Hong Inquiry 2 Part A Target Area

1.      Describe your target area for guided lead teaching

I will be working on Reading Comprehension/ Strategy Instruction and Writing Instruction for this unit. The topic of the unit would be “how to…” and I will read books on “how to…” and have writing lessons. I do not have clear ideas about how to make the 10lessons, however, I have talked to my mentor teacher and we decided to work on “how to…” lessons. We will read books that have “how to do things” and we will connect the lessons to the readings. Since our school uses both CCSS and GLCE, I will be using both CCSS and GLCE.

2.      Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

We did not discuss exactly how much time we are going to spend for each lesson, but, I am assuming that each lesson will be 30-40 minutes per day. Most of our lessons in our class consist of 30minutes lessons, such as whole group worksheets and writing worksheets. Therefore, I am trying to follow our routines in order to minimize the conflicts among our lessons and the routines.

3.      Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of “how-to” books on a given topic and use them to write a sequence of instructions).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure

4.      How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives? In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

Students start to learn how to follow patterns, routines and directions. As an example, if they learn how to write letters on lines, they will be able to learn how to write letters and use them in their lives such as class lessons and homework. Also, students can learn “how to” do things and behave in certain situations and routines. Since we will be focusing on writing such as letters, words and sentences, they will learn how to read, listen and write; we will read books to support my lessons.

5.      What types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?

We will use whole group talk and individual quiet thinking time. They will first be working at the carpet area for reading and instructions from me and then, they will be seated at their seats. They will work individually at their seats quietly. I will lead the class at first until they get all the instructions, then, they will lead the discussion as they write their works on their worksheets. They might have small conversation where they can share their thoughts about the readings or worksheets as they work on their lessons, however, there will be no specific time for them to discuss about the lessons. They will start from lower-level thinking and as lessons go, I will develop the thinking to higher-level thinking.

6.      Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

We will work on reading aloud and responding to reading as we work on the unit. I will be reading books aloud at first to show different kinds of “how to” books and they will respond to the readings at the carpet area. I will look at their progress; we will collect all the worksheets and results, then, we will see how they improved or did not improve. As an example, we may see one student developed her/his penmanship or spelling.

7.      What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

My mentor teacher provides resources about “how to…” lessons and books which I can develop previous knowledge about the area; I can improve my lesson as I go over all the resources. Also, we will see what they are interested in and what they do outside of school so that I would know which lessons to make. I will go to school library to see if there are any books that are related to our target area; we may check out and read them aloud.

8.      What additional resources do you need to obtain?

I would like to gather more information about first graders’ lessons about “how to….” I think I lack some information about the lessons yet, therefore, I need to check if there are more information about “how to…” from online/ offline resources.

9.      How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?

We will read several “how to…” books before we assess my students. We will briefly discuss about each book during pre-assessment and we will read them aloud again during our assessments, if necessary. I will keep reading the books in order to develop higher-level thinking and let them know how the lessons will be done. My mentor teacher and I decided that reading books several times would help them have deeper knowledge about the topics/ stories.

10.  What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

I need to check if there are any students with special needs and what I can do for them; I already have some ideas/ thoughts about my students, but, I need to work on it with more details. Also, I have to think extra works for students who are in advanced level or who are behind as well. I need to make sure that everyone is following the lessons and instructions.

11.  What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?

I would like to find more information about core practice and similar lessons that other teachers already did in order to collect more information.

12.  What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?

My mentor teacher and I recently decided which topics we are going to do for my unit, therefore, I still need to think more about my plans and lessons