One thing I noticed this morning is just how organized the morning routine is in this classroom. The students are so well behaved to. It shows that there is a great relationship of respect and teamwork in the class. The students worked on a jumpstart worksheet activity as they shuffled into the classroom. When everyone was there, a student whose job it is to take the lunch order and bring it to the lunchroom stood up and took everyone’s order. When students were finished with their jumpstarts early, they knew to silently read and were very good about going about this without interrupting others. Some read at their desks, while others reclined on the pillows in the back of the room.
One of the students, Jason, asked me to read with him, and I was so happy because it meant that I am having a positive impact on the students and that they like my lessons and other work that I am doing with them. One of your fears is always that the students won’t like you, or think what you are teaching them is stupid, etc. He showed me all his favorite things in the book and I had him read a passage about his favorite warrior. He is a very good reader, it was fun.
After a while Mrs. K. reviewed the jumpstart with the class, and picked on a few of the students randomly to give answers to questions before they all handed them in.
After the jumpstart, my child study subject and I went outside to film the reading and writing interview interest survey. We filmed on the swings and he did a really good job. Other than his usual shyness, my subject did very well during the interview. His lack of shyness about being videoed made me wonder if this was just something that a child would not think was a big deal or if it was the everyday availability of media technology in his life that made him so comfortable. I tried to think about how I would have felt at his age during a time before cell phones and phone video cameras. I remember my parents taking home videos, but that was my parents filming me and not a relative stranger.
After the interview we went to the library to read some books together again. We read the books Curious George Goes to the Hospital and Bone. He read Curious George because it was one of his favorite cartoons that he watches on PBS Kids. It was easy for him to read. The Bone book was a little bit harder. It was a chapter book about a ghost that was written like a comic book with captions that were small and hard for him to read. I liked how every time we read books he would pick out books that he liked, but that were sometimes a little challenging for him. I felt like he was doing some self scaffolding by picking a range of books that were too easy, right on target or a little bit too hard. His biggest issue with the harder books was some of the vocabulary and meaning of the words that he read. He could correctly pronounce words that he did not fully understand. The result of excellent phonics instruction I am sure. I talked to him about this and we discussed strategies that he could use while he was reading to help him when he could not understand a word. I suggested that he could use a dictionary to look up the meaning of words, or ask a teacher, or other adult about the meaning. He reads everyday at home with his older brother and at school he has Mrs. K. There are dictionaries in the classroom that he can access to look up a word as well, and all the students have a paperback dictionary in their desks.
No comments:
Post a Comment