Video blog on Beers/Probst

Mini-Lesson Reflection

My mini-lesson was meant to be an "I do, we do, you do" that just turned into an I do.  It seemed more like a lecture than a student-involved mini-lesson.  Instead of using two long mentor texts to demonstrate the difference between first and third person narratives, I should have used two short examples. I would have then had time to demonstrate, using a piece of my own writing, how to change a first person narrative into a third person narrative.  I feel like I need to work on including more "fun" activities, or at least quick activities that make a strong point.  Other teachers have done a great job of quick little activities that make a lasting impression, which is something I would like to work on.

Teaching Writing

Both Rief and Smagorinsky discuss the value of content over form, as well as grading the process as much as the final product. Rief talks a lot about using the Writers Notebook as a prewriting tool. This plays into Smagorinsky's idea of using life as prewriting. By doing quickwrites, students easily bring their background into the classroom. Once they can connect their outside life to their academic life, they begin to care more about the work they produce. I like the idea of Rief going through the WRN and encouraging students to continue certain pieces. She must do this with certain assignments in mind, or by using quickwrites that play into whatever larger piece she plans on her students using. For example, asking students their opinion on a political/town issue during a quickwrite, then having them develop it into an argumentative essay. I liked how Smagorinsky emphasized that teaching writing does not involve using class discussions to write, but by asking students to read a new piece and use what they have learned. This makes much more sense to be able to evaluate a student's understanding of what they have learned. It is also very applicable to standardized testing. Peer evaluation is a tool that both authors encouraged but warned that effective feedback is a skill that must be learned as well. While I see the importance of modeling effective writing, I don't like Rief's idea of sharing past work, I feel it sets a standard in students' minds and may take away from their focus on the content.

Teaching Struggling Readers

When Jimmy and I sat down to this lesson plan, we were worried about not having enough material to cover. As we began to plan, we realized that we were too ambitious, especially for a struggling readers lesson.  It's easy to look at these lessons and think of them in our own educational mindset. The problem is that I've never been a struggling reader, so it's important to for me to remember that just because something seems simple does not mean it is. With struggling readers, it's crucial to slow down and teach them different strategies, but not go so slow that it's demeaning to the student. Struggling readers are aware that they struggle, and by high school, they know how to fake it. I feel like breaking down different aspects and strategies of reading allows the teacher to assess where each student excels and struggles. Allowing a struggling reader to slip through the cracks, or even not being able to help them, is my biggest worry as a future English teacher. It's nice that the "how we teach" section from our Current Issues class alines with teaching struggling students. All the readings came together to say: this is who is struggling, this is how the teacher helps. I look forward to the Teaching Reading class in the Spring.

Struggling Readers

My first reaction to these selections is that struggling readers come in all shapes and sizes. They can be the obvious slumped over kid, or they can be the perky girl in the front row. It seems that there are far more dependent readers than independent readers. My immediate fear is that I cannot relate. I remember being able to read from a very early age, my mother was a reading teacher. I always read well above my grade level. I did watch my little brother struggle through a learning disability, but my parents felt it was important to hide this from his older siblings. They didn't want an insensitive comment to discourage him and ruin what little confidence he did have. The reality is you cannot protect most struggling readers. By the time they've reached middle school, they've probably had moments of embarrassment when they attempted to read aloud to the class. This means that the cat is out of the bag. More than likely, all the struggling readers' classmates know his secret too. So how, as a teacher, do you build confidence in one struggling reader without calling attention to the fact that they are, indeed, a struggling reader? In a classroom full of students, how can you focus your attention on the struggling readers while not neglecting the independent readers? In what ways could independent readers set an example to the dependent readers and help them build text confidence without destroying their social and emotional confidence? Beers makes it very clear that a GROWTH mindset is the most essential part of creating independent readers.

Parts of a Whole

Upon reading Swagorinsky's entire unit plan and the thought process required, it is clear how important it is to envision the "big picture."  Rief also discusses planning long term, going so far as to map out the entire school year, ready to make adjustments. I prefer Swagorinsky's approach to planning a unit and allowing each lesson plan to build on one another in order to accomplish the unit goals. Rief suggests having three different hand outs for parents so they know what to expect of their students, but I feel this is excessive, especially if you are teaching to Swagorinsky's hypothetical class. I found his detailed lesson plans to be very insightful. The fact that he plans down to the minute allows him to predict the way each class will go. He does leave a lot of Fridays open, in anticipation of previous days of the week running over. He saves a few minutes here and a few minutes there for things that had not crossed my mind. For example, at the beginning of every class he allots 3 minutes for "attendance, housekeeping." He understands from experience that class will not just begin when the bell rings. I also like that after each unit, he allows the students to give feedback on the literary materials he chose, as well as the group activities. As Swagorinsky points out, this is especially helpful when you're first starting out. In the same sense, I liked that Rief each year builds a list of student feedback on their Readers and Writers Surveys. This allows her to know her students and what to expect of them that year. It also allows her to conform to their needs.

Planning- Reality vs Expectations

In my original reflection of what planning may consist of, I talked a lot about how the teacher must consider the whole unit before breaking down a lesson plan. I also discussed how the more detailed a lesson plan, the less improvisation necessary. One of the most common topics throughout the flipgrid videos is the spontaneity of teaching. Almost every teacher mentions how they find themselves having to adjust lesson plans almost every time in order to adapt to the students needs. Many of the teachers also brought up their transition from detailed lesson planners to planning online, or on Microsoft Word. This shows how important organization is when planning. I was surprised to hear one of the teachers say that she plans the entire year then re-plans as she goes.