Entry 15 ~ Reaction and Insight

I had a great practicum this semester that caused me to think and compare and glean. My teacher, Mrs. Grigg, was very cooperative and I learned a lot from her. I have gleaned from this practicum that balanced literacy really changes the way I teach. Also, engaging the students in meaningful conversation is key for comprehension, and making the classroom into a community is one of the most influential things I can do as a teacher.
As far as spiritual insights goes, my actions show my love. Like I said previously, one of the things I gleaned from the most was making the classroom a community. The students won't learn if I do not pay attention to them and show them Christ's love. As a teacher, Christ should live in me so that I can share Him with my students, no matter what school I am at.

Entry 1 ~ What I've Learned

If you would have met me at the beginning of the semester, and asked me about teaching, I would have said something to the extent of "yeah, I'm excited...kind of." But now, after this semester, I cannot WAIT to teach!! I have learned SO SO SO much from everything Ms. Huntley has taught, what I have experienced, and what I have accomplished. I have learned that language arts is the most important thing that you must teach in the classroom. Everything else adds on to that. I have learned that balanced literacy is so important, that a word wall in my classroom is a MUST, and that the Gradual Release of Responsibility lived out in my classroom will grow my students from completely reliant on me, to independent and great, purposeful readers, writers and thinkers. I have learned teaching methods that give me the desire to be a fantastic teacher. I have learned to respect my students, no matter who they are or where they come from.
My cooperating teacher, Mrs. Grigg, has been influential. I have learned a lot from her and her classroom; what TO do and what NOT to do. It is really interesting and lifechanging to read about methods in the textbook and then see those lived out in the classroom, or the absence of it. For example, I did not know how influential shared readings were to the students until I did my lesson in the classroom. Mrs. Grigg does not do any shared readings, but when I did mine, the students were receptive. I even heard one say, "That was fun!" The great thing about shared readings are that the students really do become more fluent and love to read in a group. It builds confidence in them and makes them better readers.
I am getting more comfortable in the classroom, and in the methods and materials of elementary teaching. I get excited to make lesson plans, and the final project has really helped me think about how to integrate the teacher handbooks into balanced literacy. Through this semester, I feel like I have transformed from a college student, who majors in Elementary Education, to a teacher-candidate.

Entry 14 ~ Evaluation

Mrs. Grigg formally evaluates the students' reading in guided reading groups and through the standardized testing that the administration requires. The standardized testing includes reading sight words, words per minute, and comprehension.

She informally evaluates reading when she asks questions about the math problems. She asks certain students to read the problems if they are having trouble with them. This way she sees if they are having trouble reading the words or trouble comprehending. She can also evaluate fluency that way. She can also evaluate informally during guided reading. She evaluates them when they informally read aloud when getting their library books.

Entry 13 ~ Respect

As I was beginning to write this section, I received a tweet on Twitter from Joyce Meyer. She said, "Love can only really be seen and felt through words and action." I thought about this statement with the context of teaching in mind. Mrs. Grigg does have genuine respect for her students. I can see it through her words and action. She is always affirming them and encouraging them to do their best. She treats them as individuals and listens to them with respect. She treats them all with equality and you can tell she really loves them. She gives lots of hugs and listens to them when they have something going on at home or socially that they need to talk about.

I can tell that she really loves teaching as well because she is patient and kind to the students, and has great ideas for lessons. She is optimistic and happy most of the time, and does not dread coming to school. She has a positive outlook on life, and that really influences the students. They respect her as well, because she respects them.

Entry 12 ~ Language Arts Development

Reading: There are many ways to develop reading in the daily curriculum. Mrs. Grigg does a read-aloud every morning to show how to think about their thinking when the students are reading independently. They have time to go to the library a couple of times during the week. There are also guided reading groups that happen during literacy centers daily. Finally, students develop reading during independent reading time during the day.

Writing: There are opportunities to develop writing as well. In every unit, Mrs. Grigg includes a writing requirement where the students write about what they have learned. For example, they were doing a unit on bats and they had to come up with several facts about bats to write about. They also write about the observations they make in science lab. They write about what they detect with their five senses, and this gives them an opportunity to add new words into their writing vocabulary that are descriptive of the materials.

Listening: The students listen to instructions and readings from the teacher. They also have a listening center for literacy centers.

Speaking: They do chants and sing songs that cement math and phonics in their minds. Mrs. Grigg does not waste any time, and when they walk down the hall, they are chanting something. They also spell their word sort words out loud to a partner and guided reading is about speaking the written words as well.

Viewing: The students view short videos teaching phonics or introducing a unit. They see posters on the walls of different things they are learning about, and words they are learning. In the computer lab, they play math games that help them learn because they view the problems in animation form.

Visually Representing: There is some visual representation happening in the classroom. When students are working on a project for a unit, they create something to go along with their written project. For example, they decorated a turkey in an outfit that would act like a disguise. Some of the end results were: a doctor, a rockstar, and sports player, etc. They visually represented what they wrote about.

Entry 11 ~ Literature in Daily Curriculum

Literature does play a role in the daily curriculum. For second grade, it does not have as big of a role as some other parts of the curriculum, though. The definition for literature I found is: writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features. Mrs. Grigg uses poems every once in a while, but she has done a unit on biography and the students created their own autobiography after reading part of a biography. But most of the books read are ones that are children's books. Some are children's literature. If I were to add something to the curriculum, literature would be one of the top items on my list. I think that the students would enjoy more of a variety of literature, because many of what is read is not of universal interest.

Entry 10 ~ Audiovisuals

The audiovisuals are displayed on the SMARTboard in the room. Mrs. Grigg uses audiovisuals every day to assist in students' learning. She shows videos on phonics concepts such as the silent e. She also uses the SMARTboard to go over math problems and for word work. During my interactive writing lesson, I did a small powerpoint as well as a video. The students love watching videos. They are very visual learners and once they see it in several forms, they get it. The SMARTboard enhances the lessons and is used daily.

There are also two computers in the room for student use, but I do not know how often they are used.

Entry 9 ~ Individual Differences

One of the things that I love about Mrs. Grigg is that she values each student for their differences. She rejoices when David learns more of his sight words, though on a kindergarten/1st grade level because he is an ELL. She helps Keith read by providing a tool to do so. She calms Reese's nerves. She admires Sidney's creativity and Jenna's leadership. She loves hearing from Carmen, who is continually building her fluency. She roots Ian on in his wrestling matches and goes to the students' school plays. She differentiates instruction to make it meaningful and purposeful for all the students. She celebrates each child, and realizes that their learning styles are all different. She explains to her students that there are many ways to get a solution for a math problem, and has several students explain how they did a problem. She makes time to spend with each student who needs help with their writing, editing, math, etc.

I desire to have as much love as Mrs. Grigg does for her classroom. She recognizes the students' differences and celebrates them. She uses their strengths to help the other students. I can tell that she is one of those teachers that college-aged students will remember as their favorite teacher. And that is who I want to be. We all are different, and that's what is the great thing about living in a community together. We can learn and glean from each other.

Entry 8 ~ Discipline Measures

There are two disciplinary actions taken in the classroom daily by Mrs. Grigg. I feel like she handles them well and doesn't let disciplining the students disrupt the classroom. The first one is "laps". This means that during recess, the students have to walk/run around the track the number of laps they have earned. The instances where this would be useful is when a student isn't following directions or is disturbing a classmate, etc. This is used for mostly minor things. Mrs. Grigg used this as her main disciplinary action at the beginning of the year. The reasoning behind this is that, instead of putting them "on the fence" for a certain number of minutes, they get more energy out by walking/running laps.

The second discipline measure taken is more serious. This is when the student has done something repeatedly after being warned. For instance, one of the girls in the class makes remarks that are like instructions or something that a teacher would say to another student, which is disrespectful to Mrs. Grigg. Mrs. Grigg knows the girl is power hungry, and she has warned the student many times. To discipline in this area, Mrs. Grigg only has to say, "[Student], go put your folder on my desk." This refers to the individual red folders each student has in their mailboxes by the door. The red folder goes home every night, and so Mrs. Grigg and the parents can keep track of disciplinary actions. This is done more frequently now, since the students know the rules of the classroom.

For the first discipline measure, I think that it is a fabulous idea. Not only do students build up so much energy sitting in the classroom, but it encourages healthy lifestyles. Though we may be taking our students outside for recess, many of them may not do any physical activity. Girls like to sit and talk; boys may exchange sports cards, etc. This helps them release the built up energy so that they are focused when they come back to the classroom.

The second action taken has its pros and cons. The pros are that it is not disruptive to the class, the student has a visual picture that they did not follow the rules of the classroom, and the parents are directly involved. The cons are that it does not promote community, it is a one-time deal for the day, especially if the teacher is behind in writing in the folder, and though there may be physical representation, it is easy for the student and teacher to forget about it as the piles build up on the teacher's desk.

Mrs. Grigg handles classroom management quite well, without singling students out. She is loving but sticks to her word. That is the kind of teacher I want to be. I would change the second method of disciplining to something more visual, and not as demanding of me as the teacher, yet it is implanted into the student's mind.

Entry 7 ~ Gradual Release of Responsibility

Mrs. Grigg gradually releases responsibility by starting off the day with a read-aloud, which promotes community and "I do, you watch" mentality. She is great about getting the students predicting and thinking about the story. She does guided reading with small groups of students. She makes them feel safe and that they are in a community so that the students aren't afraid to read or speak. She also promotes independent reading, which the students love! They are happy to read independently while waiting for the rest of the class to finish an assignment. My goal as a teacher is to have independent reading be enjoyable for my students, like it is for these students. For reading, Mrs. Grigg should include shared readings, because then she would be fully gradually releasing responsibility. I can see that there are many times when students do not understand math problems, so they ask her for help. If they learned how to do read and comprehend the problems together in a group for a shared reading, they would not be spending as much time on math because everyone would not have questions.

For writing, Mrs. Grigg models writing for the students well and makes sure they understand what to write about, but then jumps to having them independently write. She does do some scaffolding, like what Bruner says to do, by having them write a rough draft first so that she can look over it and help them edit it before putting it onto "fancy paper". Something that I have noticed is that a lot of Mrs. Grigg's teaching is compartmentalized. When focusing on writing, it is just WRITING. Not writing and phonics, etc.

One lesson that stands out in my mind where she gradually released responsibility with her students was when they went to the computer lab for the first time this year. When she brought them into the lab, she showed them where to go on the computers to get to the website she wanted them to get to. Then she assisted them while they went to the website by giving guiding instructions and showing them how to type in their names and passwords, etc. By the next week, the students were in stages three and four of the GRR. I like how she implemented Pearson's theory in an avenue of learning that is not directly related to language arts, though listening and comprehending are big parts of that.

Entry 6 ~ Classroom Arrangement

I have really learned so much through this practicum this semester. One thing that I know now is absolutely necessary in the classroom from the beginning of the year is a word wall. It was only a few weeks ago when I walked into the classroom to find that a word wall had been started. The school I am at is in the Union District and the administration has created the testing program where the students read lists of sight words, read stories for comprehension, and are tested on phonics as well. In three times this semester when I visited the classroom, I tested the students individually on their sight words. The first two times I tested the students, the majority of them were below-level. This was before Mrs. Grigg had put up the word wall in her classroom. The students were semi-familiar with the sight words because they had done activities with them, yet they were still scoring low on the tests. The third time I tested the students, most of them mastered (95/100 right) the sight words. This time the word wall had been up. Now, I understand that the reason why the students did well the third time was not solely because of the word wall being put up, because they had been learning more etc., but I believe that it did make a big difference. The interesting thing is, though, that the teacher chose to place the word wall in the back corner of the room.

The desks have changed formation two times while I have visited the classroom. When I got to the classroom, the desks were all separated into singles. Mrs. Grigg said that she had started the school year with the desks in groups of 4-5 but the students were too "chatty" and so she separated them. After a few weeks, the desks were put into 5 rows. And the last two times I came, the desks were put into a U shape, with the opening at the front of the classroom. I don't know why they were changed the past couple of times. My thinking on this is that the students will still be chatty even though their desks are not in clusters. I would build a community with the students and I would tell them that when one person of the community is speaking, the rest of us are listening, and you cannot speak and listen at the same time. If they do become more talkative and do not listen, I would take away a privilege that can be earned back if they listen. I don't want them to stop talking overall, because speaking helps their thinking. But it is important to put the responsibility on them to listen.

Each student has a folder for their library books and other books on the back of their chairs. There is a cover that goes over the front and back of the chair to give it more leverage, and then the folder is attached to the back. This gives the students more room to put books and papers other than their desks. A lot of times, the students have to grapple with them though, because they are pretty flimsy. I know that this is probably a makeshift idea, but I would rather get wood with the money spent on these and have someone build me a cubby area I can put on the ground by their backpack hooks to use for that.

The classroom is not very literate-rich. Of the little posters Mrs. Grigg has in the classroom, the majority of them aare published. She has a few posters up by the front of the room. She also has a math poster that has some of the math concepts they are learning on it. She does not do any shared readings or interactive writings This is also probably another reason why the students are below-level in reading and spelling.

There is a group time area on the floor by the calendar area, where Mrs. Grigg has a cart with small dry erase board that she uses. This area is well used for the amount of room in the classroom. I have noticed that the calendar area is almost never used, and Mrs. Grigg does not even change the days everyday (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow). I understand the time crunch, but the students need to learn how to use a calendar. But other than that, this is where they have read-alouds, and the white board is well-used for minilessons during the read-aloud.

Mrs. Grigg's room is not very conducive for the language arts program. Though there is a word wall and there is ample room for group time, the classroom is not literate rich.

Entry 5 ~ Instructional Methods

Mrs. Grigg uses balanced literacy for parts of her day. She does a read-aloud every morning, usually on a specific unit. For the first few weeks I was there though, she read a book that did not really have a specific purpose except for to get the students' thinking. For me, I would rather have my instruction be integrated so that it has a dual purpose, and let the students read for fun during independent reading. But she may have done this just to get the students into a routine for the school days.

Mrs. Grigg also does making words activities to familiarize students with the high-frequency words. They do timed word sorts for spelling. Another way they do this is they get in random partners and take turns spelling the word sort words. I, personally, would form partners for each student so that the students do not just get with their friends, but they are actually being challenged.

When the students are asked to write, they always have a writing prompt. They never free write. It is always, "Write five sentences about __________". I know this is needed sometimes when they are reflecting on what they are observing in science, or the teacher gives them a topic, but there also should be times that they have the opportunity to write what they want to write.

Another thing that Mrs. Grigg promotes is a lot of chanting and music. They watch videos about the silent e and chant even numbers or odd numbers. This is a great way to get the instruction stuck in their heads. During one of my lessons, I showed a video with music about bats, and they kept singing it after the lesson was over. I attached the video below. I can tell that is a way to get knowledge into the students' long-term memory.

Entry 4 ~ Instructional Materials

Mrs. Grigg has taped a number grid to the top right corner of each desk, so that the students can use it for math problems. The students who are struggling with math use it a lot to do addition and subtraction. The students do their math work out of a workbook. The teacher has them do a page by themselves, but the majority of them come to her when they have questions. During math time, she is usually glued to her desk while students come ask questions or have her look over the page. I fell like this time could be better used if she had more management in this area. Even if they had different materials and she was standing up and walking around to help each one, it would go a lot faster.

Mrs. Grigg has browsing boxes at the front of the room for the students for the different levels. She also introduces a read-aloud book every day. She gets these books from the school library.

The few times I was able to go to the science lab with the class, the teacher seemed to have a good resource with materials the students could use.

Mrs. Grigg has cupboards full of instructional materials. I do not know if they will use them, but they are available to the teacher and students.

Entry 3 ~ Are the students thinking about their thinking? Or is the teacher thinking for the class? I think...

The teacher engages the students in thinking by discussing connections after read-alouds. But, the students are usually really talkative about the book after they get done and start talking to each other, but the teacher shuts down the talk and has each student raise his/her hand when he/she wants to say something. I would have them turn and talk with a partner about what they thought about the book before I brought it all together. That way the students can say what they need to say, and the discussion with the entire group is shorter because all of the students are not rambling on, they can collect their thoughts beforehand.

She engages their thinking also when they are doing math together. After they have done a problem, she asks different students how they did the problem and talked about the different strategies to do a problem. The teacher is doing a lot of the thinking though, because many of the students do not connect the different strategies- they use their strategy and that's all. To change this, I might have them talk at their tables and show how they got the answer, so it is more student-oriented. I know she has the right idea, because one collaborative mind can do much more than many single minds can, but I think that the students do not really pay attention to the other strategies because they found a good way to do each problem, so that's what they do.

Entry 2 ~ Conversational Learning

I can tell that the teacher (Mrs. Grigg) really cares for her students and wants the best for them. For example, the day they were performing their musical, one of the girls was very nervous, and Mrs. Grigg calmed her down and gave her a hug.

As for conversational learning, the teacher labels the students' thinking. An example of this would be when she is doing a read-aloud, the students will make predictions and observations and she uses those terms to label what they are thinking. They have conversation during read-alouds, and she does a good job to anchor their thinking. We had talked before about how the administration wants the teachers to implement balanced literacy. I think that she wants to teach with balanced literacy, but she only uses it for part of the day, so she doesn't know the full purpose of it. During science lab, she uses open-ended questions to guide students' learning. But during math and word work, conversational learning lacks.

Mrs. Grigg's Second Grade Class Contextual Info

My practicum is located at Cedar Ridge Elementary School in the Union District. I am placed in Mrs. Grigg's Second Grade class.

A. Class/Classroom Information
Grade levels in class: 2nd
Ages in class: 7-8
Number of students enrolled in class: 21
Number of students typically present: 21
Time available each day to teach all students: 5 hours
How would you rate the overall socioeconomic status represented in the classroom: Middle Class
Ethnicities represented:

• African American (3)
• Hispanic (4)
• Caucasian (14)

Gender Make-up:

• Males: 12
• Females: 9

Number of students who perform at the following levels:

• Below grade level: 7
• At grade level: 9
• Above grade level: 5

Teaching interruptions: few

B. Resources (equipment and supplies) available for this class.

Overhead projector (X)

Number of computer(s) (3)

Video projector (X)

Phone/Intercom (X)

Other: whiteboard, smartboard, Horshoe table and chairs

C. Personnel resources available to you:

• Parent volunteers
• Resource teachers

D. Individual Differences

Number of ESL students in class: 1

Number of non-English speakers: 0

Number of students in class with IEP's: 0

Number of identified 504 students: 0

E. Number of students in pull-out or supplementary programs

Title I: 2

Gifted: 0

Other: 9 in a different pull-out program

F. Please briefly describe the school's immediate community:
Population: 591,982
Please list major industries: energy, business, oil, and gas
Please list major employers: American Airlines, Tulsa Public Schools, City of Tulsa, St. Francis Hospital, St. John Medical Center
Students in classroom mostly from: Suburban areas
Describe school district:

• Elementary schools (13)
• Middle schools (2)
• High schools (3)

Are there any of the following in your community?

• Community Colleges (X)
• Career Technology Schools (X)
• Colleges (X)
• Universities (X)

G. Narrative

For this classroom, there are several implications that will require flexibility of instruction. Since there is one ELL in the class, I need to make sure that my instructions and teaching is clear for him to understand. If I give him a math worksheet, and I know he can answer the questions, but he does not understand the question, I have not given him my best so that he can do his best. To assess him, it is probably easier to assess him orally instead of written assessment. So, for a test, I would test him individually later in the day.

The fact that one third of the class is below grade level means that my teaching methods need to still challenge those on grade level and above grade level, while those below grade level understand everything and are learning without becoming frustrated and burnt out. My instruction needs to be differentiated to hit every level. Shared Reading and Interactive Writing are two instructional methods that do this.
One problem I saw when I was observing this semester was that when the students in the supplementary programs went to those programs, they missed a important chunk of teaching time. This may be inevitable in some circumstances, but I would rather do my read-aloud when they are there, because I can differentiate instruction to help them learn, and have them go during a time that may be downtime for the rest of the class, such as recess, or have it be like one of their centers. But I do recognize that the times do not always overlap. If the students do miss part of the class that is foundational, it is important to pull them aside sometime during the day and give them instruction, or do a minilesson with them.
When I do activities with the students, it is important to keep in mind their ethnicities and backgrounds. I would not want to do anything that would make them uncomfortable, such as round robin reading, because that obliterates the feeling of community. Round robin reading is an individualist technique that would make my hispanic students nervous because they are used to doing things together and being in a community, not being singled out.
In all of these situations, it is important for me to be respectful and understanding in my teaching methods, assessment, activities, and instructions.