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.