Amanda Newcomb

EDUG 584
BST Journal
Spring 2017
Beginning Student Teaching Reflection
2/7/2017
Upon arriving at Costa Mesa Middle School, I introduced myself to the office staff and told them
that I was there to meet Ann-Marie Krenik, my master teacher. They called her and she came
down to the office to meet me, and then she gave me a tour around the campus, which is shared
with Costa Mesa High School. She also introduced me to several staff members and
administrators.
When we got back to her classroom, she explained that she teaches only three classes of Honors
English for 8th grade because she is a TOSA, a teacher on special assignment. She works with the
district, helping with curriculum planning. She started this because she wanted to know that if
she ever lost her passion for teaching, there would be something else within education that she
could do.
Regarding classroom management, she always starts the school year kind of harsh, and then
eases into a rapport with her students. They know I love them, so it works.
Since Costa Mesa Middle School is on a block schedule, she teaches two classes on odd days
and one class on even days. This was an odd day, so I got to observe periods 3 and 5. She
bragged about how great her classes are; she has the greatest students and they always try their
hardest.
She starts her classes with a journal. Today, the students look at a painting and the theme is
Dream Vs. Reality. They write about what they notice about it and what it could mean. After
they write, they share in their groups (desks are arranged in pods of 4), and then she facilitates
the class discussion, asking questions to provoke the students thought.
After the discussion, she leads them in a review of simile, metaphor, and hyperbole and has the
students give examples of each. She asks, why do we care? and then relates it to poetry. They
read A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes and the students annotate the poem. Ms. Krenik
gives them examples and, to facilitate discussion, calls on students using popsicle sticks with
students names written on them. After the discussion, they each have two poems to annotate and
they have to annotate and extrapolate a common theme, then write an essay. She provided an
intro paragraph in which they have to fill in the information. The remaining 40 minutes of class
is for the students to complete the assignment. During this time, Ms. Krenik has time to grade
assignments and put grades into the online gradebook.
Some advice she gave me was to time myself doing activities and not to leave too much time at
the end of a class without some sort of activity to occupy the students time. She does not have
any ELLs in her class, apart from redesignated ELs, but she suggested sentence frames and
graphic organizers for them.
Regarding the block schedule, she fought its implementation initially, but now she loves it
because it gives her more time with the students, as well as more time to work on what she needs
to work on. The cons are that it takes away instructional days, making it harder to fit in all
instructional units. Its also hard for the students to sit still for so long.
Period 5 is very much like period 3, but this time she invited me to try to engage more with the
students, so I walked around the classroom while they were discussing the painting and tried to
listen to their answers.
During period 7, I observed in my other Master Teachers classroom, Eunice Hooker. In this
class, she teaches regular 7th grade English. This class has 11 special ed students that require an
RSP aide, Ms. Shanley. The desks are in pairs, facing forward. Ms. Hooker has a lot of very
specific rules that she rigidly enforces, such as hand-raising for anything and staying by the door
before getting out a late pass and handing it to her. She gives them 4 late passes at the beginning
of each quarter, which they are free to use when they are late. If they are late and do not have any
more passes, she gives them a trash pickup slip, which means that they have to go to a custodian
during their break or lunch and help them clean, and then the custodian will sign the slip.
The standards and objectives are written on the board, and the students have to write the agenda
in a notebook. They get points for each one that they write down, and she does a raffle for candy.
For the first part of the class, the students hand in their Article of the Week, which focused on
Beyoncs Lemonade as an example of an essay. The students had to respond and answer
questions about the article. Afterward, they listen to a recording of chapter 4 of The Pearl by
John Steinbeck and follow along in their books. They have made flip books for the book and
for every chapter, they add a summary to a page.
For the second part of the class, she takes the students to the library where they will pick out SSR
books according to their reading level.
2/14/2017
This was an even day. Period 2, I observed Eunice Hookers class. They were beginning their
unit on the Holocaust, so they watched Oprah Winfreys interview with Elie Wiesel as a
precursor to reading his book, Night. Before watching the video, Ms. Hooker stressed that this
video was centered around very difficult subject matter and that they should take this seriously.
By the end of the video, some students were crying. Some did not seem to grasp the gravity of
the content. Ms. Hooker then passed out a vocabulary worksheet that covers the first three
chapters of Night. On the overhead, she wrote example sentences and then the students had to
write sentences for each word.
During period 4, I observed in Mrs. OMaras regular 8th grade English class. The students first
read the book of their choice quietly. Then, she played a recording of chapter 1 of Night by Elie
Wiesel while the students followed along in their books. After reading, they went over the
chapters vocabulary. Then, she led a review of punctuation using a PowerPoint presentation.
Mrs. OMara gave me copies of the material they had previously gone through. To prepare for
reading Night, they had read Dr. Seusss Yertle the Turtle and Eve Buntings The Terrible Things.
These short stories introduced the idea of power and corruption, as well as the idea of people
allowing terrible things to happen to each other. She also gave me copies of the guided reading
worksheets for Night to let me see the kinds of questions and readings they had done to prepare
for the book.
I spent period 6 in Ms. Kreniks classroom, and they were learning about sonnets. She told me
that she had altered this lesson a few times because, even though she had initially thought it was
good, she saw her students eyes glaze over and could tell they were not engaged. So, she just
went over the basics of sonnet structure, iambic pentameter, and rhyme scheme with the students
and showed them examples of sonnets and of their structure. Their assignment was to create a
sonnet focusing on love (because it was Valentines day) and it had to follow the structure of a
sonnet. She wanted the students to understand and appreciate how hard writing good sonnets that
follow the strict structure can be. She walked them through the process by illustrating with her
own sonnet. At the end of the period, she quizzed them on the structure of sonnets to check for
understanding.
Period 8 was with Ms. Hooker in her regular 7th grade English class. The first part of the class
was spent with her creating a new seating chart in an effort to fix some of the behavioral issues in
the class. The students who generally behave were allowed to choose their own seat, but most of
them had to wait for her to tell them where to sit. The rest of the class was spent doing final
exam prep for John Steinbecks The Pearl.
2/28/2017
Period 1: I observed in Eunice Hookers 8th grade English class, where they did a close reading
of chapter 2 of Night by Elie Wiesel. First, she read the questions aloud to the class and
encouraged the students to always read the questions before beginning to read because it helps to
focus their reading. Ms. Hooker reads the chapter aloud, commenting for clarity. She tells her
students how she used to get the dimensions for a real cattle car and make them stand in that
space so that they can see how little room the people in the story would have had. The students
were eager to participate and asked if they could do that next class, to which she agrees (I did not
get to see that, which is disappointing). After she finished reading, she instructed them to finish
answering the questions, for which she had me make an answer key. Two of the questions were
open-ended or required an inference to be made, so they discussed it together. At one point, a
student offered a very good answer, but she did not agree with it, so she shot it down.
Then, they moved on to the Article of the Week. Ms. Hooker says that they need to move quickly
in between activities, otherwise they go bonkers. This article is about the pollution in China.
The students are to read, annotate, and answer the questions. Rather than write a summary, the
students are to write a reflection about how this is relevant to people living in the United States.
While they are working, Ms. Hooker uses this time to grade the chapter 2 close reading. She
makes a rule that if the students talk, the Article of the Week will be due at the end of the period.
Period 3/5: Ms. Krenik 8th grade Honors English
Ms. Krenik and I agree that I should teach my first lesson on 3/14.
The warm-up is a diamonte poem with structure and an example. The students each write their
own and then share if they want to.
The poetry unit final (part one) is a question essay, an essay written in the form of questions. She
has the students popcorn read the directions, so that they pay more attention to what is expected
of them. The students are supposed to read and annotate a poem (each student has a different
poem) and write an essay using questions. She models, using a poem that none of them have,
showing how to annotate and how to structure the essay. The rest of the class time is for the
students to write their essay.
While the students are working, she works on planning for the next day and we talked about
classroom management styles and strategies, sub plans, and timing (providing cushion activities
just in case you run out of time).
Period 7: Ms. Hookers 7th grade English class was beginning Walk Two Moons by Sharon
Creech. She introduces the book and author with a PowerPoint presentation and highlights
information to study for their final on the book. They also make their character journal (5 sheets
of paper, stapled), an ongoing project for the book.
They look at the cover of the book and try to make inferences based on the picture and title.
What does the title mean? Dont judge a man until youve walked two moons in his moccasins.
Ms. Hooker introduces vocabulary for chapters 1-11; students have to write sentences that
illustrate their understanding of the definition. When the students get a worksheet, theres a space
to write due dates.
The article of the week is the same as period 1.
3/7/2017
Period 2: Ms. Hookers 8th grade English class
Students begin class with a multiple-choice test on Night chapters 1-3. They record their answers
on an Illuminate scantron, which gives Ms, Hooker instant feedback through a grade cam. If
students finish early, they read their SSR books. Article of the Week for homework is about a 94-
year-old Nazi being tried for his crimes; the students are to read, annotate, and write a reflection
(she asks them to repeat the directions to her several times throughout the class- checks for
understanding and helps them to remember).
Ms. Hooker misplaced the copies, so I got to go down to the teachers lounge and make copies.
They work on vocabulary for chapters 4-6; she models how to write sentences for each word,
then they have to write their own (must illustrate understanding of the definition). The
vocabulary and Article of the Week are due next class meeting.
Period 4: Stephanie Sconberg 7th grade math.
Ms. Krenik wants me to get a feel for other subject matters and classroom management styles, so
she had me observe a math class.
This class has 13 special ed students, some of which are low-level ELLs. She does not really do
any differentiation for ELLs or special ed students. Another teacher helps with this class. They
do really well; maybe math is easier because numbers are universal.
This class, they are working with number tricks that are a creative way to teach students how to
write equations using numbers, as well as words. The students are really engaged.
The students then get dry erase boards and markers. They are practicing collecting like terms;
she introduces this concepts using animals.
They use manipulatives (foam tiles) to demonstrate writing expressions. At the end, they have
time to play with the tiles (incentive to stay on task).
The different strategies that she used were really great, and I think I would have loved these
when I was in 7th grade.
Period 6: Ms. Kreniks 8th grade English Honors.
Ms. Krenik got chromebooks for her class so that they could take a practice SBAC. The students
are supposed to write what questions are challenging and what questions were easy on a piece of
paper and turn it in, so that Ms. Krenik can get an idea of what to focus instruction on until the
students have to take the actual SBAC. Looking back, she wished that she had gone through
specific questions with them.
Poetry final (part 2): Students wrote 3-4 poems totaling 36 lines. They had to demonstrate
knowledge of 10 literary devices, explaining why they used each device and what it did for each
poem. Students were really engaged and proud of their work.
Period 8: Ms. Hookers 7th grade English
Ms. Hooker reads chapters 10-12 without pause. Then, they go over vocabulary for chapters 12-
22 with sentences.
Article of the week: read, annotate, reflection. They go over the directions. Two articles how
are they related? What is important about them?
Copies of the book are online, so the students can access them at home.
3/8/2017
I came in on an extra day because there is an English Department meeting in Dana Kahawais
room. She is a high school English teacher; they are on the same campus, so they work together.
The meeting focused on resources for lessons, and she went over Google Forms, media bias,
gradebook codes, keepvid.com, and communication regarding books. Ms. Krenik went over
SBAC practice. The meeting had a collaborative environment and it was nice to see the teachers
learning from each other.
Period 1: Ms. Hookers 7th grade English class
3 videos: Teaching the Holocaust through Art, The Auschwitz Album Guidelines for Educators,
and Top 10 Holocaust movies
They ran out of time for reading chapter 4. She says she might play the movies video and one of
the others, but I think that the other two videos were more valuable, particularly the art one. The
movies one seemed unnecessary.
Period 3/5: Ms. Kreniks 8th grade Honors English
Journal: Their Last Steps a painting from a Holocaust survival, introducing Holocaust unit.
The students journal about it, discuss with their table groups, and then as a whole class.
They watch Oprahs interview with Elie Wiesel to introduce Night.
I helped Ms. Krenik grade the second part of the poetry final; many have great poems, but they
did not follow the directions. Ms. Krenik realizes that she should have given them a written copy
of the directions, so she allows the students to fix their mistakes later.
Period 7: Ms. Hookers 7th grade English class.
They read chapters 7-12 of Walk Two Moons.
Article of the Week: read, annotate, reflect.
3/14/2017
Period 1: Ms. Hookers 8th grade English class
Ms. Hooker was late to a meeting this morning, which took place in the teachers lounge, so she
did not get the chance to make copies, so I had to go do that. It took a long time, because I was
waiting for the meeting to end before going in, but it kept going so I went to the copy room at the
high school. Because of this, Ms. Hooker had to do some things out of order while waiting for
her copies.
Students examine art from the Holocaust: picture of shoes with questions; poems (How did it
affect you? What do you think it means)
They didnt read Night and the Article of the Week is for homework, and the poetry questions
are now due at the end of class. She says shes winging it
Periods 3/5: Ms. Kreniks 8th grade Honors English class
I taught my first lesson! To warm up, they watched a video, a trailer of the movie Frozen edited
to appear to be a horror movie. They journaled about it and then I introduced imagery, mood, and
tone using PowerPoint slides. Using a graphic organizer that I designed, we identified the mood
of the video and used evidence from the video (colors, music), and talked about how it achieved
this mood. Then we read chapter 2 of Night and afterward, we did the same thing with the
graphic organizer. I passed out copies and I modeled selecting a mood, quote, and giving an
explanation. Then, I gave them time to finish, and then collected their work. For the remaining
class time, Ms. Krenik read chapter 3. She then gave me feedback, which I applied to the next
time I taught the lesson (and the third time I came back on 3/15/2017) and it got better each
time. I do think that I should have focused my lesson more on imagery and I should have added
directions to the worksheet, because when I graded them, some of the students seemed to be
confused. Im not sure why I didnt add directions or more focus, but I will next time.
3/21/2017
Period 2: 8th grade ELA Mrs. Hooker
The students are taking a practice test for the SBAC online.
For homework, the students have to create a poster with five images of symbolism from Night,
explain the meaning, and how it fits into the book.
For late assignments, students have to go to tutoring in order to get full credit.
One student didnt understand the homework and she asks him if he was listening. She is kind of
intimidating; Id be afraid to ask her questions if I was 12.
When she is walking the students through accessing the SBAC practice test, many of the students
are lost. I think she went too quickly and didnt wait for the students to catch up.
Period 4: Ms. Hartley ELD
Classroom is decorated with slips of paper with English words written on them.
I arrived during break, so students from the last class are serving detention by cleaning up the
room. They were Level 1.
This class is Level 4, getting ready to be mainstreamed into English classes next year. In other
subjects, they have already been mainstreamed for the most part. This class is comprised of
different grade levels.
They go over worksheets on the overhead. She stresses grammar and the use of quotation marks.
Afterward, she has students put their worksheets in the recycling if they are not going to keep
them.
They are reading about the anti-slavery movement. She asks the students questions to refresh
their memory.
Context clues for vocabulary, relating to other events. Tells anecdote about a grape boycott.
The students popcorn read, practicing reading, speaking, listening.
Video on cotton gin, leads to writing prompt: How did the cotton gin lead to more dependence on
slavery? Students must respond in 2-3 sentences. Allows them to work in groups.
She does not let them get away with lazy work; she makes them redo it. She goes over their
sentences on the overhead so that they can see what good and bad work looks like, and
understand how to correct it. They have to answer question fully, with evidence from the text.
They must have correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
**I was in the wrong classroom. I was supposed to go to Tina Taylors ELD classroom, but I had
the wrong room number. Either way, its still an ELD class.
Period 6: 8th grade Honors ELA Ms. Krenik
Listening to audio of Night. Ms. K plans on recording herself reading the novel so that she can
use it in the future.
Theme: reveals something about human nature.
Theme assignment. For chapters 1,3,4,5 they need to select a quote about faith, cite it , and write
a theme statement.
- I graded the first 2 periods
She wants me to teach a lesson on 4/18
3/28/2017
Period 1: 8th grade ELA Mrs. Hooker
The class watched two videos about the science of naps and the science behind early birds and
night owls. They have to take a position about whether they are for or against naps and write a
thesis statement and a paper. This is the official benchmark for third quarter.
Yesterday when she did this for her other class, she didnt know it was a benchmark and didnt
make a big deal about it to her students. For practice, the 7th and 8th grade students were supposed
to switch contents, but Eunice did not know. They didnt try hard and now that is their score for
their benchmark. Some students did not even submit it. They cannot retake it.
Periods 3/5: 8th ELA Honors Ann-Marie Krenik
There is a film crew here today, interviewing Ann-Marie and Dana about a project that they have
been working on. They are also filming students (who have turned in permission slips) using a
specific program called Revision Assist. Ann-Marie and Dana are one of 5 finalists for a
Learning Impact Award and the film crew is showcasing how they repurposed this program for
their teaching.
The students have chromebooks and are logged into the program. They are reading two poems
about war and then will write an essay about them.
This program is really great; it forces the students to write multiple drafts of their work because
it gives them instant feedback and tells them how they are doing on specific criteria
(organization, evidence, clarity, etc.) and when the students see their score, they want to go back
and revise their work in order to improve the score. Ann-Marie and Dana tweaked the use of the
program to use it for their students to take their benchmarks. It collects data instantly and gives
the teacher a spreadsheet to see how the students did on specific areas so that the teachers can see
what the students need to work on. Its not a perfect system; sometimes the algorithm is off and
is too lenient or not lenient enough on the students writing. Therefore, it should not be used to
replace teachers grading, but it is a good way for them to collect data and give the students
instant feedback.
4/14/2017
Ann Marie found a way for Mrs. Hookers students to retake their benchmarks. She stressed to
me the importance of knowing what you are giving your students so that important tests like this
are not messed up.
I am subbing for Ann-Marie twice this month, once in May, and once for Mrs. Hooker in May! I
hope that I do a good job and learn from this experience!
4/25/2017
Period 2/4: Mrs. Hooker 8th grade ELA
I am seeing the importance of having a rubric for essays and projects. She is grading essays and
is having trouble grading some of them. I think it would be easier to grade if she had come up
with a rubric for the essay, even just a blanket rubric to cover all essays of this type. That way,
she would know what to give them regarding poor grammar, spelling and punctuation or poorly
cited papers. There was one paper that was written in three long run-on sentences and she wasnt
sure how to go about grading it. Plus, if she had given them a written rubric, the students would
have known exactly what she wanted and might have been more likely to follow it. At the very
least, they would know what they did wrong in their essay.
Period 6: Ms. Krenik 8th grade Honors ELA