Last Class and Lesson Plans

               There is so much to be said about the lessons that we learned in 407 this past week. By beginning with a talk by Dr. Gallo, going to the topic of questions, and finishing with a fishbowl activity of watching how teachers today are creating their lesson plans, I know that I took away a lot of useful information.  Just a few days later, I found that I was thinking about the fishbowl more than anything.

               Kim, Bob, and Buddy had agreed to hold their planning time in our classroom so that we could benefit and learn from watching them plan a lesson. I thought that, as veteran teachers, Kim and Bob would go into the planning session already knowing what they wanted to do and were going to check with Buddy, the Dean of Pedagogy. I was quickly mistaken as each, Bob and Kim, came into the room with two very different view points and had to work together to find common ground in the lesson that would benefit all of the students. By the end of the session, they had incorporated aspects from both teachers’ ideas to create a lesson plan that would benefit all of the students including extra support for the students in special education.

               As Dean of Pedagogy, Buddy became the person that would keep Kim and Bob in check and making sure that the plans that they created for the class would align back to the learning targets that they had established for that lesson. This sounds like a great asset to have in a high school! Having that outside party to the classroom would bring the teachers back into check when they create these elaborate plans to make sure that the students are actually learning what they need to learn! Why is it then that this position is so rare? Why is it that CFHS sees the need for this position and budgets for it, and other schools don’t? By using Buddy, a team effort is created to make sure that the students are the focus and that learning will be happening.

               I enjoyed watching the group create a lesson plan. It cleared up some doubts I was having in myself that because I was asking so many questions of my plans and always changing things around, I wasn’t planning in the most efficient way. I learned that even teachers, who have been in schools for years and years, are having the same questions and mind flips that I have! It’s a great reinforcement to see that I am doing something right by questioning and changing. As pre-service teachers, the class and I should be exposed to activities, panels, and observations that squash our fears or our misconceptions about teaching. Actually watching teachers create their lesson plan squashed some fears in me.

Chapters 9 and 10... But Mostly 9

               All of Chapter Nine had me really engaged and excited! When I first heard about book clubs in CF High School, I was immediately interested. I love book clubs for my personal life, and I think that if we could bring in book clubs to the classroom, then we could get more students reading things that they are interested in. By providing the students with a guided selection of books, meaning the books they can pick from are provided and reviewed by the teacher, the students gain a little bit of independence in the classroom.

               With a concept that is very open for interpretation as the Book Clubs, the chapter lays it out in a way so that teachers have a clear definition and examples of how to use the concept in the classroom. The chapter takes the readers through how to prep the class for the activity, how to form the groups, the roles of the students and the teacher, and finally how to assess the activity. That was always my big question about book clubs, how do you assess the students to find out if they are learning anything through individual reading and small group discussions. I think that providing note papers and then randomly collecting them is a useful way to keep the students doing their work because they don’t know when their paper will be collected.

                The chapter also talks about having the students create the rubric for assessment. This was a new concept for me, but after thinking about it, I see how it can be useful for the students as well as the teacher. From the students giving the specific rubric criteria point values, they become aware of how their completion of work is going to score in the rubric. Through classroom discussion, the students have a say in what they feel they should be graded on and then they become aware of what they need to do to receive all the possible points that they had assigned a certain criteria. This is useful in all areas so students know what is expected of themselves. Instead of the teacher holding the students accountable, the students are holding themselves and each other accountable for their grades.

               There are also many websites that help with Book Clubs in the classroom. I found a whole lesson plan on how to use the Book Clubs in the class: www.readwritethink.org. Even though the lesson plan was created for younger grades, it could still be applied to the high school level by changing the reading level of the books and providing roles for the student’s discussions. I would love to implement the use of a Book Club in a future classroom of mine!

Chapters 5 and 7 Comments

               In Chapter Five, the authors include many examples of reading strategies that teachers can implement in their classroom. One that really stuck out to me, even though we have talked about it before in class, is the RAFT – Retelling in Various Perspectives and Genres. I found the description that the chapter gives is really helpful when having to explain how to do a RAFT. After the discussion in class and after reading this section of the chapter, I found that I was identifying more things that could be considered a RAFT. For example, I was helping out with some sorority things and someone suggested that we write letters as the Founders to our chapter to retell the values that the sorority was originally founded on. After being exposed to these types of reading methods in the chapter and in class, I think that I can more readily use the methods in a classroom. More exposure really does help when having to reuse and teach with these methods. I even googled RAFT to see what else I could learn about the method. There are so many resources online to help students and teachers use the method correctly. Here is the link to a whole website page I found on helping use the RAFT: http://literacycounts.wordpress.com/tag/raft-prompt/

               The material that Chapter Seven covered is what really stuck out to me for this week’s reading. In my education classes, we focus so much on the curriculum, strategies to use, and how to use them within the classroom. I found it interesting that a whole chapter was dedicated to building a strong community within the classroom. One passage that really resonated with me states, “We need to make the classroom a community, a place where students feel safe to take the risks involved in learning, where they see it connected with their lives, and where they help and learn from one another instead of working only as isolated individuals”. I agree with this statement because the goal of the classroom should be to create a safe space for the students. The classroom should be a safe place that fosters learning. Some students don’t have a safe space back home, so the classroom needs to become that space instead. When the chapter comments on learning about your students, I liked the idea about keeping a journal page for each student so that you can constantly add to the page new things that you are learning about the students. It is a way to be actively thinking and learning about your students. I took the meaning behind this chapter as get to know your students, connect with them, allow a space for social situations to take place, but at the same time open up their minds to learning about new things. 

               These chapters really stuck out to me from all of the readings because the authors provided detailed methods to use within the classroom, and also had touched upon the community aspect of the classroom which I find to be very important in teaching. I like how the book and the information from class exposes us to more and more useful strategies to use in a classroom. Also, the classroom should become a place where the students feel safe to learn, and one way to build up this safety is by getting to know the students and really care about them and their future. Both chapters provided me with practical usage of methods that can create a big difference in the class.

The Parent Panel Reaction

              Tuesday, February 25^th, was a different class in SED 407 for many reasons. We were learning a new observation method, talking to parents, and reviewing our experiences in the neighborhood. For the purpose of this blog post, I want to focus in on the parent panel and the reactions I had while listening to the parents.

               I found the parent panel to be highly informative for my future teaching years. In the Secondary Education courses that I have taken there was never a real importance placed on the communication between the teacher and the parent. I had always assumed that there would be some kind of communication either emails when students were misbehaving or missing assignments or during parent-teacher conferences. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the application of constant, or monthly, communication that is being applied in CF with parents. The teachers are making it a point to talk to the parents and establish a relationship with them. The parents talked a lot about respect and earning that respect from the parents, which will in turn lead to respect from the students. When the teacher takes the time to get to know the family, they will also be taking the time to learn about the student and where they came from. Therefore, the teacher is ultimately getting to know the student in another way than only asking them through an Interest Inventory.

               The parents want the teacher to talk to them! This concept has been in my mind for the past week because of how simple it sounds, but yet this is the first time that is being talked about in depth. The parents want to know what is going on with their children and the teachers are the only ones who spend the most time with the students. There must be a relationship established with the parents. If the teacher took a few minutes out of their day to call a few of the parents and give them an update on their child, the parent would be beyond grateful. One thing that really stood out to me was that some parents can’t always respond to emails or answer phone calls because of work or lack of computer. The parents and professors said that it was okay to reach out to them in person! Go to see the parents in their home! That sounds like such an easy concept but I had never considered it when thinking about reaching out to parents or families. I believe that if teachers reach out the parents and families of their students, then the student has another to help them succeed better in school.

               For the image below, I started off by Google-ing “parents and teachers working together”. I believe that the image that I found suites the theme of my post. If parents, teachers, and students all work together, then there is a better chance for the student to be successful. When it all comes down to it, teachers are there to help their students succeed, and a relationship with the parent and student are vital components to helping that student succeed!