Reflection #1
Opening Week
At the beginning of this class I have to be honest I was a little
worried. I wasn’t sure if I was
going to be able accomplish the task of reading with these students. Well after the first two days of
meeting with the students, I have completely changed my attitude.
It is an amazing experience.
Not only am I good with these kids but it’s a good experience to be able
to be a part of these kids education.
Day one might have been difficult and confusing at first but as the week
went on everything started to fall into place.
The first day I initially wanted to be able to get to know each student,
give each student a self-assessment so that we could measure how each students
learning styles are, then I wanted to hopefully get into the first book. Well it didn’t work out that way. It took a lot longer to take the
assessment so that’s as far as I got with all of them, and even some of them
didn’t finish it because the class showed up late.
But I did learn a lot about each student. My first class I have 2 boys Geronimo
and Jesus. They both didn’t show
up the first day so they are still a little behind all the other classes. The second class I have 3 girls
Melissa, Christina and Jennifer.
These three are super smart and all participate in discussion and seem to
enjoy reading. The third class I
have 2 girls Stevie and Karla.
These girls are quite social but are still able to behave and stay
focused in the reading. They both
are fast readers and also love to discuss each section they read to make sure
they are comprehending everything and understanding the issues in the book about
Rosa Parks. My last class I have 3
girls Ruth, Maura and Lucy. These
girls love to talk and all are pretty entertaining, yet they too are able to
focus on the reading. The only
problem is they do sometimes have a hard time actually understanding what they
are reading. Mainly I think its
because they lose interest quickly.
Other than that they are intelligent little 6th
graders.
Day 2 I felt I was a lot more prepared and the students all felt more
comfortable in reading aloud to me and also answering questions about the
reading. At this point I had the
students all write down the words that they didn’t understand when they read
and then at the end we would review those words to see if they would remember
them afterwards. The reading
seemed to interest the others a lot more than day one, but still I noticed that
my last class was getting bored. I
think that when we start flashcards and the vocabulary and get them more
actively participating, they will start to really enjoy the reading part as
well. Honestly they aren’t that
bad, they are smart girls and they listen to me when I ask them questions. I
just have to stop them when they read a lot more to keep them paying
attention.
The book that we started to read was, If A Bus Could Talk.
It is a story about Rosa Parks.
A little girl named Marcie got on an unfamiliar bus and the bus starts
talking to her. The bus continues
to tell the story about Rosa Parks and how she did not give up her seat to a
white man. The bus explains how
because of that act of bravery, it then had a big influence on the civil rights
movement. Some words that the kids
picked out that they did not understand were: Segregated, instilled, despite,
chorused and lynched. I will again
review those words with them later next week. The main issue discussed with the
students is segregation with race.
Next week the students want to read a book about Abe Lincoln although I
really would like to bring in a book about Mandela.
I feel the students really enjoyed this book so far and also have made
comments that they can relate to.
All in all I feel like it has been a crazy yet successful week with the
students. I really look forward to
next week and also being more prepared on my lesson.
I think that will also help with the students and their involvement when
I am prepared.
At the beginning of this class I have to be honest I was a little
worried. I wasn’t sure if I was
going to be able accomplish the task of reading with these students. Well after the first two days of
meeting with the students, I have completely changed my attitude.
It is an amazing experience.
Not only am I good with these kids but it’s a good experience to be able
to be a part of these kids education.
Day one might have been difficult and confusing at first but as the week
went on everything started to fall into place.
The first day I initially wanted to be able to get to know each student,
give each student a self-assessment so that we could measure how each students
learning styles are, then I wanted to hopefully get into the first book. Well it didn’t work out that way. It took a lot longer to take the
assessment so that’s as far as I got with all of them, and even some of them
didn’t finish it because the class showed up late.
But I did learn a lot about each student. My first class I have 2 boys Geronimo
and Jesus. They both didn’t show
up the first day so they are still a little behind all the other classes. The second class I have 3 girls
Melissa, Christina and Jennifer.
These three are super smart and all participate in discussion and seem to
enjoy reading. The third class I
have 2 girls Stevie and Karla.
These girls are quite social but are still able to behave and stay
focused in the reading. They both
are fast readers and also love to discuss each section they read to make sure
they are comprehending everything and understanding the issues in the book about
Rosa Parks. My last class I have 3
girls Ruth, Maura and Lucy. These
girls love to talk and all are pretty entertaining, yet they too are able to
focus on the reading. The only
problem is they do sometimes have a hard time actually understanding what they
are reading. Mainly I think its
because they lose interest quickly.
Other than that they are intelligent little 6th
graders.
Day 2 I felt I was a lot more prepared and the students all felt more
comfortable in reading aloud to me and also answering questions about the
reading. At this point I had the
students all write down the words that they didn’t understand when they read
and then at the end we would review those words to see if they would remember
them afterwards. The reading
seemed to interest the others a lot more than day one, but still I noticed that
my last class was getting bored. I
think that when we start flashcards and the vocabulary and get them more
actively participating, they will start to really enjoy the reading part as
well. Honestly they aren’t that
bad, they are smart girls and they listen to me when I ask them questions. I
just have to stop them when they read a lot more to keep them paying
attention.
The book that we started to read was, If A Bus Could Talk.
It is a story about Rosa Parks.
A little girl named Marcie got on an unfamiliar bus and the bus starts
talking to her. The bus continues
to tell the story about Rosa Parks and how she did not give up her seat to a
white man. The bus explains how
because of that act of bravery, it then had a big influence on the civil rights
movement. Some words that the kids
picked out that they did not understand were: Segregated, instilled, despite,
chorused and lynched. I will again
review those words with them later next week. The main issue discussed with the
students is segregation with race.
Next week the students want to read a book about Abe Lincoln although I
really would like to bring in a book about Mandela.
I feel the students really enjoyed this book so far and also have made
comments that they can relate to.
All in all I feel like it has been a crazy yet successful week with the
students. I really look forward to
next week and also being more prepared on my lesson.
I think that will also help with the students and their involvement when
I am prepared.
Reflection #2 (Group)
Over the first two weeks it has been difficult to get too deep into the reading competencies. The one thing that most students do understand is that they are able to understand the issue in what they are reading. They are able to stop on each page and describe the evidence that leads to the issue, which in both books that have been read, the issue is on discrimination. Also the students have been able to come up with examples in their daily lives that relate to or remind them of the issue of race. If there had been more time we would have been able to go over denotation and connotation. We think that some students will be able to understand them, but with the limited time that we have, we are not sure they will all be able to get a grasp of the meanings. In one book, “If A Bus Could Talk”, it uses a metaphor and the kids are also able to follow that story. They understand that the bus talking to the little girl is not real, but the story that the bus is telling the little girl is real and is an important fact in history. They also now understand that the author does this to tell the story not only to make it more interesting, but to explain that it was needed to be told as a story because it was an important event in history. While reading this book, the students, whenever they came up on words they did not understand or had trouble reading, they wrote the word down and then were given the meaning of each so they understood what they were reading. Then they would take flashcards home and were able to write down the definition and then we went over them again the next day. The words in that book were chorused, despite, instilled, segregation, and lynched. (see bottom for definitions) In the book, “Mandela”, the kids read in the beginning that Mandela’s father told him to always stand firm in what he believes is fair and right. Throughout the book the kids were able to point out different points in Mandela’s life where he did what his father told him, to stay firm on what he believed. Before reading the book about Mandela, the students were given five vocabulary words, magistrate, rondavel, apprenticed, apartheid, and ransacked. (see bottom for definitions) They found the definition of the words on their own and then when reading the book the next day, they were able to give the meaning of each word as they came up to them.
VOCABULARY:
IF A BUS COULD TALK:
Chorused: To sing in unison
Despite: In spite of
Instilled: To teach slowly into one’s mind
Segregation: To separate or group together by race
Lynched: To put to death. (Usually by hanging)
MANDELA:
Magistrate: A judge or justice
Rondavel: A traditional African-style house
Apprenticed: A person who works for another in order to learn a trade
Apartheid: (in the Republic of South Africa) a rigid policy of segregation of the nonwhite population.
Ransacked: to search thoroughly or vigorously through (a house, receptacle.)
VOCABULARY:
IF A BUS COULD TALK:
Chorused: To sing in unison
Despite: In spite of
Instilled: To teach slowly into one’s mind
Segregation: To separate or group together by race
Lynched: To put to death. (Usually by hanging)
MANDELA:
Magistrate: A judge or justice
Rondavel: A traditional African-style house
Apprenticed: A person who works for another in order to learn a trade
Apartheid: (in the Republic of South Africa) a rigid policy of segregation of the nonwhite population.
Ransacked: to search thoroughly or vigorously through (a house, receptacle.)