Teaching Today!

Class Period: 2nd period
Topic: Vocabulary taken from the Article “Jackman’s ‘Wolverine’ leads weekend pack with $87M”

I chose to do a jigsaw lesson today because I needed more practice with it, and I thought it would work well to teach vocabulary words. It worked out really well. Part of my philosophy of teaching is that students should collaborate to work on team skills and communication, and they should learn in a variety of ways. A jigsaw activity was new for them, and from my observation, they enjoyed it and learned from it. After all, teaching is the highest form of learning.
I only observed one "normal" day in this class because I have been working as a teacher assistant for the TTRM reading program. That one day of observation was very important because it showed me what a normal day looks like in Mrs. Messerly’s class. However, since this is an alternative school, there are not many “normal” days because every week, there may be new students or old students leaving to go back to their regular high schools. I observed a Monday, and that is the day they do a vocabulary assignment. Because of this, I wanted to teach on a Monday to keep the regular flow of the week. The objectives were learned successfully based on the monitoring I did throughout the lesson while they researched the vocabulary words in their expert groups and taught them in their home groups. Also, they made good predictions about the topic of the article, and one group guessed correctly. After reading the article, I asked questions, and they felt comfortable answering them. My set worked because it effectively caught their attention. They arranged in groups correctly and worked collaboratively; although, they did get off topic a few times. The students effectively taught the vocabulary words to the home group, and they responded well after reading the article. I think most everything worked well; however, if I were to change anything, it would be to already have the definitions printed out for them to make sure they are teaching the correct definitions to their group. Some of the definitions had multiple meanings, and the students had no way of knowing which meaning I was looking for them to teach. If I had provided a handout with the definitions on it, there would be no confusion over what the definition is, and there would be more focus on thinking of creative ways to teach the word. The main thing I learned about teaching from this experience is that it is important to set the rules for behavior and make sure the procedures are very clear to students before they begin the activity. Jigsaw can be a little confusing, and if they are clear on what they are supposed to be doing and what is expected of them, they will learn more. It is easy for groups to get off topic and socialize without proper ground rules for behavior expectations. I feel more confident about teaching based on my experience teaching real public school students.

Also, the SWA and DYE students are in the Daily News Journal! Here's the link to read the article: http://www.dnj.com/article/20090504/NEWS07/905040315&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL.

This Week

On Monday, I went to SWA to observe Kelly's class on a "normal" day in "Reading in the Content Area." On Mondays, they do a vocabulary activity that comes from an article, and they take a quiz on the vocab on Fridays. Next Monday, I will be teaching, so I plan to use a jigsaw lesson format to teach the vocabulary, and then they will read the article and discuss it for the remaining class time. I just need to find an interesting article!

SWA has won an award for participating in TTRM in service learning. Today a reporter will be walking with us to DYE. This is the final week in the TTRM magazine.

Friday, April 3rd at SWA

There are a few new students in Kelly's 2nd and 4th period classes, so today I came to train them for the TTRM session next week. After I went over the reading strategies and the basic format, I had them practice on one another, role-playing either the mentor or the mentee. Before the quick role play, I gave them tips on how to guide the mentee to the right answer in the paragraph, give clear instructions, and keep the mentee's attention. Afterwards, I asked them if they had any questions and if they feel comfortable taking on the role of the mentor next Wednesday when we go to DYE. They said they feel comfortable taking on the mentor role, so I think they'll be fine. On Wednesday, I will probably have to remind them of a few things, but what I've noticed from the other mentors is that if they generally feel confident about being a leader/tutor/mentor, they'll do a good job.

Also, many of the SWA students who participated in Session #1 are still at SWA (in 2nd period specifically), so they have gotten to experience TTRM the way it is intended. Kelly is assigning a reflection paper to write about what they have learned/how this experience has changed them, and I am eager to read those papers, talk with students, and watch the video that Kelly put together for Mrs. Davenport. Then I will be able to see how effective this program has been for the SWA students.

TTRM Session #7

Today we went to DYE as we usually do on Wednesdays. Many of the participating SWA students have been mentoring in TTRM for the whole 7 weeks now, while some of them have only been mentoring for 2 weeks. It has not been as difficult to train the new ones and switch out mentors with the 3rd grade mentees as we thought it would be initially, probably because the timing was right at the beginning. When we started Session 1, there were many new SWA students, and now many of them are still mentoring in the program at week 7.

Overall, the mentors enjoy coming to see their mentees and reading with them, even if it's only to get out of school for an hour. Today as I monitored, I noticed that the mentors have improved on interacting with their mentees, answering questions, guiding them to the right answers, and relating the reading to their everyday lives. They seem more comfortable, and they have found what strategies work for them. I didn't have to guide them much today, which is a sign that they are improving as mentors and leaders. As I have been training the new SWA students, I have told them that their goal for their mentees is to train them to read better and more independently, and the way to do that is through scaffolding: I do (modeling), we do (choral reading, shadow reading), you do (independent reading). I see that they are understanding this concept more now that they have had this experience. Also, I hope that this experience is showing the SWA students that they can have a positive influence on someone else, and maybe that will make them think more about the decisions they make in their personal lives and at their regular high schools. I have found that working with children can have that effect on people when they begin to take up the mindset of a leader and mentor. When you want children to make positive decisions, as a mentor for them, you want to show them what it looks like to make good choices, and as a result, you become influenced by them to make better choices yourself.

Friday at SWA

On Friday, I went to SWA for 2nd and 4th period. In 2nd period, Kelly videotaped each of the mentors and me telling about our experiences with TTRM so far. This is for Mrs. Davenport to take to a national conference.

In 4th period, I taught the new students about TTRM and trained them for mentoring on Wednesday. Two of the new students were at school, and one was absent. While we were training for TTRM, the other students in the class were playing some kind of string instrument led by an older lady. Needless to say, it was loud in there, so the new guys had a hard time paying attention. On top of that, the lady leading the music told us to quiet down a few times, which I thought was a little rude, especially since we were not talking loud. We ended up moving to another part of the room at her request. It was an interesting day.

TTRM Session #5

Today during the TTRM session, we started quicker than usual, probably because the teens and 3rd graders know the format by now. Because of that, they had more time today than they have during past sessions. I noticed that the mentors (teens) were using the reading strategies more this week instead of just allowing their mentee, struggling or not, to read the whole section independently. Kelly told me that she had refreshed them on the reading strategies in class and told them not to have the 3rd graders read the whole section by themselves. That was a positive change today.

However, because of the extra time, I noticed that after the pairs were finished with the magazine part, instead of starting the next step (reading the free book together), they skipped it and started playing hangman or tic-tac-toe. The mentors need more direction on what their roles are--the leader. It is their jobs to make sure the 3rd graders are focused on reading during the session, and instead, some of the mentors were causing their mentees to goof off. Part of the purpose of the program is to help 3rd graders want to read more on their own (outside of school), so when their mentors don't seem to care about sticking to the reading after the first part of the session is finished, it sends the mentees mixed signals, and that is probably confusing for them. If my professors goofed off in class instead of sticking to their lessons, I would not be too motivated to do my best work. As a mentor, it is important to show the mentee that you care about the reading lesson, and that you expect them to do their best.

Next time I tutor new SWA students on mentoring, I will be sure to focus on reading strategies and keeping the 3rd graders on task through the whole session.

Teen Trendsetters Session #4

Today, the SWA students, Kelly, and I went to DYE for session #4. I was unable to come to the past 2 since they went on Tuesdays due to scheduling conflicts the last two weeks, but I am glad we are back on for Wednesdays now. We brought 10 SWA students for 2nd period today, which is a good number. So far, we haven't had problems with numbers (TTRM requires 15 mentors and 15 mentees participating during the 10 weeks).

Interestingly, I noticed today that the SWA new student I talked about in a previous post (I'll call him Joe), looked nervous today. When I tutored him to catch him up with the other mentors, he was very unmotivated and had a negative attitude. Today, though, he probably realized that he had to take it seriously. As I monitored the session, I made sure to pay special attention to Joe and his mentee. I had to remind him what to do, but I think he'll come better prepared next week since he felt so nervous today. Even another SWA student commented on Joe looking nervous. He did it, though, and his mentee did a great job reading. She looked like she was glad he was there to read with her, and she said "bye" to him when he left. I think this will be a good experience for him.

While I was montitoring, I noticed that some of the mentors need a refresher on reading strategies because I mostly saw the 3rd graders reading aloud to the mentors, and some of them were struggling. When I tutor next time, I'll remind them to give clear instructions to the mentees, to use the reading strategies, and to guide them to the answers instead of telling them the right answers (to the questions in the magazine).

Also, I observed today that some mentees were very excited about the books they were given. They get to keep them!

That's all for today. :)