homework

To be honest, homework has always been a little bit tricky for me. I am not a huge supporter of busy work, homework has to be meaningful, but also at the child’s independent level. If students are able to complete the work on their own, then it is a good fit for homework (Hill, 2009). Mostly, I see homework as something that provides extra time on a skill that can only be learned through repeated practice. I also think it should be based on something that parents can easily understand. The parents in the community I teach want to be involved in their students’ learning. They just don’t always know how. Homework can be a nice vehicle for communication for this purpose (Hill, 2009).

               I provide one week’s worth of homework on Monday, and it is due on Friday. The homework includes math practice. Usually practice around math facts or number sense. Students like to do hands on applications like help mom and dad measure out dinner, use a ruler to measure items in their home, estimate prices at the store, and determine the number of calories in a bag of chips. Also, students always have to read. I tell them they need to read an hour at home. (I am thinking primary here; it would be 90 minutes if it were intermediate.) They can do 20 minutes for three nights, 10 minutes for 6 nights, or an hour at a time. They can read extra time and it will help them with the rewards down below. I do this because many of them have outside responsibilities and it makes the reading flexible.

               For math we usually talk about the experiences throughout the week in our morning meetings. If it is a worksheet I check it over and return it in the next week’s homework folder. For reading we have individual and class goals for minutes read. They get small rewards for reading 5 hours, 10 hours, and so on. When the class as a whole gets to 100 hours or 100 books we have parties. We also share any good reads at our morning meetings, and I chat with them during guided reading time about their reading logs, and ask them questions. Some students pick their reading at home. For many there are no books, so they take home whatever book we are reading in our guided groups and read them for extra practice at home. It helps their fluency.

               I don’t use as much technology as I would like because my kids don’t have access to it at home, but I would like to have homework listed in my googledocs school account so parents and students could access it, print lost copies, ask me questions, or ask fellow students questions.

Graphic Organizers with Fiction and Non-Fiction

       English Language Learners need exposure to both fiction and non-fiction texts. Non-Fiction texts are set up with great support for ELL students. There are subheadings to let students know what is coming. There are bolded vocabulary words, which help students know what words are important, and a glossary to help them with the definition if they struggle with the definition I context clues. The straight forwardness of the facts and information in most non-fiction helps ELL students to make meaning with ease. The pictures and diagrams are great non-linguistic representations. Typically, my ELL students have an easier time with the comprehension in a non-fiction text. The biggest challenge is usually the vocabulary they will come across that is not bolded. The academic language can be a struggle without pre-reading.

               Fiction text has rich language which can both help the ELL student as well as challenge them. Idioms and sayings that native English speakers take for granted can be challenging for the teacher to catch and the ELL student to comprehend. If the right story is chosen and background knowledge is supported and taught then fiction text can assist students of all kinds develop schema and begin to notice the patterns in genre. The illustrations in picture books can also help students of all ages and levels connect to the story.

The graphic organizers we use most in our school are through the Thinking Maps program. I have added examples below. I use the tree map with fiction as it categorizes well. I like the flow map for fiction and poetry, since it helps with sequence. The multi-flow map works with both as it is cause and effect.

 

 

Yeager, C. & Hyrele, D. (2007) Thinking maps: A language for Learning. Thinking Maps LLC

           I also added a graphic organizer based on fiction and non fiction texts stating the differences between the two. This is another great Thinking Map called a Double Bubble. It helps students look for things that are alike and different.



Blog 7: Running Record

Student One (Native Language: Spanish)

               This student is a second grader and has spent most of his literacy education in a Spanish classroom, but is getting ready to transition to an English classroom in third grade.  His running record indicated strong fluency and intonation. He would raise his voice at question marks, and shout a little when there was an exclamation mark. (It was very cute actually and I had to withhold giggling.) Most of the errors that he made were syntax errors. He left off most of the suffixes in his reading or over pronounced them.  He read the word moved as move, and the word shared as share-ed. This was common with most of the Spanish ELL students I have tested this year. However, this did not affect his comprehension in any way. He was able to present a solid retell with a main idea and details in sequential order. If he were my student I would work with him more on suffixes. I may have him go back through the text and highlight the ones he missed so he is more aware when he practices, and continue that practice with read alouds for short remainder of the year. Unfortunately this is now a habit for him that may be hard to unlearn. Fortunately it doesn’t affect his comprehension.

Student Two (Native Language: Hmong)         

                This running record was a bit trickier. We do not have many students who are not native Spanish speakers. However, we have two Hmong families in our building. This student is a 5^th grade student and his reading sounds very fluent. He made very few mistakes, but because he wanted to ready in a hurry he skipped over a few words. He also substituted in basic sight words. For examples he said the instead of to and of instead of off.  I don’t these were language issues. I would say the miscue analysis would be: 5^th-grade-boy-everything’s-a-race. His retell was solid as well. He has the main idea and plenty of details. However, he was out of sequential order. He stated all the major details first and then went back through and listed out more supporting details. I am not sure if that is cultural or individual, however. If working with this student I would support some scaffolding for him, by helping him practice retelling through a picture walk and then creating a flow map of the order in the piece.

 

Week 5: The Scaffold

The videos on sheltering instruction were really interesting. I have to say that we tell students the objective every day, so that they know what to expect in their learning. This is the first time I have heard of stating the objectives to reduce anxiety. I love that reasoning. It makes so much sense to me. I think that the reading lesson was set up throughout the pre, during, and post reading pieces to really promote higher level thinking.

               During the pre-reading, the students had a chance to make connections and predictions which gives them purpose. I have little kids most of the time so we do a picture walk. They are so proud of themselves when they get it right and intrigued by the surprise when they don’t. The book, Esperanza Rising is ripe for connections too. Love this book. I read it to my 5^th graders and even if they weren’t immigrants, and migrant farmers at that, there are connections to be made about fitting in at school and with your community.

               I have used the sticky notes as well and am happy to say that students can underline during state testing, so we use this strategy too, and it really helps the students. Teacher think alouds during reading help to show the students that thinking through reading is authentic.

               Finally, during post reading having the students keep a community diary is something I may incorporate. It really builds a sense of community and helps students feel safe about questions. Teaching students the difference between, “I wonder, and I’m confused” is good stuff too. Visualizing is my favorite strategy. It’s easy to teach and so powerful for readers. It shows them how much joy there can be in getting caught up in a good story.

               Overall, good scaffolding I think. It was interesting to see it at higher levels.