Announcements

__Via E-mail on Sunday, September 29th:__

Hi everyone,

I hope that this message finds you enjoying your weekend.

I should start by writing that if you received a blank e-mail from me this morning from my other work address (afletcher@psms29.com), you should just delete it, if you haven't already. I was trying to transfer your Fordham e-mail addresses from my.fordham to Google and inadvertently sent out the draft message without having written even a subject!

Anyway, I've received some more questions about the response blog assignment and wanted to send a clarification out to everyone.

Ideally, your name is listed as a part of the blog's title on the home page, unless you're uncomfortable with this situation. If you are uncomfortable, leave it off and we'll figure out who you are from your link. The names I think will just help in easily figuring out what blog we're visiting. Also, the design of your blog is completely your call. This project is about written reflection, sharing, and feedback, and so a web log makes that easy to make happen. The project is not about technological savvy but feel free to make the site your own if you wish. Also, as the semester began, I didn't talk too much about blog entry due dates. But now that we're about to have our fourth class, I should. All blog entries due for a particular week should be posted prior to the start of that week's class.

Some other questions have come up regarding the course wiki. You do not need to be logged in to my.fordham in order to access the wiki. That's one of the reasons I use the site. All you need to do is visit fu-ctge-5534.wikispaces.com and you're set. You are not joining the wiki (since I use the site as a website and not a true wiki). You are just viewing/downloading information from it, as anyone can.

To answer questions about work with your focus student, remember that if you need something more than the letter posted on the course wiki, for either administration or parents, please let me know. Usually a conversation with parents is all that's required. You should simply explain to them that as a part of a graduate school assignment, you've chosen their daughter/son to work with in order to better understand them as a reader/writer. In order to do this, you'll be administering them various assessments, analyzing the results, and teaching them two lessons targeting needs determined by way of that analysis. You'll even be able to share all of this information with them towards the end of December. I don't think any caregiver would say no to additional help for her/his struggling reader, but if that is the case, please let me know.

Finally, the child interview to be conducted this week is just that, an interview. Except for the last page, you are gently asking the questions and recording on the interview form what the student has to say. Take your notes as you deem fit. I do suggest video recording/audio recording the interview in case you need to refer back to the information later but that is for you to decide. There is no requirement to do so. The interview is your chance to get to know your focus student and for the student to be introduced to you, in the event the student doesn't know you already. A suggestion there is to take the interview first yourself so that you can easily share applicable information with your student. In terms of the physical arrangement for the interview, complete this assessment as you would any other, with the child sitting comfortably next to you in a way that allows for a conversation to take place while at the same time allows for you to take needed notes.

So now I should apologize because I didn't mean for my message to be this long but I did want to try to answer some questions coming from you all. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if something isn't clear or if you need something further. I'm here to help.

Have a great start to the week!

__Via E-mail on Friday, October 4th:__

Good morning,

Just a quick update...

I uploaded the response blog link list as requested. You'll find it on the "Assignment-Task Details" page.

Also, regarding the "Informal Test of Alphabet Knowledge" assessment for next week - When you are administering the "Letter-Sound Knowledge" section, be sure to record if any responses to consonants include that extra vowel sound that we spoke about in class. These would not count as errors but are important to note nonetheless.

Finally, just to make sure that everyone heard my response to the question about the two assessments for next week being not necessary for some of your students because they have attained a level of mastery in these two areas - Go ahead and complete the assessments anyway so that you know that this mastery is a fact and to have a set baseline for what these students know and can do.

That's it for now. Have a great week and don't hesitate to e-mail if I can be of help!

__Via Google Drive on Sunday, October 13th:__

I've shared an item with you.

Hi everyone,

Hope you're enjoying the long weekend. I'm sharing this document with you all that I just put together and uploaded to Google Drive. It's a compilation of what the different groups put together in class last week in regards to content, pedagogy, and resources for teaching and learning in the aspects or components of early literacy that we've covered thus far: oral language, print awareness, and the alphabet.

Everyone has the ability to both view and edit the document. Feel free to make additions or edits as necessary. I just ask that you do so in color so that I can see them easily. Once I've reviewed them, I'll change the color to black.

We'll keep adding/revising this document as we go forward in our study in an effort to have a continual resource that can be referred to as we expand our knowledge base in early literacy work. I think it'll come in especially handy as you begin your work with the course instructional experience assignments.

That's it for now. Have a great week!

Content-Pedagogy-Resources