Are your students talking more then you?

In my readings for my graduate school class this week I read about something called the "two thirds" rule (Edwards and Mercer 1987). This refers to the fact that the teacher is taking up far more of the talking time in the average classroom then the students are. Most of the time, or 2/3 of the time, the teacher is lecturing or asking questions. A classroom program that supports more diverse learners would create more opportunities for varied and organic interaction patterns to occur (Gibbons 2002).

Therefore my New Years Resolution in my classroom is to turn the tables! I hope to have my students talking two thirds of the time and to limit myself to only taking up one third of the talking time. I hope that I can encourage my group of diverse learners to be working and talking more then me!

Writing in a Kindergarten Classroom

In my classroom there is a acquisition perspective to the writing process ( Freeman 2004). What this means is that students will produce writing as they are developing the skills needed to write. The teacher is constantly creating authentic conditions for students to express themselves through writing and classmates as well as the teach as helping students to correct their writing. The teacher gives mini-lessons on all areas of writing and help students to keep focused on the content of what they are writing, not just the form (Freeman 2004).
In my experience this style of teaching writing leads students to be creative with their writing and not limit their ideas because of their ability to write or spell a word. It also leads to a lot of sharing and group work which is very fun for young students. Kindergarteners, first graders as well as second graders are so eager to share their work with peers, parents or teachers.

Starting the New Year

To start the year off our staff had a number of professional development sessions to get our New Year off on the right foot. I was able to have some powerful conversations with a few of my lower elementary teammates about their teaching philosophies. It was interesting to learn more about our different approaches to planning, project-based units and assessments in our classrooms. 

Another kindergarten teacher and I were able to have a great discussion about our use of our literacy block and how we reach all of our learners. We discussed some of the changes that we are making at the start of the New Year to make sure we are accommodating all of our students. We are both going to adapt our Daily 5 model in order to make it a little more kindergarten friendly. We are going to practice read to self and read to someone in a whole group setting in order to build stamina with these difficult tasks. We also talked about different ways to have the students practice these activities. Then we thought we could build in some different choice centers during the daily 5 block that they would be really excited about. 

It was so nice to have the time to collaborate with my teammates. It makes me feel ready to start the New Year off on the right foot! 

Introduction

This is a blog which I will be posting reflections from my teaching and work with diverse learners. I appreciate any comments and feedback!