EDRD 431

Source 5: I love this idea for my classroom library! I love to stay organized and this is a really fun way to keep all your classroom library books in check! I think it will also be fun for the kids, and get them excited about checking out books not only from the schools library, but your library as well, because it’s a different way that they probably have used before in their classrooms! It’s also a good way to hold your students accountable for the books they check out from your library!

Source 4: We are probably all a little nervous about how to plan our reading workshop, but this is a great resource I found to help easy to anxiety! Reading workshop is such an important part of our day as teachers and getting help with planning it out, especially the first couple weeks will benefit not only us, but our students.

Source 3: We talked about reading logs this semester, and some liked them and some disliked them. In my internship, we use them and the kids see them as a hassle, so I found this example of a log, but I think it's a way to change it up and make them a little more interesting. You are still holding your students accountable for their reading, but they aren't just writing the same thing every day after they read. I think something like this would be more effective!

Source 2: I like this idea of having an anchor chart to display some form of think marks that you’d like your students to use when they read. We talked a lot about using sticky notes last semester in 430, and I believe these think marks are an easy way to get your students thinking about their reading, holding them accountable.

When is it okay to step in and aid during a students retelling? Aiding and promoting is okay during a retelling after your student has told you everything they know from the book. Sandra Wilde author of Miscue Analysis Made Easy says that you can use what your students tell you to then build off of that in order to "dig out more of the reader's understanding" (pg. 49). The prompting questions you ask are "meant to get at different aspects of the story" (pg. 49) that weren't not mentioned in the initial retelling. It's important not to offer anything new to your student, but just use what they tell you to guide your questions in order to pull out more of what the reader knows.

"I use monthly newsletters to share with parents the important happenings in our classroom." Pg. 117 "Never underestimate the power of a quick chat with the parent at the bus stop or outside your classroom door after school." Pg. 117 "They are much more descriptive than traditional report cards and focus on individual student growth rather than comparisons with other students." Pg. 118 "Conferences in which students take the lead and share with parents what they have learned during the school year." Pg. 118 "Narrative report cards allow teachers to share more information with parents than traditional report cards." Pg.119 "One important thing I learned is that narrative report cards must be written in language that parents can understand." Pg.119 These coaches offered some great ideas to change up traditional report cards. The ones I mentioned above, newsletters, phone calls and impromptu conferences, narrative report cards and student led conferences are some of the ideas I really liked, and feel like I would use in my classroom. I feel like I will send home newsletters with my students to keep my students parents updated, or some form of an update, whether that be a newsletter or maybe a weekly email to everyone. I like the idea of impromptu conferences, because sometimes you will run into your students parents and any time is a good time to talk about how their child is doing in the classroom. I always felt that report cards just touched the surface, so narrative trapper cards is a great idea in order to really connect with your students parents and let them gain a deep understanding of how their child is doing.

"To determine the number of books and the types of books I need I look at my yearly curriculum and the reading levels of the students in my class." Pg. 19 "It's also important that my classroom library reflects a wide range of genres and interest that my students might have." Pg. 20 "Once I have my books, I plan on an organizational system that helps readers choose their books quickly and effectively." Pg. 20 "Once I decide on a system for leveling books, and look up the titles in a reputable source, I next mark the box of students will be able to easily choose them." Pg. 20 "Next to organize my books into Ben's or baskets." Pg. 21 "Students can write questions, comments, reactions, and retellings on Post-it's and leave them and their books until they meet with the teacher, a partner, or bookclub. Having Post-it's with their thinking right next to the spa and the text that led them to choose thoughts helps readers to reference text easily, and allows me as a teacher to see the origin of their thinking." Pg. 23 "The reading notebook serves as a place to hold students' thinking about their reading across time." Pg. 24 "It's helpful to anticipate potential problems that would stand in the way of independence and plan how I can handle these problems practically. if I am clear on what my expectations are and I share them with the readers, then a lot of problems will be nipped in the bud." Pg. 26 "It should become habit for the students to tell me brief summaries of the parts there reading and also a bit of the strategies they're trying out, what they're struggling with, and what ideas are having as they read." Pg. 29 "Seems also need to learn that there is a predictable structure to my conferences, as discussed in the last chapter. It helps when students know that, after we have a brief discussion about their reading, I'll teach them something that they'll be expected to try out. knowing that my conferences follow a predictable structure helps them know what to do." Pg. 29 Setting up your classroom to have a successful year first starts with your classroom library. You need to make sure you have just the right amount and levels of books for your students. Also the way you organize your classroom library is crucial as well. Your students should be able to go through and find just right books for themselves. When it comes to preparing for conferences, letting your students know your expectations before hand is a good idea. Let them familiarize with the process or structure of your conference, so they will know what to do and what is expected of them when it is time for them to conference. Having them prepare their thoughts and what they want to talk to you about is important so the conference can have meaning. Using post its is a great way to get the kids thinking and to hold them accountable for their work while they are reading.

"It's useful to think about it as a three-phase process: generate it, evaluate it, and then apply it." Pg. 87 "We can't assess everything, so we make decisions about what we feel is imperative for students to know and be able to do, and these judgement calls reflect our values, histories, and cultures. We decide what assignments we want students to complete, and then we decide how we will evaluate their work and performance." Pg. 87 "For transparency, we involve our students in the process of creating the criteria we use to evaluate." Pg. 89 "We need to give each student the same knowledge and means to succeed, but adapt the support we give in any areas in which they may struggle. In order words, we need to generate similar, but not necessarily the exact same, information about each child to ensure we can build as complete a picture as possible of each of our students." Pg. 89 "The wider the scope of our assessments and evaluations, the more reliable and valid our judgements. Collecting information from several sources regarding reading or writing abilities ensures that our evaluation process will be more comprehensive." Pg. 90 "Our evaluations need to be practical and purposeful, meaning we should use the information generated every day to inform our decisions concerning our lessons and unit of study." Pg. 90 When deciding how to test our students, we need to keep in mind that we should have a wide variety of assessments. Some of our students might learn best a certain way, and some of our students might learn best a different way, so in order to make sure we are getting a clear understanding of what are students know, we need to make sure we provide them with the best opportunity to show us the information they have learned and know. If we always give our students the same form of assessments, we won't be able to get a wide variety of data that we should collect on each individual student. Keep in mind that our assessments should be purposeful, but they don't always have to be the cookie cutter test, spice it up a little for your more out of the box learners.

The way we talk to our students is so important. We must make sure that not only the words that come out of our mouth are appropriate, but also our body language as well. Every interaction we have with our students is important and holds some form of meaning. We must be able to speak correct language and talk to our students as if they are in fact our students, nothing less and nothing more in order for them to develop a sense of language we want them to learn, and also to show them what we expect of them as meme era of our classroom.

"The social relationships within which they learn are a part of their learning. Children, just like adults, learn better in a supportive environment in which they can risk trying out new strategies and concepts and stretching themselves intellectually. This is not just because a supportive community enables individuals to extend their minds beyond themselves without risk, but also because the relationship associated with the learning is an inextricable part of what is learned. And learning communities are not simply about being supportive. For them to be evolutionary, they also require a challenge, not as a contest for power, but to "help each other and check each other's tendencies to purely idiosyncratic or self-interested thinking." pg. 65 "It also requires engaging in open activities- ones that do not have a single path to a single solution and that allow students multiple points of entry- that require us to articulate are thinking." pg. 75

Source 1: This reflects back to what we learned this semester about just right books and the five finger rule. Finding ways to help your students learn how to pick books that they are able to read, but also interested in, is key because we want all students to have a love of reading, and the first step is getting them into books that they enjoy and that will stem a passion for them.

From this chapter, we learned not only the importance of small groups, but more so the connivence that it can provide you when needing to conference.  instead of working with one student at a time, small group conferences let you work with a couple students that have the same needs.   Small group conferences also let you meet more regularly with your students.  But we have to be careful to balance out out individual conferencing and our small group, because too much small group conferencing and not enough individual time, tends to lead to less in depth assessment, and an overload of strategies that our students have to practice.  Planning small groups can be really simple.  You can plan them in a number of ways from spontaneously gathering information on who needs what strategy, or you can form your groups from previously taken records.  Both ways are effective.  While conducting a small group, just like an individual conference, you must clearly state the purpose of the conference, and tell your students what you have noticed, indicating why they are there, and identify your one teaching point you will teach during that conference.  

When interacting with our students to see what they know, it is important not to disregard anything that they have said.  We want them to feel comfortable with us, and say whatever they feel to be true.  We want them to take risks with their learning, in order to really show us what they have taken away from the reading.  It is important to ask open ended questions, we should not be asking narrowing questions, because this will then give our students the idea that we are looking for a specific answer, or that there is a right/wrong answer, and that is not the case.  We want our students to be in control of their knowledge, and to do that we must let them take charge.  Let them run the show, let them tell you and their classmates what they are thinking, and base a discussion on it.  Have the students come up with questions to ask, and have your students be the ones who are actively participating in the discussion.  If the teacher is doing all the talking, and asking all the questions, then how much can our students really learn?  We know that learning is social, so why not take a step back and have our students learn with each other and from one another.  

"Conferring into partnerships allows me to use students' talk as an assessment opportunity, as if I have a window into what they're thinking about their books" (pg. 117) "Conferring during partner talk and clubs allows me to glimpse inside a reader's brain, to see the invisible brainwork she is attempting" (pg. 117) "By talking about texts, students not only are enjoying the chance to talk and build relationships with peers, they also are working on constructing the text in meaningful ways" (pg. 117) "Talking about books not only gives the readers a nudge into deepening and clarifying their thinking about the text, but it also gives me insights into the ways they construct meaning from texts" (pg. 118) "I usually rely on one of three methods: ghost partner, demonstration, or proficient partner" (pg. 122) "I recommend using the least amount of support- for example, whispering into readers' ears in a ghost-partner method- first. If readers still need more support, stop them and demonstrate the strategy. If you recognize that you are spending a lot of time acting as the proficient partner in conversations, try to use demonstration or become a ghost partner, this offering students less support to push for independence. Knowing the dynamics of the partnerships and clubs well helps me ultimately make my decision" (pg. 129) "The trick is to balance the time and focus of my conferences so that readers are benefiting from both individual conferences that are specifically to their unique needs and frequent talk-time conferences that support their reading, talking, and thinking" (pg. 129) Using partner conferences is a great way for you to take a step back and be able to see how your students are using strategies, and also how they are making meaning of text. You are able to observe the conversations between partners or groups and from this you are able to gain information about the individuals in the group, or as a whole group. From your observations, you then can decide where you should go from there. You can use the three methods, ghost partner, demonstration, or proficient partner. Ghost partner is where you feel your students just need a slight guide, so you whisper something to them, in order to benefit the conversation. Demonstration is where you stop their conversation because you feel a need to go ahead and demonstrate a strategy that they may be discussing. And proficient partner is where you join and become a part of your students discussion, in order for them to benefit most. I see the need and important of partner talks after reading this chapter. I like how you can have individualized conferences, or partner conferences, because they most are beneficially to you and your readers.