Emma Newton Inquiry 2 Part A

Emma Newton Inquiry 2 Part A

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.
            After observing and informally (and formally on occasion) assessing my first grade students through out the past 3 weeks my mentor teacher and I have realized that the students need to work on their comprehension skills a lot.  I plan on teaching, primarily through modeling and book discussions, various strategies my students can use in order to help them comprehend.  I hope to teach them about a “First Grade 5 Finger Retell,”  (a retell including the characters, setting, beginning, middle and end of a story) text-to-self connections, and visualization.  Additionally (because this is first grade and there is A LOT of time set aside for literacy, I hope to continue working with my students on writing sentences and details that make a sentence a sentence.

2.     Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?
            We do Daily 5 almost everyday.  During time (Daily 5) two hours is set aside for Reading/Literacy time.  However, only one of the two hours is instruction time and the other hour the students are working independently.  Therefore, I have roughly one hour (four 15 minute mini lessons) of instruction time.

3.     Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.9 Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.

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?
            As we have learned in our class readings, comprehension is KEY to reading.  Therefore, by teaching/modeling ways to work on comprehension I will be teaching my students one of the most important aspects of literacy learning and without this skill learning through literacy is impossible.

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)?
            In first grade (especially at this point in the year) I am learning that it is difficult to have a lot of student-led talks.  A lot of the students make a connection to a question or a story, (which is good) but it often leads to an off topic comment /story that does not contribute to the lesson or topic we are attempting to teach about.  However, I have not lost hope, I am thinking that it would be beneficial to teach my students “Do you agree, disagree or have something to add on to what_______ said?”  This I think would help keep students on task and teach them to build off of each other and have more of a students-lead conversation.

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?
            Reading comprehension/strategy instruction.  I hope to learn more about teaching strategies through modeling.  There is a lot of strategies to teach students that will help them comprehend information, and I think it is crucial that students learn these skills.    

7.     What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?
            I plan to use the Elmo and Promethean board if possible, and if I feel (after looking into it more) that it would be beneficial for the students.  Additionally, I have a “5 Finger Retell” glove that has all the elements (and little related pictures) of the “5 Finger Retell” that I hope to teach them about.  This I hope will help them remember all five elements that they should be looking for when reading/including while retelling a story.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?
            As of right now I am not sure what additional resources I will need to obtain.  Depending on if the Promethean board is working, I am considering showing a virtually book/story and using it to model a 5 Finger Retell/ use it to lead into a book discussion.  I am hoping that perhaps the visually pleasing elements/”fun” technology elements that a visual book brings to the table will captivate/interest the students more so that they will pay close attention.  Also, I need to decide what books I want to read aloud- I want students to like/be interested in them!

9.     How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?
            I hope to do some type of informal assessment (mainly because the students are only in 1^st grade.)  This I am thinking will include having the students retell a story as I pay close attention to the elements they include (prior to my unit.)  Additionally I would like to have a book discussion at the beginning of my teaching unit and at the end to see if growth has occurred.  I am hoping they will learn to build off of teach others ideas (still with some teacher guidance) and learn through literacy.

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 want to find out more about what my students are interested in outside of school, and what types of stories they like.  This I think will help me make the lessons more interesting and engaging for my students.  Additionally I believe I need to do more research about how I can help them work toward have a class discussion with each other as opposed to always teacher lead discussions.    

11.   What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?
            I would like to learn more about what I should be keeping consistent (practicing with the students everyday) in order for them to accomplish the goals of my unit plan.  Additionally, I want to know more about where students should be (according to grade level) with respect to the core practice I am attempting to teach.
           

12.   What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?
            I want the students to like/be interested in the lessons.  At times I feel that they easily tune out and do not gain any information from a lesson, but if they are interested/engaged they actively participate and clearly take something away from the lesson.  Additionally I am concerned that time will not go smoothly.  Daily 5 is a tight/strict schedule and I want to be able to keep the students routine the same so that it is not too much change for them taking place all at once.