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.

Tara Rabideau

Inquiry Two, Part A:

Discuss Your Target Area and “Core Practice” for Guided Lead Teaching

1.      Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

The target area that I will focus on for my guided lead teaching is reading comprehension/strategy instruction.

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

There are approximately 30- 45 minutes allotted for instruction in language arts.

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

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text

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.SL.5.1a Come to discussions prepared having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.1b Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.1c Pose and respond to specific questions by making comments that contribute to the discussion and elaborate on the remarks of others.

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?

This target area of reading comprehension/strategy instruction provides students with opportunities to learn important skills that relate to their lives. For instance, when students can comprehend what they read they can communicate better with others. In their real lives they will come across text that they will need to read and comprehend in order to understand instructions and directions. The skill of instructional strategies is also relevant to their everyday lives. When they come across text they do not know right away they need to have instructional strategies they can use to help them decode/read unfamiliar text. This learning includes learning literacy if students are using strategies to understand new text or learn new words. It could also include learning about literacy if students are learning the instructional strategies and then practicing how they are used. Lastly, this learning includes learning through literacy when students gain new knowledge by reading a text.

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?

The types of classroom talk that takes place within my target area includes asking questions, answering questions and telling why you thought what you thought, if you disagree, saying why, and calling attention to strategies you use. The classroom norms that I want to build within my classroom as I teach in this target area are the same ones my mentors have been teaching the students. I want to build on these norms by sticking to them and giving students more practice with the classroom procedures. These procedures include following the CHAMPS board and following the classroom rules for speaking and listening which are also posted in the room and referred to regularly.

6.      Which “core practice” do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

The core practices I want to work on developing/improving as I teach in my target area are develop structures that promote purposeful talk (book club) and questioning. Focusing on these core practices with contribute to my own professional learning because I will get a feel for how a book club runs in a classroom. I will see where I make errors in running a book club and be able to adjust them in my future teaching. Also by focusing on questioning I will get an opportunity to discover what higher level questions look like and I will get a feel for how a small group discussion, centered on a book, looks and sounds like.

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

Leveled book sets in school literacy lab.

8.      What additional resources do you need to obtain? none

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

To pre-assess my students in my target area of reading comprehension/strategy instruction I will use both a formal and informal assessment. The informal assessment I will use is to take anecdotal notes of what types of reading strategies my students are using. My formal assessment will be the R-MAZE and RCBM test scores from this year. They measure students reading comprehension and fluency.

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 need to find out more about individual students classroom behavior. I also need to get a better feel of the types of historical fiction books my students would enjoy to pick from. Lastly, I need to make sure I have a good understanding of were each of my students reading comprehension level is at.

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

A couple things I need/want to learn about the “core practice” I chose are, what is purposeful talk defined as, what structures promote purposeful talk, and what are higher level questions.

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

My main concern in planning and teaching my unit is that my language arts mentor is new to the school this year and is used to having and working with a language arts curriculum. Because of this it was hard for her to give me any suggestions on what past interns had done because she has never had an MSU intern. She also does not have a language arts curriculum of her own from past years because this is her first year in this school building and her first year teaching 5^th grade. She previously taught 1^st graders.

Your Name: Lauren Brown

Inquiry Two, Part A:

Discuss Your Target Area and ‘Core Practice’ for Guided Lead Teaching

Talk with your MT about your idea, and use the information you gained from Inquiry One to respond to the following guiding questions listed below.  Email your responses to your instructor before our Week 4 class (September 26) AND post them on your book club blog:

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

Reading and Writing

Reading Street will be used and I will be starting with Unit 2 Week 2; in fluency we will focus on expression, will work on oral vocabulary/concept development, and in text comprehension we will work on drawing conclusions through story structure and questioning.

For writing, my MT follows Lucy Calkins curriculum and will be following their writing workshop; primarily prompts followed by strategic writing format to follow (Narrative, opinion, and informational).

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

Currently, we allow 1.5 to 1.75 hours a day for reading and writing (sometimes even more)

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

4.RL.4, 4.RL.7, 4.RIT.1, 4.RFS.3,  4.RFS.4, 4.W.1, 4.W.3, 4.W.5,  4.W.8, 4.W.10, 4.SL.4,

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?

Through teaching the described target areas, my students will become proficient in comprehension and the appropriate strategies to apply. Writing will become more fluent in practice through prompts and peer review and conversations.

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)?

Currently, in my classroom it is both teacher-led and student-led at times. During reading time, my MT relies a lot on the curriculum to guide his teaching and will often do worksheets related and/or use the computer to go over information instead of himself prompting thoughts and conversation. Students are only given a short time to discuss connections and thoughts with the given vocabulary words through whole class discussion and small group work. From what I have observed thus far, the current teaching style for reading is teaching for the weekly Reading Street test. By this I mean it is the same weekly routine of pre spelling test, vocabulary words/work, the big story, review, and then test. Therefore, not much higher level thinking is occurring and as a result students are not being challenged enough to create a substantial impact in their literacy learning.

I would like to create some norms for interaction within my classroom as I teach. For example, from this week’s reading I really liked the emphasis on small group work and discussion to prompt literacy learning. Small group work, in my opinion, is a way to reach both my introvert and extrovert students in their learning styles. Modeling and group norms would need to be dealt with before I had my students partake in any activities that I plan for them.

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?

Reading comprehension/strategy instruction; and writing instruction

In reading focus on interactive read aloud; and in writing focus on conferences

Focusing on these target areas and core practices will contribute to my own professional learning because I will be implementing new norms in our weekly routine that will further my learning and understanding of the curriculum and of my students. Interactive read aloud will allow me to model strategic thinking for comprehension and promote a more engaging discussion of text. Conferences will allow me to individually assess and motivate students in their writing.

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

In my classroom, I am able to use a computer, elmo, and smartboard to help technologically aid me in my literacy teaching. The school/school district has the Reading Street curriculum in place and assessments/lessons to follow. Within the community there is the local library that I am able to access; as well as, my own school library and librarian that could be of help in planning lessons.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

I currently do not need additional resources; but, I could search for higher level tasks/thinking tasks for my students to do for practice when students finish their assigned work during work time.

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

I will use my students past weekly tests and writing samples to pre-assess my students.

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 would like to find out which of my students like to read/write in their spare time. I would also like to know which of my students struggle in fluency, comprehension, decoding, ect..

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

It seems as if the core practices overlap; I need to learn how to make my lessons be interconnected as well.

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

I do have some concerns about planning/teaching my unit plan. One concern is keeping the routine of my MT while still implementing some of my own ideas and plans without overwhelming my students. Another concern is knowing the content well enough to teach effectively (which will take a lot of prepping and planning on my part).

Inquiry Two, Part A

Your Name: ___Shelby Wilson____

Inquiry Two, Part A:

Discuss Your Target Area and ‘Core Practice’ for Guided Lead Teaching

NOTE: YOU MAY INSERT YOUR ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS POSED BELOW IN A DIFFERENT COLOR FONT.  Please name your file with your last name and email as an attachment to your instructor (example: SmithPartATargetArea.docx)

Talk with your MT about your idea, and use the information you gained from Inquiry One to respond to the following guiding questions listed below.  Email your responses to your instructor before our Week 4 class (September 26) AND post them on your book club blog:

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

I will be teaching writing and focusing on realistic fiction.

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

Writing is allotted 40 mins, four times a week (2:00-2:40 M-W and F).

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

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.3a Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.3b Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.3c Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.3d Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.3e Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 4 here.)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.3 Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.3a Choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely.*

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

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?

      The students will be able to use their memories and previous experiences that are unique to their lives when writing the stories. Each day will focus on a specific goal that will promote the overall understanding and ability to write realistic fiction pieces by the end of the unit. They will be learning literacy by writing their own stories and seeing how their everyday lives include stories and aspects that they can use to make connections and draw from. The students will learn about literacy by gaining understanding about what realistic fiction entails as a genre. Learning through literacy will be achieved by allowing the children to share their pieces and hear their classmates’ stories. This process gives them the opportunity to grow by gaining public speaking skills and confidence in their abilities as a writer.

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)?

Teacher-led instruction will be limited due to the nature of the lesson, mini-lessons. There will be a small amount of instruction done in the front of the room and then the children will be sent back to their desks to write independently with a specific task in mind while writing. Then they will share within their groups and occasionally to the whole class depending on time. This portion will be student-led based on their group discussions that follow their independent writing.

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 will be focusing on conducting mini-lessons and conferencing during readers/writer’s workshop, particularly writer’s workshop. By performing mini-lessons I will be sticking with the routine that the children have become accustomed to since the beginning of the year and will be able to work with many children at various levels during the conferencing portion. This will contribute to my professional learning by allowing me to see the levels of comprehension or understanding of the particular lesson, with the overarching goal of writing realistic fiction, for each student. Conferencing with them will help my drive my instruction towards future lessons that will be necessary.

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

All the previous experiences that the students have had within the community, their neighborhoods, and the district will give them material to draw from when writing their realistic fiction pieces. Within the classroom I will be providing them with the materials needed for drafting (yellow legal pad), pencils, and a notebook for publishing. The library will also serve as a resource by providing examples of realistic fiction writing.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

As of this moment I do not feel any additional resources, in terms of materials, are needed. However, many examples of various genres and writing styles will be needed as I move through the lessons.

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

In order to pre-assess my students in their ability to write realistic fiction pieces I will ask them to write a personal narrative, which they will have hopefully mastered by the time my unit is to take place. Then I will ask them to go back and look at their personal narratives to look for areas that they could change to make the story realistic fiction. We will brainstorm examples together as a class and then they will be free to work on their stories individually. Finally, I will analyze their answers, or notes, written on the personal narrative drafts in order to see what my next steps will be. Additionally, they will have lists of small moment ideas, seeds of what to write about, and other various assignments that would need to be evaluated.

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 find out what previous experiences they have had in writing realistic fiction and writing in a Writer’s Workshop setting before my unit begins. I know they have been recently exposed to WW because it is a new curriculum that has been set in place this year, but I am unaware of how much exposure they had to free-writing or independent writing, in their previous grades. I will ask my MT and other teachers in the building to gain insight on this subject.

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

I want to learn of better examples of how to transform a personal narrative, something they are comfortable with, into realistic fiction. I find it difficult to only slightly alter a narrative in order to make it realistic fiction. It seems easier to me to change the story dramatically to make it into a fantasy or something of that nature. I will focus on finding solid examples that I can provide to the students and will model explicitly what I expect.

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

I am concerned about the amount of time allotted for writing within the school day. Particularly because it is at the end of the day I am worried that if another subject runs over on time writing will be pushed aside in order to finish it. Also, the content that is set to be covered within the curriculum is very lengthy and I am unsure if I will be able to fully teach all of it within the three weeks of GLT. I will be starting my instruction with the “Second Bend” of the unit in Lucy Calkins Writing Workshop Model.

Blog post #2: Writing Essentials Ch. 7-9

By: Lauren Brown

Routman discusses on page 173 that, “a successful writing program requires a knowledgeable, organized teacher with excellent classroom management skills.” From what I have observed in my classroom these past couple of weeks I have only seen writing three of the days. From what I have seen, students were given no clear directions on how/what to write and this was to be done individually-mainly, because we (my mentor teacher and I) wanted to evaluate where our students’ writing was. After reading Ch. 7, Routman discusses many ideas that I would like to implement into our writing time. For example, having students discuss their writing-either at the beginning, during, or at the end seems logical in that they can generate further ideas and create a flow that they may be initially be struggling with. Obviously, to make this method successful classroom management is key. I believe directions/expectations and modeling correct behavior would have to be done beforehand; and then, consistency in holding the students’ accountable would have to place to enable an effective conversation environment that would benefit their writing. I believe that conversations with peers and the teacher (one on one) are crucial. Some problems I may run into while attempting these methods include; students not paying attention and participating in conversation with one another, while a student is meeting with the teacher others may not be on task, and conversations that may not be beneficial to their writing. The previous problems described are classroom management issues that I would want to handle before attempting this method. I would try to hybridize my literacy instruction by trying a whole class discussion first so that there are no misconceptions about what should be discussed when going over a writing piece. 

Blog Post 1: Strategies that Work Ch.1-4 and "Finessing and Hybridizing" article

Throughout the year I am most concerned about finding my identity as a professional and combining my knowledge and beliefs into an effective teaching practice. I know this will be something that takes time and practice to get to a point where I feel it is truly accomplished, but I see this year as being the stepping stone. In order to develop my professional identity I plan on working closely with my MT to observe how she handles various situations, specifically uncomfortable ones. In the Finessing and Hybridizing article the authors mention “dilemma managers” who have to not only establish their beliefs and deal with the struggles in the classroom that are constantly changing. This was interesting to me because as teachers we do wear many different hats and I am wondering how I will be able to manage all of them appropriately.

 In order to build strong student-teacher relationships I plan to actively listen to the children’s feedback when I ask them questions not only pertaining to the classroom, but their lives outside of the classroom as well. I live near the community and spend time shopping or attending events in the town to gain a better understanding of what their daily lives are like. So far I have noticed many similarities between my childhood and their current lives. I have also given the students surveys that allow me to gather information about what they feel their “math smarts” are. Each child’s parent has returned a letter that provides information about the strengths and weaknesses of the child from their eyes and things that motivate and discourage them. I have read through all of them and looked at their previous records to try to understand them as quickly as I can in order to start building trust and cooperation within the room.

Constructing a relevant curriculum using the materials that are already in practice in the school has been done by observing the best practices for learning by the staff. However, I plan on varying the set curriculum based on my experiences with the children in order to meet their needs.

In order to assess students in meaningful and productive ways I will conference with my MT about what her opinions are considering she has a wealth of knowledge that will allow me to see a different perspective. As a novice I plan to lean heavily on their expertise and experiment with the various options they give me in order to decide what I feel the best assessment strategies are.

I feel confident in being able to ask for assistance and using resources to generate strong lesson plans. In terms of language arts instruction I noticed from the chapters in Strategies that Work that I need to be thoughtful when selecting books in order to demonstrate to the children how to pick a story that they can make text-to-self connections with. If I can provide these connections the children will have an example of how to make them on their own. Comprehension and stamina are higher when the child is invested in the story. Since these are areas I know my classroom is focused on I will try to do the same. Harvey and Goudvis state, “It’s not enough for the students to simply understand the strategy. They must know when, why, and how to use it” (pg. 27). I think this is a very valid point and the strategies are there to help the needs of the students. In order to progress as a reader they must employ various strategies such as inferring, visualizing, synthesizing, summarizing, and questioning to name a few, but if they do not know when the appropriate time is then knowing what the strategies are will not help them. I plan to attempt to solve this issue by practicing with the students using examples of various times when the reading strategies could be used.

For learning this year I will be able to understand the needs of many students and hopefully learn how to adapt my teaching to meet their needs because I have a few students with various impairments that we have made special accommodations for already in the room. For example, one child has Cerebral Palsy and he has a Paraprofessional, a walker, crutches, and a wheelchair so we will be ready no matter what the scenario. He is also allowed extra time on tests and is except from the minute tests in Rocket Math. Another child has a visual impairment that requires us to have shields over the lights to dim them so they do not hurt his vision. He is given larger print text and a seat in the front of the room as well.

In terms of “finessing” and/or “hybridizing” I think the use of Susie Calkins’ “Writer’s Workshop” model that is being used this year allows for teachers to blend many different approaches by using a model that is open-ended. I mean by this that the children are given topics, but they way they decide to express their thoughts about them can be determined by their writing styles. Since they are young and may not have a set style they like best we are here to provide them with opportunities to explore many of them. I strongly agree with the statement in the article that mentions combining the strongest practices of each into one new way of teaching. This is something that most likely sounds easier than it is to do in practice, but I look forward to trying. Our Writing Workshops are similar to the ones that Celina used in her writing instruction because it allows students to focus their efforts on pieces that they are passionate about and increase their motivation and hopefully comprehension.