My Seed Idea

In my field experience today, the other girls in my class and I helped our teacher make these little books for the students to use in class.  They were going to use them as thier own "clue" book as they watched scooby doo before Thanksgiving break.  This made me think of my own seed idea and using a little paper book to do mine.  They are real easy to make and really make your work look published and nice.  For my seed idea I wanted to do somthing on the topic on IUDM.  I had previously written a small piece about IUDM in my writers notebook and wanted to build on it.  Since IUDM was this past weekend it is fresh in my mind and has really inspired me.  I think for my seed idea I am going to create a book that has 36 reasons to keep dancing, because the marathon is 36 hours of standing and not sleeping.  I was going to make each page a different inspirational reason to keep dancing.  In the booklet I also want to include pictures of the marathon and the kids at Riley Childrens Hospital.  I think that it would be something that I would really cherish and be able to hold on to forever.  It would also be something I could share with my friends that are going to be dancing for IUDM in the future.

Writing Sample Analysis

From University Elementary, I got a sample of a child’s writing to analyze in class today. It was very interesting to break down and really take a closer look at.  There is a lot you can learn from looking at a student’s writing.  We broke it down and looked at the semantics, the syntax, and the graphophonics of the child’s writing.  You can see if they are trying new things and what their strengths and challenges are.  It is important that we understand why a child is doing what they are doing.  It is true that we are professionals and need to be experts at looking at children’s work.  Anybody can see that word is misspelled but as teachers, we need to know what was going on in the child’s head when they misspelled the word.  This will help them build on their writing and give them the chance to become a stronger writer.  As we have our own students and classrooms, this will prove to be a very important aspect of improving the children’s writing.

My interview with Jack

Today I took my kidwatching student, Jack out into the hallway to do my one on one interview with him.  I was surprised about how much he had to say! About every two questions I asked, Jack would ask me if this was a quiz or if he was being tested for something.  I just kept reassuring him that this was just simply for my own interest and to help me become a better teacher.  I think he finally caught on and became very comfortable and honest with answering the questions.  We started with the reading questions and I quickly picked up that he was an avid reader and was reading just about every night before he went to bed.  He said he really couldn’t even pick a favorite book because he just has read so many books.  Then we got to the writing questions of the interview.  Although Jack was so enthusiastic about reading, writing was a different story.  He made me very aware that he did not like writing at all and would always chose to draw pictures over writing a story.  He says whenever they have to write in class, he does it very quickly so he can hurry and draw pictures instead.  Jack said it is easier to portray his thoughts through pictures rather than words.  He had so much to say about reading and writing we really didn’t get to the other questions, which I will have to continue next time!

Kidwatching

This week I started on our kidwatching project.  My teacher decided to assign me to a little boy named Jack, who is quite the little over achiever.  I was really excited to work with him and observe him because he always participated and seemed to be really engaged in whatever the class was working on.   The class worked on making a drawing of a scene in the book they were reading that really stuck out in their minds and meant something to them.  I focused on Jack as he took this assignment very seriously.  I knew that Jack was extremely into drawing and loved showing his opinions and thoughts through drawing.  His face lit up as the teacher described the assignment.  I watched jack as he worked quietly and individually to draw a picture of the barn and the stream that was the setting of the story.  On the back they were supposed to write why they chose the picture that they drew.  Jack did this very quickly then went straight back to his sketch that he was working on.  Overall, I picked up Jacks love for drawing and caught on to the fact that he would pick drawing over writing out something any day.

Multi Genre Research Paper

Unfortunately, I was sick last week and had to miss field experience and E339.  I was really bummed I had to miss a week with my kidos but am excited to go back tomorrow! Throughout the past couple of weeks we have been working on our multi-genre research papers.  We could do them on any topic, but I chose to focus on addictions.  I really have no specific reason I chose that topic, it is just something I didn't know a whole lot about and really interests me.  I wanted to pick a topic that I would be able to find a lot of information on and it would be fun to do.  I really think that this project has actually turned out to be a lot of fun.  However, I still have quite a bit to do before I am done!

Writing Workshop Time!

For the second half of our time at University School this week, we spent working one on one with a student on their writing workshop.  We each were paired with a 4th grader. I got paired with a little boy named Ben who was absolutely awesome.  He is in a wheelchair and he doesn't have arms but does have hands.  That sounds weird, but he does a great job with it.  He is very smart and funtions amazingly!  He was so excited to work with me and to share his work.  First, we did a quick write about brushing our teeth.  It was great hearing what Ben was writing and he really thought of some things that I would never have thought about.  Then as a class the teacher discussed ideas about remembering the first time we ever did something and the last time we ever did something.  Each child made a t-chart and created a list of both of these topics.  Then from the list they were to pick one of these ideas and write a short story about it.  Ben chose to write about the first time he drove his wheelchair, which he calls his "car."  It was so interesting to hear about this experience and hear how excited he was about it.  Working one on one with Ben really gave me the chance to see what his thought process was when writing a story, and it was great because I could give him ideas and suggestions.  I would love to follow up with Ben next time to see how his story is going.  I would also  love to have had time to work with even more students, so hopefully I'll be able to do that in the future!

Reading Assessments

Last week in my 4th grade class we started off by doing some grading on papers where students used context clues to figure out what words meant.  It was very subjective, so it was a little hard to do but I actually think it taught me a little about seeing the different levels of students at that age.  When the kids got back, we took a few of them to do individual reading assessments in another room. Each child read a short passage titled “Pizza.” We stopped them after one minute, where they then told us what the story was about. Then, we filled out fluency and comprehension charts based on how they did.  Besides the fact that reading about pizza over and over again made me very hungry, I think it was a great experience.  I really liked being able to work one on one with the students and to see the different levels the children are at.  Overall, I think it was a very successful Wednesday at University Elementary School.

Week 5 in E339 - Mini-Lessons

In class this week we did a unit of study on a subject and did a mini-lesson to go along with that unit.  I did my unit of study on ABC books with Sami.  I thought it was a great assignment and good to think through how we would do a mini-lesson to connect to a picture book in the classroom.  However, it was much different presenting a mini-lesson to a group of college students whose knowledge far surpassed that of a group of second graders. Their attention span also probably was a little longer than a group of little ones.  For my mini lesson I began by asking the class an array of questions that discussed what made up ABC books and ideas for their own ABC books.  I then gave students a chance to look at different examples of ABC books and read an ABC book to them aloud.  Then, I was going to have my students create their own ABC book using an adjective that begins with each letter of the alphabet.   And with those adjectives, they would create sentences that gave examples of how to use those adjectives.  Finally, they would create a final draft of their ABC book including the sentences they used and a picture to represent that adjective.  Overall, I really liked this assignment because we were able to create our own mini-lesson that was centered around a picture book.  There are a lot of lessons that can be created from a simple picture book, especially older children, which we often think picture books are too old for.  Since we have been reading about min-lessons the past couple of weeks, it was good to get our own experience in creating our own!

Take 2 at University School

Today was our second day at University Elementary School! I actually think that it was a lot more successful and productive than last week.   Now that we knew what we were doing this time, it was easier to focus on what the kids where actually doing and observe them.  I started off in gym class and that was very interesting because I have not seen an elementary gym class in a long time! Watching the kids get competitive playing football and speedball was a real treat. Then we transitioned inside to work on writers’ workshop.  It was great to listen to the children read and show off their comprehension skills.  I was actually very surprised at most of the student’s abilities that I worked with.  There was only a few times where I had to correct them or give them a little push.  Overall, it was a very successful day and I think I’m really going to learn a lot over the next couple of weeks. 

First day at University Elementary School

Overall, I would say that today went very smoothly.  The hardest part of the day was getting up at 6:45. I haven't gotten up that early for a very long time. However, I'm sure it will get easier as the weeks go on.  Upon arriving at University Elementary I knew it was going to be a very positive experience.  It’s a very high achieving school with very dedicated teachers.  Right away I couldn’t wait to get in the classroom and have some one on one work time with students.  Since I was in a 5th grade classroom for my previous field experience I was a little disappointed to be placed in 4th grade this semester just because I wanted to get a little variety.  However, as I entered the classroom all that disappointment quickly went away, and I became extremely excited to work with my 4th grade class.  The teacher I am placed with seems to be a wonderful teacher and I honestly think I will gain a ton of knowledge from her.  She already had so much great advice to give.  I look forward to the weeks to come and to really gain some great experience.

Our second class

During our second E339 meeting, we really got a lot done.  I really feel like I'm starting to get the hang of all my classes and it is getting much easier. My favorite part of the day was decorating our writers notebooks.  Even though I couldn't really find a lot of things that really represented me in the magazines, I did manage to find some things! I also found it extremely interesting to see what other people put on their writers notebooks to help learn more about them.  I also thought that the spelling articles were very interesting because I personally have always had problems with spelling.  It was very helpful to read more about ideas for spelling because that is something I really want to help my students with. The video we watched where the lady was sounding out all the words was very annoying but it really did present a good point.   Sounding out words and breaking them down really does work for a lot of people.

My First Blog

      After my first week of classes, I was a bit overwhelmed and confused with everything that had to be done, especially with E339.  Also, having 2 hour and 45 minute classes are really hard for me to sit through because I just get distracted and fidgety.  However, I think I am actually getting most of my classes smoothed out and on track finally. After looking over the syllabus for this class, I am really excited about a lot of the things we will be doing.  I think the writer's notebook will be something that will be really good for me and something I will be able to keep and continue writing in.

       The idea of a blog also definitely intrigued me. This is my first experience using a blog in a class, and I am actually kind of excited about it.  Since I am on the computer so much anyways working on papers, checking email, and using oncourse, it really works out nicely to have a blog. I had some experience with a blog in my W200 class.  We worked together in groups on our blogs, however my teacher didn't speak much English and I had trouble following what she was saying about it. I really think it will be nice to have my own blog to keep track of my progress. I look forward to making advancements in my writing and my reading to become a more effective teacher.