My practicum experience this semester is with a second grade teacher in the Paradise Valley Unified School District. She is also a fellow Lumberjack of Northern Arizona University. Today was another day chalk-full of experience!
I got to conduct "Just Right Reading" this morning with several of the students. Each week they have a bag of three books of their own choice. They meet with me and read a section from two of the books. I was told to ask them various questions to gather how much information they took from the text. This was a major eye-opening experience for me. At the second grade level, the students are all on very different levels of reading.
I had one student who was reading dialogue like she was in a play! She enunciated all of her words and spoke in voices. She had an exuberant love for reading! You could just hear it in the way she read the book. She was even more excited to answer questions such as: 1) What did you like about the book? 2) Who was your favorite character and why? and 3)What was your favorite part about the book?
Another student struggled to decode the words she was trying to pronounce. She often looked up at me, waiting for me to help her sound out the word she was stuck on. This did not shake her confidence whatsoever. She pressed on!
It was pretty evident that another student did not read her book at all. When they sat down with me, I told each student they could pick any part in the book to read aloud to me. I told them it could be their favorite part of the book, or perhaps the beginning, or even the end. This student started from the beginning. When I asked her what the rest of the story was about, she could not answer. Perhaps her shyness played a vital role in her vague discussion with me about the book...or perhaps she didn't read.
Overall, I really enjoyed getting perspective on where the students are at in their reading development. I will continue to do do "Just Right Reading" with the students throughout my practicum. I cannot wait to see the development take place in all the students over the next few months. :)
These second graders are becoming great writers! I observe one day a week, and each time I am there, they are working on a different rough draft. Today they had the opportunity to share theirs with the class. I was bummed to see that most of the students "passed" on their opportunity to share what they wrote with their fellow classmates. It got me thinking...How can I get students to want to share their writing? You are going to have your shy students of course. That is inevitable. But how can I get the discouraged students to share their writing?.....
I got to conduct "Just Right Reading" this morning with several of the students. Each week they have a bag of three books of their own choice. They meet with me and read a section from two of the books. I was told to ask them various questions to gather how much information they took from the text. This was a major eye-opening experience for me. At the second grade level, the students are all on very different levels of reading.
I had one student who was reading dialogue like she was in a play! She enunciated all of her words and spoke in voices. She had an exuberant love for reading! You could just hear it in the way she read the book. She was even more excited to answer questions such as: 1) What did you like about the book? 2) Who was your favorite character and why? and 3)What was your favorite part about the book?
Another student struggled to decode the words she was trying to pronounce. She often looked up at me, waiting for me to help her sound out the word she was stuck on. This did not shake her confidence whatsoever. She pressed on!
It was pretty evident that another student did not read her book at all. When they sat down with me, I told each student they could pick any part in the book to read aloud to me. I told them it could be their favorite part of the book, or perhaps the beginning, or even the end. This student started from the beginning. When I asked her what the rest of the story was about, she could not answer. Perhaps her shyness played a vital role in her vague discussion with me about the book...or perhaps she didn't read.
Overall, I really enjoyed getting perspective on where the students are at in their reading development. I will continue to do do "Just Right Reading" with the students throughout my practicum. I cannot wait to see the development take place in all the students over the next few months. :)
These second graders are becoming great writers! I observe one day a week, and each time I am there, they are working on a different rough draft. Today they had the opportunity to share theirs with the class. I was bummed to see that most of the students "passed" on their opportunity to share what they wrote with their fellow classmates. It got me thinking...How can I get students to want to share their writing? You are going to have your shy students of course. That is inevitable. But how can I get the discouraged students to share their writing?.....
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