Part A: Discuss Target Area and Core Practice

1.  I will be teaching the entire unit, but for the lessons I am turning in I will be focusing on writing instruction.
2.  I will have approximately 1-1.5 hours per day for the total literacy time allotted.
3.

 RI.5.01 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

RI.5.2 2. Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

4.  This target area will provide student to put themselves in the point of view of others, and really test their understanding of the material.  By integrating social studies, the students will be learning much more meaningully about the Navajo code-talkers than they would otherwise.  This learning the students will be taking part in will have them learning through literacy first and foremost.  By giving them the opportunity to really dive into a text and  reach a deeper understanding about something that is mostly foreign to them will be empowering to the students.

5. I am particularly excited for this unit because the talk will be mostly student-led with much of the teacher input being background information that they haven't had exposure to.  These students are not used to having a student led conversation and I will need to set the norms very clear about listning, speaking loudly as well as making sure that we are creating a safe environment for students to take scholastic risks in their interpretation.

6.  This unit will allow me to make sure that all students feel comfortable in their writing.  As part of the unit, my MT wants me to do a little bit of poetry at the end, which will be great for my students to be able to express themselves creatively through the means of poetry.

7.  I have the Treasures book I can work with and through, as well as the picture book of the book we are reading.  Other than that, I am unaware of any other resources that I can use.

8.  I want to acquire more information about the Navajo code talkers both in my level of understanding, but also have additional sources for the students to be able to process the information in their own way.

9.  I am not sure.  I think I may have them read a passage at their level and then respond to their feelings as if they were one of the characters.

10.  I should find out on how much the students know about World War II and perhaps if any of their family has served in the war.  I could then invite them to teh classroom to give a very realistic and exciting wrinkle into the unit.

12.  I am concerned on how to make this activity meaningful as many students will not be excited to read the text to begin with.  I am also worried about the pace at which we will read the book, as it is very slow and  my teacher gave me to weeks to read one story.

Response to Matt's Inquiry 2- Part A

Hi Matt! I’m also hoping to focus on the same core practice you are- activating and connecting background knowledge so I hope that I can give you some suggestions. I am planning on using this core practice with non-fiction texts, while I believe you are working on fiction texts, but maybe we can bounce some ideas off each other!

A section of the book I am finding to be really helpful is Chapter 7 Activating and Connecting to Background Knowledge mostly because this chapter gives so many ideas about how to activate students knowledge and make it meaningful.

One of the sections that I really liked was on pages 100-101 Building Background Knowledge Based on Personal and Text to World Connections. I still find my students to be more or less egocentric and I think activating background knowledge based on personal and then moving on to text to world connections would be very beneficial. Also, allowing students to SHARE their experiences will help other students who may not have as much knowledge about a specific topic hear from others who do have more knowledge about these topics. The example they gave in the book about the Vietnamese family was a great example of how this will help other students, so I suggest you look back over that example.   

Also, on page 103-104, the book discussed “Will any connection do?” Here, they talked about helping students differentiate from connections and MEANINGFUL connections. I don’t know if this will be as much of a problem for your older students, but it might be a good idea to do a paper where students have the opportunity to make connections and then decide themselves if that connection is helpful to the text, or just simply a connection. I liked this strategy because it doesn’t make students feel as if their knowledge or ideas are “bad” or “stupid”, but it allows students to sort through all this knowledge and sort it into meaningful groups so they can synthesize this information.  

In regards to how to assess if students are able to activate background knowledge, this is something that I am struggling with as a result of starting to plan my unit. Do you have any suggestions as to how you might assess this? How will you decide if there is growth from the beginning of the unit to the end? Share any ideas! Thanks :)

Anecdotal Records Post!

In order for my to construct Anecdotal Records, I can observe my students working independently or in small groups and takes notes regarding what actions are taking place in my class. I can strictly take my opinion out of this and make it observational and informational notes, which will make it a more structured, helpful record when sharing with others.  These sorts of records will (hopefully!) make it easier to understand what students are working on in the classroom and what they need the most work with to improve on (What the child knows and is ABLE to do (pg. 2)). I guess I sort of “knew” this about any sort of records that are taken in the classroom, but I considered this as “something I didn’t know” because it felt like a great reminder to 1) keep your opinion out of it and 2) not use deficit language.  

Another aspect I liked and learned from was the portion when the article discussed that we should only try to focus on a few students at a time rather than all of your students at once. This makes a lot of sense to me and makes the taking of anecdotal records a lot less daunting. When you are able to zero in on a few students, you are really able to pay attention to what is going on with them and notice aspects that you may have not otherwise noticed. I liked the suggestion that said maybe group the kids into “day groups” where each day of the week you are more closely observing certain students for your anecdotal records and then you should add this to their individual files at the end of each day (or thereabouts). I really like this idea but I just wonder how practical it actually would be, especially at my school when teachers have 0 planning time. If I was in this situation in the future, I would probably make a spreadsheet on my computer to add notes because I type things a lot faster than I write them, and it would be easy to type notes during a transition, after school, before lunch, etc etc.

Also, I think it’s important to point out the “key words” that you will be looking for during an observation or making of anecdotal records. I think this is a good way to keep your observations on task and not getting sidetracked by a students’ personality or misbehavior if you are strictly focusing on the standards by which you are judging them.

P.S. I like the homework black book idea!!!

Text Coding - Matthew Rigdon

What can I do?



What can I do?



What can I do?


Page 231 "Anecdotal records..." (-) Contradicts what you thought - I never considered anecdotal records to be a form of authentic assessment. I believe that anecdotal records can be influenced by prejudice (unless you only write pure observations) and they do not contain any direct student feedback (speaking to, reading, etc.). As a result, I believe that anecdotal records are beneficial, but they I am hesitant to consider them as an authentic assessment.

Page 231 "A fundamental..." (check) Confirms what you already knew - This quote reassured my beliefs that anecdotal records are beneficial for communicating what a child knows and is able to do.

Page 232 "In much the same way..." (+) Something new - Teachers must focus on unbiased observations, and avoid being distracted by personality differences and unusual behaviors.

Page 232 Graphic (+) Something new - I really enjoyed Table 1, which gave a list of meaningful verbs to use while writing anecdotes.

Page 233 "Write observable data..." (?) Confuses you - I know that you are only supposed to record observable data, but how can I as the teacher make use of observations without making judgments? And what is significant? How do I interpret data accurately?

Page 234 "Don't use the C-word..."(+) Something new - I never considered that using "can't" would be inappropriate. After considering what it means, I do realize that this word is self-limiting, since it assumes that the student will be unable to do something indefinitely.

Page 235 "Anecdotal record..." (check) Confirms what you already knew - I believe that having a time-stamped list of anecdotes for a student could be extremely beneficial when teaching and understanding a student. Anecdotes allow a teacher to capture many instances of a student's life and interaction, which can later be compiled for a greater understanding.

Buniewicz - Anecdotal Records

I think anecdotal recorda are essential for creating a well-rounded student as well as meaningful assessments that can change a students life.  I have always found this to be important, even if I didn't have the terminology or the idea formally formatted in my head.  An educator that I look up to, John Hunter, is adamant about creating self-assessments from students that discuss their strengths as well as areas of improvement as them as learners.  By the end of a marking period and come conferences, Mr. Hunter can present to the parents a snapshot of the student's achievement as well as their personality through the students own words.  This would not replace anecdotal records however.  I liked how the article gave specific ways to make this a manageable and sustainable way of assessing students.  By choosing a group, perhaps five, six students a day, you can make sure to write down meaningful anecdotal evidence that will prove useful when documented.  On Friday, evidence will be written down about any significant happenings as well as those students who were late, absent or simply need more observations made.  Also, some I learned, or a +, is that abbreviations should be used widely in order to write as many anecdotal records as possible.  However, I don't think that a binder should be made per student.  Instead, I think there should be a binder of all students with printed out forms that have it easy to write important info like date and subject as well as watched behavior.  The form should also have a box for whether additional attention or help needs to be given to student to have them live up to the best of their abilities.  Once you have a form like that, it will be easy to gather evidence and try to establish patterns such as when does a student partake in a disruptive action or when are they particularly helpful.  This will help direct your conversation with the student and their parents, and help them along in their education.

One thing I did not realize about anecdotal notes is that we didn't want to put our thoughts into the observations- that what we wrote down should be ONLY what we observe and nothing else. It makes sense, when you think about it however.

I knew that it wouldn't be a good idea to use the word "can't" - maybe not the exact word, but the idea that you want to avoid making parents feel like you're saying their child is not capable of performing. I also knew about using successes and needs instead of words like "deficient". Again, it goes back to the basic idea that you don't want to make the parents feel as if you're attacking their child or saying they are not able to perform in a particular way.

Something new I learned came from Amy- she mentioned using sticky notes to write down little observations here and there so you wouldn't be carrying around a stack of 27/28 papers and constantly writing in them. I was wondering how you would be able to remember all of your observations, since I was NOT about to carry around a stack of paper and be flipping through it all the time. I also feel that returning to my desk all the time to write down observations wouldn't be productive either.

Overall, I think that anecdotal records are a great way to compile information you might otherwise overlook or forget about. I never thought about doing it as an intern, but I think that it is a great way to get to know your students in a different way, so I may try it at school next time I'm there.

Liz Tompkins' Inquiry 2 Part A

1.     My target area for guided lead teaching is going to be non-fiction texts, specifically non-fiction text features as well as explaining what an informational text says explicitly and by using inferences. I will also work on summarizing main parts of the text explaining how they are supported by key details (by using both the text features as well as the text itself).

2.      We spend a little over an hour each day on “literacy.” My students will be working on other assignments for literacy, so some days I might only have 20 minutes to give a mini lesson, while other days I may have half or all of literacy to do my teaching- it just depends on what I want my lessons to look like. For example, a mini lesson on a few text features of a non-fiction piece might only take 20 minutes, but if I want to work on reading a selection and summarizing it as a class, I might want to have 40-50 minutes to do so.

3.     CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.2 Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

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

The text features is a CCSS for 3^rd grade, but I know my students need a lot more practice working with these features. I will work on the text features while using them to work toward other CC 5^th grade standards.

4.    Teaching non-fiction texts is very relevant to students’ lives. Since non fiction deals with REAL facts and issues, it will be easier to connect this type of text to students’ lives because the non fiction texts I will pick I will choose carefully and considerately so that I believe my students will have some interest in them. Also, I will select texts that some students may have background knowledge about, which will enhance their understanding and involvement in my lessons and the texts. Students encounter non-fiction texts every day and on through adulthood, so understanding how to read them (the text and the features) will help them in the future as well as right now. From newspapers to reading the news online, to studying their textbooks as they reach secondary school, understanding how to use non-fiction texts is extremely important and relevant. Working with non-fiction texts teaches students to learn about this type of literacy, that is, non-fiction texts. It allows students to also learn through literacy because they will be reading material that is informative (maybe about science, a social/newsworthy issue, or social studies) thus they will learn by reading and interacting with this medium.

5.    There will be many opportunities for multiple kinds of classroom talk to take place during my 10-lesson unit. There will be a lot of teacher-talk- that is, I will be guiding instruction, reading directions, answering questions that the students ask and testing students by questioning them about the material. There will also be time for student-led talk where students can ask questions, talk to those around them regarding the lesson and if I do mini groups, those would be student led as well. When we talk about the summary of a particular text, this might evoke some higher level thinking when we discuss the text.  The norms of interaction that I would like to build within my classroom during my teaching of this target area is really working with students on their sharing (to the group) skills. I feel as if my students don’t have ample time to work in groups or share their ideas, especially when it comes to literacy, so I would love to be able to really help students engage with each other about school and work together to learn and make something. I think I might do small groups where someone is the “expert” regarding something and then they all have to teach the other groups about what topic or information they were the expert about. I don’t really know exactly how my lessons are going to look, but that’s just one idea I have of an activity.

6.     The core practice I would like to focus on for this unit is under comprehension strategy instruction and assessment, activating and connecting background knowledge. The majority of my lesson will be based around non-fiction text features and then reading the non-fiction and then also focusing on their comprehension after the text is read. I might want to do some KWL chars before reading a few non-fiction pieces (after we have the mini lessons regarding the text features) and learn about other ways that can really activate student’s background knowledge. I have noticed that when we read some non-fiction in class, students are so confused about the questions they have to answer afterward. I think that this might change if we take some time exploring our background knowledge before hand so they know to connect the new information they read about to the information and knowledge they already have. Personally, this will contribute to my own professional learning because it will challenge me to ask questions that foster students to make connections and think of background knowledge they have.  It will be a challenge for me and I think it will be good practice because it will force me to be creative in my questioning as well as students realize what they already know that will help them with the task, which will give them confidence to succeed.

7.    I have Scholastic News that are mailed to my mentor teacher about every week that have awesome text features that I could do a little lesson with. I also have the Literacy books that have non-fiction texts, but I probably will try to stay away from those books because I think they are boring. My teacher also has a lot of awesome non-fiction books in her classroom, so I could photocopy parts of those books if I wanted and could include those in my lesson. I can work with the literacy teacher to see if she has any good ideas for non-fiction text instruction. There is also the Lansing State Journal that I could read to my students and have them work with, as those articles would be very contemporary. My school also has a lot of magazine subscriptions such as Ranger Rick that are non-fiction and are grade level appropriate.

8.    I will probably obtain some resources off the Internet. I think I might do a mini lesson about making inferences and just use pictures so that students can learn how to use the pictures in a non-fiction text to add to their understanding of the text.

9.    I have already started to see students work with scholastic news articles, so I will use what I have observed during this instruction as part of my assessment. As for an actual assessment, I think I will give them a non-fiction article and have them point out as many text features as they can and have them explain their purpose. I will also have them read the piece and then summarize it for me just so I can get a baseline for where they are in regards to the standards I am teaching to.

10. I would like to know how comfortable students feel with non-fiction texts and I also would like to know how much experience they have had working with non-fiction texts. I would also like to know some of their interests outside of school so that can aid in my selection of the non-fiction texts to use during my lessons.

11. I want to learn how to ask questions to elicit background knowledge as well as different activities I can do to meet this same goal.

12.  I am worried that it might be sort of awkward in relation to the rest of literacy- it’s not really going to have anything to do with what they will be doing during normal literacy time, so I’m worried it might seem sort of disconnected and I question the fluidity of it. I also worry I might not have enough to teach for 10 whole lessons, but that’s not my main concern. I just hope I can formulate 10 lessons that make sense and the kids enjoy.

Target Area and ‘Core Practice’ for Guided Lead Teaching - Matthew Rigdon

1.       Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

My target area is “Comprehension Strategy Instruction and Assessment.” My “core practice” is “Activating and connecting background knowledge.”

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

Our class spends approximately fifty minutes every day on reading instruction. Thirty of those minutes are spent with either the teacher reading to the students or students reading in groups. If the teacher is reading to the students, then she is constantly modeling reading comprehension techniques. Students also have the opportunity to comment on the book’s contents. For the remaining twenty minutes, the teacher allows students to silently read a book of their choice.

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

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.3 Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

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?

By modeling how to relate background knowledge and experiences to literature, students will learn to derive more meaning from what they have read. During my lessons, I will show students how to use this comprehension technique by “thinking allowed” and using experiences from my life. I will then encourage students to express their own experiences and relations to the novel we are reading. This technique allows students to learn about literacy by connecting what they have read to their life experiences. I hope that the connection that students make between literature and their own lives will give more meaning to what they are reading, stimulate their excitement about reading, and help them remember important details from novels and articles.

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 such as Almasi, 2006)?

This target area allows students to share experiences from their own life. Students can discuss and relate to one another through commonly shared experiences. These lessons will start off as teacher-led with me modeling how this technique is used, and when it appropriate. (It is appropriate in novels, but a lot less useful in short articles or informative text.) Once I notice students getting used to this reading technique, I will shift the responsibility to students as soon as required scaffolding has been established. In terms of norms, I would like to establish a free-sharing environment. I want students to feel safe sharing and relating to their experiences, and I also want students to comment on and relate to one another. I will make sure to emphasize how important being able to share one another’s life experiences will be when using this technique.

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 am going to focus on “activating and connecting background knowledge” within this target area. Using this core practice will allow me to synthesize my own thoughts as I read, and how I use them to understand text. At this point in my life, I unconsciously make connections to novels that I am reading, and it would be extremely useful to realize the connections I am making and why they are important. Also, I can look to focus on particular themes in books and attempt to consciously find different life experiences than I typically may produce without directed attention. (I would create questions prior to a reading to find more meaning.)

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

I have a wide variety of books that can reach a vast audience. My mentor teacher is also a magnificent resource for knowledge regarding literature and modeling reading techniques. At my school, I have a reading specialist that has approximately twenty years of reading intervention. She could be useful in assisting me with struggling students and giving me additional commentary on my lessons.

8.       What additional resources do you need to obtain?

I don’t believe that I will need to obtain any more resources, unless it is a class set of books (if I choose to use that approach).

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

To assess students, I will have them read a short passage from either the beginning of a book or a short story. Afterwards, I will have my students relate what they read to their own lives. I will assess their skill by judging whether they found two experiences that are related, and then I would like them to explain why they are related.

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 how well my students can apply new reading techniques. I need to establish a time frame for how long I must scaffold the students before they are set on their own. I also want to discover which type of books my students are most interested in, and which books students can relate to the most.

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

I need to learn how the ‘core practice’ can be most efficiently used. I will use the book, “Strategies That Work,” as well as my TE801 teacher and mentor teacher to assist me in lesson creation. I specifically want to learn how I should present the reading technique (model?) as well as how long I should scaffold the students with this technique. I want to discover which genres of books this reading technique is best suited for.

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

I want to ensure that I organize the unit and teach it effectively.  I want to make sure that I have enough material for this reading comprehension technique to be used efficiently without being repetitive to the students. I also want students to make appropriate literature-experience connections that will benefit their understandings while reading. I would like more information on how to accomplish each of these goals.

Book Club Blog #2

What I See Now

I was most interested in chapter eight of Writing Essentials, because it covered some activities I currently see in my classroom such as "writing workshop," as well as some ideas to expand these lessons to increase learning for students. Most mornings our students are given a suggestion prompt in which they can chose to follow or come up with their own topic. The only requirements are that students must work silently and write at least twelve lines within their composition notebooks. After about 20-25 minutes of writing, students are welcome to raise their hand to share with the class their entries. Then we move onto a daily math lesson. So you can see there is no time allotted for reflecting or revisions/editing. I have not seen a writing lesson taught by my mentor teacher yet. 

Improvements

It is important to encourage our young writers to write with a purpose and to consider an audience. Routman (2005) suggests that teachers, "begin by identifying an important topic for a specific reader and then teach the skills students need to write about that topic- both those you anticipate they will need and those that crop up as they write" (175). What types of audiences could you encourage your students to write towards? Why is this important?

What I Want to Try 

Further, I was looking for more information about writing conferences, when I noticed that chapter nine was entirely dedicated to this one practice! Handy! I want to try conferences possibly this year, but definitely in the future as a teacher.  These quick checks and one-on-one time offer valuable and personalized feedback to your students. One important note I made was that the more clearly you explain and also model your expectations, the less hectic your follow-up conferences will be. 

This section was a lot of new information and suggestions, but I found this to be a bit overwhelming. Were there any topics, strategies, and/or handouts/evaluations that stood out as particularly helpful to you? Anything you would use? Why? Is there something you're critical of?

I am posting this on behalf of Liz, who is responding to Matt's comment:

I’m going to respond to your (matt’s) quote about how students choose approximately 80% of their own texts and then you said that you found this to be true. Can you explain this more to me maybe? Because from what I see, my teacher doesn’t really let them pick what they’re reading unless it’s for silent reading (individual). My teacher has selected all the texts we read as a class, and this is sort of how I remember my elementary experience going as well. I would love to come see your class if your teacher is letting them choose 80% of their own texts. WOW!

I enjoyed many things while reading though this weeks section. One example I really enjoyed was on pages 11-12, when the sixth grade teacher modeled how to do text to self when reading a book and then gave students an opportunity to make their own text to self connections in a book of their choosing (Matt also mentioned modeling, but I would like to expand on this idea).  I liked this example for 2 reasons. One, I think it was a very excellent example of modeling; something that I am discovering to be SO important in my 5^th grade classroom. I recently read another article on my own titles Explicit Instruction by Archer and Hughes and they placed so much emphasis on the importance of providing “guiding and supported practice.” They said that “in order to promote initial success and build confidence, regulate the difficulty of practice opportunities during the lesson, and provide students with guidance in skill performance.” This tactic was modeled perfectly through this literacy lesson, which, for my second point, I really liked this idea for an activity. Too often I think students read books and just answer questions about them- I think this is a good exercise to start students on being able to connect the text to their lives and world. I will definitely be keeping this in mind for my future classroom and maybe even use it during my internship year. I liked what they said on page 14 about how just understanding the text “goes beyond” the literal interpretation of the text-it’s important to be able to interact with it as well, which is another reason why I liked the text to self strategy used above. This will help aid in comprehension.

Another discussion I really enjoyed reading in this book was the discussion found on pages 27-28. This talked about how proficient readers are able to monitor themselves regarding comprehension- in other words, they basically read and read and read “on autopilot” until something goes on they don’t understand, and then they have to figure out what’s going on by re-reading, slowing down, etc. The book pointed out, however, that sometimes “less proficient readers may be so focused on decoding that they can’t give adequate attention to making meaning when they run intro trouble,” meaning that it’s important for beginning readers to be reminded to stop periodically to keep track of what’s going on (this needs to be modeled through various strategies and reminded often).

In chapter three, I think that I will find the gradual release framework really helpful. I haven’t seen any group work in my classroom yet, sadly, but I hope that I do (or I hope that I can do something with that when I plan my own lesson) . I think it’s so important for students to be able to collaborate with one another, and I think it helps students learn a lot too by hearing their peers talk, which gives them good feedback.

On page 36, the “language matters” portion really stuck out to me- “What we say and how we say it makes a difference.” Obviously, I think this goes much further than simply literacy instruction- it’s in everything we teach and say and do throughout the day. It makes me shudder when I witness teachers saying things to their students in a negative way, that to me, could be made so much more positive ( I personally think this goes for pretty much every interaction you have with people in life in general, but that’s just another conversation for another day)

Just a comment in general about my class and wondering if anyone else is experiencing this same  “problem”- I have seen no differentiated instruction what so ever. Is this just me? Is it common not to see this in the beginning of the year? Am I missing something…?

Okay, until next time. Adios my fellow book club bloggers.

Book Club Blog #1

Note: For this blog post, I will be referring to concepts that I've read in Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis. For this blog post, I will be summarizing the various ideas that I found important throughout this reading. I will comment on their viability (in my opinion) and how they can be used.

One of the most important ideas expressed throughout this chapter regards students' interests in reading. According to researcher Donald Graves, it is recommended that students choose approximately 80 percent of their own texts (Harvey & Anne 29). Based on my personal and classroom experiences, I find this to be true. When a student finds the material they are reading intriguing, he/she will far more likely to read in their spare time and make connections to his/her own life. Self-connections are an important means of drawing meaning from a text and keeping a student motivated to read. The remaining 20 percent of the readings can be teacher chosen. These readings should be used to model specific ideas that the teacher has prepared prior to the lesson.

Reading strategies do not always come naturally to students. Many times teachers get caught explaining to students "how" to use teaching strategies, rather than having the teacher model the strategy (Harvey & Anne 31). Teachers should instead focus on modeling a particular reading strategy. Over time (based on the students' responses), the teacher will gradually allow the students to use the reading strategy on their own. By modeling a reading strategy, the teacher is able to both explain "how" to do the strategy while showing the students how to do it themselves.

Personally, I have always learned best by observing someone perform a task. Directions (written or spoken) are either understood or not. If the student does not understand the instruction, often a teacher will re-explain the directions without providing he/she with any more detail. That simply does not help. When a teacher expresses directions and then shows students how the directions correlate to action, the student is provided with two means to understand the assignment. That is how people learn.

The chapter also provides various techniques that teachers can use for reading instruction in their classes. I will not go into detail about these strategies, as you can read about them yourself. Each reading strategy can be used in different scenarios, and some may be effective for one student but not another. Discovering which techniques work best for you and your class is something that you must explore.

________

Dilemmas:

The only dilemma that I am concerned with regards assessing students. I am unfamiliar with ways to assess students at a sixth grade level, and more so, which type of assessment are most effective. I would like to learn about the various ways to assess students and how to perform this assessments.

________


Confident:

I feel confident in being able to provide the students with engaging classroom discussions. I believe that I can effectively navigate discussions, link students' ideas, and keep the students interested in the present topic. I also believe that I can effectively model many reading strategies for students.

________


-TheMattador