Important Aspects in my classroom.

Throughout my blog I have demonstrated what is important aspects of Language Arts to have in my classroom.I created a web to show how my beliefs and understandings have changed through out this semester. This link will take you to a web of my final beliefs and understanding .


When looking at the web the green are my initial beliefs and the pink is my final beliefs.

Setting up a Classroom Library

I think it is important for a teacher to have a variety of books in his/her classroom library because students need to be expose to all different kinds of books. The library should nonfiction, fiction, biographies, autobiographies,magazines, and poetry. It is important for students to be expose to all different kind of books because they will encounter different types of literature in their life time. A teacher should organize the classroom room library by section: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry. Within these sections the books should be organized by topics and all the books should be labeled what level the books. By organizing books students will have an easier time finding books on their level and their interest.

Ways to be an Effective Teacher

The Routman article (2003) taught me ways to be an effective teacher:
• Their students spend about 50 percent of the day reading and writing;in less effective classrooms, students may spend only 10 percent of the day reading and lots of time on "stuff
• Their students spend enormous amounts of time reading easy text that they can successfully read with fluency.
• Well-crafted, explicit demonstrations and explanations during all aspects of reading instruction-whole class, small group, individual are standard practice.
• They promote purposeful, open-ended talk( teacher to student and student to student) that is " more conversational than interrogational".
• The task assign are meaningful and challenging, involve some student choice, and often several content areas ( reading, writing and social studies, for example
• They evaluate student work more on improvement and effort than on achievement. They prepare rubrics students can use to evaluate their own work. They spend little time preparing their students to take standardized tests. (Routman, R (2003) Reading Essential. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, p. 185-200.)

I found these ways to be very helpful to help set up my future classroom. These tips will help me develop a strong classroom schedule and environment.

Assessing Students

It is important for teachers to use three different kinds of assessment which include traditional, portfolio, and performance because " all three provide valuable data to assess the whole child" ( Burke pp. 4 2006). Traditional assessment allow teachers to see the knowledge of content and skills of a student. Portfolio assessment help show the student's progress over time, allow students to assess and set new goals for themselves.  Performance assessment allow students to apply their knowledge of the content and skills to a real task. According to Burke " if a teacher uses all three measurements in appropriate proportions for the grade level, however, a true portrait of student as learner emerges" ( Burke pp. 4 2006).

I think it is important for teachers to modify their lessons based on formative assessment. Formative assessment is ongoing observations and feedback  in the classroom and outside the classroom. According to Burke (2006) "since formative assessment are ongoing they provide continuous feedback about the students' strengths and weaknesses. The teacher uses observation and feedback to modify the content, process, and product and adjust the pace for all or some of the students, depending upon their needs" (4). The teacher needs to notice the strengths and weakness bases on these observations. I believe that teacher should take anecdotal notes on each student. By taking anecdotal notes on each student you have a better understanding of each student performances, weaknesses, strengths and a teacher can modify to the students needs.