Readings for Feb. 21

These were not my favorite readings compared to others we have recently read, but I think a few of them brought up some important points. I find it hard to really get into an article or chapter in a textbook if it does not relate to what I am observing in my placement. When reading the Tompkins chapter and the Holliman article I was not as engaged in them as the other readings. However these readings did remind me of struggles I had last year in my 301 placement because I was in a Kindergarten room. The ideas such a concepts of print, phonemic awareness, and print awareness all came screaming back to me. We were drilled with these ideas so much in 301 that I don’t think I will ever forget them. The basic concepts of print are so important and I found it so frustrating in my Kindergarten placement when students struggled with such simple things are letter/sound relationships. Also, when students were unable to even identify letters (not to mention their sounds) it was hard to know where to go from there because it does not get any more basic than that. Furthermore, the Holliman article reminded me of my Kindergarteners doing centers last year. This article makes centers seem to be a very positive thing (which I think they are) while this was not necessarily the case in my experience. The teacher did not use centers to benefit the children, and did it more to waste time with meaningless tasks. This is not to say that all the centers were meaningless, there would be a couple beneficial activities that the students partook in, but also many centers that needed improvement. The teacher took this time to individually test students, which was needed, however this meant she was not interacting with the students at the actual centers whatsoever. The classroom always seemed to be chaotic and many times the students had no idea what they were supposed to do at each center. This left the students confused and therefore off-task. The teacher also made the mistake of not allowing for any choices to be made by the students. She told them exactly what they had to do and how to do it. I do believe centers can be a great way for hands on learning, problem solving, exploration, discovery, and collaboration to occur just as it is described in the article, however I would love to observe a classroom where centers are implemented successfully.
On a more positive note, the Gibbons chapter, Mohr article, and Avalos article were interesting to me because I am currently in TE 494 and have an ESL placement in addition to my 4th grade 402 placement. Many ideas about working with ELLs found in these articles apply to my 494 placement and I can see them directly relating to the ESL classroom. The steps described in the Avalos article regarding modified guided reading can be seen in my classroom somewhat. They work in small groups as well as one-on-one with the teacher and analyze the text, practice shared reading, and respond to the text. I also found the Mohr article to bring up a good point about pullout ESL programs (such as the one I observe). It is easy to place the responsibility of the student’s academic success on the ESL teacher when it should not be. It is extremely important as an ESL teacher to talk with the student’s mainstream teacher and make a plan to most beneficially address the needs of the student and give them the extra help in the areas they need to work on. It is the responsibility of both teachers that each student experiences success.