The Value of Making Mistakes

Your setting up for your students to begin reading, you look around the room and you see wandering eyes, eyes glued to the page, and eyes moving quickly throughout the text.  You think to yourself that you aren't satisfied, how do I know that these students are taking these words seriously and comprehending them in a way that is making them better readers.  Panic sets in, there is no time to find a way to hear all of these readers read all of their books, but how will I know that they are using the correct strategies when they don't understand a word or sentence?  Teachers are not robots, they can't be everywhere at the same time, they can't individually work with each student every single day, but there are ways to keep records and reminders of how students are doing as readers, in a quick and efficient manner.  I was lucky enough to conduct my own "Over The Shoulder Miscue Analysis", or OTSMA, on a student in my first grade practicum class.  I not only was given the opportunity to get to know this reader more, but I was able to see how she interpreted a text, strategies she used when reading and specific miscues that were occurring in her reading.  This miscue analysis provided me with a large amount of data that allowed me to establish strategies and assessments, for the near future, in just only 15 minutes.  We understand that there are only around 7 hours in a school day, not to mention the amount of time that is spent eating, playing, and all the other subjects that we are expected to cover in a school day, every single day.  OTSMA allows us to capture a sense of a student's ability to read in just a few pages.

While conducting my own analysis, it allowed me to research specifics on different types of miscues that may occur with not only this student, but other students in my room.  These different types of miscues include: graphophonic, syntactic and semantic.  The options that I have provided allow me to see what type of reading strategies she is using when dissecting words that she is not familiar with.  During the process of her reading aloud to me, I had an easy time with locating the miscues and writing them down, and once I noticed a pattern in her reading, I stopped and created my own mini lesson with different strategies that would help with the specific miscues that she was making.  Some examples of what I had taught her were breaking down the word to find familiar words within the larger word, using context clues and pictures to establish a word that makes sense in the sentence, or sounding out the entire word syllable by syllable.  These different mini lessons were used based on previous strategies I was provided with during my other work with students.  These mini lessons provided a good fit and good timing for my student, because I noticed that she self corrected more than before and she was making fewer miscues while using the strategies that I provided for her.  The portion of this part of the process was successful for me and I feel as if I got to know her better as a reader and as a student.

Once we had established her reading and focused on some specific miscues, I struggled with the retelling portion of the OTSMA.  I didn't establish enough background knowledge of the book prior to her reading aloud to me.  I was not able to provide her with enough detailed questions or challenge her with the context that she read as a whole.  This is where it is important to prepare when you want to listen to specific students and create a schedule in which you can be prepared for and challenge your students comprehension of the story.  This also created a great opportunity for me to realize if certain miscues helped to change her comprehension of the entire story.  Retelling is one of the most important aspects of the miscue analysis because you get to see if the mistakes that they are making are seriously affecting their interpretation as a whole.  While conducting the unaided and aided retelling I had full understanding that she understood the main points of the passage, and also the details when prompted by me.  I have realized that being prepared will not only help me while she is reading the story, so I don't need to pay attention to specifics in the story and I can focus on their miscues and strategies, but it also allows me to be able to challenge my students and see where their full potential of comprehension and reading can go.

Overall I believe that my OTSMA went well and I was able to learn more about one of my students and interpret her miscues.  I was amazed at how well the mini lessons went and her quick understanding of how to use these strategies while she is reading anything.  This is something that will quickly become apart of my classroom and my goal will be to conduct the miscue analysis 3 times within a semester and chart their growth as readers.

The Classroom Doesn't Confine You

         Think back to your elementary schools and that favorite classroom you once sat in.  Look back at the walls that surrounded you and the faces that greeted you at the door every morning.  This space served a purpose, it wasn't just a place to meet and do your homework or read a book, it became a lot more than that.  As Debbie Miller simply put it, "I believe that classroom environments are most effective when they are literate and purposeful, organized and accessible, and, most of all, authentic."  In viewing that every student has the possibility to learn, as discussed in my teaching beliefs, the idea of having a purposeful classroom and my beliefs are compatible in every sense.  The classroom should not only be limited to enclosing the room so that you are not disturbing other classrooms, it can be utilized as a resource for you as a teacher, but to your students.  Although it is absolutely possible that you change your classroom 30 times within the first couple of months, it only makes sense because each school year, students and resources change every year and you must find a dynamic that works best for you and your students.  In finding that dynamic, I believe that Debbie Miller's main ideas of a functional classroom, as discussed in her quote above, are a great starting tool in setting your classroom up.
         While there are many "cute" and "feel good" posters, boarders and pictures that are available for teachers to purchase and put up throughout their classrooms, the most effective decorations are the ones that serve a purpose.  They are the posters, word walls or diagrams that can be used as a quick resource for students to refer to while doing their work.  They are also the artifacts of ideas or work that has been created by the students themselves, this creates an empowering feeling knowing that their work is on display and that it was put up there for a purpose that everyone is able to see.  When you realize that you have completely run out of space, trust me it is possible, its time to make sure that you and your students are organized.  Take the time to know your students, and their opinions on how the classroom should be set up, just as Debbie Miller discussed, this is their space too!  Make sure it is accessible for all and every type of student, because this not only saves time, but it saves you the headache of "Ms. Gillotti I cant find the scissors."  There are many different organizational ways to make your classroom as accessible as possible, which can be found in the link at the bottom of this post.  Last, but absolutely not least, make your classroom full of literacy and encouragement.  It isn't necessary that you have a specific corner for your classroom library, your entire classroom should be a library!  Not only does creating an environment help to encourage reading and writing, it gets students excited about it.  With all of these ideas put into one classroom, it creates the possibility and the chance to reach all learners and classroom that is constantly learning.

Debbie Miller's, "Spaces & Places: Designing Classroom Literacy"
http://www.amazon.com/Spaces-Places-Designing-Classrooms-Literacy/dp/1571107223

Practice What You Preach

As educators you are entitled to getting through curriculum, worksheets, testing and not to mention manage 20-30 kids all at the same time, 5 days a week for 8 hours.  Some might call us robots, while others like to degrade our profession, but in the midst of all the chaos that we call "school" is the person who helps to make it all sorta work.  While a lesson or activity may succeed or fail, the one constant that can always remain the same, is your beliefs as an educator.  Just as your constantly changing things throughout the classroom, so can your philosophies, which is why it is important to constantly be reflecting upon yourself and the goals that you set.  As a future educator and current student at the University of Iowa, my philosophies will more than likely change just about the amount of times you rearrange your classroom within the first weeks.  One thing that I do know for sure is the core belief in that every single student will have a chance to learn and has the ability to learn.  Not one student is like the other in their ways of learning, which is why it is important for me to constantly remind myself that there is some way, some where, some how to teach these students.  With the continuation of my core belief, I also believe that differentiation is something that should be active throughout all types of classrooms, because that really allows for different types of learners to engage in the similar type of activities.  Last but not least, with every lesson plan and every standard that you must teach, it can be integrated within every subject in any type of way.  There is always, always, always ways to use cross curriculum in your teaching, just use the available resources to help.  With the establishment of your ideals as a teacher, it can remain the one constant in your classroom, that you can work towards no matter what type of day you are dealing with.  It is important to not only design your beliefs, but to "practice what you preach" and find ways to model and play out your beliefs, every single day, at every single hour, to every single student.