Student Teaching
Experience
Genres of Writing
What Are They?: The different genres of writing are as follows: narrative writing, poetry, biography writing, argumentative writing, and non-fiction writing (Tompkins, 2019). These genres integrate and require utilization of different skills such as reading, writing, speaking, and listening. These skills are strengthened by studying and practicing these genres.
Philosophy: To ensure students are receiving the best education in writing, it is import for teachers to plan diligently to incorporate a verity of genres in the instruction of writing. In order for students to remain fully engaged with the material and be active participants in regards to the lessons and their own writing, they must learn the different genres in which we write and how to incorporate the different qualities of each genre. By learning how to write pieces that have a distinct beginning, middle, and end, interesting details, narrative devices, a point of view, characters, a setting, an argument, and supporting evidence, students will be more likely to engage in the material because they will be actively thinking about what to include and how they want to include it. By incorporating these different characteristics into their writing, I strongly believe that students will have a stronger sense of appreciation and ownership of their work because it will create a space that provides more options for students to think about when deciding what they want to include and incorporate into their writing rather than writing generic responses to prompts.
Evidence: According to Tompkins (2019), it is important for students to have "meaningful experiences with writing" in order for them to actual learn the material and apply it (Tompkins, 2019). It is noted that "writing is a powerful tool for students" and they must be given a variety of different "opportunities to become fluent writers" (Tompkins, 2019). Teacher must provide these opportunities to students in order for them to "write personal narratives, informational books, and essays, apply the writing process to gather and organize ideas, write rough drafts, and refine and polish their writing" (Tompkins, 2019). By teaching all the different genres and characteristics of writing, students will "develop an appreciation" and "discover the uniqueness of written language" (Tompkins, 2019).
Spelling
Philosophy: There is a significant relationship between spelling and writing. I believe that one's ability in spelling will reflect in their writing and can have a very large impact on the outcome. Putting in careful and diligent planning to teach both spelling and writing is critical. This will ensure that teachers are strengthening not only their students writing skills, but also their spelling skills. I believe that these two categories significantly effect each other, so it is important to consistently addressing both in instruction. This can be done through word sorts and through interactive read alouds.
Vocabulary
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Evidence: In regards to strengthening both students spelling and writing skills through interactive read alouds and mentor texts, Wood Ray (1999) states that teachers must choose texts that are be useful for students to see and that "have something in them or about them that can add to" students knowledge base of how to write well" and understanding of certain concepts (Wood Ray, 1999). Through thoughtful planning, teachers can address multiple aspects of writing in their instruction and strengthen students abilities in multiple areas.
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Philosophy: There is a significant relationship between spelling and writing. I believe that one's ability in spelling will reflect in their writing and can have a very large impact on the outcome. Putting in careful and diligent planning to teach both spelling and writing is critical. This will ensure that teachers are strengthening not only their students writing skills, but also their spelling skills. I believe that these two categories significantly effect each other, so it is important to consistently addressing both in instruction. This can be done through word sorts and through interactive read alouds.
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Evidence: In regards to strengthening both students spelling and writing skills through interactive read alouds and mentor texts, Wood Ray (1999) states that teachers must choose texts that are be useful for students to see and that "have something in them or about them that can add to" students knowledge base of how to write well" and understanding of certain concepts (Wood Ray, 1999). Through thoughtful planning, teachers can address multiple aspects of writing in their instruction and strengthen students abilities in multiple areas.
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I truly believe that student success in math is heavily rooted behind the teachers ability to make the content accessible through physically interacting with the material that is being taught. When students are learning math through engaging activities, rich number talks, and appropriate manipulatives and supports.
Math Manipulatives and SupportsMath manipulatives and supports are wonderful tools and resources to incorporate in math lessons because it allows students to visually see the problems that they are solving.
Manipulatives and supports are not only beneficial to students with diverse needs, but all students in the classroom as well. By physically working with the material with hands-on supports, it can really enhance the students understanding of the math that they are learning. It allows them to think of not only how to do the math, but also why it works. |
Number TalksNumber talks are essential to incorporate in math lessons and activities primarily due to the fact that it gives students the opportunity to share their knowledge with their peers and allows them to learn not only from me, the teacher, but also each other by listening to what their peers have to say.
Turn and talks, think-write-pair-shares, and whole class discussions are really great talk moves to incorporate during math sessions and workshops. The picture located to the left is a chart that my students and I created that shows the different ways to make 10 and 100. We had a great talk about the patterns that were noticed and how those patterns can help us with mental math. |
Math Games
Personally, I believe that math games are great to incorporate into math lessons and workshops, when appropriate. Similarly to using manipulatives and supports, playing math games also gives students the opportunity to actively engage with the material being taught.
Some math games that my students have really enjoyed and have proven to be very successful in getting the students to a solid understanding of strategies and content are:
Some math games that my students have really enjoyed and have proven to be very successful in getting the students to a solid understanding of strategies and content are:
- Pica, Ferme, Nada (pictured above)
- Close to 100 (addition and subtraction)
- Make a Dollar (money)
- Capture 5 (addition and subtraction)
- Guess my Number (<, >, & =)
- Fun for the Brain (subtraction)
- ST Math (measurement, addition, subtraction, geometry, money etc...)
Social studies is such a significant subject to teach in school because it teaches young learners a wide range of content from how to be a good citizen and member of society to geography and history.
In order for social studies to be taught successfully in school, students must be consistently engaged with the material and must be able to think critically about what they are learning. This can be achieved by crafting lessons and activities that are both interactive and centered around collaboration in terms of having conversations with their classmates about what they are learning and explaining their insights and understandings of the content. |
Crafting inquiry-based lessons is essential to carefully consider and incorporate into routine Social Studies curricula primarily because it gives students the opportunity to explore different concepts and helps them strengthen their ability to interpret a wide range of information and form opinions.
As previously stated under mathematics, I truly believe that science, too, should be engaging, hands-on, and collaborative.
When science lessons are structured this was in the classroom, children are more likely to respond positively to it in the sense that they will have a better grasp of the material learned once the lesson is over. In science lessons and activities, students should have the opportunity to have conversations with their peers to talk about observations, insights, and conclusions. |
Similarly to Social Studies, it is also important to incorporate inquiry-based lessons into Science curricula as well. This encourages students to stay involved and engaged in the work that they are doing primarily because it allows them to explore and make sense of the world around them in fun and creative ways. Inquiry-based Science lessons strengthen students ability to explore, observe, hypothesize, and question.
Some of My Work with My Class:
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Pre-Practicum Experience
Writing Workshop at the Trotter
What is it?: The writing workshop is a process that include the following four components: writing, sharing, interactive read alouds, and mini lessons (Tompkins, 2019). It is important for teachers to think about and plan out a "clear" and "simple" structure for the writing workshop part of their instruction "so that students can anticipate what they’ll be doing" (Tompkins, 2019).
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Connection to Philosophy: The writing workshop connects to my philosophy on education because there are many ways were teachers can incorporate collaboration, engagement, and interactivity through this process to ensure their students are active participants in the lesson. This is a great outlet to create this type of learning environment for your students. Some main ways to do this are as follows: whole-group discussions, allowing students to talk through graphic organizers to support organization, allowing students to tell their stories out loud to support collection of their thoughts, encouraging students to illustrate ideas before writing them down, and interactive read alouds.
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Experience: While student teaching at the Trotter Elementary School, I have seen the writing workshop implemented in action and have seen the benefits of the different ways that teachers can make it interactive and engaging for students. When working with a Trotter student on their writing, I always provided them the opportunity to do pre-writing routines prior to writing their narratives down on paper to keep them actively participating and engaged with the material. These routines were verbally storytelling, organizing using graphic organizer, and illustrating main ideas and key events of their stories. After completing these pre-writing routines, I noticed a significant improvement in the students writing and I realized that they were more engaged with the lesson and consistently thinking about their writing and the material taught that day.
Evidence: According to Tompkins (2019), pre-writing routines are an extremely important stage to include in the writing process and it is often the most neglected (Tompkins, 2019). Evidence suggests that it is more beneficial to the final result if all writers begin their writing process "by talking, reading, and writing to see what they know and what direction the writing will take" (Tompkins, 2019).
Artifacts:
ELA Mini-Lesson in the Field
What is it?: Mini-lessons are "focused explanations and demonstrations of writing workshop procedures, writing strategies, and the writer’s craft" and its purpose is to "highlight a topic, present information about it, and provide opportunities for guided practice" (Tompkins, 2019). During the execution of a mini lesson, teachers often utilize mentor texts, picture books, or excerpts from longer chapter books to demonstrate the main idea of what is being taught and to show how it is implemented in writing (Tompkins, 2019).
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Connection to Philosophy: Mini-lessons connect to my philosophy on education because, similarly to whats stated above, it provides many opportunities for teachers to incorporate activities, material, and content in their teaching that is collaborative, engaging, and interactive for their students. By incorporating activities that possess these qualities, students will be more likely to be actively engaged and enjoy the way in witch they are learning, overall allowing them to grasp a better understanding of the material. This can be done in a variety of ways; however, a few that I find to be most beneficial are as follows: turn and talks, whole-class discussions, small group work, partner work (Ex: think-write-pair-share), allowing students to illustrate their ideas, providing visual representations of content, and incorporation of hands-on activities and mentor texts.
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Experience: During my time in the field, I have had the opportunity to plan and implement an ELA mini-lesson on free-verse poetry. While planning and teaching this mini-lesson, I incorporated specific strategies to ensure that during the execution of the lesson, students would be active participants and engage with the lesson being taught to them. One main strategy that I incorporated was using whole-class discussions to teach material. During the "teaching" part of the lesson, students were learning and being taught the material through a meaningful and active conversation with everyone in the class to reach an understanding together, rather than me just talking at them the entire time. This was effective because almost every student in the class was actively participating in the discussion and their solid understanding of the material was reflected in their work that they completed.
Evidence: According to Tompkins (2019), teachers should "demonstrate the writing process by making
class collaborations", which should incorporate the following: "students supply the ideas for writing, and teachers model how to tackle common writing problems" (Tompkins, 2019). Tompkins (2019) notes that "almost any type of writing project" can be "a class collaboration" and that it ensures that "everyone is familiar with the topic and the genre" (Tompkins, 2019).
class collaborations", which should incorporate the following: "students supply the ideas for writing, and teachers model how to tackle common writing problems" (Tompkins, 2019). Tompkins (2019) notes that "almost any type of writing project" can be "a class collaboration" and that it ensures that "everyone is familiar with the topic and the genre" (Tompkins, 2019).
Artifacts:
References
Tompkins, G. (2019). Teaching writing: balancing process and product. Columbus, OH:
Pearson.
Proctor , C. P. (2011). Getting started in English: teaching for vocabulary depth with bilingual learners.
Wood Ray, K. (1999). Wondrous words: writers and writing in the elementary classroom. National Council of
Teachers of English.
Pearson.
Proctor , C. P. (2011). Getting started in English: teaching for vocabulary depth with bilingual learners.
Wood Ray, K. (1999). Wondrous words: writers and writing in the elementary classroom. National Council of
Teachers of English.