. I've noticed that this approach words great when teaching a foreign language. I teach after school Spanish classes and repetition is the best way for students to remember words. Meaningful use is also a great way to used new vocabulary. I strongly believe in the "use it or lose it" philosophy and the students need activities and projects involving the new terms. In my field, the students are encouraged to use their vocabulary words in their writings and become very excited when the find words in their readings.
Since it is a third grade classroom, the are beginning to read more difficult texts and often encounter words that they are unfamiliar with. At the beginning of the year, each student was given their dictionary to keep. When the come across words during whole-group activities that they do not know, the CT designates a "Word Wizard" to look up the word and read the definition to the class. When the come across a word in the dictionary they they really like, they are encouraged to circle the word and somehow use it in their work.

Assessing Fluency and Word Identification

It is very important to assess students in the many aspects of literacy, including word identification and fluency. In order for a student to improve in word identification and fluency, we must know where the student lies along the spectrum. Students may improve their word identification by first learning to say, read, and spell high frequency words. Students may development word identification by having a word wall in the classroom as a resource. This allows them to check for spelling and practice saying and reading the word. As a student develops their identification of words, their fluency will improve as well. To assess students fluency we want to look at their rate, or how quickly they read, automaticity, if they automatically know a word, phrasing, how they chunk their words, and prosody, reading with expression. By improving these four areas while reading, the student will become a more fluent reader!

In general when assessing students in word identification or fluency it is important to keep in mind the student’s background and experiences. Some students may not have been read to ask young children, but still have experiences they’ve gone through to contribute to the class as a whole.

Assessing Fluency

When assessing students in fluency and word identification there are many things to consider. First of all, it is important to think about who the students are as individuals because not every student will be at the same level so the starting point for assessments can be different. Also, assessments need to be completed over a period of time, from the beginning to the end of the year in order to really track the growth of the students. When teachers administer fluency assessments they need to be assess each of the critical parts including word reading accuracy, rate and prosody. One of the best ways to assess students fluency is through oral reading. This helps teachers to hear the students sound out/decode words they may not be familiar with. Teachers can use reading records to record student accuracy when reading and address it with the student so they can see how they are progressing. In assessing that rate of student reading teachers can test how quickly students can identify site words and decode unknown, nonsense words. This can show the teacher the processes that students are going through and how accurately they are able to use strategies for decoding. Recording students so that they can hear themselves read is also a good tool to use. A lot of times what students hear in their heads is different from what others hear. When they hear a recording of themselves they can see where they are making mistakes and they can also see common mistakes that keep happening. The main thing to keep in mind when assessing fluency is that is ongoing and cannot be done once for conclusive evidence of improvement. Teachers need to take the time and put in the effort in order to determine how well their students are progressing.

Fluency and Mini-Lesson

To assess fluency, it is important that you consider the speed of a child's reading as well as their prosody. From timing the child's reading, and listening for inflection and word recognition, these are all important factors in determining a child's current level of fluency. More importantly than merely determining the child's level of fluency is tracking their progress. Students should be improving over time no matter what there level of fluency is. Tracking a student's progress in fluency and word recognition allows you to understand what techniques work and do not work for each individual student.
Using my book club novel which is titled The Breadwinner, the fluency lesson I would create would focus on prosody. This book is at a fourth or fifth grade reading level, and many students in this age group have good word recognition, but need work on improving their prosody. Because there are many characters exchanging dialogue in this novel, I would have the students act out a chapter each in small groups. There are fifteen chapters so not every chapter could be done in front of the class but having one group a week perform a chapter in front of the class would allow the students designated to act out the chapter develop better prosody, and this would also allow the rest of the students watching to get a more dramatic picture of what is happening in the story.

Assessing Fluency/ Lesson Outline

A great way to test word identification is by administering an automaticity assessment to test sight-word recognition. If students struggle at recognizing words and non-words, this means they struggle with word recognition. Having students read aloud is a way assess the students reading fluency. Providing modeling in the classroom is a way to help students struggling with word identification and fluency. Students that excel in these areas can model for other and assist fellow classmates who might be struggling. I personally feel that self-recordings are a great way to help motivate students. I struggled with reading aloud as a child but didn't really understand until I was recorded at home reading a book. I sounded very robotic and there was no flow to my reading. This was enough to motivate me to practice and become less embarrassed about reading in front of people.

"Scorpions"

This book contains a TON of dialog and scene changes. Since there is so many characters and dialog, this would be a great piece to do a mini Readers Theater with. I would treat the text like a plat and assign different roles to different students. I would not suggest using the entire novel because it does involve quite a bit of violence toward the end (i.e the usage of guns) and acting out these particular scenes might not be appropriate for younger students. I would pick a chapter or two with the most character involvement and have students read different roles. This will give them practice all parts of prosody - tempo, rhythm, pitch, and phrasing. As stated before, I would not use the entire novel in this lesson.

Comprehension

After having read the different strategies to improve students’ comprehension, I have been reflecting back on some of my own reading comprehension processes. Similar to what Tompkins writes, I find myself using different strategies such as predicting what will happen next, making connections not only to my own life, but other books and the world, questioning what I have read, as well as evaluating it. Having done these strategies for a long time, I don’t usually think about it consciously while reading. Yet, I look back at some of the reading I’ve done recently for other classes, and I’ve comprehended these readings because of the comprehension strategies I use.

In the field, I see my CT making connections from text to text, and text to self. This helps students make significant meaning of the text, and truly comprehend what was read. She also has been talking a lot about inferred meaning, which requires the students to make predictions, and really question and evaluate what they have read. Also, when my CT is reading with small groups, she is constantly asking questions to check for comprehension. She does many assessments (formal and informal) to assure she knows where her students are at in all aspects of literacy, including comprehension.

Comprehension

There seemed to be similar topics regarding reading comprehension throughout the articles and book chapters that were read for the course. Tompkins chapter 2 and the Neufeld article were very interesting to me. Both of these readings outlined a process that students should be guided through in order to build their reading comprehension. The students start with pre-reading, which is reading the title and headings and applying that information to their prior knowledge. The students then use predicting to help their comprehension level. Teachers also are supposed to encourage students to pick the purpose for why they are reading the text. There are several types of readings that can take place, i.e. guided reading, individual and buddy. Students can organize their thoughts with graphic organizers that match the organization of the text and then they can summarize using varrying styles.

As an adult reader I forgot about almost all of these strategies, and looking at the characteristics of an expert comprehender I don't know that I am all the way there. I rarely read the topic headings while I am reading, let alone before and I rarely make predictions. Sometimes I will think about my prior knowledge when I read a title but that is about the extent to my pre-reading activities. I have noticed that when I am reading a text for an academic reason I take notes on what I think is important but if I am not required to write on a text I don't feel the need to write down information. I have never considered myself good at comprehension, in fact that is the category in which I score the lowest on standardized tests. I do re-read passages if they do not make sense the first time but that is pretty much all I do to monitor my comprehension as I read. I think the biggest sign that I am lacking at my comprehension abilities is the fact that when I am asked to summarize a text that I read, I often have to refer back to the text in order to do so. It wasn't until I read the importance of these strategies for students that I realized I have a lot of work to do myself. I know that many of my teachers exposed me to comprehension strategies but like Neufeld says in his article, merely exposing students to these stragegies is not enough. As teachers, it is our responsibility to show students how to use comprehension strategies as well as why they are important.

In the field I am seeing the teacher putting many of these comprehensions strategies into play. The students are in reading groups and on different days they fill out different worksheets which include pre-reading activities, while reading activies and post reading activities. The students are asked to predict outcomes, list information they already know about the topic and also list what they learned after. There are worksheets for summarizing and reporting back to other students in the classroom. The only criticism that I would have is that most of the students reading comprehension strategies are done through writing and I don't really see them done verbally. I think that students need to be exposed to both types, and the readings also encouraged this, because it helps reach students on a different level. Students that have trouble writing may not have as much trouble verbalizing their ideas. I am impressed though that these activities are happening because I do find myself disapointed at times with other aspects of the classroom.

Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is second nature to me and it is hard to define a particular process. I notice that I seem to comprehend more when I am reading about a topic that I enjoy and take special interest in. I feel this is because I take more time and effort into actually understanding what the text is saying. I tend to space-out and skim texts that I personally find boring and lack interest in. Unfortunately, by doing this I create more work for myself because I have to re-read texts multiple times in order to understand what it is saying. If I am reading a text with many characters and complex plot, I often write down character names with their descriptions and important points in the plot in order to keep everything straight.
When books are read together as a group, I have noticed that my CT and intern work a lot with the pictures in the books. Before the begin, they usually ask the students to predict what the book is about and what they think will happen. They often flip through the book looking at the pictures to see if they can make any other predictions. They also work a lot with summarizing. They will read a story one day, then the students are asked to write a short "re-telling" of what they read. Re-telling are not done the same day as the actual reading because the story is too fresh in their minds. They usually write them a few days later as a way of assessing what they remember. After a little while, the students are allowed to get out with story they read in order to fill in anything they forgot in their re-telling.
Although it is only a 3rd grade class, I would like to see them go into more depth with their comprehension processes. The stages that Tompkins uses for a reading process would be a great benefit for the students. They often pre-read, read, and respond but I have not seen much exploring or applying. As the students become more fluent readers, hopefully these other stages will be used more often.

Reading Comprehension

I feel that as a senior at Michigan State University, my reading comprehension strategies come naturally to me and I do not typically have to work at using them. Once in a while I will notice myself becoming confused with the text I am reading so I will go back and re-read the section, or I will try to summarize a paragraph in my own words to make sure I have understood the text. Especially when reading books for classes, as opposed to reading books for enjoyment, it is very important for me to make sure that I am comprehending what I am reading and throughout my college career I have found various ways to successfully check my reading.

Strategies such as these are just as important for children to use but unless introduced to these strategies, children are unlikely to recognize and utilize them on their own. Modeling is a good way to show children new ideas as far as reading comprehension. Many times however, children will not realize that what you are modeling is something which they should be actively doing while reading to check their comprehension. The teacher can point out various methods which would be beneficial to their students such as making predictions, summarizing, and looking at the story from various viewpoints. Using these reading comprehension strategies in lessons and activities is a good way to show students how they can actively monitor their reading for comprehension.

In the first grade classroom I am working in, I have not seen the variety of reading comprehension strategies used that we have been introduced to in class, but there are a few the teacher tries to impliment regulartly. Many times when the students are reading, the teacher will ask them what they think will happen next. Often, the ideas are far-fetched and do not make much sense based on what the teacher has already read of the story, but she usually directs them to use the clues they have seen in the story to make a more accurate prediction. Also, the teacher asks the students to retell the sequence of events of the story to check their reading comprehension. She will ask the students about what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story and compile their responses as a class. Although more varieties of reading comprehension strategies could be utilized in the classroom, I feel that my CT does a good job of using some of the most important strategies.

Digital Literacy

After taking the digital natives quiz, I realized I am more of an immigrant. This came as quite a surprise as I feel like I can hold my own when it comes to technology. However, there seems to be words, and acronyms for things that I never have heard of. I would definitely see myself as an emergent digital literacy learner, as I am trying to become aware of the technology available with regard to literacy.

Tompkins writes about the different stages of emergent literacy for children. I can see the similarities between these stages, and where I am in terms of digital literacy. I am beginning to explore different digital tools to develop in my digital literacy. While I am fairly new to many of the different tools, I have used some things that I am familiar with to learn these new aspects of digital literacy. Just as the different stages of emergent literacy build upon one another as a student becomes more literate, I am hoping that I am able to become more digital literate, and grasp new concepts that build upon what I know.

Digital Native - Post 5

I was very surprised by the results of the digital natives quiz. When I compare myself to people like my parents, their friends, my aunts and uncles, etc, I would consider myself a digital native. Things such as texting, blogging, and instant messaging are completely foreign to them. This still seems strange to me because I basically grew up with these things in my life. I will admit that technology has come a long way (I still remember dial-up AOL) and I feel that I am still learning how many of these technologies function. When I took the quiz, I immediately was stumped by the first two words. I had never even heard the terms "modding" or "smart mobs". To be honest, I really only knew two of the words we were asked to define. I had heard of many of the terms but did not know exactly what they meant

With my failed quiz in mind, I guess I would still have to consider myself an emergent digital literacy learner. While I have the knowledge of some of digital literacy, it is obvious that I still have a lot to learn. I can now relate this experience to Tompkins description of emergent literacy for children. While we would like literacy to happen immediately and all at once, it does not work like that. It is a process that take a lot time and is a gradual process.

Am I a Digital Native?

Since I can remember, my family has always had a computer in our house. I always fought with my brothers about who got to use it first and for how long. Along with having a computer we also had video game systems that we played often. Although I was pretty young, I cannot remember life without computers or the internet for that matter. For this reason I would consider myself a digital native.

When I took the digital native quiz, I knew almost every term that was presented. Although there were some that I was unfamiliar with, I am sure in the near future I will have some type of exposure to them. It seems as though there is always something new coming out so it is very difficult for anyone to know every type of technology that is available at any given time.

In class we discussed emergent literacy and what it means for students. From the book and discussion I would word emergent literacy as the processes students go through in discovering new information. In terms of my own digital literacy I would say that I go through an emergent stage with each new technology I come in contact with. I usually have to mess around with a new technology when I first encounter it. Just at the Tompkins book discusses students scribbling as a stage of emergent literacy, my random clicking on different buttons of new technologies is my form of scribbling (pg 91-92). As I become more familiar with the devises of the technology I am able to navigate myself around to get the most out of the technology. This is similar to the way students move from emergent to beginning and eventually fluent literacy. It is a discovery process and builds with exposure and experience. With new technologies there are also tutorials and help tools that help the process, much like the role that teachers and even parents can play for students in emergent literacy. For example, Tompkins lists instructional methods for emergent literacy as having students manipulate sounds and encouraging children to make text-to-self connections (pg. 97) These types of instructional methods can also be reworded to characterize the methods used to move through emergent digital literacy. Students need to manipulate the tools of the technology to get a feel of how they function and they also need the encouragement to connect the information to what they already know. Digital literacy is a process, just like any other type of literacy and it is something that students need to develop on their own with encouragement and guidance.

Talk in the Classroom

On different occasions I have seen various types of talk happening in the classroom. For the most part the students and teacher engage in recitation in which most of the talking is done by the teacher with occasional input from students when prompted. The students in the classroom are very free to talk and I think good discussions could take place if given the opportunity. However, in order to do so ground rules would have to be established because sometimes the students have trouble respecting each others ideas. This could be a reason discussion is not used as much but I think teachers should try to push through these problems. As we read, discussions can have a huge impact on struggling readers by giving them an outlet to share their ideas without the anxiety they may normally feel.

I have actually seen the teacher incorporate response-centered talk in the classroom through centers. In their reading centers the students fill out various worksheets that get them thinking about the text. They practice predicting outcomes as well as pose questions that they find intriguing about the text. The teacher had to set these processes up in order for the students to carry them out properly. They practiced first as a class, then as small groups, and finally as individuals. I think that this is the type of scaffolding that is needed. Teachers hoping to use response centered talk need to model the type of thinking to the class so that they gain the comfort to do it on their own. In the classroom I am in, there are some students that need extra prompting from the teacher. However, usually she just needs to give them a couple ideas to build off of and be there for their questions when they have them. It is hard to keep some of these students on task so you have to be there to push them when they start to doubt themselves and give up.

Discussion Post 4

One type of talk that I have noticed in my classroom is teacher-guided reporting. Many of the students have great ideas and want to share things with the class but often have trouble articulating their thoughts correctly. The often use vague terms like "it" and "this". If a student is addressing the whole class, the teacher tries to have the students use more specific terms. Unfortunately, I think that the teacher often guides the students thinking a little too much. She hints at what the right answer is and gives the notion that their answer isn't completely right. She will say things like "hmm..well I think you mean is this...." When in fact her interpretation is not what the child was saying. I think she is trying to save students from embarrassment because their answer is incorrect. The students often realize their mistakes and then simply agrees with her so they can sit down. The example in the book of teacher guided reporting is excellent, but doesn't always go like that. Questioning, commenting, and encouraging take time and many teachers do not take the time to do this type of talk properly in order for students to gain what should from it.

Response-centered talk is incredibly important to literacy development and there is evidence of this type of talk in the classroom. The students are divided up into "literacy groups" and each group does a different activity. For one activity, the teacher reads a book to the group and then do an activity related to the text. For example, the write a letter to the author asking questions about the book and then share the letters with each other to find similarities and differences in their questioning. The book being read are often about important issues such as civil rights, racism, equality, etc. They students often talk about what they learned from the book and what else they want to know. The teacher is there to help facilitate discussion when there is a lull in interaction. There are some students in the classroom that need encouraging when it come to group discussions. If the teacher does not call on the specifically, they often do not participate. The teacher will then ask, "well, what do you think?" or "Do you agree or disagree". Since the group is small and not too intimidating, this is usually enough to jump-start their thinking.

Diversity Post 3

Growing up, I did not have exposure to much diversity in my school. Everyone in my town is basically the same: white, middle-class families. When I went off to MSU, it was a bit of a culture shock. There was more diversity on the floor of my dorm then my entire town back home. Although it took some getting used to, I have been so greatful to be exposed to so many different cultures.

I have worked a lot at Red Cedar Elementary and the diversity within the school is nothing short of amazing. The fact that here are students from over 25 different countries in one elementary school completely blows my mind. The flags of these countries are displayed around the school and there is a great sense of pride for backgrounds. This school has made me realize how important it is for children to learn about diversity and accept it at an early age.

Since I do not know they type of school I will be in, it is difficult to say how I will incorporate the students' diversity in the classroom. If I am placed in a school similar to the one I grew up in, displaying the flags of their native countries would not really be effective. Every student has a family history so having the students tell their family history and being in a food dish or traditional piece of clothing from a country that their ancestors came from could show the students how diverse they actually are. This would show that there is diversity among all students. In class, Debbie told us how she felt excluded from the class because she did not speak English and could not communicate with her classmates. If this situation arose in my classroom, I would have made a point to tell my students about Brazil and give the students a change to ask questions.

Discussion Blog

Recitation is used in most of our class talks. The teacher talks for most of the time and introduces most of the new ideas and asks questions and opinions of the children from time to time, but the children are never allowed to converse freely with one another as in a true discussion setting. I do feel that our CT could give the children more opportunities to voice their opinions and suggest new ideas but I understand that a true discussion would be difficult to successfully use in a first grade classroom. Children get off-task quickly and often speak out over others. I think that in order to allow a discussion to happen the CT would first have to give examples, maybe with Erika, her, and I, as well as explain the rules of a discussion to the children. I also think that having a ball for the children to roll around designating the person who is talking would help control the chatter among the students and increase motivation for participation.

Discussion Blog

In my second grade classroom, I mostly see recitation type talk between the students and the teacher. She has done some discussion though, especially in science lessons. I think my CT is working up to having a discussion by setting and practicing norms with the students. They participate in class generally by raising their hand and getting called on. My CT does a nice job of reminding the students to listen to the speaker and they actually have to apologize if they are rude and blurt out while someone is talking. Having norms for discussion based class is vital, and work for when the students are having a scientific discussion. My CT generally stays out of leading the discussion, and allows students to ask questions to each other and state their opinion.

Like Goldenberg and Weinstein writes, my CT does have a purpose or goal she hopes to accomplish when she does hold a discussion. She also does a nice job of not facilitating the discussion. Yet, she still sits in front of the students and the students haven’t quite mastered holding a discussion just between them, so they still rely on my CT sometimes.

While my CT does do a lot of recitation type talks, she does a nice job of not doing the typical ask a question, get a response, and evaluate the response. She asks students deeper questions about how they feel about a particular book, or what they think about their social studies topics. Since the students are fairly young, my CT does need to support them, and cannot expect them to be able to handle a discussion. Some students need particular types of scaffolding in my classroom because they may not be able to focus on the direction of a discussion type talk. In this case, my CT will assist them by reminding what has been said, or repeating her question.

Diversity Blog

Diversity is a wonderful tool that you can use in your classroom when it is present. With multiple perspectives present in your classroom, children are able to share their diverse experiences and bring new ideas forward to their fellow classmates. In many urban areas, the presence of diversity is assumed, while in more rural or suburban areas, the lack of diversity is assumed, but it is important to asses the diversity of your classroom yourself before jumping to conclusions. There are many activities and exercises you can guide your students through in order to figure out the levels and types of diversity in your classroom. You could have your students write an autobiography, a poem about themselves, or you could have them simply fill out a survey. In many situations, it would be appropriate to have your students share their final works with their classmates. This gives children a chance to express who they are, and discover who their classmates are. These types of activities can boost the confidence of children, and set the foundation for a deeply rooted classroom community.

Once you have discovered the types and levels of diversity in your classroom, you can cater your lessons to take advantage of this diversity. For example, if you know one of your students speaks Spanish, you can encourage him or her to help you in pronouncing Spanish words that might come up in literature, or when discussing certain holidays. You can also ask students to share their unique experiences regarding various aspects of life that other students may not have had as much experience with. Students can learn a great deal from each other, and tapping into your classroom diversity will only allow you to encourage student-to-student teaching.

Getting to Know the Diversity

I think it is extremely important for teachers to get to know their students deeper than a surface level. It is not only beneficial for teachers to know what level their students are at when they enter the classroom but it is also important for teachers to understand where their students come from and how their backgrounds impact their education. I feel that sometimes it can be difficult for students to open up to teachers because as adults we can be intimidating. I really liked that Lenksi et. al recognized the importance of group interaction and assessment. Students tend to feel more comfortable when they are with their peers and friends who they feel comfortable with rather than when they are on their own. For this reason I think it would be interesting to have my students interview each other to find out about their family background. This would allow for the students to get to know each other first and then report back to to class which would give them a sense of responsibility.

I think it would also be beneficial to for the students to write a brief essay (length depending on the grade level) about their family and traditions they do at home. As the Wheeler and Swords article pointed out, it is important for students to feel like their cultures, no matter what they are, are important and deserve recognition and respect. The essay would give the students a chance to share what is most special about their lives and it would also give the teacher insight into where they students were in terms of their writing ability. One activity that I have always wanted my students to take part in is to make a classroom cookbook. I would ask all of the students to bring in their favorite family recipe and have them share with the class where it came from and why they thought it was important. After, I would compile all of the recipes and make a book which I would copy and distribute to each student. This is a unique way for students to share about their family and their culture and one that I think they could have fun with.

I think that the more ways a teacher is able to incorporate the many differences of their students into the classroom, the more comfortable students are going to feel and the more the students will learn to respect each other and their cultural differences. Students need to have fun with activities like this or it could ruin the purpose.

Diversity Noteblog

I am really excited to learn about my future students. I think it is really important as a teacher to know your students, not only academically, but their cultural, social background as well. As we have discussed in class, teachers need to be assessing their students, and know what levels they’re at. This can be daunting, because that may mean finding a way to challenge all students whether they are low, medium, or high achievers. There can be such diversity in what students know. However, students also come to the classroom with their own unique backgrounds. Learning about the diversity of your students can help create a safe, welcoming learning environment which is vital. Lenske, et. al. discusses ways to evaluate English Language Learners, mentioning that whenever they are assessed, they are not only being assessed on the material, but also the English language. Also, Lenske writes that when assessing ELLs it should be on what they know, and are able to do, not what they don’t know or what they cannot do. I think this applies to all students. Focusing on what they are able to accomplish can give you a clue as to where their next assignments should be. Also, it gives the teacher something positive to tell the student. Other ways to learn about diversity in the classroom is to do predictability logs by speaking with relatives, past teachers, and the student herself.

Students may find a lot they have in common, but what will make a diverse classroom so great are the differences that each student brings. Acknowledging the differences and realizing that everyone comes from different backgrounds and has different ideas to share can be good for students. Celebrating our uniqueness is something I plan to do in my classroom.

General feelings

I have really enjoyed reading your posts thus far. I have noticed some overlapping ideas in regards to your feelings about what is literacy and how it affects you and your future classroom. The idea that literacy is a changing view and not stagnant is important to remember. Literacy is always changing and adapting to the world.
I would strongly suggest commenting back and forth with each other within the blog. Get some discussion moving within the ideas we have discussed in class and you have written in your blog. Communication is a valuable tool for furthering our learning and understanding.
Keep up the wonderful insights and comments. Push yourself to discover new insights about your own learning. Make sure you are submitting your blogs on time and keeping up to date.
Remember from time to time I will comment but I will always be reading your blogs.

Literacy - Post 2

Coming up with one single definition of literacy is not an easy task. Growing up, I had always thought of literacy as the ability to read and write. As I got older, I have realized this it is much more than that. I think of literacy as any for of communication (reading, writing, speaking, etc) and connecting with and understanding this communication. Through this course so far, I have realized that not everyone has the same definition for literacy and someone's definition always seems to be changing. This course has started to show me that literacy includes questioning, reflecting, connecting, and critiquing pieces of literature. It involved analyzing and thinking deeper about given texts.

I feel that literacy is a continual process. For example, my mom is very technologically illiterate. She has a cell phone, but does not really know how to use it. She can dial a number and answer a phone call, but that is the extent of her knowledge (the idea of texting still confuses her). My parents own a computer but she has never touched it and does not even have the desire to learn how it works. She could become literate in this for of communication but simply chooses not to.

My idea literacy learning environment would be comfortable and welcoming to the students. I have been in countless classrooms where the students do not seem comfortable with their surroundings and it is reflected in their school performance. The students need to feel comfortable in order to have the want to learn. There would need to be a wide variety of materials for the students to use in order to focus in on different aspects of literacy and appeal to a variety of students' interests. Trying to get students to read articles or stories about subject that are not interested in can often make them unmotivated to learn. Once I get my own classroom and have the ability to try different things, I'm sure my ideas of an ideal learning environment will change.

Literacy: What is it?

I would define literacy as the all-inclusive performance and understanding of language. Literacy does not only apply to reading and writing, although this is how literacy has often been presented to us. However, literacy encompasses so much more. There is the oral part of literacy, that is being able to hear the sounds of language and understand them. Speaking is also an aspect of oral literacy. I think in the past literacy has been seen as specific to reading and writing because the complexity of the two actions were not considered. To be able to read and write requires a person to hear the language in their head. They have to recognize letters of the alphabet and how those letters sound when they are put in different combinations. Reading and writing includes oral language, however sometimes the oral aspect is hidden.

My definition hasn't changed much from how I originally viewed literacy. The readings and our class discussions outlined the idea that there is more to literacy than many give credit. In class, each of our groups pointed out that literacy included all aspects of language and this is something I have thought for a couple years. It was my instruction in TESOL that lead me to this understanding of literacy because we focused so much on how students learn and use a language. However, one thing that I can say is that through our exploration on the subject of literacy I have come to realize the importance of the oral aspects to native English speakers. Before I overlooked this aspect and thought it important to only ELL students but now I see that it is important for any student learning how to read and write.

In a perfect world students would have hundreds of books at all different reading levels to help them improve their reading skills. They would also writing booklets and journals to keep tract of their writings, even if it is a couple sentences. I would like my students to have an opportunity to communicate about literacy with their peers. It shouldn't be just teachers and students interacting but students should be interacting with each other. In my class I would hope that you would see groups of students engaging in book talks, writing stories and sharing with each other, using computers to make writing drafts more professional. Book talks are important because each student reads in different ways. There is not one way to read a book and I think it is important for students to realize this. Also, an important part of literacy is to be able to articulate ideas to other people. This is why it is important for students to share their work with peers because they need to be able to write so that others can comprehend the ideas they want to share. It is also important for students to have the opportunity to type their written work so that they can feel their writing contributions are important. Especially in the technology age that we are in, students need to be literate with computers because of the huge role technology will play in their future education experiences.

Week 2 - Definiton of Literacy

I would define literacy as the subject concerning the deciphering of symbols (letters, words, and pictures) to infer meaning. Literacy is about more than just reading and writing, but is about applying what you already know to make meaning of what you are reading and to imply meanings in your writings. Teaching literacy also goes beyond teaching students to read and write. To be a competent educator in the field of literacy, you must be able to choose appropriate texts that are at the reading level and of interest to the student at hand. When teaching literacy you must also be able to show children how they can critically analyze texts.

My definition of literacy has changed since I have started this class as I had never before had to define the word in a literal sense. Once I began to visualize how I see literacy in a classroom, my definition began to change. I realized that one of the important aspects of literacy that I see personally is the ciritical aspect. I believe it is very important to show children how to pick apart and analyze texts when they are reading. This allows children to understand the different aspects of a story, so when they begin developing and writing their own stories, they can understand the inner-workings of a text. I also think it is very important for teachers to critically think about the text which they choose to introduce to their students. In the class reading about the teacher who was introducing culturally diverse texts in her classroom I saw various advantages of this method which I found potentially helpful in the classroom I am currently observing.

In my ideal literacy environment, I envision a collaborative group of students, reading various texts as a class and individually, each contributing to each other's understandings of the texts at hand. I like having texts which the class reads as a whole because it allows students to respond with perspectives that others may have not realized. I also would want children to read books individually based on their own reading levels and interests to create an atmosphere where children are excited to read and intrigued to share their findings and realizations with others. I would also like to encourage writing on a daily basis, covering many genres. I firmly believe that the best way to improve children's writing abilities is to give them opportunities to exercise and revise their skills as often as possible.

Noteblog 2

Literacy is the basis of every subject, it includes reading, writing, speaking, listening, and everything that encompasses those things (comprehension, sound-letter knowledge, etc.) and how each of these aspects relate to the society in which we live. After today’s discussion, I have come to realize that it is really hard to come up with one single definition that includes all aspects of literacy. Also, literacy and everything it includes is always changing.

I think an ideal literacy learning environment must first start with an overall peaceful, safe, welcoming classroom atmosphere. Only then can students feel comfortable to share their thoughts, ideas, and questions. Also, students should be surrounded by literacy throughout the day. This means they should be reading and writing everyday, and as well as speaking, and listening to other’s speak. Students should feel comfortable, yet challenged. This requires the teacher to truly know her students, and be able to assign level appropriate material.

Course Goals

As a Language Arts major I have spent a lot of time in various literature based courses as well as courses on Language Learning. I am also working on an endorsement in TESOL so I have an understanding of the difficulties of the English language that many native speakers do not notice. Through these experience I have gained an appreciation for diverse literature as well as the challenges language learning.

One thing that I have thought about as I approach this semester and the anticipated teaching of literacy, is the impact that literacy has on the lives of students. Literacy is the basis for every other subject. When students struggle with literacy, it can weaken their achievement in other subject areas. Not only is literacy a crucial component of education but it is also an area where students are at vastly different levels. What concerns me about entering this course is how I am going to adapt literacy lessons to students in my fourth grade class that cover reading levels from below kindergarten to middle school.

In thinking about an urban setting I am reminded about the role that dialect plays in English. I have to be understanding of the fact that the way students learn a language at home may be quite different than the way they are expected to use language in the classroom. Exposure to language is an important factor on how students learn a language and it is often difficult for them to replace internalized habits. This is something I can potentially see as a challenge for me as a teacher in an urban setting but I know that the key to succeeding through the challenge is patience and perseverance.

My hope is that this course will provide me with the tools to create diverse and entertaining lessons in literacy and language arts. I want language arts to be fun for students but also to be portrayed as a major importance in their education. I have ideas for language arts lesson already in my head, however I hope this course will help me develop ways to adapt those lessons to meet the needs of all of the students in my classroom without taking away from the goal of what the lessons were created to accomplish. I really hope that I will find new and innovative ways to present language arts to students of various backgrounds.

Noteblog 1

As an Integrated Science teaching major, there are certain aspects of literacy (specifically teaching it) that I am hoping to learn through this course. Taking TE 301 made me realize that even though Science may be my favorite subject, I am still required to teach other subjects, and how important literacy is to learners. As I prepare to teach in an urban setting, I can only hope that I have the knowledge and skill to successfully accomplish literacy in my classroom. Knowing the umpteen statistics that are out there regarding literacy rates with children will gear my attentiveness to literacy instruction. Throughout this course I hope to gain the skills necessary to improve the reading scores of behind readers, increase my student’s writing abilities, and doing all of this in a safe and welcoming learning environment. I look forward to learning about how to motivate my students to be excited about reading and writing, and to become life-long learners. I know of assessments that can be given to children in the various areas of literacy, and hopefully through TE 402 I can learn how to use the information gained from assessments to make the best teaching decisions for each of my students.

I want to bloom into a teacher that truly cares and has respect for each student in the class. I want my students to know that in my class is where they can feel safe, and can grow into successful learners. I also want to bloom into a teacher who can be excited about teaching reading and writing and can then, in turn, get my students excited about these topics. I want to become aware of more pieces of literature to use in my classroom and ways to affectively teach these pieces of literature.

Goals for the Course

Written language and spoken language are the basis education and is necessary for all subject areas. Because of this, I have taken a special interest in Language Arts and have made it my concentration within the my teaching major. When I was a student, I never realized the importance of literacy and the subject of language arts. With this realization came a greater appreciation for the subject. I hope to instill a passion for language arts in my students and hopefully this call will prepare me to do so.

Not all students learn the same way and I think that it is incredibly important for teachers to present information in a variety of way to include all learners. I hope to learn different ways of discussing and teaching language arts to my students. I want to be able to present the topic in exciting ways and get children excited about language arts and different kinds of literature.

I have not had much experience in the classroom with literacy and hope to learn different teaching techniques. Most of the work I have done has been with individual students working on worksheets or mini-projects. I have not witness nor participated in many classroom literacy lessons and am eager to see how my CT leads classroom lessons. Personally, I consider the spoken language a part of language arts and working in an urban setting has confirmed my beliefs. The students speak to one another in a way that I was not used to. They is a lot of slang and nicknames that I have never heard before (and to be honest, I sometimes do not really know what they are talking about). This class will hopefully allow me to adjust to linguistic and cultural differences.

Week 1 Noteblog

I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge this semester regarding literacy instruction. I feel that in an elementary classroom this is one of the most important subjects for children to master as literacy is involved in nearly every aspect of classroom learning. Competent reading skills become necessary for children to succeed in other subject areas such as math, science, and social studies. Throughout the semester I hope to learn various methods of literacy instruction and practice those methods while in the classroom. Because reading comes so easy to most adults, it can sometimes be difficult to trace the process back in order to describe to children something as simple as sounding out a word but it is my goal to master this teaching process.

I have had some previous experience with teaching children how to read in an urban setting through the program Read to Succeed. For a semester I would go to an after-school program set up in a church in downtown Lansing to tutor children with a focus on literacy instruction. Most of the children that I tutored were in upper elementary and knew how to read fairly well so we focused mostly on comprehension. As far as comprehension went I found that the most important factor to the children's understanding was their interest in the book. I see this factor play a role as well in the first grade classroom I am in now, however the focus is not on comprehension but simply reading and sounding out words. When guiding the literacy center that allows the children to read whichever book they like I typically spend a great deal of time choosing books for children who seem to be struggling with the one they have chosen based on their interests and reading level. The children are learning phonics to aid in their learning, and I would like to be able to reference back to what they are learning in class to help them when they are sounding out words. This is one of my major goals for the semester. I am also looking forward to learning and implementing various methods of literacy instruction.