The Importance of Play in the Classroom...

In today's classrooms, especially from grades one on up, there is a lot of 'business' that MUST get done.  Besides teaching, teachers are required to pre-test, and post test students over lessons.  The testing results are expected to show a mastery of the lesson taught.  Students are expected to sit in their desks, following the rules: quietly sitting, not bothering their neighbors and staying on task.  Time for students to create seems to have vanished with the extra recess part of the day at most schools.

In an article from Reading Research Quarterly, Dr. Karen E. Wohlwend (2008) documented the importance of play in learning within a kindergarten classroom.  Specifically, Dr. Wohlwend goes on to say that playing school at school is an important tool for students.  In playing school the students pair up reading and playing as reading-to-play, and playing-to-read.  Students showed these disciplines connected by reading books, reading charts, pretending to be the teacher, and by teaching pretend students.  In these ways, students made sense of books and multimedia, as well as produced social spaces where they indicated how kindergarteners should acts as readers and writers, leaders and followers, or boys and girls.

If these practices in a kindergarten room reinforce peer learning and set the stage for norms expected within the classroom, why is it that school districts feel teachers should act more as disciplinarians and less like facilitators of knowledge bearers?  Why are students expected to sit and be spoken at all day long?  How drab.

I understand the importance of being able to account for what our students are learning, and agree that tests are a quick and easy way to test knowledge.  But I feel there are also other ways our students can show what they learn.  I feel deeper learning happens when students are allowed to learn through inquiry, and study topics that matter to them.  Upper elementary students still need play in their lives.  I hope to be able to facilitate playing-to-learning within my classroom through role playing.  To learn about different cultures and groups who shaped our history, and to grasp the important lessons to be learned, my classroom will transform into those different cultures.  As an example, when studying Indiana history, we shall become members of tribes or explorers from the early days of Indiana.  We will write about our experiences in authentic ways, keeping journals, writing letters, reading recipes.  We will read stories that connect us, our classroom, to our community of long ago.

I believe no child benefits from being seated at their desk the entire school day.  Truly, most adults in the real world function by interacting with others.  Most adults are not in stationary positioned all day long either.  Why then do we expect that of our students?   In order for our students to become active learners, they need to be inspired by teachers who are willing to interact with them.

~ltk

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” 
                                                                                        ― Benjamin Franklin

-----


reference:

Wohlwend, K. E. (2008) . Kindergarten as Nexus of Practice: A Mediated Discourse Analysis of Reading, Writing, Play and Design in an Early Literacy .  Reading Research Quarterly, 43(3) , pp. 332-334 . Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20068350?uid=3739664&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103781288033

2 of 5

Testing. A Necessary Evil?

Testing.  A necessary evil?  Achievement...what is it, really?  How does one measure it and, can it authentically be measured?  These are questions that I am trying to define this semester as I study to become a classroom teacher.  

Standardized testing has been in place for a long, long time.  Not long ago, standardized tests were just one of many tests given to students to measure their abilities.  

As adults, we are tested daily, and in many ways.  Did you get up for work and arrive there at a certain time?  Did you care for or feed any children or pets before you left the house?  If you have children, did you make them a healthy lunch or make sure they have money to buy lunch?  Did you get them to school, or watch them catch the bus?  Did you follow the traffic laws on your own way to work, or to run errands?  Are you wearing appropriate clothes? Are you using appropriate language?  The “tests” we go through are non-stop.  Each “test” tells a tiny little bit about what makes us who we are.  

If I get up late one day and arrive late to where I need to be, most around me would chalk it up to I’m just having an “off” day.  One messed up “test” does not define all of me.  And yet, in our schools...one test can mean a lot.  

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), created in 2001, requires states to develop assessments in basic skills.  In order for schools to receive federal funding, they must give these assessments to all students at selected grade levels.  AND, annual improvement must be shown. 

The assessments given in Indiana, are the ISTEP tests.  ISTEP is given in grades 3-9 each spring.   In grade 10, students take the ISTEP and a Graduation Qualifying Exam.  If students pass those tests, they will be able to graduate from high school upon finishing up their required credits.  If they do not pass the Graduation Qualifying Exam, they would be placed in remedial classes until they pass.  Actually, at any grade level students may be placed in remedial classes based on their one test score.  

NCLB creates high stakes testing.  High stakes tests do NOT mean the characteristics of the test are high stakes, but rather that the consequences placed on the outcome are high stakes.  

A school that receives passing test scores is eligible for federal funding or specific grants.  

As an educator, I know there is more that makes up Timmy than what one test tells.  But to policy makers, if Timmy doesn’t get a certain passing score, or show improvement, he may be retained.  Possibly, I could get fired as well, based on Timmy’s score.  (More than likely though, based on the overall scores of my class.)  And if I get fired based on my student’s scores, good luck to me in getting re-hired else where.  I am expected to teach material that is or may be on the tests...not necessarily things to enhance my student's lives, or make them richer thinkers.  Yet, I know that all students are NOT created equally!  Different techniques for learning work for different students.  Tests can’t always measure, AUTHENTICALLY, what a person/student knows or needs to know!  For example, I can bake a meal from scratch, make Halloween costumes by reading a pattern, and administer shots to my diabetic cat two times a day, and yet there isn’t a test I can think of that would allow me to shine in those areas of my interests and abilities.  

Studies have shown that when levels of teaching to the test increase, the quality in level of instruction goes down.  Principals are walking that line between enforcing policy makers policies and allowing teachers the freedom to teach in their classrooms.  Parents need to take note of what is happening in schools.  It is natural as a parent to want to trust in the system that has worked for so long.  But, the decisions being made in schools are really being made by policy makers removed from getting to know your child.  Parents and teachers need to work together.  Principals and teachers need to be supported by parents.  Parents need to connect with their policy makers.  A hands-off approach will not fix what is ailing in today’s education system.  

We may be creating a majority of students who can take tests, but intellectually we are not stimulating our children.  Future policy makers won’t be armed with creative abilities, and in my opinion, creativity leads to solving problems.  

How sad to label an entire school as failing or needing to be restructured based on one test score.  Teachers are trained to teach.  We need to allow them to shine by letting them do so.    

~ltk

CITATION: Baker, E. A., & Dooley, C. (2010, March 1). Teaching language arts in a high stakes era. Voice of Literacy. Podcast retrieved from http://voiceofliteracy.org

Practical Thoughts and Helpful Words...

“You cannot see into children’s minds, but their behaviors can guide your teaching decisions.” 
                                                                           ~ educators Fountas and Pinnell (2006) 

As an educator, it is my job to: 

• confer with my students as they read, and as they write 

• to take note and take notes

• to evaluate the things they can do, and the things they can almost do

• to be able to note when a student is ready for the next challenge in their reading and writing growth  

A good teacher makes plans for her whole class, small groups of students, and one-on-one teaching. Then, she can almost simultaneously execute her plans!  But, teachers are not superhuman beings.  They do eat, sleep and exercise too!  Sometimes they even spell words incorrectly or mispronounce them. 

To allow me to be the best teacher educator I can be, I will work with my student’s families.  With that thought in mind, here are a few tips I will share with my classroom families:   

• No one is held back from beginning reading, even if they do not know all of their letter or letter sounds!  

• Share with you student, no one memorizes every book they read!  Readers learn to figure out the words.  Remind them that you learned how to do this and they will be able to learn this too!

• Reading isn’t about just saying the words...it’s all the thinking that goes on in your head at the same time!  

• Remember those “rules” about language that WE learned...less than 45% of the time those hold true!  Besides, if you have to stop and recall a “rule,” you might forget what it is you are reading about!  

• If a book is too easy for your student, that’s okay!  Quantity of successful reading builds the assured independence of a competent reader. But, if you think your student needs more variety, send me a note.  We, your student and I, can work together to find some other great books to read!

• It’s more important to me that your student understand and comprehends what they are reading. I place less emphasis on students reading levels.  AND I know each student  will progress at a level and speed that is appropriate for them.  

• To create a love of reading in your student...read aloud to them!  Enjoying books together is a wonderful way to share time. 

• Let them read to you, then celebrate their independence of being the reader! Be a good listener.  

I know these tips may seem more appropriate for beginning readers and their families to hear, but as a mother of two college students, it is ALWAYS important to be a good listen to the children in our lives.  ~ltk

"A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words"

     As a Literacy Facilitator, I have been trained to help children develop strategies for learning to read and write.  As I move forward in becoming a classroom teacher, I am realizing that literacy involves so much more than just strategies for becoming a proficient reader and techniques for writing.  This semester I initially questioned, why am I taking Art Methods for Teachers as a class?  Digging deeper into how children learn to read, I am starting to understand the benefits of drawing...or pictures...and art in a young child’s life.  

     In the January issue of Language Arts magazine, Drs. Jerome Harste and Gunther Kress discussed semiotics and children.  Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and how they are used.  Harste’s background is in elementary education, and inquiry-based learning. He spent many years researching what children ages three to six knew about reading and writing before they went to school.  His research sparked his interest in semiotics.  Kress’ background is in linguistics, but he noted that his interest was pique  when in his research he observed six and seven year olds, “that they took as much care with their images as they took with their writing.” He also comments that he observed when children are older, say ages 13-14, and studying science, it is not uncommon for a teacher to say, ‘Write down what you did and draw what you saw.’  Kress goes on to suggest that drawing an image causes deeper thinking. If a student is told by their teacher to “draw a cell with it’s nucleus on the board,” the child will have to ask, or will have had to learn, how big the nucleus is, and where in the cell it may be located.  Drawing may offer more detail than solely writing...’a cell has a nucleus.‘   

     In a second article I recently read on images, called The Writing behind Drawing: Lessons learned from my Kindergarten Class by Wing-Yee Hui (2011), Hui used her own classroom as a study for observing drawing as writing.  From Hui’s research she notes that displayed in Olshansky’s Artist/Writer Workshops (2008) young children intuitively understand the meaning of pictures long before they master reading and writing of words on paper. Hui discusses the Reggio Emilia teaching approach which values the art languages as the way children make their thinking visible.  The light bulb just clicked on in my brain!  THIS is why I am taking an art methods class.  Art is a tool for thinking!  It allows different perspectives to be shown, emotions to be felt, and for properties of the physical world to be connected on deeper levels!  Heading into a classroom as a teacher this fall, I will now restate my writing day manta.  I used to say, “this is writing time, not art class.” I believe I will now be quicker to say, “Tell me about your drawing” or “show me what you mean with a picture.”

      Hui continues and sites Kress where he found that children were able to construct meaning naturally and easily using multi-modal symbols (multi-modality).  Multi-modality in this sense would be combining the visual (drawing) with audio (oral story telling) about what is happening in the student drawings.  In my own experience, while studying Math Methods for Elementary Teachers last semester, we placed importance on not only needing to be able to explain in words what we were doing as we solved problems in our class. We also had to draw a picture in our notes and/or on the board, as a way to make sense of our problems, and solutions.  Therefore, I would stretch Kress’ comments that even in Math classes, we have students draw images as a way to clarify thought, and show deeper meaning.  

     In the Language Arts magazine article, Harste asks Kress his opinions on what classroom teachers should keep foremost in their minds when using images (visual literacy).  Kress responds that society, through its culture, expresses itself in many different ways.  As a future classroom teacher, it is my job and responsibility to allow each of my students to share with me all the ways they understand the topics we are studying.  

~ltk 

references: 

Harste, J.C. and Kress, G. (2012) Image, Identity, and Insights into Language. Language Arts, 89 (3) , 205-210.

Hui, W. (2011) The Writing behind Drawing: Lessons learned from my Kindergarten Class.  Journal of Classroom Research in Literacy, 4, 3-14. 

1 of 5

Comprehension and the Teacher's Job...and What Proficient Readers DO

Comprehension IS thought.

How does one teach thought?  Everyone can think, so why try to teach how to think? This seems redundant.  In truth, children develop at different rates based on many internal and external influences.  I truly believe that all children want to be successful at school.  Some children need reminders that they all ready have what it takes to be successful.  They need encouragement to see all they possess.  If a child fails to understand a text they are reading, it is the teachers job to help identify first, students who are 'lost' and secondly, how to help lost students reconnect.  When a student doesn't understand something we are really meaning they do not comprehend.  A lack of comprehension may make a student feel inferior, not as smart as their peers, and not very good at school.  If a student has been unsuccessful in understanding things, they may shut down and not participate in the class discussions. Mostly this is seen when children are learning how to read, especially with struggling readers.

A teacher's job is to help identify students who are lost, those who don't quite understand.  It is also a teacher's job to make sure that each of their students develops a reading process system.  A reading process system is simply a set of strategies to become the best reader and the best at comprehending that one can be.  Proficient readers naturally develop these skills.  Struggling or beginning readers need help developing their skills in order to be successful.  These skills are questioning, visualization, inferring, predicting and summarizing.

As they read, proficient or capable readers will ask questions of the text.  They will make mental pictures (visualization) of what is happening.  They infer meaning based on their own background knowledge (schema).  They critique the text by making predictions of what will happen next.  In the end, they can summarize orally, then eventually on paper, what the main points of a particular reading.  Becoming a proficient reader does not mean a student needs to be able to name each strategy they are using.  A proficient reader just knows they can do, and does different things to help themselves understand.

In the classroom, a teacher models how something is done, does shared demonstrations, a guided practice and leads her students to independence.  When a teacher models a strategy she will actually do it AND think out loud.  This shows her students how it helps her to think as she is reading.  Shared demonstrations are initiated by the teacher.  She may say, "Let's read this together, and share what it makes us think about." In other words, she does the thinking with the students.  During guided practice, the students are allowed to practice the strategies on their own while the teacher takes mental or physical notes.  She can still guide the students if they need assistance.  Independence happens when the students initiate the strategies on their own.  The teacher is in the background just waiting and watching her students.  The action she may take at this stage will be encouragement.  She will  reinforce what was done correctly, and or effortlessly by pointing out the students strengths.  Students are also encouraged to talk about how different strategies help them to understand what it is they are reading.

The goal of our schools is not really to teach students how to parrot back answers they think teachers are wanting to hear.  Fact recalling is boring.  Instead, the goal of our schools needs to be to teach our students how to have original thoughts about what they read.  Original thinkers make better problem solvers.  Teachers grow smarter students when they help them make meaning of all they encounter at school.  Smarter students grow up to be smarter citizens.

~ltk

"How's my child doing?"

Day one... a child is born.

Within minutes a parent starts wondering and worrying...am I nursing them the correct way?  Is this the correct way to swaddle?  Do I have them in the bassinet in the proper position?  Will I be able to support them in all the right ways?  Will they get along with others?  Will they be as smart as their peers?  Will they be successful?

At every stage in a child's life, there are new worries a parent will face.  We live in a world where we look at ourselves and compare our success based on our own perception of someone else's success.  And our children are really just an extension of ourselves.

Hence the proverbial question a teacher hears..."How's my child doing?"

As children enter formal schooling in kindergarten, parents suddenly have a tangible system in place to look at their child.  It's easy to compare what they see happening in the form of growth between their child and the other students.   I recall taking my own children to the pediatrician for their annual well check-up and the doctor would hand me a sheet of paper with typical age milestones written down.  I would mentally check off all milestones reached.  Schools have agreed upon benchmarks that teachers are expected to have all children reach each year.  Unfortunately, children develop at different rates. On top of developing at different rates, children do not develop in a linear way!

This week for class, I read an article entitled "Sound Systems: Explicit Systematic Phonics in Early Literacy Contexts", by Anna Lyon and Paula Moore in which the stages of early reading and writing phases are noted.  As children learn to read, they start out in the Emergent stage.  Emergent readers know to read from left to right, they are starting to discover the difference between words and letters, letters and letters, and can read text that is highly predictable with pictures that offer strong clues (or representation of the text).  Emergent readers grow into early readers.  Early readers know their letters and can even identify some letter clusters and word parts.  Early readers benefit by working on phonic lessons that include vowel and consonant patterns.  Transitional readers are the next stage of development.  They are those readers who have developed sight word vocabularies that allow them to read without strong picture clues or patterns of predictable words.  These students can also recognize word chunks if they get stuck and they use other strategies to solve their word problems.  Upper level (more practiced) transitional readers may read easy chapter books.  As a former reading teacher, trust me, being able to read a chapter book means you can read in most children's eyes. As a parent, it also symbolizes success.  I'll admit, I was guilty of telling others...'he/she can read chapter books' when both of my children reached that stage.

Beginning writing abilities parrot beginning reading abilities and vice versa.  Children visually see by reading what they are learning to do in writing.  While reading they learn about letter features, how words are constructed, how to space words, how print on a page works, how to segment sounds in words, and from writing, how to self-monitor their reading (asking themselves 'does that look correct?).

Reading and writing are like Ying and Yang: they compliment and balance one another in a child's development.  Children, however, are not little computers to whom we can feed information into in a particular way. Then expect them all to come out the same, predictable...reaching benchmarks at exactly the same time.  Children are little people who bring to the classroom their own background experiences which color their development.  They may grasp one aspect of a developmental stage firmly and another from a different stage not so firmly, needing time and practice to learn necessary skills to more forward.  It is important to remember, individual children develop at individual rates.  Many children do not develop all skills at typical ages! And, many DO catch up.  Ever hear of a book called Leo, the Late Bloomer?

~ltk

Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

     Last semester in my graduate studies class load, I had Advanced Studies of Teaching Math in Elementary School (Math Methods).  The math calculations were not so horrible; and although I was stuck on solving base 5 problems for a short bit, I feel confident I can solve those types of problems now.  My Math Methods class was probably one of the hardest classes I've ever had.  What made that class so difficult?  Understanding how a child learns to do math.  I had never stopped to think about the stages a child goes through when learning mathematics.  Suddenly, I was being required to be able to identify and know exactly what stage a child might be in, what they failed to learn (or what they needed help with), how to help them understand what they were doing, and how to push them ahead to the next stage.  That task seems daunting to me when I think...a teacher has 25 students and needs to think about and help each one.

     This semester, in my Reading and Language Arts class, I am revisiting learning how a child learns, but this time...how to read, and also write.  I feel like I actually all ready know most of what I will be learning in this class.  Not because I am a smarty.  For the past 13 years, I truly have been doing exactly what our readings are explaining!  I feel I have an advantage over my classmates in these particular lessons.  I am most curious about what I may have been doing incorrectly, if anything.  But I am confident in saying, nothing.  I have made mistakes, but I've learned from them.  What didn't go over well the first time in a lesson, I polished and refined for the next time I taught it. But, when terminology is tossed about in our class, such as Picture Walk, 1-to-1 matching, leveled readers, Reading (or Running) Records, miscues, DRA, strategies and cueing, I see puzzled looks on faces around the room.  I have never been an expert on something, but our instructor is speaking a language I know well.  I am looking forward to sharing my experiences, and having things I learned refreshed in my mind.

     In our readings this week, it was suggested that parents can help their child/ren by reading aloud to them, take them to the library, show them all the things they read (and write) daily.  Exposing children to reading and writing, and allowing them to "play" and get comfortable with reading and writing materials is a great way to start a child's learning process.  If parents can do these things, a child has an advantage when they come to a formalized learning program.  They will be a step ahead of their average peers.  Exposure alone to reading and writing materials can give a struggling student an edge to get ahead, or to at least help them not fall behind their peers.   It's never too early to read to a child!  It's never too early to write with a child. It's never too late, either!

     Caution should be used, however, to encourage exploring rather then to expect perfection, especially at an early age.  Too easily adults forget that they did not read or write perfectly the first time they tried.  Children need to be allowed to play as they learn, and that may mean exploring, being creative or experimenting.  Playing takes time.  Some children shut down when expectations are set too high.  Some children shut down if they haven't appropriately developed the necessary skills needed before they begin to read and write (pre-reading skills).  *** Phonemic Awareness is part of the pre-reading skills a child acquires through just being exposed to materials, both visually and orally.   Phonemic Awareness is something I became aware of about three years ago in my literacy teaching.  I was introduced to it when I was to teach kindergarteners how to read.  I had all ready been teaching first graders for a decade.  How different could adding kindergarteners be, really?

     My Job/What I did: I worked with first graders, in groups no larger than 6 students for 30 minutes a day, four days a week.  On day five, the literacy facilitators would meet with the classroom teachers to discuss how our students were progressing.  If one child was pushing ahead or falling behind her/his peers, we would move that student to a group which better met their needs.  Our groups were flexible and could change weekly.  As instructors, we changed tables weekly as well.  By doing this, our students may hear the same instruction said in a different way; they would hear another competent adult sing their praises and encourage them.  When there were three first grade classes at our school, I spent an hour and a half teaching reading; 30 minutes per class.  When there were four first grade classes, I spent two hours teaching.  Each class would enter the literacy room and the students would disperse to tables that each contained a literacy teacher, like myself or their classroom teacher.  Typically first grade classrooms have no more than 24 students.  Each first grade class would come into our room at the same time each day and every single student received this instruction.  Our daily routine, varied depending on the day, but we always had familiar reading, writing, a new book and word work to do.

     When kindergarten classes were added to the mix: The kindergarteners would see me three days a week.  Initially, I would teach the kindergarteners using a different (Kindergarten) model, but eventually I would segue them into the First Grade Model.  The Kindergarten Model went for 16 weeks, I would read and sing a nursery rhyme with them, read them a story book then discuss First, Next, Then, and Last sequencing of the story, define characters, setting, plot, theme (maybe), do Phonemic Awareness, and play with magnetic letters of there alphabet.

     I was shocked when I witnessed children who did not know a nursery rhyme.  I live in a college town where I feel most parents are educated.  I worked at one of the more affluent schools.  Children who hadn't heard, what I think are, familiar nursery rhymes?  The children of today are missing out if they don't get to watch Barney, the purple dinosaur on PBS.  If parents aren't teaching children nursery rhymes, someone must!  Hickory, Dickory, Dock! Kindergarten is a good place for children to hear and learn nursery rhymes.  From these easy rhymes phonemic awareness can happen.  Phonemic awareness differs from Phonics in that it is learning sounds in words(hearing and saying).  Phonics is when letters are recognized and actually matched with the sound they make (hearing, seeing and saying).  A phonemic awareness activity I might do after singing Hickory, Dickory, Dock with students would be to say, "Which word starts like hickory? Dog or Hog?"   Phonemic awareness, hearing sounds, needs to happen before children can learn to read.  Hearing sounds means one can distinguish words from one another.  Phonemes are those tiny sounds that we move around within a word.  What sounds are in CAT?   /c/ /a/ /t/  What sounds are in MOTHER? /ma/ /th/ /er/  What sound is at the beginning of CAT? At the ending of CAT? In the middle of CAT? This is an easy, simple little thing anyone can do just when passing time with a little one.  The only requirements, ears and a mouth!


*** Older children who are struggling as readers/writers may have been forced to do drill work as an attempt to help them learn.  Surely the thought process is, if we drill them enough eventually it should sink in.  Possibly that is true.  But it is also possible that we turn students off with this type of lesson.  I have been guilty of doing this.  My readings this week have emphasized, and reminded me of, the importance of focusing on the positive children do as readers and writers.  Encouraging attempts and successes leads to a student willing to practice more.  With more practice and continued exposer to text, both written and oral, students will make connections and start to mimic what they see.  Students should be given opportunities to be successful at reading, where they can make real connections and make meaning out of drill work they are doing.

blog post based on readings for this week:

Johnson, P. and Keier, K. 2010. Catching Readers Before They Fall. ch 7. I Thought I Knew How to Teach Reading, but Whoa! (107-130)

Cusumano, K. (2008, September).  Language Arts.  Every Mark on the Page: Educating Family and Community Members about Young Children's Writing. 86 (1), 9-17.

Rasinski, T.V. and Padak, N.  (2008) Teaching Phonemic Awareness. In Rasinski, T.V. and Padak, N. From Phonics to Fluency: Effective Teaching of Decoding and Reading Fluency in the Elementary School.  (42-60).  Boston, MA. Pearson Education, Inc.