Look Closer: Video Assignment

Shared Reading:

• Essential components addressed during first part of the lesson were phonics (spelling patterns and rhymes) site words, and high frequency words. The class was working on short “o” words replacing the first letter to make new words. Students were also working on consonant blends to create new words, Ms. Perez built a word wall with her students to use as a reference when they were working on reading lessons.
• How does this engage different learning levels? Students are engaged with the shared reading poem because it is about something they are all familiar with. Because students all know about hot dogs, it is fun for them to hear the silly ways that the food is used in the poem. This helps them connect to what they are learning.
• How does the teacher support problem solving strategies? The teacher promotes problem solving by encouraging students to come up with their own word or strategy, is understanding about where they are coming from and directs them to find the problem and a solution.
• How can shared reading be used to promote literacy? Shared learning can promote literacy because it gives the students an opportunity to find repetition in words and can be tied into different reading components. Reading in a group setting, like the shared reading, boosts student’s confidence and gives them the chance to practice reading without feeling self-conscience.  

Guided Reading:

• Why does she think it's important for students to verbalize their strategies? The teacher verbalizes strategies to model for students how to talk through the strategies they are using out loud. The more vocal they are regarding reading strategies, the more those strategies are internalized and come more easily to them.
• What else do you notice about how she helps students build meaning in text? When one of the students got stuck on a word she helped him by having him look at what part of the word he did know, and sounded out the rest. She also blocked out a word on the next page and had students “make sense” or use context clues to figure out the missing word. Also encourages students to look back in the text and make inferences about why the characters did certain things.

Differentiated Instruction:

• How does Ms. Perez organize her classroom to support a wide range of learners? Throughout the room there are different centers for students to practice their reading skills. She also breaks the class into groups based on abilities and is very selective about the text she chooses. She makes sure that the books she chooses for the different groups aren’t too difficult, but are challenging enough for the students to stay engaged.
• How are reading and writing connected in classroom activities? Reading and writing are connected in the classroom because one can be the basis for the other. When students read (for example the girls who were at a higher reading level reading and writing a book) they take what they read and express that information through writing.

Assessment:

• How does Ms. Perez use ongoing individual assessment to guide her instruction? Ms. Perez keeps track of her students reading and progress throughout the year by charting. She also continues to do reading exercises to test the children throughout the year.
• How can the class profile be used to help group students and differentiate instruction? The chart that she keeps can help her see where each of the students fall compared to one another. This allows for her to decide what she needs to do for the next lesson and how to make adaptations based on the student’s abilities and needs.
• How can ongoing assessment be integrated into your own classroom practice? Ongoing assessment can be integrated in my future classroom to allow me to track progress, have clear goals in mind, and differentiate instruction. 

'Found Poetry' Lesson Critique

Composing and Performing Found Poetry Lesson Plan Critique:

Overall, for the found poetry lesson the areas of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language were covered. Students were required to read a book, write a poem and perform for the class. In this lesson, the teacher did a good job of working towards a gradual release of responsibility with her students. By first reading the story and showing the students the found poem she had created, she was modeling for her students what to do. If I were to do the lesson, one of the changes I would make would be to work on the poem in front of the class so they can see the process actually happening as opposed to just being shown a finished product. For the second session of the lesson, students as a whole class created a found poem. This acted as the shared reading or writing portion of the gradual release. For this part of the lesson, this is not what I would use to evaluate students for the entire lesson. Instead, I would use this as a step into guiding practice. For the next session, I would have students break up into groups to create a found poem based on their book of choice. This gives the students more responsibility and removes the teacher from the equation somewhat. For a final project, students would reach the independent practice stage and create their own found poem from a favorite book.

I had never heard of the found poem, but after reading this lesson it is something I may be interested in using in a future classroom. The nice thing about this type of lesson is that it can be adapted for a variety of ages groups and does a great job of focusing on the gradual release of responsibility.  

Becoming Readers and Writers: Video Reflection

Video Reflection:

I really enjoyed watching the video of Sheila Owen’s kindergarten classroom. There were so many times during the video that I could relate what she was saying back to positive teaching practices we have learned about in other courses. The focus in the classroom on the gradual release of responsibility for reading and writing was a great example of how to scaffold and make the learning more student centered as opposed to teacher centered. One of the things I liked most that the teacher said was that she builds her classroom based upon the needs of her students. This is such an important, effective way to look at organizing the classroom.  There were a lot of practices in Ms. Owen’s class that I would like to incorporate into my own future classroom. When the students were involved in the read aloud, before starting the book there was a discussion so the students could make connections between what they already knew and what they would be seeing in the book. Having a conversation throughout the story allowed the students to remain engaged and provided an opportunity to the teacher to check for understanding and comprehension. There was also a great amount of opportunity for students to practice their reading and writing even if it wasn’t time for language. From the world wall with letters above and sight words below, to the learning centers modeled before they were put out for use, Ms. Owen’s had a great grip on teaching language to her students. The video was extremely informative and gave me a lot of great ideas for the future! 

Understanding ELA instruction.

English Language Arts instruction: 

The main goal of instructing students in ELA is to combine reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language to help students not only comprehend text, but also explain what they have read in a manner that makes sense. Although all aspects of ELA work together, they are broken up into four smaller groups:

• 1  Reading- This portion of ELA focuses on student comprehension and application of that information to the real world. Students need to be able to make sense of what they have read and apply it to their daily lives. As students get older, the complexity of texts increases and students are expected to be able to make connections between the different texts they have read.
• 2.    Writing- The writing stage of ELA focuses on student ability plan, revise, edit and publish a piece of writing. The goal of this step is for students to make a reading to writing connection. Using the evidence, they have gathered from literary and informational texts, and conducting other research, should help students fine tune their writing skills to express the information they have found.
• 3.    Speaking and Listening- In this part of ELA instruction, students collaborate and communicate information they gather from multi-media sources. Students must take this information, evaluate what they hear, and present their findings to their teacher and peers. Students and educators work together using different tools to present and communicate what they have learned from their reading.
• 4.    Language- The language portion of ELA focus on the standard conventions of English and works to enhance student’s vocabulary.