Week 9

   During this week, I had the chance to continue research on my Inquiry. My mentor teacher switched up the seating arrangements. We tried to put Sammy into a seating group where it was a safe environment. We felt by putting her into a group where she felt comfortable, like in her new reading group, she would start warming up to the idea of sharing her ideas.
    During the the running records I was conducting on tuesday, I made a small accomplishment. I sit out in the common area of our building to conduct the running record for each student in my class. This area is normally pretty empty with zero to about 5 people at a time working on various things. When Normally when Sammy comes out she will read her passage to me VERY quietly. So quiet, that I have to put my ear right next to her head and focus on what she is saying. This day I decided to start out our passage, by saying, "Sammy today, I need to you read with a loud voice so I can hear you." She nodded her head, which actually shocked me. She hasn't been this forth coming about speaking before. When she started the passage she did read with a louder voice than she has ever before. I was very proud of her and I decided I was going to start a reward system with her when she accomplishes this scary tasks.

My wondering: Will this reward system hinder the actual purpose of my inquiry?

Week 8

      This was my first week back since Spring Break. Even though this week was a week of catching up and getting back into the gear of teaching. This week was actually great. I got the chance to really dive into my inquiry and start testing out my thoughts. My teacher accepted my co-teaching partner and my input on the seating arrangements. We to her that Sammy needs to be put in a table where the students make her feel comfortable. She was going to place Sammy at a table where there was student who makes comments about Sammy. The comments are not meant to mean anything, he will just say things like, "Sammy won't speak to you" or "Did she just talk to you?" I can tell that these comments make Sammy feel uncomfortable. So she switched that student out of the group in hopes of making her table a comfortable environment.
      Also this week, we had the chance to switch up the reading groups. We decided to change Sammy into a reading group with two girls she seems to be the most comfortable with. This was a way for us to try and see how putting Sammy in a safe environment with the small groups will affect her choice to speak. During the group time we went over vocabulary and I was having the three girls go around and repeat the words with me. Sammy started repeating the words with the girls. This was great! However, when we went to talk about the story they had just read Sammy refused to answer.
      Most of my methods are going to be done through trial and error by recording my observations. I started keeping daily journals of anything that happens with Sammy that could help me out with my Inquiry. "In a journal, the writer can carry on a dialogue between and among various dimensions of experience" the Holly article stated. I believe through my journal I will be able to go back and find out what worked and what didn't. After this week, I am now wondering if a form of positive reinforcement will help Sammy start and continue verbal communication in her small group.

Week 7

      This week my co-teaching partner had the opportunity to implement our Social Studies Unit for Black History Month. We planned three lessons about Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. We tried to engage the students with videos in each lesson. Along with each lesson we also read a story about the person associated with the lesson. All of the students displayed their knowledge through a writing activity. For the lesson about Bojangles, the students had to write a letter to a friend telling them about Bojangles and then had to tell their friend what they would do to entertain people. For Langston Hughes, they had to write about the important facts in his life and they had the opportunity to share them with their peers. The last lesson about Duke Ellington, the students filled out a biography about Duke Ellington. They had to share his main accomplishments and some facts about him. All the students demonstrated great understanding of the lessons and they all surprised me.