For today’s class, I read Joanne Carlisle’s article, “How Can I Help Children with Learning Disabilities.” As she illustrated, nearly one in twenty students are said to have some sort of learning disability in the United States. To be honest, I was surprised at this estimate considering that many of the classrooms I have visited or been a part of have had a much smaller ratio of students to LD students. Personally, I believe that students in America’s classrooms are misdiagnosed and over-diagnosed. It often seems like an easy way to remove responsibility on the part of the teacher to place an “LD” label on a problem student. I am in no way an expert on this matter, but even in TE courses, I have heard TE students suggest to first get a child on medication for a specific disability, most often ADHD, and then approach the problem.

However, as Carlisle suggests, the first step is to have the child properly evaluated. According to such evaluations, the most common LD among elementary students involves reading and spelling. In fact, nearly 75% of LDs involve these two aspects of literacy. Research suggests that the number of students with this specific disability is so prominent because children often have trouble develop their phonological processes. As a result, this LD has direct implications on a child’s spelling and reading comprehension. As with any disability, it may have profound effects on the child’s self esteem and confidence in school or social settings. As teachers, we can avoid such problems and foster literacy development by creating a classroom environment that is safe and comfortable where intellectual risks are encouraged and rewarded instead of right answers. Once the classroom community is established, the teacher may aid LD students with certain activities that help them develop their spelling and reading skills, such as storybook reading and discussion, word games, journal writing, and other activities. In addition, when participating in whole-class activities, it is essential to break down tasks into a sequence of short activities.

I certainly agree with much of what Carlisle suggests, but I do not think that all LD students, even if they have the same disabilities, should be approached the same way. It is up to the teacher to evaluate and monitor each student's progress academically and socially tailoring activities and instruction accordingly.

Today's Reading

I read chapter 2 for today's class. The chapter discusses the different parts of the reading and writing processes. What interested me most was the 5 stages in reading.

1. The first stage is pre-reading, where students preview the text, set goals for their reading, and make connections.
2. The second stage is reading, where the students do the actual reading where they use many skills like making predictions and take notes while reading.
   
3. The third stage is responding. In this stage students either write in a reading log or take place in a discussion.
4. The forth stage is exploring where students reread the text and continue to make more connections.
   
5. The final stage is applying where students do a project on the book, or connect with other books, and mainly reflect on the reading process.
   

I find this interesting because this is how most literacy circles are formed in the classrooms that I have been in, have been formed. I also find this interesting because this is how many reading strategies are structured, such PQ3(or4)R, where the students preview the text and make predictions and then read and then review.

How do today’s readings help you understand your own reading comprehension processes?

For class, I read the applegate article which focused on different types of 'problem' comprehenders. I'm not going to lie, i saw a little bit of myself in a few of these groupings....
I remember in high school i was very much a literalist(someone who believes that all answers are in the text) - i hated questions that didnt have direct answers in the books, because i coudlnt find them or they didnt make sense to me. I also sometimes am a quiz contestant (background experience is taken over text, as text is almost disregarded), but i typically try to relate it a bit more to the text than not. i used to be quite the politician (telling teachers what thye wanted to hear), but i feel like that is all a part of the 'game' of school. everyone does that at some point or another in their schooling, and often it is just to get teachers 'off their back'.
i feel like all students have qualities of these comprehenders in them, it is just a matter of the situation and the readings in question. some topics i am more comfortable with because they 'hook up' with me more, and i am more willing to talk about them. other topics i have no interest in and therefore dont comprehend quite as well.
i suppose it will help me to recognize when i am exhibiting these patterns of thinking and discussing to know how to stop it and re-formulate my actions and thoughts.

FYI

i just found out that we can post profile pics on this thingy...so i did.

In thinking about emergant literacy and "literacy" in technology, i feel as though, despite that they are similar, they are really different ideas.
With emergant literacy, i feel like there's a lot of ways for students to learn and sooooo much to help them with (activities, DI, etc). whereas with technology, a lot of knowing how to do it revolves around expiramenting with new technologies. for example, i started blogging when i was in middle school, so i have had a lot of experience with it, whereas, i hadnt used a bookmarking site (like delicious) until last year, and after playing around with it, i got the hang of it. i was instructed in how to use it (through the te technology class), but i didnt 'get' it until i played around with it fora while. even in that class, we talked a lot about how expiramentation is the best way to 'teach' with new techs.
so i feel like although both literacy and tech literacy take time to adjust and learn with, the ways in which they are learned are strikingly different (at least in my mind), but i could be wrong....

Technology - Eww

To be honest, I seriously HATE technology. It may have short-term benefits and may make life a little easier for some, but I really wish we could all live like our indigenous ancestors. Life back then was so much simpler; eat, sleep, and partake in spiritual rituals. Sure, we would have to hunt, fish, or farm for food, but we would all appreciate it a lot more, and we would certainly be a lot healthier. We would be living off the land instead of trying to conquer it by spilling our technology’s pollutants into the ground, water, and air. There may even be an occasional war, but it would be over something meaningful, like food, instead of something that civilization gave meaning to in order to keep our technologies running (money/oil). Besides, if there ever was a quarrel, it could be easily settled with a gathering around the peace pipe. I could go on and on about how badly I wish I were hanging out in the forest right now getting ready to go on a week long buffalo raid with my good friends, carrying a hatchet-like weapon and wearing minimal clothing made out of bear skin, but I know that the technology we’re discussing here is supposed to be about the modern classroom.

So, since we’re stuck in this time period, I took the quiz and only answered about half of the questions correctly. I thought “wiki” was an abbreviated term for “Wikipedia,” “smart mobs” were a group of really tough Russians that like to read and solve crossword puzzles, and “modding”…well, I don’t even know how to translate the definition. I have played video games, but never online, nor do I know how, this is officially my first blog, and I used to instant message when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school. I definitely think that some technology can be beneficial for the classroom. But more often than not, it seems like there is as much time spent trying to figure out how to use the technology than there is actually using it. In my field placement, if our teacher can’t fix a problem on the computer, she asks one of her 2^nd grade students. Learning technology seems to be a lot like learning a second language: the older you get, the harder it is to catch up to those that are fluent. In this sense, it seems like I am still in the “emergent” stage of technological fluency. Although I grew up in - “Generation-D,” my parents bought an old black and white screen computer from my uncle when I was in 7^th grade, and I didn’t own a cell phone until I was a freshman in college. On the other hand, today’s students are using the same technology I am trying to learn how to use as soon as they enter their first classroom, and there are rules preventing them from carrying their cell phones in school. There is no doubt that they are “digital natives.” As a result, as they are emerging in their literacy skills, they may be simultaneously emerging in their technological skills. In order to get through today’s world successfully, it seems like we will need to teach students both types of skills.

Digital Native Quiz

Digital Native Quiz

So I took this quiz and there were 2 words I was unfamiliar with, modding, and smart mobs. I know I am unfamiliar with "modding" because in the definition it says it was related to gaming, and I don't do gaming so there is no way I would have exposure to this word. "Smart mobs" I had just never heard used before. So I was familiar with 4 out of 6 words. I'm not sure if that makes me a native, but I'm certainly not new or emerging. To connect this with our reading I would have to say that it is understandable that I am unfamiliar with some of the terms because I am not exposed to them. Just as children are not going to be familiar with things if they are not exposed to them in their environment.

Response to 1/30...i think

So I am pretty sure I am writing this response about our posts last week about the choral reading activities? I'm feeling a little confused with the blogging thing.

So I do think that we all see the benefit in choral reading. We did all take something different away from it too. I think what is interesting is that we all saw downsides to choral reading, and for the most part we saw the same things here. We saw that it could be challenging to get students to discuss what we want to, etc...

Response to 1/30

As we talked about in class and these prompts, class discussion is not always effective. This is most often seen when students, in groups or individually, try to find the “right answer” that will please the teacher. In fact, for some classes, it seems that most of the discussion time is used in order to choose what is going to be discussed. When called upon, that person or group can only contribute that which was chosen and may know very little about the topic as a whole. Although the methods that we have been practicing in class have helped overcome some of those problems, it only reinforces the notion that motivation must be intrinsic. If students are “discussing” only to get an A for the day, discussion will likely be shallow, uninteresting, and ineffective. However, if students are motivated intrinsically, they will be naturally interested and more engaged leading to a valuable discussion.

So far, from experiences in the classroom and work, it seems that student engagement has very little to do with the subject being taught. For instance, I teach sex education for the county, and hormone-pumping middle school students could sometimes care less about what I have to say. In my field placement, when 1st and 2nd graders are asked to discuss a topic, and it often leads to a bit of chaos at some tables. Even in a classroom were there is a strong community present, and motivation seems to be intrinsic, it seems that teachers cannot always use discussion as a truly effective activity. Maybe, I’m just being pessimistic, or rambling, but it seems that this is going to be a struggle that we are going to deal with for the rest of our teaching careers.

comments on your blogs

I think the problem is fixed with my posts not appearing. I've always considered myself pretty technologically savey, but apparently blogging is not part of that ability. I have figured it out, though and soon I hope to move out of the emergent stage of blogging and at least into the beginning stage. :-)

There appears to be a huge difference between what is covered in the special ed version of 301 and the regular ed version of 301. I am only familiar with the regular ed version, so therefore what is taught is really an extension of that class. Now that this difference has been brought to my attention I will be sure to investigate what was covered in that version. Based on the assessments given at the beginning of the year, it would appear that most people are not familiar with everything that is being covered though. For those of you who are familiar with this information, I would be interested in hearing what you propose to help you learn more, think deeper, and extend yourself. What kind of differentiation would you do if you were the instructor?

I'm glad you enjoyed the articles on discussion. I agree that some students do not benefite from discussion, and that is why it is important to vary what is being learned. I am interested though to learn about your experiences with discussion in your classrooms. How are teachers utilizing them? How are teachers not utilizing them when they could?

Try to use your responses to delve deeper into your thoughts. Don't just say "I agree..." Challenge each others thinking. Talk more about what connections you see across the posts or what you see as not being consistent across the posts.