Kamealoha's Reflections

Hey guys sorry I am such a slacker. Hope that all of you have a great summer!

Chapter 3 Reflection

I think that this was a great chapter to read. I thought that it gave me some great ideas on how to create a homey classroom environment. I was a very surprised to see how everything was set up. I looked at the diagram of her room set up and I thought “where are the desks?” I thought like this looked more like a library then a classroom. She made a great statement that I made perfect sense. She said that it should look like a living room since we spend most of our days there. I never thought of it that way. I am so use to the common classroom set up. I am used to seeing perfect rows of desks and chairs. After reading about her classroom and how she uses it to her benefit I now see how this classroom can be so much more of an advantage to the learners.

Chapter 4 Reflection

This chapter helped me to think about how to create a conference with a child. It also made me think of why it is so important to talk with your students and see where they are at. I think that what she said about not being able to spend an equal amount of time with each student makes sense. I can see how some students may need more time with conferencing then the others. This may not be fair, but I think that it has to be this way. I thought the part of the chapter where she was explaining how she did conferencing on a table and she had the students rotate to her was not an idea I would use myself. I think that this would be distracting for the students to do this. I think that I would use the strategy that Greg uses and go to the kids. After all it is a lot easier for one moving body then having a bunch of little bodies moving in the classroom.

Chapter 5 Reflection

After reading this chapter on running records I have learned some new information. I already knew why we should do running records and why we do them. I have been using them all semester for my students. I think that they are a great way to see where a child is at in their reading. It is a good way to see if they are reading a just right book. This semester I came across a lot of my students reading too easy books. I found that a lot of them are just picking the simple books to read. So after doing the running records with them I showed them how well they did with the book and we set a goal for them to try something a little more challenging for them.

Chapter 6 Reflection

I really enjoyed this chapter on retelling. I think that it is very important for a child to be able to read the words on a paper, but even more important is if they can tell you what they read. I myself had to work on this as a child. I did not read as much as I should have while in elementary school. I think that this caused me to not be as good of a reader as I could have been.

I started to think while reading this chapter if I was asked to retell this chapter after I was done reading it would I be able to. Truthfully, I don’t think I would be able to. I could probably be able to retell some key facts, but I think that it would be difficult for me to do so. So I think that it is hard for us to do this to children. I think we need to make sure that the book level that the child is reading is appropriate. Sometimes students may not be able to retell is because the level of text is too difficult and they are just reading words not comprehending them.

Chapter 7 Reflection

This chapter is basically about teaching children reading strategies through demonstration. Sharon tries to teach children different types of reading strategies that they can use through shared readings and read alouds. I like the strategy of stopping and thinking about what you just read. I think that this is a great way to teach children reading comprehension. I use this strategy myself sometimes when I feel like I am just reading words.

I noticed that a lot of the strategies of getting her students to become strategic readers are the same strategies that my teacher uses in her classroom. My teacher uses story maps in her class with the students. I was not there to see how she introduced story mapping, but I find that the students respond well to using these. She also uses character maps with them. These are a great way to get the students thinking about the character they are reading about.

Chapter 8 Refection

In this chapter on guided reading Sharon states "guided reading is a way to help children understand how reading works and learn techniques to figure out words and comprehend texts that are just a little too challenging for them to read without support." I agree with her in that guided reading must be used from the first month thru the last month that you have these children.

I really like her planning sheets that she created to use during guided reading. I think that it makes it easier to have the strategies to look for right there in front of you. One thing that I was thinking about while reading this chapter is how she separates the children in the different reading groups. I thought that we try to use mixed groups so that all of our kids have an equal opportunity of learning.

Chapter 9 Reflection

This chapter was geared more towards the lower elementary students. I have never worked with kids at this age so I have never gotten the opportunity to observe this being taught. I have gotten to see a word wall in a classroom. I think that this is a great idea to have. It can be useful to help them with word recognition and spelling. My teacher is always adding words to her wall. I believe that she calls them “sight words.” She is great with having the students review them and use them.

One thing she also does with them is break up the words by syllable. She does not use the clapping strategy instead she has them put their hands under their chins and count how many times their hand moves down.

Chapter 10 Reflection

This chapter focuses on teaching children reading strategies one-on-one. I keep thinking of how much work we will put into teaching children to read. There is so much that we as future teachers need to do. I think that she has a great point of why we should one-on-one time with the students. We use this one-on-one time to reacquaint them with the reading strategies. However, sometimes there is just not enough time in the day to work with each child individually. I wish we could do this every day. If we could then we would have no reason to have any kids left behind. One thing we all need to remember is that our children will only be as successful as we push them to be. We need to make sure that we are good and effective teachers who push our kids to reach for the stars.

Chapter 11 Reflection

I think that she used a great analogy for this one. Finding the right book is like finding clothes for them. I think that this is so true. When looking for a book for them we need to make sure that it is just right. It can not be too hard or too easy. Just like when we get clothes they can’t be too big or small. This chapter has got me thinking about what kinds of books I want to fill my classroom with. I have saved all of my books that I had when I was young, but I want to make sure that these books will be appropriate for the grade level that I will teach.

A good way to find a book that is appropriate for the student is to look back on the running records that you did with them. You can look at the information that you collected and see what level of book you think that this child would be perfect for. I am so excited to think about how I want my classroom to be set up. I want it to be filled with books of all sorts. I want my children to feel comfortable in choosing a book. And if they need help in doing so I will be there to help them find that right one.

Chapter 12 Reflection

I want to become a better independent reader so that I can be a good influence on my students. As of right now I am not an independent reader. It is not that I don’t like to read it is just that I don’t have the time for it. Another things that discourages me from doing this is I normally can’t find that right book. I enjoy reading books that I can choose, but when I am given a task to read something that is not of interests to me then I just have to struggle through it.

So one thing that I want to do is to start more independent reading. I think that if I do then it will be easier to convince my children that it is fun to do. My students now have silent reading time every morning. I find that most of them enjoy this time where they get to pick out a good book and just sit quietly with it. I think that it is great that schools have this time for the students. It is a good opportunity for them to read what they choose.

Chapter 13 Reflection

My students spend a lot of time responding to books. My teacher has them respond to text that they have read almost every day. She integrates this into her writing lessons for the day. I think that getting children to respond to text is a useful way to see if they comprehend what they are reading. After reading this chapter I now understand why it is so important to give children time to respond to questions given.

I remember learning this in my educational foundations class. Our professor would tell us to give the students’ time to answer because they need time to think of what they are going to say. I noticed that I may need to do this more with my class. During my health lesson if I asked a question and no one said anything then I would just move on. I think that I needed to give them more time to think about the question and think about what it was asking. I also need to make sure that I am wording my questions in a way that the children will understand. I think that this chapter helped me to see what I need to work on as a future teacher. It gave me some insight and helped me to move myself in the direction of becoming a better teacher.