Sunday, September 30, 2012

Katie Overfield: Target Area Questions



1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.
o   Reading:  Reading Workshop:  Readers…Think and Talk About Books
o   Writing: Writing Workshop:  Organizing information into a writing piece (using TAK and Wheel of Thought to create 5 sense books)

2.     Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?
o   7-10 minutes for whole group lesson (we only do mini-lessons in our multiage classroom)
o   45 minutes for small group discussions (15 for each group/ each teacher meets with 3 groups)

3.     Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?
o   Reading:
§  Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges
§  Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot
o   Writing:
§  Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section
§  With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing

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?
o   Writing:  students will learn how to create organized and polished pieces, similar to those they will have to create in their higher level schooling – knowing this organizational pattern will also help them to read future informational texts
§  Learning about literacy:  students are learning how to write informational texts and how to organize them so others can interpret them
o   Reading:  students will learn how to respond to texts and what to do with that response
§  Learning literacy & learning through literacy:  students are learning how to correctly respond (and identify that response) to their reading pieces – we are using their reading texts to show them how to use feeling and invoke response in their own writing pieces as well

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)?
o   2 styles of classroom talk within the multiage classroom
§  Teacher-led
·       During the mini-lessons – students need to hear the information from the lesson
§  Student-led/focused on higher-level thinking
·       During our group work – focus on the level the students need while incorporating the lesson strategies
o   Monitoring Comprehension
§  The use of sticky notes in our small groups would be very beneficial since we don’t meet with all our groups everyday

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?
o   Thinking Aloud
§  In reading and writing
·       Allows students to relate to a demonstration at their own level, even when its demonstrated by an adult
·       Demonstrating a think aloud shows students how to use it during group work or conferences
o   Lets me learn more about my students
o   How to interact with them or relate to them individually
o   Shared Writing
§  In writing
·       Allows students to see each others examples
·       Creates an “at level example”
·       Allows me to see the true impact peers have on each other in a classroom

7.     What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?
o   Reading:
§  District guidelines for Reading Workshop Unit 2
·       Outlines teaching points and main concepts to teach students
§  Chart paper within the classroom
·       Use to create lists of how emotion is invoked in the students individual stories
§  Student book bags
·       Contains the books the students will use during individual and group time
o   Writing:
§  ELMO projector
·       Display the “Do It” with instructor so all students can clearly see example
§  TAK inspired book
·       Individual ones for each student (and one for example)
o   Ensures students are practicing correct organization
§  Colored paper
·       Write sentences on different colors depending on the specific sentence
o   Beginning/Lead/Ending = Green
o   Big Idea = Yellow
o   “Tell Me More”/Details = Pink

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?
o   Appropriate & favorite read aloud texts (predictable texts – fairytales – are recommended)
o   Student examples from previous years (to show good examples they can relate to, rather than the teacher example)

9.     How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?
o   Reading:
§  Will assess individually by group work and see which students need to focus on which strategies more
o   Writing:
§  Will assess based on an personal narrative prompt
§  Students know how to write personal narratives, so it will show how what organization level they are at

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?
o   I will need to know their starting level in each subject
§  Allows me to concentrate on and emphasize specific strategies during the mini-lesson

11.   What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?
o   I want to look up more examples of the use of sticky notes
§  This will allow me to be able to use them at all reading levels

12.   What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?
o   Fitting each lesson into the 7-10 minute block I am allowed for my mini lessons

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