We are half way there!

I loved the General Roots and Prefixes handouts. I kind of knew that by figuring out the prefix of a word one could guess the meaning of the word. But the handout had more than I anticipated. Every time I think that I may be falling back on my work Dr. Rivera sure know how to introduce subjects that perk me back to this course. Loved the neat way of introducing “The Poor Old Dog”—webbing. I will try and find a way to do this introduction with my RMIII 1st graders. They are reading about Jokey the overweight beagle that has to go to the health spa to lose weight!
I am bewildered that there are so many literacy programs to help our secondary/adult citizens. Every human being needs a chance to get back on the bandwagon that they missed. I mentioned about the life experience program. Here it is—hope it will help someone you know along the way:
http://www.nedp.org/old/index.cfm
The External Diploma Program grew out of a study that was designed to identify the reasons why many adults did not choose to earn a high school equivalency certificate through the GED testing process. That study led to the development of the EDP, an adult applied-performance, competency-based assessment program that awards a high school diploma to skilled adults who have acquired many of their high school level abilities through their life experience. As they complete the EDP process, adults demonstrate their abilities in a series of simulations that parallel job and life situations. They are evaluated according to established performance criteria instead of by comparison with others.A key feature that distinguishes EDP from other high school completion programs is that it is an assessment program, not an instructional program. Another key feature is that candidates are awarded a traditional high school diploma upon successful completion of program requirements rather than an equivalency certificate.

Happy Holidays!

Questioning Strategy

Hi everyone! I tried one questioning strategy today with my students. It was lots of fun, my students were really engaged. Even my most disruptive student was engaged. We not only read but reflected on what we read. My students had a lot to say. I really love these questioning activities because my students reinforced their learning through their questions, comments, and through their classmates reflections as well. Another collaborative activity for them to enjoy.

Have A Pleasant Spring Break--Read and Relax

Hello Everyone,

Relax and read for Spring Break! We all deserve a break from work, school, and the bustling hectic schedules that we all have. Our lesson today was very informative and full of ideas for our activities. First of all, Sheila's 3 Multicultural books were authentic with real time stories. The element of real experiences from people that lived during the war. Though we read sad moments in these books, it is important for everyone to know how the war has affected many people. The social impact it has caused, the suffering, the despair, and most of all, the lives lost are very dramatic and real. These books serves as a reminder and let us hope that we learn from our past. Remember, the past is our future. The presentation from everyone was very informative in regards to state and local adult literacy programs. From our local area in Guam to many various places in the United States, many programs are geared to help adults as well as offer support for continued education. It seems that our federal and local government continue to formulate programs to educate at risk people, and as well as to anyone that can meet the criterias of the many programs presented in class. As far as the other activities, I really enjoyed learning the different activities with Dr. Rivera today. The ReQuest helps teachers and students engage a story interactively. Through explicit questioning, and to the more text implicit questions, and to a more thought provoking questions can make in-class discussions more fun. The exchange element promotes effective classroom discussions and helps reinforce comprehension as well as learning the target langauge. The CRT also was very informative. All in all, I did learn many things today. Thanks to Dr. Rivera with her ingenious and interesting activities. Enough said! Please take my advice and enjoy Spring Break. Read and Relax!!!!!!!!!!

Esta ki man a'a'lihit, Si Albert (Until we meet next time) Biba Chamorro!!!!

strategies!

Wow guys look at all the strategies! Some of these strategies have never even reached my eyes. It goes to show that I still have alot to learn. There are so many different strategies being created, I just can't keep up sometimes. Thanks to Dr. Rivera xerox capabilities. I hope in the future I will learn more activities or strategies to better my teaching.

The Busy Literacy Bodies

Like the 'Poor Old Dog' we would have to be 'patient' and remember that things will 'happen when they happen'. Triumph over the many 'hardships' that come our way, and eventually we will see the 'REWARD for the GOLD RING' 'within time'! Thank you for the congrats you all and for the comments on my presentation evaluation!

Have a GREAT SPRING BREAK!
Regards,
Sheila

Strategies, strategies, strategies!

I like that everyone shared their experiences in administering their Cloze tests to their students, especially the elementary teachers, Crystal and Sheila. Wow! I can't believe that their students are reading higher-than-their-grade-level literature! At least in my experience, I was startled to see the results of my students. For a 6.5 grade-level reading material, even (one of) my above-average students gave disappointing results. My below-average student even outperformed her. Now, all of sudden, after reading and discussing more about schema and all the other theories that help to explain how people read, what makes a person a good reader doesn't only involve how they perform academically. There are other factors and variables that come into play that ultimately determine a child's reading capacity.

Wow, so many very useful strategies to use in our teaching of reading. I like them all and can't wait to try them. It's nice to know that although these strategies are part of the assignments that we need to submit, we can also use them at our discretion. And who wouldn’t want to? I think are quite effective, not to mention very fun for the students.

Testing

It was interesting to hear the results of each of my classmates test results. They each presented interesting views and strategies in admnistering the cloze test. This activity was educational in a sense that it allows you to learn about your students. You learn that there are factors that influence the test results and you also learn about your students reading ability. The cloze test can be used as a simple reading assessment for your students file. It is a good idea to administer a cloze test at least once or twice a year. Its good to know if your students can read the text or not.

We are Busy Bees!

Lots of things coming up for us and isn't it great that we have a whole week off to get it together? I hope I don't get lazy and REALLY take the week off. Congratulations to you Sheila! And I hope you start feeling better. So, we're finding out that our basals might be a little too difficult for our students. I wonder how they were evlauated in the first place to rate them at the grade level they are. How valid is the Raygor Estimate? Does this affect the SAT 10 scores? If our text books are not true to the grade levels that are using them, that could lead to all kinds of problems. Something to think about. Changing the subject, there are so many literacy programs and almost all of them are developed for all ages. I wish more families would take advantage of what is being offered.

Creating Fun Reading Activities

The activities we did in class was engaging and interesting. The cloze test activity seemed to be easy, but it allows you to think carefully before you answer. Trying to fit the best word in can be challenging, even for the proficient speakers of English. I find it challenging and fun for me. The reading of a poem with four people was another activity that allows several students to be involve in the reading. We had fun making mistakes and doing it over again. It gives us ideas of how we can allow students to do an activity together. Very interactive and fun. The letter puzzle with domesticated animals and word recognition activities are very interesting because it might help ESL students create and recognize words. It allows them to reflect on their thoughts about words that they might know or might not know. Keeps them guessing. I really enjoyed doing these activities. We can use these activities in our classes.

Brain teasers

The Raygor Readability formula where matching text to appropriate reading level was interesting. At first I thought, hey what can I do if a student is already placed in my class and is not up to par with what is expected of him. Now I understand that when this entire DI program is over (at least for the elementary students), I can look into the formula and determine whether a certain student has been placed at the correct grade level. The cloze practice was another interesting testing program BUT I wonder what kind of testing is used here in Guam for testing our high school students? The brain stretchers were challenging for me and look forward to doing the rest of the brain teasers.

The Cloze Practice Test & Brain Teasers

Wow, I just found out one effective tool in determining my students’ reading ability – the Cloze Test. I think that this test is powerful in that it gives teachers a clear understanding of their students’ literacy competence based on how they perform on it. Though the test only requires filling in the blanks, I also feel that it also checks to see if students are able to exhibit a number of things such as their vocabulary level, individual schema, reading prediction and comprehension based on passage context clues, exposure to reading material, and so on.

In addition to the introduction of the Cloze Test, I also like all of the activities that were shared, especially the ones that Dr. Rivera shared with us. I think they all are excellent activities, and I feel that they would be very good brain-teasers and stimulants for my students. Sometimes, I feel that my students need to take a break from all the assignments and projects they have to complete before the end of the third quarter (lately, I’ve been seeing it in their facial and bodily expressions). So, the puzzles in the handouts that she gave to us are all wonderful educational activities that I think all my students will undoubtedly enjoy doing for a change.

TEXTBOOK TESTING

This will be an interesting activity. Its important to know if our textbook fits our students reading ability plus we need to know if its grade appropriate. We owe it to our students to be aware of our resources while teaching. We did alot of activities today. I enjoyed the brain teasers. Sometimes we make things harder than it should be. The activities were interesting because I became frustrated and I kept making the activity harder than it should. We all learn something new everyday!

Again everyone is choosing many interesting books. I noticed that 3 of our classmates favor Mariquita, which is an interesting and multicultural story. This is interesting because alot of the books that were picked related to each presenter in some particular way. This proves the point that by relating to your reading in some aspect, your understanding is reinforced.

Snowball bushes are special to me.

Again we are remeinded of the different views all of us have when we read a book. We all come away with a picture in our minds of the characters, the scenery and what the author was trying to get across to the reader. I feel all the books we chose were carefully researched to connect to our text, Under the Blood Red Sun.

The Cloze Test was hard, I thought. However I didn't do as bad as I thought I would. I"ll share. I got 80%. But this isn't my favorite kind of test. The Raygor Readability Estimate seems a little time consuming, but pretty accurate at the same time.

Thanks for discussing all of the upcoming activities and clarifying what is expected. Sometimes the syllabus is a little intimidating. The Poems for Four Voices was my favorite. And thanks for another copy of your presentation from the Educator's Academy. Those activities are fun and challenging.

Have a great week!