Field Experience Reflection

Field Experience Reflection:

                I taught a lesson in May to a third grade class.  I taught a lesson on Shades of Meaning that integrated reading and writing.  The students were writing concrete poems and we read the book Love that Dog by Sharon Creech.  I used mini-laptops for each of the students so they could access on online thesaurus to find strong synonyms to substitute for some weaker words when writing their poems. 

                I observed in a fourth grade classroom.  The teacher was conducting a whole group reading lesson using the book Donovan’s Word Jar.  The students each had a copy.  The teacher was doing an excellent job of using the book to teach vocabulary. 

                I also observed in a fifth grade classroom.  This teacher was integrating Social Studies and reading.  The students were reading a text about Abraham Lincoln and participating in a group discussion.  The students were leading the discussion.  This teacher had fabulous classroom management and a very student-centered classroom.

                Overall, it was a great experience to observe these other teachers.  I always come back to my own classroom with tons of ideas after watching another teacher for a few hours.  

Week 7 Booktalk: Historical Fiction

Number the Stars

Historical Fiction Booktalk

Lowry, L. (1989). Number the stars. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

            Can you imagine having soldiers question your identity and bust into your home demanding information?  Can you imagine being scared that your best friend and her family will be killed because of their religion?

            This is what happens in the historical fiction book Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  The book is set in the 1940s in Denmark during the Holocaust.  Annemarie Johansen and her best friend, Ellen, were walking home from school one day when they were questioned by soldiers about their identities.  This was scary because Ellen and her family were Jewish.  The girls ran home and told their families.  Ellen stayed with Annemarie and her family, pretending to be Annemarie's deceased sister, while her family figured out an escape plan. 

            The Johansens traveled to visit Annemarie’s uncle who lived near the Swedish border and owned a boat.  While they were there, they had a funeral for Annemarie’s Great-Aunt who didn’t really exist.  The funeral was a set up to allow Jews from all over Denmark to gather and then be taken into Sweden where they would be free.  When Annemarie’s mother breaks her ankle, it is up to Annemarie to deliver a special package that could save everyone.  Will she be able to handle this big responsibility or will the soldiers catch her?  Read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry to find out.

Hear me read the booktalk by clicking the following link: http://vocaroo.com/i/s05GNIgaTXal

Week 8 Reflection: Non-Fiction Book

Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl

Marrin, A. (2009). Years of dust: The story of the dust bowl. New York, NY: Dutton Children’s Books.

Summary:  This is a non-fiction book about the Dust Bowl that occurred in the United States and Canada in the 1930s.  The dust bowl was caused by wind storms blowing across the prairies during a drought creating storms of dust.  The book has great text features such as maps, diagrams, tables, pictures, and captions.  The photographs are especially striking; for example, the photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt takes up pages 94 and 95 and is fascinating. 

Reflection:  My students complete a history fair project toward the end of the year.  This book would be a great resource to give to them during their research.  There are various text features on every page that add to the text, so this book would also be great to use when teaching about text features.

Classroom Connection:  I will be using this book as part of a text feature lesson that involves task cards.  I will use this book and 22 others (one for each student) and give each student a task card.  The task cards will ask them to use the text features to find information about a topic.  They will pass the books and task cards until they have completed them all.  This lesson meets the following 3^rd grade standard:

·         CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.

Big Questions:  Do you wish you had lived during the dust bowl?  Why or why not?

Reading Log

Reading Log for REOL 536

Genre / Titles you read

             I.      Non-fiction/Informational

1)      Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl by Albert Marrin

2)      Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

          II.      Poetry 

1)      Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

2)      If the Shoe Fits by Laura Beingessner

       III.      Modern Fantasy         

1)      The Illustrated Wee Free Men: A Story of Discworld by Terry Pratchett

2)      The Giver by Lois Lowry

3)      Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

4)      Eragon by Christopher Paolini

       IV.      Historical Fiction      

1)      Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor

2)      Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

3)      Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

          V.      Traditional         

1)      Jack Tales (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema

       VI.      Realistic Fiction 

1)      Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

2)      Dogsong by Gary Paulsen

3)      Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

4)      Holes by Louis Sachar

5)      Under the Same Sky by Cynthia DeFelice

    VII.      Picture Books

1)      Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg

3)      Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

4)      The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith

5)      Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann

6)      Finders Keepers by Will & Nicolas

7)      Tuesday by David Wiesner

8)      The Three Pigs by David Wiesner

9)      The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

10)  A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead

11)  Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! By Mo Willems

12)  Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes

Week 6 Booktalk: Under the Same Sky (Realistic Fiction)

Week 6 Booktalk: Under the Same Sky (Realistic Fiction)

DeFelice, C. (2003). Under the same sky. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Click the link to hear my booktalk:  http://vocaroo.com/i/s0RhoE5eJBm4

Have you ever worked hard to get something and then realized it wasn’t what you wanted after all?  You always want what you can’t have, right?

Under the Same Sky by Cynthia DeFelice is a realistic fiction chapter book that you won’t be able to put down!  Fourteen-year-old Joe desperately wants a motorbike, but his parents can’t afford to get him one.  His dad makes a deal with Joe that he can work on the farm, with the migrant workers, all summer to earn money for the bike.  Joe spends his summer with Manuel, the crew boss, and Luisa, a pretty, young worker, and many other crew members.  It wasn’t pleasant work; on page 32, it says, “Let’s just say I wasn’t chilly for long.  Soon the sun was beating down.  This was good because it drove away the hordes of mosquitoes that tormented me at first, but awful because I was wearing a black T-shirt.  I felt as if every ray from the sun was drawn directly from the sky onto my sweating back.  Finally, I took off the shirt and stuffed it into the pocket of my jeans, which helped a little, but not much.”  

A tough summer ensues as several of the crew members are threatened with deportation and people from town want the migrant workers to leave.  What will happen to the crew?  How will Joe’s relationship with the crew change his life?   You need to read Under the Same Sky by Cynthia DeFelice to find out.

Week 5: Poetry Reflection

Whipple, L. (2002). If the shoe fits: Stories of Cinderella. New York, NY: Margaret K McElderry Books.

       Summary:  This is a specialized book of poems that are all about Cinderella.  The poems are written from various points of view, for example: some of the poems are from the point of view of the evil-stepsisters, the fairy godmother, Cinderella, etc. The poem called The Rat’s Ride has great examples of onomatopoeias, such as the line from page 40 that says, “Eeek, eeek! Squeeeak, squeeeak, squeeeak!”  The illustrations are drawn using a media that appears to be colored pencil.  The figures are drawn as cartoons.

Reflection:  My students will love this collection of poems because Cinderella is a familiar character to them and the poems are funny.  I will be using one of the poems from this book as a fluency poem during our fairy tale unit.  My students read one poem every day for a week; they focus on a different element of fluency (accuracy, rate, expression, etc.) each day.

Classroom Connection:  If the Shoe Fits is a great book to use when comparing and contrasting different characters and their point of view.  I would first teach my students about narrators and point of view then ask them to identify the narrator in each poem.  Then, I would give them a graphic organizer that has room to compare and contract four different characters' thoughts, feelings, and actions.  To tie in writing, I would ask my students to write a bio poem about one of characters from Cinderella.

·       

The fourth grade common core standard that these activities will meet is:

·          CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.6 Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.

·         Big Questions: How do you know who the narrator is in each poem?