Authentic Questions

In these chapters, the authors discuss many manners of questioning the text. In my classroom this week, we discussed text-to-self, text-to-world and text-to-text connections each on a separate day. Then we asked students to work on making these connections in their own reading immediately following the mini-lesson. I noticed that some of our third graders were able to do this pretty easily (I believe this to be because they had this instruction last year too) but that the second graders really struggled. I noticed that some of the second grade students (as well as some third grade students) made a connection on every page and others made no connections at all. They also only focused on the type of connection taught that day. How do we know when to introduce each type of connection and when to ask students to begin using more than one connection at a time? and what makes you think that?

I feel that doing three types of connections three days in a row is too fast for second graders but I do not really understand how to know that they are ready for the next type of connection. I also feel that introducing the idea of using multiple types of connections while reading one text should be introduced as soon as the second type of connection is taught. In our room we encouraged students to focus only on the type of connection we taught that day but I feel that this could discourage them from ever using the other types of connections.

The other chapter we read this week focused on visualizing and inferring while reading. In our classroom we often ask inferential questions about the texts we use as read-alouds but we have not discussed visualizing. In what situations is visualizing taught and discussed?

I feel that visualizing should be reviewed in all grades as students sometimes forget that this is part of reading. In addition, each type of text involves a different type of visualization and this is a type of strategy that should be reviewed in each genre. We have not done a genre study yet in reading but I will be interested to see if we work on visualizing. In addition, how would students show their visualizations? If they discuss their mental pictures, they are nearly retelling the story and if they draw a picture they may not have the artistic talents to express their ideas. How else might they share their visualizations?

Inquiry 2 Part A

Ashley Colovos

-I will be working on writing instruction; working on revision and editing.  We do our writing from 10:40-11:30, so I will have about 20 minutes of direct instruction, which leaves 30 minutes for the students to write, while I walk around.

-Students will use different strategies to generate more focused, informative and engaging pieces
                - Ask and answer such questions as who, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate
               understanding of key details in a text.

-Editing and revising writing is an important step in the writing process. These students love to write so it will help them improve the depth and greatness of their story. Students will learn the importance of reading over and editing their writing pieces. They are learning about literacy by learning about the importance of writing with details, and reading over and improving their work. They are learning literacy by learning how to read and write with fluency and comprehension while expanding their vocabulary, and students are learning through literacy by examples modeled in class. Through examples students are learning the way their text should look, and then editing their work to make it their best work.

-Classroom talk will be teacher-led with student involvement. It is important for the teacher to model what the class will be working on, and for the students to share their ideas. The teacher should give an example by showing the correct way to revise and edit a paper. The students can then help point out the different ways the teacher revised the paper.

-I want students to be able to be able to write more engaging pieces by writing detailed texts that bring the reader in. Students will be able to do this by revising and editing their work, and making sure that it involves all the components that we have talked about. This will help contribute to my own professional learning by learning the correct way to show students how to revise and edit their writing.

-I will have the smart board available to me along with printouts from the common core. I will also have several books in the classroom which will help assist me with my lesson planning. We also have a writer’s workshop book to follow.

- I will pre-assess my students in my target area by looking at previous writing samples they have done. We have already begun writing, so I have been doing informal assessments since school began. I will need to find out what writing level each of my students is at before this lesson. Many of my students are great writers, but many of them get hung up on the spelling of their words. Some of the students have a hard time sounding out the words with the correct ending digraphs.

Inquiry 2 Part A

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching. My target area for guided lead teaching will be Vocabulary Acquisition, Use and Assessment. I will be teaching Word Study as my Core Practice. It is important for students to be able to say the word, spell the word, and write the word. The words for the week will have a pattern. For example, one week we will be doing “short a” words. They will learn also learn word families for each of the word wall words.

2.     Approximately how much time per day is allotted for you instruction in this area? Only 30 minutes a day is allotted for Word Study.

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

Reading Standards: Foundational Skills

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

a. Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words.

b. Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams.

c. Decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels.

d. Decode words with common prefixes and suffixes.

e. Identify words with inconsistent but common spelling-sound correspondences.

f.   Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

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? Students need to learn word parts, how to decode words, and recognize word wall words in order to be able to read. You need to know how to read when you shop, do other subjects of academics, know instructions, know the ingredients in food/how to cook, etc. They are learning to read all words by learning these individual words through vocabulary instruction because they can take words apart, recognize beginning sounds, make word families, recognize ending sounds, and relating the context of these words to unfamiliar words. They are learning about literacy because they are learning to apply these strategies to writing and reading. They have to say, write, and spell the words and put them into sentences. This can also feed into other subjects by putting these words into science and social studies and mathematical contexts. For example, our students are having trouble with math value placements because they are having trouble reading the math vocabulary/numbers in word form. By incorporating these words into our word study we are improving their math literacy.  

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)? In this area, it is mainly the teacher talking and the students responding. The teacher holds up the word and the students read it, write it, and spell it. I am going to set up the norm not to talk unless called on. This does not necessarily mean they have to raise their hands. Sometimes I may have all girls spell in unison or all the boys. They will not be able to leave the classroom during instruction time since our time is so limited already. Another norm will be to ask questions if needed by raising their hand or to raise their hand if they need me to slow down. Everyone’s questions will be welcomed and respected. I also am going to set up the norm that everyone needs to participate at least once. This will be hard to enforce but I will try my best to call on as many different students as possible.

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? The core practice I want to work on developing is explicit instruction and authentic application activities: Word-study concepts, Word-study activities, Word-learning strategies, Developing word consciousness, and Word choice in writing. This contributes to my own professional learning because I am developing an ability to see patterns within words. By showing my students these patterns they are able to apply this strategy for any words they encounter in the future. I am also learning how to create meaningful activities that connect the word with its proper use. I am learning how to give clear concise instruction and give my expectations up front. I have a short period of time so I have to get right to the point so students can start their activities.

7.     What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area? I have other teachers in the building that share their word wall activities, I have a list of words given by the district along with a packet of possible activities, I have the internet that I can research activities and use typing to practice spelling the word (spell check will underline if incorrect), I have the success center where students that are having trouble can go during recess or another lesson, and I have the reading interventionist who works one on one and in small groups on vocabulary/reading.  

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain? I need to obtain the worksheets for spelling tests and I need to look into how I can use vocabulary lessons to engage a higher level of thinking.

9.     How will you pre-assess your students in your target area? I will give them a pre-spelling test. I will read the word out loud and they have to write it the best they can. This will give me insight as to who knows what words and what words we need to work on the most.

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 will need to find out which students have trouble with decoding when reading and writing (can look at their conference notes). I will also need to find out how much time they typically they need for each activity so I know how to pace the lesson. If I move too fast I could lose a lot of students. If I move too slowly I will lose necessary time.

11.   What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching? I want to learn the proper order to these concepts and activities (if there is one). I need to learn how much time an activity was written for and how I can plan my time in the most beneficial way. I also want to learn how to properly assess the core practice throughout my teaching. Are there assessments already pre-made?

12.  What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit? What happens if I run out of time and don’t get to finish all of my activities? What happens if I access at the end and I realize a lot of my students still do not know the words?

Inquiry 2: Part A questions

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

·       I will be creating a unit on characters for my Guided Lead Teaching. In this unit, readers will talk and think about the characters in their books. Key concepts of this unit are; collecting ideas on graphic organizers/post-its, comparing and contrasting characters within texts and across texts, creating conversation about the characters in texts, making inferences about characters and retelling using story elements.

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

·       Everyday we have 20 minutes for a read aloud which is immediately followed by 40 minutes for Reader’s Workshop. I will be able to read texts with good examples of characters during the read aloud and follow that with a mini lesson.

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

·       RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

·       RL.2.6 Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.

·       RL.2.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

·       SL.2.2 Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

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?

·       Characters are vital to stories and to how readers understand a text. They are found in a wide variety of genres and allow authors to get across their messages, illicit emotion and guide readers through their stories.

Readers will develop theories and grow ideas about the characters in their texts. They will learn how to have conversations about characters with their reading partners that involve an exchange of ideas. Readers will learn about literature by identifying character traits by inferring from text, study how characters handle situations they face and compare a character from one book to a character from another book, or from a student’s life. Readers will study the changes in the character across the plotline of the book and think about a character’s motives by thinking about why the character acts as he or she does.

Readers will learn through literacy by forming theories about specific characters in their books. As children continue to read in a text, they usually revise their theories as they follow a character through different situations and encounters. What is motivating the character? Does the character change across the plotline of the book(s)? How do secondary charters affect the main character?

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)?

·       Throughout the lesson, there will be a balance of teacher-led talk and student-led talk. The read alouds and mini-lessons will be teacher-led with opportunities for students to talk. After the mini-lesson the students will be reading stories to themselves or to a partner. The format for our read alouds now is to read the text to the students, then have to students turn and talk to a neighbor with about the prompt they were listening for (example: what do you think the author’s message is?) and finally they get in a large circle and listen to each others ideas. I love that this that has been established as a class norm because it encourages discussion instead of the typical lecture format seen in most classes.

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 focus on developing structures that promote purposeful talk. As I mentioned before, some of these structures are already in place but I would like to try more. I have never been in a class that used paired reading, jigsaw discussions or book clubs. I think these can be great assets to comprehension and I would like to try them to grow myself as a teacher and widen my knowledge of facilitating such structures.

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

·       There are leveled reading books in our library that I will have to go through to find ones with good/strong characters in every reading level. We also have two reading interventionists and a librarian at our school that I can connect with for advice. I am also using Waterford School District and Oakland Schools Curriculum guides to help shape my unit.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

·       I need to find the books that I will be using for my read alouds. My teacher has a very large supply of books of all genres and topics so I know I wont have a problem getting enough books—the key will be finding the best books for each mini-lesson. I also need to find books for each of my distinct reading levels of my students for the partner or group share aspect of my unit.

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

·       Currently, my students have been told to follow the character in order to find the author’s message or big idea. Through observation, I have noticed that the students can find the big idea of the story but cannot use examples of how the character helped them do that. This unit will be much more explicit for them in terms of what they need to look for and give them examples of how characters shape stories.

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 need to know how much prior knowledge my students have with characters and hope they shape texts. If they have some prior knowledge then I build off of that instead of doing things that will be boring to them since they already know it. If they don’t have any prior knowledge, its fine, I will have to make sure I do a thorough job scaffolding their understanding. 

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

·       My main concern that I need to clear up with my MT is that our Reader’s Workshop typically consists of a mini-lesson and then 25 minutes of silent reading from their leveled books to gain stamina. I need to see if these 25 minutes are required everyday or if I can use that time to do a partner or group read instead. I am also concerned about finding enough low-level books that have good examples of characters in them so I need to start looking right away.

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

·       As for the actual teaching of the unit, I am concerned with my classroom and time management. I have slowly begun to take on more responsibilities in the class that have allowed the students to see me as a teacher too so hopefully they respond well to my lessons and respect me as their teacher. Planning out how much time each activity and transition will take will also be a challenge. I hope to get advice from my MT for this.

Inquiry 2 - Part A - 12 questions

1.    Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

o   For Guided Lead Teaching I will be conducting a unit on Personal Narratives. Students will learn the characteristics of personal narratives and write their own personal narrative throughout the unit.

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

o   Each day we spend 60 minutes on independent reading, 30 minutes on read alouds and 45 minutes on writing each day. Until the MEAP test is complete, the writing time is often used for MEAP prep with the third graders and extra math time for the second graders. For my unit, I will be able to share personal narratives for read alouds and will be able to use all of the writing time. The first seven minutes of writing are used for instruction during a mini-lesson and the rest is used for student writing.

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

W.3 (2^nd) – Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

W.3 (3^rd) – Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

a)    Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or character; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally

b)    Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations.

c)    Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.

d)    Provide a sense of closure.

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?

o   In many situations throughout their education, students will be required to write personal narratives. In addition, most informal communication with friends and family members is some form of personal narrative. Thus, understanding the features of a personal narrative will help students communicate successfully throughout their lives. Students will learn literacy by learning to write in a new style. They will also learn about a type of literature they will be able to find in both the school and classroom library. The personal narrative is not only a form of written literacy but is also the most common vocal interaction between people. Students can practice using the features of personal narratives in their conversations with their peers as well. Finally, many movies and TV shows are personal narratives, though the features are more difficult to locate. It is possible that we could view either a movie or a TV episode and locate the features of personal narratives within. Students will learn about literacy by learning the features of personal narratives and how to write them. Students will learn through literacy by reading personal narratives throughout the unit. These examples allow the instructor and students to locate features of personal narratives that students can then locate in their own reading and mimic in their writing.

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)?

o   Within this target area, there will be many types of classroom talk. During the mini-lessons presented at writers’ workshop, the talk will be mainly teacher-led and I will review the features of personal narratives with the class. I will work to include their ideas and examples in the instruction allowing the opportunity for participation. In addition, I will ask students to read personal narratives during buddy reading and look for the features we learn about during writers’ workshop in these books. In this way, the discussions would be student-led and the students will be focused on their reading and comprehension skills. Finally, I will be having students create their own personal narratives. While students will be using the features we discuss, the content of the piece will be up to them. They will be asked to use a TAK organizer that we are learning about now to help them organize their writing and then transfer those ideas into the final work. The generation of a brand new piece of writing requires higher order thinking. In addition, noticing the features of personal narratives in their own and others’ writing is a version of higher order thinking as well.

o   As I continue the use of student interaction in the classroom throughout this unit, I intend to utilize the many norms already in place in our classroom. It is expected that students will quickly find their partners and immediately begin working on their reading/discussion and this is something they are very good at already. In addition, the students know that during teacher-led discussions, they need to raise their hands rather than call out as 59 students shouting out their ideas will not be productive. Finally, as students work independently on their writing pieces, they know that they should be silently working and raising their hand for help from the three teachers. These are all norms that I love in our classroom and that I want to continue to implement throughout the unit. It is also my hope that we might start to peer-review students’ writing but that may be a bit above grade level. If this opportunity arises, I would expect that students again quickly find their partners and immediately begin working. I would have students first read their partner’s writing and make notes on a sticky note about something they want to talk to their partner about (they should not write on the other student’s work). After discussing the ideas of their partner, students could then choose to take their partner’s suggestion or not. Finally, I would expect students to create a final copy with the changes suggested by teachers and peers as well as their own revisions.

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?

o   The core practices I want to develop and improve upon as I teach about personal narratives is the use of the mini-lesson that focuses on students’ instructional needs and genre study. In our school we utilize 7 minute mini-lessons to teach content before having students work independently. By improving my use of the mini-lesson, I hope to be able to meaningfully convey content instruction quickly. This will allow my students more time to practice and more time for me to work with students individually. Additionally, improving upon the core practice of genre study will allow me to teach my students great amounts of information about specific genres in a way that allows them to utilize these features in their own writing. This will help not only my current students but my future students as well because I will be better experienced in sharing this type of information in a relatively short amount of time. Thus I feel that pairing both the mini-lesson and genre study as core practices is a beneficial professional move.

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

o   In the community and neighborhood surrounding our school, there are many people with which the students can share their personal narratives. In our school district there are many resources available including leveled libraries, reading interventionists, librarians, and experienced writers who can assist me in understanding how best to teach students about and how to use the features of this genre of writing. In our school we have our own reading interventionist, a librarian, a school library, a classroom library, and a leveled book room in which I can find examples of personal narratives which will include the features that I want to teach students about during the mini-lessons. Finally, our classroom has many materials I can utilize in my unit about personal narratives including students’ writer’s notebook in which to practice writing, copies of the TAK organizer to help students organize their writing, highlighters for students to locate specific features in a copy of a text or in their own writing, and two teachers to help with revising students’ work.

8.    What additional resources do you need to obtain?

o   Resources that I still need to obtain are the actual texts I hope to share with the class. I will need text with examples of the features of personal narratives that I want the students to practice. I can retrieve these texts from the public, school, or classroom library but I still need to locate the texts I want to use. In addition, I need to determine the exact features that I will be including in my unit. I know that these features are a combination of the features in the CCSS standards and the features in the Waterford School District guide for teaching personal narratives. Finally, I need to obtain examples of student’s current work so that I understand which features students already understand and use and which still need to be mastered.

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

o   To pre-assess students on their writing of personal narratives, I will ask them to write a personal narrative about a specific topic such as one of the Seven Habits, their experiences over the summer, or their plans for the weekend. I will then review these pieces in search of the features to be taught in the unit to understand which features students already understand and use and which need to be the focus of specific mini-lessons.

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?

o   I will need to find out what type of instruction students have had regarding personal narratives prior to this year so that I can avoid repeating what they already know and instead teach new content. In addition, I will need to understand which writing terms students already know and which they do not know so that I communicate in terms they understand and explicitly teach new vocabulary. I will also need to verify that my assignments involve kid-friendly topics that they know a lot about so that they can have enough information to write about them. 

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

o   I want to learn a little more about mini-lessons before attempting to use them daily in this unit. I am unsure if there is a general format for mini-lessons or if the idea is just to keep it short. I know that I learned this in 402 from the Tompkins text but I need to review it. In addition, I feel that I could benefit from understanding more about the specifics of a genre study as it pertains to writing. In my experiences, genre studies span both reading and writing but these are taught separately in my classroom so while I can influence some reading, I want to understand specifically how genre studies affect writing.

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

o   The main thing I am nervous about with this unit is that students will struggle with the logistics of writing and not grasp the content I am teaching. While I know that we have strong writers in the class who will be able to focus solely on the content and style of their writing, I am concerned about the lowest level writers in our class who struggle to even copy text onto a page let alone develop their own piece of writing.  In addition to this, I am most worried that I will struggle with classroom management. We have a number of unfocused and unruly students in the class and I am nervous about my ability to control these students while teaching content. Up to this point in my teaching career and education, I have been able to manage behavior OR teach but this will be one of the first times I attempt to do both.