Class last night

Ah writing...the bane of my existence. It is not an easy thing to do and then you have a room full of people who already teach writing. I do not envy Charlie and Chris. But they did a nice job of getting us all on task and ignored our craziness. I liked how Charlie kept checking on how Jodi and I were working.

Reading March 30

No matter what, feedback sucks. The whole writing process is a complete pain to teach and then to have to comment on it. You teach students to make mind maps and brain storm. Then you take them into creating a paper from this. Finally you get what they think you were looking for and you have to comment on it. GACK!!!!!!!!

You try commenting on grammar and major problems, but when they turn in the next draft what you commented on are the ONLY changes made. This is an exercise in frustration!!!! I don't think it matters how you comment, students often do nothing with it, so what's the point?

The cow says moo

I thought the lesson using puppets to make animal noises to help students interact with the book was fun. It makes them pay attention to the story, and gives them a way to participate. I do think a conversation about animal noises would be appropriate, since they vary around the world.

I keep thinking about teaching reading, and I wonder how I would be taught to read in Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, Germany etc. I have a basic grasp of both Spanish and German, I'm not fluent, but I can definitely get myself in trouble. I've been plugging away at reading Harry Potter in Spanish for a very long time. Last year I was really trucking along, but I got distracted so I'm now in the same place I was last June. This isn't what I was taught to do, but reading is my love in English so it seems natural to me to want to read in my L2s. I occasionally read children's books in German, because they are in my home. However, they do not tax me, I grew up with them.

While I was learning German and Spanish I learned basic vocabulary (numbers, colors, simple greetings). Then we learned verbs...then we learned about other tenses the verbs could take. At this point I decided I could read on my own...but not well. How does this translate to TELL/TESL? Is it different because there could be a variety of L1s? What if the entire group shares an L1, do you then turn to the "format" for teaching a foreign language?

I guess I've digressed from purely reading, but these things go hand in hand in my mind.

Reading-again

I say Wo0-Hoo to all people who can read fluently, as described on 154 of MCM, in a second lanuage. When I try to read in Spanish I find myself so concerned about every word, there is no flow. I need to practice again, but it'll have to wait, yet again.

As I read the list of assumptions I went duh! (At me, not the book.) Why would everyone know that? And actually, the first one caused me to fail an assignment in highschool. (There was a political cartoon in the center of an article. I didn't get the cartoon, but did understand the article. Unfortunately, the two were unrelated.)

My next, Duh, moment came in labeling items in the room. I've seen it in French, German and Spanish rooms...Duh.It is really the same concept. I'm just into lists right now, because I liked this list too. Actually I just get excited when it's time to talk about reading.

Reading

I was intrigued by the discussion of oral reading. I read beautifully in German (or so my mother says) but I don't understand what I'm reading. I know the rules of pronunciation and use my skills from English to read ahead enough to maintain "fluency." Heck, I even recognize enough words quickly enough to not be entirely without inflection. But I have no comprehension, I do not read German for fun. (My spanish is in a similar situation.)

Now I have had students read aloud many times, and it can be incredibly painful. I'm not even thinking of the ESL students...a very large number of NSs cannot read aloud with fluency, I'm very sad for their future children. Throwing out all issues of comprehension and nerves...I can see using oral reading to give me an idea as to how a student is reading. How quickly can I expect them to read something I've assigned. It isn't perfect, but a general guideline. I believe I need to use this more in my classroom, because the more you do it, the less the nerves interfere...I just need to learn to let go of my need to read aloud to them.

Reading

I like the list of things a good/fluent reader does. I forget that not everyone does all of those things. I have been known to ask people how they "see" characters or scenes of a story...only to find out that they don't visualize anything. They ONLY see the words. It is no wonder many people dislike reading for anything but fact finding.

It's funny to me that the experts always break reading down: pre, during, post, awareness of structure, graphic organizers etc. (And I do all of these things with my students.) However they push whatever worked for them best. When you boil down everything experts say everywhere, the best and only way to improve reading is to read more. I will continue to teach vocab strategies, scanning, glossing, post-it noting...use graphic organizers to help understand complex stories, organize plots etc. But I will also continue requiring students to read every week and give credit for EVERYTHING they read: books, papers, internet, cereal boxes...they need to read and read and read.

Mariya's presentation

I love that Mariya always has enough information for about 75 lessons : ) I listen to her and figure that if the topic isn't going the way she wants she has a backup plan.

I found the emphasis on segmental/suprasegmental to begin class with interesting. I feel that this is something that depends upon the situation and that knowing what situation we were looking at could have provided a clearer conversation.

In the lab-I always find the peer reviews to be tough. We don't know the end vision the other group has. This means we may ask questions that are actually being answered through the development of other projects. (of course the portfolios and MGRPs are a little mixed in my brain and the latter isn't an issue this term). I think having a couple other standard expectations would help too, ie the statement being illustrated should be at the top of the project demonstrating.