Words!

This week's Yopp&Yopp article encouraged us to explore our own vocabulary. I remember when I was in, like, 3rd grade always wondering WHY things were called what they were. Who decided that a tree was a tree and not a bench? I don't know if that makes sense to any of you, but that's how my mind always worked.

In the article I really like how they mention making sure a student gets exposed to the vocabulary in multiple ways. Repetition for me is a key part of learning something. I really liked picking the ten most important words because I feel like that will give the teacher more clues as to how they need to help their students. If your students are picking out key words, good. If they aren't, you know to focus more on the meaning of the vocabulary in the meaning.

Questions:

What are some really good ways to build a students vocabulary without them KNOWING you're doing vocabulary skills in your classroom?

Did anyone ever even LIKE copying definitions? Why did anyone ever think that was a good idea...

Hooked on Phonics!

Do ya'll remember those commercials from our childhood? I was reading this week and I think that EVERYONE should be hooked on phonics. (Not the program, just the concept.) Cunningham and Allington say that for every one word you can decipher, you can decode up to seven more you've never seen. Clearly, phonics is quite important. I think that the article by Kathleen Clark showed really good examples of different ways to help your students with their phonics. My favorite was getting all of the students involved in helping the struggling reader. I think that making things more student oriented and teacher guided helps build all of the kids' confidence in their reading!

Maybe if someone would have helped Gaston with his phonics he would have understood why Belle liked to read so much...

Do you still sound out words when you see one that you don't understand?

Fluency

"Hurry up!" "Read faster!" These are phrases that both articles and Cunningham and Allington pointed out in the readings for this week. I realized that I am guilty of thinking these same things sometimes though. The more I began to understand fluency though I changed my mind. I think the first paragraph in Chapter 4 of Cunningham and Allington really highlighted what it's like to not be fluent in reading. I struggled with that paragraph. I never really thought about fluency having to be learned, either. If someone never learned to be fluent, how could they possibly read faster and comprehend what's going on in the text. The Rasinski article gave good suggestions about how to build fluency. I think that as a teacher it is important to never make a child feel stupid or inadequate which I realize those statements do. I honestly hope that my students can become fluent readers through my classroom and they can gain access to the wonderful world that is full literacy.

What are other ways that we can build fluency?

Is there a way to make it easier for difficult texts to be comprehended?

Kids in Daycare Need Teachers, too.

In the IRA/NAEYC article, the thing that resonated with me is that for some areas, only a high school diploma is needed to be in the childcare profession. That means someone that barely managed to pass algebra may be responsible for helping my (future) child acquire their beginning building blocks of public education. I one hundred percent completely agree that this is inadequate. Children begin to develop literacy so early. It is crucial that the adults in their school situations (even daycare) are able to teach them language and reading in it's most basic forms. If a childcare professional is using slang and not annunciating correctly, for instance, then the child will pick up on these habits. We should want children to get the richest, most stimulating environment everywhere they go, and this high school diploma requirement is not cutting it for me.

Questions to think about:

Maybe a high school diploma used to be good enough, but do you think that in recent years a diploma is becoming less and less significant?

Do you think a daycare provider should have a college background?