Inquiry 2 PartA

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

During the guided lead teaching I will be teaching Comprehension. I will be using texts from the Houghton Mifflin book and will be focusing on visualizing.

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

30-45minutes

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

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.7 Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)

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?

Teaching students how to visualize a story will allow them to work on comprehension. When a student is able to visualize what is happening they are better able to remember the story later. They create pictures in their minds as they read and can later remember these pictures to help them recall what the story was about.

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)?

For the most part my students have not worked in pairs or groups and I would really like to start getting them into the routine of it. At first a lot of it will be teacher-led but eventually I would like to move into more pair work. There are many teacher generated questions and the students will work together in pairs and discuss them and then share their ideas with the whole class. The questions that are asked during the stories allow students to demonstrate understanding of the text. I would like to see my student continue to work on partner work. I want them to be able to talk to their “elbow buddy” about what we are reading and not about what they are going to do on the playground. If I can get them to start this new routine and do it effectively that would be a huge success.

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?

The core practice that I want to work on developing is reading comprehension/strategy instruction. Comprehension means everything to reading. It is the primary focus before any other aspect of reading. If a child is able to read fluently and with great diction but they cannot understand what they are reading then there is still a huge issue. Many of my students are low reader and comprehension is still something they need to conquer. Teaching my students many of the strategies for comprehension will allow me to develop as a teacher. I will see what strategies work best for certain students and I will learn how to help a student who is struggling to comprehend.

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

My mentor teacher uses readings from the Houghton Mifflin  to work on our student comprehension so I will also have that to base my lessons off of. I have a plethora of reading material at my disposal; between the books my teacher owns and the books that are out in the pod we have plenty of grade appropriate books to read. My mentor also has a wide variety of leveled books that the students can use during independent reading. She also has posters that I can write on and use to help the students understand what happened in the beginning, middle, and end. Also, when we are able to see which students are struggling to comprehend we can have the support staff take them out and work with them in a program called ILL.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

I will need to create note cards so I can take antidotal records of what the students are learning. I need to create or find the “reading together chart” and “what good readers do” chart.

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

The day before I start this lesson I will have them read a text selection that has no pictures. As they read it I will ask them to draw the pictures in their heads about what the words say. They will pretend like they are the director for a movie and visualize what they think the pictures should look like. I will hold a brief discussion after the book and have the students talk about what they pictured in their heads as I read. I will then have them return to their seats and draw a few pictures about the story and see if they comprehend the text.

10.    What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

I will have to pay close attention to how well students pick up key detail of the stories they read. I also need to take a look at what reading level each student is at. This should help me to determine what kids need more work with different comprehension strategies.

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

I would like to learn more about how I can create a lesson that doesn't direct follow the curriculum but still includes the main ideas. I would like to also find ways to connect what they are learning to real life. I want to make this learning process as real as possible so they can see how to use this information in their everyday life.

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

Most of my concerns are about how closely I can follow the guided curriculum. What is considered too much?

Inquiry 2 Part A

1.     For my target area for guided lead teaching, I plan to focus on Writing Instruction.

2.     I will need approximately 30-40 minutes per day for instruction in this area.

3.     I will work towards the following Common Core Standards:

·      W.1.3- Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event, and provide some sense of closure.

·      W.1.5- With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and ad details to strengthen writing as needed.

4.     Teaching this target area will allow my students to focus on a given topic in order to strengthen their stories. I think it is important to keep these topics relevant to their lives. In order for me to do this, I plan to have the students write about “small moment” stories, where they recall a small moment in their life. I plan to use books from our classroom library to introduce the lessons with a short read aloud. This will help them to recall what it means to be a small moment story. I will choose books with events that are relevant to their lives and could be possible moments that they want to write about. I will model a sample of my own small moment story in order to help students build onto their skills. I will open up the floor to them and ask them if they can tell me what it means to be a good writer. I want them to talk about my writing and tell me what they think I did wrong or right. I will purposely make mistakes in my writing so they can check it.

5.     The introduction to this lesson will be teacher led. I will explain to my students what is required of them. During that time I will leave it open for them to ask questions. I want them to have a chance to also reflect with a partner what they think it means to be a “small moment” story. I will also give them a chance to talk to a partner and discuss the types of stories they want to write about. I think this will be a good opportunity for the students who are unable to recall events. Hopefully this will spark memories.

6.     The core practices I will focus on during the writing instruction is shared writing. Since I will be sharing a piece of my own writing this will allow the students to understand what I expect from them during shared writing with a peer. We will discuss being a good listener and making sure you are offering suggestions for improvement and telling the author what they did well and what you liked about the story. I have always found it difficult to share my writing, especially when it is something personal, and I think it is important for them to start this process early on. Sometimes hearing feedback from a peer can be more helpful than from a teacher. Students are sometimes intimidated to meet with the teachers and become hesitant about their writing and unsure of what they wrote.

7.     I will need to obtain small moment stories from our classroom library.

8.     The pre-assessment for this lesson will be during our group discussion. I will be taking notes on their answers to the questions and making sure they understand what it means to be a good writer and writing a small moment story.

9.     I will not need any additional resources. I have already begun taking notes on students interests and I think that information will help me choose books and topics appropriate for their age.

10.  I will need to analyze their writing for the upcoming weeks. I want to see how long students are able to write for in order to determine a proper length of time for this lesson. I want to get the most out of it and I don’t want them to be writing just to get words down on the page. I want their stories to be clear.

11.  I need to learn more about the productive ways to do shared reading. I don’t want them talking off topic during this time and I need to make sure they get the most out of their conversations. I think I will have to observe each of their writings more carefully in order to determine how or if I want to pair my students myself or have them choose a random partner.

12.  I am nervous to teach the lesson in general. I want to make sure I am benefitting my students and they are actually taking something out of my lesson. I hope that the shared time isn’t just a waste of time and that they actually benefit from it. 

Rachael Boglarsky Unit Planning Questions

1.       Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

For my Guided Lead Teaching, I would like to use Reading Comprehension/Strategy Instruction for my Target Area. Within this target area, I will be teaching primarily our read aloud and discussion part of the day.

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

Around 40 minutes is allotted for my instruction.

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

I plan to work toward the standards following standards within the entire unit: SL.1.1 SL.1.2  SL.1.3  SL.1.4  SL.1.5  SL.1.6  RL.1.1  RL.1.2  RL.1.3  RL.1.5  RL.1.6  RL.1.7  RL.1.9.

4. How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

This target area will allow me to read a variety of different books to the children, exposing them to a variety of topics, ideas, and thoughts. This area will also allow for a multitude of discussions with the children which will give them the opportunity to make several text to self connections. Finally, comprehension is a skill that the children will continue to use and further develop for the rest of their lives. Comprehension is necessary for them to lead a successful life in the United States (i.e. to read and understand signs, directions, recipes, etc.)

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 area will allow forlarge group, small group, and partner discussions. At the 1^st grade level, the discussions begin by being largely teacher led, however this provides the teacher with the opportunity to teach the children how to talk directly to each other and facilitate a more student led discussion. The open-endedness of this topic allows for high level thinking and connections continually throughout the unit.

6. Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

I want to primarily focus on interactive read alouds and corresponding guided interactive discussions. First, read alouds are a huge part of the 1^st grade curriculum and instruction. As they are not yet at a level where they can read independently for an extended period of time, read alouds are the primary way to expose the students to the types of text that will help support them in making connections and higher order thinking. I would also like to try some interactive discussions because I think they are a great way to truly and deeply comprehend a topic, and I think that it would be a great skill for my students to have.

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

I have the curriculum provided by the school (Making Meaning) and the teacher books and mentor texts that come along with that. I also have the classroom, school, and pod library books to choose from if I wish. Lastly, I have my mentor teacher’s personal library and my own, as well as the public library, for any texts that I want to use that aren’t available through the school.

8. What additional resources do you need to obtain?

As of right now, the school and my mentor teacher have provided me with all the materials I think I need. 

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

To pre assess I will read a story to the class and hold a large group discussion. I will lead the discussion and observe the children’s behavior and make notes to see what kinds of questions they answered, who they directed their answers too, etc. I will assess reading comprehension based of their answers and also a short and simple writing/drawing prompt describing an event that happened in the story.

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 all of their DRA reading levels, their writing capabilities, and their ability to hold on-task large and small group conversations.

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

I want to learn more ways to facilitate student led discussions at a first grade level.

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

I am concerned about the general method of classroom management—it is always scary the first time leading an entire group. I’m mostly worried about our curriculum at the moment though. The staff and interns in my school attended a professional development session today about possibly changing the entirety of our ELA curriculum. If this happens, I’m worried about how that will affect my planning, my lessons, and ultimately my ability to teach effectively.

Rachael Boglarsky Week 3 Initial Blog Post

                First, I was really excited to read about anecdotal records this week in the Boyd-Batstone text. Anecdotal records we a large part of my preschool internships and placements at the MSU Child Development Labs and I have been looking for ways to use their authentic assessment method and adapt it for older children and a structured classroom setting. I noticed some differences than what I have don’t in the past. At preschool, we wrote our anecdotes on index cards (each teacher had a ring of index cards they kept in a packet or apron and would write on them occasionally throughout the day).  I liked the ideas of the stickers that the author mentioned, though I think the space might be too limiting, at least for me. However, the basic idea is the same—and I like that this method of assessment allows the teacher to capture a moment in the day clearly and in a way that can be communicated to parents.

                Not only does this kind of assessment support teachers, but I have also seen areas where this can help the students as well. I had a few students with what we called “stage fright,” but instead of being anxious on a stage or in front of a room, they were anxious when they were one-on-one with a teacher being asked academic questions (aka being formally assessed). I had one student in particular that could, or would, not count using one-to-one correspondence or identify any numbers one through ten when asked directly by a teacher, but when he was observed playing a number game, he was observed identifying the numbers one through 7 and counting one to one up to 10. In this way, I think that these types of authentic assessment give the teacher a clear idea of what the student is really able to do versus what they can regurgitate in a set amount of time usually in a stressful or distracting environment.

                I was also interested to read the chapter in Writing Essentials about Writer’s Workshop. I don’t know about Lauren, but I know Alyssa, Brieanna, and I all went to a MESA Professional Development meeting before school started as they are switching to Writing Workshop this year as their writing curriculum. I think this chapter gave some interesting ideas for my teacher and I to try in the classroom. For example, teaching students worthwhile topics—that is something my teacher and I have discussed already and something the students seem to struggle with.  Sometimes, even as an adult, the hardest part of writing is getting started and I’m still looking for ways to help support my students in that way as well.  Also my teacher and I have discussed the importance of maintaining a predictable schedule. I think, especially for such young students, a predictable schedule and routine is important.  Not only does this support them, but it also supports the teachers in making sure writing is never left out of the day. I’m still not sure how we are going to finesse or hybridize our curriculum from the previous years. What do you do in your classrooms? Are your teachers struggling with the new things as well?

                

Lauren Ghelfi- Effective Approaches to Comprehension Instruction

While reading this weeks assigned reading, I began to resonate a lot with the first four chapters of Strategies That Work. Although I have not even spent two full days in my classroom, I have already been able to practice some of the teaching strategies for comprehension without even knowing I was doing it. On Friday, my MT left early, and I was left in charge with an AIDE. During this time my MT told me I can read two books to the students. One was called "First Day Jitters" and the other was just a chapter from "Junie. B. Jones." I love read-alouds so I was very grateful to be given this opportunity. While reading, I began to notice myself stopping frequently and asking the students to make inferences about the story. I began to model my own thinking and share with the students the inferences I was making as I read aloud to them. I noticed that many of the same students raised their hands during this time. However, once I got to the end of the story (a story I had never read before) the students and I discovered that it wasn't a story about a student having the first day jitters, but it was about their teacher! I think we all enjoyed this story because every student was excited to share their first day jitters experience with the class. We all related to the story in one way or another, which is a note of importance in the Harvey and Goudvis book. 

One of the problems with the reading that I constantly faced was, how can you implement all of these strategies with first graders? I understand the concept of differentiated instruction and that not everything works for certain students. However, I felt that many of the strategy assessments required students to write down their thoughts, questions, etc. Although I have only seen my class write their name, I have trouble imagining them able to write much more. Then I thought, well we can always assess the students verbally. Of course, with this, you run into the problem of how much time can you spend with each student individually. Although I have seen some of these practices used in the classroom, I wonder how effective they are when you have to adapt them so much for younger students. 

When I read the Kersten and Pardo article, I immediately began thinking not only about how I would be able to 'finesse' my lessons as a future teacher, but how my MT and I were going to have to work together on our new Math Expressions Curriculum. Last year the other first grade teacher piloted the new math curriculum. This is the first time my teacher has been exposed to it, and already in the first week, we avoided looking at it. At the end of the week we prepared our transparencies for the week ahead and knew we would have to look over our manipulatives in order to begin using the new curriculum. I think this will be a very good experience for me because not only will my MT be trying to work this new curriculum into her old curriculum, but I will get to help judge what seems to work best for our class and what does not. I am very nervous because I have never had this type of responsibility in the classroom. I strongly believe that it will help make me as a future teacher when it comes time for the DIBELS testing at our school.