Hadley Smith

Educational Philosophy

Readers' Workshop

Mini Lesson

I start readers' workshop with a mini lesson to introduce our target learning goal for the day.

Readers' mini lessons included analyzing text, critical thinking, and discussion. I use the mini lesson to model critical thinking and our target learning goal for the day.

Differentiation during Active Involvement

Following my teaching portion of the lesson, students practice what I modeled. I use the active involvement portion of my lesson to gradually release responsibility to students.

On the right, I attend to students who need additional support during active involvement. I use probing questions to guide student thinking.

Small Group InstructionAfter mini lessons, I pull small groups to differentiate my instruction based on student readiness.

Here, I work with students on writing effective claims. During readers' workshop students frequently wrote about their reading to engage in high level thinking.

Guided Reading Groups

The strategy group on the right is focused primarily on maintaining comprehension. I teach students how to monitor their comprehension using strategies and sticky notes. I work to ensure comprehension through conversation.

On the right, I meet with a book club. I model and teach discussion moves to create productive dialogue and critical thinking.

Conferring During readers' workshop, I meet individually with students to set reading goals and check progress.

Informal conferences allow me to formatively assess students' reading progress at an individual level.

To the right, I meet with a student to create a plan to track comprehension using sticky notes. I take notes during conferences using an iPad (see next slide).

Conferring Template: Monitoring Student Growth

I use a note taking app on my iPad to conference with students. I monitor and track student growth and thinking using the template to the right.

Writing about Reading

In our Following Characters into Meaning unit, a student compares the main character in her independent reading book to a text she has previously read to grow ideas about characters.

Writing about Reading

Students respond to their reading by writing about their reading. The above pieces show students exploring characters across text and theme.

Assessment Drives Instruction

I created this analytical rubric to analyze student work and thinking. The results I obtained from this assessment helped me form small groups and differentiate my instruction.

This rubric also allows me to provide meaningful, productive feedback to students.

Anchor Charts

As a class, we build anchor charts to help organize our strategies and thinking.

The anchor chart on the right is composed of many mini lessons' target learning goals.

Comprehension Strategies in Nonfiction

During our nonfiction unit, students identify main ideas and supporting details to discover and grow ideas about the author's message, and organize their thinking.

Formative Assessments

I created the "Post It!" chart to hold students accountable for their learning. This chart also allows me to conduct quick, formative assessments regarding student progress and thinking.

The sticky note on the right was from a lesson that required students to read informational text, view a video, and make a claim about real world issues (should humans be allowed to raise wild animals?).

Interactive Read AloudI use the interactive read aloud to probe student thinking about concepts and ideas learned in the mini lesson.

I choose a text that is in students' zone of proximal development and provide additional support.

To the right, a student writes a "Fab Five" to start our read aloud.

Writers' Workshop

Mini Lesson

During writers' workshop a mini lesson starts the workshop.

Above, students engage in a quick write to practice the descriptive text structure during our writing unit that required students to write nonfiction, voice-filled picture books.

Here, I work with students on including supportive evidence and reasoning in our Opinion Writing unit.

Differentiation during Active Involvement

On the right, I talk to students about what they wrote and their thinking about text structures.

During turn and talk, I meet with students who may need additional support to guide and probe their thinking.

Small Group Instruction

I differentiate and plan for small group instruction based on student readiness, interest, and learning profile.

On the right, I meet with a group of students on choosing effective text structures to use during our unit that involved creating voice-filled, nonfiction picture books.

Writers' Notebooks

After the mini lesson, students write in their writers' notebooks to practice the skill or concept taught.

Authentic Writing for an Audience

Students used their informational essays to create voice-filled, nonfiction picture books for kindergartners.

After students finish their picture books, I will change their audience again. Students will work in groups to create Time For Kids magazines for their peers.

Creating an Authentic Audience

Amy Miller, one of our kindergarten teachers, came in to talk to my students about elements of kindergarten texts. Students had to manipulate their writing and topics to make them accessible to kindergarteners.

Considering Audience

From "The History of Michigan Football" to Sports: This student manipulated his informational essay and created a text on sports. This student also used the compare and contrast text structure to write about different sports.

Word Study & Vocabulary Instruction

Students explore the meanings of grammatical terms such as noun, verb, adjective, etc. This student-lead lesson required students to provide meaningful definitions and examples of their terms, and present their understanding about its grammatical usage to their classmates.

Math Workshop

Mini Lesson

An inquiry question starts the mini lesson. During the share, I lift student thinking toward our target learning goal for the day.

Inquiry-based Instruction: "What do you notice?"

Mini lessons in math begin with an inquiry question.

To the right, a student writes his mathematical thinking and reasoning before we share and work though big ideas.

Small Group Instruction

During workshop time, I pull small groups to provide additional support and experience.

On the right, we use manipulatives to explore ideas about area and volume.

Literacy Integration in Mathematics

Students write about their mathematical thinking to explore and discover mathematical big ideas.

Mathematical Reasoning

Students use their mathematical reasoning and manipulatives to justify their thinking. Students use prior knowledge and experiences to extend and build on new principles.

Individual Instruction During math workshop, students are asked to show their thinking using manipulatives.

Here, a student and I explore what fractions look like and mean in more concrete terms using base ten blocks.

Mathematical Exploration using Manipulatives

An instructional goal of mine was to incorporate manipulatives as much as possible during math explorations.

To the right, students work together to discover what it means to subtract negative numbers by walking through equations on a timeline.

Formative Assessments

I pull students up to the front to work on whiteboards. Quickly, I can see what students know and what they do not know yet. This, in turn, guides my instruction.

Science

Whole Class Instruction

Prior to a science investigation, I model how to construct a plane in our Variables unit before releasing students to construct the project with a partner.

While I model, I ask content and process related questions according to the GLCE's this unit is working toward.

Science Exploration and Discovery

Students plan their investigations to explore scientific phenomenons.

On the right, I probe student thinking about scientific principles regarding controlled experiments and variables.

Science Exploration and Discovery

Students use the scientific process, funds of knowledge, and reasoning to construct a contraption that will keep an egg safe when dropped at a certain height.

Here, I probe student thinking and push students toward higher levels of thinking regarding their plans, argument, and justifications.

Hands-on Science Investigations Students engage in scientific thinking, observe, and discover patterns of natural phenomenons through experiences and investigations.

Data Analysis

I project a trend line under the document camera. During an investigation, students plot their data so we can analyze and draw conclusions from their statistics during the share portion of the lesson.

Scientific Process

Students engage in the scientific process to plan scientific investigations.

The NGSS will require students to use higher level, critical thinking skills during science investigations in order to analyze results and prove and defend scientific arguments using data and supportive evidence.

Social Studies

Engaging Social Studies Instruction

Students apply their knowledge about point of view and historical events to engage in high level thinking and dialogue through debate during our Road to the Revolution unit.

High Level Thinking

Students use Debra Pickering's matrix to compare colonists' versus slaves' experiences. Comparing experiences in this way allows students to examine similarities and differences, and, in extension, their respective implications on slave and colonial lives.

Close Reading in Social Studies

Students closely read a primary source (Patrick Henry's speech, "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death!") to learn about historical perspective and ideas about our core democratic values.

Authentic Writing in Social Studies

Students consider point of view and historical events to write letters to historical figures like King George III. Students apply their knowledge and defend their reasoning with historical evidence.

Authentic Writing in Social Studies

Students consider point of view and historical events to write letters to historical figures like King George III. Students apply their knowledge and defend their reasoning with historical evidence.

Authentic Writing in Social Studies

Students consider point of view and historical events to write letters to historical figures like King George III. Students apply their knowledge and defend their reasoning with historical evidence.

Powerful Social Studies Learning

Students analyze different perspectives to create comic strips portraying the Intolerable Acts.

To complete this task, students must apply their knowledge to create a product.

Group Work in Readers' Theatre

Students work in small groups to plan their roles in our American Revolution readers' theatre.

Classroom Management

Classroom Procedures

Students need established procedures and routines that allow them to be proactive and productive members of the classroom community.

To the right is the morning procedure: students do their own lunch count and attendance.

Teaching with Technology

Blogging

During readers' workshop, students often write in response to their reading.

To foster authentic audience and purpose for writing, students often blog their responses on their individual blogs.

Student Blogs

Each student in my class created their own blog, like the one to the right.

Students used their blogs to publish "Fab 5's", book reviews, book recommendations, reading responses, etc.

Room 15's Class Blog

My mentor teacher and I also used a class blog to communicate with parents about student learning and upcoming events.

Technology as a Resource

To the right, a student uses one of our classroom iPads to look up an unknown word in her independent reading book during readers' workshop.

Epson BrightLink Interactive Projector

During science, I use the interactive projector to write on the board. My flip charts save, and I can refer back to them the next day to launch my lesson.

Document Cameras

I use document cameras frequently during mini lessons and read alouds.

On the right, I read a passage of The Giving Tre! to launch a lesson regarding multiple approaches to a common theme.

Document Cameras

In math workshop, I lift student thinking and project responses under the document camera during the inquiry portion of my mini lesson.

Building a Classroom

Community

Room 15's Mission Statement

On the first day of school, students created our class's mission statement. This activity allowed students to create and set classroom expectations.

Creating a Culture of Thinking

To create a culture of thinking where all students' ideas and multiple intelligences are respected and valued, as a class we created this puzzle which represents strength and powerful learning in our unique differences.

5th Grade Science Camp

5th Grade 3-day Science Camp

With the company of 3 team teachers and 2 other interns, I helped supervise and teach 90 fifth graders at a 3-day, overnight science camp.

Hands-on Learning

Students participated in hands-on science learning.

On the right, students dissect owl pellets to explore the life (and diet) of owls.

Hands-on Learning

Students inspect water quality and learn about strategies they can use at home to improve local water quality.

Hands-on Learning

Students examine critters and creatures found in the water to learn about water quality and explore other possible specimens that might live in the waters, and their respective implications.

Multicultural Committee

Multicultural Committee

As a leader on my school's multicultural committee, I helped organize school wide fundraisers and projects aimed at celebrating diversity.

At the district wide MLK Jr. celebration dinner and presentation, WLE 's fourth graders were honored for their music video celebrating diversity and multiple intelligences.

Student Council

FundraisersAs a leader of student council, I helped organize fundraisers, assemblies, and school wide projects.

Here, members and I make posters to advertise a district-wide fundraiser for a former teacher in need of medical assistance.

Teaching-related

Experience

Pre-K Experience

As a Teacher's Aide at a childcare facility, I often started the morning with a share. This was a management strategy I utilized to ensure focused attention during lessons.

Nanny for Child with Fragile X Syndrome For the past 2 summers, I have nannied the children below. As a summer nanny I...

established a physically and emotionally safe space for two children

created norms, expectations, and routines with children to practice life skills, and positive social interactions in the least restrictive environment

reinforced positive social behavior expectations through community-based instruction

tutored a child with FXS and a child with a learning disability in mathematics

fostered student-directed learning based on learner’s experiences

Vacation Bible School Leader

As a leader for vacation bible school, I managed and taught elementary-aged children.

Summer Nanny

I have nannied for 2 families since 2011. Children's ages ranged from 6-13.

Cheer CoachAs an assistant coach for Waverly Varsity Cheer, I was hands-on in teaching new stunts and proper stunting techniques.

To the right, I fly on a new stunt group learning varying hand placements.

Youth and Varsity Cheer Camp

Below, I head varsity cheer camp. At camp, I taught routines, stunts and designed team building activities.

Above, my varsity girls teach proper arm placements during our youth cheer camp that included girls 4th to 7th grade.

Performance Evaluations

Reference

Transcript

Certification