Kim's Inquiry 2

**All things are subject to change based upon planning with my co-intern and our Language Arts teacher**

1.    Describe your target area for guided lead teaching. I will be teaching a fantasy unit on Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.

2.    Approximately how much time per day is allotted for your instruction in this area? We are only allotted 50 minutes per day for Language Arts.

3.    Which Common Core State Standard(s) will you work toward?

1. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for     research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

2. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.1b Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry                 out assigned roles.

3. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.9 Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g.,              mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics

4.    How will teaching in this target area provide opportunities for students to learn important content and/or skills that relate to their lives?  In what ways does this learning include learning literacy, learning about literacy, and/or learning through literacy? Students will be placed into book club groups and within the groups they will have to delegate which roles will fit each individual member of the group. Throughout the unit, students will be required to write journals in response to various aspects of the book. At the end of the reading, students will watch the movie Tuck Everlasting and write a few paragraph compare/contrast paper. To go along with the fantasy theme, students will be reading a different fantasy book for their next book report.

5.    What types of classroom talk take place within this target area? To what extent is the talk teacher-led, student-led, or focused on higher-level thinking? What norms for interaction would you like to build within your classroom as you teach in this target area (e.g., see ideas in Chapter 6 of Strategies that Work, the Berne & Clark 2008 article, or draw from some of the readings done in TE 402 on classroom talk)? I really want to promote cooperation/working together and responsibility within the book club groups. Students will be gradually given more and more responsibility of their book clubs throughout the unit. They will need to be able to work independently and be able to support each other’s opinions and still maintain a civil debate about their ideas.

6.    Which ‘core practice’ do you want to work on developing/improving as you teach in this target area (refer to document “Resources for Developing Core Practices”)?  How will focusing on this core practice contribute to your own professional learning? The Core Practice I plan to implement in the unit is Practices to Facilitate Comprehension Instruction – Responding to Reading. By focusing in on book clubs, students will be able to work together to maximize their comprehension skills by seeing other points of view and hearing their peer’s opinions. Teaching comprehension is one of the most important things literacy teachers teach because it has an impact on all of the other subject areas.

7.    What resources within the community, neighborhood, school district, school or classroom do you have to work with in this target area? We have enough copies of the book for each student to have their own, we have an audio recording of the story being read – this can be used during the class periods that students are in the resource room, they can put the recording into a computer’s cd reader and listen quietly and follow along, and we have a movie version of the story that we will show at the end of the unit and have the students compare and contrast the two. Also, I have developed a relationship with one of our resource room teachers; she works with a few of my students that need some extra support across the curriculum. She will be a valuable resource in helping me adapt my lessons to support these students. I also have Abby who is teaching the same content to her homeroom students; we will be able to bounce ideas off of each other and discuss what is working and what isn't working within our units. 

8.    What additional resources do you need to obtain? It would be helpful to know roughly the students reading levels so I can develop reading groups that support each of my students’ diverse needs.

9.    How will you pre-assess your students in your target area? To assess my students on fantasy, we can develop a class list of things that we think are aspects of the fantasy genre.

10. What else will you need to find out about all students in your class to help you develop lesson plans for your Guided Lead Teaching? There are a few students that I know already are reading below grade level, who have class periods in the resource room, who would greatly benefit by having the story read aloud via the CD while following along with the text.

11. What else do you need/want to learn about the ‘core practice’ to support your planning and teaching? I am really excited to be teaching a book club unit; in TE 402 with Chad we did book club units at the end of the semester and it was great to work through it as if you were a student. The book club concept seems to go along nicely with the core practice that we chose as a team.

12. What concerns, if any, do you have about planning and teaching your unit?  I am concerned about making sure all of my students receive the amount of support that each of them needs to support their learning.