Expansion: Week 11 at the Learning Academy

My teacher liked my small group lesson so much last week that she wanted to make small groups this week that followed that principle! She divided the class into three groups that rotated through centers with me, my partner, and Ms. Jameson as the heads. I had a comprehension/main idea group, my partner worked with vocabulary, and Ms. Jameson lead an Orton-Gillingham group. Today was also early release, but it did not affect the beginning of the day.

Observations of Class (8:20-9:00)

• The class was quiet today.

• Students were to work on their handwriting and then work on Lexia

• Handwriting focused on writing "w" in cursive

• Planet Project (Each student was assigned a planet and then the ninth student was assigned the Sun to do a research project on for class.)

• Inside packet: worksheets, templates for citations, notebook paper, and basic information on planet or Sun

• Students were to have researched 3 cites that they could use for research on their planet and cite them

• Ms. Jameson noticed that the students were citing the search engine (e.g. Google or Yahoo!).

• Small Group Lesson

• Small Group 1

• I had two students for this group

• Before we began reading the passage, I had the students predict what they thought they were going to learn about in the passage. The title, Blue Whales, gave them the answer, but I encouraged them to look further into what type of information they might encounter.

• I read through the passage about Blue Whales once. Then, the students went back and forth to read the passage.

• I discussed possibly unfamilar vocabulary, but the students knew the word "baleen" without prompting.

• Small Group 2

• I had three students for this group

• They were highly responsive to the prompting questions I gave them.

• I did the same process as described above with them.

• When we discussed the vocabulary, students did not know what a "baleen" was. I used this time to work on reading strategies to improve comprehension. Students discussed possibilities and came out with answers similar to the actual definition. To give them a connection, I used the movie Finding Nemo to explain what a baleen is. (A baleen is "a tough material that hangs down from the upper jaw of whales without teeth and is used by the whale to filter small ocean animals out of seawater" (Merriam-Webster).

Interpretation of Class

The class was highly motivated today and was excited by the prospect of working in groups. I also hear several students say it was nice to be working with other people for a change. Their planet projects keep them engaged in learning so easily! I loved how they responded to all the new lessons they were being taught and resources they found. During the group work, I saw that my first group didn't need much prompting to understand what was being asked of them. I felt like I could have just given them the paper and left them alone to work. I didn't, but it also made me feel like this lesson was too easy or too boring for them. I may have used a different passage for these students. My second group responded amazingly to the prompting and ran with the content. They were engaged and wanting to understand what I was trying to tell them!

Observations of Teacher

• Meets with every student in the morning to discuss their handwriting and planet projects

• Handwriting must look like the examples given, no deviations or individuality

• She explains to the students that while they are learning a new letter, they should follow the example, but they will eventually have their own handwriting later

• Addresses individual errors in handwriting (misspelling or sloppy writing)

• Provides specific feedback and praise for students in both handwriting and planet projects

• Addresses misconceptions about planet project directly

• Monitors students' behaviors and notices when one student sits down aggravatedly

• Immediately addresses the problem

• She addressed this by providing specific instructions to the whole class on how to cite websites.

• Googles an example (the Sun) and looks for websites that look credible. She explains that websites with .org or .gov are the most reliable. She encourages students to use NASA websites, and to stay away from Wikipedia.

• She pulls up an example Google search.

• She points to the green URL under the blue hyperlink on the search results.

• She explains this is the website she wants written out on the paper, not Google or Yahoo!

Interpretation of Teacher

Ms. Jameson really dug into the students' needs today. She was aware that they were not understanding something, so she used the time she had to put them back on track. I liked how she met with each student individually in the morning to go over their work. It allows her to see their misconceptions on a one-on-one basis and to correct anything she can. Ms. Jameson is very aware of her students' behaviors and their reactions to instructions given to them. I learned today to pay attention to the needs of my students and that individual meetings are highly beneficial to keeping up with each student. It has more value than leaving the class to their own devices.

Observations of Student

I did not have Johnny for the Small Groups. I also did not have much time to work with Johnny this morning as Ms. Jameson needed to go over with the class the skills previously described.

• Running Record

• The Spiderwick Chronicles: A Field Guide (Reading Level: 4.1)

• 255 word selection

• Johnny read this selection in 3:28

• He made 7 errors with no self corrections

• Overall, Johnny had a 97% accuracy.

• He used little expression during the reading, but showed appropriate acknowledgement of punctuation for pauses.

• Gave me one word answers during morning talk

• Planet Project

• Uranus

• Told me about his planet, but had not done much on research yet

• Cursive Writing

• Still cannot stay within the lines for cursive

Interpretation of Student

Johnny wasn't as energized this morning as he has been for the last few sessions. He didn't respond to me or engage in conversation. He did amazingly on his Running Record for accuracy, but he still is missing expression when he reads. On the other hand, he's extremely excited about his Planet Project, and therefore was willing to tell me what he could about during our meeting and throughout the classtime. He enjoyed finding the information on the planet and retelling it to someone else. I know this tells me that he likes learning, but that he becomes unconfident when his skills are being assessed.

#week11 #DRI #LA2