January 23, 2007 Chicago Public Schools Partners' Professional Development
This clock is one example of a literacy artifact
that partner teachers might share in their
conversations with STEP=UP students.
STEP=UP’s CPS partner teachers met on January 23rd for the first professional development meeting of 2007. Some of the opening discussion centered on functional literacy through self-correcting and context based assignments. Partners began by talking briefly about "literacy moments" that have recently occurred in their classrooms. Judi Arroyo talked about using scrap books to track story plots and predict what might happen next. Aaron Brown worked on updating his bulletin boards. At his school they think it's important to fill walls with content, especially to help with the ACT test. In his class students learned that they could look (at the wall), read, and gain information. Dawn Ramos focused on writing and self-correcting grammar mistakes by having students read their work aloud, specifically to pick up on the difference in noun/verb agreement by hearing the difference between what they’ve written and how it compares to how they speak.
Next we discussed the notion of vocabulary as an instructional term. More than being simply about root words, comprehension, or active and receptive learning, partners seemed to agree that vocabulary must be connected to learners as well as to contexts. One partner teacher worked with vocabulary in two ways: through graphic organizers of related words and sight-word flashcards. In practice he sees that sight-word recognition and usage do not always equal comprehension of the words outside of everyday phrases. Another partner has taken a theatrical approach, having students act out the meaning of a word so that the feelings associated with a word are connected to its meaning.
Literacy artifacts at the meeting largely focused on visual representation. One partner brought a "writing with symbols" book that pairs descriptive words about winter with pictures. Also, she brought examples of sentence strips that allow students to comprehend slightly more complex words or more complex sentences related to winter activities. Dave Rench brought in examples of cards that are on-hand as well as on the word wall. It lets students have the words when they need them no matter what they are doing.
Aaron and Judi discuss samples of student work.
Following this, teachers read an article about teaching vocabulary and discussed particularly meaningful passages. They chose passages from articles to highlight to colleagues in small groups. Many partners commented on the importance of the social context of word learning and comprehension stressed in the article. Donn Simon selected "the vast amount of word knowledge is acquired incidentally through wide reading" Mary Peasley agreed, saying that learning a word for no reason is ineffective and that word learning needs to be done in context or at least connected to other concepts or contexts. For her, the more learners are exposed to a good vocabulary, the better theirs will become. Her favorite passage from the article was "teacher modeling of unknown words in social discourse ... in oral and written context." Donn felt this made sense because kids begin by connecting with the social context. Only then can a teacher fill in or build an environment based on vocabulary rather than just read a story. In general, partner teachers commented on the effectiveness of the "read and say something" approach of this activity. They thought it was great for this discussion period but also could be extremely useful in the classroom so that each student participates, and it is also good for handling kids with behavioral problems.
Lastly, we stressed not only the importance of staying in touch with UIC students but also preparing for what you might say to and with them. We addressed this by imagining we were writing an email to our students and thought about how we might summarize our discussions about vocabulary and comprehension, and extend those ideas to UIC students. Before leaving we jotted down some key points from artifact discussions that we would want to pass along and keep in mind.
Dr. Parker-Katz leads partner teachers in a discussion
of vocabulary and literacy instruction.
