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.
Unlike Lauren I have not yet taken the teaching role. As much as I am eager to grab the reins, I would like to observe how my MT runs things. I was able to observe her as she taught a couple literacy lessons. One thing I noticed is that before every book she reads she has the students guess what the book is going to be about based on the title and front cover. They are able to make inferences based on what they see on the cover. It is really interesting to hear the children’s ideas. It’s a great way to get the entire class involved and there are no wrong answers. She also does the same thing as she is reading. She models strategies for comprehension and thinks aloud to show the student what they should be doing as they read.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading about the gradual release of responsibility I found myself wanting to say, “Well, duhh!” What they said made total and complete sense and is something I would have done even if I never read the chapter. It makes sense to start with teacher modeling and then move to guided practice, collaborative practice, independent practice, and finally application. I feel confident that I would be able to plan and carry out this this comprehension instruction.
Where I start to feel a little less prepared is during the assessment of comprehension. When I looked at the “Gradual Release” idea I noticed the fact that you do not see what each student can do on their own until the independent practice stage. A student who is struggling to comprehend can go unnoticed all the way until they reach the independent practice stage when they have to work all on their own and realize they cannot comprehend without someone guiding them or giving them the answer. You need to make sure you are keeping tabs on all students through the first three stages. You need to watch to see if the same five kids are answering the questions and dominating the discussion. It is at this point that I fear that I will not be able to keep tabs on all of my student’s learning. I do not want to get my students to the independent practice stage to find out many of them were hiding behind other classmates and having others comprehend everything for them. I will definitely have to work very hard to remember what kids are answering questions and find ways to include students who are not.
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ReplyDeleteI think I fall somewhere between Lauren and Alyssa as far as taking on a “teaching” role in the classroom (though I think Alyssa probably has more of a teaching role than she realizes). Beyond a few bathroom breaks or office trips, I have not yet had to monitor my classroom on my own or with only an AIDE—my MT has always been there. Bravo Lauren! I hope that went well for you—I have to say the thought terrifies me just a little bit here in only the second week. My MT and I have devised a plan for me to slowly integrate and get more responsibility and leadership roles within the classroom. Currently, I teach what we call “Making Meaning” which I think is a school-wide curriculum (Alyssa—correct me if I’m wrong). I connected my Making Meaning experiences with the readings from this week. I have some experiences doing Read-Aloud from my preschool teaching, so a lot of the practices were familiar to me, and at this point second nature. Thinks I really like to do, like Alyssa mentioned, is to show the cover of the book and ask the students for predictions about the story. I think it is a good way for the students to become interested in the story and a way for them to stay attentive. I try to bring back some of those predictions throughout the book and we discuss if we know any more information and can re-evaluate our predictions.
ReplyDeleteSomething from our reading that I connected to was modeling appropriate reading practices. I thought it was really interesting how they talked about sharing your own thoughts through-out the books, and discussing your actual thought process with the students. I never really thought about modeling how to think to my students, but I think that talking about and decoding the intricate thought process that happens while we read holds a lot of value. I never really think about what I think about as I read, so I think this strategy requires a lot of self-awareness on the teacher’s part to be able to accurately and concisely explain to your students what’s happening in your head as you read the story.
I think Lauren’s concerns about assessment at the first-grade level are valid. I can be difficult sometimes just to get these students to be able to articulate verbally what they are thinking, let alone writing. Writing for first graders is tough—they have to not only figure out their own thoughts, but then they have to determine the sounds to write it, what letters match those sounds, etc. Sometimes the writing process can be so convoluted and frustrating that you lose what they were actually thinking about. I think the readings in chapter 3 offered some interesting options to assessment. Obviously, there will always have to be written assessments, but I liked how they focused on listening to what the students were thinking and saying, and using strategies like open ended questions to get a deep and hopefully unbiased understanding of what the kids think. The book suggested keeping anecdotal records and scripts of not only conversations you as the teacher had with the student, but also conversations between the students themselves. I think this is an awesome way to get what they are really thinking—kids are sometimes more likely to tell their friends their real thoughts over their teachers. Again, this adds to Lauren’s valid concerns about “Where do we get the time?” It takes a lot of effort and time to properly script these kinds of conversations for the number of students in typical classrooms. How can we possibly have the time to do valuable assessments and still have time to teach everything else?
After reading all of the posts and hearing about everyone's experiences it is ingesting that no one person, regardless of grade or school is having the same experiences. The first week of school I simply was a student teacher, a role I have held in the past few years at various schools and placements; however, I am confident enough to say that my students see me as an additional teacher. Although I am not teaching all day long I have become familiar and comfortable with the school, students, policies and classroom overall, which really helps gain the respect and status from the children. I have been fortunate enough to teach a few math lessons in addition to taking on simple responsibilities such as reading books occasionally, taking attendance, counting for breakfast and ordering lunch. Although I am not planning my own lessons, I have been in front of the class and actually teaching!! My personal reflections to the lessons and times I have taught show me that there is a great deal I still need to learn. Following my education at Michigan State University, I know the content better, but it is time to learn how to teach it! As of right now the math lessons I have taught were straight out of the books and pretty much scripted I have been struggling with the time management part of lessons. It is difficult to plan when you do not know how quick students will react to the lessons or how slow they will work. For example, today I did 3 different activities with my students, one of which included the use of manipulatives, and my student were done in half of the time I had planned for. This is a difficult "trick of the trade" that I am really looking forward to improving on.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the readings and teaching literacy I have not had as much practice nor training. There is always a big push to improve literacy but seeing the push and the benefits creates a stronger understanding of the situation. For example, my class is rewarded for finishing their work by being able to go read a book. Although many of my students are unable to read the books, they enjoy being by them, looking at them, inferring from them and learning from them. Within the readings and throughout my education it has been stressed to educators that students must be exposed to and must read, "the amount of print that children are exposed to has profound cognitive consequences" (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 24). Seeing the growth and love for text so e ally in their lives excites me for the future and growth of my students!
Speaking of growth, one simple area of the readings hit me, teachers tend to try to reinvent the wheel. As a team of teachers in a building we need to teach, refer to, and collaborate with one another about what we are teaching. However, until this year I have never truly understood how difficult it is to communicate across the board. The preparation time that grade levels receive is used in individual classrooms setting things up for the next subject, unit, or day. Although there are neighboring classrooms, there is limited amount of time provided that allows for "team" communication. I do not have a solution to this situation, but I now have an understanding of the struggle.
Although I have only been in this school for a short amount of time, I haven learned about myself as a teacher as well as the lives of teachers, behind the teacher lounge doors!
Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement, Second Edition. Portsmouth, ME.
Great comments ladies. I can see the level of reflection and thought each of you placed in this set of readings. Great work!
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