1. Describe your target area for guided
lead teaching. My target
area for guided lead teaching is the Vocabulary portion in the Read and
Comprehend section of Reading Street.
2. Approximately how much time per day
is allotted for your instruction in this area? 55 minutes
3. Which Common Core State Standard(s)
will you work toward? RL
3.4, RI 3.4, L 3.4, 3.5, & 3.6
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? Students will use their knowledge to
learn new words, recognize them in a story, and build content knowledge and
skills that relate to their lives. Students are learning literacy by incorporating these new words in to daily
usage. Students are learning about literacy
by observing the importance of understanding new words in a text. Students are learning through literacy by figuring
out the skills to find and use these new words properly.
5. What types of classroom talk take place
within this target area?
Introduction, Teaching, Modeling, Guided Practice and Time on their own are all
kinds of classroom talk that happen in this area. To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led,
or focused on higher-level thinking? This is mostly teacher- led discussion, but there is an
opportunity to students to talk to one another, then share as a whole class
again. 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 norms I would like to see happen
are no talking and moving when the teacher is talking, sitting at our desks
while paying attention and actively listening, and hands raised when they want
to answer a question.
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”)? The core practices I want to develop
are Hybridizing and Activating Prior Knowledge. How will
focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning? Focusing on these practices will help my professional
learning greatly. I think it is so important to understand your class, their
likes and interests to bring all they know into teaching new materials. That
way the teacher can focus on important and new information in a fun way to the
class. Also with more and more districts going to basal type programs, I think
hybridizing is going to be essential in making the information relevant to my
class. Keeping things interesting and on level with my class’s academic
achievement will really help me in the future.
7. What resources within the community,
neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this
target area? Reading Street,
My Sidewalks, Dictionaries, Computer Lab, Library, and a Thesaurus.
8. What additional resources do you
need to obtain? Access to
Reading Street Materials and handouts that I can build upon.
9. How will you pre-assess your
students in your target area?
Give them a vocabulary pretest before any instruction on the given words.
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? More
ideas for differentiated vocabulary instruction.
11. What else do you need/want to learn
about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching? Fun interactive vocabulary ideas.
12. What concerns, if any, do you have
about planning and teaching your unit? I’m a little worried about teaching and making everything accessible
to the range of learners in my classroom.
Megan-
ReplyDeleteI think that vocabulary is a great target area; you can do so much with it throughout an entire school day! I noticed that you would like to find fun, interactive vocabulary ideas to support your teaching. Have you heard of “Fist to Five” or “List-Group-Label?” Fist to Five is an easy way to pre-assess your students’ knowledge about vocabulary. To do this assessment you display the word to your students and have them show you what they know:
• Fist: I have never seen or heard this word before
• Three Fingers: I think I may have heard of this word or at least know a similar word (initial or partial recognition)
• Five Fingers: I can tell you the definition of this word and use it in a sentence (full recognition).
This assessment can also give you an idea of how you may want to group your students for various activities with the vocabulary as you may not want all students with no recognition or full recognition of specific vocabulary to work in the same group. This will also help to establish a classroom environment that is safe place for students to share the knowledge they have or think that they have with their peers.
List-Group-Label could be used with Reading Street vocabulary and/or in a broader spectrum; specifically with specialized vocabulary for different science, math, or social studies topics. The sequence of this activity is:
• List words associated with a topic
• Group/Label
• Follow-Up
This exercise builds depth and promotes discussion and sharing of word knowledge. These activities, or activities similar to this, might also help you to develop your ability to hybridize and activate student’s prior knowledge.
I really enjoyed hearing about the norms that you want to establish in your classroom during your GLT. Does your class already have established norms that you want to change or do you need to create a set
of recognized norms that your students will follow?
I can’t wait to see how the rest of your unit develops!
Taylor
Megan,
ReplyDeleteSince you are using a basal text curriculum and stated that you would like hybridizing and activating prior knowledge to be your core practice area, I have a few ideas on how you might hybridize your vocabulary activities:
Have students put each vocabulary word in a sentence and then draw a small illustration next to it. This may help serve as a retrieval cue when they take the Reading Street test on Friday.
During writing, have the vocabulary words on the board and have the students write a story using at least 4 or 5 of the 7 vocabulary words (have them underline the words). You could then either allow a few of the students to act out their stories or have them partner up and share with one another.
In Chapter 13 of Strategies that Work, there is an idea to create a vocabulary word wall around the classroom or even a picture dictionary that students can refer to if they need a synonym or just a general reference if they are stuck on a word. Each student creates a dictionary that has words that they find important and write definitions that make sense to them. Creating a project like this may help your students develop a deeper understanding of their vocabulary words.
The lesson on synonyms would be a great time to teach them how to use a thesaurus. You could use an explicit teaching strategy and do a mini-lesson using the document camera on how to look up a word to find a richer word that will draw the reader further into their story. If several of them have access to one, allow them to use it during writing to enhance the quality of their story.
While Reading Street offers students opportunities to practice their vocabulary words by means of worksheets, incorporating other activities that are more hands on may help to stimulate their minds. By modeling more effective practices than worksheets, there is a greater chance that your students will not only score higher on the vocabulary section of the Reading Street test, but also integrate these words into their receptive and expressive vocabularies in oral and written communication. Reading Street is a very scripted manual with good intentions, but as you stated, may not always be relatable for your students. It will be important for you to look over the material ahead of time so that you are able to take what Reading Street has to offer in the way of teaching synonyms, but do it in a way that will transform a potential boring lesson on synonyms into a hybridized “Ms. Wait creation” where students see the importance of striving for the most creative word when speaking or writing. Similarly to Emily in our Finessing and Hybridizing article, hopefully you will be able to find new and innovating strategies that work for both you as a teacher as well as aide your students in becoming more immersed and engaged in your lessons. Developing a pedagogy that incorporates your ideas as a new teacher into the Reading Street curriculum will not only be beneficial for you next year, but give your students an opportunity to have a break from their norm.
According to Writing Essentials, “connecting what readers know to new information is the core of learning and understanding” (Harvey & Goudvis, pg. 17). In terms of drawing on their prior knowledge, because you have taken the time to get to know your students on both an academic and personal level, assessing and pacing your vocabulary lessons according to your students' needs will likely come very natural to you. Each individual student's schema is unique, so teaching them new vocabulary words through whole class discussions or using the think-pair-share strategy will allow you to navigate how you may need to scaffold each lesson so that all of your students are understanding and grasping the new material.