Blog#4- Questioning: Gina Wilkins

In chapter 8 of, Strategies That Work, the authors devote time to discuss “questioning” as a strategy that propels readers forward. In the chapter, we learn how questioning helps students comprehend what they read, answer their wonders and questions, expand their thinking, and make meaning. I completely agree that questioning is a wonderful reading strategy. However, teaching this strategy to struggling readers and writers, along with English Language Learners, concerns me. The authors suggest having these students draw pictures of their questions. This seems like a good idea for lower elementary, but not so much upper. It seems embarrassing to have an older student drawing pictures while the rest of the students are writing. Can anyone elaborate on the author’s differentiation idea? Does anyone have other ideas for supporting struggling students in using the strategy of questioning?

Brown - Target Area

Inquiry 2 Part A: Discuss Your Target Area and ‘Core Practice’ for Guided Lead Teaching

1. Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

            The target area that I have chosen for guided lead teaching is acquisition, use and assessment of foundational skills.  With that said, I am choosing to focus on print concepts and phonological awareness specifically.  My lessons will focus on reading letters, poems, and books while introducing the concepts of print such as what a letter, word, space, etc. is. I will then work my way into phonological awareness with the students.

2. Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

20-30 minutes

3. Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

RF.K.1 Demonstrate understanding of the organization of basic features of print.

RF.K.1(a) Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

RF.K.1(b) Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

RF.K.1(c) Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.

RF.K.1(d) Recognize and name all upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

RF.K.2 Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds {phonemes}.

RF.K.2(a) Recognize and produce rhyming words.

RF.K.2 (b) Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.

RI.K.5 Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book

RI.K.6 Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.

4. How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and learning through literacy?

            Teaching in this target area will provide many opportunities for the students to learn the skills of print concepts.  These skills are needed to help people make it through life.  We need to know how to read and write text, and that all starts with knowing how to hold a book, where to start reading, and then goes into identifying letters, words, etc.  Through teaching these concepts students will be learning literacy by discovering where to start reading, following along with words, and then learning high frequency words.  The students learn about literacy and learn through literacy by realizing that words have meaning and that we can understand what something says by reading it.  That means that we can learn through literacy and it also shows how important literacy is.

5. What types of classroom talk take place within this target area?  To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking?  What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area?

            Classroom talk will consist both teacher-led and student-led.  In the first week, it will be more teacher-led so that the students see a lot of modeling so that when it becomes student-led they will have a good understanding of what to do and where to go from there.  The norms that I would like to build within the classroom as I teach in this target area is for students to raise their hand when they have a question and/or answer, and listen to others when they have something to say.  I would also like the students to have small group discussions that they can then bring back to the whole group.  In these small groups discussions this will mean that the small group works together, listening to everyone's thoughts and ideas before bringing it back to the group.  I think this really promotes higher-level thinking and it is a great place to start with kindergartners.

6. Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area?  How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional development?

            The core practice that I chose is acquisition, use and assessment of foundational skills.  Focusing on this core practice will help me in my own professional development in that I need to take a step back and break down print concepts and phonological awareness and start with the basics.  I need to take myself back in the mind of a kindergarten who is just starting to get familiar with letters, words, and letter sounds.

7. What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

            Some resources within the community, neighbordhood, school district, school or classroom that I could use to work in this target area numerous.  I believe that I will begin with books from the classroom library, books from the school library, and also using the print that is in the hallways of the school, letters sent home, and anything that the kids can relate to (ex: school lunch menu).

8. What additional resources do you need to obtain?

            Additional resources I may need to obtain are large pieces of paper/poster that I can write a morning message and/or poem for the students to start off concepts of print with.

9. How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?

            Fortunately for me, in TE 301 I worked with a kindergarten student who was struggling with reading.  From the book, Assessment for Reading Instruction, Second Edition pg.90-99 there is a preassessment where I can ask the students to identify concepts of print.  This will then help me to have an idea of where my students are struggling so that I know which parts need more emphasis than others.

10.  What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

            To help my develop lesson plans for my students I think it would be helpful if I knew whether any of my students went to preschool before kindergarten.  I think this will have a huge impact on the lesson in the fact that if they went to preschool they probably have some concept of print but if they didn’t they may not have any concepts of print knowledge.

11. What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?

            I want to learn more about the ‘core practice’ and how it is taught in other kindergarten classrooms.  I would like to try and find some lessons that other teachers have done and see if I could modify them to fit the needs of my students.

12. What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?

            The only concern I have about planning and teaching my unit is if the students will understand concepts of print in the amount of days that I have it planned in.  I have the question of whether or not I’ll need to spend more time on certain areas in order to help the students really understand what I want them to learn.

Wilkins- Target Area

       Gina Wilkins

TE802, Section 8

 

 

Inquiry Two, Part A:

Discuss Your Target Area and ‘Core Practice’ for Guided Lead Teaching

 

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

Reading Comprehension/Strategy Instruction is my target area for guided lead teaching. I will be teaching the students a specific strategy they can use to better comprehend what they read.

 

2.     Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

About 30-45 minutes per day is allotted to improving comprehension and teaching comprehension instruction.

 

3.     Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.

 

Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.

 

Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information

in a text.

 

Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in

illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

 

4.     How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

Comprehending what you read is a huge part to surviving everyday life. Reading does not have a point if you do not understand what you have just read. Students need to be able to comprehend what they read in order to be successful in life. Therefore, teaching strategies to better comprehension is a vital part of literacy. Students will be learning literacy when they are able to comprehend a good piece of literature they read. They will be learning about literacy when I teach them a certain comprehension strategy. Lastly, they will be learning through literacy when they better comprehend reading they have to do for another academic subject area.

 

5.     What types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?

Teaching comprehension strategies involves a mix between teacher-led talk and student-led talk. Usually, the teacher models his/her thinking out loud of the students are able to hear his/her thinking pattern while trying to comprehend a text. Next, the students have a chance to practice whatever the teacher just modeled. Comprehension strategies usually require a lot of higher-level thinking since at times it requires them to connect the text back to their lives or at times think metacognitively. Classroom norms for interaction that I would like to teach in this target area include respecting everyone’s ideas (not laughing at one another), and being active listeners.

 

6.     Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

I want to focus on the comprehension strategy of, “making connections while reading” in order to teach this. This core practice includes making text-to-self connections, text-to-text connections, and text-to-world connections in order to better understand what you read. This will contribute to my own professional learning because I have heard so much about making connections, but never have seen it implemented fully in a classroom. By teaching this core practice, I will gain great insight into the best ways to successfully teach, “making connections.”

 

 

7.     What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

Seminole has a variety of resources for teaching comprehension. To start, each classroom has its own classroom library. In addition, there is an extra supply room that is stocked with leveled books, as well as many other classroom sets of literature. The computer lab and school library contains computers with programs that test student’s comprehension skills. The public library is close to the school and offers many after-school reading programs for students to enjoy.

 

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

I need to obtain a large amount of books of different genres that would engage my students and keep them interested in the lessons.

 

9.     How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?

I am going to pre-assess my students’ comprehension abilities by doing a read-aloud. During the reading, I will probe them with different comprehension questions. Afterwards, I will have them draw a picture of their favorite part of the book. This will give me insight as to how well they comprehend.

 

10.    What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

 I also to find out what types of books the students enjoy reading for each different genre.  

 

11.    What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?

I would like to find out how much time was spent on comprehension in kindergarten. I can do this by talking with the kindergarten teachers. In addition, I may want to contact teachers of students that went to kindergarten elsewhere to find out what the students may have already done and are familiar with.

 

12.    What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?

Absences are a huge problem in the classroom I am teaching in. This makes me very nervous. I plan to do many two-day lessons. If a student misses the first day, it will be very hard for them to know what is going on the second day.

 

Guzzardo Target Area

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

My target area for my guided lead teaching is families; How families are different, who makes up a family, etc. While teaching about families we will also look at concepts of print and breaking words apart by syllables.

2.     Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

About an hour in the morning

3.     Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

o    RF.K.1 Demonstrate understanding of the organization of basic features of print

o    RF.K.1(a) Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page

o    RF.K.1 (b) Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters

o    RF.K.1 (c) Understand that words are separated by spaces in print

o    RF.K.2 (b) Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.

o    RI.K.5 Identify he front cover, back cover, and title page of a book

o    RI. K.6 Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text

4.     How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

My students can relate the topic of families to their lives because they each come from a family. They will be able to connect the stories and discussions in class to their own families. I plan on having the students share about their families in class to help learn about the differences in families.

The target area of families includes learning about literacy. I will be using several books about families in my unit. While reading and working with these books students will be working on learning concepts of print. We will look at the basics of a book (front cover, pages, text, pictures). We will also be looking at the arrangement of texts on the page (right to left, top to bottom, spaces between words). Looking even closer a the text on the page we will work on breaking words up into syllables.

My students will also learn through literacy in my lesson. My students will learn about different families and what they look like by working with several books about families. These books will guide discussions about families.

5.     What types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?

Currently there is no talk about families in my classrooms. Students may share things that they do with their families or that draw pictures of their families but there have not been any whole class discussions on the topic. During my unit the extent of the talking in discussions will be teacher-led. I will ask students to share their thoughts on things such as their own families and differences among families. As a class we will build discussions about families but they will remain teacher-led while building off of the students’ ideas. During these discussions, my students will use the norms of the classroom about raising their hand and having a turn to talk. Students will quietly raise their hand, put their hand down when someone is called, and listen to the person who is speaking. During my unit I would like to introduce the norm of building off of what others say. If one student shares something about their family I would like another child to be able to build off of what they said or expand on that same idea. This may be difficult for kindergartens but I think it will be a good beginning experience for them in building discussion skills. This may also help to keep the discussion flowing.

6.     Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

From the “Resources for Developing Core Practices” document I want to work on improving acquisition, use and assessment of foundational skills. Within this I would like to specifically work on concepts of print and word separation (by space and syllable). Focusing on these things will contribute to my own learning by helping me learn how to break down the knowledge I have of text and teach it to students who it is unfamiliar to. Concepts of print have become so familiar to me through all my years of school that I do not think about them when reading text. I need to be able to step back from what I know and break it down so that students can learn and understand the different concepts of print. I think this is a great skill that teachers need to learn for all subject areas.

7.     What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

A huge resource for me is my mentor teacher. She has already given me her social studies book that has a unit on families and several stories books on families. She has also offered any of her other books on families to me. Since she has taught this target area before she has many resources that I am allowed to use to help with my unit. The local community library is also a great resource for me as it contains even more books on families that I could use in my lessons. The internet is another great resource for me to use for gathering information or ideas about families, as well as concepts of print.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

o    With the amount of resources that my mentor teacher has offered to me I do not think that I will need to find other resources to use. An extra resource during my lesson may be the parents of my students. I need to talk it over with my mentor teacher but I was thinking of incorporating pictures of the students families into my unit. In order to do this I would need the parents help and support.

9.     How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?

I will have the students draw pictures of their families and introduce their families to the class. If possible I will have the students bring in pictures of their families as well. I will also use questions to pre-assess my students. I will ask them things such as what they know about families and differences they may have noticed about families.

Dealing with concepts of print, my mentor teacher has already done a pre-assessment of the students on this. I will look at her results to see where the students stand in the area of concepts of print and text knowledge.

10.    What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

It may be beneficial for me to find out ahead of time which students come from single family homes, have separated parents, live with both parents, live with relatives, etc. Although this may help with my unit I am not sure how I would go about finding out this information. It may be that it is easy for me to learn this information during my unit through discussions with my students about their families.

I may have to a pre-assessment of my students’ ability to break words apart into the syllables. They have done a few class activities of this together but a pre-assessment would give me a better feel of where the students are at. This will also inform me of how much I need to break this down for students and how fast or slow I can proceed with it.

11.    What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’  to support your planning and teaching?

I think learning more about how to teach breaking words apart by syllables would be helpful. The more I know about how to teach it, the better I will be able to teach it.

12.  What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?

My biggest concern is going to be making sure that my students get something out of my lessons. I want to make sure that my lessons are not redundant and boring so I need to make sure and focus on different aspects of families and concepts of print during each lesson. I think both of these concerns will go away as I start to plan my unit. 

Leveille Target Area

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

My target area is shared reading.  Shared reading involves reading a big book aloud to the class every day for a week.  Each reading is of the same book but will focus on different parts of the story.  The first day looks at reading the book and strategies that take place with reading such as predicting, a picture walk, and looking at the “big idea”.  Day two focuses on deepening the meaning of the story and looking at comprehension through connections they can make.  Day three is about the structure of the text, such as patterns within the words, return sweep, bold print, etc.  Day four looks at letter or word study like the formation of letters, the sounds they make, and rhymes.  Day five focuses on skills like beginning sounds and high frequency words that are in the text.  There is also a day six that is typically combined with day five to tie everything together in an extension activity.

2.     Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

10 minutes

3.     Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1-Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2a-Recognize and produce rhyming words.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3c -Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.10-Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding

4.     How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

Using shared reading demonstrates many skills that are required of readers such as predicting, making meaning, and understanding structure.  Reading is an extremely important life skill so this target area incorporates many aspects of how to be a strong reader.  Learning literacy is done through listening to the story and working on reading along as well as using the pictures to help us read.  Breaking apart words into smaller pieces as well as looking at rhymes and language patterns is a way to explore learning about literacy through a shared reading.  Students will also learn through literacy by listening to the story and making meaningful connections to their lives or to the world.

5.     What types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?

The classroom talk that takes place within this target area (and this grade level) is teacher-led.  Most of the questions are asked by the teacher and answered by the students.  There is a bit of higher-level thinking when students work on making connections between the book and their lives.  Teaching in this target area requires building norms such as how to sit quietly and listen to a story, as well as how to participate when answering questions aloud.  I would also like to establish how to listen to other children when they are sharing their answers.

6.     Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

I would like to work on explicit instruction during my shared reading.  This target area allows for lots of thinking aloud and reading aloud.  These two areas are used extensively in the lower grades so I think it is a very important skill for me to have, as I hope to teach early elementary.

7.     What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

I have a fantastic literacy library in my school with many big books that can be used for my shared reading lesson. 

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

This will depend on what my extension activities happen to be, and then the resources I may need can be found within my school (such as paper, scissors, glue, etc).

9.     How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?

I will take anecdotal records on many students while they are being read to in order to observe how they participate in readings.  I will also look at their standardized reading tests that we are working on to see where they fall in their knowledge of concepts about print, letter recognition, letter/sound knowledge, etc.

10.   What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

I think the pre-assessments will help me learn a lot about the students.  My MT is also very familiar with the big books available at our school and is helping me choose books that the students always seem to enjoy.

11.   What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?

I would like to see more examples of teachers using thinking aloud to help me better understand what it looks like in a classroom (especially in kindergarten).  I will also re-read the chapters focusing on these core practices to refresh me on the strategies and tips they provide.

12.   What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?

I am not concerned about planning or teaching the unit, although I know it will be a lot of work and may be a bit nerve-wracking the first day, but I feel confident that I can do it and I am excited to begin my guided lead teaching!

Approaches to Teaching and Assessing Writing

I really enjoyed reading Routman’s advice on how to teach writing.  I thought there were some interesting ideas and strategies that seemed to make a lot of sense to me.  In the chapter on basic skills, she really drove home the point about making everything meaningful to the students.  She pushes to have every skill taught through writing that has a purpose.  This idea is something that I really want to use in my classroom.  As students ourselves, we are so often told to write something and do not always understand the reasoning behind it.  If I am assigned to write something that does not seem to have much of a purpose, my writing really suffers (and so does my motivation).  This same concept applies to our students.  My students right now are not doing much writing since I am in kindergarten and they are still working on letter formation, but in my fourth grade placement last year I saw so many lessons that just isolated a single skill.  The purpose of those lessons was to learn the writing skill, and that’s all the students saw it as.  They seemed to forget about all the other skills they knew since the purpose revolved around that one technique.  In order to follow Routman’s advice about making the techniques and the purpose for writing meaningful, I think I would need to really get creative with my lessons.  In order to have your students invest themselves in their writing, they need to have a task that interests them and that they care about.  I need to develop a repertoire of writing lesson ideas that can draw students in while also allowing them to practice strong writing skills.  I think I will be able to do this in time as I learn more about my students and as I am exposed to other valuable teaching resources.

A professional dilemma that I might encounter if I try to use Routman’s advice on making students’ writing assignments purposeful to them is that I would not be following the curriculum plans.  From what I have seen so far in my placement, my teacher is required to teach certain materials that are given to her by the district.  She has to teach specific lessons from her phonics book (even the ones that flop every year) and must use other specific teaching materials too.  I know that we will be starting writer’s workshop soon, but I understand that the mini lessons seem to be already planned out.  When I asked her about using the lessons that she knows are not successful year after year, she said that she has to be very careful about skipping over them because at any minute the principal could come and ask to see her lesson plans or could stop in to observe.  Sometimes these curriculum materials are great and the children seem to learn a lot from them, but I think it could limit students to writing about things that may not be as engaging as something a teacher could create on their own.

My teacher has done a bit of hybridization to try and cover the curriculum while also sticking to what she knows works with her students.  Today, she taught a horrible phonics lesson that seemed very pointless (to her too) and the students were not interested at all.  It was a lesson that was required for the day, so she sped through it real quick, and then went on to something she knew the children would enjoy much more.  This way she could still say and prove that she taught the required curriculum, but she also felt that she was staying true to her teaching identity.  I would also like to use this strategy when trying to use Routman’s writing advice and also pleasing the principal.  I also think that if the lesson supplied by the district is a good one, I could teach that and then change the writing assignment or topic that the students do.  This way I am still covering some of the required material, while choosing meaningful writing pieces. 

Another piece of advice that Routman gives that I think is great is adding more writing to the day.  I agree that the more writing students do, they better they get at it.  I think that this advice is difficult, because as we said in the last blog post, there just is not enough time in the day for everything.  We are already barely squeezing in any science or social studies, and I think trying to put more writing in can pose a challenge.  I think especially in kindergarten when writing just a word or two can take such a long time, trying to fit even more writing in is just cutting out time for everything else.  I understand that writing can be added in during other subjects, but when it takes so long and so much energy for these young children to do, it makes everything take longer. 

We are beginning writer’s and reader’s workshop next week so I will have more opportunities to see students starting to communicate with their writing (or drawing).  Right now we have been putting a lot of time into forming letters, so writer’s workshop will allow me to learn so much more about each student.  I can’t wait to see my students begin writing more! 

9/14/12 Dilemmas and Teaching in the Context of the Classroom

Some dilemmas that I am anticipating this year are the different teaching beliefs and styles between my mentor and I.  It is only a week and a half into the school year, but everyone has their own teaching styles and I have noticed some areas where I would present a lesson differently than my mentor teacher has.   The classroom management styles between my mentor teacher and I may also present difficulty in the fact that they may be different and the kids may respond better to one than the other.

A dilemma that I see when building teacher-student relationships is the wide range of diversity in the school.  I grew up in a predominately white middle class community.  However, when I attended college at Michigan State University, I quickly learned about the various types of people that make up our world but it is still going to be a learning experience working with children from all different backgrounds.  I am very excited to gain this knowledge and experience, but I do believe I will get stuck in not knowing how to respond to something a student may say just because I may not have had any prior knowledge or experience with it.  I do have to say that the other day, I played basketball on the playground with some of the boys in my classroom and they really accepted me in the play and it was a great feeling to share similarities with the boys and get to know what their interests are outside of school and actually participate in the activity with them.

I believe one dilemma I may encounter in constructing relevant curriculum and assessing students in meaningful and productive ways is if I am using the correct format/information.  Due to the fact that GLCE’s have changed over to Common Core Standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts, I am still trying to get comfortable with the change and understand the changes so that I can teach my students according to the new standards.  Another dilemma I see happening is assessing students is whether or not I am doing it correctly.  I would hate to assess children and do it incorrectly and not get the students actual results.

I feel very confident coming into this year of student teaching.  A lot of my confidence stems from the fact that I have already had a semester of student teaching in a preschool classroom at a child development lab.  After two weeks I started taking over the classroom and ran the classroom at the five-week mark.  Through my experience, I had ups and downs, lessons that worked and lessons that didn’t work.  What I learned the most from that semester of student teaching is that not every lesson goes as planned, you always have to be ready to adapt the lesson to the needs of your students and be flexible with the schedule.  I feel that when I stand in front of a class I am not nervous to make a mistake, but know that every day I teach is a day to learn. 

The Daily 5 is a literacy program that is ran in my classroom.  I have never had experience with the Daily 5, so my MT suggested that I read the book on it.  After reading the book I have become very knowledgeable on the subject and have also seen it implemented in the classroom.  This has shown me how to take something from a book and actually have my students practice it.  It has been amazing to see the growth and development in reading that these students have shown in the last eight days of school.

After reading the article by Jodene Kersten and Laura Pardo, some ideas I have about finessing the literacy practices would be to combine the Daily 5, with daily writing, and read aloud.  Instead of having three different focus lessons within the Daily 5, I would like to implement one lesson on reading to self/partner, one lesson on daily writing, and one lesson on read aloud.  After the three focus lessons on literacy have been mastered, I would love to try finessing these important lessons to see how my students would do.   This would also allow more time for science and social studies lessons, which seem to be overlooked more so now than ever before.  I think that science and social studies are a huge part of a child’s learning and should not be taken out.  So finessing some material would help me to teach all subjects each day.