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1. Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporty works. 

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1. Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporty works. 

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During my global read in, my partner and I went to Seton school in Meadville. We read the book: The Proudest Blue to a third grade class. The book touched on the importance that wearing a hijab is unique and we have the power to stand out and shine. This allowed students to learn about a culture that is different from their own. We began with discussing what is culture, so they had an idea what culture is all about. Then we moved on and gave them some facts about the muslim culture because they may not have heard of this culture before. We wanted to make sure students were informed on the culture before reading the story. As we were reading we asked questions through out to make sure students were understanding, making it an interactive read aloud.  Read alouds provide opportunities to build community within the classroom while also learning about other places and cultures. Reading a story like The Proudest Blue can help build a sense of community (McCaffrey & Hisrich, Why Read-Alouds?). After we finished the story, we passed out a worksheet, students were instructed to look at a picture from the story and think of how they can help a classmate when their being bullied. This allowed them to make connections between the story and real life experiences. This is an example of this standard because it helps students build an understanding of texts through other cultures around the world. Even though it is based on fictional characters it is based on a real culture and a real experience the author had. Also, teaches students about bullying and that they should never do that to another classmate or teacher.

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2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience. 

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2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience. 

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During my global read in, my partner took pictures of the 3rd grade classroom. This image shows the variety of books they have in their classroom library. It looks like the teacher provides a variety of genres and diverse text for the students to be exposed to. Genre refers to patterns in the way language is used; that is, it refers to patterns in the situations in which a text is used and patterns in the features of that text its language, format, structure, and content (Duke & Purcell, 2003). Allowing students to become exposed to all these genres makes them more knowledgeable in the literacy community. In my future classroom, I want to incorporate books that are diverse but also cover many time periods. These texts will be important to have students explore and become familiar in the classroom. The books could also be used as mentor texts in the classroom for when they write. I will make sure to designate time where students can work on their independent reading. This will help them become better readers and be exposed to more vocabulary and genres. This picture represents this standard because it shows the wide range of literature that children can be exposed to in the classroom.

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3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evalute, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

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3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evalute, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

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When working on a readers workshop lesson for third grade Sharpsville students, it was important to evalute and interpret the emotions being shown in the first chapter of I Survived the Great Chicago Fire. A readers workshop combines a think aloud with guided practice and typically begins with a brief demonstration of a skill in comprehension or other skills (Temple 8, 2018). In this mini lesson, my group and I went over several different types of emotions before examing the ones in the book. We created a power point with an image on each slide. The images represented a different emotion. We had the students write down what emotion they thought these people were feeling. After we went through all the emotions, read a page from I Survived the Great Chicago Fire. We had students write down what emotions they were hearing. After we had the students share their answers and reviewed any emotions they left out. This mini lesson used a variety of different strategies. It allowed students to comprehend the page being read. Then students had to interpret and evaluate the emotions heard in the story and the images shown on the powerpoint. This lesson represents this standard because students were able to draw from prior experiences when goind through emotions and used it to identify emotions within the text.

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4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes. 

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4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes. 

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During my practicum, I wasn't exposed to students adjusting their spoken, written, and visual language to communicate effectively. So I found a website that incorporates eight strategies for teaching language to students. I am going to discuss three strategies I think are important to include in the classroom. The first strategy is having students read diverse texts, this allows them to start thinking about different genres and languages through out the world. Having children get exposed to this at a young age will help them become better readers and writers in the future. The second strategy is introducing summary frames, allows students to practice visual and spoken language. When performing this strategy students must read a section of a text to themselves then verbally summarizing to a partner. The final strategy is introducing academic vocabulary, when students are regularly exposed with a word in various authentic contexts helps them internalize the definition. Having students create a funny or creative story with vocabulary words will help them communicate effectively with peers and adults. This resource represents this standard because it teaches teachers ways they can help students adjust their spoken, written, and visual language for different audiences and purposes.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

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5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

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During my practicum, students had the opportunity to become exposed to a writers workshop. This process allowed students to use a wide range of strategies when it came to drafting their sentence. One major strategy that my class employed is inventive spelling. This techinque provides students with independence of sounding words out and writing what they think they hear when sounding the word out. The example below shows a student attempt of inventive spelling. He wanted to help the earth by planting trees. So he used the techinque and tried his best to sound out these words without any help from me or the teacher. He did a pretty good job in sounding out each word. Even though the words are not correct, he is still learning how to sound out words. We do not tell the student to fix their mistake because it shows that they are independent and practicing. When I go around and check students papers, I congraduate on how when they did when sounding out their words. It is important to allow students to go throught this process when beginning to write because it will show how much they improve once they get older. This picture represents this standard because students employed a technique of inventive spelling when writing to appropriately communicate on how they are going to help the earth.

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8. The assessment should involve multiple perspectives and sources of data. 

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8. The assessment should involve multiple perspectives and sources of data. 

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An assessment that is used in the classroom to assess comprehension and phonics are DRA's. This type of assessment involves students reading a story aloud and then the teacher ask them questions. The DRA is considered to be a great tool to measure reading achievement which includes reading comprehension, which is the ultimate goal of reading (Young & Rasinski, 2009). Once the student finishes the teacher fills out two different continuums that assess student's strengths and areas of improvement. They will be assessed on phonic awareness and comprehension skills. The DRA also uses pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading strategies, which follows the comprehension process. Since we did not get a chance to perform this strategy we had to listen to a student read a story and make sure we wrote down all of the corrections. It would of been a cool opportunity to implement this DRA assessment at Union but they did not seem to focus on these types of assessments. Another way to assess students is through having the students reading the story aloud in class and having them answer questions, so this helps test comprehension and if they are paying attention to the story. These two different assessments are important to include in my future classroom.

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8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge. 

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8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge. 

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During my practicum, I experienced students becoming exposed to Science Spin. These are mini magizines through scholastic that expose students to scientific information.  My co-teacher pulls this magizine up on her tv screen to work on it with the students. It also has video to explain a little more than what the magizine states. After reading and watching the videos on the back their is a little writing activity for students to do. They gather information provided in the magizine and videos to help them answer the questions. It also has them write a sentence about how the clouds look like outside. (Picture provide on below). As shown below these magizine are a great source of information for students. The variety of technological resources through out are videos and a game at the end allows students to gather a lot of information in order to create and communicate their knowledge. This activity represents this standard because students become exposed to a wide variety of technological tools and information through videos and magizines. This allows them to gather evidence to communicate what they were exposed to during the activity.

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9. Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles. 

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9. Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles. 

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During my practicum, I did not get a chance to experience this standard. Instead I found this scholastic article that goes over how to begin to implement teaching diversity in a classroom. It specifically focuses on how to teach diversity in a prek-2 grade classroom. I believe this article is very helpful and informative for future teachers to use in their classroom. As teacher it is important to begin by asking families and children two questions. First, what does it mean to be a parent raising a child in a diverse world? Second, what does it mean to be a young child growing up in a diverse world? These two question are a stepping stone to start implementing diversity within the classroom. There are four other important ways to help children grow up in this world. As teacher we need to help expose children to these ways.  The first way is addressing diversity, starting this at a young age allows children learn who they are and what to do through experiences. They also develop a sense of routine, tradition, culture and more. The next way is developing cultural sensitivity, as teachers we need to develop skills when talking to parents about differences. Then teachers need to get to know families, we first need to find out how family's practice relate to their goals for their child. It is important to observe how families interact with their children. This is how we learn more about families in order to implement it into the classroom. Finally learning to appreciate differences, as a future teacher it is important to work with families, to openly talk about identity and children develop a positive sense of self is important. This creates a diverse classroom community and helping children make bridges between culture and other traditions. This article represents this standard because it provides me with ways on how I could develop student understanding and respect of diversity in and outside the classroom. As a future teacher seeking out to redefine parents participation in terms of cultural and social resources is very important. I could take what I know about families and build a pedagogy based on experiences and realities of student lives (Klassen-Endrizzi, 2004).

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It's been a rough year for everyone, especially children. In March, the coronavirus pandemic spontaneously closed schools across the United States, giving children limited access to their teachers, friends, and daily life as they knew it. Suddenly, schools transitioned to a virtual learning experience filled with Zoom meetings, parent-lead instruction, or sadly, in some cases, the lack thereof.
Check out this guide to using Tami Charles's book All Because You Matter at home and in the classroom.
The pandemic revealed challenges in American society across many sectors: employment, housing, health care, and law enforcement. The highly publicized cases of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd underscored generations of inequities rooted in racism. In turn, this has produced a reckoning of sorts, met with both peaceful protests and civil unrest across the globe.

This, all under the watchful and curious eyes of children.

As we approach the 2020-2021 school year, it is unclear how our nation will proceed in opening schools. Will classes be in-person, under strict social distance guidelines? Will we continue virtual learning indefinitely? Or perhaps a hybrid of both options?

No matter how schools will be conducted in the fall, students will certainly have questions about the issues that continue to plague our country. As teachers, we know the weight of our words when it comes to our students. How can we best help our students navigate these tough talks?

I reached out to a few trusted colleagues to gain their perspective:

"I think most educators will be proactive because we realize that kids have been exposed to many challenging topics recently. A book I plan to read aloud is Ron's Big Mission. It handles the ideas of institutional racism and protest in a way kids can easily understand. It's a great segue for us to discuss representation in the library collection."
Julie Testa, Librarian, Vineland, NJ Public Schools

"As an early childhood educator, I will continue to create a safe space where all topics can be discussed with a focus on respect, reflection, and new learning."
Jennifer Rinaldi, Kindergarten teacher, Stamford, CT Public Schools

"Without offering my personal opinion, I will make it a teachable moment, using books and resources to have students develop their own argument as it relates to hot topics around COVID19. I want my students to feel that they have an opinion and a voice, yet I'll try to communicate those ideas in thoughtful, respectful ways."
April Page-Coggins, 7th Grade ELA teacher, The School District of Palm Beach County, FL

As a former educator who spent fourteen years in the classroom, I wholeheartedly agree with my colleagues. Children will need something to make sense of all of this. And what better way to initiate tough conversations than with books? My recommendations below amplify a wide range of stories that spark healthy dialogue, joy, and a call to action.

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12 Books on Diversity to Get the Conversation Flowing

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It's been a rough year for everyone, especially children. In March, the coronavirus pandemic spontaneously closed schools across the United States, giving children limited access to their teachers, friends, and daily life as they knew it. Suddenly, schools transitioned to a virtual learning experience filled with Zoom meetings, parent-lead instruction, or sadly, in some cases, the lack thereof.

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11. Families must be involved as active, essential participants in the assessment process. 

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11. Families must be involved as active, essential participants in the assessment process. 

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For this class, we had to create a family newsletter and survey that asked parents about children life at home and reading skills. This is a great tool to get to know your students before reading to them. You learn so much about the child and family. The survey and newsletter will help the families become involved in their childs learning. Sending home an appealing newsletter shows parents you care about their child's learning and your willingness to get to know their child. Involving the families is extremely important. Families are their first learning partner so as teachers we need to continue this partnership (Klassen-Endrizzi, 2004). Newsletters are a good way to inform families about what is going on at school and in the classroom. This allows them to be active participants in student's learning.

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7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a varietly of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience. 

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7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a varietly of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience. 

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During my short time at New Wilmington, I did an interactive read aloud in a kindergarten classroom. I read a book called Up in the Garden, Down in the Dirt. This book exposed students to different types of plants and insects found around a garden. As I was reading the book I asked them questions to make sure they were paying attention and to test their critical thinking skills. After I finished I passed out a worksheet that went over the life cycle of a sunflower. I provided three stages with sentence stems for each, a word bank was also included so they can spell the word correctly. Students were able to use the text and illustrations to gather evidence on what a sunflower should look like at each stage. This helped them use process of elmination when writing the word for each stage. Once students completed their sentences they created illustrations to bring the sentence to life. Students were able to use evidence from the story to draw their pictures. The teacher also pulled up a picture of a sunflower so students had an idea of how to draw it. This activity represents this standard because students were able to gather evidence through a mentor text in order to complete three sentences about stages of a sun flower.

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11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities. 

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11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities. 

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For my practicum, I did a writers workshop lesson on Earth Day. I thought this was a wonderful lesson to do because Earth Day was coming up and kindergarten needs to learn the importance of it. I began the lesson by asking students what they think Earth Day is all about. Then I played them a story called The Earth Day Book. It discussed all the ways we could help the earth. After I had them  brainstorm some ideas on how they could help the earth. I finally passed out the draft sheet and I helped them write their draft sentence and once they finished I went around to check and collect their papers. The next day I handed back their draft papers and passed out a self-assessment for students to double check their work. I went through and explained what a self-assessment was then went through each step with them. Once we were finished with the revising stage. I passed out the final paper for students to copy their sentence and draw a picture. This was lesson represents this standard because students were being active roles in the community by writing what they could do to help the earth in their own way. This allowed them to be creative when designing their pictures to bring the sentence to life.

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12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information). 

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12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information). 

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During my practicum, I witnessed the students do a lot of journal entries in their monthly journals. My co-teacher will help them begin their sentence but they get to add a word. In kindergarten the teachers let their students do inventive spelling. This means allowing them to practice sounding out a word they don't know and trying to spell to the best of their ability. When students get to create their own sentence and pictures it allows them to enjoy writing more. They get to accomplish something for their own purpose. It also allows them to share what they have written or drawn in their journal with their families. Students can get enjoyment when sharing their beautiful entries with their families. This activity represents this standard because students get to write what they enjoy about school, family, and favortive things to do.