Today was the first time I got to work with my assigned literacy group. There are four students in my group all of which are girls. I was surprised by how well they worked together and seemed interested in doing the activities I had planned for them. However it was clearly obvious to me the difference in skills these four girls have. Each one likes a different component of literacy. This means I will plan spelling, writing, and reading activities throughout the term and vary what we do each week so that everyone gets to do something they enjoy most.
In just the short amount of time that I spent with my group today, I learned so much about them. I got a chance to assess their literacy skills in reading, writing, and spelling. I also learned some information about their interests through a student interest inventory activity that I created for them. We started the day with the student interest inventory. I asked students questions about things they like to do and how they view themselves as learners so that I can use this information to help me plan lessons that will be meaningful and interesting for them to do.
A majority of the questions that I asked the students resulted in a response with the name Justin Bieber or James Patterson. I have some extreme Justin Bieber and Twighlight fans in my group. Listening to them talk about their "crushes" for these two celebrity boys makes me remember back to when I was their age and NSync and Backstreet Boys were my heart's desire! Since I now know these boys are something that really interests these girls I will try to keep that in mind as I plan my lessons. Perhaps we can do something that involves song lyrics or Twighlight movie analysis. I also discovered today that the kids in my group love candy (you're probably thinking duh! what kid doesn't) so I will keep this in mind as a reward but I don't want the kids to be accustomed to getting a physical reward (like candy) everything I do a lesson with them. They should want to learn and do the activities that I have planned for them even if there isn't a physical reward involved. That is going to be my major goal this term is to get the kids excited to learn without needing candy first in order to do what I ask them to.
The first thing I told my group today was not to worry; everything we did today was only for the purpose of me getting to know them better personally and academically. Nothing will be graded today. I had them write ten spelling words that I asked them (and then as a bonus question I asked them to spell my last name just for fun). We also read a short story about a dog that goes to the moon. This was so I could Pre-assess their reading ability and also I was watching for their ability to stay on task and pay attention which I was surprised to find they are very good at. They took turns reading paragraphs from the story and they always had to be listening so they would know when it was their turn to read. Another thing that surprised me was one of the girls was very helpful in correcting the students as they struggled to pronounce a word or if they said the wrong one she would say the correct word. The one other activity I did with the students today was have them respond to the question "If you or someone else wrote a book about your life what would the title be and why?" This was so I could pre-assess the students writing.
I already have ideas planned fore what I am going to do with the students next week and I am looking forward to returning. I can tell I am going to have a lot of fun this term and so far I like being in a fifth grade classroom.
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