Friday, July 10, 2015

Problem of Practice

My problem of practice is whole-group reading instruction. A different person has planned reading for my grade level every year I have been teaching so far. Third grade has been a revolving door with very little consistency from year to year. Reading was my favorite subject when I was in elementary school, but I find it a very difficult subject to teach. Reading instruction is definitely my weakest area.

 As a result of no consistency with reading plans, on top of new state standards to learn three out of the four years I have been a teacher, I feel like I don't really know what good reading instruction looks like.
I have learned that Guided Reading helps me a lot. I split my students into five groups and spend 20 minutes with one group each day of the week, so once a week each group gets more individualized instruction. However, I still feel like I also need to teach a whole-group lesson each day. There are so many brand new things third graders have to learn that they have never been exposed to before. I just don't know how best to teach the concept to the whole group. That's what I really want to work on for the coming year.
Posted by at

4 comments:

  1. Maction17July 15, 2015 at 2:38 AM

    Hey Kendra,

    You're not teaching ELL (right?), but your post made me think of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpAuIk9Vrc4

    I'm pretty sure I've posted that somewhere already, but it may turn some wheels for your particular problem.

    -Mac

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kendra BaileyJuly 17, 2015 at 7:08 AM

      No, I do not teach ELL. We have very few ESOL students in our school; I have only ever had one.

      I think I have watched that video before in another class, but thanks for sharing again! :)

      Delete
  2. UnknownJuly 15, 2015 at 4:30 PM

    Kendra,

    I think that we are all leaning towards reading and writing which are two very important parts of our curriculum and the common core standards. I think that with the research that all of us will be doing we will be able to help each other out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kendra BaileyJuly 17, 2015 at 7:06 AM

      Definitely! It's amazing that we all experience the same types of problems even though everyone in class is so spread out geographically. There is definitely a common thread in teaching no matter where you are!

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)