Weekly Log #2 Student Teaching Weekly Log Libby Bouma Week 2 2/13-2/7

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have? This week I continued to spend my time observing Mrs. Kluesner and was also afforded the opportunity to begin teaching small groups. This week I started working with a first grade boy on his writing. He comes in at the end of the day to receive 15 minutes of direct instruction in his writing. I also worked with two 2nd graders during their reading instruction. I had the opportunity to meet with three 2nd grade students outside of their classroom to work on reading instruction and sit with them during their core reading instruction with their general education teacher. My responsibilities increased in that I began writing learning targets and lesson plans for the groups I have taken over. I also had the opportunity to start some of the lessons for the 4th grade writing and reading class and 6th grade math class. Thus far, I have had an opportunity to help out with every group except the 5th grade readers, as they have not been down in our classroom the past two weeks due to presentation in their general education classroom. Mrs. Kluesner has modeled progress monitoring for her groups and this week I was able to help facilitate some of these on Friday. 2. What were your most satisfying and challenging experiences? My most satisfying experience this week was during my work with a 2nd grade student during reading. During our lesson on Thursday, we were discussing what we had learned in the previous two lessons. She was able to engage in this conversation and retained the information. Not only did she retain the information, she was able to apply it to the new information being presented in our lesson that day. Another satisfying experience was on Friday afternoon when Mrs. Kluesner had a meeting and had me work with the 4th grade reading and writing groups as well as work with a 5th grader in his classroom on his writing and end of the day routine. The most challenging experience this week has been during my Reading Mastery lessons with two, second graders. The lesson is scripted and moves at a fast pace. I stumbled a little while going through the lesson the first couple of days. During the reading portion, the girls read together while I tap my pen on the table. The girls are to read at the pace of my tap. For some reason, their reading is off. I spoke with Mrs. Kluesner about this and I think I am concentrating on their reading and trying to match my tap with it rather than tapping consistently and having them match my tap. Mrs. Kluesner assured me it just takes practice and that she will teach this lesson again so that I can observe and watch how she teaches the lesson. 3. What are the plans for the upcoming week? On Monday, I will be joining Mrs. Kluesner and Miss Jones to a training with Anita Archer, a teacher/researcher who has helped develop some of the content Mrs. Kluesner and her literacy group have been learning. Mrs. Kluesner has shared some of the content that she has learned during her literacy group and states that it is useful information to know while teaching.

This upcoming week I will continue to teach the 2nd grade reading groups and 1st grade writing while adding spelling work with 2nd graders and the 4th grade reading group. I am excited to continue moving forward in my teaching and learning more of the curriculums being used.