Choral Reading

This is the first experience that I have had with choral reading in a classroom. Many things can be taught through implementing choral reading into language arts classrooms in all grade levels. In class, we were to read a book and decide as a group how we were going read the book out loud. When making our decisions we had to think about juncture, pitch, rhythm, and tempo.

As explained in the GLCE's for eighth grade, students need to acquire certain speaking conventions such as enunciation, and stressing certain words. I think this aspect of reading is an effective way to convey meaning of a text beyond what is written. During the activity, I found that how we read the story affected how the story was "told". We decided to stress the words "Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom" and also read the words in a different pitch. This was an instructional decision made to motivate the listeners and get them engaged or "excited" about the book. By performing this activity, students learn the ability of speaking conventions to get across meaning. Also, this activity allows student to student interaction, where students are encouraged to share ideas about the meaning of the text with their group members.

In our class, we have done many exercises and activities to get to know one another. These activities or "ice breakers" has allowed us to connect to one another on a personal and academic level. Ideas are shared freely during class discussions and students are respectful to one another. I think that without these activities and group work, it would be a lot harder for some people to participate or share their ideas. Buchanan talks about book talks and the importance of students to interact with one another. I think that Kate has done a good job of getting us comfortable enough to do this. As for the GLCE's, interacting with other students in order to get meaning out of the text is an important part of language arts. I think that the choral reading activity accomplished this expectation, by requiring us to make decisions on how the text should be read.

I think that one of the most meaningful ways a teacher can learn about their role in the classroom, is by experiencing the the role as a student and learning from those experiences. Through this activity, I have learned many things about interpretive book discussions. One is that students need to know what is expected of them. Otherwise, the discussion may get off track and the choral reading that they present may not have purpose behind it. I also learned that this is a unique way for students to gain comprehension of the text by talking with others about its meaning. I think that it is important to realize how many different meanings students can get out of one text, and that ALL are valid and valued.

Choral Reading Class Activity

In class, we learned about choral reading. There are multiple ways to choral read. This is something that I was unaware of until we learned about it in class. I had the opportunity to choral read the short book with a group called, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle. In my small group of about five people we had one person read one line and the chorus read the rest. I read with the other four people as part of the chorus. The text was extremely expected and predictable while it appeared to be for a very early reader. While reading, I needed to pay attention to the tempo, rhythm, pitch and juncture.

In class, we went over Michigan’s Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCEs) for the eighth grade level. The speaking GLCEs expected that the students will be able to use a tone of voice that will enhance meaning and influence the listener’s interpretation while reading. This was done while reading the book. When we read the book as a group, the one person who read, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?” emphasized the word “brown” and the question “what do you see?” This is where they had a higher pitch. Throughout the story, the word that was a color was emphasized (such as Brown). It was important while reading that we kept track of the tempo which is how fast or slow we read the lines, juncture and rhythm.

While reading the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I feel like everyone in my small group supported in our learning community. In the Almansi article it said, “In a discussion, the thoughts, ideas, feelings, and responses of all participants contribute to the event.” This occurred in our small group because everyone helped choral read the book. Individuals in the group also expressed their thoughts and feelings on how we should choral read the book based on the way it was written.

I feel like classroom activities such as book talks and choral reading help bring the classroom community together. As a future teacher I want to make sure that there are many opportunities for discussions in my classroom. Choral reading can even help ESL students in the classroom by allowing them to hear rhythm, tone, rhymes, repetitions and meaning. This can also help students build confidence, improve their vocabulary and reading. After learning about choral reading I feel like I will be able to integrate it into my future lesson plan.

For the past two weeks my CT has been reading “Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls. He reads 10 minutes a day out loud to them after lunch every day and then asks the students questions at the end to test their comprehension. After reading the article “Book Talk: Continuing to Rouse Minds and Heart to Life” by Triplett and Buchanan, I have realized this would be an excellent time to do a book talk; even it if was just once or twice a week. At first I thought the students were not paying attention to the story while it was being read because many of them were fidgeting or staring out the window. After reading this article I realize that asking those questions after the book is being read is not a very good assessment tool. The students in this classroom all have learning disabilities and many of them have trouble with comprehension, a book talk would be an excellent way for them to share some personal connections to the book while summarizing what has happened in the section the teacher just read.
There is a very diverse range of students in my classroom. There are only 9 students in the entire class and a couple love to share insight and shout out answers all the time, a couple are very shy and do not talk unless they are called upon, and the rest of the students are somewhere in between. The students who are shy need more scaffolding than the students who love to talk. They need more direction and often will not perform tasks or assignments until they are told step by step the exact directions. My hope is that for a response centered talk to take place that the students who talk a lot and always have great insight will motivate and inspire the students who do not talk as often. When other people tell stories it often brings back similar memorizes that you have. This is my hope for any group talk with these students. I know that the students who are on the shyer side have many stories to tell and would have great insight also; they just need to know that they are safe to express their feelings.
An example of this is when the students were writing their own personal narratives. They were a little stuck so my CT decided to write his own narrative. He wrote a short story on the overhead projector with the students and also drew pictures. It was a very personal story about his alcoholic dad who he has only met a couple times. Giving the students this story as an example sparked many memories in their heads and many of them came up with their own ideas for a story that same day. I really liked this form of scaffolding because he did not give the students a specific thing to write about, he simple wrote about his own life which sparked memories for the students.

The Learning in my CT’s Classroom

After reading the article by Triplett and Buchanan I realized how important it is to have book talks with your students. From this article I obtained that it is critical to get to know your students and their interests. Book talks are great ways of finding out this information. Studies have shown that book talks promote higher order thinking. In the reading, there was a case study on Mrs. B’s classroom. She asked her students while reading a book, if anyone knew anything about elephants? Courtney, who is one of her students blurted out a ton of information and appeared quite knowledgeable about elephants. She also told the class that she wants to become a veterinarian when she is older. This gave allowed the teacher to understand where Courtney’s interests were. Another important example that was in the reading that I found interesting was when one of Mrs. B’s students, Denny, had anger issues. On top of that, his mother was recently sent to jail. Mrs. B decided to have a book talk using the book, The Pain and the Great One. This helped give Denny socio-economical support though his classmates as they discussed feelings and anger.

Looking back into my experiences this past year in the second grade classroom at Elliott Elementary, I recall that my CT does have book talks with her students. She will sit in a chair while her students sit on the floor in front of her. She will read the students a book and periodically ask the students if they have ever felt a certain way like the character in the story did. She will also ask them to make predictions about what may happen in the story once they read ahead. I have noticed that most students participate when she asks questions. In the past, I have been in classrooms where it is always the same students who respond to questions. In this class, this problem does not occur.

After reading the Almasi article, I realized how important it is to have engaging classroom discussions. It allows students to learn how to interact with their peers, gives them confidence, helps them interpret discussions in new ways; learn about themselves and other cultures though discussions. I also learned that many times the teacher plays the role of the facilitator in the classroom. This often occurs in my CT’s classroom.

I realized that my CT occasionally scaffolds her students in the classroom. When the teacher has book talks with her students they will occasionally get off track and start talking about something that has absolutely nothing to do with the book. She will sometimes guide them and bring them back on track. If she asks a question on how the book has related to their personal life, the teacher would give them an example of how it relates to her personal life. I have noticed that this sometimes clears up misconceptions that students might have.

The Langer article introduced the four major stances while interpreting readings. I guess I never really realized that this was an actual process that took place. The article also discussed that in literature there is a “correct interpretation” that the reader must have. Teachers leaned students into the “right” answer and not allowing them to express and gain deeper understandings. I do not think that this takes place in my CT’s second grade classroom. I feel like my CT is always open to new ideas other than her own. This is important for the learning environment in the classroom.

Classroom Talk

While reading the three articles that I was assigned, I began to realize the importance and significance of classroom discussion. I also learned the difference between "recitation" and "discussion" in the Almasi article, and how they relate to the instruction of literature in the Langer article. Almasi talks how in recitation, students feel that they are being tested for the benefit of the teacher. In recitation the teacher is talking for the majority of the time and there is no student to student interaction. The teacher asks questions to the students expecting one right answer for the interpretation of the text. During discussion, Almasi explains that students lead the discussion and the teacher merely scaffolds the student's talk. During discussion students are responding to each other as well as the teacher and do not feel that they are being tested or that they could give a wrong answer. Langer points out that this is a major problem in the instruction of language arts. He states that most teacher will lead a literary discussion as if the text they are discussing is informative text. In this context, "Literature is generally taught in an informative manner, as if there is a point or correct interpretation that the reader must build" (pg 815). When discussions are held in this way, students opinions or interpretations are disregarded or heard only for motivation, with the discussion eventually leading to the "right" answer.

Buchanan stresses the importance of book talks for comprehension development. He talks about the many ways that book discussions are beneficial to students and teachers. In my classroom, I have only seen trite or short lived book discussions where the teacher is treating the text like content to be learned. I have been in this particular classroom (second grade) for almost five months and I have never seen a student lead conversation. Usually, the teacher will read a book and then ask the students to raise their hands if they liked it. Then she continues by asking questions about particular events and relationships in the book. Although she does encourage original thought through these questions, she also guides their answers into how she interpreted the book. I think that she does this in order to get the students to think about the text in a different light, but it may be debilitating the student's abilities to move toward a deeper understanding.

My classroom is very high energy and for the most part the students do not get a long with each other. I think that if she held discussions where there were open ended questions and students could respond to other's thought, it might aid her to build a classroom community. Also, as Buchanan suggests, it might create a means for a socio-emotional bond between the students.

In my classroom, there are only a few students who are genuinely motivated when it comes to language arts lessons. According to Buchanan, book discussions can be a great way to motivate students because it gives them a chance to discuss their personal interests and interact with other students.

I think that if the teacher were to do response centered discussions, there would have to be a lot of scaffolding for the conversation to run smoothly. This is solely because the students are not used to this type of classroom activity. Open ended questions that provide ways for them to ponder their own ideas would be useful. Also, questions that encourage student to student interaction like, "Do you agree or disagree with what Tim said and why?" Or, "Does anyone want to add to Tom's ideas?" would help to lead a meaningful discussion.

After reading through the articles, I think book talks would be very beneficial in my classroom, if not crucial to the student's comprehension development. I think that as a teacher, it will take a lot of practice to be successful at leading discussions, especially when the class needs to work on behavior. I hope to implement these ideas about discussions in my placement and future teaching experiences.

Goals For My learning in TE 402

I have never considered language arts to be one of my stronger subjects. Because of this, TE 402 will be a challenge for me. Throughout the course I hope to gain confidence in this subject area by becoming more knowledgeable about it. I hope that my unique experiences teaching language arts in the field will shape my teaching skills and practices. I would like to learn more about how to assess students in this subject area both informally and formally. I feel that I know very little about how to go about teaching an ESL student. I hope to gain knowledge on ways to teach language arts to special needs students. It is crucial to the students learning that the teacher builds a classroom community in language arts. I hope to learn about and explore different way to do this in the field. I would also like to become very familiar with the standards and benchmarks for English language arts in Michigan and ways in which to integrate them into lesson plans. I am excited about having confidence in teaching language arts to a diverse group of learners and I hope to carry what I learn to my internship year and beyond.

Goals for my learning in TE401

To be honest, I am thrilled about this course but somewhat scared at the same time. I am excited because this is my first language arts course in college and hope to learn a great deal of information about teaching. When I was in grade school, English and language arts were difficult subjects for me. I often struggled. My goal for this class is to learn how to teach students in many different ways instead of one. I want to be able to reach and effectively teach all of my future students. Are there different ways that are more affective for ESL students and learning disabled students? I also want to know how to teach children to read. Is there a specific strategy for this?

I am also extremely interested in other resources that I could use as a future teacher. It is possible that there is technology that I am unaware of that I could benefit from while teaching. Overall, I feel that this course is extremely important. I believe that it will help shape the way that I teach in the future.

My goals for this class...

I have several goals for myself upon the completion of this class, TE402 language arts. I learned a lot about teaching during TE401, but not as much as I would have liked. I hope this class gives me more ideas and fun activities that can be implemented in an elementary classroom, specifically ones for children with special needs. I realize the difficulties many of these students have with reading and writing, and these skills are the basis for almost any other subject in school. It is very important the students know the basics of language arts so they can succeed in their other classes and subjects. I would like to learn some ways that can get students engaged in reading, because from personal experience in elementary school I absolutely despised reading. Looking back on my elementary school years, I realized several reasons why I did not like to read. First, every book I was assigned to read was picked out by a teacher, they were of no interest to me and were often written before my parents were even born. I never had the opportunity to pick my own book to do a report on, it was always the teachers choice. Second, I thought of reading as a chore, not something that could be done for pleasure. I would like to know how to get students engaged in reading, and make them realize that reading can be entertaining and fun. I’m sure they’re many different activities and ways to create a positive learning environment that encourages students to read and write, but I am only familiar with a few. It will be interesting to hear the ideas of the other people in my class throughout the semester because other people often have new ideas for engaging students that I have never thought about. These are just a few of the things I hope to take out of this course.