This Thursday on practicum I again led the spelling and read-aloud. Before I talk about that though, I would like to touch on something else I experienced. My s.a. covers other classroom teachers preps for the entire school while our students are away for band and French class. That means she teaches a block to every grade. And when I’m there on Thursdays, I get to accompany her to these classrooms. Although I have been doing this with her from the start, something really struck me this time. About a month ago, my practicum class did a worksheet on the colour wheel and primary/secondary colours. Then last week when we went to a grade two class to cover the teacher’s prep, my s.a. brought out the same worksheet for that class and again when we went to a spilt 2/3 class this week. For me it was really interesting to see how the same topic, lesson, and worksheet was used in such different grade levels. However, what differed was the instruction level and amount. For the grade 7 students the instructions were quite quick and limited. As a result, the task was more self-led on the student’s part – so it served as a review. However, for the two younger grades, this may have been the first time they were exposed to this content. As a result, there was much more instruction all throughout the assignment. My s.a. coloured in the assignment step by step and asked the students to follow, asking for student input along the way. I would monitor their progress, giving check marks as they finished and words of encouragement. So what was really interesting to me was how the same task was used in completely different grade levels. I believe what was key was the adaptation piece. That is making the task work specifically for each grade and tailoring the instructions. I had not really thought of this before, so I was thankful to have observed my s.a. This can be really helpful when you are a t.o.c or even have your own class and have to teach a new grade in the new school year. As a new teacher, you can look back to what you have already taught and maybe there can be something you can adapt to work in your new classroom!

My read-aloud this week was on two chapters and apart from asking questions through the read-aloud, I did something a little different. I asked the students to create questions. And having now read the students’ questions, I realize what an awesome idea this was. There are some factual questions, but also some great probing, “why do you think …” questions. This is something I would like to maybe use again sometime soon, paired with a discussion of what makes a good question and how to form one. Along with this we could discuss why it is important to practice creating good questions. I would like to form a discussion around exam questions and how this will change as they enter high school. That is, they will be exposed to lots of exams in which questions require critical thinking. Again the students’ effort into these questions just goes to show their interest in the book! I also thought of how to get more students answering throughout the read aloud, and I think I need to make clear right at the beginning that their participation counts for their language arts mark and I will be recording who participates. I recall doing this during my two week practicum and it worked really well. Sometimes the students just need to be reminded of why it is important to participate in class!