Education at Green Mountain College

“Our nation is facing a literacy crisis. The United States government estimates that roughly 25% of the adult population in this country is functionally illiterate. It has been acknowledged that if students do not learn to read by the time they enter 3rd grade there is only a 1 in 17 chance that they will ever catch up to their typically developing peers. The future of our nation depends heavily on its children. Here at Green Mountain College we offer training for pre-service teachers in the area of language and literacy that is cutting edge and heavily influenced not only by theory, but backed by research. Elementary education majors graduate from our program ready to teach children to read. This is an advantage that we are proud to say that we offer here at G.M.C. Green Mountain College is a pioneer in the field of teacher preparation." - Rommy Fuller

Saturday, August 20, 2011

One Quick Thought on Technology in Education

I’ve been thinking most recently about Prensky’s idea of partnering as described in his book Teaching Digital Natives (2010).  Essentially, the author argues that teachers must allow for students to follow their passions, use whatever technology is available, research and find information, answer questions, share thoughts and opinions, and practice, etc.  This kind of student learning is facilitated by good teaching; that is: creating and asking the right questions, giving students guidance, putting material in context, explaining one-on-one, creating rigor, and ensuring quality.  In other words, the opposite of teaching by telling.  Some might identify Prensky’s approach as project-based learning.  With the pressures that teacher’s are faced with, such as high-stakes testing, AYP, etc., one might question whether or not a teacher could set up his / her curriculum and instruction in a way that allows for Prensky’s idea of partnering.  Of course they can!  The key is to start small and build quickly.  With respect to technology, it seems that the more you learn, the quicker it is to acquire new skills. The key is that educators need to drop their defenses and allow themselves to learn with students. In other words, teachers need to move away from the fears that they feel, on many levels, and do what is best for students.  Further, I believe that school leaders need to be the first to encourage and provide professional development and training for student centered pedagogy.  Let’s face it, Prensky’s partnering techniques address the most important concern of all- student learning. It’s about time that educators start ‘walking the walk’ so to speak; we need to model what it looks like to be lifelong learners in the age of technological innovation.  

Start of the Year

Wordle: Start of the School Year

Be Thinking in Terms of Phonemic Awareness

The previous posts define two of many terms that you will be learning in Language & Literacy I.  Although it is important to know and understand terms associated with the realms of phonology and phonological awareness, it is particularly important that you know and understand what phonemic awareness is as well as the tremendous importance of phonemic awareness in connection to reading

By Definition...

pho·neme

[foh-neem] Show IPA
noun Linguistics .
any of a small set of units, usually about 20 to 60 in number, and different for each language, considered to be the basic distinctive units of speech sound by which morphemes, words, and sentences are represented. They are arrived at for any given language by determining which differences in sound function to indicate a difference in meaning, so that in English the difference in sound and meaning between pit  and bit  is taken to indicate the existence of different labial phonemes, while the difference in sound between the unaspirated p  of spun  and the aspirated p  of pun,  since it is never the only distinguishing feature between two different words, is not taken as ground for setting up two different p  phonemes in English. Compare distinctive feature ( def. 1 ) .

By Definition...

pho·nol·o·gy

[fuh-nol-uh-jee, foh-] Show IPA
noun, plural -gies.
1. the study of the distribution and patterning of speech sounds in a language and of the tacit rules governing pronunciation.
2. the phonological system or the body of phonological facts of a language.

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