Mind the Gap: Session 2

1.  Page 12, "Testing, I realized with dismay, had become a central preoccupation in the schools and was not just a measure but an end in itself.  I came to believe that accountability, as written into federal law, was not raising standards but dumbing down the schools as states and districts strived to meet unrealistic targets."
     Testing has become such a huge part in my classroom.  Teaching at a Title I school, I feel like I am teaching always to the test.  My success as a teacher is measured by how well my students perform on our district's Common Assessment tests.  If my students do not perform well, I am criticized and reprimanded for not having higher test scores.  I have to agree with Ravitch, testing is an end in itself.  However, the results of the testing drives my teaching. My planning is based upon my student's performance on the Pre-tests.  If my students show strength in a standard then I only have to review that standard before my actual test.  If my students do not perform well in a specific standard, I concentrate my next couple weeks of my teaching cycle focused on having my students master that standard.  Teaching to the TEST!  Additionally, I believe testing is necessary to show what knowledge and content student's have retained.  Students will retain more knowledge when they are interested in the content.    

Page 13, "It is time, I think, for those who want to improve our schools to focus on the essentials of education.  We must make sure that our schools have a strong, coherent, explicit curriculum that is grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, with plenty of opportunity for children to engage in activities and projects that make learning lively."
     What are the essentials of Education?  Schools need to have programs that teach to the whole child.  Students should be provided with knowledge that makes them well-rounded and well-educated.  It is very difficult to teach when your curriculum is lacking in certain areas and you need to supplement and find other sources that support your standards. Students need to gain knowledge that they will need to understand the world that they live in and to be successful in their life.  Teachers need to provide instruction that is engaging to all students. Students will enjoy learning, if the teacher makes it fun and interesting.  If a student is not interested in the content, then they will not show motivation to learn.  As a teacher, you need to find out the interests of your students.  Learning should be FUN!

2.  How would you characterize a well-educated person?
        Ravitch explains, "A well educated person has a well-furnished mind, shaped by reading and thinking about history , science, literature, the arts, and politics,  The well-educated person has learned how to explain ideas and listen respectfully to others."
     A well educated person is dedicated to spending time to making themselves better and learning their knowledge from others.  They are always striving to keep learning to further their knowledge in their area of interest.  They have an open-mind to learn new things and open to new ideas.  An individual that is well educated thinks outside the box and is not stuck in their ways.  They are life-long learners!  We learn from our experience and our education.  With education, we acquire WISDOM!

3.  On page 25, "What was truly at risk, it said, was the promise that 'all, regardless of race or class or economic status, are entitled to a fair chance and to the tools of developing their individual powers of mind and spirit to the utmost.'  As a teacher, I believe that all students should be entitled to an equal education no matter what race or economic status they are.

4.  I will be teaching 2nd grade next year and the one gap from my subject area is in ELA and the standard that contains Syllabication.   The standard states:  Decoding and Word Recognition:  1.2 Apply Knowledge of basic Syllabication rules when reading (e.g., vowel-consonant-vowel, vowel-consonant/consonant-vowel).  I have such a hard time knowing all these rules of Syllabication.  I wish there was some easier way to learn and teach this standard to my students.

Here are some useful resources that I might be able to use:

• One website that will be beneficial is www.edhelper.com.  This website provides worksheets and activities that will support my teaching how to teach syllabication to my 2nd graders.  
• Another great website is www.edutopia.org. 
• A great book to help me with teaching Syllabication is, "Literacy for the 21st Century:  A Balanced Approach, by Gail E. Tompkins.  This books provides strategies to use in the classroom to develop successful readers and writers.  It helps to integrate the best of what we know about teaching reading and writing.  
• Another great book is, "When Readers Struggle:  Teaching That Works,"  by Gay Su Pinnell.  This book provides guidance of how to teach reading and writing to struggling readers.  
• A great research article based on teaching syllabication is, "Syllabication and the Teaching of Reading," by Marlow Ediger in the source, "Reading Improvement, v30 n3 pgs. 186-188, Fall 1993.  In this article, he elaborates on the use of syllabication in teaching students to recognize unknown words.  He also discusses specific methodologies in teaching syllabication.

5.  My topic/question is "What are the effects of parent involvement and intervention in a student's ability to learn how to read?"  Here are some articles that I might find useful in furthering my research on this inquiry:

• The first article is titled, "Early Literacy Interventions for English Language Learners:  Support for an RTI Model, by Healy, Krista; Vanderwood, Mike; Edelston, Danielle, from the journal California School Psychologist, v10 pg.55-63, 2005            

      In this research article, the research study used first graders that were screened with measures of phonological awareness and nonsense word fluency to determine those in need of reading intervention.  The 15 lowest performing English Language Learners (ELL) were also selected to participate.  Out of 15 students, 12 of the students were exited from the intervention program.  It was very interesting to read this article and to see their results.  My district also uses the RTI model to intervention to help those students who are struggling with reading.  I believe this type of intervention model works at underperforming schools.  It does not allow students to fall through the cracks and it provides intervention early on.  

• The second article is titled, "A Sociocultural Perspective:  Language Arts Framework, Vocabulary Activities and English Language Learners in a 2nd grade Mixed Classroom, by Ajayi, Lasisi J., from the Journal of Instructional Psychology v32 n3 pg. 180-195 2005, 16pp. 

     In this research article, the study examined the language arts framework and how vocabulary acquisition seems to be more difficult for ELL (English Language Learner) to acquire but it's a huge component of academic language.

Blogs that I commented on:
Sasha Staking:  http://yvhsteachermat.blogspot.com
Debamitra Guha: http://rdguha.blogspot.com
Greg Brown-Davis:  http://gregbrown-davis.blogspot.com