My ELA classroom: A vision and kit of tools...

After reading through my first blog entry and reflecting on how my thoughts and ideas about my ELA classroom have changed since then, I concluded that my vision is not all that different. However, my toolkit of strategies for teaching writing and oracy is more robust. One cannot have an effective vision without tools. I realize that as I enter different classrooms with different students I will have to mold my vision and strategies to fit the learners in front of me.

What does my toolkit consist of? Well, since my first entry I have learned that the curriculum is more malleable than I had anticipated which can allow/ require more creativity for the teacher. I have a bank of helpful strategies for teaching writing such as literacy circles, writing workshops, barebones stories, writing territories, shredders, providing writing prompts and encouraging children to take their writing to the publishing stage. These strategies can address a number of issues that may surface with the students, such as difficulties developing ideas, feeling hindered by poor spelling skills or simply not interested in sharing that which they have written.

The strategies for writing that I have mentioned above are generally more geared towards older grades. In this entry I have returned to discuss kindergarten and grade one students. Since they are at a very early stage of writing, it is so important to encourage engagement in writing and oracy with these students. In addition to providing a rich atmosphere full of language and books, I would provide many opportunities for speaking and listening in the classroom. The sooner students are comfortable and capable speaking with their classmates, the more successful they will be throughout their academic careers. Lessons on oracy might include lunch bunches where small group of students eat with the teacher and have the opportunity to practice asking questions to each other. In class, I would provide the opportunity for students to practice telling stories either about something they did, read or imagined. Additionally, I would incorporate drama into the classroom either by following a story structure or by integrating short activities that encourage dialogue and action.

In comparison to oral language, writing may be a new and more challenging concept for these young students. It is therefore most important to facilitate the enjoyment of the writing experience with a balance of success and correction. This is where it is very valuable to use different strategies to engage children in the process and to make a distinction between free writing and writing that is to be shared or displayed for an audience.

Therefore, in both the instruction of writing and oracy, my classroom will be a safe place to express thoughts and ideas through written and oral language using many different strategies and techniques. It will be a place where students feel engaged with language, where they are willing to take risks and develop a positive perspective on continued learning. 

Can they all be writers?

The answer is... of course they can.  This entry will focus on what is important to teach children about writing.  Although I will be referencing grade 6 & 7 learners in this post, the concepts are importantly developed throughout a student’s life.  In fact, perhaps most importantly is the consistency of these points over time.

I believe there are 3 main categories to teach about writing.  Firstly, foster a sense of enjoyment of writing in your students.  As described in Constructing Meaning, enjoyment will increase the efficacy students’ experience.  Casey and Hemenway explain in their article, Structure and Freedom, to allow students to choose their writing subjects, provide free write time and perhaps designate a particular time for writing during the day.  Additionally, I think it would be important that not all pieces of written material are handed in for marking.  This relieves the pressure for students and allows them to focus on the process of getting pen to paper.

A key feature in fostering enjoyment is utilizing different forms of written expression. The authors of Constructing Meaning explain that the three voices of writing are: expressive, poetic and transactional.  Students my naturally feel more comfortable with one of these forms but it is important to provide the opportunity to explore each of them.  Additionally, students in grades 6 & 7 will be coming to class with opinions and experiences of writing that may not all be positive.  This reinforces the importance of incorporating different methods to encourage writing such as; barebones stories, pass along stories and the brainstorm of writing territories.

A teacher’s open mind is critical to facilitating the unique students in a class.  For example, some students may need to record their ideas, type on a computer or dictate to someone else to write.  Although the students are not writing with these techniques, they are starting the process of getting their thoughts and ideas out.  Robin Stevenson supports these methods because she believes in the importance of generating ideas as a writer’s critical first step.  She also mentioned that we should be aware that students might have different preferences in how they start their writing.  For example, she starts with the development of a character.  Therefore, it is equally important to teach foundational tools of writing, such as outlining, as it is to encourage the creativity and individuality of each student’s writing process.

Secondly, at every age it is essential to support learners in understanding the importance of revision. The IRP provides a great circular sketch on page 349, which demonstrates how much of the writing process is dedicated to revising and drafts. Perhaps a condensed version of this could be displayed in a grade 6 or 7 classroom.  An article I found on the NCTE website illustrated the benefit that comes from requiring students produce many drafts of their work.  The author, Kristen Robbins, who was reflecting on her experience as a new teacher, found that she could support students best if the feedback and corrections were made during the process rather than as responses to the final copy.  The author explained that she would conference with her students, and create mini lessons from what she saw the students were struggling with. I really appreciate this focus because I think, that if as a teacher you are putting your energy into refining the work over the course of several drafts, then you are encouraging students to recognize the significance of the process.  Hopefully this will lead them to appreciate and enjoy the time and energy required for quality work.  Another benefit of this process-centered model is the ability to keep concept learning in context.  Similarly to how Robbins develops mini lessons from her students’ work, I would also ensure that each student was generating a list of words they find challenging or certain mistakes in syntax that they make regularly. This leads me to my final point about what to teach about writing.

Finally, personal investment is a vital part of teaching writing to students. Teachers are in powerful positions to shape the students they work with.  They need to be able to critique and reinforce, model and facilitate.  When students leave the class each day, I feel that it is most effective if teachers have instilled some form of personal responsibility in their students.  The IRP for ELA delineates The Gradual Release of Responsibility diagram on page 341, which demonstrates the steps necessary to reach an independent stage.  Casey and Hemenway’s article is a perfect example of this phenomenon.  The case study focused on a student throughout her schooling.  Although she was a very engaged writer in grade 3 and appreciated the attention and energy required to produce good work, her effort in writing dwindled, as she got older.  Had the student taken greater ownership in her work, I believe she would have been more successful in the writing process in the later grades.  The sixth and seventh grades can be difficult years socially and emotionally for students. It is vital that as teachers we are proactive in facilitating an environment that encourages the development of their ownership of learning.  Students will do a much better job if they want to write well and aren’t just searching for completion or a grade. 

An anomaly of my generation...

As a member of generation Y, I have experienced the transition from Beta to VHS to DVD to the near death of movie rentals entirely. I grew up listening to “books on tape”, bought my first ghetto blaster at Canadian Tire in 1997 and observed the development of cell phones that have now become some people’s lifelines.

Today, society imposes an idea that we be contactable at all time, keep our lives on small electronic devices, and do away with that which does not plug in. Having been through all these transitions in my lifetime, one would think that I embrace technology and have a great understanding and appreciation for the potential that all of these inventions have to offer. However, that would be inaccurate.

I still have that ghetto blaster from 1997, and yes, it still works. In fact, I still buy CDs for it. I bought my first cell phone at 23, I don’t own an ipod or have a Facebook page and occasionally I even send cards in the mail. And no, I don’t live under a rock!

Needless to say, I completely understand that I don’t belong in my generation and I recognize that as a teacher I’m going to have to be a lot more open to the world of new technology. I do appreciate the value of these technologies and the opportunities that they can provide, but I also want to be cautious with how I use them in my classroom. It is important to have some time during a day where students aren’t wearing earphones, aren’t plugged in and aren’t looking at a screen.

So, podcasting… the 21^st century’s version of “books on tape” but this time you can hear all sorts of people talking about all sorts of things. In a grade 4 or 5 classroom I might use podcasts as one of the methods we obtain information. I like that it is a medium where people are required solely to listen and absorb information. Podcasts provide an outsider’s voice and a period of time free of visual stimulation.

A site such as, Harpercollins Children’s Podcasts, http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/kids/gamesandcontests/features/podcast/ would be a great source for students to listen to authors talk about their books. It may also be interesting to find podcasts where the authors are reading from their books. I can see the utility of podcasts in other subjects as well. David Suzuki has a podcast on CBC called The Bottom Line www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/bottomline.xml and if the material was applicable and age appropriate, you could listen to a discussion as a source of information for a particular science unit.

Instead of the students creating their own podcasts, I think I would teach them how to use the recording equipment without the online element. Making recordings could be another form to represent information they’ve learned. I would include recording as an option when doing a book report or a science project but it would not be a required component. However, I do see the recording technology useful for students who have difficulty with the writing process. Therefore I might use recording as an adaptation for someone who couldn’t complete long writing assignments.

In sum, I would say that recording technology and podcasts can be valuable tools in the classroom and it is the job of the 21^st century teachers to be informed on a variety of useful tools. Just as a classroom has a variety of different learners, a teacher must use a variety of different methods with different tools to provide an interesting and engaging classroom! 

How does the IRP fit in with today's students and new teachers?

“The skilled use of language is associated with many opportunities in life, including further education, work, and social interaction.” (IRP, 2006, p.3) In other words, language is a foundational tool for learning and being able to communicate effectively in the world. In order to successfully deliver and evaluate the development of language skills in students it is important to recognize the receptive and expressive dimensions of language arts. They are, speaking and listening, reading and viewing, and writing and representing.

This blog entry will focus on the grade 2 and 3 levels of instruction. One description of today’s grades 2 and 3 learners will not satisfy all students in this category. However, generally, the world that these students live in is highly stimulating and increasingly technological. The average grade 2 student may spend more time in front of a screen than they do behind a book. They may have an aptitude for a computer mouse and still have difficulty with fine motor control when holding a pencil. These realities are both a challenge and an opportunity for the language arts teacher. Students can use a variety of mediums to represent knowledge or read information. However, the challenge comes with finding an appropriate balance between exploring different mediums and instilling fundamental skills. By grade 2 and 3 most children are reading with some fluency, making connections to real life experiences and are able to provide predictions in a story. They are developing their active listening skills and are capable of constructing meaning from that which they read, hear and see. Equally, they are able to organize their thoughts in sequence and are working at further developing their skills in syntax, semantics, phonology and pragmatics.

The Integrated Resource Package for English Language Arts provides teachers with a framework for developing lessons and assessing progress. The relation to current student needs is addressed at the beginning of the document in the Considerations for Program Delivery section. In my opinion, this section can seem primarily theoretical and somewhat vague. Therefore, it is especially helpful that the section includes charts that provide a breakdown of particular criteria or concepts. For example, on page 23 you can find a continuum of levels of support in student writing.  This allows the teacher to see the progression that can be made for each writer and provides some suggestions on how to move him or her towards independence.

 Another particularly helpful component of the IRP, are the boxes describing the attributes of a good learner according to the dimensions of language arts. For example page 184 reads, “Criteria for a good writer and representer (Kindergarten to Grade 3)”(IRP, 2006). This list can be easily adapted and posted in a classroom to provide a referral for students. In doing such, the teacher is facilitating an opportunity for students to take ownership of their progression and learning.

For educators, the assessment model provided in the IRP is a comprehensible way to represent the criteria for each prescribed learning outcome. As a beginner teacher the PLOs can be overwhelming and the idea of ensuring that all are met for each child can be a daunting task. This framework provides some achievement indicators to help teachers generate ideas about how to reach the intended goal. The benefit of this model is that these indicators are not requirements and therefore individual educators can be creative in their delivery and evaluation.

I don’t believe the IRP would be a hindrance to a beginner teacher. A framework of expectations for language arts instruction provides somewhere to start in a position that will inevitably be busy and demanding. 

What will ELA look like, sound like, be like in K-1 classes?

Hello All. Welcome to A Voice For ELA. Here I hope to provide a forum for evaluating the various components of teaching elementary English Language Arts. Each entry will focus on a different instructional level within that group and today I will focus on the early years of Kindergarten and Grade One. I have a particular affinity for this group, as I am passionate about early literacy. 

Developing literacy in the early years of a child’s education is crucial. My experience as an Educational Assistant and my work as a Literacy Links Facilitator and Literacy Camp Coordinator for a public school division in Winnipeg, have further reinforced my interest and value of early literacy. My experience in these positions has provided me with some insight into the diversity of the field.

Children start walking at different times, say their first word at different times, learn the alphabet at different times, yet, at the age of 5 they are all thrown into a Kindergarten classroom, with Velcro or lace up shoes, and are meant to start learning together. The resources and strategies necessary to provide an adequate literacy education for each of those students are enormous. However, once those resources are put into place it is amazing how so much growth, change and excitement can happen.

To me, ELA in K-1 classes will look like a mosaic of words, colours, pictures, diagrams and videos. The classroom will be a place where children can interact with the words and images that they see by questioning and interpreting their surroundings. For example, one of the walls might be designated a “Word Wall” and over the course of the year as children learn words they can add them to the word wall using different forms of visual representation.

The classroom will be a place of expression where children will be encouraged to use language, song, and sound to describe what they see and feel. Teaching the components of story could be in the form of a drama, a wordless book or a collection of sounds. Most importantly, the classroom will be an enjoyable place where the idea of ELA isn’t a subject matter so much as an everyday experience that promotes expression, imagination with a side of fundamental letters and sounds.

I will leave you with a short story about how incredible it is to work with these young minds.

I was doing some literacy work with a struggling reader in grade one. I had written sentences on paper and cut them into individual words. The child had to put the sentence back together so that it made sense. They were using their understanding of how a sentence starts and ends, the words they knew, and what meaning they could attribute to these words. When the child had correctly put the sentence together she said, “ That doesn’t make any sense!” The sentence was: My little brother is tall.