Class on Wednesday, May 17th

Class tonight included a horrendous amount of information over the reading and writing in a typical language arts classroom. I say horrendous, because it was a tad bit overwhelming for a person with no book, and who likes to write notes per pencil and notebook paper. Ha! I don't mean to put a negative aspect on class tonight, because I taught a lot of information about new books and the ways to implement them. I'm actually reading Nicholas Sparks, See Me, but after tonight's class I wanted to race to the public library and find The Watson's Go to Birmingham-1963! :)  That's what I love about Mrs. Steffes' class and her personal stories/experiences that she shares! They keep me engaged and eager to learn. Which, as soon-to-be-teachers, we all know how important those two aspects are in the classroom!

Some take aways I want to implement in the future include book clubs within the classroom, because of the way they input personal preference, engagement, and interest in books within the classroom. Students are able to find books (within reason) that interest them, books that intrigue them. I remember when I was in school that I always had suggested books that were read aloud, or book reports that went along with the books we were supposed to read. In turn, made them "stressful" (for a kid! Ha!), and time-sensitive per the due date. I was always an eager learner, but the due dates made me stress out more than they should. That's a whole other story! Back to the point! ;) The books that interested me weren't book that aligned with the school curriculum or with the lesson plan the teacher had planned in advance. So, I would take that book home from the school and read, which was a bonus! However, I was never fully engaged in the book like had I wanted to be when I had first heard about the book. (I know that's difficult to understand, hang on with me!) The books that students find interesting for themselves, are interesting for a reason. For that individual child, of course. I think with the resources some children have, we should consider allotting time for those children who have "outside the box" interests in novels.

With all of the knowledge I have received and retained from the night, I would say my only other thought/take away from tonight would be to group students into similar groups when working in Guided Reading groups. I was previously taught that we should group students with students who have "strong suits" in qualities that students does not yet have. For instance, when a student cannot sound out words as well as the rest of the group, we should group them with the student who sounds out words the best. So they learn from them when they are working together. I think that is the biggest struggle I had tonight - trying to break away from that strategy. It's not necessarily a bad strategy, but for Language Arts it may not be the best technique to implement. Let me k,now what you think! Thank ya'll!