Caroline Paredes; Inquiry Two, Part A

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

o    I am going to be teaching the Fantasy unit for my guided lead teaching. Within the Fantasy unit, I will teaching the children about the genre itself (i.e. what it is, how it differs from other non-fiction writing, common language, plot, etc.), writing fantasy, and reading fantasy. I will most likely be reading from Coraline as a group read aloud, with the integration of a recorded reading by the author. We will also continue to work on reading comprehension strategies (i.e. visualizing, making connections, inferring, etc.)

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

o    60 minutes a day, 4 to 5 times a week.

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

o    Reading Standards for Literature; Integration of knowledge and ideas. Grade 5, No. 7.

§  Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem)

o    Writing Standards; Text Types and Purposes. Grade 5, No. 3.

§  3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined

experiences or events using effective technique,

descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

a. Orient the reader by establishing a situation

and introducing a narrator and/or characters;

organize an event sequence that unfolds

naturally.

b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue,

description, and pacing, to develop

experiences and events or show the responses

of characters to situations.

c. Use a variety of transitional words, phrases,

and clauses to manage the sequence of events.

d. Use concrete words and phrases and sensory

details to convey experiences and events

precisely.

e. Provide a conclusion that follows from the

narrated experiences or events.

o    Writing Standards; Production and distribution of writing. Grade 5, No. 4 and 5.

§  4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the

development and organization are appropriate

to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific

expectations for writing types are defined in

standards 1–3 above.)

§  5. With guidance and support from peers and adults,

develop and strengthen writing as needed by

planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a

new approach. (Editing for conventions should

demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3

up to and including grade 5 on pages 28 and 29.)

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? (I still don’t entirely understand what this last sentence means but I will do my best)

o    Students will be working on developing and finessing their reading comprehension through the use of Coraline and also their writing through activities that ask students to write their own fantasy stories while using various components of the writing process to do so. These aforementioned skills are extremely useful to the children’s life now and in the future. Having a high skill level of reading comprehension and writing will directly help the students both inside and outside of school for the rest of their lives. Before going through with them, they will be made aware of the writing process and what it does for their writing, as well as how read-alouds are beneficial for them. Once they begin doing so, they will then learn through the literacy.

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)?

o    The talk involved in the interactive read-aloud of Coraline will be mostly teacher-led; however, there is still room for student-talk to occur. For example, I enjoyed the piece on pages 78-79 of Strategies That Work which explained how you could have children focus more on their thought process during reading as opposed to the reading itself during an interactive read-aloud. By doing this, they are then better able to understand the thinking that is involved in their reading, and when they might be drifting away from text comprehension. One activity that is done is that the instructor will stop reading at certain parts and ask students to turn to their partner and share exactly what was in their mind at that moment when reading, so that they may “see” their own thinking through conversation. I would also like to see some student-led discussion from my students. While they have not done this type of discussion in the classroom thus far, I feel as if the students are mature enough to be able to do so with little to no problem. I want to see the students sitting in a circle and having an active discussion with one another without necessarily always raising their hand to speak, and with little teacher interaction on my part.

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?

o    The core practice I would like to work on is “Practices to Facilitate Comprehension Instruction”. I am especially concerned with this core practice because I feel as if it is something that I always wanted to practice working on but was never able to do so as effectively as I would have liked because I have always been placed in lower elementary (Kindergarten and 1^st grade). I would really like to experiment with these teaching practices in an older classroom setting so I can become better at teaching them and then have an easier time using them with a younger (and more difficult) set of students.

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

o    There are the common core standards, my MT, her Trade Book, My MT’s “Fantasy Binder” which contains several lessons and other ideas from previous years, my colleagues (i.e. the other three interns at Hope), Hope’s library, the Holt public library, and an author- made recording of Coraline.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain? Neil gamin recording of coralline, lists of fantasy books, the fantasy genre

o    I still need to obtain the Neil Gaiman recording of Coraline, lists of Fantasy book examples, and more information on the Fantasy genre itself.

9.     How will you pre-assess your students in your target area? Pre-assessment of the fantasy genre. What is fantasy, what fantasy books have you read (have you ever?)

o    I plan to get more information on my students by administering a quick pre-assessment on Fantasy. Questions would include: “Explain the fantasy genre?” “What fantasy books have you read? (if any)” “How are fantasy books different from other non-fiction books?”

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? Sometimes religion has been an issue. Some children get scared… how to deal with that, kids participate in a different way. Have they learned it already, have they read it already?

o    I would like to find out more on how the students will handle “purposeful-talk structures” before I actually start planning a ton of them into my lessons. I would also like to know more on what the kids think of read-alouds in general. My mentor teacher also brought up that the religious beliefs of certain students have been an issue in the past during the fantasy unit. While we both agree that this shouldn’t be a problem this year, I still need to make sure so I can start thinking about how to “include” these students in this unit.

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

o    I could really use a refresher on all of these teaching practices I previously mentioned (which I plan to do on my own terms) I would also like to know how many of these structures would be a realistic number to work with during my two-weeks of guided lead teaching.

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

o    Not many, although I feel as if I am not going to have enough time to get through everything I would like to do with my students (which is surprising considering two weeks seemed like really long time in the beginning of the semester). I am also worried about having enough time to plan everything, considering that I will be doing my two weeks guided lead teaching for math the two weeks immediately prior to my language arts unit.