105 Assignment # 3How Teachers Learn

I made a mistake on the last blog title. I put it as assignment 1, but it was really assignment 2, and this is the third one for 105 "How Teachers Learn." I really enjoyed reading this article because it was information for me to digest about myself as a learner and as a teacher. Even though I loved all of the chapter, and I would say that through the years, I have been involved in many workshops and trainings to learn a curriculum or a new strategy like GLAD, but this is not the type of professional development that this reading is talking about. The reading gave an example about a teacher who participated in a Math Their Way workshop, and even though this training gave this teacher new techniques to teach math. However this particular teacher did not start the process of rethinking her knowledge of math. This art of the reading made me stop and think about the book that our principal had us math teachers read over the summer by Liping Ma. After reading that book, I started to rethink my knowledge of math and how that in turn has prepped me for how I might teach math to my students. The book by Liping Ma, Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics forced me to unlearn the old way I had been taught, and look at certain math concepts like regrouping in a fresh new way. So many workshops or training etc that we as teachers participate in do teach us new techniques and strategies, but do they tackle the deeper issue of challenging us to rethink our subject matter? For a teacher to step outside of their comfort zone and force himself to rethink his subject matter is indeed being vulnerable. I think it is hard for teachers to maybe grapple with the fact that maybe they do not know answers to some questions. Not until I read this book over the late summer, did I begin to take those steps to rethink my understanding of math, and how that translates into teaching my students. I think that process for teachers is very powerful.

I also found it interesting that districts spend only 1-3% of operational budget on professional development. The reading also mentioned that" this lack of investment is unheard of in leading corporations and other countries." I think that if we are to continue to make reforms in education and in teachers' professional developement this lack of funding must be addressed as well as the quality of the professional developments which need to target each teacher in a way that will best suit his or her needs for professional growth. Teachers are at different stages of their professional growth and to force each one in a district or school site to participate in the same one regardless of the necessity because it is dysfunctional.

Assignment 1:Reach 105 How People Learn

This chapter reminded me over and over again about the Understanding by Design book where it talks about the six facets of understanding. This chapter talks about how using new approaches in teaching can increase the possibility of of the majority gaining a moderate to deep understanding of material presented. One of the points stressed in this chapter was that the new science of learning emphasizes learning with understanding. I particularly became interested when in the chapter it discussed how memory has been favored over deep understanding, It gives the example of a typical multiple choice test question about arteries. This example is one that we see all to often just a series of m ultiple choice questions which are supposed to determine whether or not a student really has a deep understanding of a specific area. I am troubled by the emphasis on this types of tests as being the only true measure of understanding. I liked how the paragraph went on to talk about using learned material to solve other problems... in other words looking for evidence of trasfer. To me that is what we should really be after and not just a replay of certain facts but being able to target that trasferability in our students. I think back to my own education when I was younger and it would seem that those multiple choice tests were always favored. It was not until I went to college that I was able to hit what I knew and write papers, do projects, or create essays that I was able to apply what I knew to different situations.

Strategies that Work("Reading is Thinking" and "Reading is Strategic"

In these chapters, I started to think back again to when I was a beginning reader. I guess I was making those prior knowledge connections that the chapter talked about. I thought that this was a powerful reading because it made me think deeply about the process of reading which is so much more than decoding. Active readers interact with the text. I liked the example the author gave on page 13 when students were asked the essential question, What is reading? Answers like" figuring out words , spelling the words, knowing the letters" were all presented. Even though that is true, it was not until one student said, "when you read, you have to figure out the words and what they mean" that the real idea and purpose behind reading was given. The primary purpose for reading is understanding. I liked the part in the chapter where it talked about true comprehension being more than just literal understanding. Pushing students to interact with the text and go beyond just a literal understanding is the goal of any good teacher. I remember when I was in reading class all those years ago answering simple questions about what was in the story, but I do not remember ever being pushed at a young age to go beyond the literal meaning.

The reading selection goes on to describe the strategies that work to push for that deep comprehension into the text. First, activating background knowledge was described in the reading as being the foundation of our thinking. "We simply can't understand what we read without thinking about what we already know." p 17. Anytime I read a story to students or we prepare to read a selection, assessing their prior knowledge on the subject is always initiated first. Teachers should always guide students to make connections among their personal experiences, the world, and the text they are reading. The article makes the point that this connection of prior knowlede to new knowledge is the core of learning and understanding.

One piece of the reading that really stood out for me was the part that talked about the practice of schools not fostering questions by students. The reading suggested that the educational system requires or demands answers, the kind of answers that are straight forward for tests, and answers to math problems that involve no explanation. I know for my own personal experience teaching math, I am now requiring more and more explanation of their answers. For example a simple problem at the first grade level like 3+5=8 seems pretty straight forward, right? However, I ask them explain to me if you added or subtracted and tell me what tells you to add or subtract? I am referring to the math symbol +. I always am filled with questions even for the most basic problems because I want them to always be thinking about what it is they are doing and know how to explain it. I agree that questions are the heart of being able to move forward and the push they need to move their thinking forward. It made me remember the old saying, "There is never a dumb question."

Next, the reading went on to mention making inferences which I believe is very difficult for some children to do because an inference is not directly stated in the text. They have to dig deep and use their own information and the clues in the story to be able to do this. Visualization was mentioned in this selection as well. This involves a reader painting a picture in his or her mind. Personally this is one that I have always been pretty good at as a reader. I remembered reading Little House on the Prairie and making up my own pictures in the book in my own mind. I visualized the open praire andit was easy for me to do this because I grew up in southeastern Colorado which was flat and prairie. I visualized throughout the entire book, and that is a skill that has stayed with me throughout the years.

In addition, summarizing and sythesizing information were also provided in the reading. Summarizing being the skill to retell the information and sharing it in their own words. Students will have to sift through all of the information presented in the book and present those critical focal points and put them into their own thoughts and words.

As teachers we must be responsible and show our students what these strategies are and how to use them in their own reading. Constantly modeling those strategies for our students every step of the way. I am going to end this entry with a quote on page 21. " When we write we compose thoughts on paper. When we read, we compose meaning in our minds." Reading is so powerful because it opens the door to the world beyond.

Pre-assessment "How People Learn"

For this assignment the first thing that crossed my mind was several times in my life starting at 13, I was a disciplined runner. I can totally identify with the "Flow - the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter, the experience itself is so enjoyable tht people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it." I started long distance running when I was 13, and I had the most powerful mental, emotinal and physical experience while doing it. I can only describe it as being lost in a different world. I can remember getting the "runner's high." I can remember it being like I was lifted off of my feet and this current of electricity flowing through my body that made me want to continue. I would tell myself that I was almost done and ready for my cool down and something kept pushing me to go farther. It was like I could not get enough of it because it was so nourishing for my spirit. Running every day was something that I had to have and sometimes I would go twice a day once in the early morning and again in the evening. I experiences it again about a year after my daughter was born. I started to run again, and I became an addict. The same feelings and sensations would overwhelm my system, and I could never get enough. It was something that I looked forward to doing every single day. I can relate to what Victoria said at the retreat in August about having to run because I remember a time when I had to do it everyday or the daywas not right. When running as an adult, I was lost in my own world and all the problems of being a mother and a wife were gone. I carved out the time to do it, and I did not care if it caused an argument or made me have to rearrange some things in my schedule. Running was that important to me and that pleasurable. I felt powerful, strong, and very confident. It boosted my self-esteem, and brought out the best in me. I remember feeling focused and able to block out anything and everything during my journey as a runner. It tested my own limits and brought me to a place of peace and satisfaction. This was something that I did for myself and for myself only. It was not something I could share. It was all mine. Thinking about it now makes me happy and sad at the same time. I had not realized until now how much different my life has been without it.

Literacy My History as a Reader

I learned to read between 32 and 33 years ago. It was hard for me to go back so many years and think about it, but after I gave it some time, several memories came up. I remember in Kindergarten learning the letters, but I do not remember having to know the sounds or do any kind of reading at that grade level. Then when I went into First Grade I recall reading simple sight words like I, he, she, is. I remember reading words like hop and mop, top those kinds of simple phonetic words. I also remember reading the Dick Jane and Spot stories. First grade memories of reading in class are fuzzy. My treasured memories of reading are the times when I was reading short stories and books at home with my mom and dad. They were really good about tucking me in at night and giving me a story and letting me read to them. The Dick, Jane and Spot stories were ones that I liked actually. I used to get excited to read with my mom. I remember loving the illustrations and using those to help me understand the stories. It was not until second grade that my memory of classroom reading becomes clearer to me. In my school which was very rural there was only k-6 and it was one class in each grade level only, we were grouped by reading level, and we went to Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Yagami her paraprofessional for reading. She would take a group and the rest of us would be busy doing other things like listening to stories on these archaic machines that we would refer to as SRA and they were like slides put into a machine and stories would appear and then we had questions to answer. I unfortunately hated Mrs. Smith because she was mean and she would humiliate students if they struggled with a word. I hated her and I feared her, but I did love books and love reading despite having such a nasty hateful teacher. I also have fond memories of going to the tiny city library that was located in a basement of a building and loving the smell of the old books. There is one book I still remember about a squirrel who lived in a tree, and I must have checked out that book like a thousand times and I would read it over and over. The squirrel's name was Susie, but I have forgotten the title. I wanted it when my daughter was learning how to read, so I could share that with her. I used to go with my grandfather to the city library, and he was a regular at the library reading everything and anything. I was amazed at the thick books he would read, and I remember visiting him at his house and always finding him reading. I admired him because he could read in English and Spanish, and I thought that was very special. I never struggled in reading, but I don't remember anyone glorifying me as a super reader either. My best recollection of being an early reader are personal ones in my family and not so much in school. I do love reading anything and anything like my grandfather now as an adult. I find myself using strategies that I learned way back in elementary school still as an adult reader when the context is hard for me to understand.

Differentiation Topic 5 Article of Choice

Since the instructions for this assignment said to give a micro response, I thought it would be a good idea for me to mention an experience I had in one of the Alum Rock schools when I was a sub. There is a student in one of the schools who is severely mentally handicapped, and she has a one-on-one paraprofessional to work with her throughout the day. I first met this student when she was in kindergarten and she was only in the scribbling stage by the end of kinder. She was retained and then moved on to first grade. In first grade, I subbed for her teacher several times that year, and even with a paraprofessional she was up and out of her seat all the time, making moaning and groaning noises, wandering around and being clearly disruptive. It was a challenge for me to be in there just several times during the school year when the teacher was out. She was given a lot of extra recess time, and was clearly not functioning very well in a regular education classroom. I guess my question is this. What rights do the parents of the other children have in making an issue out of how disruptive she was? I understand that the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004 presumes that the first placement option that they must consider no matter the severity of the disability is the regular ed classroom. However, it was frustrating to see just how disruptive she was, and speaking as a parent and not as a teacher, I would be concerned about the level of disruptions occuring in the classroom as a result of this particular student. I don't know if this sounds insensitive but by trying to accomodate and be fair to one student, I see that sometimes other students are being asked to give up the right to a classroom and an environment that is not full of chaos. This student was creating chaos even with a paraprofessional.

Topic 5 Pre-Service CALLA Handbook Ch 5

This chapter begins by providing how to plan for CALLA instruction. Assessing prior knowledge is stressed. Here it is necessary to have some information about the cultural backgrounds of the students. I have learned not to assume that all of my students are from Mexico. I have had some students who come from Central America and those cultural differences can be significant. This is where I think the home visits come into play because through those home visits that we do at Rocketship we can get to know the families and what their experiences have been in addition to finding out what country or region even if from Mexico can vary tremendously. Some of my students are from big cities like Mexico City which is a metropolis and others come from really rural areas. Some have parents who have been in the US for a long time and the children were born here and have never been to their parents' native country. Second, selecting concerpts and skills to be learned and including higher-order thining skills is imperative in CALLA instruction. In additon the identification of academic language skills and functions required to perform a specific content area task is listed in this chapter. A teacher would also need to get materials needed to provide context and hands-on activities nmetnined in a preveios chapter. Finally, the organization of ativities into a five-phase instructional sequence which includes preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation, and expansion.