1. The target area I would like to focus on for my guided lead teaching is point of view, its importance and the effect it has on a writing piece as a whole.
2. I have about 45 - 50 minutes a day if necessary for my instruction.
3. The Common Core Standard I will be working toward is CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.6 Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud. I would also like to tie in the standard that states, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
4. By teaching my students point of view, I hope to offer new opportunities for them to create writing pieces that are both authentic and enjoyable. The students will be able to recognize how point of view allows them to add their own voice to their writing pieces. Point of view is also an important literacy element that the students will need to recognize when reading in order to comprehend and understand the writers purpose.
5. Our class does not currently have classroom talk in this target area. I hope to build a student-led classroom talk where the students can read a book on their own and come together as a class to discuss the books they have read. Ultimately, I would like the students to be able to have a classroom discussion where all ideas are respected. I would like my students to be comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas with their classmates. I would also like the students to be able to carry on a conversation themselves, responding to one another in a fluid manner.
6. I plan to work on improving the core practice, responding to reading, with my students. Read-alouds occur a lot in my classroom but the students do not very many effective discussions about their responses to the reading. With the topic of point of view, reading is important for the students to see examples of point of view in books we read every day. One book specifically, "Voices in the Park" by Anthony Browne, does a great way of showing point of view through the writing and by the actual appearance of the text on the page. I think presenting this book to my students would be extremely beneficial.
7. I have many resources that area available to me. The public library will be able to supply me with the Anthony Browne book. Our classroom is also equipped with a Promethean Board. My mentor teacher has introduced me to Promethean Planet where she finds interactive activities for the students to get up and get involved. I am looking forward to incorporating some point of view activities into my guided teaching.
8. My mentor teacher has many books she has collected over the years that she can supply me with. At this time though, I do not need to obtain additional resources.
9. I plan to pre-assess my students both formally and informally. I would like to hold a classroom discussion about point of view before teaching my lessons in order to get a better understanding of what they children know and what they do not know. I would also like to have some sort of writing activity to get the student's prior knowledge about point of view. Asking the students to write a short story first from one person's point of view, then from another's, will be a great way for me to see if they truly understand the purpose and benefit of point of view.
10. I would like to make my lessons as authentic to my students as I possibly can. I would like to continue to learn about the lives of my students outside of school in order to choose books and activities that they can relate to and connect with. This will allow my lessons to be more authentic and meaningful to my students.
11. I would like to learn more about my core practice in order get the most out of my lessons. I would like to learn about the different techniques that other teachers have used in order to have students successfully respond to the readings. It would be beneficial to the students and myself if I could have the opportunity to speak with other teacher about successful ways they have implemented discussion into their classrooms.
12. My only big concern I have when planning and teaching my unit is having it adhere to all students in my classroom. Based on recent testing, the students in my class come from a wide range of literacy understanding. Some students are as low as a kindergarten reading level while others are on level with second grade material. I want to make sure that my lesson is challenging enough for all of my students without it being too easy for some and too difficult for others.
I think that is common for most classrooms. You may have to differentiate your instruction. In terms of learning from other teachers, perhaps you could ask them to meet with you a few minutes before or after school. They might even be willing to meet with you off site. Most teachers love chocolate and coffee!
ReplyDeleteHey Alexandria!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your plan. Point of view will be a great target area for your guided lead teaching. I definitely believe that you can create authentic point of view activities for your students. By having students talk from their point of view, they will experience sharing ideas that are actually important to them. Students can talk from their own point of view in opinion pieces and personal narratives. After I read the Common Core State Standards you will be working with, I really connected to the identifying different voices for each character. By finding a book with an immense amount of characters, this will create an opportunity to practice various points of view. One literacy idea you may want to include is Reader's Theater. I always loved Reader's Theater and I believe this a great opportunity for students to practice voice and different voices for certain characters.
After reading your blog post, I referred to our course text Strategies That Work. I did this to help give advice for your goal of classroom talk. I reviewed what we have read about the gradual release of responsibility and I believe this will help immensely. To get your students thinking about talking aloud and listening to others while they talk, they first need to see the teacher model the activity. This could be done with some simple explanation and then the teacher modeling with a few students how to listen, ask questions, and share ideas. Next, guided practice will occur. The teacher will guide a whole group conversation with intent to get to a certain point of thinking. Then, students will start practicing this in small groups. Finally, students should have the ability to complete this task on their own. Classroom talk will be very beneficial when students are discussing and depicting point of view. I believe they could build ideas of one another about what each character's point of view in a story is and why they came about their reasoning.