Lesson Plan Reflections

Lesson Plan #1
During this lesson students witnessed a think aloud of The Napping House. They learned how to visualize what an author writes by taking the “description words” (also known as adjectives!) and relating them to their own lives. The students that struggled the most with this lesson were the few students that have trouble sitting still and focusing. In order to visualize, they had to listen to what I was saying the entire time which was difficult for them.
While listening to the think aloud, students were able to picture what I was describing because when we would get to silly parts, I would hear, “Oh man!” and other reactions that would not have been present if they did not have a mental picture of the story. I also know that my students were able to give a list of reasons why visualizing is important. I heard some partners during turn and talk time, and other partners shared their ideas with the class. A few students were only able to tell me that visualizing is important because it “helps us picture what we read.” This is true, but this more describes what visualizing is and not why it is important.
I learned that fluency impedes many of my students’ visualizing abilities. They are so focused on decoding a text that they never get the opportunity to create mental pictures of what the author is saying. Because of this, their visualization skills are significantly stronger when they are listening to a read aloud.
Read to self time during the next couple of weeks is when I plan to reach all of my struggling visualizers. They will continue to get practice in my whole group lessons, but because they have a hard time focusing, I think I will be more successful reading individually to them a few pages at a time. I will basically repeat what I did for the entire class, only look for more response because it will be one on one.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would change it so that my students had more time to talk throughout the book. I think that if they had more turn and talk time that they would have an easier time sitting and focusing while I was reading. This would help them create a stronger visualization because they will be able to focus on only one or two pages at a time.


Lesson Plan #2
My students learned that their visualizations became better as they received more details from the text. They also learned that it is okay for students’ drawings to all look different, because our “schemas” are all different. Many of my first graders struggled with understanding that the drawings began with a text-to-self connection and changed to look more like what the author wanted us to visualize.
All of my students began by drawing a baby in the first square. Because of this, I know that all of them were visualizing the title and first two lines of the poem. It also tells me that whether they knew it or not, they were making text-to-self connections because each baby looked different. Many of my students made changes in their drawings in each square that followed the poem (i.e. black, curly hair). This is proof that they were listening and visualizing what the author suggested.
I learned that my students are able to communicate their understanding much easier in pictures than in words. The past few lessons I have had students write in their journal and turn and talk, but today I saw really clear results when they were asked to draw pictures. This shows me that their comprehension is greater than what they can typically express.
I will not worry about teaching this lesson again to the first graders that struggled because I know they will receive this same information again next year. Because we are on second grade GLCEs this year, it is just an introduction for first graders so they have prior knowledge of the concept next year. I will work with the few second graders that did not show me in their drawings that they were visualizing what the author wanted in a small group during read to self. I will have them verbalize their visualizations of the poem to a partner to see if they are more successful.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would probably give the students a shorter amount of time to draw each picture. The students who were on task the entire time finished early, and were waiting on the students who were talking and messing around. Shortening the time they had to complete the drawings may have ensured that they got right to work and concentrated better. Also, being able to complete the entire lesson in a shorter amount of time would probably help students to remember the entire lesson when wrapping up at the end. In reality, first and second graders can barely remember what happened 30 seconds ago!


Lesson Plan #3
During this lesson, my students learned that visualizing requires more than just sight, it requires all five senses. All of my students seemed to understand this, but some of the first graders struggled with knowing which sense they were using.
Students were all able to shout out, “sight” when I asked them which sense the author wanted them to use for the first excerpt. Less students were as confident about the other senses, which tells me that they have not had as much practice and they are more confusing. All students had something written down for each sense, which tells me that they were at least following along and understand that we were using different senses.
I learned that my students have a difficult time with vocabulary. If there is a word they are unfamiliar with, they are unable to move past the individual word to understand the entire sentence.
Students will continuously get more practice using their senses throughout the year. We have Rocky Raccoon that we use to remind them to visualize when they read, and I will mention little reminders about using all five senses. At the end of the day, it is not as important for me to see that students are visualizing with all five senses as it is for me to see that they are comprehending what they are reading. Therefore, if showing me that they are visualizing with five senses is confusing them, I will try other ways to ensure they are comprehending.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would be more prepared to discuss vocabulary words. I am horrible at describing what basic words mean and I did not anticipate them being unfamiliar with so many words. This would improve students understanding of what sense they should be using because they would not be concentrating on figuring out what the text means.

Lesson Reflection

Lesson #1:

During this lesson the students responded well to the expectations and concepts presented. I had students that understood prefixes, suffixes and base words. However, I had some students that had misconceptions about how these mechanics constitute and change a word. My students were able to identify the base words within the vocabulary words, but struggled to understand what that really meant. For instance, one vocabulary word was 'funny' and my students thought that 'fun' was a base word. This identified that they understood how to find base words, but in this case 'funny'+'ny' is not a base word + suffix. Throughout the lesson, I think students gained a better understanding of the concept.
I think that there could be alternate reads to my students' performance during this lesson. The most prominent one is if students really get the concept or if they were feeding off of me and their students for the correct answer. I had a lot of students that were not confident while giving the answer which tells me that this is something that needs to be revisited.
I learned that my students know more about literacy than I thought. They know more than just prefixes, suffixes, and base words. I learned that the students understand that a word is made up of parts and these parts can alter the meaning, look, etc. of the word. Furthermore, I learned that some of my students are stronger literacy learners than others. This is an ongoing literacy area that will be visited each week. However, I will be providing extra activities for students who continue to struggle with the material. This will support their needs and expose them to this literacy area.
If I teach this lesson again, I will provide different vocabulary words for my strong literacy students and my struggling literacy learners. This would allow for my strong literacy learners to have a challenge and my struggling students not to feel discouraged. I think that this would help the students that need extra support by exposing them to familiar words and building their literacy understanding, but still provide learning/practice for the stronger students.

Lesson #2

My students learned that the alphabetical principle is linked to the letters in a word. The students were able to realize that the sounds of letters in the words are made from the alphabetical. Some of my students struggled with time and that sometimes they may need to use both the first and second letters in the word. For instance, if there were two words with the same beginning letter they would need to use the second letter.
All of my students were able to put the words in alphabetical order. Due to this, I know that all of my students understand the alphabetical principle. This also illustrated that they were engaged in my modeling and realized the expectation I set.
I learned that my students know their word structures and alphabet. The students were able to use the letters that make up a word and link those to the alphabet to put them in the correct order. This illustrated to me that my students are beginning to build their sight words and vocabulary understanding!
I do not have to re-teach this lesson because my students didn't struggle. However, this literacy area will be revisited. I want students to be able to quickly order their words and prove that they are comfortable with this concept.
If I teach this lesson in the future, I would give the students more time to independently work and devote less time to the modeling part. I would model a few words and closely monitor to know if I need to work through more words. However, I think it would be more effective to give more time for student work because this will be a revisited topic. This would allow for my students to build up their work progress. I would begin to take away time as this concept is revisited.

Lesson #3

The students learned how to use the dictionary to find definitions. They learned that the dictionary is set up using the alphabetical principle we learned about the previous day. All of the students were able to understand how to use the dictionary and why it was important. Some of my students struggled when there were two words with the same beginning letter.

Students were able to complete the activity in the time limit and work independently. The students did not ask many questions because I provided them with the steps on the white board for them to use. All of my students wrote all 10 correct spelling words. Some students even wrote down if the word was a noun, verb, etc. on their paper.

This will be a literacy area that students will continue to get practice during the school year. We will be having 'definition Wednesday' each week using different words. I think this will help all of my students become more comfortable with the alphabetical principle and the dictionary. In addition, this will expose them to literacy resources and build their vocabulary. Spelling is a struggle in my classroom and the dictionary is a great way to expose them to correct spelling of words.

If I were to teach this lesson in the future, I think I would give students more words. This would continue thier practice, work on timing, and build their vocabulary. In addition, I would allow for a time to just explore with the dictionary for practice. The students are learning more about the guide words in the dictionary verses having to flip from page to page. I think this could improve if students just explored and became more exposed with the dictionary and not just on Wednesday.

Lesson Plan Reflections

Lesson 1: Delicious Words

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

Students learned how to pick out interesting, or “delicious” words from a poetic text. These words may have been nouns, adjectives, or verbs that helped to create a “picture in the reader’s mind.” Thus, students learned how to choose these words from a text and wrote them on a list to incorporate within their own future writing pieces. Overall, the students excelled throughout this lesson. They were choosing words (i.e. “hissing, swooping, magnificent, etc.) that not only stood out to them, but would stand out to any reader. Since this lesson relied more on personal opinion, I was looking to see if they were actually choosing words that were interesting and/or appealing to a reader’s mind. However, T.L., A.S., and M.B. did struggle with finding these words on their own and required teacher scaffolding and support throughout the independent portion of the activity.

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

After looking through the students’ lists of delicious words, one may infer that the students do not truly comprehend what constitutes a delicious word and were merely choosing “big words” or words that looked like they may fit the description. Thus, it could be interpreted that the students could not explain why they choose their delicious words and therefore do not fully understand the concept.

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

From this lesson, I learned that my students’ oral listening skills (when given a task) are impressive. I was shocked to see how well they remembered delicious words from the Pumpkin Eye text after I was finished reading. I barely had to go back and reread the words in order to jot their memories as we were creating our list.

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

Although I believe that my class generally understood the concept, I feel that giving them another opportunity to find delicious words would benefit each student. This skill can improve with practice, is something that can be used in each genre of writing, and can be incorporated into reading, as well. This is why I will continue to encourage the students in writing down delicious words as they are reading and remind them to transfer these words as they are writing new pieces. For my students that required additional support, I will pull them during independent writing during a future Writers’ Workshop. This time will allow me to focus on the content and give me time to once again model the skill. After I model how to find these words, I will have the students find them in delicious word-rich texts (that I have previously chosen) as I scaffold their experience.

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 were to teach this lesson again, I would change the set-up of the lesson. Initially, I would introduce the delicious word concept, provide examples, and then read Pumpkin Eye without giving the students the task of picking out delicious words. Then, I would have the words to the text written on a chart paper, so we could find the delicious words as a class while reading the text over. This would give the students more of a visual and provide a better model for how to discover delicious words within a piece. Additionally, when students offer suggestions of delicious words, I would have them explain to me why that word is delicious to them. This would show me whether or not they understand the concept. It would also improve the students’ learning by allowing them to analyze their own thinking and ask themselves the question, “how does that word create a picture in the reader’s mind?”

Lesson 2: Adjective/Noun Combinations

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

Students learned the terms adjective and noun and how to create adjective/noun combinations that help to create a “picture in a reader’s mind.” To focus the lesson, students wrote adjective/noun combinations that were geared toward descriptions of the winter season and events that take place within this time. Since the students were paired for this activity (“higher” students paired with “lower” students), there were not many students who struggled. I walked around to make sure that both members of the group were contributing and was very happy with the progress that I viewed. That being said, I did notice that one student, L.M., was struggling with the concept of adjectives and nouns. Some of his sentences did follow the adjective/noun pattern, however, he did have a couple that included verbs and pronouns.

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

After looking through the student’s list of winter adjective/noun combinations and understanding the set-up of the partnerships, it may be interpreted that the “lower” level students (especially my focus group) did not understand the concept. It could be seen as the “higher” level students produced many of the combinations while the “lower” level students did not contribute and therefore do not comprehend the lesson’s content.

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

Through this lesson, I learned that my students’ vocabulary is high (in terms of the second grade level.) I was amazed with the terms that they incorporated within their pieces and how well they applied to their writing topic. For example, students used terms such as “hibernating bear” and “dormant trees.” I also learned that a possible focus area for my students might be spelling. There are some students whose spelling of words does not make phonetic sense, whereas many students are misspelling harder words. To help bridge this gap, focusing on spelling would benefit all students. As of now, though, I’d rather have them attempt harder to spell words than leave them out for words with which they are familiar.

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

To re-teach L.M. this lesson, I will make sure to conference with him as the students are writing their “Hello, Good-bye poems.” Since these poems also incorporate the adjective/noun combinations, it will be a perfect time for me to reiterate the definitions of adjective and noun, provide explicit details, and scaffold him in the process in producing his own combinations. I will scaffold him but first giving him an example (red leaves), and then giving him a noun(s) and having him provide an adjective(s). Lastly, I will have him create his own combinations.

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 were to re-teach this lesson, I would provide fewer examples that relate to the writing theme that the students are going to use. During my mini-lesson, I used mostly fall terms as examples; however, when I told them their directions for the activity I included four examples about winter. Then, as I was walking around, I noticed that numerous students were using my ideas. Thus, if I used less examples of the winter, it would improve students’ learning by allowing them to think and create their own adjective/noun combinations that are original and unique. This would also support my assessment of this activity, as I would be able to see whether or not they understand the concept through their own words.

Lesson 3: Introduction to Hello Winter, Good-bye Fall Poem

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

In this lesson, students learned how to apply the adjective and noun combinations that were introduced on the day before. They did this by describing winter and fall attributes in the “Hello, Good-bye” format (Hello (adjective/noun combination describing winter), Good-bye (adjective/noun combination describing fall.)) Thus, they also learned this type of poem format. The students who struggled with this lesson were L.M., T.L., and A.S. Much of the support they needed was because they “couldn’t think of anything to write.” To support their learning, I asked them questions that prompted to think of words and phrases that they could include in their poems. For example, “What kind of things do you do in the winter? What is the weather like? What kind of clothes do you wear?”

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

Since (some of my students) used the same adjectives and/or noun on numerous occasions throughout their poems, it could be inferred that these students do not understand the format and focus of the Hello, Good-bye poem. These students are relying on examples that they have seen and heard before my mini-lessons and during our share time.

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

Like the previous lesson, I was amazed by my students’ creativity in word choice and vocabulary. As a whole, they understood the concept and expanded it beyond my expectations and initial objectives for the lesson. I saw many students use highly descriptive words such as vibrant and humungous and include nouns and attributes that I did not anticipate.

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

This lesson was only the introduction to a three-day writing process; therefore I will be able to conference with my students, who struggled with this material, during the independent writing portion of the upcoming Writers’ Workshops. To further support their learning of this material, I will continue to ask prompting questions that will scaffold them in creating their own adjective/noun combinations referring to both winter and fall. I will have students think about what they do in both of these seasons, what they eat, what they wear, where they play, what holidays they celebrate, etc. Then, I will prompt the students to think about adjectives (or describing words) that go with the nouns they have chosen. I will ask, “What’s a word that describes _____?” If needed, I will add, “Is it cold, frozen, shiny…?” Once this tactic has been successful, I will offer less support until the students produce their own combinations.

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 were to re-teach this lesson again, I would make sure to incorporate the other aspects of poetic writing (that we have discussed) within my mini-lesson. This is because it would connect the lesson (even more so) to prior lessons and show the students that these elements can be utilized in any piece of writing, improving their learning of not only this lesson but also the entire unit as a whole. I thought of this as I was walking around and noticing that some of my students were doing this within their poems. I announced it to the class; however, I believe including it in a more formal lesson would have been more productive. It is a perfect way to show students how to better “create a picture within the reader’s mind.” When we revisit our Hello, Good-bye poems on Friday, I will definitely make this a part of my plans!

Mosaic Readings: 10/19/10

Reading comprehension and reading fluency are related in that they are crucial in the development of readers both young and old. Reading comprehension is the ability to understand the meaning and message behind a text – it revolves around the skills of monitoring one’s thinking while reading and asking questions that further promote and guide one’s thought processes. Reading fluency is having the knowledge of the letter sounds that create words. When a reader can accurately piece together letter sounds and read the words they create, they are able to read a text without focusing on decoding. As was stated in Mosaic of Thought, “children need to learn letters, sounds, and words, but simultaneously they must be learning about the meaning held in those symbols on the page” (Keene & Zimmermann, 2007, p. 22). Therefore, these terms are directly correlated to each other because if one cannot read the words they will not be able to understand. Conversely, if they are just reading the words without thinking about their meaning in relation to the story, they will not comprehend the text either.

Thus far in my classroom, I have seen both fluency and comprehension assessed in the form of the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment). This test is administered in order to assign a “reading level” to each student based on their reading fluency and comprehension skills of a previously determined leveled text. I helped to proctor these tests and was amazed to see how much the two elements (fluency and comprehension) relate. There were many students who would read very quickly, but when asked questions at the end could not even remember a character’s name. One case I found particularly interesting occurred with one of our highest readers. He is well above grade level in terms of fluency, however, scored below grade level when his comprehension was assessed. From this experience, I learned that I can’t judge a student by how quickly he or she reads and assume that he or she has comprehended the story. By doing the DRA tests, we have a general idea of what our students are struggling with both independently and as whole.

In order to fully assess my students’ reading development, I will need to take a closer look at which aspect in particular (in regard to fluency and comprehension) they are having difficulties with. I will need to know if, for example, they are not monitoring as they are reading or have difficulty in synthesizing information. I believe the best way to gain this information is to use anecdotal records and conferring during independent reading time. Having the this time to focus on each child as they read and decipher their successes and difficulties allows for individualized goals as well as instruction.

Readings 10-19-10

The readings this week focused on reading comprehension and strategies for students to comprehend text. There is an important relationship between comprehension and reading fluency. Reading fluency is the ability for our students to read text accurately while comprehending the text. The students need to use their decoding skills, word recognition, and more in order to be reading with fluency. In other words, reading fluency allows students to begin to comprehend text. If a student is a fluent reader they are able to focus more on the meaning of the text and how to reflect upon what they have read. Mosaic of Thought introduced seven principle comprehension strategies that can be used and focused on, "listening to the voice in your mind that speaks while you read" (Keene and Zimmerman, page 14). These strategies can be used with fluent readers in order to monitor their comprehension. The strategies revolve around students reading the text and using strategies to listen to the text and the reflections that occur within their mind as they read. In order for students to be successful in comprehension of text they need to have the bridge built, which is fluency.
Within my classroom, fluency is assessed during literacy instruction and using the Development Reading Assessment (DRA). The students have recently been asked to read aloud text with the class. This has helped my CT and I assess the students that have difficulty identifying words and if this affects their comprehension of text. In addition, we have been finishing up with our DRA testing that allows us to obtain our students levels in literacy. We have students with varying levels of fluency and comprehension. I have students who are fluent readers and able to comprehend text, while others struggle with fluency and comprehension of text. The assessments we have incorporated into the classroom and through DRA have helped us focus on students and help to develop fluency skills with students that will lead to comprehension.
In order to fully understand my students' reading development I need to know what skills are challenging for my students. I need to know if my students need more development with decoding, word recognition, sentence structure, etc. to help them have reading fluency and comprehension. To find this out, I could read individually with students to understand how they read and which areas of text they struggle. In addition, I could give students a mini-lesson or assessment that involves different reading strategies to identify which students or areas that require more support and/or development.
Reading comprehension is important for our students to be able to develop. However, in order for students to comprehend text they need to have reading fluency. The two literacy aspects are interconnected and important to develop successful readers!

Gill (2007)

This article discussed the importance of using poetry to teach children about using emotions, and the importance of selecting words in writing. It stated that often times, teachers get caught up thinking that, in a poetry unit, the most important aspect is to expose students to sophisticated poetry from a hundred years ago. The article argued in favor of exposing students to a wide variety of poetry that they will be interested in. There are several 20th century poets that are worthy of being present in elementary classrooms and this is what teachers need to be reading to their students have them value poetry.
I would definitely use poetry in my first and second grade classroom! I have always been hesitant about poetry because I never liked adult poetry. I was always told that children’s poetry was not “real poetry” so I thought I didn’t like poetry. However, after reading this article, I realize that is not true. Children’s poetry is perfect for showing students how to rearrange words in their writing and how to write with emotion. I would implement poetry into our normal writer’s workshop time. Students are allowed to write about anything, and so they could write about anything in the form of poetry one week. Poetry would be a great lesson to teach strategies of word order and word choice. It would also be helpful for getting students to use their senses in their writing. Once students developed these skills in poetry, they would transfer into their everyday writing. As a professional teaching this, I would need to learn more about how to write good poetry myself. I would need to take workshops on incorporating emotion into writing, as well as word choice.
My unit that I will be teaching is a reading unit. However, using the students’ writing samples from writing workshop can help me determine what kinds of strategies they need to work on. If I could find books that use those strategies, my students would benefit in both reading and writing from my lessons!

Gill: The Forgotten Genre of Poetry

Summary: This article focused on the importance of poetry as a genre for reading and writing. Gill discussed that many teachers expect students to evaluate and decompose poetry written by authors, but forget to emphasize the meaning of poetry. He continues to give examples of how he incorporated poetry into his classroom by modeling and allowing students to write freely. Gill emphasized that poetry is a way for students to express themselves, their feelings, their experiences through written work. He also discussed that poetry is one of the least popular genres for children's literature and that teacher should pursue to pressure publishers to print books related to children's poetry instead of adult poetry. Children should be exposed to illustrated poetry books so that the genre is never forgotten.

This was important for me to read because my classroom incorporates poetry reading every week. The students are given a poem to study all week and are required to recite the poem Monday. The students are exposed to children's poetry on a daily basis that is both within the classroom and outside of the classroom. This article helped link the Writer's Workshop material I read to how I can incorporate that with poetry. I think it would be beneficial for my students to begin writing their own poetry in their notebooks to express themselves. This would be a way to incorporate productive Writer's Workshop that focuses on the students real life experiences and promotes the genre into writing techniques and not just reading and reciting someone else's work. As a professional, I need to identify what my students know about writing poetry. I need to make sure that my students know how to write poetry that focuses on events and feelings the reader can experience. Poetry can be a way for my students to begin a different aspect of writing and focus on how to incorporate feelings and desires into their writing.

This module has helped me to think about how I can use writing as a means of assessment during my unit development. The book that we will be using can and should incorporate reflection through writing. I notice now that I can have students participate in discussions of the book and allow them to write their feelings about a book through multiple writing techniques. The students should have the ability to experience more writing during literacy instruction instead of it all being reading, short answer, and unit assessment worksheets. I think that allowing the students to write a summary, alternate ending, poetry, etc as a assessment could benefit their success in assessment.

Kovalcik & Certo: The Poetry Cafe is Open!

Summary: This article details a poetry unit (including 4 mini-lessons and a list of suggested children’s poetry books) that culminates in the form of a poetry reading in a class made café. Each Writer’s Workshop lesson consists of a mini-lesson, then independent writing (while teachers do conferences), and lastly a sharing session. The mini-lessons are: color and rhyme, repetition and alliteration, onomatopoeias, and collaborative poetry (writing a poem as a class.) As the class continues to create their own pieces throughout the unit, teachers differentiate instruction according to each students needs. One of example from the article occurred when a student was struggling with the grammatical and spelling aspect of writing. To negate him from focusing on these negatives, the teacher allowed him to articulate his poem while she wrote it down. Finally, when all the children have published a final piece, they share their poetry with their families.

This article was perfect for me to read because it is what I will be taking over in terms of literacy throughout guided lead teaching. Additionally, my mentor teacher and I have been discussing having a poetry reading event in our classroom, as well. Therefore, it was very insightful to see how other teachers approached this unit. It was also helpful because the way that the teachers from the article had their Writer’s Workshop set up is exactly how my classroom’s is, as well. We have a mini-lesson, independent writing, and sharing time. The only difference is that we have a partner writing section right after independent writing. This is a time where students can read and help edit each other’s work. The mini-lessons associated with this article will be included in my unit, too. The topics of color, rhyme, repetition, alliteration, and onomatopoeias are all crucial elements to learning poetry. However, the main part that I have taken from this article that will enrich my instruction is that relating to differentiation. I know that my students are at varying writing levels, and I was concerned that I would not know how to cater to each student’s educational needs. The advice to write a poem for struggling children and to scaffold them through the writing process is an idea I definitely will use. Too often I feel pressure that students need to be writing for themselves, I never thought to have them verbalize their ideas until they were comfortable enough to write them.

The only problem I had with this article was that I feel as though it did not contain enough mini-lessons for an entire poetry unit. I believe that there needs to be more time for the students to practice what they have learned and create numerous poems. My poetry unit will be ranging (on and off) for 2 months, which is more appropriate for the grade level I am in.

Lastly, by reviewing the assessment section of this online module, I have learned that I need to get to know my students as writers prior to starting my poetry unit. That being said, I think that the “Thinking about Yourself as a Writer” sheet would be an insightful survey to give my students. To really prepare myself, I would like to adapt the document in order to incorporate my student’s feelings about poetry and about their selves as poets. This will clue me on their past experiences as well as how comfortable they are with the new genre of writing.

Book Club Plus

One aspect of literacy that I haven’t seen much in my classroom is book discussions. We have time for whole group read aloud, individual reading, partner reading, writing, and spelling. However, students are never given a chance to discuss what they read. Occasionally after the whole group read aloud, the class will be asked a few questions about how the book related to something else we are doing. However, this typically only allows a few students to contribute, and the rest only get to sit and listen. My assumption is that as the year goes on, there will be more opportunity for book discussions. We are still kind of in the “launching” phase of Daily 5, so maybe once the students are up to the proper length of reading and have learned and practiced all of the routines, we will focus more on discussion.
Because of this, I found the description of the fishbowl to be quite helpful. In addition to being a great strategy for having a discussion, it can also be helpful to move into more independent discussions. Having a group model a book discussion before having students try it themselves would be useful, especially with my first and second graders. We use modeling for everything! Anytime that the students are attempting a new task, or any task that requires them to be independent, we model the expected behaviors. By doing so, students are given ideas of what the activity should look and sound like, so they have no excuse for not following the expectations.
Assessment is something I also struggle with in my first/second grade class. I find that it is difficult for me to tell a student that they are not meeting my expectations. However, I really liked the “I Can Self Evaluation” idea. Giving students a chance to evaluate themselves can help them become aware of anything they are not understanding. Then, it may not be as much of a shock when they hear this same feedback from the teacher. My classroom does a little of this with their check in after each reading period. Each student gives a thumb at their heart (up for doing a good job, sideways for needs improvement). This is just for them and the teacher to see if they are aware of how they are meeting expectations. Having a written record of this would be helpful though to use in future conversations with the student, parents, or other teachers.

Book Club Plus! 10/05/10

As I read the readings from Book Club Plus!, I noticed that there are many implementations that my Collaborating Teacher has within the classroom. While I observe literacy instruction in the classroom, I notice that my CT chooses books that range in skill level for read aloud. My CT has been modeling reading skills through the read aloud portion of literacy instruction. She is illustrating to the students "what thoughtful readers do is central to comprehension strategy instruction" (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty, Highfield, 118). We have readers that vary across reading levels (we are still obtaining DRA information), but my CT finds it important to include all levels in her read aloud selections. The ability to provide students with a range of text allows them to experience with the words and make connections across literacy. Thus far in the year, we have not allowed students to make their own book selections due to the fact that we have not obtained all DRA. Instead, my teacher reads to the students or has them follow along to a book on tape. My CT models correct "reading behaviors" by stopping and asking productive questions to the students. She may ask them to define a word, summarize, or predict. The students are gaining skills for being good readers through think alouds as described in Book Club Plus!. As stated in chapter 7, "think alouds give students the opportunity to see our thinking when we read: the connections we make, the questions asked, our interferences, and our predictions" (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty, Highfield, 117). These skills that my teacher is exposing the students to on a daily basis will be carried over into their independent reading time. Modeling correct reading is essential to students' literacy development and thier ability to make text-text and text-self connections.
One aspect of the Book Club Plus! that I would like to incorporate into my classroom is group work. I would like to assign groups upon different academic levels and social skills. I think that grouping students together would benefit their learning from one another. I have a diversity of learners across reading level, verbal levels, and personalities that tends to surface during literacy instruction. Throughout the past few weeks, I have noticed that students act a certain way relative to one another. However, I think that if I were to have literacy groupwork it would be beneficial to my students literacy environment and learning.

Book Club Plus! Readings: 10/3/10

While reading the Book Club Plus! chapters, I was reminded of a book that my mentor teacher had me read prior to the school year starting entitled, Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades, by Debbie Miller. It details many of the same classroom talk and managing tactics that I have seen both in the readings as well as in my classroom. Throughout literacy instruction in my classroom the selection of literature is very important, as was stated in chapter 7 of Book Club Plus! and throughout the Debbie Miller piece. My students greatly range in their reading levels as well as in their interests, thus choosing which types of books we place in the class library is crucial. My mentor teacher has divided books by grouping them by theme, series, and (sometimes) authors. She then places them in their own clearly labeled basket. For example, we have a basket full of the Amelia Bedelia series, one for Dr. Suess books, and another for nursery rhymes and songbooks. Then, to differentiate by level, each student has their own basket that she places “just right” books in order for them to read during independent reading. These books are chosen according to the child’s reading level and their interest, and eventually, the students will be able to chose their own “just right” books. Another technique that my teacher uses that follows the Book Club Plus! and Debbie Miller book is the relevance to curriculum goals. In fact, she uses the curriculum goals to plan her mini-lessons for reader’s and writer’s workshop. Prior to having the students read or write independently, there is a lesson or focus of the day. This lesson may be a comprehension strategy or a way to make meaning of a word when they don’t know. In this way, all of the curriculum requirements are met while being guided by the GLCE’s. Lastly, read alouds are a large component of my mentor teacher’s literacy program. She uses this time to create “opportunities for intertextual connections and opportunities to students to texts they might not otherwise read independently” (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty & Highfield, 2004, p. 117). While she reads she is constantly asking questions to support their comprehension and model how a “good reader reads.” Additionally, when she is finished, she has them make text-to-self, text-to-text connections, and text-to-world connections. This part of literacy instruction is so important to my mentor that we usually read 2-3 books aloud each day!

One aspect of the Book Club Plus! book club that I would like to try in my classroom is the addition of the fish bowl technique in order to inspire a good conversation about a book. We have many high level students, and it is our goal to have them host book clubs while we are working with the students who are struggling (of course, the struggling students would participate sometimes, as well). However, before they began to conduct their own book club, I feel that they would need to have one modeled for them (by adults) in a fish bowl fashion. Once that had occurred, I would give the students time to talk about what they saw, what they were confused about, and how they would do a book club themselves. Then, to add extra support in the beginning, I would have a teacher involved in the initial book clubs. The teacher would ask provoking questions and guide the conversation until the students were comfortable by themselves. Finally, I would have the students do their own book club while a teacher observed. I think this process would be highly beneficial to all students, and I am excited to see how it works in my second grade classroom!

Community - AFTER

My group ended up visiting seven different places during our literacy exploration in Novi. We visited the public library, a grocery store, a restaurant, a putt-putt and go-kart racing place, a middle school football game, a tutoring center, and a mall. We noticed that many of these places had literacies in common. For instance, all of the places we visited exhibited social literacy.
Something that surprised us was how each place we visited had so many types of literacy. When we began planning our project, we thought that it was going to be difficult to find places that shared each type of literacy. However, to our surprise, we had an abundance of literacies represented, no matter which place we went.
Driving around the community didn’t help me as much as the initial conversations that I had with my students about their community. I learned which places the students love to visit (like paradise park), and which places their parents drag them to (the grocery store). It allowed me to see all of the different literacies that my students are being exposed to on a regular basis. Even though they may not be consciously thinking that they are learning about/through literacy, they are experiencing and participating in multiple types of literacy at any given place.
Knowing that my students are using literacy in the community as well as at school will help me better reach their interests and needs. It will also help me remember that my students are getting access to literacy, even if they are not necessarily seeing books at home. As the Compton-Lilly article stated, it is common for us to blame students’ lack of literacy learning on the fact that our students’ parents are not giving them books at home. After discovering all of the places were literacy is hiding in the community, I can no longer use this as an excuse for my students not succeeding in literacy. I just need to push myself to include various topics from the community that my students are familiar with. If I include information in the classroom that is personalized for them, they will be more likely to stay engaged in my lessons and therefore be more successful at learning literacy!

Book Club Plus! and Literacy Instruction

I thought it was interesting, because before I even started reading about Book Club Plus! I assumed that it was going to be completely different than the literacy instruction I see in my classroom. My CT uses a variety of programs and combines them together to form her own personalized program that works best in her classroom. As she has told me, the programs work for her, she does not work for the programs. As I began reading Book Club Plus!, however, I realized that there are several similarities between the book and how literacy instruction is planned in my class.
One aspect that the book really stressed was the need to have time for students to read at appropriate age-level as well as instructional-level. I see this happening everyday in my classroom. “Listen to reading” time is dedicated for that age-level literacy that is too difficult for students to decode, but perfect for their comprehension. “Read to self” time is dedicated for the instructional-level literacy to help students with their decoding strategies. “Read to someone” is another time for literacy in my classroom that not only works on decoding strategies, but also comprehension. Book Club Plus! states that “Comprehension instruction should be explicit” (30). My CT agrees with this and uses “beanie baby strategies” to help explicitly instruct students how to both decode and comprehend what they are reading.
One aspect of Book Club Plus! that I have not seen in my classroom much is discussion. It is important to help students create and develop a meaning for a text by themselves. I wonder if because we are still in the launching phase of our literacy program this year if I will see more discussion as the year continues?
I have had the opportunity to test students on various aspects of literacy, but this Thursday will be the first time I get to actually teach a lesson to my students. I am so excited! I went to South Africa over the summer so I am setting up a pen-pal system with my students. This is going to be perfect because in social studies my students are learning about communities. We are going to read books about both places and use our pen-pal letters to do a comparison of the two communities. Therefore, I get to incorporate literacy into social studies and social studies into literacy!

Book Club Plus. 09-27-10

The literacy curriculum for my second grade classroom is dedicated to literacy and pushes literacy to be cross-curricular. Throughout the four weeks I have been in the classroom the main instructional time is literacy right now. The students start and end their day with literacy. This push for literacy is not only the curriculum, but also my mentor teacher. Many of our students need help with writing, reading, and speaking literacy. Therefore, my mentor teacher has decided to begin with whole class instruction instead of workshops. The students are responsible for daily oral language (writing sentences), weekly vocabulary, making meaning, and word study. As I was reading and reflecting on the Book Club model, I noticed a correlation between my classroom instruction and the model. There is an importance with reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing in my curriculum. My mentor teacher has discussed with my that she involves the students with all of those literacy aspects throughout the year and finds them all to be equally weighted. The literacy instruction started last week using the curriculum student workbook. There are six themes throughout the year that are composed of mini-stories and related activities. The students started the first theme by going through the vocabulary, reading the story as a group, listening to the story on tape, reflecting, and sharing with peers. This process of instruction related to the Book Club model. There is first word study and reading that is teacher-led, independent listening, writing time and finally sharing. I believe the writing and sharing component of the Book Club model is very important and I was glad to see that taking place in my classroom. My students are able to express their feelings about the books or summarize the text. This part of the instruction is silent and independent. Following is sharing where the students are held responsible for their own writing time and allow for students to interpret their peers thinking. These components are important because I am able to see how the students are writing with the text. The students have a choice to write into the text by expressing their feelings of the book or write out of the text by summarizing. During my observation of literacy in the classroom I see connections with the Book Club model. Importantly, "the students and the teacher work together to createa coherent literature environment by the weaving together of an array of literature practices" (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty, and Highfield, 14). The students are held responsible to use their practices while reading and understand their own literacy strengthes and weaknesses. The literacy aspects are paired and individual during instruction, which is beneficial to the development of all these literacy strategies.
The student workbook directly follows the literacy curriculum. There are the four major curriculum areas: comprehension, writing, language, and literary aspects which follow the Book Club model. However, the curriculum is also based upon the International Baccalaureate (I.B.) standards. This involved inquiry as a main area and promotes students to think beyond the text. In the primary years, students are encouraged to explore beyond while they are reading, writing, and talking. Most prevalent is the process of "learning through the literature" by making connections with themselves, thier peers, cultures, and communities (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty, Highfield, 26). My classroom curriculum is closely paired with the Book Club model, but incorporates different aspects to benefit the students' content knowledge through their primary years and into the middle year programs.

Community Exploration After

The first observation my group made was a trip over to the Southfield Public Library. We were amazed to see the quality and expanse of this community development. There was a large area dedicated to children's literature and learning. The library has a wide range of books from Preschool to Adult. In addition, there were DVDs, Cd's, Audio Books, Chapter Books, Picture Books, and many more to suit all children's needs. We visited the library immediately after school, which didn't allow for us to see many students. There was a handful of parents and children that were reading and doing activities in the library. I spoke with one parent regarding some of the activities on the poster she was looking at in the main entrance of the library. She voiced to me that Southfield community is very involved with student literature development. There are activities after school and on the weekend designed by grade level. For instance, they have "Battle of the Books", "Reading Genre Month", and "Teen Read" that are promoted and encouraged by the community. The parent also told me that the community is split because some parents don't have the time to take their children to the library or do activities due to the fall of the economy. This brought some insight to me because I learned some information about the Southfield community that I can take back to the classroom. As Catherine Compton-Lilly wrote, "By listening to parents and children, we begin to conceptualize possibilities and solutions that recognize the strengths of families and the potential of children" (Compton-Lilly, 457). The library visit was important to my community research because I found the possibilities for my students. I know that I can attempt to involve my students in literacy activities in their community and encourage literacy at home.
In addition to the library, my group visited resources in our school. First, we visited the media center/library within Thompson-Schoenhals. The library is small, but accommodates K-8 students. The library is open 3 days a week when the librarian is present. The school librarian is wonderful and helpful with literature. She is willing to help students and staff when choosing books for pleasure or lessons. One surprising aspect about the library is that we still have not recieved our K-5 reading books due to the recent merge of the two schools. This alarms me because the students have library once a week, but have not had an opportunity to read or check out books. I spoke with the librarian about this matter and she voiced the same concern and told me they are expecting the materials this week. Despite the current situation, the library is a resource for the students to utilize. There are many literacy related materials that can be used by the students. Importantly, the students have access to laptops/computers. Technology have become a new literacy development that I feel educators need to respect and allow students to explore. Secondly, my group visited our own literacy room. This room is enclosed in the back of the school. The room is used for assessments, extra resources, and help from the literacy coach. Many of my second grade students are pulled from instruction time to seek individualized help in this room. The room is a wonderful place for students to receive the support they need and for teachers to seek help. The literacy coach is involved in all the K-5 classrooms and makes sure teachers have the resources they need. This room will be important and useful in my teaching because I can come here for ideas or to learn more about some of the students.
This exploration of the community and the school was a useful experience for my upcoming year of teaching. I learned about the community involvement and ways I can promote my students to utilize their community resources. In addition, this experience helped me think about my students as literacy users and learners. The students have a vast array of literacy in the community and school. There are individuals to help students with literacy and material resources for them to explore. I will be using all of these resources areas when planning my lessons and talking with my students about literacy. This community resource exploration has opened my eyes and connected me with the literacy component of the Southfield community.

Book Club Plus - 9/27/10

Literacy is a (if not, the) main component of my second grade’s curriculum. Much of our day is dedicated to the many aspects of literacy. Therefore, I have learned a lot about literacy this year. The way that my mentor teacher approaches literacy is with four elements: reader’s workshop, writer’s workshop, making meaning, and word study. I believe that these sub-parts of literacy directly correlate to that of the Book Club model. It seems that many of the crucial aspects (reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing) have been incorporated in both. This is especially evident once reader and writer’s workshop are further explored. In reader’s workshop, there is a teacher lead mini-lesson, independent reading, partner reading, and then a large group share time about what they have learned about themselves as readers that day. Thus, much like the Book Club model, there is a teacher lead component, independent parts, and sharing. Writer’s workshop is similar as it begins with a teacher lead mini-lesson, independent writing time, and a sharing time. This also includes parts of the Book Club model – writing and sharing. Within the writer’s workshop my students are given the opportunity to write into, write through, and write out of texts. They display writing into a text by, for example, describing their own opinions about a subject. When we were starting reader’s workshop, we discussed “comfy reading spots.” So, before my teacher read The Best Place to Read, students wrote about their favorite reading spot. After we were finished reading they then described how their comfy reading spots were similar to the child’s in the book (writing through). Lastly, to write out of the text, the students wrote about where in the classroom could be their comfy reading spot for independent reading.

Making meaning and word study are two sets of scripted lessons used for comprehension strategies and expanding vocabulary. The first, making meaning, is usually a teacher lead read aloud paired with text related questions and partner/individual sharing. This can be related to the writing portion of the Book Club model as it too, “serves many functions, such as reflecting on reading, gathering and organizing information, practicing literary forms, and sharing ideas with other.” (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty & Highfield, 2004, p. 12). However, making meaning is more of a verbal activity. Word study is lead by the teacher, as well. She focuses on a certain pattern (i.e. the –ing ending) and then the students are given cards with beginning and ends of words on them and they have to create new words. Although they are very similar, these two models are also different. The Book Club model incorporates an actual Book Club element that does not exist in my classroom. We are also lacking a Literacy Block that would allow for certain groups to be pulled. However, even though these ideas are not present right now, my mentor teacher has talked about implementing them soon. We just have to get the noise of the classroom under control first!

Considering the Community - BEFORE

My group is going to visit restaurants, Paradise Park (putt putt and go-kart racing), and grocery stores. We chose restaurants because our students often talk about their favorite restaurants around Novi, so we know that students frequently go out to eat. Paradise Park was one of our choices because in the past two weeks we have seen multiple students write or share stories about how much fun it is. We chose grocery stores because I already ran into a student and parent at a local grocery store. These places are all areas that we know our students visit often and we hope to find out what they are learning during these visits. We expect to find that our students are being exposed to different literacies than they are being exposed to in school. We hope to learn ways in which we can incorporate these various literacies into our lessons to better engage our students!

Considering the Community

BEFORE-

I've decided to visit a local "summer's end" fair through a church in the White Lake community, which will be starting on Thursday (9/23) and ending Sunday (9/26). I have picked this location because children in my class have already been discussing it and are very excited to attend. Also, growing up in the area myself, I know that this fair is an event enjoyed many, and I am bound to see some of my students when I'm there! I also expect to see forms of literacy - from the names of the rides, to menus, there will be many opportunities for me to see different literary components. I also anticipate hearing music playing throughout the fair, the sounds of the rides, and voices of all the kids having fun. I know that I will see a lot of print literacy, but I am hoping to learn more about the different aspects of literacy and how they are displayed in the fair setting. Overall, I think going to the fair and looking at everything in a literary light will be a fun and interesting experience!

AFTER-

When I went to the St. Patrick’s Fair on Friday, I noticed kids ranging from babies to high school age having fun in the fair environment, many rides, a ton of food, and a variety of literacy! I was also fortunate enough to get to see many of my students and their families enjoying themselves in a carefree environment, which I found very beneficial. From this experience, I learned that Dublin Elementary is comprised of people who are very family as well as community oriented. Coming to this fair is a tradition that they take part in every year and something they thoroughly enjoy. It was very nice to see that many of my students came to the fair together, and their parents were friends with each other, as well. This also provided the opportunity for my students and their parents to see me as a part of their community and outside of the teacher role. In fact, I spent 10 minutes talking to two dads about the upcoming football games. Although it was a brief conversation, I felt that this was valuable in that I made a connection – the parents were able to see more of me and less of my “student teacher” role. I feel that by starting to communicate with parents now, it will definitely help me when I am lead teaching. As Catherine Compton-Lilly discusses in her article about a study of students and their families, “I developed a heightened awareness of the ways parents view schools and realized the extreme importance of demonstrating respect for parents.” (Compton-Lilly, p. 457). Thus, through taking the time to get to know the parents of her students, a relationship was formed that benefitted the parents, the teacher, and most of all, the student. In my case, although I didn’t learn about the literacy in their home environments, I made the initial connection with parents that will help me feel comfortable for future conversations.

In regard to the literacy aspect of the project, I was surprised by how prevalent literacy was at the fair. I know that there would be a lot of print literacy, but as I started to focus on different literacy elements, I noticed how easy it was to find. For example, a fair setting is a perfect place for students to learn and use new vocabulary or words that are not normally used in daily context. Such as: merry-go-round, fun house, raffle, cotton candy and elephant ear! There is also a lot of print literacy – the names of the rides, the directions to games, the ticket amounts on each ride, and the menus for the food stations all have a literacy element that is specific to the fair atmosphere. Lastly, oral language was a major factor at this event. Whether it was parents communicating with their children, children laughing and screaming while running around with each other, or teenagers on their cell phones, oral language was everywhere!

Finally, this resource is a great way for me, as a teacher, to incorporate elements of the students’ life within the school setting. Since students of all ages attend the fair, it is something that can be incorporated in every grade. For instance, it could easily become a writing activity (write about your favorite ride), or an oral language activity (having each student share their favorite part of the fair), etc. I thoroughly enjoyed attending this community event and feel as though I learned a lot about my students that will help in the future!

Questions for Community. 09-20-10

My literacy group plans to explore a few different places. We chose to visit a restaurant, the library, and the media center of our own school. We decided on these three places because our students frequently visit these areas after school.
We have decided to choose a restaurant near to the school to learn more about the students potential connections between literacy and mathematics. We choose to observe restaurants because our students talk about their weekend activities which include frequenting restaurants. Our group expects that students will be able to read a children menu and choose an item based upon what they would prefer to choose. However, we expect to see the children engaging in creative processes. For instance, we expect to see children coloring menus, solving word problems, and other items that a children's menu would provide. Secondly, we decided to explore the Southfield Public Library. The students should be exploring their own public library, so we felt that would be a beneficial place to explore literacy. At the library, I expect to see children engaging in literature and resources available. Lastly, our group has decided to examine the library/media center of our own school. We would like to understand what resources are available to students during school instruction.