Literature circles in Ms. Scott's 2nd grade

Hello all,

I was very impressed today with the literature circles that were being formed in second grade (two of the classes).  Ms. Scott and another 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Thomson, are working together with all of their students combined.  For 25 minutes everyday, students are divided into smaller literature groups and assigned to an adult.  With the two teachers, assistants, and reading specialists, the children are able to be in groups of 7-8 and have an adult all to themselves.  I thought this was an amazing opportunity for both the teacher and the students because the students were able to get more individual attention, while the teachers were able to assess and gain more knowledge about each student. I am anxious to see how these smaller group literature circles play out for the rest of the semester!

Today, before literature circle that is, I worked individually with the student that I am going to pick for my kidwatching observation.  I have been working with him since the first day that I was at University.  It is nice to see him open up to me and feel more comfortable being himself.  Today I felt like we accomplished a lot by writing his "Magic Leaf" story.  He seemed very proud once he finished the piece of writing, as I did too!

In our E340 class, I have really enjoyed teaching the lessons that I prepared (or my group). Though it is very different teaching in front of our peers in placement for our future students, I have found it very helpful in guiding me to be more comfortable speaking out loud and in public.  These lessons have also helped in boosting my self-confidence.  I think going through the process of constructing our own lesson plans has helped immensely because it allows us to gain more knowledge of the entire process.

--Marisa

We Are Always Learning...

Today was our second day at University.  I still feel fairly new to the school environment and students, but I am slowly getting the hang of it.  I have been doing a lot of one-on-one work with a new student.  Since today's word of the day was moon, we did a lot of activities to help guide the process of understanding the meaning of the word and how it can be used in various sentences.  The second graders are learning how to use a dictionary so we started out by looking up moon in the dictionary.  It is a lot harder than one may think.  Alphabetical order is a newly learned concept for second graders so it took sometime to find the letter M and then go in alphabetical order to find mo.  Once we finished the dictionary assignment we had to construct sentences with this weeks spelling words.  Since the spelling word sentences took a chunk of time, we did not have time to write about the moon in his journal.  I think next week I may try doing the journal first.

In class today I really enjoyed sharing our craft lessons with our peers.  In my group we had a situation where two lessons that we picked to teach were the same lessons.  I learned how important it is for teachers to not get bent out of shape if their lesson doesn't go perfectly as planned.  Instead, we were able to think of an alternative to our lessons and on the spot make it work.  In a real class setting this can happen to any teacher and it was a good lesson to learn.

I think the book "Up, Up, Up, Down" was a great example of how teachers can get their students engaged in the literature.  The entire class participated and followed along with the story and we all seemed to enjoy it!

I am excited for our lessons (invitations) next week!

Marisa

"Teach a child how to think, not what to think." - Sidney Sugarman

Long but productive day!

Hello all,

Today was very tiring after going to University for the first time.  I am in need of a nap soon!  I am exciting to start working with our new WN partners.  I think this is a great way to get to know one another and get in the swing of conferencing.

In class I felt it very helpful to go over the different ways of interpreting text (ex. sound words and show don't tell).  By doing this activity with just our classmates, I was able to realize that there were many interpretations that I didn't see that other classmates did. This showed me how differently my future students may interpret the text.  I think this way of learning is great for children because they are able to use their brains and figure out what the author is trying to say.  Like Ms. Coggin stated in class, it is vital to let the students come up with their own ideas.

I am pumped to start mini-lessons in class.  Just from skimming through the Craft Lesson book I got excited.

Hope everyone had a great first day at University!

Marisa

Bedazzling Our Notebooks...

I would first like to start off by saying how much fun I had today making my writer's notebook my own.  I enjoyed cutting out pictures that represented my life.  I feel that my writer's notebook is becoming my own and I am anxious to see what I will have in it by the end of the semester.

Today in class we talked about Fletcher's book on A Writer's Notebook.  I wanted to post a couple quotes or ideas that I wanted to remember:

The first one was on page 54 and it was about his son and his "nightmirror" instead of nightmare.  I thought this memory was adorable and it gave me good ideas of childhood memories that I could write about in my writer's notebook.

The second one is on page 60 about his son and how he made the comment about people "puffing" up.  This memory gave me ideas of writing about my younger brother or even my students in field experience that say cute things that I want to remember.

The last one is on page 133 when Fletcher said that our writer's notebook should fit like our favorite pair of jeans.  I thought he said it perfectly!

We also talked about Spelling in class today.  I was fascinated by all the activities and tools we as future teacher could use with our students.  I think it is very important for us to realize that all students learn differently.  We should set our classroom up so every student can improve their spelling.  Like the example in class today, both students were different learners. 

First E339 class

Hello class,

I am really anxious to get the hang of this "blogging" chatter.  I have used blogger.com during my freshman year when I was enrolled in W200, but I feel that I have forgotten even the basic tools to navigate through my blogger.  The instructions for creating a blog for this class helped a lot!  I am excited to start a new semester of classes, especially now that we are all in clusters!  Time has flown by, I can't believe I will be student teaching next year!

During our first class last week, I felt really intrigued by what we will be doing in this class.  Don't get me wrong, I am not the best reader or writer, but after I left the class I felt confident in what we will be doing and learning.  I am excited to brush up on my writing skills and learn new ways and strategies for writing.  I am looking forward to learning from our instructor as well as each other.  I like that we are all in the same cluter this semester (reading and language arts) because I feel that we will all bond as a class.  I wrote for the first time in my writers notebook this weekend!  I think the writers notebook is a great idea!  I had a diary when I was in grade school but stopped it once I got into middle school.  Having my own writers notebook makes me feel like I am back in grade school writing in my diary.  I like the idea of having our writers notebook as a reference for our future classrooms.  I think it is a unique way to encourage our future students to have their own writers notebook. 

I am eager to get this semester started!

--Marisa