Entry #8

 I would first like to say that reading these blog entries makes me feel more confident in my own ideas. This sharing of concepts and ideas really allows us to see things from different perspectives. In my opinion it also sparks questions that maybe weren't asked before. Reading other peoples posts have also given me a little more confidence in writing my own posts. To know that there is a connection between my ideas and other peoples ideas is always something that has been very important to me. There is something about the validation of having new or similar ideas to your peers that makes you more confident in your work. This also got me thinking about why collaboration among teacher is so crucial and beneficial.

Bless

I would first like to bless Matt for his mentioning of early writing before the written word and making connections with the text by mentioning the things he was missing before. I really resonated with this piece of the Deeper Dive as well because I thought it was very interesting. When I grew up my mother would always tell me when children write or blabber they are actually trying to say something. When children "read" stories they "write" that look like scribbles and then they recite the stories I always thought they were just pretending. I knew that there was a want to write within the child but I never made the connection to this piece of scribble actually being a form of writing. I knew that children learn by watching and copying what adults do but I honestly thought that's all that it was; copying and not truly understanding what it is they were doing.

Address 

When Matt was discussing the early signs of learning to read and write I began thinking about how the progression of this learning would change do to the interaction the child has with the adults they are learning from. If we don't acknowledge their "scribbles" as writing and become engaged with this play based learning, will this change the progression of learning phonics, phonemic awareness, learning to write, and read?

Press

Matt mentions that Tompkins discusses the formation of letters and the making of "words" during his entry. I wonder if he thought of the part in Tompkins that discusses the activity where children make their own words with their own meanings. Is that healthy for children to do? Is that an appropriate way of learning to read and write? Should we just stick to letting early learners make "letters" and then correct them over time as they learn their alphabet and to read and write?

This weeks Deeper Dive readings discuss fluency in reading and writing. How does the early learning formation of letters, reading, and writing evolve into fluent reading? As discussed in Tompkins and last weeks readings we understand that phonemic awareness and phonics are large contributors to this. Tompkins and Rasinski's article deepened my understanding of what fluency truly is. I originally thought fluency was to be able to read without a stutter, clearly, and without hesitation. Come to find it is so much more than that. Fluency assesses the students ability to spell words, read words, read and write in a timely fashion, AND use expression. I knew that words and speed were a large contributing factor but I had no idea that expression was a contributing factor to a person being fluent in reading and writing. 

As a child I felt very stressed about the way I read and wrote. I was always feeling behind because I was never able to read as fast as the other students. When I would take tests I would always feel rushed and I was told to work on time management. I wanted to be right when I read words and sentences so I was mor concerned with that than reading fast. I also wanted to understand what I read which I was never able to do while reading fast. This article and Tompkins chapter made me realize that we can take this process of becoming fluent and teach students ways to become fluent. I feel as though we always worry about finishing something because THAT is the goal but students need to be confident in their reading and that begins in the early learning stages with those scribbles that mean something to the kids. This week's readings and Matt's post made me think about how I will treat the process of my students becoming fluent in my classroom. I think it really is important to hold students to the same expectations but to also acknowledge that they each learn at a different pace and in different ways. So they may be reading correctly and with confidence and know all of their words but maybe they don't know how to be expressive when they read. Maybe they have a hard time reading at a good pace because they feel like they racing the clock.

Tompkins, G.E. (2017). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (7th Edition). Boston,    MA:Pearson.