12 questions

Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

·         My target area is fourth grade reading street unit 2.

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

·         45 minutes

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

Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

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?

·         Reading street is very structured and does a good job of scaffolding literature instruction.

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)?

·         Most of the student talk is teacher led. It is a response system that follows the reading street program.

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?

·         Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

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

·         Brainstormers came in and did an assembly based on writing. Focused on character, plot, and resolution.

What additional resources do you need to obtain?

·         I still need to get the teacher copy of the book for the specific weeks I will be doing.

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

·         I don’t want to do a formal assessment so I will just walk around and observe students reading and their participation.

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 what the teacher is doing with the basic room child when he comes to the classroom.

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

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

·         I need to observe more literature lessons to be comfortable with teaching it. I don’t have the routine down yet.

12 questions

1.    Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

Vocabulary Development, this will include expanding their vocabulary as well as give them the strategies needed for using context clues to determine the definition of an unknown word.

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

40 minutes

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

Reading Standards for Literature 4^th grade – 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology (e.g., Herculean).

Reading Standards for Informational Text 4^th grade – 4. Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area.

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?

This will expand the students vocabularies which will in turn allow them to more easily comprehend what they are reading when the focus words are used.

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)?

Teacher-led: English instruction - Using context clues to find the meaning of a word, Spelling lists, One on one interaction: when a student needs to know the meaning of a word

Student-led: Sharing new words while presenting to the class.

I would like students to regularly share new terms they learned with the class and have them think about and analyze the text before asking the meaning of a word.

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?

Vocabulary Acquisition, Use and Assessment

I hope this will help me understand more about literacy since I am lacking in that area.

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

Words are everywhere so the students will be able to develop their skills in and outside of school and bring in subjects to discuss in class.

8.    What additional resources do you need to obtain?

A list of fourth grade level words, information about strategies to pick up on context clues.

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

Have them identify meanings of certain words given a descriptive sentence containing the word.

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?

Their vocabulary levels and decoding skills.

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

I need to learn everything about the core practice.

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

I will most likely be teaching this to a group of students who may not all be in my class regularly because reading groups are based on ability, so I will not know the students as well. 

Emily's Response to the 12 Questions:

1. Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.
Unit 1: Comprehension Skill -> Cause and Effect. Comprehension Strategy -> Background Knowledge
Unit 2: Comprehension Skill -> Draw Conclusions. Comprehension Strategy -> Story Structure

2. Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?
Mondays        Tuesdays        Wednesdays        Thursdays         Fridays
45min- 1 hour      35 min            30 min           30 min          30 min

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

Comprehension
    ▪    Cause and Effect -> CCSS Literature 1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
    ▪    Background Knowledge -> CCSS Literature 1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
    ▪    Story Structure-> CCSS Literature 3: Describe in depth a character, setting or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g. a character's thoughts, words or actions).

      Vocabulary
    •    Affixes, Prefixes, and Suffixes -> CCSS Language 4.a. Use Context (e.g. definitions, examples, or restatements in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase
    •    Word Structure -> CCSS Lanugage 4.b. Use common, grade appropriate Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g. telegraph, photograph, autograph).
    •    Unknown Words -> CCSS Language 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 4 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
    •    Dictionary/Glossary ->CCSS Language 4.c. Consult reference materials (e.g. dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation and determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.

       Fluency
    •    CCSS Foundational Skills 4.b. Read grade level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate and expression.

  
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?
Reading Comprehension is extremely important for students. It connects everything together, and is the ultimate goal for students when reading. With the skills I will be focusing on and strategies it helps build their comprehension level and also is very helpful and useful in all aspects of their life. When I teach and emphasize on "background knowledge" this is handy in all subjects not just reading, but also in writing, even math and science.

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 our classroom we focus deeply on "Accountable Talk" which include statements such as "I agree with.." "I have a different opinion..". Accountable talk can result in rich teacher-student discussion but also student-student discussions that supports the development of student's reasoning and supports their abilities to express their reasoning. Throughout each unit (1 Week) students will participate in teacher-led discussions and also student-led. The students will work as a whole group, be broken down into small groups (tables), partners and also individual work. I want to continue our classroom norms to be focused around accountable talk throughout my lessons.

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 really want my students to focus on determining importance in text as well as activating and connection background knowledge. Comprehension is vital and high when students create a connection to the text. By focusing on these core practices will also contribute to my own professional learning because I can see what strategies work towards these skills and see how students respond and their thinking behind the strategies. This will all be helpful for future years of teaching.

7. What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?
I have the curriculum the district provides (Reading Street), as well as the classroom library, school library as well. I can also draw the background knowledge in other subjects such as in Writing the students have a unit from the Grand Rapids Art Museum (which they were introduced to the GRAM in third grade with a mini lesson and a visit to the museum) therefore the GR Art Museum might also be a resource. My MT also likes to use outside internet sources from Youtube to Brain Pop.

8. What additional resources do you need to obtain?
Just find the internet sources that I might want to use in my lessons (youtube videos that are appropriate  as well as different activities/worksheets from Brain pop).

9. How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?
The friday afternoon the week before I can give out a quick Cause and Effect Sheet and see their thinking about the topic on a story given to them. I can also do an informal assessment through interviews with the class on what they know about the topic.

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 look at their MAP testing scores for Reading and Language Usage, as well as their weekly Reading street tests. I will also look in their CUM files and look for an IEPs for reading. This will all be useful information and helpful when deciding groups and when developing lesson plans.

11. What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?
I am going to make sure I re-read all the chapters in the Strategies that Work book to refresh  my knowledge as well as pick up any strategies that help teach these core practices.

12. What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?
I really just want to make sure that I am fully Prepared and have everything planned out for every day that I am teaching. I don't want to just throw something together on the spot with little planning (unless a lesson flops and I need to quick improvise that is different).

Response to 12 Questions

1.       Describe your target area for guided lead teaching. Comprehension Strategy Instruction and Assessment: Compare & Contrast

2.       Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area? 40

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

RL 4.6 I can identify first and third person point of view.  I can compare and contrast the first and third person point of view in a narrative text.

RL 4.9 I can compare and contrast themes and topics in narrative texts

RL 4.3 I can describe a character, setting, or event using specific details from the 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?

Reading for comprehension is a key skill for students of any age.  An individual is well off when they can read for information and understand what they are reading.  This skill is vital for their further education and for a life skill that can be used in any job position.

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 this target area will provide a large variety of activities that will involve teacher-led and student-led lessons as well as higher-level thinking as they make connections to texts.  Students will be working on tasks individually at times, but many will be group or partner work.  Students should be using language referring to literature and texts we use as well as story elements.  I will use different forms of discussion within the class as well.  I know I would like to try a fish bowl discussion.

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 practices to facilitate comprehension instruction including guided interactive discussion, shared reading, and thinking out loud.

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

There is a large selection of books in the classroom library or in the school library for the students to pick out and for me to use with them in the class.  We can pick books to read and compare.

8.       What additional resources do you need to obtain?

None that I know of right now.  There is a collection of narrative picture books that I will use in the class, but I have them all right now or I have access to them.

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

We are currently doing some MEAP prep with compare and contrast writing, so I can look at these to see where they are at in comparing and contrasting.  An informal class discussion can also be done at the first day of the unit.

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 know if students know all the story elements of a book so that we can identify them and use them for comparing narratives.

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

I will be working specifically with compare and contrast (a unit integrated in the language arts curriculum) so I want to know which core practices would be best to work with for my unit lesson.

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

One of my areas of weakness in reading has always been comprehension.  I am hoping that I can help to make my students feel more confident in an area I have never felt confident in.  I am passionate about helping these students learn comprehension strategies, but I also worry that with my lack of ability in this area that I might not be the best at teaching it.

Week 3: Approaches to Teaching and Assessing Writing

 As I was reading through our chapters for this week, I found myself encouraged and enthusiastic about writing and sharing this with my students, but yet I was consciously thinking about my classroom in a small silver of the back of my mind. I agree with so many points made about writing in these chapter and would love to implement them into my classroom (if possible). Routman also has this great way of always answering my "but....", there were a few points that instantly the light bulb went off in my head and I was like "yes!" but.... (thinking back to my classroom), and she always had a way to cancel out my hesitation. An example would be that I loved when she said "Our students will learn to "do" all the necessary skills and a whole lot more if we shift our focus to meaningful teaching of writing and then teach the necessary skills to support the writing.... when we teach from whole to part and back to whole, when we teach the concept first and label it later, learning becomes easier and much more meaningful" (142). This really made sense to me, and clicked when thinking back to my elementary writing days and learning what a sentence was, or even subjects or tenses and how to organize paragraphs and use figurative language etc. and we were taught these terms first and then had to go and create a piece of writing surrounding that. It was a struggle to say the least. I understand how beneficial it would be to have the students create a piece of writing and then when editing point out and teach these terms that made up their writing. Students will have a better understanding of exactly the meaning and create a connection with these terms and see that they are meaningful to their writing. 

These lead to four major changes made by a 5th grade teacher: 
1. Identifying writing genres that would interest students
2. Deciding who the audience would be for each piece of writing
3. Modeling their own writing process and struggle in front of students
4. Having students share their writing regularly 

This is slightly where by hesitation, my "but" came in. I would love to make these changes as well, but the week before school started we were given a whole 5-week writing unit that we were required to teaching, starting literally the first day of school. It came with the prompt we were supposed to give, the "picture" or idea that the prompt was based on along with the questions that they wanted us to ask our students. This unit was created with collaboration of the "Grand Rapids Art Museum" and my students in third grade also had a starting unit with GRAM where they actually went and toured the Museum and saw all the pieces that they are writing about. The students have not been enthused about writing about these sculptures that they have already learned about and seen. It has been hard to motivate them to write these prompts when it doesn't interest them and also we are following the districts standards. Each prompt starts with a picture of a sculpture they have seen and then questions surrounding it (the first week  was a picture of a jungle with animals and was a lot about the senses, and sensory terms) and then the students were to write about their favorite meal. This was very confusing for the students to be talking about what these animals might see, hear, smell, taste, feel to then writing about their favorite meal. I understand that each prompt is teaching a different style of writing from Informative to Narrative etc, and here is where Routman comes to the rescue when she said " Even if your state or district standards and curriculum documents focus narrowly on the parts of learning, you will easily satisfy those minimum standards and much more through meaningful teaching.. Our students are not likely to work seriously or feel the "need" to learn something unless they understand and value its purpose". 

If my MT and I can some how find "meaning" and purpose within these prompts that we can resonate with the students then I could see this unit some what being beneficial. Any helpful ideas of what you are seeing in your classroom?

This weeks reading were about comprehension. Chapter one lists ways good readers comprehend books.

• search for connections between known info and new info
• ask questions as they read about what they learn and where the info is coming from
• draw inferences before and after reading
• figure out what is important and not
• to create info from cross texts and other reading experiences
• monitor their understanding and repair faulty comprehension
• visualize images to better understand text

Chapter two is about ways teachers can teach and monitor comprehension. A way for students to gain comprehension skills is to think metacognitively. What this means is have students think about how they are reading and ways that might make it easier to understand what they are reading. the example from the book is about a girl who purposely creates images in her head to be in the book and understand it better. the chapter describes four types of readers.

• Tacic- readers who lack awareness of how they think when they read. 
• aware- readers who realize when meaning had broken down or confusion has set in but who may not have sufficient strategies for fixing the problem.
• strategic- readers who use the thinking and comprehension strategies we describe as tools fro enhancing understanding and acquiring knowledge. they are able to monitor and repair meaning when it is disrupted.
• reflective- these are the readers who are strategic about their thinking and are able to apply strategies flexibly depending on their goals for reading. they reflect on their thinking and ponder and revise their use of strategies. 

comprehension is best achieved when we use prior knowledge to introduce new knowledge. by doing this students will be better able to acquire the new knowledge because the teachers set them up for success. 

Chapter three is about effective comprehension instruction. comprehension is most effective when teachers:

• teach with the end in mind
• plan instruction that is responsive to the individual needs of students
• model their own use of comprehension strategies over time
• remind students that the purpose for using a strategy is to construct meaning and engage in the text
• articulate how thinking helps readers better understand what they read
• view strategies as a means to an end with the goal of building a repertoire of thinking strategies
• model their oral, written, and artistic responses to the text
• gradually release responsibility to the students, moving them toward independent reading and thinking
• provide opportunities for independent reading
• show students how comprehension strategies apply in a verity of texts, genres, and contexts
• make sure the students have the opportunity to talk about their readings
• observe and confer directly with the students to keep records of those observations and conferences to assess progress and instruction
• use student work and talk to assess past instruction, guide future instruction, and assess and evaluate student performance.

chapter three also gives a lot of ways to assess students. too many to list here but it narrows them all down into three categories: current work, past work, and future work.

Chapter four has two parts. part one is about ways to explicitly teach reading:

• think reads
• read alouds
• interactive read alouds
• lifting text 
• guided reading
• anchor lessons and charts
•  rereading for deeper meaning
• sharing your own literacy by modeling with adult literature

part two is about ways to respond to reading:

• turn and talk
• paired reading
• jigsaw discussions
• book clubs and lit. circles
• study groups
• small-group shares

individual ways to keep track of understanding

• margin notes
• sticky notes
• think sheets
• response journals