This week we presented our diverse portrayals presentations. All of the presentations were informative! The groups that presented discussed the following content areas Asian American/ Asian decent literature, Autism, Christian Literature, Hispanic literature, and African American literature. I learned a lot from all the presentation but especially during the Autism Literature presentation. I really enjoyed this presentation because the presenter was very passion about the topic because she has a brother with autism. I thought she did a great job teaching the class more about autism. The books she choice were great choices and did a excellent job conveying how it is like living with an autistic sibling or friend. One of the books in her collection I really liked was My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete (who is also an actress). I love that she wrote about her own children! I also liked this book because it fell into my group category of African American Literature because the two characters in the book are African American even though the focus wasn't about them being African American they still represent the category.
Claims that I can make about my learner are that she seems with she is lacking something. From my time in the classroom and working with her is she is lacking basic skills in most of the subjects but even though she isn't the lowest student in the class she is not where she should be since this is her second year in first grade. Also she either loses focus or isn't motivated to do the task at hand. She is very eager to learn but when call on her to participate she copies what others have said and doesn't develop her own thoughts. I am working on how to increase her motivation which that might increase the development of her own thoughts.
As I walked into class this morning my brain is moving a mile a minute with ideas and thing I need to do for all my classes. I feel like there is so much I have to do in so little time. But all my worries are calmed for a moment when my CT tells me that we are going to an assembly for the school. We leave the classroom with the few students that were in the classroom and walk to the courtyard where music is playing and children are sitting and dancing and talking with their peers. During this assembly awards are given out, songs are sung, and pushes for academic greatness is pushed for both students and teachers to achieve the best possible results. As the meeting comes to a close and walk back to the classroom students still excited, My CT reminds the student that they can win awards like the classes and students at the assembly if they work hard and try their best all the time. After that we move into our Daily 5 activities. I work with small reading groups listening to the students read individually and then in the group I ask questions about the books. Some groups are easier to work with then others. In one group I have a student CK, he is repeating the first grade again so when I ask questions that the other children seem fine answering he finds them amusing and seem to worried about other things.besides what our group is doing reading. If I could find activities and questions that could challenge him he wouldn't have time to lose focus. In my higher reading group I have a student that have difficult sounding out words. When I listen to her read individual she has a difficult time with words she doesn't know, she either skips them or looks to me to help her and when I tell her to sound out the word her response is I can't or I don't know. So we sound the word out together.
Later in the day my CT and I go to a meeting where they were discussing what interventions need to be taken for the lower reading level students in her class. Sitting on during this meeting was informative, I can admit that is really didn't know what was going on but seeing my CT stand up for what she believes is necessary for her students was great. Seeing a teacher rally for what she believes is best for the student instead of letting other dictate what interventions her students need she gives her input and argues for the right interventions |