Reply to the 4 discussion post (One Paragraph response each). Be constructive and professional in your responses.

This week focuses on language development and milestones. Which stage of language development between birth and age 8 do you feel is the most critical? Why? What are some factors that may positively and negatively affect language development? Explain and provide specific examples to support your response.

(This is just the Discussion Question for Response 1 & 2)

Response 1

Satella,

The stage of language development between birth and age 8 that I feel is the most critical would be communication. An infant cries to let you know that they want food, comfort or companionship. Then, as they grow they begin to sort out the speech that helps them to compose the words of their language.

Some factors that may positively and negatively affect language development are to see if they are motivated to learn, do they have support at home, do they have prior knowledge of the language, how do they feel in the classroom setting, how do I teach the language and most importantly how old are they when they start to learn language skills.

Some examples to support my response are that parents who prioritize the language learning process are more likely to push their child to keep trying even when it feels difficult, make sure that the classroom is positive and relaxing, see what the aspects are that affect the learning process by the age of the student, and another example could b to make sure that the students understand the concept of a language.

Response 2

Diedra

I feel the most critical age of language development is age 0-12 months. I feel this stage is the most critical because this is the age where parents build the foundation of speech for their child by talking to them, reading and singing nursery rhymes to them. This is the stage babies start to make eye contact, making vowels and consonant sounds such as ah, ba, ga, ma, da, etc. At this stage babies learn how to make different pitches, sounds and volume. They learn how to put two syllables together to make longer sequences of sounds, which which may sound like normal speech such as mama and dada. This is the stage babies first learn how to communicate their needs and wants. It is up to the parents or adults to communicate back to the their child so they will learn the correct way to communicate their needs and wants without pointing, making sounds, nodding their head or using one word. This is the stage where babies learn who they are by responding to their name by looking, smiling, widening their eyes, or listening. I feel this is the most critical stage because it is the time babies first learn how to communicate.

Last week, you had the opportunity to create a content area writing activity for elementary students. This week’s emphasis is on comprehension strategies and study skills in the content areas. What are the key components of explicit strategy instruction? What is its role in content area instruction? How will you use explicit strategy instruction in your own teaching? Explain and provide specific examples to support your response. (This is just the Discussion Question for Response 3 & 4)

Response 3

Kristen

Comprehension and study skills are a big topic at my school this year. We got special training from a women who is contracted out of North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to help our school with comprehension strategies. Students need to be able to synthesize and think about their thinking on a very deep level in order to have a good understanding of the topic. We would use this strategy during our close reading usually with nonfiction but this strategy also works with fiction. Students have a large sticky note for each paragraph. the students read each paragraph to themselves and think about the question “what is important to me in this paragraph?” As students are thinking about this they are thinking about their thinking and internalizing the passage. They are making personal connections therefor hopefully comprehending the text. They write their thoughts on their sticky notes in no more than three sentences. This helps them condense their thinking into what is actually important. The students them share in groups of their thinking and discuss certain aspects about the text. At the end of the activity students use their sticky notes to write a summary.

Response 4

julie

When I read about explicit strategy instruction, one of the parts that struck me was that the teacher must be knowledgeable about the students’ understanding and skills with using different strategies. The text suggests having students read a passage and observing what strategies they currently are using to understand the reading. The next component is to create awareness of the strategy — why it is important and how to use it. It is so important to get the students to buy-in to the important of using strategies, otherwise it can just seem like extra work to them. Then the teacher explains the steps and models it for the class. Using think-alouds helps makes this process more transparent for the students. They are not just watching a teacher underline certain section, but also hearing the reason that the teacher chose to highlight that section and not another. Finally, allow the students multiple opportunities to practice the new strategy as well as a time to review it. Do they find it helpful or difficult? This is the part I really struggle with. I don’t think I give students enough opportunities to evaluate the usefulness of a strategies or their understanding of a lesson.