EDU 512 Reading Notes

Name: Marissa Prins

Book Title: Language Arts: Patterns of Practice by Gail E. Tompkins
Chapter Number and Title: Chapter 4- “Oral Language: Listening and Talking”
Chapter 5- “Written Language: Reading and Writing”
Part 1: In chapter four, the main concepts were ideas listening and speaking. In the chapter, I
was able to learn that there are four types of listening: discriminative listening, aesthetic
listening, efferent listening, and critical listening. Another main concept was interactive read-
alouds. In interactive read-alouds, a teacher first activates students’ prior knowledge. The teacher
makes sure students have the basic knowledge they need to understand the book. The teacher
reads the book aloud which models oral fluency, and then she models good listening skills as she
listens to the students as she asks them questions, and as she sets clear expectations on how the
students should be listening. Listening is important so students can be able to critically think
about what they are hearing and be able to decipher what is true or false. One last concept in this
chapter was learning how to teach students how to talk with others around them. The chapter set
out different strategies on how to get students to talk in the classroom. Speaking is important as it
allows students to ask appropriate questions.
Part 2: This chapter talked about minilessons and how they are useful to teach oral language.
This was also discussed in our class time. We were able to create three different minilessons
throughout this course. One of our minilessons was on grammar, another on writing, and one on
listening and talking. This is a strategy that I would like to implement in my classroom as well.
The textbook states that minilessons are great for introducing, practicing and reviewing different
concepts about listening and speaking. These are some of the most important things that students
can learn. If students do not know how to listen or talk, they will struggle in our society. This is
why I find such great importance on using minilessons to teach listening and talking in my future
classroom.
Another thing that chapter discussed was talking in small groups. After reading about this
strategy, I learned that there are many benefits to allowing students to talk in small groups. This
is definitely a strategy that I will utilize in my future classroom. I like how small groups are not
as intimidating as a large group discussion. Some students may have difficulty when having class
discussion, but flourish when they are in small groups. I also like how small groups allow
students to bounce ideas off of each other and assist their group members. Instead of having
students shout out their ideas to an entire classroom full of people, students are able to share their
ideas with a small group first which is less intimidating. This strategy was used in our course.
When we were able to meet in person, we were able to learn in small groups. This allowed us the
freedom to share personal experiences and our learning in greater depth as there was more time
for everyone to share. This strategy is useful in teaching students how to listen to others in their
group and how to talk with the other members in their group.
Part 3: Social Studies strategy 38 (pg. 183), oral histories, is a great activity to allow students to
listen and speak. The teacher will find people to come to the classroom or to skype who have
lived a certain history. Students may even have friends or family members who can provide oral
history lessons. The person can go over what happened during that time period and how it
affected them. The students will learn how to listen to others as they learn history. They will also
learn how to ask questions and talk to others not typically in their classroom.
Social Studies strategy 1 (pg. 3), community building, is a good activity to get students
listening and speaking with each other. This can be done at the beginning of the school year to
allow students to get to know each other. Students are able to introduce themselves and share
interesting facts about themselves. You can even do things like Bingo where students have to go
around the classroom and find students that have a specific character trait or interest. This makes
students communicate and helps the classroom setting become more comfortable and safer for
the students.
Language Arts strategy 32 (pg. 96), questioning the author, allows students to look at a
text and question the text or author. For instance, students may be asked to figure out what the
author was trying to mean when he wrote what he did. Students may be questioning what the
author is talking about or why he wrote it in such a way. This process is very helpful to students
as they listen and talk. Students can share their ideas with the class, and other students can listen
and provide feedback or the answer. This also helps students as they begin to comprehend text.
This activity not only allows students to talk to their peers, but they can also share their ideas
with the teacher showing them how to communicate with different people.
Language Arts strategy 16 (pg. 45), grand conversations, is an activity that encourages
discussion about a story. Students are asked to speak in discussion groups about the large ideas
and their feelings about a story. Rather than raising their hands and doing a formal discussion,
this activity allows students to speak when the room is silent, or when someone else finishes
talking. The teacher can stir up conversation if the room falls silent, but for the most part the
students do the speaking. This is a great activity to help teach students talking strategies. They
will learn not to speak over other students and how to share their opinions in an appropriate way.
Part 4: TPE 1.3Connect subject matter to real-life contexts and provide active learning
experiences to engage student interest, support student motivation, and allow students to extend
their learning.
This TPE showed me the importance of connecting the information that students are
learning to real-life contexts that the students already know. It is important that the students are
connecting new knowledge to things they already know so that they can store this information in
their long-term memory. This was evident in the chapter as the book talked about interactive
read-alouds. The first step in IRAs is to check on the students’ prior knowledge. If they do not
know about the animal that the story is about, the book probably will not make sense. IRAs also
promote active learning environments as the teacher is always asking questions and having
students predict what is going to come. This keeps students actively engaged and thinking at all
times.
TPE 2.2Create learning environments (i.e., traditional, blended, and online) that promote
productive student learning, encourage positive interactions among students, reflect diversity and
multiple perspectives, and are culturally responsive.
This TPE can be connected to this chapter as it spoke on listening and talking. The
chapter also gave tips on how to use small groups to engage students in listening and talking with
others. Small groups can be used to promote a positive learning environment as students can use
their peers’ names when communicating with them, can share their opinions and help the other
people in tier group if they are struggling to understand something. Groups can also be changed
as often as possible to reflect diversity in the classroom. Small groups can also allow students to
share their opinions so that multiple perspectives can be evident in classroom discussion.
Part 1: Chapter five talked about reading and writing. It talked about the reading process and the
five stages that students should take to learn best from a text. First, they should pre-read and
activate their background knowledge on what they are going to be reading. Then they should
read the text and respond to it by using a reading log or talking about the book with another
person. Then they should explore the text in a deeper way focusing on learning the vocabulary
and thinking about the text as a whole on a deeper level. Lastly the students should apply their
knowledge of the reading as they do a project. Then the chapter talked about the types of reading
that students can engage in. They can do shared reading which is when the students follow along
as the teacher reads. They can do guided reading where the teacher provides directions and
supports for the students, but the students read independently. They can do independent reading
on their own, buddy reading where two students read together, or reading aloud to students
where the teacher does an interactive read-aloud with the students and engages them by asking
meaningful questions and having them listen for key words or information. Then the chapter
moved to the writing process. Students first do prewriting where they come up with ideas for
what they want to write and organize their ideas. Then the students draft out their writing and
create a rough draft. They then revise their work and make edits in groups. They then edit their
own work based on the revisions another student made to their work, and lastly, they will publish
their work and make a final copy that is mistake free.
Part 2: One concept that I enjoyed learning about was editing in the writing process. I never
realized how important it was for students to get distance from their work for a few days before
editing and making changes. As a student, I was never taught to take a step back from my work
for a few days to assist me in finding more mistakes. This is a process that I hope to integrate
into my future classroom. I want my students to not feel rushed in the writing process and to
focus on the steps that they need to make to create beautiful work. By allowing my students the
ability to step back from their work for a few days, I am allowing them to become reinterested in
their work and
Another concept that was interesting to me and I would like to incorporate into my future
classroom is conferencing with teachers. This strategy was discussed in the chapter as it gave
strategies for revising. The students are put into revising groups, and the teacher participates. The
teacher can meet with students individually to talk about their rough draft. This allows the
students to meet and conference with their teacher in a non-intimidating way. The teacher can
offer compliments and boost student confidence. The teacher can also help the student devise a
plan on how to revise, edit and finish their paper. The teacher can take notes and summarize the
student’s plan and offer helpful strategies to the student if they are struggling in some areas. I
think this is useful as it allows the teacher to catch up with students in a one-on-one way. The
students don’t have to feel pressured or nervous, and the teacher can see where each student is in
the writing process. This also helps the teacher assess students’ writing.
Part 3: Social Studies strategy 23 (pg. 112), graphic novels, is a good strategy to assist students
in the writing process. Students can either work alone or with a partner. They slowly go through
the writing process of brainstorming, writing and revising to create a perfected graphic novel.
The graphic novel can include pictures and other things found on the internet, and the novel
should be on the topic being learned about in class. This will be useful before students do large
essays as they are slowly going through the writing process in a less stressful way.
Social Studies strategy 37 (pg. 179), newspaper making, is a great way to help students
through the reading and writing process. Students can be in small groups or with partners and
will be asked to write an entire newspaper after they are taught about the format and things
written in the newspaper. The students will work together to create a newspaper that
demonstrates high quality writing skills. They will then edit and revise their newspapers and then
can read other groups magazines.
Language Arts strategy 19 (pg. 53), interactive read-alouds, are when a teacher chooses a
story to read to the students and asks questions along the way. The teacher starts by activating
prior knowledge and making sure the students know about the major themes or characters talked
about in the book. The teacher then reads the book aloud to the students making sure they are
listening well. As the teacher reads, he asks questions that make sure the students are listening
and comprehending the story. It also allows students to stay engaged as they are asked to make
predictions about what is going to happen next in the story. This helps students through the
reading process as they see how to read fluently and what they should be thinking about when
reading.
Another language arts strategy is number 38 (pg. 116), revising groups, this helps
students through the writing process. They are assisted by one of their peers or the teacher as
they revise their essays. Each student gets another student’s work and is asked to give them
feedback. The students are to complement each other on what they did right and give suggestions
for how the work can be revised. This allows students to dissect another person’s writing and
figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Part 4: TPE 2.5Maintain high expectations for learning with appropriate support for the full
range of students in the classroom
This TPE was discussed throughout the chapter as it gave different strategies for helping
students with all different learning abilities as they read and write. For instance, as talked about
previously, the book gave the idea of having teachers be in the revision process. This allows for
the teacher to sit individually with students who may be having a harder time writing. The book
also talked about how the teacher should set clear standards of what she expects to see. The
teacher always wants to see the student’s best work, and with the teacher in the revision process,
students must show their best work.
TPE 2.6Establish and maintain clear expectations for positive classroom behavior and
for student-to-student and student-to-teacher interactions by communicating classroom routines,
procedures, and norms to students and families.
I was able to see this TPE in use as the book talked about student-to-student and student-
to-teacher interactions. There are so many different types of reading. For instance, students can
read by themselves, with the teacher, or with a partner. The teacher sets out clear expectations
and then watches as the kids interact with other peers. The teacher can also interact with the
students during peer revisions. The teacher may be a student’s partner during this activity, and
the students should know how to communicate with their teacher and interact with others.