Guided Reading Video

On Thursday we viewed examples of teachers leading guided reading groups. This was extremely helpful for me. I am a visual learner, so seeing a teacher perform the skills and techniques we had read about in Flint's book was very helpful. It was also helpful because we were able to observe the students involvement and how they responded to the teacher's instructions; this is not something you can do reading text. It was also nice that we were able to view different reading levels and different styles/techniques that teachers used. One teacher chose novels that he knew interested his reading group because they made a connection to a previous book they had read and enjoyed. Another teacher used the reading groups to work on making predictions. I was able to see some of these techniques in person today when we observed at Cedar Ridge. I was in Mr. Miles's first grade class and when he was reading aloud to the class he used some of the same strategies that we saw in the video.

Flint Chapter 8

One thing I really connected with in this chapter was the story in the beginning with the boys that seemed to be off task while the teacher was running reading workshops. Instead of trying to avert the boys' attention back to what they were "supposed" to be reading, she connected with them and had them explain the reading that was holding their interest. She allowed them to continue with the type of text that most excited them and allowed them to express their creativity. I thought this was a wonderful way to handle the situation. Not only were the boys using literacy skills, but they were having fun doing it and they even influenced others in the class to do the same. This is what I want for my future classroom! I want literacy to be fun and enjoyable, and something the students may not even realize they are working on.

ch 8 Flint

One thing I really connected from the text in class today during the video was about exposing children to high quality oral language texts. Its discussed on page 233. I had jotted down "Im not sure this is a great idea" next to the section. The text read "high quality literature regularly usues language that talks over students' heads but remain intresting and engaging to read."

I was thinking that is it was over their heads the students would not be able to comprehend the text and make connections, but merely be able to decode and seem like they are reading it. But after watching the video I changed my mind. I realized that it is not giving a third grader a book on a seventh grade level, but rather giving them a third grade level book that uses rich language they may not be familiar with. This makes much more sense to me now.

Flint Ch. 8

In this chapter, Flint talks a lot about developing vocabulary and one of the methods she presents is that of using graphic organizers. I really love to use graphic organizers as I know that they always really helped me when I was learning a new text. Reading and specifically reading comprehension is all about making connections, either to other ideas in the text or to experiences outside of the text. When you can make connections with the text, thats when you can really understand and make meaning in a text. Graphic organizers such as Venn diagrams, T-charts, and word webs, like Flint suggests are a way for students to visually map out their connections. In the video that we watched today in class, we saw that teacher use a graphic organizer which she called a "mind map" with her students to make connections and understand a new vocabulary word. The students all made different connections, using different clues from the text and relating them to different experiences and knowledge, but the graphic organizer allowed them all to come to an understanding of the unknown word.

Flint Ch.8

One aspect of learning words that the book talks about that I really liked was contextual vocabulary work. It reminded me of a program my school implemented called Word of the Week. The entire school had one word for every week. It was the english teachers job to teach that word, but it was focused on in all the classes. Most of the english teachers gave extra credit if you could find the word of the week in other forms of literacy. I still remember some of these words today because I worked hard to find the words in books I was reading, tv shows I watched, songs I listened to, etc. By finding the words somewhere other than the classroom text book it solidified for me their meaning. I think this shows that their are other ways of getting kids to learn something other than just here is the word and here is the definition. The book was talking about using drama and scenarios to help kids learn vocabulary. I really liked these ideas because it demonstrated a more creative way to get kids to remember words. Also, I see more value in not just having kids memorize a definition, but having them practice using the words correctly day to day.

Flint Chapter 8

I really like the introductions to each chapter of this book where she shares a story that actually happened in a classroom. I feel that they are really the only part of the book that I can really relate to for the most part, and I really liked the one that this chapter began with. I think it is so easy to imagine a group of boys huddled around something they are doing that is not what they are "supposed" to be doing and then trying to hide it. I think it is equally easy to imagine a teacher that would not even take the time to see what they are doing before completely dismissing it and telling them to get back on task. I think it is great that this teacher took an interest in what the boys were doing and deemed it valuable, because that is what the boys thought of it as. The teacher was also able to turn what they were doing into a learning experience and still allow it to be enjoyable for everyone. I would really like my classroom to look like that in the future. I think it would be great to have a classroom where the children's interests are seen as valuable and where they can have some control of their education. I think more kids would be excited to go to school if all classrooms were run this way. The teacher is showing the students that we can all learn from each other and that reading and writing doesn't have to be boring.