o
To what extent were you were expected to follow a scripted
curriculum, or add your own
ideas
to a curriculum that already exists, or create a unit that is
entirely new?
For
writing, it was pretty much up to me how much I wanted to follow the
Reading Street prompts. My mentor teacher was extremely helpful
towards me and gave me leniency on what I could do. While it was
lenient, I still needed to hit all the standards that the book
mentioned and make sure students wrote in and organized fashion.
Outside of my unit planning, I was expected follow the Reading Street
curriculum when it came to the reading portion of the book. My
mentor teacher picked and chose what parts she wanted me to hit on.
She would always have me go over the parts that involved common core
standards.
o
What was unproblematic and/or challenging about planning a unit in
this context?
Explaining
sensory detail to the whole group was unproblematic. It was easy for
them to work together to find sensory details. The challenges
occurred when they were asked to write these details in their own
writings.
o
What obstacles did you face? How did you overcome them?
One
specific challenge was the one on one conferences. To begin, I would
get stuck with one student for so long that I did not give even time
to all the students who needed it. I also feel like all of the
students were begging for attention and help. I overcame this by
telling students I would come back to them and having students, who
were farther along, edit each others' papers.
o
How did working on developing your ‘core practice’ influence the
types of learning
opportunities
you were able to offer your students?
It
gave me the opportunity to see how students can work together and
help one another. It also showed me that spending less time on the
outline is ideal. In my class, we spent too much time on the draft
and it did not necessarily help them to write the paper quickly.
o
What dilemmas (if any) did you face and how did you manage them?
Consider issues
that
may relate to developing your professional identity, developing
strong teacher student
relationships,
constructing relevant curriculum, or assessing students in
meaningful
and productive ways.
Originally
I thought it would be simple for the students to write their paper
after filling out their outlines but I was wrong. Spending an
extended amount of time on the outline seemed too abstract to them
for relating it to their writing. This benefited me professionally
because I will make outlines a day tops of work, so students see the
direct correlation it will have with their paper.
o
What enabled you to be successful?
Discussing
ideas with my mentor teacher helped me to implement more effective
plans. She told me that if I modal a writing that would help my
students. It was helpful, but students still struggled. I think
next time I will do like the book says and write my writing in front
of the students, instead of having it already prepared. Writing is a
definite struggle for my classes because they do it so little, but
many of the students created coherent descriptive writings that were
enjoyable to read.
o
Did the unit proceed as you expected? Why or why not?
It
did not, but I learned a lot about how instruction can not be
abstract to start off with. Students need explicit instruction and
then to be slowly released from supervision. When I did not give
explicit instruction, very few students gained valuable knowledge
from my lesson. This was my first lesson, where we analyzed a song.
I then restructured my lesson to be more explicit and it went much
better.
o
What surprises or “aha moments” did you experience?
Although
we read about modeling, it clicked more when I did it myself.
Students really respond well to seeing everything they have to do,
before they do it. I had a finished models of writing for them in
this unit plan. One came from me and was a descriptive piece about
my morning and another was a student who had finished her writing
early. I think it would have been even better, if I modeled the
process while creating the piece to show them that you edit along the
way and after.
o
What do you still need to learn about teaching in this target area,
about your developing
your
‘core practice’ and about teaching literacy in general?
I
still need to learn how make students' writing processes the best I
can with in 15 minutes. It seems really difficult, but I think it
can be done. An easy way to do this is to create opportunities for
modeling, that is short and sweet. I want to learn the best way to
model for students and keep them engaged while doing so. Next
semester, I will be able to attempt these goals. For the end of this
semester, I am mostly working with math.
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