Types of Talk in the Classroon

Since my classroom is a Kindergarten, my CT plans almost all or lessons around literary. She will explain a new concept then use a book reference it to. After the book we will summarize the story then they will do an activity. From Goldenbergs article it talks about instructional and conversational discussions. I believe my CT uses both. Most of the time we use instructional discussion, because she already has the lesson and questions planned out ahead of time and goes by the lesson. Other times if a student brings up a good point, a more in depth answer, or a question we will go into a spontaneous discussion which is the conversational discussion. The student then have the opportunity to discuss their thoughts and keep the conversation open end.

In the Almasi article it talks about traditional and recitation discussions. Almost 100 percent of the time my CT uses traditional discussion. This discussion is a question and answer discussion. The teacher asks a question about the readings and the students answer. This tends to be book concept based and comprehensive based. Just like Jimmy in the article says “We have discussions so that if you don’t understand the story you might be able to understand it better if you talk about it.” This shows me it is not looking out side of the box and just talking about minor details. As for the recitation discussion is opposite from traditional. The students are required to look outside the box and think more of critical thinking. It tends to be more personal and the students are able to discuss amongst themselves. My CT never uses this way of discussion she relies every from the book and her own thinking.

As for the McGee article it states the understanding of response-centered talk. This is based on critical thinking as well. It is meant to explore the book and take a deeper position on the readings. This takes extensive planning, thoughtful interactions from the students, ways to assess the students, and personal responses from them. Again my CT does not use this way of discussion.

To scaffold the student’s response- centered talk the teacher needs to plan ahead open-ended questions to guide the students in their discussion. Also letting the students speak among themselves. The teacher is there to lead the students and help pout the back on track if the discussion gets lost. The teacher can expand on student’s thoughts and create new ideas. To keep the questions open-ended the teacher can ask a question such as what did you like about the story? Then expand from that.

To promote rich discussion with participation of all the students I would use conversational conversations, recitation discussion, and response-centered talk. This creates an open, personal, and interactive discussion in the classroom. Most of my students in the classroom need a teacher’s guidance to create discussion. The students have not had a chance to have recitation discussion, so I do not know if they have the skill to interact and speak amongst themselves. To have a response-centered talk my students will need to start with a traditional discussion just so they students understand the readings then go into a conversational conversation to bring up new ideas and go off into discussion that may lead to critical thinking. I could see maybe 5 of my students being able to even use critical thinking, but the rest will need the teachers guidance and leading,

How literature is included in the literacy curriculum in the classroom

I am currently in an Elementary classroom where the students are starting to learn the basics of literature. To start of each day my CT writes a morning announcements on the board explaining the main points of the upcoming day, once she is done the whole class reads the announcement together and then one by one they will come up and circle either a letter or a word that they recognize. At the beginning of the school year they were all expected to circle single letter but as the year has progressed some of them have learned new words. One way my CT includes literature in her classroom is by reading to the whole class on the carpet. She has used multiple strategies while doing this. One way was that she would read page by page and ask the class what they thought would come next and why. Another strategy is when she goes through a whole picture book without reading any of the words and then asks the class what they thought went on in the story based on the illustrations. I have also seen her take a book that they had previously read a week or two ago and ask them what they remembered about the story, then she would break down the book page by page letting the students come up with as many thoughts as they can for that particular book.

Each week they learn a new letter to the alphabet and each letter has a name for it, for example, Benny Bear and Silly Sally. Along with each letter is a book, for example, "The B Book", each page has an object that starts with that letter and has a short sentence to go along with it. The first time they go over a letter my CT helps read the book for them and then the rest of the week they are expected to read it to themselves as my CT goes around individually to see how each student is doing.

I think that my CT does a pretty good job of incorporating literacy into her curriculum. One thing that I noticed that she hasn't incorporated is sensative subjects. In my classroom there are eleven students, ten of which are white and one black and they are all from the Lansing school district. In my classroom there seems to be an issue with students getting upset when they don't get what they want. Incorporating a text such as "Freedom Summers", like in the article, "Out of the Box: Critical Literacy in a First-Grade Classroom: page 5" the students were able to realize how people were treated and wondered why some people thought they were better than others. The teacher wrote how this became an eye opener for most of her students and she immediately noticed how they started to treat each other with more respect. I think that by incorporating books that deal with sensitive issues will only help the students become better people but at the same time it will help them think outside the box when it comes to there literacy.

When I read the Langer article I found many similarities between this reading and my CT's approach to literacy. Langer wants the students to think as much into the readings as they can which in return will make them more interested in literacy. I also believe that starting at a young age such as Kindergarten will help the students understand the importance of literature. Using envisionments, which are what Langer describes as, "the students understanding of a text" go beyond what they initially think. It is the teachers job to expand the students thinking. This can expand from what they understand at a certain point in the text, what they think is going to happen next, why they think that is going to happen next, how their thoughts have changed throughout the text, ect. I have seen my CT use some of the steps that Langer uses but not to the extent that Langer wants them to be used. I think that the more you push your students thinking the better off they will be.

Jigsaw Articles

For this assignment, I read the Flemming article about teaching students in areas of high poverty. As the article addressed many of the things that these diverse students need from their teachers, I chose to address the question "What types of support do diverse learners need to participate fully in the learning community?"

This article highlights the fact that students, especially in an urban setting, are not always the children you see sitting in front of you. All of these students have back-stories; some are acting as parents to younger siblings, some are trying to figure out where their next meal will come from, others are dealing with death, drugs, broken families, and poverty. It is impossible, therefore, to focus only on academic support. The article suggests that teachers in these settings need to be able to find a balance in supporting the academic, social, physical, and emotional needs of these students. Some teachers mentioned in the article take on much of the student's financial burden (for the academic setting) so that the student can still participate in the school activities. Others focused on making sure students ate at school, or had physical ailments cared for.

The "learning community" here is also important. The question suggests that it is only the students that need support in order to fit into the learning community, but in many of these cases, the learning community is also in a world of hurt. In an impoverished school system, some teachers do not have access to paper, pencils, copy machines, and other basic materials. Thus the learning community is greatly compromised. The teachers depend much more on their students and the community of people within the classroom in order to teach, and given that many of the students have more pressing matters on their minds, this can be stressful to say the least.

So in response to the question mentioned above, the diverse learners mentioned in the article need individualized support. One student may be able to for get personal problems while in the classroom and need only academic support, while another may have a great home life and still struggle with emotional problems. Still other students may need support health-wise, and others with their emotional problems. There is no "one size fits all" type of support for these diverse learners, but a genuine, caring teacher would not go amiss.