Homework: Yay or Nay?

Before reading this week's assignments, I began to think about how much controversy there is around homework, no matter the ability or language levels of students. In my short time in the classroom, I have worked in a school where we were told we had to give homework every night, and now I work in a school where homework is frowned upon. Both schools were on extended school day, but both had a very different view on what was appropriate for students to be working on outside of school. 

The school which mandated homework got to the point that our Principal was having us submit our homework assignments so that he could see that we were giving students work outside of class. Teachers began to provide push back because we thought it was too much for students, especially for our middle school students, because that means they would have homework from 14 different teachers since we were on a block schedule. 

In my current school, the philosophy is that students should not need homework outside of the school day because if we are providing meaningful work in our classes, we should know where our students are and that they should only be reading their free choice novels for outside work. 

So, what is the answer, especially for ELL students?

"Homework provides students with opportunities to practice, review, and apply knowledge....homework is an effective means of extending student learning beyond the school day," (Hill, 2006.)

I think that this quote is important to keep in mind when we are creating homework assignments, because unless assignments are purposeful and meaningful, is it necessary to ask students to complete the tasks?

For ELL students, it is necessary that we are providing plenty of opportunities to apply the knowledge and skills we are teaching them in class, but it should not be busy work. By giving students meaningful work that truly supports their knowledge and language acquisition, we are giving them opportunities to practice necessary skills in real world application. With that being said, we want to give students the change to practice reading, writing, speaking, and listening in authentic ways, not just have students complete worksheets. By providing students more "real world" homework, it also gives parents the opportunity to participate in their students learning, and be apart of their students learning. 

However, before we can assign the homework to our students, it is the job of teachers, schools, and districts, to conduct the following for ELL families (Hill, 2006): 

• Research the culture of students backgrounds and experience with formal education in their previous country.  
• Found out the educational customs and expectations of both the parents and students.
• Provide parents with their legal rights in the United States when it comes to education; this also needs to include their legal obligation and what your schools grading system, (ie: What does it mean to have Standards-Based grades?)
• Identify the students and parents prior exposure to the English language, even if the student was born in the United States
• Connect families with the community liaison and leadership for events in the school and community, especially those designed for ELL students

Once these norms and systems have been established for families, it is important for teachers to be instructed on what is meaningful and purposeful homework. If schools have an ELL population are going to expect students to be completing work outside of school, the work needs to be meaningful for not only the student, but the families they going to be practicing with at home. 

In order to ensure that students are successful with homework, whether they are an ELL student or not, there are four suggestions from Classroom Instruction That Works that I believe all teachers and school need to keep in mind when it comes to homework practices: 

1. The amount of homework assigned to students should increase as they progress from elementary school through high school. 
2. Parental involvement in homework should be minimal. 
3. The purpose of homework should be identified and articulated clearly. 
4. Feedback should be provided on homework assignments. 

In addition to these homework practices, I also found that the recommendations made by the same text, Classroom Instruction That Works in regards to homework from the classroom are necessary for all teachers to remember: 

1. Establish and communicate a homework policy. 
2. Design homework assignments that clearly articulate the purpose and outcome.
3. Feedback should be varied.

 So the answer is...

The amount of homework students should receive is based on the needs of your students. We cannot identify a one size fits all approach to homework, but students need to feel prepared in confident with what they are learning about. Homework should be something that comes in to continue the learning in your classroom in authentic ways. However, if students are in the pre-production or early production of their language acquisition, the work that students should be working on should be directed toward vocabulary and grammar skills and  should be focused on including their families in this work. If students are in the intermediate and advanced stages of acquisition, homework should simply be used to improve on their academic language, (Hill, 2006.)

To guide your own reflection on whether or not the work you are providing is beneficial, no matter the skill level of your student, you can reflect on the following criteria created by the U.S Department of Education: 

• Does this assignment:
• Review and practice what we have covered in class?
• Get ready for the next day's class?
• Explore more on a subject than we can cover in class?
• Extend learning by applying skills students already have?
• Teach students to use resources, (libraries, computers, websites, etc.)?
• Integrate learning by applying different skills to a single task, (book reports, project, etc.)?

Furthermore, the U.S Department of education provides how much times students should spend on homework. Their recommendations on how much homework students should have daily, and that just depends on the grade level of the students. You can see the recommendations below: 

• Kindergarten through Second Grade: 10-20 minutes of homework each school day
• Third through Sixth Grade: 30-60 minutes of homework each school day
• Seventh through Ninth Grade: Varies from night to night

So no matter the age of the student, or the amount of time the government recommends, the one key piece we must remember, is, if it does not improve our students, or is not truly worth our time to provide feedback to our students on, then we must ask ourselves, "is this homework assignment necessary?" 

Works Cited:

Hill, J., & Flynn, K. (2006). Classroom instruction that works with English language learners. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Homework: The Basics | ELL Topics from A-Z | Colorín Colorado. (2005, January 1). Retrieved February 18, 2015, from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/20469/

Fiction & Non-Fiction Text Comparrison

The two texts that I chose are texts that I will be using in my last unit of the year in my 8th grade Social Studies classes. I wanted to begin thinking about how I will support all of my students with these texts, because they are novels. Both texts revolve around the slave era in America. Both texts follow the form of a narrative because the Non-Fiction novel is an autobiography written by a former slave named Harriet Jacobs. Crow tells the story of post-Civil War America told through the eyes of young boy. Both stories allow students to understand the divided world that was the United States during the Civil War, and how the Reconstruction time period did not allow for equality for the newly freed slaves. These texts will allow all students to understand history through stories that follow a plot diagram. Through the use of dialogue and imagery students of all levels are able to develop a story in their own mind. Below you will see features that allow for ease of ELL students, as well as challenges ELL students may face while reading these texts.

Text Title:	Non-Fiction: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs	Fiction: Crow by Barbara Wright
Grade Level:	RL: 5.9 Lexile Level: 810 Grades: 7-12	RL: 4.6 Lexile Level: 800 Grades: 4-8
Genre Text Features:	Autobiography with: setting, characters, plot, problem, solution, events, conflict, resolution, dialogue. Each chapter is one event in the author’s life. Story follows a timeline in order of the author’s life. Characters are fully developed with good imagery for students to be able to create their own ideas of who the characters are.	Narrative with: setting, characters, plot, problem, solution, events, conflict, resolution, dialogue. Characters are fully developed with good imagery for students to be able to create their own ideas of who the characters are.
Features that Help ELL Students:	Each chapter is one event in the author’s life. Story told in the form of a narrative. Story can be read aloud and taken on by students to act out scenes and events of the story.	Sentence structure is short and simple. Language is familiar and academic. Tells the story of a young boy who is facing prejudice which students may be able to relate to.
Features that Challenge ELL Students	Author’s slang terms/non-academic language could be confusing for ELL students who do not use the language or may not be familiar with the slang. No images except on the cover. Time period is not familiar and may not have background information.	Story starts in the middle of the story which could cause confusion. No images except on the cover. Time period is not familiar and may not have background information.

ELL Supports: SIOP Method

The SIOP method makes sure that the reading is accessible to all students who are learning English so they are able to comprhened text. SIOP stands for Sheltered Instruction Obeservation Protocal, and provides "scaffolds" or "shelters", that allow for all students to read the same leveled texts and be successful.

Within the SIOP method, students are provides supports prior to reading, during reading, and after reading. Below you will find strategies you can use throughout these stages to ensure that all students can access the grade level reading material you are presenting to them in class.  The examples that you see below are found in videos provided by Regis University. However, the strategies that were shown are best practices for all students, but support students who are learning a language more specifically.

Pre Reading:	-Explicitly state the objective of the day: content and language -Instructions should be clear and concise -Goal for the day: IE: Inferences from reading a passage -State the passage students will be reading from -Agenda so students know what they are going to be working on through out class -Pre-teach vocabulary: Student should be provided pictures and sentences to suport learning Examples from video: Harvest T: Who remembers what a harvest means? S: Produce                   T: Acknowledges good academic vocabulary-Produce Bouquet images and sentences provided S: Flowers Pricked T: What is a synonym for pricked S:cut, stabbed Resentment T: provided an example of boom box vs small headphones and this causing jealousy amongst siblings Cowboy Connects cowboy to the native language of the student to provide understanding                                                                                            -Book Walk/Summary of the main idea of text or chapter -Graphic Organizer/Compare & Contrast -Making predictions -Work in groups -Connect/relate to the students backgrounds -What does this topic mean to you and your culture? IE: Superstitions
During Reading:	-Ask students to clarify texts or ideas that are unfamiliar to the teacher Example: The Birthday Song in Spanish: "Do you know it?" Students sang the song for the class, clarified for each other in Spanish to ensure they were using the right language -Students and teachers read a loud the text so they can read and see the words together, be sure to clearly pronounce the words. -Remind students and demonstrate how to use reading strategies: Modeled verbally and on overhead projector, leveled questions, remind them of background knowledge         Example: What do I mean, put the harvest to bed? When you infer, you do not always have to be right: you use context clues and background knowledge to draw a conclusion  First clue the author leaves us is, her father is late and he is never late Second clue the author leaves us is that her finger being pricked is a sign for something bad to come  **Engagement with the text is increased the more they have time to interact with the text **ELL students must have wait time to interact with the text (3-5 seconds to process, the longer wait time the more they will be able to provide=output.) **Make connections to prior lesson so students can have continuity of concepts
After Reading:	-At end of the lesson it is important to  review vocabulary, reading strategies, content, learning objectives, and independent interaction with the text -Find a concept that relates to your background knowledge, a questioning piece and find a visual reference and put up on our diary board

Running Record: ELL VS Native Language Speaker

Before I begin the analysis of these running records, I must acknowledge my appreciation for completing this assessment! It was a good reminder of this assessment as a tool, and the process that goes into being a helpful tool. The students that were assessed are both 7th grade students, and have attended McAuliffe since they were 6th grade students. Both are enrolled in a grade level language arts class that meets every day for 80 minutes a day, and receive reading intervention every other day for 80 minutes.

Brian is an ELL student who's primary language at home is Spanish, and his overall rank on WIDA is Developing. Elijah's native language is English, does not receive any ELD supports, but both of his parent's first language was Spanish. Because of Elijah not being identified as an ELL student, he does not have a ranking on WIDA. I wanted to see the dynamics of two student's who could be both categorized as ELL students based on assumption, but are facing different deficits as young readers.

Brian is fluently reading at a 3rd grade level, so his reading teacher asked me to give him a 4th grade test for us to be able to dive into identifying next steps to support Brian. I gave him a Level V passage entitled, The Stroke of Genius, found on Reading A-Z. The passage is 285 words in length. Brian completed the reading in 4 minutes and 17 seconds, with 63 WCPM. As Brian read, it was clear that he knew how to break words down into phonemes, and would sound out unknown words to be able to pronounce them correctly. Brian's comprehension was impacted due to poor fluency and the fact that he did not know five of the words in written form, or their meaning when asked their meaning.

The words that Brian did not know are listed below. I wrote his pronunciation next to the words in parenthesises:

• vessel (release) 
• perceptions (persuasions)
• dire (dry) 
• stroke (strook)
• devoted  (revolved) 

Because of there not being one clear rule that Brian was struggling with I would want to think about the following for next steps for Brian: I would want to conduct this same assessment, but with images as supports, and practice previewing the text to activate his prior knowledge. He was able to identify that the doctor in the story studied brains and had to go to the hospital. However, he did not know what a stroke was, which is not a huge surprise for any middle school student, but I am sure he could have some information on this subject with the right preview activity. He could identify that the doctor got sick and then became interested in studying the left hand side of the brain. Because of where Brian is at with his ability I believe there needs to be some confidence built around what they know, and visual supports need to also be used whether in the reading, or with the preteaching of vocabulary. When I asked him comprehension questions, the more difficult the questions got, the more he relied on the text. I think this shows a good strategy because he knew where in the text to look, but I still think more prereading work would help with boosting his overall confidence. 

Thinking about his work with vocabulary, I think the best way to support his understanding, is work with the skills he already has. Since Brian is comfortable sounding out words, I would want to continue to work with him on phonemes, but also having him understand the rules that go along with why words are built the way they are. For all of the words that Brian had not heard before, there are very specific rules that go along with their pronunciation, so it would be crucial for him to understand the prefixes, endings, double letters, etc. that make up words. I would focus on a rule at a time, through multiple games and strategies, and target his ability to verbally explain why a word is pronounced the way it is. From there, we would work on being able to identify word meaning based on the build of a word or clues in a sentence. 

Moving onto Elijah, he was completely different as far as his reading skills and next steps. He read a 5th grade passage and has just begun confidently reading at this level. The passage was a Level Z on Reading A-Z and is titled, Microfinance: It All Adds Up. The highlight of watching Elijah read this passage was watching him go from struggling completely over the word Microfinancing at the beginning of the passage, to being able to pronounce it with no problems by the end of the passage. I know this skill occurred because of how aware Elijah is as a reader; any errors Elijah had, he was able to self-correct. All of the comprehension questions I had, Elijah was able to answer and did not need to refer to the text. He was able to read the passage of 295 words in 4 minutes and 35 seconds with 62 WCPM. Besides microfinancing, there were only one other words that stumped Elijah with pronunciation, and it was a word he had never heard before, and that was investor. 

Similarly to Brian, I would want to focus on working with prereading strategies to activate knowledge that he already has about the topic, but more importantly, teach Brian how to chunk the text out. As readers with Elijah's skills get more confident in their reading, I think it is important to show them how to be aware of the words and ideas they are reading in smaller passages. Because Elijah is a strong reader and very aware of what he is reading, I think it would be good for him to circle words that he did not know or struggle with reading. From there, we could work through the meaning and pronunciation of the words using a variety of strategies. Then, have him identify the main idea of the text within that smaller section. 

For both boys, I see strengths and easily identifiable next steps to improve their reading and ability to access unknown vocabulary words, both through pronunciation and meaning, which will help with their fluency and thus, their comprehension. But to further my own supports for the students, I would like further supports with figuring out how to use the running records. I am easily able to identify the WCPM, but was struggling with figuring out the error, accuracy, and self-correction rates. I think that this is important to be able to identify what is truly impacting a students fluency. Overall, I think that this was an eye opening experience for me, and I plan on conducting this assessment more frequently to get better and more accurate with using this assessment because it does offer a wealth of information. 

Resources:
ReadingA-Z.com

How to Approach the Way Students Learn: Learning or Acquisition?

As educators, I believe it is important to know what it best for students when it comes to learning different information. For ELL students, it is especially important to know HOW they are learning, because of the different modes in which they need to learn. As I was completing this weeks survey on Learning VS Acquisition styles of teaching, I began to relate these methods to the SCIOP method of lesson planning in which you think of the I DO, WE DO, and YOU DO steps of teaching.  It is important to know what parts of our lessons needs need to be taught through direct instruction (I DO), what can be done together (WE DO), and where students are able to demonstrate their understanding (YOU DO.) With the Learning and Acquisition approaches to instruction, it seems that the Learning approach falls into the I DO and WE DO categories, and Acquisition demonstrates the students true application of what they have learned in the YOU DO phase of a lesson.

While looking at the survey, there were many of activities that were best done through the Learning approach and some that were clearly planned in the Acquisition phase of a students learning. Freeman & Freeman define Learning style of teaching as the method of teaching which produces who speak and understand language, where was the Acquisition approach enables student to use language for a variety of purposes.

With these definitions in mind, it is important to realize, that if it is our job to best prepare students to apply what they have learned to the real world, then we should be teaching ALL students using both methods of approaches, not just ELL students. Also, it is important that depending on a students level of oral language and reading skills, that adjustments will have to be made on what type of instruction they are receiving. This also began to make me wonder, can we easily break activities into only two categories if we are supposed to meet the needs of all students at their level of skill?

Below, you will see how I divided a series of activities that were outlined by Freeman & Freeman as potential Language or Acquisition approaches, or activities in which both approaches can be used together. Page numbers can be found in Freeman & Freeman's text Essential Linguisitics-What You Need to Know to Teach: Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics, Grammar.

Directions: Label each activity (L) for learning/word recognition or (A) for acquisiton/sociopsychololinguistic view. Some actives can have both labels. Be prepared to explain your choices. 

	Actions During a (L) Learning/Word Recognition lesson:	Actions During a (A) Acquisition/ Sociopsycholinguistic lesson:	Actions Using Both Types of Learning During Lessons
Student	Looking up words in the dictionary to write directions (pg. 28) Practice sounding out words (pg. 25) Read in round robin fashion (pg. 28) Ask the teacher how to spell any word they don’t know (pg. 28) Read a language experience story they have created with the teacher (pg. 25) Divide words into syllables (pg. 27) On a worksheet, draw a line from each word or sound to the picture that starts with the same sound (pg. 27)	Correct peers when they make a mistake during reading (pg. 25) Identify words on a big book page that start with the same sound (pg. 28) Group cards with classmates’ names by criterion on such as first or last letter (pg. 25) Write rhyming poetry then discuss different spellings for the same sound (pg. 26) Work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences (pg. 26) Make alphabet books on different topics (pg. 26)	Make a Venn Diagram to compare two stories (pg. 25) Being able to compare and contrast topics shows a basic level of understanding, as well as acquisition because students need to be able to formulate arguments to identify similarities and differences
Teacher	Has students segment words into phonemes (pg. 24) Uses decodable text (pg. 26) Has students meet in literature circles (pg. 25) Conducts Phonics drills (pg. 24) Uses a variety of worksheets to teach different skills (pg. 25)	Preteaches vocabulary (pg. 25) Does a shared reading with  big book (pg. 26) Make sure that students read only books that fit their level (pg. 25)  Sets aside time for SSR each day (pg. 25) Writes words for students dictate for a story and has students help with the spelling of difficult words. (pg. 25) Does a picture walk of a new book (pg. 26) Asks students to look around the room and find words starting with a  certain letter. (pg. 24) Chooses predictable texts (pg. 26)	Teaches Latin and Greek Roots (pg. 25) If students are using these strategies to identify unknown words independently while reading, then this application shows that students are using the strategies in a real world situation to help towards comprehending texts Teaches students different comprehension strategies (pg. 25) Because comprehension is the ultimate goal it is important for teachers to use a variety of approaches of learning to support a students access of a text

Resource: Freeman D., & Freeman Y. (2014). Essential Linguisitics-What You Need to Know to Teach: Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics, Grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Children's Book: Cultural Relevancy and Comprehension

In my Social Studies classroom, I try and keep a variety of leveled texts in my room to support my students learning. The If You...series has been a great resource that I use for my ELL students and Multi-Intensive students who receive their general education time in my class. These books serve as a great source to build students background information and building of academic language. The second book I chose was a book that I use during my Constitution Unit and when I have taught the Electoral Collage during election season. Grace for President is not only one of my favorite classroom texts, but a hit amongst my students!

How I Would Teach: If You...Lived at the Time of the American Revolution 

by Kay Moore Illustrated by Daniel O'Leary

The first thing I would do prior to teaching this unit and bringing this text into my class would have students complete a KWL chart about what American Revolution. As silly as I think KWL charts are, with all of the information that students come into a secondary class with, I want to have a good understanding of what they already are familiar with.

Next, I would preteach the following words not only to support their understanding of the text, but to be able to gain their own meaning of the words in context of the book, to then later apply to the larger unit. The key vocabulary words are: colony, England, Native American, indentured servant, Patriot, Loyalist, and the French and Indian War.

Before beginning read the text, I would then provide a guiding question that the students should be able to successfully answer if they have comprehended the text. By allowing students to answer the question before reading, students can brainstorm ideas they already have and build confidence towards the subject. The question I would use to guide this lesson would be:

Do you think you would have been a Patriot or a Loyalist if you lived at the time of the American Revolution? 

Students would first answer the question independently in writing, and then share their ideas out with a shoulder partner. From there, I would have students complete a gallery walk of images showing images of the American Revolution, Patriots, and Loyalists. They would have to identify the groups , and argue who they believed had the access to power in the images. The last step would be to have students create their own working definition of Patriots and Loyalists based on the images. 

The last step would be to have students read the text and complete Cornell Notes answering the questions within the texts. Students would work with a skill based partner. I would have the Cornell Notes created for students so that they can focus on answering the questions at their ability level (one or two word answers or complete sentences.) After reading the text, in the summary portion of their Cornell Notes, I would have students independently answer the question using evidence to support their answer. Last, depending on time, I would have a class discussion on which side they chose, Patriot or Loyalist. The students would use evidence from the text to support their views in the class discussion and would be allowed to use their Cornell Notes as evidence. 

How I Would Teach: Grace for President Written 

by Kelly DiPucchio and Pictures by LeUyen Pham

I usually use this text in the middle of my Constitution Unit. Students have background information on the Three Branches of Government, Checks & Balances, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the role of a Democracy as a government. This text has been a great resource to show the way the electoral process works, and a way to provide a definition for popular vote and electoral college. 

To think from the lens of what all student would need in order to acquire these concepts, I would want to make them make personal connections to the role of our nation's president. Prior to any lesson on the Executive Branch,  I would have students brainstorm a list of what makes a good President/leader. Students would brainstorm the list individually and then we would share out as a class. Students would each share out one item on their list and we would keep going around the room until everyone had shared every idea out to the class. 

Using the list, we would then create an Open Sort where we would sort the list we came up with into four or five categories of leadership skills. This will allow us to have bigger over arching ideas of what makes a good leader, rather than a large list with WAY too many ideas. Before reading the book, I would provide students a t-chart with our categories listed on the top. While we are reading, I would ask students to record which student demonstrated that leadership skill. 

Before reading the text, I would show students the over, and ask them to write a prediction on a whiteboard based on the following question: 

• What do you think the story is about based on the front cover?

I would ask students to use the following sentence starter to answer the question:

• I predict the story will be about_______________because of ____________ on the front cover. 

After we read the text, students would share out and debate who believe they demonstrated each of our leadership skills. Next, I would take a class poll of who they would have voted for in the text. Lastly, students would answer the following comprehension questions with their shoulder partner : 

• What kind of president is Grace running for?
• Why would boys only vote for boys and girls only vote for girls? Is that right?

The last scaffold I would provide in this lesson would be a personal connection that students could not only use to relate to the story, but to the role of our nation's president. Students would answer the following questions however they see fit; this could be in an essay, a poster, a collage, Prezi, etc. 

• Would you want to be president of the United States? Why or why not?
• What would you do if you were president of the United States? Of your classroom?
• If running for class president, how might you convince others to vote for you?

Strategies to Work Through An Unknown Text

The great thing about being married to a Biochemist is there are many texts lying around our apartment that make absolutely NO sense to me. The fact that I can even explain to people what my husband does and is studying in class is a success. "When you go to the hospital and you have blood drawn or a test run, he is the guy in the lab that will run the tests." Beyond that, I am clueless. When I asked my husband which text would be "easiest," my husband choose something that was "easy" and would be "straightforward." I even clarified with him, "No, I need to pretend I am an English Language Learner, so it is okay if I struggle through it," (in retrospect I think that was my own way of giving myself an excuse in case I REALLYYYY struggled with what I was reading.)

So, the topic of my reading was: Gram Staining 
As he handed me the text, he said "This is something every microbiologist HAS to know."

Before I began to read, I used the strategies that I use whenever I teach my students, and that is to preview the headings, pictures and captions, so that I could try and get a grasp for what gram staining.

Below, you will see the first caption I read. Right away, I knew that there were going to be questions. But, I see that the text has bolded key ideas, and plenty of visuals to support my understanding.

As I began to read, I had a pretty good understanding of the importance of gram staining after finishing the introduction. I decided I would continue on, and just read through text one time through. However, because of how few words I knew, I began to get distracted. I made sure that I would keep my focus, especially because there were words that did stand out to me, like lipids, (thanks biology teacher for allowing me to always remember that lipids are fats,) and Staphylococcus because who doesn't love food poisoning!

After reading the text one time through, I understood this basic information about gram staining:

• In order to run a test on cultures, they need to sit for 24 hours or less for your best results
• Gram stains that are under decloroized or over declorized will not allow for an accurate read
• Cells that appear purple are positive 
• Cells that appear pink are negative 

Even with this information, I do not feel confident, at all about what gram staining is. So, I turned to trying to understand what some of the bolded words were in the text. Assuming this was like any other textbook, I turned to the back of the book to find the glossary. SURPRISE! There was no glossary. 

Next, I tried to break the words down to see if I could come up with meaning:

• Decoloraization: Removing color of cell? With alcohol or acetone? 
• Primary Stain: Crystal violet (in text clues)
• Mordant: Something that holds something together, like mortar? 
• Crystal Violet-Iodine Complex: ?
• Counterstain: Safranin is the counterstain, but I still don't know what it does. 

Before turning to my teacher and the Internet, I dove further into the images and captions. However, I began to not feel any more confident in my understanding of this process. 

When I Googled gram staining, the definition below came up: 

This helped me a little bit to understand that the gram stain test was used to distinguish between two bacteria groups, and depending on their color after the test is ran, the bacteria was either Gram positive or Gram negative. Now, what in the heck is Gram positive and Gram negative?

At this point, I reviewed with my husband the above information and he said I was on the right track, but then he said, "That book is missing a major component of what gram staining is. So you can either google the procedure for gram staining, or look at this other book." Keep in mind, this book was 1076 pages long, and I was told to only read one small paragraph. 

Within this paragraph I got the definitions for Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, and the loose ends for what this procedure was used for, and it turns out my knowledge of lipids was good background information to have after all. Would I be able to perform this procedure in a lab? No! But, I feel confident that I have enough understanding to explain to someone else what gram staining is.

Reflection and Strategies Used: 

I am so thankful for going through this process! I have been taught how to support ELL students on how to access a test, but I have never had to work through the steps myself. I think this was also important to realize that if we practice skills enough, students can take them on when they are not in the classroom, and really utilize the strategies on their own. 

As I laid out above, the strategies I used varied depending on what I was trying to figure out when I was reading. I would narrow down that the concept of gram staining became more clear through the following scaffolds: 

• Previewing the text by looking at the pictures and captions 
• Defining bolded words using context clues and breaking the word apart (prefixes, suffixes, rootwords.) 
• Looking for key ideas that I had background information on (lipids, Staphylococcus)
• Identifying the most important who's and whats that stood out to be
• Summarizing  the ideas with a partner (my husband,) to make sure that I was on the right track 
• Using multiple texts/levels of texts to support my learning (google definition and two text

Sources:

Mahon, C. (2000). Textbook of diagnostic microbiology (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders.

Leboffe, M., & Pierce, B. (2011). A photographic atlas for the 3rd edition microbiology laboratory (4th ed.). Englewood, Colo.: Morton Pub.

Gram Staining. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14, 2015, from http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/research_methods/microscopy/gramstain.html