After P.R.I.D.E. time I had the opportunity to lead two different guided reading small groups. The students that in each group were below grade level readers and needed extra assistance. The first group worked on fluency. The strategy used was fluency phrases (each card had a small phrase that promotes fluency) if the student said the phrase correct the card was put in the “yes” pile, if not it was put in the “no” pile. The amount correct is then counted and recorded; this is then repeated for a total five times. It was a very interesting activity and is actually some of the students tier three interventions.
The second guided reading group was actually my first collaborating teacher (CT) observation. I believe that it went well over all (there will be a post lesson plan reflection blog post that goes in depth on my reflections).
During science they started with the “long term investigation”. The investigation observed the change in temperature throughout the week/year. The students also watched a “myon” video on light. This resource (https://www.myon.com) was really awesome. It reads to the students, highlighting the portion of the text as it goes along. As soon as my CT put the story up on the screen, the students showed extreme enthusiasm. This is defiantly I resource I plan to use in the future.
In the last couple minutes of class I conducted an interview with my focus student, Y.V. (pseudonym). The interview was actually an assignment for my ESOL 1 class. One question/answer stuck out to me the most:
What advice would you give other students that are learning English?
“Listen to more English words around … and don’t forget Spanish along the way”
This was very interesting to me because as a third grader, Y.V. is virtually advising others not to loose touch with their culture/ethnicity.
After reading the EdPsych: Modules it was amazing to see how relevant it is in the classroom environment. Within module eleven, Information Processing, there is an entire section on “forgetting”. The three main reasons that students forget are encoding failure, storage decay, and retrieval failure (Bohlin, 2012, pg.191). The one that I have observed most within my internship classroom is retrieval failure. In this situation students feel certain that they have learned the piece of information but cannot pull up the mental record of it (Bohlin, 2012, pg. 192). I have observed this multiple times during math instruction. Specifically with my focus student (Y.V.), he appears to become frustrated when he fails to retrieve the information.
Another interesting unit from this module was on helping students store and retrieve information. It discussed the multiple strategies that teachers can use to assist student in retrieving information (organization, conceptual understanding, task analysis, relevance, and automaticity versus external memory aids) (Bohlin, 2012, pg.194). I have seen my CT practice multiple components within this section. Teachers can strengthen students’ conceptual understanding in several ways including: identify key concepts and recognize meaningful patterns, focus on meaning rather than memorization, asking students to reflect/paraphrase, and provide student the opportunity to practice and review (Bohlin, 2012, pg.194). I have observed my CT do all of the above. However, a specific example that jumps out to me each time I am in the classroom would be the identification of key concepts and recognize meaningful patterns. At the begging of each subject area and/or unit, my CTs introduce the key concepts and relate it back to something previously learned.
In module twelve, Metacognition, it is discussed that writing skills increasingly require metacognitive skills such as planning, monitoring, and evaluation (Bohlin, 2012, pg.218). During the writing portion of the day, my CTs provide instruction and models planning strategies. Which is an intervention strategy that can help improve writing skills (Bohlin, 2012, pg.218). My CTs module planning the entire writing piece including identifying the audience/topic, the main ideas, an outline, and the rough drafts. They work on the writing pieces through the B (beginning) M (middle) M (middle) E (end) strategy, completing one component each day. The students started working on their first middle today after my CT modeled it for them.
Once the students left (and after returning from seminar) it was time for conferences! Although I did not contribute to the conference much at all, it was extremely interesting to observe it from the teacher (and parent) point of view. Grades, behaviors, medication, and future interventions were discussed throughout the evening. I realized that parents count on teachers for more then just educating their children. Teachers have to observe multiple things other then academic success; they defiantly play an important role in the development of a child. It was an amazing experience.
Reflective Questions
1. How can I implement the strategies that promote storing and retrieving information?
2. How can I help Y.V. not get frustrated and shut down when he does not successfully retrieve information?
References
Bohlin, L., Durwin, C., & Reese-Weber, M. (2012). EdPsych: Modules (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.