Target Area and Core Practice, Emily Laurent

Inquiry Two, Part A:

Discuss Your Target Area and ‘Core Practice’ for Guided Lead Teaching

Talk with your MT about your idea, and use the information you gained from Inquiry One to respond to the following guiding questions listed below.  Upload to Angel and blog before our Week 4 class (Oct. 2) AND post them on your book club blog:

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

My focus for guided lead teaching will be comprehension strategy instruction and assessment. I will discuss with my students strategies for questioning, making connections, making predictions and summarizing.

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

Approximately 60 minutes is allotted for reader’s workshop each day.

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

RI. 4.2: Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.

RL. 4.2:Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

RF. 4.4: Read with accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

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 need strong reading skills from here on out in their education journey. They will use comprehension strategies to help support their reading every day in a meaningful way. Their learning will be determining what is important to do while reading. Students will learn ways to manipulate literature for information and how to focus their thoughts on the main idea or important aspects to a story. Students will be learning these strategies through literature itself.

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)?

So far this year, talk about comprehension strategies has been in the form of mini-lessons in a reader’s workshop. I will continue that trend. When in reader’s workshop, we discuss as a class: What are strategies to use to aid comprehension? What are important things to do while reading? The teacher leading the mini-lesson will ask questions and encourage discussion amongst the students. Student lead themselves in partner talk, such as turn-and-talk discussion with a neighbor and my students love to share! They will be happy to tell you about their text-to-self connections and experiences. We foster higher-level thinking in that we ask students to think beyond the book we were reading during the lesson and to think about a book they are reading for IDR or at home; how would the skill from the mini-lesson transfer? I will plan on making it clear I would like students to have enough time to have meaningful conversations about the book we are reading, not talking over other students, I expect all students to participate in any way they can, modeling how to use sticky notes while I read to note my questions or connections, encouraging inner dialogue while reading and having students read-write-think; not to just sit and absorb a lesson, but to apply it and reflect on what it means for them to use it.

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?

My chosen core practice is monitoring comprehension. I will ask myself: How are my students comprehending now? What works for them? Is it different from student to student? How do I account for this? I’ve had a lot of experience with read-alouds and now I want to delve into making reading meaningful. I want to know how to help my students get the most out of their reading experience and see how that helps them with their literacy learning.

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

I have several outlets for mentor texts: classroom library, school library, Walled Lake or Novi Public Library. My mentor teacher is the Language Arts guru for fourth grade and she has given me numerous resources from lists of picture books to activity ideas to templates for mini-lesson instruction. I also have the CCSS to reference when determining what fourth graders should be learning.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

I will need to create either classroom anchor charts or individual, student manipulatives to help my students remember, recall and practice the strategies we will go over. I do not necessarily want worksheets, so resources to developing a different outlet would be helpful.

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

I will ask my students before each mini-lesson about the target strategy/ skill for that day. Can they identify the strategy? Have they used it before? Why is it helpful? I will also ask my students how they think about a story while reading it. I want to see what they are already doing without prompt from a teacher.

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?

I want to take into account my student’s likes and dislikes; this will help me chose books to use as mentor texts. I need to know the special needs of all of my students. I have a few ESL students; what can I do to make my instruction make sense? I have several students who have trouble focusing for extended periods of time; what are ways I can let them shake off energy to aid in hindering distractions? I want to make sure I reach all learners visually and verbally.

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

Assessment: Would more formative assessment be appropriate for monitoring comprehension? I’m in the process of determining how comprehension is individualized. I therefore do not see a universal way to assess comprehension. Is there a particular sequence I should be teaching these comprehension strategies? How do they build off of each other?

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

I’m concerned about showing my students the difference between “fake reading” and meaningful reading. I worry they are already stuck in the habit of reading without thinking and I want to make sure they come away from my instruction with go-to strategies that will eventually be second nature. Classroom management is something that always concerns me. How can I make this guided lead teaching transition as smooth as possible for my students?