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Adriane GarlandParticipant
Hi there,
My name is Adriane and I have been teaching for 12 years. I started out in NY but have been teaching internationally for 10 years.
I have a real passion for BML education and want to know that my practice is supported by the research. I also want to improve my teaching practice particularly with foundations of reading.Looking forward to the course,
Adriane
Adriane GarlandParticipantI found writing in French not too difficult, although I definitely lacked content specific vocabulary about the bayou, so I found myself explaining ideas or using a dictionary.
I am currently learning German and find writing incredibly challenging. My lack of vocabulary makes writing a very laborious task, and I feel much freer when I have some structure to use so there is less of a cognitive load on me.I think students have a clear voice they want to share and struggle to tell their stories. Providing them with sentence frames or structured ways to put language together allows them to focus less on how to write and more on what they want to write.
Adriane GarlandParticipantI have worked at schools that seem to take on both approaches. On the one hand, everything is very structured, on the other, everything is very free.
The balance that I have found (and am implementing more since this writing session) is taking the time to do a short mini-lesson with explicit instruction and practice, then let the students write about a topic of their choice. As they’re writing I can conference based on the mini lesson and help them improve their writing with a focus.
This allows me to give the explicit instruction that ALL students need (not just ELL) and also gives students voice and choice.
The struggle I find in 5th grade is the wide range of ability in students. We are spending a lot of time building stamina, and I’m realizing I need to provide more structured work for the students who can’t write creatively for 25min. This is a challenge I want to keep working on.
Adriane GarlandParticipantI had never really considered the importance and amount of information a conjunction can give when reading. My focus has always been how to use conjunctions in writing.
However, after the article I realize how conjunctions can play such a big role in reading comprehension. Concession conjunctions are so often used in complex texts and it makes me realize that when I teach students about researching and gathering information, I should spend time investigating conjunctions with them.Adriane GarlandParticipantI find it so interesting, that as a child who attended French schools, I have a very strong foundation of syntactic understanding, because it is taught explicitly in the French system.
However, having worked in Anglophone systems, syntactic understanding is rarely taught explicitly. Yet, when you do teach it, students are able to build words more easily, and comprehend text more easily as well.
The article mentioned that teachers often have a gap in understanding of morphology and I wonder if it’s the same issue with syntax, so they hope it happens implicitly.
I think it is so important for people to understand that syntactical understanding is an essential part to reading acquisition.As for read aloud, it is so important to model to students what you are doing as you read. Words you notice (making connections to other words), stopping when you don’t understand a phrase and how do you make meaning. I have been much more aware of that this year with my read aloud, and it lends itself so naturally to investigating morpheme and syntax. It also helps me know which students have a strong understanding of these aspects and which don’t.
Adriane GarlandParticipantMy first take away is: phonics instruction is instrumental to learning reading, but it has to be systematic. Teachers need to understand that researach shows that phonics is the first step in reading, and that it is an essential part of the reading process.
My second take away is: there is a need for strong oral language for the connection to written language. When students have strong oral skills they can make connections to written text more easily. This also has to do with larger vocabularies, and shows how important it is to spend time speaking with children and building oral language and developing vocabulary.
My third take away is: phonics instruction can be used with older students who are struggling to read. Phonics shouldn’t end at the end of G1 or G2. If students are 14 and struggling to read, go back to the foundation blocks and work on phonics.
I feel more confident now, having the research to back me up, regarding decisions I make in the classroom to help students learn to read in English. It also reinforces that was I learned in my word inquiry course about how to teach morphology is going to be really beneficial to my students when we implement it.
Adriane GarlandParticipantBased on the scope and sequence my students are on the right track, though interestingly have gaps with seemingly simple spelling/phonics knowledge.
It’s nice to have the sequence to know how to build on what the students know and to complete any holes in their understanding.I feel quite confident teaching phonics and spelling. I’ve been learning more over the past two years and feel I have a better understanding of the English language and rules that students need to learn to decode and spell correctly. I think the area I want to focus on is how to cater to the needs of the wide range of skills I get in 5th grade.
Adriane GarlandParticipantLast year my colleague introduced me to structured word inquiry. Prior to this I had followed pre-packaged phonics programs which I didn’t find were very effective with students (they often didn’t remember what we had learned).
Through structured word inquiry students learn the spelling patterns and have more ownership.
What struck me in the videos is that I need to make more time for the explicit teaching of phonics and vocabulary in 5th grade.Adriane GarlandParticipantI definitely found that the activities built around the frog text helped me understand a lot more. There was still a lot that I was lost on, but I felt I understood the main ideas and some details.
As I was reading along with you (at times slightly behind you) I felt success in being able to read the words even if I didn’t understand them.
The support was really great and I can see how it would empower students to take more risks and keep trying. I was so overwhelmed and overloaded the first time I attempted reading the text. After doing the phonics and vocabulary work it was much more pleasant reading the text with you.Adriane GarlandParticipantThe emergent bilinguals I had last school year ended the year around an L (5th grade). They had learned the basic phonological knowledge and were working on more complex aspects (such as -ed having 3 different sounds).
I agree with Ms. Sanchez that when ELL students come across words they don’t know they often give up if there’s no support. It seems to me they need more support building a strong understanding of the system of reading and then how to understand new vocabulary. At the same time, the challenge is finding texts that are engaging for that age but not overwhelming in terms of complexity.Adriane GarlandParticipantI recently completed a course on Structured Word Inquiry, which goes in depth into how to teach students morphological understanding.
What’s great is I now have ideas of how to link this to vocabulary building and bring a connection to what students are doing, rather than teaching the word inquiry as a stand alone topic. The students love investigating word structure and they really get to learn the rules of English spelling through dissecting words. They have so many “aha” moments when they find patterns or make their own predictions. It’s really incredible!Adriane GarlandParticipantI agree that vocabulary needs to be taught in context. I find this easiest when we are doing units of study that are science based, or units that are very hands on. Students have different ways of accessing the vocabulary.
I want to make more of a conscious effort this school to find moments throughout the day to teach explicit vocabulary and review it. Use the vocabulary in guided conversations and provide all students the opportunity to practice using their academic language. -
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