Guiding Me Through Guided Reading

©Breakey, D. 2015. Word Pan.

This week I was observing the learning resource teacher (LRT) who works specifically with junior students (kindergarten & grade 1) on their reading abilities. The LRT at our school can be found in a small utility looking room with high ceilings and shelving units to match. Lining the walls are buckets and buckets of different reading samples  for students. In the middle of the small room is a round table with miniature chairs that I knew would soon be filled with little people ready to read!

Sure enough, within minutes of the bell ringing 3 students arrived at the door, pulled out their homework bags and took their seat around the table. They pulled out their worksheets for marking and were eager to share what they had read the night before. The goal of the LRT is to give students who are struggling at current grade level a chance to get individual attention by working with a maximum of two other students and a teacher. The goal is to get these students reading at grade level by the time they enter grade 2. Students read stories, learn strategies for identifying words (sounding it out, using their finger to guide their reading, identifying root words they know ect.) and practice reading fluidly with appropriate expression.

The students used the pan shown above to create words using the magnetic letters. The students loved using the pans as a manipulative. Another method of teaching is shown below in the worksheet where students must place the words under the corresponding sound. The entire purpose of an LRT is to help students develop into the strong readers they are capability of becoming. This particular process instantly reminded me of the growth mind set model. Our mind set is developed at an early age and it is important to help students develop a growth mind set which sees failures and challenges as opportunities for improvement. A fixed mind set assumes that our intelligence is pre set and avoiding failure becomes a strategy for maintaining intelligence. With this mind set students are afraid to try because they are afraid to fail!

©Breakey, D. 2015. Word Chart.

The best part of reading with the LRT is that mistakes are rewarded! Students are taught that it's ok to make a mistake as long as they can recognize that they made one and then go back and try again. When a student says a word aloud incorrectly and then sounds out the word again to get it right that student is praised for making the mistake and then attempting it again. The LRT tells the students that making mistakes is all apart of becoming a better reader. This is so encouraging for students struggling with certain words and instead of feeling discouraged they are given the tools they need to be successful. The great thing is, being successful doesn't mean being failure free, it simply means being willing to try again. These students are learning from a young age to have a growth mindset and to believe that with a little practice and persevering they can change their reading ability and improve their skills!

Oral Communication Reflection

When we think about oral communication, it's common to think talking or presenting. The Ontario curriculum emphasizes that oral communication goes beyond that and includes active listening skills. There are many skills needed to be a good communicator. Students need to be able to speak clearly. use their critical thinking skills, and use strategies such as expression and pace to ensure their peers understand what they are talking about. That being said, I decided to focus on listening and found an excellent resource that truly encompasses what it means to be a good listener. 

The resource I chose is a TED Talk called 5 Ways To Listen Better by Julian Treasure. He talks about why we’re losing good listening skills in today's society. He highlights 5 key ways to improve your listening skills. This is important because the Ontario Curriculum says that students need to learn to listen in order to understand and respond appropriately and according to Treasure, we retain only 25% of what we actually hear. This talk breaks down why listening has become so difficult and some strategies to overcome those obstacles. 

©VAYP. 2015. Ear.

One great suggestion by Treasure is to find a quiet or silent place. He argues it can be very difficult to listen effectively with a lot of background noise and distractions. With so much information and multi media available to us at all times it can be very difficult to unplug and find a quiet space. If we expect students to practice good listening skills we have to create an environment for them to be successful. A good way to do this is to allot quiet time in the classroom for certain activities in order to create good listening. If you want students to watch a video or listen to a speaker you would have the room be absolutely silent and eliminate as much background noise as possible. Treasure also emphasizes the art of actually practicing good listening. Picking out details, acknowledging certain background noises and identifying them and focusing on one noise (such as a speaker) are all good things to actively practice.

©Free Management Books. 2015. Active Listening.

He used a really good acronym in his presentation which was R.A.S.A. This stands for receive, appreciate, summarize and ask. This would be an excellent anchor chart to put up in my classroom when defining how to be a good listener. Receive means to actually listen to the speaker, appreciate means to make small noises or head nods in order acknowledge the speaker and show you are invested, summarize what you’ve heard and ask questions. Treasure spoke about the importance of teaching these skills in the classroom so that students have the strong listening skills for the rest of their lives. I would certainly emphasize the steps in being an active listener and perhaps even give my students listening challenges to have them practice the 4 steps. Being a good listener is something I have to practice to this day and I believe the earlier we introduce and emphasize the skills to become a good listener, the better off our students will be in the future. Also, if we expect students to respond to what they are hearing, I as an instructor, have to make sure I give them the skills to listen and understand what they're hearing so they can make the best responses possible. 

Week 10 Math Reflection

©Breakey, D. 2015. Spinner.

This week in class we explored data management and probability. Presenters continued to teach small lessons and break down the unit for their peers. In the Ontario curriculum students are expected to build on data management and probability as they progress through various grades. In grades 4 and 5 students are focusing on predicting the frequency of an outcome and comparing two related sets of data. They are expected to use common fractions to express their findings and will often learn this process through the use of simple games and probability experiments. 

A simple activity that was showed to us in class involved a paper clip and a piece of paper divided into 4 sections and labelled 1 through 4. Students were to make a spinner using these materials by putting their pencil through the paper clip and down at the centre of the piece of paper. From there, we were expected to spin 10 times and record the results. We were to show our results in a chart and display the final answer as a fraction. The photo shows an example from class. This is a simple activity where students can start to record their findings and predict future results.

©Breakey, D. 2015.
Data Collection Cups. 

In a second activity, we focused specifically on data collection. As a group we had to decide on a question we wanted to conduct a survey for. We were allowed to use any type of charting method we could think of. We decided to find out what were our classmates favourite type of tree and we used a cup and counters to collect our data. This activity gave us a chance to try different forms of data collection and also allowed us to explore which ones worked best. It also proved that the way you phrase your question matters.

After some personal exploration, I found that there were many good online games that could help students practice their probability skills. One such game is Fish Tank, a game where students must create fractions to reflect the probability of catching a certain colour of fish. There are so many probability game options on the website and each suits a certain skill or grade level. We often talk about the importance of student engagement and how to get students to enjoy math. Online games are a great strategy and something they can usually access at home as well as at school for practice. This is a strategy I will try and incorporate into my classroom in the future because the topic of data management and probability can be extremely interesting for students if we make it so!

The Great Games - Shape Explorer

Breakey, D. 2015. Shape Explorer Screenshot.

This week  I explored my final great game which is called Shape Explorer.  The game is a forum where students can practice perimeter and area. The screen shot above shows the layout of the game. It's not as user friendly as previous games. There isn't a fun character or cool theme but the tool itself is still functional. Students can check their answer and see if they are right. If they're wrong they can reattempt. The one setback is that you are not given the right answer. Sometimes a student cannot arrive at the correct answer and they need to see it to work backwards and understand.

Another good thing about this tool is that students can physically count the area or perimeter if necessary. I wouldn't classify this as a game. Even though there is technically a score, it does not feel as fun as other games I've played. It does provide a good forum for practice but I don't think this game would hold a students attention for a long period of time. Some games are better than others and it's important to know what makes a game good and what makes a game less effective. In this case, I would keep searching for a more entertaining game to work on area and perimeter. 

Week 9 Math Reflection

©Breakey, D. 2015. Non Standard Units: Area. 

This week in class it was my turn to present! The unit of the week was measurement and 3 of my classmates were also in line to present. I felt prepared when I went to class. Our text book Making Math Meaningful for Canadian Students really came in handy when getting my presentation ready. I chose the specific unit of area and focused on the expectations for grade 4 students based on the Ontario Curriculum. In grade 4, students are introduced to using standard units and the area formula in order to solve problems. 

The class textbook helped me to break down the fundamentals of teaching area. I wanted to make sure I focused very heavily on how my peers could apply my lesson in their classroom. The three important steps when introducing a new topic in measurement is define and compare, use non-standard units and then introduce standard units and the formula. I wanted to emphasize that it was important to work through the unit step by step and ensure that students are making the right connections at each level. Listening for key words or watching for certain connections can let you know that your students are progressing through the unit. 

Something I incorporated into my presentation was talking about common mistakes amongst students. I got the idea from prior presentations because I really found that information valuable as a developing teacher. One common mistake students make when measuring area is thinking the shape is changing size when their unit of measurement increases or decreases. It is very important they understand that as the size of their unit increases the size of their answer will decrease. 

The activity I chose to do was a simple but impactful task which built on all the steps I had introduced in my presentation and my peers put what they learned to the test. I was able to ask some prompt questions which got them thinking about the common mistakes students might make. Overall, I felt my presentation went well and what was even better was that the other presenters this week all had common themes flow between presentations. Each presenter built on the information of the one before and so I think we were able to cover all the topics we needed to. 

On the topic of area, there is a great online game on Math Playground where students can practice their perimeter and area skills. Students need other outlets to put their skills to practice and online games is something most students could do at home. There was a lot of nerves leading up to my presentation but I'm happy to have it done and done well! 

Update: I ended up getting a good grade which tells me I'm on the right track! Feels good to be learning and developing my teaching skills. 

Writing Reflection

Writing is a crucial part of the Ontario curriculum. More importantly, writing is an important part of everyday life. Whether we realize it or not, we do some form of writing everyday. Today, writing comes commonly in a sent email or text, a tweet or a Facebook post. Social media, in many ways, has changed writing in that society thrives on small blurbs or a 180 character tweet that gives us a snapshot on a topic. The art of being concise and to the point has never been more prevalent. Beyond just brief, writers have had to learn to hook an audience using less words then ever before. If you only have a person's attention for the first few lines, how will you get them engaged?

©Ferreira, D. 2012. Twitter Icon.
[online image]

The good news is social media and platforms like Twitter can be great resources for writers and for teaching writers. It can link you to resources or videos that can help forward a writers ability. The video above is a quick and easy video to help students learn a few tips on organizing your writing plans. As a teacher, using these resources is important because they are what my students may be most comfortable with! I put my ideas to the test when I went on Twitter and searched the hashtag #ntchat which stands for new teacher chat. This hashtag is for new teachers looking to find resources or ideas for their classrooms. From there I found a link to an awesome blog called The Edvocate where I read a blog post called 10 Tools To Help Your Students Write Better Essays. It is written by a guest poster and gives 10 great ways to help your students become better writers and get excited about writing.

An important focus in the Ontario curriculum for language is students being able to gather, organize and present information. In the blog post, the writer provides excellent resources that teachers can pass on to their students as they complete a writing assignment. One example is the website writing.com where writers can go when they need advice. Students could find this resource extremely valuable as they tackle a writing assignment and perhaps are struggling. Another tip is to use good sample writing (an exemplar) in order to get students excited about writing and demonstrate to them what good samples of writing can look like. 

Let's take, for example, an essay assignment. I remember being a student and feeling dread when this

©Grammar Girl. 2015. Essay [online image]

word came up in Language class. It did not excite me and I would have been far happier doing creative writing. All writing is important but we must ensure students have the skills and understanding to write everything from a tweet, to a creative story and yes, even write a formal essay! But writing an essay does not have to be scary! In fact, you can be creative and have fun with writing an essay. As mentioned in the blog post I read, you could show your students different college entry essays where students have to be formal and professional to prove a point while incorporating their personality. In this case, the message is, "let me in to your university/college because I'm really great and here's why!". Students can find inspiration in a good exemplar so it's an important tool for teachers to use. 

The biggest thing I took away from this resource was getting students engaged in their writing. The idea of writing an essay doesn’t get them excited. Encouraging them to enter a writing contest, giving them awesome resources and showing them excellent examples are just a few ways to get my students engaged. The curriculum also states that students should be encouraged to be creative. They need to see what a creative piece of writing can look like and this could be a great way of inspiring them. My goal, as a teacher, will be to show my students that their potential in writing is endless and hopefully I can inspire them to be creative and produce their own well written pieces of work. If I can do that then I have been successful. 

Week 8 Math Reflection

©Breakey, D. 2015. Toothpick Fish.

©Breakey, D. 2015. Toothpick Cube.

This week I learned a lot of new techniques to teach mathematics. I found the presentations on geometry and spacial sense extremely useful and even learned about a few new tools to use in the classroom! It's clear that we are learning from one another because the activities that our peers have been handing out have been getting better and better. More manipulatives have been introduced and we've been able to complete some creative activities in order to learn a specific unit. 

This week we used tooth picks and modelling clay to create shapes and understand angles. In the photo above you can see we were asked to make a fish out of tooth picks. The task was to move only 3 toothpicks and make the fish face the other direction. I found this task difficult and I was unable to solve it. My partner and I tried some problem solving strategies such as considering what we already knew about shapes and we attempted trial and error with no success. It wasn't until it was demonstrated for us that we understood how to complete the activity. This exercise reminded us what it's like to be on the other end of teaching and it has given me more empathy for the students I will be instructing. I can relate to their struggles and I am reminded that some students learn differently and may require a variety of avenues to understand what is being taught. 

The second activity was about representing 2D and 3D shapes using tooth picks and clay. It was excellent to interact with the unit by actually creating shapes and manipulating them. Not only was it fun but it also allowed me to work with what we just learned and ask questions as I attempted to create 3D shapes. Using manipulatives, particularly in this unit, is a really good strategy for teaching because students will come with prior knowledge about shapes and giving them activities where they interact with material can be really effective. 

Finally, we worked with tangrams to create new shapes. We were given 7 pieces and asked to create a square. I learned an important lesson for teaching during this activity. First, we were given the 7 shapes and asked to create more complex pictures. Then, our professor asked us to first attempt to make a square using all 7 shapes. Most of us struggled to make all the shapes fit into a square. This demonstrated how critical it is to follow a step by step process and not jump ahead to the point where your students no longer understand. It was important that we all first learned how to make a square before we could move on to more advanced shapes. I know this is a mistake I could be guilty of and this relates back to understanding your students and the level they are at. If it is the first time introducing an activity then it is a good idea to start basic and work your way up to higher levels of complexity. 

This week was extremely valuable to me from a teaching point of view. I saw some excellent examples of how to be interactive and engaging using well planned activities. Next week I will be presenting on a unit in measurement and I am going to apply what I've learning watching my peers thus far and apply it to my own presentation! Wish me luck!

©Breakey, D. 2015. Tangram Square.