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Tylor Wilhide

1 October 2013

Middle School Practicum Reflection

The practicum experience was amazing. I have never been surer of my love for teaching

and learning. These past three weeks I learned a lot about teaching and I watched the students

grow and develop through careful, well-planned lessons. Ms. Dunn’s class was very inspiring.

By watching Ms. Dunn’s day-to-day interactions, I fully realized the power of proximity.

Not only in relation to behavior problems, which it does take care of effectively, but also in

regards to participation. Whenever Ms. Dunn stood in the back of the room, the students in the

back were more likely to raise their hands and participate. When I was the one teaching at the

front of the room, I also discovered how difficult it is to hear the students over the air

conditioning. By moving nearer to the different students that I called on, I was better prepared to

reflect the response to the rest of the classroom as well as actively listen to the student.

Another valuable strategy from Ms. Dunn’s class is the use of daily writing prompts. As

soon as students walk in they start working on the writing prompt. First and foremost, writing in

their journals encourages students to be productive as soon as they walk in the door. It prepares

them for the main topics of the class that day, it gives them something to discuss with the whole

class, it reduces the likelihood of behavior issues, and, for quiet students who do not like to

participate in discussion, the teacher can still look at what the student wrote to check student

understanding.

One last strategy that Ms. Dunn uses exceptionally well in her classroom is Silent

Sustained Reading (SSR). As soon as students finish an assignment they know to start reading

their SSR books until the teacher calls class to order. While SSR may not work as well in a high

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school setting, having a backup activity that accounts for the different learning paces amongst

students is an extremely important component of any successful classroom. Some students finish

the writing prompts very early and others finish more slowly. The reading activity keeps the

room quiet while others finish working and ensures that students are constantly engaged in

something productive and meaningful.

While I was in the classroom, Ms. Dunn focused on teaching students to recognize the

different types of conflict. First she taught a focus lesson on conflicts, then she had students think

of pop culture references in groups. While students read Bronx Masquerade she continuously

referred back to the lesson to help students complete the conflict section on their character charts.

In one of the last lessons that I observed, she had students select specific examples that

represented the different types of conflict from the book, and I was impressed to see students that

stared blankly at the teacher a week ago were now providing incredible examples and grounding

those examples in textual evidence.

When developing my lesson I thought a lot about my students. When interested in a topic,

I've seen Ms. Dunn's students jumping in their seats, eager to discuss. By observing the class, I

knew at least a couple of students would consistently raise their hands in discussion. However, I

also wanted to engage more students in sharing and developing their ideas. Rather than have a

whole group discussion, I decided to break my lesson into three parts: silent writing, partner

sharing, and whole group sharing. This ensured that everyone had the opportunity to think about

and develop some strong insights, whether or not they shared with the whole group. The time

that students spent with partners provided me with the opportunity to walk around to see what

students were thinking. When students were writing individually, I looked at papers and

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identified a few students who didn't write much and made sure to visit them during paired

discussion to see what they were thinking and help them out if they were confused.

One problem I noticed at the very beginning of my lesson is that I talked fast and started

rushing a bit because I was nervous. When I get nervous I start speed talking. When I realized

what I was doing, I made a strong effort to slow down and relax a little bit. One of my proudest

moments is when I remembered to pause, ignoring the hands that go up every single time, so that

I could catch a student that did not typically raise a hand.

Overall, the lesson went relatively well, but I have a difficult time taking credit for the

success. I really owed it to the students. They made the lesson a success because they were

interested, engaged, and willing to ask questions. The teacher liked our lesson, so she had us

teach it to all her classes. Most of them went well but there was one class that was mostly silent,

with only the front-runners participating. For the quieter class I made adjustments to the lesson,

spending more time allowing students to talk with partners, which they seemed to be more

comfortable with. Also during the second picture, when I realized that discussion was going to

be a struggle, I identified some strong responses and asked those students to raise their hands and

talk about their responses with the whole class. I also changed the instructions a little,

encouraging each student to be prepared to share one insight about the image with the whole

class if called on.

Through a combination of watching Ms. Dunn and teaching my own lesson I now

understand the importance of knowing my students and building a strong classroom community.

If students feel safe and comfortable in my classroom they will be open to participating in a wide

range of activities. Finally, knowing my students will help me assess their abilities and figure out

which strategies will and will not work for individual students and classes.

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Art and the Harlem Renaissance

By: Tylor Wilhide

Grade level: 7th grade Language Arts

Purpose: to increase student understanding of the Harlem Renaissance using firsthand artistic accounts from the time period.

Rationale: By exposing students to a multitude of artistic forms from the Harlem Renaissance student will gain a fuller understanding of this time period.

Objective: Students will be able to critically discuss works of art

Standards addressed: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.2 Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or issue under study.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Process/ Procedures for Teachers:Materials/Preparation: Pictures of artwork from the the Harlem Renaissance on Powerpoint

o Archibald J. Motley’s Blueso Loïs Mailou Jones’s Negro Youtho Aaron Douglas’s An Idyll of the Deep South

Graphic Organizer Handout using Visual Thinking Strategy questions Music from the Harlem Renaissance to play while students write

Process / Procedures for Students: Introduction: activating prior knowledge (5 minutes, whole group)

What do you know about the Harlem Renaissance? Think about the Bronx Masquerade and the poetry we read by Langston Hughes

What does the term renaissance mean? They say “a picture is worth a thousand words” what do you think art can tell us

about a time period like the Harlem Renaissance?

Analyzing and Evaluating Artwork: (15 minutes) Picture one: Archibald J. Motley’s Blues (9 minutes)

o I will pass out worksheets to students and ask them to jot down a few notes for each question. Explain to them that we will be discussing these questions as a class and eventually they will be writing their own poems about the pictures (3 minutes)

o Take a minute to discuss your answers with your neighbors (2 minutes)

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o As a class we will discuss the possible answers, stressing that there really aren’t any wrong answers if you can back it up with what you see in the text. (4 minutes)

o Some questions to pose: What do you think is going on in this image? What in the image made you pick one of your adjectives? What might this tell you about the Harlem Renaissance?

Picture two: Lois Malou Jone’s Negro Youth (7 minutes) o Students will jot down notes for each question (2 minutes)o Take a minute to discuss your answers with your neighbors (2 minutes)o As a class we will discuss the possible answers, stressing that there really aren’t

any wrong answers if you can back it up with what you see in the text. (3 minutes)

Assessment: Assessment will mainly occur informally through class discussion. The worksheet can also be used to see what students were thinking but should not be formally graded. Complexity of student understanding can also be evaluated in the poems that they create later in the lesson.

Accommodation: Support Accommodation: The VTS questions can be repeated and re-worded for

students who are confused or unsure using guiding questions like, what do you see in the picture? What does that mean? Could there be a story here? Why? One of the questions requires domain knowledge about adjectives which some students may need examples of to get started.

Challenge Accommodation: The VTS questions can be made more challenging by more abstract questioning, what do you think is happening in this piece? Why? Do you think the artist intended that interpretation? Do you think your interpretation would be different from a person who experienced the Harlem Renaissance? Who is the author’s intended audience?

Assistance/scaffolding:When students are in groups or writing, I will walk around to give suggestions or answer

questions about the tasks.

PowerPoint:

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What is going on in the picture?

What do you see that makes you

say that?

List ten adjectives to describe what

you see in the picture

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Name:Period: Date:

What is going on in the picture?

What do you see that makes you

say that?

List ten adjectives to describe what

you see in the picture

Image # 1

Image # 2

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Field Notes

Week one: MondayFIRST DAY!

Initial thought: WOW THEY'RE SO SHORT.

Daily Writing Prompt: What do you do when someone disrespects your dream? 6 line minimum

Once class starts she reads the prompt allowed and expands on it a little, giving students options to consider. One student called out "I would punch them in the face," and she said that answer is fine but to also address the consequences of such a choice.

Recognizing that all students move at a different pace, after they finish their journals they are supposed to take out their SSR books (Sustained Silent Reading) and read until Ms. Dunn tells them otherwise.

What I quickly noticed is that this assignment front-loads what they're going to be discussing later in class a poem by Langston Hughes. Which is actually another form of introductory material, which we discover on Tuesday as we all begin reading Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes. What I notice here is that she starts off really small but still abstract slowly introducing students to the larger topic and themes. It sort of reminded me of a frog starting out in room-temp water that is slowly warmed to a boil, she was slowly warming up these student's brains.

Unfortunately it was also picture day and the powers-that-be decided to use English class as the period to interrupt with picture taking. This took up a large segment of each class’s time and required some improv and flexibility on the part of the teacher.

As the students completed the prompt and did SSR, Ms. Dunn went by each student to check over the vocabulary. She glances over it quickly making sure students completed it but also making sure that they did what she asked, taking the time to make correcting comments as this was the first time students have completed the vocab flashcards assignment. Everyone who completed it she gave full credit, even if they didn't do it completely correct the first time. I thought this was an interesting strategy. She recognized that students may not get it correct the first time, not because they didn't put in the effort but because it was a new assignment. Her concerns were more with making sure students new how to improve and do it correctly because they would be using this same tool more in the classroom. While she gave full credit most of the time, if the student simply didn’t do it or really put it little effort, she did not give them full credit, instead she suggested turning it in the next day for a letter grade off.

One question I had when observing students was did they have assign seats. I noticed quickly that in each class almost all the black students sat together and off to the side. While they did engage in the class, I thought this was a weird arrangement if the seats had been assigned. As it turned out, they had not been assigned. Instead, Ms. Dunn allowed her students to pick their seats for the first few weeks of class so that she could learn more about they’re relationships with each other. I noticed in both classes, the A.A students sat together.

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As approx 15 minutes of the 50 minute class went to pictures and another 20 minutes to the writing prompt and completing the poem worksheet and the assigned reading, there wasn't much time to discuss the writing prompts or the poems students were asked to read/ write about. Instead, Ms. Dunn spent the class doing SSR and then used the class 5 minutes to discuss weekends which the students got excited about.

The second class was a lot more mobile, for some reason these students spent a lot of time walking and wandering the classroom during SSR.

In this class, some students claimed not to have any dreams so Ms. Dunn advised them to think about a friend. One student asked if she could write about an experience she had had on the topic, the teacher said definitely, that good writers write about what they know.

One thing Ms. Dunn did differently for this class was that she prepared them for the library. The class before was very noisy and had a hard time listening during the picture process, so Ms. Dunn took a minute to remind students of proper library etiquette and the picture process really did go a little bit smoother.

The teach really did get better with each class period.

One thing I noticed listening to the kids in the class and at the library is how much they performed for each other. They’re still very open and young with each other, open making silly and over-the-top comments. You can definitely tell many of them are still trying to figure out their identities, it's fascinating to watch. One girl had a very large, crazy French fry cover phone case, some strange fashion trends!

Week one: Tuesday & Wednesday

Daily writing prompt: Introduced the idea of a "Free write" (Today class was 100 minutes) Today, instead of just sitting in the back listening and observing, we actually got out and

started talking to the students. I was also a little surprised at how friendly the students were. Today my partner, Sandra, and I walked around asking students if we could read their journals and giving comments or asking them about their SSR book and how they were liking it. I don't know why but at the initial thought of walking up and just talking to one of them I was afraid, kinda wondering if they were going to bite or something. But they were so NICE and the second I started asking them about their work or talking about something that I liked each one of them would light up like they were the coolest people in the room. The teacher also left us alone with them for a few minutes while she made copies, they were angels. So, long story short, I was also pleasantly surprised.o In the free writes, one of the kids wrote about bombs. It wasn't violent but then it was,

I don't know I actually thought it was kind of a neat idea…except bombs are scary subjects to read about from students with all the past shootings in schools and with the recent bombing in Boston. Still he wrote a story about Mr. Bomb and A Mrs. Bomb meeting and they loved each other very much but when they met they exploded and destroyed the entire world. So we've got a somewhat advanced metaphor of the

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potentially destructive nature of love. I like it. As long as he doesn't actually want to blow anything up.

After writing the prompt but before discussing yesterday's prompt students played silent speedball to get them up and moving (basically they throw a ball at each other)

In discussing the poems and the prompts, teach uses a lot of imagery vastly expanding on Hughes poem. When students answer she often repeats or rephrases or poses it as something for the student or others to build upon. A lot of students participated but there were also several whose hands I never saw go up and one kid looked like he was about to fall asleep.

One student had a particularly good comment: "A bird with a broken wing can't do the one thing he is supposed to do, a person without a dream is not doing the one thing they are supposed to do in life"

Started a new book: the Bronx Masquerade (which I'm really enjoying)o Because it has a lot of characters the teacher has a character org chart, which I wasn't

too fond off because I found I ran out of space for the characters very quickly. o Because they haven't done a character chart like this before in her class, she goes over

the instructions and then breaks down each column to make sure students understand what she's looking for, she asks if there are any questions

o Additionally, before they begin reading- in the first class, she goes over how the book was structured, which I really liked. It was important for the students to realize that the chapter titles where actually the names of the narrators and after each narrating piece there was frequently a related poem. We heard the internal dialog but the rest of the class in this book only got to hear the poem which was just as revealing.

o For this book, she only has a class set, so the students will be doing all the reading in class. At home they are supposed to read for 20 minutes a day in a book of their choice and write a one page book report on it once a week.

o She is using and audiotape of the book in class because it uses different voices for each character which is supposed to help the students keep the character's straight in their minds.

After reading a chapter (they've very short 3 pages) she pauses the book and holds a quick discussion which turned out to be really important to help make sure students are understanding the book. One student thought the book was claiming white people were shooting black people, which wasn't the case at all. The stopping also kept students and engaged and it gave them an opportunity to discuss and work on their character charts as well as ask questions about things they were confused on.

This book definitely engaged the diverse population of the classroom as it gave voices to many minorities. Several of the A.A. students became very engaged and provided several key comments and insights.

I also noticed that throughout the discussion the teach stood in different places which engaged different speakers, when she stood in the back, the back row of students participated more.

o I also noticed that there was a good bit of variation between classes on what issues where discussed. The teacher's lesson also varied a bit, she spent more time on the poems in the second class and only got though one chapter of the book.

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o One strategy she uses frequently to check understanding and engage the class is the Thumbs strategy.

Week one: Thursday

Today our teacher was sick, so we went and visited a 10th grade English class. It was a very different dynamic. In the class the students were arranged in a circle because they were doing whole group discussions on the Holocaust. The teacher gave them a worksheet that they were to fill out and would later use and edit during the discussion. The worksheet was helpful because it gave students something to talk about. It enabled them to begin organizing their thoughts into a cohesive whole. As students discussed they were encouraged to add to their thoughts and alter them as different voices showed them different information about the Holocaust that they may not have been familiar with or that showed them something in a new way. At the end they were encouraged to explain any new ideas that they learned as well as rate their performance on the class discussions. They were surprisingly honest. One concern I have after viewing this class in comparison to the 7th grade class with Mrs. Dunn is that consistently in both classes there are those who talk and those who do not talk. I think to a certain extent that all of the students are participating in both classes by completing journals and, in the case of the 10th grade class, completing the worksheet guide. However, I think the thoughts and opinions of all the students have a place in the classroom that should be shared. I'm just not sure how to go about doing this. Some people simply are not ready to speak out to the class and trying to force them to may further alienate them. Small groups may be one way to help students slowly develop a since of voice.  In both classes students listen fairly well and participate in discussion but I think the discussions of the 7th grades are a bit more honest. They are more likely to say whatever they're thinking, even when what they're thinking comes off a little silly or outrageous.  I also noticed how much student interest impacted the discussion. When they were talking about more scandalizing details that interested them they were much more engaged.

Week one: Friday

Today in class we watched a movie. The movie was about an inner city school of largely poor black and Hispanic students. At first the class was wholly disengaged, then the teacher brought chess to the classroom. He talked about chess as the students and the class’s army. This metaphor appealed to the students as they all had difficult lives that left them wishing they had an army. The students got really excited about chess and even school. They competed in chess competitions, sometimes winning but also dealing with loss. They learned a lot about life and chess and this teacher totally turned these students’ lives around. They turned from disengaged disenfranchised learners, to having a real presence in the classroom. It was based on a true story.  Because class sessions are a 100 minutes long, students were able to watch the whole movie in one class. The students were also responsible for completing a viewing guide. Surprisingly, most of the class disruptions related to filling out this worksheet. You could tell whenever a question

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to be answered arose because several students would suddenly start whispering to each other. However, for the most part, students were really engaged in the movie. They had a substitute but it didn't matter, they wanted to watch and generally pay attention. They did get a little antsy at times, sitting still for that whole time was difficult for me, I can only imagine that it was also a little challenging for them. One thing I observed because there was a substitute is the importance of the daily writing prompt. When students didn't have an activity to keep them engaged when they walked into the class they were loud and very disruptive. They settled down once the substitute got the movie going and roll competed but it may have been easier for him if the students has had something to do. It took a few minutes to get them quiet and settled. I enjoyed the movie and I could see how it would be helpful in showing them another world that they may or may not have any familiarity with. I was less pleased with how happily it wrapped up the story, I thought that was a little unrealistic. Chess isn't going to fix everything in the real world. I like the idea of helping students see these different cultures and see that one person can make a difference and see that these poor children have intelligence. But it also leads them with the idea that these issues are more simple than they really are and it encourages complacency. The students aren't necessarily left with the idea that anything needs to change, they aren't moved to action.

Week Two: Monday

Daily writing prompt:If you could be any other person who would you be? Why? What would you do? This conversation was actually pretty fun and only a little tiny bit sad. For the most part students focused on money, they wanted to be rich. They didn't care who it was but there were a number of different things they would do with all the money they would have if they were rich. One of the kids said he would be Obama and probably talked for 5 minutes about all the different things he would do if he was president including making sure everyone had enough to eat and everyone could have everything they need and he would lower classes.  This class just read Tyron's rap, a lot of the kids are giggling explaining that it is a really bad rap, forced. BUT one student pointed out that while the rap doesn't sound like good rap what he said is good.

Today is the short class period day which is always a little less productive.

I spent most of this time grading papers. Boring day.

Week Two: Tuesday

Daily writing Prompt: based on what you've read so far in Bronx Masquerade, what do you think the book is going to be about. 8 lines

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 After giving students a few minutes to study, Mrs. Dunn gave students a vocabulary quiz. This quiz was not spelling based. Instead students connected the word to the definition on one side. On the other side students had to use the words in context in a sentence. They were not given a word bank and the word could be used more than once. I liked this because it reduced their ability to use simple process of elimination to mask true understanding. The quiz also required students to change the word endings to reflect the proper form in the sentence. I loved this part because I thought it required a deeper mastery of the words. I had never had to deal with changing the word form to properly fit the sentence but I really think it adds to student understanding. After the quiz students did SSR for a little while. Then they began reading Bronx Masquerade as a class. The teacher followed the same setup with the book as before. Students would listen to a chapter and then discuss and break down the text paying special attention to the prose as well as the accompanying poem. They discussed issues that the chapter/poems brought up, especially the poems because sometimes the language was more complex and open to misunderstanding. One of the A.A. students was strongly engaged in this conversation. I quickly learned that he had a very advanced understanding of both the author's message as well as the many of the stylistic elements of the poetry.The teacher encouraged students to ask questions if they were confused about a part and he often answered their questions, quite well. Each time she stopped the video she also tried to give students time to write down their thoughts in their graphic organizer, helping them to complete one of their major assignments for the book while also giving them time to think and organize their thoughts. One question that teach commonly asking students to consider is one line from the poem that really stood out to the student or confused the student or made the student think.  The book is structured so that each paragraph opens with a different character who reveals a little bit about him or herself to the reader then at the end of their few pages reads a poem that relates to what she told the reader but now she or her is talking to the whole class as well. After each poem we hear from Tyron who reflects on the poetry. As the story develops we watch Tyron who is initially presented as very closed off and judgmental of the rest of the class slowly open up and change his views of his classmates as he listens to the beauty and pain of their words.  After discussing the poetry, the teach also focuses the classes attention on what Tyron has learned and how his views have changed which open helps the students to connect to the message of the piece. She asks a lot of questions to engage students. Students take time to pick out language that they really like from the poem, focusing on artistic and creative language or images that the poem invokes that moves the students.

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One thing she has quickly realized is that the students do not know the types of conflict which they need to know for life/ their graphic organizers—planning a lesson for this. Teach also tried to connect the story back to the students, asking them what the different poems or stories may mean to their lives. One girl is upset because her artistic side is being crushed/undervalued because everyone wants her to be an athlete because she is tall. The students had an intense conversation on whether or not they can always follow their dreams. Mentioning that some dreams are unrealistic (being an astronaut) For the last 10 minutes of class students learned about acrostic poemsTYLORThe teacher put an example up of her own name on the board, breaking down the instructions, I can put a word or phrase next to the letter as long as it begins with that letter. The students helped her write it by calling out adjectives to describe her. She also challenged them to use strong words, to move beyond "nice" or other one dollar words in exchange for 10 dollar words. Or to use phrases.  At the beginning of each class students were encouraged to study for their vocabulary quiz. The first class interpreted this as a quiet time to study, they did not talk. The second class was very chatting, quizzing each other and asking questions. Both groups were on task but had very different approaches.  For the second class she was a little more thorough with the quiz instructions, explaining that some of the words could be used interchangeably. I noticed this time as the kids took the quiz that Mrs. Dunn wasn't really paying attention, she was sitting in the back and didn't really watch or monitor them. As a former student I definitely saw this as a cheat-friendly environment. Students were up and moving around they had a lot of stuff on their desks, they were chatting occasionally. One kid passed us and stared us down. Grabbed a book, walked back to his seat and made a "yes" gesture. Strange.  Kids were definitely off-task and not really reading their SSR books. I'm stuck by the amount of stuff they have. It's all very different and bright but also very similar in its difference. Teach left us alone to go pee- most kids really good. There are two doors out of her classroom, she took the closet/office door which I thought was smart because it sort of masked that she was leaving the classroom, it wasn't unusual for her to step in her office, especially as the learning helper guy uses that office too. It would have been unusual for her to walk out the front door. When they did start to notice Sandra and I walked around one little group and started

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talking/being off task- Sandra and I double teamed them, she motioned for one to turn around and I motioned for the other to look at his book. AND THEY LISTENED. It was great Next we move into classroom discussion, teach keeps trying to connect their comments to the text and keeps trying to help them be able to do this- very good.  During the discussion the two boys on the other side of the room from the teacher during the classroom discussion where making strange noises at each other completely disengaged.  One of the A.A. students responding to the dialect of a A.A. character said "I don't talk like that"  Points out the importance of Audience and identifying why a text is being written and for whom. Gives the example of Bronx Mask - I think it would be helpful to have students look at cover art, title, back cover excerpt for this information. Topic-- Romance novel? Adventure story? What issues is it dealing with? Who might identify with this text?

Week Two: Wednesday

SSR reading incentives- doesn't want to offer extra credit because it can inflate grades too much but is going to do some sort of incentive. In the past she has done class chains. Everytime someone completed a book she added a chain to the class chain and the class period with the longest chain got a celebration at the end of the year. In the past she has also awarded the student that has read the largest number of books Today during the quiz the teacher stood in front of the class and walked around a little which had a big impact on how seriously students took the quiz, there was less talking and wondering around. Before class today the teacher also explained to us that she had been going through some stuff yesturday so she wasn't on her "A" game One student keeps falling asleep in her class, she is concerned as she doesn't know what's going on with him. She is considering emailing mom and/or sending him to the nurse.  Discussion. Some favorite lines from students"I bruise easy is one of the lies she sprinkles like sugar""her skin browned like meat" A student assessment of Tryon when he says he is surprised that R. knew that much English:He makes those stereotypes because that's what he has been taught but he is realizing through the poem that he does know English. Breaking stereotypes Teacher- how does race, play into the stereotypes: "no hablo Ingles"

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Teach tries to relate herself to one of the characters, opening up and showing students that it is okay to discuss past experiences. -- Good modeling.

Week Two: Thursday

Daily Prompt: Write about a time when you had a preconception about someone that turned out to be inaccurate. Minimum 10 lines. Students and teach had a lengthy conversation about this prompt as students tried to understand what she was asking. Many claimed to have never had a wrong preconception about someone. Others wanted to know if they could use names. While talking the teacher introduced another prompt option: Write about a character's preconception in the novel Bronx Masquerade. What are some examples? Writing Rubric   Outstanding Good Work Could do better Need to Improve

Quality Detailed entries; using writing strategies

Most entries are detailed; trying to use writing strategies effectively

Some entries are detailed; sometimes use writing strategies

Your entries lack details; very little evidence of writing strategies

Quantity You write more than a page everyday

You write at least a page most days

You write less than a page but more than half a page most days

You write less than half a page most days

Neatness You always use your best handwriting

Your entries are usually written in your best handwriting

Some of your entries are written in your best handwriting

You do not use your best handwriting in your notebook

Spelling and Punctuation

You almost always pay attention to spelling and punctuation. Someone else can easily understand your entries

You usually pay attention to spelling and punctuation. Someone else can usually understand your entries

You sometimes pay attention to spelling and punctuation. It’s often difficult for someone else to understand your entries

You do not pay attention to spelling and punctuation. It is very difficult for others to understand your entries

 Writing Rubric: the writing rubric was passed out today to help students self-assess their daily writing prompts/ journals. In introducing this Rubric she displayed it on the board and really

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broke it down with students, asking students what she thinks each category means and how they should consider it in relation to their writing, eliciting responses from the students.Students were instructed to rate themselves and then explain why and in what areas they could improve. After judging each section for today's writing they were asked to give themselves an overall score. Then she asked those who were already done to look at past entries. States that she can tell they are being really honest and she really appreciates that. Today had to handle some behavior issues. The students don't have assigned seats yet so they sit with their friends. Today they were a little chatty in her first period class and one student kept talking while she was trying to discuss with the class about their SSR books so she asked him to move. Which he wasn't happy about. But he did and it was a relative small interruption. One student was discussing his SSR book and a lot of kids thought it was interesting and even talked about introducing the original version of the Legend of Sleepy Hallow if the kids would be interested in it and they got excited.  Another kid just used some really big word and I don't even know what it meant.  Teaching Conflict-Passed out a worksheet on conflict:

Discussed reality TV and how they pick people that they suspect are going to cause conflict, which they think the viewers will find funny. Think about the really bad American Idol auditions.

Four types of conflict:o Person vs Self (internal conflict) something other characters can't see- a hard decision

to make etco Person vs Nature - Titanic - struggle between character and natural world.o Man vs Society - Remember the Titans - Struggle against society - a group of peopleo Person vs person - Dorothy and the Wicked witch - fist fight

This conversation didn't go the best, she was trying to give them very relatable examples but when she asked for examples in return they would get off track really easy and mostly just give long summaries of books and movies that they've read in the past. After the class the teach came up to us and said that she was going to redo that part of the lesson for the next class because she wasn't fond of how it went. The second class when she was talking about the rubric she also brought up FCAT writing and asked for some of the strengths and weaknesses of this type of writing

One student response is that it is uninteresting and squashes creativityThen for the conflict worksheet, she broke them up into small groups this time to brainstorm examples of conflicts. This conversation was more productive because it enabled her and us to walk around and help students come up with specific examples, this greatly reduced the amount of time spent just sharing plot summaries. While not every student grasped it because sometimes group members just said what they thought and the others wrote it down, more students seemed to get it because between the three of us we were almost all able to walk around and help

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Week Two: Friday

Department meetingI. What is a 504 plan?

a. Not allowed to talk about it in front of usII. Talking about students/ issues that are happening

a. I think these are the subject area teachers for 7th gradei. One teacher wrote one up for plagiarism

ii. One talking about the kid he wrote upb. Are these conversations productive?

III. One kid trying but the processing REALLY slow, has to be coddled as far as getting things done

IV. We have a lot of kids this year who just walk up and openly admit that they have ADHDa. It's socially acceptable nowb. The expectation of these kids is that they need to work with the students one-on-one,

but the teacher can't always do this and need some support on the part of the student. The students never come to info sessions

V. Talking about a parent nowa. Aggressive verbally- the parentb. Parents are divorced, the father just wants the school to know that he is an active

father and wants to be treated as an equal in the education of his student, not just giving info to the mom and just involving. Really wants to know how the student is doing and being involved

c. Dunn, says this parent's kid is great, suggestion, father needs to hear that. He seems very hard on his kid.

VI. Another student nowa. Talking about parents, domestic violence stuff going on in that house. Mom didn't

pay the fee, so cut off skyward access. Father got very angry about that. Very controlling.

Today I graded papers for Ms. Dunn and made up a form letter for her class library (students weren't returning the book)I really like that she had a class library, I really want to do this in my own classroom. I think it is a super powerful way to

Week three: Monday

Writing Prompt: Free Write For today's short classes students spent the first half of the classes  Today we spent most of the class grading papers. It was actually a little bit frustrating for me because I didn't really agree with how she was asking me to grade them. When she was absent students watched a movie and they were required to fill out a worksheet that asked questions about major parts of the movie- one of those things were the only real purpose is to make sure that students watch the movie, don't talk, and don't give the sub too hard a time, give them something to do. So when she asks me to grade them the system is a check plus, check, and

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check minus. But she tells me that if they don't write in compete sentences as the directions told them then they get a check minus. Almost everyone got a check minus, 98 %. Even though most of them got all the answers correct they still got the lowest grade possible. I think a better grading method would have been a check plus for both correct answers and complete sentences most of the time. Check for only correct answers, only complete sentences or a combination. And check minus if very few correct answers, or very few complete sentences or both. Then I also would have gone over what compete sentences look like to students because they clearly did not know or I would have discussed the importance of reading all instructions in an assignment. I also would have given students the opportunity to raise their grade by rewriting answers into complete sentences. I don't know my issue was that the point of the assignment wasn't complete sentences, the assignment demonstrated that there was an issue either with writing them or with reading directions but I don't think the assessment reflected the intended purposes of the assignment.  Ms. Dunn is a little bit upset because a lot of students aren't doing well in the class, they are not doing easy assignments like turning in a signed syllabus. Today not much got done because classes were really short. The first 20 minutes students worked on their free writes and then did SSR. After that they worked on Bronx Masquerade.

Week three: Tuesday and Wednesday

Daily writing prompt: In the novel Bronx Masquerade, examine specific conflicts of one character. Include one quote with a page number. 11 lines. Today we did our lessons so honestly I was too nervous to hear a single word that Ms. Dunn said. We did our lessons at the very end of class so I mostly just spent the classes freaking out about the fact that I really didn't know everything there is to know about the Harlem Renaissance. I actually knew very little about it. I read a lot on it to prepare but I had just a very general knowledge and I was so afraid they were going to ask me something and I wasn't going to have the answer.  Before my lesson the kids read SSR and did a compare and contrast chart of two characters on the board with teacher. While she was writing they wrote down the information too, which I thought was really good because if you're turning your back on students you definitely want to make sure that they are pulling solid examples from the text. Ms. Dunn actually really liked our lesson so she had us teach it too all of her classes. It was super interesting to do because each set of students impacted how the lesson went. One class was so quiet, they forced me to really think on my feet to try and get students to engage. I don’t know how effective it was but I tried.

Week three: Thursday and Friday TODAY IS OPEN MIC I'm so excited 

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The teach spent a lot of time helping students to apply their new knowledge about conflicts, judging by their responses and how they grounded them in the text they’ve come SOOOO far. It’s really cool to see.

Open Mic Teacher goes over ground rules as this is the first time, students are super excited

Students say- be respectful, no talking, not laughing unless it is meant to be funny, be polite, show support

Students jumped up quick to read Students were super excited

o The first student stood up and read his nameo The second student read a poem of his own creation, it was really good. It played on

repetition well, had good rhyme, then he went again and did a poem about football, used some strong words

o The third student did a poem about what he would do if he was in charge of world "lonely would not exist/comfort food would be less needed/people would always be happy/if I was in charge of the world even a kid like me could be In charge of the world." There was more too. It was really good.

Today the teacher is trying to make seat adjustments. Rather than give a complete new seating chart she is trying something a little new for her. Instead he is just asking a few students to move and make adjustments in individual pockets. She feels that she needs to break up some of the pockets that have gotten too comfortable. One thing I'm noticing though is she is asking good (behavior-wise) students rather than forcing them to move but they're not wanting to move so she's having a hard time.  A lot of kids are talking instead of reading.

 This class has a lot of willing voices, there are a few that I almost never hear from but I've seen their journal entries so I know they're engaged. Ms. D calls on the same people a lot though, some people only raise their hand every once in a while but she will still call on the more in your face kids a lot.