March 21 (Tues.)

It was really nice to have yesterday as a teacher work day. The room is clean after the mess of the plays, and I got so much done a graded yesterday. Grades are due on Friday, so I’ve cut things off and I’m getting it all ready. We will finish up the oral tradition unit this week, sadly. This is my all-time favorite unit to teach. There are so many possibilities! The final test will be Friday, but until then, we are going to take care of some loose ends and review.

My novice students are really getting the hang of the parts of a story. They can identify the beginning, middle, and end based on the information they hear/read. Lynn read through the Arthur story that we did as a whole class today with the novice kids before we did it all together. Since they already understood what was going on, they answered some of the questions I asked as we read today! Even Gabby, who wouldn’t speak to the whole class, told Claudia and Johanna some of the answers along the way. I think Sumaya and Minah need some more pronunciation support, because they clearly know and want to share information, but they are both embarrassed about speaking in front of the other students. Gabby and Johanna are the same way, but they don’t usually make the effort to participate. Mrs. Goodheart has been pulling Gabby out pretty frequently lately, but maybe she could pull Minah, Sumaya, and Johanna as well for a couple of pronunciation classes. I’m wondering how she would react if I gave her some suggestions based on my observations. We will be starting poetry pretty soon, so that will be a great place to add in some pronunciation strategies. Deanna emailed Mrs. Goodheart about an ESL workshop next Thurs. and Fri. I told her I was interested, but I don’t think she has gotten in touch with Deanna in time. If Deanna doesn’t contact me today, I might give her a call…

While the novice kids are really making huge improvements, I am wondering if I am using my time in the best possible way. They really need more of the strategy-based instruction that I have been thinking about with my curriculum design, but the more pull-out individualized instruction they get, the more isolated they become. I really can’t leave the majority of the class to Lynn and work with the three (maybe 4, as I am considering Johanna as needing more English support than L.A. support) novice kids. Lynn does really well with my activities that I give her, and she keeps them straight during the times when they are involved in full-class instruction. Maybe if I can find a little more time to work with her before she works with the kids I can talk her through and actually show her some of the pronunciation things I am planning that would disturb the rest of the class (thus requiring them to leave the room). Maybe a checklist kind of thing with strategies, and each day they could learn a new strategy and practice with the old ones too. I really want this to work in the full context of the class… Definitely going to require more thought…