Kaela Sakorafis

Mid-Term Exam Part II

ENG 308 Spring 2016
5) As you look across your responses to texts and class sessions what
stands out to you as the three most important compelling things you have
contemplated so far? Why are these three things significant to you
personally and how might they shape your work with children in the
future?
In the past three weeks, I feel as though I have made significant growth in
many different teaching and assessing strategies, classroom organization, and
learning about students in general. One of the first main items that I have learned
that stands out to me is the importance of making time in the classroom to have
children read. Before many of our readings and class discussions, I would have
pessimistically thought that there wasnt enough time in the day to have students
be reading for hours each day due to many of the other standards and concepts.
However, I see now from experience and Shannons ideas that if we want children to
read, we must provide them the opportunity to read. Although scheduling in reading
helps to keep the classroom organized, as teachers we can also encourage students
to read whenever there is free time, or when the teacher gets distracted. I have
learned that there are endless opportunities for children to read in the classroom,
and that they absolutely need to read a significant amount each day if we want
them to continue to grow as independent readers. I have learned from observing
Sharrons classroom that I will definitely implement a routine for independent
reading time within my own classroom and will strongly encourage reading at every
opportunity possible.
Another important strategy that I have learned for teaching reading is the
importance of reading conferences with the students. Again, prior to taking this
course I probably would have underestimated any teacher who had said that she
was able to meet with every child on an actively regular basis to talk to them about
their reading due to time constraints. However, after watching Sharron in the videos
during class, she uses reading conferences incredibly effectively and shows the true
value that meeting with each student can have. Sharron is timely effective in the
way that she already knows her students well and has observed their reading
behaviors and choices. Then, when she meets with them she is prepared to take
notes and to truly discover more about the childs thinking, making her an
outstanding kidwatcher. Overall, I have learned from Sharron how to use
conversations with children to understand what they are actually learning from their
readings, what they have discovered about themselves as readers, and to track
their growth and show interest in the students learning at an individual level. I will
definitely be using reading conferences (likely conferences for other subjects too) in
my classroom to get a genuine understanding of the childs learning. On a personal
level, I am able to connect to this because as I was learning how to read I was
always given books and opportunities to read but never felt as though I had the
chance to orally reflect on what I had learned. As a child, I would have felt incredibly
excited to have a teacher who knew exactly who I was as a reader and
Lastly, one of the most impactful lessons that I have had so far in this
semester was learning about JPs story and his challenges that he faced when
learning to read. I found it surprising that he was able to convince people that he
knew how to read just by using his background knowledge and the knowledge that

he picked up around him. He was able to use his strategies within the pragmatic
cueing system, the semantic cueing system, and the syntactic cueing system but
lacked in using the graphophonic cueing system which in turn effected his ability to
read independently. With JPs case, I learned that as teachers we must keep
organized records of our students and pay close attention to what they are actually
learning at an early age so that we can detect these circumstances and address
them so that it does not hinder the childs learning further down the road. Just
because JP had different challenges to overcome, did not mean that he was unable
to learn, rather he just needed different kind of support. This strongly resonates with
me as a student and a future teacher as I can see how important it is to tend to
each students individual needs to ensure that there is growth in their learning. One
quote that stood out to me during our class discussion that day was that every
child has special needs. Although some children may struggle with reading and
others will struggle with different things, as teachers we need to pay attention to
what each child needs and support their learning using this knowledge!
6) Choose one of first four course throughlines and write a response to the
question using ideas from your responses to texts and class sessions.
What is your current answer to the question you selected and how might
thinking about it shape your work with children in the future? Make sure
you use evidence from course texts and discussions.
How might a reading mentor help or hinder a child learning to read?
Reading mentors can be an essential piece in helping children develop their reading skills if the mentoring
is done positively. By Mem Fox's ideas we know that children need to have exposure to positive
experiences with reading on a daily basis, and for those children who have been deprived of this reading
mentors can help to step in and make up for lost time. Reading mentors must not only encourage the
child to read but should also be an example of an avid reader and to promote the benefits that reading
has to offer. Mentors can help students find books that are interesting to them and can engage in
discussions with children about what they learned by reading a book. It is also imperative that mentors do
not ever be negative towards the concept of reading as a whole and should never make the child feel
badly about their reading experience. Overall, I think it is important that we note that students must have
the opportunity to have intellectual experiences reading with an adult, parent, or mentor in order to truly
develop their skills and obtain a passion for reading.

9) Prior to taking this course I would have thought that reading was taught.
Sounds were taught, letters were taught, words. However, we see in Mem Fox that
reading has to have many incorporating aspects in order to be done effectively and
students have to learn from experience with support. I love how this is phrased I
think it is incredibly accurate.
**Talk about the three frameworks.
11) Kidwatching is as much a state of mind as a collection of techniques
for gathering and reflecting on data. It is about getting to know students
through observing them intelligently- and helping them work through the
concepts and language issues they are raising in their own minds, (p. 2).
Please share what this quote means to you and how you might employ
some of the ideas in your work with children.

As I have progressed through this course and have worked with students at
Palmer, I have noticed how prevalent the concept of kidwatching is when students
are learning to read. When I read this quote, I interpret it as a concept that all
teachers must inherently and continuously know how to do in order to become truly
knowledgeable about their students. Not only should teachers be collecting data
about students that tells them about their reading abilities, but also the teacher
should be taking note of who the child is, his background, and his sociocultural
influences. Then, after collecting the data its important to make good use of it by
discovering how to use it, showing passion about the childs learning, and pushing
them to grow even more. One of the parts of this quote that stands out to me is the
line stating issues they are raising in their own minds. When I think of this, I
connect it to my own experience observing children and how they are genuinely
curious about things that they are learning. For example, during Sharrons
conferences her children question their own reading, the types of books that they
take interest in, and become intelligent and mature about their conversations in the
content that they are reading. The more children have the opportunity to read, it
will in turn create more concepts and questions that they have about their own
reading. It is then the teachers job to observe the issues and questions that the
children are bringing up and to address it in a way that will help them grow through
inquiry of reading books. Overall, kidwatching sums up the simple idea of knowing
students at a deeper and more individual level. Kidwatching involves being an
active listener both when the child knows you are watching and when they are
unaware. In regards to using this concept in my own work with children, I have
learned to have open eyes and ears at all times and to keep a meaningful record of
each child and his or her reading progress. Through the idea of kidwatching I have
learned to take note of students, understand the students knowledge, and then
using what you observe to shape the students learning experience. Overall, the
message in this quote highlights the important aspects of kidwatching and reminds
us to be excited about what our children are learning, including their curiousities
and using their own skills.