Writing, blogs, and my book (my titles are uncreative, I know)

Until we studied it in class I had no idea that the scribbles I used to see the kids do when I worked at a daycare were actually forms of writing. I would see the kids draw and scribble which I know know are preliterate forms of writing. At the daycare I also saw the kids draw letter like shapes and hold the pencil with a death grip. I know know this is the early emergent writing. Just this week while observing my first grade class I saw multiple uses of inventive spelling, which is the transitional stage of writing. There was one student however who was so advanced in his writing that I would dare to classify him as fluent. Most first graders would struggle to write the words cafeteria, complicated, and nemesis however this student did so with no assistance. He also completed and complex and interesting story about a little boy who is scared of the lunch lady. Needless to say I was more than a little impressed.

I was very skeptical when I first learned that I needed to make a blog. Very may even be an understatement. Much to my surprise, however, I have found this blog to be incredibly helpful. It offers me a different way to review what I have learned, as well as something I can easily reflect back on. Of course I still will not put up a picture or any personal information due to my extreme fear of internet stalkers.

This blog has actually helped to change my opinions on writing. Until this class I never thought of using a blog as writing. I also did not think that drawings and scribbles were forms of writing. But low and behold I was wrong; this is a rarity of course.

Last Monday we started discussing our book project. After I got over the initial shock that we were not writing a childrens book, as I had convinced myself we were, I began to think of a topic. I am incredibly pleased with my chosen topic actually. I am going to write about my decision to go to either Meredith or Appalachin State. This choice about my education career was not only difficult, but the first major choice that I had to make on my own. I am known for taking twenty minutes to choose between grits or oatmeal and then changing my mind atleast once, so this decision was not an easy one. In my story I will discuss the things that influenced my discision as well as the people who attempted to help me. It will be a story of competing disireses, which football team my best friend would play on, my mothers bribes of groceries, and my then eight year old sister who somehow was in control of my life. I am pretty sure this book I plan to bind with yarn and cardboard will soon be on the New York Times best seller list. Or perhaps the Dayquil I took today is getting to me.

School and Social Skills

Until today I had never given thought to how a disability or a delay in reading or writing could affect ones social skills. It did not take me very long to realize that not being able to read or write at or above the level of your peers could have a hugely negative affect on your social skills.

Reading is the best way to increase vocabulary. Having a sufficient vocabulary to communicate what you want to say as well as to comprehend what is being said to you is incredibility important in social social situation. Writing is actually putting into words what you want to say, which is also very important in communication. Both reading and writing help students to learn how sentences should be structured.

As a teacher, if I were to encounter a student who was having difficulty with socialization due to delays in their reading or writing there are a few things that I would do. I would instigate more group work and place that student with children who were very effective and talkative communicators. I would also encourage their parents to read aloud to them at home, and do what I can to read aloud to the student myself or have an assistant do it when it was appropriate with the lesson. At that point I would also being writing letters to the student and ask that they write them to me in return. If the student is not comfortable with doing this I would provide them with a journal that they could write in and show me only if they wanted to.

I am sure that as I continue my education I will learn other ways to help students improve their socialization skills, and I will be sure to ask the teachers that I come in contact with if they have ever seen this and how they helped their students overcome it.

The Joys of Language

After we discussed the different ways to teach children Language I tried to remember how I learned what all those letters on the pages of books meant. Because my kindergarten did not force children to learn how to read like every other kindergarten in Pittsburgh did I was very behind when I got to first grade. I spent all of my Language Arts and Reading time with a small group in reading help room. My education in there was strictly phonics. I was taught using sound isolation activities, sound blending activities, and of course segmentation activities. My learning how to read with these methods was unable to my 6 year old self. Unfortunately the two phonics activities that I think would have been the most helpful to me were the two that I was never taught with. I'm pretty sure that I can out of my mothers womb singing Madonna and Tina Turner songs, and I was notorious for singing "Old MacDonald" during our Roman Catholic church services so I'm pretty sure I would have thrived learning sound matching from classic lines such as "Papa don't preach, I'm in trouble deep, Papa don't preach, I've been losing sleep," and if only someone had capitalized on my love of old MacDonald and my accidental additions and substitutions I think my language learning experience would have been much more enjoyable.

Although my phonics experience was not my fondest memory I believe it is undoubtedly affective and since to this day I love to read I feel that it does not turn children off from learning. Some kids in my class became fluent readers from the activities we did in no time flat. This only reaffirms what I already knew; children learn in different ways.

I am not sure how my phonics based learning has affected me as a student how I do know how it will affect me as a teacher; I plan to teacher with phonics, teaching the ever present consonants and vowels by teaching onsets and rimes. And although as a teacher I will refrain from teaching my children using the hits from the 80's I will definitely capitalize on sound-matching activities; as well sound isolation, sound blending, sound addition/ substitution, and segmentation activies. I think that teaching with all of these different activities will help all of my future (and current imaginary) students learn language in the way that is the most helpful to them.