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Travis Davis – EngEd 275 Introduction

My First Blog Post

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken. — Oscar Wilde. This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
travisdavis26 September 20, 2021

Welcome to my Blog

Hello and Welcome to my blog. My name is Travis Davis, but most days I go by Mr. Davis or dad.  I currently live in Northern Wisconsin with my wife, our two sons ages six and two, three dogs, and two cats.  Oh, and last summer we started off with four ducks and four chickens and somehow ended the summer with five ducks and 15 chickens.  Originally from Janesville in Southern Wisconsin, I moved to the Northwoods of Wisconsin 2013 and have loved every second of it.  I graduated from Craig High School in 2009 and went to the University of Wisconsin – Rock County (in Janesville) in 2010 after taking a year off to work full time. It was then that I decided to move up north after receiving my Associates Degree in 2012.  I had always planned on becoming a teacher, but after moving up north I got married, had kids, and it was five long years before I finally went back to school. 

            Speaking of schools, the reason I go by Mr. Davis most days is because I am a math interventionist at a local school.  However, for the past five years I have been a preschool teacher at a Head Start program.  This is also my third year in the Elementary Education Program, and it has been great for me as a student, a professional, and as a father.  I generally only take one class a semester because of my busy life.  Most of my hobbies like snowboarding and golf have decreased quite a bit having kids, but my wife and I try to take our son pan fishing once a week throughout the summer. I also like to take him disc golfing whenever we have free time because it’s a great simple and free sport for him to learn that gets us outside.  While I may not have as much time or money for my hobbies anymore, raising kids and providing for my family is much more rewarding.  Thanks for reading, Mr. Davis.

Travis Davis, EngEd 275, Chapter 1:
Becoming an Effective Teacher of Reading

Principle 1 – Effective Teacher Understand How Students Learn

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Simply stated, principle 1 describes and details how all students learn differently.  Many teachers used to mention, and many still do, how some students are more visual learners while others are more hands-on.  There are also different ways to teach learners and many situations where one style of teaching works better than others. Here are some of the learner theories detailed within principle 1:

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• Behaviorism – This learning theory would be considered teacher-centered because the teacher is providing the information. This teaching theory often consists of worksheets and assessments to make sure the students are learning what needs to be learned for their grade level and for state/federal testing. 
• Constructivism – This learning theory focuses on how the students are active learners in their education and is considered student-centered.  The students will use what they already know to expand upon and incorporate new information. 
• Schema Theory – A learning theory where students organize information into cognitive structures.  This theory describes students learning by taking information and putting that information into “folders” or categories within their brain or by taking the information and creating new folders to store it. 
• Inquiry Learning – This type of learning, which is a part of constructivism, states that students are naturally curious and will seek out and discover new information.  They will do this by asking questions or trying to find the answers themselves or collaborating with others. 
• Engagement Theory – This theory describes how students who are more interested in learning are more engaged in it and will in turn enjoy the learning activities more.  Engaged students will often show more interest in learning and in turn will work through more challenging activities. Especially when working with other students.
• Sociolinguistics – This learning theory focusing more about how students learn through talking and active discussions.  Within this learning theory, it is important to make sure we are reading books and being culturally respective and responsive.  Another key topic involves talking about social issues like racism, gender equality, and poverty. 
• Information Processing – This last student-centered learning theory involves the way our mind processing and stores information.  Information processing theory is much like a computer in the way it stores information and organizes it into files and folders. This information can then be accessed to understand and interpret new information. 

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Principle 2 – Effective Teachers Support Students Use of the Cueing System

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There are four cueing systems effective teachers use: the phonological (sound), the syntactic (structural) system, the semantic (meaning) system, and the pragmatic (social and cultural) system. These are the systems that help everyone communicate with each other and effective teachers support students use of them.

• Phonological System – This system deals with the phonemes, or sounds, consonants, vowels, and words make.  The phonological system is important when it comes to beginning reading writing because several letters and combinations of letters may have different sounds.
• Syntactic System – This system describes and details grammar and its organization for literacy.  The syntactic system helps students understand that words must be arranged in a certain order to make sense.  Using context clues to learn what words mean is another part of the syntactic system.
• Semantic System – This is the system that deals with vocabulary and the meaning of words.  Students may learn the meaning of 3,000 to 4,000 words a year with many learning about 50,000 definitions by the time they graduate. 
• Pragmatic System – Language has a social aspect to it and this system details how others may have different dialects depending on their culture or geographic location.  Teachers use and teacher standard English that should be and often is incorporated into student’s own dialect. 

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Principle 3 – Effective Teachers Create a Community of Learners

First and foremost, all classrooms should be a safe space for all students.  They should feel comfortable to speak freely without judgement or bullying.  With that in mind, teachers and students must also remember that students come from many different backgrounds and have many different but similar lives.  The relationship the students have with the teacher is one of the most important parts to this community as well.  The classrooms should be a blend of both a family and a community where rules are to be discussed and followed and everyone is treated with respect and treated fairly.  Families should also be an integral part of the classroom with participation in various events and opportunities to collaborate with others happens throughout the year.  Giving students some choice in their own learning is another part of this.  Giving them choices for books they read and topics to read and write about is key as well. 

Teachers should start every school year focusing on building this community of learners for the first few weeks before major learning begins.  Each teacher has different expectations, and some may have similar or different rules.  These first few weeks are important for students to learn and understand what is expected of them and the consequences of what might happen if they are not participating or being effective community members.  Most importantly, the teacher should be modeling these expectations, so the students know the rules and expectations are the same for everyone. 

A successful community classroom also has several identifiable characteristics which are taken into account: Safety, respect, high expectations, risk taking, collaboration, choice, responsibility, and family/community involvement.

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Principle 4 – Effective Teachers Adopt a Balanced Approach to Instruction

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The balanced approach to instruction is based on a comprehensive view of literacy that combines instruction, guided practice, collaborative learning, and independent reading and writing. What this means in regard to literacy instruction is that it involves a flexible but choreographed orchestration of many components.  While literacy is defined as the ability to use reading and writing for a variety of tasks, reading is defined as a complex process of understanding written text.  And while literacy used to be focused mainly on teaching students to read words, it has now evolved to be viewed as a tool for participating more fully in our technological society.  The balanced approached has many components which when integrated well, can help all students.  This works especially well in low-income schools, those with struggling readers, and students learning a new language.  The balanced approach’s key components are comprehension, content area study, literacy strategies and skills, literature, oral language, phonemic awareness and phonics, reading, spelling, vocabulary, and writing.  When one component is over- or underemphasized the development of the others suffer.

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How would we use these things in the classroom?

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This chapter had some great information for both beginning and veteran teachers.  One of the best and most useful parts of the chapter was with principle 3 and creating a community of learners.  When this is done well at the beginning and throughout the year, it can be a complete game changer in the classroom.  Making all students feel welcome, involving families, and collaboration within the classroom can vastly improve outcomes.  Teachers who struggle to get to know their students can have problems with late assignments and poor attitudes.  Another bit of information that is often overlooked is how important it can be to give students choices.  Making options and learning student centered can produce very positive outcomes.  Some simple ideas like letting them choose which book to read can create positive influences. One last bit of information I try to remember to use in the classroom is to know and understand how students learn.  I can remember some older teachers mentioning how students are either visual learners or hands on learners. And while there might be a small kernel of truth in there, understanding the different ways students learn, organize, and use information can help us become better teachers.  One example I observed last year was when a fifth grade class was reading a book for one of their lessons, and occasionally the teacher would assign a chapter or two to be read at home or over the weekend.  Now, normally a teacher would force the students to read the chapters themselves. But, this teacher also gave the students the option to listen to an audio book version of it as well.  Some simple choices like that can make it easier for students to participate and produce more positive outcomes. 

Tompkins, G. E. (2017). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson

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