Meeting with my Literacy Group for the First Time

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.

First Day in the Classroom

Today was my first day in a fifth grade classroom in an inner city elementary school in New York. For the next few months I will be going to this classroom once a week to work with the students and help enhance their literacy skills. I have been assigned to work with a group of four students all of which need the most help in fluency. Since today was my first day in the classroom I spent the time I had there observing the teacher and students. I was able to identify the four students I am assigned to work with although they do not know I am their tutor yet. Next week when I return to the classroom is when I will have formal introductions with the students and get to know them better personally and academically.

During the time that I spent in the classroom today students completed a math lesson and a reading lesson. I was able to get a sense of what the students' behaviors are like and their ability or inability to listen to directions and complete the tasks they are assigned. When I first got to the classroom the teacher had all the students sit in a circle and share their names and one thing they like about books. Based on the student's responses I was able to conclude that most of the students read books to help them gain knowledge about something (a lot of students listed books they liked based on a hobby as theirs such as football) and also some (but not all) students said they liked the read books for fun because they were interested in seeing what happened in the story as they read further into it.

I noticed just on today's observations while the students were doing the math and reading lesson that every child is on a different level ability wise. Some students are great readers pace wise but are not able to comprehend what they are reading which is something I will keep in mind to work on with the students. I will also be emphasizing the importance of fluency when I do my lessons with the students in order to help them become more fluent readers. While the students were doing the math lesson, which involved solving a multiplication or division with decimals problem, I noticed that some students are not even able to begin solving the problem correctly. Some students were trying to solve a division problem using the format of a multiplication problem where one number is placed on top of the other. This is a problem, considering the teachers said the students have a test over the material tomorrow.

Overall I really liked what I saw in the classroom today and I am looking forward to working with the fifth graders. I have only ever worked with kindergartners and first graders before so this will be a whole new experience for me and I am ready for it to begin!