1. Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.
My target
area for guided lead teaching will be writing comprehension in regards to helping
my students prepare their writing pieces for publishing. In the two weeks of my
lessons I will be focusing on, “when you’re done you’ve just begun,” and
“preparing for publication.” During my “when you’re done you’ve just begun” my
students will be learning how to make good writing decisions, will be working
on making strong leads, working on making strong endings, and repeating words
for emphasis. In the “preparing for
publication” section my students will be working on learning how to revise, conference,
and edit their pieces to make them ready for publication.
2. Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your
instruction in this area?
There is 40
minutes per day allocated for writing in our schedule.
3. Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?
CCSS:
3.W.10 Write routinely over
extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time
frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific
tasks, purposes, and audiences.
3.W.3a Write narratives to develop real or
imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details,
and clear event sequences.
a. Establish a situation
and introduce a narrator
and/or characters;
organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
3.W.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop
and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (Editing
for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and
including grade 3 on pages 28 and 29.)
3.W.3d Provide a sense of closure.
3.W.4With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in
which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.
(Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3
above
3.L.2Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English
capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
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?
These lessons will help my students
learn how to improve their writing pieces in realizing that their writing
always has room for improvement and needs several revisits before publishing.
This will help my students later down the road in producing writing pieces in
their everyday lives especially in their careers. These lessons will help them
realize the importance in not just writing without going back and revisiting it
before turning it in. These lessons also relate to their own lives because it
will help them learn how to communicate in putting their thoughts to paper, but
also that they must be careful with how they use their words in writing to convey
messages and stories. It is always important to check their writing so that
they can ensure the correct message is being communicated.
These lessons help the students
learn about language and how writing is language that can convey messages. The
students will learn that their writing is something in literacy that they own
and are responsible for to perfect. The students not only will learn the
mechanics of writing, but also the literary aspects of having gripping and good
leads along with satisfying and strong endings. The students will learn that in
literacy these aspects are very important to have.
5. What types of classroom talk takes 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)?
My discussions where I will be
introducing different skills will be teacher led, because I will be using my
own writing to show different skills that they will be using through my own
thinking aloud and editing. There will be times when the discussion will be
focused on higher-level thinking. These times will be when I am asking my
students to notice different aspects of the expert text and will ask them to
make connections between the author’s writing and their own writing. They also
will be focusing on higher level thinking when they edit each other’s work,
because they will have to think critically about the paper they are reading and
they will have to make connections to prior knowledge, the new skills I teach
them, and make connections to the world outside of the classroom to fully
understand what they are reading and make educated suggestions on how to
improve the writing they are editing.
6. Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on
developing/improving as you teach in this targetarea (refer to document
“Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on thiscore
practice contribute to your own professional learning?
I want to
focus on conferences and fostering meaningful revision practices because this
is exactly what my lessons will be covering. I want to do both of these core
practices because I need to improve and develop both in my own repertoire.
These core areas will contribute greatly to my professional learning, because in
any grade that I teach I will have to conference with my students and help them
find meaningful ways to revise their writing. These two practices are both
areas that I am familiar with but where I need to develop my skills further so
that I can figure out the best method to helping my students perfect their
writing pieces. Focusing on these core practices will help me to be a better
teacher later on because I will be able to develop an understanding of what is
important, and how to mold each conference towards my students’ individual
needs. It is important to learn how to teach meaningful revision practices so
that I will be an expert in knowing what to encourage my future students to
focus on.
7. What resources within the community, neighborhood, school
district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?
I will not only have the support of
my mentor teacher, but also the writing representative for the East
Lansing Public School District, Sherri
Person. She will be available to me by phone or through email. I also have the
ELPS Common Core Writers Workshop Unit
of Study curriculum, which I am using as a starting point for my lessons,
because it is a great skeleton base to use to begin drawing up my lesson plans.
I also will be using this resource to help me assess my students’ final writing
pieces to monitor their growth as writers. In these stories the students are
writing personal narratives so we will be using experiences they have had in
their community. I also will be using Pecan
Pie Baby by Jacqueline Woodson to use as a model text to help the students
to learn what good leads/gripping first sentences to hook the reader look like
as well as satisfying conclusions. I will also be using my own writing journal
to help show them how to make their writing pieces perfected through think a
louds.
8. What additional resources do you need to obtain?
I need to
begin a writer’s notebook and begin writing my own stories to use to model to
my students the appropriate method of revising and strengthening their writing
piece. I would also like to find some kind of poster that discusses helpful
writing revising tips that they can use as a helpful tool. I want to obtain
little rings and notecards that my students can write common misspelled words on
that they struggle with to help them use as a reference later on down the road.
9. How will you pre-assess your students in your target
area?
I have
already administered a pre-assessment in this section that was a 40 minute
writing prompt. The ELPS provided an assessment tool that acted as a checklist
to document the students’ strengths and weaknesses. This tool will help me see
where my students are really struggling. It will help me see how their
revisions improve their writing pieces.
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?
It will be helpful to find out my
students’ personalities in what helps them to write better, whether its playing
music in the background, allowing them to find a nice place in the room other
than their desks, or some other condition. It will also be helpful to know my
students’ prior knowledge of making helpful revision suggestions during partner
conferences so that I will know if I need to help them in learning how to be a
helpful editor.
11. What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core
practice’ to support your planning and teaching?
I have a great worksheet to use that
the ELPS curriculum provides, but I want to make sure that I am fully prepared
to confer with my students. I don’t want to focus too much on the mechanics of
the writing nor do I want to go overboard and expect my students to be able to
write way above their grade level. I want to learn how to focus just on the important
pieces and skills that third graders are supposed to do. I am so in the college
writing mode that I need to learn how to step out of that mode and be a third
grade teacher who does not have too high and unrealistic expectations and
advice. I want to work with my mentor teacher more on this piece before I begin
teaching so that I am fully prepared to confer with my students in the most
beneficial way for them as possible.
12. What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and
teaching your unit?
My only
concern is time while teaching. I want to have great lessons for the students
but with only a 40 minute per day window of time I am worried that I wont have
enough time to really get into the meat of a lesson to really teach my students
how to be great writers.
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