Reel It In: Week 6

This week of aiding has been very beneficial for me as a whole.  Like the past few weeks, I've been doing a lot more than just sitting at the back of the room observing.  I've been walking around the classroom a lot.  But, today, I not only got to walk around the classroom, but I got to answer so many more questions from students who trusted my judgment.  Plus, in a class of 26 students and technically 3 teachers, there's a lot of opportunity to help them in what they are doing.

Today in class, we had the usual check in, but then, we went right into a really fun activity!  All of the students have been learning about conflict and the different types.  There's four of them all together:

Each of the students were given two sheets of paper.  They had to use scissors to cut out the different situations, and would later have to glue it onto the second paper that they were given which listed these four conflicts in four columns.  While they were working on placing them in the appropriate category, the three of us walked around asking them how they were doing.  

I got to ask a lot of kids questions, and I really felt like I was teaching them something which has not happened that often in the class.  From prior education classes and my job as a Writing Center tutor, I've learned a lot about how to guide students towards the right answer.  A lot of times, I would ask the students, "Why did you put this in that column?  Why does this not belong here?"  All I did was ask students questions.  I sure was not going to tell them the answer.  It felt good to feel needed and to actually be helpful.

And, it helped that many of the students were focused.  You could tell that they wanted to get it right and try their best.  Some struggled more than others, but the result was still the same.

In the other class that I've been aiding with, we're doing something a little different.  Right now, the 8th graders are learning about Greek Mythology.  One of their biggest projects revolves around this unit.  Their mission:  create their own script based on one of the many Greek myths and perform it.  This project takes up the majority of the semester.  When I came to class today, they were already working on their scripts and ideas for the performance.

The class was split up into 2 groups:  Persephone and Midas.  What they had to do was read over the story 3 times and start writing a script based on it.  From what I was hearing, it sounds like there are a lot of good ideas; I just hope that these 8th graders put all the effort they can into it.  If they do that, I have no doubt that they will succeed.  

While they were working on this, I was able to have another teacher moment.  It wasn't one of those big ones, but it felt kind of good.  Teachers have different strategies to refocus students, but I have developed my own signature way to refocus.  Surprisingly, it kind of works.  One group started straying away from talking about their script, so, using my hands, I mimicked the motions of fishing, and I said, "Reel it in!"  The kids were hooked.  Another time in the same class period, the same group was getting off topic.  So, I mimicked the hand motions again, and one of the girls caught me doing it and yelled, "Reel it in!"  Then, everyone started doing the hand motions.  Luckily, they got back on track and in focus.  It truly was a cool moment.

Overall this week was really fun getting to have those little teacher moments here and there, even if I didn't get to have more teacher roles.  Also, I was able to find out about a cool resource for finding texts or small articles.  It's completely free, and easy to use.  It is called readworks.org.  I'm definitely going to have to use this when I become a future teacher.

My goal for this next week is to find ways to be thankful or things that I am thankful for.  Right now, I'm thankful for those little teacher moments.  I am hopeful that I'll get to experience more of those.

Making Connections: Week 5

Week 5 was rather short for me and for the students.  I mean, what school has 3 days off out of 5 and it's not a holiday like Thanksgiving?  Definitely not my school, but that's okay.  I was able to come on Monday and Wednesday during the regular times.

As usual, we had the read aloud.  It was a pretty solid chapter.  We got to get more into the plot and learn more about the characters, especially Melody, the narrator with cerebral palsy.  In this chapter, she is trying out for her school's quiz team, but basically, everyone is underestimating her, even her teacher.  Anyway, she tried out, regardless of everyone's unwilling attitude.

Once again, as usual, everyone raised their hands, ready to make their predictions, inferences, connections, etc.  One student, (let's say his name was Tom) raises his hand and speaks.  I can expect him to give good insights, but I wasn't expecting what came out of his mouth.  He gave a 60 second movie summary of a movie called Drumline (a very GOOD summary I might add) and connected it to Out of My Mind, our read aloud book.  It was genius.  It made me want to see the movie.  Anyway, he made the connection of how the girl in the movie was underestimated in the drumline even though she was the best out of all of the guys.  In the movie, people tried to sabotage her so that she wouldn't succeed.  He predicted that the same would happen to Melody.  His connection astounded the three of us.

Speaking of connections, after the read aloud, my teacher taught a mini lesson on the difference between predictions and inferences and even gave them a sheet to practice making inferences.  Both involve information in the text, prior knowledge, and either the prediction (what will or could happen next) or the inference (figuring out something about the text the author didn't tell you).  The students then discovered that they were already making these kinds of connections.

When I got to 2nd period, I was surprised to find a substitute teacher.  She was a very nice lady, and she was also a Christian!  It was nice getting to talk to her and work with her for 50 minutes.  Unfortunately, she didn't know the class or how it worked.  All she had to go off of was a sheet that the teacher had typed out.  Luckily, I was there, so I got to actually lead the class for most of that time.  I got to initiate and lead the writing BINGO.  The students actually listened to me, although I fear that they respected me more than the substitute teacher.  I certainly did not want to take over the class, but I just wanted to make it easier for her so that she knows what to do for the other four periods.  She actually appreciated my help.  After that activity was over, they were given individual work, and I got to talk with her about her experiences.  It was a great class.

On Wednesday, the 1st and 3rd period classes had to fill out a self-evaluation form  on how they think they were doing in reading class for this semester.  I just walked around the classroom as usual, and it was interesting to see how they were evaluating themselves.  As a future teacher, I definitely am going to incorporate this into my classroom.  It's a better way to assess them and connect with the students, in my opinion.

English class is all about connections, but it's great when you're making connections outside of the book as well.

My goals for this next week are pretty much the same as before:  TAKE MORE RISKS!

Excited for what next week holds!

Successes & Failures: Week 4

The past few weeks of aiding in this school have been very beneficial to me as a future teacher.  Something that I have always been reminded of in all of my education class though is that not every thing you do is going to be successful.  There will be failures to learn from.  This week, I saw that, and it made me think of what I could do to rectify that problem.

But, first, before I start moping about the failures, I have to start with a pretty big success (as far as aiding goes).  I had the opportunity to get out of my seat and read the read aloud book!  First period on Friday, I noticed that the students were a chapter ahead of me.  Yet, my supervising teacher read the next chapter of the book aloud anyway, but luckily, one of the students summed up the previous chapter, so I felt caught up.  After listening to the chapter and engaging in discussion, the students had individual work that they needed to get done.  They started working on a project for the play that they had read, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."  The students had already worked with a plot diagram, but now their task was to make a visual plot diagram.  So, while they were working on that, I read the chapter that I had missed.

When I came back for 3rd period, I was ready to take another risk.  I asked my teacher if I could read the new chapter for the read aloud.  She didn't seem hesitant, but she definitely seemed surprised.  If there's one thing that I love doing and feel that I thrive at, it is reading aloud with expression.  And, after listening to the chapter once before, I knew how I was going to read it.  It felt great, and I know that the students were engaged.  The chapter of Out of My Mind was a pretty good one, so I'm thrilled that I was given that opportunity.  Taking those risks definitely paid off.  I felt like I could be a successful teacher.

Another success that came from taking risks was being able to run check-in.  Each day, the teacher checks in with each individual to see what page they were on.  Now that I know the students' names, it was easier for me to go through the list and ask for the page.  It was not much, but it felt like a step forward from sitting in the back of the class all the time or just walking around and monitoring the class.  Monday of the following week, I was able to do that.

Also, in 2nd period, the supervising teacher let me grade BINGO for completion.  They had to have 11 full pages, and she instructed me to take off points for not really putting in effort or filling the page up.  I felt pretty powerful, although I did have to double check with the teacher a few times.  But, hey, that's how you learn, I guess.

So, it seems like I had some pretty average successes.  Regardless of what they were, it made me feel more present--more needed rather than an accessory.  Being a teacher has been a lot of fun so far, but then there's times where you feel that you have failed as a teacher.

In the 1st period class, on Friday, they had presentations for their Monsters project.  They had their visual plot diagrams finished already, and their task was to explain two parts of the plot as well as its corresponding pictures.  It was an easy A in my opinion.  They already did all the difficult work.  It was just explaining their work, like they would do if they were telling about a movie they saw or a book they read to a friend.

When it got to one student's turn (let's say his name was Sam), he got up there with what looked like an unfinished drawing.  It wasn't colored, but I had known Sam to not really put too much effort into his work.  In fact, he was a consistent troublemaker that would talk out of turn with no avail.  Sam walked up to the front of the classroom with his drawing and started talking about the exposition and the climax of the story, but he decided to be "funny."  Rather than sticking to the plot, he made up a dramatized and inappropriate version of the story using names not in the text.  It was very disrespectful.  My teachers and I all managed to keep a disappointed face on while the rest of the students were laughing up a storm.  I felt so bad for my supervising teachers.  It made me wonder--how do you get a student that does not care to actually care?

This failure made me want to learn from it and figure out a way to make kids like Sam more engaged where they just don't care.  He doesn't seem to enjoy books, so what am I supposed to do?  That's always something I have to ponder as my time to become a teacher draws close.

My goals for this next week are to look for those little successes and take more risks.  If I want to be a teacher, I need to get up and actually do something.

Hopefully the successes outweigh the failures this upcoming week.

The Conference: Week 3

It's nearing the end of 3 full weeks of aiding, and there's still much more to come!  So far, I've been enjoying my placement.  I was skeptical at first, but opportunities for me to interact more with the class are highly available; it is just a matter of taking that time to ask.  Chances are, they have something for us to do, even if I'm mainly in a co-taught classroom for 2 periods.

First of all, my supervising teachers have really been focusing on the story "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."  Now that they really know a lot about the story, it is their turn to analyze more about what they have read and apply it to their mini lessons.  The 7th graders' mini lesson on Monday was all about ACE (Answer the question, Cite evidence, Example).  They were all given the question, "ACE who are the real monsters on Maple Street."  Much of the class time was spent on this activity where they were given a graphic organizer.  In each box, they had to include one section of ACE.  The teachers have been stressing the importance of ACE throughout the quarter, and many students are understanding the concept, but some still don't understand it.  To further help them, she gave them a rubric.

Now, before 1st period had ended, I was walking around the classroom, monitoring the students' work.  I stopped by a student who had finished, and I was commending her for her individual reading book, The Lightning Thief from the Percy Jackson series (aka one of my favorite series).  We had a short discussion about the book and the movie, and she was excited to keep reading it.  So far, she was enjoying it.  It was one of those moments where I was totally confident in my future as a teacher.  I wanted to share my love of reading with my future students, and I long for conversations like that.  This was only the beginning of my conferencing endeavors for this placement--and this was not event the real, graded version.

Then, Wednesday came, and it was another day of aiding.  I went to my placements as usual, but this time, I chose to venture out of my seat in the back of the classroom.  There were a good 20 minutes until the class would end, and the students were reading their books.  I had two choices:  I could either read my own book (since they didn't look super busy) or I could take the risk and ask if they needed any help.  So I went asked.  They looked at each other, and much to my surprise, they gave me a task--one that I was not expecting.  I thought it would be grading papers or decorating a part of the room, but instead, they asked me to conference with students.

How does conferencing work?  I might have mentioned it before in a previous blog post, but why not talk about it again.  The teacher has a sheet of paper where we ask the students questions about their book, and we have them read aloud to measure their skills.  For first period, I conferenced with a couple of students, and for third, I conferenced with one.  They were to tell me the title of the book, respond if they believe it is easy, just right, or challenging for them and why, and whether it was teacher recommended or self-selected.  The next question, possibly one of the most important questions, is, "Can you tell me what the book is about/ what is going on in the book?"  In this part, I kind of gauge how far they are into the book, and measure the amount of detail that they are including in their description.  Then, I would grade them as excellent, average, or poor and give a brief explanation.  After, I would let them read aloud and measure if they are going too, reading with feeling, etc.

I actually got to talk with students about their books.  I felt like a teacher for the first time this semester.  It felt really good.

For this upcoming week, my goals are the following:

• more conferencing, more fun
• talk to students more
• be more confident in getting out of my seat and asking more questions

Well, we shall see what next week will hold.  I bet it will be something pretty swell.

Books vs. Movies: Week 2

For the typical book lover, there is always the common debacle when their favorite book gets turned into a movie.  My favorite books (The Hunger Games, The Book Thief, & Pride and Prejudice) have all been turned into movies, and my stance has remained the same:  the book is ALWAYS better than the movie.

In 7th grade, in addition to the usual read alouds and the individual reading time, the mini lessons were focused on reading a play from their literature textbooks in class (which was also read as an audiobook).  During this time, they read along and made inferences along the way.  The play that they were reading was The Monsters are Due on Maple Street by Rod Serling.  This was actually an episode of The Twilight Zone, an cool, old show that can be fairly creepy at times.  The play in their book was the actual script with stage directions and everything!  Throughout the week they had been reading it and answering analytical questions on a worksheet of their own.  On this question worksheet, they were required to answer the question and provide textual evidence.  I find that very helpful, for when these students enter high school and college, it is so crucial that they cite evidence from the text to make their argument strong.  If I end up being a middle school teacher, I will definitely drill A-E-C (Assertion, Evidence, Commentary) into their heads.  My goal for the week was met; I got to walk around and work with the students if they had questions about the questions they had to answer!  It was really cool to be able to help them!

Back in 8th grade, the students were still writing their License Plate papers which were due last Friday.  In my future classroom, that would not be acceptable at all.  I believe that if you are not at least somewhat stern with students, they will never grow and learn.  Sometimes, it takes that zero for them to realize that they need to work hard and put effort into their tasks.  Real life will not be that simple.

During Mrs. DeGonia's classes, I did a lot of grading papers and assignments for completion and helped out with putting together an online grade book for the teacher called Zip Grade. She needed help inputting the students' names into the system, so I spent much of my Monday doing that.  Zip Grade also has a fun feature where you can print out scantrons and have a mobile device or tablet scan them and give an immediate grade.  I will have to look more into Zip Grade to see if that is something I can utilize in my future classroom.


That week, the 8th graders also had a vocabulary test coming up on Friday, so Wednesday was spent playing vocabulary games like Heads Up so that the students could continue to practice before they are assessed.  I believe that vocabulary games are so beneficial.  When I was a student, I found it very helpful in remembering vocabulary words and committing them to memory.  Also, they got to read the license plate papers in class.  When Friday finally came, the teacher had spent too much time helping them review.  When they eventually got to taking the test, they maybe had 30 minutes, and not everyone finished.  So, she told them that she would let them finish the tests later that day, which I did not agree with.  I believe that she should have just given them the entire class period to work on the test.  They had two weeks to memorize these vocabulary words.  It is their fault if they do not know the words by that time when she had given them sufficient time and practice.

Let's go back to 7th grade Reading.  Finally, on Thursday, Mrs. Largent's classes got to watch the episode of the Twilight Zone.  Their goal on Friday was to compare their visualizations in text to the show.  She had a class discussion and assessed them based on that.  She introduced a 321 Comparison:  3 things that are the same, 2 things that are different, and 1 character visualization (text vs. tv show).  Many of the students, from what I could gather, enjoyed the tv show, but were frustrated that some of the things were not the same.  the book lover in me was very pleased with this thought.  The students gave great insight and recognized a lot of differences.

In my future classroom, I will definitely integrate this into my curriculum.  I think it will help my students think analytically about the content and better understand the content.  It's one thing to visualize what is going on in their heads, but many times, seeing a visual representation through a movie can help articulate their thoughts.  The true challenge is helping them to understand the differences between the text and the movie.  Making these differentiations can help students compare and contrast more difficult texts in the future.  It is both foundational and fun.

So, what's better the book or the movie?  I will always say the book, no matter what.  The visual representation in a movie is helpful in understanding the book more, but I will admit, at times the movie can be super awesome.  I mean, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games did a pretty good job.  It made me more passionate about what I was reading and watching.

As I finish off this week, my goal is to get to know more students and get to walk around the classroom a lot more.  I also want the opportunity to read to the students during the read aloud rather than listening, that way I have something to do, and the students can get to know me a little more.

See you next week.  Miss Kliora, out.

Back to 7th Grade: Week 1

Well, this week was my first week of aiding for my Junior year of college.  It's so exciting to finally get back into my aspirations as a future English teacher after a long summer of working as a camp counselor.

For my Fall semester, I was put with a 7th Grade Reading teacher, Mrs. Largent, at a local junior high school.  I work with her during the 1st and 3rd periods of the school day and with an 8th grade Language Arts teacher, Mrs. DeGonia, during the 2nd period, every single Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  One thing that was interesting was that Mrs. Largent's classroom was a co-taught classroom.  Miss Kats has a specialty in Special Education and in English, which informed me that there were students in the class that may have had some sort of disability.  Since the students did not really know me yet, my entire week was spent observing, which I was a little bummed about, but I learned a lot about how each class typically works.

At the beginning of the class period, the students would write the "Agenda" for today in their assignment notebooks while the teacher would pick 2 helpers to hand out folders and check whether or not their peers had written down the agenda.  Then, they would have a check-in to see where the students are at in their individual reading books.  Either Mrs. Largent or Miss Kats would call their name, and they would respond with the page number that they are currently on.

When I first talked with Mrs. Largent, she said that the classroom curriculum circulates around the new Reading Workshop.  In the Reading Workshop format, students are required to choose a text based on their reading level (determined by MAP testing), and write logs or journals about what they have read.  Also in this format, students take part in read alouds where they will be required to think critically about the text.

The book that they are reading for their read aloud is entitled Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper.  This novel is about a teenage girl named Melody who has cerebral palsy.  During this read aloud, they are supposed to listen and use their "thinking voices."  Thinking voices are used not just for comprehension, but the expectation is that these students will make inferences about the story, characters, conflict, etc.  They can make connections, predictions, or pretty much say anything that is on their mind about the text, and it counts for participation points.  I can see myself using this technique in my classroom.  I feel like if I can choose the right read aloud, I can engage them and it will allow them to think critically about what they are reading.

After the read aloud, the teachers will lead/ teach a mini lesson.  This week, their mini lessons were about the elements of drama.  They spent some time reading about these elements aloud in class and even played a quick game to test their knowledge.  When the agenda for the day is done, then the students have time to work on their RRLs or Reading Response logs.  In order to assess that the students are understanding the content and working towards their individual goals, they fill out a section of the log each day that has tasks surrounding mini lessons.  In this way, they can connect the mini lessons to their own book!  In my opinion, I prefer reading journals, but for 7th graders, I believe that this is the perfect way for them to start thinking about setting and connections so that they can eventually ease into journals.  In addition, both of the teachers will conference with the students about their books as a way of assessing them.  In this conferencing, they will ask the student to talk about their book, whether it is hard, easy, or just right for them, and have them read aloud at the end.

Not the actual BINGO that they use, but something similar to this.

When it comes to 2nd period, I am invited into a different subject and overall experience.  Typically, each of Mrs. DeGonia's classes starts out with a writing bingo.  For ten minutes at the beginning of each class, she will have them write about a prompt from their own BINGO sheet.  So far, no one has received 5 in a row, so I do not know what the prize is.  But, I think that an activity like this would be beneficial in my future classroom, because it gets students into the habit of continuously writing.  Some of these BINGO prompts were about giving a tribute to any character, talking about their favorite subject, or arguing why or why not kids should be allowed to vote.  This also gives students an opportunity to not only be creative, but be able to think critically about their own beliefs.

For her class this week, they had a writing assignment due at the end of the week.  They were given ample time in class to complete it, but they truly squandered their time by talking and goofing around.  Their prompt was very interesting; the students had to create their own license plate and give two reasons why this license plate applies to them.  They needed an introduction, at least two body paragraphs, and a conclusion.  On Friday, I was actually given the opportunity to walk around and help students if they had any questions.  Some did have questions, and I only hope that my answers were helpful to them.

Overall, it was a really informative week.  My main goal for the upcoming week is to get to walk around more and answer students' questions.  I really want them to be more comfortable with me and know me as more than just the adult in the back of the room.  I want them to be able to see me as a teacher.

I'm excited to work with these classes!