Dennis Target Area

1.      Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

The target area for my GLT will be to instruct students using book clubs.  Students will be assigned to groups of no more than five based on reading levels, reading interests, individual backgrounds, and individual behaviors.

2.      Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

At least 90 minutes of reading instruction per day are required by the East Lansing district. 

3.      Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

o   Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

o   Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

o   Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.

o   By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

4.      How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

The ultimate goal for students participating in book clubs is to increase awareness of the connections between real life experiences to literatures themes and characters.  In addition to making connections with the elements of a piece of literature, students will also be more cognizant of the similarities and differences between themselves and their peers.  Being able to identify, describe, compare, and contrast the various elements of a text within a book club group will give students the knowledge and experience of how to argue and defend an opinion or position. This knowledge will help them to build a social etiquette for both formal and informal situations outside of the academic context.

5.      What types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?

The types of classroom talk that will take place throughout the development of this unit include teacher-led discussion and independent student discussions.  Through a guided release of responsibility, the teacher will first model comprehension and discussion strategies that promote higher-level thinking for book club groups. Before the teacher can implement the discussion however, expectations of behavior must be explained to the students. Teacher expectations can be introduced to students by creating an anchor chart with the entire class.  The teacher will model discussion strategies with a demonstration group that includes another adult and two or three students, while the rest of the class observes (Berne & Clarke).   As students’ progress through the text, the teacher will model less and the students will be more responsible for their discussion of the text.  This strategy will push the students to engage in higher-level thinking; they will be generating and responding to questions and connections with the text. 

6.      Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

I have chosen Explicit Instruction and Responding to Reading as the core practices that I want to develop as I teach using book clubs.  I have chosen two core practices because I think that in order for me to be successful in teaching my students to respond to reading, I must be able to deliver explicit instruction successfully.  To model strategies for book club, I will have to explicitly think aloud, guide interactive discussions, and also use anchor lessons and anchor charts.  These explicit strategies will help my students develop as readers and help them to partake in purposeful discussion with their peers.  By focusing on these two strategies, I will learn which reading structures work best for my students and which explicit instructions are received well by my students.  In addition to learning what strategies are the most helpful for my students, I will learn how to finesse the traditional methods to meet the needs of the specific groups that I am working with.

7.      What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

o   Book Room

o   Reading Coordinator-Kristen Kildea

8.      What additional resources do you need to obtain?

Before I can determine the additional resources needed for this discussion, my mentor teacher and I need to make a final decision on the text for the book club.

9.      How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?

My mentor teacher and I have already assessed our student’s fluency levels using the AIMSweb assessment system.  This tool has allowed us to identify groups of students as above average, average, or below average readers.  We have begun to use this knowledge to instruct these small groups with basal readers from reading street.  In addition to using the information from the AIMSweb scores, I will give my students a Literacy Attitudes Assessment to discover how they feel about reading, what they enjoy reading, what they don’t enjoy reading, etc.  Based on our student’s interest, my mentor teacher and I will be able to select a novel for a specific book club based on student ability and student interest. 

10.  What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

In order to successfully manage the Book Club, I will have to consider student behaviors in addition to student reading levels.  I do not want to combine a group of four or five students who do not get along or have one very vocal student in a group with several shy students.  I will group students in a way so that their individual strengths and weaknesses complement each other.

In addition to organizing students based on behavior, I would also like to organize them based on their different backgrounds and home situations.  I want all students to make connections to the chosen text and I want them to share their connections with their peers so that they are all learning new and different perspectives.

11.  What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?

I would like to learn more about how to use explicit instruction to teach vocabulary.  Most of my students struggle with the new vocabulary that is introduced through Reading Street and I would like to expand my student’s vocabulary repertoire without having to have them use rote memorization to learn definitions.

12.  What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?

One major concern that I have with the teaching of my unit is my ability to gradually release the responsibility of participating in a meaningful discussion about literature to the students.  I want students to feel safe voicing their perspectives and the connections that they make to the text.  I do not want to dominate the questioning or allow just one student to dominate the group’s conversation.