Poetry Invitations

This week in class we got to experience what a poetry invitation would be like, and I know that myself and several others I saw were excited to do something different in class.  I really enjoyed seeing what others produced, especially those that made illustrations to convey the meaning they got from the poem.  Some of those pictures were really awesome.
In my field experience today with the fourth graders we were working on mental images, which I thought was quite coincidental since we had just read and discussed a chapter over mental images in E340 on Monday.  The student I had was struggling to describe his mental images, if he had any at all.  He simply summarized or listed back to me what had just happened, but did not show me what he saw.  I think part of it has to do that when he reads he does not pay attention to what he is reading, not that he cannot comprehend, because he is very capable, just he only reads for surface value instead of making connections and attempting to understand what is happening.

Docu-Drama and Writer's workshop

This past week in our field experience class we got to observe and participate in a fourth grade class' writer's workshop.  For the sake of privacy we will call the person I worked with Benji.  So each of my classmates sat by a student to work with during the workshop.  We first began with a hello, and the fourth graders gave us a special welcome.  It was something like a wolf greeting, they made pointed ears with their hands and howled hello.  Then we did a two minute quick write where we were to write about brushing out teeth, but make it a big event in our writing.  Which we then shared with our partners.  After that we went to the meeting area to find out what we would be working on that day.  And the task was generating a list of first and last time experiences that we could explore and make bigger just like the author of Eleven, the piece we were modeling our work after, had done.  After a little bit of carpet work we spread out and worked with our partners on generating ideas.  Adam had just moved to the United States a few years ago and picked some first times doing things in America.  One of the first experiences he chose to wrote on was his first time trick or treating.  I really enjoyed the writer's workshop experience, it gave me a clearer picture than just reading about it had.  And other much planning and organization goes into the units of study, the structure is very simply and has a natural flow.  And as we were leaving we gave high fives to our partners and said you're awesom since that's how they do it in their class.
Back in class later that day we watched a docu-drama an elementary teacher had done over the life of a water molecule.  It was a very creative way of illustrating the process, entertaining yet full of information.  It was a new concept I was introduced to, a docu-drama I mean.  I can envision the work it requires to create a great one that is both entertaining and informative.  But I also see the potential for much student learning.  If each group of students is given a subject to do one on, they would have to do a lot of research and creative thinking to get it all to come together.  Eventually presenting something that would be entertaining so the other students would want to watch and would in turn be learning lots of new facts about a subject.  And the students who produced it would have lots of fun too because they can be as creative as they wish.

Multi-Genre Research Paper

This week in class we focused on our major assignment coming up, our multi-genre research paper.  I had a semi solid idea of what I wanted to do it over, the book After Tupac and D Foster.  I had already started creating a list of possible artifacts and where I wanted them to go, how they would be an extension of the book and characters.  I had even begun creating some rough drafts of the artifacts.  But I was struggling to decide what aspect of the book I would focus on and was concerned with my ability to find resources and the availability of resources over topics in the book.  But we did a class activity that helped me pick the topic I wanted to do.  Yet even after the question writing and exploration, when I began researching my topic took a slightly different perspective than I had initially thought.  And although still underdeveloped I believe it will result in a better paper and connectedness to the book than where I had initially been thinking of taking the two.

This week in our practicum hours I was able to stay a little over time in the class I observe to see the first graders and kindergartners.  Like with the other grades the other girls and I were paired off with one or two students to assist them individually.  In this class there were two first grade girls who were recent immigrants from Korea, and seeing as we had a future teacher who spoke Korean our teacher took advantage of her presence and paired her with the two girls.  Their facial expression was priceless when they realized that their helper was Korean.  The little boy, who also happened to be Korean, was quite jealous of this fact.  And frequently pointed out that the two girls had a Korean teacher.  When I asked if he wished he had a Korean teacher he said yes.  Younger children are so entertaining.  The boy I worked with was quite the character, as I had been warned previously, but he has very intelligent and witty also.  I wish we were able to stay and help with the first/kindergartners every week.  That would be a really treat.

Teaching Experiences

So this week in class my writer's notebook conference went better than last.  My partner and I found some things to talk about and discussed some things we would like to try this week in our journal.  We also had a mini-lesson on non-fiction and saw how hectic it can get when examining such a broad topic to begin with.  I think it would be easier to examine the different types of non-fiction structures independently and then compare them at a later date.  Non-fiction just has such an array of formats, many of which are distinct from fiction but some of which are similar.
We also learned about our MGR paper we will be working on for the next couple weeks and I must say that I am kind of excited about the potential this project has.  And excited about the creativity we will gt to explore as a result.  I cannot wait to see where this project ends.
This week and last week (I believe) we had to teach mini-lessons to a small group of peers.  Both times I found that my group ended up discussing our lesson plan, what we hoped to accomplish and how we would present it to our students, than actually teaching the lesson to one another.  It's just so odd to peer teach.  But from finding a topic and materials to accompany the lesson, I discovered that I am a little indecisive.  It took me forever to figure out what I wanted to teach.  And then once I figured out what I wanted to focus on, poetry, there were so many topics within poetry to teach that I was unsure what I wanted to look at.  In the end, I went for what I thought would be more interesting to learn about.  I find that I often skip over what I feel to be boring, or attempt to make everything as fun as I can.  Like last week I used a Captain Underpants book to teach about dialogue and talk bubbles.  Whether this is a good or bad thing is yet to be decided, however it is probably a mix between the two, leaning more toward good I would hope.  But I definitely learned that I have a hard time teaching something I am not passionate about, interested in, or find fun, which will definitely present some problems in the future.