Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Assignment #1: Look Closer Video Questions


 



1. Shared Reading: Video Segment

  • On your Observational Checklist (PDF), note the Essential Components that are addressed during the first part of the shared reading activity. How does this activity engage students who are at different levels of literacy development?
            The essential components that were addressed during the first part of the shared activity were the phonological awareness, word identification, and fluency of the first part of the shared reading activity. The approach Ms. Perez took to have students engaged who were different levels of literacy was the weekly shared poem. The class was introduced to the Hot Dog Forever poem in which Ms. Perez read aloud and then selected students to question them in her phonic lesson. Having them distinguish or identify words and then have them sound out the words with fluency was a great part of the lesson.
  • During her explicit phonics lesson, how does Ms. Perez support students' problem-solving skills?
            Ms. Perez supports her students in problem-solving skills during her explicit phonics lesson by pointing out the high-frequency words and building a word wall. The high-frequency words she exposes her students goes by sounding the “–ot” in a various examples. Having students be challenged when giving several examples of “-ot” such as got, dot, and spot. The transition to following up with the word wall goes without saying because students now are introduced to a resource that helps overcome literate issues and open up various phonic solutions.
    Image result for cartoon reading classroom
  • Based on what you saw in the video, what are the different ways that shared reading can be used to promote literacy? 
            Based on what I saw in the video there were different ways that shared reading was applied to promote literacy such as poems but poems and reading that grasp the students interest. Ms. Perez had students engaged in the poem and then wrote out examples that displayed other ways to approach the “-ot” sound. 

2. Guided Reading: Video Segment

Why does she think it's important for students to verbalize their strategies? What else do you notice about how she helps students build meaning in text?

            Ms. Perez believes it is important for students to verbalize their strategies because she believes by verbalizing comes internalizing. Having students develop fluency, expand cite words, and connections will help them relate words. This reading strategy was grand. Another observation made that I observed was Ms. Perez’s sticky note on the hard word strategy. The students seem worried but found out ways around it. The idea of what makes sense and the students viewing the picture in the book helped create connection. With one of her students saying at first “rain day” and sounding it out loud but changing it to “rainy day” was truly a success.

3. Differentiated Instruction: Video Segments



How does Ms. Perez organize her classroom to support a wide range of learners?
      Ms. Perez organizes her classroom to support a wide range of learners by having workstations for students, which allows students to focus on their reading. The “making words activity” is built in with the assistance of a student teacher that had students sound out words and high-frequenting words. 

 

How are reading and writing connected in classroom activities?

Reading and writing are connected in a classroom activity through the introduction of note taking skills. Ms. Perez gave this example when she paired two well independent readers together on the idea of creating a book of bugs specifically spiders. This spider book was read collaboratively with the teacher because it was a third grade book but was able to be broken into information that students were to retain using their notes.

4. Assessment: Video Segment

How does Ms. Perez use ongoing individual assessment to guide her instruction? How can the class profile be used to help group students and differentiate instruction?

      Ms. Perez uses an ongoing individual assessment to guide her instruction by constructing a early individual reading assessment with a child and then doing another one a few months later. This later becomes charted in order to create a visual of where all her students must be and where she needs to provide support. The class profile that is used to help group students and differentiate instruction is the chart that helps her find what reading have been done and where she can provide assistants in a child’s needs.

How can ongoing assessment be integrated into your own classroom practice?

Ongoing assessment will be integrated into my own classroom practice when I transition into a teacher. I would set a baseline where my students will work hard to show what skills need help. My lessons would be each to work on them and as a teaching assistant I currently work with ELL students in which we provide these skills of one-on-one. The reading as a class and understanding the types of learners are what we have been doing this week. Students were shown how to read a short story and then draw what one of these learners would look like. I would certainly love to create a safe haven of a classroom the way Ms. Perez did with her class constructing a great learning environment.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

A Bear of a Poem (Sample Lesson) Critique

The structure of this lesson was greatly done and I believe it touched base with several features of ELA instruction such as reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language. I love how the teacher created sessions of the lesson plan and in the objectives how she defined what a found poem is. This is important because I believe I would be able to connect this to Social Studies by grabbing a short simple read and having student dissect it into a fun poem on important facts. I enjoyed reading about small reading group instruction and images of how I would connect Social Studies involved. I believe if students annotate a reading and vocabulary terms they will be able to select words that can reach a fun poem.

Image result for student poet cartoon

Reading: Instructing students to read a book and then share the readings in groups is effective to students for them to learn from each other.
Writing: After selecting words from the text students were to begin creating a poem which makes them engaged into cognitive thinking and development.
Speaking & Listening: The engagement of the class was pretty great because this allowed students to be active and play out their poems among themselves.
Language: I believe with careful selection of vocabulary students were made to work on comprehend how they structured words into the poems by creating a well structured reading assignment. It is all about risks they take in order for them to feel comfortable using words to act it out or to even be a poet.

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Practices in the Classroom: Video Reflection


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 In the video Practices in the Classroom I observed effective and well structure instruction throughout the whole classroom. I briefly remember my kindergarten class never being that way, but Ms. Owens has a great way of educating her class. Ms. Owen’s literacy routine I believe is taken with such great planning that at the end of it all she can weigh less in giving instruction but developing more as a guidance to those who are stuck. Her routine involving read aloud, guided reading, shared reading, and independent readings are the many things she excels in helping her students become independent in reading and writing. I enjoyed her attention on ELL learners because she still manages to help them along with the assistant. I felt to make that connection as a teaching assistant who currently helps ELL learners at my school grasp the content in reading and writing. I was a big fan of her singing in the beginning of the class in both English and in Spanish because to make that connection I believe will take an educator far in effective teaching. 

Understanding the ELA Instruction


Image result for ela teacher cartoon


English Language Arts Instruction:

My understanding about ELA instruction is that as educators we reach beyond teaching students material but to help them build skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language. With the proper ELA instruction students will develop better comprehension and application goals to help them surpass educational barriers coming to them.

Reading- The importance of reading in ELA is to help students not just know the information but also actually comprehend and apply the information with absolute mastery. Students need to be able to read and decode words in order to use in school and outside into their personal lives. Having students comprehend the material and create connections will help students advance

Writing- With reading comes writing another ELA focus in which students need to plan out their connections on paper about what they understood. With written communication the goal is to build writing skills such as the ability to plan, revise, edit, and publish. Other more specific skills of writing include the argument, informative/explanatory, and narrative.  The goal of writing is to have students build evidence through written communication and enhance their literacy.

Speaking & Listening- The third ELA focus that follows is speaking & listening that allow students to develop a wide range of oral communication and interpersonal skills. This will help students work together in ideas and integrate information through media resources and express through orally or visual the information they learned.

Language- The last ELA focus is the language standard, which centers itself on enhancing vocabulary and having students be able to give effective use of understand the rules of English.