DAILY JOURNAL

Jacob H
October 4, 2016: Day 1:
After arriving at Aldo Leopold on my first day, there
were several differences I was able to notice from a
traditional school. The first, and most obvious, was that
the students all call their teachers by their first names. I
have yet to decide how I feel about that. The second, is
that it felt very laid back compared to a traditional school,
and there is lots of movement in the classroom, as well
as the hallways.
As soon as I arrived in the classroom, I got right down to work. I was working with
a student one on one with writing a story. This student was very creative and had an
incredible imagination. At first, I didn't understand why this student seemed to be
struggling. However, I realized as we were writing the story down, he would stop writing
and come up with a new idea and just talk forever about it. The hardest challenge for
me was keeping the student focused on writing down the story he had already outlined.
Although it took longer than I had anticipated, we were able to finish the story together.
Later on, I was able to sit with my teacher as she instructed a shared reading
group. Eventually, I am going to have my own reading group to work with (which I am
quite excited about). I observed what my teacher expects from her students, and I
thought that my teacher has found an excellent way to get students engaged in the
story that they are reading.
My teacher has her students "flag" (with
a post it note), words they do not know, key
aspects to the story, predictions, relations to
their own life, or character emotions- just to
name a few. I noticed right away that the
students always wanted to share what they
were learning about the book to their peers and
teacher, something that isn't always prevalent
in schools.

Overall, I had an excellent first day and am excited for the experiences to come.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------October 6, 2016: Day 2
Once again, the first activity I was involved in when I arrived was working one on
one with a student on his story. This student was much different than the student I had
worked with on Day 1. That fact alone reminded me of everything I had learned about at
the University: That each student is different and has his or her own way of learning.
In this case, this particular student loved to write all of his ideas down on the
paper instead of talking about them. Because of this, his story was all over the place.
When I began working with him, my teacher told me that she just needed me to get him
to finish his story because he already had enough information. The only problem? This
student did not want to finish his story, and wanted to write at least 10 more pages
before he was done. However, I convinced this student that he needed to finish his story
because otherwise he would be even further behind on his homework. Once I was able
to convince the student that his other homework was just as important as this story, we
were able to come up with a conclusion and finish the story.
The next classroom activity that took place was the
teacher took all of the students to the reading carpet, and
had several students read their reading log entry to the
class. As a future teacher, I thought that this activity was
extremely beneficial for the students. For the students,
they are able to practice speaking and reading in front of
their classmates. They are also learning to be attentive
listeners, as the teacher had them listen for the key aspect
of the writing the student was supposed to focus on (in
this particular log entry, students were supposed to write about a prediction that they
had in their story).
After several students had read their log entry, the teacher came up with a new
topic for today's log entry, which was making emotional connections to the story. Then
the students went to their respective shared reading groups to read. Like last time, I
observed my teacher and her shared reading group so that next week I am able to have
a group of my own. After today, I feel more than ready to lead a shared reading group of
my own.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------October 11, 2016: Day 3

After arriving at Aldo Leopold today, I was asked to help edit student's stories
one on one with them. I love editing papers, so I was actually pretty excited about this.
However, once we began I realized that there were going to be a lot more mistakes than
I was used to.
One aspect about the class I am in that I noticed from the
first day (besides the first student I worked with) was that
not many of the students can spell. Like at all. This is
interesting to me because a lot of the students are very
good readers, but not good spellers. I don't believe they
have spelling tests either, but I am not 100% sure on that
so I will have to look into that. It's interesting because in
the literacy block we are learning about Phonics and
Phonemic Awareness, and I think a lot of the students
are very good at using their visual, structural, and
meaning capabilities to figure out words. However, when it comes to spelling the words
they just don't know how.
Today was also the day I was able to work with my very own shared reading
group. The group I am working with is reading the book, CHOMP. For that day, the four
students in the group were assigned to read chapters 8 and 9 and have 3 flags they
wanted to discuss. Overall, the group flowed very smoothly.
We were able to discuss all of the flags that each group member had, as well as
briefly summarize the chapters. We also talked about upcoming predictions, as well as
emotional connections that the students had with events that had taken place within the
chapters. I was quite impressed with the students' predictions, although they werent
able to cite specific evidence to back up their predictions. Overall, it was a very
successful day.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------October 14, 2016: Day 4
I have come to the conclusion that I am not a huge fan of being called by my first
name in the classroom. One, it just doesn't feel right, and two, I sometimes feel that

because I am not in the classroom every day -that the students may sometimes view
me as more of a friend than a teacher. It's not the worst thing in the world, I am just not
a fan of it.
Today was an early release, so I was not in the classroom
for very long. However, I edited two stories with the students
who wrote them. Again, I am finding that not many students know
how to spell, but the content is there. One thing besides spelling
that I noticed the students need to work on is quotation marks,
and my teacher said they had just been introduced last week. I
personally am excited to see the improvement that the students
make with understanding the usage of quotation marks over the
next couple of months.
After each student was done editing with me, my teacher would ask them one
thing they thought they did well while writing their story, and one thing after editing with
me something they needed to work on. I liked this approach, because as a teacher it
shows you what the student thinks they are doing well, and whether or not they
understand what they need to work on for the next story.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------October 18, 2016: Day 5
Today I gave a student in my CHOMP reading group a student interest survey.
By giving a student interest survey, a teacher is able to learn more about a particular
student; their likes, dislikes, etc. By learning what a student is interested in, a teacher is
able to set up projects, or lessons that are catered towards that students interests.
This student whom I gave the survey to was very
intelligent. She described how her favorite genre of
story to read was historical fiction. For my student
interest survey project, I was required to pick out what
genre of book I would have this student read next. I
chose historical nonfiction. If this student loved
historical fiction, I figured the next best genre for this
student would be to read age appropriate nonfiction
stories. This student discussed how much she loved

history, and if I were her teacher I would want that love for history to grow.
I was also able to edit another story with a student one on one. This student was
having a difficult time with punctuation and spelling, as well as writing the words on one
line. Together, we updated his individual word wall and added words that are frequent in
his everyday life so that he now will be able to double check his spelling on those
common words.

The last activity I was a part of today was meeting with shared reading groups.
My teacher is completing running records today, so it was my responsibility to meet with
three reading groups. I have been working with the CHOMP group each day thus far,
and they are by far the most advanced reading group. I really enjoy the amount of effort
each student puts into reading. The next group I met with is one of the lower level
reading groups in the class, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. This group is unable to stay on task
well, and tends to spend more time arguing over nothing than actually discussing the
book. However, we were able to pull it together and focus to get work done, which was
quite relieving after a rough start. The final group I met with was the Matilda group. This
particular group is in-between CHOMP and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. The members of this
group are fun to work with. Each has something different and unique to add to our group
discussion, and they all seem excited about the book.
Overall it was a very busy, but fun day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------October 20, 2016: Day 6
Once again, I spent the first 40 minutes of my day editing
a story one on one with a student. This student didnt
have a lot to work on, and seemed more advanced than
the other students I have edited with previously. This
student only seemed to have trouble with spelling and
punctuation, which overall isnt bad at all. The main
difference that I noticed with this student compared to the
students I have previously worked with is that the content
of the story is there. The student seemed to grasp how a
story works, and contained all the elements of a story in
her writing (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action,
resolution).

My teacher is still in the process of testing students with running records,

meaning I had to meet with the same three shared reading groups that I met with last
time. Overall, it was about the same experience as Day 5. The CHOMP group did an
excellent job today using examples from the story to make predictions about what will
happen next, as well as using context clues to discover meaning to words they did not
understand. The Mrs. Piggle Wiggle group did a much better job of staying on task
today, and they were able to work on making inferences and summarizing what they
had read. Lastly, the Matilda group worked on summarizing and making personal
connections to the story. All three groups did excellent work today.
Next Tuesday, I am giving the students a mini lesson on discovering the theme in
books they are reading. I must say that I am pretty excited to get in front of the class
and teach again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------October 25, 2016: Day 7
Well, today was the day! I finally got back in front of the
classroom and taught. It was a great feeling, although I must
say I am a little rusty. I was able to teach the students about
discovering theme.
I did this by reading aloud the childrens book, Jacobs
Tree (ironic I know). In the story, the main theme is waiting
and being patient. Jacob wants to grow faster so he is able to
do all of the things that his older brothers and sisters can dobut obviously he has to wait and be patient in order to grow.
While reading, I was able to stop at strategic points and
promote past student learning, such as predictions and
personal connections.
The amount of repetition the story provided made the theme easy to recognize,
and the students were able to use examples from the story to describe the theme. In
order to know if the students truly understood what theme was, they were to write in
their reading log about the theme in a story that they were reading and provide
examples. Most students grasped the concept right away, but there were a few who did
not, which was to be expected. I spent more individual time with those students during
their work time, and used the same examples from Jacobs Tree to explain the theme.

After I had slowed down my lesson for them individually, they were able to better grasp
what theme is.
I was also able to work with CHOMP again today. Im beginning to see real
progression in how the students are taking what they are learning during mini lessons
and applying it while we are discussing what they have read. It is so fun to work with
these students!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------October 27, 2016: Day 8
Once again, I was back editing stories with students. What I most focused on
during editing today was when it is appropriate to use capital letters, and quotations for
dialogue. Many students throw in random capital letters in words, and many have not
remembered that when someone is talking that quotations marks need to be used. The
students are still learning, so its still a work in progress. The students simply arent
used to writing correctly, and I know that it will come in time.
I again met with the CHOMP group. Each time
we meet, I actually look forward to finding out what
happened in the chapters. Personally, I think its a
fun book to read! The group was fantastic yet again
today. We discussed why characters in the story are
acting the way that they are, based on what we know
about the character by using examples from previous
chapters in the book. We also made predictions on what will happen in the next several
chapters, based on prior knowledge from what we have read. There is still work to be
done, as I was the main facilitator in finding the specific evidence to backup our claims,
but progress nonetheless.
My teacher had to meet with someone during the time that it was time to share
reading logs, so she asked me to facilitate the discussion. Ill take any chance that I can
get to be in charge of a classroom, so I made the most of it. Once a student had
finished reading, we discussed what the student did well in their log, but also something
the student could add to their log to make it better. Overall, it was a fun day at Aldo!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 1, 2016: Day 9

There are many students who have not rewritten their story after
my teacher and I have edited their papers. Many of these students
have trouble staying on task, so my teacher had me go into the study
room with them and have them all work. My job today was to simply
keep them on task, and for the most part, I think I did a decent job. Ive
noticed its always a bit of a struggle to get students started. However,
once you do get them started, its pretty easy to keep them working,
especially if they know they have something that needs to be finished.
I noticed that the students I was working with today tend to feed off of each other.
If one starts making jokes or talking, then the other students chime in. If what the
student says is completely irrelevant to what should be discussed, I ignore it and say
something along the lines of Alright, get back to work. We can talk about it later.
Ive found that if you dont respond to irrelevant topics, the students just get back
to work. Now by no means does that mean I dont interact with the kids in a fun way, but
when the students need to get work done and are purposely trying to talk about random
things in order to not work- one has to keep the students on task by not encouraging the
distraction.
I also met with my CHOMP group again. Im noticing even more progression in
these students. They are very observative readers, and can make many personal
connections, and several of them are starting to be able to form accurate predictions by
using fundamental evidence from what they already know about the story, without me
having to help them find the evidence. I have been nothing short of impressed with this
group throughout the semester, and am excited to continue working with them. We are
nearing the end of this book however, so I am also interested to see what story my
teacher has in mind for them to read next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------November 3, 2016: Day 10
I conducted a running record with a student today. For my literacy block class, I
am required to test this student until he is at an instructional level. Lucky for me, it only
took one running record. The student I tested loves to read. In fact, he asks to be tested
for fun so that he is able to read more. For the most part, this student is a pretty good

reader. He has great fluency and comprehension. However, he makes a lot of visual
mistakes, such as president for prescient, and worrier for warrior. There are also
numerous times when the student would omit a word from the sentence he was reading.
Overall, I now more fully understand why a running record is necessary in order to know
what type of book a student should be reading. A teacher needs to put students with
stories at their instructional level, and the best way to do that is through a running
record.
Today I also worked with a different student
on editing his story. I am required this semester to
analyze a writing sample from a student, and I
think I may have just found the one. Besides
working on his penmanship and spelling, I noticed
that this student leaves out words and phrases that
he verbally adds in while reading his story aloud,
which helps his story make more sense. Together,
we added in the phrases. If you would like to read my entire writing sample analysis,
please see WRITING SAMPLE under the Classroom Resources (Lesson
Plans/Classroom Work) tab.
I also met with CHOMP again. We are nearing the end of the book, and I am
assuming that we will be able to finish by next week, November 10th. My teacher has
told me that I will be obtaining the three students that are in my group now, plus two
others who have tested into the level that my reading group is at. I am excited for what
the future holds.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------November 8, 2016: Day 11
I believe I have edited my final paper for a student story this semester. I noticed
that this particular student was having a difficult time staying on line of the paper, as
well as trouble having the story makes sense. This student has so many ideas, but goes
off on a tangent while writing and causes much of the story to have random tidbits of
information that are irrelevant to the story. During our editing time, we went through
together and picked out what was MOST important to the storyline in order for the plot
to make sense. I am sure that this student will be able to fix this problem in the future, it
will just take practice.

One aspect of the classroom that has been different in

some regards is that I have had to discipline more of the
students for acting inappropriately. There is a new student in
the classroom now, and tends to start up pushing and
tackling in the classroom before my teacher makes it back
from lunch, which is unacceptable. I think this is a good thing
for me though, as I am able to practice being in a situation
where I have to take control of the classroom.
Of course, I met with CHOMP again. We are going to finish the book by this
upcoming Thursday. The new book that my teacher is going to assign is called Lost. It is
a historical nonfiction story of a plane that crashes over the Pacific in World War 2.
Remember how I gave one of my students in my shared reading group a student
interest survey and concluded that the next genre I would give that particular student
was historical nonfiction? And no, I did not tell my field placement teacher about what I
wrote for my student interest survey, so this is all coincidental. However, it must mean
that I am able to make the right decisions based on what I learn from a student interest
survey.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------November 10, 2016: Day 12
I read aloud to the class part of the story Louis Braille. I didnt have to create a
lesson plan for it since I was only reading several chapters. That being said, I still
looked over what I was reading before class and was able to come up with several
questions during the reading to promote past learning. One of the challenges Ive found
is that there are students that try to goof off while you are focused on reading.
Although its pretty easy to stop and scold them, its a
distraction to the class and the story itself.
The technique that I use to not let it happen again is:
I just close the book and sit there and stare at the students
who are causing the problem. I always ask them , "Are you
done?"
This creates a very awkward vibe in the classroom
and so far it has always stopped students from goofing off
more.

For the last time, I met with my CHOMP group. We wrapped up the story,
discussed the techniques the author used in the story, and whether or not we thought
the author couldve added anything different to the story to make it better. Im a little sad
that the the story is over, but since I am a history minor, I cant wait until next week until
my new group begins the story Lost, which deals with a plane crash over the Pacific in
WWII.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------November 15, 2016: Day 13
This week, the students are going to be on a trip to
The Aging and Disability Center in order to interview elders
to find out more about their life. Each year Aldo does this,
and the students write stories about the elders they
interview, which I think is a very neat idea! Today, we
helped the students practice on how to interview someone.
We expressed that if an elder was invested in a story it was
important to keep asking questions about that story, instead
of completely changing the subject.
I also began the story Lost. The Lost group contains the same three members
from CHOMP, plus two new others. Today we introduced the text, and discussed our
background knowledge on WWII and plane crashes. I was impressed with some of the
prior knowledge these students had already obtained, including Japans attack on Pearl
Harbor. As I stated before, I love history and cannot wait for this group to begin reading.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------November 17, 2016: Day 14
The elders visit is tomorrow, so today we went over what questions the students
should be asking the elders. For the most part it went pretty well. I will be attending the
visit as someone who is a facilitator in the discussion between a group of 3 students
and their elder. I have a feeling that I will be the one asking most of the questions, but
thats okay. Im excited to go tomorrow.
I met with Lost today as well. Im trying to make sure the students use their flags
on the new strategies they are learning in class, and for the most part they are doing

really well. We were able to bring out the globe and discuss
the places where the plane crashed, and the countries and
cities that were in the areas. So, in a sense, one could say
that we had a mini geography lesson. I was impressed with
the students on how they kept asking questions to learn
more about the territory of the war, and about what keys
were on a map. These students have shown me that they
are all clearly interested in what this book has to offer.
Overall, it was a great day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------November 18, 2016: Day 15
Today was the field trip to the Aging and Disabilities
Center. I found the trip to be very interesting! The group I
was with had an elder who had been a part of the Cuban
Missile Crisis! Our elder also shared a lot of the same
interests as myself, including sports, fishing and hunting.
I thought it was great for the kids to be able to listen in
on another persons life. Although I was the one doing
most of the questioning (which I predicted), it was still a
great experience for the kids.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------November 22, 2016: Day 16
There are several students in the class who
have difficulty writing because their hands are
extremely weak due to playing too many video
games. My teacher has decided that they need to do
some hand strengthening exercises so that they are
able to improve in the classroom. I went out in the hall
with these students and we worked with clay and
paper. As a matter of fact, even my own hands hurt
when we were finished.

Again, I met with my Lost reading group. We discussed character traits based on
what we know so far about the characters. Im starting to notice that the two students
who were brought up a reading level into this group have improved greatly. They are
talking in much more detail about the book than the first time. As a teacher, it is
wonderful to work with students who are able to pick up different learning techniques so
quickly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------November 29, 2016: Day 17
Yesterday, the students got a lesson on how to create a How
To lesson, and for the assessment they are in the process of
creating their own How To. This means that the students
need to write and draw step by step about how to do
something. One student in particular was struggling with this,
and my field placement teacher had me work with him. He
knew exactly what to do, but he kept wanting to add so many
different things to add on to his original How To. While I was
working with him, I was able to slow his thoughts down and
have him just write down his original idea.
In my Lost group, we talked about the Main Ideas and supporting details of the chapters
we read for our assignment. The students had just got a lesson on discovering the main
idea and supporting details in class today, so they were a bit shaky on figuring it out, but
once we talked about the chapter more, they were able to figure it out, at least for the
most part. In order to see if they truly understand, I am having my group read several
chapters for their homework, and pick out the main idea and supporting details of each
chapter. Now it will be time to wait and see.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------December 1, 2016: Day 18
I honestly cannot believe it is my last day in the classroom. The kids were all sad
it was my last day, and I was too. That being said, there was still work to be done. The
students were writing up their papers on their elders visits. I walked around and kept
them on task. The biggest issue I noticed was that some groups wouldnt let other

students contribute to their group. So naturally I spent a lot of the time making sure
everyone was included in their group project.
I met with Lost for the last time. I was so
proud of my group. Last Tuesday, I had
assigned them to read several chapters and
figure out on their own what the main idea of the
chapter was and have at least two supporting
details. I had read the chapter ahead of time and
knew that there were several main points to the
chapters I had assigned. My group had gotten
both main points and had added specific details
from the chapter to support the main idea. Every
single student. All by themselves. Not one
student had the same detail to support their main
idea. I was very proud of them. I am going to miss meeting with this group greatly.
Finally, we played a class game of Scattergories, and said our goodbyes. I
realized I am going to miss these students, and that I always had a great time working
with them and was always excited to go to the school. Although my time at Aldo has
ended, a new chapter awaits next semester, and I am more than excited to see where it
leads.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------