Vocabulary

The readings from Ch. 7 in the Tompkins book explain the importance of obtaining well-developed vocabulary skills.  In the readings, they explained how vocabulary words can be divided into roughly three different categories, Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3.  Tier one represents basic vocabulary that includes all of the high frequency words.  Tier 2 is academic words that are not as widely known in everyday school activities.  Lastly, Tier 3 represents specialized words that are often learned through readings, and conversations outside of school.  Using my literacy circle book "Stargirl",  I was able to come up with some examples of each of these vocabulary words from chapter 12.

Tier 1: place, stage, cahir, music, laughing, seat
Tier 2: communication, questions, faculty, advisor
Tier 3: jury, verdict, broadcast, mastero, pantomime

Out of the three categories, I believe the Tier 3 would be the most important to focus on.  Even though students may not need use for these words in their everyday vernacular, in order to fully understanding this chapter, many of those words cannot be figured out by using context clues.  I believe that in order to get the full mental image and understanding of the chapter, students should focus on the higher level words.  This will also challenge their thinking, and hopefully motivate them to search for more words to look up and expand their vocabularies.

Mini-Lesson

Introduction:  Tell students we are going to learn some more about vocabulary using the book "Stargirl".

Objective:  (1)Expanding student't vocabulary skills is important in order to become better speakers, readers, and writers.

(2)Students will also gain a deeper understand of the text by being challenged to learn new words.

Building prior knowledge: Students will be asked to list examples of basic, academic, and specialized words.  The teacher will explain how they fit into three Tiered categories

Model:  Using chapter 12, the teacher will go through the book and list some examples of the three categories.

Instruction:  The students will be partnered up to come up with a list of each 6 words in each of the Tiered categories using chapter 13 of "Stargirl".  They will either explain to eachother, or look up in the dictionary the meaning of unknown words.  Then individually, the students will each choose one word from the Tier 3 list to create a word poster.  The word poster needs to include the word of their choice, the definition in their own words, and an example of the word used in a sentence.

Assessment:  Students will set their posters up around the room to have a gallery walk.

Closing Discussion:  The students will talk about what they learned about the different levels of vocabulary words, drawing on what they learned from their research process.  Students will also talk about the importance of vocabulary. 

Fluency

I think one of the easiest ways to assess a student’s overall fluency is to have them do think-aloud’s or read-aloud’s for a specific passage or book.  Of course, students need to be explicitly taught how to read fluently by having an expert model what it means to read accurately, at a good pace, and with expression.  Accuracy is probably best assessed using a running record so that you can accurately identify where the student is struggling.   Since the whole purpose of teaching students to become fluent readers is to improve their comprehension, a re-tell should be done after a student reads a passage to determine if their comprehension is improving due to better fluency. 

            In my field placement fluency is not something being focused on yet since it is only Kindergarten.  However, as far as word identification I have noticed a huge improvement since the beginning of the year.  Blending and segmenting CVC words has been the main focus, as well as learning sight words.  Earlier in the year words were only read by saying each individual phoneme them blending them to make a word, but now over half the class can read CVC words on command, and are also familiar with many of the sight words featured on Pre-Primer word lists. 

Emotional Literacy using Glogster

            My conceptual understanding of literacy has changed through this project the most by simply expanding my definition of literacy to not ONLY include reading, writing, speaking and listening. I now know that it incorporates so much more that everyone needs to be aware of to help them to hopefully become a good citizen and learner in the future. Through creating and researching for my Glog of emotional literacy, I have learned that many of the “new literacies” can be easily incorporated into daily (or unit) lesson plans. These new literacies are important for students and teachers to know about because they can all help students to help the world around them. Through this project I learned that emotional literacy is a very integral part of a person’s everyday life. Emotional literacy helps people be able to better connect with the people they interact with.
           To have effective literacy instruction for diverse learners for this new literacy you would have to make appeals to students in multiple ways. As a teacher, you would have to present the literacy to students in a way that is both fun and understandable to students since it is sort of an intense subject. The use of a Glog could help make learning about emotional literacy more fun and understandable because of the ease of adding visual aids to the Glog. For this presentation students would need to know how to access a computer and log on to the internet, but other than that this would be an easy way for students to access and learn about a new literacy.
            To teach students about emotional literacy I would first tell my students that they will be learning about a new type of literacy. (I would have previously defined literacy to them in another lesson.) I would tell them that after this lesson they will both have learned about a new way of thinking and learned about how to use Glogster to share ideas and concepts with their peers. For this lesson I would need computer access for each student or group of students and some already researched materials for them to work off of. In this lesson students will…

• Have a whole class discussion about what the term “new literacy” means.
• Read through materials with students about what emotional literacy is and how it effects their everyday lives.
• Show students Glog about emotional literacy.
• Go back and walk through step by step with students how to log on to the computers and then access the Glogster website and how to create a new Glog.

           This would be the whole lesson and I think it would be easiest to assign making a Glog as homework or as an in-class project for the next lesson. This would allow students more time to think about what they want to learn about and present back to the class. The Glogs that the students make would be a good assessment to see if they actually learned about new literacies. 

New Literacy Project Noteblog: Visual Literacy

1) YOUR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:

Before doing this project my definition of literacy was very limited, so my understanding of what literacy is has changed dramatically.  From our own schooling experience many of us learned that literacy was about reading and writing.  But, from researching and learning about Visual Literacy, as well as what I learned from looking through other projects in the class, I am more aware of the limited nature of defining literacy in that way.  In broad terms, I think literacy is more about communicating than anything.  Whether that means communicating through images, such as with visual literacy, or communicating through knowledge of another’s culture, such as with cultural literacy, it all involves an exchange of information from point A to point B.  Of course, part of that exchange involves using a medium to do so, and that is where technology comes in to play.  Admittedly, I have never been great with technology, so using it in the classroom has always been an area of discomfort for me.  However, after reading about digital technology and understanding the importance to supporting digital learners, I can see how imperative it is for our new generations to be exposed to this type of learning in the classroom.  Through this project, I was able to see how I can not only expand on what literacy is, but also how it can be taught in the classroom using digital mediums.  Many of the projects I looked at involved technology that was relatively user friendly, making it much less intimidating for me to include them in my everyday teaching.  Also, these projects gave me insight as to how new literacies AND digital literacy can be taught simultaneously through one lesson by using a form of technology that supports both.  For example, my project involved teaching others about visual literacy, while also using a technology (Mindomo) that acts as an example of visual literacy itself, but also involves using technology in the classroom.

2) EFFECTIVE LITERACY INSTRUCTION:

After doing this project, I feel that providing effective literacy instruction to diverse learners involves teaching them about all the new literacies we have explored, as well as using technology as a means to differentiate instruction to fit learner needs.  Earlier in this semester when I constructed the concept map for effective literacy instruction I had three main components: reading, writing, and sharing.  Looking back, I can see how limited this definition is in that is encompasses an outdated way of thinking about literacy instruction.  I think I often forget how much technology influences 21^st century learners since I did not see a lot of technology used in my own schooling so I tend to forget how useful it can be in a diverse classroom setting.  The abundance of free, digital tools available to me as a teacher now are an excellent way to support multiple learning types, so I now understand the importance of using them in the classroom.  Truthfully, before doing this project I had never heard of any of the new literacies we have explored, which is probably why my definition of literacy teaching was so limited.  If I had not had this exposure I can’t help but wonder how my own student’s learning would have been negatively affected.  Would they grow up thinking that literacy only involved reading and writing?  As I explored visual literacy for my own project, I started to see how important it is for 21^st century learners (especially) to know how to interpret and communicate through these visual mediums of exchange.  Visual literacy is a huge part of every life in and outside of school, so it is important that student’s are exposed to this type of literacy learning in the classroom.

In thinking about the Kindergarteners in my own field placement, I think they could definitely handle learning about visual literacy, as well as digital literacy, despite their young age.  However, reading and writing is a major component of Kindergarten learning, so they would need to be explicitly taught about and exposed to this new literacy in order to understand that it exists.  As I mentioned in my project, in the early stages of visual literacy learning, students focus on images such as pictures, works of art, or photographs and comment about what they see.  Kindergarteners spend hours each day looking through picture books to create stories in their mind as part of the first steps to learning to read.  This is a perfect way to incorporate visual literacy into everyday learning.  If students are simply given the opportunity to talk about the pictures they see, they are already on their way to becoming visually literate.  However, based on what I know about my students I think they would need a lesson on how to talk about pictures in a way that supports visual literacy.  Visual literacy involves more than just pointing to a dog on the page, or identifying a color they see.  They would need to be taught how a certain color might add to or change the mood in the story.  Or maybe what it means to see a text get REALLY BIG on one page, and really small on another.  These are fairly simple ideas that I feel the Kindergarteners I work with could easily understand and have a fun time exploring.  I also think the students could benefit from learning about visual literacy through the use of a concept map (Mindomo) if the teacher provided it.  I think Mindomo is a little complex for student’s this young because it does involve a lot of typing and spelling, which is still being, developed for many of the students in my placement.  However, concept maps are an important part of learning in later grades, so I think it would be helpful for them to get exposure to them early on.

3) LESSON PLAN: 

Target Area and Rationale: Visual Literacy is appropriate for Kindergarteners because they are naturally very visual learners as they explore their environment and make meaning of what they see around them.  Using a digital concept or mind map to learn and teach others about Visual Literacy, not only serves as an example of visual learning in itself, but also exposes students to concepts maps at an early age, which is a popular means of instruction and learning in all subject matters in later grades.

Objective(s)

1.   Students will look at an illustration in a picture book and be able to talk about the visual components that give meaning to the picture such colors used, size of objects, facial expressions of characters, or mood.

2.   Students will create a digital mind map to share their ideas with the class.

Materials and Supplies:

-Mindomo mind map (created by teacher) that encompasses the main ideas of Visual Literacy

-Picture books for students to choose from as the basis of their project

-Computers

-Projector screen to present information to students and for students to present their own projects

-Concept Map worksheet (practice using concept maps)

-Whiteboard

Outline of key events: This lesson will take place over the course of many days.

-Present visual literacy to students using Mindomo.  Talk about what it is and give examples that students can understand.  Each branch of the mind map should support this information in a way that’s easy to understand.

-On projector screen, show an illustration from a picture book the students are familiar with.  Talk about the visual elements of that picture together as a class.  On the white, create a mind map for the students that include the ideas you have discussed.  Allow children to explore what they see and share all their ideas.

-Talk about the mind map on Mindomo, and well as the mind map you drew on the board.  Ask the following questions to foster a discussion…

         -Have you seen maps like this before?

         -Do you like these maps?

         -How can these maps be helpful to us?

-Are the two maps, the map on the computer and the map on the board, the same?  How?

-Talk about how to make a mind map and that is can be used for many different things.  Give students a chance to make a mind map by passing out the Concept Map worksheet (this will have a circle in the center for the main idea with branches coming out).  Allow students to make a mind map about themselves so they get practice making one.  Tell them they are draw pictures, or write words to describe themselves.

-Discuss how the paper mind maps and the digital mind maps are the same.  Tell them they are going to make their own digital mind maps like the one on the projector.

-Explain the directions.  Tell them they are going to choose an illustration from any picture book they want, it can be from home or from school.  They will make a digital mind map talking about the picture just like we did together.  Remind them of the visual elements discussed earlier as a class, and write a list (or mind map) for the students to refer to (post this in the front of the class).

-On a different day, teach kids about Mindomo.  Give simple directions for how to add information/pictures using the tab and enter key.  Talk about key terms that could be used (support for spelling as well).  Make a mind map together as a class.  Use an illustration as another example for how to use visual literacy.

-Students will have 30 minutes of computer time each day to work on their projects.  Only one have of the class will go at a time so that the aids can give support where needed.

-Present maps to class on overhead projector

Closing Summary: Revisit discussion about visual literacy.  Talk about what it is or add to the concept map/list you created as a class earlier.  Discuss how the Mindomo helped learn about visual literacy.  Talk about how visual literacy can be used outside of school as well.  Ask students for examples.

Ongoing assessment:  Bring visual literacy into story time each day.  When reading a picture book, choose one illustration to focus on and allow students to take some time to talk about elements of the picture.  Call on students to share their ideas, or ask them to make a concept map of their own.

New Literacy Project on Cultural Literacy Using Voicethread

1) YOUR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:

            At the beginning of this journey through exploring literacies, my definition of literacy only included the typical reading and writing.  Since I have exploring my fellow classmate’s projects I have learned so much more about the other literacies such as cultural, visual, emotional, and environmental.  All of these are so pivotal to teach our children and in this day and age, technology is going to be a teacher’s best friend.  Kids are learning about all the new resources just as fast as adults so it is our job to begin incorporating more of it into our classrooms.   I now understand how easily language arts can be taught through many of the tools explored in the new literacy projects.  After using my new technology Voicethread,  I was able to experience the many advantages and also amount of preperation went into creating a thoughtful presentation. I would definitely use Voicethread in the future because it is a great way to combine a powerpoint presentation with the availability to have voice commentary and written commentary.  There is also the option of making the presentation available to the class so they can comment on it as well.   Students could have the ability to collaborate during group projects using this tool.  Also, if this presentation were used in class, the students could give the teacher feedback directly on the powerpoint about what they connected with and what material appeared unclear.  I decided to incorporate cultural literacy for my project.  I learned that this literacy is every aspect of one's personal life that makes a person who they are.  This literacy can help students identify differences in all of the regions, countries, and continents in our world.  Cultural literacy includes the appreciation of music, art, food, community, reading, writing, history, norms, and pictures from one's life.  The majority of my project was easy to put together.  However, one of the biggest challenges I ran into was the amount of space the free version of Voicethread allowed me to upload from my computer.  My original powerpoint I planned to upload had multiple pictures per slide as well as some written slides.  Then I found out I was about way over the limit.  The limit for Voicethread is only 25MB for the uploaded space.  I think the commentary voice choice is also semi-limited to a few minutes.  There is the option to upgrade and pay a certain amount, but I found that the free version could suffice because that is still a decent amount to work with.  If I had done more research before beginning my presentation I would have initially prepared for the amount of space available.  I had to significantly cut out a bunch of material in order to upload my presentation.  There also isn’t the ability to edit the slides once they are uploaded, and I caught enough mistakes that I had to edit the slides back on powerpoint and then re-upload the presentation.  Overall even though I faced a few challenges while putting together my presentation, I would still recommend using this tool in the classroom as well as teaching students how to use this for future group work and individual presentations. 

2) EFFECTIVE LITERACY INSTRUCTION:

L.CN.02.03 listen to or view knowledgeably while demonstrating appropriate social skills

of audience behaviors (e.g., eye contact, attentive, supportive) in small and large group settings; listen to the comments of peers and respond on topic adding a connected idea.

            I created this presentation with the mindset that my students would be engaged enough to listen and comprehend the information presented to them while connecting to each of the slides.  If I were to present this material to my class, I would pause each slide to ask the class questions and have them talk about this own cultural literacy so we could all learn a little more about each other.  In order to be successful at this literacy, students would need to be aware that not everyone’s cultural literacy is the same.  I would need to provide, or have the class share a few of their own examples ir experiences in order to get the point across.  The technology incorporated in this lesson would also need some background knowledge explained.  I would tell the students Voicethread is a good way to create a presentation by using powerpoint and one’s own voice recordings to send a message to the audience.  Students would need to see what powerpoint is, how to add pictures to the class, and shown how to record their voice on a computer to fully understand how this technology was created. This technology is a great way to show diverse learners of just one of the ways technology can be incorporated in their lives.  With voicethread, there are many options for student's to explore.  Just to name a few, experience with powerpoint, researching ideas on the internet, pictures, typing up commentary, and recording one's voice can all be incorporated into this tool

3) LESSON PLAN: 

• Target area and rationale:  Through the introduction of voicethread, students will be able to see how technology can be incorporated into their own learning through the use of powerpoint, and voice recordings.  Technology is user-friendly for many ages, the teacher will show the students how this technology's home page can walk new users through the process.
• List your objective(s)
• Students would comprehend cultural literacy through digital storytelling using the tool Voicethread.
• Students will listen and and write a brief reflection about their own cultural literacy after the lesson
• Materials: laptops (teacher’s & one for each student), projector, paper, pencil
• Outline of the lesson:
• 1. Students will be asked what they know about cultural literacy
• 2. Try to come up with their own brief definition
• 3. Students will be introduced to Voicethread (homepage will be shown, and powerpoint, and voice recordings will be breifly explained)
• 4. Presentation shown
• 5. Students will be asked to share experiences throughout presentation
• 6. Reflection on lesson will be shared
• 7. Students will spend 10-15 minutes creating their own reflection on a laptop, which will be printed off at the end of the lesson.
• Closing summary:  The teacher will wrap up the lesson by explaining cultural literacy is includes an individual’s, history, music, art, food preferences, norms, reading, writing, and community.  Technology is a great way to show a group of people our ideas.  Voicethread is a powerpoint presentation where you can record your own voice to explain the slides.  Also, typing up our ideas is a great way to become comfortable with using a computer which will be used more in more throughout the children's schooling experience.
• Ongoing assessment: Student’s reflections will be evaluated to see whether or not they understand the definition of cultural literacy.  Perhaps the next day the teacher will read a book about a character from another country to see if the students can recognize how he/she has a different cultural literacy than them.