Reflection Post 2

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. 

Students were able to spend more time today thinking about their topic list for informational writing. We learned how to generate a good amount of detail about a topic by creating a web. In the middle was their main idea/topic and then branching from that were all of the details put into single words and/or word phrases. Students learned that if not much detail could be generated then perhaps that topic was not a good one for them to use during their informational unit. Students who had not yet determined a topic struggled with this lesson; however, with prompting from me they were able to catch up and produce a least a semi decent web. 

·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

Alternately, if my students were able to verbalize to me or others about their topics and details surrounding it; then, I concluded that although these students may not have it written down as quickly as their classmates they still understood what they were to be doing and thinking about. It will be expected later that the thoughts and details be translated onto paper and that may take some scaffolding between my MT and I.  

·         What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

I was taken back by how much detail my students were able to generate about their topics in such a short time. Their motivation was still there today and they were eager to begin writing a draft! I have to constantly remind them that we are learning important steps along the way that will help us in our final write up in this unit. 

·         When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

Students who need additional support I will make sure to check in on during individual work time. I will make sure that they have the necessary writing down that has been expected and if not I will scaffold them until they are at that point. I like to ask my struggling students questions rather than telling them what to do. By asking questions I am setting my students up for them to problem solve independently in the future instead of waiting for direction from others. 

·         If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

Something I thought of after teaching this lesson was doing a partner share out. I did allow some students to share with the class topics they are working on or the list of topics they have generated. I think I can, however, implement this into tomorrow's lesson. While students are sharing their web with partners, I want the partner listening to the details and point out any that they think could be missing. Writers need to remember that they are informing the reader and it is easy to miss out on details on topics that you already know so much about. 

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

Mini-lessons continue to work great during writing. I found today that involving the class more and having them participate and contribute helps to solidify main points that I want them to understand before working independently. I need to continue to ask my students what they are still confused about along the way of this unit so that I am sure to cover all important aspects. 

Day 6 - 11/11

11/11/13

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson

Today, we had an abbreviated class due to Veteran’s Day activities. This allowed me to focus solely on vocabulary. Students learned the shared characteristics of our weekly vocabulary words (similar ending syllables) and used images to help make connections to these new words.

Students initially struggled finding the commonality between the words as there were several different endings (-al, -el, -le, -il).

·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

Because we had limited time, we jumped right into the vocabulary without much discussion. I think they were caught slightly off guard, but the high achieving students found the connection easier than other students.

·         What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

We have not focused on such a nuanced aspect of vocabulary before and it was exciting to see that students could find patterns in words without proper prompting.

·         When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

The next lesson will involve more exploration of vocabulary words through matching pictures/scenarios to our list. I will focus on collecting answers from students who generally participate less by choosing name sticks, but calling on the students I need to hear from.

·         If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

I would spend more time introducing our weekly topic and how it relates to the vocabulary words. When students see how the words connect to our topic, they will understand why we are studying these specific vocabulary words.

·         What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

Vocabulary acquisition can benefit greatly from having the students make conjectures about the relationships between words. Allowing them time to think about the words as more than just letters attached to a definition presents them with an opportunity to understand the English language in a new way.

Reflection Post 1

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. 

      My students were informed of what Informational Writing is and examples of it. I had them share out ideas of what they thought informational writing could be; and some struggled with specifically coming up with examples. Instead they were giving me definitions such as, "informational writing informs the reader....it can be a how to...it can be step by step." I then had to prompt them by asking questions such as, "Is a newspaper an informational text? Are magazines? What about the Magic School Bus books? And WHY?" This, then helped my students dive a little more in depth about informational writing and that it first, must inform the reader and second, must be nonfiction. 

      I noticed that when my students had individual work time, some of my students who are lower in writing were struggling generating a list of topics they could write about. I had to prompt them and ask questions about things they like to do, sports they do, animals, pets, cooking, ect.. it was hard for these struggling students to think of topics they could inform a reader about. 

·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

             After my launch, students were expected to write independently in their writing journals on               possible topics that they could inform other readers on. I do not think that their writing journals on this prompt are a good indicator of their understanding of informational writing because we are just getting into this unit. It is when I had some of the class share out their self made list to the class that they could demonstrate their thinking out loud and I could revoice that I believe students then caught on more and had a better understanding. 

·         What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

Some students were able to create a list of expert topics than I anticipated. These students seemed to know exactly what they wanted to write about and get to work on just that! I had to slow them down however and remind them that we are new writers and that it is good to practice with various of topics. 

I was also impressed with some of the topics that my students had background knowledge on and the facts/information that they could remember when sharing with the class. They were ahead of what I wanted them to do; but, I was impressed with their motivation and engagement during this mini-lesson. 

·         When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

Well tomorrow I plan on revisiting the list that students generated. I want students to share with one another how they came up with topics that they could inform the reader about; hopefully to motivate those slower writers. Then, together, we will choose one topic and write words/phrases that give more detail (for example: gym). Students will help share out ideas to help complete this. Individual work time will be left and my goal is that those students who needed additional help will have new and improved ideas and details about them that they can now write about. 

·         If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

If I could reteach this same lesson I would spend more time on strategies of coming up with topics to write about and really emphasize that they should be expert topics. Having background knowledge in the topics they choose is imperative to being successful in this informational writing unit. 

What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

So far I have been successful in implementing my 'core practice.' I usually start with a mini-lesson and then move to individual work and then end with whole class or partner share out. I need to continue this because it sets the expectation for the class and gets us writers going in the right direction. I am constantly looking at other resources to implement in to my unit plan to make it better along the way. I want my students to have a clear vision of what they need to do and WHY. 

Day 5 11/8

11/8/13

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson

Students learned how to properly write a thank you letter.

Students struggled with expressing how they benefited and why they were grateful to the person they were thanking.

·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

I finally found time to fully address the letter writing and used an extended amount of time to have students review and rewrite their letters based on my input and teaching. Some students found this exercise to be very easy as they wrote with great detail and met all expectations. For the students who had been struggling, I believe they improved their abilities to write after being given more specific instruction. All students improved from their original draft to the final letter.

·         What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

The students wanted to write a good letter worthy of sending to the people they were meant for. I learned that students can be very engaged in writing when they find the purpose meaningful and connected to their personal life.

·         When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

This thank you letter exercise is completed. In our next class, I will ask the students how the recipients of their letters responded and will answer any questions during this time.

·         If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

I would devote much more time at the beginning of the exercise to explain exactly what I want to see and set very clear expectations for the students. I would also be sure to model the format in which the students were to write at the beginning. I think this modeling and setting of expectations would positively influence the students as they would not need to guess at what I want.

·         What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

I found that students were capable of incorporating the vocabulary words rather easily with their thank you letters. However, they struggled when they were trying to fit a different form of the word. Several students who changed to a different form of our vocabulary words used them incorrectly. I think I need to allow the students to explore the words more and have them use the various forms so they can have a greater understanding of their vocabulary. 

Day 4 11/7/13

11/7/13

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson

Today, we practiced determining subject and predicate in earnest. So, the students should have a better understanding of determining the subject and action in a sentence. Students should have also learned more about China as we read about the country and its history as a way to make more connections to the stories we have been reading.

Students struggled when we started with a difficult sample sentence to deconstruct.

·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

The sentence was difficult to determine the exact subject and required a longer period of examination before a student came up with a method to test for a subject. This was a very ingenious technique that had not been formally taught. As the student explained their thinking to the class, more students were able to understand the method and helped immensely in their understanding of finding a subject that is not immediately observable.

·         What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

My students enjoy creating sentences to be used as examples. After working through the difficult example, I had the students work as a whole class to create simpler sentences with obvious subjects and predicates. As this activity progressed, the students gained more confidence and created more complex sentences. The participation during this exercise was phenomenal.

·         When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

This will continue to be a subject that will be revisited as the semester continues. Each morning begins with the students creating work based on predetermined requirements. I can use this time to have the students revisit creating sentences with subjects and predicates.

·         If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

My lesson was changed dramatically because our internet was down and I had based my lesson on a video I was going to share with the class. I had to make some decisions on how to fill the time and the material I chose was a last minute decision. This material proved to be only somewhat related to the content we had covered thus far during the week. If I were to have another chance at finding an alternative activity, I would have chosen an activity students were familiar with and tried to put a new spin on it.  

·         What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

So far, I have found that focusing on vocabulary acquisition has been a relatively easy and beneficial practice for the students to develop. They enjoy learning new words and their properties. They enjoy using these vocabulary words as they create writing. I need to find new ways for the students to learn and incorporate vocabulary so they can develop a deeper understanding of words and truly own their new vocabulary.

Day 3 11/6/13

11/6/13

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson

Students learned how to retell a story aloud. Students also learned how to compare and contrast characters within a story. Students learned how to find meaning of unknown vocabulary words.

Students that struggled during the lesson did so when asked to edit and revise their ‘Thank You’ letters.

 

·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

Again, I found that the lack of clear expectations for the letters caused students to struggle with their editing and revising because they had little guidance to help them in this process.

·         What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

I have found that many students are fully capable of recalling the sequence of events in stories days after finishing the story. This means that students were focused and engaged in the text and could piece the story together.

·         When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

I will provide clear feedback for the students on their letters that will highlight the expectations I should have made clear at the beginning.

·         If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

I would have the students peer edit the letters to help them revise. Their peers are honest and are fully capable of providing good advice to one another. I think this would improve their editing skills as it allows them to see work they are not involved in creating, thus making them impartial when determining what should be changed.  

·         What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

There are many students who really enjoy trying to discover the meaning of an unknown word and they enjoy working through this process. There are also many students who are content with listening to other students contribute. I need to make sure I challenge these content students by specifically asking them to contribute.

Day 2 11.5.13

11/5/13

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson

The students learned about the meaning and use of the Latin roots bene- and gratus-. They also learned about the use of symbolism as a writing technique.

The students who struggled during this lesson did so while writing the thank you letter. They again struggled as we revisited action and linking verbs.

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·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

I have a very good idea of why the students struggled during the writing of the thank you letter. I provided very little framework and instruction other than telling the students to include two vocabulary words in their letter. I believe students struggled with creating this letter because they did not know who they wanted to write to or why. The amount of detail and structure of the letter was also unspecified leaving the students to make a large amount of decisions in their writing. Very few students were able to draft a meaningful letter within the time allotted.

·         What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

The comfort and desire to read to the whole class was displayed again and I am learning that this could be the optimal choice for reading selections designed for the whole class. I also am learning about the students’ creative writing ability. As I introduced the thank you letter, I suggested the students write to their parents or a teacher, but many of the students wanted to choose famous or important people to write a thank you letter to.

·         When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

Tomorrow, I will revisit the action and linking verb practice sheet students completed. We will go problem by problem, first attempting to discover the verb being used in the sentence and then whether it is an action or linking verb. To further the investigation into verbs, we will create sentences focusing first on very simple subjects and predicates. Then, students will develop more complex sentences again focusing on subject and predicate.

·         If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

I would explore the meaning of symbolism in writing more. This is a very interesting part of literature and deserves more time being examined. I feel if I included studying symbolism a few days or for a whole week, the students would understand what a character, plot, setting, and other features of a story symbolize. Devoting time to analyzing symbolism and then writing a short story using symbolism would be a great way to help improve the understanding of students.

·         What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

I should devote time each day to allow students to research vocabulary and also to free write while trying to incorporate their new vocabulary in their personal writing. I need to learn how to fit in time for exploration and creation for the students during the day because they spend the majority of their day following strict instruction. 

Day 1 - 11/4/13

11/4/13

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. 

Students learned where the English Channel is as it was the setting of a short story we read. Students also learned how to compare and contrast between two short stories. Lastly, students learned what action and linking verbs are.

The specific point in this lesson when many students began to struggle came as we introduced and worked through action and linking verbs. Distinguishing the difference between the two and their uses in writing was hard because this was the first time students had been introduced to verbs being distinguished from another.

·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

The amount of students who participated in the whole group discussion about comparing and contrasting was limited to roughly one-third of the class. Perhaps this third were the only students who truly had an understanding of comparing and contrasting.

·         What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

I learned that the students who were unable to read out loud to the whole class were disappointed because they were not given this opportunity. We could not have all students read because of the length of the two stories. When we finished, I heard multiple students speak out with some dismay that they did not read. Knowing that the students are comfortable and wanting to read to the whole class is new information to me.

·         When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

Tomorrow, I will be revisiting action and linking verbs with the students as we practice in class and continue with a homework assignment. I will reiterate the difference between the two for the whole class along with working through examples and fielding individual questions on the topic.

·         If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

I would have the students work more in-depth with the vocabulary after they finish the pre-assessment. I would like to use the computer lab so the students could use the internet to find definitions, synonyms, and pictures of the words they are studying. This time would be just for exploring the words with no reports on the words.

·         What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

I have learned that students know a large amount of vocabulary before entering class. With the exception of ELL students who are still learning the basics of English, all students know or are familiar with the core words. The vocabulary that students are unfamiliar with is the challenge and premium words which are significantly more difficult to spell and whose meanings are unknown to the students. I need to continue monitoring students as they progress through the week to see if they are pushing themselves to obtain mastery of the more difficult words.

Writing Day 2 Reflection

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. 

·         Students learned that scenes create a picture in the reader’s head. They learned to include dialogue and details about their characters or their scene in order to make their readers understand what they are trying to convey. I noticed that some struggled with generating dialogue that actually made their story move forward. Their dialogue was just a conversation that could be had anywhere and about anything rather than one that gives their audience insight into their story or their scene. All students were able to include details in their stories; however, some had a lot more description than others and I will continue to work with them to include more as we move along. I collected the students’ work and wrote remarks in all of their journals after asking them if I had their permission to do so, they all obliged. I gave them areas to add details that seemed logical to me and I am hoping this will give them a starting point by asking my who, what, where, when, why questions that may appear in their margins depending on the student.

·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

·         Alternately, the students who did not have the appropriate amount of details or dialogue that furthered their story may have simply not had enough time. Our writing block is limited to 40 minutes and even though I strive to keep my launch under 12 minutes, the students do not have a long duration to write independently. Today my launch was ten minutes long and the students were able to write on their own for approximately 13 minutes without being interrupted. Their products for today may not indicate that they do not know how to add details and dialogue, but that they were not given ample time to apply the strategies. This is why we are continuing to work on their scenes tomorrow and I will be looking for improvement to better inform me of where students stand in their understanding of the strategies.

·         What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

·         I learned that some students are aware of how to appropriately use quotations marks, while others are still struggling with that. I will focus on these grammatical errors when we come to the editing stage of their pieces. Also, during our sharing time I learned that the students truly know how to speak to one another in a mature and respectful manner. Each group was asked to share a passage from their table that they thought met my objectives of using dialogue and vivid details well. They would share the piece and state that they were proud of their peer because he or she tried very hard to paint a picture, or they knew ____’s story was great because when _____ read it they felt like they were there. I was proud of their reactions and ability to point out what I am looking for which lead me to believe that they were actively listening during my launch and instructions.

·         When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

·         I have placed their revised pieces on their desks for them to look over as morning work and to make appropriate changes or additions. They will be able to do this in order supplement the lack of time for writing in the afternoons. After looking at their scenes today I noticed that all of them could at least demonstrate an understanding of details through their sentences and they incorporated dialogue at least once in their scenes as well. I do not feel that re-teaching the material is necessary, but I do think it needs to be constantly reinforced. I will be continuing to call attention to details and dialogue during reading instruction, read aloud, and writing times. Also, tomorrow’s lesson will be focused on allowing them to continue their scenes and this will give them the opportunity to add the strategies into their stories.

·         If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

·         If I were to teach this lesson again I would strive to provide the students with more time and instead of focusing my time on a few students when they raised their hands to ask for help I would make a stronger effort to circulate the room to conference briefly with many students. This would improve the students’ learning by allowing them all an opportunity to ask questions and receive input from me on their stories and areas for improvement.

·         What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

So far I have been able to keep my mini-lessons short, but I want to shift my focus a little to ensure that I am striving to reach my goal of conferencing as well. I will continue to keep my launches concise and direct, but during their independent writing time I am going to make a better effort to move throughout the room and read as many pieces as possible. 

Writing Day 1 Reflection

·         What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson. 

·         During the lesson students learned how to summarize their scenes that they are going to write. I used examples from our Read Aloud book and a teacher written piece to demonstrate a scene and then changed it into a summary that was right to the point and concise. They pointed out that the summary just told the important part (they are working on determining importance in reading and applied this knowledge here). There were three students who struggled when it came to writing their summary sentences. They began writing their scenes without taking the time to write the sentences as directed. To correct this I am going to ask them to work on the sentences during our Read Aloud time tomorrow.

·         What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

·         Alternately, the students who did not follow directions may have felt that the summary sentences would not benefit them as much as getting their ideas on their paper would. This could be more helpful to them in their story writing process while the summary sentences would only slow them down.

·         What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

·         I learned that many of them are very creative and have stories that I was not expecting. For example, one of our tier three intervention students completely followed the directions and met my objectives for the lesson while using a great story arc. She is breaking her story into manageable pieces and I look forward to reading the rest of her work. Many of the students in tier three interventions are excelling during writing block because the lessons are very direct and ask for only one aspect of writing to be focused on during each. This has helped all of the students keep their writing on task. I was also impressed by their stamina because I did not see a lot of wandering eyes during today’s lesson.

Also, during our sharing time I changed my lesson plan on-the-fly and asked the students to exchange their notebooks with the person sitting next to them for their partners to grade. The partners were instructed to look for punctuation, capitalization, and to predict what the scene was going to be about based on their summary sentence. I demonstrated some non-examples of how to critique a classmate’s work and then asked them to give me positive examples. They then shared and I asked for volunteers to tell me about what they think their partners stories were going to be about and then checked with their partners to see if they were on the right track. This was a smooth transition as well and I was very happy with the change in my plans.

·         When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

·         Based on my observations the students understood the meaning of the lesson and how to summarize, but the ones who failed to do so were those who did not follow directions. Those students will be asked to work on these sentences during Read Aloud tomorrow.

·         If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

·         If I were to teach this lesson again I would write my own story with a vivid scene that was turned into a summary instead of the one my MT had previously written. I selected to read hers because she wanted me to stick with the story that they were familiar with, but in my own room I would really like to implement my own stories to demonstrate my understanding of the concepts and lessons to my students. This would show them my interests and motivation to learn as well; I could lead by example. Using my own writing would improve the students’ understanding because they would be able to have more examples of what I am looking for and would motivate them to strive for the best as I am.

·         What did you learn so far about implementing your ‘core practice’ and what do you need to do to continue your professional learning?

I learned that in order to stick to a mini-lesson format I must be concise and well-organized in order to keep the lesson actually mini. Today went well because I had my examples pre-selected and the anchor chart previously made, but I know that if I were fumbling for these things or my words that the lesson would have been too long. In order to continue my professional learning I plan to keep the routine that I have started of writing myself small notes on sticky  notes about what the main points I need to hit during my lesson are and being very organized to ensure a good flow the lesson for the students and myself. 

Week 7 PD

Chapter 11 – Summarizing and Synthesizing Information

            I would say the biggest take away from this chapter is the way in which we can allow students to display the most important information and merge it with their experiences. Students should be able to use brief retellings, can tell new information they have learned, and can ask good questions to help interpret new info.

            Summarizing and synthesizing can greatly benefit from using authentic learning opportunities. Students who can make connections from new material and explain how it relates to their lives provides a great opportunity to make learning a personal activity. Creating a close relationship between a new topic and a student opens new routes for them to develop a deeper understanding. Retelling a story can provide an authentic learning opportunity when the student reads a book of great interest and contains information they are familiar with. Having a student retell information about a passage they are uninterested in and unfamiliar with will result in a very poor retelling.

Chapter 14 – Reading to Understand Textbooks

            I think the biggest take away from reading this chapter is that we teachers have a large amount of knowledge and are familiar with many of the topics covered in a textbook. We also are very good readers and have used strategies for decoding the information that is conveyed through textbooks. The students we are teaching have no idea what they are doing. We need to keep this difference in mind as we work through a textbook with them.

            One of the best ways to help students learn the material from textbooks is to “front-load” the students with information about the text before beginning. Making connections from the lives of the students to the subject matter is critical in building their foundation to learn from. Whenever covering new material from a textbook, we must bring up the prior knowledge and background experience of the students to help them begin to make connections.

Strategies that Work Jigsaw - Week 7

Since we recently shifted from making connections to determining the importance of a piece of writing I decided to read chapter 10 from Strategies that Work. The authors cite the following to be important to call attention to while reading and teaching strategies, “fonts and effects, words and phrases, illustration and photographs, graphics, text organizers, and text structures” (p. 158-159). This was interesting to me because thus far we have been asking the children to find the important aspects of the task without the help of those clues. I am not sure if there are plans to incorporate these strategies, or draw attention to them, but after reading this chapter I have decided to mention them to my MT to see if she would like to use any of them. They seemed obvious after reading them, but for some reason we did not think of them before. The main takeaway from this chapter was that the students will need to be able to read in order to comprehend so that they are not only reading, but taking something away from the reading. Also, the students should be taught strategies rather than setting them free and expecting that they will “just know” what to do when they come to important parts of the text. To offer authentic learning opportunities in the classroom using the strategy of determining importance I hope to use a piece of writing that would interest the students or give them the chance to gain something that is meaningful to their lives from the reading. For example, using articles from the National Geographic mini-magazines the classroom receives will give the students information about animals that they will later encounter during our Big Zoo lesson. This will give them information to draw upon at a later time and get them excited for the zoo lesson. Reading about varying cultures will also open the students’ eyes to their surroundings, or lives that they have had little exposure to in order to make them more understanding and aware citizens.

 

For my second article I read the chapter focused on Reading for Understanding in Social Studies and Science. This was a chapter that I was interested in reading because Social Studies and Science are my favorite subjects, yet we do not see them often in the elementary setting. This is something I would like to change as I develop professionally by incorporating texts that focus on Social Studies and Science particularly because, "content literacy gives kids the tools to learn information, ideas, and ways of thinking in a variety of disciplines" (p. 218). I want to use these pieces of text to correspond with CCSS criterion that has a heavy emphasis on informational text. The main takeaway I took from this chapter was that reading content pieces can be done in multiple ways that will fit into various aspects of a curriculum. Additionally, the variety of disciplines leads for the students to have experiences with multiple texts to widen their depth of knowledge and how to apply that to everyday life using comprehension strategies that they are equipped with. Authentic instruction would be similar to the above pieces of text (animal articles and cultural insights) and finding pieces that interest the students based on their particular areas of study that motivate them. There are several students in my classroom are interested in geography and this has been something that I have been working to feed as I have taken more and more of a lead in the classroom. The class uses daily clues that can be further researched when the children get a chance and then the place is revealed on Fridays. 

Authentic Questions on Reading Strategies

In this weeks Strategies That Work readings Harvey and Goudvis talk about what makes an authentic question (pg. 124). They also discuss in Chapter 9 different questioning reading strategies. Below are some authentic questions I created for you to answer that pertain to questioning reading strategies.

Please pick a couple questions below and share your thoughts and ideas!

Should certain questioning reading strategies be introduced before others?
Do some questioning strategies work better at different grade levels?
How do I get my students to see how questioning works while reading?
How do I get my students to understand the importance of questioning strategies?
Do you see questioning reading strategies in your classroom? If so, explain?
Do you like some reading strategies better than other? Why?

Project 2A

1. Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

I will be introducing our unit on the fantasy genre and working through most of the unit during the two weeks.

2. Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

Each day we have two language arts classes containing two different groups of students. These classes last between 40-60 minutes.

3. Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text

 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.

 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.5 Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.

 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.9 Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics.

 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4–5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

4. How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

During our fantasy unit, the unit will explore the creativity of each student and push them to display their thoughts and ideas through writing. Developing student’s creative writing skills is very important for them. First, working with them to help create concepts that are outside the realm of reality is a fantastic mental exercise. Second, these students will be working on developing a story, complete with plot, characters, setting, etc. These are foundational skills for story making. As creative writers, these students will benefit greatly from this unit. This unit also consists of reading fantasy. Through reading stories and books in this genre, they will be viewing models of how they can construct their stories.

5. What types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?

During the majority of our lessons and units, we strive to find a balance between the amount of talk time between teacher and student. To do this, we use a good amount of partner/pair work so that students can converse with each other. Students are also given ample opportunities to ask questions during the writing process and reading. Teacher talk generally involves modeling and providing examples, direction giving, clarification, and one-on-one discussion with a student.

I really would like to focus on the interaction between me and the students during this lesson. The practice of having students leave “tracks” of their thinking is a simple and effective way for them to communicate with me about their thinking as they read through a story. This is a great practice not only for the fantasy genre, but all genres.

6. Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

            I want to focus on Comprehension Strategy Instruction and Assessment. I find comprehension to be one of the most difficult aspects of reading for students in this grade level. As a professional, I need to develop ways which I can reliably use to help students understand what they are reading. In previous classes, we have discussed the importance of having as many tools at your disposal as possible. Working with students to monitor comprehension, activate and connect background knowledge, question, visualize, determine importance in text, summarize and synthesize information will allow them to make adequate progress in understanding texts.

7. What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

            The resources which I will have to work with are all found within the school. We will be using our school library, computer lab, and class library to find reading material for the students to study from. There are many students who receive reading and writing assistance, so they will be taking time during the day to work with a literacy interventionalist. Lastly, we will be using examples from former students during this unit for students to work from.

8. What additional resources do you need to obtain?

            I won’t need any other resources outside of the school.

9. How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?

            Students have had formal assessments done on their reading and writing skills and we have this data. This includes reading words per minute, fluency, and vocabulary level. We could potentially assess their interest in the genre and their interest in reading in general. These could be formal or informal assessments.

10. What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

            I will need to know the reading levels of each student for when we assign/recommend books to read. Matching the students reading ability with an appropriate book will help keep them interested in the book. I will also need to know the students writing skills. Fantasy involves a great deal of creativity, so being aware of the skills of each student in producing their own style of writing is very important.

11. What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?

            I have students who don’t do many activities outside of school. They will go home and play video games hour after hour. Trying to help these students make connections to their personal life is hard because the amount of interests they hold is very low. I want to learn how to help these students make connections to the few interests or activities they enjoy, or how to motivate them to get off their butts and start being more interesting.

12. What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?

            I have very few concerns about this lesson. I have great support from my MT and I am very confident that the students will respond well to my teaching. One of the concerns I do hold is the amount of activities I will plan. This is going to be the first unit I have taught and I have never planned such a large amount of activities. One other concern I have is making personal connections to the students during this lesson because I do read a lot and my knowledge of the fantasy genre is limited.