Guided Reading Essay Example for Free

Guided Reading Essay Abstract This paper will describe the leveling process and how leveled books fit into the reading classroom. It will also describe how to use tools yourself, to locate lists of leveled books, how the listed levels of a title compare between one you leveled, what the publisher class the level and the guided is reading classroom as a function. The last part of this paper will describe the instructional level of a student previously interview in Module 1. Guided Reading How to use leveling tools yourself Guided reading is an instructional approach that teacher uses when students are reading at the same level of instruction. The teacher selects books from certain reading levels to guide students to make connections from print to the text. The books are easily read with the support of the teacher. Challenges and opportunities for problem solving are offered in the text. Choice selection of the books from the teacher will expand their strategies. The purpose of guided reading is for the teacher to select books that students can read with 90% accuracy. When the story is introduced to the student by the teacher, the students, through their own strategies understand and enjoy the story because it is available to them. Pinnell, (2007) states that guided reading gives students the chance to apply the strategies they already know to new text. The teacher supplies support, but the ultimate goal is independent reading. Readers that have developed some since of print have already gained important understanding of it. If they have encountered a problem in reading they will monitor their own reading and check on themselves while searching for possibilities or alternatives How to locate list of leveled books. In order for the teacher to locate leveled books for their students, the teacher should select the students with similar reading habits and behaviors. These students should experience reading habits and behaviors in the same time frame. The guide lines of the choice of books should be not too easy, yet not too hard, and offers a variety of challenges to help readers become flexible problem solvers (Pinnell, 2007). When choosing a guided reading program or leveled books, the teacher should look for books that are similar to their knowledge, are interesting to them, support them to move to the next step in reading, and give just the right amount of challenge to ensure that problem solving is taking place while supporting fluency and understanding. Leveled book collection is a large set of books organized in levels of difficulty from easy books that an emergent reader might read, to the longer, complex books that advanced readers will select. The leveled books collections may be housed in an area where it is easily accessible. A key component in a guided reading program is the leveled books. The scholastic Guided Reading Program is a varied collection of books that are categorized by the kind and level of challenge they offer children as they are learning to read. The Guided Reading Program consists of 260 books organized into 26 levels of difficulty –Levels A-Z. Many different characteristics of the texts are considered in determining the level of challenge and support a particular book or short story presents (Pinnell, 2007) Some leveled books may consist of the teachers’ working collaborately together to construct leveled books from large collections of books. When teachers have been teaching a long time, they began to acquire the knowledge necessary to know what is easy and what is difficult for their students. When using the books frequently, the teachers will notice that categories of their collections will become more established (Scholastic. com) How the listed levels of a title compare between one you leveled. There are factors and criteria’s for leveling books. There is no distinct characteristic that can be used to evaluate text or reading materials. Some of the factors that are considered when evaluating text are length, layout, structure and organization, illustrations, words, phrases and sentences, literacy features, and content and theme (Scholastics. com). When compared the book that was leveled with the books in Scholastics, it was very close. The formation was based on the factors and criteria’s’ for leveling books. Guided reading classroom, how it functions, its advantages, and its disadvantages. The guided reading classrooms should have an independent reading practice location. This independent practice space should welcome students to a rich environment for reading. Teachers with a good sense of what a rich reading environment consist of will include in the reading practice location pillows or a couch for a feeling of an invitation to read. Students need to feel very comfortable when reading. The library in a guided classroom needs to be complete with rich and exciting literature. Some of the literature that should be included in the library is fiction, nonfiction, fantasy, magazines, current events, and sports and whatever you feel as a teacher that the students will be interested in. Technology is a major component of a guided reading classroom. It services as an independent and small group practice while the teacher is working with students in a small guided reading group. The guided reading groups should consist of four to six students at a time. The sessions for guided reading groups vary depending upon what level of readers you are dealing with. It is often 10-15 minutes for emergent readers, and 15-30 minutes for more advanced readers. Also in a guided reading classroom there should be cross curriculum centers for writing, art, and science which can be done at their desk with very little instruction. This would take very explicit planning on the teacher part. This will allow for the teacher to continue guided reading groups. A teacher-led small-group assessment area should be located in a place where the teacher has total vision of her classroom, but yet in an area where the students that are in the guided reading area can be together so that the skill can be implemented as one. Finally, there should be a designated area where the teacher can teach in a whole group setting. The advantages of a guided reading classroom when the teachers are working with a particular group, is that they can control what is going on in the classroom and ensure that the students are actively engaged at all times. By setting guided reading classrooms up this way, the teacher can take an informal assessment of behaviors whether or not the students are working in centers, at their desk or with the teacher in a guided reading group. The teacher should be taking running records, jotting anecdotal notes, or even conducting oral interviews if time permits. The disadvantages of this guided reading classroom is that it will take a lot of planning time to ensure that the centers all have meaningful activities that will help them read or increase their ability to interact with each other. Most of the time teachers do not have centers that are effective because of the necessary time needed for preparation to ensure an effective guided reading classroom. These guided reading groups should constantly change from week to week to ensure that all students are actively engaged in a differentiated atmosphere. Student from Module 1 This student could fall between emergent literacy and beginning reader because in module 1 the student started finger pointing and looking at the picture to determine the words. Also the student had trouble with the recognition of sight words. The student experienced difficulty with decoding unfamiliar words. This was a 3rd grade student that seemed very happy at home. The student does understand the concepts of print and words. Even thought she had trouble with decoding unfamiliar words, she seems to have phonological awareness. Knowledge of alphabets was noted. Her Independent level was grade 1, Instructional grade 1-2, and Frustration Level is Grade 3. Can this student benefit from a pull-out intervention program that focus on sight words and decoding? Conclusion This paper described the leveling process and how leveled books fit into the reading classroom. It will also described how to use tools yourself, to locate lists of leveled books, how the listed levels of a title compare between one you leveled, what the publisher class the level and the guided is reading classroom as a function. The last part of this paper described the instructional level of a student previously interview in Module 1. References Pinnell, G. S. (2007, Guided Reading Program, Scholastic, Scholastic, Red, New York, NY Scholastic. Com Retrieved September 14, 2009 from http://www2. scholastic. com/browse/article. jsp? id+4177.

Margaret Mead :: essays research papers

Margaret Mead (1901-1978) Margaret Mead was born on Monday, December 16, 1901, at the West Park Hospital in Philadelphia, P.A. Margaret was the first baby to be born in this hospital, and because of this, she felt different from the rest of the children, because they had all been born at home. Margaret’s parents were from the midwest, and because of their professions, the family moved quite a bit living in such places as Hampton, New Jersey; Greenwich Village in New York City, and St. Marks Square in Philadelphia. Because she moved so much as a child, Margaret had been subjected to many different styles of living, and therefore had a growing desire to learn more about different lifestyles and cultures. Margaret’s first major experience was going to school. Margaret often felt out of place because of moving so much and being in many different schools, and often being taught at home by her grandmother. However, it was in high school that she met and later became engaged to a man by the name of Luther Cressman. After attending many high schools because of her family’s travel, she graduated, and was sent to DePauw University at Greencastle Indiana in 1919, where her intention was to major in English. Unfortunately, Margaret was looked down on in DePauw, so she transferred to Barnard College where she studied with Franz Boas and his student Ruth Benedict. It was also at Barnard College that she decided to make anthropology her main field of study. She received her B.A. degree from Barnard in 1923. In September of that same year, Margaret was married to Luther in a small Episcopal Church where she had been baptized. She then continued her studies as a graduate student, and in 1924 she received her M.A. degree in Psychology from Columbia University. In 1925, she completed her doctoral thesis, but did not receive her Ph.D from Columbia until 1929. Also in 1925, she began her first field work project, in the Samoan Islands. On her return to the United States in 1926, Margaret was appointed assistant curator of ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History. Her second field work, to the Manus Tribe of the Admiralty Islands in the West Pacific Ocean, was made possible by a Social Science Research Council Fellowship in 1928 and continued into 1929. In 1930, Dr. Mead was began her third field trip, this time to study an American Indian tribe which she calls'; the antlers'; in her book reporting her findings and conclusions. Margaret Mead :: essays research papers Margaret Mead (1901-1978) Margaret Mead was born on Monday, December 16, 1901, at the West Park Hospital in Philadelphia, P.A. Margaret was the first baby to be born in this hospital, and because of this, she felt different from the rest of the children, because they had all been born at home. Margaret’s parents were from the midwest, and because of their professions, the family moved quite a bit living in such places as Hampton, New Jersey; Greenwich Village in New York City, and St. Marks Square in Philadelphia. Because she moved so much as a child, Margaret had been subjected to many different styles of living, and therefore had a growing desire to learn more about different lifestyles and cultures. Margaret’s first major experience was going to school. Margaret often felt out of place because of moving so much and being in many different schools, and often being taught at home by her grandmother. However, it was in high school that she met and later became engaged to a man by the name of Luther Cressman. After attending many high schools because of her family’s travel, she graduated, and was sent to DePauw University at Greencastle Indiana in 1919, where her intention was to major in English. Unfortunately, Margaret was looked down on in DePauw, so she transferred to Barnard College where she studied with Franz Boas and his student Ruth Benedict. It was also at Barnard College that she decided to make anthropology her main field of study. She received her B.A. degree from Barnard in 1923. In September of that same year, Margaret was married to Luther in a small Episcopal Church where she had been baptized. She then continued her studies as a graduate student, and in 1924 she received her M.A. degree in Psychology from Columbia University. In 1925, she completed her doctoral thesis, but did not receive her Ph.D from Columbia until 1929. Also in 1925, she began her first field work project, in the Samoan Islands. On her return to the United States in 1926, Margaret was appointed assistant curator of ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History. Her second field work, to the Manus Tribe of the Admiralty Islands in the West Pacific Ocean, was made possible by a Social Science Research Council Fellowship in 1928 and continued into 1929. In 1930, Dr. Mead was began her third field trip, this time to study an American Indian tribe which she calls'; the antlers'; in her book reporting her findings and conclusions.

Compare and Contrast two poems: Welsh Landscape and East Moors Essay

â€Å"Welsh Landscape† is written by R.S Thomas. He was a Welsh traditionalist born in 1913 and he died in 2000. He has strong views and lives in the past thinking of Wales of having no present or future. The poem consists of just one stanza. The main theme of this poem is war imagery, the words that suggest this are â€Å"ambush†, â€Å"spilled blood†, â€Å"wild†, â€Å"strife†, â€Å"strung†, â€Å"sped arrows†, â€Å"cries†, â€Å"fields†, â€Å"corners† and â€Å"carcass†. He describes Wales to have â€Å"spilled blood† which describes past battles. He goes on to describe how the â€Å"immaculate rivers† are dyed – they can’t be perfect. Even water is effected by past occurrences, blood is becoming part of nature. Nature has been corrupted by battles. There’s no control over the sky, Thomas uses the word â€Å"wild† to describe it. Next he uses alliteration, sibilance â€Å"strife†, â€Å"strung†, â€Å"sped† its related with the past, as its in past tense. â€Å"Strife† describes the struggles they’ve had, â€Å"strung† indicates there was trouble. â€Å"Vibrant† makes you think of a bright, alive and almost artistic place, but then he brings in the strong opinion of â€Å"you cannot live in the present†. Gillian Clarke, a feminist born in Cardiff in 1937, writes â€Å"East Moors†. She believes boredom is a major problem in Wales once the community’s biggest employer closes down. It consists of 6 stanzas. Demolition is the main theme. This poem looks at change in the community, the sort of change some might regard as a progress, but which the poem suggests can undermine communities, individual identity and purpose. Steelworks meant more to men than anything in their life as it was their life, they were there all the time, it was the main topic of conversation and it was the income to support their families, without it they had nothing. The first line in this poem make you think a seasonal change will follow these events, the arrival of spring is to come with the arrival of May. It’s a device used to suggest a possible end to bitter times but this is undermined in the final stanza when the phrases â€Å"icy† and â€Å"rain is blowing† is used to describe the first day in May. The â€Å"flash of sea† is a metaphor, to tell us there isn’t much sea. There are  some metaphors in â€Å"Welsh Landscape† too: â€Å"thick ambush of shadows† is a metaphor for past memories haunting you. The fourth line in â€Å"East Moors† describes â€Å"blue islands† the word â€Å"blue† has a double meaning – the colour and also the emotion of sadness. In both poems there are examples of sibilance, in â€Å"Welsh Landscape† it is â€Å"sped, strung, strife† and in â€Å"East moors† it is â€Å"steelworks used to smoke†. This also tells us that the place used to be filled with industry. The first line of the second stanza shows typical lives of people living in the valleys in the 1930s, people were born in houses instead of hospitals, then they lived in them throughout their lives. The second and third lines describe how the how the steelworks often gave off flashes of light â€Å"sudden glow† in the middle of the night, so the neighbours were â€Å"accustomed† to it. Then it says a â€Å"dark† sound, it’s a contrast to the earlier mention of â€Å"glow†, and it could mean, low or spooky. Throughout the second stanza, there’s a lot of cases of sibilance -â€Å"sudden†, â€Å"sky†, â€Å"sound†, â€Å"smell† and â€Å"sulphur†. There’s also more sibilance in â€Å"Welsh Landscape†, Thomas talks about â€Å"soft† consonants being â€Å"strange† to the ear. â€Å"Soft† is a positive word. The words have a strong connection to the welsh language as he chose to learn it in adulthood – he finds it important to his heritage. In â€Å"East Moors†, the third stanza begins with alliteration â€Å"Roath†, â€Å"Rumney† they are two areas of Cardiff, its showing typical sense of valley life. Now, clothes are hung in yards and there’s no pollution to dirty these garments. Then comes more stereotypical life of men and women – men being â€Å"lethargic† and women lining up jobs for their lazy, redundant husbands. We know they’re jobless, as the steelworks have been closed down, the explanation comes in the last line of the third stanza. The fourth stanza states how bitter these jobless men are, their misery matches the atmosphere as the â€Å"skyline† is being destroyed as the building is torn down. The steelworks made a pattern like â€Å"hieroglyphics†. The day its torn down families gather round like it’s a day out, it reminds  us of tragedies like September 11th. The simile at the end of the fourth stanza shows how important it is to them, like losing someone close to them â€Å"a death†, there will now be an â€Å"appalling void† where the steelworks used to be. These are such negative words it emphasises the meaning of the loss of the steelworks. So in the final stanza, it describes a new beginning, the start of a month, it should be positive as summer is nearing, but as the steelworks are gone, May is a miserable month. There are, however, some positive words â€Å"quieter† â€Å"cleaner† but it goes on to say â€Å"poorer from today† which means the workers have lost their jobs. The fourth line is a repetition from the first stanza. It indicates that although the town might be poor the cherries are still growing. The last line shows it doesn’t take long to forget about the steelworks and life goes on. The sky is blind though and there’s no future for the village. Back to â€Å"Welsh Landscape† the next line in question, â€Å"hushed at the fields corners†, this means, they’re being forced to be quiet, as if by barriers. Then again, Thomas brings up his pessimistic views of Wales, he’s determined to create an atmosphere so people think of past times. He even goes as far as to say things are â€Å"brittle† and would break apart. Its so bad it can’t even have a real ghost, it has pretending â€Å"sham ghosts†. All Wales has are mines so if they are going what else is here? Powerless people unable to perform sexually? Or people â€Å"sick with inbreeding†? That is a harsh opinion, which shows Thomas thinks people never come out of Wales. The last line of the poem is a loose personification, meaning the song can worry and die. The song probably being the Welsh National Anthem. â€Å"Welsh Landscape† has no rhythmic syllable pattern, which implies Wales isn’t structured. There isn’t a rhyme pattern either. In â€Å"East Moors† however, there isn’t a strong syllable pattern, there is however a rhythm and structure to the poem, it relates to the routine of the day. In both poems there are many cases of enjambment, this is mainly caused by the non-structured there’s a lot of punctuation in both poems, I don’t however, believe that it helps with the meaning of the poem. The mood at the start of  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Welsh Landscape† is the same as the end, dull, violent and derogatory towards Wales. In â€Å"East Moors† the mood at the start makes you think there’ll be a seasonal changer, that the bitter times have ended, but in fact the times continue to be just as terrible as before.

Taiping Rebellion in Qing China

The Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) was a millenarian uprising in southern China that began as a peasant rebellion  and turned into an extremely bloody civil war. It broke out in 1851, a Han Chinese reaction against the Qing Dynasty, which was ethnically Manchu. The rebellion was sparked by a famine in Guangxi Province, and Qing government repression of the resulting peasant protests. A would-be scholar named Hong Xiuquan, from the Hakka minority, had tried for years to pass the exacting imperial civil service examinations  but had failed each time. While suffering from a fever, Hong learned from a vision that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ  and that he had a mission to rid China of Manchu rule and of Confucian ideas. Hong was influenced by an eccentric Baptist missionary from the United States named Issachar Jacox Roberts. Hong Xiuquans teachings and the famine sparked a January 1851 uprising in Jintian (now called Guiping), which the government quashed. In response, a rebel army of 10,000 men and women marched to Jintian and overran the garrison of Qing troops stationed there; this marks the official start of the Taiping Rebellion. Taiping Heavenly Kingdom To celebrate the victory, Hong Xiuquan announced the formation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with himself as king. His followers tied red cloths around their heads. The men also grew out their hair, which had been kept in the queue style as per Qing regulations. Growing long hair was a capital offense under Qing law. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had other policies that put it at odds with Beijing. It abolished private ownership of property, in an interesting foreshadowing of Maos communist ideology. Also, like the communists, the Taiping Kingdom declared men and women equal  and abolished social classes. However, based on Hongs understanding of Christianity, men and women were kept strictly segregated, and even married couples were prohibited from living together or having sex. This restriction did not apply to Hong himself, of course--as self-proclaimed king, he had a large number of concubines. The Heavenly Kingdom also outlawed foot binding, based its civil service exams on the Bible instead of Confucian texts, used a lunar calendar rather than a solar one, and outlawed vices such as opium, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and prostitution. The Rebels The Taiping rebels early military success made them quite popular with the peasants of Guangxi, but their efforts to attract support from the middle-class landowners and from Europeans failed. The leadership of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom began to fracture, as well, and Hong Xiuquan went into seclusion. He issued proclamations, mostly of a religious nature, while the Machiavellian rebel general Yang Xiuqing took over military and political operations for the rebellion. Hong Xiuquans followers rose up against Yang in 1856, killing him, his family, and the rebel soldiers loyal to him. The Taiping Rebellion began to fail in 1861  when the rebels proved unable to take Shanghai. A coalition of Qing troops and Chinese soldiers under European officers defended the city, then set out to crush the rebellion in the southern provinces. After three years of bloody fighting, the Qing government had retaken most of the rebel areas. Hong Xiuquan died of food poisoning in June of 1864, leaving his hapless 15-year-old son on the throne. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdoms capital at Nanjing fell the following month after hard urban fighting, and the Qing troops executed the rebel leaders. At its peak, the Taiping Heavenly Army likely fielded approximately 500,000 soldiers, male and female. It initiated the idea of total war - every citizen living within the boundaries of the Heavenly Kingdom was trained to fight, thus civilians on either side could expect no mercy from the opposing army. Both opponents used scorched earth tactics, as well as mass executions. As a result, the Taiping Rebellion was likely the bloodiest war of the nineteenth century, with an estimated 20 - 30 million casualties, mostly civilians. Around 600 entire cities in Guangxi, Anhui, Nanjing, and Guangdong Provinces were wiped from the map. Despite this horrific outcome, and the founders millennial Christian inspiration, the Taiping Rebellion proved motivational for Mao Zedongs Red Army during the Chinese Civil War the following century. The Jintian Uprising that started it all has a prominent place on the Monument to the Peoples Heroes that stands today in Tiananmen Square, central Beijing.