Entry #10: Homework & Independent Work

                Because teachers only spend about 13 percent of their waking hours at school, teachers often utilize homework to give them opportunities to apply content knowledge, review, and practice (Hill & Flynn, 2006, p. 77).  In fact, ELLs may need to practice a skill as much as twenty-four times to become competent (p. 86).  To be a true extension of classwork and gauge student understanding of content, homework assignments should, by and large, be completed independently.  This means that work needs to be assigned at the student’s level (p. 78).  For ELLs, this often means teacher differentiation of expectations, time modifications, and scaffolded tasks. 

                One of the most important components of homework is a clear purpose.  If students don’t find meaning to their work, the quality suffers.  Most often, the best homework results I’ve seen in my students either builds on class material or reviews key concepts.  Occasionally, I give students an assignment to prepare them for the next day’s activity, but I find that in all of my classes this year that the on-time homework completion rate isn’t too strong.  Therefore, if students are behind on their prep work, they miss out on the learning taking place in class the next day. 

                As far as feedback goes, teachers need to provide meaningful feedback to students in a timely manner.  They need teacher support to help them see their strengths and next-steps.  Students rarely submit work that is not a reflection of their best effort.  Recognizing and validating the time and work invested into an assignment truly supports the work they completed and motivates them for future assignments.  One of the most important facets of timely feedback is student investment in the assignment.  If it was done recently, they are much more interested in how they did, and they can better remember what they were thinking as they worked.  One facet of feedback that I’d like to integrate more into my classroom is students providing feedback to each other. 

                Technology integration is a great way to increase student engagement, and since every student at EHS is required to have at least one study period, even kids who cannot access a computer at home can still complete their assignments.  In all honesty, though, I don’t have my students utilize technology for regular homework assignments with specific sites/tasks in mind.  My students sometimes use history websites to avoid having to lug a heavy book home, and my AP Government students look up current events and political cartoons to bring to class.  Web quests, simulations, and primary source activities are things I prefer to integrate into the content day so I can check their understanding as they work through the task.

Hill, J. & Flynn, K.  (2006).  Classroom instruction that works with english language learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD Publishing.

Entry #9: Fiction/Nonfiction Comparison

                                                                                                  
                                                                       

Due to time constraints, I only use excerpts from The Red Badge of Courage and The American Iliad with my U.S. History classes.  Both provide great depth and insight into a soldier’s experience during the American Civil War.  I really enjoy incorporating The Red Badge of Courage into my content because such a small fraction of my curriculum incorporates fiction texts.  In an ideal concentrated setting, I would love the opportunity to teach both books in full as the students learned about the Civil War. 

The Red Badge of Courage, a nineteenth century classic, delves into a young soldier’s longing to be a hero, redeeming himself for deserting his unit in the heat of battle.  The main character, Henry, upon leaving his unit, stumbles into a column of wounded soldiers and finds himself deeply envious—wanting to have a “red badge of courage” of his own.  He continues wandering until he spots a group of Union soldiers retreating.  In the frenzy of their retreat, Henry is hit in the head with a rifle, giving him a bloody gash on his forehead.  Once a dazed Henry is led back to his own regiment’s camp, the soldiers in his unit think he was wounded in their battle.  To redeem himself for his cowardice, Henry fights the next day with tremendous valor, taking on the most dangerous job a soldier could have—bearing the regimental flag and overcoming the guilt of desertion.

Charles Roland’s The American Iliad, does a masterful job of interweaving military campaigns and personalized accounts of political, social, military, and cultural events of the Civil War.  In his book, Roland focuses heavily on the Union & Confederacy’s generals and presidents.  While this book is a historical account, Roland’s intended audience is the general reading public—he really makes the history of the events leading to the war, the war itself, and its aftermath very accessible.   His book’s battle descriptions are highly readable, and the accompanying maps help readers recreate Civil War combat in their minds.

In Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage, the author utilizes clear vocabulary and dialogue between characters that works well in read alouds or directly phrased in the movie version of the book, which would provide ELA students with additional support.  Further, the speech is direct, and paragraphs and chapters are relatively short, leaving many opportunities to check for understanding.  The story moves quickly and only centers on a single character, limiting the amount of superfluous material and confusion.  The reader is meant to identify only with Henry instead of examining both sides of the war at a macro level.  But, even though the novel can be read comfortably by students as early as middle school, the book uses a lot of tricky dialect and nineteenth century slang that would be entirely unfamiliar to an ELA student who is trying to master present-day English.  Furthermore, the book doesn’t offer any illustrations or images to depict many period-specific items—a musket for example.  While the chapters aren’t too long, it is difficult to read the book out of sequence, and the excerpts I select need a lot of pre-teaching to activate background knowledge.  By supplementing images of period pieces, explaining 1860s terminology in advance, and incorporating elements of the film, ELA students would receive a more scaffolded approach to this Civil War classic. 

While The Red Badge of Courage examines the experience of a single Civil War soldier, Roland’s nonfiction account of the Civil War encompasses a thirty-plus year time span and conveys both the Union and Confederate perspective.  Here, students can freely examine specific chapters that center on the most relevant information, and sequence (with the exception of large-scale military campaigns and major political events) is not necessarily critical to understanding.  Further, Roland’s book provides numerous images, illustrations, and battle maps to enhance the reader’s understanding of the material.  Roland’s book is accompanied by a through glossary and index, providing a nice reference for ELA students.  But, his text is intended for adults, so a lot of the sophisticated non-historical vocabulary is omitted from the glossary.  Furthermore, he tackles the entire Civil War experience—Union and Confederate—in this book, featuring many generals, politicians, pieces of legislation, and locations.  This could be tremendously overwhelming—a better approach with this book is to use it in smaller doses, extracting the most relevant information instead of using entire chapters for a class of ELA learners.

                                                                               Sources


Crane, S. (1895). The red badge of courage. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.


Pierce, C. (2004). An american iliad: the story of the civil war. Louisville, KY: University


       Press of Kentucy.

Entry #8: ELA Running Record & Analysis

MAZIN-
Mazin Z. came to the U.S. from Egypt when he was ten.  He’s been here for nearly five years, and Arabic is his first language.  His family still uses Arabic at home to communicate with his live-in grandparents.  Mazin’s parents have been learning English along with him for their family’s business.  In fact, he has been teaching his parents with what he has learned at school.  Mazin loves to read and write—Language Arts is his favorite subject.

     
Based on Mazin’s running record (a 111-word paragraph from Pearson’s United States History), it is clear to see that he has developed a strong command of the English language.  Of his seven errors, he was able to self-correct four, and he had an accuracy rate of 94%, placing him atop the instructional tier.  Most of his mistakes were visual, and his comprehension was strong because he self-corrected when the word he said didn’t make sense.  His pronunciation of “Ellington” as “Ellinjton” didn’t detract from the overall meaning of the reading, and he didn’t recognize any mispronunciation here because of words like “orange” or “strange,” which change the sound of the letter “g” to “j.”  He just missed the connection that a consonant following the "g" would lead to a "hard g" pronunciation.  The awkward spelling of the word “renaissance” was difficult for him, and he gave a great effort to visually break the word into appropriate letter-sound relationships.  Once I corrected him on pronunciation, he stumbled into the word again, and very quickly he was able to self-correct. 

      
Since Mazin’s first language is Arabic, there aren’t really any true relationships with English.  He has mastered a different alphabet and a new directionality when reading.  I can assume  Mazin was a very strong reader in Arabic as well since he’s become such a strong English learner and that he loves reading and writing on his own.

     
Instructionally, if Mazin were my student, I would approach subject matter like the Harlem Renaissance through direct teaching before exposing the students to a reading.  This audio reinforcement would have prevented the mispronunciation of “Ellington” and the explicit teaching would help him recognize the word “renaissance” as it is encountered.  Having a student approach new subject matter cold without any introduction or activation of prior knowledge would never be a strategy that I’d utilize with an English language learner. 

ANDRES -

Andres R. moved to the U.S. three years ago from Mexico.  He is the only member of his immediate family who speaks English, and he is not as academically motivated as Mazin, in part because he is not utilizing English much beyond the classroom.  In talking with his ELA teacher, Andres has the same problem there that he does in U.S. History: he doesn’t do homework assignments that extend and enrich his classroom learning experiences.  She said most of his friends are native Spanish speakers, and they jump into Spanish when they are out of class.  Learning English has been challenging for Andres, and this year, he is the only ELL student in my section of Teamed U.S. History. 

      
Andres read the same passage, 111 words from the tenth grade reading level history book.  He scored 89% accuracy (making this a hard reading for Andres), but his self-correction rate was very poor; of the twelve errors Andres made, he only corrected one on his own.  Andres’ mistakes were predominantly visual and meaning errors, and his rush to get through the reading didn’t demonstrate a personal reading priority of comprehension.  Being a difficult reading for Andres, I noticed that he was pushing to finish quickly and did not utilize his own decoding skills as often as he could in attempting a word.  He would begin, get frustrated, and wait for assistance on “experience,” the “1920s,” and “renaissance.”  I did think it was interesting that Andres read the decade reference, “1920s” as a numerical unit (one thousand, nine hundred, and twenty) instead of a year.  Again, this raised alarm with me that his comprehension of the material was very unclear. 

     
Andres made two structural mistakes in his reading; he pronounced “heard” as “hear-d,” and “flowering” as “flowing.”  Both of these mistakes did not take away from the overall meaning of the reading passage.  He simply began the word and rushed through too quickly to correctly pronounce “heard” and to notice that “flowing,” while it made sense, was not the word presented to him in the passage. 

     
With regards to language, Andres still incorporates elements of Spanish into his approach as an English reader.  In Spanish, each letter of the word is pronounced, and Andres had trouble blending sounds when letters were pronounced differently in English (demonstrated with his mispronunciation of “heard” and “culture.”  As he’s been learning English, it’s clear that Andres relies very much on his visual skills as a reader to get him through a reading.  But, in reading aloud to me during his study period, I think he was very nervous, and he read at a much more rapid rate than would be comfortable for him when working alone.  I think his objective was to finish as quickly as possible.  If Andres were to hear me read the same passage to him with the same mistakes he made, I’m sure he would recognize the mistakes.  His conversational English is much stronger than what I heard from him with this passage on the Harlem Renaissance, which has probably led me to a false impression of his English language reading abilities.

      
Going into this reading with no background knowledge definitely made the reading more difficult for Andres.  With this group of teamed students, we always explicitly instruct the material before they read or work independently.  Andres would absolutely benefit from direct instruction to build background knowledge, realia, some jazz music and a text of a less challenging level, such as our school’s American Nation textbook, which incorporates pronunciation guides, definitions imbedded in the text (instead of the margins)and strong visual cues.

Entry #7: Historical Examination of Spelling & Pronunciation

      1.       BESEECH

	Modern	Middle (12th-15th Century)	Old (5th-12th Century)
Word	beseech (verb)	bisechen	besecan
Pronunciation	bē-ˈsēch	bē-ˈsēchen (pron.: bee-see-chen)	bē-ˈsēkan (pron.: bee-see-kan)

Origin: German (besuchen)

Webster’s Definition: 1: to beg urgently or anxiously

Explanation of Spelling and Pronunciation & Explanation for Students:  The best way to explain the word “beseech” would be to break the word into its root parts.  By explaining that the prefix, be-, often acts as an intensifier for the verb (as in be-moan, be-lie, and be-smirch).  –seech would best be explained by seeking out students’ understanding of its root word, “seek.”  By breaking it into smaller fragments, the spelling makes more sense to the students, and they can see the definition more clearly, to be- (urgently) + -seech (seek).

2.       FATHER

	Modern	Middle (12th-15th Century)	Old (5th-12th Century)
Word	father (noun)	fadir	faeder
Pronunciation	fä-thər	fä-dēr (pron.: fa-deer)	fā-der (pron.: fay-der)

Origin:  Old High German fater father, Latin pater, Greek patēr; first known use before the 12^th century

Webster’s Definition: 1 a : a man who has begotten a child; b: God, the first person of the Trinity; 2: forefather; 3: a : one related to another in a way suggesting that of father to child b : an old man —used as a respectful form of address; 4: one that originates or institutes <the father of modern science>; 5: a priest of the regular clergy, used especially as a title;

Explanation of Spelling and Pronunciation & Explanation for Students:  Father should not be too difficult a word to pronounce or to spell, as most letters have a one-to-one letter-to-sound correspondence.  The digraph, /th/, would be difficult for many early readers, especially since it appears in the middle of the word.  A good way to build students up to the -/th/sound would be to introduce words that begin with /th/ (this, that, them, they, think, etc.) and then imbed the sound in the middle of words, such as “weather,” “tether,” and “feather.”  Students could arrange letter tiles, magnets, or cards to practice the correct spelling of “father,” sounding out the letters as they go.

3.       HEAVEN

	Modern	Middle (12th-15th Century)	Old (5th-12th Century)
Word	heaven (noun)	heven	heofon
Pronunciation	he-vən	he-vən	ē-ə-fon (pron.: yo-fon)

Origin: Old High German himil (heaven); first known use before the 12^th century

Webster’s Definition: 1: the expanse of space that seems to be over the earth like a dome; 2:a: (often capitalized) : the dwelling place of the Deity and the blessed dead b : a spiritual state of everlasting communion with God; 3: a place or condition of utmost happiness

Explanation of Spelling and Pronunciation & Explanation for Students:  To help students with the spelling and pronunciation of “heaven,” it would be important to remind students of the different sounds produced in different open and closed vowel scenarios.  For instance, slightly changing “heaven” into “heave,” students get an entirely new pronunciation but are using most of the same letters.  Or, if they changed “heaven” into “heathen,” they have nearly the same spelling construct, and a closed-vowel word again here, but the first vowels are pronounced very differently.  It would be very helpful to show the students the past spelling of “heaven” (especially in Middle English), so they could see its pronunciation has remained the same while its spelling has changed.  By providing further examples, the teacher would show the students the very different sounds made with e-a letter combinations.  They could classify various words to start to examine the differencts  (heart, heave, leave, learn, please, etc.).

4.       PLOW

	Modern	Middle (12th-15th Century)	Old (5th-12th Century)
Word	plow (noun)	plowe	ploh
Pronunciation	plau̇	plōh (pron.: p-low)	plōh (pron.: p-low)

Origin: German pfluog, first known use in the 12^th century

Webster’s Definition: 1: an implement used to cut, lift, and turn over soil especially in preparing a seedbed; 2: any of various devices (as a snowplow) operating like a plow

Explanation of Spelling and Pronunciation & Explanation for Students: The o-w letter combination making the /au̇/ sound would be problematic for many students, especially considering that taking away the /p/ sound leaves the students with the word, “low,” which is pronounced very differently.  Here, it would help to teach students rhyming words, like, “bow” (as in the physical motion), “cow,” “how.” “now,” “vow,” and “wow” to minimize their confusion with the pronunciation found in words like “low,” “mow,” “row,” and “tow.”  As students became more comfortable, they could classify “–ow” sound cards for their different sounds.

5.       KNIGHT

	Modern	Middle (12th-15th Century)	Old (5th-12th Century)
Word	knight (noun)	knight	cniht
Pronunciation	nīt	k- nīt (pron.: k-nite)	k- nīt (pron.: k-nite)

Origin: Old High German knecht; first used before the 12^th century

Webster’s Definition: a (1) : a mounted man-at-arms serving a feudal superior; especially : a man ceremonially inducted into special military rank usually after completing service as page and squire (2) : a man honored by a sovereign for merit and in Great Britain ranking below a baronet; a man devoted to the service of a lady as her attendant or champion c : a member of an order or society

Explanation of Spelling and Pronunciation & Explanation for Students: An important factor in teaching students to spell and pronounce words like “knight” or “knife,” is that many used to be pronounced with the hard /k/ sound.  This way, students don’t think their language arbitrarily assigns letters to words—they will see some reasoning and history behind it.  It might be a good idea to introduce kids to the idea of knights in the middle ages, and to have the kids use various /kn/ words in a poem or a story, including words like “knit,” "knack,” “knee,” “kneel,” “knife,” “knight,” “knob,” “knock,” “knot,” “know,” and “knuckle.”

References

Miriam webster’s online dictionary. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.miriamwebster.com.

Webster’s new world dictionary of the american language, second college edition. (1974). New York:

       Collins Publishing.

Word origins. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.wordorigins.org.

Entry #6: A Learning/Word Recognition Approach vs. an Acquisition/Sociopsycholinguistic Approach

	Distinguishing Factors of Learning/Word Recognition Teaching & Learning	Distinguishing Factors of Acquisition/Sociopsycholinguistic Teaching & Learning
Position	Based on Behavioral Psychology Reading - -    “Written language must be learned” (Freeman & Freeman, 2004, p. 24). -    “Any word a student can pronounce is a word the student can understand” (26). Writing - -    Student writing is a reflection of his/her competence with language.	Based on Cognitive Psychology Reading - - “The ability to use written language is to some degree innate, and can be acquired” (p. 24). Writing - - Emphasizing process will help students produce higher quality writing. - “Focus on the message, not the form” (31). - By reading, students are gathering the necessary skills to be strong writers.
Goal	Reading - -    The goal of word recognition teaching is to help students learn to identify spoken words in writing. -    Recoding involves changing written language into oral language. Writing - -    Teachers want students to produce quality writing, so they break writing down into its components—words, then sentences, then paragraphs, then stories and essays.	Reading - - Comprehension is the goal of reading. Writing - - Students will be able to produce quality writing by internalizing the writing process and expressing themselves on paper.
Student’s Task	Reading - -    Identify words on sight. -    Learn skills to allow for connections between the symbols on the page and the words banked in their oral vocabulary. -    Apply phonics rules to determine word pronunciation. Writing - -    Students utilize prescribed sentence and paragraph structures in their writing. -    Students are expected to have correct handwriting format, spelling, mechanics, and structure.	Reading - - Use background knowledge and cueing systems to make sense of text. - Students will construct different meanings because each reader brings a unique perspective, background knowledge, and purpose for reading (26). - Use visual and sound information combined with background knowledge and semantics to make meaning. - Read and retell lends itself to structuring student writing. Writing - - Students explore topics of their own selection, conference with teachers and peers, and regularly share their finished work. - Students provide each other with feedback as they work through  the writer’s process. - Students will learn conventional formatting over time to accommodate their audience.
Teacher’s Role	Reading - -    Teach students vocabulary in advance of assigning the reading. -    Utilize flash cards to help strengthen sight word development. -    Teachers encourage students to break words into parts to determine the meanings of the different parts and recombine them to get a full meaning of the word (structural analysis) (27). -    Teachers correct mispronunciations during read alouds. Writing - -    Written instruction emphasizes construction. -    Direct Instruction will build on a progression of increasingly complex skills. -    Teacher corrects writing for grammar, mechanics, and spelling. -    Handwriting and spelling are often incorporated into the school’s writing curriculum.	Reading - - Read to students from illustrated big books, engage in the familiar (songs, chants,  & poems). - Imbed new terms within the context of texts. - Teachers confer with students about reading strategies to develop higher levels of understanding and reading proficiency. Writing - - Written instruction emphasizes content. - The teacher utilizes authentic assessments to create conditions for strong student writing. - The teacher will lead the class in minilessons to help them organize their ideas and utilize new elements of text. - Teachers allow writing to move from student-invention to conventional writing over time as part of a process.
What Theory Looks Like in Practice	Reading - -    Sounding out letters and blending sounds togetherwill help students to pronounce words. -    Utilize dictionaries to define difficult terms. -    Frequent classroom read alouds help introduce new words and teach correct pronunciations. Writing - -    Students will receive direct instruction in handwriting, spelling, mechanics, and format and be expected to adhere to standard conventions.	Reading - - Readers utilize three linguistic systems: graphophonics, syntax, and semantics. - Readers make predictions, inferences, and integrate the information of the text with what they already know.  - Students read extensively to acquire vocabulary as students face words in different contexts to gain a better understanding of the word’s meaning and properties. - Students read silently and reserve read alouds for extension activities. Writing - - Teachers will utilize a writer’s workshop classroom format, including time for individual conferences, peer sharing and review, writing, and reading time.
Shortcomings	Reading - -    Many words are easy for students to pronounce successfully but are hard to comprehend. -    Phonics rules break down with many simple and complex words. Writing - -    Students are encouraged to write to a formula which can hinder the creative process. -    The reading and writing process are not necessarily seen as connected. -    This approach does not foster a collaborative student writing environment.	Reading - - Highly individualized reading time doesn’t lend itself to overt observation of students’ reading skills and development. Writing - - Students will not necessarily adhere to standard writing conventions. - Some students need structural elements to help guide and scaffold their writing.
Common Elements…
Reading - -    “Good readers comprehend text” (25). -    Both encourage making sense of difficult words by dividing them into smaller parts.  But, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee meaning can be derived from the combined meaning of the word’s parts: “for example, it is difficult to decide on the meaning of a word like transportation by combining the meanings of its parts: across + carry + state of” (27).  Whether fragmenting prefixes and suffixes or dissecting a word to its roots, a clear definition will not always be derived for the learner. Writing - -          Both forms of writing would be possible to assess. -          Teacher input is critical to student success. -          Participation in writing-based activities will improve a student’s writing ability.