Over The Shoulder Miscue Analysis

In my practicum classroom, I was able to do an over the shoulder miscue analysis.  The reader was a student that I have worked with before and who I have developed a relationship with.  She is a struggling reader, but has always been willing to read for me.  The reader was a female sixth grade student.  We used her read-to-self book called P.S. Be Eleven, which is a new sequel to One Crazy Summer. 

Although I have conducted one miscue analysis before, this one was very beneficial because I will actually have the opportunity to work with the student and plan lessons based on the information I gather.  While conducting the miscue analysis and analyzing it after, learned a lot about how the student reads.  While we worked in small groups previous, the student has only read one paragraph to me at a time.  From the miscue I was able to listen to and watch her read a significant amount of text, which showed a lot more about how she reads.  I learned that she has some difficulties when reading longer texts that she does not experience when she is reading a shorter section of text.  This definitely impacts what we will work on in our small reading group. The article “Inviting Reflection on Reading Through Over The Shoulder Miscue Analysis shows the importance of retellings saying, “Retellings become opportunities to investigate the student’s understanding of what was read”.  The retelling in my miscue was very significant because we have been working on reading comprehension and it really told me a lot about what the student focuses on when she reads.  She focuses more on getting through the text than engaging with it. I wish I had asked even more questions to ensure I figured out exactly how much she understood in the text.  I learned from this miscue analysis that the reader I have been working with struggles with thinking deeper about the text than just the logical, step by step plot.  I think that in our small reading group, it would really help the student to include a lesson on what else a story or text could be telling us. 

In order to gain the most information from a miscue analysis I need to learn how to answer more questions that gets the student thinking more about the text instead of just saying, "Can you tell me what happened?".  I think that in this miscue, I struggled to get more information out of the reader because I didn't know the questions to ask without leading her towards the understanding that I wanted.  Learning strategies to push students to share more information would really help make the miscue analysis as beneficial as possible.  I learned that miscue analysis or progress monitoring takes preparation and time to debrief in order to make it worthwhile.  If you know what you might be looking for during it, it can help you create a more purposeful conference with the student.  I have also learned just how important this type of progress monitoring is.  I have had the opportunity to observe my cooperating teacher conduct miscues and see how she implements them afterword.  Miscue analyses can be a great tool for planning future grouping, future instruction, and any intervention that individual students might need.

One moment that really stood out to me was when the reader related what she had read to a situation that had just happened at home with her baby cousin.  From doing this miscue, I figured out that I want to jump on the opportunity to encourage these connections and having the student consciously think about what the text reminds her of.  This thinking and connecting will definitely help her develop a deeper understanding of what she is reading.

In a previous blog post I wrote about how important I think it is to be as connected to individual students’ learning as possible.  One of my teaching beliefs is based on the importance of meeting students at the ability level they are and helping them move forward.  However, you can’t meet students where they are in their learning if you don’t know where they are.  Miscue Analysis is a great way to figure out students’ strengths and what they need to work on.  It can be used to determine the best next steps that would most benefit the learners.  Over The Shoulder Miscue Analysis is a tool that I want to include in my classroom, but I know that it will take practice before I can fully use it to its full potential.

Thanks!

Kate

The Classroom Environment

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”  Theodore Roosevelt

         This is the first thing that comes into my head when I think about creating my future classroom spaces.  Realistically, there is a large chance that I will never have the amount of room I want.  A classroom that I am currently in has 29 students in it and the district technically zoned it for 17 students.  But I know that I will need to be creative and use the space I have and use it to its full potential.  When designing my classroom I want to strike a good balance between input from my students and my own ideas. This will take work and it will take time, but it will be well worth it when my classroom environment enhances my students’ learning instead of prevents it.

Questions I want to consider when building a classroom that supports my developing beliefs?

         How do my classroom spaces contribute to building a community of learners with my students?

         How are the displays, artwork, posters, and bulletin boards useful for students?

         How do the different spaces in my classroom help students focus on their learning?  Aka how do I minimize distractions?

         My classroom design needs to encourage and support the structure of our day.  Using specific spaces in the classroom to reinforce routines helps students remember them and helps them anticipate what is going to happen.  If we always do read alouds from the carpet in the reading corner, students will know what to expect and how they should act when asked to gather there.  The design and spaces in my classroom need to help with the organization of our schedule and day.  Debbie Miller emphasizes the importance of having a place for everything and a reason for that place.  When there are specific places attached to where students should place their finished work to where the books for guided reading are kept students will have more time to get in the learning zone rather than stressing out about where to get something or where to put something.  I believe that teaching students about organization is a crucial aspect to their success in the rest of their academic career and designing an environment that promotes organization and structure will help accomplish that.

         My classroom design needs to help students make independent decisions and support their learning.  I don’t believe that my classroom walls and bulletin boards should only be filled with pretty posters of flowers and dogs, just because I like them.  Everything that is displayed in my classroom should benefit the students’ growth, both academically and socially.  The walls should have posters with steps for finishing a piece of writing, allowing students to make their own decisions rather than coming to the teacher and saying, “I’m done, what do I do?”  The posters should help remind students of words they can use, remind them of strategies that can help them, and ideas they need to remember related to the concepts we are covering.  The walls should display what the class is striving for and how far they have come from past work, ideas, and accomplishments.  

      My classroom design needs to facilitate both conversation and community, but also focus.  I want my classroom to encourage collaboration without distraction, which I know will be a tricky thing to accomplish.  This includes many areas and opportunities for students to work together, but it also includes finding ways to maximize the students' focus on the tasks.  This may include grouping desks in deliberate thought out ways, and having separate designated areas for groups to work together instead of sending groups all over the room and hallway to work.  I also want my classroom to be really inviting and happy without an overload of the rainbow and clutter.  

     I like the idea that my classroom environment doesn't need to be set in stone after I have finished putting it together in August before the students come.  I want to remember that if something isn't working in my classroom design it is worth taking the time to rethink it to benefit my students' learning and attitude towards our work together.  I want my students to feel at home in my classroom while also feeling inspired to work hard and challenge their learning.  But of course I will also be excited to design my own desk and classroom door decorations!  I just know those won't be the main contributions to developing a classroom environment that emphasizes learning, community, respect, and joy.

Thanks!

Kate

    

My Teaching Beliefs

At this point in teaching career, which has barely begun, I find defining my teaching beliefs to be very difficult.  The beliefs and ideas that I have developed have strictly been from my education courses and seeing exemplary classrooms and teachers in books, articles, or movies.  I think that beliefs cannot be developed solely from research and there needs to be a certain amount of real life trial and error.  I know that I have ideas about what I want my classroom and my teaching to be like, but until I put those ideas into action I won't know if they truly work or will be valuable in my classroom.  Debbie Miller includes a quote from Shelley Harwayne about teaching beliefs that really strikes me.

• Classroom practice must be based on richly understood and deeply held beliefs about how children learn to read.  In other words, what teachers say and do and how they engage children in reading acts must have theoretical underpinnings.  Their practice is not based on a publisher's set of teacher directions or a handbook filled with teaching tips, but on concepts they themselves have examined carefully.

This quote embodies how I feel about my teaching beliefs.  I know they will not be deeply held until I have examined them carefully in action.  Simply, I think that my beliefs will grow from doing; teaching and learning in the elementary classroom.  

However, I know that I need to have beliefs about teaching before I get into the classroom in order to guide my instruction for my students and my learning as a teacher.  These beliefs will be based on what I have learned in my courses and what I have read from expert teachers.

The classroom should be a place that students embrace and that embraces students.

     I want my classroom to be an inviting place for students both physically and figuratively.  I want to create an environment that students are excited to get to in the morning and are reluctantly dragging themselves out the door when the bell rings at the end of the day.  I want it to be place that students want to be.  Accomplishing this is much more difficult than wanting it to happen.  I think that the classroom should be owned by both the students and the teacher, rather than it seeming like the teacher's space that students are in.  Students should feel like they should have their own space within the classroom and that each of them belongs there.

Meet students where they are.

     Every student comes in to the classroom in a completely unique position with a unique background.  Every student has different abilities, different strengths, and different things they need to work on.  In order to guide students in their academic and personal growth, I need to recognize and value the exact position that students are.  By doing so, I can determine the best way to connect with the student and challenge them to further their learning.

In order to truly reach the potential of learning, students need to take risks.

     If students only do what they know they can, they will never know what they are truly capable of. As a student, I was usually afraid of being wrong.  I was afraid that I would say the wrong answer in front of the class and I was afraid of getting a bad grade.  As a teacher, I want to help my students realize that mistakes are a good thing and that being wrong is part of learning.  I want my students to see errors as part of the process of getting something right, rather than as a set back in their learning.

The curriculum should be an asset.

     Over the past three years, and I guess my entire life, it has become a universal fact that the majority of teachers hate the curriculum they are given.  Obviously I haven't had the frustrating experience of trying to teach someone to read with materials that don't work.  Right now, I believe that teachers should use the curriculum in the most valuable way they can while supplementing it with engaging and worthwhile experiences.  I know that this will be difficult and extremely time consuming, but I know that it is also crucial to reach the potential of student learning.

Teachers teach life.

      It is difficult to out into one sentence, but is a very strong belief of mine.  Students don't remember teachers because they taught them addition really well.  Students remember teachers that changed them and helped them grow as people.  The life lessons curriculum of our classrooms is just as important as the academic curriculum.  Teachers teach students how to respect one another, the importance of work ethic, confidence, the importance of helping others, and much more than that.  Everything we say and do as teachers has an impact on the people that our students will become.

I know that the more that I learn, the more my beliefs will change and develop.  When I am in the classroom and experiencing what it's like to see students succeed and see them struggle I will learn what is most important about teaching and learning.  Until then, I'll keep learning and studying the ideal examples of seasoned, passionate teachers.

Thanks for reading!

Kate