Classroom Talk

This weeks readings focused on the type of discussions that are generated throughout classrooms. In chapter 10 of the Elementary Classroom Management by Weinstein and Mignano, they wrote about recitations - also known as a pattern of interaction called initiation-response-evaluation (I-R-E). I found this part of the chapter to be particularly interesting because the authors wrote about both the negative and the positive aspects of it. It has been criticized because it's teacher-centered and there is a lack of interaction between students and doesn't call for a higher or deeper level of thinking (300). On the other hand, it can be very useful in helping the students learn and talk about things they wouldn't think about. For instance, in the dialogue on pages 301-302, it shows us how the teacher is important when it comes to recitation because with her or his involvement, she/he is able to push the students' thinking by asking intellectually demanding questions. I think that no one strategy is perfect; there will always be negatives and benefits to each strategy and it just depends on what the teacher wants to accomplish with her students when deciding on which type of strategy she/he wants to use to generate classroom talk and successful learning.
The other type of classroom talk is discussion. There is a chart in Almasi's (1996) article on page 8 that shows the differences between the students' roles in a recitation and discussion. Some of the types of students' roles in discussion include: "Students ask questions in order to understand text better and to help construct meaning..., students encourage each other to participate..., students restate or try to question what others have said if it is not clear...", etc. After looking at this it sure makes the discussion look better than recitation, but will the students be able to hit every important aspect of whatever they're discussing if left to talk about it among themselves? is it alright if they don't go over the facts? I'm not sure. Nevertheless, in order for them to be able to venture off without the teacher they need to first learn how to do this by teacher scaffolding. The teacher needs to show the students how important all of their ideas are and that they can feel comfortable enough to express them to each other - each and every student. Good response-centered talk involves four things, as the McGee article states: It begins with teachers' careful planning, it's carried out in thoughtful interaction with children, it's extended by personal response activities, and it involves assessing children's responses to literature. A well planned and well-guided conversation will involve all students.
Now to finally talk about my placement classroom. I am in a kindergarten classroom and I have to say that all that I see is recitation. The CT wants to know that they know very distinct information. She wants to know that they know their numbers and alphabet and that they can follow a story line. Much interpretation and deeper thinking is not involved in this classroom. 

Literature in the Classroom

In my classroom, I have seen literature included in a couple of different ways. This fall, the class was learning about different Native American tribes. My teacher had gotten a ton of books from the library on Native Americans and the students were encouraged to look through the books to research different tribes and different aspects of Native American life. In this instance, the students were responsible for picking and reading the books on their own. In my classroom, there are 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students. I have seen instances when one of the 3rd graders would choose a book from the classroom library to read aloud to the class. The only other type of literature that I have seen included is the standard leveled reading books. I often read with the students from these books.
I think that the articles brought up some good and new ideas about how literature can be incorporated into elementary curriculums. In the piece by Hasset, the article mentioned using multimodal aspects of texts. I found this to be a very interesting idea. We did similar work in TE 350, and I had never thought that the same work would be done in an elementary classroom. However, through the examples in the article, I was able to see that elementary students are capable of taking a critical look at how the different aspects of a book work together to create meaning. I think that this approach is a great way to get students thinking about more than just what the text says. Modern children’s literature is multi-faceted and we should be teaching students to understand and appreciate this.
I also really liked the piece by Leland. I could really relate to the teacher in the article. Just like her, I think it is important to incorporate controversial literature into the classroom; but I often struggle with what this looks like. Sometimes it seems easier to just skip it all together and skip the “hassle” of using controversial literature. However, this article proved how easy and influential it is to incorporate this type of literature into an elementary classroom. I loved how the article said that this method was a great way to introduce students to controversial topics without causing a “ruckus”, which is something that I think most pre-service teachers are striving for! This article really inspired me to use controversial literature in my classroom and reap the rewards that it will bring about.

Families as a Source of Support for Diverse Learners

As is the case with any student, a large variety of support systems are needed in order for diverse learners to participate fully in the learning community. The article Building on the Strengths of Families: The Promising Readers Program focuses on one, very important, support system: the family.  In this article, the Promising Readers Program was set in a poor, rural community in the deep South where around 65% of the school’s third graders scored in the lowest quartile on the language arts and reading portions of the state wide standardized test (Brenner, page 2). Its purpose was to bring family members, students, and teachers together in order to help improve the students’ reading ability by providing the students’ with opportunities to engage in a wide variety of literacy practices such as reading a book out-loud with a family member. By encouraging family members to participate in this program, the hope was that each family member present would bring with them “household funds of knowledge” that act as “potential bridges to children’s learning proficiency” (Brenner, pages 1 and 2). Some of the benefits that came with family involvement included an increase in the personal confidence of the students in their reading ability and an increase in personal confidence in the parents and family members towards their ability to help their student improve. I believe that these benefits are very important for supporting diverse learners because without the confidence to try, the students’ wont experiencing reading on their own and the parents won’t feel comfortable enough to try to help them do so.

Based my personal experiences and what I am seeing being done in schools, programs like this are relatively rare. Out of the six schools that I have volunteered at, only one of them had a program like this instated at their school. It is my experience, though, that when these programs are established, they can be extremely beneficial to students. I believe that one of the most important support systems for diverse learners is their family members. Students need to gain as many experiences with reading and literacy as possible, and without family members’ assistance, many students don’t get the experiences they need to improve and grow outside of the school environment. Programs like this bring awareness to family members about the importance of family involvement in their student’s learning and encourage them to help their student by: modeling good reading habits, reading with their student, providing various types of texts and genres for the student to explore, etc. I also believe that they encourage family members to become more aware of and more involved in their student’s school. This provides students with an additional support system in the school that otherwise wouldn’t be there and makes it easier for parents to be better informed about the improvements and needs of their students. As was the case in this article, the school I volunteered at experienced these benefits after establishing this kind of program. It is because of these experiences with schools (those who had programs like the Promising Readers Program and those who didn’t) that I believe that family members are an important source of support for diverse learners which help them to participate fully in the learning community.