My Reading Clinical Experience

Oakview- Mrs. Gilbert's Second Grade Class

I learned a lot during my time in Mrs. Gilberts second grade class at Oakview Elementary School.  When I first arrived at Oakview and saw the wonderful environment Mrs. Gilbert had set up for her students, I knew she was going to be a wonderful teacher to learn from.  She has a Ranch theme throughout the room.  She has anchor charts, word walls, graphic organizers, class schedule, students work posted on the wall and various charts for students to reference.  The student’s desks are arranged in clusters to promote conversation and interaction.  She also has a reading area where books were clearly labeled and categorized, a listening center, computer area, guided reading area and place for class to gather on a rug in the front of the classroom. 

Mrs. Gilbert has wonderful classroom management skills.  Her students are well behaved and know what is expected of them.  She uses positive reinforcement by letting the class add a “link to the chain” when they are well behaved or staying on task.  Once the class gets 15 links on the chain, the class gets a reward.  Mrs. Gilbert allows them to make suggestions about what the reward should be, then the class votes.  The last reward was popsicles.  Some of the suggestions were: pajama day, bring a stuffed animal to school day, extra recess, no homework pass, and cupcakes. 

Mrs. Gilbert has a system to address student’s individual behavior.  The following is posted:

You’re a Role Model

Outstanding Partner

Good Job!

Ready to Learn

Oops!  Think about it!

Teachers Choice

Call home

 

 

 

 She has clothes pins with each student’s name on it.  Every student starts the day at “Ready to Learn.”  If she sees a student setting a good example, she will tell them to “clip up.”  Every time they clip up they get to put a raffle ticket into a pot.  At the end of the week, students can trade their raffle tickets for various prizes.  If a student is acting out, she will ask them to “clip down.”  I have noticed that this doesn’t happen too often.  You can tell that the students have great respect for their teacher and really want to please her.

Mrs. Gilbert follows a routine the students are accustomed to following.  They begin by pulling out their homework and planners.  They write down the homework assignment for the next day and review the homework.  Then they jump right into the ELA instruction.  She calls them to rug in the front of the room and they begin their day with having a book read aloud to them.  During this read aloud time she teaches various lessons such as: character charts, sequence of events, cause and effect, main idea and details, how to ask questions, etc.  Mrs. Gilbert always has the charts she fills out posted for the students to refer too. 

After time is spent as a class reading aloud, she has them break into centers.  Below is an example of what her centers may look like during the week.  She has this on a Promethean Board and moves students names around.  She usually does 3 centers per day. 

WWW	Math	Poetry	Non Fiction*
Art *	SSR and Bookshop	Vocabulary	Computer
Reading Response*	Listening	SSR	SSR
Book Shop	SSR	Extra Centers	Extra Centers

The row at the bottom is for early finishers.

WWW- working with words
SSR- Self Selected Reading
*= Turn in work

Mrs. Gilbert will pull a group for guided reading while the other students work on centers.  Oakview uses Fontus and Pinnell.  Mrs. Gilbert has the group reading the same book and allows them to use post- it notes while they read.  Below you will see the color coding chart the students follow:

Sticky Note Color	Meaning of Color
Yellow	This idea is a very important point for me to remember.
Green	I have a question about what I read.
Pink	Awesome!  I want to share this!
Blue	I have a connection!  This reminds me of…
Purple	I do not know this word.

 I feel this is a wonderful tool and I plan to use this when I am in the classroom.  It works well because the students read independently, so if they have thoughts or questions, they can continue to read and have their concerns and comments addressed later.  Mrs. Gilbert works with one student at a time, so the post-it note system decreases the amount of interruptions she has.  When Mrs. Gilbert works with one student, she has them read aloud to her.  She takes notes on each student daily to monitor their progress.  During guided reading, the other students whisper into tube-a-loo to hear themselves read. 

 Overall, my clinical experience was very educational.  I know that I have learned a lot of things that I will use in the classroom from Mrs. Gilbert, and from my reading class.  I cannot wait until I can use all I learned in my own classroom.