'Life of a Student' by Shavel Swan

I created a podcast entitled 'Life of a Student' to express my feelings towards school. The link to this podcast is- https://anchor.fm/shavel-swan/episodes/Life-of-a-Student-by-Shavel-Swan-enunbt

Poetry Gallery

(Sticker Mania, 2020)

Just ‘Wow!’ This was the only statement that came to my mind on Wednesday 25th November 2020. As I walked through the classroom to view the poetry pieces I was amazed by how Mrs. Gillian Lazarus uses her reading strategies so effortlessly. One (1) of the strategies is the Poetry Gallery. You may be asking yourself ‘What is a Poetry Gallery?’ A poetry gallery can be easily defined as a strategy where the teacher pastes pieces of poems on the wall for students to view and examine.

As a preservice teacher, I analyze the teacher's every move. I analyze the teacher’s deportment in the classroom to the strategies that they use. I do this since I know that my lecturer is modeling the acceptable ways of a good teacher. Before beginning the gallery walk my teacher gave us a question to guide us as we moved from poem to poem. As I moved from poem to poem I discovered that every poet has their own way of expressing their ideas and feelings. The way in which the poet expresses themselves should appeal to some sort of emotion in the reader.

As a future teacher, I aspire to use this strategy in my classroom. I now know that the students do not necessarily always have to be sitting down to do sit work activities. Students should be allowed to move to be engaged in the learning process. This constant movement does not only bring about student involvement but they will also be interested and motivated to learn. I also see the importance of planning as a teacher. When a teacher plans the lesson transitions smoothly and the students are not left ‘lost’ and unsupervised. I also learned that the teacher should guide the students as they engage in activities so they would not be confused.

 

References

Sticker Mania. (2020). Retrieved from https://mystickermania.com/sticker-packs/adventure-time/adventure-time-amazed-jake

 

Application of the 6+1 Traits of Writing

 

(Pinterest, 2020)

The day was Friday 20th November 2020. The day I felt like I finally understood the reason why we completed the topic the 6+1 traits of writing. When we finalized the topic 6+1 Traits of Writing, I never really understood the reason why we did this topic. I thought that this topic was only done since we needed to complete the course outline. Then the time came when we had to analyze a child’s writing piece. When we had to complete this task I grew confused because I cannot analyze my work so how can I analyze another child’s work. After having numerous ‘drills’ on how to analyze the child’s work I realized that the strengths and weaknesses we were coming up with were from the 6+1 traits of writing. As a result of completing this session, I realize that you need to use the 6+1 Traits of Writing to analyze students' work. I can also use the 6+1 Traits of Writing to analyze my writing pieces. I found it quite difficult to remember the 6+1 traits of writing so I have developed a mnemonic to memorize it. This is ‘Idle oranges voice words to create sentences perfectly.’ Idle-Ideas, Oranges- Organization, Voice-Voice, Words- Word Choice, Create- Conventions, Sentences- Sentence Fluency, Perfectly- Presentation.

I must confess that I still do not feel like I can analyze students' writing effectively. To give myself practice I will help analyze my siblings writing pieces as well as my community children’s work. I will also seek assistance from my more knowledgeable peers.

As a future teacher, I will use a rubric for the 6+1 Traits of writing, to help me to analyze the students work to give students corrections. I will also use the 6+1 Traits of writing rubric to help assist me in correcting my pieces for my writing portfolio and when I decide to write more pieces.

 

References

Pinterest. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/393290979929176397/

 

My Flaw in Creating Activities for Narrative Writing

 

                                                             (SCOO NEWS, 2020)

The day was Tuesday, 10th November 2020. On this day, I learned how I can use my Narrative piece to create activities for students to be engaged. While being a preservice teacher, I lack the abilities to be able to guide students properly to complete tasks. I learned that the instructions given to students must be explicit so students may be able to complete the activity to the best of their ability. Though I still feel incompetent to create activities so students can be involved in after the writing piece is read to them, I plan to seek assistance from my peers for guidance and assistance. 

 

References

SCOO NEWS. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.scoonews.com/news/poster-making-competition-for-grade-6-organised-at-jayshree-periwal-high-school-1669