Corrie Waddell November Blog #4: Teach with a Sense fo Urgency

The Chapter Teach with a Sense of Urgency emphasizes making every moment in the classroom count. To me this simply means taking advantage of each moment you have with your students.  I believe this is a key to becoming an effective teacher. In my grade level this requires strategic planning and preparation of materials needed to optimize time.

The author mentions how we must have high expectations for our students. This means believing that your students can learn and have the ability to learn. As a pre-K teacher I strive to push my students. Not only do we practice writing our letters, but with each letter we create a new page in our alphabet books, which includes writing a sentence. In the beginning it was difficult, but now because of this my students have began to refine their fine motors skills. This has made them better writers and illustrators.  They have also picked up a few sight words along the way. I have learned that having high expectations for your students doesn't mean that you set goals that are not developmentally appropriate or unattainable. Instead, you set goals that take your students a step further and force them to use higher order thinking skills. These goals may give your students a deeper understanding of content and allow them to make real world connections.

The section "Focus on Language Acquisition, Not Just Letters and Sounds" gave me some insight into something I may not have realized before. In pre-k we focus on students being able to recognize letters and produce the sounds that they make. Which is needed, but I now know why it is important not to just focus on individual letters and sounds. I now understand an alternate purpose for all of the nursery rhymes and poems that we sing in pre-k. " It teaches students phonemic awareness!" Now that it has been pointed out to me it only makes sense. Nursery rhymes are not just for teaching students how to rhyme, but they also teach students to manipulate sounds of words. In my own experience they also teach my students new vocabulary.

The author also mentions that we should create our own texts for shared, guided, and independent reading. I love this idea particularly for my age group of students. I have always known that students loved to read books that they write themselves, but have struggled in the past to find time for these activities. The author writes, "The texts students write themselves are highly motivating and engaging".  Which I absolutely agree with, and since I am no longer doing the time consuming calendar activities I now have more time in my schedule for literacy activities. After reading this chapter my goal will be to make at least one class book a month. These books will  become a part of our classroom library and will be easier for my students to read because they are the authors and illustrators.

I believe that the quote that best describes this chapter is, "Only by teaching all of our students with a sense of urgency and joy can we hope to challenge them in appropriate and meaningful ways". This means that we must do all we can to teach and prepare our students to become excellent readers and writers. Who can intern love reading and writing because it is meaningful to them.