Another weekend has come and gone and I don't know what happened! Between assignments, organizing PDs and work, things are really starting to pile up. I hit a breaking point and decided I needed to break down and purchase an agenda today. However, just as I decided to do so, a buddy of mine informed me that I walk around with a $500 agenda in my pocket everyday and so I ended up spending the better part of my afternoon putting my life onto Google Calendar on my iPhone. As a result I am no further ahead with my assignments than I was this morning, but I AM more organized. Whether or not that will pay off in the long run, has yet to be seen.
Moving along, looking back at my past week in the schools, I can relate several scenarios I experienced with what Gallagher talks about in his book. The particular instance of the book that I am referring to right now is the portion that talks about student comprehension and confusion in regards to reading. At the start of an ELA 9 class last week I was asked by the teacher to work with one of the students who had fallen behind in order to help them catch up to the rest of the class. Once we began to work on some of the assigned questions however, it was clear that the student was very unfamiliar with the story and did not understand what had taken place in the story. Coming up with answers to the questions was next to impossible for the student and he quickly looked to me to provide him with the answers rather than looking to the text of the story for his response. The importance of a second reading proved to be very relevant in this scenario. However, because he DID he read the story the previous day, I decided it could be the case that there were merely PARTS of the story that he may not have understood. To get his answers, I helped guide him to specific paragraphs and have him reread it. After doing so, we went over what he read together in order to better determine what happened. After completing this activity, the student was able to come up with relevant answers to the questions without having to reread the entire story again.
Borden,
ReplyDeleteI think we are all feeling as "behind" as you are, so don't fret!! :) I think that in our chosen profession it is a valuable learned skill- the ability to catch up on life! (If it helps at all, I plan my life in that free, university dayplanner we could get at the beginning of the semester...and so far it has been more useful than i predicted)... but i'm sure the iphone will work fantastically too!
That's awesome that you have been able to relate back to Gallagher in your co-operating school and assist a student in their success!
Every success is significant, and should be rewarded as such...so Congratulations!!! :)