Thursday, May 15, 2014

Discussion Question #4

2) Based on the book you read, what did you find most/least valuable to use in your classroom?

10 comments:

  1. I found all of the resources in the back of the book to be very valuable. I like all of the tracking sheets and how they prompt students. It will be very useful for when students are just learning about the signposts and need some extra assistance. I also really like the models of the anchor charts. They will be helpful to keep hanging up in the classroom throughout the year as references for the kids.

    I wouldn't say anything was of "least" value- I think everything was informative and helpful! The book not only instructed us on the strategy but also provided us ALL of the resources needed to implement it.

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  2. I think that there were valuable parts of the book it just needed to be simplified for Kindergarten. I found that the ideas on how to beg to teach the lesson were valuable. The signpost Contrast and Contradictions is more simply compare and contrast with Kindergarten. I found the book valuable as a learning tool to use and try to simplify for Kindergarten.

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  3. I found the examples of the "mini-lessons" to be the most helpful. Reading how they were able to introduce it in other grades helped me decide what I need to add or change to cater the needs of my students in first grade. While I am not able to use every tracking sheet and prompt given in the book, I will be able to use them as a base to make my own versions necessary for my students to get the most out of their reading. I was glad to see that the book listed several examples of read-alouds and lessons that you could do K-2 as well. Overall, I feel that the book provides many valuable resources for teachers in all grade levels.

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  4. I would have to agree with Sarah. I thought the book I read was valuable (the fiction one). I really liked the resources, examples. and lessons that were in the book even though I felt some were above third grade. I feel that I can modify them to use in my class.

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  5. I also agree that the book was very valuable and easy to adapt to fit the Kindergarten classroom. I got a lot of good ideas of lessons to do in the classroom, but at the Kindergarten level many of the lessons are teacher directed. After reading the book, I feel we focused more on the signpost. We often use again and again and the children enjoy figuring out why something was repeated or happened again and again. We also did a lot of comparing and contrasting characters.

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  6. I found the examples of student work to be most beneficial, as it allowed me to see their thinking behind the strategies. Although many of the examples were above a third grade level, seeing how students reasoned through helped me gear my thinking when presenting instruction.

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  7. I really liked the different signpost lessons found in Notice and Note. I didn't have time to teach them to my class but I'm looking forward to possibly using them next year. I felt like the signposts were applicable to a wide variety of reading materials and were worded in "easy to understand" language that made them accessible to kids.

    Reading Notice and Note and learning about the idea of "close reading" changed the way I will approach teaching reading. I felt that our third grade team came up with ways to help our students read more closely so that they're not just using the hunt and find method when reading passages. It was helpful to students to have a more comprehensive understanding of the story! I'm excited to see how my students next year will grow as readers with this new strategy.

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  8. While the book targets an audience of upper primary grade teachers and higher, it is still beneficial for any educator to read. Notice and Note shows how to examine close reading on a new level. Their inclusion of "signposts" supports higher level thinking and ways for students to dig deeper into their text. As a first grade teacher, it would be wise to incorporate the new vocabulary into lessons and teach them signposts on a surface level. Then, when students advance to higher grades, they'll already be familiar with the vocabulary and have a basic understanding of close reading strategies from Notice and Note. My favorite signposts are "words of the wise" and "again and again." These examples can be found in several books that we read aloud to our students. Some examples include "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" and the "Froggy" book series. Notice and Note also provides a list of picture books to use for the lower primary grades, which is a great resource! I will be referring to that list next year when I try introducing signposts in my class.

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  9. I hate to say it, but at first... I did NOT think Close Reading would or could fit in the Kindergarten classroom. However, after completing the project w/ the Lorax, I was amazed at how much discussion came out of the Close Reading method (discussion I had not received in previous years). The students shared ideas that I had not even thought of - referencing other books, student experiences, other subjects, etc. I would definitely try the Close Reading method again, specifically contrasts & contradictions that I know from our Lorax Unit is applicable to Kindergarten. The sharing of our projects (and their successes) also got me interested in using the signpost again & again with my Kindergarten students, seems doable. With all that said, I do wish the book had more ideas for the primary grades. But I guess that's what TeachersPayTeachers & TeachersNotebook are for!

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  10. I found all the resources in the back the most useful. I loved the worksheets for each signpost, the bookmarks with the signposts and the questions that go with them. The book even gave passages with teaching each skill. I would've liked a few more passages for mini-lessons and perhaps one more passage for a full lesson, as my students take a bit longer to get the hang of things and requires more practice than the average student. I also wished there had been a bit more information about how signposts would've been modified or differed for non-fiction texts. However, over all I thought the Notice and Note book was very useful.

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