As I write this blog on Thursday afternoon, I have just finished reviewing your blog entries so far. I appreciate those blogs which really took to heart the criteria for good discussions. I am seeing quite a bit more give and take in the discussions as opposed to serial monologues. I'll revisit the blogs tomorrow morning and add a comment or two at the end of this blog. Remember that unless the readings are jigsawed, you don't need to summarize what you read, but discuss the prompts that I include in this blog and key ideas that you are taking away from the readings related to the topic. I'll be more intentional in this blog about some questions for you to discuss as well as listing key terminology to include in your discussion. I'll also give directions for your small group discussions this week or in week 8.
This week you are beginning to read in depth about teaching and learning oral language and vocabulary. Before you read, respond to these questions: What kind of vocabulary instruction did you have as a learner growing up? Did that method help you increase your store of complex vocabulary? Why or Why not?
All of you will be reading 3 chapters in the S&H book that focus on effective vocabulary learning and teaching and offer a framework for teaching. In addition, the Certification groups will be reading about the systems of language while the Teacher groups will have another view of choosing vocabulary and an instructional sequence. All of you will need to use the following terms in your discussion: intentionality, implicit vs. explicit instruction, incidental exposure, extended instruction, language rich environment, clarify, revoice, affirm, low priority vs. high priority words, Tier1,2,and 3 words, taxinomically related words, word difficulty, word awareness, word learning strategies, analytic talk, Universal Design for Learning, Response to Intervention.
Certification Groups: Please discuss the following: Why is it important to support children's learning of all of the systems of language (pragmatic, syntactic, semantic, morphemic, orthographic, graphophonemic)? How might the principles of effective vocabulary instruction translate to other aspects of literacy? What do each of you think is key to thinking about planning for instruction for children to learn new words? What is important to each of you in thinking about supporting language and vocabulary? How does this relate to support children's speaking and listening skills?
Teacher Groups: Please discuss the following: Which of the principles of effective vocabulary instruction is a strong point for you? A weak point? How does your vocabulary instruction compare to the information in the 2 chapters and the article that you read? What advice from the readings would you give our certification seeking colleagues in class in terms of where to start first or what to prioritize related to what you read about? Why?
Remember, you need to complete the Virtual Check In (link in Canvas) this week again. Please complete it by Thursday evening so I can review it on Friday and respond to questions either in my blog or to each of you separately. You also need to upload your Exploration Project to
Canvas. It is due on Saturday, March 4 by 11:59 pm.
Small group discussions: You have a couple of tasks for this meeting: Teacher groups need to share their Assessment task 2 for peer review. As you read each others descriptions, think about being a novice teacher and make sure that they descriptions of what and how to do the activity and how to use it to let you know how children are progressing are clear and comprehensive. Certification groups should share progress and questions with each other on your case studies.
In addition, you have another task as well. We will begin to compile lists with short descriptions of teaching strategies and tips for novice teachers to include in the iBook. This week, Karen's group is meeting on Feb. 27 so their task is to 1)set up the google doc for oral language and vocabulary and 2) compile tips for choosing words to teach and tips for effective instruction. The rest of the groups: I'll have your assignments up in next week's blog.
As always, let me know if you have questions or want me to weigh in on your blog discussion. Also, let me know about joining your group discussion....Karen's group--I have set up the discussion in Canvas so you might want to see if you can get in and practice. I'll try to get a link to videos on how to participate in the Big Blue Button on Canvas on Sunday.
Have a good week.
Friday, February 24, 2017
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Week 6 Spring 2017 Effective Teaching for Learning, Diversity, and Families
I'll be introducing the topics for this week's reading in class so no need to reiterate them here. If you are opening the blog before class on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 1 pm, you can close it up until after class as your responses really are more tied to what went on in class. The class notes will have how to break up the readings for this coming week as well as things to think and blog about.
We will spend class talking about text complexity and readability as well as working on assessments and planning for the next few weeks.
For this blog,
1) Identify 3 key ideas you learned in class on Feb. 18. Why are they key to you and how will they impact your practice (present or future)?
2) Tell me which jigsawed readings you are going to be reading and teaching your blog group about.
Thanks, and have a good week. I'm looking forward to "seeing" you in the blogoshpere and on the internet in your groups over the next few weeks before Spring Break.
We will spend class talking about text complexity and readability as well as working on assessments and planning for the next few weeks.
For this blog,
1) Identify 3 key ideas you learned in class on Feb. 18. Why are they key to you and how will they impact your practice (present or future)?
2) Tell me which jigsawed readings you are going to be reading and teaching your blog group about.
Thanks, and have a good week. I'm looking forward to "seeing" you in the blogoshpere and on the internet in your groups over the next few weeks before Spring Break.
Friday, February 10, 2017
Week 5 Spring 2017 Assessing for instruction
As you have all noted in your blogs, assessment is a key component in a classroom to determine what children know and what they still need to know. Note that I begin with discussing how assessments help you understand what a child knows instead of first targeting the deficits. I think that is key in thinking about the purpose of assessment. I do want to distinguish between assessment and evaluation, a question I asked you to address in my blog last week. Assessment is merely the data that you collect to find out what a learner knows or is struggling with. It could include formal tests, published instruments, informal observations, information from work completed as part of learning activities, checklists and anecdotal notes, to name but a few. Evaluation, on the other hand, is the quality judgement that a teacher makes about the learning. It is based on all of the data (or assessments). In your graduate classes, evaluation is the points that you receive on a project or the grade on a test or class while assessment data include your blog posts and responses, emails you send me with questions, drafts of projects, my observations of your discussions in the face to face classes, the class activities you complete on Google drive.
This week you will be reading about particular assessment activities you can do for oral language/vocabulary, comprehension, and word recognition as well a framework for writing instruction that includes assessment as a key component. You will also be reading about determining independent, instructional and frustration levels for children reading particular texts. What do YOU think makes a text hard or easy for a reader? Can a child be reading at independent level on one text and frustration level on another? What is readability?
Certification groups: As you read, begin to make lists of assessments that are described in the readings for this week and from this past week as well. Think about the age level of the child you might use them with. Blog about the pros and cons of the different assessments for different populations of children and which might work for which grade levels and why. Make connections with the levels article as well as with the readings you have done about developmental levels.
Teacher groups: I'd also like you to blog about the pros and cons of the different assessments that you read about. Think also about the issue of readability and the issues inherent in independent, instructional, and frustration levels and how they might impact or play into the ideas about differentiated reading interventions that you read about in the Jones et. al. article.
All Groups: Here are some key terms that I'd like you to use in your blog discussions: independent reading level, instructional reading level, frustration reading level, readability, text complexity, challenging text, reader-text match, receptive and expressive language, norm-referenced vs. criterion referenced assessment.
Finally, We will be on Saturday, Feb. 18 from 1-5 pm. I'll be working with both groups on their assessment projects in class as well as taking a look at what you have begun to collect for your exploration project so note that either a list of articles or a book or a plan for examining your own instruction should be with you in class. I'll conference with everyone individually. We will also be doing an activity to help you think about text complexity and readability. Let me know if you have questions.
Have a good week and I"ll see you on Feb. 18! 👧💻📓📕🕐
This week you will be reading about particular assessment activities you can do for oral language/vocabulary, comprehension, and word recognition as well a framework for writing instruction that includes assessment as a key component. You will also be reading about determining independent, instructional and frustration levels for children reading particular texts. What do YOU think makes a text hard or easy for a reader? Can a child be reading at independent level on one text and frustration level on another? What is readability?
Certification groups: As you read, begin to make lists of assessments that are described in the readings for this week and from this past week as well. Think about the age level of the child you might use them with. Blog about the pros and cons of the different assessments for different populations of children and which might work for which grade levels and why. Make connections with the levels article as well as with the readings you have done about developmental levels.
Teacher groups: I'd also like you to blog about the pros and cons of the different assessments that you read about. Think also about the issue of readability and the issues inherent in independent, instructional, and frustration levels and how they might impact or play into the ideas about differentiated reading interventions that you read about in the Jones et. al. article.
All Groups: Here are some key terms that I'd like you to use in your blog discussions: independent reading level, instructional reading level, frustration reading level, readability, text complexity, challenging text, reader-text match, receptive and expressive language, norm-referenced vs. criterion referenced assessment.
Finally, We will be on Saturday, Feb. 18 from 1-5 pm. I'll be working with both groups on their assessment projects in class as well as taking a look at what you have begun to collect for your exploration project so note that either a list of articles or a book or a plan for examining your own instruction should be with you in class. I'll conference with everyone individually. We will also be doing an activity to help you think about text complexity and readability. Let me know if you have questions.
Have a good week and I"ll see you on Feb. 18! 👧💻📓📕🕐
Friday, February 3, 2017
Week 4 Spring 2017 Literacy Development and Assessment, Intervention Decisions
I appreciate the thoughtful discussions on the blogs, and the use of the key concepts as well. Remember to respond to the questions of the blog leader, but also to hit reply to each other to comment and help each other to interpret what you are reading.
This week we are looking at the role of assessment in literacy development, what it is that needs to be assessed and what that means for understanding what children know or what they use and confuse. "Use and confuse" are skills and strategies, both constrained and unconstrained, that children are trying out as they are learning but over which they do not yet have mastery. Invented spellings demonstrate phonic elements and spelling patterns that children use but confuse with other patterns or elements, so they don't have them mastered to automaticity. You have read about key aspects of literacy skills and strategies that learners must develop on the way to proficiency, but there are others that are not considered part of the big 5 essential elements of reading nor part of writing. From your own experiences, either as a teacher or as a learner, what else do you think is important to consider and support in readers and writers that will help them become strong readers and writers? Why is assessment important to literacy development? What do you think assessment is and how is it different from evaluation? Use your background knowledge as you respond to these questions.
Certification Group: You will be reading an article about other aspects of learning that are key to becoming literate as well as articles about types of assessment, formative assessment and a specific early literacy assessment that can be used with preschool and kindergarten children to assess their emergent literacy skills. Here are some key concepts to look for and understand as you read: metacognition, engaged, motivation, epistemic beliefs, self-efficacy, formative feedback, assessment, outcome measures, screening measures, diagnostic measures,progress monitoring, formative and summative assessment, feedback loop, self assessment, goal setting, concept vs. skills vs. strategies, concept of word. Use these terms in your blog discussions about this week's topic. Be sure to address key ideas from the readings, including perhaps, discussing what each of you took away from each reading and what you think that means for supporting literacy development.
Teacher Group: You also will be reading about other aspects of learning that are key to becoming literate, but you will also be reading in Clay about the importance of children's attention to visual cues and what self corrections tell you about a child's literacy development. Your terms to use in your blog include: metacognition, engaged, motivation, epistemic beliefs, self-efficacy, formative feedback, visual perception, auditory perception, self-correction, concept of word, input/processing/output, units of the code, attention to print, executive control, problem-solving strategies. Use these terms in your blog. I'd also like you to think about and blog about what you think the readings mean for making decisions about choosing to intervene with a child and what an intervention might look like in terms of your teaching. What does assessment have to do with those decisions and what might assessment tell you about literacy development.
Finally, everyone needs to let me know if you would like for me to set up a small group meeting via Adobe Connect for your blog group to talk about concepts so far and how your blog group is working. You can do that in your response here or send me a separate email. You don't need to download anything to use Adobe connect, you just have to have the URL that I"ll send you for the meeting. I"ll also upload a short video to Canvas that shows how to log in once you have the meeting invitation with the URL. If you indicated that you would like to chat with me on the VCI, I'll be contacting you to set up a time to chat on Skype.
Have a good week!
This week we are looking at the role of assessment in literacy development, what it is that needs to be assessed and what that means for understanding what children know or what they use and confuse. "Use and confuse" are skills and strategies, both constrained and unconstrained, that children are trying out as they are learning but over which they do not yet have mastery. Invented spellings demonstrate phonic elements and spelling patterns that children use but confuse with other patterns or elements, so they don't have them mastered to automaticity. You have read about key aspects of literacy skills and strategies that learners must develop on the way to proficiency, but there are others that are not considered part of the big 5 essential elements of reading nor part of writing. From your own experiences, either as a teacher or as a learner, what else do you think is important to consider and support in readers and writers that will help them become strong readers and writers? Why is assessment important to literacy development? What do you think assessment is and how is it different from evaluation? Use your background knowledge as you respond to these questions.
Certification Group: You will be reading an article about other aspects of learning that are key to becoming literate as well as articles about types of assessment, formative assessment and a specific early literacy assessment that can be used with preschool and kindergarten children to assess their emergent literacy skills. Here are some key concepts to look for and understand as you read: metacognition, engaged, motivation, epistemic beliefs, self-efficacy, formative feedback, assessment, outcome measures, screening measures, diagnostic measures,progress monitoring, formative and summative assessment, feedback loop, self assessment, goal setting, concept vs. skills vs. strategies, concept of word. Use these terms in your blog discussions about this week's topic. Be sure to address key ideas from the readings, including perhaps, discussing what each of you took away from each reading and what you think that means for supporting literacy development.
Teacher Group: You also will be reading about other aspects of learning that are key to becoming literate, but you will also be reading in Clay about the importance of children's attention to visual cues and what self corrections tell you about a child's literacy development. Your terms to use in your blog include: metacognition, engaged, motivation, epistemic beliefs, self-efficacy, formative feedback, visual perception, auditory perception, self-correction, concept of word, input/processing/output, units of the code, attention to print, executive control, problem-solving strategies. Use these terms in your blog. I'd also like you to think about and blog about what you think the readings mean for making decisions about choosing to intervene with a child and what an intervention might look like in terms of your teaching. What does assessment have to do with those decisions and what might assessment tell you about literacy development.
Finally, everyone needs to let me know if you would like for me to set up a small group meeting via Adobe Connect for your blog group to talk about concepts so far and how your blog group is working. You can do that in your response here or send me a separate email. You don't need to download anything to use Adobe connect, you just have to have the URL that I"ll send you for the meeting. I"ll also upload a short video to Canvas that shows how to log in once you have the meeting invitation with the URL. If you indicated that you would like to chat with me on the VCI, I'll be contacting you to set up a time to chat on Skype.
Have a good week!
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