Read Aloud.

What I really liked about Rowe’s article was the fact that she repeatedly emphasized that social contracts are unique to each community and do not follow a universal pattern. Therefore, the children at Rowe’s all-white, middle class, high-literacy Walker Preschool were not expected to follow the same social contracts as preschoolers from different races, different economic statuses, different backgrounds, etc. I think people, perhaps mainly non-educators and politicians, are all too eager to point out the differences between preschool programs when it is not always appropriate to do so. Is it fair to expect children from different backgrounds to adhere to the same social contracts? Not really, and Rowe makes sure to warn her readers that they need to be careful when comparing her findings to those of other researchers dealing with social contracts.

I did have one question that stuck out for me in particular. Rowe wrote that the children were allowed to choose what centers they participated in instead of being forced to come to the writing center, and I think that’s great. As a result, around half of the children came to the writing center on 10 or more days, and about half came to the writing center on less than 10 days. What I wanted to know is why children chose to come to the writing center or not. Presumably (and you teachers out there can correct me if I’m wrong), the children who were more comfortable with writing would be more likely to come to the center, whereas children who were more insecure in their writing may not come to the writing center. I’m assuming there were varying levels of writing comfort among these children. I’m not talking about skills, but how secure the children are in their writing. Johnny might not be able to distinguish art from words, but he may be comfortable enough in his writing to come to the center, but Anna might be insecure in her writing ability or intimidated by her peers, so she may shy away from the center. The reason I’m wondering this has to deal with a little girl I am tutoring. I’m calling her Maria, and she is a five-year-old Hispanic girl.

Maria recognizes her letters and eagerly writes her name, but she refuses to write anything else without a lot of coaxing. The other day, I was finally able to get Maria to write if I wrote too. We were writing the colors that were in a picture that she had drawn, and I had her spell the words to me. At first, when I asked Maria to write “blue,” she said, “No, you write it!” I wanted to see how well she was sounding out words, so I modeled for her. I said, “How about you tell me what to write. What sound do you here first b-l-u-e? B-b-b-lue.” “B!,” she said.  Eventually, Maria began writing the letters without me having to write them first. However, she was reluctant to sound out words or even to suggest letters and sounds. I noticed that she often glanced nervously at the other children who were sitting at her table. Sometimes the children would yell out the letters or say, “That’s easy!,” and Maria would get quiet and would need more prompting. Obviously, Maria is insecure in her writing ability for some reason, and the ease with which her peers spell “yellow” and “pink” make her nervous. It’s not that she can’t write or that she can’t spell, it’s just that she doesn’t want to. Next week I’m working with her one-on-one, and I’m going to see if I can get her away from her classmates so I can see how she writes when it’s just me. Even though Maria is 5 and not 2 like the children in Rowe’s study, I don’t think she would have voluntarily gone to a writing center. As a teacher, I think it is important to observe which children go to which centers in order to figure out why. It could just be that the children who didn’t choose the writing center like playing with blocks or listening to stories better, or it could be because some of those children were nervous/shy/insecure/etc.

I know this post is a little off-topic, but I don’t have any experience with teaching children, much less preschool children, so I can’t comment from experience on the findings of Rowe’s studying. However, the fact that only half of the children voluntarily choose to go to the writing center made me wonder why the other half didn’t choose it. I had just decided that I was going to see if Maria’s teacher would let me move her away from her table during writing time so I could see how she acted when she wasn’t under peer pressure, and I just thought, “Maria would have been one of the children who didn’t choose the writing center.” It’s not because she’s not smart, or that she’s particularly shy socially, she just seems very conscious of the children around her, and they are often focused on us because Maria has a special friend that comes to visit her (me!). I’ll tell you how she does next week. Any suggestions are welcome.

Teaching multiple literacies in the classroom is really interesting to me since I am part of the generation that grew up using computers in school. Even though I think it’s important for students to learn how to use computers, word processors, websites, etc, I don’t think it should be the focus of instruction. Computer literacy instruction, like assessment, should be integrated within the lesson.  For example, I liked Janna’s interaction with Mallory using Microsoft Word. Software like Word and its variations are very important in school, work, and everyday life today, so learning how to use them is as necessary as learning how to read and write. Some people might even argue that computers negate the need for children to hone their writing skills (eep!). Anyways, back to Janna and Mallory. Using the computer helped reinforce Mallory’s literacy instruction in a tangible way. For example, Mallory had to actually hit the Space bar to put a space between words. That physical motion made the abstract concept of word more literal. Furthermore, word processors highlight spelling and grammar errors, so teachers can use this tool to ask their students, “Now why do you think that word is underline? How can you fix it?”

As a (future) librarian, I was interested in learning about the kid-friendly reference pages like Ask Jeeves for Kids because I can introduce my students to web resources without worrying about them finding inappropriate material. Introducing websites has its pros and cons. Websites can be fun and stimulating with their media elements and backgrounds, but they can also be overwhelming. I think I would limit my early technology literacy instruction to simple programs like Word that reinforce basic literacy concepts. I don’t want to confuse students who do not yet have a clear concept of how a book works (reading left to right in a linear fashion for example) by introducing websites. Websites are often laid out in a nonlinear format with pictures, videos, hyperlinks, and multiple pages that can challenge and stimulate more advanced readers but might overwhelm beginning readers.

Since I haven’t been in a classroom yet, I have a question for all the teachers in our class: how do you use technology in your classrooms? how important do you think it is?

I hated standardized tests in school. I was a terrible math student, and my math scores reflected that, even though I was in advanced and AP classes. In fact, my math SAT score almost kept me out of the college of my choice. Thankfully, I had a very determined guidance counselor who believed my intelligence wasn’t reflected accurately in my math scores, and she told the college representatives that. They agreed to let me submit another essay on why I wanted to attend their school, and I eventually got in. This leads me into my discussion on BICS and CALP.  In my case, my math BICS was fine. I had the basics down, which is really all anyone who isn’t an engineer or a stockbroker (although some of them may need remedial math right now) needs. As far as my academic math skills, my math CALP so to speak, never really developed. I managed to struggle my way through math with the help of my beloved graphing calculator. But you know what? All I need is that math BICS in order to function. I still have that calculator for when some tougher math CALP is necessary.

I want to reference April’s post this week. She had an ELL student named Manny (name also changed) who had trouble communicating in Spanish. Instead of seeing him as remedial and uncooperative like Mrs. Piper in Aukerman’s article, April realized Manny’s potential and went to great lengths to work with him. She recruited his older sister to help translate her questions and concerns to Manny and his parents, which helped get the family involved. April also had a genius idea: she asked Manny to start presenting in Spanish, and he instantly became open and willing to participate! Unlike Mrs. Piper, April realized that Manny wasn’t stupid, he was just uncomfortable with his second language. April writes, “He had plenty of BICS, but his CALP was where he was struggling.  He was one of my brightest students, and given a puzzle he could put it together faster than I could, and he could build structures with blocks that looked like an architect had designed, no lie.  His artwork was gorgeous, I asked if I could keep some of it and displayed it proudly on the front of my desk.  He was gifted.” As April’s experience demonstrates, a student’s intelligence or literacy level should not be determined solely by CALP or any standardized tests. Manny communicated his intelligence through puzzles, building blocks, and art, and art, like music, is a universal language.

I believe that context is one of the most important aspects of learning literacy; and, like Aukerman writes, taking language out of context and quizzing students on it can be confusing and give misleading results. In the example where Mrs. Piper asks the students to say the different phonemes in “made.” Joaquin does so, so his English phonemic awareness is obviously working. However, when Mrs. Piper asks Joaquin to identify the beginning sound in “made,” he answers “/d/.” Joaquin clearly has the basis for literacy, he just didn’t understand what Mrs. Piper was asking him. Perhaps if Mrs. Piper had thought of this, then she may have been able to help Joaquin recontextualize the question so that he understood the concept.

I began tutoring a Hispanic girl named Maria (named changed) last week, and she has trouble communicating her thoughts in writing, so I found Maren Aukerman’s article on ELL students very interesting. Of course, I’ve only worked with Maria for one day, so I cannot say that her difficulties lie in her BICS/CALP abilities, but I had never thought of those concepts before. I want to keep this article and April’s example in mind when I work with my future ELL students. Now that I have this critical analysis of Cummin’s BICS/CALP model, I hope I will be able to step back and really look at my individual students instead of doing the easy thing and labelling them according to their “deficits.” Instead of seeing ELL students as deficient, I think their potential bilingualism is amazing and will be very useful in their future.  Having the patience, willingness, and the resources to nuture that first language will help it and their English develop. There are some great translation websites out there (I like Google Translate myself), as well as a wealth of bilingual resources and books (::hint:: ask you local librarian : ) ) Of course, being bilingual yourself or having a teacher in the school who is bilingual (like Mr. Velez) is ideal, but as educators, we take what we have and work with it.

so true.

As you can tell from the title of my blog, reading aloud is one of my favorite things about being a librarian-to-be. Children love to be read to, and reading stories to them is such a great learning experience for them. Good teachers like Mrs. Heape (Barone, Mallette, and Xu) understand that read alouds are important and, if used correctly, are fun ways to build students’ vocabularies, syntax, ideas of sentence structure, and concept of book.

Making read alouds educational, like teaching phonemic awareness, must be deliberate however. Simply reading a book to students will teach them something, but making the children interact with the books is what really makes the read aloud an essential literacy tool. Often children are expected to sit quietly while the teacher reads the story, but, as Rog points out, the best discussions about a book take place during the reading not after. Mrs. Heape made sure to include her students in the story by asking them questions like, “What do you think will happen next?,” by placing special emphasis on vocabulary development within the context of the story, and by sharing her reading strategies out loud so that her students know how a good reader approaches a story.

Teachers must be able to choose good books that the students can be entertained by and relate to. Fortunartely, the American Library Association provides educators with a handy list of Caldecott Medal winners every year, so at least there is a list of high quality stories out there. Picking a “good” book is only the beginning though. Once they have chosen the right book, the teacher must be familiar with the story so he or she can identify vocabulary words within the text, think of open-ended questions to facilitate inquiry, and find places where he or she can teach reading strategies. Then, as the old adage goes, “Practice, practice, practice!” A teacher who flubs the good parts or lacks enthusiasm is going to make reading a snooze.

Now, there are so many good books out there and so little time to choose, so how are teachers supposed to make enough time in their busy schedules to incorporate read alouds? Ta da! Librarians to the rescue! Librarians love books, and elementary school librarians love children with books, so we’re the perfect solution to your reading problem. Library science students who concentrate as school media specialists at UNC go through a rigorous series of courses that are designed to prepare them to choose good books. In addition to our library science classes, school media specialists in NC are also required to be certified teachers, so not only are we taught about what makes a good book, we are also taught how to teach children about books.

I’m doing my read aloud for this class on Monday night, and I had a difficult time choosing my book. I had my old favorites, but I really wanted to read a new book, so I chose a brand spanking new story called Splat the Cat.It’s a story about a kitten who is nervous about going to his first day of school because he is afraid he won’t make any friends (something all kindergarteners-to-be can relate to), so he brings his pet mouse with him, and a lot of cat and mouse ensues! Not only is this story relatable to kindergarteners, but the text makes use of rhyme, alliteration, and other word tricks that make the story flow and help students develop their eyes and ears for spelling and sound. Librarians have the education and resources to help them be great literacy teachers, so they are an amazing source of knowledge, advice, and support for teachers who want to use read alouds effectively in their literacy teachings.

This weekend, I asked my 8-year-old nephew what his favorite book was, and he said, “a biography about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” My library senses (equivalent to Spiderman’s spidey senses) reminded me that young boys loved nonfiction books. Furthermore, my nephew is biracial, so reading a biography about a historic black man gave him a hero he could identify with on a new level. I congratulate whatever teacher or librarian read King’s bio to his class. The point of this little anecdote what that whether the students are in kindergarten or third grade, the choice of read aloud material is very important, not only for helping children develop their literacy, but also for giving them a sense of themselves and of history and their place in it.

Although this video doesn’t actually include any reading aloud, I thought it demonstrated the inspirational effect reading has on children, their vocabularies, and their writing. It’s also appropriate considering Valentine’s Day is less than a week away. \”Reading Inspires Children\”

I remember endlessly singing the name game with my nephew, Charlie. “Charlie, Charlie bo barley, fi fie fo farley, mi my mo marley, Charlie!” Again! Again! I never thought that song actually had a purpose, but now I know it was just chock full of phonemes!

I have to admit, I was a little afraid when I began reading our chapters on phonemic awareness. It sounded so important that children learn phonemic awareness, but how was I supposed to teach it?! It seemed so complicated, and it brought me back to my undergrad days in a linguistic class I took on a whim. Breaking down words into phonemes and studying palatal fricatives and other scary things like that were kind of overwhelming. However, once I got into the readings a little more, especially Yopp and Yopp, I realized that teaching kids phonemic awareness could be fun and easy. I’m eternally grateful for articles that give me examples of how to teach complicated things to children.

So I was trying to think of ways to incorporate these word games into my library. Blair recently wrote in her blog, “I can’t tell you how many times a day I have said, ‘This is not a talking time!’ to my students,” and then she goes on to write about how her thinking about noisy classrooms has changed. Her comment really made me think of the library, that hallowed ground with the scary bun-haired guard at the front desk going, “SHHHH!” every time someone breathed too loud. Now maybe this is how an academic library should be, or even a public library to some extent, since those are places where people are studying, working, or reading, and they appreciate a little peace and quiet. A school library, however, is different. I mean really, what is quiet about a school! Does it matter if students are noisy in my library if they’re the only ones using it at the time? Instead of reading the kids a book in hushed tones, why can’t we interact with the story in fun and noisy ways! Books are made up of sentences, sentences made up of words, and words made up of phonemes, so how are children supposed to learn how to read successfully without understanding phonemes? And how are they supposed to understand phonemes without being able to listen to the parts of words and try to manipulate the sounds themselves?

This made me think of a book by Charlotte Pomerantz called Here Comes Henny. It’s a story about a mother chicken who is taking her chicks on a picnic, and her babies are are being too picky. The entire story is a huge play on phonemes, with lines like, “squishy-squashy, mooshy-squooshy, ooffy-poofy mud” and her backpack, which Henny carries, “pickabacky, back and forth, and forth and backy.” The sounds and the words they create are ridiculous, which makes this story hilarious for little kids. The story lends itself to phoneme awareness because the kids can read it aloud with me, and we can talk about the different parts of the words, why they sound similar, etc. A story like this would be a lot less fun, and a lot less educational, if the librarian simply read it the students, but by making it a loud, interactive experience, the students can hear themselves manipulate the sounds and laugh at the funny combinations they make.

In short, noisy libraries are fun and educational! But be prepared with lots of coffee and Advil.

This semester is my first foray into school media library specialist/education classes. Interestingly enough, required library science masters classes don’t really emphasize the importance of reading, and a love of books and reading was what pushed me to be a librarian in the first place. In my first weeks of class this semester, however, I have been bombarded with the importance of reading. Even though it’s a little overwhelming, I’m happy that my readings and assignments are inspiring ideas of how to actually apply all these theories and ideas in my library instead of boring me to tears!

The concept of social-constructivist teaching really fascinates me. So far, the only experiences I’ve had in a classroom/school library were from my own years in school, and constructivist teaching wasn’t really utilized.  Which brings me to the all-important question, “How can I employ constructivist methods in my duties as a librarian?” As a school librarian, collaboration between teachers and librarians is essential to enhancing the students learning.  Because teachers have so much other topics to worry about (math comes to mind ::groan::), librarians can focus on reading, which makes me excited.

Getting children to interact with books is one of the most important steps in early literacy, as all three of our readings suggest.  As a librarian, I feel like I have the chance to break away from the rigors of standardized testing to really explore literacy with my kids. Acting out stories, reading them aloud with kids, having them ask questions and point to pictures, letting them write/draw their own stories are great ways to get kids to love reading, help them develop their vocabularies, and to use their imaginations all at once. When I was a little kid, the best books were the ones that got my imagination going. I distinctly remember watching Reading Rainbow and doing the crafts and activities that Lavar Burton did on the show. There was an unfortunate episode of a wonderful old woman who painted beautiful eggs, and she had this technique for blowing the yokes out of the eggs. I was probably around five, and I tried desperately to blow the yoke out of my egg by poking holes in the top and bottom and blowing as hard as I could. Needless to say, I gave up. Anyways, as a librarian, I want to choose books and activities that inspire my kids.

This was a bit long and boring, but I’m still working out my blogging skills, or lack thereof, so I apologize.