Recently in my school
there has been a lot of talk, both good and bad, about the Lead 21 literacy
curriculum the school is beginning to use.
The program was purchased after winter break last year for the 3rd-6th
classrooms and over the summer for the K-2nd classrooms to use at
the beginning of this year. It has been
really interesting to hear all of the mixed opinions about the program. Some teachers find it beneficial to have a
basal that step by step selects books and activities for students to complete
while other find it not applicable to their students or their needs. It seemed that at the beginning of the year a
lot of teachers were more open to the idea of using the curriculum as a step by
step guide. However, as they get to know
their classes better some are finding that the guided reading books and
materials are not beneficial to accommodate to their students.
I
personally don’t believe that scripted basal programs are the best form of
instruction. I think that those systems
do the best they can to create a comfortable middle ground for each grade level
that teachers can take in whatever direction necessary. However, a lot of
teachers don’t end up making accommodations which is problematic. There is no way that the creators of a basal
will know what the students in YOUR classroom need. So using the system as a scripted curriculum
really doesn’t do a whole lot for the specific needs of the students in your
classroom. On the other hand, some
teachers feel that the programs “fit” their students and there is no reason to
stray away from the day to day lessons. I
have been thinking a lot about the two sides of the “basal” coin with its
relevance in my school right now and it’s been very interesting to consider
different veteran teacher’s perspectives
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
ERIN MAXWELL WEEK 8
Noticing
This week, my MT has established guided reading groups. Due to testing and other requirements, we
were previously unable to properly group our students. Although they have independent reading time
every morning, their guided reading time has been more enjoyable overall for
the students. I believe the students’
enthusiasm stems directly from the small group work environment. My students seem to enjoy having time to work
closely with a handful of their peers rather than the whole class. Additionally; each guided reading group is
monitored by myself, my MT, or another teacher.
Working through a book with the immediate
support of a teacher and a select group of peers has created an overall more
focused literacy time. However, the
independent reading time offers an equally beneficial exposure to literature
where students can practice comprehension strategies on their own and read a
story they are interested in. Therefore,
we hope to maintain students’ understanding of the importance of independent
reading.
Andrea Delise Week 8
Lately, I have noticed how important gradual release of responsibility is for instruction. For example, during read aloud time, I teach comprehension. This week, the students are focusing on author's purpose, and determining important information. On Monday, I read a Bernstein Bears book to the students and we talked about the author's purpose of writing the book. We talked about this as a class after having a discussion about what author's purpose is. To relate this to the students, I said that they, as authors, also have a purpose in mind when they are writing. I asked the students to think about a story they have written. I asked them to think about what their purpose was. I asked for examples. I then said, "Just like that, these authors have a reason that they want their readers to come away with after reading the story." After introducing author's purpose and showing them what the author's purpose was, I felt like they had a general idea of what it meant.
On Tuesday, I took it a step further to explain to the students the three different kinds of author's purpose: to inform, persuade, entertain. First, I gave them a quick example of each. I would then give them an example like "Ok, so if I'm reading a book with facts about whales, what is the author's purpose? Why?" I repeated this with several examples until I felt the students really understood. Then, while reading our read aloud book, I stopped to ask the students the author's purpose. I would have other students repeat and re-voice what other students said, to clarify meaning. Monday, I modeled author's purpose and students had an idea of what it was. Tuesday, students and myself found the author's purpose together and among each other.
Today, we reviewed examples of informing, entertaining, and persuading. I had students guess what the author's purpose was in examples I gave them. I also had them state how they knew. Next, I had students give me examples of each author's purpose. Since it was the third day of doing author's purpose, today the students worked individually. They read an excerpt, decided what the author's purpose was, wrote how they knew and wrote examples to prove their thinking. I feel that this was the best way to teach it, since they had the chance to experience learning about author's purpose on Monday by watching me think out loud during the story, on Tuesday by finding and talking about author's purpose among each other, and finally today, doing the assignment on their own. Each student had the correct answer about the excerpt being to entertain and was able to give a reason why. I feel as though if I would have explained the types of author's purpose on Monday, read a story and found the author's purpose, and then sent them back to their seats to work on an assignment where they had to find the author's purpose of a text, would have been overwhelming and the meaning of the author's purpose might have been lost.
I now know that giving students a gradual release of responsibility can happen over a lesson, a day, or even a week, depending on the class and how the students are responding to the information. It may not need to take a week of lessons, however the repetition of author's purpose and the gradual release of responsibility for this lesson was really beneficial for my students. :)
On Tuesday, I took it a step further to explain to the students the three different kinds of author's purpose: to inform, persuade, entertain. First, I gave them a quick example of each. I would then give them an example like "Ok, so if I'm reading a book with facts about whales, what is the author's purpose? Why?" I repeated this with several examples until I felt the students really understood. Then, while reading our read aloud book, I stopped to ask the students the author's purpose. I would have other students repeat and re-voice what other students said, to clarify meaning. Monday, I modeled author's purpose and students had an idea of what it was. Tuesday, students and myself found the author's purpose together and among each other.
Today, we reviewed examples of informing, entertaining, and persuading. I had students guess what the author's purpose was in examples I gave them. I also had them state how they knew. Next, I had students give me examples of each author's purpose. Since it was the third day of doing author's purpose, today the students worked individually. They read an excerpt, decided what the author's purpose was, wrote how they knew and wrote examples to prove their thinking. I feel that this was the best way to teach it, since they had the chance to experience learning about author's purpose on Monday by watching me think out loud during the story, on Tuesday by finding and talking about author's purpose among each other, and finally today, doing the assignment on their own. Each student had the correct answer about the excerpt being to entertain and was able to give a reason why. I feel as though if I would have explained the types of author's purpose on Monday, read a story and found the author's purpose, and then sent them back to their seats to work on an assignment where they had to find the author's purpose of a text, would have been overwhelming and the meaning of the author's purpose might have been lost.
I now know that giving students a gradual release of responsibility can happen over a lesson, a day, or even a week, depending on the class and how the students are responding to the information. It may not need to take a week of lessons, however the repetition of author's purpose and the gradual release of responsibility for this lesson was really beneficial for my students. :)
King Noticing GLT Week 1
Over the past couple weeks I have noticed that students as a whole do not respond to any kind of behavior corrections. It does not matter who the correction comes from, the volume at which the correction is given, or the amount of time spent giving the correction. Students will correct their behavior for approximately 2 seconds then return to doing the incorrect behavior.
At this point I am frustrated because I don't know what to do to help improve the classroom management and to create a better learning atmosphere because the school administration has mandated that things, such as recess and lunch in the cafeteria, cannot be taken away from students.
I had a conversation after school today with another of the 5th grade teachers who had my students in her room this afternoon to teach them science and who experienced this same response to behavior corrections. We tried to figure out why this class of 5th graders as a whole struggles to display appropriate classroom and school behavior and we realized the 2 biggest reasons for this lack of response to correction is the lack of consequence and the fact that their experience in 4th grade was one that consisted of a class size of more than 40 students in the classroom.
I welcome suggestions on possible consequences (we already give extra homework) and ways to improve the learning atmosphere.
At this point I am frustrated because I don't know what to do to help improve the classroom management and to create a better learning atmosphere because the school administration has mandated that things, such as recess and lunch in the cafeteria, cannot be taken away from students.
I had a conversation after school today with another of the 5th grade teachers who had my students in her room this afternoon to teach them science and who experienced this same response to behavior corrections. We tried to figure out why this class of 5th graders as a whole struggles to display appropriate classroom and school behavior and we realized the 2 biggest reasons for this lack of response to correction is the lack of consequence and the fact that their experience in 4th grade was one that consisted of a class size of more than 40 students in the classroom.
I welcome suggestions on possible consequences (we already give extra homework) and ways to improve the learning atmosphere.
Noticing Blog- week 8 Robb
Walsh
is out of school this week, so I tried to do some extra noticing last week
while school was still in session. I hate that I feel like I’ve been constantly
critical of the curriculum we have, I really do, but I do have to gripe just a
bit about how my students are interacting with the Storytown curriculum. I have
been having a lot less trouble than I usually do with supplementing the lessons
I use in ELA from this particular curriculum. However, I really dislike the way
that the curriculum constantly lumps the ELL and “below-level” students
together at times. It is not direct but often the curriculum’s suggestions are
the same for both of those student demographics.
In
my own mind, I know that many of my ELL students are fairing quite well and
actually exceeding some of their “English-only” students in their reading,
speaking and writing. Maybe this is a unique experience, and typically my
beginning-level and ELL students would be more “on-par” with one another,
however, in my situation, I am constantly asking, “why?”
I
have, like many teachers I know, a love-hate relationship with scripted and prescribed curriculum. The
combination of this relationship and my need to personalize what we “need to
learn” by makig it relevant to students causes me to write, create, draw and
plan a lot of different homework assignments, lessons and activities, all from
scratch. I do not know if I am "working too hard", like my MT likes to tell me I am, but I really wonder if there might be an easier way. I like having the examples of the curriculum in the book, but I can't always link, especially in Mathematics, the common core standards to what we're doing. I like to see a progression, like I do in the ELA curriculum (and do not in Math Trailblazers), but I wonder if it wouldn't be better if teachers just worked from the CCSS and what they know about their students to meet those requirements.
I have noticed a greater response in my students from the lessons I have created versus when I am "acting it out" from the books. I know some teachers feel that teacher's guides make the job easier, but I do not think that they're necessarily the best tools for teaching our students. Maybe it's just me?
Jones Noticing Blog Week 8
Kallie M. Jones
October 23, 2012
Observing and noticing things in my class has really been fun and interesting. My class continues to teach me about behavior management and how to work with them to help them become better students. Today, October 23, 2012, I noticied a couple of things about how my students write and what motivates them to write. In my classroom students have a lot of time to reflect and write. In the morning they are to be eating their breakfast or reading. In the afternoon when they return from brainboost and Ray University they have to option to read or write. A lot of students write about something that has happened during the day, but a lot of them also use their imagination or prior books that they've read to create a story. One student, a 4th grader, wrote a story called Alcapone in Alcatraz (spelling may be off a little bit). The student knows that Alcapone was gangster from Chicago and Alcatraz is a prison in the Harry Potter series. This was very wonderful to notice and this is important because this student was able to make text to text and text to self connections because he knows that some gangsters go to jail and that Alcapone is part of Chicago's history. I can understand that this particular student has had more writing experience outside of class. Developing good writing skills also allows the student to be vocal with their experiences and opinions. This is a case of a particular focus student being able to articulate this thoughts and ideas through writing. Other students are able to do this as well. Students are eager to write down what they think and share it with me, my MT or their classmates. It is always a wonderful thing to see young minds working.
October 23, 2012
Observing and noticing things in my class has really been fun and interesting. My class continues to teach me about behavior management and how to work with them to help them become better students. Today, October 23, 2012, I noticied a couple of things about how my students write and what motivates them to write. In my classroom students have a lot of time to reflect and write. In the morning they are to be eating their breakfast or reading. In the afternoon when they return from brainboost and Ray University they have to option to read or write. A lot of students write about something that has happened during the day, but a lot of them also use their imagination or prior books that they've read to create a story. One student, a 4th grader, wrote a story called Alcapone in Alcatraz (spelling may be off a little bit). The student knows that Alcapone was gangster from Chicago and Alcatraz is a prison in the Harry Potter series. This was very wonderful to notice and this is important because this student was able to make text to text and text to self connections because he knows that some gangsters go to jail and that Alcapone is part of Chicago's history. I can understand that this particular student has had more writing experience outside of class. Developing good writing skills also allows the student to be vocal with their experiences and opinions. This is a case of a particular focus student being able to articulate this thoughts and ideas through writing. Other students are able to do this as well. Students are eager to write down what they think and share it with me, my MT or their classmates. It is always a wonderful thing to see young minds working.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
McCormick Week 8
While at school this past week, I noticed how many standards and requirements teachers have to meet. In a meeting with the Vice Principal this week, we were instructed to administer the pre-assessment for Unit 3 of the math curriculum this week rather than next week so that we can assess it at our next grade level meeting. I noticed that not only do teachers have to follow a specific curriculum and meet state and national standards, but they also have to meet requirements for other people in the building. My mentor and I adjusted our schedule to allow for the pre-assessment. I simply noticed that teachers are being instructed what to do from all different sources, while at the same time, they are instructing students.
It's important that I learn how to manage all of the different standards and requirements by watching my mentor juggle these ideas this year. It's important to know who you have to comply with as a teacher and what types of things can wait. My mentor knew that we had to comply with the Vice Principal's requests, so we adjusted our schedule. I can understand that anyone in a superior position above a teacher may make requests for teachers to do certain things. I also understand that in order to keep a positive environment for all staff, teachers must obey these suggestions.
This is a case of completing other necessary tasks as a teacher besides just teaching and lesson planning. I have learned all of this in courses, but now it is settling in as I observe all of the things a teacher must do daily, weekly, monthly, etc. This is also a case of learning to prioritize different requests from other people.
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