Target Area Questions

1). Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

My target area for guided lead teaching will be writing.

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

Currently, my class focuses on writing for about 40 minutes per day.

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

CCSS 2.W.5 With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.

 

CCSS 2.W.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record science observations).

CCSS 2.W.8 Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

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?

Teaching writing as my target area can provide students opportunities to learn important content related to their lives by allowing them to recognize that writing is a medium through which they can voice their knowledge, thoughts, feelings, and, opinions . By recognizing this self-connection that writing provides, students learn that writing is meaningful and they find a purpose in its practice. Not only that, but writing is a form of communication, and they need to understand that they can utilize this as an outlet to communicate with others. So much of daily communication is dependent upon electronic forms of mediums these days, and so teaching students how to accurately display this voice onto a written format is a necessary skill to attain that relates to their lives. Students also need to recognize that revision and editing is an important component of the writing process and by instructing in this area, students will be able to hone in on their editing skills in order to create an adequate product that conveys what they intended it to.

Learning about writing includes learning literacy in that you need to be able to make meaning from, understand, and interpret in order to be literate. By learning about writing, you are learning to do these things; you are learning literacy by learning writing. You are also learning about literacy because you are learning how to do these things through the action of writing.

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)?

In writing, both discussion and recitation types of classroom talk takes place. For instance, writing may be more recitation-like at points when I am teaching about skills, such as editing skills.  The audience will play a more passive role, reciting the rules and expectations of editing of writing. However, discussion also takes place in writing instruction, during the points when I am trying to get students to focus on the quality of their work, express and inject their ideas, and compose their own meaning in written form. Therefore, discussion is more involving and engaging to students, as they act as co-generators as opposed to just reciting what the teacher wants to hear. In this sense, higher-level thinking is promoted when discussion takes place because the conversation is student-led and generated.

Norms I would like to build within my classroom as I teach writing, are for students to always give their best effort into their work, focus on improving wherever they can, and respect one another’s expressions of writing.

 

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?

The core practice I want to work on developing and improving as I teach writing, is creating authentic, meaningful writing tasks for a real audience. Focusing on this core practice will contribute to my own professional learning because it will give me some experience and familiarity with effective ways to reach my students through writing instruction and will allow me to see what works and what doesn’t.

 

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 is a great resource to use for writing. As a teacher for over 20 years, she has had plenty of experiences in this target area and is known for adapting her instruction for what has worked best for her students in the past. I can learn a lot of extra things from her in addition to written texts and articles from my past TE courses, including this current one. For example, our text Writing Essentials is dedicated to teaching and informing future and current teachers of many important aspects of writing. The librarian at my school is also a resource that I can utilize. She has access to numerous works that will be informative and can obtain any additional resources that may be needed by the teachers in the school.  

8). What additional resources do you need to obtain?

 Additional resources that I need to obtain are activities that I can use to get students engaged and that they can use as models for their own work. I need to find fun and intriguing ways to get my students interested in the writing process.

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

I have a little bit of information about my students’ writing ability from past teachers, and from my own observations. In order to gain specific information on where they need special attention and improvement, I will need to design an assessment that will target this.

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?

Because providing students the opportunity to make meaningful connections is crucial to a student’s learning, I will need to find out what interests my students. I will need some background knowledge on the things they like, are interested in, can relate to, have experience with, and are curious about. By doing this, students will be motivated to learn through their writing process as they try to communicate their thoughts, feelings, and opinions.

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

I need to learn what types of things, specifically, to take into account in order to create a meaningful writing task. I want to create a kind of checklist and be sure that my task embodies all of the necessary elements.

 

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

A concern I have about planning and teaching my unit is that I am going to try and cover too much, or that my goals will be harder to get across to students than I am thinking right now. I don’t want to set the bar too high or think my students aren’t capable of something that they are. I hope that I can find the perfect middle ground in my planning and teaching so that the students will step away from the unit, better-rounded writers than before.