A phonics instruction idea...

This entry will be quick and to the point (possibly even scattered), but I want to get the idea down and may have to come back for editing.

I am currently attempting to earn my reading endorsement and have to take a literacy assessment class. My professor, Deborah White, and the author of our text book which I would highly recommend because it is straight forward and full of practical techniques (Assessment First published by Scholastic), gives instructions for using alphabet charts while teaching phonemic awareness to students on page 65 (*gasp!*). In short (very short), she and her students chant the alphabet while looking at visual representations of each sound. Her example is "A, a, apple /a/, /a/, /a/. B, b, ball /b/, /b/, /b/." This activity benefits students because it addresses multiple ways of learning, it supports English Language Learning, and boosts motivation and interest. But I think there is a way to highlight these benefits. I will explain...

Multiple Literacies - Virtual Exploration "We're not in Kansas anymore"

I like to call these Virtual Field Trips. Sometimes I conduct a field trip by way of pictures, video, sound, and tactile exploration. This is what John Dewey would call creating an "experience" for the students. To read more about this in more understandable terms read this article by Kevin J. Pugh & Mark Girod.

I will mention also that for ESOL and ASD students visual support and scaffolding around linguistically or conceptually difficult subjects is essential. These virtual field trips offer that scaffolding and support.

There are multiple online resources for exploring challenging and abstract concepts. The digital world is a wondrous place, full of infinitely transecting and branching Yellow Brick Roads....

More Multiple Literacies resources... Rap, Baby!

One of the cohort in my bachelor's program used a graphing rap song to solidify graphing rules and concepts with her students as she worked with them on graphing. First she explicitly went through the lyrics with them and had them rap together once. Then, as they worked in groups or individually she has the song playing quietly in the background. There is a bit of rote memorization with this particular approach, but the brilliance is that students had a positive interaction with the material. The remembering was easy and therefore the reasons behind the concepts became the focus. She could say "remember when the song says ____? What they mean by that is ____________." The other approach to this could be to have students deconstruct the text (why does the song say that?). This last approach is inquiry based and is most successful.

Students who reside primarily in their right brain are governed by musicality (among other things artistic). Rap and rhythm tap into right-brain intelligence to strengthen comprehension. ESOL students often benefit from music and rhythm because it gives them a quickly retrieved association to attach learning to. below are some content rap resources to support classroom learning...

Multiple Literacies are So Cool! - Glogster and graphic novels.

Multiple Literacies = any way humans create and exchange meaning.

I have spent some significant time looking into various ways that students can interact with text online. The most exciting find is something called a Glog. It is an online interactive presentation poster (like the old tri-fold poster-board kind - only better). Go see a really nice example of this about astronomy. This is a fantastic way for students to present their learning for a research project, be it group or individual. Students can "gallery walk" other class presentations and get a personal "tour" of the site. This allows for presentation and talk around the learning, and we all know that the more we let ELL students talk the better they will be. On edu.glogster.com watch the video of Eileen Doherty's 4th grade class for an idea of how to use glogster in your classroom. Watch the video below for a how-to tutorial.

WEB Page, great for lesson suplimentation...

What a fun thing, a web page. I find it very time consuming, but I see how it can be a wonderful way to connect with students who live in a technologically advanced world. I can include links to relevant web sites that support our lessons. I can post homework documents for students who have missed class. I can link to my email so that communication is fast and easy. I can even highlight student work on my web page. I am creating a themed web page, tailored for a specific subject. This allows me to include only the relevant information and avoid students finding "misleading" overly-detailed information. I can direct them to my web page where they can have an interactive experience with the topic. This includes slide show demos (see below) and links to relevant info. Like Federal Parks pages and Videos and more...! WEB Page, great for lesson supplementation...

podcasting - the new classroom?

I will definitely use podcasting in my class room. What a great option for presenting a research project, for presenting instructions, for tutoring students from home if they miss a lesson. It would be a great way to assess the learning outcomes of a lesson, or series of lessons, when the students make a podcast at the end of the lesson, week, month, or quarter about what they have learned. I could just go on and on...


Lab safety tutorial... Look at my glaring spelling error!!! UGH.. can't correct in now.

Surfing The WEB...What is legit?

Wow! I can't believe wow much stuff there is on the Internet that is outdated, fictional, or just misleading. It is so easy to copy/plagiarize a web page and skew the information to reflect badly or align readers with your angle. I was amazed at how dooped I was by a page that looked like a real research paper presentation but was actually created by a professor to make the point that anything can be faked and people will fall for it.

In today's world of tabloids and political information-twisting I think is is so important to give students the tools to evaluate the authenticity and reliability of a website. Students want to, and do, believe what they read because they have an emotional response to what they read and fail to understand how to know if it is reasonable or truthful information (and then rumors begin). Giving students the tools to validate a website/source is one way to encourage students to think critically about the world and to be able to justify their actions with facts.

Important resources given in class literature:
http://www.register.com/
http://www.altavista.com/
http://http//www.snopes.com

Sample web pages that could easily mislead:
http://www.martinlutherking.org/