Week 14 Reading and writing in different contexts 3: Home/family, school

We are winding up this groups of readings on sociocultural aspects of emergent and beginning literacy as well as winding up the semester!  Time seems to just be flying by! 

There are 3 major topics or groups of readings for this week (and I'll be assigning groups to each set of readings so you don't have to read 10 chapters). The first group of readings is about involving families in literacy learning, whether bridging home and school environments, supporting learning in homes, or understanding how to include families whose first language is not English. Tabitha came to my class of preservice teachers this past Tuesday to present her research on supporting English Language Learners in early childhood classes and included some ideas for them related to bridging home and school and making sure they are included.  The chapters for this topic include V&F 4, S&H 9, and B&M 1. 

The second group of readings is about effective classrooms that support literacy development in preschool through the early years of school. These topics include routines and activities that support literacy and language development, supporting play, how to make an environment a literacy and language rich environment. I know Olivia and Jenny will be sharing their research on classroom libraries and teaching first grade with my preservice teachers on the last week of classes.   The chapters for this topic are B&M 4 and 14 and S&H 10.

The third group of readings is about differentiation and diversity. These chapters focus on the need for differentiation due to the diversity of needs that children bring to early childhood settings. These chapters will also discuss Response to Intervention in early literacy as well as other interventions for struggling beginning readers in addition to strategies for differentiating instruction for all learners. The readings for this topic include S&H 7, B&M 16 and 17, and the word solving article.

For this blog, please tell me what you think is the most important idea about each topic that you already know, and 1 question about each topic that you would like to have answered in class on April 18.

I am mixing up the groups for the readings.  I have put people in readings groups based on your backgrounds and what I perceive might be areas that you might need more information.  Hence the groups are uneven. 
 Families: Angela, Melissa, Megan, Jenny, Courtney
Effective ECE Classrooms: Lindsay, Cathy, Marti
Differentiation: Laranda, Emily, Sara, Kaitlin, Kristen, Olivia, Tabitha

 You will be blogging  in your same blog groups, but you need to discuss your readings only with the members of your blog group who read the same chapters. So, for example, in Angela's blog group, Angela and Melissa will blog about/discuss families.  Lindsay and Cathy will blog about/discuss effective classrooms.  Laranda will blog about/summarize differentiation.  In Kaitlin's group, Megan, Jenny and Courtney will blog about/discuss families. Marti will blog about/summarize effective classrooms, and Kaitlin will blog about/summarize differentiation.  Finally, in Emily's group, you will all blog about/discuss differentiation.  For those of you on your own, just blogging about/summarizing your chapters, I'll get on to respond to your entry.
Remember, you are only blogging about/discussing/responding to the people in your blog group who read the same chapters and NOT responding to those who read different chapters.

Finally, We are meeting for class on Saturday, April 18 at 9 am in Rm 334.  Bring computers and iPads (if you borrowed one of mine, I'll be asking for its return at the end of the day).  We will work until 5 with an hour for lunch.  If everyone brings a lunch, we can work through lunch and finish at 4.  You might want to indicate on your response to this blog if this is what you would like to do.

Have a good week, let me know if you have questions. See you on Saturday, April 18!

Week 13 Reading and writing in different contexts 2: texts and purposes

This week, the focus of your reading is on different types of texts and the different purposes you might use them for.  I've placed these readings about narrative, informational and multimedia texts under the heading of reading and writing in different contexts, the same category as last week's readings and discussion.  In Kucer's chapters, you read about the impact of group membership and purpose of the literacy event on how and what one reads.  You also read about the authority of text or what counts for interpretation and whether or not one can or should interrogate a text. Think about how different types of texts for literacy instruction fit with those two major topics. Before you begin reading, answer these questions: For your own personal interactions with texts, what type of texts to you read and write the most--narrative, informational, or multimedia? What type of texts do you provide the children in your classroom (if you are teaching children in PreK through 3rd)? If you are not teaching PreK through 3rd grade, when you were last in an early childhood classroom, what types of texts did you see most?

In the B&M book, the chapters that you will read address 21st century issues with literature for young children such as interpreting visual images, postmodern picture books, and ebooks as well as a look at informational texts as not only books but other types of texts. The S&H chapter is a review, but revisit it from the viewpoint of examining types of texts and their purposes. The V&H chapters demonstrate two different types of digital texts in digital spaces used for the purpose of taking social action. Finally, the article discusses helping children examine various types of informational texts for for their authority, authenticity, and accuracy.  Please try to use the following terms in your discussions: visual images, visual elements, inquiry, text features, digital spaces, procedural texts, persuasive texts, informational/explanatory texts, postmodern. Everyone should read all of the chapters this week as I'd like you to discuss the merits of the different types of texts for children's literacy learning.  Think and talk about the relationship of these chapters to Kucer's sociocultural aspect of literacy (both chapters).  Individually, complete the reflection point on page 38 of V&H and discuss your thoughts.

I'm sorry I'm slow in getting everyone's Assessment Task 2 completed.  I've had meetings crop up but I'll get them done by the end of the weekend. Happy Spring!

Week 12 Reading and writing in different contexts: sociocultural factors

This week we turn to the sociocultural dimension of literacy--what in our social and cultural lives impacts the way we interact with literacy and how we interpret texts, or even believe how texts should be interpreted. Before you read further in the blog, I'd like you to do the following activity (this is a preview of what you will read).  Think about the last 10 significant interactions with print that you had.  They should be significant to you and not dependent on the amount of time that they took.  Write them down.  Then beside each one, write the purpose of the interaction and how it is related to a particular social group membership. You might want to take a look at Tables 9.1 and 9.2 to help with purpose and group membership. I will do the same  for my top 5 below:

1. reading Kucer chapters and writing notes, plan my blog, occupation (professor)
2. navigating the Delta website, book a ticket, occupation and organization membership
3. Reading e-mails, communication, occupation and family
4. Reading a book on my Nook, entertainment, SES and culture
5. Read the newspaper, find out the news, SES and family and culture

Analyze what you wrote down.In your response to my blog, respond to these questions: What were the dominant purposes in your list?  Why do you think they were dominant? What group memberships came out as important? Why?  For me, most of my interactions with print are either work or educational and these 2 overlap quite a bit (logical since I work in education).  I also use literacy for entertainment and information. And they represent my occupational group, my participation in organizations, and my socioeconomic status as an upper middle class educated professional.  I'll be interested in what each of you write.

As you read, look for the following terms: literacy event, literacy practice, literacy performance, identity, intersectionality, social group, multiple literacies, discourse/Discourse, funds of knowledge, cultural modeling, literacy as development, literacy as practice, cultural capital, social constructionism, gendered writing, critical literacy, critical response. I don't want you to define them this week, but I do want you to use them in your discussions.

Chapter 9 will introduce you to the importance of understanding what a reader/writer's social and cultural background is and how it impacts not only literacy use but also language use and meanings that are constructed.  Be sure to think about what that means for you as a teacher in terms of your own literacy but also in terms of what you value in your classroom and what that means for your students, especially for those students who are socially and culturally different than you.  Chapter 10 will introduce you to different ways of looking at what counts as knowledge and hence, what counts in interpreting a text (whether written or oral, on paper or digital).  Think about what that means for choosing texts and understanding the meanings that readers make as they read or messages writers are sending when they write.  Tie this chapter to the V&H chapters that you read for last week and the week before.

Remember that we are meeting at 6 pm on Adobe Connect on Monday, March 30. Let me know if you need the link resent.  We will have some group discussions as well as time for questions, feedback, sharing.  If you have something you would like to discuss you a either include it in your response to this blog or send me an e-mail and I'll incorporate it. See you then!

Week 10 Spring Break and Week 11 New Literacies, Disciplinary Literacies

Happy Spring Break!  Here's hoping the weather is lovely.  I'll be downloading and reading your exploration projects over the break.  I'll e-mail feedback and the rubric to you as I complete them.

The topic for your reading is two fold: New Literacies and disciplinary literacies. You are interacting and using new literacies in this and any other hybrid/blended class you are a part of.  Think about how you use literacy in those classes.  Think also of your literacy use that includes information and communication technologies or media.  These uses all have the potential to be new literacies.  Disciplinary literacies involve how literacy is used in a discipline.  You use literacy in the discipline of reading/literacy education or mathematics or social studies or science or early childhood or English language arts.  Often the uses of literacy in the discipline are specialized.  For this blog, think about the new literacy practices you participate in and describe them.  How are they different from "old" literacies? How are they similar or different to disciplinary literacy? What do you expect to be reading about in the chapters for Week 11?

You will reading about new literacies, media, multimodal communicaiotn, digital text, producers adn interpreters of text, electroninc media, affordances.  You will also read more about critical literacy, so think about how it is related to either new literacies or disciplinary literacies.

Everyone in the group should read B&M 5, V&F (not V&S) 8, and the digital story telling article.  (A note: the digital storytelling piece uses 5th grade as an example, but you all really need to think about how this could be applied to PreK-grade 3 when you discuss it).  Everyone should read 1 of the other V&F chapters and be thinking about how it is related to disciplinary literacy (I think the new literacies piece will be evident).  Finally split up the S&H 8 and B&M 6 chapters--look for similarities and overlaps, and for the relationship to critical literacy.

Finally, You need to do a small group meeting to do a peer review of Assessment Task 2 early in teh week.  Let me know if you need an Adobe Connect meeting) as it is due by March 28.  Please also complete the Virtual Check in by Monday March 22.

Have a good break!

Week 9: Teaching comprehension, fluency, writing, critical literacy

For the last 2 weeks you have delved into theory related to perception, reading and writing processes, and comprehension.  Your definitions of key terms have demonstrated your understanding of the ideas that underlie what a young child is learning and developing as they understand that the whole purpose of reading and writing are meaning making. I hope you have realized that, while word recognition (including developing sight vocabulary and phonics skills) are important to learning to read and write, they are all in the service of meaning making.  Across all 3 blogs, I have seen applications of the theory to your own practice. Remember to keep thinking about how this knowledge your are constructing applies to younger children, even though it also is important to older ones as well.

This week the focus shifts to teaching reading and writing processes--the best practices. You will be focusing on principles for teaching comprehension, supporting writing form preschool through third grades, fluency instruction, and critical thinking.  Before you begin reading, respond to these questions:  What do you think is the relationship of fluency and comprehension? How do you think young young children become writers?  What is critical literacy and how is it related to critical thinking and comprehension?

Here are some terms to define/think about/use in your own blogs: critical literacy, text design, text redesign, text production, sources of confusion in misinterpretation of pictures, motivation and engagement, deeper levels of comprehension, automaticity, accuracy, prosody, writing profiles, text variety, high levels discussions.

There are 3 chapters in B&M, 1 chapter in V&F, and 3 articles to read for this week. Everyone should read V&F chapter and the chapter in B&M about fluency.  Each person in your group can then read one other reading--you need to divide them up within your group.  That means that your group leader will set up a discussion on the common readings and each of you will need to blog about your separate reading.  I'd like to to discuss important ideas that you wish you would have known as a novice teacher and that you would like to share with the novices in your group and my preservice teachers. Also make a list of teaching strategies (or explain to each other the teaching strategies in your individual chapter).

Let me know if you want a small group meeting set up on Adobe Connect to peer review your exploration projects (I know 1 group is meeting on March 8).  They are due at the end of the week, but I"ll take them whenever you finish them.  I'll post the blog for week 11 on March 13 to do at your leisure but won't check it until March 22.

Week 8 R&W processes 2: comprehension, the writing process

As you read this blog this week, I'm working in Victoria, Canada with my 2 colleagues with whom I work in Kenya on early literacy instruction with teachers of PreK-grade 3.  We are completing the Guidebook for teachers and teacher leaders that has key concepts and strategies for supporting early reading development. Unlike this class, it is light on theory and heavy on teaching strategies, but also unlike this class, these Kenyan teachers mostly do NOT have bachelor's degrees and have limited possibilities to get a university degree.  I'm also working on a couple of articles and a research project....I'm looking for participants in my study of Knowledgeable teachers who engage their students in literacy learning in classrooms.  I may be contacting you to ask you to participate. 

This week is a week for completing the Virtual Check in again to let me know what and how you are doing.  Follow the link to the Google form and complete and submit it.  Please do that by Monday night.  http://goo.gl/forms/77Cd1DckrH

As you know, the purpose of reading is making meaning, or comprehension.  And the purpose of writing is communicating ideas. This week, Kucer will examine the factors that affect understanding text.  Those of you who read the text complexity article last week will make connections here, and I hope you will make them for the others in your group.  Kucer's second article examines the writing process and its relationship to reading. Finally, the article looks at a model of emergent writing development with preschool children.  Some concepts to think about and talk about for this week: background knowledge, cultural experiences, disciplinary knowledge, process, content, transaction, situated nature of comprehension, situational dependency, role of writing in knowledge construction.
Before reading, respond to these questions:  How do you think the concepts above will be used/discussed in Kucer? What do you think will be similarities in reading and writing process? What do you think will be similarities or differences in Kucer and a model of emergent writing?

As you read Kucer, be sure to complete the activities in the Tables in chapter 7 and jot down notes about your own thinking. Connect what Kucer says about vocabulary to what you have read and discussed in the S&H book. As for the emergent writing article, everyone should read the introduction and discussion.  If you have taken EDRG 5553 (or are a doctoral student), you also should read the methodology and results sections so you can explain how they fit with the discussion to the others in your group.

Key things to discuss, groups, is how the emergent writing model is similar to and different from Kucer's model and why you think that. Also address what the principles in Table 7.10 mean for instruction in comprehension and what the differences in proficient and less proficient writers means for teaching in primary grades. 

I'll be back late on Monday, but will have access to e-mail most of the time I'm gone, so let me know if you want me to weigh in next week. Since I'm writing this entry before I leave, I'm not sure what the weather will be, although it looks yucky for the weekend.  Stay safe and warm!

Week 7 Reading and Writing processes 1:word recognition and the reading process

This week we are moving into actually learning how to read, or recognizing words in print and what happens during the reading process. Some important concepts you will need to make sure you understand, and that you use in your blog discussions are: perception, short and long term memory, cognition, saccadic movement, fixations, regressions, readability, text complexity, predictability, transaction, skill, strategy, metacognition, epistemic beliefs, self-efficacy, motivation and engagement.

Before  you begin reading the chapters and articles for this week (and as you are reading this blog), think about what you are doing as you read.  What are your eyes doing? What is your brain doing? What is impacting your reading?  That is what I'd like you to blog about below.

As you read, I'd like you to think about the following questions/purposes: What is the role of perception in reading?  What does it mean to read? What factors impact your transaction with the text?  What else, besides reading strategies discussed in Chapter 6 are important to becoming a reader? What makes a text complex?  In Chapter 5, there will be a number of tables with activities that Kucer is going ask you to try out.  Please do them as it will help you to answer my questions. 

Everyone in the group needs to read Kucer 5 and 6 and the article titled Beyond Reading Strategies and Skills.  If you are a doctoral student or a reading specialist person, please read the Text complexity article.  It may be slow going, but it is good information for you as a reading specialist or budding scholar.  If you are an ECE major or a special education person, you do NOT have to read the text complexity article. 

Blog leaders:  Please make sure that you ask group members to tell you how they would define the academic vocabulary I have listed above as will be adding your definitions to the glossary we have started.  In addition, discuss your experiences with the tables in Chapter 5 and your responses to the questions in tables 6.2 and 6.6. Be sure to discuss key ideas in the article(s) and how they relate to Kucer.  You each may want to share also what you think is the answer to each of my questions in blue. Finally, make sure you think about what this theoretical information means to teaching young children how to read.

Stay warm and dry! Please e-mail me if you want me to join your discussion this coming week.  I'll be flying to Canada to work on our guidebook for Kenyan teachers on early literacy teaching strategies on Thursday so my not check the blogs like I should, so if you want me to join, e-mail is the best way to let me know.

Week 6: written language and the foundations of early reading and writing

Thanks for the blog discussions about the topics and the important vocab for beginning teachers.  They were rich and really demonstrated your own understanding of the topics as did the final versions you sent on Google docs.  I've moved the docs to a file titled iBook documents. If you haven't already, please make sure you include your names on your work so you get full credit for authorship when the book is published in the next edition.

Just a reminder that we are meeting on Adobe Connect on Monday, Feb. 16 at 6 pm.  You should have the link to the room from earlier in the semester, but let me know if you need it re-sent.


The readings this week take us away from oral vocabulary to consider the foundations of early reading and writing.  These foundations include understanding concepts of print and how it works, alphabet knowledge and the alphabetic principle, phonological and phonemic awareness, and learning how to recognize and remember words in print. There will be lots of technical information in the Kucer book about how written language works and its relationship to oral language. You will also get information about phonics and phonics rules in that chapter.  The B&M chapter introduces phonological and phonemic awareness and alphabetic principle, and how to best support learning of those foundational skills and understandings. Everyone needs to read both of these chapters.  There are also 2 articles on D2L under the heading of Understanding Language, Written and Oral. One deals with alphabet instruction and the other with teaching word study (also known as spelling, phonics, decoding).

Before reading, think about what you know (not believe) about phonological and phonemic awareness, concepts of print, alphabet and alphabetic principle knowledge, and word recognition and decoding.  Don't think so much about instruction at this point but about the actual concepts themselves.  Your blog can be about actual instruction.

Everyone in each group should read Kucer 3 and B&M 9.  Split up the two articles so half of you read 1 article and half the other.  For those of you new to the vocabulary, review Kucer chapter 2 again on the systems of language before you read Kucer 3.....it will be helpful.

Please have Kucer 3 and the first half of B&M 9 read before we meet on Feb. 16.  Bring to that meeting concepts you want reviewed, ideas you want explained, questions that you have about any of the content. 

Week 5 Oral language and vocabulary part 2

This week is a small group discussion week to have a peer review of your assessment task 1 (evaluations of a formal or standardized assessment). Remember to let me know if you need for me to set up a group meeting time on Adobe Connect for you, or let me know what other meeting arrangements you have made to do the peer reviews.  Together compose a summary of your meeting and e-mail it to me.  Be sure to include the names of everyone participating. The rubric for the assessment project tasks is on D2L.

Last week your readings focused on  Choosing words and texts, instruction, and assessment.  I read lots of great ideas and ways you all are incorporating vocabulary instruction in your own classrooms.  Please remember to specifically address (when you do this) how this ties in to the readings.  I see the ties but I also want to make sure that you all see the ties as well.  For those of you not teaching ages 3-8, make connections and identify differences to what you are doing at your age level.  Remember, we are focusing on children up through 3rd grade in this class.

Your blogs last week contained discussion on assessment, so I want to address this topic a bit.  Yes, the standardized tests that are listed in the book are expensive and most need to be administered by someone who is trained.  None of these are assessments that would be given by a classroom teacher. They are diagnostic tests given to children who are suspected of having a language difficulty. However, those of you in the reading specialist program, you may learn how to give the PPVT in the assessment class or other diagnostic tests as well. As a classroom teacher and/or a reading specialist, you are really more interested in progress monitoring of how your children in your class are learning the vocabulary words you are explicitly teaching as well as what words/concepts they already know. Informal or formative assessments are key here, and the ones in book are classroom tested to give you that kind of information.

Thanks for your thoughtful discussions on nonsense words.  They can be useful for assessing decoding or phonics knowledge but not really for vocabulary knowledge (except perhaps morphemic knowledge such as affixes).  One problem to think about with their use, even for assessment, however, is that children tend to then begin to think that reading is only about decoding and not about meaning making. So use nonsense words sparingly.

This week the B&M book chapter is going to provide a review of some of what you already read and discussed last week about explicit instruction and principles of vocabulary instruction. Then the S&H chapters will be addressing language rich environments and supporting independence in learning new words. Before you read, define what you think a language rich environment is. How do YOU learn new vocabulary words (like the academic vocabulary for this class)?


Your blog posts are going to be a bit different this week as I'm giving you explicit assignments for the iBook. First, each blog group needs to decide on 10 words that are academic vocabulary necessary for novice teachers to know related to understanding language and oral language development. Each group needs to choose at least 5 of those words from the Kucer book and the rest from the other readings.  In other words, at least 5 words each group chooses need to be about the theory related to the systems of language or language variation and the rest from the S&H and B&M books about supporting vocabulary development in classrooms.  Each group (and make your call as you respond to this blog) needs to choose 2 of the chapters from S&H to focus on. Once your group has chosen the words, you need to provide definitions for them in "novice teacher friendly" words.  These words and definitions will become the beginnings of a glossary of important literacy and language terms for the iBook.
Second, each blog group needs to choose two of the topics listed at the end of this sentence and create a piece to put in the iBook that will help preservice teachers understand about vocabulary development: the systems of language and word learning, language variation and word learning, teaching vocabulary, assessing vocabulary, language rich classrooms, independence in word learning. Your group will need to decide both on content of what you think should go in as well as the format it should take.  So your group leader may want to give assignments to different people to start off each of the tasks that you need to complete. Suggestion: Discuss on the blog what to include and why, put pieces of what you are writing on the blog for suggestions and edits, then start a group Google doc in a folder shared by you all to cut and paste what you decide in the blog is what you want to include. Finally, make sure I can access the doc next Friday to upload it to my file for the iBook. I'll be on this blog on Monday and on your blogs on Wednesday morning as well as Thursday afternoon and Friday if you want feedback or input.

So, remember, choose chapters to choose academic vocab from and topics to write about.  Your blogs will be discussions of how to do that and suggestions for content to include.

I hope you enjoy the early spring weather this weekend, and will be e-mailing each of you about your questions and projects from the sign up sheet.

Week 4 Oral Language and Vocabulary Part 1

Thanks for the interesting discussions on your blogs this past week. Just a reminder about trying to avoid parallel posts (by this I mean that one person responds to all of the questions posed and then the next person does the same thing, etc. instead of commenting on or responding to the previous person). While there isn't a minimum number of posts, just responding to 1 person isn't enough.  You should respond to the leader's blog post and then to each other at least once.  This is a discussion. :) Just a reminder as well that the focus of this class is on early literacy so examples need to come from younger children.  If you don't have that experience then you might ask for examples from those that do or make the connection yourself and ask for feed back.

A note about due dates in the syllabus: I have identified due dates for projects in the syllabus only in terms of the week it is due (for example, Assessment Task 1 is due Week 6 which is the week of Feb. 15). There is not a specific day in that week when it is due. I'll be getting on D2L at the end of the week, so as long as it is uploaded by Saturday of that week at 5 pm, I'm happy and you have turned it in on time.  Of course, you can always turn in projects early, or meet with me online to get feedback before it is due.

I have uploaded a link on D2L and in the community to a form for you to fill out about your choices for the exploration and application projects. Please complete that form no later than Feb. 5.  I'll be in touch with each of you via e-mail about your choices.

Rubrics have been uploaded for the Application projects.  I'm working on the ones for the Assessment tasks and the Exploration project, and will let you know when they are up.

Before I introduce the next set of readings, I want to remind you about Assessment Task 1. I have uploaded to D2L the form for you to fill out evaluating the standardized or formal assessment for the aspect you signed up for. You need to have a draft done during Week 5.  You will need to have a virtual group meeting to review each others evaluations. You can do this meeting in a variety of ways.  I can set up an Adobe Connect meeting at the time you decide and can either be part of the discussion or just leave it open and let you meet. I can set up a folder on Google Docs and invite your group members to share and you can each put in your draft.  Then meet online at a particular time and review/make comments on each others drafts.

Remember that this task is about evaluating a standardized or formal test. You don't have to administer it to a child but you can if you would like.  Assessment Task 3 (recording you assessing a child) can be a video of you assessing a child using this assessment OR it can be you assessing a child using one of your informal or formative assessments.

This week's readings are about assessing vocabulary knowledge, explicit teaching, and choosing appropriate words and texts to support vocabulary learning. Before you begin reading (and in your post below), tell me what you know about the gradual release of responsibility model of teaching, the difference between explicit and implicit instruction, and what you know about word difficulty. How do you choose words to teach?

As you read, make a note of the academic vocabulary used in these three chapters. What are key terms and ideas in the chapters? How do the ideas tie to working with children in PreK? in K? in the primary grades? Be sure to use the academic vocabulary you noted as you read in your posts, comments, and responses.


Have a good week.

Week 3 Understanding Language

Congratulations! You have survived your first week of blogging. I have tried to comment on each of your blogs at least once.  I apologize that there is some confusion about requirements and expectations and take full blame for not being more explicit.  I do know that at least one group set up their own expectations for blogging and encourage you all to do so.  Let me re-iterate a few of mine related to class time since I think there may have been some confusion on that as well.

• Spend at least 2.5 hours per week online.  This time could be spent responding to my blog, posting to your blog if you are the group leader for that week, responding to each other on your blog (that is, having an online discussion through your blog comments), or working with your small group online via Google Hangout or Skype or an Adobe Connect meeting that I set up
• Keeping up with readings and assignments
• Responding to the Virtual Check In form --the link  is already uploaded on D2L
• Checking D2L and the Early Literacy Community page regularly for class updates, links etc.

Now to the topic of Week 3--Understanding language which includes the systems of language and language variation. In order to support young children's literacy development, a teacher must first understand about language and how it works. The Kucer chapters will introduce you to the systems of language (or chapter 2 may be a review for you or an expansion of what you already know) as well as discuss language variation.  The S&H chapter discusses the importance of vocabulary knowledge.
Before you begin reading, and in your comments below, answer the following questions:

1. What do you think it means to "know" a word?
2. How would you define "text"?
3. What do you think Kucer means by language variation? 

As you read, think about the following questions: Why should teachers have a good understanding of the systems of language? How and why is it important to supporting young children's development of literacy? How do you respond to language variation in your classroom? Now that you  have read, would you change your answers to questions 1 and 2 above?  How is the content in S&H related to the K chapters? These questions would be good starting points for your discussion this week, but don't have to be the only topics you discuss.  Remember that if you are all reading the same chapters that you don't have to summarize the content which is why I am providing you some questions as starting points for posts.  Please also include your own questions for discussion.

 You will be reading about academic language and academic vocabulary in the readings. This type of language is that used in specific academic settings.  In Literacy Education, we also have academic language and vocabulary that you need to be familiar with.  I'm going to include that language at the end of my posts each week so that you know what academic language and concepts you need to become familiar with and use in your own posts and discussions.  For this week, you need to understand and use the following language from your readings in your discussion:
text, Discourse/discourse, multimodal, pragmatic, semantic, syntactic, genre, morpheme/morphemic, orthographic, graphophonemic, grapheme, academic language/vocabulary/discourse, surface and deep structure, symbol, stance, internal and external context, dialect, contextualized and decontextualized language, extended and fast mapping, onset and rime, root words and affixes, internal and external coherence.

Please don't spend time in the blog defining the terms.  I'll know you understand (or know) them by how you use them in your discussion.  If you want me to weigh in on explaining terms or ideas, be sure to let me know.  I'll be on to read your responses to this blog on Monday evenings and to read your blog posts on Wednesday mornings and Thursday afternoons. Let me know in the blog or e-mail me to get on earlier and I'll respond.

The Link to the virtual check in form is on D2L. Let me know if you have trouble accessing it.  Please complete it by Jan. 28. I'll be checking it at that time.

Have a good week.  I look forward to reading and participating in your discussion and thinking.