Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Blog # 5 Literature Circles
The implementation of the literature circle in my kindergarten class did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. I started the process just last week. My students are still struggling with the overall process. I wonder if more time and practice would make a difference? I choose the book Carlos and the Squash Plant hoping that this story would facilitate language and discussion. The literature circle consisted of four of my students who are at a level 4 and 5 in reading. These four students are often my most expressive students. Overall, I was quiet disappointed with the process.
The students seemed to enjoy the story about a little boy who did not tell the truth about taking a bath. They laughed and were very attentive when I was reading the book. They especially liked the colorful pictures and the Spanish words that were in the text. When a Spanish word would appear they would perk up and would giggle at my best attempt to pronounce the word correctly.
When dicussing the book, I had to pull words out of them at best. I tried to facilitate more language and discussion by pointing out events or pictures I thought that they could relate too. First of all, I started out about taking baths. I just going simple reponses and general answers. This has been my experience throughout the year. My students lack of vocabulary and exposure has hindered their ability to fully express themselves. However, when I asked the students to draw a picture of one of something that they remembered about the story, they were more able to express themselves through drawing. I found that they more comfortable and expressive through their pictures.
I am not real sure how appropriate Literature Circles are for ELL students. Especially kindergarten students. It is quiet hard for me to make that decision as my experience with the circle process is quiet limited. I feel that more time is needed to fully develop the process. I am going to continue the process throughout the remainder of the school year to see if progress is noted.
The changes that I would make would be to vastly modify the jobs of the participants. My students due to their language abilities were not able to faciliate many of their duties within the circle.
Choosing literature that is enjoyable and easily understood is a must when conducting literature circles. I would also suggest implementing and practicing the roles and process of literature circles over a course of time. In my opinion, the practice will enhance the success of the students involved and the overall general success of the literature circle.
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Signed (submitting this statement to Teaching Faculty with student’s name typed below constitutes signing):
Cindy Mann
April 20, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Blog # 4 Ethnographic Narrative
I believe this observation was beneficial as it provided me the information that is needed in order to better understand the instructional, emotional and social needs of the student. This particular observation also allowed me the opportunity to further examine the student by conducting a student interview that gave me an insight as to how she views the areas of her life outside of the classroom.
Through the interview and the observation I was amazed at how much insight I gained. I enjoyed focusing my attention to get an in depth perspective of this student in order to fine tune and adjust her instructional, social and emotional needs as well as gaining a better perspective on how she views particular aspects of her life. I enjoyed observing the student during class activates but the interview portion of the observation was my favorite and most insightful. During the interview process, my student appeared to be very excited to share things the things that were important to her. I have to admit that I felt a little guilty because we as teachers often forget to take the time to really examine our student’s perceptions and how their views relate to school and other areas of their life. We observe our students, but we often times don’t further investigate what drives and excites them in and out of the classroom. With that in mind, in the future I plan to be more consciences to try to look at things through my student’s eyes when planning and developing instructional strategies that are best suited for that student. I think that future instructors will be better prepared to accomodate the students needs by looking closely at the questions that were prescribed for this particular student. These questions will give a deeper view of the students needs and stengths thus guiding next years teacher in the right direction as it relates to language, academics and social needs.
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Signed (submitting this statement to Teaching Faculty with student’s name typed below constitutes signing):
Cindy Mann
March 16, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Reflections Blog # 3
I was a little apprehensive about the phrase or term action research when I first came across it in the content area of our field study class. I remember thinking to myself at the time, What is this all about and will I gain anything from it? (Please forgive me Dr. Craig! Just being honest! HAHAHAHA) My questions were quickly answered as I delved further into this course and into the action plan itself. I believe for the most part, many of us take time to carefully plan lessons, activities, etc, but often do not always take the same amount of time to fully evaluate our teaching practices. Through this process, I have learned that by identifying a particular problem or problems, providing strategies to improve my practice, and by taking a harder look at data, can greatly enhance the success rate of my lessons and the successes of my little ones.
My action reasearch centered around vocabulary development as many of my students this year, prior to entering kindergarten, had little exposure to English. Their lack of vocabulary, has had an impact on many of the lessons that I have planned and presented this year thus resulting my decision to conduct my action research in the area of vocabulary development. As I reflect, through the action research process, I have learned a great deal about what practices work best for my students and those that are not as effective. The following is a list of key ideas or strategies that stood out as I conducted my research. Each of the following key points impacted my lesson as well as student success.
- Make vocabulary relevent to students
- Show meaning through visuals and graphics
- Teacher and student drawings are great ways to convey vocabulary words and their meaning.
- Games such as vocabulary bingo (graphics) enhance vocabulary
- Student made vocabulary flash cards
- Vocabulary Journal
It has become more apparent that as ELL teachers we must take the time to focus on the issues that are problematic in our classrooms. We must develop and stagtegize ways in which we can best solve problems to meet the needs of the students in order to ensure a greater amount of success. Action research in my opinion is a very helpful tool to use when evaluating teaching practices as it forces us to take a closer look at our methods of teaching and how they relate to our students and their success.
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/ or appropraite legal action being taken against me.
Signed(submitting this statement to Teaching Faculty with student's name typed below constitutes signing):
Cindy Mann
February 17, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Fieldnote Blog Entry #2 Problem Identification
On October 15, 2010, I presented a lesson on the recognition of the alphabet letter Ff and the sound of Ff. In kindergarten we are responsible for teaching letters and sounds to our students. As one can imagine this can be quiet difficult. Below are the reflections of this lesson and the problems that I have identified that ELL students face when learning, practicing and acquiring the skills of letter and sound recognition.
As I often do, I opened my lesson with a book. The particular book for this lesson was Fidgety Fish. As I was planning, I remember thinking and laughing to myself that this book was just perfect as my students had been quiet fidgety since returning from Fall Break. I also remember thinking most of my students do know something about fish or could at least identify one. After reading the book, I recall that my students appeared to have enjoyed it as they clapped when I finished and also asked for me to read it again. Of course I was delighted and I read Fidgety Fish once more. I then went on to tell the students that fish began with the letter and sound that we were to study today. At that point, to foster language and to connect with prior experiences, I asked them to tell me anything they knew about fish or to share about a time that they had gone fishing. As I reflect, sharing is very difficult for beginner ELL students as they often times do not have the vocabulary to express their thoughts and ideas. After a few shared something they knew about fish, I presented the Ff picture cards and asked the student to repeat the word that went along with the picture. We discussed the pictures and repeated the word several times. I also opened the phonics tub with letter Ff objects inside. The students seemed to really like the small objects as they appeared to better connect with them. After reviewing the picture cards and the Ff objects I then showed the children a fishing pole and told them that we were going to fish for letter Ff words. The children seemed excited as they hurried to get into a circle in order to start fishing. I remember thinking, that this was going to be a great lesson as they were so attentive and eager. Boy was I in for a surprise! Next I put the fish face down on a blue sheet of paper and the students fished one by one for letter Ff pictures. The students had difficulty with this lesson as they could not identify many of the pictures. Many of the students appeared not to be bothered by the lack of their vocabulary as they wanted to keep fishing. Others were affected as I recalled one student dropping their head in dismay. I remember thinking to myself that I need to refocus the lesson and go in a different direction so that my students will not feel defeated.
As I look back on this lesson, I realize how the lack of vocabulary and language can hinder one's ability to perform task such as identifying and classifying. My students so eagerly wanted to fish but when it came down to identifying the picture in order to classify it as one that began with the letter Ff, most of my students did not have the English vocabulary to do so. This apparently frustrated many of my students as they would shrug their shoulders or simply just look to me for help. I decided then we would do this activity as a group where one would fish and we would all say the name of the picture and classify it as one with or one without the letter and sound Ff. I found by saying the picture word the students were more able to successfully perform the task.
As I now reflect on this lesson, it is very apparent that the acquisition of vocabulary is a big problem that ELL student's face. I realize that I must provide an environment that centers around language and the aquistion of vocabulary. I must provide each of my students a stress free environment so that every student feels safe even when mistakes occur.
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/ or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Signed (submitting this statement to Teaching Faculty with student's name typed below constitutes signing):
Cindy Mann
February 3, 2010
As I often do, I opened my lesson with a book. The particular book for this lesson was Fidgety Fish. As I was planning, I remember thinking and laughing to myself that this book was just perfect as my students had been quiet fidgety since returning from Fall Break. I also remember thinking most of my students do know something about fish or could at least identify one. After reading the book, I recall that my students appeared to have enjoyed it as they clapped when I finished and also asked for me to read it again. Of course I was delighted and I read Fidgety Fish once more. I then went on to tell the students that fish began with the letter and sound that we were to study today. At that point, to foster language and to connect with prior experiences, I asked them to tell me anything they knew about fish or to share about a time that they had gone fishing. As I reflect, sharing is very difficult for beginner ELL students as they often times do not have the vocabulary to express their thoughts and ideas. After a few shared something they knew about fish, I presented the Ff picture cards and asked the student to repeat the word that went along with the picture. We discussed the pictures and repeated the word several times. I also opened the phonics tub with letter Ff objects inside. The students seemed to really like the small objects as they appeared to better connect with them. After reviewing the picture cards and the Ff objects I then showed the children a fishing pole and told them that we were going to fish for letter Ff words. The children seemed excited as they hurried to get into a circle in order to start fishing. I remember thinking, that this was going to be a great lesson as they were so attentive and eager. Boy was I in for a surprise! Next I put the fish face down on a blue sheet of paper and the students fished one by one for letter Ff pictures. The students had difficulty with this lesson as they could not identify many of the pictures. Many of the students appeared not to be bothered by the lack of their vocabulary as they wanted to keep fishing. Others were affected as I recalled one student dropping their head in dismay. I remember thinking to myself that I need to refocus the lesson and go in a different direction so that my students will not feel defeated.
As I look back on this lesson, I realize how the lack of vocabulary and language can hinder one's ability to perform task such as identifying and classifying. My students so eagerly wanted to fish but when it came down to identifying the picture in order to classify it as one that began with the letter Ff, most of my students did not have the English vocabulary to do so. This apparently frustrated many of my students as they would shrug their shoulders or simply just look to me for help. I decided then we would do this activity as a group where one would fish and we would all say the name of the picture and classify it as one with or one without the letter and sound Ff. I found by saying the picture word the students were more able to successfully perform the task.
As I now reflect on this lesson, it is very apparent that the acquisition of vocabulary is a big problem that ELL student's face. I realize that I must provide an environment that centers around language and the aquistion of vocabulary. I must provide each of my students a stress free environment so that every student feels safe even when mistakes occur.
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/ or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Signed (submitting this statement to Teaching Faculty with student's name typed below constitutes signing):
Cindy Mann
February 3, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Blog Number 1 Classroom Reflections
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
This blog entry denotes my reflections of an introductory lesson on symmetry that I recently presented to my kindergarten ELL students on January 25, 2010.
As I was preparing my lesson on symmetry, I was thinking to myself, Wow! Symmetry! How am I ever going to get this concept across to my class of eighteen kindergarten students in a manner that is engaging, thought provoking and conceivable? How am I to show that in order for an object to be considered symmetrical, both sides have to mirror one another. What activities and vocabulary would best fit the lesson? Will this lesson be one they remember or one they forget?
As my experience grows in the ELL classroom, I have noticed that I tend to differentiate my lessons so that students have several opportunities for success. In this particular lesson, I opened the lesson by reading the book, Let's Fly a Kite. While reading, the students were seated on the carpet sitting with legs crossed in their assigned space. Reflecting back, all but three students seemed to be engaged in the story. The three not so engaged students were either playing with their shoes or staring off into space. I thought to myself, at least they are being quiet and I have other activities planned so maybe they will take something away from the lesson. I continued to plod on as I would occasionally ask comprehension questions. The students would raise their hands to answer the questions. Occasionally one or two would get excited and blurt out the answer. Over all, I remember being quiet surprised and so pleased at the answers given. I remember having a feeling of great satisfaction at that moment as I have noticed the growth in their vocabulary and understanding over the last few months.
After reading, I took a large piece of construction paper that was folded length wise, with half of a kite drawn on one side. I asked my students if they knew what this was going to be. I recall even mentioning it was something that we just read about. The students at that point were very excited and loved guessing what the paper was to be after the cuts had been made. I remember getting answers such as a diamond, a triangle and yes, someone said a kite! Well needless to say, they all applauded when I cut the paper and opened it, and a kite appeared. I then used the kite to show another example of symmetry, as I drew a line length wise of the kite pointing out that on both sides the kite is the same. As I was planning the lesson I just keep thinking to myself that I needed more than a book and a couple of cuts on a piece of paper to get this concept across. With that being said, I used mirrors. During the lesson I passed out small mirrors to every student. I even gave myself one. We all looked at ourselves in the mirror and I explained to them that this is another way to show symmetry, as on both sides of the mirror the object is the same. I remember using the phrases same size, same shape and on both sides throughout my lesson. Now that I think back to the lesson I noticed several of the students repeating the phases or saying them along with me! The mirrors were a huge hit but I am not so sure for the right reasons! Oh well, next I drew a picture of a house with a rectangle bottom and a triangle top. I drew a line north and south on the house. I drew several features of a house on one side and called for volunteers to make the other side exactly the same. I remember the students being very excited to show that they could copy mine! I recall the smiles on the children as they were experiencing their success. I remember having a feeling of satisfaction with the lesson at that point as all of the students seemed to be gaining an understanding of symmetry and they all appeared to be having so much fun learning. Well, I was in for the biggest thrill ever, as before we broke off into our math small groups, I did one last activity. Looking back, this activity was the clincher and engaged everyone. It even fostered lots of language, before, during and after the activity. The students were cued to go to their seats by my bell. After being seated, I gave each student a pre-cut kite with a line drawn north and south. I then put out three bowls of paint and paint brushes on each table. This really caused a stir as they love to paint! The students appeared to be anxious to get started as I gave instructions about not mixing the paint colors, taking turns etc. Anyway, I instructed the students to blob three colors of paint on one side of the kite. There was much conversation as they seemed to be very excited and ready to guess what was going to happen. Then I instructed them to fold their kite along the pre-creased line and press upwards on their paper. I recall watching the students carefully chose their paint colors and so carefully blob their paint onto the kite. Two of my students that are fairly new to the US need a little help but for the most part everyone was willing and able to complete the task at hand. During this time there was much chatter about what was going to happen to the paint. I remember the students code switching as they were talking excitedly. I also remember feeling euphoric as to how this lesson was unfolding. As the students unfolded their papers they were so excited to see the same shape, size and color on both sides of the paper. They went around the room showing off their kites. I remember the students praising each other's work and they all seemed to share the same excitement.
I closed the lesson by showing previously explored examples of symmetry.
Overall as I reflect back on this less , this was an engaging, fun, and very conceivable lesson as there were many opportunities and activities for each type of learner. After reviewing my reflections I believe this was a lesson that the student will not forget!
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was soley written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennesse State University and /or appropriate action being taken against me.
Signed (submitting this statement to Taching Faculty with student's name typed below constitutes signing):
Cindy Mann
01/27/10
This blog entry denotes my reflections of an introductory lesson on symmetry that I recently presented to my kindergarten ELL students on January 25, 2010.
As I was preparing my lesson on symmetry, I was thinking to myself, Wow! Symmetry! How am I ever going to get this concept across to my class of eighteen kindergarten students in a manner that is engaging, thought provoking and conceivable? How am I to show that in order for an object to be considered symmetrical, both sides have to mirror one another. What activities and vocabulary would best fit the lesson? Will this lesson be one they remember or one they forget?
As my experience grows in the ELL classroom, I have noticed that I tend to differentiate my lessons so that students have several opportunities for success. In this particular lesson, I opened the lesson by reading the book, Let's Fly a Kite. While reading, the students were seated on the carpet sitting with legs crossed in their assigned space. Reflecting back, all but three students seemed to be engaged in the story. The three not so engaged students were either playing with their shoes or staring off into space. I thought to myself, at least they are being quiet and I have other activities planned so maybe they will take something away from the lesson. I continued to plod on as I would occasionally ask comprehension questions. The students would raise their hands to answer the questions. Occasionally one or two would get excited and blurt out the answer. Over all, I remember being quiet surprised and so pleased at the answers given. I remember having a feeling of great satisfaction at that moment as I have noticed the growth in their vocabulary and understanding over the last few months.
After reading, I took a large piece of construction paper that was folded length wise, with half of a kite drawn on one side. I asked my students if they knew what this was going to be. I recall even mentioning it was something that we just read about. The students at that point were very excited and loved guessing what the paper was to be after the cuts had been made. I remember getting answers such as a diamond, a triangle and yes, someone said a kite! Well needless to say, they all applauded when I cut the paper and opened it, and a kite appeared. I then used the kite to show another example of symmetry, as I drew a line length wise of the kite pointing out that on both sides the kite is the same. As I was planning the lesson I just keep thinking to myself that I needed more than a book and a couple of cuts on a piece of paper to get this concept across. With that being said, I used mirrors. During the lesson I passed out small mirrors to every student. I even gave myself one. We all looked at ourselves in the mirror and I explained to them that this is another way to show symmetry, as on both sides of the mirror the object is the same. I remember using the phrases same size, same shape and on both sides throughout my lesson. Now that I think back to the lesson I noticed several of the students repeating the phases or saying them along with me! The mirrors were a huge hit but I am not so sure for the right reasons! Oh well, next I drew a picture of a house with a rectangle bottom and a triangle top. I drew a line north and south on the house. I drew several features of a house on one side and called for volunteers to make the other side exactly the same. I remember the students being very excited to show that they could copy mine! I recall the smiles on the children as they were experiencing their success. I remember having a feeling of satisfaction with the lesson at that point as all of the students seemed to be gaining an understanding of symmetry and they all appeared to be having so much fun learning. Well, I was in for the biggest thrill ever, as before we broke off into our math small groups, I did one last activity. Looking back, this activity was the clincher and engaged everyone. It even fostered lots of language, before, during and after the activity. The students were cued to go to their seats by my bell. After being seated, I gave each student a pre-cut kite with a line drawn north and south. I then put out three bowls of paint and paint brushes on each table. This really caused a stir as they love to paint! The students appeared to be anxious to get started as I gave instructions about not mixing the paint colors, taking turns etc. Anyway, I instructed the students to blob three colors of paint on one side of the kite. There was much conversation as they seemed to be very excited and ready to guess what was going to happen. Then I instructed them to fold their kite along the pre-creased line and press upwards on their paper. I recall watching the students carefully chose their paint colors and so carefully blob their paint onto the kite. Two of my students that are fairly new to the US need a little help but for the most part everyone was willing and able to complete the task at hand. During this time there was much chatter about what was going to happen to the paint. I remember the students code switching as they were talking excitedly. I also remember feeling euphoric as to how this lesson was unfolding. As the students unfolded their papers they were so excited to see the same shape, size and color on both sides of the paper. They went around the room showing off their kites. I remember the students praising each other's work and they all seemed to share the same excitement.
I closed the lesson by showing previously explored examples of symmetry.
Overall as I reflect back on this less , this was an engaging, fun, and very conceivable lesson as there were many opportunities and activities for each type of learner. After reviewing my reflections I believe this was a lesson that the student will not forget!
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was soley written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennesse State University and /or appropriate action being taken against me.
Signed (submitting this statement to Taching Faculty with student's name typed below constitutes signing):
Cindy Mann
01/27/10
Monday, January 18, 2010
First Blog Ever!
Hi! My name is Cindy and I am a kindergaten ELL teacher. I am currently enrolled in a graduate program thus leading me to create this blog. I am looking forward to posting and blogging!
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