Field Experience

I completed five hours of field experience for REOL536. I used planning time during the week to visit another classroom within my school. I visited a second grade classroom during literacy. The teacher standard that I thought was seen the most in the classroom was Teacher Standard Four; the teacher implements and manages instruction. The teacher I visited did a great job introducing, implementing, and managing instruction.

The teacher would introduce and practice comprehension skills with the second graders. Students would listen to him read aloud picture books or stories from our literacy series. Students would focus on comparing and contrasting, inferences, making predictions, and cause and effect. I worked with a small group and taught them how to use the post it notes while reading a book. We practiced on a small picture book. Each student read the book and placed post it notes on the pages where they wanted to know more or were confused about something. They found out that other students had some of the same questions. The groups would really start talking about the book and helped each other build confidence and comprehension!

I had a great time watching another teacher and taking ideas from him for my own classroom. I am glad the students started using post it notes even on their own self selected reading. I hope that they continue to self check their comprehension and ask questions about the text!

Reading Log and Wiki List

Genre / Titles you read

             I.      Non-fiction/Informational (1 reflection required on blog)

1)      For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever

2)      My Life in Dog Years

          II.      Poetry (1 reflection required on blog)

1)     What My Mother Doesn’t Know (required for discussion)

2)     Where the Sidewalk Ends

3)     Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes

4)      At The Crack Of The Bat

       III.      Modern Fantasy (1 reflection required on blog)        

1)      Babe the Gallant Pig (required for discussion)

2)      Charlotte’s Web

3)      A Wrinkle in Time

       IV.      Historical Fiction (1 reflection required on blog –can be a picture book)     

1)      Al Capone Does My Shirts (required for discussion)

2)      Sarah Plain and Tall

3)      Number the Stars

          V.      Multicultural/Traditional (2 reflections required on blog – one can be a picture book)         

1)      Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad

2)      Baseball Saved Us

3)      The Big Wave

4)      Hiroshima

       VI.      Realistic Fiction (1 reflection required on blog)

1)      Laugh Until you Cry  (required for discussion)

2)      Holes

3)      On My Honor

4)      Flat Broke

    VII.      Picture Books (8 reflections required on blog)

1)      Knots on a Counting Rope (required for discussion)

2)      No, David!

3)      Where The Wild Things Are

4)      The Grouchy Ladybug

5)      The Very Busy Spider

6)      Faithful Elephants

7)      The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

8)      Baloney (Henry P.)

9)      Piggie Pie

10)  The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog

Wiki Checklist

__1_ Social Studies

____ Science

____ Math

____ Music

__1_ Art

__3_ Reading/Language Arts

____ Physical Education

____ Other

For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest, Book Ever

For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest, Book Ever

Aronson, M. (2007). For boys only: The biggest, baddest, book ever. NY: Feiwel & Friends.

I originally picked this book because it said “For Boys Only”. When a book states that, and I am a female of course I want to see what it is all about. I think young boys would love this book! Since it is an informational book, the book offers information on many topics that target boys. Some of the informational topics included in the book is math tricks, maps, amusement park rides, defending yourself against animals, cars, the world’s most horrifying creatures, and much more. I got carried away seeing what else was written in the book. I thought to myself, “If I put the book down now, what if I miss something really cool on the next page?” I feel that boys and even girls would feel the same way. Some of the illustrations and charts are not as bright or animated as I would have hoped, but I still feel that this is a great informational book to use or have in the classroom. Students could use the post-it strategy to mark pages that were confusing to them or they thought were really interesting and wanted to share with others. I would recommend this book to other teachers to have or use!   

Number The Stars

Number the StarsLowry, L. (1989). Number the stars. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.

“I don’t understand! Take them where?”
Her father shook his head. “We don’t know where, and we don’t really know why. They call it ‘relocation.’ We don’t even know what that means. We only know that it is wrong, and it is dangerous, and we must help.”
Annemarie was stunned. She looked at Ellen and saw that her best friend was crying silently.
“Where are Ellen’s parents? We must help them too!”
“We couldn’t take all three of them. If the Germans came to search our apartment, it would be clear that the Rosens we here. One person we can hide. Not three.”

Annemarie Johansen is a ten-year-old girl living in Copenhagen in the early 1940’s. The Germans have taken over and the Nazis are occupying Denmark. Annemarie’s life is beginning to become very difficult when her family takes in her best friend Ellen who is Jewish. The girls must pretend they are sisters and come face to face with one Nazi who questions them about looking alike.

With the War as the backdrop, these ten-year-old girls see more than they should. The Rosens and many more Jewish families work with friends to trick the Nazis and make their way to Sweden, a safe place for Jewish families. Will the Rosens make it to Sweden together, uninjured, or alive? With exciting twists and turns, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry keeps the reader interest with suspense and excitement. Would you be able to keep life changing secrets from friends, families, or Nazis to save your life or other lives?  

Holes

Holes

Sachar, L. (1998). Holes. NY: Scholastic.

What student, child, or adult has not had bad luck? Feeling down and out about the evens in your life can sometimes feel that the world is working against you and giving you bad luck! The same is happening for Stanley Yelnats in Louis Sachar’s book Holes. While reading this book I felt like I was there at Camp Green Lake feeling like this would be just my luck and blame it on someone else. The story’s setting is not what you think “Camp Green Lake” sounds like it would be. It is a dusty hot place where juvenile boys dig holes each day to build “character”, but is actually digging for something else. It is very easy to get pulled into this book and root for the boys at the camp. Stanley slowly starts to make friends and one in particular, Zero, begin a friendship that will either save them or leave them to die in their escape. (I do not want to give away any endings or information) The book is an easy read and most students have seen the movie. I think hearing the book without the pictures still is great to hear aloud, because the author makes the actions and feelings feel so real that it is very easy to create the “movie” in your head. The characters are incredibly believable and relatable for students and adults. I have students now that sometimes feel that something bad always happens to them and they have bad luck, whereas others feel on top of the world.

Big Questions:

Have you ever felt that you have been cursed and left with only bad luck?

Would you be brave enough to runaway from camp like Zero and Stanley did?

Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes

Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes

Dahl, R. (1982). Roald dahl's revolting rhymes. NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

    This poetry book by Roald Dahl was interesting.  He has cleverly written poetry retelling or giving his point of view on his six favorite fairy tales.  Although I do not believe that I would read the entire book with elementary students. Some of the language I was surprised to see. For example, his take on Cinderella on page seven he writes, “The Prince cried, ‘Who’s this dirty slut?’” I was shocked to see it and disappointed that I would have to leave this poem or parts of the poem out if I read it to my students. I really enjoyed that he wrote poems about fairy tales that students would know and be able to relate, compare, or contrast with. Throughout the book he uses a few other choice words that I would feel uncomfortable reading with students. As an adult, I really enjoyed the poems and they made me laugh while thinking about the “real” fairy tales. 

    He uses the well known fairy tales and keeps the same characters. The characters may take on a different personality or characterization.  He stays close to fairy tales and writes the poems like a narrative poem, telling the story in his own words. He also uses rhymes with each poem which creates a nice rhythm while reading.

Baseball Saved Us

Baseball Saved Us

Mochizuki, K. (1993). Baseball saved us. NY: Lee and Low.

This picture book which is also multicultural was fascinating! The author’s note before the first page sets up the reader for understanding about the time period. During World War Two, after Pearl Harbor, the United States was at war with Japan. America moved all people of Japanese decent away from the West Coast into internment camps in the middle of American deserts until 1945.

                If this book did not have any pictures, the story would not have been able to fully reach the reader in what the camps were really like for these people. The colors of the pictures I believe are important for the story. While the family is in the camp, the colors are dark and rough looking to set the mood. Once they are released from the camp the colors are still dark and rough. Their lives were changed and still rough even after they were released from the camps. I think it is important to show students how even after the camps Japanese descendants still had a hard life just because of the way they looked. The one picture that has softer and lighter colors is at the end. The child overcomes the name calling and judgments to hit the ball close or over the fence of the opposing team! The blue skies and green grass help the mood for the reader to be excited for the child.

                I really enjoyed the page layout for the book. A picture usually took one page or slightly more. Twice when the author relates what happened in the baseball game in the camp with the baseball game outside of the camp, the pictures and text were exactly alike. Words to set up what was happening, and pictures that felt like a movie film strip. Still pictures one after another to show what was happening.

                I felt like this story would be a great multicultural book to teach or read to students because it takes place in America. I think students often think that multicultural is culture around the world that is different than their own. Our own country is full of different cultures and events that we may not focus on as much. I know in middle school and high school I learned about World War One and Two and Jewish people who were placed in camps, but we never focused on what America did to our own people. This book would help bridge that gap and start discussions about this topic. As I was reading I thought about how I would use the post-its as a comprehension strategy. I think students would mark words like “internment camps”, “Japs”, and “descent”.

Big Questions: Why does the author make a point for the narrator to keep mentioning the guard in the tower? How does the narrator correlate the guard in the tower to the pitcher of the opposing team once he is out of the camp? How would you feel if your own country put you into a camp?

The Big Wave

The Big Wave

Buck, P. S. (1948). The big wave. NY: Harper Trophy.

The Big Wave was an interesting book to read. The story took place on a mountain side in Japan on the edge of the ocean. The author described the setting to be very simple, but integral. One of the main characters lived higher up on the mountain, where his best friend the other main character lived closer to the beach. The small village was struck by a “big wave” a tsunami. The characters and their families deal with what is about to happen and what to do after the Big Wave has struck.

The author’s writing style was very unique for the culture. The way she described the sky, the ocean, the wave, and the volcano was done in such a great way to make the reader feel that they were really inside of this culture. She has the characters describe these elements as if they were people. They were made to be like their own characters within the book. The culture does this in their everyday life though, and I thought it was interesting.

Text to self:
“Where are the Gods at such a time?” Kino asked. “Will they not be mindful of us?”
“There are times when the gods leave man to take care of himself,” his father replied. “They test us, to see how able we are to save ourselves.”
Growing up I went through hurricane Hugo, tornadoes, and a flood. Often I would think “why is this happening to all these people?” Live goes on and it test you to see how you deal with life. After the tragedies, you always appreciate life even more. Sometimes it takes something bad to happen to see the good that we often ignore.

A Winkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time

L'Engle, M. (1962). A wrinkle in time. NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

After reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, there is no doubt this is a fantasy book. This book takes place on Earth as well as other settings that are mystical. The characters in the book face a villain with much power and control with odds that are not great. Even though there is a struggle being faced, the heroin (Meg) prevails over evil by believing and digging deep within herself. For younger students, I think they would have a harder time in understanding the “wrinkle” in time with time and space travel. For someone who is not really into this type of fantasy or science it would be a book that may have to be reread or clarified.

I really enjoyed how the main character, Meg must learn something in order to be successful and succeed over evil. As a reader you root for the characters to overcome and conquer evil. This is one thing about this book that keeps the reader interested and wanting to continue reading. While reading, you ask yourself or you could ask students, “Will Meg save her brother?” “Will they find their father and make it back home?” “Will they successfully beat IT”

I would recommend this book to grades 4 and higher.