One of my memorable events of this week is how the students’ reading abilities are assessed and shared with the parents. One way of gathering information for teachers and parents to see the child’s literacy development is through video recording. Based on the running records, the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System 2, that the teacher did earlier in the school year, the teacher will pick out two books that are around the student’s reading level. The student will have two choices to pick from. The teacher can use an iPad to film this reading exercise. The video focuses on the words that the student is reading, and the student only needs to read two or three pages. For these pages that are being recorded, the teacher usually does not provide help. This video will be uploaded to Freshgrade, and some assessments and comments will be made on the APP. The parents will be able to see the video and the comments. The parents can also comment on the posts.

Another way that the assessing can be done is through Book Creator on iPads. The students will pair up for this activity, and each of them will pick a book of their own choices and record it on the APP. The students will take a picture of the book cover and the first few pages of the book. Then, they will record themselves reading the word. After the recording is done, one speaker icon will show up the page. The students can go back to their own reading and listen to themselves. That is one good way for the students to reflect on their own reading. At the same time, the partner can help out when challenges occur. The last part of the work is to write few sentences for self-reflection. The teacher provided a template for the students (as shown) to help with their thinking and writing. For this project, some students practice the same lines several times until fluent before recording. These book readings will be uploaded to Freshgrade later for the parents to see as well.

Progress on read-aloud

I was practicing the books that I would need for read-aloud the night before so I would feel more confident. Besides from the fluency, I tried to pick up words that the students might not know, and think of ways to explain them during my practice at home. Another thing that I was trying to do was to decide on the main messages that I was hoping the students to get out of it. By doing that, it helped me to monitor the students’ conversation and find my way back when the conversation got carried away. I had been doing read-aloud for three days now, and each time it went pretty well. Students were listening attentively and participating in the discussion.

 

My wonders

How can we accommodate students with diverse knowledge backgrounds and learning abilities in the classroom? Besides from separating the class into small groups and assign them to different tasks, how can we keep everyone entertained and challenged?

I had a conversation with my school teacher today about the idea of provocation, scaffolding, and the difference between them. With her explanations, I observed to see where I could find some evidence of provocation and scaffolding in the classroom.

From the beginning of the school year, my school teacher had natural materials out as invitations for the students to talk about and think about nature. Then, with some nature-themed picture books, she provoked the students’ thinking by asking them questions, such as “What does nature mean?”, “what does it mean to be living”, and “what is nature?”. By demonstrating an activity or thinking process, the teacher also helps the students to scaffold their learning.

Last week, one of the students came up with the realization that “oh everything is in a cycle. The life has a cycle. Seasons are in a cycle”. This idea was shared with the class, and we had more discussion around this idea. The students shared their ideas or examples of cycles and the nature. Students had a quick debate on whether a rock is nature. The teacher followed up with some more questions to guide the student’s thinking: “Does nature have to be alive?” “what is not nature? What is opposite of nature?”

There were some interesting conversations around whether a rock was nature:

One conversation between two of the students and me

One of the student “Rocks are not nature because it’s underneath the earth”

Me “is the earth nature?”

The student “Yes”

Me “if the earth is nature, and rocks are underneath the earth. Should rock also be part of the nature?”

The other student joined “ahhh (realizing something)… but lava is not nature because they do not grow”

The student “no it does! because… (I lost track of their conversation there)”

 

Conversation between one of the girls and me

“Rock is nature because it helps the nature”

“Why is that”

“Because rock helps trees to grow so they don’t fall (using hand gestures to show that rocks are stabilizing the roots)”

 

Conversation between one of the girls and me

“It depends. Some rocks are nature but some are not”

“What do you mean”

“Some rocks have dirt in them and some don’t. If they have dirt in them then they are nature”

“How do you know if they have dirt in them?”

“Some rocks you can easily smash them into small pieces, and they are basically just soil”

“Okay. are you saying that if the soil gets dried and becomes a big chunk, then it becomes a rock and that is nature?”

“Yes.”

…

“Do you think that the cement is different from the rocks that we found from the forest?”

“Yes”

“Are they both nature”

“Again, If you can smash them into smaller pieces then they are nature”

 

I found these conversations really interesting, and I really enjoyed challenging the students to think further. These conversations are worth investigating and can lead to further conversation about the landform, which is part of learning content in BC’s New Curriculum competencies.