Leblanc's Weaknesses

There are many strengths and only a few weaknesses of the classroom instruction presented in the two classroom portraits, which are based upon the presence/absence of each of the ten principles. Leblanc’s classroom instruction is laid out in an easy way to follow. Puentes classroom instruction is more confusing and a bit scattered. The reason why Leblanc’s classroom instruction is so organized is because under each subheading there is informative and important information, while in Puentes instruction there is some good information, but there could have been more information that were more specific, especially when discussing direct instruction.

Both teachers allowed the students’ to read for pleasure and introduced high quality literature.

This was a strength for both teachers as Leblanc allowed students to independently select books to read from the classroom library, while Puentes motivated her students by making them choose a biography book. Also, Puentes’s biographies that she chose are from the help of the librarian, which is why the literature was high quality. Leblanc’s literature was from well-known children’s authors and the books appeared to be both fun and educational.
One of the weaknesses from Puentes was integrating a comprehensive word study or phonics program.

Instead of doing this Puentes introduced skimming and graphic organizers. These are two important techniques for students to understand because skimming allows the students to catch the main points of what they are reading in a quick manner, while graphic organizers can help sort the students thoughts out. Leblanc integrated a phonics program by locating words featured in the book. Another strength of both Leblanc and Puentes is that they both have multiple texts that link and expand concepts, they both have a balance of teacher-and student-lead discussions, and both build a whole-class community that emphasizes important concepts. The most impressive instruction from Leblanc is balancing teacher-and student-lead discussions. She does this by bringing in a book to read to the class and emphasizing the sounds of certain words to the students, and then asks the students to think about the animals mentioned in the story and where the animals live. The most impressive instruction from Puentes is her ability to emphasize important concepts. She really drives in the point to the students that reading biographies is important and will help them in the future. She wants the biographies to help motivate the

students.
One of the weaknesses of Leblanc’s classroom instruction is working with students in small group while other students read and write about what they have read. It is present in her classroom using group centers, but there should be more than just group centers. An idea would be for Leblanc to have all of the students read silently independently, and then call up a few students to the front for Leblanc to work with to create a better small group environment. Small group instruction is present in Puentes’s classroom but it is also a weakness. This is because they only do small groups for math class, and for a literature circle group, but this circle group contains most of the class so it is essentially one large group, but still a group activity, because the students are all doing it together. Puentes in the future should consider more small groups, for instance, starting a project where Puentes can help one small group at a time, while the rest of the groups sit and read silently.
Some more strengths of both Leblanc and Puentes is that that they both give students plenty of time to read and both use a variety of assessment techniques to inform instruction. Leblanc’s direct instruction is clear and pointed out in the book, while Puentes direction instruction while present, is not as clear. Leblanc clearly states that she gives direction instruction to all four centers: reading, writing, science, and teacher/word study. Puentes states that she gives instruction or skimming and graphic organizers, but does not use the words “direct instruction.” Overall, both teachers have a lot more strengths than weaknesses when it comes to classroom instruction