Justine Miller: Inquiry 2, Part A

1. Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

·       Phonemic Awareness

·       Phonics

·       Comprehension

·       Listening and Speaking

·       Writing Conventions

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

Each day we have 10:00-11:20 allotted for literacy.

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

·       CCSS Foundational Skills 2.e. Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

·       CCSS Foundational Skills 3.a. Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.

·       CCSS Foundational Skills 2.d. Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three- phoneme (CVC) words.

·       CCSS Informational Text 2. With prompt and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

·       CCSS Speaking/Listening 1.b. Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

·       CCSS Speaking/Listening 3. Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

·       CCSS Writing 2. Use a combination of drawing, dictation, and writing to compose informative/ explanatory texts which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

·       CCSS Writing 8. With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a questions.

·       CCSS Language 5.c. Identify real-life connections between words and their use.

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

The students will be learning about literacy and learn literacy through the teaching of the lessons. They will learn phonemic awareness. This occurs initially in oral language and later in writing. It is essential the students learn this basic knowledge of individual sounds. Students also learn phonics. This literacy refers to an understanding of the sounds and letter relationships in language. They need to learn this literacy of phonic awareness because it is necessary in order to use this phonics knowledge effectively in reading and 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?

The lessons will be teacher led. I will guide the students through discussion. I will demonstrate models of each target area. I will guide the students by asking them questions about the text and have them make connections to their prior knowledge.

I want norms to be discussed before teaching the lesson to remind the students. I want the students to know to be good listeners to the teacher and to each other. They need to give each other fair turns.

6. Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target?

I want to develop and improve my skills in practicing to facilitate. I want to help my students. I want to practice my interactive read aloud. This will be a valuable part of the lesson. I want to be able to come up with important questions to ask during a read aloud to get the students thinking and comprehending. During an interactive read aloud, I want the students to stay on task and not stray away from the reading.

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

Mentor teacher, MSU literacy instructor, field instructor, librarian, classroom books and technology

8. What additional resources do you need to obtain?

Some resources I still need to obtain include literacy centers. I need to collaborate with my mentor teacher on which activities to do for the lessons.

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

I will pre-access the students by paying attention to a high and low achieving student and see what they can and cannot do regarding the target areas. I will then know how to teacher the lessons to reach all of the students.

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

I need to find out how much the students know about each target area. If it is an area that they have been working on need to check their understanding and re explain what needs to be.

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

I would like to learn more about how to teach comprehension. I want to look at how to guide students to understanding meaning of stories and different strategies that I can do to help my students.

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

I am concerned at following Reading Street exactly. I know I need to do this because it is a standard of the school. At the same time, I want to align with the standards of the MSU class standards. I also want to make the lessons my own and create my own activities but I do not want to read too far away from the reading street curriculum.

Dominique's Inquiry 2 Part A

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

The target area for guided lead teaching is phonemic awareness and phonics.

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

I will be allotted approximately 30 minutes each day.

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

(Just a beginning list)

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

•       CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1b Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

•       CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2 Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

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

•       CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2c Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2d Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.¹ (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)

•       CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2e Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new 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?

By teaching students to understand and use letter sounds, they will be able to have conversations, decode language, understand texts, and write successfully. Students are able to learn literacy by understanding that letters compose words, and each word has a meaning. Students will eventually understand that different letters can change the meaning of a word. Students are learning about literacy by using their writing skills in many different ways, and they are exposed to more. Students will also have the opportunity to write more, and notice how words are different and similar to each other.

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?

The types of classroom talk that will be in the classroom are mostly teacher-led to begin, with some group conversations. It is essential that the teacher demonstrates and models the letter sound, and eventually the students can discuss the different sounds and notice sounds that are the same. Some norms that are essential to this target are to listen and be willing to participate in repeating the letter sound. It is important that students are active in their learning and willing to listen to each other.

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 learning?

The core practice that I want to work on developing as I teach is “Acquisition, use and assessment of foundational skills,” which focuses primarily on print concept, phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition, and word identification. By focusing on this core practice, I will be able to determine what I need to focus on when interacting with students during literacy circles, whole group instruction, or when using literacy during another subject. It helps narrow down what is expected of them during this time.

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

There are many resources available during my work in this target area such as learning aides, the librarian, the English language teacher, buildings, streets, stores, nature, etc.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

I believe another resource that I will need to obtain is literacy circle activities, and how to strengthen letter sounds more effectively.

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

In order to know what students understand about letter sounds, my mentor teacher and I have conducted beginning of the year assessment to determine their knowledge of letter identification (upper and lowercase), and letter sound. Also, I have been noticing through writing activities and anecdotal records of students who use letter sounds while writing.

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

Some additional information that I need to find out about my students is what they respond to during literacy time, what does and does not engage them during literacy time. Also, there is a way that I can engage all students and their interests during literacy?

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

I would like to learn how to find literacy resources more effectively, and sources that are more credible. There are so many resources available, but I don’t know what is the most useful in teaching. Are there particular websites that are more useful than others? Also, how do I engage students of all levels? Students vary in skill levels, and I feel it is easy to lose those that are higher than those who are lower or vice-a-versa.

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

 I am concerned that I will not develop authentic and meaningful activities that engage the students with letter sounds. I want to ensure that all students understand letter sounds, and they can produce the sound instantly. 

RaeLynne Ferden's Inquiry 2 Part A

Your Name:RaeLynne Ferden

Inquiry Two, Part A:

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

NOTE: YOU MAY INSERT YOUR ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS POSED BELOW IN A DIFFERENT COLOR FONT.  Please name your file with your last name and email as an attachment to your instructor (example: SmithPartATargetArea.docx)

Talk with your MT about your idea, and use the information you gained from Inquiry One to respond to the following guiding questions listed below.  Email your responses to your instructor before our Week 4 class (September 26) AND post them on your book club blog:

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching. I will be teaching Unit 2, Week 3 in Reading Street, “Animal Babies in Grasslands.” In this unit, the target skills and strategies I will be teaching are:

·         Phonemic Awareness (Initial and Final /p/) CCSS Foundational Skills 2.e. Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words. CCSS Foundational Skills 3.a. Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter sound correspondence by producing the primary or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.

·         Phonics (/p/ spelled Pp) CCSS Foundational Skills 2.d. Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (CVC) words.

·         Comprehension (Main idea) CCSS Foundational Skills Text 2. With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

·         Listening and Speaking (Discussions-Who Am I? Who Are You?) CCSS Speaking/Listening 1.b. Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges. CCSS Speaking/Listening 3. Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood

·         Writing (Genre: Notes) CCSS Writing 2. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic. CCSS Writing 8. With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

·         Conventions (Adjectives for Colors/Shapes) CCSS Language 5.c. Identify real-life connections between words and their use.

2.     Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area? Reading Street and Literacy Centers are from 10am-11:20 every day. However from 10:30-11am, we will perform reading instructions. We also combine our reading and math centers so I may be able to incorporate a few literacy centers from 12:20-1pm.

3.     Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward? See number one for specific CCSS standards.

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? In this unit plan, students will learn about literacy as well as learn literacy by using letter sound cues to recognize a few one-syllable words when presented completely out of context as well begin to associate letters of sounds in initial/final consonants and understand the alphabetic principle (that sounds in words are expressed by letters in the alphabet). It is essential that students continue to develop these skills in order to become readers and writers since they will do this every day of their lives. Students will learn through literacy by responding to individualized and multiple texts by finding evidence, discussing, illustrating, and/or writing to reflect, make meaning, and make connections to their past experiences in their lives with baby animals, engage in substantive conversations, remaining focused on subject matter, with interchanges beginning to build on prior responses in literature discussions, paired conversations or other interactions, contribute to a class research project by adding relevant information to a class book including gathering information from teacher-selected resources and using the writing process to develop the project, and explore and use language to communicate with a variety of audiences and for different purposes including problem-solving, explaining looking for solutions, constructing relationships, and expressing courtesies.

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 my unit plan, there will be a lot of different types of talks taking place:

·         In Kindergarten, we do a lot of teacher modeling. We model behaviors, skills and strategies that we expect to see from our students. These types of modeling establish a purpose and provide students with a mental model for how to complete tasks. When using teaching modeling, I will use questioning to check students comprehension. However, I also want to activate my student’s background knowledge throughout my unit. Additionally, as the teacher, it is important for me to model the academic language I want my students to use. I can do this during think alouds, shared reading and during whole-class discussions.

·         There will also be guided instruction to find out what students already know and what they still need to know. Both the students and I will be talking during this. Students are asking and answering questions, talking with peers and with themselves to clarify their understandings, reflect on their learning, etc.

·         I will also be using collaborative tasks as classroom talk where students talk to each other and work together (like during writing workshop when students are in their buzz groups). When this is taking place, I will be monitoring the various groups and providing any support that they may need.

·         Students will also be doing independent tasks where they may be developing their ideas or understanding in their own head.

I will try to get students to use a higher-level of thinking by not just asking my students questions to check for comprehension. Instead of just asking questions for understanding, I want students to engage in a dialogue in order to really develop their thinking and learn.

Some norms for interaction that I would like to build is not straying away from the target area which can be hard with Kindergarteners who want to share a lot of personal stories,  noticing and exploring thinking and reading, writing, and talking about the content areas.

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 that I will probably be working most on is acquisition, use and assessment of foundational skills since it focuses on a lot of what Reading Street is based on. I think this will really help develop my own professional development because I am teaching more than just a literacy lesson plan for TE 402 for 2^nd graders. Instead, I now have to focus on how to teach explicitly and use authentic activities, focus on print concepts as well as phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, word identification, fluency and assessing foundational skills to inform instruction to Kindergarteners-a completely new word to them. Therefore I really have to develop my skills in this area for them.

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

·         Reading Street and its resources

·         2 other Kindergarten teacher

·         1 other Kindergarten intern at my school

·         Interns at other schools who use Reading Street

·         TE 802 resources including the teacher

·         Library

·         Mentor Teacher

·         Mentor Teacher’s books

·         Smart Board

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

·         I still need to go through some of my teachers personal books that she usually uses for this unit and evaluate them to see which ones I want to use.

·         I need to find out what activities I want to include in my literacy centers.

·         I need to begin collaborating with my peers, colleagues, my mentor teacher, and other teachers at Marble.

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

·         I am thinking of doing a child study of several students in the classroom to find out what they already know about some of the things that will be in my unit such as the initial/final /p/.

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 ask my mentor teacher what students will need differentiated instruction (I already have a pretty good idea but that may change as the year progresses).

·         What way(s) they learn best?

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

·         I really need to review the readings that go along with my core practice so I get a better idea of what I should be doing.

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

·         My only concern is meeting both my Reading Street standards and my MSU standards. I think the best way to balance this will be by supplementing some of Reading Street’s materials and incorporating more MSU’s style of activities in my literacy centers.

Post #2- Routman

Routman offers plenty of advice regarding teaching writing to students. Her suggestions seem that they would benefit students immensely. To begin, she believes in teaching students information that is meaningful and worthwhile to the students. I think that it is important to not solely focus on teaching for a test, but to rather the students current and future writing abilities. I believe that this is very important, however it could become an issue because there are rules that schools have to follow so sometimes teachers do need to teach areas that students may not fully benefit from in the long run. 

 I also agree that students should write for real audiences and meaningful text. When students find something repeatable or something interesting they want to be better writers and the quality of their work is also better. I believe that a good way for students to write a lot without realizing it is for literacy is through writing in all subjects for a writers workshop. Incorporating different subjects into writing can be beneficial for both subjects and getting work done at the same time. Another idea that Routman suggests is telling the students why they are learning something or why something is important. I think this is an expertise that is important to develop.This makes them able to make connections to the real world, which will help them throughout their lives. Therefore, it is vital that as a teacher we know why we are teaching what we are and how it benefits the students. They are more likely to remember what they are being taught and use the information in the future if they are told the purpose. 

Routman  suggests ways to "finese" literacy instruction. Having a routine can be very beneficial to the students. It helps the kids to know exactly what they are going to do and how they are going to do it. It improves the quality of their work to have that solid routine. Students need to be writing on a regular basis. It is essential that they keep up with writing all year and do it all of the time to improve. Lastly, it is important to talk to the kids about their writing. This will only help them become stronger writers. They need to know the things they can do to improve the quality of their work and exactly what to change. Throughout the book so far, I believe Routman offers a lot of advice that I think is very useful for teaching writing.

RaeLynne Ferden-Challenges of the Internship Year

Without doubt, our internship year is going to be a challenge for us in several different ways. I think the first major dilemma that I am going to face is developing my professional identity. It is weird to think about the fact that I am no longer a student at MSU; I am no longer taking classes that go toward my bachelor's degree. However, in order to prepare myself for the transition from student to teacher, I have had to change my mind set. Instead of saying, "I am senior at MSU studying Language Arts Elementary Education with minors in Spanish and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages," I now say, "I am teaching Kindergarten at Marble Elementary for my internship at MSU." Also, to prepare myself, I had to change my wardrobe, my lifestyle as well as do some of my own professional development. I highly recommend reading The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher by Harry K. Wong. I read this book along with a few others to prepare for the internship. How have you prepared yourself professionally for your new role?

I think a challenging aspect of this year will be learning the curriculum and assessing students in a meaningful and productive way. Luckily, I believe we all follow the same curriculum for both math (Everyday Math) and reading (Reading Street). Hopefully we can work together and support each other while designing our lesson plans throughout the year. I know I need to look more in-depth at the curriculum and see the types of assessments they use. I think my biggest struggle will be balancing the school's curriculum with MSU's curriculum when creating teaching units and lesson plans. What do you know about the curriculum? What types of assessments have you seen? 

I feel very confident in teaching reading comprehension. I think that our book Strategies that Work has a lot of good information in it. In the past, I've had a lot of success with these types of lessons, especially in TE 402. I believe that I will be successful because I really take the time to model connections with text, make sticky notes as I go along as well as tell short stories related to the text. I liked that in the book, they asked the question, "What is reading?" and that they built on the definition throughout the year. I would like to improve on the types of assessments that I tend to use. I'm only familiar with quick writes and informal assessments so I would like to come up with some different ways of assessing my students. 

At this point, I am not sure how I want to finesse or hybridize my literacy practices since we haven’t done anything with literacy yet (we’ve been focusing on procedures). However, throughout the year, I will learn what works strategies and activities work best with my class and from there, I can finesse and hybridize my literacy practices. I think I will have plenty of opportunities to learn this year from professional development, collaborating with my MT and field instructor, collaborating with other teachers and the principal and from my MSU classes.