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!