My Way or the Highway!

Oracy and writing are two fundamental skills that I feel students must learn and have a firm grasp on.  These two skills are used in day to day life, and communication is extremely important for any interaction.  It is important that a teacher does not simply just teach these two skills, but makes it enjoyable to children so they will be inclined to engage in using their skills and want to learn more.  The key to this is having a balanced program.  This is something that I have really taken away from this class.  A balanced program is a program that engages students in many different ways, and helps to cater different learners.

Oracy is paramount in helping children develop literacy skills and social competence.  Thus, it is very important that we incorporate oracy into our teaching, and that we help students with it.  Teaching oracy requires many things.  Having a close personal relationship with each student is vital.  This allows time for one on one interaction and a chance to challenge students to talk, think, and explore their knowledge of the world.  A teacher should almost always ask open ended questions as this will help students make meaning.  We must provide every student adequate time to answer, even though there can be that awkward silence.  A teacher must cultivate and promote a safe environment where students are safe to share their ideas/thoughts, but also to question; creating respectful listeners goes hand in hand with this.  Beyond the teacher-student interactions, it is important to promote structured partner and small group talk.  This can be done through some different strategies such as the garden party, or tea party strategy.  Collaborative work is an excellent way to promote oracy.  It is important for students to have the chance to vocalize their ideas and thoughts, and this will lead to more dynamic writers.  The use of drama within ELA would be a fantastic way to help children explore literary works but through the use of role playing and dialogue.  Drama is not just a fine art, it is an excellent cross-curriculum tool that can strongly promote and teach children oracy skills.  Creating podcasts would be a great outlet for students to practice their oracy skills.  Students could record stories they have read or written, they could share information on a particular topic, or it could be an interview with someone.  The options are almost endless for this and it would be a great tool for teaching oracy.  Listening is a key component to oracy as well, but I am not going to dwell on this.  There are many other ways to help with teaching and improving oracy skills, so these are just a few of the many different strategies.

For developing writing skills and trying to create dynamic writers, there are many strategies.  One of the most important things for writing is giving the students time, which is not always that easy.  A form of free or informal writing is very important.  This gives students the chance to write down many different ideas, thoughts, and feelings.  From this students, with the help of peers and teacher, will be able to make meaning and explore their ideas further.  All in all, what this is stressing is we need to allow students the chance to simply write and experiment without being assessed or restricted by any rigid and strict writing structures and rules.  Students also need time to reflect, reshape, and redraft their pieces of writing.  Having students work once on a piece of writing is not conducive to creating dynamic writers.  The ability to go back to older pieces of work allows students a chance to edit (very important in the writing process) and solve problems within their work, perhaps after consulting peers or the teacher.  Collaborative work and/or writing conferences are very important.  Not only does this promote oracy, but it allows students to lean on others for support and to gain more insight into ideas and thoughts.  It makes a child’s inner speech explicit, and from this a deeper understanding of writing and ideas can occur.  Speaking about the writing process needs to be permitted and ample time should be set aside for this.  Certainly what I have learned from all this has been that to teach writing effectively, a lot of informal writing and peer/teacher conferences are very important.  There are many other ways to teach writing, but these two ways I feel are very key.

I look forward to taking some of the many strategies we have learned in to my classes, and hopefully it will lead to children who are not only strong in oracy and writing, but also find enjoyment in them.  I envision in my classroom that I am able to give the students lots of time to write and interact with one another to help enhance oracy and to help with the writing process.  On the wall there should be visually stimulating work that helps students with the writing process.  There will also be displays of students’ works.  Although not focussed upon, there would also be some things up around the room to help students with writing conventions.  Overall, beside the numerous strategies taken out of this class, the biggest thing is that balance seems to be the key!

Not much has changed since my first blog, besides I now have many different tools and strategies to help teach, strengthen, and promote oracy and writing skills.  The biggest change is probably seeing the need to promote free writing, and that writing conventions are even less important.

The Writing Program

Writing is a very important skill children must learn and practice continually throughout school.  It is not simply limited to English Language Arts (ELA), but transcends the whole curriculum and general society.  Writing will allow students to help them make sense of their learning, whether it is in ELA, Science, or Social Studies, etc.  Thus, writing must be properly and thoughtfully taught to students.  In particular this entails that there “is a focus on balance in a writing program” (Constructing Meaning, 262).  This balance will result in creating “dynamic writers [who are] excited about their abilities to blend exposition and imagination for more creative communication” (Casey and Hemenway, 2001, 68).  There are several things I think that are very important when teaching writing.  Allowing children to write freely and in a variety of genres, forms, and voices, are extremely important.  Self and peer editing is important, and time is necessary for giving the children a chance to do this and also to work on one piece of work for an extended period of time.  Social interaction with peers and teachers via writing conferences is also an excellent way to produce creative and dynamic writers.

There are many genres of writing and teachers can easily get caught up in what is easy for them, what they like, and what is simple to assess.  However, this is not conducive to producing strong writers.  It is vital that teachers allow many informal chances to write, and in various voices and forms.  This could be done in the form of journals, letters, diaries, think books, learning logs, etc.  These forms can allow students to “share their thinking with their teacher or peers in a supportive environment that encourages students to expand and explore their ideas further” (Constructing Meaning, 239).  When a teacher gives children the time to write about their experiential world, this will eventually translate into more formal and abstract writing, and a better understanding of the writing process (Constructing Meaning, 239).  This “free writing” is an excellent time for children to shape their ideas, discuss past experiences, and come up with creative leads such as discussed with having writing territories, tantalizing titles, and alternatives to swear words (Carol Nahachewsky, 2011).  It is also a great chance to work on writing in different voices and forms that can be refined more as time progresses.  What this shows about teaching writing is that we should not be giving children very rigid and strict writing structures and forms.  This is all reflected in the PLO’s for Grade 2, C1 and C3 (IRP).

Another important aspect of writing is giving students the time look back at previous writings.  The writing process is best illustrated by what D’Arcy calls the three R’s of learning: reflect, reshape, and redraft (Constructing Meaning, 239).  A child needs the time and support to look back on their work, think critically about it, and make necessary changes.  This can allow children to show what they know and understand, but also allow for students to realize that it is ok to make mistakes and to ask for clarification, and this will all lead to creating a safe work environment where effective learning and writing can take place (Constructing Meaning, 242).  It is most important that a teacher allows for informal writing that is an ongoing process, where it is crucial that one piece of writing may be looked at over and over, and that changes to it can be made.  The ability and need to be able to reflect back upon writing, to uncover their strengths, what could be done to improve their writing and what attributes make a good writer are well reflected in the PLO’s for Grade 1 and 2 in C6 and C9 (IRP).

Simply writing freely, with no assessment is just one of the important steps to teaching writing.  Another very important teaching tool is the use of writing conferences.  A critical idea behind using these conferences on the content and craft of writing, is that it will “help writers discover the meanings they don’t know yet, name problems, attempt solutions, and make plans” (Atwell, 224).  Writing conferences will help children gain an audience, and share their work with each other and their teacher.  This will enable a student to receive compliments on their work, but also questions that may have arisen and need to be addressed.  At the end of such conferences, children will be able to go back and reshape and redraft their writing, making it more polished.  This social interaction is vital to the writing process, as it allows children to bring out their inner voice.  A teacher needs to make this inner speech explicit and allow the student “to wrestle with the ideas they are attempting to articulate” (Constructing Meaning, 287).  Writing conferences allow children to share ideas and learn from each other.  It gives students the “opportunities to explore the gap between thought and speech” (Constructing Meaning, 288).  It also allows students to work out issues within their writing, such as audience.  A phenomenal example of this social interaction and how it enables and enhances the writing process is that of the dialogue between Sharon and Erica in Constructing Meaning, pages 288-289.  This dialogue clearly demonstrates how discussion led the two girls to be more aware of who their audience is and how important each word was.  Talk and conferences on writing is something that should never be brushed aside by a teacher.

Conferences also allow a teacher to work more intimately with their students.  A dialogue between a teacher and student is an excellent way for a teacher to learn where a child is at and how they are understanding things.  A child can take this opportunity to seek understanding and clarification is a safe way.  The Atwell article is an excellent example of the possible back and forth of a teacher and student, and how effective it is in reaching goals and a plan for a student.

This ability to discuss is a fundamental part of writing and starts as early as Kindergarten, as reflected in the PLO C6 (IRP).  Although there is a need to have a quite setting while writing, it is important to balance that, with giving students the opportunity to discuss with each other and the teacher.

Once children understand the importance of writing and enjoy it, a writing program can become more structured.  The importance of grammar and spelling can be given more emphasis and more heavily focused on.  Giving set writing guidelines to children is a way to get the students to write in different forms, such as research papers that get the children to practice their expository writings.  This can be reflected in the PLO C2 for Grades 4 and 5 (IRP).

New Technologies: The PodCast!

In our modern and fast paced society, new technologies are constantly being created.  It is important for teachers to understand these new technologies and how they can be a very useful teaching tool in a classroom.  Given the availability of some new technologies, more and more schools are able to provide their students with access to these new mediums, such as Smart Boards, iPads, and easy access to the web.  Our ability as teachers will be greatly enhanced if we are able to harness these types of technologies and make ourselves more culturally relevant to the younger generations. 

New technologies often scare people who are not familiar with them.  This is totally understandable.  What we need to be though is open minded and be willing to possibly fail at first in using these new technologies.  From this we will learn and come to understand what this new technology can do for us.  It may be necessary that we seek out training.  Something the new technological age has brought us is the ability to share information with anyone in the world.  One of the common ways is though the podcast.  The podcasts are recorded audio clips that can be downloaded, but also uploaded to the web.  Students can download podcasts from the web to learn about many different topics, ranging across the curriculum.  It also allows students to be informed on current events, listen to their favourite stories, and listen to interviews, which may be with anyone (fictional, historical, etc.).  A podcast can also be an excellent way for students to learn about social issues such as bullying, racism, cultural differences, etc.

Students are also now given the opportunity to create their own podcasts.  Creating podcasts is an excellent way for children to develop and enhance their literacy skills.  By creating their own podcasts, students can be able to discuss/voice their own thoughts and opinions, and be creative (take on roles/other characters).  Podcasts give students the opportunity to share information on a topic or event, they can give information on their school or community, it can let children discuss literature, or it can allow children to take on different roles (past and present, fictional and non-fiction) by conducting interviews with the given person (student in role).  Podcasts can also allow children to discuss hard issues like bullying.  From this, children can share this with people from all over the world, and it lets others give feedback on their work.  However, we must always be wary of what is presented on the web, and be aware of individual’s privacy and safety.  It will be necessary to get permission from others, such as the principal and parents.

The major obstacles I see with creating podcasts, come down to availability of equipment, willingness to participate, time, and concession of parents to allow content to be posted.  Not all schools can afford this type of equipment, however many families may have access to such technology that would help with this.  But what about if teaching in a very low income area (Jane-Finch area in Toronto)?  Many of these families would not have such technology so readily available, same with the schools.  Even if I provided some, it possibly would not be enough to allow all the students to participate, but maybe this is ok.  Children must want to participate in doing this.  I am sure there will always be some who are reluctant, which might pose a bit of a challenge, but hopefully we can get them involved in some way.  Time is always a huge issue when teaching.  There is a lot to cover, so hard to determine how much time should be set aside for such ventures.  The good thing is that podcasts can be used for any course.  The final issue might be having some parents not allow their child to be a part of anything posted online.  Is it fair to leave these children out?  And if so, is it fair to all the other students to let them not participate because of a few?

Podcasts and other technological devices in the classroom I view as being hugely beneficial and it is a great way for children to be more engaged.  I truly hope that as a teacher, that I will soon be having my students using all this great new technology to better enhance their learning and knowledge.

Interesting websites:

http://mps.wes.schoolfusion.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?sessionid=f728ee3998b63afc6648763da3aa942f&pageid=115312&sessionid=f728ee3998b63afc6648763da3aa942f

http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/radio_sandaig/index.php

http://www.downs.kent.sch.uk/podcast/?pid=10&type=podcast&title=The+Downs+FM+%28Podcast%29

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/genre/childrens

The students of today and how they learn. The IRP: A good thing?

Today’s ELA Students:

The world we live in today within Canada is one of diversity, and this is something that is very important to take in to consideration as a teacher.  Diversity in the classroom does not just relate to the fact that some children will have different racial, cultural, or religious backgrounds from various parts of the world.  It is important to keep in mind that diversity relates to socioeconomic status, gender, and the family environment.  When mentioning family environment, I am referring to the fact that some children do not come from 2 heterosexual parents, or even live with more than 1 parent, or live with “mom” or “dad”, and this means it is important to be wary of our rhetoric and literature in class.  With this all in mind it is imperative that as a teacher we try to create the best possible climate and curriculum to foster positive growth and development (Bainbridge, 2009, p. 15).  As the IRP (2006, p. 25) rightly puts forth, with regards to diversity and teaching ELA, “One size does not fit all.”  This requires teachers to be able to adapt their lessons and pedagogy according to the diversity and funds of knowledge of children.  This entails that teachers who are sensitive to their own discourse patterns and to the discourse patterns of the students in the classroom, will be able to more effectively aid non-English speaking children, as well as those who may struggle in certain areas (Bainbridge, 2009, p. 44).  Tailoring ELA for children of different backgrounds, genders, and socioeconomic status is all part of being a teacher.

How Do These Diverse Students in ELA Learn?

There are different ways a student may learn ELA.  It is noted that people have different learning styles (maybe?) and thus the way a student will learn is varied and dependent on a learning style.  However, there are some core components of teaching ELA that are important to keep in mind.  These are from Cambourne’s conditions for literacy learning.  They are: engagement, immersion, demonstration, expectation, responsibility, use, approximation, and response (Bainbridge, 2009, p. 23).  If these conditions can be met by a teacher, a child should flourish in and enjoy ELA.  Teaching ELA is not as simple as having the children read words aloud, or read a book quietly, or be able to spell/write; it is much more than that.  ELA transcends the real world and it teaches children how to function in society.  First and foremost, I feel, engagement and immersion is one the most important keys.  Children usually learn better when they are having fun and immersed in the subject area.  As a teacher, it is up to us to create this type of environment, whether it be through group work (such as literacy centres or Tea Party lessons), drama, art, etc.  It is vital that students are able to make personal connections, and not just be able to read, write, and comprehend.  What I also found very important was the release of responsibility from the teacher.  Once we have laid the foundation, a teacher should give the children more freedom, as shown in the IRP (2006, p. 23).  This would allow children to make choices and have a voice in what interests them in the subject of ELA, but to also allow them a chance to give themselves feedback and criticism.  When teaching ELA, we must keep in mind the diversity of the classroom and funds of knowledge, but also recognize that students learn in different and unique ways and that it is important to use Cambourne’s conditions as a solid guideline to helping us to develop a pedagogy that will allow us to deliver ELA in an effective manner.

The IRP: Good or Bad, hmmmmm:

The IRP is a great resource for beginning students, as it lays the foundation for sound teaching and provides a guideline.  The IRP allows an inexperienced teacher to be able to read into some of the concerns and considerations when teaching a specific subject.  For example, the IRP for ELA, has a long and detailed list of considerations for teaching ELA, much of it might not be blatantly apparent to the new teacher.  A couple that stood out to me was the dimensions of written language: cueing systems, the scale of most support to least support for writing, and beginning with the end in mind with students.  These areas covered aspects of ELA that a new teacher would be unaware of and by learning these, we are able to form our own pedagogical ideas and thinking on the subject.  The PLO’s are also of great assistance for the new teacher.  They clearly show what children should be able to do, and how any lesson given, must fit into at least one of the PLO’s.  The PLO’s also serve as a guide to understanding what developmental level a child is at in ELA, and what area a student is strong and weak in.  Oracy is something often assumed, and the PLO’s in the IRP are an excellent reference point to judging a child’s interactive and social ability, and that a teacher can create lessons to help promote this.

Along with the good comes the bad or critical points of the IRP.  The PLO’s provide a certain expectation of the skills the student’s will achieve and master over the year.  But this standardization of skills/performance may be too high or low for students.  Since children learn differently, and at different speeds, it almost seems inevitable that some of the skills will be forgotten or possibly never achieved.  This brings up our own expectation levels and how this plays a role in deciding what PLO’s need to be covered and how quickly and well our students learn them.  This might lead in to the issue of the Pygmalion effect in the classroom given the diversity of children, funds of knowledge, and also in how they learn?  The IRP as good as it may be, comes with its faults.  I feel as if it is an excellent foundation for new teachers, but it is our own responsibility to go out and figure out what works pedagogically; we need to build upon what the IRP has initially taught us.  Possibly leads into alternative pedagogies and teaching (Montessori)?