Christina L. Chapter 3,4,5,6 reflections

Christina Lim
ITE 314

CHAPTER 3 RESPONSE

This chapter of the book was centered on the organization of a classroom which centers around fostering students abilities pertaining to literacy. As Taberski stated, referring to the environment as the “third teacher”, is what this chapter focuses on; ways to make this process easier and more efficient for both the teacher and his/her students.

As for the organization section of the chapter, I thought that Ms. Salch’s method of adjusting the leg height of her tables to better accommodate her students, as well as, make better use of the classroom space was a great idea. At first, it seemed a bit radical, but I do see now the valuable space that could be opened up for other uses. I also liked how Taberski provides her students with the materials they need in their “community pots”, so they don’t have to bring any extra unneeded materials. I also liked how Taberski gets the funds she needs by sending a letter home to each parent, asking them to reimburse her for the materials she provided. This effective way of organizing her classroom allows the child’s parent to not have to go school shopping for his/her child’s reading, writing and spelling supplies, as well as, allowing Taberski to make sure that every child has exactly what they need to succeed. I also like how Taberski does her shopping way in advance, during the summer before anyone even steps into her classroom. I thought that the list Taberski gave about exactly what she needs was also very helpful, it’s as if she is giving away her secrets to success, I also liked how she had some other alternative solutions to what a teacher could do if he/she doesn’t necessarily agree with shopping for their students themselves.

As for the classroom library Taberski sets up, I liked how she organizes it so meticulously, focusing on each level of difficulty; color-coding, etc. I really like how she stores her books with their covers facing out, which invites the child to look at it, and possibly even scan through it to see if the book is “just-right” for them. I also think that the idea of book bags is a very encouraging way to get children to read the books they enjoy both in, and out of school, but to effectively implement this idea the teacher must first have a solid system in place about the coding and levels of books in their library.

The only thing that discourages me about this chapter is that Taberski believes that in order to effectively work with students, individually, in small groups, and as a whole class, we need large, uninterrupted blocks of time to work with the students. She uses up more than half of the school day to teach her students about the importance of literacy, and to give them a chance at a lifetime of loving to read and write. I don’t disagree that literacy is very important, but I don’t know that it would be realistic if I were to allow that amount of time to be devoted only to literacy. There are other areas of curriculum that need to be given the same opportunity, as well as, the same amount of time devoted to fostering our students learning, whether it be math, physical education, art, etc.

Christina Lim
ITE 314

CHAPTER 4 RESPONSE

Taberski has made it very clear that reading conferences are of the upmost importance when it comes to the success of her students. She has mentioned her conferences in other chapters, and has given us many ideas, and shown us what has worked for her. In this chapter, Taberski goes more in-depth about why conferences work for her, and why each part of the conference is important.

I liked how Taberski see’s the importance of learning what cueing systems each of her students use; this reminds me of one of my students. I have one student in my mentor teacher’s class who is one of the youngest of the bunch. I started to conduct my running records, and was choosing students; some of them who my mentor told me knew how to read. I did a few with some students who obviously practiced reading their “I Can Read” books (these are books that are put into their folder to take home and read), they had no trouble reading what they had. I then went to this one child to try and get her to read me a book. She brought out her book, and I told her to start reading, she started out by trying to read the title. She was obviously making it up, because the words didn’t match the text at all. Then she moved on to the body of the book, which she started to “read”, but I immediately noticed that she was only using visual cues; she would look at the picture, and then tell me a sentence that matched the picture. I let her continue this, until our time ran out and I couldn’t finish my session with her. I have been bothered by this since then, I don’t know where to start, and I would like it if she could show some progress before I leave. My mentor seems to think that she is behind because she is one of the youngest in the class, which I agree with, because she does lack skills that the other children in her class already have. I just want to know what I could do with this situation, I would like for her to start over, or something, I just don’t know what to do, or how to start.

Another part of the chapter I could relate to was the fact that even children like to have an audience listen to them. I noticed that after I conducted some running records, some of the children who had previously read to me wanted to read to me in their spare time. Not all of the time, but I was surprised, because I only had some of them read to me once, or just a few times, and they were already eager to read to me again. I can only imagine how much more of them would want to read to me, and more often, if I applied this strategy in my own future classroom.

Christina Lim
ITE 314

CHAPTER 5 RESPONSE

In this chapter, Taberski talks about the importance of running records. Much of the chapter is devoted to the inner-workings of how a running record is supposed to be conducted, as well as, the importance it has on child’s progress. I thought it was helpful that Taberski showed us some of her notations she uses when she conducts her own running record conferences. Taberski previously spoke about miscues and how we calculate them. After reading Chapter 5, I now am not as concerned about getting percentage of miscues dead on. Taberski says that she just estimates the rate of accuracy, when it comes to determining the percentage rate. I previously thought that getting the percentage rate was a critical factor when it comes to accurately recording a child’s progress, but I now know that this is not true. I am beginning to learn the importance of this system, and I am starting to see how much progress a child can have if the teacher implements this strategy in the correct manner. This is encouraging, but discouraging at the same time because to get this system down seems like it would take many years, and much practice. I am seeing how giving your students “just-right” books offers them the right amount of “supports and challenges”, and I now understand that it is critical to keep your students reading in the 95-100 percentile range in order to keep them reading just right books.

As I stated earlier in my last reflection, I have this one student who is having trouble reading and only uses visual cues to attempt to read. This Chapter touched on some of the things that this student does; it seems as if she can be helped. I think that this student should be given books that resemble the book in the Chapter, A Zoo. I have seen her “I Can Read” books, and she is reading level 1 books with patterns, and one sentence per page. I think that she needs to go down a level, and begin to read books like A Zoo, then she will be able to move up to more structured text. She doesn’t even know what she is reading at this point, and she needs to begin to connect meaning to her reading. Her story reminds me of Jasmin’s story at the end of the Chapter, because it seemed as they both started at the same level, and Jasmin made such progress by the end of the school year. I hope for the same when it comes to this child, but this story hits a nerve with me, because I now can relate to this strategy, and now I am beginning to see the importance of this type of teaching, and how much of an impact it can have on our students in one year’s time.

Christina Lim
ITE 314

CHAPTER 6 RESPONSE

This Chapter focused on retellings and reading discussions, Taberski focuses on Jasmin and his story; how she knew that he was making progress. I like how Taberski showed us that she knew that Jasmin was making his progress, she knew because of a few things that he did; how he provided general and specific information about the text, read it more than once, and most of all, she could tell that Jasmin connected emotionally to the story. I think that this last thing is critical; it is a clear indicator that a child is interested in the literature he/she is reading, and is very encouraging to a teacher who is trying to get a child to read for meaning, as well as, getting a child to have a lifelong relationship with literature.

I like how Taberski executes her procedure when it comes to conducting a retell session. I think that it is a great idea to explain to the child your purpose at the start of the conference, because it is so easy to just assume that the child will not question, or wonder why they are in a conference. I think by doing this, we may even get the child engaged in what he/she is about to do. I also liked how Taberski prompts the child with questions to see if he/she is reading for understanding. The questions seem like casual conversation-type questions to the child, but to the teacher, these questions are a critical tool that will help them understand if the child understands what they are reading.

I also enjoyed learning a little bit about reading discussions. I like how Taberski conducts a very informal one at the start of the school year; to see what stage a child is in his/her reading process, what he/she is interested in, etc. The second discussion is not really formal either; it is just to periodically update a child’s progress, interests, concerns, etc. Like Taberski stated: “It is important that each child enjoys what he reads”, which I completely agree with. I think that it is key to keep updated about what interests your students, and to keep the necessary materials readily available for them to access. The only way a child is going to love to read, is if he or she loves what they are reading, and continues to read texts that interest them.