Reflection 9

In class this past Monday, we started our first round of read-alouds focused on writing. The people that went were Keith, Kayla and me. I really liked Kayla's stories from the What do you see? books. I too can remember, like most people said they could, hearing the books when I was younger. I thought it was interesting to hear the diffrerent activities you can do with those books. The book I did my read-aloud from was Jan Brett's The 3 Little Dassies. I chose to do this story because I thought the way the author grabs the reader's attention in the first sentence is a great way to show students an attention getter. My post-reading activity for students in my class would be to write their own attention getters and use an attention getter in a story they write.

After the read-alouds, we discussed running records and what they are and how they are used. I had heard of the term before, but I never really knew what it was. We talked about ways that teachers can do a running record such as on paper or over the text. I think I will take Rachel's suggestion about using a tape recorder for the Informal Reading Inventory because I don't think I'll be able to take make those miscue marks as fast as the reader can read. After much discussion about the Informal Reading Inventory and running records, we moved on to another topic.

The Problem Based Learning activity we are particpating in is very interesting. It sounds overwhelming that we have to come up with a homework policy, but I think when our group starts on it will be easier than what we think. The topic of homework has always been controversial. I can remember my own parents complaining that my sister and I were bringing home too much homework for our grade levels. I think the results of this PBL will be interesting because we all share some of the same feelings about homework, yet we all have some different views as well.