Literacy Pre-Assessment

My early experience as a reader was very positive.  I honestly cannot remember how old I was when I started to read.  I know that I was the only one in my preschool class who was able to recite my ABC's and count to 100.  I know that I really liked school when I was younger and couldn't wait to board the big yellow bus to go to preschool.  I remember when one of my parent's first purchases in the US was a set of Encyclopedias at the GoodWill.  I know that my parents felt it was important to have books in the house, so I always had bookshelves full of books at home.  The very first book I ever remember trying to read was "A Duck is a Duck."  It was this yellow cover with ducks on it and it was for ESL students.  "See duck run.  Run, duck, run."  I clearly remember the pictures and phrases from this book.

As I got older, I remember being rewarded for reading.  In the second grade, I remember reading as part of a Pizza Hut reading program where you would get a free personal pizza after you read so many books.  You would have to fill out this form on what book you read and have your parent sign off on it, then the teacher tracks your progress on this big poster board in class.  After so many books, you would get a coupon for a free pizza at Pizza Hut.  I also remember getting coupons for a free meal at Sizzler.  I remember reading, writing and drawing on these recycled brownish paper with big dotted lines on them for writing.  Then there was blank space at the top of the paper for a drawing.  In the 3rd grade, I remember the RIF (Reading is Fun) program where every year, you would go to the library and there were tables full of books and each student could pick a book to keep.  It was always special for me to be able to get a free book.  I also remember that my mom used to bring home Highlights magazine from her job.  They were my FAVORITE!  I remember doing crossword puzzles, hidden picture, mazes, coloring and comparing pictures to see what was missing.  I remember up until middle school, ordering books from Scholastic.  I used to save my money just to order books and bookmarkers in the Scholastic magazines.  I know at one point, I was into detective solving mysteries and Encyclopedia Brown was my one of my favorite books to read.  I also read and owned all the Babysitter's Club and Box Car Children books.  I also remember every morning I would spend at least 30 minutes in bed reading--just because I wanted to challenge myself to read as much as I could.  My first long novel I ever finished was Little House on the Prairie and it was over 200 pages long.  I remember how proud I was of myself.  I remember over the breaks, I would just find a book in the house and make it a point to finish reading it.  Another book I remember reading was The Color Purple.  It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I remember having to read Nicholas Nickleby over the Christmas Holiday break and I HATED it.  It was about 500 pages.  For some reason, that memory triggers my first real feelings of dreading to have to read.  In high school, I remember reading ALL the time.  I remember reading History Textbooks, and tons of novels and epic stories in my English class.  I remember reading Shakespeare, Hamlet, The Odyssey, The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, The Scarlet Letter--books that I feel any student in any high school across the nation would read.  At that time, I felt they were "classics" and that EVERYONE who went through high school read these.  There were books all 9th graders would read, then the same for 10th, 11th and 12th.  It was a standard book list that we all read certain books in certain grades.

As for writing, I began to LOVE writing at an early age.  I remember my FIRST diary.  It was a birthday present from my sister.  I think I was 6 or 7 years old.  It had a lock on it.  It was white with different color ballon0s all over it.  It had a gold lock on it with a tiny key.  It was a prized possession of mine.  I felt that because it locked, I could write freely whatever I wanted and no one would ever be able to see it.  I wrote religiously, EVERYDAY.  I remember just a few years ago stumbling across some diaries from when I was young.  No matter what kind of day I had, "It was a good day" and that was all I wrote, I wrote EVERYDAY.  In 6th grade, I loved writing love poems.  I used to make cards with poems on them.  I don't know when all that stopped.  I want to say I stopped writing when I got to college.  Time, or lack of maybe.  Or maybe I thought having a diary was silly.  But years later, I began keeping a journal.  I started journaling again consistently for awhile but it's stopped again.  However, when I wrote, nothing could stop me.  I used to tell stories so that you could recreate the experience whenever you read my journal entry.  I used to write about my day, my feelings or just about anything that was on my mind.  It was very therapeutic for me and I used it as a way to reflect and grow.

Today in my classroom, I see literacy as a huge struggle for my students.  I know that the majority of my students don't like to read.  I know because I asked them.  They don't think it's important or they don't think it matters.  I think that's a serious problem and it worries me.  I want to teach my students how to be good, confident readers, but most of all, I want them to love to read.  For this last unit for Trimester 1, I will be focusing on Literacy.  I want to learn how to teach my kids how to read.  I want to teach them how to pronounce words, how to understand what they are reading and that reading is FUN!

Content Standards for UbD Unit

I definitely want to emphasize literacy in my next unit.  There are so many standards to pick from, I get lost trying to figure out what's most important because they all seem important.  However, for now, I've decided to select:

Apply knowledge of word relationship, such as roots and affixes, to derive meaning from literature and texts in content areas.

Read aloud with appropriate pacing, intonation and expression increasingly complex narrative and expository texts.

Use expanded vocabulary and some descriptive words in oral responses to familiar literature.

I begin with these standards because I want my students to become great readers.  I realize that anyone can read words, but not everyone understands or breaks down what they are reading.  I want my students to be able to independently think for themselves and be able to try and understand what they are reading by guessing the meaning of words based on the context in which it's used, what is sounds like or what it looks like to them.  Some students have turned in work using words that they copied and not really knowing what they mean.  I also have some students who I want to build confidence in their reading skills.  Some are shy or are still learning English, so they still have a lot of difficulty in reading.  I also want students to be able to summarize what we read in class.  I want my students to know that their voice and opinion matters and that they can bring text alive, so it is important for my students to be able to articulate themselves using with an expanded vocabulary.

I'm not sure if these are the best standards to choose for what I want to teach, but these are my initial thoughts.  I know I have to decide what it is I want to accomplish with my students by the end of the trimester and stick to it.  I'm having a hard time grasping that I can't teach my students "everything" in 12 weeks and I just have to choose a few things.

Planning: The Real Story

Right now, I am not doing well in my planning.  I have gone from planning for the week to planning for the next couple of days and now, planning for the next day.  I struggle everyday with content and wonder if my lessons are rigorous enough.  I constantly look for ideas on curriculum and try to figure out how to differentiate my teaching.  I'm not sure if what I'm covering is the "right" thing or "right" amount or "right" area.  I mainly wonder if my students are being challenged.  I know that I feel this way because I haven't spent the amount of time I'd like to on planning my lessons and because I don't feel like I have any guidance in teaching ELD.  For example, I was given a Side by Side book to use as a possible curriculum.  After finally deciding to use it, I realized part way into it that it was Book 2 of 2.  I realized that may have been why it was a little confusing for me.  I'm not sure since I don't have Book 1.

When I am planning my lessons, I determine what to include based on where I've assessed my students.  I have students who range from 1s and 2s to 3s and 4s in the English Language Learner level.  I try to stick to a routine everyday that consists of some writing, grammar and a larger project.  I've also mixed in there some reading, vocabulary and short stories.  Right now, there isn't too much of differentiation for each part so I know the grammar I teach in class is basic and may be just right for my low level English speakers while the larger unit project may be very difficult for them to write a 1-3 page essay.  I also look at my objective and outcomes that I want.

I figure out how I'm going to teach my students based on how the day went before.  I also realized that I teach based on the conveniences available to me.  For example, I know I should have more graphic organizers and visual aides, but haven't used them because I haven't set it up or learned how to incorporate it into my teaching, so I lecture a lot.  I have tons of ideas on what I want to use, but haven't carried them out.  I also try to teach based on what may build more classroom community.  I know I've tried group students to work together based on skill level, seating chart based on who talks the most and least, and also because students are ansy.  I noticed the boys like the more active assignments (i.e. go to the board).  I also try and go over how I'm going to teach a lesson my head and sometimes that doesn't play out quite like I imagined.  Mostly, everything is based on my creativity, confidence and prayers.  I pray that I will make it through another day.

If Only They'd do Their Work

Why don't students do their work?  Many people are quick to jump to the conclusion that it's because they don't know how or they're lazy.  But sometimes, students just don't have the time, space or motivation to do it.  I work with students who work at night or have care taking responsibilities for either a baby or another adult.  So, sometimes, they just don't have time.

However, this doesn't mean it's excusable, but it helps when trying to create a successful plan for students.

The Power of Our Words

Use language to open opportunities, empower and engage.  I was always told that words are very powerful, so if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all.  And because someone's words can can leave an imprint in someone's heart, always let someone know how you feel.  However, the power of our words can be positive or negative, meaningful or detrimental.  It can help or hurt, so be mindful of what you say.

Being a teacher requires so many different qualities.  Not only do you have to be a good planner, be able to present in front of a large group of people (in my case, hormonal high school students), but you have to know how to talk, when to talk, what to say and how long you have to say it.  Many people forget that there is a huge responsibility in working with youth how how important your role is in someone's life.  The five guiding principles in this article are very helpful in establishing clear roles and expectations.  I believe that if these are practiced in every relationship, they would be much more healthy.  Everyone should read this article and practice these principles for positive language.

The Teacher as Warm Demander

I believe it is important to be authoritative and not an authoritarian.  I enjoyed this article because I find myself practicing and believing in dealing with students in ways presented in this reading.  I know that the first battle with teaching students in high-poverty schools is consistency.  So it will take at least 1 week for a student to believe that you will be there in the morning, that you will smile when you see them, that you will be a consistent part of their life.  Then, the next step is to trust that you care.  Trust that you care about their well being, their success; trust that you will listen to them and trust that you believe in them.  This is where a teacher who practices patience, tolerance, understanding, communication will build trust with their students so that they trust that the relationship you have with them is to help them be better.  This is when a positive and healthy teaching and learning relationship begins.

A question I have is where to draw the line between being the teacher as warm demander versus being a passive teacher?  How do you come across demanding and warm, and not as "nice one minute" and "mean the next"?

Shouting Won't Grow Dendrites

My plan for meeting the needs of the four types of misbehavior in my classroom:

1.  ATTENTION--Encourage positive behavior through rewarding the good behaving students with my time or "commendable behavior" reports (certificate like acknowledgements implemented through the school).  Talk to students who constantly act out negatively for my attention to ask them why they are acting they way they are and how to create a more positive relationship.  Explain to them what negative contributions versus positive contributions look like and how they affect me, other students and themselves.  Emphasize and give compliments for positive behavior.

2.  CONTROL--Seek out and assign responsibilities to students where they can demonstrate leadership skills.  If you are in a conflict of control, never engage and alway diffuse.  I usually ask if the student is finished (yelling, venting) or gently let them know that I want to talk to them but only when they are calm, then give them options to cool down.  Explain to the student that my goal is to help them be successful in the classroom so any expectation I have of them is because I know they are capable of doing it, not because I want to tell them what to do.

3.  BOREDOM--Differentiate learning with a variety of activities.  Ask students what they would want to do in the classroom to make it "fun."  Find opportunities to connect the classroom to the community (i.e. museum, library, park).

4.  INADEQUACY--Continue to assess student's progress.  Differentiate learning and create assignments based on student's needs.  Assess and commend students on an individual level and point out progress of each student from where they each started, not at where they all have to be.