Two things that are going well are that I feel like I'm getting a better understanding of each student's
specific needs and I feel like I'm creating strong relationships with most of my students. The beginning of the year was very overwhelming and I was balancing all of things administrators wanted me to do, with bonding with my students and assessing them as well. I feel like right now instruction is individualized and appropriate and I've learned about each of them on a personal level.
One thing I wish to improve is collaboration among students about what they're reading. I want them to talk to each other more about favorite books and make recommendations. To improve this, I am having students write book reviews about books they've currently read and creating a bulletin board to display the reviews. Another thing I wish to improve is our classroom library. If students are expected to read, they need high interest books. I'm going to speak to my administrators about purchasing new books and I'm going to hold a book drive to encourage students to bring in any used, but interesting, books from home.
Andrea,
ReplyDeleteI greatly appreciate your reflection of the positive impact that building relationships with students can make. Developing the foundation of a positive and safe classroom community is important. It sounds like you have that in place! Great work! I like the practice you have put in place for your students to share books they are reading and what books they like. Finding high interest reading material for students that require a lower level of reading can be a challenge using the current resources available at school sites. I appreciate that you are collaborating with administration to address this need. I wish you luck! --Cindy