Top Test-Taking Tips for Elementary Students

Date: October 26th, 2022

by: Hailey Palella

9 Weeks Down!

I cannot believe it is already week 9! Last week, I taught reading and phonics. As I mentioned in my last post, I thought it went really well, the only thing that was a struggle for me was the word chains! However, it is a new week today and I was so thrilled to be in the classroom and back with my MT.

Today was like any other day in the classroom, students start off with their morning journal. I usually get the students’ working on it right away when they enter the classroom. As the students walk in and get settled I will usually say, “Good Morning, I am happy to see you all. Today is thoughtful Thursday and my MT will have a question with a sentence starter for the students to begin their morning journals on. This weeks question was, “Why are flamingos pink?” The sentence starter for the students was, “Flamingos are pink because…”. The students do a phenomenal job of answering the question and drawing their pictures. These kids are really good at drawing, I am very jealous! I think starting off with the morning journal is great because it is a slow start to the day before all of the content. Next, my MT will do a brief morning meeting, take attendance, lunch counts, etc. Then, Math instruction begins. Today I paid a lot of attention to Math because I will be teaching it the week of November 17th; a few short weeks :)! I took some notes on my MT’s classroom management strategies and how she teaches Math so I can mimic that in a few weeks.

With that being said, I think Math is the subject I am most worried to teach, I thought Phonics was but I think Math will be. The reason I am saying that is because I hated Math as a kid and I think those insecurities are coming out and that is not a good sign, however I need to stay positive. Thinking back to Field Experience 2, I taught addition to the students and it went really well. I am hoping for that same outcome for this lesson!

On a side note it was my MT’s birthday yesterday October 26th, so I brought her a little gift today! 🙂

Next week, I will be teaching again, I am teaching reading and the target skill is story structure and dialogue; more specially visualization.

I look forward to another great week! 🙂

Here is my LP outline at this time:

• AS: Introduce Visualization (five senses), provide examples of five senses- (ask students for examples of what they feel/touch/taste/see/smell/visualize when they are at the movie theater- SB activity)
• DI: Discuss visualizing parts of a story, review and read the story, “A Cupcake Party” written and illustrated by David McPhail (TTW point out specific parts in story that students can visualize, TTW pause and have students visualize parts in the story and then have students explain what they are visualizing)
• GP: Brief turn and talk activity; visualization of a playground in the summertime
• IP: Complete premade graphic organizer with six boxes (five senses- what can I hear/see/smell/touch/taste/visualize in the story from the story)
• C: Review visualization with students (TTW ask for some examples), prepare students for phonics

Here is the story that I will be reading and reviewing next week; “A Cupcake Party” written and illustrated by David McPhail!

Here is the story that I read to the students today! They loved it!

posted on: October 27th, 2022 at 6:41pm

Date: October 20th, 2022

by: Hailey Palella

2nd Lesson Day

Today I taught my second lesson! As same as the first lesson; going in I was very excited and prepared. I practiced my lesson multiple times for teaching it and I was very pleased with the result of my lesson plan and materials. The assessment checklist, not so much. I am not sure why but I had a harder time assessing students during this lesson, I think it was because I was not evaluating a final product.

Although, creating a lesson plan, gathering materials, and designing an assessment checklist is hard and time consuming. I am glad to be one step closer to student teaching! After this one, I teach three more times and then I move onto student teaching which is very exciting!

Although, I was excited to teach my lesson. I was a bit overwhelmed this time doing my lesson plan. I am not sure why, I think its because I had a lot of big assignments due this week. However, I made it through!

below is my lesson plan outline:

AS: Read the story, “The Legend of Spookly the Square Pumpkin” written by Joe Troiano (ask students questions before reading, during, and after reading about sequencing- what has happened so far, what do you think will happen next?)

DI: Briefly review what sequencing is, what characters are, and what the setting means, discuss time words (first, next, then, last)

GP: Use a premade graphic organizer with boxes to write the characters, setting and sequence of the story (beginning, middle, and end), scribe students’ answers on the SB (WG), then have students turn and talk and have them practice retelling the story to a partner- including the parts of the story that we just discussed.

DI: Use Phonics Curriculum PowerPoint- phonological awareness warm up, fluency (high-frequency words)

IP: Student Workbook- pg.55 (fluency, word chains, passage reading) (provide workbook answers throughout the lesson)

C: Review Phonics, begin transition for social studies

Here are some of the materials that I will be using in my lesson:

Onto the next! 🙂

posted at 5:42pm -Thursday, October 20th, 2022

Date: October 13th, 2022

by: Hailey Palella

Week 7 Already????

I cannot believe it is already week 7. Last week was my first teaching day and I thought it went very well and I am very pleased of how it went. As I discussed with my professor, not everything in a lesson will go perfectly and that is okay! I also learned it is okay to deviate from my lesson plan! I think because I have been taught the lesson plan layout and have been told to be very specific with the details in my lesson plans that I forget the reality of teaching which is not always reading from the lesson plan and that it is okay to add in things that are not in the lesson plan in and during my teaching.

This week I am focusing on my Reading and Phonics lesson. I am more nervous about teaching phonics because I am terrible at it myself. I think, “How am I going to teach students something I am not confident in myself?” However, I know that phonics instruction will not go away and that I need to start becoming more comfortable with it before I am in a classroom by myself. I really like when my MT teaches phonics, she is such a natural at it. Every day I am in awe of how amazing, kind, sweet, helpful, and supportive my MT is. I cannot say this enough, I am truly grateful that I got placed with my MT, I have learned so much from her in the past 7 weeks and I cannot wait to continue to learn! She is truly the best person I have ever met and is the true definition of loving what you do, she was made to teach!

As I mentioned, I will be teaching reading and phonics on October 20th and I am very excited but also nervous at the same time. I have a brief lesson plan outline right now and this week I will be finishing my first draft lesson plan for my literacy lesson.

Here is my brief outline of my lesson thus far:

• AS: Read the story, “Spookly the Square Pumpkin” written by Joe Troiano (ask students questions before reading, during, and after reading about sequencing- what has happened so far, what do you think will happen next?)
• DI: Briefly review what sequencing is, what characters are, and what the setting means, discuss time words
• GP: Use a premade graphic organizer with boxes to write the characters, setting and sequence of the story (beginning, middle, and end), scribe students’ answers on the SB (WG), have students turn and talk and have them practice retelling the story to a partner- including the parts of the story that we just discussed
• DI: Use Phonics Curriculum PowerPoint- phonological awareness warm up, fluency (high-frequency words)
• IP: Student Workbook- pg.55 (fluency, word chains, passage reading)
• C: Provide Workbook Answers- Transition- (clean up, prepare students for social studies)

I am very excited to teach Reading and Phonics this week! 🙂

This weeks theme was nocturnal animals, so today I read the story, “Littlebat’s Halloween Story” written by Joe Troiano.

Another thing that I started this week was my newsletter! I am very pleased with it! Here is a sneak peek of it!

posted at 5:04pm on Thursday October 13th, 2022

Date: October 6th, 2022

by: Hailey Palella

1st Lesson Day!

Today I taught my first lesson! Going in I was very excited and prepared. I practiced my lesson multiple times for teaching it and I was very pleased with the result of my lesson plan, materials, and assessment checklist. Although, creating a lesson plan, gathering materials, and designing an assessment checklist is hard and time consuming. I am glad to be one step closer to student teaching! After this one, I teach four more times and then I move onto student teaching which is very exciting!

below is my lesson plan outline:

Introduction:  First, I will be reviewing what the students learned the day before/discuss fire safety (review), then I am going to pose the question, “what causes fires” to students and show them examples of what causes fires. I have made a premade PowerPoint showing five causes of fires which include, candles, lightning, cooking-stove, gasoline, and barbecue pit. I will show the PowerPoint to the students after calling on a few of them to answer the question.

Direct Instruction: Next, I will be using the scenario cards that my MT provided me! I am very thankful for that!! 😊 I am going to try to do 3-5 cards. I am going to do 1 whole group and then do 2 or 3 and have the students turn and talk, and 1 person per group share.

Guided Practice: Next, I am going to have the students brainstorm fire safety tips (anchor chart paper) and introduce vocabulary (premade document) I plan to add to it, if they students give vocab words that are not on there. Then, I will implement a quick interactive google slide on stop, drop, and roll (which is one of the vocabulary terms I have listed on the document) and then afterwards we will go back and underline important vocabulary terms, foreshadowing independent practice.

Independent Practice: During IP, the students will work on a fire safety tip worksheet and refer back to vocabulary list (underlined words)

Conclusion: Lastly, I will have students state what they are going to do to make sure fires do not happen in their homes- students will report back next week and tell me what they did.

This is the outline that I followed during my lesson! It went pretty well! I was nervous that it was going to be too much for the students. I am glad that everything went as I planned, however I know that not everything will be always go that way!

Below are some of the materials that I used during my lesson! I am really thankful that my MT provided me with the “what if” scenario cards and the fire safety tip worksheet. Both of these very super important in my lesson and I am so glad she gave me those suggestions!

P.S. I also read this story to the students during reading (before phonics and my lesson). The students love it!

I look forward to another great week! Now, I will be focusing on my literacy/phonics lesson plan!

posted at 4:50pm- Thursday, October 6th, 2022