THE LANGUAGE ARTS TABLE
A balanced approach to teaching reading, writing, listening, talking, and thinking is extremely vital to language arts instruction. Throughout life, we will reflect on and utilize our language arts skills. These skills are the building blocks from which we construct and interpret our lives. Teaching the language arts is teaching the language of life. All other disciplines and forms of communication rely on the skills and mastery of language. It is therefore extremely necessary that language arts be taught with a balanced, engaging, and relevant focus. My education has enlightened me in the science behind the language arts. I am learning from achievements and mistakes of the past and present . Gone are the days of worksheets and rote memorization. I feel that it is my responsibility to help usher the instruction and philosophy of language arts into the 21st century to bring a new level of education to the language arts of the future. I have the tools, books, and technology at my disposal, and I desire the research and data to analyze and implement the types of instruction I create and monitor. My focus is to incorporate a curriculum that achieves the mandates, utilizes the standards, and creates student interest in the diversity and importance of the language arts. I want them to see that the beauty and diversity of life is mimicked by the different ways in which we use language to explain, explore, and create everything our senses perceive.
My language arts program is a holistic approach that teaches the art of language with meaningful and useful techniques. Every lesson's purpose goes beyond just mere instruction of skills, and instead focuses on the development, diversity, and practicality of the language arts skills in real life applications. Learning these skills is best achieved through the use of meaningful, quality literature. We as teachers are not just preparing our students for high stakes tests; we should be preparing them for life.
High stakes tests operate in conjunction with standards set by institutions, districts, states, and the federal government. These standards are very helpful and can aid in improvement on high stakes tests which in turn help with funding. Standards describe our educational goals as a community, and that is a great thing. But, I keep in mind that their focus is often too narrow and very culturally bias. Such testing cannot assess crucial skills such as critical thinking, creativity, culture, and high order comprehension. It is more important to think of ways to better evaluate and elevate your students' academic progress, making students, parents, teachers, and schools accountable for equal educational opportunities, and addressing standards through quality curriculum on a daily basis.
An open environment for learning through discussion, instruction, and reflection are key elements in a successful language arts classroom. Such are the goals of a KWL (Know, Want to know, and Learned) program. Through teacher guided questions, students suggest how their knowledge and goals align with what the lesson hopes to teach. Rubrics are also another way to compare class goals and assessment with that of the teacher. Going over rubrics before an assignment is started will help students understand what is expected of them. Also, creating rubrics as a class gives the class ownership of their finished products and encourages teamwork and reflection.
My lessons address all the components of language arts, with special emphasis on writing and revision, oral traditions, word study, word history, vocabulary, literary devices, reading comprehension, literature diversity, and creativity. Research-based literature and techniques, practical applications of knowledge acquisition, and engaging experiences will be the highlights of my lessons. I will encourage students to collect, document, and share their writing and reading, as I will do also. We will work together and independently to hone our language arts skills. Through journals and portfolios, we will be able to chronicle and display our thoughts and ideas for future reflection, growth, and publication/presentation. Together we will strive for mastery and take pride in our works to share with ourselves or the rest of the world.
My Writers' Workshop philosophy is ideal to achieving the goals of a quality finished product using a process suited to a writer's style. I myself am a writer, so I can appreciate the need for support and constructive centered instruction, free writing, and response. A large block of time (at least an hour or more) is allocated to Writers' Workshop, because if you want a lot of thought, description, and reflection in your writings you need to allocate a lot of time. Sometimes whole class maxi-lessons (10-20min.) are the best form of instruction, and other times individualized instruction is required. Like balanced literacy, writers' workshop needs time, balance, and consistency. By teaching writing mechanics and the writing, conferencing, editing, and revision process as a joint venture with your Writers' Workshop using mini-lessons (3-5min.), peer-conferencing, word recognition, word study, and read aloud, you create an environment for scaffolding reading and writing fluency.
My thoughts on
literature environments, comprehension, fluency, word identification, spelling,
vocabulary, and philosophies of literacy instruction and assessment will be
constantly evolving. But, there are certain things I believe in firmly. I
maintain that reading and writing are like the top of the table supported by the
legs; listening, speaking, viewing, and visually representing. The table can
not stand as high or evenly without the four legs. And, the legs can not stand
without both ends of the table top holding them together. The key is to equally
enforce all six skills, by working on all the parts of the language arts with
the support of each other. Balanced Literacy, like the tabletop examples for the
integrated language arts, needs to support the reading/writing process: writing
for meaning, strategy instruction, word study, phonics, meaningful use and
practice, response to literature, love of reading, love of writing, and
recognition of the diversity of people and language. The key to excellence in
the language arts is meaningful, integrated balance. Make sure in choosing
literature that you analyze how clearly the text(s) advance key ideas to teach
the writing process, reading content, theme, author's views, plot,
characterization, setting, and standards at a grade appropriate level. My views
of Complete Comprehensive Literacy Program associates the phonics and
comprehension skills with more integrative skills and strategies used in context
with an appreciation for diversity in life and literature. The first steps
involve engagement through prior knowledge such as text-text, text-self,
text-author, and text-world analysis. Next, Directed Reading-Thinking
Activities (DRTA) are highly effective for guiding reader-text interaction.
To promote engagement and critical thinking the teacher encourages them to
predict, verify, analyze, and review the text. It is important to make sure to
have a balance of student groupings, genres, purposes for reading, teacher
choice/student choice, directed response/free write, 
writing
genres, explicit instruction/exploration, and points of view. Also, make sure
you teach multi-culturally, not multiculturalism, in that when exploring
diversity you highlight the history and similarities across cultures versus just
presenting different materials for the sake of not perpetuating Euro centrism.
My students and their interests combined with age appropriate standards and
literature will determine the literature environment.
Finally, our philosophies guide our practice. It is important to remember education is not achieved by the hour, but by the value and engagement you bring to that hour. Assessments on both ends of the student-teacher relationship ensure that instruction leads to education. Comparison, analysis, and reflection must be done consistently and constantly. An authentic, yet collaborative, multidimensional focus on every student's zone of proximal development aligned with the curriculum and instruction must be maintained. The evolution and enlightenment only comes from constant analysis for improvement. My philosophies on teaching the language arts are outlined in this reflection, but remain open to new ideas supported by valid, tested, and consistent data on the efficiency and effectiveness of evolving and emerging literacy strategies.
MATH IN ACTION
Studies have proven that manipulatives can greatly enhance the learning of math concepts. The ability to see the application and use the correct mathematics reinforces the concepts being taught. This is a very proactive approach to mathematic, and teachers throughout the world are using it. There is another thing spreading throughout the world, called the Internet. So, it seemed inevitable the math techniques and applications would be modified for use on the Internet. This is a great advancement for the field of education, because it makes readily available applications and tools for learning mathematics. Schools are finding it more efficient to use the Internet for reasons of availability, cost, cleanup, and storage. But, there are a plethora of sites, software and sources of mathematics applications on the Internet, but basically the internet contains two types of representations- these are static and dynamic representations of concrete manipulatives, and both of these are great teaching and learning tools, but there are differences in the types and applications. The content of these manipulative sites is vast. In this paper, I will examine and explain some of the content I have looked at on the Internet. Also, I will discuss some pedagogy that could be used with this content.
First, I am looking at the differences between static and dynamic representations of concrete manipulatives. Static visual representations are basically pictures or drawings. Although such representations resemble concrete manipulatives, they cannot be used in the same ways that concrete manipulatives can. These static representations can't be played with like a true concrete manipulatives. They usually involve clicking for an answer, or typing it in. This old style resembles the tradition textbook approach with pictures, models, and text about visual representations of concrete manipulatives, but doesn't quite offer the same qualities as a real concrete manipulative, making this type of manipulative a limited source of understanding as compared to a dynamic visual representation.
Dynamic visual representations differ from their static counterparts in that they can be manipulated (flipped, moved, changed, & played with). These dynamic visual representations also have advantages and disadvantages over their concrete counterparts. First, the dynamic visual representations of concrete manipulatives are easy to get, store, and cleanup. Also, they allow the educator to use more kinds of manipulatives, because of all the free Internet sites, versus buying multiple class sets of different manipulatives for exercises throughout the year. With computers and the Internet all you need is a computer for every group, and the number and type of manipulatives becomes almost endless. Another advantage yet disadvantage of using a computer is that the skills need to use a computer program can be difficult. This is good for the older children that may find similar manipulative such as blocks or other aids as childish, but may not be a good idea for children to young to understand basic computer skills. Last, as our technology grows, with the 3 dimensional virtual reality and computers with super fast downloading and large supply of memory, and the addition of computers in the class rooms it only seems inevitable that these dynamic visual representations of concrete manipulatives will become indispensable to classroom mathematics. Also, the skills used in working over the Internet, and with other computer applications will become an indispensable asset in the future. Early involvement in computers and how they work combined with education in the exact mathematical relationships shown after user interaction can help children see how the computer and world around them work.
If kids can see the affects their actions have on an object and what properties that changes, they can better understand the math relationships that are involved in the activity. Knowledge through manipulation and interaction lead to a mastery of the information being taught, this sense of knowledge is proven in studies to be remembered long after knowledge that was gained through the memorization of information was forgotten.
The test is if these Internet sites have what it takes to show kids what they want to see. Can sites and software teach kids what they need to know? Will it show them what they need to see to fully understand the problems? Can the learning process be fun? These are important questions to ask when trying new dynamic visual representations of concrete manipulatives.
MathJam by Ohio software is a game that’s supposed to illustrate addition subtraction, multiplication, and division with random numbers and signs written on balls you place in a grid to equal a given value. The problem with the game is it’s lack of illustration of negative numbers and what the different signs do in the rows before you get their desired answer, so it's more of a game that reinforces concepts already known. But, it does have multiple levels, a goal: high points, and an explanation. Overall it gets a rating of B- by me.
Arcytech.com contains about 20 static and dynamic visual representations, I like this site, it gives instruction, and then allows the user to manipulate, and then ask questions. Discovering the Value of Pi, The Pythagorean Theorem: Figure it out all by yourself, and Fraction Bars: Explore equivalent fractions, ordering fractions, adding fractions, and more are good programs that I worked through and thought were solid A looking for more to come from this site.
In conclusion, I think that before teachers start integrating the technology available on the Internet they should first compare and analyze the sites and software. There is a lot of stuff out there and I plan to continue testing and comparing material I find. Maybe with my programming knowledge, I might even develop a site of my own using the concepts from my math and computer science classes. I think in designing and using virtual dynamic representations of concrete manipulatives, it is important to make sure the software emphasizes the concept, associates the concept, is fun for the student, offers multiple explanations for the same problem, and is easy to use. If kids can see the effects their actions have on an object and what properties that changes, they can better understand the math relationships that are involved in the activity. Also, we must not forget how important the teacher is. Demonstrations, individual help, and teacher instruction cannot be substituted for the virtual world, but virtual dynamic representations of concrete manipulatives can support these things.