TEGR 585
Response #10
Learning With New Literacies
What are new literacies? Is learning with new literacies essential for pupils?
New Literacies as defined by John Wilinsky are classrooms that are driven by inquiry and pupils’ choice not by teacher talk and textbooks. This “new” literacy is not dependent on students regurgitating “right” answers (Vacca, pg. 31). Studies of new literacy examine literacy as completely situated in all of the many “discourses” in people’s lives that is to say – at school, work, within the family and in any social situation (Vacca, pg.31). Today’s pupils are bombarded with digital devices and software, and therefore one can argue that the pupils learn more about literacy outside of school than in school. This reflect on how literacy is being defines as well as how do we define being literate in the 21st century?
How do we as educators/teachers encourage pupils to use digital media to capture, develop and produce projects in literacy and English Language Arts classes. For pupils, YouTube, iPod Touch, cell phones with still, video, and audio capabilities, iPod Nanos and other digital de- vices are not new; they are the everyday tools they use to communicate in or navigate their worlds. However, older social practices such as writing legibly and spelling have staying power in today’s classroom, which poses a struggle for educators/teachers as how to deal with the political mandates that value traditional approaches to literacy? How do we as educators/teachers bridge the knowledge and experience those pupils in today’s world bring with them daily to class? How do we as educators/teachers put in place a new set of technology-fused social practices to support a more
thoughtful and critically reflective pupil, especially in light of the arts and technology? “Computers and other electronic devices are both a “facilitator of knowledge and medium for literacy” (Biancarosa & Snow 2004) (Vacca, pg.38).
In reality, this new technical tools/information creates space for the pupils to move beyond where they are presently and to allow for greater collaboration, participation and distribution of knowledge.
TEGR 585
Response #9
Planning Instruction for Content Literacy & Writing for Tests and Assessments.
“Instructional planning brings students and texts together in ways that support content literacy and learning” (Vacca, 162). What is the key that support thinking and learning within text? What is the key of well-planned lessons and units of study? The answer is engaged learning. Engaged learning makes the difference between success and failure. Teachers/educators play a significant role in serving text as a fool for learning in content area classrooms. This role can be referred to as “instructional scaffolding” This scaffolding provides steps, tasks, materials and personal support to pupils who struggle with reading. One of this scaffolding is explicit instruction.
Explicit instruction is direct and systematic. Explicit instruction is engaging and successes-oriented and at the same time it promotes achievement for all pupils. Explicit instruction is long-term, planned instruction that empowers pupils to respond to deterrent with confidence and self-direction. With explicit instruction the educator/teacher names the strategy, talks about the strategy, as well as models the strategy.
In this strategy the educator/teacher clearly outlines the learning goals and offer clear unambiguous explanation of the skills and information structures to the pupils. This strategy affords the educator/teacher a means to teach with conscious intent whereby building the pupils awareness of a needed strategy. This strategy is clear, concise and connected. Explicit direct instruction is developed of teaching strategies as a long-term developmental process. Explicit direct instruction helps improve literacy for struggling pupils/readers.
TEGR 585
Response #8
Developing Vocabulary and Concepts
Vacca, pg. 241 ask the question: “What does it mean to know a word?”
- One must know the meaning of the word.
- One must be able to recognize this word in different context.
- One must be able to apply this word in different context.
- One should be able to use this word accurately in a different context from which it was learnt.
In order to understand language, it is essential that one understand words. This knowledge is vital to our communication and comprehension.
Educators/teachers recognized that vocabulary is an important aspect of reading instruction, even though, the teaching of vocabulary is a complicated issue since there is no single approach or one clear-cut method. Vacca, states that struggling readers need both direct an indirect instruction to learn new vocabulary and concepts in order to improve their comprehension (pg. 240). One way of involving struggling readers in the construction of word meaning is to make word meanings and relationships visible to the readers. A memory organizer can be provided through semantic feature analysis, word maps organizers or other related charts. These also provide graphical display attributes of meanings.
Vocabulary learning takes place when children are immerse in words, that is when they are read to, when they themselves read widely and when they are in involved in discussion school, home and in the broader community. When children are active in discovering way in which to relate words to experiences and to one another, this is also vocabulary learning. Children need to be actively engaged in the construction of their own meaning. One of the most deeply rooted way in which children can develop their vocabulary is when they learn new words through experience. Children need many experiences that will allow them to use words relevantly.
Educators/teachers should be good models of passionate and enjoyable word learning.
TEGR 585
Response #7
Culturally Responsive Teaching in Diverse Classroom
“Are dialogue and relationships culturally authentic?” (Vacca, pg. 57) This chapter emphasizes the importance of culturally responsive instruction. What then is culturally responsive instruction? Vacca defined culturally responsive instruction as instruction that is related to the students’ way of knowing, their funds of knowledge and their motivation for learning. In a more simplified form it is making and drawing on the students’ prior knowledge and experiences. With this said how then can we as educators ensure that successful teaching and learning are happening in our linguistic and cultural diversity classroom?
We need to respect the student and his/her family.
We need to be aware of the students’ diverse cultural background.
We need to recognize that all children are linguistically, cognitively and emotionally connected to the culture and language of the home environment.
We need not only to acknowledge, but also, to have students’ illustrate their knowledge and capabilities in many different ways.
We need to ensure that parents and families are actively involved especially in the early learning program.
We need to identify what the students already know and build upon his/her prior knowledge/learning.
We need to promote an environment that will engage all children in learning.
This then is just a few suggestion to promote social interaction as well as to meet the students’ needs in a cultural diversity classroom and the culturally and linguistically nation in which we live.
Response #6
Studying Text/Focus on the Essentials of Reading Instruction
“Studying without reflection is a waste of time” as stated by the philosopher, Confucius (Vacca, pg.316)” Vacca, 2011, states that studying text helps students make connections and think more deeply about ideas encountered during reading (pg. 317). How do we as educators/teachers incorporate critical literacy into the classroom? Frager and Frye, 2010, in their article states that in order to earn the A+, teachers must involve their students in critical literacy (pg.58). This pique my interest and I thought how can we as educators incorporate critical literacy into the classroom? How do we teach the students to study the text, to work smart and to develop strategies for studying?
Vacca offered many suggestions like graphic organizers, semantic mapping, writing summaries etc, making notes, taking notes, etc. I thought how about multiple texts, whereby the students read multiple texts that are based on similar literary themes. I think that this will work well in a literature class.
Irelyn Donna Paul
TEGR 585
12th March, 2013
5 – Minute Mini Lesson #1 Reflection
I was a tad nervous, due to the fact that I had only five minutes as well as how my audience would embrace this lesson. It is one thing to deliver to this lesson to middle/high school students than to an audience of adults. My impression is that the lesson was well received. The feedback was positive.
I did try to make this an active lesson so that everyone would participate. The lesson was directed to middle/junior high students. This lesson was an enrichment lesson that presented a writing tool/technique to assist the students in stimulating and organizing their thoughts as well as to increase the students writing skill.
Response #5
Activating Prior Knowledge and Interest.
“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way” quote by Doris Lessing (Vacca, 2011, pg. 166). This is what I refer as “Education as an aid to life”. “Learning is rooted in what we already know”; how do we get the students from what they already know to what they need to know and learn? How do we as educators keep students motivated and engage in the learning process? How do we guide them to keep that passion for learning as they travel through middle and high school? How do we get them to be the point of self-efficacy?
As student reach the levels of middle and high school their reading skills have to be to that level of where they can address the demand posed by the challenge of academia. At these levels students need to work with text that are dense, contain descriptive and full of new and difficult vocabulary, primarily in the areas of science and social studies. In most cases the students don’t have the ability to translate what they have read, due to the fact that this is not directly taught. Educators play a large role in that they can either support or impair students in developing positive literacy identities (McCombs & Barton, 1998). We as educators need to be aware as well as sensitive of the social and cultural elements of literacy. We need to be aware that social persuasion and anxiety can hamper self-efficacy.
In this chapter, six we are giving strategies to use in assisting the students who come into our world to stay engage in learning as well as to keep them motivated in purposeful learning. We as educators need to have the ability to create a perspective for students to get into reading. We need to select text that would be of interest to the students as well as to reflect students’ interest. We need to engage the students in making connections that wouldn’t be able to make through just reading the text or listening to class lectures. We need to make the readings valuable and real to the students. Once we as educators have implemented motivation and purpose we can put strategies into place for the students to read with purpose and anticipation.
The engagement of content literacy activities and the activation of our students’ prior knowledge will be both beneficial to their success in content-area reading and give rise to a meaningful and successful experience.
I look forward to using the PreP Procedure strategy in my work with struggling readers.
Response # 4
Integrating Reading and Writing
Why integrate reading and writing?
In our culture the ability to read and write is essential. The ability to read and write is vital for the young child to participate in his/her culture. Reading opens the doors of knowledge and the world of literature for the young child. As decided at the turn of the century by Harvard and other universities, the reading of literature is essential to the process of learning to write. Reading is essential for the young child to come into contact with his/her universe. Writing allows the young child to express his/her thoughts, feelings and to communicate with each other. To the young child writing is a release of an inner impulse that brings satisfaction to the child.
Vacca, (2011) states that: “Classrooms that integrate reading and writing lend encouragement to students who are maturing as readers and writers and provide instructional support so that readers and writers can play with ideas, explore concepts, clarify meaning, and elaborate on what they are learning” (pg.282). My interpretation of this is that the integration of reading and writing is what is referred to as Total Reading. Total Reading is the ability to receive all we can through the graphic symbols. Total Reading is not just reading mechanically but it includes written words.
Vacca (2011), states: “Think of reading and writing as two sides of the same coin. Whereas the writer works to make a text sensible, the reader works to make sense from a text” (pg.282). Reading inspires students, through introduction to great ideas as well as to improve their ability to think critically and analytically. Reading gives students not only something to talk about beyond their own personal experiences but to write about. Reading offers students illustration of models of truly excellent writing as well as to offer them instruction in voice, syntax, organization and language.
Vacca (2011), states: “Why connect reading and writing in instructional contexts? From a content literacy perspective, writing about ideas and concepts encountered in texts will improve students’ acquisition of content more than simply reading without writing” (pg.283). Reading and writing should connect in instructional context because my belief is that students’ learning is improved when writing is included in their learning process. We can use writing to enhance the student’s reading experiences. This is one of the most common ‘write-to-learn’ exercises. Reading involves communication that is graphically recorded, while when writing the student formulate and record their thinking. Reading and writing work best when one process stimulate the other.
Response #3
Learning with Trade Books & Writing to Learn
Does writing to learn give the pupil more learning power? Writing is an active learning undertake. When we write to learn we rewrite, revise, organize, analyze and evaluate information as a mean of communication. The act of writing involves practically the whole body. Writers write because they want to see what their words tell them. Vacca (2011), states that: “To entice and encourage a new generation of readers, trade books must reflect their diverse needs and interests” (356). We as teachers/educators need to assist in nurturing that culture of reading. We need to help pupils to categorize the world around them. We need to provide them with the keys to unlocking this mysterious world that surrounds them. Vacca (2011) states that we should provide the pupils with books that will take them to different places, books that would let them live different live and be different people (356). In nurturing the pupils’ cultural awareness in reading, I would also like them to see the beauty and richness of the world through books. I believe that if the pupils are provided with textbooks that have a positive benefit and are worthwhile and simple to understand, they would be motivated to read.
The process of writing can help clarify as well as grow the pupil’s thought and understanding. Writing to learn is based on the fore mention observation. Writing to learn is the process of reading, thinking, writing, rereading and rewriting that occurs over a period of time. Writing to learn are informal writing tasks that help pupils to think through key ideas or concepts presented in a course. Writing to learn can be short and impromptu. Writing to learn is powerful in that we need writing to learn to help in communicating information. We need writing to learn to clarify thinking as well as to learn new ideas and concepts. The power comes in the pupils’ ability to take the ideas and concepts and transforming them into their own words. Writing to learn crosses all content areas, for example writing about one’s experience in solving a difficult mathematical problem.
Response #3
Learning with Trade Books & Writing to Learn
Does writing to learn give the pupil more learning power? Writing is an active learning undertake. When we write to learn we rewrite, revise, organize, analyze and evaluate information as a mean of communication. The act of writing involves practically the whole body. Writers write because they want to see what their words tell them. Vacca (2011), states that: “To entice and encourage a new generation of readers, trade books must reflect their diverse needs and interests” (356). We as teachers/educators need to assist in nurturing that culture of reading. We need to help pupils to categorize the world around them. We need to provide them with the keys to unlocking this mysterious world that surrounds them. Vacca (2011) states that we should provide the pupils with books that will take them to different places, books that would let them live different live and be different people (356). In nurturing the pupils’ cultural awareness in reading, I would also like them to see the beauty and richness of the world through books. I believe that if the pupils are provided with textbooks that have a positive benefit and are worthwhile and simple to understand, they would be motivated to read.
The process of writing can help clarify as well as grow the pupil’s thought and understanding. Writing to learn is based on the fore mention observation. Writing to learn is the process of reading, thinking, writing, rereading and rewriting that occurs over a period of time. Writing to learn are informal writing tasks that help pupils to think through key ideas or concepts presented in a course. Writing to learn can be short and impromptu. Writing to learn is powerful in that we need writing to learn to help in communicating information. We need writing to learn to clarify thinking as well as to learn new ideas and concepts. The power comes in the pupils’ ability to take the ideas and concepts and transforming them into their own words. Writing to learn crosses all content areas, for example writing about one’s experience in solving a difficult mathematical problem.
Response #3
Learning with Trade Books & Writing to Learn
Does writing to learn give the pupil more learning power? Writing is an active learning undertake. When we write to learn we rewrite, revise, organize, analyze and evaluate information as a mean of communication. The act of writing involves practically the whole body. Writers write because they want to see what their words tell them. Vacca (2011), states that: “To entice and encourage a new generation of readers, trade books must reflect their diverse needs and interests” (356). We as teachers/educators need to assist in nurturing that culture of reading. We need to help pupils to categorize the world around them. We need to provide them with the keys to unlocking this mysterious world that surrounds them. Vacca (2011) states that we should provide the pupils with books that will take them to different places, books that would let them live different live and be different people (356). In nurturing the pupils’ cultural awareness in reading, I would also like them to see the beauty and richness of the world through books. I believe that if the pupils are provided with textbooks that have a positive benefit and are worthwhile and simple to understand, they would be motivated to read.
The process of writing can help clarify as well as grow the pupil’s thought and understanding. Writing to learn is based on the fore mention observation. Writing to learn is the process of reading, thinking, writing, rereading and rewriting that occurs over a period of time. Writing to learn are informal writing tasks that help pupils to think through key ideas or concepts presented in a course. Writing to learn can be short and impromptu. Writing to learn is powerful in that we need writing to learn to help in communicating information. We need writing to learn to clarify thinking as well as to learn new ideas and concepts. The power comes in the pupils’ ability to take the ideas and concepts and transforming them into their own words. Writing to learn crosses all content areas, for example writing about one’s experience in solving a difficult mathematical problem.
Response #2 Assessing Students and Texts
Formal vs Informal
Instructional assessment is a process of gathering and using multiple sources of relevant information about students for instructional purposes. Assessment in content area classrooms means that students and teachers are actively engaged in a process of evaluation and self-evaluation. Instead of measuring learning exclusively by a score on a standardized test or proficiency exam, the learning process includes assessment of authentic tasks. (Vacca, 2011, pg. 84)
After reading the chapter, I reflected upon the above sentences. My take is that there is ongoing assessment, which, is in the form of the daily observation conducted by teachers/educators of students language and thinking as they learn. The issue with this is that observation without feedback is of little value. We as teachers/educators have to encourage, support, correct and suggest new ways to illustrate that learning. Students should then use summative assessment to show their combined learning of the concepts, big ideas, important facts, skills and language. Summative assessments do foster a lot of learning.
We as teachers/educators need to think of assessments as both avenues and destinations for learning. Assessment can and do provide effective ways to not only teach language but to test it. We as teachers/educators need to provide the students with tools that will best serve their needs. We as teachers/educators need to create assessments that will allow students to step into real communication practices. We need to scaffold and model the language and thinking that we desire to see in our students’ assessment as visible and explicit as we can.
idpaul 