Week 9: New Literacy Reflection

Second Life is a software that I can honestly say I never thought I would use prior to this project.  After talking about different types of technology we could use, my group decided to try a technology that would be new for all of us.  I can honestly say I already am very happy we chose to go down this new path because it provides me with the opportunity to learn something new and different ways to incorporate it in my future classrooms.  The population on Second Life consists primarily of older/higher grade level students, however with the expansion and growth of technology I would not be surprised if younger students begin to use this technology as well.
Second Life allows users to connect and communicate.  This is a HUGE component that will allow students to learn from one another.  Connecting to others in a safe environment allows students to explore, teach and learn about their cultures as well as others.  This opportunity has been difficult for most people to have; however now students can connect with other students of different native speakers of particular languages which will provide a more meaningful and real experience for the students which in turn will provide motivation.  This technology provides native English speakers to learn more about other cultures and languages as.  It also doubles as a great opportunity for ELLs to learn and grow in new ways.  Second Life provides a forum in which only written language is used; however, it will be interesting when they can provide sound (text to voice or voice to voice) communication.    Regardless, the written communication provides students to communicate and practice a new language in a safe, non-threatening classroom environment.  Additionally, it is similar to using twitter in the classroom, it opens up the communication for students who may be shy or otherwise would not talk or participate.
After researching and exploring more I have discovered that we are not the first to think about using Second Life for educational purposes.  Although we are not the first it is still a new concept that I don't think will become extinct anytime soon.  I look forward to creating more of the environment and really showing my peers what this technology can do in and out of classrooms for our students!

Week 9 - New Literacy Reflection

    So far, I have had a great time learning about our chosen medium to present this New Literacy project- Google Earth! I've heard so much about it, but to be honest I had never tried it before this project. I'm learning so much about this resource; it is so great how you can create slide shows and tours that people can follow. It's awesome that you can even make recordings and listen to recordings that others have made!

    Something interesting is how much time and effort it took me to become even relatively familiar with this program. It makes me wonder, with all the new technology out there how teachers can possibly keep up. It is fun, but challenging, and I feel like teachers do not receive training for most of the new technology they receive. For example, I know that Charlotte just gave students an IPad- great, until you realize that very few teachers actually utilize the device since they themselves do not know how to work it.  I think with new mediums teachers have to make a decision- weigh out the benefits versus the cost of time to learn the medium, since it can take quite awhile to familiarize yourself with any new type of medium enough to where you feel comfortable using the medium in a classroom and lesson based setting.

   For me, I think that I would use Google Earth with my classes in the future- especially for lessons regarding different areas of the globe. It is a great way for students to not only go "exploring" without leaving the classroom, but I also like that students can get a sense of just how far away some of these places are as the globe turns. (This would be a LOT of fun to use for a geography lesson!) Overall, so far I think this project is great as it helps us to learn more about a medium for presenting literacy that we may not have previously been familiar with, but now can add to our arsenal of tools for future use in the classroom!

Week 8 - initial post

These readings helped me put a word to my most used reading strategy, "monitoring." I am a good reader, I enjoy reading when I have the time, and I like my books to make sense. There is usually a point in time where I have lost focus and I realize I have no idea what just happened in the last two pages. A this moment, I ask myself “What’s happening?” and if I can’t answer that question, I go back to a spot in the text where I know what is happening and then re-read.

There are also other strategies that I never had specific words for that I know I employ. I am capable of activating background knowledge and do so when I can. Recalling this previous knowledge then allows me to make connections (self-to-text, text-to-text, text-to-world) and build off of my schema. I use visualizing to a great extent and these images will play out in my head until my monitoring begins and I realize I have missed the last two pages due to my visualizing.  I will use repairing when I search for a word after I become stuck unfamiliar vocabulary and I cannot use context clues to infer meaning. Lastly, I use summarizing when I speak to another person about the book and provide my recommendation.

The “Profiles of Comprehension” was very insightful on the behaviors of students. I have seen these profiles in the classroom on a regular basis. The interventions suggested are very thoughtful and I would like to use these suggestions in my future classroom. The activities that are given to provide support for these profiles are easy to perform and sound very beneficial. I believe the most important aspect of these profiles, is that Applegate emphasizes that no student will always fit just one profile. A student can go through multiple profiles during the course. Making adjustments so students can view the material in new ways is critical for their comprehension.

Lupita-Week 7

Week 7-Lupita

Lupita is the type of student I have encountered many times in my placements. Many teachers assume that a student does not understand or has some sort of mental disability when the student is quiet. I feel that cultural differences play a large part how a student behaves in the classroom. It is possible that Lupita has trouble with transitions and her reaction is to be quiet (the opposite from the Marcus Case). Mrs. Potter should definitely try to learn more about Lupita’s funds of knowledge, educational experiences, and cultural differences that can contribute to her learning in the classroom. The fact that Lupita has had little experience with educational tools that are very common in an American classroom can be very overwhelming for her. I have witnessed students being held back due to their lack of social skills. These students were assumed to have poor academic skills but at the end of the day it was just a simple misunderstanding. Lupita may have come from a school that did not have hand manipulative or didn’t require social interaction with other children. The fact that Mrs. Potter does not call on Lupita only increases the communication gap. I believe that if Mrs. Potter socially interacted with Lupita (formally and informally), she would discover a lot of her assumptions of Lupita to be false. Lupita and her family members should be interviewed in order to accommodate Lupita in transitioning into an American classroom. It is also possible that Lupita may have never been exposed to English prior to moving, which can also cause issues with communication. Mrs. Potter can try to incorporate more visual aides as well as teach in themes to make her curriculum more comprehensible for Lupita.

Jonathan: Week 7

Jonathan:

First we need to remember everyday, that our class is made up of individual students.  Jonathan is a successful student in various subjects other than reading.  This struggle could be caused from a number of reasons.  From Kostelnick’s article regarding gifted and challenging students.  From the information shared about Jonathan, it seems as if he could struggle with dealing with more than one idea at a time, prefer to talk rather than write or he may just learn the basic skills with little practice due to the possibility of failure.  I was a similar student to Jonathan and continue to work on balancing my reading skills with other subjects.  Since we know his strengths and his interests, we can guide him to see the relevance of reading in these areas.  As stated before, Jonathan is enjoys playing the piano, which is an amazing talent; however, it also requires you to be able to read music.  He also does average work in mathematics, which again make you read equations and solve them.  This is the trend you can show him, he is good at reading, and he is very talented because he is able to read in many different ways.  Once he sees that he can read we can focus on improving his literature reading ability.  This can also be done by incorporating literature into music, baseball and mathematics.  Finding books of interest, maybe a book on imroving baseball pitching techniques, word problems in math or a book about playing piano/reading the words to the songs he plays.  All of these are different avenues to go down in order to spark his interest in literature.  Also, you could try allowing his to move around the room, out of his desk, to read in a more comfortable environment.  Students may sometimes feel as if they are being graded if they are stuck in their desks, so allowing him additional space around the classroom will help him feel more at ease.

Eddie - Week 7

Eddie

I believe Mrs. Potter should be thankful that she has a student who has a wonderful imagination and vast amounts of energy. First and foremost, Mrs. Potter should view Eddie not as being disadvantaged by his way of thinking, but view it positively as an ability that allows him to see and do things differently than other students. By keeping this mind frame, Mrs. Potter will not see Eddie as being a deficient or ineffective learner, but as a learner that excels at unconventional thinking. To adjust to Eddie’s way of thinking, Mrs. Potter must make changes that allow him to focus on tasks he deems relevant and create an environment suitable for people with ample energy.

The Kostelnick and Breitfelder articles present some students with paralleling classroom behaviors and have some effective and relatively simple methods to help focus students with ADHD or LD characteristics. To help amend Eddie’s persistent physical movements, the teacher could simply give him something to manipulate to help focus his energy. In the Kostelnick article, the teacher refused giving Marcus any object to help him channel his seemingly uncontrollable need to move. She expected him to just act “normal” and the relationship between the teacher and student devolved. Certainly, there must be rules to govern the use of such a manipulative so as not to distract other students or impede Eddie from focusing on class work. This small adjustment would make a world of difference in redirecting the physical output of Eddie.

To help keep Eddie focused or refocus Eddie, a schedule showing him where to go and a work system showing him what to do would perform wonders. The Breitfelder article details how providing visual representations that direct action allows students to work independently. A work system will allow Eddie to look at what is to be accomplished and what has yet to be accomplished. Providing simply stated goals in chronologic order gives students a chance to look at their directives and helps bring their minds back from wandering.  

Week 7 - Lupita

From what Mrs. Potters mentions about Lupita, it seems that she is the third type of ELL mentioned in the Freeman & Freeman article- a recent arrival with adequate schooling. Lupita speaks little to no English but has demonstrated that she is at the same cognitive level as her fellow classmates; even a little ahead, since not only did she finish the assignment given to her early but was able to help other students who could not figure out a puzzle solve theirs since she solved hers already.

While her school in Mexico may not have prepared Lupita to speak English at a native level, it did appear to give her academic content knowledge that she can apply to her learning in Mrs. Potter's classroom. And her lack of English skills is not actually spoken about by Mrs. Potter- it just says that Lupita is so quiet that she rarely is called on because of Mrs. Potter's fears about her academic skills, not just her language ability. It may be that Lupita is just very shy and needs encouragement. A third possibility is that Lupita is just not as familiar with the materials being used in the classroom on a daily basis and just needs more time and exposure to the tools in order to become comfortable with their use. While able to speak English and able to apply previously learned background knowledge to her lessons here, she just doesn't know how to express the answer using the tools given to her.

One way Mrs. Potter could modify or tailor her instruction in such a way that would benefit Lupita without getting off track for the rest of the class would be, according again to Freeman & Freeman, to provide a "challenging, theme-based curriculum".  Mrs. Potter could have topics that help Lupita not only learn and practice her English, but as something that could connect with Lupita's background and previous knowledge, to scaffold what she already knows to new information, thus building Lupita's skills and confidence in what she knows. Freeman & Freeman also mentioned letting the student occasionally play the role of "informal expert" to help increase confidence.

Brietfelder's article also mentioned a couple of ways Mrs. Potter could enhance her lessons to help Lupita out. One way would be to include more visual supports. This way, it helps Lupita process language better and become a better English speaker and reader. (That is, if that is what Lupita is struggling with.)

Lastly, I think one of the best ways Mrs. Potter could help Lupita would be to do something where she wouldn't even have to change her curriculum for. I think if Mrs. Potter just called on Lupita more often, and was patient and gave her a chance to answer questions, and to be rewarded verbally or otherwise when getting the right answer, may help to increase Lupita's confidence and therefore her willingness to participate in lessons and raise her hand more often.