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.