Gina Harris

9/20/07

Today I did my read aloud in class. I read the book, Hey, Al by Arthur Yorkins to to the class. I introduced my self even though they know me and briefly mentioned behavior as a listener (thought it couldn't hurt :-). They are as you know, a very rowdy bunch and I thought that would be my biggest hurdle. Student J was speaking out, but was very interested in the story. He knew exactly what was going on and answered the high order questions without hesitation. As a matter of fact his use of higher vocabulary was definitely inspiring. Intelligence is obviously not his problem or maybe it is. Maybe his is simply bored out of his mind. I wish I was qualified to evaluate. They moved around, even in front of me while I read, but I never lost my train of thought and they were still engaged with the book. The teacher allows this kind of behavior and I did not feel that I should do anything but read the story. Despite the restlessness of the students they were involved in the story and were willing to answer questions. The different perspective of each student is always a treat to me. I try to apply what I have learned so far in my classes. I see techniques used by the teacher that have been mentioned. She used photo analysis in her reading lesson. She had the students use a Venn Diagram in the analysis, but so many were not on task.
I read with M & A in the hallway and they worked on their spelling sheets. I noticed that when they are separated fro the class confusion they are so much more focused and did really good work just at a slower pace. I see how individual attention can make a big difference in the success of some students.