New Curricular Directions and Synthesis of Beliefs New Curricular Directions While working on this audit trail, I have

realized that this is good practice but will be very different once I have a classroom of twenty or so students. I have tried to help out as many other students as I could while I was at my field placement, but I had to really pay attention to Sarah. This allowed me to see what all it takes to get to know just one child. It is hard to imagine that I will have to do this, or at least some version of this, to get to personally know and help every student in my class. I included the quote It takes more than self-teaching from a manual to achieve a high standard of observing, recording, and interpreting on the home page of this website (Clay, 2000, p. 6). I believe it introduces and concludes a main part of this audit trail because I will not learn as much from a book. I have to go out there and try it. It will take a lot of practice and reflection, but I think this audit trail has helped me start to think about how I will do this in the future. I want to be able to do some of these assessments with each child, but I know that I cannot do every one. Even though I was only there for about 4-5 hours a week, I spent a lot of my time working with and trying to get to know Sarah. I felt like I had to get a lot done for this project while I was there and could not help out with the rest of the class as much as I would have liked. This will be a challenge when I have my own classroom because I need to spend enough time with each student as well as with the whole class. Some of the assessments I really want to make sure I do are the concepts of print/running records and conferences. I think these are important because they allow for a deeper understanding of the students abilities and areas of growth. I used to think that assessments should be created by the teacher, but now I think the teacher just needs to know which ones to

use for which students. Some of them can be really helpful. I liked the concepts of print for at the beginning of the year with younger children because I was able to see what all they know about reading. Then, the running record shows me how they process words. These are both good assessments that provide documentation of student ability and growth. I also liked conferencing because it allowed me to see what the child was doing and then offer help. I sat with some other students at the library station during centers and had short conferences with them about their book. It was a great way for me to sit down quickly, learn about their reading, and support them as well. I was able to get to their level of reading and support them better that way by trying to find what works for them. As for assessments I am considering or want to do some version of even if modified, I would possibly want to try the Gentry Spelling as well as do a literacy inventory with each student. These might be able to be done whole class, but I think doing them one-on-one will help me learn more. I do not want to make the Gentry Spelling seem like a spelling test, so I might have to do that with each child individually. That would keep the focus on that child and allow me to the child as he/she works with a word. Once I know how most students are attempting spelling, I can then create a lesson to help them improve. For the literacy inventory, I could send that home for families to complete, include on an introductory sheet, or do individually at the beginning of the year. When I talked to Sarah, I noticed that this conversation was pretty long, so maybe this would have to be done differently. There are some examples of take-home surveys for getting to know the students in the back of Kidwatching that I could use. I think it did help her feel more comfortable with me doing it in person, but hopefully I can find other ways to help students feel open and comfortable with me if I choose not to do this individually.

I still need to practice all of these assessments and find out what works in my classroom, but I do want to learn more about each student however I can. I think conferences are the way to go if I find free time at all, but I also think doing some already made up assessments will also teach me important information about my students. I have to keep practicing and adjusting to fit their needs. Hopefully, I will be able to conference frequently, maybe once or twice a week with each student, and do assessments but not quite as often. There is still a lot I want to do in the classroom, such as read alouds and guided or shared lessons, and I want to make sure I have time for everything. I can do conferences during many activities throughout the day, so hopefully that will help me get to know my students. Assessments may take more planning to fit into the schedule, but I know they are important, especially for parent-teacher conferences. I have a lot to think about for my future classroom, but I am glad this project has given me a chance to really think about everything already. Synthesis of Beliefs Teaching Literacy. I have learned that how I structure my classroom helps determine how much time I will be able to spend walking around and helping individual students. I hope that a good majority of the day will be filled with child explorations. I want my classroom to use the three levels of mediation which are teacher guided, shared meaning mediators, and child explorations so that my students are able to both explore on their own and create meaning as well as having an opportunity to learn together through lessons and conferences (Wohlwend, 2013). We will have time for read alouds, shared and guided lessons, and independent or group work. Students should also be able to play, story, collaborate, and produce (Wohlwend, 2013). These can happen throughout many different types of activities. I think it is important to have a mixture of teacher guided lessons based on the needs of the students as well as time for students to

explore. They should use the tools around them to explore literacy. In order to do this, I will have to make different materials, such as paper and markers, available to them as well as opportunities to work with others if they would like. I like the quote, It is one thing to see that a child can do something if we ask him to do it; it is quite another entirely to see him decide to do it on his own because it says that seeing them work on their own and using the information they learn tells us a lot more than just repeating it back to us or fulfilling our request (Ray, 2004, p. 120). I want students to internalize good behaviors in many developing areas, so there must be a time when I can go around to see what they are doing and how they are doing it. Having time to work on their own will also give me more time to work with each student individually and find out more about what they need as a learner. I could work with small groups to meet the needs of multiple students at the same time, or I could even fit in more assessments. It is important to know the needs of the students so that I can help them reach a little further. This goes along with Vygotskys scaffolding and zone of proximal development. I want to teach just outside of what the student is capable to do on his/her own so that they can reach for the next step in whatever they are doing and soon be able to do it on their own. The gradual release model is another way to describe how I want to teach my students. Many scholars describe a system like this for teaching. The process includes modeling, scaffolding, prompting, backing off, and reinforcing (Johnson & Keier, 2010). Again, this is a mixture of teacher lead and child independent work. The reinforcing part connects with my goal of helping Sarah feel confident about herself as a reader and writer. Reinforcing tells them that they are improving and that I notice what they are doing well. My goal for reinforcing is to boost confidence without

giving empty praise. I will be learning with students at school because I will be learning about them, we will be working together, and they can learn on their own as well. How Students Learn. I believe that these methods of teaching literacy support how students learn and will therefore provide opportunities for growth. Going along with the idea of allowing students time to explore, I believe students can learn on their own. I am not saying I will not teach them, as I described my thoughts earlier, but I think students come to school with a lot of knowledge already. I just have to learn what they know and how they use information as they learn so that I can use all of this to guide instruction. For instance, many students come to school with an idea of how reading works. Many know basic concepts of print and book handling skills already, and I believe that is important to note. This is a foundation for reading and if we assume they come to school not knowing anything, we might waste time teaching something they already know or think of what they know as unimportant (Owocki & Goodman, 2002). This also models the whole to part instruction which I am learning to like better. I used to think we had to work our way up, but now I think that doing things as a whole and learning what goes in to it can be beneficial. For instance, we can read a story together and then go back and look at the words more closely (Parkes, 2000). Students will pick up on things on their own, so we must start big and look at the individual needs of the students. I am still trying to figure out the best way to teach phonics, letters, spelling, etc. to students in the future, but I think it depends on the students. I need to figure out what they already know and go from there to decide what would best help them. This includes working with students where English is a second language. I want to try to get to know them as best as I can first. I want them to feel comfortable, just like any other student, and I want to try to figure out the best ways to communicate. I could even read more

culturally diverse books and learn some of their home language. I have learned a lot more about the different stages of English Language Learners growth and I think this will help me understand and help those students better. Working with Parents. I knew before that working with parents and parent communication is very important to a positive student experience at school as well as opportunities for growth. However, now I realize that there is a lot more to it. Communication may not be as easy as I first thought. For instance, working with families who do not speak English can be difficult. I want to use journals or translators if I can to try to send information home. I think having families involved at school is really helpful. It can help get more information about the students by talking to the parents. I learned more about Sarah this way and this is what helped me set some goals for her. I saw her mom and grandma early in the semester and heard some funny stories about Sarah at home. When I noticed that she did not seem as enthusiastic with me at school, I decided that I needed to work to make her feel more comfortable around me so that we can work together better. I think having insight from a parents perspective is very important, and it sets up a positive connection that will also benefit the child. I will have to start early in the year and continue to keep communication open with parents so that they feel comfortable talking to me too. This is definitely a team effort. I noticed that parent-teacher conferences was a stressful time at my field school. I had to help do many different assessments so that the teacher had different things to show the parents. I realized that assessments are helpful for that and show growth so parents can see evidence about their childs progress at school. To me, recording growth is more important than grades. I wish I could see my own growth more often so that I can be more confident about myself. I want to provide that for my students and their families. I need to remember to do assessments and collect

information especially for this time of the year. I want to keep notes, preferably on an ipad or something, for every student so that I can keep track of his/her growth both for my own use and for conferences. Having notes and work samples will help me better explain my findings to the parents. It definitely helps me now to explain what I am learning from this audit trail! Looking over things together can also allow a chance to ask for help from parents while they are at home. I can give some ideas of what they can do at home to help their child. For instance, I would ask Sarahs parents to keep reading simple books with her and take turns reading to each other. I would have her follow the words with her finger and point out familiar word clusters. I might even suggest a rhyming game to play. My goal is to also have a class website of what we are doing along with other resources parents might like at home for themselves and their children. Having support at home is very beneficial for the childs learning. Conclusion I have learned so much about teaching literacy this semester and throughout this project. I am going to use all of this experience and information to plan for a future classroom. I cannot fully be prepared for what is to come, but learning to be flexible throughout this process has taught me a lot and will come in handy later in life. I do not know my students yet and they will not be the same from year to year, so teaching will definitely be exciting and new every time. I will learn so much about myself and my students each year and I cannot wait to grow together.