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. :-)
Jessa,
ReplyDeleteThat is so awesome how the other second grade teacher came together to help your CT. That shows a good professional grade level team working together. We have talked about that a lot with Kira so far this semester and that is awesome you got to see that in action. I haven’t seen a grade level team meeting yet, but my CT always talks about how she has them, so I am thinking about asking if I could sit in on one. I am so happy we both got put with great CTs this semester. I know being at Sheridan last semester wasn’t the greatest, but I felt we learned a lot of what not to do and learned a lot from the students. It sounds like your CT is great this semester and has a great idea of how to incorporate literacy throughout the day.
It is great to hear about another form of literacy in a second grade classroom since my CT does it a little differently. I like how the students have to work together as a class to fix the sentence on the board. They are learning great writing skills through that practice. I have been able to see the high and low reading groups also inside my classroom and it is very eye-opening to see the different ways children read at this age. I liked how you brought up the fact how important differentiation is inside the classroom. Your CT probably had no idea those two students were struggling so badly because she had to worry about the larger group as a whole. What do you think you would have done to differentiate that lesson? I would have maybe split the groups up into smaller groups for them to read and figure out the answers together so no one felt behind. Then your CT and you could have gone around and helped specific groups that were falling behind. Another way would have been to differentiate the questions given to specific students.
That is so exciting you get to see your CT do assessments inside the classroom. I haven’t seen my CT do assessments yet so I hope I see that soon! Especially since we just learned about running records in 274, that is great you are seeing one being done! My school also does the tests on the books, but the students don’t talk about the points I feel as much as your students do. It will be interesting to see how it plays out this semester in both of our classrooms. I really enjoyed looking at the pictures of your classroom that gave me a great idea to do that with my classroom this week!
Jessa,
ReplyDeleteThanks for describing the literacy make-up of this classroom in such detail. It's awesome to read that the literacy times of day are so varied, each focusing on a different aspect of literacy development for these students. I also appreciated the images you included, especially the one of the couches! What a comfy place to learn in this classroom!
I agree with Cate that it is so nice to read and hear about the collaborative nature of teaching at your site. Adults supporting adults is what should happen in all schools, but unfortunately, it doesn't always happen:(. I also agree with Cate that the problem-solving with the sentence is a fantastic group activity. Activities like this are definitely asking kids to use higher-level thinking skills to analyze what is wrong and then apply what they know.
I appreciated your analysis of the reading quizzes. This makes me think of the Accelerated Reading program, which was used when I was in school. I agree with your analysis that although it's great to assess comprehension, the whole competition piece of this takes away from the good in it. Have you discussed the program with your CT? I wonder what she thinks about the bickering that comes with the competitive nature of this. That might be a good conversation to have with her and will better inform your understanding of this overall program in the classroom. Let me know what you find out!
:)Kira
Jessa,
ReplyDeleteIt’s great to hear how much you have enjoyed your clinical so far, as I have also! I love how well the teachers in your school collaborate with each other and helped with the substitute! The 3rd grade teachers at my clinical in LeRoy also collaborate very well with each other and help in planning their lessons together. This is something important we have learned about in TCH 277 about grade level teams and collaboration. But I am glad you are getting to see more literacy instruction in your 2nd grade classroom. I like how your CT “incorporates an element of Literacy all throughout the day.” I believe this is important and beneficial to all the students. I like how she incorporated literacy into her science lessons, which is a great way for students to learn different subjects at once. But I like how you noticed the higher level students were ones who were raising their hands more often to read out loud, and that two students were struggling. This definitely does show how we need to differentiate our instruction, and how would you have done this differently?
Also, what do you think about the children taking turns correcting the mistakes in the sentence on the board in the morning? I think this is great in getting the students to think about sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc. everyday in the morning as a short, quick way to practice their writing skills and help them remember in their writing during the day or in the future. But I’m wondering about how the teacher goes about the students taking turns. How does the whole class engage in this? I think maybe each student can rewrite the correct sentence at their desk, and then the teacher calls on a few students to come up and correct one mistake they found. The teacher can pick new students each day to come up, so not the same students are coming up to correct the mistakes (usually ones who already know it.)
I also love that your teacher does guided reading groups, and lets you work with the high and low leveled groups, as mine does also. I agree this is a great way to differentiate instruction and is definitely what I would like to implement in my classroom. My CT also uses the workshop model for language, reading, and writing. This is definitely a different way of literacy instruction. I think though that both ways are appropriate and beneficial in the students’ literacy learning. Would you like to use a workshop model or incorporating literacy throughout the day or possibly both?
I also disagree with the students having to take tests on what they have read, and that it becomes a competition of how many points each student has. Even though this can encourage students to read more and may help with comprehension, it does not do it in a very effective or beneficial way. I would like to hear more about your observations of this through this semester.
Overall, I enjoyed reading your input about the literacy in your classroom, and love the pictures you posted of your classroom. I’d love to have comfy couches in my future classroom! But I am looking forward to hearing more about the other aspects and experiences in your clinical ☺