Field Experience Reflection- P.Kelly

In enrolling in CI504, I have been able to reflect on my instructional practices and reevaluate my role as a teacher under the Reading Apprenticeship Framework. I have focused on providing more student-centered learning through literacy. The largest change in my delivering of instruction has been the focused on knowledge building and metacognitive practices. Completing assignments such as the text-set analysis and mini-lesson made to reexamine the texts I use in my classroom. I reflect on a text's authenticity, literacy structure, vocabulary rigor, and connection to objectives and essential questions.  With these changes, my goal has been to build independent thinking skills and develop my students reader identities.

        I have found that providing time to build context is key to literacy comprehension. This year for all texts I make sure to have pre-reading activities. For example, to set up a reading on the expansion of modernized industrialization I font loaded the learning and by providing the students with a definition of industrialization. I instructed the students to predict the possible themes and keywords that would connect to industrialization by making a web chart with a whiteboard maker on their desks. To my surprise, I discovered that a large majority of students knew about industrialization and were able to connect major themes and ideas together such as assembly lines, monopolies, corruption, and globalization.  Each group explained their thought process through a talk aloud with provided sentence starters. Before transitioning to the next activity, the student self-reflected on their knowledge of industrialization using the “Fist of five” strategy. I have seen an improvement in my students and transferring the learning between each other and themselfs, instead from the teacher.
In my classroom I have made metacognitive strategies to be the core of my disciplinary literacy instruction. Around the room I have anchor posters that include discussion starters to accountable talk, steps of annotation, Thinking like a historian skills, and SOLAR discussion listening/discussion norms. I find that these foundational skills build off each other in literacy comprehension, academic discourse, and ultimately writing comprehension.  I model these practices and we use them in class. My goal is that overtime students will automatically use these skills without indication and demonstrate higher order of thinking skills

Welcome to US History II

Student created anchor posters on Historical Skills