Jasmine Bedoya EDR 317-01 Dr.

Selvaggi Journal Responses September 23, 2013 Surprisingly, I was not too nervous when I got to General Wayne Elementary School to begin my reading practicum. My cooperating teacher, Mrs. Stewart, was extremely nice and helpful. She showed me around the school and the classroom and began to explain what the students were learning. I was surprised to find out how much second graders are expected to know. They are very independent and are held to high expectations. As the students came into the room, they each remembered the morning routine and began working. There was a lot of activity, however, the morning system was very structured and each student had a task to complete, such as putting library books in a basket on library day, taking papers to the office, book shopping, and tallying the lunch choices. I hope when I have my own classroom I can keep it as well managed as Mrs. Stewart. The classroom seemed to run smoothly and the students were focused on their tasks. I was able to work with a student and help her with her morning work. It was evident that she was a struggling learner. The student did not recognize sight words and struggled through reading a sentence that she was supposed to correct. I was shocked and saddened that this student barely seemed to recognize her alphabet. Therefore, I was not too surprised when my cooperating teacher informed me that this student was pulled out for life skills instruction for most of the school day. On the other hand, my read-aloud went very well. The students were engaged and they laughed and gasped at the appropriate times. During reading workshop, I took initiative by conferencing with students and allowing them to read a snippet of their choice of book to me. It was amazing to see the range of reading levels that are present in

one classroom. I learned a lot from being in the classroom for just a few short hours and I know I will continue to do so over the course of the semester.

September 25, 2013 Throughout today's field, I saw a different side of the teaching spectrum. My cooperating teacher and I administered the Benchmark tests to students. I was a little surprised that the test only consists of a running record of the student reading a book that the teacher selected. The book selected comes from the Benchmark program. The level of the book is typically chosen with the consideration of the level of the student's reading the previous year and the use of word lists. Mrs. Stewart showed me that the student reads down the columns of a word list. Once the list becomes too challenging for the student, then they stop at the end of that list and start reading the recommended reading level. It was interesting to see how accurate the reading list was. The books recommended were always right at the student's reading level. I think that the Benchmark tests are a good indicator of reading levels. They are useful resources for teachers to choose reading material for students and to know where the student is at on the reading spectrum.

September 30, 2013 Starting today, I am now in charge of the morning meeting. Since I have only been in this field placement for two days, I wanted to ensure that the students each used their names while greeting each other. I was happy that the students welcomed me and responded positively to my teachings. Along with the lesson, there was a conflict arising from two of the students. Earlier in the morning, one student was complaining that she forgot her snack. Later that morning, another student was saying that the granola bar she had on her desk we missing. The PCA stated that he saw the first student take the food from the other student's desk. Therefore, the teacher had a

conversation with the students and gave the one girl the opportunity to tell the truth, but she stuck to her story that she did not steal the granola bar. I was a little surprised that the student was still lying after she was told that she was seen taking the food. It was clear by the way she was acting and that her story kept changing that she was responsible for the missing granola bar. When told to check her desk, the granola bar was found. This made me think about situations that can occur in my own classroom in the future. So far in my education, we haven't been taught how to appropriately handle these types of situations. That is way I wanted to see how my cooperating teacher handled it. She spoke to the student's parents and her father said that there have been problems in other schools because of his daughter's stealing. They move frequently for his work so she has been in three schools in three years. I think this could possibly have something to do with the student's behavior.

October 2, 2013 Since I am still relatively new to his field placement, my cooperating teacher taught the mini lesson to the students. The mini-lesson modeled how to compare and contrast two different texts. I thought the books were very fitting of the lesson and the students really enjoyed them. The books were The Day the Crayons Quit and A Day with No Crayons. I can definitely see myself using these books for a compare and contrast mini-lesson in my future classroom. The students could relate to the text and they shared their connections with me. I took initiative by conferencing with students and working with them to create their Venn diagrams. I was surprised that students can come up with so many comparisons that a lot of adults wouldn't typically see. That is one of the many things that I have learned so far in this placement: students notice almost everything.

October 9, 2013 Having Lisa Phoenix come to seminar was very interesting and helpful. I made connections between her explanation of RTI to my previous reading course. It was nice to get the structure of RTI at General Wayne because every school is different with its programs. I also taught my first OLWEUS lesson to the students. I used the OLWEUS lesson book for ideas; however, I changed many aspects of their lesson to fit my class. I used Chrysanthemum for the read aloud, which made me connect to our course because it made me think of my first day of class. Dr. Selvaggi read Chrysanthemum to the class to show us what a good read aloud looks like. I used a lot of the expressions that I remember her doing throughout the read aloud and I think it made it a better experience for the students. I always try to use good expression and tone when reading, especially when reading to students. I think using appropriate expression is extremely important because if the text is read inappropriately, it can change the meaning of the text.

October 14, 2013 Since the first day of field, I wanted to be very involved in the classroom and work closely with the students and my cooperating teacher. I was excited when Mrs. Stewart asked me if I could create a bulletin board for the hallway. I wanted the bulletin board to relate to both reading and fall. I used Pinterest as a resource and chose to do the theme "fall into a good book." I created a sheet that students filled out stating their favorite book and their reasoning for it. I first modeled how to complete the sheet before students completed it independently. I was surprised by some of the reasoning that students wrote down. For example, one student wrote that her favorite book was Henry and Mudge: Under the Yellow Moon because it was "calming." These students never cease to surprise me and I don't think that they ever will.

October 16, 2013 Morning meeting has begun with learning the phrase good morning in a different language. Therefore, when I told the students we were going to learn good morning in Japanese, they were ecstatic. Since I taught them French on Monday, I asked the students if they remembered how to say good morning in French. I was surprised when so many students raised their hands to respond. Once we finished the morning meeting, we transitioned into the OLWEUS lesson that I prepared. The lesson focused on sportsmanship and team work. I prepared this lesson because after talking to my cooperating teacher, we thought this would be a good topic because there had been a lot of competitive attitudes on the playground that lead to students feeling left out. It was exciting to see how involved students became during the activity that began the lesson. They really used a sense of teamwork to complete the task as well as have a little fun with it. The activity was structured so that all students were included because they had to work together in order to succeed.

October 21, 2013 For today's class, I prepared an interactive read aloud. The read aloud lesson was designed to teach the students to use questioning as a reading strategy. As I read the beginning of the book, I modeled how to question while reading. I also included stopping points where students had to "stop and jot." This reminded me of class discussions because of when we learning about interactive read alouds and were taught the different phrases that were used throughout them. I didnt know any of the terms prior to this course so I was glad that I was able to learn it before starting this field placement. The book was about segregation so it surprised me how deep some of the students got in their answers. For example, when I asked the students what

it meant when the character said that fence was going to be knocked down, one student answered "The law says that everyone is created equal. That means that blacks and whites can be together." This answer astounded me because I did not expect that kind of response. This student really understood the meaning of the text. Additionally, while working with the class on their reader's theatre, some students got very upset. If a student didn't read their line right away or if they read the stage notes along with their lines, some other students were very quick to correct them. I think the students thought they were being helpful, but really they were just embarrassing their peers. One if the students even began to cry a little because she was so upset that she messed up her line and some other students jumped in to correct her. I took initiative and spoke to the students about the appropriate way to talk to and politely correct their peers. I am teaching a lot throughout this field placement and I am starting to feel as if I am making difference in these student's lives.

October 23, 2013 I really feel as if I am an essential part of the classroom. I am teaching for the majority of the time I spend in the classroom. When I am not teaching, I am interacting and working with students, which I truly enjoy. I taught another OLWEUS lesson this morning, and received positive feedback from my cooperating teacher. Mrs. Stewart is very good at giving feedback and I am grateful for that. I want to know what it is that I could change or do better with as well as getting positive feedback. I also worked with the students during their readers workshop by going over the students script of their readers theatre. It is interesting to see how some students naturally inflect certain words and phrases and some students just read their lines in one tone. This makes me think that the class needs a mini-lesson on expression during reading. Additionally, I have been using the General Wayne library as a resource and I am so grateful for

the types of books I have been able to read and use in lessons because of the wonderful librarian. I probably would have been shy about going to the library and checking out a book if the librarian wouldnt have spoken to use during seminar.