Harris Reflection 2

I would say that students P, D, and A equally participated. They found singing fun and caught on quickly to the rhyming words.  This activity kept them engaged while also learning and participating so I thought it was really useful to use when it comes to rhyming.  The students were not hesitant to answer which words rhymed in the sentence, so I could tell they have mastered this ability but needed practice with using the word "rhyme." I explained rhyming to them before the activity and wanted them to become more familiar with the term.

The strengths in the lesson were the amount of engagement involved on the students end. The singing made them want to participate without even realized that they were learning a lesson on rhyming. After doing a quick overview of what rhyming was the students were able to name the words that rhymed and tell me that they rhymed, using the term.

The limitations of this lesson were that I had to probe to get some of the animals and rhyming words. I don't believe that they were having trouble with understanding what rhymed, but I think they just couldn't think of anything. After I said, what could we do with a snake? They seemed to fumble with a few words, and I said, "It could go swimming in a ..." and they all yelled "lake!" This showed me that they understood the rhyming, they just needed a little help.

I noticed that I really like engaging activities to work with students. I tried to give more wait time and not jump in like I did with my last one. I noticed that I would like to plan more activities like this in the future. I also noticed that I need some better management. Sometimes I just say, "Alright, it needs to quiet down" or something along those lines, but in reality I should say, "I like the way P is sitting quietly." I just react faster than I think, and I need to work on that.
 Are there any really effective ways to handle classroom management? In small and large groups?

Harris Final Notebook Action Plan

What are at least three steps you will take in the fall to get to know my students as learners and as people?

I have not yet found out which grade I will be placed in starting the fall, but I have a few general ideas that I hope will work for every grade.

1.     Students can create a concept map about their previous learning experiences as well as what they hope to learn and what they like/dislike learning about

2.     Students can create an autobiography about their lives, their favorite things, their family, etc. This will help me to understand who they are as people outside of school.

3.     I will hold student-teacher conferences. This way the students can tell me about themselves one-on-one and we can form a relationship so that the student (and myself) is more comfortable in the classroom. I can do this during recess or any time where there is extra time as to not take away from their learning experiences in the classroom.

What are at least steps you will take in the fall to learn about your school and its surrounding community?

1.     I will get involved in my schools after school or extra curricular programs. This will help me build connections/relationships with the community and find out more about what the students like to do in the area or what types of things they are involved in. I have already looked up my school and I know that there are different African dance/music classes. This could be really cool to watch and see what it’s all about!

2.     I will get to know other staff members by volunteering to work school events and attending staff meetings. This way I can build relationships with people other than my CT, students, and families of my students.

3.     I will research different things in the area. I have already started to do this! I have looked at my schools website and figured out where it is and what the school is known for. It is called the “school of technology at the arts” and it seems like it will be very interesting and a good experience. By researching the area I can find out about community events that I can attend outside of school to learn more about the community, the people, and different things that go on outside of school.

What are at least three steps you will take in the fall to learn about your literacy curriculum?

1.     I will contact my CT and ask her for the literacy curriculum and possibly make copies for myself so I can familiarize myself with the curriculum.

2.     I will spend some time observing my CT as she teaches the literacy curriculum in the classroom to make me more comfortable with it and to help me better understand the curriculum itself as well as how to implement it in the classroom.

3.     I will interview my CT with questions about the curriculum, her personal thoughts on the literacy curriculum, and the expectations the school has for the literacy curriculum of that specific grade as well as school wide expectations.  I know that teachers can have different feelings about expectations than the school/district, so I think it is important to ask both questions.

If you were writing a letter to introduce yourself to your students' parents and families (which you should all do), what are three things you would want them to know about you as a person and/or a teacher?

1.     I love teaching. This is what I have always wanted to do and it is my passion. I want my students families to know that I want to be here and to learn from them and I want to build relationships with each and very student as well as families.  I will tell them what I believe in when it comes to teaching (that every student can learn!) and look forward to working together.

2.     I am a people person and love to get to know others. I want them to know they can come to me with any problems, questions, concerns they have and we will work together to figure out a solution.

3.     I love to travel. I’ll let them know that I have spent time in Australia working in classrooms and (soon) will have traveled to Israel as well. I love to learn about different cultures and I think that everyone has something special to bring/teach.

Once you get to know your students as people and as learners, what are three concrete strategies you will use to differentiate instruction?

1.     Differentiation the content: This consists of providing more instruction for certain learners as well as less for others. This can be done through modifying instructional activities to meet the necessary needs of different students. When students need more of a challenge I will have prepared a more challenging question, task, or assignment for them to complete to make sure they’re getting the most out of their learning. If students are falling behind or confused, I will be prepared to try to help the student make a connection to what they’re learning or to teach it in a different way (visual, kinesthetic) to accommodate to that specific student.

2.     Differentiate the process: This consists of using different materials, strategies, and skills to help diverse learners connect to what is being taught and ultimately help them learn.  A few ways to do this are to have flexible grouping, meaning to have students work individually, with others in small groups, or as a whole class.  I will use this by having different groups for different projects as well as assigning individual work and whole class work. I will use different manipulatives when teaching and different ways to scaffold lessons and using things like centers for different reading and writing activities during literacy time.

3.     Differentiate the product: This consists of what students know and how they can apply what they have learned.  This can consist of projects, theatre presentations, writing or creating something to show what the student has learned. Teachers can vary the end product of a lesson/unit by creating different options and different levels of complexity to the assignment to challenge students thinking.

Revisit your work in this class (blogs, logs, New Literacies, etc.) and the topics covered in this class (leading discussions, comprehension, writing, emergent literacy, and so on).  What is the one area that we have talked about this semester that you feel you need to grow in the most?  What are three specific steps you will take to foster that growth?

Topic: Leading discussions

1.     Create an open environment- Since I have not had my own class, I have not been able to create any type of environment. I hope that for my internship year, since I will be their right at the beginning of the school year, I will have some input as to what the environment of the classroom is. Having an open environment will help students to feel more comfortable with sharing their ideas and opinions as well as respecting one another’s ideas and opinions.

2.     Let the students share their ideas without correcting them or informing them of my own opinion. I have a hard time with this. I don’t ever want to make a student feel wrong or stupid, but sometimes I say, “I don’t think so,” or “I’m not positive that that is correct.” Instead of doing this, it is important to redirect the students to where the discussion should be instead of the direction they may be wandering in.

3.     Have set questions that you want to ask to relate to prior/background knowledge, to redirect, and interpretative questions to make sure the students are on task the whole time. Being prepared to step in when needed, and to start the lesson discussion will be necessary to ensure that the students understand what to be discussing.

Reflect on your learning in the course.  What are three pieces of knowledge, insights or beliefs that you have gained from this course specifically that you would want to pass on to future TE 402 students?

1.     It is important to accommodate to all of your students needs. We explored accommodation through reading and discussions in TE class and it is a concept that is beneficial to understand and explore to implement in your future classroom.

2.     The New Literacies Exploration Plan was a fun assignment. I learned a lot about different technologies and ways to include literacy through technology, and I hope to explore this idea more throughout my internship year as well as beyond that. I encourage future TE 402ers to get to know many different technologies to make literacy fun and engaging for students.

3.     Try to hold book discussions over book recitations. When reading the difference between the two, I was amazed at how few times I had ever seen a book discussion. Most of the time, I just observe teachers reading a book, telling the students a few key points and maybe asking a few questions, but rarely do I see the students facilitating their own discussions and asking one another questions and building off of each others thoughts and ideas. I think this is a great thing that teachers should do in a classroom, and although I’m still figuring out how to master this, I hope that one day I will be able to hold book discussions in my classroom.

Harris Reading Lesson 2

TE 402 READING LESSON PLAN

Reading Lesson Plan # 2

Your Name:  Taylor Harris   Grade Level:  1st 

Date lesson was taught:  4/26/11   Number of Students: 3

1) Rationale (What evidence do you have that your focus students need to learn this skill/strategy?):

Students have worked on some rhyming strategies/words already. This will be a fun activity for them to create their own sentences that rhyme together to fully understand what words rhyme. Certain students that I have worked with have no fully gotten the concept of rhyming because I have seen them guess about which words that rhyme incorrectly. I will use these students for this activity to better their understanding of rhyming words.

2) List which reading skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson (select ONE area):

Rhyming words

3) Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria):

·       Students will repeat the song back to the teacher while offering ideas about the rhyming words in the song. Students will make attempt to make a prediction during the pauses at a word that will rhyme in the sentence. By the end of the lesson, students should be able to identify the words that rhymed throughout the lesson as well as created or predicted the rhyming words throughout the song.

4) Materials & supplies needed:

“A Hunting We Will Go” song

Chart, marker

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/hunting-will-teaching-rhyming-264.html?tab=4#tabs

5) OUTLINE OF LESSON PLAN (Provide a bulleted list of ideas):

• Introduction to the (5 minutes) 

Reading and writing are very important things that we do in school. Part of reading and writing is dealing with rhyming words. Can anyone tell me what a rhyming word is (or give me an example)?

-If students struggle, ask (Do fish and dish rhyme? Do dog and cat rhyme?)

Have you used rhyming before? Can you give me an example of how you have used rhyming in the past, in school or at home?

-Tell them to think about stories they’ve read, song’s they’ve heard (if they’re struggling for ideas).

Great job, I can tell you’re reading to do an activity about rhyming. Who wants to learn a song?

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson) (10 minutes)

Teach/Repeat: “Oh, a-hunting we will go, a-hunting we will go.
We'll take a little fox and put it in a box
and then will let it go.” (Possibly write this out for students to read as we sing)

Who can identify the words that rhymed?

Rhyming words are words that have the same sound; can you find which words those were?

Continue:

We'll take a little whale and put it in a (Pause-see what students think) pail
We'll take a little frog and put it on a (“Pause….”) log
We'll take a little fish and put it on a (“Pause….”) dish

What other animals could we add into the song? Can you think of words that rhyme with each of these animal names?

If struggling suggest, snake/lake, bear/hair

Model how to create a new verse: Ex: We’ll take a little snake and put it in a lake

Write this on chart paper: Oh, a hunting we will go, a hunting we will go. We’ll take a little _____ and put it in a _____ and then we’ll let it go.

Let students pick their favorite animal name from the list and fill in the blanks.

• Closing summary for the lesson  (5 minutes)

Who wants to tell me what we learned today?

-If struggling, ask what box and fox have in common.

We learned about rhyming words. You will come across rhyming words often when you’re reading, and you can use them when you’re writing, or singing!  Next time you read a book, think about the words that rhyme and what other words could rhyme as well.

6) Ongoing-Assessment: I will listen to them when they are doing daily five reading activities and if there are rhyming words I will ask them to identify what they are.

7) Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?

I will help students to create rhyming words if they struggle. Hopefully by singing this will keep them engaged but if they get out of hand I’ll explain to them that we can only complete the activity if they participate and stay focused and listen.

Harris Reflection 1

Student D was eager to participate and wanted to go first, and last (he wanted to keep going). He was really good at describing his object using descriptive words and when the students were stumped he felt his object again and came up with more descriptive language. Student P was excited to participate but it took her a while to figure out what words to use with her object. She looked to me for help so I gave her a few ideas to get her going in the right direction. Student A picked an object similar to student P’s (I forgot that I had left it in the bag, I meant to take it out so their was no confusion) and the students kept guessing the same thing as the object that student P chose, so I think student A was a little frustrated.

The strengths of the lesson were that the students understand it well and knew exactly what they needed to do. They used specific language that worked for the object the student had at the time. I tried to choose objects that would be easy for the students to figure out which words to use to describe it as well as easy for other students to guess the object.   

The limitations to the lesson were that they didn’t actually practice writing the words after and may not remember everything about descriptive language. Also, the objects were small and diverse, but there were so many other things that I could have had the students to describe to practice their descriptive language. 

I noticed that I need to be careful with my wait time while students are thinking of what they want to say. I wanted to jump in and assist them when they were trying to guess the objects but I need to let the students think and get their thoughts out and wait until they are really stuck to jump in. One question I had was when do I start talking about parts of speech, like adjectives for this activity? I did not want to confuse the students so I didn’t mention this.

Harris Reading Lesson 1

TE 402 READING LESSON PLAN

Reading Lesson Plan # 1

Your Name:  Taylor Harris                                                   Grade Level:  1  

Date lesson was taught:  4/13/11                                      Number of Students: 3

1) Rationale (What evidence do you have that your focus students need to learn this skill/strategy?):

When I taught my language arts lesson plan on bullying, I modeled a story for the students with important aspects to include (place, time, characters, etc). After I modeled this, my CT said to the class, “remember, good writers use details. They re-read what they wrote and they add more details. Details are very important.” The students did include details, but I feel that the next step is using descriptive words to make their details even better. This will help the students to bring their story writing process to the next level.

2) List which reading skill/strategy is the main focus of your lesson (select ONE area):

Descriptive words

3) Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria):

·       : States what a learner is expected to be able to do to demonstrate learning

·       Students should use descriptive words when giving hints about the object when it is their turn to grab an object in the bag by using more than just bland words but descriptive words and detailed observations they can make just by touching the object.

4) Materials & supplies needed:

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/guess-what-language-based-124.html

paper bag

small objects

5) OUTLINE OF LESSON PLAN (Provide a bulleted list of ideas):

• Introduction to the lesson   (5 minutes) 

When we write we want to use details so that the person who is reading it can really understand what we’re talking about. When using details, we are using something called descriptive language.  The more details we give, the better a reader/listener can understand what we’re talking about.  Can you describe to me what you are wearing right now?

-Listen to descriptions then add useful details such as: colors, material, length, etc.

Good job! Let’s move on to the activity.

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson  (10 minutes)

We are going to take turns pulling objects out of the bag and describing them to one another. You can pull the object out and look at it, but you can’t let anyone else see it. You need to try and get the other people to guess the object from your descriptive clues. Remember, these are things that add more details to what we are talking about to make something more specific. I will start so that you both can see exactly how we will do this activity.

Model the first round of guessing by pulling out an object, looking at it and feeling it while having my back turned to the children, then holding it behind my back as I speak.

Ex: If talking about a stuffed animal: This object is fuzzy, it can take the shape of an animal, it has two circular objects with one triangular shaped object below (eyes and nose).

• Closing summary for the lesson (5 minutes)

That was fun and you guys did great using your descriptive language. Remember, the details we used (give examples that they used) are great for when we write or tell stories. The more details we use, the better!  Can anyone tell me what descriptive language we used in the activity today?

-If students struggled with creating details, give examples of details they could have given while showing each object from the bag.

6) Ongoing-Assessment: When completing writing tasks in class I will observe if they are using more details than previously used in writing assignments. When talking about things that could be described in depth I will listen for specific details.

7) Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson?

The students will most likely want to play with the objects. I will have to keep them focused by reminding them that they are participating in a lesson. If they correctly guess an object they can hold that object for the rest of the activity if they are still participating.

Harris Reading Lesson Overview

Student P has a hard time understanding/using the English language. She is very bright in all subjects but struggles with writing. She needs help to understand how to make her writing more detailed and understandable to a reader.  Student D is good at putting stories together, but lacks great detail and has the ability to improve his writing if he understood how to improve it and gained the skills necessary to improve his writing.

The target area in the first lesson is to help students understand how to use details in writing and improve their stories and writing skills. In student P's case, my CT believes that she may have a language barrier at home and is having a hard time understanding how to write any differently than she already is because she has not improved in a great while. However, to my understanding she is not a part of an ESL class at the school. My CT believes that student D is ready to move on to more detailed writing.  

For my second lesson, the target area is recognizing and producing rhyming words.  This target area is appropriate for the students because they have both shown trouble recognizing words that rhyme with one another during daily five reading.   

In Tompkins chapter 7 there is a section that talks about word consciousness. This section was what led me to teach about descriptive language, because being aware of language and vocabulary in general is necessary for students at a young age.  This lesson helped students to use certain words skillfully and to gain an appreciation and better understand of these words to help them in their future writing and story telling assignments throughout school. In Tompkins chapter 5 there are sound-matching activities.  This is what led me to find the second literacy activity about rhyming words. It sounded like a fun way to work with rhyming words and to keep kids engaged.

Cross Reading Lesson Reflection #2

Reading Lesson Reflection:

I noticed an improvement this time over the last lesson I taught that was similar to this one. For starters my CT switched things up for me a little and formed groups of three to work on the activity. This was done by student’s choice. Luckily “C” and “R” were sitting next to each other and worked together. “J” joined them in the task. I think the dynamic of the group is what changed the lesson. “J” has been identified as being at grade level to me by my CT. I have noticed that he reads books that are appropriate for this grade at silent reading time. He also turns in work in other subjects than isn’t outstanding, but also isn’t terrible. This is probably where he gets this classification. He was more studious than the other two and more outgoing in class. This was noticeable right from the beginning of the lesson. I mentioned that I was going to read the story and he groaned. Since I wasn’t planning on having him in the group and I knew that my CT considered him a pretty good reader I changed my lesson a little bit and we took turns reading.

I think the fact that “J” showed a willingness to do work rubbed off on the others. “R” who usually doesn’t like to work was much more interested in interacting with the group. He is outgoing so this helped. His comments weren’t always appropriate, but the other two members seemed to let him know this in a positive way. For example when we read the first page we were introduced to the granddaughter and great granddaughter of this woman who has lived in three different centuries. The great granddaughter turned on the car stereo and “R” said he thought this was part of the introduction. “C” replied by saying that he didn’t think so, but he thought that they fact that these two people being younger might be important to the story. “R” agreed and everybody wrote it down so we could move on and look for other clues.

One thing I did notice still was that “R” was very concerned with moving on. It was obvious that he just wanted to complete the work and have a finished product, not necessarily a complete one. During the ascending action he found two ideas and wrote them down and said that now we should find the climax. “J” said that he thought there were probably more parts to the ascending action and “C” agreed with him. “R” tried to push to move on, but I stepped in and said “Let’s see what “J” and “C” can find. Maybe there is more.” “R” reluctantly agreed.

I could also tell that that was another example of what I don’t like about basal readers. At the same time I’m torn. I saw evidence that none of the students really found this story very interesting. They didn’t try to make connections to their own lives and they didn’t show much interest when I told them about a connection with it in mine. My great grandmother is still alive at 103 so she came really close to living in three centuries. They only made a brief comment about whether their great grandmother was still alive or not. At their age most of them still have at least one living so it wasn’t too unusual for them. I should have pushed this farther by mentioning that my daughter is their age and has a great great grandmother that is alive. Maybe this would have sparked more interest. They also didn’t ask the questions that I have come to expect from this class. Usually a story about the Hindenburg would raise questions, but they just let it go. I stated before that I was torn. This task may have been easier if the students were working with a text that they found interesting. However, as teachers part of our job is to get them to explore different genres and subjects. I wonder about how to balance these two needs appropriately so that students gain the knowledge and insight that we are trying to instill.

In the end this lesson went well. The students completed their diagrams and seemed to be finding aspects of plot more easily toward the end. They were working more as a group than my previous lesson and that helped the lesson along. I think it was pretty successful.