My Students

After reflecting on my time in the classroom, I learned a little about the students and their literacy needs. I saw some of the brightest students that I have ever worked with. With that being said, it just blows my mind that Glen Alpine is a Title 1 School. I had no idea until my teacher told me. I know that it depends on more than just 18 students, but I feel that school is doing something right as far as literacy goes. The teachers use centers for Reading. Most of their day is spent on reading. That is the only part that I do NOT agree with....but that's a different story. I saw that my classroom teacher was always looking for ways to bring new activities into her Reading centers. She was always asking me if I had any activities that maybe she could use. I just had the 2 lessons that I taught, but I think that she appreciated the effort on my part to contribute. It's cool to me that the students I worked with could not wait to read. When they would finish something, they were allowed to select a book to read until the whole class was finished. The teacher would make sure that they did not rush through their work. Once she ok'd their work, they could read. Their eyes would just light up when they were allowed to select a book to read. They were always trying to find a book that they could learn from. No matter what the book was about, they wanted to learn from it. This love for reading makes my heart flutter. I hope that I can instill that kind of love for reading in my students.

Last day of Block 1

Today was the last day of Block 1 classes. I am glad that we had a class discussion about everything that we all observed in Practicum. It was nice to hear that we each had similar and also different takes on what we saw. And I feel like it was a very helpful conversation. I looked at my experience during Practicum in a whole new light. I learned that my experiences were more helpful than I thought they would be. As I look back on all that we learned about literacy and reading in RE 3030 and also on the experience in Practicum, I feel that I have truly learned so many ways to implement effective literacy strategies in my classroom in the future. I have also learned that it really is the teacher that matters. (quoting Dr. K. on that one!) I know that I have a long way to go, but I feel that I am better equipped to learn even more. I truly enjoyed the whole experience and I can't wait to learn more in Block 2!

Cultural Issues affect Literacy in the classroom

I have 2 Hmong students in my class and I have noticed a great deal about how that one factor affects their learning of Literacy. They are smart students, but because of the language barrier, it is hard for them. They receive help from the ELL teacher in the classroom. But he is only there for a short time. Just during math. During SSR, they seem to only choose books with more pictures than words. I can see that they can read, but need help to read and actually understand what they read. From the first day of Practicum to the last, I saw some improvement. If they improved in that short amount of time, I feel that they will only get better. The teacher told me that she has to study their work for a long time in order to decipher the meaning. This tells me that they need help in writing too. I wish that the ELL teacher could help them more, but he is not able to be with them all day.

Centers

I noticed that my classroom teacher is very "up to date" with her students in Literacy. What I mean by that is In the classroom, there are Reading Centers. The centers are ability grouped. While I don't particularly agree with that, I see the importance and functionality of centers. Each center has a certain activity and the teacher makes sure that each student performs each task before the end of the week. Also, the teacher knows exactly where her students are lacking and where they are succeeding and plans the activities for the centers accordingly. If she has to, the teacher will modify each activity according the students in it. I know that this should be a given in any subject and classroom, but I feel that some teachers just go along with the curriculum and not with the needs of their students.

ABC PowerPoint

I loved this assignment! I really feel that this tool will help me in my classroom. This is a great way to help students understand letters and their sounds. I also thought of an activity that could relate to this. You could have the students create their own ABC book. This may only be suitable for older students because of using PowerPoint. Then you could have them share it with the class. Not only would they be learning the ABC features, but also how to use PowerPoint. I really feel that my ABC book will inspire me in creating other activities.

Word Lesson

My Word Lesson was based on a book called Dearly, Nearly, Insincerely: What is an Adverb? by Brian P. Cleary and Illustrated by Brian Gable. Overall, my lesson went well. Once the students understood what to do, they were ok. The concept of adverbs was new to them. The teacher had not covered this yet. They knew what verbs were, but not adverbs. So they understood them somewhat.

Here's what I did:

I read the book to them
I gave them each one index card with one adverb on it
I had them write a sentence using that word
Then they were to draw a picture based on that sentence

A few things I liked:

The book and topic I covered: I feel that the book I used was a great way to teach the topic to the students. It was fun and functional!! The topic was a good choice because it is so closely related to verbs, I felt it was important to distinguish between the two. In elem. school, I struggled with that very concept, so I wanted to address it with my students.

The outcome: I asked the students to use an adverb in a sentence and then draw a picture based on the sentence. Their sentences were all wonderful. Based on those, I feel that they grasped the concept fairly well.

Some things I could improve on:

Time: I feel that I may have given them too much time to draw and not enough time to write.

Materials: The index cards that I printed the adverbs on. I should have printed them in all lowercase. I capitalized the first letter of the words. This gave the students the impression that they had to use the word at the beginning of the sentence.

Directions: I could have explained the assignment more clearly. They asked me several times what they were supposed to do.

Overall, I was pleased with the lesson. I am glad that I now know how to improve the lesson. I would like to use this activity in my classroom in the future.

The Last Day of Practicum

Well, it's over. I learned so much from this experience. I really learned that each student has different needs as far as literacy goes. I also learned that I am developing the skills to meet those needs. I have noticed an improvement in the way that I handle all aspects of the classroom. I especially learned many strategies that my classroom teacher has in place that will help me with teaching reading. My teacher used many of the strategies that I have learned in 3030 in her classroom. One reason may be because she received her Certification from ASU! I will treasure the experience for years to come. Not just because of what I learned, but because of the students and teacher I had the privilege of working with.

Daily Oral Language

A few days ago, I did the Daily Oral Language activity with my class. The teacher does one everyday. Today, she let me do it. There are only 4 or 5 questions. This particular one dealt with correcting sentences and homophones. The sheet was on the overhead and I called on students to complete the activity. The students did a great job with it. Almost each student raised their hand for each question. They really seem to grasp the concept of homophones. There was some struggle with correcting sentences. The sentences had errors in punctuation, spelling, tense, and capitalization.