Blog 5 Final Blog

Wow this class went by fast.  Thank you to Charity and Ana Daisy for commenting on my blog more than once.  Your comments opened my eyes up to some new ideas that I will take with me in the future.  Reading through the blogs of my colleagues helped me learn new ideas about advocacy and working with young children in general.  I hope that everyone did great in the class and hopefully learned new ideas like myself.  I hope that I have given advice to others that they will take with them in their new opportunities after this class.  I only have one class left I hope that my colleagues in that class will be as helpful as those that were in this class.  Good luck to everyone with their future classes and careers!  Thanks again!!!

Replies for Blog 4

I commented on Ashley L's Blog and Natalie's Blog this week!

Module 4 Blog

Ok so I am not sure why my blog never got posted but I am reposting hopefully this works this time...

During this week of observation I got to sit in and observe a first grade classroom that had two parents come in and participate in small group activities, one of which was reading aloud to a small group of six students.  The first book that the mom read to the group was called, "The Everything Machine."  It was a book about how this machine in a town started doing everything for the people of the town and when it broke they had forgotten how to do the simple tasks of daily live.  It was funny to see how the kids interpreted the book when the mom was asking questions afterwards.  One of the kids said that his mom is the everything machine at their house and another kid asked why he does not see an everything machine where they live.  After listening to another book I was able to talk to one classroom mom that had come into help for the day.

One of the first questions I asked was what she enjoys about coming into help during the day.  She replied by saying that she enjoys to see her kid along with the other kids interacting within the classroom because it is not something that all parents get to see.  She told me that it helps her think of new ideas for at home to help her son out with his homework and other areas.  The mom also said that her son's teacher is very helpful when it comes to if parents have questions or concerns.  She stated that she emails frequently to all parents letting them know what is coming up next and what they can look forward to their child learning and being able to do.  I thought that this was a great idea.  I know that some schools, hopefully most schools, do newsletters for the classroom but as I have found out by doing newsletters within the center that I work at some parents just do not read over all the information.  I think that emails between parents and teachers can be a more effective way of communication because the parents can access the email anywhere; phone, home and work in most cases.  Emails can be a quick way to send a parents a helpful link to a website that they could benefit from using at home.  There are so many free websites for children that do enhance their learning skills that I think a lot of parents do not know about.

Blog #3

During my interviews this week I had the pleasure of meeting with the assistant principle and another librarian at the school.  It was very interesting some of the items we talked about.  When I met with the assistant principle we talked about how she deals with advocacy issues on a daily basis.  I asked her what her biggest issue is when it comes to helping parents understand the importance of early literacy.  She replied by stating that some parents do not have much formal education and are just getting back into school themselves so it takes time for them to see and learn what needs to be done at home in order to better their child;s educational process.  I guess I have never thought of this before because both of my parent went to college, my dad for four years and mom for two, and they always pushed me and my sisters within school to work at a higher level.  Another topic we talked about was progress reports and how parents are informed of their child’s academic process.  I asked her how, other than actual report cards/progress reports, can the parents find out if their child is struggling or is too advanced for the level of reading that they are currently at.  She said that they have a reading resource program which is a unit of teachers that works within the school to better the children and parents.  They have their own reading readiness website that is linked with the schools website for parents to see frequently asked questions, phonics ideas, comprehension and so on.  She also said that if parents have concerns or if the teacher has a concern about a particular student, that they can at anytime communicate their concern with the other person in order to improve the child’s learning.  One thing that she also stated was that within their school reading is a, if not the, most important subject for children to learn at a young age.  

After talking to the assistant principal the week before I wanted to talk to one of the teachers on the reading readiness team.  I was very excited to talk with someone who I knew would know a great deal of information about reading and early literacy.  The first question that I asked her is why she believes reading is so important for children at young ages.  She replied by saying that everything a child does revolves around reading and being able to communicate on a greater scale.  Reading is the first step that children have to become independent in their learning.  After she said this I thought about the children I work with and how when they are working on their homework they do work independently and how proud they must feel that they can read without me sitting next to them looking over their shoulder.  It is a form of self-confidence that can start at a young age with the proper training and reading programs.  While I was interviewing the reading readiness teacher she showed me their website which has tons of information for parents.  One of the topics I liked was what should a parent do if their child is stuck on a word while reading.  My first thought was my interview with the parent where she stated that it can be hard to not help and just tell them the word.  Instead the resource teacher says their are six keys steps you can take.  The first is thinking of if their is a picture that can give a clue to what the word is, another helpful hint is to just keep reading and come back to that word later. She said that in a lot of cases kids will read a sentence and understand what is says without always knowing every word and they will be able to go back and sound out that word when they have a better understanding of the entire concept.  

Overall I really enjoyed my time spent at the school and my two interviews.  I think that I gained some more insight in what schools within my area are doing in order to better provide for early literacy within the school and in the homes of the students as well. 

Module 2 Blog and Interviews

This week I got to go into a library and observe a guided reading program that was taking place.  The librarian was very helpful when talking to her about some questions I have with early literacy.  One of my first questions is how does she think the school is doing when it comes to promoting early literacy?  She replied by saying that she thinks that the school district has implemented many new techniques for working with all students and reading.  The new program has songs, books, and actions that relate the sounds of words and and letters together.  I then asked her how the reading program is within the school district.  She said that overall the reading program could use a little work but in a small school district getting the funding for new books every year and new programs can be difficult.  After interviewing her I watched her and a first grade teacher perform what they call a guided reading center.  

It was very exciting to see the children learning to read because their faces would light up when they could read and sound out new words.  During the guided reading the teacher and librarian would allow the child to sound out the words on their own before helping out.  I think that parents sometimes do not always allow for their child to do so because they do not want to see them struggling.  She stated that she has three young boys and sometimes has a hard time letting them read out loud by themselves because she wants to help them out as soon as she hears that they are having trouble, natural instinct she said! This is an important learn step when it comes to reading.  I know that in my classroom it can be hard for me and my assistant to not help the children sometimes and let them try to figure it out themselves.  After the guided reading I was able to interview the teacher of the classroom while the students were read to. I asked her what sort of problems she encounters with her students and reading levels.  One of the issues she brought up is that she feels like some of her students do not have the same amount of time at home to practice their reading or the same variety of books to read from as well.  This was a realization for me because I guess I never really thought about how many books children have at home before.  I also asked her what other ways she promotes literacy within her classroom and she showed me a sample book that she uses.  She also said that she reads at least three times a day to the children because she feels the need to expand the child’s vocabulary by reading.  Overall I had a great time interviewing and watching the children interact during their reading time.  

Blog 1 Interview

For my first interview I got to meet with a librarian of the local elementary school.  She had a lot of insights on what teachers and parents can do in order to help their child become a better reader.  I want to focus on early literacy because I feel like reading is at the top of things that children struggle with these days.  She was able to show me sets of books that the schools use in order to promote early literacy, some of which are from scholastic book company, which parents would be able to purchase as well.  I am excited to go back because she is letting me sit in on a small reading group of first graders.

                I also interviewed a first grade teacher who helped me get even more excited to research the topic of early literacy.  She described to me the differences she sees in her classroom when it comes to reading and writing.  She expressed her thoughts about why some children lack in reading and writing and some of it had to do with the parents not being as educated as others along with how culturally the students differ in skills.  I think this would be a good topic for in my paper, research how different cultures put more time into teaching children to read and write.  I also plan on focusing one topic on products that are available to parents to use at home to help their child if they are struggling in reading. 

                If anyone else knows of any good topics to focus on or products that would be helpful let me know. Thanks!

First Blog

This is my first blog post...hopefully I did this correctly!