Week 6: The clock still ticks!

Monday, February 11

I’ve talked before about how my teacher was going to implement Words Their Way for their spelling curriculum. They took the pre-test a couple weeks ago, but because of how the program works, it takes quite a lot of time to get the tests graded. Each letter in the word gives the child a “point” and so the teacher grades them on whether or not each letter is right. Then groups are made based on what type of sound the students need to work on. In my class for example, there are four groups and each group is working on a particular sound/spelling: short e, /oi/ spelling patterns, /oy/ spelling patterns and /bl/ blends.

Today the students received their spelling words and need to sort them in a certain way. For example, they could sort alphabetically, by noun/verb/adjective, by the letter the words start/end with, or whatever other ways they could come up with. It was neat to watch them sort the words; they really got into it and had fun coming up with different ways to do this. With the Words Their Way program, the students will sort their words everyday and are also expected to do them at home each night. The idea is that the students will see and work with the words enough that by Friday, the tests will be relatively easy for them. The problem with starting the program this week is that teachers have an inservice day on Friday, so the students will have one less day to practice with their words. Hopefully they’ll still do all right on the tests though!

Tuesday, February 12

Last week we started Young Author’s stories with the kids for Trinity’s program. The students were SO excited to get going! In my very first blog post, I wrote that the first graders had read the story Knuffle Bunny earlier this year, and we had a field trip to Governor State’s University where we got to watch a play re-enactment. The students absolutely LOVED the play so for the Young Author’s festival, the first grade teachers decided to have the kids make books based on the Knuffle Bunny and use a similar format for the stories.

The students absolutely loved the idea and were so excited to get started on their books! They followed the template the first grade teachers collaborated on together and came up with some really creative things. We’ve continued working on the books this week, and some kids are already starting their final draft. It’s been really cool to go through the writing process with them. Throughout the process, I’ve seen how important it is to not just tell the kids what needs to be fixed but literally walk them through my own thoughts so they realize what the need to change. For example, when working with them individually, I read their story out loud so they can hear it too and sometimes I’ll stop and say, “Wait a second, that didn’t make sense.” I then re-read the sentence and the students 9 out of 10 times are able to say what needs to be fixed. I’m really enjoying going through the process with them, but also absolutely love their creative stories! First graders’ imaginations are absolutely awesome J

Wednesday, February 13

Last week in Classroom Confidential, we talked about parent communication and I explained how great Elaine is at this. I mentioned that the first grade teachers have a newsletter that gets e-mailed home to all the parents each week, and I have seen how valuable this is. Today after school I got to observe first-hand how important it is to have strong parent-teacher relationships.

One boy in my class, Carson, is an absolute sweetie. He is more on the quiet side, but can definitely get rowdy with the other boys during recess! During Daily 5 time, I read with him occasionally and I have noticed that he always read Dr. Seuss books. I mentioned this to Elaine, and she said that Carson has been on her “watch list” simply because she wants to make sure that he’s on-level in reading. He’s not a bad reader but whenever he reads with me/Elaine, he tends to read the same books that don’t challenge him. Elaine hypothesized that it’s a confidence thing; because he might not be as strong of a reader as other first graders, perhaps he just keeps reading the same things because he knows he can. Seeing this, Elaine had him tested to see if he was on-level for reading. It turns out he’s right on the edge; he could go to the Discovery center for a little extra help, or he could just stay in the classroom.

Today after school, Elaine had Carson’s mom and the Discovery center teacher in for a meeting to discuss what the best plan would be for Carson. Elaine started by saying that Carson is a great kid, and a very hard worker. She also said she knew that they were working on home at reading and how great that was; she definitely started the meeting right by saying true compliments to Carson. Next she explained how she has had Carson on her watch-list for a little while, and decided to just get him tested to see where he was at because it was hard for her to judge his level when he always picks books that he knows.

The Discovery center teacher, Julianne, started with giving compliments to Carson also. She continued by explaining his test results and how he is not below level, but just a little slower to pick up on the reading skills than other first graders. (That is one huge thing I have noticed in first grade—the learning gap is huge sometimes!) She explained some activities she would like to practice with him, and elaborated on how the extra help would do nothing but help Carson. Throughout this time, Carson’s mom just kept nodding and saying “Mhmm” but did not say too much. After Julianne finished explaining what the Discovery center is all about, Carson’s mom admitted she has been worried about him for a little bit too. She was all for him getting extra help and was really excited about the Discovery program. It was really neat to be in this conference; it could have gone very differently had Elaine phrased things in another way, or had Carson’s mom reacted differently, but thankfully all went well, and now Carson can get that extra boost he needs to increase his confidence in reading.

Thursday, February 14

Valentine’s Day! Essentially this day is all about getting sugar-high in the realm of first grade! It was a really fun day; the morning was pretty normal where I taught a reading lesson and gave a test, and then Elaine gave the Words Their Way spelling test. The students did awesome on their reading test; the spelling test was another story though. 6 students got 6/6 words correct, 4 got 5/6 and the rest scored lower. Elaine said she figured they would not do so well this week. Some of the groups were in between word sets, so she chose to give them the harder sets (better to challenge than to not!) and so some words were very tough. Foreseeing this, Elaine had decided before that this week and next week would be practice weeks because they are both short 4-day weeks, and because she is still figuring out how to best choose words for each group. We spent an hour after school choosing the words for next week so hopefully next week’s scores will be more on-target!

Contrary to the typical morning, the afternoon was nuts! Before lunch the room moms came in and the students made “houses” for their Valentines so that they could pass them out. It was fun to meet some more of the students’ parents, and again, I just love the parent involvement at school. Very exciting and encouraging! After that the students got to pass out their valentines to one another which they absolutely loved. It was a valentine-filled afternoon so going with the flow, I made today’s math lesson be similar to one we did last week. Last week Friday we graphed the colors of M&Ms in individual packages, so today we graphed the colors of the Valentine candy hearts in individual packages. The kids again loved the activity, and very much enjoyed eating the hearts afterwards.

 

Friday, February 15

It was an in-service teacher’s day so school started a half-hour later than normal. The whole day was really nice because it gave me an opportunity to visit with teachers that I normally do not see. It’s been fun meeting all the different teachers and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them. The primary purpose for today though was to pick out a new reading curriculum to be implemented next year. The literacy committee had narrowed down to three options, so all the teachers listened to three presentations from different companies to better be informed about their decisions. It was really interesting to hear from the three companies; something that stuck out to me was that they all praised themselves for creating the curriculum based on the Common Core. It seems as though this directions is definitely one all companies will be taking soon, which makes sense. Listening to the three presentations also made me realize something. The first and third presenters were very enthusiastic about their product, and it was contagious to everyone. The second presenter was much less exciting, which made the curriculum seem less appealing.

Noticing this, I thought about how students feel the same way with their teachers. If a teacher does not seem excited or pumped about something, why would the students? I know this is something we have talked about in classes at Trinity but listening to the three presentations really drove the lesson home. Unless I show enthusiasm towards the material, it is unlikely the students will get excited too. Overall though, it was a really interesting day where I enjoyed hearing about the three curriculums. I’m excited to hear what curriculum they choose!

 

As this upcoming week begins, I’m feeling bittersweet. I wish I could just freeze time and stay at Crown Point Christian for a while longer, but the clock continues to tick. I’m excited to start at Beecher Elementary however—it’ll be another new journey that I’m sure I’ll love just as much as my CPCS adventure.