Tuesday, November 16, 2010
My Lack of Teaching Time
As we come to the end of our three weeks of guided lead teaching when we are supposed to have taught all of our unit...I have taught a single lesson, spread out over about three days. I don't even have many comments I can make now because my unit was on the useage of literary devices and examples of them and all I have been able to do thus far is go over the six we are looking at and examples of each. I have also read the introduction to the students finding two literary devices in the editor's note of "Howliday Inn". I hope to be able to have more time as time goes on...
Monday, November 15, 2010
Reflections
My lessons were focused in Writing Workshop. While, I had originally planned them with Nicole, I ended up having to condense the bulk of my punctuation lessons into four days. Instead of teaching each piece of punctuation separately my CT and I decided that, for our class, it would be best to maintain as much routine as possible. We were both very skeptical of how the class would do with some of the more outrageous lessons we had originally planned.
Day one: I introduced the main ideas of punctuation and had the class work on a separate sheet of paper just keeping in mind the conversation of punctuation. The class had a conversation about periods, question marks, quotation marks, and exclamation marks. We discussed what they mean and then the students set off to work. Their samples from the first day showed some consideration about using punctuation. From these I knew we needed to focus a little bit more on exactly what punctuation looks like in a sample of writing.
Day two: For this mini lesson, I prepared a writing sample similar to the work the students regularly do (stories about their lives). I wrote a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and also some of the other writing strategies they have been focusing on like using similes. In this writing I included different types of punctuation throughout the piece. After I read it to the class, we went through and highlighted the different spots with punctuation. We went through and found how it helped make the piece easier to read, understand, and kept it organized. For their focus during writing workshop they were to write about anything and keep focusing on using punctuation. These papers were better. Some of the students started noticing patterns with their own writing and could start thinking about where they needed to add in the proper punctuation.
Day three: As a final step for the recognition of punctuation I created a poster which outlined all of the different types of punctuation. The poster has columns for what it is, what is the purpose of it, and when to use it. We discussed the whole poster and whether or not they agreed with the statements. After looking at the poster the students were able to see the punctuation in a different way. Their writing showed increased attention to the punctuation.
I was able to conference with all of the students in the last two days. I tried to use this time to clarify any questions the students had, to check their use of the punctuation, and to find out what strategies the students were using while writing. I found that I could share some of these strategies to help the other students.
From now on, the students are expected to pay attention and use punctuation in all of their writing. I will continue to check in with the students to make sure that they are still using the punctuation properly.
I liked being able to take a few days to have the students just start to use the strategy we were introducing. Then show an example for the students to dissect and analyze. Finally, having a full discussion and lesson about punctuation. It was interesting being able to conference in with the students and read their daily work to see their progression in understanding the concept.
Day one: I introduced the main ideas of punctuation and had the class work on a separate sheet of paper just keeping in mind the conversation of punctuation. The class had a conversation about periods, question marks, quotation marks, and exclamation marks. We discussed what they mean and then the students set off to work. Their samples from the first day showed some consideration about using punctuation. From these I knew we needed to focus a little bit more on exactly what punctuation looks like in a sample of writing.
Day two: For this mini lesson, I prepared a writing sample similar to the work the students regularly do (stories about their lives). I wrote a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and also some of the other writing strategies they have been focusing on like using similes. In this writing I included different types of punctuation throughout the piece. After I read it to the class, we went through and highlighted the different spots with punctuation. We went through and found how it helped make the piece easier to read, understand, and kept it organized. For their focus during writing workshop they were to write about anything and keep focusing on using punctuation. These papers were better. Some of the students started noticing patterns with their own writing and could start thinking about where they needed to add in the proper punctuation.
Day three: As a final step for the recognition of punctuation I created a poster which outlined all of the different types of punctuation. The poster has columns for what it is, what is the purpose of it, and when to use it. We discussed the whole poster and whether or not they agreed with the statements. After looking at the poster the students were able to see the punctuation in a different way. Their writing showed increased attention to the punctuation.
I was able to conference with all of the students in the last two days. I tried to use this time to clarify any questions the students had, to check their use of the punctuation, and to find out what strategies the students were using while writing. I found that I could share some of these strategies to help the other students.
From now on, the students are expected to pay attention and use punctuation in all of their writing. I will continue to check in with the students to make sure that they are still using the punctuation properly.
I liked being able to take a few days to have the students just start to use the strategy we were introducing. Then show an example for the students to dissect and analyze. Finally, having a full discussion and lesson about punctuation. It was interesting being able to conference in with the students and read their daily work to see their progression in understanding the concept.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Reflection on 3 Lessons:
Lesson 1: Character Motives
This lesson was one I had to plan out really well, because I knew my students would need a lot of instruction in order to be successful in this lesson. For this lesson, they listened to me read aloud “Bud, Not Buddy,” the chapter about Bud being tormented by his foster brother, Todd Amos. In the mini lesson before I read aloud, I introduced the concept of character motives. First, I defined character motive as the reasoning behind character’s actions and gave them an example. I then asked if they could give some examples. The students did really well with this, and over half the class raised their hand to offer up an example. When I noticed that a lot of my students had something to say, I decided to have them turn to a partner and talk about their ideas. I did this, because I wanted all the students to have the chance to share their ideas. I then called on a few students to share with the whole class. One girl gave this example, “a motive is when you clean your room, so you can get your allowance.” I was really impressed with her thinking of this, and it was a motive that a lot of my students could relate with. Another student brought up the idea of a motive is why someone kills someone else like in CSI. I thought this was really funny, and I should have anticipated someone bringing up this type of motive! I told the students that we hear about motives in murder cases, but the ones in “Bud, Not Buddy” deal with why characters do a certain action. I tried to reaffirm that this person’s thinking was on the right track but redirected it to the book we were reading. When I read aloud, I made sure to stop a few times to do a think aloud. I wanted my students to start forming ideas of why Todd could be tormenting Bud. After I finished reading, I explained why it’s important to think about character motives. I think it’s important to explain why it’s important so that the students know that it is worthwhile to think about character motives. I then explained the activity of writing a letter from Todd Amos’s perspective explaining to Bud why he tormented him. I asked for “a thumbs up” if they understood the directions, however some students seemed confused. I anticipated some students having trouble with the activity, so I decided to have a student who did understand the activity explain in their own words what the directions were. I then made a bullet list on the smartboard of each step for the activity, and this seemed to really clarify what was expected of the students. While the students were working on their letter independently, I noticed that many students wanted reassurance that they were doing a good job. I had a lot of students raise their hands just to ask if they were doing it right. After I assessed the letters, I found that many students were really creative and detailed; however, some students missed the point of character motive. A handful of students only wrote a couple sentences and they didn’t touch on character motive. Instead some students talked about how Bud felt after being tormented, which told me that we would have to practice more on looking at character motives.
Lesson 2: Predictions & Inferences
For this lesson, I really wanted to have students work on being able to write down ideas and share these ideas with a partner. All year we have been working on predictions and inferences, and that is what this lesson really focused on. In the beginning of my lesson, I asked students if they knew what it meant to make a prediction. My students did really well with this, and I had 4 students offer up their ideas. Although my students knew what it meant to predict, I had to reinforce the idea of basing the prediction in the text. I then moved on to inferences, and asked students to discuss what it meant to make an inference. This was more difficult for my students to define, and they had trouble putting their ideas into words. One of my students shared a perfect example of an inference, “If you are going to someone’s house even if you haven’t been there before, you infer that the house has windows.” I thought this was a great example, and I asked if this helped my students understand what an inference was. I asked for “thumbs up” if they understood what it means to infer, and most of my students seemed to have a good understanding. I then instructed the students to write down at least one prediction or inference they make while I read aloud. When I read aloud, I could tell that some of my students were not writing anything down. I stopped and reminded the students that it was their job to write down predictions and inferences while I read. I also stopped a few times to do a think aloud to show students how to make a good prediction and inference and how to base it in the text. After I was done reading, I explained the activity of a written conversation. My students were a little confused by this idea and one student asked “Well can’t we just have a real conversation?” I had to explain that this activity would help us become better at responding to what others say. I then started to explain what constitutes an appropriate response to someone else’s idea. I said “If someone tells you their favorite color is blue…it is okay to respond with ‘what did you eat for lunch today?’” My students all said no, and they seemed to understand why it’s important to have appropriate responses. They then participated in the written conversation with a partner. This did not go as well as I had hoped. They did really well with writing their own ideas down, but they had trouble responding to their partner. I had a lot of students raise their hand and tell me they did not know how to respond. I had to probe them with questions such as—“well do you agree with what they say?” When I collected their sheets of paper to look at their written conversations, I was really happy with some of them, but some students did not put forth much of an effort. If I do this activity again, I am going to have to approach it in a different way and maybe give some more guidelines.
Lesson 3: Personal connections
To open up this lesson, I had students come up with ideas on why it’s important to make personal connections to texts we read. While they shared their ideas, I wrote them all down on a piece of chart paper. I had a lot of students share ideas, but none of them touched upon making the text more meaningful. I decided to share this idea and tell them that when we make personal connections, the text become more meaningful to us. I then asked “if the text is more meaningful, don’t you think we’ll enjoy it more?” My students said yes, and they seemed to understand the importance of making personal connections. I then reaffirmed some of the ideas they brought up by reading them allowed. During the read aloud, I told them to move their finger up and down when they make a connection so I could see the light bulb going off in their heads. I noticed a lot of my students do this throughout the read aloud, but I could tell that some students were just doing in the entire time. I had to stop and re explain that they only show the light bulb when they make a great connection to a character. After I finished reading, I explained that they would have to write down a connection they made to a character. I knew I had to model how to do so, because my students are very visual learners and need to see what is expected of them. I modeled how to write in complete sentences when writing down a connection. When I asked a student to re explain, he did a nice job and all the students really seemed to understand better having a peer explain the directions. During the time when they were writing down their connections, I had some students who were really stuck. Some students told me that they did not make any connections. I decided then to pull a group of students to the kidney table with me. I re explained what was expected and went through what happened in the story that day to help them think of ideas. These students really did a better job when they were able to sit with a smaller group and me. This helped me realize that some of my students really benefit from small group instruction. When I looked through their connections, I was really happy that all but two of my students wrote in complete sentences. Writing in complete sentences when answering questions is something we’ve been working on all year. I think by modeling how to answer the question really helped my students understand what was expected of them. Many of my students connected to Bud feeling scared but having to put on a brave front. I was really impressed how my students connected to this aspect of Bud, and it showed me that my students understand how to make personal connections.
This lesson was one I had to plan out really well, because I knew my students would need a lot of instruction in order to be successful in this lesson. For this lesson, they listened to me read aloud “Bud, Not Buddy,” the chapter about Bud being tormented by his foster brother, Todd Amos. In the mini lesson before I read aloud, I introduced the concept of character motives. First, I defined character motive as the reasoning behind character’s actions and gave them an example. I then asked if they could give some examples. The students did really well with this, and over half the class raised their hand to offer up an example. When I noticed that a lot of my students had something to say, I decided to have them turn to a partner and talk about their ideas. I did this, because I wanted all the students to have the chance to share their ideas. I then called on a few students to share with the whole class. One girl gave this example, “a motive is when you clean your room, so you can get your allowance.” I was really impressed with her thinking of this, and it was a motive that a lot of my students could relate with. Another student brought up the idea of a motive is why someone kills someone else like in CSI. I thought this was really funny, and I should have anticipated someone bringing up this type of motive! I told the students that we hear about motives in murder cases, but the ones in “Bud, Not Buddy” deal with why characters do a certain action. I tried to reaffirm that this person’s thinking was on the right track but redirected it to the book we were reading. When I read aloud, I made sure to stop a few times to do a think aloud. I wanted my students to start forming ideas of why Todd could be tormenting Bud. After I finished reading, I explained why it’s important to think about character motives. I think it’s important to explain why it’s important so that the students know that it is worthwhile to think about character motives. I then explained the activity of writing a letter from Todd Amos’s perspective explaining to Bud why he tormented him. I asked for “a thumbs up” if they understood the directions, however some students seemed confused. I anticipated some students having trouble with the activity, so I decided to have a student who did understand the activity explain in their own words what the directions were. I then made a bullet list on the smartboard of each step for the activity, and this seemed to really clarify what was expected of the students. While the students were working on their letter independently, I noticed that many students wanted reassurance that they were doing a good job. I had a lot of students raise their hands just to ask if they were doing it right. After I assessed the letters, I found that many students were really creative and detailed; however, some students missed the point of character motive. A handful of students only wrote a couple sentences and they didn’t touch on character motive. Instead some students talked about how Bud felt after being tormented, which told me that we would have to practice more on looking at character motives.
Lesson 2: Predictions & Inferences
For this lesson, I really wanted to have students work on being able to write down ideas and share these ideas with a partner. All year we have been working on predictions and inferences, and that is what this lesson really focused on. In the beginning of my lesson, I asked students if they knew what it meant to make a prediction. My students did really well with this, and I had 4 students offer up their ideas. Although my students knew what it meant to predict, I had to reinforce the idea of basing the prediction in the text. I then moved on to inferences, and asked students to discuss what it meant to make an inference. This was more difficult for my students to define, and they had trouble putting their ideas into words. One of my students shared a perfect example of an inference, “If you are going to someone’s house even if you haven’t been there before, you infer that the house has windows.” I thought this was a great example, and I asked if this helped my students understand what an inference was. I asked for “thumbs up” if they understood what it means to infer, and most of my students seemed to have a good understanding. I then instructed the students to write down at least one prediction or inference they make while I read aloud. When I read aloud, I could tell that some of my students were not writing anything down. I stopped and reminded the students that it was their job to write down predictions and inferences while I read. I also stopped a few times to do a think aloud to show students how to make a good prediction and inference and how to base it in the text. After I was done reading, I explained the activity of a written conversation. My students were a little confused by this idea and one student asked “Well can’t we just have a real conversation?” I had to explain that this activity would help us become better at responding to what others say. I then started to explain what constitutes an appropriate response to someone else’s idea. I said “If someone tells you their favorite color is blue…it is okay to respond with ‘what did you eat for lunch today?’” My students all said no, and they seemed to understand why it’s important to have appropriate responses. They then participated in the written conversation with a partner. This did not go as well as I had hoped. They did really well with writing their own ideas down, but they had trouble responding to their partner. I had a lot of students raise their hand and tell me they did not know how to respond. I had to probe them with questions such as—“well do you agree with what they say?” When I collected their sheets of paper to look at their written conversations, I was really happy with some of them, but some students did not put forth much of an effort. If I do this activity again, I am going to have to approach it in a different way and maybe give some more guidelines.
Lesson 3: Personal connections
To open up this lesson, I had students come up with ideas on why it’s important to make personal connections to texts we read. While they shared their ideas, I wrote them all down on a piece of chart paper. I had a lot of students share ideas, but none of them touched upon making the text more meaningful. I decided to share this idea and tell them that when we make personal connections, the text become more meaningful to us. I then asked “if the text is more meaningful, don’t you think we’ll enjoy it more?” My students said yes, and they seemed to understand the importance of making personal connections. I then reaffirmed some of the ideas they brought up by reading them allowed. During the read aloud, I told them to move their finger up and down when they make a connection so I could see the light bulb going off in their heads. I noticed a lot of my students do this throughout the read aloud, but I could tell that some students were just doing in the entire time. I had to stop and re explain that they only show the light bulb when they make a great connection to a character. After I finished reading, I explained that they would have to write down a connection they made to a character. I knew I had to model how to do so, because my students are very visual learners and need to see what is expected of them. I modeled how to write in complete sentences when writing down a connection. When I asked a student to re explain, he did a nice job and all the students really seemed to understand better having a peer explain the directions. During the time when they were writing down their connections, I had some students who were really stuck. Some students told me that they did not make any connections. I decided then to pull a group of students to the kidney table with me. I re explained what was expected and went through what happened in the story that day to help them think of ideas. These students really did a better job when they were able to sit with a smaller group and me. This helped me realize that some of my students really benefit from small group instruction. When I looked through their connections, I was really happy that all but two of my students wrote in complete sentences. Writing in complete sentences when answering questions is something we’ve been working on all year. I think by modeling how to answer the question really helped my students understand what was expected of them. Many of my students connected to Bud feeling scared but having to put on a brave front. I was really impressed how my students connected to this aspect of Bud, and it showed me that my students understand how to make personal connections.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
GLT Reflection
Day 1: Pre- assessment: write a notebook entry to the best of your ability. It can be about anything, fiction/non-fiction; but it must be in paragraph form (not a poem/list/etc.). There wasn’t anything for students to learn this day. The at-risk students did struggle with their writing stamina and staying focused. As a whole, my students’ did not write as much as they are capable of. This could be interpreted as they are unable to focus and write for an extended period of time, that they have poor writing stamina. In reality, my students as a whole have strong stamina and can stay focused for a long period of time. I learned that many students have trouble with words that sound the same but have different meanings (threw/through, piece/peace, right/write), as well has how to correctly conjugate verbs (brung/brought, hid/hided, found/founded), and the majority of them do not understand indentation to show a new paragraph. I will reteach the material to students who need additional support by conferring with them while they write. I will focus on whichever convention they need the most work on—capital letters for proper nouns, question marks, etc. If I were to teach this lesson again I would have each student come up with a goal for their writing—which aspect of grammar conventions they are going to really concentrate on. I think this would improve their writing because it gives them a clear focus rather than trying to work on numerous conventions.
Day 2: Capitals and Quotations: discussion about when words are capitalized and when you use quotation marks, write a story about a time you went somewhere with someone. Students learned that proper nouns are capitalized and we use quotation marks to show when people are talking. These are not new concepts to the students, I just felt they needed a reminder of them. I looked over their writing and they all applied what we talked about and improved from the day before. I learned that many of them knew when and how to use capital letters and quotation marks, they just did not always transfer that knowledge to their writing as evidence. I don’t think these things will need to be retaught, but when conferring with students I will look to be sure they are using capital letters and quotation marks correctly and if they aren’t, I will have a quick discussion with them. If I were to reteach this lesson again I would have them go back in their writing notebook and edit previous work, capitalizing letters that need to be capitalized and using quotation marks where necessary. I think this would be better because it is teaching them that writing is a continuous process and they can always go back and change things whenever they want.
Day 3: Period and Exclamation: discussion about when to use periods and when to use exclamation marks, look at examples, apply to own writing. Students learned that exclamation marks are used to show emotion in writing. Again, these are not new concepts to them, I just felt they needed a reminder. I looked over what they wrote, and it seemed they tried to use exclamation marks as much as possible. Similarly with day 2, I learned they knew when and why to use exclamation marks, but they did not think about that and use them when writing. I do not think this will need to be retaught, but I will remind them to use exclamation marks and will be looking for use of them in their writing. If I were to reteach this lesson again, I would provide them with a writing sample containing no punctuation and spend the mini-lesson inserting correct ending punctuation and discussing why that is what should be used. Likewise as in day 2, I would have them go back in their writing notebook and edit their previous work, using exclamation marks where they are trying to convey emotion. This would give them a mentor text to learn from as well as further show how writing is a continuous process.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
My unit plan
For my unit plan I decided to start literacy circles or book clubs in my class. During the time that I am going to do my unit plan is during guided reading time. My teacher and the other fourth grader teacher are both doing guided reading groups with Laura and I are teaching spelling and vocabulary. Since our CT are only doing guided reading with the low student right now, the group of students that do spelling with me spend their extra time reading silently. I thought book clubs would be a good use of this time. I am a little nervous to implement these book clubs because the students have never done book clubs before. I am aware that they are going to need a lot of model in order for these to be successful. I am hoping that the students are able to reproduce what i have modeled for them and they don't just sit in their groups not talking about anything. Hopefully, these book clubs will be successful and this will be a good start and they will become even better at book clubs as they do more of them.
My ever changing unit plan
My original unit plan was to do a second personal narrative, as the students are working on one now. I was going to have them work on looking at themselves and seeing how even though they are all different and have different things, they are all special in their own ways. For the reading portion I was going to read things like The Sneetches, To many daves, Elmer the patchwork elephant and other books of the same type. Now I am seeing in my room how we do nothing but writing and have done very little reading work. Also I don't think that they will be done with the narratives they are working on by the time they would need to be for me to start a second narrative with them. There for I am changing gears and looking at authors and different styles as they write. I will bring in two books that were my favorite from when I was younger, "Bunnicula" and "Howliday Inn" by James Howe. I will spend the first four days of my unit reading through a good chunk of these and sharing what I like about this authors style. All the while I will be giving time to the students so they may work on a presentation related to their own favorite author. About halfway through my lessons I will keep reading to them and sharing my feelings, but I will not do as much and multiple kids will share with the group their favorite author, and passages that demonstrate literary styles they like. This is a unit that gets them reading and thinking about what their reading, and is also a very flexible unit if my CT still needs to work with them on their personal narrative, which is very likely.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Literacy Unit Plan
As I've been developing my Unit plan, which I still have a lot of work to do, I am trying to make the lessons as engaging and meaningful as possible. I am centering my unit around the read aloud time in our class. I have decided to read aloud "Bud, Not Buddy," which I am really excited about because I absolutely love this book! I think my students will really enjoy it as well. I put a lot of time in trying to decide which book to read, because I know it will make or break the lessons I do. When I talked to my mentor teacher about it, she absolutely loved the idea of reading this book. I tried to pick a text that would provide many opportunities to make meaningful connections. This book also provides a variety of themes which would potentially lead to great classroom discussions. My lessons focus on making meaningful connections, talking about the themes, and examining character traits as well as the conflict and resolution. So far, I am having trouble with my lessons on teaching conflict and resolution, because it seems as though my students don't have much prior knowledge in this area. I would love input on ways to implement this text or activities that could go along with this text. I already have a few of my lessons planned out, however, I still have more to do. I am trying to be as creative as possible, because I really want my students to enjoy this book and the lessons that go along with it. So if you've ever read this book and have some suggestions, I would love to hear them!!
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