My History as a Reader

Reading is something that is so important to me, and in that sense, it seems like such a natural transition for me to become a first grade literacy teacher. I honestly don't remember when I first learned to read. I know that I was reading before kindergarten, and my mom claims I was reading before preschool... I don't remember at all. I do remember begging my parents to teach me how to read when I was really young, and I think that it was eventually my dad who sat down and taught me. I remember from a very, very young age having an awareness of all the letters around me, and that if I could just 'figure out' what they meant, I'd know how to read.

That said, I don't remember what it was like for me to learn to read. I know that it happened quickly. It also caused some issues in my education when I was younger-- I was reading well, well ahead of my grade level, so teachers had to bring in books for me and work with me separately. They tested me on the RI state tests a few times when I was in K-1, and in terms of fluency/decoding/grammar, I passed out of 12th grade level in 1st grade, and in terms of comp, I passed out of 12th grade level in 3rd grade. All of my report cards from early elementary school have notes about "Capable of Reading at College Level," although I for the most part stuck to Boxcar Children in K-1, American Girl Books in 1-2, and then more difficult 'young adult' books from there on up. I honestly have to think that those state tests were not that great though, seeing as how I am certainly not a reading prodigy by any means now.

I have a few different experiences from reading that I remember well. I remember walking into class my first day of kindergarten and crying, because the teacher told me that we would not even start learning our letters until December-- I thought I would be in trouble because I already knew how to read, and she told me they weren't "allowed" to teach that until first grade. I remember in first grade, being walked down the hall to the fourth and fifth grade classrooms during reading time-- I read with their reading groups instead of the first grade ones. I also remember getting so frustrated during 'popcorn' reading because students would stumble over words while I just sat there trying to read ahead without getting caught. I also remember that I was allowed to read when I finished my work, and it was a huge incentive to get through other subjects-- I loved reading that much.

I was very fortunate that differentiation was a part of my reading instruction. My teachers pushed me forward, rather than holding me back. I was on par with my grade in math, science, social studies, etc for the most part... and truthfully, I still don't understand why I was such a strong reader at a young age. I just know it was something that came easily to me.

In terms of how my feelings about readings have changed over time, I kind of felt mediocre about reading in HS and college. I was always strongest in Lit/English in HS, but I had an awful British Lit professor in college who really turned me off of authors that I had previously loved. I think it was just that our styles didn't mesh well, but she definitely took the enjoyment out of reading. I don't read for pleasure nearly as much as I used to, though I would like to get back into doing that. I don't read nearly as fast now as I used to either-- I can remember going through 8-10 books a week in middle school, and now I'm lucky if I finish a book in a month. Reading was such a big part of why I loved learning though, and I really think I should devote more time to reading than I am right now.

Course 104, Assignment #3

This chapter really forced me to think more and go deeper regarding how I have been assessing my students. It brought up so many questions for me-- How do I really know that they are learning what I want them to? Are my assessments proving 'mastery'? For my struggling students-- do I know what specific stumbling blocks are preventing them from moving forward and learning more? Can I find ways to isolate those issues to work through them?

I know that I have one student in particular, C, that came to mind. When we're doing group activities, working together, doing something hands-on, etc... he's with the whole group. He totally participates, gets into it, etc. When he volunteers to answer a question in class, he understands some of the higher concepts, can think deeply and critically, etc. He has a phenomenal vocabulary. Yet, when you hand him anything to read, he just goes blank or 'pretend reads' based on what he thinks the book will be about. He'll ask me what the word "I" or "A" or "The" is. He'll ask how to spell "I" during writing time-- although we are at least seeing major progress there. He doesn't recognize sight words. I've had so much trouble figuring out what's going on.. he knows his sound-spelling correspondence, can identify letters on a page and so forth. When you tell him a word, he immediately re-frames it into a sentence, putting it outside of the context it's in a book, if that makes sense. When I was thinking through this chapter, though, I realized that I have to tailor assessments to figure out the issue here so I can move him forward-- and I need to do that soon. This week, I'm going to try to find a way to truly assess him that accounts for C's personal needs, whatever they may be.

I do try to think about assessment as soon as I think about a unit, but I find it's the piece I sometimes struggle most to create. In my current science unit, I've assessed once in small groups (mid-unit), a few times a week through simple CFU's, and I still don't have a real idea of where my students are at in terms of understanding the standards. I'm going to make this a bigger piece of my work in science in the next two weeks, especially since we are leading into Exhibition night and it is crucial that my students understand this unit before that.

One quote in the chapter that stood out to me was that "Attention to the quality of local assessment could not be more important than it is now, when formal accountability demands assessments alighed with standards" (151). As hard as it can be to think like an 'assessor' and really get into the assessment piece of learning, we just need to do it so that we know our students specific strengths, weaknesses, class trends, etc. Assessments are accountability, and I think that is a great thing, especially for those of us who are first year teachers.

I got so many great ideas from this chapter-- things I'm not doing yet, things I can be doing to assess better, etc. I want to build in more CFU's, frame my assessments around our enduring understandings, especially in the science unit, etc. Alongside this, I think I really need to start a big Assessment File, where I keep the data for each of my classes separate. At the moment, it's scattered... some written, some in my computer, some just charted on the wall, some graphed, etc. I need to compile all of that so that what progress I make in my assessments is actually transferred into solid numbers. I've already worried about how I'm going to really effectively fill out a standards-based report card in a few weeks... having all of that information in one place would be a very good thing for me.

Some of the things in the chapter were not necessarily quite 'useful' as a first grade teacher (i.e. the performance task vignettes seemed much more applicable to the older grades), but did give me ideas for things I could do to assess students that could be scaled down to first grade level. The six facets could serve as prompts or starting points for many assessments that I could give in terms of reading comp., science, and later in the year, social studies. I'm looking forward to using this chapter more as I plan more assessments. Hopefully, as I plan my next UbD unit, I will have all assessments ready to go before I begin implementing the unit-- I think this would be a way to establish true personal accountability for how I am timing and teaching my unit.

104, Assignment #2

Understanding By Design: The 6 Facets of Understanding

This chapter provided a good opportunity to reflect, as well as step back and re-examine my own teaching. It was interesting to think about my own teaching through the 6 facets-- different perspectives that I had not considered overwhelmingly applicable previously. We talk about empathy so much in class-- but the idea of applying it in a more academic context added a whole other dimension.

Certain perspectives are more strongly evident in my class--- explanation is becoming a bigger and bigger piece, for example. The more I get to know my students, the more I realize how much some of them need the 'who, what, where, when, why.' After reading this, I decided to teach a mini-lesson on this today, and I'm so glad I did. We are working on questioning anyway, through our Interactive Journals, so it definitely dovetails with objectives. Thinking deeper, more critically, etc is going to be a big focus for me in the upcoming months, and I'll be looking for activities and ideas that push higher understanding of deeper concepts. I've already been thinking about doing watermelon vs. seed in terms of writing, but I know that there will be other ways to incorporate/push my students to work harder in Science, spelling, etc.

I think this article was also a good reality check in terms of the explanation piece. I'll totally admit that sometimes, when I heard "Why?" or "How?" too many times, I'll tell my students that I'll just explain it later-- and often, I never do. This week, I had more than a few students who needed extra help approach me with "... but you promised you'd help me figure that out during afterschool program." Since my meeting schedule really keeps this from being possible, I think I need to learn how to give them really strong, good, succinct explanations 'on the spot'... they definitely deserve them.

There are other facets that we are working on pretty deeply right now too. For example, interpretation is big for Reading Comprehension (especially in my Group 2 for Guided Reading... I know a deeper understanding and the ability to interpret what they are reading will help them boost up on DRA). The text-to-life or text-to-self connections are big in our reading groups currently. Application is kind of spotty for me, but this week I am really trying to be consistent with them, following through... what they learned today should carry into their writing on Friday. Building a logical path for them to see this learning is one of my goals for this weekend, and may come through our 'Investment Strategy' (Passports to Learning). Perspective is tough for my students, aside from the occasional "You can do this different ways" or "X might look at this differently, but it doesn't make his answer wrong" discussion. Those do happen, definitely... but I wouldn't consider this a strength of my classroom at all yet.

Empathy tends to come in more in terms of the Core Values, and I'm pretty proud of my students abilities to be empathetic. I have only had one incident of outright one student being mean to another student, and I think it's because I stress empathy. They are first graders, they still cry, and there is always someone around wanting to give them a hug, help them out, etc. They're pretty sensitive to all of this. The idea of 'empathy as a way to insight' seems to kind of tie into the idea of perspective. I want to work on open-mindedness and cultural respect in our classroom (especially since we are doing a big unit on Geography in the spring), so I want to look into this idea more and see how I can work it into my lesson plans, rather than just being part of the Core Values discussions during Morning Meeting or Team Huddle. Self-knowledge is another thing I want to work on-- but I do hope that will come in time, as they become more aware of their own learning.

104 Assignment #1

Question 1: What does your planning currently look like?
My current planning is done pretty much day-by-day. I do have a weekly plan, but do not use it as much as I should. Most days, I do my planning in the morning, when I come into school. I may already have specific portions or components of the day finished, but then come in and put them into a lesson plan in the morning. My plan at this point does not include specific times, but is more of "Here is what I need to get done by 9 a.m." and then "By 10 a.m." etc. We always switch to UbD (Science) around 10:20, so my literacy components need to be done prior to that. So far, that is working for me, though I recognize that I probably should be blocking things out in terms of timing much better.

One thing about my current planning that is working well is that it keeps me away from planning at home. I have already found that I need that separation between school and home to be fully present for my students when I'm teaching-- taking my work home at night only causes me to get overwhelmed. An alternative way to be more effective here might be for me to do my lesson planning at work on Sundays.

One challenge with my current planning is that, by leaving only about 30 minutes to an hour to plan before school every day (I try to get in to work by 7:15 to do my planning), I am leaving myself open to failure when unforseen things come up, i.e. parents stopping by, etc. More than once I have had to rush off very quick plans. Also, any activity with extensive prep work still needs to be done the night before.

106 Assignment #3

Both articles that we read for this post focused on looking at discipline and challenge in a new way-- reframing the context in a more positive light. I took away different things from each article that I intend to use in my classroom. For example, the idea of a "Warm Demander" in and of itself is something that I think I need to work on. Building deliberate, intentional relationships is a challenge when you have 40 students, but something that I think I'm building, student by student, to create a stronger classroom culture. Being more deliberate and intentional in the next few weeks will hopefully also help with this even more. High expectations seems to be a part of this-- pushing each and every student to a higher standard, not just the 'top performers' or the 'loudest' or most 'attention-needy'.

I thought that the article "Assuming the Best" was particularly interesting. In our pre-Reach training this summer, this tag line often came up, in terms of assuming the best of intentions in other colleagues. However, it was also interesting to think about it in the context of the teacher-student relationship, i.e. that the teacher should assume that the student is also there for the right reasons. I think this is an important concept to remember when working with students that may challenge us, push up beyond our boundaries and make us work harder. I would agree with the article's statement that "This approach can radically change our perspective on student misbehavior." Putting 'assuming the best' into this context seems largely beneficial. Some of the strategies recommended are already used at our school, (i.e. a volume rubric-- Zone O, Zone 1, Zone 2), but there are certain others than I can definitely work on, especially varying my Volume and Tone (Strategy 1).

Tate "Shouting Won't Make Dendrites Grow" response

One of the major challenges in my classroom is definitely addressing all the different types of misbehavior. I have already noticed that my classroom misbehavior tends to run the gamut-- some minor misbehavior that just seems to be done out of trying to gain 'control', especially among peers... but also, much of the challenging behavior stems from a few of my higher students, which is likely indicative of inadequacy of rigor. I hope to be able to address this by providing work that genuinely challenges these students and upping the expectations that I hold for them. This may mean using the second grade teachers as resources, or seeking more challenging homework pages to supplement their work with.

In terms of meeting the need for control issues, I think I have been fairly good at ironing out these issues with the a.m. class, but less solid with the p.m. class. One thing that I have focused on is empowering the more challenging students with positivity--- giving the ability to have some control (by being a helper, etc) as a reward for truly good behavior. This has worked incredibly well with one student in particular and I look forward to implementing this more with the students in my p.m. class. The a.m. class also seems to have a better grasp on the fact that I am their teacher and need their respect in order to have a productive classroom. The p.m. class fights authority more, both with me and in the afterschool program, which is in my classroom. I think I should probably observe this power struggle in the afterschool program further, to determine ways to be authoritative without being authoritarian.

In terms of dealing with students need for attention, there are many different mechanisms that I am working on implementing.

1. Being more purposeful about giving each child attention before they enter my classroom (i.e. hug, handshake, high five, etc) and giving them a little one-on-one time. Too often, it is the loudest students that end up with the most one-on-one time [for both positive and/or negative reasons].
2. Ignoring the attention getting behaviors/clinginess from specific students. I will be more clear with directions with them, do a CFU to ensure that they can work independently, and then reinforce to them that I will check in with them again in (X) minutes, when the activity is finished. I have one student in my a.m. class for whom this is a major challenge and another in the PM. To go along with this, I have already implemented the rule that students may not call my name when they need help--- they will get help by sitting up and raising their hand like a rocketeer!
3. Work on reminding students to ignore poor behavior/not get caught up in it. The attention-seeking students will sometimes begin to seek attention from other students if I am purposefully ignoring it. While certain students are good about ignoring and just going about their work, others are more prone to getting caught up in misbehavior, which can lead the class off track.

Finally, in terms of dealing with misbehavior as a result of boredom, I think my plan will be to include one 5-minute break for every 40 minutes of learning time [much of which is already interactive]. This break will be included on the daily schedule and I will remind students at morning/afternoon meeting to check for the break if they are getting restless... giving them a reminder that there will always be time to get on their feet. I will also look for other ways to get students moving in the classroom (and during their breaks). Breaks so far have included: Our Learn Position song (also good for reinforcing behavior), Stretching, "Yoga", Flashcards (running HFW in AM), practicing procedures, parading around the room, singing UbD Rainforest song, etc. Hopefully more of these activities will help iron out boredom issues, and also keep students moving. I also try not to stay in any one location for more than 20 minutes at a time (i.e., will move students from rug to desks, to reading rug, to white board, to bulletin board, etc)> I am also trying to vary the time sitting, time standing, kneeling, walking, etc.

Entry 1

• One high point of the week--- I really enjoy my students. I am seeing tons of enthusiasm for learning (especially the past few days-- today, Thurs and Friday) and I think I have found some new ways to improve my teaching [varying my tone, getting the kids moving more, etc]. I'm definitely seeing progress with both classes, but HUGE progress with my afternoon class.
• One low point of the week-- we're really pushing Responsibility, and yet students are still not upholding the responsibility end of the Core Values. Every day, at least 5+ students are not bringing their homework in each class. I have tried to vary methods of instructing them on Responsibility, yet we're still not making progress.

Related to Classroom Management, two things that are going well:

• I am seeing some progress with the Behavior System (colored chart). The first week, without fail, I had 2-3 students on red every day, having to write behavior reflections. This week has been much better-- mostly purple/green/yellow and the occasional orange. We're not hitting blue or red every day, which is awesome. It also means I have more time to teach when I'm spending less time moving their clips up and down the behavior system.
• Kids seem to be taking ownership of their "learning time". They'll correct a neighbor who is misbehaving, pinpoint specific issues and get upset when they need to miss learning time because of their behavior. It seems to be a good accountability system.

Main Challenge/Area for growth in classroom management:

-I think sometimes I keep the kids in one place too long (at their desk/on the rug/etc) and they get bored. Boredom leads to acting out/trying to get attention. Last week, I think I was giving too much negative attention and not enough positive attention. This may have also been contribting to kids acting out just for the attention.

Questions Re: Classroom Management-

1) General bathroom issues. I've been trying to be strict and follow classroom procedures, but the kids are still having major issues. Now I'm erring on the side of caution, but that means that someone is out of the room in the bathroom at all times. Not sure what to do about this?

2) How to deal with serious misbehavior without disrupting the whole class? Alongside that, when is it appropraite to send a child out [swearing, middle finger, etc].