Daisy Kutter: The Last Train by Kazu Kibuishi
Friday, April 17, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Chapter 15 - When Kids Can't Read
"I know that year you questioned why you struggled so with reading. The question you never voiced, though, was why no one seemed to be able to help you. But I heard the unasked question. George, and other teachers throughout this nation teaching other students like you heard it as well. Now, more than ever before, teachers ask, - demand - to know what to do when kids can't read. ... We must, at all times, remember that we don't teach a subject, we teach you - specific children with specific needs. " Page 300
In college, we pick a specific subject we want to teach. We must know so much about that subject but are we teaching the same thing to every student? I really liked the comment Beers says about teaching a specific need to specific students. It is a nice way to tie everything in the book together. She has given us so many different options, techniques and strategies to help our students read. But every student will not need every strategy. As a teacher, we must tailor ourselves to meet the needs of our students.
In college, we pick a specific subject we want to teach. We must know so much about that subject but are we teaching the same thing to every student? I really liked the comment Beers says about teaching a specific need to specific students. It is a nice way to tie everything in the book together. She has given us so many different options, techniques and strategies to help our students read. But every student will not need every strategy. As a teacher, we must tailor ourselves to meet the needs of our students.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Chapter 13 - When Kids Can't Read
"Ask your students who struggle, really struggle, with reading what they think the problem is. Some will quickly dismiss the question, but others might say, "The book is too hard"; others will respond, "I'm too dumb"; a rare few will just explain, "I just need to try harder." Guess which ones will be easiest to reconnected to reading? ... The ones that think the problem can be overcome if they just try harder." Page 261
I think this has become a big problem in schools today. Teachers set their expectations low for struggling students and dumb down the curriculum so that they are able to pass it. Teachers are not pushing their students to succeed. I know that some of the best teachers I have had in my life have always pushed me to do better or pushed me to do things that I didn't think I could do. They had high expectations for me. They didn't dumb down the curriculum for me. They helped me work through it and gave me the support I needed.
I think this has become a big problem in schools today. Teachers set their expectations low for struggling students and dumb down the curriculum so that they are able to pass it. Teachers are not pushing their students to succeed. I know that some of the best teachers I have had in my life have always pushed me to do better or pushed me to do things that I didn't think I could do. They had high expectations for me. They didn't dumb down the curriculum for me. They helped me work through it and gave me the support I needed.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Chapter 12 - When Kids Can't Read
"Research shows us that spelling is a developmental process. Children advance through stages as their understanding of letter-sound relationships broadens. At their earliest stage, children lack any awareness of letter-sound relationships; at the most advanced stage, children manipulate Latin and Greek prefixes, suffixes, and roots to spell words correctly." Page 246
I am a horrible speller and I blame my teachers in elementary school for that. I do! I was taught to spell by sounding it out and then spelling it like it sounds. So, I would spell it like it sounded, most of the time it was wrong, but my teachers wouldn't correct my spelling. I just kept spelling these words I had sounded out wrong, until we started having spelling tests.
There are so many ways to teach spelling and how to help students with their spelling in this chapter. I really liked the list of suggestions for improving spelling and the chart of spelling demons. I know adults that struggle with these words and we want our students to spell these words perfectly, when they are hard for everybody.
I am a horrible speller and I blame my teachers in elementary school for that. I do! I was taught to spell by sounding it out and then spelling it like it sounds. So, I would spell it like it sounded, most of the time it was wrong, but my teachers wouldn't correct my spelling. I just kept spelling these words I had sounded out wrong, until we started having spelling tests.
There are so many ways to teach spelling and how to help students with their spelling in this chapter. I really liked the list of suggestions for improving spelling and the chart of spelling demons. I know adults that struggle with these words and we want our students to spell these words perfectly, when they are hard for everybody.
Chapter 11 - When Kids Can't Read
"Suggestion #5: Teach Chunking. Chunking a word means dividing long words into more manageable chunks... Sometimes those chunks are syllables; often they are smaller words or prefixes and suffixes that we hope students recognize. It helps many readers work through long words." Page 235
I remember learning large words like this. I had forgot about that until I read this section. My teacher called in dividing. She told us that we don't remember phone numbers as one group of numbers, like 1244324321. We divide them up , like 124-432-4321. So why can't we do the same with words? She had us take off prefixes and suffixes and find the word then add them back on. It made long words a lot less intimidating for me.
I remember learning large words like this. I had forgot about that until I read this section. My teacher called in dividing. She told us that we don't remember phone numbers as one group of numbers, like 1244324321. We divide them up , like 124-432-4321. So why can't we do the same with words? She had us take off prefixes and suffixes and find the word then add them back on. It made long words a lot less intimidating for me.
Chapter 10 - When Kids Can't Read
"Students in classrooms that provide big blocks of time for sustained silent reading, as well as students from home environments that encourage home reading, show more gains in reading rate than students who do little reading at school or home." Page 208-209
In my field placement class, they use a computer program called Read Naturally and the have sustained silent reading. This program uses teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring to maximize reading proficiency. The students pick a story, read the main vocabulary, make a prediction about the story, the read cold timed, then they follow along as the story is read to them, read the story out loud, and answer questions about the story.
I noticed a big difference in the students fluency in the two schools I am at this semester. At the school that uses Read Naturally, the students read smoothly and they change their voices for questions and dialogue. At the other school, I noticed that the students tend to read each word in the sentence and do not run them together to make a sentence.
This is a perfect example of what Kylene Beers says. When students have the opportunity to read and improve their fluency, it will improve.
In my field placement class, they use a computer program called Read Naturally and the have sustained silent reading. This program uses teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring to maximize reading proficiency. The students pick a story, read the main vocabulary, make a prediction about the story, the read cold timed, then they follow along as the story is read to them, read the story out loud, and answer questions about the story.
I noticed a big difference in the students fluency in the two schools I am at this semester. At the school that uses Read Naturally, the students read smoothly and they change their voices for questions and dialogue. At the other school, I noticed that the students tend to read each word in the sentence and do not run them together to make a sentence.
This is a perfect example of what Kylene Beers says. When students have the opportunity to read and improve their fluency, it will improve.
Chapter 9 - When Kids Can't Read
"Suggestion #3: Teach Word Parts. Teaching some words directly via word lists and teaching students how to find the meaning of other words indirectly via the context are both important. However, we can't directly teach the meaning of all words, and sometimes the context just leaves students clueless; therefore, we must also help readers increase their word knowledge by teaching them how words work." Page 188
I am working with a student on this very thing in my field placement. I am reading a novel with her that was written in 1959 and it is full of words we don't use very much in everyday talk anymore. I ask her what she thinks the words mean based on the context and sometimes she gets it right and sometimes she doesn't. Also, she struggles with word solving, so I have taught her some strategies to help her learn how different clusters of words fit together to make a word.
I am working with a student on this very thing in my field placement. I am reading a novel with her that was written in 1959 and it is full of words we don't use very much in everyday talk anymore. I ask her what she thinks the words mean based on the context and sometimes she gets it right and sometimes she doesn't. Also, she struggles with word solving, so I have taught her some strategies to help her learn how different clusters of words fit together to make a word.
Chapter 8 - When Kids Can't Read
"Summarizing a short story or a novel appears to be too overwhelming for many students, who either offer nothing or restate everything in the story. Somebody Wanted But So , offers students a framework as they create their summaries." Page 145
My field placement teacher uses a strategy that is close to this and her students use it very well. They use this strategy in groups in reading class, but they also use it in social studies after reading a chapter. Sometimes they read a chapter and they can't remember the main ideas. They do the SWBS chart at the end of the chapter as a review and it helps them not only remember the chapter, but also they learn to summarize.
My field placement teacher uses a strategy that is close to this and her students use it very well. They use this strategy in groups in reading class, but they also use it in social studies after reading a chapter. Sometimes they read a chapter and they can't remember the main ideas. They do the SWBS chart at the end of the chapter as a review and it helps them not only remember the chapter, but also they learn to summarize.
ALAN Book Chat
I really liked getting to speak with Dwight McPherson. It was very interesting to hear his responses to our questions. He gave some answers that I wasn't expecting. I liked the format of the chat. It would have been better if it was more organized, but it still turned out OK. Overall, I think the chat went well. It went by really fast! I learned things about the book and the author that I would not have learned anywhere else. I hope I can use something like this in my future classroom.
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