Meredith Monserez

While I am reading for educational purposes, I am always taking notes. I have learned that writing the important information down in my notebook is the best way I am able to learn and remember the information. I always begin by writing the title of the passage. Usually at the beginning of any section or chapter there are "Big Ideas" or "Main Points" that are bulleted, or sometimes there are suggested questions to think about while reading the following text. Both of these things I write down in my notebook. This way, when I am reading the text, I will remember when I main point or a particular question come up and I will know to take notes on this. I also always copy any vocabulary words into my notebook. This is useful because it not only helps me to remember the vocabulary word and its meaning, but it also makes it easier to go back and find the important words when I am studying the material later. As I am reading, I usually write down one or two concepts that are under each bold heading as well as information shown on graphs. Sometimes I will copy the actual graph in my notebook, but if it is very detailed, I will just write down the information shown and the topic of the graph and will write the page number down so that if I would like to go back and reference the actual graph while I am studying, I will easily be able to do so. I usually end my notes with any questions or summary points that are highlighted in the book. After I write down these questions, I go back through the text and find the answers.
I am not a very fast reader because of all the notes I take and simply because I spend a great deal of time re-reading paragraphs I have already read. I frequently find myself just going over the words and not actually comprehending the information I am reading. I try to avoid this problem by focusing on the internal conversation I have with myself while I am reading. If I find that I am no longer saying the words to myself and making sense of them, I realize that I must go back to where I stopped paying attention to what I was reading, and read again. This process of re-reading material can take up to five attempts at times. But I would not feel satisfied with myself unless I was able to say that I completely understand everything that I just read. To completely understand the material I am reading, I also use a dictionary while I read. When I come across a word that I do not know, I look up its meaning in the dictionary. Once I find its meaning, I write it down next to the word in the text.

Natalie DiSalvo! Importance

Thinking about how I read texts seemed rather difficult to reflect on since it just comes naturally at this age. I tried to read over the paragraph with the descriptions of what the blog was about to try and think about how I read and what I do to get the main idea of the text. I read one paragraph at a time and try to think of how to reword what I read. The way that I know that I grasped the main ideas is when I can explain the paragraph to someone else with my own words. Another strategy that I do when reading a long text is reading the first and last few sentences in each paragraph and skimming over the middle section. That usually highlights the main points of the paragraph and gives me a good understanding of what the sections are about. One can also read the captions of each section of an article before reading the text to give them an idea of what they will be reading about. It would also get the reader in the right mind set prior to the reading.

As I read, there is definitely an internal conversation that I have with myself. I can hear myself talking and reading the text aloud in my head. It is pretty wild that people can hear themselves thinking within their own head! I can always catch myself drifting away from the text when it comes time to recap a paragraph after I have “read it”. When I cannot remember what I just read, I realize that I have drifted off. Sometimes I even catch myself looking at the page but actually thinking about my plans for later in the day instead of reading the context in front of me! I find myself drifting off from reading at least one time a day, especially if I have a hard time relating to the reading. Another reason I drift off from the text is because I do not enjoy the reading-whether it be because I do not like the subject the reading is over, or if the reading is long and drawn out.

I think that finding the important information within text is difficult, but the ways I tend to go about finding it is mentioned in the first paragraph. However, I still have a hard time figuring out the main ideas of readings over topics dealing with special education. I think a lot of the information is descriptive and, at points, is hard to limit what to count as “important”.

Michelle Ezrachie

As I reflect on my reading of texts I noticed that I have a specific style and approach to readings. I first decide what is important about this reading. This process takes a while because reading is not my specialty. As much as I love to read, it has never come easy to me. I have always needed to develop a certain style to help me concentrate and absorb the information before me. Sometimes when I read I have to ask myself questions, highlight, and summarize. Understanding what is important in the reading is also a big part everyone should master. My method includes different steps to pick out what is important. When I read texts for my classes, I first read through the text page by page. Under every section if I notice it has been repeated, bolded, or italicized, I will highlight it. In addition, I will highlight the information if it gives examples, definitions, or generalizes what has happened. Lastly, while reading texts anything I think would be included in a summery is something I would highlight and make a note of. The ideas highlighted are the important concepts of the text.
In addition to highlighting, I determine what is important. It is important to continue my thought process. As I read to myself, I think about what is theme about in the reading. I ask myself why I would need to know this concept or big idea. What is the main point in the reading? What examples could I use when teaching? What information do I already know? What information is new? If it is new information, I ask myself in what way would I be able to remember it? I also will read a full page. I ask myself what happened. If I am unable to remember and I notice that I have not understood anything, I will reread the page. The second time I read, I break each paragraph down. This way I am able to zone into the information. I take the sentence, and if it is complicated to understand, I rephrase it in order to remember it. I continue through the process highlighting and rephrasing. When I get to the end of the page and I feel comfortable with the concepts, I will then continue with my reading. If I am still a little uncomfortable I will go back and only read the highlighted sections. This way I have time to develop the important information while making sure I understand the key ideas. These methods summarize how long it takes me to scope out what is important, read, and remember key concepts. Without practicing these strategies I would not comprehend and have difficulties with participating in homework assignments.It is important for me to feel confident in all class discussions.

Determining Importance (Jayne Royal)

This question was an interesting one when I first read it. I do not think I have ever thought about what I considered to be important prior to this. It was something that comes so subconsciously that I never really thought to much about it. There are a few things moments in my life where I really had to revamp my thought process when it came to determining what was important in texts.

When I was in the seventh grade I transferred to a much better school than the one I was attending prior. On one of the first days of schools I remember my History teacher went over ways of underlying and note-taking that would help with comprehending the text. I remember we started out by listening to a book on tape. As we listened we read along in our text and underlined and circled what we thought was important. One thing that I noticed was that at first I was pretty much underlining everything. The teacher then had us talk about what we had underlined and I noticed that I was not the only one with that problem. She gave us tips on how to underline and what was important.

Another memory that I have of revamping the way I read texts was when I was a junior in high school. I somehow was placed in the English class with the hardest teacher. He was so detail oriented and had extremely high expectations. Up until this point when I read books I would always underline, but in this class I realized that I needed to do something more. The class really stressed participation and I was not the best at that. This is when I started to write things in the margins as I would read. Anything that I found either related to another book, or was significant in someway I would star at the top of the page. I did that because it was then easier to find when I got to class. Then I would always write something in the margins to remind me of the point I wanted to make during class discussions.

When I read something, especially when it is for a class, I take a long time. I really think about the text and make notes about what I want to discuss in the next class.

Reading Importance- Danielle Rolley

Whenever I am reading text books or articles of importance for learning I tend to decide what is important by first skimming the text for bold or italicized words followed by their definition or their explanation of importance to either the reading or to general knowledge. After skimming the text I then start my reading and pay attention for key parts that seem like they might be important. I usually decide what is important either by noticing that it pertains to something learned in class or if it is something that I thought was interesting or if I learned from it. If I learned something from what I just read then I consider it important and usually mark it by highlighting it or underlining it with pen. Same goes for if I think something is interesting. If I find something interesting or new to me then chances are I might need to know it for later purposes.
When I read I normally have an internal conversation with myself about the text. I can hear my internal voice reading the text along with me whenever I am really paying attention to what I am reading. This is how I know if I am still on task with my reading or paying attention. If i do not hear my internal voice I know that I really was not paying attention let alone comprehending what I just read or presently reading. When I do not hear my internal voice I get myself back on track by rereading what I just did or by taking a short break to think about whatever was distracting me and then start my reading back up again.
I know that something is important in text whenever it is bold or italicized like I mentioned before, but I can also tell something is important in the text if there are reflection questions in the back on certain parts of the reading. Usually textbooks or articles are organized by major subjects that it is addressing and then under each major subject are little subtopics. I can usually count on those little subtopics having meaningful information in them. The subtopics are the one that are getting down to the point usually and all the other stuff is just recapping on those subtopics are building up them.

Lauren Schraut- Reading Importance

When I read there are two different “sides” of me that can be present. This “side” of me relates to if I am reading for pleasure or for an assignment. Reading for an assignment is usually quite tricky for me. I usually end up highlighting the wrong things and I most likely will realize I have been reading without comprehending any of it; in that case, I will have to go back and reread what I have already read. At this point I will think to myself if I am really fully engaged in the reading, if not (which is usually the case) I will set the book down and come back to it at a later time.
A lot of the previous paragraph has to do with interest. To be honest, if I was reading something I was not too passionate about I would simply skim through the pages and just go straight to the bolded words. But, if I find the writing techniques to be “catching” and the topics to be interesting, I will most likely stay engaged in my reading throughout the chapter.
When reading I tend to focus on the bolded, italicized words because they must be important, right? I will usually read over sentences containing these “important” words or phrases a few times and most likely highlight them. Freshman year I wrote a lot of notes in margins of papers and since I do not like clutter, I quickly realized that was a bad idea. I also try to relate what I am reading from past experiences in the classroom either as the teacher or as the student: when I do this, it allows me to easily comprehend what I am reading.
I usually skim a lot when I first look at a chapter of a textbook for instance. I will flip through the pages to see what the topics are and important words that are going to be presented. After this, I will then go through and read the chapter or section needed.
As I read through a text book I have this internal thought process as mentioned earlier. I try to figure out how I could implement or use a certain piece of information in my classroom and I try to relate to the topic at hand. I also realize if terms or topics are repeatedly brought up that they are important to understand.

Christine Balcarcel- Literacy Center

Using yahoo, I searched "literacy center ideas". I came across many different sites with a variety of resources for literacy centers in the classroom. One particular site I found was http://www.mrsmcdowell.com/Literacy%20Boxes/boxes.htm . This site was made by a teacher who was able to transform her entire classroom into different literacy centers. One particular thing that this teacher did was set up a mini gazebo in the corner of her classroom, equipped with pillows and stuffed animals. This gazebo makes silent reading especially comfortable and special for her students. Another station in her classroom is the sticker story station. In this station, students pick 3 or 4 stickers from a bucket and stick them to a sheet of paper. On that same sheet, students write a 4 or 5 sentence story about the stickers that they chose. This allows students to use their imagination, and makes for some creative illustrations. A third station in this classroom is the letter center. In this center, the teacher provides fun stationary, pens, and stamps. Students then can write letters to their friends and family. The website provides several other ideas and resources for literacy centers in the classroom.

Another website I found helpful was http://www.teachingheart.net/LC.htm . This website also has many ideas for different centers in the classroom. For instance, this teacher has 8 different activities that students could use that involve using the classroom word wall. One of these activities is the ABC word wall, which requires students to put the word wall words in alphabetical order. Another center this teacher implements in her classroom is the poem center. At this center, students read a poem and then draw what they picture when they read the words. They also can write their own poems and illustrations.

After researching different literacy center ideas I think that it would be extremely beneficial to incorporate literacy centers in my own classroom. They motivate students to read and help them learn important subjects such as spelling, writing, and rhyming.

Literacy Centers (Jayne Royal)

First Literacy Center URL: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.htm

Although this page was really corny I really liked the organizational layout. This website gave a number of different “centers” to have throughout the class to promote literacy. These centers included everything from a independent reading center to a poetry center. What I liked most about this website was that it seemed to cater to a lot of different students with different interests. If a student was really into a book they started reading at home we allowed time throughout the day to work on that. If a student was interested in poetry then they had the ability to foster that interest.

Second Literacy Center URL: http://www.ourschoolfamily.com/Literacy%20Centers.htm

This website was made a teacher in a young classroom. One thing that really struck me about this website was that the literacy centers that were chosen for the class really emphasized independence. Although the students were very young once the center was modeled for them they could most likely do it on their own. For example there is one center called the syllable clapping game. At this station the students put on their “clapping gloves” and clap out the number of syllables on the card in front of them. The students then turn the card over to see if they were correct or not. This allows the students to work independently or with partners to figure out how many syllables.

Third Literacy Center URL: http://www.elementary-teacher-resources.com/literacy-centers.html

What I liked most about this website was that it emphasized that literacy could be taught across subject lines. For example one of the stations is called “Heidi Songs Center.” In this center the students sing in order to indentify sight words. In another station called the Science Center the students use their literacy to build upon their science skills. I think that these days subjects like Music and Science do not get the time the deserve for whatever reason and by incorporating them into Language Arts you are building upon the students knowledge of literacy as well as a range of other topics.

Michelle Ezrachie

While searching through Goggle, I came across web sites that I would encourage educators to take a glance at. The web sites are called “Can Teach” and “Busy Teacher’s Café”. These web sites offer numerous ideas and tools to help the educator incorporate literacy in the classroom. In particular, “Can Teach” is aimed for young students ranging from kindergarten to the second grade. This web site includes numerous listening activities, as well as writing, reading, drawing, speaking, and talking activities. As I continued my search through the web site, a couple of activities really caught my eye. First, I found an activity which involved listening to a story and drawing pictures that followed along with the story. I feel this will help my students listening skills as well as help my students imagine the story. Another activity that I feel students will enjoy is called making silly sentences. This involves picking words out of a bag and then putting them together to form silly sentences. Then, once you state the sentence out loud, the child writes it down and draws a picture to match the sentence. I think students will enjoy this activity because there is an element of surprise. Students can strengthen their creativity skills when drawing.
I came across another helpful web site called “Busy Teacher’s Café”.I really enjoyed this web site because the educator will have the choice to guide the students to a subject in which to concentrate on. These include literacy center management, language arts center, independent reading center, vocabulary center, word work center, computer center, writing center, poetry center, listening center, and literature circles. Depending on the area in which you would like to concentrate on, you would then click on the tab of interest. In my case, I enjoyed the link to the poetry center. By clicking on the tab, the web site recommended fifteen different ideas to use in the classroom for the poetry unit. In addition this web site also included links in which you can access charts, bookmarks, and task cards. This is very beneficial because the handouts are pre-made and can be universally used. As you scroll down, this web site also offers recommendations to sites related to the topic in which you selected. For poetry, there were at least six different web sites to choose from. These web sites had a wide variety of educational games. Both “Can Teach” and “Busy Teacher’s Café” are beneficial web sites to use in a classroom. I found that googling on the Internet offers many refreshing ideas for teaching literacy and definitely see myself using them in the future.

http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/beginning10.html
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.htm

Literacy Centers

http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/management.htm

This was an interesting site because it not only help explain different aspects, but activities, set ups, and even class arrangement to help with the activities. It addressed different ways to make the activity more beneficial and ways that the it could relate to the children more. It gave great examples in pictures as well. Then at the bottom it gives you different links that you can go to, to see more about Literacy Centers. It also has links to the rest of it’s site to give you more examples of things related to literacy.

http://www.teachingheart.net/LC.htm

This site is very sappy for lack of a better term. However, this website has a lot of really good information. It is geared towards little kids, but it can easily be adjusted to the higher grade levels. One thing I really like about this website is that it gives a lot of great examples of how to use stations, reading, and literacy all in one in your classrooms. It even gives you sets and books that you can buy that they know have worked well in actual classrooms. While there is some copyright issues, they allow teachers to get ideas and or modify lesson plans to make them fit their needs.

Reading about Literacy Centers really brought me back to my first field experience. I was in a classroom that’s main focus was reading. It was called Literacy Quest and throughout the day all four grades (elementary only went from 1-4 in this school), would come and go to six stations all working on different aspects of reading and writing. I worked primarily with the first and second graders during my time and I was actually really surprised at how well it worked. The children all stayed on task and while the teacher, her helper, and I may have been working three stations, the other three stations went just as well. Students knew how to keep their folders, and all the materials in line. There was a very meticulous way to keep things organized and it was interesting how well the young students grasped at it. It was actually the older ones that had more problems with staying on task, keeping the materials organized, and understanding the process.

Rachel's Literacy Center Search

The first website I went to (http://www.mrsmcdowell.com/Literacy%20Boxes/boxes.htm), I got some creative ideas on what kind of activities I could do in a literacy center and how the center could be set up. This teacher had a big “beehive” set up in the corner of her room. Students could take turns reading in beehive. She also had comfy chairs set up too where the kids could sit as well. I thought the beehive was a creative way for kids to have a comfortable place to read in the classroom. Also included on the website were creative literacy activities she would have in labeled boxes on shelves in the center as well. This website was more informative on activities you might include in the center rather than how you might set one up.

Another website I visited was (http://www.welcometothepond.com/literacy_centers.htm). I thought this website also had a lot of creative ideas for literacy activities in a literacy center. She even included worksheets that she used so other people could print them out if they wanted to. Most of her activities were geared towards older elementary (3^rd or 4^th). It was interesting to see examples of activities you could include in an older elementary literacy center.

Literacty Center Christie Caron

Through Google, I stumbled upon the site, http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.htm. I found this site to be extremely beneficial for teachers to use as a resource as it guides teachers through different aspects of literacy centers by providing resources and ideas to apply and supervise literacy centers. The site explicitly taught me the two purposes of literacy stations; first, to engage students while the teacher works with small reading groups, and secondly, to reinforce literacy skills. The site suggested that students be grouped heterogeneously and rotate after about 15-20 minutes to three centers. I learned from the management tips that certain organization techniques such as center folders, help keep the centers running smoothly with little confusion among the students. Center folders are folders designed to keep the student and centers neat and organized by keeping this folder dedicated solely to center work. At my work, Harmony Learning Center, the students have these types of folders and I find them to be very beneficial. The literacy centers help guide teachers to create their own centers by having a template for each center they illustrate. Each center, however, is geared most closely to literacy skills; however, teachers can add in different content areas to fit their classroom better. The site also provides teachers with literacy center packets for teachers to print out.

The only drawback I see on this site is that they do not mention any techniques that which teachers can implement different content areas to the centers, rather, they just simply state that it can be done. The site speaks simply only with regards to centers that deal with literacy skills. Conversely, this may be beneficial to teachers in that they are pushed to develop their own centers with a model from a different subject matter.

Through Google, I found a teachers personal site, http://www.mrsnelsonsclass.com/home.aspx , This is a first and second grade teacher, Mrs. Kimberly Nelson, who strives to provide all the resources, ideas, and samples which aid teachers in developing creative ideas in their own classroom. On the resource page, Mrs. Nelson provides different categories which fits more than just literacy center context such as, traveling buddies, class management, brain gym and yoga, teaching materials, classroom setup, centers, units and activities, teaching phonics, teaching math, teaching writing, and teaching reading. What I liked most about this site is that it went a step forward and illustrated many different examples for each tab. For example, under classroom setup, there are six different classroom setups and the audience can easily see why the classroom is set up in that type of way. Then, there is an additional resource link called, Scholastic Classroom Setup Tool . This is described as a virtual layout tool that helps you design customized and effective classrooms to promote learning. “Use this tool to rearrange and set-up mock classrooms, and map out virtual seating charts.” I really liked the Fantastic Facts Center. I thought it was very creative and interesting for the students. Students get to choose a non-fiction book to read then make a fact poster demonstrating four facts from the book. Mrs. Nelson provides a vast amount of centers for different levels. For each center description, she provides pintables’ that which she printed each center direction sheet onto pre-designed school themed paper and glued it onto a colored file folder. “If you don't have any themed paper, you can print the center direction sheets on regular paper and cut them out with craft scissors for a special effect. On the other side of the file folder, I glued an completed example of the recording sheet. I laminated the folder and put all of the materials inside of it when I store it. When it is time to use, I place the folder and materials in a literacy tub for students to use” explained Mrs. Nelson. This here, is extremely valuable for classroom management while using literacy centers, I feel as though it exceeds the first site by a mile.

Natalie DiSalvo! Literacy Centers

I am usually horrible with researching and using the internet to look things up, but I think I did find some useful sites that I thought would beneficial for future teachers such as myself. The first one that I came across was http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.htm. This site had several examples for each type of center they had to choose from. For example, there were tabs for literacy center management, language arts centers, independent reading centers, and much more. For each type of center, there were descriptions along with photographs so teachers could have a better understanding of what one could do for their own classroom. The website also had various links that related to each tab if one needed more resources or wanted more examples/ideas. I think my favorite part of the site was the literacy center overview ideas. It was a link one could click on that had all the major points of each center. It was a great idea to have since a teacher could glance at the section she was interested in and quickly know what to do if needed as a last minute decision. Here is the site for the overview: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/worksheets/literacycenters/Sample%20Activities%20for%20Each%20Center.pdf.

The other literacy center website that I found was http://www.elementary-teacher-resources.com/literacy-centers.html. This website had videos and links to click on to view their version of literacy centers. I really liked how this site made sure that teachers remember to keep in mind that literacy centers should engage the students and be fun for them. If the literacy center is done correctly, the students will want to go and enjoy the center along with learning as well. This site had various links to further understand different types of centers just as the previous website did. His site also mentions multiple games and activities to have within each center. For example, the site talked about Heidi Songs Center which was a way for students to sing in order to remember and learn sight words.

As a teacher, both of these sites would be useful. They give all sorts of ways to incorporate literacy centers in a classroom along with various pictures, activities, and other things to help enhance the center. They also have other ways to incorporate centers into other subjects. For example, science centers. They mention ways to use literacy to build science skills. These, along with other sites as well, would help teachers make their learning centers fun and engaging, along with being very beneficial.

Lauren Schraut's Literacy Centers

While searching Google, I came across a very nice website that has multiple different centers in which you may incorporate into your classroom for literacy. The first site I found is Literacy Centers. This site gives multiple different ideas for many areas. Some of these areas include: poetry, writing, vocabulary, independent reading, etc. Once you chose the area, there is a wide variety of activities with corresponding worksheets or handouts that may be needed in order to implement these ideas. Another great thing I found on this website was help to manage Literacy Centers in your own classroom. This site is definitely a great resource for any educator or future educator.
Another site I have used multiple times while teaching is Carl's Corner. This site is much like the previous site I suggested. This site has multiple games and activities to engage students in while working on literacy in the classroom. Carl's Corner also has very many tips for teachers which I personally have found very helpful, especially since I am a science and math person! This website is full of research based activities geared mainly toward kindergarten and first-grade. The maker of this website found these activities also helpful for older students whose main language is not English, which is a hot mess, right?
Both of these sites are very similar. They both provide a wide variety of activities. A nice positive to the first site though is that it is categorized "better" than Carl's Corner, in my opinion. I find the tips on Literacy Centers a little bit more helpful and easier to follow and find than the tips provided by Carl's Corner.
I believe my peers and I can easily use these sites in our field experience next semester or in our own classrooms some day. The handouts provided through Carl's Corner and I have seen them work wonders in my first graders when I was a Cadet Teacher.

Sarah Spitz's Literacy Center

A great site about literacy centers that I came across is simply called “Literacy Centers.” The site features different literacy centers in a classroom that help students enhance their language skills. I really like this webpage because it provides many different activities you can do with students regarding a literacy center in your classroom. The website also shows pictures of the activities it is describing. This is a good site regarding literacy center ideas because it has a large variety of activities such as spelling, a listening center, and buddy reading.

Another website, called “Teaching Heart’s Learning Center Page” is a good tool to use to get literacy center ideas. This website gives ideas that teachers can use with their students in literacy centers. The website explains how to do all of the activities as well. One neat feature of the website is that it gives books that teachers recommend to use. Each book has a link of where you can purchase it. The website also provides examples of the worksheets used in the literacy center for other teachers to use. I feel like this website is very useful because it provides teachers with books, activities, and worksheets to use with their students.

One last website that I think is really useful in helping teachers plan and implement literacy circles in their classroom is also called “Literacy Centers.” This website, like the others, shows pictures of the activities used during the different stations. The website also provides descriptions of how to do the different activities. I like this website also because I think the ideas it features are very good, such as Book Looks. This activity allows students to look at books they are familiar with as well as books they have not seen before.

I like all of these literacy center websites because they all give teachers good ideas and activities to use in their classrooms.

Literacy Centers - Danielle Rolley

I used Google to find some good literacy center ideas and found a couple of good resources. The first good resources site I found was Literacy Centers- Literacy Center Ideas and Management Tips. I liked this site because it provided resources and ideas on implementing and managing literacy centers or stations. This site also provides literacy center packets for teachers to print out. On this site I learned exactly what literacy centers are and their purpose which are: to engage students while their teachers work with small reading groups, and to reinforce literacy skills, (vocabulary, reading, phonics, word study and mechanics). Literacy management tips provided by this site are to keep them organized and make sure your students understand the process and procedures that are involved. Center charts are a good idea to keep your literacy centers moving smoothly. This site also provided ideas for other types of centers like vocabulary centers, language arts centers, word work centers, writing centers, poetry centers, computer centers, and listening centers. The only thing I did not like about this site is that it did not discuss ideas for making a literacy center or different types of literacy centers. it only discussed management of literacy centers and the main idea of what they are.

Another resource I found that I found helpful and interesting is a site called Teaching Heart's Learning Centers Page. I liked this site because it is personally made by a teacher. She provides examples of literacy centers that she does in her classroom as well as tips for creating your own. On this site there are pictures centers, links about centers, and printable centers to use in anyone's classroom. This site also provides examples of some books that can be used in a literacy center and an example of a literacy center worksheet. This site is very helpful and very interesting. Everything you want to know or are curious about pertaining to literacy centers and how other teachers run them are on this site. I highly recommend this site to anyone who is curious about literacy center and who want some help creating their own. There wasn't really anything about this site that I didn't like.

Meredith Monserez's Guided Reading Video

The YouTube clip that I found is titled, Guided Reading For Elementary Classrooms, and was created by Kelly Mikesell. Her video is directed towards teachers or future teachers that may be questioning the usage and overall importance of guided readings in the elementary classroom. She begins by sharing with her viewers how she organizes her guided reading resources. She shows how she has designated a small tub to each child in the classroom. On each tub the child's name and the days of the week the child does their guided reading. In each child's tub is an assortment of books for their reading level. This not only keeps the teacher organized, but it also provides the child with a nice routine that will help keep them organized as well. She also shares that she separates the children into three different reading levels. These levels are non-readers, pre-readers, and readers. These levels are quite different than the five levels we have been learning about in class.
Although the children are separated into different reading levels, she still follows the same plan of all of them. To begin, she has them read a review book. This gives them a nice "warm up" and helps to boost their confidence in reading. While the children are reading their "warm up" books, she as the teacher takes a running record of their reading. After they have finished their "warm up" books, she now introduces the new story. She introduces the new story with a discussion about the cover and a picture walk. The cover discussion gets their minds moving and thinking about what they are about to read. The picture walk is useful because this is the time that the teacher can point out any key words or any vocabulary that the students may need for reading the story and also prepares them for reading.
Opposed to what we have been learning in class, Kelly Mikesell strongly believes that children should read at their own pace, and should absolutely not read together. While the students are reading, the teacher is supposed to walk around and listen carefully to each of the students. The teacher is supposed to pay close attention to the strategies that the child is using and the strategies that still need to be discussed.
After the reading many different engaging activities can take place. Some examples are to practice phoneme blending and segmenting with words (like the activity we did in class with the letter cards), writing with shaving cream, beginning sounds review game, and creating books based on stories. She concludes that it is important to always end with a smile and excitement to hopefully make the children excited to come back to the table to read.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17mnwPrCTFQ&feature=related

C. Caron Guided Reading

I chose the YouTube video, Modeling Guided Reading FAQ, simply, because I had numerous questions myself. This video featured a first grade teacher, Candice Bookman, who responded to everyday questions regarding guided reading such as why it is important for teachers to do guided reading, how often and how long it should be done, what it incorporates, and how students are grouped in guided reading. I thought this video was informative, providing examples of what guided reading actually is and how it is carried out.

I liked watching the video and feel that I learned more through watching it than when I read the Saunders-Smith article merely because Bookman described similar notions as the article, yet, surpassed the examples and explanations because I could actually see guided reading occurring and children benefiting from each aspect of the instruction. I feel that Bookman provided more concrete answers that I could comprehend and was more meaningful to me when considering my own classroom than the article. She answered questions directed towards teachers such as how to group students, how to know what to do in guided reading, how a teacher can both manage behavior and guided reading in centers at the same time, and organizational advice.

The only problematic aspect I found in the video was a disagreement between the Saunders-Smith article and Candice Bookman’s standpoints regarding how often students and which students receive guided instruction. The Saunders-Smith article explains that all students are to receive guided instruction and Bookman describes the idea that struggling readers need more intensive and frequent guided reading instruction. I agree with the Saunders-Smith article with respect to the IDEA’s provisions regarding equity in classrooms. Guided reading was illustrated as a positive aspect for all children to receive, not only struggling students. Thus, for all students to reach higher levels in comprehension, all students must receive equal opportunities with an educator who uses guided reading.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txC-Qo_8GiU

Alex Lew

This clip is of an example of a guided reading lesson in a first grade classroom. For this particular lesson the children had read the book three times prior to the beginning of the lesson. In the beginning the teacher reviews with the children what they should be doing/not be doing when reading a book. For this particular lesson the teacher had five students in the small group. Each child had a buzzer, the teacher then read a question that dealt with the reading and the children buzzed in if they knew the answer. Once the first child buzzed in and said their answer the others had to say if they agreed or disagreed with it. For some of the questions they would find where in the book the answer was found, read parts of the book, or ask additional questions related to the main question. For the most part the children seemed engaged throughout the lesson, although the full lesson is not shown.
This video clip supplemented the video we watched in class because it showed a different aspect of guided reading. Although the children’s main task in this video was not reading, it showed their comprehension over their readings of the book. From the video from class I did not realize that there were other ways children could respond to the text besides writing. However, this lesson showed a different kind of oral response, like those listed in the article. It was helpful to see that throughout their response to the text the children relied on the text for answers (when prompted by the teacher). It was beneficial to see this video because it made me realize that guided reading does not have to follow a set formula, and there can be variation in the way children respond to the text.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HytE0pGoKw4

Michelle Ezrachie

This video clip was very enjoyable to watch. It mainly concentrated on scaffolding reading. I think he did a great job explaining the information. He first started with clearing up what model reading is and breaking down the method to teach guided reading. Not only was he able to relate it to teachers in the classroom, but also targeted parents at home. In addition he explained the purpose of shared reading.
The man in the video clip explained guided reading to be useful in groups of four to six. He later went on to include that while reading, as a teacher it is important to not only concentrate on the punctuation but also pay attention to who the main character is. While reading the story, students should answer questions that help the story come alive. He explains the importance of wanting the students to start to think before reading the story. Teachers also allow the students to read, while the teacher corrects the student when appropriate. As the video continued, they showed a demonstration of guided reading.
The man worked with a boy and guided him through the reading. Starting with the title, he was able to ask questions like what do you think this story is about? Who do you think the main character is? Do you think this will be a happy or sad ending? Will the bears find the honey? These questions helped assess the child’s understanding. In addition they helped the student understand the story better as opposed to if the boy were to read the story by himself. It helped to shape the setting, and promote interest. By posing these questions I feel the child was both encouraged and excited to read.
Overall, I felt this video clip primarily reiterated what was discussed in our readings. An example used was questioning to keep the student’s attention. On the other hand, the video clip was also atypical. It was not in a structured classroom, worked individually with a child, and contradicted the idea that the teacher should not be the reader. Unlike the video clip, the reading included note taking and numerous examples to receive responses from children during guided reading. The reading concentrated and recommended three dimensional responses. I thought this idea was interesting. I feel the idea of “book in a bag” will be a very fun activity for students to participate in as well as learn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU-ubH82VzE&feature=PlayList&p=0A4667DA473066CE&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=45