After Class Four

Next week our first four groups will present their Reading Lessons. Those groups should e-mail me one copy of their lesson plan on Tuesday. Also, I had one request for a TV/DVD player for next week. Please let me know if there is anything else I should get. Looking forward to seeing the lessons. Maybe we should do them at the beach!

After Class Three

It was amazing to see how quickly everyone put together lesson plans and came up with some worthwhile reading activities for their grade levels. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Reading Lesson presentations in a couple of weeks.
As promised, here's the Hinky Pinky website!
http://www.beavton.k12.or.us/jacob_wismer/leahy/2001/hinkypinky/hinkypinky.htm

After Class 2

Thanks to everyone for giving a "book review" today. Just a reminder that we will be meeting in the NEW ROOM starting next week, May 23, in EDB 7600 (front half). Also, note the NEW START TIME - 1 p.m. (From now on, class will run from 13:00 - 16:50.) Also, if you could bring your CMCM textbook to class next week along with the photocopied chapters I handed out today for our next activity.
Hope everyone has a great Victoria Day weekend!

Link to class notes

The notes from Wednesday's class are now on our website.

http://www.sfu.ca/~smbarber/473notes.htm
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

Plunging In

During our first discussion time yesterday, we were each given a picture to use as a metaphor for learning to read. My group had the picture with the three boys jumping off a dock into the water. Two were wearing inner tubes around their waists; one was not. The photo was dynamic and full of emotion and action. Between the three of us, my group easily put together a metaphor of “plunging in” and taking risks in order to learn. In case you forget the details of what we said, we talked about providing the necessary support, doing the activity with others, persevering and trying again, among other things.
I certainly saw evidence of these aspects of learning to read in my practicum, as I’m sure many of you also did. For example, one of my grade four students could read, but his processing time was considerably slower than the rest of the class. In my teaching, I felt as though I offered him an inner tube to support him in doing the same work everyone else did. He was also able to work with the learning support teacher to complete some assignments. During the three months that I was there, I saw a remarkable improvement in his confidence. He is coming to trust the inner tube—he knows that his teachers will make sure that he is prepared to “jump.” And in knowing this, he is willing to take the risk, he is willing to climb over the railing and plunge into the water. Not only that, but he’s willing to try it again and again.

brenda perusse

Brenda Perusse Journal Entry 1 May 10/07
In class, the point was made that the most important part of teaching reading is to make reading a pleasurable experience. This should motivate a child to want to read, and for those children who have difficulty with reading, will give them the incentive to keep working at improving their reading. This makes perfect sense to me because I think it’s human nature to do those activities that bring us pleasure and to avoid those activities or situations that are not pleasurable or are stressful. It makes me think of a situation I had in my practicum where a student with learning disabilities actually risked getting up and reading for the class.
I had been working with the class on a personal planning unit and used stories as my lead in. With each lesson, I’d read a story and then have the students do group activities to share what they took from the story. The students all had an opportunity to write their personal discoveries and come to a group consensus. These were grade 7 students, and they hadn’t been read to in a long time. They seemed to really enjoy both the “story time” and the activities. While reading the story, I’d pause throughout and ask their feeling or connections they had with various parts of the story. The boy I’m speaking of would always raise his hand and want to share some off color remark. I used humor rather than annoyance with him and once in a while he’d make a really thoughtful comment for which I’d thank him.
The really fascinating thing that happened is that when doing a socials lesson, I’d have the students take turns reading from the text, this boy raised his hand to read. It was slow and painstaking for him, but he did it voluntarily. These are the moments that mean so much. To me, being able to read is the most important thing for children to learn because it opens the world to them. My hope is that I can make reading pleasurable so that even the children with learning disabilities will persevere and learn to read.

One Best Method

Thursday, May 10, 2007

We read about the idea of "one best method" or a method that would work best in any situation. In my practicum I was pushed to use an approach known as student centred learning. This method puts the students in charge of their own learning, with the teacher acting as a facilitator. The students are given basic instructions with a supplementary handout and work in small groups to complete the assignment in class. My SA’s had discussed with me why this was important. Some teachers get in a habit of using what is called the “chalk and talk” method, which can bore students into a mundane routine. With student centred lessons, the students themselves become like mathematicians, they discuss math with their peers as they try and figure out a solution. I wouldn’t say this is the best method, but it does help the teacher and students. It allows the teacher to walk around and discover more about the students; it gives more time to talk about life (outside the classroom), and it allows the students to hone their problem solving skills.