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Essay Instructions: Please label this way

unit 3 seminar

In this unit you will explore the need for exposure to a variety of engaging early experiences that support oral language development and reading/writing opportunities. The following issues will be addressed during Seminar;

What are functional literacy activities? What are some examples?
What are ways to share literature with young children? What are important factors to consider when selecting literature to share and stocking classroom libraries? What are some effective story-reading strategies (read-alouds and shared reading)?
What are some motivating ways to link literacy and play?
What is ?shared writing?? How does it help to build a child?s understanding of print and support reading?


unit 4 seminar

This week?s unit focuses on early reading instruction and early writing instruction. The Seminar will discuss the following topics;

What learning activities should early childhood teachers provide to children to help prepare them for reading?
What is the difference between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics? How should this knowledge guide instruction for young children?
What are some activities for introducing children to the letters of the alphabet?
How can you create an effective and motivating writing center?
What is the ?writing workshop?? Why is publishing such an important part of the writing workshop?


unit 5 seminar

his week?s Seminar explores the various ways to reflect on students? learning experiences and their progress through assessment. You will explore the following issues in Seminar:

Why is assessment so important? How can it be used as feedback to the educator on what students already know and what they still need to learn? How can it help educators decide to make changes to their instructional approach?
What is the difference between ongoing assessment and on-demand assessment? What are some examples of each?
What experiences have you had with assessment (both formal and informal)? Think about assessment experiences when you have been the one being assessed and when you have been conducting the assessment.
What experiences with standardized tests have you had? What are the benefits and drawbacks of standardized testing?
How can running records and portfolio assessment provide valuable insight into the literacy development?


unit 6 seminar

This week?s unit focuses on specific reading strategies and practices to promote vocabulary development, comprehension, and fluency. The following issues will be addressed in Seminar;

How can issues such as the time designated for reading, the availability of a variety of reading materials and the types of reading (independent, shared, and guided) contribute to reading achievement?
What do the following components of reading refer to; word identification, vocabulary, and connection to text. What are examples of each of these?
What are some strategies to build vocabulary, enhance comprehension, and increase reading fluency?
What are some strategies that may be especially effective for teaching English Language Learners?
What are some strategies that may be especially effective for teaching children with special needs?

Essay Instructions: Please do a paragraph for each one


(1) Children proceed through several stages of literacy development as they move from reading readiness to fluency and high levels of comprehension. Parents and others can influence literacy development by providing opportunities for literacy experiences.

Based on your readings, explain some ways parents, teachers, siblings, and others can help support early literacy development.
Select one of the 4 stages identified in the reading. Discuss some of the characteristics of this stage and how educators can support this stage.


(2)1. Compare at least 4 of the following genres:
Counting books
Alphabet books
Predictable books
Folktales
Fantasy
Narrative
Poetry
Informational books
Summarize how exposure to some of the genres of literature enhances literacy development (reading, speaking, and writing).

2. After discussing these genres, identify three of your own favorite books/stories from your childhood, or that your own children enjoy, and identify which genre they would be considered.

(3)Understanding the differences between sounds and the fact that letters represent different sounds is an important part of the early reading process. Early childhood teachers can provide a great advantage to children with opportunities to explore sounds and relationships of letters.

Differentiate phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics.

Identify some good activities to help children explore these skills. Be sure to identify each activity as either phonological/phonemic awareness or phonics. Where did you find each activity?


(4)Based on the reading and the videos you watched, identify some appropriate assessment strategies for early reading and writing.

Describe the various ways educators can assess students in their reading and writing development.
Discuss what strategies (if any) you personally used in assessing children?s reading and writing progress. How effective were these strategies? What sort of insight did you gain from this assessment?

(5)Good literacy educators must often utilize critical thinking skills in identifying their students? strengths and challenges. They may have to rely on sound reasoning to identify issues that are presenting obstacles to the reading process and formulate inferences in diagnosing causes of reading difficulties. In some cases, students? comprehension and fluency may be contributing to their reading difficulties and teachers must identify their students? faulty reasoning or assumptions students have made.

Apply your critical thinking skills of sound reasoning to consider some of the possible obstacles in the following case study and respond to the following:

What are some ?clues? that identify Gianna?s weak skills?
Identify reading strategies that might help you to resolve these issues. Make sure to address at least 3 of her weak skills.
Why did you select these 3 skills as being most in need of attention?
Case Study

Gianna is an 8-year old 2nd grader who is lagging behind the rest of the class in her oral reading skills and comprehension. She seems to have very weak word identification skills and a limited vocabulary of words she recognizes on sight. She also hesitates a lot when reading aloud.

In talking to her, her teacher realizes that she does not have access to a lot of interesting books at home and her parents do not seem to have the time to sit down and read with her. While she is very interested in the same reading topics that many of her friends enjoy, she does not seem to have access to these materials outside of school.

Gianna has a lot of difficulty in remembering what she has read and does not seem to know to apply any reading comprehension strategies before, during, or after reading.

Essay Instructions: Imagine you are a student in a class with a background in becoming a History teacher. Write a reflection paper based on the experiences of having to tutor two 6th grade students for 10 sessions with half being on reading comprehension and the other on writing. Have it be overall positive. Stress that one of the students, Jessica was good in reading but had some trouble with writing and that Nathan, the other student, had trouble in both. That paper should reflect upon the experiences of the course taken, Reading and Writing in the Content Area, and include both the lecture and tutoring components of it. Also compare your views and feelings about reading and writing at the end of the course with your initial ones. Also discuss the key concepts and strategies that you learned and explain how these relate to your future teaching and to your own view on reading, writing, and study skills. Some of those include KWLS theory, pre-reading strategies, writing process, strategies for composing, drafting, and revising, knowing how to evaluate papers and properly critiquing students, etc.

Essay Instructions: I want Nicole to write my essay!
1. Firstly: give a brief overview of relevant literature in relation to different reading strategies in the EFL classroom.
I had planned for all my students to read "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, but the book proved to be somewhat too difficult for approximately 30% of them. It is not a good idea to force EFL learners to read something which is too difficult. The question was, of course, what to do now.
2. Secondly: shortly discuss the importance of differentiated teaching.
I decided to use the scene in the barn (which is the turning point) for the pupils to dramatize. Some of them read the book while others dramatized the scene in the barn. I found it wise to let the pupils choose which strategy they preferred to get to know the book. It is necessary to write something about drama used as a motivating factor too because motivation is a large part of the game. No doubt that most of the pupils enjoyed learning the scene and to act it in front of their fellow pupils. (Those who did not dare to act in front of their classmates were allowed to act it in on their own.)
2. Also I want you to give a critical reflection of the situation mentioned above.
3. Thirdly discuss the use of drama as a reading strategy in the English as a second language classroom (10th grade lower secondary school).
In a way this is a case study, but it is also about personal experience. I am going to add student material as an appendix. I also have the marks from a mock oral exam which shows that the difference between the readers and the drama pupils is not that significant.