My second week of student teaching went very well. This week I was much more involved in the classroom than last. I am working with two boys using the reading intervention model Whole to Part. Depending on the student's reading level, they do a different activity. These boys are in third grade but are reading at a Kindergarten level. We are working on letter-to-sound correspondence. We do a lot of movement with the activities, which is a good method for their level, but they also really enjoy it and think we're playing games (we're not!).
Three of the groups are reading the book, The Jacket, by Andrew Clements. While they read, they are to answer questions about the chapters and look up definitions to certain words in the reading. I noticed that a lot of the students had a really hard time looking up the words. If they actually found the word, they did it in the most ineffective way. I talked with my cooperating teacher and the next day I taught lessons on simple dictionary skills. I first showed the students under the document camera how to best look up a word, then had a student show the same steps under the camera to the class. After that, I had everyone in the class look up different words themselves. Some of the students picked up the tips really quickly and easily, while others still struggled with them. I think while it wasn't totally successful, the students still benefited from either a reminder of what they already knew or a practice of skills that will help them later.
Overall, I had a great week! I am missing Cedar Falls and friends quite a bit, but I'm so happy I'm finally actually doing what I love.
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