STUDENT TEACHING
BOOK TASTING 1:
FICTION!
The Fiction Book Taste took me the entirety of break and first few days of school back from break to prepare. These books that the students picked would be utilized in the lessons for a full month. I knew that the students had to find the proper books. First, I made invitations to give out to the students the Monday before the tasting. I spent hours brainstorming lists of what I thought were age appropriate books, conferred with Dana Abbasse and Becky Lowe for which ones we had in the building, pulled the books from the library, split the books into different categories, and created menus for the students highlighting certain books. The students all received a personalized “Don’t be a bookworm… be a book dragon!” book marks (to be utilized in the unit) along with their “Top Picks” placemat. I had planned this down to a science, or so I had thought! First hour picked most of the books that I had decided to highlight in the menu. Being that the menu was fixed, I couldn’t just take out one page. That book was gone. And the students KNEW the previous hours were the ones to grab it. I reflected with my teacher, Dana, about this. Together, we decided the best route for future book tastings would be to not have the students pick their books that hour, and for us to pick the students books based on their top three choices. The day was a success over-all, I just felt bad for the last hour of students.
FULL TAKEOVER:
The first big lesson I prepared for was the Read-Aloud and Annotation of Langston Hughes, “Thank You Ma’am”. When the students arrived in the classroom, they were greeted by Ray Charles singing , “Hit the Road Jack”. The PowerPoint page of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance was displayed on the SmartBoard. We had a quick discussion as a class about the Harlem Renaissance- what it was, who led it, and the achievements that have been met to this day in society because of it. Then, Dana and I dramatically read aloud the story, with Dana as Roger and me as Luella Bates Jones. We even acted out the beginning, her stealing my bag and me kicking her in the “blue-jean-sitter!” The students absolutely loved the interactive way that we went about reading this.
The next big lesson I planned out was, “Time Shifts with Harry Potter”. I was showing the students that sometimes authors can reveal more information (or background story) with readers by utilizing a time shift to the past. First, we watched the Potions Class scene from harry Potter. Professor Snape was super mean and rude to Harry! I had the class discuss how they thought Snape was behaving. Then, I had them watch the Pensive Scene from the last movie- showing Snape’s childhood, love for Lily, hatred for James, and him vowing to protect baby Harry for the rest of his life. I then had the class discuss what they thought of the character Snape, and the answers were different than the first turn and talk. After this, I modeled how students can keep track of books with time changes by creating a timeline and highlighting what was in the past.
My total takeover lasted from February 1st until March 17th. I covered the Literary Essay Unit, Text Structures, and the beginning of the Non-Fiction Unit. I incorporated my Figurative-Language Fun Fridays February 3rd and ended the lessons April 14th. For more of a breakdown of those lessons visit my SLA page!
BOOK TASTING 2:
NON-FICTION
STUDENT TEACHING HIGHLIGHTS OF LESSONS, SLIDES, and WORK
BOOK TASTING 2:
NON-FICTION
The second book taste I orchestrated ran a lot smoother than the Fiction Book Taste. Non-Fiction Book Taste. I tried a different approach than the Fiction BT, in that the students wrote a list of their top 3 books, and then Dana and I went through and assigned the book clubs from there. I created the menus per usual, and revamped my placemats I designed for the FBT to match the Non-Fiction books and categories. There were 5 categories, as opposed to the 8 categories in Fiction. During the rotations, I plugged different books for different hours, in hopes that the students would gravitate towards those books. They did, hooray! I collaborated with the librarian, Becky, to host “ Le Book Cafe “ in the media center. This was more inclusive to my students who use a wheelchair, as it gave a lot of space to navigate around. This also made the students feel special, with a change of location and jazz cafe music playing when they walked in. It took two days for the groups to be assigned, but the students were happy, and most of the students got their first or second pick. The Non-Fiction Unit was a large success.
OBSERVATION:
During student teaching, I prepared for four formal observations through Oakland University. Click the link below to see the lesson plans! As time went on, I felt more comfortable with bullet pointing out my lessons, instead of writing out my script. After every observation, I wrote an official reflection to be graded by my advisor.