The Highlight of My Week

Running Records

Some how the work we have accomplished in 409 keeps connecting to my dyad! For example, I mentioned in class last week that my dyad teacher was teaching VC, CVC, CV patterns to her students. This was especially helpful to me, of course, since I have never learned phonics. Now this week I was excited to observe my teacher using running records to assess student reading levels. The Benchmark literacy program provides running record assessments according to reading level. The teacher times the student as they read, and then follows along on a separate page marking errors, repeats and self corrections. After a few pages the student finishes the book silently. Then the teacher reads from preselected questions to prompt the student for comprehension: "Within the Text", "Beyond the Text", and "About the Text". Overall accuracy, self corrections, fluency, reading rate, and comprehension are taken into consideration before a child is "moved up" to a new level reader. A second student was assessed on Thursday and I was able to follow along. It was difficult to keep up and remember all the symbols! Overall I find the assessment more helpful than the DIBELS assessment I completed in my main placement. There appears to be more information specific to their attributes as a reader in this assessment.

Success!

On Wednesday I completed my read aloud to the second graders, and it was wonderful. I've read aloud to classrooms before in both 4th and 3rd grade, but never in conjunction with a lesson plan. I decided to put post its on the book just as our instructor modeled, which was very helpful in keeping my students on target with my objectives. Practicing also helped, although it felt silly talking to myself. The clear learning targets kept my students engaged because they had purpose in listening. I read with a lot of animation and I loved seeing their faces as I showed them each picture. My dyad teacher believed them to be engaged not only because most of the class was listening quietly during the story, or volunteering an answer during discussion, but simply from body language. One little boy had a scowl on his face and leaned forward when I described Lilly calling her brother names. I had not anticipated the level of excitement in the classroom during my lesson. Nearly the entire class raised their hand at each opportunity to join in our conversation about character traits and change. When we transitioned to the next part of the story, I asked students who did not get called on to “hold on to their ideas”. A chorus of “aw” signaled disappointment that they didn’t get to share. Honestly I was impressed and proud of their engagement for thirty minutes. That is a long time for second grader to sit and they had already been sitting in a previous lesson that morning. I was able to hold their attention, stay on topic, and facilitate a group discussion without chaos. It was a very meaningful experience. Sometimes a student would take me off guard by claiming that Lilly’s parents don’t understand her. This is not blatant in the text; however I can see where the student would make this interpretation. I asked the class to think about this comment and see if they agreed. Ironically her comment reminded to give the class wait time! After all I needed some wait time to think this over too! This is an important concept my dyad teacher explained in order to get them thinking fully about the question. Essentially I know not to call on the first students who raise their hands. Second graders are eager to volunteer, even if they haven’t thought about the answer. After the read aloud my dyad teacher also suggested giving them more time to talk in pairs during “turn and talk”. It is a fine line between giving them talk time, and letting them procrastinate. I can see now that I was cutting it too short. In the end I was able to improvise a new ending to my lesson in order to wrap up the lesson targets and better summarize the experience. I cannot wait to get in front of the class again!

Can I also add that these "compliment" pumpkins made my week: (especially the reference to my small group lesson on space)

Lesson Planning

I think this week has been a turning point in teacher preparation. Although our assignments are still, more or less, removed from the classroom we are working in, I am acquiring more experience in flushing out objectives, lesson plans, and assessments. Today alone I worked all day to complete the math lesson plan, my read aloud lesson plan, and the follow up literacy lesson plan for my kindergarten buddy. The repetitive work developing lesson plans through all three assignments has given me a bigger picture of teaching. I've discussed with my dyad teacher that sticking to a lesson plan can only benefit the learning of your students. You will be more focused and so will they. I am excited to present my read aloud lesson on "Julius the Baby of the World" by Kevin Henkes, next week. I've done read alouds before at my main placement, but without purpose. This time I am tying my objectives on character development into the Benchmark Literacy lessons my teacher has already established. My teacher showed me a selection of books, and honestly it was an easy choice. Henkes is a great author, and this book is special to me. I hope the kids enjoy it!

Website for Kevin Henkes Image

Math Confusion

After writing my lesson plan on long division for math, I thought I would locate a funny video to show my hypothetical fifth grade class.  I came across this gem by mistake.  Now I know how easily kids get confused!

New Experiences Every Week

10/14/2011

New experiences every week

This week I enjoyed working individually with students on literacy skills, in particular.  The two girls I worked with were so excited; they literally were jumping out of their chair.  I was handed a non-fiction book titled The Sun, and taught them using a lesson plan produced specifically for the book.  I have no prior experience using a script.  It was odd asking them questions from a paper, and soon adapted them to the questions they were asking me.

The students first looked through the book at the pictures and made predictions about what the text would talk about.  I then showed them the title, the authors, and the table of contents.  We discussed each one, and then I asked them to take turns reading aloud.  They were both very excited to read aloud.  The objective was to practice reading fluency and comprehension.  We soon started to examine “abstract” ideas from the book such as: the tilt of the earth, whether the sun moves in a circle, the importance of the sun, the water cycle, plants, and seasons.  One girl knew about the water cycle and attempted to explain it to the other.  I encouraged her to teach her peer; however, when it didn’t work I grabbed a white board and drew pictures.  Science and astronomy are exciting to me, it was a wonderful feeling explaining such a complicated process as the water cycle to a seven year old.  As we read, I also tried to ask comprehension questions from previous pages which connected each of the mini-chapters. 

I’ve been volunteering in elementary schools since 2008.  Teaching one-on-one in depth was new for me, I was happy for the responsibility.  The following day we reviewed what we learned and reread the book.  Both students begged me to read another book with them.  I was very excited by their enthusiasm!  I find working one on one with students is warming them up to me as a teacher; after all I’ve only been there four days!

Another couple of new experiences I had this week involved one student cheating, and another challenging me.  When the student challenged me during class, I was following up on a direction the teacher made during student presentations.  Ultimately in the end I stood my ground and explained the appropriate way to speak to teachers in the future.  I spoke with the teacher afterwards who claimed I was right to stand my ground, otherwise he would be challenging me the rest of the seven weeks I am there.  The student had had a bad day, the following day was back to normal between us.

The student who cheated was a new experience as well.  I honestly had not expected to see it as this grade level and he was mortified to be caught.  The teacher met with him, and told him why he should not cheat.  He claims he won’t try it again, so the teacher stated she would not involve parents this time.  It comes down to knowing your kids.  Everyone needs a second chance!

Below is the behavior chart used in the classroom.  Clothespins with the children’s name on it move up and down throughout the day depending on behavior.  It should be vertical, I don't know what is wrong.

Working the Gap Question

How can I take the first step toward assessing student understanding of a lesson and accomodating for individual learning levels? How do I know where a child has learned something?