Well here I find myself at August 1st and I'm not quite sure where my short summer went. It's been enjoyable no doubt but I can't believe it's August! I also can't believe that in 20 days I start my 7th year of teaching. Kind of unbelievable. I'm super excited and have been working hard at my goal this summer of finding books that my boys would like to read. As I'm getting back into school mode-my plan is to do something school related everyday whether it be read a book about teaching or a YA book or do something to improve my classroom or procedures or teaching. I had a list about a mile long at the end of the school year but I didn't want to put it on the blog because the thing about me is if I write it down then I must do it. I wanted to reflect on my list in my head and dwindle it down to a few things that I know are achievable. Plus, I knew I had quite the list of professional books I wanted to read throughout the summer so I wanted my list of goals for the coming year to reflect those books. So here it is the list of goals for the 2013-2014 school year (in no specific order):
1. Schedule my block so that students have half of the block to do literacy related activities-D5, read to self or independent writing. So I did a really good job at doing this when I was in my last year of third grade, but last year being my first year in sixth grade I didn't do so hot of a job. I know I can do better and being more structured is what I have do to do that. So, whether it be the D5 activities or independent reading or writing that's really something I want to maintain throughout the entire year and not just start halfway. I know that if I started the entire year with dedicating that second portion of my block to independent time I would have seen much greater results.
2. Read aloud everyday. So, again this was another thing that I did everyday in third grade since my second year. I did it for the first half hour of the day which subsequently was the first 25 minutes/35 minutes depending on the book of our reading block. I'm still working out how this will happen and when it will happen but I know it needs to happen. My PD this summer on reading aloud to students really made me realize that I should be doing this in 6th grade. I knew that already, but it made me realize it needs to be a priority. Logistics still need to be figured out but I'm going to. It was my favorite time of day and also my students' favorite time so I want to see that again in my sixth grade classroom.
3. Organize notebooks better-last year I was like a fish out of water. I had no clue how I wanted to organize things. I just knew I wanted my students to read. And, read they did! But it's the note taking and the independent writing notebooks that I want to organize. The seventh grade teacher is very into having things organized and being in place and I really want to make sure my students are ready for her. I think this will be a personal struggle for myself because I'm not necessarily the extreme organized teacher when it comes to notebooks. That's not how I functioned as a kid and it's filtered into my teaching career. I realize now after a year in sixth grade that this may not be what's best for the kiddos. I have 4 notebooks coming to me this year-2 notebbooks and 2 composition books. So my plan so far is to do 1 notebook as a Reading Notebook a la The Book Whisperer with a Tally List, A Reading List/Log and A List of Books to Read and then a section for Response Entries. Then, the other spiral notebook as a Literacy Notebook which will be where we house our notes and vocabulary that helps us to be a better reader. One of the composition books will be a Writing Notebook where we'll do our generating, picking, planning, drafting, editing and revising. Finally, the last notebook we'll have is our Journal-I want students to be really reflective this year. I want them to think of something that they've learned in my class from each week and reflect on it. Last year I did letter to my 30 year old self and thought it was great, but didn't really follow through with doing anything with those. I want to be more intentional with those this year. It also broke my heart in a million pieces when one of my students would say I didn't learn anything new this week in your class can I write about one of the other classes. Honestly broke my heart. I want to make sure they're learning something everyday OBVIOUSLY.
4. Conference more and work with small groups more. Because of behavior management with last year's group I didn't trust myself to pull small groups and to be quite honest, I had no idea what to do with small groups. So now that I have a better grasp as to what the 6th grader needs, I know what I can focus my small group instruction on. Again, something I did in 3rd grade and know it needs to happen in 6th I just need to get er done! I also need to conference more with writing. I started doing a lot of that at the end of last year and the kids relished in it. I want to continue with that.
5. Progress monitor more. I did some of this but not enough. Along with this I need to send home fluency passages more often. The best way for them to become better comprehenders is for them to be more fluent. Must must must work on that.
6. Keep my own reading notebook/writing notebook with more modeling. Again-did it in third grade need to do it in sixth grade.
7. More literature circle/RIT groups-they loved it. Less whole class novels-just shared reading a la The Book Whisperer.
8. Book Talks/Book Commercials a la The Book Whisperer and Nancie Atwell.
9. Get them to love reading.
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