Reflections on First lesson

The first lesson that I taught from the basal text was an introduction to the story, "The Unbreakable Code."  As a class, we read the introductory story the previous day, which spoke about the code talkers that served in Northern Africa.  The first couple pages of the story introduce our main character, John, who is upset about leaving the Navajo reservation for Minnesota.  I focused the discussion of the story on the author's perspective.  What did the author want to emphasize to the reader?

The story told about John's Grandfather who spent his childhood in boarding schools specifically for Native Americans.  My class is very diverse and I wanted to allow these students to relay their personal experiences to the class.  They really opened up about their home languages and customs that have been kept in their homes.  I made sure to speak about this as a class because the class is very interested in the diverse backgrounds of each student. Earlier in the year, a student vocalized how interested he was in someone else's culture but my MT said "We don't have time to talk about it," and never returned to it.  I certainly wanted to get back to the topic to enrich the student's cultural literacy by using their peers to do the teaching.  From this cultural literacy point of view, the lesson went very well as students started to comprehend more of the story as well as started to empathize with the main character.

One thing that I would go back to focus on in the lesson if I could go back in time to plan it is changing the way I approached the topic of author's perspective.  Most students didn't know what perspective was, which came as a surprise to me.  It just proves that I needed to informally assess my students prior knowledge, something which I normally associate with math (I obviously know that that is now incorrect!).  I did not have a good way to explain the concept and was not prepared to do so.  I also need to prepare students if I expect them to contribute.  Especially for my ELLs who would provide much of the cultural content I was looking for, I should have let them know a day or two earlier so they could ask their parents and be prepared to provide any information they felt comfortable sharing.

Poetry lesson

Overall, I think the lesson went well.  I could have changed a lot of things to make it better (which I will get to) but overall the students were paying attention and with only one exception, all did the work and paid attention to the lesson.  Although at first I wasn't sure about teaching poetry(especially after my conversation with Amy), it turned out to really work out and the kids enjoyed an opportunity to be creative.

What went well -

The fact that the class was paying attention (or were good at pretending) most of the time.  The students were excited about writing their own poetry and were calling myself and Mrs. Dickinson over constantly. 

I did what I planned to do and adjusted when the conversation/discussion led a different direction.  For example, when students didn't know what a haiku was or syllables or rhyming or symbolism or consonance, I adjusted each time, making sure that students were understanding and all students were included.  I did well to adjust to the fact that the three boys that go to the resource room were in the classroom.  I made sure to stop by them and help them with their poetry.  The fact that one of them was really angry at me for not letting him go to the Resource Room (she was in a meeting) and he got mad and yelled at me telling me I am not a 'real teacher'.  Once he went into the classroom, I did not have major problems with him other than having to redirect him at times and making sure he wasn't talking.

What I could have improved -

-The first thing I could have changed to improve my lesson is my little quip on symbolism and consonance.  The reasoning behing introducing it was to make sure that my students who are higher achieving would be challenged and I could have something tangible to tell them to work on.  Unfortunately, None of the students knew what symbolism, concrete or abstract meant so that was a dud.  While teaching this to the class, I realized I was wasting my time because these lessons would have to be individual lessons "what is symbolism? name a symbol.  Is this concrete or abstract?'  but I couldn't just abruptly go away from it and lose the flow of the lesson.  So I let it go as long as I thought was tolerable before moving on.

-Also, How have they not done Haiku poetry before?  That blows my mind.  I should have asked them and had a better idea of what I was about to teach them.  That was my mistake and I would have changed my whole intro if I had realized I was introducing something completely new to them.  But alas, I am human.

-I did not handle some funny answers or bad attitudes from students well.  I kinda just ignored them to keep the flow of the lesson.  This was calculated on my part to make sure that I taught my lesson, not disciplined students the entire time.  I did not feel the need to use the name/check method because the students, despite imperfections, were more or less on their best behavior.dud.  While teaching this to the class, I realized I was wasting my time because these lessons would have to be individual lessons "what is symbolism? name a symbol.  Is this concrete or abstract?'  but I couldn't just abruptly go away from it and lose the flow of the lesson.  So I let it go as long as I thought was tolerable before moving on.this concrete or abstract?'  but I couldn't just abruptly go away from it and lose the flow of the lesson.  So I let it go as long as I thought was tolerable before moving on.

-Also, How have they not done Haiku poetry before?  That blows my mind.  I should have asked them and had a better idea of what I was about to teach them.  That was my mistake and I would have changed my whole intro if I had realized I was introducing something completely new to them.  But alas, I am human.

-I did not handle some funny answers or bad attitudes from students well.  I kinda just ignored them to keep the flow of the lesson.  This was calculated on my part to make sure that I taught my lesson, not disciplined students the entire time.  I did not feel the need to use the name/check method because the students, despite imperfections, were more or less on their best behavior.

-I was wary of doing one as a group or showign too many examples as I was afraid they may have just copied what they read and not showed their creative spark (which they all have!).

-I had my hands in my pockets.  That was weird, I think it is somewhat a nervous habit.  I generally don't do that.  Not the best posture to have.

You know I am more critical with myself than I am with anyone else.  Overall, I think it went absolutely fine, I just needed to think things out a bit better and (heard this one before?) have a better classroom management plan to be able to deal with those little comments, side conversations, and bad attitudes more smoothly.

Day 3- First Attempt with the KWL Chart!

During my lesson, we read a non-fiction article as a class about why frogs are going extinct. Before we read the article, I had students point out the non-fiction text features that they saw before they read the article. We talked about the title, sub title, map and bold words. We discussed how these are important to notice as they help us activate our background knowledge before we even read the article. I passed out the KWL charts, and the students filled out the “what I think I know” and “what I want to know”. We talked about how we should fill the “what I want to know,” while keeping in mind the header and sub header we read while looking at the non fiction text features. We talked about how we think this article might be about pollution and how it affects frogs (the title was “Frogs and Risk” and the sub title read, “South America’s frog population is on the decline. That spells trouble for the environment.”) Since this was our first KWL chart, I tried to do a lot of guiding and modeling. I had the students try to write two things they would like to know or find out, BASED around what they think they might find in the article. I said that if they wonder something, such as “how long do frogs live?” that they may write that, but I tried to have a little discussion around the idea that we might not find that specific answer in this article and we might have to look elsewhere because the article is very specific (as are most articles). After I collected the KWL charts, I was pleasantly surprised with that the kids wrote down- a lot of the “what I want to know” questions were based around what students think they WOULD actually find in the article. I wonder how well they will do with this idea as I pull away my direct support/instruction. Something I will definitely have to pay attention to as I look at more KWL charts my students create for me during non-fiction features.

My students learned about KWL charts and how to apply them to a non-fiction text article. They also had more practice using non-fiction text features, which was the main idea my teacher really wanted me to cover during my guided lead teaching. My students learned about frogs and why pollution affects them. A lot of their responses were so cute- a lot of students expressed sadness is their, “what did I learn” section- one student even said “WE MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. FROGS ARE SO CUTE.” Some students who have a hard time expressing their thoughts in writing had a difficult time with this assignment- they didn’t write very much in the boxes, but I actually noticed a few of these students participating and sharing their ideas, even though they didn’t have it written down, which was a good thing. I learned that students like to talk about what they know- I really don’t think I have ever seen that many of my kids get excited about sharing what they know (I don’t really think I have seen that many activities with background knowledge, so it was a interesting to see their interactions).

I will continue giving students closer support with their KWL charts and reminding them to utilize text features to activate background knowledge as well as help them read non-fiction. I don’t think I need to “re-teach” any thing specifically, but I will just make sure my students have more practice with the KWL charts as well as reading non-ficiton.

If I was to teach this lesson again, I think I might be more explicit or explain the W part of the KWL chart. I was happy with how my students performed, but there were times when I felt shaky explaining HOW to know what to put in the W box. I just think this will come with more practice as I get more comfortable teaching and getting up in front of the class.

So far, implementing my core practice is going really well! I would like to try some different activating background knowledge activities, but I haven’t really found any that I like as much as the KWL chart. 

Also, just with the time aspect of this guided lead teaching, I think I would rather really get my students comfortable with using a KWL chart rather than make them do a lot of activities where they activate background knowledge but never really get super comfortable with a specific one. What do you think about this? Should I stick to KWL charts or try to venture out and do something different?

Days 1 and 2- My First Experience!

        This reflection is about Day 1 (and day 2) of my literacy unit plan. On the first day, I had students tell me what a non-fiction text was and had them brainstorm various text features they had heard of, seen or used while reading a non-fiction text. I had students use the think-pair-share model so all students would have an opportunity to have an idea in case I pulled their popsicle stick out in order to ask them to participate. In this lesson, student’s reviewed/ learned various non-fiction text features. As I showed them various non-fiction text features, they were able to fill out a fill in the blank worksheet as we went through the lesson so that they could have these notes as something to refer back to when they were doing the activity for day 2. Some students who had a hard time paying attention to lessons had a difficult time filling in the blanks on the worksheet but I made sure that everyone had it filled in by the end of the lesson and allowed students to look off my copy if they had a hard time filling it in and listening to the lesson because I wanted to make sure that they had the information. From this lesson I realized that students need more practice with non-fiction text features so they know how to use them to aid in their reading of a non fiction text. I think they did good during my lesson but they definitely need to explore non fiction texts and have a real opportunity to use text features while they are doing real reading. During day 2 of my lesson, students were able to look at their textbooks and other non-fiction books in the classroom and discover various text features and point them out (by putting what they found on a worksheet). Some students struggled with this because they were off task and had a hard time locating text features if they weren’t actually reading the text (I hope that makes sense). Like I started to discuss above, I think that my students need more REAL interaction with non-fiction text features, which is something I hope to explore during the rest of my lessons. I will re-teach and re-explore what non-fiction text features are throughout the remainder of my lessons, as we will start to use KWL charts to build our knowledge off of non-fiction text features. Students will have many more opportunities to interact with non-fiction text features as I move through my lessons because we will be using non-fiction texts. I will continue to point out text features and allow students to explore their uses and functions throughout my unit. If I was to do these two lessons again, I might just have students use only one text book during their search rather than having unlimited books at their disposal. I think this would keep them on task and they wouldn’t be so overwhelmed with the opportunity to look through many different books (which some students were distracted by, I think). So far, I haven’t done a ton of work with my core practice because this was just an intro to text features, but I did realize that having students brainstorm what they already knew about non-fiction texts as well as non-fiction text features helped them get ready for the lesson and reminded them of what they already knew. It also helped me with my instruction for the lesson because it helped me gauge what I needed to spend less time on (glossary, bold print) and more time on (index, how to use a table of contents, and graphs on pages).

Guided Reading Lesson Reflection #2

• What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?

Students learned that they could make connections to not only themselves, but also to texts as well as the world. Students were able to summarize many ways that texts could be related to the world. Some of the students' examples were: the internet, history, movies, magazines, textbooks, etc. 

Not many of my students struggled with this lesson. All students were able to find the required three connections, however, some students had difficulties distinguishing between text-to-text connections and text-to-world connections. Both high and low achieving students struggled alike with deciding which type of connection they were making.

• What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?

For this type of connection, I believe that students are able to display their worldly knowledge. The other two types of connection (T-S and T-T) require students to reflect on themselves and what they have read. Text-to-world knowledge allows students who accelerate with facts and students who obtain the majority of their knowledge from television and magazines to have an opportunity to make more connections. 

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

I learned about my students' knowledge regarding the world. Different students referred to different types of knowledge. For example, one of my students is from Lebanon. Many of her "world" references regard her home country and how their lifestyle is similar/different to the Native Americans were are reading about in Ta-Ne-E-Ku. I also learned about what students do in their free time. Students made connections to whatever they spent a lot of their time doing: video games, television, social media, other countries, etc.

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

To re-teach the material to struggling students, I would watch or read a few news articles that I know can relate to our reading. I would then work with students in small groups and talk about the news articles. Afterwards, we would work together to find connections between texts we have read and the news articles. This would ensure that every student understands which connections we are reading, since we have worked on the text-to-world connections together.

• 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 taught this lesson again, I would make sure to spend more time distinguishing between text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections. Many students had questions regarding which type of connection they had made. There were a few scenarios in which I was confused as to which type of connection the student found, and whether they found a connection that could apply to two different type of text-____ connections. I believe if I could make the text connections more specific, students would be able to focus on which type of connection they formed in more depth.  

• 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 students really enjoy making text connections as long as they understand which type of and how to make connections. Even the students who initially disliked making connections (the ones who could not find connections) have begun to like using sticky notes and finding connections. As a result, I believe that I need to continue improving on how I display the three different text connections. I need to make my own Reading Journal that will serve as an example for students in the beginning stages of learning these techniques. I will also save student examples that were exceptional. These examples could be viewed by students at their own leisure.

Guided Reading Lesson Reflection #1

After teaching each of the 2 lessons you handed in for instructor feedback, post a reflection on the lesson

based on the following questions. It is recommended that you complete these as soon as possible after

teaching each lesson while events are still fresh in your mind. These reflections are due no later than

November 14.

• What did students learn and which students struggled with the lesson?



For this lesson, we learned how to create text-to-text connections. Students learned that there were three requirements for each text connection: 1) students had to list which book they were connecting with, 2) list off which type of connection is this (setting, plot, character, etc.), and 3) describe the part of each story that students connected to. By presenting text connections this way, I provided students with clear requirements that they could accomplish for each of the three text connections that students needed. There were two students who struggled with creating connections. Both of the students said they did not know any stories that related the story. Previously, on text-to-self connections, the same two students had difficulties relating to the story. To remedy this, I worked one on one with each student and they managed to find their three daily connections.



• What are alternate reads (interpretations) of your students’ performance or products?

I could also judge students performance by observing their progress from the beginning to the end. Some students progress a lot by making more meaningful connections, while another student may find more connections. There were several students who already made meaningful and in depth connections from the beginning of my lessons. Perhaps for these students, I could have them find more connections rather than seek to increase the depth of their connections. For students who struggled with finding connections, perhaps finding more connections is more important than depth of the connections until students get used to discovering similarities between texts, themselves, and the world.

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

My original intention was to get students to comprehend and enjoy texts more. I learned which students read a lot in their spare time. Students who did not read often connected with common texts such as Jack and the Beanstalk. The students who read a lot referenced various books and texts at higher reading levels. Also, I was able to witness a wide range of connection depth. Some students made surface level connections (same names, etc.) while other students connected intricate plot sequences.

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

I will re-teach and assist struggling students by working with them one on one. I will help students by scaffolding their text connections by referencing texts that the entire class has read. This ensures that these students will understand and remember the text that I am referencing. I will encourage students to make connections by mentioning details from both stories and seeing whether they can find a connection from given information.

• 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 was to teach this lesson again, I would make sure that I have created my own Reading Journal that includes at least 5 different examples of text-to-text connections. Some of my text connections would use books or stories we have read in our class, while others connections would be from books that I have personally read. I would also like to include examples of connections that include my three requirements that were listed above.

• 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 students need a fair amount of time with each type of connection before they are able to understand the requirements and how to make meaningful connections. Some students picked up on "how" to make connections quickly, while others students took several days before they could make in depth connections. I will make sure to model each connection type each day and explain "why" these connections are meaningful. Next time I teach this lesson, I will make sure that I have a completed Reading Journal so that students know I am willing to make a journal and make the connections myself, as well as give students an example of what the journal should look like before they make theirs.

Chapter 10

I read Chapter 10 which is titled "Determining Importance in Text." This chapter talks about finding important information in nonfiction text. To get students to discover meaningful from non-meaningful information, the author says to model several different techniques to students in the form of lessons. You want to direct students attention to particular details, since it is impossible to remember everything that is read. The author says to seek out a "big idea" and try to connect all important information. Important information can often be found at the beginning and end sentences in a paragraph.

Matt

Chapter 14: Reading to Understand Textbooks

I read Chapter 14: Reading to Understand textbooks. I chose this particular chapter because I have an interest in teaching middle school science, and I know a textbook will probably be required if I choose to go along this route. The main idea that I took away from this chapter was the importance of teaching HOW to read a textbook, which is something that I had never given much thought. As adults, I think a lot of times we forget how long it took us to learn the things that we know. For me, navigating a textbook is simple and a no-brainer. However, I forget that it probably took me many years to build these skills. It’s important for students to understand how to use a textbook before you can even expect them to be able to read and comprehend the material inside of it. I think that this is an excellent point and I will never forget this. This chapter gave a lot of good ideas and mini lessons that you could use if you are a teacher who must teach from a textbook, which I found very valuable.

Book Club Blog - Authentic Questions

For this week's blog post, I am going to be discussing the "Visualization and Inferring" chapter from Strategies that Work. Visualization is a technique that I feel is extremely useful, but is rarely used. Personally, I use this technique all the time while I am reading. I believe that it allows the reader to make more connections to their own life (since our visualizations are based off of what we see and how interpret it), produce more excitement in the reader, and make inferences towards the story and its plot.

The first thing I found interesting in this chapter is that is mentions not using books with images. Originally, I did not consider which types of books should be used for a visualization lesson. Stephanie Harvey explains that books without images requires students to make their own images in their mind. My first question is: Why might creating your own images in your mind or on a paper be beneficial while reading? 

On page 99, Stephanie Harvey mentions that visualizations can be an effective way to dispel misconceptions for students. For example, the book says that a teacher gave a lesson that required students to draw a picture about a particular scene described in a book. Some students drew a simplistic scene encompassing the details from the book, while others included their own smaller details (extra things in a room for example, which make a house seem more homely). I think that including extra images can be extremely beneficial and shows a students understanding of the scene, and not just what is explicitly described. 

One student in particular drew a baby that sprouted wings and flew into the clouds. This did not actually happen in the book. As a result, this could be a prime opportunity for the teacher to sit down and talk with the student about their visualization. I have two questions here: "How does a teacher 'correct" a students thinking or visualization without stating they are wrong?" and "Can a visualization be wrong?"

No two students pictures or visualizations are the same. Can picture diversity be a good thing? I believe it could be an opportunity for students and the teacher to share his/her ideas. This could be part of a group or class-wide discussion.

Next, I really liked how the author mentioned that you want to use all of your senses while describing a scene or the story, not just what you see. I have never really thought about included sensations like touch, sound, taste, etc. How could a teacher model these type of sensations? Perhaps you could start out with the teacher describing what he/she feels, sees, etc., and then moving on to what students notice. This would be a perfect place to take advantage of a white board list where students can compile everything they notice. 

Lastly, I wanted to mention that visualizations can be beneficial to make inferences in the story. For example, if you spent time visualizing a scene, you may notice the author mention a few small details about a barn.

Consider:

"There was a large red barn looming over the trees that surround it. The barn was being flanked by  an overgrowth of vines that crept up it's walls and grabbed hold of it's frame, as if it had no intention of letting go.

Specks of red paint were peeling off the side of the barn and being picked up by the wind. The flakes of paint were lazily spiraling through the air until they settled on the cold, dry dirt. "Empty," I thought.

There was gaping opening on the front of the barn. It looked as if the barn was hiding many secrets, as not even the sun's light could penetrate it's mouth. I crept inside the barn.

The walls were dark and covered in cob webs. I had to see more. I began to walk towards the center of the barn. Each step I took sent puffs of dust into the air, only to be eaten up by the darkness moments later. The air felt heavy and dry.

Along the walls were piles of hay. This was not the type of hay that was fresh and green. The hay looked as if it was long forgotten and has grown old, much like this barn that is slowly decaying. I picked up a single piece of hay from an overwhelming large stack and began to play with it. I bent it forwards and backwards until it broke. Dust. Always turning to dust.

'Hey John, what are you doing in there," I hear a voice call from outside the barn."

This type of scene could allow the student to make many inferences. A student could spend time imagining what the author wrote, and then considering why the author might have included this. Perhaps the dry hay will start a fire later in the novel? It's a possibility.

So what do you guys think about visualizations? I personally was never taught how to do them, but I naturally developed the habit. I believe it's beneficial and would like to have teachers teach this technique. Are there certain times when visualization may be better used? Or a certain genre of book?

I threw out a bunch of authentic and regular questions throughout this writing. Just pick and choose what was most interesting.

Matt

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.