Literature Circle Review

As a fourth grade literacy teacher, literature circles are a key element of my student’s daily reading routine. To this point, my biggest challenge in implementing literature circles effectively is the ongoing debate among teachers regarding the amount of rigor involved in the activities that the students are completing.

However, I feel that the examples that were provided were not only concise and clear, but presented a solid challenge for readers of all levels. For instance, the sample questions provided in the discussion coordinator portion were great examples of the kind of higher level questioning that is expected in today’s classroom.

Brandon Cavanaugh, Word Researcher!

I also had my students try the Vocabulary Elaborator as one of their daily choice activities for reading, and it was hugely successful. My students are adamant technology users, and this role will promote vocabulary growth, which has consistently been the weakest component of my student’s reading repertoire. 

A Day at the Library





After bribing my wife and children with Wendy’s Frostees to ensure that I would not be field tripping alone, I trekked downtown to the Main Street library on Laura Street. I had been there once on a field trip with my fourth grade class two years ago, but this was my first opportunity to really explore the premises.

The place is nothing short of a marvel, and it was readily apparent that it was not possible to utilize all of the resources that they offered. Below is a screen shot of the available services:

In terms of what I did discover, the downtown branch has created a thorough literacy environment. We began our trip on the bottom floor and the talking books/special needs library.

According to the web site, talking books materials are mailed to readers postage free and return postage is free and the special equipment needed for this service is lent to customers at no charge. Another service that I thought was interesting was their monthly movie which is in closed caption for the deaf and hearing impaired, on the first Thursday of each month.

I then went to the audio book section, and it was easily the largest collection that I had ever seen. I picked up a Sarah Vowell collection for myself and a couple of titles for my E.S.E. students. I also spent a great deal of time exploring the DVD and CD sections, before my family finally forcibly ended my scouring and we headed for the children’s section.

The children’s section was the consensus highlight of this trip. My wife and I are both elementary school literacy teachers, and so exploring such a large collection of books and multimedia titles was a real treat.

My wife Becky pointed out that the environment at this branch was extremely inviting and conducive to a “fun reading environment” which can be challenging to create, but was accomplished with the mushroom chairs and dragon couch.  

Text to Speech

As a teacher of reading and writing, the benefit an electronic device that can read textual materials aloud to a student is tremendous. Reading aloud is an essential element of emergent reading, and text to speech technology is a tremendous benefit to the students. ReadPlease has provided a fun motivational tool for my students that use word processors to complete their written work, and has reinforced reading as a necessity.

In the past two years, I have noticed that the nine and ten year olds that I am teaching are becoming more reliant on Kindles and word processors. As each year passes, these students are becoming more and more disgruntled in the lack of technological alternatives in the classroom. Additionally, it is around fourth grade that students begin to become jaded about reading, and it is difficult to motivate these students to read traditional texts. Text to speech options, in my opinion, are a truly effective way to encourage and foster a love of reading. As noted in an article that evaluated the struggles of older students, “texts become more difficult and more obscure in the high school years, perhaps oral reading would give a voice to texts that silent reading alone would render inaudible. To extend natural reading practices, our students will be helped by hearing works read aloud.” (Zirinsky, 2001)

The underlying message is that teachers need to better prepare their students to be readers that are aware that reading does not have to amount to drudgery, and text to speech technology can assist in accomplishing this goal.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Zirinsky, D., & Rau, S.A. (2001). A classroom of teenaged readers: Nurturing reading processes in senior high English. New York: Longman.

The Audio Book Experience

                                                The most recent audio book that I selected is “Attack of the Vampire Weenies” by David Lubar. This book is a collection of Twilight Zone-esque stories for children, in which there is rarely a happy ending.  I selected this title because the Weenie series has been a favorite of my fourth graders for many years.  I rarely use audio books, but overall I found the experience to be an acceptable alternative.

                In terms of a tool that I will use, I think that I will seek out more titles for my students to use in class as a read along aid for students that are emergent or struggling readers. As for me, I still prefer the feeling of physically holding a book or a Kindle while I am reading.

DailyDrip Response

This week I began using dripread.com, and I downloaded a short story by Kurt Vonnegut called "2BR02B". The story is a satirical, science fiction narrative that is set in the "not so distant future", in which an expectant father of triplets has to find a way to abide by the population control laws that state that in order for a new life to be allowed to be born, someone has to die to "make room". The story concludes with the father killing two people and then himself to allow his children to live. I enjoyed the experience of receiving daily reading snippets. I scheduled them to be delivered at 8:40 am, which is the time that my 4th grade students and I are doing our daily independent reading. I foresee dailydrip becoming a regular part of my daily ritual.

Low Tech Options: A Field Trip to School Aids

 

Today, my wife Becky, who is a second grade teacher, went with me to School Aids, which is an educational supply store located on St. Johns Bluff in Jacksonville. Typically, we shop here for specific classroom items such as bulletin board border, which is not common at most local retailers. 

On this particular trip, we went to locate some low-tech aids. The first item that we located was a combination pencil grip and pencil sharpener. Typically, students that require pencil grips are also the same students that are the most off-task and use getting out of their seats to sharpen pencils to avoid their assignments. This item costs $1.99 each, which is a relatively inexpensive price for the dual purpose tool, and is only twenty cents more than a standard pencil grip.

                        

My wife journeys with me to School Aids

Another item that we found was a dry erase answer paddle. My wife and I agreed that this tool would be a great way to encourage student involvement and participation in any classroom assignment. However, at $15.99 for a set of two makes this more of a novelty, and a practical solution would be to buy a large piece of dry erase board and cut sections for the students. 

The Toobaloo

    The final item that we found was a "Toobaloo", which is a tool that students use as a telephonic device that they speak into while reading, and it allows them to hear their own speaking voice. At the School Aids store, this item sells for $4.99. Like the paddles, it is cheaper to go to a local Home Depot and purchase a ten foot pvc pole for three dollars, and pvc elbows for forty eight cents.

Spell Check Assignment

As a fourth grade literacy teacher in Duval County, spelling has become a strongly debated topic. Until last year, the official attitude towards spelling, as stated at various teacher literacy trainings, is that in terms of writing, the student’s ideas and thoughts should hold precedence over the student’s spelling and grammatical aptitude. However, the state of Florida has changed their stance entirely, and now 25% of the student’s grade on the FCAT writing test is based on spelling and grammar.

This paradigm shift has created an anti-spell check movement among my colleagues. I have heard it stated repeatedly that spell check will devalue the need for correct spelling. Furthermore, these teachers feel that  the current group of fourth grade students are indifferent towards the “art of spelling”. I largely disagree with their suppositions regarding spell check. However, as a teacher of language, I encourage my students to use spell check with caution. As stated by Susan Castillo “A spell-check feature can provide accurate options for correct spellings only if the initial attempt is close enough to be recognized as the intended word. It then becomes the student's responsibility to choose the correct option from a list. A student without spelling skills would be unable to choose the correct option consistently.” (Castillo, 2011)

Castillo, Susan. "Spell-check is valid tool for students to use in writing test." The Register-Guard,(Eugene, OR)09 January 2011: Print.