Practicum

WOW! Yesterday was a little overwhelming. I had a great day but it was a lot to take in. Angela and I are in a fifth grade classroom. Their are 15 children in our class and 20ish in the other class that shares our teachers. The two class have our teacher and another. One teacher teaches english and social studies while the other teaches math and science. I think this set-up is great because it helps the students get used to changing classes before they have to do it for everything. Also they stay with the same people which helps them get to know each other and form a strong learning community.
Yesterday we were given the opportunity to teach a lesson to the class. I don't feel like it went to well but at the same time I know it would have been better if we would have been able to prepare for it. Our teacher had to meet with someone at the last moment so she asked us to help the class read a passage out of their text book and to go over two worksheets with them. This would have been fine but we didn't know they had text books so we were reading to them from the book she gave us. Instead of having them read out loud or with partners. Also we didn't know the class' names yet so we had to call on kids who raised their hands or just by trying to identify them by something. This made it harder to move at a good pace because students wouldn't know who we were calling on. Our teacher said we did really well but I hope that my lesson plan will go over a lot better with the class.
Also yesterday was the second day that the class has been reading the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. The kids really seem to be enjoying it. Our teacher has the class split into literacy groups and gives each child a new job each day. One child will have to write down all the words the group doesn't know, one has to retell the story and so on. This seems to work really well. They have a chapter a day to read in their groups and then they have questions to answer. The question the groups answered was "What would you do if you were in the same situation as Brian?" I think that this was a great question because it really made the children think and look at all the possible things they could do. I got the book from friend and I am in the process of reading it right now so that I will be able to keep up with what my class is talking about next week.
I think this experience is going to be great. I really love the kids and our teachers seem to really like us. Before I was unsure if I would be a good teacher and if I would be able to do all the things necessary to teach but now I believe that I will be able to and that it will not be as hard as I thought (although I still do not think it will be easy).

Guided Reading

I feel that my guided reading lesson went really well today. I really like the idea of the KWL charts for fifth graders. Not only are they reading but the chart forces them to comprehend what they are learning but they are learning the things they want to learn. I feel that comprehending what they are learning is the most important thing that children can learn while learning to read. As a college student I am required to do a lot of reading and I then have to explain what the reading meant. If I did not have reading comprehension then I would be unable to be a student. Overall I feel that these charts are helpful in teaching children to pay attention when they are reading.

Word Lesson

I made a making words lesson for the fifth grade class I will be working in. I really enjoyed not only making the lesson but also teaching it to my fellow students. I was really nervous and said "um" a lot but I feel that teaching it to the class will make it easier for me to teach it to the kids. I think I fixed all the transition problems and added new words that can be made. This should help the lesson flow more smoothly and effectively. Now I am looking forward to more feedback about my lesson and teaching it to the class!