How I have used this blog this semester

This blog was really useful to me this semester! I used it to:

• process the readings - as I read, I took notes on significant passages - it helps me to remember and understand what I'm reading
  
• one aspect of the power of blogs is the ability to tag postings - that allowed me to categorize each post according to theme or topic -E.G. Was it a wrap-up post or was it a post on reading strategies?" By giving each post several meaningful tags, I can then search by that tag to gather the postings later - If I want to just read my wrap-up posts to help me write my final course reflection, I can do that because I've been posting and tagging all along. SO the blog can help me to synthesize my thinking
  
• Just the fact that I've tried to write an entry for each reading I do - helps me to process the reading more - I can then pull out sections of my own thought to add to the discussions in Oncourse
• It would have been nice to have input into the blog from others - but I got this from the online discussion in class - so this worked as a personal reflection space and resource gathering location
• I was able to share this application of blogs with faculty locally - I ended up helping a communications faculty incorporate blogs into her course this term - a course on political ads - students used the space to look at ads and discuss them - As I saw the potential of my own blog in helping me in the writing process - I talked to her and we decided to do a follow-up session with her students to get them to use a blog to help them write their research papers - reflective writing as they read sources + tagging(organizing their thoughts) + input from classmates = better paper.... we'll see...
  

Questions...

Here is a question that has come to my mind...

In whole language, we are looking to teach in an integrated, top-down fashion, using many different types of authentic materials - a strictly skills based program doesn't cut it in terms of helping students to become meaning-makers and reading lovers... Do I have it so far?

My question now... (jumping forward a few years when kids reach content courses) - What I read is that a strategies approach is best - teaching students strategies - like recognizing structures of academic texts, skimming, active reading strategies...BUT - is this just the same old thing - skills based in disguise - separating parts out from the whole

Is this analogy apt? ... that phonics taught in isolation (in elementary) is akin to reading strategies taught in isolation in higher grade courses?

If that is the case - is anyone doing anything similar to WL in upper classes/higher ed? I am looking into the Reading Apprenticeship Program (WestEd) which seems to be starting downt his ally a bit -

Is my thinking on target and do you know of any people doing WL work/application in higher ed where content is king?

Week Three Update

I wanted to share this, but couldn't find the right spot to put it in our forums, so, here it is...

I am really enjoying this class, and am learning a lot, but am learning things probably very differently from many of those in the class. I have very little background in K-12, so I am having difficulty processing the readings (because I don't have a place to hook it onto - without the experience), processing your postings, making meaning (for me - usually involves applying it to what I do), and retaining it... I'm doing it - but it is taking a looooong time!!

I am feeling very overwhelmed and challenged - by the reading, reading the postings, trying to reply in ways that I can contribute - always seems out of the flow of things - wondering if I'm disrupting things more than adding to them because my experience seems like from left field...and then trying to do the activities which I can't pull from experience (except my own - but that is another cognitive load, because I have to think about my own experience and understand it -

Anyway - I just didn't want to feel isolated in the challange, which is why I'm sharing it - in a F2F class, I could just chat with folks before or after class, but online is another matter - and as an instructional designer - this part of online learning fascinates me and so I still have open questions for myself in this role...

Makes me think of students and how we have to be conscious of PACE and AMOUNT of work and giving people TIME they need to make the connections - may take longer when experience or background knowledge is old, or needs to be retrieved from a deep place - or concepts are new...

Instructional Design Hat

OK, stepping out of student mode to ID mode for a minute...

Right now I am:

• student in 2 online courses
• online facilitator-in- training in 2 different settings - one with students in a developmental college and one working with faculty

So one of my learning goals is to find out more experientially about online learning design and facilitation

What am I learning? - important to find balance of interaction, rigor, activity in design - otherwise it is too much to process... what is too much?

• OK, we are reading several texts and responding using different discussion strategies each week.
• So we are responding in writing to the text - then we are responding to each other on the same text - that means reading all the postings and replying more

Thought - break us up into groups - so that we have less to keep up with in individual posts - and gives us more space/time to think about those postings and respond meaningfully - we can still read and post to others if we want to...

• we are also doing 1-2 activities that ask us to apply the reading in some way or further process it - post those and comment again
• we are thinking ahead to papers and projects that are coming up...

So, where is this working/breaking down for me?

Seems like too much to process with reading everyone's postings, projects, and activities - run out of steam and mental space to process anything - I think fewer posts/activities to read and respond to others would be better - groupings might help - switch groups every few weeks to get to know more people? - same amount of reading and activities, but fewer peer responses to process...

What's missing in terms of facilitator interaction? For me - the voice of the person with more experience, drawing us out, drawing us further through targeted questions and challenges - feedback on assignments in a timely, meaningful, individualized way - where are we getting it - where are the gaps?

Week Two Highlights

OK, we are moving into the Wilson text and Goodman's Reading Miscue Inventory. I feel like finally - a window into what it looks like as children start to learn to read!! This is really helpful!!

What stands out so far

• That the 4 reading skills shouldn't be taught in isolation
• Listening to students read without interruption provides a window on the reading process (pg. 3 Goodman)
• There is a single reading process and it is the same for proficient and non-proficient readers (pg. 5 Goodman)
• There are no reading errors, only miscues that give the listener a window into the reader's thought processes
  

Week One Overview

Where have we traveled this week? From introductions to the TORP to BRI, to the Pearson article.

Thinking about

• what the powers that be want (testing/accountability) versus what is best for kids as they learn to read
• TORP - still don't feel like I have enough background knowledge or experience to make an informed discussion about my beliefs on reading - that's OK - what will I think after this class - will be interesting
• BRI
  
• Pearson article - what stood out...
  

  1. Reading as language rather than perception..... hmmm so is that the idea behind the Master's Program being called Language Education versus Reading?? Really interesting. So far this article has been incredibly helpful with helping me understand things

  Also I see the connections between ESL language acquisition and these ideas - so it is giving me something to hang the new ideas onto... good, helpful

  2. Throwing the baby out with the bath water??? This is a question I often have throughout my educational career. It seems that the psycholinguists are throwing out the skills in favor of natural language processes - My question is this - do they have to be mutually exclusive - aren't there times when skills really are helpful? Or not?
  

• 3. One of the most revelatory questions for me came on page 27...

  What would the teaching of reading and writing look like, if we assumed that children can learn to read and write in much the same way as they learn to talk?
  Holy cow!!! First, I had never considered this at all - In ESL, we talk a LOT about the Universal Grammar(UG) in the brain - a theoretical location that is "turned on" for young children that gives them a heightened ability to learn (implicitly) all the structures, rules, etc. about language that they need to be able to acquire spoken language - The theory then says that at some point this UG turns off - so they observe that's why younger children can more easily acquire language and why it gets more difficult as people get older because they no longer have the same access to the UG in their brains....
  If the UG theory holds true, then wouldn't it be doubly important to get kids into text-rich settings as early as possible, so they have access to the UG for a longer period of time.. That seems to jibe with other things I've read and the emphasis and money spent on early reading programs

• 
  

  Does the problem become for those kids who didn't have rich exposure early on - like trying to teach senior citizens a second language - possible - takes a lot longer, is not as easy for the older learner....

• This was one other idea that jumped off the page at me - page 80....

  Meaning is something that resides not in the head of the reader, nor on the printed page....instead.. meaning is created in the transaction between reader and document...

  Meaning as "poem" relaly struck me - the way a poem can sometimes say it just right or capture just what you are thinking - I found this really interesting!!