5 Best Practices in Reading-Best Practices in Reading-Zemelman and Hyde-Chapter 2

While reading this chapter, I realized soon that it hit very close to home.  There were many great ideas pertaining to my first grade classroom. As I read, I was happy to hear that many of the strategies and practices mentioned, I consciously and unconsciously implelenent.The list of ideas consumed 2 pages, so I will choose 5 of the ones I am most anxious to embed into my literacy program.

1. Spiral Bound Notebooks for Small Groups: I would like each student to have a spiral bound notebook to jot down ideas and notes pertaining specifically to them in regards to reading. They could put down spelling words, vocab, or other information.

2. Prioritize my phonetic time and recognize which students need it most. If students are still struggling during the second half of the school year, continue to meet and intervene during small groups. I want to try to use a more meaningful and rich method that will give students an opportunity to continue to build their phonetic skills through literature.

3. Focus more on Heterogeneous and Homogeneous groupings. I would like to develop when and where to split my kids up.

4. Incorporate more Reflective opportunities for my students.

5. Work towards literacy circles.

The Peer Partner Learning Strategy

What is Peer Partner Learning? Peer partner learning is a collaborative experience in which students learn from and with each other for individual purposes. Currently, I have been able to implement this strategy in few different areas, but I've use it primarily for reading fluency and vocabulary development.  Each week, every student in my class has a fluency passage at their level that they work on to read as fluently as possible. Time is given for them to practice on their own, and on 1 day per week, the students get together with a partner and read their passage to each other.  One student becomes the "teacher," who listens and the other becomes the "student" who reads. They are timed for 1 minute. The "teacher" provides feedback and prompts the other to work on any errors that were heard during the reading. After 1 minute of discussion time, the roles reverse and the "teacher" becomes the "student." The reading continues for 1 minute. We complete this series of events 2 times.  Each week we usually have a focus to work toward during our readings, such as pausing for punctuation, using inflection, and so forth.  It has been beneficial, because the students collaborate well with each other and most strive for their best in the eyes of their peers.  One reminder I always give them is...fluency is not speed, it is decoding accuracy and comprehension. Read like you would want to be read to!

The Search for Understanding-The Case For the Constructivist Classroom

After reading this article, the key concepts made most sense to me in a before, during and after teaching format. There were many strong points that I would like to ensure I look at in those three different development and implementation stages of my teaching. First and foremost, I'd like to look at the "before" teaching stage. While utilizing the UbD approach to developing units, it's important to incorporate:

1. Problems of Relevance (meaningful and relative to students understanding)
2. Primary Concepts: Less is More, the idea that students take control of their own learning, the teacher uses "Big Ideas" to run the learning plan
3. Learning plans that seek and value student's point of view
4. Curriculum that can be adapted and adjusted to fit each students needs
5. Learning Plans and Unit development should include time for questioning, experimenting and facilitation. 
6. Cognitive Language: classify, analyze, predict, create

While implementing the learning plan it is important that students continue to be guided by the 1) primary concepts relative to their understanding. 2) Learning plans should be guided by "student" conversation rather that teacher directed talking. Cognitive language should be used to develop understand . One way to think of this concept is to ask what students know, instead of telling them what to know. 3) As discussed earlier, in the UbD  development, time for experimenting with materials such as manipulatives are beneficial, because it is interactive and physical. 4) Another piece to be carried out during the learning plan is the use of formative and summative assessment to guided the learning plan and give the teacher an idea of each students understanding on the topic. 

And finally, after the learning plan, the assessments given can be looked at and curriculum can be adapted to meet each students needs as the teacher continues through the unit. More time might need to be given  for students to meet the benchmarks for any given primary concept, but through the reading, I've found it to be important to continually think of creating an leaning environment that is focused the constructivist concepts. 

To read the book for yourself:

Title: In Search For Understanding: The Case for the Constructivist Classroom by Jacqueline Greenon- Brooks and Martin Brooks

The 5 to 2 Instructional Strategy

I've been using a new instructional strategy in my classroom over the past couple of weeks that is labeled " The 5 to 2." With this strategy, the is idea revolves around lessening the amount of your talking time as a teacher and  open up the door for more conversation amongst your students. I know that I, at times, can tend to use my role as a teacher to talk too much at times in front of my class, and with this strategy, I've been able to keep my verbal lessons down to 5 minute chucks at a time. After the 5 minutes are up, the students then have 2 minutes to share or teach the new information to a classmate or group.  It is very comparable to a " think, pair, share" set up. 

Overall, it has been best I'm implemented during our reading or math blocks. The students have used whiteboards, actions, or small presentations to review the 5 minute discussion by me.   The strategy is effective, because it allows the student not only to be a listener, but also a facilitator and teacher. Their retention rate for information has shown an increase, and it allows them time to move and collaborate with their peers. I am sure there are many other benefits that will come out of this learning strategy and I am encouraged to continue to try it out in new settings.

Pulling away from the traditional and Moving into the Constructive!

This past week, I was encouraged through my masters program to change a few minor things in my classroom routine. These minor adjustments were the product of an article we just read out of the book "Creating and Sustaining a Constructivist Classroom," by B. A. Marlowe  &  M. L. Page. One area I wanted to work on was my student/teacher role. To often, I feel like I am a knowledge dispenser. If my students ask me a question about a topic, I tend to tell them the answer. But, in the correct setting, that pattern needs to change. I want my students to be responsible for finding their own knowledge on topics they have questions on. 

So, this past week, I had the opportunity to put my plans into action. We were studying space with our reading series and one student had a question about whether or not the sun was a planet. The old "me" would have said, "No, it is a star." The new me, took a moment and asked, "where could we find an answer to this question?" We decided that the plethora of space books on our reading table must have some answers for us! So, we set off on a knowledge hunt. 

About 5 minutes later, another student shouted out that the sun was indeed a STAR! We found this statement in about 5 more books before we stopped searching. In the end, this turned into a great lesson on proving facts, searching out your questions, and topics regarding various space questions. The students felt responsible for their work and I fel like a facilitator instead of a knowledge dispenser. These are the lessons that we strive for as teachers. 

I hope to continue giving my students the opportunity to search out their own answers and conclusions, instead of relying on me for mine. 

Teaching Strategies Used

Mike

1. Cooperative Learning-Writer’s Workshop https://docs.google.com/document/d/19Ksnmo QelhdzEWDqhcuA88bQCMOf_7PGV9zHDN4NQX0/edit) http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/alpha.html 2. 5 + 1 (Five Plus One) http://www.beesburg.com/edtools/glossary.html 3. Illustrated Talks http://www.beesburg.com/edtools/glossary.html 4. Story Telling and Retelling (STaR) http://www.beesburg.com/edtools/glossary.html 5. Scavenger Hunt. http://www.isbe.net/common_core/pdf/ela-teach-strat-read- text-k-5.pdf 1.We are currently working on an opinion paper in my classroom. I am going to have students get into groups of 2 and edit their papers. They will need to be aware of our classroom guidelines for group work and will grade themselves with smiley faces based on how many goals they met while working together. This would be a useful strategy, because of students using each other’s feedback to improve their individual writing. 2. This would work best when introducing vocab and spelling patterns. I would have the students use their whiteboards and markers to work with each other towards correct spelling and usage after I had discussed the new concepts. 3. I would use this strategy while completing and art project for mother’s day. The students would only be shown (with pictures) the individual steps for each section of our project while I explained the process. 4. Each week, we use “oral” reading cards with stories that fit our theme. I would read our story, and have students retell it with a group, act it out, and draw the beginning, middle and end of the story by themselves. 5. Students work in small groups collaboratively.I can provide groups with books on the same topic which would be “Space and Planets.” Assign each group a topic and have the team look for words and pictures in the multiple sources that are connected to that topic. Invite groups to share discoveries. Facilitate a discussion around their “I didn’t know that!” discoveries highlighting the similarities and difference in the texts. 1. This worked alright. Self correction and editing is a big topic for students at this age group to swallow and completely understand. Some students are ready for it and some aren't. I would make the process a bit shorter next time. 2. This strategy works well. My kids are used to it because we do a lot of think, pair share in my classroom to get the students moving. I will continue to insert this into my class. 3. As we made our mother’s day cards, I used this strategy. We took baby steps and I only showed my kids what the end project would look like. Most of them were able to make a similar end product based off of pictures and verbal instruction. 4. The students loved this activity. Any chance that they get to act or engage in something in front of the class is special to them. Most are fantastic storytellers. 5. The students spent about 15 minutes, literally, engaged in finding facts about planets and space. All I heard were the murmurs of "ohhs" and "ahhs" from kids finding new information and collaborating on it with another student. I asked them to write down 2 of their most interesting facts at the end.

Reflection Quotes

“It’s hard to look at modern life and see our capacities for reflection or meaning-making.  We don’t use our gifts to be more aware or thoughtful.  We’re driven in the opposite direction.  Things move too fast for us to reflect, demanding tasks give us no time to think, and we barely notice the lack of meaning until forced to stand still by illness, tragedy, or job loss.  But in spite of our hurry, we cannot stop life’s dynamic of self-reference or the human need for meaning. If we want to influence any change, anywhere, we need to work with this powerful process rather than deny its existence.”

Margaret J. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler 

Publishers Inc., 2006) at 147.

This quote reaches me because of the fact that life does get busy and we make a plethora of reasons not to reflect and ponder why things happened the way they did. We too often make the same mistakes again, because we weren't thinking about the steps we could've changed to change our outcomes. It reminds me to take time and make reflecting a priority. 

“The capacity to reflect on one's own strength and weaknesses, to learn from constructive criticism, and to practice critical reflection by monitoring one's own work performance and interpersonal interactions is essential to the ability to learn from experience and is the cornerstone of the journey to becoming a lifelong learner.”

Judith McNamara & Rachel Field, “Designing Reflective Assessment for Workplace Learning in Legal Education” (Paper presented at the ATN Evaluation and Assessment Conference, 29-30 November 2007) online: <http://www.eac2007.qut.edu.au/proceedings/proceedings_ebook.pdf> 87.

This quote makes me think about building character and integrity. It reminds me to slow down a digest what is going in my life both personally and professionally. We can learn so much from other individuals, but we can also learn a lot from ourselves. 

“The word “professional” originally meant someone who makes a “profession of faith” in the midst of a disheartening world. That root meaning became diminished as the centuries rolled by, and today it has all but disappeared. “Professional” now means someone who possesses knowledge and techniques too esoteric for the laity to understand, whose education is proudly proclaimed to be “value free.”

The notion of a “new professional” revives the root meaning of the word. This person can say, “In the midst of the powerful force-field of institutional life, where so much conspires to compromise the core values of my work, I have found firm ground on which to stand—the ground of personal and professional identity and integrity—and from which I can call myself, my colleagues, and my profession back to our true mission.”

Higher education needs to educate people in every field who have ethical autonomy and the courage to act upon it—who possess knowledge, skill, and the highest values of their vocations. Can such an education become a reality? Yes, if we who educate can think and act like the new professionals we need to raise up.”

From Parker Palmer’s The New Professional: The Aims of Education Revisited retrieved 2 February 2010 http://www.changemag.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/November-December%202007/full-new-professional.html

This quote reminds me that reflecting leads to change and change is growth. By reflecting, I can see the differences I make in the lives of others, and I can also see my values and beliefs integrated into my daily routines. 

212 Degrees Video:

Wow! What a powerful message in a short amount of time. I think the first thing that comes to mind after watching this video, is that you can always be better than you are right now. Of course, we all need to stop and smell the roses and enjoy our accomplishments, but there is always something more we can improve on. It should be a goal of everyone to strive towards their best at all times. It my classroom, it could be tackling an opportunity to implement a new strategy, listen more, talk less and taking a moment to reflect each day. At home, it means enjoying everything that much more and cherishing the things that are important to me and my family. Instead of making excuses I can make time and relax and enjoy the moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPEeEqkEjAQ