Authentic Questions

I think that the components from the book are great and are helpful as a guideline for what authentic questions should contain and they they are important. They are important because we want to push our students to think further and to think outside the box. It is important for them to start this at a young age because it is something that never goes away and they will be expected to do, all the way up until college.

What I think makes a lesson successful is first how it is run. Classroom management is key in lesson planning. You want to make sure that your students are going to be able to sit and listen for the amount of time allotted. You also have to know your class. I know my class cannot sit for more than about 15-20 minutes without needed to get up and walk around or stretch. Second, a lesson is successful when students are engaged in the lesson and they are using higher level thinking. It is important for them to be understanding what you are teaching and is important for them to have their own thoughts, ideas, and opinions about it.

I like how Julie admitted that her students might not be ready to use sticky notes to write on while they are reading, and that's okay! Another idea is to do discussion about the book with someone after. This could be with a partner or a teacher and the students could be asked to give a small summary, their favorite part, the most important part, the authors message, etc. This could help hold them accountable for what they are reading and help them understand that reading is more than just decoding- they want to be able to understand what they are reading and what the point of it is.

Authentic Questions

According to the Strategies That Work text, these are the components of an authentic question:

·         Prompt thinking

·         Don’t always have one right answer

·         May have many answers

·         Cause us to ponder and wonder

·         Dispel or clarify confusion

·         Challenge us to rethink our opinions

·         Lead us to seek out further information

·         Are subject to discussion, debate, and conversation

·         May require further research

(p.124)

I think authentic questions are very valuable.  They push students to think in new ways and take the focus off of a right or wrong answer.  These questions and their answers allow us to have a more comprehensive understanding of students’ thoughts and knowledge.  They also encourage discussion and engagement between peers, which may also lead to more exciting discoveries.

Here are some authentic questions for you to consider:

After reading so many lesson plans this week on questioning, visualizing, inferring, and in the Writing Essentials book, what do you think makes a lesson successful?

What are some ways you can think of that could help students keep track of what they are thinking when they read?  The book talks a lot about sticky notes.  Are there other ways to help students organize their thoughts, questions, inferences, etc.?

Inquiry 2 Part A Hammer

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

o   My target area is writing. I will be mainly focusing on strengthening my students as writers by having them create a lot of their own compositions.

2.     Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

o   About 15-20 minutes is allotted per day for a mini-lesson of writing and then the students are set off to write for about 30-40 minutes. However, there may be some days that the lesson will range from 20-40 minutes and then another 30-40 minutes allowed for individual writing.

3.     Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

o   The standards I will work towards are writing standards that have to do with the different pieces of writing that my students will be working on.

•  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.1 Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.3 Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

4.     How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

o   Teaching in this area will provide so many opportunities for student learning. They will strengthen themselves as writers, they will begin the brainstorming/planning process, they will be exploring different styles of writing such as narrative, informational, opinion, and ‘how to’ pieces. In relation to their lives, they will be able to tell stories and write about prompts that relate to their life. For example, a writing prompt could be “Think of a time when you were happy. Tell us this story in words.” This is a very general prompt- thinking of a time when they are happy could be as simple as when it was their birthday or when they won a football game, or it could be along the lines of when my mom had a new baby sister or when I get to see my dad. The prompts and topics that they will be writing about will be planned ahead of time. This learning includes learning literacy because they might be asked to tell me their idea before writing it and then they have to be able to read their writing. We might also do a lesson where they will have partners and switch their work with their partner so that they can read each others work and/or read their work out loud to each other. This will get them to see all the areas of literacy.

5.     What types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?

o   The type of classroom talk that will take place are students sharing their work and sharing their ideas. They can talk about spelling, big words to use, and they can work together as a class to come up with topics. The higher-level thinking that will occur will be the vocabulary used, the editing, the meaningful stories written, etc. The norms I expecte to see for interaction within my target area are when they are working individually, I expect it to be quiet except for students asking the teachers questions. Students are to be in their own bubble space and they are to be thinking and working on writing. During lesson time, they are to be focused on the teacher, keeping their hands free unless they are told to do something, and keep their listening ears on. During group discussions, they are expected to listen to each others ideas, each others stories, and respect what the people are saying.

6.     Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

o   The core practice I want to work on developing/improving as I teach in this target is having conferences with my studnets about their writing to really help them grow and mature as writers. A lot of the time they can tell me story after story and are so detailed, but their great story-telling abilities isn’t necessarily translating to paper. I would also like to foster meaningful revision strategies because I feel as if this is important to become a better writer. Focusing on these things will help me contribute to my own professional learning because I will be able to see what goes well and if these are important things that I should be focusing on and how I can improve or change it for the next time I teach a similar lesson.

7.     What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

o   The resources I have within the school and the classroom are everything that my teacher has to offer me. She has already given me lots of books that have sample worksheets, sample writing topics, some good writing skills that they can use, etc. I can also ask any other teachers in the school if they have anything to help me with. As far as the community and the neighborhood go, I can ask my students what they are interested in so that I can come up with some topics for them to write about.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

o   I need to obtain some good writing prompts/topics to write about and some brainstorming graphic organizers to use for them to start brainstorming/planning before their writing.

9.     How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?

o   I will pre-assess them by looking at their DWA samples that they did for our class and also have them try one of the writing samples I am going to have them do without teaching them a lesson about it first.

10.   What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

o   I will need to find out about what their prior knowledge is with brainstorming and what they have done with this in the past. I will also need to find out some of their interests so that I can chose topics that they will be interested in writing about. I also want to find out how they feel about their writing. I want to do a sort of “self evaluation” of some sort to understand how they feel about writing and how they feel about their own writing.

11.   What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?

o   I want to read more about some of the standards from the previous grade that they are expected to know about already so that I know what they should already know and I also want to learn about what they will be doing in 3^rd grade so that I can start to challenge some of the students who have shown me are high in writing.

12.   What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?

o   I am only concerned with making sense to the students and being able to teach them enough information so that they can meet their goals and that they can accomplish what they need to accomplish and are learning what they are expected to learn. I know this may not happen for every single student, but for the most part I want to be able to teach them as much as I can!

Longe_Inquiry 2_Part A

Inquiry 2, Part A

Jacquelyn Longe

section 8

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

For guided lead teaching, I will be focusing on Persuasive Writing. I am not sure if I will be teaching or creating unit plans for both writers’ workshop and reading workshop at this point.

2.     Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

An hour every day for reading workshop, if I am also doing writers workshop than that will be an additional hour.

3.     Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

Not sure yet.

4.     How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

While we will be learning about persuasive writing, we will be practicing persuasive ideas through pulling in ideas or topics to write about through their own lives. We will also be reading, at this point in time, some of the One and Only Ivan and talking about different aspects of writing that can be explored through this novel as well as strategies that we can use to better understand things going on in this story. The students will be doing a variety of tasks to help them in the end learn how to write a persuasive essay. By the end of the unit we will have hopefully taken one whole idea through the entire writing process and turned it into a full persuasive essay piece.

5.     What types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?

There is a lot of teacher led talk, but I don’t feel at this age it is an inappropriate amount. I feel sometimes when it is student led talks, they tend to get off topic, so while she does guide the conversations heavily, the students do have numerous opportunities to share their ideas out with the whole class, groups, partners, and just individualized with the teacher and the student. There are usually several “higher level thinking task” type questions she will ask them, sort of more general questions that leave room for the students to ponder what we were actually talking about or reading about and truly come up with their own opinion. If it is a larger group discussion, there is room for further questioning which she will do once a student offers an opinion she wants to expand on, or she will allow many possible student strategies, than possibly suggest an idea herself if they are missing the point she wants them to grasp. More often than not though a student will provide a further thinking question or an idea that presents itself with a follow up question.

6.     Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

Through writing instruction, I will be focusing on creating authentic, meaningful writing tasks for real audiences. I will also be consistently trying to incorporate explicit instruction strategies throughout my writing unit by using think alouds, reading alouds, guided interactive discussions and also writing things out onto anchor charts. We will also be using visualizing techniques, questioning strategies and summaries to synthesize persuasive writing topics in a final essay.

7.     What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

I have a website that I am pulling ideas from called teachers pay teachers. I am trying to introduce a unit that will flow nicely after the writers’ workshop model we are doing for personal narratives. They have writers’ notebooks as well as idea notebooks that we will be writing in and I will be able to use some graphic organizers to help students organize their thoughts throughout the persuasive writing process. Also, I will be bouncing ideas off of my mentor teacher, field instructor, and 802 professor which I see as huge resources that I need to use to my advantage.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

I will need to possibly get a different book that will better enhance the students’ ideas of persuasive writing or better explain the concept of persuasive writing to have a sample or example of persuasive writing the students could relate to.

9.     How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?

I think we would just have a conversation about what it means to write persuasively, what a persuasive essay should include, what sorts of things it should not include. Also what sorts of things need to happen during the writing process to ensure a complete and successful essay is the end product of this unit.

10.    What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

I will need to figure out if their spelling or hand writing will hinder or slow their writing process. I wouldn't want them to be caught up in the grammar or mechanics of the initial drafting process. This may be an area I would need to make specific accommodations for students.

11.    What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?

How I can relate it to persuasive writing specifically and how I can relate it to the overall general writing process so I can use these strategies again when I take over writers workshop.

12.    What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?

Right now, I am just hoping to finish the unit on time so I can teach it according to the calendar date scheduled to begin lead teaching. I may be starting math that first week and staggering language arts/writers workshop to be starting the week after but still with 2 weeks for each unit.

After completing this, I am thinking I will be doing writers workshop so the first few questions would be in a draft state as of right now.

Target Area, Elizabeth Gutowski

1.     Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

My target area is an author study of Kevin Henkes’ books. It will focus on story elements and cross-text connections.

2.     Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

40-60 minutes are allotted each day per reading.  However, this time is usually split fairly equally between instructional time and independent reading.  So, I will have about 20-30 minutes per day for this unit.

3.     Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

Common core standards I will work toward during this unit are:

·         RL.3.1. Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

·         RL.3.3. Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

·         RL.3.7. Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting).

·         RL.3.9. Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series).

Michigan GLCE’s I will work toward during this unit are:

·         R.NT.03-05.05 respond to individual and multiple texts by finding evidence, discussing, illustrating, and/or writing to reflect, make connections, take a position, and/or show understanding.

·         R.NT.03.03 identify and describe characters’ thoughts and motivations, story level themes (good vs. evil), main idea, and lesson/moral (fable).

·         S.DS.03.02 discuss narratives, conveying the story grammar, and explain why the story is worthwhile and how it is relevant to the storyteller or the audience.

·         R.CM.03.03 compare and contrast relationships among characters, events, and key ideas within and across texts to create a deeper understanding by mapping story elements, graphically representing key ideas and details, and asking questions as they read, including a narrative to an informational text, a literature selection to a subject area text, and an historical event to a current event.

·         R.NT.03.04 explain how authors use literary devices including prediction, personification, and point of view to develop a story level theme, depict the setting, and reveal how thoughts and actions convey important character traits.

4.     How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

This target area teaches two sets of important skills that are beneficial because they will help facilitate comprehension.  Students will learn to compare and contrast texts and also to identify story elements.  Both of these skills will help students comprehend what they are reading.

5.     What types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?

The types of classroom talk I would like to include in this unit include whole group, small group, and pairs.  I would like some talk to be student-led but I will have to build up to that because my students are unfamiliar with that type of classroom talk.  I think the discussion will be focused on higher-level thinking when students make connections between texts.  Norms I would like to build include: listen respectfully while others are talking, ask questions, critique ideas (not people), and encourage everyone to participate.

6.     Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

The core practice I want to develop as I teach this unit is writing about reading. This will contribute to my own professional learning because I am curious about this core practice and how writing can help students take away as much as possible from reading.  I am also very interested in integrating literacy instruction, weaving reading and writing together.

7.     What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

I have checked out Kevin Henkes books from the local and school libraries.  My mentor teacher has given me a small folder with reproducibles such as venn diagrams and story element charts.  She also gave me a resource book about effective read-alouds.

8.     What additional resources do you need to obtain?

Additional resources I might need to obtain are some teacher resource books about cross-text connections and/or story elements. I will also look into the resources available from Kevin Henkes’ website.

9.     How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?

I designed a pre-test to gauge students’ knowledge of text-to-text connections and story elements.  I will ask students to demonstrate their knowledge of these concepts using a book we are currently reading in class. 

10.  What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

I also want to find out about students’ beliefs about themselves as literacy learners.  I will administer a general reading survey to gain knowledge of students’ beliefs about themselves as literacy learners and their interests and motivations as literacy learners.

11.  What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?

I want to learn more about the kinds of writing students can do about reading. I don’t want students to write in the same way throughout the unit.  I will investigate different ways to write about reading.

12.  What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?

I am somewhat concerned about planning this unit without a curriculum guide to build off of.  I am familiar with extending and tailoring lessons from a curriculum guide but for this unit, I am designing each lesson from scratch.  I am planning on having several conferences with my mentor teacher about my lessons before I teach to help me with this concern.

Julie Crist: Target Area Questions

1.       Describe your target area for guided lead teaching.

o   For my literacy unit, I am focusing on the Making Meaning portion of our day.  Making Meaning incorporates reading comprehension into the day and allows for the students to answer questions about a specific text type.  For this two week unit, I will be introducing nonfiction text into the classroom for exploration.  In science we will be beginning Bee reports, so my MT and I thought introducing Nonfiction would be a nice way to integrate the two subjects.

2.       Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area?

o   There will be approximately 30-40 minutes set aside each day for this component of literacy.  This will be plenty of time to make it through the lesson and maybe extend the lesson to another aspect of our district literacy program (i.e. Writer’s Workshop, Reader’s Notebook etc.)

3.       Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

o   1.RL.5 Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information.

o   1.RIT.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

o   1.RIT.2 Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

o   1.RIT.4 Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text.

o   1.RIT.5 Know and use various text features (e.g. headings, table of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text.

o   1.RIT.6 Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text.

o   1.RIT.7 Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.

o   1.RIT.10 With prompting and support, read informational texts appropriately complex for grade 1.

o   1.SL.3 Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to gather additional information or clarify something that is not understood.

4.       How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy?

o   By providing the students with this information about nonfiction text, they will able to locate information using the tools the text provides them.  They will be able prioritize important facts in a piece of nonfiction literature.  They will be able to share their findings with their peers in informal discussions.  Finally, they will be able to put their knowledge of informational texts to work through the creation of a Bee report.  The Making Meaning program is specifically designed to introduce students to a variety of different texts so they are learning literacy in this sense.  The students have yet to explore nonfiction text in 1^st grade so I am very excited I get to introduce this new concept.  I will be defining what nonfiction is and how it differs from fiction pieces.  They will get to explore the tools within the books such as the glossary, and table of contents.  This is how the students will learn about the literacy.  The students will put their knowledge of nonfiction to work in our science unit when they develop their individual bee reports.

5.       What types of classroom talk takes place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)?

o   Making Meaning is very much a teacher-led program in which the teacher reads a story and engages the students in a content-based discussion throughout the lesson.  At times we will pair the students up to share their ideas and then call them back to attention for a large group debriefing period.  We are working on having the students predict and retell stories to their peers as well as locate components of a story in their book boxes.  I want the students to be able to focus on the key vocabulary words and be able to tell the difference between a nonfiction and fiction story.  My MT and I have been focusing on having the students be respectful listeners by looking at the speaker, waiting for a peer to finish their thought, and raising their hands if they have a question.  These rules help to maintain the classroom management as well as teach the students to be self-disciplined. 

6.       Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)? How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning?

o   The Core Practice I want to improve on as I teach this unit is Comprehension Strategy Instruction and Assessment.  I feel this is the most important aspect of the Making Meaning program and to this age group of students.  This core practice will help me develop questions to push the students to answer with more than a one-word response.  The students need to be able to use the nonfiction text I am introducing to find information about a specific topic.  I have noticed through the DRA testing that the students are becoming more fluent in their reading, but they do not understand what they read.  I believe nonfiction text will challenge the students to do both.

7.       What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area?

o   Open communication with my MT is going to be the most beneficial tool in regards to Making Meaning.  I have been to a Professional Development day titled, “Writing about Reading” which I hope to incorporate a little bit after this two-week unit.  The PD day discussed tools in which lower elementary students can use in order to interact with informational texts.  One tool they introduced was sticky notes in which the students could write information they felt to be important down on paper to incorporate into a piece of nonfiction writing.

8.       What additional resources do you need to obtain?

o   I need to obtain the books laid out in the Making Meaning curriculum in order to direct my lessons.

9.       How will you pre-assess your students in your target area?

o   I want to teach a mini-lesson that focuses on a piece of nonfiction text and observe how the students react to it.  I have observed the students being excited over animals, bones, and mummies in which they have read about in fiction books.  I am curious as to how they would respond if they read text that was real to them and they could observe each day in their environment.

10.   What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching?

o   I need to interview the students to see their personal experiences with nonfiction text in kindergarten.  I have been differentiating instruction based on developmental levels in the classroom and I need to gather more information about student interests in order to choose ‘good-fit’ nonfiction books for the students.

11.   What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching?

o   I would like to learn how to monitor comprehension in a more concrete form in a large group lesson setting.  I am able to record individual progress during a small group lesson or one-on-one interview, but I am challenged by comprehension record keeping while teaching a large group. 

12.   What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?

o   I have always taught fiction based lessons and connected them to the students’ personal experiences through that type of text.  I am curious as to how well I am going to do when the information is real.  This may seem like a strange concern, but first graders are full of questions.  How am I going to maintain control while answering 24 different questions at once?