Reflections

November 20, 2009

As I look back on this digital audit trail journey I have a mixture of emotions. True, I did indeed get all the work done and got the project completed on time, which is a sweet relief. However, even though it was out of my control I would have much preferred us not missing those three weeks' worth of conferencing time because I think it seriously affected how much she retained. The meetings were spread out so that we could always meet once a week and establish a set routine, making it easier for her to remember what we talked about. Missing some weeks and meeting more than once a week during others seemed to make the conferences less effective, but like I mentioned in a previous entry I'll have to be ready for situations like that as a future teacher.

If I were to redo these reading conferences to make them better for my students, I would try to make sure they were as consistent as possible and that I might already have some ideas laid out for common areas requiring growth. For example, if I already know that several students are struggling with giving their sentences any expression and not pausing between sentences, I might research different approaches to teaching the subject to reach all of the students. Also, the Tricky Word Card seemed the most effective so chances are that i would reuse that one and maybe even teach it to the whole group.

Now that the audit trail is complete, I can move on to the "L" column of my KWL chart from the beginning of the project. This means that I can answer the three questions that were listed in the "Want to Know" column, so here goes!

1. How do you go about "fixing" whatever problem a student is struggling with? "Fixing" a student's struggle is not necessarily a one-time thing; it will take time, practice, and review, so you can't just mention it to them and then let it go. Also, research about common reading struggles students have could help a new teacher find different approaches to handling difficulties.
2. How do you make the student feel comfortable and not nervous? The key to this is being honest with the students to a certain degree, because they actually like it when you are honest with them because they feel like you trust them. Also, they generally don't feel too nervous if you're their teacher because you're already familiar to them.
   
3. How do you choose one specific issue to work on in a conference if it seems like the student needs a lot of help? I can't really say that I'm exactly the expert on this since my student was a fairly advanced reader and not severely struggling, but i think you might just focus on what they should already know in their grade so that they can at least be at grade level. At least, that's what we discussed in class with each other during class with our partners.
   

Overall this has been a completely new and very useful experience as I have journeyed into the unknown and tried something I will have to become familiar with as a teacher. Although it may not have turned out the way I may have preferred it to, it was still a rewarding experience that I can look back on and use the knowledge I gained in future reading conferences!


So by now you're probably wondering why, at the end of each entry, I included a picture of a book cover. If you are familiar with the books, you may have also noticed how the complexity of the books got progressively simpler over time! These books represent my feelings at the end of each blog entry regarding the entire reading conference idea and process. A downhill slope might seem like a strange representation of anything, but I actually have a reason for this!

The first book I included was the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This book is over 1200 pages long and is not a book for the weak of will; complex text and incredible length turned me off to reading past the first chapter. Atlas Shrugged is at the top of the steps and the first book because when I first learned about the reading conferences and audit trail I honestly wasn't sure where to begin, what to do, or even if it would be possible for me to continue on, much like trying to read that book. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a small step down in difficulty from Atlas Shrugged because it is less than half the length and overall seems slightly easier to grasp. I felt like after my first real meeting with my student where we had our running record, reading inventory, and first conference it seemed like I had more of a foothold and comprehension of what I was supposed to do. Harry Potter and Judy Moody Gets Famous are, in order, progressively easier than the previous two, which is how the conferences seemed to go as I became more comfortable with them, until at last I came to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Eric Carle's book shows how I have finally arrived at a stage where the conferences are not so unclear for me now that I have the experience. It's not a one-word-per-page book, but it is much, much simpler than Atlas Shrugged and much easier for me to read and follow from page to page. Being at the bottom of the steps leaves me more secure and on stable ground, which is exactly where I wanted to be. =]