Having spent two weeks in your clinical classroom, you have become acclimated with the literacy instruction in your setting. Draw on that knowledge in this discussion.
What have you noticed about literacy instruction and assessment in your setting?
- When does it take place?
- What does literacy instruction encompass?
- During literacy instruction, what does your CT do/ say?
- What do students do/ say? How do they respond?
- What are your opinions/ feelings about this?
- How does what you observe about literacy at this site connect with past clinical experiences/ early childhood theories/ and or literacy practices you have been learning about at ISU?
- How does knowing this inform what you will do when teaching and assessing literacy (either this semester, next semester in student teaching, and/or next year)?
What other additional reflections/ concerns/ questions/ musings do you have after spending these last few weeks on the site? Use your own experiences, especially those from your activity log for the last few weeks.
I have
officially attended two weeks in my clinical classroom so far, and have loved
every second of it. My first week, due to an unfortunate situation, I had a
substitute. However, she was wonderful and helpful. My favorite part about that
first week was how the other three 2nd grade teachers came together
to write up lessons and schedules for the substitute for my cooperating
teacher, since she was out unexpectedly and didn’t return until the following
week. It was really amazing to see how their professional community pulled together
for her in a time of need.
My
cooperating teacher was back for my 2nd week, and she is absolutely
amazing as well. She is wonderful with the children and was extremely welcoming
and helpful with me-she really wants to help me become a better teacher
(score!)
Literacy
is one of my favorite subject; it always has been. It was more difficult to see
last semester because I was in a kindergarten classroom and they weren’t
reading or writing very much yet. Seeing it in a 2nd grade classroom
was much different for me and it was very exciting to see. What I found most
exciting is that reading occurs ALL day long. My CT incorporates an element of
Literacy all throughout the day.
When
they arrive in the morning and put all of their materials away, they look up at
the white board and there is a sentence written in partial cursive and partial
non-cursive handwriting (they have only learned some of the cursive letters,
not all of them). It is filled with a lot of different mistakes-spelling,
punctuation, etc. The children take turns finding errors in the sentence and
correcting them. Afterwards they do other morning work.
Their next
thing they do is their guided reading groups. She has divided them into four
different groups by their ability level. They were currently working on pulling
information from the texts and answering questions. She allowed me to sit in on
the lowest level group and the highest level group, which was great. It was so
cool to see how children the same age can differ so much from one another.
These groups gathered at the kidney table and each group read a different book
based upon their level. It was very interesting to see the differences not only
among the different groups, but within the groups themselves. They were all
able to pull the answers from the texts and answer the questions from the
story. She has allowed me to continue working with the high and low leveled
groups every Wednesday from now on, YAY! J
She
also incorporated Literacy into their science lessons. I would have liked to
see some more movement during science, but it was the first time I actually saw
science at all during the course of my clinical, so I was very happy. The
students are currently finishing their unit on Penguins. They pulled out their
Penguin Packets and began to popcorn read the different paragraphs and pages.
The most eager children always raised their hands to read out loud. I noticed
that most of these children were in the high group that I had worked with, or
the second highest group. Most of the lower level reading children did not
raise their hands to read. After they read the paragraph, they were supposed to
answer questions. She had one child read the question, and then the students
were told to go back into the paragraph and highlight the sentence that they
could find the answers in. Most of the children were able to do this without a
problem, however, there were two students in particular that struggled greatly.
I tried my best to help them, but they struggled to keep up with the rest of
the class. I think that this shows exactly why we have been taught about
differentiated instruction and how important it is to have in the classroom.
I can
see exactly what I am learning about at ISU in my clinical classroom in many
different ways. In Dr. Sanden’s Literacy Class, we learned all about Guided Reading,
and how it is an extremely helpful resource in the classroom. It allows us as
teachers to focus on a smaller group of students at similar reading levels and
help them move along at the pace that they need to move. This is a great way of
differentiating instruction because it allows you to plan different lessons for
different students based on their abilities. I was very grateful that I got the
opportunity to see this happen in a real learning situation. It allows me to
see the benefits of using it. I truly believe that guided reading is something I
am passionate about using in my classroom in the future. I think it is a great
way of differentiating instruction for the different reading levels of the
children in my future classroom.
After
music class at the end of the day, the students have about half an hour of
D.E.A.R. time, or Drop Everything And Read. During this time, the children are
able to pick out their own book, either from her classroom library, the school
library, or from home. This is also a time when the teacher walks around and
conferences with individual students. She assesses them, works with them on
certain things, etc. She mostly assesses using running records. She told me she
would allow me to watch her perform a running record on one of the students
next week (tomorrow!), so I look forward to watching that.
At this
school, they have a program where they have to take tests on the books that
they read. Each book is worth a certain amount of points and they have to
accumulate a certain amount of points each quarter. During their DEAR time,
they are also able to take these tests. While this system is near and dear to
my heart, because this is the system that I grew up using, I somewhat disagree
with it. I think the idea of testing them after they finish their books is a
good idea because it is a great way to assess the students on their
comprehension. It can also increase a love for reading because the children get
to choose the books that they read and take quizzes on and they know they have
to continue to read in order to make their goal. However, the points system
makes it a competition. I watched the children battle over who got to take a
quiz first and who has the most points in the classroom. I also watched
students take quizzes on books they hadn’t read because they only need to get a
certain amount of questions right to get the points for the book. This is
discouraging for many students because they can’t read at the same level as the
other children so the books they read are worth less points, or they don’t like
to read at all and they don’t have any points at all. Overall, it is a very
challenging system to work with. I look forward to observing the results
throughout the rest of the semester.
Well,
that’s all for now my friends! Tomorrow is another day in the school, and I am
so excited to go back. Meanwhile, please enjoy some pictures of my classroom! The first post shows their "MONstar" of the week. The next picture shows how the students desks are all set up, and the last picture shows their rug area with the couch as their comfy spots. :-)
