GLT Plans

My placement has been great and my CT has been open for questions about anything I need. I have been able to do a couple of the DRA tests. Doing this really helped me get a feel of what the students in my class should be able to do to be considered grade level. I feel like I have a better sense of what the DRA number each student has actually means ability wise. This should really be an asset when I am planning my lessons.
I have been so caught up in getting information and getting my math unit finished that I have not really had a chance to start my lessons. I do have an idea in my head of what I am going to do it is just finding the time this week to get it all down. Having the two classes deadlines so close really makes it hard for me to keep track of both units. I really focused on the math knowing that it was due first. I do look forward to having time to workshop in class.
I am nervous to see how the students are going to react to me as opposed to my CT. I also almost feel weird teaching, since my students have been reading independently for 45minutes and freewriting on most days for another 45 minutes. I have not seen an actual lesson for literacy taught. The topic that my CT gave me was pretty wide open and I do like the freedom that he lets me have.
I taught 3 math lessons that my CT had prepared and he gave me some really good feedback and each time I became more confident. I feel like with most things the more you do something the better it becomes. The more students get used to the idea of me teaching the better I think things will go as well.

My Experience in the Classroom and the Planning Process

My guided lead teaching planning is going well so far. It is interesting because our teachers have to follow “Genre Units” given to them. These documents have very strict guidelines of what to teach (different genres of literature) and how to teach it.  I think the entire process of planning though has been made much easier and more powerful by team planning. Since my CT and Shayna’s CT team teach and plan together we were lucky enough to be able to follow the same format. 

Planning has been interesting because we have quite a different philosophy of teaching than the genre unit that our school follows seems to have. Shayna and I both feel that teaching needs to be done using the arts, group work, and overall innovative and engaging means that get students up, moving, and in turn thinking and internalizing the concepts that we are teaching. The genre unit does give some useful suggestions for ways to teach in this way but the majority of it is taught in a way much differently than we would otherwise choose. Therefore, Shayna and I have been working to take the concepts that the genre unit wants us to teach, and the way they suggest for teaching it and try to “spice it up” and add our own input and ideas to each lesson. Although the genre unit has been a great starting place it is difficult to make sure we don’t stray too far from the genre unit.

As many of the other interns have discussed and some of you in your blog postings that I briefly skimmed for this week, you are feeling so excited but nervous to begin GLT and I feel the same! Lots of mixed emotions because I know I am ready to begin GLT and the learning experience that it will provide me but I really cannot believe that I will be in charge of teaching literacy and math for the rest of the year! And in turn, obviously I am responsible for the students learning the content for these two subjects. I know that once I begin teaching it will take time before I am comfortable in front of the class but I am eager for this to happen. Also, I am struggling with thinking about how to develop my own personal teaching style without stepping on my CT’s toes....For example, I would like to have my own attention grabber. Is anyone else struggling with this? At times I feel restricted and overly influenced by the manner in which my CT teaches, not that she isn’t wonderful but I want to be able to develop a style of my own. I think although the time in the classroom at times has felt weird simply because we take an odd backseat role...I am thankful for it because I have had time to observe and get to know the students. By observing I see what gets students engaged, how they learn, what they don’t seem interested by, who requires special attention. etc. I know that I am very qualified, as all the interns are, but the comfort will have to come with being in front of the class and being enthusiastic about what I am teaching and learning about what I works for the students and for me as their teacher (intern).

GLT lesson

I'm am currently working on my guided lead teaching lesson and have come to a little bit of a halt. I'm teaching how to make meaning out of text. One of the concepts I plan on teaching is how to keep track of questions while you read. I am not sure if I should try to do a hands on activity with my students, or just make a chart and come up with ideas. I am at a loss. I wanted to see if any of you had any ideas of lessons I could possibly use. I am also having trouble coming up with a GOOD idea for talking to my students about how readers make meaning out of text. I know that I can just use a chart or have students list ideas, but I feel like it would be more valuable for students if I could come up with a mini lesson.

How is everyone doing with their lessons? Are you guys planning on teaching the first 2 weeks or the 2nd 2 weeks? What concerns do you have?

I am really nervous that my mentor will have to drop whatever we are working on, in order for me to be able to teach my two-week lesson. It would be kind of nice if we didn't have restrictions on when we could teach our lesson. Are you guys running into this problem? How do you plan to handle it? I find I'm having this problem with both my math and literacy lesson plan. I am hoping my stress level with go down soon. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I don't think i've been this stressed out in a long time. It's so hard when all of our work is due in the same two weeks. See everyone on Tuesday. I look forward to using a workshop method and talking about our lessons.

My unit planning! I would love suggestions!

My unit plan for literacy is a genre unit on historical fiction. Our district requires that we teach genre units as our English language arts material. Through this genre unit we teach both reading and writing. The issue with it is that it is already set up and doesn’t give us much freedom to try new things and teach how we would like to. Lauren and I team teach so we’re planning together and we’re trying out best to spice up the unit. We’ve found that one way we can make it more exciting for the students is to add group work. Right now the unit is set up where the teacher does read alouds to the students and then the students write about the readings based on a specific topic that relates to the reading. It is great for the students to make text to self connections or text to world connections, but it doesn’t allow them to improve their speaking which our students really need to work on. We also think that if their speaking skills improve, they writing would improve since students tend to write how they speak. My CT has done readers’ theatre with my students once and it went very well, but Lauren’s class has not yet done so. Lauren and I are going to try and incorporate readers’ theatre at least once a week because it will allow us to still follow the genre unit plan, but also add the speaking element and group work as well. We’re still in the planning process but we would like to try readers’ theatre a couple different ways. I think it could work well if we had the students break into groups and each practice a section of the reading that we script out for them. Then a few groups could share with the class. We also could do it where a few students in the class get a role and they share with the rest of the class following along. I think I like the idea of the groups better so that everyone gets a chance to have a part and also students who are more shy wouldn’t feel scared of acting in front of the whole class; however, it would take more time to do this. What do you guys think? Any suggestions? Or any other ideas to incorporate speaking while still following the genre unit? We also are hoping to try a fishbowl. We think this could really help our students to interact with each other and push them to have a class discussion. We are a little unsure of how we should scaffold this though because neither of our classes have experience with discussions even in small groups. We’re hoping to start with small group discussions about the books that we’re reading out or even having the students read the book in their groups and then discuss it. We were thinking at first we could give them a few target questions to discuss based on the reading since they’re not used to starting a discussion on their own. What do you think about this? Would it be better to allow them to start the discussion on their own? We don’t want to limit their discussion but we also don’t’ want them to sit there confused staring at their group members or getting off topic because they don’t know what to say. Once they’ve worked with discussion in smaller groups we thought we could then move toward the fishbowl leading to a whole class discussion. We thought we could open the wall that connects our two classrooms and have Lauren and I and our two CTS as the first group in the middle of the fishbowl having a short discussion about what we read aloud to them that day. Once we have our discussion in the fishbowl then the outside of the bowl would be open for free discussion of what they heard and saw and anything else they want to add about the group. Do you think this would be affective? Or should we start right away with a small group from our classes in the middle of the fishbowl? We were thinking once we do this then the following day we would allow the students time to discuss in their small groups and then take turns with a few groups in the fishbowl and others watching and listening and then commenting through whole group discussion after. This would also focus on their listening skills. More than one group would hopefully have a chance to be in the fishbowl each day and then the next time we fish bowl it would be different groups. We are hoping that by allowing them to have a short discussion with their groups before the fishbowl would give them a chance to practice what they want to say and have ideas in their head before they are in front of the whole class. After the practice fishbowl with Lauren and I are our CTs we would do the rest of the fishbowls with just our own classes otherwise it would be too many people on the outside for the whole group discussion. Does anyone have any good ideas of how else we could scaffold the fishbowl and discussion in general keeping in mind that our students don’t have any experience with it? We also want to incorporate peer editing in our unit. There are parts of the genre unit that have this so we could easily follow our genre plan and incorporate this, but our CTs have not yet done this and we’re unsure of how it would work. We were talking yesterday trying to decide if we should partner the students up beforehand. Should we partner low level writers with other low level writers and the same for middle and high? We were thinking this would work because then they would be at the same level as each other or close to it and be able to help each other with where they’re at. We figured if we had a high with a low then the low level student would greatly benefit from the peer editing session, but we’d feel bad for the high level student who would probably get nothing out of it and we also don’t’ want to make the low level student feel bad if they aren’t able to edit anything on the high level writer’s paper. Do you think it makes sense to partner them based on level like this? Or do you have any other suggestions? We think that peer editing is an important part of editing and also speaking skills, but aren’t quite sure how to start it. Now that I think about it though, peer editing could be a good way to scaffold the small group discussion as well because the students would be talking with their partners and discussing their writing. Discussions as partners could then lead to the small group discussion. This has just led me to another idea. Could we do peer editing in small groups? Then we could have mixed levels in the group, all helping each other so that all levels of students would benefit. Also, the more ideas the better so the more people the better! In general our unit planning is going well and it is helpful that the genre unit is so planned out for us since it’s our first big unit that we’re teaching, but at the same time it’s difficult because we feel restrained and are trying to get around that. Does anyone have any other ideas for our historical fiction genre unit? I look forward to reading about your lesson planning and how your units are going and getting ideas from all of you as well!

Sharon Ruth Gill

This article was about how children’s poetry is being lost. There are not very many children’s poetry books. Most of the ones that are being sold are not ideal for children. The books include many classic poems and some that are more for adults. This article gives a list of some poetry books that are good for children. Apparently many of the books of poems are now out of print. Many of these can still be found and purchased on the internet. The author feels strongly about having a good classroom library of poetry for students that is not only Shel Silverstein.
This article talks about how the author thinks that poetry is being taught in the wrong way for the most part. Students are learning a few types of poems and writing them. The author wants poetry to mean more to children. That poems are not just to fit some sort of pattern, but to mean something. Poems should be show emotion and paint a picture in the readers mind. Children should be writing and reading poetry and not just following the curriculum that is not up to the authors standards.

I would use this approach at my grade level, but I would not limit my students to only using poetry. I would like my students to experience many different genres and poetry should not be left out. I feel that poetry was not precieved well when I was in school and I would like to see if that could be changed in my classroom. I would have poetry become part of the reading and writer’s workshop. Give students the choice to read and write poetry and not force them to write a poetry book like I had to do. The only problem is like the article says, Our class and school library has a limited selection of children’s poetry.

To use this approach I would need to know more about children’s poetry. What exactly makes a piece of poetry good for children? Being limited in my own knowledge of poetry would not bode well if I was to jump into a poetry lesson. I would also probably need to know if whatever my students write is ok, or if there is a way to grade poetry.

This module has lead me to think about how writing is a process and ideas can build on one another. Every student might struggle at different points in the process. Assessment needs to be made during all the steps of writing to see where a student is struggling. There are many informal assessments during workshop. I feel that most finished products turn out well, but there are points in the process that may be more difficult than others for different students.

Beth Kovalcik and Janine L. Certo

The Poetry Café is Open: Teaching Literary Devices of Sound in Poetry Writing

Authors: Beth Kovalcik, Janine L. Certo

This article was about mini poetry lessons done in a series of writers’ workshops where students were given poetry journals to keep the poems they wrote during the lessons. Teachers team taught the mini-lessons, wrote for 5 minutes with the students, then split up and conferenced with the students for the next 15 minutes. They always ended with a 10-minute sharing session for the students to read their poems and share writing strategies.

Mini-lesson 1 coached the use of rhyme in poetry by using the poem “Red, Where did you get that red?” and asking students to also create a color poem. They did this because the words, green, blue, red, and yellow all have a lot of words that rhyme with them so they set it up for students to be successful.

Mini-lesson 2 introduced repetition and alliteration. The teachers began by reading poems to the students that had repetition and alliteration and asked them to identify what they heard and then explained that alliteration means two or more words of syllables near each other with the same beginning consonants.

Mini-lesson 3 introduced onomatopoeia. They had students perform actions such as stomping their feet, slamming their books, etc. and then asked other students to identify the sounds they heard- stomp, slam, etc. Then they explained that ontomatopoeia describes a word that sounds like the action. Students were given the challenge to go back to their poetry journals and find a place where it would be appropriate to use ontomatopoeia or they could draft a new poem.

Mini-lesson 4 was collaborative poetry. A web was drawn on the board with the words “Our class is like…” written in the middle. Students were asked to contribute their ideas to this web and the teachers recorded them. Then students were then given the suggestion to group together the like ideas and make each idea a different stanza of their poem. As a class they wrote a poem using the ideas on the board and the poem was used as an informal assessment of what the students had learned throughout the mini-lessons.

To assist students who need extra help this aritcle talked about an example that they did with one student where one of the teachers would ask him questions about his topic and write a line for each of his answers and these lines would form his poem. He was then given time to read through the poem with the teacher and change anything that he wanted and then copy it to a final draft to give him a sense of ownership.

After all of the mini-lessons the students invited family and friends to come to their poetry café that was set up just like a real café.

Since this was done with a 2^nd grade classroom and I have 5^th grade I would have to adapt this approach for my students, but I think it would be possible. My students recently wrote personification poems and they really enjoyed sharing them so I think they would enjoy the café sharing idea. I think in 5^th grade I would extend it to more than just poetry readings. I would love to have a café where the students can share any of their writing pieces from the year. I think it would be a great end of the year activity for my students rather than after four mini lessons. However, I think the café idea is wonderful because it gives students a chance to practice reading in front of other people and gain confidence in their writing. It also is great for the parents to see their students growing as learnings. I think the café can be done for any grade level, the material that they share would just be different. I would like to try to follow the format that the 2^nd grade teachers used of teaching a writing topic, modeling it with the students, allowing them to write a sample using the writing element they were just taught while conferencing, and then allowing the students to share their writing with the class. I think this could certainly fit in during my writing time of the day. It wouldn’t have to be something I do daily, but everytime I introduce a new writing element/concentration I could set the lesson up like these teachers did. I think by having the students share their work at the end of the first day they worked on a new element will help them to learn from each other and also give them confidence in what they learned that day. The article also said that sometimes when the students share their poetry, students in the class would be asked to give the reader two positive comments and one suggestion for improvement. Once again this is a great confidence builder and a wonderful way to learn from their peers as well. I also like the conferencing because I think it really helps the teacher to see where the studnets are at in their work, informally assessing right when they begin the new writing element. It also makes the students realize that the teacher cares about their writing and wants to help them succeed. I would definitely love to try this approach and see how it goes in my classroom. I think the students would like to try something new and exciting!

As a professional, in order to implement this approach with my students, I would certainly have to work on time management. Since my students are older and it wouldn’t always be poetry the time that I allow for students to write and share would differ from the second grade class, but I also would need to be sure that I allow the appropriate amount of time for my students to complete a writing so that they feel comfortable sharing it. I may have to allow two days of writing sometimes before we do the sharing. I also think that as a professional I need to learn how to effectively conference with students about their writing so that I am helping them to further their learning process and improve their writing. At the same time I want to also build their confidence and not scare them away from writing. Also, each student is different so I would need to learn how to change my conference style based on the student. I think learning how to effectively conference will be very important for me this year. My CT has told me that she would like to start conferencing with our students on some of their writings soon so I’m exciting to observe her and begin to take part in it myself as well!

Watching the 5^th grade video on writer’s workshop made me realize that informal assessment really can happen all the time during writing. I’ve always thought of writing as being assessed based on the final product. I now realize that assessing writing goes way beyond assessing the final product. If we don’t’ assess the students throughout their writing process we wont’ know where they are confused and where they need the help. I loved that the teacher (Mr. White) in the video carried around a binder where he could jot down quick notes while talking to his students. He could then go back to these later and see where all of his students need to improve and also the strengths that they have. From both the readings and watching the video I realized how important it is to not only understand the students’ weaknesses, but also their strengths. By knowing their strengths, as a teacher I can have a better understanding of where they can grow in their writing process and how to challenge them. As teachers we never want to overlook the good in our students! Since I am doing a genre unit for my guided lead teach I think there will be many ways for me to incorporate writers workshop (it has not been done in my class yet). I also plan to make some sort of binder or list of the students so that I can make notes of what I observe as I walk around and as I talk with the students just like Mr. White did in the video. I think taking quick notes while talking with the students is helpful because then you are able to write down exactly what is happening verses trying to remember late. The main thing I would like to focus on for my unit is looking at all steps of the students writing process and finding goals for individual students through student-teacher conferences. I think really digging into the students writing both with them and on my own is the best way to assess their writing skills and I look forward to trying it!

The Forgotten Genre of Poetry

•  The Forgotten Genre of Poetry- Gill

• Write a short summary of your piece, featuring the 'big idea' or 'take-home message' you gained from reading it (about 100-200 words)

            The main point of the article was saying that children in schools are taught that poetry is written by, “great poets” and that the meaning can really only be understood by those who are trained to pick poetry apart and divulge meaning from its intricate words. Therefore, poetry is indeed seen as something negative. Students are not always excited to delve into poetry thinking it is, “hard” and saying comments such as, “I don’t understand what it means,” when in actuality poetry can mean different things to different readers. Various poets understood this and wrote poems for this reason. The author had lots of interesting thoughts on the topic of poetry and teaching poetry that I found very insightful, “I am more concerned that students understand what poetry is, enjoy reading it, feel the desire and ability to participate in writing it, and appreciate what makes one poem better than another” (p 267) Gill focused a lot of her commentary on stressing the importance of helping children understand what poetry is and that it is written by poets, who are everyday people like you and I, to share their experiences.

• Discuss whether and how you would .use this approach at your grade level, where it could fit within the language arts curriculum in your classroom, and what it offers for enriching writing instruction beyond what you thought about as you completed Task 1 of this module.

     I think poetry is such an amazing way to help children express how they feel, however, I do feel that it is something that many children are afraid to attempt. I would love to try to insert different types of poetry links into my unit. I feel that this could be done within my Genre Unit lesson very easily. The students will be reading historical fiction and therefore they could:

a.) take on the viewpoint of one character and write a poem about how a character might feel at one point in the story perhaps doing this as an “I Am Poem,” 

b.) how a certain setting might look using sensory images this could even be extended by having the students then trade poems with another student and see how detailed of a painting/drawing they could make of the setting based on the poem, etc.

All of these different ideas will allow students to explore the ways that they respond to literature and express their thoughts in a different manner,  “helps children develop new ways of sensing the world” ( 452).

• Also identify what you think you need to learn to do as a professional in order to use this approach well with your students.

       I think as a teacher and a profession I will nee to explore poetry and become a poet myself in order to implement this technique effectively in my classroom. The reason for this is that I think some people, as the article discussed, feel that poetry has to be written a certain way, be hard to understand, have only one meaning, and only be written by certain individuals that are gifted. When in actuality, everyone is a poet. We cannot let our fear of doing what is “right” stop us from using poetry as a means to express ourselves. The influences and pressures of the outside world definitely  stop us from doing so and therefore, by taking time to write poetry on my own as an individual I will better understand the thought process of a new poet; the position I am putting my students in. I think by doing this and seeing the thought process I can better plan my poetry lessons and  relate to the way my students will be feeling and thinking.

Another idea I have of how to implement poetry is as hip-hop. I have a wonderful book of poetry that are poems by famous poets such as Maya Angelou, and famous hip hop artists such as Queen Latifah, and they are all considered poetry. I think by showing students that rap is nothing more than oral poetry I will be able to dispel many negative connotations and feelings that students may initially associate with the topic. This makes poetry more approachable and as the article states, more about expression than anything else.

• Lastly, how have any of the ideas in this module (writer's workshop, assessment, analysis of student work, jigsaw articles) helped you to think about the types of assessment necessary for informing your unit development?  Even if your unit is not focused squarely on writing, what might you need to consider about your students as WRITERS, as you plan for instruction?    I feel that collecting writing samples and looking closely at these samples has allowed me to think about how to assess my students in my upcoming unit. I think it is easy for teachers to judge students writing immediately based on their writing skills, or the student writing the piece and what we know about them. I found myself unknowingly doing this as I looked at their writing samples and was very upset at myself for doing so. Also, I think although we are assessing their writing I found that my students, like all students, express themselves very differently therefore, by giving them various ways to express themselves artistically: through poetry, drawing, dance, etc. I will be better preparing them for expression when it comes to writing by allowing them the chance to explore doing so in other ways.

Gill 2007

This jigsaw what about the importance of poetry. It described how students and teachers sometimes view poetry, and different ways to build up the importance of poetry. It talked about some many people have the wrong idea about what poetry is. Something really unique that this article had was a list of good children's poetry. I thought this was a good idea for students, teachers, and even as a resource for parents. The article also had great ideas on how to build up your poetry collection for your classroom or personal collection. The big idea that I took out of this article was the importance of poetry in children's lives. It is important to introduce the genre of poetry to students.

I agree with this article. I think that some of my students have heard the term poetry, but don't really know what it is. I think it would be important to do a unit on different types of poetry. I can introduce poetry to my students and have them try and write their own poetry pieces. This could be a nice unit. I could also introduce books that have poetry in them, for students to read.

As a professional, I think it is important that I read up on my poetry and get more familiar with different types of poetry. I think I would need time to plan this unit until I felt more comfortable with it. Poetry can be a hard and confusion topic to teach and understand. I think this would have to be spread out over a few weeks in order for me to assess students on their thinking and ability to understand poetry. I think that many of my 5th graders would like the concept of poetry. I think that many of them would enjoy writing their own poetry piece or even reading a book on poetry.

I really like the idea of writers workshop. I think that while students are working on personal narratives, a writers workshop style would be very beneficial to them. Students would be able to hear examples of personal narratives, and then have a chance to work on their own. Another day, they could work in small groups to read and discuss their writing. Lastly, even though we share in our classroom already, I know how much my students benefit from sharing their stories. They benefit from hearing their own story out loud as well as hearing what other people have to say and write about.

Book Club Plus Chap. 6-8 and 10

Consider the ideas discussed in Book Club Plus! about talk in the classroom and managing book club. How do these ideas compare with what you are seeing in your own classroom regarding classroom talk and managing your literacy program? If you were going to try out some aspects of book club, what types of support would you need to provide?

Book Club Plus talked about discussion/talk as a way of evaluating/assessing our students. I found this interesting because often times teachers get stuck on the mentality of giving tests that involve students responding to questions by writing the answers. However, listening to discussions of our students can be just as informative of what they’ve learned and where they are at, if not more informative. Discussions allow for them to openly discuss something rather than being limited by a specific question the teacher asks them to respond to in writing. This is not something I have seen done in my classroom, but is something I would like to bring into assessments for my literacy unit. I think other types of assessments may need to go along with discussions, but discussions can certainly be a great way to learn about the students and where they are at in terms of literacy.

Since discussion has not been something that has occurred yet in my classroom, the management of it when I begin will be very important. I think setting norms for discussions of what is expected is very important. Book Club Plus says “Teachers have found it helpful to engage students in the process of developing rubrics to guide their reading, writing, and talk” (96). I think this is a wonderful idea. If the students are engaged in developing the rubrics they will truly understand what is being asked of them. A few things that I would be sure are stated in my classroom norms for discussions are “ask questions, share your ideas, stay on topic, listen, and don’t be afraid to disagree with something as long as you don’t do so in a negative way.” Setting up these norms would be a very important support as I begin discussion with my students since they don’t have any previous experience with discussions, at least this year.

I also think the fishbowl would be a great idea to lead my students into the idea of working with small groups and discussing books within their groups. Since my students are in 5^th grade it would be difficult to have an older students model a book club in the fishbowl, but I think the idea of having me and/or my CT in the fishbowl with 2 or 3 other students as a book club model would work group. My CT and I could choose a couple of the higher achieving literacy students to have a discussion in the fish bowl with us based on the book we are currently reading aloud. This would allow the students outside the fishbowl to see a model of a good discussion because my CT and I could lead the discussion with the other students in group and also the students watching would be familiar with the book we’re discussing. I think it would then be good to have a whole class discussion about the pros and cons of the discussion that they just viewed. This would be a great way to support my students and lead them into understanding how to successfully talk about a book with their groups and also the class as a whole. Then we could eventually fishbowl with different groups taking turns inside of the fishbowl.

An aspect of book club that I would like to try out is the integration of literacy with other content areas, such as social studies. My CT is currently reading The Sign of the Beaver to my students, which is a historical fiction book. She has been teaching the students about historical facts while reading the book and relating it to what they’re learning in social studies. I would like to be able to relate books to not just Social Studies, but also science and math. In order to integrate the subjects I would need to be sure that the students understand the relation and it’s not a far stretched idea because that could cause more confusion.

Read alouds are the main thing from book club that I HAVE seen in my class. My students seem to really enjoy listening to my CT read. I often hear them asking her to read more when she’s finished for the day. The read alouds lend so well to think alouds which I think are a great way of modeling the thought process that students should be having when they read their own books. It also gives many ideas as to what students could be discussing about books in their book clubs. I would like to continue with read alouds when I start teaching literacy. Book Club Plus says “The benefits of a read-aloud unit range from developing students’ language literacy, and literature appreciation to broadening their cultural perspectives and building a classroom community” (201). I think that this perfectly states why read-alouds are important and useful in classrooms and why I want to incorporate them in my classroom.

Guided reading groups are also something that I would like to try in my classroom. I have not seen them in my classroom yet but I know that my CT plans to set them up once the MEAP is over. I think this would be helpful because I have a lot of low-level students in my classroom and they could greatly benefit from smaller groups and also meeting with me and my CT in their groups. This would also allow us to have the students reading at their level so that they are learning something from their reading rather than reading something that is too difficult for them.

Overall I have not seen much discussion or management of book club in my class. The only talk that occurs in my classroom in terms of literacy is when my students respond to comprehension questions that my CT asks. However, there are no group discussions yet. The only management that I see of book club is the read-alouds. Since I haven’t seen many of the Book Club Plus ideas in action I am a little nervous to try implementing parts of it, but I am ready to try. I think the parts of book club plus that I have discussed above will be beneficial to my students and a great challenge to me. I look forward to implementing these new ideas. I would like to implement one at a time so that my students do not have a lot of different things thrown at them at once and also so that I can manage one at a time to see what works and doesn’t work before I move on to something else. I think that continuing with read-alouds will be a perfect segway into other book club plus ideas because I can then use my read-aloud to start the fishbowl which will then start discussion and lead into reading groups where the students can discuss books that they’re groups are reading.

Book Club Plus! Strategies and Techniques in my Classroom

        Chapters six of “Book Club Plus!” focused on assessment and I found this chapter very interesting especially in comparing and contrasting with the assessments used in my classroom. In this chapter various different assessments are discussed, “These tools may include work samples collected in portfolio’s, reading logs and journals, standardized tests, running records and teacher observations, student self-evaluation sheets, evaluations of student-led book clubs, language and fluency skills checklists, and project evaluation sheets”(81). In my classroom my CT uses teacher observations, standardized tests, but sadly other than that I haven’t seen many different assessments used in my classroom. I feel that journals would be very useful and I think it is a way of assessing students that is non-threatening way and helps them to develop their writing skills.  I think that we could take this journal writing a step further by having them, if they feel comfortable, read these journals in groups or to partners. In”Book Club Plus!” the goal is to tie reading and writing together because, “reading supports students’ development as writers supports students’ development as readers” (84). I think that by doing so students reading and writing skills would greatly improve and this would be done in an informal way. 

     The book discusses the “I can” strategy and I felt this would be one that would be very successful if it were implemented within my classroom.  I feel that this is a great way for students to set achievable goals. Then once these goals are attained the students can feel a sense of ownership with the skills that they are able to demonstrate in the classroom context. The book discusses how this is a, “quick way to reference the goals they were all working toward” (85). 

        Another large part of the book club plus technique involves group work. I found this section extremely interesting because I always struggle when trying to decide how to group my students. According to student levels? According to gender? It is difficult to foresee how the groups will interact with each other. The book discusses various ways to group students and also assess them at the same time which I think would be an extremely useful tool, as the book suggests possibly “heterogeneous groups with respect to ability” (88). I think grouping within the Book Club Plus! techniques is a skill that comes with practice and time.

My CT had my students do a writing called the “special place” place.  This was an example of my CT engaging our students in wonderful in-class writing. My teacher did a great job of facilitating this writing and really genuinely getting them excited to write a piece of their own.  She had them close their eyes and visualize a somewhere they loved to be. She then walked them through a place that she loved to go by having them close their eyes and using only her descriptive language to help them create a mental picture of this place. This was a great way for the students to see the power of language and to learn about imagery and sensory images. She encouraged them to use descriptive words in their writing by walking them through the drafting and writing process of her own paper and special place. She modeled this so well and I feel that this was so crucial to how the papers turned out. In our Book Club Plus book it discusses the steps to facilitate writing and I feel that although this may have been a step that was more fitting to the younger grades, this was nevertheless, a very effective tool with my students. I feel that my CT is a great example for me to learn from.

       Overall, I feel that my teacher has various assessments, writings, and readings that are similar to the ones discussed in the Book Club Plus!, “Teachers who understand and focus on content standards, and who make links between instruction and classroom  assessment, are more likely to be effective” (102). 

Book Club Plus Chap. 6-8

Consider the ideas discussed in Book Club Plus! about talk in the classroom and managing book club. How do these ideas compare with what you are seeing in your own classroom regarding classroom talk and managing your literacy program? If you were going to try out some aspects of book club, what types of support would you need to provide?

One thing that my mentor teacher really tries to do in my classroom is make books that our students will be interested in available for them. He continues to add to his classroom library even though he already has more books than the shelves can hold. The read aloud books that he chooses to read so far have involved main characters around the age of the students in class. This really seems to keep most of the class interested. There have been several students change books during independent reading because they were not interested after reading some of it. We do allow them to change and I think it is important for students to have the ability to choose what they want to read.

I know that we have book club books and I am still waiting for them to be used for book club and not just any other book in the class library. There are book club books at many different reading levels so that there can be groups for book club at different reading levels.

To try out book club in my classroom I would need to start out with a simple task and establish a routine. We have worked most of this first month of school setting up our classroom routines. Now that we have these established most of the students are able to transition with a simple instruction. I would want to make sure I had a basic routine down for my classroom of how book club was going to look in our classroom and how I expected them to behave and interact. Having the aide and my mentor teacher in my classroom I could have help keeping the groups on task. This would make managing a book club easier in the beginning stages. I would also need to know the reading levels of my students to be able to make book club groups of similar reading level.

Book Club Plus Chap. 1-5

How does the book club model compare and contrast with what you are learning about literacy instruction in your classroom context? Where do you see reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and other literacies in your classroom literacy program? What opportunities do students have to write into a unit/text, through a unit/text, or out of a unit/text?

The book club model is actually very similar to what I see and know about what happens in my classroom. Every day the students do at least 45 minutes of independent reading. They have reading notebooks that they keep track of their reading and also write retells, summaries, and anything else they feel they need to work on to become a better reader. This is part of the reading workshop that is used in the room. They also have writing workshop that they spend 45 minutes a day writing. We have yet to do much of the workshop part of writing but my mentor teacher says next marking period we will.

I know that there are certain books in the classroom library that are marked as book club books. They are books that my teacher has three or more of. These books will be used later in the year for the students to have book club, but for now they may be chosen for independent reading.

We also do a read aloud after lunch everyday where the students have the chance to focus on certain aspects of reading each day. Some examples are summaries, list of characters or vocabulary words, setting, problem and solution.

We also have a classroom meeting everyday where students have the ability to voice concerns. There are certain things where everyone in the group must have something to tell the group. On Mondays this is usually what they did over the weekend. Students are also listening to the teacher and other students during this time.

The students have the opportunity to write into, through, and out of a text on a daily basis. They are able to do all of these for each text that they read, but it is up to them during their reading workshop time to figure out what they need to work on as a reader to become better. They also have the chance to do all of these after read aloud.