week 17 weekly reflection jan. 7-11

What w whirlwind week in sixth grade!  It started with completing the performance task that the district had suggested but not mandated.  It worked out so well becuase one of the selected texts was about Rosa Parks which fits right into the unit that I started later in the week!  The kids did well overall.  There are a few kids that don't care to do well on things that 'don't count.'  I am so not used to this yet as third graders thought everytyhing counted but sixth graders will only put 100% into their work if it is for a grade or for their promotion.  It's frustrating.

I did start the new Civil Rights unit this week and started to teach them stratgies to make reading nonfiction easier and more interesting.  Majority of the students hate reading nonfiction which is why I decided to do this unit.  I chose to do the Civil Rights Movement because I had a request for it and the suggested topic for the third unit from the district was fairness so I thought it fit in perfectly.  Plus, I wanted to get in nonfiction reading/strategies before the state testing.  It started off with an fun intro activity with the students getting cards.  I thought we'd have such a problem with them being disruptive with the segregation role play but for the most part they understood how unfair it was at the time!  Surprisingly, the only kids that I had to talk to during the role play were the ones that I thought wouldn't be a problem.  It's always like that...they're keeping me on their toes.  The kids seem really into the topic so I hope that continues.  I'm also hoping that I can keep them interested. 

Today we took the MAP test for Reading.  I was so happy with so many of my students that made huge gains!  However, a few didn't and that frustrated me. Like I said before, if they don't think it 'counts,' they don't try.  How do I combat this??  It counts for me I want to scream at them!!  Another thing that frustrated me was that majority of the sped kids did not make gains in Reading.  I have asked for our schedule to change but the kids have pull out first part of the 90 minute block and then inclusion.  So I'm not actually teaching them.  They come in during independent practice time or during writing workshop.  It's frustrating.  It's another thing I'm getting used to in Sixth grade is that I am the one that is looked at and they are my scores.  What frustrates me is what about SS/Science teacher??  She doesn't have any scores to her name.  It's frustrating.  She's been teaching a lot of reading things and using a novel which I'm not really sure why I get the connection but I'd like for her to teach nonfiction text as opposed to fiction which is what she's been using.  I think that could really help.  She hasn't taken that advice though which is frustrating in itself but oh well.  Overall I'm pretty happy with the scores.  What I don't like is that the MAP test generates a projected growth target and if the students don't make that then in the data it shows that they haven't made growth.  But majority of my students made some growth but some did not make the growth that the computer generated that they must make.  That's frustrating to me because what does the computer know about my students???  Do they know what they've been through this year? Do they know that I've worked tooth and nail with the kid and that any type of growth should be celebrated for the particular kid?  It's frustrating because to me any growth is growth.  But not to the people at the network or to my principal.  Frustrating!  I hope they can all make some growth (meet their growth target generated by a computer program) by the end of the year!

week 16 weekly reflection jan. 3-4

Ugh two days back to make up for the strike!  YUCK!  I actually have to say though that I did enjoy going back on a Thursday as opposed to a Monday just because now when Monday does come I'm already back into the swing of things.  The kids came energized and ready to learn which was great.  They grew a lot over break so many of them are taller or as tall as me now.  Ugh!

My new civil rights books are in and I'm excited to get started on a new unit all about nonfiction reading.  I love to read nonfiction and I'm hoping I can pass that onto my students.  We went over nonfiction signposts this week while reading scholastic news.  I love scholastic news and want to try to incorporate it much more into my everyday teaching!  It's such a great resource and what better nonfiction reading!  Off to enjoy my weekend and recover from my 2 day week!  :)

week 15 weekly reflection dec. 17-21

Break!  Thank goodness.  Lost a kid during my field trip yesterday.  Never take a huge group of students to a museum the day before Winter break.  Why?  EVERY single school in the city has the exact same idea.  I'm taking the next week and a half off of reflecting and am just going to try to get my excitement back.  Oh yeah and I have to plan what we're going to do when we get back...

week 14 weekly reflection dec. 10-14

So one of the things that I've been working on so much with the students is finding the main idea.  They're getting so much better!  This week I had them try to read an article that they've never seen before from timeforkids.com and they did great!  Majority of them were able to identify the main idea and supporting details.  I really was proud and realize that a lot of the hard work I've put in has helped!! 

Another great thing about this week made me realize something.  As we finish up our novel studies just in time for winter break my highest group got to the best part of their novel.  I love the novel they're reading-Among the Hidden-and I was so excited for them to get to the part to see how they reacted.  My excitement made me realize something-I haven't really shown them my excitement yet this year.  I've been so focused on being the disciplinarian and making sure I have little to no behavior problems in my class that I forgot that the reason many of them liked me in third grade was because I was so excited.  And quite frankly, I liked that better.  When I was so excited.  It made me think that I must be excited and pass that excitement down.  I have been excited this year, I just haven't really shown it.  I was afarid to let me guard down.  I realize now that when I'm excited they become excited and that doesn't necessarily mean that things are going to go haywire.  I'm beginning to plan the next unit we'll do after break and I'm thinking of how can I get them to be excited???  How can I be excited???  I know I want to teach nonfiction but I want it to be about a topic I'm excited about so that I can pass it on to them...

journal 70 book check

I can tell from my student's attitudes that the Daily 5 has changed them and I'm starting to wonder why.  I've been really interested in what they are reading during the Daily time because I think this choice may have something to do with their positive attitude.  So since I decided not to pull groups this week with testing I decided that I would do a book check today.  Of the 21 children that I checked in with only 3 were reading questionable books meaning that they weren't at their just right level.  Two of them were my higher students who are reading out of grade level books (fifth grade to be exact) and the other is a middle grade reader but was reading a higher level book.  The one I was most interested in I had a conversation with about her book choice.  She was reading a Weird School series book and she really can read Level S or T and understand.  She is really deliberate about everything she does so I knew there had to be a reason.  When I pulled her aside to ask her she said that the higher books had words in them that she doesn't like (cuss words or slang language) and that there are words that are challenging for her and she just likes to be able to read a book and not have to sound words out.  For a girl that has never had a hard time with reading this made complete sense to me.  Another thing she mentioned was that "in the harder books, it takes a while to get to all the action but in the easier books for me there's always action going on."  Then we had a talk about rising and falling action-something I've been working on with her reading group.  Then I told her that the series that she was reading was really super easy and I thought we could find some appropriate books that weren't too challenging but sort of easy for her but that had more action right away in the book.  We wound up finding a series The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes for her to read and I'm going to have to see how that works and if she likes it.  Another discussion I had was with a student that doesn't always like challenging but needs it and benefits from it.  I gave him a level W book which he is at a level S or T but I knew this book Freak the Mighty would keep his interest.  He wasn't interested at first but today he seemed to be buzzing through the book.  He was having a hard time picturing the two characters so I think I am going to print him some pictures of the movie I think there is one.  I'm glad he stuck with it. 

I am torn if I should continue to do things like this because research wise I know the benefits of children reading books at their instructional level, but at the same time I want the kids to love to read and part of that is the choice embedded in the Daily 5.  I know they've enjoying reading so much this year because it's different everyday and they get to choose what they're reading but for those kids that need a push I'm torn.  I really thought at the beginning of this year that doing this would be the most challenging with working with the lowest kids.  When in fact, what I've found is that it's been most challenging to find the right balance with the highest kids. 

journal 69 it's like riding a bicycle

Today was the first day of testing.  Yuck.  I'm not sure who hates it more me or the students.  I was impressed with the work that they did though.  Many of them went back to find the answers in the test.  In fact after the test many of them said that there were so many right there questions!  It made me proud to hear them using the language I've been teaching them. 

After lunch my team and I decided that we didn't want to switch so I had reading and math.  During Reading time we did the Daily 5 because I knew they'd be asking for it.  Many of them shouted YES as I told them we were going to do that.  I was proud.  But what I did notice is that my nonreader (not anymore! :)) heard that we were going into the dailies he knew exactly what to do.  He hasn't been in my classroom for reading in about 3 weeks and he just went right back into the routine!  It's like riding a bicycle.  He knew exactly what the expectation was and was able to fit right back into what he was supposed to do.  He happened to be at the read to someone daily along with another child that receives special services.  All three of them decided that one student who doesn't receive specialized services would read to them and they would both listen.  I was weary at first not knowing how much reading they would actualy get done seeing as how they are the 3 most active boys in my class but they were just fine!  They sat reading a variety of picture books for almost 35 minutes!  It was the cutest thing I've seen in our Daily time so far this year.  It made my student who stays with me so proud to know that he could read any of the books that they chose for him.  It got me to thinking about the confidence that my students have gained through the daily 5.  They believe in themselvews as readers and I really saw that confidence come out today during the test.  They know how to approach a variety of different texts because the daily 5 has given that opportunity to read different text! 

journal 68 wanting some constuctive criticism

As I mentioned I wrote a Study Group Coach grant about the Daily 5 in which team members will learn how to implement the Daily 5 method.  I've been pretty vocal about how much I love it at my school and I asked around to see if anyone would be interested in joining my study group.  With that I've had a few teachers ask if they could come watch me during the daily 5 time.  I'm not worried about the visits.  In fact, I like when people come into my classroom because I want them to tell me what to do better.  But since my principal has been so supportive of my research and doing this method, I've kind of been put on a pedastal.   I don't know how to spell that.  Opps!  Anyways while I am really thankful for all the support and positive press about how I teach reading, I still consider myself a new teacher (this is my 5th year) and I would like some constructive criticism when people come to visit me.  Today one of the teachers came to observe during the Daily time and she had nothing but positive things to say which while that's great I'd like to know if there's anything more I could do.  She listened to my discussions with my two groups that I pulled and after the one about questioning, I told her that it was a test prep thing but I'm not calling it that and she thought it was wonderful and wanted to use that in her classroom which is kindergarten.  I guess this all comes back to my confidence as a teacher.  I do think that I've grown into a much happier reading teacher but I do still feel like I'm learning and I'd still like ideas from the more veteran teachers.  I've mentioned it a bit before but since I'm the only one that's really doing the Daily 5 at my school the way it's supposed to be done I feel kind of alone and like I really don't have anyone at my school to talk to.  I know I can share ideas with my ARLI fellowship people but I'd really love ideas from other teachers.  I don't know is this all strange???