The Wizard of Oz

One of my first reading experiences was reading so0me of the Wizard of Oz series by Frank L. Baum. I can remeber being extremely excited every time we would read a new chapter. This has been a family tradition. These book were read to my father by his father and then were read to me. They are still in our possession and I fully plan on sharing these stories with my children. I can remember as a young girl being extremely excited everytime we were about to read a new chapter. I would follow along with my father and everytime we would come to the word oz I would read the word. This forced me to pay attention and to recognize certain words and to become a better reader. Also through this experience I was able to spend quality time with my father. I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience with their reading? Also I was wondering if anyone else has a book that has been passed down in thier family and what it was?

Take a Story and Make it your Own

The students in my second grade class were recently given a district writing prompt that they were to complete. The prompt went something like this: you are on a playground and you find a key write a story about what happens next. Most of the students in the class simply rewrote the lion the witch and the wardrobe. As the teacher was reading through all of the she realized all of the students were having the same problem. They were using previous knowledge but they were not changing what they had previously read.

In order to solve the problem the teacher that I am working with decided to do a writers workshop with the students. They all were to take a story that the class would be familiar with and then they had to make it their own. Everyone was to share their story with the class and the class would try to guess what the original story was. I felt that this was good pratctice for the students.

Has anyone seen anything like this done? What are your teachers completing for writes workshops?

Listening

Consider the various kinds of listening children and you do during a typical day. How are they similar to each other? How are they different? How did you learn to listen in different ways? How might you teach children to listen in different ways?There are basically four purposes or types of listening: discriminative, aesthetic, efferent, and critical (Tompkins, 2009).
Discuss the parallels between these type of listening and reading/writing (Ch. 3 in Tompkins).
Categorize the kinds of listening you do each day and that you observe children doing in your field experience.What advice might Paley give you regarding teaching listening in the classroom?



There are four types of listening that are described in Tompkins on page 214. The first is dscrimitive which means to distinguish among sounds. I have witnessed my students for Tuesday Experience engaged in this type of listening when they are reading and writing poems. The teacher will ask them to come up with rythming words of their own and they will have to pick them out of a poem that is read to them. I have also seen the stidents using this type of listening while they are read stories that have many sound words. They are also encouraged to use these words in their own writing to make their stories really come to life for the reader. I also believe that I am still engaged in this type of listening. When I read a poem or have one read to me I believe that I still focus on the rhyming words but also listen to what else in in the poem and try to find a deeper meaning if there is one. At a younger age I would have only focused on the rhyming words.



The next example of listening is aesthetic. When engaged in this type of listening it is being done for enjoyment. One way that I have seen my students engaged in this type is when the teacher will put on a CD for them. While they are test taking she likes to put on calming and soft music to help the students to relax. Also in the classroom there are many stories and poems that are read alloud by either the teacher, the children or me. While they are listening to these being read they are enjoying what they are listening to. They also are alloud to write for fun. They are giving creative prompts where they are able to use their imagination. I feel that I am also engaged in this type of listening through the day. I like to listening to music and will have it on in the background while I fall asleep. I believe that when I was younger that if I were doing this type of listening it would make me tired. Now I am able to really focus even when it is just for fun.



Then next type of listening is efferent. This is done to understand messages. One way that studnets are engaged in listening like this in the classroom is when they are doing history. The teacher recently did a study about Martin Luther King. The students had to listen to stories read about his life and watch movies about him to listen for important information. They also have been learning about biographies and what they read about in a biography. I also continue to do this type of listening but mostly it will come from lectures and shows that I am interested in. I enjoy watching the history channel to gain more information about certain topics. When I was younger I never would have watched a program because I wanted to learn more about a topic I would watch my cartoons.

The last type of listening there is is critical. During this lesson messages are being evaluauted. I have not seen my children exposed in this type of listening to often but an example would be when they are evaluating a class fight. One day the class had a debate of their won about point being recieved and if it was fair. While the teacher decided for them they were all allowed to speak their minds and those students that were not spesking were involved in critical listening. I feel that I am now much more engaged in this type of listening then from when I was younger. There are more debates in the classed I am in and I find myself viewing commercials for the value of the product.

I was wondering what people's favorite type of listening is today and why?
My favorite type of listening is efferent because I enjoy watching programs that will give me information. When I was younger I would say that my favorite type of listening discrimitive because I loved to listen for sounds.

Journal Writing

When I was a student I can remeber doing writing assignment in a blue book that was provided to us. One of my favorite journal writing experiences was a journal that we had to write in as if we were on the Oregon trail. Once or twice a week we would use the journal as if it were a diary. We were to write what we thought might have happened to us on that day. I though this experience was particularly helpful becuase it really allowed us to try to imagine what life was like back then. There were also many other writing prompts that we used in school. In my Tuesday experience classroom the students just completed a writing propt by using thier senses. The student were asked to use their senses to describe their favorite place and then to write a paragraph about it.

There are seven types of journals that Tompkins has described that can be used for different ideas expressed through language arts.The first is personal journals. This is ussually the first type of journal writing that students are exposed to. The second type of journal writing is dialogue journals. These journals are interactive and allow students to recieve feedback about their writing similar to what we are doing with the blogs. The third type is reading logs. Students use these to to write about stories or other books that they have been reading. The fourth is double entry journals. Students will use this to write quotes from the story in the left column and in the write column make text to world connections. The next type is language arts notebooks. Students are able to record a variety of language arts information about language arts topics. The last two types of journal writing are learning logs and simmulated journals. For learning logs students record about what they are learning in other content areas. While using simulated journals studtns assume the role of the character and write from their perspective.

Teachers can evaluate journals by giving students one point for every entry made. Teachers want to remember that someof students writing may be personal and can be indicated by students writing read me at the top of an entry or by writing private.

The types of letters that students write are friendly letters, business letters, and simulated letters. Friendly letters are used to help students learn to write letters. When they have decided to write a friendly letter they need someone to write to. It can be to a pen pal and author or other. Business letters arr used to help students to seek information. Simulated letters are used to help students assume the identity of historical figure and then to write a letter that would have been written by that person.

Teachers can incoperate this into their instructional programs by allowing students to write to an author that they have read about or to allow students to write business letters to ask questions to further their understanding.

I believe that Reeny would love personal writing. It would allow her to write about what she wants to write about. It would be a way for her to talk about herself and talk about Lionni. I believe she would be excited and enjoy this time spent.

Paley would want use to remember that it is personal. It is a way to get to know the students and be able to discover their interests. Once a teacher has discovered a common theme she will be able to encorperate that into the classroom. Students will learn best when they are exploring something about what they are interested in.

Writing Assessments

The main point that I have learned by assessing student's writing is to not judge a book by its cover. When looking at the three samples I immediately thought that Chelsea's was the best. When taking a closer I began to realize that hers looked the best because she was not taking any risks. While looking at the other two samples there was more sentence varitety and these two students were using some multi syllable words. I believe that this was important for me to learn because I would have spent time analyzing the hand writting and not the content of the writing. Know that I am aware that neatness is not all that goes into writing I will be able to adequetly assess student's work. It was also helpful to have a better understanding of the stages indiciating what type of spelling mistake it was. This brings me back to last semester and the running records. Going through this whole process will definatley help me with any future writing assessments that I will have to complete.

I found the handout that about the different types of sentences to be extremely helpful. By looking at this sheet I was able to realize that Chelsea had no change in her sentences. The other two students were able to vary their sentences by not only using simple sentences but also useing compound sentences. Scott was also able to use one complex sentence. With all of this information I will be able to better judge my student's writing.

Coming to an End

At the end of this book I came to the realization that all good things must come to an end. Each year as teachers we will all be faced with the fact that we have to say to goodbye. In the end as a future teacher I hope that I will be able to know that I have prepared my students for the next year that they will encounter. I also came to realize that some years may have harder goodbyes then others. It seemed that this could have been Paley's hardest year to say goodbye. Through out this hole story there have been many stories that I have learned from. Sometimes it is children who are able to look at a problem in the correct light and are able to solve. Sometimes I feel that adults minds are not as open and sometimes are not able to find the answer that is right in front of them. While reading the Leo Liononi stories in class last time I would never have read as much into them as these children have. Sometimes in a classroom you have to take what the children are interested in and find ways to incorperate all the other lessons into that one topic. I hope that I will be as big of a part in my student's lives as Paley was with her students.

Something about the author

While reading the next several chapters in this book I enjoyed the chapter inch by inch. I felt that the students were able to continue their connection to Lio Lionni through learning more about him and what his life stood for. The students were also able to make text to text connections by reading about the author and then connecting his life story to what he was trying to portray through his stories. While reading the chapter entitled another layer I was able to make text to text connections myself through other reading I have done. While reading about Reeny's father and the incidence with the women in the office and the copy machine I made the connection that racism still exists. People still feel that African Americans play a certain role in this society and they are not able to amount to anything more. I have felt that racism still exists for a while but through this and through other readings it is apparent how prevelant this issue still is today.

What we can learn from Reeny

Through reading the first couple of chapters of this book I was very impressed with Renny's reasonings. While the students were listening to Tico Reeny explained the he really did not think that he was better then his friends they all just thought that he did. He sacrificed the wings so that he could have his friends back and helped the poor people so that they could have something as well. Her reasoning was entirely different than everyone elses. Her reasoning was also different than what my reaction would have been to the story. It is amazing what people are able to see through the eyes of the innocent. In Reeny's eyes everyone has some good in them. Reeny also makes t-t connections when discussing the idea that Tico and Fredick have different friends.

Through Fredrick the mouse Reeney is able to make text to self connections. "That brown mouse seems just like me.... Because I am always thinking 'bout colors and words the same like him." Most of the children argue that Fredrick is not mice because he is not helping the other mice; Reeny comes to his defense and says he is not as nice but he is not a mean mouse. Through these stories Reeny is able to put herself in the shoes of the charaters that Lio Lionni has created. This is very unusual for a young child to do.

Through the beginning of this book I found myself trying to understand Reeny and trying to understand how she came about her reasonings. When she cried in the story I actually felt for her. All she wanted was to be able to undertand why the author made Tico's friends the way he did and may never be able to understand why this is so.

While I continue to read I hope to learn more insights into the life of Reeny.

What are literature focus units?


Literature focus units are designed to help students move through the five stages of the reading process. Students are able to do this as they read and respond to stories, learn reading and writing strategies and skills, and engage in labguage arts activities. There are eight steps in developing a literature focus unit.



The first step to be aware of is selecting the featured book. Once this book has been selected teacher's gather related readings. These can be books by the same author, books with the same topic or other realted readings. The second step is to identify the instructional focus. In this step teachers will identify the the instuctional focus for the unit and then matching the book's strengths with language arts standards.



The third step for teachers is to specify language arts stategies and skills to teach. Teachers will also decide which activities they should include in their unit. The fourth step is to plan reading process activities. The fith step is to coordinate patterns with activities. Teachers must decide how to incorporate everything from whole-class activities to individual activities in their lesson.



Step six in this process is to locate technology resources. This can be very benificial to help students to move through this focus unit. The last two steps in this process are to plan for assessment and to create a time schedual. While planning for assessment teacher's plan two types. They are assessment of student's learning and monitoring of student's work.



When all of these steps are followed and implimented the teacher will have created a successful

literature focus unit that their students will enjoy.