Today, was our first day in Penny Smiths classroom. We got to know the students and showed them the books that we had read for the literature circles. The students chose to read Al Capone Does My Shirts and Among the Hidden. The group I am in is Al Capone! This is not a book I usually would read so it will be interesting. Cant wait til next week!

 

10/8/07

       For our meeting with the students today we used the time to have the students find out more about literature circles. Tom Rago came and worked with Frances to show the students different positive and negative aspects of working in a lit circle. After talking about this the students got into their book groups and did survey type of thing to get to know each other better. The students in our group used question about their favorites and interviewed each other. The other group was doing a type of group discussion and went around in a circle and answered the same question. I think this would have worked better in our group so they could get used to talking to each other. Next week we start our reading together should be fun!

 

10/15/07

      This week was the first week reading in our literature circles. The people in our group took turns reading the book and asking questions about their section. The students seemed very reluctant to talk about the reading, even the student that we thought we would struggle with dominating the conversation. Next week I think we need to have the students be the ones who do all the work and the adults just we observers. One thing I do think is interesting is that one of the girls said that she borrowed the book from the library since she hadnt gotten the book we were intending to give them. I am anxious about how the next time will go and am excited to watch this process in action these next few weeks.

 

10/22/07

     In today's class we read two chapters and the students we kind of struggling to get started with the conversation about the book. So next week we are going to try to model for the students and have them ask questions about what they don't understand about the literature circle.

 

10/29/07

     Today we read to the students and after the first chapter the other UNM students and I modeled the literature circle roles for the students. It seemed like they really opened up today and Jonathan really did a great job at being the discussion  director. We are trying to have the students read this week, so we will see how it goes next week. 

 

11/5.07

      Assigning the students chapters didnt work out so well for us this past week. When the students got there and we started only one of them had read their assigned chapters. The one that read really seems to be interested in what is going on, this really stood out to me from the beginning because she went and borrowed the book from the library ahead of time. It kind of surprised me that the boys are not more interested than they seem to be. I think though that they are really catching on the roles in the lit circle, we didnt do anthing this week though because we had such little time to read and we want to finish the book. Looking forward to next week!

 

11/12/07

       Today we didn’t have reading time with our students because they had a class change and some of the students are no longer in our group. Our group now consists of 3 students. Also not only we two students no longer in the class, two out of the three were on a field trip. So we are trying to reorganize our lit circle.

 

11/19/07

         Today we helped the Title 1 reading coordinator administer reading level tests to Ms. Smith's students. Each of the UNM students administered two tests to each student. This was very interesting!! I am glad I got to do it because we gained needed experience for how to give these tests.

 

11/26/07

         Today's literature circle was a little slow. We handed out roles for the children and had them try to practice after the few chapters we read. They seem to still need some work. I think it would have worked better with more children. Also it seems like they havent gotten to practice them very often. For the most part though I think they have learned a lot and really got into reading the book with us.