Step 3

-To what extent were you were expected to follow a scripted curriculum, or add your own ideas to a curriculum that already exists, or create a unit that is entirely new?

During my Guided Lead Teaching, I had a lot of flexibility with my planning. I was not expected to follow a scripted curriculum and in fact, everything my mentor teacher and I do is created on our own for the most part. Weekly, my MT and I plan by using the literacy objectives given in our basal. We tend to come up with our own ways of teaching the material, but we use the book as an outline of what we should be covering in our second grade curriculum. Creating an entirely new unit was fun because I was able to do whatever I wanted. My most important resource was my MT and she helped me create and change lessons throughout my GLT.

-What was unproblematic and/or challenging about planning a unit in this context?

The most challenging part about planning unit was finding and creating meaningful lessons that focused on making connections. There is only so much you can do. I found it unproblematic to plan each lesson because I did not have to fit in scripts or plan around a literacy curriculum like many interns did with Reading Street. Having the flexibility to create your own lessons is fun and engaging. I learned so much about myself as a teacher because I had to create each lesson and make changes when things did not go perfectly as planned. I was able to find some fun activities to guide my students through the process of successfully making a connection to a text. It was challenging to make lessons so that they were consistent and gave students a similar message every time I would teach.

-What obstacles did you face? How did you overcome them?

The biggest obstacle I faced was grabbing connections from my students. Many of them would not make a connection until I shared my connection about a story. Hands would go flying up. However, students often retold what they heard in the story, and said that the same exact thing happened to them. I know this was not true. I began to take the time and chat with students during their center work to help guide their thinking. I modeled and expressed that I needed more details. We discussed that maybe a story makes you think about losing a tooth, but the way you lost your tooth could have been totally different, and that still makes a connection. Students were expected to have at least two “w-words” (who, what, where, why, when, how) included to describe their own connection to the stories they read or were stories I read to them. This seemed to work and gave students a guideline for making a connection. I saw a huge difference in their connection descriptions after implementing this.

-How did working on developing your ‘core practice’ influence the types of learning opportunities you were able to offer your students?

Working on discussing and sharing my own ideas supported students to share their own ideas. Working on speaking skills and listening skills was offered to my students. Since my GLT, my students have been more talkative and willing to share. I would still like to work on finding ways to have students more engaged in discussing their ideas, but my students have a hard time using each other as resources or seeing the benefits of sharing and listening to ideas.

-What dilemmas (if any) did you face and how did you manage them? Consider issues that may relate to developing your professional identity, developing strong teacher- student relationships, constructing relevant curriculum, or assessing students in meaningful and productive ways.

Off the top of my head, I cannot think of any dilemmas I faced with my students. As I have mentioned before, I only have 14 students. With that being said, I am able to manage the class successfully. I have created relationships with my students in different ways and I feel respected by each student in my class. I was able to assess my students by working with them during centers and reviewing their worksheets. This was extremely productive because I was able to hear students think aloud and hear their thought process of relating a part in a story to their lives. Some students have trouble writing things down. I found that working with them and pushing them include details in their descriptions was helpful. Students seemed to enjoy the support I gave them and it got them excited about making connections. They now love telling me stories relating to topics and books we discuss and read in class. Having a small class size has made the managing process extremely easy and has allowed me to gain confidence in my teaching.

-What enabled you to be successful?

I was successful in my planning and teaching for two reasons. First off, my communication with my mentor teacher is awesome. We would discuss everyday what we observed our students doing and thinking pertaining to making connections. We would discuss and make changes as needed for the next day. This supported a well-designed unit and smooth lesson transitions from day to day. Secondly, I took the time to work with students each day. Like I said, during centers I would talk with students and help guide them through making connections to different parts of a story. They enjoyed telling me stories about their lives and it was fun for them. I also felt I did a great job of making changes to lessons. Some things were just not working, and I cut them out and came up with new ideas. Teaching involves problem solving and I found that to be successful, you have to be willing to make changes.

-Did the unit proceed as you expected? Why or why not?

Before I taught my unit, I anticipated that making connections would be a pretty easy strategy for my students to pick up on. However, it was not as easy as I thought. Students understood the basic idea of making a connection after my first interactive read aloud. They struggled to give details supporting their connections. I found that students also had trouble understanding that, to make a connection does not mean that the same exact thing or situation happened to you. It was hard for students to see that you can make a connection by just reading a story and having it remind you of something else. Maybe the story involves playing basketball and a team wins a game. This may make students think about how they played soccer. Sometimes they would make a false connection because they did not realize that making a connection does not have to be exactly the same. It reminds you of something.

-What surprises or “aha moments” did you experience?

I was surprised that students struggled to fill out my graphic organizer in their centers. The worksheet included boxes to organize parts of a story. Then a box was connected to that box for them to make a connection to that part of the story. They were asked to use words like, “this reminds me of” or “this makes me think about…”, to help them describe their connection. After the first week of struggling through this worksheet in their book box center and listening center, students understood what to do for the following week and made improvements in their recording. My “aha moments” have been when students randomly say, “this makes me think about..”, when we are doing a math lesson or something not directly related to literacy. I love hearing these ideas because I can tell they have picked up on what it means to make a connection and are using the strategy to better understand what is being taught, even if it is in a different subject.

-What do you still need to learn about teaching in this target area, about your developing your ‘core practice’ and about teaching literacy in general?

I need to learn how to create purposeful discussions. It is so hard to get my students to talk and share ideas related to our literacy objectives. I need to learn proactive ways to keep all students involved and get them excited about sharing ideas.