More English Festival Madness

More of this Festival, since it was my life for a month in Korea, LOL.

More English Festival Madness

I'm pretty sure this is one of Travis's general kindergarten classes. Lots of interview questions, stories, and songs, galore.

English Festival

Just to give my readers an idea of what all of the JM teachers and students had to do this January. Students prepared interview questions about themselves, memorized a not-so-short story with actions, and read their original stories. Younger students sang songs they memorized. The above is a clip from Alex's universe class. My students had to do virtually the same stunts. More videos to come.

Good God I'm Bad at Updating this Thing

It's not that I'm bad at updating; it's just that I don't have a whole lot of substantial things happen to me that merits updating. I promised my friends and family at home that I'd keep a blog of my Korea adventures. I knew it would be exciting. Honestly though, eight months in, I'm getting bogged down in daily routines, schedules, work, and more work. Not that any of that makes for even a remotely interesting post. I promise a more interesting post soon, and I'm a little anxious to deliver. But I just can't bring myself to do any of that.

What can I say? I've just been really consumed in work lately and I can't say that I'm really that good at it. I've lost the mindfulness that good teaching requires. That's what Korea will do to you I suppose. Just get it done. I'm almost "over" it. I suppose that is what eight months of it will do to you.

For those that have traveled and taught abroad, how do you keep that sense of energy and passion you had at the very beginning? How do you keep going? I have found a decent outside of work network of things to do and see, but I just can't seem to break over that that hump. Could it be that I am just "over" Korea? Is there such a thing?

Or am I just whining too much...

Week Three Down

I know I should do an update to commemorate my third week in Korea, but honestly not much has changed. I still work long hours, I don't get out much. We found awesome Indian food near our apartment building and I had to turn in my lesson plans for my all day class five times before they told me they were OK. What kills me is the secrecy of this place. It's dawning on me more and more that English Hogwons are businesses more than schools, and that every decision made by upper management (AKA the Korean teachers/coordinators) is made from a business stand point rather than an educational one. What should be done in this situation is always answered with "What would make the parents happier so that they refer more students to our school?"

I think this was what was going on this week with my Kindergarten class. A parent called and said there was too much homework, so instead of OKing my HW plan like they did the week before (with three assignments per night) they revised it so that they only had to do two assignments per night. What they don't realize though is that HW affects the entire week's lesson plan, because whatever we do in class the kids copy for HW. So by chopping my HW plan to pieces, it causes me to rearrange my entire weekly lesson plan as well. Also, everything has to be done in the EXACT SAME ORDER as the day before. I thought I could get away with moving it around a little, especially after lunch, but NO. I'm growing bored of what I'm teaching and it's only the fourth week.

I'm the kind of person that needs reasons why I do things. This is the kind of place/school that doesn't like to give reasons. Just do this. OK. This will last for a while, and then they'll tell me to do this. It doesn't make a lot of sense. But I suppose then again it doesn't have to. Nothing is making a lot of sense lately. I suppose this is the culture shock talking. The Koreans want teacher's reports already, and while I've only known these students three weeks, I don't feel equipped to do reports on them without making something up out of thin air. Which I suppose all of the other teachers are doing just fine and don't have a problem with it. I just think too much and make everything more complicated. URG. Why do I have to be such a thinker? For Pete's Sake. Just do it. Don't ask questions.

I shouldn't complain though. I'm being compensated well, and I have little expenses. I can do anything for a year. The whole experience is making me realize that maybe I do want to move on and move up after this year. Maybe I do want to try my hand at teaching adults for a change. Maybe I want to go back to graduate school in a different field. I have no idea. It's intimidating when I think about it to think that I can do anything. Cost won't be a factor either.

I also need to work on taking that ONE class I need for Minnesota teaching certification. But if I'm not going to be teaching K-12, then I find it kind of pointless. But from an "I need a job" perspective when I get back to the states, it better happen. I better make it work.

I do want most of my experiences here to be not about work too. I want to find somethings to do that don't revolve around teaching children. While taking a walk around the lake this weekend was good, I need more than that. I need to go hiking in the mountains. I want to sign up for a Tae Kwon Do class and some language classes. The English teachers are talking about using their end-of-July vacation to go to Thailand, and I just might join them if my bank account gets set up in time to put my first month's salary in it.

Somethings have to change around here if I'm going to stay sane. That much I know. I'm fine. Really, I am. Just whining.

Second Week Down

Second week is down and left me with a Friday night at 9:15 pm at school.

There's just so much to do. I end up prepping all week for Kindergarten that I don't get my weekly tests they want me to give done until last minute. I did get it all done, and now it's all in the delivery. Class continues to go well, if not a little repetitive. I suppose that's me being selfish though. They say that when you are learning a second language repetition is key, but if I have to sing "What are you doing/I'm playing a game/watch what I do/and then do the same" one more time with my K7A class I'm going to scream.

Same thing with the second graders. They are set to do two units a week, but every week it's the SAME PAGES in their text book and workbook. Practice speaking, practice speaking, practice speaking the SAME PHRASE over and over and over again. That's what I signed on to do though.

Me: What do you do after school? (This is our target language for this week.)
Kid: I (pause) stu- sud- sku
Me: Study?
Kid: Study!
Me: What do you study?
Kid: I studies English.
Me: I study English.
Kid: Yes.
Director: (who is always standing in the back of this class) REPEAT!!! (In scary Korean accent.)
Kid: (timidly) I........study.......English.
Me: Perfect. (Award star.)

Next kid. Same thing. Now I'm starting to see why class sizes are limited to nine kids.

When I think about it, this is exactly what happened in my Spanish class in high school. We'd have a textbook with conversational phrases in it, the teacher would introduce a lesson, have us practice speaking the target phrases to her, and then have us practice with a partner. Students would ALWAYS try to get away with only writing or reading silently, but the teacher would always be calling on kids to speak. This is exactly what I see as a teacher. Funny how that works.

On another notes, I like that all the kids have English names for the purpose of learning English. I was afraid that in coming over here I would have to learn some serious Korean nicknames for children. But no, all the children choose their own English name upon registering at this particular Hogwon. There are lots of Dorothys, Sallys, Jessicas, Thomases and Joshuas here, which are names I haven't heard in America in a long time. 6

I did hear from my recruiter too, who was so obviously checking up on my performance. She had a good report though. Apparently, my director thinks I am doing a good job for my first week officially on the job and also said that "I am a very sweet person." Awww. I have a reputation to uphold. Damn. And I thought I could get away with completely changing my image. As the G6B sixth graders like to say because they just learned this particular slang, "Fiddlesticks!"

I own a bunny now too. Pictures and more posts to come. Stay tuned.

In the spirit of blogging, I'm posting an article I wrote for our school's newsletter

The Best Way to Become a Better Reader is to (you guessed it) READ!

Do you feel like it’s a battle to get your reluctant reader to sit down and read a book for twenty minutes nightly? Chances are, he or she is not reading because he or she hasn’t found a book that they LIKE to read. I’m sure you have heard from teachers in the past that the best way to get better at reading is, by, well, reading. Here are a few other tips to help your child enjoy reading at home.

1. Choose books that children enjoy. Have conversations about your child’s interests on the way home or during any downtime. Make trips to the library on the weekend and pursue those interests. Books don’t have to be a certain level to be enjoyed. If a book is too hard, practice reading by alternating reading lines and help guide your child to the right word.

2. Make reading comfortable. Make sure there is a comfortable spot at home away from distractions like TV or video game systems. Fill this spot with pillows and a bookshelf.

3. Make reading a priority. Just like homework, there should happen nightly at an assigned time, preferably before television and/or before bedtime.

4. Wind down with a book. Story time is my favorite way to end the day, and a perfect way to say goodnight to your child.

5. Understand the Importance of Reading. Have conversations with your child that include reasons why you read today. You can start with simple things like “I read the newspaper” or “I wanted to see how to get home from work faster” and lead up to more complicated things. Share the titles you are reading for fun. Children are great mimes. If they see that reading is important to you, they will follow.

Having trouble choosing that first good book? Here a few great children’s books grades K-2. For a complete list of recommendations, go to www.ReadWriteThink.org and find “parent and afterschool resources.” Then find “Help a child choose a Book.” The complete list is found here.

1. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
2. The Mitten by Jan Brett
3. The Paper Bag Princess by Robert N. Munsch
4. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
5. Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish

Just thoughts, and an invitation to share your own...

My quote of the week is something like “Please at least PRETEND to listen to me, folks. It will do you some good.” Help me to prove that I am worth something in this school. I am a student. I am not a teacher. I am introvert in an extrovert's world. I was trained as a teacher, but there is no way I would ever do that job again. I enjoy being an assistant most days; this bothers me greatly. I am ready to move on. I am ready to move up, but where do I go from here? I will ignore the fact that I am just like the student that told me today that he sucks at writing and gave up. I had nothing to tell him. I tell myself that I suck at everything ALL THE TIME. It's time to make a change. It’s a common story, more common that imagined for most late twenty-some things. I find myself quite frequently accepting less than I know students can do out of pure frustration, and I’m unhappy with myself for it. This is one of the many reasons I will never be a teacher. It is also one of the many reasons I am looking toward nursing school or physician’s assistant school more and more.

It’s that time of year folks. It’s the time of year for reflection. It’s the time of year that all perfectionists and idealists reflect and come to the conclusion that we can all do that much better. We set lofty goals for ourselves and others. We harp on ourselves and others. We bitch and moan. We take it out on others at holiday gatherings. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m dreading my family gatherings because of this very reason. I already tell myself that I haven’t accomplished shit this year, so I don’t want to hear it from anyone else. In anticipation of this, I turn inward and start criticizing myself. I realize of course that this defeats the whole spirit of the holiday. I hate giving gifts because I can never find the “perfect” gift. Does this sound familiar? I hate starting conversations because I don’t want to tell others what I’ve been up to this year for fear of the compare game. You know the drill. “You’ve been doing X with him?” “I’ve changed the world. What have you done this year?” You know the compare game well, if you haven’t participated already in some form or another.

I challenge myself and all of you to get out of your own head this holiday season. To do this, I have to sometimes disconnect from the world. I have to forget that I have a close friend teaching English at a Chinese University, and another friend writing India’s first draft of a child abuse law, overseas, before heading to South Africa. I have countless friends finishing their fifth year of teaching, and I quit mid-year of my first. I have to let go of this. But how? I have to lobotomize myself to the fact that I have been out of college for over five years already, and I’m not married at *gasp* almost twenty-eight years of age. IT DOESN'T MATTER. At the heart of my being I know this. At the heart of my being I know that I’m worthy of praise and love even if I haven’t completed a full year of teaching anywhere or have no savings account to speak of.

Those things, material things, will come much later. I have my health and good friends, and that is all that is important. Instead of giving my parents my Samantha American Girl doll so they will shut up about grandchildren, I will calmly point out that I do things on my own schedule, when I please and be OK with that. I am done pleasing other people. It is time to please myself. Then maybe I can go and make a real difference.

To those in helping professions and tend toward a perfectionist and idealist side to their work: What helps you cope? What gets you through the day? How do you prevent compassion fatigue? How do you keep from dwelling on the negative? Thoughts welcome.

I will do it by telling myself and others that I've made a small difference this year, and I won't elaborate, no matter how much I want to. I relocated to a new city ALL BY MYSELF three years ago and have survived almost THREE Minnesota winters BY MYSELF. I will be kind to myself. I have finished additional coursework and am on the way to a Master's Degree. I will make it overseas one day. I will stay positive. That IS good enough. No questions asked.

I somehow related a little bit with this one today...

Don't know where this came from? Only the Sunday Secrets of PostSecret. Yes, I have also known kids to be more respectful than a lot of adults out in the world. Not a sweeping generalization by any means, but overall, that's probably why I choose to work with kids over many adults I know. That's all.

Hopeonatenspeed on YouTube is awesome

Add her as a friend. Otherwise known as Paige in the real world, or Frenzy in the camp world, she's in South Korea, teaching English, and living life as an alien. Have a mentioned incredibly talented?



Check her out. Friend her, share it.

Teacher Resources! Come and get them!

Resource List

Without a doubt, my biggest resources were the authors themselves. Nothing stood out more to me when developing my own entry points to the literature than the reasons the authors had for writing the books. Many of my activities come from listening to interviews with the authors, and I intend to incorporate much of that multi-medium into my everyday teaching when using books such as these. The authors’ websites are as follows:

Gordon Korman’s Website
http://gordonkorman.com/

Gary Paulsen’s Website
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen/

Gary D. Schmidt’s Goodreads.com Author Page
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/96375.Gary_D_Schmidt

Walter Dean Myers’s Website
http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/

James Heneghan’s Website
http://www.jamesheneghan.com/

Although I didn’t include this in my portfolio, another resource I came across during my research was this book:

GUYS WRITE FOR GUYS READ
Jon Scieszka
This led me to look at his website:
http://www.guysread.com/
This covers an extensive list of books that appeal to boys of all ages, in a boy-friendly format. The book contains a series of snippets from a selection of these books, and is absolutely hilarious. I would use it as a read aloud for motivation.

A Pretty Decent Interview with Gary Schmidt on a Writer’s Blog
http://misserinmarie.blogspot.com/2008/05/sbbt-interview-gary-d-schmidt.html

A Book Talk and Reading Guide for another Gary Schmidt Book
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/teachers_guides/9780553494952.pdf




When looking for activities and lessons for alternative book reports and strategy lessons, I was amazed at what I found at the National Council for the Teachers of English’s (NCTE’s) Read Write Think website.
http://www.readwritethink.org/

Scholastic.com has an intensive list of books and summaries as well.
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/index.jsp
Although it’s a publishing website, I really like it. I don’t feel like they try to sell me anything. I especially like their “Book Alike” feature that allows me to type in any book and find books just like it, or at the same reading level.

Goodreads
http://www.goodreads.com/
I call this site My Space for book junkies. It’s a social networking site that requires membership, but it allows users to connect by listing the books they’ve read or want to read and talk about them. I use it as a teacher to gain recommendations. I use it as a reader personally as well. I haven’t used it with students, but I suppose they could use it to gain recommendations for readings as well. Think, “I liked this book, so I will read this book…”

LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com/
Like Goodreads, but I don’t have a membership to attest to this site. It’s the same idea of book sharing online, just in a different format. See yourself and decide which one you like better. Word of mouth is always best, but this will do in a pinch!

Blogger
https://www.blogger.com/start
An easy way to set up a website, or share book or lesson plans with other teachers. A lot of my ideas come from teachers who blog in other parts of the country and world. It’s also an easy way for a teacher to communicate with parents and parents to see what students are doing in class.

A Comprehensive Teacher Blog
http://lessonplanlounge.blogspot.com/

No More Bullying Lesson
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=935

Nancy Keane’s Children’s Literature Webpage
http://nancykeane.com/
Excellent resource for anything children’s literature related. I like a lot of her book talks and podcasts.

Blogging Photo Lesson I used for No More Dead Dogs (but is applicable to other units and certainly adaptable!)
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1064

Discussion Questions for No More Dead Dogs
http://www.multcolib.org/talk/guides-nomore.html

A Gordon Korman Book List
http://litplans.com/authors/Gordon_Korman.html

Lawn Boy Video
http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=76428&title=Lawn_Boy

Other Lawn Boy Links
http://suzyred.com/2008lawn.html
http://booksforchildren.pbworks.com/Gary-Paulsen,-Lawn-Boy
http://www.librarything.com/work/2338131

Graphic Organizers
http://www.sanchezclass.com/reading-graphic-organizers.htm
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=2983


Of course, if you have any questions or would like me to e-mail you any part of this presentation, I would be happy to do so. I am always looking for better ways to teach books, and would welcome your feedback!

My letter to MNDOE

It needs help right now, but with a little work, it will be up and running in no time. This is to prove that my service year actually did meet the blasted Human Relations requirement for the state licensing board and I can finally be certified to teach in this state.

July 7, 2009

Dear Licensing Board,

I am writing to inform you about the program with which [full name] served to complete her term with AmeriCorps and also to inform you of its potential match with the Human Relations component for Minnesota Teaching Licensure. The program that [full name] completed was called City of Lakes AmeriCorps and it is a partnership between Minneapolis Public Schools, Minneapolis Community Education, and other local community organizations.

The Minnesota Human Relations requirement, a state mandate, was certainly fulfilled in the process of Jennifer completing her term of service with the City of Lakes AmeriCorps program.

First, City of Lakes AmeriCorps requires all of its members to understand the contributions and lifestyles of the various racial, cultural and economic groups in our society. Jennifer completed over 1700 hours of service tutoring and mentoring students during the day, and facilitating after school activities at Nellie Stone Johnson community school in a culturally diverse and urban region of north Minneapolis. Jennifer served students on her caseload from a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds including but not limited to students in the African American and Hmong communities of north Minneapolis. Much of Jennifer’s time was spent preparing lessons and teaching English language learners with the reading and writing workshop approach to literacy instruction. Jennifer also spent her time tutoring third-fifth-grade students performing significantly below grade level in both reading and mathematics.

Second, City of Lakes AmeriCorps requires members to recognize and deal with dehumanizing biases, discrimination, and prejudices that face students enrolled in Minneapolis Public Schools. The students of Nellie Stone Johnson were undoubtedly faced with biases and prejudices daily simply because of their family’s race and socioeconomic status. Many students on Jennifer’s caseload lacked the family support needed to succeed in school. Much of Jennifer’s duties during her term of service required her to remove biases she possessed about students living in poverty in order to best motivate students to succeed with their coursework.

Third, the City of Lakes AmeriCorps program requires all of its members to create learning environments that contribute to the self-esteem of all persons and to positive interpersonal relations while respecting human diversity and personal rights. Jennifer completed this requirement by establishing a positive rapport with three students assigned to her fifth-grade guided reading group. Although these students were reading three grade levels below their own in reading, Jennifer sought books for these students that were of high interest and adequate reading level to motivate them when their self-esteem slumped because of their achievement level. Combating student’s low expectations for themselves was a daily task, but with a few reminders, her students jumped a grade level in reading by the end of the year and were much more positive about what they could achieve in their academic and personal futures.

Finally, the City of Lakes AmeriCorps program requires members to study the American Indian language, history, government, and culture by participating in a service project in conjunction with the Ojibwe Indian Tribe in Red Lake, Minnesota.

What suggestions can you make?

My co-workers know me too well...

At a ceremony at work earlier today, co-workers donated this book to the school's library in my honor, mostly because it seemed like something I'd like. I think I showed my true colors a little too well this year. I am Emily Dickinson. Introspective. Intelligent. Lover of words. Composer of poems. Lifelong learner of poems. Alone. That's perfectly fine by me. I'm glad I'm so transparent.

Reading Teacher Interviews (continued...)

And to be quite honest, they probably will continue for all of the summer...

I interviewed with my current school district for the Middle School Reading Teacher position and was asked the following questions:

1. Tell us why you are a good candidate for this position.

2. Describe the characteristics of an effective Middle School Reading Teacher (Coach.)

3. How have you been able to raise achievement in your classroom, grade level, or school?

4. What kind of assessments would you use to guide reading instruction?

5. Explain the role of talk in comprehension.

6. What strategies would be important in getting adolescent struggling readers engaged in reading? How do you get adolescent, reluctant readers hooked on books?

7. How would you collaborate with content teachers to help them get struggling readers be successful with text in their classrooms?

8. Tell about a time you have worked effectively with a resistant staff member or colleague?

9. What would you expect to see in a building as evidence that the school was moving toward an anti-racist model of education?

Do you have any questions for us?

I passed the screening interview, by some grace of God. How would you answer the following questions?

Update: I had my first school interview at Northeast Middle School today. I think I did relatively well. I am aware there are tons of thousands of candidates for this position out there. It sounds like my dream teaching position. 15-20 students on the caseload, lots of support, and total freedom to explore the curriculum. Nothing but reading instruction. If I don't get the position, there will be plenty of others, I'm keeping my attitude positive at this point. There will be other positions. I just need to start proving to myself that I am worthy of one of them!

Teaching Reading vs. Brain Surgery

I have to post this. I'm in school to be a reading teacher, and while reading something for class tonight, I ran across an article in which the author was comparing herself to a brain surgeon. She's a clinical psychologist, so her research is rather scientific, but it got me thinking. I posted the following in my class's reading response journal, but I'd like to get my blogger buddies' feedback. What do you think?



I have said before that teaching is not like brain surgery, but I think I was thinking in terms of life or death. When I surgeon inserts a scalpel into my brain, s/he better be darn sure he knows what s/he knows what he is doing. I don’t want to end up paralyzed or worse. I never thought about educators being compared to brain surgeons, as the author in this case asserts, but I suppose in the long term a poor reading teacher can do much harm for a student’s self-esteem, job prospects, college prospects, and the like. In terms of quality of life, a bad reading teacher can have just about as large an effect as a bad brain surgeon. I never thought of this before, but am I pretty accurate here? Is this what the author wants us to think about? I agree if it is quality of life at stake. A quality reading program is essential, and by quality I mean one that fits the individual student, not a clinical trial of students and not a clinical trial of teachers.


Part II

With the knowledge that teaching reading is like brain surgery, I think I among others will be a heck of a lot more careful that I choose the program to fit the child instead of a clinical trial. The author of this article is a scientist, and while I respect that, I can’t say that science has a whole lot to bring to education. I know that our best practices happen when we use research, and you can implement a reading program based on what happened in a clinical trial. You can. Doesn’t mean you should take that as gospel and think about nothing else. Part of the reason why teachers have such a difficult job is the fact that they have to figure out what works for each individual student in their classroom. They have to figure out what makes that particular student tick. It might be the prescribed program. Perfect. It might be the prescribed program with additional reading material that matches the interests of the child. It might something totally different. A good teacher will pick up on what works for each individual student in the classroom and go from there. Clinical trials are a good place to start, but only to start. It’s good to look at research. It’s also good to know your students. Surgeons can say the same I suppose. Not knowing too much about the surgical field, I can say that before a surgeon operates, s/he better do an extensive work-up and pre-operative interview with me. S/he better know my pre-existing conditions and potential complications based on my health history. I’d expect nothing less from a reading teacher. Before prescribing a reading program for a child, I’m going to get to know what the child likes to read. I’m going to know reading level and grade level and strengths and weaknesses all around on that particular student. I’m going to know behaviors that trigger other behaviors in reading or other subjects. I’m going to know what time of day that child works best and who that child works with most effectively. That’s just good teaching. It sets teaching and learning up for success. I don’t need a clinical trial to tell me that, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.

Happy Pi Day everyone!

3/14, 3.14. An excuse to eat pie without the guilt, and tell really corny pi jokes and solve geeky math problems. I will be celebrating with the roommates this afternoon, and wanted to hear your own pi day celebrations! Too bad it falls on a Saturday this year or all you teachers out there could ham this up for your students. Here's a really cool PI DAY website! Have fun!

It's that time again folks...

Job hunt time. That's right. It's almost summer, which means I will be unemployed yet again. Oy. I'm really not looking forward to the cover letters, resumes, interviews, awkward first impressions, and all of the things that go with the job hunt process. I will be searching for teaching and learning jobs again, either in my district or outside. Whichever comes first. Whichever proves not to send me out on the street come July. I should be looking at this as an opportunity. I should be more positive about this. It's an opportunity to find "the perfect career" however. Every job I take (and I'm in the double digits now) puts me one step closer to finding the real me, or so I like to think. Wish me luck!

Detox Over

Thank god and all things holy (or wholly) for that. Tonight was a housemates birthday, so I found it rather fitting that on the last day of of the detox I had pumpkin pie and lasagne. Good stuff. I forgotten how much I miss sweet carbs. And I didn't really indulge and overdo it like I usually do. I don't feel bloated or sick, just satisfied. I suppose the detox did its job. Or maybe it's all in my head. Who knows. Now if only I can keep up with that moderate attitude throughout the year.

In other news, I'm making a lot of good progress at work. I feel really good about this year, like it can be a good thing. Positive relationships with other teachers and co-workers...supportive environment. I've switched my schedule around on Mondays and Wednesdays so that I can stay for after school without going over my hours during the day so I don't have come in until 10 am!

And how cool is the Rational Number Project? I will probably end up doing another post on this sometime soon, but I'll just say that this tool is very awesome. Lots to do this sememster, and lots to learn both in school and at work (in a school) I feel like a kid and a teacher all over again.

How cool is that?

Another of my assignments for LANG 7802

I'm on a roll and cranking them out. I might as well go ahead and post this one too.

Analysis of a Young Reader

Description of Assessment
For this assignment, I assessed B. B is five-year-old girl who lives with her mother and older siblings in a transitional housing collaborative unit in South Minneapolis.
(I help coordinate a youth tutoring and enrichment program in her building.) She attends Kindergarten full-time in the Minneapolis school district. The testing context was a tutoring center of the housing complex in which her family lives. B is a part of the tutoring and community program there and receives other such services from her building during the after school hours. I have known B for four months (since the beginning of the school year) and have been on many community outings with her and her siblings. The time was evening, after much of her after school programming had taken place. I know that B is a non-reader, and that much of her tutoring time is devoted to reading and phonics activities.

To begin the assessment I gave her a peak at the wordless book we would be reading, Follow, Carl by Alexandra Day and told her we would be reading a special kind of book with no words. I explained that the book is about a dog and some kids that do some very special things with the dog. I explained that I would read the first page and after that she was going to "read the book to me" by looking at the pictures and pretending I was blind, that I couldn't see the pictures and she was going to tell the story to me. She seemed confused by this, so I modeled the first page for her. It seemed like this was too much of a task for her. With the first page, she stared at the book, almost overwhelmed. I intended throughout the assessment to record her retelling of the story and jot down interesting phrases, however, never having administered this assessment before and never having worked with this child academically before, I ended up doing a lot more cueing and teaching and modeling than I did assessing, simply because she didn't have any knowledge of reading to assess. I still did tape record our conversation, but it was just that, a conversation that allowed me to see how much work we needed to do with literacy.

Type of Reader
B's initial reaction to reading when I suggested we read a book was to run away. She said a few times before we started that "I don't know how to read!" She also insisted that her head hurt for the first couple of moments of our conversation after I introduced the book. It wasn't until after I persuaded her to stay several times reassuring her that she could read this book and look at the pictures because the book didn't have words that she was reasonably happy with the task. She was still frightened she would say the wrong thing a lot of the time also. As she looked at the picture of the children stretching with the dog on the first page, I could tell by her worried look that she didn't know what to say. Either that, or she had no vocabulary to express it, but I didn't think that was the case because I had heard her talk at events and other activities. She responded when I phrased my assessments as questions, asked things like, "What are the children doing?" Instead of stretching, she replied that they were "playing." I wanted to see if she had a concept of where they were going to go, if she could make something up, so I asked, "Where do you think they are going to play?" She answered, "the park" with a question mark intonation to her voice.

At the next page, she seemed pretty confused as to what to say as well. We sat in silence for a good three minutes before I asked her to tell me what was going on in that picture. "Where are the children and the dog going?" I asked. "I don't know," B replied. "Where do you think?" I said back to her. She thought a little harder. "Maybe to the park?" she questioned a few seconds later. I turned the page. I thought it would be better to model this page, hoping she would catch on for the rest of the book. "I'm going to give you an example," I suggested. "Look at these children here! They are the same children as before. I see them jumping off the wall now. I wonder why they are jumping off the wall. The dog is carrying the little child. And there is a baby with a toy horse watching all the children jump off the wall. I wonder if she wishes she could play," I modeled. It was a pretty stupid modeling session, I thought to myself even after I said it out loud. Even stupider listening to it play back. I watched B's eyes sweep the page, taking it in. "What do you think?" I asked. Silence.

The next page was hopeful. She studied the page and suggested that they were chasing a squirrel up a tree. Even though they were just looking at it, I didn't correct. I just let her tell the story. But that was all she had to say. She kept studying the pictures. I kept expecting some questioning to come through, for her to ask about what it was that she was confused about, but then I thought, wait, we learned in class that students have to be taught to question when meaning breaks down.

We kept turning the pages together. B kept starting, her eyes sweeping each page, with not a lot to say about each series of events. Even on the page with the woman giving out the cookies, or pancakes, she didn't say anything for a good thirty seconds until I asked her if she thought those were cookies or pancakes they were begging for. It hit me later that B might not be familiar with the term "begging."

It occurred to me through this entire process that B is somewhere between a TACIT and AWARE reader, leaning more to the AWARE side of her reading. If she were a completely a tacit reader, I think she would have just skimmed through the pages without much thought. Instead, she sat and studied the pages. Even though she does not read, she has an understanding of print and gets the idea that books are opened from left to right and the story continues from one page to the next. She tries to understand. I think that she is aware of the breakdown in meaning, but lacks the strategies for fixing the problem, so she sits in silence and waits for someone to come to her rescue. She might lack awareness at times, but for the most part, I believe she just doesn't have the knowledge of how to fix reading problems.

Strengths
B's strengths lie in her hesitation for instruction. She knows that she doesn't understand what's happening on a particular page and she stops to study, she doesn't go ahead and skip it like many children her age would do. She does have an appreciation for the pictures telling a story, but didn't have much vocabulary to show it. Her eyes were sweeping, and her mind was working, but she didn't have much of a working vocabulary pool to express that knowledge, at the time of testing. B also holds strengths in her determination, and her hard work ethic. She realized that she was tired and went ahead with the activity as best she could. This will get her many rewards in school and in life.

Needs
I would say that B's greatest need is more modeling, more reading with this type of reading, and someone to gradually release the responsibility to her while reading with her. She appears to have an awareness of when she doesn't understand something, but doesn't know what to do about it. Perhaps some explicit strategy instruction about questions to ask when we don't understand what's happening, or some vocabulary instruction so that she has a bank of words to use when talking about a book such as this again. She also relies on adults for help in understanding, and non-verbal cues a lot, even though she can speak, so I suspect this is a confidence issue. She responded well when I praised her answers, so I think she needs a lot of verbal praise and encouragement from adults in her life. With time and experience, I feel that she will learn how to adapt to reading like a duck takes to water.

Suggestions
My suggestion for B would be to model, model, model and read, read, read. When adults read with her, they should start reading, but encourage her to chime in with ideas and don't shoot down any ideas she may have. Praise all ideas she may give with a "good idea" or "you're brilliant." Let her hear and experience new vocabulary for herself, and encourage her to experiment with it herself. I might also introduce the idea of accountable talk when discussing the books she reads, giving her access to phrases like "what do you think" and "why do you think that" and "find some evidence from the story to show me why you think that." I think that she is used to living in a large family and answering questions only when asked. This type of instruction would allow B to show that it is OK to speak up and let someone know what she knows. She's still early in her reading development process; I wouldn't suggest an intervention yet. She knows her letters and most letter sounds, and she works with a tutor doing phonics activities. All genres of text and picture books should be included in her reading library. I suspect that the uncertainty on B's part was due to inexperience. The more experience she has with it, the more she will feel comfortable telling a story in the future. Because I didn't finish the assessment, I didn't get to see if she could retell the story. It was already late, and B was showing signs of fatigue and disinterest. There's always next session.

Reflection
Because this was my first experience with assessing a non-reader, I feel like I learned a great deal about early literacy in this process. I have much experience assessing upper elementary students using standard assessments like running records and vocabulary lists other pre-packaged assessments. I have never had the experience of starting with a student from scratch like that before. It absolutely threw me for a loop how silent she became when she didn't understand. I definitely became more aware of how children make meaning while reading and how they don't communicate it all the time. I will definitely be more aware in my practice of eye movements and wait time when teaching and assessing in the future. I will definitely incorporate more observation and critical thinking activities in my classroom teaching practice.

This week on TV

It's after five am.
I'm awake. Which means I'm watching and posting episodes of the office.
I love my life.
I love the office.
I love NBC.com.
I love hulu.com.
My life can't get much more fabulous than this. WooHoo. AmeriCorps to Teaching Temp to Associate Educator with Minneapolis Public Schools.

You need to watch this weeks OFFICE. Period. End of Story.